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The Back Room => The Diner => Topic started by: facehugger on April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

Title: What are you currently reading?
Post by: facehugger on April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM
i'm on t s eliot 'four quartets'. and my god it's amazing. i suspect i'm going to be here for a while. i adore that he doesn't give up his secrets easily, i can endlessly reread him
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mozart on April 07, 2007, 12:00:39 PM
(http://i.walmart.com/i/p/09/78/04/86/28/0978048628133_500X500.jpg)


It's difficult, I spend a day on just 1 proof.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Mad Hatter on April 08, 2007, 06:48:19 AM
I'm not reading anything at the moment, because the last few books I picked up failed to hold my interest...

I did just read, however, Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Suzanna Clarke, which I frankly thought was amazing. Written in the style of a Victorian novelist, it's by turns a fantasy, fairy tale, comedy, drama and romance, and is (to my great joy) the kind of story that can only be told by a book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on April 08, 2007, 12:33:47 PM
I just finished The Idiot a few days ago and Freethinkers a few days before that.  Both were excellent.  I also read Lovcraft's The Colour out of Space.  Again, excellent, and very very chilling.  I'm now going to be starting on Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky) and Oren's Power, Faith and Fantasy and will be restarting on first volume of Nicholas Boyle's Goethe biography.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toro913 on April 08, 2007, 04:13:16 PM
John Irving's The World According to Garp and Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth, both are good books so far, but im biased towards Irving.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 08, 2007, 04:49:38 PM
I'm reading the memoirs of David Dubal about Vladimir Horowitz.

It's called "Evenings With Horowitz."

Luckily they just stick to the music. 

...and yes, it's great!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 08, 2007, 06:16:37 PM
Alternating between Ron Chernow's amazing biography of Alexander Hamilton and rereading (selectively) Shelby Foote's Civil War History
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 08, 2007, 06:26:52 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 08, 2007, 06:16:37 PM
Alternating between Ron Chernow's amazing biography of Alexander Hamilton and rereading (selectively) Shelby Foote's Civil War History
[/b]

Which part are you re-reading?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 08, 2007, 06:38:26 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 08, 2007, 06:16:37 PM
Alternating between Ron Chernow's amazing biography of Alexander Hamilton and rereading (selectively) Shelby Foote's Civil War History

Just returned from a trip to Richmond, VA - great place for Civil War history (as you likely already know) - the famous 'ruins' of the Tredegar Iron Works (http://www.tredegar.org/) is now the 'Visitor's Center' for the Richmond battlefields (includes both the '62 & '64 campaigns in the area); there is also a new 'commercial' exhibit museum that is quite good.  Also, just finished Gary Gallagher's superb lecture series (on DVD) from the Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=885&id=885&d=American+Civil+War&pc=Professor) - outstanding.  Dave  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Varg on April 08, 2007, 06:58:52 PM
Lucrece "De La Nature"

I cant give you an english/latin equivalent to the author's name, nor to the title; i cant really speak english, and i know nothing about latin. Those of you who are familiar with antique Greek/Roman philosophy probably know who he is/was. Maybe Lucrecius "Of Nature"?!!

I like it. He has a very poetic, deep and elegant way of speaking about Nature.

Those ancient spirits! ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 08, 2007, 07:06:47 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on April 08, 2007, 06:38:26 PM
Just returned from a trip to Richmond, VA - great place for Civil War history (as you likely already know) - the famous 'ruins' of the Tredegar Iron Works (http://www.tredegar.org/) is now the 'Visitor's Center' for the Richmond battlefields (includes both the '62 & '64 campaigns in the area); there is also a new 'commercial' exhibit museum that is quite good.  Also, just finished Gary Gallagher's superb lecture series (on DVD) from the Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=885&id=885&d=American+Civil+War&pc=Professor) - outstanding.  Dave  :D

Gary Gallagher's course looks outstanding Dave....did you have to pay the $129 for the dvds?  Have you read the Foote material that BWV was discussing?  It is absolutely the best overview of the American Civil War I have ever read.  Even blew away Bruce Catton's overviews IMHO.  The opening of Foote's third volume may in fact be the best nonfiction writing I have ever come across.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 09, 2007, 04:35:26 AM
I am in a very low-key re-reading of Crime & Punishment.  Although, on one hand, I am finding it brilliantly written, and I could simply stay up all night and finish it off . . . I am allowing it to breathe, and I do savor it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 09, 2007, 06:21:10 AM
Quote from: Bill on April 08, 2007, 06:26:52 PM
[/b]

Which part are you re-reading?

Focusing on the major campaigns, skipping the minor ones and Northern politics (I just read Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 09, 2007, 06:24:37 AM
Also just began Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which I was suprised to see was on Oprah's book club.  Probably the first book in the club where cannibalism is prevalent :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 09, 2007, 06:42:18 AM
Quote from: Bill on April 08, 2007, 07:06:47 PM
Gary Gallagher's course looks outstanding Dave....did you have to pay the $129 for the dvds?  Have you read the Foote material that BWV was discussing?  It is absolutely the best overview of the American Civil War I have ever read.  Even blew away Bruce Catton's overviews IMHO.  The opening of Foote's third volume may in fact be the best nonfiction writing I have ever come across.

Bill - good morn to you; yes, I read the Foote volumes many years ago (no longer have them, but probably should buy them again for a re-read; he was just an outstanding 'story teller' - love him on the Ken Burn's series on the Civil War, which would be my recommendation for a 'video' set to those just getting into this period of American History).

The Foote series may be somewhat 'daunting' for those wanting an introduction to the American Civil War; although innumerable books exist on this subject (and numerous sub-topic), my 'one-volume' recommendation would be Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson (published in 1988) - winner of the Pulitzer Prize and now an inexpensive paperback.

Concerning the Gary Gallagher DVD set, I did pay the $129 (which is their sale price for the 8 DVDs - 24 hrs of lectures in total, so takes a while); I did have a CD set in the past but sent it to my father; the DVDs are much more engrossing - Gallagher is superb in this material and the addition of photos & battle maps as visuals is more enjoyable.  Dave  :)

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/019516895X.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_SCLZZZZZZZ_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 09, 2007, 02:03:42 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 09, 2007, 06:21:10 AM
Focusing on the major campaigns, skipping the minor ones and Northern politics (I just read Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals)

Just started it....again.  Was going to read it some time ago, but got sidetracked with other reading.  However picked it up again and just finished Chapter 1 last night.  A good read so far....I am especially fascinated with the portrayals of Seward and Chase so far.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 09, 2007, 02:05:08 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on April 09, 2007, 06:42:18 AM
Bill - good morn to you; yes, I read the Foote volumes many years ago (no longer have them, but probably should buy them again for a re-read; he was just an outstanding 'story teller' - love him on the Ken Burn's series on the Civil War, which would be my recommendation for a 'video' set to those just getting into this period of American History).

The Foote series may be somewhat 'daunting' for those wanting an introduction to the American Civil War; although innumerable books exist on this subject (and numerous sub-topic), my 'one-volume' recommendation would be Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson (published in 1988) - winner of the Pulitzer Prize and now an inexpensive paperback.

Concerning the Gary Gallagher DVD set, I did pay the $129 (which is their sale price for the 8 DVDs - 24 hrs of lectures in total, so takes a while); I did have a CD set in the past but sent it to my father; the DVDs are much more engrossing - Gallagher is superb in this material and the addition of photos & battle maps as visuals is more enjoyable.  Dave  :)

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/019516895X.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_SCLZZZZZZZ_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Dave,
Thanks for the info.  By the way, the Foote series in hardback is on sale at Amazon.  I may replace my paperbacks with them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on April 09, 2007, 03:16:51 PM
Of course it's good, otherwise I would not have read it a few minutes ago. And it's good because it's not about War, but Peace!

It's Allen Ginsberg's Howl.

This afternoon I spent less than hour watching my lasted DVD purchase: An Elegy for Allen Ginsberg and the next logical step was to reread his 'Howl', prominently mentioned and intelligently discussed by William F. Buckley, Philip Glass and many other of his friends.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 09, 2007, 03:19:51 PM
Quote from: uffeviking on April 09, 2007, 03:16:51 PM
Of course it's good, otherwise I would not have read it a few minutes ago. And it's good because it's not about War, but Peace!

It's Allen Ginsberg's Howl.

Oh, what you want now, Lis, is to listen to The Fugs  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on April 09, 2007, 03:23:45 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 09, 2007, 03:19:51 PM
Oh, what you want now, Lis, is to listen to The Fugs  :D

Who are they? The Fuggers? Their family started in the 16th century and still some of them around, but I didn't know they were in the recording business!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on April 11, 2007, 02:08:21 PM
Quote from: uffeviking on April 09, 2007, 03:16:51 PM
Of course it's good, otherwise I would not have read it a few minutes ago. And it's good because it's not about War, but Peace!

It's Allen Ginsberg's Howl.

This afternoon I spent less than hour watching my lasted DVD purchase: An Elegy for Allen Ginsberg and the next logical step was to reread his 'Howl', prominently mentioned and intelligently discussed by William F. Buckley, Philip Glass and many other of his friends.

I've read Howl once (Mind you, I have a 'censored' version from the Pocket Poet's series but the meaning is still pretty obvious, even if it's irritating) but haven't read the other poems in the volume.  It was quite...odd, intense. :)  I'm not familiar with that movement or much poetry in general, so it was certainly...different.  Recommended to me by the resident poetry expert at the non-chain used book shop I visit once in a while....Unfortunately, he found a lot of other stuff to recommend too so that ended up being a rather expensive visit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 11, 2007, 02:57:52 PM
Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz. A belated reading though. My original idea was to read it a couple of months ago, so that I could attend the MOMA screening of Fassbinder's saga which is going on right now. Well I couldn't and thus am not attending the screening  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on April 11, 2007, 03:03:58 PM
Quote from: Harvested Sorrow on April 11, 2007, 02:08:21 PM
I've read Howl once (Mind you, I have a 'censored' version from the Pocket Poet's series

I didn't even know there is such a thing as a 'censored' version of Howl! Surprised you could get any intelligent meaning out of it, but some is better than nothing!

Those non-chain used book stores are full of treasures, and I am sure your wad of money was sell spent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on April 11, 2007, 03:08:07 PM
Quote from: orbital on April 11, 2007, 02:57:52 PM
Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz. A belated reading though. My original idea was to read it a couple of months ago, so that I could attend the MOMA screening of Fassbinder's saga which is going on right now. Well I couldn't and thus am not attending the screening  :-\

My mouth still open! Fassbinder's Alexander Platz is finally in a video form? My video supplier and I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to come out. If MOMA can show it, a commercially available DVD can't be far behind. I am suffering with you because you had to miss the screening!  :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 11, 2007, 03:13:40 PM
Quote from: uffeviking on April 11, 2007, 03:08:07 PM
My mouth still open! Fassbinder's Alexander Platz is finally in a video form? My video supplier and I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to come out. If MOMA can show it, a commercially available DVD can't be far behind. I am suffering with you because you had to miss the screening!  :'(
I think MOMA purchased a copy of the 35mm restored version recently, and it is this one that they are showing. I do hope they repeat it  :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on April 11, 2007, 03:37:53 PM
Quote from: uffeviking on April 11, 2007, 03:03:58 PM
I didn't even know there is such a thing as a 'censored' version of Howl! Surprised you could get any intelligent meaning out of it, but some is better than nothing!

Those non-chain used book stores are full of treasures, and I am sure your wad of money was sell spent!

It wasn't censored to much of an extent and was actually labeled as 'un-censored'...apparently they STILL had to censor it to an extent.  I should have clarified:  Remember the line 'And the mother was fucked' (I'm paraphrasing, been a while since I read it)?  Instead, in the 'un-censored' version (I refuse to refer to it as that with any legitimaticy because I'm a stubborn sort) it has 'And the mother was ****ed'....good job guys, we really couldn't figure that one out. ::)

I believe it may have censored some other curse words here and there, too.

Indeed.  Nine Lives Bookstore....named for the nine cats that live there which means a person will either love the store or find it to be the bane of their existence. ;D  I spent a good $45 to $50 (unusual for me in one haul from a single book store) but got plenty of good material.  Everything from a complete OOP translation of Sa'di's The Rose Garden to Rimbaud, to Howl.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on April 11, 2007, 04:45:59 PM
Quote from: Harvested Sorrow on April 11, 2007, 03:37:53 PM
'And the mother was ****ed'....good job guys, we really couldn't figure that one out. ::)


It will help to figure it out when you insert Ginsberg's word  'finally' before the f word. 'Finally' is the word clarifying the act. But of course that still does not help to figure out everything in 'Howl'; entertaining challenge to the dumbing-down attempt we are being exposed to!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 11, 2007, 05:13:40 PM
Quote from: uffeviking on April 09, 2007, 03:23:45 PM
Who are they? The Fuggers? Their family started in the 16th century and still some of them around, but I didn't know they were in the recording business!  ;D

This album here (http://www.amazon.com/Fugs-First-Album/dp/B000000XEF/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7979366-0336018?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1176340337&sr=8-1), Lis.

Note track 16, "I Saw The Best Minds Of My Generation Rock."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on April 11, 2007, 05:22:22 PM
That was an easy sell, Karl! NewburyComics has it for a little over 9 bucks at amazon and I ordered it. I have no idea what I am getting into, it proofs my trust in you!  :-*
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 11, 2007, 05:24:40 PM
Well, if you imagine that Allen Ginsberg was a scruffy rock group in a poorly-lit nightclub in Greenwich Village in the early '60s, you get some idea, perhaps, of the Fugs  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on April 11, 2007, 05:41:27 PM
Sounds fascinating, Karl! Nostalgic memories of the Beat Time!

What surprises me though is, your knowledge or familiarity with this period in our history. You are too young, Karl!  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Don Giovanni on April 13, 2007, 09:44:43 AM
Just finished Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - wonderful, of course. I've just started reading The Canterbury Tales and I must say I'm really enjoying it. I thought it was time I tackled some good ol' 14th century literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on April 13, 2007, 03:52:10 PM
John, I'm impressed! :o

For the past couple of months I've been mainly reading, re-reading, and re-rereading Black Torrent by the Polish author Leopold Buczkowski. This is one of the best Polish novels of the 20th century but it certainly is not an easy text... But extremely rewarding. Though also quite disturbing (it's about World War II). I'd recommend it to anyone who likes avantgarde prose (Robbe-Grillet and the like, Joyce too) - I think it's been translated into several languages.

Maciek
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2007, 11:09:20 PM
I've read yesterday The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke, by Rainer Maria Rilke. If you like poetry, try it. It's a masterpiece.
(I don't know, though, if the English translation is any good. I 've read it in a bilingual German / Romanian version.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on April 16, 2007, 05:29:24 AM
Translating Rainer Maria Rilke from the original German into any other language is always an extremely difficult task, and seldom successful. Of course this can be said of most, if not all creative writings. William H. Gass wrote a very informative book Reading Rilke subtitled Reflections on the Problems of Translation, concentrating his studies on Rilke's Duino Elegies. Fascinating reading how many variations of the original text he comes up with.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on April 16, 2007, 06:05:54 AM
Quote from: uffeviking on April 11, 2007, 05:41:27 PM
Sounds fascinating, Karl! Nostalgic memories of the Beat Time!

What surprises me though is, your knowledge or familiarity with this period in our history. You are too young, Karl!  ::)

Karl has a old soul! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 17, 2007, 06:29:18 PM
You can bet 71db will be reading this baby next month:

(http://www.gramophone.co.uk/img/gramophonecoverlarge.gif)

:o ;D :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Choo Choo on April 18, 2007, 03:22:29 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0007142528.02._SCLZZZZZZZ_AA240_.jpg)

Explains better than any other I've read, how the Afghanistan of A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush turned into the Afghanistan of today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 19, 2007, 08:29:02 PM
Preferring my eggs reading hardboiled:

The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: btpaul674 on April 19, 2007, 08:50:51 PM
(http://www.classical.net/music/books/images/0712621172.jpg)

FANTASTIC
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on April 19, 2007, 10:21:54 PM
(http://i13.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/8e/88/3426_1.JPG)

A wonderfully fair and seemingly unbiased account of the Society of Jesus.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 19, 2007, 10:29:26 PM
Henryk Sienkiewicz

With Fire and Sword

Captivating after the first two pages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on April 20, 2007, 01:52:59 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 19, 2007, 10:29:26 PM
Henryk Sienkiewicz

With Fire and Sword

Captivating after the first two pages.

Wow! I didn't think anyone outside Poland read that! :o :o :o :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 20, 2007, 01:56:11 AM
Quote from: MrOsa on April 20, 2007, 01:52:59 AM
Wow! I didn't think anyone outside Poland read that! :o :o :o :o
Well, I've just finished Bez dogmatu and Wyri (Romanian translations, of course).

The Deluge wil be next!

Na zdrowie!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on April 20, 2007, 02:00:47 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 20, 2007, 01:56:11 AM
Wiry

And that is a book even in Poland hardly anyone reads! (It hasn't had a reedition in ages - understandable during the communist era but now?)

You've really impressed me, Florestan! Guess it's time to start getting to know Romanian literature... ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 21, 2007, 10:32:51 AM
I am reading How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland, a surgeon who also teaches (or did teach) surgery at Yale U (First Vintage Books Edition 1995 - copyright 1993).  When the book first appeared, there was praise for it because it was written by a physician.

Years later I am finally reading it and find it fascinating.  I think it would be especially helpful to read when no one in the family is ill with terminal illness.  One has time to absorb the info without being emotionally involved as when a close relative or close friend were very ill.

Nuland does not talk down to the reader but nevertheless offers much info to be digested. In addition his writing style is very interesting and readable.

He covers congestive heart failure, how the heart operates and what causes it to fail, how old age brings on death,  Alzheimer's disease, great pain and the body's production of endorphins (I am can attest to that as I fell on concrete 2 years ago shattering my elbow.  There was no pain all the way to the ER.  In surgery a screw and pin were inserted in the joint.)  Dr. Nuland also covers AIDS and cancer.

The book very straight forwardly tells what happens in the body as a result of outside influences.  It points no finger, just gives the facts.  One can feel Nuland's compassion for victims but in no way is it melodramatic.
The book contains 269 pages which I like so much that I am reading until after midnight each night.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 21, 2007, 02:48:29 PM
Quote from: Anne on April 21, 2007, 10:32:51 AM
I am reading How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland, a surgeon who also teaches (or did teach) surgery at Yale U (First Vintage Books Edition 1995 - copyright 1993).  When the book first appeared, there was praise for it because it was written by a physician....................

Anne - thanks for your excellent review!  For those interested, a pic is shown below (CLICK on the image for reviews from the Amazonians - just as 'glowing' as Anne's comments).  I'm one of the physicians on the GMG Forum (Professor of Radiology, WFU School of Medicine in North Carolina) - I must say that my most 'emotional & traumatic, but often personally rewarding' learning experiences as a doctor was in my internship (done in Medicine, thus a lot of chronic diseases); some of the more dramatic experiences occurred on my rotations on the 'Oncology-Hematology' services; in fact, my first night on call (a long weekend) was on that service (just graduated from the U of Michigan; huge school & the students were often 'isolated' from these experiences); well, 3 patients 'died' during the night from various types of 'cancers' - I had to talk to each of the families; one death was a teenage boy w/ leukemia - I still remember that day after 35 years - thanks for the memories -  ;) :)

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679742441.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIlitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_SCLZZZZZZZ_V44915172_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Die-Reflections-Chapter/dp/0679742441/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4191504-6570256?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177194724&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on April 21, 2007, 08:21:58 PM
Well, upon finishing The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov (a translation) which was excellent I may add, I've decided to start something short as my 'side reading'....Fahrenheit 451 which is my first experience with Bradbury.  Afterwards I realized for just how long I've been planning on going back to the Dune series 'next' and rushed through it quickly so I could use Dune Messiah as my side reading (started yesterday, finished it today which leaves room open).  What an excellent work!  That book is definitely a lesson in taking being politically correct and attempting to please everyone/keep everyone happy and censorship to an extreme and the negative effects it can have.  I must admit, I found the section where he described the editing of four hundred short stories into one volume for elementary school very, very, VERY painful, though (this is the fiftieth anniversary edition).  Also, between Bulgakov's work with it's multiple references to Faust and the fact that the Nicholas Boyle biography of Goethe I'm reading is fast approaching Faust I believe I'll be 'forced' into reading that soon, since I would rather read it *before* starting on a step-by-step analysis of its history, character development, etc. so I believe I'll soon be dropping Goethe: The Poet and His Age: Poetry Of Desire while I read Faust.  Oh, the horror. ::)  I'm also working on (albeit, slowly) Power, Faith, and Fantasy as mentioned earlier and it's great.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 22, 2007, 03:12:29 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on April 21, 2007, 02:48:29 PM
Anne - thanks for your excellent review!  For those interested, a pic is shown below (CLICK on the image for reviews from the Amazonians - just as 'glowing' as Anne's comments).  I'm one of the physicians on the GMG Forum (Professor of Radiology, WFU School of Medicine in North Carolina) - I must say that my most 'emotional & traumatic, but often personally rewarding' learning experiences as a doctor was in my internship (done in Medicine, thus a lot of chronic diseases); some of the more dramatic experiences occurred on my rotations on the 'Oncology-Hematology' services; in fact, my first night on call (a long weekend) was on that service (just graduated from the U of Michigan; huge school & the students were often 'isolated' from these experiences); well, 3 patients 'died' during the night from various types of 'cancers' - I had to talk to each of the families; one death was a teenage boy w/ leukemia - I still remember that day after 35 years - thanks for the memories -  ;) :)

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679742441.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIlitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_SCLZZZZZZZ_V44915172_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Die-Reflections-Chapter/dp/0679742441/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4191504-6570256?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177194724&sr=1-1)

Glad to be of help!  Thanks for the nice compliments.  Incidently we have more in common than you know.  I am from Traverse City, Michigan and am presently staying at my daughter's in Lansing.  Our other daughter and husband recently moved to North Carolina and live in Wilmington.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on April 22, 2007, 03:33:06 PM
(http://fanfaire.com/cdgiveaway/Rough%20Guide.jpg)

This is an excellent resource book. I've bought many of their recommendations and haven't hit a dud yet.

(http://images.addall.com/Images/SHOW/0195126653.jpg)

This is excellent too. Its very dense reading with a tonne of historical and technical musical details but throughly worthwhile when learning each symphony.

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0684870762.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

And this; I didn't realize how bleak Sinatras final years were. Interesting insights from a Sinatra kids perspective. They don't seem to like wife #4.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 22, 2007, 03:37:19 PM
Quote from: Anne on April 22, 2007, 03:12:29 PM
Glad to be of help!  Thanks for the nice compliments.  Incidently we have more in common than you know.  I am from Traverse City, Michigan and am presently staying at my daughter's in Lansing.  Our other daughter and husband recently moved to North Carolina and live in Wilmington.

Anne - hmmm, quite a coincidence ('small world', as they say!); did my 'medical internship' in Winston-Salem at Wake Forest Medical Center (where the experiences I described occurred).  I grew up in Toledo & southern Michigan - my 100% Irish grandmother was born on Beaver Island in upper Lake Michigan in the late 1880s (assume you know the reference - use to take a ferry from Charlevoix to get to the island to see relatives).  Wife & I alternate trips between the NC-VA mountains & coastal NC-Georgia, but one of our favorite places is Wrightsville Beach near Wilmington - closest drive for us to the Atlantic since I-40 ends about 10 mins from the beach!  We go there about twice a year.  Indeed, we do have a lot in common - :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 22, 2007, 06:02:09 PM
Yes, I do know about Beaver Island.  I didn't make this up now... but my grandmother was Irish on my mother's side of the family (Boyd) (my mother has red hair and freckles).  It was very nice meeting you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on April 23, 2007, 06:00:59 AM
Charlotte Bronte, by Rebecca Fraser

Fascinating reading material.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 23, 2007, 06:16:08 AM
Quote from: toro913 on April 08, 2007, 04:13:16 PM
John Irving's The World According to Garp and Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth, both are good books so far, but im biased towards Irving.



I first read the Irving in the '70's, and remain amazed by it today. Portnoy's Complaint was often brilliant, but too often scatological. Again, it's just my opinion.

Currently reading "Wagner's Operas" by Newman and (re-reading) the fantastic "What to Listen for in Music" by Maestro Aaron Copland.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 23, 2007, 06:17:21 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 09, 2007, 04:35:26 AM
I am in a very low-key re-reading of Crime & Punishment.  Although, on one hand, I am finding it brilliantly written, and I could simply stay up all night and finish it off . . . I am allowing it to breathe, and I do savor it.



Reminds me of my approach to all of Dostoesvsky's incomparable works  :).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 23, 2007, 07:58:02 AM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on April 22, 2007, 03:33:06 PM
(http://fanfaire.com/cdgiveaway/Rough%20Guide.jpg)  (http://images.addall.com/Images/SHOW/0195126653.jpg)

This is excellent too. Its very dense reading with a tonne of historical and technical musical details but throughly worthwhile when learning each symphony.


Yes, I have both of the books above & agree w/ your comments; the Rough Guide is a nice intro-type book - usually will 'spotlight' a single recommendation, but often quite good ones, as mentioned.  Steinberg also has a concerto book, and the writing can be long & 'dense' as you say (and somewhat 'difficult' for me being a non-musician) - believe many are based on his program notes written for concerts.   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on April 23, 2007, 12:06:04 PM
Yes, I have the Concerto book as well which is also excellent. I too find it a dificult read but worthwhile. I usually read his essay for each piece several times and it eventually sinks in  ;) I believe he also has a Choral book but I don't have that one yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 23, 2007, 12:41:44 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on April 23, 2007, 12:06:04 PM
Yes, I have the Concerto book as well which is also excellent. I too find it a dificult read but worthwhile. I usually read his essay for each piece several times and it eventually sinks in  ;) I believe he also has a Choral book but I don't have that one yet.

Yes, the choral book is a more recent release (shown below, and published in 2005) - just one 4/5* review from Amazon - main criticism was the 'omission' of certain works (BIG 'personal' choices in this area, since the book is not that long, 336 pages); I have Melvin Berger's older book below, Guide to Choral Masterpieces: A Listener's Guide (similar length - would love an update which is longer - I have a lot of choral CDs, and many are missing - probably also so w/ the Steinberg book, I would guess) -  :)

(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/97/7a/696492c008a074c70b7fa010._AA240_.L.jpg)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0195126440.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_SCLZZZZZZZ_V45422206_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 23, 2007, 05:02:14 PM
I have the Steinberg Choral Masterworks if anyone has any questions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 23, 2007, 05:09:23 PM
Quote from: Anne on April 23, 2007, 05:02:14 PM
I have the Steinberg Choral Masterworks if anyone has any questions.

Why is the sky blue?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 23, 2007, 05:46:51 PM
 ;D  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 23, 2007, 05:55:37 PM
Quote from: Anne on April 23, 2007, 05:46:51 PM
;D  0:)

;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 23, 2007, 05:58:39 PM
Quote from: Anne on April 23, 2007, 05:02:14 PM
I have the Steinberg Choral Masterworks if anyone has any questions.

Anne - of course, many interested in these choral works have questions?   ::)

The page length of this book is similar to the one I own by Berger - which is decent coverage, but many works are not included, and the discussions are at times 'superficial'; thus, what do you think of the Steinberg book - happy w/ the works discussed, complete vs. superficial, works of interest missing, etc.  We would certainly appreciate your comments - I'd likely buy the book if someone offered a 'better' review than the one currently on the Amazon site.  Thanks for any comments that you might provide?
:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 23, 2007, 07:34:22 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on April 23, 2007, 05:58:39 PM
Anne - of course, many interested in these choral works have questions?   ::)

The page length of this book is similar to the one I own by Berger - which is decent coverage, but many works are not included, and the discussions are at times 'superficial'; thus, what do you think of the Steinberg book - happy w/ the works discussed, complete vs. superficial, works of interest missing, etc.  We would certainly appreciate your comments - I'd likely buy the book if someone offered a 'better' review than the one currently on the Amazon site.  Thanks for any comments that you might provide?
:)

I am quite happy with the book.  Of Steinberg's 3 books, Symphony, Concerto, and Choral Masterworks, I like the Choral Masterworks the best.  It's very readable.

On Haydn's Creation - Steinberg devotes 7 pages, The Seasons 5 pages.  Beethoven's Missa Solemnis - 15 pages.  I was disappointed that Bach's Christmas Oratorio was not included.

Tomorrow I'll list the Table of Contents.

Give me a chance to reread one of the works discussed.  I took the book with me when I went home last time (3 months ago) and forgot to bring it back to my daughter's home.  A week ago I finally had it back in my possession.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Thom on April 24, 2007, 03:21:56 AM
Rubicon by Tom Holland
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 06:07:42 AM
Quote from: George on April 23, 2007, 05:09:23 PM
Why is the sky blue?  ;D



(Quote from the now defunct "Get a Life" tv show): "Uh, do you like root beer?"


By the way awesome signature quote, George, I sent it as an e-mail to my girl today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 06:10:13 AM
Wagner's Operas (Newman)



Really cool in its comparison of the original sketch/libretto to the final. Newman felt that certain edits in the "Ring..." libretto took something "Ancient Greek"-y from the finished product. Not sure if I'm quite clear/agree on that point, but I wonder if Wagner was more concerned with Shakespeare than Othello when finishing the Great Music Drama.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 24, 2007, 07:18:38 AM
Quote from: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 06:07:42 AM


(Quote from the now defunct "Get a Life" tv show): "Uh, do you like root beer?"


By the way awesome signature quote, George, I sent it as an e-mail to my girl today.

I knew you'd love it!

I put it up for you.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 07:21:24 AM
Quote from: George on April 24, 2007, 07:18:38 AM
I knew you'd love it!

I put it up for you.  :)



THANKS!


Schubert is definitely a man whom knew alot about Eternal Light in music, in my humble opinion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 24, 2007, 07:22:57 AM
Quote from: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 07:21:24 AM


THANKS!


Schubert is definitely a man whom knew alot about Eternal Light in music, in my humble opinion.

Me too!

Apparently he wrote that quote in his diary at 19.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 07:28:20 AM
Quote from: George on April 24, 2007, 07:22:57 AM
Me too!

Apparently he wrote that quote in his diary at 19.



I'm digressing, but I believe that at least one of Maestro Gustav Mahler's final words was "Mozart".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 24, 2007, 07:51:11 AM
Quote from: Mozart on April 07, 2007, 12:00:39 PM
[width=200 height=200 img]http://i.walmart.com/i/p/09/78/04/86/28/0978048628133_500X500.jpg[/img]

It's difficult, I spend a day on just 1 proof.

I read a number theory book recently as well M.  The neat things I learned was how to compute gcd's without factoring, and how to do RSS encryption/decryption.  I wrote simple C programs for both.  It was a fun afternoon. :)

Have you learned anything neat from that book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 24, 2007, 08:01:07 AM
I've been reading mysteries by Elizabeth George, Agatha Christie, Colin Dexter, Val McDermid, James Doss, and Michael McGarity.  I'm really hooked into the soap operas style that is Elizabeth George. :D  The most clever mysteries are by Colin Dexter, he really confounds me.  Agatha Christie is pretty slick, but I've figured out her tricks and I'm pretty good at guessing the killer.  Anybody else into mysteries?  Who are you reading?

For fantasy I've been gradually making my way through George RR Martin's fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire.  I'm currently on the third volume, A Storm of Swords, and I'm utterly hooked.  Brilliant characterization and plotting, and very subtle use of magic here and there, it's the polar opposite of stories like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.  Even people who don't like fantasy will like this more mature series.  Any other Martin fans?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on April 24, 2007, 09:32:46 AM
I finally got around to DH Lawrence "Sons and Lovers", really liked it, especially the local colour.
Also have been re-appreciating but not reading all: "The Beethoven Companion" and "Beethoven Impressions from Contemporaries, mainly for preparing a class.
Other books paging thru are "The Amino Revolution" and "Amino Acids in Therapy", popular health books.

ZB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on April 24, 2007, 09:35:24 AM
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on April 24, 2007, 09:32:46 AM
I finally got around to DH Lawrence "Sons and Lovers", really liked it, especially the local colour.

ZB

I have almost all the writings by Lawrence, and he is high on my list of writers I admire. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnthonyAthletic on April 24, 2007, 09:39:24 AM
There Must be something wrong with me, I have been reading and still am novels by Jeffery Deaver, James Patterson & Harlen Coben.  Mostly of the Serial Killer ilk, slaughter at its best, can you work out who dunnit etc

The next one I may read is by Deaver who's Serial Killer kills people via random Computer Hacking, he stalks forums and picks out people he doesn't like, and next you are a goner....never knowing what hit you.  ;D  "The Blue Nowhere"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 24, 2007, 09:43:34 AM
Quote from: AnthonyAthletic on April 24, 2007, 09:39:24 AM
There Must be something wrong with me, I have been reading and still am novels by Jeffery Deaver, James Patterson & Harlen Coben.  Mostly of the Serial Killer ilk, slaughter at its best, can you work out who dunnit etc

The next one I may read is by Deaver who's Serial Killer kills people via random Computer Hacking, he stalks forums and picks out people he doesn't like, and next you are a goner....never knowing what hit you.  ;D  "The Blue Nowhere"

Hmm I know a few people from gmg that might match that description... ;D  I'll check it out of the library if they have it. :)

Was Patterson the guy that wrote Kiss the Girls?  The movie was pretty good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on April 24, 2007, 09:44:30 AM
Quote from: Harry on April 24, 2007, 09:35:24 AM
I have almost all the writings by Lawrence, and he is high on my list of writers I admire. :)

His writing about nature is very fine, not pretentious at all. S&L was his most autobiographical, right?
I was surprised at the ending, but Paul was compelled to cut all those ties that bound him to the past.
I felt the poor lass who waited for him was used out, similar to the other one as well.

ZB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on April 24, 2007, 09:49:39 AM
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on April 24, 2007, 09:44:30 AM
His writing about nature is very fine, not pretentious at all. S&L was his most autobiographical, right?
I was surprised at the ending, but Paul was compelled to cut all those ties that bound him to the past.
I felt the poor lass who waited for him was used out, similar to the other one as well.

ZB

Yes it is!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnthonyAthletic on April 24, 2007, 09:50:24 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 24, 2007, 09:43:34 AM
Hmm I know a few people from gmg that might match that description... ;D  I'll check it out of the library if they have it. :)

;D And they are ALL Americans  ;D  ;D  ;D

QuoteWas Patterson the guy that wrote Kiss the Girls?  The movie was pretty good.

Sure was, just finished that last month...and his first book "Along came a spider".  Gary Soneji a rival to Hannibal Lecter...the movie was pretty poor as they killed Sonjei off half way through, but he was alive and well in his padded cell come the end of the book.  Book being much better than the movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 09:54:09 AM
Quote from: AnthonyAthletic on April 24, 2007, 09:50:24 AM
;D And they are ALL Americans  ;D  ;D  ;D

Sure was, just finished that last month...and his first book "Along came a spider".  Gary Soneji a rival to Hannibal Lecter...the movie was pretty poor as they killed Sonjei off half way through, but he was alive and well in his padded cell come the end of the book.  Book being much better than the movie.



Patterson is tremendous!


I read a relatively recent book by John Sandford, another great one. It was about this redneck-ish type whom has his whole family behind his sociopathic deeds, as well as a homosexual yes man who's dying to do him. As usual, the hero is marvellous and the storytelling captivating. I'm betting you've read and enjoyed Sandford, A.?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on April 24, 2007, 09:55:55 AM
I've just started Don Quixote, because I've managed to make it through life this long without it, and figured I should remedy that situation.  I spent a pleasant half hour in Borders yesterday reading the opening few pages in about seven or eight different English translations, trying to find one I liked (I'm such a dork).  I settled on Ormsby (which is the one used by Project Gutenburg, btw), as he seems to bring out the humor rather more than some of the others, and I think his slightly archaic manner of speech suits the subject very nicely.  Most of the modern ones seemed very dry to me, though again that's based on just the first few pages.  Marvelous book so far though, I was hooked by the end of the first chapter...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 09:59:03 AM
Quote from: jwinter on April 24, 2007, 09:55:55 AM
I've just started Don Quixote, because I've managed to make it through life this long without it, and figured I should remedy that situation.  I spent a pleasant half hour in Borders yesterday reading the opening few pages in about seven or eight different English translations, trying to find one I liked (I'm such a dork). 



That sounds like fun, not being a "dork"!

Pause for stunned Andy revelation:

Wait...I'm a dork :o!


GAD!!! :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnthonyAthletic on April 24, 2007, 10:01:57 AM
Quote from: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 09:54:09 AM


Patterson is tremendous!


I read a relatively recent book by John Sandford, another great one. It was about this redneck-ish type whom has his whole family behind his sociopathic deeds, as well as a homosexual yes man who's dying to do him. As usual, the hero is marvellous and the storytelling captivating. I'm betting you've read and enjoyed Sandford, A.?

Not read any Sandford, but my book reading mate at work who introduced me to Deaver, Patterson, Coben & Co loves him.  He could be on the list very soon.

What I like about Patterson especially in his Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman  ;D ) books is the way he writes in the first person.

Deaver is different, he challenges you to work out the story....haven't managed to beat him before the end yet, especially in his Lincoln Rhyme series, Bone Collector etc etc
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 24, 2007, 10:04:34 AM
Quote from: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 09:59:03 AM


That sounds like fun, not being a "dork"!

Pause for stunned Andy revelation:

Wait...I'm a dork :o!


GAD!!! :o

Dorks aren't usually aware that they are dorks, perhaps you are a nerd?  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 10:05:25 AM
Quote from: AnthonyAthletic on April 24, 2007, 10:01:57 AM
Not read any Sandford, but my book reading mate at work who introduced me to Deaver, Patterson, Coben & Co loves him.  He could be on the list very soon.

What I like about Patterson especially in his Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman  ;D ) books is the way he writes in the first person.

Deaver is different, he challenges you to work out the story....haven't managed to beat him before the end yet, especially in his Lincoln Rhyme series, Bone Collector etc etc




Yes, Patterson's characterization of Cross is classic. If you like Patterson that much, definently try out the Sandford, Anthony, you won't regret it. In fact, you'll probably get hooked!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 24, 2007, 10:08:18 AM
Quote from: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 10:05:25 AM



Yes, Patterson's characterization of Cross is classic. If you like Patterson that much, definently try out the Sandford, Anthony, you won't regret it. In fact, you'll probably get hooked!


And if you don't, then you'll have to wear this:


(http://www.choiceshirts.com/images/PL/-0/PL-00123A-lg.jpg)



;D ;D ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnthonyAthletic on April 24, 2007, 10:13:48 AM
Quote from: George on April 24, 2007, 10:08:18 AM

And if you don't, then you'll have to wear this:


(http://www.choiceshirts.com/images/PL/-0/PL-00123A-lg.jpg)



;D ;D ;D



Ah, but what's on the back of the T-Shirt George?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 24, 2007, 10:14:58 AM
Quote from: George on April 24, 2007, 10:08:18 AM

And if you don't, then you'll have to wear this:


(http://www.choiceshirts.com/images/PL/-0/PL-00123A-lg.jpg)



;D ;D ;D







The crime of the century: no spin-off for Aunt Esther!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 24, 2007, 10:24:43 AM
Quote from: AnthonyAthletic on April 24, 2007, 10:13:48 AM
Ah, but what's on the back of the T-Shirt George?



(https://unitedforpeace.rdsecure.org/catalog/images/not_my_president_shirt_long.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on April 24, 2007, 12:49:25 PM
Quote from: jwinter on April 24, 2007, 09:55:55 AM
I've just started Don Quixote, because I've managed to make it through life this long without it, and figured I should remedy that situation.  I spent a pleasant half hour in Borders yesterday reading the opening few pages in about seven or eight different English translations, trying to find one I liked (I'm such a dork).  I settled on Ormsby (which is the one used by Project Gutenburg, btw), as he seems to bring out the humor rather more than some of the others, and I think his slightly archaic manner of speech suits the subject very nicely.  Most of the modern ones seemed very dry to me, though again that's based on just the first few pages.  Marvelous book so far though, I was hooked by the end of the first chapter...

Read several hundred pages out of the Tobias Smollet translation from the 18th century (pubished by the Modern Library), but stopped.  Afraid I can't go back, either.  I really loved the vivid and vibrant translation, too.   :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on April 24, 2007, 06:02:58 PM
Quote from: Danny on April 24, 2007, 12:49:25 PM
Read several hundred pages out of the Tobias Smollet translation from the 18th century (pubished by the Modern Library), but stopped.  Afraid I can't go back, either.  I really loved the vivid and vibrant translation, too.   :(

Did you just run out of steam, or is there something about the book you disliked?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 24, 2007, 06:38:22 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on April 23, 2007, 05:58:39 PM
Anne - of course, many interested in these choral works have questions?   ::)

The page length of this book is similar to the one I own by Berger - which is decent coverage, but many works are not included, and the discussions are at times 'superficial'; thus, what do you think of the Steinberg book - happy w/ the works discussed, complete vs. superficial, works of interest missing, etc.  We would certainly appreciate your comments - I'd likely buy the book if someone offered a 'better' review than the one currently on the Amazon site.  Thanks for any comments that you might provide?
:)
Table of Contents

Adams
   Harmonium   9

Bach
   The Passions   16
      Saint John Passion   18
      Saint Matthew Passion   26
   Magnificat   31
   Mass in B Minor   34

Beethoven
   Missa Solemnis   45

Berlioz
   Requiem   61

Brahms
   A German Requiem   68
   The Shorter Choral Works   75
      Schicksalsl (Song of Destiny)   76
      Nanie (Lament)   81
      Gesangder Parzen (Song of the Fates)   83

Britten
   War Requiem   86

Cherubini
   Requiem in C Minor   97

Dallapiccola
   Canti di prigonia (Songs of Captivity)   104

Dvorak
Stabat Mater   113

Elgar
   The Dream of Gerontius   119

Faure
   Requiem   131

Handel
   Messiah   138
   Der messias (arr. Mozart)   150

Haydn
   Harmoniemesse   (Wind-Band Mass)   155
   Two Great Oratories   159
      Die Schopfung (The Creation)   163
      Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons)   171

Honegger
   Le Roi David (King David)   177

Janacek
   Glagolitic Mass   186

Kodaly
   Psalmus hungaricus   194

Mendelssohn
   Elias (Elifah)   200

Mozart
   The Shorter Choral Works   210
   Mass in C Minor   212
   Requiem   219

Orff
   Carmina burana   230

Rachmaninoff
   The Bells   238

Schmidt
   Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (The Book With Seven Seals)  243

Sessions
   When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd   252

Stravinsky
   The Wedding   257
   Persephone   260
   Symphony of Psalms   265
   Mass   269
  CanticumSacrum (Sacred Canticle)   273
   Requiem Canticles   277

Tippett
   A Child of Our Time   280

Vaughan Williams
   A Sea Symphony   288
   Sancta Civitas   295

Verdi
   Requiem   301

Walton
   Belshazzar's Feast   311

Wuorinen
   Genesis   317
   
----------------------------
I like Steinberg's book, Choral Masterworks , very much.
The above table of contents is for that book.

I'd like to apologize to everyone whose conversation I interrupted.  Please forgive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 24, 2007, 07:05:08 PM
I think the coverage is very good.  Not being a musician, it does not bother me that he does not show the musical notes when he's discussing some point.  This book has a lot more info in it and is not superficial.  If it were, you'd hear me complaining loud and long.  I think at amazon you can click on the book at which point you can choose to read a page or two.  I think you can repeat the process several time.  I hope this helps.

I do not know choral works very well at all, having just started that genre this last Christmas with Rene Jacobs' Haydn Four Seasons and Bach's Christmas Oratorio.  For Haydn's Creation I have von Karajan's performance Janowitz, Ludwig, Wunderlich, Werner Krenn D. Fischer-Dieskau.  People here at GMG recommended those 3 recordings and were they ever right!!!  All 3 recordings are wonderful and I have become a fan of Rene Jacobs.  Due to The Creation and Four Seasons I now like Haydn.  I've not been a Bach fan yet either but Jacobs changed my mind about that composer too.

If an important work were missing, I might not notice the omission.  Sorry I'm not more help but I don't know this book like I know How We Die.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 24, 2007, 07:22:31 PM
Quote from: Anne on April 24, 2007, 06:38:22 PM
Table of Contents



Mozart
   The Shorter Choral Works   210
   Mass in C Minor   212
   Requiem   219

Orff
   Carmina burana   230


Are you sure that the Requiem only runs 12 pages Anne?....Has to be a typo.  That last number must read 330. :) 0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 25, 2007, 04:38:35 AM
Quote from: Anne on April 24, 2007, 06:38:22 PM
Table of Contents

Adams
   Harmonium   9

Bach
   The Passions   16
      Saint John Passion   18
      Saint Matthew Passion   26
   Magnificat   31
   Mass in B Minor   34

Beethoven
   Missa Solemnis   45
.........................................................
----------------------------
I like Steinberg's book, Choral Masterworks , very much.
The above table of contents is for that book.


Anne  - thanks for the listing of the TOC in Steinberg's book on choral works - not @ home at the moment to check the list against my Berger book, but many of the same works seem to be covered - however, once checked, I'll probably go ahead and order the Steinberg, anyway -  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 25, 2007, 11:48:00 AM
Bill,

I checked the Mozart Requiem and it goes from p. 219 to p. 230.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 25, 2007, 12:26:34 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on April 25, 2007, 04:38:35 AM
Anne  - thanks for the listing of the TOC in Steinberg's book on choral works - not @ home at the moment to check the list against my Berger book, but many of the same works seem to be covered - however, once checked, I'll probably go ahead and order the Steinberg, anyway -  :D

If you get the Steinberg book, would you let me know how it compares with the Berger book?  I may get the Berger book if you think it is worthwhile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Don Giovanni on April 26, 2007, 05:25:51 AM
Notes from Underground - Dostoyevsky


Very interesting. I haven't really got into it yet. I enjoyed Crime and Punishment, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 26, 2007, 06:00:11 AM
Quote from: Don Giovanni on April 26, 2007, 05:25:51 AM
Notes from Underground - Dostoyevsky


Very interesting. I haven't really got into it yet. I enjoyed Crime and Punishment, though.

Don,

The Teaching Co. has a class you might enjoy - "Classics of Russian Literature."  Today is the last day it is on sale at 70% off.  I have bought many of their music classes and enjoy them.

Here is the link:

http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=2830&id=2830&pc=Literature%20and%20English%20Language

I am not associated with that company except as a customer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 26, 2007, 08:06:48 AM
Quote from: Anne on April 25, 2007, 12:26:34 PM
If you get the Steinberg book, would you let me know how it compares with the Berger book?  I may get the Berger book if you think it is worthwhile.

Anne - will certainly do - have not ordered it yet, though -  :)

BTW - in some recent posts in this thread, the 'Teaching Company' was mentioned - I had started a Music Appreciation Thread (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,184.0.html), which is not getting much 'mileage' yet, so for those reading this, please contribute - always looking for recommendations other than CDs!  Thanks -  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Don Giovanni on April 26, 2007, 09:39:44 AM
Quote from: Anne on April 26, 2007, 06:00:11 AM
Don,

The Teaching Co. has a class you might enjoy - "Classics of Russian Literature."  Today is the last day it is on sale at 70% off.  I have bought many of their music classes and enjoy them.

Here is the link:

http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=2830&id=2830&pc=Literature%20and%20English%20Language

I am not associated with that company except as a customer.

Thanks a lot, Anne. I'll be sure to check it out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 26, 2007, 10:01:15 AM
Quote from: Don Giovanni on April 26, 2007, 05:25:51 AM
Notes from Underground - Dostoyevsky


Very interesting. I haven't really got into it yet. I enjoyed Crime and Punishment, though.



"The Idiot" is my favorite, and a huge influence on Nietzsche.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 27, 2007, 06:36:45 AM
"The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy"



Fascinating!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Don Giovanni on April 27, 2007, 11:43:56 AM
Quote from: Haffner on April 26, 2007, 10:01:15 AM


"The Idiot" is my favorite, and a huge influence on Nietzsche.

Do you prefer it to The Brothers Karamazov? Well, as far as I am concerned, Tolstoy still rules supreme when it comes to Russian Lit. As Virginia Woolf said, "There remains the greatest of all novelists - for what else can we call the author of War and Peace?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 27, 2007, 11:50:41 AM
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin: it was a good read, but I thought that some of what he said against string theory might be speculative and inaccurate, and some of the things that he said about other things in physics was fringe, and I disagreed with some of his views on what education should be, though I agreed with his observations.  All in all, it's refreshing to see a book critical of string theory, most popular string theory books praise it as the holy grail of physics, which it's not.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins: hey I thought that there might be some cool, rational arguments of interest to read.  No, it's all emotionally charged rhetoric.  Even his solutions to classic "proofs" of God's existence seems to be mostly sneering at Aquinas and kin.  Dawkins' beliefs are emotionally driven, yet he claims to be different and superior to those that follow a religion.  Whatever! :D

Any comments on these books or these authors?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 27, 2007, 11:53:33 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 27, 2007, 11:50:41 AM
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin: it was a good read, but I thought that some of what he said against string theory might be speculative and inaccurate, and some of the things that he said about other things in physics was fringe, and I disagreed with some of his views on what education should be, though I agreed with his observations.  All in all, it's refreshing to see a book critical of string theory, most popular string theory books praise it as the holy grail of physics, which it's not.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins: hey I thought that there might be some cool, rational arguments of interest to read.  No, it's all emotionally charged rhetoric.  Even his solutions to classic "proofs" of God's existence seems to be mostly sneering at Aquinas and kin.  Dawkins' beliefs are emotionally driven, yet he claims to be different and superior to those that follow a religion.  Whatever! :D

Thank you for the reviews, David!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 27, 2007, 11:55:26 AM
Quote from: Don Giovanni on April 27, 2007, 11:43:56 AM
Do you prefer it to The Brothers Karamazov?

Hmmm, both The Brothers K and The Idiot are wonderful.  Prefer one to the other?  I dunno . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on April 27, 2007, 11:58:09 AM
I'll comment on The God Delusion.  It really is sad that his book is the most popular since it's meant to be partly polemical (as a wake up call of sorts) and essentially an introduction to the philosophical arguments against religion rather than something all encompassing when it's taken as 'the best we've got' by believers and non-believers alike.  The main problem is this:  He's a scientist, not a philosopher.  Sam Harris operates in this field in a much more efficient manner, although he somehow gained that 'evil atheist' image.  As for the commentary on his response to the Aquinas proofs:  Honestly, those damn things were debunked long ago so a sort of 'sneering' is exactly what I expected.  It gets irritating hearing those regurgitated time and time again just like Pascal's Wager.  That said, I don't think his reasons per se, are emotional.  His reasons for disbelief come from logic, however, he expresses his view in an emotional manner because this is clearly (and with good reason) an emotional topic for him.  That said, yes, a bit more of a low burning approach could have worked better, however, I'm sure it wouldn't have sold as well.

If you want something that really goes in depth into the philosophical arguments for and against a God check out J.L. Mackie's The Miracle of Theism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 27, 2007, 12:01:03 PM
True, he was out to sell a book.

::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on April 27, 2007, 12:06:03 PM
Honestly, I think that's the reason for the rather harsh title The God Delusion.  The same thing occurred with the series The Root of All Evil?  He didn't like the title but BBC insisted that it would sell better than something less offensive so all he could talk them into was adding the '?' to the end.  I don't know if something similar occured with the title of the book or not, but in any case, that title seems to have been effective considering the consistently high sales.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 27, 2007, 12:08:45 PM
HS, yeah you described it better-- it's the manner in which he presents his arguments, not his arguments themselves. 

Thanks for the rec, if the library carries Mackie's book I'll check it out. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 27, 2007, 12:11:07 PM
Quote from: Harvested Sorrow on April 27, 2007, 12:06:03 PM
. . . but in any case, that title seems to have been effective considering the consistently high sales.

Myes; reinforcing bad behavior, I suppose . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 27, 2007, 12:18:18 PM
Quote from: Don Giovanni on April 27, 2007, 11:43:56 AM
Do you prefer it to The Brothers Karamazov? Well, as far as I am concerned, Tolstoy still rules supreme when it comes to Russian Lit. As Virginia Woolf said, "There remains the greatest of all novelists - for what else can we call the author of War and Peace?"




I think I prefer it mostly in terms of the characterization of the protagonist. In simpler language, I really liked Prince Myshkin's character, and genuinely "lived with" him throughout the book.


Of course, those other books you mentioned are fantastic as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on April 27, 2007, 02:26:29 PM
Quote from: DavidW on April 27, 2007, 12:08:45 PM
HS, yeah you described it better-- it's the manner in which he presents his arguments, not his arguments themselves. 

Thanks for the rec, if the library carries Mackie's book I'll check it out. :)

I think you'll enjoy it.  A brief summary would be to say it presents all the big philosophical arguments for the existence of God (quoted in full) put forth by major theologians in essay form and then presents an essay which discusses the validity of those arguments, possible holes in them, etc.  It also covers Hume's beliefs on miracles (or the lack thereof, if you prefer) and discusses that and the problem of evil among other things.

You may wish to check Amazon for reviews on the subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on April 28, 2007, 03:58:59 AM
UMBERTO ECO: Il Pendolo di Foucault.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 28, 2007, 05:18:02 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 27, 2007, 11:50:41 AM
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin: it was a good read, but I thought that some of what he said against string theory might be speculative and inaccurate, and some of the things that he said about other things in physics was fringe, and I disagreed with some of his views on what education should be, though I agreed with his observations.  All in all, it's refreshing to see a book critical of string theory, most popular string theory books praise it as the holy grail of physics, which it's not.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins: hey I thought that there might be some cool, rational arguments of interest to read.  No, it's all emotionally charged rhetoric.  Even his solutions to classic "proofs" of God's existence seems to be mostly sneering at Aquinas and kin.  Dawkins' beliefs are emotionally driven, yet he claims to be different and superior to those that follow a religion.  Whatever! :D

Any comments on these books or these authors?

Quote from: Harvested Sorrow on April 27, 2007, 11:58:09 AM
I'll comment on The God Delusion.  It really is sad that his book is the most popular since it's meant to be partly polemical (as a wake up call of sorts) and essentially an introduction to the philosophical arguments against religion rather than something all encompassing when it's taken as 'the best we've got' by believers and non-believers alike.  The main problem is this:  He's a scientist, not a philosopher.  Sam Harris operates in this field in a much more efficient manner, although he somehow gained that 'evil atheist' image.  As for the commentary on his response to the Aquinas proofs:  Honestly, those damn things were debunked long ago so a sort of 'sneering' is exactly what I expected.  It gets irritating hearing those regurgitated time and time again just like Pascal's Wager.  That said, I don't think his reasons per se, are emotional.  His reasons for disbelief come from logic, however, he expresses his view in an emotional manner because this is clearly (and with good reason) an emotional topic for him.  That said, yes, a bit more of a low burning approach could have worked better, however, I'm sure it wouldn't have sold as well.

If you want something that really goes in depth into the philosophical arguments for and against a God check out J.L. Mackie's The Miracle of Theism.
Quote from: karlhenning on April 27, 2007, 12:01:03 PM
True, he was out to sell a book.

::)

Here is an interview with Dawkins that I heard back in March.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9180871

This one Francis Collins (director of the National Human Genome Research Project. He is also an evangelical Christian) was interesting as well:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9207913

David, how does the interview compare with the book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 28, 2007, 07:42:04 AM
Quote from: val on April 28, 2007, 03:58:59 AM
UMBERTO ECO: Il Pendolo di Foucault.
That's great. I've re-read it many, many times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 28, 2007, 08:27:18 AM
Getting the Most Out of Mozart - The Instrumental Works by David Hurwitz (2005) - just starting this series (picked up the 3 books below - really cheap on Amazon - each comes w/ 1-2 CDs) - all have received 5* reviews by the Amazonians (CLICK on each image, if interested, for comments) -  :)

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DQHDX47XL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Most-out-Mozart-Instrumental/dp/1574670964/ref=sr_1_1/103-4191504-6570256?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177777202&sr=1-1)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/417CR31BWGL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Haydn-Unlocking-Masters-No/dp/1574671162/ref=sr_1_1/103-4191504-6570256?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177777339&sr=1-1)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZCEREJKYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Dvorak-Romantic-Versatile-Unlocking-Masters/dp/1574671073/ref=sr_1_1/103-4191504-6570256?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177777401&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on April 29, 2007, 06:47:23 AM
Quote from: Bill on April 28, 2007, 05:18:02 AM
Here is an interview with Dawkins that I heard back in March.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9180871

This one Francis Collins (director of the National Human Genome Research Project. He is also an evangelical Christian) was interesting as well:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9207913

David, how does the interview compare with the book?

I'll take a look at those, and here's an interview that I feel goes quite in depth (for a TV show): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgNIZl8ncmU
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 29, 2007, 07:30:29 AM
Quote from: Harvested Sorrow on April 29, 2007, 06:47:23 AM
I'll take a look at those, and here's an interview that I feel goes quite in depth (for a TV show): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgNIZl8ncmU

Thanks.  I have not read either of these books.  The second one sounds the most interesting to me, so any feedback is appreciated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: quintett op.57 on April 29, 2007, 10:28:26 AM
(http://medias.francetv.fr/bibl/url_images/2006/03/10/image_18934976.jpg)
About the life of our president : Mr Chirac
I've noticed something interesting : Like Bush, he was offered millions by the saudians, and like Bush, he didn't talk very much about that.
He's always been a very good friend for many arabian countries.  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on April 29, 2007, 10:34:20 PM
Quote from: quintett op.57 on April 29, 2007, 10:28:26 AM
(http://medias.francetv.fr/bibl/url_images/2006/03/10/image_18934976.jpg)
About the life of our president : Mr Chirac
I've noticed something interesting : Like Bush, he was offered millions by the saudians, and like Bush, he didn't talk very much about that.
He's always been a very good friend for many arabian countries.  >:D


Like Bush, he's a dirty, no good creep of a crook.

If only McCain had won the nomination in 2000.   ::)

As of right now, I have no idea what to read next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on April 30, 2007, 02:13:53 AM
I have just finished reading Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antionette, which I found very uplifting because it shows what the human spirit is capable of enduring. Oddly enough, Danny's quote from St Ignatius of Loyola would have suited Marie Antoinette to a tee.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on April 30, 2007, 03:25:51 AM
A collection of works by Michail Alexandrovič Bakunin.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 30, 2007, 06:24:34 AM
Quote from: Ten thumbs on April 30, 2007, 02:13:53 AM
I have just finished reading Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antionette, which I found very uplifting because it shows what the human spirit is capable of enduring. Oddly enough, Danny's quote from St Ignatius of Loyola would have suited Marie Antoinette to a tee.

Add this magnificent quote from Edmund Burke:

It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in, — glittering like the morning star full of life and splendour and joy... Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, — in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 30, 2007, 06:29:13 AM
Back in on Crime and Punishment, which I had to set aside through no fault of the author  0:)

Brilliantly written!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on May 01, 2007, 01:50:17 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 30, 2007, 06:29:13 AM
Back in on Crime and Punishment, which I had to set aside through no fault of the author  0:)

Brilliantly written!

"Crime and Punishment" is one of my favourite books, and it is also a quite easy read. A real page-turner  :).
Anyway, Dostoyevski delves deep into the psyche of several characters while still keeping this "crime"-story going. You can really feel the torment and anguish of Raskolnikov. It can even be a bit uncomfortable from time to time.

Now I just read a book for entertainment, and an excellent book it was - Don Winslow "Power of the Dog". It is an 650 page complex epic thriller/mob story abouth the drug trafficking from Mexico to the US. It has well-drawn characters, multiple points of view and something interesting to say on the war on drugs...and the war on communism.

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51716D7GVWL._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on May 01, 2007, 12:31:58 PM
Thank you, Florestan, for that wonderful quote. I think Walpole's 'enthusiasm and admiration' for the superiority of Marie Antoinette's death rather overlooks the appalling degraded nature of her accusers. Your qoute expresses my feelings perfectly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on May 01, 2007, 01:07:54 PM
Our Lady and the Church by Jesuit priest Hugo Rahner.  It even has an official recommendation from ze pope! (I thought he was on the outs with the men in black.)

A wonderful little book it is, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 01, 2007, 01:34:16 PM
Marcel Proust, Swann's Way - A splendid translation.

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/510B3BDW4ZL._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 01, 2007, 01:39:01 PM
Quote from: Ten thumbs on May 01, 2007, 12:31:58 PM
Thank you, Florestan, for that wonderful quote. I think Walpole's 'enthusiasm and admiration' for the superiority of Marie Antoinette's death rather overlooks the appalling degraded nature of her accusers. Your qoute expresses my feelings perfectly.
A votre service, Monsieur! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 01, 2007, 01:58:26 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 30, 2007, 06:24:34 AM
Add this magnificent quote from Edmund Burke:

It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in, — glittering like the morning star full of life and splendour and joy... Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, — in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded.

Quoting Mr. Burke! How wonderful. His reflections rarely leaves my desk. The tail end of that quote was my signature in the past iteration of this forum. I've now ditched him for Tennyson, but good feeling abounds!

Splendid choice, are you reading his works?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on May 01, 2007, 02:42:55 PM
The most recent book I read was Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear - pretty gripping techo-thriller/sci-fi stuff in a Crichton-esque vein, but nothing really ground-breaking.

Next will be A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick. I read the first page for a taster and even that made me laugh. I love his writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 01, 2007, 10:16:54 PM
Quote from: Steve on May 01, 2007, 01:58:26 PM
Quoting Mr. Burke! How wonderful. His reflections rarely leaves my desk. The tail end of that quote was my signature in the past iteration of this forum. I've now ditched him for Tennyson, but good feeling abounds!

Splendid choice, are you reading his works?  :)
I've read some of them. His reason and common-sense are so refreshing!

Tennyson is wonderful, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on May 02, 2007, 03:00:38 AM
BOUCOURECHLIEV: À L'ECOUTE

It is a set of articles dedicated to composers of the "serialism" generation. Boulez, Berio, Stockhausen, Nono, Maderna. Boucourechliev himself was an interesting composer. I heard years ago Claude Helffer playing in concerto one of his "Archipels".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 02, 2007, 04:56:06 AM
Just finished re-reading Crime and Punishment this morning; and last night I read Pushkin's Queen of Spades . . . great resonance, since Pushkin's character Herman was one of the sources of Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 02, 2007, 05:08:32 AM
I have on my re-reading list The Brothers Karamazov and Demons. Some two thousands pages, Bozhe moy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 02, 2007, 05:11:56 AM
(http://inkeehong.com/articles/image/Simmons_The_Terror_2006_HC.jpg)

It's very long and very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 02, 2007, 05:15:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 02, 2007, 05:08:32 AM
I have on my re-reading list The Brothers Karamazov and Demons.

Oh, and for me to re-read, The Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot.  Great stuff!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 02, 2007, 11:13:51 AM
Quote from: The Notorious MOG on May 01, 2007, 02:42:55 PM
The most recent book I read was Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear - pretty gripping techo-thriller/sci-fi stuff in a Crichton-esque vein, but nothing really ground-breaking.

That was my impression as well.  It was a plane flight read when I read, and kept me amused through the flight. :)  I'm not a big Greg Bear fan.  At the time that I was into him I liked the two novels about the machines that destroy Earth, and I also liked the novel Moving Mars even though it was pretty silly. :)

That was a few years ago, I don't think that I would like him at all today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 02, 2007, 07:40:23 PM
Finished Cormac McCarthy's feel-good Oprah book club selection The Road.  Great heartwarming story of a guy's love for his son while trying to avoid being eaten by roving post-apocalyptic cannibals.

Also read The River of Doubt, an account of Teddy Roosevelt and Candido Randon's trip down an uncharted Amazon tributary in 1913

Working on Niall Ferguson's book on the Rothchilds
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 02, 2007, 08:53:43 PM
More Proust....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on May 02, 2007, 10:29:12 PM
Also reading Development of Christian Doctrine by Cardinal Newman with A History of the Church by Eusebius.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 04:30:09 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 02, 2007, 07:40:23 PM
Finished Cormac McCarthy's feel-good Oprah book club selection The Road.  Great heartwarming story of a guy's love for his son while trying to avoid being eaten by roving post-apocalyptic cannibals.

I read that one before Oprah put her stamp on it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 03, 2007, 05:47:46 AM
Quote from: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 04:30:09 AM
I read that one before Oprah put her stamp on it.

Was it better before?

Do you think Oprah will put her stamp on Blood Meridian?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 05:48:17 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 03, 2007, 05:47:46 AM
Was it better before?

You didn't like it? I thought it was rad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 03, 2007, 05:49:49 AM
Quote from: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 05:48:17 AM
You didn't like it? I thought it was rad.

No, I loved the book.  Just amused that Oprah put it in her book club.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 05:52:41 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 03, 2007, 05:49:49 AM
No, I loved the book.  Just amused that Oprah put it in her book club.

Yeah, I was amused as well.

I have BLOOD MERIDIAN on my TBR (to be read) pile. I'll have to get around to that soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 06:19:31 AM
I'm really enjoying THE TERROR by Dan Simmons. It may become one of my favorite reads of the year. If you'd like to check it out, here's a link. (http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316017442/ref=dp_return_1/103-0945402-8155030?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on May 03, 2007, 06:27:04 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 02, 2007, 07:40:23 PM
The Road.  Great heartwarming story of a guy's love for his son while trying to avoid being eaten by roving post-apocalyptic cannibals.

I must admit that really does sound heartwarming. ;)





(But who likes precooked heart? 0:))
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 06:29:45 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 03, 2007, 05:49:49 AM
No, I loved the book.  Just amused that Oprah put it in her book club.

What do you think caused the apocalypse?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on May 03, 2007, 06:31:16 AM
Quote from: MrOsa on May 03, 2007, 06:27:04 AM
(But who likes precooked heart? 0:))

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/cheney_celebrates_earth_day
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on May 03, 2007, 06:33:06 AM
LOL!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on May 03, 2007, 07:57:31 AM
I just finished the new mystery by Harlan Coben, The Woods -- a real page turner with a surprise ending.  If you have never read any of Coben's books, this is a great way to start.  Gripping, from start to finish. 

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/12740000/12748929.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 07:58:26 AM
Quote from: Bunny on May 03, 2007, 07:57:31 AM
I just finished the new mystery by Harlan Coben, The Woods -- a real page turner with a surprise ending.  If you have never read any of Coben's books, this is a great way to start.  Gripping, from start to finish. 

Thanks for the recommendation. I might give it a shot on my upcoming vacation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on May 03, 2007, 07:59:08 AM
Quote from: Danny on May 02, 2007, 10:29:12 PM
Also reading Development of Christian Doctrine by Cardinal Newman with A History of the Church by Eusebius.

Please tell me that you weren't reading these for school.

Quote from: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 07:58:26 AM
Thanks for the recommendation. I might give it a shot on my upcoming vacation.

As long as you aren't camping out in the woods...

Sorry, couldn't resist that!  Actually, the events in the woods occur 20 years before the start of the book.  But still, the echoes of the events are felt through the years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 03, 2007, 07:59:16 AM
Quote from: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 06:29:45 AM
What do you think caused the apocalypse?

McCarthy likely had no specific event in mind, but would have to guess some extraterrestrial impact.  There was no indication of radiation from nukes. The dead ocean, perpetually overcast sky and wide swaths of burned land seem to line up with Discovery channel speculation on the after effects of large impacts
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 03, 2007, 08:03:33 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 03, 2007, 07:59:16 AM
McCarthy likely had no specific event in mind, but would have to guess some extraterrestrial impact.  There was no indication of radiation from nukes. The dead ocean, perpetually overcast sky and wide swaths of burned land seem to line up with Discovery channel speculation on the after effects of large impacts

Makes sense. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 03, 2007, 10:08:56 AM
Quote from: MrOsa on May 03, 2007, 06:27:04 AM
I must admit that really does sound heartwarming. ;)





(But who likes precooked heart? 0:))

It is by far McCarthy's most optimistic and upbeat book.

BTW are you a fan of Stanislaw Lem?  The Cyberiad is about my all time favorite book
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on May 03, 2007, 11:35:48 AM
Quote from: Bunny on May 03, 2007, 07:59:08 AM
Please tell me that you weren't reading these for school.

No.  Reading these become I'm Catholic.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sonic1 on May 03, 2007, 03:28:43 PM
Until I master French (which I intend) I am reading this English Translation of Proust, my summer's reading (or lifetime's).

(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m173/manihot/0812969642-1.jpg)

and also enjoying this side-read:

(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m173/manihot/images-6-1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 03, 2007, 11:23:09 PM
Still reading a fascinating book about Charlotte Bronte, written by Rebecca Fraser, considering this is her first book.
Its brimful with so many details that life at the rectory is almost there to touch.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on May 04, 2007, 12:55:04 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 03, 2007, 10:08:56 AM
BTW are you a fan of Stanislaw Lem?  The Cyberiad is about my all time favorite book

Not really, I like the thought/content but find his style a bit tiring (it's very old fashioned and mannered). From what I've seen that doesn't come through in the translations. Which is probably a good thing. Maybe I should start reading him in translation? ;) I do quite like his essays though - very intelligent science journalism. Not sure if that stuff has been translated into any human language?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on May 04, 2007, 01:11:17 PM
Quote from: MrOsa on May 04, 2007, 12:55:04 PM
Not really, I like the thought/content but find his style a bit tiring (it's very old fashioned and mannered). From what I've seen that doesn't come through in the translations. Which is probably a good thing.

Last I read of him (quite a while ago) was His Master's Voice and remember quite liking it, his style, in translation, came across as very dry and academic but I found it well suited for the matter.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on May 05, 2007, 08:37:23 AM
William James-Writings 1902-1910
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 05, 2007, 08:40:11 AM
Swann's Way, Marcel Proust.

I need to get through the entire set this summer.  ;)

You've chosen well, sonic1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sonic1 on May 05, 2007, 02:54:09 PM
Quote from: Steve on May 05, 2007, 08:40:11 AM
Swann's Way, Marcel Proust.

I need to get through the entire set this summer.  ;)

You've chosen well, sonic1

Thank you. I am reading the modern library translations, mainly because it is all the same translator. I actually read another translation of the second book, but was frustrated with the various translators of the other books. I sort of need one voice for one story. Except with the bible of course.

Maybe after I read this translation, I will try the others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 05, 2007, 05:06:58 PM
The modern library version was my introduction to the work, and I still keep it as reference. However, this new translation from Lydia Davis of Swann's Way really piqued my attention. This set from Penguin Publishing has received some great attention. As to the uniformity of translation, I can understand that. Although sometimes, you just want the best translations available, and you have to settle for more than one.

What sort of progress have you made? it would be really interesting to post our reactions to the text once in awhile on this forum.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Greta on May 06, 2007, 08:08:45 AM
Quote from: Haffner on April 27, 2007, 06:36:45 AM
"The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy"
Fascinating!

Is that the one, on its Amazon page, that had tons of long, long reviews where guys were going back and forth philosophizing on Wagner's philosophies?  ;D

I definitely have to get that one sometime! Report back when you've finished it...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 06, 2007, 08:14:54 AM
I'm reading this. It takes place in Scotland where baseball bats are not used for their original purpose.

(http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/Guthrie/kiss_her_goodbye.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Greta on May 06, 2007, 08:24:07 AM
As for what I'm reading myself:

Egon Gartenberg's Mahler: His Life and His Music - a solid biography on Mahler's life and a long section that details the themes and background information for each symphony and lieder cycle.

Principles of Orchestration, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Fascinating! So well explained, though of course it's dated, instrument combinations that would have been taboo then, well, in today's music anything goes. Just very thorough and nice to work through.

The Fresco, Sheri S. Tepper - Just a book for fun, I hadn't read any of her books in a long time, but this one seems quite interesting. A middle aged unhappily married bookstore clerk, takes a walk in the woods and meets a couple of aliens who give her a cube she needs to urgently give to the President - you can see that's a great setup. ;)

She reallly a fine writer, she describes things so precisely and takes you into another world. Her books from the 90s are my favorites, the best being Raising The Stones about a civilization on another planet. Also Grass is another, more spiritual one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Heather Harrison on May 06, 2007, 09:08:45 AM
Right now, I am in the middle of this:

(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/5127v-Ng-LL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

It is a book about the history of how the periodic table of the elements was developed.  It goes into more detail than the usual brief accounts that occur in science books, including some discussion on early contributors who have been largely forgotten.  I have been interested in chemistry since I was a child.  When I was a teenager, I actually went to the trouble of memorizing the entire periodic table.  (I was a very nerdy kid, and when I grew up I became a very nerdy adult.)  Now, I am in the process of collecting pure samples of as many of the elements as I can get, and I have succeeded in obtaining some that I thought I would never see.  (I recently got a nice crystalline lump of thulium.)  So given my current collecting interest, I find this book interesting.  But anyone who is interested in the history of science might like this book; the periodic table, along with the discovery of the periodic law, was one of the most important advances in science in the 19th Century, and its history has been somewhat neglected.

Heather
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Don Giovanni on May 06, 2007, 09:32:33 AM
sonic1 and Steve, good luck with the Proust. I think you may need it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sonic1 on May 06, 2007, 11:10:37 AM
Quote from: Steve on May 05, 2007, 05:06:58 PM
The modern library version was my introduction to the work, and I still keep it as reference. However, this new translation from Lydia Davis of Swann's Way really piqued my attention. This set from Penguin Publishing has received some great attention. As to the uniformity of translation, I can understand that. Although sometimes, you just want the best translations available, and you have to settle for more than one.

What sort of progress have you made? it would be really interesting to post our reactions to the text once in awhile on this forum.  :)

I started with the second book (the penguin addition) and now I am going to read the entire set over again, so basically I am at the beginning again with Swann's way. The Beckett essay on Proust is really nice BTW; it outlined some perspectives that will certainly give me a starting reference point. I will post my thoughts here as they are significant enough to post. I will start off by saying that Proust has an incredible way, shakespearian almost, of revealing the deep driving intent of his characters, and how they all train-wreck into each other-though not as train-wreckish as Shakespeare. It is how he exposes these characters over the span of a book that is so amazing to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Choo Choo on May 07, 2007, 05:37:23 AM
I'd be very interested to hear your verdict on the Scott Moncrieff translation.  I started on the (later) Kilmartin set years ago, and struggled through to the end of Within a Budding Grove (i.e. abour 1/3rd of the way through) before deciding I had other plans for the rest of my life...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 07, 2007, 05:39:22 AM
THE HOUSE by Bentley Little. So far, so Little.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Choo Choo on May 07, 2007, 05:52:52 AM
Meanwhile I have just finished Yours, Plum - a collection of the letters of P G Wodehouse, edited by Frances Donaldson.  It's a lightweight read - good for dipping into - but doesn't add much to the rest of the canon.  Interesting though to see PGW referring to people (mostly, other authors) as "bastards" and "lice".  That's not the impression you usually get.

One thing that does come out of it is the extent to which his "official" memoirs (Bring On The Girls) and published letters (Performing Flea) were edited for publication, to the extent that the former is largely fiction, as PGW cheerfully admits - i.e. the stories he recounts may have happened - but not to him.  It does seem as if his motivation was to make for a better story, rather than just boosting his own reputation.

I am genuinely puzzled by the arrangement he had with his wife.  They appear to have spent months on end apart - sometimes, in different continents - and even when under the same roof seem to have led largely separate lives, meeting up during the day in way that comes across as oddly formal.  In one letter he writes of the circumstances which had led to them spending a night in the same bed, as if this were something so remarkable that he just had to sit down and write a letter to somebody about it.  Then there's the matter of his wife's collection of "followers" (young men), some of whom appear to have lived with the Wodehouses - an arrangement which (the editor remarks cryptically in a footnote) "does not seem to have disturbed Plum at all."  Yet he consistently paints a picture of two people who adored each other.  One of these days I must find a real warts-and-all biography and get the real skinny.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Don Giovanni on May 07, 2007, 06:05:46 AM
Quote from: Don Giovanni on May 06, 2007, 09:32:33 AM
sonic1 and Steve, good luck with the Proust. I think you may need it.

I didn't mean to strikethrough sonic1 in my original post.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on May 07, 2007, 06:08:18 AM
(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QJFMEH5HL._AA240_.jpg)
One fascinating story after another. I can imagine how much even better they would be in Spanish
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sonic1 on May 07, 2007, 07:51:09 AM
Quote from: Don Giovanni on May 07, 2007, 06:05:46 AM
I didn't mean to strikethrough sonic1 in my original post.

That's ok, it made me feel pretty punk rock.















that is a good thing.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 08, 2007, 08:24:59 AM
Warped Passages by Lisa Randall-- this is a book about extra-dimensional theories in physics, only a small part about string theory, the rest about Randall's theory.  Anyway her history/overview of physics is inaccurate.  Her writing is a bit messy and she unethically tries to convince her readers that her theory is widely accepted.  Actually only empirical evidence can tell that.  What I think is fascinating about her model of the universe is that she has made testable predictions, and LISA and LHC can falsify her model.  She is wrong to say that string theorists are not model builders like her, actually string theory was originally created to explain scattering experiments in the sixties.  Randall's writing is sloppy and not engaging.  I like the structure of her chapters, but not her execution.  This is not a good book for the layman on extra-dimensions in physics.

What to Listen for In Music by Aaron Copland-- this was a delightful read.  Very insightful, and ignores alot of dogma that still exist today (as is seen on this board).  I like his view on what an intelligent listener is and how to become one.  Most of his book is very easy to follow, but without audio examples following the chapters on forms can be tricky.  Lucky for me I've taken a music appreciation class.  For other novices, I think that an audio book with musical examples would be better these days.

I'm now reading The New Music by Aaron Copland.  More on that later.  I do find it interesting that he points at the start of the revolt against Germanic Romanticism with Mussorgsky.  I can tell from both books that Copland has a great appreciation for Russian composers, and a very low appreciation for Wagnerian bloat! lol :D 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 09, 2007, 05:37:15 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 30, 2007, 06:29:13 AM
Back in on Crime and Punishment, which I had to set aside through no fault of the author  0:)

Brilliantly written!




Dostoevsky is so inspiring! Crime and Punishment has so many dimensions, it's truly life Affirming to read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 09, 2007, 01:01:22 PM
In addition to Swann's Way, I've been following along with some more Proust...

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41yhmCY9wPL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

sonic1, if you're interested, its a wonderful companion.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 10, 2007, 07:37:03 PM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dLe386dnL._SS500_.jpg)

Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Death-Classical-Music-Recordings/dp/1400096588/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8746452-1632855?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178854426&sr=8-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 10, 2007, 08:13:08 PM
(http://media.nasm.si.edu/webimages/200/9A04436_200w.jpg)

A synopsis from Amazon:
In 1927, 25-year-old American aviator Charles Lindbergh earned international fame by making the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean (and won a prize of $25,000 in the bargain). This lively book, a publication of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, celebrates that great accomplishment in words and images. Museum curators Dominick Pisano and F. Robert van der Linden draw on the Smithsonian's holdings (among them Lindbergh's then-state-of-the-art monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis) to offer a portrait of the famed pilot in the context of his time. They emphasize Lindbergh's calculated daring--he did not carry a parachute or heavy radio, for instance, reckoning that neither would be useful should he have to ditch at sea--and his abilities, unusual for a man of his age and the time. They also chart Lindbergh's progress from young flyer to world hero, considering his later career without shying away from its unpleasant aspects--notably, his early embrace of Adolf Hitler's regime and his insistence that the United States not take the side of England and France in the impending global war, at considerable cost to his reputation. Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Lindbergh's flight and the centenary of his birth, this book makes a fine gift for aviation and history buffs.

Actually, what drew me to this book in particular was the chapter that was dedicated entirely to the plane itself.  We are planning a trip to D.C. this summer and will take in the Air and Space Museum (toured it 3 or 4 times, but am looking forward to another visit) where The Spirit of St. Louis is on display along with the likes of the Wright Flyer, Earhart's Lockheed 5 Vega, Yeager's Bell X-1, etc., etc.  Here is a link for you aviation buffs:

http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/aircraft/aircraftg.cfm
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on May 11, 2007, 03:56:27 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BQn5SxcgL._SS500_.jpg)

So far, the introduction is excellent and the first chapter is very good. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daidalos on May 11, 2007, 04:34:02 AM
No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan. Quite a fascinating read.

I'm also re-reading Aniara by Harry Martinson. It is a fantastically beautiful story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 11, 2007, 05:27:59 AM
Quote from: Daidalos on May 11, 2007, 04:34:02 AM
No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan. Quite a fascinating read.

Hmm, it does sound it, Daidolos!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on May 11, 2007, 05:33:29 AM
I don't know where I've been, but I just learned about the Harvard Classics.  Has anyone read this entire collection?  I was thinking about trying to get through some of them this summer.


Allan
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daidalos on May 11, 2007, 05:47:27 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 11, 2007, 05:27:59 AM
Hmm, it does sound it, Daidolos!

I thought it was about time I educated myself a bit on the major religions of the world. Islam seemed most relevant, considering the situation in the Middle East, so I decided to start with that. For novices such as myself, the book most certainly does not disappoint. It is very lucid and enjoyable to read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on May 12, 2007, 07:11:46 AM
American Dreamer A Life of Henry A. Wallace by John C. Culver and John Hyde
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on May 12, 2007, 01:43:49 PM
Quote from: toledobass on May 11, 2007, 05:33:29 AM
I don't know where I've been, but I just learned about the Harvard Classics.  Has anyone read this entire collection?  I was thinking about trying to get through some of them this summer.


Allan

Do you have an address where we might look at the list of books?  Thanks
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on May 12, 2007, 01:54:02 PM
Hi Anne,

Here is a a link for some info and the contents of the collection:

Harvard Classics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics)

Allan
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 13, 2007, 04:38:46 AM
I was going to ask if that was the "five-foot shelf"  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 13, 2007, 07:47:14 AM
Partisans & Redcoats (2001) by Walter Edgar - subtitled 'The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution' - short but good read of South Carolina's role in the American Revolution w/ a lot of emphasis on the characters involved and the 'civil war' nature of the conflict.  Since I live in NC, I've explored many of these places (coastal Carolinas & Georgia, King's Mountain, Cowpens, Guilford Court House, etc.) - 'mixed' reviews on Amazon, but a good introductory read. 

A longer & more encompassing book of the Southern Campaign in the American Revolution is The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas (1999) by John Buchanan - Guilford Courthouse is basically in Greensboro (which did not exist at the time); but Nathaniel Greene was in charge of the American forces at that battle, and hence the name of the 'new' city that emerged.  CLICK on either image for comments.  :D

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VWW01F2WL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Partisans-Redcoats-Southern-Conflict-Revolution/dp/0380806436/ref=sr_1_1/102-8474919-9564165?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179070234&sr=8-1)   (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/516RJ3A4F3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Road-Guilford-Courthouse-Revolution-Carolinas/dp/0471327166/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-8474919-9564165?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179070832&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on May 13, 2007, 08:03:55 AM
Thanks, Allan.  Much obliged.  Good thing I'm currently reading Crime and Punishment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on May 13, 2007, 10:20:10 AM
Quote from: toledobass on May 11, 2007, 05:33:29 AM
I don't know where I've been, but I just learned about the Harvard Classics.  Has anyone read this entire collection?  I was thinking about trying to get through some of them this summer.


Allan

Allan,  why don't you just read what interests you?  Look at the world around you and let your curiousity be your guide rather than a long dead intellectual snob.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on May 13, 2007, 10:37:29 AM
I do plenty of that.  This list interests me because I've only read one of the titles and regardless of it being on a list or not, I feel I shoud've made it around to at least a few more by now.  The list is just some motivation for me and something of a checklist or something to remember stuff by.  I was pretty much just wondering if anyone had any comments on how it worked as a collection. 

Allan
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 13, 2007, 05:21:18 PM
Quote from: Bunny on May 13, 2007, 10:20:10 AM
Allan,  why don't you just read what interests you?  Look at the world around you and let your curiousity be your guide rather than a long dead intellectual snob.

Long Dead Intellectual Snob! For wanting to read the Western Canon! Nonsense!

Aristotle, Plato, Herodicus, Sophocles, Copernicus, Archimedes, James, Pascal......

Quote from: toledobass on May 11, 2007, 05:33:29 AM
I don't know where I've been, but I just learned about the Harvard Classics.  Has anyone read this entire collection?  I was thinking about trying to get through some of them this summer.


Allan

I have a copy of the University of Chicago canon, and I challenge myself to read a new volume every month. What a wealth of discovery awaits, my friend! Might I reccomend beginning with Aristotle? Particulariy Poetics.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 13, 2007, 05:28:44 PM
So I continue my Proust adventure....

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/416EH58VEJL._AA240_.jpg)

Swann's Way was among the most incredible reading experiences a person can have. But, my those sentences of epoch length!  :)

As a nice contrast, I'm revisiting this classic of Victorian Literature...

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VSFSAYV4L._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: quintett op.57 on May 14, 2007, 04:34:36 AM
Schopenhauer : Metaphysics of Death
I've just finished Metaphysics of love.

This guy had a great talent, his ability to ask himself questions is huge.

Whoever is interested in philosophy has to read him.

For those who want to understand Nietzsche, it's a good idea to read Schopenhauer (& Darwin).

Sometimes he lacks doubt. But he has no fear for truth.

A great philosopher. He made some mistakes, but remember he's from the XIXth century.
He's opened new doors to me in my reflections.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 14, 2007, 04:37:29 AM
All philosophers will make mistakes, either that, or they aren't pushing themselves enough.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 14, 2007, 05:52:52 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DHSHB15ZL._AA240_.jpg)

Gripping . . . and (as the best such books are most apt to do) makes you want to hear even all the minor works of the period currently under advisement . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on May 14, 2007, 10:00:06 AM
Some of the Summa by St. Thomas (just read how he demonstrates the infinity of God--scholasticism style!).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BorisG on May 14, 2007, 11:57:45 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/413XS2ER7KL._SS500_.jpg)

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 14, 2007, 11:58:55 AM
Cool, Boris!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on May 16, 2007, 02:30:35 PM
Quote from: toledobass on May 12, 2007, 01:54:02 PM
Hi Anne,

Here is a a link for some info and the contents of the collection:

Harvard Classics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics)

Allan

That's actually quite an interesting list.  However, he did list Faust Part 1 and neglect Part 2...for shame, for shame!

Glad (and surprised) to see The Origin of Species on the list, though. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 16, 2007, 02:33:03 PM
Three chapters into Book I of Finnegan's Wake, don't know yet if I will finish it.

Also reading Jasper Godwin Ridley's bio of Henry VIII
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on May 16, 2007, 02:41:59 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 16, 2007, 02:33:03 PM
Three chapters into Book I of Finnegan's Wake, don't know yet if I will finish it.

Judging by my experience - that is a very sensible attitude. ;D

(O dear, I think, as a literary scholar, I've just committed blasphemy... :o Time for a disclaimer then: I really think Finnegan's Wake is a masterpiece. Just not the easiest read, that's all...)

Maciek
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daidalos on May 16, 2007, 03:10:41 PM
A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sungam on May 16, 2007, 03:39:51 PM
You would be reading that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daidalos on May 16, 2007, 03:45:40 PM
Quote from: Sungam on May 16, 2007, 03:39:51 PM
You would be reading that.

I consider it an unashamed act of egostroking on my part. I agree with almost (~75%) everything he says, and it feels very good reading it. No shame in that.

It's not as if I accepted anything Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas said before opening the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 18, 2007, 04:09:51 AM
It's interesting to ponder what the modern zeitgeist would be without the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche. He's just one example, but perhaps the most important example (in terms of influence) in the past two hundred years. Just my opinion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on May 18, 2007, 10:40:40 AM
Finished Bishop Eusebius' "A History of the Church" (composed over the late third century to early fourth) and am now focusing on my re-read of "Development of Christian Doctrine" by Cardinal Newman and a book called "Teaching Authority of the Early Church."

Also would love to start reading "The First Circle" by Solzhenitsyn but don't have enough time right now. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on May 18, 2007, 10:45:59 AM
Quote from: Steve on May 13, 2007, 05:28:44 PM

As a nice contrast, I'm revisiting this classic of Victorian Literature...

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VSFSAYV4L._AA240_.jpg)
IMO, this is one case where the movie song (Kate Bush) eclipses the book  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 18, 2007, 10:48:17 AM
Still on the thick biography about Charlotte Bronte, by Rebecca Fraser.
In the beginning it was hard to get through, but getting deeper into the writings of this writer, the story unfolds quite nicely.
Charlotte was a woman with a firm own opinion, and she carried the tools to defend herself.
My kind of woman.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on May 18, 2007, 11:07:24 AM
Quote from: Harry on May 18, 2007, 10:48:17 AM
and she carried the tools to defend herself.

How did she fit an axe into her handbag? ??? Sounds creepy. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 18, 2007, 11:11:15 AM
Quote from: MrOsa on May 18, 2007, 11:07:24 AM
How did she fit an axe into her handbag? ??? Sounds creepy. ;D

She used words as her axe my friend, words! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 18, 2007, 11:12:09 AM
Quote from: MrOsa on May 18, 2007, 11:07:24 AM
How did she fit an axe into her handbag? ??? Sounds creepy. ;D

Or like Rodion Romanovich, she sewed a strip of cloth inside her overcoat, from which to hang the ax . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on May 18, 2007, 11:25:40 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 18, 2007, 11:12:09 AM
Or like Rodion Romanovich, she sewed a strip of cloth inside her overcoat, from which to hang the ax . . . .

For concealing purposes I'm inclined to agree with Rodion Romanovich but for quick usage in defence it's not very practical, you have to grab it by the wrong end, then pull the whole length of the handle through the strip and then to turn it around in your hands.....too long, you're gone by that time.
Short handle ax in a handbag is waaay more practical.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 18, 2007, 11:28:21 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 18, 2007, 11:12:09 AM
Or like Rodion Romanovich, she sewed a strip of cloth inside her overcoat, from which to hang the ax . . . .

O, to remember that horrible story from D.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on May 18, 2007, 01:23:38 PM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PK2YGY1BL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/TIS-MEMOIR-Frank-McCourt/dp/0002570807/ref=ed_oe_h/002-0628914-3893645?ie=UTF8&qid=1179523098&sr=8-6)

Frank McCourt 'Tis.

I read Angela's Ashes about a year ago and was so impressed by it (definitely one of the best books I've ever read!) I quickly bought this second volume. Took me a year to get around to reading it (I'm about halfway through at the moment). It's nowhere near as good as Angela's Ashes but still a very good read, and a bit more informative (as there's more history involved) which adds to the interest when other virtues are lacking.

Maciek
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 18, 2007, 07:30:35 PM
Started this for a book club I am in....interesting approach to telling a story.  Almost has a Hemingway pacing to it.:

(http://www.bbcaudiobooksamerica.com/client/products/ProdimageLg/746881.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 20, 2007, 08:55:40 AM
Wagner and Nietzsche by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on May 20, 2007, 02:10:08 PM
Wow! I didn't know the guy wrote any books! :-[ :-[ :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 21, 2007, 06:08:16 AM
Quote from: MrOsa on May 20, 2007, 02:10:08 PM
Wow! I didn't know the guy wrote any books! :-[ :-[ :-[




Fischer is a very good writer, to add to his other, estimable achievements.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 23, 2007, 01:38:06 PM
Re-reading

(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/CHN98.jpg)


(hence the avatar)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Choo Choo on May 24, 2007, 01:01:37 AM
This morning the mailman deposited on the mat a box containing the seven - count them - PG Wodehouse first editions that I bought sight unseen at auction.  Considering these things mostly date from the 1920s, I was expecting at least half of them to be totally knackered, with pages falling out, spines cracked, heavily foxed - but no:  none of them is less than very good, and a couple look like they've never been opened.  All for 20 quid.  Am I a frisky cat this morning. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on May 24, 2007, 01:09:22 AM
WITTGENSTEIN:   "Über Gewissheit". Sort of an answer to some of George Moore propositions. It would be more interesting if Wittgenstein had the time to review it. But he died.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Choo Choo on May 24, 2007, 01:16:31 AM
Oh I love that one.  I actually like the fact that it's slightly rough.  It has a great opening line:
Quote from: Ludwig WittgensteinIf you do know that here is one hand, we'll grant you all the rest.

Immediately draws you in, like a kind of philosophical whodunnit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on May 24, 2007, 07:14:20 AM
Tractatus is one of the best structured books I ever saw.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 24, 2007, 07:49:21 AM
Continuing my current Hesse binge...

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/narcissusgoldmund.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on May 24, 2007, 08:41:14 AM

Nice one, Kullervo!   8)

One of my very favorites by that author.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 24, 2007, 09:26:53 AM
Re-reading Arnold Schoenberg by Charles Rosen.

Inspiring!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 24, 2007, 09:28:22 AM
Splendid, Andy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 24, 2007, 11:50:46 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 24, 2007, 09:28:22 AM
Splendid, Andy!




Schoenberg is a huge inspiration for me to begin with. But Rosen really outdid himself here.

Your music can be pretty damn inspiring as well, Karl!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BachQ on May 24, 2007, 04:16:51 PM
Quote from: Haffner on May 24, 2007, 09:26:53 AM
Re-reading Arnold Schoenberg by Charles Rosen.

Inspiring!

So am I !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 24, 2007, 07:34:33 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 14, 2007, 04:37:29 AM
All philosophers will make mistakes, either that, or they aren't pushing themselves enough.

Quote of the day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 27, 2007, 12:17:57 PM
Alright reading--

Physics:
Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell by Tony Zee-- the first two parts are brilliantly insightful, but the rest of the book addresses advanced topics at such a lightning fast rate that is simply not insightful for the beginner.

Srednicki's Quantum Field Theory on the other hand is wonderful, I'm about 100 pages through it now.  He presents everything in such a logical way that you're not left wondering what the !$&$^$?  My only complaint is that he doesn't give you a road map or provide motivation for the sections.  Sometimes it's quite awhile before you realize why some derivation was actually important.  I don't think it should be a mystery, all should be made transparent to the reader.

Fiction:
White Noise by Don DeLillo-- this is brilliant!  Has anyone else here read this novel?  I usually don't like idea novels, but this one was so hysterical and so true.

As I Lay Dying by Faulkner-- I'm a dumbass.  I admit it. I couldn't relate to the characters.  I didn't understand the madness of Darl at the end.  And his passages around that time were getting confusing.  There is a realness to the tragedy of the book, but it didn't move me.  And the narrative I had difficulty following half the time due to the nature of the minds being portrayed with this stream of consciousness thing.  The technique itself is not something I have difficulty with, it has thoroughly immersed our popular culture now.  What I had trouble with was the nearly complete lack of lucidity of the thoughts of the characters. 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sonic1 on May 27, 2007, 12:40:32 PM
Quote from: DavidW on May 27, 2007, 12:17:57 PM


Fiction:
White Noise by Don DeLillo-- this is brilliant!  Has anyone else here read this novel?  I usually don't like idea novels, but this one was so hysterical and so true.




DeLillo is great. I loved WN as well as MaoII, Underworld, and a few others. You really can't go wrong with DeLillo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 27, 2007, 05:04:44 PM
Article in the latest issue of National Geographic on the founding of Jamestown. Really mind-blowing stuff!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: carlos on May 28, 2007, 06:41:35 AM
John L. Snell's "Dilemma Over Germany" (The Hauser Press,New
Orleans,1959). An erudite and very well documented study on
the political problems, plans, discussions and resolutions
between FDR,WCH and JS on the future of Germany after the
victory. Very well written and clear.  ;) ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on May 29, 2007, 01:53:59 PM
Poetry of Pound and Manley Hopkins among others.  Both are delightful, and are original masters of language and imagery.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 29, 2007, 02:23:40 PM
Only those interested in Country Music should peruse this post -  ;D

Just started Bill Malone's newly revised edition of Country Music, U.S.A. - read the first edition (1968) many years ago; this 'new' edition appears to be mainly an additional chapter bringing the music (performers etc.) up-to-date (i.e. 2002) - CLICK on the image for Amazonian comments, which are not too helpful (ignore the one about the writing being boring!) - Malone is a retired professor (Tulane University) and writes in an 'academic' fashion - this is a detailed book and takes time; probably the best coverage of the origins of country music, the early & mid-20th century performers, and into the 1960s - not a quick or easy read but w/ a wealth of detail.

BTW, another shorter & more recent book by Malone is also highly recommended: Don't Get above Your Raisin': Country Music and the Southern Working Class (Music in American Life) - great pic on the front cover of the young Hank Williams, Jr. lookin' up @ this father -  :)

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/510NRPP3E6L._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Country-Music-U-S-Second-Revised/dp/0292752628/ref=sr_1_3/102-8474919-9564165?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180476413&sr=1-3)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YAHNYKTPL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: head-case on May 29, 2007, 02:28:54 PM
Quote from: Danny on May 29, 2007, 01:53:59 PM
Poetry of Pound and Manley Hopkins among others.  Both are delightful, and are original masters of language and imagery.

Indeed, Pound was a delightful fascist, Nazi, and propagandist for genocide. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 29, 2007, 04:34:05 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 23, 2007, 01:38:06 PM
Re-reading

(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/CHN98.jpg)


(hence the avatar)

bwv
Did not know if you were aware of this book about China....sounded interesting:

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QRTPF4HGL._AA240_.jpg)

Here is an interview with the author from today on the radio:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10474172
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 29, 2007, 07:06:22 PM
Quote from: Kullervo on May 24, 2007, 07:49:21 AM
Continuing my current Hesse binge...

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/narcissusgoldmund.jpg)


I went through a similar phase a while back. I read Siddartha in German, an incredible experience.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on May 29, 2007, 07:09:04 PM
Just started this one:

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/411e8aKpwvL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 29, 2007, 08:01:04 PM
Picked this up from the library... Eliot - Selected Prose

(http://www.harcourtbooks.com/images/bookcovers/150/0156806541_150.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on May 29, 2007, 08:25:20 PM
Beach reading:

Stephen Frey: The 4th Order

Only for the most credulous, and those willing to believe in any conspiracy theory.  I can't swallow the idea of a venture capitalist (!) who doesn't have time for his kids and goes in to seal a deal the day after his wife is killed while his kids are home alone with a nanny as a hero.  Moreover, the idea that he's going to break up a government plot to abuse civil liberties is laughable.  It's not a fast or compelling read either; I don't know if I can even finish it.  I'm just afraid that idiots may assume that the book is really about the government and the Patriot Act.  NOT RECOMMENDED - even for the beach.

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/12280000/12284322.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 29, 2007, 09:33:07 PM
Quote from: Kullervo on May 29, 2007, 08:01:04 PM
Picked this up from the library... Eliot - Selected Prose

(http://www.harcourtbooks.com/images/bookcovers/150/0156806541_150.jpg)



Excellent choice!

We seem to have quite similar literary tastes.  :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: op.110 on May 29, 2007, 09:48:08 PM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7790000/7796303.jpg)

A great book. Every other line, or every line, is an aphorism. Wilde is so wise and logical. And look... it's Liszt on the cover!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 29, 2007, 10:27:22 PM
Quote from: op.110 on May 29, 2007, 09:48:08 PM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7790000/7796303.jpg)

A great book. Every other line, or every line, is an aphorism. Wilde is so wise and logical. And look... it's Liszt on the cover!

Agreed about the book. But I wonder what's Liszt go to do with it?  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 29, 2007, 11:20:57 PM
Time for a slight pause in the Proust adventure..

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S2HEFT2NL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

My, that picture is small.. Well it's Tristram Shandy..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on May 30, 2007, 03:21:40 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 29, 2007, 10:27:22 PM
Agreed about the book. But I wonder what's Liszt go to do with it?  ???

Wasn't he more than a bit vain?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on May 30, 2007, 04:17:22 AM
Quote from: Steve on May 29, 2007, 11:20:57 PM
Time for a slight pause in the Proust adventure..

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S2HEFT2NL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

My, that picture is small.. Well it's Tristram Shandy..

I had to read that in college, 100 years ago.  It was one of the better books my English teacher had us reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 30, 2007, 05:45:42 AM
Quote from: Steve on May 29, 2007, 11:20:57 PM
Time for a slight pause in the Proust adventure..

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S2HEFT2NL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

My, that picture is small.. Well it's Tristram Shandy..

I, too was in the middle of A Recherche du Temps Perdu, but I took a break after Within a Budding Grove. I can say without exaggeration that Swann's Way is the greatest thing I've ever read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on May 30, 2007, 05:54:24 AM
Quote from: Kullervo on May 30, 2007, 05:45:42 AM
I, too was in the middle of A Recherche du Temps Perdu, but I took a break after Within a Budding Grove. I can say without exaggeration that Swann's Way is the greatest thing I've ever read.

Having battled with endless sentences, tricky phrasings, and strangely technical diction, I wholeheartedly agree.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on June 04, 2007, 07:35:24 PM
I'm currently finishing up the Dune series (reading Heretics of Dune now), Faust, and getting a bit side-tracked by the Tao Te Ching and books on various aspects of Buddhism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 04, 2007, 08:03:54 PM
Quote from: op.110 on May 29, 2007, 09:48:08 PM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7790000/7796303.jpg)

A great book. Every other line, or every line, is an aphorism. Wilde is so wise and logical. And look... it's Liszt on the cover!

Great book!  It was our book club selection.  The discussion our group had was incredible.  The introduction was a book onto itself and worth the purchase.

Quote from: Florestan on May 29, 2007, 10:27:22 PM
Agreed about the book. But I wonder what's Liszt go to do with it?  ???

I thought the same thing as this is the printing I read.  The only connection I could come up with George was that Liszt I believe hung out with Chopin a bit and Chopin is mentioned a number of times in the novel.  Weak, but there you have it:

At a gathering one day, Franz Liszt asked Frederic Chopin to play in complete darkness as he had on a previous occasion. After extinguishing the lights and drawing the curtains, however, he intercepted Chopin on his way to the piano and whispered something in his ear. He then sat at the piano and played the same composition which Chopin had planned; the listeners were captivated.
After the performance, Liszt lighted the candles on the piano, revealing himself to his stupefied audience. "What do you say?" Liszt asked, turning to his rival. "I say what everyone says," Chopin replied. "I too believed it was Chopin!"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 04, 2007, 10:15:04 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 04, 2007, 08:03:54 PM
At a gathering one day, Franz Liszt asked Frederic Chopin to play in complete darkness as he had on a previous occasion. After extinguishing the lights and drawing the curtains, however, he intercepted Chopin on his way to the piano and whispered something in his ear. He then sat at the piano and played the same composition which Chopin had planned; the listeners were captivated.
After the performance, Liszt lighted the candles on the piano, revealing himself to his stupefied audience. "What do you say?" Liszt asked, turning to his rival. "I say what everyone says," Chopin replied. "I too believed it was Chopin!"


Nice one!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on June 05, 2007, 05:20:40 AM
Quote from: Harvested Sorrow on June 04, 2007, 07:35:24 PM
I'm currently finishing up the Dune series (reading Heretics of Dune now), Faust, and getting a bit side-tracked by the Tao Te Ching and books on various aspects of Buddhism.

Which books on Buddhism?

I am currently reading "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" by Suzuki.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on June 05, 2007, 07:51:52 AM
Quote from: George on June 05, 2007, 05:20:40 AM
Which books on Buddhism?

Primarily material on meditation, although one of them couldn't technically be called 'Buddhist' as it deals with meditation of all forms, including methods more focused around Hinduism.

To be more specific: Ananda Maitreya's translation of the Dhammapada (second reading) followed by Gil Fronsdal's translation, along with Thich Nhat Hanh's The Long Road Turns To Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation, Ram Dass' Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Handbook and Chogyam Trungpa's Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on June 05, 2007, 07:53:41 AM
Quote from: Harvested Sorrow on June 05, 2007, 07:51:52 AM
Primarily material on meditation, although one of them couldn't technically be called 'Buddhist' as it deals with meditation of all forms, including methods more focused around Hinduism.

To be more specific: Ananda Maitreya's translation of the Dhammapada (second reading) followed by Gil Fronsdal's translation, along with Thich Nhat Hanh's The Long Road Turns To Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation, Ram Dass' Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Handbook and Chogyam Trungpa's Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior.

Thich Nhat Hanh is an excellent guide for the westerner. And that last one is of course a classic.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on June 05, 2007, 08:55:45 AM
Indeed.  I'm a bit....iffy about the whole 'use of magic' sections in there, however, I'm sure that'll be a fun read at least and the rest should be useful. :)

Not to mention, it's a pocket edition so I can take it anywhere quite easily. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on June 05, 2007, 09:06:42 AM
Quote from: Harvested Sorrow on June 05, 2007, 08:55:45 AM
Indeed.  I'm a bit....iffy about the whole 'use of magic' sections in there, however, I'm sure that'll be a fun read at least and the rest should be useful. :)

Not to mention, it's a pocket edition so I can take it anywhere quite easily. ;D

Yeah, that's the one my g/f has. I've been meaning to borrow it form her.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: E d o on June 05, 2007, 01:37:35 PM
Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It's very good. I think it got a Booker prize too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Robert on June 05, 2007, 09:46:06 PM
Donna Tartt

A secret History

great......
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on June 11, 2007, 03:00:13 AM
I am currently re-reading "'Oscar Wilde" by Richard Ellmann.
A fascinating book, about a fascinating man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 11, 2007, 03:16:32 AM
Quote from: Harry on June 11, 2007, 03:00:13 AM
I am currently re-reading "'Oscar Wilde" by Richard Ellmann.
A fascinating book, about a fascinating man.

You'd better read the libretto of Boris Godunov.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on June 11, 2007, 03:25:30 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 11, 2007, 03:16:32 AM
You'd better read the libretto of Boris Godunov.  :D

Is not in my possession! ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on June 11, 2007, 05:12:49 AM
More Proust, I'm reading the Cambridge Companion at the moment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on June 11, 2007, 05:20:16 AM
(http://www.samyelingshop.com/catalog/images/zen_mind_beginners.gif)

It's good, just not quite as accessible as Joko Beck's books.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on June 11, 2007, 09:56:07 AM
Mary Robison-Why Did I Ever
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 11, 2007, 12:04:13 PM
Quote from: George on June 11, 2007, 05:20:16 AM
(http://www.samyelingshop.com/catalog/images/zen_mind_beginners.gif)

It's good, just not quite as accessible as Joko Beck's books.  :)

If Zen is all about personal experience and being in the present rather than doctrine or theory, then how come there are so many damned books on it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 11, 2007, 12:09:11 PM
Well, Steve, you might just as well ask how a publication could be "informal talks" . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on June 11, 2007, 12:17:37 PM
The poetry of Neruda, Burns, and Hopkins.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on June 11, 2007, 12:36:50 PM
Been reading a lot with eReader for my Palm Tungsten E2.  There's nothing quite so amusing as reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on a small, digital, hand-held device -- now if I could just find a "Don't Panic" sticker... ;D

Besides that, I've recently been perusing Don Quixote, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Christopher Hitchens' God is not Great, all on the Palm.  I've always been curious about ebooks, and I have to say that it's a nifty concept.  The screen is nice and clear, customizable fonts & colors, provides it's own light, easy to use, and I can carry 1,000 books in my shirt pocket.  It's even got a built-in dictionary, so I can click on a word and look it up.  I've had it almost 2 months, and the "geek's latest toy" fascination still hasn't worn off -- this one's a keeper, I think.  And it plays solitaire too. 

Oh, and the strategy guide for Civilization IV, I just got a new laptop ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 11, 2007, 12:53:21 PM
(http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/wp-content/2006/10/66668628.rmud7AY6.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on June 11, 2007, 01:03:12 PM
Quote from: jwinter on June 11, 2007, 12:36:50 PM
Been reading a lot with eReader for my Palm Tungsten E2.  There's nothing quite so amusing as reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on a small, digital, hand-held device -- now if I could just find a "Don't Panic" sticker... ;D

Besides that, I've recently been perusing Don Quixote, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Christopher Hitchens' God is not Great, all on the Palm.  I've always been curious about ebooks, and I have to say that it's a nifty concept.  The screen is nice and clear, customizable fonts & colors, provides it's own light, easy to use, and I can carry 1,000 books in my shirt pocket.  It's even got a built-in dictionary, so I can click on a word and look it up.  I've had it almost 2 months, and the "geek's latest toy" fascination still hasn't worn off -- this one's a keeper, I think.  And it plays solitaire too. 

That Palm Tungsten sounds pretty interesting.  Does it hold that many (roughly) books without an add-on to provide it with more memory?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 11, 2007, 03:42:38 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 11, 2007, 12:09:11 PM
Well, Steve, you might just as well ask how a publication could be "informal talks" . . . .

I have meditated on that and gained enlightenment (or maybe it was just a headache)

Does Dharma Bums qualify as a Zen book?  That one is good (or at least my wife sez so)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: маразм1 on June 11, 2007, 04:37:43 PM
Bukowski--what a pervert. 

My favorite is his poem about sleeping with an old lady who had a "nice and young ass".  And then they fell asleep and "she slept without taking out her teeth"  Great!!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on June 12, 2007, 04:18:57 AM
Daniel Dennett's, Breaking the spell.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on June 12, 2007, 12:06:43 PM
Quote from: Harvested Sorrow on June 11, 2007, 01:03:12 PM
That Palm Tungsten sounds pretty interesting.  Does it hold that many (roughly) books without an add-on to provide it with more memory?

It has a slot for a SD card, like they use in digital cameras, etc.  The hard drive itself is only about 35 MB (it only needs to hold my calendar and some basic palm software, so it's not even 1/2 full on mine), but my SD card is 1 GB (cost around $20).  You can swap the cards in and out very easily, so I have one just for photos, one for MP3s (it comes with RealPlayer), one for books & games, etc. (one random warning, I tried a 2GB SD card, and it wouldn't read it, so apparently 1GB is as high as it'll go -- which is still ridiculously huge for palm software).  The 1,000 books estimate is actually kinda low -- most books in PDB format are maybe 150 - 300 kb, to get to even 1 MB you need pictures or something huge like Gibbon or Shakespeare's complete works.  The biggest book I've ever seen is my Webster's 2nd International unabridged dictionary (the really hackin' huge one) which is 37 MB and that's with search software & whatnot.  Project Gutenburg has enough free text files to keep me amused for eons. 

Anyhoo, I've been quite pleased with mine -- well worth checking out if you're in the market for a new PDA ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on June 12, 2007, 12:38:32 PM
finally about to start Laszlo Krasznahorkai's The Melancholy of Resistance. This is the book on which Bela Tarr based Werckmeister Harmonies. 314 pages without a single paragraph that I can see and sentences that run on and on and on. Looks like he's trying to outdo Marquez.

(http://www.georgeszirtes.co.uk/dynamic/CoverMelancholy.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 13, 2007, 08:23:05 AM
Arnold Schoenberg's Journey (Allen Shawn)


I have a feeling that Dminor would really like this book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on June 13, 2007, 09:03:39 AM
Quote from: Haffner on June 13, 2007, 08:23:05 AM
Arnold Schoenberg's Journey (Allen Shawn)


I have a feeling that Dminor would really like this book.

I have that one. I haven't cracked it open yet.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on June 13, 2007, 09:11:45 AM
SUMMER OF NIGHT by Dan Simmons. A coming-of-age horror novel.

WEIRDMONGER by DF Lewis. A collection of this British author's strange, little stories.

Various trade paperbacks of superhero comics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 13, 2007, 09:13:43 AM
Quote from: George on June 13, 2007, 09:03:39 AM
I have that one. I haven't cracked it open yet.  :-\





I can tell that it's not exactly much of a "beach book". But that's perfect for me! I was completely floored by "Pierrot Lunaire" this week, and I guess there's some really good writing on that subject in this book.

George, did you ever check out the Charles Rosen book, "Arnold Schoenberg"? If this current Schoenberg book I'm reading is anywhere near as good as that one, I'm in for a great time!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on June 13, 2007, 09:25:34 AM
Quote from: Haffner on June 13, 2007, 09:13:43 AM
I can tell that it's not exactly much of a "beach book". But that's perfect for me! I was completely floored by "Pierrot Lunaire" this week, and I guess there's some really good writing on that subject in this book.

George, did you ever check out the Charles Rosen book, "Arnold Schoenberg"? If this current Schoenberg book I'm reading is anywhere near as good as that one, I'm in for a great time!

No I haven't read the Rosen book, though I almost bought his late sonatas last night.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 13, 2007, 01:42:53 PM
Alban Berg by Willi Reich

A fascinating portrait of Berg the man and the composer. The personal letters by Berg are especially interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mozart on June 14, 2007, 02:44:54 AM
I'm reading Albert Camus' The Stranger. I read it 3 years ago in school but didn't pay much attention to it. The character is really interesting. His girlfriend asks him if he loves her and he says the question is irrevelant, and he supposes that he doesn't. Haha I loved it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on June 18, 2007, 05:54:57 PM
Edgar Allan Poe's complete poems:

But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bonehelm on June 18, 2007, 06:23:51 PM
Neither here nor there: travels in Europe - Bill Bryson.

It's hilarious how he disses Europeans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 18, 2007, 10:11:03 PM
Quote from: Scriptavolant on June 18, 2007, 05:54:57 PM
Edgar Allan Poe's complete poems:

But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained.

I love Poe. I even love his early short stories, despite their occasionally flatulent prose and arcane references.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 18, 2007, 10:23:25 PM
Quote from: Kullervo on June 18, 2007, 10:11:03 PM
I love Poe.

Same here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on June 19, 2007, 09:39:29 AM
Quote from: Kullervo on June 18, 2007, 10:11:03 PM
I love Poe. I even love his early short stories, despite their occasionally flatulent prose and arcane references.

I appreciate the way he depictes and create such mysterious and uncanny landscapes. His landscapes portraits, in some of his poems, are higly visionary and primordially mournful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 19, 2007, 10:03:26 AM
Quote from: Scriptavolant on June 19, 2007, 09:39:29 AM
I appreciate the way he depictes and create such mysterious and uncanny landscapes. His landscapes portraits, in some of his poems, are higly visionary and primordially mournful.




I agree, though it's easy for me to agree with anyone whom has such a cool "Shining" avatar, Scriptavolant


(Vote Jack for King!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 19, 2007, 10:07:43 AM
Quote from: Arthur, King of the BritonsYou don't vote for kings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 19, 2007, 11:01:45 AM
Help! I'm being oppressed!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 19, 2007, 11:20:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 19, 2007, 10:07:43 AM





;D



Jack inherits, and thus abides.


Dude.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 19, 2007, 11:21:23 AM
Quote from: Kullervo on June 19, 2007, 11:01:45 AM
Help! I'm being oppressed!





Wheeeee!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on June 19, 2007, 11:28:02 AM
Quote from: Haffner on June 19, 2007, 11:21:23 AM


Wheeeee!

I smell a coup d'état in the making...  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 19, 2007, 11:42:11 AM
I'm reading a collection of Gogol's short stories. Very funny and odd.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on June 19, 2007, 04:35:26 PM
Quote from: Harry on June 11, 2007, 03:00:13 AM
I am currently re-reading "'Oscar Wilde" by Richard Ellmann.
A fascinating book, about a fascinating man.

Love that one too. Must re-read it one day...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber on June 19, 2007, 06:35:39 PM
i'm about to finish the hobbit & tomorrow i'll start gravity's rainbow by thomas pynchon. & from what i've read about gravity's rainbow, i'll have to re-read it a couple more times before i can follow what goes on lol  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Joan on June 19, 2007, 10:16:59 PM
I'm a page late for this, but I also love Poe's stories. They're beautifully complemented by Harry Clarke's illustrations, if you can get hold of an illustrated edition. The Assignation is an amazing little piece of breathless heightened prose.

I just finished Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam: the murder of Theo van Gogh and the limits of tolerance. I picked this up in lieu of Aayan Hirsi Ali's book Infidel; she recently toured the US promoting her book, so there was a bit of a waiting list at the library for infidel.
Buruma's book seems to be balanced and objective, so it's probably good to read it before Hirsi Ali's book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on June 20, 2007, 06:53:16 AM
Plague, a Story of Science, Rivalry and The Scourge that Won't Go Away.
by Edward Marriott
The one thing (among zillions of others) I learned was this:  If the rats start dying, run away!  When the rats are dead, the ravenous disease-carrying fleas are famished and looking for a new host, i.e., YOU!!! 

The Western 1/2 of the US has had cases of Bubonic plague throughout the 20th century.  What concerns scientists is the fact that worldwide the disease can go into hiding for years, then come roaring to life decimating a population.

I love to read nonfiction and am now reading a second book on the same subject:
Plague, the Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous
Disease by Wendy Orent.
This book so far is concentrating on Russia and its use of Bubonic plague as one of the biological weapons buildup in the cold war.

Thanks to Sonic Man for both of these selections.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 20, 2007, 09:50:19 AM
If only he'd write poems, we could have Carmina Buruma . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Joan on June 20, 2007, 08:18:50 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 20, 2007, 09:50:19 AM
If only he'd write poems, we could have Carmina Buruma . . . .

O, Fortuyn!   (Pim, that is.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 20, 2007, 08:25:30 PM
Quote from: Joan on June 20, 2007, 08:18:50 PM
O, Fortuyn!   (Pim, that is.)

Someone should write an opera based on Fortuyn.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on June 21, 2007, 02:38:21 AM
Charles Dickens.

The Pickwick Papers.

That's what I call a book, and a good book, and a unsurpassed writer. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2007, 02:56:07 AM
Quote from: Harry on June 21, 2007, 02:38:21 AM
Charles Dickens.

The Pickwick Papers.

That's what I call a book, and a good book, and a unsurpassed writer. :)

Seconded wholeheartedly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on June 21, 2007, 03:37:18 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2007, 02:56:07 AM
Seconded wholeheartedly.

May 12, 1827. Joseph Smiggers, Esq., P.V.P.M.P.C., presiding. The following resolutions unanimously agreed to:-
That this Association has heard read with feelings of unmingled satisfaction, and unqualified approval, the paper communicated by Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C. entitled "Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead Ponds, with some Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats".

Isn't that marvelous writing! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 21, 2007, 04:32:17 AM
Quote from: Anne on June 20, 2007, 06:53:16 AM
Plague, a Story of Science, Rivalry and The Scourge that Won't Go Away...............

Thanks to Sonic Man for both of these selections.

Anne - glad that you're enjoying the books!  Please report back on any NEW discoveries in this area - thanks!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 21, 2007, 04:36:28 AM
Quote from: Harry on June 21, 2007, 03:37:18 AM
May 12, 1827. Joseph Smiggers, Esq., P.V.P.M.P.C., presiding. The following resolutions unanimously agreed to:-
That this Association has heard read with feelings of unmingled satisfaction, and unqualified approval, the paper communicated by Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C. entitled "Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead Ponds, with some Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats".

Isn't that marvelous writing! :)

The Apotheosis of the Pushkinisti  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on June 21, 2007, 02:15:07 PM
Quote from: Kullervo on June 18, 2007, 10:11:03 PM
I love Poe. I even love his early short stories, despite their occasionally flatulent prose and arcane references.

Opium does that to you; read Coleridge for further proof (though I love S.T.C.).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on June 21, 2007, 04:14:43 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on June 21, 2007, 04:32:17 AM
Anne - glad that you're enjoying the books!  Please report back on any NEW discoveries in this area - thanks!  :D

There is presently no vaccine against plague in the US as the previous one has been discarded but there is a new vaccine in the animal trial phase currently being tested.

The following was big news to me: one of my daughters lives in a suburb of Lansing, MI which is home to MSU.
Robert Brubaker, is a Michigan State University professor known as the 'Plague guru" in the US!  a quote from Orent's book p. 37

"Brubaker was one of the first scientists in the West to discover that plague had plasmids - those extra rings of DNA outside the plague chromosome that contain some of the germ's most deadly devices." 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on June 21, 2007, 04:28:38 PM
Quote from: Danny on June 21, 2007, 02:15:07 PM
Opium does that to you; read Coleridge for further proof (though I love S.T.C.).

Or Keats...  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 21, 2007, 05:11:51 PM
Quote from: Anne on June 21, 2007, 04:14:43 PM
There is presently no vaccine against plague in the US as the previous one has been discarded but there is a new vaccine in the animal trial phase currently being tested.

The following was big news to me: one of my daughters lives in a suburb of Lansing, MI which is home to MSU.
Robert Brubaker, is a Michigan State University professor known as the 'Plague guru" in the US!  a quote from Orent's book p. 37

"Brubaker was one of the first scientists in the West to discover that plague had plasmids - those extra rings of DNA outside the plague chromosome that contain some of the germ's most deadly devices." 

Anne - boy, you're really getting into this subject -  ;) :)  Now talking about plasmids - this stuff can really get fascinating - but for those 'new' to the unicellular organisms, bacteria are unicellular but do not have a nucleus (which in more advanced organisms contain the chromosomes); thus, the chromosome(s) simply 'float' w/i the single cell; plasmids are kind of 'accessory' DNA components that are still being investigated, so much to be learned & discovered.

Also for those who may not know 'how' ubiquitous bacteria may be - look at the quote below from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria) - it is amazing how each of us are so dependent on bacteria!  ;D

QuoteThere are approximately 10 times as many bacterial cells as human cells in the human body, with large numbers of bacteria on the skin and in the digestive tract.....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 23, 2007, 02:49:48 PM
Anne - where are you?  ;D  Can't believe I was the last one to leave a post here -  ;)

The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Blues (2005) by David Evans, who is a Professor of Music at the University of Memphis (he directs an ethnomusicology Ph.D. program there); a well recognized 'expert' in the blues as a teacher, researcher (field work), and performer - can't beat his credentials!  :)

About half way through this book - an excellent & short introduction - best for those wanting an 'introduction' to this music; early chapters on the history & types of blues, followed by 'very short' bios on the performers (again, fine for those not familiar w/ these performers); ending chapters on CD recommendations (again brief and basic); in addition, another chapter on further resources, i.e. books, DVDs, web sites, etc.

For those not familiar w/ this music, Evans' book is a good beginning - short & easily understood; there are plenty of other more 'in depth' & 'biographical' sources; also, recommendations for specific recordings can be started w/ Evans' listings, but more detailed books are available; suggestions: 1) All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues (2003) - ready for a new edition!; and 2) MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide (2002) - not as good w/ mixed reviews.  Also, just saw that the Rough Guide series has come out w/ a blues guide - can't comment but will check it out!  ;D

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CBAF2B14L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FZCH37CAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XDGP7DF2L._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on June 23, 2007, 02:58:01 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on June 23, 2007, 02:49:48 PM
Anne - where are you?  ;D  Can't believe I was the last one to leave a post here -  ;)

The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Blues (2005) by David Evans, who is a Professor of Music at the University of Memphis (he directs an ethnomusicology Ph.D. program there); a well recognized 'expert' in the blues as a teacher, researcher (field work), and performer - can't beat his credentials!  :)

About half way through this book - an excellent & short introduction - best for those wanting an 'introduction' to this music; early chapters on the history & types of blues, followed by 'very short' bios on the performers (again, fine for those not familiar w/ these performers); ending chapters on CD recommendations (again brief and basic); in addition, another chapter on further resources, i.e. books, DVDs, web sites, etc.

For those not familiar w/ this music, Evans' book is a good beginning - short & easily understood; there are plenty of other more 'in depth' & 'biographical' sources; also, recommendations for specific recordings can be started w/ Evans' listings, but more detailed books are available; suggestions: 1) All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues (2003) - ready for a new edition!; and 2) MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide (2002) - not as good w/ mixed reviews.  Also, just saw that the Rough Guide series has come out w/ a blues guide - can't comment but will check it out!  ;D

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CBAF2B14L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FZCH37CAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XDGP7DF2L._AA240_.jpg)

Thanks for the info Dave. I'm enjoying your Blues/Bluegrass/Trad. Country' journey.

I, like you, love to delve into different musical genres and buy the boxsets and books and throughly immerse myself in the culture and artists of it all. Its alot of fun and mu fave hobby :)

I'm currently considering the Big Bands from the 40s as my next project.

Back On Topic I'm currently reading this:

(http://www.robertsenslerpresents.com/images/wpe1D.jpg)

Its good but mainly reads as a long gripe about Tina Sinatra's third stepmother. Evil personified apparently. There are a number of enjoyable annecdotes too. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 23, 2007, 04:12:01 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on June 23, 2007, 02:58:01 PM
Thanks for the info Dave. I'm enjoying your Blues/Bluegrass/Trad. Country' journey.

I, like you, love to delve into different musical genres and buy the boxsets and books and throughly immerse myself in the culture and artists of it all. Its alot of fun and mu fave hobby :)

I'm currently considering the Big Bands from the 40s as my next project.

Back On Topic I'm currently reading this:

(http://www.robertsenslerpresents.com/images/wpe1D.jpg)

Its good but mainly reads as a long gripe about Tina Sinatra's third stepmother. Evil personified apparently. There are a number of enjoyable annecdotes too. :)

Hello, SW - just re-exploring my 'other' musical interests (which I do every 3-4 years - been delayed a little because of the 'classical' music forum) - love Sinatra and have finally converted my wife over to his 'greatness' - believe she was too influenced by his background & presumed Mafia connections - don't care since the issue is his voice!  :D  I've not read the book mentioned, but have looked @ the reviews and guess it just did not interest me.  Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on June 23, 2007, 04:42:41 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on June 23, 2007, 02:49:48 PM
Anne - where are you?  ;D  Can't believe I was the last one to leave a post here -  ;)


Hi!
Thank you for shedding some light on plasmids.  This second book I'm reading, Plague by Wendy Orent is more technical regarding the incredible adjustments that the plague bacterium uses to defeat man's immune system.

Before I'm finished, I'll have to draw a picture for myself.  I like the comparison of a plane coming in under the radar.  No wonder the deaths occur so swiftly!  A person is almost dead before the immune system knows there's an enemy even on the horizon!

Yops, the V antigen, Lipid A.  These plus other things have to go into the picture.  It is fascinating how Y. pestis has so many methods at its disposal for killing other cells.  It really is a professional killing machine.

I was reading the book and that's why I had not replied.

Vladimir Motin says, "Yersinia pestis is the yardstick.  It is the deadliest of all disease agents, the one by which all other germs are measured."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on June 25, 2007, 09:22:22 AM
Paul Theroux-Fong and the Indians
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 25, 2007, 10:28:23 AM
Wodehouse, The Mating Season

Characteristically brilliant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Heather Harrison on June 25, 2007, 11:15:39 AM
Last night, I read "Candide" by Voltaire.  It is quite a hilarious satire, poking fun at the overly optimistic philosophy of Leibniz and at the culture of its time.  The story sends its characters through a ridiculous array of misfortunes, with the naive Candide believing almost to the end that this is the best of all possible worlds.  In April, the University of Utah School of Music is presenting Bernstein's opera on the subject; I will be looking forward to seeing their production.  I'm glad I finally got around to reading it (somehow, I managed to miss out on it in college).

Heather
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 25, 2007, 10:11:11 PM
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on June 25, 2007, 10:39:54 PM
You do mean, Der Tod in Venedig? You should be reading it in German  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 26, 2007, 05:14:32 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 25, 2007, 10:28:23 AM
Wodehouse, The Mating Season

Characteristically brilliant.

Told you so:

QuoteHe concluded by announcing sombrely that the first item on the programme would be a Violin Solo by Miss Eustacia Pulbrook, managing to convey the suggestion that, while he knew as well as we did that Eustacia was going to be about as corny as they come, he advised us to make the most of her, because after that we should have the Kegley-Bassington family at our throats.

Except for knowing that when you've heard one, you've heard them all, I'm not really an authority on violin solos, so cannot state definitely whether La Pulbrook's was or was not a credit to the accomplices who had taught her the use of the instrument. It was loud in spots and less loud in other spots, and it had the quality which I have noticed in all violin solos, of seeming to last much longer than it actually did . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 26, 2007, 05:21:10 AM
Quote from: Steve on June 25, 2007, 10:39:54 PM
You do mean, Der Tod in Venedig? You should be reading it in German  ;D

Ich kann nicht :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on June 26, 2007, 05:28:33 AM
Quote from: Kullervo on June 26, 2007, 05:21:10 AM
Ich kann nicht :(

O, reading German is nothing, writing it is horror.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on June 27, 2007, 02:06:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 26, 2007, 05:14:32 AM
Told you so:
Quoteit had the quality which I have noticed in all violin solos, of seeming to last much longer than it actually did . . . .

;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 27, 2007, 06:29:27 AM
A short bio on Washington as we are going to make Mt. Vernon one of our stops while visiting the east coast:

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HR3E3CARL._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on June 27, 2007, 07:24:12 AM
Quote"...it had the quality which I have noticed in all violin solos, of seeming to last much longer than it actually did...

Must've been one of Reger's.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 27, 2007, 07:27:26 AM
Reger, at King's Deverill? I can scarce believe it!  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mozart on June 27, 2007, 07:42:43 AM
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again


The Tempest
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 27, 2007, 07:43:57 AM
I am still reading this:

(http://www.bibleandscience.com/bible/reviews/images/unearthed.jpg)

It's great, one of the best books about archaeological subjects I have read (and I have read many because that's a very strong hobby interest of mine).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mozart on June 27, 2007, 07:46:33 AM
What's the symbol on the cover of?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 27, 2007, 07:59:58 AM
It's a royal seal from the era of Jeroboam II, king of Israel ca. 788-747 BCE. Why do you ask?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mozart on June 27, 2007, 08:04:05 AM
Quote from: M forever on June 27, 2007, 07:59:58 AM
It's a royal seal from the era of Jeroboam II, king of Israel ca. 788-747 BCE. Why do you ask?
My brother used to have that as his wallpaper, and wanted me to try and do some things with it in photoshop. I never really asked what it was.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 27, 2007, 08:21:37 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 27, 2007, 06:29:27 AM
A short bio on Washington as we are going to make Mt. Vernon one of our stops while visiting the east coast:

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HR3E3CARL._AA240_.jpg)

Bill - excellent book - read that earlier in the year, but can't remember if I posted?  ::)  I need to get back to Mt. Vernon soon - like to see that new museum that has opened there - BTW, not sure 'which' route you are taking through Virginia, but I just returned from the Charlottesville area and left a few comments on the Vacation Advisory Thread (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,1307.0.html) - have a great time - Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 27, 2007, 09:24:51 AM
Great book - very well written on another group of founding fathers I know very little about

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/5113TKZ0K7L._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 27, 2007, 09:37:07 AM
Some mighty tempting reading, I see here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 27, 2007, 10:34:18 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 27, 2007, 09:37:07 AM
Some mighty tempting reading, I see here.

Karl,
The Washington biography is a concise read of only about 270 pages....I am only 30 pages or so in, but am enjoying it and impressed with the detail that still is retained in the text.  Not the mammoth read you get from say Flexner's effort, of which I still need to read 2 volumes of, but one worth taking in IMO based on my start.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on June 30, 2007, 08:01:06 PM
(http://www.timeout.com/img/19639/w199/image.jpg)

A friend gave me this as a surprise ... great bloke, great gift 0:). I've been reading it a little at a time which isn't doing justice to the book. 15 minutes or so a night breaks any narrative momentum and I can never remember the characters in all that Pynchonesque complexity. So now that I'm on a break, I'm going to finish it in one go.

So far, I'm enjoying it: the encyclopaedic scope, a Sue-reading dog, the odd song-and-dance routine, the crazy merging of history and anachronism. I remember a discussion on the old board when it first came out and I think there were some pretty negative reviews (not by GMGers, but published ones). I'm only about 1/5 of the way through, but aside from a couple of iffy moments - and these are only a sentence or so - I think it's great. I do, however, think the analogy to contemporary affairs (terror, paranoia, that kind of thing) is a little heavy-handed, but I'll reserve judgement until I finish the book.

Anyone else read this yet? 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 13, 2007, 06:14:43 PM
Finally getting around to reading this...

(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/MDE20.jpg)

Not only did he change the course of history, but he was a brilliant writer as well. What a remarkable man!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on July 13, 2007, 06:26:19 PM
Treadgold, Warren. A history of the Byzantine state and society. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1997.

I like it well-enough and think it's pretty good, but I am almost graduated with my A.B. in Classics, having been steeped in such page-turners as Andrew Wallace-Hadrill's Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum and Sir Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution.

I'd say, though, for a general-interest reading, that you'd be better off shelling out for Lord Norwich's three-volume set. He tells the story in a more narrative and episodic way. Treadgold (and, for that matter, Ostrogorsky) doesn't fool around with neat stories. Of course, Treadgold is trying to get about 1200 years into about a thousand pages with an eye toward completeness - relative to both state structure and cultural issues.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber on July 13, 2007, 07:14:54 PM
Quote from: Novitiate on June 30, 2007, 08:01:06 PMSo far, I'm enjoying it: the encyclopaedic scope, a Sue-reading dog, the odd song-and-dance routine, the crazy merging of history and anachronism. I remember a discussion on the old board when it first came out and I think there were some pretty negative reviews (not by GMGers, but published ones). I'm only about 1/5 of the way through, but aside from a couple of iffy moments - and these are only a sentence or so - I think it's great. I do, however, think the analogy to contemporary affairs (terror, paranoia, that kind of thing) is a little heavy-handed, but I'll reserve judgement until I finish the book.

Anyone else read this yet? 

i'm reading gravity's rainbow which is supposed to be pynchon's masterpiece. i haven't read anything else by him though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: btpaul674 on July 13, 2007, 09:52:43 PM
(http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/photos/brain.jpg)

An okay read.

As far as this vein of literature,
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41D2BX1A5ZL._AA240_.jpg)


is far superior IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on July 14, 2007, 03:56:12 AM
Quote from: Kullervo on July 13, 2007, 06:14:43 PM
Finally getting around to reading this...

(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/MDE20.jpg)

Not only did he change the course of history, but he was a brilliant writer as well. What a remarkable man!

A great book. He didn't really change the course of history, though. He led the Arabs in their fight against the Turks, but the Ottoman Empire would have crumbled anyway, and the Arabs were screwed afterwards just as much as they had been before.

But still a great story, although a lot of what's in the book is fairly fictional or rather, he "elaborated" a bit...but a great read nevertheless, and the basis for one of the greatest movies ever made.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 14, 2007, 05:13:22 AM
Quote from: btpaul674 on July 13, 2007, 09:52:43 PM
(http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/photos/brain.jpg)

An okay read.

As far as this vein of literature,
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41D2BX1A5ZL._AA240_.jpg)


is far superior IMO.


I really like Anthony Storr's "Music and the Mind" (http://www.amazon.com/Music-Mind-Anthony-Storr/dp/0006861865/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/104-3361165-6743966?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184418745&sr=8-5)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: E d o on July 14, 2007, 05:55:04 AM
Just finished Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach. A great quick read. Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on July 14, 2007, 08:49:07 AM
I just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "The Shadow of the Wind". It's not a book with a very deep content, but the story is magical and it is very well-written and poetic. Highly recommended! I'm going to Barcelona in one week, and it's often nice to read literature associated with the place you're visiting.

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZW20MVENL._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: btpaul674 on July 14, 2007, 09:42:05 AM
Quote from: Kullervo on July 14, 2007, 05:13:22 AM
I really like Anthony Storr's "Music and the Mind" (http://www.amazon.com/Music-Mind-Anthony-Storr/dp/0006861865/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/104-3361165-6743966?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184418745&sr=8-5)

I read that one in high school. Very informative, and I would also recommend the benchmark "Emotion and Meaning in Music" by Leonard B. Meyer.

Storr's book isn't really along the cognitive vein in comparison to the two I mentioned, but worthwhile.

Huron has a new book in the works dealing with emotion and memory centered around the functions of the amygdala. Fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kiddiarni on July 15, 2007, 03:55:55 PM
Yes, There's lot of those "What are you listening to", "Last movie you watched" etc.

I wanted one about literature, so I decided to start it :D

Currently I'm reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  I like it, quite interesting.

So, what are you reading? Or have recently read?

EDIT:

Embarrassing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: caulfield on July 15, 2007, 04:09:21 PM
we have already had that topic :

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.0.html (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.0.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kiddiarni on July 16, 2007, 10:58:59 AM
(http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0006545793.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Yeah, I know, extremely mainstream.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 16, 2007, 11:28:11 AM
Quote from: Kiddiarni on July 16, 2007, 10:58:59 AM
(http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0006545793.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Yeah, I know, extremely mainstream.

Not mainstream, just popular - and with good reason. It's a great book. I recently bought a collection of his short stories but I haven't picked it up yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kiddiarni on July 16, 2007, 11:51:51 AM
Quote from: Kullervo on July 16, 2007, 11:28:11 AM
Not mainstream, just popular - and with good reason. It's a great book. I recently bought a collection of his short stories but I haven't picked it up yet.

One of those mustreads.  Interesting, he did write other things... I always thought he was a one-hit wonder.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 16, 2007, 12:07:02 PM
Reading this to my 7 year old at night:

(http://www.dailycal.org/images/art/Orion%20Pitches.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 16, 2007, 02:04:41 PM
The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West (2006) by Niall Ferguson - 650+ pages of text (not including a LONG intro & ending sections); just getting started (up to the start of WWI) - has received an overall 4* review on Amazon (CLICK on image) w/ several low comments that seem to reflect religious & philosophic differences & opinions - certainly is stimulating, but will be a long read (if I make it!  I'm always reading 4-5 books @ any given time & don't finish all of them) -  :o 8)

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/511DEX86JJL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/War-World-Twentieth-Century-Conflict-Descent/dp/1594201005/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-1787848-1538428?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184622307&sr=8-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 16, 2007, 04:42:13 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 16, 2007, 12:07:02 PM
Reading this to my 7 year old at night:

(http://www.dailycal.org/images/art/Orion%20Pitches.jpg)

Charles Wuorinen make that into an opera, didn't he?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: grandma on July 16, 2007, 05:54:05 PM
Sonic Man,

I did reply to your post but am wondering if you missed it,
1) because you went out of town or
2) because I made an error posting the reply and my post went inside the box where only the quote from you should have been.

In any event, here is that post again.
-----------------------------------------------------

Anne - where are you?    Can't believe I was the last one to leave a post here - 


Hi!
Thank you for shedding some light on plasmids.  This second book I'm reading, Plague by Wendy Orent is more technical regarding the incredible adjustments that the plague bacterium uses to defeat man's immune system.

Before I'm finished, I'll have to draw a picture for myself.  I like the comparison of a plane coming in under the radar.  No wonder the deaths occur so swiftly!  A person is almost dead before the immune system knows there's an enemy even on the horizon!

Yops, the V antigen, Lipid A.  These plus other things have to go into the picture.  It is fascinating how Y. pestis has so many methods at its disposal for killing other cells.  It really is a professional killing machine.

I was reading the book and that's why I had not replied.

Vladimir Motin says, "Yersinia pestis is the yardstick.  It is the deadliest of all disease agents, the one by which all other germs are measured."

I am reading a different book now:

The Great Influenza (The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History) with an afterword on Avian Flu written by John M. Berry author of Rising Tide.

The book begins around 1900 and talks about the fact that medicine had advanced very little in the past 2,000 years.  It talks about Wm. Henry Welch, Simon Flexner, John D. Rockefeller, Oswald T. Avery, Wm. Park and Anna Wessel Williams, Rufus Cole, Paul A. Lewis, Richard Shope.  It devotes the first 150 out of 461 pages to the early development of medicine and the scientific method in the United States.  It also discusses the early competition with France and Germany, the fact that the early US doctors had go to Europe to learn anything useful to medicine as US requirements to be met before attending med school were so lax and pitiful.

From there it begins to talk about the flu and the way it killed so many peoply around the entire world, the fact that it came in waves (first in a milder form), and later in violent form, and the role that our own immune systems played in all this.

Excellent book!  I would encourage everyone to read it.

BTW Anne is grandma while I am helping my daughter and family move to a new job.  When I return home, I will be Anne again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 16, 2007, 06:09:53 PM
Quote from: Kullervo on July 16, 2007, 04:42:13 PM
Charles Wuorinen make that into an opera, didn't he?

Yes, although perhaps it would make a better Tim Burton movie
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 16, 2007, 06:13:03 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on July 16, 2007, 02:04:41 PM
The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West (2006) by Niall Ferguson - 650+ pages of text (not including a LONG intro & ending sections); just getting started (up to the start of WWI) - has received an overall 4* review on Amazon (CLICK on image) w/ several low comments that seem to reflect religious & philosophic differences & opinions - certainly is stimulating, but will be a long read (if I make it!  I'm always reading 4-5 books @ any given time & don't finish all of them) -  :o 8)

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/511DEX86JJL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/War-World-Twentieth-Century-Conflict-Descent/dp/1594201005/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-1787848-1538428?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184622307&sr=8-1)

Another book on my to read list.  Ferguson is brilliant IMO - I think his real talent is combining a deep knowledge of economics with the systems approach of a Braudel and using that to shed new perspectives on seemingly familiar topics. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 16, 2007, 06:23:28 PM
Quote from: grandma on July 16, 2007, 05:54:05 PM
Sonic Man,

I did reply to your post but am wondering if you missed it,
1) because you went out of town or
2) because I made an error posting the reply and my post went inside the box where only the quote from you should have been.


Grandma - please explain yourself - you (or her) have only 6 posts - I'm usually up on responding to posts but can't remember one from you - please 'reference' the post & I'll be glad to review & respond - thanks.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 17, 2007, 07:31:40 AM
I just finished another good WW2 book - Max Hasting's Armageddon.  He does an admiral job of discussing the last year of the war in Europe (from the end of Bagration and Normandy to the fall of Berlin) from both the Eastern and Western sides.   Gives the Russians the credit they deserve for destroying the German army - he convincingly illustrates how the Russians by 1944 had the most effective ground army in the war, contrasted to the politically motivated and timid maneuvers of the Western allies after the breakout from Normandy.  Spotlights little known areas of the West, such as Holland's Hunger Winter and the fighting to clear out the estuaries into Antwerp.  Balances the reality of Russian atrocities in Germany, notably East Prussia with those committed in Russia by the Germans. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on July 17, 2007, 08:16:48 AM
Bernstein-Joan Peyser
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 17, 2007, 08:21:15 AM
Quote from: rockerreds on July 17, 2007, 08:16:48 AM
Bernstein-Joan Peyser

And . . . is it any good?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on July 17, 2007, 12:39:10 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 17, 2007, 08:21:15 AM
And . . . is it any good?
Yes,she really captures the tenor of the times that Bernstein was trying to establish himself in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: grandma on July 17, 2007, 02:08:51 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on July 16, 2007, 06:23:28 PM
Grandma - please explain yourself - you (or her) have only 6 posts - I'm usually up on responding to posts but can't remember one from you - please 'reference' the post & I'll be glad to review & respond - thanks.  :)


Sonic Man,

Anne and grandma are one and the same person.  I am helping my daughter and her family by babysitting (4-yr-old and 14-month-old) while the family relocates from Wilmington, NC to O'Fallon Il.

Before I left home to come to O'Fallon, I should have signed out of gmg but I forgot.  Consequently the only way I am able to post is by becoming a new persona.  The new persona is named "grandma."  I will be using that name until I go home July 28th.  After that date, at home with my own computer, I will again post under the name "Anne."

The reason "grandma" has only 6 posts is because she just came into existence this week while I have been in O'Fallon.

If you look at reply # 324 on June 24, 2007 at 10:42:41 am on this thread you will see that it is the reply I mentioned in my last last post as grandma (on July 17, 2007 11:54:05).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 17, 2007, 02:17:03 PM
Quote from: grandma on July 17, 2007, 02:08:51 PM
Anne and grandma are one and the same person.  I am helping my daughter and her family by babysitting (4-yr-old and 14-month-old) while the family relocates from Wilmington, NC to O'Fallon Il.

......If you look at reply # 324 on June 24, 2007 at 10:42:41 am on this thread you will see that it is the reply I mentioned in my last last post as grandma (on July 17, 2007 11:54:05).

Anne, a.k.a. Grandma, thanks for the explanation - my fault for not reading the other posts closely - looking forward to your return under your 'old name' - good luck in you role as 'babysitter' - I'm sure that it is hectic but enjoyable - Dave  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Tancata on July 17, 2007, 03:01:08 PM
(http://www2.wwnorton.com/cover/006498.jpg)

Collected Steven J Gould - "The Richness of Life"

Reading this because I'm supposed to be reviewing it for a low-grade Dublin paper  :P. Not really digging it that much, to be honest.

Gould seems to have been much more of an institution in the States than 'round these parts. Perhaps that justifies the third of the book dedicated to his homely yarns about baseball and history. Great pieces here and there though. And a nice chunky extract from The Structure of Evolutionary Theory - conveys the impenetrability of the full work admirably  >:D.

Also, annoying introductions to each section by Steven Rose, setting up Gould as someone rather different to who he actually was.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on July 17, 2007, 04:05:12 PM
Currently reading this for the 3rd time. Its nasty and paints the blackest portrait possible but its still entertaining :P

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0553265156.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on July 17, 2007, 06:27:37 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on July 17, 2007, 04:05:12 PM
Currently reading this for the 3rd time. Its nasty and paints the blackest portrait possible but its still entertaining :P

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0553265156.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

According to my calculations, all you need now is the pajamas and you'll have all things Frank.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: grandma on July 17, 2007, 06:34:31 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on July 17, 2007, 02:17:03 PM
Anne, a.k.a. Grandma, thanks for the explanation - my fault for not reading the other posts closely - looking forward to your return under your 'old name' - good luck in you role as 'babysitter' - I'm sure that it is hectic but enjoyable - Dave  :D

Dave,

I am glad we are communicating again.  I do blame myself for not correcting my post earlier.  Any more good books to recommend?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on July 17, 2007, 07:24:10 PM
Quote from: George on July 17, 2007, 06:27:37 PM
According to my calculations, all you need now is the pajamas and you'll have all things Frank.  ;D

;D


Well, I've resisted buying these :P

(http://www.bestcollectables.com/images/barbies/sinatra.JPG)

(http://www.latoys.com/barbie/s26419.jpg)

Just the music and books for me ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on July 18, 2007, 05:35:32 AM

;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 18, 2007, 02:09:50 PM
Starting in on this new comic series from DC:

(http://willeisner.com/spirit/images/cv_spirit1b_cooke_150.jpg)

More about the character here:

http://willeisner.com/spirit/index.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on July 19, 2007, 12:53:58 AM
Almost finishing Stephen Jay Gould's "The structure of the theory of evolution". Perhaps too long but fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: not edward on July 19, 2007, 03:13:54 AM
I started to reread The Good Soldier Švejk yesterday. Extremely childish it may be, but it's scabrously funny and often very much to the point...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on July 19, 2007, 03:46:34 AM
Has anyone read À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 19, 2007, 03:59:18 AM
Quote from: sidoze on July 19, 2007, 03:46:34 AM
Has anyone read À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans?

I've started reading it but never finished. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Tancata on July 19, 2007, 04:01:39 AM
Quote from: val on July 19, 2007, 12:53:58 AM
Almost finishing Stephen Jay Gould's "The structure of the theory of evolution". Perhaps too long but fascinating.

Lol..good luck with that. It's almost like he's trying to be impenetrable with that book... so differently written to his popular science stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LaciDeeLeBlanc on July 19, 2007, 09:48:37 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/5108PHW65RL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Not a light read at all, but totally worth it! I'd reccommend it to anyone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on July 20, 2007, 09:16:10 AM
This book is so-so reading, but as most of you have guessed, I Believe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on July 20, 2007, 09:17:58 AM
Quote from: Tancata on July 19, 2007, 04:01:39 AM
Lol..good luck with that. It's almost like he's trying to be impenetrable with that book... so differently written to his popular science stuff.


That can be a tough (and somewhat dubious) book. But just try Hegel's Philosophy of History!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kiddiarni on July 20, 2007, 09:18:40 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FC974YS4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 20, 2007, 06:50:27 PM
BWV's mention of Haroun and the Sea of Stories prompted me to pick it up from the library. I've read about half of it so far and I love it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on July 20, 2007, 10:49:47 PM
Saint-Exupery's Flight to Arras
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 21, 2007, 06:53:24 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0345322797.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif)

From an Amazon reviewer:
Santoli presents one of the best views of the Vietnam war in his simple approach that says far more than many of the other accounts. It takes a look at 33 people from soldiers to CIA to nurses and tracks their experiences in a memoir form of the war. These are sometimes very short no more than a page and the longest ranges about 10 pages. It is very clearly written and the interviews are top notch. It is one of the few books that shows how horrifying it was to be a non combatant as well as a combatant. The nature of the war is expressed clearer here than most books that focus on a specific battle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on July 21, 2007, 12:16:23 PM
The Devils by Dostoevsky, as translated by David Magarshack.

And yes, it is good.

Also, just finished Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone.

(http://www.mindbird.com/4eaa68aa0.jpg)

A masterpiece, I tell you!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber on July 22, 2007, 12:25:12 AM
finished Gravity's Rainbow... that is one very STRANGE book! I'd read it again & again though, I like the dark humour. Now I'm on to:
(http://www.blackrosebooks.net/histcanb.gif)

I've read part of it before; hopefully I can make it all the way through this time! Mel Watkins (one of a few people who could be called "Canada's Chomsky") wrote the following in the intro: "the Social Science Federation of Canada decides to honour the 20 most outstanding books among the some 2,000 titles that have been subsidized over the 50 years in which this has been done. Two books in Canadian economic history make the list. The first is the monumental Fur Trade in Canada by the great Harold Innis. The second is History of Canadian Business 1867-1914 by R.T. Naylor. Enough said. Read on."

It's also the book that has the following as an epigram:
Quote"Independence is a farce. Canada must belong either to the British system or the American system... If we had to make the choice between independence and annexation, I would rather that we should have annexation and join with the United States at once." -- John A MacDonald, Canada's 1st Prime Minister
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on July 22, 2007, 09:48:39 AM
Quote from: biber fan on July 22, 2007, 12:25:12 AM
finished Gravity's Rainbow... that is one very STRANGE book! I'd read it again & again though, I like the dark humour.

Hey, biber fan, the first time I read Gravity's Rainbow, I didn't get it at all, and thought, huh? Then I read it again without trying to make logical sense of it and enjoyed it a lot more.

To those asinine people who claim that Americans 'don't do irony,' I say, 'two words: Thomas Pynchon' :D.

I'm in a bit of a bind at the moment. I read most of Against the Day on holiday at my dad's and couldn't be bother lugging it back for the last 100 pages or so, but can't seem to find it in any library here :'(. And my memory being what it is, I've already forgotten what's happened in the book so far :-\.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 24, 2007, 07:42:45 AM
BTW Against the Day is on sale at Amazon (US) for $7

Why are Pynchon's books always overprinted?  Mason & Dixon and Vineland were also available in the bargain bin within a year of their publication.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on July 24, 2007, 09:30:11 AM
Tremendous Inspiration for me!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on July 24, 2007, 09:31:55 AM
This week's Economist  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Tancata on July 24, 2007, 09:34:06 AM
Ubik by Philip K. Dick.

(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c319/wachiso/ubik-british.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 24, 2007, 09:52:42 AM
Quote from: Tancata on July 24, 2007, 09:34:06 AM
Ubik by Philip K. Dick.

(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c319/wachiso/ubik-british.jpg)


Loved the little I have read of him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Tancata on July 24, 2007, 09:57:07 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 24, 2007, 09:52:42 AM
Loved the little I have read of him.

Yeah, he was a brilliant writer. He wrote a lot of stuff, some of it less brilliant than the rest, but all of it unique. What ones have you read? A Scanner Darkly, The Man in the High Castle, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are my favourites, but this one is very promising so far. There's also Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, which is built around the music of Dowland and Wagner...very cool, but probably not his greatest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on July 24, 2007, 10:02:04 AM
(http://padovacultura.padovanet.it/homepage-6.0/libro-pievani-thumb.jpg)

Practically, a pamphlet against the new Intelligent Design drift, collusions between the Church and the Italian politics and so on with the music; the author is a philosopher of science/biology who teaches in the College I graduated at.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlered on July 24, 2007, 11:29:43 AM
I've only just started reading this, but I've read one of this author's other books and I enjoyed it.

(http://www.buildersbooksource.com/booksite/images/items/0520230604.jpg)

This one is not so much about the science behind the 1906 quake, but about how the citizens of San Francisco - particularly those with positions of responsibility and power - couldn't get their acts together to deal with the disaster and therefore allowed the situation to become far worse than it would have from just a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. So far, the tone is reminding me a lot of how people discuss how Katrina was dealt with (even though this book was written before Katrina!), and I think there are lots of interesting and important parallels to be seen there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber on July 24, 2007, 12:26:36 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 24, 2007, 07:42:45 AM
BTW Against the Day is on sale at Amazon (US) for $7

Why are Pynchon's books always overprinted?  Mason & Dixon and Vineland were also available in the bargain bin within a year of their publication.

the penguin 20th-century version of gravity's rainbow is said to be the definitive version for some reason, if that means anything.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on July 24, 2007, 01:22:46 PM
Quote from: Haffner on July 24, 2007, 09:30:11 AM
Tremendous Inspiration for me!

One of the most beautiful books I've ever read! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on July 24, 2007, 02:11:22 PM
Quo Vadis

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KH7D2SZNL._AA240_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on July 24, 2007, 02:15:35 PM
Amazing! This is the second time Sienkiewicz has been mentioned in this thread! I am about to faint.......... ;D

(Quo vadis is probably my favorite novel of his, BTW.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mark on July 24, 2007, 02:26:37 PM
This:

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZJ5P41XHL._AA240_.jpg)

I so much prefer to read the letters and diaries of great people, rather than some second-hand, scholarly retelling of their lives.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on July 24, 2007, 02:32:46 PM
Quote from: Maciek on July 24, 2007, 02:15:35 PM
Amazing! This is the second time Sienkiewicz has been mentioned in this thread! I am about to faint.......... ;D

(Quo vadis is probably my favorite novel of his, BTW.)

A Masterpiece of Historical Fiction...  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on July 25, 2007, 01:11:18 AM
I'm in a tizzy over 'The Devils' by Dostoevsky. 

The plot swirls, the characters get more and more intriguing, and it consistenly offers profound and interesting comments/perspectives that keep my reading.

Good Stuff!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on July 25, 2007, 03:02:32 AM
Quote from: Maciek on July 24, 2007, 01:22:46 PM
One of the most beautiful books I've ever read! :)





St. Montfort's Secret of the Rosary is my favorite devotional literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: S709 on July 25, 2007, 08:35:02 AM
I have this annoying habit of starting multiple books at once. So I am currently somewhere in the middle of the following:

Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment. I happen to have a Polish translation, which makes it more difficult to read than in English, but I figured it would be slightly closer to the original than an English version... anyway it is excellent of course.

---

Also:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0375701966.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

There is a Kierkegaard quote just before the text: "... the specific character of despair is precisely this:  it is unaware of being despair. "
I was not certain what this means exactly at first, but the theme of the book seems to revolve around the idea that mundaneness and everyday reality is a quiet desperation, or something like that. I am finding a hard time describing it. There is a short article here (http://www.grandpoohbah.net/Grandpoohbah/BookReviews/moviegoer.htm) that explains it quite well. It is fascinating reading.

---

And finally this book, which I picked up for $1 out of curiosity, has been eating away my time the last few days:

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XF2GMY80L._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Unabomber-Desire-Kill-Robert-Graysmith/dp/0895263971)

... the title is silly and so are a few things in the content (sometimes trying to be novel-like or an annoying writing style) but there is a great deal of interesting, detailed information and primary documents, and the whole thing is strangely absorbing. The references to writings by Thoreau, Jacques Ellul and Joseph Conrad and others are quite interesting too. Of course it isn't great literature but oh well. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: beclemund on July 25, 2007, 09:02:30 AM
About a month or so ago, I read Patrick Rothfuss (http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/content/index.asp)'s novel Name of the Wind. If you enjoy a good fantasy epic, here is one that is just starting off. It is well written and engaging. Though, many may come off feeling that it is a slightly more adult Harry Potter, but you cannot do a wizard school novel without raising that comparison. It is a very different world though, and one I am looking forward to revisiting in subsequent installments.

(http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/images/page/cover2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on July 25, 2007, 01:20:27 PM
This excellent complete libretto of the Ring.

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0500281947.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

I'm gradually working my way through the Ring cycle over the next week or so.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on July 25, 2007, 04:10:18 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on July 25, 2007, 01:20:27 PM
This excellent complete libretto of the Ring.

Does it have pictures from the movie?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 25, 2007, 08:45:13 PM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/d7/60/2936024128a00539f1e27010._AA240_.L.jpg)

More here:

http://www.amazon.com/Zimmermann-Telegram-Barbara-W-Tuchman/dp/0345324250
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 26, 2007, 06:10:47 AM
(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ZJG5MH8CL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

The Areas of My Expertise (http://www.amazon.com/Areas-My-Expertise-John-Hodgman/dp/1594482225/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-5459335-1473603?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185458282&sr=1-1) by John Hodgman (who often appears on The Daily Show; you might also know him as the "PC" in those Apple ads).  This may well be the stupidest book I have ever encountered, and I mean that in a good way  ;D.   Deeply silly but with a surprisingly literate wit, it's a "Compendium of All World Knowledge" which manages to cram more gags per page than you'd think possible. Think of something like Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, modeled on Poor Richard with a post-modern twist.  If you're looking for some extremely light summer reading, it's well worth checking out.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Choo Choo on July 27, 2007, 04:54:45 AM
Quote from: Tancata on July 24, 2007, 09:57:07 AM
Yeah, he was a brilliant writer. He wrote a lot of stuff, some of it less brilliant than the rest, but all of it unique. What ones have you read? A Scanner Darkly, The Man in the High Castle, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are my favourites, but this one is very promising so far. There's also Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, which is built around the music of Dowland and Wagner...very cool, but probably not his greatest.

Another PKD fan here.  Favourite is probably Valis.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 27, 2007, 05:57:21 AM
Quote from: Choo Choo on July 27, 2007, 04:54:45 AM
Another PKD fan here.  Favourite is probably Valis.

Same here, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, Radio Free Albemuth and A Scanner Darkly are probably my favorites.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on July 27, 2007, 06:00:37 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 27, 2007, 05:57:21 AM
Same here, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, Radio Free Albemuth and A Scanner Darkly are probably my favorites.

How is this movie?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 27, 2007, 06:03:13 AM
Reading this again, and it's even better with each revisitation:

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wfVdvfflL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

It's a sorry reflection on the state of things, to see how the Shostakovich Wars play out in amazon.com "reviews" of this book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 27, 2007, 06:09:15 AM
Quote from: George on July 27, 2007, 06:00:37 AM
How is this movie?

It was good.  The most faithful PKD adaptation yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on July 27, 2007, 06:14:07 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 27, 2007, 06:09:15 AM
It was good.  The most faithful PKD adaptation yet.

Thanks. I have been considering it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on July 27, 2007, 06:44:44 AM
Theodore Dreiser-Jennie Gerhardt

Great stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Tancata on July 27, 2007, 08:03:00 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 27, 2007, 06:09:15 AM
It was good.  The most faithful PKD adaptation yet.

Yeah, it was quite good and followed the book very closely. A bit too closely, I thought, since a lot of the really trippy stuff in the book didn't (IMO) transfer very well to the screen given the literalist adaptation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on July 29, 2007, 08:23:51 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 27, 2007, 06:03:13 AM
Reading this again, and it's even better with each revisitation:

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wfVdvfflL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

It's a sorry reflection on the state of things, to see how the Shostakovich Wars play out in amazon.com "reviews" of this book.

I haven't read the book, but it appears to me that the criticism that she only used "official" sources is somewhat valid (if that is what she indeed does in the book), especially given the "realistic" nature of these during Soviet times. There may be a need for something like that after all the controversy around "Testimony" though. How would you reply to those negative reviews?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on July 29, 2007, 09:22:21 PM
I'm nearly through with Quo Vadis. Next up is a reread of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GS6ACR98L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on July 30, 2007, 12:56:55 AM
Almost done with 'The Devils' by Fyodor; up next a re-read of "The Idiot" (that's if I don't burn out of Dostoevsky again).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on July 30, 2007, 03:28:41 AM
I have just read the life of Lucrezia Borgia. I don't know whether or not to be disappointed that she never killed anybody. There were some interesting references to Renaissance music and musicians though. What do we know of the musical entractes written as stage entertainment? The most moving part of the book was the letter to the Pope that Lucrezia dictated on her deathbed. Do you think we should all write to his Holiness?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on July 30, 2007, 05:34:35 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YNHE07NHL._AA240_.jpg)
Took this as a summer vacation reading. Turned out to be a pretty good book. The characters are very lifelike, and Ms Nemirovsky's unsentimental writing despite what she probably went through during the same period is extraordinary. Recommended! (Altough it is incomplete of course)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on July 30, 2007, 06:22:09 AM
The score to Louis Andriessen's Workers' Union (from Donemus), which a friend lent me over the weekend.  Fascinating to see the instructions Andriessen gives, to create the results he wants.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on July 30, 2007, 07:36:59 AM
Quote from: George on July 27, 2007, 06:00:37 AM
How is this movie?
I thought it was horrible, can't even remember if I finished it.  But I've never read the book so it might still be a good adaptation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 30, 2007, 08:56:36 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P-wF-1RvL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Years-War-Trial-Middle/dp/0812218019)

A weighty tome, hope I have the endurance to finish it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 30, 2007, 09:05:03 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 30, 2007, 08:56:36 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P-wF-1RvL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Years-War-Trial-Middle/dp/0812218019)

A weighty tome, hope I have the endurance to finish it.

I read the first one - thought it was excellent.  How many volumes will this eventually take him?  Vol 1 came out in 1991, 2 came out in 1999 and supposedly 3 is due this year

Sumption is apparantly a prominent attorney in the UK, not a professor:

http://www.brickcourt.co.uk/members.asp?bar_id=9 (http://www.brickcourt.co.uk/members.asp?bar_id=9)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 30, 2007, 09:47:07 AM
I skipped the first one (I'll definitely get it if vol. 2 is a good read) - I ended up with vol. 2 as I found it second-hand in mint condition for £4 in a charity shop - I love charity shops :D The graphic design on the covers is very clean and good - rare for a history book - it's what made me notice it on the shelf.

I have concerns over how tolerable 3 large volumes might be - my previous biggest read was The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II by Fernand Braudel - and that at least had the benefit of having a wider scope...

Edit: No doubt an abridged version will appear once all the volumes are published - but abridged books are for sissies :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 30, 2007, 11:14:37 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 30, 2007, 09:47:07 AM


I have concerns over how tolerable 3 large volumes might be - my previous biggest read was The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II by Fernand Braudel - and that at least had the benefit of having a wider scope...


You read the full three volumes?  Being I merely read the abridged version of that one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 30, 2007, 12:13:11 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 30, 2007, 11:14:37 AM
You read the full three volumes?  Being I merely read the abridged version of that one.

Yep, at seperate times. God bless libraries for holding unusual things like that :P I don't think that I took much of it in, though, it became a chore after a while and I skipped a few parts - I think I was trying to prove to myself that I could do it. I should probably go back to it, it'll be easier now I'm a bit older. I own the abridged version too (another cheapo charity shop thing) and wouldn't be without it due to tons of extra photos and nicer paper.

Edit: This is making me want to read both of them now (Hundred Years War and Mediterranean, that is, not both the Mediterranean versions - *shudder*) :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on July 31, 2007, 12:57:51 PM
going to reread Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman. Looking forward to this as when I read it for the first time 5 or 6 years ago I thought it the funniest book I'd ever read (and still do). Will be interested if I'm as positive about it now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on July 31, 2007, 01:03:36 PM
Quote from: sidoze on July 31, 2007, 12:57:51 PM
I thought it the funniest book I'd ever read (and still do).

That would be Without Feathers and Getting Even for me.

Woody's new book came out, but still in hardcover. I have a thing against hardcovers unless they are really thick books. I'll have to wait for the paperback I guess.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on July 31, 2007, 01:46:56 PM
(http://www.biography-clarebooks.co.uk/usrimage/cat871.jpg)

This is an early biography of Sinatra by a former aide. Wilson was in Sinatras inner circle for 20+ years then found himself suddenly barred from his concerts and life...he never found out why...

Its a light read with a slightly different take on all the familiar stories. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steve on July 31, 2007, 01:50:05 PM
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

For perhaps the 10th time...  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on July 31, 2007, 01:52:30 PM
You chaps have still time reading other than the newspaper?
I am amazed!
Music listening leaves me no time for that, apart from the complete works of Charles Dickens, but that's only natural right?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on July 31, 2007, 01:59:52 PM
Quote from: bhodges on July 30, 2007, 06:22:09 AM
The score to Louis Andriessen's Workers' Union (from Donemus), which a friend lent me over the weekend.  Fascinating to see the instructions Andriessen gives, to create the results he wants.

--Bruce

Bruce, stop ruining this perfectly decent DINER thread! People are trying to relax... :P ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on July 31, 2007, 02:05:40 PM
Quote from: Maciek on July 31, 2007, 01:59:52 PM
Bruce, stop ruining this perfectly decent DINER thread! People are trying to relax... :P ;)

;D

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on August 01, 2007, 05:40:43 AM
Quote from: orbital on July 31, 2007, 01:03:36 PM
That would be Without Feathers and Getting Even for me.

Woody's new book came out, but still in hardcover. I have a thing against hardcovers unless they are really thick books. I'll have to wait for the paperback I guess.

Or check the Strand?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 01, 2007, 06:02:33 AM
Quote from: George on August 01, 2007, 05:40:43 AM
Or check the Strand?

Or he could do the Strand.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 01, 2007, 08:53:51 AM
Quote from: George on August 01, 2007, 05:40:43 AM
Or check the Strand?
yes perhaps, but it is not the price that puts me off. The book seems to be thin, probably 200-250pp. I find hardcovers uncomfortable to read mostly. When the book is 700+pp the paperback versions may have the tendency to disintegrate (particularly with books from Vintage I've found out), so I opt for hardcovers there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on August 01, 2007, 04:32:59 PM
Quote from: orbital on August 01, 2007, 08:53:51 AM
yes perhaps, but it is not the price that puts me off. The book seems to be thin, probably 200-250pp. I find hardcovers uncomfortable to read mostly. When the book is 700+pp the paperback versions may have the tendency to disintegrate (particularly with books from Vintage I've found out), so I opt for hardcovers there.

Gotcha!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jfmac on August 01, 2007, 05:05:45 PM
Just finished the last Harry Potter book and John Sanfords  "Invisible Prey"

Yes, they were both good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 01, 2007, 05:31:08 PM
Just picked up Taras Bulba today. If it's anything like the other Gogol I've read, it'll be a quick read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on August 01, 2007, 11:52:19 PM
Quote from: Kullervo on August 01, 2007, 05:31:08 PM
Just picked up Taras Bulba today. If it's anything like the other Gogol I've read, it'll be a quick read.

A masterpiece; I love the intro when he wrestles his oldest son.  Really sets the pace for the rest of the story.

Right now am reading "The Idiot" by Fedya.  "The Devils" convinced me to give the other a re-read. 

I think I've read very few books that were at perceptive, profound, and illuminating as "The Devils."  The Stavrogins, Verkhonevskys, Shatov, and Kirilov are, perhaps, the most intriguing and thought-provoking group of characters I've come across. 

You might even say that the book predicted all of the turmoil that would later happen "from May to October."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on August 02, 2007, 05:53:49 AM
Quote from: Maciek on July 31, 2007, 01:59:52 PM
Bruce, stop ruining this perfectly decent DINER thread! People are trying to relax... :P ;)

Yeah, relaxation is all we can do in this stifling heat.

Currently poring over this classic:


(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/514DYP1NC7L._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: not edward on August 04, 2007, 10:53:40 AM
A fine book that includes Berlioz's severed head and a cameo from Dr. Stravinsky. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LaciDeeLeBlanc on August 04, 2007, 11:11:13 AM
Arnold Jacobs the Legacy of a Master the Personal and Pedagogical Recollections of 31 of His Colleagues Students and Friends

Collected by M. Dee Stewart

Every serious brass player should read this book.  Truly, if you want an insight to the world of brass playing, read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on August 04, 2007, 08:15:03 PM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0500281947.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on August 05, 2007, 10:49:43 AM
Part II of "The Idiot" by Fedya.  So far, a much more enjoyable and exciting re-read, even if I think it lacks the vitality and intellectual power of "The Devils."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on August 06, 2007, 12:23:26 PM
Picked this up when I was at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, AR, recently, and just started reading it:

(http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/clinton/images/tradecvr.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on August 06, 2007, 12:54:44 PM
about to finish The Third Policeman--not quite so funny after 5 years, which of course is more my fault than his--plan to read the complete works of Isaac Babel again, one of the most engaging and I'd say natural storytellers I've read. He's slowly, ever so slowly getting some recognition in the west. 1000 pages here I go.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on August 07, 2007, 05:28:17 AM
J.K. Rowling.

Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kiddiarni on August 07, 2007, 12:34:09 PM
Just finished(http://images.play.com/covers/3316672m.jpg).

First audio book ever, and Stephen Fry is totally awesome.

Just started (http://www.cccti.edu/LRC/Resources/Pathfinders/Kite%20Runner_files/images/kite%20runner.jpg) and am more than halfway through.  Great book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 07, 2007, 02:41:52 PM
Quote from: Kiddiarni on August 07, 2007, 12:34:09 PM

Just started (http://www.cccti.edu/LRC/Resources/Pathfinders/Kite%20Runner_files/images/kite%20runner.jpg) and am more than halfway through.  Great book.
Quote from: Kiddiarni on August 07, 2007, 12:34:09 PM


Good book, but I found the plot a bit "contrived" at points....still good.  I heard his new one out is even better.  Where are you at in it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kiddiarni on August 08, 2007, 10:56:58 AM
Finished on the bus from work today.  ;D

And am starting this one tomorrow.

(http://www.harperacademic.com/coverimages/large/0060977493.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 08, 2007, 12:31:06 PM
Finished Taras Bulba and absolutely loved it! Now onto:

(http://www.anus.com/zine/books/johann_wolfgang_von_goethe-the_sorrows_of_young_werther.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sunnyside_up on August 09, 2007, 01:16:24 AM
Quote from: Kiddiarni on August 08, 2007, 10:56:58 AM


(http://www.harperacademic.com/coverimages/large/0060977493.jpg)

I'm just near the end of it.  So beautifully written, I'm loving it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on August 10, 2007, 02:54:20 PM
Quote from: Kiddiarni on August 07, 2007, 12:34:09 PM
Just finished(http://images.play.com/covers/3316672m.jpg).

First audio book ever, and Stephen Fry is totally awesome.

A great actor indeed. So, is he reading the whole novel? I wanted to get into the audio book thing a little myself, since I sometimes drive long distances for work, and I don't really enjoy listening to music too much in the car, so having someone read me stories while I am driving seems like an attractive and relaxing idea, or maybe even listening to them on the plane, since I sometimes don't find the concentration to focus on reading a book while flying, but I guess if I had an audio book on a portable player, that might be much easier to relax with.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on August 10, 2007, 03:47:40 PM
Euripides' Bacchae
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 10, 2007, 04:51:10 PM
Just finished up the new Potter book....very well done.  Now I am at that wonderful point of being able to choose my next book.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on August 10, 2007, 05:02:50 PM
Yes... I remember reading Harry Potter when I was eight years old...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 10, 2007, 05:25:33 PM
Quote from: Papageno on August 10, 2007, 05:02:50 PM
Yes... I remember reading Harry Potter when I was eight years old...

So, are you implying that childrens' literature is not worth the adult eye?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on August 10, 2007, 05:27:48 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 10, 2007, 05:25:33 PM
So, are you implying that childrens' literature is not worth the adult eye?

Well, I'd say the adult eye is not woth childrens' literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 10, 2007, 05:36:20 PM
Quote from: Papageno on August 10, 2007, 05:27:48 PM
Well, I'd say the adult eye is not woth childrens' literature.

So, you would disregard Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien's The Hobbit, all of Roald Dahl's books,.....etc, due to the fact that you are an adult?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on August 10, 2007, 05:39:09 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 10, 2007, 05:36:20 PM
So, you would disregard Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien's The Hobbit, all of Roald Dahl's books,.....etc, due to the fact that you are an adult?

I can't say I know any of those titles, apart from The Hobbit, which I abandoned half-way through because it was too flat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 10, 2007, 05:57:53 PM
Quote from: Papageno on August 10, 2007, 05:39:09 PM
I can't say I know any of those titles, apart from The Hobbit, which I abandoned half-way through because it was too flat.

That is unfortunate, at least IMHO....I believe that childrens' literature has much to offer, at any age.  Like all genres, there is good and bad in my opinion, but one should not throw out the good with the "bathwater", if you will.  Now, if you will excuse me, I am off to play a game of table hockey with my son.  ;) :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on August 10, 2007, 06:06:51 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 10, 2007, 05:57:53 PM
That is unfortunate, at least IMHO....I believe that childrens' literature has much to offer, at any age.  Like all genres, there is good and bad in my opinion, but one should not throw out the good with the "bathwater", if you will.  Now, if you will excuse me, I am off to play a game of table hockey with my son.  ;) :)

Of course there are exceptions, like Wilde's The Happy Prince
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 11, 2007, 07:45:32 AM
Various articles from the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. They have archived their past journals and I am reading various contributins to help determine if I would like to purchase a subscribtion.  I am not a big fan of reading on-line articles and would prefer to have copies in a bound format.

http://www.historycooperative.org/jalaindex.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 11, 2007, 09:52:02 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E93C2K3EL._AA240_.jpg)

Chris,
The forward by Sinatra is only a few pages, but well worth your read.

Mine is an older edition, but I am sure that it will do just fine for my purposes.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Bands-George-Thomas-Simon/dp/0028724305
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kiddiarni on August 11, 2007, 11:48:55 AM
Quote from: M forever on August 10, 2007, 02:54:20 PM
A great actor indeed. So, is he reading the whole novel? I wanted to get into the audio book thing a little myself, since I sometimes drive long distances for work, and I don't really enjoy listening to music too much in the car, so having someone read me stories while I am driving seems like an attractive and relaxing idea, or maybe even listening to them on the plane, since I sometimes don't find the concentration to focus on reading a book while flying, but I guess if I had an audio book on a portable player, that might be much easier to relax with.

Yes, reading it all, chapter for chapter, and he does it really well I think.

Check it out, it shouldn't disappoint you ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 11, 2007, 12:05:08 PM
Quote from: Kiddiarni on August 11, 2007, 11:48:55 AM
Yes, reading it all, chapter for chapter, and he does it really well I think.

Check it out, it shouldn't disappoint you ;)

I have the fourth book on audio...excellent perfomance.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: not edward on August 11, 2007, 06:34:21 PM
Just finished rereading Bulgakov's The White Guard in the Glenny translation. I'd forgotten what a powerful book this is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 12, 2007, 07:58:40 AM
Just started this:

(http://www.randomhouse.com/images/dyn/cover/?source=9780375759079&height=300&maxwidth=170)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Peregrine on August 12, 2007, 12:52:45 PM
Foucault

(http://www.psypress.com/images/book-img/weblarge/9780415253857.jpg)

First chapter was a bit of a head-fuck, but getting a little easier to assimilate the argument now...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on August 12, 2007, 07:27:59 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 11, 2007, 09:52:02 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E93C2K3EL._AA240_.jpg)

Chris,
The forward by Sinatra is only a few pages, but well worth your read.

Mine is an older edition, but I am sure that it will do just fine for my purposes.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Bands-George-Thomas-Simon/dp/0028724305

Thanks for bringing that to my attention Bill.

I'm aware of the book but haven't read it yet  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 12, 2007, 09:13:06 PM
Quote from: Peregrine on August 12, 2007, 12:52:45 PM
Foucault

(http://www.psypress.com/images/book-img/weblarge/9780415253857.jpg)

First chapter was a bit of a head-fuck, but getting a little easier to assimilate the argument now...

I once attempted his Power. Perhaps that was the wrong one to start with but I'm not really sure I care enough to try another.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on August 13, 2007, 04:21:58 AM
Quote from: Kullervo on August 12, 2007, 09:13:06 PM
I once attempted his Power. Perhaps that was the wrong one to start with but I'm not really sure I care enough to try another.

Foucault's great fun. He can be wacky and you might not always agree with him, but he's never boring :).

Try History of Sexuality, the first volume. It's short and more accessible than his other more overtly 'philosophical' works. Discipline and Punish is cool too, but longer. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 13, 2007, 11:03:26 AM
Louis Armstrong's New Orleans (2006) by Thomas Brothers- just starting this one today - looks like more of a 'musical history' of early 20th century New Orleans; some great synopsis reviews on the back cover - in paperback - looking forward to the read -  :)

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZNjyymHCL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on August 13, 2007, 01:50:09 PM
Quote from: Novitiate on August 13, 2007, 04:21:58 AM
Foucault's great fun. He can be wacky and you might not always agree with him, but he's never boring :).

The only problem is that he very often makes up the historical "data" he uses. Or even worse - makes up new stuff, simultaneously disregarding what is actually available. But he is sometimes very enjoyable, perhaps even more so if you treat his books as fiction. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on August 13, 2007, 02:08:56 PM
Quote from: Maciek on August 13, 2007, 01:50:09 PM
The only problem is that he very often makes up the historical "data" he uses. Or even worse - makes up new stuff, simultaneously disregarding what is actually available. But he is sometimes very enjoyable, perhaps even more so if you treat his books as fiction. ;)

Lol, I'm not a historian so it doesn't bother me :P. His 'histories' are a rollicking good read so who cares about methodology? Roll on a new historiographical paradigm!

(just joking, historians :)).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: quintett op.57 on August 13, 2007, 02:38:04 PM
(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/5157WF40EML._AA240_.jpg)Very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahlertitan on August 13, 2007, 04:57:10 PM
This interesting article on Jstor:

"Anton Bruckner in the Third Reich and after: An Essay on Ideology and Bruckner
Reception"

if you wish to read it, download it here (http://xuwubao.googlepages.com/BrucknerandNationalSocialism.pdf)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Choo Choo on August 18, 2007, 04:35:55 AM
At present I am about halfway through this (and very much enjoying it) :

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41CqJMd-i1L._AA240_.jpg)

It's the sequel to Brightness Falls - one of my favourite modern novels - which seemed to me so nearly perfect that I used to buy copies of it to give to people whether they wanted them or not.

The Good Life catches up with the same group of characters 10 years later - which is 10 years on from the market-driven hedonism that formed the background to the earlier book - and to be precise, it catches up with them in downtown NYC on the evening of the 10th September 2001.  One of them has an appointment for a breakfast meeting the following morning in the Windows On The World restaurant in the WTC.

What I love about McInerney's writing is the intelligence behind the apparent simplicity.  Like all his work, it's very easy to read, yet precise and sensitive, without tipping over into sentimentality.  The author's voice remains neutral, even in the ruthlessness with which some frankly disagreeable characters are depicted.  He focusses power through accuracy of expression rather than dissipating it through overwriting.

Here's a short excerpt, which just happens to be a bit that I was reading last night.  It's two weeks later - during which time one of the characters has been helping at a volunteer station near Ground Zero - late in the night before the markets and businesses are to open again for the first time the following morning:

Quote     They sat in silence as the darkness began to seep away, watching as the silhouettes of office buildings emerged against the dingy backdrop of the predawn sky.  Corinne registered a moment of perfect stillness, a silent pause marking the transition from night to day, which was punctuated by the distant, rising growl of diesel engines and the percussion of steel on steel, the relentless work resuming.
      This morning would carry a different sound, a distant rumbling undergound from the subway tunnels on either side of the park, followed by the faint, swelling tattoo of leather soles and heels on concrete stairs as the first wave of office workers surged up and spilled out on Broadway.  Men and women with briefcases, backpacks, and portfolios, early risers come to restart the great wounded machine of Wall Street.  Receptionists and hedge-fund managers, retail brokers and risk and liability managers, systems analysts and janitors.  And suddenly the spell would be broken, the sense that nothing existed outside this sacred, ravaged place.
      "I can't imagine going into the office today," Luke said, "or tomorrow or the next day.  But then again, I can't imagine what I should be doing.  What are we supposed to do now?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on August 18, 2007, 07:17:34 AM
I picked this (http://www.worldwithoutus.com/) up last night.

And a Tony Hillerman mystery.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on August 18, 2007, 07:29:13 AM
Quote from: dtwilbanks on August 18, 2007, 07:17:34 AM
I picked this (http://www.worldwithoutus.com/) up last night.



Looks very cool, Dave!

Love that first slide show of NYC.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 18, 2007, 07:34:50 AM
(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/ngmg/Laos.jpg)

This is the story of the last major American offensive operation of the war, Dewey Canyon II, which supported a spoiling attack into Laos by several divisions of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). It was both fascinating and deeply disturbing to read about battles I was part of. It brought back bad memories of the draftee army and all the problems we had with race relations and drugs, low morale, the incomprehension and hatred between the draftees and the "lifers" (the career NCOs and officers). It also reminded me that once we left our bases and were committed to battle, most of those problems evaporated and we got the job done.

Our mission was to reopen the road to Khe Sahn and beyond to the Laotian border, and keep it open while the ARVN attacked and destroyed the major supply depots in "neutral" Laos. At the time the press claimed we'd been defeated. Well, we grunts knew differently although most of us believed our allies had had their asses kicked in Laos. The book shows that was a false perception. In fact, the operation did exactly what it was intended to do: we kept the road open despite being surrounded and attacked incessantly, and ARVN destroyed the depots. The North Vietnamese lost half the forces they had in Laos, nearly 20,000 killed (as opposed to 2100 ARVN and some 250 Americans). The operation prevented North Vietnam from invading that year.

The ARVN troops had, by and large, fought extremely well even though some of their generals were incompetent. They were confident enough to repulse the invasion when it did come the following year (after most of the American troops were gone) and fought on bravely and successfully, and alone, for the next two years.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on August 18, 2007, 07:35:04 AM
Quote from: George on August 18, 2007, 07:29:13 AM
Looks very cool, Dave!

Love that first slide show of NYC.   

I can't imagine a world without us, George, but I guess anything's possible.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 18, 2007, 08:13:16 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/419DNWKRDCL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on August 20, 2007, 02:29:54 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n1808.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on August 20, 2007, 02:59:41 AM
Quote from: Danny on August 20, 2007, 02:29:54 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n1808.jpg)

Oh yeah, I love Graham Greene, Catholic angst and all ;D.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on August 20, 2007, 06:07:10 AM
Sarge, nice to see you back! :D And thanks for the review - very interesting read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 20, 2007, 08:41:58 AM
Quote from: Corey on August 18, 2007, 08:13:16 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/419DNWKRDCL._SS500_.jpg)

Why give any creedence to the writings of a Nazi?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 20, 2007, 08:47:45 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 20, 2007, 08:41:58 AM
Why give any creedence to the writings of a Nazi?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml)

I know he supported the Nazis. Is reading him necessarily an endorsement of his theories? I am only curious.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on August 20, 2007, 09:49:12 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 20, 2007, 08:41:58 AM
Why give any creedence to the writings of a Nazi?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml)

Why not? Charles Lindbergh, for instance, is still seen as a national hero here, the local airport is named after him, and he was very sympathetic to ideas associated with the NS ideology. Or take Henry Ford, he even recieved a medal from Hitler and continued to make money from his factory shares in Germany even when the US was already at war with them. Or people like Washington and Jefferson, all slave holders, they are even on the money, among many other things.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on August 20, 2007, 10:12:39 AM
Quote from: Corey on August 18, 2007, 08:13:16 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/419DNWKRDCL._SS500_.jpg)
How is that?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 20, 2007, 10:54:39 AM
Quote from: Corey on August 20, 2007, 08:47:45 AM
I know he supported the Nazis. Is reading him necessarily an endorsement of his theories? I am only curious.

ITSM the standard should be higher for someone who held himself out as a philosopher and moral thinker.  I have no regard for George Bernard Shaw (an avid supporter of Stalin) for the same reason. 
If one cannot get something as basic as Hitler or Stalin right, what good is anything else in that person's worldview?
No one in the US admires Lindbergh for his mind or political thinking.

Washington and Jefferson both were born into a slave-holding society and had serious problems with the institution (albeit Jefferson was more or less a hypocrite whose personal conduct came nowhere near the principles he espoused).  Hamilton, as the most ardent abolitionist of the US founding fathers deserves a better place in history than he got.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 20, 2007, 11:06:06 AM
W.B. Yeats was a supporter of ethnic cleansing and eugenics later in life. His world view was essential to his poetry. Does this completely invalidate the artistic merit of his poetry? I don't think so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on August 22, 2007, 04:16:55 AM
ESTEBAN BUCH:  Le Cas Schönberg.

The first part is a review of the critics that Schönberg received during his life. Not very interesting since I already knew most of them. I hope it gets better when we enter in the analysis of the works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 22, 2007, 07:19:30 PM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51f2xhsXaHL._AA240_.jpg)

Enjoying this one much more than Kite Runner....less contrived feeling and a nice pace about it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 22, 2007, 09:54:24 PM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KNDCF6EDL._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on August 24, 2007, 11:12:07 AM
(http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~rastogi/blog/jottings/uploaded_images/end_affair-762005.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on August 24, 2007, 01:33:31 PM
Quote from: Corey on August 20, 2007, 08:47:45 AM
Is reading him [Heidegger] necessarily an endorsement of his theories?

I think no is the answer, for the simple reason that reading Heidegger is not possible by definition  :D

But since we're in topic, I'm reading some Primo Levi: "If this is a man?" and "The truce". I've read these at least 20 times, but they never stop to challenge me.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on August 25, 2007, 03:13:27 AM
Quote from: Scriptavolant on August 24, 2007, 01:33:31 PM
I think no is the answer, for the simple reason that reading Heidegger is not possible by definition  :D










Only Hegel could be more difficult than Heidegger. But at least I feel as though I get something out of Hegel; Heidegger (like Sartre) mostly reads like warmed over Nietzsche and Kierkegaard.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on August 25, 2007, 06:56:34 AM
Theodore Dreiser-Twelve Men
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on August 25, 2007, 07:07:24 AM
Jose Saramago - Blindness (1995).
I'm only halfway through, but totally caught up in this scary and very pessimistic novel.
A filmed adaptation is in the works, with Julianne Moore and Gael Garcia Bernal. To be released next year. Obviously it won't give any approximation of Saramago's very special writing style...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on August 25, 2007, 07:35:55 AM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on August 25, 2007, 07:07:24 AM
Jose Saramago - Blindness (1995).
I'm only halfway through, but totally caught up in this scary and very pessimistic novel.
A filmed adaptation is in the works, with Julianne Moore and Gabriel Garcia Bernal. To be released next year. Obviously it won't give any approximation of Saramago's very special writing style...

Yes, it's good isn't it? There's a sequel to it, Seeing, published a couple of years ago, but I haven't read that yet. I wonder how the allegorical nature of the novel translates onto the screen. In any case, Gabriel Garca Bernal's always nice to look at.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on August 25, 2007, 07:38:01 AM
Emmett Fox, The Sermon on the Mount -- for about the tenth time.  Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jfmac on August 25, 2007, 10:31:08 AM
The Bourne Identity.   No.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on August 26, 2007, 06:49:26 AM
Even more inspiring than I expected!


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on August 28, 2007, 06:56:29 AM
Theodore Dreiser-An American Tragedy
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on August 28, 2007, 10:33:20 AM
The Cobra Event by Richard Preston (author of The Hot Zone.  I started it last night and it kept me awake until 2:00 am.  It concerns the CDC and biological warfare.  Preston does not "dumb down" the subject.  The book even has a glossary.  You will likely learn a few new vocabulary words but not excessively so.  His writing style is gripping from the first paragraph.

Preston's brother is an Md; I wouldn't be surprised if brother helped here and there on medical subjects.

If you haven't tried this author, give him a chance.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber on August 28, 2007, 05:50:07 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 20, 2007, 08:41:58 AM
Why give any creedence to the writings of a Nazi?

I don't see what the problem is. Should all books written by Nazis be burned then? That's what the Nazis themselves did with stuff they disagreed with. I've had Mein Kampf on my list ever since I read a couple excerpts with the word 'communist' in place of the word 'jew' & noticed an uncanny resemblance to US anti-communist propaganda. (it was a book about US foreign policy since WW2) Just because I'd read Mein Kampf doesn't mean I'd buy into any of Hitler's political "philosophies." There's no conection at all between those things.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 29, 2007, 05:14:10 PM
The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty by Wilfrid Sheed - new book on the famous early 20th century American 'Tin Pan Alley' composers - CLICK on the image for comments - not too long & wonderful writing w/ great incite & humor - if you like this music, then this book is a MUST reading - enjoy!  :D

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G0%2BKOLdCL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/House-That-George-Built-Little/dp/1400061059/ref=sr_1_5/104-7706008-6444722?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188435196&sr=1-5)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on August 30, 2007, 12:27:29 PM
(http://www.psychopsychic.com/images/Wise%20Blood.jpg)

A good, sparse read so far.  Am wondering how the man who wants to create "a church without Christ" turns out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on August 31, 2007, 12:55:58 AM
Borowski's concentration camp stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on August 31, 2007, 05:20:30 AM
(http://www.temp.sfbok.se/kat/img/43221.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: маразм1 on August 31, 2007, 07:25:57 AM
I just read Sergei Dovlatov's collection of stories and short novels (Suitcase, the Compromise, A foreign Woman, etc)
Very interesting author, very cool stuff.  Its great that I could relate to what he described. 

With me, a good reading is whenever you read something, and the text invokes forgotten emotions in you.  I don't even know how to phrase it properly, but the whole reading was like a trip somewhere else, to the past, to the culture that I was lucky enough to witness when I was little...

Very interesting author who got his fame after he immigrated to the States.  I dont even read that much, or hardly ever.  I got this book for my b-day and just started reading it and couldnt stop!

d
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 31, 2007, 08:32:02 AM
Quote from: marazm1 on August 31, 2007, 07:25:57 AM
With me, a good reading is whenever you read something, and the text invokes forgotten emotions in you.  I don't even know how to phrase it properly, but the whole reading was like a trip somewhere else
d

I get that feeling from my favorite authors — Proust, Hesse, Gogol... with every sentence I read I feel that I'm closer to a kind of truth that I know but can't express in words.

I will look up Dovlatov, thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on August 31, 2007, 09:08:36 AM
Quote from: sidoze on August 31, 2007, 12:55:58 AM
Borowski's concentration camp stories.

How do you find them?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on August 31, 2007, 12:12:07 PM
Quote from: Maciek on August 31, 2007, 09:08:36 AM
How do you find them?

I was reading them on the train up and down to Cambridge and during lunch hours so I haven't finished and hope to complete the short collection this weekend. So far, very powerful, I suppose due to the straightforward and matter-of-fact style. The World of Stone is the one that pleased me the most so far. This sweet, affectionate vignette of a man teetering on the edge of post-war life seemed, in spite of its gentle tone, more overwhelming than the descriptions of actual life within the camps. It's beautiful.

Reading about how he gassed himself as his wife recovered from giving birth in hospital left me feeling pretty bitter though (especially after reading of their love and the whole Tristan and Isolde thing). I read that there are several conflicting and unclear reasons for his suicide. I don't wish to judge a man who wants to go; it's a personal thing and not a matter for debate. But I think if you're going to do it you should have a clean sheet and not be riddled with human debt like that. I was going to write that something like this belongs in one of the lower circles of hell. Then, upon checking, I found that it actually does belong to the ninth circle. That's memory & instinct for you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on August 31, 2007, 01:46:50 PM
His suicide was a terrible shock for many people here. He was a sort of symbol of his whole generation, and in a way they considered it... a sort of treason on his part.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on September 01, 2007, 04:34:33 PM
Quote from: Danny on August 30, 2007, 12:27:29 PM
[Flannery O'Conner's Wise Blood]
A good, sparse read so far.  Am wondering how the man who wants to create "a church without Christ" turns out.
Try her short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Hollywood on September 01, 2007, 11:38:46 PM
(http://wzus.ask.com/r?t=a&d=us&s=a&c=p&ti=1&ai=30751&l=dir&o=0&sv=0a30051e&ip=506d4acd&u=http%3A%2F%2F69.0.238.8%2Fcover%2FID115%2Fcapo_1588361659_mb_all_r1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on September 03, 2007, 12:51:14 AM
Quote from: longears on September 01, 2007, 04:34:33 PM
Try her short stories.

I will, thank you!  Enjoyed Wise Blood and think it a provactive novel.  Hazel Motes and his desire at a "Church of Christ without Christ" was fascinating, and I think the attempts of the other characters to find their own personal meaning/use of him and his concept was........................disturbing, but profound.

Right now:

(http://cdn.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/2/9780060822552.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 03, 2007, 07:44:17 AM
Quote from: dtwilbanks on August 31, 2007, 05:20:30 AM
(http://www.temp.sfbok.se/kat/img/43221.jpg)

How is that David?

I'm reading

(http://www.cemeterydance.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/laymon08.gif)

I've been on a Laymon kick for the past few months. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 03, 2007, 05:25:43 PM
(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/BRD17.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on September 04, 2007, 02:20:28 AM
anyone read it?

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Z9AEMHQ4L._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Keemun on September 04, 2007, 06:43:29 AM
I'm presently reading P.D. James - Death in Holy Orders.  It's quite good.   :)

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/8290000/8297446.gif)


I've also been reading George R.R. Martin - A Clash of Kings off and on for a year and a half.

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13700000/13706774.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on September 04, 2007, 10:23:11 AM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RMG1WC9DL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on September 04, 2007, 02:05:32 PM
I'm almost done with Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. Great fun!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on September 04, 2007, 02:07:11 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 03, 2007, 05:25:43 PM
(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/BRD17.jpg)

Hey! A fellow birder! I just got the Sibley Guide to Bird Behavior and recently signed up with the Chicago Ornithological Society. Where do you live?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 04, 2007, 02:28:42 PM
Quote from: O Mensch on September 04, 2007, 02:07:11 PM
Hey! A fellow birder! I just got the Sibley Guide to Bird Behavior and recently signed up with the Chicago Ornithological Society. Where do you live?

In the Denver area.  Only 70 or so birds on my life-list, but hope to add many more over the years.  We have around 10 feeders in our yard as I laso enjoy seeing how many species we can attract right in our yard.  I have checked out the Sibley Guide to Bird Behavior from our local library....great incredible book and one I really need to own a copy of.  I am also beginning to listen to Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs (Western Region).  If I can get some of the songs memorized, I will be at a much greater advantage when going birding.  My 9 year old son also enjoys birding and nails some before I even have my binoculars up to my eyes. 

FWIW, my son is a member of the Audobon Society of Greater Denver.  He received his membership as a gift from some friends of ours.  He just got his first newsletter the other day.  I will follow this post up with a PM when I get the chance.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 04, 2007, 02:32:47 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on August 29, 2007, 05:14:10 PM
The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty by Wilfrid Sheed - new book on the famous early 20th century American 'Tin Pan Alley' composers - CLICK on the image for comments - not too long & wonderful writing w/ great incite & humor - if you like this music, then this book is a MUST reading - enjoy!  :D

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G0%2BKOLdCL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/House-That-George-Built-Little/dp/1400061059/ref=sr_1_5/104-7706008-6444722?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188435196&sr=1-5)   (http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HXQ8DTAYL._AA240_.jpg)

Quoting my most recent post on this thread - about finished w/ the book on Tin Pan Alley composers - but much more!  A lot of chapters on 'Hollywood' movie composers, such as Harry Warren & Jimmy Van Heusen (of course, not their real names); again, this is an outstanding book if you're into this genre of music!  :D

Added above the image of Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2006) by Nicholas Fraser (et al) - just started this book which concentrates on vetebrate evolution and animals from the Mesozic Era (mainly the Triassic Period) - I love this stuff but this is not an easy read - almost could be used (if not?) as a college text (so be forewarned, if interested) - comments here on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Dinosaurs-Life-Triassic-Past/dp/0253346525/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4642896-8064607?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188943746&sr=1-1) -  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 04, 2007, 03:00:40 PM
Quote from: Keemun on September 04, 2007, 06:43:29 AM
I'm presently reading P.D. James - Death in Holy Orders.  It's quite good.   :)

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/8290000/8297446.gif)


I've also been reading George R.R. Martin - A Clash of Kings off and on for a year and a half.

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13700000/13706774.JPG)

I like both authors as well.  I'm also off and on slowly reading through Martin's series.  Cool beans. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Choo Choo on September 04, 2007, 03:51:43 PM
Quote from: O Mensch on September 04, 2007, 02:05:32 PM
I'm almost done with Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. Great fun!

Isn't it just?  I read it again a while back, thinking that it would probably have dated - but though it is very much of its time in a lot of the detail, the brilliance is timeless.  I can never look at the posthorn symbol on a mailbox without mentally adding a mute.

A friend of mine read it recently in her book group.  Afterwards she remarked to me (quite crossly) : "That Jacobean play.  It's not real, you know."  No kidding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 04, 2007, 03:56:39 PM
Quote from: O Mensch on September 04, 2007, 02:05:32 PM
I'm almost done with Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. Great fun!

I am about as many pages into Against the Day and am liking it quite well. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Norbeone on September 04, 2007, 05:17:12 PM
Richard Dawkins' 'God Delusion' has always interested me. I think i'll buy it when I see it below £4.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on September 04, 2007, 07:25:42 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 04, 2007, 02:28:42 PM
In the Denver area.  Only 70 or so birds on my life-list, but hope to add many more over the years.  We have around 10 feeders in our yard as I laso enjoy seeing how many species we can attract right in our yard.  I have checked out the Sibley Guide to Bird Behavior from our local library....great incredible book and one I really need to own a copy of.  I am also beginning to listen to Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs (Western Region).  If I can get some of the songs memorized, I will be at a much greater advantage when going birding.  My 9 year old son also enjoys birding and nails some before I even have my binoculars up to my eyes. 

FWIW, my son is a member of the Audobon Society of Greater Denver.  He received his membership as a gift from some friends of ours.  He just got his first newsletter the other day.  I will follow this post up with a PM when I get the chance.

Hey, that's great. Birding is such a great hobby and a fantastic excuse to enjoy the great outdoors. I loved birds when I was growing up in Germany, but didn't start seriously birding until this past year. You might enjoy this website: www.birdforum.net A lot of friendly birders share photos and give advice there. I have a humble gallery of a few favorite shots (http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/44162) from my trips there as well.

Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 04, 2007, 03:56:39 PM
I am about as many pages into Against the Day and am liking it quite well. 

Now that I'm done with Crying of Lot 49, I will start that one.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 04, 2007, 07:36:07 PM
Quote from: O Mensch on September 04, 2007, 07:25:42 PM
Hey, that's great. Birding is such a great hobby and a fantastic excuse to enjoy the great outdoors. I loved birds when I was growing up in Germany, but didn't start seriously birding until this past year. You might enjoy this website: www.birdforum.net A lot of friendly birders share photos and give advice there. I have a humble gallery of a few favorite shots (http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/44162) from my trips there as well.


Looks like a great forum....I will sign up his weekend and dive in.  Awesome photos.  Wildlife photography is truly an art IMO.  My son will love this site/forum.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on September 06, 2007, 12:07:46 PM
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 06, 2007, 12:13:36 PM
Danny!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 06, 2007, 12:41:03 PM
(http://press.princeton.edu/images/k6295.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 09, 2007, 08:41:58 AM
Quote from: Corey on September 06, 2007, 12:41:03 PM
(http://press.princeton.edu/images/k6295.gif)




Either/Or is my favorite.

Reading: "Imitation of Mary" (Thomas Kempis)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on September 09, 2007, 05:14:38 PM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0306804816.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)

This is an excellent read. I thought it might be dry and dusty due to it age but its engaging and informative. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 12, 2007, 07:02:28 AM
Quote from: Haffner on September 09, 2007, 08:41:58 AM



Either/Or is my favorite.

Reading: "Imitation of Mary" (Thomas Kempis)

Thanks, I'll check that next (Either/Or). I was expecting this to be tough going, but it is turning out to be pretty enjoyable (well, as "enjoyable" as philosophy can be). :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 12, 2007, 09:09:09 AM
Quote from: Corey on September 12, 2007, 07:02:28 AM
Thanks, I'll check that next (Either/Or). I was expecting this to be tough going, but it is turning out to be pretty enjoyable (well, as "enjoyable" as philosophy can be). :)





Corey, Either/Or is even better. It had an obvious, tremendous influence on Christian Existentialism. Without Kiergkegaard, it's hard to imagine Rahner, Heidegger, Husserl, or Sartre (though I question how much of a loss Sartre would habe been).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on September 12, 2007, 01:34:09 PM
Got this book today.

(http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-10957327901219_1966_3215788)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 12, 2007, 01:37:26 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on September 09, 2007, 05:14:38 PM
This is an excellent read. I thought it might be dry and dusty due to it age but its engaging and informative. :)

Is it annotated? Otherwise "informative" is not quite the mot juste . . . that's one autobiography that is famously rife with stretches of the truth which took Procrustes' own breath away  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 12, 2007, 01:59:25 PM
Quote from: Saul on September 12, 2007, 01:34:09 PM
Got this book today.

(http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-10957327901219_1966_3215788)

Didn't know you were into comedy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber on September 12, 2007, 09:30:22 PM
read fight club today. tomorrow i'm moving on to fortunate son by jw hatfield.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Keemun on September 13, 2007, 05:21:57 AM
Another mystery novel.   :)

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/14290000/14297942.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on September 13, 2007, 05:26:46 AM
Quote from: biber fan on September 12, 2007, 09:30:22 PM
read fight club today. tomorrow i'm moving on to fortunate son by jw hatfield.

If you liked fight club at all, try "Choke" by the same author. It's a much better book IMO.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 13, 2007, 06:01:30 AM
Re-reading this, as it remains inspirational to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber on September 13, 2007, 10:30:11 AM
Quote from: George on September 13, 2007, 05:26:46 AM
If you liked fight club at all, try "Choke" by the same author. It's a much better book IMO.  :)

yeah fight club was good, I'd read something else by palahniuk for sure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on September 13, 2007, 10:54:22 AM
Edward Gorman's DEATH GROUND. A tight little Western.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on September 13, 2007, 05:54:43 PM
Quote from: dtwilbanks on September 13, 2007, 10:54:22 AM
Edward Gorman's DEATH GROUND. A tight little Western.

LOVE the new avatar, David!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 14, 2007, 10:29:13 AM
I have started reading The Demon in the Freezer, a true story by Richard Preston.  Previously I have read Preston's Hot Zone, and The Cobra Event  This book is just as good and spellbinding as the 2 former ones were.

When the book began, I thought we were talking about anthrax, but very quickly the subject switched to smallpox.  Smallpox is considered to be the worst virus capable of infecting man.  The book has a graphic and detailed description of smallpox.  It also said that most people in North America are no longer immune to smallpox even though they were inoculated when younger.  The efficacy of the vaccine wears off.  Then there are all the children who have never been vaccinated.  IMHO since the scientists know that the smallpox virus is available (although clandestinely)in many other countries, I think the inoculations should be resumed.

Smallpox is considered to be a bioweapon.  According to the book, smallpox has killed about a billion people in a 100-year timeframe; it is much worse than the Black Plague.  I think anyone reading this book would also clamor to have the vaccinations resumed.  Scientists tell us smallpox has been eradicated from the earth.  Despite that it is thought that the smallpox virus is likely in the hands of US enemies.  It is also at the CDC in the US.

The book is riveting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on September 14, 2007, 06:18:08 PM
Finished "All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy and enjoyed his lean, dark prose.  I think he's a pretty good storyteller and leaves very few dry areas in the aforementioned novel.

Next will read "The Stranger" by Camus and then probably return to McCarthy (The Road, I think).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on September 15, 2007, 06:28:44 AM
THE GREAT PIANISTS - Schonberg

So far, so good...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on September 15, 2007, 06:30:19 AM
Quote from: dtwilbanks on September 15, 2007, 06:28:44 AM
THE GREAT PIANISTS - Schonberg

So far, so good...

I enjoyed that one. Wished it was longer, in fact.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on September 15, 2007, 06:31:06 AM
Quote from: George on September 15, 2007, 06:30:19 AM
I enjoyed that one. Wished it was longer, in fact.  :)

I'd like a good book covering modern pianists.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on September 15, 2007, 06:36:57 AM
Quote from: dtwilbanks on September 15, 2007, 06:31:06 AM
I'd like a good book covering modern pianists.

Then you want "Great Contemporary Pianists Speak for themselves: Two volumes bound as one" by Elyse Mach
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on September 15, 2007, 06:41:46 AM
Quote from: George on September 15, 2007, 06:36:57 AM
Then you want "Great Contemporary Pianists Speak for themselves: Two volumes bound as one" by Elyse Mach

I'll look into it. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on September 15, 2007, 07:34:12 AM
Quote from: dtwilbanks on September 15, 2007, 06:41:46 AM
I'll look into it. Thanks.

It was published in 1988, so it may not suit your purpose. It depend upon how modern you need it to be.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on September 15, 2007, 05:22:50 PM
Quote from: Corey on September 12, 2007, 01:59:25 PM
Didn't know you were into comedy!

Read it yourself, and then you'll tell me if its comedy or not.
It was a great read, wonderful and stunning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: carlos on September 17, 2007, 06:46:24 AM
Cornelius Ryan's classic "The Last Battle"; one of the best
on the fall of Berlin. Very well written and with many little
known facts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on September 21, 2007, 08:00:40 AM
"Guideline on the Preparation of Investigational New Drug Products (Human and Animal)"

A real nail-biter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 21, 2007, 12:38:12 PM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/513N21M5Y6L._SS500_.jpg)

Letters between Rilke and his erstwhile lover/best friend/muse.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 25, 2007, 07:14:08 AM
The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery (2006) by Wendy Moore - story of the British (born in Scotland) anatomist & surgeon, John Hunter - CLICK on the image, if interested, for more details -  :)

Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah (2007) by Tom Chaffin - some Confederate naval history - if your tired of reading (and re-reading) about the 'land battles' of the American Civil War, then this book might be of interest - again, CLICK on the image!

(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D76DAGM7L._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Knife-Man-Snatching-Modern-Surgery/dp/0767916530/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-4487663-4298324?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190732730&sr=8-1)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RibP4jieL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Gray-Around-World-Confederate/dp/0809085046/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-4487663-4298324?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190732936&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 25, 2007, 08:07:17 AM
Thanks for the recommendation of The Knife Man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 25, 2007, 08:31:17 AM
Quote from: Anne on September 25, 2007, 08:07:17 AM
Thanks for the recommendation of The Knife Man.

Hello Anne - about 2/3 through that book - excellent account of not only Hunter's life & exploits, but great re-telling of the status of medicine & medical practice in the 18th century, and in particular Georgian England - enjoy!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 25, 2007, 08:58:52 AM
Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on September 25, 2007, 10:34:28 AM
Pollock (Alberto Busignani) ISBN 0600369145

So old that the photos are black and white, but they are large and numerous. The book also only cost £2.50, yay!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on September 26, 2007, 12:41:05 PM
Just started Harry Potter's Last Dragon to Hogwarts. After that, I have a novel by Jose Saramago waiting for me. All told, I'm not finished till a couple of months.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 27, 2007, 02:34:56 AM
The Gospel of John, New Testament.

I continue to be devastated by this Gospel. The characterization of Christ as the Logos makes for a deeply moving, affirming reading experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on September 27, 2007, 02:37:03 AM
Quote from: Haffner on September 27, 2007, 02:34:56 AM
The Gospel of John, New Testament.

I continue to be devastated by this Gospel. The characterization of Christ as the Logos makes for a deeply moving, affirming reading experience.

My favourite too Andy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 27, 2007, 03:00:23 AM
Quote from: Harry on September 27, 2007, 02:37:03 AM
My favourite too Andy.




Hey the movie wasn't too bad either! I guess the only thing I find missing in that Gospel is the virgin birth. For obvious Andy-reasons.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on September 27, 2007, 05:53:32 AM
Quote from: Haffner on September 27, 2007, 02:34:56 AM
The Gospel of John, New Testament.

I continue to be devastated by this Gospel. The characterization of Christ as the Logos makes for a deeply moving, affirming reading experience.

Yes, I love the beginning, one of the loveliest and most poetic passages I know in all literature:  "In the beginning was logos, and logos was with God, and logos was God."

The statement a few paragraphs later that Jesus "gave exousia to become children of God" is difficult.  Exousia is usually translated as "power," "authority," or "the right," and the mystery cult deifying Jesus as God incarnate--something other than human--conveys this as meaning something like, "If you believe that Jesus is YHWH incarnate, then he will reward you by giving you special power."

However, a reading of the words ascribed to Jesus himself, say, in Matthew 6:9, clearly suggest that the exousia or "power" described here is the power of choice, that power not granted as a reward for obedience to some divine desert patriarch's petty desire to be "worshipped," but rather recognized when we grasp the truth of our condition and our heritage.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 27, 2007, 05:55:11 AM
Quote from: longears on September 27, 2007, 05:53:32 AM
Yes, I love the beginning, one of the loveliest and most poetic passages I know in all literature:  "In the beginning was logos, and logos was with God, and logos was God."

The statement a few paragraphs later that Jesus "gave exousia to become children of God" is difficult.  Exousia is usually translated as "power," "authority," or "the right," and the mystery cult deifying as God incarnate--something other than human--conveys this as meaning something like, "If you believe that Jesus is YHWH incarnate, then he will reward you by giving you special power."

However, a reading of the words ascribed to Jesus himself, say, in Matthew 6:9, clearly suggest that the exousia or "power" described here is the power of choice, that power not granted as a reward for obedience to some divine desert patriarch's petty desire to be "worshipped," but rather recognized when we grasp the truth of our condition and our heritage.






The beginning is awe-inspiring to me as well.

As for the theology, you already know how tricky that is!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on September 27, 2007, 05:55:51 AM
Mr. Longears,

You are the sh*t, as the kids used to say.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on September 28, 2007, 07:38:08 AM
Translated from Russian. The first book of a trilogy. Like Dostoevsky wrote a novel about vampires, witches and magic in Moscow! Okay, maybe not as good as Dostoevsky, but still a damn fun read.

(http://context.themoscowtimes.com/photos/large/2006_09/2006_09_15/book_2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on September 28, 2007, 08:20:48 AM
Dutch Organs by Okke Dijkhuizen.

Fascinating journey, beutifully written and illustrated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 28, 2007, 01:21:14 PM
Quote from: dtw on September 28, 2007, 07:38:08 AM
Translated from Russian. The first book of a trilogy. Like Dostoevsky wrote a novel about vampires, witches and magic in Moscow! Okay, maybe not as good as Dostoevsky, but still a damn fun read.

(http://context.themoscowtimes.com/photos/large/2006_09/2006_09_15/book_2.jpg)

Is this what the movie was based on?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on September 28, 2007, 01:26:34 PM
Quote from: DavidW on September 28, 2007, 01:21:14 PM
Is this what the movie was based on?

I guess, but I heard the movie really sucked.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 28, 2007, 01:28:17 PM
Quote from: dtw on September 28, 2007, 01:26:34 PM
I guess, but I heard the movie really sucked.

Yeah it did.  What is the book better?  And not in a superficial "books are always better way", I mean for real is the book decent?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on September 28, 2007, 01:40:07 PM
Quote from: DavidW on September 28, 2007, 01:28:17 PM
Yeah it did.  What is the book better?  And not in a superficial "books are always better way", I mean for real is the book decent?

Yes, the book is good stuff. I did not see the movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 28, 2007, 02:10:05 PM
Quote from: dtw on September 28, 2007, 01:40:07 PM
Yes, the book is good stuff. I did not see the movie.

The movie's major fault was trying to cram in complicated magic mechanics and a myriad of characters into a short time.  As a tv miniseries it would have been cool, but as a standalone movie it was like blarg.  You know I think that I could see the novel being enjoyable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dtwilbanks on September 28, 2007, 02:44:22 PM
Quote from: DavidW on September 28, 2007, 02:10:05 PM
The movie's major fault was trying to cram in complicated magic mechanics and a myriad of characters into a short time.  As a tv miniseries it would have been cool, but as a standalone movie it was like blarg.  You know I think that I could see the novel being enjoyable.

Well, the novel is around 450 pages long; try to cram that into a movie.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 28, 2007, 08:10:40 PM
(http://www.alibris.com/images/collectors/firsts/firstsbk15_180.jpg)

To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee

It was chosen as our next "book club" read.  I read it in high school over 20 years ago as our lit teacher did a whole unit on it along with the movie.....by far the best teacher I ever had. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sonic1 on September 28, 2007, 09:26:43 PM
I am reading a bunch of books of course (being in school full time again), but some non-school books I am enjoying at the moment:

Richard Felger: The Flora of the Gran Desierto
Richard is my old mentor. It is a gorgeous flora. I ordered in his Trees of Sonora as well which should come arrive in a few days (and a pretty penny at that).

(http://www.drylandsinstitute.org/images/projects02.jpg)

Also have enjoyed this one:

(http://www.community-media.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/dangerous_book.jpg)

and this, full of strange old stories:
Pu Songling: Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51r8GY30oYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU02_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

and finally this wonderful modern Greek poet:

Yannis Ritsos: Selected Poems

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/415MFJ60R2L._BO2,204,203,200_PIlitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on October 02, 2007, 04:12:17 PM
While away, I was reading Witold Rudzinski's Moniuszko biography. Eminently enjoyable, though in a quite unexpected way. The main objective of the author seems to have been to convince readers that Moniuszko would have been the greatest communist ever. Was Moniuszko religious? No, that was just a pose - what he valued was morality, he did not care for dogma. Was he a good musician? Who cares, he cared for his country, for his people! His music was anti-bourgeois (?), he loved all things proletarian. Was he a great composer? Perhaps but that's not important: he took the side of the people, against the ruling classes, and that's what counts. A composer cannot be truly great unless he does that.

Etc., etc., etc. - stretching for 250 pages. I wonder if there is a good, up to date Moniuszko monograph out the there somewhere? So far it seems the best book about him was written before WWII (by Jachimecki)...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 02, 2007, 04:19:27 PM
(http://www.longwood.edu/English/Buddenbrooks.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on October 02, 2007, 05:56:31 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on September 25, 2007, 07:14:08 AM
The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery (2006) by Wendy Moore - story of the British (born in Scotland) anatomist & surgeon, John Hunter - CLICK on the image, if interested, for more details -  :)


The Knife Man is a great book.  Thanks to GMG being down, I have finished it already.

Sonic Man, keep 'em coming.  I'm catching up to you.  LOL!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 02, 2007, 06:01:40 PM
Quote from: Anne on October 02, 2007, 05:56:31 PM
The Knife Man is a great book.  Thanks to GMG being down, I have finished it already.

Sonic Man, keep 'em coming.  I'm catching up to you.  LOL!

Anne - glad you loved the book!  :D  I still have not finished it (reading several others including a BIG one on Windows VISTA - just got a new laptop - a necessity!) - all of the chapters are great, but loved the one on the 'Irish Giant' - being a physician, myself, I'm sure that I could have easily related to (and adored) John Hunter!  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on October 02, 2007, 06:50:42 PM
I think the feet of the "Irish Giant" are on the front cover.

On AOL this week there was a picture of a current giant (might have been 8 ft tall) in a crowd in China.  I have seen his picture before.  Have you?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 03, 2007, 01:37:44 PM
Quote from: Anne on October 02, 2007, 06:50:42 PM
I think the feet of the "Irish Giant" are on the front cover.

On AOL this week there was a picture of a current giant (might have been 8 ft tall) in a crowd in China.  I have seen his picture before.  Have you?

Still in my office - will need to check the front cover of the book tonight; assume you mean the Chinese Giant shown below (left)?  Yes, I've seen him in the news a number of times!  :o

Another interesting 'giant' is Sun Ming Ming, a 7'9" NBA player - he had a residual pituitary tumor that was treated at Wake Forest University Med Ctr (where I'm a Professor of Radiology) w/ the miraculous 'Gamma Knife' - check out the news story HERE (http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/elekta/26218/) -  :D

(http://www.chinese-tools.com/jdd/public/documents/photos/geant01.jpg)  (http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070131/070131_tallbball_vmed_3p.widec.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: carlos on October 03, 2007, 02:34:27 PM
"WALLIS, Secret lives of the the Duchess of Windsor", Charles Higham,
1988. IMO the definitive story of that women and Edward.
What a couple!. He was an egotist,corrupt,stupid and masochist
bisexual. She was a professional prostitute, a nazi, a sadist and
one of the most evil women in the history.
Every other people but those two, would have been hanged for
treason. She got pregnant by Ribbenttrop. >:( >:( >:(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on October 03, 2007, 02:42:09 PM
Yes, I was referring to the giant on the left.

That was a very interesting story about Sun Ming Ming.  Thanks for posting it.

BTW I hadn't noticed it before but The Knife Man received 5 stars at Amazon.  I'd give it 5 stars too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lady Chatterley on October 03, 2007, 02:52:24 PM
Hateship,Friendship,Courtship,Loveship,Marriage,Short Stories by Alice Munro.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on October 03, 2007, 04:14:15 PM
I always have been wondering about the title of this thread and avoided reading and posting. If what I am reading is not good, why would I continue reading it or even mention it on a forum?

OK, first try: Die Rättin - The Rat - by Günter Grass. About Noah, a rat turd and the survival of rats through all the world's historic events.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on October 03, 2007, 04:43:33 PM
(http://www.gendercide.org/images/pics/imprison3.jpg)

enjoying this--if you can say that about this sort of literature--even more than Borowski (which I thought was superb).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on October 03, 2007, 08:08:58 PM
Just finished William Bernstein's The Birth of Plenty, which is a well written popular history of what is really the greatest story in human history - how the West got wealthy.  Consider that per world capita GDP growth was essentially zero from the birth of Christ to the 18th century, the idea that most people can have a life beyond wretched poverty is a quite recent one.

The whole first chapter is here

http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/404/CH1.HTM (http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/404/CH1.HTM)

QuoteCHAPTER ONE
    A Hypothesis of Wealth

                The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together.
                —Karl Marx, Manifesto of the Communist Party

It's all too tempting to lament the state of the world, particularly when you focus on the melodramas of mankind—violent conflicts, large-scale malfeasance and failure, and the latest installments in the age-old racial and religious hatreds that permeate the human story.

A paragon of such fashionable pessimism has been journalist Anthony Lewis, who, at the end of a long and distinguished career, was asked whether the world had gotten to be a better place since he had begun covering it a half century earlier:

I have lost my faith in the ideal of progress. I mean that in the sense that it was used at the beginning of the twentieth century, that mankind is getting wiser and better and all—how, how can you think that after Rwanda and Bosnia and a dozen other places where these horrors have occurred?1

Mr. Lewis' problem is that his subjective criterion—that mankind has not achieved moral perfection as defined in Ivy League universities and the editorial suites of the New York Times—sets the bar too high. Mr. Lewis seems unaware that we can measure the welfare of mankind; in fact, we can do it superbly. Contrary to his gloomy impressions, the second half of the twentieth century was far less murderous than the first. Further, the proportion of the world's population subjected to totalitarianism, genocide, starvation, war, and pestilence has been steadily decreasing over the past two centuries, with most of the improvement coming in the half century that so depressed Mr. Lewis.

Consider that from 1950 to 1999, average life expectancy in the developed world increased from 66 years to 78 years; in the developing world, it increased from 44 years to 64 years. The nearly universal Western outcome of living to old age, rather than resulting from the rare stroke of luck, may be the greatest accomplishment of the past fifty years. Or consider that over the same period, the world's real per capita gross domestic product (GDP)—the amount of goods and services produced by the average person, adjusted for inflation—nearly tripled. Or that by the year 2000, real per capita GDP in Mexico was significantly greater than that of the world leader in 1900, Great Britain. And if you're not impressed with mankind's material progress in the last fifty years, as measured in dollars and cents, you should at least note that almost any measure of social progress you wish to examine—infant mortality, literacy and mortality rates, or educational levels—has dramatically improved in all but a few still-benighted corners of the planet.2
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 03, 2007, 11:31:47 PM
Stephen Jay GOULD:  "Wonderful Life"

A fascinating book, denying that the theory of evolution implies any notion of progress. Gould develops this argument latter, in his last work, "Structure of the Theory of Evolution".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 04, 2007, 05:12:30 AM
Quote from: sidoze on October 03, 2007, 04:43:33 PM
(http://www.gendercide.org/images/pics/imprison3.jpg)

enjoying this--if you can say that about this sort of literature--even more than Borowski (which I thought was superb).

Like the new avatar. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on October 04, 2007, 05:44:28 AM
me too. i will try to watch it again this weekend. I still can't believe how amazing it is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on October 05, 2007, 05:01:02 PM
Quote from: Corey on October 02, 2007, 04:19:27 PM
(http://www.longwood.edu/English/Buddenbrooks.jpg)

A great novel, and Mann's entry for the Nobel sweepstakes. He was to elaborate on his favourite themes (at much greater lengths) in The Magic Mountain, but it's an excellent entry point in Mann's world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 06, 2007, 03:18:41 AM
(http://www.librariilehumanitas.ro/images/carti/5357.jpg)

Leo Perutz - The Swedish Cavalier

I've read only a few pages so far and it looks quite interesting and well-written.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 06, 2007, 09:22:31 AM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on October 05, 2007, 05:01:02 PM
A great novel, and Mann's entry for the Nobel sweepstakes. He was to elaborate on his favourite themes (at much greater lengths) in The Magic Mountain, but it's an excellent entry point in Mann's world.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've already read some of his short stories (Little Herr Friedemann and Death in Venice, which is one of my absolute favorites now).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on October 06, 2007, 12:07:02 PM
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor.  An excellent collection of short stories so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lady Chatterley on October 06, 2007, 01:04:45 PM
Eats,Shoots and Leaves. Very funny it is too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnthonyAthletic on October 06, 2007, 01:29:07 PM
P J Tracy

Just finishing their second book, about to read Dead Run (3rd).

Usual Serial Killer stuff, decent yarns, good characters and twists to boot  ;)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on October 07, 2007, 10:35:57 AM
Quote from: Danny on October 06, 2007, 12:07:02 PM
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor.  An excellent collection of short stories so far.

The best.  Might I suggest Ray Carver next?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on October 07, 2007, 03:11:14 PM
Quote from: longears on October 07, 2007, 10:35:57 AM
The best.  Might I suggest Ray Carver next?

You may! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 07, 2007, 04:00:58 PM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TMmeOrlFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

A very compelling biography of the great short story writer James Tiptree, Jr (http://www.julie-phillips.com/).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 07, 2007, 04:53:26 PM
About to stroll through one of these guilty pleasures....not sure which one.  Either way, a real treat now that they have taken all of the "varnish" off of previous printings and just left us with what Howard actually wrote in the order he wrote it in (which I believe happens to not be in chronilogical order story wise).  However, I must admit I do miss the Frazetta cover art that I enjoyed as a kid.

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KXCBAGPDL._AA240_.jpg)  (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K90BDCKJL._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvested Sorrow on October 09, 2007, 07:20:06 PM
I'm currently in the process of reading:

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations On Atheism and the Secular Life edited by Louise M. Antony
What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr

I will soon be reading:

Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on October 10, 2007, 05:21:15 AM
Always learning more...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on October 10, 2007, 11:33:02 PM
Quote from: Haffner on October 10, 2007, 05:21:15 AM
Always learning more...

You and me both. :)

Along with O'Connor and Catechism, a readin' critical essays about film noir first published back in '93:
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0860916251.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 11, 2007, 12:22:58 AM
ANDRE LITSHKE:  "HISTOIRE DE LA MUSIQUE RUSSE"

From a great specialist of Russian music, this book is very interesting in special in all the period before 1800. I learned a lot about religious and secular music in Russia in Middle Age and until the second part of the 18th century when italian and french opera "invaded" Russia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on October 11, 2007, 07:04:49 AM
Hector Berlioz - Evenings with the Orchestra

(http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Images/Chicago/043746.jpeg) (http://www.amazon.com/Evenings-Orchestra-Hector-Berlioz/dp/0226043746)

Short answer to the topic's question: it's extremely good.

It is similarly entertaining as the Mémoires, but more story-like - the first page or two were enough to make me resolve to read it through - the surreal images it conjoured up were hilarious. I recommend Amazon's look inside feature (click the cover) if interested.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sadness on October 11, 2007, 12:00:56 PM
(http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NPovssT3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mozart on October 11, 2007, 03:02:47 PM
I am not actually reading it, but I am listening to the audio version

(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51w%2B0RlecZL._SS500_.jpg)


This book is hilarious!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 11, 2007, 09:39:42 PM
Quote from: Danny on October 10, 2007, 11:33:02 PM
You and me both. :)

Along with O'Connor and Catechism, a readin' critical essays about film noir first published back in '93:
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0860916251.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)

Nice Bruddah!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: locrian on October 13, 2007, 07:32:57 AM
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 15, 2007, 07:34:10 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0691020418.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lady Chatterley on October 16, 2007, 01:03:38 PM
Quote from: longears on October 07, 2007, 10:35:57 AM
Might I suggest Ray Carver next?

Raymond Carver ,an absolutely wonderful author.
I've just heard the audio book of Matthew Pearl's A Poe Shadow,lots of fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on October 16, 2007, 01:18:41 PM
I am reading a book about Churches in Holland, amazing how many we have, and what beautiful architecture. also about the Organs of which we have many.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on October 16, 2007, 01:20:13 PM
Quote from: sound sponge on October 13, 2007, 07:32:57 AM
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov

That's a absolute smashing book. A russian girlfriend bought me this one, and I must have read it a dozen times since. How do you like it Dave? :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on October 17, 2007, 06:41:17 AM
Quote from: Corey on October 15, 2007, 07:34:10 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0691020418.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)




To this day, I remain knocked out by that book. It was obviously a massive influence on the Existential and Phenomenological schools of philosphy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on October 17, 2007, 08:54:12 AM
John Cheever-Oh What A Paradise It Seems
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 17, 2007, 10:13:41 AM
Quote from: Haffner on October 17, 2007, 06:41:17 AM



To this day, I remain knocked out by that book. It was obviously a massive influence on the Existential and Phenomenological schools of philosphy.

Yes, it's tough-going, but I am really enjoying it, especially the Diapsalmata  and the essay on tragedy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 17, 2007, 11:31:18 PM
Quotesound sponge

The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov

One of my two or three preferred novels. The chapters with Pilatus are so beautiful ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: locrian on October 18, 2007, 03:53:31 AM
Quote from: val on October 17, 2007, 11:31:18 PM
One of my two or three preferred novels. The chapters with Pilatus are so beautiful ...

Which translations have you read, or do you even need a translation?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: locrian on October 18, 2007, 04:01:06 AM
Quote from: Bogey on October 07, 2007, 04:53:26 PM
About to stroll through one of these guilty pleasures....not sure which one.  Either way, a real treat now that they have taken all of the "varnish" off of previous printings and just left us with what Howard actually wrote in the order he wrote it in (which I believe happens to not be in chronilogical order story wise).  However, I must admit I do miss the Frazetta cover art that I enjoyed as a kid.

How'd I miss this?    ???

REH rules! Have you seen the movie THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD yet?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on October 18, 2007, 05:57:46 AM
Quote from: Corey on October 17, 2007, 10:13:41 AM
Yes, it's tough-going, but I am really enjoying it, especially the Diapsalmata  and the essay on tragedy.




Yeah, I found it easiest (and overall more fruitful) to take it in pieces. HUGELY rewarding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Peregrine on October 24, 2007, 02:00:28 AM
Toscanini - Harvey Sachs. Very interesting thus far...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DanielFullard on October 24, 2007, 05:35:12 AM
Tried to read King's Dark Towers series but couldnt get into it.

Northern Lights is next on my list
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahlertitan on October 24, 2007, 01:36:10 PM
Almost done with Robert Simpson's "The Essence of Anton Bruckner", great in depth analysis of each of his symphonies. A must read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 24, 2007, 02:58:50 PM
Just started the book below - Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs (2007) by Morton Meyers - check HERE (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1559708190/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&n=283155#customerReviews) for descriptions & comments; like Meyers, I'm also an abdominal radiologist & have always had a deep interest in medical history, so this is a perfect book for me; I know Mort Meyers, and he is an excellent writer, so if you're interested in this topic, this book might be for you -  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 24, 2007, 10:10:00 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on October 24, 2007, 02:58:50 PM
Just started the book below - Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs (2007) by Morton Meyers - check HERE (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1559708190/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&n=283155#customerReviews) for descriptions & comments; like Meyers, I'm also an abdominal radiologist & have always had a deep interest in medical history, so this is a perfect book for me; I know Mort Meyers, and he is an excellent writer, so if you're interested in this topic, this book might be for you -  :D



Lovely artwork!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 25, 2007, 01:09:00 AM
POPPER: "The logic of the scientific discovery" (I don't know if the translation is right, I am reading it in German).

The absolute masterpiece of Karl Popper.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: locrian on October 25, 2007, 03:46:13 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n1/n5242.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on October 25, 2007, 03:56:12 AM
Quote from: val on October 25, 2007, 01:09:00 AM
POPPER: "The logic of the scientific discovery" (I don't know if the translation is right, I am reading it in German).

The absolute masterpiece of Karl Popper.

Yes, wonderful work, and very influential as well.
I just read Popper's "The nature of philosophical problems and their root in science" which is an article published on the British Journal of Philosophy of Science in 1952.

I'm waiting to read "Open society and its enemies" as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Keemun on October 25, 2007, 02:14:48 PM
Quote from: sound sponge on October 25, 2007, 03:46:13 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n1/n5242.jpg)

How is it?  I know one is not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but I must say that the cover makes it look interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on October 25, 2007, 05:59:22 PM
Quote from: sound sponge on October 25, 2007, 03:46:13 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n1/n5242.jpg)

Looks like a CD cover for Symphonie Fantastique.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 25, 2007, 06:30:11 PM
Quote from: Anne on October 25, 2007, 05:59:22 PM
Looks like a CD cover for Symphonie Fantastique.

Hello, Anne - take a look at the link to the book I mentioned a few posts back - might be one that you would enjoy!  Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on October 25, 2007, 06:40:05 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on October 25, 2007, 06:30:11 PM
Hello, Anne - take a look at the link to the book I mentioned a few posts back - might be one that you would enjoy!  Dave  :)

As of yesterday it is already on its way to my house!  Thank you! ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on October 25, 2007, 09:41:17 PM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0451528670.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Familiar with the topic as a whole, but find the composer's perspective elucidated by Copeland deeply intriguing and, honestly, educating!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: locrian on October 26, 2007, 08:36:47 AM
Quote from: Keemun on October 25, 2007, 02:14:48 PM
How is it?  I know one is not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but I must say that the cover makes it look interesting.

It isn't bad so far. It's his first novel. I think he wrote it for college, then sold it to a publisher. And he's been writing them ever since.

If you enjoy Stephen King and the like, you'll probably dig it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on October 26, 2007, 09:38:45 AM
John Ruskin. No, it's not very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on October 26, 2007, 12:29:24 PM
(http://www.blue-eyes.com/store/catalog/images/sinatrahardbook%20cover.jpg)

Fascinating essays on Sinatra and popular culture during the 40's and 50's. Insightful and though provoking, this book is a serious study of the impact Sinatra had  on popular culture and beyond through his music and personality.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 26, 2007, 12:43:38 PM
Quote from: Novitiate on October 26, 2007, 09:38:45 AM
John Ruskin. No, it's not very good.

Really? I thought he would be pretty good if Proust translated his works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on October 26, 2007, 02:28:51 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41M73vb9pLL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Alex Ross's new book. Excellent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 26, 2007, 09:20:34 PM
I really what to read Mr. Ross's book but I'm somewhat disenchanted with classic music right now...

Instead I'm reading this brilliant little jem of a book called...

(http://a7.vox.com/6a00c225268ebc8e1d00cd971ea8ef4cd5-500pi)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on October 28, 2007, 09:38:19 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VRA7RZDBL._AA240_.jpg)
Winter Fire--a fiction about a German conductor pressed into service during WWII, who's befriended by Sibelius while serving as military liaison in Finland.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on October 29, 2007, 11:24:02 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41F19Z92XTL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on October 30, 2007, 11:54:59 AM
I have two books on the go at the moment:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1556523564.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Fascinating insight into the recording process by those who were actually there creating those classic albums.

Also:

(http://laphilstore.com/catalog/images/imagecache/Mozart-Letters-W.jpg)

What an eye opener this book is turning out to be. Mozart wrote 1000's of letters, mainly to his father and others, and this book highlights the key ones and include a commentary between letters as to what else was happening at the time to provide some context. The interesting thing is Mozarts way with words; his prose is both charming and naive and also surprising is his toilet humour  :o Who would've guessed?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on October 31, 2007, 05:49:48 AM
Re-visiting a favorite. This is one of these books for me that never goes stale.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MJGQQED0L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 31, 2007, 06:26:52 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0140440178.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 31, 2007, 06:56:19 AM
And probably some recently acquired Ibsen plays as a diversion. :) I'm on "rebound" from Buddenbrooks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 03, 2007, 11:35:57 PM
The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman.  A quick read, and suprisingly optimistic about the future.

Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up A Woefully Incomplete Guide by Bob Harris.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: carlos on November 04, 2007, 05:04:33 AM
Nicholas von Hoffman's Citizen Cohn, an excellent essay on the times
and life of Roy Cohn, one of the most extraordinary crazy s.o.b. you'll
find any place, any time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 04, 2007, 03:46:40 PM
(http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/8/8d/200px-Immoralist.jpg)

Started and finished this earlier today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on November 04, 2007, 03:49:46 PM
The Lord of the Rings, In one volume.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on November 04, 2007, 03:54:20 PM
Quote from: Saul on November 04, 2007, 03:49:46 PM
The Lord of the Rings, In one volume.

I read The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings trilogy in one complete cycle when I was 18. Absolutely loved the story. Also really enjoyed the BBC adaptation of the book in 13 one hour episodes; I taped them from the radio and revisited them often.

I thought Peter Jacksons movie version started out great but got worse as it wore on. Still an amazing achievement.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on November 05, 2007, 01:42:45 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on November 04, 2007, 03:54:20 PM
I read The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings trilogy in one complete cycle when I was 18. Absolutely loved the story. Also really enjoyed the BBC adaptation of the book in 13 one hour episodes; I taped them from the radio and revisited them often.

I thought Peter Jacksons movie version started out great but got worse as it wore on. Still an amazing achievement.  :)

Its really an enjoyable read.
So detailed and imaginative writing.

Good for you, Wanderer.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on November 07, 2007, 08:13:12 AM
David Schiff: The Music of Elliott Carter - Excellent guide to Carter's work. 

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 07, 2007, 08:29:07 AM
Quote from: bhodges on November 07, 2007, 08:13:12 AM
David Schiff: The Music of Elliott Carter - Excellent guide to Carter's work. 

--Bruce

Great book
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on November 07, 2007, 11:05:17 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on October 24, 2007, 02:58:50 PM
Just started the book below - Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs (2007) by Morton Meyers - check HERE (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1559708190/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&n=283155#customerReviews) for descriptions & comments; like Meyers, I'm also an abdominal radiologist & have always had a deep interest in medical history, so this is a perfect book for me; I know Mort Meyers, and he is an excellent writer, so if you're interested in this topic, this book might be for you -  :D



Once again you have recommended a wonderful book.  I enjoyed it immensely!  Thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 07, 2007, 01:45:39 PM
Quote from: Anne on November 07, 2007, 11:05:17 AM
Once again you have recommended a wonderful book.  I enjoyed it immensely!  Thank you.

Anne - glad that you really liked the book!  :D  Just finished my copy a week or so ago - Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on November 07, 2007, 11:36:21 PM
CHARLES ROSEN:    Beethoven piano Sonatas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: locrian on November 08, 2007, 08:03:42 AM
Not great. A bit of a letdown. I think a monkey proofread it.

Mr. B. Gone by Clive Barker (http://www.amazon.com/Mister-B-Gone-Clive-Barker/dp/0060182989)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 08, 2007, 10:21:45 AM
Beginning Ubuntu Linux, 2nd ed (2007) by Keir Thomas - this is not my usual book posting, but the HD on my IBM laptop 'died' a month or so ago; I bought a Dell Latitude w/ VISTA as a replacement (my son, an IT guy, got me 25% OFF) - I was goin' to just dispose of the IBM, but thought of 'playing around' w/ a Linux clone, so I put in a HD replacement & up the memory to 512 MB - installed Ubuntu and am having a BALL w/ this OS - amazed by the quality of the programming, the 'free' programs available, and the virtual lack of a need for a firewall (one is built in), anti-virus, & malware software - I was on my wireless network almost immediately!  The book below has been a BIG help - have not played w/ UNIX since the early 80s, and that was in the SHELL mode, which you can pretty much avoid these days, if desired -  :D  P.S. and if you want to see a BUSY forum, visit ubuntuforums.org!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518zTdPNo5L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on November 10, 2007, 12:48:13 AM
Yevtushenko: Selected Poems translated by Robin Milner-Gulland and Peter Levi, S.J.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on November 10, 2007, 07:02:21 AM
Saramago's Baltasar and Blimunda.

Quote from Wikipedia:
Quote
Baltasar and Blimunda (Portuguese: Memorial do Convento, 1987) is a novel by the Portuguese author José Saramago.

It is a love story set in the 18th century with the construction of the Convent of Mafra, now one of Portugal's chief tourist attractions, as a background. Two young lovers interact naturally with historical characters including the composer and harpsichordist Domenico Scarlatti and the priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão, recognized today as an aviation pioneer, all in the shadow of the Inquisition. The lovers are always at center stage wrapped in Saramago's language, which ranges from short simple sentences to surrealistic, unpunctuated paragraphs that help to intensify both the action and the setting.

I haven't come yet to the Scarlatti encounters, but so far it's a masterly work. This is my second Saramago novel and there's no doubt he's one of the best novelists and historicists, on the same level as Ivo Andric.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 10, 2007, 07:12:26 AM
Just finished Pére Goriot, starting on this today:

(http://trashotron.com/agony/images/2006/06-reviews/wilde-dorian_gray.jpg)

I read this long ago in 8th grade, but I think now I will be able to appreciate it beyond the obvious dramatic aspects of the story.








Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 10, 2007, 07:19:18 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 10, 2007, 07:12:26 AM
Just finished Pére Goriot, starting on this today:

(http://trashotron.com/agony/images/2006/06-reviews/wilde-dorian_gray.jpg)

I read this long ago in 8th grade, but I think now I will be able to appreciate it beyond the obvious dramatic aspects of the story.




Easily in my top 10 all time fiction reads Corey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 13, 2007, 01:08:02 PM
Quote from: Bogey on November 10, 2007, 07:19:18 AM
Easily in my top 10 all time fiction reads Corey.

I loved it this time around, and realized how much I was missing when I read it in 8th grade. I love the way Wilde uses the tastes and comments of his characters to make statements about the cultural world of the time (e.g. "Dry-goods! What are American dry-goods?" "American novels"  ;D).

Started this today:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0679772871.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on November 13, 2007, 03:06:17 PM
I am reading Haydn A Creative Life in Music written by Karl Geiringer in collaboration with Irene Geiringer.  The oversize paperback (370 pages) is very well written and enjoyable.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 13, 2007, 06:23:29 PM
Quote from: Corey on November 13, 2007, 01:08:02 PM
I loved it this time around, and realized how much I was missing when I read it in 8th grade. I love the way Wilde uses the tastes and comments of his characters to make statements about the cultural world of the time (e.g. "Dry-goods! What are American dry-goods?" "American novels"  ;D).


And dare I say about himself....borders on an autobiogrphy at times, no?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 14, 2007, 04:21:40 AM
Quote from: Bogey on November 13, 2007, 06:23:29 PM
And dare I say about himself....borders on an autobiogrphy at times, no?

In the introduction there is a quote from Wilde: "Basil Halliward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be — in other ages, perhaps."

I will definitely be getting his complete works very soon. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 14, 2007, 04:44:01 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 14, 2007, 04:21:40 AM
In the introduction there is a quote from Wilde: "Basil Halliward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be — in other ages, perhaps."

I will definitely be getting his complete works very soon. :)

Do you have the edition with an introduction by Camille Canti Corey?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 14, 2007, 04:49:28 AM
Quote from: Bogey on November 14, 2007, 04:44:01 AM
Do you have the edition with an introduction by Camille Canti Corey?

I can't remember, it's already sent back to the library. It was one of the newer Modern Library editions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on November 14, 2007, 08:35:08 AM
Jane Smiley-Moo
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on November 14, 2007, 11:14:30 AM
(http://www.marianland.com/sevenhills/1011864-SH.jpg)

A deep and consistent pleasure to read (as all GK books).  A quote:

"Millions of mild black-coated men call themselves sane and sensible merely because they always catch the fashionable insanity, because they are hurried into madness after madness by the maelstrom of the world."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on November 14, 2007, 11:17:41 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 13, 2007, 01:08:02 PM
Started this today:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0679772871.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Oh hope you like it.  :D  I tried reading an earlier edition and came away thinking the novel was just "OK."  (Actually I didn't finish it.)  But somehow this new translation is much more interesting, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on November 14, 2007, 01:05:16 PM
2nd volume of Walsh's Stravinsky whilelistening to the late works in the Sony Stravinsky box.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lady Chatterley on November 14, 2007, 01:10:02 PM
Joys and Sorrows by Pablo Casals (ghost written by Albert Khan).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 14, 2007, 06:41:32 PM
Quote from: bhodges on November 14, 2007, 11:17:41 AM
Oh hope you like it.  :D  I tried reading an earlier edition and came away thinking the novel was just "OK."  (Actually I didn't finish it.)  But somehow this new translation is much more interesting, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

--Bruce

Well, it certainly has a lot to live up to; Buddenbrooks was the best book I've ever read.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on November 14, 2007, 07:07:59 PM
Die Buddenbrooks is Mann's shortest and most approachable big novel.  He went on to expand some of its themes in Zauberberg, most notably the disintegration of the body (tuberculosis was prevalent at the time), while retaining its amazing mix of comedy, high drama and the historical context the characters evolve in. I have read both at least four times. Bigger and better than both is his mammoth biblical take on the story of Joseph And His Bothers. I think THIS is my all-time favourite book!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on November 15, 2007, 04:51:28 AM
Quote from: Danny on November 14, 2007, 11:14:30 AM
A deep and consistent pleasure to read (as all GK books).  A quote:

"Millions of mild black-coated men call themselves sane and sensible merely because they always catch the fashionable insanity, because they are hurried into madness after madness by the maelstrom of the world."
Love the Chesterton quote, Danny.  Heretics, eh?  I may have to look into that one.  Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on November 15, 2007, 01:25:16 PM
Quote from: longears on November 15, 2007, 04:51:28 AM
Love the Chesterton quote, Danny.  Heretics, eh?  I may have to look into that one.  Thanks.

Chesterton is among the most quotable (and provocative) of authors;  if you like Heretics read its sequel Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 18, 2007, 10:52:30 AM
Quote from: Anne on November 13, 2007, 03:06:17 PM
I am reading Haydn A Creative Life in Music written by Karl Geiringer in collaboration with Irene Geiringer.  The oversize paperback (370 pages) is very well written and enjoyable.   




A terrific book! I had a used copy, but I had to get a new one immediately. That is a great reference book on the String Quartets, Symphonies, and choral work as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 18, 2007, 10:55:17 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 18, 2007, 10:52:30 AM



A terrific book! I had a used copy, but I had to get a new one immediately. That is a great reference book on the String Quartets, Symphonies, and choral work as well.

Great book.  Reads like a Dickens' novel at points.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 18, 2007, 11:03:08 AM
I think the only thing that astounded me about that Haydn book is when the author attempted to portray the Emperor Quartet's "other three movements" as being very average.

There is nothing average about the Emperor Quartet. I never heard a Mozart SQ which topped it, not even k387.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on November 20, 2007, 12:46:31 PM
Re-reading through the poems of the finest American poet:
(http://www.booksamillion.com/bam/covers/0/67/978/335/0679783350.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on November 20, 2007, 12:52:49 PM
(http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/7805/dec07ef4.jpg)

As neat as ever - more text than pics, thank god :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 23, 2007, 08:12:03 AM
(http://images.google.com/url?q=http://www.classicbookshop.com/reviews/capote/cover.gif&usg=AFQjCNFLFd_g5y82ruLFrdtmoLKnmHHMSA)


An off-shoot from my recent read of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on November 26, 2007, 02:02:07 PM
Ghosts by Ibsen
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 26, 2007, 06:46:35 PM
Along with my Capote read above (bits and pieces seems to be the way to go on this one), about to crack open

(http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/411/202532411.jpg)

Not familiar with this cat's work at all.  Was perusing through a Barnes and Noble bookstore and could not seem to locate something that grabbed me by the shirt.  So I dialed up a friend who has read more than me twothreefold and asked for three suggestions.  This as one of them, even though he is yet to read his.  We'll both start this evening.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: 12tone. on November 26, 2007, 09:09:19 PM
I'm currently reading 'The Diner'.  There are a lot of great characters.  Plot development has been good.  It's a serial that has been going on for apparently a few years now.  Not many people read it apparently. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on November 27, 2007, 12:53:46 PM
A Treasury of Russian Verse edited by Avrahm Yarmolinsky.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 27, 2007, 01:43:03 PM
I'm alternately reading through Washington Irving's Tales from the Alhambra, and this paperback reissue:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mSLTfu69L._AA240_.jpg)

Notice that? When it first came out in hardcover, the title was:  Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall.

Now, with the paperback edition, the subtitle is a more chaste and becoming: A History  8)

The Irving is excellent, unfailingly charming.

The Horowitz has its excellent and fascinating facts, and its occasional groan-making interpretations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 02:15:12 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 27, 2007, 01:43:03 PM
I'm alternately reading through Washington Irving's Tales from the Alhambra, and this paperback reissue:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mSLTfu69L._AA240_.jpg)

Notice that? When it first came out in hardcover, the title was:  Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall.

Now, with the paperback edition, the subtitle is a more chaste and becoming: A History  8)

The Irving is excellent, unfailingly charming.

The Horowitz has its excellent and fascinating facts, and its occasional groan-making interpretations.



Hey, that sounds good!

I'm rereading the Solomon book on Beethoven. I had been really turned off by the dubious nature of the pschoanalytical approach of Solomon, but upon 2nd reading I'm looking past that and liking the book better (except for the psychoanalytical parts  ;)!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 28, 2007, 04:07:38 AM
Finished The Magic Mountain and started this yesterday:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0679601759.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on November 28, 2007, 04:54:09 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71MB7AXRFRL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.gif)
Problematic but an interesting read.  Hard to discern spiritual truth through the intellect alone--like making love, baking cookies, throwing a pot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:04:51 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 28, 2007, 04:07:38 AM
Finished The Magic Mountain and started this yesterday:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0679601759.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)





This work, (along with the New Testament, Beyond Good and Evil, and Der Antichristlich) is one of my favorites.
Whom did the translation, Corey?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 28, 2007, 05:08:42 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:04:51 AM



This work, (along with the New Testament, Beyond Good and Evil, and Der Antichristlich) is one of my favorites.
Whom did the translation, Corey?

This is a recent translation by Walter Kaufmann. The language is not the pseudo-King's English I was half-expecting to encounter. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 05:09:08 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:04:51 AM



This work, (along with the New Testament, Beyond Good and Evil, and Der Antichristlich) is one of my favorites.

That's most intriguing. How do you manage to reconcile Nietzsche with Christ?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:13:23 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 05:09:08 AM
That's most intriguing. How do you manage to reconcile Nietzsche with Christ?




Please re-read, Nietzsche's portrayal of Jesus Christ in Der Antichristlich. It's one of the most beautiful portrayals in the history of literature, and had alot to do with my finally embracing the Catholic faith I was baptised into.

As you probably know, Florestan, the real title of what is called "The Antichrist" is the "Anti-Christian". Nietzsche mostly knew about the Lutheran religion he grew up with (his father was a minister), and that is the sect of Christianity he attacks most in Der Antichristlich.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:15:03 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 28, 2007, 05:08:42 AM
This is a recent translation by Walter Kaufmann. The language is not the pseudo-King's English I was half-expected to encounter. :)





Corey, I found the R.J. Hollingdale to be a better overall translation. Kaufmann, in my opinion, was better at providing commentary than anything else. Also, if you haven't already checked out Nietzsche's biography, Hollingdale's work in the subject is the best introduction and more.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 28, 2007, 05:16:45 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:15:03 AM




Corey, I found the R.J. Hollingdale to be a better overall translation. Kaufmann, in my opinion, was better at providing commentary than anything else. Also, if you haven't already checked out Nietzsche's biography, Hollingdale's work in the subject is the best introduction and more.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I am relatively new to Nietzsche, having only read Beyond Good and Evil before this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:24:13 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 28, 2007, 05:16:45 AM
Thanks, I keep that in mind. I am relatively new to Nietzsche, having only read Beyond Good and Evil before this.



Looks like you're on the right track! I started reading Nietzsche when I was 13, and it took me several readings to start really "getting" his work. Once it clicked, however, his philosophy Affirmed and even changed my life (for better) several times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 28, 2007, 05:28:09 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:24:13 AM


Looks like you're on the right track! I started reading Nietzsche when I was 13, and it took me several readings to start really "getting" his work. Once it clicked, however, his philosophy Affirmed and even changed my life (for better) several times.

If I had discovered him at 13, I don't think I would have understood it at all. You must have been a serious 13-year old. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:31:18 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 28, 2007, 05:28:09 AM
If I had discovered him at 13, I don't think I would have understood it at all. You must have been a serious 13-year old. :D





My father was a child beating "agnostic" (a term I find extremely dubious), and at that time I didn't understand religion, so Nietzsche helped fill in the cracks.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 05:51:25 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:13:23 AM



Please re-read, Nietzsche's portrayal of Jesus Christ in Der Antichristlich. It's one of the most beautiful portrayals in the history of literature, and had alot to do with my finally embracing the Catholic faith I was baptised into.

As you probably know, Florestan, the real title of what is called "The Antichrist" is the "Anti-Christian". Nietzsche mostly knew about the Lutheran religion he grew up with (his father was a minister), and that is the sect of Christianity he attacks most in Der Antichristlich.



You came back to Catholicism after reading The Antichrist! Poor Friedrich would roll in his grave if he knew that... :)

Without any intention to be polemic and with all due respect, to me there is no way one can reconcile Nietzsche and Jesus. It's one of the most striking cases of either / or.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 28, 2007, 05:56:19 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 05:51:25 AM
Without any intention to be polemic and with all due respect, to me there is no way one can reconcile Nietzsche and Jesus. It's one of the most striking cases of either / or.

You have a point, Andrei, to which I am sure Andy can speak better.  My own humble outsider's impression is that making that an either / or matter of it, accords Nietzsche a gravity far beyond his station.  I suppose Andy must understand Nietzsche as illumined by Jesus, and not at all the reverse  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on November 28, 2007, 07:49:08 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 05:13:23 AM



Please re-read, Nietzsche's portrayal of Jesus Christ in Der Antichristlich. It's one of the most beautiful portrayals in the history of literature, and had alot to do with my finally embracing the Catholic faith I was baptised into.

As you probably know, Florestan, the real title of what is called "The Antichrist" is the "Anti-Christian". Nietzsche mostly knew about the Lutheran religion he grew up with (his father was a minister), and that is the sect of Christianity he attacks most in Der Antichristlich.



I am glad you cleared up my confusion in the second paragraph.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 08:52:19 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 05:51:25 AM
You came back to Catholicism after reading The Antichrist! Poor Friedrich would roll in his grave if he knew that... :)

Without any intention to be polemic and with all due respect, to me there is no way one can reconcile Nietzsche and Jesus. It's one of the most striking cases of either / or.







Florestan, if anyone is most assuredly qualified to have the right to be polemic, it's you. To my knowledge, you are one of the overall best informed posters here.

Everybody's different, everyone finds there own way to Love (God).

Nietzsche, in TSZ said it himself: this is my way, what is yours?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 28, 2007, 08:53:33 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 08:52:19 AM
Florestan, if anyone is most assuredly qualified to have the right to be polemic, it's you. To my knowledge, you are one of the overall best informed posters here.

To the best of my information, I confirm this  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 28, 2007, 08:54:42 AM
Back now to Tales from the Alhambra; that story about the nesting pigeons always tugs at my heartstrings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 08:56:15 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 28, 2007, 05:56:19 AM
You have a point, Andrei, to which I am sure Andy can speak better.  My own humble outsider's impression is that making that an either / or matter of it, accords Nietzsche a gravity far beyond his station.  I suppose Andy must understand Nietzsche as illumined by Jesus, and not at all the reverse  8)





This was admirably put, Karl. I consider Nietzsche the greatest philosopher in Western history, but I have also kept in mind his biography: a man whom lived with a huge amount of bitterness, loneliness, and poorest health. As much as he gave the world, it really is exigent to keep in mind his personal history when reading his more odd assertions (example: his mostly unfair treatment of women).

Again, I must put out how beautiful his portrayal of Jesus is in the abovementioned book; only a man whom truly loved and admired Jesus (though under suspicious auspices) could have written such.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: EmpNapoleon on November 28, 2007, 09:12:11 AM
For someone who called himself an immoralist and antichrist, I sure go to him a lot for moral guidelines (leaving his own "creepiness," as someone referred to Wagner, aside)."  His "good" and "bad" means "noble" and "unclean."

Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 05:51:25 AM
...to me there is no way one can reconcile Nietzsche and Jesus. It's one of the most striking cases of either / or.

It's not Nietzsche, but Dionysus against the Crucified.  However, Nietzsche did think of himself and Dionysus, and even the Crucified when he went mad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 09:14:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 05:51:25 AM


Without any intention to be polemic and with all due respect, to me there is no way one can reconcile Nietzsche and Jesus. It's one of the most striking cases of either / or.







Re-reading this, at the risk of being presumptuous...Florestan you are WAY more open-minded than that. Forgive if any offense taken, none meant in the least.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on November 28, 2007, 10:19:05 AM
I've had a couple of quick reads recently. One book written by a cousin of mine (my grandmother's nephew actually), a biographical fiction based on his mother's leaving Paris and going to Istanbul to start a new life. The book is predominantly about his mother but it mentions my grandmother quite a lot too. In that sense it was fun to read, but knowing his mother closely you just know when he is making things up to make the story more interesting, and that was kind of offputting. This book became a national bestseller somehow. I thought the writing was not good at all though.

The other was a collection of letters between a prominent intellectual Turkish author and his son living in the US. The author died about 10 years ago, and he always had my full admiration not solely for the books he wrote but also for the foundation for orphans to which he found and dedicated his life to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on November 28, 2007, 11:00:56 AM
Just finished Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise. Now starting The Singing Neanderthals - The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body by Steven Mithen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 11:16:20 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 08:52:19 AM
Florestan, if anyone is most assuredly qualified to have the right to be polemic, it's you. To my knowledge, you are one of the overall best informed posters here.

Quote from: karlhenning on November 28, 2007, 08:53:33 AM
To the best of my information, I confirm this  ;)

Thank you very much, gentlemen, you are most kind. I have the same consideration towards you both.

Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 09:14:50 AM
Re-reading this, at the risk of being presumptuous...Florestan you are WAY more open-minded than that. Forgive if any offense taken, none meant in the least.

No offense taken, Andy, rest assured. Actually, I admire you for loving both Christ and Nietzsche in the same time. But what do you make of these:

What is more harmful than any vice?—Practical sympathy for the botched and the weak—Christianity

[...]the domestic animal, the herd animal, the sick brute-man—the Christian

And Christian is all hatred of the intellect, of pride, of courage, of freedom, of intellectual libertinage; Christian is all hatred of the senses, of joy in the senses, of joy in general....

[...]one had better put on gloves before reading the New Testament. The presence of so much filth makes it very advisable

Christianity also stands in opposition to all intellectual well-being,

I condemn Christianity; I bring against the Christian church the most terrible of all the accusations that an accuser has ever had in his mouth. It is, to me, the greatest of all imaginable corruptions; it seeks to work the ultimate corruption, the worst possible corruption. The Christian church has left nothing untouched by its depravity; it has turned every value into worthlessness, and every truth into a lie, and every integrity into baseness of soul

I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity, the one great instinct of revenge, for which no means are venomous enough, or secret, subterranean and small enough,—I call it the one immortal blemish upon the human race....

Actually, I coud have quoted the whole book, Christ's portrait included. Granted, one can admire his prose, his irony, his passion and his honesty --- but then again: if words have meaning and he was sincere, it's either Nietzsche or Christ. Now, one can argue that this terrible condemnation of Christianity stemmed from some sort of loathing what one secretly admires and that the cause of his insanity was precisely this split in his personality. Be it as it may, one thing remains: in his works he was one of the most acerbic and bitter critics of the Christian religion and morality. And again, be it said with no offense whatsoever meant: how someone can be both a Christian and a Nietzschean is incomprehensible to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on November 28, 2007, 12:07:46 PM


      I'm reading The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory The Fall of a Science and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin. It's very good.

      I haven't read Nietzsche other than excerpts and discussions of his thought in various books. He appears to have been a kind of psychologist and social critic, but not a philosopher in the technical sense. His hostility to Christianity stems from its historical effects as well as his personal emotive reaction, not the meaning of the propositions it contains. If you want a philosophical appreciation, you could start with Russell, a real philosopher.

     In addition to his hostilty to what he disliked, there was also his misunderstanding of evolution and its lessons. He seemed to have felt that if Christianity endorsed empathy, then nature must be against it. All in all, he wasn't much of a thinker, and something of a hysteric. His great influence on social thought, as well as on Freud and the future of psychology, is what he will be remembered for. He has no substantial position in philosophy, except among some postmodernists, not a ringing endorsement for the serious-minded. He is, however, popular with teenagers because he is against the same things they are against: authority, oppressive rules, hypocrisy and other easy targets. Richard Rorty admired him, too.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: EmpNapoleon on November 28, 2007, 12:17:10 PM
Quote from: drogulus on November 28, 2007, 12:07:46 PM
I haven't read Nietzsche
Read him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on November 28, 2007, 12:46:17 PM
Quote from: EmpNapoleon on November 28, 2007, 12:17:10 PM
Read him.

     Why? So I can subject myself to argument by abuse? I can get that here.

QuoteWhat is more harmful than any vice?—Practical sympathy for the botched and the weak—Christianity

[...]the domestic animal, the herd animal, the sick brute-man—the Christian

And Christian is all hatred of the intellect, of pride, of courage, of freedom, of intellectual libertinage; Christian is all hatred of the senses, of joy in the senses, of joy in general....

[...]one had better put on gloves before reading the New Testament. The presence of so much filth makes it very advisable

     Anyone who thinks this is philosophical argument is seriously confused about philosophy and what constitutes rational discourse.

     If you want a heroic rebel as a writer hero, there's Camus. He wasn't a philosopher either, but he was a fine writer and touched on philosophical themes about freedom and responsibility.

     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 01:21:36 PM
Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 11:16:20 AM


Actually, I coud have quoted the whole book, Christ's portrait included. Granted, one can admire his prose, his irony, his passion and his honesty --- but then again: if words have meaning and he was sincere, it's either Nietzsche or Christ. Now, one can argue that this terrible condemnation of Christianity stemmed from some sort of loathing what one secretly admires and that the cause of his insanity was precisely this split in his personality. Be it as it may, one thing remains: in his works he was one of the most acerbic and bitter critics of the Christian religion and morality. And again, be it said with no offense whatsoever meant: how someone can be both a Christian and a Nietzschean is incomprehensible to me.


Please, feel free to quote from Christ's portrait, though it doesn't quite hold up with your last sentence...far from it. It's hard to come away reading that portrayal without knowing Nietzsche's deeply felt admiration for Jesus...I daresay he slips up in a way that Freud would have love to analyze. I recently reread that portrayal, and it seems to me that on the whole (in regard to Nietzsche's vehement condemnation of Christianity) that "the lady doth protest too much".   

As to your quotes, you are quoting a man whom was terribly sickly and half blind through his whole life. The best biographical sources say that he probably only had sex once, and that ended up driving him crazy, completely blind, and ultimately killing him. Of course a person like that would have to give a huge amount of lip service to a "Superman"...wouldn't he?

I don't consider myself a Nietzschean. That was something I was for most of my life, and I ended up bitter and lonely. Just like him.

I still profoundly admire his work, and am indebted to him, as well as Edmund Husserl and Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel, for providing me with a terrific amount of inspiration, as well as getting me through so many hard times in my life. But I could say that, and more, about Music. But I don't "worship" music, or Hegel, Husserl, or Nietzsche. I worship God (Jesus) and venerate his mother and the saints.

That someone could deeply admire Nietzsche and still be a Roman Catholic (I don't use the word "Christian", as that word has a different connotation in America) absolutely should not be incomprehensible to you. There are far, far greater contradictions throughout the history of man.

And I'm betting you know that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 01:27:19 PM
Quote from: drogulus on November 28, 2007, 12:07:46 PM

      If you want a philosophical appreciation, you could start with Russell, a real philosopher.

     In addition to his hostilty to what he disliked, there was also his misunderstanding of evolution and its lessons. He seemed to have felt that if Christianity endorsed empathy, then nature must be against it. All in all, he wasn't much of a thinker, and something of a hysteric. His great influence on social thought, as well as on Freud and the future of psychology, is what he will be remembered for. He has no substantial position in philosophy, except among some postmodernists, not a ringing endorsement for the serious-minded. He is, however, popular with teenagers because he is against the same things they are against: authority, oppressive rules, hypocrisy and other easy targets. Richard Rorty admired him, too.  ::)


Interesting and well written post! However, I seriously doubt that most would favorably compare the impact of Nietzsche with that of Russell. I see that you are interested in Physics, etc. and I respect your interests. I personally found Wittgenstein's only slightly less dry ruminations to be far more convincing than Russell.

Or maybe I'm just biased against the arid, void-of-colour, anti-Romantic choke-spew writing style and summations of Russell. 

Just my opinion, and I mean no offense whatsoever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 01:29:12 PM
Quote from: drogulus on November 28, 2007, 12:46:17 PM
     Why? So I can subject myself to argument by abuse? I can get that here.

     Anyone who thinks this is philosophical argument is seriously confused about philosophy and what constitutes rational discourse.

     If you want a heroic rebel as a writer hero, there's Camus. He wasn't a philosopher either, but he was a fine writer and touched on philosophical themes about freedom and responsibility.

     




He loves the Analytical, bless ya! Camus is pretty damn terrific, I agree with you there. Might I also whole-heartedly reccomend Mrrs. Dostoevsky and Kafka as well?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on November 28, 2007, 01:54:59 PM


     
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 01:29:12 PM

Might I also whole-heartedly reccomend Mrrs. Dostoevsky and Kafka as well?

    Certainly. I would recommend The Idiot.

    Writers don't have to be philosophers. They are phenomenologists, they tell you how things are for them, not how things are. If they are any good, how things are for them might be how things are for you, too. Or they convince you for awhile that this might be true.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 02:03:03 PM
Quote from: drogulus on November 28, 2007, 01:54:59 PM

     
    Certainly. I would recommend The Idiot.

    Writers don't have to be philosophers. They are phenomenologists, they tell you how things are for them, not how things are. If they are any good, how things are for them might be how things are for you, too. Or they convince you for awhile that this might be true.



Great point, and The Idiot is my favorite Dostoevsky.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 11:18:49 PM
Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 01:21:36 PM
As to your quotes, you are quoting a man whom was terribly sickly and half blind through his whole life. The best biographical sources say that he probably only had sex once, and that ended up driving him crazy, completely blind, and ultimately killing him. Of course a person like that would have to give a huge amount of lip service to a "Superman"...wouldn't he?

Precisely. From the point of view of a healthy and balanced life he was the very embodiment of "the botched and the weak" he held in so much contempt. I would venture to say that it was basically self-hate that inspired him. And the irony of it all is that in a world built entirely on his own ideas he would have been among the first to be annihilated, as it happened daily in Sparta, for instance. Moreover, in Thus spake Zarathustra he states explicitly that the ideas of the sick and the disabled are not as good as those of the healthy and the vigorous --- and in so doing he condemns himself.


Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 01:21:36 PMI don't consider myself a Nietzschean. That was something I was for most of my life, and I ended up bitter and lonely. Just like him.

Quote from: Haffner on November 28, 2007, 01:21:36 PMI still profoundly admire his work.

When I was a teenager I adored him. But then, fortunately,  I realized the terrible danger that lurks in his ideas --- precisely that bitterness and loneliness you experienced yourself --- and abandoned them. I think some of his writings should bear a warning: "Taking this book too seriously can gravely damage  your mental and physical health".

For me the ultimate test for a thinker --- I deliberately avoid the term philosopher  --- and especially for a social thinker such as Nietzsche is this: would I want to live in a world organized according to his principles? In the case of Nietzsche, my answer is a resounding NO!

That being said, I understand and respect your admiration for him and I haven't the slightest intention to try to diminish it. Actually, I apologize for this intrusion but a Roman Catholic who admires Nietzsche is not something one encounters often. (And guess what: I'm an Orthodox who admires Pascal, Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer... ) :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 29, 2007, 03:53:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 11:18:49 PM
Precisely. From the point of view of a healthy and balanced life he was the very embodiment of "the botched and the weak" he held in so much contempt. I would venture to say that it was basically self-hate that inspired him. And the irony of it all is that in a world built entirely on his own ideas he would have been among the first to be annihilated, as it happened daily in Sparta, for instance. Moreover, in Thus spake Zarathustra he states explicitly that the ideas of the sick and the disabled are not as good as those of the healthy and the vigorous --- and in so doing he condemns himself.

Exactly, all the more reason to take what he writes cum grano salis.

Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 11:18:49 PM
When I was a teenager I adored him. But then, fortunately,  I realized the terrible danger that lurks in his ideas --- precisely that bitterness and loneliness you experienced yourself --- and abandoned them. I think some of his writings should bear a warning: "Taking this book too seriously can gravely damage  your mental and physical health".

You said it! And perfectly.

Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 11:18:49 PM


For me the ultimate test for a thinker --- I deliberately avoid the term philosopher  --- and especially for a social thinker such as Nietzsche is this: would I want to live in a world organized according to his principles? In the case of Nietzsche, my answer is a resounding NO!

That being said, I understand and respect your admiration for him and I haven't the slightest intention to try to diminish it. Actually, I apologize for this intrusion but a Roman Catholic who admires Nietzsche is not something one encounters often. (And guess what: I'm an Orthodox who admires Pascal, Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer... ) :)".

You're not intruding at all, friend. I agree with you.

On a side note, I realize that this is naive of me, but I pray that our two religions will someday soon make the connection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 29, 2007, 04:26:25 AM
Quote from: Haffner on November 29, 2007, 03:53:48 AM
I realize that this is naive of me, but I pray that our two religions will someday soon make the connection.

Ut unum sint. Amen to that!

Back on topic.

I'm currently reading "The Middle Ages and the Birth of Europe" by Jacques le Goff. To be followed by "Historically correct" and "Intellectual terrorism", both by Jean Sevillia, a sort of rara avis: French, Roman Catholic, conservative and proud of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on November 29, 2007, 07:25:33 AM
Finally got a copy of Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise, and very much looking forward to it.  I've read excerpts in The New Yorker and elsewhere, and those have been marvelous.  And someone else may have mentioned this, but it's been picked by The New York Times as one of the "Ten Best Books of 2007."  Review here (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/books/review/Dyer-t.html?ex=1351224000&en=fc8ad83f1a32927b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss).

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: EmpNapoleon on November 29, 2007, 08:30:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 28, 2007, 11:18:49 PM
I realized the terrible danger that lurks in his ideas --- precisely that bitterness and loneliness you experienced yourself --- and abandoned them. I think some of his writings should bear a warning: "Taking this book too seriously can gravely damage  your mental and physical health".

It's funny.  I too have been on a kind of downward spiral after reading Nietzsche.  And though I'm not a teenager (I'm 22), I'm still in the thick of his influence.  Though I won't take heed of your warnings.  I know he is dangerous.  He once said that when you battle monsters, you should be careful not to become one yourself.  That's on you.  I feel good when I read Nietzsche, bottom line.  Philosophy that makes me feel good is hard to come by.  So, I realize that your warnings are sincere, but I'm stubborn and will have to turn on Nietzsche on my own accord, if I ever do.  Perhaps his thoughts were too much for even himself to bear.  He can't be blamed for that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 29, 2007, 08:35:58 AM
Quote from: EmpNapoleon on November 29, 2007, 08:30:39 AM
It's funny.  I too have been on a kind of downward spiral after reading Nietzsche.  And though I'm not a teenager (I'm 22), I'm still in the thick of his influence.  Though I won't take heed of your warnings.  I know he is dangerous.  He once said that when you battle monsters, you should be careful not to become one yourself.  That's on you.  I feel good when I read Nietzsche, bottom line.  Philosophy that makes me feel good is hard to come by.  So, I realize that your warnings are sincere, but I'm stubborn and will have to turn on Nietzsche on my own accord, if I ever do.  Perhaps his thoughts were too much for even himself to bear.  He can't be blamed for that.




Excellent point. I must give credit to Nietzsche for having literally saved my life several times, going back to the age of 13. The greatest philosopher in Western history, and the one with the most relevance today BAR NONE. Just my opinion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on November 29, 2007, 05:44:16 PM
QuoteAnyone who thinks this is philosophical argument is seriously confused about philosophy and what constitutes rational discourse.

What is more harmful than any vice?—Practical sympathy for the botched and the weak—Christianity

[...]the domestic animal, the herd animal, the sick brute-man—the Christian

And Christian is all hatred of the intellect, of pride, of courage, of freedom, of intellectual libertinage; Christian is all hatred of the senses, of joy in the senses, of joy in general....

[...]one had better put on gloves before reading the New Testament. The presence of so much filth makes it very advisable

These quotes cannot give a complete view on Nietzsche's output. I recommend you to read "On the genealogy of morals" to have a full account of Nietzsche's thought about Christianity. It is an historical or empirical- as Rudolf Carnap wrote, and he was yet a completely different kind of philosopher - study on the origin of Christianity and morality. A study which left many questions unanswered.
You cite Bertrand Russell (which is infact one of my favourite if not the favourite philosopher of all), but he seems to be no more gentle than Nietzsche when we come to Christianity.

QuoteYou find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

From "Why I'm not a Christian".

Nietzsche is nevertheless more of a poet and an artist than a philosopher in the strict sense, that's why he often discard rational, calm arguments.

   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on November 29, 2007, 06:00:49 PM
Corey, what did you think of The Magic Mountain?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 30, 2007, 12:15:05 AM
Quote
You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

Now that's indeed a rational discourse!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 30, 2007, 01:05:51 AM
Quote from: EmpNapoleon on November 29, 2007, 08:30:39 AM
So, I realize that your warnings are sincere, but I'm stubborn and will have to turn on Nietzsche on my own accord, if I ever do. 

By all means. Life's best lessons are those we learn ourselves, right?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on November 30, 2007, 09:04:04 AM
Quote from: Scriptavolant on November 29, 2007, 05:44:16 PM

You cite Bertrand Russell (which is infact one of my favourite if not the favourite philosopher of all), but he seems to be no more gentle than Nietzsche when we come to Christianity.
 

     This is true, but criticism and abuse are different. The passage you quote, though debateable on its merits, is nevertheless a substantive attack that falls within reasoned discourse. We can and should argue to what extent the various religions have constituted a bar to moral progress, as well as when they have effectively resisted the evil influence of other doctrines. Nietzsche, in the tradition of Martin Luther, wishes to excoriate his opponents and place them beyond the pale of dialogue. You don't dispute with "filth". This has no place in philosophy, though the "continentals" will disagree.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on December 01, 2007, 05:03:31 AM
I don't recall ever reading the pamphlet (though I might have, as it's the sort of thing I was attracted to as an adolescent) but if this quote from Russell is accurate:
QuoteYou find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

then it's quite telling, as every single claim is so patently false as to destroy Russell's credibility.  Rather appalling to discover that he had so little intellectual integrity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 01, 2007, 05:48:11 PM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on November 29, 2007, 06:00:49 PM
Corey, what did you think of The Magic Mountain?

Sorry I haven't answered already. It's one of those things that takes me several days to mull over, so that such a question would require either an unsatisfactory answer, or no answer at all. Perhaps needless to say it made a deep impression upon me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 01, 2007, 06:00:31 PM
(http://www.compositiontoday.com/images/the_rest_is_noise.jpg)

Started this yesterday. It could be easy to label someone whose tastes are as wide-ranging as Ross's as a musical tourist and dilettante (indeed, I have often felt inclined to do so), but his insightful writing refutes this notion utterly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 02, 2007, 04:12:17 AM
Quote from: longears on December 01, 2007, 05:03:31 AM
I don't recall ever reading the pamphlet (though I might have, as it's the sort of thing I was attracted to as an adolescent) but if this quote from Russell is accurate then it's quite telling, as every single claim is so patently false as to destroy Russell's credibility.  Rather appalling to discover that he had so little intellectual integrity.

Moreover, for someone to infer from the fact that he was a very competent mathematician that he was also a very competent historian or philosopher is a gross fallacy. Quite the contrary is true: he might have been a great mathematician, but he either knew next to nothing about history or he deliberately chose to ignore its plain facts --- sheer intellectual dishonesty, as you said.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on December 02, 2007, 06:42:38 AM
Your statement seems convincing:

Quote from: Florestan on December 02, 2007, 04:12:17 AM
he might have been a great mathematician, but he either knew next to nothing about history or he deliberately chose to ignore its plain facts

Yes, that's why he won the Nobel Prize in Literature  ;D

If I understand well neither of you two has read the book. A good start could be to read it, since Russell provides satisfying historical evidences and arguments supporting his viewpoint. But the last evidence endorsing his view could be as well the last Pope's encyclical "Spe salvi".

Greetings
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on December 02, 2007, 06:57:50 AM
Quote from: Corey on December 01, 2007, 05:48:11 PM
Sorry I haven't answered already. It's one of those things that takes me several days to mull over, so that such a question would require either an unsatisfactory answer, or no answer at all. Perhaps needless to say it made a deep impression upon me.

True. I like the way Mann mixes in droll humour (the reference to Beethoven's "erotic symphony"), morbid introspection and high drama (like the duel between Settembrini and Naphta). He creates a world from which there is no escape, including for the reader.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on December 02, 2007, 12:47:51 PM
(http://i11.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/c5/bc/f276_1.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 02, 2007, 03:35:12 PM
The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution (2007) by David O. Stewart - just starting on this book - looks like a concise re-counting of this story; plenty of 5* reviews on Amazon - CLICK on the image, if interested -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X85JBmE2L._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Summer-1787-Men-Invented-Constitution/dp/0743286928/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196641787&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 02, 2007, 03:47:22 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on December 02, 2007, 03:35:12 PM
The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution (2007) by David O. Stewart - just starting on this book - looks like a concise re-counting of this story; plenty of 5* reviews on Amazon - CLICK on the image, if interested -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X85JBmE2L._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Summer-1787-Men-Invented-Constitution/dp/0743286928/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196641787&sr=1-1)

My wife just finished 1776 Dave.  She is now onto Ellis's His Excellency : George Washington.  I will let her know about the above.   We also just picked up this one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516E6cHjQUL._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on December 02, 2007, 05:56:33 PM
Along with the poetry, just started this delight:
(http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/covers_450/9780345336194.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 02, 2007, 11:48:09 PM
Quote from: Scriptavolant on December 02, 2007, 06:42:38 AM
Yes, that's why he won the Nobel Prize in Literature  ;D

So did Winston Churchill and Dario Fo and I hope you're not going to try convince me they --- and Russell --- were on a pair with Hamsun, Hesse, Mann, Faulkner, Steinbeck,  or Garcia Marquez among many, many others.

Quote from: Scriptavolant on December 02, 2007, 06:42:38 AMIf I understand well neither of you two has read the book. A good start could be to read it, since Russell provides satisfying historical evidences and arguments supporting his viewpoint.

I've read it several times and found his "historical evidences and arguments" not satisfying at all. But maybe I'm too intellectually demanding.

Quote from: Scriptavolant on December 02, 2007, 06:42:38 AMBut the last evidence endorsing his view could be as well the last Pope's encyclical "Spe salvi".

This I haven't read indeed but I'm going to. Thanks for pointing it to me.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on December 03, 2007, 04:40:13 AM
Quote from: Danny on December 02, 2007, 05:56:33 PM
Along with the poetry, just started this delight:
(http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/covers_450/9780345336194.jpg)

It is an excellent book.  I read it quite a few years ago.  There was an excellent movie by the same name which was 6 Ep hours long.  Don't know if it is still in print.

The book and movie are excellent preparation for Moussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 03, 2007, 05:05:30 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 02, 2007, 03:47:22 PM
My wife just finished 1776 Dave.  She is now onto Ellis's His Excellency : George Washington.  I will let her know about the above.   We also just picked up this one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516E6cHjQUL._AA240_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51h9bqmfidL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Bill - as usual, looks like we are into reading many of the same topics!  ;D

I've also read the two books mentioned above, but have not looked at The Creation by Ellis (who I've readlly enjoyed over the years).

Sitting on my 'to read' pile is Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence (2007) by John Ferling - a little longer than some of these other books, so I've been holding off!  If interested, check out the Amazonian Reviews (http://www.amazon.com/Almost-Miracle-American-Victory-Independence/dp/0195181212/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196690177&sr=1-6), and please post about your thoughts on the Ellis book - thanks.  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 03, 2007, 01:43:07 PM
Quote from: Danny on December 02, 2007, 05:56:33 PM
Along with the poetry, just started this delight:
(http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/covers_450/9780345336194.jpg)

       That's a very good book. You might also want to read Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra, about the fall of the Romanov dynasty. It was also made into a fine film.

       Massie's greatest book is Dreadnaught, about the naval arms race between Britain and Germany leading up to the Great War. The sequel Castles of Steel covers the war itself. I know it sounds somewhat dry, but this is some of the best popular history I've read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on December 03, 2007, 05:35:34 PM
Quote from: drogulus on December 03, 2007, 01:43:07 PM
       That's a very good book. You might also want to read Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra, about the fall of the Romanov dynasty. It was also made into a fine film.

       Massie's greatest book is Dreadnaught, about the naval arms race between Britain and Germany leading up to the Great War. The sequel Castles of Steel covers the war itself. I know it sounds somewhat dry, but this is some of the best popular history I've read.

Thanks for the info.  On AOL this week, regarding the Romanov dynasty it was announced that researchers believe they have finally solved what happened to the 2 children missing from the main burial site.  Researchers are awaiting the DNA test results but it is believed the 2 children were buried uphill from the main burial site.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BorisG on December 03, 2007, 05:56:36 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41LTwkeSqOL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 05, 2007, 09:35:52 AM
A fortune cookie (no, but really) which reads:

QuoteToday hold on tight to your money. Leave that credit card at home.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on December 05, 2007, 09:42:32 AM
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Fantastic!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gustav on December 05, 2007, 10:10:12 AM
To further my knowledge in music:

Conductors in Conversation by Robert Chestermann
A collections of interviews with conductors such as Karajan, Solti, Giulini, Muti, Abbado and Levine.

Philadelphia Maestros by Phyllis White Rodriguez-Peralta
A collection of biographies on Ormandy, Muti, and Sawallisch

Symphony Orchestras of the World edited by Robert R. Craven
Includes profiles of the most famous orchestras in the world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on December 05, 2007, 10:20:23 AM
Interesting line-up, Gustav!  The one I have heard the most about (but haven't read) is the Chestermann.  And welcome to GMG, by the way!  :D

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 05, 2007, 10:27:01 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C45HT3ZHL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Starting this one again. I had made through the first half a few years ago. I had thought that it was a bit misogynistic (probably not intentionaly) the first time around. Let's see what it tells me this time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 07, 2007, 12:00:42 PM
Goethe's Faust for the first time. The second part is a bit frustrating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: gmstudio on December 07, 2007, 12:18:50 PM
Maynard Solomon's "Beethoven."

I must admit...it's pretty damn dry. I'm having a hard time staying with it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: beer on December 07, 2007, 12:44:25 PM
I'm reading Sallambô by Gustave Flaubert, but I think I'm reading it wrong. I like the writing itself, but some events are just a bit too simplified, like the battle at Utica.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: hildegard on December 08, 2007, 09:21:14 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DQHEKTMEL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)


A compelling account that fills in the gap of what happened in the 50 years following that first Thanksgiving -- an uneasy peace between Colonists and Indians that ultimate gave way to a 14-month war that nearly devastated both populations.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 12, 2007, 04:13:19 AM
Arthur Schopenhauer - World as Will and Representation
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on December 12, 2007, 08:29:41 AM
Quote from: Corey on December 12, 2007, 04:13:19 AM
Arthur Schopenhauer - World as Will and Representation
I read this in 1998 and was completely blown away by it-enjoy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on December 13, 2007, 08:21:04 PM
Quote from: BorisG on December 03, 2007, 05:56:36 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41LTwkeSqOL._SS500_.jpg)

Where are you?  I am taking my time - two chapters from Bilocations

This is worth a look if you have not seen it

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page (http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)

Great way to keep track of the characters and check unfamiliar references
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on December 14, 2007, 06:22:35 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5163eZ5oJYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 15, 2007, 06:18:07 AM
Quote from: O Mensch on December 14, 2007, 06:22:35 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5163eZ5oJYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

A friend of mine keeps begging me to read Akutagawa. What do you think?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 19, 2007, 01:43:26 PM
Quote from: rockerreds on December 12, 2007, 08:29:41 AM
I read this in 1998 and was completely blown away by it-enjoy.

Without exaggeration, this is the most important thing I've ever read. All the things I've felt to be true are here spelled out in clear and unambiguous terms. I can't conceive of a time when this book will lose its impact.

Now back to fiction: Henry James's The Golden Bowl. Is it any good? I don't know yet, but James's reputation certainly precedes him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on December 19, 2007, 03:46:52 PM
Quote from: gmstudio on December 07, 2007, 12:18:50 PM
Maynard Solomon's "Beethoven."

I must admit...it's pretty damn dry. I'm having a hard time staying with it.


It's WAY too psycholoanalytical. Solomon's book on Mozart is much better.

Get Beethoven by Lewis Lockwood and don't bother finishing the Solomon. It just gets worse.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on December 19, 2007, 03:48:50 PM
Quote from: rockerreds on December 12, 2007, 08:29:41 AM
I read this in 1998 and was completely blown away by it-enjoy.



Both Richard Wagner and Nietzsche were as well. However, Nietzsche soundly refutes alot of this work in his own "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and "Twilight of the Idols", the latter more vehemently than the former.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on December 20, 2007, 02:14:02 AM
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace.

A spare, coolly lyrical novel about a poetry professor in South Africa, who resigns after a sexual harassment case, and goes to live for the time being with his daughter. Then something happens that makes him, eventually, into a less egocentric person (or does it? haven't finished it yet).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on December 20, 2007, 03:55:12 AM
Quote from: Haffner on December 19, 2007, 03:46:52 PM

It's WAY too psycholoanalytical. Solomon's book on Mozart is much better.

Get Beethoven by Lewis Lockwood and don't bother finishing the Solomon. It just gets worse.

Haffner, I have both the Solomon's book on Mozart and Lewis Lockwood's book on Beethoven.  I particularly enjoyed the Lewis Lockwood Beethoven.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on December 20, 2007, 06:29:13 AM
The 80 page liner notes to this 4CD box set:

(http://www.oldies.com/i/boxart/large/23/008811231620.jpg)

And yes, it's good.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 20, 2007, 06:38:44 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513B2A7P9AL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
A suitable book to read for daiy commute. There are some inconsistencies in the plot, IMO, but nevertheless entertaining as a whole. Whatever you do, do not read the paragraph from the Library Journal on the Amazon page as it gives out the most important/intriguing  part of the plot  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on December 20, 2007, 08:57:18 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on December 20, 2007, 03:55:12 AM
Haffner, I have both the Solomon's book on Mozart and Lewis Lockwood's book on Beethoven.  I particularly enjoyed the Lewis Lockwood Beethoven.

I just borrowed the Lewis Lockwood Beethoven from the Royal Library in The Hague. I'm looking forward to reading it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on December 20, 2007, 09:16:21 AM
Quote from: Corey on December 15, 2007, 06:18:07 AM
A friend of mine keeps begging me to read Akutagawa. What do you think?

Great stuff. Not the most brilliantly written that I have seen, but great in its own way. I found the descriptions of Christian worshippers from the perspective of traditional Buddhist Japanese from several centuries ago particularly fascinating. Have you seen Kurosawa's Rashomon? It is based on two of the short stories in the book above.

Quote from: Jezetha on December 20, 2007, 02:14:02 AM
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace.

A spare, coolly lyrical novel about a poetry professor in South Africa, who resigns after a sexual harassment case, and goes to live for the time being with his daughter. Then something happens that makes him, eventually, into a less egocentric person (or does it? haven't finished it yet).

Excellent book. I just bought Slow Man. Hopefully will find some time soon to read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mystery on December 20, 2007, 01:22:44 PM
Just finished Lolita by Nabokov. Lots of words I had to look up but that is a good thing! I am still at the stage of life where I'm keen to learn anything and everything! Well-written and very interesting, though skimmed  parts of the second half. Quite disturbing as well...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 20, 2007, 03:42:19 PM
Quote from: Corey on December 19, 2007, 01:43:26 PM
Now back to fiction: Henry James's The Golden Bowl. Is it any good? I don't know yet, but James's reputation certainly precedes him.

Actually I decided to do what I really want and finally read Mann's Doctor Faustus. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on December 20, 2007, 05:35:15 PM
I never got to finish Faustus. I tried twice, but left it before i was midway through. Strange, as I am a huge Mann fan. What am I missing?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on December 22, 2007, 02:39:15 PM
Henri Poincare's last essays.  Got interested when I read a quote by Nassim Taleb who said he was the greatest French philosopher

Great works on the limits of science and knowledge and the impossibility of any authoritative system of ethics or morality
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: gmstudio on December 22, 2007, 03:05:30 PM
Quote from: Haffner on December 19, 2007, 03:46:52 PM

It's WAY too psycholoanalytical. Solomon's book on Mozart is much better.

Get Beethoven by Lewis Lockwood and don't bother finishing the Solomon. It just gets worse.

Excellent...this is exactly the sort of "letting me off the hook" I was looking for. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 27, 2007, 03:07:46 PM
(http://www.churchillbooks.com/images/thb_12774.jpg)

Mixed reviews...much like Ike's career.  However, the strong points that some reviewers have pointed out are what I am looking for, so I will give it a go.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 27, 2007, 03:26:14 PM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on December 20, 2007, 05:35:15 PM
I never got to finish Faustus. I tried twice, but left it before i was midway through. Strange, as I am a huge Mann fan. What am I missing?

I am enjoying reading it but there is something about it that makes it tend to drag. I wonder if a different translation would make it any better (I have the H.T. Lowe-Porter version).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on December 27, 2007, 03:34:16 PM
Quote from: O Mensch on December 14, 2007, 06:22:35 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5163eZ5oJYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

great writer, love him. Not sure about that translation though, haven't read it. He wrote some scintillating stories (and a few I didn't like). In a Grove--the main body of the Kurosawa film--is absolutely awesome, such a concentrated piece.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on December 27, 2007, 03:34:56 PM
Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise -- thank you, Santa-baby.  Entertaining and informative, at least for me. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on December 27, 2007, 03:42:52 PM
just finishing up the Antonioni interviews/articles/essays. Hard to imagine I could love this director any more but exactly that has happened after reading about his opinions, habits and beliefs. What a great artist. Funnily enough the most revealing of the interviews comes from a 1969 Playboy article. They had the audacity to ask him about taking LSD, marijuana and his opinions on sex/eroticism/intimacy (of course). Wonderful!

bio on Paul Celan next. should have read this years ago when going through the verse. back to the deep end now

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/17230000/17230488.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on December 27, 2007, 05:54:07 PM
Quote from: Corey on December 27, 2007, 03:26:14 PM
I am enjoying reading it but there is something about it that makes it tend to drag. I wonder if a different translation would make it any better (I have the H.T. Lowe-Porter version).


Well, I read it in a French translation, and the impression was the same. Just as it is with a Jose Saramago novel I'm reading now (supposedly his masterpiece). I preferred another one I read a few weeks ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on December 28, 2007, 12:15:08 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VF2P2AX5L._AA240_.jpg)

I loved this book. Fascinating insight into the amazing life of Mozart. His letters are charming, witty and reveal insight into his personality and creative music making process.  :)

Cosima Wagner Diaries ~ Vol.1. & 2

I've just started reading this massive tome. Its interesting thus far with a gloomy Gothic undercurrent to the moods and themes presented. I've a long way to go so...  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on December 28, 2007, 12:17:24 PM
Quote from: sidoze on December 27, 2007, 03:42:52 PMbio on Paul Celan next. should have read this years ago when going through the verse. back to the deep end now

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/17230000/17230488.JPG)

I'm an admirer of Paul Celan's poetry. In what language do you read him? In the original German, in translation?

Jez
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on December 28, 2007, 12:26:47 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on December 28, 2007, 12:17:24 PM
I'm an admirer of Paul Celan's poetry. In what language do you read him? In the original German, in translation?

Jez

we obviously haven't met yet, otherwise you would know that I am hopeless with languages (aside from singing along to songs and cartoons). In English translation. Hopeless maybe, but what can I do? Trakl is another poet I love, but the same thing goes, of course. Honestly I don't like the sound of German very much so maybe it's not too bad a thing, for me.

Have you read this bio?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on December 28, 2007, 12:37:05 PM
Quote from: sidoze on December 28, 2007, 12:26:47 PM
we obviously haven't met yet, otherwise you would know that I am hopeless with languages (aside from singing along to songs and cartoons). In English translation. Hopeless maybe, but what can I do? Trakl is another poet I love, but the same thing goes, of course. Honestly I don't like the sound of German very much so maybe it's not too bad a thing, for me.

Have you read this bio?

I haven't read it, yet... But when it came out I read a very favourable review in the Times Literary Supplement.

Funny you are hopeless with languages, yet you like poetry; and you don't like the sound of German, yet you love Trakl, who is among the most musical of German poets...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sidoze on December 28, 2007, 04:17:30 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on December 28, 2007, 12:37:05 PM
I haven't read it, yet... But when it came out I read a very favourable review in the Times Literary Supplement.

Funny you are hopeless with languages, yet you like poetry; and you don't like the sound of German, yet you love Trakl, who is among the most musical of German poets...

I'm doing okay with Russian, I want to read--and am, in a way, though rather haltingly--Akhmatova in the original, plus a few other poets, but I'm still a long way off. I'd like to learn Italian too but doubt I'll ever live there. Other than that I can't say I'm very interested in other languages. Reading all this in English makes me happy enough, in spite of being aware that it shouldn't. And English doesn't have the most beautiful sound either, I know. I suppose you read Trakl and Celan in German?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: btpaul674 on December 28, 2007, 06:55:23 PM
You know, after so much listening to Finnish music, I am reading the Kalevala.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 28, 2007, 06:59:07 PM
Quote from: btpaul674 on December 28, 2007, 06:55:23 PM
You know, after so much listening to Finnish music, I am reading the Kalevala.

Several months ago I read all of it up to the end of the Lemminkäinen saga, but not after that, and I haven't finished it yet for whatever reason.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on December 28, 2007, 11:18:28 PM
Quote from: sidoze on December 28, 2007, 04:17:30 PM
I suppose you read Trakl and Celan in German?

Yes. But for a Dutchman German isn't that too difficult, although reading difficult poetry in that language is something else, of course - that entails using a dictionary where necessary and reading secondary literature (I have five books about Celan, for instance).

And don't bash English - it's beautiful!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on December 29, 2007, 01:34:48 AM
"DER PAPALAGI"

Speeches from the tribal chief Tuiavii de Tiavéa. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on December 29, 2007, 01:44:23 AM
Quote from: val on December 29, 2007, 01:34:48 AM
"DER PAPALAGI"

Speeches from the tribal chief Tuiavii de Tiavéa. 

A good friend of mine mentioned this book once. I had never heard of it. I must still get round to reading it, though...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Greta on December 29, 2007, 04:08:52 AM
Quote from: longears on December 27, 2007, 03:34:56 PM
Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise -- thank you, Santa-baby.  Entertaining and informative, at least for me. 

This I gave as a present to someone....and am waiting on my copy myself. ;) We're even going to use this as a supplement in our Music History class.

Quote from: btpau674You know, after so much listening to Finnish music, I am reading the Kalevala.

You know, I keep meaning to as well as much of it as I listen to, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I just got the scores for the Sibelius Legends and Kullervo for Christmas, which inspires me to get back to that...

The text is online even, I just found here:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 29, 2007, 09:44:54 AM


     The War of the World, by Niall Ferguson

     (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rmbeoMIxL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

     He sees the wars of the 20th century as resulting in (or at least as demonstrating) the decline of the West. The book is well written, and the argument is certainly worth considering. Ferguson is a bit contrarian (empires are pretty good, but can't outlast their life cycle, sort of like an aging star burning the last of its fuel). So I'll recommend it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 29, 2007, 05:46:46 PM
South Carolina & the American Revolution (2003) by John Gordon - just purchased in Camden, South Carolina - on a 2-night trip to Charlotte, NC (stayed at a 'new' wonderful place - Ballantyne Resort Hotel (http://www.ballantyneresort.com/); great restaurant & services); drove down to Camden, SC - sight of a major SC revolutionary battle (Aug 1780 - see map below); unfortunately, the battlefield has not been restored (a shame), but a dedicated National Park site in the town - this completes a major loop for me in visiting these American Revolutionary battlefields in this area - it's like a 'horseshoe' - start w/ Charleston, SC - go to Camden, then King's Mountain & the Cowpens - into North Carolina @ Guilford Courthouse (now Greensboro in honor of Nathaniel Greene), and finally onto Yorktown, Virginia, where Cornwallis finally gave up the southern invasion attempt that led to the end of this war - these are the MAJOR battles, now need to visit the 'smaller' ones -  ;)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JK69TC15L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)(http://www.crr.sc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/2749B4DD-33AD-415B-8E97-D6BADAC689C6/0/map.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 02, 2008, 07:19:14 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WTC8VP4GL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on January 02, 2008, 07:45:08 AM
The Exorcist

One of my favorite novels, it never fails to send major chills up my spine!  >:D



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on January 02, 2008, 08:24:17 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XJzVvvevL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
This one and another novel called "The Companion" by the same author. Two of the most refreshing books I've read in a while. The author, Magden, creates a world that has no bearing on the time period and protagonists that have no gender. Too bad they were both short (about 200 pages each).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 02, 2008, 08:33:14 AM
Quote from: drogulus on December 29, 2007, 09:44:54 AM

     The War of the World, by Niall Ferguson

     (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rmbeoMIxL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

     He sees the wars of the 20th century as resulting in (or at least as demonstrating) the decline of the West. The book is well written, and the argument is certainly worth considering. Ferguson is a bit contrarian (empires are pretty good, but can't outlast their life cycle, sort of like an aging star burning the last of its fuel). So I'll recommend it.

Hmmm...I had read about this book before and wondered if it might be worth reading. It certainly is a subject which interests me a lot. I had just wondered if this is one of so many, many books which actually *starts out* with some "new and revelatory" insight or interpretation of history and then spends several hundred pages "proving" it, or if that conclusion is really the result of analysis and rethinking as such.
I also wonder what he means by "decline of the West". Decline from what into what? From a state in which the vast majority of people in "the West" lived in poverty in big empires (or little states depending on big empires) which sucked a lot of resources out of overseas colonies (where people lived under even worse conditions than the poor masses in "the West") to the more or less exclusive benefit of a small upper crust, and which were constantly at war with each other into a state in which more people than ever before in "the West" live under very good conditions in more or less democratic states with more civil rights and protection of the individual irrespective of its "class" than ever before in history, and intense economic and cultural relationships between countries which make the renewed outbreak of massive conflicts very unlikely?
Is it a "decline of the West" that Western countries are no longer dominating and exploiting the rest of the world in colonies (well, they still are, in a way, but not as completely as before)?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 02, 2008, 08:37:16 AM
Yes, I do wonder what is meant by "decline of the West."

Apart from Sean-of-the-frequent-departures . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on January 02, 2008, 12:38:03 PM
I'm about a third of the way through Ferguson's book, actually.  Pretty interesting so far.  When he says decline of the west, he means it's decline in relation to the rest of the world ("the East").  At the turn of the century, the western powers were dominant in the world, brutally ruling colonies in Africa and Asia, marching into China, etc.  By the end of the century there's been a definite power shift, which is one of the underlying themes of the book.  He also means to a certain extent the descent of western "civilization", with poison gas, genocide, et al.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 02, 2008, 12:54:29 PM
Genocides happened before the 20th century, too, and even though there had been no poison gas before WWI, people have always been very creative and employed whatever technical means they had to blow each other up, hack each other to pieces, bombard, burn, cook, maim, slash, squash, flatten the enemy in whatever way possible and available. That the 20th century saw war and genocide on an unprecedented scale was just a function of technological progress ahead of humanitarian progress, I think. But overall, the outcome of all that is a world with improved humanitarian thinking in general, even if we all still have a long way to go.
I also think the insight that it's really not so nice to exploit "underdeveloped" countries is really progress, not descent, although like I said, we actually still do that to a certain degree, if on a less massive scale and maybe less violent, too. I think overall, things are very slowly getting better in general though.
Obviously, this is not the right place to discuss this subject in general or this book in particular, but still, thanks for sharing these insights from the book. I also realize that such complex studies and conclusions can no be reduced to a short post either, and I note that everyone here who has commented on the book has apparently found it worth reading, so I think I may actually pick it up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on January 02, 2008, 04:18:24 PM
Quote from: longears on December 27, 2007, 03:34:56 PM
Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise -- thank you, Santa-baby.  Entertaining and informative, at least for me. 

I am about 1/3 of the way through, and think it's quite a brilliant book.  Ross's scholarship (whoa, check out the notes in the back) combined with his interest in so many types of music would be enough on its own, but his refracting it all through social and political prisms makes fascinating reading.  And I like that it seems readable by just about anyone; it's not pitched at experts.  I can't wait for the chapter on Britten's Peter Grimes...may have to cheat and skip ahead...

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 02, 2008, 04:57:45 PM
Quote from: bhodges on January 02, 2008, 04:18:24 PM
I am about 1/3 of the way through, and think it's quite a brilliant book.  Ross's scholarship (whoa, check out the notes in the back) combined with his interest in so many types of music would be enough on its own, but his refracting it all through social and political prisms makes fascinating reading.  And I like that it seems readable by just about anyone; it's not pitched at experts.  I can't wait for the chapter on Britten's Peter Grimes...may have to cheat and skip ahead...

--Bruce

I also liked how he pointed out similarities between pieces/composers that are seemingly completely different.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Greta on January 02, 2008, 05:01:22 PM
Quote from: bhodges on January 02, 2008, 04:18:24 PM
I am about 1/3 of the way through, and think it's quite a brilliant book.  Ross's scholarship (whoa, check out the notes in the back) combined with his interest in so many types of music would be enough on its own, but his refracting it all through social and political prisms makes fascinating reading.  And I like that it seems readable by just about anyone; it's not pitched at experts.  I can't wait for the chapter on Britten's Peter Grimes...may have to cheat and skip ahead...

--Bruce

That's about how far into it I am. ;) It's a fascinating book, and already gives me a lot to think about with the links he suggests between various composers! I love the vivid scenes he sets up concerning events that brought together the great masters, makes you wish you could've been there.

I must admit, I did skip ahead, to naturally the Sibelius chapter, which is really a nice view on how unique he was among the rest of the 20th century, focusing especially on Sibelius' place in musical life in his later years and how that affected him. And a great end to that bit!

I also hopped over to some of the Stravinsky/Schoenberg stuff - I honestly had no idea Schoenberg was ever so seriously interested in scoring for film, that was very interesting to read about!

You can tell Ross is very well-versed in literature, he makes a lot of thought-provoking references, that remind me of books I really must read sometime - Mann's Doctor Faustus being one of them. ;)

BTW - GoogleBooks has put up a hour-long discussion Alex Ross did of his book in October, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOSZ4BqQ4Og

When I'm a bit further along, I look forward to seeing it - he came to speak in Houston at a DaCamera concert but alas, I had college committments and could not go!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on January 02, 2008, 05:06:25 PM
Quote from: Greta on January 02, 2008, 05:01:22 PM
That's about how far into it I am. ;) It's a fascinating book, and already gives me a lot to think about with the links he suggests between various composers! I love the vivid scenes he sets up concerning events that brought together the great masters, makes you wish you could've been there.

I must admit, I did skip ahead, to naturally the Sibelius chapter, which is really a nice view on how unique he was among the rest of the 20th century, focusing especially on Sibelius' place in musical life in his later years and how that affected him. And a great end to that bit!

I also hopped over to some of the Stravinsky/Schoenberg stuff - I honestly had no idea Schoenberg was ever so seriously interested in scoring for film, that was very interesting to read about!

You can tell Ross is very well-versed in literature, he makes a lot of thought-provoking references, that remind me of books I really must read sometime - Mann's Doctor Faustus being one of them. ;)

This sounds like a book that will interest me too  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on January 02, 2008, 05:10:01 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 02, 2008, 04:57:45 PM
I also liked how he pointed out similarities between pieces/composers that are seemingly completely different.

Yes!  That takes unusual insight, and he seems to have a ton of it. 

Edit: just saw Greta and Chris's posts...yes, he has really done his homework, and yes, what is slightly astonishing to me is how "non-jargon-y" it is.  At a New Year's Day party yesterday I got into an interesting discussion with a rock drummer who is still skeptical of Schoenberg but had actually heard about this book.  I told him to go get a copy immediately! 

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: springrite on January 02, 2008, 05:39:34 PM
I have ordered The Rest is Noise as well and can't wait to read it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Operahaven on January 02, 2008, 05:57:53 PM
God Is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens.

So far it is my favorite of the anti-religion screeds published in the last year and a half or so.... and definitely the most accessible.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on January 02, 2008, 05:59:12 PM
Quote from: M forever on January 02, 2008, 12:54:29 PM
...I note that everyone here who has commented on the book has apparently found it worth reading, so I think I may actually pick it up.

I definitely think you'd enjoy it.  Please don't judge it from my brief note -- I was just trying to explain what the title meant -- his argument is much more complex than that, and backed with enough statistics to choke a horse.  Very readable, though.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on January 02, 2008, 06:05:06 PM
Quote from: Operahaven on January 02, 2008, 05:57:53 PM
God Is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens.

So far it is my favorite of the anti-religion screeds published in the last year and a half or so.... and definitely the most accessible.

It's certainly an accessible read.  While I agree with some of his basic premises, he goes a bit too far it seems to me.  He's too much of a pessimist IMO -- while organized religion has certainly been at the core of a great many evils over the centuries, there have been massive benefits that he glosses over, or assumes (without much justification) would have appeared without the necessity of faith.   Still, he makes some compelling arguments, and some of his personal stories are good fodder for thought.  I'd certainly recommend it if anyone has an interest in the subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: carlos on January 03, 2008, 01:45:56 AM
Dusty Sklar's " The Nazis and the Occult", Dorset Press,NY,1977.
A fascinatig book, very well written, on a subject very few had
investigated. It explains many awful nazi's deeds and the sick mentality of those monsters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 03, 2008, 01:52:25 AM
No, it doesn't. Interest in the occult may be a symptom of some confused and potentially dangerous people. But it is only a symptom, not the cause. And then there are a lot of perfectly harmless people who have some interest in that subject, too, for various reasons.
The reasons behind all that are much, much, much more complex. But to even begin to gain an understanding of that subject, a lot of study is needed. I can see how a trivial sensationalist book makes it appear easier and more attractive though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: carlos on January 03, 2008, 04:23:53 AM
Did you read the book?.  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 03, 2008, 08:52:52 AM
No, but I am pretty well informed about the subject in general and also the elements of the occult and mysticism in NS ideology in particular. That's not a matter of reading one book more or less, or any "revelatory" insights gained from just looking at that from one angle. Because like I already said,
Quote from: M forever on January 03, 2008, 01:52:25 AM
The reasons behind all that are much, much, much more complex. But to even begin to gain an understanding of that subject, a lot of study is needed. I can see how a trivial sensationalist book makes it appear easier and more attractive though.
And there are countless such books, but none of them - and no single "serious" book either - can satisfyingly and exhaustingly explain the reasons behind these events.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 03, 2008, 09:03:58 AM
Sounds like a novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: carlos on January 03, 2008, 09:42:32 AM
So, you didn't read the book but you do condemn it as trivial
and sensationalist. It is enough to show me that I have to
avoid any of your post in the future.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 03, 2008, 10:07:32 AM
With your very limited reading comprehension, you won't be able to understand most of them anyway. You didn't even understand the extremely simple and short posts I wrote above. I didn't "condemn" anything there. I just pointed out that what the Nazis did and why isn't that easily explained. There are many, and very complex, factors which played into that. Sorry, but I can't make it any shorter and easier. I can see now why you lean towards such apparently simplicist and populist literature.

Quote from: karlhenning on January 03, 2008, 09:03:58 AM
Sounds like a novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark

;D ;D ;D

Very true. Carlos - watching that movie is all you need to do to find out what the "3rd Reich" was all about. Basically, occult stuff, evil grinning people in black leather coats, evil (but not grinning) people in brown uniforms. That's about it. And corrupt French people. It also has an U-Boot, that's always good.
Oh, and it also teaches you not to open boxes when you don't really know what's inside!

What I never understood though is why Indiana Jones poures out some sand from the little sack he replaces the idol with at the beginning. I mean, the sack is smaller than the idol to begin with, it is pretty obvious that it is much lighter than the (presumably) gold idol. Duh!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on January 03, 2008, 12:06:27 PM
Quote from: carlos on January 03, 2008, 01:45:56 AM
Dusty Sklar's " The Nazis and the Occult", Dorset Press,NY,1977.
A fascinatig book, very well written, on a subject very few had
investigated. It explains many awful nazi's deeds and the sick mentality of those monsters.

I saw a documentary, some years ago, on the subject. They stated that Churchill himself tried to oppose the Nazis resorting to occult techniques. Don't know if the approach is merely sensationalist or not, by the way it sounded interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 03, 2008, 12:17:46 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on December 28, 2007, 12:15:08 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VF2P2AX5L._AA240_.jpg)

I loved this book. Fascinating insight into the amazing life of Mozart. His letters are charming, witty and reveal insight into his personality and creative music making process.  :)

Cosima Wagner Diaries ~ Vol.1. & 2

I've just started reading this massive tome. Its interesting thus far with a gloomy Gothic undercurrent to the moods and themes presented. I've a long way to go so...  :D





Hey, those look really good! I have been thinking about getting the Cosima diaries at the library, so please let me know how good?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 03, 2008, 12:20:28 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on December 28, 2007, 12:15:08 PM
I loved this book. Fascinating insight into the amazing life of Mozart. His letters are charming, witty and reveal insight into his personality and creative music making process.  :)

Yes, the Spaethling is an excellent read!  It's right here on my shelf at work.

Until I cracked this book open, I had no idea how comparatively small the body of Mozart correspondence is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 03, 2008, 12:35:40 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 02, 2008, 07:19:14 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WTC8VP4GL._SS500_.jpg)





My favorite translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 04, 2008, 09:54:09 AM
Not quite "currently" (as will shortly be explained), nor have I finished it, and so questions of how good it is must tarry a while . . . some time before the end of the year we got four copies of The Rest Is Noise in at the museum shop, and I had managed to read through something like the first three chapters.  Then, of course, the day came when I arrived at the shop for a shift, and we had sold the last copy.

Last night at the shop, I noted that we had gotten two more copies in, so I re-read the "Dance of the Earth" Chapter, and read "Invisible Men."  At the least, Alex Ross has written a book which is very readable, and there is some good fact at least somewhere on probably every page;  and this is to be commended.

At once, I am inclined to read the rest of it, but not inclined to purchase a copy.  It's quite a hot item at the Boston Public Library (there are some ten or so copies at large as it is, and they see to have ordered ten more which have not yet arrived).

Anyway, largely enjoying it, learning some new things, and being reminded of some things which I once knew, and since forgot . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on January 04, 2008, 12:59:00 PM
Quote from: Operahaven on January 02, 2008, 05:57:53 PM
God Is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens.

So far it is my favorite of the anti-religion screeds published in the last year and a half or so.... and definitely the most accessible.

      I haven't finished the Ferguson book. Now I'm reading The Portable Atheist, edited by Christopher Hitchens with an introduction by him that contains the essentials of his position, which he describes accurately as "antitheist" (I would put Dawkins in that category as well, but not Harris or Dennett).

       So far I've read the entries by Lucretius, Spinoza, Hume, and the wonderful excerpt by Boswell as he visits the dying Hume, who near the end of his life recommends Adam Smith's The Wealth Of Nations. There is also an entry by Shelley I haven't finished which contains powerful argument of a decidedly philosophical nature on causation. The book has the advantage of presenting the editors influences as well as his conclusions. I'm looking forward to reading the entries by Ayan Hirsi Ali and especially Ibn Warraq, as well as usual suspects Dawkins, Dennett, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on January 05, 2008, 12:37:35 PM
Quote from: drogulus on January 04, 2008, 12:59:00 PM
      I haven't finished the Ferguson book. Now I'm reading The Portable Atheist, edited by Christopher Hitchens with an introduction by him that contains the essentials of his position, which he describes accurately as "antitheist" (I would put Dawkins in that category as well, but not Harris or Dennett).

       So far I've read the entries by Lucretius, Spinoza, Hume, and the wonderful excerpt by Boswell as he visits the dying Hume, who near the end of his life recommends Adam Smith's The Wealth Of Nations. There is also an entry by Shelley I haven't finished which contains powerful argument of a decidedly philosophical nature on causation. The book has the advantage of presenting the editors influences as well as his conclusions. I'm looking forward to reading the entries by Ayan Hirsi Ali and especially Ibn Warraq, as well as usual suspects Dawkins, Dennett, etc.
Misery loves company, eh?

Re. The Rest Is Noise:  About halfway through and still enjoying it quite a bit.  Learning a little about music, a little about history, and a lot about influential personalities.  I've not yet encountered any claims that sent me scrambling to check facts, and there've been a few chuckles along the way.  Just finished the chapters on music under Stalin and Hitler.  Not many chuckles there.  The material on Hitler & Wagner had me once again scratching my head as to how folks can possibly distinguish his hateful anti-Semitic meglomania from his art.  Hitler sure got it, long before the paper-hanging bastard became the surrogate patriarch of Bayreuth.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on January 05, 2008, 01:23:26 PM
I've never read Hitchens, but I'm reading Dawkins' unmentionable (I prefered to wait the Italian translation which came with a sensible delay) and finishing Dennett's "Breaking the spell". I'm reading "Philosophy of Mind. An overview for cognitive science" by William Bechtel as well. I usually combine chapters from each book in order to have the feeling to proceed faster  :D
I was looking for a good history book on monks' life as well. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 05, 2008, 05:50:16 PM
Quote from: Scriptavolant on January 05, 2008, 01:23:26 PM
I was looking for a good history book on monks' life as well. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Il nome della rosa
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on January 06, 2008, 05:32:46 PM
Or: (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41jzzSTitML._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

or perhaps:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41zYrMfvc6L._SS500_.jpg)

or even:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TTN9EABTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on January 06, 2008, 05:59:22 PM

I suggest the middle one path, David.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Operahaven on January 06, 2008, 06:32:39 PM
Quote from: jwinter on January 02, 2008, 06:05:06 PM
It's certainly an accessible read.  While I agree with some of his basic premises, he goes a bit too far it seems to me.  He's too much of a pessimist IMO -- while organized religion has certainly been at the core of a great many evils over the centuries, there have been massive benefits that he glosses over, or assumes (without much justification) would have appeared without the necessity of faith.   Still, he makes some compelling arguments, and some of his personal stories are good fodder for thought.  I'd certainly recommend it if anyone has an interest in the subject.

Jwinter and Drogulus,

I agree with many things Hitchens says too but it would have been better if he had stressed that the real poison is monotheism, not religion. For example, at least ancient Greek theology does not pretend that their religion provides the right answers. It also recognizes and accepts human fallibility and doesn't promise that everything will work out in the end...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on January 06, 2008, 07:10:22 PM
Quote from: Operahaven on January 06, 2008, 06:32:39 PM
Jwinter and Drogulus,

I agree with many things Hitchens says too but it would have been better if he had stressed that the real poison is monotheism, not religion. For example, at least ancient Greek theology does not pretend that their religion provides the right answers. It also recognizes and accepts human fallibility and doesn't promise that everything will work out in the end...

More than that, it more or less guarantees that things won't end up so great for the majority of the shades. The mystery cults (e.g., Eleusis) came along with all manner of passwords for the afterlife and allegories to offer something approximating hope for the dead.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 07, 2008, 12:04:58 AM
Just finished Orhan Pamuk's The New Life. Began Henryk Sienkiewicz's The Deluge. Both are excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on January 07, 2008, 04:22:01 AM
Found a couple of beauties at a used book store:

Beethoven - Bi-Centennial 1770-1970 by Joseph and Hans Schmidt Schmidt-Georg

A great hardcover book for the coffee table!  Some beautiful illustrations.  12' x 12' book!

also got a paperback oldie:

Schubert - Alfred Einstein

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on January 07, 2008, 11:23:48 AM
Quote from: M forever on January 05, 2008, 05:50:16 PM
Il nome della rosa

Hey, that's true.
But I was looking for something more strictly historical about the work of the monks in order to preserve Classical culture, and more detailed informations about daily life and cult and Middle Age political scenario. Don't know if Il nome della Rosa gives all this.

I forgot to specify that I was referring mainly to Christian monks, Zen monks are welcomed but maybe later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on January 07, 2008, 11:32:46 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 07, 2008, 12:04:58 AM
Just finished Orhan Pamuk's The New Life.
This is one Pamuk book that I did not enjoy as much as others. Still, it has one of the greatest opening lines of any book I've read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 07, 2008, 11:51:16 AM
Quote from: Scriptavolant on January 07, 2008, 11:23:48 AM
Hey, that's true.
But I was looking for something more strictly historical about the work of the monks in order to preserve Classical culture, and more detailed informations about daily life and cult and Middle Age political scenario. Don't know if Il nome della Rosa gives all this.

I forgot to specify that I was referring mainly to Christian monks, Zen monks are welcomed but maybe later.

There is a small book by Eco, I forgot the exact title, which is basically a commentary on "The Name of the Rose". It explains a lot of these things and why certain details in the story are the way they are to fit historical "reality". This provides many interesting insights already, and there may be a bibliography and reference works listed. I am sure there are a number of very good books about this subject in Italian. I would just hit a well sorted local library and check in the history section.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 07, 2008, 04:22:46 PM
Rereading the Odyssey. It's been about 7 years since I studied it in school.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Operahaven on January 07, 2008, 05:16:59 PM
Quote from: PSmith08 on January 06, 2008, 07:10:22 PM
More than that, it more or less guarantees that things won't end up so great for the majority of the shades. The mystery cults (e.g., Eleusis) came along with all manner of passwords for the afterlife and allegories to offer something approximating hope for the dead.

Also, as an aside:

Doesn't the existence of many different gods (polytheism) offer a more plausible account than monotheism of the presence of evil and confusion in the world ?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 08, 2008, 12:44:23 AM
Quote from: Operahaven on January 07, 2008, 05:16:59 PM
Also, as an aside:

Doesn't the existence of many different gods (polytheism) offer a more plausible account than monotheism of the presence of evil and confusion in the world ?




Maybe. You might consider the monotheism of Mazdaism, where Ahura Mazda is God and the devil is his shadow. Forgive me if that's WAY oversimplified.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 08, 2008, 06:10:29 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 07, 2008, 04:22:46 PM
Rereading the Odyssey. It's been about 7 years since I studied it in school.

Scratch that, I'm actually reading Bulfinch's Mythology. I feel a bit silly I haven't read this already.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 10, 2008, 08:23:14 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PR30KVSGL._AA240_.jpg)

I like to read pseudo-science every now and again for fun, and this book disappointed less than most. Check some of the chapter titles:

1. How Ancient is Humanity?
2. Problems with Evolution
3. Could 'Extinct' Creatures Still Exist
4. Living Dinosaurs

Chapter 1, fair game, this is a subject of great debate. 2, ditto, to a lesser extent. 3, even fairer. 4, err... At first I thought this was referring to sharks or crocodiles in some way, but no. This section was accompanied by an "artists rendition" of a small African pygmy standing next to an elephant-sized diplodocus. It goes on:

5. The Mysteries of Human Evolution
6. Suppressed Facts Concerning Ancient Mankind
7. Where Did Our Civilization Come from?
8. The Story of Atlantis

5, yes. 6, OK, but you'd better back this stuff up... 7, yes, an interesting subject. 8, WTF???

I love the way he manages to mix borderline rational theories with this batshit insane stuff, so as entertainment, the book was very good. His reasoning is so puzzling that it calls his mental condition into question. He alternates between wanting to "prove" his theories by scientific means - eg mentioning the specific layers of rock items were found in - to going off on insanely elaborate leaps of faith on the basis that a few Africans claim to have seen a dinosaur, or somebody claims to have been reincarnated from another person, and their depiction of the early person's life has "a ring of truth to it", etc.

It actually did provide a few interesting points, which - if he did not outright lie about them - I am going to research from more credible sources. So it was interesting as well as funny.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 10, 2008, 01:17:02 PM
Nice to see you back, Lethe. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 10, 2008, 01:28:27 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 10, 2008, 01:17:02 PM
Nice to see you back, Lethe. :)

Danke, hehe :D I was convinced to visit my significant others parents in France so decided to make a holiday of it, visiting various cathedral towns.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 10, 2008, 02:37:58 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 08, 2008, 06:10:29 PM
Scratch that, I'm actually reading Bulfinch's Mythology. I feel a bit silly I haven't read this already.

I am very interested in Mythology, but I have never read that book. Can you say more about it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 10, 2008, 02:47:28 PM
This is my 6th reading of this Classic (admittedly, it's only the 3rd time I clicked with it entirely). This is one of those books you will be completely frustrated with your first couple of times reading it. However, once it clicks, it clicks in a most fascinating, profound way. You'll never look at things (literally, LOOK) in the same way again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 10, 2008, 03:00:54 PM
Yes, Hegel can be very hard to understand. Have you tried the comic book version?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 10, 2008, 03:03:08 PM
Quote from: M forever on January 10, 2008, 03:00:54 PM
Yes, Hegel can be very hard to understand. Have you tried the comic book version?




Dude, I wrote it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 10, 2008, 03:20:22 PM
Quote from: M forever on January 10, 2008, 02:37:58 PM
I am very interested in Mythology, but I have never read that book. Can you say more about it?

Well, I'm not even through the first section, The Age of Fable, and already a lot of allusions I found in other literature that eluded me (elusive allusions ;D) make sense. It is very useful if you're interested in literature from the first half of the 19th Century and earlier, or even mythology in general.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 10, 2008, 03:21:37 PM
Quote from: Haffner on January 10, 2008, 02:47:28 PM
This is my 6th reading of this Classic (admittedly, it's only the 3rd time I clicked with it entirely). This is one of those books you will be completely frustrated with your first couple of times reading it. However, once it clicks, it clicks in a most fascinating, profound way. You'll never look at things (literally, LOOK) in the same way again.

Schopenhauer and Nietzsche (and Kierkegaard) are pretty dismissive of Hegel. Should I bother?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 10, 2008, 03:29:07 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 10, 2008, 03:21:37 PM
Schopenhauer and Nietzsche (and Kierkegaard) are pretty dismissive of Hegel. Should I bother?




I'm pretty dismissive of Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and Kant. Read Hegel before any of them.  Since you already read Nietzsche and Kierkegaard (my two favorites) I suggest reading Sartre and Husserl as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on January 10, 2008, 03:30:16 PM
Quote from: M forever on January 10, 2008, 03:00:54 PM
Yes, Hegel can be very hard to understand. Have you tried the comic book version?

In my view, or in the view of the philosophical viewpoint I prefer, that's not a merit. I mean, you can be hard to understand because you're dealing with hard concepts, or because you're just messing up things with words instead, basically stretching their meaning far beyond the logical boundary of intelligible discourse. And I'm quite certain this is the case of Herr Hegel.
When I went to high school I really admired Hegel and bought the abovementioned work with a separate text which was a guide to the understanding of the work. But I quite soon had the feeling that Hegel was builiding his philosophy on an usage of words and concepts which had very little to do with the real world. Too idealistic, too abstract, too fanciful. Later I've found out that this feeling of mine wasn't so weird, and that some of the following generations of philosopher had thought basically the same.

There's a caustic but I think realistic review of Hegel in a nutshell in Karl Popper "The open society and its enemies". I couldn't find an english excerpt of the critic Popper adresses to Hegel, but I recommend it of course.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 10, 2008, 03:36:07 PM
Quote from: Haffner on January 10, 2008, 03:29:07 PM



I'm pretty dismissive of Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and Kant. Read Hegel before any of them.  Since you already read Nietzsche and Kierkegaard (my two favorites) I suggest reading Sartre and Husserl as well.

I don't think I've read enough of either. Just Beyond Good and evil, Zarathustra, Twilight and Antichrist from Nietzsche, and Fear and Trembling and Either/Or from Kierkegaard. Is there anything else I should read?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 10, 2008, 03:38:39 PM
Quote from: Scriptavolant on January 10, 2008, 03:30:16 PM
In my view, or in the view of the philosophical viewpoint I prefer, that's not a merit. I mean, you can be hard to understand because you're dealing with hard concepts, or because you're just messing up things with words instead, basically stretching their meaning far beyond the logical boundary of intelligible discourse. And I'm quite certain this is the case of Herr Hegel.
When I went to high school I really admired Hegel and bought the abovementioned work with a separate text which was a guide to the understanding of the work. But I quite soon had the feeling that Hegel was builiding his philosophy on an usage of words and concepts which had very little to do with the real world. Too idealistic, too abstract, too fanciful. Later I've found out that this feeling of mine wasn't so weird, and that some of the following generations of philosopher had thought basically the same.

There's a caustic but I think realistic review of Hegel in a nutshell in Karl Popper "The open society and its enemies". I couldn't find an english excerpt of the critic Popper adresses to Hegel, but I recommend it of course.




Hegel's mind was unbelievably expansive, and he meant his writings to be an accurate projection of such.

Your friends gave up on the book. Read it again. Start with the Contrite Consciousness. Read it with Monasticism in mind. Then read it with the Enlightenment in mind. Then read it with Psychoanalysis in mind. Try any number of viewpoints, and you'll begin to see the monumentality of the work.

I certainly don't begrudge anyone whom has a difficult time with Hegel. But your friends quit. If you quit again, please realize that you're telling yourself reasons why you quit. The Phenomenology of Spirit was a massive, positive influence on Phenomenology and Organic philosophy as a whole. It birthed Existentialism. Check it out again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 10, 2008, 03:39:56 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 10, 2008, 03:20:22 PM
It is very useful if you're interested in literature from the first half of the 19th Century and earlier, or even mythology in general.

I am not really aware of any literature from the 19th century that would qualify as mythology. Mythology is usually "pretty old stuff" and rarely literature as such, but something based in folk tales or other very old traditions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 10, 2008, 03:41:34 PM
Quote from: M forever on January 10, 2008, 03:39:56 PM
I am not really aware of any literature from the 19th century that would qualify as mythology. Mythology is usually "pretty old stuff" and rarely literature as such, but something based in folk tales or other very old traditions.

Haha. Maybe I should have clarified that it would be useful if you're interested in 19th Century literature since they so often make reference to mythology.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on January 10, 2008, 03:46:53 PM
I've found the excerpt I mentioned.

In order to give the reader an immediate glimpse of Hegel's Platonizing worship of the state, I shall quote a few passages, even before I begin the analysis of his historicist philosophy. These passages show that Hegel's radical collectivism depends as much on Plato as it depends on Frederick William III, king of Prussia in the critical period during and after the French Revolution. Their doctrine is that the state is everything, and the individual nothing; for he owes everything to the state, his physical as well as his spiritual existence. This is the message of Plato, of Frederick
William's Prussianism, and of Hegel. 'The Universal is to be found in the State', Hegel writes8. 'The State is the Divine Idea as it exists on earth ... We must therefore worship the State as the manifestation of the Divine on Earth, and consider that if it is difficult to comprehend Nature, it is infinitely harder to grasp the Essence of the State ... The State is the march of God through the world ... The State must be comprehended as an organism ... To the complete State belongs, essentially, consciousness and thought. The State knows what it wills ... The State is real; and .. true reality is necessary. What is real is eternally necessary ... The State .. exists for its own sake ... The State is the actually existing, realized moral life.' This selection of utterances may suffice to show Hegel's Platonism and his insistence upon the absolute moral authority of the state, which overrules all personal morality, all conscience. It is, of course, a bombastic and hysterical Platonism, but this only makes more obvious the fact that it links Platonism with modern totalitarianism. One could ask whether by these services and by his influence upon history, Hegel has not proved his genius. I do not think this question very important, since it is only part of our romanticism that we think so much in terms of 'genius'; and apart from that, I do not believe that success proves anything, or that history is our judge9; these tenets are rather part of Hegelianism. But as far as Hegel is concerned, I do not even think that he was talented. He is an indigestible writer. As even his most ardent apologists must admit10, his style is 'unquestionably scandalous'. And as far as the content of his writing is concerned, he is supreme only in his outstanding lack of originality. There is nothing in Hegel's writing that has not been said better before him. There is nothing in his apologetic method that is not borrowed from his apologetic forerunners11. But he devoted these borrowed thoughts and methods with singleness of purpose, though without a trace of brilliancy, to one aim: to fight against the open society, and thus to serve his employer, Frederick William of Prussia. Hegel's confusion and debasement of reason is partly necessary as a means to this end, partly a more accidental but very natural expression of his state of mind. And the whole story of Hegel would indeed not be worth relating, were it not for its more sinister consequences, which show how easily a clown may be a 'maker of history'. The tragicomedy of the rise of German Idealism, in spite of the hideous crimes to which it has led, resembles a comic opera much more than anything else; and these beginnings may help to explain why it is so hard to decide of its latter-day heroes whether they have escaped from the stage of Wagner's Grand Teutonic Operas or from Offenbach's farces.


From Karl Popper, The Open Society and its enemies
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scriptavolant on January 10, 2008, 03:58:11 PM
Quote from: Haffner on January 10, 2008, 03:38:39 PM
[..] positive influence on Phenomenology and Organic philosophy as a whole. It birthed Existentialism. Check it out again.

Yes, as I've said Hegel was a good start for me. I didn't quit. We had several lessons on his philosophy. But as I entered Wittgenstein's door, the way back was definitely closed and I'd consider it a waste of time now. This is my experience, but you have yours which is obviously different.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 11, 2008, 05:06:46 AM
Quote from: Scriptavolant on January 10, 2008, 03:58:11 PM
Yes, as I've said Hegel was a good start for me. I didn't quit. We had several lessons on his philosophy. But as I entered Wittgenstein's door, the way back was definitely closed and I'd consider it a waste of time now. This is my experience, but you have yours which is obviously different.





Oh yeah, Wittgenstein! "Philosophical Investigations"! Fascinating book.

I see your point, and I commend your study materials. Eccelente!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 12, 2008, 11:59:06 AM
I'm always reading more than one book at the same time...

1) Edward Timms, Karl Kraus: Apocalyptic Satirist, The Post-War Crisis and the Rise of the Swastika

2) Philip Roth, Exit Ghost

3) Sven Hanuschek, Elias Canetti

The first book is the second part of the first major study in English of Austrian satirist Karl Kraus (1874-1936). The 'Post-War Crisis' referred to is, of course, the aftermath of the First World War in Austria and Germany, which Kraus commented on and often ridiculed sharply. He saw the danger of the Nazis earlier than most. I'm always glad that he didn't live to see even his darkest premonitions and prophecies confirmed, yes, easily surpassed during the Second World War.

I just started reading Pihlip Roth's novel. I have been very impressed by 'The Human Stain', so I'm looking forward to this.

The third book is the first biography (in German) of Elias Canetti, Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, who died in 1994 at the age of 89. He became world-famous with the publication of his extraordinary autobiography (in three parts). But early on in his career he wrote a great novel when he was just 25, 'Die Blendung' (Auto-da-fe, in English), and then worked for 30 years on the massive study 'Masse und Macht', Crowds and Power. Apart from this he wrote plays and essays. I'm reading the biography just to see what parts of his life Canetti shields form our gaze in his autobiography (which only covers the first 35 years of his life, btw)...

Johan

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 12, 2008, 01:27:17 PM
At times weirdly repetitive, but it's nice to have a concordance. The selected recording section is interesting as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on January 13, 2008, 12:38:39 AM
Quote from: Haffner on January 12, 2008, 01:27:17 PM
At times weirdly repetitive, but it's nice to have a concordance. The selected recording section is interesting as well.
I'm reading Jonathan Carr's The Wagner Clan. That IS one scary family!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 13, 2008, 07:22:08 AM
Quote from: erato on January 13, 2008, 12:38:39 AM
I'm reading Jonathan Carr's The Wagner Clan. That IS one scary family!


(laughing)  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on January 13, 2008, 08:57:48 AM
Quote from: erato on January 13, 2008, 12:38:39 AM
I'm reading Jonathan Carr's The Wagner Clan. That IS one scary family!
No shit, Sherlock!  But didn't little Adolf make a wonderful surrogate papa?

Hmmm, I just flashed on the similarities between Dickie and L. Ron Hubbard.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on January 13, 2008, 12:44:37 PM
I'm not actually reading this, but it's book related so I'll post here anyway.

I came across a review for Andromeda Romano-Lax's The Spanish Bow, apparently based on the life of Pablo Casals. Sounds interesting, although the reviewer seems to think the author is trying a bit too hard. Has anyone read this or heard of this author?

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,2235880,00.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 14, 2008, 10:56:12 AM
Just finished The Groucho Letters, wonderful.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41gqjFtXfBL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 14, 2008, 12:54:38 PM
I am now reading this, too, because my best friend gave it to me for my birthday:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41M73vb9pLL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 18, 2008, 04:34:56 PM
First reading:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0140449132.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Another book I should have read before now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 19, 2008, 08:03:55 AM
Quote from: Corey on January 18, 2008, 04:34:56 PM
First reading:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0140449132.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Another book I should have read before now.




Terrific book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 19, 2008, 04:34:43 PM
Just returned from an overnight visit to the Fearrington Inn near Chapel Hill, NC - wife's yearly Birthday treat!  Great bookstore there called McIntryre's Bookstore (http://www.fearrington.com/village/mcintyres.asp) - small, but w/ an intelligent selection of books w/ a lot of paperback selections, recent choices below:

Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World (2007) by Colin Wells - looking forward to reading this book - I love the Byzantium Empire - most simply don't know the impact this empire had on the world - excellent reviews!  :D

Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design (2007) by Michael Shermer  - short book on the present argument of 'Intelligent Design' vs. 'Darwinian Evolution', so if you're into this stuff (as I've been from the 1960s!), then pick up the book!  :o


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61E15W6PYVL._AA240_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QkfNmF0GL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 19, 2008, 09:15:57 PM
(http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/covers_450/9781855327351.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 20, 2008, 01:19:34 AM
Osprey have a pretty astonishing range of these little military history books. They must have hundreds of titles about all sorts of subjects, military history, campaigns, tactics, weapons, uniforms. Usually very well researched and with a lot of detailed illustrations. Very valuable sources of information if you are interested in that kind of stuff. Although since recent generations of Germans have grown up with an extremely critical attitude towards glorification of military subjects (I probably don't have to explain why), I am sometimes puzzled by the extent of the fascination the British have with that subject:

(http://www.hobbiesguinea.com/images/osmod23.jpg)

Hmmm...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 20, 2008, 04:00:52 AM
Quote from: M forever on January 20, 2008, 01:19:34 AM
Although since recent generations of Germans have grown up with an extremely critical attitude towards glorification of military subjects (I probably don't have to explain why), I am sometimes puzzled by the extent of the fascination the British have with that subject

I know that was rhetorical, but I have wondered about it myself. I think it's because after WW2, when grand "glorious" wars in the 18th/19th century sense were no longer possible for European nations due to the stability of the western side of the continent (and for a while, the Soviet Union's threat), the British seemed to go out on a "high" after a few hundred years of generally unbroken success in the field (not that it could've necessarily held onto its military position for much longer, it was just a fortunate coincidence), so there remained an interest in the subject opposed to other nations which went out on a "low". There is also regarding WW2 in particular, the realisation that it could've gone horribly wrong and the world could've been so much worse than after any previous war that it could hardly be comprehended*, so to celebrate/relive the good fortune of a victory against Germany is a way of "dealing" with a time that could've resulted in the eradication of the whole country.

The general inferiority complex of some British/English people means that reminding of long past or recent achievements is a way for someone to confirm to themselves that they are a great nation. The isolation (and also safety) of an island nation versus every other major European country with multiple borders plays a part of the psyche. Not just making cultural exchange a little more difficult, it has also been more stable than continental nations as a result. There was a medium hiccup in the 11th century, and a larger one in the 17th, but generally it has been plain sailing during other times, relative so some of the turmoil in Europe.

During a fair few parts of that millennium, there have been either strong armies, or a strong navy, which have kept out would-be invaders, and there's a perception that this has kept the country rather secure. The sheer amount of wars that the country was involved in, with a military infrastructure that was able to develop without being interrupted by major political problems, led to the country being able to do things militarily that should've been beyond its means. This simply means that the country created a lot of historical events which are of interest. As there is a bias towards national glorification in history in many arenas (for example, books on medieval cathedrals in French will mainly focus on French buildings, ones in English will mainly focus on English ones), then as the British were particularly good at waging war from between 1337-1945, their interests tend to reflect that more strongly than another nation where that is not one of their more prominent achivements.

*Only in the 20th century were the technologies and infrastructure available to fully occupy and eradicate whatever the aggressor likes within a country. Prior to that, wars generally ended in "shame" for the defeated nation, but generally the aggressor pulled out afterwards, and perhaps absorbed bits of territory, but not full countries. It was kind of pulled off by the English with its neighbours, but the success of this was partly due to cultural similarity, and partly because it was not a full assimilation anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on January 20, 2008, 07:51:43 AM


      The British lost the war, along with the French, the Germans and all of Eastern Europe. The Soviets won with massive help from the Americans (we supplied food, fuel, trucks and planes, they supplied soldiers).

      If you want to understand why military glory no longer appeals to Europeans you just have to read a little history. Europeans don't really understand this any better than we do, though. They have formed the opinion that they reject glorifying war because of their superior virtue. Furthermore, there's no punchline to this joke.

     

     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 20, 2008, 08:31:00 AM
(http://www.booksamillion.com/bam/covers/0/37/570/524/0375705244.jpg)

Dave (Sonic),
I am sure you have read the above.  I just started today and would appreciate yours and others thoughts that have also read this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 20, 2008, 08:55:17 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 20, 2008, 08:31:00 AM
(http://www.booksamillion.com/bam/covers/0/37/570/524/0375705244.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SNMRVTCXL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518GNYQ32XL._AA240_.jpg)

Dave (Sonic),
I am sure you have read the above.  I just started today and would appreciate yours and others thoughts that have also read this.

Hello, Bill - yes, but has been a while (bought in hardcover from the History Book Club when released) - good read, some sections better than others - I really like Joseph Ellis, but must say that my favorite 'recent' book of his was the one on George Washington; BTW, also bought the DVD set of the Founding Brothers - quite good also (would suggest a rental, if you've not already seen the production).  Dave  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 20, 2008, 09:13:00 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on January 20, 2008, 08:55:17 AM
Hello, Bill - yes, but has been a while (bought in hardcover from the History Book Club when released) - good read, some sections better than others - I really like Joseph Ellis, but must say that my favorite 'recent' book of his was the one on George Washington; BTW, also bought the DVD set of the Founding Brothers - quite good also (would suggest a rental, if you've not already seen the production).  Dave  :D



Yes Dave, I have read his GW book and was VERY impressed.  My wife is about half through it now and also is enjoying it.  Have you noted the new John Adams series coming up on HBO.  We may end up subscribing to it just to catch this series.  Here is a preview...looks impressive:

http://www.hbo.com/films/johnadams/index.html

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 20, 2008, 09:43:38 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 20, 2008, 09:13:00 AM
Yes Dave, I have read his GW book and was VERY impressed.  My wife is about half through it now and also is enjoying it.  Have you noted the new John Adams series coming up on HBO.  We may end up subscribing to it just to catch this series.  Here is a preview...looks impressive:

http://www.hbo.com/films/johnadams/index.html

I was not aware of the Adams series on HBO - we have TW cable but to not subscribe to the premium channels - likely will be available soon after on Netflix, so will add to my 'rental list' - thanks for the mention!  Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on January 20, 2008, 02:54:00 PM
(http://context.themoscowtimes.com/photos/large/2004_10/2004_10_01/book_2.jpg)

Very researched and balanced, with all aspects of the dictatorships examined and explained.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Varg on January 23, 2008, 12:21:18 AM
Quote from: Haffner on January 10, 2008, 03:29:07 PM



I'm pretty dismissive of Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and Kant. Read Hegel before any of them.  Since you already read Nietzsche and Kierkegaard (my two favorites) I suggest reading Sartre and Husserl as well.

Why Sartre? I find him superficial, and he's not even good at it... "he's not even superficial", as Nietzsche liked to say. To speak more precisely; he's just plain stupid, any idiot of our era could have written such enormities. What i hear when i hear Sartre is: "Lets not give a shit about anything, lets do whatever we want, no matter how harmful it can be to ourselves, mankind, life and earth. Life is short, we must not care too much about things" (it's even worst than Cioran, who, at least, never pretended to be healthy). This is what he had in mind when saying the word "freedom"! I know how this word sounds to people ears, and i also know how easily they make the mistake to not listen what's behind the word. If we compare, for exemple, the freedom of both Sartre and Nietzsche, we'll find out that they are perfect opposites; even if they both have builded a "freedom philosophy", they have builded totally opposites philosophies.

That's how i see him personnaly -- oh wait, i havent said it!! -- (as the "voice of the people") and that's why i'm curious to know what you find interesting about Sartre, especially as a Nietzsche enthousiast? Or maybe you just start to dance when you hear "freedom"?!! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 23, 2008, 10:44:11 AM
Quote from: Varg on January 23, 2008, 12:21:18 AM
"he's not even superficial", as Nietzsche liked to say.


Reminds me of another, "dark"(laughing like crazy) Varg....hope you're not a fan of his (unintentionally hilarious) "writings". Cool music though.

If your post was meant to be vehemently conclusive, then you have alot more to read. Sartre took copiously from Hegel in particular. In fact, he actually ended up reading like he was attempting to Nietzsche-ize Hegel. I reccomended Sartre because he gives an excellent overview of the French Existentialistic craze of the early to mid 20th century.

You aren't specific enough in your attack on Sartre. Please cite quotes (within context) from his works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Varg on January 23, 2008, 03:39:38 PM
Quote from: Haffner on January 23, 2008, 10:44:11 AM

Reminds me of another, "dark"(laughing like crazy) Varg....hope you're not a fan of his (unintentionally hilarious) "writings". Cool music though. No, i'm not a fan of his. The name Varg, as i use it, has nothing to do with Vikernes whatsoever.

If your post was meant to be vehemently conclusive, then you have alot more to read. Sartre took copiously from Hegel in particular. In fact, he actually ended up reading like he was attempting to Nietzsche-ize Hegel. I reccomended Sartre because he gives an excellent overview of the French Existentialistic craze of the early to mid 20th century. That's all i wanted to know. I was just being curious.

You aren't specific enough in your attack on Sartre. Please cite quotes (within context) from his works. I could only do that in french, that is, if i'm able to find my "worthless books" boxes. But it's not what he's written, it's what i see behind his writing, so there's no way i can be specific about it, or demonstrate it; like every great stains, it never shows it's real face, it's always hidding behind a pretty surface. It's just a personnal thing; i dont expect you to (as i dont wish you to) agree with me, and i'm not trying to make you eat my meal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 23, 2008, 04:22:37 PM
Quote from: Varg on January 23, 2008, 03:39:38 PM
Quote from: Haffner on January 23, 2008, 10:44:11 AM

Reminds me of another, "dark"(laughing like crazy) Varg....hope you're not a fan of his (unintentionally hilarious) "writings". Cool music though. No, i'm not a fan of his. The name Varg, as i use it, has nothing to do with Vikernes whatsoever.

If your post was meant to be vehemently conclusive, then you have alot more to read. Sartre took copiously from Hegel in particular. In fact, he actually ended up reading like he was attempting to Nietzsche-ize Hegel. I reccomended Sartre because he gives an excellent overview of the French Existentialistic craze of the early to mid 20th century. That's all i wanted to know. I was just being curious.

You aren't specific enough in your attack on Sartre. Please cite quotes (within context) from his works. I could only do that in french, that is, if i'm able to find my "worthless books" boxes. But it's not what he's written, it's what i see behind his writing, so there's no way i can be specific about it, or demonstrate it; like every great stains, it never shows it's real face, it's always hidding behind a pretty surface. It's just a personnal thing; i dont expect you to (as i dont wish you to) agree with me, and i'm not trying to make you eat my meal.




Admirably put. I respect you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 23, 2008, 04:31:40 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/MedievalMusic.jpg)

Medieval Music - Richard Hoppin
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on January 24, 2008, 02:11:06 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4171XW4VBVL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Had the sudden urge to read this after seeing Last Year At Marienbad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 25, 2008, 01:02:09 AM
Been way too single-minded lately. Prior to now:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51J6FAWFT7L._AA240_.jpg)

An extremely good book, despite its age (late 60s) it remains very useful for both the attention he pays to detail, and for the lack of attention he pays to symbolic nonsense. His enthusiasm for the style is very evident throughout, and covers Norman to Perpendicular in one great sweep. Black and white photos, but this is perhaps a benefit. The same photographer is responsible for almost all of them and he is very skilled - all of them are very sharp and well composed. B&W also makes it easier to focus on details such as tracery, and them being taken in the B&W era also means that the surrounding environment of the buildings in the images is less congested than it would be nowadays. Both editions (the later is on better paper, but that isn't a crippling problem for the earlier one - it still looks good) can be picked up for almost nothing (my as-new copy was 1p on Amazon UK).

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/ciu/a3/45/cf4df96642a046c6777a7110._AA240_.L.jpg) (New Bell's guides)

This whole series is very good - they can be picked up second hand reasonably cheaply and are very in-depth vs. the common almost pamphlet sized "book"s devoted to single buildings. Plentiful black and white photos, diagrams and detailed text.

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/ciu/78/97/b0cdc27a02a07770967a7110._AA240_.L.jpg) (Malcolm Miller)

This is A4 sized and the pictures are too numerous compared to the text (a huge flaw in almost every large book on the subject), but mainly focuses on the stained glass, which is a useful compliment to any other book on the structure. Colour throughout.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z35P1sHQL._AA240_.jpg) (Basil Cottle)

This isn't the kind of book to be read through in one go, but is a useful reference to keep coming back to - it's essentially an alphabetical list, each entry containing a description of varying length, some with photos (and some of the full paged photographs of lesser-known buildings are quite welcome). Coloured photos throughout.

ATM these two:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510W3M6YFHL._AA240_.jpg)

So far this seems as detailed an overview of the French style (and subsequently, the offshoots) as the Clifton-Taylor book was for the English style. This book is longer than that, and a bit more academic. The detail on the elements of transition from Norman to Gothic that are covered is giving me good reason to expect a lot of insight in the later chapters. Photos are exemplary: black and white, and generally no "imposing"/"beautiful" distance shots - they are plentiful and focus on the article's text very well. Generally showing closeups of vaulting, fascades, etc. Also has plenty of useful line-drawings and floorplans.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/719PR9158AL._AA240_.gif) (Hans Jantzen)

This one is a translated reprint of a quite old book, from the mid 50s, but books in English providing detail (and not just "pretty pictures") on non-English cathedrals are disturbingly scarce, so beggers can't be choosers (Chartres may be reasonably easy to find books on, but Reims is not, and even Amiens is harder than it should be... My French can get me through conversations sometimes, but is not up to technical descriptions). Fortunately this doesn't seem to contain too much BS. Has a few pages of black and white photos in the middle, but generally it's text and diagrams/line-drawings only (there are plenty of the latter, which is nice).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 25, 2008, 09:01:06 AM
Quote from: Corey on January 23, 2008, 04:31:40 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/MedievalMusic.jpg)

Medieval Music - Richard Hoppin

Corey - please post your thoughts; several years back I was looking for books on Medieval & Renaissance music - bought the book shown on the Renaissance era, another Norton offering; of course, these are texts oriented for college music courses (as least in my mind) - the Renaissance book was published in 1998; the other is about 20 yrs older & I was hoping a 'new' edition might have appeared (so much more known about these musical periods in the last 30+ years), but same one being offered on Amazon.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on January 28, 2008, 09:12:34 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417SV938KJL._BO2,204,203,200_PIlitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
I've just started this over the weekend. So far so very good. My first venture into Ms Atwood's ouvre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 28, 2008, 09:28:13 AM
(http://i.cnn.net/money/2007/09/17/news/newsmakers/greenspan_sales/greenspan_age_turbulence.03.jpg)

Interesting economic history of the 1970s and overview of current thinking, but marred by his plodding prose.  Reads like one of his prepared statements to congress when he was Fed chief.


(http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/05-06-10images/RoadReality.jpg)

Fascinating and well written - it is a layman's guide to physics that does not skip the math.  However I find myself going back to learn more about several topics beyond the depth they are addressed in the text.  I do not think I can tackle any more of this without studying complex analysis more, and will likely put this down and come back to it after I school myself better in the topic, which I know very little of.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: paulb on January 28, 2008, 03:00:04 PM
Quote from: drogulus on January 20, 2008, 07:51:43 AM

      The British lost the war, along with the French, the Germans and all of Eastern Europe. The Soviets won with massive help from the Americans (we supplied food, fuel, trucks and planes, they supplied soldiers).

      If you want to understand why military glory no longer appeals to Europeans you just have to read a little history. Europeans don't really understand this any better than we do, though. They have formed the opinion that they reject glorifying war because of their superior virtue. Furthermore, there's no punchline to this joke.

     

     

Sure europe hates anything to do with war, after 2 major horrific conflicts in a span of less than 50 yrs. So obviously the idea of having nothing to do with war by consent of a  superior virtue, doesn't fit image of the historically past. Its  now a   case of 'been there/done that, no thank you".
You'd think the US has already learned its lesson from viet nam. But with the movements into pakistan proves its not so. Apparently The pentagon loves punsihment and misery.
Also the ones who really lost in the war, were by far the germans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 28, 2008, 03:48:57 PM
Quote from: paulb on January 28, 2008, 03:00:04 PM
Sure europe hates anything to do with war

Europe is not a person, but a continent with several hundred million people on it with dozens of different languages and cultures.

Quote from: paulb on January 28, 2008, 03:00:04 PM
So obviously the idea of having nothing to do with war by consent of a  superior virtue, doesn't fit image of the historically past. Its  now a   case of 'been there/done that, no thank you".

Maybe, maybe not. If so, then it is a case of having learnt a lesson from experience. Being able to learn is actually a virtue.

Quote from: paulb on January 28, 2008, 03:00:04 PM
Also the ones who really lost in the war, were by far the germans.

Indeed, and most people don't even know to what extent Germany was destroyed in WWII. Yet only a few years later, with just a little help from the Marshall plan, but most simply because they were finally left alone, they had rebuilt most of Western Germany and the strongest economy in Europe going. So the whole post-WWI and WWII thing was basically pointless because the main point of that had been that declining colonial empires wanted to try to keep the country with the second largest population and the by far most developed industrialization from becoming the economically strongest country in Europe. But that didn't work out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 28, 2008, 04:05:29 PM
Quote from: M forever on January 28, 2008, 03:48:57 PM
Europe is not a person, but a continent with several hundred million people on it with dozens of different languages and cultures.

Maybe, maybe not. If so, then it is a case of having learnt a lesson from experience. Being able to learn is actually a virtue.

Indeed, and most people don't even know to what extent Germany was destroyed in WWII. Yet only a few years later, with just a little help from the Marshall plan, but most simply because they were finally left alone, they had rebuilt most of Western Germany and the strongest economy in Europe going. So the whole post-WWI and WWII thing was basically pointless because the main point of that had been that declining colonial empires wanted to try to keep the country with the second largest population and the by far most developed industrialization from becoming the economically strongest country in Europe. But that didn't work out.




Intriguing post. Makes me want to learn more...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 28, 2008, 11:20:57 PM
Where did Jezetha's post go? He surprised me by asking to be more specific. I thought everyone, at least everyone from central Europe knew how WWI ended and what happened after that and what led to the Nazis coming to power and eventually WWII.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 29, 2008, 12:07:44 AM
Quote from: M forever on January 28, 2008, 11:20:57 PM
Where did Jezetha's post go? He surprised me by asking to be more specific. I thought everyone, at least everyone from central Europe knew how WWI ended and what happened after that and what led to the Nazis coming to power and eventually WWII.

It seems we have a small 'Historikerstreit' on our hands here...

You imply that Hitler and all he stands for is just a reaction to the humiliation Germany suffered at the hands of the stupid (in their vindictiveness) Allies after having lost WWI. But then you completely overlook Germany's real drive to become a world power, in competition with, especially, England. The 'Lebensraum' idea was there before WWI. Germany's 'place in the sun' was an obsession. Those two World Wars are the death throes of the European will to power. It is disingenuous of you to say that Germany wanted to be 'left alone' to only become an economic power. Germany wanted much much more, in emulation of other European (colonial) powers. And it was defeated, but only after Communism (Soviet Union) and Capitalism (USA) joined forces. It was a cooperation that ended immediately after that deed was done. And so the Cold War started, with two superpowers vying for the same trophy.

Now you know where I stand on this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on January 29, 2008, 12:21:59 AM
Reading the fine score of the St John passion written by our own Karl Henning, and send to me out of his kindness.
I am playing it on the piano, and singing along.
I had not so much pleasure reading a modern score since ages.
Well done Karl.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on January 29, 2008, 05:14:07 AM
I Don't Want To Talk About It: Overcoming The Secret Legacy Of Male Depression - Terrence Real

Very good.  Provides tremendous insight.  I can highly recommend this to anyone, male or female, that suffers from depression.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on January 29, 2008, 05:41:39 AM
Has anyone read:
(http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/covers_450/9780385511841.jpg)
This seems to have been drawing a lot of fire recently from liberal apologists.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 29, 2008, 06:02:52 AM
Quote from: Harry on January 29, 2008, 12:21:59 AM
Reading the fine score of the St John passion written by our own Karl Henning, and send to me out of his kindness.
I am playing it on the piano, and singing along.
I had not so much pleasure reading a modern score since ages.
Well done Karl.





I saw early on how absorbing the score was, and sat down with and some really fine coffee!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 29, 2008, 08:33:03 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on January 29, 2008, 12:07:44 AM
It seems we have a small 'Historikerstreit' on our hands here...

You imply that Hitler and all he stands for is just a reaction to the humiliation Germany suffered at the hands of the stupid (in their vindictiveness) Allies after having lost WWI. But then you completely overlook Germany's real drive to become a world power, in competition with, especially, England. The 'Lebensraum' idea was there before WWI. Germany's 'place in the sun' was an obsession. Those two World Wars are the death throes of the European will to power. It is disingenuous of you to say that Germany wanted to be 'left alone' to only become an economic power. Germany wanted much much more, in emulation of other European (colonial) powers. And it was defeated, but only after Communism (Soviet Union) and Capitalism (USA) joined forces. It was a cooperation that ended immediately after that deed was done. And so the Cold War started, with two superpowers vying for the same trophy.

Now you know where I stand on this.

I am not implying any of the above. I don't think those subjects can be that drastically simplified, and I don't believe in speculative history either, what could or what would have happened or who would have liked to do what but couldn't. That the united Imperial Germany wanted to be some kind of "world power" just like all the other bigger European states around it is obvious and easy to understand - Germany *was* and *is* economically simply one of the strongest regions, like it or not, because Germans are the second largest ethnic group (defined by language, not by racist nonsense) in Europe and the country had been much more developed industrially than any other country in Europe. Which BTW, is also one of the main reasons why the Marshall plan was needed, not just to help Germany, but because its economy played and still plays a central role in the mechanisms of European economy.
Like other European countries at the time, there were heavy tensions in Germany between more progressive and more conservative forces but the more progressive democratic forces which had no imperial designs or interest prevailed at first and it is pretty amazing to see how the Weimar Republic actually lasted for 13 1/2 years even though. That is a fact, not speculation. Fact is also that when the economy of the Weimar Republic stabilized in the mid-late 20s, the Nazis and other extremist groups more or less disappeared from sight (check the results of the elections of 1927, for instance). Fact is also that the WR had to pay immense reparations for WWI and that the entire economy collapsed under that burden, but they still managed to get it going again somehow until the late 20s when world economy went into recession and that hit Germany harder than many other countries because the economy had just been slightly stable. Fact is also that economy in Germany boomed very massively in the 50s, like it had done several times before. A more negative fact is that the military power the 3rd Reich developed itself is a sinister demonstration of how strong the economy there got within just a few years after 1933 when 1/3 of the people were unemployed. It is no speculation therefore to see that if they had just left the Weimar Republic alone, it would easily have regenerated and it is very likely that the more modern progressive forces would have prevailed (and yes, that is speculation now, but only to a certain degree because fact is that they actually did last for quite some time under very difficult circumstances caused by external factors).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on January 29, 2008, 08:38:03 AM
Quote from: Haffner on January 29, 2008, 06:02:52 AM




I saw early on how absorbing the score was, and sat down with and some really fine coffee!



Good, we are in one mind about it then Andy! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 30, 2008, 01:20:07 PM
Pressure from outside alone cannot explain the vicious mix of militarism, racism, nationalism, Darwinism, imperialism that is Nazism (ism ism ism, I know). The Weimar Republic was weak, because it wasn't supported from within. War Reparations were eased with the Dawes Plan, thanks to Stresemann. Germany was not the only country to be stricken by the economic crisis - that the reaction took the form it did, points at deeper things, and deeper roots. I have a book here, written in 1912. I bought it in Hradec Kralove, in the Czech Republic. Königgratz... Nice Gothic letters. Title: 'Wenn ich der Kaiser wär'. I have a reprint from February 1914. A few quotes (I won't translate), and they are 'gesperrt' in the original, so the writer, Daniel Frymann (a pseudonym*), must have found them very important:

Entwicklung und Bedürfnis zeigen, dass wir wieder hungrig geworden sind, hungrig nach Land;

Gibt es eigentlich etwas Tragischeres, als die Rolle der heutig Regierenden? Zwischen ihnen und dem Volke steht ein Mittler - der Jude - und er lässt nur durch, was ihm gefällt;

Das allgemeine gleiche Wahlrecht ist nicht die Form, durch die eine Volksvertretung geschaffen wird, wie sie ein grosses Volk in schwieriger Lage braucht. Deshalb muss grundsätzlich die Forderung erhoben werden, dies Wahlrecht zu beseitigen.

And I could go on.

I reject your thesis that pressure from outside was mainly responsible for German's catastrophe. I take the view that Hitler is the result of a much longer development (in which my own beloved Wagner also plays his part).

*Heinrich Class, chairman of the Alldeutscher Verband.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: head-case on January 30, 2008, 01:42:32 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on January 30, 2008, 01:20:07 PM
Pressure from outside alone cannot explain the vicious mix of militarism, racism, nationalism, Darwinism, imperialism that is Nazism (ism ism ism, I know). The Weimar Republic was weak, because it wasn't supported from within. War Reparations were eased with the Dawes Plan, thanks to Stresemann. Germany was not the only country to be stricken by the economic crisis - that the reaction took the form it did, points at deeper things, and deeper roots. I have a book here, written in 1912. I bought it in Hradec Kralove, in the Czech Republic. Königgratz... Nice Gothic letters. Title: 'Wenn ich der Kaiser wär'. I have a reprint from February 1914. A few quotes (I won't translate), and they are 'gesperrt' in the original, so the writer, Daniel Frymann*, must have found them very important:

Entwicklung und Bedürfnis zeigen, dass wir wieder hungrig geworden sind, hungrig nach Land;

Gibt es eigentlich etwas Tragischeres, als die Rolle der heutig Regierenden? Zwischen ihnen und dem Volke steht ein Mittler - der Jude - und er lässt nur durch, was ihm gefällt;

Das allgemeine gleiche Wahlrecht ist nicht die Form, durch die eine Volksvertretung geschaffen wird, wie sie ein grosses Volk in schwieriger Lage braucht. Deshalb muss grundsätzlich die Forderung erhoben werden, dies Wahlrecht zu beseitigen.

And I could go on.

I reject your thesis that pressure from outside was mainly responsible for German's catastrophe. I take the view that Hitler is the result of a much longer development (in which my own beloved Wagner also plays his part).

*Heinrich Class, chairman of the Alldeutscher Verband.

What fraction of the readers of this forum do you think can read German?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 30, 2008, 01:49:43 PM
Kind of doing a 'change of pace' (getting away from wars, revolutions, & wine for a while) - need to refresh my mind about some of the ancient classic civilizations:

The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian (2006) by Robin Lane Fox - some mixed but generally good reviews on Amazon - should be a satisfactory 'refresher' course for me -  :D

Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World (2007) by Colin Wells - really enjoy reading about this fascinating empire from the past - visited Ravenna back in '96 on a trip to northern Italy (mainly Milan & Bologna) - just loved the ancient architecture & mosaics -  8)


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X54XNHBML._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61E15W6PYVL._AA240_.jpg)

(http://www.travelplan.it/img/ravenna03.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 30, 2008, 02:01:46 PM
Quote from: head-case on January 30, 2008, 01:42:32 PM
What fraction of the readers of this forum do you think can read German?

Sorry for that. But translating is too much trouble. These will be my only German quotations. Ever. Promise.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 30, 2008, 10:36:11 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on January 30, 2008, 01:20:07 PM
I reject your thesis that pressure from outside was mainly responsible for German's catastrophe. I take the view that Hitler is the result of a much longer development (in which my own beloved Wagner also plays his part).

Sure he was. What gives you the idea that I doubt that? There were a lot of extremist nutcases like him on the loose back then. There still are, but certainly not as many and they aren't really dangerous anymore. That didn't/doesn't really have anything to do with external factors (meaning external in the sense of caused by foreign influences and pressures). Who said it did? I didn't. The spectrum of political and ideological views back then was very wide and diverse, and it contained a lot of really crazy and extremist factions. The NSDAP was basically the lowest common denominator between all those, that's why they managed to get so much more following than many of the other extremist groups. They catered to almost all of them, in actually very clever and politically completely opportunist ways. We can still learn a lot about politics from what they did. This is best summed up in the title of a BBC documentary which is part of their epic WWII documentary series: "The Nazis - A Warning From History".

But all that has really not much to do with what I said earlier. I didn't talk about why these crazy people were running around, I talked about why they eventually came to power in Germany and that that had been - involuntarily, of course - caused by the attempt by foreign powers, mostly Britain and France, to take advantage of the crisis situation after WWI, to keep Germany from gaining the dominant position in Europe it was about to take which had nothing to do with any nationalist aspirations for world domination or ideas of racial superiority or anything like that, but simply with the fact that Germany back then already had a rather large population (again, the second largest in Europe), a fairly high average level of education and job training and a massive industrial output. You know, there are reason for the fact that a lot of the composers discussed in this forum are German, a lot of the philosophers and writers discussed in this very thread (and a few others) are, too, and that Germany still is the export nation #1 in the world (or at least was last year). None of that has much to do with Hitler and his hooligan friends, although I can see how they come in handy to draw anything German into the dirt whenever that is desired.

My actual point in reply to Paul wasn't a "thesis" about what caused the catastrophe that we all know as WWII. My point was a simple observation - namely that Germany technically lost WWII and beyond technically, the country was actually destroyed to a large degree, yet less than a decade later they were much better off than a lot of the people who had technically actually won the war. That's kind of unfair, don't you think? And of course it makes one think. The same applies to Japan, of course, the other country which did some really nasty stuff in that period and lost the war spectacularly, too, yet they emerged as an economically very strong and prosperous nation soon afterwards anyway. So the whole WWII thing was really completely pointless.

I find it very interesting though that what I said triggered this reaction from you which really didn't have much to do with what I actually said. I find that veeeery interesting. We already know that the Nazis were some really evil people and that they weren't alone in holding strange and extremist views - but not only in Germany. My impression has always been that your own country hasn't faced its own negative past nearly as openly as the past has been faced and discussed in Germany for decades. Sure, there isn't nearly as much evil stuff to process and discuss, although there are some dark colonial chapters there as well, but all in all, it's not nearly as much and not nearly as bad - after all, everything in the Netherlands happens on a much smaller scale than elsewhere. But just the single chapter of how they behaved under occupation is very interesting, especially when we see how they still uphold myths like the great Dutch resistance when in reality, they just handed over the keys, along with a lot of the Jews and also some of the few people who were actually active in the resistance. A lot of the people didn't find those ideas of racial superiority unattractive at all, after all, they had their own colonial past and they could see themselves as "Aryan", too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 30, 2008, 11:17:05 PM
Quote from: M forever on January 30, 2008, 10:36:11 PM
I find it very interesting though that what I said triggered this reaction from you which really didn't have much to do with what I actually said. I find that veeeery interesting. We already know that the Nazis were some really evil people and that they weren't alone in holding strange and extremist views - but not only in Germany. My impression has always been that your own country hasn't faced its own negative past nearly as openly as the past has been faced and discussed in Germany for decades. Sure, there isn't nearly as much evil stuff to process and discuss, although there are some dark colonial chapters there as well, but all in all, it's not nearly as much and not nearly as bad - after all, everything in the Netherlands happens on a much smaller scale than elsewhere. But just the single chapter of how they behaved under occupation is very interesting, especially when we see how they still uphold myths like the great Dutch resistance when in reality, they just handed over the keys, along with a lot of the Jews and also some of the few people who were actually active in the resistance. A lot of the people didn't find those ideas of racial superiority unattractive at all, after all, they had their own colonial past and they could see themselves as "Aryan", too.

I, on my part, find it 'veeeery interesting' that you presuppose I would be uncritical of my own country's past. I am no nationalist, nor even a patriot. I like this country, most of the time. But I am all for truth. I love Germany, and Britain, and Denmark, and the Netherlands, and I could go on, for all the things that are best about them - art, philosophy, painting, music et cetera. But this love doesn't make me blind, or inspire me to slant things in a certain way as I sense you are doing.

I know only too well the way in which Dutch resistance has been overstated. I know the Dutch colonial past only too well - I am a product of it, with a father from Suriname. What I didn't like about your way of explaining German history was the impression you created of Germany being a victim of circumstances, and all the things that happened having a mainly economic origin.

There were a lot of cowards in the Netherlands during the Second World War, and a few heroes. But the Dutch Nazi movement never amounted to much - there were no roots. The German 'Sonderweg' started with the catastrophe of the Thirty Years War, and the lack of nationhood. The Netherlands found its more or less stable identity with its war against the Spaniards, in the seventeenth century.

If Dutch cowards handed over the keys, it was to Nazis who forced/enabled them. Otherwise there would have been the children of 105.000 Jews still living in my country.

And now, for me - end of discussion. Love your country, by all means, M forever. But be fair.

Johan
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on January 30, 2008, 11:54:45 PM
I don't love any country, neither Germany nor any other. I don't hate any country either. Countries and cultures are enormously complex phenomena, and they may, to a certain degree, have traits of persons, but my attitude towards them is not the same emotional attitude I have towards people. People, as complex and hard to really understand as they, too, are, are still individuals and they can be loved (or hated) or leave one indifferent, but I find it strange to have the same emotional attitude towards a country or a culture. I think that is a big difference between you and me, and that is why you don't understand what I am really talking about. You are seeing things way too emotional here - which is your priviledge, of course. I just have a different attitude towards that subject. Along the same lines, people sometimes ask me if I am either proud or ashamed to be German (or both), and I find that a strange thing, too. I am only proud of or ashamed of my own actions, not those of other people which were coincidentally born in the same country as me. But I am extremely aware of my own cultural background, with all its extreme contradictions, it highly complex culture and its violent and turbulent history. That is something you can not understand because your own cultural background is not as complex and full of extreme contradictions. Maybe that makes it easier for you to have such a simple emotional attitude towards it. That I can't tell either because I in turn lack your background.

You are probably pointing into the right direction, though, when you mention that things that have happened in history have mainly economic reasons, even though you tend to dount that yourself. I personally tend towards thinking that more and more. It looks like economic interests are really what it's all about. All the ideological, philosophical, religious, or whatever other apparent reasons are really just decoration. And they help motivate a lot of people go in the same direction without really understanding why. But in the end, it is really mostly economic interests that move things - and people. Think about it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on January 31, 2008, 12:02:39 AM
Quote from: M forever on January 30, 2008, 11:54:45 PM
But in the end, it is really mostly economic interests that move things - and people. Think about it.

I think a lot (handicapped by my simple background of course). And I know my Marx.

Schluss.

P.S. What economic interest do you serve by wasting your time on this forum?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on January 31, 2008, 12:19:13 AM
I started again with reading the complete Dickens, I did that 18 times before.
Only wish I could aquire a topnotch bound complete set, with nice drawings, a really old fashioned made book.
And not go bankrupt in the process.
Boy, O, boy the prices I saw on internet......
Shudder.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 31, 2008, 12:29:36 AM
Quote from: M forever on January 30, 2008, 11:54:45 PM
IAll the ideological, philosophical, religious, or whatever other apparent reasons are really just decoration. And they help motivate a lot of people go in the same direction without really understanding why. But in the end, it is really mostly economic interests that move things - and people.

I don't want to incur your wrath, but could you please point out the economical interests behind Schubert's or St. Francis's actions?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on January 31, 2008, 12:31:09 AM
Quote from: paulb on January 28, 2008, 03:00:04 PM
Also the ones who really lost in the war, were by far the germans.

Heh? ??? What about, like, every single country in the Eastern block? Especially the ones that virtually disappeared off the face of the earth, like eg. Lithuania?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on January 31, 2008, 12:35:54 AM
I just realized we're dangerously veering away from the subject of this thread. So if anyone feels like starting a new one and giving us a link over here - go ahead!

Then again, perhaps the OT subject will wane soon enough....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 31, 2008, 12:39:05 AM
Quote from: Harry on January 31, 2008, 12:19:13 AM
I started again with reading the complete Dickens, I did that 18 times before.

Other people write well, but Dickens writes Weller, right? :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on January 31, 2008, 12:40:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 31, 2008, 12:39:05 AM
Other people write well, but Dickens writes Weller, right? :)

Very good Andrei, that made me grin big time.....

Boy o boy, Sam Weller, what a character Dickens deviced with him right? ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 01, 2008, 08:05:44 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on January 31, 2008, 12:02:39 AM
I think a lot (handicapped by my simple background of course). And I know my Marx.

Schluss.

P.S. What economic interest do you serve by wasting your time on this forum?




I know my Marx as well (his "Manifesto..." often reads like oddly interpreted Hegel-converts-to-Platonism-by-way-of-Rabbinical-Judaism to me). I'm not clear as to your point in regard to that theorist however. Otherwise, both you and M have some intriguing points.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 01, 2008, 08:42:01 AM
Quote from: Haffner on February 01, 2008, 08:05:44 AMI know my Marx as well (his "Manifesto..." often reads like oddly interpreted Hegel-converts-to-Platonism-by-way-of-Rabbinical-Judaism to me). I'm not clear as to your point in regard to that theorist however. Otherwise, both you and M have some intriguing points.

I was a bit terse, I know. In Marx the economic is paramount, money permeates everything - religion, art, love. He is right, in a sense (and so is M forever) - many things in a capitalist society are 'money-shaped'. But not everything. Here Marx(ism) goes too far. There are things that can't be quantified, do not have an obvious value, and are still essential and life-enhancing. Like interacting in this forum, for instance, where we give of our time and knowledge without any payment in sight. Although the sociologist Bourdieu would say we were amassing 'symbolic capital' when we're appreciated and 'cultural capital' by learning from other members (if I'm understanding him correctly)...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gustav on February 01, 2008, 09:02:42 AM
just checked out these yesterday:

Conversations with Von Karajan - Richard Osborne

Karl Böhm A Life Remembered/Memoirs - translated by John Kehoe
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on February 01, 2008, 10:17:06 AM
Just picked this up from the library:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FP505DbXL._AA240_.jpg)

I'm completely unfamiliar with the life, other than having read various CD liner notes & the like. 

Anyone read this yet?  I understand that it's an abridgment of the author's 4 volume study, so I'm assuming he knows his Tchaikovsky...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on February 01, 2008, 10:38:58 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 01, 2008, 08:42:01 AM
I was a bit terse, I know. In Marx the economic is paramount, money permeates everything - religion, art, love. He is right, in a sense (and so is M forever) - many things in a capitalist society are 'money-shaped'. But not everything. Here Marx(ism) goes too far.

I don't think that money or economic interests shape *everything* either. Those people who asked me about participating in a forum or about Schubert etc misunderstood that. I was mainly referring to political decisions, especially war, those, I think, are basically always motivated by economic interests, no matter how they are "illustrated" and "sold" to the people. I don't think there are real religious or ideological wars. It's always about power and economic interests, no matter what the people who actually do the fighting and dying are told and what they think they are fighting and dying "for". After all, wars do require enormous manpower and resources, they are just too expensive to fight just for fun or for a "cause".
In this current context, my basic point was just that after WWI, those fading colonial empires such as Britain and France didn't want to allow an unified Germany (which would have included Austria and the German speaking parts of Czechoslovakia since the idea to put all German speaking people - except for the German Swiss - into one nation was very popular among those people long before 1938) to assume its natural position as an economic leader in Europe - which it was destined for, not because of some "Aryan" racial superiority or some other ideological BS, but simply because of the sheer number of people and the level of development of the region at that time. By tring to suppress the natural course of events, they didn't *create* those extremists since they had already been there - and not just in Germany, a lot of the nonsense the Nazis and related political or ideological groups were into was very popular in many Western countries, much more than they want to admit now - but they certainly helped create the environment in which those extremists could actually come to power and unleash the concentrated economic power of Germany on half the rest of the world in the the most devastating war ever. And that war was started for economic reasons, too. If you strip away all the ideological blabla, what remains are naked economic interests - gaining new territory, access to natural resources, etc. The nature of such extremist regimes is that they run completely wild though, as we have seen. Once things are started, there is no turning back until things come to a complete catastrophe. They even start losing sight of their own interests. But I wouldn't call that an ideological war either at that point - it is just total madness and chaos.
Anyway, again, my original point was that WWII was totally pointless because those countries which officially lost it - Germany and Japan - still turned out to be economic winners in the decades after. While a lot of the countries which were officially on the winning side lost big time, first and foremost all the countries which were forced into the Eastern Block. History is just really unfair.
Or does anyone still think that Britain declared war on Germany to heroically "save Poland from the Nazis"?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on February 01, 2008, 11:02:46 PM
Right now, I am reading this interesting book:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41fYXAXz6SL._AA240_.jpg)

about the life and work of Günter Wand. The title basically means "in this and no other way" and describes Wand's uncompromising work ethic and attitude towards the music he conducted.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 01, 2008, 11:39:21 PM
Quote from: M forever on February 01, 2008, 10:38:58 PM
I was mainly referring to political decisions, especially war, those, I think, are basically always motivated by economic interests, no matter how they are "illustrated" and "sold" to the people. I don't think there are real religious or ideological wars. It's always about power and economic interests, no matter what the people who actually do the fighting and dying are told and what they think they are fighting and dying "for". After all, wars do require enormous manpower and resources, they are just too expensive to fight just for fun or for a "cause".

Agreed. I am just as cynical about the motives for war as you. How do you rate the current 'war on terror'? I see it as the last try of a fading empire (USA) to control central Asia, with all its resources, before India, Russia or China do. (Interesting reading (in German): http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/27/27112/1.html)

QuoteIn this current context, my basic point was just that after WWI, those fading colonial empires such as Britain and France didn't want to allow an unified Germany (which would have included Austria and the German speaking parts of Czechoslovakia since the idea to put all German speaking people - except for the German Swiss - into one nation was very popular among those people long before 1938) to assume its natural position as an economic leader in Europe

Agreed.

BUT with the essential proviso that in those times economic power went hand in hand with military power. Imperialism showed us how you simply took a land and wrung every resource out of it. As the cake had already been divided, only Europe remained for Germany to expand in. And in WWI it was already trying. Here is our essential difference.

Quote- which it was destined for, not because of some "Aryan" racial superiority or some other ideological BS, but simply because of the sheer number of people and the level of development of the region at that time. By tring to suppress the natural course of events, they didn't *create* those extremists since they had already been there - and not just in Germany, a lot of the nonsense the Nazis and related political or ideological groups were into was very popular in many Western countries, much more than they want to admit now -

Agreed. If you read a lot, as I do, you can see some amazing things that the current 'squeaky clean' democracies don't want to be reminded of.

BUT I stand by my assertion that the cocktail Germany was able to brew, with its combination of rationality and lunacy, and which got the mostly tacit backing (out of fear, disinterest, or egoism) of the majority of the population is really something else. Economic interest alone doesn't explain it.

Quotebut they certainly helped create the environment in which those extremists could actually come to power and unleash the concentrated economic power of Germany on half the rest of the world in the the most devastating war ever. And that war was started for economic reasons, too. If you strip away all the ideological blabla, what remains are naked economic interests - gaining new territory, access to natural resources, etc. The nature of such extremist regimes is that they run completely wild though, as we have seen. Once things are started, there is no turning back until things come to a complete catastrophe. They even start losing sight of their own interests. But I wouldn't call that an ideological war either at that point - it is just total madness and chaos.

Here I disagree. The attack on the Soviet Union and the extermination of the Jews - though the economic aspect is there, like trying to get to the Urals - lost Germany the war, and were strongly ideologically inspired, yes, almost religiously so. Stopping Bolshevism combined with gaining 'Lebensraum' combined with destroying the enemy of mankind (the Jew). In this case, when the Nazis spoke of the 'Weltanschauungskrieg' (war of world-views, see Krausnick's study with the same title) they spoke the truth. By killing the 'subhuman' Slavs, they lost all sympathy they could have got if they really wanted to build an empire with a future, and by killing the Jews they had to siphon off resources they could have used to increase their chances of winning the war.

QuoteAnyway, again, my original point was that WWII was totally pointless because those countries which officially lost it - Germany and Japan - still turned out to be economic winners in the decades after. While a lot of the countries which were officially on the winning side lost big time, first and foremost all the countries which were forced into the Eastern Block. History is just really unfair.
Or does anyone still think that Britain declared war on Germany to heroically "save Poland from the Nazis"?

Pointless, indeed. But you stick admirably to your point that outside forces wanted to keep Germany (and Japan, but that's not the focus of our debate) from becoming an economic power. This implies that those forces were malign and that Germany was only benignly trying to be what it was entitled to. And that it 'radicalised' (to use the current jargon) when it was frustrated in this endeavour. This makes Germany into a passive victim, which I reject. You simply don't want to accept that conquest and domination were part and parcel of Germany's will to power. If you can accept dark motives on the other side, as I do, and are cynical about them, as I am, why not be a bit more critical about Germany?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on February 02, 2008, 07:28:37 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 01, 2008, 11:39:21 PM
Pointless, indeed. But you stick admirably to your point that outside forces wanted to keep Germany (and Japan, but that's not the focus of our debate) from becoming an economic power. This implies that those forces were malign and that Germany was only benignly trying to be what it was entitled to. And that it 'radicalised' (to use the current jargon) when it was frustrated in this endeavour. This makes Germany into a passive victim, which I reject. You simply don't want to accept that conquest and domination were part and parcel of Germany's will to power. If you can accept dark motives on the other side, as I do, and are cynical about them, as I am, why not be a bit more critical about Germany?

I am, much more than most people are about their own countries, and I don't have that kind of emotional attachment to my home country which a lot of people have that makes it impossible for them to criticize it seriously. Again, I find emotional attachment to a whole country hard to understand since we are not talking about a person, but about an extremely complex phenomenon with many positive and negative elements of all sorts of kinds. What I don't understand here is why you keep saying the above when I very explicitly said several times over that the extremist nutcases which came to power in 1933 were not the result of external pressure but something that had indeed developed from within. The spectrum of political opinions and ideologies in Germany at that time was very wide, very diverse, and there were many extreme political tensions among all those groups in the 20s. Some of those wanted to take revenge for WWI and conquest and dominate by force, but a large part of the political spectrum wanted to rebuild the country and move on into a democratic direction - which was very difficult because a lot of people were mentally still in the monarchy which had just evaporated. But the democratic forces were at the wheel at first and it is pretty amazing to see how long the Weimar Republic, as ineffective and chaotic as it was, actually lasted under these circumstances. So it is no suprise that not even 20 years later, after WWII, when they let them, they rebuilt the country once again in record time and reated Europe's strongest economy, more or less out of ruins.
I don't understand why you apply this simplistic "good country-bad country" thinking to what I say which has not much to do with the things I said several times over now about those extremists and their place in the political spectrum at that time. I don't think there are "good countries" and "bad countries". Germany certainly has a lot of both the good, the bad and the ugly because it is a country with a very complex and diverse culture, no doubt a heritage of the many centuries of decentral political organization (or lack thereof).
I think I see what you mean when you say that in those days, economic power went hand in hand with military power so other countries must have had a good reason to be afraid of Germany. Overall, you can see how in a lot of countries at that time, part of the spectrum still believed in those old "values" while a lot of people already wanted to move on into an age of economic development and cooperation instead of domination by force. There was also a very strong pacifict movement in Britain, for instance. Many people were dead tired of war after WWI and its completely pointless killing of millions in the trenches. But that applied to Germany as well, and while I still don't believe in speculative history, I think it is pretty obvious from what happened later, before and after WWII, that if they had just left them alone, all that wouldn't have happened. You simply can't push around a country with so many people and such a strong economic potential the way they tried to do in the 20s. They really drove a lot of people in Hitler's direction. Again, that is very impressively documented by how popularity of the Nazis (or other extremist groups, because there were also *a lot* of hardcore communists back then) went up and down over the course of the 20s, to points when they almost disappeared from sight to where they finally became strong enough to get in power.
I'll get back to the other points later, right now, I have to get ready and drive to Washington (I am still in the process of driving across the US, today we are in Nashville, TN).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on February 02, 2008, 07:38:12 AM
To recognize the fact that punitive war reparations after WWI contributed to the conditions in Germany that permitted Hitler's rise to power is hardly the same as "blaming" other nations for it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on February 02, 2008, 08:00:19 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 01, 2008, 11:39:21 PM
Agreed. I am just as cynical about the motives for war as you. How do you rate the current 'war on terror'? I see it as the last try of a fading empire (USA) to control central Asia, with all its resources, before India, Russia or China do.

Thank you.  What an interesting and candid "take" on the matter!  Obviously an outsider's point of view, conditioned by an education in historical geopolitics and a failure to understand the moral center of America's national character.  Cynical, indeed!

It would be interesting to see what you would do with the "War on Terror" if you tried spinning it from a favorably idealistic point of view instead of this bitterly cynical vantage point which neglects America's history in armed conflicts outside of her hemisphere and the hard lessons learned in the 20th Century--perhaps the most painful of which is that accomodating the threat of violence rather than standing up to it only begets more and more vicious violence, and that it's far less costly in lives, capital, and human suffering to destroy a man-eating tiger when it first appears than after it's ravaged your village, home, and family.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on February 02, 2008, 08:30:21 AM
Mary Gaitskill-Veronica
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 02, 2008, 09:00:55 AM
Quote from: M forever on February 02, 2008, 07:28:37 AM
What I don't understand here is why you keep saying the above when I very explicitly said several times over that the extremist nutcases which came to power in 1933 were not the result of external pressure but something that had indeed developed from within.

Okay.

QuoteI don't understand why you apply this simplistic "good country-bad country" thinking to what I say which has not much to do with the things I said several times over now about those extremists and their place in the political spectrum at that time. I don't think there are "good countries" and "bad countries".

Neither do I. I am not that simplistic. Countries are complex, as you say.

Goodness and morality are, in my opinion, things you can only ascribe to persons, not to states (or organisations, or companies). A state is like a firing-squad: everybody shoots, so no one is responsible. And yet, I am not cynical. But I tend to reserve my idealism (which I really possess in great quantities) for persons. That's all. Like through this conversation - you can't talk to a state.


QuoteMany people were dead tired of war after WWI and its completely pointless killing of millions in the trenches. But that applied to Germany as well, and while I still don't believe in speculative history, I think it is pretty obvious from what happened later, before and after WWII, that if they had just left them alone, all that wouldn't have happened. You simply can't push around a country with so many people and such a strong economic potential the way they tried to do in the 20s. They really drove a lot of people in Hitler's direction.

I do understand your point. You say that the pressure the victorious Allies put on post-World War I Germany increased Hitler's appeal. Yes, of course it did. And the World Crisis didn't help either. And that you mustn't humiliate a great nation, or 'cramp its style'. Agreed. But all I am saying is that Hitler, apart from being a reaction to the times in which he lived, also embodied things that went farther back. Which, I gather, you agree with?

P.S. I wonder whether this whole discussion might not be better conducted through PMs (although we are getting closer to some kind of mutual understanding). We are by now hopelessly OT.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on February 03, 2008, 12:12:34 AM
Maybe. Or maybe not. I guess that is the nature of discussions in general. In any case, we can continue here: http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,5805.0.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on February 04, 2008, 11:11:05 AM
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks.  Just getting started...so far, excellent. 

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on February 04, 2008, 11:46:42 AM
House A Memoir by Michael Ruhlman.   Ruhlman takes us along his journey of buying, renovating and moving into an old house in Cleveland Heights.  He delves into how neurotic and crazy the whole process can be....apparently somehow all decisions regarding everything over budget becomes justified with some 'sensible' explanation.  He also touches on why we have an emotional need for 'home'.  Throw in some Cleveland Heigths history as well as some turn of the century American suburb history and all in all he's come out with a very enjoyable read.

(http://newbooks.lib.ntu.edu.tw/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/cltec_20070815_1.jpg)


Allan
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 04, 2008, 11:53:17 AM
QuoteShe was a brick . . . (do do dooo doot) . . . house!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on February 04, 2008, 11:55:39 AM
Word is that somehow that song started out with a yurt in mind.....

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on February 04, 2008, 12:03:56 PM
(http://blog.syracuse.com/shelflife/forgotten.jpg)

Very engaging and well written history of the Depression that takes into account all the modern scholarship on the issue.  Some issues are glossed (like the claim that anti-semitism was responsible for the failure of the Bank of United States while ignoring the malfeasance of its directors), but all in all a comprehensive popular history as well as a glaring indictment of the policy mistakes of Hoover, which caused the Depression, and FDR, who prolonged it and largely stymied a recovery.  Macroeconomic issues are contrasted with individual stories such as Father Divine, a Harlem prosperity gospel preacher, Bill Wilson, the founder of AA, and the Schecter Bros, small time butchers who won a landmark Supreme Court case against the meddling under the National Industrial Recovery Act.  Also details the various members of FDR's brain trust who for the most part were infatuated with Mussolini and Stalin to some degree.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 04, 2008, 12:19:38 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on February 04, 2008, 12:03:56 PM
Very engaging and well written history of the Depression that takes into account all the modern scholarship on the issue.  Some issues are glossed (like the claim that anti-semitism was responsible for the failure of the Bank of United States while ignoring the malfeasance of its directors), but all in all a comprehensive popular history as well as a glaring indictment of the policy mistakes of Hoover, which caused the Depression, and FDR, who prolonged it and largely stymied a recovery.  Macroeconomic issues are contrasted with individual stories such as Father Divine, a Harlem prosperity gospel preacher, Bill Wilson, the founder of AA, and the Schecter Bros, small time butchers who won a landmark Supreme Court case against the meddling under the National Industrial Recovery Act.  Also details the various members of FDR's brain trust who for the most part were infatuated with Mussolini and Stalin to some degree.

This looks like an interesting (and unprejudiced) book! It would be an illuminating experiment to read it in tandem with some of the novels that were written at the time, to see what contemporary authors made of the present in which they found themselves...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 04, 2008, 12:36:00 PM
I never had heard the phrase "forgotten man" before watching the DVD of My Man Godfrey
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 05, 2008, 11:46:31 AM
Ended up skipping most of Hoppin's Medieval Music (not really interested in the history of liturgy or Gregorian Chant) and read the sections on Machaut and the Ars Nova and the composers of the Ars Subtilior — The section on the "manneristic" notation was especially interesting, with several examples of the beautiful manuscripts of the time:

(http://image.space.rakuten.co.jp/lg01/49/0000109349/81/img36f5c74c2onl9o.jpeg)

Now onto this:

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/14530000/14530104.JPG)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on February 05, 2008, 03:01:48 PM
A belated entry for me: Plato's works. Well, a few of them. So far I've read Hippias minor and Alcibiades. This is delightfully written. Witty, ironical and with a wonderful sense of timing and rythm.  I do wonder where this argumentation mania leads in the end, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bonehelm on February 05, 2008, 03:34:27 PM
Herbert von Karajan biography by Vaughans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 05, 2008, 04:36:09 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51O3ulqpIRL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Ms. Austen's last completed novel.  This is reminding me that all the continued posthumous praise that she continues to receive is deserved.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on February 06, 2008, 09:23:50 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 05, 2008, 04:36:09 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51O3ulqpIRL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Ms. Austen's last completed novel.  This is reminding me that all the continued posthumous praise that she continues to receive is deserved.
Indeed.

And knowing you as a movie fan, Bill:  There's a fine BBC film adaptation with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds that's more restrained and period correct than the preposterously glitzy "Ode to Closeups of Kiera Knightley's Visage" that recently masqueraded as a movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 06, 2008, 04:24:24 PM
Just received (as a most awesome, early Valentine's Day gift from my fiancee) the complete

Life of Richard Wagner (4 Volumes/Ernest Newman)
I am very happy and excited!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 06, 2008, 06:05:37 PM
Quote from: longears on February 06, 2008, 09:23:50 AM
Indeed.

And knowing you as a movie fan, Bill:  There's a fine BBC film adaptation with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds that's more restrained and period correct than the preposterously glitzy "Ode to Closeups of Kiera Knightley's Visage" that recently masqueraded as a movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Just checked my wife's collection of Austen dvd's....and what do you know?  She has this one!  I will have to view it after completing the novel.  Thanks for the heads up.  Like you David, I did not care for the recent adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.  It was disturbing to see Sutherland resurrect his Sgt. Oddball character and transplant it in Longbourn.  However, I did enjoy the Firth BBC effort.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on February 06, 2008, 11:18:42 PM
Stephen Jay Gould:       "Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle"

A very interesting essay on the concepts of linear and cyclic History, applied to Geology. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 07, 2008, 09:40:16 AM
I'm listening to this in the Jeep:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BBM4TZ09L._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 04:31:50 AM
I'm a little ways into FEAR AND LOATHING and I'm wondering what the big deal is supposed to be.

I'm also reading Thomas Merton's NO MAN IS AN ISLAND.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 08, 2008, 04:35:27 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 04:31:50 AM
I'm a little ways into FEAR AND LOATHING and I'm wondering what the big deal is supposed to be.

All I can say is, it doesn't really arc up from there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on February 08, 2008, 05:08:15 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 04:31:50 AM
I'm a little ways into FEAR AND LOATHING and I'm wondering what the big deal is supposed to be.
I remember it being published as a multi-part article in Rolling Stone in the early '70s.  I think the "big deal" then was his balls-out style glorifying outrageously irresponsible use of mind-altering drugs.  From today's vantage point it's not cool but pathetic.  Not that it was even cool back then.  I started but didn't finish reading the first installment and never read the rest.  A few years ago some losers made a movie out of it, with Johnny Depp out of his depth playing Thompson.  About 15 minutes of that was all I could take.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 05:13:17 AM
Quote from: longears on February 08, 2008, 05:08:15 AM
I remember it being published as a multi-part article in Rolling Stone in the early '70s.  I think the "big deal" then was his balls-out style glorifying outrageously irresponsible use of mind-altering drugs.  From today's vantage point it's not cool but pathetic.

Exactly. There's some money down the drain.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 08, 2008, 05:14:31 AM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/BoTGoM.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on February 08, 2008, 05:15:33 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 05:13:17 AM
Exactly. There's some money down the drain.  ::)

At least you didn't smoke it up.  $:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 05:17:23 AM
Quote from: George on February 08, 2008, 05:15:33 AM
At least you didn't smoke it up.  $:)

Gave up smoking a while back. And I was never really into the wacky tabacky.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on February 08, 2008, 05:22:43 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 05:17:23 AM
Gave up smoking a while back. And I was never really into the wacky tabacky.

Good for you, I quit smoking about 6 years ago.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 05:25:42 AM
Quote from: George on February 08, 2008, 05:22:43 AM
Good for you, I quit smoking about 6 years ago.  :)

I smoked Marlboro longhorns (100s). How about you?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 08, 2008, 05:26:13 AM
Quote from: George on February 08, 2008, 05:15:33 AM
At least you didn't smoke it up.  $:)



Personally, I'd much rather spend the $15-20 on weed than that ridiculous book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 08, 2008, 05:26:52 AM
Quote from: George on February 08, 2008, 05:22:43 AM
Good for you, I quit smoking about 6 years ago.  :)




I slowed way down. But it's still fun on an extremely limited basis.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 08, 2008, 05:52:14 AM
Journeys to Selfhood (Taylor)


This book relies way more on Hegel and the proto-existentialists like Heidegger than Kierkegaard. But that makes it even more interesting to me. Hegel's ultra-verbose, abstract style was perfect for seeing things in the macrocosm. I mean, you can more easily insert the larger patterns of your life (both in-and-outwardly experienced) into the archetypes he asserts.


Oh no, tell me I didn't sound like Hegel there (laughing)!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on February 08, 2008, 07:41:05 AM
Quote from: Haffner on February 08, 2008, 05:26:52 AM



I slowed way down. But it's still fun on an extremely limited basis.

I should clarify, I quit smoking cigarettes. They were enjoyable, especially good ones like Dunhill, but not fun.

As for the wacky tobacky, I can't have a little of anything, so it had to go (11 years ago.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on February 08, 2008, 07:42:46 AM
Quote from: Haffner on February 08, 2008, 05:26:13 AM


Personally, I'd much rather spend the $15-20 on weed than that ridiculous book.

Again, to clarify, when I said "smoke it up" I was referring to crack. I guess that one flew over everyone's head.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 07:46:23 AM
Quote from: George on February 08, 2008, 07:42:46 AM
Again, to clarify, when I said "smoke it up" I was referring to crack. I guess that one flew over everyone's head.  ::)

Wasn't lofty enough to fly over our heads.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on February 08, 2008, 07:53:02 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 07:46:23 AM
Wasn't lofty enough to fly over our heads.  ;D

Yeah, I should have smoked up prior to penning that one.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 08, 2008, 07:54:20 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 07:46:23 AM
Wasn't lofty enough to fly over our heads.  ;D



:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on February 08, 2008, 09:17:44 AM
Quote from: George on February 08, 2008, 05:22:43 AM
Good for you, I quit smoking about 6 years ago.  :)

Good for you too George, it will 7 years for me in August.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on February 08, 2008, 09:22:04 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on February 08, 2008, 09:17:44 AM
Good for you too George, it will 7 years for me in August.  :)
What is scary about the quitting business is that people still count after all these years   :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 09:23:12 AM
Quote from: orbital on February 08, 2008, 09:22:04 AM
What is scary about the quitting business is that people still count after all these years   :-\

I don't.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on February 08, 2008, 09:28:06 AM
Quote from: orbital on February 08, 2008, 09:22:04 AM
What is scary about the quitting business is that people still count after all these years   :-\

I don't see why one can't?  Anyone who has quit smoking any lenght of time should feel good about that, and be proud of that.  It's a big achievement.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on February 08, 2008, 10:12:55 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on February 08, 2008, 09:28:06 AM
I don't see why one can't?  Anyone who has quit smoking any lenght of time should feel good about that, and be proud of that.  It's a big achievement.
I know. I quit for about a year and a half, but started smoking cigars after that and it all came back  :-\
What I mean is it is discouraging to see that it always stays somewhere in the back of your mind, and a relapse always feels like it is around the corner. A good deal of those who quit do not go back which is great, but then there are people like my uncle who quit probably 20 or so years ago, and he still carries a pack with him just to smell the tobacco a few times a day   ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 08, 2008, 10:21:21 AM
Quote from: longears on February 08, 2008, 05:08:15 AM
A few years ago some losers made a movie out of it, with Johnny Depp out of his depth playing Thompson.  About 15 minutes of that was all I could take.

Harsh!  But I must say that not even the serious watch-all-the-Gilliam-I-can tear that I've been on, has tempted me to seek this one out.  Already knowing the source text has torpedoed it from my viewpoint  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on February 08, 2008, 11:02:39 AM
Quote from: orbital on February 08, 2008, 10:12:55 AM
What I mean is it is discouraging to see that it always stays somewhere in the back of your mind, and a relapse always feels like it is around the corner.

I think it has to always stay in the back of one's mind.  Just like any other addiction.  I quit drinking 2 years ago too (obviously I have an addictive personality ;D).

I also should really try to cut down on the amount of caffeine I drink in a day.  To quit altogether though?  I don't think I could do it.   ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 08, 2008, 11:06:41 AM
Someone should create a separate thread (or poll) on addictive personalities. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on February 09, 2008, 04:41:55 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 08, 2008, 11:06:41 AM
Someone should create a separate thread (or poll) on addictive personalities. :)
Or on addictive substances.  Getting hooked on nicotine, booze, or horse is physiological and has nothing to do with personality.  I suspect that even getting hooked on shopping, gambling, or sex may be largely physiological as an addiction to the neurochemical changes wrought by such stress and excitement.

I don't count the years since I quit smoking, but I remember when I quit and it's no harder to count back than it is to count back to when I got married, bought a car, or last visited Boston.

Current reading:  Ron Hansen, Desperadoes -- his first novel.  I'm still waiting for the movie.  Sean Penn bought the rights to it nearly 30 years ago.  Come on, Sean--get with it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on February 09, 2008, 11:01:24 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MWR1671CL._SS500_.jpg)

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.  Loved this, and also Tipping the Velvet, but I haven't seen the BBC production above.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on February 10, 2008, 01:01:53 PM
(http://www.lpstuff.com/shop/images/uploads/book-the-creature.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 11, 2008, 06:50:03 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 08, 2008, 04:31:50 AM
I'm also reading Thomas Merton's NO MAN IS AN ISLAND.

I stopped reading this. Too much of a Christian perspective. Yeah, I know he's a Catholic monk, but based on all the accolades, I expected a more philosophically neutral book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lady Chatterley on February 11, 2008, 10:45:58 AM
The Empress Letters by Linda Rogers,enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 13, 2008, 02:44:10 PM
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2007/11/28/hoeg/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: carlos on February 14, 2008, 02:31:03 AM
Guenter Lewy's "The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies"
(Oxford U.P.,2000) One of the few studies on this
sombre subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 14, 2008, 03:12:40 AM
Intellectual Terrorism by Jean Sevillia.

The shameful story of that bunch of very influential useful idiots collectively known as post-WWWII leftist French intelligentsia
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 14, 2008, 03:30:31 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 14, 2008, 03:12:40 AM
Intellectual Terrorism by Jean Sevillia.

The shameful story of that bunch of very influential useful idiots collectively known as post-WWWII leftist French intelligentsia

An interesting book, written from a Catholic perspective. Are you reading it in French? What intrigues me is the phrase 'useful idiots'. Useful for what or whom?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 14, 2008, 03:59:28 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 14, 2008, 03:30:31 AM
An interesting book, written from a Catholic perspective. Are you reading it in French? What intrigues me is the phrase 'useful idiots'. Useful for what or whom?

I'm reading it in a Romanian translation.

Here are the useful idiots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot).  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 14, 2008, 04:08:52 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 14, 2008, 03:59:28 AM
I'm reading it in a Romanian translation.

Here are the useful idiots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot).  ;)

Okay, now I understand. I wasn't aware of the exact connotations of this term, and its origin in Lenin. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on February 14, 2008, 04:48:48 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 11, 2008, 06:50:03 AM
I stopped reading this. Too much of a Christian perspective. Yeah, I know he's a Catholic monk, but based on all the accolades, I expected a more philosophically neutral book.
The error is in regarding a mind closed to the divine as "neutral."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 14, 2008, 04:50:07 AM
Quote from: longears on February 14, 2008, 04:48:48 AM
The error is in regarding a mind closed to the divine as "neutral."

Nothing to do with that. Too much faith, hope, charity, God, Jesus, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 14, 2008, 10:26:55 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 14, 2008, 04:50:07 AM
Too much faith, hope, charity, God, Jesus, etc.



Enough is enough!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 15, 2008, 04:26:23 AM
Quote from: Haffner on February 14, 2008, 10:26:55 AM
Enough is enough!

Damn skippy.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 15, 2008, 07:02:18 AM
My wife gave this to me for Valentine's Day.  Mostly "captional" text, and incredible photos...many I have never seen.  The book is coffee table size (14.5 x 11.2 x 1.4 inches), 300+ pages long, and almost 7lbs.  Amazon has it at 50% off.

(http://www.booksamillion.com/bam/covers/0/81/099/373/0810993732.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 17, 2008, 02:19:41 PM
W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage in a very nice Modern Library edition (copyright says 1915, but that probably isn't the print date).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 17, 2008, 02:28:23 PM
Gastrointestinal Radiology (2008, 3rd ed.), edited by Gore & Levine - LOL!  ;D  Hey, but true for the weekend! Just released - 2 volume set @ 2500+ pages - I actually wrote 2 chapters in Vol. 1 - but I have a couple lectures comin' up in a few weeks w/ my radiology residents on the biliary tract & the pancreas, so I've been updating myself -  ;)  My residents are 'sharp as tacks' so need to be ahead of the game - but, keeps you goin' -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2Bk3j6vIcL._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on February 18, 2008, 01:58:15 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X2P94DS8L._OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
This was just standing there in our bookcase. It started quite ok, let's see how it goes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on February 19, 2008, 07:43:43 AM
Quote from: orbital on February 18, 2008, 01:58:15 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X2P94DS8L._OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
This was just standing there in our bookcase. It started quite ok, let's see how it goes.

Sorry to interrupt your reading ;D but did you see that movie, Everything is Illuminated? I found it funny and interesting. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on February 19, 2008, 08:43:44 AM
Quote from: George on February 19, 2008, 07:43:43 AM
Sorry to interrupt your reading ;D but did you see that movie, Everything is Illuminated? I found it funny and interesting. 
No, I haven't read the book either. I've seen the dvd cover a lot at the rental store, let me get it :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 19, 2008, 09:15:26 AM
Life of Richard Wagner vol.2 (Newman)


Still fascinating; I only get bored reading about the political mess in Germany at the time. politics never really interests me in general. Otherwise, terrific reading!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: EmpNapoleon on February 19, 2008, 02:10:14 PM
Reading the Theban Trilogy of Sophocles again and again for years now.  I still can't picture that they used no female actors, but had female roles.  I know everyone on stage wore a mask, but sill. 

Why has there never been an Oedipus movie in the cinema.  That character is responsible for drama.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on February 19, 2008, 06:04:11 PM
Quote from: Haffner on February 19, 2008, 09:15:26 AM
Life of Richard Wagner vol.2 (Newman)


Still fascinating; I only get bored reading about the political mess in Germany at the time. politics never really interests me in general.

Still very important to understand Wagner's life and works though, among other cultural and historical factors.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on February 19, 2008, 06:57:07 PM
Quote from: EmpNapoleon on February 19, 2008, 02:10:14 PM
Reading the Theban Trilogy of Sophocles again and again for years now.  I still can't picture that they used no female actors, but had female roles.  I know everyone on stage wore a mask, but sill. 

Why has there never been an Oedipus movie in the cinema.  That character is responsible for drama.

I think there are 2 Oedipus DVD's and I have them.  There may be more.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on February 19, 2008, 11:59:48 PM
A 1946 edition of The Great Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant, edited buy William Brockway. So far each story has provided either profound insights, humorous incidents or feel good moments. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 20, 2008, 02:35:55 AM
Quote from: M forever on February 19, 2008, 06:04:11 PM
Still very important to understand Wagner's life and works though, among other cultural and historical factors.



Ja! The author asserts often the idea that Wagner could have given us many more music dramas if he hadn't been so constantly busy begging money, writing pamphlets, drinking champagne, chasing women, and participating in various "revolutionary" activities. However, I suspect that the life he led had alot to do with how profoundly inspirational the music dramas he did write were.

Without the life, there would have been no great drama. Just a speculation of mine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 20, 2008, 03:17:37 AM
Quote from: Haffner on February 20, 2008, 02:35:55 AM
Ja! The author asserts often the idea that Wagner could have given us many more music dramas if he hadn't been so constantly busy begging money, writing pamphlets, drinking champagne, chasing women, and participating in various "revolutionary" activities. However, I suspect that the life he led had alot to do with how profoundly inspirational the music dramas he did write were.

Without the life, there would have been no great drama. Just a speculation of mine.

I agree. An artist isn't a masterpiece-producing machine, cut loose from reality. Though twenty music dramas would have been great...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: longears on February 20, 2008, 04:54:24 AM
Quote from: EmpNapoleon on February 19, 2008, 02:10:14 PM
Why has there never been an Oedipus movie in the cinema.
A quick google will show a few movies and teleplays.  And here's a link to one you might enjoy: http://www.oedipusthemovie.com/ (http://www.oedipusthemovie.com/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 20, 2008, 08:24:52 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 20, 2008, 03:17:37 AM
Though twenty music dramas would have been great...




oooooo JA!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on February 20, 2008, 08:52:15 AM
Ann Beattie-follies
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on February 20, 2008, 10:49:39 AM
(http://www.maidenfans.com/imc/pictures/pictures05_powerslave/mariner_small.jpg)

Read this last night. Wonderful stuff. Great imagery. Spooky tale.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 20, 2008, 11:00:07 AM
Yes, it remains a powerful poem!

My favourite passage is in Part III -

The western wave was all a-flame.
The day was well nigh done !
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun ;
When that strange shape drove suddenly
Betwixt us and the Sun.

And straight the Sun was flecked with bars,
(Heaven's Mother send us grace !)
As if through a dungeon-grate he peered
With broad and burning face.

Alas ! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)
How fast she nears and nears !
Are those her sails that glance in the Sun,
Like restless gossameres ?

And those her ribs through which the Sun
Did peer, as through a grate ?
And is that Woman all her crew ?
Is that a DEATH ? and are there two ?
Is DEATH that woman's mate ?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 20, 2008, 03:13:26 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on February 20, 2008, 10:49:39 AM
(http://www.maidenfans.com/imc/pictures/pictures05_powerslave/mariner_small.jpg)

Read this last night. Wonderful stuff. Great imagery. Spooky tale.




Great song, too!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 21, 2008, 12:04:26 AM
How about this exquisite powerful imagery?

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around :
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound !

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion ;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

A true masterpiece, indeed!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 22, 2008, 08:47:38 AM
This, from my lunchtime fortune cookie; and yes, it is excellent:

QuoteToday is to conserve yourself, as things just won't budge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on February 22, 2008, 08:13:15 PM
(http://a5.vox.com/6a00c225248fb88e1d00e398ad258d0002-320pi)

Bourdain's "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel in which he travels the world and explores its cuisines and cultures is currently my favorite TV show. Which doesn't say much because I don't watch much TV. But it's still a very funny and interesting show. This book tells his story. Respectless and refreshing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 22, 2008, 08:17:38 PM
Quote from: M forever on February 22, 2008, 08:13:15 PM
(http://a5.vox.com/6a00c225248fb88e1d00e398ad258d0002-320pi)

Bourdain's "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel in which he travels the world and explores its cuisines and cultures is currently my favorite TV show. Which doesn't say much because I don't watch much TV. But it's still a very funny and interesting show. This book tells his story. Respectless and refreshing.

I borrowed that from a friend of mine a few years ago (still haven't given it back ;D) and enjoyed it. Good read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on February 25, 2008, 01:04:08 AM
"EMPIRES OF THE WORD", from Nicholas Ostler

A very interesting essay on the development and expansion of most universal languages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on February 25, 2008, 03:52:17 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fXENAhYfL.jpg)

Made up mostly of speeches delivered during his tenures in the House; all I can say is that this man is truly a political prophet and his conviction--with is dedication to principle--has allowed him forsee a lot of the mess that is happening today (inflation, massive deficit, trade imbalances, staggering debt, failed foreign interventionist policy, weaking of civil liberties, etc.). 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 25, 2008, 08:51:17 AM
Quote from: Dame Edna EverageNever be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.

Wisdom.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 25, 2008, 08:54:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on February 25, 2008, 08:51:17 AM
Wisdom.

I know (see signature; if you can see it, that is)...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 25, 2008, 08:56:35 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 25, 2008, 08:54:59 AM
(see signature; if you can see it, that is)...

I know (see, oh, never mind  ;D )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 25, 2008, 03:39:51 PM
Reading, yes, just not by me:

http://rapidshare.com/files/93930068/Audio_Book_-_Edgar_Allen_Poe_-_The_Raven.rar

Maybe we can make a little quiz - who does the reading?

(8MB mp3 file)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on February 26, 2008, 01:47:10 PM
Very weird stuff by Lord Dunsany. My two favourites (they are both short):

THE WORKMAN

I saw a workman fall with his scaffolding right from the summit of
some vast hotel. And as he came down I saw him holding a knife
and trying to cut his name on the scaffolding. He had time to try and
do this for he must have had nearly three hundred feet to fall. And I
could think of nothing but his folly in doing this futile thing, for not
only would the man be unrecognizably dead in three seconds, but the
very pole on which he tried to scratch whatever of his name he had
time for was certain to be burnt in a few weeks for firewood.

Then I went home for I had work to do. And all that evening I thought
of the man's folly, till the thought hindered me from serious work.

And late that night while I was still at work, the ghost of the workman
floated through my wall and stood before me laughing.

I heard no sound until after I spoke to it; but I could see the grey
diaphanous form standing before me shuddering with laughter.

I spoke at last and asked what it was laughing at, and then the ghost
spoke. It said: "I'm a laughin' at you sittin' and workin' there."

"And why," I asked, "do you laugh at serious work?"

"Why, yer bloomin' life 'ull go by like a wind," he said, "and yer 'ole
silly civilization 'ull be tidied up in a few centuries."

Then he fell to laughing again and this time audibly; and, laughing
still, faded back through the wall again and into the eternity from
which he had come.

THE TOMB OF PAN

"Seeing," they said, "that old-time Pan is dead, let us now make
a tomb for him and a monument, that the dreadful worship of long
ago may be remembered and avoided by all."

So said the people of the enlightened lands. And they built a
white and mighty tomb of marble. Slowly it rose under the hands
of the builders and longer every evening after sunset it gleamed with
rays of the departed sun.

And many mourned for Pan while the builders built; many reviled
him. Some called the builders to cease and to weep for Pan and
others called them to leave no memorial at all of so infamous a god.
But the builders built on steadily.

And one day all was finished, and the tomb stood there like a
steep sea-cliff. And Pan was carved thereon with humbled head
and the feet of angels pressed upon his neck. And when the tomb
was finished the sun had already set, but the afterglow was rosy on
the huge bulk of Pan.

And presently all the enlightened people came, and saw the tomb
and remembered Pan who was dead, and all deplored him and his
wicked age. But a few wept apart because of the death of Pan.

But at evening as he stole out of the forest, and slipped like a shadow
softly along the hills, Pan saw the tomb and laughed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 26, 2008, 02:09:42 PM
I know Lord Dunsany's fantasy stories quite well. These two are very nice parables. The first one is a sober assessment of the futility of making a name for yourself, I think, life being short and everything transient...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on February 26, 2008, 02:17:58 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414ADC60FJL._AA240_.jpg)

I'm up to Book.2. [of 4] in this amazing epic. It really is quite a sensational story.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 26, 2008, 02:47:05 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on February 26, 2008, 02:17:58 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414ADC60FJL._AA240_.jpg)

I'm up to Book.2. [of 4] in this amazing epic. It really is quite a sensational story.  :)



Got to get that one. Wondering whether to start with the Brown book first.

I'm knee deep in the 2nd volume of Life of Richard Wagner (Newman) currently.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: paulb on February 26, 2008, 04:14:25 PM
Quote from: M forever on February 22, 2008, 08:13:15 PM


Bourdain's "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel in which he travels the world and explores its cuisines and cultures is currently my favorite TV show. Which doesn't say much because I don't watch much TV. But it's still a very funny and interesting show. This book tells his story. Respectless and refreshing.

When ever I catch his show, its always very entertaining.
I love how he goes into the back streets and gets to the real down home cooking. But also gives a  POV of a  city/country's culture that's engaging and witty. Definitely one of the best travel shows.
Thanks for the posting, I'll place it on my wish list. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on February 26, 2008, 04:19:41 PM
Quote from: Haffner on February 26, 2008, 02:47:05 PM


Got to get that one. Wondering whether to start with the Brown book first.

I'm knee deep in the 2nd volume of Life of Richard Wagner (Newman) currently.

Yes Andy, I want to read The Brown Book also, but my understanding is that it covers the years between the completion of the autobiography and the begining of Cosimas diaries so logically My Life should be read first  :) I also believe the Brown Book is more 'notes' and thus a less compelling read.

I appreciate you are a Wagner fan so I highly recommend his autobiography to you;its amazing and I'm less than half way through it.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 26, 2008, 04:46:38 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on February 26, 2008, 04:19:41 PM
Yes Andy, I want to read The Brown Book also, but my understanding is that it covers the years between the completion of the autobiography and the begining of Cosimas diaries so logically My Life should be read first  :) I also believe the Brown Book is more 'notes' and thus a less compelling read.

I appreciate you are a Wagner fan so I highly recommend his autobiography to you;its amazing and I'm less than half way through it.  :)




It's on my wish list now, thanks so much!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 04, 2008, 07:19:23 AM
Quote from: orbital on February 18, 2008, 01:58:15 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X2P94DS8L._OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
This was just standing there in our bookcase. It started quite ok, let's see how it goes.

Well, that turned out to be one horrible book. Never since Palahniuk's Diary have I come across a novel that pretentious  :-\

Started this one today:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JK68NJF9L._OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

I've only read some of his short stories (back in high school) before.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on March 04, 2008, 09:21:33 AM
(http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/~avb/micromathematics/uploaded_images/smith2-721887.jpg)
(although not in this version)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on March 06, 2008, 07:49:50 AM
Carl Hiaasen-Stormy Weather
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 06, 2008, 10:24:13 AM
Quote from: orbital on March 04, 2008, 07:19:23 AM
Started this one today:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JK68NJF9L._OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

I've only read some of his short stories (back in high school) before.

Just finished it today. I'm sure you'll enjoy as much as I did. I'm reading Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on March 06, 2008, 10:50:32 AM
The Merchant of Venice, thanks to the wonders of online libraries and expired copyrights :) I've been playing Beethoven's late SQs all day and this is the only work that seems to fit them well - magical scenes like this fit so well with, say, the 3rd movement of op.132:

LORENZO

    The moon shines bright: in such a night as this,
    When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees
    And they did make no noise, in such a night
    Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls
    And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents,
    Where Cressid lay that night.

JESSICA

    In such a night
    Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew
    And saw the lion's shadow ere himself
    And ran dismay'd away.

LORENZO

    In such a night
    Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
    Upon the wild sea banks and waft her love
    To come again to Carthage.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gustav on March 06, 2008, 12:04:43 PM
I am still reading Karl Böhm's autobiography (in English), interestingly he talks a lot about his friendships with various Jewish musicians (Bruno Walter for instance), I wonder why that is the case....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on March 06, 2008, 12:42:58 PM
Quote from: Gustav on March 06, 2008, 12:04:43 PM
I am still reading Karl Böhm's autobiography (in English), interestingly he talks a lot about his friendships with various Jewish musicians (Bruno Walter for instance), I wonder why that is the case....

Böhm kept on conducting during the Nazi era, when no Jewish musician was left. Guilt?

Irony of history - we now have Böhm's wonderful 'Ariadne auf Naxos' from 1944...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on March 11, 2008, 02:03:31 AM
"Pourquoi y a-t-il quelque chose plutôt que rien"

Several essays reflecting the modern perspectives of metaphysics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 11, 2008, 02:33:24 AM
Quote from: val on March 11, 2008, 02:03:31 AM
"Pourquoi y a-t-il quelque chose plutôt que rien"

Pourquoi donc?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on March 11, 2008, 05:42:42 AM
Quote[Florestan
Pourquoi donc? 

I don't think that an answer is possible. In fact, I believe the question itself has no semantic meaning.

The question belongs to Leibniz. Anyway it is the title of the book, in French. Even if I have not a metaphysical perspective of the world, I like to read different points of view. They are always stimulating.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on March 11, 2008, 08:50:10 AM
Quote from: val on March 11, 2008, 05:42:42 AMEven if I have not a metaphysical perspective of the world, I like to read different points of view. They are always stimulating.

Yes, yes! That, to me, has always been the only way of getting at an idea of what might constitute a truth: explore with an open mind as many avenues and viewpoints as possible, contrast them, compare them with each other, and with your own experience and insight.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on March 11, 2008, 09:09:49 AM
Following a new personal rule that only books over 700 pages are worthwhile,   ???

I am now reading the mind-numbingly atomistic, scrupulously psycho-meticulous novel Porius by J.C. Powys, where every little twitch, every breath of wind, every peep of a bird is hyper-scrutinized through the most nanoistic procedures of literary psychoanalysis imaginable, and even the dung from cows is symbologized, if not quite mythologized.

I have read over 125 pages, and so far the hero in two or three hours has had short, gnomic conversations with his cousin about Mithraism and Pelagianism, and visited a cave and a tent, where not much has happened except for that cow dung thing.

The book is marvelously intriguing!   :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on March 11, 2008, 09:33:06 AM
Quote from: Cato on March 11, 2008, 09:09:49 AM
Following a new personal rule that only books over 700 pages are worthwhile,   ???

I am now reading the mind-numbingly atomistic, scrupulously psycho-meticulous novel Porius by J.C. Powys, where every little twitch, every breath of wind, every peep of a bird is hyper-scrutinized through the most nanoistic procedures of literary psychoanalysis imaginable, and even the dung from cows is symbologized, if not quite mythologized.

I have read over 125 pages, and so far the hero in two or three hours has had short, gnomic conversations with his cousin about Mithraism and Pelagianism, and visited a cave and a tent, where not much has happened except for that cow dung thing.

The book is marvelously intriguing!   :o

Another J.C. Powys lover! I have read Wolf Solent and Weymouth Sands (known as Jobber Skald in the US, IIRC). Powys is an incredible writer. He can be exasperating, but he is almost always absorbing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 11, 2008, 11:53:12 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 06, 2008, 10:24:13 AM
Just finished it today. I'm sure you'll enjoy as much as I did.
Oh yes, I am enjoying it very much :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on March 11, 2008, 11:56:56 AM
I'm reading the thread about how Bernstein said Beethoven was the greatest composer. It's not any good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 11, 2008, 11:58:13 AM
It's a fair cop.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 11, 2008, 06:52:07 PM
Quote from: orbital on March 11, 2008, 11:53:12 AM
Oh yes, I am enjoying it very much :)

:) From the beginning I was expecting something sugary and sentimental, but it gets better as it progresses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 11, 2008, 08:18:10 PM
Quote from: Corey on March 11, 2008, 06:52:07 PM
:) From the beginning I was expecting something sugary and sentimental, but it gets better as it progresses.
Exactly, I was expecting it to be sort of like Balzac. I am about half way through, he is in Paris now  $:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 11, 2008, 08:22:09 PM
Quote from: orbital on March 11, 2008, 08:18:10 PM
Exactly, I was expecting it to be sort of like Balzac. I am about half way through, he is in Paris now  $:)

Do you think Balzac is sentimental? I was thinking more along the lines of Dickens or George Eliot. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 11, 2008, 08:26:17 PM
Quote from: Corey on March 11, 2008, 08:22:09 PM
Do you think Balzac is sentimental? I was thinking more along the lines of Dickens or George Eliot. :)
I took Pere Goriot as my yardstick  ;D, a book which I had found overly sentimental.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 11, 2008, 08:35:49 PM
Quote from: orbital on March 11, 2008, 08:26:17 PM
I took Pere Goriot as my yardstick  ;D, a book which I had found overly sentimental.

Hm, I have to agree with you there in regards to the parts of the novel based around Goriot, but I found it immensely entertaining for Balzac's witty aperçus. Paris of his day seems little different from our world today. Cousin Bette is probably his greatest book, though I haven't read all of them, he was hugely prolific!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 12, 2008, 06:41:10 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 11, 2008, 08:35:49 PM
Hm, I have to agree with you there in regards to the parts of the novel based around Goriot, but I found it immensely entertaining for Balzac's witty aperçus.
I would say not only Goriot, but also parts relating to Rastignac and Delphine as well. It is, for the most part, what we would today call a melodrama (at least when adapted to film or a play...) I always thought it would make an excellent opera  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gustav on March 12, 2008, 08:22:38 AM
Bruno Walter - A world Elsewhere by Erik Ryding and Rebecca Pechefsky
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 17, 2008, 08:18:12 PM
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/d4/9c/3754b220dca07809603c6010._AA240_.L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mark on March 18, 2008, 01:51:57 PM
Just started Harold C. Schonberg's 'The Lives of the Great Composers': a biographical history (with appropriately limited analysis of musical form and compositions) of composers from Bach to Schoenberg. Old book - got it for £2 from Oxfam - but refreshingly easy to read compared to some books on classical music history which purport to be for 'the layman'. Nice writing style, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jupiter on March 18, 2008, 04:07:53 PM
Just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Read it in one long sitting and finished at 2 in the morning. Cried at the end. Brilliant book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 18, 2008, 04:12:29 PM
Vol 4 Ernest Newman's "Life of Richard Wagner"

The whole ordeal between King Ludwig and Wagner gets pretty darn creepy sometimes, overall Wagner sure had an interesting life!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on March 18, 2008, 05:54:29 PM
Discipline in the Secondary Classroom by Sprick

I think this will be an invaluable resource, I read it last weekend.  I need to find more ways to bring order and discipline into the classroom but using positive reinforcement.  Sounds like an oxymoron but it's not.

Teaching Introductory Physics by Arons

Another book I could have used in the beginning of the year.  There is alot of valuable advise in this book, but it's just too late to implement any of it.

I've been pretty good with reading useful books for work, but haven't read for entertainment since well Christmas time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on March 19, 2008, 12:29:02 PM
I bought this for about $5; so far has been worth the price:

(http://www.garretwilson.com/books/reviews/historywesternphilosophy.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 19, 2008, 05:38:06 PM
100 pages into:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515-WHqmWgL._AA240_.jpg)

Danny,
If you have not cracked this one then get on it bruddah.  Satisfaction guaranteed,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on March 19, 2008, 05:52:37 PM
Quote from: Danny on March 19, 2008, 12:29:02 PM
I bought this for about $5; so far has been worth the price:

(http://www.garretwilson.com/books/reviews/historywesternphilosophy.jpg)

Danny - great choice!  My father's favorite writer in this genre - Russell, of course, a Nobel Prize winner!  I read a number of his  books years ago, including the one you mention - his rather short work 'Why I'm Not a Christian' changed me from a Catholic to at least an agnostic - worth a read for those in doubt!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 06:35:36 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on March 19, 2008, 05:52:37 PM
Danny - great choice!  My father's favorite writer in this genre - Russell, of course, a Nobel Prize winner!  I read a number of his  books years ago, including the one you mention - his rather short work 'Why I'm Not a Christian' changed me from a Catholic to at least an agnostic - worth a read for those in doubt!  ;D



I like the book mentioned earlier, but "Why I am Not a Christian" was laughable to me. Russell was a pioneer of the Analytical Philosophy movement, a movement that is notorious for completely disregarding the the value of things like imagination, allegorical symbols, romanticism, etc. His entire Weltanschauung is based around such tiresomely dry, mathematical formulations .

"Why I am Not a Christian" only reinforced my faith at the time I read it, since at the very least I don't ever want to be a completely unimaginative, arid, "analytically-minded" arse like Bertrand Russell.

Absolutely no offense intended, and it's only the opinion of a nobody guitar teacher in Burlington, Vermont.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 20, 2008, 06:38:38 AM
Quote from: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 06:35:36 AM
Absolutely no offense intended, and it's only the opinion of a nobody guitar teacher in Burlington, Vermont.

Haff, you don't need to append this qualification any time you have an opinion that might be controversial.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 20, 2008, 06:41:51 AM
Quote from: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 06:35:36 AM
"Why I am Not a Christian" was laughable to me.

Absolutely no offense intended, and it's only the opinion of a nobody guitar teacher in Burlington, Vermont.

Seconded by a nobody mechanical engineer in Bucharest, Romania.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 06:42:25 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 20, 2008, 06:38:38 AM
Haff, you don't need to append this qualification any time you have an opinion that might be controversial.



I understand, Corey, but I don't ever want to pretend like I'm putting on airs. Or that my opinion is particularly important. I just wanted to put in my two cents, and I was probably kind of dumb to do so in the first place.


One of the most laughable parts in that book is that age old saw about the questioning of Christ's historical existence, a position very few secular scholars take seriously these days. Nietzsche actually jeopardized the validity of his overall philosophy by blaming the "invention" of Christianity solely on St. Paul, as a "plot" to undermine the Roman Empire. As if the "secret" wouldn't have been out by now. It's so dumb it brings tears of hilarity to my eyes.

OOOPS there I go again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on March 20, 2008, 06:44:23 AM
"God is not great"  by Christopher Hitchens. Picked this up because I felt the need to cleanse myself.  
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 20, 2008, 06:45:34 AM
Quote from: erato on March 20, 2008, 06:44:23 AM
I felt the need to cleanse myself.  

Of what?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 06:48:09 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 20, 2008, 06:45:34 AM
Of what?



Perhaps of that nasty idea: "God is too great".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on March 20, 2008, 06:48:59 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 20, 2008, 06:45:34 AM
Of what?
Of some threads that led to great disagreement.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 06:50:26 AM
Quote from: erato on March 20, 2008, 06:48:59 AM
Of some threads that led to great disagreement.



Now there's a good answer!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 20, 2008, 06:51:57 AM
Quote from: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 06:42:25 AM


I understand, Corey, but I don't ever want to pretend like I'm putting on airs. Or that my opinion is particularly important. I just wanted to put in my two cents, and I was probably kind of dumb to do so in the first place.


One of the most laughable parts in that book is that age old saw about the questioning of Christ's historical existence, a position very few secular scholars take seriously these days. Nietzsche actually jeopardized the validity of his overall philosophy by blaming the "invention" of Christianity solely on St. Paul, as a "plot" to undermine the Roman Empire. As if the "secret" wouldn't have been out by now. It's so dumb it brings tears of hilarity to my eyes.

OOOPS there I go again.

I will probably eventually read it anyway. I don't read philosophical texts to support what I already know or to be edified, but to gain a greater perspective.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 06:54:07 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 20, 2008, 06:51:57 AM
I will probably eventually read it anyway. I don't read philosophical texts to support what I already know or to be edified, but to gain more perspective.



You said it, and I admire you for putting it so well.

There was a time I even read LaVey's Satanic Bible and the ultimately despicable Extermination Zone by Randall Phillips.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 20, 2008, 07:08:53 AM
Quote from: erato on March 20, 2008, 06:48:59 AM
Of some threads that led to great disagreement.

You can easily ignore them altogether.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 07:14:11 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 20, 2008, 07:08:53 AM
You can easily ignore them altogether.



I wonder if people whom claim to have such a hard time ignoring certain topics (obviously I'm not referring to erato) tend to reveal more than they'd like to about themselves via their "protest too much" adamance.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 20, 2008, 04:27:01 PM
Various internet articles on these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiten

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on March 21, 2008, 02:09:32 PM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/417M6C2447L._SS500_.jpg)

By the guy with the gun to his head - becoming one of my favorite authors, this is the fourth book of his I have read (Europe Central The Atlas and The Ice Shirt being the others).  This is part of his Seven Dreams series detailing clashes between European and Native Cultures in North America.  This one deals with the Inuit, contrasting Franklin's ill fated 19th century expedition with the Canadian government forceably relocating them in the 1950s to desolate islands in the high artic so that Canadian sovereignty over the Islands would be secure and then to modern settlements with inuit kids huffing gasoline and leading rather hopeless lives
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on March 24, 2008, 02:20:31 AM
PLATO:   "The Statesman"

It is impossible to me to read this Dialogue without thinking of Karl Popper's critic. If we accept Plato's question "who should command the State",it is difficult not to agree with him when he answers: "the better, the few enlightened."
But as Popper says, that is not the essential question. We shall ask "what system provides us the best means to get ride of a bad government?". And here, the answer is obvious: Democracy, that Plato's despises so much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 24, 2008, 04:18:29 AM
Quote from: val on March 24, 2008, 02:20:31 AM
PLATO:   "The Statesman"

It is impossible to me to read this Dialogue without thinking of Karl Popper's critic. If we accept Plato's question "who should command the State",it is difficult not to agree with him when he answers: "the better, the few enlightened."
But as Popper says, that is not the essential question. We shall ask "what system provides us the best means to get ride of a bad government?". And here, the answer is obvious: Democracy, that Plato's despises so much.

Yes, but democracy is also the answer to the question "what system provides us the best means to elect a bad government".  ;D :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on March 24, 2008, 04:39:08 AM
But we also can replace it by a better government without a bloodbath.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 24, 2008, 04:42:26 AM
Quote from: val on March 24, 2008, 04:39:08 AM
But we also can replace it by a better government without a bloodbath.

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 24, 2008, 07:11:57 AM
Not reading as much as looking but I got that amazing book by Jill Greenberg called "Monkey Portraits". They contain some fascinating close-up shots of various types of monkeys and apes.
http://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Portraits-Jill-Greenberg/dp/0821257552  (http://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Portraits-Jill-Greenberg/dp/0821257552)

Some of the pictures can be seen on Greenberg's website:
http://www.paulkopeikingallery.com/artists/greenberg/index2.htm
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on March 24, 2008, 02:37:28 PM
Last year, purchased The New Bach Reader (1998), revised & expanded by Christoph Wolff (original first released in 1945 by Hans David & Arthur Mendel, both deceased) - this is an 'unusual' book; a variety of sections beginning w/ a short outline of Bach, followed by sections w/ compilations of letters, documents, etc. on Bach (many by Bach, himself), and a later section of Forkel's bio of Bach (based on correspondence w/ Bach's two elder sons); Bach is also looked at in the latter half of the 18th & first part of the 19th centuries - this is not a book to be read from 'page to page' - I skipped through the pages picking 'what' seemed of interest to me - this is a book that you would come back to as a reference depending on various aspects of Bach that may be of interest to you - check HERE (http://www.amazon.com/New-Bach-Reader-Arthur-Mendel/dp/0393319563/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206397450&sr=8-1) for plenty of Amazonian comments - worth a look if present in a bookstore or a library checkout -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514PGMCQBYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 24, 2008, 06:25:03 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/butlerwayofallflesh-1.jpg)

The one I have is not the one pictured, but a very old Modern Library edition.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 25, 2008, 08:12:22 AM
An entertaining science fantasy.

(http://www.pyrsf.com/covers/BrightoftheSky.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 25, 2008, 08:19:39 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 25, 2008, 08:12:22 AM
An entertaining science fantasy.

(http://www.pyrsf.com/covers/BrightoftheSky.jpg)




Really cool cover!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 25, 2008, 08:23:16 AM
Quote from: Haffner on March 25, 2008, 08:19:39 AM
Really cool cover!

Here's the second book.

http://www.amazon.com/World-Too-Near-Book-Entire/dp/1591026423/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 25, 2008, 08:27:35 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 25, 2008, 08:23:16 AM
Here's the second book.

http://www.amazon.com/World-Too-Near-Book-Entire/dp/1591026423/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b



But when you wrote "entertaining" in review, I wonder if that's just a "bare, minimally acceptable" rating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 25, 2008, 08:29:39 AM
Quote from: Haffner on March 25, 2008, 08:27:35 AM


But when you wrote "entertaining" in review, I wonder if that's just a "bare, minimally acceptable" rating.

Being entertained is all I ask when I read something like this. It's a lot of fun so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 27, 2008, 10:37:33 AM
This is a book. Sort of.

(http://www.fanfaremag.com/images/covers/cover_0314-214.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 27, 2008, 10:55:22 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412FJWVBJ5L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU02_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 27, 2008, 11:02:29 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 25, 2008, 08:29:39 AM
Being entertained is all I ask when I read something like this. It's a lot of fun so far.


Alot of times that's plenty enough for anything, right?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 27, 2008, 11:06:22 AM
Quote from: Haffner on March 27, 2008, 11:02:29 AM

Alot of times that's plenty enough for anything, right?

Right.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 27, 2008, 11:17:08 AM
I am a certified "Zombie Movie" fanatic. People-eating zombies scare the daylights out of me, and it's fun to be scared sometimes. For me, movies like that are just entertainment (Stephen King is a good example for literature). It's great to do as that beloved Seinfeld character encouraged others to do "to not think too much", at least part of the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 27, 2008, 11:19:59 AM
Quote from: Haffner on March 27, 2008, 11:17:08 AM
I am a certified "Zombie Movie" fanatic. People-eating zombies scare the daylights out of me, and it's fun to be scared sometimes. For me, movies like that are just entertainment (Stephen King is a good example for literature). It's great to do as that beloved Seinfeld character encouraged others to do "to not think too much", at least part of the time.

Oh, I'm a horror fan too, though the stuff out there lately doesn't really impress. Maybe the genre is finally dead. (I'm talking about literature, not movies, though those are fun too.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 27, 2008, 11:35:07 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 27, 2008, 11:19:59 AM
Oh, I'm a horror fan too, though the stuff out there lately doesn't really impress. Maybe the genre is finally dead. (I'm talking about literature, not movies, though those are fun too.)




Yeah, I remember when I first read "The Shining","Salem's Lot", "The Stand","The Black Cat", "Call of Cthulu"...terrific stories, great reading!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 27, 2008, 11:39:32 AM
Quote from: Haffner on March 27, 2008, 11:35:07 AM



Yeah, I remember when I first read "The Shining","Salem's Lot", "The Stand","The Black Cat", "Call of Cthulu"...terrific stories, great reading!

Hell, you listen to metal. It's almost mandatory to read horror. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 27, 2008, 12:26:07 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 27, 2008, 11:39:32 AM
Hell, you listen to metal. It's almost mandatory to read horror. :)



You are a prophet! With a really killer avatar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on March 27, 2008, 01:38:38 PM
Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions by Pope Benedict XVI:
(http://www.amazon.com/Truth-Tolerance-Christian-Belief-Religions/dp/158617035X)

Benedict is always a deeply insightful and stimulating read. His theology is profound and reflects that fact he's one of the most well-read and theological of popes. The first essay, from 1964, contrasting the Asian "mysticism of identity" from what he calls "monotheism revolution" and how the attitudes and approaches of the two essentialy differ and create a vastly different construct of religion that is developed over a millenia is a masterpiece of its kind, IMHO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on March 27, 2008, 02:19:04 PM
Ian McEwan's "On Chesil beach" - love it very much! I visited that beach last year - the sound of the pebbles, roling in the surf, is still in my ears.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 31, 2008, 07:45:03 PM
(http://www.submarinebooks.com/IBoatCapt1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on March 31, 2008, 09:14:10 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 25, 2008, 08:12:22 AM
An entertaining science fantasy.

(http://www.pyrsf.com/covers/BrightoftheSky.jpg)

Would these two books appeal to a 13-yr-old boy who loved Lord of the Ring and Harry Potter books?  It's birthday time!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 01, 2008, 04:28:52 AM
Quote from: Anne on March 31, 2008, 09:14:10 PM
Would these two books appeal to a 13-yr-old boy who loved Lord of the Ring and Harry Potter books?  It's birthday time!

I figure if he can get through Lord of the Rings, this should be no problem. So, yes, probably.

[Edit: Wait, there are some slight sexual references, so I'll say it's PG-13. And please note I haven't read the second book, so I can't tell you much about that one.]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 01, 2008, 06:52:18 AM
Windows Vista Annoyances (2008) by David Karp

Bought a new laptop last year that came w/ VISTA - been using these 'annoyances' books from O'Reilly for many years, so had to pick up this one which was released recently - if you are STUCK w/ this OS, then a highly recommended reference - CLICK on the image for reviews, if interested - also, excellent price at Bookpool.com (http://www.bookpool.com/ss?qs=windows+vista+annoyances&x=0&y=0) -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51N9FhgVccL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Vista-Annoyances-Secrets-Hacks/dp/0596527624/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207060918&sr=8-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 01, 2008, 06:56:57 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MXTST8FDL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 01, 2008, 08:40:44 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 01, 2008, 04:28:52 AM
I figure if he can get through Lord of the Rings, this should be no problem. So, yes, probably.

[Edit: Wait, there are some slight sexual references, so I'll say it's PG-13. And please note I haven't read the second book, so I can't tell you much about that one.]


Thanks, Dave!  Much appreciated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on April 01, 2008, 08:51:49 AM
Maureen Howard-Before My Time
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 01, 2008, 09:54:00 AM
Dave (Sonic)-- thanks for talking about it and the links, that looks very interesting to me since I've been dealing with Vista.  I got it down to look and behave roughly like XP, but there are some strange annoyances that still float around.  I've bookmarked it now and I might order it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 01, 2008, 03:13:57 PM
Quote from: DavidW on April 01, 2008, 09:54:00 AM
Dave (Sonic)-- thanks for talking about it and the links, that looks very interesting to me since I've been dealing with Vista.  I got it down to look and behave roughly like XP, but there are some strange annoyances that still float around.  I've bookmarked it now and I might order it.

Hi, David - just getting started w/ the book, but expect a 'useful' read (from my past experiences w/ these Annoyances works) - I'm pretty comfortable w/ VISTA on this new Dell laptop, but there remain some 'irritations & quirks' that I hope this book will explain.  There is also an excellent website Annoyances.org (http://annoyances.org/) that might be of interest, if not visited before - think I've been getting these books since @ least my W2K days!  :D

BTW, had to get the new Dell because my 'beloved' IBM ThinkPad's HD DIED on me - replaced the HD & upped the RAM to 512 MB - installed Ubuntu 7.10, so I kind of alternate being my 'wireless' laptops @ home - really enjoying the LINUX experience - been taking that one on the road w/ me - just feel safer w/ it on these 'open' hotel networks!

Let us know what you think of the book, if purchased -  :)  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 01, 2008, 04:14:19 PM
That's cool for you Dave, because I love Linux but since I got this new laptop none of them detect and configure my wireless card right, and I simply do not have the time to learn to do it manually.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on April 01, 2008, 04:52:27 PM
Being a sloooow reader, I've been reading a book titled " La Pensée antique - des présocratiques à saint Augustin" for at least three weeks, and probably won't be finished with it before next Summer. It is very well laid out, with short chapters devoted to all the philosophical currents that were emerging in ancient Greece before Socrates. I had heard the names Heraclitus and Democritus before, without knowing if they were authors, athletes or philosophers (Greece was busy breeding them like rabbits between 600-400 BC). Now I know !

According to Whitehead, "Modern philosophy is but a footnote on a page from Plato". There are indeed the germs (and stems, leaves and fruits) of just about every philosophical current when one reads about Anaxagore, Parmenides, Empedocles, Thales and Pythagoras.

Nietzsche and Marx, Sartre and Heidegger merely developed what had long been exposed before them (if sometimes imperfectly). The most interesting discovery I made while reading this is that the main difference between now and what had been said 2500 years ago lies more in the evolution of language than of thought.  Therefore, as one of the writers(*)  comments, philosophy has progressively detached itself from the common sense and capacity of understanding of the mass to evolve in a science, bundle of concepts and language that only fellow philosophers can understand.

This has long been my own contention but I'm happy to see that my intuition is abetted by the Faculty :D

(*) Sorbonne professor, ancient Greek specialist, Académie française Member and eminent hellenist Jacqueline de Romilly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_de_Romilly).

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 01, 2008, 11:32:45 PM
Nice post, Lilas!

AS for me, I'm reading Lituma in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa. Excellent, as everything I've read from him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on April 02, 2008, 12:00:49 AM
(http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/images/bookcovers/b16_withoutroots_lg.jpg)

Only 135 pages but a deeply stimulating, insightful and comprehensive read for the subject matter it tackles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 02, 2008, 02:59:48 AM
Quote from: Danny on April 02, 2008, 12:00:49 AM
(http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/images/bookcovers/b16_withoutroots_lg.jpg)

Only 135 pages but a deeply stimulating, insightful and comprehensive read for the subject matter it tackles.



Hey, now I'm interested!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on April 02, 2008, 01:06:26 PM
Quote from: Haffner on April 02, 2008, 02:59:48 AM


Hey, now I'm interested!

Interesting it is.  Both of their speeches given within days of each other offer a good critique of relativism (Pera is especially brilliant here) and why its impact (lack of faith in Christianity, its long esteemed morality, etc.) is having such a negative influence on Europe--and Western Civilization--today.  The book concludes with two letters written between them (one from Pera to the Pope, and then a response from Benedict to Pera) that centers around the idea of a civil religion in Europe, one that the secular Pera wishes to be a kind of "non-denominational Christian religion" that can incorporate the various faiths, practices and moral/ethical foundations of Christians into a single religious block. Even more interesting, Pera wishes to include secular people of good will within this block!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 02, 2008, 01:31:56 PM
Just picked this up from the library:

(http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/10/10673.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 02, 2008, 01:33:35 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 02, 2008, 01:31:56 PM
Just picked this up from the library:

(http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/10/10673.jpg)



Killer!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 02, 2008, 01:39:54 PM
Quote from: Haffner on April 02, 2008, 01:33:35 PM
Killer!

Yeah, it's one of those over-sized books with lots of art in it. Maybe I should actually buy one.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on April 02, 2008, 02:54:45 PM
I read a lot of Conan in my teens (1970s). And I liked those Frank Frazetta covers, too...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 02, 2008, 03:05:26 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on April 02, 2008, 02:54:45 PM
I read a lot of Conan in my teens (1970s). And I liked those Frank Frazetta covers, too...

Yep, me too. And I've been reliving the experience lately.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 02, 2008, 03:37:08 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 02, 2008, 01:31:56 PM
Just picked this up from the library:

(http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/10/10673.jpg)

Cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 02, 2008, 03:37:36 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on April 02, 2008, 02:54:45 PM
I read a lot of Conan in my teens (1970s). And I liked those Frank Frazetta covers, too...

Yup.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 02, 2008, 03:40:56 PM
This guy is a disciple of Frazetta, he did the Kiss Destroyer, Rainbow Rising, and Manowar albums covers. I think y'all will like:


kenkellyart.com (http://kenkellyart.com)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 02, 2008, 03:44:15 PM
Quote from: Haffner on April 02, 2008, 03:40:56 PM
This guy is a disciple of Frazetta, he did the Kiss Destroyer, Rainbow Rising, and Manowar albums covers. I think y'all will like:


kenkellyart.com (http://kenkellyart.com)

Ken Kelly did some AWESOME book covers for Conan. They're in this book too. Two-pagers!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 02, 2008, 03:45:27 PM
If Sarge could photo shop your Fraz Conan cover Dave and stick a Fender where the sword is, you will have a good idea of what our very own Andrew the Conquerer looks like.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 02, 2008, 03:46:48 PM
Quote from: Bogey on April 02, 2008, 03:45:27 PM
If Sarge could photo shop your Fraz Conan cover Dave and stick a Fender where the sword is, you will have a good idea of what our very own Andrew the Conquerer looks like.  8)

:o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 02, 2008, 03:56:09 PM
I believe Kelly did a lot of the previous re-releases of the Howard stuff.  Pocket size paperbacks with silver boarders.  I had a few but dumped them when the new Howard editions came out.  The covers were very good.  Now, if any of you pull out some Boris Vallejo renditions, I'm outaa here. (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/images/smilies/extras/thumbsdown.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 02, 2008, 04:02:37 PM
Quote from: Bogey on April 02, 2008, 03:56:09 PM
I believe Kelly did a lot of the previous re-releases of the Howard stuff.  Pocket size paperbacks with silver boarders.  I had a few but dumped them when the new Howard editions came out.  The covers were very good.  Now, if any of you pull out some Boris Vallejo renditions, I'm outaa here. (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/images/smilies/extras/thumbsdown.gif)

I didn't mind Vallejo as a kid, but yeah...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 02, 2008, 04:15:21 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 02, 2008, 04:02:37 PM
I didn't mind Vallejo as a kid, but yeah...

Now the Bama Doc Savage covers are another story.  Cool then, cool now.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 02, 2008, 04:35:50 PM
Quote from: Bogey on April 02, 2008, 04:15:21 PM
Now the Bama Doc Savage covers are another story.  Cool then, cool now.





Extremely heroic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 05, 2008, 08:19:16 AM
Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu (Moncrieff translation)

I read Swann's Way and about half of Within a Budding Grove about a year ago, but I don't think I was really ready for it. I've been putting off doing this for too long.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 05, 2008, 08:40:21 AM
I took this out from the library.

(http://www.classicstoday.com/images/f1_0900.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on April 07, 2008, 04:54:59 AM
Red Dragon - Thomas Harris
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 07, 2008, 04:59:59 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on April 07, 2008, 04:54:59 AM
Red Dragon - Thomas Harris

I love that book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 07, 2008, 05:16:45 AM
(http://images.tdaxp.com/tdaxp_upload/against_the_world_crop.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 07, 2008, 05:52:08 AM
Water Music, T.C. Boyle
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 07, 2008, 07:09:37 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on April 07, 2008, 04:54:59 AM
Red Dragon - Thomas Harris


Very creepy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 07, 2008, 07:13:20 AM
Pio Baroja (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pio_Baroja) - The Adventures of Shanti Andia
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 07, 2008, 07:13:39 AM
Quote
Water Music, T.C. Boyle

How, I wonder, could one not immediately like a novel opening with the sentence:

Quote from: T.C. BoyleAt an age when most Scotsmen were lifting skirts, plowing furrows and spreading seed, Mungo Park was displaying his bare buttocks to al-haj' Ali Ibn Fatoudi, Emir of Ludamar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 07, 2008, 07:16:36 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 07, 2008, 07:13:39 AM
How, I wonder, could one not immediately like a novel opening with the sentence:


Indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 07, 2008, 07:21:10 AM
Of course, The Sot-Weed Factor opens with a corker, too:

Quote from: Jn BarthIn the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taut with similes stretched to the snapping-point.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 07, 2008, 07:24:44 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 07, 2008, 07:21:10 AM
Of course, The Sot-Weed Factor opens with a corker, too:


Very nice. I like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 07, 2008, 12:29:25 PM
Quote from: Corey on April 05, 2008, 08:19:16 AM
Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu (Moncrieff translation)

The Modern Library edition right? I've started reading the same translation a few times but could not get halfway through Swann's way in my many attempts yet  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 07, 2008, 12:32:56 PM
Quote from: orbital on April 07, 2008, 12:29:25 PM
The Modern Library edition right? I've started reading the same translation a few times but could not get halfway through Swann's way in my many attempts yet  ;D

It's the same translation that the Modern Library uses, but this one is a crusty old two-volume Random House edition from the 30s. I'm putting my nose to the grindstone and finishing the whole thing this time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 07, 2008, 01:14:39 PM
Quote from: Corey on April 07, 2008, 12:32:56 PM
It's the same translation that the Modern Library uses, but this one is a crusty old two-volume Random House edition from the 30s. I'm putting my nose to the grindstone and finishing the whole thing this time.
:) Best of luck. I hope to do the same someday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on April 08, 2008, 11:15:10 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CQPWVP7BL._SS500_.jpg)

Giving this stuff some attention....slow gowing for me though.

Allan
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 08, 2008, 11:18:51 AM
(http://www.grahammasterton.co.uk/images/edgewise-leisure.jpg)

A vengeful Sioux spirit wreaks havoc in Minneapolis - When her children are kidnapped, in desperation Lily Blake seeks the services of a Sioux shaman, who summons up the Indian spirit, Wendigo, to find them. The price for this service is a spit of land that Lily's firm is selling for development land that once belonged to the Sioux. Lily is soon drawn into the destructive world of the Wendigo and learns to the detriment of those closest to her that you should never underestimate the power of a spirit betrayed . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 08, 2008, 11:38:14 AM
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008) by Mary Roach - looks like a FUN book!  ;D   Just read an excellent review in the NYC Book Review section the Sunday before last, put in an Amazon order, and arrived yesterday - just started my read last night - she is a funny writer who should make this topic quite entertaining - CLICK on the image for some top comments from the Amazonians, if interested; must explore some of her other books, like Stiff (about cadavers!) -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31bG89-AchL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Bonk-Curious-Coupling-Science-Sex/dp/0393064646/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207683114&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on April 09, 2008, 11:30:13 PM
THOMAS KUHN:     The Copernican Revolution

A very detailed analysis of the beginning of new science. The best book on the subject with Alexandre Koyré's "Du monde clos à l'univers infini".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on April 10, 2008, 06:55:20 AM
Jane Austen-Sense and Sensibility
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on April 10, 2008, 12:17:30 PM
Moscow 1941: A City and its People at War by Roderick Braithwaite. V good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 10, 2008, 12:19:48 PM
Quote from: rockerreds on April 10, 2008, 06:55:20 AM
Jane Austen-Sense and Sensibility

We watched the latter part of the Masterpiece Theatre adaptation; some delicious scenes!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on April 10, 2008, 01:35:43 PM
(http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0553214446.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Good to be reading Fedya again; just read and loved the first story "A Nasty Anecdote."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 10, 2008, 05:15:51 PM
Quote from: rockerreds on April 10, 2008, 06:55:20 AM
Jane Austen-Sense and Sensibility

Perfect.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 11, 2008, 04:34:32 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WCKzn0WwL._SS500_.jpg)

From Publishers Weekly
In Rainey's enjoyable WWII adventure with a superfluous SF plot twist, courageous American flyers with the navy Blue Devil unit shoot down Japs above the Solomon Islands. The U.S. airmen, led by Lt. Cmdr. Drew McLachlan and based on remote Conquest Island, see fast and fierce action, occasionally suffering a tragic loss. Then, in the cinematic tradition of the period, the story veers into horror flick territory with SF undertones when the airmen discover peculiar savages in the caves of Conquest's mountainous landscape. For good measure, Rainey (The Lebo Coven) also throws in a gigantic, monstrous extraterrestrial with galaxy-ruling ambitions. The novel benefits from the author's obvious interest in WWII aircraft, and readers nostalgic for the era's war movies and pulp fiction will enjoy the ride. (Jan.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 11, 2008, 06:03:59 PM
Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time, Volume Two: Within a Budding Grove

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/Proust2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 11, 2008, 06:41:48 PM
Quote from: Corey on April 11, 2008, 06:03:59 PM
Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time, Volume Two: Within a Budding Grove

I am assuming your next post in this thread will be a while  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 11, 2008, 07:14:59 PM
Quote from: orbital on April 11, 2008, 06:41:48 PM
I am assuming your next post in this thread will be a while  >:D

Well I finished Swann's Way in 4 days, so perhaps not a great while. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 11, 2008, 07:57:51 PM
Also: why couldn't you finish Swann's Way, if you don't mind my asking?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 12, 2008, 04:37:24 AM
Quote from: orbital on April 11, 2008, 06:41:48 PM
I am assuming your next post in this thread will be a while  >:D

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 12, 2008, 05:06:53 AM
Beside reading these days is the ubiquitous Kite Runner.  Competently crafted.  What I like about it is the sense that my world is expanding by viewing a slice of life through the eyes of an Afghan expatriate in America.  It broadens my sense of community.  Such literature is inclusive, not exclusive, opening the reader's heart and mind to compassionate celebration of our shared heritage and commitment to our shared responsibilities.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 12, 2008, 06:23:46 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 12, 2008, 05:06:53 AM
Beside reading these days is the ubiquitous Kite Runner.  Competently crafted.  What I like about it is the sense that my world is expanding by viewing a slice of life through the eyes of an Afghan expatriate in America.  It broadens my sense of community.  Such literature is inclusive, not exclusive, opening the reader's heart and mind to compassionate celebration of our shared heritage and commitment to our shared responsibilities.



We read that for our book club at work David.  Your points are right on the mark David as posted above.  However, I was about the only one that did not like it as an "actual read".  Did you find it to be a bit "contrived/overly predictable" in parts?   My colleagues also enjoyed his A Thousand Splendid Suns, which I also did not care for.  Obviously I am in the minority about its merits when it comes to "enjoying" his style of writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: O Delvig on April 12, 2008, 07:45:35 AM
Quote from: Danny on April 10, 2008, 01:35:43 PM
(http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0553214446.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Good to be reading Fedya again; just read and loved the first story "A Nasty Anecdote."

Looks interesting! Were those written before Siberia, or after? I'm rereading Notes from Underground, and am absorbing far more of it the second time around.

Pevear and Volokhonsky are easily the best translators of Russian classics that I've read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 12, 2008, 08:15:04 AM
Quote from: Bogey on April 12, 2008, 06:23:46 AM
Did you find it to be a bit "contrived/overly predictable" in parts?   
Yes, Bill.  Not great literature, of course, but competent and a cut above many "best sellers."  I would rather read a sincere writer of mediocre talent telling a story with heart than something impeccably crafted but soullessly banal.


edit.  corrected typo
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 12, 2008, 08:31:25 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 12, 2008, 08:15:04 AM
Yes, Bill.  Not great literature, of course, but competent and a cut above many "best sellers."  I would rather read a sincere writer of mediocre talent telling a story with heart than something impeccably crafted by soullessly banal.

A very fair comment. 

And speaking of broadening my "sense", have you looked into:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pZouUadAL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
http://www.amazon.com/Reluctant-Fundamentalist-Mohsin-Hamid/dp/0151013047
Another of our recent book club reads, of which I liked, save one or two parts, which I thought was extremely well written.  The rest of the club, save one other person, did not care for it though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 12, 2008, 08:43:37 AM
No, Bill--but on your say-so I will check it out.  Like the title!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 12, 2008, 08:54:23 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 12, 2008, 08:43:37 AM
No, Bill--but on your say-so I will check it out.  Like the title!

David, I found that the folks that did not like book, for the most part, did not because they did not agree with the main character and his views and this disagreement was at a passionate level in some cases.  For me, whether I agree or disagree with a character's view point does not indicate whether I will "like" a book or not, even if I loathe that character by the end of the book.  And to boot, this book has an absolutely unforgettable ending IMO.  A quick read as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 12, 2008, 10:41:51 AM
Quote from: Corey on April 11, 2008, 07:57:51 PM
Also: why couldn't you finish Swann's Way, if you don't mind my asking?
I don't really know. I lost interest after a while each time I've started so far  :-\ Way too much detail, and I hate to skip over paragraphs. Actually I'd rather not read the book than skip
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 12, 2008, 11:20:29 AM
(http://images.sergiobonellieditore.it/bonelli/misterno/mis0293.jpg)

When I was younger I used to read a lot of Italian comics - Bonelli's Mister No, Zagor, Komandant Mark, and I still have substantial collection of Magnus & Bunker's Alan Ford (boxed somewhere). Those were hugely poular in Italy and Yugoslavia but don't think anyone else ever heard of them.

Still enjoy them occasionally.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 13, 2008, 03:32:27 AM
Quote from: Drasko on April 12, 2008, 11:20:29 AM
(http://images.sergiobonellieditore.it/bonelli/misterno/mis0293.jpg)

When I was younger I used to read a lot of Italian comics - Bonelli's Mister No, Zagor, Komandant Mark, and I still have substantial collection of Magnus & Bunker's Alan Ford (boxed somewhere). Those were hugely poular in Italy and Yugoslavia but don't think anyone else ever heard of them.

Still enjoy them occasionally.





Very cool, Drasko.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 13, 2008, 06:46:08 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 13, 2008, 03:32:27 AM
Very cool, Drasko.

don't think any of those were ever translated into English but if you're curious you can check these:

http://www-en.sergiobonellieditore.it/personaggi/personaggi.html

Bonelli Editions page - Zagor, Mister No, Mark, Dylan Dog and Martyn Misterie were the most popular ones (Zagor the most)

and quite detailed wiki page on Alan Ford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ford_(comics) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 13, 2008, 07:01:13 AM
Quote from: Drasko on April 13, 2008, 06:46:08 AM
don't think any of those were ever translated into English but if you're curious you can check these:

http://www-en.sergiobonellieditore.it/personaggi/personaggi.html

Bonelli Editions page - Zagor, Mister No, Mark, Dylan Dog and Martyn Misterie were the most popular ones (Zagor the most)

and quite detailed wiki page on Alan Ford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ford_(comics) 


Thanks for the links.

(http://www-en.sergiobonellieditore.it/cpersonaggi/edicola/zagor/personaggio.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on April 13, 2008, 07:33:09 AM
Quote from: Bogey on April 12, 2008, 06:23:46 AM
We read that for our book club at work David. 

You have a book club at work?  What kinda job do you have?

Allan
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on April 14, 2008, 10:17:00 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nYuulVxYL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Sharp, cruel, funny - sobering.

On amazon : Jane W.Reit : As always, Lessing's sharp eye for human foible imbues all her stories with uncompromising clarity. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on April 14, 2008, 02:23:10 PM
Quote from: O Delvig on April 12, 2008, 07:45:35 AM
Looks interesting! Were those written before Siberia, or after? I'm rereading Notes from Underground, and am absorbing far more of it the second time around.

Pevear and Volokhonsky are easily the best translators of Russian classics that I've read.

Yes, all after Siberia.  Overall, an excellent collection of stories that I hadn't read (with the exception of "Dream of a Ridiculous Man").  Next up is "The Double" and "The Gambler", which should complete my reading of Fedya for now.  Maybe someday I'll read "Poor Folk", but I've heard too many bad things about it.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 16, 2008, 05:14:00 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5161S58HCKL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Part Faust, part Mephistopheles, Melmoth has made a satanic bargain for immortality. Now he wanders the earth, an outsider with an eerie, tortured existence, searching for someone who will take on his contract and release him to die a natural death.

With its erudition and wit, and its parody of arcane learned manuscripts, this Gothic masterpiece-first published in 1820-follows in the tradition of both the classics of its genre and the works of Cervantes, Swift, and Sterne. Some of its many admirers were Sir Walter Scott, Honoré de Balzac, Edgar Allan Poe, and Maturin's great nephew, Oscar Wilde. This edition includes a critical introduction, explanatory notes, and suggestions for further reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on April 16, 2008, 06:11:45 PM
"The Main Stream of Music and Other Essays" by Donald Francis Tovey. Tovey is, in my estimation, one of the top 2 or 3 all time writers on music. These essays were written from 1925 - '35, but are thoroughly modern in their perception. He cuts right through the bullshit and tells you the essence of the music. His life spanned an interesting time, for example, he knew Joachim very well, thus his essays on Brahms have an insight that no modern writer can match. This is a "must read" for anyone interested in music, and particularly in historical perspectives and perceptions. :)


8)

----------------
Listening to:
Skærved (Violin) / Shorr (Piano) - Beethoven - Bia 550 Op 96 Sonata #10 in G for Violin & Piano 2nd mvmt - Adagio espressivo
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 16, 2008, 06:13:58 PM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 16, 2008, 06:11:45 PM
"The Main Stream of Music and Other Essays" by Donald Francis Tovey. Tovey is, in my estimation, one of the top 2 or 3 all time writers on music. These essays were written from 1925 - '35, but are thoroughly modern in their perception. He cuts right through the bullshit and tells you the essence of the music. His life spanned an interesting time, for example, he knew Joachim very well, thus his essays on Brahms have an insight that no modern writer can match. This is a "must read" for anyone interested in music, and particularly in historical perspectives and perceptions. :)

Is it technical music theory?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on April 16, 2008, 06:19:31 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 16, 2008, 06:13:58 PM
Is it technical music theory?

Well, if it was, I sure wouldn't understand it!  Yes, there is some theory in it, but he does explain most of it (he was a professor at Oxford, so he knows how to explain), and he doesn't just throw it in for the hell of it, but to make a point. As I understand from the intro, he always gave his lectures (that's what many of these are) while sitting at the piano and he would make his point by playing a lick. So, you can't do that here, so he writes it out. Still, you can get the point, and it's worth the effort just to be able to enjoy the other 90% that isn't music theory. :)

8)


----------------
Listening to:
Skærved (Violin) / Shorr (Piano) - Beethoven - Bia 550 Op 96 Sonata #10 in G for Violin & Piano 4th mvmt - Poco allegretto
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 16, 2008, 06:21:42 PM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 16, 2008, 06:19:31 PM
Well, if it was, I sure wouldn't understand it!  Yes, there is some theory in it, but he does explain most of it (he was a professor at Oxford, so he knows how to explain), and he doesn't just throw it in for the hell of it, but to make a point. As I understand from the intro, he always gave his lectures (that's what many of these are) while sitting at the piano and he would make his point by playing a lick. So, you can't do that here, so he writes it out. Still, you can get the point, and it's worth the effort just to be able to enjoy the other 90% that isn't music theory. :)

Thanks for the details, Gurn. It sounds good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on April 16, 2008, 06:24:57 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 16, 2008, 06:21:42 PM
Thanks for the details, Gurn. It sounds good.

Y'r welcome, Dave. It IS a good book to learn from. I wish I had more of his stuff, but most of it is bound up in some great huge volumes of analysis (his forte). These were the leftovers that never made it into the big books. :)

8)

----------------
Listening to:
Vieuxtemps VCs - Slovak RSO / Mogrelia   Misha Keylin - Vieuxtemps Concerto #6 in G for Violin Op 47 1st mvmt
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 16, 2008, 06:27:34 PM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 16, 2008, 06:24:57 PM
Y'r welcome, Dave. It IS a good book to learn from. I wish I had more of his stuff, but most of it is bound up in some great huge volumes of analysis (his forte). These were the leftovers that never made it into the big books. :)

Sounds like it might be difficult to find a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on April 16, 2008, 06:31:38 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 16, 2008, 06:27:34 PM
Sounds like it might be difficult to find a copy.

Dunno, I've never looked for one. This copy is a very old paperback that was sent to me as a gift by a former poster here (bless her heart for it too!). It certainly should have been republished many times over since then though. :)

8)

----------------
Listening to:
Vieuxtemps VCs - Slovak RSO / Mogrelia   Misha Keylin - Vieuxtemps Concerto #6 in G for Violin Op 47 2nd mvmt
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on April 17, 2008, 12:46:21 AM
I read Tovey a long time ago. He was one of the few critics to write very favourably about Havergal Brian early in his career. The men knew each other, and Tovey was a prodigious sight-reader and pianist. He could reproduce any complex, unknown orchestral score at the piano...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 19, 2008, 02:23:31 PM
 8)

(http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books/bk9/cover_big.jpg)

Punk.  $:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 19, 2008, 05:28:02 PM
Divine Mercy
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on April 19, 2008, 05:58:21 PM
Quote from: Haffner on April 19, 2008, 05:28:02 PM
Divine Mercy

Oh, come on, Haffner!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 19, 2008, 06:00:58 PM
Quote from: M forever on April 19, 2008, 05:58:21 PM
Oh, come on, Haffner!



(laughing)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 19, 2008, 06:37:39 PM
Faustina is a funny name for a saint...  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 20, 2008, 08:56:43 AM
Quote from: Corey on April 19, 2008, 06:37:39 PM
Faustina is a funny name for a saint...  >:D




It always makes me think of Goethe. Not exactly a "fundamentalist" type-o' guy, right?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 20, 2008, 04:02:18 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on April 08, 2008, 11:38:14 AM
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008) by Mary Roach - looks like a FUN book!  ;D   Just read an excellent review in the NYC Book Review section the Sunday before last, put in an Amazon order, and arrived yesterday - just started my read last night - she is a funny writer who should make this topic quite entertaining - CLICK on the image for some top comments from the Amazonians, if interested; must explore some of her other books, like Stiff (about cadavers!) -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31bG89-AchL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Bonk-Curious-Coupling-Science-Sex/dp/0393064646/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207683114&sr=1-1)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0393324826.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208735719&sr=1-1)

Just finished Mary Roach's book Bonk.... - if you're interested in human sexuality (research, history, & personal interest), this book was an enjoyable & often funny read - just picked up her earlier book called Stiff (shown above; however, my paperback version has the feet looking more real - probably a color in-between would be the best choice for a cadaver) - will start soon - CLICK on the image to read comments on Amazon -  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 20, 2008, 04:05:58 PM
Quote from: Haffner on April 20, 2008, 08:56:43 AM



It always makes me think of Goethe. Not exactly a "fundamentalist" type-o' guy, right?

Maybe if Faust was transubstantiated into a woman. Would that make Margaret a Mark?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 20, 2008, 04:44:30 PM
Quote from: Corey on April 20, 2008, 04:05:58 PM
Maybe if Faust was transubstantiated into a woman. Would that make Margaret a Mark?


cracking up
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: btpaul674 on April 20, 2008, 08:12:56 PM
I'm currently reading "The Music of Bela Bartok" by Elliott Antokoletz.

It's not one of those easy reads, but I love Bartok's symmetry and I am beginning to see some of the small-scale symmetries Rautavaara uses in his music. Some of the sonorities in Bartok I find strewn about Rautavaara, some more obvious than others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 21, 2008, 03:24:33 PM
In Search of Lost Time Vol. 3: The Guermantes Way

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/Proust3.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on April 21, 2008, 05:10:03 PM
I have completed Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' and I enjoyed reading it.
He writes with great skill and poetry. Though when I compare the book to the film I see that many details were left out from the film.

After completing The Lord of the Rings I began reading the other work by Tolkien ' The Silmarillion. After reading some 30 pages or so I threw the book in the garbage for I thought it was extremely paganistic in nature, and I didn't like that at all.

The Silmarillion deals with the 'first age ' in Tolkien's world , while 'The Lord of the rings' is about the third age. The Lord of the rings is more of a story, and doesn't deal with 'Gods' or pagan religious subjects. I was disappointed with The Silmarillion, for I thought that it would be a nice story to read, but its paganistic nature really ruined it. I am not for reading this pagan things.

Saul
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 21, 2008, 05:15:46 PM
Quote from: Saul on April 21, 2008, 05:10:03 PMAfter reading some 30 pages or so I threw the book in the garbage for I thought it was extremely paganistic in nature, and I didn't like that at all.
Maybe you could have given it to someone or sold it to a used bookstore. A few of my friends have liked it (though I never bothered to read it).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 21, 2008, 05:22:02 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 21, 2008, 05:15:46 PM
Maybe you could have given it to someone or sold it to a used bookstore. A few of my friends have liked it (though I never bothered to read it).

Yes, I was wondering for how many people does, "I threw it in the garbage" mean approximately, "I sold it on Amazon"? :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 21, 2008, 05:25:29 PM
Quote from: Corey on April 21, 2008, 05:22:02 PM
Yes, I was wondering for how many people does, "I threw it in the garbage" mean approximately, "I sold it on Amazon"? :D
That's because we have to read college textbooks. In a few weeks I'm going to have to get in the business of "throwing things in the garbage"  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 21, 2008, 05:38:59 PM
I threw all my Lord of the Rings books "into the garbage" ages ago! (Silmarillion, too.) ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on April 21, 2008, 09:57:22 PM
Quote from: Corey on April 21, 2008, 05:38:59 PM
I threw all my Lord of the Rings books "into the garbage" ages ago! (Silmarillion, too.) ;D

You are lying. A being with protruding eyes wrested them from you and fell to his death.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on April 21, 2008, 11:16:06 PM
Quote from: Saul on April 21, 2008, 05:10:03 PM
The Silmarillion deals with the 'first age ' in Tolkien's world , while 'The Lord of the rings' is about the third age. The Lord of the rings is more of a story, and doesn’t deal with 'Gods' or pagan religious subjects. I was disappointed with The Silmarillion, for I thought that it would be a nice story to read, but its paganistic nature really ruined it. I am not for reading this pagan things.

That surprises me. I thought you were into stuff like that. I was under the impression you like to read the Old Testament or Tanakh which is just as fictional as Tolkien's writings.

I enjoyed reading "The Lord of the Rings", too, but never managed to read "The Silmarillion" either. I also stopped after a couple dozen pages or so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 22, 2008, 04:24:37 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on April 21, 2008, 09:57:22 PM
You are lying. A being with protruding eyes wrested them from you and fell to his death.

LOL
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 22, 2008, 04:36:53 AM
 ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 22, 2008, 06:53:48 PM
I didn't read this but I have to thank my two grandsons (16 and 13 yrs old) for helping me get through the entire Lord of the Rings saga on DVD.  I could never have done it without them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 22, 2008, 07:15:52 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CEW598BGL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Not to worry David, I still have your list and am beginning to procure some of the titles you suggested.  However, my May is packed with activities that will definitely crop my reading, so little vignettes may be all that I can fit in for now.  I like to clip at least 50 pages per sitting, and that just ain't going to happen until June rolls in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on April 22, 2008, 09:55:43 PM
Quote from: Anne on April 22, 2008, 06:53:48 PM
I didn't read this but I have to thank my two grandsons (16 and 13 yrs old) for helping me get through the entire Lord of the Rings saga on DVD.  I could never have done it without them.

... she said in her Oscar acceptance speech.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich on April 22, 2008, 10:26:14 PM
Good old stuff which I loved in my youth (now I'm old, 36):

Tom Sharpe - Tohuwabohu

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71QSSJGT9QL._SL500_AA240_.gif)

He's a real master of exaggeration. Still good fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on April 23, 2008, 12:28:17 AM
I am (re-)reading a few novels technically (like a composer studies scores), i.e. how is information presented to the reader, syntax, style et cetera:

Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow
Lowry - Under the Volcano
Bely - Petersburg
Djuna Barnes - Nightwood

I am also reading The Annals of Imperial Rome, by Tacitus (Penguin Classics). I find him astonishing - his insight into power and human nature are second to none, and he has a consummate style to match.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 23, 2008, 07:43:38 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on April 22, 2008, 09:55:43 PM
... she said in her Oscar acceptance speech.

:) :D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 23, 2008, 09:20:36 AM
Deathwatch by Robb White

"An exciting novel of suspense, based on a fight to the finish between an honest and courageous young man and a cynical business tycoon who believes that anything can be had for a price."--Horn Book. An ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults, Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Writers Award, A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, New York Public Library--Books for the Teen Age.

I'm not sure why they consider it Young Adult. Maybe because there are no curse words or boobies in it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 23, 2008, 10:48:43 AM
Found in an encyclopedia of rock music:

Quote. . . (featuring that classic paeon [sic] to the larger woman 'WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE', no anorexic waifs for this lot!) . . .

Or maybe "paeon" is in praise of a peon . . . ?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 23, 2008, 11:00:43 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 23, 2008, 10:48:43 AM
Found in an encyclopedia of rock music:

Or maybe "paeon" is in praise of a peon . . . ?

I'm finished with rock music.

FINISHED!

Maybe...  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on April 23, 2008, 11:01:36 AM
The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes.

It's so well written that it's not boring, which is saying a lot for something like this.  Unfortunately, it's so upsetting that I find myself self-medicating with shots of Slivovitz (100 proof - Kosher for Passover).  I'll bet John, Hillary and Barack have it on their reading list.

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/25020000/25028616.JPG)

Next on my list:

The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century, by Steve Coll. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 23, 2008, 11:03:19 AM
I prefer to escape into fantasy. Reality is too depressing.  :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 27, 2008, 02:03:49 PM
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003) by Mary Roach - about a third through this engrossing book, a mixture of modern & historical attitudes toward the dead - a delightful read for a physician & those w/ similar minds!  ;) ;D

Death, Dissection and the Destitute (2001) by Ruth Richardson - just ordered this book while reading the other (mentioned as a reference that sounded interesting) - will report later - I'm curious, however, why women seem to be writing all of these 'morbid' books!  ;D

CLICK on the images for a short synopsis of each & some Amazonian comments -  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZK6N6NG9L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209331491&sr=1-1)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AXYHPFKML._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Death-Dissection-Destitute-Ruth-Richardson/dp/0226712400/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209333396&sr=1-3)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 27, 2008, 02:06:13 PM
Quote from: MN Brahms on April 23, 2008, 11:03:19 AM
Reality is too depressing.  :'(



That's why I don't read the news. Or watch any sort of network television.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on April 27, 2008, 02:11:50 PM
Jack Finney: Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Haven't read this in probably 30 years, and was sparked by recently seeing the Donald Sutherland film version.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on April 27, 2008, 02:44:32 PM
"I'm curious, however, why women seem to be writing all of these 'morbid' books!"

As you and some others of us know, they delve into areas we know nothing about.  At least that is my reason for reading them.   ;D  Thanks for the recommendations!

I am reading a book "Escape" by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer.  It tells the story of Carolyn Jessop who escaped with all her 8 children from a radical polygamist cult.  She had been born into that cult.  At 18 she became the 4th wife of a fifty-year-old man.  She had 8 children in 15 years.  When their leader began to preach the apocalypse, she said she knew it was time to escape and get her children out also.

The book is very well written.  There is also a good deal on it now - $13 or $14 for hardback book.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on April 27, 2008, 02:45:42 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on April 27, 2008, 02:06:13 PM


That's why I don't read the news. 

Me neither. Not since 9/11.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 27, 2008, 03:18:26 PM
Quote from: bhodges on April 27, 2008, 02:11:50 PM
Jack Finney: Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Haven't read this in probably 30 years, and was sparked by recently seeing the Donald Sutherland film version.

--Bruce


Saw that fantastic remake when I was very young (first in theaters). Both it and the book are personal favorites of mine. Talk about para-noi-A!


Matheson's I Am Legend (forget that remake) is even better in the Paranoid Pantheon, in my humble opinion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on April 27, 2008, 05:46:54 PM
Quote from: M forever on April 21, 2008, 11:16:06 PM
That surprises me. I thought you were into stuff like that. I was under the impression you like to read the Old Testament or Tanakh which is just as fictional as Tolkien's writings.

I enjoyed reading "The Lord of the Rings", too, but never managed to read "The Silmarillion" either. I also stopped after a couple dozen pages or so.

Darn, where is a nation that follows the laws and customs of Tolkien's world?
Even he said that it was a mythological story that he invented.

But the Torah, you have an entire nation following the 613 divine commandments for 3300 years non stop against all odds.

Your over simplifications are ok with idiots, but intelligent folk view your comments as nothing more then a hiss in the air.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 28, 2008, 05:50:41 AM
(http://beeftone.com/images/bkopsch10032.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 28, 2008, 05:57:39 AM
Outstanding!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PCQFRCKCL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on April 29, 2008, 12:48:46 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513%2B-UvdtnL._SS500_.jpg)

Both are nifty; enjoy "The Gambler" a little more, 'tho.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on April 29, 2008, 01:11:03 AM
I've recently gotten into the habit of reading several books at once.

(http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0394752090.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

(http://www.theworldsgreatbooks.com/images/august2003/atlas%20shrugged.jpg)

(http://www.bookcourt.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/David.jpg)

I am enjoying them all.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on May 01, 2008, 02:48:08 AM
(http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/images/1034.jpg)

Cinematographer John Alton's classic book from the late 40's illustrating and describing the various uses of light in cinema; the reviewers say its dated, but for noir fanatics like myself that hardly matters! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 01, 2008, 03:43:32 AM
Quote from: -abe- on April 29, 2008, 01:11:03 AM
I've recently gotten into the habit of reading several books at once.

Mencken is perfect for that mode, of course;  he's always a delight to dip into/

Myself, when I'm reading Dickens, I like to just read the Dickens (so to speak) and focus on that narrative.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 01, 2008, 03:51:18 AM
Oh! And before taking up the Shake-scene bio, I had re-read:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D1ENYHXEL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

I first read this back when it was fairly new;  so I was taken aback at the notice on this cover that it was a "25th anniversary edition."  A really brilliant first novel;  and the fact is, that while I went on to read four subsequent novels or so, and a few collections of short stories . . . there's some spark to this one which doesn't quite catch in the others I've read, well written and enjoyable though they all have been.  Of all of his writing, this was the book I wanted to return to, to re-read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 01, 2008, 04:20:58 AM
THE 5TH WITCH - Graham Masterton
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on May 01, 2008, 12:50:45 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514DJ1JT0TL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Very good detective series in the Raymond Chandler style.  A bit grim -- I miss some of the wit that Robert Parker brings to this genre -- but the main character, Harry Bosch, is well-drawn and complex enough to keep things interesting.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514E9A0MPEL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Excellent read so far, one of those big sprawling novels that cover several decades, with lots of neat touches.  Great if you are into cryptography, the Enigma Project in WWII, etc.  Reminds me a lot of Thomas Pynchon.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41cjauInJvL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Just picked this up yesterday.  A survey of major historians and trends in historical writing, from Herodotus to the present.  Heavy focus on the classics, as one might expect.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on May 01, 2008, 09:33:45 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 01, 2008, 03:43:32 AM
Mencken is perfect for that mode, of course;  he's always a delight to dip into/

Myself, when I'm reading Dickens, I like to just read the Dickens (so to speak) and focus on that narrative.

I wonder how the original readers could've endured waiting for the new installments of his works! He produced David Copperfield over a period of two years.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on May 06, 2008, 09:31:39 AM
Pride And Prejudice
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Heather Harrison on May 06, 2008, 06:34:04 PM
"A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder" by James De Mille.  I recently bought a bound volume containing an entire year's worth of Harper's Weekly from 1888.  This novel is serialized over the first four months or so of the year.  It is a strange fantasy-adventure story that satirizes Victorian society.  I'm not far into it yet, but so far it is enjoyable and interesting.

Heather
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 06, 2008, 06:35:56 PM
Quote from: rockerreds on May 06, 2008, 09:31:39 AM
Pride And Prejudice

Excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 07, 2008, 03:04:47 AM
As I do often, two books:

Cambridge Companion To Bruckner

Parsifal (Beckett)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 07, 2008, 03:46:46 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on May 07, 2008, 03:04:47 AM
Parsifal (Beckett)

Good one. Own it, read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 07, 2008, 04:57:03 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 07, 2008, 03:46:46 AM
Good one. Own it, read it.



Read the synopsis part, now deep into the music portion. Terrific read. Parsifal just may be overall my favorite opera. Even more than the Ring.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 07, 2008, 05:55:23 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XGW4LTFKL._SS500_.jpg)

I love crap like this.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 07, 2008, 06:39:34 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 07, 2008, 05:55:23 AM
I love crap like this.  ;D

No, you like fantasy, Dave.

[paranoia mode] If it is that. [/paranoia mode]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 07, 2008, 07:17:23 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 07, 2008, 06:39:34 AM
[paranoia mode] If it is that. [/paranoia mode]

:o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 07, 2008, 07:42:07 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 07, 2008, 07:17:23 AM
:o


(a heavy metal version of the "Twilight Zone" theme starts playing)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 07, 2008, 07:45:48 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on May 07, 2008, 07:42:07 AM

(a heavy metal version of the "Twilight Zone" theme starts playing)

The X-Files is creepier, I think...  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 07, 2008, 08:02:32 AM
Between this book and the Religion thread here in the Diner, I'm thinking more about God than I have in a while.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 07, 2008, 08:09:24 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 07, 2008, 08:02:32 AM
Between this book and the Religion thread here in the Diner, I'm thinking more about God than I have in a while.

Well that's a good thing Dave, as far as my opinion goes of course. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 07, 2008, 09:05:30 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 07, 2008, 05:55:23 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XGW4LTFKL._SS500_.jpg)  (http://gfisher.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/masonic_hall_philadelphia-763073.jpeg)

I love crap like this.  ;D

Dave - that book 'peaks' my interest, but the Amazon Reviews (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590200314/ref=s9sims_c4_img1-2871_p?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1WZ3NE5FN2NTQG91AK96&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=320448801&pf_rd_i=507846) are quite varied (w/ a bunch of 1* only ratings) - is it a good read, or as you mention above 'crap' -  ;) ;D

Reminds me of a visit & tour last fall to the Masonic Lodge (added above) in Philadelphia - place is also known as The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania (http://www.pagrandlodge.org/hometext.html); the famous 'free masons'! Members included Mozart, Franklin (and other founding fathers), etc. - I was ready to join 'on the spot' after the tour!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 07, 2008, 09:10:11 AM
Part Two of The Guermantes Way now.

Question: Has anyone here read In Search of Lost Time in its entirety or am I alone in this crazy venture? :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 07, 2008, 09:25:36 AM
The brothers Karamazov...... :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 07, 2008, 09:29:53 AM
Why that emoticon, mijn vriend?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 07, 2008, 09:38:01 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on May 07, 2008, 09:05:30 AM
Dave - that book 'peaks' my interest, but the Amazon Reviews (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590200314/ref=s9sims_c4_img1-2871_p?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1WZ3NE5FN2NTQG91AK96&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=320448801&pf_rd_i=507846) are quite varied (w/ a bunch of 1* only ratings) - is it a good read, or as you mention above 'crap' -  ;) ;D

Reminds me of a visit & tour last fall to the Masonic Lodge (added above) in Philadelphia - place is also known as The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania (http://www.pagrandlodge.org/hometext.html); the famous 'free masons'! Members included Mozart, Franklin (and other founding fathers), etc. - I was ready to join 'on the spot' after the tour!  :D

I wouldn't give it 1 star; I think those people were expecting something else. Not sure if it's a 5 though. I just started it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 07, 2008, 09:38:39 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 07, 2008, 09:29:53 AM
Why that emoticon, mijn vriend?

Well I have a abhorrence for any kind of violence, and somehow this one is making a impression on me.
It has a very realistic imprint on me.....
Maybe its the combination of the drama of Karamazov, and the Hochstamm Riesling I am drinking, after a very stressful working day, with people that were far to energetic for my taste.
Melancholy is also doing its job, and the constant worry for the health of my wife too....... :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 07, 2008, 09:48:23 AM
Quote from: Harry on May 07, 2008, 09:38:39 AM
Well I have a abhorrence for any kind of violence, and somehow this one is making a impression on me.
It has a very realistic imprint on me.....
Maybe its the combination of the drama of Karamazov, and the Hochstamm Riesling I am drinking, after a very stressful working day, with people that were far to energetic for my taste.
Melancholy is also doing its job, and the constant worry for the health of my wife too....... :-\

You're a sensitive soul, Harry, that's all. I remember reading The Brothers Karamazov, and having to stop because it moved and distressed me so much, I couldn't read on. That was 10 years ago, and I still don't want to read it...

Sorry to hear about your wife.  :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 07, 2008, 09:52:56 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 07, 2008, 09:48:23 AM
You're a sensitive soul, Harry, that's all. I remember reading The Brothers Karamazov, and having to stop because it moved and distressed me so much, I couldn't read on. That was 10 years ago, and I still don't want to read it...

Sorry to hear about your wife.  :(

Yes, that is what this book is doing also to me.....
Thank you Johan for the words about my wife.
We have all our crosses to bear, this one is light, and I am glad that God allows me to carry it.
Still my emotions are a different matter.....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 07, 2008, 09:59:00 AM
In keeping with my new personal rule of only reading books with more than 700 pages   :o    I have begun reading the only thing from Thomas Mann which I have not completely read from beginning to end.  Decades ago I read one-fourth of it in English, and glanced at the German, but have never gone through the entire opus.

Namely, the tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers in the new translation by John Woods.  The previous Loewe-Porter version was much too King-James-ish in my opinion, and although (as I recall) the German is deliberately unusual, the style is not rooted in the 1600's.

So far, it is typical of later Thomas Mann: over-written yet puckishly ironic.

Harry: stay optimistic!  You may, however, find Dostoyevsky more necessary at such a time than one might think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 07, 2008, 10:01:16 AM
To be sure, though, I'd suggest enjoying Dostoyevsky and Riesling separately  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on May 07, 2008, 10:02:14 AM
Brothers... is a tremendous work. But I think the Idiot is my favorite by Dostoevsky.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 07, 2008, 10:03:07 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 07, 2008, 09:59:00 AM
Namely, the tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers in the new translation by John Woods.  The previous Loewe-Porter version was much too King-James-ish in my opinion, and although (as I recall) the German is deliberately unusual, the style is not rooted in the 1600's.

So far, it is typical of later Thomas Mann: over-written yet puckishly ironic.

Is this John E. Woods, the brilliant translator of another German writer I care for more than Thomas Mann, sorry to say - Arno Schmidt?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 07, 2008, 10:13:52 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 07, 2008, 10:03:07 AM
Is this John E. Woods, the brilliant translator of another German writer I care for more than Thomas Mann, sorry to say - Arno Schmidt?

Yes, John E. Woods!  Apparently just a mean, lean, German translating machine!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 07, 2008, 10:16:33 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 07, 2008, 10:13:52 AM
Yes, John E. Woods!  Apparently just a mean, lean, German translating machine!

Yes! The man clearly isn't afraid of anything a demanding German prose-writer can throw at him... Lucky Schmidt, lucky Mann.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 07, 2008, 11:04:55 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 07, 2008, 09:59:00 AM
In keeping with my new personal rule of only reading books with more than 700 pages   :o    I have begun reading the only thing from Thomas Mann which I have not completely read from beginning to end.  Decades ago I read one-fourth of it in English, and glanced at the German, but have never gone through the entire opus.

Namely, the tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers in the new translation by John Woods.  The previous Loewe-Porter version was much too King-James-ish in my opinion, and although (as I recall) the German is deliberately unusual, the style is not rooted in the 1600's.

So far, it is typical of later Thomas Mann: over-written yet puckishly ironic.



I have this in the same translation but have yet to read it. It used to it intimidate me, but after Proust I think I will tackle it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 07, 2008, 11:05:49 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 07, 2008, 10:03:07 AM
[...] another German writer I care for more than Thomas Mann, sorry to say - Arno Schmidt?

:o What would you recommend by him?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 07, 2008, 11:48:36 AM
Quote from: Corey on May 07, 2008, 11:05:49 AM
:o What would you recommend by him?


I checked Wikipedia and found these translations:

The Egghead Republic - 1979 (Die Gelehrtenrepublik, trans. Michael Horovitz)
Evening Edged in Gold - 1980 (Abend mit Goldrand, trans. John E. Woods)
Scenes from the Life of a Faun - 1983 (Aus dem Leben eines Fauns, trans. John E. Woods)
Collected Early Fiction, 1949-1964, in four volumes (all trans. John E. Woods):
Collected Novellas - 1994
Nobodaddy's Children - 1995
Collected Stories - 1996
Two Novels - 1997 (The Stony Heart and B/Moondocks)

I suggest - if it's available that is - you read 'Nobodaddy's Children'. It's three novellas that are interconnected. Schmidt wrote them in what I consider his best period, the 1950s. Schmidt's style is fascinating - allusive, funny, filled with wonderful metaphors. One novella is set in the Nazi era (Scenes from the life of a Faun), the second in the Germany of the early post-war years (Brand's Heath) and the last one in Germany after a nuclear disaster where most of Europe has been destroyed (Black Mirrors) - you follow the last man surviving, who resembles Schmidt very much in his misanthropy, he cycles around, ransacks a library (!) among other things, and then - suddenly - meets another survivor... All novellas are written in the first person, and they read like a combination of 'monologue intérieur' and diary, which adds to the immediacy. Reality is built in an impressionistic, pointilliste way. Schmidt called himself a 'Mosaikarbeiter' (mosaic worker).

I read Schmidt in German, but I have read John E. Wood's translation of the 'Faun', too. I can vouch for his deftness and accuracy.

I think those three novellas could also be among those 'Collected Novellas', by the way. I remember they were published by the Dalkey Archive Press. Perhaps you can find something in your local library...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 07, 2008, 10:51:52 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 07, 2008, 10:01:16 AM
To be sure, though, I'd suggest enjoying Dostoyevsky and Riesling separately  :)

Yes, Dostoevsky goes better with vodka, preferably drank in a ramshackle back slum.   ;D

Harry, The Brothers Karamazov is a Christmas carol compared to The House of The Dead.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 07, 2008, 11:08:48 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 07, 2008, 10:01:16 AM
To be sure, though, I'd suggest enjoying Dostoyevsky and Riesling separately  :)

Yes, you are right, to this conclusion I came too, after seeing the bottom of the second bottle. :P ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on May 07, 2008, 11:09:32 PM
"Anthropologie de la Globalisation"  / Marc Abélès

Didn't like it. A review of several perspectives of the concept of anthropology, more than an anthropology essay about globalisation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 07, 2008, 11:13:15 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 07, 2008, 10:51:52 PM
Yes, Dostoevsky goes better with vodka, preferably drank in a ramshackle back slum.   ;D

Harry, The Brothers Karamazov is a Christmas carol compared to The House of The Dead.  :D

Well some good woman friend brought from Kiev, a fine bottle of Vodka for me! Only for moi!
Though tis a tad hard to find a ramshackle back slum, to enjoy that, and the odds are when I find it, that I will not drink it alone. ;D
The brothers are...well unsettling to say the least!
Good morning Andrei
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 07, 2008, 11:36:28 PM
Morning, all!

I don't drink, and still Dostoevski managed/manages to unsettle me...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 08, 2008, 12:17:45 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 07, 2008, 11:36:28 PM
Morning, all!

I don't drink, and still Dostoevski managed/manages to unsettle me...

True, too, but then all he has written unsettles me in some sort of way, if I think of the story of Marmeladov and the imprints of the horses hoofs, well.........
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 08, 2008, 04:06:45 AM
I once read 3 Dostoyevsky novels in a weekend, and starting carrying an ax around while glowering morosely.   :o

I think I even morosed gloweringly!   0:)

But now everything is better: that CD of von Suppe overtures solved all my problems!   0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 08, 2008, 04:18:00 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 08, 2008, 04:06:45 AM
I once read 3 Dostoyevsky novels in a weekend, and starting carrying an ax around while glowering morosely.   :o

I am glad there wasn't an elderly woman pawnbroker in the vicinity.

O was there... ?!  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 08, 2008, 04:33:16 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 08, 2008, 04:18:00 AM
I am glad there wasn't an elderly woman pawnbroker in the vicinity.

O was there... ?!  :o

And you know what he was thinking, right? :o
And where he eventually ended his old life, and started a new one, but still he had to pay dearly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 08, 2008, 04:56:06 AM
I started to read a few books from and over one of the most famous moderators of all times in the German talk show, Herman und Tietjen, alas from the past, because of a conflict that the media made and nutured.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 08, 2008, 04:57:01 AM
And another one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on May 08, 2008, 10:40:03 AM
Eva Herman is a pretty shallow but (moderately) good looking (in a housewifey way, at least, but I guess that does turn a lot of guys on) talking head who used to read the news on German TV and then hosted a number of hollow folk music and chitchat talk shows. I wonder what reason there is for her to write these books in which she pontificates about the role of men and women in society except for that she wants to exploit her popularity financially (which is her good right, of course).

She also poses as a "good Christian" but in reality, she has been married and divorced 4 or 5 times or so, so I wonder how that makes her such an expert to tell other people how to live their life... I am happy she got fired y the NDR after making these stupid remarks publically about how womanhood was better in the Nazi era, somebody that dumb and hollow shouldn't be allowed to abuse their access to mass media to braodcast such nonsense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 08, 2008, 12:34:20 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 08, 2008, 04:18:00 AM
I am glad there wasn't an elderly woman pawnbroker in the vicinity.

Or was there... ?!  :o

Actually it was the old guy at the Wal-Mart door who looked like he needed to be "taken out" !   :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 08, 2008, 07:21:00 PM
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ki9LIg93L.jpg)

Thank you David....when reading this it is as if I am sitting right beside Neihardt.  My world around me truly dissolves when reading this.

And on the side, rereading this one:

(http://www.hobbyplace.com/images/wiley/wpbx2500.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 10, 2008, 07:58:50 PM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n2/n12997.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 11, 2008, 11:22:32 AM
Sailing from Byzantium (2006) by Colin Wells; yet another book for me on the Byzantine empire (ever since my visit to Ravenna in Italy back in 1996 - Byzantium has been a fascination; great mosaics, as shown below, right) - this paperback is 'shorter' than other histories I've read but a decent introduction; mostly good comments from the Amazonians (http://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Byzantium-Empire-Shaped-World/dp/055338273X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210533108&sr=8-1) -  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61E15W6PYVL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)  (http://www.ladysmaidjewels.com/Blog/justinian.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BorisG on May 11, 2008, 01:08:48 PM
A DVD manual. Not bad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 12, 2008, 06:50:40 PM
These poems aren't good. They're IMMORTAL!

(http://www.simonsays.com/assets/isbn/0671496107/C_0671496107.jpg)

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 12, 2008, 06:52:22 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/Proust4.jpg)

Marcel Proust — In Search of Lost Time Vol. 4: Sodom and Gommorah

Halfway through now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on May 13, 2008, 12:39:21 AM
I am considering the following, almost solely due to my admiration for the epic title...

Albi Cathedral and British Church Architecture: The Influence of Thirteenth-Century Church Building in Southern France and Northern Spain Upon Ecclesiastical Design in Modern Britain

It cannot fail...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: XB-70 Valkyrie on May 13, 2008, 12:54:50 AM
I'm reading a book about freshwater hydrology by E.C. Pielou, who was an important ecologist at Dalhousie University before she retired. I did some geohydrological monitoring and analysis years ago when I did environmental consulting work, and I'm looking to brush up on the subject both for my own interest and for career purposes. I recommend the book to anyone interested in the subject (or in nature in general), although lay readers may find it gets a bit dry and technical.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XNXKHGP2L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU15_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

I'm also reading this book by Thich Nhat Hanh. I've heard some of his lectures on the radio, and I was really struck by how much peacefulness, and gentleness the man projects (he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr.). It is a pretty quick read, and he seems to be repeating himself a bit. Still, I am interested in reading more of his writing

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419zOsctxwL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

And I've just finished this one, although obviously it is not so much a matter of reading (there is some text) as of contemplating, exploring, and reflecting on Adam's brilliant work. I have found myself returning frequently to this book for inspiration. Even at full price, this is the greatest book bargain in recent memory. At $25 (Amazon) it is a steal. It will take you hours and hours to look through all of the 400 photographs here, which span over half a century of Adams work, beginning with his early experiments with pictorialism, and ending with his work from the late 70s. Contrary to popular myth, Adams was a master of photography of human subjects, and there are dozens of examples in this book. Highly recommended for anyone even remotely interested in photography, nature, people, art. etc.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51r2ONyqHQL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: XB-70 Valkyrie on May 13, 2008, 01:13:51 AM
Quote from: Corey on May 12, 2008, 06:52:22 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/Proust4.jpg)

Marcel Proust — In Search of Lost Time Vol. 4: Sodom and Gommorah

Halfway through now.

Can you summarize Proust?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 13, 2008, 01:15:18 AM
Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on May 13, 2008, 01:13:51 AM
Can you summarize Proust?  ;D

Piece of cake: madeleine.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 13, 2008, 01:16:12 AM
The Life of the Holy Silouas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 13, 2008, 01:19:01 AM
Quote from: M forever on May 08, 2008, 10:40:03 AM
Eva Herman is a pretty shallow but (moderately) good looking (in a housewifey way, at least, but I guess that does turn a lot of guys on) talking head who used to read the news on German TV and then hosted a number of hollow folk music and chitchat talk shows. I wonder what reason there is for her to write these books in which she pontificates about the role of men and women in society except for that she wants to exploit her popularity financially (which is her good right, of course).

She also poses as a "good Christian" but in reality, she has been married and divorced 4 or 5 times or so, so I wonder how that makes her such an expert to tell other people how to live their life... I am happy she got fired y the NDR after making these stupid remarks publically about how womanhood was better in the Nazi era, somebody that dumb and hollow shouldn't be allowed to abuse their access to mass media to braodcast such nonsense.

You have added your own nonsense I see, as hollow as always.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: XB-70 Valkyrie on May 13, 2008, 01:20:29 AM
Summarize Proust: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8rhIw_9ucA
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 13, 2008, 07:19:53 AM
Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on May 13, 2008, 12:54:50 AM
I'm also reading this book by Thich Nhat Hanh. I've heard some of his lectures on the radio, and I was really struck by how much peacefulness, and gentleness the man projects (he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr.). It is a pretty quick read, and he seems to be repeating himself a bit. Still, I am interested in reading more of his writing

I've enjoyed and learned from everything I've read by him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 13, 2008, 07:41:15 AM
(http://www.skeptic.com/Merchant2/graphics/books/b054PB_lg.jpg)

Had seen the PBS series, so put off reading this, but was well worth the extra detail and insight.  Would that more popular science books be this well written.


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41JomvlUgML._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

About 1/3 through this (through the Mughal period).  General history of India from prehistory to the present, with good overviews of controversies I never knew existed (like whether the Aryan invasions took place or the Saraswati river relative to the development of the Indus Valley Civilization).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 13, 2008, 04:47:22 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 13, 2008, 01:15:18 AM
Piece of cake: madeleine.  :D

Well I suppose a madeleine could be called a piece of cake.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on May 13, 2008, 05:20:47 PM
Quote from: Harry on May 13, 2008, 01:19:01 AM
You have added your own nonsense I see, as hollow as always.

I am not surprised you subscribe to her mediocre banalities. You are just as much a hypocrite hiding behind a pseudo-righteous and pseudo-Christian facade as she is. We all have our dark and unpleasant sides. Except that some admit that and some pretend to be model people. Usually, those are the worst specimens of our species though. There are usually reasons for why they have to try to hide their dark side.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on May 13, 2008, 05:21:52 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 13, 2008, 07:41:15 AM
(http://home.exetel.com.au/manxman/vikings/CoolPrintVikingShip.jpg)

Had seen the PBS series, so put off reading this, but was well worth the extra detail and insight.  Would that more popular science books be this well written.

What TV series and book? About Vikings?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 13, 2008, 10:04:28 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 08, 2008, 07:21:00 PM
(http://www.hobbyplace.com/images/wiley/wpbx2500.jpg)

That cover photo is LOL funny.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 13, 2008, 11:59:58 PM
Quote from: M forever on May 13, 2008, 05:20:47 PM
I am not surprised you subscribe to her mediocre banalities. You are just as much a hypocrite hiding behind a pseudo-righteous and pseudo-Christian facade as she is. We all have our dark and unpleasant sides. Except that some admit that and some pretend to be model people. Usually, those are the worst specimens of our species though. There are usually reasons for why they have to try to hide their dark side.

Yes, thank you M, for enlightening me, to my dark side, although its so dark, I can barely see. :)
You know that I am most grateful, as always.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on May 14, 2008, 02:28:52 AM
Alex Ross' "The Rest is Noise"
Musil's "The Man without Qualities"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 14, 2008, 05:11:01 AM
Quote from: Henk on May 14, 2008, 02:28:52 AM
Musil's "The Man without Qualities"

In German, English, Dutch?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on May 14, 2008, 08:02:20 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 10, 2008, 07:58:50 PM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n2/n12997.jpg)

Dave, this got quite good reviews when it came out.  How do you like it?

--Bruce 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on May 14, 2008, 06:05:12 PM
Quote from: Harry on May 13, 2008, 11:59:58 PM
Yes, thank you M, for enlightening me, to my dark side, although its so dark, I can barely see. :)

That's exactly my impression, too. But you can shine some light into that area by admitting to yourself that you have it. Everything gets better from that point onward - at some point, you may not even need to cling to a superstitious religious cult anymore and enjoy true spiritual freedom and openmindedness. It is indeed like switching on the light in the dark.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on May 17, 2008, 03:30:20 PM
Quote from: Corey on May 07, 2008, 09:10:11 AM
Part Two of The Guermantes Way now.

Question: Has anyone here read In Search of Lost Time in its entirety or am I alone in this crazy venture? :D
;D You are going at full speed! I will start the series again this summer (Swann's Way only for now actually since it is the only one published electronically in English so far)

Quote from: Harry on May 07, 2008, 09:25:36 AM
The brothers Karamazov...... :(
Me too :)
I have said goodbye to paper books to a large extent. I got one of those Sony Readers instead. They come with 100 classics of your choice which will keep me occupied for a long time.
I was sceptic as to whether the screen on those readers could compensate for the look of paper, but it really really does. It is really amazing how good and natural it looks. Plus since the thing can also read pdf's the whole Gutenberg project is up for grabs!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 17, 2008, 03:32:36 PM
Quote from: bhodges on May 14, 2008, 08:02:20 AM
Dave, this got quite good reviews when it came out.  How do you like it?

--Bruce 

I got bored with it after about 100 pages. The concept is good but it didn't hold my interest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 17, 2008, 03:36:17 PM
Quote from: orbital on May 17, 2008, 03:30:20 PM
;D You are going at full speed! I will start the series again this summer (Swann's Way only for now actually since it is the only one published electronically in English so far)

You missed my other post: I'm already to Sodom and Gomorrah. :D I actually think I'm going at a pretty moderate pace compared to the usual 100 pages a day.

Quote from: orbital on May 17, 2008, 03:30:20 PM
I have said goodbye to paper books to a large extent. I got one of those Sony Readers instead. They come with 100 classics of your choice which will keep me occupied for a long time.
I was sceptic as to whether the screen on those readers could compensate for the look of paper, but it really really does. It is really amazing how good and natural it looks. Plus since the thing can also read pdf's the whole Gutenberg project is up for grabs!

Oh, I couldn't give up paper books. I love the way old books smell. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 17, 2008, 03:39:22 PM
Reading THE COLD SPOT by Tom Piccirilli (suspense/crime fiction) and dipping into this:

(http://media.npr.org/programs/pt/encyclopedia200.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 17, 2008, 03:47:28 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WZTVM2SSL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 17, 2008, 03:48:10 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 17, 2008, 03:47:28 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WZTVM2SSL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

My man! :)

Is that one any good? I haven't read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on May 17, 2008, 03:49:58 PM
Quote from: Corey on May 17, 2008, 03:36:17 PM
You missed my other post: I'm already to Sodom and Gomorrah. :D I actually think I'm going at a pretty moderate pace compared to the usual 100 pages a day.
even faster than I thought  :o
That's a good rate, but it depends on the book for me. Lately I've probably gone even faster than that  (since I had nothing to do but sit and read for the last 20 days).

Quote
Oh, I couldn't give up paper books.
I used to say the same thing about books (and about CDs too), but the portability and the convenience won in the end. Strange, but often times when reading from the screen I find myself moving my forefinger to the upper right corner of the device as if to turn a page  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 17, 2008, 03:55:50 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 17, 2008, 03:48:10 PM
My man! :)

Is that one any good? I haven't read it.

Dave,
Literally have only read the back cover....his reads are usually quick, and will let you know.    

In The Crack in Space, a repairman discovers that a hole in a faulty Jifi-scuttler leads to a parallel world. Jim Briskin, campaigning to be the first black president of the United States, thinks alter-Earth is the solution to the chronic overpopulation that has seventy million people cryogenically frozen; Tito Cravelli, a shadowy private detective, wants to know why Dr Lurton Sands is hiding his mistress on the planet; billionaire mutant George Walt wants to make the empty world all his own. But when the other earth turns out to be inhabited, everything changes.

Winner of both the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards for best novel, widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day, and the object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves.

Also grabbed this and may give it a run:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51N1NKV1G6L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIlitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

In the Hollywood of the future there's no need for actors since any star can be digitally recreated and inserted into any movie. Yet young Alis wants to dance on the silver screen. Tom tries to dissuade her, but he fears she will pursue her dream--and likely fall victim to Hollywood's seamy underside, which is all to eager to swallow up naive actresses. Then Tom begins to find Alis in the old musicals he remakes, and he has to ask himself just where the line stands between reality and the movies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 17, 2008, 03:57:36 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 17, 2008, 03:55:50 PM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51N1NKV1G6L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIlitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)


I haven't read that, but Connie Willis's PASSAGE blew my mind! One of my favorite novels--period.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 17, 2008, 03:59:35 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 17, 2008, 03:57:36 PM
I haven't read that, but Connie Willis's PASSAGE blew my mind! One of my favorite novels--period.

I need to start a new thread pronto....I am sure I will see you there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 17, 2008, 04:03:03 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 17, 2008, 03:59:35 PM
I need to start a new thread pronto....I am sure I will see you there.

:o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 19, 2008, 08:26:00 PM
Started reading this to my son tonight...only a handful of pages in and he is already hooked, as am I, once again.

(http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/12_03/thehobbitL_228x345.jpg) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 20, 2008, 12:13:50 AM
Quote from: Bogey on May 19, 2008, 08:26:00 PM
Started reading this to my son tonight...only a handful of pages in and he is already hooked, as am I, once again.

(http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/12_03/thehobbitL_228x345.jpg) 

I am re-reading this as well (for the first time in almost 35 years)!

Fascinating when you consider the whole mythology of which it forms a part. I am struck by the humour and liveliness of it all. Tolkien tells the story very well. And for adults, too, there is a lot more than meets the eye.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on May 20, 2008, 07:16:14 AM
The latest Elizabeth George -- and it is excellent.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mtBBJc%2B7L._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: op.110 on May 20, 2008, 10:29:37 AM
(http://www.uscibooks.com/sorr2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 20, 2008, 10:54:29 AM
Quote from: op.110 on May 20, 2008, 10:29:37 AM
(http://www.uscibooks.com/sorr2.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D7C4H445L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Boy, that Organic Chemistry book brings back memories - took my two courses @ the U. of Michigan back in the mid-60s!  But, as an abdominal imager, I still need to read radiology books - last recently read one on Doppler ultrasound (inserted above) - excellent updated second edition, BTW!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: op.110 on May 20, 2008, 01:00:20 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on May 20, 2008, 10:54:29 AM
Boy, that Organic Chemistry book brings back memories - took my two courses @ the U. of Michigan back in the mid-60s!  But, as an abdominal imager, I still need to read radiology books - last recently read one on Doppler ultrasound (inserted above) - excellent updated second edition, BTW!  :D

I would love to study from an orgo book from the 60s. That would mean less memorization, a whole lot less
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 20, 2008, 02:47:46 PM
Quote from: op.110 on May 20, 2008, 01:00:20 PM
I would love to study from an orgo book from the 60s. That would mean less memorization, a whole lot less

LOL!  ;D  But, as I remember, the book we used was still pretty THICK!  However, was the text for both semesters; yes, the world has become more complicated - when I took my Oral Boards in radiology in 1975, we had 6 half-hour sessions - did not include ultrasound, CT, or MRI; now there are 8 sessions for my current residents, which now include separately or as part of other areas the newer modalities - what will be invented next?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on May 20, 2008, 04:13:50 PM
I have read many books written during my lifetime  ::) that were kind of, well, unreadable. I was kind of skeptic when my best friend fervently advocated reading Plato's writings. Well , after a few hundred pages I have to say I'm completely won over. In a sense, this is as captivating as reading a polar. Plato's writing is extraordinarily witty, flowing and just plain easy to read. And he happens to write about subjects I deeply care for. Among the half dozen 'Dialogues' I've read, Criton (Crito (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crito) in English) is the most thriliingly interesting. The link gives a strict description of the subject matter, but nothing written 'about' Plato begins to approximate the intellectual satisfaction one finds in reading him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on May 22, 2008, 12:37:35 AM
NIETZSCHE:       "Also sprach Zarathustra"

One of those few books that I read from time to time. I never got tired of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 22, 2008, 06:20:15 PM
Taking a short break from Proust to reread Mann's Doktor Faustus for a forthcoming research paper. I probably would have made it easier on myself by choosing something shorter, but I didn't want to risk reading something new and having it bear the taint of schoolwork afterwards. I've yet to give anything by George Eliot a chance for that very reason.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 23, 2008, 04:28:57 AM
Quote from: Corey on May 22, 2008, 06:20:15 PM
Taking a short break from Proust to reread Mann's Doktor Faustus for a forthcoming research paper. I probably would have made it easier on myself by choosing something shorter, but I didn't want to risk reading something new and having it bear the taint of schoolwork afterwards. I've yet to give anything by George Eliot a chance for that very reason.  :-\

You keep up the light reading, Corey.  ;D

Me? This:

(http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/madreads/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/out.jpg)

Cracking! (so far)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on May 23, 2008, 12:28:40 PM
I am reading:
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0811208478.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Much better anti-war book than Catch 22, IMO. Celine's scabrous nihilism is great, and there's something that produces an out loud laugh every 2 pages at least. My father's suggestion and a brilliant one.
(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/CHN98.jpg)
Excellent book -- if you want to get a sense of Chinese history the place to start. Very readable but it does cover 400 years of a very dense subject and is 750 packed pages so not a quick read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 23, 2008, 01:01:21 PM
Quote from: mozartsneighbor on May 23, 2008, 12:28:40 PM

(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/CHN98.jpg)
Excellent book -- if you want to get a sense of Chinese history the place to start. Very readable but it does cover 400 years of a very dense subject and is 750 packed pages so not a quick read.


That is a great book - I read it a couple of years ago, knowing next to nothing at the time about Chinese history.  Spense is one of the great history writers and there is great drama and many poignant moments in this book
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on May 26, 2008, 01:24:34 AM
Edgar Morin:  "Une Année Sisyphe".

Morin's diary of 1994. Boring. The man is obsessed with food and wine. Not a lot of ideas (perhaps it's better so, because I can't stand them).     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on May 26, 2008, 12:44:51 PM
bwv 1080: Any other books on China you have read you recommend?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 26, 2008, 02:27:19 PM
Well, received a package from the History Book Club (http://www.historybookclub.com/doc/club_url/club_url.jhtml;jsessionid=3SOGKBIICN5D0CTI4EKCFFQ?_requestid=13600) (a member since the mid-70s) - had a 50% OFF sale; just started the two below (getting back to my interests in evolution & earth history, I guess) - CLICK on the images for comments & reviews, if interested:

After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals  (2006) by Donald R. Prothero - just starting both of these books; fascinating 'early' chapter on the problems w/ accepting the 65 million 'dinosaur extinction' due to just a large rock hitting the earth in the Yucatan peninsula - looking forward to the remainder of the book!

Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors (2007) by Nicholas Wade - genetic interpretation of 'early' man, relationships to the apes, and to others -  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61QRFJTZDTL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/After-Dinosaurs-Mammals-Life-Past/dp/0253347335/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211840263&sr=1-1)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41IllYJ%2BffL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Before-Dawn-Recovering-History-Ancestors/dp/014303832X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211840748&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on May 26, 2008, 03:20:11 PM
Before the Dawn looks very interesting. I just ordered a paperback copy of that. Do you know this book? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674019997/ref=pd_luc_sbs_03_02
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 26, 2008, 03:41:35 PM
Quote from: M forever on May 26, 2008, 03:20:11 PM
Before the Dawn looks very interesting. I just ordered a paperback copy of that. Do you know this book? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674019997/ref=pd_luc_sbs_03_02

M - thanks for the link - I've not read the book (at least yet!) - looked @ the reviews, most quite positive, a few 'low ratings' - always difficult to decide on those comments - but, please advise on your opinion - seems like a 'long' book on a time of human history that is completely open to speculation, so just curious on your thoughts or those of others -  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 26, 2008, 03:44:21 PM
Quote from: mozartsneighbor on May 26, 2008, 12:44:51 PM
bwv 1080: Any other books on China you have read you recommend?

The Search for Modern China is the only one I have read, although Guns Germs & Steel has a great chapter on prehistoric China
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 26, 2008, 03:47:01 PM
I have just ordered from a bookseller very far away (New Zealand) 'The Nightmare Factory', a story collection by horror writer extraordinaire Thomas Ligotti. It's one of the most expensive books I have ever bought (his books are extremely rare), but I think he's worth it.

I must thank Dave once again (he mentioned Ligotti to me).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on May 26, 2008, 04:02:56 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on May 26, 2008, 03:41:35 PM
M - thanks for the link - I've not read the book (at least yet!) - looked @ the reviews, most quite positive, a few 'low ratings' - always difficult to decide on those comments - but, please advise on your opinion - seems like a 'long' book on a time of human history that is completely open to speculation, so just curious on your thoughts or those of others -  :D

I haven't read it either, in fact, I just discovered it on amazon when I ordered Before the Dawn. Your post reminded me that I had wanted to read more about the archaeology and anthropology of the prehistoric period for a long time now but somehow never got to it. All those religion threads that are going on in this forum remind of that, too, because it is a fascinating subject, where we come from and all that, but those biblical stories reduce the very long adventure of humanity to a few children's stories. Where we come from, where our cultures come from, where our mythologies come from - we will never really know for sure about all these things, but that is what makes the prehistoric period "before the dawn" so fascinating...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 26, 2008, 04:39:00 PM
Quote from: M forever on May 26, 2008, 04:02:56 PM
I haven't read it either, in fact, I just discovered it on amazon when I ordered Before the Dawn. Your post reminded me that I had wanted to read more about the archaeology and anthropology of the prehistoric period for a long time now but somehow never got to it. All those religion threads that are going on in this forum remind of that, too, because it is a fascinating subject, where we come from and all that, but those biblical stories reduce the very long adventure of humanity to a few children's stories. Where we come from, where our cultures come from, where our mythologies come from - we will never really know for sure about all these things, but that is what makes the prehistoric period "before the dawn" so fascinating...

Have you read Guns, Germs & Steel? 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on May 26, 2008, 05:04:43 PM
No. I haven't really done much reading at all in that very general area in many years now. I used to, a lot, in fact, there was a time when I was seriously considering studying archaeology (I couldn't make up my mind for either that, music, or electrical engineering for a while) and I read a lot of books on this general subject, but not much lately because of lack of time and sometimes, you lose sight of certain interests. The only relevant books in that general area that I have read in the last couple of years were Finkelstein's "The Bible Unearthed" (highly recommended) and Mallory's "In Search of the Indo-Europeans" (very good book, too). "Before the Dawn" caught my eye so I ordered it. "Guns, Germs & Steel" looks quite interesting, too. Can you say more about it (or if you already did, point to the post)?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 26, 2008, 05:07:34 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 26, 2008, 04:39:00 PM
Have you read Guns, Germs & Steel? 

Excellent - I probably commented on this book earlier in this thread (or in one from the previous forum?) - there is also a 2-DVD set (below, right) based on this book - somewhat disappointing w/ mixed reviews, but still worth a watch if you've read & enjoyed the book -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516H1W1ASTL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519WQ1RRQTL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 26, 2008, 06:29:09 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on May 26, 2008, 05:07:34 PM
Excellent - I probably commented on this book earlier in this thread (or in one from the previous forum?) - there is also a 2-DVD set (below, right) based on this book - somewhat disappointing w/ mixed reviews, but still worth a watch if you've read & enjoyed the book -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516H1W1ASTL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519WQ1RRQTL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

I almost did not read the book after watching the video series - but glad I did - the book has much more depth.  I do agree that it would be worthwhile after the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 26, 2008, 06:33:11 PM
Quote from: M forever on May 26, 2008, 05:04:43 PM
No. I haven't really done much reading at all in that very general area in many years now. I used to, a lot, in fact, there was a time when I was seriously considering studying archaeology (I couldn't make up my mind for either that, music, or electrical engineering for a while) and I read a lot of books on this general subject, but not much lately because of lack of time and sometimes, you lose sight of certain interests. The only relevant books in that general area that I have read in the last couple of years were Finkelstein's "The Bible Unearthed" (highly recommended) and Mallory's "In Search of the Indo-Europeans" (very good book, too). "Before the Dawn" caught my eye so I ordered it. "Guns, Germs & Steel" looks quite interesting, too. Can you say more about it (or if you already did, point to the post)?

Guns, Germs & Steel adresses the question of why technological advancement occured where it did and why it did not happen in, say, sub-saharan Africa.  He points to food crops and domesticable animals as the key factors (mesopotamia had the best mix, which spread throughout Europe and Asia, while Africa, Australasia and the Americas had significantly inferior packages).  It goes on to detail how the diseases that wiped out the native americans all originated with European's domesticated animals. But the book also gives very detailed background on topics such as the initial settlement of Australasia and the Bantu migrations in Africa.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on May 27, 2008, 01:38:44 AM
Jane Austen.
Sense and Sensibility.

I simply love the surroundings the book creates.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on May 27, 2008, 09:16:35 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on May 26, 2008, 05:07:34 PM
Excellent - I probably commented on this book earlier in this thread (or in one from the previous forum?) - there is also a 2-DVD set (below, right) based on this book - somewhat disappointing w/ mixed reviews, but still worth a watch if you've read & enjoyed the book -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516H1W1ASTL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519WQ1RRQTL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Totally great book!  Had to buy the dvd after I read it, and that was excellent as well. 

Quote from: Harry on May 27, 2008, 01:38:44 AM
Jane Austen.
Sense and Sensibility.

I simply love the surroundings the book creates.

I don't know how many times I have read Jane Austen's books, but they are always fresh.  If you love books that create surroundings, you would probably enjoy the work of Edith Wharton.  Wharton's books however, are much darker.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on May 28, 2008, 12:22:40 PM
Quote from: Bunny on May 27, 2008, 09:16:35 AM
Totally great book!  Had to buy the dvd after I read it, and that was excellent as well. 

I haven't read the book but I thought the DVD was too repetitive. Not only in content either, after the 500th time the narrator said "so the world was shaped once again by Guns... Geeeeerms..... an' Steeeeeeel" I'd had enough (which was in the first hour or so  ;D )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on May 28, 2008, 05:03:34 PM
Picked this up from the library today, will be reading it at a somewhat leisurely pace.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bO0BmaBpL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: George on May 28, 2008, 06:26:02 PM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/16500000/16500923.JPG)

So far, so good.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 28, 2008, 06:34:45 PM
Quote from: Corey on May 28, 2008, 05:03:34 PM
Picked this up from the library today, will be reading it at a somewhat leisurely pace.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bO0BmaBpL._SS500_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HHE88QWBL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Hello Corey - I've bought this book in all of its three editions - currently sitting on my book shelf is the 3rd edition from 1997 (above, right) - is this the same book (cover might suggest a paperback edition?) - at any rate, I second the recommendation - Schonberg is an enjoyable writer w/ great insight & humor - enjoy!  :D  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on May 29, 2008, 12:20:17 PM
OK, I happened to walk past a Barnes&Noble store which was next to a customer location today, so I popped in and bought a copy of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" which was on offer there, stacks of it, I guess that's because of the TV series.

I also bought this book which I had seen on amazon and which interests me:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511QH23R7XL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

and this one, because it was right next to it on the shelf and looked good, too:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41SAJPNRVGL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

and another one the title of which I forgot, it is also about the history of languages and new theories about the origin of them.

So I bought 4 books today!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 29, 2008, 12:25:44 PM
Quote from: M forever on May 29, 2008, 12:20:17 PMI popped in and bought a copy of "Guns, Germs, and Steel"
Hope you enjoy it - rich food for thought and one of my all-time favorites. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on May 29, 2008, 12:41:13 PM
The embarrassing thing about buying those books though was that the "Languages" shelf was right next to the "Christian Inspiration Books" shelf, so seen from an angle, someone might have thought I was browsing those books  :o  :P

Even more embarrassing than being seen browsing through titty magazines at the newspaper store  ;D  >:D 0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on May 30, 2008, 01:26:16 AM
QuoteM forever

OK, I happened to walk past a Barnes&Noble store which was next to a customer location today, so I popped in and bought a copy of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" which was on offer there, stacks of it, I guess that's because of the TV series.

I have "Empires of the Word". It is remarkable, one of the best books I read this year.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on May 30, 2008, 11:28:32 AM
I simply love this book, and I prefer it slightly to "The Trial". There are many hilarious characters and I often had to smile reading about K's struggle with authority in order to gain entrance to the castle. For sure Kafka had serious problems with anxiety, and like one of the villagers states: "The decisions of the bureaucracy are shy as young girlies". I think that even is slightly true for some of the bureaucracies today :). Kafka could have some experience as he worked as a risk manager in an insurance company.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414JK5J9HBL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU02_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on May 30, 2008, 11:30:53 AM
Better than Austen and Mann combined!

(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-comics-2007/8-1.jpg)

Well, stronger anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on May 30, 2008, 02:07:35 PM
Quote from: mn dave on May 30, 2008, 11:30:53 AM
Better than Austen and Mann combined!

(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-comics-2007/8-1.jpg)

Well, stronger anyway.

I'll wait for the movie, er the remake of the movie... ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 02, 2008, 04:32:23 AM
(http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8638/9780571178612vs8.gif)

Mendelssohn Remembered (Roger Nichols) I've just finished, it is very good - told by a series of letters/reviews from his contemporaries, it's fascinating, hilarious and occasionally sad in a rather more direct way than a straight biography.

I am going to attempt Dumas - Count of Monte Cristo, and will probably fail.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on June 07, 2008, 07:51:07 AM
Mansfield Park
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 07, 2008, 08:10:07 AM
Right now, I'm having on my lap a text on database management systems which is downright boring. But I did borrow from the library Hardy's A Course on Pure Mathematics the other day which I hope to explore during the holidays after the exam.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 07, 2008, 08:12:20 AM
I be readin' Captain Blood: His Odyssey by Rafael Sabatini
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 07, 2008, 08:50:37 AM
Parallel to "Guns, Germs, and Steel", I am also reading this interesting book about our prehistory:

(http://images.tdaxp.com/tdaxp_upload/before_the_dawn.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 07, 2008, 05:10:34 PM
(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/CHN58.jpg)

A series of reconstrutions of rural life in one rural district in 17th century China

so far an engrossing look at what life was like for ordinary people

Take away - you would not have liked being a 17th century Chinese peasant - war, pestilence, famine, earthquakes

The population of the entire country dropped by 40+% (around 70 million people) between 1620–1650
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 07, 2008, 05:14:58 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on June 07, 2008, 05:10:34 PM
(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/CHN58.jpg)

A series of reconstrutions of rural life in one rural district in 17th century China

so far an engrossing look at what life was like for ordinary people

Take away - you would not have liked being a 17th century Chinese peasant - war, pestilence, famine, earthquakes

The population of the entire country dropped by 40+% (around 70 million people) between 1620–1650

Probably not all too different from what happened in Europe at the same time (the 30 years war). Some areas, like North Eastern Germany, were almost depopulated during that period.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 07, 2008, 05:46:45 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 07, 2008, 05:14:58 PM
Probably not all too different from what happened in Europe at the same time (the 30 years war). Some areas, like North Eastern Germany, were almost depopulated during that period.
Yes, the 1620-1650 period was the fall of the Ming Dynasty and its replacement by the Manchus

Although this
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104/49/19214#B22 (http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104/49/19214#B22)

mentions a global cooling as partly responsible
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 07, 2008, 05:58:51 PM
Interesting to see that events of such catastrophic nature coincide in Eurpe and China. At that time, there was obviously no direct political connection between the two areas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on June 11, 2008, 01:49:42 PM
(http://www.psychic-tymes.com/images17/criticbook.jpg)

Just starting reading this. Recommended by LOML.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on June 11, 2008, 02:08:34 PM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c0/c2605.jpg)

This writer is a cross between Nabokov and Lovecraft, playful, intellectual and subtly disturbing. A horror philosopher. I had to buy this copy from a bookseller in New Zealand, as Ligotti is extremely hard to come by. This big collection of his stories is the best introduction to his work there is. I am enjoying him very much, both as a 'fiction consumer' and as a 'producer', who is fascinated by all the narrative strategies he uses, and his marvellous style.

(Oh - and I have Dave to thank for this discovery.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 11, 2008, 02:11:38 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on June 11, 2008, 02:08:34 PM
(Oh - and I have Dave to thank for this discovery.)

I'm glad you dug it. I'd hate that you spent all that money for nothing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on June 11, 2008, 02:15:23 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 11, 2008, 02:11:38 PM
I'm glad you dug it. I'd hate that you spent all that money for nothing.

Those two stories I read at Ligotti Online were enough. He is worth every New Zealand dollar I spent on him (110!)  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 11, 2008, 02:19:24 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on June 11, 2008, 02:15:23 PM
Those two stories I read at Ligotti Online were enough. He is worth every New Zealand dollar I spent on him (110!)  :o

I'd show you my Ligotti collection, but you might get jealous.  ;D

You should try to get one of these:

(http://www.clarkesworldbooks.com/images/large/ligotti_work.jpg)

Hell, even his titles are good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on June 11, 2008, 02:38:22 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 11, 2008, 02:19:24 PM
I'd show you my Ligotti collection, but you might get jealous.  ;D

You should try to get one of these:

(http://www.clarkesworldbooks.com/images/large/ligotti_work.jpg)

Hell, even his titles are good.

I know the title and I know about the three stories of 'corporate horror' the book contains... I will want to have this after I have studied the Nightmare Factory. But I can't help salivating...  :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 15, 2008, 08:26:23 PM
(http://i19.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/a1/0f/7ee4_2.JPG)

Our family had the privilege and honor of meeting 1st Lt. William Bower recently at an air show.  Thought I would brush up on this mission that he was part of in WWII.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 15, 2008, 08:35:33 PM
The Travels of William Bartram

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51825MZ7QJL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Bartram was a naturalist based in Philadelphia in the time before the American Colonies declared independence. When England received Florida from Spain, they sent him to survey the area and make a general study of the native people, flora and fauna. Apparently his descriptions of nature were an influence on the Romantic writers just appearing at the time. It is very interesting to read a view of the "Old Florida", before it was cleared off and covered with cheap strip-malls and Panera Bread.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 15, 2008, 08:53:12 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 07, 2008, 08:50:37 AM
Parallel to "Guns, Germs, and Steel", I am also reading this interesting book about our prehistory:

(http://images.tdaxp.com/tdaxp_upload/before_the_dawn.jpg)
I have this one, but never started it. Something to certainly add to the summer reading list. Guns, Germs, and Steel, of course, is excellent.

Currently reading The Brothers Karamazov. One might call it a good book. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on June 17, 2008, 01:27:53 AM
"A Totalitarian State of the Past", by Rafael Karsten.

A remarkable essay regarding the Inca's civilization and empire by one of the world's greatest specialists of the ancient civilizations in South America.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on June 17, 2008, 01:34:34 AM
                                    (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c0/c2605.jpg)

Still reading it very very slowly - the experience that a living writer can be this good is very rare, so I want to savour it as long as I can - and marvelling.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 17, 2008, 07:09:56 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 15, 2008, 08:53:12 PM
I have this one, but never started it. Something to certainly add to the summer reading list. Guns, Germs, and Steel, of course, is excellent.

(http://images.tdaxp.com/tdaxp_upload/before_the_dawn.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410R6BDSQ6L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Well, just finished Before the Dawn - excellent & provocative book - a recommendation!  :D

Just received a call from our local library - the George Enescu book has arrived (probably an inter-library loan?) - recommended in the 'Enescu Thread' - will start it in the next day or two (of course, leaving a PILE of other books to be read!) -  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 17, 2008, 02:54:24 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on June 17, 2008, 07:09:56 AM
Well, just finished Before the Dawn - excellent & provocative book - a recommendation!  :D

In how far did you find it "provocative"?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 17, 2008, 03:49:43 PM
Hello M - well, I guess the first question is the meaning of provocative - in the context of this book, I think that 'stimulating & controversial' would be appropriate - Nicholas Wade is discussing the emergence of the 'modern' human species, esp. around the period of 50,000 years ago?

In this presentation, the author is indeed making many 'stimulating speculations' based on both known (and unknown) facts supporting much of his interpretations on recently better understood genetics related mainly to the sex chromosomes (i.e. Y & X) - this 'stuff' is really fasicinating and much is left to be discovered - this is only the beginning of our understanding - the book is indeed provocative!

As a physician, I was in medical school back in the late '60s, genetics was fasicnating to me then (and now) - my best friend was earning his PhD in genetics @ the time in one of the best programs then in the USA (U of Michigan) - I could have easily pursued this area - the current understanding gleamed from the human genome is just astounding in the last 30+ years - for anyone interested in the transition of human evolution, an understanding in this recent genetic data is crucial - not sure that I can say much more but await even further elucidation - just a beginning!    :)  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 17, 2008, 03:57:22 PM
Thanks for the explanation. I still don't quite understand why you say "provocative" because, while some of the new insights suggested by genetic research certainly go against some commonly accepted wisdom (although when it comes to prehistory, most people will agree that a lot really is just speculation), the author is very careful in how he lays out and interpretes his new "evidence", he always points out where it could be wrong and why, and where it contradicts other evidence, and what appears to be the most likely interpretation at this time, or where we simply need a whole lot more data before we can begin to speculate how it all fits best together. I am still in the middle of the book but I find this attitude very refreshing and honest. He doesn't set out to prove any new theories (neither of his own nor of anyone else), he just gives us an overview over what we seem to know at this point, and what we don't know.
Do you think some might find it "provocative" despite this very careful approach, simply because they don't want some things to be like recent new evidence suggests they might be?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 17, 2008, 04:25:35 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 17, 2008, 03:57:22 PM
Thanks for the explanation. I still don't quite understand why you say "provocative" because, while some of the new insights suggested by genetic research certainly go against some commonly accepted wisdom......

Do you think some might find it "provocative" despite this very careful approach, simply because they don't want some things to be like recent new evidence suggests they might be?

I don't believe that we are disagreeing at all - again, I guess the question remains what 'provocative' means - stimulating & controversial - still 'open' to question - I think this is still appropriate in discussing the evolution of the 'modern' human species in that critical period 50,000 years or more ago - I believe that Wade has summarized the current information well, but having read this stuff since the early '60s in my first anthropology courses, and trying to keep up w/ the newer research ever since, these ideas keep changing - just don't think that all is known at present despite 'how convincing' an author might be in his or her presentation - Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 17, 2008, 07:11:33 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on June 17, 2008, 04:25:35 PM
just don't think that all is known at present despite 'how convincing' an author might be in his or her presentation - Dave  :)

Why are you saying that? Didn't I say

Quote from: M forever on June 17, 2008, 03:57:22 PM
...or where we simply need a whole lot more data before we can begin to speculate how it all fits best together...
...an overview over what we seem to know at this point, and what we don't know...

???

Do you personally think he is roughly on the right track, or do you see areas in which you would completely disagree, things which jump at you as "this can't be because it obviously contradicts these and these facts"? Reason I am asking is because I used to be extremely interested in the general subject of human development and prehistory as well as early history, but I have really lost track in the last 10 years or so, so when I am reading this, I am coming back to the subject as someone who has missed a lot of the information that has become available in the meantime, and I am wondering, where does this book stand in that spectrum? How "centered" or "balanced" does it appear to be?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 18, 2008, 08:29:34 AM
Quote from: M forever on June 17, 2008, 07:11:33 PM
Do you personally think he is roughly on the right track, or do you see areas in which you would completely disagree, things which jump at you as "this can't be because it obviously contradicts these and these facts"? Reason I am asking is because I used to be extremely interested in the general subject of human development and prehistory as well as early history, but I have really lost track in the last 10 years or so, so when I am reading this, I am coming back to the subject as someone who has missed a lot of the information that has become available in the meantime, and I am wondering, where does this book stand in that spectrum? How "centered" or "balanced" does it appear to be?

Hi M - please realize that this is not my field of expertise, despite an avid interest since the early 1960s - I probably read 3-4 books a year on this & related topics, and have a handful of DVDs on the subject, but I do not delve into the scientific journals quoted by the author - I have enough to read related to my own specialty in medicine.  As a scientific writer (and not a scientist), Wade does a great job at putting together a vast amount of recent literature - he summarizes this information well, and also states that the 'scientists' writing & discussing these topics often will disagree w/ each other.

However, Wade does take another approach throughout the book after reviewing the 'scientific' data in speculating on the development of humans physically, mentally, and culturally - is he always right or at least close to right in many of these speculations?  Well, I think he offers some well thoughtout reasons based on the current data available, but not all would obviously agree (just a perusal of some of the Amazonian reviews (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RWD3T6/ref=pd_cp_b_1_img?pf_rd_p=317711001&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1590387880&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0M18JRRT2KDE5B1H535H) is of interest).  For myself, I think many of his explanations are likely correct (or at least in the right direction) - does he always 'hit the bullseye' - I don't really know, since many of these events postulated are just not known - just as one example, 'modern' humans emerged from Africa around 50,000 years ago - I'd agree that is pretty much accepted (others might say earlier?), but what were the reasons?  Competition for food, wunderlust, acquisition of language, cultural changes, etc. - how were some of those related to genetic changes in the populations - I don't know.  Wade paints a broad canvas but one can still question the 'fine' brush strokes - but, hope that you are enjoying the book.   :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 18, 2008, 07:17:36 PM
I am, but there could be more pictures!!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on June 19, 2008, 05:26:41 AM
Pictures are good.  Especially in books about Grace Kelly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 19, 2008, 05:30:53 AM
Curiously enough, this thread's resurgence reminds me that, while I went as far as buying a (replacement) copy of Don DeLillo's White Noise, I haven't read it yet.  So, into the bag I pop it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 19, 2008, 05:53:08 AM
Quote from: M forever on June 18, 2008, 07:17:36 PM
I am, but there could be more pictures!!!

LOL!  ;D  I always like a lot of pictures - the book(s) go much faster!

Currently finishing up After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (2006) by Donald R. Prothero - plenty of great pics & charts - mainly on the Cenozoic period and the evolution of fauna & flora of the times, emphasizing mammals (not a whole lot on man) - not an 'easy' read and helps if one has some fundamental knowledge of the topic - but I've been absolutely astounded by the vast amount of data/information that has been discovered and gathered on earth's history in this era!  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61QRFJTZDTL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Shrunk on June 19, 2008, 07:17:44 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 19, 2008, 05:30:53 AM
Curiously enough, this thread's resurgence reminds me that, while I went as far as buying a (replacement) copy of Don DeLillo's White Noise, I haven't read it yet.  So, into the bag I pop it!

A favourite of mine, though my wife couldn't get past the first few chapters (She found it too "clinical").  The middle section, "The Airborne Toxic Event,"  is a very fine piece of writing.  Thought it's a clicheto say this, this book is only more relevent now than when it was written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 19, 2008, 01:59:50 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on June 19, 2008, 05:53:08 AM
Currently finishing up After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (2006) by Donald R. Prothero - plenty of great pics & charts - mainly on the Cenozoic period and the evolution of fauna & flora of the times, emphasizing mammals (not a whole lot on man) - not an 'easy' read and helps if one has some fundamental knowledge of the topic - but I've been absolutely astounded by the vast amount of data/information that has been discovered and gathered on earth's history in this era!  :)

All that is not true, however. I have been told that someone named God put the dinosaur and other so-called "fossil" remains remains in the earth to test our faith.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on June 19, 2008, 02:25:05 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 19, 2008, 01:59:50 PM
All that is not true, however. I have been told that someone named God put the dinosaur and other so-called "fossil" remains remains in the earth to test our faith.

But I preferred the version where Noah somehow fails to put them in his ark and they all drown. :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 19, 2008, 02:57:27 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 19, 2008, 05:30:53 AM
Curiously enough, this thread's resurgence reminds me that, while I went as far as buying a (replacement) copy of Don DeLillo's White Noise, I haven't read it yet.  So, into the bag I pop it!
Do you read in a bag, sir?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 19, 2008, 02:58:19 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on June 19, 2008, 05:26:41 AM
Pictures are good.  Especially in books about Grace Kelly.

(http://www.theothersideofkim.com/images/uploads/2005files/grace_kelly004a.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 22, 2008, 02:04:36 PM
Quote from: Renfield on June 19, 2008, 02:25:05 PM
But I preferred the version where Noah somehow fails to put them in his ark and they all drown. :(

M & Renfield - well, I don't get into those discussions anymore @ my age (use to make to many people doubt their faith!  ;) ;D) - but I agree that Noah would have needed a 'fleet of arks' and certainly some arks 'docked' on other continents, like Australia!   :o :)

For me at the moment, back to something related to classical music:

George Enescu:  His Life and Music (1990) by Noel Malcolm - interlibrary loan - based on a recommendation in the Enescu Thread (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,6059.0.html) - becoming fascinated w/ this Romanian composer/performer/conductor/teacher & an apparent genius - a good read so far!  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410R6BDSQ6L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 22, 2008, 04:31:58 PM
Quote from: Corey on June 15, 2008, 08:35:33 PM
The Travels of William Bartram

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51825MZ7QJL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Bartram was a naturalist based in Philadelphia in the time before the American Colonies declared independence. When England received Florida from Spain, they sent him to survey the area and make a general study of the native people, flora and fauna. Apparently his descriptions of nature were an influence on the Romantic writers just appearing at the time. It is very interesting to read a view of the "Old Florida", before it was cleared off and covered with cheap strip-malls and Panera Bread.

As much as I hate not finishing a book, I had to stop reading this about halfway through. It is obviously a very important text, being one of the first written descriptions of Florida and the Southeast US, but his prose is exceedingly dry (he was a naturalist, not a writer), and filled with long passages of pious Quaker moralizing. The descriptions of the natives are interesting simply because they give a glimpse at a race that has essentially disappeared entirely. It's a shame that there hadn't been someone with a real understanding of human behavior to document these people. The descriptions of the landscape and natural life are interesting for me, someone who's known this place his entire life, and has lived here for several years, but the descriptions are pretty repetitive — as beautiful as the forests and wildlife are here, there is not much to differentiate one part of North Florida from another.

Instead, I'm reading Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter and House of Seven Gables.  :)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on June 23, 2008, 12:13:14 AM
"Historia dos Lusitanos", by Pedro Silva

A short book, very incomplete, but a good modern introduction to the society and History of the Lusitanos, that people of the mountains that resisted for more than a century to the Roman invasion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 23, 2008, 03:14:47 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 19, 2008, 02:57:27 PM
Do you read in a bag, sir?

Seldom, if at all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on June 24, 2008, 12:11:37 AM
The Ball and The Cross. Interesting, so far. The theses presented for two opposing world views are pretty well known ones, but in the context of fiction, they read like new.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on June 24, 2008, 02:33:38 AM
Nothing. No, it isn't.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on June 24, 2008, 07:48:22 AM
Nabokov-Lectures On Literature
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on June 25, 2008, 10:21:36 AM
V.S.Pritchett-Midnight Oil
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 25, 2008, 10:44:52 AM
I just finished "Before the Dawn" and really liked it, so I am continuing "Guns, Germs, and Steel" now which is quite interesting, too, although for some reason, I don't find it a little tedious to read, not quite as compelling as "Before the Dawn" although that book is much more densely packed with hard scientific facts which are not always easy to understand for M, but the way it was written made it highly readable.
As M has the strange habit of either not reading anything at all or 3 or so books at the same time (typically about various subject, like one about history or technical stuff and one about music and sometimes also a novel), I have just finished "So und nicht anders" (roughly "Like This and No Other Way"), a highly interesting biography of Günter Wand and I will start reading "Das Reichsorchester", a book about the role of the Berliner Philharmoniker in the "3rd Reich" now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on June 25, 2008, 01:40:36 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 25, 2008, 10:44:52 AM
As M has the strange habit of either not reading anything at all or 3 or so books at the same time (typically about various subject, like one about history or technical stuff and one about music and sometimes also a novel)

Interesting. Renfield seems to share that habit with M, and is adopting the third person for this sentence to honour that fact. 8)


I picked up William Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive yesterday, after recently having read (and loved) Neuromancer: I hope to dispatch it soon. And I'm also reading Haruki Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, though in a pace befitting of its mystique. ;)


Finally on the non-technical front, I've decided to include this in my lighter, summer as-of-the-current-moment reading list:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411q%2BuJ8loL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU02_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

So much did I love Other Voices, Other Rooms that I'm willing to give one of his other, different-style works a go.

And what better works to start with than a few of his last?

At worst, I'll just go back to a nice collection of Kafka's short stories that I was perusing a couple of months ago. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on June 25, 2008, 02:23:00 PM
Quote from: Renfield on June 25, 2008, 01:40:36 PM
Interesting. Renfield seems to share that habit with M, and is adopting the third person for this sentence to honour that fact. 8)


I picked up William Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive yesterday, after recently having read (and loved) Neuromancer: I hope to dispatch it soon. And I'm also reading Haruki Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, though in a pace befitting of its mystique. ;)

I also read 4 books at the same time now, and I all the time get comments for this habit. Now it is the "Complete Short Stories" by Hemnigway, "Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann, a biography about Pol Pot by Philip Short and a book about memorizing techniques (by visualizing more easily memorable associations to incidents/words - very interesting).

I love the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Murakami is probably my favourite novel writer!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 25, 2008, 02:28:48 PM
A little Pratchett goes a long way as far as I am concerned, but it's currently time for some:

(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9755/pictpsmpbjk9.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 25, 2008, 02:59:31 PM
Quote from: rubio on June 25, 2008, 02:23:00 PM
"Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann

What did you think?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on June 25, 2008, 05:12:14 PM
In April of this year the Child Welfare people went unannounced to the homestead of the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church) in Texas and took over 400 children with them back to a Texas court.  They had received an anonymous phone call from a young girl who said underage girls were being forced to marry 40+ 50+ year-old men.  The mothers of these 400+ children were distraught for their children and wanted them returned.

I knew just a little about this religion and happened to read at Amazon that a new book had just been released.  It was Escape by Carolyn Jessop.  I bought the book to have better background on the 400 children situation in the news.  Carolyn Jessup had been the 4th wife of a 50-yr-old man at the age of 18 yrs.  She had given birth to 8 children in 15 years.  She escaped with all of her children.  I think the book was well-written, and factual.  It is hard to believe that lives like these are still happening in the US today.  Highly recommended.

I just wanted to add that in this book one day Carolyn noticed that some boys teenage and subteen were not around any more.  She discovered that 100 of them had been unceremoniously kicked out of the compuond.  The reason?  To give the 50-60+ aged men more wives.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on June 25, 2008, 05:44:43 PM
The second book I read for background info on the Texas Child Welfare proceedings of the 400 hundred children taken from their homes on FLDS church was His Favorite wife, Trapped in Polygamy by Susan Ray Schmidt.  This also was a true story.  In this case the wives were left alone while Verlan Lebaron (their husband) was away working or doing church work.  He would be gone for months.  This family was poverty stricken.  Verlan married 9 times.  Susan was his 6th wife.  The wives were on their own to feed their children.

By accident as I was reading this book, I happened to write down the names of the wives in the order that they married Verlan.  Susan (and her children) finally escaped with the help of her brother.

The second woman to become Verlan's wife was named Irene.  Last night as I was looking for another book to read, I discovered that Irene had escaped also and had written a book Shattered Dreams, My Life As a Polygamist's Wife  by Irene Spencer.  The cover of the book says that she stayed married to Verlan Lebaron for twenty-four years.  Verlan died in 1981.  Irene married again for 18 years to her present husband (non polygamist).  It is going to be interesting to see the family from first Susan's viewpoint and then Irene's.  Both books are very well written.


All 3 books show what it is like to a polygamist wife.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FideLeo on June 26, 2008, 12:50:49 AM
(http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u5/thaoworra/genji.jpg)

The Tale of Genji (11th century)
Murasaki Shikibu
trans. Royall Taylor

(http://us.penguingroup.com/static/covers/all/8/4/9780142437148H.jpg)

courtly, existential and surrealistically beautiful
an extremely readable version that is also a dazzling display of its translator's erudition
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on June 26, 2008, 01:30:23 AM
Madame Bovary  ;D
Thanks to my reader, I have so many classics available anytime. Otherwise, I doubt I'd go and purchase each of them separately.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on June 26, 2008, 02:33:49 AM
Interesting. I have this classic waiting on the shelves, but in an older translation by Edward G. Seidensticker (Penguin).

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61YAAC0KNXL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on June 26, 2008, 04:13:59 AM
What To Listen For in Music - Aaron Copland
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 26, 2008, 05:04:55 AM
Fun book, isn't it, ChN?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FideLeo on June 26, 2008, 05:14:47 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on June 26, 2008, 02:33:49 AM
Interesting. I have this classic waiting on the shelves, but in an older translation by Edward G. Seidensticker (Penguin).

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61YAAC0KNXL._SS500_.jpg)

The Seidensticker translation clearly has its fans -- the version available from Oxford Online Archive is his.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 26, 2008, 05:20:20 AM
My music time is way up and my book time is way down.  :-\

I try to read a chapter of fiction a day, then follow it with some non-fiction until I fall asleep.  ;D

I'm saving money on books anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 26, 2008, 05:30:35 AM
Quote from: mn dave on June 26, 2008, 05:20:20 AM
My music time is way up and my book time is way down.  :-\

I try to read a chapter of fiction a day, then follow it with some non-fiction until I fall asleep.  ;D

I'm saving money on books anyway.

I go through phases where I devote most of my free time to one thing at the expense of all others (I'm never one for balance :D). Right now I am just coming off a big music binge and moving into another heavy reading phase.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 26, 2008, 05:31:18 AM
Quote from: Corey on June 26, 2008, 05:30:35 AM
I go through phases where I devote most of my free time to one thing at the expense of all others (I'm never one for balance :D). Right now I am just coming off a big music binge and moving into another heavy reading phase.

I need to move into a heavier writing phase.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on June 26, 2008, 05:34:07 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 26, 2008, 05:04:55 AM
Fun book, isn't it, ChN?

Yup, just starting it, but I am enjoying it very much.  Perfect book for a layman come moi.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 26, 2008, 05:41:43 AM
Quote from: mn dave on June 26, 2008, 05:31:18 AM
I need to move into a heavier writing phase.  ::)

Work/life balance is so tricky, isn't it?  Good luck!

I learnt (and it seems to me that I learnt fairly quickly) to focus (and to be able to lock into focus fairly quickly) on creative work at the odd times which a fairly busy work schedule does yield up.  It is a sort of detachable aspect of comparison, of course . . . but it seems to me that I may possibly be writing more, than some composers who actually have more freed-up 'composing time' by the clock.

I cannot really take credit for this on my own;  it was a result of getting to know Maria and Irina, and watching how they work, and how well they work, not only in terms of the quality of their work, but the thorough concentration and professionalism they bring to their work.  In a real sense, they taught me how to get focused;  and they were an example to me in terms of the level of work I should want to achieve.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 26, 2008, 05:45:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 26, 2008, 05:41:43 AM
In a real sense, they taught me how to get focused;  and they were an example to me in terms of the level of work I should want to achieve.

Very cool.

That's what I need: more focus.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 26, 2008, 05:46:44 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on June 26, 2008, 04:13:59 AM
What To Listen For in Music - Aaron Copland

I loaned this a couple months ago to my good friend who doesn't listen to classical music, with the intent of getting him to seek it out on his own. In the past he has seemed to show an interest whenever I play something for him, but it never leads to anything else.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 26, 2008, 05:49:50 AM
To tell the truth, I need to get off the internet at night.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 26, 2008, 05:50:28 AM
You see The Light, mon vieux!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 26, 2008, 05:51:56 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 26, 2008, 05:50:28 AM
You see The Light, mon vieux!

Yes, and hopefully it's not the one shining from my monitor.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 26, 2008, 05:55:24 AM
This book, by the way, has been excellent.

(http://www.andante.com/images/Articles/HorowitzClassMusInAmer180x2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 26, 2008, 07:24:25 AM
Quote from: mn dave on June 26, 2008, 05:55:24 AM
This book, by the way, has been excellent.

Yes, the historical information in there is excellent!

Where he wants to take it all, his interpretation (all the whingeing and hand-wringing), I take issue with.  But the history component makes the book a must-read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 26, 2008, 10:04:39 AM
Although it necessarily takes a while, given the weekly schedule, I am much enjoying this re-read of White Noise

Quote from: Don DeLilloIn the morning I sped out to Glassboro to take the further tests my doctor had advised, at Autumn Harvest Farms.  The seriousness of such an occasion is directly proportionate to the number of bodily emissions you are asked to cull for analysis.  I carried with me several specimen bottles, each containing some melancholy waste or secretion.  Alone in the glove compartment rode an ominous plastic locket, which I'd reverently enclosed in three interlocking Baggies, successively twist-tied.  Here was a daub of the most solemn waste of all, certain to be looked upon by the technicians with the mingled deference, awe and dread we have come to associate with exotic religions of the world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on June 26, 2008, 11:54:26 AM
Quote from: Corey on June 25, 2008, 02:59:31 PM
What did you think?

It's the first book by Thomas Mann that I read and I'm only a bit more than halfway through. I thoroughly enjoy it and I think Mann has a quite poetic style here. He uses more than a few references to Greek mythology. As I'm not not so familiar with it I have to do check-ups on a few names. It inspires me to learn more about it. He uses some eloquent words and has a way with sentences. There are several more books by Thomas Mann which are on my to-read list (like Dr Faustus and Magic Mountain). Which books do you like the most?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on June 26, 2008, 11:54:51 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518ZGT854JL._SS500_.jpg)

Very good so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 26, 2008, 01:41:37 PM
Quote from: rubio on June 26, 2008, 11:54:26 AM
It's the first book by Thomas Mann that I read and I'm only a bit more than halfway through. I thoroughly enjoy it and I think Mann has a quite poetic style here. He uses more than a few references to Greek mythology. As I'm not not so familiar with it I have to do check-ups on a few names. It inspires me to learn more about it. He uses some eloquent words and has a way with sentences. There are several more books by Thomas Mann which are on my to-read list (like Dr Faustus and Magic Mountain). Which books do you like the most?

The Magic Mountain is my favorite Mann, and, consequently, my all-time favorite novel. Even so, I recommend you start with his first, Buddenbrooks before you read anything else.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 26, 2008, 02:37:32 PM
Quote from: Anne on June 25, 2008, 05:44:43 PM
The second book I read for background info on the Texas Child Welfare proceedings of the 400 hundred children taken from their homes on FLDS church was His Favorite wife, Trapped in Polygamy by Susan Ray Schmidt.  This also was a true story.  In this case the wives were left alone while Verlan Lebaron (their husband) was away working or doing church work.  He would be gone for months.  This family was poverty stricken.  Verlan married 9 times.  Susan was his 6th wife.  The wives were on their own to feed their children.

By accident as I was reading this book, I happened to write down the names of the wives in the order that they married Verlan.  Susan (and her children) finally escaped with the help of her brother.

The second woman to become Verlan's wife was named Irene.  Last night as I was looking for another book to read, I discovered that Irene had escaped also and had written a book Shattered Dreams, My Life As a Polygamist's Wife  by Irene Spencer.  The cover of the book says that she stayed married to Verlan Lebaron for twenty-four years.  Verlan died in 1981.  Irene married again for 18 years to her present husband (non polygamist).  It is going to be interesting to see the family from first Susan's viewpoint and then Irene's.  Both books are very well written.


All 3 books show what it is like to a polygamist wife.

Well, it's a religious thing, and we are supposed to respect other people's religious lifestyle, aren't we?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 26, 2008, 02:40:40 PM
Quote from: traverso on June 26, 2008, 12:50:49 AM
The Tale of Genji (11th century)
Murasaki Shikibu
trans. Royall Taylor

I read small parts of that and always wanted to read the whole (really long) book. I was in the temple where she wrote that, they have a lifesize model of her sitting (or rather, kneeling) at her desk and writing in a little pavillion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 26, 2008, 02:44:33 PM
Quote from: Daverz on June 26, 2008, 11:54:51 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518ZGT854JL._SS500_.jpg)

Pretty gay outfit, if you ask me. BTW, there is a Mongolian movie out now which is about GK. The English release title is, highly original "Mongol". I saw a few minutes of that in a theater I worked at earlier and it looked interesting, so maybe I will go and watch that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 26, 2008, 02:45:57 PM
Quote from: Corey on June 26, 2008, 01:41:37 PM
The Magic Mountain is my favorite Mann, and, consequently, my all-time favorite novel.

Magic Mountain somehow sounds completely wrong as translation for "Zauberberg" even though technically it is correct, I guess. But it still sounds strange.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on June 26, 2008, 02:53:22 PM
"Mountain of Enchantments" would perhaps be nearer the mark.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on June 26, 2008, 03:00:10 PM
Quote from: Corey on June 26, 2008, 01:41:37 PM
The Magic Mountain is my favorite Mann, and, consequently, my all-time favorite novel.
Well, that's because you still have not read The Man Without Qualities  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on June 26, 2008, 03:25:04 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 26, 2008, 02:44:33 PM
Pretty gay outfit, if you ask me.
ooooohhhhhhh you insulted all the homosexuals, now you're going to court and will be banned from the forum, then thrown in jail and raped and then killed. You have to be careful, that's why i try to not to use the word "gay" too much on a public forum like this.  8)

Now:
Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise

Got through most of the book, skipped a couple of chapters i didn't think would be that exciting, since they're about composers i don't care for much, or haven't listened to much. Right now, I'm going back to the Sibelius chapter.
There's too much good stuff in this book to share (as it is with many of the music books i read)....



Yesterday:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QY2BQPW1L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
I spent my time at the mall reading this (in the bookstore). Just sat down in one of the couches and read it quite slowly, and ahhhhhhhhhh it was just heaven  0:)

I love this series, although it can get very very banal, like many manga/anime. But the world is so exciting, i wish i could go there (in fact, my op.9 is called "Punk Street", which is named after a place in that world).

It's somewhat of a typical "solo hero" (teenage boy) going out and exploring the world and saving it. Basically, my own fantasy. It's pretty quirky, too- almost made me laugh out loud with the pictures of crowds, some of them with a knife in their head and a guy carrying a toaster, or with the stupid wannabe characters, the 'Jiggle Butt' gang.

I started reading the series in Spanish- the first four volumes, and it's called "Rave"..... thanks to my old library. I'll have to keep checking back at the mall, they have 28 volumes out now so I have a ways to go.....  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on June 26, 2008, 03:35:20 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 26, 2008, 02:37:32 PM
Well, it's a religious thing, and we are supposed to respect other people's religious lifestyle, aren't we?

Yes, of course.  At the turn of the century (1890 and 1905) the government got after the Mormans and the Mormans agreed to no longer have polygamy as part of its practice of faith.  That is still true today.  The LDS were Mormon Fundalmentalists who did not relinquish polygamy.  Today Mormons do not allow the FDS into their churches.

Reading these books has shown that men are happy in polygamy as are the children.  It is the wives who do not have enough of their husband's time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on June 26, 2008, 03:37:56 PM
"Is your mommy going to pick you up from school today?"
"Which one?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on June 26, 2008, 03:39:24 PM
"I love you."

"When?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on June 26, 2008, 03:45:18 PM
Quote from: GGGGRRREEG on June 26, 2008, 03:37:56 PM
"Is your mommy going to pick you up from school today?"
"Which one?"

:D  The children all know who mother is.  In fact the husband will build each wife a little home if he can possibly afford it.  The children live with their mother in that home.  Each wife very much wants an area she can call her own and a place for privacy when hubby visits.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on June 26, 2008, 03:59:29 PM
Quote from: Anne on June 26, 2008, 03:45:18 PM
:D  The children all know who mother is.  In fact the husband will build each wife a little home if he can possibly afford it.  The children live with their mother in that home.  Each wife very much wants an area she can call her own and a place for privacy when hubby visits.
Ok, i'll try this again......

"Hey, Pete, wait a sec. I have to stay here cuz i have to wait for my dad's wife to pick me up."
"Uhhhhh..... you mean, your mom?"
"No, it's just Pam."
" ??? "
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on June 26, 2008, 04:27:05 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 26, 2008, 02:44:33 PM
Pretty gay outfit, if you ask me.

Have you been hanging out with American teenagers?  I hope there is not a picture of you on the internet in lederhosen.

Quote
BTW, there is a Mongolian movie out now which is about GK. The English release title is, highly original "Mongol". I saw a few minutes of that in a theater I worked at earlier and it looked interesting, so maybe I will go and watch that.

It has to be better than the John Wayne version.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on June 26, 2008, 04:31:02 PM
Quote from: Daverz on June 26, 2008, 04:27:05 PM
Have you been hanging out with American teenagers?  I hope there is not a picture of you on the internet in lederhosen.
Hanging out with American teenagers while wearing lederhosen? You mean, including teenage boys?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 26, 2008, 06:09:52 PM
I am from northern Germany, people don't wear lederhosen there. But I did have some when I was a small kid, and the hat and all the other outfit, too. That was because my father was Austrian and he and my mother also thought that was cute. But we only wore that when we were on holiday in Austria or Bavaria. I have some pictures of that and some 8mm films which my mother had transferred to DVD but I don't have access to the DVDs right now. When I do, I can post a picture for your entertainment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 26, 2008, 06:11:10 PM
Quote from: orbital on June 26, 2008, 03:00:10 PM
Well, that's because you still have not read The Man Without Qualities  :P

It's waiting for me on my shelf. Maybe after Hawthorne.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on June 26, 2008, 06:13:02 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 26, 2008, 06:09:52 PM
I am from northern Germany, people don't wear lederhosen there. But I did have some when I was a small kid, and the hat and all the other outfit, too. That was because my father was Austrian and he and my mother also thought that was cute. But we only wore that when we were on holiday in Austria or Bavaria. I have some pictures of that and some 8mm films which my mother had transferred to DVD but I don't have access to the DVDs right now. When I do, I can post a picture for your entertainment.
why don't you use it as an avatar?
you know, start fresh now that it's been deleted.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on June 26, 2008, 06:14:10 PM
Quote from: GGGGRRREEG on June 26, 2008, 03:59:29 PM
Ok, i'll try this again......

"Hey, Pete, wait a sec. I have to stay here cuz i have to wait for my dad's wife to pick me up."
"Uhhhhh..... you mean, your mom?"
"No, it's just Pam."
" ??? "

I understand what you meant now.  You are right.  That type of conversation happens a lot - especially when the children are talking to teachers or other adults who ask them questions.  One time three of the kids, all 5 years old, were signing up for free swimming classes.  The instructor was doing just fine with their info until she recognized there were three 5 yr olds all from the same address and all with the same telephone number.  Then she asked if they had the same mother and they said, "No."  Then one kid, trying to be helpful, said, "But we all have the same dad."

With that the swimming teacher bailed out and said for everyone to get in the pool.

The same thing happened when they started Kindergarden.  Their teacher went to the principal's office.  He thankfully had dealt with this situation before.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on June 26, 2008, 06:29:01 PM
Quote from: GGGGRRREEG on June 26, 2008, 06:13:02 PM
why don't you use it as an avatar?
you know, start fresh now that it's been deleted.

My avatar has been deleted? Why? I noticed it wasn't displayed anymore, but I thought that was just a hickup.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 26, 2008, 06:31:58 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 26, 2008, 06:09:52 PM
I am from northern Germany, people don't wear lederhosen there. But I did have some when I was a small kid, and the hat and all the other outfit, too. That was because my father was Austrian and he and my mother also thought that was cute. But we only wore that when we were on holiday in Austria or Bavaria. I have some pictures of that and some 8mm films which my mother had transferred to DVD but I don't have access to the DVDs right now. When I do, I can post a picture for your entertainment.

M - I can't wait to see a pic of that scene!  ;) ;D  George B. salutes you!  :D  Dave

(http://giradman.smugmug.com/photos/320656315_xhDig-M.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on June 26, 2008, 06:42:01 PM
Quote from: M forever on June 26, 2008, 06:29:01 PM
My avatar has been deleted? Why? I noticed it wasn't displayed anymore, but I thought that was just a hickup.
Yes, it has been permanently deleted from the universe. In fact, any attempt to bring it back may result in permanent destruction of the world, or universe, and may end mankind as we know it. Please bring it back.




(no, wait, AFTER you have the lederhosen pic as an avatar first, then you can bring the blue dragon back and i think i'll actually have a shot at dying happy)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on June 27, 2008, 12:17:48 AM
A few books I've read lately:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4187xzqYffL.jpg)

A brief summation of the views of the man who should have been the nominee of the GOP and the next prez.  Fun and insightful to read, but sad knowing that Dr. Paul candidacy is history.

(http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/RESOURCE/MEDIA/IMAGES/bookcovers/Original/BookCovers13/9/7/8/0/9780307405159.jpg)

Some fascinating facts mentioned by Pat depicting the unsavory (and mostly unknown side) of Churchill, but just read an article by Christopher Hitchens in Newsweek who stated that Buchanan did a good job of relating the Treaty of Versailles and its effects, but that he left any historical facts that would taint his view of Kaiser Wilhelm II  as a peaceful dove and chided him for forgetting just how evil of a guy Hitler was.  With all that said, an interesting book that I enjoyed reading in just a few days.

As of right now:
(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/RUS228.jpg)
Fascinating bio of Uncle Joe; you see the flesh and blood, while not having the faults extenuated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 27, 2008, 03:08:38 AM
Quote from: M forever on June 26, 2008, 06:09:52 PM
I am from northern Germany, people don't wear lederhosen there.

Said with a most becoming note of wistful regret  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 27, 2008, 03:09:47 AM
All right, I've just finished re-reading Don DeLillo's White Noise. A tour-de force. Well shaped, wittily written, by turns farcical, desperate & touching.

I bought the Viking Critical Library edition out of curiosity for the supplementary materials, too;  but just having read the novel itself, I don't want to touch the supplemental materials just yet.

And I'm not sure, seeing the book on the shelf, that I would draw it down for the purpose of poking through the s. m.;  but I suppose at some point I may.  More likely, of course, that when I take the volume up again, it will be because I want to re-read the text another time.

Got to love a story with a minor character named Orest Mercator.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 28, 2008, 04:43:08 AM
Nathaniel Hawthorne - The House of the Seven Gables
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on June 28, 2008, 02:05:51 PM
Quote from: Corey on June 28, 2008, 04:43:08 AM
Nathaniel Hawthorne - The House of the Seven Gables

I had to read that in middle school.  Murder, witchcraft, mayhem, fraud, greed, and true love -- sounds like a bad movie -- but so well written! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on June 28, 2008, 04:00:09 PM
Quote from: Bunny on June 28, 2008, 02:05:51 PM
I had to read that in middle school.  Murder, witchcraft, mayhem, fraud, greed, and true love -- sounds like a bad movie -- but so well written! 

great literature : high school students :: pearls : swine
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on June 28, 2008, 06:46:08 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WM3XKHRYL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Delightful. Fascinating how their life mirror's the settings and characters in their novels to a tee.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 28, 2008, 06:48:54 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on June 28, 2008, 06:46:08 PM
Delightful. Fascinating how their life mirror's the settings and characters in their novels to a tee.

In their case, I rather suspected so.  To their credit, they made good art out of the lifelike material.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on June 28, 2008, 11:04:06 PM
Quote from: Danny on June 27, 2008, 12:17:48 AM
As of right now:
(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/RUS228.jpg)
Fascinating bio of Uncle Joe; you see the flesh and blood, while not having the faults extenuated.

Great book, that. So is Young Stalin, the follow-up book that deals with Stalin's rise to prominence. I can say, honestly, that Montefiore's books on Stalin are up there with Lord Norwich's Byzantium trilogy (though you'd want Ostrogorsky or Treadgold as a supplement to Norwich).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on June 29, 2008, 05:58:05 AM
Quote from: Corey on June 28, 2008, 04:00:09 PM
great literature : high school students :: pearls : swine
ha, i like that!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 29, 2008, 06:09:04 AM
Quote from: Bunny on June 28, 2008, 02:05:51 PM
I had to read that in middle school.  Murder, witchcraft, mayhem, fraud, greed, and true love -- sounds like a bad movie -- but so well written! 

Didn't Shakespeare deal with these components as well? When did they get a bad name? And why?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 29, 2008, 11:36:08 AM
Quote from: mn dave on June 29, 2008, 06:09:04 AM
Didn't Shakespeare deal with these components as well? When did they get a bad name? And why?

Macbeth alone traffics neatly in murder, witchcraft, mayhem & fraud . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on June 30, 2008, 02:20:54 AM
Swieta Gora Grabarka, Zdjecia, (Pictures) Marek Dolecki, Tekst Anna Radziukiewicz.
Bialystok, 1995.

A beautiful picture book, about Russian Orthodox faith.
The Holy mount of Grabarka, which lies in the Mielnik Forest, in the South Eastern part of the Bialystok region, not far from Sie-miatycze, is a Orthodox sanctuary. It is in the heart of Orthodoxy in Poland. Daily prayers are raised by the nuns from the convent of St Martha and St Mary, which existed here since 1947.
Many of my friends are pictured in this book, all of them priests our monks, as well as nuns.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: uffeviking on June 30, 2008, 07:47:23 PM
Of course it is good, how can it be otherwise when written by Thomas Mann! It's one of his short stories: The Blood of the Walsungs with Richard Wagner's Die Walküre as theme. Mann showed his sense of humour be describing the typical grand opera singers, the buxomly soprano and the chunky tenor. Describing Hunding he was a bit nasty: "Hunding came, knock-kneed and big-bellied like a cow. . . ..

Fascinating story for any opera lover, especially any Richard Wagner lover!  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Danny on July 01, 2008, 12:09:57 AM
Quote from: PSmith08 on June 28, 2008, 11:04:06 PM
Great book, that. So is Young Stalin, the follow-up book that deals with Stalin's rise to prominence. I can say, honestly, that Montefiore's books on Stalin are up there with Lord Norwich's Byzantium trilogy (though you'd want Ostrogorsky or Treadgold as a supplement to Norwich).

So far it has been a wonderfully researched book and I never thought I would enjoy reading so much about the big guy.  What fascinates me is how everyone in his circle wanted and needed his approval yet, at the same time, Stalin always relied heavily upon those around him (am thinking especially of his relationship with Kirov and later Zhadanov).

Along with this book now have decided to read a novel closely associated with Stalin and the Stalinist era:
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0141180145.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Right now, cannot make heads or tales of this one (about 200 pages through).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 01, 2008, 05:06:24 AM
Well, finally finished a couple of books, including the George Enescu bio - now starting a new one by an entertaining author:

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World (2008) by Tony Horwitz - for comments & description of the book, checkout Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Long-Strange-Rediscovering-World/dp/0805076034/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214916787&sr=1-1); Horwitz visits the places of early American discovery from the Vikings around 1000 A.D. up to Plymouth in 1620 - this prose is a mixture of history and modern day commentary, often done w/ a lot of humor; he also had a video blog on USA Today (http://blogs.usatoday.com/livefrom/), which I viewed all too briefly (might return to it later?).

If interested in the Civil War, one of his first well known books is also shown below - Confederates in the Attic - loved this one not only because I'm a Civil War buff, but I've visited many of the places discussed - Horwitz writing does not please all, but I enjoy his approach; and these are not really 'in-depth' history books, but more historical travelogues!  :D


(http://features.csmonitor.com/books/wp-content/assets/3/308/picture1.jpg)  (http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/USS35.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 01, 2008, 05:10:35 AM
New subscription.  :)

(http://www.fanfaremag.com/images/covers/cover_0316-214.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on July 02, 2008, 11:32:09 PM
HARALD WELZER:   "Täter"

The complete title is, "Killers, how normal people become mass murders".
A very detailed and disturbing essay, centered in the Sonderkommandos of the SS, responsable for thousands and thousands murders of Jews, including those in Babi Yar.
Years later, subjected to tests, this men were considered completely normal - as it was the case of Himmler himself. Most of them were not violent, less yet sadists, they were people like us. But, they did not regret their actions. They tried to explain and justify them !!!

A very strong and disturbing book, in some moments even frightening, when we discover in recent murders in Rwanda or Bosnia the same kind of persons, the same arguments and justifications.

When we finish the book the question that remains is terrible: in their situation, would we act different? As the book shows, the answer is not easy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on July 02, 2008, 11:43:42 PM
You may also be interested in the classical (in some respects not quite up-to-date anymore, but still fundamentally very valid) "The Mask of Sanity" by Hervey Cleckley.
Yes, these impulses are in all of us, and the more they get suppressed and covered up, the more dangerous they can become. We are by default an extremely violent species. Killing each other in warfare is our second, maybe not even second, maybe our first, nature. "Civilization" (whatever that may exactly mean) with its "values" is one set of measures against that, but the most important thing is that we recognize and acknowledge that, then we can learn to handle it. That is why I often say the people who act the most normal, nicest, harmless are often the ones who have the greatest potential for harming others in many ways, once they are transplanted into a situation in which that is actually allowed and sanctioned by society. Hannah Arendt aptly called that appearance of complete normality "the banality of evil".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on July 03, 2008, 01:18:16 AM
I understand your point. One of the books that most influence had in my way of thinking was Konrad Lorenz famous "Das Sogenannte Böse - zur Naturgeschichte der Aggression".

But the problem is always the same: normal people put in a social context where a part of the population is excluded, sometimes not even considered as human, get used to think and act, even morally, according to new system of values. First we accept that the excluded loose their jobs and are forbidden to enter in certain places. Then we accept that they should be deported. Then, when this situation is no more possible, we accept that they go to the camps. And finally, there is war, not many ressources, why not the final solution?

Himmler said to an Assembly of the SS: all German are against Jews. But each German comes to us saying that he knows a Jew that is an exception, a great guy. And the same goes to 80 million Germans.
That is why we must do this (the Final Solution) and do it in secret, not because we love to kill, not because we hate this Jew or that Jew, but because Jews are our greatest problem and we must solve it, with competence and efficiency.

I find this much more terrible. It is not the human tendency to aggression, an evolutionary tool. It is a very quiet statement, as if Himmler was talking about an accounting problem. And perhaps he imagined it so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on July 03, 2008, 01:45:11 AM
Val, there is a book (among many, but this one is very good) that deals with all this - Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust.

Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 03, 2008, 04:20:10 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X5RHAGZ7L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Norbeone on July 04, 2008, 09:58:15 AM
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy



Very rich and intriguing plot so far, though i'm not sure the translation (in the Wordsworth Classics edition) is the best. I hear penguin classics has the 'definitive' translation. Oh well.   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 04, 2008, 10:01:02 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NFWQADM2L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Just started it; already it seems an improvement upon the Barry Miles book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on July 04, 2008, 10:09:02 AM
Quote from: Norbeone on July 04, 2008, 09:58:15 AM
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy



Very rich and intriguing plot so far, though I'm not sure the translation (in the Wordsworth Classics edition) is the best. I hear penguin classics has the 'definitive' translation. Oh well.   :)

You will eventually encounter an entire chapter(s), a dissertation on Russian farming or similar.  It has nothing to do with the story as far as I could discern.  You can ignore that entire part and be just as well off.  It's like 60 - 100 pages if I recall correctly.

You're reading a wonderful book.  I enjoyed it also.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on July 04, 2008, 12:04:36 PM
Quote from: PSmith08 on June 28, 2008, 11:04:06 PM
I can say, honestly, that Montefiore's books on Stalin are up there with Lord Norwich's Byzantium trilogy (though you'd want Ostrogorsky or Treadgold as a supplement to Norwich).

Oh, I have never encountered anyone else who has read JJN's trilogy. I read it many years ago and it really fired my imagination. I have not heard/seen him for a long time, then encountered him on BBC radio last week, he sounded as ever. A hidden national treasure.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on July 04, 2008, 12:07:26 PM
Quote from: knight on July 04, 2008, 12:04:36 PM
Oh, I have never encountered anyone else who has read JJN's trilogy. I read it many years ago and it really fired my imagination. I have not heard/seen him for a long time, then encountered him on BBC radio last week, he sounded as ever. A hidden national treasure.

Mike, could you refresh my memory - was JJN on Round Britain Quiz (BBC Radio 4) in the 'eighties? I know he was always on Radio Four...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on July 04, 2008, 12:43:51 PM
Yes, that's right. He was also over the years a leading light in the Venice in Peril campaign.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on July 04, 2008, 12:54:51 PM
Quote from: knight on July 04, 2008, 12:43:51 PM
Yes, that's right. He was also over the years a leading light in the Venice in Peril campaign.

Mike

Thank you. I am glad my memory is in perfect working order... I can still hear Gordon Clough.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on July 04, 2008, 01:11:23 PM
And the wonderful voice of Irene Thomas.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on July 04, 2008, 01:19:21 PM
Quote from: knight on July 04, 2008, 01:11:23 PM
And the wonderful voice of Irene Thomas.

Mike

Yes!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 04, 2008, 10:24:38 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QAGT42CKL._SS500_.jpg)

Know nothing at all about this writer, other than he won the Nobel Prize for this novella. Is anyone familiar with him?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Norbeone on July 05, 2008, 06:38:18 AM
Quote from: Anne on July 04, 2008, 10:09:02 AM
You will eventually encounter an entire chapter(s), a dissertation on Russian farming or similar.  It has nothing to do with the story as far as I could discern.  You can ignore that entire part and be just as well off.  It's like 60 - 100 pages if I recall correctly.

You're reading a wonderful book.  I enjoyed it also.

Thanks for the heads up....i'll see how far I can plough through (pun vaguely intended)   ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 05, 2008, 06:59:49 AM
Right. We skip the bits about fishing in Moby-Dick, too  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 05, 2008, 09:26:14 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 05, 2008, 06:59:49 AM
Right. We skip the bits about fishing in Moby-Dick, too  8)

And the sections of music theory in Doktor Faustus!  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 05, 2008, 02:17:18 PM
Robert Musil - The Man Without Qualities
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on July 06, 2008, 11:56:57 AM
I'm being swept away by Andrej Platonov's "Sokrowennyj tsjelowjek" (1928)  Secret man - translation Charles B.Timmer / Meulenhoff A'dam. Great and disturbing.

http://www.sovlit.com/bios/platonov.html


And re-reading parts of a little book ( Mme De La Fayette ,par elle même/ Bernard Pingaud)  on Mme.de la Fayette ( 1634 - 1693)- author of "La princesse de Clèves" (written between 1672 and 1678).
Wonderful information on (high society) life in France / 17th century - and on how difficult it is to be a woman & a writer!!
La princesse de Clèves ( which I haven't read) is considered by some as the first French novel of any consistance, and  a kind of prototype of the psychological novel.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on July 07, 2008, 01:16:40 PM
The Journals of Kierkegaard
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 08, 2008, 02:04:43 PM
Borrowed this from the library to sharpen up a little.

BE AN ISLAND
(http://www.wisdom-books.com/Covers/14717.jpg)
by Ayya Khema

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 08, 2008, 02:16:06 PM
Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life (2008) by Carl Zimmer - purchased because of a great review in a recent NY Times Book Review summary - plus, right up my interest in genetics & the importance of the humble but ubiquitous bacterium E. coli in research done over decades - just arrived today and I can't put the book down (but remember, I'm a physician & a little weird about this stuff!  ;D) - CLICK on the image for a description & Amazonian comments -  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21ssb6SGnQL._SL500_AA180_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Microcosm-coli-New-Science-Life/dp/037542430X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215554958&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 10, 2008, 09:05:27 AM
Quote from: Maciek on July 10, 2008, 09:04:34 AM
Stickied.

It's getting mighty sticky 'round these parts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on July 10, 2008, 09:07:48 AM
 ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on July 10, 2008, 09:41:47 AM
Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy.
Supposedly good, since it won her a Nobel Price.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on July 10, 2008, 02:21:08 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 05, 2008, 06:59:49 AM
Right. We skip the bits about fishing in Moby-Dick, too  8)

Quote from: Corey on July 05, 2008, 09:26:14 AM
And the sections of music theory in Doktor Faustus!  :o

And the sewers in Les Miserables ;D.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on July 10, 2008, 02:27:05 PM
Quote from: Novi on July 10, 2008, 02:21:08 PM
And the sewers in Les Miserables ;D.

And the journals in Dracula. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on July 10, 2008, 02:34:07 PM
Quote from: Renfield on July 10, 2008, 02:27:05 PM
And the journals in Dracula. ;)
and the letters in Les Liaisons Dangereuses  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 10, 2008, 03:43:17 PM
Just picked this up:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412ZPGW83BL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on July 10, 2008, 04:47:06 PM
And Tolstoy's dissertation on farming in Anna Karenina.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 10, 2008, 05:21:49 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on July 10, 2008, 03:43:17 PM
Just picked this up:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412ZPGW83BL._SS500_.jpg)

I need to read the Greeks languishing on my bookshelf.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 10, 2008, 05:24:05 PM
Quote from: Corey on July 10, 2008, 05:21:49 PM
I need to read the Greeks languishing on my bookshelf.  ::)

I shouldn't say this because I'll jinx myself, but I'm attempting a ten-year reading plan and this is the first book on the list. Well, actually the plays The Clouds and Lysistrata are first on the list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 10, 2008, 05:30:47 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on July 10, 2008, 05:24:05 PM
I shouldn't say this because I'll jinx myself, but I'm attempting a ten-year reading plan and this is the first book on the list. Well, actually the plays The Clouds and The Lysistrata are first on the list.

Are you using this list?

http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtfad4.html

I already own and have read a good chunk of those, and most before I even knew about the list.

As I've found in using a similar list I've made for composers, the best thing is to not be dogmatic about it and slip out of the list every now and then. Otherwise (for me) it starts to feel like work.

EDIT: I should also probably add that since I collect old Modern Library editions, most of what I read is on that list without having to consult it first — so in a way it's just a coincidence that I've read a lot of it. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 10, 2008, 05:38:23 PM
Quote from: Corey on July 10, 2008, 05:30:47 PM
Are you using this list?

http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtfad4.html

I already own and have read a good chunk of those, and most before I even knew about the list.

As I've found in using a similar list I've made for composers, the best thing is to not be dogmatic about it and slip out of the list every now and then. Otherwise (for me) it starts to feel like work.

I've seen that list before, but no. I'm using this one:

http://www.io.com/~beckerdo/books/gb195210.html

And I know what you mean about it starting to feel like work, so I'll have to see how it goes. Right now, I figure if I can read all the books for a given year before the 365 days are up, then I can read whatever I want until the the next year's reading begins. Then again, I don't want it to become a race because I'd like time to absorb what I'm reading.

[I just noticed something with that list. It repeats books.  ???]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on July 10, 2008, 06:11:52 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on July 10, 2008, 03:43:17 PM
Just picked this up:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412ZPGW83BL._SS500_.jpg)

Jolly good romp, Dave!

You should take a look at Aubrey Beardsley's illustrations for Lysistrata as well. He does a fine line in oversized phalluses and the like :D.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 10, 2008, 06:21:06 PM
Quote from: Novi on July 10, 2008, 06:11:52 PM
Jolly good romp, Dave!

You should take a look at Aubrey Beardsley's illustrations for Lysistrata as well. He does a fine line in oversized phalluses and the like :D.

Hm. I wonder how those tie in? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

So far, The Clouds is a hoot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 10, 2008, 06:31:45 PM
I cannot take seriously any reading list that omits Mann.  >:(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 10, 2008, 06:43:32 PM
Quote from: Corey on July 10, 2008, 06:31:45 PM
I cannot take seriously any reading list that omits Mann.  >:(

Maybe if I survive the decade, I can turn to Mann.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 10, 2008, 06:46:58 PM
Quote from: Corey on July 10, 2008, 06:31:45 PM
I cannot take seriously any reading list that omits Mann.  >:(

They have a full PDF list here of the works included:

http://store.britannica.com/jump.jsp?itemID=344&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C22%2C94%2C128

One of them is A Death in Venice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 10, 2008, 06:51:39 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on July 10, 2008, 06:46:58 PM
One of them is A Death in Venice.

That's seems akin to a list of the Greatest Symphonies of All Time including Beethoven's 8th but leaving out 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9.  ::)  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 10, 2008, 06:53:12 PM
Quote from: Corey on July 10, 2008, 06:51:39 PM
That's seems akin to a list of the Greatest Symphonies of All Time including Beethoven's 8th but leaving out 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9.  ::)  :D

Everything else on there is crap. Right? ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 10, 2008, 06:56:54 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on July 10, 2008, 06:53:12 PM
Everything else on there is crap. Right? ;)

I would have to live three lifetimes in order to answer that question. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 10, 2008, 06:57:40 PM
Quote from: Corey on July 10, 2008, 06:56:54 PM
I would have to live three lifetimes in order to answer that question. :D

Or clone yourself, then have a meeting when you guys are finished!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 11, 2008, 10:20:57 AM
Hm. Do I want to read books on arithmetic?

I think not.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 11, 2008, 11:12:06 AM
(http://www.simonsays.com/assets/isbn/0743205839/C_0743205839.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 11, 2008, 11:16:43 AM
Very nearly done with this; and it has indeed been very good.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NFWQADM2L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 15, 2008, 08:31:51 AM
(http://www.tolkien-online.com/images/The_Children_of_Hurin_cover.jpg)

This is a real new Tolkien book, not a history or fragment like most of the other posthumous material.  Set in the first age it is about the tragic hero, Turin and is a worthy addition to Hobbit, LOTR & the Simarillion (the story of Turin is in this book in a very brief historical narrative form)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 15, 2008, 08:41:01 AM
That "extended fragment" was one of the strongest bits of the Silmarillion, I thought.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on July 15, 2008, 11:04:17 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 15, 2008, 08:41:01 AM
That "extended fragment" was one of the strongest bits of the Silmarillion, I thought.

I second the thought.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on July 15, 2008, 12:15:05 PM
Quote from: Renfield on July 15, 2008, 11:04:17 AM
I second the thought.

I can't. Yet. The Silmarillion is a book I still have to enjoy, fortunately. And the Children of Húrin, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on July 15, 2008, 12:23:12 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 15, 2008, 08:31:51 AM
(http://www.tolkien-online.com/images/The_Children_of_Hurin_cover.jpg)

This is a real new Tolkien book, not a history or fragment like most of the other posthumous material.  Set in the first age it is about the tragic hero, Turin and is a worthy addition to Hobbit, LOTR & the Simarillion (the story of Turin is in this book in a very brief historical narrative form)

If that's a new book, why did it not come out earlier? Tolkien has been dead for a long time. Maybe it took Christopher Tolkien a while to write, uh, I mean, "edit" the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 15, 2008, 12:23:14 PM
(http://www.sfsite.com/gra/0804/lwlg.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on July 15, 2008, 12:28:55 PM
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy.  My failure to read the entire work came back to me during my miserable days in January, after the death of my mother.  And as a classicist it is something that I should have read in toto years ago.

It alternates between poems and dialogues: the main character speaks with a personification of Philosophy.  The poems act as a kind of Greek chorus, sometimes at least.

If you believe we are in a declining era, Alexandrine or Honorian, Boethius offers some solace.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on July 15, 2008, 10:58:29 PM
Sorry to hear about your mother's death, Cato.




Quote from: Apollo on July 15, 2008, 12:23:14 PM
(http://www.sfsite.com/gra/0804/lwlg.jpg)

Well, well, well. Sapkowski in English?

Do you like it? I've never read any, but I seem to be one of the three people in this country.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 16, 2008, 04:20:14 AM
Quote from: Maciek on July 15, 2008, 10:58:29 PM
Do you like it? I've never read any, but I seem to be one of the three people in this country.

It's well done for what it is: A guy running around, killing monsters.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Thekherham on July 16, 2008, 10:05:43 AM
Seabiscuit


Two thumbs up!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on July 18, 2008, 02:28:23 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n24/n122065.jpg)

Philip Roth -- after 4 books of his, this latest one being the best, I am starting to think this man will in the future be talked about in the same breath as Thomas Mann, Nabokov, and other greats. This is not a type of comment I make easily, but damn, he's good! Nobel prize people, wake the f*** up!
(http://allabout.co.jp/study/basicenglish/closeup/CU20040412A/snow_country.gif)

Unlike Murakami and other Japanese writers that are quite Westernized, Kawabata's aesthetics are solidly Japanese. So, it can be a little uncomfortable getting into his idiom at first, though the style is limpid. Very good overall. Makes me want to read more of his books.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518G7T5XBCL._SL210_.jpg)

The Austrians -- A 1000 Year Odyssey. I have been living here almost 1 year now, so I figured this book about Austrian history/identity was useful reading. The Austrians do have a very interesting and complex history. The book is quite good, but difficult if you don't have a good grounding in European history -- which fortunately I do.




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on July 18, 2008, 03:25:22 PM
Roth is the first (and so far - the only) living writer to be published by Library of America (IIRC). Which is quite an accomplishment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on July 18, 2008, 07:45:10 PM
I'm finished with the Gallimard edition of Plato's Dialogues. First time I ever read Socrates' discourses, what he was after, and how he pursued it. Brilliant, if sometimes obtuse and verbose (that's the exception, though). For a total contrast, I'm reading some Maupassant short stories. Tales of late 19th century Vieille France. Charming, chilling and surprisingly disturbing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on July 19, 2008, 01:17:53 AM
Does that book have pictures?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on July 19, 2008, 01:43:09 PM
Only on the cover. Some kind of pastel picturing La petite Roque. She appears to be elfin thin, contrary to the story's depiction of her as a slightly fleshy 12 year old with budding breasts. You can't even trust book covers, these days  :P.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on July 19, 2008, 02:34:32 PM
Not really "reading" this, but it is a book, and I am listening to it when I drive longer stretches. I don't like to listen to music when I am driving because of all the accompanying noise, and it distracts me too much, and I had thought about trying audio books for a while. So I just walked into a bookstore and looked around, found this which is the sequel to "The Pillars of the Earth" which I had read and found quite good, exactly the kind of relaxing entertainment that I was looking for for that purpose, so I got it and it really is fun to listen to and makes long drives much less long. The actor who is reading it, a gentleman named John Lee, is really good at bringing the story and the characters alive.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IKxg96pxL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on July 19, 2008, 02:38:27 PM
Quote from: mozartsneighbor on July 18, 2008, 02:28:23 AM
(http://allabout.co.jp/study/basicenglish/closeup/CU20040412A/snow_country.gif)

Unlike Murakami and other Japanese writers that are quite Westernized, Kawabata's aesthetics are solidly Japanese. So, it can be a little uncomfortable getting into his idiom at first, though the style is limpid. Very good overall. Makes me want to read more of his books.

I read this some years ago and I agree it's very good -- limpid is the right word. I came to him through the Oxford book of Japanese short stories which is outstanding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on July 19, 2008, 05:53:39 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410FABJGFDL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

The recent Nobel made me curious; and very thankfully so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on July 19, 2008, 10:45:09 PM
I'm continuing my slog through Thomas Mann. I set aside Buddenbrooks to read Doktor Faustus, so I'm back to the former with an eye toward Joseph und seine Brüder next. I suppose I'll have to get around to Felix Krull, but I am very sure I'll need a little break after Joseph.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on July 20, 2008, 03:47:44 AM
Hemingway, the master of the art of simplicity was IMO never better than in his novels. His nature descriptions are so life-like and evidently he was inspired by painters like Cezanne.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5174DF819PL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on July 21, 2008, 12:38:09 AM
THUCYDIDES:   History of the Peloponnesian War

One of the greatest works of History of all times. We read it with the same enthusiasm as if he was describing a war in our time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 21, 2008, 08:44:20 AM
The Intrepid Soprano: Thirteen ways of looking at last week (http://intrepidsoprano.blogspot.com/2008/07/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-last-week.html)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on July 21, 2008, 12:50:19 PM
Currently Reading:
The Royal Family by Vollmann
Simply stunning in its density.

Men as Women, Women as Men by Lang
Alight, thus far. It will at least give me some new look information.

Iron John by Bly
Not as striking as when I first read it, disappointing even. As time progresses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 21, 2008, 06:16:24 PM
Starting The Man Without Qualities Vol. 2 after finishing the first volume today.

I feel like I should say a few words about it, but it is so staggeringly huge in scope that casual comments seem lazy and inappropriate — and I don't get paid enough to write reviews. Plus, it's not like anyone other than one poster here in particular is interested in what I have to say. :D But all this could just be an excuse not to be bothered with the internet as my connection is being very unreliable, so I will leave comments to a minimum (for now).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on July 21, 2008, 06:31:58 PM
Corey, I am interested in your comments: Man Without qualities has been on the back burner of famous novels I have meant to read. In the past 30 years ::).

Fortunatlely I have had an  inkling of Musil's talent in my young days (Der Jünge Toerless - that was after I had seen Schloendorff's film - oner thing leading to another). At least I can say I got a peek into his work  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 21, 2008, 06:39:26 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P8T81V43L._SS500_.jpg)

I've only read the prologue, but yes, Rickman is very good as usual.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: btpaul674 on July 21, 2008, 07:28:46 PM
(http://www.socialfiction.org/img/naked_lunch_prospectus.jpg)

I am taking a break from "The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader" to power through Burroughs' book. I'm finding it quite a nice summer read with a refreshing IPA.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on July 21, 2008, 08:25:53 PM
Quote from: btpaul674 on July 21, 2008, 07:28:46 PM
(http://www.socialfiction.org/img/naked_lunch_prospectus.jpg)

I am taking a break from "The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader" to power through Burroughs' book. I'm finding it quite a nice summer read with a refreshing IPA.

I went through a heavy Burroughs phase years ago. I recommend "Cities of the Red Night" as possibly his best all-around. It's a sort of combination detective-pirate novel. If you like that, read "Place of Dead Roads", his take on a Western, probably my favourite Burroughs book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 22, 2008, 05:11:41 PM
If the shoe fits....

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516EH57YWAL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

...and in my case, like a glove.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 22, 2008, 05:21:44 PM
Quote from: Bogey on July 22, 2008, 05:11:41 PM
If the shoe fits....

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516EH57YWAL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

...and in my case, like a glove.

I have this little darling.

(http://www.scififantasystore.com/sites/ktuttle/_files/Image/guide%20to%20earth%20and%20space.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 22, 2008, 05:43:39 PM
Quote from: Bogey on July 22, 2008, 05:11:41 PM
If the shoe fits....

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516EH57YWAL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)  (http://i29.tinypic.com/2vrzjg6.jpg)


Bill - LOL!  ;D  Also reading a 'Dummies' book (added pic above) - of course, I'm always in the process of reading 3-4 books @ the same time - but, for those who may be interested in 'wireless home networking', this is now in its 3rd edition and a pretty good review - had the previous edition and am now interested in 'extending' my 'wireless' computer network in the home to other functions?  For example, goin' wireless w/ home entertainment, VoIP, home control (such as lighting), etc. - this new edition provides additional options & updates for those who may be interested -  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on July 22, 2008, 05:52:51 PM
Mary Oliver

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on July 22, 2008, 08:09:02 PM
Quote from: Bogey on July 22, 2008, 05:11:41 PM
If the shoe fits....

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516EH57YWAL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

...and in my case, like a glove.

http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=1810&pc=SaleScience%20and%20Mathematics

This astronomy class is on sale at the Teaching Company for $229 (normally $800)  There are 16 DVD's.  It is for beginners and has GORGEOUS pictures.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on July 22, 2008, 11:02:48 PM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on July 21, 2008, 06:31:58 PM
Corey, I am interested in your comments: Man Without qualities has been on the back burner of famous novels I have meant to read. In the past 30 years ::).

Fortunatlely I have had an  inkling of Musil's talent in my young days (Der Jünge Toerless - that was after I had seen Schloendorff's film - oner thing leading to another). At least I can say I got a peek into his work  ::)

Interested, too, in some comment, Corey.

I have read parts of Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften but finished Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless (not so difficult) and I have seen Schloendorff's film, too. I have had the whole of Musil's fiction (Gesammelte Werke, Rowohlt Verlag) waiting on a bookshelf for around 20 years now...  :-[ But I will come round to studying it after I have done with my own bid for immortality.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on July 23, 2008, 12:51:18 AM
Quote from: Corey on July 21, 2008, 06:16:24 PM
Starting The Man Without Qualities Vol. 2 after finishing the first volume today.

I feel like I should say a few words about it, but it is so staggeringly huge in scope that casual comments seem lazy and inappropriate — and I don't get paid enough to write reviews. Plus, it's not like anyone other than one poster here in particular is interested in what I have to say. :D But all this could just be an excuse not to be bothered with the internet as my connection is being very unreliable, so I will leave comments to a minimum (for now).
:)
I am envious of anyone who is reading this book for the first time. It still is, by quite a margin, the best fiction I have read. And this is not likely to change :( I have derived much pleasure and satisfaction from other modernists particularly Mann, Broch, and Doblin; but for me, Musil's book with its dizzying array of ideas has not been equaled.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 23, 2008, 07:31:58 AM
Quote from: Anne on July 22, 2008, 08:09:02 PM
http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=1810&pc=SaleScience%20and%20Mathematics

This astronomy class is on sale at the Teaching Company for $229 (normally $800)  There are 16 DVD's.  It is for beginners and has GORGEOUS pictures.

I will take a look and thank you for the lead.

I also picked up this monster:

(http://a763.g.akamai.net/7/763/1644/3/app.infopia.com/img/image/fp/VPID/2562391)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 23, 2008, 09:56:44 AM
(http://www.geopoetika.com/view_image.php?image_id=345)

Just starting this, looks intetresting, never read Pamuk before, though enjoy wearing it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 23, 2008, 10:11:35 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 23, 2008, 07:31:58 AM
I also picked up this monster:

(http://a763.g.akamai.net/7/763/1644/3/app.infopia.com/img/image/fp/VPID/2562391)

Ah, you bought my birthday present early, I see.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on July 23, 2008, 10:29:06 AM
Quote from: Drasko on July 23, 2008, 09:56:44 AM
(http://www.geopoetika.com/view_image.php?image_id=345)

Just starting this, looks intetresting, never read Pamuk before, though enjoy wearing it.
;D nothing like it in the summer

If you enjoy it, I'd recommend his masterpiece so far: Crnački Knjiga  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 23, 2008, 11:02:30 AM
Quote from: orbital on July 23, 2008, 10:29:06 AM
;D nothing like it in the summer

If you enjoy it, I'd recommend his masterpiece so far: Crnački Knjiga  :P


And I'd recommend to stay away from on-line translators, unless he wrote also Black Man's Book and that in wrong gramatical gender ;D

But I guess you mean this:
(http://www.knjizara.com/pls/pic/k.pokazi_sliku?idslike=32012)
will sure check it out if I like this one, thanks
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on July 23, 2008, 11:13:48 AM
Quote from: Drasko on July 23, 2008, 11:02:30 AM
And I'd recommend to stay away from on-line translators, unless he wrote also Black Man's Book and that in wrong gramatical gender ;D

;D
I knew I'd choose the wrong one.

currently reading:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/415ER41DN3L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on July 23, 2008, 11:18:34 AM
Robert Frost and Frank O'Hara
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 23, 2008, 01:57:27 PM
Quote from: Apollo on July 23, 2008, 10:11:35 AM
Ah, you bought my birthday present early, I see.  ;D

Yup.  Considering the vinyl plunge and am starting to research stereo components for the 70's to play the vinyl.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 23, 2008, 02:20:24 PM
Quote from: Bogey on July 23, 2008, 01:57:27 PM
Yup.  Considering the vinyl plunge and am starting to research stereo components for the 70's to play the vinyl.

Oh, I misread what it was.  ::)

No way I'm going back to vinyl. That would be going...sdrawkcab!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on July 23, 2008, 03:21:35 PM
Quote from: orbital on July 23, 2008, 11:13:48 AM
;D
I knew I'd choose the wrong one.

currently reading:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/415ER41DN3L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)


Let us know how you like it. One of the many books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on July 23, 2008, 09:51:10 PM
Quote from: Bogey on July 22, 2008, 05:11:41 PM
If the shoe fits....

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516EH57YWAL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

...and in my case, like a glove.

I just happened to look at my old mail tonight and noticed an email from The Teaching Co. which said the sale price on that astronomy course expires tomorrow, Thursday, July 24.  I am in no way connected with The Teaching Co. except as a happy customer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on July 24, 2008, 05:03:01 PM
Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese

Finished Iron John today, massively disappointing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on July 25, 2008, 01:42:26 AM
Quote from: Corey on July 23, 2008, 03:21:35 PM
Let us know how you like it. One of the many books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.
will do
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 25, 2008, 06:38:34 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on July 24, 2008, 05:03:01 PM
Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese

Finished Iron John today, massively disappointing.

Hello, Philo - glad to see the bunnies back!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on July 25, 2008, 07:59:53 AM
Three Act Tragedy
Agatha Christie

It has just got interesting.

I've crossed the half-way mark of the novel, yet Poirot has made only a couple of appearances till now!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on July 25, 2008, 08:17:01 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on July 25, 2008, 06:38:34 AM
Hello, Philo - glad to see the bunnies back!  ;D

It all comes around eventually.
8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on July 30, 2008, 03:33:03 PM
Quote from: Corey on July 23, 2008, 03:21:35 PM
Let us know how you like it. One of the many books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.
=Oblomov=
Quite a fun read. As someone who would not mind a horizontal lifestyle  ;D (except for health reasons, needless to say), I found the character to be fascinating. The book continuously draws a fine line between "doing nothing" and "not doing anything", the former is Oblomov's attitude, and he works it to an art form throughout. I was very fond of the book particularly because the author does not draw lessons to be learnt, and presents Oblomov as a perfectly sane character who simply chooses to do nothing.


Next up, some Shakespeare reading... I want to gulp down some summer comedies before the season ends.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 31, 2008, 05:56:53 AM
Like Dave (Sonic) I usually have more than one book going, so also revisiting this read:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512EET6AA4L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

If you enjoy accounts of battles from this era, this book is for you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 31, 2008, 07:40:29 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 31, 2008, 05:56:53 AM
Like Dave (Sonic) I usually have more than one book going, so also revisiting this read:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512EET6AA4L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wLk31umFL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Jacobs-Legacy-Genetic-Jewish-History/dp/0300125836/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217518383&sr=1-1)

If you enjoy accounts of battles from this era, this book is for you.

Bill - you're right on that statement - still in the middle of several books, and decided to start one just received from the History Book Club (they had a special summer sale for members + I had a lot of bonus points!):

Jacob's Legacy:  A Genetic View of Jewish History (2008) by David B. Goldstein - a short book which should be a good read - CLICK on the image that I added above for some additional description -  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 01, 2008, 01:16:21 AM
(http://www.humanitas.ro/images/carti/large/2363.jpg)

Measuring the World, by Daniel Kehlmann.

Exploring the personality and human weaknesses of two great German scientists, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt.

So far, so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on August 01, 2008, 03:43:42 AM
anyone read anything by Thomas Bernhard?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 01, 2008, 04:18:43 AM
John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor

Virtuosic!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 01, 2008, 05:43:44 AM
Quote from: ezodisy on August 01, 2008, 03:43:42 AM
anyone read anything by Thomas Bernhard?

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 01, 2008, 05:46:56 AM
No.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 01, 2008, 07:20:55 AM
Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation [of Christ].

Is it good? No. Even worse than the movie.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 01, 2008, 07:23:44 AM
Quote from: Christo on August 01, 2008, 07:20:55 AM
Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation [of Christ].

Is it good? No. Even worse than the movie.  8)

Oooooh.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 01, 2008, 07:27:44 AM
Quote from: ezodisy on August 01, 2008, 03:43:42 AM
anyone read anything by Thomas Bernhard?

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on August 01, 2008, 07:34:58 AM
Quote from: Christo on August 01, 2008, 07:20:55 AM
Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation [of Christ].

Is it good? No. Even worse than the movie.  8)

Do read Report to Greco, if you haven't already. One of the best things Kazantzakis has written, in my view; although I've no idea how much of its atmosphere (if any) could possibly be conveyed in translation, or out of (regional) context.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 01, 2008, 07:48:10 AM
Quote from: Renfield on August 01, 2008, 07:34:58 AM
Do read Report to Greco, if you haven't already. One of the best things Kazantzakis has written, in my view; although I've no idea how much of its atmosphere (if any) could possibly be conveyed in translation, or out of (regional) context.

Thanks! And great that you react! Because of my stay in Crete, I tried to read as much Kazantzakis as I could (in Dutch translations as I'm writing an article on him and have to be able to quote them in those versions). I managed to read completely: Captain Michalis/Freedom or Death, Christ Recrucified, The Last Temptation, and also parts of Report to El Greco (hope these are the correct English titles, the Dutch translations use others).

Well, I found them disappointing, so far, even his final testament (Report to El Greco) - but okay, I'll first have to finish that one too, to be able to offer a final verdict. He's often lively and a fine writer of e.g. village scenes and witty folks, but as soon as it comes to Great Ideas, he gets wholly confused and cannot decide between Buddha, Christ, Tolstoy, Lenin and anyone else ever making an impression on him. Imo, he's no orginal thinker himself, sorry to say. But you may correct me!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 01, 2008, 08:06:13 AM
Revisited this with much, much delight:

How I Edited an Agricultural Paper (http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1524/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on August 01, 2008, 08:20:42 AM
Started Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts last night.


Allan
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on August 01, 2008, 08:31:16 AM
Quote from: Christo on August 01, 2008, 07:48:10 AM
He's often lively and a fine writer of e.g. village scenes and witty folks, but as soon as it comes to Great Ideas, he gets wholly confused and cannot decide between Buddha, Christ, Tolstoy, Lenin and anyone else ever making an impression on him. Imo, he's no orginal thinker himself, sorry to say. But you may correct me!

Oh no, you are absolutely correct in that. His was more of an amalgam of ideologies and beliefs, as you suggest, than original thought. However, what makes his writing special is its "individual voice" quality I noted in an early comment on him, in the Listening thread.

That is to say, he has a way of presenting this jumble of ideas in the form of a very personal enquiry, seeming more concerned about the enquiry as such, that there is an enquiry to be made, than the answers. Soul-searching is a perpetual topic of his, after all.

Also, his writing (and his life) is strongly connected to Greece's own soul-searching as a country and of Greeks as a people, which is important in establishing the context of all his literary musings (including the travel pieces).


So all in all, you should not attempt to look for a doctrine in Kazantzakis, beyond soul-searching itself. And that is where all the village scenes and quaint descriptions of childhood, the self-consciously bizarre pseudo-religious texts, The Odyssey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Odyssey:_A_Modern_Sequel), come together.

(As an addendum, further evidence for his almost Nietzschean reluctance to commit on principle - emphasis on that - is obviously to be found on his tomb: "I fear nothing, I believe in nothing, I am free." But as I said, I am nigh-certain he is very difficult to decode out of context. :))
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on August 01, 2008, 09:55:20 AM
So helpful. What did you read and what did you think about it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 01, 2008, 11:15:47 AM
Quote from: ezodisy on August 01, 2008, 09:55:20 AM
So helpful. What did you read and what did you think about it?

Well, it would help too if you could tell us why you are interested, what you already know about him, in what language you intend to read him...

I for my part can offer this - Thomas Bernhard is a very dark and very funny (if you weren't the butt of his invective, that is) writer. His theme is Austria, but he takes it on so thoroughly and inventively, that you don't have to be an Austrian to appreciate his satirical castigation of narrow-mindedness, stupidity, blindness et cetera. In my possesion is a Thomas Bernhard Lesebuch, a selection in German, where I dip into from time to time. Bernhard is so unremittingly bleak and rants so exhaustingly, I can only enjoy him in small doses. He has written fiction and plays, but there is no real difference in subject matter.

I don't know what has been translated into English. But he is a very even writer. And once you like him, you'll want to read everything. He can be quite addictive (though I haven't fallen under his spell myself).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on August 01, 2008, 11:40:30 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on August 01, 2008, 11:15:47 AM
Well, it would help too if you could tell us why you are interested, what you already know about him, in what language you intend to read him...

I don't see the connection but will answer nonetheless. Tarr was asked if Krasznahorkai's writing belonged to any particular tradition and he replied Bernhard and Kafka. Thanks for the info.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 01, 2008, 02:40:49 PM
Quote from: ezodisy on August 01, 2008, 11:40:30 AM
I don't see the connection but will answer nonetheless. Tarr was asked if Krasznahorkai's writing belonged to any particular tradition and he replied Bernhard and Kafka. Thanks for the info.

Thanks for your answer. Now I have learned something, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 01, 2008, 09:02:06 PM
I've finished all the originally published chapters of The Man Without Qualities and am continuing on with the Posthumous Papers. It would be impossible for me to make a general statement about what I've read so far, as Musil's miraculous novel was written in a way that makes summing up in so many words untenable. College freshman classroom material it is not. Even so, I feel I have to say something.

In some places (specifically the conversations between Ulrich and Agathe) it seems to me that here Musil was on the very edge of that which it is even possible to write about.

It is not very uplifting — in my case it has only compounded my preexisting feeling of the futility of having convictions and ideals and the impossibility of applying them in everyday living. In this way I relate to Ulrich, who sees everything that is "true" at one moment able to be totally negated in the next. Living life as an experiment. Though, my own irresoluteness probably has as much to do with my own mercurial character as it does my surroundings.

Perhaps needless to say, I recommend — but it's not for everyone (though, the only ones that are interested in reading what little I have to say would be definitely be well-served by diving in :)).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wanderer on August 01, 2008, 10:55:44 PM
Quote from: Christo on August 01, 2008, 07:48:10 AM
Thanks! And great that you react! Because of my stay in Crete, I tried to read as much Kazantzakis as I could (in Dutch translations as I'm writing an article on him and have to be able to quote them in those versions). I managed to read completely: Captain Michalis/Freedom or Death, Christ Recrucified, The Last Temptation, and also parts of Report to El Greco (hope these are the correct English titles, the Dutch translations use others).

Well, I found them disappointing, so far, even his final testament (Report to El Greco) - but okay, I'll first have to finish that one too, to be able to offer a final verdict. He's often lively and a fine writer of e.g. village scenes and witty folks, but as soon as it comes to Great Ideas, he gets wholly confused and cannot decide between Buddha, Christ, Tolstoy, Lenin and anyone else ever making an impression on him. Imo, he's no orginal thinker himself, sorry to say.

Johan, I'm sorry to hear you felt somehow obliged to read Kazantzakis just because you spent some (good, I hope:-) time in Crete. Your perseverance is admirable.  0:)
Personally, I don't like him and I've read almost everything he wrote more than once. The main thing, common more or less to all his works, that I find distasteful about him is that he forcefully pours too much of his ego (not his soul) into his writing, at times obscuring the narrative and one is forced to see his characters through the author's all encompassing yet severely distorting lens. When the author does have something significant to say that's a good thing that may reveal new insights, but in this case I don't feel it works very well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 01, 2008, 11:30:24 PM
Quote from: Wanderer on August 01, 2008, 10:55:44 PM
Johan, I'm sorry to hear you felt somehow obliged to read Kazantzakis just because you spent some (good, I hope:-) time in Crete. Your perseverance is admirable.  0:)
Personally, I don't like him and I've read almost everything he wrote more than once. The main thing, common more or less to all his works, that I find distasteful about him is that he forcefully pours too much of his ego (not his soul) into his writing, at times obscuring the narrative and one is forced to see his characters through the author's all encompassing yet severely distorting lens. When the author does have something significant to say that's a good thing that may reveal new insights, but in this case I don't feel it works very well.

I hadn't foreseen that the complete Greek GMG Forum intelligentsia would respond! Otherwise, I would have been much more careful with my casual remarks. Anyhow: thanks so much for you clear views! Yes, I enjoyed my first stay in the blessed island of Crete (eastern parts) tremendously. And no: I didn't feel "obliged" to read Kazantzakis, but I always plan to write one or two larger newspapers articles during a holiday, with the addition of some extra couleur locale.

Kazantzakis did enjoy real popularity in the Netherlands in the past (1950s and 1960s mostly). E.g. his Christ Recrucified alone sold some 200.000 copies, in those years, and other novels were popular too. My article will be a kind of Kazantzakis revisited, concentrating on two novels: The Last Temptation and Christ Recrucified and ending with a visit to his grave, in the southern ramparts of Heraklion. BTW the end (but it takes 500 pages to get as far ..) of The Last Temptation isn't that bad. In part, it recalls Bulgakov's Master and Margharita and is shows soms visionary insight, but in general I'm afraid your verdict holds. Many thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on August 02, 2008, 05:23:30 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on August 01, 2008, 11:15:47 AM

I don't know what has been translated into English. But he is a very even writer. And once you like him, you'll want to read everything. He can be quite addictive (though I haven't fallen under his spell myself).

It's his prose style that did it for me. I read a couple of his novels (in translation, unfortunately, as I don't know a word of German *shame, shame*), wow, must be close to 10 years ago. My memory is shocking so I couldn't for the world tell you what they were about, but I do remember being perversely mesmerised by the merciless pounding of the prose. You end up being stuck between this inexorably propulsive drive on the one hand and the relentless repetitions on the other. Completely exhausting but absolutely fascinating.

I've been meaning to go back to Bernhard (yeah right, for the past ten years :-\ :P) - thanks for the reminder.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Keemun on August 02, 2008, 06:22:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 01, 2008, 08:06:13 AM
Revisited this with much, much delight:

How I Edited an Agricultural Paper (http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1524/)

Karl, thanks for posting that, it was great fun to read.  :)

~~~~~

I am presently reading C. S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters from this:

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/26570000/26570933.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 02, 2008, 06:46:56 AM
Quote from: Novi on August 02, 2008, 05:23:30 AM
It's his prose style that did it for me. I read a couple of his novels (in translation, unfortunately, as I don't know a word of German *shame, shame*), wow, must be close to 10 years ago. My memory is shocking so I couldn't for the world tell you what they were about, but I do remember being perversely mesmerised by the merciless pounding of the prose. You end up being stuck between this inexorably propulsive drive on the one hand and the relentless repetitions on the other. Completely exhausting but absolutely fascinating.

I've been meaning to go back to Bernhard (yeah right, for the past ten years :-\ :P) - thanks for the reminder.

I have that 'Bernhard Lesebuch' I mentioned lying on the table today, reading in it at random and yes - his prose is mesmerising, that narrative voice can't keep talking, with an observation here, an attack there, or throwing a (shocking) memory at you... Thomas Bernhard is good, no doubt about it. One of the best ranters in literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 02, 2008, 06:52:01 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 01, 2008, 08:06:13 AM
Revisited this with much, much delight:

How I Edited an Agricultural Paper (http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1524/)

Aye, thanks, mate!  It's good to know some human institutions are as constant as the tides, and I'm particularly grateful for the answer to my question about virtually every piece of political reportage I meet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 02, 2008, 10:30:46 AM
Currently: a totally obscure book on Winchester Cathedral.

If it were recent it wouldn't be worth mentioning, but - while it doesn't give the year of publication inside - I estimate it to have been written in the 50s, and the writing style is consequently different and in some cases interesting. The author's constant use of "race" to describe people of different countries (the British, the Normans, etc) is quite strange to read from a modern POV, as is the slightly florid style of writing (at one point "lovely" was used in two consecutive sentences). But overall it's very readable, the person has an affection for the history of the building which extends beyond academia, and it also doesn't focus excessively on the religious use of the building - maintaining a decent balance between social history, and describing the actual fabric of the place.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 02, 2008, 10:32:24 AM
Excellent, Sara!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 02, 2008, 10:42:28 AM
:)

I also forgot to mention - it had many excellent black and white photographs too. It's a sad sign of the current state of English cathedrals that modern colour photographs are generally less pleasing than ones from the 1970s and before. Currently the buildings are being used as elaborate tourist traps, full of modern fittings and all kinds of stuff obscuring detail and function (Salisbury for example had a large ramp installed in one transept for wheelchair access, rather uningratiatingly covering up several graves). Post-war B&W photographs can be extremely clear; and better still often depic the buildings free of endless donation boxes, electric light fixtures, and with original pews intact as well :>
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on August 02, 2008, 03:12:40 PM
Quote from: Lethe on August 02, 2008, 10:30:46 AM
The author's constant use of "race" to describe people of different countries (the British, the Normans, etc) is quite strange to read from a modern POV

I would say that is a little strange from a 1950s point of view, too, after all the catastrophies caused by racism in the first half of the century. Plus in the meantime, not only do people perceive "race" in a very different way, it has also been shown by genetic testing that most people who inhabit the British islands are directly descended from people who have lived there for millenia, and that the "genetical contributions" from groups groups who invaded and ruled the region at some point, such as the Anglos, Saxons, or Normans is much smaller than it had been believed to be for a long time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 02, 2008, 03:34:59 PM
Quote from: M forever on August 02, 2008, 03:12:40 PM
I would say that is a little strange from a 1950s point of view, too, after all the catastrophies caused by racism in the first half of the century. Plus in the meantime, not only do people perceive "race" in a very different way, it has also been shown by genetic testing that most people who inhabit the British islands are directly descended from people who have lived there for millenia, and that the "genetical contributions" from groups groups who invaded and ruled the region at some point, such as the Anglos, Saxons, or Normans is much smaller than it had been believed to be for a long time.

Indeedie. In the context implied he seems to mean culture, I wonder whether that word wasn't chosen due to it having a slightly different emphasis back them (perhaps it being synonymous with "high culture" or something). He seems harmless in his use of the term, and there may have been a reason for it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on August 02, 2008, 03:37:15 PM
What reason?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 02, 2008, 04:07:12 PM
Quote from: M forever on August 02, 2008, 03:37:15 PM
What reason?

I phrased it poorly (as usual) - a reason for why he chose it instead of "culture".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 02, 2008, 06:05:26 PM
Just finished The Royal Family: Two words to sum up for now - Stunningly Dense.

New book:
I, The Divine by Alameddine
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on August 02, 2008, 09:36:50 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on August 02, 2008, 06:05:26 PM
Just finished The Royal Family: Two words to sum up for now - Stunningly Dense.

Indeed they all are. That comes from all the inbreeding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on August 03, 2008, 07:57:39 AM
Quote from: M forever on August 02, 2008, 09:36:50 PM
Indeed they all are. That comes from all the inbreeding.

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 04, 2008, 01:36:42 PM
Quote from: Corey on August 01, 2008, 09:02:06 PM
I've finished all the originally published chapters of The Man Without Qualities and am continuing on with the Posthumous Papers. It would be impossible for me to make a general statement about what I've read so far, as Musil's miraculous novel was written in a way that makes summing up in so many words untenable. College freshman classroom material it is not. Even so, I feel I have to say something.

In some places (specifically the conversations between Ulrich and Agathe) it seems to me that here Musil was on the very edge of that which it is even possible to write about.

It is not very uplifting — in my case it has only compounded my preexisting feeling of the futility of having convictions and ideals and the impossibility of applying them in everyday living. In this way I relate to Ulrich, who sees everything that is "true" at one moment able to be totally negated in the next. Living life as an experiment. Though, my own irresoluteness probably has as much to do with my own mercurial character as it does my surroundings.

Perhaps needless to say, I recommend — but it's not for everyone (though, the only ones that are interested in reading what little I have to say would be definitely be well-served by diving in :)).
Corey, I am so glad you liked it (and possibly more  ;D) :wipes forehead: I'd hate to make you go through 1,700 pages of something you would not enjoy as much as I hoped you would.

Perhaps the reason I enjoyed the book as much I did was that I could almost fully identify with Ulrich. He summed up my moral-relativist worldview better than I ever could -not in a nutshell  ;D, but with books like this, the longer the better.

When I think about how many ways this novel could have gone, at any point throughout, it is hard not to agree with the general consensus that, for all practical (and satisfactory) purposes it might be better that  it is left unfinished.
I still could not open my moving boxes (that's where the book is) and a digital copy is not available (at least in English), otherwise I have been burning with the desire to re-read the second volume  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 04, 2008, 01:54:20 PM
I was beginning to think I was being ignored!  :D I was wondering: did you read all of the Posthumous Papers? I was wondering if the fragments and sketches of possible situations were worth reading. Though, I'm so into it now, I might as well read them anyway. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 04, 2008, 02:02:45 PM
Quote from: Corey on August 04, 2008, 01:54:20 PM
I was beginning to think I was being ignored!  :D

You weren't. I did see your post, Corey, but I have all of Musil (in German) still waiting patiently on the shelf, and couldn't contribute anything... I have read parts of Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (to give it its original title) and Törless and articles by Musil. He is a fascinating author, and I plan on reading him systematically once I have finished my own novel. But at the moment I can't free the mental space he needs!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 04, 2008, 02:15:04 PM
Quote from: Corey on August 04, 2008, 01:54:20 PM
I was beginning to think I was being ignored!  :D I was wondering: did you read all of the Posthumous Papers? I was wondering if the fragments and sketches of possible situations were worth reading. Though, I'm so into it now, I might as well read them anyway. :)
You should definitely read them as well, they will not conclude anything of course, but AFAIR there were some fascinating papers such as the flypaper and the man without character. The false starts and some eloborate descriptions could be skipped, but I did not want to :)

BTW I hope I am not giving you wrong information because I had read another paper of his called: Posthumous papers of a living author, but I am not 100% if these were included in this edition  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 04, 2008, 02:52:28 PM
Quote from: orbital on August 04, 2008, 02:15:04 PM
You should definitely read them as well, they will not conclude anything of course, but AFAIR there were some fascinating papers such as the flypaper and the man without character. The false starts and some eloborate descriptions could be skipped, but I did not want to :)

BTW I hope I am not giving you wrong information because I had read another paper of his called: Posthumous papers of a living author, but I am not 100% if these were included in this edition  ???

In my edition, after Into the Millennium there are the 20 chapters that Musil had published and then recalled to work on them again, and after that there are various character sketches, ideas for possible situations (I've already skimmed through it a bit) and different versions of chapters from the first two volumes. It says From the Posthumous Papers, so I would imagine that there would be more.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 04, 2008, 03:03:02 PM
Quote from: Corey on August 04, 2008, 02:52:28 PM
In my edition, after Into the Millennium there are the 20 chapters that Musil had published and then recalled to work on them again, and after that there are various character sketches, ideas for possible situations (I've already skimmed through it a bit) and different versions of chapters from the first two volumes. It says From the Posthumous Papers, so I would imagine that there would be more.
yes I had the same edition, but I also had this:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AO9Ae-hQL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
I am not sure which one contained which  :-[ but I now think that the articles I mentioned were here and not in the MWQ edition. I did not read everything in there I think, although I remember a particularly interesting section on Moosebrugger.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 04, 2008, 04:41:04 PM
All's Well That Ends Well...

Well, that wasn't the best choice for the first Shakespeare comedy I wanted to read in a row  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 05, 2008, 02:16:27 PM
Finished I, the Divine. It was a nice book.

Next up:
The Crimson Petal and the White by Faber
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 06, 2008, 08:23:13 AM
Finished Men as Women, Women as Men. A very interesting scholarly/academic work on a very un'western' idea of gender.

Next up Viktor Shklovsky's Energy of Delusion
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 06, 2008, 01:14:53 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on August 06, 2008, 08:23:13 AM
Next up Viktor Shklovsky's Energy of Delusion

Shklovsky is one of the Russian Formalists... What kind of book is it? Essay? Fiction?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 06, 2008, 02:17:59 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on August 06, 2008, 08:23:13 AM
Finished Men as Women, Women as Men. A very interesting scholarly/academic work on a very un'western' idea of gender.

Next up Viktor Shklovsky's Energy of Delusion

Did you give up on the Faber?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 06, 2008, 06:14:18 PM
Quote from: Corey on August 06, 2008, 02:17:59 PM
Did you give up on the Faber?

Not at all, I read three books at a time, each on a different day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 06, 2008, 06:16:15 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on August 06, 2008, 01:14:53 PM
Shklovsky is one of the Russian Formalists... What kind of book is it? Essay? Fiction?

It's a critical essay.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 06, 2008, 07:01:10 PM
You must not have to work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 06, 2008, 07:04:45 PM
Quote from: Corey on August 06, 2008, 07:01:10 PM
You must not have to work.

Well, I work, but not really. My job pays nothing, but it also requires nothing, but even if the terms were different. I'd still be reading three books. It's simply the schedule I have set up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 07, 2008, 07:21:46 AM
Well tentatively, I've taken poetry off of my reading list. I just can't get into it right now. I find it quite boring, but I can appreciate the craft. I just can't read it, for right now.

So for now, I've replaced it with Preen, a fashion/culture magazine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 10, 2008, 06:28:14 AM
Freud - Psychopathology of Everyday Life
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 11, 2008, 06:10:18 AM
After reading 134 pages into Faber; I've found the style just all to much for me. It's boring, drawn out, and flat. I suppose it has modeled itself well. So I am setting it aside for a later date, and moving on to another book.

Which is:
Manservant and Maidservant by Compton-Burnett
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on August 11, 2008, 06:28:18 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0816612250.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) (http://www.iaacblog.com/verenavogler/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/0816614024_01_lzzzzzzz.jpg)

I'm reading this pair in a very slowly pace, so it will take years to complete. It's about the dark side of human, fascism as called by the authors, and how to deal with it. I probably will tell more about the content later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 11, 2008, 06:42:07 AM
Quote from: Henk on August 11, 2008, 06:28:18 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0816612250.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) (http://www.iaacblog.com/verenavogler/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/0816614024_01_lzzzzzzz.jpg)

I'm reading this pair in a very slowly pace, so it will take years to complete. It's about the dark side of human, fascism as called by the authors, and how to deal with it. I probably will tell more about the content later.

Two classic works of modern philosophy I still have to read...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 11, 2008, 06:43:16 AM
Quote from: Henk on August 11, 2008, 06:28:18 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0816612250.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) (http://www.iaacblog.com/verenavogler/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/0816614024_01_lzzzzzzz.jpg)

I'm reading this pair in a very slowly pace, so it will take years to complete. It's about the dark side of human, fascism as called by the authors, and how to deal with it. I probably will tell more about the content later.

You'll not be bored with those at all. Though their verbosity can be quite trite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 11, 2008, 06:46:34 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jrZIwf70L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
I've heard so much about this trilogy that I am now curious to read  $:)
as soon as an English language e-book version is available that is  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 11, 2008, 06:52:34 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on August 11, 2008, 06:42:07 AM
Two classic works of modern philosophy I still have to read...
Philosophy?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 11, 2008, 06:53:39 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on August 11, 2008, 06:52:34 AM
Philosophy?

The poster did add the moniker 'modern'. So that should be noted.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 11, 2008, 07:03:00 AM
Guattari? Wasn't that a movie scored by Henry Mancini?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on August 11, 2008, 02:09:35 PM
The Collected Stories of Louis Auchincloss
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on August 11, 2008, 03:29:38 PM
After a 34 page preface to the collected works of Nietzsche and in the middle of a 24 page introduction to Le Gai savoir, I'm about to embark on my first reading of anything by a german philosopher (except a Kant Critique I read in high school). The preface positioned Nitzsche's works in the continuity - and discontinuity - of Leibniz and Schopenhauer. I understood a goodish portion of it. But I find the language (not Nietzsche's, I'm not there yet - it starts in 10 pages)  extraordinarily alien to the Common Man's lingo. I really wonder if all those professeurs and academicians are interested in communicating with the layman  :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 11, 2008, 04:48:17 PM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on August 11, 2008, 03:29:38 PM
After a 34 page preface to the collected works of Nietzsche and in the middle of a 24 page introduction to Le Gai savoir, I'm about to embark on my first reading of anything by a german philosopher (except a Kant Critique I read in high school). The preface positioned Nitzsche's works in the continuity - and discontinuity - of Leibniz and Schopenhauer. I understood a goodish portion of it. But I find the language (not Nietzsche's, I'm not there yet - it starts in 10 pages)  extraordinarily alien to the Common Man's lingo. I really wonder if all those professeurs and academicians are interested in communicating with the layman  :-[

They aren't.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 11, 2008, 06:17:51 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 11, 2008, 07:03:00 AM
Guattari? Wasn't that a movie scored by Henry Mancini?

LOL, Karl!

From the director that gave us Rio Bravo and The Big Sleep, Mr. Howard Hawks:

(http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/7/71/200px-Hatari.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 11, 2008, 07:34:50 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on August 11, 2008, 04:48:17 PM
They aren't.

I'm still looking for a copy of Continental Philosophy for Dummies...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on August 11, 2008, 07:39:53 PM
Quote from: Henk on August 11, 2008, 06:28:18 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0816612250.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) (http://www.iaacblog.com/verenavogler/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/0816614024_01_lzzzzzzz.jpg)

I'm reading this pair in a very slowly pace, so it will take years to complete. It's about the dark side of human, fascism as called by the authors, and how to deal with it. I probably will tell more about the content later.

I actually preferred the duo's work on Kafka - Kafka: Pour une Littérature Mineure - though that might merely have been because I had some basic familiarity with the subject matter. Of course, I really don't have the deep background in (roughly) contemporary philosophy to make anything approximating a reasonable critique of Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on August 11, 2008, 08:43:57 PM
Quote from: Corey on August 10, 2008, 06:28:14 AM
Freud - Psychopathology of Everyday Life


You don't really need to read that - if you frequent this forum regularly, you will encounter most of that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 12, 2008, 04:12:56 AM
Quote from: M forever on August 11, 2008, 08:43:57 PM
You don't really need to read that - if you frequent this forum regularly, you will encounter most of that.

It's psycho-pathology, not psychopath-ology. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on August 12, 2008, 04:29:36 AM
Quote from: Corey on August 12, 2008, 04:12:56 AM
It's psycho-pathology, not psychopath-ology. :D

LOL that's great. Thanks for a laugh on a rotten day :D.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on August 13, 2008, 05:02:20 AM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/18350000/18355724.JPG)

Thomas Bernhard -- Extinction
Highly strung, hyperbolic, sarcastic, ranting, corrosive. This guy definitely has a voice of his own. I have never seen anyone hate his own country so much (Austria -- where I live by the way, that is what prompted me to read this).
But overall, well worth reading. A surprisingly funny ending.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 13, 2008, 05:18:53 AM
Highly affected by Proust's depiction of "love" in Swann's Way, I wanted to continue reading other notable authors' take on the subject, and for many at the top of the heap was Albert Cohen's Belle Du Seigneur. But, unable to procure an English e-book version, I thought I might as well read The only convincing love story of our century :P
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HH6T7Y38L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 13, 2008, 11:48:00 AM
Quote from: Corey on August 12, 2008, 04:12:56 AM
It's psycho-pathology, not psychopath-ology. :D

I come a bit late to this terrific distinction. But it's never too late for a very wry smile!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on August 13, 2008, 02:23:38 PM
Quote from: mozartsneighbor on August 13, 2008, 05:02:20 AM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/18350000/18355724.JPG)

Thomas Bernhard -- Extinction
Highly strung, hyperbolic, sarcastic, ranting, corrosive. This guy definitely has a voice of his own. I have never seen anyone hate his own country so much (Austria -- where I live by the way, that is what prompted me to read this).
But overall, well worth reading. A surprisingly funny ending.

You live in Austria but read Bernhard in English?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on August 14, 2008, 01:52:13 AM
Quote from: M forever on August 13, 2008, 02:23:38 PM
You live in Austria but read Bernhard in English?

Excuse me if after 8 months of living here, prior to which I spoke 0 German, I am not yet fully able to read serious heavy-duty literature in German.
I do try to read a lot in German, but for now mostly simpler stuff, like Der Spiegel and detective stories and so on. I watch most movies dubbed in German, which I think is barbaric, but it does my learning good, as well as Austrian tv.

I do hope that in the matter of 1 year or so I will be able to tackle another Bernhard book in German.

And, I have to say, M, your mother tongue is not easy -- that grammar has given me countless headaches. But I am getting there...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 14, 2008, 06:41:41 AM
SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- A grotesque comparison of a steamy love affair to a New York City street has won a Washington man this year's grand prize in an annual contest of bad writing. (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/worst.writing.ap/index.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 14, 2008, 01:27:57 PM
Selected Poetry and Prose of William Blake
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 15, 2008, 10:20:29 AM
While listening to NPR in the car today I heard an English professor cite a novel by Édouard Dujardin as the progenitor of the stream-of-consciousness style. Has anyone read anything by him? Is he worth reading or just a curiosity?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 15, 2008, 11:53:04 AM
Quote from: Corey on August 15, 2008, 10:20:29 AM
While listening to NPR in the car today I heard an English professor cite a novel by Édouard Dujardin as the progenitor of the stream-of-consciousness style. Has anyone read anything by him? Is he worth reading or just a curiosity?

Les lauriers sont coupés - Dujardin was a Wagnerian and a Symbolist. Joyce read him in his twenties, and he later maintained Dujardin gave him the idea for the monologue intérieur... I haven't read the novel. But this is what I know. Btw - Dujardin was still alive when Ulysses was published in 1922, and he was flattered to be cited as one of the influences (if I remember my Ellmann correctly).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on August 15, 2008, 01:09:57 PM
(http://cdn.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/1/9780062506061.jpg)

I read this about 10 years ago.

Sobering reading  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on August 15, 2008, 01:41:41 PM
This is in the public domain.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 15, 2008, 02:37:25 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on August 15, 2008, 11:53:04 AM
Les lauriers sont coupés - Dujardin was a Wagnerian and a Symbolist. Joyce read him in his twenties, and he later maintained Dujardin gave him the idea for the monologue intérieur... I haven't read the novel. But this is what I know. Btw - Dujardin was still alive when Ulysses was published in 1922, and he was flattered to be cited as one of the influences (if I remember my Ellmann correctly).

Thanks. His name actually came up because the radio host asked the professor if Joyce was the first author to write in that style. I asked here in hopes that one of our francophile francophone literati might have read him (as it seems he is not very well-known outside of his home country).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on August 15, 2008, 03:19:26 PM
I am francophone but not francophile - at least not when it comes to literature. I had never even heard of Dujardin before. Any relationship with the comic actor?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 15, 2008, 03:28:35 PM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on August 15, 2008, 03:19:26 PM
I am francophone but not francophile

;D This has been happening a lot lately — I blame Freud's psychopathology. Earlier today while in the bookshop I read the title on a book's spine as The Gods are Atheist by Anatole France. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 15, 2008, 03:38:41 PM
Napoleon's Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped (2008) by Tony Perrottet - on an overnight to Greensboro to spend a day @ the PGA golf tournament - brought along this new acquisition - believe another NY Times Book Review recommendation - just starting but some absolutely hilarious stories - click HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Napoleons-Privates-Years-History-Unzipped/dp/0061257281/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218842928&sr=1-1) for comments by the Amazonians - his other book on Pagan Holiday sounds like a fun read, also -  ;D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WdRPgyjiL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Frankler on August 15, 2008, 04:50:13 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/de/CormacMcCarthy_BloodMeridian.jpg/200px-CormacMcCarthy_BloodMeridian.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on August 15, 2008, 05:03:27 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on August 15, 2008, 01:09:57 PM
(http://cdn.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/1/9780062506061.jpg)

Is that a self-help book for men in their mid-life crisis?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on August 15, 2008, 06:01:38 PM
Quote from: M forever on August 15, 2008, 05:03:27 PM
Is that a self-help book for men in their mid-life crisis?

Suitable for men of all ages. I liked what I read last night dealing with Jungian archetypes  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on August 15, 2008, 08:23:22 PM
Quote from: Corey on August 15, 2008, 03:28:35 PM
;D This has been happening a lot lately — I blame Freud's psychopathology. Earlier today while in the bookshop I read the title on a book's spine as The Gods are Atheist by Anatole France. :D

Like all great cultures, France has its modernists, its conservatives, and its free spirits. Modernists like Zola advocate change and provoke. In the light of history, they more often than not come up short: their rigid views eventually appear stale. Free spirits like Anatole France or André Gide are agents of forward momentum. They in turn are held in check by the tradition-minded conservatives (like Paul Valéry). In between sit wishy-washy sensualists like Proust.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on August 16, 2008, 07:00:38 AM
On loan from the library

The Jeeves Omnibus, Vol. 1, containing Thank You, Jeeves, The Code of Woosters, and The Inimitable Jeeves.

P. G. Wodehouse

Watson and DNA Making a Scientific Revolution

Victor K. McElheny

and

Relativity: Special, General, and Cosmological

Wolfgang Rindler

I've never read Wodehouse before. But I remember my grandfather telling me how he enjoyed his works, especially the ones featuring Jeeves. His collection has been left with a cousin of mine, and I hope to read them all someday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 16, 2008, 07:22:53 AM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on August 15, 2008, 08:23:22 PM
Like all great cultures, France has its modernists, its conservatives, and its free spirits. Modernists like Zola advocate change and provoke. In the light of history, they more often than not come up short: their rigid views eventually appear stale. Free spirits like Anatole France or André Gide are agents of forward momentum. They in turn are held in check by the tradition-minded conservatives (like Paul Valéry). In between sit wishy-washy sensualists like Proust.

I think Proust was very much an agent of forward momentum, even if in his writing he is obsessed with the past. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 16, 2008, 07:39:51 AM
Quote from: opus67 on August 16, 2008, 07:00:38 AM
On loan from the library

The Jeeves Omnibus, Vol. 1, containing Thank You, Jeeves, The Code of Woosters, and The Inimitable Jeeves.

P. G. Wodehouse

I've never read Wodehouse before. But I remember my grandfather telling me how he enjoyed his works, especially the ones featuring Jeeves. His collection has been left with a cousin of mine, and I hope to read them all someday.

P.G. Wodehouse is great. Reading him is sheer joy, even apart from the humour. I don't know how he does it, but his choice of words is exquisite and his sentences are immaculate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on August 16, 2008, 08:19:09 AM
Quote from: Corey on August 16, 2008, 07:22:53 AM
I think Proust was very much an agent of forward momentum, even if in his writing he is obsessed with the past. :)

That could be, I guess it depends how you understand it. Proust's life and mind were entrenched in social conservatism. His artistic oeuvre may be viewed differently (personally I don't think so).

It's often been noted that Proust and Debussy shared an artistic kinship. There are books on this similitude : The Siamese (Proust and Debussy) and on their shared fondness for the hypallage (http://www.answers.com/topic/hypallage-2). Debussy's use was probably not a grammatical one (unless it refers to his choice of texts). I tried to find how it could be applied to music, but short of ordering the book and reading it I can only hypothesize.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 16, 2008, 08:41:10 AM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on August 16, 2008, 08:19:09 AM
That could be, I guess it depends how you understand it. Proust's life and mind were entrenched in social conservatism. His artistic oeuvre may be viewed differently (personally I don't think so).

Well, to my green eyes the social stratum he is concerned with is not really too far-removed from the kind Balzac described (even though they are separated by more than 50 years), but his idea of life as a succession of images and sensory impressions seems to me very contemporary (and something I relate with personally).

Quote from: Lilas Pastia on August 16, 2008, 08:19:09 AM
It's often been noted that Proust and Debussy shared an artistic kinship. There are books on this similitude : The Siamese (Proust and Debussy) and on their shared fondness for the hypallage (http://www.answers.com/topic/hypallage-2). Debussy's use was probably not a grammatical one (unless it refers to his choice of texts). I tried to find how it could be applied to music, but short of ordering the book and reading it I can only hypothesize.

That is one of my favorite things about Proust's writing — how he seems to find the most interesting analogies between things that couldn't be more dissimilar. I don't see how that would translate to Debussy's music, however. I've never mentally connected the two, but the idea seems interesting. Personally, I've always imagined Vinteuil's sonata to sound like Franck or Chausson.  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on August 16, 2008, 09:39:14 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on August 16, 2008, 07:39:51 AM
P.G. Wodehouse is great. Reading him is sheer joy, even apart from the humour. I don't know how he does it, but his choice of words is exquisite and his sentences are immaculate.

That should keep me occupied during the long bus ride every (week)day for the next couple of weeks.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on August 16, 2008, 10:07:30 AM
Wodehouse -- I second the recommendation. You are in for a treat. Never fails to cheer me up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 16, 2008, 11:47:35 AM
Quote from: Corey on August 16, 2008, 08:41:10 AM
Personally, I've always imagined Vinteuil's sonata to sound like Franck or Chausson.  :P
Is that a re-occuring theme throughout?

I was thinking of something a bit more avant-garde myself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on August 17, 2008, 04:50:13 AM
I'm a bit interested in cyling and I'm captivated by the contrasted beauty of Colombia. So inspired by the Tour de France I read this book about the Colombian cycling (in their extreme altitude) in the light of the country's history, often violent and connected with drug money. Fascinating and also something to learn about the complex story of this country.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41SADFQYY2L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 17, 2008, 05:59:02 AM
Quote from: orbital on August 16, 2008, 11:47:35 AM
Is that a re-occuring theme throughout?

It does reappear again in The Guermantes Way, IIRC.

Quote from: orbital on August 16, 2008, 11:47:35 AM
I was thinking of something a bit more avant-garde myself.

Well, remember that whenever Swann is first hearing it, he is a young man, and later when the narrator (Marcel?) is in his late teens, Swann is showing the signs of old age (but you're not there yet :P). Assuming that Proust was narrating from the time the book was written, that would put the sonata's creation around the 1880s or 90s — so I was thinking the model would be one of the French Wagnerians.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on August 17, 2008, 02:16:30 PM
More likely than not it would have been Guillaume Lekeu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Lekeu), then. Ysaÿe commissioned the work and performed it extensively. Dates and style match, and the composer's prestigious sponsors would have caught Proust's attention.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 18, 2008, 04:54:06 PM
Just finished the Compton-Burnett. Not my taste at all. I found it quite boring.

Next up:
Markson's Vanishing Point
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on August 21, 2008, 02:09:09 AM
Just finished: Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410MZ2FASWL._SS500_.jpg)

Arguably, Bukowski's best novel; it deals with the youth of his alter ego Henry Chinasky as the son of poor German immigrants in L.A. in the 1920s and 30s until his dropping out of college in 1941. The writing is more sophisticated than that of his early success Post-Office, and less brazenly chauvinistic than that of Women. Bukowski was a great writer of poems and short-stories, too (to Jean Genet, the greatest since Hemingway). I read this in German when I was young (the German title, Fast eine Jugend (meaning "Almost a youth") I find more appealing) and always wanted to read the original version.

Thomas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 21, 2008, 02:43:52 AM
Quote from: sound67 on August 21, 2008, 02:09:09 AM
Just finished: Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye

This one is on my to-read list, probably 2 or 3 books down the line. But I am a bit reluctant about Bukowski as I don't know if I can take misogyny even in small doses. I could hardly stand the short stories I've read from him so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on August 21, 2008, 02:53:12 AM
Ham on Rye is a lot more compassionate than his other works, what negativity there is appears to stem from sadness and alienation rather than misogyny. I wouldn't generally describe Bukowski as a misogynist - surely, there is a lot of rage in his writings, but he does have compassion for the "bums".

Thomas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 21, 2008, 04:47:04 AM
Quote from: orbital on August 21, 2008, 02:43:52 AM
This one is on my to-read list, probably 2 or 3 books down the line. But I am a bit reluctant about Bukowski as I don't know if I can take misogyny even in small doses. I could hardly stand the short stories I've read from him so far.
My experience has been similar.  I've not read much Bukowski, mostly because what I have read has been coarse and commonplace and hasn't interested me in reading further.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 21, 2008, 04:50:27 AM
Yesterday and today I returned to:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NFWQADM2L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

. . . for reasons specific to this forum, actually . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on August 21, 2008, 05:16:41 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on August 21, 2008, 04:47:04 AM
My experience has been similar.  I've not read much Bukowski, mostly because what I have read has been coarse and commonplace and hasn't interested me in reading further.

Well, if you're writing about harsh living conditions, there's little point in beating about the bush.

Thomas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 21, 2008, 05:46:47 AM
Quote from: sound67 on August 21, 2008, 05:16:41 AM
Well, if you're writing about harsh living conditions, there's little point in beating about the bush.

Thomas
True, but there are many styles of doing that (GG Marquez for example). The thing with Bukowski, from my very limited exposure, is that the line between the author and his protagonists are not very clear. I am keeping an open mind about Ham on Rye, however.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on August 21, 2008, 06:03:41 AM
With his relentless portraits of drunkards and floozies, Bukowski even attracted the rich and beautiful ... floozies  ;);D

(http://www.greyfade.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/bukowski-paris.jpg)

Thomas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 21, 2008, 06:14:08 AM
Paris Hilton reading Art of War sitting with Bukowski?  ;D Now that is one cool photo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on August 21, 2008, 11:31:18 AM
James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on August 21, 2008, 11:36:39 AM
Quote from: orbital on August 21, 2008, 06:14:08 AM
Paris Hilton reading?  ;D Now that is one cool photo.

:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on August 21, 2008, 12:07:32 PM
Quote from: opus67 on August 21, 2008, 11:36:39 AM
:D
:D


I'm through reading Lolita. I absolutely loved it! It is written so well, in fact, that I did not even stop to consider what was really going on there -the moral consequences and all- and instead felt sorry for a doomed, hopeless (and platonic) tale of love and obsession.

Now about to start Beautiful Losers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on August 22, 2008, 06:59:53 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on August 16, 2008, 07:39:51 AM
P.G. Wodehouse is great. Reading him is sheer joy, even apart from the humour. I don't know how he does it, but his choice of words is exquisite and his sentences are immaculate.

Quote from: mozartsneighbor on August 16, 2008, 10:07:30 AM
Wodehouse -- I second the recommendation. You are in for a treat. Never fails to cheer me up.

(With due apologies to Ronald) I'm lovin' it! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 22, 2008, 07:16:40 AM
Ah, Plum!

Quote from: WodehouseYou can't stick lighted matches between the toes of an English butler. He would raise his eyebrows and freeze you with a glance. You'd feel as if he had caught you using the wrong fork.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on August 22, 2008, 07:35:43 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 22, 2008, 07:16:40 AM
Ah, Plum!


:D

I have a few favourites of my own. Maybe they are funnier if read in context but still...


W: You were talking with Chuffy, did you say?
J: Yes, sir
W: And he heard all that, too?
J: Yes, sir.
W: About me kissing Miss Stoker?
J: Yes, sir.
W: Did it seem to stir him up?
J: Yes, sir.
W: What did he say?
J: He mentioned something about scooping out your inside, sir.


Wooster, about Sgt. Voules: He always looked to me as if Nature had really intended to make two police sergeants and had forgotten to split them up.


Fry Hugh :-[ and Laurie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWnB0hQWGdI
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 22, 2008, 07:45:13 AM
He was a master of brilliant, hilarious dialogue, Thos!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on August 22, 2008, 10:47:56 AM
Speaking of P.G. Wodehouse, does anybody now the Jeeves TV serial starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie? Is it worth the DVD investment?

Reading: Hammer Films: The Elstree Studio Years, by Wayne Kinsey.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51t0oP5md5L._SS500_.jpg)

A follow-up to Hammer Films: The Bray Studio Years, by the same author.

Enjoying this enormously. You know, when I was a student, I'd watch the films that ezodisy likes, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and other directors who made "superior" movies that'll soon be forgotten. Now, into my forties, I just wanna have fun.

And Hammer films are a lot of fun!

Thomas

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 22, 2008, 10:50:36 AM
Quote from: opus67 on August 22, 2008, 06:59:53 AM
(With due apologies to Ronald) I'm lovin' it! ;D

Another man of taste.  ;D

Quote from: sound67 on August 22, 2008, 10:47:56 AM
Speaking of P.G. Wodehouse, does anybody now the Jeeves TV serial starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie? Is it worth the DVD investment?

I have watched the first two series - very very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on August 22, 2008, 10:50:59 AM
Quote from: sound67 on August 22, 2008, 10:47:56 AM
Speaking of P.G. Wodehouse, does anybody now the Jeeves TV serial starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie? Is it worth the DVD investment?

I just posted a clip in my last post. And there are plenty more where that came from.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on August 22, 2008, 10:59:20 AM
Right. Very amusing indeed. Got to get those DVDs from England. Overpriced, but still.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 22, 2008, 05:39:37 PM
Quote from: sound67 on August 22, 2008, 10:47:56 AM
Speaking of P.G. Wodehouse, does anybody now the Jeeves TV serial starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie? Is it worth the DVD investment?

Reading: Hammer Films: The Elstree Studio Years, by Wayne Kinsey.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51t0oP5md5L._SS500_.jpg)

A follow-up to Hammer Films: The Bray Studio Years, by the same author.

Enjoying this enormously. You know, when I was a student, I'd watch the films that ezodisy likes, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and other directors who made "superior" movies that'll soon be forgotten. Now, into my forties, I just wanna have fun.

And Hammer films are a lot of fun!

Thomas


Thomas,
Never enjoyed the Hammer films.  Wanted to, as they seemed to be on most Friday nights when I was a kid.  Always went with Universal.....heck, even a Godzilla movie would trump these for me as an adult.  Now, there were those Vincent Price films that I enjoyed and those rarely seen (at least for me) RKO flicks mentioned by eyeresist in another thread.  But Hammer....just not for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on August 23, 2008, 03:59:45 AM
Then maybe you'd like Losey's The Damned, Brian Clemens's Captain Kronos or Roger Young's Vampire Circus. All Hammer productions, but very un-Hammeresque.  ;D

Like the Poe "adaptations" with Price, too. Too bad those Les Baxter scores were never released. A grandson of his contacted me once and told me that the master tapes existed. I think he fancied I had the money to make CDs out of them. Do you know Baxter's score for "Master of the World", another Vincent price starrer? That's fine film music, similar but superior to Young's Around the World in 80 Days!

The Val Lewton films from RKO are really great. Love those Roy Webb scores, too. Very advanced harmonically for 1940s Hollywood.

Thomas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on August 24, 2008, 02:00:13 AM
I'd like to know: What are the books that people KEEP reading, i.e. the reference works they return to on a daily basis?

Two of mine:

(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g159/seandb/Leonard-Maltin-cover-web.jpg)

Still my favorite movie reference guide, ahead of the more elaborate, but less consistent, Time Out Film Guide. Have bought the consecutive editions of Maltin's book since 1984.

(http://s7v1.scene7.com/is/image/JohnLewis/230404989?$product$)

Johnson appeals more to me than Parker.

Thomas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 24, 2008, 06:32:43 AM
Quote from: sound67 on August 24, 2008, 02:00:13 AM
I'd like to know: What are the books that people KEEP reading, i.e. the reference works they return to on a daily basis?


Ones that actually are starting to dog-ear from use:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S04D5M4NL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/15260000/15267653.JPG)(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/84/c3/294b619009a06d8293774110._AA240_.L.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41R3X7WPMNL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

and considering this one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FC91V4BDL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Also, various publications on military uniforms for referencing colors for thesmall scale figures I enjoy painting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 24, 2008, 06:43:39 AM
Quote from: sound67 on August 24, 2008, 02:00:13 AM
I'd like to know: What are the books that people KEEP reading, i.e. the reference works they return to on a daily basis?


Yep, for movie books, the Maltin book & Videohound (really like their more detailed star etc. listings in the back) are the two that I usually use - in fact, we just ordered the newest '09 editions from Amazon -  :D   Dave

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ExVyUE-QL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KH1B4P1yL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 24, 2008, 07:00:24 AM
Outside of media:

(http://www.madeincolorado.com/images/birdsofcolorado.jpg) (http://www2.cruzio.com/~zdino/img/z.sibley.birding.basics.jpg) [(https://gf.state.wy.us/ae/images/product/medium/51.jpg)and others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 24, 2008, 08:45:43 AM
Quote from: sound67 on August 24, 2008, 02:00:13 AM
I'd like to know: What are the books that people KEEP reading, i.e. the reference works they return to on a daily basis?
In keeping with the primary subject of this forum, I frequently return to Michael Steinberg's The Symphony and The Concerto.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on August 25, 2008, 01:28:03 AM
Clive Stafford Smith:  "Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side"

The author is the lawyer of more than 50 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. This book, with an obvious partial perspective, denounces the situation of those prisoners and the disrespect for their human rights.

Although I have serious doubts that those same prisoners ever had any kind of respect for other people rights - they left their countries to go to Afghanistan during the Taliban regime - that doesn't make them necessarily terrorists.

So, I would like now to read something that shows the perspective of the other side, the American authorities.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on August 25, 2008, 01:48:19 AM
Quote from: sound67 on August 22, 2008, 10:47:56 AM
Enjoying this enormously. You know, when I was a student, I'd watch the films that ezodisy likes, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and other directors who made "superior" movies that'll soon be forgotten. Now, into my forties, I just wanna have fun.

Thomas

Well I'm not going to argue with that. The Time Out film guide is quite useful, the online entries at least contain reviews of certain films which are sometimes not covered elsewhere. They're always very brief however. Out of curiosity, does Leonard Maltin's guidebook contain an entry for Satantango?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on August 25, 2008, 11:47:30 AM
Quote from: sound67 on August 22, 2008, 10:47:56 AM
Speaking of P.G. Wodehouse, does anybody now the Jeeves TV serial starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie? Is it worth the DVD investment?

Reading: Hammer Films: The Elstree Studio Years, by Wayne Kinsey.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51t0oP5md5L._SS500_.jpg)

A follow-up to Hammer Films: The Bray Studio Years, by the same author.

And Hammer films are a lot of fun!

Fun : I do agree, but taken in small doses. Christopher Lee is the best Dracula ! And some of the films are totaly hilarious : The viking queen, When dinosaurs ruled the earth,Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde!!! ;D ;D


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 25, 2008, 05:09:56 PM
Couple of new books just started in the last few days:

The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848 (2008) by Martin Dugard - a bargain price from the History Book Club - mixed reviews on Amazon; but the subject is of interest to me - the West Point elite of the time serving together in the Mexican War, then 'splitting up' for the Civil War - just starting (and have found a few mistakes, so maybe some of the Amazonians are correct in their complaints?) - but, the historic background so far is interesting - I'll continue w/ my reading!  :D

Splendid Service:  The Resotration of David Tannenberg's Home Moravian Church Organ (2004) - short book of essays about this 18th century organ builder from Pennsylvania - just was at a concert (posted in the Listening Thread, if interested) where this completely restored organ from the installation date of 1800 has been completely restored - wonderful experience!  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LB-mExK4L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)  (http://www.oldsalem.com/images/uploads/large/99252-l.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 29, 2008, 06:31:18 PM
Mahu by Pinget
The Writing of the Disaster by Blanchot

The Shklovsky and the Markson were very good reads. A style that I truly love: digressive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on August 30, 2008, 06:06:09 AM
(http://www.whsmith.co.uk/Images/Products%5C192%5C825%5C9780192825278_m_f.jpg)

Shakespeare -- A Life, by Park Honan
So far (about halfway through) quite good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 01, 2008, 03:58:43 AM
Still big into Howard Phillips
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on September 03, 2008, 01:28:06 AM
Beautiful Losers was a bit of a let down  :-\ There was some nice prose here and there, but overall the stream of consciousness writing was not put to very good use, IMHO.

Currently reading:The Out of Print Publications of JD Salinger. About 20 or so short stories mostly dealing with specific scenes and situations between two people. Although the ones that I've read are not at the level of those in Nine Stories, the initial Glass family chronicle: Hapworth 16, 1924 is included here as the final story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 03, 2008, 07:04:03 AM
Barbarians to Angels: The Dark Ages Reconsidered (2008) by Peter Wells - just getting started w/ an unusually 'short' (256 pgs) book on this broad topic - covers basically 400-800 A.D. w/ an updated look at the period based on recent archeological discoveries - mostly decent Amazonian Reviews (http://www.amazon.com/Barbarians-Angels-Dark-Ages-Reconsidered/dp/0393060756/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220453622&sr=1-1) -  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419oxKgK30L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on September 03, 2008, 08:49:09 AM
That looks interesting. A fascinating epoch in history, all the more since many things still are not known about the Dark Ages. Maybe I'll get that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 03, 2008, 12:46:41 PM
Quote from: M forever on September 03, 2008, 08:49:09 AM
That looks interesting. A fascinating epoch in history, all the more since many things still are not known about the Dark Ages. Maybe I'll get that.

Hello M - the book is so far quite interesting, and will likely be a good overview - if you're interested in this period, the Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=869&pc=History%20-%20Ancient%20and%20Medieval) has a wonderful lecture series on the Middle Ages given by Philip Daileader, a Professor at William & Mary College (Williamsburg, VA) - I currently own the High Middle Ages DVD series (24 30-minute lectures) - purchased for $69 when on sale; the Early Middle Ages DVD series is on sale at present for the same price (and same instructor), which would cover the period in the book - might be an upcoming purchase for me! Dave  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on September 03, 2008, 03:22:10 PM
Is that an audio book or a video?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 03, 2008, 03:54:13 PM
Quote from: M forever on September 03, 2008, 03:22:10 PM
Is that an audio book or a video?

Check out the link - plenty of different options; I usually buy these programs in the DVD format which is a little more expensive; but these programs are available as audio CDs, cassette tapes, or as audio downloads - again, these are 'lecture series' programs, like goin' to college, but I've found the vast majority of these lecturers (typically well known college professors) quite good & entertaining - the guy who gives the talks on the Middle Ages is superb.  Again, if you are interested & have not ordered any of these lecture series before, wait until they are on sale.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on September 03, 2008, 05:07:56 PM
I've moved on from Blanchot, whose writing I found turgid and unreliable. You could easily tell which school he had sided with.

Next:
Feuerbach's Principles of the Philosophy of the Future
Baudelaire's Paris Spleen
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 04, 2008, 03:38:19 AM
Not having a refined, sensitive palette that only takes in high culture I've been reading pulp fiction, unlike you literary types. ;D

Ghost Road Blues for me.  I did read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but I don't know if it counts because it's easy to read and appreciate at either symbolic or literal level! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 04, 2008, 03:42:26 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 04, 2008, 03:38:19 AM
Not having a refined, sensitive palette that only takes in high culture I've been reading pulp fiction, unlike you literary types. ;D

Well, we're still friends, David  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 04, 2008, 03:53:57 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 04, 2008, 03:38:19 AM
Not having a refined, sensitive palette that only takes in high culture I've been reading pulp fiction, unlike you literary types. ;D

Ghost Road Blues for me.  I did read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but I don't know if it counts because it's easy to read and appreciate at either symbolic or literal level! :D



Does H.P. Lovecraft count as pulp fiction? And if so, does that mean we're still friends, Karl ;)?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 04, 2008, 03:55:29 AM
Andy, not even that quirky Rhode Islander could pretend to interpose in our friendship  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 04, 2008, 04:02:10 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 04, 2008, 03:53:57 AM

Does H.P. Lovecraft count as pulp fiction? And if so, does that mean we're still friends, Karl ;)?

Lovecraft is enjoyable to read, so I guess that's fine. ;D

It's like that Millenium episode, it must be "enlightening yet entertaining" and yes I am making fun of myself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 04, 2008, 04:27:02 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 04, 2008, 03:55:29 AM
Andy, not even that quirky Rhode Islander could pretend to interpose in our friendship  :)


Dann ist mein Leben sehr gut!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 04, 2008, 03:23:10 PM
James Joyce - Ulysses

Finally finished Portrait after taking an unusually long time to read it due both to moving to a new house and the general malaise that's been hanging around as of late (must be the season). I enjoyed it, but I would be hard pressed to say I could relate to it. Stephen and I had very different adolescences.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on September 05, 2008, 01:01:39 AM
Quote from: Corey on September 04, 2008, 03:23:10 PM
James Joyce - Ulysses

Finally finished Portrait after taking an unusually long time to read it due both to moving to a new house and the general malaise that's been hanging around as of late (must be the season). I enjoyed it, but I would be hard pressed to say I could relate to it. Stephen and I had very different adolescences.

But did you enjoy the way it is written? I don't relate to Stephen that much either, although I can understand artistic ambition and trying to think for yourself. But I didn't have a Catholic upbringing, nor did I grow up in a stifling country (to a certain point...). I don't, as a rule, look for characters to look like me. I want the writer to convince me of their reality. If he or she succeeds, I am fascinated and pleased. And I learn something about human diversity.

Good luck with Ulysses...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on September 05, 2008, 01:41:11 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on September 05, 2008, 01:01:39 AM
... I don't, as a rule, look for characters to look like me. I want the writer to convince me of their reality....

I agree, but to be able to relate to the character(s) do make books more enjoyable for me. Probably why The Man Without Qualitites, The Stranger and Steppenwolf are among the top fiction books I've read -apart from them being literary wonders, of course.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on September 05, 2008, 02:00:32 AM
Quote from: orbital on September 05, 2008, 01:41:11 AM
I agree, but to be able to relate to the character(s) do make books more enjoyable for me. Probably why The Man Without Qualitites, The Stranger and Steppenwolf are among the top fiction books I've read -apart from them being literary wonders, of course.

Because I am a writer myself, I have always more identified with certain artists than with any of their creations. The way each of them grappled with the great questions of self, world, life and art have inspired me and fortified me. If I can mention the few characters I can relate to, or have related to - Shakespeare's Coriolanus and Tolkien's Aragorn... Make of this what you want!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on September 05, 2008, 02:16:06 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on September 05, 2008, 02:00:32 AM
... If I can mention the few characters I can relate to, or have related to - Shakespeare's Coriolanus and Tolkien's Aragorn... Make of this what you want!
I only have a vague recollection of Coriolanus and have not read LRR, but they are both warriors. Is there anything else that bonds them together?

Quote from: orbital on September 03, 2008, 01:28:06 AM
Currently reading:The Out of Print Publications of JD Salinger. Although the ones that I've read are not at the level of those in Nine Stories...

allow me to modify this a little bit. As I read further into the book, there are some profound ones. The Heart of a Broken Story, for example. Seldom have I read such intelligently written short story about love in a tongue-in-cheek or even cynical way although on the surface it may remind the reader of a typical O Henry story. This man's ability to convey the mood with such simple storytelling never ceases to amaze me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on September 05, 2008, 02:29:13 AM
Quote from: orbital on September 05, 2008, 02:16:06 AM
I only have a vague recollection of Coriolanus and have not read LRR, but they are both warriors. Is there anything else that bonds them together?

I think Coriolanus has more to do with an earlier Jezetha, and Aragorn more with the current one. Coriolanus has a dominant, truculent mother (so have I), is arrogant (I was), despises the 'common herd' (I did), is too honest and outspoken to play politics (still am, mostly). Aragorn, in the end, fulfils his destiny... Yes, both are warriors. But life, to me, is struggle, and in art, too, conflict creates movement and insight. Though it isn't fashionable to say so, I admire heroism, in art, in life... That's why I love Beethoven, Wagner and Brian possibly above all others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on September 05, 2008, 02:29:44 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41D5FHYQD0L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

The Best of Saki, by Saki (H.H. Munro)

This is one of the best out of the blue discoveries I have made lately -- I just picked it up at the the library because it had a glowing foreword by Tom Sharpe, who is one of my favorite comic writers.
As it happens, these early 20th century short stories are cruelly funny, mysterious, and written in a brilliant and inimitable style.
Highly recommended! As the blurb from Graham Greene on the back cover puts it "They dazzle and delight" -- right on Mr. Greene.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on September 05, 2008, 02:32:34 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on September 05, 2008, 02:00:32 AM
If I can mention the few characters I can relate to, or have related to - Shakespeare's Coriolanus

me too. This play had a big influence about 5 years ago. However I don't necessarily relate to any of his specifics, if any at all. It's more the sense of very complex frustration and tragedy which brings me close to it for whatever reason. I like the bellicose mood too :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on September 05, 2008, 03:20:52 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on September 05, 2008, 02:29:13 AM
I think Coriolanus has more to do with an earlier Jezetha, and Aragorn more with the current one. Coriolanus has a dominant, truculent mother (so have I), is arrogant (I was), despises the 'common herd' (I did), is too honest and outspoken to play politics (still am, mostly). Aragorn, in the end, fulfils his destiny... Yes, both are warriors. But life, to me, is struggle, and in art, too, conflict creates movement and insight. Though it isn't fashionable to say so, I admire heroism, in art, in life... That's why I love Beethoven, Wagner and Brian possibly above all others.
Our choices for artists and performers may very well be a mirror into our own psyches. Perhaps, the reason I like Hamlet that much (again, apart from it being a literary wonder) while King Lear is perhaps a greater tragedy. Or why I care more about Esch than Pasenow in The Sleepwalkers while Pasenow was the one that deserved a better resolution in the traditional sense.
For me, life does not carry any more meaning than its physical manifestation, and, thus with regards to art, I just like to marvel the artist who does his job exceedingly well  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 05, 2008, 05:04:52 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on September 05, 2008, 01:01:39 AM
But did you enjoy the way it is written? I don't relate to Stephen that much either, although I can understand artistic ambition and trying to think for yourself. But I didn't have a Catholic upbringing, nor did I grow up in a stifling country (to a certain point...). I don't, as a rule, look for characters to look like me. I want the writer to convince me of their reality. If he or she succeeds, I am fascinated and pleased. And I learn something about human diversity.

Good luck with Ulysses...

You've stated it exactly. I suppose it's still an attribute of my age that I look for myself in my reading (probably why I relate so much to Proust and why the quote in my signature feels so relevant). I absolutely loved the style — I've never read anything like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jamesjoyce on September 05, 2008, 06:20:16 PM
Platonov, Soul

Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

Sartre, Nausea

Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory (with an intro by the vastly overrated American writer John Updike)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 05, 2008, 09:06:00 PM
I can't at the moment remember the title of the book Updike wrote, but he was talking about abuses in the meat industry - in this case the paucity of chicken in a can of chicken soup and he said,

"the only connection a chicken may have had with the soup is that it may have walked through it with its boots on."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on September 06, 2008, 11:45:34 AM
You are maybe thinking of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on September 06, 2008, 12:07:19 PM
Quote from: Anne on September 05, 2008, 09:06:00 PM

"the only connection a chicken may have had with the soup is that it may have walked through it with its boots on."

I don't recall anything like that in 'The Jungle' It seemed to be about rather larger scale food sources.....everything about the pig was used except the squeek.

Nor am I sure there was even hangman's humour in it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 06, 2008, 01:22:11 PM
Quote from: M forever on September 06, 2008, 11:45:34 AM
You are maybe thinking of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle".

Yes, I was.  Thanks, M.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 06, 2008, 01:28:53 PM
Quote from: knight on September 06, 2008, 12:07:19 PM
I don't recall anything like that in 'The Jungle' It seemed to be about rather larger scale food sources.....everything about the pig was used except the squeek.

Nor am I sure there was even hangman's humour in it.

I don't know what to tell you, knight.  That is my memory of it.  We had to read it for an econ class.  If I run into the book again, I will reread it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 09, 2008, 01:59:25 PM
Lethe's enthusiasm for Gothic architecture prompted me to pick this up from the library:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61WZNBA6EEL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIlitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Nice, large color photos — should make for a nice divertissment from Ulysses. I am most interested in the Romanesque aspect, as I can't think of any examples that I know of Romanesque architecture (no doubt due to its relative unpopularity for not being as "beautiful" as Gothic buildings and the lack of modern-day copycats).  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on September 09, 2008, 02:34:06 PM
Your library seems better than mine :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on September 09, 2008, 03:09:51 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/17/Novel_the_blind_assassin_cover.jpg/200px-Novel_the_blind_assassin_cover.jpg)
I purchased all of Atwood's e-books recently, and this was the first on my list to read from her (having read and loved The Handmaid's Tale). An excellent book so far. It is actually a novel within a novel within a novel, each of whose story line could not have been more different than the next. And amazingly Ms Atwood uses completely different writing techniques for each story (and author within the novel), which is a testament to what a great writer she is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 09, 2008, 05:19:18 PM
Sweet Soul Music (1986/1999) by Peter Guralnick - just getting started w/ this rather detailed book on the birth of soul music w/ an emphasis on Memphis, TN - a recent visit for my wife & I - fascinating city & musical history (see my comments in the vacation and the eating threads, if interested) -

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0316332739.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg%20:D)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on September 09, 2008, 06:16:30 PM
I spent an entire evening a few days ago reading the Stalin article on wikipedia, and checking out many of the links to events and persons relevant to that subject. Wikipedia is such a paradise for someone like me who has to compulsively look up stuff when he hears about it. Even better than the Encyclopaedia Britannica DVD edition.
:)

Anyway, that reminded me that I have for a long time wanted to read up more on the history of the Soviet Union, the Russian Revolution, etc.
Last year, I read about half of this book:

(http://www.amazon.com/Concise-History-Russian-Revolution/dp/0679745440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221012735&sr=8-1)

Which might be a good book to pick up again and finish some time. The author, a Harvard historian has written some more books about the same subject.


In the Stalin article and many of the linked articles, these books by a gentleman named Montefiore are often mentioned:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EjpAd1ZqL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411F6XTq%2BhL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)


Hmm...looks a little bit like Saul.


Anyway, does anyone know these or any other good books about these subjects?


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 09, 2008, 09:49:26 PM
I think any book written by Solzhenitsyn would be good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on September 10, 2008, 05:34:27 AM
(http://readingwithbecky.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/theireyeswatchinggod.jpg)

Their Eyes were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Just finished it. I had to read it in highschool but didn't really appreciate it back then, but it is a very good book. It is mind-boggling that she and her work fell into obscurity for decades.
The blurb on the back cover that the book "belongs in the same category with that of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway of enduring American literature" doesn't seem like hyperbole at all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on September 10, 2008, 10:02:29 AM
Philip K. Dick-Martian Time-Slip
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 10, 2008, 01:43:49 PM
50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God, by Guy P. Harrison. The main focus of Harrison's writing being to "answer" each; unfortunately, nearly every shred of material in the book is something I've read before. Not a particularly original or insightful work, by any means, and Harrison's allusions to his own life, with their weird mix of gratuitousness and terseness, manage to be both blatant and tentative at the same time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on September 10, 2008, 02:31:53 PM
Quote from: Anne on September 09, 2008, 09:49:26 PM
I think any book written by Solzhenitsyn would be good.

Which books by him have you read? Which one would you recommend? I am thinking that his books might be more specialized. At this moment, I am more looking for the larger overview over the epoch and its key figures.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 10, 2008, 02:49:39 PM
If you haven't read The Gulag Archipelago  yet, it might be your top priority. I don't remember it being primarily/directly about Stalin, but it's still a very brilliant book (quite a bit difficult to read at times, like most really great books). I believe that Stalin is referred to as Satan in more than one part of this book, so it isn't what some would call "objective".

Of course, after reading that book one could conceivably see the whole thing as being "about Stalin", so I'm not 100% sure what you're looking for.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 10, 2008, 03:29:25 PM
Quote from: M forever on September 10, 2008, 02:31:53 PM
Which books by him have you read? Which one would you recommend? I am thinking that his books might be more specialized. At this moment, I am more looking for the larger overview over the epoch and its key figures.

March - April 2008
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-winning author whose books chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system, has died at age 89, his son said today.

Stepan Solzhenitsyn said his father died late yesterday of heart failure, but declined further comment. Solzhenitsyn's unflinching accounts of torment and survival in the Soviet Union's slave labor camps riveted his countrymen, whose secret history he exposed. They earned him 20 years of bitter exile, but international renown.

And they inspired millions, perhaps, with the knowledge that one person's courage and integrity could, in the end, defeat the totalitarian machinery of an empire.

Beginning with the 1962 short novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn devoted himself to describing what he called the human "meat grinder" that had caught him along with millions of other Soviet citizens: capricious arrests, often for trifling and seemingly absurd reasons, followed by sentences to slave labor camps where cold, starvation and punishing work crushed inmates physically and spiritually.

His Gulag Archipelago trilogy of the 1970s left readers shocked by the savagery of the Soviet state under the dictator Josef Stalin. It helped erase lingering sympathy for the Soviet Union among many leftist intellectuals, especially in Europe.

But his account of that secret system of prison camps was also inspiring in its description of how one person - Solzhenitsyn himself - survived, physically and spiritually, in a penal system of soul-crushing hardship and injustice.

The West offered him shelter and accolades. But Solzhenitsyn's refusal to bend despite enormous pressure, perhaps, also gave him the courage to criticise Western culture for what he considered its weakness and decadence.

After a triumphant return that included a 56-day train trip across Russia to become reacquainted with his native land, Solzhenitsyn later expressed annoyance and disappointment that most Russians hadn't read his books.

During the 1990s, his stalwart nationalist views, his devout Orthodoxy, his disdain for capitalism and disgust with the tycoons who bought Russian industries and resources for kopeks on the ruble following the Soviet collapse, were unfashionable. He faded from public view.

But under Vladimir Putin's 2000-2008 presidency, Solzhenitsyn's vision of Russia as a bastion of Orthodox Christianity, as a place with a unique culture and destiny, gained renewed prominence.

Putin now argues, as Solzhenitsyn did in a speech at Harvard University in 1978, that Russia has a separate civilisation from the West, one that can't be reconciled either to Communism or Western-style liberal democracy, but requires a system adapted to its history and traditions.

"Any ancient deeply rooted autonomous culture, especially if it is spread on a wide part of the earth's surface, constitutes an autonomous world, full of riddles and surprises to Western thinking," Solzhenitsyn said in his speech. "For one thousand years Russia has belonged to such a category ... "

Born December 11, 1918, in Kislovodsk, Solzhenitsyn served as a front-line artillery captain in World War II, where, in the closing weeks of the war, he was arrested for writing what he called "certain disrespectful remarks" about Stalin in a letter to a friend, referring to him as "the man with the moustache". He served seven years in a labor camp in the barren steppe of Kazakhstan and three more years in internal exile in Central Asia.

That's where he began to write, memorising much of his work so it wouldn't be lost if it were seized. His theme was the suffering and injustice of life in Stalin's gulag - a Soviet abbreviation for the slave labor camp system, which Solzhenitsyn made part of the lexicon.

He continued writing while working as a mathematics teacher in the provincial Russian city of Ryazan.

The first fruit of this labour was One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the story of a carpenter struggling to survive in a Soviet labor camp, where he had been sent, like Solzhenitsyn, after service in the war.

The book was published by order of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who was eager to discredit the abuses of Stalin, his predecessor, and created a sensation in a country where unpleasant truths were spoken in whispers, if at all. Abroad, the book - which went through numerous revisions - was lauded not only for its bravery, but for its spare, unpretentious language.

After Khrushchev was ousted in 1964, Solzhenitsyn began facing KGB harassment, publication of his works was blocked and he was expelled from the Soviet Writers Union. But he was undeterred.

"A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country," he wrote in The First Circle, his next novel, a book about inmates in one of Stalin's "special camps" for scientists who were deemed politically unreliable but whose skills were essential.

Solzhenitsyn, a graduate from the Department of Physics and Mathematics at Rostov University, was sent to one of these camps in 1946, soon after his arrest.

The novel Cancer Ward, which appeared in 1967, was another fictional worked based on Solzhenitsyn's life: in this case, his cancer treatment in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, then part of Soviet Central Asia, during his years of internal exile from March 1953, the month of Stalin's death, until June 1956.

In the book, cancer became a metaphor for the fatal sickness of the Soviet system. "A man sprouts a tumour and dies - how then can a country live that has sprouted camps and exile?"

He attacked the complicity of millions of Russians in the horrors of Stalin's reign. "Suddenly all the professors and engineers turned out to be saboteurs - and they believed it? ... Or all of Lenin's old guard were vile renegades - and they believed it? Suddenly all their friends and acquaintances were enemies of the people - and they believed it?"

The Stalinist era, he wrote, quoting from a poem by Alexander Pushkin, forced Soviet citizens to choose one of three roles: tyrant, traitor, prisoner.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, an unusual move for the Swedish Academy, which generally makes awards late in an author's life after decades of work. The academy cited "the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature."

Soviet authorities barred the author from travelling to Stockholm to receive the award and official attacks were intensified in 1973 when the first book in the Gulag trilogy appeared in Paris.

"During all the years until 1961," Solzhenitsyn wrote in an autobiography written for the Nobel Foundation, "not only was I convinced that I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared that this would become known."

The following year, he was arrested on a treason charge and expelled the next day to West Germany in handcuffs. His expulsion inspired worldwide condemnation of the regime of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

Solzhenitsyn made his homeland in America, settling in the tiny town of Cavendish, Vermont, with his wife and sons.

Living at a secluded hillside compound he rarely left, he called his 18 years there the most productive of his life. There he worked on what he considered to be his life's work, a multi-volume saga of Russian history titled The Red Wheel.

Although free from repression, Solzhenitsyn longed for his native land. Neither was he enchanted by Western democracy, with its emphasis on individual freedom.

To the dismay of his supporters, in his Harvard speech he rejected the West's faith in "Western pluralistic democracy" as the model for all other nations. It was a mistake, he warned, for Western societies to regard the failure of the rest of the world to adopt the democratic model as a product of "wicked governments or by heavy crises or by their own barbarity or incomprehension".

Some critics saw The Red Wheel books as tedious and hectoring, rather than as sweeping and lit by moral fire.

"Exile from his great theme, Stalinism and the gulag, had exposed his major weaknesses," D.M. Thomas wrote in a 1998 biography, theorising that the intensity of the earlier works was "a projection of his own repressed violence".

Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev restored Solzhenitsyn's citizenship in 1990 and the treason charge was finally dropped in 1991, less than a month after the failed Soviet coup. Following an emotional homecoming that started in the Russian Far East on May 27, 1994, and became a whistle-stop tour across the country, Solzhenitsyn settled in a tree-shaded, red brick home overlooking the Moscow River just west of the capital.

While avoiding a partisan political role, Solzhenitsyn vowed to speak "the whole truth about Russia, until they shut my mouth like before".

He was contemptuous of president Boris Yeltsin, blaming Yeltsin for the collapse of Russia's economy, his dependence on bailouts by the International Monetary Fund, his inability to stop the expansion of NATO to Russia's borders, his tolerance of the rising influence of a handful of Russian billionaires - who were nicknamed "oligarchs" by an American diplomat.

Yeltsin's reign, Solzhenitsyn said, marked one of three "times of troubles" in Russian history - which included the 17th century crises that led to the rise of the Romanovs and the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. When Yeltsin awarded Solzhenitsyn Russia's highest honour, the Order of St Andrew, the writer refused to accept it. When Yeltsin left office in 2000, Solzhenitsyn wanted him prosecuted.

The author's last book, 2001's Two Hundred Years Together, addressed the complex emotions of Russian-Jewish relations. Some criticised the book for alleged anti-Semitic passages, but the author denied the charge, saying he "understood the subtlety, sensitivity and kindheartedness of the Jewish character".

Putin, Yeltsin's successor, at first had a rocky relationship with Solzhenitsyn, who criticised the Russian president in 2002 for not doing more to crack down on Russia's oligarchs. Putin was also a veteran of the Soviet-era KGB, the agency that, more than any other, represented the Soviet legacy of repression.

But the two men, so different, gradually developed a rapport. By steps, Putin adopted Solzhenitsyn's criticisms of the West, perhaps out of a recognition that Russia really is a different civilisation, perhaps because the author offered justification for the Kremlin's determination to muzzle critics, to reassert control over Russia's natural resources and to concentrate political power.

Like Putin, Solzhenitsyn argued that Russia was following its own path to its own form of democratic society. In a June 2005 interview with state television he said that Russia had lost 15 years following the collapse of the Soviet Union by moving too quickly in the rush to build a more liberal society. "We need to be better, so we need to go more slowly," he said

Following the death of Naguib Mahfouz in 2006, Solzhenitsyn became the oldest living Nobel laureate in literature. He is survived by his wife, Natalya, who acted as his spokesman, and his three sons, including Stepan, Ignat, a pianist and conductor, and Yermolai. All live in the United States.

Despite his belief in a separate political and cultural fate for Russia, Solzhenitsyn's works continue to inspire people of all nations and cultures in the fight for human dignity and the right to hold unpopular views.

His belief in the power of conscience, and of courage against all odds, speaks to readers beyond the narrow limits of ideology and politics.

"It is we who shall die - art shall remain," he wrote in his 1970 Nobel lecture, which he was not allowed to deliver. "And shall we comprehend, even on the day of our destruction, all its facets and all its possibilities?"

Select bibliography

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)

Matryona's Home (1963)

Incident at Krechekovta Station (short stories) (1963)

The First Circle (1968)

Cancer Ward (1968)

August 1914 (first part of Red Wheel cycle) (1971)

The Gulag Archipelago Vol. I (1973)

The Gulag Archipelago Vol. II (1974)

Letter to Soviet Leaders (1974)

The Oak and the Calf (play) (1975)

Lenin in Zurich (1975)

The Gulag Archipelago Vol. III (1976)

Prisoners (play) (1983)

October 1916 (second part Red Wheel cycle) (1985)

March 1917 (third part of Red Wheel cycle) (1993)

The Russian Question at theEnd of the 20th Century (1994)

Russia in Collapse (1998)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 10, 2008, 04:19:42 PM
M,
I apologize for the length of the reply but thought it would be of more value to you.  I read One Day in the Life of Ivan D. and enjoyed it very much.

My husband read First Circle, Cancer Ward, Gulag Archipelago, August 1914.  In addition, he may have read more that I am not aware of as we had twins about that time and I was taking care of babies.

We thought all of these books were good.  I had always intended to return to them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on September 10, 2008, 05:27:59 PM
Oh, that's a long article. Thanks for posting that, I will read it later.

Quote from: AndyD. on September 10, 2008, 02:49:39 PM
I'm not 100% sure what you're looking for.

Quote from: M forever on September 10, 2008, 02:31:53 PM
At this moment, I am more looking for the larger overview over the epoch and its key figures.

Like the books I mentioned, the Stalin books by Montefiore or this book whose pic somehow didn't make it into the other post:

(http://i17.ebayimg.com/03/c/00/c0/0f/d5_8.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on September 11, 2008, 12:02:53 PM
A very interesting read. Cambodias adaption of "communism" was a quite strange brand. Actually, Pol Pot was more inspired by the French Revolution than by Marx and Lenin. Their obsession with critique and self-critique was bizarre, and confessions were brought out in the prisons like a purifying act with death as a cetain outcome. One goal was to erase everything resembling own, critical thoughts. 1/4 of the population died during this terror regime. Incredible that they managed to move the entire population (2 mill people) out of Phnom Pehn during the first 24 hours after their victory. And money and banking system was shut down fast. Still there is a city in Cambodia, Skuon, popularly called Spiderville where many inhabitants eat spiders for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is an inheritage from the Red Khmer era when food hardly existed for many people, and they had to take what they could find.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514JM43PQTL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 05:07:51 AM
I'm reading an excellent crime novel called THE CHILL by Ross MacDonald.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on September 12, 2008, 09:41:45 AM
Quote from: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 05:07:51 AM
I'm reading an excellent crime novel called THE CHILL by Ross MacDonald.
I've read it-great book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 09:49:41 AM
Quote from: rockerreds on September 12, 2008, 09:41:45 AM
I've read it-great book.

Yep. I need more MacDonald. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 12, 2008, 10:21:08 AM
The Master
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 10:26:53 AM
Too much reliance on images. I can't see that. :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 12, 2008, 10:55:26 AM
Quote from: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 10:26:53 AM
Too much reliance on images. I can't see that. :(



My post? It's "Black Night: the Unofficial Ritchie Blackmore Biography"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 10:58:52 AM
Oh, THAT master. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 12, 2008, 11:00:12 AM
Quote from: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 10:58:52 AM
Oh, THAT master. :)



I had a feeling you'd be feeling me on this one, Dave :).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 11:01:06 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 12, 2008, 11:00:12 AM


I had a feeling you'd be feeling me on this one, Dave :).

Nice to "see" ya by the way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 12, 2008, 11:07:16 AM
Quote from: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 11:01:06 AM
Nice to "see" ya by the way.



Right back at ya!


I got both this book and "Judas Priest: Heavy Metal Painkillers" by Martin Popoff for my birthday today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 11:15:06 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 12, 2008, 11:07:16 AM
   


Right back at ya!


I got both this book and "Judas Priest: Heavy Metal Painkillers" by Martin Popoff for my birthday today.

And happy birthday.

You ought to check out that Dunderthome! link on my website. ;) Just scroll down. You'll see it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 12, 2008, 11:21:50 AM
Quote from: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 11:15:06 AM
And happy birthday.

You ought to check out that Dunderthome! link on my website. ;) Just scroll down. You'll see it.



ZOMBIES!!!! YESSSS!

'There dude, and signing up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 12, 2008, 11:24:28 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 12, 2008, 11:21:50 AM


ZOMBIES!!!! YESSSS!

'There dude, and signing up.

Sweeet. We need more BLOOD there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on September 12, 2008, 07:33:59 PM
Finished the Pinget: Brilliant first half. Subpar second half. Cheap ending.

I tried to get into the Baudelaire, but I found it tiring.

Next up:
The Poems by Langston Hughes
Main Travelled Roads by Hamlin Garland
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 12, 2008, 09:53:53 PM
Isaac's Storm by Eric Larson just went on my list to read today as I listened to the author and a news reporter discussing Hurricane Ike.  Larson's book is the story of the greatest natural disaster in the history of the US that occurred 100 years ago when a hurricane, much like Ike, went across Cuba and hit Galveston.  The city is at sea level and there were no natural barriers to protect it.  Six thousand people were killed in that storm; that's 1 for every 5 or 6 people.  They showed a picture from that storm; it was total devastation, nothing but pieces of lumber, all the way to the horizon (one building survived intact).

As a result of that disaster, the people who survived built a sea wall 17 feet high, 20 feet thick, and 11 or 13 miles long.  They built it well as that same sea wall is there tonight helping to protect the people of Galveston.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 15, 2008, 08:50:46 AM
Campbell = good reading.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4120QB5QKHL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 15, 2008, 10:12:08 AM
Quote from: mn dave on September 15, 2008, 08:50:46 AM
Campbell = good reading.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4120QB5QKHL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)


Heyyy...! I read his stuff back in the '80's. This must be good!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 15, 2008, 10:14:38 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 15, 2008, 10:12:08 AM

Heyyy...! I read his stuff back in the '80's. This must be good!

It is good. 30 years of Campbell's best shorts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on September 15, 2008, 10:58:08 AM
An Inspector Calls. The play really annoyed me when I studied it in high school. Even at that time the moralising rang hollowly to me, so maybe it will now change, although I am not holding my breath..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 15, 2008, 12:31:37 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/apollinaire-1.jpg)

I normally don't read translated poetry, but the English translations (side-by-side with the original French) stand on their own as great poetry.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 16, 2008, 08:31:13 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V67C5MB9L._SL500_.jpg)

Still struggling with this, almost through the first 17 chapters
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on September 18, 2008, 03:32:29 AM
Beethovens Hair.

DNA reveals Beethoven!
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DZ0RZH85L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Is it any good?  Bloody brilliant!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on September 18, 2008, 08:21:36 AM
Quote from: mahler10th on September 18, 2008, 03:32:29 AM
Beethovens Hair.

DNA reveals Beethoven!
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DZ0RZH85L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Is it any good?  Bloody brilliant!

Thanks for the reminder.  I shall put it on my list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on September 18, 2008, 06:00:24 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 16, 2008, 08:31:13 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V67C5MB9L._SL500_.jpg)

Still struggling with this, almost through the first 17 chapters

All that stuff is totally made up. If you want to understand everything about the universe, you have to read this book:

(http://www.personalizationmall.com/cat_image/1117D-C1.jpg)

It's a little tedious to read though (there are no pictures). Alternatively, you can also rent the video.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 18, 2008, 06:51:51 PM
Quote from: M forever on September 18, 2008, 06:00:24 PM
All that stuff is totally made up. If you want to understand everything about the universe, you have to read this book:

(http://www.personalizationmall.com/cat_image/1117D-C1.jpg)

It's a little tedious to read though (there are no pictures). Alternatively, you can also rent the video.

Actually you need both because to prove that the Earth is 6000 years old and the center of the universe you have to show that starlight that appears to have originated millions of years ago is a result of time dilation in Einstein's relativity equations

all this book learnin is also helpful in calculating the animal feeding and dung removal logistics on the Ark
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on September 19, 2008, 02:45:12 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 16, 2008, 08:31:13 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V67C5MB9L._SL500_.jpg)

Still struggling with this, almost through the first 17 chapters

This book looks right up my street.  Is it heavily academic or can it be read by a layman with no grounding in quantum physics?  I would be interested to read it and may look it out for it if it's an easy access work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on September 19, 2008, 06:07:58 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 18, 2008, 06:51:51 PM
Actually you need both because to prove that the Earth is 6000 years old and the center of the universe you have to show that starlight that appears to have originated millions of years ago is a result of time dilation in Einstein's relativity equations

That's just a mathematical error. The light created by God is timeless, it can not be described or measured by any "scientific" theories.

Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 18, 2008, 06:51:51 PM
all this book learnin is also helpful in calculating the animal feeding and dung removal logistics on the Ark

The animals simply pooped over the railing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 19, 2008, 09:45:16 PM
Quote from: mahler10th on September 19, 2008, 02:45:12 PM
This book looks right up my street.  Is it heavily academic or can it be read by a layman with no grounding in quantum physics?  I would be interested to read it and may look it out for it if it's an easy access work.

so Penrose is this mathematical genius who thinks that because topics like differential forms, representation theory, Lie algebras and gauge connections are easy for him they will be easy for you too.  He spends 17 chapters on math like this before he starts on science, but it is fascinating stuff
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on September 20, 2008, 12:11:05 PM
Following The Blind Assassin, which was wonderful throughout:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ENYSZ57NL._SS500_.jpg)
My very first Mahfouz. Short and concise, a very effective [albeit sad]story about Egypt in the time of Infitah (Sadat's Open Door policy).

Now onto this:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5148EfoguRL.jpg)

I'm not sure if I like it so far, but I'll continue just for the hell of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on September 20, 2008, 12:14:45 PM
Quote from: orbital on September 20, 2008, 12:11:05 PM
Following The Blind Assassin, which was wonderful throughout:

Oh I meant to comment earlier when I saw you were reading it: fantastic book.  I'm a fan of Atwood in general, but even by her standards that was quite an achievement.  I still have to check out a number of her earlier books that I missed.

--Bruce 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 20, 2008, 12:17:17 PM
A book on El Greco (can't find a decent cover).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 20, 2008, 12:17:53 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uOi96E1cL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on September 20, 2008, 12:20:30 PM
Quote from: bhodges on September 20, 2008, 12:14:45 PM
Oh I meant to comment earlier when I saw you were reading it: fantastic book.  I'm a fan of Atwood in general, but even by her standards that was quite an achievement.  I still have to check out a number of her earlier books that I missed.

--Bruce 
Have you read Oryx and Crake? That's the one I intend to read from her next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on September 20, 2008, 12:27:20 PM
Quote from: orbital on September 20, 2008, 12:20:30 PM
Have you read Oryx and Crake? That's the one I intend to read from her next.

No, but friends who have (including the one who gave me The Blind Assassin) liked it a lot.  The Handmaid's Tale just knocked me out, and then I read Cat's Eye, which I thought was very good, if not quite at Handmaid level.  Then I found a copy of Bluebeard's Egg, a collection of short stories that I haven't gotten around to yet.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on September 20, 2008, 12:37:03 PM
Quote from: bhodges on September 20, 2008, 12:27:20 PM
No, but friends who have (including the one who gave me The Blind Assassin) liked it a lot.  The Handmaid's Tale just knocked me out, and then I read Cat's Eye, which I thought was very good, if not quite at Handmaid level.  Then I found a copy of Bluebeard's Egg, a collection of short stories that I haven't gotten around to yet.

--Bruce
I got all her books a while back, and plan to read them all, not chronologically or anything, but by whim alone  ;D O&C seems to bein Handmaid's vein -only more dystopian-  from what I've read around. Should be a treat!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 20, 2008, 05:26:56 PM
Drink:  A Cultural History of Alcohol (2008) by Iain Gately - just started this book today, so far getting into the early Middle Ages (chapters on Greece & Rome quite enjoyable) - should be a fun read - click HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Drink-Cultural-History-Iain-Gately/dp/1592403034/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221960054&sr=1-1) for Amazonian comments & reviews -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k-7iEAnPL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 20, 2008, 07:50:46 PM
Has anyone here read anything by Yukio Mishima? I don't think I have any Japanese literature on my shelf (apart from a set of Akutagawa short stories).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on September 21, 2008, 12:32:21 PM
Quote from: Corey on September 20, 2008, 07:50:46 PM
Has anyone here read anything by Yukio Mishima? I don't think I have any Japanese literature on my shelf (apart from a set of Akutagawa short stories).

I have read Mishima's "Confessions of a Mask" -- his first book. Quite interesting, but haven't gotten around to reading any more of his books yet. I did however read a biography of the man shortly after I read the book: "The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima" by Henry Scott Stokes. Mishima was at least as interesting as the literature he wrote -- definitely an odd fellow.

As for other Japanese writers I have enjoyed:
-- Yasunari Kawabata was the main Japanese writer of the generation prior to Mishima's. "Snow Country" and "Beauty and Sadness" are especially good
-- there's the pretty famous living writer, Haruki Murakami, who is the best-selling Japanese author abroad. I have found his work to be sliping a bit and becoming repetitious lately, but his earlier work is often very good. "A Wild Sheep Chase", "Norwegian Wood" and what is perhaps his best so far "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"
-- Natsuo Kirino writes some macabre and powerful literary detective-story-type novels. Her most famous is probably "Out"

Hope this helps you delve into Japanese literature, which is really very rich from my experience. I want to explore more of it, but lately haven't had time. So many good books, so little time, alas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 21, 2008, 12:35:30 PM
Thanks a lot, you've been very helpful.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: adamdavid80 on September 21, 2008, 12:43:31 PM
Currently reading Sporpion Tongues by Gail Collins. 

It's okay, but doesn't measure up to her Op-Eds in the NY Times, which are always very, very smart and witty.  (I think the main problem for me is the Op-Eds - due to their brevity - lend themselves more to "zingers" and author "heckling".  A book about the history of slander and smear campaigns in American politics, the humor should almost take care of itself, so she cast herself a lot more invisibly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on September 21, 2008, 03:49:54 PM
Quote from: mozartsneighbor on September 21, 2008, 12:32:21 PM

-- there's the pretty famous living writer, Haruki Murakami, who is the best-selling Japanese author abroad. I have found his work to be sliping a bit and becoming repetitious lately, but his earlier work is often very good. "A Wild Sheep Chase", "Norwegian Wood" and what is perhaps his best so far "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"

Norwegian Wood is a few books down the road for me.
I've read his "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" earlier this year, which I liked a lot. Its narrative was strange, to say the least but I was quite convinced with his idea of infinity.

There is also Ishiguro, though I don't know if he is considered as a Japanese (or British) author. The Unconsoled was a very interesting novel about a concert pianist suddenly losing most of his memory, not to mention his repertoire right before a major European concert.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on September 22, 2008, 02:17:15 AM
MICHEL FOUCAULT:     "Histoire de la folie à l'age classique"

An history of the social and cultural perspectives about madness, since the Middle Age until 1800.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 22, 2008, 04:01:27 AM
Quote from: Corey on September 20, 2008, 07:50:46 PM
Has anyone here read anything by Yukio Mishima? I don't think I have any Japanese literature on my shelf (apart from a set of Akutagawa short stories).

I've read The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea, quite striking, it did leave an impression, spare style, beautiful in very stark way, could easily be disliked but I thought rather strong and individual voice, didn't sound derivative of anyone (though my knowledge of japanese literature is more than minuscule). But don't trust my opinion too much, read it some time ago and haven't read anything else by him since, so can't really put it into perspective within his oeuvre. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 23, 2008, 04:45:54 PM
Quote from: M forever on September 18, 2008, 06:00:24 PM


(http://www.personalizationmall.com/cat_image/1117D-C1.jpg)

It's a little tedious to read though (there are no pictures). Alternatively, you can also rent the video.


:D(dying laughing)



Really enjoyed this one, am immediately re-reading it:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 23, 2008, 04:55:26 PM
Quote from: M forever on September 18, 2008, 06:00:24 PM
(http://www.personalizationmall.com/cat_image/1117D-C1.jpg)

It's a little tedious to read though (there are no pictures). Alternatively, you can also rent the video.
I think this one has pictures:

(http://www.agape-bookstore.com/images/BC1067.jpg)

Yes: The Extreme Teen New King James!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 24, 2008, 04:28:18 PM
Stevie Van Zandt's preface to the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of, Like, Forever, Dude.

Great literature? No.

For what it is, it's all right.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on September 26, 2008, 09:36:10 AM
Ann Beattie-Another You
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 28, 2008, 11:05:30 PM
Louis de Bernieres --- Captain Corelli's Mandolin

simultaneously with

Jose Saramago --- Baltasar and Blimunda (Memorial do convento)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on September 29, 2008, 12:05:05 PM
I really hate to do this, but I had to give up on Ulysses — for now, at least. There is just too much about it I don't understand. :(

Now reading:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0140449876.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on September 29, 2008, 01:06:35 PM
(http://www.vivid.ro/images/89/vernon.jpg)
Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre

Very good satire and great fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on September 29, 2008, 01:15:26 PM
Quote from: Corey on September 29, 2008, 12:05:05 PM
I really hate to do this, but I had to give up on Ulysses — for now, at least. There is just too much about it I don't understand. :(

You will never understand most of all the little references, allusions, and layers. Not unless you make a career out of it and become a college professor. So just enjoy it, and be content to understand a part of it.
I took a class on Joyce in college and was lucky enough to have great Professor, expert in Joyce, who took us through Ulysses in a way that was joyous rather than pedantic. It is a funny book really, and Joyce himself took the littering of allusions and cross-meanings as a game, so no use getting hung up on every little detail.
Have you read Dubliners? That's really wonderful in a very different way, which might be a good antidote to the crushing magnitude of Ulysses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sarastro on September 29, 2008, 08:51:42 PM
Quote from: Corey on September 29, 2008, 12:05:05 PM
Now reading

Quite an inappropriate image for Oblomov (according to Goncharov's descriptions), looks more like Raskol'nikov from Crime and Punishment.

Goncharov has three novels with the titles starting with "O": Oblomov, Obryv (The Precipice), and Obyknovennaya istoriya (A Common Story) - this last one I find adorable.

Interesting, what you will think about Oblomov, if you finish it. :)

Last Saturday my English instructor told me how he once tried to bring The Cherry Orchard into the curriculum and how the students thought it is a good idea to chop the orchard and build a shopping mall. :o 8) We have Othello this semester  -- never have read it in the original English -- I can't wait. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sarastro on September 29, 2008, 08:58:36 PM
And I am reading this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GqzIyBXrL._SS500_.jpg)

Damn, and there are still so many cool books about opera singers!!! :D I gotta read them all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 30, 2008, 05:10:43 AM
SABRIEL by Garth Nix

YA fantasy

not bad
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: adamdavid80 on September 30, 2008, 05:55:34 AM
Quote from: Sarastro on September 29, 2008, 08:58:36 PM
And I am reading this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GqzIyBXrL._SS500_.jpg)

Damn, and there are still so many cool books about opera singers!!! :D I gotta read them all.

Tha's an EXCELLENT cover!  Cool art direction and graphic design...looks like something Chip Kidd would do.  If the book is half as good, it's gonna be good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on September 30, 2008, 01:03:51 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ro3Uh98WL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
and
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DDEFFAV6L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 01, 2008, 01:24:56 AM
KAFKA:    Complete Works (I)

This first book has all of Kafka's works that were published during his life. They all are very famous.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on October 01, 2008, 05:07:46 AM
Bought this along with the Mahler CD...

Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Brain
Douglas R. Hofstadter

I'll have time only skim through the pages for the next couple of weeks. :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 02, 2008, 07:43:21 AM
(http://library2.risingshadow.net/images/books/5329.jpg)

A couple reviewers at Amazon are slamming this but so far--I've just started reading it--I can't see why.

Screw genre labels. Gene Wolfe is one of America's greatest living writers and it's always a pleasure to experience his prose.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 02, 2008, 10:32:32 AM
I'm reading this too.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VQMMWlhDL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: adamdavid80 on October 02, 2008, 04:31:32 PM
Quote from: mn dave on October 02, 2008, 07:43:21 AM
(http://library2.risingshadow.net/images/books/5329.jpg)

A couple reviewers at Amazon are slamming this but so far--I've just started reading it--I can't see why.

Screw genre labels. Gene Wolfe is one of America's greatest living writers and it's always a pleasure to experience his prose.

Wait...can you not see why others are slamming it, or can you not see why you're taking the time to read it?? ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 02, 2008, 04:47:26 PM
#1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 02, 2008, 05:23:25 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on September 20, 2008, 05:26:56 PM
Drink:  A Cultural History of Alcohol (2008) by Iain Gately - just started this book today, so far getting into the early Middle Ages (chapters on Greece & Rome quite enjoyable) - should be a fun read - click HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Drink-Cultural-History-Iain-Gately/dp/1592403034/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221960054&sr=1-1) for Amazonian comments & reviews -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k-7iEAnPL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg)

Well, as usual , I've been reading numerous different books - but am about half way through the above which I posted recently on this thread - this book is indeed fascinating and enjoyable despite its length (about 500 pages); really, a brief history of the world and 'how' alcoholic beverages of all sorts have impacted & influenced history - looking forward to finishing this tome, and would recommend the book to others w/ similar interests -  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Norbeone on October 04, 2008, 09:00:17 AM
Quote from: opus67 on October 01, 2008, 05:07:46 AM
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Brain
Douglas R. Hofstadter

I'll have time only skim through the pages for the next couple of weeks. :(



Good luck with that one! Great book, but very challenging at certain parts. That's always a good thing, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on October 04, 2008, 10:25:21 AM
Quote from: Norbeone on October 04, 2008, 09:00:17 AM

Good luck with that one! Great book, but very challenging at certain parts. That's always a good thing, though.

Thanks. :) I put off buying this book for a long time, since I assumed that the reader requires previous knowledge of music and art. Having read a few web-pages recently, I came to the conclusion that no such thing is needed, and the reader must only be ready to face the challenges, as you say, presented in the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on October 04, 2008, 08:48:01 PM
As Christmas is coming up:

(http://xs132.xs.to/xs132/08406/hogfather-2699.jpg)

Edit: Oh, and is it good? It's less essential TP, like all the new books. But TP is one of the best authors when it comes to complacency - the less original books are still lots of fun to read, mainly due to his "themes".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on October 05, 2008, 02:27:42 PM
Rimsky-Korsakov's auto-biography. A great way to discover some aspects of the 19th century in Russia.

(http://www.txantiquemall.com/books/cb_m_011.jpg)

P.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Heather Harrison on October 05, 2008, 07:37:09 PM
I have been reading short stories from 1843 issues of Graham's Magazine, one of the top literary magazines of its day.  I love 19th Century literature, and these moldy old magazines are a good way to venture off the beaten path.  Today, I read "The Fire Doomed" by Reynell Coates and "The Enchanted Gun" by C. F. Hoffman.  "The Fire Doomed" is a story about a man who goes insane after losing the love of his life; Romantic notions about fate and destiny pervade the story.  "The Enchanted Gun" is a funny short story about backwoods people who are freaked out by a gun that is going off by itself.

Heather
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on October 06, 2008, 07:14:13 AM
Learning a Trade by Reynolds Price

I love these type of books that allow one direct knowledge of the thought process of an author. Allowing insight into their intent, their workings, their etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 09, 2008, 08:36:24 PM
From 1927

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0441029396.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

From the web:
Armageddon 2419 A.D. is Philip Francis Nowlan's novella which first appeared in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. Later, in the 1960s, the novella and its sequel, The Airlords of Han, were combined by editor Donald A. Wollheim into one paperback novel, titled Armageddon 2419 A.D. The characters and setting eventually evolved into Buck Rogers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Hector on October 10, 2008, 05:23:16 AM
John Maynard Keynes and John Kenneth Galbraith.

The latter is hilarious to the extent I laughed myself all the way from the bank! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on October 10, 2008, 09:53:29 AM
(http://img.timeinc.net/time/2005/100books/jackets/american_pastoral.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 10, 2008, 09:57:26 AM
Quote from: Bogey on October 09, 2008, 08:36:24 PM
From 1927

]

From the web:
Armageddon 2419 A.D. is Philip Francis Nowlan's novella which first appeared in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. Later, in the 1960s, the novella and its sequel, The Airlords of Han, were combined by editor Donald A. Wollheim into one paperback novel, titled Armageddon 2419 A.D. The characters and setting eventually evolved into Buck Rogers.

I dig the look.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jay F on October 10, 2008, 10:47:59 AM
Quote from: orbital on October 10, 2008, 09:53:29 AM
(http://img.timeinc.net/time/2005/100books/jackets/american_pastoral.jpg)
Wonderful, wonderful book. I've enjoyed many of Roth's latest novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on October 10, 2008, 01:59:01 PM
Quote from: Jay F on October 10, 2008, 10:47:59 AM
Wonderful, wonderful book. I've enjoyed many of Roth's latest novels.
Yes, I'm enjoying it very much. This is my first Roth though, I hope I have not started with his very best  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on October 10, 2008, 03:17:55 PM
Quote from: orbital on October 10, 2008, 01:59:01 PM
Yes, I'm enjoying it very much. This is my first Roth though, I hope I have not started with his very best  :-\

I am a big Roth fan. I have read about half his books, but that man writes tons, difficult to keep up. "American Pastoral" is definitely one of the best I have read so far. But don't worry Orbital there are a few at the level of American Pastoral: such as The Human Stain and Operation Shylock.
Even if some other of his books are not quite at such an exalted level, I have never read anything by Roth that isn't very very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: adamdavid80 on October 10, 2008, 03:59:43 PM
Are there any recommended books about Mozart's music?  All I have so far are Phil Goulding's book and Beethoven or Bust.  Would really like to find something that discusses the music more so than his bio.  Suggestions?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on October 10, 2008, 04:08:43 PM
Quote from: adamdavid80 on October 10, 2008, 03:59:43 PM
Are there any recommended books about Mozart's music?  All I have so far are Phil Goulding's book and Beethoven or Bust.  Would really like to find something that discusses the music more so than his bio.  Suggestions?



My favorite is by Alfred Einstein, and it's alot more like a "fan"'s interpretation/appreciation of the music. He gets really in depth in regard to the later string quintets.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jay F on October 10, 2008, 06:41:57 PM
Quote from: orbital on October 10, 2008, 01:59:01 PM
Yes, I'm enjoying it very much. This is my first Roth though, I hope I have not started with his very best  :-\
My favorites are Letting Go, which I believe is his first novel, and Goodbye, Columbus, another early one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on October 10, 2008, 09:55:33 PM
Quote from: adamdavid80 on October 10, 2008, 03:59:43 PM
Are there any recommended books about Mozart's music?  All I have so far are Phil Goulding's book and Beethoven or Bust.  Would really like to find something that discusses the music more so than his bio.  Suggestions?

This is not a suggestion. It is required reading:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519ZSAZ939L._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on October 11, 2008, 05:19:58 AM
Quote from: M forever on October 10, 2008, 09:55:33 PM
This is not a suggestion. It is required reading:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519ZSAZ939L._SL500_.jpg)




Terrific book. Rosen has several excellent books to his credit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on October 11, 2008, 06:48:08 AM
Quote from: M forever on October 10, 2008, 09:55:33 PM
This is not a suggestion. It is required reading:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519ZSAZ939L._SL500_.jpg)

Thank you for mentioning this book, M.  :) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on October 11, 2008, 12:28:10 PM
Philip K. Dick-Dr.Bloodmoney
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: adamdavid80 on October 11, 2008, 03:03:15 PM
Quote from: M forever on October 10, 2008, 09:55:33 PM
This is not a suggestion. It is required reading:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519ZSAZ939L._SL500_.jpg)

Thank you sir!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on October 13, 2008, 08:42:05 AM
Thanks, M!

Murakami: After Dark. Superb.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 17, 2008, 02:12:47 PM
Paul Roberts, Claude Debussy (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/claude-debussy-by-paul-roberts-838756.html) (Phaidon Press)

Sort of a 'thumbnail biography' series, well illustrated; I'm enjoying it because, well, I haven't read a complete biography of Debussy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 17, 2008, 07:07:44 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712Z5TDMAJL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.gif)

One of the best blues books I've read.

Also reading: PIG ISLAND by Mo Hayder
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on October 17, 2008, 09:27:32 PM
Taking a break from Nietzsche. Some 150 pages into The Gay science, I feel I'm advancing swimming through treacle.

So I'm turning my attention to my Tintin collection, of which I was missing Tintin au pays des Soviets (I borrowed it from the Library).
Man, this is so subversive!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 18, 2008, 04:24:05 AM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on October 17, 2008, 09:27:32 PM
So I'm turning my attention to my Tintin collection, of which I was missing Tintin au pays des Soviets (I borrowed it from the Library).
Man, this is so subversive!

Curious to say, we had a couple of copies of that in the MFA shop a few months ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 18, 2008, 06:36:59 AM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on October 17, 2008, 09:27:32 PM

So I'm turning my attention to my Tintin collection, of which I was missing Tintin au pays des Soviets (I borrowed it from the Library).
Man, this is so subversive!

I am guessing Mr. Spielberg agrees with you assessment of its depth:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983193/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on October 18, 2008, 07:19:36 AM
No Comebacks (a collection of ten short stories)
Frederick Forsyth

Ideal for the daily bus ride I take, but after tomorrow I would not have to do that for about a fortnight.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on October 19, 2008, 01:26:51 AM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on October 17, 2008, 09:27:32 PM
So I'm turning my attention to my Tintin collection, of which I was missing Tintin au pays des Soviets (I borrowed it from the Library).
Man, this is so subversive!

I loved the Tintin books as a kid, although my favorite comic books probably were the Asterix and Obelix books, at least until the writer Goscinny died, I never found the later ones written and drawn by Uderzo (probably with a host of assistants) quite as good. I think it would be fun to re-read the Tintin books. I don't remember much about them, except that they were really well drawn and had a very lively and "authentic" feel about them, the action leaped from the page, and really interesting stories set in exotic and mysterious places.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 19, 2008, 07:02:14 PM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n10/n51953.jpg)

Author Phillip Pullman published a list of his favorite forty books in the UK Times and said this book was his favorite thriller of all time. I finished it this weekend and loved it! It's a wonderfully researched spy thriller and the final third is ridiculously suspenseful.





Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on October 20, 2008, 07:50:57 AM
Not reading, but want to read Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages (http://www.amazon.com/Reading-OED-One-Year-Pages/dp/0399533982/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224516782&sr=8-1). An excerpt (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/17/ammon-shea-dictionary-extract-oed) is posted in The Guardian's website.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on October 20, 2008, 08:31:04 AM
I left Nietzsche's The Gay Science midway through. A collection of aphorisms, sentences and mini-essays with no apparent direction and no inter-relatedness. Pearls of wisdom, chips from the workbench, bathroom reading, I guess there's a bit of all that here. Often very perceptive, but the lack of structure doesn't help make this a compelling reading experience. I  jumped to Der Wagner Fall ("The Wagner Case"). At least here there's a coherent development of his thought-provoking ideas on the subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on October 21, 2008, 11:06:21 AM
Wagner's writings can be verbose to the extreme (surprised anyone?) but this book is an excellent insight into Wagner as a man. The intro by the editor is worth the book by itself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 21, 2008, 11:56:16 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on October 21, 2008, 11:06:21 AM
Wagner's writings can be verbose to the extreme (surprised anyone?)

Not I  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on October 22, 2008, 08:15:07 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n24/n121080.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 22, 2008, 08:50:39 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UZGWYWbdL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 22, 2008, 08:55:16 AM
Read that in high school French class, actually.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on October 22, 2008, 02:14:13 PM
Gustave Flaubert

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510QQPRQSFL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Bought it for 2 euros on the second hand bookmarket ( Koningsplein - Antwerp). Read only a few pages : hilarious, serious, masterly....Fleas and mosquitos are everywhere ....
+ a translation of Charles Burney's voyage through the Netherlands....Really great!

English music historian and composer. Educated at Shrewsbury School and at the Free School, Chester, he was apprenticed to Thomas Arne, 1744-46. In 1749 he became organist at St. Dionis's Backchurch, London, and in 1751 moved to King's Lynn, Norfolk, where he was a teacher and organist. Returning to London in 1760 he taught music to the well-to-do. Meanwhile he cultivated growing interests in science, literature, and history; in 1769 he published a book on comets. The following year he embarked on his brilliantly chronicled travels; although his tours of Italy and France (1770) and of Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands (1772) were made chiefly to gather information for his General History of Music, the chronicles themselves are as valuable to scholars as the history. They detail with rare precision and humor the author's personal contacts with figures such as Gluck, Hasse, C. P. E. Bach, Quantz, J. A. Hiller, Galuppi, Padre Martini, Piccinni, Farinelli, Metastasio, Diderot, Rousseau, and Klopstock. In its emphasis on contemporary rather than "ancient" music, the General History, differs from that by John Hawkins (1776). Burney's writings constitute the most important firsthand account of 18th-century European musical life. In 1806 he was pensioned by the British government.



P.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 22, 2008, 06:59:49 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 22, 2008, 08:55:16 AM
Read that in high school French class, actually.

He certainly isn't one for verbosity. :)

Not that that's a bad thing...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on October 25, 2008, 04:09:25 PM
The rather epically titled "The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine and North Germany". Due to the total lack of reasonable English-language choices on the subject, I had to go for a book from 1906, and unfortunately it both looks and smells its age. It's not good when the spine of a book is not just sun-bleached, but an entirely different colour... The pages are uneven, so make "flicking through" impossible, and the binding looks like it's about to give way. Why do people like antiques?

(http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/273/image1bc2.jpg)

Edit: impossible to get a good photo at this time at night (the flash overexposes everything), but even with this bad pic it is evident how weird the pages are. Not sure how they ended up like that - perhaps insects/rats or something. It looks like papyrus :P

(http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/4558/image1kk9.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on October 26, 2008, 03:43:44 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/df/No_Way_to_Treat_a_First_Lady.jpg/200px-No_Way_to_Treat_a_First_Lady.jpg)
Maybe Christopher Buckley will end being more famous than his father in the long run. Anyway, he is certainly a lot funnier. Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on October 26, 2008, 03:47:57 AM
(http://www.jdelgado.net/img/skipping_towards_gomorah.jpg)
Also read this a couple of days ago. Immensely funny and perceptive -- Dan Savage is one of the best social commentators around, though he is underrated because everyone just thinks of him primarily as a sex columnist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 27, 2008, 05:06:18 AM
Except they colored in the pants on my copy. Didn't like those prison leggings on the cover I guess.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X1JZSP8QL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 27, 2008, 02:15:22 PM
Quote from: mn dave on October 27, 2008, 05:06:18 AM
Except they colored in the pants on my copy. Didn't like those prison leggings on the cover I guess.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X1JZSP8QL._SL500_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rMdOhcNEL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Dave - that's an excellent book from one of the seminal field folklorist of early 20th century American music - Alan Lomax started w/ his father John - great & numerous 'field' recordings and discoveries (including Ledbelly) - for those interested, check out this short Wiki Article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lomax) on the son!  :D

Just getting back to the Forum after a 3-day trip to visit my son in Indianapolis - started a new book on the plane - The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus (2008) by David Abulafia - just got through the first hundred pages, mainly the European reactions (and interactions and eventual destruction) of the populations of the Canary Islands; next on the list is Columbus and the 'other' New World - so far, well done w/ plenty of research & references (pic added above) -  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on October 27, 2008, 08:56:16 PM
Quote from: -abe- on October 19, 2008, 07:02:14 PM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n10/n51953.jpg)

Is that a submarine on the cover? It looks like a Russian typhoon class. Are there subs in the book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 27, 2008, 10:55:14 PM
Quote from: M forever on October 27, 2008, 08:56:16 PM
Is that a submarine on the cover? It looks like a Russian typhoon class. Are there subs in the book?

This wasn't exactly my edition, but I believe that's supposed to be a remote research station in Siberia.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 27, 2008, 10:58:06 PM
I finished this novel yesterday:

(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n1830.jpg)

The plot concerns a colony on the moon gaining independence from Earth. Heinlein can overindulge in extended dialogue sequences but the novel was overall pretty good. I especially liked the "weapon" that the colonists ultimately used against Earth!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 27, 2008, 11:00:30 PM
Started this novel today:

(http://lopezbooks.com/images/kl/026093.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 28, 2008, 02:26:46 AM
Just finished the first volume of Karl Marx and Engels Chosen Works. It includes some texts I didn't know, but also great works such as Le 18 Brumaire de Louis Bonaparte, the Théses sur Feuerbach.
It is a very good and precise edition.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 28, 2008, 03:03:51 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/413BNwBRF1L._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on October 28, 2008, 01:41:04 PM
(http://www.ilknokta.com/img/Metas/m/9789750506093.jpg)
About to finish Orhan Pamuk's latest novel. It is called "The Museum of Innocence", but not yet translated into foreign languages AFAIK.
A very captivating and brilliantly crafted love story.
His critics in his home country accuse him of not using Turkish properly, which is a shame because he has a language of his own particularly when read in Turkish and his deviations from traditional sentence structures is a large part of why his writings work so well IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 28, 2008, 11:53:25 PM
Quote from: orbital on October 28, 2008, 01:41:04 PM
(http://www.ilknokta.com/img/Metas/m/9789750506093.jpg)
About to finish Orhan Pamuk's latest novel. It is called "The Museum of Innocence", but not yet translated into foreign languages AFAIK.
A very captivating and brilliantly crafted love story.

I've read "The New Life" and your description fits it well, although for someone not familiar with Turkish culture and history the simbolism is a bit abstruse. I also have "My Name Is Red", "The White Fortress" and "The Black Book" but haven't read them yet. I consider buying "Snow" as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on October 29, 2008, 03:47:57 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 28, 2008, 11:53:25 PM
I've read "The New Life" and your description fits it well, although for someone not familiar with Turkish culture and history the simbolism is a bit abstruse.
That's very true. And his international success has somehow puzzled me precisely because of that reason. Turkey's centuries old indecision as to whether to lean to the east or west plays a prominent role in almost all his novels of course, but there are many subtle details in his books which add tremendous enjoyment to reading him which would unfortunately be very difficult if not impossible for a foreign national to get. His best book to date: The Black Book is a good example. The story largely takes place in a bourgeois neighborhood in Istanbul, the very one I grew up in. The familiarity one could have with the details that he gives about the environment -down to the obscure smell of mold in old apartment buildings- adds much to the story. A real life convenience store he mentions in Black Book (as well as in his latest novel) is where I normally get my cigarettes from. The owner is really an angry, rude man  ;D
Of course, such details may pertain to every international author. And these small details may be besides the point anyway.

Quote
I also have "My Name Is Red", "The White Fortress" and "The Black Book" but haven't read them yet. I consider buying "Snow" as well.
The New Life is the only novel of his that I could not read till the end. Somehow it eluded me past a few chapters. I should give it another go soon. Perhaps the opening lines were so mesmerizing that they created an unrealistic expectation on my side. The Museum of Innocence opens with a similarly arresting line: "It was the best moment of my life. I had no idea at the time." But this time, the secret of the line is revealed very soon :)

From those others you have, as I've said above The Black Book is my favorite, but probably the one with most symbolisms. With regards to Snow, it pertains to the headscarves issue for most part and thus it is pretty political. I'd be curious to find out how the translator got over the issue of Ka-Kar-Kars trilogy which is crucial in the novel. The protagonist's name is "Ka", "Kar" means snow in Turkish, and "Kars" is the city where the novel takes place. These three are in constant interaction both figuratively and literally.

If you can find them his first two novels are worth reading as well. Cevdet Bey and His Sons -basically a retake on the themes from Buddenbrooks- and The Silent House -Cevdet Bey's smaller sister- are both treasures too, IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 29, 2008, 04:27:44 AM
Thanks for your informed thoughts.

I think he's indeed very good at describing the atmosphere of Istanbul. I've never been there but the vivid and poetical descriptions of neighbourhoods and street corners in "The New Life" made a strong impression on me.

At a more general level, the issue of modernity vs tradition is one that has played a prominent role in the intellectual life of my own country (Romania) starting from the 19th Century onward. It has never been settled and the debates are still going on. Although the specific settings of Turkish culture are, as I said, abstruse --- a thing that's actually good in itself, because it prompted me to do a bit of (very broad) study on the history of Turkey, a subject upon which I now know more than before reading the book --- the ideas and conflicts involved are common in both cases. Much more so since the history of Romania was, until 1878, strongly influenced by the Ottoman Empire.

(As an aside, it strikes me as odd that "kar" means "snow", which implies whiteness, and "kara" means "black". Two almost identical words with such different meanings... :) )



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on October 29, 2008, 07:24:07 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 29, 2008, 04:27:44 AM
At a more general level, the issue of modernity vs tradition is one that has played a prominent role in the intellectual life of my own country (Romania) starting from the 19th Century onward. It has never been settled and the debates are still going on. Although the specific settings of Turkish culture are, as I said, abstruse --- a thing that's actually good in itself, because it prompted me to do a bit of (very broad) study on the history of Turkey, a subject upon which I now know more than before reading the book --- the ideas and conflicts involved are common in both cases. Much more so since the history of Romania was, until 1878, strongly influenced by the Ottoman Empire.

I feel The White Castle may be right up your alley. It goes back all the way to the beginnings of the Westernization dreams of the Ottoman Empire. A small magical book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 29, 2008, 07:27:02 AM
Quote from: orbital on October 29, 2008, 07:24:07 AM
I feel The White Castle may be right up your alley. It goes back all the way to the beginnings of the Westernization dreams of the Ottoman Empire. A small magical book.

I'll start reading it asap. Thanks for the recommendation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on October 29, 2008, 07:41:09 AM
Quote from: orbital on October 29, 2008, 03:47:57 AM
I'd be curious to find out how the translator got over the issue of Ka-Kar-Kars trilogy which is crucial in the novel. The protagonist's name is "Ka", "Kar" means snow in Turkish, and "Kars" is the city where the novel takes place. These three are in constant interaction both figuratively and literally.

If you can find them his first two novels are worth reading as well. Cevdet Bey and His Sons -basically a retake on the themes from Buddenbrooks- and The Silent House -Cevdet Bey's smaller sister- are both treasures too, IMO.

Thanks very much for your very informative discussion of Orhan Pamuk's books, Orbital, and Florestan too: I bought a couple of them but only found time to read his book on Istanbul and his novel Kar/Snow, in Dutch translation. Idon't know how the English translation solved the Ka/kar/Kars problem, but I guess there's no way to deal with it in translation. In my Dutch copy, it's all clarified by an introduction and the reader will be well aware of it, so I'm not afraid they will miss this point at all. On the whole, I find little difficulty in following its references, and the same applies to his other books, as far as I've seen them.

A very ineresting writer, imo, and after your discussion of him I feel urged to read the rest of his novels asap!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on October 29, 2008, 07:43:54 AM
All this talking about Turkey makes me want a Döner!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on October 29, 2008, 08:46:00 AM
Quote from: Christo on October 29, 2008, 07:41:09 AM
Thanks very much for your very informative discussion of Orhan Pamuk's books, Orbital, and Florestan too: I bought a couple of them but only found time to read his book on Istanbul and his novel Kar/Snow, in Dutch translation. Idon't know how the English translation solved the Ka/kar/Kars problem, but I guess there's no way to deal with it in translation. In my Dutch copy, it's all clarified by an introduction and the reader will be well aware of it, so I'm not afraid they will miss this point at all. On the whole, I find little difficulty in following its references, and the same applies to his other books, as far as I've seen them.

A very ineresting writer, imo, and after your discussion of him I feel urged to read the rest of his novels asap!
Hi Christo, do you have access to his earlier novels, the two that I've mentioned to florestan earlier? They don't contain much references, although in the case of Cevdet Bey and His Sons, the story is set against the background of Turkey from its inception until the 60's. It is much easier to follow, but the background details are not as specific. Particularly in The Silent House, the characters are Thracian which might help you understand their inner thoughts, traditions, etc without much difficulty.

Quote from: M forever on October 29, 2008, 07:43:54 AM
All this talking about Turkey makes me want a Döner!
I've heard the Turkish immigrants cook a mean Doner in Germany! But the meat has to include fat from the sheep's tail, I wonder if the local German governments/health services are aware  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on October 29, 2008, 09:00:14 AM
Quote from: orbital on October 29, 2008, 08:46:00 AM
Hi Christo, do you have access to his earlier novels, the two that I've mentioned to florestan earlier? They don't contain much references, although in the case of Cevdet Bey and His Sons, the story is set against the background of Turkey from its inception until the 60's. It is much easier to follow, but the background details are not as specific. Particularly in The Silent House, the characters are Thracian which might help you understand their inner thoughts, traditions, etc without much difficulty.

I don't own them, but (probably) all of his novels have been translated into Dutch, as far as I know. I hope to find an opportunity to read them all, in time. The titles you mentioned looking like this, in Dutch:

(http://www.cuttingedge.be/assets/200707/18808/content/pamuk_cevdet_image.jpg?1212708461)(http://www.boekendingen.nl/wp-nieuws/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/pamuk4.jpg)(http://www.boekendingen.nl/wp-nieuws/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/pamuk5.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on October 29, 2008, 10:26:24 AM
Quote from: orbital on October 29, 2008, 08:46:00 AM
I've heard the Turkish immigrants cook a mean Doner in Germany! But the meat has to include fat from the sheep's tail, I wonder if the local German governments/health services are aware  ;D

Why sheep's tail fat?

I don't think that would be illegal in Germany, but I don't know either how "authentic" the Döner is you find in Germany. In bigger cities, there are Döner places almost everywhere, and the quality varies enormously, as one might expect. I think the real Döner is more a dish on a platter whereas in those places, you can get the platter, but the sandwich type is by far the most popular. At the best places, where the meat is crispy and juicy, the vegetables fresh and the bread crunchy, a Döner can be a simple, but extremely delicious thing to stuff your face with. In Berlin, it typically looks like this:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Doener_berlin_kraeuter.jpg/608px-Doener_berlin_kraeuter.jpg)

Man, that makes me really hungry now. I almost bit in the screen.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on October 29, 2008, 12:21:47 PM
Quote from: M forever on October 29, 2008, 10:26:24 AM
Why sheep's tail fat?

I don't really know, but the fat at the back of the slice (the side that is not charred) is clearly visible in the form of colorful glitter, as if it was diesel oil on water  >:D Supposedly that's where the taste comes from.

I used to have them like this:
(http://www.bufehisar.com/images/pages/et-doner-pide-doner-3126228.jpeg)
Just the meat, with sliced tomatoes, gherkins and fries.  no sauce or salad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on October 29, 2008, 12:38:58 PM
Quote from: Christo on October 29, 2008, 09:00:14 AM
I don't own them, but (probably) all of his novels have been translated into Dutch, as far as I know. I hope to find an opportunity to read them all, in time. The titles you mentioned looking like this, in Dutch:

(http://www.cuttingedge.be/assets/200707/18808/content/pamuk_cevdet_image.jpg?1212708461)(http://www.boekendingen.nl/wp-nieuws/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/pamuk4.jpg)(http://www.boekendingen.nl/wp-nieuws/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/pamuk5.jpg)
The first one is obviously Cevdet Bey, and the last one is The New Life I think. Cevdet Bey, may be an excellent entry point. It is his longest novel to date, but it does not feel like it at all :)
The Silent House is close to Cevdet Bey in both its synopsis (Silent House being more concise) and writing style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: M forever on October 29, 2008, 01:03:33 PM
Is the sheep's tail fat put in between the pieces of meat when the Döner "bundle" is assembled?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wanderer on October 29, 2008, 02:03:47 PM
Quote from: M forever on October 29, 2008, 01:03:33 PM
Is the sheep's tail fat put in between the pieces of meat when the Döner "bundle" is assembled?

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on October 29, 2008, 07:43:14 PM
Is there any writer whose style is similar to Pamuk's (as a point of reference)?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 30, 2008, 01:21:41 AM
Quote from: Corey on October 29, 2008, 07:43:14 PM
Is there any writer whose style is similar to Pamuk's (as a point of reference)?

I would say that, in respect to the psychological impact of location on the characters, cities and neighbourhoods being actually characters in their own right, he's similar to the contemporary Spaniards Juan Marse and Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and to Dostoievsky and Faulkner. On the level of the writing style itself, though, I am not aware of any similarities between him and other writers. Maybe Orbital can enlighten us.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 30, 2008, 04:22:21 AM
Just started.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F22MY6DCL._SL160_OU01_SS160_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 30, 2008, 04:29:20 AM
Quote from: mn dave on October 30, 2008, 04:22:21 AM
Just started.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F22MY6DCL._SL160_OU01_SS160_.jpg)

Fabulous! It's time I re-read that one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 30, 2008, 04:32:36 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 30, 2008, 04:29:20 AM
Fabulous! It's time I re-read that one.

Do you have this translation or do you read Russian?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 30, 2008, 04:39:02 AM
Quote from: mn dave on October 30, 2008, 04:32:36 AM
Do you have this translation or do you read Russian?

I have a different translation (unless it's the same translation with a different cover, which could be, of course);  I do read Russian, but I haven't attempted this novel yet in Russian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 31, 2008, 04:34:52 AM
Also reading this:

(http://www.unbsj.ca/arts/english/jones/mt/images/historian.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on October 31, 2008, 01:14:53 PM


    The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross

     I've read the first half and I find it riveting. Here's another opinion:

     I am astounded at the glowing reviews for this intellectual lightweight of a book about music in 20th century. Author Alex Ross does a frantic tap dance of maintaining a narrative with critical insights, but ultimately, he has created a vapid work of no real insight into 20th century music, except those created by popular tastes. In fact, no one I know in serious musical discussions considers his commentary worthwhile. I do not believe he understands anything about music in form, in taste, and in historical context. Really disappointing.

     This is like calling someones ideas "drivel". You know a book that causes this reaction must have good things in it. And it's well written, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 01, 2008, 04:43:53 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0765314320.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)

gotten hooked on Steven Erickson, liking this even better than George RR Martin
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 01, 2008, 04:45:25 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on November 01, 2008, 04:43:53 AM
gotten hooked on Steven Erickson, liking this even better than George RR Martin

And that's saying something.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on November 01, 2008, 04:46:16 AM
Once again, terrific book! Not just for novices, all kinds of interesting information.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 01, 2008, 08:29:09 AM
Vincent d'Indy and His World (1996) by Andrew Thomson, published by Oxford Press - Amazon is selling this 230+ page book for $216 & used ones goin' for $100!  :o

However, borrowed a copy from the North Carolina School of the Arts library - I was lookin' for a d'Indy thread but seems not to exist?  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AF5ZVZK1L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on November 01, 2008, 09:45:51 AM
Quote from: Corey on October 29, 2008, 07:43:14 PM
Is there any writer whose style is similar to Pamuk's (as a point of reference)?
Hi Corey,
From my experience the closest resemblance that I've come across has been Kafka (particularly in Black Book and Snow), mostly due to "alienation" being a central theme in most of his works. I'd also heard comparisons made of him to Proust which I could not really confirm -until his latest novel. But in general I'd still consider him a post-modern author nevertheless.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on November 01, 2008, 09:53:14 AM
Quote from: mn dave on October 30, 2008, 04:22:21 AM
Just started.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F22MY6DCL._SL160_OU01_SS160_.jpg)

ah The Karamazov Brothers, one of my favourite books, probably couldn't decide between this, C&P and Notes from the Underground.

On another note it is about time that silly translators and publishing houses dispensed with following the Russian title and translated it fully as The Karamazov Brothers. I think it was the Oxford publication which did this correctly, and finally.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 01, 2008, 04:46:38 PM
Quote from: orbital on November 01, 2008, 09:45:51 AM
Hi Corey,
From my experience the closest resemblance that I've come across has been Kafka (particularly in Black Book and Snow), mostly due to "alienation" being a central theme in most of his works. I'd also heard comparisons made of him to Proust which I could not really confirm -until his latest novel. But in general I'd still consider him a post-modern author nevertheless.
Quote from: Florestan on October 30, 2008, 01:21:41 AM
I would say that, in respect to the psychological impact of location on the characters, cities and neighbourhoods being actually characters in their own right, he's similar to the contemporary Spaniards Juan Marse and Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and to Dostoievsky and Faulkner. On the level of the writing style itself, though, I am not aware of any similarities between him and other writers. Maybe Orbital can enlighten us.

Good enough for me, I'll give him a try. What do you recommend as an entrypoint?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Norbeone on November 02, 2008, 02:22:50 PM
Quote from: ezodisy on November 01, 2008, 09:53:14 AM
ah The Karamazov Brothers, one of my favourite books, probably couldn't decide between this, C&P and Notes from the Underground.

On another note it is about time that silly translators and publishing houses dispensed with following the Russian title and translated it fully as The Karamazov Brothers. I think it was the Oxford publication which did this correctly, and finally.

You're right, I suppose, but it just wouldn't have that 'ring' anymore. I'm not usually a victim of 'traditional wisdom' but this is one of the exceptions.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 03, 2008, 04:07:50 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 01, 2008, 04:46:38 PM
Good enough for me, I'll give him a try. What do you recommend as an entrypoint?

Orbital recommended me "Cevdet Bey and His Sons" and "The White Castle".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on November 03, 2008, 10:56:32 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 03, 2008, 04:07:50 AM
Orbital recommended me "Cevdet Bey and His Sons" and "The White Castle".
Yes indeed. Cevdet Bey may particularly be interesting, as I remember you had read The Buddenbrooks not long ago. They are kind of in the same vein. But please note that you will be taken through a brief political/social history of Turkey since its inception (actually make that since the end days of the Ottoman Empire). If that does not interest you at all, you might be put off before finishing the book.

OTOH, if you want to just dive in, you may start with The Black Book. If you can survive that  ;D you are very likely to easily go through others.

The Museum of Innocence, btw, is turning out to be more and more Proustian by the page. For the first time in some time I am reading a book slowly simply so that it does not end soon  :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 03, 2008, 12:58:28 PM
Oh, I can handle it. If I can handle the chapters of Psychology in Man Without Qualities, I can handle anything :D — though, I did stop Ulysses just because I felt I would be missing much of the value of the novel if I just plowed through and ignored any references that eluded me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Catison on November 03, 2008, 01:01:10 PM
I'm just about to finish A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on November 03, 2008, 01:26:04 PM
Quote from: Corey on November 03, 2008, 12:58:28 PM
Oh, I can handle it. If I can handle the chapters of Psychology in Man Without Qualities, I can handle anything :D — though, I did stop Ulysses just because I felt I would be missing much of the value of the novel if I just plowed through and ignored any references that eluded me.
I am sure you can handle it. But just a caution that it, too, may contain a bit too many references. There is a film based on a theme from the book whose screenplay was written by Pamuk. It is called The Secret Face and it is an interesting viewing to say the least.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 03, 2008, 03:13:44 PM
Just finished The Plague — took me much longer than usual, but I've been very busy over the past month (it's hard to find time to read with two jobs!).

Now reading: Shakespeare - The Tempest
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on November 03, 2008, 08:32:33 PM
Quote from: Norbeone on November 02, 2008, 02:22:50 PM
You're right, I suppose, but it just wouldn't have that 'ring' anymore. I'm not usually a victim of 'traditional wisdom' but this is one of the exceptions.  :)

true, but the 'ring' sounds stupid, so probably best without it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 06, 2008, 09:44:40 AM
Finished The Tempest — strange story, but with some beautiful lines. Seems like it would make a good opera. :D

Reading:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/brochsleepwalkers.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on November 06, 2008, 09:47:40 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 06, 2008, 09:44:40 AM
Reading:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/brochsleepwalkers.jpg)
Excellent! Another product from that miraculous period of German Literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on November 06, 2008, 10:31:28 AM
(http://www.longitudebooks.com/images/book_large/CHN196.jpg)

I have read quite a few books on China, and have taken 2 graduate level classes on East Asian politics -- this is a very good introduction to the subject. But it is more than a simple introduction, since Starr manages to cram a lot of substance in just 320 pages. So, it is a book that will do nicely for the beginner but it will also have a lot for someone who is already fairly knowledgeable. I found myself enthralled at some of the connections Starr makes between China's past, present, and future, which a lot of other authors I have read on the subject are unable to make. I am not sure about all of his mostly pessimistic conclusions about China's future, but on practically every other page there is something thought-provoking. To cap it off the style is clear and exemplary.
The book is from 2001, so it doesn't take into account some more recent events, particularly the transition from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao, but this doesn't much affect the substance of Starr's insights.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: tr. pianist on November 08, 2008, 02:04:58 AM
Thank you : mozartsneighbor for your post about China. It is very popular topic now.

There is a book by Gumilev called From Rus to Russia. There is something there about China. The author thinks that Chinese thinking is characterized by thinking that the best golden years of China is in the past. This book is an old book of course and looks back into history and not into our time.
This book by the son of poets Gumilev and Achmatova probably was not translated. It is very popular and interesting book. I am trying to find out if it is available in English.

A friend gave me an audio version of this book in Russian. There are many things about Russian history that I didn't know. For example, Russians were so to say created by Slavic tribes and German tribe that was very aggressive and tried to conquer slaves. They were at the head of most Russians ancient cities. . Also there is a mixture of Mongolian blood in many Russians. May be author thinks that this is why Russians were more so to say aggressive than other Slavic nations because of that mixture of blood.  But I don't really know. I wish I could read this book and not only listen to it.
Also I did not know that Jews participated in silk trade with China. I learned that Jews lived together with other tribes in Caspian Sea. They did not mix with tribe that is called Chasars in Russian because Chasars considered the offspring to be Chassar by father's line and Jews only accepted children as they own based on the mother's nationality. Jews were military leaders in that Caspian Sea region and they also dominated in trade with China.

I have not finished listening to this book, but I recommend to people who are interested in history and unorthodox view of it this book by Gumilev.

Also I just finished Victor Pelevin's book called Chapaev and Emptiness. I read it in Russian. Many of Pelevin's books have been translated, but this is his new book. He got Small Booker Prize for a novel Omon Ra and Life of insects in 1994.
I liked this book very much. With time the reader understands that the hero is in asylum. The book is influenced by Dostoevsky of course. Also there are many similarities between times of New Economic Politic in the 1920s in Russia and period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I hope they will translate this book too.
Chapaev is a well known civil war hero (a commissar). But people really don't know much about him. He was a cartoon character created by communist for propaganda purposes. All people know about him is that he was a commissar and then he was running away from some White soldiers and drowned while swimming across the river.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 08, 2008, 04:58:35 AM
Ian Fleming - DR. NO
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 08, 2008, 07:31:02 PM
Hope it's more interesting than the movie.  :-X
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on November 09, 2008, 04:27:21 AM
Quote from: tr. pianist on November 08, 2008, 02:04:58 AM

Also I just finished Victor Pelevin's book called Chapaev and Emptiness. I read it in Russian. Many of Pelevin's books have been translated, but this is his new book. He got Small Booker Prize for a novel Omon Ra and Life of insects in 1994.
I liked this book very much. With time the reader understands that the hero is in asylum. The book is influenced by Dostoevsky of course. Also there are many similarities between times of New Economic Politic in the 1920s in Russia and period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I hope they will translate this book too.

It has been translated into English (among other languages) and even more than once. Only the English translators didn't stick with original title, didn't even stick with one title - you can find it either as Buddha's Little Finger or The Clay Machine-gun.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/710579MGT2L._SL500_AA240_.gif)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41G9XVHBNRL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 09, 2008, 05:26:11 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 08, 2008, 07:31:02 PM
Hope it's more interesting than the movie.  :-X

I'm reading the Bonds in order. So far, they've all been more interesting than the movies.

I don't think you go for this stuff anyway, do you?  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 09, 2008, 01:26:19 PM
Quote from: mn dave on November 09, 2008, 05:26:11 AM
I'm reading the Bonds in order. So far, they've all been more interesting than the movies.

I don't think you go for this stuff anyway, do you?  8)

Not really, but I've seen nearly all the Bonds. I just happened to watch Dr. No a few days ago.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on November 09, 2008, 02:02:07 PM
Quote from: tr. pianist on November 08, 2008, 02:04:58 AM
Victor Pelevin's Life of insects

I've read this

(http://www.wrightjustified.com/images/ThumbsDown.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on November 09, 2008, 02:48:10 PM
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/b2/b6/07ded250fca04bf347de8010.L.jpg)
Toole is funny, almost at the level of Gaddis with his oddball characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on November 09, 2008, 02:55:58 PM
Quote from: orbital on November 09, 2008, 02:48:10 PM
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/b2/b6/07ded250fca04bf347de8010.L.jpg)
Toole is funny, almost at the level of Gaddis with his oddball characters.

Read it in the 1980s, when the dead author's mother had finally interested a publisher. My cousin often compared me to Ignatius J. Reilly, as I was as unfit for ordinary life as he is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 09, 2008, 03:10:33 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on November 09, 2008, 02:55:58 PM
Read it in the 1980s, when the dead author's mother had finally interested a publisher. My cousin often compared me to Ignatius J. Reilly, as I was as unfit for ordinary life as he is.

Speaking of "unfit for ordinary life" . . . did you have a chance to revisit Out in the Sun?  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on November 09, 2008, 03:36:00 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 09, 2008, 03:10:33 PM
Speaking of "unfit for ordinary life" . . . did you have a chance to revisit Out in the Sun?  8)

Erm... no. And I'll tell you why. New member Living_Stradivarius lured me to a video chat on CMG, with a British violin historian. It lasted 1.5 hours. He played several '78 records of, to me, unknown violinists from the first half of the last century, telling us all kinds of interesting things about the musicians, the piece et cetera.... It was fascinating.

So Out in the Sun will get a belated outing tomorrow, Karl.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: tr. pianist on November 10, 2008, 10:19:12 AM
Thank you, Drasko for giving me Pelevin's titles of Chapaev and emptiness. I would never guess.

ezodisy, I only read one Pelevin's book. I did not read Life of insects.

The clay machine gun was good (I read it in Russian). Russians would recognize a lot from the Soviet ideology and comparison between 1920s and now. May be it is not as interesting for people in the West. I don't really know.

Thank you for your replies.


Does anyone knows if Gumilev's Rus and Russians was granslated. They tell me that he has theory how the light moves to different region and people there become more active and even agressive. How the light moves from place to place and humans develop. I don't understand that theory, but I would like to read about it.

I am still trying to listen to the book, but I prefer to read it rather than listen. My Russian friends tell me that Gumilev has a unique approach to human history.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on November 10, 2008, 11:45:20 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on November 09, 2008, 02:55:58 PM
Read it in the 1980s, when the dead author's mother had finally interested a publisher. My cousin often compared me to Ignatius J. Reilly, as I was as unfit for ordinary life as he is.
:) Now that you are -assumingly- not anymore  ;D, have you read Gaddis at all? His (way too few  :-\) books generally contain similar characters whereas the situations are a bit more complicated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on November 10, 2008, 12:15:26 PM
Quote from: orbital on November 10, 2008, 11:45:20 AM
:) Now that you are -assumingly- not anymore  ;D, have you read Gaddis at all? His (way too few  :-\) books generally contain similar characters whereas the situations are a bit more complicated.

Of course I have - JR. Fascinating technique (only dialogue through hundreds of pages),.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on November 10, 2008, 12:32:58 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on November 10, 2008, 12:15:26 PM
Of course I have - JR. Fascinating technique (only dialogue through hundreds of pages),.
That has to be the single funniest book I've read (A Frolic of His Own being a close second). Too bad he did not live to write more :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on November 10, 2008, 12:37:21 PM
Quote from: orbital on November 10, 2008, 12:32:58 PM
That has to be the single funniest book I've read (A Frolic of His Own being a close second). Too bad he did not live to write more :(

Well, the books he did manage to write are mostly huge and very ambitious. Gaddis is an uncompromising writer. What I find almost magical about his way of writing is the fact that you can see so much purely through dialogue. He really erects a theatre on the page. He does everything through voices. Very musical, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 11, 2008, 01:28:30 PM
GRIMUS - Salman Rushdie
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 11, 2008, 03:25:54 PM
Quote from: orbital on November 10, 2008, 12:32:58 PM
That has to be the single funniest book I've read (A Frolic of His Own being a close second). Too bad he did not live to write more :(


Have you read Vonnegut?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 11, 2008, 04:30:12 PM
The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus (2008) by David Abulafia - just getting back to this book after a few weeks of diversions w/ others, including the one discussed in the Vincent d'Indy thread - the emphasis of this writing is the 'interaction' of these different cultures - if interested in this history & era, check out the short but concise review HERE (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-discovery-of-mankind-by-david-abulafia-810744.html) -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rMdOhcNEL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on November 12, 2008, 12:13:35 AM
Edouard Husson, "Heydrich et la Solution Finale"   (PERRIN)

Husson is a French historian. This book, very detailed, offers a good perspective of the life of Reinhard Heydrich, (perhaps the greatest murder of all times), since his childwood (his father was a composer of operas) until the terrible days of 1941/42. I didn't know, but it seems that Heydrich was a very good violinist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on November 12, 2008, 12:16:16 AM
Quote from: val on November 12, 2008, 12:13:35 AM
Edouard Husson, "Heydrich et la Solution Finale"   (PERRIN)

Husson is a French historian. This book, very detailed, offers a good perspective of the life of Reinhard Heydrich, (perhaps the greatest murder of all times), since his childwood (his father was a composer of operas) until the terrible days of 1941/42. I didn't know, but it seems that Heydrich was a very good violinist.

He was. And a first-rate fencer. And a terrible human being.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on November 12, 2008, 01:00:51 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on November 10, 2008, 12:37:21 PM
Well, the books he did manage to write are mostly huge and very ambitious. Gaddis is an uncompromising writer. What I find almost magical about his way of writing is the fact that you can see so much purely through dialogue. He really erects a theatre on the page. He does everything through voices. Very musical, too.
Sosumi  :D I have yet to read Carpenter's Gothic and there is another posthumous book IARC. I had a friend who was a corporate lawyer back in New York, and according to him A Frolic of His Own was almost part of the curriculum in Columbia  >:D

Quote from: mn dave on November 11, 2008, 03:25:54 PM
Have you read Vonnegut?
I had started to read SlaughterHouse Five at one point, but I don't think I finished it. Should I give  it another try?

On the other hand, I've just gotten hold of The Illuminatus Trilogy in digital format. I had read that one years ago and that book was completely nuts!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on November 12, 2008, 01:15:44 AM
Quote from: orbital on November 12, 2008, 01:00:51 AM
Sosumi  :D

Nice one. (I think you are referring to the combination of music and the law...)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 12, 2008, 04:20:38 AM
Quote from: orbital on November 12, 2008, 01:00:51 AM
I had started to read SlaughterHouse Five at one point, but I don't think I finished it. Should I give  it another try?

Well, that's up to you. Or read Breakfast of Champions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on November 13, 2008, 12:50:15 PM
Decameron by Boccaccio
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on November 14, 2008, 03:05:28 PM
Quote from: Papageno on November 13, 2008, 12:50:15 PM
Decameron by Boccaccio

I always wanted to read that.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 14, 2008, 08:13:45 PM
Quote from: ezodisy on November 14, 2008, 03:05:28 PM
I always wanted to read that.  ::)

It's sitting on my shelf, collecting dust. I'll probably read it eventually, but I have to be in a certain mood to enjoy Classical literature.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 19, 2008, 09:02:46 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZC957WMFL._SL500_.jpg)

Ross MacDonald was one of our best crime fiction writers. I daresay some of the highbrows here might even like his stuff to some extent.

Still dipping into this...

(http://content-4.powells.com/cgi-bin/imageDB.cgi?isbn=9781590306154)

A good book for those interested in Buddhism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on November 19, 2008, 01:18:21 PM


     The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand
     
      (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518JX4TWWCL.jpg)

      It's an excellent introduction to the revolution in American thought after Darwin and the Civil War. This is my second reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on November 19, 2008, 02:00:36 PM
Quote from: drogulus on November 19, 2008, 01:18:21 PM

     The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand
     
      (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518JX4TWWCL.jpg)

      It's an excellent introduction to the revolution in American thought after Darwin and the Civil War. This is my second reading.

that looks very interesting

now reading:

Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris -- some parts of this are roll-on-the-floor funny

Wild Swans, by Jung Chang -- great personal insights into 20th century Chinese history
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on November 19, 2008, 05:05:30 PM
Can't find a pic of the cover. A John Dryden overview by Earl Miner, which seems to focus on his life, and the meaning behind his works, rather than presenting them in the raw. I like this kind of book, as generally I find information about plays and poems more interesting than the works themselves - all hail the autistic mind ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on November 19, 2008, 06:00:16 PM
(http://content-3.powells.com/cgi-bin/imageDB.cgi?isbn=9780140447323)

Romantic [era] Fairy Tales.

Delightful  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on November 19, 2008, 07:33:40 PM
Quote from: tr. pianist on November 08, 2008, 02:04:58 AM
Also I just finished Victor Pelevin's book called Chapaev and Emptiness. I read it in Russian. Many of Pelevin's books have been translated, but this is his new book. He got Small Booker Prize for a novel Omon Ra and Life of insects in 1994.
I liked this book very much. With time the reader understands that the hero is in asylum. The book is influenced by Dostoevsky of course. Also there are many similarities between times of New Economic Politic in the 1920s in Russia and period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I hope they will translate this book too.
Chapaev is a well known civil war hero (a commissar). But people really don't know much about him. He was a cartoon character created by communist for propaganda purposes. All people know about him is that he was a commissar and then he was running away from some White soldiers and drowned while swimming across the river.

Did you see the Vasyliev movie (1934) ? That's all I know about Chapayev the man. Saw it many, many years ago. I recall it was in direct contradiction with Eisenstein's ideas about film.  Stock figure, but good cinema.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on November 20, 2008, 07:39:16 AM
Listening rather than reading, first half hour is superbly tense, fake news bulletins style really could fool a person if briefly tuned in.

(http://991.com/newGallery/Orson-Welles-War-Of-The-Worlds-301244.jpg)

this is the best sounding copy I could find (full show, 60 minutes, 128 kbps mp3, 50 MB)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NZZQG6IG
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 20, 2008, 07:54:08 PM
UNCLE SILAS by Sheridan Le Fanu
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: tr. pianist on November 20, 2008, 10:17:21 PM
Lilas Pastia,
I saw some movie about Chapaev when I was a child. Chapaev was the hero of civil was in Russia that happened after the Revolusion of 1917.
No one knows much about him. Nothing is known to people about his family or his life. May be he was a fiction invented by communists. He was cartoon like character that was fighting bad people. He featured in many jokes, but no one knew about him much. He was a comander and then he was trying to escape from some  bad guys and drowned in a river. I remember the last scene in the movie and I remember crying, but I don't remember what he did.

Pelevin of course is critical of communists. He also finds a lot in common between NEP (New Economic Policy) time when private business was allowed and transition period in Russian economy after collapse of the Soviet Union.

Both perioeds have a lot in common. They are periods of uncontrolled greed and worship of money. May be during NEP communists (or whatever they were called then) controlled situation better. The two periods were extremely difficult for simple (or odinary) people to survive in. They were periods when people forgot about human values and tried to grab as much as they could. It is strange how idealism can be replaced by such an unbriddle lust for money and power.Of course the idealism that I knew was paper idealism. People used it to comuflage their desire for better life, but still bandits and criminals were controlled and people did not officially worshiped money and greed.

I tried to read another book by Pelevin called Empire V), but I did not like it at all, though there were interesting discussions there too. Discussions that I read were about how people are manipulated by advertisement and also about relations and differences between men and women.
I could not sustain my interest in reading because the plot was strange. It involved one man becoming a vampire. Vampires could read people's thoughts and understnad their psyche.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on November 21, 2008, 03:45:14 AM
The Symphony (Ralph Hill)

An interesting book, aimed at the middle listener (neither beginner, nor musicologist). It's from 1949 and passed the initial "test" that I had set it, which was to read Bruckner's biography. Pleasingly it avoids apologism or cliche when describing this very difficult character. I was entertained by his description of Hugo Wolf as "an unbalanced critic" - hopefully he intended the more entertaining meaning of the word.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 21, 2008, 05:07:25 AM
Quote from: Lethe on November 21, 2008, 03:45:14 AM
The Symphony (Ralph Hill)

An interesting book, aimed at the middle listener (neither beginner, nor musicologist). It's from 1949 and passed the initial "test" that I had set it, which was to read Bruckner's biography. Pleasingly it avoids apologism or cliche when describing this very difficult character. I was entertained by his description of Hugo Wolf as "an unbalanced critic" - hopefully he intended the more entertaining meaning of the word.

Ooo. I think I'm a middler listener.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 21, 2008, 05:10:41 AM
Just picked this up from the library:

(http://doctoralstudent2.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/musicophilia.jpg)

I'll probably read it after I finish The Sleepwalkers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 21, 2008, 05:14:01 AM
Quote from: mn dave on November 21, 2008, 05:07:25 AM
Ooo. I think I'm a middler listener.

More middle than middle; 'at's our Dave!  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 21, 2008, 05:15:52 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 21, 2008, 05:14:01 AM
More middle than middle; 'at's our Dave!  ;)

I know just enough to lubricate my mouth for foot insertion!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 21, 2008, 05:21:27 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 21, 2008, 05:10:41 AM
Just picked this up from the library:

(http://doctoralstudent2.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/musicophilia.jpg)

I'll probably read it after I finish The Sleepwalkers.

Is he singing along, do you think?  Or did the camera catch him mid-yawn?

I'm not sure how I feel about a half-note used for the letter P.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on November 21, 2008, 05:55:35 AM
Quote from: mn dave on November 21, 2008, 05:07:25 AM
Ooo. I think I'm a middler listener.

It's very nifty if you can find it cheaply (with a Penguin book this old, almost certainly can) - I read the Dvořák part and was pleased to find that he covered syms 7 and 8 as well as 9. All quite concise, but with enough info to have seperate paragraphs for each movement.

Edit: hehe, what a product of its time. Only two Mahler symphonies are afforded analysis (4 and 9 - kinda left-field choice in the 4th), and yet all of Sibelius' are. It seems the Brits really did like their Sibelius back then.

Edit 2: yet more interest - at the time of printing, Sibelius, RVW and Bax had yet to die (leaving no year of death to add to the year of birth under their section headings), and even more jarringly, RVW had only published his first six symphonies. Reading this is like stepping back in time :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on November 25, 2008, 01:07:02 AM
HILARY PUTNAM:    "Renewing Philosophy"

Based of conferences made by Putnam, the best part of the book is the chapter giving a different perspective about Wittgenstein. I am not sure that Putnam's interpretation is the most faithful but it is the one we wish it was true.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 25, 2008, 01:29:26 AM
Not reading, but just bought these:

Alejo Carpentier: Lost Steps, Reasons of State, The Consecration of Spring

Augusto Roa Bastos: I, the Supreme

Mario Vargas Llosa: Conversation in the Cathedral

Jean Giono: The Strawman
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on November 25, 2008, 04:14:29 AM
Right now:

-- Edward Hopper: Vision of Reality, by Ivo Kranzfelder
-- The Simple Art of Murder, by Raymond Chandler
-- god is not Great, by Christopher Hitchens
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on November 25, 2008, 05:36:52 AM
Quote from: mozartsneighbor on November 25, 2008, 04:14:29 AM
-- The Simple Art of Murder, by Raymond Chandler

Is that for beginners? I mean, the title looks comforting.


A few books I borrowed from from the library today.

I know this will be great!

Jeeves Omnibus Vol. 4
- Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
- Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
- Jeeves in the Offing
P. G. Wodehouse

I have read that this is good (and maybe slightly controversial).

The Selfish Gene (30th Anniversary Edition)
Richard Dawkins

And based on the superlative praise on the back cover, this should be good. A kind of book I've been searching for quite a while. [EDIT: No. Not quite.]

What Evolution is
Ernst Mayr
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 26, 2008, 04:23:04 PM
Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (2008) by Ted Gioia - read a review of this book in the NY Times Book Review a while back, ordered the hardcover from Amazon, and have just started to read to this fascinating story - the first few chapters relate the blues back to Africa in a new & refreshing way (now, I've read MANY books on the blues, and this one is more engrossing and personal); Gioia is a superb narrator - about 10 yrs ago, I purchased his history on jazz (shown below, right); also, an excellent written presentation - at the moment, I can't comment on the remainder of this blues book but expect utter enjoyment - if 'early' blues is your interest, then read the NY Times Review (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/books/review/Ratliff-t.htm) which prompted me to order the book -  :D


(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/27880000/27885402.JPG)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZND8GTQNL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 27, 2008, 05:09:17 AM
Because UNCLE SILAS was such a hit with me...

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1853262188.01._SX140_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on November 27, 2008, 02:18:07 PM
Quote from: opus67 on November 25, 2008, 05:36:52 AM
Is that for beginners? I mean, the title looks comforting.

Jeeves Omnibus Vol. 4
- Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
- Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
- Jeeves in the Offing
P. G. Wodehouse


If you're an absolute beginner, start with "Murder for Dummies". "The Simple Art of Murder" is for the intermediate enthusiast seeking to take his hobby to the advanced level. ;D       
But seriously, it's a collection of hard-boiled detective stories from one of the great exponents of the genre, Raymond Chandler. My first experience with Chandler after hearing him extolled so often -- unfortunately it was a bit disappointing.
Wodehouse... is a treat I miss and am craving lately.

Right now am also reading some stories from The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories, ed. by Ted Goossen. Excellent stuff in here.








Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on November 28, 2008, 02:38:12 AM
Quote from: mozartsneighbor on November 27, 2008, 02:18:07 PM
Right now am also reading some stories from The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories, ed. by Ted Goossen. Excellent stuff in here.

That is a great collection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on November 28, 2008, 03:44:17 AM
The History of Groningen, from the early beginnings to the present day!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 28, 2008, 04:14:54 AM
Quote from: Harry on November 28, 2008, 03:44:17 AM
The History of Groningen, from the early beginnings to the present day!

Harry, have you read UNCLE SILAS?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on November 28, 2008, 04:19:27 AM
Quote from: Dave of Wherewar on November 28, 2008, 04:14:54 AM
Harry, have you read UNCLE SILAS?

No, but I red Uncle Harry! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 28, 2008, 04:20:44 AM
Quote from: Harry on November 28, 2008, 04:19:27 AM
No, but I red Uncle Harry! ;D

You should read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on November 28, 2008, 04:23:14 AM
I will explore some of his works. I at least saw a film from 1947 if I remember correctly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 28, 2008, 04:26:11 AM
Quote from: Harry on November 28, 2008, 04:23:14 AM
I will explore some of his works. I at least saw a film from 1947 if I remember correctly.

Yeah, I think you do. I need to see that. I think there was a BBC production as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on November 28, 2008, 11:44:46 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5130STVN81L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

I bought this a) because I have received others from the series as gifts (Saarinen, Calatrava) and like the format of the books and b) I wanted to see the really cool Bangladesh parliament building which I have seen exterior shots of but not seen the interior. There isn't as much info on it as I had hoped, but as expected, overall it's a great and easily digestable overview. Nice mixture of HQ pics, studies of a few specific buildings, pictures of sketches, etc, plus the all important bio - this format applies to all of their books in this series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on November 28, 2008, 04:38:32 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/ada.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on November 29, 2008, 01:10:27 AM
Stefan ZWEIG:        Briefe  (1932/1942)

The last ten years of Zweig's life, in his letters to Thomas Mann, Romain Rolland, Richard Strauss (about the libretto for Die schweigsame Frau and Friedenstag) and many others.
The last letters show how tired and depressed he was, in his exile in Brasil. He committed suicide with his wife in 1942.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on November 30, 2008, 05:57:27 AM
Quote from: Harry on November 28, 2008, 03:44:17 AM
The History of Groningen, from the early beginnings to the present day!

Is there a difference?  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on November 30, 2008, 06:11:50 AM
Quote from: Christo on November 30, 2008, 05:57:27 AM
Is there a difference?  ;)

;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on December 01, 2008, 10:49:35 AM
Quote from: val on November 29, 2008, 01:10:27 AM
Stefan ZWEIG:        Briefe  (1932/1942)

The last ten years of Zweig's life, in his letters to Thomas Mann, Romain Rolland, Richard Strauss (about the libretto for Die schweigsame Frau and Friedenstag) and many others.
The last letters show how tired and depressed he was, in his exile in Brasil. He committed suicide with his wife in 1942.

Very interesting -- I am coincidentally starting on Zweig's "The World of Yesterday", an autobiography that is also an examination of European culture in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries. He wrote it in exile in Brasil, and it is a homage to an European culture he thought might be lost in the face of Nazism and fascism.
I have read through his childhood and adolescence and there are interesting musical bits as well: he and his schoolmates excited at sighting Mahler in the street; his wonder when he met Brahms as a boy, and the great composer patted him on the head.
Zweig was quite rich and also liked collecting musical manuscripts -- his collection was donated by his descendants to the British Library and includes manuscripts by Mozart's, Mahler's, Haydn's, and Wagner's hands. It is considered one of the best such collections in the world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 01, 2008, 10:45:09 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on November 12, 2008, 01:15:44 AM
Nice one. (I think you are referring to the combination of music and the law...)

Sosumi is the brand of the Japanese car which is the subject of a hit-and-run litigation in which the plaintiff and the defendant are the same person  :D

---
I enjoyed The Confederacy of The Dunces immensely. Next up on my list was either The Wind Up Bird Chronicle or Oryx and Crake, but I decided I was in the mood for some more laughs so I opted for a revisit to JR instead.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on December 01, 2008, 11:38:41 PM
Quote from: orbital on December 01, 2008, 10:45:09 PMI enjoyed The Confederacy of The Dunces immensely. Next up on my list was either The Wind Up Bird Chronicle or Oryx and Crake, but I decided I was in the mood for some more laughs so I opted for a revisit to JR instead.

JR? Excellent! I am reading another American novelist, probably the greatest of them all, one of his (in)famous late novels - Henry James, The Golden Bowl. Slow, precise, full of imagery, great in its analysis of human feeling and behaviour, and fascinating as a description of late Victorian Britain, where America, as the power of the 20th century, is already making itself felt...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on December 02, 2008, 02:40:46 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on December 01, 2008, 11:38:41 PM
JR? Excellent! I am reading another American novelist, probably the greatest of them all, one of his (in)famous late novels - Henry James, The Golden Bowl.

Yes, yes, yes!

Quote
Slow, precise, full of imagery, great in its analysis of human feeling and behaviour, and fascinating as a description of late Victorian Britain, where America, as the power of the 20th century, is already making itself felt...

I've come to realise that that's what I like about James - and what others dislike, I suppose ;D ('unnecessary circumlocutions and the gratuitous meaningless verbiage' if you're of Edmund Wilson's mind, haha). James's prose slows you right down so that you become very aware of each word and each word in its sequence. At least for me it does :D.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 02, 2008, 03:27:28 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on December 01, 2008, 11:38:41 PM
JR? Excellent! I am reading another American novelist, probably the greatest of them all, one of his (in)famous late novels - Henry James, The Golden Bowl. Slow, precise, full of imagery, great in its analysis of human feeling and behaviour, and fascinating as a description of late Victorian Britain, where America, as the power of the 20th century, is already making itself felt...

I think I'll read Washington Square after I finish Nabokov's Ada.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 02, 2008, 05:37:53 AM
Quote from: Corey on December 02, 2008, 03:27:28 AM
I think I'll read Washington Square after I finish Nabokov's Ada.
Please do comment after you're finished with Ada. I've recently got Nabokov's [almost] complete works, and I want to squeeze in another of his novels in my reading schedule soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on December 02, 2008, 05:59:58 PM
Comics. After the whole Tintin series, I've embarked into the fascinating world of Ancient Rome according to Jacques Martin: the Alix series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Alix) series. This lengthy trek through the Roman world in Julius Caesar's times covers just about every topic, event and great men/women.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on December 03, 2008, 06:27:43 AM
Not reading, really, as it has no text. Dore's Illustrations for Don Quixote (Dover)

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/19720000/19721964.JPG)

At 160 pages, and so much detail in many of the images, it makes me wonder what this guy must've looked like when he worked. It must've been a very fast turnover.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 04, 2008, 12:00:35 PM


     I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter. It's about how the author is a strange loop and so are you, the reader.

     A strange loop in sound:

     [mp3=200,20,0,center]http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/11/2/1559968/DescenteInfinie.mp3
[/mp3]
     Another one:

     [mp3=200,20,0,center]http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/11/2/1559968/demo27b.mp3
[/mp3]
     So, you're one of those.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on December 06, 2008, 11:05:21 AM
(http://www.discript.com/local/images/1900850036.01.jpg)

Interesting historical murder mystery novel, set in early 16th Lisbon. It takes place among Lisbon's Jewish community, who were in a very precarious situation at that time, amid religious persecution and killings.
The writer is an American university professor who has lived and taught in Portugal for almost 20 years. It is obvious that he went to the trouble to research the historical background very well, and the writing vividly transports the reader to that time and place. He mostly writes very well, only very occasionally crossing the border into purple prose territory. The mystery part is also well accomplished and really grabs the reader.
So, all in all, a very good book in this genre. It was also interesting to learn a bit about Jewish history in Renaissance Europe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 06, 2008, 04:20:44 PM
Quote from: orbital on December 02, 2008, 05:37:53 AM
Please do comment after you're finished with Ada. I've recently got Nabokov's [almost] complete works, and I want to squeeze in another of his novels in my reading schedule soon.

I had to stop halfway through. Bored me to death.  :-\

Now reading:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/9e/df/765012bb9da0a3999bfab010.L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 08, 2008, 10:44:28 PM
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago

During the communist regime, a large avenue in Bucharest was officially named The Victory of Socialism, but everyone called it The Victory of Socialism over the People. I know of no more fit commentary for this book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on December 09, 2008, 05:01:12 AM
I like a little sf every so often.

(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n4/n24777.jpg)

And yes, this is his first novel and it's very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on December 09, 2008, 05:45:43 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5123H4164GL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Edited by Carolyn Choa and David Su Li-Qun
The editors did a pretty good job of selecting a broad and worthy representation of Chinese fiction from the 1960s up till the early 2000s. After reading the Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories the wide differences between the fiction written in Japan and China are very evident.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 09, 2008, 11:00:46 AM
This finally arrived at the library:

The Art of Adolf Wölfli: St. Adolf-Giant-Creation

(http://press.princeton.edu/images/k7486.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on December 10, 2008, 01:50:46 PM
Quote from: mozartsneighbor on December 09, 2008, 05:45:43 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5123H4164GL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Edited by Carolyn Choa and David Su Li-Qun
The editors did a pretty good job of selecting a broad and worthy representation of Chinese fiction from the 1960s up till the early 2000s. After reading the Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories the wide differences between the fiction written in Japan and China are very evident.

Care to be more specific about those differences? A very good friend of mine is writing a PhD thesis about contemporary Chinese fiction centred in Shanghai... (By the way - is there a story by Jin Haishu (*1961) included?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on December 10, 2008, 04:03:55 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 08, 2008, 10:44:28 PM
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago

During the communist regime, a large avenue in Bucharest was officially named The Victory of Socialism, but everyone called it The Victory of Socialism over the People. I know of no more fit commentary for this book.

Great story, many thanks! At the same time: I never met a living person, still alive or living, who actually read the complete Gulag Archipelago. Everybody, including myself, gave up their (multiple) attempts halfway part one.  :-X

The Gulag Archipelago seems to remain one of those essential, but at the same time unreadable, neccessary classics. The reality behind is impressive enough. But how did you manage to read through this complete series by Solzhenytsin??  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 10, 2008, 11:09:20 PM
Quote from: Christo on December 10, 2008, 04:03:55 PM
Great story, many thanks! At the same time: I never met a living person, still alive or living, who actually read the complete Gulag Archipelago. Everybody, including myself, gave up their (multiple) attempts halfway part one.  :-X

The Gulag Archipelago seems to remain one of those essential, but at the same time unreadable, neccessary classics. The reality behind is impressive enough. But how did you manage to read through this complete series by Solzhenytsin??  ::)

Well, I'm currently reading it, as the thread requires. :) I just started the first volume and am not even quarter-way through, but I am sure I will finish the whole series. The nightmarish reality he describes sounds familiar to me. Romanian communism has been very similar to the Russian one, and it could not be any other way because the only way Communism everywhere could stay in power is state terrorism.

But I am also sure that by the time I finish this book I will have finished some others --- if anything else, for my own sanity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on December 11, 2008, 12:15:41 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SBXEKP2HL._SS500_.jpg)

Have wanted to read this book for some time and was able to find it quite cheap at a local book store.  Am about 300 pages through the epic and think it a very good yarn; Sholokhov uses wonderful imagery and description (with some unflinching earthiness) to vividly depict the landscape and lives of a Don Cossacks family (the Melekhovs) from pre-revolutionary times, WWI, the Revolution and beyond.  Despite being so ambitious and sweeping, the story hasn't had too many lulls so far, and I feel that the final 200 pages should be as satisfactory as the previous ones I've read.  At least I hope so!

Its funny that Solzhenitsyn is mentioned above me; he claimed that Sholokhov plagiarized "Quite Flows the Don" but the evidence found so far doesn't corroborate that. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 11, 2008, 12:30:25 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YQFVD72RL.jpg)
Quite fun so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on December 11, 2008, 08:22:13 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412W04Z6KEL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
(in an older edition)

Very readable. It covers a lot of ground, and focuses on Europe to its very boundaries, including the various Turkish incursions. Little snippets of information are interestingly placed and informative - such as the reminder that Poland and Lithuania, while being on the border of Europe, were not marginal in their standing within Europe as a whole at that time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 11, 2008, 08:30:30 AM
Quote from: Lethe on December 11, 2008, 08:22:13 AM
Little snippets of information are interestingly placed and informative - such as the reminder that Poland and Lithuania, while being on the border of Europe, were not marginal in their standing within Europe as a whole at that time.

Actually, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth) was the largest European state of the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on December 11, 2008, 11:23:39 PM
Pessoa.
Quite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on December 11, 2008, 11:28:53 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on December 11, 2008, 11:23:39 PM
Pessoa.
Quite.

Poetry?
Prose?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on December 11, 2008, 11:30:56 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on December 11, 2008, 11:28:53 PM
Poetry?
Prose?
A bit of both, mostly prose though.
And to finish the unfinished, good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on December 12, 2008, 12:12:58 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 10, 2008, 11:09:20 PM
The nightmarish reality he describes sounds familiar to me. Romanian communism has been very similar to the Russian one, and it could not be any other way because the only way Communism everywhere could stay in power is state terrorism.

I was aware of the similarities, as far as `awareness' can go with things unthinkable. I read about Bǎrǎgan and the Romanian Gulag, though, and met some victims.

Your review makes ma reconsider reading the Gulag Archipelago - I was only 18 with my first attempt, so maybe not yet ready ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 12, 2008, 12:19:22 AM
Quote from: Christo on December 12, 2008, 12:12:58 AM
Your review makes ma reconsider reading the Gulag Archipelago - I was only 18 with my first attempt, so maybe not yet ready ...

I think that, too. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 12, 2008, 02:14:17 PM
The Birth of the Orchestra: History of an Institution, 1650-1815 (2004) by John Spitzer & Neal Zaslaw - just starting this fascinating tome - some comments HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Orchestra-History-Institution-1650-1815/dp/0195189558/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229122839&sr=8-1)!

The mirror of human life: Reflections on Francois Couperin's Pieces de Clavecin (2002) by Jane Clark & Derek Connon; small book (just 100 pages or so); in three parts, the first two providing some historical comment on the period & Couperin's times; and the third a catalog of the movements in the Pieces de Clavecin w/ comments on many of the titles in trying to explain Couperin's portrayal of many of the people he knew - just one abbreviated example quoted below - wish that I really could understand the music & look at the explores to appreciate these associations -  :D

QuoteLa Babet (First Book, 2nd Order) - Elisabeth Danneret, known as Babet...was pretty...and a sensational success...Presumably she lived up to the dubious of its members because Couperin used a dotted 6/8 rhythm to imply horse-riding, which in turn implied dubious morals...
- kind of like the 'double entendres' in the blues w/ 'ponies, horses, jockies, etc.' -  ;D

(http://giradman.smugmug.com/photos/435177742_3fPr6-M.jpg)  (http://giradman.smugmug.com/photos/435176558_CDRz8-M.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on December 12, 2008, 03:43:02 PM
Quote from: Corey on December 06, 2008, 04:20:44 PM
I had to stop halfway through. Bored me to death.  :-\

Now reading:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/9e/df/765012bb9da0a3999bfab010.L.jpg)

Excellent, or at least that's my memory of it. But later attempts at more James proved not as rewarding. For some reason the fun of reading a James novel seems to be very elusive. I couldn't recapture the right mood.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on December 13, 2008, 04:54:28 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on December 11, 2008, 11:30:56 PM
A bit of both, mostly prose though.
And to finish the unfinished, good.

Hope your translation is by Richard Zenith. I am a native speaker of Portuguese and his translations really are better than those of others I have seen
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on December 15, 2008, 01:43:49 PM
Barbara Gowdy-Helpless
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on December 16, 2008, 06:52:17 PM
(http://www.hup.harvard.edu/images/jackets/HOSRUR.jpg)

Good far, with insightful information and commentary into the subject that has been rewarding, but I find it lacking some color and literary polish. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 17, 2008, 12:19:38 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/karamazov.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on December 17, 2008, 12:30:10 PM
(http://images.bestwebbuys.com/muze/books/88/9780865659988.jpg)

Wonderful insight [literally] into some amazing homes and lifestyles of various famous composers. In addition to the great phoros there's very interesting text on the domestic arrangments and histories of the various homes and their connections to the composer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 17, 2008, 12:35:27 PM
Is that Wagner's "humble" abode on the cover? :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on December 17, 2008, 12:40:58 PM
Quote from: Corey on December 17, 2008, 12:35:27 PM
Is that Wagner's "humble" abode on the cover? :)

Hi Corey:

The cover shot is the home of Ole Bull  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 17, 2008, 06:23:46 PM
Quote from: Corey on December 17, 2008, 12:19:38 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/karamazov.jpg)
What a great great great book. You'll have to tell me how the translation stacks up, if you're familiar with the work...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 17, 2008, 06:38:52 PM
Quote from: Brian on December 17, 2008, 06:23:46 PM
What a great great great book. You'll have to tell me how the translation stacks up, if you're familiar with the work...

Nope. The only other Dostoevsky I know is Crime and Punishment. I've been wanting to read this for awhile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 18, 2008, 12:56:31 AM
Quote from: Corey on December 17, 2008, 06:38:52 PM
Nope. The only other Dostoevsky I know is Crime and Punishment. I've been wanting to read this for awhile.
I hope you enjoy it more than I did. Honestly, it did not quite do it for me  :-\ Perhaps it was a classic case of unrealistic expactations. I hope it was that and not the translation, because I've read the same Garnett translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 18, 2008, 07:21:00 AM
Don't laugh now (as my Jewish wife did when she saw the book below):

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge (2008) by Edward Kritzler (an historian & Journalist who lives in Kingston, Jamaica).

Purchased from the History Book Club (I've been a member since the mid-1970s), and every holiday season an offer arrives for a 'free book' w/ a club purchase, so in perusing their website, this book was on a pre-arrival status - have not started my reading, but the Amazonian Reviews (http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Pirates-Caribbean-Swashbuckling-Freedom/dp/0385513984/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229616574&sr=8-1) are excellent, so looking forward to the read!  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xIiDNfYoL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on December 18, 2008, 01:20:40 PM
Quote from: orbital on December 18, 2008, 12:56:31 AM
I hope you enjoy it more than I did. Honestly, it did not quite do it for me  :-\ Perhaps it was a classic case of unrealistic expactations. I hope it was that and not the translation, because I've read the same Garnett translation.

My expectations weren't met, either--although I did find parts of the book to be stimulating.  I also had the Garnett translation, and I've decided that when I do re-read the BK, it will be in another one (most likely the one by Pevear and Volokhonsky).

For now, am finally exploring Nabokov:
(http://www.longwood.edu/English/Lolita.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 18, 2008, 01:41:43 PM
Quote from: Bu on December 18, 2008, 01:20:40 PM

For now, am finally exploring Nabokov:

The only convincing love story of our time  >:D -as put by Vanity Fair.
Great, great book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 18, 2008, 02:27:33 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517SWAG79PL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ezodisy on December 18, 2008, 02:31:50 PM
The only convincing love story of our century? Male critic? What a silly thing to say (but hey, it got him into print, so he wins).

The Karamazov Brothers is great, worth revisiting with a different translation if you didn't like it the first time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 18, 2008, 10:51:11 PM
Quote from: ezodisy on December 18, 2008, 02:31:50 PM
The only convincing love story of our century? Male critic? What a silly thing to say (but hey, it got him into print, so he wins).
I don't know exactly whose quote it is, but I think h(s)he pretty much nailed it. Why would you think it is silly, even if it's coming from a man? From my point of view, there is nothing chauvinistic about that book. Quite the contrary in fact. Lola is not a victim, she is the predator, don't you think?
I myself could not help feeling sorry for Humbert, and frankly nothing but fascination with the Lolita character. 

Quote
The Karamazov Brothers is great, worth revisiting with a different translation if you didn't like it the first time.
Will do so, hopefully.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on December 18, 2008, 11:08:22 PM
Oops, forgot that I could make use of this thread when I made the post... Currently slogging through Tirant lo Blanc. On more than the occasion it surprises me with how directly it can appeal to a modern reader, but mostly it's as difficult as I had guessed it would be.

Quote from: orbital on December 18, 2008, 10:51:11 PM
I don't know exactly whose quote it is, but I think h(s)he pretty much nailed it. Why would you think it is silly, even if it's coming from a man? From my point of view, there is nothing chauvinistic about that book. Quite the contrary in fact. Lola is not a victim, she is the predator, don't you think?

I'm not sure what is convincing about little girls going after old men. It is compelling but an unrealistic scenario :P (Edit: gross simplification of course!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 18, 2008, 11:35:09 PM
Quote from: Lethe on December 18, 2008, 11:08:22 PM

I'm not sure what is convincing about little girls going after old men. It is compelling but an unrealistic scenario :P (Edit: gross simplification of course!)
Lethe, it is not the plot that is realistic but how the love story is cultivated. How Humbert's feelings are intricately detailed, his anxiety resulting from love bordering on obsession no matter who the object is, what the sad figure would do for love, etc. Take a look at the third page news and see whether seemingly more unrealistic things are indeed happening or not  :-\
IMO, seeing this story from a pedophilia point of view alone is -in a way- missing the whole point. IT is a sad love story whose protagonists happen to be controversial.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on December 18, 2008, 11:53:24 PM
Quote from: orbital on December 18, 2008, 11:35:09 PM
Lethe, it is not the plot that is realistic but how the love story is cultivated. How Humbert's feelings are intricately detailed, his anxiety resulting from love bordering on obsession no matter who the object is, what the sad figure would do for love, etc. Take a look at the third page news and see whether seemingly more unrealistic things are indeed happening or not  :-\

I guess I missed the point, thanks :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 19, 2008, 12:29:52 AM
Quote from: Lethe on December 18, 2008, 11:53:24 PM
I guess I missed the point, thanks :)
The tone I detect is wrong, I hope Lethe. I don't mean to be patronizing. It's just that so many critics are dismissing this literary wonder solely on its subject matter, and I personally think that's a pity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on December 19, 2008, 03:47:19 AM
Quote from: orbital on December 19, 2008, 12:29:52 AM
The tone I detect is wrong, I hope Lethe. I don't mean to be patronizing. It's just that so many critics are dismissing this literary wonder solely on its subject matter, and I personally think that's a pity.

Oh, no - I just have a habit of missing the point with many things :D The subject itself is a non-issue for me, which is why I cut that part out of the quote - age of consent (an inconsistent thing from country to country) is routinely ignored in real life relationships, so to get hissy about a book describing it would be a bit unneccessary. I misunderstood your meaning when calling it convincing - I shouldn't have read "realism" into it, at least when applied to the subjects rather than the writing on the characters feelings. This would prompt me to read the book again, but I generally avoid any sad or melancholy-causing fiction like the plague...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 19, 2008, 08:03:35 AM
Quote from: Lethe on December 19, 2008, 03:47:19 AM
This would prompt me to read the book again, but I generally avoid any sad or melancholy-causing fiction like the plague...
then I guess Belle du Seigneur is out of the question for you  :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on December 23, 2008, 02:08:16 PM
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/8b/9d/ea071363ada049ffddfad010.L.jpg)

I've always seen his paintings and drawings, but have somehow neglected to read anything on him until now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 23, 2008, 02:30:08 PM
Quote from: Corey on December 23, 2008, 02:08:16 PM
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/8b/9d/ea071363ada049ffddfad010.L.jpg)

I've always seen his paintings and drawings, but have somehow neglected to read anything on him until now.

Corey - same here, i.e. just a marvelous artist, but you will probably dislike him as a person, unfortunately!  ;)  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on December 31, 2008, 06:27:05 AM
For the very first time in my life:

(http://vig-fp.pearsoned.co.uk/bigcovers/0321276140.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2008, 06:29:01 AM
Any of you on goodreads.com?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Joe_Campbell on December 31, 2008, 06:33:19 AM
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on December 31, 2008, 06:35:23 AM
With that many references to it in Lunar Park, I felt like re-reading American Psycho. Equally enjoyable the second time around.
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/29/ad/1312228348a0523353865110.L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 31, 2008, 08:54:52 AM
Quote from: JCampbell on December 31, 2008, 06:33:19 AM
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Easily in my top 10....probably top 5....would not be surprised if in my top 3.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Joe_Campbell on December 31, 2008, 08:57:57 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 31, 2008, 08:54:52 AM
Easily in my top 10....probably top 5....would not be surprised if in my top 3.
It is excellent. I might have to pick up The Importance of Being Earnest when I'm done, since Mr. Wilde never wrote any other books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 31, 2008, 09:16:32 AM
Quote from: JCampbell on December 31, 2008, 08:57:57 AM
It is excellent. I might have to pick up The Importance of Being Earnest when I'm done, since Mr. Wilde never wrote any other books.

Might as well blow it out JC, for about 20 bones:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41635ASY53L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Oscar has a Colorado connection, believe it or not.  Here it be, from the town of Leadville.:

In 1882, the Tabor Opera House hosted Oscar Wilde on his lecture tour of the West, one of many celebrities who graced the city. Mayor David H. Dougan invited Wilde to tour the Matchless silver mine and open their new lode: "The Oscar." Wilde later recounted a visit to a local saloon, "where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice - 'Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.'"

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 31, 2008, 04:42:01 PM
The Rest is Noise (2007) by Alex Ross (music critic of The New Yorker) - we already have a dedicated thread to this writer/book - reviews have been numerous & outstanding - I'm just a third through the volume; just a 'sweeping' survey of 20th century music (of all kinds) - of course, this approach can be disjointed since the coverage includes classic & popular genres, but a worth a read for those wanting to better understand the dynamics of 20th century music - numerous (an variable comments) reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Rest-Noise-Listening-Twentieth-Century/dp/0312427719/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230768647&sr=1-1) - take a look and decide; the paperback is cheap and I'm sure local libraries will have copies; not a book to be ignore!  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41tt4-OyPjL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2008, 04:44:05 PM
It's an excellent read, Dave!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2008, 05:42:43 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on December 31, 2008, 04:42:01 PM
The Rest is Noise (2007) by Alex Ross (music critic of The New Yorker) - we already have a dedicated thread to this writer/book - reviews have been numerous & outstanding - I'm just a third through the volume; just a 'sweeping' survey of 20th century music (of all kinds) - of course, this approach can be disjointed since the coverage includes classic & popular genres, but a worth a read for those wanting to better understand the dynamics of 20th century music - numerous (an variable comments) reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Rest-Noise-Listening-Twentieth-Century/dp/0312427719/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230768647&sr=1-1) - take a look and decide; the paperback is cheap and I'm sure local libraries will have copies; not a book to be ignore!  :)

An interesting review on Mixed Meters. (http://meters-mixed.blogspot.com/2008/02/rest-is-noise.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 31, 2008, 05:52:31 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 31, 2008, 05:42:43 PM
An interesting review on Mixed Meters. (http://meters-mixed.blogspot.com/2008/02/rest-is-noise.html)

Karl - thanks for the link! There are nearly 4 pages of 'recommended comments' on the front pages of this book, and I'm sure numerous 'positive' links could be provided - I'm feeling that although just a third through this tome, that the book will be an historic comment on 20th century music - thanks for your comments & endorsement, just hope some others will take up the read! Dave  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jchen on January 01, 2009, 01:25:24 PM
I have no interesting books to read. The book I really really want to read is Brisingr!!!
I love reading!!!!!!!!!!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 01, 2009, 05:06:18 PM
Quote from: jchen on January 01, 2009, 01:25:24 PM
I have no interesting books to read. The book I really really want to read is Brisingr!!!
I love reading!!!!!!!!!!  ;D

Do I sense a fantasy fan?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jchen on January 01, 2009, 05:21:59 PM
I love fantasy books, and also adventure and animal ^_^ I just LOVE fiction. oh, and also mystery... ;D I love reading!! As long as I understand what I am reading!! I am a Harry Potter Fan too ^_^  :) ;) :D
For non-fiction books, those that have cool facts are my favs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on January 01, 2009, 07:58:22 PM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13290000/13293621.JPG)

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, by John M. Barry.

This is a fascinating study of a pandemic which killed more people in 24 months than Aids has killed in 24 years (estimated morbidity of at least 50 to 100 million people worldwide in 24 months!). It killed the strongest and healthiest adults rapidly, not just the very young and very old as is typical with influenza most recently.  It was deadlier than the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages, and it's been almost completely forgotten.   

The book tells the story of how the confluence of war and disease resulted in world wide pandemic.  Because of the self-censorship of the news media during World War 1, the influenza which probably arose in the United States was called the "Spanish Flu" because it was first covered in the Spanish Newspapers.  Spain was neutral during the War so there was reason not to cover the pandemic.  American, German, British and French news media refrained voluntarily or by government request from printing anything about the epidemic and the enormous death rates of troops from the flu for fear of weakening troop morale and national support for the war. 

It also is a history of how the practice of medicine and medical education was modernized in the early years of the 20th century in the United States.  America lagged behind Germany and Britain until the founding of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Rockefeller University.  Soon America had caught up and become a leader in the development of antitoxin sera against diptheria, menigitis, pneumonia, and tetanus as well as the vaccines for diptheria and pneumococcal pneumonia.  In an age before antibiotics, bacteriologists and pathologists learned to manipulate the immune systems of men and animals to conquer a number of serious diseases.  Now with the advent of super-bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, this technology is once again being explored.  Because the author is also a good writer, the book is easy to read and very compelling.  Highly recommended!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on January 01, 2009, 08:00:15 PM
Quote from: orbital on December 31, 2008, 06:35:23 AM
With that many references to it in Lunar Park, I felt like re-reading American Psycho. Equally enjoyable the second time around.


Not the most enjoyable book for me by a long shot!  Metrosexual kills for the fun of it.  ugh. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on January 01, 2009, 09:27:38 PM
I read The Great Influenza also.  Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 02, 2009, 03:57:58 AM
Quote from: jchen on January 01, 2009, 05:21:59 PM
I love fantasy books, and also adventure and animal ^_^ I just LOVE fiction. oh, and also mystery... ;D I love reading!! As long as I understand what I am reading!! I am a Harry Potter Fan too ^_^  :) ;) :D
For non-fiction books, those that have cool facts are my favs.

Which is why I didn't even mention the Harry Potter novels: I was quite certain you'd gotten there already. ;)

Have you read the Chronicles of Narnia? Old-school, but classic for a reason, and it's dead-center between "fantasy", "adventure" and "animal". And of course The Lord of the Rings, but that might not qualify in the "understanding what you're reading" department just yet. ^_^



Bunny, re American Psycho, its brilliance is in its function as a piece of social critique. The metrosexual psychopath is, of course, a caricature; but brilliantly put together, as is practically every other character in that book.

Have you read the whole thing? The ending is highly indicative of the point Ellis is making. :)


Although sadly, it would appear that none of the other Ellis novels quite manage to reach that level - orbital, correct me if I'm wrong on this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on January 02, 2009, 05:42:26 AM
Quote from: Renfield on January 02, 2009, 03:57:58 AM
Which is why I didn't even mention the Harry Potter novels: I was quite certain you'd gotten there already. ;)

Have you read the Chronicles of Narnia? Old-school, but classic for a reason, and it's dead-center between "fantasy", "adventure" and "animal". And of course The Lord of the Rings, but that might not qualify in the "understanding what you're reading" department just yet. ^_^



Bunny, re American Psycho, its brilliance is in its function as a piece of social critique. The metrosexual psychopath is, of course, a caricature; but brilliantly put together, as is practically every other character in that book.

Have you read the whole thing? The ending is highly indicative of the point Ellis is making. :)
Exactly. This is going to sound cliche, but the novel is indeed a sweeping critique of the booming 80s, and not of Wall Street culture alone.

Of course, I did not mean to say it is enjoyable because of the gory murder scenes, but the book is full of excess in every topic it touches. Murder is one of them, but so are luxury brands, electronic equipment, popular music, etc.


Quote
Although sadly, it would appear that none of the other Ellis novels quite manage to reach that level - orbital, correct me if I'm wrong on this.
Admittedly I have only read this one, The Rules of Attraction and Lunar Park. The Rules of Attraction actually is one of these few instances where the material works better as a film. The Lunar Park was pretty good, but it owed a lot to themes from American Psycho  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 02, 2009, 07:35:54 AM
Quote from: orbital on January 02, 2009, 05:42:26 AM
The Rules of Attraction actually is one of these few instances where the material works better as a film.

Haven't read anything, but have seen and liked The Rules of Attraction. The reviews were mostly very negative though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on January 02, 2009, 08:05:28 AM
Quote from: Renfield on January 02, 2009, 03:57:58 AM

Bunny, re American Psycho, its brilliance is in its function as a piece of social critique. The metrosexual psychopath is, of course, a caricature; but brilliantly put together, as is practically every other character in that book.

Have you read the whole thing? The ending is highly indicative of the point Ellis is making. :)


Although sadly, it would appear that none of the other Ellis novels quite manage to reach that level - orbital, correct me if I'm wrong on this.
Quote from: orbital on January 02, 2009, 05:42:26 AM
Exactly. This is going to sound cliche, but the novel is indeed a sweeping critique of the booming 80s, and not of Wall Street culture alone.

Of course, I did not mean to say it is enjoyable because of the gory murder scenes, but the book is full of excess in every topic it touches. Murder is one of them, but so are luxury brands, electronic equipment, popular music, etc.

Admittedly I have only read this one, The Rules of Attraction and Lunar Park. The Rules of Attraction actually is one of these few instances where the material works better as a film. The Lunar Park was pretty good, but it owed a lot to themes from American Psycho  :-\

I think Brett Easton Ellis is a very sick individual.  You don't need explicit scenes of the sexual torture and humiliation of only women to make a satirical point about the excesses of the 1980s.  Would an anti-war satire that includes explicit information about the construction of pipe bombs and improvised explosive devices along with explicit descriptions of how human bodies are destroyed by them be interesting to you as well?   One could as well argue that a novel that about a sexually sadistic Nazi guard at a concentration camp who is obsessed with his appearance is a satire about World War 2. 

When Ellis wrote the book he was "in the closet." After the book came out, his sexual orientation became public as well as his deep misogyny.  As it is, the novel is about torture and murder merely disguised as satire.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 02, 2009, 09:49:34 AM
Quote from: Bunny on January 02, 2009, 08:05:28 AM
As it is, the novel is about torture and murder merely disguised as satire.

It is very far from evident why that should be the case, instead of the opposite. And I feel you are not reading it objectively.

There are many literary works in history that feature psychopathic protagonists, cruel acts and murder; and many of them using this sort of personal depravity as a caricature for social depravity, including demeaning views of women.

Kafka, Camus, Anthony Burgess ("A Clockwork Orange") - I won't even touch Dostoyevski: prima facie, they all wrote very depraved things.


In any affair, you are of course free to reject Ellis' work, or anyone else's. But I still think the ad hominem was unwarranted. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on January 02, 2009, 10:27:41 AM
Quote from: Bunny on January 02, 2009, 08:05:28 AM
One could as well argue that a novel that about a sexually sadistic Nazi guard at a concentration camp who is obsessed with his appearance is a satire about World War 2. 

And here I thought Dirk Bogarde was good in The Night Porter. Now, I see that he, too, was just a gay woman-hater with a torture kink.

Which makes perfect sense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on January 02, 2009, 11:55:26 AM
Quote from: Bunny on January 02, 2009, 08:05:28 AM
I think Brett Easton Ellis is a very sick individual.  You don't need explicit scenes of the sexual torture and humiliation of only women to make a satirical point about the excesses of the 1980s.  Would an anti-war satire that includes explicit information about the construction of pipe bombs and improvised explosive devices along with explicit descriptions of how human bodies are destroyed by them be interesting to you as well?   One could as well argue that a novel that about a sexually sadistic Nazi guard at a concentration camp who is obsessed with his appearance is a satire about World War 2. 

The difference being that a satire about World War 2 would be tasteless with or without involving a Nazi officer obsessed with his looks. When it is about the 80s, a time period which is not remembered with particularly strong negative feelings, let alone personal accounts of misery and destruction, a satire would be very well placed.

Also, please remember that the murder scenes do not involve women alone. What about the beggars, the guy with the bow tie and the most graphic of all, of Paul Owen (small font size for disclaimer purposes)
That is not to say the book is not purposefully misogynistic. But it bothers me much more when it is done in a concealed manner, such as in Auto Da Fe -a book that I could not go through  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on January 02, 2009, 12:21:09 PM
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/ciu/a1/7f/2d1bc27a02a02211826d8110._AA240_.L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on January 02, 2009, 02:37:16 PM
Quote from: orbital on January 02, 2009, 11:55:26 AM
The difference being that a satire about World War 2 would be tasteless with or without involving a Nazi officer obsessed with his looks. When it is about the 80s, a time period which is not remembered with particularly strong negative feelings, let alone personal accounts of misery and destruction, a satire would be very well placed.

Also, please remember that the murder scenes do not involve women alone. What about the beggars, the guy with the bow tie and the most graphic of all, of Paul Owen (small font size for disclaimer purposes)
That is not to say the book is not purposefully misogynistic. But it bothers me much more when it is done in a concealed manner, such as in Auto Da Fe -a book that I could not go through  :-\


A satire about a serial killer living it up in the 1980s is as tasteless as a satire about a Nazi guard at Buchenwald when the killing is described in such detail. 

For satire, merely suggesting the gore would have more than sufficient.  The inclusion of explicit detail of the kill scenes is repugnant and unnecessary.   I haven't allowed myself to become so desensitized to violence that I can read something like American Psycho without vomiting.  I tend to avoid movies where the blood flow is heavy as well.  I don't need to learn how not to be shocked by killing and death.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on January 02, 2009, 03:11:21 PM
Quote from: Bunny on January 02, 2009, 02:37:16 PM
A satire about a serial killer living it up in the 1980s is as tasteless as a satire about a Nazi guard at Buchenwald when the killing is described in such detail. 

For satire, merely suggesting the gore would have more than sufficient.  The inclusion of explicit detail of the kill scenes is repugnant and unnecessary.   I haven't allowed myself to become so desensitized to violence that I can read something like American Psycho without vomiting.  I tend to avoid movies where the blood flow is heavy as well.  I don't need to learn how not to be shocked by killing and death.

Is it possible that the reaction you have was supposed to be the reaction to the violence? That Patrick Bateman is not particularly sympathetic, and, in fact, is downright evil? Perhaps Easton Ellis is making the point that, as a society, we have become so desensitized and numbed that a novel about disconnection and modern alienation would not have any impact without the sign and symbol of that disconnection and alienation being -- at the very least -- fantasized violence. Even assuming that isn't the point, the author is making a powerful statement when he shows us a character whose only real connection with his fellow men and women is brutal, sadistic violence -- real or imagined. Maybe you need only to change "repugnant and unnecessary" to "repugnant and necessary."

I'm still wondering, of course, what the relationship is between Ellis' bedroom practices and the attitudes you see in the book. You did allude to some sort of connection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 02, 2009, 03:51:46 PM
Quote from: PSmith08 on January 02, 2009, 03:11:21 PM
the author is making a powerful statement when he shows us a character whose only real connection with his fellow men and women is brutal, sadistic violence -- real or imagined.
[my emphasis]

Exactly. Thank you, that's quite better than I probably could have put it.

Patrick Bateman is not a serial killer; he is the twisted offspring of a dead-end culture exaggerated to the extreme. To him (qua his culture's offspring) the killing is natural, and it is exactly because Bateman is so nonchalant about acts this cruel that the novel acquires its edge.

I'll repeat my earlier comment on the ending: if you've finished the book, you might remember Bateman's feelings about the exit.


Edit: I am refraining from going into specific examples, partly so as not to rob people who might be interested in reading American Psycho of its full impact, and partly because I do understand many people might find the contents disturbing. But this does not invalidate the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on January 02, 2009, 06:18:32 PM
Quote from: Renfield on January 02, 2009, 03:51:46 PM
Exactly. Thank you, that's quite better than I probably could have put it.

Patrick Bateman is not a serial killer; he is the twisted offspring of a dead-end culture exaggerated to the extreme. To him (qua his culture's offspring) the killing is natural, and it is exactly because Bateman is so nonchalant about acts this cruel that the novel acquires its edge.

I'll repeat my earlier comment on the ending: if you've finished the book, you might remember Bateman's feelings about the exit.

I spent a summer reading and rereading American Psycho, largely because I found the book to be compelling as a cry in the wilderness. Easton Ellis is not glamorizing or lionizing the acts of insane brutality that Bateman commits, either in "reality" or in his imagination, he is using them to illustrate his point about then-contemporary American culture. As a commentary on violence, the book is fairly successful; as a commentary on a society that has pretty much broken down, the book is without peer. Taking a step into the meta-narrative, Easton Ellis is forcing us to look at ourselves and our culture -- as he did with The Rules of Attraction -- and his judgment is harsh and bleak. I think that it must be remembered that American Psycho, taken in the whole, is not particularly amusing or funny. When you're not queasy from the violence, you're utterly turned off by the characters. No one is sympathetic. It is not pleasant to look at the products of a disconnected, alienated culture that has the "value system" that Bateman's New York does.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 02, 2009, 06:31:50 PM
Quote from: PSmith08 on January 02, 2009, 06:18:32 PM
I spent a summer reading and rereading American Psycho, largely because I found the book to be compelling as a cry in the wilderness. Easton Ellis is not glamorizing or lionizing the acts of insane brutality that Bateman commits, either in "reality" or in his imagination, he is using them to illustrate his point about then-contemporary American culture. As a commentary on violence, the book is fairly successful; as a commentary on a society that has pretty much broken down, the book is without peer. Taking a step into the meta-narrative, Easton Ellis is forcing us to look at ourselves and our culture -- as he did with The Rules of Attraction -- and his judgment is harsh and bleak. I think that it must be remembered that American Psycho, taken in the whole, is not particularly amusing or funny. When you're not queasy from the violence, you're utterly turned off by the characters. No one is sympathetic. It is not pleasant to look at the products of a disconnected, alienated culture that has the "value system" that Bateman's New York does.

Indeed, which is why Kafka was the first person that came to mind when I looked for writers of similar goals to Ellis that I could use as examples, above. Although, like Kafka, I'm not at all convinced that Ellis' powerful irony could not be labelled "funny".

It's tragic, and part of the novel's success in my estimate, but Bateman's murders, Carruthers' homosexual advances and all the rest of it do acquire an almost embarrassingly amusing tint; which, of course, the ending (I still drone about that, but it struck me as particularly right and necessary a way to wrap the novel) serves to establish in its proper place in the general scheme of things. It really is a place with no escape.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on January 02, 2009, 07:19:57 PM
Quote from: Renfield on January 02, 2009, 06:31:50 PM
Indeed, which is why Kafka was the first person that came to mind when I looked for writers of similar goals to Ellis that I could use as examples, above. Although, like Kafka, I'm not at all convinced that Ellis' powerful irony could not be labelled "funny".

It's tragic, and part of the novel's success in my estimate, but Bateman's murders, Carruthers' homosexual advances and all the rest of it do acquire an almost embarrassingly amusing tint; which, of course, the ending (I still drone about that, but it struck me as particularly right and necessary a way to wrap the novel) serves to establish in its proper place in the general scheme of things. It really is a place with no escape.

All of those things can be "funny," but they're not funny in any traditional sense. They're funny in context and because Easton Ellis has a profound sense of irony and is no mean wit. Of course, the irony and wit are only covers for the bleak, almost cruel, message of the novel. The ending, as you have noted, is a key scene. The nihilism of the narrative is made manifest: Bateman, the ostensible narrator, has failed to make the connection with the reader. Our window into his psyche has not created a bond. He is tragic at best and revolting at worst, but he is never sympathetic. Absent that connection, Bateman is trapped in the loop, doomed to a meaningless existence. That's why I say the book isn't amusing or funny. Society, at its most fundamental level, has broken down in Patrick Bateman's world, and the inhabitants are forced to do the same things with essentially the same people over and over without any connection, any shared values or ideals. That is why I find that American Psycho is so compelling.

That, to throw a last minute wrench in the discussion, and it is a Nietzschean drama on the order of Mann's Der Tod in Venedig, though I think Mann's approach is ultimately more successful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on January 03, 2009, 01:11:51 AM
Quote from: Bunny on January 02, 2009, 02:37:16 PM
For satire, merely suggesting the gore would have more than sufficient.  The inclusion of explicit detail of the kill scenes is repugnant and unnecessary.  
But Bunny, that would kill the whole point. The book is continuously drenched in details: about what people around Bateman wear, what their business cards look like, gossip columns, morning TV shows, Phil Collins' latest album, exercise routines, nouvelle cuisines on the edge of absurdity, etc. things that Bateman cares about and on the other side, senseless, brutal violence -things that to him come very naturally. Bateman, in that sense, is the exaggerated epitome of the times (and places) he lives in. One particular scene that emphasizes this point is when he says he is "just trying to fit in."

Quote
I haven't allowed myself to become so desensitized to violence that I can read something like American Psycho without vomiting. 
which does not necessarily mean the ones who did like the book have. It all depends on what purpose violence is there to serve. I don't think you've seen the movie version  :D but the violence in the film was mostly used to comedic effect which was unfortunate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on January 03, 2009, 02:10:01 AM
PLATO:      Laches

One of Plato's early Dialogues, and not one of the best.

The Socratic technique is already there: to destroy the believes of the others, by forcing them to use general definitions. I think he was wrong. In fact Wittgenstein shows the fallacy of such perspective.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 03, 2009, 05:41:43 AM
Under way:

(http://prayerfoundation.org/books/book_r15.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Joe_Campbell on January 03, 2009, 11:16:27 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 03, 2009, 05:41:43 AM
Under way:

(http://prayerfoundation.org/books/book_r15.jpg)
I read that one. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts when you're finished.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Joe_Campbell on January 03, 2009, 11:18:46 AM
Also, just picked up Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer and the complete Dexter (in a similar vein to American Psycho, though probably not as sadistic, if the tv show is any indication) series, although those three are for a friend. I might end up reading them before they're gifted anyways! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 03, 2009, 08:16:51 PM
Quote from: Joe_Campbell on January 03, 2009, 11:16:27 AM
I read that one. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts when you're finished.

A group of us are reading it at the same time JC.  If you remember at the start of the book he interviewed Dr. Craig Blomberg.  Someone in our group actually knows Blomberg and he agreed to come and discuss the book with us in Feb.  Only 50 or so pages in.  Will let you know after I finish up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on January 04, 2009, 07:25:47 AM
Quote from: orbital on January 03, 2009, 01:11:51 AM
But Bunny, that would kill the whole point.

That point was beaten (or electrocuted or slashed) to death.

QuoteThe book is continuously drenched in details: about what people around Bateman wear, what their business cards look like, gossip columns, morning TV shows, Phil Collins' latest album, exercise routines, nouvelle cuisines on the edge of absurdity, etc. things that Bateman cares about and on the other side, senseless, brutal violence -things that to him come very naturally. Bateman, in that sense, is the exaggerated epitome of the times (and places) he lives in. One particular scene that emphasizes this point is when he says he is "just trying to fit in."
which does not necessarily mean the ones who did like the book have. It all depends on what purpose violence is there to serve. I don't think you've seen the movie version  :D but the violence in the film was mostly used to comedic effect which was unfortunate.

Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence, for example, is all about sex; and filled with meticulously recorded details of life lived with extravagance.  The sex survived very well without even one sex scene (explicit or otherwise).  It's all about great writing skills -- some have them, and those lacking need explicit sex and violence to sell their books.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on January 05, 2009, 09:49:55 AM
Philip K. Dick-Now Wait For Last Year
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on January 06, 2009, 01:33:57 AM
G.K. CHESTERTON:   Orthodoxy


An apology of Christianism. But above all the unique style of Chesterton. A delightful book even if, like me, we disagree with all its conclusions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Herman on January 06, 2009, 04:03:19 AM
Quote from: Bunny on January 02, 2009, 08:05:28 AM
I think Brett Easton Ellis is a very sick individual. 

The two times I met him he seemed a very sweet and gentle person. True, he's got a macabre sense of humor, but you're like the guy who angrily waits at the stage door for the actor who played the villain.

Somebody had to write American Psycho, after all, and looking at cases like the Madoff scandal I think the culture needs a sequel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 06, 2009, 06:25:49 AM
Quote from: Herman on January 06, 2009, 04:03:19 AM
Somebody had to write American Psycho, after all

Indeed, I agree. But it's not necessarily outdated (alas). At least from my point of view, that of someone who wasn't old enough in the 80's to have any sort of proper direct awareness of them, American Psycho resonates with more than just that culture.

And it is extreme; as, in my opinion, it should be to make the point it's making, rather than a similar-but-not-equivalent one. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on January 06, 2009, 06:28:46 AM
I'm reading a Phil Spector bio. Forget the title.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on January 06, 2009, 06:34:20 AM
(http://server40136.uk2net.com/~wpower/images/product_images/9780140432350.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 06, 2009, 06:51:27 AM
Quote from: Dr. Dread on January 06, 2009, 06:28:46 AM
I'm reading a Phil Spector bio. Forget the title.

Was it hidden by the wall of sound? :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on January 06, 2009, 06:56:12 AM
Quote from: Renfield on January 06, 2009, 06:51:27 AM
Was it hidden by the wall of sound? :P

Close.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xXCD701oL._SS500_.jpg)

Eat any bugs lately?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on January 06, 2009, 06:57:41 AM
Quote from: PSmith08 on January 02, 2009, 03:11:21 PM
Is it possible that the reaction you have was supposed to be the reaction to the violence? That Patrick Bateman is not particularly sympathetic, and, in fact, is downright evil? Perhaps Easton Ellis is making the point that, as a society, we have become so desensitized and numbed that a novel about disconnection and modern alienation would not have any impact without the sign and symbol of that disconnection and alienation being -- at the very least -- fantasized violence. Even assuming that isn't the point, the author is making a powerful statement when he shows us a character whose only real connection with his fellow men and women is brutal, sadistic violence -- real or imagined. Maybe you need only to change "repugnant and unnecessary" to "repugnant and necessary."

I'm still wondering, of course, what the relationship is between Ellis' bedroom practices and the attitudes you see in the book. You did allude to some sort of connection.

I didn't have problems with Henry Miller, and his scenes of sexual strangulation, whether fantasized or real, were also pretty revolting if barely tolerable.  I think the difference is that BEE takes descriptions of violence to a needlessly explicit level.  The book is a blueprint on how to recreate the most vile acts.  It's like a novel about a terrorist that includes explicit information on how to make the bombs along with explicit descriptions of the damage done by the bombs. 

The fact the none of you find it to be impossibly violent tells me that you are all desensitized to violence to some degree.  I'm not surprised by this because one of my daughters didn't find the violence too revolting either.  I think that a lifetime of being exposed to depictions of violence on tv, in movies, in video games, and other media as well as to the reality violence of shock journalism and war reporting (in my youth, we never saw a dead body let alone a mangled dead body in film or on tv) has led to a generation being as desensitized as the jury of the Rodney King trial.  That jury, in case anyone is unfamiliar or has forgotten, was exposed to the video daily until they didn't find it shocking.  Once the shock value was neutralized, they didn't find the actions of the police officers extreme.  It's a lesson to me that perhaps there is a value in restricting the exposure of anyone to violence, blood, and gore.  I also realize that soldiers' first experience of combat usually provokes extreme reactions of disgust and nausea when they see the dead, dismembered, and wounded in the aftermath.  They also become "hardened" to the carnage as they continue in their military careers ("battle hardened veterans").  I suspect that all of BEE's defenders have in some way become hardened to carnage so that they can read it and isolate themselves from it.  I haven't been desensitized so I still am able to find the violence in the novel as exceptional as it truly is. 

My allusion was really a reference to Ellis's extreme misogyny which is something he hasn't hidden.  I think he really gets off on fantasizing the torture of women because he really hates women.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 06, 2009, 07:03:57 AM
Madras
Tracing the growth of the city since 1639

K. R. A. Narasiah

Madras, now called Chennai, is the city that I call home. I have not read any books by this author, but I have seen his name mentioned numerous times in a weekly newspaper column by the best-known historian of the city. Given my interest in this city's history, I snatched it up a couple of weeks ago.

The book traces the transformation of what was essentially a group of (fishing) villages into the capital of the Madras Presidency during the British Raj. Though it covers the period 1639-1947 - the time of the British, it begins with some mention of this part of India many centuries ago. A thriving port and centre of culture not far from where I live known to the Greek Ptolemy of the second century A.D. Then come the Portuguese and the Dutch in the 15th-16th centuries in search of spices. Then in 1639, a couple of fellows from the British East India Company land on these shores to build a fort as a trading post. But you know how these colonialists were. ::) They began acquiring the surrounding areas and started building a city.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 06, 2009, 07:08:04 AM
Quote from: Bunny on January 06, 2009, 06:57:41 AM
I think he really gets off on fantasizing the torture of women because he really hates women.

But regardless of your opinions on the novel, which we are discussing, this is your personal assumption.

On a similar vein, I might say Sylvia Plath was simply bitter at Ted Hughes for abandoning her, and instead of moving on, she wrote some of these silly poems that betray women's inability to cope with rejection, and then killed herself to prove my point.

Would that not be completely out of order for me to say? Personally, I draw a line between discussing a work and discussing its author.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on January 06, 2009, 09:31:14 AM
Quote from: Bunny on January 06, 2009, 06:57:41 AM
I suspect that all of BEE's defenders have in some way become hardened to carnage so that they can read it and isolate themselves from it.  I haven't been desensitized so I still am able to find the violence in the novel as exceptional as it truly is. 

If that's the case, I'll iterate my point, then Easton Ellis' argument rings true. Were it anything less, most everyone would have written it off as a book about a rich guy who has a BDSM kink. As it is, it's about a monster (on one level or another) who is able to function, with some success, because no one is paying any attention. Why is no one paying any attention? Well, as I read the book, it appears that the fabric of Bateman's society (I've said this above) has broken down to the point where nothing connects anyone. The society that created Patrick Bateman is disconnected, alienated, narcissistic, and oblivious. This theme of a shattered society, filled with narcissistic, amoral pleasure-seekers, is apparent in The Rules of Attraction, though that book makes a different point. Easton Ellis, to my mind, isn't a sadistic pervert, drooling in a corner over his torture scenes, but a social critic. If someone like Patrick Bateman, whose only real connection with humanity is a series of desperately inhuman real or imagined acts, exists in a society like the one depicted, one that resembles our society magnified for allegory's sake, shouldn't we be on guard? Seeing where it can go, shouldn't we take the lesson to heart? Maybe it's too late.

QuoteMy allusion was really a reference to Ellis's extreme misogyny which is something he hasn't hidden.  I think he really gets off on fantasizing the torture of women because he really hates women.

That's certainly one opinion, but there's not a lot of evidence for it other than one book that uses the violence as a metaphor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 06, 2009, 01:22:54 PM
(http://www.fourfiveone.com/oldtownbookshop/modigliani.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 06, 2009, 09:50:42 PM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n10/n52881.jpg)

Vollmann is probably my favorite living writer.  This is vol 3 in his Seven Dreams series, each detailing an encounter between Europeans and North American native peoples.  Argall tells the story of John Smith, Pocahontas and the founding of Jamestown.  At 600+ pages written in Elizabethian English it runs the risk of being written off as a pretentious experiment, but the book is engrossing.  Vollmann is able to combine a brutal, piercing realism while at the same time retain a sense of empathy for the characters.  Both the English and the Powhatan are portayed realisticly without any sense of pandering to either modern or traditionalist sensibilities (although the English do come off worse than the Powhatan).  Pocahontas, who was only 10 when she supposedly intervened to save Smith's life (Smith is the only source for this and some doubt the whole story), is a rather tragic character, a lonely daughter among the many children of the polygamous emperor Powhatan (he created the name for himself and the people by conquering and bringing together about 30 tribal groups in Eastern Virginia).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on January 08, 2009, 07:04:02 AM
Quote from: PSmith08 on January 06, 2009, 09:31:14 AM
If that's the case, I'll iterate my point, then Easton Ellis' argument rings true. Were it anything less, most everyone would have written it off as a book about a rich guy who has a BDSM kink. As it is, it's about a monster (on one level or another) who is able to function, with some success, because no one is paying any attention. Why is no one paying any attention? Well, as I read the book, it appears that the fabric of Bateman's society (I've said this above) has broken down to the point where nothing connects anyone. The society that created Patrick Bateman is disconnected, alienated, narcissistic, and oblivious. This theme of a shattered society, filled with narcissistic, amoral pleasure-seekers, is apparent in The Rules of Attraction, though that book makes a different point. Easton Ellis, to my mind, isn't a sadistic pervert, drooling in a corner over his torture scenes, but a social critic. If someone like Patrick Bateman, whose only real connection with humanity is a series of desperately inhuman real or imagined acts, exists in a society like the one depicted, one that resembles our society magnified for allegory's sake, shouldn't we be on guard? Seeing where it can go, shouldn't we take the lesson to heart? Maybe it's too late.

That's certainly one opinion, but there's not a lot of evidence for it other than one book that uses the violence as a metaphor.

You confuse fantasy with reality when you assume that the serial murderer doesn't blend into the society around him.  Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacey, Jeffrey Dahmer were only 3 of the monsters who functioned unsuspected within society.  Serial murderers don't walk around with signs around their necks; they blend very well into society.  Some are high functioning members of society; only consider the "angels of mercy" who routinely put their patients out of their agony.  Many are charming, socially non-threatening, people who are able to take victims by surprise because they seem so "normal."  They are successful because they blend so well into their society.  Consider Dennis Rader, the BTK Strangler (so called BTK for Bind, Torture and Kill).   He lived for decades undetected.  He was on the zoning council of his community and the president of the congregation of his Lutheran Church.  Serial murderers like the Hill Side Stranglers can kill for decades before being caught, or go unidentified like the Zodiac Killer.  They blend into their social milieu with alarming ease.

You find the character satirical because he's so over the top that he can't be real.  I find the character chilling and repulsive because he is so typical of real, highly organized, serial murderers.  You believe the violence to be too fantastic to be other than satire. I know that the level of violence shown in the book is all too real.  You are able to depersonalize it this way; I refuse to depersonalize such violence whether real or imagined.  Graphic depiction of violence should never be considered satirical when such violence exists in the real world because if it's true, it's not a satire.  You characterize society as depicted in the book as "narcissistic, amoral" and consider Bateman a product, no -- a reflection of that society.  For you Bateman is a metaphor for the consumer society that you and Easton Ellis feel have created such a monster.  I submit that this is a a perversion of reality, not a satire.  Let's understand this: monsters like Bateman are real.  They exist.  Saying that a consumerist society is the reason for the existence of such monsters is not true, it is a lie.  It is a lie that twists reality and becomes just another way to fill our society with depictions of violence that more and more people can become desensitized to.  You find redeeming value in these depictions.  I do not.  In the end, the true test of American Psycho would be to read the book with all depictions of violence removed and then decide whether the author has made a work of lasting merit.  I submit that without the shock value and titillation of the violence you will be left with a very ordinary, pedestrian product.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on January 08, 2009, 05:08:29 PM
(http://images.publicradio.org/content/2006/12/14/20061214_libbeycover_3.jpg)

Just picked this up from the library.

I was considering buying it so I'll try it first  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 08, 2009, 06:45:57 PM
Quote from: Bunny on January 08, 2009, 07:04:02 AM
For you Bateman is a metaphor for the consumer society that you and Easton Ellis feel have created such a monster.  I submit that this is a a perversion of reality, not a satire.  Let's understand this: monsters like Bateman are real.  They exist.  Saying that a consumerist society is the reason for the existence of such monsters is not true, it is a lie.  It is a lie that twists reality and becomes just another way to fill our society with depictions of violence that more and more people can become desensitized to.  You find redeeming value in these depictions.  I do not.  In the end, the true test of American Psycho would be to read the book with all depictions of violence removed and then decide whether the author has made a work of lasting merit.  I submit that without the shock value and titillation of the violence you will be left with a very ordinary, pedestrian product. [my emphasis]

A metaphor does not imply causality. Bateman is not caused by the society, as per the interpretation discussed, he reflects it - corresponds to it, if you will. The point made is not that Bateman is imaginary, it is that Bateman, in his society, is matter-of-fact.

If his society and our society are one and the same, then even more reason for American Psycho's existence.


Also, as a note: among the things I personally kept from that novel were far more the repeated (almost routine) scenes of narcissistic self-aggrandisement, or the various dead-end characters such as Luis Carruthers, than most of the murders, or the violence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: PSmith08 on January 08, 2009, 09:44:23 PM
Quote from: Renfield on January 08, 2009, 06:45:57 PM
A metaphor does not imply causality. Bateman is not caused by the society, as per the interpretation discussed, he reflects it - corresponds to it, if you will. The point made is not that Bateman is imaginary, it is that Bateman, in his society, is matter-of-fact.

If his society and our society are one and the same, then even more reason for American Psycho's existence.

Also, as a note: among the things I personally kept from that novel were far more the repeated (almost routine) scenes of narcissistic self-aggrandisement, or the various dead-end characters such as Luis Carruthers, than most of the murders, or the violence.

This exchange has convinced me that, for the most part, American Psycho is at home with works like Pasolini's Salò, Cavani's The Night Porter, and Cronenberg's Videodrome. If one can get past the superficial, "shocking" exterior, then one can find intense and interesting meditations on all manner of themes present in modern Western life. Indeed, the road from Salò to American Psycho isn't, if you stop to think about it, very long. If one cannot get past the exterior, then it's not very interesting and pretty offensive. Of course, so is the Raft of the Medusa if you take it for what it presents itself to be on the most superficial level. De gustibus non disputandum, however, is about the only reasonable response. I will, however, say that, in response to this:

Quote from: Bunny on January 08, 2009, 07:04:02 AM
You characterize society as depicted in the book as "narcissistic, amoral" and consider Bateman a product, no -- a reflection of that society.  For you Bateman is a metaphor for the consumer society that you and Easton Ellis feel have created such a monster.  I submit that this is a a perversion of reality, not a satire.  Let's understand this: monsters like Bateman are real.  They exist.  Saying that a consumerist society is the reason for the existence of such monsters is not true, it is a lie.  It is a lie that twists reality and becomes just another way to fill our society with depictions of violence that more and more people can become desensitized to.  You find redeeming value in these depictions.  I do not.  In the end, the true test of American Psycho would be to read the book with all depictions of violence removed and then decide whether the author has made a work of lasting merit.  I submit that without the shock value and titillation of the violence you will be left with a very ordinary, pedestrian product.

there are two salient points.

First, one necessarily reduces a work of art to garbage when one removes a central metaphor, so I don't find particularly convincing or useful the argument that removing the effect of the violence from American Psycho would diminish the work. Of course it would. You do propose a test, that's clear, though it seems less specific than presented and it has no more power over this work than any work.

Second, you continue to fret over the desensitization effect and its relation to American Psycho. As you present it, only someone desensitized to violence can even really approach the book. Someone who is still shocked by violence cannot approach the book, and that, in your critique, is the appropriate condition. Not to quibble, but that's simply incorrect -- by about 180 degrees, to be honest. Someone really desensitized to the quantity and quality of violence in the book isn't going to notice it. If one does not notice the violence, then it isn't a metaphor. It's wallpaper, so to speak. If someone is shocked by the violence, assuming (apparently arguendo, though I don't accept the premise that Easton Ellis' sexuality/gender-political position has anything to do with the book -- we can have that discussion about The Rules of Attraction, though) it isn't merely base perversion for its own sake, then they'll notice it and its function in the work. One must be shocked for the violence to have the intended effect.

And with that, the gulf being too wide to bridge, I think I've said all I intend to say on the context issues.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 09, 2009, 05:39:53 AM
From among those borrowed from the library, today:

The White Tiger
Aravind Adiga
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on January 09, 2009, 06:17:46 AM
Philip Normans new Lennon biography. Very wellwritten and illuminating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 09, 2009, 06:44:24 AM
Quote from: erato on January 09, 2009, 06:17:46 AM
Philip Normans new Lennon biography. Very wellwritten and illuminating.

Hmm.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 09, 2009, 06:47:54 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PPX8CMBML._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

A big list of synopses, nice casual reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on January 09, 2009, 07:12:07 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 09, 2009, 06:44:24 AM
Hmm.
Meaning that you are in doubt if Alfovitch' Lennon is worth reading about?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 09, 2009, 07:15:08 AM
Quote from: erato on January 09, 2009, 07:12:07 AM
Meaning that you are in doubt if Alfovitch' Lennon is worth reading about?

Not at all;  your comment interests me otherwise.  So far, I've read about two chapters into Jonathan Gould's Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America . . . which (notwithstanding that I haven't touched it for a month) I found engrossing.  (Yes, I'll take it back up sometime ere long.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bunny on January 10, 2009, 09:04:05 AM
Quote from: Renfield on January 08, 2009, 06:45:57 PM
A metaphor does not imply causality. Bateman is not caused by the society, as per the interpretation discussed, he reflects it - corresponds to it, if you will. The point made is not that Bateman is imaginary, it is that Bateman, in his society, is matter-of-fact.

If his society and our society are one and the same, then even more reason for American Psycho's existence.


Also, as a note: among the things I personally kept from that novel were far more the repeated (almost routine) scenes of narcissistic self-aggrandisement, or the various dead-end characters such as Luis Carruthers, than most of the murders, or the violence.

Quote from: PSmith08 on January 08, 2009, 09:44:23 PM
This exchange has convinced me that, for the most part, American Psycho is at home with works like Pasolini's Salò, Cavani's The Night Porter, and Cronenberg's Videodrome. If one can get past the superficial, "shocking" exterior, then one can find intense and interesting meditations on all manner of themes present in modern Western life. Indeed, the road from Salò to American Psycho isn't, if you stop to think about it, very long. If one cannot get past the exterior, then it's not very interesting and pretty offensive. Of course, so is the Raft of the Medusa if you take it for what it presents itself to be on the most superficial level. De gustibus non disputandum, however, is about the only reasonable response. I will, however, say that, in response to this:

there are two salient points.

First, one necessarily reduces a work of art to garbage when one removes a central metaphor, so I don't find particularly convincing or useful the argument that removing the effect of the violence from American Psycho would diminish the work. Of course it would. You do propose a test, that's clear, though it seems less specific than presented and it has no more power over this work than any work.

Second, you continue to fret over the desensitization effect and its relation to American Psycho. As you present it, only someone desensitized to violence can even really approach the book. Someone who is still shocked by violence cannot approach the book, and that, in your critique, is the appropriate condition. Not to quibble, but that's simply incorrect -- by about 180 degrees, to be honest. Someone really desensitized to the quantity and quality of violence in the book isn't going to notice it. If one does not notice the violence, then it isn't a metaphor. It's wallpaper, so to speak. If someone is shocked by the violence, assuming (apparently arguendo, though I don't accept the premise that Easton Ellis' sexuality/gender-political position has anything to do with the book -- we can have that discussion about The Rules of Attraction, though) it isn't merely base perversion for its own sake, then they'll notice it and its function in the work. One must be shocked for the violence to have the intended effect.

And with that, the gulf being too wide to bridge, I think I've said all I intend to say on the context issues.

If I am reading your comments correctly, according to Renfield, American Psycho is more about narcissism; according to PSmith, it is meaningless without the torture -- "a central metaphor" without which the book loses meaning.

Renfield, if Bateman merely reflects his society, then isn't his character a product of that society -- unable to have been envisioned without that society?  And isn't that in effect saying that the society has contributed to the creation of the character?  You posit that the character is imaginary.  I ask, if he's imaginary what does it say about Brett Easton Ellis's imagination?  Do normal people fantasize about torture and murder this way?  You diminish the aspects of the violence and focus on the banality of the other aspects of the book.  Well then, why bother to even include the violence.  For you it's unnecessary; and yet you willingly tolerate it.

PSmith, if violence is the central metaphor of the book and the book is diminished without the violence, that it is "necessarily reduced to garbage" without the violence, then violence has become the raison d'etre for the book.  It becomes a book about violence because the violence is the core of the book, and worse, in your eyes the violence has redeeming value.  That's something I never expected to hear from you.  Btw, movies where the victims of Nazi torture are shown to be the willing participants in the torture are as perverted and despicable as American Psycho.  The existence of the film "The Night Porter" only shows that bad taste has no boundaries, and had American Psycho been "Nazi Psycho" depicting a foppish guard in Auschwitz it would have been as acceptable.  (Come to think about it Bateman shares a lot of qualities with Josef Mengele, who apparently was very vain about his appearance as well.)

Yes, I am concerned with the growing desensitization of our society even more than its consumerism and narcissism.  Violence as a spectacle has always existed: public torture and executions were once routine; gladiatorial contests reduced bloodshed to a carnival act.  Bull baiting and bear baiting were village attractions; cockfights and dog fights are blood spectacles that still exist today in certain cultural groups.  Graphic depictions of violence such as those in movies and American Psycho seem to have become a substitute for real thing.  Only consider how well horror films with graphic depictions of violence do at the box office, and then how well their dvds sell.  People argue that it's fantasy, not reality, but the depictions of violence are as true as the film makers can make them with whatever resources they have. I don't doubt that the viewers of these films have the same reactions as the audiences of blood sports, although there is no wagering on movie violence to enhance the excitement.

Does anyone actually believe that exposure to violence doesn't contribute to the breakdown of inhibitions against that violence?  Is there a gap between the lyrics of a rap song filled with the images of violence of man on man and man on woman and the descriptions of violence in American Psycho?   Those lyrics "reflect" the violence in the inner cities and that violence is real.  The lyrics also validate the violence by bringing fame and wealth to the rappers; they let individuals in the audience, gang members and wannabe gangstas think that casual violent acts are acceptable, and even something to emulate.  While I will never believe that the graphic depictions of violence are the sole cause of societal violence, I have to recognize that they feed the violent impulses in those exposed to the depictions by contributing to the breakdown of the inhibition of violent impulses.

So yes, I am very concerned with desensitization to violence.  For me, it's up there close to global warming as a matter for concern.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jchen on January 10, 2009, 03:13:21 PM
I just finished reading The Last of the Jedi #5 A Tangled Web.
Star Wars rock  ;D 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on January 11, 2009, 01:30:37 PM
(http://cdn.overstock.com/images/products/muze/books/0375701028.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Keemun on January 11, 2009, 04:39:46 PM
T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 14, 2009, 01:13:13 PM
The Tristan Chord, Wagner and Philosophy Bryan Magee

This is a book that really goes into depth concerning Wagner's relationship to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. And it is terrific: never using overt academic lingo, informative. In fact, even non-Wagnerians would find the information here fascinating. The only problem? Well, it's a problem concerning people whom don't see Wagner as the single greatest artist in the history of Western Civilsation (or at least have a borderline excessive regard for Wagner's operas). Magee (an English philosopher and politician) is, in his own term, a Wagnerolator. He uses words like "transubstantiation" over and over, throughout the text, to describe Wagner's creating process. For a person whom is a Wagnerian, this isn't too irritating. For people whom see Wagner as merely the greatest composer since Beethoven, or less, this book will be finished about halfway through (if that).

Since you know pretty much all know what camp I happen to be in regard to Wagner's music: I absolutely love this book, and learned one heck of alot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 14, 2009, 05:59:26 PM
(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:f8IgNd6EvcM9sM:http://a5.vox.com/6a00cd9715d4a24cd500d41428b1f56a47-500pi)

This evening:
Matthew 3
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 14, 2009, 06:47:20 PM
Quote from: Bogey on January 14, 2009, 05:59:26 PM
(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:f8IgNd6EvcM9sM:http://a5.vox.com/6a00cd9715d4a24cd500d41428b1f56a47-500pi)

This evening:
Matthew 3

Is it any good?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 14, 2009, 06:56:07 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 14, 2009, 06:47:20 PM
Is it any good?

For me, unquestionably and undoubtedly my friend.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 14, 2009, 10:58:52 PM
Andres Trapiello - The Lives of Miguel de Cervantes

(a very unconventional but highly entertaining biography of Cervantes)

simultaneously with

Sandor Marai - Casanova in Bolzano

(being an excellent fictional account of the adventures, encounters and musings of the hero, shortly after his escaping a Venetian gaol)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 15, 2009, 07:13:56 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 14, 2009, 05:59:26 PM
(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:f8IgNd6EvcM9sM:http://a5.vox.com/6a00cd9715d4a24cd500d41428b1f56a47-500pi)

This evening:
Matthew 3


Just my opinion, but I'd say it's definitely a Classic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on January 15, 2009, 05:13:32 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519NuSjc8TL._SL500_.jpg)

High quality images of stunningly beautiful English gardens.

How I'd love to take a turn around some of these delights!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on January 15, 2009, 05:15:33 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/617BZFW5B0L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Also enjoying this book about the gardens at Prince Charles home at Highgrove.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 16, 2009, 04:39:55 AM
John Carter and the Mind of the Gothic Revival
(http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9744/40006312cd4.jpg)

I was aware that he was an important figure, but not to the extent that this book reveals. Considering how many buildings he arguably protected from desecration, it is both odd and sad that he doesn't even have a Wikipedia stub to his name. I'll sort that out sometime. Plenty of very amusing quotes from his (by modern standards) hilariously passionate obsession with original gothic architecture and his Romantically florid* but still very direct manner of writing about the objects of his interest. There are also a lot of his illustrations, and he was a superb documentary artist, producing many highly accurate engravings of wall/window detail and the fittings of the buildings. It provides some illuminating insights into just what horrifying condition most of the "great" medieval cathedrals were in before the mid 19th century. Perfect length as well, very readable, and due to the number of illustrations, quite short.

*Example: "Ye Powers! How horrid, how infernal, was all before me! Deep in the very centre of the sacred walls were set furnaces wherein the poisonous ore becomes a prey to fusion. What dreadful crash of mighty engines! With flames and smoke the scene was filled."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on January 16, 2009, 11:45:12 PM
Pessoa, Ginsberg, and Hughes.

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 17, 2009, 06:45:11 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Kx30GmZWL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion - John Beversluis - 2nd edition

A criticism of C.S. Lewis' theology and philosophy which is just about devastating. When I read Mere Christianity there were many arguments of Lewis' with which I disagreed, and a few which I liked. Beversluis hardly ever met a Lewisian thought he liked at all, and he takes up just about every single one in this work and systematically demolishes them all. One Amazon reviewer gave the book one star and asked if readers would enjoy watching Shaquille O'Neal beat up an old lady. I disagree with the star rating, but the analogy is illuminating. Yes, C.S. Lewis was a minor mind in the Christian tradition, but he is well-nigh worshiped here in America, especially among people my age for some reason, and this book disposes of him once and for all.

My current chapter - "The Argument from Reason" - is considerably obtuse and written on an advanced philosophical level, but the rest of the work is more approachable and Beversluis occasionally even rivals Lewis' own legendary wit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 17, 2009, 07:53:44 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 17, 2009, 06:45:11 AM
Yes, C.S. Lewis was a minor mind in the Christian tradition, but he is well-nigh worshiped here in America, especially among people my age for some reason, and this book disposes of him once and for all.

I wonder why poor C. S. Lewis, who was a writer, needs disposing of to begin with. It sounds like saying a group of people assume that Oscar Wilde was a gay propagandist, and so he needs disposing of too. How about disposing of false impressions or needless overreaction?

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 17, 2009, 08:57:19 AM
Quote from: Renfield on January 17, 2009, 07:53:44 AM
I wonder why poor C. S. Lewis, who was a writer, needs disposing of to begin with. It sounds like saying a group of people assume that Oscar Wilde was a gay propagandist, and so he needs disposing of too. How about disposing of false impressions or needless overreaction?

:)


A very thought provoking question.

I have my quibbles with Lewis as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on January 18, 2009, 04:10:03 AM
For me a veritable page-turner (1000 pages), as I found it thoroughly fascinating and exciting. If everything in this book is really true  - what a life this man must have lived! Now I would love to go to Mumbai.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CKSC4NNML._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 18, 2009, 09:59:56 AM
Quote from: Renfield on January 17, 2009, 07:53:44 AM
I wonder why poor C. S. Lewis, who was a writer, needs disposing of to begin with.
A lot of people 'round my parts are under the impression that C.S. Lewis is a prominent theologian and/or not just an expositor of ideas but a fount of truth. My campus Christian club changed their name from "Campus Crusade for Christ" to a term from Lewis' work; they give out free copies of Mere Christianity at all their events, and they have even invited a speaker, Dr Francis Collins of the Human Genome Project, to give a talk this week in the biggest lecture hall on campus about how C.S. Lewis influenced his spirituality and his science. So I suppose one might say that, if philosophers can (or must?) disagree with or "dispose of" the ideas of authors like Ayn Rand, they can do the same for Lewis. The fact that his subject matter is different (ie, religion) should not protect him from scrutiny if he makes arguments, good or bad, about what we ought to think, especially since he holds such surprising influence over the thought of many people who won't be up for reading real philosophical works.

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 18, 2009, 10:13:46 AM
Scriabin - A Biography by Faubion Bowers, 2nd revised edition (1996) - interlibrary loan; just starting; long book, so not sure about the organization - comes as just one book but divided into 'two volumes', the first w/ Books 1/2 & the second volume as Book 3 -  :)


(http://giradman.smugmug.com/photos/456997090_HmKRr-M.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on January 18, 2009, 01:34:03 PM
Quote from: Keemun on January 11, 2009, 04:39:46 PM
T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html)  

Nice, very nice! (Though Eliot himself wasn't quite sure about what it all meant ...)  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 19, 2009, 07:36:54 AM
Quote from: opus67 on January 09, 2009, 05:39:53 AM
The White Tiger
Aravind Adiga

An entertaining read. (In the sense that I never found it boring or the narrative slowing down.) But the content is the stark and naked truth about the condition of hundreds of millions of people in India told in the form of the story of the protagonist, who comes from the Darkness as he calls it - his (and every other) village which is plagued by Landlords and Caste system - to Light, the urban India with it's economic boom and shopping malls. But it's filled with lots dry and dark humour to cover up what is essentially a rant on the state of things.


And today I began reading

ZUBIN MEHTA
The Score of My Life

(It was published in English last year, and is actually a translation of a memoir published earlier in German.)

Into the second chapter now which covers his student days in Vienna. In some ways, it sounds like a fairly tale. One day he's listening to scratchy records and occasionally assisting his father in performances (with Menuhin!), and a few years later he's sneaking in through the rear entrance of the Musikverein to witness Karajan conduct Tchaikovsky's 4th* and singing (as a member of Singverein) under the baton of Bruno Walter!



*Apparently, he was not caught.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 19, 2009, 10:37:13 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 18, 2009, 09:59:56 AM
So I suppose one might say that, if philosophers can (or must?) disagree with or "dispose of" the ideas of authors like Ayn Rand, they can do the same for Lewis. The fact that his subject matter is different (ie, religion) should not protect him from scrutiny if he makes arguments, good or bad, about what we ought to think, especially since he holds such surprising influence over the thought of many people who won't be up for reading real philosophical works.

It's a question whether Lewis was ever as assertive about his peculiar (as in particular) beliefs than Ayn Rand, but I do acknowledge the point of there being a duty for philosophers to assess a work over merit given, as well as innate.

No less of a waste of time, though.

I wonder if it would help, including stickers for "this book might not contain immediately applicable philosophy". >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on January 20, 2009, 08:05:03 PM
Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers - So far, interesting take on some unexpected factors that foster success.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 20, 2009, 09:11:38 PM
Quote from: Renfield on January 19, 2009, 10:37:13 AM
I wonder if it would help, including stickers for "this book might not contain immediately applicable philosophy". >:D
;D

As for your other point, one of Beversluis' findings is that many of Lewis' fundamental beliefs are in fact a muddle, so that he can mistakenly endorse two opposing schools of theological thought on questions like the problem of evil - sometimes within the same book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mozartsneighbor on January 21, 2009, 03:45:25 AM
Have been reading a bunch of books during the Holidays and in the aftermath, most of which I have finished or am close to finishing:
-- received Ellis' "American Psycho" for Christmas and enjoyed it shortly thereafter
-- am finishing Stendhal's "The Charterhouse of Parma"
-- to brush up my Portuguese I read "The Salesman of Pasts" by José Eduardo Agualusa, a young new writer who definitely shows promise
-- to keep my New Year's resolution of reading at least 50% of all books in German I read "Tales of the City" and "More Tales of City" by Armistead Maupin translated into German
-- and to further cement that resolution have now started with Joseph Roth's "Radetskymarsch"

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 21, 2009, 11:24:16 AM
Finished Brothers Karamazov a few days ago -- became quite enjoyable after the initial (and sometimes, tedious) exposition, without which the latter half would not have been nearly as powerful.

Read Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and loved it. I felt once again the excitement as when I read 1984 for the first time, but Zamyatin's future is more nuanced, less hopeless, less "this is how it will be" than "it's not going to be this way because I won't let it". Call it 1984 for grownups.

Reading now: Italo Svevo's Zeno's Conscience. I hadn't heard of Svevo until I read his name mentioned in the introduction to my copy of The Man Without Qualities as one of the great writers of the 20th Century along with Proust, Kafka, Mann and Joyce. With an endorsement that strong it's basically required reading for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 21, 2009, 01:26:03 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 21, 2009, 11:24:16 AM
Finished Brothers Karamazov a few days ago -- became quite enjoyable after the initial (and sometimes, tedious) exposition, without which the latter half would not have been nearly as powerful.
Which translation, I wonder? For me (w/ Andrew MacAndrew translating) there was hardly ever a dull moment, culminating in a powerful ending, to be sure, but there were many chapters in the middle to stop, re-read, and savor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on January 21, 2009, 05:33:53 PM
Clare, in addition to the previous.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 22, 2009, 05:53:38 AM
Quote from: erato on January 09, 2009, 07:12:07 AM
Meaning that you are in doubt if Alfovitch' Lennon is worth reading about?

Read probably about a hundred pages of this last night.  Generally, I feel it ought to be better than it is . . . feels a bit 'padded', with a voyeuristic preoccupation with the seedy angle.  Will soldier on, at intervals, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on January 22, 2009, 07:37:21 AM
Quote from: Corey on January 21, 2009, 11:24:16 AM

Reading now: Italo Svevo's Zeno's Conscience.
That, along with Perec's Life:A User's Manual are two books that I want to read before I die soon. Please do comment on it when you are done  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on January 22, 2009, 07:53:20 AM
Shogun

Author:  James Clavell

And yes, it's very good!   :)  But long  :o

I remember I was about 6 years old when the "made for TV" movie with Richard Chamberlain was on.  I watched some of it with my parents (even though it probably wasn't meant for a 6 year old to watch  ;D)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on January 22, 2009, 07:54:47 AM
I love this guy.

(http://www.clivebarker.com/images/books/500/weaveworld2001-500.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on January 22, 2009, 11:12:34 AM
Quote from: mn dave on January 22, 2009, 07:54:47 AM
I love this guy.

(http://www.clivebarker.com/images/books/500/weaveworld2001-500.jpg)


I'm pretty sure I read that one. One of his Fantasy Horror works?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on January 22, 2009, 11:16:02 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on January 22, 2009, 11:12:34 AM

I'm pretty sure I read that one. One of his Fantasy Horror works?
Yep. And a fine one it is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 22, 2009, 01:08:56 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 21, 2009, 01:26:03 PM
Which translation, I wonder? For me (w/ Andrew MacAndrew translating) there was hardly ever a dull moment, culminating in a powerful ending, to be sure, but there were many chapters in the middle to stop, re-read, and savor.

I read the Constance Garnett translation, but I suspect that the feeling of it dragging had to do with the fact that I was reading it in small snatches; I devoted larger chunks of time to the latter half. I will read it again, of course... someday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 22, 2009, 02:38:29 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 22, 2009, 01:08:56 PM
I read the Constance Garnett translation, but I suspect that the feeling of it dragging had to do with the fact that I was reading it in small snatches; I devoted larger chunks of time to the latter half. I will read it again, of course... someday.
Ah, yes. I believe I managed to read 150 pages in one fantastic sitting, but when my time was limited it was less enjoyable. The prose is peculiar and peculiarly brilliant in that way. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on January 23, 2009, 07:09:12 AM
Quote from: orbital on January 22, 2009, 07:37:21 AM
That, along with Perec's Life:A User's Manual are two books that I want to read before I die soon. Please do comment on it when you are done  :)

Will do, of course. I'm about a third of the way through and it is wonderful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 24, 2009, 02:29:36 PM
Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life (2005) by Niles Eldredge - actually purchased this book in the spring of 2006 when we attended the 'Darwin Exhibit' at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC; the author was in charge of setting up this wonderful presentation which premiered in the Big Apple - well the book disappeared and was found by my wife in our bedroom a week ago - so just beginning a read!  ::)

Well, this is a great time of re-discovery - 2009 is a special year for Darwin; he was born in 1809 (in fact on the same day as Abraham Lincoln!); and his book on the Origin of Species was published in 1859 - glad that I'm reading the book now -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516MPCDVTCL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on January 25, 2009, 01:53:26 PM
(http://home.comcast.net/~flickhead/AmericanMovie01.jpg)

I dip into this every once in a while!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on January 25, 2009, 01:55:57 PM
I read half of Weaverworld when I was in high school. I don't know why I stopped reading it--perhaps the lack of a clear hero I could identify with/root for? But I remember it being highly imaginative otherwise.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 25, 2009, 03:18:05 PM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/28290000/28298941.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 25, 2009, 04:32:18 PM
Quote from: Bogey on January 25, 2009, 03:18:05 PM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/28290000/28298941.JPG)
That's a striking title!
What's it about, sir?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 25, 2009, 05:52:43 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 25, 2009, 04:32:18 PM
That's a striking title!
What's it about, sir?

Just cracked it open a bit ago, Brian.  This synopsis seems to fit the intent:

Yancey is an astute author who challenges Christians' assumptions without alienating them. In The Bible Jesus Read, Yancey encourages readers to consider how Hebrew Scripture what Christians call the Old Testament is relevant to their own lives. His premise is that although many Christians tacitly consider the New Testament more important than the Old, the New Testament was written after Jesus' earthly ministry, making the Old Testament "the Bible Jesus read." Hebrew Scripture was the greatest influence on the mind and spirit of the founder of Christianity, a fact that, in the author's estimation, obligates Christians to know it well. Yancey acknowledges the difficulty of transcending the cultural gulf between modern civilization and ancient Israel and seeks to bridge the gap by highlighting sections of the Old Testament that he initially found hard to appreciate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on January 26, 2009, 07:56:49 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on January 22, 2009, 07:53:20 AM
Shogun

Author:  James Clavell

And yes, it's very good!   :)  But long  :o

I remember I was about 6 years old when the "made for TV" movie with Richard Chamberlain was on.  I watched some of it with my parents (even though it probably wasn't meant for a 6 year old to watch  ;D)

"Shogun" is one of my favorite novels and I read it twice when I was a freshman in high school. I think a book being long is never a problem so long as the author justifies it--and the Shogun's gargantuan plot and multitude of characters always keep you engaged.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 27, 2009, 03:46:24 PM
Thanks, Bill!

Currently reading One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 28, 2009, 05:38:15 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PTG4M05ML._SL500_.jpg)

Not at all recommendable for everyday reading. It is surprisingly mind-boggling in the amount of formulas, diagrams, proportional sums, and so on used in it. The majority of the book is schematics rather than description, and as such seems more aimed towards people actively studying the forms. (This impression runs strangely contrary to the two Amazon.com reviews.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 29, 2009, 01:55:38 PM
Quote from: Lethe on January 28, 2009, 05:38:15 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PTG4M05ML._SL500_.jpg)
N.B. Any book with "poetics" used as a singular word should be avoided at all costs!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on January 29, 2009, 06:12:07 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 29, 2009, 01:55:38 PM
N.B. Any book with "poetics" used as a singular word should be avoided at all costs!

cf.

Quote from: Cato on January 26, 2009, 01:16:51 PM
(and I also have a rule that one should always be highly skeptical of anyone named Kevin or Brian, but that is another essay)

$:)


And why avoid Aristotle, anyway? ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on January 29, 2009, 07:42:19 PM
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N6APHtFPWNc/SDXVBHHS_EI/AAAAAAAAALY/CRnlU65cqAs/s400/jared_diamond-collapse-How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 29, 2009, 07:57:32 PM
Quote from: Renfield on January 29, 2009, 06:12:07 PM
cf.

$:)


And why avoid Aristotle, anyway? ;D
This totally made my day.  ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on January 31, 2009, 05:50:21 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412G9NRKD2L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 02, 2009, 05:16:29 AM
Browsing the old GMG; great memories!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 02, 2009, 07:25:27 AM
Quote from: orbital on January 22, 2009, 07:37:21 AM
That, along with Perec's Life:A User's Manual are two books that I want to read before I die soon. Please do comment on it when you are done  :)

Zeno's Conscience was excellent. The titular character is, by all accounts not an admirable person -- he has the will of a goldfish (as shown in his countless "last cigarettes" and the story of his essentially accidental marriage and, of course, his subsequent affair with his mistress), but the flatly humorous way he narrates the story of his travails, failures and small triumphs makes his life as a comedy-of-errors that much more affecting and human. He is the anti-hero par excellence.

Attempted once again Henry James's Golden Bowl but only got about a fifth of the way through. The prose is just too awkward and unnatural -- and this is coming from a Proust lover. I enjoy difficult novels, but only if the challenge has some benefit of greater insight and nuance, rather than merely obscuring the meaning of the text. Perhaps I'll try James again, but it will be some time before I can get the bad taste out of my mouth.

Reading now: Roberto Bolano's 2666. I know next to nothing about the author other than he was Mexican and died a little over a year before the book was first published (the English translation was published this year). So far (I am about a quarter of the way through) the scope is remarkable -- he goes effortlessly from exegeses on contemporary German literature to describing a cheap Japanese horror movie to relating (politely, yet bluntly) impromptu backseat sex scenes. I look forward to finishing it and reading his other work.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 02, 2009, 09:16:54 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 02, 2009, 07:25:27 AM
Attempted once again Henry James's Golden Bowl but only got about a fifth of the way through. The prose is just too awkward and unnatural -- and this is coming from a Proust lover. I enjoy difficult novels, but only if the challenge has some benefit of greater insight and nuance, rather than merely obscuring the meaning of the text. Perhaps I'll try James again, but it will be some time before I can get the bad taste out of my mouth.

Perhaps you remember I had started on The Golden Bowl, too, a few months ago? I have great admiration for James's human understanding and his artistry, and I read the first hundred pages or so with - how shall I put it - strenuous pleasure. But after a while I became tired of the supersubtlety. James goes so far in his exquisite discriminations that you lose sight of the figures, their surroundings, the story. I'm afraid that late James and the 21st century won't be getting along... So you are forgiven for giving up! I did, too...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 02, 2009, 09:23:20 AM
"strenuous pleasure" . . . oof!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on February 02, 2009, 01:38:15 PM
Quote from: Bogey on January 25, 2009, 03:18:05 PM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/28290000/28298941.JPG)

Philip Yancey.... isn't he a character in a Philllip K Dick short story? Definintely something like that, and in the story everyone hangs on this character's every word and then it turns out he's a complete fabrication designed to manipulate the public into civil obedience.

Sorry, completely off-topic, well mostly.

When i'm not reading PKD i'm reading Slaughterhouse 5 for the first time. I've just read the introductory chapter, though for most of it I was unable to decide (being a complete Vonnegut newbie) whether it is Vonnegut writing as himself or just a narrating character of some sort or something inbetween. It's a very disjointed style of writing, which i'm loving, but being a newbie I can't tell whether that is Vonnegut's unique style, or whether it is the style of writing of his narrator/author character.  ???  And so it goes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 02, 2009, 01:39:59 PM
One of Vonnegut's soggiest, Moggiest!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on February 02, 2009, 01:43:44 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on February 02, 2009, 01:39:59 PM
One of Vonnegut's soggiest, Moggiest!

Not a fan, Dr Karl? (also, hello!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 02, 2009, 01:45:07 PM
Well, perhaps as with rum cake, the soggier the better! (Or, the rummier . . . .)

Delighted to see you back in action, Ben!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 03, 2009, 08:12:21 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 02, 2009, 09:16:54 AM
Perhaps you remember I had started on The Golden Bowl, too, a few months ago? I have great admiration for James's human understanding and his artistry, and I read the first hundred pages or so with - how shall I put it - strenuous pleasure. But after a while I became tired of the supersubtlety. James goes so far in his exquisite discriminations that you lose sight of the figures, their surroundings, the story. I'm afraid that late James and the 21st century won't be getting along... So you are forgiven for giving up! I did, too...

That makes me feel a bit better. It's funny, I never have this sort of struggle with music. For instance, I don't care for Bartok (an objectively "great" composer), but that fact has never made me feel insecure in my understanding of his music. Whereas with James I feel like a cretin because I am unable to keep up or even know exactly what he is talking about. I think now I am comfortable with the fact that I really just don't enjoy his style of writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 03, 2009, 08:30:05 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 03, 2009, 08:12:21 AM
That makes me feel a bit better. It's funny, I never have this sort of struggle with music. For instance, I don't care for Bartok (an objectively "great" composer), but that fact has never made me feel insecure in my understanding of his music. Whereas with James I feel like a cretin because I am unable to keep up or even know exactly what he is talking about. I think now I am comfortable with the fact that I really just don't enjoy his style of writing.

But I think you do, Corey. The Golden Bowl is only the most extreme example of his (in)famous late style and not really the best introduction to James. Why not try, e.g., The Turn of the Screw or The Spoils of Poynton? Henry James is a great writer...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 03, 2009, 08:47:43 AM
Actually, I did enjoy Washington Square, which is what prompted me to reattempt Bowl in the first place. I will take your advice and try him again later, thanks. Right now I have lined up some Bellow, Atwood, Conrad after I finish Bolano. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on February 03, 2009, 09:07:03 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 03, 2009, 08:47:43 AM
Right now I have lined up some Bellow, Atwood, Conrad after I finish Bolano. :)
Which Bellow ? I have the following from him (remnants of the 100 free ebooks I got with the Sony coupon :P) , none of which I've read yet:
Herzog, Mr Sammler's Planet, Seize the Day, Something to Remember Me By, The Adventures of Augie March, The Bellarosa Connection

Re Atwood: Finally, I am starting Oryx and Crake this week (or the next)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 03, 2009, 09:29:11 AM
Augie March and Mr. Sammler's Planet, probably in that order as I own the latter. I will probably read the Handmaid's Tale before both (incidentally, it was you that brought it to my attention).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 03, 2009, 10:35:33 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 03, 2009, 08:47:43 AM
Conrad

What book of him do you plan to read?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on February 03, 2009, 11:58:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 03, 2009, 10:35:33 AM
What book of him do you plan to read?

Hopefully The Heart of Darkness, if he hasn't already! ;)

Corey?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 03, 2009, 12:04:02 PM
Quote from: Renfield on February 03, 2009, 11:58:50 AM
Hopefully The Heart of Darkness, if he hasn't already! ;)

Corey?


That's the best one, in my humble opinion.

I'm reading Smoke On the Water: the Deep Purple Story

JA!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on February 03, 2009, 12:07:51 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on February 03, 2009, 12:04:02 PM

That's the best one, in my humble opinion.

A beautiful book. Though I haven't read anything else, from Conrad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 03, 2009, 12:08:42 PM
Quote from: Renfield on February 03, 2009, 11:58:50 AM
Hopefully The Heart of Darkness, if he hasn't already! ;)

Haven't ever read it, though I've seen Apocalypse Now  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 03, 2009, 12:28:50 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on February 03, 2009, 12:08:42 PM
Haven't ever read it, though I've seen Apocalypse Now  ;)


Now there's a Classic!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 03, 2009, 11:56:46 PM
Quote from: Renfield on February 03, 2009, 12:07:51 PM
A beautiful book. Though I haven't read anything else, from Conrad.

Lord Jim and Nostromo are also very beautiful. I've also read Allmayer's Folly and An Outcast of the Islands. I'm going to read The Rover next. All in all, one of my favourite writers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on February 04, 2009, 06:16:46 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 03, 2009, 11:56:46 PM
Lord Jim and Nostromo are also very beautiful. I've also read Allmayer's Folly and An Outcast of the Islands. I'm going to read The Rover next. All in all, one of my favourite writers.

Lord Jim is on my to-read list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on February 04, 2009, 09:17:22 AM
I've read Lord Jim and The Heart of Darkness but enjoyed neither  :-\ Maybe (read: probably) I am missing something, but I found his style a bit too stagnant and was bored to death near the end of Lord Jim. I still have Nostromo lined up but it is not for the immediate future.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on February 04, 2009, 01:11:09 PM
It's not one of his more famous books, but I have a soft spot for The Secret Agent.

Haven't read Conrad in years - I should definitely revisit :).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on February 04, 2009, 11:04:58 PM
"HITLER" by Joachim Fest.

A new edition of a very remarkable book. Perhaps the best way not only to understand Hitler's nature but also how was it possible that such a man could rule an civilized European country.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 04, 2009, 11:21:01 PM
Quote from: orbital on February 04, 2009, 09:17:22 AM
I've read Lord Jim and The Heart of Darkness but enjoyed neither  :-\ Maybe (read: probably) I am missing something, but I found his style a bit too stagnant and was bored to death near the end of Lord Jim.

What hooked my in Lord Jim was not so much the action, as the style. The long-winded, metaphorical phrases sounded almost musical to me. :)



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on February 05, 2009, 12:12:30 AM
(http://images.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/59/698/055/1596980559.jpg)

Good so far, but I still have a problem with viewing Descartes as a bad influence on history. :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 05, 2009, 01:28:59 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 04, 2009, 11:21:01 PM
What hooked my in Lord Jim was not so much the action, as the style. The long-winded, metaphorical phrases sounded almost musical to me. :)






Faulkner can be like that. Only, a different musical style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 05, 2009, 01:42:51 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on February 05, 2009, 01:28:59 AM

Faulkner can be like that. Only, a different musical style.

I've read only Absalom, Absalom! and liked it, but the only musical analogy it inspired me was a malfunctioning turntable whose needle jumped madly forward and backward all the time. There was method in the madness, though :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on February 05, 2009, 01:58:01 PM
Quote from: Bu on February 05, 2009, 12:12:30 AM
Descartes as a bad influence on history

Next book, please. :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 05, 2009, 05:50:14 PM
Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War by George W. Adams, first published in 1952, but has been reprinted up to 1996; not sure that there was a revised edition (implied on Amazon); this is a classic book concerning the medical history on the Union Side (another book exists about the Confederate medical side); full of statistics and quite detailed, so not an easy read, but if you want the 'bare' gory facts of medicine during the Civil War (in this case, on the Union side), then this book is a recommendation - now I'm making these comments as first, an enthusiast of Civil War history (and living in North Carolina) and as a physician - if interested, might want to do a library checkout (but a cheap paperback purchase - bought my copy at the Bentonville BattleField Site (http://www.nchistoricsites.org/Bentonvi/Bentonvi.HTM)), a NC state historic site on a recent visit -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R51PFDYZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 05, 2009, 07:00:21 PM
Quote from: Bu on February 05, 2009, 12:12:30 AM
(http://images.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/59/698/055/1596980559.jpg)

Good so far, but I still have a problem with viewing Descartes as a bad influence on history. :-\
You don't have a problem with the inclusions of Darwin, Nietzsche and Kinsey? Darwin's book might just be the most important (in a positive sense) of the 19th century, and one of the founding texts of the world we live in today. :)

Dave - be sure to check out the companion volume covering Confederate doctors as well! My mom purchased both in Vicksburg to do research on a novel about war surgeons which she never did get around to writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aquablob on February 05, 2009, 08:23:55 PM
Beethoven: The Last Decade, 1817-1827 by Martin Cooper (the 1985 revision). Very nice!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on February 05, 2009, 08:55:57 PM
Quote from: Brian on February 05, 2009, 07:00:21 PM
You don't have a problem with the inclusions of Darwin, Nietzsche and Kinsey? Darwin's book might just be the most important (in a positive sense) of the 19th century, and one of the founding texts of the world we live in today. :)

His selection by Darwin isn't "The Origins of Species" but  "The Descent of Man", where--with the help of quotes by Charles--he pretty much depicts him as the father of eugenics, a racist and proto-nazi, to boot.   Makes me want to read the book by Darwin and see if he's not being taken out of context.

Haven't read through the chapter on Kinsey, but from what I've read of Nietzsche (Genealogy of Morals, Beyond Good and Evil) the world would have been a much better place without his ranting and raving. Reading the chapter in the book by Wiker reinforced my opinion. I'm sure you have a different opinion on the matter; would be interested in your reading this book and seeing what you think of his critique.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on February 05, 2009, 09:00:40 PM
Quote from: Renfield on February 05, 2009, 01:58:01 PM
Next book, please. :P

Wiker thinks it should have been: "I am, therefore I think." 

He also doesn't approve of making God an invention of the subjective mind; Descartes' proofs of God are ridiculed by the professor, too.

I could continue, but you get the picture.    ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on February 06, 2009, 01:41:11 AM
Quote from: Bu on February 05, 2009, 09:00:40 PM
Wiker thinks it should have been: "I am, therefore I think." 

He also doesn't approve of making God an invention of the subjective mind; Descartes' proofs of God are ridiculed by the professor, too.

I could continue, but you get the picture.    ;D

Yes I do; though apparently he doesn't. :P

If there was one thing Descartes did not want to prove, it is that God is invented by the subjective mind! I am also about 85% certain he missed the point of cogito ergo sum. Though the proofs on God (and the immortality of the soul - TM), are a different matter.


Quote from: Bu on February 05, 2009, 08:55:57 PM
Haven't read through the chapter on Kinsey, but from what I've read of Nietzsche (Genealogy of Morals, Beyond Good and Evil) the world would have been a much better place without his ranting and raving.

This reeks of "only sanitary thoughts are safe, and only safe thoughts are valuable".

Unfortunately, this sounds exactly like what I would expect from a Biblical Theologist if I gave into the temptation to stereotype.


But if you enjoy it, fair enough.

Just do have a look at Darwin, Descartes, Nietzsche et al. themselves (that is, their work) before drawing conclusions. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 08, 2009, 06:20:07 AM
If you read crime fiction, we have a nice collection of author interviews over here:

http://thebigadios.yuku.com/forums/61

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 08, 2009, 06:26:21 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 05, 2009, 07:00:21 PM
Dave - be sure to check out the companion volume covering Confederate doctors as well! My mom purchased both in Vicksburg to do research on a novel about war surgeons which she never did get around to writing.

Brian - thanks - that book was there also, but already had two in my hands (and a pile awaiting to be read @ home, so thought I'd better not add TOO MUCH to that pile!) -  :D  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 08, 2009, 06:29:52 AM
Quote from: mn dave on February 08, 2009, 06:20:07 AM
If you read crime fiction, we have a nice collection of author interviews over here:

http://thebigadios.yuku.com/forums/61

8)

Looks awesome Dave....thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 08, 2009, 07:40:17 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 08, 2009, 06:29:52 AM
Looks awesome Dave....thanks!

You're welcome.

In addition, you can discuss crime movies and books in the main forum.

http://thebigadios.yuku.com/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 10, 2009, 02:34:39 AM
Jean Giono - The Horseman on the Roof
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on February 10, 2009, 08:15:48 AM
Whoopsie, wrong thread!

I'm reading, erm... a greek cookbook. Moussaka anyone?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 10, 2009, 08:17:16 AM
Go on, Ben! You just made that up!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on February 10, 2009, 08:19:29 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on February 10, 2009, 08:17:16 AM
Go on, Ben! You just made that up!  ;D

I wish! Those were lines from a film, and now i've removed it so this little conversation we're having doesn't relate to my now-modified post above. *titter titter*  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 10, 2009, 08:21:31 AM
If only they knew . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on February 10, 2009, 09:34:12 AM
Wagner's Ring - Turning the Sky Round (An Introduction to The Ring of the Nibelung)

by: M. Owen Lee

This is a very interesting, quick, enjoyable read!   :)  I recommend it to anyone just getting into Wagner's Ring. 0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on February 10, 2009, 01:44:01 PM
Philip K. Dick-Flow My Tears,the Policeman Said
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 10, 2009, 04:46:41 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on February 10, 2009, 09:34:12 AM
Wagner's Ring - Turning the Sky Round (An Introduction to The Ring of the Nibelung)

by: M. Owen Lee

This is a very interesting, quick, enjoyable read!   :)  I recommend it to anyone just getting into Wagner's Ring. 0:)


There's a good 'un.

Me: Just got done with Richard and Cosima :Biography of a Marriage. Excellent book.

Now: The Wagner Operas (Newman) again. Very informative read.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 10, 2009, 04:49:36 PM
Quote from: rockerreds on February 10, 2009, 01:44:01 PM
Philip K. Dick-Flow My Tears,the Policeman Said

I remember that one. Good stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 10, 2009, 05:49:02 PM
Up next:

Henry James

(http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/pictures/2007/02/08/henryjames460.jpg)

Yes. Him.

The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on February 13, 2009, 06:05:50 AM
Quote from: KammerNuss on February 10, 2009, 09:34:12 AM
Wagner's Ring - Turning the Sky Round (An Introduction to The Ring of the Nibelung)

by: M. Owen Lee

This is a very interesting, quick, enjoyable read!   :)  I recommend it to anyone just getting into Wagner's Ring. 0:)

Again....this was just a fantastic, joyful read!  Loved it!!! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 13, 2009, 07:49:03 AM
Quote from: KammerNuss on February 13, 2009, 06:05:50 AM
Again....this was just a fantastic, joyful read!  Loved it!!! :)



Oh yeah, I devoured that Classic more than once  ;).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 13, 2009, 12:26:46 PM
Quote from: Florestan on February 03, 2009, 10:35:33 AM
What book of him do you plan to read?

Starting Nostromo now. :) The only other Conrad I've read is Heart of Darkness, which I read back in high school. I should probably read it again, but I am more interested in large canvases with some possible defects rather than perfectly constructed small portraits. I would hold Buddenbrooks above Death in Venice, for instance.

2666 was excellent -- less a novel than a huge collection of stories whose gravitational center is the fictional Mexican border town of Santa Teresa where hundreds of women are brutally murdered with no clue as to who the killers are. The influences are myriad, ranging from seedy murder mysteries to heady European literature from the first half of the 20th Century. I've read reviews that call this a "difficult" book, but for me it was imminently readable (save, possibly, for the section "The Part About the Crimes", which really is brutal in more ways than one). I can see this becoming something of a modern classic.

Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was also brilliant. Thank you Orbital for putting it on my radar!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 13, 2009, 12:34:50 PM
Quote from: Corey on February 13, 2009, 12:26:46 PM
Starting Nostromo now. :)

You're in for a treat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 13, 2009, 12:50:26 PM
Quote from: Florestan on February 13, 2009, 12:34:50 PM
You're in for a treat.

Ice cream?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 14, 2009, 04:55:07 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YE4NP90SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

A web synopsis:
Find answers to key questions about the Bible. How accurate are modern translations such as the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version? Why does the Roman Catholic Bible have more books than most Protestant Bibles? How can we be sure that the Biblical message has been accurately preserved through the centuries? How We Got the Bible, after more than forty years, has become a classic source of answers for these and other questions on how the Bible has come down to us. Now in this revised edition, you will find five new chapters covering the Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, the Sinaitic Manuscript, the illuminated manuscripts, and more.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on February 15, 2009, 02:32:16 PM
Joe Klein-The Running Mate
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 15, 2009, 10:35:50 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on February 10, 2009, 05:49:02 PM
Up next:

Henry James

(http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/pictures/2007/02/08/henryjames460.jpg)

Yes. Him.

The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels

Excellent! (can't see the pic...)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on February 16, 2009, 05:33:29 AM
Discover Music of the Classical Era
Stephen Johnson

http://www.naxos.com/naxosbooks/naxosbooks_classical.asp

And yes, Beethoven is featured in it. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 16, 2009, 10:31:45 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 15, 2009, 10:35:50 PM
Excellent! (can't see the pic...)

Just a picture of James.

Now:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kuFO-ycBL._SL500_.jpg)

I really enjoy his books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 16, 2009, 10:37:08 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on February 16, 2009, 10:31:45 AM
Just a picture of James.

Now:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kuFO-ycBL._SL500_.jpg)

I really enjoy his books.

Any you suggest starting with, Dave?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 16, 2009, 10:43:51 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 16, 2009, 10:37:08 AM
Any you suggest starting with, Dave?

I started with The Chill, because I was told it was one of his best, and I loved it so much I found a bibliography and went back to the beginning of the Lew Archer series:  The Moving Target. Well, that one was great too. So, now I'm pretty much just reading them in order. Here's the list of MacDonald's Lew Archer novels:

    * The Moving Target - 1949 (filmed with Paul Newman as Harper, 1968)
    * The Drowning Pool - 1950 (also filmed with Paul Newman as "Lew Harper", 1975)
    * The Way Some People Die - 1951
    * The Ivory Grin (aka Marked for Murder) - 1952
    * Find a Victim - 1954
    * The Barbarous Coast - 1956
    * The Doomsters - 1958
    * The Galton Case - 1959
    * The Wycherly Woman - 1961
    * The Zebra-Striped Hearse - 1962
    * The Chill - 1964
    * The Far Side of the Dollar - 1965
    * Black Money - 1966
    * The Instant Enemy - 1968
    * The Goodbye Look - 1969
    * The Underground Man - 1971
    * Sleeping Beauty - 1973
    * The Blue Hammer - 1976

He's become one of my favorite authors, having not let me down yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on February 16, 2009, 10:52:48 AM
The Collected Poetry of Raymond Carver:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41JP5NND3ZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on February 17, 2009, 12:00:21 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51doFkFJKGL.jpg)


Finished reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun yesterday, and it is a fine piece of fiction.  It's set in Nigeria before and during the Biafran War and keeps its focus on five main characters.  It jumps back and forth between the pre-war and war periods, establishing the characters very well, and then describes some pretty horrific events, but on a small, human scale.  Adichie's prose is very direct and uncomplicated - no flowery or florrid flights of rhetorical fancy are in the book - but her use of language is often compelling.  She'll deliver potent lines (or even, perhaps, truths) in a simple, sometimes unrelentingly cold manner.  Such lines crop up time and again.  Was a quick, very good read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on February 18, 2009, 05:35:15 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 13, 2009, 12:26:46 PM

Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was also brilliant. Thank you Orbital for putting it on my radar!

You're very welcome. I guess you would enjoy Oryx and Crake as well. I just finished it, and it was very close to excellent but somehow not at the level of Handmaid's Tale.

I got three Calvino ebooks none of which are Zeno's Conscience. I plan to read them once I am through figuring out the big deal about the Stieg Larsson trilogy part 1  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 19, 2009, 12:51:33 PM
Quote from: orbital on February 18, 2009, 05:35:15 AM
You're very welcome. I guess you would enjoy Oryx and Crake as well. I just finished it, and it was very close to excellent but somehow not at the level of Handmaid's Tale.

I got three Calvino ebooks none of which are Zeno's Conscience. I plan to read them once I am through figuring out the big deal about the Stieg Larsson trilogy part 1  :P

That's because Zeno is by another Italo -- Svevo, to be exact. :D Still, I need to read If on a winter's night a traveler.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on February 19, 2009, 09:24:38 PM
Quote from: Corey on February 19, 2009, 12:51:33 PM
That's because Zeno is by another Italo -- Svevo, to be exact. :D Still, I need to read If on a winter's night a traveler.
:D No mystery why it wasn't part of that batch then  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 20, 2009, 05:08:24 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n53/n265175.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 20, 2009, 06:23:51 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on February 20, 2009, 05:08:24 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n53/n265175.jpg)



Okay, I love Dean Koontz. I haven't read one of his books since the early '90's (they seemed to be getting way to formulaic, like King's later stuff f0r the most part).

Please let me know how this stacks up against the awesome Watchers, Whispers, Phantoms...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 20, 2009, 07:03:07 AM
Each year, he writes one thriller and one pseudo-philosophical piece of hoohah (Odd Thomas and its sequels). The thrillers are usually better and that's what this one is. Also, I am waiting for the third and last Frankenstein book; good pulpy fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 20, 2009, 07:07:34 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on February 20, 2009, 07:03:07 AM
Each year, he writes one thriller and one pseudo-philosophical piece of hoohah (Odd Thomas and its sequels). The thrillers are usually better and that's what this one is. Also, I am waiting for the third and last Frankenstein book; good pulpy fun.



I never heard of the Frankenstein stuff...this is getting VERY interesting.



Now reading:
Richard Wagner My Life
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 20, 2009, 07:08:43 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on February 20, 2009, 07:07:34 AM


I never heard of the Frankenstein stuff...this is getting VERY interesting.



Now reading:
Richard Wagner My Life

Yeah, I like those for goofy fun. Lots of people dislike them for some reason.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on February 20, 2009, 07:35:42 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on February 20, 2009, 07:08:43 AM
Yeah, I like those for goofy fun. Lots of people dislike them for some reason.




I learned relatively recently that there are alot of people in the world that take things (including themselves) WAY too seriously.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 20, 2009, 05:27:48 PM
Boy, I've got a BIG pile of unread books ordered from the History Book Club in recent months, so started the one below yesterday:

American Lion - Andrew Jackson in the White House (2008) by Jon Meacham - just getting started; great review in the NY Times (main reason for purchase), but rather varied comments on Amazon; if you're interested in Jackson and have not done any reading yet, I would suggest Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H.W. Brands, published a few years ago and now available in paperback - covers his whole life.

Andrew Jackson's birthplace remains a mystery, i.e. there is no doubt that in was born in the Carolinas in 1767 of Scots-Irish immigrants; the area of his birth was known as the Waxhaw region of the backcountry South Carolina, however, the area overlapped the border w/ North Carolina (my home state) - this is south of Charlotte and north of Camden, SC; both states claim him as theirs and have memorial parks; however, nothing has been discovered as to his exact location of birth.  If you visit the old State House in Raliegh, NC, there is a statue showing 3 native born presidents from North Carolina, two for sure, i.e. James Polk & Andrew Johnson, and a third - Andy Jackson, but who knows?  :D

(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/098/160/400000000000000098160_s4.jpg)  (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1111/1236813470_9f695e079e.jpg?v=0)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on February 20, 2009, 10:16:31 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C17YJNB4L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

A pretty good, limited selection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 21, 2009, 05:19:48 AM
Well, the full Pepys would be quite an undertaking, yes, Sara?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on February 21, 2009, 06:12:54 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 21, 2009, 05:19:48 AM
Well, the full Pepys would be quite an undertaking, yes, Sara?

That much would make me cry :P 352 pages with tons of pictures is nicely digestable, but it is making me wish there were more - something which simply buying another book could make problematic, due to editing differences and duplication. But whatever, managing to whine about so mething I LIKE :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on February 22, 2009, 11:44:50 AM
I've always had an interest in the battle of Mars-la-Tour (16 Aug 1870) because a great great great uncle participated in von Bredow's "Death Ride" ...sort of a Prussian equivalent of the Charge of the Light Brigade: an unsupported, suicidal attack against artillery and unbroken infantry. My uncle was a trooper in the 7th Magdeburg Cuirassiers, one of the units in Bredow's cavalry brigade. He was killed (along with half the brigade). Bismarck's son was wounded in the charge.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/gm2/1870%20Mars%20Latour_600.jpg)


Although I've known about this battle since I heard the story on my grandfather's knee, I'd never read a history of the Franco Prussian war. So I ordered this one by a British author:

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/gm2/FrancoPrusVol1.jpg)

Eye opening. Europe was very different back in the day  ;D  ...with the French as the aggressors, and villians.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aquablob on February 22, 2009, 11:48:20 AM
That sounds like an interesting read, Sarge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on February 22, 2009, 11:54:35 AM
Quote from: aquariuswb on February 22, 2009, 11:48:20 AM
That sounds like an interesting read, Sarge.

It is... I'll probably get the second volume. The war's consequences for the 20th century were profound and I suddenly realize I know very little detail about that period.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on February 24, 2009, 08:10:45 AM
Finished Nostromo a few days ago; absolutely brilliant.

Now reading: Saul Bellow - The Adventures of Augie March

About a third of the way through now and enjoying it greatly. His all-encompassing nature that freely mixes nods to classicism with near-impenetrable argot, and his beautiful insight into human emotions and desires reminds me of Joyce (though certainly their respective styles couldn't be more disparate) -- which reminds me I still haven't finished Ulysses. Maybe after this. Or Il Nome della Rosa. Or The Tin Drum. I swear I'm not procrastinating!  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on February 24, 2009, 08:26:38 AM
Calder Willingham-Providence Island
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 24, 2009, 09:59:58 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 24, 2009, 08:10:45 AM
Finished Nostromo a few days ago; absolutely brilliant.

Isn't it? Truly brilliant on all accounts: characters, plot, style... I'm very glad you liked it.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 24, 2009, 07:13:05 PM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n1540.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 24, 2009, 07:34:39 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on February 22, 2009, 11:44:50 AM
I've always had an interest in the battle of Mars-la-Tour (16 Aug 1870) because a great great great uncle participated in von Bredow's "Death Ride" ...sort of a Prussian equivalent of the Charge of the Light Brigade: an unsupported, suicidal attack against artillery and unbroken infantry. My uncle was a trooper in the 7th Magdeburg Cuirassiers, one of the units in Bredow's cavalry brigade. He was killed (along with half the brigade). Bismarck's son was wounded in the charge.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/gm2/1870%20Mars%20Latour_600.jpg)


Although I've known about this battle since I heard the story on my grandfather's knee, I'd never read a history of the Franco Prussian war. So I ordered this one by a British author:

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/gm2/FrancoPrusVol1.jpg)

Eye opening. Europe was very different back in the day  ;D  ...with the French as the aggressors, and villians.

Sarge

And your great great great uncle would be proud that you have this patch on your wall, Sarge:

(https://www.scarmy.com/store/images/T/1532_BIG.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on February 25, 2009, 07:14:37 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 24, 2009, 07:34:39 PM
And your great great great uncle would be proud that you have this patch on your wall, Sarge:

There must be a defect in our DNA that makes us join the cavalry  ;)

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on February 27, 2009, 07:13:44 AM
(http://images.forbiddenplanet.com/image/detail/1264111d.jpg)

"Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City" by Nicholas Christopher (2nd edition). An intriguing study of film noir by a fiction writer. Very well done.

Thomas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on February 27, 2009, 09:19:53 AM
Reading this:

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/decgmg/AusroPruss.jpg)

Listening to this:

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/goodmusic/PreussOst.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 28, 2009, 05:09:28 AM
Kansas City Public Library

(http://declubz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/kansas-city-library.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on February 28, 2009, 06:17:19 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on February 28, 2009, 05:09:28 AM
Kansas City Public Library

(http://declubz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/kansas-city-library.jpg)

Putting new meaning to the phrase 'large print'.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 02, 2009, 06:28:54 AM
Finished Augie March -- easily the best thing I've read since Broch's Sleepwalkers back in November. Excellent, excellent novel.

Reading now: Umberto Eco - Il Nome della Rosa
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 02, 2009, 06:35:28 AM
This was very good. But then, I like Carey's storytelling

(http://www.dccomics.com/media/product/1/6/1636_400x600.jpg).

Volume 2 is next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 04, 2009, 05:57:04 AM
Maybe I should start reading Jane Austen. (http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Zombies-Classic-Ultraviolent/dp/1594743347/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236178520&sr=8-1)  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 04, 2009, 06:31:08 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 02, 2009, 06:28:54 AM
Finished Augie March -- easily the best thing I've read since Broch's Sleepwalkers back in November. Excellent, excellent novel.
I should move that one up in my reading queue  :)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo bored the hell out of me with its cheap fiction quality, so I gave it up. Started "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler". Very amusing so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on March 04, 2009, 07:40:05 AM
As always this is more of the same. It's not as bad as some fans say, it also has the same flaws as all the Discworld books (heavy handedness, repetition, sometimes pointing out the obvious, sometimes not pointing out enough) which become less endearing with each instalment. The style of writing is always enjoyable,* and though I am currently halfway through what is quite a lengthy book (as all his later ones are), it remains eminently readable.

(http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5298/clipboard01yxd.jpg)

*This cannot be overstated. Quality adult/comedic fantasy is hardly a genre that can fill many bookshelves...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on March 04, 2009, 07:47:41 AM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61aEEj1zLHL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)



Book that comes with 4CDs with short (4-5 minute) realizations of 74 northern Indian ragas.  The book has detailed notes on the structure of each raga and some great color plates of ragamala paintings

http://www.wyastone.co.uk/nrl/world/raga/index.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 04, 2009, 01:11:21 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 04, 2009, 05:57:04 AM
Maybe I should start reading Jane Austen. (http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Zombies-Classic-Ultraviolent/dp/1594743347/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236178520&sr=8-1)  >:D
;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 04, 2009, 06:09:27 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 04, 2009, 05:57:04 AM
Maybe I should start reading Jane Austen. (http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Zombies-Classic-Ultraviolent/dp/1594743347/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236178520&sr=8-1)  >:D

You are a twisted individual, Dave. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 04, 2009, 06:42:54 PM
Quote from: Bogey on March 04, 2009, 06:09:27 PM
You are a twisted individual, Dave. ;D

Nah. I wouldn't really buy that. I bought The Big Sleep instead.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Rabbity Baxter on March 06, 2009, 04:01:37 PM
The Pickwick Papers, by Dickens, and I am enjoying it immensely. Trying not to gobble it in all at once, and savour the experience for a few weeks instead.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 07, 2009, 04:12:47 AM
Reading this...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KPXrkhnXL._SS500_.jpg)

A throwback to classic psychological horror stories, The Perils & Dangers of this Night is a tale of revenge and retribution set in the bleak winter isolation of Foxwood Manor, a boys' English prep school in the woodlands of Dorset. The stage is set when Martin Price, an arrogant former pupil, inexplicably shows up with his girlfriend, Sophie, joining the headmaster, his wife, and Alan Scott, an abandoned student, as the only residents of Foxwood on a frosty Christmas Eve. As the snow falls, a web of half-truths and innuendoes emerges, and things evolve into a bizarre game of hide-and-seek through the halls and dormitories of the old manor. As events progress throughout the night, shocking revelations emerge, culminating in a stunning conclusion on Christmas morning.

Just finished this...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C6DDNRV9L._SS500_.jpg)

From the pages of Neil Gaiman's multi award-winning Sandman series...Cast out of heaven, thrown down to rule in Hell, Lucifer Morningstar has resigned his post and abandoned his infernal kingdom for the mortal city of Los Angeles. But retirement means only opportunity for Lucifer's many and varied enemies, all of whom have bitter and long memories, and it's going to take more than quick wits to survive the coming storm. As Lucifer bids to reclaim his lost wings, so his mortal vulnerability is revealed, and from the grim tapestry of his past the agents of chaos gather, ready to feast on his damned soul!

And I liked it.  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on March 08, 2009, 06:19:13 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XC9Z8S42L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Finished Slaughterhouse 5 and I must say I loved it! I was particularly interested by the Tralfamadorian notions of seeing the 4th dimension, which is something I had been mulling over in my own mind before reading the book. I'm really fond of the concept that we are always alive, just that in some moments in time we exist and in some we don't. It is a comforting notion in the cold, hard world of this atheist.  :)  But then the implication of the concept, i.e. the illusion of free will is a difficult one to wrestle with, but then, free will or not, this 3rd dimensional is grateful he doesn't know what is coming next so he's just going to enjoy the ride whilst it lasts.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on March 08, 2009, 06:35:39 PM
Cornball, but whatever - it's proving readable.

(http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4480/94781227.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 09, 2009, 07:42:38 AM
Quote from: RepliCat on March 08, 2009, 06:19:13 PM
I was particularly interested by the Tralfamadorian notions of seeing the 4th dimension, which is something I had been mulling over in my own mind before reading the book.

Haha what?

Anyway, finished Il Nome della Rosa, loved it. Now onto Albert Camus's Le Premier Homme. So far I've found Camus interesting if a little dry; I hope this will improve my opinion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 09, 2009, 07:44:37 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 09, 2009, 07:42:38 AM
Anyway, finished Il Nome della Rosa, loved it. Now onto Albert Camus's Le Premier Homme. So far I've found Camus interesting if a little dry; I hope this will improve my opinion.

Dry? Wow. I find Mann dry, not Camus.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 09, 2009, 07:50:46 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 09, 2009, 07:44:37 AM
Dry? Wow. I find Mann dry, not Camus.

Oh, maybe terse is the mot juste, hee hee. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 09, 2009, 08:03:39 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 09, 2009, 07:50:46 AM
Oh, maybe terse is the mot juste, hee hee. ;D

Gets to the point? I like him. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on March 10, 2009, 05:54:48 AM
Fabulous.   8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 12, 2009, 10:34:20 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 09, 2009, 08:03:39 AM
Gets to the point? I like him. ;)

Well, Le premier homme was brilliant -- the most unreserved and personal Camus I've read. Very powerful even in its unfinished state.

Starting now: Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 13, 2009, 01:51:56 PM
(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/105/433/400000000000000105433_s4.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 15, 2009, 03:59:25 PM
THE HUNTER - Richard Stark (Donald Westlake)

If you like hardboiled crime novels, it doesn't get any better than Stark's Parker series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on March 15, 2009, 04:25:56 PM
The Civil War in North Carolina (1963) by John Barrett - purchased this book @ the Bentonville Battlefield (http://www.nchistoricsites.org/bentonvi/bentonvi.htm), a North Carolina State Historic Site on a trip to the coast last fall; just getting around to a read - still early in the war, i.e. 1861-62 w/ the Union taking over the Outer Banks, Roanoke Island, and now moving onto the mainland coastal towns, such as New Bern & Beaufort; Ambrose Burnside (best known for his 'sideburns') was in charge of the northern forces - little updated writing has been done on North Carolina in this war which is surprising - will be a 'fun read' for me since I've travelled this state extensively and will have been to most of the places discussed!  :)


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Mlu3BTnyL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on March 16, 2009, 01:17:23 PM
"Ensemble c'est tout" by Anna Gavalda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Gavalda). Since my French is pardon league I read it in Norwegian where the title is "Saman er ein mindre aleine" (Together one is less alone). The English title is "Hunting and Gathering".
It is as good as any, and this is a recommendation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on March 16, 2009, 04:09:27 PM
I thought someone here was interested in Dostoyevsky.


Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Fyodor Dostoevsky have also purchased Notes from the Undergound by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. For this reason, you might like to know that Notes from the Undergound will be released on March 30, 2009.  You can pre-order yours by following the link below.

Notes from the Undergound
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Price:  $6.95

Release Date: March 30, 2009


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Notes from the Undergound
 
 

Product Description
Dostoevsky's best-known and most groundbreaking work appears in this new edition in a revision of the "Constance Garnett" translation with an introduction by Charles Guignon and Kevin Aho. The introduction places the underground man in the historical context of nineteenth-century modernity's movement toward secularism, examines his psychological dynamics, and identifies the developments in Russian intellectual life that the work parodies and criticises. It further points up the contribution made by this novella - considered by Dostoevsky the key to his mature works - to the author's later 'novels of ideas'.



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Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 16, 2009, 04:41:57 PM
A Hard Case Crime (http://www.hardcasecrime.com/) novel. Currently up for an Edgar.

(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n49/n248677.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 16, 2009, 06:26:22 PM
I haven't read this, but you have to love the cover.

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/9/14788318_dca6b7a1ac.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on March 17, 2009, 08:04:39 PM
Just Finished Naguib Mahfouz' The Beginning and the End, a saga-type novel that takes place into 1930s Cairo. Mahfouz is the most celebrated writer of the Arab world, winning the Nobel Prize in 1988. A brilliant and extremely moving book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 17, 2009, 08:08:11 PM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on March 17, 2009, 08:04:39 PM
Just Finished Naguib Mahfouz' The Beginning and the End, a saga-type novel that takes place into 1930s Cairo. Mahfouz is the most celebrated writer of the Arab world, winning the Nobel Prize in 1988. A brilliant and extremely moving book.

Ah, another author that's on my list. Sounds promising.

Slightly related, I have Pamuk's Black Book lined up for after The Tin Drum. Looking forward to it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 18, 2009, 09:18:42 AM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on March 17, 2009, 08:04:39 PM
Just Finished Naguib Mahfouz' The Beginning and the End, a saga-type novel that takes place into 1930s Cairo. Mahfouz is the most celebrated writer of the Arab world, winning the Nobel Prize in 1988. A brilliant and extremely moving book.
I've recently read his novella "The Day the Leader Was Killed". I liked it a lot. I have Cairo Trilogy waiting, but I am saving it for a period where I can devote some more time to reading.

Quote from: Corey on March 17, 2009, 08:08:11 PM

Slightly related, I have Pamuk's Black Book lined up for after The Tin Drum. Looking forward to it.
I don't know how they related they are, but you are in for a great treat. Get ready to explore the streets of Istanbul -blindfolded :D The novel is full of cultural references though. Let me know if you get stuck :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nut-job on March 18, 2009, 09:47:14 AM
Reading Salmon Rushdie's "The Enchantress of Florence."  I am more than half way though, and I feel sorry for Rushdie.  He has been a favorite author of mine, but now it seems as though both his hot wife and his muse have deserted him.  I have derived little satisfaction from it so far.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 18, 2009, 10:17:53 AM
Quote from: orbital on March 18, 2009, 09:18:42 AM
I don't know how they related they are...

As in they are both Nobel Prize winners and from the Middle East. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 18, 2009, 10:22:08 AM
Quote from: orbital on March 18, 2009, 09:18:42 AM
I don't know how they related they are, but you are in for a great treat. Get ready to explore the streets of Istanbul -blindfolded :D The novel is full of cultural references though. Let me know if you get stuck :)

I'm reading "My Name is Red", my wife is reading "Snow". He seems to have a penchant for setting his novels in snowy, muddy, dark and eerie streets and corners. Not that I dislike it in the least, but just saying.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 18, 2009, 10:32:39 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 18, 2009, 10:17:53 AM
As in they are both Nobel Prize winners and from the Middle East. :)
Of course. I had their prose in mind, sorry.

Black Book is a fascinating piece of literature. In all aspects, I still think it is his best book to date (along with the Buddenbrooks-esque Cevdet Bey and Sons... incidentally, both debut novels of their respective authors). I hope you enjoy it as well.
-------
I am still not through "If On a Winter's Night A Traveller...". Certainly one of the most peculiar books I've ever read, but I don't know if I like it very much. I feel like I'm reading it more for its style than its substance  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nut-job on March 18, 2009, 10:36:16 AM
Quote from: orbital on March 18, 2009, 10:32:39 AM
I am still not through "If On a Winter's Night A Traveller...". Certainly one of the most peculiar books I've ever read, but I don't know if I like it very much. I feel like I'm reading it more for its style than its substance  :-\

I can confirm that there is no substance, style is fascinating at first, but gets old long before the book is over, in my experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 18, 2009, 10:38:23 AM
I tried reading Calvino's Invisible Cities but was bored in the extreme.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 18, 2009, 10:41:15 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 18, 2009, 10:22:08 AM
I'm reading "My Name is Red", my wife is reading "Snow". He seems to have a penchant for setting his novels in snowy, muddy, dark and eerie streets and corners. Not that I dislike it in the least, but just saying.  0:)
\
Can you guess the culprit? :D

I think you're right above. Once exception is The Silent House which takes place mostly in a summer vacation village. But despite the setting it tells a disturbing tale.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 18, 2009, 10:45:25 AM
Quote from: orbital on March 18, 2009, 10:41:15 AM
\
Can you guess the culprit? :D


Turkish urban topography?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 18, 2009, 11:11:43 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 18, 2009, 10:45:25 AM
Turkish urban topography?  ;D
That's responsible for much worse than a dozen or so novels  :-\

How about the culprit in the novel  >:D ?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 18, 2009, 11:17:31 AM
Quote from: orbital on March 18, 2009, 11:11:43 AM
How about the culprit in the novel  >:D ?

Ah, that culprit you mean... well, as in all good policiers, I'm pretty sure the culprit is not the usual suspect so I won't say Butterfly. And please don't tell me, otherwise I'm going to abandon the book... :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 18, 2009, 12:05:57 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 18, 2009, 11:17:31 AM
Ah, that culprit you mean... well, as in all good policiers, I'm pretty sure the culprit is not the usual suspect so I won't say Butterfly. And please don't tell me, otherwise I'm going to abandon the book... :)



I'd never  0:)

Enjoy  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 18, 2009, 04:24:32 PM
Nostromo - Joseph Conrad
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 18, 2009, 05:46:20 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 18, 2009, 04:24:32 PM
Nostromo - Joseph Conrad

An awesome novel. Hope you like it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 18, 2009, 05:47:34 PM
Quote from: Corey on March 18, 2009, 05:46:20 PM
An awesome novel. Hope you like it!

I have to start taking my reading more seriously or else you'll make me look like a chump.  ;D

I hope I like it too.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 18, 2009, 06:35:37 PM
Yes, but you actually write yourself. I'm only a devotee of others' writings. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on March 18, 2009, 06:41:35 PM
Thanks for the posts on Orhan Pamuk. I had no idea who he was. Seems like my kind of novelist. I guess Mahfouz and Pamuk books will be on my table a lot  ;).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 18, 2009, 06:45:34 PM
Quote from: Corey on March 18, 2009, 06:35:37 PM
Yes, but you actually write yourself. I'm only a devotee of others' writings. :D

Still, I've been reading too much "junk" lately. Don't want the old brain getting flabby(er).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on March 18, 2009, 07:42:30 PM
(http://www.soxfirst.com/imgname--niall_ferguson_the_ascent_of_money---50226711--ascent.jpg)

Very readable and engaging financial history. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 19, 2009, 04:26:37 AM
Quote from: orbital on March 18, 2009, 12:05:57 PM
Enjoy  :)

Thanks. I really do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 19, 2009, 06:28:49 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 18, 2009, 06:45:34 PM
Still, I've been reading too much "junk" lately. Don't want the old brain getting flabby(er).


Conrad is great, "Lord Jim" is a classic as well. I really reccomend Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", but you have to kind of bleep all the boa constrictor last names in it (got that from a "Peanuts" strip, laughing).

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 19, 2009, 06:45:40 AM
Quote from: erato on January 09, 2009, 06:17:46 AM
Philip Normans new Lennon biography. Very wellwritten and illuminating.

I've been reading that at odd stretches . . . but now, the shop seems to have sold off both copies, and I am still a hubdred and fifty or so pages from the end!  I know how it ends, sure, but I'm interested in the interval . . . ah well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 19, 2009, 07:13:53 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on March 19, 2009, 06:28:49 AM
Conrad is great, "Lord Jim" is a classic as well. I really reccomend Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", but you have to kind of bleep all the boa constrictor last names in it (got that from a "Peanuts" strip, laughing).

Gee, I heard he was great. Now where did I hear that...?

Crime and Punishment? Been there, done that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 19, 2009, 07:18:37 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on March 19, 2009, 06:28:49 AM

Conrad is great, "Lord Jim" is a classic as well. I really reccomend Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", but you have to kind of bleep all the boa constrictor last names in it (got that from a "Peanuts" strip, laughing).



What does Lord Jim have to do with Dostoevsky?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 19, 2009, 07:19:59 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 19, 2009, 07:18:37 AM
What does Lord Jim have to do with Dostoevsky?

I was wondering too.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 19, 2009, 07:22:47 AM
Maybe as much as Allan Petterson has to do with Roger Sessions. ;D

All in jest, of course, Mr. D. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 19, 2009, 07:27:40 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 19, 2009, 07:18:37 AM
What does Lord Jim have to do with Dostoevsky?


From one perspective, Lord Jim is a classic book. Dostoevsky also wrote classic books.

From another perspective, perhaps you might have some ideas as to how Lord Jim has "something to do" with Dostoevsky, the man...or his work.

No disrespect intended, just food for conjecture. I have the day off (laughing good naturedly).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 19, 2009, 07:43:43 AM
Actually, I see Lord Jim as Conrad's Crime and Punishment.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 19, 2009, 07:46:38 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 19, 2009, 07:43:43 AM
Actually, I see Lord Jim as Conrad's Crime and Punishment.  0:)

That clears that up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 19, 2009, 07:49:12 AM
Would that make Nostromo his Brothers Karamazov?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 19, 2009, 07:52:24 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 19, 2009, 07:49:12 AM
Would that make Nostromo his Brothers Karamazov?

No, it would make it his Mary Poppins.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 19, 2009, 07:53:35 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 19, 2009, 07:13:53 AM
Crime and Punishment? Been there, done that.

Why, of course you have! (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,9.msg288294.html#msg288294)  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 19, 2009, 07:55:11 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 19, 2009, 07:53:35 AM
Why, of course you have! (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,9.msg288294.html#msg288294)  8)

;D

Quite a good book, actually, I hit a roadblock with Karamazov.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 19, 2009, 07:58:27 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 19, 2009, 07:52:24 AM
No, it would make it his Mary Poppins.

Or perhaps his Da Vinci Code.  ::)  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 19, 2009, 08:01:18 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 19, 2009, 07:52:24 AM
No, it would make it his Mary Poppins.

Quote from: Corey on March 19, 2009, 07:58:27 AM
Or perhaps his Da Vinci Code.  ::)  ;D

To each his own.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 19, 2009, 08:03:35 AM
Reading the Da Vinci Code is the crime and the punishment all in one. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on March 19, 2009, 08:06:48 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 19, 2009, 07:55:11 AM
;D

Quite a good book, actually, I hit a roadblock with Karamazov.
The Idiot was my fave (no surprise there, eh?).  Perhaps I'm due for another go at it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 19, 2009, 08:08:37 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 19, 2009, 08:03:35 AM
Reading the Da Vinci Code is the crime and the punishment all in one. ;D

Excellent! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 19, 2009, 08:20:06 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 19, 2009, 08:03:35 AM
Reading the Da Vinci Code is the crime and the punishment all in one. ;D
:D

Quote from: Mn Dave on March 19, 2009, 07:55:11 AM
I hit a roadblock with Karamazov.
You're not alone. I couldn't see its appeal (but maybe that's because the setting wasn't exactly right. I was on a transatlantic cruise when I read it ;D )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 19, 2009, 08:24:16 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on March 19, 2009, 08:06:48 AM
The Idiot was my fave (no surprise there, eh?).  Perhaps I'm due for another go at it.

Haven't tried that one. Some day...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 19, 2009, 08:45:44 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 19, 2009, 07:49:12 AM
Would that make Nostromo his Brothers Karamazov?


:D Yes! I knew I was startin' something good ;D!

The Idiot is my favorite Dostoevsky. (Probably has alot to do with my own, Fully Realized Idiot credentials).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 19, 2009, 08:47:59 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 19, 2009, 08:03:35 AM
Reading the Da Vinci Code is the crime and the punishment all in one. ;D




You know, I was dumb enough to think that I'd enjoy that book. Really lame.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on March 19, 2009, 08:53:52 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on March 19, 2009, 08:47:59 AM



You know, I was dumb enough to think that I'd enjoy that book. Really lame.
Have you read Faucault's Pendulum (Eco)? If you thought you'd like Da Vinci, you can be sure you will love this one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 19, 2009, 09:24:33 AM
Quote from: orbital on March 19, 2009, 08:53:52 AM
Have you read Foucault's Pendulum (Eco)? If you thought you'd like Da Vinci, you can be sure you will love this one.

Seconded. Why read the Sandra Brown of conspiracy theory when you can have the Umberto Eco of it?   0:)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 19, 2009, 09:36:49 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on March 19, 2009, 08:06:48 AM
The Idiot was my fave (no surprise there, eh?).  Perhaps I'm due for another go at it.

It's wonderful . . . I need to re-read it, myself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 19, 2009, 09:46:00 AM
Quote from: orbital on March 19, 2009, 08:53:52 AM
Have you read Faucault's Pendulum (Eco)? If you thought you'd like Da Vinci, you can be sure you will love this one.



On my Amazon wish list, thank you!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 19, 2009, 09:47:36 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 19, 2009, 09:24:33 AM
Seconded. Why read the Sandra Brown of conspiracy theory when you can have the Umberto Eco of it?   0:)



Thirded.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 19, 2009, 05:44:04 PM
Re: Eco: Il Nome della Rosa was great, will probably read Foucault or Baudolino next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on March 19, 2009, 07:03:26 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 19, 2009, 09:24:33 AM
Seconded. Why read the Sandra Brown of conspiracy theory when you can have the Umberto Eco of it?   0:)
And why read either when Thomas Pynchon is available? 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 20, 2009, 05:12:32 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on March 19, 2009, 07:03:26 PM
And why read either when Thomas Pynchon is available? 

Because Eco is outstanding?  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 20, 2009, 07:24:50 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on March 19, 2009, 07:03:26 PM
And why read either when Thomas Pynchon is available? 

Your avatar looks like he's really asking that question. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DFO on March 20, 2009, 09:06:22 AM
Konnilyn G.Feig: "Hitler Death Camps", an exhaustive essay on this ugly subject by a non-jewish writter.Holmes&Meier pub.,NY 1981
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 21, 2009, 04:00:09 PM
Starting today: Orhan Pamuk - The Black Book
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 23, 2009, 07:37:03 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513Hki5BGkL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Nazis!! The occult!! Really mediocre writing!! Factual errors!!

YET...I can't put it down!!

:o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on March 23, 2009, 08:31:53 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 23, 2009, 07:37:03 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513Hki5BGkL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Nazis!! The occult!! Really mediocre writing!! Factual errors!!

YET...I can't put it down!!

:o
Sounds like The Congressional Record--except for the "can't put it down" part.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on March 24, 2009, 02:00:45 AM
KURT HÜBNER:  "Kritik der Wissenschaftlichen Vernunft"

A pompous title, reminding Kant, for a very boring book. The author criticizes several theories about scientific knowledge, in special Popper, but we cannot really understand what is his own position. Assuming that he has one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 25, 2009, 02:01:07 PM
Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews - Edited by Jonathan Cott

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 27, 2009, 01:26:49 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 23, 2009, 07:37:03 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513Hki5BGkL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Nazis!! The occult!! Really mediocre writing!! Factual errors!!

YET...I can't put it down!!

:o



I miss the days of "really bad books".

Sometimes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 27, 2009, 01:30:45 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on March 27, 2009, 01:26:49 PM


I miss the days of "really bad books".

Sometimes.

Bad books? Like what?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 27, 2009, 01:33:13 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 27, 2009, 01:30:45 PM
Bad books? Like what?


A classic, in "that" way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 27, 2009, 01:35:34 PM
I just received a copy of Pride and Prejudice from Amazon marketplace. I was surprised to see that it is nearly as small as one of those Bibles you get in seedy motels (only my P&P is a hardcover). (Don't ask me how I know about seedy motels; I shan't reply.) But, it does say that it's "complete and unabridged", so all is not lost.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 27, 2009, 01:36:23 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on March 27, 2009, 01:33:13 PM

A classic, in "that" way.

Looks fine to me. Carry on, my wayward son.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on March 27, 2009, 01:43:54 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 27, 2009, 01:36:23 PM
Looks fine to me. Carry on, my wayward son.  0:)


"Doncha cry no mo'."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 30, 2009, 12:56:51 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41yWWAi-rnL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on March 30, 2009, 07:26:05 AM
Pamuk's Black Book was excellent — deliciously complex and heady. The theme of identity and the burden of self-consciousness I felt were very relevant to my own struggles with the subject.

Starting:

(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n37/n188886.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on March 31, 2009, 05:48:11 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on March 27, 2009, 01:33:13 PM

A classic, in "that" way.

Andy, I own a first edition of that book. Unfortunately, the raised leg is on the spine. Sitting on the bookshelf for over thirty years, exposed to light, has turned her gorgeous tan black and white  :-[

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/decgmg/Spillane%20ES.jpg)

Spillane chose the model and he eventually married her. The book is dedicated to her in typical Spillane style:

For Sherri...whose part in this book can hardly be denied. Elaborated on, certainly, but a pleasure to research, peruse and enjoy. Doll, you are magnificent!

;D :D ;D  ...ah, the 70s, when even a staid old publishing house like E. P. Dutton & Co, could put a nude cover on display in our malls and bookshops.

By the way, his next book, The Last Cop Out, had Sherri once again on display; this time her backside.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on March 31, 2009, 05:49:36 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on March 31, 2009, 05:48:11 PM
Andy, I own a first edition of that book. Unfortunately, the raised leg is on the spine. Sitting on the bookshelf for over thirty years, exposed to light, has turned her gorgeous tan black and white  :-[

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/decgmg/Spillane%20ES.jpg)

Spillane chose the model and he eventually married her. The book is dedicated to her in typical Spillane style:

For Sherri...whose part in this book can hardly be denied. Elaborated on, certainly, but a pleasure to research, peruse and enjoy. Doll, you are magnificent!

;D :D ;D  ...ah, the 70s, when even a staid old publishing house like E. P. Dutton & Co, could put a nude cover on display in our malls and bookshops.

By the way, his next book, The Last Cop Out, had Sherri once again on display; this time her backside.

Sarge

Excellent, Sarge! She looks like she has a glass leg.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 01, 2009, 12:37:28 AM
Hesse - The Glass Bead Game
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 01, 2009, 12:57:05 AM
Quote from: orbital on April 01, 2009, 12:37:28 AM
Hesse - The Glass Bead Game

Your thoughts on it if you please?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 01, 2009, 01:34:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 01, 2009, 12:57:05 AM
Your thoughts on it if you please?
I just started it last night. I have read about 50 pages so far. I'll post my thoughts soon :)

My version has a long Zialkowski introduction which I skipped. I don't like to read those introductions before I start a book. I prefer to read them after I am through.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 01, 2009, 02:25:25 AM
Quote from: orbital on April 01, 2009, 01:34:00 AM
My version has a long Zialkowski introduction which I skipped. I don't like to read those introductions before I start a book. I prefer to read them after I am through.

Me too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 01, 2009, 04:00:16 AM
Quote from: orbital on April 01, 2009, 12:37:28 AM
Hesse - The Glass Bead Game

I still need to read that. Hesse was probably the one author that led me to serious literature (from Hesse to Thomas Mann and so forth) but I've admittedly neglected him for the past few years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on April 01, 2009, 05:49:47 AM
The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 01, 2009, 01:42:21 PM
Quote from: Corey on April 01, 2009, 04:00:16 AM
Hesse was probably the one author that led me to serious literature (from Hesse to Thomas Mann and so forth) but I've admittedly neglected him for the past few years.

He's one of my favourite authors, not only for "The Glass Bead Game", but also --- and even more --- for "Narcissus and Goldmund", "Steppenwolf" and "Journey to the East".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 01, 2009, 01:50:09 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 01, 2009, 01:42:21 PM
He's one of my favourite authors, not only for "The Glass Bead Game", but also --- and even more --- for "Narcissus and Goldmund", "Steppenwolf" and "Journey to the East".

Yes, those (excepting Steppenwolf... still haven't got to it) and Siddhartha were a huge influence on my interest in literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 01, 2009, 01:57:58 PM
Quote from: Corey on April 01, 2009, 01:50:09 PM
Yes, those (excepting Steppenwolf... still haven't got to it) and Siddhartha were a huge influence on my interest in literature.

As far as I'm concerned, he certainly deserves his Nobel Prize.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 01, 2009, 02:52:46 PM
A History of Western Music, 8th Ed. (2010) by Burkholder, Grout, & Palisca (latter two deceased) - this is basically a 'college text' that I've been buying intermittently - this is my third purchase (last one was the 4th edition from 1988) - looks like a FUN update; of course, a lot more 'online' sources and 'listening' options as one reads the text - just arrived today, so will report later; unfortunately, I went to the Norton site for this book (includes outlines, quizzes, listening options) but will not be ready until May!   :-\

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xuLPEE%2BnL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on April 02, 2009, 10:28:06 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 01, 2009, 01:57:58 PM
As far as I'm concerned, he certainly deserves his Nobel Prize.  8)

I was looking at his volume of modern fairy tales that was recently released, but the reviews have mostly focussed on the poor translations. Do you know anything of this?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on April 02, 2009, 05:03:42 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DJK1SETTL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Perhaps too lightweight - even for Thames & Hudson it is quite brief in the face of its scope. However, it is highly informative, which is why I keep buying things from this great publisher. Due to the (relative) age of the text as well as its brevity, it demands to be read alongside more specific books, but as an introduction to a longer path of reading it is ideal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on April 02, 2009, 05:49:42 PM
Hey, what a coincidence!

You guys are talking about Hesse and a couple of days ago I picked up his "Unterm Rad" from my local German/French library.

I have had only limited experience with Hesse, having only read "Siddharta" in a Spanish translation.

I'm now reading "Unterm Rad" in German, trying not to use a dictionary (even so, it's slow, though). I'm halfway through the second chapter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 03, 2009, 01:02:23 AM
Quote from: Benji on April 02, 2009, 10:28:06 AM
I was looking at his volume of modern fairy tales that was recently released, but the reviews have mostly focussed on the poor translations. Do you know anything of this?

I'm afraid I can't be of any help. I have that volume in Romanian since this is my mother tongue, but haven't read it yet. I can comment neither on the fairy tales themselves, nor on the English translation.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 03, 2009, 05:34:52 AM
Joseph Roth's 1002nd Night was excellent. He portrays a broad cross-section of the old Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (Musil's Kakania :)), and all the beauty, decay, delight and corruption that was the beginning of the 20th Century. The scope of time and the fleshing out of characters is remarkably achieved in such a small space. I look forward to reading more of him.

Starting now:

(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/greatest-novels-of-all-time/235-1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 03, 2009, 05:43:49 AM
Quote from: Corey on April 03, 2009, 05:34:52 AM
Joseph Roth's 1002nd Night was excellent. He portrays a broad cross-section of old the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (Musil's Kakania :)), and all the beauty, decay, delight and corruption that was the beginning of the 20th Century. The scope of time and the fleshing out of characters is remarkably achieved in such a small space. I look forward to reading more of him.

You might try "The Radetzky March". It's in the same vein.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 03, 2009, 05:50:31 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 03, 2009, 05:43:49 AM
You might try "The Radetzky March". It's in the same vein.

Oh definitely, I intend to. In fact I was looking for that in particular but my library doesn't seem to have it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on April 03, 2009, 09:54:42 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 03, 2009, 01:02:23 AM
I'm afraid I can't be of any help. I have that volume in Romanian since this is my mother tongue, but haven't read it yet. I can comment neither on the fairy tales themselves, nor on the English translation.  :)

Then in the spirit of adventure, i'll just have to read it myself. Darn it.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 07, 2009, 11:58:08 AM
Quote from: Corey on April 03, 2009, 05:34:52 AM
Starting now:

(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/greatest-novels-of-all-time/235-1.jpg)

Had to stop reading this. Just can't keep my interest.

Starting this instead:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61360N7YMDL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on April 08, 2009, 04:26:53 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71QPR8FE65L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on April 08, 2009, 04:27:56 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 25, 2009, 02:01:07 PM
Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews - Edited by Jonathan Cott

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield

And both of these were great reads.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on April 08, 2009, 12:39:26 PM
(http://www.bookcoverarchive.com/images/books/The_Grifters.large.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on April 08, 2009, 12:41:51 PM
Quote from: Bu on April 08, 2009, 12:39:26 PM
(http://www.bookcoverarchive.com/images/books/The_Grifters.large.jpg)

Awesome. Have you read Pop. 1280 and The Killer Inside Me?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on April 08, 2009, 12:55:14 PM
Quote from: Bu on April 08, 2009, 12:39:26 PM
(http://www.bookcoverarchive.com/images/books/The_Grifters.large.jpg)

The basis for one of my favorite films, directed by Stephen Frears!  Not to digress from the thread topic, but I just saw it again recently and found it hugely entertaining, yet again.  The three leads--Anjelica Huston, John Cusack and Annette Bening--all have a magnificently nasty good time outfoxing each other.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on April 08, 2009, 12:59:02 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on April 08, 2009, 12:41:51 PM
Awesome. Have you read Pop. 1280 and The Killer Inside Me?

Indeedie.  Haven't read the former, but saw a great film noir adaptation renamed "Coup de Torchon" by the French director Tavernier.  After watching him praise Thompson in a special feature commentary on the dvd, I went out and found the only book of Thompson's I could find at a local bookstore, and that was The Killer Inside Me--which is easily among my favorite pulp novels.  Lou Ford, what a guy, huh?  :P

The Grifters has been gripping so far; hope to find and read more Thompson.   >:D

And Bruce, would love to see the movie version of The Grifters, too!   :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on April 08, 2009, 01:07:19 PM
Quote from: Bu on April 08, 2009, 12:59:02 PM
And Bruce, would love to see the movie version of The Grifters, too!   :D

It's well worth a viewing (or two, since when it's over you sort of want to see it again, knowing what you now know).  The three leads have great chemistry together, and the scams they pull (which I assume are taken from the book)...>:D  >:D  >:D

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 08, 2009, 04:59:28 PM
Re-reading The Life of Richard Wagner V.2 by Ernest Newman



I'm hopeless.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on April 08, 2009, 05:02:36 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on April 08, 2009, 04:59:28 PM
Re-reading The Life of Richard Wagner V.2 by Ernest Newman



I'm hopeless.

Ha!  Guess what I started to read today?  The New Grove Wagner, by John Deathridge and Carl Dahlhaus

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on April 08, 2009, 05:27:41 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on April 08, 2009, 05:02:36 PM
Ha!  Guess what I started to read today?  The New Grove Wagner, by John Deathridge and Garl Dahlhaus

:)



Heyyyy, haven't checked that one out yet!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on April 08, 2009, 07:13:44 PM
Today I listened to Schopenhaur's Studies in Pessimism.
Beautiful!  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aquablob on April 09, 2009, 05:37:14 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on April 08, 2009, 05:02:36 PM
Ha!  Guess what I started to read today?  The New Grove Wagner, by John Deathridge and Garl Dahlhaus

:)

Carl Dahlhaus :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on April 09, 2009, 05:37:54 PM
Quote from: aquariuswb on April 09, 2009, 05:37:14 PM
Carl Dahlhaus :)

Oopsies! Typo.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 09, 2009, 06:40:03 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XZJlR3MeL._SS500_.jpg)

So far a great read
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on April 10, 2009, 02:33:35 PM
I finished reading Unterm Rad by Hermann Hesse. My God, it was depressing! All in all it was interesting, though.

Now I'm reading a book with short stories (in Spanish translation) by Anton Chejov, which includes The Lady with the Dog and three others. I just read the first two stories, and man, I love how he writes! It really grabs me. Hadn't ever read Chejov before, but I'm definitely going to read more!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on April 10, 2009, 03:40:36 PM
sf

(https://www.infinitas.com.au/ProductImages/9780451462374.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on April 10, 2009, 04:46:15 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on April 10, 2009, 03:40:36 PM
sf

(https://www.infinitas.com.au/ProductImages/9780451462374.jpg)

Details pretty please!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on April 10, 2009, 04:59:06 PM
From Booklist
Anderson's outstanding first novel combines alternate history and seafaring in a way that recalls S. M. Stirling's splendid Island in the Sea of Time trilogy. Two U.S. four-stacker destroyers on the run from the Japanese in the spring of 1942 sail into a mysterious squall. The USS Walker emerges upon an alternate earth, where the dinosaurs were never wiped out. One savage sapient race, the Grik, has evolved from the raptors; another, from lemurs. The latter becomes the allies of the castaways in parallel time, and together they prepare to fight the Grik, solve some of the mysteries of this world, and find the missing second destroyer. There may be points, probably few, at which naval buffs will raise their eyebrows, but the nonstop action will speed nearly all readers past them. That action works out in the context of extremely high-level achievement at both world building and characterization. It's safe to say that the series this book launches is going to go places—for starters, into the hands of all seafaring-sf fans. --Roland Green
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on April 10, 2009, 05:06:34 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on April 10, 2009, 04:59:06 PM
From Booklist
Anderson's outstanding first novel combines alternate history and seafaring in a way that recalls S. M. Stirling's splendid Island in the Sea of Time trilogy. Two U.S. four-stacker destroyers on the run from the Japanese in the spring of 1942 sail into a mysterious squall. The USS Walker emerges upon an alternate earth, where the dinosaurs were never wiped out. One savage sapient race, the Grik, has evolved from the raptors; another, from lemurs. The latter becomes the allies of the castaways in parallel time, and together they prepare to fight the Grik, solve some of the mysteries of this world, and find the missing second destroyer. There may be points, probably few, at which naval buffs will raise their eyebrows, but the nonstop action will speed nearly all readers past them. That action works out in the context of extremely high-level achievement at both world building and characterization. It's safe to say that the series this book launches is going to go places—for starters, into the hands of all seafaring-sf fans. --Roland Green

Interesting! So reptiles vs mammals on the high seas, basically? Awesome.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on April 10, 2009, 07:17:10 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zPEqQNvML._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Third-Reich-at-War/dp/1594202060)

The last in Evans's 3 volume series about the Third Reich.  I didn't think I would learn much new, but I hadn't realized before just how vicious the German military (not just the SS) was to the conquered populace.  I suppose I'd absorbed that old movie cliche of the civilized Prussian officer who was above the vulgarity of the Nazis, but there were really very few of those types.  It's the thickest volume in the series, and I'm only about a quarter through.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brünnhilde forever on April 11, 2009, 10:33:50 AM
Not actually reading any more, reciting it:

Goethe: Faust.

The famous Osterspaziergang of Dr. Faust, which my mother taught me during our Easter Morning walks, years ago. It became a habit to recite it every year, I still do it, in fact recited it loud, walking along our irrigation canal trail less than an hour ago. Different scenery, but there still is the magic of the greatest German writing. If you think you don't have the time to read the English translation I am attaching, you can always go to the original and read it in German, sounds much better anyhow:

Faust.
From the ice they are freed, the stream and brook,
By the Spring's enlivening, lovely look;
The valley's green with joys of hope;
The Winter old and weak ascends
Back to the rugged mountain slope.
From there, as he flees, he downward sends
An impotent shower of icy hail
Streaking over the verdant vale.
Ah! but the Sun will suffer no white,
Growth and formation stir everywhere,
'Twould fain with colours make all things bright,
Though in the landscape are no blossoms fair.
Instead it takes gay-decked humanity.
Now turn around and from this height,
Looking backward, townward see.
Forth from the cave-like, gloomy gate
Crowds a motley and swarming array.
Everyone suns himself gladly today.
The Risen Lord they celebrate,
For they themselves have now arisen
From lowly houses' mustiness,
From handicraft's and factory's prison,
From the roof and gables that oppress,
From the bystreets' crushing narrowness,
From the churches' venerable night,
They are all brought out into light.
See, only see, how quickly the masses
Scatter through gardens and fields remote;
How down and across the river passes
So many a merry pleasure-boat.
And over-laden, almost sinking,
The last full wherry moves away.
From yonder hill's far pathways blinking,
Flash to us colours of garments gay.
Hark! Sounds of village joy arise;
Here is the people's paradise,
Contented, great and small shout joyfully:
"Here I am Man, here dare it to be!"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brünnhilde forever on April 11, 2009, 10:42:59 AM
Just noticed a glaring error in the translation! It's the last line, the what you might call The Punch Line:

In German it's:

Hier bin ich Mensch, hier darf ich sein!
Here bin I Man, here dare it to be
Here bin I Man, here dare I to be!

Replace the 'it' with 'I'! Makes a difference, doesn't it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 11, 2009, 05:16:16 PM
Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge  (2008) by Edward Kritzler - probably bought this based on a NY Times 'Book Review' - can't remember, but the topic was of interest; just started the reading and am astounded by the picture presented; of course, this is not about just 'pirates' of Jewish origin, but the WHOLE history of the rejection of Jews in Europe in those early centuries (15th-17th centuries) in which Jews where basically 'kicked out' of the Iberian Peninsula, and had to choose to either leave or convert to Christianity (of course, in a hidden identity) - these Jews, particularly in this latter guise, seemed to be MAJOR players in the whole period of this time - just starting the read, but quite intriguing - for a few comments, if interested, check out the Amazonian Reviews (http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Pirates-Caribbean-Swashbuckling-Freedom/dp/0385513984) - as a pretty 'well read' person of this period, this is becoming an enlightenment - is it all true?   ;) ;D


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xIiDNfYoL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 12, 2009, 06:27:34 PM
An Easter gift from my wife:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61KT4A8B0HL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on April 12, 2009, 06:30:43 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on April 11, 2009, 05:16:16 PM
Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge  (2008) by Edward Kritzler

Now how can anyone possibly resist that?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 12, 2009, 06:56:24 PM
Quote from: Daverz on April 12, 2009, 06:30:43 PM
Now how can anyone possibly resist that?

Dave - I agree completely!  ;D  And, the reason that I had to get the book!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nut-job on April 12, 2009, 07:53:34 PM
2666.  Not done yet.  Quite odd.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 12, 2009, 08:00:12 PM
Quote from: nut-job on April 12, 2009, 07:53:34 PM
2666.  Not done yet.  Quite odd.


I read that a couple months ago. I still can't make my mind up as to whether it's a sprawling masterpiece or a meandering mess.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 13, 2009, 07:20:13 AM
Quote from: Corey on April 07, 2009, 11:58:08 AM
Starting this instead:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61360N7YMDL._SS500_.jpg)

I give up. I really just don't like this sort of writing.

Starting this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518H0YR2F8L._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nut-job on April 13, 2009, 07:27:04 AM
Quote from: Corey on April 12, 2009, 08:00:12 PM
I read that a couple months ago. I still can't make my mind up as to whether or not it's a sprawling masterpiece or a meandering mess.

NY Times listed it as one of the top 10 books of the year, so there must be something to it (or so you would think).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on April 13, 2009, 08:52:33 AM
Quote from: Bogey on April 12, 2009, 06:27:34 PM
An Easter gift from my wife:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61KT4A8B0HL._SS500_.jpg)

Wow. Would love to have a look into that.


Thread duty:

*Continuing from where I stopped in Chapter 4 a couple of weeks ago.*

Phantoms in the Brain
V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee

This is such an amazing account of how Dr. Ramachandran (and others) came to find out the possible neurological causes of the phenomenon called phantom limb syndrome. (For those who are not aware of it, in short, it refers to sensations felt in some part of the body that is non-existent, either having been surgically removed/lost in accident at some point in time or missing from birth! I first came across it in a BBC documentary about the brain a few years ago. It was unbelievable.) Even astounding are the experiments that he has devised over the years to discover more about the various cases he has encountered, and in some cases he was even able to cure his patients from their phantom pain. It's the simplicity of it all - you can "buy" these experiments from your friendly, neighbourhood department stores. But don't let that undermine the value of Dr. Ramachandran's work, he's certainly not a crackpot; his emphasis is (again) on the simplicity. One does not always need an MRI scan to do cutting-edge research in neurology. Of course, modern technology does help in actually pinning the details. Trying to find out more about strange sensations, he delves deeper into the realm of the human mind.

The book is written in an entertaining way and is very much intended for the layperson, but anyone interested in such matters as how the brain works can take a lot from it. He does occasionally makes use of a few "terms from the trade," but does not go overboard with it. And all the explanations are made through case studies. (Actually, each "patient" he describes is a "mixture" of patients who have consulted him.)

I attended a public lecture by him, last year. It was as interesting as the book, to say the least. You can find more about his work at his website (http://cbc.ucsd.edu/ramabio.html).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Frumaster on April 13, 2009, 10:43:17 AM
I just started Don Quixote recently.  Translated by Edith Grossman, red cover.  I saw the play 'Man from La Mancha' years ago, but never read the book.  So far it is fascinating!  I'm about 200 pages into it now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on April 13, 2009, 10:54:11 AM
Quote from: Corey on April 07, 2009, 11:58:08 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61360N7YMDL._SS500_.jpg)

I had a hard time finishing off his "V" myself. Not my style either. Can he be a bit inspired by James Joyce? Anyway, Pynchon seems to be a fascinating person. I wonder where he lives/exists. Strangely he appeared in a Simpsons episode.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on April 13, 2009, 10:57:59 AM
Quote from: rubio on April 13, 2009, 10:54:11 AM
I had a hard time finishing off his "V" myself. Not my style either. Can he be a bit inspired by James Joyce? Anyway, Pynchon seems to be a fascinating person. I wonder where he lives/exists. Strangely he appeared in a Simpsons episode.

Thomas Pynchon is a victim of believing what the professors have to say about himself and many other things.

The ultimate question for his books is: if the gleaned story behind the style were brought forth, would it have the virtue of interest?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 13, 2009, 11:01:42 AM
Quote from: Bogey on April 12, 2009, 06:27:34 PM
An Easter gift from my wife:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61KT4A8B0HL._SS500_.jpg)

Looks a handsome book, Bill!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 13, 2009, 12:29:44 PM
Quote from: rubio on April 13, 2009, 10:54:11 AM
I had a hard time finishing off his "V" myself. Not my style either. Can he be a bit inspired by James Joyce? Anyway, Pynchon seems to be a fascinating person. I wonder where he lives/exists. Strangely he appeared in a Simpsons episode.
Add me to the list. I've started Vineland some time ago, but did not go through it. Still, I would like to give it another chance sometime.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 13, 2009, 12:52:37 PM
Quote from: rubio on April 13, 2009, 10:54:11 AM
I had a hard time finishing off his "V" myself. Not my style either. Can he be a bit inspired by James Joyce? Anyway, Pynchon seems to be a fascinating person. I wonder where he lives/exists. Strangely he appeared in a Simpsons episode.

I have read everything but "V" (but am stalled about 75% through Against the Day)

Would recommend The Crying of Lot 49 as anyone's first Pynchon book - its only a 150 pages or so and is a great read

GR, Vineland, Mason & Dixon & Against the Day are more or less paranoid historical fantasies.  If you liked Faucault's Pendelum you ought to like any of these - they are more complex and fantastic, but in the same vein.  To me the only way to read Pynchon is as its a sophisticated fantasy or sci-fi book, he is a fantastic writer with a great imagination, but if you are looking for profound, moral serious work, look elsewhere (like WG Sebald or WT Vollmann)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on April 13, 2009, 01:01:12 PM
Quote from: Frumaster on April 13, 2009, 10:43:17 AM
I just started Don Quixote recently.  Translated by Edith Grossman, red cover.  I saw the play 'Man from La Mancha' years ago, but never read the book.  So far it is fascinating!  I'm about 200 pages into it now.

I started that about a year ago, and got maybe half-way through.  I need to pick that back up, I quite enjoyed it.  I tried several translations and settled on the old John Ormsby, available on Project Gutenberg and lots of other places.  I liked his sense of wit.

I'm currently 3/4 of the way through Merill Peterson's Jefferson & the New Nation.  Excellent, definitely the best one-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson around.  I read Dumas Malone's 6 volume whopper over a summer a while back, but this is good to refresh the memory and get a fresh perspective on some things.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 13, 2009, 03:16:59 PM
Quote from: opus67 on April 13, 2009, 08:52:33 AM
Wow. Would love to have a look into that.


Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 13, 2009, 11:01:42 AM
Looks a handsome book, Bill!

Though there are color photos throughout, the rendering of them is so-so due to the semi-gloss paper.  Seems to have not captured the true striking colors one perceives with these type of manuscripts.  However, the text so far has been fascinating.  It takes a look at books being made from about the Dark Ages up to and possibly through(?) the advent of the printing press in the 1400's.   Basically the book says it is looking at the Middle Ages, and all the genres within, including even secular romances. Here are the table of contents, as the book does not go chronologically, but rather by who the books were for, and then I believe chronological under each of these headings, as I just made it through the intro last night:

Books for missionaries;
Books for emperors;
Books for monks;
Books for students;
Books for aristocrats;
Books for everybody;
Books for priests;
Books for collectors.

Almost a coffee table book in size and difficult to curl up with. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on April 13, 2009, 03:42:59 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 13, 2009, 12:52:37 PM
I have read everything but "V" (but am stalled about 75% through Against the Day)

Would recommend The Crying of Lot 49 as anyone's first Pynchon book - its only a 150 pages or so and is a great read

GR, Vineland, Mason & Dixon & Against the Day are more or less paranoid historical fantasies.  If you liked Faucault's Pendelum you ought to like any of these - they are more complex and fantastic, but in the same vein.  To me the only way to read Pynchon is as its a sophisticated fantasy or sci-fi book, he is a fantastic writer with a great imagination, but if you are looking for profound, moral serious work, look elsewhere (like WG Sebald or WT Vollmann)

W.G. Sebald is highly recommended! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2009, 12:55:53 AM
Just finished Conrad's The Rover. Excellent, as it was to be expected from him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 15, 2009, 01:08:21 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 13, 2009, 12:52:37 PM

GR, Vineland, Mason & Dixon & Against the Day are more or less paranoid historical fantasies.  If you liked Faucault's Pendelum you ought to like any of these - they are more complex and fantastic, but in the same vein.
Weird. Foucault's Pendulum is one of my all time favorite novels. It was probably the only book I've read even while riding in high rise elevators -unable to put it down  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2009, 01:10:50 AM
Quote from: orbital on April 15, 2009, 01:08:21 AM
Foucault's Pendulum is one of my all time favorite novels. It was probably the only book I've read even while riding in high rise elevators -unable to put it down  0:)

I finished it in two days and have re-read it about six or seven times.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kullervo on April 15, 2009, 10:34:02 AM
Quote from: Corey on April 13, 2009, 07:20:13 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518H0YR2F8L._SS500_.jpg)

Interesting. Very Proustian in its long, rhapsodic and musical sentences (often with parentheses within parentheses!) and its focus on memory and how our lives are brought to fullness through our sensory perceptions. Even so, its fragmentary nature and tantalizing brevity make it seem ultimately a bit slight. It feels more like a sketch for a larger work than it does a complete entity unto itself, but I am intrigued enough to read more of his work.

reading now:

(http://www.mobipocket.com/eBooks/cover_remote/ID115/978-0-307-4947_9780307494764.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on April 15, 2009, 01:29:50 PM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n12/n60463.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on April 15, 2009, 05:58:32 PM
Reading "Defensa Apasionada del Idioma Español" (Passionate Defense of the Spanish Language) by Álex Grijelmo.

(http://i40.tinypic.com/21edsad.jpg)

It's basically "Cato's Grammar Grumble" in Spanish. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on April 15, 2009, 11:27:06 PM
"COLLAPSE", Jared Diamond

The most interesting book I have read in the last year. It is a study about the collapse of several ancient civilizations and also modern regions, such as the state of Montana in the USA or Australia, and the reasons of those collapses.
The book is very detailed and with fine analysis, showing us the very serious dangers that threaten us today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: orbital on April 16, 2009, 01:06:11 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 15, 2009, 01:10:50 AM
I finished it in two days and have re-read it about six or seven times.  :D
:D I should revisit it sometime myself.

I can't give The Glass Bead Game its due concentration these days  :-\ I can only devote 15-20 mins a day to reading and I think this book deserves better than that. I think I'll stop now and look out for a more suitable time to restart.

In the meantime, I will dip in and out of Woody Allen's Complete Prose.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 16, 2009, 04:32:13 AM
Quote from: val on April 15, 2009, 11:27:06 PM
"COLLAPSE", Jared Diamond

The most interesting book I have read in the last year. It is a study about the collapse of several ancient civilizations and also modern regions, such as the state of Montana in the USA or Australia, and the reasons of those collapses.
The book is very detailed and with fine analysis, showing us the very serious dangers that threaten us today.
Montana has collapsed?  Big news indeed!  (There's that word again.)  Australia, too?  No wonder we haven't heard from Rob for awhile!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 16, 2009, 06:41:56 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 16, 2009, 04:32:13 AM
Montana has collapsed?  Big news indeed!  (There's that word again.)  Australia, too?  No wonder we haven't heard from Rob for awhile!

:D :D :D

Excellent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nut-job on April 16, 2009, 02:39:54 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 16, 2009, 04:32:13 AM
Montana has collapsed?

When you think of it, what have they produced since the Unabomber?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on April 16, 2009, 03:05:10 PM
Quote from: val on April 15, 2009, 11:27:06 PM
"COLLAPSE", Jared Diamond

The most interesting book I have read in the last year. It is a study about the collapse of several ancient civilizations and also modern regions, such as the state of Montana in the USA or Australia, and the reasons of those collapses.
The book is very detailed and with fine analysis, showing us the very serious dangers that threaten us today.

I have that on my shelf. Have done for about two years now. I really should read it. Hopefully society will not collapse before I do [read the book, not collapse]...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on April 16, 2009, 03:07:24 PM
Quote from: Benji on April 16, 2009, 03:05:10 PM
I have that on my shelf. Have done for about two years now. I really should read it. Hopefully society will not collapse before I do [read the book, not collapse]...

I read the first 160 pages or so.  Fascinating reading, but stopped for some reason.  Now I would love to go back and finish the whole thing, but fiction keeps a callin'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on April 16, 2009, 03:08:45 PM
Instead i've been indulging in sci-fi recently... Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 (Bonobo Snuff Box is up next), Carl Sagan's Contact, PKD's Minority Report (vol.4 of collected short stories).

Currently, Bertrand Russell's Conquest of Happiness, which is still very useful to me despite showing its age.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on April 16, 2009, 03:13:35 PM
Quote from: Bu on April 16, 2009, 03:07:24 PM
I read the first 160 pages or so.  Fascinating reading, but stopped for some reason.  Now I would love to go back and finish the whole thing, but fiction keeps a callin'.

I am guilty of that too, most often when it comes to popular science books. Not that I have any difficult, coming from a scientific background, but when i'm reading I like my imagination to be set free and limitless, which is why I find it all to easy to put the pop-sci on hold and indulge in some sci-fi.

A quick scan of my shelves shows I am approximately half way through:

The God Delusion
The Selfish Gene
How the Mind Works
The Stuff of Thought
and...
The Happiness Hypothesis

Nobody tell me how they end!  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on April 16, 2009, 03:16:56 PM
I also read White Fang and Call of the Wild last week and loved both stories, even though the ending of White Fang is a bit naff really. I'm just waiting for my copy of London's Northland Stories to arrive in the post and I will, no doubt, devour that volume rapidly as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 16, 2009, 03:44:51 PM
Quote from: nut-job on April 16, 2009, 02:39:54 PM
When you think of it, what have they produced since the Unabomber?

Nah--he was a product of Chicago, Harvard, Michigan, and Cal.  Didn't they give us Joe & Hannah?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on April 16, 2009, 07:11:36 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 16, 2009, 04:32:13 AM
Montana has collapsed?  Big news indeed!  (There's that word again.)  Australia, too?  No wonder we haven't heard from Rob for awhile!

Diamond never made a claim about Montana collapsing.  Googling "Jared Diamond Montana" should give you a good idea of what he has to say on the subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 16, 2009, 07:14:41 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 16, 2009, 04:32:13 AM
Montana has collapsed? 

Yes, it was soil erosion from overplanting dental floss
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on April 17, 2009, 01:28:09 AM
QuoteDavidRoss
Montana has collapsed?  Big news indeed!  (There's that word again.)  Australia, too? 

Montana was one of the healthiest states of the USA. Now it is one of the two most poor, depending on more than 50% on federal support. Regarding Australia, the ecological problems regarding deflorestation, quality of the waters, desertification, have reached perhaps a point of no return.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Joe_Campbell on April 19, 2009, 10:57:10 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WcmV1%2BDxL._SL500_AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Alkan-Man-Music-Ronald-Smith/dp/1871082730/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240210471&sr=8-1)
(Roll over for amazon link)

I haven't started just yet, but I waited over 6 months for this, so I hope it's good!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 20, 2009, 01:47:25 PM
Quote from: val on April 17, 2009, 01:28:09 AM
Montana was one of the healthiest states of the USA. Now it is one of the two most poor, depending on more than 50% on federal support.
How do you figure this?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on April 22, 2009, 06:46:01 AM
 :D I had to post what I was reading when I came across this in the book:

'Oh?' said Lord Emsworth. 'Ah? Tea, eh? Tea? Yes. Tea. Quite so. To be sure, tea. Capital.'

An extract from Summer Lightning -- A Blandings Novel -- by P.G. Wodehouse.




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on April 23, 2009, 01:55:13 PM
An audiobook of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason." (on chapter 4) I hardly understand any of this, so I need to do some research of the terms, and probably need to read other books before I continue with this one.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 23, 2009, 11:47:01 PM
Quote from: Bahamut on April 23, 2009, 01:55:13 PM
An audiobook of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason.

You should have post this in the "What are you listening to?" thread.  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on April 24, 2009, 12:01:14 AM
Quote from: Bahamut on April 23, 2009, 01:55:13 PM
An audiobook of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason." (on chapter 4) I hardly understand any of this, so I need to do some research of the terms, and probably need to read other books before I continue with this one.  :-\

:o :o

Handbrake. Reverse into "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals". Go on from there.

(Preferably with actual, written book: especially those footnotes are killers!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on April 24, 2009, 11:50:49 AM
Quote from: Renfield on April 24, 2009, 12:01:14 AM
:o :o

Handbrake. Reverse into "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals". Go on from there.

(Preferably with actual, written book: especially those footnotes are killers!)
I predicted that heart attack!  ;D

Well, today in class, I had open that audio book and the wiki page for Kant. This older guy, probably in his 60s, with an accent I'm not sure of (Jamaican? i'm bad with accents) comes into class sometimes since his program is a little different- but, he was sitting behind me and he saw what I was looking at and started talking to me about it. I told him I'm just starting to try to read some philosophy, and he said that I definitely shouldn't read Kant for now and that "he's the hardest to understand, and The Critique of Pure Reason is basically the hardest book to understand"- the way he was talking, it sounded like he's read everything. He recommended me to start with many others, just to save Kant for later- read Hegel, Hobbs, (some other guy), and the Greeks (Plato, Socrates, etc.) and some Marx.

Now I realize how funny it is to have that 27 hour audio book on!  ;D

So, "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals" is only 78 pages? Well, when I do decide to read Kant, that sounds like something good to start with!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on April 24, 2009, 01:59:26 PM
Musicophilia:Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks

Amazon description:   Legendary R&B icon Ray Charles claimed that he was "born with music inside me," and neurologist Oliver Sacks believes Ray may have been right. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain examines the extreme effects of music on the human brain and how lives can be utterly transformed by the simplest of harmonies. With clinical studies covering the tragic (individuals afflicted by an inability to connect with any melody) and triumphant (Alzheimer's patients who find order and comfort through music), Sacks provides an erudite look at the notion that humans are truly a "musical species." 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on April 24, 2009, 04:34:48 PM
Quote from: Bahamut on April 24, 2009, 11:50:49 AM
So, "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals" is only 78 pages? Well, when I do decide to read Kant, that sounds like something good to start with!  :D

Well, the author himself wrote it as an introduction to his later thought (and published it first; and with that title), so you can't go wrong. 8)


As for reading a cartload of philosophers before Kant: Kant is very demanding.

However, I wouldn't read philosophers after his time as preparation. As long as you have a firm grasp of what it is he's concerned with at all (viz. 'pure reason', for instance, and what that's all about - and for this you need Descartes and Hume, and for them you need Aristotle; and for both them and Kant's own thought, you absolutely need Plato), the rest of it is sheer reading skill: you need to be able to penetrate the text, and see the framework of his ideas, or you're never going to get anywhere near his (very many) points, and it will look like verbose nonsense.

That, I'd say, is why so many people find his writing hard to read; they're doing it wrong. ;) You do not need a PhD in the history of Western philosophy to read Kant. You (or anyone) might need (more than) a lifetime to understand him (fully). But no books are going to help with that!


P.S.: Re "Kant is demanding", let me clarify that by 'demanding' I do not mean 'obtuse'. I mean demanding, as in 'makes you use your brain'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 24, 2009, 04:44:36 PM
William T Vollmann: Fathers & Crows, so far one of his best efforts

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/book-review--scalpers-from-sheffield-fathers-and-crows--william-t-vollmann-andre-deutsch-1799-pounds-1559267.html (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/book-review--scalpers-from-sheffield-fathers-and-crows--william-t-vollmann-andre-deutsch-1799-pounds-1559267.html)
QuoteTHERE ARE no noble savages in Fathers and Crows. The second part of Seven Dreams, William Vollmann's 'symbolic history' of North America, may be set in an early 17th-century arcadia, but the Huron and Iroquois who live there are noted for cruelty rather than nobility. They take pleasure in subjecting their captured foes to prolonged and appalling torture before eating them.

However, these are not the demonised Indians of the 19th-century dime novels. Although it is little comfort to the victims, the cruelty and cannibalism has a religious motive. The Indians are warlike, it is true, but they are also doting parents who never strike their children. In other words, they are exactly the kind of characters Vollmann likes, at once victimisers and victims.

Fathers and Crows is the story of the Jesuit Black Gowns who come to save the souls of the Huron Indians. They bring with them epidemics and the destruction of the Huron at the hands of the Iroquois, the Huron's mortal enemies. It is a dark story, dealt with some years ago by Brian Moore in his lean, tense novel, Black Robe, which focused on the experiences of a single Jesuit.

Like Moore, Vollmann has done prodigious research in, among other sources, the 73 volumes of The Jesuit Relations, the collection of letters sent back by Jesuit missionaries from America to their superiors in France.

However, Vollmann has chosen to make his canvas much broader. He is, in essence, writing his own volume of the Jesuit Revelations, but in his own way. In a 900-page narrative, it is 470 pages before Father Jean de Brebeuf, ostensibly his main protagonist, makes an appearance.

Until de Brebeuf's appearance, the main character is Robert Champlain, map-maker and first Governor of Quebec. Champlain comes to Canada looking for a route to China and the gold and silver mines he expects to find there. He is the nearest thing to a heroic figure because, sneered at by his compatriots, he maintains through obstinacy and courage his position with the Indians, who both ridicule and admire him.

Bathetically, he has come in search of China and stays to establish a trade in beaver tails. The tails were used to make felt hats for European gentlemen. It was a trade of considerable importance to France until the middle of the 18th century, when felt hats were superseded by top hats made from Oriental silk.

By then, the Indians who had survived the coming of the Europeans were dependent on European goods for survival. Champlain traded iron hatchets and cooking pots with the - essentially Stone Age - Indians. By the 1820s, when James Fenimore Cooper was writing about the same tribes in The Last of The Mohicans, North American Indians were using scalping knives from Sheffield, blankets from the Cotswolds, calicoes from Marseilles, steel traps from Manchester, clay pipes from Hanover and muskets from London and Liege.

The uneasy co-existence of the French and Indian cultures in Vollmann's book is based on a fundamental and ultimately fatal misunderstanding. The Indians regard their French 'nephews' as guests they have invited to stay. The French think the Indians have accepted the rule of the crown.

Fathers and Crows is a brilliant work, but not at first an easy read. Vollmann writes as a chronicler, jokingly called William the Blind, and he is in no hurry. The book starts with a historical note which turns into an erotic enconium to the Iroquois saint, Catherine Tekakwitha (who inspired a similar panegyric from Leonard Cohen, Canadian poet and purveyor of musical gloom, in his novel Beautiful Losers).

Thereafter, Vollmann's narrative, written in very short sections, goes off at tangents and jumps backwards and forwards in time. The Spiritual Exercises of Loyola provide a perverse structure for the efforts of the French to explore the Saint Laurent waterway - which becomes, in a complex metaphor, the Stream of Time. He refers to the same Indian nations by many different names (the Iroquois have seven), justifying this in a droll footnote by saying that all the spellings are in the primary sources and he does not wish to be totalitarian.

Characters who seem central to the narrative often abruptly disappear. The fate of Champlain's adopted Indian daughters, left at the mercy of a lustful English captain when the British force the French to quit Quebec, is settled in a terse footnote.

Despite this playful post-modern disregard for narrative conventions, Fathers and Crows is gripping. In a note at the end, Vollmann explains: 'My aim in Seven Dreams has been to create a Symbolic History - that is to say an account of origins and metamorphoses which is often untrue, based on the literal facts as we know them, but whose untruths further a deeper sense of truth.' His narrative occasionally invokes a magical realism, accepting the fantastical without explanation. By writing myth as history - and history as myth - he sidesteps the major problem of historical novels: establishing the consciousness of a period different to our own.

Vollmann encountered great difficulties on both sides of the Atlantic getting this book published, presumably because he is regarded as uncommercial and the book is inordinately long. All credit, then, to Andre Deutsch, for printing it without cuts. For it is an astonishing work - powerful, witty and imaginative. On its own it is impressive enough. As part of Seven Dreams, it raises hopes that Vollmann's ambitious enterprise will prove itself to be one of the major accomplishments of late 20th-century literature.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on April 24, 2009, 05:49:17 PM
(http://www.campusbookstore.com/image.aspx?isbn=9780393979916&size=Large)

Had this on loan from the library for the past month.

It's quite an excellent overview  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 24, 2009, 06:07:34 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on April 24, 2009, 05:49:17 PM
(http://www.campusbookstore.com/image.aspx?isbn=9780393979916&size=Large)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xuLPEE%2BnL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Had this on loan from the library for the past month.

It's quite an excellent overview  :)

Hello Chris - I bought and am currently reading the 8th edition of this 'college' text - probably my third purchase of this book (two of the authors listed are now deceased!) - enjoying the read, and like the format change (as is typical of more modern texts) - there are a lot of scores reproduced which I cannot appreciate (just not my field or strength); a musical anthology would be helpful, but one that I do not own - although if I 'search' my collection, I likely have much of the music discussed; as suggested, I would recommend a 'library borrowing' since the purchase price is rather steep for this publisher; but, a recommendation!  Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on April 24, 2009, 08:02:13 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 24, 2009, 04:44:36 PM
William T Vollmann: Fathers & Crows, so far one of his best efforts

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/book-review--scalpers-from-sheffield-fathers-and-crows--william-t-vollmann-andre-deutsch-1799-pounds-1559267.html (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/book-review--scalpers-from-sheffield-fathers-and-crows--william-t-vollmann-andre-deutsch-1799-pounds-1559267.html)


I don't know about "prodigious research" that ends up in misnaming Champlain. It's Samuel, not Robert (I mean, it's like naming Lincoln 'Jeremiah' instead of Abraham ::)).

Not to mention some plain bad spelling and syntax. But I guess that's The Independent's reviewer, not the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on April 24, 2009, 08:10:47 PM
Quote from: Bu on April 15, 2009, 01:29:50 PM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n12/n60463.jpg)

Like any Thompson novel or story I've read, disturbing, twisted, practically insane but one hell of a read--the kind of book you devour and somehow come to terms with at the end, despite the darkness.

Just starting:
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n30/n150052.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 24, 2009, 08:22:19 PM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on April 24, 2009, 08:02:13 PM
I don't know about "prodigious research" that ends up in misnaming Champlain. It's Samuel, not Robert (I mean, it's like naming Lincoln 'Jeremiah' instead of Abraham ::)).

Not to mention some plain bad spelling and syntax. But I guess that's The Independent's reviewer, not the book.

ha just saw that, yes its the reviewer's mistake
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 25, 2009, 01:58:08 PM
(https://www.e316.com/assets/product/fullimages/031/0310240573.jpg)

My second book from this author.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on April 26, 2009, 08:35:56 PM
Quote from: Renfield on April 24, 2009, 04:34:48 PM
Well, the author himself wrote it as an introduction to his later thought (and published it first; and with that title), so you can't go wrong. 8)


As for reading a cartload of philosophers before Kant: Kant is very demanding.

However, I wouldn't read philosophers after his time as preparation. As long as you have a firm grasp of what it is he's concerned with at all (viz. 'pure reason', for instance, and what that's all about - and for this you need Descartes and Hume, and for them you need Aristotle; and for both them and Kant's own thought, you absolutely need Plato), the rest of it is sheer reading skill: you need to be able to penetrate the text, and see the framework of his ideas, or you're never going to get anywhere near his (very many) points, and it will look like verbose nonsense.

That, I'd say, is why so many people find his writing hard to read; they're doing it wrong. ;) You do not need a PhD in the history of Western philosophy to read Kant. You (or anyone) might need (more than) a lifetime to understand him (fully). But no books are going to help with that!


P.S.: Re "Kant is demanding", let me clarify that by 'demanding' I do not mean 'obtuse'. I mean demanding, as in 'makes you use your brain'.
Ah, good to know...  ;D
(and a nice, detailed explanation, btw)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on April 27, 2009, 03:50:52 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on April 24, 2009, 06:07:34 PM
Hello Chris - I bought and am currently reading the 8th edition of this 'college' text - probably my third purchase of this book (two of the authors listed are now deceased!) - enjoying the read, and like the format change (as is typical of more modern texts) - there are a lot of scores reproduced which I cannot appreciate (just not my field or strength); a musical anthology would be helpful, but one that I do not own - although if I 'search' my collection, I likely have much of the music discussed; as suggested, I would recommend a 'library borrowing' since the purchase price is rather steep for this publisher; but, a recommendation!  Dave  :)

Hi Dave: I haven't seen that newer edition but I do like the layout in the version I have so I'd been interested to see the improved new version. Yes, although I'm familiar with alot of the information on some of my favourite composers, there's still some great stories and the 'source boxes' have some worthwhile info.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on April 28, 2009, 09:25:39 AM
Just finished The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Shattered my belief in Indian democracy, it did.

It is any good, yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on April 28, 2009, 12:12:26 PM
Quote from: Valentino on April 28, 2009, 09:25:39 AM
Just finished The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Shattered my belief in Indian democracy, it did.

It is any good, yes.

But not Booker-prize-winning good, IMHO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on April 28, 2009, 12:14:34 PM
Hardcore crime fiction readers already know this guy is good.

(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n50/n252456.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on April 28, 2009, 12:33:28 PM
Quote from: opus67 on April 28, 2009, 12:12:26 PM
But not Booker-prize-winning good, IMHO.
Maybe not. I couldn't say.

I've just started another Anna Gavalda novel, her first actually: Je l'aimais (Someone I Loved), or Eg elska ho in Norwegian. I don't understand much French, regrettably. My vocabulary is restricted to pneu, derallieur, peloton, pavé...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on April 28, 2009, 11:48:06 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41bSVwrqjYL._SS500_.jpg)

Started it last week. Well written ! But will take some time ...

(http://www.lcdpu.fr/Resources/Titles/27000100661870/Images/27000100661870S.gif)

Ida Rubinstein
Quite fascinating ...a very rich woman, obsessed by Art...She was Saint Sébastien, Jeanne d'Arc and danced Boléro for the first time.
Pascal Lécroart

Une utopie de la synthèse des arts à l'épreuve de la scène

Annales littéraires de l'université de Franche-Comté n° 832

Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Josquin des Prez on April 29, 2009, 11:04:58 AM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on April 24, 2009, 05:49:17 PM
It's quite an excellent overview  :)

Yeah, i particularly liked the political correctness. Seeing Barbara Strozzi being listed among the major composers was entertaining.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 01, 2009, 01:17:31 PM
Quote from: Valentino on April 28, 2009, 09:25:39 AM
Just finished The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Shattered my belief in Indian democracy, it did.

It is any good, yes.
One of my favorite books from last year. Like Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Catch-22, it had an emotional impact that just about punched me in the gut, and caught me completely by surprise. Moreover the narrative voice is superb. Really loved it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on May 01, 2009, 02:56:33 PM
Quote from: Harpo on April 24, 2009, 01:59:26 PM
Musicophilia:Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks

How does it read so far? I'd be interested in knowing your opinion once you're done with it, because I might want to buy it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 02, 2009, 05:50:52 PM
Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South (2008) by Patrick Huber - just getting started w/ this book from the University of North Carolina Press - a revisionist (although not novel) discussion of the origins of 'hillbilly' or 'country' music as known today - if interested, checkout the the summary and reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Linthead-Stomp-Creation-Country-Piedmont/dp/0807832251); since I live in this VERY area & enjoy country music, this should be a good read!  ;D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SdAHsvgZL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on May 03, 2009, 06:08:59 AM
Quote from: tanuki on May 01, 2009, 02:56:33 PM
How does it read so far? I'd be interested in knowing your opinion once you're done with it, because I might want to buy it.

I'll let you know. Unfortunately, I keep 3-4 books going at once. The others are about conscious eating and horseback riding. I'm also trying to get through several Teaching Company videos on religious studies. Eclectic and scattered. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on May 03, 2009, 06:20:34 AM
Quote from: pjme on April 28, 2009, 11:48:06 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41bSVwrqjYL._SS500_.jpg)

Started it last week. Well written ! But will take some time ...

Let us know your findings!  :) I bought the book immediately, but can't find time to read it ...  :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on May 04, 2009, 12:48:58 PM
(http://www.filmcatcher.com/uploads/img/product/factotum_l200608161552.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on May 05, 2009, 12:53:35 AM
Quote from: Bu on May 04, 2009, 12:48:58 PM
(http://www.filmcatcher.com/uploads/img/product/factotum_l200608161552.jpg)

:D

Not his best, but still...  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on May 05, 2009, 10:36:51 AM
Quote from: Renfield on May 05, 2009, 12:53:35 AM
:D

Not his best, but still...  8)

Maybe not his best one but I read the first 100 pages or so in a few hours and I think it a good novel so far.  Some great Bukowskian moments in Factotum, but I don't think I could quote or reference any quotes here without getting censored.................. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on May 05, 2009, 11:05:53 AM
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/covers/2007/04/19/MaestrosMasterpiecesandMadness.jpg)

Lebrecht: Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness.

He sure could tell a good story. This is  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 05, 2009, 11:08:17 AM
A short story collection by Tobias Wolff, Our Story Begins. The stories are all very good, but they're also all very depressing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 05, 2009, 11:19:36 AM
Bought History Play: The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe by Rodney Bolt anticipating that it will be good.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZK7E0AD3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Bought it remaindered, and at a discount, so that, if it is not much good, the sting will be minimal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 05, 2009, 12:52:45 PM
Scott Turow, The Laws of Our Fathers -- A "legal thriller" that transcends genre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Frumaster on May 06, 2009, 11:08:28 AM
Quote from: tanuki on May 01, 2009, 02:56:33 PM
How does it read so far? I'd be interested in knowing your opinion once you're done with it, because I might want to buy it.

It is a great read, I finished it a few months ago.  It focuses more on music's effects on people with special conditions rather than common people as do a number of other books related to music and the brain.  He tries to demonstrate the significance of music to humankind through some heartwrenching cases and anecdotes.  Very smoothe read.  I also highly recommend the audiobook version - the reader was excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on May 06, 2009, 11:54:39 AM
Got a pdf of Plato's Complete Works. It's 1800 pages long!  :o
I'm only on page 7, with a fun dialogue between Plashizzle and Euthypimp, so this one might take a while to get through.... but, at least I have the feeling I'm starting where I should.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on May 06, 2009, 01:57:47 PM
Quote from: Bahamut on May 06, 2009, 11:54:39 AM
Got a pdf of Plato's Complete Works. It's 1800 pages long!

Wait till you see the Ideal pdf, of which that one is a mere shadow.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on May 06, 2009, 02:03:55 PM
Jean Prouvé (Peters, Taschen)

The Building of Liverpool Cathedral (Kennerley) - am I that predictable? A remarkable treasure-trove of historic photographs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 06, 2009, 02:09:33 PM
Quote from: Lethe on May 06, 2009, 02:03:55 PM
Jean Prouvé (Peters, Taschen)

The Building of Liverpool Cathedral (Kennerley) - am I that predictable? A remarkable treasure-trove of historic photographs.

Interesting. I was in Liverpool in 1987 to attend a Brian concert with the RLPO and Sir Charles Mackerras. In the afternoon my friends and I visited the cathedral. Very futuristic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on May 06, 2009, 02:23:29 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 06, 2009, 02:09:33 PM
Interesting. I was in Liverpool in 1987 to attend a Brian concert with the RLPO and Sir Charles Mackerras. In the afternoon my friends and I visited the cathedral. Very futuristic.

A fine reason for a visit ;D I didn't like the place at first, until I got an impression of the ambition and sheer size of the thing. It is indeed deceptively modern (especially from the exterior) and its importance is underlined when it is compared to another similarly scaled neo-gothic cathedral in Truro, which is a monstrosity (on intellectual grounds), really... It must rank as one of the most important gothic revival buildings in that regard, due to it not copying or pandering to anything, but also wholeheartedly embracing the spirit of the revival rather than allowing its gothic features and spirit to become superficial (as at Guildford - which really does look like a power station - perhaps ironic that Liverpool's architect, who also designed Battersea Power Station, was able to do such a fine job).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 06, 2009, 02:39:20 PM
Quote from: Lethe on May 06, 2009, 02:23:29 PM
A fine reason for a visit ;D I didn't like the place at first, until I got an impression of the ambition and sheer size of the thing. It is indeed deceptively modern (especially from the exterior) and its importance is underlined when it is compared to another similarly scaled neo-gothic cathedral in Truro, which is a monstrosity (on intellectual grounds), really... It must rank as one of the most important gothic revival buildings in that regard, due to it not copying or pandering to anything, but also wholeheartedly embracing the spirit of the revival rather than allowing its gothic features and spirit to become superficial (as at Guildford - which really does look like a power station - perhaps ironic that Liverpool's architect, who also designed Battersea Power Station, was able to do such a fine job).

I see what you mean. I just looked at some pictures and I find it slightly menacing....

(http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/truro-gb331.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on May 06, 2009, 03:02:16 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 06, 2009, 02:39:20 PM
I see what you mean. I just looked at some pictures and I find it slightly menacing....

Hehe! Because your embedded picture did not show at first, I assumed you were speaking of Liverpool's one :P Here was what I typed to that, until I noticed the url in your quote: Yeah, little looms as impressively as it does. The problem is not just the site, but also that the town council misguidedly demolished a lot of housing surrounding it rather than renovating them - they gave its scale some context, which on that bare hill is much needed, both to humanise it, and to give it a sense of proportion. While it's a massive construct, with that context removed, it could be any size, and from some photographed angles almost looks toy-like.

Regarding Truro, the main feeling I get from seeing it is what a horrible waste of beautiful stone and money - daft in every respect, which given its location is an even bigger shame. Its setting resembles the way the great French cathedrals are situated, only in this instance, this unusual location (for this country) it is simply highlighting English style architecture at its worst, formally "correct" but somehow with nothing done well :'( The angle you link it from is one of the few fine ones (the front being particularly terrible). From the side it looks like Chartres, but with everything done wrong:

(http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/7787/94784948.jpg) (http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=94784948.jpg)
(http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/3897/77824885.jpg) (http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=77824885.jpg)

It looks like it should be hammering out a distress signal in morse code, as it's listing badly. But now I am just whining :3 I am good at that!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 06, 2009, 03:18:38 PM
Quote from: Lethe on May 06, 2009, 03:02:16 PM
It looks like it should be hammering out a distress signal in morse code, as it's listing badly. But now I am just whining :3 I am good at that!

Your whining is very entertaining. Yes, you really have got talent.  ;)

Thanks for all the info!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 06, 2009, 06:35:22 PM
Recently finished:

The Third Reich at War.  Suprisingly, this really did have much that was new to me about this much written about period of history.  Richard Evans is an excellent writer.

The Algebraist.  A fun Iain M. Banks romp.

Working my way through:

Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days, stories from Alastair Reynolds's "Revelation Space" universe.

Started on:

The Meaning of Quantum Theory: A Guide for Students of Chemistry and Physics by Jim Baggot.  Covers some of the philosophical issues and different interpretations of QM.  Looking forward to the meatier parts of the book.

Need to get back to:

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild.  Picked this up for airplane reading but got distracted after getting home.   This book also makes me want to read some Conrad.

As usual, I have a huge backlog of books to read, technical, fiction, and popular non-fiction.  I really should spend less time online.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on May 06, 2009, 06:57:00 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on May 06, 2009, 01:57:47 PM
Wait till you see the Ideal pdf, of which that one is a mere shadow.

Thanks for that: I needed the laugh! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 06, 2009, 11:40:15 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on May 06, 2009, 01:57:47 PM
Wait till you see the Ideal pdf, of which that one is a mere shadow.

Quote from: Renfield on May 06, 2009, 06:57:00 PM
Thanks for that: I needed the laugh! ;D

Yes, good joke! [I like your avatar, Elgarian - the Violin Concerto]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on May 07, 2009, 05:11:21 AM
Quote from: Renfield on May 06, 2009, 06:57:00 PM
I needed the laugh!

Heck, we all need those.

(There are some people, you know, who insist that the pdfs we read on our computers are the only pdfs there are, and that there is no ultimate pdf reality beyond those. Hard to believe, eh?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on May 07, 2009, 05:12:55 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on May 06, 2009, 11:40:15 PM
I like your avatar, Elgarian - the Violin Concerto

That's impressive. I have to admit that if someone else had been wandering around with a similar windflowery avatar, I doubt I'd have spotted it myself!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 07, 2009, 05:24:03 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on May 07, 2009, 05:11:21 AM
(There are some people, you know, who insist that the pdfs we read on our computers are the only pdfs there are, and that there is no ultimate pdf reality beyond those. Hard to believe, eh?)
And thank you for the chuckle.

I've often pointed out that the claim you describe implies omniscience and thus is irrational--but this obvious argument has proved too subtle for our resident rocket scientists who insist there are no pdfs but the pdfs they personally have fondled. ;)

Good to have you around.  Think I'll pop some Elgar into the CD tray this morning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on May 07, 2009, 10:52:30 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n45/n227185.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on May 07, 2009, 01:32:50 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 07, 2009, 05:24:03 AM... rocket scientists who insist there are no pdfs but the pdfs they personally have fondled.

I know, I know. The current trend seems to be to suppose that pdf development arises from small random changes that occur during the pdf copying process, and that only the fittest of these new pdfs survive. Which might be worth thinking about, except for the fact that an awful lot of the pdfs I've encountered don't seem fit for very much at all.

QuoteThink I'll pop some Elgar into the CD tray this morning.

Aha! My plan for Elgarian world domination is working! Maybe you'll tell us what you played?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on May 11, 2009, 12:10:11 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cqccfpOWL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on May 12, 2009, 01:56:08 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on May 07, 2009, 01:32:50 PM
I know, I know. The current trend seems to be to suppose that pdf development arises from small random changes that occur during the pdf copying process, and that only the fittest of these new pdfs survive. Which might be worth thinking about, except for the fact that an awful lot of the pdfs I've encountered don't seem fit for very much at all.

And I'll play Elgar over that one. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 12, 2009, 05:44:21 AM
what are you currently reading?

The Apollonian Clockwork

is it any good?

Jury's still out.  It's a peculiar read, I'm finding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 12, 2009, 07:20:41 AM
I am currently reading Madame Bovary. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 12, 2009, 07:47:33 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ETtw52umL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Good overview of the last 30 years of experimental economics, its ties to Hayek and Smith and what aspects of the neoclassical model can be tested under controlled experiments.  Smith outlines the primacy of what he terms ecological rationality -

QuoteWe have become accustomed to the idea that a natural system like the human
body or an ecosystem regulates itself. To explain the regulation, we look
for feedback loops rather than a central planning and directing body. But
somehow our intuitions about self-regulation do not carry over `to the artificial systems of human society.
(Thus)...the...disbelief always expressed by
(my) architecture students (about)...medieval cities as marvelously patterned
systems that had mostly just "grown" in response to myriads of individual decisions.
To my students a pattern implied a planner... The idea that a city
could acquire its pattern as "naturally" as a snowflake was foreign to them.

Historically, a recurrent theme in economics is that the values to which
people respond are not confined to those one would expect based on the
narrowly defined canons of rationality. These roots go back to Adam Smith
(1759, 1776) who examined the moral sympathies that characterize natural
human sociality.3 Contrary to vulgar impressions, in Smith's view, each individual
defined and pursued his own interest in his own way, and individuals
were mischaracterized by the metaphor, 'economic man.' (Cf Hayek, 1991, p
120). This careless scholarship fails to recognize the key proposition articulated
by the Scottish philosophers: to do good for others, does not require deliberate
action to further the perceived interest of others. As Mandeville so
succinctly put it, "The worst of all the multitude did something for the common
good." (See Mandeville's poem, 'The Grumbling Hive' or 'Knaves
Turned Honest,' 1705; quoted in Hayek, 1991, p 82). Many contemporary
scholars, and not only popular writers, have reversed Mandeville's proposition,
and argued that the standard socio-economic science model (SSSM) requires,
justifies and promotes selfish behavior.4 On the contrary, because enforceable
rights can never cover every margin of decision, opportunism in all
relational contracting and exchange across time are costs, not benefits, in
achieving long-term value from trade; an ideology of honesty 5 means that
people play the game of 'trade,' rather than 'steal,' although crime may often
pay the rational lawbreaker who always chooses dominant strategies. Nor does
non-selfish behavior in ordinary market transactions prevent those transactions
from promoting specialization and creating wealth.
(H. Simon, 1981/1996, p 33).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on May 12, 2009, 11:13:18 AM
Quote from: Bu on May 11, 2009, 12:10:11 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cqccfpOWL.jpg)
Great stuff!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 12, 2009, 11:44:27 AM
The Dumpsters?  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on May 12, 2009, 12:26:58 PM
Plutarch's Lives.  I bought it almost 20 years ago, I figure it's about time I actually read the thing.  I've been reading a lot of 1775-1825 US history, and am always impressed at how deeply immersed Jefferson, Adams, et al were in the classics.  Imagine today a US President who comfortably reads Homer and Thucydides in the original Greek!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on May 12, 2009, 04:29:41 PM
Just finished reading "Auferstehung der Toten" by Wolf Haas. He writes in a very particular way. He uses Austrian German (not a dialect, just a peculiar Hochdeutsch) and a very informal tone. I ended up enjoying the language more than the story, but it was OK.

(http://i40.tinypic.com/5d6j4y.jpg)

Now I'm starting two new books.

1) "Lecciones preliminares de filosofía" by Manuel García Morente. Some kind of philosophy primer. It's not a textbook, by the way. I know squat about philosophy so I figured that starting this way was better than trying to read some philosopher's work right off the bat.

2) "Drei Männer im Schnee" by Erich Kästner. I'll read this one when I'm not in the mood of reading philosophy.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on May 15, 2009, 01:25:32 AM
JOHN MAYNARD SMITH / EÖRS SZATHMARY:       The Origins of Life

I enjoyed reading this book. Maynard Smith was one of the great biologists of his time. Although not new, his explanation about the evolutionary advantages of sex his very detailed and elucidative.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 15, 2009, 07:24:39 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 12, 2009, 07:20:41 AM
I am currently reading Madame Bovary. :)
A "HIP romantic" novel, for there is a serpent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_(instrument)) player in it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on May 15, 2009, 07:34:56 AM
The Stuart Age (A. F. Scott)

This is such a good book - I'll have to hunt down others in the out of print series. It is essentially a collection of contemporary accounts of various subjects, organised by category. It includes the fascination of an Englishman visiting Italy, to find that they are the 'only in Christendom' who insist on using things called forks, due to a distaste for dirty hands. Another is a pedantically accurate account of a duel from the POV of a participent who himself comes out quite mangled, although the 'victor'.

Edit: actually, scratch the idea of trying to buy more. The only vaguely affordable ones are tatty ex-library hardbacks. Damn you book publishers, damn you! $:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on May 15, 2009, 07:46:16 AM
Photo and Quotes to follow later...but...
I was sent this fabulous translation of the Tao Te Ching by Jeffrey.  Is it any good?  Well, to praphrase the translator:

"Tao is not a way that can be pointed out.
Nor an idea that can be defined."

I think it's a great, easy, uplifting translation, but in fact, it neither is or isn't.  Or is it? :o ???  lol
It's great!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on May 15, 2009, 03:19:20 PM
(http://clics.ucsd.edu/newbooks/covers/deconstucting_sammy.jpg)

Wonderful entertainer. Tragic live. Depressing, but interesting read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 15, 2009, 03:26:34 PM
Quote from: John on May 15, 2009, 07:46:16 AM
Photo and Quotes to follow later...but...
I was sent this fabulous translation of the Tao Te Ching by Jeffrey.  Is it any good?  Well, to praphrase the translator:

"Tao is not a way that can be pointed out.
Nor an idea that can be defined."

I think it's a great, easy, uplifting translation, but in fact, it neither is or isn't.  Or is it? :o ???  lol
It's great!!
Based on that passage, not really a translation but sort of an explication.  One of the world's great books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on May 16, 2009, 05:14:16 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 15, 2009, 03:26:34 PM
Based on that passage, not really a translation but sort of an explication.

Yes.  It is a synthesis of many Tao translations out there and it does the job tremendously well.  Intead of a Tao translation lecturing from a mountaintop, this one sees fit to replace ones conscience instead.
Recommended not for high-brow analysis, but for accessing the simplicity of the Tao.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on May 16, 2009, 05:19:31 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZHH44VFZL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 16, 2009, 07:30:12 AM
Quote from: John on May 16, 2009, 05:14:16 AM
Yes.  It is a synthesis of many Tao translations out there and it does the job tremendously well.  Intead of a Tao translation lecturing from a mountaintop, this one sees fit to replace ones conscience instead.
Recommended not for high-brow analysis, but for accessing the simplicity of the Tao.
What job is that?

Here is a reasonably accurate translation of what's usually positioned as the "first chapter" of the Tao Te Ching, taken from the Han dynasty scrolls discovered at Ma Wang Tui in 1973:
   
The ways that can be explained
Are not the everlasting Way.
The names that can be named
Are not the everlasting Name.
Nameless is the source of all creation;
Naming gives birth to the 10,000 things.
Therefore, always be without desire
And thus observe the subtle;
Constantly have desire
And thus observe what wails.
These two emerge united, with different names.
This unity is called the darkest mystery,
The gateway of all that is subtle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DFO on May 17, 2009, 07:33:34 AM
David Kohon's "The Codebrakers". The Bible on this fascinating (to me)
Subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on May 17, 2009, 09:09:42 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 16, 2009, 07:30:12 AM
What job is that?

It has no job to do, but it does it very well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on May 17, 2009, 06:22:11 PM
Just finished.
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/04/fd/df17a2c008a0874d71709010.L._AA240_.jpg)
Horror. Very good.

Now...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ENkOXm2oL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on May 18, 2009, 01:19:12 PM
(http://www.libraryjournal.com/articles/blog/770000077/20080111/brontes.jpg)

This much respected, scholarly, long OOP book just landed on my doorstep. Very excited to start reading this.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 18, 2009, 06:38:01 PM
Yo, Sarge:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/books/review/Barcott-t.html?_r=1&ref=books

Yo, Dave ;D:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/weekinreview/22schuessler.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 18, 2009, 07:32:19 PM
Re. your second link--on CMG a couple of months ago someone posted an item about a similar project on film instead of in print, though instead of zombies invading Austen's England, it might be aliens. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 18, 2009, 07:35:53 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 18, 2009, 07:32:19 PM
Re. your second link--on CMG a couple of months ago someone posted an item about a similar project on film instead of in print, though instead of zombies invading Austen's England, it might be aliens. 

As you know David, my wife and I love Austen's works.  When I showed her this we both had a good laugh.  I have to say that I am a bit "morbidly" curious.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 19, 2009, 04:09:14 AM
Quote from: Bogey on May 18, 2009, 07:35:53 PM
As you know David, my wife and I love Austen's works.  When I showed her this we both had a good laugh.  I have to say that I am a bit "morbidly" curious.  ;)
Here we go:  The title is Pride and Predator (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/17/pride-and-predator-to-give-jane-austen-extreme-makeover) and Elton John is bankrolling it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on May 19, 2009, 12:01:33 PM
Read J.K. Huysmans's a rebours but didn't enjoy as much as I thought I would, considering I am something of a recluse like the novel's narrator (though the narrator's distate for society is magnified to a grotesque degree).

Currently a third of the way through Hesse's Magister Ludi and enjoying it immensely.

Also slowly turning through a book on Picasso (from Taschen, whose books are just awesome); hence my current avatar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 19, 2009, 12:08:03 PM
Nice to see you posting again, Corey.  Haven't read The Glass Bead Game in about 40 years--seems to me I liked it best of the Hesse books I read.  Maybe it's time to do it again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on May 20, 2009, 10:18:57 AM
Quote from: rockerreds on May 12, 2009, 11:13:18 AM
Great stuff!

Indeed; MacDonald was a master of the mystery genre, while being descriptively poetic and refined, à la Chandler.  

Now:

Jim Thompson, The Getaway:
(http://i.biblio.com/z/501/732/9780679732501.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on May 20, 2009, 03:24:55 PM
Those who like crime novels might want to check out this forum.

http://thebigadios.yuku.com/

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on May 20, 2009, 05:36:18 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513s6-aHZQL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on May 21, 2009, 04:25:18 PM
Proust's In Search of Lost Time
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 21, 2009, 05:29:31 PM
Return to The Sot-Weed Factor (http://henningmusick.blogspot.com/2009/05/and-back-to-weed.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 21, 2009, 06:50:40 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 21, 2009, 05:29:31 PM
Return to The Sot-Weed Factor (http://henningmusick.blogspot.com/2009/05/and-back-to-weed.html)

Having just read Argall and Mason & Dixon a few years ago, I suppose I go for the complete set of olde English modernist novels
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: istanbul on May 22, 2009, 05:55:20 AM
Baruch Spinoza,
Correspondences with Blyenberg.
(Evil letters)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on May 22, 2009, 06:30:08 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YVN7PTQVL._SL500_AA240_.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZE3SD7DQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-big,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
                                                       (Thomas More - Utopia)

The latter was a purchase under duress - I had some time to blow in town, so browsed a book shop, and noticed the staff occasionally looking in my direction. I then realised that I was carrying a plastic bag full of books, which I intended to donate to a charity shop on my way home. Even worse, I was prudent enough to look after them so that they appeared in new condition, and were by an author I had been browing on the shelves. Simply put, if I tried to walk out without buying something, I could've had a lot of difficult explaining to do, so I bought the hideously overpriced Penguin book. £7 for 100 pages? Shame I don't like Dickens...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 24, 2009, 07:00:38 PM
Two books:

The Faith of a Heretic by Walter Kaufmann. A masterpiece: reading slowly to savor it.
The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. Fascinating book on neuroplasticity (and how our brains can adapt and alter their own structures): reading quickly to get back to Kaufmann (and because of a very easy writing style).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on May 24, 2009, 08:17:58 PM
I'm starting the Republic!  8)
Finished the Apology this week....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on May 25, 2009, 08:55:03 AM
Quote from: John on May 15, 2009, 07:46:16 AM
The Tao Te Ching is a constant support.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 25, 2009, 09:28:06 AM
When the Way prevails under the heavens,
Farm horses spread manure in the fields.
When the Way is missing from the world,
War horses breed in the wastelands.

No sin is worse than encouraging desire,
No misfortune greater than discontent,
No fault more grievous than covetousness.

Hence, know that enough is enough
And there will always be enough.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: hildegard on May 25, 2009, 09:45:05 AM
                       46

When a country is in harmony with the Tao,
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.

There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.

Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.

"If I haven't always traslated Lao-tzu's words, my intention has always been to translate his mind."
                                                                                                            Stephen Mitchell
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on May 25, 2009, 10:09:39 AM
46

In a country where Tao is understood, there are carthorses.
In a country where Tao is ignored, there are warhorses.

The gratest mistake is to be ruled by desire.
The greatest curse is to be discontent.

Getting what you want may be the greatest misfortune.
Appreciate what you have and you will always have enough.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 25, 2009, 10:29:15 AM
Quote from: hildegard on May 25, 2009, 09:45:05 AM
"If I haven't always traslated Lao-tzu's words, my intention has always been to translate his mind."
                                                                                                            Stephen Mitchell
I rather like much of what Mitchell has done, and have recommended his lovely book at times and even given it as a gift on a couple of occasions.  It is far from a translation, however, and it a bit corrupted by Zen ideas.  My translation was made from copies of the oldest extant texts, the Han dynasty scrolls found at Ma Wang Tui, which predate the common received text by hundreds of years and presumably are less subject to intentional interpolations and copyists' errors.  The challenge is not only to make a closely accurate word-for-word translation that preserves the poetry as near as possible, but that also preserves the meaning or range of meanings current in classical Chinese circa 500 BC. 

The quote from Mitchell above is good as far as it goes--but note that in order to translate Lao Tzu's mind, he must first understand it.  His take on "Chapter 46," presented above, shows just how far awry his understanding can be.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on May 25, 2009, 10:37:04 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 25, 2009, 10:29:15 AM
I rather like much of what Mitchell has done, and have recommended his lovely book at times and even given it as a gift on a couple of occasions.  It is far from a translation, however, and it a bit corrupted by Zen ideas.  My translation was made from copies of the oldest extant texts, the Han dynasty scrolls found at Ma Wang Tui, which predate the common received text by hundreds of years and presumably are less subject to intentional interpolations and copyists' errors.  The challenge is not only to make a closely accurate word-for-word translation that preserves the poetry as near as possible, but that also preserves the meaning or range of meanings current in classical Chinese circa 500 BC. 

I too like Mitchell.   ;)
I carried the complete Mitchell account around with me in my organiser for almost 11 years - I've recently replaced it with Timothy Freke's take on the Tao (thanks to Jeffrey) which gets to the Tao with fewer words. I could probably recite the Mitchell off the top of my head I've looked at it so many times.  ;D  Great.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: hildegard on May 25, 2009, 10:54:13 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 25, 2009, 10:29:15 AM
I rather like much of what Mitchell has done, and have recommended his lovely book at times and even given it as a gift on a couple of occasions.  It is far from a translation, however, and it a bit corrupted by Zen ideas.  My translation was made from copies of the oldest extant texts, the Han dynasty scrolls found at Ma Wang Tui, which predate the common received text by hundreds of years and presumably are less subject to intentional interpolations and copyists' errors.  The challenge is not only to make a closely accurate word-for-word translation that preserves the poetry as near as possible, but that also preserves the meaning or range of meanings current in classical Chinese circa 500 BC. 

The quote from Mitchell above is good as far as it goes--but note that in order to translate Lao Tzu's mind, he must first understand it.  His take on "Chapter 46," presented above, shows just how far awry his understanding can be.

Quote from: John on May 25, 2009, 10:37:04 AM
I too like Mitchell.   ;)
I carried the complete Mitchell account around with me in my organiser for almost 11 years - I've recently replaced it with Timothy Freke's take on the Tao (thanks to Jeffrey) which gets to the Tao with fewer words. I could probably recite the Mitchell off the top of my head I've looked at it so many times.  ;D  Great.

They all serve different purposes, and yet the same!  :)

Agreed that Mitchell is great and agreed on his use of poetic license. I also like his The Englightened Heart very much. Would like to delve into The Second Book of the Tao  -- as if there could be such a thing!   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 25, 2009, 10:55:36 AM
Quote from: hildegard on May 25, 2009, 09:45:05 AM
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself

I'm not quite sure I get that. Someone please explain it to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: hildegard on May 25, 2009, 11:09:25 AM
Quote from: hildegard on May 25, 2009, 09:45:05 AM
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,

Quote from: Florestan on May 25, 2009, 10:55:36 AM
I'm not quite sure I get that. Someone please explain it to me.

You will undoubtedly get different iterpretations from different people. I don't think you can separate the one line from the complete verse:

"There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy."

I think it runs counterpoint to current cultural thinking that the best defense is a good offense. In constructing a preemptive move, who is the aggressor?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 25, 2009, 11:12:59 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 25, 2009, 10:55:36 AM
I'm not quite sure I get that. Someone please explain it to me.
You would have to ask Mitchell.  It is his interpolation and is not even remotely related to Lao Tzu's text.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on May 25, 2009, 12:27:21 PM
A re-read of some violently good stories:

(http://www.crimeculture.com/images/NightmTown.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 25, 2009, 11:52:32 PM
Quote from: hildegard on May 25, 2009, 11:09:25 AM
You will undoubtedly get different iterpretations from different people. I don't think you can separate the one line from the complete verse:

"There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy."

I think it runs counterpoint to current cultural thinking that the best defense is a good offense. In constructing a preemptive move, who is the aggressor?

Thank you for your response.

I'm afraid I can't agree. When Nazi Germany started preparing a massive war power and gave clear and unmistakable signs that one day or another they'll unleash hell, were the British, French or Poles delusional about their fears and wrong in preparing their defense? Would not a preemptive move, at a time when it could still be effective and in strict conformity with the international treaties pertaining to the matter, have been a thousand times preferrable to the war that followed?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: hildegard on May 26, 2009, 03:51:42 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 25, 2009, 11:52:32 PM
Thank you for your response.

I'm afraid I can't agree. When Nazi Germany started preparing a massive war power and gave clear and unmistakable signs that one day or another they'll unleash hell, were the British, French or Poles delusional about their fears and wrong in preparing their defense? Would not a preemptive move, at a time when it could still be effective and in strict conformity with the international treaties pertaining to the matter, have been a thousand times preferrable to the war that followed?

In "the way" of Tao, the scenario you described would have never transpired; but the way of Tao is not the natural way of man. In more pragmatic terms, as was pointed out, the phrase in question is one person's interpretation of the spirit of Tao and may not be a literal translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on May 26, 2009, 07:23:40 AM
Ian McEwan-Saturday
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 26, 2009, 07:25:51 AM
Quote from: hildegard on May 26, 2009, 03:51:42 AM
In "the way" of Tao, the scenario you described would have never transpired; but the way of Tao is not the natural way of man. In more pragmatic terms, as was pointed out, the phrase in question is one person's interpretation of the spirit of Tao and may not be a literal translation.
Such scenarios transpired constantly during the period in which the Tao Te Ching was written.  The Warring States period in what came to be a unified China was a time much like that the entire world is experiencing now, with constant warfare and strife among competing states striving for domination.  Tao Te Ching is written as advice to a ruler who would be wise; it is largely a treatise on the art of governance.

Tao is the natural "way," which men have lost.  And there's no "may be" about it: Mitchell's interpolation has nothing to do with the text, which here reads the same in both Han era scrolls and in the later "received" texts.  The passage has nothing to do with fear, enemies, or defense;  it is about the grievous consequences of desire, discontent, and covetousness, consistent with the wisdom teachings of the world's great religions--lessons which humankind is no closer to learning today than 2500 years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 26, 2009, 07:28:33 AM
Chapter 2 of a charming work-in-progress by our own Cato.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 26, 2009, 07:53:30 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 26, 2009, 07:28:33 AM
Chapter 2 of a charming work-in-progress by our own Cato.
Are the bad guys named Kevin and Brian (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,10786.msg267327.html#msg267327)?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 26, 2009, 08:06:24 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 26, 2009, 07:25:51 AM
Tao Te Ching is written as advice to a ruler who would be wise; it is largely a treatise on the art of governance.

In this context, those three lines as translated by Mitchell don't make much sense. No wise ruler would stay passive when his enemies begin arming themselves.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 26, 2009, 08:52:49 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 26, 2009, 08:06:24 AM
In this context, those three lines as translated by Mitchell don't make much sense. No wise ruler would stay passive when his enemies begin arming themselves.
Again, Mitchell's lines are not even an attempt at translation.  His book is not a translation, but a adaptation based on other translations, not on the Chinese text.  Passages like the one under discussion should make the liability clear, as well as the presumptuousness of Mitchell's claim to be "translating the mind of Lao Tzu."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 26, 2009, 10:01:25 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 26, 2009, 08:52:49 AM
Again, Mitchell's lines are not even an attempt at translation.  His book is not a translation, but a adaptation based on other translations, not on the Chinese text.  Passages like the one under discussion should make the liability clear, as well as the presumptuousness of Mitchell's claim to be "translating the mind of Lao Tzu."

To me the passage under discussion looks like sentimentaloid flower power hogwash which bear no relationship whatsoever to the real world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on May 26, 2009, 12:45:16 PM
(http://www.biography-clarebooks.co.uk/usrimage/bronte%20yearbook.jpg)

The Bronte Yearbook by Juliet Barker.

Each day of the year is represented by a piece of writing from one of the Bronte's. They used to date everything they wrote so this concept is possible. Quite a neat and rewarding idea  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on May 26, 2009, 12:47:03 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on May 26, 2009, 12:45:16 PM
(http://www.biography-clarebooks.co.uk/usrimage/bronte%20yearbook.jpg)

The Bronte Yearbook by Juliet Barker.

Each day of the year is represented by a piece of writing from one of the Bronte's. They used to date everything they wrote so this concept is possible. Quite a neat and rewarding idea  :)

Thanks for mentioning this!  I have a friend who is a huge fan of their work, and she will love knowing this exists.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on May 26, 2009, 12:50:13 PM
Quote from: bhodges on May 26, 2009, 12:47:03 PM
Thanks for mentioning this!  I have a friend who is a huge fan of their work, and she will love knowing this exists.

--Bruce

You're welcome Bruce. Juliet Barker is an established Bronte expert whose written several much respected books about them. This is a delightful book to browse  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on May 26, 2009, 12:51:16 PM
(http://www.ofertondelibros.com/images/%5Clarge%5Cisbn978186%5C9781862057760-l.jpg)

Beautiful photo book covering the life and times of Grace Kelly  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on May 26, 2009, 12:53:06 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AXRJKB7DL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

I'd love to visit Easter Island one day. This book provides some fascinating background on the life of the island and its inhabitants.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 26, 2009, 01:29:27 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on May 26, 2009, 12:51:16 PM
Beautiful photo book covering the life and times of Grace Kelly  :)
Gosh, she looks like an ordinary pretty girl in that photo, and not the luminous Helen of Troy depicted in so many closeups on the silver screen.  My heart didn't even skip a beat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: hildegard on May 26, 2009, 06:23:21 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 26, 2009, 07:25:51 AM
Such scenarios transpired constantly during the period in which the Tao Te Ching was written.  The Warring States period in what came to be a unified China was a time much like that the entire world is experiencing now, with constant warfare and strife among competing states striving for domination.  Tao Te Ching is written as advice to a ruler who would be wise; it is largely a treatise on the art of governance.

Tao is the natural "way," which men have lost.  And there's no "may be" about it: Mitchell's interpolation has nothing to do with the text, which here reads the same in both Han era scrolls and in the later "received" texts.  The passage has nothing to do with fear, enemies, or defense;  it is about the grievous consequences of desire, discontent, and covetousness, consistent with the wisdom teachings of the world's great religions--lessons which humankind is no closer to learning today than 2500 years ago.

DavidRoss -- thanks very much for this information. I have yet another version of the Tao somewhere, but cannot seem to put my hands on it. Now, I'm more curious to compare the differences.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 26, 2009, 06:24:25 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 26, 2009, 01:29:27 PM
Gosh, she looks like an ordinary pretty girl in that photo, and not the luminous Helen of Troy depicted in so many closeups on the silver screen.  My heart didn't even skip a beat.

My GK radar is usually pretty sharp, but I had to do a double take as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 26, 2009, 07:16:10 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 26, 2009, 01:29:27 PM
Gosh, she looks like an ordinary pretty girl in that photo, and not the luminous Helen of Troy depicted in so many closeups on the silver screen.  My heart didn't even skip a beat.
I don't know ... I didn't mind that photo at all!  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 26, 2009, 07:24:08 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 26, 2009, 07:16:10 PM
I don't know ... I didn't mind that photo at all!  0:)

Not a bad photo Brian, unless you are Grace Kelly:

(http://bp3.blogger.com/_a7Hoqr6EzDg/SJPKMbDdZVI/AAAAAAAACHI/Na5azSVSnCo/s400/ap_grace_kelly_070911_ssv.jpg)  (http://atavism.radnauseam.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/grace_kelly_05.jpg)  (http://images.easyart.com/i/prints/rw/lg/2/2/Celebrity-Image-Grace-Kelly-227979.jpg)  (http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/imarockstar69/Grace_Kelly_intro.jpg)

That should do.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on May 26, 2009, 07:26:06 PM
Beautiful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 26, 2009, 08:31:48 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 26, 2009, 07:16:10 PM
I don't know ... I didn't mind that photo at all!  0:)
See Rear Window.  Ms Kelly is not that movie's only attraction, but....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 26, 2009, 09:04:39 PM
They don't make 'em like they used to.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on May 29, 2009, 09:14:14 AM
Well, no hot chicks here, but I nonetheless enjoyed The Glass Bead Game so much I decided to take a trip through the parts of Hesse's oeuvre which I have hitherto neglected.

Starting today:

(http://www.gss.ucsb.edu/projects/hesse/works/beneath_new.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 29, 2009, 10:23:43 AM
Currently: The Clicking of Cuthbert - a selection of short stories centred around golf - Pelham Grenville W. I've had enough of golf for now, (and I can well imagine how a protagonist from one of those stories would react to such a statement ;D) so after the current story, I will be picking up Piccadilly Jim.

Two books borrowed from the library, today:

The Genius of Science, by Abraham Pais. Pais was a very respected science historian and author, particularly in the field of physics. His other, more famous book Subtle is the Lord, is considered by many to be the definitive biography of Einstein's scientific life. The present book deals with the lives and works of the pioneers of the physics of the early twentieth century.

Also, Roger Kamien's Music - An Appreciation, 7th Ed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 29, 2009, 11:14:33 AM
Barry Unsworth - The Stone Virgin

So far, so good. I like the plot (reminded me a bit of J. L. Carr's "A Month In The Country") and the style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on May 29, 2009, 01:51:50 PM
A lot of lame Pugin stuff, but it's very niche, and anything obscure instantly becomes more readable...

(http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/3654/bklj.png) (http://www.amazon.com/Gothic-Revival-American-Church-Architecture/dp/0801856221)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on May 29, 2009, 02:14:41 PM
Lars Ole Bonde:
Rundt om "Ringen", Veje til Wagners verdensteater
(Around the "Ring", Roads to Wagner's world theatre)

This is my key. They also have the Boulez Bayreuth Ring on DVD at he same library as this book. Ball rolling, finally.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on May 29, 2009, 02:35:34 PM
On a reading note - how nausiating are these prices? Link. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=stanislaw+lem&x=0&y=0)

I don't understand oppressive pricing schemes such as these. They are double the price of typical books of the type of a similar page length, and who cares if you want to recoup your investment if would-be buyers such as myself refuse to buy new copies due to the prices you have set?

£12 for a 300 page fiction book, do me a favour ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 30, 2009, 05:52:55 AM
Quote from: opus67 on May 29, 2009, 10:23:43 AM
Currently: The Clicking of Cuthbert - a selection of short stories centred around golf - Pelham Grenville W.

Hah!  I haven't read any of his golf stories.

I mean, apart from the Mulliner tale which features a girl choosing between two prospective mates by swatting a round of golf with them . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 30, 2009, 07:50:53 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 30, 2009, 05:52:55 AM
I mean, apart from the Mulliner tale which features a girl choosing between two prospective mates by swatting a round of golf with them . . . .

Till I've read, there hasn't been a single girl who cared about golf.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on May 30, 2009, 02:36:25 PM
BBC Music Magazine ~ June 2009

An easy, but always enjoyable read  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 30, 2009, 04:34:08 PM
Lady on the Hill: How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon (2006) by Howard Covington, Jr. - purchased after a recent return to Asheville, North Carolina where we stayed at the Inn on the property (discussed previously in the 'vacation thread') - this book is more concerned in how the Biltmore property, esp. after the death of GW Vanderbilt in 1914 (at the age of 51 y/o), evolved into the organization that is now seen by the public; a fascinating story - this is not the book to start out if you are planning a first visit and just want a little preliminary history, but if you live in the area as I do and want a more 'in depth' understanding, then a good read.

Regardless, if you are any where near the western part of the state of North Carolina, I would strongly urge you to visit the Biltmore Estate - will be an unfogettable experience and likely a place that you will want to visit again; plus, there are so many other wonderful attractions nearby!

Amazonian Reviews HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Lady-Hill-Biltmore-Estate-American/dp/0471758183/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) for those who are interested and may have the chance to see the place!  :D

(https://hardtofindbooks.com/images/0471758183.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on June 01, 2009, 02:20:17 PM
Supernatural Short Stories by Sir Walter Scott

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Sir_Walter_Scott_-_Raeburn.jpg/180px-Sir_Walter_Scott_-_Raeburn.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on June 02, 2009, 07:48:23 AM
Beneath the Wheel was a good read -- it contains basically all the elements of his later works (strong male platonic relationships, a search for belonging, exile, etc.) I think anyone starting with Hesse should begin here, rather than Siddhartha (as is the usual choice).

Next: Elias Canetti - Auto-da-Fe

I've also been reading some of Plato's dialogues in between novels. Not nearly as dry as I had imagined. It's actually quite fun stuff.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 03, 2009, 05:41:26 AM
The Occult: A History by Colin Wilson

It's holding my attention so far. A rather thick tome though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on June 03, 2009, 05:03:41 PM
Just received this today:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fy3uPv7BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

This is the book that Byron, Shelly and co. read at the Villa Diodati which inspired the famous ghost story competition which then resulted in...Frankenstein.

First time the full version has been published in over 200 hundred years.

Very excited to start reading this  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 03, 2009, 05:08:23 PM
(http://www.freedomlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/51BZN18MBCL.jpg)

I am skeptical about the feasibility of strong AI, but agree if possible, it would be the last invention of the human race.  But the book is an interesting read so far.  The Singularity, for those who don't know, is the "geek rapture" where AI transforms the world in ways we cannot comprehend
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on June 03, 2009, 05:54:20 PM
(http://www.imageurlhost.com/images/v9w5c9zdnc7iapp7tm.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41u68CncVbL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

From the library, preparation for my forthcoming trip to Vancouver  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on June 03, 2009, 06:26:43 PM
Just finished: part 1 of an egyptian saga: Palace Walk, by Naguib Mahfouz. A quite extraordinary novel, part family saga, part socio-history epic. I'm taking a break before embarking on part 2.

Just starting: part 1 of a Balkans saga: The Golden Fleece by Borislav Pekić (in seven parts). This was recommended to me by Drasko, so I ordered it for my birthday. After reading quite a few books by Ivan Andric, Danilo Kiš and Meša Selimović (all on Drasko's recommendation), I know I can trust his litterary tastes. I might as well, since I'm embarking on a 3500 pages saga, only the first three of which have been translated in French... :o

I will read Tintin in Tibet as a breather between the two... :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 03, 2009, 06:26:57 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on June 03, 2009, 05:54:20 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41u68CncVbL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://salmoneye.net/siteimages/Vancouver_Island_map.jpg)

From the library, preparation for my forthcoming trip to Vancouver  :)

Chris - first time?  Susan & I love visiting Canada, and have been to British Columbia & Vancouver several times - just wonderful experience; hope that you will plan a trip to Vancouver Island and the lovely city of Victoria - please post your experiences in the 'vacation thread' - needs some TTT updating!  :D  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on June 03, 2009, 06:41:35 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on June 03, 2009, 06:26:57 PM
Chris - first time?  Susan & I love visiting Canada, and have been to British Columbia & Vancouver several times - just wonderful experience; hope that you will plan a trip to Vancouver Island and the lovely city of Victoria - please post your experiences in the 'vacation thread' - needs some TTT updating!  :D  Dave

Hi Dave: Yep, first time for me although my wife is Canadian so we're visiting her family in Vancouver for two weeks. Her folks are getting quite elderly so it may well be the last visit while they're around.

Been doing my research and Vancouver looks like a wonderful holiday destination with lots of interesting things to see and do. Victoria may be on our list - not sure yet.

I will post of my adventures  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on June 03, 2009, 08:07:05 PM
I began reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood yesterday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 03, 2009, 11:58:49 PM
Quote from: tanuki on June 03, 2009, 08:07:05 PM
I began reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood yesterday.

Nice one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 04, 2009, 05:14:07 AM
Don't read fantasy much anymore but I liked this guy's first one so I'm reading the sequel.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514N5KJszJL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 04, 2009, 05:23:19 AM
This week I finished re-reading John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor . . . so now I've started History Play: The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe by Rodney Bolt.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZK7E0AD3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 04, 2009, 07:01:30 AM
Just started (and yes Dave, the " archives" were referred to for this and thanks):

(http://www.donaldwestlake.com/img/book_money_200.jpg)

"A brisk, funny morality tale....Donald Westlake must be one of the best craftsmen now crafting stories."-George F. Will
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 04, 2009, 07:12:27 AM
Has anyone read Drop City by TC Boyle (http://www.tcboyle.com/)?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 04, 2009, 07:36:00 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 04, 2009, 07:12:27 AM
Has anyone read Drop City by TC Boyle (http://www.tcboyle.com/)?

A Colorado connection there, Karl?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 04, 2009, 07:38:22 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 04, 2009, 07:01:30 AM
Just started (and yes Dave, the " archives" were referred to for this and thanks):

He's written a lot. Also check out his Richard Stark stuff. Much darker. Less humor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 04, 2009, 07:44:01 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 04, 2009, 07:36:00 AM
A Colorado connection there, Karl?

Hm, might be, incidentally, Bill.  This Marlowe yarn I've begun reading I found among remainders at the MFA shop, and now there are some half dozen copies of that TC Boyle title and the remainders table, and I'm wondering if I want to read it.  Also, I've just finished re-reading a Barth book, from a new copy which I picked up at about the same time I picked up a new copy of TC Boyle's Water Music.  So he is an author who has not been any great distance from my literary thoughts lately.  Water Music I find a tour-de-force (and a yarn spun from a handful of historical fact, another broad similarity to Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor).  Back when I was first getting acquainted with Boyle, I read quite a few books . . . a couple of collections of stories, and three or four novels: Budding Prospects, East is East, World's End, certainly.  Of them all, World's End I probably think best of, after Water Music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on June 04, 2009, 08:32:36 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 04, 2009, 07:44:01 AM
This Marlowe yarn I've begun reading....
Which Marlowe yarn might that be?  I'm a big Chandler fan, not just for his impeccable style but for the evocation of time and place and gritty morality so few have ever equaled.  Reminds me that I should re-read A Hall of Mirrors sometime soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 04, 2009, 09:04:51 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on June 04, 2009, 08:32:36 AM
Which Marlowe yarn might that be?  I'm a big Chandler fan, not just for his impeccable style but for the evocation of time and place and gritty morality so few have ever equaled.  Reminds me that I should re-read A Hall of Mirrors sometime soon.

Not Philip but Kit (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg316127.html#msg316127)  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 04, 2009, 10:40:52 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on June 04, 2009, 08:32:36 AM
I'm a big Chandler fan, not just for his impeccable style but for the evocation of time and place and gritty morality so few have ever equaled. 

(http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:FBzdMrmB_i-PgM:http://itleaders.com.au/images/bullseye.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 04, 2009, 10:41:33 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on June 04, 2009, 08:32:36 AM
Which Marlowe yarn might that be?  I'm a big Chandler fan, not just for his impeccable style but for the evocation of time and place and gritty morality so few have ever equaled.  Reminds me that I should re-read A Hall of Mirrors sometime soon.

Have you read Ross MacDonald?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 04, 2009, 10:45:54 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 04, 2009, 07:38:22 AM
He's written a lot. Also check out his Richard Stark stuff. Much darker. Less humor.

I went to the library last night with the author list you provided.  Did not want to start any series deep into that series and this made my choices fairly few.  I took away three books, and started here.  The George Will endorsement helped as well...heck, that guy could sell me outdated milk.

I also like the shortness of Westlake's chapters.  With two kiddos in the house, it helps considerably.  I am doing some yard work at this time and each time I complete a task I reward myself with another chapter.  Which is what I should be doing right now on this sunny Colorado day. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 04, 2009, 10:48:17 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 04, 2009, 10:45:54 AM
...heck, that guy could sell me outdated milk.

You can always make sour cream!  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on June 04, 2009, 12:49:04 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 04, 2009, 09:04:51 AM
Not Philip but Kit (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg316127.html#msg316127)  ;)
I suspected as much.

Quote from: MN Dave on June 04, 2009, 10:41:33 AM
Have you read Ross MacDonald?
Only The Drowning Pool, IIRC. Not bad, but less universal, as I recall, and no one's prose quite equals Chandler's.  Attempts to emulate him seldom escape parody.  What other titles would you suggest?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 04, 2009, 01:58:39 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on June 04, 2009, 12:49:04 PM
I suspected as much.
Only The Drowning Pool, IIRC. Not bad, but less universal, as I recall, and no one's prose quite equals Chandler's.  Attempts to emulate him seldom escape parody.  What other titles would you suggest?

I'm still reading the early ones. Liked them all so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 04, 2009, 05:03:01 PM
100 pages or so into the Westlake book.  Not a lot of nail biting, but once I got further along I suddenly found myself caring about the main character and have become worried about his plight enough that I do not want to put it down.  Not a lot of heavy background here like Dan Brown likes to weave in or major twists.  More like an old black and white tv crime-drama with the uh-oh's around each corner that do not whack you in the jaw too hard, but still gives you some kidney punches along the way.  Perfect for a summer read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 04, 2009, 05:04:47 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on June 04, 2009, 12:49:04 PM
I suspected as much.

But I ought to read some Chandler at some point . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on June 05, 2009, 07:00:14 AM
Marge Piercy-Three Women
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 08, 2009, 05:20:50 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AW2nonbGL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 10, 2009, 07:14:28 AM
At times hilarious, such as when Ritchie would hurl wet plastic bags of flour at Dio when Elf was opening for Deep Purple.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 10, 2009, 07:18:28 AM
Hey, Andy! Welcome back. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 10, 2009, 07:28:12 AM
Quote from: opus106 on June 10, 2009, 07:18:28 AM
Hey, Andy! Welcome back. :)


Good to be back, and especially good to hear from YOU!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 10, 2009, 07:29:53 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 10, 2009, 07:28:12 AM

Good to be back, and especially good to hear from YOU!

Well, he's put on 39 opus numbers since you were here last!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 10, 2009, 07:32:34 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 10, 2009, 07:29:53 AM
Well, he's put on 39 opus numbers since you were here last!


Hi! Well, 39 could be numerologically our lucky number...

or something
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 10, 2009, 07:33:56 AM
I like 39 (= 3 x 13).

Arnold would have hated it . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 10, 2009, 07:35:22 AM
:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 10, 2009, 07:40:05 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 10, 2009, 07:33:56 AM
I like 39 (= 3 x 13).

Arnold would have hated it . . . .


But Ahhhh...Arnold!

The dude rules (and I don't mean the Big L.).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 10, 2009, 09:33:36 AM
Ange,
Is that you on the far left of your new avatar? ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 10, 2009, 11:24:00 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 10, 2009, 09:33:36 AM
Ange,
Is that you on the far left of your new avatar? ;)


Hi!

Sigh. To be Ian Gillan in 1970....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 10, 2009, 05:49:19 PM
This fat fantasy book just arrived from jolly old England.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AcOU4l2XL._SS500_.jpg)

I think I'll crack it open. I already know I like the writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 11, 2009, 05:31:39 AM
Quote
This week I finished re-reading John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor . . . so now I've started History Play: The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe by Rodney Bolt.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZK7E0AD3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

It's certainly pretty good. If I were in theatre, I should get more of the sly allusions, I suppose;  but I am getting enough of them, to feel that my back is being sufficiently patted  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on June 11, 2009, 04:53:43 PM
Finished reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. It amazed me how many times the phrase "erect penis" came up.  ;D I enjoyed it very much, although I liked the other book by Murakami I've read (Kafka on the Shore) better.

I think now I'm going to start reading Rayuela by Julio Cortázar. I bought this a while ago and started it two times but didn't get far either time. I really want to read it, though, because Cortázar is one of my favorite writers. Third time's a charm, I guess.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on June 11, 2009, 08:29:05 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 10, 2009, 07:33:56 AM
I like 39 (= 3 x 13).

Arnold would have hated it . . . .

Was Malcolm suffering from Triskaidekaphobia?

??? ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on June 12, 2009, 01:57:05 AM
HANS KÜNG:    Der Anfang aller Dinge (2005)

Küng is one of the greatest German theologians. In this book (The beginning of all things) he gives a good description of the most recent perspectives of the science. Refusing a literal approach of the Bible, he tries to find the kind of questions that are excluded from science, metaphysical questions, that can only, if accepted, have religious answers.
I suspect that many Christians will not like much this book, because Küng is very far from the traditional positions sustained by the catholic hierarchy.




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 12, 2009, 04:52:12 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZAk76898L._SL500_AA240_.jpg) (art book)

Oh man, this degenerate stuff would make Josquin vomit 0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on June 14, 2009, 12:01:04 PM
Finished something rather bland: Tarnished Beauty by Cecilia Samartin. Maybe it was the Norwegian translation that messed it up.

Now the latest Anna Gavalda. French title La Consolante. My French is offendous, so I read it in Norwegian, where the title is Lykka er ein sjeldan fugl, or Happiness is a rare bird (my translation). I do not know if it's yet out in English. EDIT: It is. The Consolation Match. Terrific prose, anyway.

Welcome back, Andy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 15, 2009, 05:53:00 AM
Y'know, I bought this used and though someone had scribbled on the cover with a fluorescent pen. But, WTF? They're all like that.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512sVae3g9L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on June 15, 2009, 01:19:54 PM
Quote from: tanuki on June 11, 2009, 04:53:43 PM
Finished reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. It amazed me how many times the phrase "erect penis" came up.  ;D I enjoyed it very much, although I liked the other book by Murakami I've read (Kafka on the Shore) better.
So did I. There are other books by Murakami I liked better than Norwegian Wood:

A Wild Sheep Chase
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

in particular. Happy reading!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on June 15, 2009, 06:48:01 PM
Planning to make the best of some down time this summer, I have checked out The Teaching Company's Classics of American Literature (http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=250) course from my library.  My plan is to take my time, follow along and savor some good books.  My focus back in college was in British lit, so I haven't read a lot of these in many a moon, and more than a few are new to me. 

First up, Benjamin Franklin's autobiography (http://manybooks.net/titles/franklinben2020320203-8.html).

If anybody else is silly enough to care to join me, give a shout, maybe we could start a reading/discussion thread.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on June 18, 2009, 06:35:12 AM
Elias Canetti's Auto-da-fe was everything I look for in a novel; dreamlike, hallucinatory, hilarious and terrifying. It's one of the best things I've ever read.

Now reading: Ivo Andric - The Bridge on the Drina
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 18, 2009, 06:37:34 AM
Quote from: corey on June 18, 2009, 06:35:12 AM
everything I look for in a novel; dreamlike, hallucinatory, hilarious and terrifying.

Then you don't make much of War and Peace, do you?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on June 18, 2009, 06:49:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 18, 2009, 06:37:34 AM
Then you don't make much of War and Peace, do you?  :)

I haven't read it, but course the fact that a book couldn't be described in this way doesn't preclude me from enjoying it -- it's just that my favorites tend toward the surreal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 18, 2009, 06:55:55 AM
Quote from: corey on June 18, 2009, 06:49:54 AM
I haven't read it

Give it a try, you might like it. :)

Quote from: corey on June 18, 2009, 06:49:54 AMit's just that my favorites tend toward the surreal.

Orhan Pamuk's your man, then. I remember you started reading one of his books but I can't recall it. Have you finished / enjoyed it?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 18, 2009, 06:57:51 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X1%2Bp1APkL._SS500_.jpg)

Fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on June 18, 2009, 06:58:42 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 18, 2009, 06:55:55 AM
Give it a try, you might like it. :)

I own it, just haven't got around to it yet. :D

Quote from: Florestan on June 18, 2009, 06:55:55 AM
Orhan Pamuk's your man, then. I remember you started reading one of his books but I can't recall it. Have you finished / enjoyed it?

I read The Black Book a few months ago and loved it. I have a few of his others on my reading list and will get to them when I do. Have you read Auto-da-Fe?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 18, 2009, 07:03:18 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 18, 2009, 06:57:51 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X1%2Bp1APkL._SS500_.jpg)

Fun.


I think I still own that crazy book. I liked Lords Of Chaos too. Those Norwegians were either pretending or from another planet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 18, 2009, 07:06:01 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 18, 2009, 07:03:18 AM
I think I still own that crazy book. I liked Lords Of Chaos too. Those Norwegians were either pretending or from another planet.

I think they were serious. I don't see the attraction of the dark side myself. Too negative, all that hating and dependence on something to hate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 18, 2009, 07:12:56 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 18, 2009, 07:06:01 AM
I think they were serious. I don't see the attraction of the dark side myself. Too negative, all that hating and dependence on something to hate.

That, plus more than a bit of the music was just comically lame. They'd record themselves poorly on purpose so they could seem more "kult" (boy I bet the Norsk bands have been regretting that ever since!). In a way it was good, because the majority of them stunk to high heaven (or the other) on their instruments, and the songs were often laughable.

I think they were serious for a time. I really wonder if they could keep up such a sustained level of acting "EE-vuhl" in their private lives for long.

They'd eventually have to deal with momma.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 18, 2009, 07:16:38 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 18, 2009, 07:12:56 AM
That, plus more than a bit of the music was just comically lame. They'd record themselves poorly on purpose so they could seem more "kult" (boy I bet the Norsk bands have been regretting that ever since!). In a way it was good, because the majority of them stunk to high heaven (or the other) on their instruments, and the songs were often laughable.

I think they were serious for a time. I really wonder if they could keep up such a sustained level of acting "EE-vuhl" in their private lives for long.

They'd eventually have to deal with momma.

I think, early on, they all wanted to sound like Venom--poorly produced. Having said that, I like some Venom now and then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 18, 2009, 07:17:48 AM
Quote from: corey on June 18, 2009, 06:58:42 AM
Have you read Auto-da-Fe?

No, I haven't read anything by Canetti. What other writer(s) is his style/atmosphere like?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on June 18, 2009, 07:59:22 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 18, 2009, 07:16:38 AM
I think, early on, they all wanted to sound like Venom--poorly produced. Having said that, I like some Venom now and then.


"Black Metallllll". I like Bathory's Under the Sign of the Black Mark, too. The guy's (Quorthon's) voice was the most despicable sounding lizard vomit, a title held until the onset of Obituary,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on June 18, 2009, 09:04:27 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 18, 2009, 07:03:18 AM
Those Norwegians were either pretending or from another planet.
We are one sinister bunch are we not?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 18, 2009, 09:07:02 AM
Quote from: Valentino on June 18, 2009, 09:04:27 AM
We are one sinister bunch are we not?

You just want your Odin back.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on June 19, 2009, 10:22:01 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 18, 2009, 07:17:48 AM
No, I haven't read anything by Canetti. What other writer(s) is his style/atmosphere like?

If anything, like Robert Musil or Hermann Broch, but more inclined to the grotesque than either. Auto-da-Fe is his only novel; his other writings are philosophical/social studies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 19, 2009, 10:24:15 AM
Quote from: corey on June 19, 2009, 10:22:01 AM
If anything, like Robert Musil or Hermann Broch, but more inclined to the grotesque than either. Auto-da-Fe is his only novel; his other writings are philosophical/social studies.

Quit reading that dreadful crap, Corey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on June 19, 2009, 10:28:49 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 19, 2009, 10:24:15 AM
Quit reading that dreadful crap, Corey.

>:( ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 19, 2009, 10:39:43 AM
Not much reading: looking at pretty pictures instead. I bought a buttload* of neat architecture books that I had been previously interested in but had not yet found at an acceptable price. Yay, bulk discounts! Currently:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R8YW25WSL._SL500_AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/NOX-Machining-Architecture-Lars-Spuybroek/dp/0500285195)

*An underrated word...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on June 19, 2009, 11:50:16 AM
Finished Ben Franklin's autobiography, now moved on to Washington Irving's The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.  Highly amusing.   :)  After that, some essays from Emerson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 20, 2009, 08:45:29 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Xd60Jy-VL._SS500_.jpg)

Things have a habit of bumping into each other and sticking together. Having been listening to a lot of Handel cantatas recently, my head has been full of things Arcadian - so much so that when I went to a book fair recently I was looking for something to complement that. This jumped off the shelf at me - a sumptuous catalogue of a recent exhibition in New York that will very nicely make a start to filling an important gap in my knowledge of art history. Poussin has never been high on my list of artists to investigate, but now is exactly the time to do so. And the nice thing about these kind of publications is that even if the essays disappoint, this big, fat hardback is bursting with superb pictures to explore.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 20, 2009, 08:46:19 AM
Quote from: jwinter on June 19, 2009, 11:50:16 AM
Finished Ben Franklin's autobiography, now moved on to Washington Irving's The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.  Highly amusing.   :)

I'm a huge fan of Washington Irving!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on June 20, 2009, 04:32:50 PM
I'm having a hard time reading Julio Cortázar's Rayuela. He has a beautiful prose, but I find it rather heavy.

So, today I picked up The Lives of the Great Composers by Harold Schonberg. I ordered it from Amazon and it arrived some weeks ago. I read the first chapter (on Monteverdi), and I'm completely gripped! I can't wait to read more!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on June 20, 2009, 05:11:02 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 20, 2009, 08:46:19 AM
I'm a huge fan of Washington Irving!

Yes, he's quite growing on me, good stuff.  I can't say that I'd ever actually read Rip Van Winkle or The Legend of Sleepy Hollow previously, though of course I knew the stories.  Currently reading his sketch of a visit to Stratford-on-Avon, and how it was a tourist-trap even all those years ago. 

This is why I like doing the Teaching Company's courses -- they provide some inspiration and direction, but you can go along at your own pace and explore further as you like.  The course only covers the 2 famous stories, but I think I'll dig a little deeper into Irving before moving on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on June 22, 2009, 11:04:43 AM
(http://www.anythinggauche.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/the-thin-man.jpg)

Last book I read was a collection of short stories by Hammet; the last piece included was an original version of The Thin Man, about 10 chapters (about 60 pages) or so and written in his classic style (ie, dry, terse, and unemotional).  Typical of Hammet, it was engrossing and entertaining, so.........decided to read the finished novel published about three years later and written in a completely different style for Dashiell. 'Tis a very good book, of course, but honestly, I prefer the original version/style. 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on June 22, 2009, 05:26:15 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on June 20, 2009, 08:45:29 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Xd60Jy-VL._SS500_.jpg)

Things have a habit of bumping into each other and sticking together. Having been listening to a lot of Handel cantatas recently, my head has been full of things Arcadian - so much so that when I went to a book fair recently I was looking for something to complement that. This jumped off the shelf at me - a sumptuous catalogue of a recent exhibition in New York that will very nicely make a start to filling an important gap in my knowledge of art history. Poussin has never been high on my list of artists to investigate, but now is exactly the time to do so. And the nice thing about these kind of publications is that even if the essays disappoint, this big, fat hardback is bursting with superb pictures to explore.

That book looks excellent - I'll see if my library has it  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 23, 2009, 12:03:51 AM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on June 22, 2009, 05:26:15 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Xd60Jy-VL._SS500_.jpg)
That book looks excellent - I'll see if my library has it  :)

I've made a bit of progress with it - not reading from start to finish, but dipping in here and there - and I must say it's a delight. The pictures are ravishing. (I didn't know that Poussin had painted so many compositions where the landscape - rather than the figures - dominates the picture space.) I find also that it's making me realise that I've never properly understood the way in which classical mythology was so completely absorbed into the culture of the 17th and 18th centuries. I knew that it was, of course; but I don't think I've been 'seeing' it correctly. The knowledge, yes, but not the perception. I hadn't previously caught the numinous quality of these works by Poussin, where the mythology is integrated into the natural world as a kind of commentary on it, and the natural world is constructed as a commentary on the myth. And it does provide a lovely visual accompaniment to Handel's Arcadian cantatas. Definitely worth a few hours of your time, if you're inclined this way and can lay your hands on a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brünnhilde ewig on June 24, 2009, 10:47:41 AM
War in Italy 1943 - 1945, A Brutal Story. Richard Lamb, an Italian-speaking officer in the British Eighth Army during WW II researched the history of those two important years of WW II, about people like Mussolini, Pope Pius XII and very important, the activities of the Squadro Garibaldi Partisan group.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 24, 2009, 01:34:21 PM
(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestsellers-2007/2358-1.jpg)

I have read a decent handful of books on this time period, but not one that focuses mainly on the battles.  Started it a while back, got too busy to give it the appropriate concentration, but now have hit the first 100 pages running. (Trying to average 50 pages per day, hence less time having been spent here.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 24, 2009, 03:48:33 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 24, 2009, 01:34:21 PM
(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestsellers-2007/2358-1.jpg)

I have read a decent handful of books on this time period, but not one that focuses mainly on the battles.  Started it a while back, got too busy to give it the appropriate concentration, but now have hit the first 100 pages running. (Trying to average 50 pages per day, hence less time having been spent here.)

Bill - you & I seem to enjoy many of the same books!  ;D

This one is sitting in my PILE of to be read books!  Guess I had already read too many from this era and needed a 'change of pace' - but will get to that one soon - thanks for the reminder!  Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 24, 2009, 04:08:56 PM
Every couple of years (often when I buy a new computer), I order a bunch of books related to my computer/digital/audio/video (or whatever 'technical' combo you might desire) needs, just to get 'updated' and ready for my next purchases!  :D

Well, a couple of recent acquisitions which I've started to read:

David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual (2009) by David Pogue, a NY Times columnist - he has written a number of these 'missing manual' books, many of which I've read - although I own two digital cameras, I'm still debating on buying a digital SLR, so wanted to see what David had to say; but this is pretty much a nice introductory book to the subject (experienced photographers will find the read somewhat familiar, but 'newbies' might feel the opposite); basically divided into two sections, the first concerning 'picture taking' and the features of various types of digital cameras (from 'pocket types' to SLRs); the second portion concerns transferring and manipulating images on your computer - I would recommend this book to those with beginning-intermediate experience; advanced semi-pros may already know much of this material - but Pogue is an excellent & enjoyable writer!

Organize Your Digital Life: How to Store Your Photographs, Music, Videos, and Personal Documents in a Digital World (2009) by Aimee Baldridge - just took a chance on this one after looking at reviews on Amazon (CHECK HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Organize-Your-Digital-Life-Photographs/dp/1426203349/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245887853&sr=1-1#)); this book covers all aspects of the digital world, and is a great introduction to managing, storing, and preserving your digital media & records -  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ofryxxcTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj44/downarchive2/member2/OrganizeYourDigitalLife.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on June 25, 2009, 11:31:47 AM
The Listen (Christopher Jon Honett and Peter Gilbert, Caminantes Press) - Just ordered it today...below are two excerpts from a good review by Trevor Hunter on New Music Box (entire article here (http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=6045)).

"[The] authors have selected nine pieces to evaluate for prospective listeners: Worker's Union by Louis Andriessen; Tre Notturni Brillanti by Salvatore Sciarrino; Synchronisms No. 10 by Mario Davidovsky; Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich; La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura by Luigi Nono; Musica Ricercata by György Ligeti; Black Angels by George Crumb; Anahit by Giacinto Scelsi; and Sinfonia III. In ruhig fliessender Bewegung by Luciano Berio."

This is what sold me:

"But past the straightforward (and Italianate) veneer, what Honett and Gilbert are really engaging in here is a new type of criticism. And it's actually kind of subversive. They've removed from the discussion the analytic conceits that usually surround these works, while completely avoiding turning the book into some sort of New Music for Dummies. The book outright doesn't accept the rarely spoken but widely held assumption that a high-ish level of musical training is needed to appreciate these works. But why it's subversive is that this completely undercuts the just-as-widely held and far-more-frequently spoken accusations that new music is abstrusely elitist, forever trapped in some sort of academic iron lung. Not that (one assumes) Honett and Gilbert see no value in the academic institutions that are, after all, the authors' own progenitors—but they understand the importance of de-institutionalizing and democratizing the listening process."

Will report later on whether they have succeeded in their mission.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 25, 2009, 11:35:06 AM
I've been reading this. Not bad, considering...

(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n8/n43004.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 25, 2009, 01:13:36 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 25, 2009, 11:35:06 AM
I've been reading this. Not bad, considering...

(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n8/n43004.jpg)

Those naughty drow!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on June 25, 2009, 03:54:36 PM
Moved on from Washington Irving, and have started Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature.  First time reading this, I'm ashamed to admit.  Very engaging so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 25, 2009, 04:02:06 PM
Quote from: Lethe on June 25, 2009, 01:13:36 PM
Those naughty drow!

Indeed. It's interesting in that all the characters in the book are evil to some degree. And this is only the first of six!  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 26, 2009, 04:10:07 AM
I should probably give them a shot sometime. My only D&D experience is from PC RPGs, but I quite liked those.

Atm:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BCS1SZCFL._SL500_AA240_.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OlOWfeAYL._SL500_AA240_.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pkp3LUXZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Re. the latter, the fans who diss Pratchett's later books should probably seek out other horizons - they are evidently bored of the series. As a newcomer, I prefer them to the older ones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 26, 2009, 04:23:32 AM
Quote from: Lethe on June 26, 2009, 04:10:07 AM
I should probably give them a shot sometime. My only D&D experience is from PC RPGs, but I quite liked those.

I played in ye olden days, with the pencil, the paper and the dice...  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on June 26, 2009, 12:08:47 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/matisse.jpg)

I've always felt ambivalent about what little I knew of Matisse already, and an acquaintance with his full oeuvre hasn't changed that. The back-and-forth between new styles and already-covered territory makes his work list almost impossible to divide into "periods". It sometimes seems that at certain points he felt he had gone "too far", and backed off into more comfortable areas, which is somewhat dissapointing and gives the feeling that he painted the same work over and over, but there are however some beautiful exceptions. As for the late paper-cutouts, I'm not sure what he was trying to do at all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on June 26, 2009, 01:30:19 PM
http://www.abcgallery.com/M/matisse/matisse.html (http://www.abcgallery.com/M/matisse/matisse.html)

click on thumbnails to open larger images
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 26, 2009, 01:42:39 PM
Quote from: Lethe on June 26, 2009, 04:10:07 AM
Atm:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OlOWfeAYL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Tim Hilton's book is a classic, and I bet you're enjoying it (he's a smashing writer), though he gives some of the poor old Pre-Rs a hard time. Holman Hunt gets a bit of a hammering for 'robbing paint of its power to please'; and so does poor old William Morris's poetry ('so very like wallpaer that there's no reason for it ever to stop').

Hunt deserves it, I think - at least, his later large pictures really do have horribly overworked paint surfaces, but I think Hilton hasn't quite understood how best to read Morris's poetry. You need a warm, sunny day, a bottle of wine, a comfortable chair in the garden with somewhere to prop your feet up, and a nice old C19th edition of The Earthly Paradise on your lap, preferably in the binding that Morris designed himself. And then you read at a steady canter - not lingeringly, chewing on each word; but long and fast, mentally chanting the rhythm of the verse, not worrying about subtlety, but just getting on with the tale, as you would have done with a bard of old. Then it's nothing like wallpaper; it becomes an ancient, captivating tale of adventures undertaken and heroic deeds done.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 26, 2009, 01:53:30 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on June 26, 2009, 01:42:39 PM
Tim Hilton's book is a classic, and I bet you're enjoying it (he's a smashing writer), though he gives some of the poor old Pre-Rs a hard time. Holman Hunt gets a bit of a hammering for 'robbing paint of its power to please'; and so does poor old William Morris's poetry ('so very like wallpaer that there's no reason for it ever to stop').

Hunt deserves it, I think - at least, his later large pictures really do have horribly overworked paint surfaces, but I think Hilton hasn't quite understood how best to read Morris's poetry. You need a warm, sunny day, a bottle of wine, a comfortable chair in the garden with somewhere to prop your feet up, and a nice old C19th edition of The Earthly Paradise on your lap, preferably in the binding that Morris designed himself. And then you read at a steady canter - not lingeringly, chewing on each word; but long and fast, mentally chanting the rhythm of the verse, not worrying about subtlety, but just getting on with the tale, as you would have done with a bard of old. Then it's nothing like wallpaper; it becomes an ancient, captivating tale of adventures undertaken and heroic deeds done.

Thanks! I must admit that I somewhat dislike the Pre-Raps at the moment (although enjoy much of the work they react against even less), but can always find much to admire about them as well. I am hoping that the book makes some small step toward appreciation.

One example of my problem is in the following painting:

(http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2825/020mariana.jpg) (http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2825/020mariana.jpg)

It features what is actually a very striking and naturalistic pose, beautifully painted and framed. But then it couples it with slightly mawkish Pugin-influenced kitsch which at the moment I cannot allow myself to warm to the aesthetic (I've seen too many church interiors mangled in this style).

Edit: And indeed, the writing is compelling. I've found that a lot of these Thames & Hudson books are additionally valuble due to the relative age of the texts they present (although this one is more recent than most). Previous generations of art writers seem to have more passion about the subject, even if they are often heavy-handed in dismissing the "rivals" to the art they champion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 26, 2009, 01:55:35 PM
Quote from: corey on June 26, 2009, 12:08:47 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/matisse.jpg)

I've always felt ambivalent about what little I knew of Matisse already, and an acquaintance with his full oeuvre hasn't changed that. ... As for the late paper-cutouts, I'm not sure what he was trying to do at all.

I sympathise with this. For me, he tends to suffer from standing in Cezanne's shadow, as it were - not that he can help having been born when he was, nor can I fairly ask him to answer for the fact that Cezanne was such a towering giant - but when I look at Matisse (particularly those characteristically decorative works) I often find myself thinking how insubstantial he seems by comparison with Cezanne, and end up longing for something more solid even when he's captivating. The fault is mine, I'm sure - after all, art doesn't have to be weighty all the time - but with Matisse I often feel as if a strong wind might blow him clean away.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on June 26, 2009, 02:02:35 PM
Few save Bonnard were his equal as a colorist, and I know no other such master of the lyrical line.

(http://johngushue.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451f25369e2010535d0dc30970c-800wi)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on June 26, 2009, 02:08:58 PM
Quote from: Lethe on June 26, 2009, 01:53:30 PM
It features what is actually a very striking and naturalistic pose, beautifully painted and framed. But then it couples it with slightly mawkish Pugin-influenced kitsch which at the moment I cannot allow myself to warm to the aesthetic (I've seen too many church interiors mangled in this style).
Please to explain the 'kitsch," if it please you to do so, kind Mistress.   ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 26, 2009, 02:10:26 PM
Quote from: Lethe on June 26, 2009, 01:53:30 PM
One example of my problem is in the following painting:

(http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2825/020mariana.jpg) (http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2825/020mariana.jpg)

It features what is actually a very striking and naturalistic pose, beautifully painted and framed. But then it couples it with slightly mawkish Pugin-influenced kitsch which at the moment I cannot allow myself to warm to the aesthetic (I've seen too many church interiors mangled in this style).

I think you might be more forgiving if confronted by the original, which is so exquisitely coloured as to appear like a source of light, or as if it were painted with coloured jewels. (But maybe you've seen it?) They can't escape their age, of course; I can't remember offhand just where Millais painted that particular interior, but it will have been a real interior - just the sort of thing you don't like, rendered with extreme faithfulness to make it even worse for you! Horrors! And Ruskin, their great champion, wasn't happy with what he saw as their 'tractarian tendencies', though much of that arose I think as a by-product of their admiration for early Christian painting.

Some of their loveliest things were designed for book illustrations, which you might find you can enjoy more easily. I'll see if I can find some good ones, tomorrow.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 26, 2009, 02:29:33 PM
Elgarian - well-played, and thank you. I feel that you could convince anyone of anything with such a fine style of writing! :D Hopefully I will be more in the mood to properly appreciate the pre-raps this time round. I am kicking myself that my distaste for them in the past allowed me to pass up buying an almost A2 sized colour artbook dedicated to them for a pittance (£5 or something ridiculously low). Second hand finds like that don't present themselves very often :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 27, 2009, 02:04:51 AM
Quote from: Lethe on June 26, 2009, 02:29:33 PM
Hopefully I will be more in the mood to properly appreciate the pre-raps this time round.

One of the things I always say about the PreRaphs is that their story is often more interesting than their pictures ... which isn't quite fair, but there's more than a smidgeon of truth in it. I've just been foraging through the two-volume Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais (written by his son) in the hope of discovering the actual location of the picture you love to hate. Well, I didn't quite find that, but I did find these snippets:

"The window in the background of Mariana was taken from one in Merton Chapel, Oxford. The ceiling of the chapel was being painted, and scaffolding was of course put up, and this Millais made use of while working. The scene outside was painted in the Combes' garden, just outside their windows."

The Coombs were very early PreRaphaelite patrons. Where the room itself was doesn't seem to be recorded. However, you'll sympathise with Ruskin's comments in the letter he wrote to The Times. He was, he said, glad to see that the "lady in blue is heartily tired of painted windows and idolatrous toilet-table". And then, had Millais "painted Mariana at work in an unmoated grange, instead of idle in a moated one, it had been more to the purpose, whether of art or life".

If you do find yourself drawn in by reading Hilton's book, may I make a recommendation? The best, most captivating book ever written about the Pre-Rs was written by William Gaunt, and has been published under two titles: originally The PreRaphaelite Tragedy; then subsequently as The Pre-Raphaelite Dream; and then finally as Tragedy again. Gaunt was a wonderful scholar and a dazzlingly good writer, and he writes this like a novel, yet it's meticulously accurate. The first few lines shows what you're in for:

"This is the true story of Knights of Art, born out of their time, who went a-roaming through the spacious but prosaic reign of Queen Victoria, like so many Don Quixotes, their heads as full of medieval chivalry, of strange questing and of high endeavour. They tilted not at windmills but at factories; they fought against dragons which were not the lizards of fable but railway trains, the steel-clad, steam-snorting dragons of the industrial age. ... It is the story of baffled idealists in a material age, seeking something they could scarcely define - a past, a future or both in one - certainly anything except the present in which they lived. It might be a religious revelation, the discovery of a happiness whose secret was lost to the earth though it had existed once, the outline of a new order not yet formed. It was all these things, in some confused degree, which set each one journeying, after his own fashion, to Palestine, to Iceland, or into the territory of the imagination as if in the old legendary pursuit of the Holy Grail."

That might be a complete turn-off for you. But if it isn't, it's an easy book to find. There are lots of cheap copies on Amazon; if you just search for 'Gaunt Preraphaelite' you'll get them all coming up.

And now, finally (if you're still awake), here are a couple of wood-engraved book illustrations by that gentlest of Pre-Raphaelites Arthur Hughes, who tends to be overshadowed by the Big Three. The first is from George MacDonald's children's fairy tale At The Back of the North Wind; and the other, Two lovers by a sundial, is from a magazine called Good Words, printed 1870-ish. He has a trick of hovering very close to the brink of sentimentality, but just holding back - so there's a sort of lip-quivering poignancy about much of what he does.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/ArthurHughes-BackoftheNorthWind.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/ArthurHughes-loversbyasundialreduce.jpg)






Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 27, 2009, 03:55:50 AM
Sounds just the ticket. because I am not used to such florid prose, it will be a refreshing change whether I enjoy it or not. I just ordered the cheapest copy of the newest print-run I could find,* thanks :)

*I love Amazon for including information such as date of printing and binding - old hardbacks are "nice", but when they fall apart in your hands they swiftly lose their appeal...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 27, 2009, 08:16:48 AM
Quote from: Lethe on June 27, 2009, 03:55:50 AM
Sounds just the ticket. because I am not used to such florid prose, it will be a refreshing change whether I enjoy it or not. I just ordered the cheapest copy of the newest print-run I could find,* thanks :)

*I love Amazon for including information such as date of printing and binding - old hardbacks are "nice", but when they fall apart in your hands they swiftly lose their appeal...

I betcha five million pounds you'll like it. There's no better way to go tramping through the Victorian art world. After I first read it (and I've reread it many times since) those guys became my friends for life, with all their absurdities and brilliances and quirks and foibles. So now, when I see one of their pictures in a gallery, it doesn't feel remote and museumified; it feels more like getting a phone call from an old chum.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 27, 2009, 10:44:01 AM
Jeff Strand's PRESSURE. If you like what I like, read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 29, 2009, 04:57:56 AM
An article about custody.

QuoteJackson left behind three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11; and Prince Michael II, 7. The youngest son was born to a surrogate mother.

For someone of 'artistic genius', he didn't have all that much imagination naming his children (a daughter with Michael among her names?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on June 29, 2009, 05:00:15 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/t0/t3658.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 29, 2009, 05:14:37 AM
An older item from The Onion:

Michael Jackson Deposed As King of Pop in Hitless Coup (http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/michael_jackson_deposed_as)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on June 29, 2009, 06:19:35 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 29, 2009, 04:57:56 AM
An article about custody.

For someone of 'artistic genius', he didn't have all that much imagination naming his children (a daughter with Michael among her names?)
One of the most beautiful women I've ever known was named Michael.  Like Sydney, it was an upper-class rarity, but the latter is growing more common these days whereas the former still seems rare.  In Mr. Jackson's case, naming all his adopted children "Michael" seems a likely symptom of something else.

That poor fellow (Mr. Jackson) -- in many ways a tragic figure for our age.  On the face of it, his thing for children (whatever it was) may have been a pathology induced by his own stolen childhood. 

Re. Lethe & Elgarian's discussion about Pre-Raphaelite painters:  When I was a very young man, still enthralled by my childhood indoctrination into the 20th Century cults of "Modernism" and "Progress," when I saw reproduced images of Pre-Raphaelite works I hastily dismissed them as sentimental schlock:  illustration, not Art.  That changed after my first visit to the Tate Gallery.

I'm not sure if Wm. Morris & friends were hip to the implications of the class system underpinning the world of beauty and grace they preferred to the machine age bearing down on them.  I suspect that most of those groveling for a living in Dickens's England would trade their lives in a heartbeat for the life of a typical English working-class fellow today.  And yet I cannot help but imagine what sort of world we might have had the benefits of that Victorian explosion of science and industry been applied without the attendant population explosion and with the guidance of the values celebrated by the Arts & Crafts movement.  Present figures suggest that ~3 billion people worldwide live in poverty today.  That's more than twice the total global population at the time Millais painted Mariana. 

(Incidentally, in researching the date of the painting -- 1850-51 -- I came upon this brief but enlightening essay (http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/millais/paintings/king1.html) about its provenance and reception and this more detailed critical evaluation (http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/millais/leng3.html).)

Thank you, Elgarian, for bringing Gaunt's book to our attention.  I've ordered a copy and look forward to reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 29, 2009, 06:51:30 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on June 29, 2009, 06:19:35 AM
One of the most beautiful women I've ever known was named Michael.

And, of course, the French Michelle and the Italian Micaela are feminized forms of the name.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 29, 2009, 07:51:05 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on June 29, 2009, 06:19:35 AM
When I was a very young man, still enthralled by my childhood indoctrination into the 20th Century cults of "Modernism" and "Progress," when I saw reproduced images of Pre-Raphaelite works I hastily dismissed them as sentimental schlock:  illustration, not Art.  That changed after my first visit to the Tate Gallery.

One still occasionally finds that 'illustration, not art' accusation levelled at them today. Trouble is, if one dumped in the cellars of the world all the paintings, drawings and prints that are 'illustrations' we wouldn't have all that much left to look at.

Quote(Incidentally, in researching the date of the painting -- 1850-51 -- I came upon this brief but enlightening essay (http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/millais/paintings/king1.html) about its provenance and reception and this more detailed critical evaluation (http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/millais/leng3.html).)

This is good stuff, and demonstrates the inadequacy of the description of the PreRs as 'realist' painters; rather, they were symbolic realist painters - very different animals (although I don't think Rossetti ever qualified as being any kind of 'realist', being much closer to the Blake  end of the spectrum). That's why Ruskin was so drawn to them - brought up on Natural Theology and Biblical typology, he could 'read' their pictures extraordinarily well, and his writings on them are very enlightening. Incidentally, even though I've boggled at it a lot of times over the years, Hunt's Scapegoat still qualifies as one of the most extraordinary paintings I've ever seen in terms of sheer unignorable unforgettable presence. Love it or hate it (or both), that goat bleats at you across the gallery and demands attention to its surreal miserableness.

QuoteI've ordered a copy and look forward to reading it.

It's a sure-fire hit, I promise. I won't bet money on it this time though, just in case Lethe doesn't like it and I have to cough up five million pounds.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on June 29, 2009, 08:04:30 AM
I am finding this discussion on the Pre-Raphaelite group interesting and I also find it related to a chapter on Longfellow in the Columbia History of American Poetry.  The author complains that Longfellow was a victim of Modernism, the critical school which decided that the only poetry and poets worth studying were those requiring critical exegesis, hence the narrative poets of the 19th Century were ignored, or deemed unworthy, because their verse could be understood without needing any gloss, and the only poets from the 19th Century they chose to write about were the ones they decided could provide the precedent path to Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickenson and about half of Edgar Allen Poe.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 29, 2009, 12:29:27 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on June 29, 2009, 07:51:05 AM
It's a sure-fire hit, I promise. I won't bet money on it this time though, just in case Lethe doesn't like it and I have to cough up five million pounds.

0:) In-related news, getting into the Thames & Hudson book has been fun so far - the writer's prose is very readable. It has helped me seperate the individual styles of the artists more effectively. Prior to this, I was still somewhat confused at what works like Madox Brown's Work could possibly have to do with Rossetti's fish-lipped maidens. Realising this has prompted me to look further into individual painters, and it seems that the further a painter gets from Rossetti's ideals, the more I like them. An example is Waterhouse, who I find to take the best from the Pre-Raphs, but sometimes fuses it with just what they were reacting to - rather traditionally proportioned scenes. Perhaps this is why he appears to have had more "hits" than any of the others. At least six of his paintings are probably on "collective consciousness" level of exposure - at least in British society.

I wonder whether my Rossetti problem can ever be cured - as it manifests itself in artists more influenced by him than others, Sandys in particular. Where I can see value in the Millais Mariana painting, and perhaps work my way past what I saw as kitsch, I am not sure whether I could ever bend myself to finding this to be enjoyable art:

(http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5531/mariyamagdalena.jpg) (http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5531/mariyamagdalena.jpg)

But ho-hum, I'll try :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 29, 2009, 01:13:00 PM
Quote from: Lethe on June 29, 2009, 12:29:27 PM
I wonder whether my Rossetti problem can ever be cured - as it manifests itself in artists more influenced by him than others, Sandys in particular. Where I can see value in the Millais Mariana painting, and perhaps work my way past what I saw as kitsch, I am not sure whether I could ever bend myself to finding this to be enjoyable art:

(http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5531/mariyamagdalena.jpg) (http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5531/mariyamagdalena.jpg)

You're not the first to have this problem, not just with Rossetti but with some of the others too. Ruskin himself said of Ford Madox Brown: 'Pictures are pictures, and things that aren't, aren't'. And indeed, I find Madox Brown's paintings are very hard to 'like' - though his diaries are full of interest and his whole approach to his art is fascinating. Large numbers of Rossetti's later paintings were not much more than potboilers. To find him at his best, one needs to look at some of the watercolours done in the 1850s, and some of the pencil drawings he made of Elizabeth Siddal. These are among the finest works of their kind made in the nineteenth century, and their qualities are barely hinted at by the more famous pictures.

The watercolours have to be seen in the original - their jewel-like quality doesn't come over too well in reproduction: they're small, very cramped and intricate compositions often with a mystical flavour: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_005.jpg/585px-Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_005.jpg (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_005.jpg/585px-Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_005.jpg)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_-_The_First_Madness_of_Ophelia.JPG/444px-Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_-_The_First_Madness_of_Ophelia.JPG (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_-_The_First_Madness_of_Ophelia.JPG/444px-Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_-_The_First_Madness_of_Ophelia.JPG)

Here's one of the exquisite drawings of Lizzie, done with such intuitive grace that the lyrical sweeps of the pencil lines produce a kind of visual equivalent of singing:

http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/N/N04/N04629_9.jpg (http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/N/N04/N04629_9.jpg)

Frederick Sandys was not, I think a top-notch painter; his great strengths are seen in his wood engravings, which have a Durer-like intensity to them:

http://collection.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/collection/images/display/1981-1990/1983_27_5.jpg (http://collection.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/collection/images/display/1981-1990/1983_27_5.jpg)

So the best work of the Pre-Rs doesn't always come easily; one has to dig around a bit. But the more one knows about them, the more interesting their pictures become.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 29, 2009, 01:48:01 PM
Thank you so much! You are an invaluable guide :)

It looks like if the PR's best work is often found in the smaller gem-like pieces it will be neccessary to find a comprehensive artbook, perhaps one for each major artist, eventually. I doubt that a lot can be found online. Gives something fun to look forward to (and more to hunt for in second hand bookshops!).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on June 29, 2009, 08:19:21 PM
Quote from: Lethe on June 29, 2009, 12:29:27 PM
...it seems that the further a painter gets from Rossetti's ideals, the more I like them. An example is Waterhouse, who I find to take the best from the Pre-Raphs, but sometimes fuses it with just what they were reacting to - rather traditionally proportioned scenes. Perhaps this is why he appears to have had more "hits" than any of the others. At least six of his paintings are probably on "collective consciousness" level of exposure - at least in British society.

http://www.jwwaterhouse.com/
http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/articles/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 29, 2009, 11:23:57 PM
How about Rosetti's poetry? Is it any good?

Thread duty: Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 30, 2009, 01:26:02 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on June 29, 2009, 08:19:21 PM
http://www.jwwaterhouse.com/
http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/articles/

Thanks for the links - it's interesting that lost or unknown Waterhouse works are still being located to this day :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 30, 2009, 01:38:10 AM
Quote from: Lethe on June 29, 2009, 01:48:01 PM
It looks like if the PR's best work is often found in the smaller gem-like pieces it will be neccessary to find a comprehensive artbook, perhaps one for each major artist, eventually. I doubt that a lot can be found online. Gives something fun to look forward to (and more to hunt for in second hand bookshops!).

Yes, the hunt is all part of the pleasure, isn't it? I think maybe the perfect Pre-Raphaelite Art book has yet to be published, but for a collection of nicely ordered reproductions of a generous size, Christopher Wood's book is OK and won't break the bank - it's been reprinted quite often:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pre-Raphaelites-Christopher-Wood/dp/1841881163/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246352825&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pre-Raphaelites-Christopher-Wood/dp/1841881163/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246352825&sr=1-1)

Another one well worth looking out for is the big fat catalogue that accompanied the big blockbuster show at the Tate in 1984. My goodness, I read the print off my copy back then, and the show was terrific. It was reprinted with corrections in 1995, so it's not too hard to find these days (see below - there's a copy available at £12 secondhand at the moment which is a good bargain) - and it has your favourite picture on the cover!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pre-Raphaelites-Leslie-Parris/dp/1854371444/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246353291&sr=1-6 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pre-Raphaelites-Leslie-Parris/dp/1854371444/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246353291&sr=1-6)

I'll stop there. I don't want to be a steam-rollering enthusiast, flattening you in my headlong rush ....

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 30, 2009, 01:43:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 29, 2009, 11:23:57 PM
How about Rosetti's poetry? Is it any good?

Pretty much what you might expect from his pictures:


The blessed damozel leaned out
From the gold bar of Heaven;
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters stilled at even;
She had three lilies in her hand,
And the stars in her hair were seven.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on June 30, 2009, 09:26:34 AM
Ring Resounding by John Culshaw.

It's good. But you know that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on July 02, 2009, 05:43:49 AM
Re-reading:

Beethoven Lewis Lockwood
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 02, 2009, 05:46:40 AM
THE GOLDEN CAT by Max Brand
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on July 02, 2009, 06:06:23 AM
The Fall of the Roman Empire "A New History of Rome and the Barbarians" by Peter Heather.  (Oxford historian using the most recent archeological and textual discoveries.)

The author's thesis is that Christianity and/or corruption and/or incompetence (Gibbon's thesis) are over-rated as reasons for decline and fall: the Germanic tribes had experienced an agricultural revolution of sorts, according to new archeology, and their greater population and military successes caused the Empire to wobble and fade away.  There has been a thesis in the last decades that there was not so much a "fall" as a slow transition into the Middle Ages, with things gradually deteriorating as ever more unsophisticated barbarians emigrated into the empire and gained control from the inside, and did not understand how to keep civilization going.

Heather seems to indicate that a "fall" did indeed occur, rapidly, and that it was in fact because the Germanic (and later Hunnic i.e. Turkish) barbarians had become militarily and politically sophisticated.

So far the book shows that the barbarians were underestimated by the (too?) civilized Romans.  Of interest is that the Roman attempts to invite barbarians into the empire, including bringing the sons of Germanic chiefs to live at the various courts to enjoy the luxuries of Roman life, sometimes backfired.  The Goth remained unconvinced by everything he saw, and went back with knowledge of how the Roman mind operated, knowledge then used against the Romans.

Sounds like the 9-11 terrorists: remember how we scratched our heads and wondered how, after living here 5 years or longer, they still carried out their mission.  Didn't they see how wonderful we are?

Tribal loyalties sometimes trump economic and political logic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on July 02, 2009, 06:40:55 AM
Quote from: Cato on July 02, 2009, 06:06:23 AM
Of interest is that the Roman attempts to invite barbarians into the empire, including bringing the sons of Germanic chiefs to live at the various courts to enjoy the luxuries of Roman life, sometimes backfired.  The Goth remained unconvinced by everything he saw, and went back with knowledge of how the Roman mind operated, knowledge then used against the Romans.

Sounds like the 9-11 terrorists: remember how we scratched our heads and wondered how, after living here 5 years or longer, they still carried out their mission.  Didn't they see how wonderful we are?
Reminds me of the cross-cultural experience on the American frontier.  Years ago I read that, although there are countless documented accounts of Europeans in the New World who chose to become Indians, there are very few accounts of Indians who chose to live as Europeans (though one of my ancestors did, like most who "made that choice" he was raised by whites from the time he was a young child, so the extent to which it was a "choice" is questionable). 

How many would willingly leave Eden's garden if they were not cast out with the gate barred behind them?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 02, 2009, 08:46:23 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 29, 2009, 11:23:57 PM
Thread duty: Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle.

The whole premise of this book is flawed: why would any sane person in the first half of the 17th century go from Venice to Florence by sea???  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 02, 2009, 09:12:08 AM
How do you get to Florence by sea?  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 02, 2009, 09:15:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 02, 2009, 08:46:23 AM
The whole premise of this book is flawed: why would any sane person in the first half of the 17th century go from Venice to Florence by sea???  :o


And why to White Castle? There must have been better burgers elsewhere.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 02, 2009, 09:44:54 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 02, 2009, 09:12:08 AM
How do you get to Florence by sea?  ;)

Piece of cake: set sail in Venice, navigate alongside three quarters of Italy's coastline through Turkish-pirates-roamed waters, arrive at Pisa then take the coach to Florence. :)

Really, it's as absurd as it gets.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 02, 2009, 09:46:15 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 02, 2009, 09:15:48 AM
And why to White Castle? There must have been better burgers elsewhere.  0:)

I'm halfway through the book and there's no mention of any castle, white or black.  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on July 03, 2009, 10:56:19 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z5N3ZW57L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 04, 2009, 05:42:22 AM
Elgarian: re. early Rossetti being more interesting, these books have been helpful in introducing me to these works - the sketches as well, so oddly different to some of the later inflated-lady pictures. They look very medieval in their busyness and (lack of) perspective, there is more of an edge. I like Timothy Hilton's way of describing it:

"Stylistically, The Girlhood of the Virgin Mary is composed with a kind of simple-minded originality, in which it is difficult to distinguish the parts played by calculation and by sheer lack of ability."

I did end up ordering that large-format Tate book you linked, and the large images and capsule (but not too brief) descriptions are ideal companions to the other more biographical books. I also ran into a small one by John Nicoll in town, which demanded purchasing given its price of £1.50. That one seems more along the lines of the Timothy Hilton book - a general overview, but with seemingly almost exclusive focus on the original three.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on July 04, 2009, 08:03:13 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 04, 2009, 05:42:22 AM
Elgarian: re. early Rossetti being more interesting, these books have been helpful in introducing me to these works - the sketches as well, so oddly different to some of the later inflated-lady pictures. They look very medieval in their busyness and (lack of) perspective, there is more of an edge. I like Timothy Hilton's way of describing it:

"Stylistically, The Girlhood of the Virgin Mary is composed with a kind of simple-minded originality, in which it is difficult to distinguish the parts played by calculation and by sheer lack of ability."

Yes - Rossetti in the 1850s was a very different artist to the one he became later. (I like your expression 'more of an edge'.) And that's a characteristically insightful comment of Tim Hilton's - it's expressed so well that it drives you back to look at the picture to check on its truth, and smile at it.

QuoteI did end up ordering that large-format Tate book you linked, and the large images and capsule (but not too brief) descriptions are ideal companions to the other more biographical books.

I don't believe you'll regret that - it's not a reading-from-cover-to-cover book, but nonetheless an essential source of information.

QuoteI also ran into a small one by John Nicoll in town, which demanded purchasing given its price of £1.50. That one seems more along the lines of the Timothy Hilton book - a general overview, but with seemingly almost exclusive focus on the original three.

Yes, that's a little treasure by John Nicoll, with some interesting choices of illustrations, albeit mostly b/w: eg pp. 60-63; only one late Rossetti oil; p.136; p.160 - I could ramble on at considerable length about that Burne-Jones woodcut alone!

Warning: you'll know you're getting dangerously hooked when you start looking for a copy of the Moxon Tennyson. And if you start getting interested in Ruskin, the floodgates will really fly open.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 04, 2009, 08:20:08 AM
Hehe, we have similar habits. When I become interested in something, I'll be damned if I am not going to venture into every avenue, square and corner of it... At some rapidly approaching point I am going to have to find a book or two just on Millais - partly to look into how supposedly horrible his later works were, but mainly because of the big three, he grabs me the most. Rossetti jumping up in my esteem has left Hunt quite exposed. He has more of a technical ability than Rossetti, but in most of his images I find something very wooly (pun regarding his numerous paintings of sheep not intended) about the style - quite uncomfortable. I can't pin down why because they don't appear uninspired or insipid, I simply long for more of the clarity of expression and clean edges of Millais, including the razor-sharp focus on composition.

I would also be interested in a lengthy book which focuses mainly or exclusively on the followers, as I can envisage a point where each book will simply recycle a lot of information from each other about the big three, but I doubt whether such a thing would be marketable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on July 04, 2009, 08:59:35 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 04, 2009, 08:20:08 AM
Hehe, we have similar habits. When I become interested in something, I'll be damned if I am not going to venture into every avenue, square and corner of it... At some rapidly approaching point I am going to have to find a book or two just on Millais - partly to look into how supposedly horrible his later works were, but mainly because of the big three, he grabs me the most. Rossetti jumping up in my esteem has left Hunt quite exposed. He has more of a technical ability than Rossetti, but in most of his images I find something very wooly (pun regarding his numerous paintings of sheep not intended) about the style - quite uncomfortable. I can't pin down why because they don't appear uninspired or insipid, I simply long for more of the clarity of expression and clean edges of Millais, including the razor-sharp focus on composition.

I would also be interested in a lengthy book which focuses mainly or exclusively on the followers, as I can envisage a point where each book will simply recycle a lot of information from each other about the big three, but I doubt whether such a thing would be marketable.

Arthur Hughes:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518339M1KZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

See Amazon Marketplace sellers:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arthur-Hughes-His-Life-Works/dp/1851492623/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246725513&sr=1-1

Fred Sandys:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RSV66664L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frederick-Sandys-Catalogue-Betty-Elzea/dp/1851493972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246725644&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frederick-Sandys-Catalogue-Betty-Elzea/dp/1851493972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246725644&sr=1-1)

There was a scrumptious catalogue of a Millais exhibition at the Tate a few years ago, but it seems to be out of print now. On a smaller scale, this is a cracker, packed with letters and bristling with authenticity (Millais and the Ruskins):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0719517001/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&qid=1246725954&sr=1-28&condition=used (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0719517001/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&qid=1246725954&sr=1-28&condition=used)

There's no shortage of stuff on Burne-Jones. Oh, I can spend your money for you in so many ways. And I just discovered this, which I didn't know existed till now:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51u2MXTXqKL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Millaiss-Collected-Illustrations-Everett-Millais/dp/1843680351/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246725747&sr=1-7 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Millaiss-Collected-Illustrations-Everett-Millais/dp/1843680351/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246725747&sr=1-7)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 04, 2009, 09:19:18 AM
Thanks for the links, although I phrased my comment poorly - but I would've inevitably ended up getting ones focusing on single artists as well. I meant the possibility of a book focusing on an overview of the followers as a whole, similar to how most focus on the brotherhood, leaving those who come after with rather less space. But it's a bit of a pipe dream I think :P

I am not sure what to make of Hughes. Probably like a lot of people, April Love was the first work of his that I had seen (in fact, before I went on this binge, it was probably the only one of his that I retained a memory of), and I was struck by the amazing expression of the figure, the interesting composition, and the richness of colour despite the darkness and limited palette. He has a superb technical ability, but I don't get the same feeling of "wow" from a lot of his other work. Although I suppose his skill with a brush is an ability that can be admired in its own right... Ack. I'm too good at spending money. Why am I not rich? I'd make so much better use of it than buying Ferraris.

I think I'll grab Millais and the Ruskins at some point soon, given its price, but as for the others... I'm a cheapskate and will have to wait until I run into lower prices! Thanks for putting up with my prattling, by the way!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on July 04, 2009, 12:52:04 PM
Quote from: Lethe on July 04, 2009, 09:19:18 AM
Thanks for the links, although I phrased my comment poorly - but I would've inevitably ended up getting ones focusing on single artists as well. I meant the possibility of a book focusing on an overview of the followers as a whole, similar to how most focus on the brotherhood, leaving those who come after with rather less space. But it's a bit of a pipe dream I think

No you were clear; but I'm pretty sure there's no such volume, so I offered the next best thing.

QuoteI am not sure what to make of Hughes. Probably like a lot of people, April Love was the first work of his that I had seen (in fact, before I went on this binge, it was probably the only one of his that I retained a memory of), and I was struck by the amazing expression of the figure, the interesting composition, and the richness of colour despite the darkness and limited palette. He has a superb technical ability, but I don't get the same feeling of "wow" from a lot of his other work.

I think that's normal, and I have the same feeling too about his other work. April Love is so exceptional, not just in Hughes's oeuvre, but in the whole of PreRaphaelitism, that there's no following it. For some years it was Tate Britain's best-selling postcard; probably still is: one of the great images in the history of British art. It's a curious thing about Hughes, but just as he almost inadvertently painted that great picture, just once, so he almost inadvertently became one of the great children's book illustrators - for just a couple of books. He tuned in with extraordinary sensitivity to the writings of George MacDonald, and poured his soul into illustrating them when they were published in Good Words For the Young in the early 1870s. Bound volumes of the magazine still turn up now and then in secondhand bookshops for a few pounds - often battered and in pieces - and as you flip through the pages, there in among the typical undistinguished routine wood engravings are these wonderful little visions in black and white, lovingly crafted from the woodblocks by AH and his engraver.

QuoteAlthough I suppose his skill with a brush is an ability that can be admired in its own right...

We turn to that when the vision has failed, I suppose. It's not the real thing though, alas.

QuoteAck. I'm too good at spending money. Why am I not rich? I'd make so much better use of it than buying Ferraris.

Oh gosh, so would I. We could make a far greater success of being rich than those incompetent bunglers who actually are.

QuoteI think I'll grab Millais and the Ruskins at some point soon, given its price

It all focuses, mostly through the actual letters written at the time, on Millais's painting of Ruskin's portrait by a stream in a remote wooded valley in Scotland, and on the affair that developed there between Millais and Mrs Ruskin. All very scandalous. It seems there was never a dull moment if you were a PreRaphaelite. It's very much an 'I was there' book, containing intimate details like the little sketches that Millais drew, and the letters he wrote to Hunt while they were staying in a little cottage in the valley.

QuoteThanks for putting up with my prattling, by the way!

No - I thought you were doing a grand job of putting up with mine!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 04, 2009, 01:15:10 PM
I'm going to be scouring secondhand stores over the coming weeks. Sherborne, Crewkerne and Dorchester won't know what hit them 0:)

BTW, anyone interested by Elgarian's passionate advocacy of the pre-Raphs should note that a recent BBC series on them is still available on iPlayer (the first episode expires in 3 days):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00l7qpy

You'll need a UK IP to be able to view it, so either... be from the UK or use a proxy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on July 04, 2009, 01:48:03 PM
Quote from: Lethe on July 04, 2009, 01:15:10 PM
I'm going to be scouring secondhand stores over the coming weeks. Sherborne, Crewkerne and Dorchester won't know what hit them

Keep your eyes open for one of these:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1253689804&searchurl=an%3Dtennyson%26bi%3D0%26bx%3Doff%26ds%3D30%26pn%3Dmoxon%26sortby%3D3%26sts%3Dt%26tn%3Dpoems%26x%3D65%26y%3D7%26yrh%3D1865 (http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1253689804&searchurl=an%3Dtennyson%26bi%3D0%26bx%3Doff%26ds%3D30%26pn%3Dmoxon%26sortby%3D3%26sts%3Dt%26tn%3Dpoems%26x%3D65%26y%3D7%26yrh%3D1865)

They bring fancy prices online these days, but they still turn up now and then for £20 or less. Owning one is sort of like having Millais, Hunt and Rossetti coming for dinner. Well, sort of. OK, not at all, really, but I dream.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on July 04, 2009, 02:23:58 PM
Finishing (and it's been quite insightful and worth reading!):

(http://gazonk.org/~eloj/images/covers/the_age_of_reason.jpeg)

Just starting:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CN1BFQJ7L._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on July 04, 2009, 11:56:21 PM
Quote from: Bu on July 04, 2009, 02:23:58 PM
Just starting:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CN1BFQJ7L._SS500_.jpg)

I love that painting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Philosopher_Lecturing_on_the_Orrery), especially the illumination of the faces -- which seems a little blown out on the picture posted above! It was also on the cover of another book I was reading a couple of months ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 05, 2009, 03:43:00 AM
(http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/media/9783822830062/art-nouveau.jpg)

Finished this few days ago. It's fairly good, Sembach's style is rather dry and he does push few ideas that don't really work for me, like linking Art Nouveau with film, connection I don't see on deeper level (he drops that one quickly anyhow) and more so the idea of Art Nouveau being the style that thrived in provinces rather than centers, while that works for France (Nancy), Germany (Weimar, Darmstadt, Munich) or in cases of Glasgow and Helsinki, Sembach gets in major problem trying to fit Vienna into his scheme and with some theoretical acrobatics he makes the Vienna some sort of sublimation of movement. I'm not sure I buy that on first spin, would have to re-read that part.
Other than that book is actually quite decent, focusing on architecture and design rather than painting (good idea).

After this one I intended to go straight in some decent sized book on Bauhaus (given that Gropius and Rohe were students and assistants of Peter Behrens) but that'll have to wait. My between the errands stop at largest local bookstore yesterday was pretty pathetic (haven't had the time for browsing around), Ullman & Konemann book on Bauhaus which was my primary target was out of stock and so was some unrelated stuff I was also looking for, like Terrail's Fragonard and they haven't even heard of Liotard, let alone of his pastels (now I see there is only one book in English and difficult to find even on-line). Not to walk out empty handed I picked up Ullman & Konemann's book on Romanesque art. At first dips looks impressive, though I'm not sure I'll start that now or try to get the Bauhaus to keep the momentum.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rrbTcitxL._SL500_.jpg)

Other than this I've been leisurely re-reading some Chekhov stories, nothing else due the shortage of time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on July 06, 2009, 07:39:16 AM
I wasn't really enjoying Isaac Babel's simplistic and ugly style, so I've set him aside for now.

I've started instead:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515ZKKQCHCL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 07, 2009, 04:14:28 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V67C5MB9L.jpg)

this book is turning into a 2 year project, currently on quantum field theory which is about 2/3rds through the total
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on July 08, 2009, 06:28:49 AM
I recently finished Julio Cortázar's Todos los fuegos el fuego.

Yesterday I picked up Demian by Hermann Hesse from the library. I started reading it and it seems really interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on July 08, 2009, 06:33:45 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 07, 2009, 04:14:28 PM
this book is turning into a 2 year project, currently on quantum field theory which is about 2/3rds through the total

How effective is it? And how much of the material are you already familiar with?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 08, 2009, 08:11:31 AM
Quote from: opus106 on July 08, 2009, 06:33:45 AM
How effective is it? And how much of the material are you already familiar with?
My knowledge of physics going into this was Discover-magazine level & now at least I know what I don't know

Its very well done, with the caveat that it is written by a mathematical genius who thinks he can explain most of the math involved in modern physics (differential forms, tensor calculus, symmetry groups, fibre bundles etc) in the first 400 pages of the book.  I hit it knowing a little calculus and it was a tough go but it is presented in a way that does allow you to sort of get the concepts qualitatively without doing the work & study necessary to know them well enough to actually do physics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on July 08, 2009, 08:41:18 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 08, 2009, 08:11:31 AM
My knowledge of physics going into this was Discover-magazine level & now at least I know what I don't know

Its very well done, with the caveat that it is written by a mathematical genius who thinks he can explain most of the math involved in modern physics (differential forms, tensor calculus, symmetry groups, fibre bundles etc) in the first 400 pages of the book.  I hit it knowing a little calculus and it was a tough go but it is presented in a way that does allow you to sort of get the concepts qualitatively without doing the work & study necessary to know them well enough to actually do physics.

Ah. Glad that you're liking it. I once borrowed it from the library, at a time when I preferred my textbooks that dealt with one subject at a time quite extensively ;D, so I wasn't too excited about taking the time to read this tome. Now my physics and maths are a few years behind me and a little rusty and I just have enough time to push in a novel or a not-so-big non-fiction. I'll still be sceptical, though, about Penrose's book until I read it. :)


Thread duty:

Finding Moonshine: A Mathematician's Journey through Symmetry
Marcus du Sautoy

Till now it's been all about picking up shapes, rotating them by a certain amount and seeing that the look the same. The current chapter is about symmetries the author found (just about everywhere) during a visit to the Alhambra. Flicking through the book, I see some discussion of complex numbers and there's a whole chapter on 'sounding symmetry' -- a discussion of symmetries found in music, the western kind, I guess. I find names like Boulez, Messiaen, and Xenakis sprinkled throughout the chapter, and there is even a reprint of a Xenakis score, which doesn't look all that different from an engineering graph. Very curious to read that.

Oh, of course Bach is mentioned. 0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on July 09, 2009, 01:08:00 AM
JOACHIM FEST:      "Der lange Weg zum 20. Juli"

A book with a great quality of historical research, very detailed. The image given by Fest of the German Resistance to Hitler is not very flattering.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 09, 2009, 03:19:23 AM
My favourite autobio :3

(http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/9351/wwwrandomhousecom.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on July 09, 2009, 08:07:22 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 09, 2009, 03:19:23 AM
My favourite autobio :3

(http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/9351/wwwrandomhousecom.gif)

I'm not a great Berlioz fan - in fact I don't know much beyond Symphonie Fantastique and Damnation of Faust. But I've sometimes wondered if the autobiog was worth a shot. Would reading it inspire me to listen to more? Or should I listen to more in order to be inspired to read it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 09, 2009, 08:51:46 AM
I like Berlioz's music (especially due to its colourful rambling), but even if I didn't I would find his life inspiring - he is one of the great Romantic figures. His large biography by Cairns is perfect, of course, but his memoirs involve no such slog. It is in fact extremely funny, compelling (naturally some of it is probably embelished), and written in a surprisingly un-dense manner. As it is, it fits nicely between a real biography and his fictional Evenings with the Orchestra. which is equally fun and inimitable. These books stand alone on their own merits as interesting to anyone who wants to read a biography of a "great" person, but they did also encourage me to listen further to his music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 09, 2009, 08:54:10 AM
Quote from: Bu on July 04, 2009, 02:23:58 PM
Just starting:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CN1BFQJ7L._SS500_.jpg)
Hey! That's on my reading list!!

Paine's Age of Reason was, oddly enough, my favorite book as a high school student. I was a Paine-style deist for a few years, in fact...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on July 09, 2009, 08:58:40 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 09, 2009, 08:51:46 AM
I like Berlioz's music (especially due to its colourful rambling), but even if I didn't I would find his life inspiring - he is one of the great Romantic figures. His large biography by Cairns is perfect, of course, but his memoirs involve no such slog. It is in fact extremely funny, compelling (naturally some of it is probably embelished), and written in a surprisingly un-dense manner. As it is, it fits nicely between a real biography and his fictional Evenings with the Orchestra. which is equally fun and inimitable. These books stand alone on their own merits as interesting to anyone who wants to read a biography of a "great" person, but they did also encourage me to listen further to his music.

That sounds nice! I'll put it in my "Wish List".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on July 09, 2009, 09:07:08 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 09, 2009, 08:51:46 AM
As it is, it fits nicely between a real biography and his fictional Evenings with the Orchestra. which is equally fun and inimitable. These books stand alone on their own merits as interesting to anyone who wants to read a biography of a "great" person, but they did also encourage me to listen further to his music.

That sounds good. I've seen it in bookshops here and there, and thought 'should I or shouldn't I?' several times; so I know it's not hard to get hold of. I'll push it some rungs up my ladder of wants.

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01171/arts-graphics-2006_1171649a.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on July 09, 2009, 09:21:26 AM
By the way, Elgarian, both titles seem to be freely available online (in French):

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/b#a31953 (http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/b#a31953)

http://www.hberlioz.com/Writings/SOindex.htm (http://www.hberlioz.com/Writings/SOindex.htm)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on July 09, 2009, 09:33:56 AM
Quote from: tanuki on July 09, 2009, 09:21:26 AM
By the way, Elgarian, both titles seem to be freely available online (in French)

So they are! Thank you. I think, though, that for continuous reading (as opposed to mere reference, for which these would be invaluable), I need the real books. And a comfy chair in the garden with somewhere to put my feet up. With sunshine. And mug of really good strong coffee or a glass of beer. Maybe a toasted sandwich after an hour or so? And someone to peel grapes for me?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on July 10, 2009, 10:14:39 AM
Anybody have a Kindle or Sony reader? (I don't)  I can't imagine not being able to turn pages and bookmark, but I suppose there is a way to do that. I don't know if reading on the little screen would be harder on the eyes.

I was stranded in an airport a few weeks ago and saw a man seemingly reading a book but not turning the page. I first surmised that he was deep in thought, but then realized he was reading a Kindle. I quickly peeked over his shoulder just to check the size of the type (I tried not to look at the content, though I do have a voyeuristic streak) and it looked pretty readable.

My buddy says that Kindles are the wave of the future and that soon there will be few paper books. I was trying to visualize what Barnes and Noble might look like without books. Hundreds of computer stations (for previewing and buying) and a big coffeehouse (not bad). Rather cold, not like holding a real book, hefting it, turning the pages, flipping through to get a feel for the whole.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 10, 2009, 10:29:32 AM
Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City (2009) by Eric W. Sanderson - got a great offering from the History Book Club (been a member for 35 yrs!) - any 3 books for $33, plus free S&H, so just starting to read this well illustrated tome; some excellent recommendations - description HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Mannahatta-Natural-History-York-City/dp/0810996332/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247249957&sr=1-1) for those interested.

Great photo on the opening page - Manhattan as seen by Henry Hudson on the west side of the island, and the current NYC on the east side - should be a fasinating read!  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RLaVwJXVL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)  (http://9.media.tumblr.com/jhrnRxFguj67ov4vTh8SZkDAo1_400.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 10, 2009, 12:01:27 PM
(http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu//images/temp/212-673055-Product_LargeToMediumImage.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 10, 2009, 03:34:49 PM
I loved his Khlit stories as a kid!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 10, 2009, 06:04:33 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 10, 2009, 03:34:49 PM
I loved his Khlit stories as a kid!

Yep. Pretty entertaining.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on July 10, 2009, 09:43:16 PM
Quote from: Drasko on July 05, 2009, 03:43:00 AM
(http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/media/9783822830062/art-nouveau.jpg)

Finished this few days ago. It's fairly good, Sembach's style is rather dry and he does push few ideas that don't really work for me, like linking Art Nouveau with film, connection I don't see on deeper level (he drops that one quickly anyhow) and more so the idea of Art Nouveau being the style that thrived in provinces rather than centers, while that works for France (Nancy), Germany (Weimar, Darmstadt, Munich) or in cases of Glasgow and Helsinki, Sembach gets in major problem trying to fit Vienna into his scheme and with some theoretical acrobatics he makes the Vienna some sort of sublimation of movement. I'm not sure I buy that on first spin, would have to re-read that part.
Other than that book is actually quite decent, focusing on architecture and design rather than painting (good idea).

After this one I intended to go straight in some decent sized book on Bauhaus (given that Gropius and Rohe were students and assistants of Peter Behrens) but that'll have to wait. My between the errands stop at largest local bookstore yesterday was pretty pathetic (haven't had the time for browsing around), Ullman & Konemann book on Bauhaus which was my primary target was out of stock and so was some unrelated stuff I was also looking for, like Terrail's Fragonard and they haven't even heard of Liotard, let alone of his pastels (now I see there is only one book in English and difficult to find even on-line). Not to walk out empty handed I picked up Ullman & Konemann's book on Romanesque art. At first dips looks impressive, though I'm not sure I'll start that now or try to get the Bauhaus to keep the momentum.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rrbTcitxL._SL500_.jpg)

Other than this I've been leisurely re-reading some Chekhov stories, nothing else due the shortage of time.

Among my youth litterary explorations. Still have La Steppe (and other short novels) in my library. The kind of wonders you never wish to put aside, even as you grow older - and older  0:). Tchekhov's nouvelles ('short stories') - just like Maupassant's have been with me for 40 years. They never age.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 11, 2009, 09:46:58 AM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on July 10, 2009, 09:43:16 PM
Among my youth litterary explorations. Still have La Steppe (and other short novels) in my library. The kind of wonders you never wish to put aside, even as you grow older - and older  0:). Tchekhov's nouvelles ('short stories') - just like Maupassant's have been with me for 40 years. They never age.

Yes, completely agreed, Chekhov takes rereading extremely well. "Slice of life, delicate observation and ocassional epiphany" was superb description of his short stories I read somewhere.
His works (any genre) also work very well as film stories. There are several excellent Russian films based on Chekhov, don't know if you had the chance to see them, here's few:

(http://www.ruscico.com/covers/70_ru.jpg)
My Tender And Affectionate Animal (Shooting Party)

(http://www.ruscico.com/covers/320_ru.jpg)
Unfinished Piece For The Player Piano (Platonov)

(http://www.ruscico.com/covers/30_ru.jpg)
Lady With A Dog

There is also superb Serbian film based on Ward VI, I'd send you that but unfortunately it is released with no subtitles.

(http://www.yu4you.com/slike/dvd/1897_Lucian_Puntile.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 12, 2009, 08:35:57 PM
Anna Karenina
translated by David Magarshack
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 13, 2009, 05:08:12 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c1/c6145.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on July 13, 2009, 05:09:45 PM
(http://galtoncase.com/galton-case.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 17, 2009, 06:09:23 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 13, 2009, 05:08:12 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c1/c6145.jpg)

Mike had a little self-hatred for jolly old england there, didn't he?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on July 19, 2009, 10:46:10 AM
The last MacDonald was soooo good, had to read another:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kuFO-ycBL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on July 19, 2009, 10:49:26 AM
The greatest autobiography ever written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 19, 2009, 11:06:45 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on July 19, 2009, 10:49:26 AM
The greatest autobiography ever written.
8) 8) 8) 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 19, 2009, 11:46:08 AM
Death, Dissection and the Destitute (2000), 2nd edition - by Ruth Richardson; published originally in 1987 (w/ just an afterword added) - fascinating topic w/ many medical & ethical implications today, esp. in the procurement of 'body organs' for transplantation - brief description on HERE (http://books.google.com/books?id=dFGgZwIjSeYC&dq=death+dissection+book&source=gbs_navlinks_sl)  -  :)

(http://www.bibliovault.org/thumbs/978-0-226-71240-6-frontcover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 19, 2009, 11:48:12 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on July 19, 2009, 11:46:08 AM
Death, Dissection and the Destitute (2000), 2nd edition - by Ruth Richardson; published originally in 1987 (w/ just an afterword added) - fascinating topic w/ many medical & ethical implications today, esp. in the procurement of 'body organs' for transplantation - brief description on HERE (http://books.google.com/books?id=dFGgZwIjSeYC&dq=death+dissection+book&source=gbs_navlinks_sl)  -  :)
Congratulations! This is the 100,001th post in the Diner. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on July 20, 2009, 04:13:23 AM
David Huron: Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation (2006)

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on July 20, 2009, 04:17:08 AM
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Won the Pulitzer Prize. A series of related stories about the residents of Crosby, Maine. Olive, a crochety math teacher with a sometimes surprising streak of kindness, is involved in all the stories. It's more depressing than heartwarming--lots of suicidal ideation--but very satisfying. Strout successfully touches on many facets of the human condition. Recommended fiction.

(http://a0.vox.com/6a00ccff89efdd673101101675d578860d-500pi)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 20, 2009, 04:58:37 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 17, 2009, 06:09:23 PM
Mike had a little self-hatred for jolly old england there, didn't he?

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 20, 2009, 05:01:52 AM
Just finished a satisfying American frontier novel: Mike Roarke's THUNDER IN THE EAST...

...and now...

(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n45/n226160.jpg)

Vikings. The first in a trilogy. So far, I like...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on July 20, 2009, 06:38:56 AM
Berlin Alexanderplatz was excellent.

I'm now about halfway through this:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/cover-captiveMind.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 20, 2009, 07:17:10 AM
Just finished Alejo Carpentier's The Lost Steps. Excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on July 20, 2009, 05:33:39 PM
Quote from: bhodges on July 20, 2009, 04:13:23 AM
David Huron: Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation (2006)

--Bruce

Tell me more!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Air on July 21, 2009, 11:55:59 AM
The Iliad by Homer.

Not in Ancient Greek though, I can't really learn a language with four moods, seven tenses, and a middle ;D (somewhere between active and passive) voice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on July 21, 2009, 03:18:37 PM
Quote from: RexRichter on July 21, 2009, 11:55:59 AM
The Iliad by Homer.

Not in Ancient Greek though, I can't really learn a language with four moods, seven tenses, and a middle ;D (somewhere between active and passive) voice.

Do you also plan to read The Odyssey by Homer?  It follows the 10-year voyage and adventures of Odyssus after the Trojan War before he finally gets home.  Regarding the difficulty of Greek, one might also mention that it has its own alphabet.  What would the college fraternities and sororities due without it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 22, 2009, 12:28:33 AM
Just finished Marquis de Custine's Letters from Russia. Russia in 1839. As they say, he might have not described very accurate Nicholas I's Russia, but he described remarkably accurate Stalin's Russia. :)

Required reading for anyone interested in the subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on July 22, 2009, 06:42:20 AM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/book-ulysses_james_joyce.jpg)

Second attempt. The last time I tried I was working two jobs simultaneously, and thus didn't have the time or energy to really devote long sessions to reading it. Now I can give it its due.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 22, 2009, 11:27:08 AM
Quote from: corey on July 22, 2009, 06:42:20 AM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/book-ulysses_james_joyce.jpg)

Second attempt. The last time I tried I was working two jobs simultaneously, and thus didn't have the time or energy to really devote long sessions to reading it. Now I can give it its due.

There are free mp3s of people reading the entire book here:

http://librivox.org/ulysses-by-james-joyce/ (http://librivox.org/ulysses-by-james-joyce/)

I listened through the first 5 chapters after having read the book and there is much to be gained from hearing the words spoken
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on July 22, 2009, 11:32:18 AM
Finally reading the Brothers Karamazov for the first time. How did I live before without this book?!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 22, 2009, 12:30:39 PM
Quote from: O Mensch on July 22, 2009, 11:32:18 AM
Finally reading the Brothers Karamazov for the first time. How did I live before without this book?!
That's exactly how I felt when I read it for the first time. A revelation!

As for me ... "King Lear," by, ask Rob Newman who wrote it.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on July 22, 2009, 01:40:55 PM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on July 21, 2009, 06:27:29 AM
Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, I have nearly finished this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EEo3IwfHL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)


So glad that someone besides me is reading literature that is not a. in a foreign language b. translated from a foreign language or c. a required tome from college. I wonder what GMG-ers are really reading.  ;)Time for a trip to Borders for their "buy 1, get one for 50%"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 22, 2009, 04:19:23 PM
Quote from: Harpo on July 22, 2009, 01:40:55 PM
So glad that someone besides me is reading literature that is not a. in a foreign language b. translated from a foreign language or c. a required tome from college.

Hey! :P I've been having a fine time going through Terry Pratchett's books - but to be honest, they don't merit mentioning more than once, as they are much the same :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 24, 2009, 10:00:54 AM
Can I get some recommendations for Walter Scott? I am going through "THE CANON" after being surprised at how readable Wuthering Heights was. Scott has always been a writer from whom I had read nothing by but regardless was sure that I disliked. Everything about his biography, his Ediburgh memorial, etc screeched "you do not want this". Are there any examples of him at his least... creaky/verbose? Or perhaps the books assumed to be his best may have a vital spark above what surely must be some mundane moments in such a large output?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on July 24, 2009, 12:26:09 PM
My third straight Ross MacDonald novel, The Ivory Grin published in 1952:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0307278999.01._SX140_SY225_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on July 24, 2009, 12:39:08 PM
Quote from: Harpo on July 22, 2009, 01:40:55 PM
So glad that someone besides me is reading literature that is not a. in a foreign language b. translated from a foreign language or c. a required tome from college.

Or maybe that's just what they enjoy.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 24, 2009, 12:39:54 PM
Quote from: Bu on July 24, 2009, 12:26:09 PM
My third straight Ross MacDonald novel, The Ivory Grin published in 1952:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0307278999.01._SX140_SY225_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)

You're reading the good shit.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on July 24, 2009, 12:42:17 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 22, 2009, 11:27:08 AM
There are free mp3s of people reading the entire book here:

http://librivox.org/ulysses-by-james-joyce/ (http://librivox.org/ulysses-by-james-joyce/)

I listened through the first 5 chapters after having read the book and there is much to be gained from hearing the words spoken

That sounds like a good idea, but I'm already enjoying it so much this time around that I wouldn't need it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on July 24, 2009, 07:25:20 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 24, 2009, 12:39:54 PM
You're reading the good shit.  8)

Damn right.  Am hooked again by his prose; next after this one I'll probably read the Drowning Pool or Black Money. Seriously, can't get enough!   :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on July 25, 2009, 11:15:28 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 24, 2009, 10:00:54 AM
Can I get some recommendations for Walter Scott? I am going through "THE CANON" after being surprised at how readable Wuthering Heights was. Scott has always been a writer from whom I had read nothing by but regardless was sure that I disliked. Everything about his biography, his Ediburgh memorial, etc screeched "you do not want this". Are there any examples of him at his least... creaky/verbose? Or perhaps the books assumed to be his best may have a vital spark above what surely must be some mundane moments in such a large output?
Not sure about Walter Scott but don't start at the beginning. I made this mistake years ago and soon abandoned the attempt. Speaking of Wuthering Heights, I'm now reading Shirley because I've just discovered that I never have. I'm planning to read Villette next. These novels are beautifully written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 26, 2009, 03:39:35 AM
Quote from: Ten thumbs on July 25, 2009, 11:15:28 AM
Speaking of Wuthering Heights, I'm now reading Shirley because I've just discovered that I never have. I'm planning to read Villette next. These novels are beautifully written.

:) It's The Professor by Charlotte next up for me, as I ran into it for £1 and thought "why not?".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brünnhilde ewig on July 26, 2009, 06:00:38 AM
One Step Behind, the book of the last three Wallander video episodes, written by Henning Mankell.

Even after watching the DVD three times - Kenneth Branagh in the title role - I am fascinated by the book and already ordered the other two. Who knows I might even go for the entire ten books of the Wallander series.

And more: I am not a mystery reader! My author before Mankell were Thomas Bernhard's plays in the original German.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 26, 2009, 11:37:06 PM
Quote from: Lethe on July 24, 2009, 10:00:54 AM
Can I get some recommendations for Walter Scott? I am going through "THE CANON" after being surprised at how readable Wuthering Heights was.

I might get something wrong but... what's Wuthering !Heights got to do with Walter Scott?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on July 27, 2009, 12:59:01 AM
Quote from: Ten thumbs on July 25, 2009, 11:15:28 AM
Speaking of Wuthering Heights ...

... many, many years ago, in my 'Bronte phase', I used to trek out across Haworth moor to Wuthering Heights at the weekends, and read the novel sitting by the ruins of the building that inspired it. Soppy old romantic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on July 27, 2009, 02:26:51 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 26, 2009, 11:37:06 PM
I might get something wrong but... what's Wuthering !Heights got to do with Walter Scott?  :)

It's the "canon of great English-language literature" term that gets thrown around a lot over here - enough to elicit looks of sweaty panic from the average schoolchild: "Here, 20,000 pages of great art to read - now get to it, chop-chop!". Until now I haven't enjoyed much of the popular Romantic portion of this large pile, so I figure that as I have a foot in with Wuthering Heights, I may as well work on some of the other stuff :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 27, 2009, 02:35:47 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 27, 2009, 02:26:51 AM
It's the "canon of great English-language literature" term that gets thrown around a lot over here - enough to elicit looks of sweaty panic from the average schoolchild: "Here, 20,000 pages of great art to read - now get to it, chop-chop!". Until now I haven't enjoyed much of the popular Romantic portion of this large pile, so I figure that as I have a foot in with Wuthering Heights, I may as well work on some of the other stuff :)

I got it right this time, thanks. Good luck with Scott and please keep us updated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on July 27, 2009, 04:46:20 AM
Houseboat Chronicles - by Jake Macdonald

*Great childhood memories!  Autobiographical story about growing up in a prairie city and summer life at the cottage in beautiful Northwest Ontario.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 27, 2009, 05:20:12 AM
BU,

You know about HARD CASE CRIME (http://www.hardcasecrime.com/)?

I'm reading DUTCH UNCLE right now. Enjoying it too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 27, 2009, 05:31:39 AM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/36950000/36959661.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on July 27, 2009, 11:41:58 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 27, 2009, 05:20:12 AM
BU,

You know about HARD CASE CRIME (http://www.hardcasecrime.com/)?

I'm reading DUTCH UNCLE right now. Enjoying it too.


Yessir; have bought some books published by them of Goodis and Parker.  Good stuff, Dave.  :)

Just started: The Drowning Pool by Ross MacDonald. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 28, 2009, 07:33:31 AM
'Salem's Lot by that King fellow. Second time reading (last time was nearly 30 years ago; we'll see how it holds up).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on July 28, 2009, 07:56:06 AM
Quote from: Lethe on July 27, 2009, 02:26:51 AM
It's the "canon of great English-language literature" term that gets thrown around a lot over here - enough to elicit looks of sweaty panic from the average schoolchild: "Here, 20,000 pages of great art to read - now get to it, chop-chop!". Until now I haven't enjoyed much of the popular Romantic portion of this large pile, so I figure that as I have a foot in with Wuthering Heights, I may as well work on some of the other stuff :)

You may want to try Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. One of my favorite English novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 28, 2009, 07:58:38 AM
Lolita

Pretty famous  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on July 28, 2009, 08:11:28 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 28, 2009, 07:33:31 AM
'Salem's Lot by that King fellow. Second time reading (last time was nearly 30 years ago; we'll see how it holds up).

That's my favorite Stephen King novel! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 28, 2009, 08:16:16 AM
Quote from: DavidW on July 28, 2009, 08:11:28 AM
That's my favorite Stephen King novel! :)

Cool. It's definitely up there. I always say mine is PET SEMATARY.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on July 28, 2009, 09:15:13 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 28, 2009, 07:33:31 AM
'Salem's Lot by that King fellow. Second time reading (last time was nearly 30 years ago; we'll see how it holds up).

I remembered being scared to death by the made for TV movie series when I was really young, but I definitely thought the movie was hokey the second time around when I watched it again about 5 years ago.  Didn't have that same effect.

Now, I haven't read the book, so maybe I'd like the book better.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 28, 2009, 09:19:07 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 28, 2009, 08:16:16 AM
Cool. It's definitely up there. I always say mine is PET SEMATARY.

I received an autographed copy of this one inscribed to me for my high school graduation.  Great read.  I burnt out on his books though a few years later.  I read one after another without a break and have never returned to his work save an attempt to re-read The Stand (my favorite along with PS).  I got a few chapters in and abandoned it.  He definitely needs to be credited from my end to introducing me to the genre of horror novels, and for that matter, adult fiction.  He used to be very accessible in my hometown of Bangor.  In fact, my grandfather used to play cards with him at the Elks and it wasn't uncommon to see him at a local McDonalds.  Here is a shot of his home that you can drive by and see.  Even take a picture in front if you like.  The gates were installed because fans started approaching the house too often and even letting themselves in from time to time.  I guess he would just turn around and see a total stranger in his kitchen....probably creeped him out a bit. ;)

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Stephenking_house.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Air on July 28, 2009, 10:11:50 AM
Finished Homer's Iliad... my friend suggested I get into Russian literature, so here's my plan for the upcoming months:

War and Peace by Tolstoy
Great Short Works of Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
Great Short Works of Dostoevsky

On the hold for now: Great Short Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky

I'm finished 50 pages of War and Peace so far, quite lackluster in my opinion, but then, everyone says that about the first half of Book I.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on July 28, 2009, 12:25:37 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 28, 2009, 07:58:38 AM
Lolita

Pretty famous  :D

Gave up after 160 pages or so.  Which disappointed me because I wanted to read as many Nabokov books as possible. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 28, 2009, 12:27:25 PM
Quote from: Bu on July 28, 2009, 12:25:37 PM
Gave up after 160 pages or so.  Which disappointed me because I wanted to read as many Nabokov books as possible. 

I read the whole thing, no problem. Then I read something else by him and it scared me away for life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 28, 2009, 12:27:37 PM
Tolstoj - The Kreutzersonata

Milan Kundera - The Curtain

J.H. Donner - Hunt on the Octopus (about Harry Mulisch work)

Last two books are books on literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on July 28, 2009, 12:34:14 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 28, 2009, 12:27:25 PM
I read the whole thing, no problem. Then I read something else by him and it scared me away for life.

My next book by Vlad was going to be Invitation to a Beheading ............ ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on July 28, 2009, 02:30:27 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 26, 2009, 11:37:06 PM
I might get something wrong but... what's Wuthering !Heights got to do with Walter Scott?  :)

The Brontes were major fans of his writing. Wuthering Heights in particular was directly influenced by Scott.

Quote... many, many years ago, in my 'Bronte phase', I used to trek out across Haworth moor to Wuthering Heights at the weekends, and read the novel sitting by the ruins of the building that inspired it. Soppy old romantic.

Wonderful, wonderful  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 28, 2009, 02:50:30 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 28, 2009, 12:27:25 PM
I read the whole thing, no problem. Then I read something else by him and it scared me away for life.
Hard to believe you could have no problem with Lolita and then something else by Nabokov scares you away for life ... what was the other book??
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 28, 2009, 02:55:29 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 28, 2009, 02:50:30 PM
Hard to believe you could have no problem with Lolita and then something else by Nabokov scares you away for life ... what was the other book??

Hm. Pale Fire?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 28, 2009, 03:03:12 PM
Boy, just cannot catch up w/ my pile of books to read, mostly from the History Book Club, just bought 3 hardbacks for $11 each on a special deal!  Recent start below:

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America (2009) by Walter Borneman - despite growing up & practicing his politics in Tennessee & Washington, D.C., James K. Pok was born in Pineville, NC in 1795; his birthplace is now part of south Charlotte, near the SC state line; a state historic site w/ a re-built log cabin & visitor's center.  His older mentor, Andrew Jackson, also thought of as from Tennessee was actually born w/i 20 miles or so of Polk on the NC/SC border in 1767 (both states claim him!).

Just getting started w/ this book - comments HERE from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Man-Transformed-Presidency-America/dp/0812976746/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248821226&sr=1-1), if interested; during Polk's single term he changed and GREATLY expanded the borders of the USA; first, allowing Texas to enter the Union in 1845, helping to start the Mexican-American war (giving us California & much more), and tricking Britain out of much of the Oregon Territory - this will be an excellent (and revisionist) read on this North Carolinian by birth!  :D

(http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?type=xw12&isbn=9781400065608/LC.GIF&client=mlcslp)  (http://www.nchistoricsites.org/polk/polkmain01.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 28, 2009, 03:11:16 PM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on July 28, 2009, 02:56:05 PM
I'm guessing Laughter in the Dark.  Seriously creepy.

Creepy I like. Experimental, not so much.  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 28, 2009, 04:51:48 PM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on July 28, 2009, 04:49:20 PM
... if your taste is for cheerier fare.

Bwah-hah-hah-haaaaaa!!!

>:D

;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 28, 2009, 06:13:05 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 28, 2009, 04:51:48 PM
Bwah-hah-hah-haaaaaa!!!

>:D

;)

BU and Dave,
Saw this at the library tonight and did not know if non-fiction noir was of any interest to you:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gWoci45WL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

http://www.amazon.com/Brooklyn-Noir-Nothing-Truth-Akashic/dp/1933354143

For myself, about to start:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/c8/8e/376e81b0c8a0d1f98833b110.L._AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 28, 2009, 07:54:44 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on July 28, 2009, 03:03:12 PM
Boy, just cannot catch up w/ my pile of books to read, mostly from the History Book Club, just bought 3 hardbacks for $11 each on a special deal!  Recent start below:

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America (2009) by Walter Borneman - despite growing up & practicing his politics in Tennessee & Washington, D.C., James K. Pok was born in Pineville, NC in 1795; his birthplace is now part of south Charlotte, near the SC state line; a state historic site w/ a re-built log cabin & visitor's center.  His older mentor, Andrew Jackson, also thought of as from Tennessee was actually born w/i 20 miles or so of Polk on the NC/SC border in 1767 (both states claim him!).

Just getting started w/ this book - comments HERE from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Man-Transformed-Presidency-America/dp/0812976746/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248821226&sr=1-1), if interested; during Polk's single term he changed and GREATLY expanded the borders of the USA; first, allowing Texas to enter the Union in 1845, helping to start the Mexican-American war (giving us California & much more), and tricking Britain out of much of the Oregon Territory - this will be an excellent (and revisionist) read on this North Carolinian by birth!  :D


Dave, several years ago I got to take a class in presidential history with scholar Douglas Brinkley, who has acquired a national reputation as an author of several books, CBS' political history expert, and the director of the D-Day Museum (he was a pupil of Stephen Ambrose)... Brinkley really thought Polk was one of the greatest presidents of the 19th century, and I agree. As Dr Brinkley puts it (in my class notes), "James K. Polk campaigned on four promises: to fix the border with British Canada, to fix the border with Mexico, to reduce tariffs, and to re-establish an independent treasury. He promised in the campaign to serve only one term. And the great thing about Polk is, when he said something, he meant it. He promised to do just four things, and he did all of them. And then he quit. It's a skill we really miss today in presidential politics: the ability to set out clear goals and then carry them out."

Actually, I see from the Amazon link that Brinkley's praise-quote is on the back of your book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 29, 2009, 03:44:15 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 28, 2009, 07:54:44 PM
Dave, several years ago I got to take a class in presidential history with scholar Douglas Brinkley, who has acquired a national reputation as an author of several books, CBS' political history expert, and the director of the D-Day Museum (he was a pupil of Stephen Ambrose)... Brinkley really thought Polk was one of the greatest presidents of the 19th century, and I agree.......

Brian - Brinkley's quote along w/ a 'handful' of others is on the back of the book; that job took a toll on Polk's health - he died several months after leaving office not yet reaching his 54th birthday!  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 29, 2009, 04:19:27 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 28, 2009, 06:13:05 PM
BU and Dave,
Saw this at the library tonight and did not know if non-fiction noir was of any interest to you:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gWoci45WL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

http://www.amazon.com/Brooklyn-Noir-Nothing-Truth-Akashic/dp/1933354143

For myself, about to start:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/c8/8e/376e81b0c8a0d1f98833b110.L._AA240_.jpg)

Looks interesting, Bill. I have a book around here called Twin Cities Noir.

Haven't cracked it open yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on July 30, 2009, 01:02:18 AM
DANA R. VILLA:     "Arendt and Heidegger, the fate of the political"   (1996)

An exhaustive analysis about Arendt perspective of freedom, democracy and politics. I must admit that I am very far from such a perspective. The book is about Arendt, and Heidegger is only mentioned a few times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on July 30, 2009, 05:15:55 PM
Quote from: Bogey on July 28, 2009, 06:13:05 PM
BU and Dave,
Saw this at the library tonight and did not know if non-fiction noir was of any interest to you:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gWoci45WL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

http://www.amazon.com/Brooklyn-Noir-Nothing-Truth-Akashic/dp/1933354143

Considering the location and city, Bogey, that book looks fascinating. I'll try and pick it up, along with the one based in San Francisco .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on July 30, 2009, 05:19:19 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 28, 2009, 02:55:29 PM
Hm. Pale Fire?

I liked Pale Fire. I found the poem at the center of it to have quite a musical structure, almost like a standard four-movement symphony.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on July 31, 2009, 05:26:27 PM
My Sister, My Love by the prolific Joyce Carol Oates. A novel transparently based on the Jonbenet Ramsey murder, told by the older brother. This woman can write.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KyW3Nxd2L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on July 31, 2009, 05:59:08 PM
Quote from: Harpo on July 31, 2009, 05:26:27 PM
This woman can write.

Indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on August 01, 2009, 02:05:32 PM
Nietzsche's "The case Wagner"

He argues that the crisis in music was general and not only restricted to Wagner. In fact I think all late-romantic music is examplary of this crisis, of christian values wanting to become distinguished (is this the right english translation of the word "voornaam"?). And not only late-romantic also the music of composers like Bartok (though had much influence), Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Petrassi, Ligeti, Xenakis, Boulez, Lutoslawski, Donatoni, de Raaff I think are examples of this kind of art. It's art that seduces.
EDIT: I think composers like Janacek, Stravinsky, Messiaen, and today Andriessen and Anderson form the small row of composers who made "distinguished" music in modernity.

Hrnk
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 02, 2009, 07:17:20 AM
(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/ebooks/product/400/000/000/000/000/081/980/400000000000000081980_s4.jpg)

Been trying to find some readable science fiction, having read most all of the 70s & 80s era writers 20 years ago.  This is promising - its space opera post-singularity
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 02, 2009, 09:02:37 AM
Quote from: Henk on August 01, 2009, 02:05:32 PM
I think composers like Janacek, Stravinsky, Messiaen and Anderson form the small row of composers who made "distinguished" music in modernity.
Erm ... Leroy Anderson? The waltzing cat guy?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on August 02, 2009, 09:04:18 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 02, 2009, 09:02:37 AM
Erm ... Leroy Anderson? The waltzing cat guy?

Julian Anderson, a contemporary composer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 02, 2009, 09:09:29 AM
Quote from: Henk on August 02, 2009, 09:04:18 AM
Julian Anderson, a contemporary composer.
Oh okay.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on August 03, 2009, 07:17:32 AM
Finally finished Joyce's Ulysses. Probably the funniest book ever written.

Probably should've read this before, but now I'm starting Dubliners, and after that his play Exiles. I dare not touch the Wake yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on August 03, 2009, 10:52:31 AM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/36200000/36209176.JPG)

Black Money, by Ross MacDonald. I think Lew Archer has replaced Spade and Marlowe as my favorite literary P.I.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 03, 2009, 11:23:36 AM
Quote from: Bu on August 03, 2009, 10:52:31 AM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/36200000/36209176.JPG)

Black Money, by Ross MacDonald. I think Lew Archer has replaced Spade and Marlowe as my favorite literary P.I.

Oh, you're getting ahead of me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on August 03, 2009, 11:54:32 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 03, 2009, 11:23:36 AM
Oh, you're getting ahead of me.

Haven't read that one?  Well, I'm thinking of reading one more after this (prolly the Instant Enemy) and then calling it quits. I should go back to some good Russian Lit. soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 03, 2009, 11:55:37 AM
Quote from: Bu on August 03, 2009, 11:54:32 AM
Haven't read that one?  Well, I'm thinking of reading one more after this (prolly the Instant Enemy) and then calling it quits. I should go back to some good Russian Lit. soon.

Quits? Like permanently?  :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on August 03, 2009, 12:02:31 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 03, 2009, 11:55:37 AM
Quits? Like permanently?  :'(

Nah, just a little breather.   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 03, 2009, 01:17:03 PM
Gentlemen,
Tried some of the Brooklyn Noir and found nothing noir-ish about it so returned it and grabbed this

(http://i.biblio.com/z/114/401/9780375401114.jpg)

20 shorts from DH.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on August 03, 2009, 05:46:18 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 03, 2009, 01:17:03 PM
Gentlemen,
Tried some of the Brooklyn Noir and found nothing noir-ish about it so returned it and grabbed this

(http://i.biblio.com/z/114/401/9780375401114.jpg)

20 shorts from DH.

Badass, Bogey.  I have a collection of short stories by Hammett also called Nightmare Town, but its published by Vintage. Every tale was a lean and captivating winner; just loved the way DH methodically described action and fight sequences, too.  Perhaps the best aspect for me was that many of the tales take place in San Francisco........when I'm in the city it's cool to walk through those same streets and think of Hammett also prowling through them on a case for the Pinkertons.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 03, 2009, 05:50:05 PM
Quote from: Bu on August 03, 2009, 05:46:18 PM
Badass, Bogey.  I have a collection of short stories by Hammett also called Nightmare Town, but its published by Vintage. Every tale was a lean and captivating winner; just loved the way DH methodically described action and fight sequences, too.  Perhaps the best aspect for me was that many of the tales take place in San Francisco........when I'm in the city it's cool to walk through those same streets and think of Hammett also prowling through them on a case for the Pinkertons.

My first go around with the shorts and have cleared four of them today.  Great stuff!  For example, this opening from House Dick:

The Montgomery Hotel's regular detective had taken his last week's rake-off from the hotel bootlegger in merchandise instead of cash, had drunk it down, had fallen asleep in the lobby, and had been fired. I happened to be the only idle operative in the Continental Detective Agency's San Francisco branch at the time, and thus it came about that I had three days of hotel-coppering while a man was being found to take the job permanently.

The Montgomery is a quiet hotel of the better sort, and so I had a very restful time of it -- until the third and last day. Then things changed.

I came down into the lobby that afternoon to find Stacey, the assistant manager, hunting for me.

"One of the maids just phoned that there's something wrong up in 906," he said.

We went up to that room together. The door was open. In the centre of the floor stood a maid, staring goggle-eyed at the closed door of the clothes-press. From under it, extending perhaps a foot across the floor toward us, was a snake-shaped ribbon of blood.

I stepped past the maid and tried the door. It was unlocked. I opened it. Slowly, rigidly, a man pitched out into my arms -- pitched out backward -- and there was a six-inch slit down the back of his coat, and the coat was wet and sticky.

That wasn't altogether a surprise: the blood on the floor had prepared me for something of the sort. But when another followed him -- facing me, this one, with a dark, distorted face -- I dropped the one I had caught and jumped back.

And as I jumped a third man came tumbling out after the others.

From behind me came a scream and a thud as the maid fainted. I wasn't feeling any too steady myself. I'm no sensitive plant, and I've looked at a lot of unlovely sights in my time, but for weeks afterward I could see those three dead men coming out of that clothespress to pile up at my feet: coming out slowly -- almost deliberately -- in a ghastly game of 'follow your leader.'

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 03, 2009, 10:36:27 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 03, 2009, 05:50:05 PM
Great stuff!  For example, this opening from House Dick:

Excellent indeed!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 04, 2009, 05:07:09 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c4/c21727.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 05, 2009, 05:36:32 AM
Quote from: corey on July 28, 2009, 07:56:06 AM
You may want to try Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. One of my favorite English novels.

(Sorry, I didn't see this first time round.) I made a note on it. I hadn't even considered him until now, as I appear to have an irrational bias against anybody with a county as part of their name - I guess I had subconsciously associated him with dukedom or something ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 05, 2009, 05:38:24 AM
Quote from: Lethe on August 05, 2009, 05:36:32 AM
...as I appear to have an irrational bias against anybody with a county as part of their name...

How about a state?  :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 05, 2009, 06:49:36 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 05, 2009, 05:38:24 AM
How about a state?  :'(

Only if abbreviated!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 05, 2009, 07:58:03 AM
An MBTA On Time Service Guarantee Claim Activation
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on August 07, 2009, 02:10:13 PM
Quote from: Lethe on July 26, 2009, 03:39:35 AM
:) It's The Professor by Charlotte next up for me, as I ran into it for £1 and thought "why not?".
I found 'The Professor' in the library when I was looking for 'Villette', so luckily I am able to read it first. Charlotte's character analyses are quite scary and very compelling. I note that school kids were just as bad in those days as now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 09, 2009, 11:45:26 AM
I just finished Geck's biography of Bach.  It is very informative but sometimes it feels like merely a collection of facts and quotes without any attempt at building a narrative.  I only read the biography part, I know the musical analysis would be over my head so I didn't read that part.  The strong point is that he thoroughly trashes the mythology created in previous biographies (excepting Wolff which only debunked one little bit about speculation concerning how much secular works written during the Cothen period might have been lost) and creates an account of Bach as a man, and a musician, and not as overwhelming god amidst pions nor as forgotten genius not appreciated in his time. ::)

(http://www.classical.net/music/books/images/0151006482.jpg)

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 09, 2009, 09:51:34 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 09, 2009, 11:45:26 AM
I just finished Geck's biography of Bach.  It is very informative but sometimes it feels like merely a collection of facts and quotes without any attempt at building a narrative.  I only read the biography part, I know the musical analysis would be over my head so I didn't read that part.  The strong point is that he thoroughly trashes the mythology created in previous biographies (excepting Wolff which only debunked one little bit about speculation concerning how much secular works written during the Cothen period might have been lost) and creates an account of Bach as a man, and a musician, and not as overwhelming god amidst pions nor as forgotten genius not appreciated in his time. ::)

Thanks for this, I just bought a secondhand copy on the basis of this description - it sounds like a decent primer. I will probably take ages to get through it, though: it's so much easier to buy books than to find time to read them ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 09, 2009, 11:05:02 PM
Quote from: Lethe on August 09, 2009, 09:51:34 PM
it's so much easier to buy books than to find time to read them ::)

QFT.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 10, 2009, 03:45:51 AM
Quote from: Lethe on August 09, 2009, 09:51:34 PM
Thanks for this, I just bought a secondhand copy on the basis of this description - it sounds like a decent primer. I will probably take ages to get through it, though: it's so much easier to buy books than to find time to read them ::)

Indeed! :D (increasing Florestan's counter to +2).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on August 10, 2009, 06:17:10 AM
Quote from: DavidW on August 09, 2009, 11:45:26 AM
I just finished Geck's biography of Bach.  It is very informative but sometimes it feels like merely a collection of facts and quotes without any attempt at building a narrative.  I only read the biography part, I know the musical analysis would be over my head so I didn't read that part.  The strong point is that he thoroughly trashes the mythology created in previous biographies (excepting Wolff which only debunked one little bit about speculation concerning how much secular works written during the Cothen period might have been lost) and creates an account of Bach as a man, and a musician, and not as overwhelming god amidst pions nor as forgotten genius not appreciated in his time. ::)


:)

And increasing Sara's Thanks counter to +2 as well. :) I bought Wolff's book (The Learned Musician) a couple of months ago, but I'm yet to read it. (Receive it in truth.)


Thread duty

The Negotiator
Frederic Forsyth

I love Forsyth's works!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 10, 2009, 06:21:44 AM
Quote from: opus106 on August 10, 2009, 06:17:10 AM
And increasing Sara's Thanks counter to +2 as well. :) I bought Wolff's book (The Learned Musician) a couple of months ago, but I'm yet to read it. (Receive it in truth.)

Slow mail!  I checked it out of the public library. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on August 10, 2009, 06:25:07 AM
Quote from: DavidW on August 10, 2009, 06:21:44 AM
Slow mail!

Not quite. It's stuck at the house of a relative, along with quite a bit of Haydn and Mozart. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on August 10, 2009, 09:19:05 AM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/2905_jpg_280x450_q85.jpg)

Do I understand all of it? No. But the singing, manifold language makes it so enjoyable that understanding it all almost seems besides the point.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 10, 2009, 11:05:07 PM
(http://edituracorint.ro/images/Don-Segundo.jpg)

A bildungsroman set up in the Argentinian pampa, narrated from the perspective of the hero. The direct and concise style, which nevertheless contains beautiful and suggestive nature descriptions, is well-suited to the task. I'm enjoying it a lot.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on August 14, 2009, 09:54:20 AM
Haydn - by Pierre Barbaud

A great read!  :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 14, 2009, 09:36:12 PM
A third of the way through Geck's Bach, and David is totally on the ball about its nature as a collection of facts rather than a psychological type of biography. I was surprised by the format, which has a layout resembling a pamphlet - lots of pictures and seperated boxes of capsule information, sometimes kind of unimportant. While these do distract from the main text a little, they also offer some relief, making it very "readable" in chapter-sized chunks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on August 16, 2009, 04:57:34 AM
I am now reading Anne Brontë's 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'. Some consider this to the best Brontë novel of all. Certainly it was at the time the most shocking. Even Charlotte Brontë suppressed further edition's after Anne's death because she though it a 'mistake'. I can think of some on this board who would not like it for its stance on women's rights.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 17, 2009, 09:04:59 AM
(http://www.suvudu.com/suvudumedia/dead%20and%20alive%20comer%20image.png)

Some cheese.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on August 17, 2009, 09:24:37 AM
Quote from: corey on August 10, 2009, 09:19:05 AM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/2905_jpg_280x450_q85.jpg)

This book is making me insane. I keep reading different meanings into customers' last names at work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on August 17, 2009, 10:12:00 AM
(http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/press/ReviewINK/pulp.gif)

Heard some bad things about this one, but so far Bukowski's p.i. is hysterically funny and a lot of fun to read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 17, 2009, 10:21:46 AM
I need to read some of his shit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on August 17, 2009, 10:33:49 AM
You should, Dave.  The novels and the poetry are both good shit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 17, 2009, 10:34:32 AM
Quote from: Bu on August 17, 2009, 10:33:49 AM
You should, Dave.  The novels and the poetry are both good shit.

That's what I keep hearing from my noir pals.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on August 17, 2009, 10:35:48 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 17, 2009, 10:34:32 AM
That's what I keep hearing from my noir pals.

He fits right in, really................. ;)   ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 17, 2009, 03:31:49 PM
Alexander Theroux, An Adultery (1987)

This morning I had never even heard of Alexander Theroux (older brother of Paul). Then a Danish friend over at Thomas Ligotti Online posted a passage from this writer's magnum opus 'Darconville's Cat' which impressed me so much I went to the Royal Library in The Hague to borrow this and a later novel. Theroux is erudite and stylish. 'An Adultery' makes me want to read it in one go, but alas, it is already 1.30 AM and tomorrow I have other things to attend to. But I have 100 pages already under my belt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on August 19, 2009, 10:01:23 AM
C.P.Snow-Last Things
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on August 19, 2009, 06:04:16 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 03, 2009, 01:17:03 PM

(http://i.biblio.com/z/114/401/9780375401114.jpg)

20 shorts from DH.

This looks good. I'll grab it from the library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on August 21, 2009, 12:24:54 PM
I finished Harold Schonberg's The Lives of the Great Composers a few days ago.

I have started reading Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms. I've already enjoyed a couple of books by Capote, and this one seems pretty interesting so far.

(http://i31.tinypic.com/5vt5d4.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 21, 2009, 01:57:35 PM
The Baroque by Bazin

It's very interesting so far. Very detailed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Holden on August 22, 2009, 12:22:54 AM
(http://images.seekbooks.com.au/9781847245458.jpg)

One of the best works of detective fiction I've ever come across!!!

If you like Henning Mankell then you'll love Stieg Larsson
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 22, 2009, 04:53:52 AM
Quote from: Holden on August 22, 2009, 12:22:54 AM
(http://images.seekbooks.com.au/9781847245458.jpg)

One of the best works of detective fiction I've ever come across!!!

If you like Henning Mankell then you'll love Stieg Larsson

Yeah, everyone's raving about that one, Holden. I have a crime fiction forum; if you're interested, PM me.

Speaking of crime...

(http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books/bk48/cover_big.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: sound67 on August 22, 2009, 08:06:23 AM
(http://blogs.sun.com/sdsouza/resource/cmccarthy_theroad.jpg)

I have been an admirer of Cormac McCarthy's novels ever since I read Outer Dark (1968, which is still my favorite)) and Child of God (1973) about a decade and a half ago. Commercially, he didn't hit the big timew until All the Pretty Horses and the rest of the 'Border Trilogy', although I do think that his previous novels, up to and including Blood Meridian (1985), were the more powerful. The post-apocalyptic The Road harks back to his earlier work, particularly Child of God, his bleakest book. The Road is not quite in that class, the prose and situations being (necessarily, perhaps) slightly redundant - count how many times McCarthy mentions blackened trees e.g.

Still, there are powerful mental images and harrowing, intense situations in this new book, too.

Thomas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 23, 2009, 02:53:03 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 22, 2009, 04:53:52 AM
Yeah, everyone's raving about that one, Holden. I have a crime fiction forum; if you're interested, PM me.

I like Mankell very much. Larsson has been on my radar for some time now. I must give him a try...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 23, 2009, 01:31:25 PM
Terrorist - John Updike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 23, 2009, 04:57:19 PM
Currently on a trip to southwestern North Carolina, i.e. Highlands area - kind of a wilderness of forest & waterfalls, so bought along a book recommended to me by Ray (i.e. ChamberNut):

Houseboat Chronicles: Notes From a Life in Shield (2004) by Jake MacDonald - a very personal life history account of growing up in Manitoba, travelling to adjacent provinces, relating to the nature (and pre-Colubmbian history) of the area, and much more personal feelings & experiences - an enjoyable and too fast a read - recommended for those who like this naturalistic approach to your environment!   :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PB0RWYGAL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on August 24, 2009, 04:41:31 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on August 23, 2009, 04:57:19 PM
Currently on a trip to southwestern North Carolina, i.e. Highlands area - kind of a wilderness of forest & waterfalls, so bought along a book recommended to me by Ray (i.e. ChamberNut):

Houseboat Chronicles: Notes From a Life in Shield (2004) by Jake MacDonald - a very personal life history account of growing up in Manitoba, travelling to adjacent provinces, relating to the nature (and pre-Colubmbian history) of the area, and much more personal feelings & experiences - an enjoyable and too fast a read - recommended for those who like this naturalistic approach to your environment!   :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PB0RWYGAL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Hey Dave!  Very happy to hear you are enjoying the book.  I had a feeling you would!  :)

Thread duty:

The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway

A fictionalized story of four separate individuals (including the cellist) in Sarejevo during the terrible seige of the city in the 1990's and their struggle to survive.

Terrific read so far, yet very sad, very difficult to read at times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on August 24, 2009, 11:59:48 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0876857632.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on August 25, 2009, 12:31:59 PM
I'm about halfway through Finnegans Wake, but I'm going to stop now. I just don't think I'm ready for this book. Maybe next year.

Now reading:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/014044638901LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Probably not useful as a work of pure "scientific" history as we know it now, but invaluable for Herodotus's own thoughts on the machinations of history and as basically the first narrative prose work ever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on August 30, 2009, 12:44:09 PM
(http://pro.maruzen.jp/shop/images/goods/yo/l/2009/0914115.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 30, 2009, 01:20:23 PM
I'm about to start Swann's Way.
Wish me luck.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 30, 2009, 02:32:41 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 30, 2009, 01:20:23 PM
I'm about to start Swann's Way.
Wish me luck.

Trying to cure your insomnia? tehehe ;D

I kid, I kid! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 30, 2009, 03:15:29 PM
Boone - A Biography (2008) by Robert Morgan - this is a rather long bio about Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman, hunter, explorer, and other roles in his long life (1734-1820); born in Pennsylvannia, spent much of his early/middle adult years in the Yadkin River Valley of North Carolina (where I currently live), moved to Kentucky, and died in Missouri. 

This book has received some superlative comments and reviews (e.g. a Washington Post best book of the year), but as written by a fiction author can be somewhat rambling and wordy - may not interest those who do not live in the area; however, for me the stories on the regions I recognize, the geography, the place names, and so many other familiar discussion is just wonderful.   :D

(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm111954226/boone-robert-morgan-paperback-cover-art.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 30, 2009, 03:16:20 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 30, 2009, 02:32:41 PM
Trying to cure your insomnia? tehehe ;D

I kid, I kid! :D
;D Unfortunately it's for a class. :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on August 31, 2009, 07:00:47 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 30, 2009, 01:20:23 PM
I'm about to start Swann's Way.
Wish me luck.

Just Swann's Way? It's not that long.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on August 31, 2009, 07:11:10 AM
Reading:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/sentimental-education-the-story-of-.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on August 31, 2009, 11:33:19 AM
Quote from: corey on August 31, 2009, 07:11:10 AM
Reading:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/sentimental-education-the-story-of-.jpg)

That one is high on my "to be read" list. Comments will be appreciated! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 01, 2009, 08:03:56 AM
Quote from: corey on August 31, 2009, 07:00:47 AM
Just Swann's Way? It's not that long.
He makes it feel like it, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on September 01, 2009, 08:09:44 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 04, 2009, 05:07:09 AM
(http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c4/c21727.jpg)

That Dylan book does not please me, so the other half of the above.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on September 02, 2009, 08:31:38 AM
I've finished 'Villette' now. It is absolutely stunning and for light relief I've turned to Maria Edgeworth's 'Castle Rackrent', a short but ground-breaking work, full of Irish humour.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on September 02, 2009, 09:54:03 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S2RRG3MFL._SS500_.jpg) (via audiobook)

So far this sucks quite a lot - so much of it is lifted from Lord of the Rings. I don't know what makes fantasy such an uncreative genre, but I'm becoming tired of not finding anything worthwhile there... It is at least listenable, I suppose - the style of writing is decent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 02, 2009, 10:03:38 AM
Chekhov - The Steppe
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on September 02, 2009, 11:03:41 AM
I just finished Shakespeare's Macbeth. I found it amazing. I can't believe I have been missing out on these plays for so long!

EDIT: Grammar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on September 02, 2009, 11:17:23 AM
Quote from: Diletante on September 02, 2009, 11:03:41 AM
I just finished Shakespeare's Macbeth. I found it amazing. I can't believe I have been missing on these plays for so long!

Good for you. What will be your next? Do you know Antony and Cleopatra? Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 02, 2009, 11:22:57 AM
Quote from: Diletante on September 02, 2009, 11:03:41 AM
I just finished Shakespeare's Macbeth. I found it amazing. I can't believe I have been missing on these plays for so long!

That's the first of the plays I ever read, too!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on September 02, 2009, 11:26:08 AM
Macbeth is the first Shakespeare work I've ever read. I also bought an edition of Hamlet I'm going to read soon. I'll look for Antony and Cleopatra in my local bookstore, thanks for the recommendation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on September 02, 2009, 11:48:03 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/211KSE7Y79L._SL500_AA140_.jpg)

This is a very good overview of the major, and not so well known, poets of the US.  Each chapter provides a well researched biography and critical analysis of the full career of each poet, or group of poets, under review.  There is a sub-focus on women and poets not part of the standard canon, but the chapters on Poe, Longfellow and other "big names" were very good and were not the "knock them off their pedestal" take.  I'm about one-third of the way through; just finished the chapter on Millay and other late 19th to early 20th century female poets.

Highly recommended as well as the companion anthology.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 02, 2009, 12:00:13 PM
Most interesting, Franco, thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 02, 2009, 01:13:53 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 01, 2009, 08:03:56 AM
He makes it feel like it, though.

What you call prolixity I call an amazing facility for detail! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on September 02, 2009, 10:25:04 PM
Quote from: Diletante on September 02, 2009, 11:26:08 AM
Macbeth is the first Shakespeare work I've ever read. I also bought an edition of Hamlet I'm going to read soon. I'll look for Antony and Cleopatra in my local bookstore, thanks for the recommendation.

You can't go wrong with Hamlet... I envy you, my first reading was 30 years ago and I still remember the impact.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on September 03, 2009, 12:46:05 AM
Quote from: Lethe on September 02, 2009, 09:54:03 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S2RRG3MFL._SS500_.jpg) (via audiobook)

So far this sucks quite a lot - so much of it is lifted from Lord of the Rings. I don't know what makes fantasy such an uncreative genre, but I'm becoming tired of not finding anything worthwhile there... It is at least listenable, I suppose - the style of writing is decent.

Much of fantasy writing after Tolkien was, essentially, rewriting of Tolkien!

Right now the most popular fantasy series is "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, soon to be an HBO series. It doesn't make the mistake of emulating Tolkien (though I only read the first volume.)

One fantasy series I adored though was Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" books. I read the first three and enjoyed them immensely.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papageno on September 03, 2009, 03:20:41 AM
Somerset Maugham's Alien Corn - eh, not bad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on September 03, 2009, 11:13:21 AM
Quote from: -abe- on September 03, 2009, 12:46:05 AM
Much of fantasy writing after Tolkien was, essentially, rewriting of Tolkien!

Right now the most popular fantasy series is "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, soon to be an HBO series. It doesn't make the mistake of emulating Tolkien (though I only read the first volume.)

One fantasy series I adored though was Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" books. I read the first three and enjoyed them immensely.

So did I. I have never read the later ones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 03, 2009, 07:24:01 PM
Finished this today:
(http://archivodenobbs.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/9963452.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 04, 2009, 03:52:40 AM
Quote from: Lethe on September 02, 2009, 09:54:03 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S2RRG3MFL._SS500_.jpg) (via audiobook)

So far this sucks quite a lot - so much of it is lifted from Lord of the Rings. I don't know what makes fantasy such an uncreative genre, but I'm becoming tired of not finding anything worthwhile there... It is at least listenable, I suppose - the style of writing is decent.

Yes but he breaks from that after book #1, and in just a few volumes you will completely forget about Lord of the Rings.  The first novel is a terrible start though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 04, 2009, 04:00:14 AM
Quote from: -abe- on September 03, 2009, 12:46:05 AM
Much of fantasy writing after Tolkien was, essentially, rewriting of Tolkien!

For awhile, but I think that's misleading.  The era of LOTR knockoffs like Terry Brooks ended decades ago.  The fantasy genre has really matured.

QuoteRight now the most popular fantasy series is "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, soon to be an HBO series. It doesn't make the mistake of emulating Tolkien (though I only read the first volume.)

That series has it's own problem, well actually it's the same problem that all those epics have.  First volume is a great start, but it's downhill from there.  Anyway the problem is too many characters and plotlines, it looses momentum and collapses under the weight of it's own complexity.  I call that the Robert Jordan effect because it happened so hard in Wheel of Time that it became thousand page volumes where nothing consequential at all would happen.  By volumes 3 and 4 it feels the same with Song of Ice and Fire, just not as bad though.

I wish more fantasy writers would give up that Victorian era way of writing epics, and write on a smaller scale.  The arc of a character in a smaller setting is more interesting than the teenage angst driven end of the world garbage spun out of thousands of pages.  Martin is not that bad, but he can do alot better than that series.

For a modern fantasy epic, done in a smarter way, try The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb (though it does have a little bit of angst), I think it might have been written during the Terry Brook times, the dark times, so it really shined bright when it came out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on September 04, 2009, 04:09:48 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 04, 2009, 03:52:40 AM
Yes but he breaks from that after book #1, and in just a few volumes you will completely forget about Lord of the Rings.  The first novel is a terrible start though.

Hmm, sounds promising. Is it true that the series sagged at around 8-10 and picked up at 11?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 04, 2009, 04:13:52 AM
Quote from: Lethe on September 04, 2009, 04:09:48 AM
Hmm, sounds promising. Is it true that the series sagged at around 8-10 and picked up at 11?

I thought so (it finally picked back up again in the last volume), but not promising because he's dead, and his series won't be finished by him.  Another author will finish it based on his notes, but if that's anything like Christopher Tolkien, Brian Herbert and so on it's going to majorly suck and not do any justice to it whatsoever. :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dr. Dread on September 04, 2009, 04:15:35 AM
The Great Gatsby
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on September 04, 2009, 01:31:03 PM
Quote from: Greg on September 03, 2009, 07:24:01 PM
Finished this today:
(http://archivodenobbs.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/9963452.jpg)

And? How did it feel to penetrate the secret?  :D

Today I started reading The Great Gatsby.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 04, 2009, 01:38:48 PM
Quote from: Diletante on September 04, 2009, 01:31:03 PM
And? How did it feel to penetrate the secret?  :D

Today I started reading The Great Gatsby.
Like a great mess of confusion and randomness, as it went on. Pickup artists should never live together, lol.
Though it was very enlightening.... it turns out good for author at the end, too, after all of that... i guess that's really the only thing that matters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on September 04, 2009, 04:58:37 PM
Currently about a third of the way through Earth Abides by George R Stewart. British readers may wonder, as I did, if this is he of 15-to-1 fame, but no, that was William G Stewart.  0:)

It is a tale of one man who has survived a pandemic that rather rapidly killed off almost the entire human race. So far he has picked up a dog, and recently a lady friend / fellow survivor. There is talk of having a baby. The text is peppered with musings / observations / passages from other texts that describe, or cast light on, the way that nature is effortlessly reclaiming the Earth in man's absence.

It's certainly no eco-warrior browbeater; rather it is a touching and thought-provoking study of modern life and how the author imagines we would happily return to a simpler way of life should the social constructions and complexities of our modern society be suddenly removed. For instance, I find it quite amusing, as i'm sure we could all relate, that our protagonist hesitates to break a window to get into a shop, or to drive through a still-functioning red light, despite the complete absence of any other human, let alone law enforcement! Of course the absurdity of it all dawns on him eventually.

I am enjoying this immensely, I don't want it to end. It is a topic I have given a great deal of thought to, even before knowing of this book, and I must admit i've often wondered what it would be like to actually be alone in the world (and maybe briefly even wished for it). I think part of us all wishes for an easier life, maybe even a return to a simpler way of living. But then would any of us voluntarily give up the benefits of modern society - instant information, healthcare and the longer life it affords us, clean water on tap? And of course we are not naive enough to ignore the fact that a 'simpler' way of life would be one of much toil, hardship and uncertainty, but do the corresponding joys of self-sufficiency and balance with nature make up for the hardships? I wish I knew.

(apologies for thinking out loud there!)

So yes, a great book so far. Like all great science fiction it takes on a big question, sparks the imagination and then runs with it.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 04, 2009, 05:30:08 PM
Ben, I've been wanting to read that for awhile, with your strong rec I think I will. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on September 04, 2009, 09:35:08 PM
Quote from: Benji on September 04, 2009, 04:58:37 PM
(apologies for thinking out loud there!)

No, please don't. :) I'll be looking for it in the library next time. (I borrowed some books just yesterday which "maxed out" my membership limit.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 05, 2009, 05:51:49 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 04, 2009, 05:30:08 PM
Ben, I've been wanting thinking about reading that for awhile, with your strong rec I think I will. :)

Too tired last night to write what I mean.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 07, 2009, 05:27:58 PM
(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-mystery-thriller-2008/661-4.jpg)

This is wicked good, it's been along time since I read an Ian Rankin novel.  Just like I remembered-- dark and moody.  Rebus living with the pain of his past, slugging down whisky and coffee.  He's kind of like Morse but not so aloof and cerebral. :)

Anyway this particular novel is about a serial killer that kidnaps and murders girls but doesn't rape or molest them in anyway.  The Edinburgh police are all over it, but no matter the man power they keep coming up empty handed...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 07, 2009, 06:26:15 PM
Quote from: corey on September 02, 2009, 01:13:53 PM
[Swann's Way] What you call prolixity I call an amazing facility for detail! :)
I am liking "Combray" a whole lot more than I liked the "Overture"!

This paragraph seemed to me to summarize the narrator's basic problem:

At this date I was a lover of the theatre: a Platonic lover, of necessity, since my parents had not yet allowed me to enter one, and so incorrect was the picture I drew for myself of the pleasures to be enjoyed there that I almost believed that each of the spectators looked, as into a stereoscope, upon a stage and scenery which existed for himself alone, though closely resembling the thousand other spectacles presented to the rest of the audience individually.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 08, 2009, 06:50:57 AM
Quote from: rubio on August 31, 2009, 11:33:19 AM
That one is high on my "to be read" list. Comments will be appreciated! :)

I enjoyed it quite a bit. The main character of Frederic seemed almost to be a parody of Balzac's romantic "lions" bent on finding position in high society, but it is not so obvious as that would imply. You sympathize with him even though he is callous and self-serving. The narrative contains rather a lot of references to the political troubles occurring at the time of the story (late 1840s) -- my edition had dozens of footnotes, without which I would have been pretty helpless.

Quote from: Brian on September 07, 2009, 06:26:15 PM
I am liking "Combray" a whole lot more than I liked the "Overture"!

This paragraph seemed to me to summarize the narrator's basic problem:

At this date I was a lover of the theatre: a Platonic lover, of necessity, since my parents had not yet allowed me to enter one, and so incorrect was the picture I drew for myself of the pleasures to be enjoyed there that I almost believed that each of the spectators looked, as into a stereoscope, upon a stage and scenery which existed for himself alone, though closely resembling the thousand other spectacles presented to the rest of the audience individually.

His musical sentences take some getting used to. Try reading faster rather than taking it slowly.

Now reading:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/24661350.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on September 08, 2009, 07:43:28 AM
Quote from: corey on September 08, 2009, 06:50:57 AM
I enjoyed it quite a bit. The main character of Frederic seemed almost to be a parody of Balzac's romantic "lions" bent on finding position in high society, but it is not so obvious as that would imply. You sympathize with him even though he is callous and self-serving. The narrative contains rather a lot of references to the political troubles occurring at the time of the story (late 1840s) -- my edition had dozens of footnotes, without which I would have been pretty helpless.

Thank you for your comment, corey! It's still on my "list".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 08, 2009, 07:53:26 AM
Quote from: rubio on September 08, 2009, 07:43:28 AM
Thank you for your comment, corey! It's still on my "list".

What else is on your list?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on September 08, 2009, 12:00:39 PM
Quote from: corey on September 08, 2009, 07:53:26 AM
What else is on your list?

There is plenty on the list, but books certainly are more time-consuming than music/movies. Usually I read one "lighter" and one "heavier" book at the same time. For the latter part the Flaubert, "Idiot" Dostoyevsky, "The Outsider" Camus, "Life: A User's Manual" Perec, "Journey to the end of the night" Celine, Balzac, Stendhal and some Thomas Mann book (I've only read Death in Venedig) are the most tempting ones. Now I read "The Great Gatsby", "Europe" by Geert Maak and a Edward Munch biography in Norwegian. Many of my favourite writers are Norwegians.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 09, 2009, 09:31:32 AM
Quote from: rubio on September 08, 2009, 12:00:39 PM
Thomas Mann [...] (I've only read Death in Venedig)

Start with Buddenbrooks, though any is fine. Mann might be my favorite author, but I haven't read anything by him for some time -- in fact I just bought a few of his novels I don't already know.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on September 09, 2009, 12:35:23 PM
Quote from: corey on September 09, 2009, 09:31:32 AM
Start with Buddenbrooks, though any is fine. Mann might be my favorite author, but I haven't read anything by him for some time -- in fact I just bought a few of his novels I don't already know.


Buddenbrooks suits me excellent as that's the only one I already own :). My favourite author is probably Dostoyevsky and I love Murakamis surrealism + some Norwegian authors like Knausgard and Bjornebo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: secondwind on September 10, 2009, 10:49:48 AM
I'm beginning to read books that everyone "knows" but no one has actually read.  I just finished Gone with the Wind and started Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Also on this list is Darwin's Origin of Species.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on September 10, 2009, 09:05:19 PM


     (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pk2WWXHJL._SS500_.jpg)

     It's very good so far (Chap. 2).

     Here's a summary:

     The book's 27 chapters are each made up of a previously published work by authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alan Turing, Richard Dawkins, Raymond Smullyan, John Searle, Stanisław Lem, Thomas Nagel (as well as Hofstadter and Dennett themselves), each followed up by a commentary by Hofstadter and/or Dennett. Dennett and Hofstadter both support the idea that we can learn much about human minds and souls by exploring human mentality in terms of information processing. Dennett and Hofstadter are both proponents of the idea that the wonders of human mentality can be accounted for by mechanical brain processes — which leaves nothing theoretical to prevent us from building human-like mental processes into our mechanical devices. A few views that run counter to this notion, such as John Searle's widely-known presentation of the Chinese room argument, are included in this book mainly as targets for refutation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 11, 2009, 07:26:32 AM
Read this just now on wikipedia:

QuoteIn 2002, [Bugs Bunny] was named by TV Guide as the greatest cartoon character of all time, an honor he shares with Mickey Mouse.

As a sentence, no, it isn't much good at all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on September 11, 2009, 07:28:34 AM
Quote from: drogulus on September 10, 2009, 09:05:19 PM

     (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pk2WWXHJL._SS500_.jpg)

     It's very good so far (Chap. 2).

     Here's a summary:

     The book's 27 chapters are each made up of a previously published work by authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alan Turing, Richard Dawkins, Raymond Smullyan, John Searle, Stanisław Lem, Thomas Nagel (as well as Hofstadter and Dennett themselves), each followed up by a commentary by Hofstadter and/or Dennett. Dennett and Hofstadter both support the idea that we can learn much about human minds and souls by exploring human mentality in terms of information processing. Dennett and Hofstadter are both proponents of the idea that the wonders of human mentality can be accounted for by mechanical brain processes — which leaves nothing theoretical to prevent us from building human-like mental processes into our mechanical devices. A few views that run counter to this notion, such as John Searle's widely-known presentation of the Chinese room argument, are included in this book mainly as targets for refutation.

It's a good read - which I did a bunch of years ago, but not as good as Godel, Escher and Bach IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 11, 2009, 07:29:42 AM
Quote from: drogulus on September 10, 2009, 09:05:19 PM
The Mind's I
Interesting cover design. Looks like Hofstadter's agent had a lot of pull: he's listed first though he's second alphabetically, and his "author of" is in print as big as Dennett's name! Poor Daniel can't be too happy (well, he can ... he's not too self-important, I don't think, and they paid him for it).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on September 11, 2009, 01:56:41 PM
Quote from: Franco on September 11, 2009, 07:28:34 AM
It's a good read - which I did a bunch of years ago, but not as good as Godel, Escher and Bach IMO.

    I still haven't read GEB. I'm generally familiar with the themes from his other writings. I'm going backwards from Strange Loop to Mind's I to GEB next, I think.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on September 11, 2009, 11:48:34 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 11, 2009, 07:29:42 AM
Interesting cover design. Looks like Hofstadter's agent had a lot of pull: he's listed first though he's second alphabetically, and his "author of" is in print as big as Dennett's name! Poor Daniel can't be too happy (well, he can ... he's not too self-important, I don't think, and they paid him for it).

Well, today Hofstader and Dennett are probably more or less equally well known (though none of Dennett's books has the status of GEB). But The Mind's I was published in 1981, and I don't think Dennett was a very well known author at that point - he had only published 2 books. Hofstader had only published 1, I think (GEB), but did get a Pulitzer for it (in 1980), which makes quite a difference... ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 14, 2009, 06:53:32 PM
Just read Shutter Island, and it was a heck of a page turner. :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EozXla3AL._SS500_.jpg)

I look forward to the movie, because even if I know all the twists, now I can appreciate the behavior of the characters pre-twists. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 14, 2009, 06:55:27 PM
Did you guess the ending before you got there?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 14, 2009, 06:58:49 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 14, 2009, 06:55:27 PM
Did you guess the ending before you got there?

Well dang I should have! :D  I bought into the story.  Looking back, it seems so obvious, but I just didn't see it! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 14, 2009, 06:59:42 PM
Quote from: DavidW on September 14, 2009, 06:58:49 PM
Well dang I should have! :D  I bought into the story.  Looking back, it seems so obvious, but I just didn't see it! :D

I didn't either.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on September 15, 2009, 01:12:01 AM
KARL POPPER:     An Intellectual Autobiography

Popper repeats here most of his ideas, that can be found in many of his other books. I would prefer that he talked more about all the people he knew during his life, from Einstein to Schönberg and Webern.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 15, 2009, 05:03:11 AM
(http://juno-books.com/blog/bleak-200.jpg)

Reading it for review.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 15, 2009, 05:06:28 AM
Quote from: val on September 15, 2009, 01:12:01 AM
KARL POPPER

That's a name makes me nervous.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on September 15, 2009, 05:09:25 AM
Shostakovich - His Life and Music  (Brian Morton)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on September 15, 2009, 09:41:07 AM
The Death of Why: The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy

I totally agree with her thesis that Americans today look for quick-fix answers instead of critically thinking things through. Book's focus is on how to teach young people to value inquiry, questioning, and analyzing. Google retrieves instant answers, schools focus on "right" answers, media entertain rather than analyze, etc.

(http://www.bkconnection.com/images/9781576755853L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 15, 2009, 06:36:16 PM
(http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:oCWsXpGUbanxVM:http://news.skyscanner.net/cover_the_lost_symbol.jpg)

Yup.  I love his stuff and bought it right after work and have already begun reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on September 15, 2009, 07:15:46 PM
The Literature of Nihilism by Glicksberg
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 17, 2009, 12:45:20 PM
Last night, I finished reading the book in the BFI series on Night of the Living Dead.

It was good. Detail:

1. I enjoyed reading the book.
2. I got the impression that I know the movie, without the inconvenienve of watching it.
2a. "Inconvenience," in this case, because I don't think I'd enjoy watching the movie.
2b. Others may enjoy it, and I am delighted for them  0:)
3. In general, I read rather guardedly when there is a lot of verbiage about a movie (as I do when there is verbiage about music).
3a. Especially, I tend to be suspicious when there is a lot of high- (or even mid-) falutin' philostofy about what is, at the end of the day, a 90-minute movie.
3b. Made on a low budget.
3c. About zombies.
3d. In a western Pennsylvania farmhouse.
4. That all said, see (1.) above.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on September 18, 2009, 01:34:01 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 17, 2009, 12:45:20 PM
Last night, I finished reading the book in the BFI series on Night of the Living Dead.

It was good. Detail:

1. I enjoyed reading the book.
2. I got the impression that I know the movie, without the inconvenienve of watching it.
2a. "Inconvenience," in this case, because I don't think I'd enjoy watching the movie.
2b. Others may enjoy it, and I am delighted for them  0:)
3. In general, I read rather guardedly when there is a lot of verbiage about a movie (as I do when there is verbiage about music).
3a. Especially, I tend to be suspicious when there is a lot of high- (or even mid-) falutin' philostofy about what is, at the end of the day, a 90-minute movie.
3b. Made on a low budget.
3c. About zombies.
3d. In a western Pennsylvania farmhouse.
4. That all said, see (1.) above.

     It may be too late to see the film in the right frame of mind, now that there have been books and sequels and critical appreciations. I saw the film about 5 years after it came out when it made its first appearance on the Late Late Show. I knew it was supposed to be a very scary horror film, but what intrigued me was that some reviewer in Newsday gave it 4 stars. The review made it clear that yes, this was a low budget horror flick with amateurish acting and not much in the way of production values. Nevertheless, given what horror films are supposed to do, this was a great film.  I saw the film and immediately realized that the reviews were correct, that what was bad about the film made no difference to what was good about it. The parallel I would draw today is with Eraserhead by David Lynch, though that film had obvious art house pretentions while NOTLD had unobvious ones. The films both operated subliminally as nightmares, whereas a film like Nightmare on Elm Street operates like a well made teen horror flick.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 18, 2009, 07:28:50 AM
Sounds like a fascinating book.

I saw Dawn of the Dead before Night of the Living Dead, and it was by far the most traumatically frightening movie I'd ever seen. I still have nightmares over it.

When I went to college, many of my fellow students carried on about the zombies as commentary on the typical worker ant person. These students would comment on how the zombies were like the typical 9 to 5 worker, living to covet, never really satisfied, marking time, walking dead. What I noticed is that these selfsame analysers rarely pointed out how many times the consumptive nature of the "living" characters was portrayed. The latter aspect blurred the lines in a really creative way, making Romero's "Dead" movies a cut above the rest.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 21, 2009, 07:22:46 AM
Read Thomas Mann's Black Swan the other night in one sitting. Wonderful little book. Glad to be getting back into him.

Reading (and rereading most) now:

(http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/41UpMG00%2BrL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on September 21, 2009, 09:58:28 AM
Zeitoun is a nonfiction account of a Syrian family's encounters with Hurricane Katrina, government bureaucracy and anti-Arab sentiment. Reads like a novel.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513Z%2Bf35CaL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 21, 2009, 12:14:32 PM
A Land So Strange:  The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (2009) by Andre Resendez -  :D

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c.1490-c.1557-9), member of a Spanish royal family (hence the coat of arms, below right, w/ a cow's head); the 'Royal Treasurer' on a mission to settle Florida in 1528; the group of about 300 landed near present day Tampa Bay, FL, and only 4 (including Cabeza de Vaca) survived to emerged 8 years later after an extraordinary excursion across southern USA and Mexico; just getting to the Tampa landing!

(http://images.indiebound.com/401/068/9780465068401.jpg)  (http://www.petermansbendel.com/bensonhistory/cartclarge1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 21, 2009, 12:20:12 PM
For review. Short stories. I'm digging it so far.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518dCunw5vL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: offbeat on September 21, 2009, 02:06:04 PM
Quote from: corey on September 21, 2009, 07:22:46 AM
Read Thomas Mann's Black Swan the other night in one sitting. Wonderful little book. Glad to be getting back into him.

Reading (and rereading most) now:

(http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/41UpMG00%2BrL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Hi Corey - whats yr opinion on Kafka - the only story ive read is The Trial - wow what a weird and claustrophobic book that is -like being in a strange dream world - what are the other stories like  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on September 21, 2009, 05:08:53 PM
(http://images.indiebound.com/053/173/9781590173053.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 22, 2009, 07:45:17 AM
Quote from: offbeat on September 21, 2009, 02:06:04 PM
Hi Corey - whats yr opinion on Kafka - the only story ive read is The Trial - wow what a weird and claustrophobic book that is -like being in a strange dream world - what are the other stories like  ???

Actually, I own all his major works (except Amerika) but haven't read either of his most famous novels (The Trial and The Castle) for whatever reason. I've read most of his stories at least once, and several more than once. They are at once hilarious and terrifying, and definitely benefit from multiple readings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: canninator on September 22, 2009, 07:57:19 AM
Quote from: corey on September 22, 2009, 07:45:17 AM
Actually, I own all his major works (except Amerika) but haven't read either of his most famous novels (The Trial and The Castle) for whatever reason. I've read most of his stories at least once, and several more than once. They are at once hilarious and terrifying, and definitely benefit from multiple readings.

I think the edition from the photo you showed was a Muir translation. You should definitely read The Trial but not the Muir translation, the one by Breon Mitchell is far superior. It is like stepping into a dream world .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 22, 2009, 08:10:40 AM
Quote from: Il Furioso on September 22, 2009, 07:57:19 AM
I think the edition from the photo you showed was a Muir translation. You should definitely read The Trial but not the Muir translation, the one by Breon Mitchell is far superior. It is like stepping into a dream world .

The edition of the stories I have is the short stories only (Metamorphosis, Description of a Struggle, and dozens of shorter works and fragments). Some of the stories are indeed translated by the Muirs, but not all of them. I'm not sure if my edition of the Trial is a Muir translation, but judging from their translations of Broch, I wouldn't be too worried if it was.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: canninator on September 23, 2009, 02:01:15 AM
Quote from: corey on September 22, 2009, 08:10:40 AM
The edition of the stories I have is the short stories only (Metamorphosis, Description of a Struggle, and dozens of shorter works and fragments). Some of the stories are indeed translated by the Muirs, but not all of them. I'm not sure if my edition of the Trial is a Muir translation, but judging from their translations of Broch, I wouldn't be too worried if it was.

The problem is not necessarily with the translation but the edition of the book on which the translation is based. The Muir translation is based upon the text as heavily edited by Max Brod (chapters re-ordered, some material deleted, reintroduced High German punctuation, and normalized spelling). This editing is removed in the restored text of the German critical edition (Fischer, 1990) and is used as the basis for the Mitchell translation (Schocken, 1998). Some of what is restored is idiomatic to German and doesn't translate but this edition is far superior to the Muirs. It's not perfect, however, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.

Interesting what you say about Broch. I have only read the Untermeyer translation of Virgil so can't reliably comment on its quality other then going by what others say. I wasn't aware the Muirs translated Virgil but I think they did The Sleepwalkers. Is that what you are referring to? What other translations have you read of this to compare, I'm interested in an opinion on one of their translations outside of their groundbreaking work on Kafka?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 23, 2009, 06:54:00 AM
You are obviously more familiar than myself. I can't read German.

I honestly can't speak on the translation itself. As long as the text is clear and understandable I have no qualms. The Muirs also did the translations for the editions I own of The Unknown Quantity and The Guiltless. I haven't come to Death of Virgil yet.

If you haven't already, you should read The Sleepwalkers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: canninator on September 23, 2009, 07:34:23 AM
Quote from: corey on September 23, 2009, 06:54:00 AM
You are obviously more familiar than myself. I can't read German.

I honestly can't speak on the translation itself. As long as the text is clear and understandable I have no qualms. The Muirs also did the translations for the editions I own of The Unknown Quantity and The Guiltless. I haven't come to Death of Virgil yet.

If you haven't already, you should read The Sleepwalkers.

I've only read Death of Virgil and that was one hard nut to crack. I've heard good things about The Sleepwalkers so I'll add it to the list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 23, 2009, 07:41:00 AM
(http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/images/books/9780253202192_med.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on September 23, 2009, 09:43:06 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on September 21, 2009, 12:14:32 PM
A Land So Strange:  The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (2009) by Andre Resendez -  :D

Sounds great--a fascinating story and an extraordinary man!

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell.  An entertaining read.  Both anecdotal and research summaries of inquiries into the virtues of "intuitive" information processing versus "analysis paralysis."  Stuff that everyone should know but too few do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on September 23, 2009, 05:42:06 PM
Trying to catch up on this thread  :P.  I have set aside for the moment Borislav Pekic's The Golden Fleece. I know I'm in for quite a journey with this work (tome I/ 7, each presumably 400-600 pages long). I got the hang of Pekic' s narrative, slowly entering into the characters' collective mind. It's the saga of an ethnic balkan minority family and their voyage through time (many centuries) and space (all over Central Europe). The subject certainly rings a chord here. It's amazing to find how much of a people's soul is retained through tribulations big and small. One would think that implacable darwinian anthropologic rules should swiftly wipe out ethnic minorities, especially those denied sovereignty over land. But I digress. Pekic's writing is alive with incident and from the vantage point I've reached (some 200 pages in), it's obvious that this is just the mise en bouche (appetizer) for the main course that lies ahead. I'll catch up later with the Njegovan family.

Right now reading Palmer's medical thriller The First Patient. Palmer is a multi-million book best-selling author. Although I relish a good thriller as much as anyone else, its interruption of Pekic's saga clashes rather disagreeably. Flagrant writing errors, gaucheries and other sub-par writing instances are there all right. Maybe that's just what I needed to make me want to go back to Pekic's work.

I've read with interest the various posts about Chekhov's short stories. I've been a huge fan of his many nouvelles (French for 'short story') ever since adolescence. Indeed, I kept hovering between Chekhov and Maupassant as the best writers of short stories. Re-reading both many years later, I found Chekhov's stories more intemporal, more 'of their space' than 'of their time' (same feeling with Cholokov's mammoth Quiet Flows the Don - is it a russian thing?). Conversely, Maupassant's were so much of their time AND space that they reeked of the terroir they portrayed. A pictorial parallel might be drawn between Chekhov and the contemporaneous paintings from the Tretyakov Gallery, and between Maupassant and those of Manet and Courbet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 24, 2009, 09:01:04 AM
Just finished Philip Norman's bio of John Lennon.

Overall, a B- IMO

Do I need the book on my own shelf? No.

(Though I do have some B- books on my shelf.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Haffner on September 25, 2009, 03:56:48 PM
The Cosima Wagner Diaries Pt. 1

About halfway through.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bu on September 25, 2009, 06:16:50 PM
(http://www.housmans.com/images/Tales%20of%20Ordinary%20Madness.jpg)

Had to stop The Foundation Pit after the rather dull and plodding start by Platonov. (Or maybe it's just that the translators suck?)  Will definitely return to it when I'm in the mood but in the meantime.......I returned to something terse and direct by the poet laureate of winos, Charles Bukowski. Typical loony stuff so far.

Also, in between stories, trying to dig into Celine's Journey to the End of the Night (which just happened to be one of Bukowski's great literary inspirations). After a few chapters I can certainly see the influence in Charlie's work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 27, 2009, 07:20:36 AM
William James - Pragmatism
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 27, 2009, 06:20:57 PM
One story in and yes it's good.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41D10ZY1MHL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 30, 2009, 09:40:56 AM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/folder_orig.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on September 30, 2009, 09:45:29 AM
In the early goings, 30 pages of swimming against the current.  The story seems interesting, but I'm just having difficulty with the writing style!  :P

Crime & Punishment - Fyodor Dostoesky
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 30, 2009, 09:49:54 AM
Really? I had trouble putting that down.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 30, 2009, 09:52:05 AM
Quote from: corey on September 30, 2009, 09:49:54 AM
Really? I had trouble putting that down.

Me too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 01, 2009, 04:03:01 AM
Just finished Julien Benda's The Treason of The Intellectuals. Excellent, so true and, sadly, so fresh!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: secondwind on October 02, 2009, 06:14:54 PM
Just finished:
It reminded me why I like Irving.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on October 03, 2009, 11:37:50 AM
Just finished an old classic: Caleb Williams by William Godwin.
This is a somewhat grueling psychological novel but it is nevertheless riveting - an early form of crime and punishment. Godwin was Mary Shelley's father.
Now reading 'The Sorrows of Werther', Goethe |(in translation).

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 03, 2009, 11:41:39 AM
Henri Bergson - An Introduction to Metaphysics
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 05, 2009, 05:23:12 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 27, 2009, 06:20:57 PM
One story in and yes it's good.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41D10ZY1MHL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

This was excellent. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 05, 2009, 07:44:07 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 30, 2009, 09:45:29 AM
In the early goings, 30 pages of swimming against the current.  The story seems interesting, but I'm just having difficulty with the writing style!  :P

Crime & Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Sounds like you've got the wrong translation, my friend. Is it Constance Garnett? Her translation stinks. Pick up Pevear and Volokhonsky. I couldn't get through C&P until I picked up P&V's translation - and then I couldn't put it down!! If you've got someone other than P&V, it's well worth the wait and money to put down the book and go buy their version.

One of my favorite books, though it's not as amazing as the Brothers K.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ChamberNut on October 05, 2009, 08:15:42 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 05, 2009, 07:44:07 AM
Sounds like you've got the wrong translation, my friend. Is it Constance Garnett? Her translation stinks. Pick up Pevear and Volokhonsky. I couldn't get through C&P until I picked up P&V's translation - and then I couldn't put it down!! If you've got someone other than P&V, it's well worth the wait and money to put down the book and go buy their version.

One of my favorite books, though it's not as amazing as the Brothers K.

Yes, I have the one translated by Constance Garnett!  :D

Starting to get better and getting used to the language more now........I'm into it now, so I think I'll just keep going.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 05, 2009, 10:08:00 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on October 05, 2009, 08:15:42 AM
Yes, I have the one translated by Constance Garnett!  :D

Thought so.  :-\  She was known for Anglicizing Dostoevsky's sentence structures and high-class-ifying his slang. But if you get through, well, awesome, and you'll have something to look forward to on the second read  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 05, 2009, 03:34:46 PM
Bertrand Russell - The Problems of Philosophy

My posts here are becoming increasingly Papagenoesque  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 05, 2009, 03:54:10 PM
Quote from: corey on October 05, 2009, 03:34:46 PM
My posts here are becoming increasingly Papagenoesque  :-\

Eh, you haven't faked your own death yet.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 05, 2009, 04:06:20 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 05, 2009, 03:54:10 PM
Eh, you haven't faked your own death yet.  :-\

Or made your own student film about eros. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 05, 2009, 04:17:22 PM
I was dead.

I got better.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 05, 2009, 04:22:05 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 05, 2009, 04:17:22 PM
I was dead.

I got better.

The Bionic Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 05, 2009, 04:26:38 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 05, 2009, 04:17:22 PM
I was dead.   I got better.

Yes, resurrection must be a glorious experience - looking forward to my own!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 06, 2009, 03:09:45 PM
Quote from: secondwind on October 02, 2009, 06:14:54 PM
Just finished:
It reminded me why I like Irving.

I read this back in May and highly enjoyed it.

That's a horrible book cover though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 06, 2009, 03:14:12 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/LarryMcMurtry_LonesomeDove.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 06, 2009, 03:15:22 PM
Excellent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: secondwind on October 06, 2009, 03:36:34 PM
Just started this in the afternoon (there are some advantages to being home from work with a cold!).  I liked Gilead very much.  Robinson is an incredible prose stylist.
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 07, 2009, 12:37:10 PM
For review:

(http://www.horrornews.net/book_reviews/images/Writers_workshop_of_horror.jpg)

For pleasure:

(http://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/78/671/603/0786716037.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 07, 2009, 10:59:45 PM
Jean-Francois Revel - The Useless Knowledge (La Conaissance inutile)

This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite books. A stylish yet devastating critique of the post-WWII leftist ideologies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 07, 2009, 11:20:37 PM
JOSÉ ANTONIO MARINA:    "Ética para Náufragos"

I didn't now this Spanish author, but this book is very refreshing. In a colloquial style, an unpretentious perspective of moral and ethics, and a very good refutation of moral relativism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 07, 2009, 11:21:35 PM
Quote from: val on October 07, 2009, 11:20:37 PM
JOSÉ ANTONIO MARINA:    "Ética para Náufragos"

I didn't now this Spanish author, but this book is very refreshing. In a colloquial style, an unpretentious perspective of moral and ethics, and a very good refutation of moral relativism.

Sounds interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 07, 2009, 11:26:37 PM
QuoteFlorestan

Sounds interesting.

It is. But I don't know if there are French, German or English translations. I have the Portuguese translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 11:59:48 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 07, 2009, 12:37:10 PM
For pleasure:

(http://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/78/671/603/0786716037.jpg)

Dave - are these genuinely ghost stories, or are they really horror stories? (If they're genuinely spooky and atmospheric, I'd be interested in it; if they're mainly horrible with blood and chopping and stuff, I wouldn't.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 08, 2009, 04:34:13 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 11:59:48 PM
Dave - are these genuinely ghost stories, or are they really horror stories? (If they're genuinely spooky and atmospheric, I'd be interested in it; if they're mainly horrible with blood and chopping and stuff, I wouldn't.)

I've just begun, but it looks like they are going for spooky houses, not bloody gore (the stories begin with 19th century works). I'll see if I can come up with a TOC later.

There is in fact a Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories which I haven't checked out yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 08, 2009, 04:40:21 AM
I also wanted a good ghost story, I ended up with (after consulting the interblarg) The Green Man by Kingsley Amis.  I found it on a list where everything else on the list I had read and enjoyed. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 08, 2009, 05:08:34 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 08, 2009, 04:34:13 AM
I've just begun, but it looks like they are going for spooky houses, not bloody gore (the stories begin with 19th century works). I'll see if I can come up with a TOC later.

There is in fact a Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories which I haven't checked out yet.

http://openlibrary.org/b/OL21037361M/mammoth_book_of_haunted_house_stories
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on October 08, 2009, 05:40:08 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 08, 2009, 05:08:34 AM
http://openlibrary.org/b/OL21037361M/mammoth_book_of_haunted_house_stories

Aha! That's excellent! It contains Bulwer Lytton's 'The Haunted and the Haunters', which surely is a contender for the 'best ghost story ever written' award. That's a good sign.

(Have you always been a fan of Atkinson Grimshaw, or did you choose your current avatar to suit the spooky book you're reading?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 08, 2009, 05:43:56 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 08, 2009, 05:40:08 AM
Aha! That's excellent! It contains Bulwer Lytton's 'The Haunted and the Haunters', which surely is a contender for the 'best ghost story ever written' award. That's a good sign.

And maybe the first haunted house story? I finished it last night. A little over the top, but good. I'm always surprised at how much gets rehashed later by other authors; how old some of the ideas are...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 08, 2009, 05:45:00 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 08, 2009, 05:40:08 AM
(Have you always been a fan of Atkinson Grimshaw, or did you choose your current avatar to suit the spooky book you're reading?)

I'm a fan of this image. I found it in the GMG image library. No idea who it was.  :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on October 08, 2009, 01:10:07 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 08, 2009, 05:45:00 AM
I'm a fan of this image. I found it in the GMG image library. No idea who it was.  :-[

Ah, I see! Grimshaw specialised in paintings very like this one - autumnal tree-lined roads past an old house, usually with a solitary walker. It was a bit of a formula production line for him, but even so they're hugely effective - I know many tree-lined roads, just like this one.

http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Grimshaw.html (http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Grimshaw.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 08, 2009, 01:27:54 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 08, 2009, 01:10:07 PM
Ah, I see! Grimshaw specialised in paintings very like this one - autumnal tree-lined roads past an old house, usually with a solitary walker. It was a bit of a formula production line for him, but even so they're hugely effective - I know many tree-lined roads, just like this one.

http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Grimshaw.html (http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Grimshaw.html)

Thanks for giving me his name. I love his stuff and now use one for my desktop.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 08, 2009, 05:57:30 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 08, 2009, 05:40:08 AMBulwer Lytton

It was a dark and stormy night!!  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on October 08, 2009, 11:23:50 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 08, 2009, 05:43:56 AM
And maybe the first haunted house story? I finished it last night. A little over the top, but good. I'm always surprised at how much gets rehashed later by other authors; how old some of the ideas are...

I must have first read it maybe forty years ago, but certain images always stayed with me as part of the 'settling into the haunted house before anything actually happens' routine - the copy of Macaulay's essays, for some reason, being one. (If I were ever to spend a night in a haunted house, I'd make sure I had a copy of Macaulay's essays with me.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on October 09, 2009, 02:38:54 PM
Quote from: secondwind on October 06, 2009, 03:36:34 PM
Just started this in the afternoon (there are some advantages to being home from work with a cold!).  I liked Gilead very much.  Robinson is an incredible prose stylist.
(//)

I just started this, too. So far, so good. Robinson was a year ahead of me in college, but I didn't know her. I always like to see fellow alumnae make good.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: secondwind on October 09, 2009, 08:07:13 PM
Quote from: Harpo on October 09, 2009, 02:38:54 PM
I just started this, too. So far, so good. Robinson was a year ahead of me in college, but I didn't know her. I always like to see fellow alumnae make good.  :)
What college, Harpo?  I'm closing in on the end of the book--maybe a day or two.  Let me know when you've finished it.  I'd be interested in your thoughts about it. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on October 10, 2009, 08:14:35 AM
Quote from: secondwind on October 09, 2009, 08:07:13 PM
What college, Harpo?  I'm closing in on the end of the book--maybe a day or two.  Let me know when you've finished it.  I'd be interested in your thoughts about it. 

Brown in Providence RI, in the 60s.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on October 10, 2009, 01:16:52 PM
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/img006.jpg)

I've dipped but not actually read it yet, bought today for £2 at a book fair. I'm not (at present) particularly interested in Gerald Moore in his own right (though that may change), but rather, in his experiences with other performers such as Sammons, Beecham, Schwartzkopf, Ferrier - and most of all the cellist I love to love, Beatrice Harrison. There's a tale he tells of Beatrice, her sister Margaret, and her mother, taking him to stay with Delius. Apparently Delius's house was extremely cold, and on his first night there Moore took himself off to bed very early. But he wasn't able to sleep because he was so cold:

"I wondered how I was to endure three more nights of it and envied the Harrisons who, I imagined, were in much better case. At least I thought they were at that moment, but I was wrong. The three of them had put up at the local hotel. Accommodation here was limited and the three ladies were shown into one room and they all had to get into one bed. ... When I came down for coffee in the morning, Mrs. Harrison - who had slept in her boots and overcoat because of the dampness of the sheets - was talking to Mrs Delius, and my heart leapt within me when I heard her say, ' ... so, as the result of this surprising telegram we shall all have to leave for Paris this evening.' "

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 10, 2009, 01:49:59 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/613zpFO9%2ByL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

The chapter on Bach was worth alone the price of the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Novi on October 10, 2009, 01:56:18 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 10, 2009, 01:16:52 PM
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/img006.jpg)


Love the title!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daidalos on October 11, 2009, 12:03:23 AM
This is what I've been reading. Quite a fascinating book, and surprisingly a page turner.

(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/092/127/400000000000000092127_s4.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 12, 2009, 10:44:00 AM
Due to the fact that Bertrand Russell's "Problems of Philosophy" is sitting on the floor still open to the same page as a week ago, I've decided to read something I actually feel like reading.

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/67636.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on October 12, 2009, 01:06:28 PM
William Beckford - Vathek (1786)
Somewhat over the top oriental humour; rather confusing in places if not repetitious. I think I prefer the 'Arabian Knights'
Elizabeth Gaskill - Mr Harrison's Confessions
A very good-humoured story that the BBC adapted for inclusion in their production of Cranford.
Leo Tolstoy - The Death of Ivan Ilych
I found this depressing.
Next I'm reading:
Sydney Owenson - The Wild Irish Girl (1806)
This is an Irish classic that everyone of Irish descent should read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 12, 2009, 02:55:54 PM
Quote from: Ten thumbs on October 12, 2009, 01:06:28 PM
Elizabeth Gaskell - Mr Harrison's Confessions

We're in phase. I just got her Gothic Tales from the library not an hour ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on October 14, 2009, 06:50:25 PM
Quote from: corey on October 05, 2009, 03:34:46 PM

Henri Bergson - An Introduction to Metaphysics
Bertrand Russell - The Problems of Philosophy

My posts here are becoming increasingly Papagenoesque  :-\

Corey, my young friend. Did you really finish Bergson's 'Introduction' in 3 days, or did you choose Russell' 'Problems'  as a pleasant interlude before resuming your lecture ?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 14, 2009, 08:53:40 PM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on October 14, 2009, 06:50:25 PM
Corey, my young friend. Did you really finish Bergson's 'Introduction' in 3 days, or did you choose Russell' 'Problems'  as a pleasant interlude before resuming your lecture ?

Bergson I actually read rather quickly. The Russell I didn't finish. I'll try it again when I'm in the right mood.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: secondwind on October 18, 2009, 07:12:35 PM
I started this for a little light reading before I get my hands on a copy of The Marble Faun.  Russell Hoban always takes you on a wild ride, and Angelica's Grotto is no exception.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on October 19, 2009, 08:40:13 AM
Some words I didn't expect to find in a novel of 1786 (Vathek):
fricasseed and torpedoes
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 19, 2009, 08:55:29 AM
Quote from: Ten thumbs on October 19, 2009, 08:40:13 AM
Some words I didn't expect to find in a novel of 1786 (Vathek):
fricasseed and torpedoes

I don't think I've ever heard the word "fricassee" used outside of Looney Tunes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 19, 2009, 04:44:56 PM
Something fun.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pU%2BzZrYyL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on October 20, 2009, 07:50:26 PM
Meaning and Action by Thayer
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 21, 2009, 10:44:33 AM
Quote from: corey on October 19, 2009, 04:44:56 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pU%2BzZrYyL._SS500_.jpg)

Ugh, nevermind.

Instead:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/ConfessionsofaMask.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on October 21, 2009, 10:52:27 AM
Quote from: corey on October 19, 2009, 08:55:29 AM
I don't think I've ever heard the word "fricassee" used outside of Looney Tunes.

My mother uses that word.  As in, "patates fricassees", meaning "hashbrown potatoes".  Commonly used word by French Canadians.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 21, 2009, 11:01:23 AM
Quote from: corey on October 21, 2009, 10:44:33 AM
Ugh, nevermind.

Instead:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/ConfessionsofaMask.jpg)

Ugh?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 21, 2009, 11:02:15 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 21, 2009, 11:01:23 AM
Ugh?

The Gaskell. After ten pages I could tell it wasn't my thing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 21, 2009, 11:05:56 AM
Quote from: corey on October 21, 2009, 11:02:15 AM
The Gaskell. After ten pages I could tell it wasn't my thing.

What's wrong with it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 21, 2009, 11:31:38 AM
I don't know, I'm just not in the mood. I've been in a funk lately and haven't been reading as much as I want.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on October 21, 2009, 04:38:22 PM
Currently on Chapter 288 or so of Gantz...
I sometimes wonder how long it takes to draw stuff like this...

(and compared to some of the other multipage drawings, this one isn't even that complex  ;D)

Either way, this is my absolute favorite thing I've ever read.... everything about it is incredible.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on October 21, 2009, 05:11:53 PM
Where did my previous picture go? Anyone see it?

Anyways..... another gorgeous pic...  :o

Edit: this one disappeared, too. What's up with that?  ???

So now trying them as attachments...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on October 21, 2009, 06:33:00 PM
Currently reading "The Language Instinct" by Steve Pinker. Will probably finish it by tomorrow. I think I'll read "Hamlet" afterwards.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 22, 2009, 05:33:30 AM
I'm still enjoying the haunted house collection when I can get to it.

This, which I'm sure most of you would pooh-pooh, I'm reading for review:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BtL2QkrlL.jpg)

Digging it so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 22, 2009, 06:26:18 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 22, 2009, 05:33:30 AM
I'm still enjoying the haunted house collection when I can get to it.

This, which I'm sure most of you would pooh-pooh, I'm reading for review:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BtL2QkrlL.jpg)

Digging it so far.

I've seen his novels in the Hastings in town, kind of curious to try him.  I look forward to your review.  I should probably see what blog posts I've missed recently. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 22, 2009, 06:28:51 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 22, 2009, 06:26:18 AM
I've seen his novels in the Hastings in town, kind of curious to try him.  I look forward to your review.  I should probably see what blog posts I've missed recently. :)

Thanks, bud.

He's a unique writer among the horror crowd. Either you'll read him and shrug, or devour everything you can get your hands on. You might try The Ignored first.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 22, 2009, 06:34:51 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 22, 2009, 06:28:51 AM
Thanks, bud.

He's a unique writer among the horror crowd. Either you'll read him and shrug, or devour everything you can get your hands on. You might try The Ignored first.

Okey doke, I'll give that one a try. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 22, 2009, 06:53:15 AM
On our recent trip to NYC, we visited many museums, including The Cloisters (below, right) - part of the Met but located in Fort Tryon Park, upper tip of Manhattan (you take the A train of Strayhorn/Ellington fame) - medieval buildings housing all sorts of artworks, including the famous unicorn tapestry.

In the gift shop, I picked up:  Mysteries of the Middle Ages - and the Beginning of the Modern World by Thomas Cahill (liked his 'How the Irish Saved Civilization') published in 2006; enjoyable read w/ a larger font used & some beautiful illustrations; 'mixed' reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Mysteries-Middle-Ages-Beginning-History/dp/0385495560/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256221894&sr=1-2) - don't really agree w/ the poor ratings, but so far would likely do a 4/5* - but, I love reading about this era and own all of the Teaching Company's DVD series on the Middle Ages -  :D


(http://www.medievalbookshop.co.uk/ajpics/AJH0004.jpg)  (http://news.washcoll.edu/events/2001/09/odyssey/12.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 22, 2009, 07:17:55 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on October 22, 2009, 06:53:15 AM
On our recent trip to NYC, we visited many museums, including The Cloisters (below, right) - part of the Met but located in Fort Tryon Park, upper tip of Manhattan (you take the A train of Strayhorn/Ellington fame) - medieval buildings housing all sorts of artworks, including the famous unicorn tapestry.

In the gift shop, I picked up:  Mysteries of the Middle Ages - and the Beginning of the Modern World by Thomas Cahill (liked his 'How the Irish Saved Civilization') published in 2006; enjoyable read w/ a larger font used & some beautiful illustrations; 'mixed' reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Mysteries-Middle-Ages-Beginning-History/dp/0385495560/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256221894&sr=1-2) - don't really agree w/ the poor ratings, but so far would likely do a 4/5* - but, I love reading about this era and own all of the Teaching Company's DVD series on the Middle Ages -  :D


(http://www.medievalbookshop.co.uk/ajpics/AJH0004.jpg)  (http://news.washcoll.edu/events/2001/09/odyssey/12.jpg)

Just browsed the Cahill selection, Dave.  The Irish one looks truly fascinating/  I will see if I can dig up a copy at my local library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 22, 2009, 07:31:32 PM
Update: There is one on the shelf at the library down the street, Dave. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on October 22, 2009, 07:42:55 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51d%2BDNNpedL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

David Glantz is the foremost historian of the war in the East and has had full access to declassified Soviet archives

This is the first volume in a trilogy detailing the opening of Operation Blau up to the Germans reaching the outskirts of Stalingrad
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 22, 2009, 07:45:35 PM
Quote from: Bogey on October 22, 2009, 07:31:32 PM
Update: There is one on the shelf at the library down the street, Dave. :)

Bill - I really enjoyed that book (believe that I donated it to a local charity book sale, otherwise I'd send you my copy) - please let us know what you think - tonight, I just started to watch my DVDs on the middle ages - great stuff!  Dave  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 24, 2009, 12:21:54 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on October 22, 2009, 07:45:35 PM
Bill - I really enjoyed that book (believe that I donated it to a local charity book sale, otherwise I'd send you my copy) - please let us know what you think - tonight, I just started to watch my DVDs on the middle ages - great stuff!  Dave  :D

Well, went to the library today and was about to grab the one you mentioned, Dave when I got sidetracked by these two:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NuFLO3XgL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Think gunfighter, and Wyatt Earp or Billy the Kid may come to mind, but what of Jim Moon? Joel Fowler? Zack Light? A host of other figures helped forge the gunfighter persona, but their stories have been lost to time. In a sequel to his Deadly Dozen, celebrated western historian Robert K. DeArment now offers more biographical portraits of lesser-known gunfighters--men who perhaps weren't glorified in legend or song, but who were rightfully notorious in their day.

and

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uh86hfxvL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Before he brilliantly traversed the gritty landscapes of underworld Detroit and Miami, Elmore Leonard wrote breathtaking adventures set in America's nineteenth-century western frontier—elevating a popular genre with his now-trademark twisting plots, rich characterizations, and scalpel-sharp dialogue.

MN Dave, I am guessing that Elmore has been on your reading list more than once.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on October 24, 2009, 01:05:25 PM
Quote from: Brahmsian on October 21, 2009, 10:52:27 AM
My mother uses that word.  As in, "patates fricassees", meaning "hashbrown potatoes".  Commonly used word by French Canadians.  ;D

Yup. I'm sure there are plenty of regional variants, all with their distinctive flavours. In Quebec term usually describes a weekday meal made from leftovers of the Sunday pork or beef roast: diced meat recooked with chopped onions and savory, then add diced potatoes, cover with broth and serve when potatoes are done. Fresh field Summer tomatoes or cucumbers are the perfect accompaniment. Speedy, economical and tasty. :D

In French, "fricassée" is often used in a figurative meaning, as in the english term "hodgepodge".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on October 25, 2009, 06:18:51 PM
Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, and it was very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: secondwind on October 25, 2009, 06:22:56 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on October 25, 2009, 06:18:51 PM
Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, and it was very good.

Yes, I liked that one too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 26, 2009, 02:00:26 AM
GEORGES CORM:      "L'Europe et le mythe de l'Occident"  (2009)

A very stimulating book. Georges Corm refuses to see the West as an entity, but only as a concept, containing the myths, not only from the Europeans and Americans but also from the opponents of the West in other continents.
I disagree with some ideas of the author, but there are also some interesting perspectives. He shows that the general concepts and even the values presented by those who hate the West, in the Middle East for example, are molded by the same myth and values of the West created by Eurpeans and Americans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 26, 2009, 05:06:44 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51O6XZ8YnyL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 30, 2009, 12:31:35 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/DonaldRichieReader_L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on October 30, 2009, 05:12:32 PM
I started reading Albert Camus' L'étranger a couple of days ago. First book I read in French.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: secondwind on October 30, 2009, 08:16:51 PM
I'm reading The Turn of the Screw, of course!  It is just like the old days--I'm doing my homework at the last possible minute!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 31, 2009, 03:51:39 AM
Mendelssohn - A Life in Music by R. Larry Todd (published in 2003) - just getting started on this well received HUGE tome.  Todd is a Professor of Music at Duke University in my home state; he is considered the world's Mendelssohn expert - finishing the first 100 pages and Felix is about 10 y/o, so a long way to go!  :)

I was stimulated to purchase this book after some recent CD orders from Watchorn's site, Musica Omnia - my third Mendelssohn set of discs is on its way!  Todd wrote the notes for these recordings which are excellent, as expected.  So far, just a LOT of information about the music teachers of Felix and Fanny, such Carl Zelter (1758-1832) who was taught by Fasch; this will be much more that a bio of Felix (e.g. Fanny is extensively being discussed) but a story of music during (and before) the early 19th century.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TRV1HHSTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://www.musicaomnia.org/images/mo0304-fc272x233.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 31, 2009, 05:53:39 AM
Neat idea, Dave!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on November 01, 2009, 07:38:25 AM
What sort of academic degrees does one need to hold before embarking upon reading a work by Borges?

I ask that question only half-jokingly, since he does seem to assume that the reader is familiar with the works of various literary figures and philosophers. I'm currently reading Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. Philosophy is not a subject I hold very dear -- well, maybe as a face-to-face discussion topic during a lazy afternoon I'll do, but beyond that I'm not a big fan. I have a copy of Labyrinths (Penguin Modern Classics). Does anyone have suggestions for a for-dummies story/essay from this collection? (I mean a dummy who is somewhat interested in the topics covered.)

Incidentally, early this morning, I woke up to a noise or some other disturbance, and in that hazy state whatever I had read in the story till then seemed to make sense. Yes, all was there for me to see for that tiny fraction of a second, before I plunged back into Slumberland. Sometime later, when I was in a less-hazier state I tried to recollect what the key was, and I for the life of me could not do it! I still cannot. (Now, I'm not even sure if I was awake then. ;D)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on November 01, 2009, 08:11:04 AM
Quote from: opus106 on November 01, 2009, 07:38:25 AM
What sort of academic degrees does one need to hold before embarking upon reading a work by Borges?

Hi, Opus. I am a great Borges fan. I have read his complete works, although in Spanish, my mother tongue.

You should not be afraid about all those philosophical and literary references: many of them are only well elaborated literary jokes: "Then Bioy Casares recalled that one of the Heresiarchs of Uqbar had declared that copulation and mirrors are abominable, because they increase the number of men"  :D [BTW, Bioy Casares was a great argentinian writer, the best friend of Borges and a gentleman rather succesful with the ladies].

I would recommend you to begin with the more realistic stories in that volume: Emma Zunz, Theme of the Traitor and the Hero and Deutches Requiem, after them the more metaphysic stories will appear more natural.

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on November 01, 2009, 08:19:09 AM
Thanks a lot, Antoine. :) I shall start reading one of the three you recommend tonight, putting Tlön... on hold for a while.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on November 02, 2009, 02:50:40 AM
QuoteI would recommend you to begin with the more realistic stories in that volume: Emma Zunz, Theme of the Traitor and the Hero and Deutches Requiem, after them the more metaphysic stories will appear more natural.

:)


I read the second work. That was a better start -- 4 pages in a few minutes. :) The story reminded me of an epiosde from The Simpsons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast). Although I have not seen it mentioned anywhere on the 'net, I wonder if the writer of that episode was inspired by Borges. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on November 02, 2009, 03:29:45 AM
I have found once again in 'The Wild Irish Girl' the expression 'hit by a torpedo' but now I have the answer. A torpedo is a small rayfish of the genus Torpedo that gives off electrical discharges. I presume this must have been experienced by travelers to the Mediterranean.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on November 03, 2009, 01:26:34 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZyF0XEKzL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Found this recommended over at the Sibelius forum and, having dallied a bit with things Elgarian, you might say, thought I'd have a go. Halfway through, I can say that I am thoroughly enjoying myself. It's nicely written, decidely spooky, has characters that intrigue me, and is saturated with entertaining Elgar-lore, wearing its scholarship lightly. I suspect that the ghostly goings-on will turn out not to be what they seem, but who knows? So far, one of my more successful experiments.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Xenophanes on November 04, 2009, 08:04:33 AM
I have been reading Charles Hartshorne, a process philosopher who was a persistent critic of classical theism, and some of his critics.  I have also looked up some things in Thomas Aquinas and modern Thomists on the relevant questions and arguments.  The anthology by Hartshorne and Reese is wide ranging but the extensive comments are biased, basically expositions of Harthorne's own philosophy, but that makes it valuable source for Hartshorne's own views and arguments.

PROCESS THOUGHT

Charles Hartshorne and William R. Reese, eds., The Philosophers Speak of God

Charles Hartshorne, The Divine Relativity

F. S. C. Northrop and Mason W. Gross, Alfred North Whitehead: An Anthology

John B. Cobb and David Ray Griffin, Process Theology: an Introductory Exposition

STUDIES

W. Norris Clarke, S. J., The Philosophical Approach to God (contains chapter on Whitehead)

Santiago Sia, ed., Charles Hartshorne's Concept of God (contains an article by Norrie Clarke on Harshorne)

Dom Illtyd Trethowan, Process Theology and the Christian Tradition (deals at length with the Cobb and Griffin book)

I have also looked up journal articles by William P. Alston and Merold Westphal and will no doubt be reading others.

CLASSICAL THEISM

A. D. Sertillanges, L'Idee de Creation et ses retentissements en Philosophie

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (can be found on line at New Advent)

Jacques Maritain, Art and Scholasticism
______________, Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry
______________, Existence and the Existent

Eric Mascall, He Who Is

REFERENCE WORKS

Paul Edwards, ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy

E. Craig, ed., Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (on lne)

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on November 04, 2009, 07:50:38 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/beckettcover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 09, 2009, 05:16:29 AM
The Saint Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires by Eric Stener Carlson
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Carolus on November 09, 2009, 07:31:05 AM
Darcy O'Brien's  "Two of a Kind", The Hillside Stranglers. The complete story of Buono and Bianchi; the murders, the investigation, the trial. Very well written and very nasty. What a couple of soab!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 09, 2009, 07:39:59 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TCZAVX5QL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Air on November 10, 2009, 05:07:37 PM
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Oh well, we'll see how it goes.  This book has the power to turn an atheist into a christian and vice-versa.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on November 10, 2009, 07:45:27 PM
Luigi Pirandello is a writer that is often discussed but which I had never read, aside from a few trifles. I decided to remedy this by reading one of his well known Novels, the title of which is generally translated as "The Late Mattia Pascal." It is a story of a man who is oppress by misfortunes in life. When he goes off on a little trip a suicide is found in a nearby mill run and mistakenly identified as him. He has won some money in a casino and decides to take advantage of the situation and run off to start a new life. When that proves unsatisfactory he tries to return to his old life, but finds that impossible as well. I gather that this is supposed to be a metaphor for man's existential predicament. It tries hard to be profound but isn't, and isn't a brilliantly told story either. Not the worst book I've read, but far far from the best.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on November 11, 2009, 01:03:16 AM
TZVETAN TODOROV:         "La Peur des barbares"

A very intelligent perspective of the interaction of different cultures, in special in the present, regarding the West and the Islam.
It is a book full of good intentions but I have doubts concerning the possibility of a true dialogue with the Muslim world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 12, 2009, 06:25:33 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NHFSFY64L._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 13, 2009, 05:25:42 AM
"The Saint Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires by Eric Stener Carlson"

Can we no longer quote ourselves? I couldn't in this thread.

You might want to look into the above novel if you'd fancy a mix of Kafka, Eco and a smart Dan Brown. There are only 300 of them however. Google "Tartarus Press" if interested.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 13, 2009, 08:50:07 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on November 13, 2009, 05:25:42 AM
"The Saint Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires by Eric Stener Carlson"

Can we no longer quote ourselves? I couldn't in this thread.


Sure we can.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 13, 2009, 08:51:35 AM
Quote from: ^ on November 13, 2009, 08:50:07 AM
Sure we can.

Sure we can.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on November 13, 2009, 08:56:47 AM
This is your brain on music

Just started. Seems ok, I've learned a bit and been entertained a lot so far.
But the authors stubboness on calling the note H B makes me wait for BACB and DSCB.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 13, 2009, 08:58:05 AM
But, en anglais there is no note H . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 15, 2009, 06:17:10 PM
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on November 15, 2009, 10:48:23 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on November 13, 2009, 05:25:42 AM
"The Saint Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires by Eric Stener Carlson"

Can we no longer quote ourselves? I couldn't in this thread.

You might want to look into the above novel if you'd fancy a mix of Kafka, Eco and a smart Dan Brown. There are only 300 of them however. Google "Tartarus Press" if interested.


I read your excellent review, Dave. Sounds interesting... BUT - there is so much I still have to read and, yes, to write...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 16, 2009, 04:21:50 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on November 15, 2009, 10:48:23 PM

I read your excellent review, Dave. Sounds interesting... BUT - there is so much I still have to read and, yes, to write...

Thanks for the kind words on my review, Johan. And, yes, there is much to read and write! I'm currently rethinking my approach to novel-writing. I've yet to complete one (without a collaborator).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on November 16, 2009, 07:04:13 AM
Has anyone read the mysteries of James Lee Burke? My brother says he's a superb writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 16, 2009, 07:06:55 AM
Quote from: Harpo on November 16, 2009, 07:04:13 AM
Has anyone read the mysteries of James Lee Burke? My brother says he's a superb writer.

Yes. Do not hesitate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 17, 2009, 06:26:23 AM
Excellent.
(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm112061919/anatomy-story-22-steps-becoming-master-storyteller-john-truby-paperback-cover-art.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on November 17, 2009, 09:31:31 AM
Quote from: ^ on November 13, 2009, 08:58:05 AM
But, en anglais there is no note H . . . .
And still you can write music! Fantastic, isn't it?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on November 17, 2009, 02:41:23 PM
I have finished 'The Wild Irish Girl', which is quite a good story. In parts it is perhaps a little overloaded with Irish history but then it is a political novel. Lady Morgan equates the natural with the national Irishman and thus lays the foundations for Irish nationalism. This is a good introduction to my next author, de Staël, who with her emphasis on 'nationalité' laid the bedrock for a 'science of nations'. This is the age of Beethoven and it is interesting to reflect that at that time de Staël was far more famous and influential than he. However, I suppose most of us here prefer music to history.
I am therefore beginning 'Corinne, or italy'; en anglaise of course.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 18, 2009, 05:14:57 AM
Quote from: Amvend on November 15, 2009, 06:17:10 PM
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

I like her writing style but this one is oh so bleak...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on November 18, 2009, 08:34:37 AM
Quote from: Amvend on November 18, 2009, 05:14:57 AM
I like her writing style but this one is oh so bleak...

Bleak, but very short and concise.  A very strikingly drawn tableau.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 18, 2009, 08:38:24 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on November 18, 2009, 08:34:37 AM
Bleak, but very short and concise.  A very strikingly drawn tableau.

Agreed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 18, 2009, 04:06:19 PM
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on November 18, 2009, 05:44:52 PM
What is Amvend (other than an anagram for MNdave)? :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 18, 2009, 05:46:46 PM
Quote from: Corey on November 18, 2009, 05:44:52 PM
What is Amvend (other than an anagram for MNdave)? :D

Dunno. American Vendors?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 19, 2009, 06:30:23 PM
Quote from: Corey on November 18, 2009, 05:44:52 PM
What is Amvend (other than an anagram for MNdave)? :D

AMVend is a proprietary video file format, produced for MP4 players, as well as S1 MP3 players with video playback that has come to a conclusion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on November 20, 2009, 05:16:23 PM
I finished Julio Cortázar's Las armas secretas a few days ago. Very nice short stories, although the last one stumped me. Anyone else like Cortázar?

Then I read Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author . I didn't like it. I found the plot banal and weak, and the whole "characters searching for an author" thing didn't grab my attention. Maybe I didn't 'get' it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on November 22, 2009, 06:24:18 PM
Quote from: Diletante on November 20, 2009, 05:16:23 PM
I finished Julio Cortázar's Las armas secretas a few days ago. Very nice short stories, although the last one stumped me. Anyone else like Cortázar?

Then I read Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author . I didn't like it. I found the plot banal and weak, and the whole "characters searching for an author" thing didn't grab my attention. Maybe I didn't 'get' it.

Had the same reaction when reading a different work of Pirandello. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 23, 2009, 07:20:57 AM
Revisiting Brideshead Revisited;  and there are spooky aspects to that.

And, Why Begins With W has arrived just now!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 24, 2009, 04:21:57 AM
QuoteAnd, Why Begins With W has arrived just now!

Began reading that yesterday afternoon, and although work tended to interfere, I had finished it before retiring for the night.  Great fun!  I enjoyed it, and I am well past the 'target age group'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 24, 2009, 08:56:29 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on November 15, 2009, 10:48:23 PM

I read your excellent review, Dave. Sounds interesting... BUT - there is so much I still have to read and, yes, to write...

The author wrote me a nice Facebook letter. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 24, 2009, 02:12:17 PM
For review:

(http://www.fantasticliterature.com/resources/home/cold.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 24, 2009, 05:48:42 PM
Well, I'm into my American Revolution mode - currently reading the book below:

Almost A Miracle:  The American Victory in the War of Independence (2007) by John Ferling - just getting started; nearly 600 pages, so will take me a while (since I often read 3-4 books at a time); so far, quite well done w/ much detail - don't expect a quick & easy read of this one!  :D

(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestsellers-2007/2358-1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 24, 2009, 06:54:24 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on November 24, 2009, 05:48:42 PM
Well, I'm into my American Revolution mode - currently reading the book below:

Almost A Miracle:  The American Victory in the War of Independence (2007) by John Ferling - just getting started; nearly 600 pages, so will take me a while (since I often read 3-4 books at a time); so far, quite well done w/ much detail - don't expect a quick & easy read of this one!  :D

(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestsellers-2007/2358-1.jpg)

I made it about a third of the way through, Dave.  Very heavy on the detail of each and every battle.  Found it a bit too repetative and text bookish, but will probably return to get the info in my head.  I am cruising through this at the moment. 

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/718ZFRBRHQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.gif)

Easy and fun.  Filled with wonderful anecdotes.  Do not let the first few pages make you put it down, Dave.  The story of John Adams and his wine crisis when he moved from France to England was priceless.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 25, 2009, 05:34:31 PM
Quote from: Bogey on November 24, 2009, 06:54:24 PM
I made it about a third of the way through, Dave.  Very heavy on the detail of each and every battle.  Found it a bit too repetative and text bookish, but will probably return to get the info in my head.......

Bill - completely agree w/ your assessment of the Ferling book - this is long & quite detailed; willing to spend some time and the detail is fine w/ me having read & studied this period so much; but, would not be a recommendation for me to someone wanting an introduction to this war - just plenty of shorter tomes of suggest!  Dave  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on November 26, 2009, 07:26:35 AM
My copy of The Original of Laura arrived yesterday! 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: johnshade on November 26, 2009, 11:20:27 AM
My copy arrived a few days ago. I have not had time to read it yet. I have mixed emotions about it's being published.

I own and have read all his published works. The first Nabokov book I read was Pnin in 1960.

John Shade

Does the quotation below give you any hints?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on November 27, 2009, 07:04:01 PM
The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters.  This is part historical fiction, part ghost story, a tale of a family living in a deteriorating English estate in the post-war 1940's.  One by one the residents meet a bad end, and we are left wonder if the demons assailing them are supernatural, or in their minds.

A well told story, but not as vivid as Water's earlier work, paticularly Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet.   I recommend it, but I recommend those earlier works even more, if you don't know them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on November 30, 2009, 09:13:30 AM
Prokofiev

by Thomas Schipperges
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on December 01, 2009, 03:26:38 PM
Quote from: Corey on November 04, 2009, 07:50:38 PM
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/beckettcover.jpg)

I loved Molloy and Malone Dies, and probably would have loved The Unnameable as well. I've been really distracted as of late, and existential dread doesn't really work in short little bits. I'll come back to it later when I can focus all my attention onto it.

Reading:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/ozubressondreyercopy.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on December 01, 2009, 03:35:00 PM
Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

(http://aynrand100.com/images/cover_cent_fountainhead_sc.gif)

She was very popular when I was in High School (1960s) but I never read the books.  I received a $50 gift for a birthday gift and went (for the first time in years - all my shopping has been online for a while) to the Borders store to look around and saw a Centennial Edition set of this one and Atlas Shrugged, which were priced at $48, so I went for them.

So far, I am enjoying it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 01, 2009, 04:42:11 PM
Quote from: Brahmsian on November 30, 2009, 09:13:30 AM
Prokofiev

by Thomas Schipperges

By 'oo?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 01, 2009, 04:43:48 PM
A bio of Peggy Guggenheim, Mistress of Modernism.  'Tis good to be reminded that there were non-artists who helped drive various strands of Modernism (that much-maligned creature).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 02, 2009, 05:04:47 AM
The Black Rider by...

QuoteFrederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 - May 12, 1944) was an American western fiction author. Faust wrote mostly under five pseudonyms, though he is primarily known by one, Max Brand, today. Faust was born in Seattle and both his parents died soon after. He grew up in central California and later worked as a cowhand on one of the many ranches of the San Joaquin Valley. Faust attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he began to write frequently. He did not attain a degree, as he was deemed a troublemaker, and he began to travel extensively.

During the 1910s, Faust started to sell stories to the many emerging pulp magazines of the era. Faust attempted to enlist when the United States joined World War I in 1917, but was denied entry. In the 1920s, Faust wrote furiously, achieving success and fame. He soon became overworked and was diagnosed by a doctor with an undefined heart condition. Faust continued to travel and write a massive amount of material, working in many genres. He invented the western character "Destry" and the non-western character "Dr. Kildare," later a popular television series.

In the 1930s, Faust joined the literary trek to Hollywood and wrote scripts. When World War II broke out, Faust insisted on doing his part by becoming a front line correspondent. Faust was quite famous at this point and the soldiers enjoyed having this popular author among them. While traveling with American soldiers as they battled Germans in Italy, Faust was mortally wounded and died in a fox hole in 1944.

Faust wrote in many genres, though he is mainly known today for his thoughtful and literary westerns. Though Faust did work as a cowboy and did travel extensively throughout the west, the authenticity of his westerns is credited to the large amount of western lore he kept on file and to the depth he put in his characters.

Faust also managed a massive outpouring of fiction, rivaling Edgar Wallace and especially, Isaac Asimov as one of the most prolific authors of all time, and he may have published more than 500 books worth of novels and short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on December 02, 2009, 06:50:13 AM
Quote from: Franco on December 01, 2009, 03:35:00 PM
Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

(http://aynrand100.com/images/cover_cent_fountainhead_sc.gif)

She was very popular when I was in High School (1960s) but I never read the books.  I received a $50 gift for a birthday gift and went (for the first time in years - all my shopping has been online for a while) to the Borders store to look around and saw a Centennial Edition set of this one and Atlas Shrugged, which were priced at $48, so I went for them.

So far, I am enjoying it.

Hardback, leather-back? I bought a paperback centennial edition (of The Fountainhead) for the equivalent of a few Dollars just a couple of months ago.

Right now, though, I'm reading The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum, while occasionally dipping my toes into Christoph Wolff's book on Bach.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on December 02, 2009, 07:19:05 AM
(http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/images/glazhu.jpg)

Operation Mars, which occurred around the same time as uranus, the stalingrad counteroffensive was a massive debacle for the soviet army which was subsequently downplayed and spoken of very little.  around 400,000 soviet soldiers were casualties in this attempt to encircle and destroy the 9th army outside of vyazma.  the harrowing accounts of the carnage among the frozen swamps and forests convey a good sense of what people endured in the great patriotic war
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 03, 2009, 05:42:55 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on November 24, 2009, 02:12:17 PM
For review:

(http://www.fantasticliterature.com/resources/home/cold.JPG)

This was outstanding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on December 03, 2009, 03:07:22 PM
Turner's Rivers, Harbours and Coasts (Shanes)
Turner's England (Shanes)

Can't think of a more consistent painter of stare-able scenes, hundreds of them, even the obscurities can have me zoning out on the page for a few minutes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: secondwind on December 05, 2009, 08:25:17 PM
The World in Six Songs, by Daniel Levitin
Fascinating stuff--music and evolution--who knew?

The Story of My Life and Work, by Booker T. Washington
Filling some of the gaps in my knowledge of American history and great Americans.  Very readable and interesting.

The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James.  Rereading it just in case the GMG discussion every begins. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on December 06, 2009, 11:29:39 AM
Didn't feel the need to finish the Schrader book. He was basically saying in so many words what I had already derived from simply watching the films of the directors covered.

Now reading:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/6a00d83455aaff69e200e54f5443e78834-.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on December 07, 2009, 02:17:13 PM
Quote from: Corey on December 06, 2009, 11:29:39 AM
Didn't feel the need to finish the Schrader book. He was basically saying in so many words what I had already derived from simply watching the films of the directors covered.

I'm always intrigued to see Ozu considered more than Mizoguchi among japanese directors. For lack of opportunity, I have seen lots of the latter, and NONE from Ozu...  What's your opinion, Corey?

What is defined as 'transcendental style', for that matter?  Isn't the cover a scene from Vampyr?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on December 07, 2009, 09:27:06 PM
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on December 07, 2009, 02:17:13 PM
I'm always intrigued to see Ozu considered more than Mizoguchi among japanese directors. For lack of opportunity, I have seen lots of the latter, and NONE from Ozu...  What's your opinion, Corey?

What is defined as 'transcendental style', for that matter?  Isn't the cover a scene from Vampyr?

I haven't seen much, but I was recently blown away by Late Spring. I've seen a few others (Early Summer, Tokyo Story) but I don't think I "got" them at the time, and am planning to rewatch them within the next week or two.

Schrader's definition of transcendental style in film is basically "anything in film that evokes the human response to the metaphysical". The cover is from Vampyr, which is odd, as he lists it among Dreyer's "anti-transcendental" films.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on December 08, 2009, 10:24:44 AM
Just read "A House and it's Head" by Ivy Compton-Burnett. 

The author, a 20th century English writer, has a unique style; the books consists of transcribed dialog with almost no additional description.  Characters and scenes change abruptly and without mention, so it is sometimes a challenge to keep track of who is talking.  Attention is focused on a sort of verbal warfare that takes place between the characters, relating to action that is often learned of only by indirect mention in the dialog.  The main characters in this book are the self-centered and tyrannical (in a petty way) head of a household and his daughters.  The action involves the death of his wife and his two subsequent marriages, which is accompanied by a surprising amount of scandal.  Clearly a book written by a person who felt herself alienated from conventional society.  Very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Blumerang on December 08, 2009, 02:58:53 PM
Currently reading (for the second time) first George Konrad's book. Wiki said english translation is The Case Worker. Fantastic book, as his other books are.

And just to give one more recommendation for book Corey's reading
Quote from: Corey on December 06, 2009, 11:29:39 AM
Now reading:

(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z245/tapiola/6a00d83455aaff69e200e54f5443e78834-.jpg)

For sure, this book gave me one of the greatest enjoyments I had reading.
(Me and my bad english.  :-\)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 09, 2009, 04:07:45 AM
Just finished re-reading Brideshead Revisited (the re-reading was something whimsical).  Always good, though it has got its share of gloom.

Started devouring Simon Morrison's The People's Artist, which is excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Keemun on December 09, 2009, 06:10:56 AM
"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

I'm really enjoying this book!  Has anyone else read it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 09, 2009, 07:41:27 AM
Long ago! I remember not wanting to put the book down.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 09, 2009, 08:01:54 AM
Quote from: Keemun on December 09, 2009, 06:10:56 AM
"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

I'm really enjoying this book!  Has anyone else read it?

Yes. There's you and ... me!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on December 09, 2009, 01:57:45 PM
When Anger Hurts - 2nd edition

Matthew McKay, Peter D. Rogers, Judith Mckay
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on December 09, 2009, 04:03:44 PM
Quote from: Blumerang on December 08, 2009, 02:58:53 PM
Currently reading (for the second time) first George Konrad's book. Wiki said english translation is The Case Worker. Fantastic book, as his other books are.

And just to give one more recommendation for book Corey's reading
For sure, this book gave me one of the greatest enjoyments I had reading.
(Me and my bad english.  :-\)

Bad in your opinion maybe , but you get everything across all right. Bravo !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Keemun on December 10, 2009, 07:15:49 AM
Karl and Dave (or anyone else), did you read any of Asimov's subsequent "Foundation" novels, and if so, what did you think of them?  I'm only half-way through "Foundation" but I'm already considering reading at least the other two books of the original trilogy.  I plan to wait until I finish this one to be sure I want to read more, but I've already added them to my Amazon wishlist.   :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 10, 2009, 07:28:23 AM
From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America (2009) by Richard Mendelson, who is a lawyer, has worked in the wine trade for years (on different continents), and is also a winemaker.  This book was well recommended in one of my wine newsletters - really a history of 'alcohol' in the USA -  about half way through and Prohibition has just been repealed; now becoming more interesting regarding the legalities of interstate shipment of wine!  Book is listed at over 300 pgs, but really about 190 of text (plenty of notes & references).  Recommended for 'wine lovers' who can't find what they may want in wine locally and wonder why the 'hell' it can't be shipped!  ;D

(http://www.appellationamerica.com/images/appellations/features/book%20cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 10, 2009, 09:05:35 AM
Quote from: Keemun on December 10, 2009, 07:15:49 AM
Karl and Dave (or anyone else), did you read any of Asimov's subsequent "Foundation" novels, and if so, what did you think of them?  I'm only half-way through "Foundation" but I'm already considering reading at least the other two books of the original trilogy.  I plan to wait until I finish this one to be sure I want to read more, but I've already added them to my Amazon wishlist.   :D

I read the whole trilogy Back in the Day;  they work well as a unit.

I think that he published a fourth book much later, but I haven't even read that one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on December 14, 2009, 02:11:00 AM
REPOST (made some improvements in translation of the titles and added information)

(http://static.managementboek.nl/boeken/9789072258021-150.jpg) (http://www.felix-en-sofie.nl/boeken/306/9072258037.JPG.jpg) (http://www.uitgeverijboom.nl/upload/9072258053.JPG)

Studying Cornelis' work. Very interesting. I want to bring it into politics, by talking with them about the solutions Cornelis offers.

titles in english:
Logic of Feeling
The Retarded Time
Restpoints of the Spirit

In Logic of Feeling, his primary work, he distinguishes three stability layers of culture:
- the mythic safety as cultural stability layer of the natural system: nestling of fear
- The social regulation system dominates thinking: rationality as second stability layer in culture: nestling of anger
- Communicative self steering as model of the (near) future: the communicative system as new stability layer in culture: nestling of sadness

In the Retarded Time Arnold Cornelis argues that because our world is chancing rapidly, we have to retard our internal clock to keep being self-steering. When we try to keep pace with the rapidly changing world, that is a catastrophic learning process. Cornelis gives with his theory solutions for our justice system, education and (un)employment. In a later phase "cultural retarding of the internal clock" will imply that we not only get older (by retarding our internal clock) the time seems also to pass by slower. Revanche of the Spirit will be the philosophy of the future. Learning results (and the learning results because of the communicative system will deliver in some decades of years) will last because of the Retarded Time.

In Restpoints of the Spirit, his latest work, Cornelis sketches what things are good for our spirit. It's a philosophy of values, meaning and healthiness. He once more gives arguments for solutions he sketched in his previous books.

Henk
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich on December 19, 2009, 12:01:50 PM
Simplicissimus Teutsch, Grimmelshausen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_abenteuerliche_Simplicissimus). I always wanted to read it. This edition (http://www.amazon.de/Simplicissimus-Teutsch-Jakob-Christoffel-Grimmelshausen/dp/3618680023/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261256236&sr=8-2) is in unpolished, original writing, i.e. baroque german. A bit hard at first[1], but it's alright now, I got used to it. Still at the beginning...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VD8HXMR5L._SS500_.jpg)

[1]It reads like this excerpt: "in welchen sie doch / gleichsam wie in finstern Gefaengnussen und Ungezifer-maessigen Diebs-Thuernen / ohn alle gottseelige Regungen gefangen ligen? Jhre edlen Seelen / sage ich / wie moegen sich solche so martern lassen"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on December 19, 2009, 06:26:02 PM

(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13110000/13113283.JPG)

As in all autobiographies, the primary viewpoint is that of the story teller. There's nothing in there where Birgit was not personally involved. Every event, opera house history, artist (managers, directors, conductors)  is referred to in light of an interaction with her. Surprisingly, singers are viewed as having a carreer, artistry and personality not necessarily Birgit-related. She actually comes across as very appreciative of other singers - except italian tenors, a particular breed her long carreer ought to have made her 'immune' to.

A very thorough and down to earth recollection. Nilsson tells the tale of her being unable to find a restroom in Stockholm (on her first visit ever), and ending up peeing on a parkbench that conveniently had widely spaced laths. She was definitely well aware of her musical and financial worth. Stories abound of her not taking any crap from opera house managers when it came to her contracts and fees (good for her!).

She has very few gripes about particular individuals. She even omits a couple of nagging stories about Bing or Karajan that are known to have occurred, in which the person in question doesn't appear in a very flattering way.  She delights in telling tales of confrontations where a real argument (artistic or financial) was at stake and in which she prevailed. But she just won't trample on an opponent's head.

She had an amazing carreer, in the sense that she emerged quite late on the international scene (lin her late thirties to early forties), and sang well into her sixties - often very heavy roles. Contrary to other noted wagnerian singers, she never 'went down' to lower tessitura roles - like her noted colleagues Mödl or Varnay. Her voice simply retained its clarion incisiveness, making any downward adjustments not only unnecessary, but probably unnatural. She even went on to sing Sieglinde (instead of her scheduled Brünnhilde) in a 1975 Met production. She had just gotten word that the Sieglinde had fallen ill, and she 'felt like' going back to the role (at 57 years of age!)

Her favourite conductor: Karl Böhm. She doesn't spare him when it comes to his mean-spirited ways with other artists. But she finds him the most inspiring artist she's worked with, bar none (hint: she preferred flowing, urgent tempi). She also has very good words about Sawallisch, Knappertsbusch, Keilberth, some less than enthusiastic assessments of Bernstein, and a lot of really negative comments about Karajan. It is surprising to hear her single out individual performances where she feels the Maestro easily rose above any other competitor and managed to provide the audience with a transcendant musical experience. One such instance seems to have entirely been motivated by the presence in the La Scala boxes of the House's conductor (Gavazzeni). According to Nilsson, Karajan's inspired leadership surpassed anything she had ever expereineced in that opera (Fidelio).

Nilsson offers precious few hints on what goes on in one's throat. From what I've read, she doesn't seem to be especially aware of it. How is one to analyze his/her own spectacular endowment ? What is truly amazing is to realize that Nilsson's vocal heyday started when she was about 40, and asted lasted a good 20 years - longer than most wagnerian singers, and longer than most opera singers, period - except maybe Joan Sutherland, a contemporary singer that is conspicuously absent from her memoirs...

YouTubing nilsson will uncover many entries. They all show her to be the mistress of the vocal line, unfailingly nailing pitches, high notes, and addressing the character's emotions in a heartfelt manner.  Which brings the question: what is a swede soprano's range of emotions compared to, say, that of an italian tenor? From recollections and comments form La Nilsson, it seems she didn't quite  understand - let alone appropriate - the particular connection between heart and voice that is the essence of italian singer's artistry.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on December 21, 2009, 04:38:46 AM
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

a favorite of mine!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 21, 2009, 04:57:35 AM
Roberts' History of the World
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 21, 2009, 05:38:12 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on December 21, 2009, 04:38:46 AM
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

a favorite of mine!  :)

The other day I saw stills of De Niro in the Branagh film . . . a film I had been avoiding, but now I think I do want to give it a spin.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on December 21, 2009, 06:32:42 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 21, 2009, 05:38:12 AM
The other day I saw stills of De Niro in the Branagh film . . . a film I had been avoiding, but now I think I do want to give it a spin.

Not a bad film, Karl.  I've seen it more than once.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on December 23, 2009, 01:35:39 AM
RICHARD DAWKINS:  " The Greatest Show on Earth"  (2009)

Dawkins most recent book and one of the best. Less controversial than others, it is centered in the evolution, describing a large number of examples, natural and artificial, in a fascinating global perspective of life in Earth. It remembers me of some of Jay Gould books about similar subjects.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on December 23, 2009, 09:02:47 AM
I'm about to start Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, about what makes people successful. It's my old ladies' book club selection for January.
I recently read Pat Conroy's South of Broad, his first novel in 14 years, set in Charleston SC. Not particularly recommended, but I finished it because (a) we love Charleston and (b) I wanted to see how it ended. Rather soap-opera-ish.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: offbeat on December 26, 2009, 08:52:03 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51A8VXP1C8L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

In a book group i joined above is next choice - dont know if anybody has read this but for me its really hard work. Its about a bloke who has a medical condition which enables him to travel back and forward in time. Sounds ok for a plot but the story imo is total mess. Its supposed to be mainly a romance but the plot is so ridiculous and the story so boring i am tempted to give up - maybe its just me because on amazon site the five stars outnumbered the one stars around 7 to 1   :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 26, 2009, 09:20:16 AM
Had the urge to read some sf and heard good things about these books.

(http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-sci-fi-fantasy-2006/2008-1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 26, 2009, 02:19:41 PM
Quote from: Harpo on December 23, 2009, 09:02:47 AM
I recently read Pat Conroy's South of Broad, his first novel in 14 years, set in Charleston SC. Not particularly recommended, but I finished it because (a) we love Charleston and (b) I wanted to see how it ended. Rather soap-opera-ish.

I don't plan to read the book above but the title deserves some comments relative to Broad Street in Charleston, a favorite place for us to visit (in fact going back next year for a short vacation).

Broad & Meeting Streets cross each other in the lower downtown area of the city not far from the battery; to be considered a 'true' Charlestonian, living 'South of Broad', i.e. nearer the battery was (is) considered the best social address; others not residing in that area would state that you were thus a SOB!

Now living just above Broad Street was still considered not a bad address, and those would be thought of as living 'Slightly North of Broad', i.e. you were therefore a SNOB!  In the latter location, near the Cooper River side of the area, there is a fabulous restaurant called SNOBS (there, I had the absolute best key lime pie that I've ever eaten a few years ago, and I've tried hundreds over the years!) - great place.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 26, 2009, 02:36:13 PM
Quote from: offbeat on December 26, 2009, 08:52:03 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51A8VXP1C8L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

In a book group i joined above is next choice - dont know if anybody has read this but for me its really hard work. Its about a bloke who has a medical condition which enables him to travel back and forward in time. Sounds ok for a plot but the story imo is total mess. Its supposed to be mainly a romance but the plot is so ridiculous and the story so boring i am tempted to give up - maybe its just me because on amazon site the five stars outnumbered the one stars around 7 to 1   :o

Wow, that sounds like an awful book. I haven't read it, but can't blame you for not being able to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on December 31, 2009, 02:14:24 PM
Harry Partch: A Biography (Bob Gilmore)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FKAFXAH7L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Finally finished this, even though I intended to during the summer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: secondwind on January 02, 2010, 04:48:00 PM
Quote from: Harpo on December 23, 2009, 09:02:47 AM
I'm about to start Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, about what makes people successful. It's my old ladies' book club selection for January.
I recently read Pat Conroy's South of Broad, his first novel in 14 years, set in Charleston SC. Not particularly recommended, but I finished it because (a) we love Charleston and (b) I wanted to see how it ended. Rather soap-opera-ish.
My husband read Outliers recently.  He read bits and pieces of it to me, and I've read some of it myself.  He keeps reminding me of the research concerning what separated the Julliard students who made careers as soloists from the ones who became orchestral musicians or teachers.   It turns out it's just a matter of hours--about 10,000 hours of practice, if I recall correctly--before beginning conservatory.   There's some interesting research in the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on January 03, 2010, 06:34:08 AM
The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on January 03, 2010, 07:47:09 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41H3EYAS9YL._SS500_.jpg)

Biography of Eilleen Farrell, one of the very few artists versatile enough to sing convincingly opera, blues and jazz. The possessor of a huge voice and an excellent technique, Farrell was a radio star before she was asked to try her hand at opera. A big Met star in the early sixties, she ran afoul of the Met's management. A true Irish hotblood, she never hesitated to tell things as she saw them.  Not one to tell anecdotes using shuch foils as 'a certain well-known italian tenor ' or 'this famous german conductor', she tells tales and names names openly, and discusses frankly the problems she ran into or the errors she made in her carreer. All told, a very entertaining and illuminating memoir. One thing she has in common with Nilsson is her distrust of vocal coaches and university conservatories. If one is to believe these two divas, many, many major voices have been destroyed by dangerous and silly vocal practices and reckless voice training.

I have many discs with Farrell ( 8 if memory serves), and the adjectives that comes to mind spontaneously are 'natural' and 'honest'. There was never anything fabricated into her voice production - it all came to her as easily as talking. And histrionically, she always put words first, voice second. This is particularly obvious in her many 'popular' albums.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on January 03, 2010, 11:51:43 AM
You're on an opera-memoir roll, Andre?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on January 03, 2010, 04:07:33 PM
Well, sort of. I just happened to land on the Norbeck & Peters web site, and there was all that yummy material. Next is a biography of Franco Corelli  :D. Nilsson's and Farrell's are autobiographies, and although well written and reasonably frank (Farrell's esp), they may not be entirely uncritical.

I also have John Canarina's biography of Pierre Monteux waiting on the table. Singers and conductors are the ones I'm most interested in. Of other musicians, only Artur Rubinstein's mammoth memoirs have held my attention. He even tells about his 'first time', something you never read about in a musician's biography.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 04, 2010, 05:02:24 AM
An adventure novel. Think Indiana Jones.

(http://www.huntforadventure.com/books/bk2/cover_big.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beetzart on January 04, 2010, 10:51:48 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517ZA6BYZ3L._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 04, 2010, 12:19:45 PM
I'm trying to find some sort of great novel to possibly read during summer (or, at the soonest, sometime during next month).
I just don't know where to start...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 04, 2010, 12:27:47 PM
Quote from: Greg on January 04, 2010, 12:19:45 PM
I'm trying to find some sort of great novel to possibly read during summer (or, at the soonest, sometime during next month).
I just don't know where to start...

oy
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 04, 2010, 02:16:59 PM
Quote from: Dave of MN on January 04, 2010, 12:27:47 PM
oy
Yeah, pretty open-ended, huh?...  :D
I don't even know what I'd like... I could explain what elements in a story I might like, but I don't know how much it would help.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on January 04, 2010, 02:24:18 PM
Quote from: Greg on January 04, 2010, 12:19:45 PM
I'm trying to find some sort of great novel to possibly read during summer (or, at the soonest, sometime during next month).
I just don't know where to start...

I think you would like Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on January 04, 2010, 02:32:16 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 04, 2010, 02:24:18 PM
I think you would like Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

Seconded!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 04, 2010, 02:53:16 PM
Quote from: Corey on January 04, 2010, 02:24:18 PM
I think you would like Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

Yeah, that one didn't bore me out of my skull.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 05, 2010, 04:52:17 AM
Cool, that one does look like a good one.
Out of curiosity, what might be considered the Mahler 9th of books? (if there is such a thing)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on January 05, 2010, 04:55:30 AM
In what way? (I've never heard the M9 btw)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 05, 2010, 04:56:14 AM
Quote from: Greg on January 05, 2010, 04:52:17 AM
Out of curiosity, what might be considered the Mahler 9th of books? (if there is such a thing)

War and Peace, perhaps? (I haven't read it, but I know it's a tome... about war and peace. ;D)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 05, 2010, 05:26:26 AM
Quote from: Corey on January 05, 2010, 04:55:30 AM
In what way? (I've never heard the M9 btw)
Really? Hmm... first of all, go listen to it. Now!  :D
Second of all, I guess I'm looking for a book with the same qualities- long, very cathartic and philosophical, though violence is also very welcome. And a plus if it makes me think and sort out what's going on with plot lines or whatever.

I just read the first chapter of Crime and Punishment and it does look good. I might choose this one to read if I don't find another one that attracts my attention more. (i go back to school tomorrow, so for the next few weeks I won't have time to read)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 05, 2010, 05:27:24 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 05, 2010, 04:56:14 AM
War and Peace, perhaps? (I haven't read it, but I know it's a tome... about war and peace. ;D)

Don't frighten the lad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 05, 2010, 05:29:42 AM
Both Crime and Punishment and War and Peace are wonderful, of course.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 05, 2010, 05:30:33 AM
Quote from: Dave of MN on January 05, 2010, 05:27:24 AM
Don't frighten the lad.
I saved a copy of it to my hard drive, but at nearly 3000 pages, I can just imagine how long it'd take to read.  ???
That itself isn't a problem (since I like epic stuff like that), but during summer, I'm planning to start composing something- between just that and work, ehhhh... might be hard. :D

Not to mention that I have to return a game I'm borrowing called Xenogears to a friend once I'm done. This is also a 50-70 hour game- I've only played an hour or two and the story is awesome.  ;D
I can probably on realistically handle 2 different long projects at once.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 05, 2010, 05:32:19 AM
Quote from: Greg on January 05, 2010, 05:30:33 AM
I saved a copy of it to my hard drive, but at nearly 3000 pages, I can just imagine how long it'd take to read.  ???
That itself isn't a problem (since I like epic stuff like that), but during summer, I'm planning to start composing something- between just that and work, ehhhh... might be hard. :D

THE STRANGER by Camus. Short, if I recall correctly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 05, 2010, 05:35:22 AM
Quote from: Greg on January 05, 2010, 05:30:33 AM
. . . during summer, I'm planning to start composing something

Excellent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 05, 2010, 06:04:09 AM
Quote from: Dave of MN on January 05, 2010, 05:32:19 AM
THE STRANGER by Camus. Short, if I recall correctly.
Yeah, it is. The book is 123 pages, but the pdf I downloaded has more on each page, and ends up as 77 pages.
I read the first chapter and... I can't say it's actually enjoyable. But it's only the first chapter. Does it get different from here on?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 05, 2010, 06:09:14 AM
Thread duty:

I borrowed a couple of books from the library. The first was The Picture of Dorian Gray, and of all things the first page of the novel was missing! Not from the Introduction, nor the Chronology, or not even from the Notes to the Introduction -- it had to be the novel. >:( I couldn't hold on until I could print the first page out, from Google Books or something, so I picked up Something Fresh (http://www.wodehouse.co.uk/bookprofile.php?rnd=eaKBqO3Z%2FbrkpCb3FbRIdrJsW9KD3H1BrL%2FiNFbTMuJtFHDXc2tC0KMLITuY0bt5), instead.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 05, 2010, 06:12:02 AM
Thread duty:

Dude: The Big Book of Zonker

I was never a devoted reader of any comic strip, but I did occasionally cast an eye on Doonesbury.  Getting all the "fill" in the Zonker saga has been worth springing $3 for this compilation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 05, 2010, 06:16:06 AM
Quote from: Greg on January 05, 2010, 06:04:09 AM
Yeah, it is. The book is 123 pages, but the pdf I downloaded has more on each page, and ends up as 77 pages.
I read the first chapter and... I can't say it's actually enjoyable. But it's only the first chapter. Does it get different from here on?

Well, what are you looking for?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 05, 2010, 06:19:06 AM
Quote from: Dave of MN on January 05, 2010, 06:16:06 AM
Well, what are you looking for?
Mahler's 9th, transcribed for piano. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 05, 2010, 06:19:57 AM
I bet he's looking for Neal Stephenson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 05, 2010, 06:22:30 AM
Who?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 05, 2010, 06:24:15 AM
http://www.nealstephenson.com/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 05, 2010, 06:26:19 AM
Quote from: Dave of MN on January 05, 2010, 06:24:15 AM
http://www.nealstephenson.com/

Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 05, 2010, 07:07:09 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 05, 2010, 06:19:06 AM
Mahler's 9th, transcribed for piano. :D
Lol... actually I prefer playing passages at the piano while reading from the score. A piano transcription just dirties things up.



Quote from: Dave of MN on January 05, 2010, 06:16:06 AM
Well, what are you looking for?
Um... stories like this:
Quote

Story overview

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni takes place during June 1983, at a fictional rural village called Hinamizawa (雛見沢?) (based on the village of Shirakawa, Gifu, a World Heritage Site),[1][2] which has a population of approximately 2,000. The main character, Keiichi Maebara, moves to Hinamizawa and befriends his new classmates Rena Ryuugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, and Satoko Hojo. Keiichi joins their after-school club activities, which consist mostly of card and board games (and punishment games for the loser, usually him.) Hinamizawa appears to be a normal, peaceful, rural village to Keiichi. However, the tranquility abruptly ends after the annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local god, Oyashiro. Keiichi learns that every year for the past four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing on the day of the Watanagashi Festival. Keiichi himself soon becomes drawn into the strange events surrounding the Watanagashi Festival and Oyashiro. In each story arc, he or one of his friends become paranoid, and a crime is committed. Usually, the crime involves the murder of one of their own friends. While it seems impossible to tell their delusions apart from the mystery of Hinamizawa, slowly the truth is revealed.
[edit] Story arcs

In the Higurashi games, there are several story arcs, the original eight of which are referred to as either question arcs or answer arcs. The answer arcs generally recapitulate the events of the corresponding question arc, but from a different perspective, using the change of protagonist to solve various mysteries and come to a different conclusion. Each of the eight original games for the PC represented separate arcs of the overall storyline. Apart from the main question/answer relationship, the stories of the arcs are not directly connected, although a multitude of parallels exist which allow the observant reader to gain extra insight into the mystery.
[edit] Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

The Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (ひぐらしのなく頃に, When Cicadas Cry?) games form what are referred to as the question arcs. These first four games of the series were meant to give the player a sense of the world where the story takes place and introduce the mysterious circumstances surrounding the village of Hinamizawa. Since there are no concrete answers given to the questions that the story presents in these arcs, the question arcs allow the player to form his or her own opinions about the events taking place in Hinamizawa. Each question arc game contains all of the previous question arcs.

Onikakushi-hen (鬼隠し編, Spirited Away by the Demon Chapter)?, (Released August 10, 2002)
    This chapter introduces the player to the world of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. The player is shown the simple rural life of Hinamizawa, the after-school club activities, and the friendships of the main characters. However, things take a sinister turn after the Watanagashi Festival, when Keiichi discovers what his new friends have been concealing from him. This chapter implies that Rena Ryuugu and Mion Sonozaki are the villains.

Watanagashi-hen (綿流し編, Cotton Drifting Chapter)?, (Released December 29, 2002)
    By this chapter, the player should have an overall idea of how life in Hinamizawa is like. Once again, this chapter begins innocently, with the Watanagashi Festival again marking the start of the sinister events in Hinamizawa. An ancient curse strikes, and a pair of sisters are not what they seem. Shion Sonozaki makes her first appearance in this chapter, while Mion Sonozaki is portrayed as the villain. Oishi believes that it is Shion impersonating Mion who commits the murderous acts as Mion's body is found in the well and not Shion's.

Tatarigoroshi-hen (祟殺し編, Curse Killing Chapter)?, (Released August 15, 2003)
    Tatarigoroshi-hen is longer than the previous two chapters. Keiichi attempts to help Satoko with drastic measures, but as more and more people die, it is clear he is not the only one involved in this. This time, the spotlight shines on Satoko Hojo as being the "victim". Despite good (though misled) intentions, Keiichi Maebara is believed by some of the others to be a villain in this chapter.

Himatsubushi-hen (暇潰し編, Time Killing Chapter)?, (Released August 13, 2004)
    Himatsubushi-hen is both a direct prequel and a direct sequel to Tatarigoroshi-hen. This chapter takes place five years before the previous three. In contrast to the first three chapters, this chapter is shown through the eyes of Mamoru Akasaka, a young police investigator from Tokyo who comes to Hinamizawa in order to investigate a kidnapping of a politician's grandchild. Soon, he too becomes implicated in the mysteries of Hinamizawa. This chapter focuses on Rika Furude as being the key part of the mystery.

or this:

Quote


Elfen Lied takes place in Japan, focusing specifically onto a new strain of the human race - a species known as Diclonius, creatures almost entirely similar to ordinary human beings, yet greatly different at the genetic level and notable due to physical abnormalities, the most notable being a pair of short horn-like protrusions located on both sides of a Diclonius' head. One such Diclonius, a girl named Lucy, takes role as the central plot and main anti-heroine of the series: initially held in a facility built for experimentation on the Diclonius race, located off the coast of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, she manages to escape and wreak havoc in the compound, though she's injured in the process, an event which help develop a secondary, child-like personality known as Nyu, her name being the very first word she ever spoke.

Brought by the sea to Kamakura's coast, she is then found and rescued by two local residents, Kohta, who just moved in to study at the local university, and his cousin Yuka. They both agree to take in Nyu (they're the ones who give her the name), though in doing so they become involved with the numerous, often brutal, attempts to recapture Lucy/Nyu, which counts among them a Special Assault Team and a number of other Diclonius, who shift from completely oblivious of everything to murderous killer frequently, often driven by a primitive, violent instinct bent on survival of her species over the human race, deemed both inferior and extremely savage. Also, several characters who were apparently untied to the plot becomes entangled in it, from Bando, a SAT trooper who was mauled by Lucy and infected with the Vector virus, to director Kurama himself, a carrier of said virus.

While the animated rendition of the series ends with the violent fight between Lucy and Mariko, Kurama's daughter, after which Lucy disappears while fighting the military sent to capture her, the manga continues on by showing the mad plan of director Kakuzawa, leader of the Diclonius' research, and its ultimate failure due to its own inconsistency. Nevertheless, said plan still brings about a great crisis upon the world, whose side-effects the surviving protagonists witness in the years after the conclusion of the story.

The story is rarely completely action-packed, and while there are instances of brutal fights, they often end abruptly in massacres perpetrated by Lucy or the other Diclonius, or even the humans themselves. Also, humanity is often portrayed as extremely immoral or cruel, with instances such as the experiments the Diclonius constantly endure or the racist view humans and Diclonius give at each other. In fact, it is often confusing to assert who of the two factions is truly evil, given the fact that while humans are demonized through their cruelty over Diclonius, the latter are depicted as bloody murderers since a very young age - in fact, most of them are young children or teenagers at most.

or this:

Quote

A pair of high school students, Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato, are run over by a subway train in an attempt to save the life of a homeless drunk who had fallen onto the tracks. Following their deaths, Kurono and Kato find themselves transported to the interior of an unfurnished Tokyo apartment. The pair soon realize others are present and find that they are not able to leave the apartment. At one end of the room there is a featureless black sphere known as "Gantz".

After some time in the room, the Gantz sphere opens up, revealing a bald naked man with a breathing mask and wires attached to his head, and three racks protruding from it, that offer various items for them to use. These include the custom fitting black suits Gantz makes for each of them, giving them super-human abilities, a controller which acts as a radar and stealth unit, and three types of guns.

When the Gantz sphere opens, green text appears on its surface, informing those present that their "lives have ended and now belong" to him. A picture and brief information is shown of some of the Gantz Targets, Gantz ordering them to go and kill them. All but one target shown thus far, have been aliens living on Earth, which take on a wide variety of forms. After a period of time which varies between missions, everyone except Gantz are transported to the location of the mission.

Those sent cannot return from the mission until all enemies have been killed, or the time limit has run out. If they survive a successful mission, each individual is awarded points for the aliens they have killed. They are then allowed to leave, and live their lives as they see fit until Gantz summons them back again for the next mission. The only way to stop having to participate in the missions is to earn one hundred points, and choose the option to be freed. Several participants, including Kato, are killed through the third mission they are given, leaving Kurono as the only survivor and the new leader from the "Gantz Team". However, as the series continues, Kurono participates with the objective to revive his deceased friends with the 100 points he can obtain throughout the missions. After several missions, Gantz's sphere indicates that the human race will be over in a week for an unknown reason, but it also frees all the participants from the game.

The last one being influenced by a novel called "Time Murderer" by Robert Sheckly. Anyone ever read that one?...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 05, 2010, 07:15:45 AM
I don't think I've read that book, but all the Scheckley I have read is good. Witty, and good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 05, 2010, 07:22:34 AM
One enduring favorite is the short story, "The Robot Who Looked Like Me"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 05, 2010, 07:27:35 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 05, 2010, 07:15:45 AM
I don't think I've read that book, but all the Scheckley I have read is good. Witty, and good.
I think the article was wrong. The guy never wrote a novel called Time Murderer.  :-\



Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 05, 2010, 07:22:34 AM
One enduring favorite is the short story, "The Robot Who Looked Like Me"
What's that about? A robot who looks like the main character?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 05, 2010, 09:50:31 AM
Quote from: Greg on January 05, 2010, 07:27:35 AM

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ngOne enduring favorite is the short story, "The Robot Who Looked Like Me"

What's that about? A robot who looks like the main character?

About a fellow who is too busy, too busy even to court anyone himself, so he has a robot made in his likeness, to send in as a proxy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 06, 2010, 11:55:24 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 05, 2010, 09:50:31 AM
What's that about? A robot who looks like the main character?


About a fellow who is too busy, too busy even to court anyone himself, so he has a robot made in his likeness, to send in as a proxy.
lol

Quote
He remarks being inspired by the Robert Sheckley's novel Time Murderer while developing the idea that dead people are transported to a place in which they are able to be revived
Was there a Sheckley book with this scenario?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on January 08, 2010, 02:15:23 AM
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Oh, yeah, it's good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on January 08, 2010, 03:41:31 AM
A book called "the Emperor's Children" by Claire Massud.  It is a group of literary people who live in New York city who all have some connection to the most venerable character, a senior journalist.  It depicts their struggle to realize their varying ambitions, although all are thwarted by circumstances and character flaws.  The culmination of the novel is the 9/11 attack, and the way the landscape on which they pursue their goals changes overnight.

Very good, characters are vividly drawn, overall perhaps not an enormously deep work, but a richly painted one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 08, 2010, 06:40:59 AM
The Rite of Spring --- Alejo Carpentier

A leftist but oh so well written novel on the Spanish Civil War and the Cuban society from Batista to the early days of Castrist revolution. It gets utterly propagandistic in the last chapter but the rest of the book is highly enjoyable. Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 08, 2010, 02:12:24 PM
For the readers.

http://www.abebooks.com/books/difficult-hardest-reads-obscure-staff/remaining-unread.shtml?cm_mmc=nl-_-nl-_-r00-ar1001E-_-01cta
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 08, 2010, 04:16:59 PM
War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier (2009) by John Ross - just getting started; biography of the famous 18th century frontiersman (meaning the old Northwest Territory), Robert Rogers (1731-1795) head of 'Roger's Rangers' - stimulus for the Spencer Tracy movie from 1940 Northwest Passage - want to own on DVD, but have not seem its appearance yet!  :-\

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CKJHBTQ-L._SX500_.jpg)  (http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/78/NorthwestPassage_film_cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on January 09, 2010, 06:38:56 AM
A day by day history of WWI.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 09, 2010, 06:43:03 AM
Quote from: Barak on January 09, 2010, 06:38:56 AM
A day by day history of WWI.

Is that the name of a book? (I don't see it listed in Amazon.com, nor does Google return any relevant results.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on January 09, 2010, 06:54:51 AM
No, here's the real title:

(http://cot.priceminister.com/photo/411441230_L.jpg).

After the day by day section (in which events happen across the world - a bewildering sequence), there's a series of portraits of 'men who made history' (Clémenceau, Foch, Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia, Pétain, Kaiser Wilhelm II etc). Then a detailed recounting and illustrated history of the great battles (Marne, Somme, Verdun, Flanders, Dardanelles), and finally 'the daily life during the war' (the trenches, gases, bombardments of civilians, etc.).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 09, 2010, 07:20:54 AM
Ah. Thanks. :) Sounds quite interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on January 09, 2010, 09:40:07 AM
If you read French, that is  ;D. I'm sure there are excellent English-language books too. But the French have always had that thing about the first War. In the collective memory it's known as La Grande Guerre. It's the one they won with a lil' help from their friends, in which they suffered the most, and throughout which the nation was united.

WWII has always been a painful subject for the french political class. There's no such thing as a sexy war, but this is the one they favour by far in terms of books, articles, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on January 09, 2010, 10:29:59 AM
I read - God forgive me - The Lost Symbol. This book is so bad on so many levels it's almost funny. Bad writing, bad science, cliche'ed and totally unbelievable figures, unbelievable plot, laughable philosophic groundings....and so on. I can live with a few of those for the sake of a fastmoving, entertainings story, but please; give me a break!

Edit; I've now finished the book. Some suspense in the clicheridden story, a couple of interesting riddles and a few interesting glimpses into early US history, besides that; total and utter crap actually getting worse as the book progresses, almost like the author loses interest and belief in his own story (like well he might).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 10, 2010, 04:58:21 AM
Those books would be more aesthetically acceptable if the author wasn't a lying POS who claims that the stories are true.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on January 10, 2010, 05:54:11 AM
Quote from: Lethe on January 10, 2010, 04:58:21 AM
Those books would be more aesthetically acceptable if the author wasn't a lying POS who claims that the stories are true.

The da Vinci Code was at least entertaining.  I listened to the audio book while driving from New York to California.  Come to think of it, we Americans are fortunate to have that huge empty section in the middle of the country which facilitates listening to extensive novels.  Driving from East to West in the UK would only give time for Hawthorne short story, I would think.   ;D

In any case, I saw the movie for "the lost symbol" and it was pretty dull, and the "science" betrayed complete cluelessness as to the meaning and nature of anti-matter.  I presume Brown's "expertise" in history and religion is equally idiotic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 10, 2010, 05:59:23 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on January 10, 2010, 05:54:11 AM
Come to think of it, we Americans are fortunate to have that huge empty section in the middle of the country which facilitates listening to extensive novels.

>:(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 10, 2010, 06:00:12 AM
Actually, Brown's expertise in anything is highly questionable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on January 10, 2010, 06:06:30 AM
Quote from: mn dave on January 10, 2010, 05:59:23 AM
>:(

Sorry, was not referring to Minnesota.   :-[

Have you ever been to Iowa?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 10, 2010, 06:07:34 AM
Yes, I've been through Iowa. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on January 10, 2010, 07:14:47 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on January 10, 2010, 05:54:11 AM
The da Vinci Code was at least entertaining. 

I agree. Not particularly well written, but entertaining and suspenseful, with entertaining riddles. This one has nothing of that, and far worse writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 10, 2010, 08:34:52 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on January 10, 2010, 05:54:11 AM
In any case, I saw the movie for "the lost symbol" and it was pretty dull, and the "science" betrayed complete cluelessness as to the meaning and nature of anti-matter.  I presume Brown's "expertise" in history and religion is equally idiotic.

Do you mean Angels & Demons? :) Yeah, the science bit (in the book -- I haven't seen the movie) was terrible, but as a story I remember finding it better than The Da Vinci Code.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on January 10, 2010, 12:52:37 PM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 10, 2010, 08:34:52 AM
Do you mean Angels & Demons? :) Yeah, the science bit (in the book -- I haven't seen the movie) was terrible, but as a story I remember finding it better than The Da Vinci Code.

Duh!  You're right.  Hard to keep those Brown books straight.   ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 13, 2010, 09:46:32 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on January 10, 2010, 05:54:11 AM
Come to think of it, we Americans are fortunate to have that huge empty section in the middle of the country which facilitates listening to extensive novels.  Driving from East to West in the UK would only give time for Hawthorne short story, I would think.   ;D
Hehe, the British sense of distance is remarkably skewed - the place may be tiny, but everybody acts as though it's enormous. I've long been putting off making a one hour journey to a neighbouring town on account of the terrible inconvenience involved in travelling such an enormous distance ::) Ditto why I've never been to London. It's four hours away, absolute tops, and several times someone from North America has heard my excuse for not yet having visited the place and wonder what is wrong with the people here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 15, 2010, 03:10:11 PM
James Duffy: Sand of the Arena

Sand of the Arena is a "prince and the pauper" story that plays out in the arenas of ancient Rome. A rich Roman, Quintus Romanus, has his identity stolen by his conniving slave, Lucius Calidius, after a shipwreck kills Quintus' family. The epic adventure that follows sends Quintus across the Roman Empire in search of a new life and a new family. He finds both in the gladiatorial schools and arenas of Britannia, Rome, and Pompeii where he develops strong bonds with Lindani, an Ethiopian arena hunter, and Amazonia, one of the first female gladiators in the Empire. Quintus' rise to primus palus status, the best of the best among gladiators, is paralleled by the rise of his arch-rival, Lucius, in Imperial politics. As both reach the top of their game, they clash once again in a final battle that settles all scores. Set against the turbulent and erotic setting of Nero's Empire, Sand of the Arena is a tale of graphic arena battles, family devotion, friendship, and vengeance.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on January 15, 2010, 03:40:53 PM
Quote from: Lethe on January 13, 2010, 09:46:32 PM
Hehe, the British sense of distance is remarkably skewed - the place may be tiny, but everybody acts as though it's enormous. I've long been putting off making a one hour journey to a neighbouring town on account of the terrible inconvenience involved in travelling such an enormous distance ::) Ditto why I've never been to London. It's four hours away, absolute tops, and several times someone from North America has heard my excuse for not yet having visited the place and wonder what is wrong with the people here.

I visited London once, took 5 hours (on a Boeing 767  ;)).  As long as we've been discussing the da Vinci code, I should mention that I saw these blokes when I was there.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 16, 2010, 09:41:49 AM
Tasty!
(http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/images/bau/97808439/9780843961249/0/0/plain/quarry-in-the-middle.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on January 19, 2010, 05:13:39 PM
jetlag travel guide: MOLVANÎA         ;D
Recommended if you are a fan of Sellars and Yeatman

from the introduction:" ...the intrepid traveller will find plenty to enjoy within this unique, landlocked nation state -- from the capital Lutenblag with its delightful gas-powered tram network to the heavily forested Postenwalj mountains in the south, where visitors can share a glass of locally brewed zeerstum (garlic brandy) after watching a traditionally-dressed peasant labourer beat his mule."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on January 21, 2010, 10:21:31 AM
You Are Not A Gadget
Jaron Lanier

(http://bookavore.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/9780307269645.jpg)

Looks to be a very good read.

Reviewed here. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703652104574652341134015738.html)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich on January 22, 2010, 07:04:39 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VD8HXMR5L._SS500_.jpg)

...in original, baroque writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 22, 2010, 09:13:25 AM
Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future (2009; revised & updated) by Michael B.A. Oldstone - several of the early chapters on virology & immunology could be a little daunting, but after those introductory discussions, the chapters explore the various viral histories, starting w/ smallpox!  :)

(http://www.dgwillsbooks.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/oldstone.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 23, 2010, 01:45:49 PM
(http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/14510000/14511647.JPG)

At the height of China's Cultural Revolution a powerful general fathered two sons. Tan was born to the general's wife and into a life of comfort and luxury. His half brother, Shento, was born to the general's mistress, who threw herself off a cliff in the mountains of Balan only moments after delivering her child. Growing up, each remained ignorant of the other's existence. In Beijing, Tan enjoyed the best schools, the finest clothes, and the prettiest girls. Shento was raised on the mountainside by an old healer and his wife until their deaths landed him in an orphanage, where he was always hungry, alone, and frightened. Though on divergent roads, each brother is driven by a passionate desire—one to glorify his father, the other to seek revenge against him.

Separated by distance and opportunity, Tan and Shento follow the paths that lie before them, while unknowingly falling in love with the same woman and moving toward the explosive moment when their fates finally merge.

Brothers, by bestselling memoirist Da Chen, is a sprawling, dynamic family saga, complete with assassinations, love affairs, narrowly missed opportunities, and the ineluctable fulfillment of destiny.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 23, 2010, 07:03:20 PM
Quote from: meOut of curiosity, what might be considered the Mahler 9th of books? (if there is such a thing)
Any more suggestions?  :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on January 24, 2010, 05:42:32 PM
Ha, ha, ha! Have you got through the Camus yet?

I personally would second the Tolstoy rec (though I'd point to Anna Karenina). Dostoevsky is not bad, if you're in a wallowing mood (I rarely am). But there's really so much to choose from. How about Cervantes? I have a feeling you might enjoy him. Or, better yet, Jan Potocki (Manuscript Found in Saragossa/Saragossa Manuscript)!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 24, 2010, 06:47:30 PM
I decided not to read it (i just read the first chapter).
I get the point of how strange it is that he's so emotionally detached from the death of his mother and that he talks about silly details of the funeral instead of expressing his grief. It just didn't do anything for me. Does it get more interesting?  ??? ;D

I guess I'm looking for something cathartic... deep... intelligent... I don't know, maybe something like if Schopenhauer wrote a novel? (I just didn't see any signs of it in my preview)

Thanks for the suggestions- I added them to a list. Like I said, it might be summer when I decide to start reading stuff- after I finish that 70-hour long game that I don't want to hold on forever, since I'll need to give it back.

Anyone else have suggestions?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on January 25, 2010, 02:01:03 AM
Quote from: Greg on January 24, 2010, 06:47:30 PM
I decided not to read it (i just read the first chapter).
I get the point of how strange it is that he's so emotionally detached from the death of his mother and that he talks about silly details of the funeral instead of expressing his grief. It just didn't do anything for me. Does it get more interesting?  ??? ;D

I guess I'm looking for something cathartic... deep... intelligent... I don't know, maybe something like if Schopenhauer wrote a novel? (I just didn't see any signs of it in my preview)

Thanks for the suggestions- I added them to a list. Like I said, it might be summer when I decide to start reading stuff- after I finish that 70-hour long game that I don't want to hold on forever, since I'll need to give it back.

Anyone else have suggestions?  ;D

lol
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 26, 2010, 03:15:44 AM
Quote from: Greg on January 23, 2010, 07:03:20 PM
Any more suggestions?  :(

I personally tend to think that, if one needs to read only one single book that should teach him everything about life, it would be Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

I also second Maciek's recommendation of Dostoievsky and Cervantes. Gogol and Tchekhov are also very good.

And if you like Mahler, I see no reason why you wouldn't like Thomas Mann or Hermann Hesse.

There are also the great masters of the Latin American literature, like Carpentier, Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa or Roa Bastos.

As Maciek said, plenty to choose from. :)





Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on January 26, 2010, 03:28:23 AM
Quote from: Maciek on January 24, 2010, 05:42:32 PM
Or, better yet, Jan Potocki (Manuscript Found in Saragossa/Saragossa Manuscript)!

This is an amazing book, but quite hard to get through - make sure you're not doing anything else while you're reading it. The author was quite a character  :o

There's a film version, which I haven't seen, but which no less a figure than Luis Buñuel called his favorite film ever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on January 26, 2010, 03:31:22 AM
Quote from: Velimir on January 26, 2010, 03:28:23 AM
This is an amazing book, but quite hard to get through - make sure you're not doing anything else while you're reading it. The author was quite a character  :o

There's a film version, which I haven't seen, but which no less a figure than Luis Buñuel called his favorite film ever.

Movie's excellent, but it lacks a lot of plots and subplots from the book. Also, I don't recall Manuscript as extremely hard or very absorbing. Then again, I like Pynchon and Beckett so I might not be very good advisor here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 26, 2010, 03:35:44 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 26, 2010, 03:15:44 AM
I personally tend to think that, if one needs to read only one single book that should teach him everything about life, it would be Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

I also second Maciek's recommendation of Dostoievsky and Cervantes. Gogol and Tchekhov are also very good.

And if you like Mahler, I see no reason why you wouldn't like Thomas Mann or Hermann Hesse.

There are also the great masters of the Latin American literature, like Carpentier, Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa or Roa Bastos.

As Maciek said, plenty to choose from. :)
Nice! Thanks for the suggestions.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on January 26, 2010, 03:43:59 AM
Quote from: zorzynek on January 26, 2010, 03:31:22 AM
Movie's excellent, but it lacks a lot of plots and subplots from the book. Also, I don't recall Manuscript as extremely hard or very absorbing. Then again, I like Pynchon and Beckett so I might not be very good advisor here.

Problem with the book (to the extent I remember it) was the difficulty of keeping all the plots-within-plots straight. If you stop reading it for a while and then go back to it, it's kind of hard to pick up the track again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on January 26, 2010, 04:27:49 AM
Quote from: Velimir on January 26, 2010, 03:43:59 AM
Problem with the book (to the extent I remember it) was the difficulty of keeping all the plots-within-plots straight. If you stop reading it for a while and then go back to it, it's kind of hard to pick up the track again.

Yeah, when you put it that way I must agree. It's a labyrinth book for sure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 26, 2010, 11:53:26 AM
Quote from: Velimir on January 26, 2010, 03:43:59 AM
Problem with the book (to the extent I remember it) was the difficulty of keeping all the plots-within-plots straight. If you stop reading it for a while and then go back to it, it's kind of hard to pick up the track again.

Quote from: zorzynek on January 26, 2010, 04:27:49 AM
Yeah, when you put it that way I must agree. It's a labyrinth book for sure.
To me, that sounds like a good thing.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on January 26, 2010, 12:08:30 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DAGZZ279L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

I go through Elvis cycles in the same way as I go through philosophy cycles. A few years go by and then suddenly only Elvis (or philosophy, if it's philosophy's turn) will do. On this current resurgence I turned again to this, the second volume of what I suppose is the best biography of Elvis that we have.

Is it just an old hangover from my pop music past? Partly it's that; but partly it's because I'm intrigued by the fact that if you take someone immensely talented and give him the adulation of millions and millions of people, and give him virtually unlimited money to do as he likes, he sets about destroying himself and finally succeeds. So all those desires we sometimes admit to - 'if only I could sing/paint/write with unsurpassable brilliance' - 'if only I could be loved/admired/wanted to distraction' - 'if only I could have more and more of whatever I want' - all those dreams are shown to be not merely unattainable, but actually dangerous. I used to find the decline and fall of Elvis depressing, but these days I see it as tragic, certainly, but not actually depressing. After all, he experienced moments the like of which none of us will ever know; and there's something in that story - like a myth made real - about the human condition which I can absorb, and ponder, and even (in my own small way) learn from.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on January 26, 2010, 01:55:25 PM
Quote from: Greg on January 26, 2010, 11:53:26 AM
To me, that sounds like a good thing.  :D

Of course it is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on January 26, 2010, 11:30:24 PM
Quote from: zorzynek on January 26, 2010, 03:31:22 AM
Movie's excellent, but it lacks a lot of plots and subplots from the book. Also, I don't recall Manuscript as extremely hard or very absorbing.

Music is by Krzysztof Penderecki.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on January 26, 2010, 11:50:48 PM
Greg, don't remember if you read French, but if you ever get around to reading Potocki, it might be a good idea to use an original edition (ie. in French) - they are by far the most complete (especially the more recent ones).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on January 27, 2010, 03:47:37 AM
Quote from: Maciek on January 26, 2010, 11:50:48 PM
Greg, don't remember if you read French, but if you ever get around to reading Potocki, it might be a good idea to use an original edition (ie. in French) - they are by far the most complete (especially the more recent ones).
I wish I could read French.  :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on January 28, 2010, 07:21:30 AM
Finally finished Céline's Journey to the End of the Night — took me almost two months to finish it with emotional stress, work, and a move across the country getting in the way, but I have to say it was one of the very best books I've ever read.

Now starting:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/05/79/a856828fd7a048d629c96110.L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 28, 2010, 07:27:23 AM
Quote from: Corey on January 28, 2010, 07:21:30 AM
Now starting:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/05/79/a856828fd7a048d629c96110.L.jpg)

Excellent! Enjoy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 28, 2010, 08:54:31 AM
Not sure enjoy is quite the right verb, but I am with you!  A wonderful book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 28, 2010, 12:03:28 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 28, 2010, 08:54:31 AM
Not sure enjoy is quite the right verb

Well, you're right, Karl! Beware is much more appropriate! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on January 29, 2010, 01:23:56 AM
(http://biblioklept.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/perdido_street_station_us.jpg)
It's not as good as credit it gets, but it's slightly better than I expected.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on January 29, 2010, 01:27:52 AM
GERALD BRONNER:      "La pensée extrême"

A remarkable book. The subject is: how ordinary man become fanatics. This is a deep sociological and psychological essay, mentioning a lot of real cases - in special,  Muslim fundamentalists, but also radicals from other religions.
It is very impressive to observe all the techniques and methods that will lead a normal but frustrated person into a fanatic ready to kill or die for some absurd belief.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 29, 2010, 06:14:20 PM
Read

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kXeA4XURL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

two words: zombie dolphins! :D

Then read

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51y68-Xdi-L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

He is a badass!  Cool read. 8)  Thanks Dave for the rec. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 29, 2010, 06:47:53 PM
Quote from: DavidW on January 29, 2010, 06:14:20 PM


Then read

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51y68-Xdi-L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

He is a badass!  Cool read. 8)  Thanks Dave for the rec. :)

Any time, amigo. Look for the other Quarry books as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 31, 2010, 03:17:44 PM
On deck:
(http://media.us.macmillan.com/jackets/258H/9780805065985.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 02, 2010, 05:25:46 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on January 31, 2010, 03:17:44 PM
On deck:
(http://media.us.macmillan.com/jackets/258H/9780805065985.jpg)

This was hot stuff. I guess there's a movie too. I wanna see it.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on February 02, 2010, 09:11:08 AM
Quote from: Corey on January 28, 2010, 07:21:30 AM
Finally finished Céline's Journey to the End of the Night — took me almost two months to finish it with emotional stress, work, and a move across the country getting in the way, but I have to say it was one of the very best books I've ever read.

Now starting:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/05/79/a856828fd7a048d629c96110.L.jpg)

How is that Corey?  I'm still reading Brothers Karamazov.  At less than ten pages a day (so far), it's taking me a long time to get through it.  Just don't have a lot of time to read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 02, 2010, 09:28:37 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on February 02, 2010, 09:11:08 AM
How is that Corey?  I'm still reading Brothers Karamazov.  At less than ten pages a day (so far), it's taking me a long time to get through it.  Just don't have a lot of time to read.

Karamazov is supposed to be the masterpiece.  I loved it as an adolescent, but upon re-reading found it preachy.  The Devils and the Idiot are my favorite of Dostoevsky.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on February 02, 2010, 09:29:43 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on February 02, 2010, 09:11:08 AM
How is that Corey?  I'm still reading Brothers Karamazov.  At less than ten pages a day (so far), it's taking me a long time to get through it.  Just don't have a lot of time to read.

Very good so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 02, 2010, 09:39:46 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 02, 2010, 09:29:43 AM
Very good so far.

Yes, I've heard that Dostoevsky has some chops.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on February 02, 2010, 09:45:20 AM
With a writer of Dostoevsky's calibre the only worry is whether or not you have a good translation. The Magarshack seems to be fine. My Karamazov is a Constance Garnett translation, whom I now know is said to be unreliable, and that may have been why I was underwhelmed by my first reading.

From Wiki:

In her translations, she worked quickly, and smoothed over certain small portions for "readability", particularly in her translations of Dostoevsky. In instances where she did not understand a word or phrase, she omitted that portion. :\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 02, 2010, 09:46:35 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 02, 2010, 09:45:20 AM
With a writer of Dostoevsky's calibre the only worry is whether or not you have a good translation. The Magarshack seems to be fine. My Karamazov is a Constance Garnett translation, whom I now know is said to be unreliable, and that may have been why I was underwhelmed by my first reading.

From Wiki:

In her translations, she worked quickly, and smoothed over certain small portions for "readability", particularly in her translations of Dostoevsky. In instances where she did not understand a word or phrase, she omitted that portion. :\

Not sure which versions of CRIME and KARAMOZOV I have. Will have to check when I get home.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on February 02, 2010, 10:03:51 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 02, 2010, 09:45:20 AM
With a writer of Dostoevsky's calibre the only worry is whether or not you have a good translation. The Magarshack seems to be fine. My Karamazov is a Constance Garnett translation, whom I now know is said to be unreliable, and that may have been why I was underwhelmed by my first reading.

From Wiki:

In her translations, she worked quickly, and smoothed over certain small portions for "readability", particularly in her translations of Dostoevsky. In instances where she did not understand a word or phrase, she omitted that portion. :\


I had Constance Garrett for C&P, and yes...it got in the way at times.  However, for Karamazov, I have Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and it's been great. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on February 02, 2010, 10:21:28 AM
I have a friend who will read ONLY the Volokhonsky-Pevear translations, so you're in good hands. I think next I will get their translation of The Idiot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 02, 2010, 10:26:30 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 02, 2010, 10:21:28 AM
I have a friend who will read ONLY the Volokhonsky-Pevear translations, so you're in good hands. I think next I will get their translation of The Idiot.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Garnett, except perhaps it is old and the was made into a what is now a somewhat old-fashioned style of English prose.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 02, 2010, 10:31:02 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 02, 2010, 10:21:28 AM
I have a friend who will read ONLY the Volokhonsky-Pevear translations, so you're in good hands. I think next I will get their translation of The Idiot.

I have the Vintage Classics versions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 04, 2010, 03:38:47 PM
Still Life, by A. S. Byatt.  A very literary book, part of a series describing the Potter clan, especially two sisters Stephanie and Francesca.  Hard to say what it is about, except for the divergent path of the two sisters (one goes off to Cambridge, the other decides to start a family) and how they relate to each other and to the world.  Lots of literary and artistic references, some of which were clearly lost on me.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 05, 2010, 04:33:06 AM
I read Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut.  I thought (beforehand) that I would find it to be pretentious drivel, but instead it was actually an excellent novel and I felt that there was a point, and I got it.

I started Dead Earth: The Green Dawn by Justice and Wilbanks.  There was a cool thing about not turning off Beethoven on the radio that I might make my sig. :)  Anyway, it's a short read so I'll probably finish it this evening, unless of course I'm too tired.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 05, 2010, 05:08:36 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 05, 2010, 04:33:06 AM
I started Dead Earth: The Green Dawn by Justice and Wilbanks.  There was a cool thing about not turning off Beethoven on the radio that I might make my sig. :)  Anyway, it's a short read so I'll probably finish it this evening, unless of course I'm too tired.

I don't know if we can compete with Slaughterhouse Five. But glad you are reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on February 05, 2010, 05:45:36 AM
Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae. Arte y decadencia desde Nefertiti a Emily Dickinson
trad. Pilar Vásquez Álvarez
Valdemar - intempestivas

:)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 05, 2010, 05:53:02 AM
Fathers and Sons, Alexander Waugh.  Promises to be very good, indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 05, 2010, 09:16:32 AM
Very distracting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 05, 2010, 12:07:50 PM
Just finished:

(http://www.raobooks.com/images/titluri/coperta_1505.gif)

Hermann Hesse - The Most Beautiful Short Stories

I'm going to start reading:

(http://www.edituraparalela45.ro/coperti/nuvele_exemplare_Cervantes.jpg)

Cervantes - Novelas ejemplares (Moral or Instructive Tales)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on February 06, 2010, 04:29:15 AM
(http://www.wab.com.pl/images/cache/be4e58d999d4c520d3675d385640acae.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 06, 2010, 05:25:33 PM
Finished Dead Earth: The Green Dawn, it was a short fun read.  Hope there are more because it seems like the story just got started. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 06, 2010, 06:59:34 PM
Quote from: DavidW on February 06, 2010, 05:25:33 PM
Finished Dead Earth: The Green Dawn, it was a short fun read.  Hope there are more because it seems like the story just got started. :)

There's at least one more, full length this time. After that, who knows?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 08, 2010, 07:36:32 AM
Finished Philip K. Dick's Ubik.  A futuristic tale (written in the 60's, now set in the past) about a world in which paranormal powers are real and competing corporations offer to provide and neutralize them.  The book also contains satire of a hyper-commercialized future in which you have to pay your front door to let you out of your own house, and in which people are put into a state of semi-life after death where they can be contacted by their loved ones as their residual consciousness gradually ebbs away.

As the blurb on the book jacket said, no plot summary can do this book justice.  Just a little gem.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on February 08, 2010, 11:51:51 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on February 08, 2010, 07:36:32 AM
Finished Philip K. Dick's Ubik.  A futuristic tale (written in the 60's, now set in the past) about a world in which paranormal powers are real and competing corporations offer to provide and neutralize them.  The book also contains satire of a hyper-commercialized future in which you have to pay your front door to let you out of your own house, and in which people are put into a state of semi-life after death where they can be contacted by their loved ones as their residual consciousness gradually ebbs away.

As the blurb on the book jacket said, no plot summary can do this book justice.  Just a little gem.
That actually sounds pretty cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on February 08, 2010, 12:12:50 PM
Quote from: Greg on February 08, 2010, 11:51:51 AM
That actually sounds pretty cool.

I have not read Ubik, but I did read The Man in the High Castle: a Dick's diachronic story where the Allies were defeated in the World War II and the former USA are occupied by the Axis powers (Nazis and Japaneses). Great fun!  :) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 08, 2010, 12:41:09 PM
Ubik is the only Philip K. Dick novel in the local library, now I might check it out (didn't know anything about it until recent posts). :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 08, 2010, 01:55:57 PM
I read a lot of Dick back in the day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 09, 2010, 05:15:34 AM
Was reading BLIND PANIC by Graham Masterton.

Will soon be reading DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN by Brian Keene.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 09, 2010, 05:38:55 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on February 09, 2010, 05:15:34 AM
Was reading BLIND PANIC by Graham Masterton.

Will soon be reading DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN by Brian Keene.

I bought the new Keene novel too!  Currently reading Old Man's War though by Scalzi. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 09, 2010, 05:41:12 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 09, 2010, 05:38:55 AM
I bought the new Keene novel too!  Currently reading Old Man's War though by Scalzi. :)

I'm not hearing great things but we'll see.

I have that Scalzi novel in the TBR pile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on February 09, 2010, 11:45:49 AM
I plan on getting into this one and experimenting with Windows programming:

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Inp2a8e7_-o/SIlx-Nm2gzI/AAAAAAAABts/DVjRBFhyDtw/s400/0470225904.jpg)
(1394 pages!)  :o
I figure if I can master what is in this book, I should be able to learn any form of programming easily. The only bad thing is that C# seems to replacing C++ for Windows programming- not only that, but video game programming, too. BUT if I can learn this, C# should be really, really easy...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 09, 2010, 02:52:49 PM
Jazz (2009) by Gary Giddins & Scott DeVeaux - just published late last year and getting started - should be a good read - have read Giddins in the past; plus, only 5* reviews on Amazon @ the moment.  There are plenty of recordings analyzed which can be obtain on a 4-CD set for $60 (too much!  Plus, I likely have most of these recordings already in my collection - will search & match as much as possible!) -  :D



(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EudvVh18PWU/SwMJfMzNrCI/AAAAAAAAABM/MdsBpCM2Czk/s400/jazz2_custom.jpg)  (http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/images/bau/97803939/9780393978803/0/0/plain/jazz.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 10, 2010, 06:20:18 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on February 09, 2010, 02:52:49 PM
Jazz (2009) by Gary Giddins & Scott DeVeaux - just published late last year and getting started - should be a good read - have read Giddins in the past; plus, only 5* reviews on Amazon @ the moment.  There are plenty of recordings analyzed which can be obtain on a 4-CD set for $60 (too much!  Plus, I likely have most of these recordings already in my collection - will search & match as much as possible!) -  :D



  (http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/images/bau/97803939/9780393978803/0/0/plain/jazz.jpg)

Yes, the accompanying records packet is a bit rich by me.  I had a great time through the initial read, and I shall revisit it with pleasure before long.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 10, 2010, 06:37:20 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 10, 2010, 06:20:18 AM

Yes, the accompanying records packet is a bit rich by me.  I had a great time through the initial read, and I shall revisit it with pleasure before long.

Good morning Karl - yep at $15 a disc Norton is really gauging the readers, esp. for this old material - but I'll just search my jazz collection and expect to find most of these performances discussed. 

Interestingly, the book gives a Norton website where MP3 were to be located - GREAT!  But Norton either never created the site, has shut it down, or possibly still plans to have it up and running - don't know?  But the book, as expected, is quite good so far - just getting to New Orleans - Dave  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaiser on February 10, 2010, 04:31:49 PM
This is one seriously amazing book! Essential for the Zappa / Beefheart fan. Check my review on amazon for this!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 11, 2010, 05:17:47 AM
Took a break from the novel for this:

"The Beckoning Fair One" By Oliver Onions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on February 12, 2010, 03:58:42 PM
Read the Great Gatsby today (even read the thread about it on this forum).
My opinion... ehh... didn't like it.  ::)

Now, I do like his style of writing very much- the way he describes stuff is very, very nice (with a few moments of being genuinely funny) while at the same time not being over-the-top (like taking 30 pages to describe how a tree looks). Very imaginative and poetic. What I don't like about this book is the plot, setting and characters.

For one, I didn't even care when a certain character died... for two, the setting of rich people dinner parties always makes me want to throw up... for three, the plot felt way too simple and mundane for me. I think I read somewhere (was it here?) about someone mentioning that the plot was practically something that you could find in a soap opera. Now that I think about it....   :'(

Of course, I only read it because it is so highly rated and short at the same time- I figured "hey, i can read this in half a day," and did. Ehhh... at least I can say I've read it now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on February 12, 2010, 04:04:32 PM
Anyways, I've been looking at this list:
http://www.thebest100lists.com/best100novels/

and similar ones, which seem to have the same books, but in slightly different order.
A few of the ones I liked were 1984, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, It (on another list, I think), and Brave New World and Of Mice and Men were okay.

Of course, I plan to read Crime and Punishment before long... and others that look tasty to me from the list include The Brothers Karamazov, Catch-22, Ulysses, Slaughter-house Five, The Stand, and Ender's Game. The last two my dad has read and recommended them... interesting thing about Ender's Game- there is this foreign guy he works with (just showed me his picture today) named Ender- he recommended the book to him, the guy read it and liked it.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 12, 2010, 04:08:13 PM
Quote from: Greg on February 12, 2010, 03:58:42 PM
For one, I didn't even care when a certain character died...

Read it again in a few years and you might actually find sympathy for the people that you were apathetic towards.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on February 12, 2010, 04:16:25 PM
Okay, but it will be a few years.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Frumaster on February 12, 2010, 04:19:44 PM
Last night I read Somerset Maughan's short novel "Rain."  The ending left me reeling, although some of the details are little fuzzy to me.  Many possible courses of action weren't even hinted at in the text, but they stick out in my mind.  Highly recommended for a dull evening.  Next I really need to finish some books I've already begun.  Godel Escher Bach, Bach Meets Frederick the Great..., some computer science textbooks, but first I think I'll stay with Maugham and try Razor's Edge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 12, 2010, 08:25:39 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518P8QJK0PL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 13, 2010, 06:44:53 AM
Just finished up the New Orleans chapter in the book Jazz by Giddins & DeVeaux - just some initial thoughts for those who are contemplating a purchase - the authors are concentrating on the 'major' performers w/ some preliminary but brief history - w/ each biographical discussion, one or several recordings are analyzed in depth w/ a 'chart' timing - this approach is useful if you have the specific recordings (now as mentioned previously, Norton the publisher is offering a 4-CD box at a ridiculous price) - fortunately I had the discs shown below which allowed me to listen to the recordings reviewed in detail by the ODJB, Jelly Roll Morton, Joe Oliver/Armstrong (not great sound!), and Sidney Bechet/Armstrong on an Oliver set.

Bottom line - excellent book so far, more enjoyable if you can follow along w/ the recordings.  :)


Quote from: SonicMan on February 09, 2010, 02:52:49 PM
Jazz (2009) by Gary Giddins & Scott DeVeaux - just published late last year and getting started - should be a good read - have read Giddins in the past; plus, only 5* reviews on Amazon @ the moment.  There are plenty of recordings analyzed which can be obtain on a 4-CD set for $60 (too much!  Plus, I likely have most of these recordings already in my collection - will search & match as much as possible!) -  :D

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EudvVh18PWU/SwMJfMzNrCI/AAAAAAAAABM/MdsBpCM2Czk/s400/jazz2_custom.jpg)   (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S9JHENNML._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uiQtnPj0L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ECVND3QSL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on February 13, 2010, 10:29:36 AM
My book club is tackling The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. So I'll be starting it soon....

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/7120BKNFPRL.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on February 14, 2010, 09:45:52 AM
Quote from: Harpo on February 13, 2010, 10:29:36 AM
My book club is tackling The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. So I'll be starting it soon....

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/7120BKNFPRL.gif)

such an amazing book
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on February 18, 2010, 01:27:09 PM
I've started Crime and Punishment again- on page 103/967 (this e-book version has short pages).
I really do feel like I've just started something which will turn out to be quite a ride- hoping it does turn out that way.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 18, 2010, 01:40:12 PM
Quote from: zorzynek on February 14, 2010, 09:45:52 AM
such an amazing book

Not a book that can be appreciated after just one reading, in my experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on February 19, 2010, 03:11:36 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on February 18, 2010, 01:40:12 PM
Not a book that can be appreciated after just one reading, in my experience.

mos def, it's a multiple reading material.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 20, 2010, 05:45:26 AM
Quote from: zorzynek on February 19, 2010, 03:11:36 AM
mos def, it's a multiple reading material.

Just finished "Too Much Happiness" by Alice Munro, a collection of short stories on various subjects.  Munro has published numerous collections of short stories but has never produced a novel (although I believe one of the collections is organized around a common subject).  In any case, very good, except for the story that lends the book its title.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on February 20, 2010, 10:43:13 AM


     Wolf Hall, a historical novel by Hilary Mantel. It's set during the reign of Henry VIII and tells the familiar story of his struggle to rid himself of his wife and get a new one to provide him with a male heir. The novel is written from a unique perspective, that of Thomas Cromwell, the King's advisor (you might call him a fixer). Christopher Hitchens reviews the novel for The Atlantic, but you can read it here (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201003/mantel-wolf-hall).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on February 20, 2010, 08:43:24 PM
I just couldn't get into The Devils so I'm reading this instead:

(http://www.alalettre.com/Images/baudolino.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on February 21, 2010, 01:11:22 PM
I have several good books to read.  The first one is "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot.  Scientists will remember her from the HeLa cells.  Henrietta Lacks was a black woman and mother of 5 children when she developed cervical cancer.  Shortly before she died, one of the doctors removed 2 small areas of tissue from her cervical cancer.  At this time scientists were trying to do experiments but the cells they were using kept dying.  Henrietta's, by contrast, absolutely thrived!  Her cells enabled polio vaccine to exist, Pap smears and many other discoveries to be made.

The next 3 books I am very interested in all were authored by the same man, Michael Bliss.  Michael's family was closely tied to the medical profession (there were several doctors in the family).  Michael himself was a history professor at a Canadian university. 

William Osler was a Canadian doctor much admired at the turn of the century as he is even today by present living doctors.  Harvey Cushing wrote a 2-volume biography of Osler many years ago.

Michael Bliss has written a new biography, "William Osler: a Life in Medicine," another biography, "Harvey Cushing: A Life in Surgery," and "The Discovery of Insulin."

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 21, 2010, 02:12:03 PM
Quote from: Anne on February 21, 2010, 01:11:22 PM
..........The next 3 books I am very interested in all were authored by the same man, Michael Bliss.  Michael's family was closely tied to the medical profession (there were several doctors in the family).  Michael himself was a history professor at a Canadian university. 

William Osler was a Canadian doctor much admired at the turn of the century as he is even today by present living doctors.  Harvey Cushing wrote a 2-volume biography of Osler many years ago.

Michael Bliss has written a new biography, "William Osler: a Life in Medicine," another biography, "Harvey Cushing: A Life in Surgery," and "The Discovery of Insulin."

Hello Anne - glad to see you back on this thread!  :D

All of those books by Michael Bliss would certainly be of interest to me, esp. the one on William Osler - as you may know, I own a reproduction copy of his famous book The Principles and Practice of Medicine published in the late 19th century when he was at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore - I've read portions of this 'older' book over the years and am amazed at how perceptive (and still true) were his many observations!  Dave  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 22, 2010, 03:33:18 PM
Not a perfect match, Dave (MN), but at least a start:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/b7/a1/2b90e03ae7a0341dbe891210.L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Kind of a pricey paperback for a '77 issue, but I got mine for $5, so pretty lucky.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on February 22, 2010, 08:15:03 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on February 18, 2010, 01:40:12 PM
Not a book that can be appreciated after just one reading, in my experience.

Yes.  I read 'The Sound and the Fury' at College, didn't much like it and scarcely appreciated it.  Maybe I should read it again.

Thread Duty:

THE SPECTACLE OF DEATH
(A muslim book describing states of death and afterdeath...may as well put on Ligetis Requiem while I'm reading it.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Anne on February 23, 2010, 12:14:14 AM
Hi Dave!

Glad to have some books to talk about on this thread.  I have an extra Bliss biography of Osler.  Would be glad to give it to you if you would send me your address.

I have 2 other books by/about Osler also.  One is "The Quotable Osler" edited by Mark Silverman, M.D., T. Jock Murray, M.D., and Charles S. Bryan, M.D.  The quotes chosen are so clear and succinct.  I really enjoy them.

The other is Osler's "'A Way of Life' & Other Addresses with Commentary and Annotations" by Sir William Osler.
This is a quote from the book jacket: "While Osler's talks were frequently published during his lifetime and since his death, none contain more than 1500 annotations that appear here, notes that serve to explain the many philosophical, biblical, historical and literary allusions contained in Osler's writings."

Bliss is such a good author.  One can start to read and be immediately immersed in the story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 23, 2010, 01:51:31 AM
Quote from: drogulus on February 20, 2010, 10:43:13 AM

     Wolf Hall, a historical novel by Hilary Mantel. It's set during the reign of Henry VIII and tells the familiar story of his struggle to rid himself of his wife and get a new one to provide him with a male heir. The novel is written from a unique perspective, that of Thomas Cromwell, the King's advisor (you might call him a fixer). Christopher Hitchens reviews the novel for The Atlantic, but you can read it here (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201003/mantel-wolf-hall).


Read the review. Very interesting! I had heard of Hilary Mantel, but now I know more. Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on February 23, 2010, 02:24:51 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 23, 2010, 01:51:31 AM

Read the review. Very interesting! I had heard of Hilary Mantel, but now I know more. Thanks!

      I'm halfway through the book and it's wonderful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 23, 2010, 02:40:03 PM
Quote from: Anne on February 23, 2010, 12:14:14 AM
Hi Dave!

Glad to have some books to talk about on this thread.  I have an extra Bliss biography of Osler.  Would be glad to give it to you if you would send me your address.....................

Hello Anne - just sent you a PM w/ our address - would love a copy of the book on Osler! Dave  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on February 25, 2010, 12:10:58 AM
reading this fine opEd:



Claremont Institute [Claremont Review of Books]

Editing Islam (http://www.claremont.org/publications/pubid.777/pub_detail.asp)
Although radical outgrowths of modern Islam present many challenges to Western civilization, Westerners ought to be reminded that thought-suppression and violence are denounced by the vast majority of Muslims worldwide, and do not do justice to the rich history of Islam itself.

It is particularly dispiriting, then, to find the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York suppressing important artifacts of Islamic civilization, stunning works of arts created when Islam—the wellspring of modern mathematics and an example of religious tolerance—was on the ascendant. The Museum is omitting from the part of its permanent collection formerly known as the Islamic Art galleries three ancient pictures that depict the person of Muhammad.

Although the Met claims it is re-thinking its gallery displays pending renovation...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on February 25, 2010, 01:50:28 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on February 25, 2010, 12:10:58 AM
reading this fine opEd:


If Western museums were to remove depictions of Christ, they would be half empty.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 25, 2010, 08:53:57 AM
I read Old Man's War (as I posted about before) and it's a good current Starship Troopers-esque military sf romp.  Reminded me of avatar just in terms of getting new alien bodies to inhabit (for a completely different reason though).

I'm now reading The Academy by Bentley Little, too early to say anything about it though.

Also I got this book (it arrived early this week) called The Essential Canon of Classical Music.  It seems to be the polar opposite of Swafford's book.  While Swafford comes off as a narrow list of canonized music, Dubal's book looks like it was written by Sonic Dave, who knew that composers like Clementi are essential listening? :D  It's a gigantic tomb you could bludgeon someone with.  Interesting tidbits, the only thing is that he sometimes propagates urban legends such as Bach created equal temperament, while Swafford (Vintage Guide to Classical Music) tells it like it is.  So Swafford's book is narrow in focus and heavily biased, but more truthful on biographical details while Duball's book is very broad and even handed but not necessarily accurate.  They compliment each other well. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 25, 2010, 02:08:19 PM
Another Philip K. Dick Novel, A Scanner Darkly.  It is a story of a group of drug addicted friends, one of which is an undercover police officer.  Because of security procedures which conceal the identify of the undercover officer from his superiors, he is inadvertently assigned to investigate himself.  As the detective gets drawn farther into drug culture his two identities start to dissociate.  An undercurrent of the plot is the possibility that the characters are being swept up into a much larger and more sinister conspiracy.  The incorporation of some science-fiction elements in the story it straddles the line between a science fiction story and a detective novel.  A very good piece of work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on February 25, 2010, 02:45:11 PM
I love that book - Dick is one of the few big scifi authors who I don't find too fanciful, hardboiled-influenced, or simply admirable in various ways but unable to write rock-solid plots. It's most of all a great story :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on February 26, 2010, 02:53:00 AM
Confirmed. A Scanner Darkly is top shelf. Funny and scary at the same time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on March 01, 2010, 01:43:02 PM
The Lacuna, the new Novel by Barbara Kingsolver. I loved her Poisonwood Bible, and this one is good so far, but without the bite of PB. It's about a boy who becomes the assistant of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and meets Leon Trotsky.

(http://www.depauw.edu/photos/PhotoDB_Repository/2009/8/custom/Lacuna%20Barbara%20Kingsolver.JP-206x312.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 01, 2010, 02:08:50 PM
Quote from: Harpo on March 01, 2010, 01:43:02 PM
The Lacuna, the new Novel by Barbara Kingsolver. I loved her Poisonwood Bible, and this one is good so far, but without the bite of PB. It's about a boy who becomes the assistant of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and meets Leon Trotsky.

(http://www.depauw.edu/photos/PhotoDB_Repository/2009/8/custom/Lacuna%20Barbara%20Kingsolver.JP-206x312.jpg)

I've read Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible and one other novel.  Good, but can be a bit preachy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on March 03, 2010, 06:31:52 AM
Oscar Wilde
Richard Ellmann 1988.

Still the best book about dear Oscar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on March 03, 2010, 06:55:08 AM
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin - illustrated edition published in 2008 for the upcoming 2009 anniversaries of his birth (1809) and publication of the first edition of the book (1859).

I was able to pick up this beautiful tome for $10 new (holiday offer from the History Book Club which I've been a member since the mid-1970s).  I first read the book as a teenager 'moons ago' and had another illustrated edition a while back - just getting started.   :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MBMGoOMiL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on March 04, 2010, 06:54:18 AM
Quote from: Corey on February 20, 2010, 08:43:24 PM
I just couldn't get into The Devils so I'm reading this instead:

(http://www.alalettre.com/Images/baudolino.jpg)

Pretty good; not as deep as Il Nome Della Rosa but great fun and probably more allegorical than is immediately apparent. On one level it is simply an adventure story with fantastic settings and characters — but it is also a rumination on the veracity (or rather, the lack of it) of historical writing.

Now reading (and almost finished with):

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QCZ69Y8CL._SX300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 04, 2010, 08:34:49 PM
Quote from: Harry on March 03, 2010, 06:31:52 AM
Oscar Wilde
Richard Ellmann 1988.

Still the best book about dear Oscar.

Please report a bit more, Harry!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 06, 2010, 11:50:16 AM
Just finished reading Crime and Punishment.
Loved it, as expected.
Heavy stuff... the only thing I didn't like about it was the overly-long group conversations which got tedious after awhile, but there's tons to like about it- the dreams, murder scene, confessions, cat and mouse games, Raskolnikov's philosophies, etc. definitely an amazing book.

Unfortunately, I can understand Raskolnikov a bit too well. Often, I felt like I was him.  :( Especially the whole thing about having way too much pride- so much that he justified it with murder. He thought of himself as an Ubermensch and everyone else as a louse. I know that's not right and all... but I have to admit, I understand the feeling.  ??? :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on March 07, 2010, 11:47:53 AM
just finished "Decline and Fall (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316926078?ie=UTF8&tag=nectarandambr-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0316926078)" by Evelyn Waugh. (Mitchells' --from Mitchel & Webb--favorite, for what it's worth. Uproarously

now I'm reading this ever so fine op-ed on Forbes: "Shameful Self-Righteousness (http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/06/akio-toyoda-congress-autos-opinions-contributors-jens-laurson-george-pieler.html) -- or "Seppuku Light". How the staged appearances before congress are bullshitting the American customers and voters.

Next up: Oblomov re-reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on March 08, 2010, 09:37:59 AM
How Facebook was Founded (http://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebook-was-founded-2010-3)

An intense tale filled with intrigue, deceit and law suits. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 08, 2010, 10:06:42 AM
Quote from: Greg on March 06, 2010, 11:50:16 AM
Just finished reading Crime and Punishment.

Quote from: jlaurson on March 07, 2010, 11:47:53 AM
just finished "Decline and Fall (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316926078?ie=UTF8&tag=nectarandambr-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0316926078)" by Evelyn Waugh.

Two of my favorites.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 10, 2010, 08:57:34 AM
Just finished (re-reading) a very cool Chapter III.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on March 10, 2010, 11:34:54 PM
Does anybody have a rec for "urban" fantasy or scifi, something with is heavily focused on the day-to-day life of a city environment - like Dickens, but more fantastical?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 11, 2010, 01:04:14 AM
Quote from: Lethe on March 10, 2010, 11:34:54 PM
Does anybody have a rec for "urban" fantasy or scifi, something with is heavily focused on the day-to-day life of a city environment - like Dickens, but more fantastical?

Try this: Juan Marse --- Lizard Tails (http://www.amazon.com/Lizard-Tails-Juan-Marse/dp/009945517X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268301620&sr=1-2). Not scifi, not very much fantasy, but really fantastic. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 11, 2010, 05:21:08 AM
So, I ended up reading Camus' The Stranger (even though I said I wouldn't).  :D
What an amusing little book. Very interesting going through a story with that kind of perspective.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 11, 2010, 05:33:09 AM
Amusing is certainly one element in that 'un.  I don't know if I should characterize the whole like that.

Personally, ever since reading that one in high school French class, I've always loved the name Meursault.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 11, 2010, 05:33:57 AM
Greg, how about La peste (The Plague)?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 11, 2010, 05:57:02 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 11, 2010, 05:33:09 AM
Personally, ever since reading that one in high school French class, I've always loved the name Meursault.
Do you mean you read the whole book in the original French in a high school French class?  :o


Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 11, 2010, 05:33:57 AM
Greg, how about La peste (The Plague)?
Well, I do intend on reading that one and The Fall. What do you think of those?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 11, 2010, 06:12:23 AM
Quote from: Greg on March 11, 2010, 05:57:02 AM
Do you mean you read the whole book in the original French in a high school French class?  :o

Yes; we did have an excellent teacher!

Quote from: GregWell, I do intend on reading that one and The Fall. What do you think of those?

I don't recall reading La chute.  I've re-read The Plague (en anglais) more often than I have L'étranger.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on March 11, 2010, 08:02:44 AM
(http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/guernsey//wp-content/themes/guernsey_1.1/images/Guernsey-cover.jpg)

Just finished this one. It's quite good, actually.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on March 11, 2010, 12:52:27 PM
Quote from: Lethe on March 10, 2010, 11:34:54 PM
Does anybody have a rec for "urban" fantasy or scifi, something with is heavily focused on the day-to-day life of a city environment - like Dickens, but more fantastical?

The Difference Engine (Gibson & Sterling) feels too obvious for you not to have read or considered, but I'll mention it anyway. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 11, 2010, 08:41:58 PM
(http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/e/epallant/Books/images/slaughterhouse_five.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on March 11, 2010, 10:56:28 PM
Danke, Florestan and Renfield - I hadn't heard of it, but I'm not a big reader of the genre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 12, 2010, 05:33:19 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 11, 2010, 08:41:58 PM
(http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/e/epallant/Books/images/slaughterhouse_five.jpg)
How is it? That's one I plan on reading...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 12, 2010, 06:21:41 AM
Sun Tzu- The Art of War

Probably my favorite one:
"The skillfull tactician may be likened to the shuai-jin. Now the shuai-jin is a snake that can be found in the Ch'ang mountains. Strike at it's head, and you will be attacted by its tail; strike at its tail and you will be attacked by its head; strike at its middle, and you will be attacked by head and tail both."  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 12, 2010, 07:24:34 AM
A fascinating, no-nonsense critical bio of Evelyn Waugh.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on March 12, 2010, 07:44:12 AM
Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich, about how "positive thinking" can mask the recognition of real problems in society. Boo to Oprah, Dr. Phil, et al

(http://images.indiebound.com/499/087/9780805087499.jpg)

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich, a semi-autobiographical novel about a married couple (part Native American, as Erdrich is) whose family is falling apart. Well-written, full of pain.

(http://images.indiebound.com/090/536/9780061536090.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on March 12, 2010, 04:26:18 PM
Quote from: Greg on March 12, 2010, 06:21:41 AM
Sun Tzu- The Art of War

Probably my favorite one:
"The skillfull tactician may be likened to the shuai-jin. Now the shuai-jin is a snake that can be found in the Ch'ang mountains. Strike at it's head, and you will be attacted by its tail; strike at its tail and you will be attacked by its head; strike at its middle, and you will be attacked by head and tail both."  8)

Of all the things that have been formative to the development of my personality, such as it is, none (of my choosing) has had a more profound influence than that book. Though I guess it's also made me that much more unpleasant!

(People don't like things that bite on both ends. ;D)

Edit: Oh, and you're welcome Lethe. It's a great novel for the detail-conscious.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 12, 2010, 04:30:34 PM
Quote from: Renfield on March 12, 2010, 04:26:18 PM
Of all the things that have been formative to the development of my personality, such as it is, none (of my choosing) has had a more profound influence than that book. Though I guess it's also made me that much more unpleasant!

(People don't like things that bite on both ends. ;D)
Do I even want to know how you apply that to real life?...  ::) :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on March 12, 2010, 07:24:01 PM
Quote from: Valentino on March 11, 2010, 08:02:44 AM
(http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/guernsey//wp-content/themes/guernsey_1.1/images/Guernsey-cover.jpg)

Just finished this one. It's quite good, actually.

I'm about to start it, since my book club is reading it next month.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on March 13, 2010, 03:24:54 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TH3ZJ8CML.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on March 13, 2010, 06:57:13 PM
Quote from: Greg on March 12, 2010, 04:30:34 PM
Do I even want to know how you apply that to real life?...  ::) :D

No, not really. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 13, 2010, 08:35:48 PM
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a very popular book in France which has been translated into English.  The story of a typical French concierge who is, improbably, an extremely erudite and intelligent woman.  She feels she has to hide her talents from the wealthy people she works for because of difficult experiences growing up in a poor rural village.  A somewhat sentimental, predictable tale, but well executed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on March 14, 2010, 04:32:17 AM
Quote from: Corey on March 13, 2010, 03:24:54 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TH3ZJ8CML.jpg)
Interesting.  I've never read him and did not realize he'd written the books on which all those notable films were based.  How is it?

My own reading last night: Malcolm Muggeridge's Conversion.  Yes, it's good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 14, 2010, 06:53:53 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on March 14, 2010, 04:32:17 AM
Interesting.  I've never read him and did not realize he'd written the books on which all those notable films were based.  How is it?

Crime novels are perhaps one one uniquely American literary genre.  The Library of America has en extensive series

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AGM8XMF5L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/413QBRYZ3RL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=1
http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=2

When you read these novels you feel like you are watching an old movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 14, 2010, 07:53:48 PM
Quote from: Greg on March 12, 2010, 05:33:19 AM
How is it? That's one I plan on reading...

Sorry I took so long to post on this Greg.  Please accept my apology as I wanted to get into the book a bit before throwing something back at you (just finished Chapter 3 tonight). 

A great read with some incredible lines.  What has made this even more enjoyable is that I have a copy that a friend lent me and it has all his favorite lines underlined in red.  With his permission I am underlining mine in pencil.  Every now and then I share with him my underlines.  Funny thing is, that only a couple of times so far have they crossed over.  The only part I do not care for is the repeated line of "So it goes."  Just does not work for me, though I know it is a classic part of this book.  Let me know what you think. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 15, 2010, 12:14:49 PM
Quote from: Bogey on March 14, 2010, 07:53:48 PM
Sorry I took so long to post on this Greg.  Please accept my apology as I wanted to get into the book a bit before throwing something back at you (just finished Chapter 3 tonight). 

A great read with some incredible lines.  What has made this even more enjoyable is that I have a copy that a friend lent me and it has all his favorite lines underlined in red.  With his permission I am underlining mine in pencil.  Every now and then I share with him my underlines.  Funny thing is, that only a couple of times so far have they crossed over.  The only part I do not care for is the repeated line of "So it goes."  Just does not work for me, though I know it is a classic part of this book.  Let me know what you think.
Excellent. Just now checking out the plot summary, and it sounds fascinating.
I did read "The Big Trip Up Yonder" and "2 B R O 2 B" recently, so coming from that, looks like a real treat.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on March 15, 2010, 01:31:33 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on March 14, 2010, 04:32:17 AM
Interesting.  I've never read him and did not realize he'd written the books on which all those notable films were based.  How is it?

It's good. None too prolix, as I'd expected, but the writing is beautiful even though the characters and their desires are not.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 16, 2010, 06:43:37 PM
Anyone here who is a speed reader? I would like to be able to read super fast but actually comprehend what I'm reading at the same time. Of course, it's easy to move your eyes fast, but forming a visual picture isn't easy at a quick pace. How do I go about this?  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 16, 2010, 07:18:57 PM
Quote from: Greg on March 15, 2010, 12:14:49 PM
Excellent. Just now checking out the plot summary, and it sounds fascinating.
I did read "The Big Trip Up Yonder" and "2 B R O 2 B" recently, so coming from that, looks like a real treat.  ;D

The book is beginning to get a "bit thin" now, Greg.  The quotable lines seem to be drying up a bit and I am having a couple other issues with it.  However, I will not be specific and see what you think after reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 17, 2010, 05:05:14 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 16, 2010, 07:18:57 PM
The book is beginning to get a "bit thin" now, Greg.  The quotable lines seem to be drying up a bit and I am having a couple other issues with it.  However, I will not be specific and see what you think after reading it.
Gladly.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 17, 2010, 05:11:29 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 14, 2010, 07:53:48 PM
Sorry I took so long to post on this Greg.  Please accept my apology as I wanted to get into the book a bit before throwing something back at you (just finished Chapter 3 tonight). 

A great read with some incredible lines.  What has made this even more enjoyable is that I have a copy that a friend lent me and it has all his favorite lines underlined in red.  With his permission I am underlining mine in pencil.  Every now and then I share with him my underlines.  Funny thing is, that only a couple of times so far have they crossed over.  The only part I do not care for is the repeated line of "So it goes."  Just does not work for me, though I know it is a classic part of this book.  Let me know what you think. 

I missed part of the discussion, so it was only when you got to the over-repetition of and so it goes that I knew what book you are talking about, Bill.  In large agreement, on all counts (strong start; and so it goes doesn't work as so heavily-rotated a ritornello; thins off disappointingly after so strong a start.)  I want to like Vonnegut better than I do; but it's not enough to have the occasional bright idea.  It's all about execution.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on March 17, 2010, 01:53:42 PM
Just started:

(http://a2.vox.com/6a00c2251f445cf21900cdf39f8282cb8f-500pi)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 17, 2010, 04:17:52 PM
Quote from: Corey on March 17, 2010, 01:53:42 PM
Just started:

(http://a2.vox.com/6a00c2251f445cf21900cdf39f8282cb8f-500pi)

A great book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 17, 2010, 04:50:21 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 17, 2010, 05:11:29 AM
I missed part of the discussion, so it was only when you got to the over-repetition of and so it goes that I knew what book you are talking about, Bill.  In large agreement, on all counts (strong start; and so it goes doesn't work as so heavily-rotated a ritornello; thins off disappointingly after so strong a start.)  I want to like Vonnegut better than I do; but it's not enough to have the occasional bright idea.  It's all about execution.

Nails it for me.  I will be more specific after Greg finishes.  About 30 to 40 pages to go.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on March 18, 2010, 12:42:34 AM
SYLVIE VAUCLAIR:      "La Terre, l'Espace et au-delà"  (2009)

A nice presentation of the most recent discoveries about the structure of the universe. The most interesting part is the statement that, after all, our universe is an euclidean universe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on March 18, 2010, 04:35:40 AM
Apart from having Oblomov on my nightstand (which doubles as an amplifier), I'm beginning "Financial Fiasco" [Cato Publishing] by the impeccably bright Johan Norberg. Finally a take-down of the economic crisis by someone other than those armchair-socialists whose 'cures' would have been ten times worse than any crisis ever could have been.


(http://1.1.1.2/bmi/ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ID8b5LgIL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Johan Norberg, Financial Fiasco
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1935308130?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1935308130)
How America's infatuation with
homeownership and easy money
created the economic crisis
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on March 18, 2010, 04:57:52 AM
The Whisperers - Private Life in Stalin's Russia

by Orlando Figes

http://www.amazon.com/Whisperers-Private-Life-Stalins-Russia/dp/0312428030/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268916929&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.com/Whisperers-Private-Life-Stalins-Russia/dp/0312428030/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268916929&sr=8-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 18, 2010, 05:10:50 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 17, 2010, 04:50:21 PM
Nails it for me.  I will be more specific after Greg finishes.  About 30 to 40 pages to go.
Don't wait for me, though. It might be a while until I start reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 18, 2010, 06:53:18 PM
That is alright, Greg.  On to the next novel:

(http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Catcher_In_The_Rye/cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on March 20, 2010, 07:28:24 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on March 18, 2010, 04:35:40 AM
Apart from having Oblomov on my nightstand (which doubles as an amplifier), I'm beginning "Financial Fiasco" [Cato Publishing] by the impeccably bright Johan Norberg. Finally a take-down of the economic crisis by someone other than those armchair-socialists whose 'cures' would have been ten times worse than any crisis ever could have been.


(http://1.1.1.2/bmi/ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ID8b5LgIL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Johan Norberg, Financial Fiasco
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1935308130?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1935308130)
How America's infatuation with
homeownership and easy money
created the economic crisis

     It had nothing to do with socialism. The crisis hit the U.S. and then everywhere else, no matter what the size of gov't. The cause is not over-regulation. From the '40s to the '80s we had no such crises because the New Deal era regs were in place. The Reagan era campaign against the regs succeeded, and one by one the protections were removed. How good an idea was it to remove the Glass-Steagall protection against bank speculation? We now know, don't we?

     Big government and big business are not alternate plans for the economy the way libertarians and socialists (real socialists, that is) think. They work together, because if they don't you get the environment we've had since the deregulation frenzy took hold. Bubble after bubble, bailout after bailout, and no one able to fix it. Instead they offer solutions that consist entirely of a hair of the dog. More deregulation, bailouts without reforms to prevent the next round, tepid reregs that have to pass muster with the regulated.

     Do you remember the S & L crisis? The Dot Com bust? The Great Recession of 2008 was more of the same. Easy money, loose regs and no one acting to spoil the party. You can't get the government out of that any more because the government is too invested in the economy in countless ways that it wasn't in the 19th century, when incidently, in the libertarian paradise of the day every panic pauperized a huge chunk of the population.

     You can't understand how all the pieces fit together according to a Tinker Toy model like the CATO people use. They are static thinkers with a feeble grasp of how real-world effects proceed from complex causes. The problem is not the existence of a control system, it's that some of its parts no longer function because dogmatists help the self-interested to neuter them. The solution isn't no control system. That would be more of the same, only worse. Self-regulation must include government, not lock it out. It's a catastrophic conceptual error to imagine government as inimical to self-regulation instead of essential, as the record shows.

      Modern liberal economics is the domain of empiricists because it is complex, and only anti-dogmatists who will try things can cope. We are stuck with government as the control system, probably forever, because systems that terminate at the business level are headless beasts that will run into walls at top speed, looking good right up to the big smack. Of course, weak regulation has a tendency to resemble no regulation, so you could say that 2008 was a return to the evils of 19th century economics, the first full-fledged Panic in a century or more, the Great Depression excepted, complete with the kind of pauperization post-Depression regs had cured until mass amnesia intervened.

     I'm reading, finally, Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach, An Eternal Golden Braid. It's about* the behavior of complex systems. Recursive systems that loop back and jump levels are smart enough to become self-regulating and self-representing, IOW conscious. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/tongue.gif)

      * I think it's about that. Actually, it's about 750 pages, and many other things as well. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 21, 2010, 01:26:09 PM
Finished The Catcher in the Rye this morning (I give it a so-so when I am in a good mood), so moving on to:

(http://library.duke.edu/exhibits/pivotal-books/images/the-fountainhead.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on March 21, 2010, 01:45:55 PM
Another one I plan on reading eventually. (Obviously trying to focus on "important" books first).
Have you read Atlas Shrugged?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on March 21, 2010, 02:17:28 PM
Quote from: Bogey on March 21, 2010, 01:26:09 PM
Finished The Catcher in the Rye this morning (I give it a so-so when I am in a good mood), so moving on to:

Bill - LOL!  ;) ;D  Read that book as a teenager (and had my son also read it at the same age) - we both loved the book (i.e. me nearly 50 yrs ago!) - not sure that an Old Fart like me (not referring to you, of course) would enjoy a re-read of that book now (despite the author's recent demise) , but much enjoyment at the time!  Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 21, 2010, 03:18:41 PM
Quote from: Greg on March 21, 2010, 01:45:55 PM
Another one I plan on reading eventually. (Obviously trying to focus on "important" books first).
Have you read Atlas Shrugged?

Nope.  I may get to it down the road though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 21, 2010, 03:22:05 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on March 21, 2010, 02:17:28 PM
Bill - LOL!  ;) ;D  Read that book as a teenager (and had my son also read it at the same age) - we both loved the book (i.e. me nearly 50 yrs ago!) - not sure that an Old Fart like me (not referring to you, of course) would enjoy a re-read of that book now (despite the author's recent demise) , but much enjoyment at the time!  Dave  :)

:)

For as highly touted as it is though, Dave, I believe it should hold up for any age of the reader.  Maybe it gets its kickback from folks looking back on it when they read it at a younger age as opposed to a fresh read at an older age. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on March 21, 2010, 06:14:40 PM
I sense the presence of Ayn Rand in this page.

You are free to imagine the sound of a lightsaber igniting, in the context. One of those mean, hissing Sith lightsabers.


;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 21, 2010, 07:11:40 PM
Quote from: Renfield on March 21, 2010, 06:14:40 PM
I sense the presence of Ayn Rand in this page.

You are free to imagine the sound of a lightsaber igniting, in the context. One of those mean, hissing Sith lightsabers.


;)

:D
As I posted to a close friend who rec. this book to me:
I am a bit over 50 pages in.  I know her objectivist views somewhat and that they tie into her books.  Considering myself a spiritual man and a practicing Catholic, I am sure my lens will be an interesting one, at least  for myself.  However, I have to say, that she can write.  Her descriptions of settings are wonderful, especially Katie's (who I find the most intriguing figure so far) uncle's living room and the development of characters is top-shelf IMO.  I believe that she needs to be careful with Francon and Cameron a bit as they could turn into caricatures of themselves very easily if overplayed.  In short, I am enjoying the read up to this point at a considerable level.  One of those books I could get lost in and find out it is 3 a.m. if I am not careful tonight. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Renfield on March 22, 2010, 07:30:10 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 21, 2010, 07:11:40 PM
:D
As I posted to a close friend who rec. this book to me:
I am a bit over 50 pages in. I know her objectivist views somewhat and that they tie into her books.

My problem with Rand is that alas, I know them too.

I would be more than happy to read a well-written novel of Rand's not built around, and promoting, this 'objectivism' of hers. Unfortunately, I am unsure if such an object exists; pun mildly intended. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 22, 2010, 03:29:10 PM
Quote from: Renfield on March 22, 2010, 07:30:10 AM
My problem with Rand is that alas, I know them too.

I would be more than happy to read a well-written novel of Rand's not built around, and promoting, this 'objectivism' of hers. Unfortunately, I am unsure if such an object exists; pun mildly intended. ;)

I am actually enjoying it for just its "novel" sake alone.  Reads well in my opinion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 23, 2010, 11:15:09 AM
THE GOODNIGHT TRAIL by Ralph Compton. Fine so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on March 23, 2010, 11:25:06 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 21, 2010, 01:26:09 PM
Finished The Catcher in the Rye this morning (I give it a so-so when I am in a good mood), so moving on to:

(http://library.duke.edu/exhibits/pivotal-books/images/the-fountainhead.jpg)

I read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged last year, for the first time - I never read them when all my friends did back in high school - but I enjoyed TF much more than AS - mainly because her ideologiy was so much more prominent in a heavy-handed way in AS.

They are regular best-sellers, and sales have spiked in the last couple of years, no doubt aside from the 50th anniversary of publication of AS in 2007, many people notice that the headlines/talking points these days echo those in the book (AS).

Afterwards I read Goddess of the Market, a pretty good biography, and found Rand to be a real nut but with some decent ideas that while falling short of a full blown philosophy, she did get a few things right.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 23, 2010, 01:26:55 PM
(http://pictures.abebooks.com/ADMIRALNELSON/1967859934.jpg)

An old favourite, and the best historical novel I've ever read, set in late C17th London and later Lancashire.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on March 24, 2010, 08:35:31 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on March 17, 2010, 04:17:52 PM
A great book.

Yes it was — I look forward to reading more.

Since I last posted I read Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler and have started:

(http://www.penguin.com.au/jpg-large/9780140455465.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on March 28, 2010, 04:56:30 PM
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n1763.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 28, 2010, 11:41:24 PM
Quote from: Corey on March 24, 2010, 08:35:31 PM
Yes it was — I look forward to reading more.

Since I last posted I read Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler and have started:

(http://www.penguin.com.au/jpg-large/9780140455465.jpg)

Read both of those recently, but neither made a very strong impression on me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 28, 2010, 11:42:02 PM
Quote from: Corey on March 28, 2010, 04:56:30 PM
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n1763.jpg)

Now that is a book the really stretches the English language to it's limits.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on March 29, 2010, 06:26:06 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on March 28, 2010, 11:41:24 PM
Read both of those recently, but neither made a very strong impression on me.

More or less the same here. The Bulgakov was pretty good but I think Canetti's Auto-da-Fé pulled off more successfully the mixture of reality and fantasy and is much more logically coherent within the confines of the world created by the author.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 29, 2010, 06:32:45 AM
Fanfare magazine. It's fun to read the letters section with all the fighting going on. I also like the jazz section. Oh, and the reviews. Not always so hot on the articles in the front.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 30, 2010, 05:12:05 AM
I started THE MARBLE FAUN by Hawthorne. So far, ugh...doubt I'll finish it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 30, 2010, 05:15:23 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 29, 2010, 06:32:45 AM
Fanfare magazine. It's fun to read the letters section with all the fighting going on.

Yes, nothing quite like a good classical music catfight.

Quote from: MN Dave on March 30, 2010, 05:12:05 AM
I started THE MARBLE FAUN by Hawthorne. So far, ugh...doubt I'll finish it.

Aw, man, I love Hawthorne!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 30, 2010, 05:16:45 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 30, 2010, 05:15:23 AM
Yes, nothing quite like a good classical music catfight.

Aw, man, I love Hawthorne!

Well, this one isn't considered a classic, is it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 30, 2010, 05:21:09 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 30, 2010, 05:16:45 AM
Well, this one isn't considered a classic, is it?

I can't think why not.  For its day, it was a sort of genre-bender.

I need to revisit it, though;  I don't carry such strong impressions of it, as I do for, say, The Blithedale Romance (my very favorite).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 30, 2010, 05:28:32 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 30, 2010, 05:21:09 AM
I can't think why not.  For its day, it was a sort of genre-bender.

I need to revisit it, though;  I don't carry such strong impressions of it, as I do for, say, The Blithedale Romance (my very favorite).

Sometimes I think I should stick to post-Hemingway fiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 30, 2010, 05:34:11 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 30, 2010, 05:28:32 AM
Sometimes I think I should stick to post-Hemingway fiction.

I understand! There are large stretches when I have a comparable feeling viz. music (not that Hemingway composed . . . .)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on March 30, 2010, 05:37:21 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 30, 2010, 05:34:11 AM
I understand! There are large stretches when I have a comparable feeling viz. music (not that Hemingway composed . . . .)

Though I haven't been in much of a mood for fiction at all lately.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 30, 2010, 08:48:15 AM
I think my favorite Hawthorne is "The House of the Seven Gables."  I read the Faun long ago, have only vague recollections of it. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 30, 2010, 08:53:53 AM
Seven Gables is great, I have no quarrel with it.  Blithedale has the marginally higher claim to my affection . . . I had hardly ever heard of it, before I read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on March 31, 2010, 12:39:54 AM
I've just started !In Wurope" by Gert Mak. Seems promising.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 31, 2010, 08:30:18 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 30, 2010, 08:53:53 AM
Seven Gables is great, I have no quarrel with it.  Blithedale has the marginally higher claim to my affection . . . I had hardly ever heard of it, before I read it.

From The House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorne

The Organ Grinder

QuoteWith his quick professional eye he took note of the two faces watching him from the arched window, and, opening his instrument, began to scatter its melodies abroad. He had a monkey on his shoulder, dressed in a Highland plaid; and, to complete the sum of splendid attractions wherewith he presented himself to the public, there was a company of little figures, whose sphere and habitation was in the mahogany case of his organ, and whose principle of life was the music which the Italian made it his business to grind out. In all their variety of occupation,—the cobbler, the blacksmith, the soldier, the lady with her fan, the toper with his bottle, the milk-maid sitting by her cow—this fortunate little society might truly be said to enjoy a harmonious existence, and to make life literally a dance. The Italian turned a crank; and, behold! every one of these small individuals started into the most curious vivacity. The cobbler wrought upon a shoe; the blacksmith hammered his iron, the soldier waved his glittering blade; the lady raised a tiny breeze with her fan; the jolly toper swigged lustily at his bottle; a scholar opened his book with eager thirst for knowledge, and turned his head to and fro along the page; the milkmaid energetically drained her cow; and a miser counted gold into his strong-box,—all at the same turning of a crank. Yes; and, moved by the self-same impulse, a lover saluted his mistress on her lips! Possibly some cynic, at once merry and bitter, had desired to signify, in this pantomimic scene, that we mortals, whatever our business or amusement,—however serious, however trifling,—all dance to one identical tune, and, in spite of our ridiculous activity, bring nothing finally to pass. For the most remarkable aspect of the affair was, that, at the cessation of the music, everybody was petrified at once, from the most extravagant life into a dead torpor. Neither was the cobbler's shoe finished, nor the blacksmith's iron shaped out; nor was there a drop less of brandy in the toper's bottle, nor a drop more of milk in the milkmaid's pail, nor one additional coin in the miser's strong-box, nor was the scholar a page deeper in his book. All were precisely in the same condition as before they made themselves so ridiculous by their haste to toil, to enjoy, to accumulate gold, and to become wise. Saddest of all, moreover, the lover was none the happier for the maiden's granted kiss! But, rather than swallow this last too acrid ingredient, we reject the whole moral of the show.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on April 03, 2010, 01:24:50 AM
Lovers of fantasy should read this:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qkYEAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Phantasmion&cd=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false

It is interesting to compare this early example of the genre with today's offerings. Although it is entitled 'a fairy tale' it is beautifully written and clearly not intended for children. It is a pity that Sara's second effort in this style remains only in fragments due to her death. Curiously, as you have been discussing Hawthorne, this concerns an eponymous woman called Hawithorn.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 04:59:23 AM
(http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/books_becoming_movies/b/story/1111184/65f3/noCountryForOldMen.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 05:38:08 AM
I read Darkness at the Edge of Town by Brian Keene-- he even admits in the novel how he borrowed from The Mist, but The Mist is better this wasn't that good.

I'm currently reading Duma Key by Stephen King. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 05:41:19 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 05:38:08 AM
I read Darkness at the Edge of Town by Brian Keene-- he even admits in the novel how he borrowed from The Mist, but The Mist is better this wasn't that good.

I'm currently reading Duma Key by Stephen King. :)

You brave soul...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on April 05, 2010, 06:16:30 AM
After reading about Britten's Opera I went back to read the original Death in Venice again.  And again I don't understand why this work is held in such high regard by some people.  I don't have much symphathy with the subject matter and don't find it the best work of Mann.  I was surprised when I later read the wiki page and it said that Mann modeled the main character on Mahler.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 06:28:34 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on April 05, 2010, 06:16:30 AM
After reading about Britten's Opera I went back to read the original Death in Venice again.  And again I don't understand why this work is held in such high regard by some people.  I don't have much symphathy with the subject matter and don't find it the best work of Mann.  I was surprised when I later read the wiki page and it said that Mann modeled the main character on Mahler.

I never made it up his Magic Mountain.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 06:53:09 AM
Oh, I'm also reading this. Pretty interesting.
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0195341546.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 05, 2010, 06:56:29 AM
I love those mop-tops!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 06:56:43 AM
Dave, isn't that the book where the gimmicky title is not the thesis of the book? :D

I forgot I read something interesting recently--

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41rnaHla88L._SL500_.jpg)

It was a good read, highly informative and not biased. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 05, 2010, 06:58:30 AM
That looks interesting, Davey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 07:03:25 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 06:56:43 AM
Dave, isn't that the book where the gimmicky title is not the thesis of the book? :D

Pretty much so far which doesn't mean it's not a good book. It is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on April 05, 2010, 07:29:46 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 06:28:34 AM
I never made it up his Magic Mountain.  ;D

I liked Zauberberg, but Buddenbrucks is perhaps his most conventional work, and perhaps the one I related best to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 08:03:39 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 07:03:25 AM
Pretty much so far which doesn't mean it's not a good book. It is.

Yeah I know, I just don't like outrageous titles just to sell.  It makes it sound like "Mozart is a fraud, Luchesi is god" kind of thing. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 08:11:31 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 08:03:39 AM
Yeah I know, I just don't like outrageous titles just to sell.  It makes it sound like "Mozart is a fraud, Luchesi is god" kind of thing. :D

I burned through his blues book and so far he's two for two with me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 08:13:20 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 08:11:31 AM
I burned through his blues book and so far he's two for two with me.

Was it titled "Davis is a fraud: the history of how Luchesi created Jazz"? ;D jeje
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 08:14:37 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 08:13:20 AM
Was it titled "Davis is a fraud: the history of how Luchesi created Jazz"? ;D jeje

ESCAPING THE DELTA

Maybe his publisher made up that Beatles title.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 08:16:24 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 08:14:37 AM
ESCAPING THE DELTA

Maybe his publisher made up that Beatles title.

Yeah that's what I read, that it was the publisher that came up with the title. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 05, 2010, 08:16:49 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 08:16:24 AM
Yeah that's what I read, that it was the publisher that came up with the title. :)

And there you have it.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 05, 2010, 08:18:48 AM
And before anyone jumps down my throat, I wanted to say that I was not trying to even insinuate that Davis created jazz.  The speed of typing is faster than the speed of thought. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 05, 2010, 08:22:45 AM
Je-je-je-je!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on April 06, 2010, 02:17:14 AM
I will shortly have finished reading The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe's archetypal Gothic novel. It is difficult to describe this book, which some say is too long yet is not long enough. Certainly it is gripping, in spite of some scenes of suspended animation. Its heroine, Emily St Aubert is characterized as 'fainting a lot' but actually she is verbally quite bold when it comes to confronting the villains and pragmatic in her belief that what seems supernatural will be found to have a rational explanation. This novel was one of the most influential of its era but is best approached now as a somewhat surreal psychological drama. It may be a 'flawed' masterpiece but it is nevertheless a masterpiece and deserving of its place in the hall of fame - definitively a classic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on April 08, 2010, 05:43:39 PM
I'm almost finished reading The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien for the third time. Totally amazing, love this book, the films are great too.
Completed reading The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lost Tales and The Children of Hurin, by the same author. Love his works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 09, 2010, 06:36:41 AM
Quote from: foreword. . . the peculiar privileging of eighteenth-century cultural products in the current crisis of humanism . . . and the reification of meaning that necessarily attends the canonization of the Bach repertory. . .

Her analysis . . . clarifies the social and musical implications for our own time inherent in the deification of Bach and the uncritical acceptance of his works.

Don't know if the whole book would be worthwhile . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 09, 2010, 06:44:06 AM
Quote from: Saul on April 08, 2010, 05:43:39 PM
I'm almost finished reading The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien for the third time. Totally amazing, love this book, the films are great too.
Completed reading The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lost Tales and The Children of Hurin, by the same author. Love his works.

This is out now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033090D2/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00005MP5B&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0D6H58H04PT57V5X1D9K
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 09, 2010, 07:02:17 AM
Oh: heaven!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on April 09, 2010, 10:22:25 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 09, 2010, 06:44:06 AM
This is out now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033090D2/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00005MP5B&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0D6H58H04PT57V5X1D9K

Hey Dave, I saw this movie on youtube!
Its nothing special though.. did you like it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 09, 2010, 02:36:06 PM
Quote from: Saul on April 09, 2010, 10:22:25 AM
Hey Dave, I saw this movie on youtube!
Its nothing special though.. did you like it?

I did not care for this one either, but did enjoy the soundtrack from it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 09, 2010, 02:42:01 PM
Quote from: Saul on April 09, 2010, 10:22:25 AM
Hey Dave, I saw this movie on youtube!
Its nothing special though.. did you like it?

I'm not sure I've ever seen it. Just thought you'd be interested in checking it out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 09, 2010, 05:21:29 PM
Quote from: Bogey on April 09, 2010, 02:36:06 PM
I did not care for this one either, but did enjoy the soundtrack from it.

Add me to the list, not as good as the Hobbit (were those cartoons made by the same person though?). :)

The other big LoTR news of the week is of course the release of the blu-ray of the live action movies.  I've been enjoying them, huge step up from dvd. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on April 10, 2010, 07:56:11 AM
     I'm allergic to LOTR fantasy for the same reason as I can't enjoy the heavy metal "god of evil" shtick. Good god, bad god, Norse god, I Was a Teenage God, it makes no difference to me. Except.....I do appreciate Lovecraft to some extent.

     I'm reading:

     (http://us.penguingroup.com/static/covers/all/9/2/9781594201929H.jpg)

     I give it a mild recommendation. Ferguson has written better books, like:

     (http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7240000/7248132.jpg)  (http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/19900000/19901949.jpg)

      Ferguson is a bit pessimistic, though not not in the "hurry, people!" Meltdown way. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/tongue.gif)

     (http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/31/kool_aid_2.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 10, 2010, 09:21:42 AM
Quote from: drogulus on April 10, 2010, 07:56:11 AM
     I'm allergic to LOTR fantasy for the same reason as I can't enjoy the heavy metal "god of evil" shtick.

Yeah that does get tiring, I'll forgive LoTR (firsties!) but not modern fantasies that should know better. :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 10, 2010, 11:20:54 AM
Uh...what?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 10, 2010, 11:34:57 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 10, 2010, 11:20:54 AM
Uh...what?

Sorry I was saying that modern fantasies should not have omnipotent Shiva-esque gods of destruction as their antagonist because it is cliche, trite and childish.  But I give Lord of the Rings a pass for creating the cliche in the first place. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 10, 2010, 11:57:10 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 10, 2010, 11:34:57 AM
Sorry I was saying that modern fantasies should not have omnipotent Shiva-esque gods of destruction as their antagonist because it is cliche, trite and childish.  But I give Lord of the Rings a pass for creating the cliche in the first place. :)

Oh, sorry. I meant, why not listen to metal just because you don't like a fantasy trilogy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on April 10, 2010, 12:24:55 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 10, 2010, 11:57:10 AM
Oh, sorry. I meant, why not listen to metal just because you don't like a fantasy trilogy.

     I guess it goes all the way back to Black Sabbath. The infatuation with the symbolism if not the reality of evil, the inversion of religion (not really an improvement IMO), the confusion of wickedness with naughtiness make me feel slightly ill. What else is there? Not a criticism of the music.....something else is that. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/evil.gif) *


   * See, when I do it it's supposed to be funny. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on April 10, 2010, 05:23:27 PM
Quote from: Bogey on April 09, 2010, 02:36:06 PM
I did not care for this one either, but did enjoy the soundtrack from it.

LOL!!! yes the music was loads of fun!

This song is probably the funniest song ever written, I wonder what the composer was thinking!  :D

http://www.youtube.com/v/N6RCyYHJskA&feature=related
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 12, 2010, 10:38:27 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51A2%2Bwb7sHL._SS500_.jpg)

The "Pool" is Liverpool, where he lives.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 12, 2010, 11:15:22 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61HAsMwmxtL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Giving his method a try, just one 4x4 raised bed at first, along with the tomatoes, herbs, and peppers already planted.  If it works out, we'll add a few more.  The book seems to have a couple of dozen pages of content spread over 200+, with lots of photos--some of which are helpful--and even more tiresome self-promotion in which the author takes credit for damned near everything except the Big Bang.  Still, it's THE updated manual for his particular approach to "French intensive" raised-bed gardening, and it promises great results with little effort, so we'll see.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 12, 2010, 11:20:46 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 12, 2010, 10:38:27 AM
The "Pool" is Liverpool, where he lives.

Hey Clive Barker is also from Liverpool! :D  Maybe there's something dark and scary that twists the minds of men in Liverpool. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on April 12, 2010, 11:26:45 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 12, 2010, 11:15:22 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61HAsMwmxtL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Giving his method a try, just one 4x4 raised bed at first, along with the tomatoes, herbs, and peppers already planted.  If it works out, we'll add a few more.  The book seems to have a couple of dozen pages of content spread over 200+, with lots of photos--some of which are helpful--and even more tiresome self-promotion in which the author takes credit for damned near everything except the Big Bang.  Still, it's THE updated manual for his particular approach to "French intensive" raised-bed gardening, and it promises great results with little effort, so we'll see.

I have a neighbor who has devoted his entire front and side yards to this kind of gardening, with great success.  He has ten foot corn in the summer and several large (look to be 8 X 16) boarded beds with green vegetables.  It requires full sun and an irrigation system - but seems to be a good way to grow your own.  If we had a section of our yard that got more sun we'd do the same thing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 12, 2010, 11:33:05 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 12, 2010, 11:20:46 AM
Hey Clive Barker is also from Liverpool! :D  Maybe there's something dark and scary that twists the minds of men in Liverpool. ;D

Seems to be! The novel's protagonist gives tours of the city.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on April 15, 2010, 03:17:07 PM
(http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/images/bau/97806796/9780679600657/0/0/plain/lady-chatterleys-lover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 17, 2010, 06:12:13 PM
Quote from: Franco on April 12, 2010, 11:26:45 AM
I have a neighbor who has devoted his entire front and side yards to this kind of gardening, with great success.  He has ten foot corn in the summer and several large (look to be 8 X 16) boarded beds with green vegetables.  It requires full sun and an irrigation system - but seems to be a good way to grow your own.  If we had a section of our yard that got more sun we'd do the same thing.

Well, you may want to send him this for fun.  Check it out also, David. :)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125504307
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Saul on April 18, 2010, 02:21:41 PM
Completed reading this yesterday, one of the best books I have ever read my whole life.
Worldmask by Akiva Tatz
(http://www.targum.com/shopimages/products/normal/WorldMask_s.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 18, 2010, 02:54:28 PM
The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy (2009) by Bill Hayes; bought this as a paperback earlier this year because of the topic and the numerous positive reviews from major newspapers on the back cover.

Gray's Anatomy was first published in 1858 and was mainly the efforts of two physicians, i.e. Henry Gray (1827-1861), who died tragically early from smallpox while treating his nephew (Henry had been vaccinated!) and Henry Vandyke Carter (1831-1897), a younger colleague whose father was an artist; most of the images for the original text were done (or re-done) by Carter.

This is a short text of modern story & flashback biography - i.e. Hayes (not a doctor) takes a number of 'gross anatomy' classes and intermixes his experience w/ the biographies of Gray & Carter that he uncovered from numerous sources, mainly the diary of Carter.  This is a fun read that has received a 'mixture' of reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Anatomist-True-Story-Grays-Anatomy/product-reviews/1934137219/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending).

As a doctor who did 'gross anatomy' - this is a fun (superficial) read for me - reminds  me  of much that I forgot as a current radiologist; for a 'lay person' who has a wonder for the anatomy of the human body, this is a nice 'conversational' introduction - but, don't expect to come out a teacher of human anatomy - for that, you might want to pick up a recent copy of Gray's Anatomy, now in its 3 dozen edition; my current copy is from 1973, the year our son was born!   Enjoy -  :D

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bKT4Dwu8RzA/S5fn4MWA-HI/AAAAAAAAAzs/Klpn1sJsqDY/s320/9781934137215.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: oabmarcus on April 25, 2010, 04:36:32 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mriZX8V5L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Serving Genius
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on April 30, 2010, 11:12:01 AM
(http://satyamshot.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/a-passage-to-india.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on April 30, 2010, 11:27:47 AM
Quote from: Corey on April 30, 2010, 11:12:01 AM
(http://satyamshot.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/a-passage-to-india.jpg)
Ooooo, nice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 02, 2010, 02:34:03 PM
The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise (2007) by Michael Grunwald (Washington Post reporter) - if you've been to the Everglades (we've been often) and want to really understand the history, area, and politics of the region, this is an enjoyable and MUST read - well researched but written by a reporter in a converstational manner - plenty of great comments on the back cover which prompted me to purchase this paperbook a few months ago!   ;D


(http://www.booknoise.net/swamp/src/swampcover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 02, 2010, 02:35:02 PM
 Dave,
Just ordered that jazz book you have been reading from my local library. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harpo on May 02, 2010, 02:44:23 PM
Both fun reading, issues of feminism, marriage, racism, etc.

(http://assets1.simonandschuster.com.au/images/books/9780743597227.jpg)

Biography of Walls's feisty grandmother out West.

(http://randomhouselibrary.com/files/2009/12/a-gate-at-the-stairs-195x300.jpg)

Novel about a college student who goes to work for a would-be adopting couple. Sharp observer of character, racism, college life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 02, 2010, 02:57:45 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 02, 2010, 02:35:02 PM
Dave,
Just ordered that jazz book you have been reading from my local library.

Bill - assume that you mean the Gary Giddins book below - excellent read; gets a little 'bogged down' after the 1950s which seems to always to a problem to summarize easily - I think that Ken Burns had the same problem in his Jazz set, i.e. lost my interest at that point; but a book that I would easily recommend as an updated 'first read' for someone just getting into this music - enjoy!   :D  Dave

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8jSRtmXILVg/SwrvOQypXOI/AAAAAAAADn8/lyHX9d1TcHQ/s1600/jazz2_custom+(herman+leonard).jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 02, 2010, 03:10:44 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on May 02, 2010, 02:57:45 PM
Bill - assume that you mean the Gary Giddins book below - excellent read; gets a little 'bogged down' after the 1950s which seems to always to a problem to summarize easily - I think that Ken Burns had the same problem in his Jazz set, i.e. lost my interest at that point; but a book that I would easily recommend as an updated 'first read' for someone just getting into this music - enjoy!   :D  Dave

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8jSRtmXILVg/SwrvOQypXOI/AAAAAAAADn8/lyHX9d1TcHQ/s1600/jazz2_custom+(herman+leonard).jpg)

Excellent point!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Chosen Barley on May 05, 2010, 07:40:43 AM
Re-reading Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries.  I first read it 16 years ago and thought it was the greatest thing.  ::)

I liked it, and still do, for its many details on how people lived in the early part of the 20th century.  I love those sorts of books, novel or informational (e.g. Structures of Everyday Life by F. Braudel).

On re-read, I see the book as feminist, liberal propaganda.  Daizy Goodwill - born 1905 - was a tragic character, you see, because she got married, had children, looked after her family, and wrote a gardening column for the newspaper.  Mein Gott!  What a calamity! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on May 14, 2010, 02:41:29 PM
(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/048/820/400000000000000048820_s4.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on May 16, 2010, 07:26:46 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41IEfTIMELL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on May 17, 2010, 02:40:02 AM
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n3844.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 17, 2010, 05:25:35 AM
(http://www.polirom.ro/_images/carti_normale/fara_speranta.jpg)

Nadezhda Mandelstam - Hope Against Hope
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 17, 2010, 10:19:18 AM
James Ellroy, American Tabloid.  Not sure I'm enjoying this one.  There don't seem to be any likeable characters, and it seems even more bleekly cynical and brutal than the other Ellroy's I've read, if that's possible.  Even a deeply crooked cop like Buzz Meeks in The Big Nowhere is likeable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 25, 2010, 12:32:38 PM
(http://media.us.macmillan.com/jackets/500H/9780312854881.jpg)

I'm all about adventure on other planets.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on May 25, 2010, 08:08:46 PM
(http://amyletinsky.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/middlemarch.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on May 26, 2010, 05:45:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51v0byy2OhL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Steig Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.

A decidedly low-brow thriller/crime novel.  Well done and entertaining, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 26, 2010, 06:29:27 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on May 26, 2010, 05:45:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51v0byy2OhL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Steig Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.

A decidedly low-brow thriller/crime novel.  Well done and entertaining, though.

That's funny, I was coming over here to write this post, now all I have to do is quote it. I got book 2 of the trilogy also, but since I just started book 1, it'll be a while. Sometimes, low-brow is good. :)

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 26, 2010, 08:58:39 AM
Cahokia (2009) by Timothy R. Pauketat - about the Mississippian 'city mound complex' that spanned the Mississippi River on both the Illinois & Missouri sides in the St. Louis area.  Taking a short vacation to St. Louis next month to meet our son who will be driving from Indianapolis - Cahokia State Park is on the Illinois side, so planning a visit.  America's first 'great' city flourishing from about 1050 into the early 13th century - the history and archeology are still shrouded in mystery!  This book is a short but somewhat dull read hampered largely by a lack of illustrations (of any type!) - think that it was part of a 'cheap' series, so just not much funding - this author is well known and has apparently written better books on the subject in the past.  :D


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51scQiDRrOL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on May 26, 2010, 09:08:10 AM
Geek-me.

(http://www.fanfaremag.com/images/covers/cover_0335-214.jpg)
Fanfare, 33:5 (http://www.fanfaremag.com/images/covers/cover_0335-214.jpg)

Is it good? Hmmm... well, it's Fanfare. You take the good along with the bad and the ugly (http://www.fanfaremag.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37814).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 26, 2010, 01:59:25 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on May 26, 2010, 05:45:30 AM
A decidedly low-brow thriller/crime novel.  Well done and entertaining, though.

Decidedly? List some high-brow thriller/crime novels, please.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on May 26, 2010, 02:04:09 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 26, 2010, 01:59:25 PM
Decidedly? List some high-brow thriller/crime novels, please.

Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Sanctuary, William Faulkner
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on May 26, 2010, 02:06:24 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on May 26, 2010, 02:04:09 PM
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Sanctuary, William Faulkner

Crime maybe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 26, 2010, 02:50:53 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on May 26, 2010, 05:45:30 AM
Steig Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.

A decidedly low-brow thriller/crime novel.  Well done and entertaining, though.

Next time I go to the library I'll check it out! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on June 01, 2010, 06:40:13 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41lE-6SCVdL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)


A rather fine book, though one sure to rile up economic and environmental doomsayers.  Just how could one say that life is better now than 100, 1,000, or 10,000 years ago, and how could one not foresee environmental catastrophe in the future?  The dude is crazy, right?  His passages on environmental issues are a bit less thorough than I would have liked, and he doesn't explore the benefits of imperialism to those lucky imperial powers quite enough, and there are some other minor weaknesses, but overall this is a fine swat at the not exactly rare End is Near thinking and publishing.  (And one gets the feeling Mr Ridley doesn't particularly care for Paul Ehrlich - and with good reason in that instance.) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on June 03, 2010, 11:15:25 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 26, 2010, 01:59:25 PM
Decidedly? List some high-brow thriller/crime novels, please.

(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n585.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: oabmarcus on June 03, 2010, 03:41:26 PM
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on June 04, 2010, 06:58:04 AM
Quote from: -abe- on June 03, 2010, 11:15:25 AM
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n585.jpg)

Nice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on June 04, 2010, 06:58:36 AM
Quote from: -abe- on May 17, 2010, 02:40:02 AM
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n3844.jpg)

Nice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on June 04, 2010, 07:19:18 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 04, 2010, 06:58:36 AM
Nice.
Nice.

Quote from: MN Dave on June 04, 2010, 06:58:04 AM
Nice.
Nice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on June 04, 2010, 07:30:58 AM
Quote from: Greg on June 04, 2010, 07:19:18 AM
Nice.
Nice.

Nice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 04, 2010, 08:05:20 AM
Nice must be one of the adjectives which cannot really be applied to Silence of the Lambs ; )

Stars My Destination I remember being good fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on June 04, 2010, 08:08:13 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 04, 2010, 08:05:20 AM
Nice must be one of the adjectives which cannot really be applied to Silence of the Lambs ; )

Stars My Destination I remember being good fun.

Nice human-skin suit!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 04, 2010, 08:17:41 AM
Thread duty: Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim

Nearly done reading this, and very interesting.  Well written, too . . . the author is a bit gossipy, but without, I think, crossing the line into vulgarity (a line which IMO Philip Norman crossed in his bio of Lennon).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on June 06, 2010, 03:05:08 PM
Quote from: Greg on June 04, 2010, 07:19:18 AM
Nice.
Nice.

Quote from: MN Dave on June 04, 2010, 07:30:58 AM
Nice.

(http://jhendrix110.tripod.com/images/Nice.jpg)

Erm, anyway, thread duty:

Arno Schmidt - Nobodaddy's Children

Really ni... I mean, excellent so far (a third of the way through).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 13, 2010, 09:57:16 PM
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/ciu/85/e5/e7c136c622a04fabae7d5110.L._AA300_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagners-Ring-its-Symbols-Music/dp/0571048188/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)

A neat little thing - words only rather than notated examples (always a plus for people like me who can only read notation with considerable effort), and quite extensive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 14, 2010, 06:00:36 AM
Cahokia - Mirror of the Cosmos (2002) by Sally Chappell - just returned from a visit to this Illinois State Park (Cahokia Mounds) just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

Cahokia was a LARGE (for its time) population center for the Mississippian Amerindian culture; in 1250 A.D. the statement is made that its population was larger than that of London!  The second picture below shows the remains of Monk's Mound, the highest platform pyramid in the place - from the top (about 100 ft) the city of St. Louis and the Arch are clearly seen.  This is the largest 'earthen' (i.e. no stone) pyramid in the Americas built by pre-Columbian native Americans - would strongly encourage a visit if ever in the vicinity!  :D


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GH8SQS28L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/illinois/images/s/cahokia-mounds.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: oabmarcus on June 19, 2010, 04:48:05 PM
120 days of sodom- de sade
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Martin Lind on June 19, 2010, 06:17:40 PM
Philip K. Dick:  Flow My tears the policeman said. He is one of my fauvorite authors but I usually read him in German translation. I am German. I have to look up a lot of words, it's not easy English, but for me this novell is a good choice to enjoy and to improve my English. I have managed now to read half of the novel.

Regards
Martin
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on June 19, 2010, 06:28:34 PM
Quote from: Martin Lind on June 19, 2010, 06:17:40 PM
Philip K. Dick:  Flow My tears the policeman said. He is one of my fauvorite authors but I usually read him in German translation. I am German. I have to look up a lot of words, it's not easy English, but for me this novell is a good choice to enjoy and to improve my English. I have managed now to read half of the novel.

Regards
Martin

I've read that one recently.  A very interesting book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on June 22, 2010, 06:01:01 AM
Quote from: Martin Lind on June 19, 2010, 06:17:40 PM
Philip K. Dick:  Flow My tears the policeman said. He is one of my fauvorite authors but I usually read him in German translation. I am German. I have to look up a lot of words, it's not easy English, but for me this novell is a good choice to enjoy and to improve my English. I have managed now to read half of the novel.

Regards
Martin

I read that one way back. Not his best but still good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on June 22, 2010, 06:01:44 AM
Reading Warrior's Rage, a first person account of Desert Storm, focusing primarily on the tank battle at 73 Easting. I didn't participate but I did hear the battle from a distance, and eventually saw the results (we, the First Cavalry Division, were in reserve, coming up on the right flank of the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment, the author's unit which bore the brunt of the battle). The "rage" in the title refers to the author's outrage that the generals acquiesed to political expediency and allowed the war to end before the Republican Guard was destroyed. That political decision had horrific consequences for the Iraqi Shiites and Kurds, groups opposed to Sadam Hussein.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/feb2010/WarRage.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on June 22, 2010, 06:02:19 AM
Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer by Jeff VanderMeer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on June 22, 2010, 07:35:38 AM
Quote from: Martin Lind on June 19, 2010, 06:17:40 PM
Philip K. Dick:  Flow My tears the policeman said. He is one of my fauvorite authors but I usually read him in German translation. I am German. I have to look up a lot of words, it's not easy English, but for me this novell is a good choice to enjoy and to improve my English. I have managed now to read half of the novel.

Regards
Martin

So far I'd place UBIK as Dick's best.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on June 25, 2010, 05:59:55 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wob-C42UL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 26, 2010, 03:24:41 AM
What exactly do those guys do? I hear the phrase every now and again and have some kind of "mounties in the desert" mental image, but...? :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 26, 2010, 04:27:05 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on June 25, 2010, 05:59:55 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wob-C42UL._SS500_.jpg)


Dave,
Have you read his Texas Ranger book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on June 26, 2010, 04:48:53 AM
Lethe - Wiki can probably fill you in.

Bill - I changed my mind and am instead reading REPLAY by Ken Grimwood as recommended here in the SF thread.  ;D And no, I haven't read the first book in that duo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Marc on June 26, 2010, 05:00:56 AM
Re-reading Roseanna AKA Kvinna i Göta kanal AKA Die Tote in Göta-Kanal AKA De vrouw in het Götakanaal, by Sjöwall och Wahlöö.

Is it any good?

Have a well-educated guess ....

;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: oabmarcus on June 26, 2010, 04:08:28 PM
Liar's poker
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 26, 2010, 05:06:42 PM
Considering:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XEWUIDGCL._SS500_.jpg)

Synopsis:The sole police officer to be executed in U.S. history, NYPD lieutenant Charles Becker died in the electric chair in 1915 for the murder of a lowlife gambler who pimped his own wife. Set apart from other, mostly Irish, New York policemen by his German ancestry and "markedly intelligent," Becker bribed his way in 1894 onto a force infected by Tammany Hall and worked undercover patrolling the crime-riddled midtown Manhattan district called Satan's Circus, the city's center of entertainment and vice. Acquitted in 1896 of charges of falsely arresting a woman for prostitution, a charge testified to by novelist Stephen Crane, Becker went on to commit graft, perjury and theft, but by 1911 he headed his own vice squad and by 1912 he had built up a vast extortion racket. Gambler Herman Rosenthal, one of Becker's victims, exposed him to the media and the DA, and when Rosenthal was shot to death, Becker became the notorious prime suspect although some doubted his guilt. Peopled by mobsters and crooked cops and politicians, and chronicling the early years of the NYPD as well as Becker's ruin and comeuppance, this engrossing, well-researched history by the author of Batavia's Graveyard immerses readers in the corrupt hurly-burly that was old New York.

and due to Dave's post:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RAHV4879L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 28, 2010, 05:12:49 AM
Quote from: Marc on June 26, 2010, 05:00:56 AM
Re-reading Roseanna AKA Kvinna i Göta kanal AKA Die Tote in Göta-Kanal AKA De vrouw in het Götakanaal, by Sjöwall och Wahlöö.

Is it any good?

Have a well-educated guess ....

;)

Looks like a Swedish noir. One would expect a Maigretsson-style main character. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 28, 2010, 07:25:08 AM
Starting a new tome today (600+ pages) that's been 'sitting around' in my to read pile for probably a year or more:

Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 (2007) by John Elliott - must have been a good recommendation from somewhere/someone - nearly all 5* ratings on Amazon!  :D

(http://universitypressaudiobooks.com/grafs/empiresatlantic.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on June 28, 2010, 08:00:35 AM
(http://www.1776mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/woodrow-wilson.jpg)


I'm a few chapters into this recent bio of Wilson.  It's well researched and well written, but the author's bias is rather obvious.  That's neither a good nor bad thing, but I'll be shocked if it doesn't color the sections dealing with the First World War.  Since I bought this mostly to learn more about Wilson's pre-Presidential period, I'm content to this point.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 28, 2010, 08:04:31 AM
Just started The Gesualdo Hex by Glenn Watkins (a name I somehow want to think is a pseudonym for a resident of Watkins Glen).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 28, 2010, 08:25:18 AM
Also in the Just Started company, I just began reading The Brtiannica Guide to Genetics. Finally, a chance to get some basic facts about this stuff into my head.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on July 01, 2010, 01:33:33 AM
FICHTE:   "Reden an die Deutsche Nation"

Fichte made this conferences in the University of Berlin, in 1808. Their purpose is to establish a new and revolutionary plan for the national education.
Fichte assumes that German language is the only that can be considered alive, the same way that Germans are the only ones to deserve the qualification as A PEOPLE. Not only Germans are the only ones able to understand their own culture, but only they can understand the decadence of other peoples and nations better than this ones.

I know that those ideas will be repeated, a century later by German nationalists. However, this book has remarkable ideas about education and Fichte's ideas had a deep impact in German educational reforms in the XIX century and in the first half of he XX.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on July 01, 2010, 02:20:07 AM
Now reading Mary Shelley's 'The Last Man', which is at last deservedly in vogue. One thing struck me though when my wife criticized its 'old-fashioned' style - if this is a fault then the same applies to Beethoven.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on July 01, 2010, 10:05:58 AM
Reading this:

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/june2010/russnap.jpg)

"Russia's expulsion of Napoleon's Grande Armée in 1812 is considered one of the most dramatic events in European history. However, Tolstoyan myth and an imbalance of British and French interpretations have clouded most Westerners' understanding of Russia's role in the defeat of Napoleon."

It provides a different perspective on the Napoleonic wars in the same way Peter Hofschröer's 1815: The Waterloo Campaign - The German Victory balanced the British-biased books I'd read for thirty-five years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 01, 2010, 10:09:55 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 28, 2010, 08:04:31 AM
Just started The Gesualdo Hex by Glenn Watkins (a name I somehow want to think is a pseudonym for a resident of Watkins Glen).

This is an excellent book!  And there are hardly any musical examples in it, so it is excellent for the layman, as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on July 01, 2010, 10:11:45 AM
Tried to read "The Ring Resounding," Culshaw's account of Decca's recording of the Solti Ring.  Couldn't get through 10 pages.  The biggest pile of shameless, self-important, self-congratulation I have ever seen. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 01, 2010, 10:13:34 AM
Gosh, that just sounds all wrong, Scarpia!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on July 01, 2010, 10:25:14 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on July 01, 2010, 10:11:45 AM
Tried to read "The Ring Resounding," Culshaw's account of Decca's recording of the Solti Ring.  Couldn't get through 10 pages.  The biggest pile of shameless, self-important, self-congratulation I have ever seen.

Actually that sounds about right considering the subject is Wagner.

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 01, 2010, 10:26:54 AM
Wicked, Franco!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on July 01, 2010, 10:35:58 AM
Quote from: Franco on July 01, 2010, 10:25:14 AM
Actually that sounds about right considering the subject is Wagner.

Although even Wagner might rebel at the thought that he, as the composer, is somewhat less interesting and important than the bloke in the control room, twiddling the knobs and telling Solti over the intercom that the tempo is wrong.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 01, 2010, 10:45:01 AM
QuoteAlthough even Wagner might rebel would scoff at the thought that he, as the composer, is somewhat at all less interesting and important than the bloke in the control room, twiddling the knobs and telling Solti over the intercom that the tempo is wrong.

Corrigenda.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 01, 2010, 11:11:52 AM
Current Onion edition
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on July 03, 2010, 07:36:05 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DRxT3yIjL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
A hoot so far.

(http://culturalcityhall.com/images/imago.jpg)
This guy will scare your pants off. Better wear a tight belt!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 03, 2010, 08:58:13 AM
(http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/unconsoled.jpg)

I'm about hundred pages from the end and so far it's been excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on July 03, 2010, 05:46:00 PM
That's a good endorsement Drasko. I always see lots of Ishiguro in bookstores and kind of figured that he was one of those writers who was widely published at one point but didn't live up to the hype. I'll check him out.

Reading:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511WES97AJL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Yes, it's good.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on July 03, 2010, 05:51:34 PM
Quote from: Marc on June 26, 2010, 05:00:56 AM
Re-reading Roseanna AKA Kvinna i Göta kanal AKA Die Tote in Göta-Kanal AKA De vrouw in het Götakanaal, by Sjöwall och Wahlöö.

I love the Sjöwall & Wahlöö novels [in English translation] and plan on rereading the whole series one day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 03, 2010, 07:04:27 PM
Quote from: Drasko on July 03, 2010, 08:58:13 AM
(http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/unconsoled.jpg)

I'm about hundred pages from the end and so far it's been excellent.

A frank irreverence, but . . . given this trend in titling fiction, as I walked home the other day, a sight in some nearby mulch gave me the idea for a book title: The Unscoopered.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 04, 2010, 02:09:26 AM
Quote from: Corey on July 03, 2010, 05:46:00 PM
That's a good endorsement Drasko. I always see lots of Ishiguro in bookstores and kind of figured that he was one of those writers who was widely published at one point but didn't live up to the hype. I'll check him out.

I'd limit my endorsement to this particular one, haven't read anything else (though liked The Remains of the Day movie). This one was recommended to me by Sidoze, he said The Remains of the Day is also good, different but introduces some key tropes and preoccupations Ishiguro would more extremely develop in The Unconsoled. He thought his later two novels don't live up to these, but then couple of my other friends thought Ishiguro's last to be excellent.

Anyone familiar with Murakami? I've seen flood of his books at local bookstores but wasn't sure what to try, if anything.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on July 04, 2010, 05:31:26 AM
This looks interesting!

http://www.amazon.com/Ninth-Beethoven-World-1824/dp/140006077X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278250158&sr=8-1

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on July 04, 2010, 11:00:22 PM
Quote from: Drasko on July 04, 2010, 02:09:26 AM
Anyone familiar with Murakami? I've seen flood of his books at local bookstores but wasn't sure what to try, if anything.

I'm not but a friend I trust says that Wind-Up Bird Chronicles is worth it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 05, 2010, 10:55:16 AM
Noted, thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on July 06, 2010, 07:29:44 PM
Yoshio Toyoshima- Fuukei

http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000906/files/42555_22848.html

I found a site which has tons of classical novels by Japanese authors (in original Japanese, of course) in HTML format. This means that, with my add-on, I can move my mouse over each word I don't know, and the definition pops up, making my study potentially powerful and efficient at the same time- that is, if I actually do it consistently!

I first tried to get into some more Souseki, since I liked the little that I've read by him, but his language is too outdated and complex for someone like me to understand (I've even heard his stuff is a nightmare for translators). This one I can actually understand enough to get by with, and it's short.

Of course, I really should be doing this more instead of being on here so much... kinda hard to cut back on GMG, though. It's so relaxing for the mind.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 06, 2010, 09:10:19 PM
I loved The Remains of the Day; a really, really impressive achievement as he creates a very subtle narrator with a voice that successfully combines dry formality and suppressed agony. Or, to change in my fancy English major words for ordinary ones, it may seem dull but then it hits you like a punch in the gut.

Quote from: Daverz on July 03, 2010, 05:51:34 PM
I love the Sjöwall & Wahlöö novels [in English translation] and plan on rereading the whole series one day.

Another lover of the series here! I bought the Laughing Policeman for my mom for mother's day to expand her murder mystery horizons, and included Sjöwall & Wahlöö on the suggested reading list when I taught a class on "Reading and Writing Detective Fiction" this past semester. Terrific books. There's something about the Swedes, isn't there - Sjöwall & Wahlöö, Mankell, Larsson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 07, 2010, 03:56:50 AM
My all time favorite novel turned 50 today:

(http://sexualityinart.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/to-kill-a-mocking-bird-first-edition.jpg)


The only book Harper Lee ever wrote.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on July 07, 2010, 05:09:44 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 06, 2010, 09:10:19 PM
I loved The Remains of the Day; a really, really impressive achievement as he creates a very subtle narrator with a voice that successfully combines dry formality and suppressed agony. Or, to change in my fancy English major words for ordinary ones, it may seem dull but then it hits you like a punch in the gut.

A great book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 13, 2010, 04:37:47 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qyr%2Ba91KL.jpg)

Very good light detective/spy fare. Story set in 1870s Russia, Akunin seems well versed in the era he is depicting and has very fine writing style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on July 19, 2010, 10:11:21 PM
Virgil Thomson, Composer on the Aisle by Anthony Tommasini.
1st edition so that's maybe why we read  "Mary Gaines, born.. in 1865, had also made the westward trek... Her father, Benjamin Watts Gaines, born in 1932...''
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on July 20, 2010, 04:36:02 AM
The Perfect Storm - by Sebastian Junger


(http://www.islandbase.com/art/books/perfect%20storm.jpg)

Wonderful reading, riveting and informative.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on July 24, 2010, 12:48:10 PM
Night Shift - Stephen King

(http://spire.ee/shop/images/Stephen%20King%20-%20Night%20Shift.jpg)


About half way through these Stephen King short stories.  So far, I've enjoyed 'Jerusalem's Lot' and 'The Mangler' the most.  Both chilling in their own unique way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on July 27, 2010, 06:19:35 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0140442936.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

Almost finished. Most interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on July 29, 2010, 08:24:48 AM
Moby Dick or The White Whale

Herman Melville

(http://www.stuartngbooks.com/ciardello_moby_dick_cvr.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 29, 2010, 08:39:20 AM
That's a fave, Ray;  though I first read it only at the time when I was pursuing my Master's.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on July 29, 2010, 08:47:40 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 29, 2010, 08:39:20 AM
That's a fave, Ray;  though I first read it only at the time when I was pursuing my Master's.

I'm in a craze these days for sea adventure stories.  Just finished reading the wonderful The Perfect Storm, and have never actually read Moby Dick before.  I was fearing that it would be a difficult read due to the writing style, but it has proved to be a very easy read so far!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: not edward on July 29, 2010, 08:54:54 AM
I'll add my voice to those in favour of Remains of the Day. While it may be less complex than some later Ishiguro, it hits some of the archetypal English existentialist fears with painful accuracy.

Just finished--at about the fourth attempt, Iain M Banks' Matter. I guess I'm thinking of it as a partial return to form after the dismal Steep Approach to Garbadale. I wasn't entirely convinced by the way the slow-moving quest theme suddenly transitioned into high-pace action for the last 10% of the book, though.

To my mind, it's not a patch on Inversions or Look to Windward, though. (And I think I'm going to stay well clear of Transitions, as the reviews and plot summary make it sound like yet another recycling of the tedious The Business.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 29, 2010, 08:55:39 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on July 29, 2010, 08:47:40 AM
I'm in a craze these days for sea adventure stories.  Just finished reading the wonderful The Perfect Storm, and have never actually read Moby Dick before.  I was fearing that it would be a difficult read due to the writing style, but it has proved to be a very easy read so far!

Yes, I find the language colorful and varied, not at all a chore.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on July 29, 2010, 10:37:42 PM
Quote from: Brahmsian on July 29, 2010, 08:47:40 AM
I'm in a craze these days for sea adventure stories.  Just finished reading the wonderful The Perfect Storm, and have never actually read Moby Dick before.  I was fearing that it would be a difficult read due to the writing style, but it has proved to be a very easy read so far!

A wonderful book, but at times the level of detail of whaling technology was beyond what I required.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on July 30, 2010, 02:55:43 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on July 29, 2010, 10:37:42 PM
A wonderful book, but at times the level of detail of whaling technology was beyond what I required.

Yes, I got bogged down in the Try Works and never recovered.

Thread duty: I just started this book Olivier Messiaen

(http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/images/full13/9780300109078.jpg)
(http://www.amazon.com/Messiaen-Professor-Peter-Hill/dp/0300109075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280487411&sr=1-1-spell)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 01, 2010, 06:09:05 PM
Added Nabokov short stories and the current issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine to the currently-reading pile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 02, 2010, 08:14:38 AM
Great Hardboiled and Western fiction writer.
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n5/n27708.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on August 02, 2010, 01:11:59 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on July 01, 2010, 10:11:45 AM
Tried to read "The Ring Resounding," Culshaw's account of Decca's recording of the Solti Ring.  Couldn't get through 10 pages.  The biggest pile of shameless, self-important, self-congratulation I have ever seen.
I just spotted this by accident, a month late, but thought it worth offering a contrasting view. The list of books I've read more than half a dozen times in my life isn't particularly long, but Culshaw's book is among them. I love it; I wish it were 5 times as long as it is; and I don't find those negative qualities in it that you mention. True, he's aware of having participated in the achievement of something of great importance in the history of recording - but I don't find it self-inflating. His tendency isn't to draw attention to himself, but to point outwards, towards the music, and the recording, and the performers, and his colleagues, and he conveys a real sense of privilege at having worked with them. I enjoy his pleasure in all this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 04, 2010, 08:44:06 AM
Classic ghost stories on my iPhone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 04, 2010, 07:26:13 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C0S6RZ24L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

In 1933, after Denver boss Joe Roma was found "slumped in his favorite overstuffed chair in the front parlor,...riddled with seven bullets, six of them to the head," his up-and-coming bootlegging proteges Clyde and Eugene Smaldone took over his profitable operations. Over the years, the brothers and various other family members were frequently in the news, occasionally in jail, and generally in control of their realm. Theirs was an independent operation, but the Smaldones enjoyed the friendship of crime superstar Al Capone and were frequently in cahoots with New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello, to whom Clyde was particularly close. The Smaldones contributed to Denver's municipal ambience positively, too, as restauranteurs and generous contributors to charity. Kreck's detailing of the doings of a relative outpost of the racketeering industry is, besides a rich chapter in Colorado history, an excellent addition to the popular literature on organized crime.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 05, 2010, 05:57:23 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on August 02, 2010, 01:11:59 PM
I just spotted this by accident, a month late, but thought it worth offering a contrasting view. The list of books I've read more than half a dozen times in my life isn't particularly long, but Culshaw's book is among them. I love it; I wish it were 5 times as long as it is; and I don't find those negative qualities in it that you mention. True, he's aware of having participated in the achievement of something of great importance in the history of recording - but I don't find it self-inflating. His tendency isn't to draw attention to himself, but to point outwards, towards the music, and the recording, and the performers, and his colleagues, and he conveys a real sense of privilege at having worked with them. I enjoy his pleasure in all this.

Despite my initial annoyance I have read further, through the part describing Rheingold.  Seems like it is mostly catty swipes at his competitors and gossiping about opera singers, though.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.   8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on August 05, 2010, 06:20:49 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on August 05, 2010, 05:57:23 AM
Seems like it is mostly catty swipes at his competitors and gossiping about opera singers, though.
The interesting thing is that in my reading of it, I don't really pick up those cattiness and gossip angles at all. I suppose one person's interesting anecdote is another person's gossip, but what I get from the book is a really good impression of what it was like to work with all these extraordinary people, under extraordinary circumstances. So for me, it comes over as a very positive, inspiring account of a historic achievement against the odds, endlessly re-readable. The relationship he develops with the progressively ailing Flagstad is quite moving, for example.

Incidentally do you have the later edition, reissued as part of a Time-Life Wagner trilogy? I read somewhere that it has a lot more illustrations than the first edition. Is that so, do you know?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 05, 2010, 09:00:32 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on August 05, 2010, 06:20:49 AM
The interesting thing is that in my reading of it, I don't really pick up those cattiness and gossip angles at all. I suppose one person's interesting anecdote is another person's gossip, but what I get from the book is a really good impression of what it was like to work with all these extraordinary people, under extraordinary circumstances. So for me, it comes over as a very positive, inspiring account of a historic achievement against the odds, endlessly re-readable. The relationship he develops with the progressively ailing Flagstad is quite moving, for example.

I do find interesting material there, which is why I have continued to read it in fits and starts.  But the proposition that recording these operas was some sort of earth shattering achievement puts me off.  Decca, EMI, DG, Philips, were recording several operas of similar scale every year.  They make it sound like recording these four operas over 10 years was equivalent to landing a man on the moon.  In fact Decca had a better recording of the Ring in the can all those years, which was not released until recently due to contract difficulties.  Culshaw devotes a few sentences to that inconvenient fact.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 05, 2010, 09:33:27 AM
The Inheritance by Sanger

I'm liking it quite a bit. I particularly like its unbiased and balanced approach to the issues, but he's also not afraid to take shots when they are well deserved (like the North Korea-Syria fiasco).

I've gained a lot more respect for W and his staff, espeically Rice, who really began to shine in his second term.

The book is essentially an historical-intelligence briefing, with a slight view of things to come. And although there were some severe understimates on the author's part (especially in regards to China's economic growth), I'd rank the book as offering a very fair assessment of the countries previewed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on August 06, 2010, 01:42:36 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on August 05, 2010, 09:00:32 AM
In fact Decca had a better recording of the Ring in the can all those years, which was not released until recently due to contract difficulties.  Culshaw devotes a few sentences to that inconvenient fact.
But it's not the same thing, is it? Wasn't the concept of the live recording (albeit in that case a particularly good one) fundamentally different to what the Culshaw team spent so long attempting to do in the studio?

I think our differing views of the book are probably explained by our differing opinions about the value of the recording itself. If the Solti recording itself isn't perceived as anything particularly special, then I can see that the book would seem self-aggrandising.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 06, 2010, 05:06:43 AM
Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First BlackCongressmen (2008) by Philip Dray - sitting in my 'to read' pile for a while and just getting started; appropriate w/ our first black president -  :D


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eBN0ALseL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 06, 2010, 01:10:59 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on August 06, 2010, 01:42:36 AM
But it's not the same thing, is it? Wasn't the concept of the live recording (albeit in that case a particularly good one) fundamentally different to what the Culshaw team spent so long attempting to do in the studio?

I think our differing views of the book are probably explained by our differing opinions about the value of the recording itself. If the Solti recording itself isn't perceived as anything particularly special, then I can see that the book would seem self-aggrandising.

Well, they were nicely done, probably among the best that Decca released, but in the end we are talking about making a recording of a work that is performed live on the stage of numerous opera houses every year.  Culshaw makes it sound as though assembling a cast to sing one opera from the cycle is the greatest logistical problem in the history of the universe.  Bayreuth does it (all four parts) every year.  Making a studio recording, one installment every two years, should be easier, not harder, than putting a production on the stage.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BMW on August 06, 2010, 02:10:11 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on August 05, 2010, 06:20:49 AM
Incidentally do you have the later edition, reissued as part of a Time-Life Wagner trilogy? I read somewhere that it has a lot more illustrations than the first edition. Is that so, do you know?

The Time-Life edition does in fact have many more photographs and a little more text (not about the Ring recording specifically but about Vienna, Wagner, the Philharmonic, and Solti).

Quote from: Scarpia on August 05, 2010, 09:00:32 AM
But the proposition that recording these operas was some sort of earth shattering achievement puts me off.  Decca, EMI, DG, Philips, were recording several operas of similar scale every year. 

Were they really?

QuoteThey make it sound like recording these four operas over 10 years was equivalent to landing a man on the moon.  In fact Decca had a better recording of the Ring in the can all those years, which was not released until recently due to contract difficulties.  Culshaw devotes a few sentences to that inconvenient fact.

Culshaw does discuss Decca's recording activity in Bayreuth and the final product that he was inferior to what he was trying to achieve in the studio.  Whether or not one enjoys the fruit of his labor, it cannot be denied that it was a fantastic (and most importantly, unprecedented) technical achievement.  Not quite like putting a man on the moon (an impression I do not feel he gives) but impressive nonetheless.

QuoteBayreuth does it (all four parts) every year.

Once again, Culshaw was aiming for something he felt was of better quality than what was being presented in Bayreuth.

QuoteCulshaw makes it sound as though assembling a cast to sing one opera from the cycle is the greatest logistical problem in the history of the universe.  Bayreuth does it (all four parts) every year.  Making a studio recording, one installment every two years, should be easier, not harder, than putting a production on the stage.

Too bad none of us were around to show him how to do it better.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 06, 2010, 04:26:07 PM
Quote from: BMW on August 06, 2010, 02:10:11 PMWere they really?

There were recordings of Salome, Tristan, Parsifal, Rosenkavelier, Tannhauser, etc, any one of which was comparable to an installment of the Ring.

Quote
Once again, Culshaw was aiming for something he felt was of better quality than what was being presented in Bayreuth.

Certainly they were very fine recordings that came from the Culshaw production team, but I don't think they eclipsed what was coming from Bayreuth.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BMW on August 06, 2010, 06:07:37 PM
QuoteThere were recordings of Salome, Tristan, Parsifal, Rosenkavelier, Tannhauser, etc, any one of which was comparable to an installment of the Ring.

Yes, and it was the Ring project that led the way.  Rheingold was the "earth shattering achievement" (anybody with the information in front of them, please correct me if I am wrong with my dates here, assuming we are talking about stereo versions).  And none of those operas make nearly as many demands on a production team attempting to literally present a work as they Ring cycle (and all its anvils, thunder, stage directions, off stage sounds, voice manipulation) does.

QuoteCertainly they were very fine recordings that came from the Culshaw production team, but I don't think they eclipsed what was coming from Bayreuth.

And I will not claim that they do on a musical level (having never heard the oh-so-expensive 1955 recordings... anybody hate their copy?  :) ).  On a technical level, however, I have my doubts (setting aside a listener's dislike for Culshaw's sound effects and such).

I am not suggesting that the Solti Ring cycle is the greatest interpretation of that work on record.  I only believe that, from a technical perspective, it was in fact ground breaking and that it will always be (as the box proudly exclaims) "one of the greatest achievements of the gramophone."



What am I reading?

Just started this clearance bin find today, fairly engaging so far --

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v258/Johnnyssavvyone/Inamorata.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on August 07, 2010, 01:46:28 AM
Quote from: BMW on August 06, 2010, 02:10:11 PM
The Time-Life edition does in fact have many more photographs and a little more text (not about the Ring recording specifically but about Vienna, Wagner, the Philharmonic, and Solti).
Thanks! I've often wondered if it was worth trying to get hold of one, and it sounds as if it would be. (My 'standard' edition in fact has a curious fault, with some of the same photographs printed twice, and others, that should be there, missing.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on August 07, 2010, 07:39:43 PM
Went to the bookstore today and looked at Camus' The Plague. I really want to read it now... might start soon.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on August 07, 2010, 10:17:39 PM
Just take a day off and sit in a chair with a pot of coffee and read it all in one sitting. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 08, 2010, 11:19:31 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on August 07, 2010, 01:46:28 AM
Thanks! I've often wondered if it was worth trying to get hold of one, and it sounds as if it would be. (My 'standard' edition in fact has a curious fault, with some of the same photographs printed twice, and others, that should be there, missing.)

After all the drama about "Our Siegfried" in Culshaw's book I'd be curious to know if the tapes they made before giving up on Ernst Kozub are still in existence, and if they are really as dreadful as Culshaw portrays them.   After all the live tapes from Bayreuth were portrayed as unacceptable in Culshaw's book, but have been lauded as brilliant upon their subsequent release by Testament.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on August 08, 2010, 12:42:28 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on August 08, 2010, 11:19:31 AM
After all the live tapes from Bayreuth were portrayed as unacceptable in Culshaw's book
What he actually says is this:
"Thus, for a second time, did Decca embark on a Bayreuth Ring, and this time there was the additional advantage of stereo equipment. (Keilberth was the conductor.) Again conflicting contracts prevented the commercial release of the recordings, but the experience was invaluable for Gordon Parry. He came to know every aspect of the famous Bayreuth sound .... " etc, etc.

He doesn't make any comment on what the recordings themselves were like, presumably because they were never released, for contractual reasons (at that time), and so the matter was academic as far as he was concerned.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 08, 2010, 01:17:51 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on August 08, 2010, 12:42:28 PMHe doesn't make any comment on what the recordings themselves were like, presumably because they were never released, for contractual reasons (at that time), and so the matter was academic as far as he was concerned.

Yes, I remember the passage well.  Later on he mentions that he sent a copy of the entire Ring to Flagstad when he was trying to convince her to participate in the recording. 

It is the terseness of the mention I am responding to.  He makes it seem as though his recording complete ring was superhuman accomplishment requiring almost a decade of work.   But in reality if they had gotten a few people to sign off, the first complete ring would have been released by Decca in 1955.   Since he had reason to believe that those tapes would never be heard, he could create the impression that they were inconsequential, just a learning experience for Gordon Parry.  Earlier in the book he described Bayreuth productions of the Ring as being dismal, which also fosters this impression.  Now that they are public, the consensus seems to be that they are of extraordinary and a worthy rival to the Solti set.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 09, 2010, 10:45:05 AM
NORSE CODE by Greg Van Eekhout

Is this Ragnarok, or just California?

The NorseCODE genome project was designed to identify descendants of Odin. What it found was Kathy Castillo, a murdered MBA student brought back from the dead to serve as a valkyrie in the Norse god's army. Given a sword and a new name, Mist's job is to recruit soldiers for the war between the gods at the end of the world—and to kill those who refuse to fight.

But as the twilight of the gods descends, Mist makes other plans.

Journeying across a chaotic American landscape already degenerating into violence and madness, Mist hopes to find her way to Helheim, the land of the dead, to rescue her murdered sister from death's clutches. To do so, she'll need the help of Hermod, a Norse god bumming around Los Angeles with troubles of his own. Together they find themselves drafted into a higher cause, trying to do what fate long ago deemed could not be done: save the world of man. For even if myths aren't made to be broken, it can't hurt to go down fighting...can it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 10, 2010, 01:04:29 PM
Truth and Method by Hans-Georg Gadamer

I read this one a while ago, but I cannot directly recall any passages. I know I like the topic, and that I enjoyed the book the last time I read it. So I'm expecting more of the same.


"Only by forgetting does the mind have the possibility of total renewal, the capacity to see everything with fresh eyes, so that what is long familiar fuses with the new into a many leveled unity."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on August 10, 2010, 07:31:21 PM
On p.46/127 of The Plague...

interesting how he describes the reactions of people when the plague takes over. Especially interesting how he describes the development of indifference after seeing so much death. Kind of explains what could lead to someone becoming a Meursault, although I'm not sure a person just like him could even exist, technically...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Hollywood on August 11, 2010, 02:16:44 AM
I just started reading the book "Oliver Cromwell" (from the Very Interesting People Series) by John Morrill. I just recently discovered that my 10 times great grandfather was Sir Oliver Cromwell the Lord and Protector's uncle (so this makes him my first cousin 11 times removed).  8)


(http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/images/ar/97801992/9780199217533/0/0/plain/oliver-cromwell.jpg)



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on August 12, 2010, 06:23:09 PM
Finished The Plague last night. Pretty satisfying, thoughtful experience.

Checked out 3 books from the library today (because I'll be in the car quite a bit next week):
Ulysses, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Anthem (Ayn Rand).

I've just started Ulysses, and I'm going to have to do something to get a better grasp of what's going on (i'll google cliff notes or something). I brought it in to work to read and someone told me that he read it (it was required reading at his school), and he completely enjoyed it ("I'm glad I was required to read it- it's a great book"). Seems to be the book I hear most praised, anyway, so I guess it's about time I start it.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on August 13, 2010, 01:44:31 PM
Read Anthem today. One of the best things I've ever read.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 15, 2010, 04:22:54 AM
Quote from: Hollywood on August 11, 2010, 02:16:44 AM
I just started reading the book "Oliver Cromwell" (from the Very Interesting People Series) by John Morrill. I just recently discovered that my 10 times great grandfather was Sir Oliver Cromwell the Lord and Protector's uncle (so this makes him my first cousin 11 times removed).  8)
Hmmm...and one of mine was John Pym, so our families have long had an association we never suspected.  ;)

Alburquerque, Rudolfo Anaya, just finished, and various web sites regarding sorting out Windows 7 driver issues with older motherboards and RAID arrays.  All sorted, running like a top.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on August 15, 2010, 06:45:38 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on August 08, 2010, 01:17:51 PM
Since he had reason to believe that those tapes would never be heard, he could create the impression that they were inconsequential, just a learning experience for Gordon Parry.
This attributes a kind of Machiavellian manipulation on Culshaw's part that I can't believe in. It's at odds with his essential humility and regard for most of the people he worked with that for me is a characteristic of the book as a whole. We seem to be demonstrating a classic example of two people reading the same book and coming away with completely polarised perceptions of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on August 15, 2010, 06:52:05 AM
Currently reading (but only just continuing with) one of the most tedious biographies I've read: Adrian Boult by Michael Kennedy. Apparently Kennedy was given access to Boult's detailed diaries, which he's used freely, but with curious results. Whenever he quotes anecdotes directly from the diaries, Boult the man begins to shimmer into life. But elsewhere the biography gives the impression of a teeming list of facts and events, arranged in the form of prose. As a reference book I can see that this might have value; as an attempt to bring us closer to the life and work of the man, it fails almost completely, for me. I suspect I'll give up the struggle fairly soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 15, 2010, 07:05:13 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on August 15, 2010, 06:45:38 AM
This attributes a kind of Machiavellian manipulation on Culshaw's part that I can't believe in. It's at odds with the his essential humility and regard for most of the people he worked with that for me is a characteristic of the book as a whole. We seem to be demonstrating a classic example of two people reading the same book and coming away with completely polarised perceptions of it.

Give Machiavelli a microphone and you have Culshaw.   :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on August 15, 2010, 07:54:55 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on August 15, 2010, 07:05:13 AM
Give Machiavelli a microphone and you have Culshaw.   :P
Let's give him a crossed pair of microphones and record him in the vivid immediacy of stereo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 15, 2010, 08:05:43 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on August 15, 2010, 07:54:55 AM
Let's give him a crossed pair of microphones and record him in the vivid immediacy of stereo.

Well, strictly speaking Machiavelli with one microphone is Walter Legge.  Culshaw would demand at least three.   8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on August 15, 2010, 09:36:12 AM
Ellsworth Kelly by E.C. Goossen. Can't find a cover image, but here's the painting on the front:

(http://www.artsconnected.org/media/14/ce/b28a42e12a32169cf8f24b73ae12/1024/768/20015.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Hollywood on August 15, 2010, 10:21:37 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on August 15, 2010, 04:22:54 AM
Hmmm...and one of mine was John Pym, so our families have long had an association we never suspected.  ;)


Way cool! Small world isn't it?  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 16, 2010, 07:57:05 AM
Quote from: Hollywood on August 15, 2010, 10:21:37 PM
Way cool! Small world isn't it?  8)
Especially after a dozen or so generations!  (At least for us vigorously interbred Yanks!)  ;) ;D 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on August 16, 2010, 12:10:10 PM
Out of curiosity, any other book like Anthem that has the same type of narrative tone? I mean, the whole detached, dreamlike tone?

Halfway through Slaughterhouse-Five (should be done soon)... not quite what I was expecting. Kind of an amusing book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 16, 2010, 12:12:01 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on August 16, 2010, 07:57:05 AM
Especially after a dozen or so generations!  (At least for us vigorously interbred Yanks!)  ;) ;D 8)

I met a girl who said she was a descendant of Pocahontas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 16, 2010, 08:31:10 PM
Recently: (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HY8jh4grL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on August 16, 2010, 08:38:32 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on August 16, 2010, 08:31:10 PM
Recently: (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HY8jh4grL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Yes.

Oh, dear, the dumb brother.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on August 16, 2010, 08:42:31 PM
Quote from: Daverz on August 16, 2010, 08:38:32 PM
Oh, dear, the dumb brother.

...but the one not damned by God.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on August 19, 2010, 12:28:45 AM
THOMAS S. KUHN:        "The Structure of scientific revolutions"

One of the most important and influential books of the 20th century. Kuhn rejects the idea that science proceeds by accumulation of knowledge, but, instead, in some ways like Art's history, by ruptures, deep changes of pattern or paradigm.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on August 19, 2010, 06:54:07 PM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0140041141.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 19, 2010, 07:19:06 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on August 16, 2010, 08:31:10 PM
Recently: (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HY8jh4grL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Yes.

Happily, apart from his namesake Christopher, few or no atheists in my awareness experience any sort of "rage." I'd be a mighty tempestuous person otherwise... actually I'd be enraged.

~

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41lE-6SCVdL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

A book which, counter all our mass media, makes the intriguing and wholly fascinating argument that the world is getting better all the time, it's a better place than it was lately, and it will keep getting nicer and nicer. I don't know how much I'll end up agreeing, but it really is refreshing to read somebody who has reasons for being an optimist, rather than yet another easy-cash book about Doom and Gloom and the death of civilization.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 21, 2010, 04:16:25 AM
V. Van Gogh letters
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 21, 2010, 04:49:29 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51raoawZKyL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 21, 2010, 07:19:19 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nq3UESjfL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

First book I have read by Sears, so far I am thinking he is the best contemporary writer on the war between the states
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on August 21, 2010, 08:00:00 AM
Quote from: val on August 19, 2010, 12:28:45 AM
THOMAS S. KUHN:        "The Structure of scientific revolutions"

One of the most important and influential books of the 20th century. Kuhn rejects the idea that science proceeds by accumulation of knowledge, but, instead, in some ways like Art's history, by ruptures, deep changes of pattern or paradigm.

     There's less there than meets the eye. When you increase knowledge you have to rearrange it into "new paradigms". The best approach is through Quine's "web of belief". We're talking about epistemic problems, not things changing. Knowledge is a collection of models organized into theories, not a complete picture that duplicates the world. I suppose you could say that the belief that there's a world is metaphysical (and indeed there's no test for it), which is not to say there isn't one. Nothing, so far as I can tell, says that. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/grin.gif)

     This quote from Quine is legendary:

     As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as a tool, ultimately, for predicting future experience in the light of past experience. Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation as convenient intermediaries -- not by definition in terms of experience, but simply as irreducible posits comparable, epistemologically, to the gods of Homer. Let me interject that for my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical objects and not in Homer's gods; and I consider it a scientific error to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the physical objects and the gods differ only in degree and not in kind. Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits. The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most in that it has proved more efficacious than other myths as a device for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.

     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 21, 2010, 09:23:07 AM
Quote from: drogulus on August 21, 2010, 08:00:00 AM
     There's less there than meets the eye. When you increase knowledge you have to rearrange it into "new paradigms". The best approach is through Quine's "web of belief". We're talking about epistemic problems, not things changing. Knowledge is a collection of models organized into theories, not a complete picture that duplicates the world. I suppose you could say that the belief that there's a world is metaphysical (and indeed there's no test for it), which is not to say there isn't one. Nothing, so far as I can tell, says that. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/grin.gif)

     This quote from Quine is legendary:

     As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as a tool, ultimately, for predicting future experience in the light of past experience. Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation as convenient intermediaries -- not by definition in terms of experience, but simply as irreducible posits comparable, epistemologically, to the gods of Homer. Let me interject that for my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical objects and not in Homer's gods; and I consider it a scientific error to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the physical objects and the gods differ only in degree and not in kind. Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits. The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most in that it has proved more efficacious than other myths as a device for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.
Kuhn's Structure is one of the seminal books of the last century.  Without understanding it, you are not culturally literate.

Quine's statement that knowledge of physical objects differs only in degree and not kind from knowledge of Homer's gods, that both are naught but cultural constructs, is a splendid example of the limitations of intellect and the ridiculousness of intellectualism.  Well do I recall a lecture by him about thirty years ago in which he simply dismissed the mind-body problem with a statement to the effect that present research left no doubt that mental states would soon be understood as nothing more than manifestations of material processes.  End of story.  Two thousand years of inquiry dismissed by a statement of faith differing neither in kind nor degree from a kindergartener's statement of faith that if he wished hard enough while blowing out candles on a birthday cake, he would soon get a pony! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on August 21, 2010, 02:37:28 PM
Not sure if I mentioned that I finished Slaughterhouse-Five... overall, I liked it.

I've read Part I of Ulysses and don't think that I'll continue for a long time because I just don't understand it. There are study guides and summaries online, but I don't feel like getting into all of that right now, but maybe eventually.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 21, 2010, 07:39:01 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 21, 2010, 07:19:19 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nq3UESjfL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

First book I have read by Sears, so far I am thinking he is the best contemporary writer on the war between the states

That's an excellent book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on August 24, 2010, 06:14:12 AM
Lately, I'm into sea adventures (The Perfect Storm, Moby Dick).  Anything else along these lines that anyone can recommend?

Also, what do you guys use as a site that is very useful for book reviews, outside of Amazon?

Merci beaucoup!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 24, 2010, 06:14:59 AM
Are you done with Moby-Dick, Ray? What do you think?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 24, 2010, 06:15:58 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on August 24, 2010, 06:14:12 AM
Lately, I'm into sea adventures (The Perfect Storm, Moby Dick).  Anything else along these lines that anyone can recommend?

Also, what do you guys use as a site that is very useful for book reviews, outside of Amazon?

Merci beaucoup!  :)

CAPTAIN BLOOD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on August 24, 2010, 06:17:45 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 24, 2010, 06:14:59 AM
Are you done with Moby-Dick, Ray? What do you think?

Almost done, Karl.  About 80% done.  Really, really enjoy it.  It is a little tedious at times with all the technical info regarding the whales and whale fishing, but otherwise I think it's excellent!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 24, 2010, 06:19:48 AM
I do love it, too-much-information and all!

A similarly rich read is Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, though that may be a shift from your current topic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 24, 2010, 06:59:08 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on August 24, 2010, 06:17:45 AM
Almost done, Karl.  About 80% done.  Really, really enjoy it.  It is a little tedious at times with all the technical info regarding the whales and whale fishing, but otherwise I think it's excellent!  :)
Some of these days months I should take it off the shelves for a careful re-reading.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 24, 2010, 11:46:17 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lx1cDRtTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

A very thorough, if not overly meticulous, argument against the possibility of rationalist, top-down constructions of society and against the idea that the social sciences are comparable to the physical sciences
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2010, 02:50:53 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 24, 2010, 11:46:17 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lx1cDRtTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

A very thorough, if not overly meticulous, argument against the possibility of rationalist, top-down constructions of society and against the idea that the social sciences are comparable to the physical sciences
Excellent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on August 25, 2010, 01:34:18 PM

     (http://www.jpans.com/images/medical/phantoms-in-the-brain.jpg)

     In which Rama cures phantom limb pain by "amputating" the phantom limb using a mirror box of his own invention.

     (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Ramachandran-mirrorbox.svg/450px-Ramachandran-mirrorbox.svg.png)

     It started as an experiment to see if patients could visualize their missing limb and stop the pain (the brain decides that the phantom is OK after all and sends a "never mind" signal). It worked for many of them and after practice some of them reported the phantom limb had disappeared as well.

     
      (http://www.rowlandmanthorpe.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/mirror-thumb-465x304.jpg)

     Ramachandran says:

     Pain is an opinion on the organism's state of health rather than a mere reflective response to an injury. There is no direct hotline from pain receptors to 'pain centers' in the brain. There is so much interaction between different brain centers, like those concerned with vision and touch, that even the mere visual appearance of an opening fist can actually feed all the way back into the patient's motor and touch pathways, allowing him to feel the fist opening, thereby killing an illusory pain in a nonexistent hand.
     


     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 25, 2010, 05:37:20 PM
The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War (2010) by Donald Stoker - new book that concentrates on the strategy surrounding the American Civil War rather than a myriad of details on the actual battles (plenty of books on that subject) - about half way through this 400+ page book - quite good and a different discussion from the many that I've read to date - plenty of comments on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Design-Strategy-U-S-Civil/dp/0195373057/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282786019&sr=1-3) for those interested in this subject -  :D

(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQmHUQ_u_yAAKSK8vddD3VEbOdrL0QgAb6PGgM3nXHE1SBKQJk&t=1&usg=__D4cCZtnJ3K9DECfINlOXsh00noI=)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 30, 2010, 05:16:35 AM
"Thrillers require plot above all else, which makes it all too easy for them to avoid heroes with any depth or believability." -- Justin Cartwright/New York Times

Hm...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 31, 2010, 04:54:26 PM
As posted on the sci-fi thread:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mDiCUSHFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Here is a partial synopsis:

A review by Victoria Strauss

In the far future universe of Richard K. Morgan's debut novel Altered Carbon, human consciousness has been digitized. Every human being is implanted at birth with a cortical stack, which records every second, every thought, every experience. If you have the money (or purchase the right insurance policy), you can be brought back to life after you die by the simple expedient of implanting your stack into a new body, a process known as sleeving. The penal system no longer stores live criminals, but only their digital selves. Travelers beam their minds across space via needlecast, and wake up in new sleeves. Wars are fought by troops whose minds are downloaded into bodies on-site -- troops like the Envoy Corps, the enforcement arm of the despotic UN Protectorate, which rules Earth and its colony worlds with an iron fist.

Takeshi Kovacs is a former Envoy. Envoys' specialized training and neurochemical enhancements, designed to make them perfect long-distance warriors and flawless investigators, also place them just this side of psychopathic. Many Envoys, when discharged from the Corps, turn to crime, and Kovacs is no exception. Sentenced on his home planet to more than a century of storage for his part in a brutal heist, Kovacs wakes to find himself in Bay City, Earth, housed in an unfamiliar sleeve. He's been retrieved and hired by industrialist Laurens Bancroft, whose fabulous wealth allows him, among other things, to maintain a clone facility that renders him and his family effectively immortal. Kovacs' assignment: to investigate Bancroft's death in a previous body, which the police have ruled a suicide but which Bancroft is certain was attempted murder.

Sounds kind of Blade Runner-ish, so I am in!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 01, 2010, 05:14:18 AM
The new Fanfare...

And a thriller: THE SHIMMER by David Morrell (it's okay)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 01, 2010, 05:18:04 AM
A chapter in MS., "Betrayed by the Finest Hand." Excellent! Absorbing, abounding in expertly turned phrases, vividly and sensitively depicted characters, thrills, nostalgia.  Rich reading indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on September 01, 2010, 07:17:21 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 01, 2010, 05:18:04 AM
A chapter in MS., "Betrayed by the Finest Hand." Excellent! Absorbing, abounding in expertly turned phrases, vividly and sensitively depicted characters, thrills, nostalgia.  Rich reading indeed.

Wow!  What a book that must be!   8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on September 03, 2010, 06:09:23 AM
Mind over Mood - by Dennis Greenberger, PhD; Christine A. Padesky, PhD

(http://oxdev.com/catalog/images/GMindOverMoodWorkbook.jpg)

Working my way through some good old fashioned cognitive behavior therapy.  I find that CBT, at times, works like magic instantly.  Some times and certain situations, it takes a lot more work.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisz on September 03, 2010, 09:27:58 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 01, 2010, 05:18:04 AM
A chapter in MS., "Betrayed by the Finest Hand." Excellent! Absorbing, abounding in expertly turned phrases, vividly and sensitively depicted characters, thrills, nostalgia.  Rich reading indeed.

Sounds fascinating, Karl, but I must plead ignorance. What is MS?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 03, 2010, 09:32:20 AM
Manuscript.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisz on September 03, 2010, 10:25:07 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 03, 2010, 09:32:20 AM
Manuscript.

TY! I guess you're not in a position to divulge anymore, but it's a intriguing chapter title. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisz on September 03, 2010, 11:03:21 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41yZd68SbYL._SS300_.jpg)

Revisiting this gem with a loving friend.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 04, 2010, 06:30:44 AM
THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS by Bram Stoker
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on September 04, 2010, 10:32:28 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 04, 2010, 06:30:44 AM
THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS by Bram Stoker

That's interesting Dave. 

Has anyone read the so-called 'sequel' to Bram Stoker's Dracula?  It's called 'Dracula, The Un-Dead', written by his great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker.

http://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Un-Dead-Dacre-Stoker/dp/0525951296/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1283625001&sr=8-2-fkmr0 (http://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Un-Dead-Dacre-Stoker/dp/0525951296/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1283625001&sr=8-2-fkmr0)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 04, 2010, 10:51:25 AM
PG Wodehouse, Young Men in Spats

I had to explain spats to a co-worker at the museum shop last night.  She is of foreign origin, but of course, I might just as well have needed to explain spats to a native of the US . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 04, 2010, 11:59:43 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 04, 2010, 10:32:28 AM
That's interesting Dave. 


Yeah, it's Stoker's mummy novel.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 04, 2010, 05:40:23 PM
never pegged Stoker as a mummy's boy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 04, 2010, 05:40:52 PM
Quote from: Corey on September 04, 2010, 05:40:23 PM
never pegged Stoker as a mummy's boy.

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 06, 2010, 12:44:43 PM
I just read "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" on my iPhone. Haven't seen the movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 06, 2010, 02:49:15 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 06, 2010, 12:44:43 PM
I just read "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" on my iPhone. Haven't seen the movie.

You are fortunate for that.  But if you do, only watch the first half.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 06, 2010, 02:54:49 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 06, 2010, 02:49:15 PM
You are fortunate for that.  But if you do, only watch the first half.

Hm...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 06, 2010, 02:58:04 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 06, 2010, 02:54:49 PM
Hm...

Hey, by the way Dave, that sci-fi I am reading, Altered Carbon, won the Philip K. Dick award and has heavy noir overtones.  Fun read so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 06, 2010, 03:01:02 PM
PS
Dave,
Might you link me to your Blue Girl(?) story and would you mind if I set it up for others to read on another forum?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 06, 2010, 03:22:21 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 06, 2010, 02:58:04 PM
Hey, by the way Dave, that sci-fi I am reading, Altered Carbon, won the Philip K. Dick award and has heavy noir overtones.  Fun read so far.

Cool. I'll wishlist it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 06, 2010, 03:22:49 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 06, 2010, 03:01:02 PM
PS
Dave,
Might you link me to your Blue Girl(?) story and would you mind if I set it up for others to read on another forum?

No problem. Watch for a PM.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 06, 2010, 03:27:36 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 04, 2010, 06:30:44 AM
THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS by Bram Stoker

Had to quit. Halfway through and SO boring...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 06, 2010, 03:57:45 PM
On to this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on September 06, 2010, 04:27:32 PM
(http://www.bugskull.org/Gryphon/Books/images/1627f.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: marvinbrown on September 07, 2010, 10:35:36 AM

  This will be my first entry on this thread  Usually I read opera libretti (hey that Ring cycle will keep even the most avid reader busy for hours  ;D ;D ;D)

 
   Currently I am reading Albert Camus L'etranger (The stranger) in French!

  I am only 20 pages in, Meursault's mother has passed away and he is surprisingly indifferent, emotionally deficient oh where will Camus take me I wonder???   My French is good enough (I have studied it for many years) and I found the language quite approachable.  I would urge anyone who is studying French to pick this book up.........   I regret not reading it earlier.

  marvin
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 07, 2010, 11:54:39 AM
Quote from: marvinbrown on September 07, 2010, 10:35:36 AM
  This will be my first entry on this thread  Usually I read opera libretti (hey that Ring cycle will keep even the most avid reader busy for hours  ;D ;D ;D)

 
   Currently I am reading Albert Camus L'etranger (The stranger) in French!

  I am only 20 pages in, Meursault's mother has passed away and he is surprisingly indifferent, emotionally deficient oh where will Camus take me I wonder???   My French is good enough (I have studied it for many years) and I found the language quite approachable.  I would urge anyone who is studying French to pick this book up.........   I regret not reading it earlier.

  marvin
That's cool that you're reading the original French version.

Well, he'll take you places... just not in terms of an "interesting plot" (same thing with The Plague). More than anything, he provides interesting insights, a tense ending, and in some ways, dark humor (though maybe it's just me that finds this book funny?). Fun read, either way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on September 07, 2010, 02:07:37 PM
Wagner Mein Leben

I had to skip ahead a little in the first volume; Wagner's prose style can be torturous at times. It's as though he was writing under the convoluting influence of Hegel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 07, 2010, 03:07:46 PM
Low-Hanging Fruit Dept:

Quote from: AndyD. on September 07, 2010, 02:07:37 PM
Wagner Mein Leben

I had to skip ahead a little in the first volume; Wagner's prose style can be torturous at times.

Fairly consistent with his poetic style in this, then? ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on September 07, 2010, 03:22:14 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 07, 2010, 03:07:46 PM
Low-Hanging Fruit Dept:

Fairly consistent with his poetic style in this, then? ; )


lol
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 03:30:11 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mm9EgWOML._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 07, 2010, 05:18:58 PM
Quote from: marvinbrown on September 07, 2010, 10:35:36 AM
  This will be my first entry on this thread  Usually I read opera libretti (hey that Ring cycle will keep even the most avid reader busy for hours  ;D ;D ;D)

Marvin - LOL!  ;D  I'm thinking more geologically, i.e. eons of time!  Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 08, 2010, 05:07:54 AM
THE TAO OF DAILY LIFE - Derek Lin
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 08, 2010, 05:21:30 AM
Young Men in Spats.

It's Wodehouse, so of course it's brilliant
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 11, 2010, 07:07:12 AM
Othello
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 11, 2010, 09:03:24 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 11, 2010, 07:07:12 AM
Othello

Even after all those centuries . . . that is a devastating stunner.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on September 11, 2010, 09:13:37 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2010, 09:03:24 AM
Even after all those centuries . . . that is a devastating stunner.


The Shakespeare is amazing, but I'd rather watch and listen to the Verdi! Shoot me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on September 11, 2010, 09:20:20 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 11, 2010, 09:13:37 AM
The Shakespeare is amazing, but I'd rather watch and listen to the Verdi! Shoot me.

I knew the original first and the Verdi adaption later.  I guess my impression was a lot of the subtlety was washed out of the Verdi adaption.  In Shakespeare there is a painfully insidious process of Otello's trust in Desdemona being eroded away and replaced by suspicion and hatred.  In Verdi's opera the transition is very abrupt.  It's the nature of Italian Opera, I guess.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on September 11, 2010, 09:48:08 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on September 11, 2010, 09:20:20 AM
I knew the original first and the Verdi adaption later.  I guess my impression was a lot of the subtlety was washed out of the Verdi adaption.  In Shakespeare there is a painfully insidious process of Otello's trust in Desdemona being eroded away and replaced by suspicion and hatred.  In Verdi's opera the transition is very abrupt.  It's the nature of Italian Opera, I guess.


This is an excellent point. In the Verdi, Otello tends to come across as maniacally, intractably cuckoo jealous. But as you implied, Italian Opera is by its nature hyperbolic (that doesn't mean I don't love it).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 11, 2010, 03:20:23 PM
Goats and monkeys!

Now reading:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qfT3sgclL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

The first chapter is about Aaron Copland.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 15, 2010, 04:25:09 AM
Ah, deliciously spooky. A cut or two above so far!
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n71/n355392.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on September 15, 2010, 07:02:17 AM
The Case of Wagner (Nietzsche)


It's extremely amusing to read Nietzsche's sour grapes in light of his later admission that Wagner was the greatest benefactor of his life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 15, 2010, 10:21:06 AM
I've started re-reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, because I found a remaindered copy of a new edition headed "The only authoritative text based on the complete original manuscript" ("including 663 pages recently found in a Los Angeles attic"). I have a vague sense that there are bits which must be different/additions to what I read earlier, but no systematic knowledge thereof.  This is great; even better than I remembered it.

I think I am the only one to contribute a Twain title to this (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,17173.msg449535.html#msg449535); nor do I repent of my choice (Life on the Mississippi).  I suppose it would be too much to ask that there be twain Twain titles in such a list of only 100 books . . . but it do seem a shame that Huck ain't on that list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on September 15, 2010, 11:43:58 AM
I've been reading Victor Gollancz's intolerable Journey Towards Music. I'd like to tear each page from the book, one by one, and do something excruciatingly horrible to each. The superciliousness of the man, his unwavering acceptance of his personal taste as the arbiter of value, his lack of concern for the fact that he's likely to alienate his readers in so many different ways on every page, his crass rejection of 'the gramophone' on what he supposes to be principle ... oh, oh, oh. I haven't been so infuriated by the supercilious stupidity of a book since ... since ... oh, since ...

Words fail me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 15, 2010, 11:46:33 AM
Alan, I am grateful that you're taking this one on the chin for our sins . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on September 15, 2010, 11:47:36 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 15, 2010, 11:46:33 AM
Alan, I am grateful that you're taking this one on the chin for our sins . . . .
It's a matter of duty, Karl, and public service.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Franco on September 15, 2010, 11:47:51 AM
So, is Victor Gollancz James' real name?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 15, 2010, 11:48:52 AM
Slouching Towards Bach
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on September 15, 2010, 11:51:36 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on September 15, 2010, 11:43:58 AM
oh, oh, oh. I haven't been so infuriated by the supercilious stupidity of a book since ... since ... oh, since ...

...The Golden Ring?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on September 15, 2010, 11:55:52 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on September 15, 2010, 11:51:36 AM
...The Golden Ring?
It's so unfair to take advantage of a man when he's down.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 15, 2010, 04:21:45 PM
Fur, Fortune, and Empire (2010) by Eric Jay Dolan - just getting started; the early chapters could be subtitled 'About the beaver.....' - I've even added a pic below of Ben Franklin in his famous 'beaver hat' (the under belly fur made wonderfully water-resistant felt) - description & comments HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Fur-Fortune-Empire-History-America/dp/0393067106/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284595986&sr=1-1); so far, a lot of excellent early American history - expect to enjoy -  :D


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sUCs1pBBpqo/S_R2U8xTx7I/AAAAAAAAEIU/IZ_t50k09Ik/s1600/Fur,+Fortune+and+Empire.jpg)  (http://www.themonkeycage.org/benFranklin.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on September 17, 2010, 09:54:03 AM
Night Shift - Stephen King

(http://spire.ee/shop/images/Stephen%20King%20-%20Night%20Shift.jpg)

Finally got around to finish reading all these short stories.  My favorite by far was 'Jerusalem's Lot' (which has nothing to do with Salem's Lot, FYI :)).  Others I enjoyed were 'The Mangler', 'The Ledge', and 'Children of the Corn'.

Some others were OK, but not great, while some were absolute duds.  I found 'Night Surf', 'Sometimes They Come Back', 'Strawberry Spring', and some others, to be quite dull.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 22, 2010, 12:08:50 PM
(http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/0/9780061723810.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 22, 2010, 08:29:01 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lP%2BVdqQlL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on September 23, 2010, 03:43:20 AM
Rereading Lewis Lockwood's Beethoven.

This book is perfect for a beginner to Beethoven and his music. Unfortunately, I find myself having to order scholastic books to dig deeper in to the music. The pieces on the late string quartets and piano sonatas are very short.

It bears repeating that this is the best a beginner could hope for in a Beethoven book. Just enough information to make you want more.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 23, 2010, 03:48:01 AM
Just finished World's End last night. Will set right to re-reading East Is East today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on September 23, 2010, 05:30:53 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 23, 2010, 03:43:20 AM
Rereading Lewis Lockwood's Beethoven.

This book is perfect for a beginner to Beethoven and his music. Unfortunately, I find myself having to order scholastic books to dig deeper in to the music. The pieces on the late string quartets and piano sonatas are very short.

It bears repeating that this is the best a beginner could hope for in a Beethoven book. Just enough information to make you want more.

I love that book, Andy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on September 23, 2010, 05:37:30 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 23, 2010, 05:30:53 AM
I love that book, Andy.

Yes! It's excellent, and not dumbed down in the least. It's actually an excellent read for anybody into Beethoven.

I'm one of those weirdos that reads two or three books at the same time, I'll probably be wrapping up the amusing "Nietzsche Contra Wagner" this evening as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on September 24, 2010, 09:43:49 AM
Finished reading Carrie.  A good read, but the ending is a little anti-climatic compared to the Brian DePalma 1976 movie, with the sharp flying implements!  :D

I have to watch that movie again, as I remember the very powerful, tremendous acting performances by both Piper Laurie as Carrie's mother (absolutely no one could have possibly played a more terrifying account of this character), and Sissy Spacek as Carrie (again, a brilliant choice for the role).

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kRBTLr-TZ68/TCLNUb1nMzI/AAAAAAAAQV8/X_TLHZPxs3M/s1600/PDVD_271.BMP)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 25, 2010, 09:39:54 AM
Well, I read the first 100/900 pages of Don Quixote. I loved it...
However, I had to stop since I have other stuff that I need to focus on- but, when I do pick it up again,  8)!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 25, 2010, 05:39:31 PM
Just finished East Is East. And (like World's End) I now doubt that I actually read through to the end, the first time.  Boyle in top form; and the novel could end in no other way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 25, 2010, 05:58:46 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 24, 2010, 09:43:49 AM
Finished reading Carrie.  A good read, but the ending is a little anti-climatic compared to the Brian DePalma 1976 movie, with the sharp flying implements!  :D

I have to watch that movie again, as I remember the very powerful, tremendous acting performances by both Piper Laurie as Carrie's mother (absolutely no one could have possibly played a more terrifying account of this character), and Sissy Spacek as Carrie (again, a brilliant choice for the role).


Always chuckle at the crazy fundamentalist chick with crucifixes on her walls - they should have done a little more research
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 25, 2010, 06:00:37 PM
(http://thebreakthrough.org/blog/2008/04/28/collapse.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 26, 2010, 03:24:33 AM
That chick has no chic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 26, 2010, 08:33:16 AM
I read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  It was an enjoyable page turner, but it was too tawdry with too many cliche expressions substituted in place of rich metaphorical imagery to rank it as a literary masterpiece like the idiots on amazon do. ::)

I had been reading alot of Ben Bova's grand tour novels and even though he is terrible with characterization, he gets the science right more often than not and his novels add up to exciting, and plausible near future stories.

Also recently I read Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill, which was an excellent page turner, he is at least as good as his dad. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Diletante on September 26, 2010, 05:52:07 PM
Reading "Life, the Universe and Everything" by Douglas Adams.

Many cricket references flying over my head. I don't even know what friggin' cricket is about. :D

From this collection:

(http://i51.tinypic.com/5p309k.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 27, 2010, 04:27:21 AM
As an American, I don't understand the least thing about Cricket. Didn't interfere at all with my enjoyment of Adams, though : )

♫ I don't like Cricket . . . I love it! Dreadlock Holiday . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 27, 2010, 08:20:34 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 26, 2010, 08:33:16 AM
I read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  It was an enjoyable page turner, but it was too tawdry with too many cliche expressions substituted in place of rich metaphorical imagery to rank it as a literary masterpiece like the idiots on amazon do. ::)

That's a thoroughly enjoyable series of thrillers, and the second one is if anything better than the first (even if the last page is a bit improbable). I haven't read the third but urgently want to. Of course, the really literary masterworks of recent detective fiction are the books by Henning Mankell and PD James (or if you want to stick with Swedes, Mankell and Sjowall/Wahloo). Jo Nesbo has been generating acclaim, along with a couple other "nouveaux Mankells," and if I ever have a month off and a big budget, I will investigate all of them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 27, 2010, 08:30:13 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31T42zat0gL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Geoffrey Robertson, a distinguished human rights lawyer (and professor at my university) who in the past has defended Catholics' right to freedom of expression in Singapore, served as a war crimes judge in Sierra Leone, worked on the Pinochet trials, and most famously defended Salman Rushdie, turns his pen to the "case of the Pope." He makes a lucid, coldly logical, but at places poorly copy-edited (it was rushed to publication in weeks) case for the prosecution of Benedict and his fellow church fathers for violations of human rights and international laws. Since the book takes only one side, he does not attempt to present a case for the defense - that's just not the purpose here. Still, I would not want to be defense counsel if Geoffrey Robertson was on the other side of the courtroom. A fascinating read so far (page 75 of 174).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 27, 2010, 08:32:30 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 27, 2010, 08:20:34 AM
That's a thoroughly enjoyable series of thrillers, and the second one is if anything better than the first (even if the last page is a bit improbable). I haven't read the third but urgently want to. Of course, the really literary masterworks of recent detective fiction are the books by Henning Mankell and PD James (or if you want to stick with Swedes, Mankell and Sjowall/Wahloo). Jo Nesbo has been generating acclaim, along with a couple other "nouveaux Mankells," and if I ever have a month off and a big budget, I will investigate all of them.

Mankell has been on my reading list all summer (thanks to Lis!).  I agree that PD James is a great mystery writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 27, 2010, 08:35:34 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 27, 2010, 08:32:30 AM
Mankell has been on my reading list all summer (thanks to Lis!).  I agree that PD James is a great mystery writer.

Hope you'll like Mankell. Start at the start; the character development really is continuous, and also I began with one of the very last Wallander books and found the catching-the-bad-guy scene quite improbable (ie, clinging onto helicopters type stuff).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 27, 2010, 09:27:57 AM
Alrighty I'll start at the beginning then. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 27, 2010, 09:33:42 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 27, 2010, 08:35:34 AM
Hope you'll like Mankell. Start at the start; the character development really is continuous, and also I began with one of the very last Wallander books and found the catching-the-bad-guy scene quite improbable (ie, clinging onto helicopters type stuff).

I've only read Faceless Killers so far and enjoyed it well enough (I love the Swedish TV series).  His style seems rather plain compared to the Wahloo & Sjowall books, at least in English translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on September 27, 2010, 04:07:58 PM
Some books that I'm looking at:

Infinite Ascent by David Berlinski
The Mathematical Century by Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Perfect Rigor by Masha Gessen
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 29, 2010, 03:26:00 PM
Fathers and Sons, by Alexander Waugh . . . about his own illustrious family.  A wonderful, gripping book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on September 29, 2010, 03:42:55 PM
Currently reading the massive IT, by Stephen King.  Hope to be done before Christmas.  ;D

(http://evilmonito.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/stephen-king-it.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 29, 2010, 03:57:19 PM
We all float down here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on September 29, 2010, 04:41:11 PM
I'm a huge '70's and '80's Stephen King fan. But I never liked a lot of the stuff, after. With It, it (smiling) seemed to get more and more wildly far flung as I read, and by the last third I was ready to stop. It just seemed like a kitchen sink thing. Maybe I should try it again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 29, 2010, 04:41:47 PM
I was working at in the Viking-Penguin distribution center the summer It came out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 29, 2010, 04:43:03 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 29, 2010, 04:41:11 PM
I'm a huge '70's and '80's Stephen King fan. But I never liked a lot of the stuff, after. With It, it (smiling) seemed to get more and more wildly far flung as I read, and by the last third I was ready to stop. It just seemed like a kitchen sink thing. Maybe I should try it again.

Yes, it's way too long.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 29, 2010, 04:53:08 PM
The downside of his being paid by the word ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 29, 2010, 05:10:33 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 29, 2010, 04:41:11 PM
I'm a huge '70's and '80's Stephen King fan. But I never liked a lot of the stuff, after. With It, it (smiling) seemed to get more and more wildly far flung as I read, and by the last third I was ready to stop. It just seemed like a kitchen sink thing. Maybe I should try it again.

So you didn't get to the weird pedophilia-esque stuff at the end... might be worth leaving it where it is. :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 30, 2010, 03:43:16 PM
I don't think it's too long... at least, it kept my interest the whole way.

It can never be too long...

wait, what did I just say?
???
(vomit)
:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 01, 2010, 12:31:33 AM
JORGE LUIS BORGES:          El Libro de los seres imaginarios

This "book of the imaginary beings" is not, and by far, one of Borges best works. The only interest is the description of same obscure mythologies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on October 01, 2010, 08:44:20 AM
Affliction - Russell Banks

(http://thomstark.net/images/movies/146.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on October 01, 2010, 09:05:51 AM
My favorite book of poetry:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41E85ERTDWL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 04, 2010, 05:39:31 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516CBDQ100L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on October 04, 2010, 06:17:17 AM
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3226/2514982783_ea22e4665f_o.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on October 04, 2010, 09:27:39 AM
Yes, and yes.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41hR1d4oIlL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

(http://shrutam.com/page17/page43/files/Mirabai%20versions%20by%20Bly.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on October 05, 2010, 04:27:36 AM
(http://www.audiobooksonline.com/media/0679402896.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on October 07, 2010, 09:28:51 AM
I've not finished the book, but I think I have to post now because this book is so boring I may never get the enthusiasm to read a book again.  "The Years" by Virginia Woolf. 

My lord, nothing, but nothing happens in this book.  I'm within 50 pages of the end, and the various characters seem to be at a party in which they are all rather annoyed with each other, and reminiscing about various monumental events, like having bumped into each other near Saint Paul's and having had lunch in a restaurant on the Strand, 20 years before. Again, 50 pages to go, maybe one of the characters will pull out a Thompson sub-machine gun and slaughter the whole lot.  I've got my fingers crossed.  (One of those books where 2/3 of the sentences are in the subjunctive.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 07, 2010, 06:02:46 PM
Well, getting back to some musical bios, first up:

Johann Sebastian Bach - The Learned Musician (2000) by Christoph Wolff - just through the first 100 pages and his marriage to wife #1 - quite DETAILED!  But enjoying -  :D

(http://isbnlib.com/cover/0393322564/L)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on October 08, 2010, 06:36:53 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on October 07, 2010, 09:28:51 AM
I've not finished the book, but I think I have to post now because this book is so boring I may never get the enthusiasm to read a book again.  "The Years" by Virginia Woolf. 

My lord, nothing, but nothing happens in this book.  I'm within 50 pages of the end, and the various characters seem to be at a party in which they are all rather annoyed with each other, and reminiscing about various monumental events, like having bumped into each other near Saint Paul's and having had lunch in a restaurant on the Strand, 20 years before. Again, 50 pages to go, maybe one of the characters will pull out a Thompson sub-machine gun and slaughter the whole lot.  I've got my fingers crossed.  (One of those books where 2/3 of the sentences are in the subjunctive.)

An update.  I read another 30 pages and there was some stunning action.  Someone looked out the window.  Hoping I'll finish it soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on October 08, 2010, 06:44:13 AM
Charles Rosen the Classical Style

Rereading the part about Beethoven, especially the longish part about the Hammerklavier.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 10, 2010, 05:00:00 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YohDgw4FL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Picked this up at the library today and really enjoying it....murder mystery genre with Virgil Flowers of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension  (Yo!  Dave!).  It is the second in the series, but reads fine without having read the first.  More here:

http://www.amazon.com/Heat-Lightning-Virgil-Flowers-No/dp/B003NHR78A/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286758629&sr=8-1-fkmr0
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 10, 2010, 05:50:34 PM
Quote from: Bogey on October 10, 2010, 05:00:00 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YohDgw4FL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Picked this up at the library today and really enjoying it....murder mystery genre with Virgil Flowers of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension  (Yo!  Dave!).  It is the second in the series, but reads fine without having read the first.  More here:

http://www.amazon.com/Heat-Lightning-Virgil-Flowers-No/dp/B003NHR78A/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286758629&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Hell, yeah. Me and Sandford go way back. My wife Roz has kept up with him whereas I stopped reading for no good reason years back. Check out his Lucas Davenport PREY books. Virgil Flowers is a spin-off character.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 10, 2010, 06:00:55 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 10, 2010, 05:50:34 PM
Hell, yeah. Me and Sandford go way back. My wife Roz has kept up with him whereas I stopped reading for no good reason years back. Check out his Lucas Davenport PREY books. Virgil Flowers is a spin-off character.

We'll do.  Already 50+ pages in with a bit more time to read tonight.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on October 11, 2010, 08:44:19 AM
I'm going to start on this sometime:
(http://indiecitizen.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/tatsuhiko-takimoto-welcome-to-the-nhk.jpg)

(this is the novel where the anime and manga were derived from)
Interestingly, the author happened to be a NEET who wrote this and got famous, but sadly hasn't recovered yet and has been living off of the money he made for this book, while not really working on much else.

I just read the Preface which basically sums up the psychology of conspiracy theorists in 2 pages- I wish Rob Newman could read this!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on October 11, 2010, 09:23:52 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SDxEx199L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Frozen Assets
P.G. Wodehouse
[Everyman Wodehouse] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590203062?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1590203062)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on October 11, 2010, 12:08:13 PM
Quote from: Bogey on October 10, 2010, 06:00:55 PM
We'll do.  Already 50+ pages in with a bit more time to read tonight.

Eyes of Prey, Silent Prey. A really cool series, Davenport is an excellent character for that genre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 11, 2010, 01:49:34 PM
Finished Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family by Alexander Waugh. And now . . . what should I finish reading? . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2010, 12:39:24 PM
Amos Oz--- A Tale of Love and Darkness

Excellent.

To think that it contains first hand information that Russian Communism is a Jewish creation. The author is clearly an anti-semite!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on October 12, 2010, 07:58:28 PM
(http://www.musicroom.com/Images/Catalogue/fullsize/GG55869.jpg)

I look at this book every now and then. It's interesting read other people's perspectives on recordings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 13, 2010, 07:57:53 AM
Having finished Fathers and Sons, I've taken The Life of Evelyn Waugh: A Critical Biography back up where I had left it (around p.60, I think it was).

And it's good, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on October 13, 2010, 03:36:06 PM
Has anyone read The Cello Suites, by Eric Siblin yet?

The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin (http://www.amazon.com/Cello-Suites-Casals-Baroque-Masterpiece/dp/0802119298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287012797&sr=8-1)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RgdqwAUMN7s/S795zChiwSI/AAAAAAAAAQo/HPPdAR5l6SQ/s1600/Cello+Suites.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 13, 2010, 05:23:19 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on October 13, 2010, 03:36:06 PM
Has anyone read The Cello Suites, by Eric Siblin yet?

The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin (http://www.amazon.com/Cello-Suites-Casals-Baroque-Masterpiece/dp/0802119298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287012797&sr=8-1)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RgdqwAUMN7s/S795zChiwSI/AAAAAAAAAQo/HPPdAR5l6SQ/s1600/Cello+Suites.jpg)  (http://swingleydev.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/wolff_bach_bio.jpg)

Ray - this book indeed interests me - I probably now have 4 different recordings of these works w/ another on the way in the mail!  GOD - why?  But, let me (us) know if there is too much emphasis on Casals?  I'd like a more general discussion w/ a number of performers included - thanks.  Dave  :)

BTW, since JS Bach is under discussion, I'm continuing my reading of the 'added' book above - this is a rather long but excellent review of Bach's life (2/3 the way through) - musical works are mentioned but not emphasized - for those interested in JS daily activities then this is a great read; if you desire an in-depth analysis of his many works, then NOT a good choice -  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on October 14, 2010, 12:44:08 AM
Continuing my Wodehouse trip, thanks to a dear friend's Birthday Gift of "Summer Lightning"

(http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=68.0;attach=27289;image)
Cocktail Time
P.G. Wodehouse
[Everyman Wodehouse] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585675741?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1585675741)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 14, 2010, 04:11:21 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lld8wHGXL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on October 17, 2010, 03:25:16 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 14, 2010, 04:11:21 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lld8wHGXL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)


Coooo-ooool. Good?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 17, 2010, 04:20:34 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on October 17, 2010, 03:25:16 PM

Coooo-ooool. Good?

It's okay so far. Reading this too. A little more EXtreme.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510KOfzjCyL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on October 17, 2010, 04:24:18 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 17, 2010, 04:20:34 PM
It's okay so far. Reading this too. A little more EXtreme.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510KOfzjCyL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Oh got to know 'bout that one.

Re-reading the section on Beethoven in Charles Rosen's "The Classical Style".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 17, 2010, 04:29:09 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on October 17, 2010, 04:24:18 PM
Oh got to know 'bout that one.

Not for the weak-stomached. I know Randy Chandler and his story kicks things off rather well. I soon will get to the other three.

Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Deadcore-4-Hardcore-Zombie-Novellas/dp/0982097980/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287361722&sr=8-1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on October 17, 2010, 04:33:32 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 17, 2010, 04:29:09 PM
Not for the weak-stomached. I know Randy Chandler and his story kicks things off rather well. I soon will get to the other three.

Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Deadcore-4-Hardcore-Zombie-Novellas/dp/0982097980/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287361722&sr=8-1

I'm there, thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 17, 2010, 04:55:48 PM
Quote from: SonicMan on October 13, 2010, 05:23:19 PM
Ray - this book indeed interests me - I probably now have 4 different recordings of these works w/ another on the way in the mail!  GOD - why?  But, let me (us) know if there is too much emphasis on Casals?  I'd like a more general discussion w/ a number of performers included - thanks.  Dave  :)

BTW, since JS Bach is under discussion, I'm continuing my reading of the 'added' book above - this is a rather long but excellent review of Bach's life (2/3 the way through) - musical works are mentioned but not emphasized - for those interested in JS daily activities then this is a great read; if you desire an in-depth analysis of his many works, then NOT a good choice -  :)

Speaking of Bach....I will try to break into those seminars this week, Dave. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on October 17, 2010, 07:18:43 PM
Some books on the history of Japan, and some books on math problems that I'll never understand.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on October 18, 2010, 03:25:03 PM
The Last of the Mohicans - by James Fenimore Cooper

(http://bergsoniancritique.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/the-last-of-the-mohicans.jpg)

I've always loved the 1992 movie, as I'm a huge Daniel Day-Lewis fan.  Yet in the movie, it wasn't Day-Lewis, but Wes Studi, who stole the show.  His performance as Magua was incredible.  How this guy didn't win or even get nominated for Best Supporting Actor, remains a mystery to me!

Wes Studi as Magua

(http://www.islandbreath.org/2010Year/04/100416magua.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 18, 2010, 03:59:47 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on October 17, 2010, 07:18:43 PM
Some books on the history of Japan, and some books on math problems that I'll never understand.

Which books?  Both subjects are very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 18, 2010, 04:00:33 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on October 18, 2010, 03:25:03 PM
The Last of the Mohicans - by James Fenimore Cooper

Do not read Mark Twain's essay on Cooper until you finish.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on October 18, 2010, 04:04:37 PM
(http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/images/glalen.jpg)

Glantz is the foremost English-language scholar of the war in the east.  Recounts numerous large battles that have been largely forgotten (mostly because they were Soviet defeats) and the final liberation of Leningrad
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on October 18, 2010, 04:21:07 PM
Quote from: Daverz on October 18, 2010, 03:59:47 PM
Which books?  Both subjects are very interesting.

Japan by Mikiso Hane
The Japanese by Robert Newman
Japan by Richard Tames

The Math Book by Clifford A. Pickover
The Mathematical Century by Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 18, 2010, 05:49:21 PM
Couple of weeks ago we visited our North Carolina Museum of History (http://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/) which had a travelling exhibit on George Washington from the Mt. Vernon museum - included the computerized reconstructions of George at three different periods in his life (young surveyor, Revolutionary War, and as President) - a recommendation if the exhibit comes near you or you visit his home in Virginia.

There was a small 'gift shop' devoted to GW and I picked up the book below - fascinating account of spying and espionage during the American Revolution, mainly on the side of the rebels - George was quite a part of starting what likely became the 'Secret Service' and other similar agencies in the USA government - an interesting read so far -  :D

(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172461508l/178417.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 23, 2010, 12:19:38 PM
Boy - no posts for nearly a week and the last one my own - BTW, I was pretty astounded by the level & intensity of spying that went on during the American Revolution and on both sides!

Now - History of Texas Music, The (2008) by Gary Hartman - purchased on a visit to the Alamo gift shop on our recent visit to San Antonio - listening as I read (so will be posting in the non-classical listening thread) - mixed reviews from the Amazonians (http://www.amazon.com/History-Texas-Dickson-sponsored-Center/dp/160344002X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287863169&sr=1-1) - at the moment I would probably do a 4/5* rating for the reasons stated there but just getting started!

(http://artandseek.net/files/2008/09/bighartman.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 24, 2010, 07:23:05 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519MQZ9LSTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Travails of the 19th Century Russian agrarian nobility...oops, no, it's a book on Quantum Field Theory.  I wanted to know what this QFT that Henning keeps mentioning is.  And wouldn't you know that as soon as I get around to reading this, I find out there's a 2nd edition.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 27, 2010, 11:09:34 AM
Just finished re-reading Waugh's Decline and Fall (many years since I read it last). Even richer than I remember it.

Next up:  A Handful of Dust, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on October 27, 2010, 04:28:23 PM
Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on October 28, 2010, 03:53:27 PM
Never let it be said that I don't read popular books.  Right now, for instance, I am reading Robert W. Leopold's 1950s tome Elihu Root and the Conservative Tradition, an all too brief biography of the great turn of the last century heavy hitter.  How popular is it?  Well, the 1960s soft cover edition was formerly at Whitman college and was checked out exactly once, in December 1974.  Anyway, the book is pretty good.  It's not as extensive or detailed as it ought to be or might be nowadays (it's only about 200 pages), it covers very little of Root's pre-McKinley Administration life, but it is concise and reasonably fair.  It offers a nice contrast to the Wilson biography I recently finished, and does a good job of conveying the conservative opposition to Wilson's big plans.  Since biographies of Root are not exactly thick on the ground, this will have to do.  Now if only I could find something even this slim on General Fox Conner . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on October 28, 2010, 04:02:26 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on October 18, 2010, 03:25:03 PM
The Last of the Mohicans - by James Fenimore Cooper

(http://bergsoniancritique.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/the-last-of-the-mohicans.jpg)

I've always loved the 1992 movie, as I'm a huge Daniel Day-Lewis fan.  Yet in the movie, it wasn't Day-Lewis, but Wes Studi, who stole the show.  His performance as Magua was incredible.  How this guy didn't win or even get nominated for Best Supporting Actor, remains a mystery to me!

Wes Studi as Magua

(http://www.islandbreath.org/2010Year/04/100416magua.jpg)

I, too, loved the movie. I'm sure the book is great. Yes, Wes Studi made you believe the role he was playing. Obviously, I'm not going to go for the bad guy, but he took that villain persona to a whole new level. Thrilling movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on October 28, 2010, 07:49:23 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JhYEqwZ7L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Finished this one.
If you can past the first 50 or so pages, you're in for a unique experience. It's just an all-out excellent book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on October 29, 2010, 05:45:53 AM
Quote from: Daverz on October 24, 2010, 07:23:05 PM
Travails of the 19th Century Russian agrarian nobility...oops, no, it's a book on Quantum Field Theory.  I wanted to know what this QFT that Henning keeps mentioning is.  And wouldn't you know that as soon as I get around to reading this, I find out there's a 2nd edition.

;D Before seeing it used here, that was the only expansion of QFT that I was aware of.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 30, 2010, 05:59:10 AM
I be reading this and it be quite fine.
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Ships-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590173465/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288447026&sr=8-1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 30, 2010, 08:13:22 AM
After finishing Decline and Fall (and before I've quite finished with Patey's critical biography), I've had to plunge right in to re-reading A Handful of Dust.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on October 30, 2010, 08:27:58 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 30, 2010, 08:13:22 AM
After finishing Decline and Fall (and before I've quite finished with Patey's critical biography), I've had to plunge right in to re-reading A Handful of Dust.

A cheerful ending, to that book (sarcastic, unless you are reading the alternate ending the American publisher demanded).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on October 30, 2010, 08:52:02 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on October 30, 2010, 08:27:58 AM
A cheerful ending, to that book (sarcastic, unless you are reading the alternate ending the American publisher demanded).

Waugh wanted to bring Tony to a sad end.  I learnt from these biographies I've been reading that he had originally written a story ("Mr Loveday's Little Outing"), which he modified slightly to serve as the ending for A Handful of Dust. (Which I think works perfectly fine, even with the change in pacing from the earlier part of the novel . . . in much the same way that I think the coda to Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments works fine, 'even though' he had first composed it as an elegiac chorale in honor of Debussy.)

So the problem wasn't so much "happy ending syndrome," as that the story was already under a sort of contract in the States.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on November 01, 2010, 06:31:53 AM
I have begun this one today:

(http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS5wPI075I5ttB-ka9ZZGoJ_bvg0UinfCe03sfU0nBIWjYSI5Y&t=1&usg=__LzwCRNeIWab4Nfof4-afXCd4EQA=)(http://www.muchoslibros.com/uploaded_files/portadas/libros/5/9325/9788496489325.jpg)

François-René de Chateaubriand - Memorias de ultratumba (Mémoires d'outre-tombe), 4 vols., Acantilado, Barcelona, 2006.

It's a major challenge!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 01, 2010, 07:04:17 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on November 01, 2010, 06:31:53 AM
I have begun this one today:

(http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS5wPI075I5ttB-ka9ZZGoJ_bvg0UinfCe03sfU0nBIWjYSI5Y&t=1&usg=__LzwCRNeIWab4Nfof4-afXCd4EQA=)(http://www.muchoslibros.com/uploaded_files/portadas/libros/5/9325/9788496489325.jpg)

François-René de Chateaubriand - Memorias de ultratumba (Mémoires d'outre-tombe), 4 vols., Acantilado, Barcelona, 2006.

It's a major challenge!  :)
The reward should be commensurate, methinks...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on November 01, 2010, 11:53:13 AM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515NPB9W00L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Joy in the Morning
(Wooster & Jeeves)
P.G. Wodehouse
[Everyman Wodehouse] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585672769?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1585672769)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 01, 2010, 12:11:23 PM
Quote from: Daverz on October 24, 2010, 07:23:05 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519MQZ9LSTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Travails of the 19th Century Russian agrarian nobility...oops, no, it's a book on Quantum Field Theory.  I wanted to know what this QFT that Henning keeps mentioning is.  And wouldn't you know that as soon as I get around to reading this, I find out there's a 2nd edition.

The thing I can't get over, is that the author's name is "A. Zee." Heh.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on November 01, 2010, 12:14:12 PM
Quote from: Brian on November 01, 2010, 12:11:23 PM
The thing I can't get over, is that the author's name is "A. Zee." Heh.

;D  Tony Zee's book is very good except that it gives you the illusion that you understand QFT, which can quickly dissolve if faced with absolutely any QFT problem.  It is a good primer if followed with a thorough text like Srednicki (which is free online). :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on November 01, 2010, 01:05:08 PM
Quote from: DavidW on November 01, 2010, 12:14:12 PM
;D  Tony Zee's book is very good except that it gives you the illusion that you understand QFT, which can quickly dissolve if faced with absolutely any QFT problem.  It is a good primer if followed with a thorough text like Srednicki (which is free online). :)

Thanks for the info on Srednicki; I'd never heard of him nor of the book before. (I have Warren Siegel's text somewhere on the hard-disk which I hope to go through someday.)

Oh, and I can't believe that he's quoting a PF post as part of the blurb! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on November 01, 2010, 01:45:08 PM
I think that his book and Siegel's compliment each other since one will do what the other doesn't in several cases.  Here is the link:

http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~mark/qft.html (http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~mark/qft.html)

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 01, 2010, 07:22:00 PM
Quote from: DavidW on November 01, 2010, 12:14:12 PM
;D  Tony Zee's book is very good except that it gives you the illusion that you understand QFT, which can quickly dissolve if faced with absolutely any QFT problem.  It is a good primer if followed with a thorough text like Srednicki (which is free online). :)

I have a gazillion QFT texts in dead tree format, including Srdnicki, which I agree is very good if supplemented (with, say, Ryder).  I like the broad overview and perspective that Zee gives, and some of his clever pedagogical techniques, but he does seem to pull fast ones now and then.

I don't think Zee is good as a very first exposure to QFT.  I think the Aitchison and Hey "Gauge Theories in Particle Physics" books, which are aimed at undergrads, are better for that (I only have volume 1).  They only cover the canonical quantization method.

Other books I've found useful are Ryder (very friendly) and Maggiore (very succinct).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on November 01, 2010, 07:36:21 PM
Quote from: Daverz on November 01, 2010, 07:22:00 PM
I think the Aitchison and Hey "Gauge Theories in Particle Physics" books, which are aimed at undergrads, are better for that (I only have volume 1).  They only cover the canonical quantization method.

I didn't know that!  I assumed from the title that it was an advanced book! :D  I'll remember your rec of Ryder, I had a roommate in college that also thought that book was a good un. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 01, 2010, 08:46:24 PM
Well, all this should have probably gone on physicsforums, not here.  Non-geeks please skip...

Quote from: DavidW on November 01, 2010, 07:36:21 PM
I didn't know that!  I assumed from the title that it was an advanced book! 

I think the level is meant to be a little above that of Griffith's particle physics book (another one I don't have). 

Comments on other books:

Brown: Another path integral only approach.  I find myself bouncing off his style of developing things, and the ugly typesetting, which looks like a mediocre Latex dump, doesn't help.  Lots of detailed exercises, though, which may be a reason to keep trying.

Greiner, Field Quantization.  Pedagogically very nice and detailed, but they don't get to Feynman diagrams until quite late since their only example is QED, and they don't bother with "toys" like phi^4 theory.  So all that machinery has to be developed first.  I'm not sure how this book fits in with the other Greiner books, which I don't have, but it seems self-contained to me.

Itzykson & Zuber: As a dilettante, I don't have patience with the semi-historical and rigorous approach.  Seems like an important reference for the serious, though, and it's inexpensive.

I haven't tried Weinberg's book since the 90s.  It seemed like a disappointment compared to his GR book.

I don't have Peskin & Schroeder, which still seems to be the "default" graduate text.  Waiting to snag a cheap copy.

Sidney Coleman's lectures from the 70s (http://fliptomato.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/sidney-coleman-qft-video-recordings/) are also online, but the video quality is primitive, and I don't find this a very efficient way to learn things, so my initial excitement wore off by lecture 9 or so where I got lost.  I'll probably make antother attempt to push on at some later time.  The first few lectures are very useful as I haven't seen the necessity of field theory worked out in such detail before.  Books usually fob you off with a mention of E=mc^2 and pair creation.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on November 02, 2010, 06:04:37 AM
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171652827l/111734.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 02, 2010, 06:10:34 AM
(http://bestthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/the-passage-book-cover-by-justin-cronin.jpg)
Thriller of many, many pages. So far, so good. This guy knows what he's doing.

(http://www.thelmagazine.com/imager/look-out-vikingsthe-long-ships/b/original/1715779/f941/the_long_ships.jpg)
Excellent thus far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on November 02, 2010, 09:08:06 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on November 02, 2010, 06:04:37 AM
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171652827l/111734.jpg)

Nihilism adoration.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on November 03, 2010, 07:28:59 AM
Started reading this yesterday and could not put it down!  Read 70 pages.  This is a great book, especially for people who don't want to be bogged down by technical details, and are interested in just a plain old good story.  The book is kind of a well-balanced three part biography between Bach, Casals and Siblin, and their connection to the awe inspiring Cello Suites.

I highly recommend this for fans of Bach's music who may not have yet read any books on him yet.  Some of the Bach connoisseurs who own most recordings and have already read multiple books on Bach may not find anything new, but they may still be entertained by this book.

Siblin isn't an expert on classical music, which is actually what I love about this book.  Heck, he even has some facts messed up (one being Schubert calling the young Brahms the 'next one', the heir apparent to Beethoven).   :D  Yet, the cello suites changed his life and his passion for classical music developed.


The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin (http://www.amazon.com/Cello-Suites-Casals-Baroque-Masterpiece/dp/0802119298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287012797&sr=8-1)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RgdqwAUMN7s/S795zChiwSI/AAAAAAAAAQo/HPPdAR5l6SQ/s1600/Cello+Suites.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 03, 2010, 08:46:20 AM
Time: Its Origin, Its Enigma, Its History by Alexander Waugh (Evelyn's grandson); great fun indeed, and dashed informative.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D538TWBRL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on November 03, 2010, 08:50:06 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on November 02, 2010, 09:08:06 AM
Nihilism adoration.

To continue the trend:

(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166491691l/12083.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on November 05, 2010, 09:58:13 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on November 03, 2010, 08:50:06 AM
To continue the trend:

(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166491691l/12083.jpg)

That shit cuts straight to the bone, but... I'm not depressed enough yet.

(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/isbnthumbs/081/120/0811208478.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on November 05, 2010, 12:02:39 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on November 05, 2010, 09:58:13 AM
That shit cuts straight to the bone, but... I'm not depressed enough yet.

(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/isbnthumbs/081/120/0811208478.jpg)
That one actually sounds quite awesome...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on November 05, 2010, 12:24:54 PM
Quote from: Greg on November 05, 2010, 12:02:39 PM
That one actually sounds quite awesome...

Oh..?! It is, as are the O'Neill's.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on November 05, 2010, 12:30:27 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on November 05, 2010, 12:24:54 PM
Oh..?! It is, as are the O'Neill's.
I read about the plot and the part about some mysterious messenger visiting him every now and then in the story sounds cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on November 05, 2010, 12:31:12 PM
Quote from: Greg on November 05, 2010, 12:30:27 PM
I read about the plot and the part about some mysterious messenger visiting him every now and then in the story sounds cool.

I wager I'll be drunk by the end of the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 06, 2010, 06:03:39 AM
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267399899l/5354755.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 08, 2010, 09:16:55 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SJCgtnHIL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Mars was an operation on the scale of Uranus (the Stalingrad offensive) and was meant to be a simultaneous Northern counterpart.  However the offensive was a total disaster for the Soviets who lost over 300,000 men and 1600 tanks in a few weeks of fighting
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Toonces on November 16, 2010, 08:08:21 AM
I'm reading this and it's really good so far.  A different kind of book about preparing for the holidays. 

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iKrSvyHML._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

http://www.amazon.com/Tinsel-Search-Americas-Christmas-Present/dp/0547134657/ref=cm_pdp_books_itm_title_1 (http://www.amazon.com/Tinsel-Search-Americas-Christmas-Present/dp/0547134657/ref=cm_pdp_books_itm_title_1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 16, 2010, 08:51:28 AM
Just finished Waugh's Black Mischief.  No good reason why I'd never read it before, and my curiosity was irremediably piqued by Patey's critical biography. Wonderful and wicked, really essential Waugh.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 19, 2010, 06:35:47 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41J9EK0J40L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

reading this in conjunction with the Leonard Susskind lectures on youtube
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on November 19, 2010, 06:40:39 AM
The Big Girls, Suzanne Moore.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41n6Mkp31nL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Interesting, but not really outstanding.  Story revolves around a mentally disturbed woman held in prison for killing her own children, and the psychotherapist who is entrusted with counselling her, and who has significant problems of her own. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 21, 2010, 01:56:04 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518IEeFEaaL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Cool book.  The first half or so reprints stories that were written about the Kid that were not researched, but built up his legend, including a dime store novel.  The second half takes a more historical slant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 21, 2010, 02:33:33 PM
American Art and Architecture by Michael J. Lewis (2006) published by Thames & Hudson; short w/ plenty of color illustrations; the author is a Professor of Arts @ Williams College in MA - just picked this one up at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, NC on our recent beach trip; this is a re-hash for me and I've also been often disappointed in these offerings from this publisher (many are superficial and/or just written in a dry boring style) - however, this book is an enjoyable read - if you've not read much on this history or want a quick refresher course, then a recommendation -  :D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HUZAZ8%2BtL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 21, 2010, 06:41:33 PM
Also due to bwv recent reads, I started this one as well:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1568523688.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on November 22, 2010, 04:03:59 AM
Even juicier than I remembered it: The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 22, 2010, 08:06:20 AM
Quote from: Bogey on November 21, 2010, 06:41:33 PM
Also due to bwv recent reads, I started this one as well:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1568523688.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)

Good book, but somewhat dated as later authors such as Beevor and Glantz have had open access to Soviet records which Craig lacked.  Most notably is that no one believes the sniper duel between Ziatsev and the German Sniper School instructor.  Despite being in Ziatsev's memoirs there is no record that the instructor ever existed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on November 22, 2010, 10:55:25 AM
About to start this:

(http://stephendodson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/white_teeth.jpg)

After, I'm done reading through all my my 21st century art books.
8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on November 22, 2010, 12:07:53 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on November 22, 2010, 10:55:25 AM
About to start this:

(http://stephendodson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/white_teeth.jpg)

After, I'm done reading through all my my 21st century art books.
8)

A lot of hype for this book when it was published.  A good read, but it didn't leave a strong impression on me. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on November 22, 2010, 12:36:35 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on November 22, 2010, 12:07:53 PM
A lot of hype for this book when it was published.  A good read, but it didn't leave a strong impression on me.

I'd not heard of it until recently when a friend suggested it to me. He seemed to like it; so I'm still hopeful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on November 22, 2010, 12:41:38 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on November 22, 2010, 12:36:35 PM
I'd not heard of it until recently when a friend suggested it to me. He seemed to like it; so I'm still hopeful.

Well, I must have liked it because I later bought Smith's second book, On Beauty.  But even after reading the amazon blurb I remember nothing of the book except the title.   :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on November 22, 2010, 12:54:11 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on November 22, 2010, 12:41:38 PM
Well, I must have liked it because I later bought Smith's second book, On Beauty.  But even after reading the amazon blurb I remember nothing of the book except the title.   :P

Well that bodes well.

I have a tendency to forget everything about things I like outside of the fact that I like them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 22, 2010, 02:56:04 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on November 22, 2010, 08:06:20 AM
Good book, but somewhat dated as later authors such as Beevor and Glantz have had open access to Soviet records which Craig lacked.  Most notably is that no one believes the sniper duel between Ziatsev and the German Sniper School instructor.  Despite being in Ziatsev's memoirs there is no record that the instructor ever existed.

Thanks, and really good to know.  Let me know if any of the other facts are fuzzy as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 23, 2010, 08:17:10 AM
Quote from: Bogey on November 22, 2010, 02:56:04 PM
Thanks, and really good to know.  Let me know if any of the other facts are fuzzy as well.

regarding Stalingrad, two salient points that past interpretations have missed are
1) the Soviets did not "melt away" -retreating and not offering resistance during the drive to Stalingrad.  They fought the entire way.  Importantly they did avoid large encirclements unlike 1941 so the Germans had little to show for their efforts
2) to relieve pressure on the city the Soviets launched a series of largely forgotten suicidal attacks on the German flanks that destroyed whole divisions and did little damage to the Germans but kept reinforcements from the city and bought time.  The pressure also was a primary cause of the poorly equipped German allied Italian, Hungarian and Romanian armies being moved into the remote flank positions which were the target of Operation Uranus
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on November 24, 2010, 11:53:33 AM
(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=avimage&iid=iMkp6Z0vajXA)


I'm just under halfway through HW Brands' newest book which covers the post-Civil War era, explaining in condensed form (just over 500 pages) how the US expanded economically, geographically, etc.  It's a pretty broad topic and while well researched, is not presented in a dry, scholarly way.  The short vignettes including episodes from the lives of people famous and not are entertaining, and the factual information the author provides backs up his overall concept well. The book is also quite even-handed.  He presents the accomplishments of such men as Carnegie and Rockefeller as positive, but he also explores the social costs in some detail.  The way he describes (in admittedly brief fashion) some of the struggles between Plains Indians and the whites is quite well done.  He's no historic ideologue.  Those wanting more detail and a squarely scholarly approach to this era should look elsewhere, but I'm reading it because Brands knows how to make history jump off the page.  The book is not as good Brands' bio of Andrew Jackson, but it's roughly on par with his bio of FDR. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on November 25, 2010, 09:10:46 AM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KCjuhQoiL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Leave it to Psmith
(Blandings Castle)
P.G. Wodehouse
[Everyman Wodehouse] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1841591254?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1841591254)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on November 25, 2010, 09:22:12 AM
Right-ho!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on November 26, 2010, 07:02:08 AM
Read it all in a day (OK, book was mainly pictures, but still).  What a fascinating man Gould was.

Glenn Gould:  A Life in Pictures

(http://www3.alibris-static.com/isbn/9780385659031.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on November 26, 2010, 07:10:44 AM
STUNTS by Charles Grant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 27, 2010, 10:50:39 AM
Quote from: Todd on November 24, 2010, 11:53:33 AM
(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=avimage&iid=iMkp6Z0vajXA)
Those wanting more detail and a squarely scholarly approach to this era should look elsewhere, but I'm reading it because Brands knows how to make history jump off the page.  The book is not as good Brands' bio of Andrew Jackson, but it's roughly on par with his bio of FDR.

Thanks, sounds worth a look.  I finally got around to David McCullough's 1776 -- a good read at first, bogged down a bit with tiresome detail about skirmishes in the military campaigns and fell short of contextual information about what was happening elsewhere.  Clarifies how much of a role was played by luck or Providence, as well as by managerial incompetence on both sides, and subtly makes a case for Mrs. Loring as the underappreciated hero of the revolution.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 28, 2010, 04:12:27 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on November 08, 2010, 09:16:55 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SJCgtnHIL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Mars was an operation on the scale of Uranus (the Stalingrad offensive) and was meant to be a simultaneous Northern counterpart.  However the offensive was a total disaster for the Soviets who lost over 300,000 men and 1600 tanks in a few weeks of fighting


96 hours before Operation Uranus commences in the Craig book.  Some "allied mice" just took out some Panzers of the 22nd.  Have you read other accounts of this?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 30, 2010, 04:21:32 PM
Quote from: Bogey on November 28, 2010, 04:12:27 PM

96 hours before Operation Uranus commences in the Craig book.  Some "allied mice" just took out some Panzers of the 22nd.  Have you read other accounts of this?

Glantz has the strength for the 22nd on September 14 at 66 tanks - 9 mkIV, 15 III long, 17 III and 25 pz 38(t) a month later when it was moved to a reserve position in the rear of the Romanian 3rd army he has the strength at 46 tanks and no mention of significant fighting over the period - so it may be true
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on December 01, 2010, 03:12:33 PM
Artist of the Floating World

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41sJqqCylnL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Kazuo Ishiguro.

This book by the author of "Remains of the Day" deals with an artist living in Postwar Japan.  It has in common with Remains of the Day that the characters live in a world where frank expression of their feelings or opinions is strongly suppressed by social conventions.  The artist at the center of the story has to deal with the unpleasant fact that his decision during the war years to base his art on Nationalistic ideals rather than "pleasure" had negative consequences and caused him to become isolated from his colleagues in the post-war era.   Then there is the perhaps even more painful realization that his activities during the war made no difference either way.  A very fine book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 02, 2010, 04:35:18 AM
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn --- The Cancer Ward

Paradoxically enough, a country whose political regime was never even remotely close to liberalism produced a long line of writers who celebrated the indelible personal liberty and dignity of even the humblest of human beings like no Westerner ever did in his liberal country.  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 02, 2010, 04:52:08 AM
Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America (2010) by Jack Rakove, a Pulitzer prize winner historian and professor at Stanford - reviews were not superlative on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionaries-New-History-Invention-America/dp/0618267468/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291297391&sr=1-1#_); my interest was stimulated by another review in the NY Times HERE (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/books/31book.html) - so, I decided to do a library borrow - just through a hundred pages, and kind of agree w/ the NY Times review - however, will continue - just not a thrilling read (and this is really an area of my interest!) -  :-\


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JVXTUbgSL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 02, 2010, 05:02:14 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on December 02, 2010, 04:52:08 AM
Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America
So, was US a clever invention of the moment, or something that just grew naturally from its historical premises?  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: not edward on December 03, 2010, 03:40:16 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZXfSWBlZL._SS500_.jpg)

A bit over half-way through, and I'm still not really sure what to make of this yet: an affectionate parody of the detective noir genre, viewed through a marijuana haze. I guess it feels to me like Pynchon Lite, comparatively easy to read, but also disappointingly sparing with the moments of genius that litter the best of his work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on December 05, 2010, 11:35:45 AM
At the used book store I'm applying to work at:

The Ring of the Nibelung (German libretto text with English translation), by Andrew Porter

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZLxAWKMiL.jpg)


How to Win in the Chess Openings - by I.A. Horowitz (I need help with my chess opening skills)

(http://s.ecrater.com/stores/22791/4a2afc35116ed_22791n.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on December 06, 2010, 07:20:19 AM
Alex Ross: Listen to This - Most of this book is made up of earlier pieces from The New Yorker, but the first two--the title essay, and "Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues: Bass Lines of Music History"--are new. 

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 06, 2010, 07:23:55 AM
Quote from: bhodges on December 06, 2010, 07:20:19 AM
Alex Ross: Listen to This - Most of this book is made up of earlier pieces from The New Yorker, but the first two--the title essay, and "Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues: Bass Lines of Music History"--are new.

Thanks for that info, Bruce! . . . so at this point, even though I have not reached the end of the book, I've read all the new material, eh? . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 06, 2010, 07:31:08 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QF5S59E4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)



I'm a liitle more than half way through Mark Harman's translation of Kafka's The Castle.  I gotta say, I don't really like the book.  I don't care what happens to the main character K., of his mission to get to the Castle to perform his survey, or of the travails that befall him in the village he's staying in.  Characters, plot, dialogue: all are thin.  Some readers consider this a masterpiece of sorts; I cannot be counted among them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on December 06, 2010, 07:46:44 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 06, 2010, 07:23:55 AM
Thanks for that info, Bruce! . . . so at this point, even though I have not reached the end of the book, I've read all the new material, eh? . . .

If I read the intro correctly (i.e., was reading fast  ;D), that's correct.  Some of the older pieces have been reworked slightly.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on December 06, 2010, 07:50:27 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 06, 2010, 07:31:08 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QF5S59E4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I'm a liitle more than half way through Mark Harman's translation of Kafka's The Castle.  I gotta say, I don't really like the book.  I don't care what happens to the main character K., of his mission to get to the Castle to perform his survey, or of the travails that befall him in the village he's staying in.  Characters, plot, dialogue: all are thin.  Some readers consider this a masterpiece of sorts; I cannot be counted among them.

Something lost in translation, I reckon. "The Castle / The Lock" is one of the great novellas of its time. And it is not really about the survey, or what happens to K., et al. It's about vacuity... or eschatology (Brod), or totalitarianism (Adorno), or--as every Kafka novel, really--the psychology of authority in general.

If you hate this, you might also dislike "The Man Without Qualities" (Musil).  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 06, 2010, 08:19:26 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on December 06, 2010, 07:50:27 AM
And it is not really about the survey, or what happens to K., et al. It's about vacuity... or eschatology (Brod), or totalitarianism (Adorno), or--as every Kafka novel, really--the psychology of authority in general.


Yes, I'm aware of what it's really about; it is Kafka, after all.  The book just doesn't work for me.  It doesn't compare to The Trial, or some of Kafka's short stories, for instance.  Indeed, this is the first time that I've read something by Kafka that I didn't like.  And I really don't like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on December 06, 2010, 11:45:33 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 06, 2010, 07:31:08 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QF5S59E4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)



I'm a liitle more than half way through Mark Harman's translation of Kafka's The Castle.  I gotta say, I don't really like the book.  I don't care what happens to the main character K., of his mission to get to the Castle to perform his survey, or of the travails that befall him in the village he's staying in.  Characters, plot, dialogue: all are thin.  Some readers consider this a masterpiece of sorts; I cannot be counted among them.

One of my favourite books. I find it funny to read about the extremely shy buerocrats at the castle, and all the trials of K. I found the Trial a bit grey (but great), but this one was surrealistic and funny. I laughed more than a few times when reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich on December 11, 2010, 10:47:11 AM
Ordered this: http://goo.gl/PEaV9
Krzysztof Meyer - "Dmitri Schostakowitsch: Sein Leben, sein Werk, seine Zeit"

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Tc3p-kWYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU03_.jpg)

Anyone knowing? Not sure if it has been released in languages other than polish and german.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on December 11, 2010, 11:43:21 AM
For once instead of merely liking a novel, I was completely blown away by one and this despite having a cold... Neuromancer by William Gibson.  Screw the whole it won all three sf awards, screw the coining of cyberspacing and imagining our current internet culture, screw hacking into the matrix done before Keanu Reeves would dodge bullets in slowmo, screw feeling the noir-esque bladerunner vibe though it was written when bladerunner was in production... just set all of the history aside...

And just read the novel, in every way I can think of it is an amazing story.  I loved it. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on December 11, 2010, 05:06:03 PM
Black Mischief, Evelyn Waugh.  Satirical story of a decadent, wealthy Englishman who discovers that his old roomate from Oxford is now the Emperor of a West African Country.  He travels there and together they set out to "modernize" the place, with disastrous results.  The low point involves a red beret noticed at an aboriginal banquet in the penultimate scene.  Well done.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 13, 2010, 05:58:43 AM
Finished: CHILD OF GOD by McCarthy. Good stuff as usual.

Now: BLACKOUT by Connie Willis. Time travel to WWII England.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on December 13, 2010, 06:38:42 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on October 07, 2010, 09:28:51 AM
I've not finished the book, but I think I have to post now because this book is so boring I may never get the enthusiasm to read a book again.  "The Years" by Virginia Woolf. 

My lord, nothing, but nothing happens in this book.  I'm within 50 pages of the end, and the various characters seem to be at a party in which they are all rather annoyed with each other, and reminiscing about various monumental events, like having bumped into each other near Saint Paul's and having had lunch in a restaurant on the Strand, 20 years before. Again, 50 pages to go, maybe one of the characters will pull out a Thompson sub-machine gun and slaughter the whole lot.  I've got my fingers crossed.  (One of those books where 2/3 of the sentences are in the subjunctive.)
Quote from: Scarpia on October 08, 2010, 06:36:53 AM
An update.  I read another 30 pages and there was some stunning action.  Someone looked out the window.  Hoping I'll finish it soon.
;D I would avoid To the Lighthouse, then, if this hasn't put you off her work completely.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on December 13, 2010, 07:21:22 AM
Quote from: Lethe on December 13, 2010, 06:38:42 AM
;D I would avoid To the Lighthouse, then, if this hasn't put you off her work completely.

I've read To the Lighthouse.  I'm trying to maintain the pretense that I like Virginia Woolf, but it is getting difficult.   ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on December 17, 2010, 10:39:57 AM
Currently trying to find decent books on Somalia, no luck so far, but I have a few to pick up tomorow.

In the mean time, more book son 21st century art: the last two volumes of art:21 and two volumes of the Whitney Biennial.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on December 17, 2010, 11:37:20 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41dKctIYuhL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
P.G. Wodehouse
Something Fresh
Everyman  (http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1841591378?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=1841591378)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 18, 2010, 01:50:27 AM
I'm studying up on Schopenhauer as well as getting really deep into Bach's Sonatas and Partitas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 18, 2010, 04:29:36 AM
Just finished re-reading The Cyberiad
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 18, 2010, 05:11:10 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51prlnWqD7L.jpg)
I'm laughing between sobs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on December 18, 2010, 06:49:59 AM
Quote from: Sackbut on December 18, 2010, 05:11:10 AM
I'm laughing between sobs.

Is the author a Brit?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 18, 2010, 08:55:16 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on December 18, 2010, 06:49:59 AM
Is the author a Brit?

Hm. Not sure. Don't think so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on December 18, 2010, 10:00:00 AM
Quote from: Wurstwasser on December 11, 2010, 10:47:11 AM
Ordered this: http://goo.gl/PEaV9
Krzysztof Meyer - "Dmitri Schostakowitsch: Sein Leben, sein Werk, seine Zeit"

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Tc3p-kWYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU03_.jpg)

Anyone knowing? Not sure if it has been released in languages other than polish and german.

I've leafed through both the earlier (censored) edition which had an abundance of musical examples, and the newer, revised (and uncensored) one (which leaves most of the score bits out), but I have not read either in its entirety. The sections I did read seemed interesting and informative enough, but I haven't read any other book on Shostakovich... How do you like it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on December 19, 2010, 05:45:23 PM
Guts by Chuck Palahniuk

Yes... I read this out of curiosity.  ::)
If it made over 50 people faint while being read aloud, I just couldn't resist. Absolutely disgusting read, that is all.
I wonder if this is how South Park got the idea for the episode where the boys decide to write the grossest book ever written, which ends up making everyone throw up.

Google it.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on December 19, 2010, 07:02:55 PM
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n15/n79788.jpg)

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 20, 2010, 06:11:03 AM
A couple of wine books - bought a bunch of updated versions of previous books I've owned - for those interested in this vinous pleasure, check out the 'Wine Thread' - pics and more detailed descriptions!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on December 20, 2010, 11:51:50 AM
Africa Doesn't Matter by Giles Bolton

It's very enjoyable so far. Quite harrowing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on December 23, 2010, 06:56:33 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on December 20, 2010, 11:51:50 AM
Africa Doesn't Matter by Giles Bolton

It's very enjoyable so far. Quite harrowing.

I enjoy books that curtail their preaching to simply present the facts, and this book did just that; until the last few chapters which were simply an extended rant speaking of glory and activism, but other than those last few chapters, the book was fantastic.

Up next: Beyond Humanitarianism edited by Princeton Lyman and Patricia Dorff

So far this book is much drier, but it's more robust in a practical-politico sense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 26, 2010, 09:10:55 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mjTwwf3fpaQ/SLLdwWe29pI/AAAAAAAAAMA/dMOCXSn2plo/S1600-R/NewCentralAsia.jpg)


I had to take a break from Kafka's disappointing The Castle, and what better way than with a truly academic study of Central Asia?  Though brief, The New Central Asia is so dense and filled with information that it is slow going.  Olivier Roy zooms through the pre-Soviet period, yet he still covers the immense complexity of the ethnic and linguistic history of the region well.  His history of the Sovietization of the region is masterly and reveals the complexity, cynicism, and calculation of what Stalin and those who followed did.  (One could study just this for years.)  I am still working my way through this section.  The book is filled with academic jargon, and presupposes knowledge of the region, and some of the translations from French appear to be less than ideal, so it can be tough.  I'm very glad that I read a trio of works by Peter Hopkirk, and a couple other works on the region, before attempting this book.  I'm still but a beginner when it comes to studying this area.

I should also note that this book was written in the 90s, so it doesn't cover the post-9/11 changes, but there is one interesting little blurb near the beginning where the author states that Afghanistan was a sort of battleground between Pakistan and Uzbekistan in the 90s, with the former trying to create a buffer state by supporting the Taliban.  Sort of explains why Pakistan isn't quite the ally some have hoped it would be, and why it probably never will be.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 26, 2010, 01:00:09 PM
I've read several books by Ferguson; this is the latest and I recommend it ...

Niall Ferguson: Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power
... Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Demise-British-Lessons-Global/dp/0465023290/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293399687&sr=1-1#_)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iRr2axBZL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 26, 2010, 02:43:56 PM
Absolutely fascinating. The author (Bryan Magee of The Tristan Chord, another favorite) makes all the salient points in Schopenhauer's philosophy both easy to understand and fun (yes, FUN!) to read. Highly reccomended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 08:49:16 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on December 26, 2010, 02:43:56 PM
Absolutely fascinating. The author (Bryan Magee of The Tristan Chord, another favorite) makes all the salient points in Schopenhauer's philosophy both easy to understand and fun (yes, FUN!) to read. Highly reccomended.

     Interesting as psychology and fun I have no doubt, but it's meh tuh fish sticks!! (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/angry.gif) (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/angry.gif)

     (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/cheesy.gif)

     Try William James. Pick a book, any book. I haven't read more than sections of them, but it's true of philosophy generally that books aren't the unit of significance (they aren't novels). Warning: James is incautious at times and sounds like he endorses views he doesn't hold. Anyway, read him, he's fun and psychological, too.

     (http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://images.indiebound.com/876/202/9781590202876.jpg&sa=X&ei=OsYYTcH5JMH6lwe1rKHbCw&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNFGF69EIE8oZgqL5ZrRWJPc_Ei0yQ)

     I just finished A.D. 381 by Charles Freeman, who wrote The Closing of the Western Mind. Both books are concerned with the destruction of a thousand years of intellectual freedom in the Greek world, which Freeman attributes principally to the decisions of the Roman emperors beginning with Theodosius. This was the Stalin that succeeded. A sizable chunk of the population chooses what to think because he outlawed the alternatives more than 1600 years ago. That is success by almost any measure. What do people think when they're free to think? Well, in matters of religion the record shows that tolerance was not just a state policy invented by Constantine but was the norm in both the Greek and Roman world right up to the reign of Valentinian and Valens, both of whom reaffirmed the Edicts of 313.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 27, 2010, 08:59:06 AM
I think many of the best philosophers take positions on things they don't personally have a stake in. People have dragged Nietzsche over the coals for having, as they put it, "changed his mind too many times". Yet one could argue that that was a bit more realistic than the opposite.

I read William James in my first year Psych in college. He's reputed to be an early psychologist. It's interesting: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Hegel, Dostoevsky, and Kierkegaard probably deserve that label at least as much as James, who borrowed liberally off of them. Just as Freud and Jung borrowed off of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 09:19:42 AM
     I think James is vastly more important in philosophy, where his influence is huge. Russell, for example, started out disparaging him and ended up thinking he was the key to 20th century developments. But he misread James as saying anything goes ("truth is what works"). That's not the way he's read today. It's more like "only what works can tell you what's true" and then only if what's true is what you're looking for.

     (http://www.journeywithjesus.net/BookNotes/Anthony_Everitt_Hadrian_And_The_Triumph_Of_Rome_sm.jpg)

     Now I'm reading Hadrian by Anthony Everitt.  I read his books on Augustus and Cicero, both very fine. I just started this one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 27, 2010, 10:19:18 AM
Quote from: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 08:49:16 AM
          I just finished A.D. 381 by Charles Freeman, who wrote The Closing of the Western Mind. Both books are concerned with the destruction of a thousand years of intellectual freedom in the Greek world, which Freeman attributes principally to the decisions of the Roman emperors beginning with Theodosius. This was the Stalin that succeeded. A sizable chunk of the population chooses what to think because he outlawed the alternatives more than 1600 years ago. That is success by almost any measure. What do people think when they're free to think? Well, in matters of religion the record shows that tolerance was not just a state policy invented by Constantine but was the norm in both the Greek and Roman world right up to the reign of Valentinian and Valens, both of whom reaffirmed the Edicts of 313.
Could you elaborate a bit more? What you wrote is completely incomprehensible from an Orthodox Christian point of view. And if you can't make it comprehensible in exactly this POV, then it's gibberish. We're talking intellectual life in the 4th Century AD in the Roman Empire, aren't we? ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 27, 2010, 10:26:16 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on December 26, 2010, 02:43:56 PM
Schopenhauer's philosophy
Someone whose name I don't recall once said something to the effect that Schopenhauer and Christianity stand wall to wall --- only there is no door between. Notwithstanding, Arthur S. is one of my philosophical heroes, along with Pascal and Kierkegaard.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 10:43:02 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 27, 2010, 10:19:18 AM
Could you elaborate a bit more? What you wrote is completely incomprehensible from an Orthodox Christian point of view. And if you can't make it comprehensible in exactly this POV, then it's gibberish. We're talking intellectual life in the 4th Century AD in the Roman Empire, aren't we? ;D

    I'm talking about intellectual life in the Roman world, and I agree with Freeman, who is comprehensible. That is, his historical perspective is driven by a factual record, not the desire to cover anything up.

    Are you saying there was no freedom of thought and belief in the Greek and Roman world before it was effectively curtailed? If you are saying this you'll have to elaborate. I don't think you should, or can, or you would have done so.

    Now, let's be nice. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/huh.gif) You aren't spreading intentional falsehoods. I expect you really don't know what Freeman is saying, and your conditioning makes it sound strange ("incomprehensible"). I'd say "trust me" but heck, even I wouldn't do that. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/cheesy.gif) Or you could read the books and find I fairly represent them, as reviews will also show. What do you think? Give it a try, eh? (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/angel.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 27, 2010, 10:46:15 AM
Quote from: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 08:49:16 AM
. . . What do people think when they're free to think?

Well, let's ask Poju . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 10:57:25 AM
    I don't know....when the Greeks were free they invented philosophy. No one told them to, or told them they couldn't, at least not until....oh, I don't want to be incomprehensible, so never mind. Anyway, you take the bad with the good when it comes to free thought. It's The American Way, too.

    (http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://keithdevens.com/images/flag_smiley.gif&sa=X&ei=mu4YTfr6L4L7lwfTmdzQCw&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNFZI3kXyzE4AWjOOBcjUVC8hCbwOw)

    A thousand dumb schmucks are free so I can read and express what I want (for "me" read, you know, you).

     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 27, 2010, 11:04:16 AM
Quote from: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 09:19:42 AM
     I think James is vastly more important in philosophy, where his influence is huge. Russell, for example, started out disparaging him and ended up thinking he was the key to 20th century developments.


The same could be said of Derrida, Levinas. Perhaps even Heidegger, Sartre. Some might even propose Frank Zappa.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 27, 2010, 11:06:31 AM
Quote from: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 10:57:25 AM
    I don't know....when the Greeks were free they invented philosophy. No one told then to, or told them they couldn't, at least not until....oh, I don't want to be incomprehensible, so never mind.

You see, insofar as your posts appear comprehensible, they're front-loaded with all your usual prejudices; which limits your posts' value to anyone who takes perfectly dispassionate exeption to your personal bugbears.  You'll be the last person to admit, for instance, that there is significance in your being in a position to explore thought freely, and the fact that you are the product of a culture which has been soaked in Christianity for centuries.

And, interestingly, the culture which has been soaked in Christianity for centuries, quite readily tolerates your contrarianism.  I wonder how that quest is going in certain other parts of the world.

Yes, I wonder.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 11:26:06 AM
     
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 27, 2010, 11:06:31 AM
You see, insofar as your posts appear comprehensible, they're front-loaded with all your usual prejudices; which limits your posts' value to anyone who takes perfectly dispassionate exeption to your personal bugbears.  You'll be the last person to admit, for instance, that there is significance in your being in a position to explore thought freely, and the fact that you are the product of a culture which has been soaked in Christianity for centuries.

And, interestingly, the culture which has been soaked in Christianity for centuries, quite readily tolerates your contrarianism.  I wonder how that quest is going in certain other parts of the world.

Yes, I wonder.

     I gather you don't wonder at all. You wish to defend against the idea that the dictatorship is exposed. It's true I have strong opinions on this subject which I also scrutinize and revise. What do you do with new information which contradicts your position? I'm forced to accommodate it, because I can't say "black is white" just because someone says I must. I'm forced (that is, I force myself) to learn and not just defend beliefs, but see if they are worth defending. So I not only advocate free thought, I use it.

     The value of these 2 books is that they show the historical record of exactly what I'm on about, the process by which one belief becomes "orthodox" and all others become "heretical". If you read the books and find the argument in them persuasive my POV won't look like merely the product of prejudice. Note I say merely. "Judice" can be mistaken for the "pre" kind. And I approached the books prepared to argue with them, as I always do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 11:31:57 AM
     Christians contributed to the overthrow of the dictatorship, to the extent that it has been overthrown. That's true and important to acknowledge. What does it mean, though, that even Christians now endorse the idea that slavery is wrong, that minority religions ought to be tolerated, that even Jews should be free to be citizens, even though they came to these positions rather late after spending a couple thousand years on the other side?

     Judge, I say, and be prepared to be judged. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/police.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 27, 2010, 11:32:42 AM
Quote from: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 10:43:02 AM
        Are you saying there was no freedom of thought and belief in the Greek and Roman world before it was effectively curtailed?
Please define:

(1) freedom of thought and belief
(2) the Greek and Roman world
(3) effectively curtailing freedom of thought and belief
(4) the exact date when this effective curtailing took place in the Greek and Roman world as per (2)

Quote
I expect you really don't know what Freeman is saying
It's true, I don't. But if you can't explain it to me on its own terms, then you don't know  / understand it either.

Quote
and your conditioning makes it sound strange ("incomprehensible").
What I call "incomprehensible" are not Freeman's ideas but your interpretation of them. Absent any proof to the contrary, I assume in all earnest that Freeman knows what he's talking about. OTOH, given your very long posting history that made positive proof of your crass ignorance of the historical development of Christianity, I assume --- again in all earnest -- that you have absolutely no idea whatsoever what Christianity is about. I will be more than willing, though, to be proven wrong in your own words.

Quote
I'd say "trust me"
Are you making appeal to my faith?  ;D

Quote
Or you could read the books and find I fairly represent them, as reviews will also show. What do you think? Give it a try, eh?
That's a more sensible suggestion. Where can I find Freeman's book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 12:03:11 PM
     Dudes, isn't it the birthday of Sol Invictus or somebody? Constantine was a devotee, and SI had a halo around his head, like the sun shining, so then the emperor got one, too. These things tend to proliferate and then you know what? People forget how they got started! Really!

     Like just as an example take Sunday. Oh, I see a new post.....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 27, 2010, 12:12:39 PM
Quote from: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 12:03:11 PM
     Dudes, isn't it the birthday of Sol Invictus or somebody? Constantine was a devotee, and SI had a halo around his head, like the sun shining, so then the emperor got one, too. These things tend to proliferate and then you know what? People forget how they got started! Really!

     Like just as an example take Sunday. Oh, I see a new post.....
Of course you see a new post. And it says something to the effect that, if this is your level of knowledge about the historical development of Christianity (a point addressed earlier but worth stressing again and again) then debating it is just a waste of time. There s no more blind a person than he who doesn't want to see.

Gioia e pace sia con voi.   0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 12:15:43 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 27, 2010, 11:32:42 AM

It's true, I don't. But if you can't explain it to me on its own terms, then you don't know  / understand it either.
What I call "incomprehensible" are not Freeman's ideas but your interpretation of them. Absent any proof to the contrary, I assume in all earnest that Freeman knows what he's talking about. OTOH, given your very long posting history that made positive proof of your crass ignorance of the historical development of Christianity, I assume --- again in all earnest -- that you have absolutely no idea whatsoever what Christianity is about. I will be more than willing, though, to be proven wrong in your own words.


     No, I'm speaking straightforwardly when I say curtailment of freedom of thought and belief in the Greek and Roman world, by which I mean before 381 people in the empire were free to express opinions about religious and philosophical subjects and that after that date date they were not. The complications in the way of qualifications have taken 2 books worth of elaboration, but my history of posting indicates that I have reliably conveyed the message, though in a funnier and meaner way.

     (http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://thelightbringer.org/Resources/Images/sol-invictus-coin.jpg&sa=X&ei=iP4YTZjAIoSKlwfa_JnFCw&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNF12Ehbi63Myb00lwgI-fY1742eNA)

     Sol, friend of emperors, worthy of a day of the week. I mean I think so. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 12:19:22 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 27, 2010, 12:12:39 PM
There s no more blind a person than he who doesn't want to see.



     So true! I got the books at the Coop in Harvard Square, which is part of the Barnes & Noble chain. Incidentally, though the books are certainly scholarly in their presentation, they are not ostentatiously academic. They're a friendly read, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 27, 2010, 12:22:59 PM
Quote from: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 12:15:43 PM
     Sol, friend of emperors, worthy of a day of the week. I mean I think so.

You don't think so freely as you advertise.  The day is named after the sun in English . . . interestingly, that day of the week in the Latin-derived Romance languages is named after Dominus, the Lord.

Not that mere fact will stand in the way of your prejudices, of course ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 12:25:01 PM
      I wasn't commenting about the history of Christianity in particular. In fact if Freeman is right Christians outnumbered Jews and possibly even pagans as victims of the imperial policy. I was talking about the history of everyone in the West.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 12:34:23 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 27, 2010, 12:22:59 PM
You don't think so freely as you advertise.  The day is named after the sun in English . . . interestingly, that day of the week in the Latin-derived Romance languages is named after Dominus, the Lord.

     Lord what? Sorry, you don't get the prize. They were all Lords back in the day. Hey, did you see Rome, the TV series where all those slaves were calling their masters Dominus and Domina?


     EMPERORS GRATIAN, VALENTINIAN AND THEODOSIUS AUGUSTI. EDICT TO THE PEOPLE OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

It is our desire that all the various nations which are subject to our Clemency and Moderation, should continue to profess that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition, and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe in the one deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity. We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title of Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since, in our judgment they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give to their conventicles the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of the divine condemnation and in the second the punishment of our authority which in accordance with the will of Heaven we shall decide to inflict.
GIVEN IN THESSALONICA ON THE THIRD DAY FROM THE CALENDS OF MARCH, DURING THE FIFTH CONSULATE OF GRATIAN AUGUSTUS AND FIRST OF THEODOSIUS AUGUSTUS

     OK, this is getting a little tiresome. Read the books if you want. I'm not an enemy of Christians just because I want to liberate them from their tormentors, who act like they have a right to speak for them. I say no, I speak more truly for Christians than the people who want to burn them over doctrine. Anyone disagree? Please supply details. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif)

     
Quote from: AndyD. on December 27, 2010, 11:04:16 AM

The same could be said of Derrida, Levinas. Perhaps even Heidegger, Sartre. Some might even propose Frank Zappa.

      I guess you could start the 20th century with various figures other than James, but shouldn't they come at the beginning of the century? (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/cheesy.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 28, 2010, 06:26:50 AM
Quote from: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 12:15:43 PM
     No, I'm speaking straightforwardly when I say curtailment of freedom of thought and belief in the Greek and Roman world, by which I mean before 381 people in the empire were free to express opinions about religious and philosophical subjects and that after that date date they were not.
This is a complete falsehood.

I asked you earlier to define "freedom of thought and belief", but you either could not / would not. Anyway, if by it you mean that no Emperor could ever know what this or that Roman thought, since no man can read people's minds, and that in the privacy of their own mind the aforementioned Romans could believe whatever crossed it, then this was a constant state not only of the Roman Empire in its entire history of almost 1500 years, but of each and any state under the sun since the dawn of history till today. But if by it you mean what the modern concept means, namely that any Roman could freely express publicly his thoughts and beliefs without any fear of being reprimanded in one way or another by the authorities, then it never happened in the Roman Empire. The harsh persecution of Christians, which you so kindly acknowledge, suffice to give a big lie to your fantastic claim.

BTW, what's so special about 381 AD? Can you explain me what happened then?

Quote from: drogulus on December 27, 2010, 12:34:23 PM
I speak more truly for Christians than the people who want to burn them over doctrine.
Please name one single person who was burned over doctrine in the Roman Empire --- other than Christians during Nero's reign.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 28, 2010, 07:54:49 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 28, 2010, 06:26:50 AM
...
I asked you earlier to define "freedom of thought and belief", but you either could not / would not. Anyway, if by it you mean that no Emperor could ever know what this or that Roman thought, since no man can read people's minds, and that in the privacy of their own mind the aforementioned Romans could believe whatever crossed it, then this was a constant state not only of the Roman Empire in its entire history of almost 1500 years, but of each and any state under the sun since the dawn of history till today. But if by it you mean what the modern concept means, namely that any Roman could freely express publicly his thoughts and beliefs without any fear of being reprimanded in one way or another by the authorities, then it never happened in the Roman Empire. The harsh persecution of Christians, which you so kindly acknowledge, suffice to give a big lie to your fantastic claim.
...
I haven't read Freeman's book, and might or might not do so.  As for the thesis that the people did have freedom of thought before Constantine and did not after his adoption of Christianity as the state religion, I'm not entirely sure.

On the other hand it's pretty clear the Constantine (screwdly) adopted (i.e. coopted) Christianity as the state religion to use it as a unifying factor in the Empire.  Of course he quickly took measures to formulate a single, consistent theology that could be come state-sanction doctrine, and to suppress "heresies", by which I mean Christian concepts that might contradict the emerging official doctrine.  Thus Christianity became a tool of state power.

Duh! This is what the First Council of Nicaea, (C.E. 325), was all about ...

Quote from: Wikipedia
The First Council of Nicaea is commonly regarded to have been the first Ecumenical council of the Christian Church. Most significantly, it resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Creed of Nicaea. With the creation of the creed, a precedent was established for subsequent general (ecumenical) councils of Bishops (Synods) to create statements of belief and canons of doctrinal orthodoxy— the intent being to define unity of beliefs for the whole of Christendom.
In 381 AD, Theodosius followed it up with a decree requiring all his subjects to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For a long time Roman citizen could believe anything they liked, worship anyone or anything they liked, only provided that they outwardly acknowledged the god-status of the emperor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 28, 2010, 11:56:40 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 28, 2010, 07:54:49 AM
As for the thesis that the people did have freedom of thought before Constantine and did not after his adoption of Christianity as the state religion, I'm not entirely sure.
As a faithful Orthodox Catholic Christian I might be biased towards St. Constantine. You must not trust me. But I dare you to find any serious, contemporary historian which maintains that "freedom of thought" in its contemporary meaning* was a feature of the Roman Empire before St. Constantine.

*Actually, "freedom of thought" has no other meaning than the contemporary one.  ;D

Besides, which is which, anyway? St. Constantine or 381 AD?  ;D

Quote
On the other hand it's pretty clear the Constantine (screwdly) adopted (i.e. coopted) Christianity as the state religion to use it as a unifying factor in the Empire.
Actually, the following are true:

(1) Christianity was the actual religion of the vast majority of Roman citizens across the Empire prior to St. Constantine giving it legal status;

(2) St. Constantine did not make Christianity THE state religion; he merely gave it equal status to all other religions of the Empire and allowed (at least in theory) anyone to freely worship whatever deity they chose. I wonder how many anti-Christian GMG-ers are aware of this simple historical fact?

(3) St. Constantine did nothing more officially than acknowledging a state of affairs --- from a de facto state he moved on to a de jure state.


Quote
Of course he quickly took measures to formulate a single, consistent theology that could be come state-sanction doctrine, and to suppress "heresies", by which I mean Christian concepts that might contradict the emerging official doctrine.  Thus Christianity became a tool of state power.
As a faithful Orthodox Catholic Christian I would put it slightly different: the state, i.e. the Roman Empire, acknowledged the one, true and apostolic faith and declared all other as heretical. Furthermore, the Seven Ecumenical Councils officially pronounced a series of anathemas against heretics of all sizes and shapes. And now here comes the big challenge: I dare anyone of the anti-Christian GMG-ers to explain what anathema means --- without having to recourse at Wikipedia.  ;D

Furthermore, if being a tool of the state power is some sort of indictment, then the prevailing politically correct ideology is guilty as charged.

Cases in point:

(a) should anyone maintain that Jews as a whole nation are THE killers of Christ*, and emphatically so, he is guilty of racism and liable to legal prosecution;

(b) should anyone maintain than black people are inferior to white people*, he is guilty of racism and liable to legal prosecution;

(c) should anyone maintain that the Nazi gas chambers were not real*, he is guilty of racism and liable to legal prosecution;

*a view which I do not endorse / support /  maintain at all.

My point, to which I firmly stand, is this: each and every state under the sun, from the earliest days of recorded history until today, has had its state-enforced orthodoxy. There is no difference whatsoever between the Roman Empire under Theodosius and the USA under Barack Obama in this respect: both states prosecuted and punished certain beliefs and thoughts.  ;D

Quote
Duh! This is what the First Council of Nicaea, (C.E. 325), was all about ...
For a long time Roman citizen could believe anything they liked, worship anyone or anything they liked, only provided that they outwardly acknowledged the god-status of the emperor.
Now, what kind of freedom is that, pray tell? "You may believe and think whatever you want, as long as you acknowledge me as god?"

What would you think of this modest proposal: "You may believe and think whatever you want as long as you acknowledge the US Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance and the US Declaration of Independence as the only sources of political wisdom"?

You who condemn Christianity as being a state-supported religion, why do you not condemn also the political correctness as welll?

Should I quote the Gospel in this respect, or should I allow you the humble pleasure of discovering it yourself?  ;D

Quote from: Feanor on December 28, 2010, 07:54:49 AMIn 381 AD, Theodosius followed it up with a decree requiring all his subjects to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
False.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 28, 2010, 02:18:36 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 28, 2010, 11:56:40 AM
...
You who condemn Christianity as being a state-supported religion, why do you not condemn also the political correctness as welll?

Should I quote the Gospel in this respect, or should I allow you the humble pleasure of discovering it yourself?  ;D
...
Without seeming to justify all instances of "political correctness", I will assert that there is an immense difference between defending basic human rights & equalities, and promoting superstition.

Believe me, I have read the gospels extensively, but feel free to quote whatever you think might support your case.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 28, 2010, 02:49:48 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511DQJ5PHAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on December 28, 2010, 05:07:53 PM
"A Pale View of Hills."  The book written by Ishiguro just before he wrote "Remains of the Day."  It is a first person narrative by a Japanese woman living in England whose daughter has just committed suicide.  Mostly she reminisces about a woman and daughter she met in Japan just after the second world war.   Parallels between her own story and that of the woman lead to the suspicion that she is actually telling her own story and that the unhappy girl she describes is the daughter who committed suicide.  Another theme is the conflict between those who held prominent positions before the war and those who came afterwards.  The woman's gentle father-in-law is a man who was responsible for education during the imperial period and who feels democracy is dishonorable and that the only shameful thing about Japan's conduct during the war was the fact that it did not prevail.  As in all of the Ishiguro novels I have written, it is the story of people who have difficulty expressing their feelings frankly.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MFtERSm5L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 28, 2010, 11:42:52 PM
Quote from: Feanor on December 28, 2010, 02:18:36 PM
Without seeming to justify all instances of "political correctness", I will assert that there is an immense difference between defending basic human rights & equalities, and promoting superstition.

Believe me, I have read the gospels extensively, but feel free to quote whatever you think might support your case.
Oh, sorry, now I realize that the way I formulated it implied it was addressed directly to you, when in fact it was intended as a rhetoric address. I apologize.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on December 28, 2010, 11:48:13 PM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nGuScW0QL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
P.G. Wodehouse
Galahad at Blandings
Everyman  (http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1841591610?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=1841591610)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 28, 2010, 11:48:23 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on December 28, 2010, 05:07:53 PM
As in all of the Ishiguro novels I have written
:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on December 29, 2010, 04:42:57 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on December 27, 2010, 11:04:16 AM

The same could be said of Derrida, Levinas. Perhaps even Heidegger, Sartre. Some might even propose Frank Zappa.

No. It really couldn't be said.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 29, 2010, 05:16:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 28, 2010, 11:42:52 PM
Quote from: Feanor on December 28, 2010, 02:18:36 PM
Without seeming to justify all instances of "political correctness", I will assert that there is an immense difference between defending basic human rights & equalities, and promoting superstition.

Believe me, I have read the gospels extensively, but feel free to quote whatever you think might support your case.
Oh, sorry, now I realize that the way I formulated it implied it was addressed directly to you, when in fact it was intended as a rhetoric address. I apologize.
No apology necessary.

For my part I apologize once and for all to religious people for denigrating their belief.  Please understand that it is much more "belief" in general that I disagree with, being a profound skeptic, than anybody's belief in particular.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 29, 2010, 05:34:55 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on December 29, 2010, 04:42:57 AM
No. It really couldn't be said.

It was!  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on December 29, 2010, 07:42:29 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 28, 2010, 02:18:36 PM
Without seeming to justify all instances of "political correctness", I will assert that there is an immense difference between defending basic human rights & equalities, and promoting superstition.
Such as the superstition that a centralized authoritarian elite will make better decisions to govern the behavior of a nation's people than the people themselves acting freely to serve what they see as their own, their family's, their community's, and their nation's best interests?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 29, 2010, 08:03:36 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 29, 2010, 07:42:29 AM
Such as the superstition that a centralized authoritarian elite will make better decisions to govern the behavior of a nation's people than the people themselves acting freely to serve what they see as their own, their family's, their community's, and their nation's best interests?


Great point. But I wonder how many nation's leaders, throughout history, have fostered in their subjects the idea that they (the people) are acting freely to serve what they see as their own, their family's, their community's, and their nation's best interests?
Just throwing that out there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on December 29, 2010, 10:00:24 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on December 29, 2010, 05:34:55 AM
It was!  :P

Clearly you have the wit of Henning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on December 29, 2010, 10:03:36 AM
Understanding Contemporary Africa edited by April and Donald Gordon

It's a fairly good read so far. It's my favorite out of my Africa bundle, thus far, because it's the most updated, and has almost no 'policy' ideas. Straight up, shooter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 29, 2010, 10:04:39 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on December 29, 2010, 10:00:24 AM
Clearly you have the wit of Henning.



You overestimate me. I am of a far, far lower order. Wheeeeee!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 29, 2010, 10:07:22 AM
I have been advised to make my wit available for hire, though.  Will work for shiitake . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on December 29, 2010, 10:14:43 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on December 29, 2010, 10:04:39 AM
You overestimate me. I am of a far, far lower order. Wheeeeee!

You're definitely selling yourself short.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 29, 2010, 10:23:39 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on December 29, 2010, 10:14:43 AM
You're definitely selling yourself short.


And you are very kind.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 29, 2010, 02:55:44 PM
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. So far, fantastic. I don't always agree, but I still should have read this guy years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 29, 2010, 02:59:30 PM
Quote from: Brian on December 29, 2010, 02:55:44 PM
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. So far, fantastic. I don't always agree, but I still should have read this guy years ago.

Good one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 29, 2010, 04:45:27 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 29, 2010, 07:42:29 AM
Such as the superstition that a centralized authoritarian elite will make better decisions to govern the behavior of a nation's people than the people themselves acting freely to serve what they see as their own, their family's, their community's, and their nation's best interests?
Maybe you'll allow that the United States, the most of any nation, has enshired the notion of "...the people themselves acting freely to serve what they see as their own, their family's, their community's, and their nation's best interests"?  For my part, I will allow that the U.S. is a nation that gives one person one vote.  Yet it is also a nation where an "elite", through the manipulation of voters and politicians alike, "govern the behavior of [the] nation's people" with substantial disrgard for the people's interest. The American elite isn't government (-- albeit it owns government --) and it wants the smallest, least regulating, and cheapest government it can buy.  It is deeply ironic the so many Americans, not of the elite, fear "big government".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 30, 2010, 05:37:48 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 28, 2010, 02:18:36 PM
Without seeming to justify all instances of "political correctness", I will assert that there is an immense difference between defending basic human rights & equalities, and promoting superstition.
The specific content of a state-enforced ideology is irrelevant for my point: in the US (or Europe, for that matter) certain beliefs and thoughts, if expressed publicly, could get their holder into greater or lesser trouble with the authorities --- just as in the Roman Empire.  :)

Quote from: Feanor on December 29, 2010, 05:16:50 AM
For my part I apologize once and for all to religious people for denigrating their belief.  Please understand that it is much more "belief" in general that I disagree with, being a profound skeptic, than anybody's belief in particular.
No need to apologize either. In my book, skepticism about "belief" is very different from denigration. I didn't feel insulted at all by your posts.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 30, 2010, 05:57:35 AM
Re-reading Waugh's Edmund Campion: A Life

Quote from: Evelyn Waugh. . . in the first week of Lent [1570] a [Papal] Court of Enquiry heard the evidence of twelve trustworthy English witnesses; Elizabeth was charged and found guilty on seventeen counts; on February 12th Pius pronounced the sentence which on the 25th was embodied in the Bull Regnans in Excelsis. Elizabeth was excommunicated and her subjects released from the moral obligations of obedience to her.

Three months later, on Corpus Christi Day, May 25th, a manuscript copy of the document was nailed to the door of the Bishop of London's Palace, in St Paul's churchyard, by Mr John Felton, a Catholic gentleman of wealth and good reputation.  He was tortured and executed.  On the scaffold he made a present to the Queen of a great diamond ring which he had been wearing at the time of his arrest, with the assurance that he meant her no personal harm, but believed her deposition to be for her own soul's good and the country's. He was the first of the great company of Englishmen who were to sacrifice their entire worldy prospects and their lives as the result of Pius V's proclamation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 30, 2010, 08:34:12 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 30, 2010, 05:57:35 AM
Re-reading Waugh's Edmund Campion: A Life

Quote from: Evelyn Waugh
. . . in the first week of Lent [1570] a [Papal] Court of Enquiry heard the evidence of twelve trustworthy English witnesses; Elizabeth was charged and found guilty on seventeen counts; on February 12th Pius pronounced the sentence which on the 25th was embodied in the Bull Regnans in Excelsis. Elizabeth was excommunicated and her subjects released from the moral obligations of obedience to her.
Three months later, on Corpus Christi Day, May 25th, a manuscript copy of the document was nailed to the door of the Bishop of London's Palace, in St Paul's churchyard, by Mr John Felton, a Catholic gentleman of wealth and good reputation.  He was tortured and executed.  On the scaffold he made a present to the Queen of a great diamond ring which he had been wearing at the time of his arrest, with the assurance that he meant her no personal harm, but believed her deposition to be for her own soul's good and the country's. He was the first of the great company of Englishmen who were to sacrifice their entire worldy prospects and their lives as the result of Pius V's proclamation.
It is significant though, that Felton's conviction was for treason, not for religious deviance.  The Papal bull denied the legitimacy of Elizabeth's reign and advocated her overthrow, and Felton explicitly endorsed this position and freely admitted treason (even before he as tortured).  By the way, this is first I've heard about him offering the Queen his diamond ring; it might be true, but though he might have meant her no personal harm, he had not denied his treason.  Bear in mind that this was a very different age from our own when it was normal to define as treason any questioning of the monarch's right to rule.

Thus Felton's punishment was unlike, say, the many earlier executions (by burning) of Protestant martyrs during Mary Tudor's reign for only religious deviance, (from Catholic dogma), despite, in many cases, their assertions of loyalty to the then queen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 30, 2010, 09:32:33 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 30, 2010, 08:34:12 AM
It is significant though, that Felton's conviction was for treason, not for religious deviance.

Yes, though of course, the matter is not so cut-and-dried.  History simply vindicates Elizabeth I's reign, but Waugh points out (what the conquerors will simply sweep under a carpet) that (a) Elizabeth was illegitimate (by both canon law and English statute law), and (b) she had, by her religious acts, violated her coronation oath.  We might therefore argue that Felton's act was not treasonous against a rightful sovereign.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 30, 2010, 11:06:14 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 30, 2010, 09:32:33 AM
(a) Elizabeth was illegitimate (by both canon law and English statute law), and (b) she had, by her religious acts, violated her coronation oath.  We might therefore argue that Felton's act was not treasonous against a rightful sovereign.
This and another point: there is only one thing a person can be treasonous against: one's own conscience; not a few people had to choose between conscience and king/queen/emperor/fatherland etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 30, 2010, 12:35:16 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 30, 2010, 09:32:33 AM
Yes, though of course, the matter is not so cut-and-dried.  History simply vindicates Elizabeth I's reign, but Waugh points out (what the conquerors will simply sweep under a carpet) that (a) Elizabeth was illegitimate (by both canon law and English statute law), and (b) she had, by her religious acts, violated her coronation oath.  We might therefore argue that Felton's act was not treasonous against a rightful sovereign.
Obviously the English courts of the time thought differently.  Henry VII, quite some time before his death, lawfully defined the succession to the Crown: his son, Edward (Protestant); his daughter, Mary (Catholic); his daughter, Elizabeth (Protestant) -- this was the law-of-the land, (regardless of any technicalities of legitimacy of birth), and this was the succession observed. Elizabeth was the rightful soverign according to the law of England -- and I will venture that those who opposed her did so not because of the legitimacy or lack thereof of her birth, but because she was a Protestant.

Elizabeth was one of the greatest of English monarchs. For the most part she trod a course of religious moderation without, however, acquiescing to the meddling of the Pope and Catholic powers in the her kingdom.

I might add that Evelyn Waugh was a convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism.  There are few more biased and conservative proponents of any religion than converts, and Waugh was no exception.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Xenophanes on December 30, 2010, 07:05:13 PM
I just read Charles Hartshornes autobiographical The Darkness and the Light.

(http://www.sunypress.edu/images/Product/icon/52021_cov.jpg)

Hartshorne (1897-2000) was a process philosopher, and also a bird song expert.  It is filled with reminiscences and reflections on his long life, with some accounts of various aspects of his philosophy.  Most of it is interesting enough, but I expect it would be a little frustrating for a biographer looking for accurate historical information. I have long had the anthology and commentary, The Philosophers Speak of God, edited by Hartshorne and Reese. He was a persistent critic of what he called 'classical theism.' His bête noire was St. Thomas Aquinas, though his conception of classical theism seems rather like what I know of Calvinism. Some time ago, I decided finally to spend some time studying his thought more closely to see what he has to offer

I have just started reading The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics, by Father Norris Clarke, S. J., (1915-20080), a philosopher who, among many other things, has devoted some effort to the study and criticism evaluation of the process philosophies of A. N. Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. I tend to think that Norrie Clarke and a number of others understood Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas better than Whitehead and Hartshorne did.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YJJR49YAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2010, 04:24:43 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 30, 2010, 12:35:16 PM
Obviously the English courts of the time thought differently.  Henry VII, quite some time before his death, lawfully defined the succession to the Crown: his son, Edward (Protestant); his daughter, Mary (Catholic); his daughter, Elizabeth (Protestant) -- this was the law-of-the land, (regardless of any technicalities of legitimacy of birth), and this was the succession observed. Elizabeth was the rightful soverign according to the law of England -- and I will venture that those who opposed her did so not because of the legitimacy or lack thereof of her birth, but because she was a Protestant.

Elizabeth was one of the greatest of English monarchs. For the most part she trod a course of religious moderation without, however, acquiescing to the meddling of the Pope and Catholic powers in the her kingdom.

I might add that Evelyn Waugh was a convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism.  There are few more biased and conservative proponents of any religion than converts, and Waugh was no exception.

It is interesting that in your view, Waugh's conversion makes for a fatal bias (and his book was praised at the time of publication not only by Catholics); but you take no account of the fact that the English court (you misspoke anachronistically with courts, probably a typo) which "thought differently" were in fact among the highly interested parties in the matter.  Another anachronism is your pitting "the law-of-the land" against canon law and English statute.  What you mean by "the law-of-the land" is simply Might Makes Right. He's got the football, so why shouldn't he make the rules? If this were simply "the law-of-the land," why did Thomas More have any moral difficulty with Henry?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jowcol on December 31, 2010, 04:43:12 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on January 05, 2010, 06:19:57 AM
I bet he's looking for Neal Stephenson.

I'm currently reading his Baroque cycle-- which is quite an investment, but really enjoyable if you don't mind giving the time to it.  I also enjoyed the Cryptonomicon a lot!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2010, 04:46:15 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 30, 2010, 12:35:16 PM
I might add that Evelyn Waugh was a convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism.  There are few more biased and conservative proponents of any religion than converts, and Waugh was no exception.

In reading Edmund Campion: A Life, you found that bias compromised the biography at what points?  Or is the argument simply that because Waugh was a convert, he was biased, so there can be no merit to the book?

I am still puzzled at how Waugh's alleged bias affects the point that Elizabeth had violated her coronation oath.  Yes, the court at the time "thought differently," i.e. they were entirely (or, by consensus) behind those violations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: petrarch on December 31, 2010, 05:12:16 AM
Quote from: jowcol on December 31, 2010, 04:43:12 AM
I'm currently reading his Baroque cycle-- which is quite an investment, but really enjoyable if you don't mind giving the time to it.  I also enjoyed the Cryptonomicon a lot!

Of the Baroque Cycle I have only read Quicksilver, which is indeed quite enjoyable, though I think I skipped the theatre play that was somewhere in there. I found Cryptonomicon more engrossing than Quicksilver, and the shared characters provide an interesting context and continuity. Of his other books, Snow Crash was very good too. I'll eventually tackle the rest of the Baroque Cycle, and I also have Anathem and Diamond Age calling me from the shelf begging to be read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 31, 2010, 07:07:19 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 31, 2010, 04:46:15 AM
In reading Edmund Campion: A Life, you found that bias compromised the biography at what points?  Or is the argument simply that because Waugh was a convert, he was biased, so there can be no merit to the book?

I am still puzzled at how Waugh's alleged bias affects the point that Elizabeth had violated her coronation oath.  Yes, the court at the time "thought differently," i.e. they were entirely (or, by consensus) behind those violations.
I haven't read the book.  However I know the Waugh was a convert and I have the quotes that you provided.  The quotes are sufficient to demonstrate Waugh's bias.

Elizabeth was the legitimate English monarch as recognized by the courts of her time and by the substantial majority of her subjects.  Courts today are held to a higher standard fortunately, but the is another matter.  Challenges to her reign came from Catholics, often under foreign influence, whose essential objection to her reign was that she was Protestant; the legalities they raised were mere pretexts for their objections.  Felton was justly convicted of treason (by normal standards of that age).

What exact wording of her coronation oath was Elizabeth supposed to have violated?  I stand to be better informed on that point.  Did a politician break a promise?  Well, that's unprecedented, I'm sure.  ;)

In the interest of full disclosure, I am today an atheist but I came from a Reformed Christian background.  No doubt these two facts will lead you to surmise that I, too, have some biases; so be it.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 07:28:48 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 29, 2010, 04:45:27 PM
Maybe you'll allow that the United States, the most of any nation, has enshired the notion of "...the people themselves acting freely to serve what they see as their own, their family's, their community's, and their nation's best interests"?  For my part, I will allow that the U.S. is a nation that gives one person one vote.  Yet it is also a nation where an "elite", through the manipulation of voters and politicians alike, "govern the behavior of [the] nation's people" with substantial disrgard for the people's interest. The American elite isn't government (-- albeit it owns government --)
Up to this point we're on the same page.

Quote from: Feanor on December 29, 2010, 04:45:27 PMand it wants the smallest, least regulating, and cheapest government it can buy.  It is deeply ironic the so many Americans, not of the elite, fear "big government".
Here we're on different planets.  If the ruling elite "owns government," and if government is the mechanism whereby their control is enforced, their interests protected, and their wealth increased, then they want the most far-reaching and powerful government possible.  Cost is no object, since that is borne by the middle classes and the working poor (and their children and children's children).  Regulation, since it serves the ruler's interests and restricts competition, is exactly what the ruling elite wants...and plenty of it!

What's deeply ironic is that some folks understand that overreaching government really serves the interests of a powerful ruling class, yet simultaneously believe that surrendering even more power to government will remedy rather than exacerbate the problem!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 31, 2010, 08:17:32 AM
If I can interrupt for a moment... my newest blog post is I Hate David Foster Wallace (http://bit.ly/gAxJiH).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2010, 09:04:34 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 31, 2010, 08:17:32 AM
If I can interrupt for a moment... my newest blog post is I Hate David Foster Wallace (http://bit.ly/gAxJiH).

I'll need to check out your post . . . I read The Broom of the System 20+ years ago, and I've been meaning to revisit it . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 09:10:00 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 31, 2010, 09:04:34 AM
I'll need to check out your post . . . I read The Broom of the System 20+ years ago, and I've been meaning to revisit it . . . .
I had forgotten all about it, but Brian's review reminded me that I had once meant to read it.  Back on the "must read" list it goes!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2010, 09:14:33 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 09:10:00 AM
I had forgotten all about it, but Brian's review reminded me that I had once meant to read it.  Back on the "must read" list it goes!

I remember finding so much of The Broom of the System roll-on-the-floor funny, yet I do not have any sense of the overall narrative, as I do with other wonderful then-newish fiction I read at about the same time, such as T.C. Boyle's Water Music and Don De Lillo's White Noise.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 31, 2010, 09:19:02 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 31, 2010, 09:14:33 AM
I remember finding so much of The Broom of the System roll-on-the-floor funny, yet I do not have any sense of the overall narrative, as I do with other wonderful then-newish fiction I read at about the same time, such as T.C. Boyle's Water Music and Don De Lillo's White Noise.

In the same amount of time it's been since you've read it, I may go the same way: so much of it was extravagantly funny (I nearly died when the character named Judith Prietht showed up), but the plot is basically ... well, the plot is an excuse for everything else. He uses the plot like artists use those little clips that keep paintings hanging on the wall.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 09:23:56 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 31, 2010, 09:19:02 AM
He uses the plot like artists use those little clips that keep paintings hanging on the wall.
There!  You just wrote a sentence much like those by Wallace you admire.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 31, 2010, 09:30:34 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 07:28:48 AM
...
Here we're on different planets.  If the ruling elite "owns government," and if government is the mechanism whereby their control is enforced, their interests protected, and their wealth increased, then they want the most far-reaching and powerful government possible.  Cost is no object, since that is borne by the middle classes and the working poor (and their children and children's children).  Regulation, since it serves the ruler's interests and restricts competition, is exactly what the ruling elite wants...and plenty of it!

What's deeply ironic is that some folks understand that overreaching government really serves the interests of a powerful ruling class, yet simultaneously believe that surrendering even more power to government will remedy rather than exacerbate the problem!
Well maybe not totally different planets.  I'll allow that your arguement that the power elite don't really care how big government is because it is mainly paid for by the middle class, has a lot of merit, assuming that the government, whatever size, enforces their wishes.

However don't I believe it follows, nor is a fact, that enforcing their wishes requires a big, expensive government. In the US example, they don't need the EPA or other consumer or environment protection agencies, Medicare, Medicaid, or any off the other entitlement programs. The IRS is debatable I guess, because it's the agency that makes other people pay.  ;D   The military is definitely an exception of course because of its close ties with the "defence" industry.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 09:48:51 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 31, 2010, 09:30:34 AM
Well maybe not totally different planets.  I'll allow that your arguement that the power elite don't really care how big government is because it is mainly paid for by the middle class, has a lot of merit, assuming that the government, whatever size, enforces their wishes.

However don't I believe it follows, nor is a fact, that enforcing their wishes requires a big, expensive government. In the US example, they don't need the EPA or other consumer or environment protection agencies, Medicare, Medicaid, or any off the other entitlement programs. The IRS is debatable I guess, because it's the agency that makes other people pay.  ;D   The military is definitely an exception of course because of its close ties with the
"defence" industry.
Though there are problems with Sorel, his Reflections on Violence captures well how 20th Century "liberalism" serves the ruling class and perpetuates the status quo.  Your objection takes the role of regulatory agencies like the EPA or FDA at face value.  Who they really serve and at whose expense is another matter entirely.  The same with entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Your country and ours had virtually identical health care "systems" until the mid-'60s, with similar cost: about 6% of GDP.  You guys went with a national single payer plan.  We introduced Medicare and Medicaid, which screwed the pooch and introduced a huge "medical services for profit" system.  Today y'all spend about 10% of GDP on health care, we spend 18%--and Obamacare is already increasing our cost.  Taxpayer subsidized industries whose profits go into the pockets of the ruling class sure look like business as usual to me--so successful, in fact, that our masters want to bring ever more of our nation's economic life under government control--and thus their control.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 31, 2010, 10:05:58 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 09:48:51 AM
Though there are problems with Sorel, his Reflections on Violence captures well how 20th Century "liberalism" serves the ruling class and perpetuates the status quo.  Your objection takes the role of regulatory agencies like the EPA or FDA at face value.  Who they really serve and at whose expense is another matter entirely.  The same with entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Your country and ours had virtually identical health care "systems" until the mid-'60s, with similar cost: about 6% of GDP.  You guys went with a national single payer plan.  We introduced Medicare and Medicaid, which screwed the pooch and introduced a huge "medical services for profit" system.  Today y'all spend about 10% of GDP on health care, we spend 18%--and Obamacare is already increasing our cost.  Taxpayer subsidized industries whose profits go into the pockets of the ruling class sure look like business as usual to me--so successful, in fact, that our masters want to bring ever more of our nation's economic life under government control--and thus their control.
Well, I'm not sure this is the forum or topic in which to persue this debate, but ...

As a Canadian I don't feel the need to defend the myriad ineffectuality, inefficiencies, and ineptitudes of the US system.  Sadly Obama health care is a good case in point -- on that score will you concede that the US ought to have a universal, single-payer system???  8)  I didn't think so.

However I just don't think the facts support the deep conspiracy theory that "big government" is sole for the benefit of the ruling elite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 31, 2010, 10:17:27 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 09:23:56 AM
There!  You just wrote a sentence much like those by Wallace you admire.

Wow! I'm flattered, sir. One sentence at a time, perhaps; one sentence at a time...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2010, 10:21:27 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 31, 2010, 10:05:58 AM
Well, I'm not sure this is the forum or topic in which to persue this debate, but ...

Separately, Bill . . . I had a question, which I took here (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,13493.msg478129.html#msg478129). Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 10:43:57 AM
Quote from: Feanor on December 31, 2010, 10:05:58 AM
As a Canadian I don't feel the need to defend the myriad ineffectuality, inefficiencies, and ineptitudes of the US system.  Sadly Obama health care is a good case in point -- on that score will you concede that the US ought to have a universal, single-payer system???  8)  I didn't think so.
I have long favored a single-payer system for the US that provides a level of care roughly equal to that of Canada and which eliminates the horrifying waste caused by torts.  My torts prof was one of the designers of New Zealand's system and he convinced me of its essential pragmatic value.  Of course, there's considerable difference between administering systems serving 35 million (Canada), 9 million (Sweden), or 4 million (NZ) and a system serving 300 million (US).

Quote
However I just don't think the facts support the deep conspiracy theory that "big government" is sole for the benefit of the ruling elite.
"Deep conspiracy theory?"  What theory is that?  Something suggesting that EVERYTHING government does is a direct consequence of covert plans hatched at the Bohemian Grove?

No back-room conspiracy is necessary to explain concerted actions that benefit the interests of one class at the expense of another. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on January 01, 2011, 02:26:36 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 10:43:57 AM
I have long favored a single-payer system for the US that provides a level of care roughly equal to that of Canada and which eliminates the horrifying waste caused by torts.

How much waste is caused by torts?  I remember that this was part of the HCR debate, such as it was, and tort reform accounted for a fairly insignificant savings overall (of the 14-15% of GDP we spend on healthcare).

I'm very suspicious of any kind of tort reform as the push for it usually seems to come from those wanting to protect themselves from any accountability.

Now back to books...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NRMCFZC4L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

This is an early Ellroy, and I found it more enjoyable and human than some of his recent stuff.  I never managed to finish American Tabloid, his Kennedy Assassination novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on January 01, 2011, 06:40:46 AM
Quote from: Daverz on January 01, 2011, 02:26:36 AM
How much waste is caused by torts?
Accurate assessment is notoriously difficult.  Spinmeisters try to confuse matters by claiming that medical malpractice insurance and settlement costs account for less than 2% of health care costs.  But that's not the real issue.

The major expense comes from the practice of defensive medicine, ordering tests and procedures that aren't medically necessary but done to cover your ass in the event of lawsuits.  The costs get passed on to consumers, who have no incentive to care because their costs get passed on to insurers--who then pass them on in increased premium costs for everyone (for private insurance) or to the taxpayer (for public insurance).  Estimates of the cost of defensive medicine range from about 5% to more than 25% of all health care costs.

http://www.businessword.com/index.php/weblog/comments/3378

http://healthcarereform.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001536

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johnny-benjamin/healthcare-reform-and-def_b_243537.html

http://advance.uconn.edu/2009/090223/09022302.htm

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/728128

http://news.avancehealth.com/2010/07/defensive-medicine-costly-defense.html

http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/nov08/managing7.asp
http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/dec10/advocacy2.asp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073002816.html





Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 02, 2011, 02:23:42 PM
Well I've now completed my blog's survey (http://bgreinhart.wordpress.com/) of my five favorite books of 2010. Six, actually, because I snuck Don Quixote in there without numbering it...

Actual quote from one of the picks:
"A dentist! A dentist! My kingdom for a dentist!"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on January 02, 2011, 04:25:15 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 02, 2011, 02:23:42 PM
Well I've now completed my blog's survey (http://bgreinhart.wordpress.com/)

Nice to make acquaintance with your bloggy personality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 03, 2011, 01:48:29 AM
Quote from: Brian/Geoffrey Robertsonthe Vatican is, rather improbably (and thanks to Mussolini), a sovereign nation. Basically, imagine if Glenn Beck became President and granted the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City its own government in exchange for telling all Mormons to do Beck's bidding forever, and you'll know why the Vatican is a country.
Way too simplistic an interpretation, I'm afraid --- and inaccurate: Vatican is not a nation, but a state.

(1). The seeds of the question of the legal international status of the Pope were planted in 1870, 13 whole years before Mussolini was born, by the liberal Kingdom of Italy.

(2) The Roman Catholic Church and the Papal States had a history of more than 1,000 years, inextricably intertwinned with that of Western civilization --- nothing whatsoever even remotely similar with Mormonism.

(3) Mussolini cleverly solved a problem he inherited, and just as any politician ever did, does, and will do, served his own interest in the process. Nothing exceptionally bad, nor exceptionally good in this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 03, 2011, 02:01:08 AM
Of course, that is my frankly simplistic summary - Robertson does give a whole chapter (18 pages) to the question and talks at length about the Papal States. Even his ultimate answer, which is essentially that it has enough pretences to statehood to protect it from prosecution, is nuanced.

You would have no way of knowing this from the blog, but I spent nearly all my teenage years playing a computer game (http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/europa-universalis-ii) depicting politics in medieval/early modern Europe, and am very familiar with the existence of the Papal States. This sounds kind of silly, to say "I played a computer game so I know the Papal States exist," but as I've found out this year in my master's in history program, Europe Universalis contained a lot of historical detail even many master's students don't know of.  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 03, 2011, 03:26:54 AM
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, Will Cuppy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Cuppy)

If you haven't read it, you're only missing out . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 03, 2011, 03:39:09 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 03, 2011, 02:01:08 AM
Of course, that is my frankly simplistic summary - Robertson does give a whole chapter (18 pages) to the question and talks at length about the Papal States. Even his ultimate answer, which is essentially that it has enough pretences to statehood to protect it from prosecution, is nuanced.
TBH, I'm neither Roman Catholic nor particularly fond of the Papacy as institution. Actually, I regard papal's claim to sole and universal jurisdiction over the Church and to infallibility as pure heresies. Furthermore, the "legal" basis of the Papal States is constituted of proven forgeries such as Donatio Constantini and the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. But neither can or will I ignore the undeniable contributions which the RCC brought to the development of arts and civilization.

Quote
You would have no way of knowing this from the blog, but I spent nearly all my teenage years playing a computer game (http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/europa-universalis-ii) depicting politics in medieval/early modern Europe, and am very familiar with the existence of the Papal States. This sounds kind of silly, to say "I played a computer game so I know the Papal States exist," but as I've found out this year in my master's in history program, Europe Universalis contained a lot of historical detail even many master's students don't know of.  :o
Oh, I'm sure that if historical details are well studied and implemented, a computer game can be more informative and accurate than a formal course offered by certain colleges.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on January 03, 2011, 02:57:52 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 31, 2010, 09:48:51 AM
Though there are problems with Sorel, his Reflections on Violence captures well how 20th Century "liberalism" serves the ruling class and perpetuates the status quo.  Your objection takes the role of regulatory agencies like the EPA or FDA at face value.  Who they really serve and at whose expense is another matter entirely.  The same with entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Your country and ours had virtually identical health care "systems" until the mid-'60s, with similar cost: about 6% of GDP.  You guys went with a national single payer plan.  We introduced Medicare and Medicaid, which screwed the pooch and introduced a huge "medical services for profit" system.  Today y'all spend about 10% of GDP on health care, we spend 18%--and Obamacare is already increasing our cost.  Taxpayer subsidized industries whose profits go into the pockets of the ruling class sure look like business as usual to me--so successful, in fact, that our masters want to bring ever more of our nation's economic life under government control--and thus their control.

What was it about Medicare and Medicaid that led to the increase in costs?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on January 03, 2011, 03:08:14 PM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xs4kdNpUL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
P.G. Wodehouse
Something Fishy
Everyman  (http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1841591556?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=1841591610)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Taneyev on January 06, 2011, 02:23:16 PM
Henry Temianka's "Facing the Music", a fascinating and extremely funny book of memories by that violinist, conductor and chamber player. Maybe he wasn't great on those matters, but certainly he was a fantastic writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on January 09, 2011, 10:18:07 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DeFBebGuL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)


I'm about a quarter of the way through Ron Chernow's big biography of George Washington.  I wanted a more detailed bio after reading Joseph Ellis' His Excellency: George Washington, but I didn't want to tackle a multi-volume set like Freeman's, so I settled on this newest one.  Chernow's bio of Alexander Hamilton was superb, and his House of Morgan is also excellent, and this newest volume is of comparable quality.  (Okay, the Hamilton bio strikes me as better.)  Very well written, well researched (with the obligatory nods to Freeman), it flows quickly and has not a few moments to make the reader chuckle.  There's nothing revelatory here, and some of his conclusions match Ellis', which is no surprise, and it does veer too much into psychological biography at times, but nonetheless, it is a superb read.  I look forward to a more detailed account of the political fights of the 1790s.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 09, 2011, 10:40:51 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 09, 2011, 10:18:07 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DeFBebGuL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)


I'm about a quarter of the way through Ron Chernow's big biography of George Washington.  I wanted a more detailed bio after reading Joseph Ellis' His Excellency: George Washington, but I didn't want to tackle a multi-volume set like Freeman's, so I settled on this newest one.  Chernow's bio of Alexander Hamilton was superb, and his House of Morgan is also excellent, and this newest volume is of comparable quality.  (Okay, the Hamilton bio strikes me as better.)  Very well written, well researched (with the obligatory nods to Freeman), it flows quickly and has not a few moments to make the reader chuckle.  There's nothing revelatory here, and some of his conclusions match Ellis', which is no surprise, and it does veer too much into psychological biography at times, but nonetheless, it is a superb read.  I look forward to a more detailed account of the political fights of the 1790s.

Todd,
We have about 20 books on Washington (or where he is highlighted as in Valley Forge reads) on the shelf and we were considering this one.  My wife is more up on this era than I am and passionately reads about it.  I read the Ellis book.  Though short, I found he did not waste any sentences, that is reading over a section quickly, even a sentence or two, forced me to go back and re-read.  Have not read the Freeman, but I did give a year+ of my life to the Flexner (here http://www.amazon.com/George-Washington-Forge-Experience-1732-1775/dp/0316285978/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294601657&sr=1-4). 

When we were at Williamsburg a few summers back, a gentleman at the book store there seemed extremely knowlegeable on books concerning this era.  For Washington, he recommended this one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51M5MYNCRDL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

It has gotten so-so reviews so it fills space instead of my reading time.

A friend of mine got me this one for Christmas:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tYchcSuhL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

It seems like a fitting read for the winter months.  I may have to give it a start in the next week or so.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 09, 2011, 10:58:38 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41LjpTCHuYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Wife got me this for christmas & its a fantastic book, the author is a good writer and documents several trips to Siberia, including a drive from St Petersburg to Vladivostok.  He  fills in the history of the region from the Mongols to the gulags along the way and provides a good picture of modern Russia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on January 09, 2011, 11:14:03 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 09, 2011, 10:40:51 AMThough short, I found he did not waste any sentences, that is reading over a section quickly, even a sentence or two, forced me to go back and re-read.



Must agree about Ellis not wasting a sentence.  The book is very compact yet delivers a lot.  The Flexner looks interesting, the TR (Morris - with Colonel Roosevelt in my to-read stack), LBJ (Caro), and Cleveland (McElroy - not so good) aside, I have avoided multi-volume bios.  Too much time is needed, and there's so much to read.

My biggest challenge is finding a good bio of Jefferson.  I'm thinking of Ellis here, but what are the best options?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on January 09, 2011, 11:14:42 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 09, 2011, 10:40:51 AM

Quote from: Todd on January 09, 2011, 10:18:07 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DeFBebGuL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)


I'm about a quarter of the way through Ron Chernow's big biography of George Washington.  I wanted a more detailed bio after reading Joseph Ellis' His Excellency: George Washington, but I didn't want to tackle a multi-volume set like Freeman's, so I settled on this newest one.  Chernow's bio of Alexander Hamilton was superb, and his House of Morgan is also excellent, and this newest volume is of comparable quality.  (Okay, the Hamilton bio strikes me as better.)  Very well written, well researched (with the obligatory nods to Freeman), it flows quickly and has not a few moments to make the reader chuckle.  There's nothing revelatory here, and some of his conclusions match Ellis', which is no surprise, and it does veer too much into psychological biography at times, but nonetheless, it is a superb read.  I look forward to a more detailed account of the political fights of the 1790s.

Todd,

We have about 20 books on Washington (or where he is highlighted as in Valley Forge reads) on the shelf and we were considering this one.  My wife is more up on this era than I am and passionately reads about it.  I read the Ellis book.  Though short, I found he did not waste any sentences, that is reading over a section quickly, even a sentence or two, forced me to go back and re-read.  Have not read the Freeman, but I did give a year+ of my life to the Flexner (here http://www.amazon.com/George-Washington-Forge-Experience-1732-1775/dp/0316285978/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294601657&sr=1-4 (http://www.amazon.com/George-Washington-Forge-Experience-1732-1775/dp/0316285978/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294601657&sr=1-4)). 

When we were at Williamsburg a few summers back, a gentleman at the book store there seemed extremely knowlegeable on books concerning this era.  For Washington, he recommended this one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51M5MYNCRDL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

It has gotten so-so reviews so it fills space instead of my reading time.

A friend of mine got me this one for Christmas:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tYchcSuhL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

It seems like a fitting read for the winter months.  I may have to give it a start in the next week or so.

Very interesting, gents.  I've seen the Chernow here at the museum shop, and I've been thinking about it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on January 09, 2011, 11:33:00 AM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bpziewV7L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
P.G. Wodehouse
Money for Nothing
Everyman  (http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1585679232?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=1585679232)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 09, 2011, 11:34:38 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 09, 2011, 11:14:03 AM


Must agree about Ellis not wasting a sentence.  The book is very compact yet delivers a lot.  The Flexner looks interesting, the TR (Morris - with Colonel Roosevelt in my to-read stack), LBJ (Caro), and Cleveland (McElroy - not so good) aside, I have avoided multi-volume bios.  Too much time is needed, and there's so much to read.

My biggest challenge is finding a good bio of Jefferson.  I'm thinking of Ellis here, but what are the best options?

Wow....difficult.  Not "one" one volume that I know of.  The Ellis is on my wife's list to read....believe that is where I would start.  Just asked the Mrs. and her favorite book so far on him has been:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WMQS5MW9L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

It has a focus on the house within.  Mine would be:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/718ZFRBRHQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.gif)

and the wine discussions, that were throughout the book were not the draw to keep me interested, but rather the side cavitates that were woven in.

In short, I do not have a good answer for you , Todd.  With Jefferson I tend to lean toward books that have a specific focus....and with Washington, I can go either way.  FWIW, the Ken Burns documentary was well done.  My next Jefferson book will probably either be:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510KV3NCT0L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HA9uPw0-L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

See what I mean by a specific angle.  However, Adams' and Jefferson's relationship fascinates me.  Too many books, Todd.  But fortunately, there seems to be more to choose from during this era than ever before.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on January 09, 2011, 12:31:57 PM
Just finished Duel by Joost Zwagerman. Very nice book.

(http://www.parool.nl/static/FOTO/pe/7/6/5/media_l_210755.jpg?20100309100043)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on January 09, 2011, 01:15:31 PM
Quote from: Bogey on January 09, 2011, 11:34:38 AMIn short, I do not have a good answer for you , Todd.


The general impression I get is that no one volume work suffices.  Thanks for the suggestions, though, I now have more options to consider.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on January 12, 2011, 05:16:20 AM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xZveNAfIL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
P.G. Wodehouse
Jill the Reckless
Everyman  (http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1841591394?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=1841591394)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on January 12, 2011, 12:27:11 PM
Right now, I'm not reading anything, but I would like to purchase this book at some point:

[asin]0691148562[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on January 12, 2011, 12:32:44 PM
[asin]0375757910[/asin]
Having fun with it so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 13, 2011, 01:00:21 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on January 12, 2011, 12:27:11 PM
Right now, I'm not reading anything, but I would like to purchase this book at some point:

[asin]0691148562[/asin]

Hugh Grant is the man to play Berg in a movie, no doubt.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on January 13, 2011, 05:50:25 AM
[asin]1934861561[/asin]

Cool.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on January 13, 2011, 09:05:33 PM
Osho's Joy

A very quick and enjoyable read. Makes some good points, has a tendency towards repetition, but is littered with awesome anecdotes throughout.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Hollywood on January 14, 2011, 01:41:12 AM
I'm reading more about my royal ancestors William the Conqueror, King Henry I and Henry II in the book Kings and Queens of England and Scotland. I had no idea I even had any royal relations until I discovered them in Aug. 2010 while I was working on genealogy searches into my family tree.

(http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRRssRqB8NouSSKy0Y9BTxE9248dvfUf2K667vRDJFYoOifzgyktQ)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on January 14, 2011, 01:34:49 PM
Just started (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511ERcOnMxL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Quote from: Scarpia on January 03, 2011, 02:57:52 PM
What was it about Medicare and Medicaid that led to the increase in costs?
Third party payers removed patient cost oversight from the equation.  Strongly recommend Arnold Relman's A Second Opinion. 

http://rangelmd.com/2010/05/how-the-federal-government-screwed-up-health-care-costs/

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa211.html

http://www.calpirg.org/edfund/reports/reports-archive/diagnosing-the-high-cost-of-health-care-how-spending-on-unnecessary-treatments-administrative-waste-and-overpriced-drugs-inflates-the-cost-of-health-care-in-california

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on January 14, 2011, 03:23:04 PM
Osho's The Book of Understanding

This reads more like a polemic than anything else. He comes off as quite upset. Almost reminds me of Nietzsche in his latter days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on January 14, 2011, 08:24:57 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on January 14, 2011, 03:23:04 PM
Osho's The Book of Understanding

This reads more like a polemic than anything else. He comes off as quite upset. Almost reminds me of Nietzsche in his latter days.
Osho?  Isn't that the rebranded Bhagawan wanna-be guru who had all those loonies coughing up their life savings in Oregon so he could buy 30 Rolls-Royces?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on January 14, 2011, 08:29:41 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on January 14, 2011, 08:24:57 PM
Osho?  Isn't that the rebranded Bhagawan wanna-be guru who had all those loonies coughing up their life savings in Oregon so he could buy 30 Rolls-Royces?

No clue, but given his books, I have doubt that he would do something like that, but I find the readings valuable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on January 14, 2011, 08:57:17 PM
Apparently he had 93.  8)

And a terrorist among other things.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on January 21, 2011, 01:23:38 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on January 14, 2011, 08:24:57 PM
Osho?  Isn't that the rebranded Bhagawan wanna-be guru who had all those loonies coughing up their life savings in Oregon so he could buy 30 Rolls-Royces?


Holy crap, Osho is the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh!  I thought that guy had croaked.  He was quite the charlatan back in the 80s, and that food poisoning thing, wow.  He was ahead of his time.  Alas, the town of Antelope is now literally a hollowed out shell.  (I drove through it last summer.)

Once a charlatan, always a charlatan; I think I'll pass.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 22, 2011, 06:26:40 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4169RPYAE9L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

basically the only pure physics book I have been able to read given that it is well written and does not assume the reader is able to see that the implications of the math are self-evident

good exposition of basic quantum mechanics as well

my goal being to gain the knowledge I would have of physics today if I had got a masters in it 20 years ago and then forgotten most of it
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on January 22, 2011, 07:54:41 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on January 22, 2011, 06:26:40 AM

my goal being to gain the knowledge I would have of physics today if I had got a masters in it 20 years ago and then forgotten most of it
;D


My goal is to become Chinese illiterate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 23, 2011, 02:58:33 AM
William Osler:  A Life in Medicine by Michael Bliss; Osler (1849-1919), a Canadian physician and legendary Johns Hopkins professor (early biography by Harvey Cushing) - about half way through - if you are interested in outstanding biographical writing, in the development of medicine during this era, and in the man, Osler - then highly recommended!

Last year, our fellow member Anne and I exchanged a few books in the mail - she sent me this one and I thank her (saw that she had posted earlier this month in the Opera thread); was at the bottom of a BIG stack of unread books, so just started my reading! -  :D

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0802085415.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)  (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Sir_William_Osler.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 23, 2011, 04:22:10 AM
I am currently reading...

Jesus for the Non-Religious by John Shelby Spong
Hobbes: A Very Short Introduction by Richard Tuck
Adorno by Simon Jarvis
Emma by Jane Austen

You know, this might explain why I can't seem to finish a book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on January 23, 2011, 10:07:30 AM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on January 23, 2011, 05:50:59 AM
Like most everyone else in the country, it seems - judging by the coverage in the press - I am reading this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IlwIGwGpL._SL500_AA300_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hare-Amber-Eyes-Hidden-Inheritance/dp/0701184175/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295794106&sr=1-1)
What country is that?  Never heard of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 23, 2011, 10:23:09 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on January 23, 2011, 10:07:30 AM
What country is that?  Never heard of it.

He's English. The little sticker saying "Costa Book Awards Shortlist" refers to Costa Coffee, England's answer to Starbucks. They were previously called the Whitbread Awards, and winners include Norman Lebrecht, Mark Haddon, and Simon Sebag Montefiore. I've only heard of one of the winning books since 2003, though - perhaps because we Americans are so much less in tune with the Brit book scene. (This year's Booker winner, a Howard Jacobson comedy about Jewishness, will likely never "make it" in the USA because it does things Joseph Heller and Philip Roth, among others, already did better.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on January 23, 2011, 10:42:41 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 23, 2011, 10:23:09 AM
He's English. The little sticker saying "Costa Book Awards Shortlist" refers to Costa Coffee, England's answer to Starbucks. They were previously called the Whitbread Awards, and winners include Norman Lebrecht, Mark Haddon, and Simon Sebag Montefiore. I've only heard of one of the winning books since 2003, though - perhaps because we Americans are so much less in tune with the Brit book scene. (This year's Booker winner, a Howard Jacobson comedy about Jewishness, will likely never "make it" in the USA because it does things Joseph Heller and Philip Roth, among others, already did better.)
Thanks.  Just won the Costa Biography Award, in fact.  Sounds interesting, a personal and family memoir that spans the last century--including flight from the Nazis in Austria.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on January 24, 2011, 06:12:45 AM
[asin]0679601287[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on January 26, 2011, 11:38:44 PM
ANTONIO DAMASIO:       "Self comes to Mind"  (2010)

Very interesting work, centered in the evolutionary development of the brain until reaching the "biographical I", the identity. As usual, Damasio - one of the world's greatest scientists of the brain - gives us the information about the most recent discoveries on this subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 29, 2011, 03:23:11 AM
Dr. No by Ian Fleming. One of the best ones even though he almost stopped writing Bonds after From Russia with love.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville. No wonder this was Khan's favorite. One of the greatest books I have ever read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 29, 2011, 05:22:22 AM
[asin]0451166892[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on January 29, 2011, 05:26:12 AM
Maybe I'll read this next:
[asin]0375413316[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on January 29, 2011, 06:40:14 AM
Quote from: Alberich on January 29, 2011, 03:23:11 AM
Moby Dick by Herman Melville. No wonder this was Khan's favorite. One of the greatest books I have ever read.

One of the greatest I have ever read also.  The climax of the story though seemed to happen too suddenly though, and I think I missed a lot of the details.  I'm going to have to reread the last four or five chapters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Rinaldo on January 31, 2011, 07:46:18 AM
[asin]0671695886[/asin]
I'm new to Abbey, got this one together with Journey Home. Reads like a modern day, practical Thoreau. And there's also a classical connection as Abbey was a huge Beethoven fan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 31, 2011, 09:00:36 AM
The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece by Eric Siblin (2011, reprint edition) - mixture of Bach & Casals biographies w/ much of the author's own personal relationships to these works - and not really a 'note by note' analysis of the actual suites; enjoyable and light reading -  :D


(http://www.bookhills.com/images/The-Cello-Suites-J-S-Bach-Pablo-Casals-and-the-Search-for-a-Baroque-Masterpiece-B0030EHKTW-L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on January 31, 2011, 09:32:32 AM
Quote from: SonicMan on January 31, 2011, 09:00:36 AM
The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece by Eric Siblin (2011, reprint edition) - mixture of Bach & Casals biographies w/ much of the author's own personal relationships to these works - and not really a 'note by note' analysis of the actual suites; enjoyable and light reading -  :D


(http://www.bookhills.com/images/The-Cello-Suites-J-S-Bach-Pablo-Casals-and-the-Search-for-a-Baroque-Masterpiece-B0030EHKTW-L.jpg)

Loved that book, Dave!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 01, 2011, 09:18:36 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 29, 2011, 05:22:22 AM
[asin]0451166892[/asin]

Had to give this one up. The tidbits about the life during this time were fascinating, but the story was just too contrived.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 02, 2011, 06:33:42 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 28, 2010, 11:56:40 AM
Quote from: Feanor
On the other hand it's pretty clear the Constantine (screwdly) adopted (i.e. coopted) Christianity as the state religion to use it as a unifying factor in the Empire.

Actually, the following are true:

(1) Christianity was the actual religion of the vast majority of Roman citizens across the Empire prior to St. Constantine giving it legal status;

(2) St. Constantine did not make Christianity THE state religion; he merely gave it equal status to all other religions of the Empire and allowed (at least in theory) anyone to freely worship whatever deity they chose. I wonder how many anti-Christian GMG-ers are aware of this simple historical fact?

(3) St. Constantine did nothing more officially than acknowledging a state of affairs --- from a de facto state he moved on to a de jure state.
...

Actually your response is mostly incorrect, viz.

(1) Christians remained a small minority throughout the Empire at the time -- Charles Freeman estimates about 10% -- although they were a substantially larger minority in many places.

(2) It's true that Constantine's initial action was just ban persecution of Christians.  But it went on from there: in particular Christians (specifically the Christian bishops) henceforth received the patronage of the state.  And then increasingly both pagans and "heretic" Christians were subject to persecution, e.g. Theodosious in 381 made it a crime to espouse any belief other than the "equal", (my own term), trinity doctrine -- despite the fact the the majority of Christians themselvs still believed that Jesus was subordinate to God the Father; (c.f. Freeman, below).

(3) Again, the de facto to a de jure state argument is Christian wishful thinking.  The majority of citizens remained pagan or of other religions, (e.g. Jewish), in all major divisions of the Empire.

I'm just finishing ...

Charles Freeman: A New History of Early Christianity
(http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/512jZh3J%2BCL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU15_.jpg)

Yes, it's good.  It covers the period from begining of the Rome control of Palestine through about 600 C.E.  About 1/3 of the book discusses the canonic, and to a lesser extent non-canonic, scriptures with an emphasis on historic context.  The remainer is disusses theological evolution and Christian "politics", (for want of a politer word).

Freeman expresses good deal of speculation and opinion but it seems always based on good, current historic research.  Traditional Christians, though, have been pretty derogatory, (see Amazon.com review); some have dismissed the book as a pack of "lies".  My guess this is on account of Freeman's major points, including:

= Texts, including the canonic texts, are far more contradictory than the pious, (Cathlics and Fundamentalists equally), usually assume.
= The definition of the canon itself was, even at the time, remarkably controversial and "political".
= The canon and much theological discussion of time didn't support the "equal" trinity doctrine.
= The unsaintly nature of such nominal "saints" as Constantine, Jerome, Ambrose, John Chrysostum, and others.
= The state of intellectual freedom, largely reflecting Greek philosophy, existing before Constanine was thence eroded to nothing by the end of the sixth century.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2011, 06:39:07 AM
Quote from: Feanor on February 02, 2011, 06:33:42 AM
Freeman expresses good deal of speculation and opinion

That pretty much sums it up.

Just curious: does he mention the time and place when Constantine was officially proclaimed a saint by the Church?



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 02, 2011, 07:51:32 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2011, 06:39:07 AM
That pretty much sums it up.

Just curious: does he mention the time and place when Constantine was officially proclaimed a saint by the Church?

Freeman doesn't talk about this.  However ...

Quote from: Florestan on December 28, 2010, 11:56:40 AM
...
(3) St. Constantine did nothing more officially than acknowledging a state of affairs --- from a de facto state he moved on to a de jure state.
...

I noticed that you put the "St." in front of his name.  Apparently he is a saint of the Eastern Orthadox Church, (confirmed by Wikipedia), but not the Roman Catholic Church.  Apparently the latter has some nit-picking pertaining to his late, formal conversion.  (I don't pretend to understand this hair-splitting and tend to dismiss it as political manovering.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2011, 08:59:21 AM
Quote from: Feanor on February 02, 2011, 07:51:32 AM

Freeman doesn't talk about this. 

That's because there never was a formal proclamation of the Church elevating Constantine to sainthood. He and his mother Helene gained this status by way of tradition, which in the Eastern Orthodox Church (and Roman Catholic Church as well) is just as authoritative as the Bible itself. It is the general piety that made them saints, not a formal decree. Why the RCC does not recognize him as a saint, I don't know.

BTW, Theodosius' Edict of Thessalonica was issued in 380, not 381. An error of one full year in dating a well-documented historical event doesn't look like anything based on "good, current historic research".

If you want a truly scholarly presentation of the issue, you might try this book. (The other 4 volumes of the series are equally valuable).

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DBQVD4Y8L._SS500_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 02, 2011, 09:17:59 AM
Great discussion, gents.  For a very quick overview of the Catholic Church, I would rec, this one (as posted some time back):

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511DQJ5PHAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 02, 2011, 09:23:14 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2011, 08:59:21 AM...

BTW, Theodosius' Edict of Thessalonica was issued in 380, not 381. An error of one full year in dating a well-documented historical event doesn't look like anything based on "good, current historic research".

If you want a truly scholarly presentation of the issue, you might try this book. (The other 4 volumes of the series are equally valuable).
...

Yes, I checked and you are right about the 380 date for the Edict.  However I thing 381 was my mistake, not Freeman's: I was confusing the Edict with his discussion of the First Council of Constantinople wherein the trinity was further defined and various "heresies" condemned.

Thank you for your referal to the Pelikan book, but I'm unlikely to read it doe to insufficient interest in theological hair-splitting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 02, 2011, 09:28:22 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 02, 2011, 09:17:59 AM
Great discussion, gents.  For a very quick overview of the Catholic Church, I would rec, this one (as posted some time back):

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511DQJ5PHAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Catholic triumphalism (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/triumphalism), eh?  It ain't going to happen, broh.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2011, 09:43:39 AM
Quote from: Feanor on February 02, 2011, 09:23:14 AM
Thank you for your referal to the Pelikan book, but I'm unlikely to read it doe to insufficient interest in theological hair-splitting.

Ah, great. The rants of Freeman, who comes out as unfamiliar with most of the issues he tackles and even plainly ignorant of some basic Bible and ancient history facts, make a good book, while a scholarly treatise which is carefully researched and universally praised in the academic environment and addresses exactly the same issues as Freeman is dismissed as "theological hair-splitting". Very interesting --- and telling. It's like dismissing a scholarly history of the Roman Empire because it fails to mention any emperor fighting gladiators in the arena --- and hey, everybody knows that Commodus did just that.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 02, 2011, 10:25:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2011, 09:43:39 AM
Ah, great. The rants of Freeman, who comes out as unfamiliar with most of the issues he tackles and even plainly ignorant of some basic Bible and ancient history facts, make a good book, while a scholarly treatise which is carefully researched and universally praised in the academic environment and addresses exactly the same issues as Freeman is dismissed as "theological hair-splitting". Very interesting --- and telling. It's like dismissing a scholarly history of the Roman Empire because it fails to mention any emperor fighting gladiators in the arena --- and hey, everybody knows that Commodus did just that.  ;D

Again, no reason to blame Freeman for my choice of words: "hair-splitting" is my terminology.  But please watch your own choice of words: I'm not dismissing Pelikan; I said what I meant, i.e. I'm not interested in the fine points of theology.  As Freeman did say, it's all speculation that can be proven neither by empirical observation nor by literal reference to the scriptures (which are dubious in their own right).

I have caught you in gross errors, e.g. that the majority of the popluation of the Empire were Christians, so I'm scarcely going to take your word for it that Freeman is "plainly ignornant".  (Did you say that you had actually read an of his books?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2011, 10:37:16 AM
Quote from: Feanor on February 02, 2011, 10:25:00 AM
I said what I meant, i.e. I'm not interested in the fine points of theology. 

Then why do you read books on Early Christianity, which is exactly about fine points of theology?

Quote from: Feanor on February 02, 2011, 10:25:00 AM
Did you say that you had actually read his book?

I wouldn't waste my time reading a book which claims that Saul was David's father or that Paul did not believe in the physical ressurection of Christ. If he has it wrong on facts that can be correctly gathered from even a cursory reading of the Bible I'm afraid I can't take him seriously on anything. And that's just my last comment on the topic.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 02, 2011, 11:59:15 AM
[asin]0441142044
[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 02, 2011, 12:08:58 PM
Quote from: mn dave on February 02, 2011, 11:59:15 AM
[asin]0441142044
[/asin]

I'd say this book lacks substance.   ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 03, 2011, 04:13:34 AM
(http://www.polirom.ro/_images/esantioane/3094/coperta1.jpg)

John Fowles --- The French Lieutenant's Woman

Excellent. Much more so when the place of the action can be visualized, and the steps of the characters traced, on Google Earth.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 03, 2011, 04:22:22 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on February 02, 2011, 12:08:58 PM
I'd say this book lacks substance.   ???

DEATH OF A DISSIDENT - Stuart M. Kaminsky
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 03, 2011, 05:40:40 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2011, 10:37:16 AM
Then why do you read books on Early Christianity, which is exactly about fine points of theology?

Freeman's book is rather more about politics and power than about theology, but since theology was the pretext for so much of the relentless squabbling and in-fighting in the early Church, (and the subsequent Church), it is necessary talk about it.

Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2011, 10:37:16 AM
I wouldn't waste my time reading a book which claims that Saul was David's father or that Paul did not believe in the physical ressurection of Christ. If he has it wrong on facts that can be correctly gathered from even a cursory reading of the Bible I'm afraid I can't take him seriously on anything. And that's just my last comment on the topic.

Well maybe you ought to read the book before (mis)quoting it.  I dont' recall Freeman expounding the theory that David was Saul's son in the book in question; maybe I'm forgetful but I'd rather be reminded by somebody who's actually read the book.

Freeman suggests that Paul might have believed in a spiritual ressurection of Jesus rather than necessarily a physical ressurection.  This is a reasonable suggestion based on the Letters thought by scholars to have actually been written by Paul, (not necessarily on those gratuitously attributed to him, or on Acts).

And this is without giving much consideration to the possibility that Paul's writings were "diddled" by later scribes who sought to "clarify" what he said; in the regard some might want to consult ...

Bart D. Ehrman: Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513X2vYD6NL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 03, 2011, 06:22:59 AM
Quote from: Feanor on February 03, 2011, 05:40:40 AM
Well maybe you ought to read the book before (mis)quoting it.  I dont' recall Freeman expounding the theory that David was Saul's son in the book in question; maybe I'm forgetful but I'd rather be reminded by somebody who's actually read the book.

See page 9. Of course, it's not a theory but a gross blunder, since David's father was Jesse. It's really embarrassing for an author who pretends his book is based on modern historical research to hugely miss the mark on the first pages.

Quote
Freeman suggests that Paul might have believed in a spiritual ressurection of Jesus rather than necessarily a physical ressurection.

Actually, when Paul speaks about Christ appearing to him he uses the Greek words "soma" and "ophthe", both implying flesh, body, physical appearance.

Quote
This is a reasonable suggestion based on the Letters thought by scholars to have actually been written by Paul, (not necessarily on those gratuitously attributed to him, or on Acts).

Who are these scholars? Does Freeman mention any name? Which of Paul's Letters are authentic and which ones are spurious?

Look, Bill, bottom line: you read what you like and like what tends to agree with, or support, your own vision. I have no problem with that, since I do the same. But this Freeman, far from suggesting anything new, seems to recirculate all the old Gibbon-esque myths and fabrications about Early Christianity, its raise to prominence in the Roman Empire and its social, cultural and intellectual impact, that have been dispelled long ago by modern scholars, while making blatantly false claims like the one above about Saul and David, or advancing absurdly contrived hypotheses like... Caiaphas stealing Christ's body! For God's sake (pun intended), is this a scholarly book or some sort of Gothic novel?

For all your reluctance to read Pelikan's work, I still suggest you at least try. It will offer you a much broader and balanced picture about why, how and in what circumstances the Orthodox / Catholic Church was established and her dogmas defined. It might even change some of your views.

But hey, even if you won't read it, I think the world's big enough to accommodate both of us. You stick to Freeman, I stick to Pelikan... and we can both be happy listening to some music.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 03, 2011, 08:40:03 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 03, 2011, 06:22:59 AM
...
Look, Bill, bottom line: you read what you like and like what tends to agree with, or support, your own vision. I have no problem with that, since I do the same. But this Freeman, far from suggesting anything new, seems to recirculate all the old Gibbon-esque myths and fabrications about Early Christianity, its raise to prominence in the Roman Empire and its social, cultural and intellectual impact, that have been dispelled long ago by modern scholars, while making blatantly false claims like the one above about Saul and David, or advancing absurdly contrived hypotheses like... Caiaphas stealing Christ's body! For God's sake (pun intended), is this a scholarly book or some sort of Gothic novel?

For all your reluctance to read Pelikan's work, I still suggest you at least try. It will offer you a much broader and balanced picture about why, how and in what circumstances the Orthodox / Catholic Church was established and her dogmas defined. It might even change some of your views.
...

Of course I will agree that naming David Saul's son is a blatant error; it's surpising the Freeman's editor missed it.  And I'll agree too that theory that Caiaphas stole Jesus' body is far-fetched.  Nevertheless a few such lapses don't invalidate an entire book -- unless the critic is totally biased to a contrary point of view.  Indeed, this is the nature of most of the negative reviews on Amazon.com (for example).

I am an atheist and materialist; fundamentally I see all theology as bunk.  It consists of sets of notions that are unprovable by empirable evidence; furthermore they are unprovable by recourse to scriptures which in case of the Christian gospels are 2nd or 3rd hand and contradictory at best. Thus it is really, really easy for me to see theology-based conflict as basically political power struggle for influence and wealth -- this especially after the state afforded the bishops much patronage and power in civil matters.

I will look for Pelikan's book. Very likely I will read it if it's available at the public library, otherwise we shall see.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 03, 2011, 09:02:04 AM
Quote from: Feanor on February 03, 2011, 08:40:03 AM
I am an atheist and materialist; fundamentally I see all theology as bunk.  It consists of sets of notions that are unprovable by empirable evidence; furthermore they are unprovable by recourse to scriptures which in case of the Christian gospels are 2nd or 3rd hand and contradictory at best. Thus it is really, really easy for me to see theology-based conflict as basically political power struggle for influence and wealth -- this especially after the state afforded the bishops much patronage and power in civil matters.

All these notwithstanding --- and I'm not going to start another debate over what I find questionable --- Christian theology is part and parcel of our heritage and had a tremendous impact on the European social, cultural and intellectual life. It is impossible to understand, for instance, Dante, Michelangelo, Bach or Dostoievsky without any reference to it. It is equally impossible to understand the birth of science without any reference to it. Therefore some basic knowledge about its history and basic tenets could only be helpful for anyone seeking to understand the origins and the evolution of what we call Western civilization (Byzantium and Eastern Europe included).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 04, 2011, 04:54:40 AM
[asin]0843957786[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on February 04, 2011, 04:57:21 AM
Alexander Waugh, The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Solitary Wanderer on February 04, 2011, 05:58:44 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Never_Cry_Wolf_%28book%29.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 04, 2011, 06:20:58 PM
Taking the lead from our Minnesota friend:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/fc/63/bbb4729fd7a02d5c64c3e010.L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 04, 2011, 06:22:07 PM
Quote from: mn dave on February 04, 2011, 04:54:40 AM
[asin]0843957786[/asin]

Used to read her comic books.  A gent over on the monster forum I chatted with, Terry Beatty, did the art for them.  Cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on February 05, 2011, 12:53:00 AM
The Westminster Alice
Hector Hugh Munro  (Saki)
A political parody based on Lewis Carroll's Wonderland
Great fun. I know almost nothing about the BoerWar, much less about English politics at the time so this is a nice  way of getting acquainted with some of the people.  I knew the Carroll original and had read some Saki short stories (had a collection that I seem to have given away).  Usefully annotated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 05, 2011, 03:54:08 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 04, 2011, 06:20:58 PM
Taking the lead from our Minnesota friend:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/fc/63/bbb4729fd7a02d5c64c3e010.L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

I've read like three or four Kaminskys and enjoyed them all. I have the Bela Lugosi one coming in the mail, and another as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 05, 2011, 03:54:38 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 04, 2011, 06:22:07 PM
Used to read her comic books.  A gent over on the monster forum I chatted with, Terry Beatty, did the art for them.  Cool.

The author posts on my book forum.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 05, 2011, 04:31:29 AM
Quote from: mn dave on February 05, 2011, 03:54:08 AM
I've read like three or four Kaminskys and enjoyed them all. I have the Bela Lugosi one coming in the mail, and another as well.

They did not have the first one in the series at my library, but they looked as if it were not a stretch to read a few out of order.  I almot snagged the WC Fields one, but when I saw the Peter Lorre....well ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 05, 2011, 05:59:13 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 05, 2011, 04:31:29 AM
They did not have the first one in the series at my library, but they looked as if it were not a stretch to read a few out of order.  I almot snagged the WC Fields one, but when I saw the Peter Lorre....well ;D

Let me know how you like 'em.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 05, 2011, 06:18:46 AM
Quote from: mn dave on February 05, 2011, 05:59:13 AM
Let me know how you like 'em.

Even with a busy week ahead, it should not take long to get through it.  Pretty short, which as you know can be a plus!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 05, 2011, 06:46:32 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 03, 2011, 09:02:04 AM
All these notwithstanding --- and I'm not going to start another debate over what I find questionable --- Christian theology is part and parcel of our heritage and had a tremendous impact on the European social, cultural and intellectual life. It is impossible to understand, for instance, Dante, Michelangelo, Bach or Dostoievsky without any reference to it. It is equally impossible to understand the birth of science without any reference to it. Therefore some basic knowledge about its history and basic tenets could only be helpful for anyone seeking to understand the origins and the evolution of what we call Western civilization (Byzantium and Eastern Europe included).
By the way, Florestan, I do agree with every single word you say in the paragraph above.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 05, 2011, 07:47:59 AM
Quote from: mn dave on February 05, 2011, 05:59:13 AM
Let me know how you like 'em.

Three chapters in.  This guy NAILED Lorre!  I could just imagine being there during their conversation.  The side characters are first rate as well and the time period and Hollywood setting are perfect for my tastes.  Did I say how well he nailed Lorre? ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 05, 2011, 08:55:00 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 05, 2011, 07:47:59 AM
Three chapters in.  This guy NAILED Lorre!  I could just imagine being there during their conversation.  The side characters are first rate as well and the time period and Hollywood setting are perfect for my tastes.  Did I say how well he nailed Lorre? ;D

He was a professor of film. Died just recently unfortunately.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 05, 2011, 09:01:56 AM
An amazing story called The Three Strangers.  From Thomas Hardy's collection "Wessex Tales."

[asin]0199538522[/asin]

Also in this collection.

[asin]0679601287[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 06, 2011, 06:53:26 AM
Quote from: Feanor on February 05, 2011, 06:46:32 AM
By the way, Florestan, I do agree with every single word you say in the paragraph above.

0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 06, 2011, 09:09:38 AM
Quote from: mn dave on February 05, 2011, 05:59:13 AM
Let me know how you like 'em.

Finished up the Lorre Kaminsky one this morning.  What a fun ride.  His characters are so well done (the Greenstreet cameo was priceless!) and the settings are an absolute kick to visit.  I have another upstairs (which I believe features Stokowski!).  I went to a used book shop that I frequently haunt to look for some more of his books.  One of the guys there is a crime-fiction fan and enjoys zombie books as well. ;D  He had never heard os Kaminsky and they did not have any of his books on the shelf.  He is going to give him a try as well.  I may either start the Kaminsky book or give one of these two a try today:

[asin]0385340575[/asin] [asin]1605981354[/asin]

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 06, 2011, 10:31:48 AM
Looks like some good readin' there, Bill.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on February 06, 2011, 10:02:55 PM
Up next:
[asin]B002VKL10U[/asin]
(http://ztatic.net/grphx/lit/hells%20angels1.jpg)
(http://images.filedby.com/bookimg/0679/9780679406952.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on February 07, 2011, 01:01:56 AM
That top book is supposed to be the original scroll of On the Road by Jackyboy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 07, 2011, 01:38:14 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 06, 2011, 09:09:38 AM
[asin]1605981354[/asin]

Bill, could you please let me know what works by Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Pushkin and Tolstoy are featured in this book? TIA.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 07, 2011, 02:51:12 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 07, 2011, 01:38:14 AM
Bill, could you please let me know what works by Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Pushkin and Tolstoy are featured in this book? TIA.

Have to head to work, but will post this evening.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 07, 2011, 03:47:36 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51p5bxCXQwL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Excellent so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 07, 2011, 03:51:04 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 07, 2011, 01:38:14 AM
Bill, could you please let me know what works by Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Pushkin and Tolstoy are featured in this book? TIA.

Co-sign!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 07, 2011, 04:53:09 PM
Here you are gents.  I went with the Lee novel on the previous page, but may get to this after.  (Dave, have you read any of Lee's works?)

Chekhov
The Swedish Match
Sleepy
The Head-Gardener's Story
The Bet

Dostoevsky
Murder from Crime and Punishment

Gogol
The Overcoat

Pushkin
The Queen of Spades

Tolstoy
God Sees the Truth, but Waits
Too Dear
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 08, 2011, 12:08:31 AM
Thank you, Bill.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 08, 2011, 03:44:44 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 07, 2011, 04:53:09 PM
Here you are gents.  I went with the Lee novel on the previous page, but may get to this after.  (Dave, have you read any of Lee's works?)

I've read one of them and was entertained. That was a while back. A solid thriller.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 08, 2011, 05:42:02 PM
Quote from: mn dave on February 08, 2011, 03:44:44 AM
I've read one of them and was entertained. That was a while back. A solid thriller.

"entertained" is a good word for it.  The one I am reading is #14 in the series....but still holds up nicely without background of the others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 09, 2011, 01:11:54 AM
Thanks, Bill! This one...

Quote from: Bogey on February 07, 2011, 04:53:09 PM
Gogol
The Overcoat

...is a spooky read.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 09, 2011, 03:46:57 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 08, 2011, 05:42:02 PM
"entertained" is a good word for it.  The one I am reading is #14 in the series....but still holds up nicely without background of the others.

Free e-pulp by the bucket-load is to be found. Now I'm reading Ed Lacy's ROOM TO SWING.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 11, 2011, 06:29:11 AM
The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells.   (Read it as a free Kindle download.  No, I don't have a Kindle, used the Kindle application for Windows).

A fascinating book.  Actually, I found the framing story (constructing the time machine and explaining it to his friends) more interesting than the events that the Time Traveler witnesses in the future (seeing the bizarre future of the human race)  but it was a very engaging story.  It was also fascinating that time as a fourth dimension had been discussed long before Einstein's theory showed that it was a physical necessity.
 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on February 11, 2011, 06:35:38 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on February 11, 2011, 06:29:11 AM
The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells.   (Read it as a free Kindle download.  No, I don't have a Kindle, used the Kindle application for Windows). 

Oh, didn't know about that. Although I don't like to read books on the computer, I think that app could come in handy in certain cases. Now I just need to check if Amazon sells e-books to buyers outside the US.

Oh, and thread duty: The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on February 11, 2011, 06:38:07 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 11, 2011, 06:35:38 AM
Oh, didn't know about that. Although I don't like to read books on the computer, I think that app could come in handy in certain cases. Now I just need to check if Amazon sells e-books to buyers outside the US.

Neither do I prefer reading on the computer.  But the choice was paying $0 and reading immediately, or paying $10 and waiting a week.  No brainer.  Now paying for the book and reading on the computer, that is another thing.

That said, the "free" books on Amazon have low production value.  They seem to be made from machine scanning of printed matter with little or no editing to fix problems.   For instance, the paragraph breaks in "The Time Machine" seem to be somewhat mangled.  Not a problem here, this is Wells, not Proust, but it would be a problem in a more subtle text.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FideLeo on February 11, 2011, 06:41:07 AM
Fabulous. Those who have checked out the British Museum - BBC website would probably want one hard copy for reading in bed, keepsake etc.

[asin]1846144132[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 11, 2011, 08:13:15 AM
Read this book if you have the least doubt about what the crypto-fascist Pharisees of the American "Christian Right" are up to ...

Chris Hedges: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

(http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/51XzRFBvsqL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on February 15, 2011, 08:55:51 AM
An audio version of:
[asin]1842127179[/asin]

It's a decent book, it quite well describes why the two fleets were in such relatively good and poor psychological states, and Villeneuve comes across as more sympathetic than usual (deservedly so). It also gives a great movie-like sense of the events gradually unfolding. My only criticism is not about the book itself - it's the narrator (Tony Barbour), who has a familiar "silky" American delivery quite common in audiobooks which I find slightly difficult to enjoy. At times there is a Zapp Brannigan edge to his voice which is quite delightful in the context of what he is reading.

Edit: now onto:

[asin]0140449914[/asin]

I was nervous about whether I should bother reading 700 pages of this given the strong reservations the translator has about the impossibility of accurately translating Hašek's manner of writing, but I'll give it a try.

Edit2: this really doesn't read particularly well in English.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on February 21, 2011, 08:41:15 AM
(http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/olid/OL7949330M-M.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 21, 2011, 09:27:27 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on February 15, 2011, 08:55:51 AM
[asin]0140449914[/asin]

I was nervous about whether I should bother reading 700 pages of this given the strong reservations the translator has about the impossibility of accurately translating Hašek's manner of writing, but I'll give it a try.

Edit2: this really doesn't read particularly well in English.

Don't know about English, but the Romanian translation is a classic on its own, one of the funniest book I've ever read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on February 21, 2011, 09:31:42 AM
The main problem I have so far is that it alludes to a lot of small things that I have little understanding of - this on its own is not a problem usually, but it's always delivered with a style of wordplay that doesn't seem to translate very well. It makes me feel like I'm watching a French dub of a Laurel and Hardy sketch - I understand a fair amount of what is being said, but the over-arching logic is lost on me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on February 21, 2011, 10:21:33 AM
At a fundraising booksale for the Humane Society, I got the following four books:

The Stand - Stephen King

Tai-pan - James Clavell

The Godfather Returns - Mark Winegardner (based on the characters created by Mario Puzo)

The Glenn Gould Reader - Edited and with an Introduction by Tim Page
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 21, 2011, 05:13:24 PM
A World Without Ice (2009) by Henry Pollack, Ph.D. (Professor U. of Michigan) - shared the Nobel Prize recently - Amazonian reviews HERE (http://www.amazon.com/World-Without-Ph-D-Henry-Pollack/dp/1583333576) w/ an overall 4* rating (but a few rather STUPID comments have lowered the rating of this concept on global warming) - just for some interest - if the entire ice frozen in Greenland disappeared, the oceans would rise 25 feet (this would cover Key West which Susan & I are about to vacation on Saturday); if the entire ice on the planet melted, the sea level would rise 250 feet! Think of all the great coastal cities around the world - the concepts, theories, predictions remain confusing and unpredictable, but the book is compelling - a GREAT read if you're interested in 'global warming' - :-\


(http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/WorldWithoutIce_PB-9781583334072.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on February 22, 2011, 01:09:29 AM
WALTER BENJAMIN:        Gesammelt Schriften

Several articles and essays written between the two WW. The best are the articles about the aesthetic of Romantism, in special about the tragedies of Hebbel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on February 23, 2011, 08:20:27 AM
Currently reading Maria Edgeworth. Ruskin's evaluation of her books as 'the most re-readable in existence' is perhaps a little out of date now but there is plenty of substance from someone who is clearly a very intelligent writer. There are long paragraphs that you can't stop reading. One such is in a letter from Mrs Stanhope to the eponymous heroine in 'Belinda' that runs to 150 lines (about 1500 words). It rattles on like an express train and you're through before you know it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 23, 2011, 08:31:05 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on February 21, 2011, 09:31:42 AM
The main problem I have so far is that it alludes to a lot of small things that I have little understanding of - this on its own is not a problem usually, but it's always delivered with a style of wordplay that doesn't seem to translate very well. It makes me feel like I'm watching a French dub of a Laurel and Hardy sketch - I understand a fair amount of what is being said, but the over-arching logic is lost on me.

The Good Soldier Svejk is one of my favorite comedies, so I'll weigh in. That's the more satisfactory of the two wholly unsatisfactory English translations. The other one excises all the bad language and sexual stuff.

I consider Svejk a sort of Don Quixote war novel. It's really, really episodic. There's not much "structure"; as Svejk rambles, so the story rambles. There is a lot of slightly garbled wordplay and it's really rooted in its setting, though that can be atmospheric and charming. I found a lot of individual stories utterly hilarious - like the evil inspector who gets eaten by his dogs early on. I read the novel for a literature course, and the professor did touch on the cultural factor: Svejk has become a Czech archetypal character, like Quixote, but a character which our lores just don't have. He's uniquely Czech. He's an innocent, such that you can't tell if he's really naive or secretly a total genius at avoiding combat. That's one question we really probed over and over again in our discussions: is Svejk a moron who bounces into good fortune or is he cunning?

Anyway, he is an archetype we don't have. I have no clue who could play him in a movie. I really hope, though, that you find him as compelling and funny as I did. One caveat: the book later on becomes extremely repetitive with more silly adventures, and our professor actually recommended skipping over several parts - if I remember correctly, he recommended cutting from page 250 to 500, or something like that. That's another respect in which it's like Don Quixote: swallowing it all in one go isn't mandatory.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on February 25, 2011, 08:56:29 AM
Trapped by Jack Kilborn. It's awful and I'm giving up on it (ridiculously gruesome and amateurishly written). Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian or Wendy Lesser's Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets will be next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on February 27, 2011, 07:36:31 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on February 06, 2011, 10:02:55 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HD210LT8L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100062822/hells-angels-strange-terrible-saga-hunter-s-thompson-hardcover-cover-art.jpg)

A great paired reading. I found both books sad, and their endings melancholy. The search for the American Dream, a futile pursuit, in their cases, both centered around madness and a loss of innocence.

Currently reading: Like 14 books on Sierra Leone and Liberia for school.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 28, 2011, 07:55:27 AM
Quote from: Eusebius on February 02, 2011, 08:59:21 AM
...
If you want a truly scholarly presentation of the issue, you might try this book. (The other 4 volumes of the series are equally valuable).

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DBQVD4Y8L._SS500_.jpg)

FWIW, I have begun to read this book.  So far it seems a scholarly but much drier tome than Charles Freeman's A New History of Early Christianity. Versus Freeman's, this book (1) doesn't discuss the provinence of canonic scriptures, or (2) doesn't provide much non-religious context, and (3) is arrange topically overall rather than chronologically.

Pelikan believes that though doctrine, (beliefs>teachings>dogmas), evolved, it had a consistent mainstream, (my term), always tending to a unified conclusion;  from this mainstream various different opinions diverged, hence on account of their divergent nature can legitimately be called heresies.

Eusebius? Really?  Is there one particlar Eusebius of the many of the name after which you choose your moniker?  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 28, 2011, 09:24:58 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on February 28, 2011, 07:55:27 AM
Eusebius? Really?  Is there one particlar Eusebius of the many of the name after which you choose your moniker?  ;)

After Florestan had to go for security reasons, Eusebius was the logical choice.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on March 01, 2011, 07:57:54 AM
Quote from: Eusebius on February 28, 2011, 09:24:58 AM
After Florestan had to go for security reasons, Eusebius was the logical choice.  :)

But you're being enigmatic, Eusebius/Florestan.  :D  A little "disambiguation" is in order: which "Eusebius" do you honour?

. Eusebius (praepositus sacri cubiculi), under Constantius II
. Eusebius of Alexandria (6th century), Christian author
. Eusebius of Angers (died 1081), bishop of Angers
. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263 – c. 339), early Christian bishop and historian. <== most probable??
. Saint Eusebius of Cremona (died c. 423)
. Eusebius of Dorylaeum (5th century), bishop of Dorylaeum, opponent of Nestorianism and Monophysistism
. Eusebius of Emesa (300–360), bishop of Emesa
. Eusebius of Laodicea (died c. 268), bishop of Laodicea
. Eusebius of Nicomedia (died 341), bishop of Berytus, Nicomedia and Constantinople, leader of Arianism
. Saint Eusebius of Rome (died c. 357), priest and martyr
. Saint Eusebius of Samosata (died c. 380), bishop of Samosata
. Saint Eusebius of Vercelli (283–381), bishop of Vercelli, opponent of Arianism
. Pope Eusebius (died after 310), Pope in 309 or 310.
. Eusebius, one of the personae of Robert Schumann
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on March 01, 2011, 08:17:25 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on March 01, 2011, 07:57:54 AM
. Eusebius, one of the personae of Robert Schumann

The gun has been pointed at my head, so I pick this one.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 01, 2011, 10:53:41 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on March 01, 2011, 07:57:54 AM
But you're being enigmatic, Eusebius/Florestan.  :D  A little "disambiguation" is in order: which "Eusebius" do you honour?

. Eusebius (praepositus sacri cubiculi), under Constantius II
. Eusebius of Alexandria (6th century), Christian author
. Eusebius of Angers (died 1081), bishop of Angers
. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263 – c. 339), early Christian bishop and historian. <== most probable??
. Saint Eusebius of Cremona (died c. 423)
. Eusebius of Dorylaeum (5th century), bishop of Dorylaeum, opponent of Nestorianism and Monophysistism
. Eusebius of Emesa (300–360), bishop of Emesa
. Eusebius of Laodicea (died c. 268), bishop of Laodicea
. Eusebius of Nicomedia (died 341), bishop of Berytus, Nicomedia and Constantinople, leader of Arianism
. Saint Eusebius of Rome (died c. 357), priest and martyr
. Saint Eusebius of Samosata (died c. 380), bishop of Samosata
. Saint Eusebius of Vercelli (283–381), bishop of Vercelli, opponent of Arianism
. Pope Eusebius (died after 310), Pope in 309 or 310.
. Eusebius, one of the personae of Robert Schumann

I really appreciate your (or rather, Wikipedia's) erudition, but it seems to me that the only one that can be associated in any meaningful way with Florestan is the last one.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on March 01, 2011, 03:52:13 PM
Quote from: Eusebius on March 01, 2011, 10:53:41 AM
I really appreciate your (or rather, Wikipedia's) erudition, but it seems to me that the only one that can be associated in any meaningful way with Florestan is the last one.  ;D

Ah! Of course!

With recourse (once again) to the Wikipedia, I see what you're talking about.

My only excuse??  Robert Schumann is probably my leasted favourite of all the well-know composers.  And I'm no fan of the Romantic era in general.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 02, 2011, 01:02:04 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on March 01, 2011, 03:52:13 PM
Ah! Of course!

With recourse (once again) to the Wikipedia, I see what you're talking about.

My only excuse??  Robert Schumann is probably my leasted favourite of all the well-know composers.  And I'm no fan of the Romantic era in general.

And now I see why you were puzzled.  :)

Kind of a favorite name among bishops, ain't it?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on March 02, 2011, 08:08:32 AM
DROOD by Dan Simmons is off to a fine start.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 02, 2011, 06:15:52 PM
Quote from: Dreadknight on March 02, 2011, 08:08:32 AM
DROOD by Dan Simmons is off to a fine start.

Yo, Dave, have you ever given this a try.  Just got the first one from the library and hope to start it this weekend after finishing the Reacher novel (which has been entertaining...not great, but entertaining):

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41m9wegmDsL._AA300_.jpg)

http://www.amazon.com/Berlin-Noir-Violets-Criminal-Requiem/dp/0140231706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299122040&sr=8-1

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on March 02, 2011, 06:30:47 PM
Quote from: Bogey on March 02, 2011, 06:15:52 PM
Yo, Dave, have you ever given this a try. 

No, sir. Hope you like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on March 07, 2011, 07:18:56 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/12/genre-versus-literary-fiction-edward-docx
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on March 07, 2011, 07:46:27 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 07, 2011, 07:18:56 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/12/genre-versus-literary-fiction-edward-docx
Sour grapes from a literary novelist so obsessed with whining about the plebeian tastes of the masses that he's unable to distinguish the differences in both quality and kind between Dan Brown and Steig Larsson, writers indicted mostly for failing to measure up to the impeccable taste, skill, and genius of the piece's author.  </sarcasm>
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on March 07, 2011, 07:50:49 AM
IT - Stephen King

The first 2/3 or 3/4 of the book were great.  The final 200 pages were a big waste of time and a major let down.  I was anticipating a major confrontation being Bill, Beverley and Audra and Tom, which never materialized.  It was built up, and almost like King forgot about it and let it fall by the wayside.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on March 07, 2011, 08:21:07 AM
Quote from: Sherman Peabody on March 07, 2011, 07:46:27 AM
Sour grapes from a literary novelist so obsessed with whining about the plebeian tastes of the masses that he's unable to distinguish the differences in both quality and kind between Dan Brown and Steig Larsson, writers indicted mostly for failing to measure up to the impeccable taste, skill, and genius of the piece's author.  </sarcasm>

kind of the same argument in favor of Andre Rieu & John Tesh vs.  James Levin & Pierre-Laurent Aimard

lets get rid of all those pointy-headed intellectuals who won't pander to the lowest common denominator
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 07, 2011, 08:28:37 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on March 07, 2011, 08:21:07 AM
kind of the same argument in favor of Andre Rieu & John Tesh vs.  James Levin & Pierre-Laurent Aimard

lets get rid of all those pointy-headed intellectuals who won't pander to the lowest common denominator

There is a different between creating great things and writing idiotic "think pieces" about how "my stuff is better despite the fact that no one has ever heard of me."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on March 07, 2011, 08:37:08 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on March 07, 2011, 08:21:07 AM
kind of the same argument in favor of Andre Rieu & John Tesh vs.  James Levin & Pierre-Laurent Aimard

lets get rid of all those pointy-headed intellectuals who won't pander to the lowest common denominator
I wouldn't attack a hamburger for not being filet mignon, a grill cook for not being a Michelin chef, nor the fellow who grabs an In-and-Out burger on the fly as a congenital moron incapable of appreciating what a sophisticated palate might prefer.  Doing so would reveal much about my shortcomings and nothing at all about those I attack.

Docx doesn't compare Rieu (faux classical) and Aimard but Manilow (genre pop) and Mahler. 

Edit: typo corrected.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 07, 2011, 08:42:45 AM
I read Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code (actually listened to it on a cross-country drive).  There is nothing particularly artistic or literary about his prose but it was a very engaging suspense story.  But I take it he hasn't written anything else which is anything other than a less successful application of the same formula.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on March 07, 2011, 09:11:40 AM
Quote from: Sherman Peabody on March 07, 2011, 08:37:08 AM
I wouldn't attack a hamburger for not being filet mignon,
Edit: typo corrected.

neither does docx
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on March 07, 2011, 09:18:43 AM
(http://www.tradebit.com/usr/ebook-reader/pub/9002/8994978051138101064340Pic.jpg)

A very practical and applicable read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on March 08, 2011, 03:09:13 AM
Is Hawthorne's Fanshawe worth reading or is it juvenilia?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on March 08, 2011, 10:30:47 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YRaeXwFEL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Recently finished Antony Beevor's Stalingrad. He eschews the operational nitty-gritty you find in writers like Glantz, instead opting very effectively to meld grand strategic concerns with vividly told anecdotes illustrating the tragedy on a human scale. Beevor does an excellent job conveying the colossal ugliness and stupidity of Barbarossa, the battle for Stalingrad, and its aftermath, as well as the great bravery, fortitude, and suffering of individuals caught in the vast mess.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 08, 2011, 04:19:00 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on March 08, 2011, 03:09:13 AM
Is Hawthorne's Fanshawe worth reading or is it juvenilia?

Well, Hawthorne renounced it, so you'd be justified in skipping it, but I think anything written by Hawthorne is worth reading once.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on March 14, 2011, 06:26:55 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 07, 2011, 07:18:56 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/12/genre-versus-literary-fiction-edward-docx

The thing about these sorts of critics is that they take great pains to criticize popular authors for writing pedestrian sentences but would never credit these sort of authors for weaving imaginative plots, convincing characters or for simply managing to involve the reader. The ability to construct great sentences of lasting beauty is one sort of talent whose lack does not make an author capable of generating wonderful plots, ideas and images any less significant than an author who generates beautiful sentences and dull everything else. And oh yea, I tried to listen to "The Da Vinci Code" on audio-cd and it seemed too hammy for me and couldn't even make it 20 minutes of the movie version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo." But I write this because it's likely that Edward Docx holds the same view towards many novels I appreciated and enjoyed -- James Clavell's Shogun and King Rat, Frank Herbert's Dune, Stephen King's The Shining, the science fiction of Isaac Asimov, etc.  These works have a far better chance of being read by subsequent generations than any of the literary award winners from the last fifteen years yet the likes of Edward Doxc are simply blind to them. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the insistence that it is the readers of popular fiction who are the blind ones. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on March 14, 2011, 07:57:40 PM
Furthermore, the writing in modern literary fiction is often simply downright atrocious:

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2001/07/myers.htm
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on March 14, 2011, 08:36:59 PM
Quote from: -abe- on March 14, 2011, 07:57:40 PM
Furthermore, the writing in modern literary fiction is often simply downright atrocious:
I agree with this. Contemporary "literary" fiction is a genre like any other, and as with any other genre, most of it is not worth reading. But, somehow, having obtained a "degree" in creative writing automatically elevates anything you write to a higher plane.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on March 15, 2011, 06:34:06 AM
The Civil War of 1812 (2010) by Alan Taylor - not a 'general' book on the War of 1812, i.e. not about Andy Jackson & New Orleans, burning of the White House, or the writing of the US national anthem in Baltimore.  This narrative concentrates on the war revolving around the American-Canadian border - just starting; reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-1812-American-Citizens/dp/1400042658), which are quite good.  :D


(http://www.bookapex.com/images/The-Civil-War-of-1812-American-Citizens-British-Subjects-Irish-Rebels-Indian-Allies-1400042658-L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 15, 2011, 06:44:37 AM
Why Begins with W, presented by Hamish De'Lamet & Chandral Ramon . . . it was a lot of fun the first time, and remains great fun on a re-read

Is That What People Do?, collected short stories by Robert Sheckley . . . in the wake of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Sheckley's publisher reissued some paperbacks with a blurb from Douglas Adams: "I had no idea the competition was so terrifyingly good." While I have something of a fond preference for Dramocles: An Inter-Galactic Soap Opera, some of the short stories I like scarcely less well.  In particular, "The Robot Who Looked Like Me."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on March 16, 2011, 02:25:48 AM
Does anybody know any authors who wrote things similar to the short stories of MR James and Lovecraft? Specifically from their generation - earlier writers such as Poe and Shelley are too well-known and write in more florid English: there is something about James and Lovecraft which feels so direct and clearly-written, yet also ideally retaining vestiges of the Romantic "afraid of the shadows" feelings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 16, 2011, 04:34:46 AM
If anyone know, MN Dave will . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 05:38:30 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on March 16, 2011, 02:25:48 AM
Does anybody know any authors who wrote things similar to the short stories of MR James and Lovecraft? Specifically from their generation - earlier writers such as Poe and Shelley are too well-known and write in more florid English: there is something about James and Lovecraft which feels so direct and clearly-written, yet also ideally retaining vestiges of the Romantic "afraid of the shadows" feelings.

Well, I disagree with your assessment of Lovecraft's style: it's awkward at best, filled with inappropriate anachronisms and descriptions that range from florid to turgid. One could argue against Romanticism in his work, too, as he was more rooted in a modern or even Modernist aesthetic.

But as for some similar authors of his day, many of his friends and correspondents wrote somewhat similar pulp horror, fantasy, or SF: Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard, etc. Check out The Horror in the Museum, which gathers most of his editing or ghost-writing work for contemporary authors writing in that vein.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 16, 2011, 07:51:53 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 05:38:30 AM
Well, I disagree with your assessment of Lovecraft's style: it's awkward at best, filled with inappropriate anachronisms and descriptions that range from florid to turgid. One could argue against Romanticism in his work, too, as he was more rooted in a modern or even Modernist aesthetic.

But as for some similar authors of his day, many of his friends and correspondents wrote somewhat similar pulp horror, fantasy, or SF: Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard, etc. Check out The Horror in the Museum, which gathers most of his editing or ghost-writing work for contemporary authors writing in that vein.

I disagree with your disagreement.  Lovecraft's style, although not a high literary form, is perfectly suited to his purpose.

To the original question, this collection may give some hints as to other writers who might be similar to Lovecraft

[asin]0679601287[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 16, 2011, 08:01:21 AM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on March 16, 2011, 07:51:53 AM
I disagree with your disagreement.  Lovecraft's style, although not a high literary form, is perfectly suited to his purpose.

Hear, hear.

Grazi, I think your remarks on the Film Music thread have sound application here:

Quote from: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 05:14:10 AM
You raise an interesting point. I think you're absolutely right in that the fair--and often the most edifying--way to approach an art form is to get inside it and approach it on its own terms . . . .

Or (as I've said before) historically, it is not that part of the audience which finds itself out of sympathy with the artist, to whom it is ultimately given to evaluate that artist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on March 16, 2011, 08:35:18 AM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on March 16, 2011, 07:51:53 AM
I disagree with your disagreement.  Lovecraft's style, although not a high literary form, is perfectly suited to his purpose.

To the original question, this collection may give some hints as to other writers who might be similar to Lovecraft

[asin]0679601287[/asin]

I second that recommendation.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 08:55:22 AM
Quote from: Apollon on March 16, 2011, 08:01:21 AM
Hear, hear.

Grazi, I think your remarks on the Film Music thread have sound application here:

Or (as I've said before) historically, it is not that part of the audience which finds itself out of sympathy with the artist, to whom it is ultimately given to evaluate that artist.

I understand your point, but fwiw, I spent years reading, enjoying, and studying the life and work of our dear friend from Providence. I've read all his fiction (and most of his obscure non-fiction), all the published letters, almost all of the biography and criticism then available, etc. In other words, I'm sympathetic  ;D

As much as I enjoyed his work, I have to admit that his prose style leaves much to be desired, with too much circumlocution, awkward archaisms (heck, he would have printed the stories with the long S if he'd be allowed!), and mannerisms that seem almost self-parodic by the time you've read the entire oeuvre.

"It is true that I have sent six bullets through the head of my best friend, and yet I hope to show by this statement that I am not his murderer. At first I shall be called a madman - madder than the man I shot in his cell at the Arkham Sanitarium. Later some of my readers will weigh each statement, correlate it with the known facts, and ask themselves how I could have believed otherwise than I did after facing the evidence of that horror - that thing on the doorstep."

"On the right of the hole out of which they wriggled, and seen through aisles of monoliths, was a stupendous vista of cyclopean round towers mounting up illimitable into the grey air of inner earth. This was the great city of the Gugs, whose doorways are thirty feet high."

= not good

That said, one could argue that his style works, after a degree, precisely in that it often apes a dead mode of expression ultimately rooted in the Enlightenment ("There has never been any prose as good as that of the early eighteenth century, and anyone who thinks he can improve upon Swift, Steele, and Addison is a blockhead."). One of HPL's chief philosophical aims in his tales is to undermine the smugness of rationality by exposing it to truths--"scientific" truths, crucially, and not supernatural ones--too difficult to handle. So, we get an interesting frisson when his men of reason are undone by the truth:

"The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. "

Ironic, of course, that HPL was fervent in his espousal of mechanistic materialism, and of science over dogma.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on March 16, 2011, 09:04:15 AM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on March 16, 2011, 07:51:53 AM
To the original question, this collection may give some hints as to other writers who might be similar to Lovecraft

[snip]

Hmm, there seem to be some older editions of this edited by one "Phyllis Fraser" - presumably prior to her marriage - for a lot cheaper. I picked up one of Amazon marketplace's popular 1p entries, danke!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 16, 2011, 09:08:07 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 08:55:22 AM
I understand your point, but fwiw, I spent years reading, enjoying, and studying the life and work of our dear friend from Providence. I've read all his fiction (and most of his obscure non-fiction), all the published letters, almost all of the biography and criticism then available, etc. In other words, I'm sympathetic  ;D

As much as I enjoyed his work, I have to admit that his prose style leaves much to be desired, with too much circumlocution, awkward archaisms (heck, he would have printed the stories with the long S if he'd be allowed!), and mannerisms that seem almost self-parodic by the time you've read the entire oeuvre.

"It is true that I have sent six bullets through the head of my best friend, and yet I hope to show by this statement that I am not his murderer. At first I shall be called a madman - madder than the man I shot in his cell at the Arkham Sanitarium. Later some of my readers will weigh each statement, correlate it with the known facts, and ask themselves how I could have believed otherwise than I did after facing the evidence of that horror - that thing on the doorstep."

"On the right of the hole out of which they wriggled, and seen through aisles of monoliths, was a stupendous vista of cyclopean round towers mounting up illimitable into the grey air of inner earth. This was the great city of the Gugs, whose doorways are thirty feet high."

= not good

That said, one could argue that his style works, after a degree, precisely in that it often apes a dead mode of expression ultimately rooted in the Enlightenment ("There has never been any prose as good as that of the early eighteenth century, and anyone who thinks he can improve upon Swift, Steele, and Addison is a blockhead."). One of HPL's chief philosophical aims in his tales is to undermine the smugness of rationality by exposing it to truths--"scientific" truths, crucially, and not supernatural ones--too difficult to handle. So, we get an interesting frisson when his men of reason are undone by the truth:

"The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. "

Ironic, of course, that HPL was fervent in his espousal of mechanistic materialism, and of science over dogma.

Thank you for your response, most interesting!

Not that it necessarily applies in your case . . . but sometimes, being too close to / fluent in an artist winds up being a kind of toxic overload.  In all events, I do appreciate that you gave the fellow a couple of notches better even than a fair shake.

(FWIW, I haven't felt any affinity for Lovecraft.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 16, 2011, 09:11:18 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 08:55:22 AM= not good

I find the anachronistic style of writing part an integral part of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on March 16, 2011, 09:12:23 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on March 16, 2011, 09:04:15 AM
Hmm, there seem to be some older editions of this edited by one "Phyllis Fraser" - presumably prior to her marriage - for a lot cheaper. I picked up one of Amazon marketplace's popular 1p entries, danke!

The edition I have mentions that is a re-issue of a very popular volume issued long ago.  I wonder if the line-up of stories has changed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 10:03:37 AM
Quote from: Apollon on March 16, 2011, 09:08:07 AM
Thank you for your response, most interesting!

Not that it necessarily applies in your case . . . but sometimes, being too close to / fluent in an artist winds up being a kind of toxic overload.  In all events, I do appreciate that you gave the fellow a couple of notches better even than a fair shake.

(FWIW, I haven't felt any affinity for Lovecraft.)

Being too close to/fluent in an artist can also warp perceptions. It's salutary to take a step back now and then.

I'm sympathetic towards HPL but not uncritical. I'd certainly recommend his stories to anyone who likes classic horror, but I won't pretend he's a towering literary genius. I actually find his life and letters more interesting than his fiction.

Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on March 16, 2011, 09:11:18 AM
I find the anachronistic style of writing part an integral part of it.


At times it suits the setting and characters to a degree (insofar as the stories actually have true characters--individuals are, per HPL's philosophy of "cosmic indifferentism," not important). You have all those narrators who are thinly veiled surrogates for Lovecraft himself, with their old New England roots, antiquarian propensities, & c. But he lays it all on rather thickly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 16, 2011, 10:39:23 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 10:03:37 AM
Being too close to/fluent in an artist can also warp perceptions. It's salutary to take a step back now and then.

I'd even say necessary rather than salutary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 10:58:24 AM
Quote from: Apollon on March 16, 2011, 10:39:23 AM
I'd even say necessary rather than salutary.

With art, if one hasn't looked closely enough to see the flaws, one probably hasn't grasped the strengths very well, either. Too close an attachment, too unbridled an enthusiasm, and it becomes hard to see either critically.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on March 16, 2011, 05:37:59 PM
Quote from: Grazioso on March 16, 2011, 08:55:22 AM
= not good
I've read plenty worse. And I must credit HPL that if he failed he failed very much on his own terms, fully aware of what he was attempting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on March 17, 2011, 05:30:12 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on March 16, 2011, 05:37:59 PM
I've read plenty worse. And I must credit HPL that if he failed he failed very much on his own terms, fully aware of what he was attempting.

It was a dark and stormy night at Miskatonic University  ;D As for his terms, I'm not sure that's entirely true since for HPL it was almost literally a case of publish or perish for much of his adult life. As much as he wanted to see himself as a privileged Anglo-Saxon aristocrat above stooping to commercial realities, he had to make ends meet. And he seems to have had a love-hate relationship with the pulps in which he published. For all their faults, that was the only market for his stories, and that whole creative milieu provided him with most of his friends. He might want to complain about Weird Tales, or whatever, but he was deeply immersed in that world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on March 18, 2011, 06:33:37 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419uFIQt41L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 18, 2011, 08:27:33 AM
"The Native Problem" by Robt Sheckley, which strangely I do not remember reading before (and I believe I would remember, if I had read it). Particularly good, even for Sheckley.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on March 21, 2011, 06:01:50 AM
This:

QuoteOn this day...

2006 – A man using a hammer smashed the statue of Phra Phrom in the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, and was subsequently beaten to death by bystanders.

Which hardly seems like it's happened in the 21st century.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on March 24, 2011, 04:32:30 AM
The Tragic and the Ecstatic

Probably the best, most thorough book I've ever read on Tristan und Isolde (mostly the opera, but the old story as well). It's not super-scholarly, but the insights within insure it will take you weeks to get through it. I take that back, this is not one of those books you read to "just get through". It has too many fascinating insights that are meant to be chewed over thoroughly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on March 25, 2011, 07:08:47 AM
Can a book about mortgage bond mezzanine tranches, collateralized debt obligations, and credit default swaps be engrossing and fun to read?

Why, yes -- yes it can. Michael Lewis gets inside the minds of a few, eccentric individuals who shorted, (bet against), the subprime mortgage market and all its absurd derivatives, and made 100s of millions of dollars. Smarter than the rest of us, eh? A page-turner ...

Michael Lewis: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

(http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/41vvmXp3IRL._SS400_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on March 25, 2011, 09:22:15 AM
Bunch of books on China and United States relations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: smitty1931 on March 28, 2011, 12:26:47 PM
The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes by Barry Grant. Picked this up on the new shelf at the local library. Worth reading if you are a Holmes fan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on March 28, 2011, 12:28:36 PM
A novel about dead guys walkin' around, eatin' the living folks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 29, 2011, 02:51:32 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on March 28, 2011, 12:28:36 PM
A novel about dead guys walkin' around, eatin' the living folks.

Should be the zillionth you read, ain't it?  ;D  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on March 29, 2011, 05:37:02 AM
Quote from: Il Conte Rodolfo on March 29, 2011, 02:51:32 AM
Should be the zillionth you read, ain't it?  ;D  :P

I don't really read all that much zombie fiction, surprisingly enough. Damn that book was sick, yet I could not stop reading... Great job.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on March 30, 2011, 08:12:49 AM
(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm113689981/jesus-biography-from-believer-paul-johnson-hardcover-cover-art.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on March 30, 2011, 10:47:53 AM
This, by a Facebook friend:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R7P95ZF6L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Quite good. The protagonist is a fat bastard, he is.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on March 30, 2011, 03:18:16 PM
Oxford History of Western Music - see the attachment!  Just received a catalog from Oxford University Press - this is now available as a 5-volume paperback edition as cheaply as $124 on the Amazon Marketplace - just curious if others have seen this massive effort - published for about 4-5x that amount as a hardback when released back in 2009.

SO, PLEASE PROVIDE SOME OPINIONS - I"M QUITE INTERESTED AT THIS PRICE! - thanks all - Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 03, 2011, 08:18:52 AM
(http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/8228/126412619441884ac4685de.jpg)

Merchant of Venice, in Serbian translation, 'Serbian Literary Co-op' edition from 1943 (during German occupation). In foreword translator Svetislav Stefanovic says that 'necessary' changes and corrections of both text and foreword were made for this edition. The biggest 'necessary change' I noticed is that Shylock's act III monologue is gone completely (Hath not a Jew eyes? ...). Haven't yet noticed any other major excisions.
I'm always fascinated by these kinds of silent witnesses of times.     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: smitty1931 on April 03, 2011, 12:09:10 PM
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. Common sense approach to Religion. Subtitle is Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 03, 2011, 02:26:19 PM
The Medieval World at War (2009), ed. by Matthew Bennett - this is a wonderful looking book (I have a fascination w/ this time period) - an expensive book on release but just $13 for me from the History Book Club (and a hardback copy) -  :D


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61u6h1bZblL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 04, 2011, 01:42:08 AM
Quote from: Drasko on April 03, 2011, 08:18:52 AM
(http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/8228/126412619441884ac4685de.jpg)

Merchant of Venice, in Serbian translation, 'Serbian Literary Co-op' edition from 1943 (during German occupation). In foreword translator Svetislav Stefanovic says that 'necessary' changes and corrections of both text and foreword were made for this edition. The biggest 'necessary change' I noticed is that Shylock's act III monologue is gone completely (Hath not a Jew eyes? ...). Haven't yet noticed any other major excisions.
I'm always fascinated by these kinds of silent witnesses of times.     

Interesting information.

As an aside, could you please let me know whether there is any difference between Mletacka and Venecija and what's the origin of the former word?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 04, 2011, 02:55:04 AM
Quote from: Il Conte Rodolfo on April 04, 2011, 01:42:08 AM
As an aside, could you please let me know whether there is any difference between Mletacka and Venecija and what's the origin of the former word?

There is some difference, but nothing is very clear cut. Mletačka Republika is Serbo-Croatian (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrian) name for Venetian Republic, and Mleci, Mlečani or Mlečići for its citizens. And that would be more commonly used form in everyday speech - e.g. we are in war with Mleci (not we are in war with Mletačka Republika), you came back from Mletaka, you traded with Mlecima ...
On the other hand Venecija is the name of the city itself (and always was), and today, when there is no more Venetian Republic, when you refer to the denizens of Venice you'd say Venecijanci, not Mleci.
I don't know the etymology of the word, and I'm not even sure that there is a very clear one. The one I heard but strikes me as far-out is Latini (another name used for Venetians) -> Latte -> Mleko -> Mlečići. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 04, 2011, 04:20:34 AM
Quote from: Drasko on April 04, 2011, 02:55:04 AM
There is some difference, but nothing is very clear cut. Mletačka Republika is Serbo-Croatian (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrian) name for Venetian Republic, and Mleci, Mlečani or Mlečići for its citizens. And that would be more commonly used form in everyday speech - e.g. we are in war with Mleci (not we are in war with Mletačka Republika), you came back from Mletaka, you traded with Mlecima ...
On the other hand Venecija is the name of the city itself (and always was), and today, when there is no more Venetian Republic, when you refer to the denizens of Venice you'd say Venecijanci, not Mleci.
I don't know the etymology of the word, and I'm not even sure that there is a very clear one. The one I heard but strikes me as far-out is Latini (another name used for Venetians) -> Latte -> Mleko -> Mlečići.

Thanks for this very informative reply. Indeed that etymology sounds rather far-fetched, and this Wikipedia note (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mlechchhas#Other) isn't very helpful either. Anyway, it's interesting that Serbo-Croatian use for the historical Venetian state and its citizens a name that is not derived from "Venezia". I am not aware of any other language with this feature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on April 06, 2011, 01:32:21 AM
MICHEL ONFRAY:         "Le Crepuscule d'une idole"         (2010)

After his attacks on religion, now Onfray writes a devastating book against Freud. I agree with Onfray that Freud theories are not really scientific, but belong more to a philosophical tradition that started with Schopenhauer. But saying that those theories are just an expression of Freud's inner ghosts seems very exaggerated and established with a very parcial selection of proofs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 06, 2011, 11:01:09 AM
Quote from: Il Conte Rodolfo on April 04, 2011, 04:20:34 AM
I am not aware of any other language with this feature.

Neiter am I. Now you got me curious about the etymology of the name. Friend of mine teaches linguistics at university, maybe he'll know or know who will know. I'll ask him next time I see him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 07, 2011, 12:53:12 AM
Quote from: Drasko on April 06, 2011, 11:01:09 AM
Neiter am I. Now you got me curious about the etymology of the name. Friend of mine teaches linguistics at university, maybe he'll know or know who will know. I'll ask him next time I see him.

Please do. I'm curious too.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on April 08, 2011, 06:42:19 AM
Just finished ...

Robert B. Reich: Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future

(http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/41dCKj4nrTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU15_.jpg)

... Wherein the author argues that the economic malaise which has effected the US increasingly over the last 1/4 century, is fundamentally cause by the middle class having too little income to sustain the growth of the economy. The middle class' standard of living has only been sustained 'till now by them working more, harder, and longer, and by borrowing. However since the "Great Recession" of 2008-2009, they have essentially reached the limits of what these expedients can provide.

As for the causes, Reich primarily blames reduced taxation and other privileges granted by Congress to the rich. In turn, Reich blames that on the increasing influence of campaign contributions by the rich, lobbyists, and acculturation of members of Congress to the wealthiest class.

So far I'm in perfect agreement with Robert Reich, but I'm not so sure of the feasibility of the remedies he suggests.

Reich suggests a number of programs; to name the principal ones:
I agree that these measures might work if they could be implemented. However they can't be. "Reverse income tax" in the USA? Please. Americans believe their country is one of "boundless opportunity" where anyone can make it: the corollary is that if you don't make it you're a listless bum and undeserving of any consideration.

Reich is optimistic that American will see the light and get back to a more sensible course but I'm not sure at all. E.g. he believes that American CEOs will wake up and see that it is ultimately in their interest to support measures such as he describes. This is a daydream. The very rich today see themselves as global players, no longer reliant on, or beholden to, their fellow citizens. They simply what to grab as much from the middle-class as they can and invest where ever in the world they can squeeze out a few more basis points of return.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on April 09, 2011, 08:11:04 PM
(http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/classics/russian/modern/Bely.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 10, 2011, 04:57:25 AM
Very interesting, Bill.

Quote from: Fëanor on April 08, 2011, 06:42:19 AM
. . . "Reverse income tax" in the USA? Please. Americans believe their country is one of "boundless opportunity" where anyone can make it: the corollary is that if you don't make it you're a listless bum and undeserving of any consideration.

Well, I think that in practical terms (and psychologically in a way which must not be unique to the US), a system of payout to very low income people as such would disincentivize a great many people to search for work. If, on the other hand, it were a matter of revising (and perhap expanding) the unemployment benefit, might possibly fly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Maciek on April 10, 2011, 12:37:22 PM
Quote from: Corey on April 09, 2011, 08:11:04 PM
(http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/classics/russian/modern/Bely.gif)

Need to revisit. (Mental note.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on April 10, 2011, 01:53:41 PM
Quote from: Apollon on April 10, 2011, 04:57:25 AM
Very interesting, Bill.

Quote from: Feanor"Reverse income tax" in the USA? Please. Americans believe their country is one of "boundless opportunity" where anyone can make it: the corollary is that if you don't make it you're a listless bum and undeserving of any consideration.
...

Well, I think that in practical terms (and psychologically in a way which must not be unique to the US), a system of payout to very low income people as such would disincentivize a great many people to search for work. If, on the other hand, it were a matter of revising (and perhap expanding) the unemployment benefit, might possibly fly.

You're right that it would raise the "disincentivizing" flag in a lot of places beside the US.  But I maintain that it would be especially, even in degree, uniquely a problem in the US.  Why do I say so?  Because in a good many other countries, (not necessarily my own, Canada), the working people might see that such reverse income tax would be in their interest and vote for it.  But in the US the poor & lower middle classes themselves have bought the myth that they deserve their poverty, and reject the measure as being "socialist".

But Robert Reich would deny that his advocacy of the measure has to do with altruistism or social justice for the poor.  Instead he says it is just financially necessary to enable US citizens to buy the goods & services that their country can produce.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 11, 2011, 08:16:34 AM
I recently finished Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.  A great novel but depressing as all heck.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on April 11, 2011, 05:13:48 PM
I'm reading CS Lewis: the authentic voice, by William Griffin. Related to this, I annoyed, and perhaps hurt, my father by saying that Lewis's theology was "guff". Those boyhood attachments are hard to break.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on April 12, 2011, 05:44:09 PM
Quote from: haydnfan on April 11, 2011, 08:16:34 AM
I recently finished Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.  A great novel but depressing as all heck.

The followup novels get even more brutal.  I bet McMurtry likes to pull the wings off flies.  He sure likes to torture his characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 12, 2011, 10:59:09 PM
Crime and punishment by Dostoyevsky. One of my favorite authors and I absolutely adore the way he makes the reader feel sympathy for all the characters. Not to mention his cynical sense of humor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 13, 2011, 05:06:33 AM
Quote from: Daverz on April 12, 2011, 05:44:09 PM
The followup novels get even more brutal.  I bet McMurtry likes to pull the wings off flies.  He sure likes to torture his characters.

I'll have to read those sequels but I need a bit of time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on April 13, 2011, 07:56:01 PM
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n30/n152342.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 17, 2011, 09:23:35 PM
I just finished True Grit by Charles Portis.  I have not seen the recent remake, but I've seen the classic with John Wayne.  The ending is not quite the same in the book as the movie.  Anyway it is a heck of a read!  An iconic western, it has in common the same traits that Lonesome Dove has: they both are realistic, black comedy adventures that capture the spirit of the wild west without romanticism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Hollywood on April 18, 2011, 11:21:39 PM
I just bought a book titled Kings and Queens of Ancient Britain. I want to learn more about some of my royal ancestors which include Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, Kings Henry I and II of England as well as Kings Duncan I and Malcolm III of Scotland. (I am still waiting for my invite to the royal wedding.)   ;D


(https://cdn1.fishpond.co.nz/9781844763498-crop-325x325.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on April 19, 2011, 03:00:14 PM
(http://media.mightyape.net.nz/images/products/2495110/Foundations-of-Biophilosophy-2238721-5.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on April 21, 2011, 02:39:57 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411Qn%2BLY4bL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on April 22, 2011, 10:17:53 AM
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n70/n354087.jpg)


I'm about halfway through DBC Pierre's newest novel, Lights Out in Wonderland.  Better than Ludmila's Broken English, but not as good as Vernon God Little, it shares in common with those books certain characteristics, chiefly rather thinly drawn characters, absurd situations and actions, and crackling, inventive use of language.  It's this last trait that draws me in every time.  The book follows the actions of a suicidal, well-to-do young man from his rehab center to Japan to Germany, and its critique of capitalism generally and the financial meltdown in particular are a delight to read. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CD on April 22, 2011, 08:52:00 PM
Finished Magris's Inferences From a Sabre — a breezy read, somewhere between an encyclopedia entry and a tragedy. The epistolary style and the slightly pedantic moralistic narrator in the form of the Italian priest-scholar reminded me slightly of Mann's Faustus. Magris manifests the real-life tragic character of a Cossack general, Krasnov, who sided with the Nazis at the end of WWII, who, after the German defeat, turned to the British for asylum, only to be handed back to the Soviets they fought against. The general's hubris and confused idealism are both comic and sad, and absolutely human. The clarity with which Magris paints Krasnov in so short a span (less than 90 pages) is remarkable.

Now starting:

(http://pasunautre.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Witold_Gombrowicz_pornografia_cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on April 23, 2011, 01:18:50 AM
Currently a toss up:

Charles Wallraff's Introduction to Karl Jaspers

or

Arthur Wilson's biography on Diderot

I'm learning towards Wallraff, mainly because it is the shorter of the two, by a considerable number.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 23, 2011, 04:55:12 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on April 11, 2011, 05:13:48 PM
I'm reading CS Lewis: the authentic voice, by William Griffin. Related to this, I annoyed, and perhaps hurt, my father by saying that Lewis's theology was "guff". Those boyhood attachments are hard to break.

And guff is a polite word for it, too!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: canninator on April 23, 2011, 05:09:58 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 19, 2011, 03:00:14 PM
(http://media.mightyape.net.nz/images/products/2495110/Foundations-of-Biophilosophy-2238721-5.jpeg)

An interesting book but now hopelessly dated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on April 23, 2011, 08:56:29 AM
Quote from: Il Furioso on April 23, 2011, 05:09:58 AM
An interesting book but now hopelessly dated.

Undoubtedly, save for the first chapter which was a rigorous laying out of the fundamental underpinnings of most philosophy. It was a very fun, enjoyable read though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 24, 2011, 07:36:12 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mW8g2UgeL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on April 25, 2011, 10:44:13 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 23, 2011, 01:18:50 AM
Currently a toss up:

Charles Wallraff's Introduction to Karl Jaspers

or

Arthur Wilson's biography on Diderot

I'm learning towards Wallraff, mainly because it is the shorter of the two, by a considerable number.

Finished the book on Jaspers, severely underwhelming. I have his three volume Philosophy on the way, so here's hoping he's better than those who comment.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to see how the Diderot biography is, and if that fails probably a book by Merleau-Ponty, and if that fails, something that I don't know quite just yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 27, 2011, 04:56:40 AM
(http://www.ishop.ro/images/cache/7a892e504876da798b6eda6be6da2440.png)

George Steiner - Errata. An Examined Life (the Romanian translation reads "An Autobiography")

More a collection of essays than an autobiography as such, it makes for a very interesting reading. The chapter on music is of particular interest; his analysis of the three Greek myths relating to music (Marsyas vs Apollo, the Syrens and Orpheus) and how all of them involves tension, even outright conflict and violence, between music and word is fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Diner on April 27, 2011, 08:12:34 AM
Pride and Prejudice (without zombies)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on April 27, 2011, 08:38:48 AM
Quote from: madeofmusic on April 27, 2011, 08:12:34 AM
Pride and Prejudice (without zombies)

Some might say they were all zombies in that book.   8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 27, 2011, 08:47:47 AM
Hah! I was going to ask, "How can you tell?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 27, 2011, 08:50:37 AM
It's not what I'm currently reading, because I've lent my (second) copy to a co-worker . . . said co-worker writes of Why Begins With 'W':

QuoteLOVING the book.  Just about done! : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on April 28, 2011, 08:51:28 AM
Quote from: Apollon on April 27, 2011, 08:50:37 AM
It's not what I'm currently reading, because I've lent my (second) copy to a co-worker . . . said co-worker writes of Why Begins With 'W':

What a most curious title!   ;D

I can think of others: "You Begins With Why,"  "W Begins With Double," etc. 

Sounds like a series!   0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 28, 2011, 08:52:01 AM
We want more!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on April 28, 2011, 08:59:46 AM
A* pollen starts with a B.

::)




*Artistic license starts with an A. :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on April 28, 2011, 10:31:43 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston, Global ModeratorEvery improvement in communications renders the bore that much more dreadful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on April 28, 2011, 05:00:27 PM
Theodor Adorno - Philosophy of Modern Music

Extremely difficult to grasp (I'm only about 40 pages in), but incredibly perceptive once you penetrate the flow of his rhetoric.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on April 28, 2011, 07:52:26 PM
Quote from: Coco on April 28, 2011, 05:00:27 PM
Theodor Adorno - Philosophy of Modern Music

Extremely difficult to grasp (I'm only about 40 pages in), but incredibly perceptive once you penetrate the flow of his rhetoric.

It's sufficiently dense. That's how you know you're learning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zorzynek on April 29, 2011, 12:25:08 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 28, 2011, 07:52:26 PM
It's sufficiently dense. That's how you know you're learning.

Is that the book with all that nonsense about Stravinsky?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on April 29, 2011, 07:34:16 PM
Quote from: zorzynek on April 29, 2011, 12:25:08 AM
Is that the book with all that nonsense about Stravinsky?

I'm trying to put aside whatever preconceptions I have and making an attempt to understand what he has to say.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on April 30, 2011, 06:57:50 AM
Quote from: zorzynek on April 29, 2011, 12:25:08 AM
Is that the book with all that nonsense about Stravinsky?


I don't agree with Adorno, but wouldn't call his critique 'nonsense', either. He pits Schoenberg against Stravinsky and uses interesting arguments for doing so. But just as we don't feel driven to choose between Brahms and Wagner anymore, as the distance in time has lessened their differences, so we don't feel inclined to do the same with Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Though Stravinsky certainly has come out as the 'winner'.


Quote from: Coco on April 29, 2011, 07:34:16 PMI'm trying to put aside whatever preconceptions I have and making an attempt to understand what he has to say.


Very good. Adorno is always stimulating, even if you object to some of his conclusions (jazz and Sibelius are two other blind spots of his).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 01, 2011, 06:21:30 AM
Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on April 30, 2011, 06:57:50 AM
Very good. Adorno is always stimulating, even if you object to some of his conclusions (jazz and Sibelius are two other blind spots of his).

Oh, he certainly had his eyes trained on jazz and Sibelius, and intensely too; he just ... didn't quite see them anyway, for all that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on May 01, 2011, 08:31:33 AM
(http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/issue/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ColonelRoosevelt.jpg)


In the early chapters of Edmund Morris' final installment of his bio of everyone's favorite imperial president.  Well written and literary rather than dry and scholarly, it's a nice continuation of the last book.  I doubt I'll learn anything new beyond some intriguing details, though I do want to see how Morris handles the rift between Roosevelt and Root.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on May 07, 2011, 12:37:50 PM
Julio Cortázar - The Winners
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on May 09, 2011, 05:08:57 AM
Just finished another Reich book ...

Robert B. Reich: Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life

Basically Reich argues that the current political and political malaise of the U.S.A. and increasingly other developed nations is the result of increased captialist competition since the mid-1970's. Technological advances, (many related to the U.S.' military and space efforts), plus emerging nations' advantage caused a major increase in competion amongs old and new corporations. Corporations, overall, have responded vigourously to this competion thereby serving consumers and investors very well -- but people not so well.

Of critical importance, the need to be extremely competitive has encourage the growth of business lobbying of politians at the expense of citizen lobbying. Hence advocates for labour unions, the environment, human rights, and the poor have be marginalized to the deteriment of people as human beings.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41w6RVNgu4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg) ... Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Supercapitalism-Transformation-Business-Democracy-Everyday/dp/0307277992/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304945183&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 09, 2011, 05:20:19 AM
Will Cuppy, How to Become Extinct
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 09, 2011, 05:22:43 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on May 09, 2011, 05:08:57 AM
Corporations, overall, have responded vigourously to this competion thereby serving consumers and investors very well -- but people not so well.

But... the consumers are the people, aren't they? How can one and the same person be served very well as consumer and not so well as people? What am I missing here?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on May 09, 2011, 06:48:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 09, 2011, 05:22:43 AM
But... the consumers are the people, aren't they? How can one and the same person be served very well as consumer and not so well as people? What am I missing here?
Yes, I believe you're missing quite a bit.

From an economist's perspective a consumer is a person who purchases goods & services.  So if you haven't any money, you aren't a consumer but presumably you are are still a person.  Or, again, you don't pay to breath so you aren't a consumer of air in the economic sense; neverthless you need to breath -- as a person.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 09, 2011, 06:54:18 AM
Even when they act as corporations so that they are not personally liable ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on May 09, 2011, 06:55:18 AM
Quote from: Leon on May 09, 2011, 06:52:32 AM
And what you, and I presume Reich, are missing is that Capitalists, e.g. businessmen, are human beings and citizens, too.
And you are determined to miss the point, apparently. Check my response to Florestan.

You would do well to read the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on May 09, 2011, 07:04:20 AM
The Shinra Corporation is evil, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on May 09, 2011, 07:06:13 AM
Quote from: Greg on May 09, 2011, 07:04:20 AM
The Shinra Corporation is evil, though.

HA!

To get this back on track:

William Reno's Warlord Politics
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on May 09, 2011, 08:27:39 AM
Quote from: Leon on May 09, 2011, 07:01:39 AM
Corporations are a type of business entity.  They are not intrisically anything, good, bad, moral, immoral, they are neutral.  Some corporations are very big, most are small - again, they are a type of business entity that is set up according to certain laws of operation and how they are governed.  Some are public, most are private. 

I find it amusing that so many people brand "corporations" as evil, yet, it is because of the enterprising energy, resources and creativity of businessmen and capitalists who form corporations that a good portion of the goods and services everyone needs or benefits from enter the marketplace.

And lest we forget, there is such a thing as a non-profit corporation.

Corporations are not evil, but they have no incentive to promote the public good.  Their only incentive is to improve the economic situation of their owner or owners.   Governments must put constraints on corporations so that they have incentives to promote the public good.  Such constraints include making them pay taxes, making them subject to fines and penalties if they damage the environment, regulating how they can treat employees, giving them tax breaks for taking actions that benefit the community as a whole, making them subject to law suits when individuals are harmed by their actions, etc.

Corporations are like the locomotive that pulls the train (the train being the well-being of the population as a whole).  Some people think that the locomotive will go faster if you unhook it from the train, but that defeats the purpose.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on May 09, 2011, 04:28:17 PM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on May 09, 2011, 08:27:39 AM
Corporations are not evil, but they have no incentive to promote the public good.  Their only incentive is to improve the economic situation of their owner or owners.   Governments must put constraints on corporations so that they have incentives to promote the public good.  Such constraints include making them pay taxes, making them subject to fines and penalties if they damage the environment, regulating how they can treat employees, giving them tax breaks for taking actions that benefit the community as a whole, making them subject to law suits when individuals are harmed by their actions, etc.
...

Well put, Scarpia.

To expand on Robert Reich as I read him, he doesn't see (for-profit) corporations as good or evil; he sees them as profit making machines.  Reich argues that it isn't their role to "do good" beyond obeying the laws.  Thus for-profit corporations are inherently disinterested in, for example, the environment.  They must be constrained by laws & regulations to protect the environment.

Per Reich, the hyper-competitive environment today causes companies to compete with each other vigorously, and one way they do that is by lobbying politicians and sponsoring their campaigns.  Given the money that business can bring to bear is far more than labor, environment, education, anti-poverty advocates, etc., can muster, he argues that popular concerns are "crowded out" of the arena of political influence.

By the way, Reich deplores that corporations can be, (as they are especially in the US), deemed "people" in the sense that they are entitled to freedom of speech for example, or that they can be found guilty of malfeasance while they directors face no personal consequences.

Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on May 09, 2011, 08:27:39 AM
...
Corporations are like the locomotive that pulls the train (the train being the well-being of the population as a whole). Some people think that the locomotive will go faster if you unhook it from the train, but that defeats the purpose.

From the myoptic economic perspective the purpose of corporations is to make money by satisfying their paying customers.  But in the big picture business -- and the rich -- exist to serve humanity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on May 09, 2011, 04:49:20 PM
This one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31q6nuRO0-L._SS500_.jpg)

But the Spanish translation on Anagrama:

(http://crisalidabp.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/onfray2.jpg?w=200&h=311)

This is a fascinating book (series) which is not usually the case with philosophy books these days. A furious attack against Plato, the Christian thought and idealism in general. A vindication of all sensualisms and materialisms and their thinkers.  :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 12, 2011, 05:29:08 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on May 09, 2011, 04:49:20 PM
A furious attack against Plato, the Christian thought and idealism in general.

Is there anything new to be said in this respect after Nietzsche?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: abidoful on May 12, 2011, 11:47:48 AM
THE GENESIS FLOOD
The Biblical Record And Its Scientific Implications
John C. Whitcomb
     And
Henry M.Morris

Fascinating!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 12, 2011, 12:26:37 PM
Quote from: abidoful on May 12, 2011, 11:47:48 AM
THE GENESIS FLOOD
The Biblical Record And Its Scientific Implications
John C. Whitcomb
     And
Henry M.Morris

Fascinating!

I assume fascinating in an anthropological sense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: abidoful on May 12, 2011, 03:53:44 PM
Quote from: Daverz on May 12, 2011, 12:26:37 PM
I assume fascinating in an anthropological sense.
No no no !!! (why do people assume that?!?)
In a geological sense naturally---I'm a Creatonist myself :) :) :) :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on May 12, 2011, 06:51:14 PM
Quote from: abidoful on May 12, 2011, 11:47:48 AM
THE GENESIS FLOOD
The Biblical Record And Its Scientific Implications
John C. Whitcomb
     And
Henry M.Morris

Fascinating!

What is the POINT of reading the book? Scientifically it is nonsense, but is there perhaps some other reason to read it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 12, 2011, 07:47:04 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on May 12, 2011, 06:51:14 PM

What is the POINT of reading the book? Scientifically it is nonsense, but is there perhaps some other reason to read it?

Possibly, (I do not want to speak for him), he adheres to 1 Corinthians 3:18.  ;)

as well as (taken from the web):

...., religious language, though it may be the deepest and most true, is not the only way to talk about the wonders of creation. Clearly, science is another. It has its own methods and procedures, and, as science, does not and cannot deal with issues of ultimate concern. One can be both a devout and committed Christian and an evolutionary scientist.

Bill, might you address the above.  No debate or argument intended here.  Just want your take (and others).  A PM would be fine.  The rest of the article is here:

http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac1007.asp

Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on May 13, 2011, 03:05:59 AM
Quote from: Bogey on May 12, 2011, 07:47:04 PM
Possibly, (I do not want to speak for him), he adheres to 1 Corinthians 3:18.  ;)

as well as (taken from the web):

...., religious language, though it may be the deepest and most true, is not the only way to talk about the wonders of creation. Clearly, science is another. It has its own methods and procedures, and, as science, does not and cannot deal with issues of ultimate concern. One can be both a devout and committed Christian and an evolutionary scientist.
....

Thanks for you response, Bogey.

I was raised by a devout Christian mother who alway propounded that evolution was a fact but was guided by God.  Devout as she was all her life, (she passes away last year at 91), she never took seriously that the world was created in ~4000 BC.  She never felt that Genesis had to be take literally, but rather as a metaphor.

Quote from: 1 Corinthians 3:18 (New International Version)18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become "fools" so that you may become wise.

Any good scientist will tell you that science isn't a body of knowledge but rather a process.  Science, the process, insists that there is no absolute, unchallengable knowledge -- this makes it different from religion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: abidoful on May 13, 2011, 10:22:25 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on May 12, 2011, 06:51:14 PM

What is the POINT of reading the book? Scientifically it is nonsense, but is there perhaps some other reason to read it?
I'm reading it becouse i'm fascinated about the history of this planet and us
The Geological data actually fits better of Biblical account of things than evolutional does---it's more how do you interpret the data. And there is no point interpreting  Genesis in a "symbolical way" ; it's a symbol of what??
Fascinating stuff; dinosaurs living the same time as men; records from different parts of the world  of a big universal flood that destroyed all humanity except for few people etc... Thruth is more interesting sometimes than fiction!!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 13, 2011, 10:39:31 AM
Quote from: abidoful on May 13, 2011, 10:22:25 AM
Fascinating stuff; dinosaurs living the same time as men; records from different parts of the world  of a big universal flood that destroyed all humanity except for few people etc... Thruth is more interesting sometimes than fiction!!!

Uh... "The Flintstones" is fictitious.

;)

Thread duty: The Trouble with Physics, Lee Smolin
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 13, 2011, 10:43:20 AM
Wilma, a fiction?!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 13, 2011, 10:46:08 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 13, 2011, 10:43:20 AM
Wilma, a fiction?!

I'm so sorry, Karl, to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm afraid that that's the Truth. :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 13, 2011, 10:55:57 AM
No worries; I knew Bam-Bam was . . . a myth . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on May 13, 2011, 12:04:47 PM
Quote from: abidoful on May 13, 2011, 10:22:25 AM
I'm reading it becouse i'm fascinated about the history of this planet and us
The Geological data actually fits better of Biblical account of things than evolutional does---it's more how do you interpret the data. And there is no point interpreting  Genesis in a "symbolical way" ; it's a symbol of what??
Fascinating stuff; dinosaurs living the same time as men; records from different parts of the world  of a big universal flood that destroyed all humanity except for few people etc... Thruth is more interesting sometimes than fiction!!!

I did not know former Governor Palin was a poster here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on May 13, 2011, 01:25:37 PM
Quote from: abidoful on May 13, 2011, 10:22:25 AM
I'm reading it becouse i'm fascinated about the history of this planet and us
The Geological data actually fits better of Biblical account of things than evolutional does---it's more how do you interpret the data. And there is no point interpreting  Genesis in a "symbolical way" ; it's a symbol of what??
Fascinating stuff; dinosaurs living the same time as men; records from different parts of the world  of a big universal flood that destroyed all humanity except for few people etc... Thruth is more interesting sometimes than fiction!!!

I agree with you last sentence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on May 13, 2011, 02:01:28 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on May 13, 2011, 01:25:37 PM

I agree with you last sentence.

But I sense we don't all agree what is the truth and what is the fiction.   ???

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 13, 2011, 03:47:52 PM
Quote from: abidoful on May 13, 2011, 10:22:25 AM
I'm reading it becouse i'm fascinated about the history of this planet and us
The Geological data actually fits better of Biblical account of things than evolutional does---it's more how do you interpret the data.

Only if by "interpret" you mean "completely disregard".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 13, 2011, 09:10:19 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on May 13, 2011, 03:05:59 AM

Thanks for you response, Bogey.

I was raised by a devout Christian mother who alway propounded that evolution was a fact but was guided by God.  Devout as she was all her life, (she passes away last year at 91), she never took seriously that the world was created in ~4000 BC.  She never felt that Genesis had to be take literally, but rather as a metaphor.
 
Any good scientist will tell you that science isn't a body of knowledge but rather a process.  Science, the process, insists that there is no absolute, unchallengable knowledge -- this makes it different from religion.

Thank you much, Bill!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on May 15, 2011, 06:20:05 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 12, 2011, 05:29:08 AM
Is there anything new to be said in this respect after Nietzsche?  :D

A clever question, indeed. But probably Onfray can be useful as a sort of Nietzsche-substitute because I can't stand people like Nietzsche who writes like-screaming. Too many exclamation marks for me!!!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on May 15, 2011, 10:49:11 AM
Our time can be sometimes a wonderful time. This morning I was reading some chapters of Marshall McLuhan's book The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (Spanish translation), when I found some interesting quotes from a 1932 book titled Books and Readers in Ancient Greece and Rome by Frederic G. Canyon (presented as "Late Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum").

[asin]0802060412[/asin]

(http://tncdn.net/dyn/200/978/140/6755596.jpg)

Well, now, here in the farthest province of the Empire, I have read the first chapter of this excellent book that anyone of us can read online or download here:

http://www.archive.org/details/booksandreadersi013546mbp

It's wonderful, isn't it?

8)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 16, 2011, 01:14:48 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on May 15, 2011, 06:20:05 AM
A clever question, indeed. But probably Onfray can be useful as a sort of Nietzsche-substitute because I can't stand people like Nietzsche who writes like-screaming. Too many exclamation marks for me!!!   :)

Hah! So true.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on May 16, 2011, 06:45:45 AM
AT LEAST NIETZSCHE DIDN'T ALSO WRITE IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on May 16, 2011, 11:43:28 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on May 15, 2011, 06:20:05 AM
A clever question, indeed. But probably Onfray can be useful as a sort of Nietzsche-substitute because I can't stand people like Nietzsche who writes like-screaming. Too many exclamation marks for me!!!  :)

No need to make excuses, Antoine. Nobody says you should read Nietzsche. If you don't feel attracted, it's fine as well. But you are the one who screams now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on May 16, 2011, 12:09:15 PM
NIeTzSCHE SHoULD HAVE WRItTEN iN THIS STyLE, DONTChA tHInK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on May 16, 2011, 12:13:39 PM
I read a lot of Nitzsche in my misspent youth.  What I get from it is that he was very clever on the small scale (lots of insightful aphorisms, some idiotic ones) but the grand scheme be built up from it was nonsense. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sid on May 16, 2011, 07:16:38 PM
Just read these in the past week, I was sick in bed so had a lot of time on my hands -

"Stop-time" by Frank Conroy - an autobiographical work written in the 1960's about the author's childhood during the '40's in '50's. It was pretty good, I enjoyed it. He had a tendency to lapse into poetic descriptions of the most mundane things, I don't know whether this aspect appealed to me, it came across as a bit verbose. But apart from that, Conroy described things that happened to him - some of them ordinary, others not - in a very dry way, without a hint of sentimentality.

"The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga - This was a present from my sis ages ago, so I decided to finally read it (she's been nagging me to do that ever since!). This is an Indian rags to riches story with a twist. Some of the oppression and corruption outlined in the book makes me think that the author is kind of exaggerating things. Is it true that things are as bad as this in India? By the way he tells it, the country is still stuck in a Feudal mentality. Anyhow, it was quite a good read...

"Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs - I laughed out loud a lot while reading this book. The book was not so much funny, though, it was more cringeworthy. This is also an autobiography of the author's childhood and teenage years. It details his parents divorce, his mother's mental breakdowns (many of them, it was an annual event that came around Autumn) & his eventual "adoption" by the family of his mother's psychiatrist, Dr Field. The family is cooky to say the least. The doctor's house is a home for not only his family but also mental patients. By the age of 14, Augusten has been in a mental ward after a "staged" suicide to get him out of school so he can stay permanently with the doctor, he's having sex with a guy in his thirties who drifts in & out of the house, he's smoking (both tobacco & pot) & drinking, staying up late. This must have been one of the wierdest childhoods on record, & Burroughs tells the story with a lot of humour, as if that was the only thing that helped him get through all of this wierdness. I'm now going to borrow some of his other books from the library, I like his style a lot...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 16, 2011, 09:52:04 PM
Re: The White Tiger

QuoteSome of the oppression and corruption outlined in the book makes me think that the author is kind of exaggerating things.

Do you have anything particular in mind? While I found the writing terribly crass (as in Balram's reflections), I don't think I would be surprised to find similarly affected people roaming the streets, or maybe even running a successful firm.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sid on May 16, 2011, 10:18:02 PM
Quote from: Opus106 on May 16, 2011, 09:52:04 PM
Re: The White Tiger

Do you have anything particular in mind? While I found the writing terribly crass (as in Balram's reflections), I don't think I would be surprised to find similarly affected people roaming the streets, or maybe even running a successful firm.

The way Balram's father died of TB in a hospital without any supplies and no staff is the best example I can think of. Balram says that the staff is at the hospital (& payed for it) as far as the paperwork is concerned, but the reality is different. Then there's Balram's primary school teacher, who recieved school uniforms for his class from the education department, but sold them off on the black market. I mean, do these things actually happen in India today? I have a friend who (tried) to do business in India but got nowhere, not only because of the massive amounts of government red tape/bureaucracy, but also because of the corruption (he was saying that in order to do anything, he would've had to pay everyone off, and his budget worked out here in Australia didn't allow for that - not to speak of the ethical implications). Are how things run on government and business levels as bad as that in India?...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 17, 2011, 05:16:18 AM
Quote from: Sid on May 16, 2011, 10:18:02 PM
The way Balram's father died of TB in a hospital without any supplies and no staff is the best example I can think of. Balram says that the staff is at the hospital (& payed for it) as far as the paperwork is concerned, but the reality is different. Then there's Balram's primary school teacher, who recieved school uniforms for his class from the education department, but sold them off on the black market. I mean, do these things actually happen in India today?

Regrettably, they do. It's not rampant, but neither is it rare. In most cases, it's just hushed up or more commonly, no one cares to (and even if they do, they wouldn't dare) raise their voice against such happenings. Locally it's called the "chalta hai" attitude -- Hindi for "so it goes", just go with the flow, don't bother about rules.

QuoteI have a friend who (tried) to do business in India but got nowhere, not only because of the massive amounts of government red tape/bureaucracy, but also because of the corruption (he was saying that in order to do anything, he would've had to pay everyone off, and his budget worked out here in Australia didn't allow for that - not to speak of the ethical implications). Are how things run on government and business levels as bad as that in India?...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sid on May 18, 2011, 12:36:30 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on May 17, 2011, 05:16:18 AM
Regrettably, they do. It's not rampant, but neither is it rare. In most cases, it's just hushed up or more commonly, no one cares to (and even if they do, they wouldn't dare) raise their voice against such happenings. Locally it's called the "chalta hai" attitude -- Hindi for "so it goes", just go with the flow, don't bother about rules.

Well then maybe Adiga's novel has some truth in it regarding the culture of corruption in India. I feel a lot of anger in that book, anger at the injustices in Indian society. Sometimes I thought that the writer should lighten up a bit. There is humour in there, but it's very dark humour, very sarcastic. I can understand where he's coming from, but I'm not going to rush out to read another one of his novels. I don't feel that there's much hope there. Maybe it's justified, but I like a bit of a boost when reading these kinds of narratives. If they're as emotional as this, I like a boost at the end. Otherwise, if it's detached, then that's ok, I don't need a boost.

I've just finished reading two other books -

"Dry - A memoir" by Augusten Burroughs - This is kind of like the sequel to Running With Scissors, which I read last week. That memoir details Burroughs' experiences growing up in a mad house, amongst the cooky family of his mother's psychiatrist. This book, in a way, continues the story. After leaving Massachusetts, Burroughs went to New York city and began working in advertising. Without realising it, he became an alcoholic. His boss basically sends him to rehab to get off the sauce. This is successful, he doesn't touch a bottle for about one year after leaving rehab. But when tragedy strikes (a close friend who has the AIDS virus dies), Burroughs can't cope with it emotionally and gets back on the booze. This time his addiction is worse, he has blackouts, hallucinates, can't get out of bed for days, lying there in his own urine. It's pretty harrowing reading - he was literally on the brink of death. After hitting rock bottom, he goes cold turkey again and starts to attend AA meeting again. His drinking buddy Jim also joins him in quitting. So the memoir is all wrapped up pretty neatly, but it's far from cliched. I think that (this time) the sequel is better than the original. The story especially resonated with me, not because I've had any problems with alcohol, but I've known people who have and I myself am an ex-smoker, so I know a bit about addictions which can kill you. This was an excellent read, and I look forward to getting more stuff from Burroughs soon.

"My music, my life" by Marjorie Rieu - Andre Rieu's autobiography was written by his wife because he says he hates writing. He details his life growing up under the wing of his father, a renowned conductor in the Netherlands. He talks about meeting many famous musicians during his childhood years, and being particularly inspired by the likes of Menuhin, Kogan, Oistrakh and Grumiaux. Although he had been in the industry for decades - both as a violinist in the Limburgh Symphony Orchestra and as leader of his own quintet the "Maastricht Salon Orchestra" - Rieu's big break came when he was about forty in the early 1990's. He put all his savings and effort into establishing his "Johann Strauss Orchestra" and the risks he took - such as giving up his day job in the Limburgh SO - gradually payed off. It's interesting reading how he found it difficult to get his first professional recording made, let alone a recording contract. After reading this book, I admire Rieu the man more than I admire his music - not only in terms of resurrecting repertoire that had been dead since the age of 48 & 78 rpm records, but also for his dedication to various charitable causes. This is by no means a deep book, but it gives and interesting glimpse of one of the musical phenomenons of our age...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on May 18, 2011, 01:31:17 AM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on May 16, 2011, 12:13:39 PM
I read a lot of Nitzsche in my misspent youth.  What I get from it is that he was very clever on the small scale (lots of insightful aphorisms, some idiotic ones) but the grand scheme be built up from it was nonsense.

Similar reaction as Antoine's.

Nietzsche doesn't deliver a grand scheme, you shouldn't expect that, his philosophy is mainly insight and communication. Maybe in his Genealogy of Moral he gives a "grand scheme".

If you want a "grand scheme" read Arnold Cornelis. Logic of the Feeling (theory of stability layers in culture for nestling of the emotions), The Retarded Time, Restpoints of the Spirit. Not available in English language yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on May 18, 2011, 01:47:07 AM
Quote from: Henk on May 18, 2011, 01:31:17 AM
Similar reaction as Antoine's.

It is not similar at all, Henk. I said I have not read Nietzsche... Well, I have just read one of his books: Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks, which is an incomplete and very illuminating book, but not too much representative of his own production.

P.S.: I have tried two or three another Nietzsche's books, but I have not finished them.




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 18, 2011, 05:15:24 AM
Quote from: Sid on May 18, 2011, 12:36:30 AM
Well then maybe Adiga's novel has some truth in it regarding the culture of corruption in India. I feel a lot of anger in that book, anger at the injustices in Indian society. Sometimes I thought that the writer should lighten up a bit. There is humour in there, but it's very dark humour, very sarcastic.

Sarcastic is putting it rather lightly. In fact, I picked up it expecting "only" a sarcastic take on the myth that India as a whole is on its way to "Superpower-dom". As you say, the humour in it is indeed dark, and it keeps getting darker as the narrative develops.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 18, 2011, 05:23:03 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on May 18, 2011, 05:15:24 AM
Sarcastic is putting it rather lightly. In fact, I picked up it expecting "only" a sarcastic take on the myth that India as a whole is on its way to "Superpower-dom". As you say, the humour in it is indeed dark, and it keeps getting darker as the narrative develops.

I thought the humor was delicious and the narrator's voice really entertaining and colorful - but maybe that's because I'm over here and not over there. ;)

EDIT: But I also thought the dark twists at the end were chilling and the book as a whole really emotional. I'm not too cold-blooded!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 18, 2011, 05:31:40 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 18, 2011, 05:23:03 AM
I thought the humor was delicious and the narrator's voice really entertaining and colorful - but maybe that's because I'm over here and not over there. ;)

Perhaps. ;) But there were moments when he made me smile too. Just for the record: I don't consider it a horror novel ;D nor do I consider it utterly distasteful -- perhaps not worthy of a Man Booker, but that is another story. It's more of a case of the relative difference between expectation vs. the actual thing.

Quote
I'm not too cold-blooded!

Ha! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 18, 2011, 05:33:05 AM
A cold-blooded Texan? Land sakes!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 18, 2011, 05:43:19 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on May 18, 2011, 05:31:40 AM
Perhaps. ;) But there were moments when he made me smile too. Just for the record: I don't consider it a horror novel ;D nor do I consider it utterly distasteful -- perhaps not worthy of a Man Booker, but that is another story. It's more of a case of the relative difference between expectation vs. the actual thing.

Have you read Richard Wright's novel Native Son? In many ways White Tiger is the plot and anger of Native Son transplanted onto a new continent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 18, 2011, 05:50:15 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 18, 2011, 05:43:19 AM
Have you read Richard Wright's novel Native Son? In many ways White Tiger is the plot and anger of Native Son transplanted onto a new continent.

Nope. Thanks for the rec. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on May 19, 2011, 11:47:51 AM
Just finished a good book about Louis Armstrong called POPS. Am now reading HYPERION by Dan Simmons.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 19, 2011, 12:42:14 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 19, 2011, 11:47:51 AM
Am now reading HYPERION by Dan Simmons.

Really?  I'm reading the Terror by Dan Simmons!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on May 19, 2011, 12:44:55 PM
Quote from: haydnfan on May 19, 2011, 12:42:14 PM
Really?

Really.

I read DROOD recently.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 19, 2011, 12:52:19 PM
Is that the completion of Dicken's unfinished novel?  I saw it next to the Terror but felt like embracing the artic cold. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on May 19, 2011, 01:39:27 PM
Quote from: haydnfan on May 19, 2011, 12:52:19 PM
Is that the completion of Dicken's unfinished novel?

Not really. http://www.amazon.com/Drood-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316120618/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305841149&sr=8-1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 19, 2011, 01:41:36 PM
Oh that sounds fun! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on May 19, 2011, 01:45:22 PM
Quote from: haydnfan on May 19, 2011, 01:41:36 PM
Oh that sounds fun! :)

I really enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on May 30, 2011, 06:03:12 AM
.[asin]0345480848[/asin]

Via the audio recording. The reader mispronounces a lot of stuff, but the book is wonderful. It is written in a conversative way, rather than as a history - it feels like part travelogue, part political and social history, and part food talk.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on May 30, 2011, 06:08:11 AM
Very interesting, Sara.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on May 30, 2011, 06:17:46 AM
(http://i56.tinypic.com/2affzba.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 30, 2011, 06:21:47 AM
Quote from: Coco on May 30, 2011, 06:17:46 AM
(http://i56.tinypic.com/2affzba.jpg)


I first thought I read UNEXPURGATED EDITION...  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on May 30, 2011, 06:23:02 AM
This is the suppressed version :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 31, 2011, 07:52:13 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0618001948.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)

In preparation to our summer trip to "The Pulse".  This 1943 Pulitzer holds up very well and fortunately Ms. Forbes can write at an engaging level.  (Todd, this would be a good one to check out.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 02, 2011, 09:28:13 AM
(http://www.prairiefirenewspaper.com/files/worsthardtime-egan.jpg)
A damn good book about the Dust Bowl which I really knew nothing about.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 02, 2011, 09:29:45 AM
Revisiting, with indescribable glee, Robt Sheckley's Dramocles — An Intergalactic Soap Opera
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on June 05, 2011, 08:27:05 AM
Quote from: Bogey on May 31, 2011, 07:52:13 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0618001948.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)

In preparation to our summer trip to "The Pulse".  This 1943 Pulitzer holds up very well and fortunately Ms. Forbes can write at an engaging level.  (Todd, this would be a good one to check out.)

Sarah Palin needs to read that book!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 05, 2011, 08:39:20 AM
Quote from: Toccata&Fugue on June 05, 2011, 08:27:05 AM
Sarah Palin needs to read that book!  :)

She can read? ???

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on June 05, 2011, 08:53:50 AM
(http://www.ebooknetworking.com/books/142/213/big142213864X.jpg)


Fruits of the modern age.  An Indian academic, educated in the US, working in Spain, writes a tome about the global economy.  I'm about a third of the way through, and it's quite good, though I could do without some of the name dropping and jumping around.

The basic premise is that there are four types of global economic integration: World 0.0 - no integration, akin to pre-history; World 1.0 - competitive nation states; World 2.0 - total integration of the type believed in by some; and World 3.0 - lots of integration, but not as much as some claim.

The author uses a lot of empirical evidence to bolster his arguments, which is just lovely.  Part of his thesis is that the world is not quite as integrated as people believe, that most national production is consumed within the nation of origin (well duh), and that things like geographic distance has a huge impact on integration - eg, there's more trade between EU members than between EU members and non-members (duh again).  He also takes aim at how inadequate trade statistics are, using the iPod as one example (despite the largest portion of economic gain going to Apple, each one increases the US trade deficit), and highlighting the scale intra-company importing and exporting.  He also resolutely opposes reversion to World 1.0 that has many advocates nowadays. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on June 05, 2011, 09:31:05 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UusjYj6tL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I'm enjoying the HBO series (extremely gratuitous nudity and all), so started in on the book.  Martin is a good writer, but I'm not sure I'm going to stick it out for all 4 door-stopping volumes (and a 5th on the way).

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tR%2BGs8nJL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

The latest Culture novel. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 05, 2011, 09:39:15 AM
Quote from: Daverz on June 05, 2011, 09:31:05 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UusjYj6tL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I'm enjoying the HBO series (extremely gratuitous nudity and all), so started in on the book.  Martin is a good writer, but I'm not sure I'm going to stick it out for all 4 door-stopping volumes (and a 5th on the way).

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tR%2BGs8nJL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

The latest Culture novel.

I haven't seen the hbo show, but A Game of Thrones is an excellent novel, I've read it twice.  I've read the 2nd and 3rd novels as well, but now I've decided to wait for the series to end before reading on.

I bought the first Culture novel for $.99 as a rare kindle bargain.  I look forward to reading it, I hear good things about the series. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 05, 2011, 11:09:06 AM
Quote from: DavidW on June 05, 2011, 08:39:20 AM
She can read? ???

;D

Okay, so she needs the audio book, je-je-je!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 06, 2011, 05:19:37 AM
Just finished March Violets a few months ago.  Enjoyed it, but found the ending a bit much.  Let me know what you think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 06, 2011, 01:51:47 PM
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4621182863_b1d5278363.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on June 07, 2011, 12:45:10 AM
(http://science-fiction-books.com.au/media/ccp0/prodxl/Phantoms-Dean-Koontz-Paperback13-lge.jpg)

The premise: A doctor comes back to her town to discover that everyone has either vanished or has been brutally murdered, perhaps by (what else?) super natural forces. :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on June 07, 2011, 04:06:33 AM
Cussler has a surprisingly bad style for such a supposedly popular writer - every page offered something to annoy me. I picked this up as the only available reading material during a particularly tedious out of town wait, but I don't care what happens when the action starts moving, as the writer will no doubt be too busy describing every inane technical detail behind every piece of equipment that the characters are using. It's a relatively simple adventure story, but only an adult could enjoy this - a child would never put up with such stilted writing :\

[asin]0425177173[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on June 07, 2011, 04:13:39 AM
Quote from: Daverz on June 05, 2011, 09:31:05 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UusjYj6tL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I'm enjoying the HBO series (extremely gratuitous nudity and all), so started in on the book.  Martin is a good writer, but I'm not sure I'm going to stick it out for all 4 door-stopping volumes (and a 5th on the way).


I like the HBO series, too, though, like you, I do find the meat quota a bit high sometimes. I now have finished 'A Game of Thrones' and loved it. I do think I'll persevere, because the world and the characters are so well drawn and the story is compelling.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on June 07, 2011, 07:13:52 AM
Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on June 07, 2011, 04:13:39 AM

I like the HBO series, too, though, like you, I do find the meat quota a bit high sometimes.

The last episode had only one brief glimpse of a penis and no breasts.  I wonder how that made it past HBO standards and practices.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 07, 2011, 08:16:19 AM
(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c0/c503.jpg)

[Edit: Yes, it is good.]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on June 09, 2011, 01:04:48 AM
Georges Minois:           "Charlemagne"

A long but very vivid essay about the Emperor, divided between the nostalgia of the long gone Roman Empire and the intuition of a new political and cultural entity, the Europe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 09, 2011, 05:42:35 AM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on June 09, 2011, 01:55:20 AM
Yes I see what you mean about the ending.  And it kind of fizzles out right at the end, not a great sense of closure.  I suppose if you were planning a whole series of these things then maybe that might be what you intended.

Overall I thought it a lot better, in the sense of more complex and 3-dimensional, than David Downing's "station" novels (Zoo Station, Silesian Station, Potsdam Station, etc) which I was reading before, and which plow very much the same furrow.  I don't know that I found the Philip Marlowe style of expression all that convincing - seems a bit too carefully calculated - and he doesn't have Chandler's way of making plot flow from the characters, so what you get is less of a novel and more of a whodunnit.  But I'm certainly going to read the other two.

I believe I enjoyed Stuart M. Kaminsky's "Toby Peters" books more so.  MN Dave pointed them out to me.  They seem a bit lighter, but they have all the noir quirky punch that I look for.  Very easy reads if you can find them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 09, 2011, 08:30:55 AM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on June 09, 2011, 08:15:35 AM
Thanks for the recommendation.  I shall seek those out. :)

Do not worry if you cannot start with the first one.  I did not and it read just fine.  The supporting characters are what make these books truly special.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 09, 2011, 10:29:51 AM
Could I ask you two gentlemen for several names of your favorite writers of crime pulp? I'm often in the mood to read some but don't know who to look for. Of course question extends to Minnesota Dave as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on June 09, 2011, 10:32:17 AM
Quote from: Drasko on June 09, 2011, 10:29:51 AM
Could I ask you two gentlemen for several names of your favorite writers of crime pulp? I'm often in the mood to read some but don't know who to look for. Of course question extends to Minnesota Dave as well.

You didn't ask me, but the novels collected in this series of volumes would be a good start for classical American crime novels.

http://www.loa.org/crime
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 09, 2011, 10:44:08 AM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on June 09, 2011, 10:32:17 AM
You didn't ask me, but the novels collected in this series of volumes would be a good start for classical American crime novels.

http://www.loa.org/crime

I read most of Hammett and Chandler, but the rest looks interesting, thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 09, 2011, 11:06:34 AM
Quote from: Drasko on June 09, 2011, 10:29:51 AM
Could I ask you two gentlemen for several names of your favorite writers of crime pulp? I'm often in the mood to read some but don't know who to look for. Of course question extends to Minnesota Dave as well.

G-man MN Dave is well read in this area.  I get my leads from him, hence the Kaminsky and Kerr (while looking for Dave's rec here I stumbled on it) books.  However, I look for more of a noir feel than pulp, though they can have both at the same time.  More of a "hard-boiled" angle is what I seek. 

Thanks for the link Scarpia!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 09, 2011, 11:11:01 AM
DRASKO:

If you'd like, feel free to poke around at my old crime forum here:

http://thebigadios.yuku.com/directory

Or the new location, here:

http://dunderthome.yuku.com/forums/66/THE-BIG-ADIOS

The members there know a lot more than I do about this stuff. And feel free to join if you'd like.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 09, 2011, 11:31:34 AM
Drasko:

Ross MacDonald and Richard Stark!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 09, 2011, 11:43:51 AM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on June 09, 2011, 11:33:12 AM

Dave is of course the acknowledged master, whatever the protestations to the contrary.

Word.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 09, 2011, 11:58:15 AM
Excellent, thanks to all! All the names are noted, and I will feel free to pester Dave if I happen to need any additional info (will check out the forum). 8) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 09, 2011, 12:14:14 PM
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 09, 2011, 12:33:24 PM
You could try collecting these. A modern day hardboiled crime publisher, the best around.

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 09, 2011, 12:37:05 PM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on June 09, 2011, 10:32:17 AM
You didn't ask me, but the novels collected in this series of volumes would be a good start for classical American crime novels.

http://www.loa.org/crime

Just today, I ordered the Hammett novel edition.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 09, 2011, 01:23:44 PM
Speaking of crime, these are kind of cool:

http://www.suck.uk.com/product.php?rangeID=48
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 09, 2011, 01:26:58 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 09, 2011, 01:23:44 PM
Speaking of crime, these are kind of cool:

http://www.suck.uk.com/product.php?rangeID=48

Ahhahaha! I'm totally posting that on the Big Adios.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 09, 2011, 01:37:47 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on June 09, 2011, 12:33:24 PM
You could try collecting these. A modern day hardboiled crime publisher, the best around.

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/

Those look absolutely perfect. Retro cover design is beautiful and spot on. I'd gladly collect them, but till I get them here becomes not exactly cheap, so occasional dipping is maybe more likely than collecting. First option is to check what is available locally.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 09, 2011, 01:47:28 PM
Quote from: Drasko on June 09, 2011, 01:37:47 PM
Those look absolutely perfect. Retro cover design is beautiful and spot on. I'd gladly collect them, but till I get them here becomes not exactly cheap, so occasional dipping is maybe more likely than collecting. First option is to check what is available locally.

I understand totally. Happy dipping to you!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 09, 2011, 06:35:56 PM
.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 10, 2011, 12:47:39 AM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on June 09, 2011, 02:05:45 PM
Yeah, but have you checked out some of the MP prices here (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_9_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=hard+case+crime&sprefix=hard+case+crime)?

If there were any issue about shipping destinations, I expect you could find a local agent prepared to order them on your behalf ... of course there might be a slight delay while he read them first ...  ;D

Those prices make the offer one can't refuse, but you're right, MP won't ship to me. I'd have to enter some eligible address when placing order. So if you're up for some agenting for foreign party we're in business.

You know I used to have a British agent, but he's no longer there and even when he was he was so slow and slack that all my intricate plans for world domination were doomed right from beginning.

So, MN Dave, tell me which 3-5 titles from Hard Case Crime you find essential? And then 000 (double-o-soap) and I can set our devious plan in motion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 10, 2011, 02:11:12 AM
After all this talk, I started this last night:

(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170984506l/80616.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 10, 2011, 03:48:40 AM
Quote from: Drasko on June 10, 2011, 12:47:39 AM
So, MN Dave, tell me which 3-5 titles from Hard Case Crime you find essential? And then 000 (double-o-soap) and I can set our devious plan in motion.

I haven't read them all, however I did enjoy these:

GRIFTER'S GAME by Lawrence Block
QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE by Max Allan Collins
PLUNDER OF THE SUN by David Dodge
THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
HOME IS THE SAILOR by Day Keene

Also, watch this thread!:  http://dunderthome.yuku.com/topic/1983/Your-top-five-Hard-Case-Crime-picks#.TfIDQuaPDVQ
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 10, 2011, 04:03:56 AM
And here I thought this sort of thing never happend anymore! ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 10, 2011, 05:24:00 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 10, 2011, 04:03:56 AM
And here I thought this sort of thing never happend anymore! ; )

Just watch out for bow tie cameras, Karl. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 10, 2011, 05:50:34 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on June 10, 2011, 03:48:40 AM
I haven't read them all, however I did enjoy these:

GRIFTER'S GAME by Lawrence Block
QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE by Max Allan Collins
PLUNDER OF THE SUN by David Dodge
THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
HOME IS THE SAILOR by Day Keene

Also, watch this thread!:  http://dunderthome.yuku.com/topic/1983/Your-top-five-Hard-Case-Crime-picks#.TfIDQuaPDVQ

I read The Last Quarry, probably because you rec'd it! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 10, 2011, 05:51:06 AM
Quote from: DavidW on June 10, 2011, 05:50:34 AM
I read The Last Quarry, probably because you rec'd it! :D

And...?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 10, 2011, 05:52:56 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on June 10, 2011, 05:51:06 AM
And...?

I liked it, really short though, easy to read in one sitting.  I don't remember it that well now.  Think it's been a couple of years?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 10, 2011, 08:37:50 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on June 10, 2011, 03:48:40 AM
I haven't read them all, however I did enjoy these:

GRIFTER'S GAME by Lawrence Block
QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE by Max Allan Collins
PLUNDER OF THE SUN by David Dodge
THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
HOME IS THE SAILOR by Day Keene

Also, watch this thread!:  http://dunderthome.yuku.com/topic/1983/Your-top-five-Hard-Case-Crime-picks#.TfIDQuaPDVQ

Thanks for recs and for setting up the query. That's nice. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 10, 2011, 09:02:26 AM
Quote from: Drasko on June 10, 2011, 08:37:50 AM
Thanks for recs and for setting up the query. That's nice. :)

You're welcome. Always happy to help out a fellow reader of the good stuff.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 10, 2011, 09:28:16 AM
When you get lines in the first paragraph like:

"She was small and blonde and whether you looked at her face or body in powder blue sports clothes, the result was satisfactory."

Just the use of the last word in that sentence, "satisfactory" shows the word smithing ability of the likes of Hammett, IMO.  Read this sentence to my wife and she recognized its brilliance as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nimrod on June 10, 2011, 03:44:21 PM
I am reading a book written in the late 1920's by Upton Sinclair, "Boston."   I find it is amazing to see the parallels between the politics of that time and the politics of today.  It is fascinating reading and I find myself wondering how the author could be so relevant to today.  It is a story about how America finds its place in the world- the world of war, the world of preventing war, the world of politics and the common man.  Great book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on June 12, 2011, 07:50:26 AM
Most recent reading has been two Novels by Philip K. Dick, Now Wait for Last Year, which I did not care for, and Dr. Bloodmoney, which was quite good.

Now Wait for Last Year takes place in the future and involves a drug which can supposedly cause a person to move in time, or move to a different reality (not just a hallucination).  The main idea of the story made no sense to me and the whole thing was overly complicated.

Dr. Bloodmoney also involves some "magical" elements, such as people who have supernatural powers, but it fell within my "suspension of disbelief" capability.  The story involves people who survive a nuclear war and try to make their way in the devastated landscape that results.  Details of the present and imaginings of the future are woven together to make an interesting synthesis.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on June 12, 2011, 07:10:31 PM
I'm putting down Kant for now. I am starting to feel that this is something that requires expansive study as opposed to merely reading it in a linear way, and I don't think I have enough time to devote the attention required to gain true value from it.

Reading: Adorno - Aesthetic Theory

Not exactly moving on to light reading, but reading art criticism/theory seems much more relevant to my goals and interests (studying music) and less like a detour.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on June 12, 2011, 07:17:29 PM
Quote from: Coco on June 12, 2011, 07:10:31 PM
I'm putting down Kant for now. I am starting to feel that this is something that requires expansive study as opposed to merely reading it in a linear way, and I don't think I have enough time to devote the attention required to gain true value from it.

You're assuming there is value in it.   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on June 12, 2011, 07:26:59 PM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on June 12, 2011, 07:17:29 PM
You're assuming there is value in it.   :)

I usually take received wisdom in cases like this. If it has been so important to so many great thinkers I should probably become acquainted with it, and then decide whether to dismiss all of it, or just certain aspects of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on June 12, 2011, 07:40:16 PM
Quote from: Coco on June 12, 2011, 07:26:59 PM
I usually take received wisdom in cases like this. If it has been so important to so many great thinkers I should probably become acquainted with it, and then decide whether to dismiss all of it, or just certain aspects of it.

Is it ethics, aesthetic, or teleology that you are reading Kant for?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on June 12, 2011, 07:53:30 PM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on June 12, 2011, 07:40:16 PM
Is it ethics, aesthetic, or teleology that you are reading Kant for?

I was working on Critique of Pure Reason, so teleology. I had initially planned on going through all the critiques, though Kant on aesthetics would probably be useful.

Quote from: Philoctetes on June 12, 2011, 07:49:50 PM
Might I suggest reading Palmquist in regards to Kant. I find Palmquist to be much smoother in his prose, while losing none of the logic and rigor. 

Thanks, I'll look him up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 13, 2011, 09:28:11 AM
I read Lewis' An Experiment in Criticism

[asin]0521422817[/asin]

This is an eye opening read.  I realize that the way that I listen to music is why I have such broad interests from Bach to Carter, while the way that I read novels is why my interests are not broad at all.  But they used to be.  As an unliterary I read for the events, to find out what happens, and I form biased prejudgments that keep me away from many novels.  I also like seeing that Lewis is no snob, it's not about what you read but how you read it.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to empty my mind and read some novels that I've left gathering dust on my shelf. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 13, 2011, 11:47:21 AM
Quote from: DavidW on June 13, 2011, 09:28:11 AM
I read Lewis' An Experiment in Criticism
 (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0521422817.01.L.jpg)

This is an eye opening read.  I realize that the way that I listen to music is why I have such broad interests from Bach to Carter, while the way that I read novels is why my interests are not broad at all.  But they used to be.  As an unliterary I read for the events, to find out what happens, and I form biased prejudgments that keep me away from many novels.  I also like seeing that Lewis is no snob, it's not about what you read but how you read it.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to empty my mind and read some novels that I've left gathering dust on my shelf. :)

Knew you'd enjoy the reading, Davey!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on June 13, 2011, 12:02:46 PM
Quote from: Coco on June 12, 2011, 07:53:30 PM
I was working on Critique of Pure Reason, so teleology. I had initially planned on going through all the critiques, though Kant on aesthetics would probably be useful.

In younger days I had a strong interest in philosophy.  At this point, although I still understand that philosophy was important in the historical development of modern culture, I don't think the actual findings of earlier philosophers have much relevance.  What it boils down to is that fact that they all made assumptions that seemed obvious to them, but which are not really defensible.  The elaborate reasoning that allows them to draw conclusions about the nature of reality are less important than those assumptions.  It all seems like an elaborate game to obscure the fact that you have rigged the answer with those obtuse, obscure assumptions.

My skepticism probably started after reading Bertrand Russell, who remarked on Descartes' statement "I think therefore I am" that "never had so many errors been made using so few words."  Even the simple fact that our language has the words "I" and "am" implies unexamined assumptions, and so philosophical reason tells us about the nature of our grammar, rather than the nature of the universe.

Kant's catagorical imperative seems also beside the point.  Ethics can be understood in an entirely empirical way, based on biology and natural selection or, considered from another point of view, game theory.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on June 13, 2011, 02:06:39 PM
Quote from: Coco on June 12, 2011, 07:10:31 PM
I'm putting down Kant for now. I am starting to feel that this is something that requires expansive study as opposed to merely reading it in a linear way, and I don't think I have enough time to devote the attention required to gain true value from it.
I tried listening to an audio CD of it while I was in class, and understood very little. That's how I started talking to a friend- this old, Jamaican guy that everyone in the class thought was dumb because he didn't know anything about computers. Obviously, he wasn't dumb, because he could understand Kant well, and I couldn't.  :D

He recommended me to start off with other philosophers and the progress to Kant, because he said that book is one of the hardest to understand. Now I've forgotten exactly which philosophers he told me about.  :-[ I'll get to that eventually, though not now.

I think, mainly, he just loved to read and knew a lot about classic novels and such, too... and it also turned out he was a classical music fan, though I didn't get any details about which composers he was into. I haven't seen him in a while, though, unfortunately.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 13, 2011, 04:06:35 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 13, 2011, 11:47:21 AM
Knew you'd enjoy the reading, Davey!

It was one of those rare books where I learned something important! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on June 13, 2011, 07:28:02 PM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on June 13, 2011, 12:02:46 PM
In younger days I had a strong interest in philosophy.  At this point, although I still understand that philosophy was important in the historical development of modern culture, I don't think the actual findings of earlier philosophers have much relevance.  What it boils down to is that fact that they all made assumptions that seemed obvious to them, but which are not really defensible.  The elaborate reasoning that allows them to draw conclusions about the nature of reality are less important than those assumptions.  It all seems like an elaborate game to obscure the fact that you have rigged the answer with those obtuse, obscure assumptions.

My skepticism probably started after reading Bertrand Russell, who remarked on Descartes' statement "I think therefore I am" that "never had so many errors been made using so few words."  Even the simple fact that our language has the words "I" and "am" implies unexamined assumptions, and so philosophical reason tells us about the nature of our grammar, rather than the nature of the universe.

Kant's catagorical imperative seems also beside the point.  Ethics can be understood in an entirely empirical way, based on biology and natural selection or, considered from another point of view, game theory.

I agree essentially with everything you say. I feel that it is basically only important inasmuch as it relates to the history of philosophy, which is pretty much the only reason I'm going near this stuff. I've read a bit of William James on pragmatism and it seemed much more applicable to life than Enlightenment-era monism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 14, 2011, 12:45:14 PM
We dropped by our hamlet's historical society today when wandering through Olde Town Arvada and there were a number of volunteers there.  They do an incredible job of collecting and preserving historical documents and pictures.  One of them recently wrote this for the Denver Post.  Pretty cool stuff, if you are into true crime:

http://denver.yourhub.com/Arvada/Blogs/Your-Voice/Blog~987810.aspx

One of the gents there then pulled out the old original newspapers for me to read about the incident.  In the old paper, many of the townspeople believed that the shot by Carleton to Markham was over an affair with Markham's wife.  It also showed a picture of Fugate with his Stetson hat on.

After, we wandered by the used to tavern and peeked inside.  You gotta love th Stetson hat piece!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 15, 2011, 12:51:53 AM
Quote from: Greg on June 13, 2011, 02:06:39 PM
I tried listening to an audio CD of it while I was in class, and understood very little.

Kant's philosophy is exactly like the theory of differential equations: without concentration and pen & paper in hand, one cannot even begin to understand the definitions, let alone the whole thing.  ;D

OTOH, it is exactly unlike the theory of differential equations, in that without at least a basic knowledge of the history of philosophy before Kant, one cannot even begin to understand the definitions, let alone the whole thing.  ;D

Quote
That's how I started talking to a friend- this old, Jamaican guy that everyone in the class thought was dumb because he didn't know anything about computers. Obviously, he wasn't dumb, because he could understand Kant well, and I couldn't.  :D

He recommended me to start off with other philosophers and the progress to Kant, because he said that book is one of the hardest to understand.

Wise piece of advice. :)

Quote
Now I've forgotten exactly which philosophers he told me about. 

He probably meant start off with Plato and slowly make your way through the whole history of philosophy up to Kant.   :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 15, 2011, 08:35:56 AM
This should actually go in 'non classical purchases' thread, but since it is follow-up on discussion from last week I'll post it here. I've just placed an order for few crime pulps. Picked these:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51URRpXLdRL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XNJ9X0TXL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5140Q6ZHJ9L.jpg)

A Touch of Death is 50s classic, great reviews and one of Dave's forumites recommends it too. The other one I bought purely on strength of title - Fade to Blonde, you can't really get more perfect than that, and together with cover painting (does it look more like Debbie Harry or Deborah Unger?) is so incredibly archetypal of the genre, that even if the actual story is no good I had to have it. It'll sit beautifully on the shelf. Third one is not from Hard Case Crime series but three novels by Mickey Spillane in one ("I, the Jury", "My Gun is Quick", "Vengeance is Mine!"). Spillane's Me, Hood (Ja, Bitanga in Serbian) was the very first crime novel I read as a kid (before the Chandlers and the Hammetts) and loved it. Later I've seen the TV series with Stacey Keach but although not bad just haven't had the visceral rawness of the writing. These will be my first chance to read him in English, can't wait! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 15, 2011, 08:38:06 AM
And on topic, I'm finishing this:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/70/42/2b6d810ae7a095553b05a110.L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 15, 2011, 01:44:40 PM
Quote from: Drasko on June 15, 2011, 08:35:56 AM
This should actually go in 'non classical purchases' thread, but since it is follow-up on discussion from last week I'll post it here. I've just placed an order for few crime pulps. Picked these:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51URRpXLdRL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XNJ9X0TXL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5140Q6ZHJ9L.jpg)

A Touch of Death is 50s classic, great reviews and one of Dave's forumites recommends it too. The other one I bought purely on strength of title - Fade to Blonde, you can't really get more perfect than that, and together with cover painting (does it look more like Debbie Harry or Deborah Unger?) is so incredibly archetypal of the genre, that even if the actual story is no good I had to have it. It'll sit beautifully on the shelf. Third one is not from Hard Case Crime series but three novels by Mickey Spillane in one ("I, the Jury", "My Gun is Quick", "Vengeance is Mine!"). Spillane's Me, Hood (Ja, Bitanga in Serbian) was the very first crime novel I read as a kid (before the Chandlers and the Hammetts) and loved it. Later I've seen the TV series with Stacey Keach but although not bad just haven't had the visceral rawness of the writing. These will be my first chance to read him in English, can't wait!

Great, Drasko! Let us know how you like them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on June 15, 2011, 01:50:20 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 15, 2011, 12:51:53 AM
Kant's philosophy is exactly like the theory of differential equations: without concentration and pen & paper in hand, one cannot even begin to understand the definitions, let alone the whole thing.  ;D

OTOH, it is exactly unlike the theory of differential equations, in that without at least a basic knowledge of the history of philosophy before Kant, one cannot even begin to understand the definitions, let alone the whole thing.  ;D

Wise piece of advice. :)

He probably meant start off with Plato and slowly make your way through the whole history of philosophy up to Kant.   :D
You know, I think he did mention Plato, and I actually did end up reading a couple hundred pages of my "complete works of Plato book."
Arrggghh....  :-\  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on June 15, 2011, 01:51:22 PM
Oh, I'm reading this, by the way...
[asin]141762468X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 16, 2011, 02:18:18 PM
(http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4576/tennesse.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on June 17, 2011, 08:11:09 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5183EeuappL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on June 19, 2011, 11:36:51 AM
Not reading straight through, but working through the relevant material.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fc-O0k5bL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Perfectly written and thorough- just what I needed.  8)


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rSl9EQBgL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
These series of books have such a strange style that they need to be seen to be understood. It's one of those super-conversational style (like the opposite of a "dry textbook").
It's a little better if you want to read straight through, but not as good if you want a reference.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 20, 2011, 02:05:06 PM
Well, got a Kindle and immediately downloaded the Robert E. Howard's Omnibus of 99 stories.  Just finished the first of the boxing short stories, Alleys of Peril.  GREAT stuff.  Hong Kong waterfront, dark alleys at every turn, villain known as the White Tigress,valuable ruby up for grabs, boxing, and great dialogue.  Now I think I will jump to one of the detective stories next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 20, 2011, 04:06:02 PM
Well, another REH short gone.  Just took in Graveyard Rats....more of a horror story than a detective one.  If you liked the Willard rat movie of old, this story is for you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 20, 2011, 06:46:19 PM
I just suddenly had a bad feeling that Bill is going to post about each of the 99 stories! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 20, 2011, 07:42:39 PM
Quote from: DavidW on June 20, 2011, 06:46:19 PM
I just suddenly had a bad feeling that Bill is going to post about each of the 99 stories! ;D

No....only the 93 or so that have not read. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 20, 2011, 09:25:00 PM
(http://terrororstralis.com/novels/02a.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 21, 2011, 02:10:37 AM
Quote from: DavidW on June 20, 2011, 06:46:19 PM
I just suddenly had a bad feeling that Bill is going to post about each of the 99 stories! ;D

Well, when I re-read The MS. Found at Saragossa, I'll post to recap each of the 66 days : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: not edward on June 23, 2011, 05:08:39 AM
Iain M. Banks' Surface Detail.

[asin]0316123412[/asin]

I've been of the opinion that Banks' work in the last decade has been rather weak, particularly in his non-sf work, which has for the most part been repeating itself with very little effect. I'm a lot happier with this book; a bit over half-way through this novel it feels like a major return to form, and his best book in a long time. Sure, there's nothing terribly original here (and much of it is elaboration of themes present in earlier books), but it's very well executed and superbly paced (at least in the 60% of the book that I've read), unlike the painfully slow development in Matter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 26, 2011, 12:56:26 PM
Re: what are you currently reading?

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aeUv8h6CL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-24,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

is it any good?

Very.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 26, 2011, 01:00:02 PM
Bill I read that novel twice.  The first time I read it, I did so in one sitting!  I couldn't put it down... it was AWESOME. 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 26, 2011, 01:18:35 PM
Quote from: DavidW on June 26, 2011, 01:00:02 PM
Bill I read that novel twice.  The first time I read it, I did so in one sitting!  I couldn't put it down... it was AWESOME. 8)

My Kindle is allowing the first 4 or 5 chapters for preview.  I am about at the end of it so will buy when I hit that point for sure.  Seems so far like a great book/series to take me through the summer. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 26, 2011, 02:05:57 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 26, 2011, 01:18:35 PM
My Kindle is allowing the first 4 or 5 chapters for preview.  I am about at the end of it so will buy when I hit that point for sure.  Seems so far like a great book/series to take me through the summer. :)

It is a great series... but not finished yet so just be ready for a long wait to see it through. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 26, 2011, 10:23:38 PM
Quote from: DavidW on June 26, 2011, 02:05:57 PM
It is a great series... but not finished yet so just be ready for a long wait to see it through. :)

Finished up the preview....definitely hooked, but my friend tonight gave me this to read before we go to Boston:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MW6c0diqL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Karl, we will be there the 24-27 of July and some in the first few days of August.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 27, 2011, 04:47:07 AM
Splendid. Have you got my cell no.?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on June 27, 2011, 05:10:35 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 26, 2011, 12:56:26 PM
Re: what are you currently reading?

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aeUv8h6CL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-24,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

is it any good?

Very.

I'm on the third book now.  Given how mixed the reviews have been of the 4th book, I think I'm going to wait to see what people say about book 5, and if that sounds like an improvement, then I'll push on through book 4.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 27, 2011, 05:21:25 AM
Hmm.

J.R.R. Tolkien

George R.R. Martin

Coincidence? . . . I smell a wannabe . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 27, 2011, 05:59:01 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 27, 2011, 04:47:07 AM
Splendid. Have you got my cell no.?

Do not know if I have it saved in my phone, my friend.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 27, 2011, 06:23:10 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 27, 2011, 05:21:25 AM
Hmm.

J.R.R. Tolkien

George R.R. Martin

Coincidence? . . . I smell a wannabe . . .

Carl Nielsen

Karl Henning

Coincidence? ... I smell a wannabe ... ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 27, 2011, 06:24:28 AM
Je-je-je! He's the uncle of us atonal honkers!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 27, 2011, 06:27:05 AM
Ah....you cannot mess with my avatar like that, Karl.  I read a couple old posts not being able to remember writing that! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 27, 2011, 06:28:13 AM
Now there are three Columbo's running around.  "Just one more question?"... "who is the real mccoy?" :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on June 27, 2011, 06:31:31 AM
Bill, I left a call-back number, that's my cell.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 09, 2011, 08:41:35 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XNJ9X0TXL.jpg)

Halfway through this and hugely enjoying it. The hero is an ex boxer cum unsuccessful screenwriter turned bodyguard with preference for Chekhov over Tolstoy (my sort of guy). Hired by The Blonde to protect her from creepy ex, but then inch by inch getting deeper and deeper involved with the mob. I like the plot being unpredictable, halfway through and I have no idea to which direction it'll go, which is good. Breezy writing style, managing to be occasionally funny without looking like trying to hard. Still think the title and the cover are plain perfect.

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/0c/44/764d224128a023f25212c010.L.jpg)

I'm just starting this. Bit tougher read, but seems very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 09, 2011, 08:55:39 AM
After many years (I think I left my old copy in the apartment in St Pete), revisiting Trout Fishing in America, Richard Brautigan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 09, 2011, 10:57:21 AM
Some Poirot:

(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100340060/mysterious-affair-styles-hercule-poirot-mystery-agatha-christie-hardcover-cover-art.jpg)

We have been watching the series as a family and absolutely love it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on July 10, 2011, 08:06:21 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 09, 2011, 08:55:39 AM
After many years (I think I left my old copy in the apartment in St Pete), revisiting Trout Fishing in America, Richard Brautigan.
That poor, tragically mad & visionary drunk.  Revisiting that sounds sweetly nostalgic.

Now reading
[asin]B00495XRCK[/asin]
and enjoying it quite a bit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on July 10, 2011, 08:33:11 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41xvipxvyEL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on July 10, 2011, 09:36:20 PM
Quote from: CD on April 22, 2011, 08:52:00 PM
Finished Magris's Inferences From a Sabre — a breezy read, somewhere between an encyclopedia entry and a tragedy. The epistolary style and the slightly pedantic moralistic narrator in the form of the Italian priest-scholar reminded me slightly of Mann's Faustus. Magris manifests the real-life tragic character of a Cossack general, Krasnov, who sided with the Nazis at the end of WWII, who, after the German defeat, turned to the British for asylum, only to be handed back to the Soviets they fought against. The general's hubris and confused idealism are both comic and sad, and absolutely human. The clarity with which Magris paints Krasnov in so short a span (less than 90 pages) is remarkable.

Now starting:

(http://pasunautre.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Witold_Gombrowicz_pornografia_cover.jpg)

Any comment on this Gombrowicz novel? I loved Ferdydurke - a feast for the language! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on July 11, 2011, 01:34:15 AM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on June 26, 2011, 01:28:09 PM
(http://www.waterstones.com/wat/images/nbd/m/978009/950/9780099506164.jpg)
Life and Fate
Vasily Grossman (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Fate-Vasily-Grossman/dp/0099506165/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309123060&sr=1-1#_)

Any comment on this one? It's waiting in my bookshelf  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 11, 2011, 02:24:55 AM
Quote from: rubio on July 11, 2011, 01:34:15 AM
Any comment on this one? It's waiting in my bookshelf  :)

I'm reading it these days, am halfway through. It's excellent. One of the most powerful condemnations of both Nazism and Communism I've ever read --- and very good written too, some sort of "War and Peace" set during the Battle of Stalingrad, but with manifold and intricate extensions in time and space. Definitely on a par with Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on July 11, 2011, 02:36:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 11, 2011, 02:24:55 AM
I'm reading it these days, am halfway through. It's excellent. One of the most powerful condemnations of both Nazism and Communism I've ever read --- and very good written too, some sort of "War and Peace" set during the Battle of Stalingrad, but with manifold and intricate extensions in time and space. Definitely on a par with Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak.

Thank you for the comment! It will definately advance in the to-be-read line. I'm quite obsessed with the Battle of Stalingrad, and would like to go to Volgograd one day. I found Anthony Beevors Stalingrad an absorbing read, and look forward to read this novel set during this terrible happening.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 11, 2011, 02:56:48 AM
Quote from: rubio on July 11, 2011, 02:36:41 AM
Thank you for the comment! It will definately advance in the to-be-read line. I'm quite obsessed with the Battle of Stalingrad battle, and would like to go to Volgograd one day. I found Anthony Beevors Stalingrad an absorbing read, and look forward to read this novel set during this terrible happening.

You're in for a treat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on July 11, 2011, 06:38:59 AM
Quote from: rubio on July 10, 2011, 09:36:20 PM
Any comment on this Gombrowicz novel? I loved Ferdydurke - a feast for the language! :)

Loved it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 11, 2011, 09:13:18 AM
I recently finished this book and consider it essential reading for anybody interested in understanding the current economic situation, especially as it pertains to the U.S. ...

Thomas I. Palley: Plenty of Nothing: Downsizing the American Dream and the Case for Structural Keynesianism

The book was published in 1995 so it's a bit dated in a couple of respects, specifically Palley didn't anticipate the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, nor the decade of low interest rates that we have experienced.  However in my opinion, (I'm a layman, not an economist), his basic theses remain very sound.  His basic premises also remain perfectly correct:
  As I construe, Palley's term "structural Keynesianism" is basic Keynesianism extend to take account of factors like globalization and the changed labor/business balance of power.

To mention a few, Palley's remedies include: For further reading, I recommend a couple of more recent books by Robert B. Reich, Supercapitalism (2005) and Aftershock (2008).  I regard Palley's book as a "prequel" to these.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518E5KPY7HL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)... Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Nothing-Thomas-I-Palley/dp/0691050317/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310402768&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on July 11, 2011, 10:31:00 AM
And to get a solid lesson in how government intervention in the marketplace actually works in the real world (instead of the fantasy world of theory), see Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner's Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BIZXIfvfL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 11, 2011, 12:25:31 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on July 11, 2011, 10:31:00 AM
And to get a solid lesson in how government intervention in the marketplace actually works in the real world (instead of the fantasy world of theory), see Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner's Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BIZXIfvfL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

That looks like it might be a worthwhile read.

I don't need to be pursuaded of the negative effects of "oversized ambition, greed, and corruption", or of the inefficacy of government regulation in recent years.  I am will to get a more nuanced understanding though.

I suspect the the problem recently vis-a-vis government regulation has been having "the foxes in charge of the hen house".  That is, regulation per se isn't necessarily bad, but having bad, counterproductive, or even counterintentional regulation under Bush appointees was very bad indeed.  Let's agree, though, that Obama has done much to improve things.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on July 11, 2011, 05:32:19 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on July 11, 2011, 10:31:00 AM
And to get a solid lesson in how government intervention in the marketplace actually works in the real world (instead of the fantasy world of theory), see Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner's Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon

So what's the market solution to the outsized ambition, greed, and corruption that lead to economic armageddon?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on July 11, 2011, 06:35:15 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on July 11, 2011, 09:13:18 AM
   
  • Greater government intervention in both fiscal and monetary policy; (as regards the latter, letting go the notion that the central bank ought to totally independent of elected officials).

Not necessarily this, but at least more independent from business.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 08:31:28 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on July 11, 2011, 12:25:31 PM
I suspect the the problem recently vis-a-vis government regulation has been having "the foxes in charge of the hen house".  That is, regulation per se isn't necessarily bad, but having bad, counterproductive, or even counterintentional regulation under Bush appointees was very bad indeed.  Let's agree, though, that Obama has done much to improve things.
Yes, the foxes in charge of the hen house is precisely the problem.  In the case of our housing bubble and mortgage meltdown, the foxes took over during the Clinton administration with his policies leading the way.

Obama has done nothing productive in this matter.  He is a creation of Goldman Sachs, his high level appointments were damned near all fellows who brought us the mortgage disaster, and the most corrupt Congress in history turned out the Dodd-Franks Bill, named for its co-sponsors, two of the biggest crooks in government and both of whom were on the take from the mortgage industry and helped enormously to screw the public.  And the reform bill will benefit no one so much as the biggest financiers--like Goldman Sachs--to help stifle competition from smaller and less powerful, politically connected firms.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 08:44:42 AM
Quote from: Daverz on July 11, 2011, 05:32:19 PM
So what's the market solution to the outsized ambition, greed, and corruption that lead to economic armageddon?
I would say that the market solution is transparency, complete disclosure, and an even playing field--with government regulation to punish the crooks and prevent their depredations, rather than to reward them and make their crimes possible.

This is the problem with big, excessively powerful government:  it ALWAYS gets commandeered by the crooks who use its power to their advantage.  Outsized ambition, greed, and their efforts to corrupt will be with us as long as human nature is so selfishly short-sighted.  The founders of our republic recognized that the British Parliament was the corrupt tool of powerful commercial interests more than 200 years ago, and they were smart enough to understand that great power and great corruption go hand in glove precisely because it is only the corrupt who seek such power.  Thus they took pains to severely limit the power of our national government.  The Articles of Confederation proved too weak to restrain impediments to beneficial commerce.  The Constitution remedied that by giving only the feds power to coin money and regulate trade--and by expressly limiting the authority of the federal government to the few powers specifically enumerated in the document--and by equally specifically reserving ALL other powers to the states and the people.

We're in deep doo-doo because we let the foxes take over the hen house in Washington, D.C., and they've turned the federal government into a protection racket that serves the highest bidders.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on July 12, 2011, 09:14:17 AM
I'm still not clear how smaller government will solve the problem of regulatory capture.  It strikes me as magical thinking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on July 12, 2011, 09:27:46 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on July 10, 2011, 08:06:21 PM
That poor, tragically mad & visionary drunk.  Revisiting that sounds sweetly nostalgic.

Now reading
[asin]B00495XRCK[/asin]
and enjoying it quite a bit.

Just saw this. Cheers.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on July 12, 2011, 09:28:57 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 20, 2011, 09:25:00 PM
(http://terrororstralis.com/novels/02a.jpg)

Sweet. That was the run of Tarzan that I owned.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 09:37:08 AM
Quote from: Daverz on July 12, 2011, 09:14:17 AM
I'm still not clear how smaller government will solve the problem of regulatory capture. 
Solve?  No.  As long as there are slimy people, slimy people will gravitate to influence peddling.  The point of limited government is to limit the scope of the problem and to contain its effects.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on July 12, 2011, 01:08:12 PM
(http://www.tradebit.com/usr/ebook-reader/pub/9002/37959781412241298108108Pic.jpg)
Read a couple of the dreams that I hadn't read before, though they aren't quite as good as the ones I've already read.

This is a good little book (only ~47 pages), and the inspiration to one of my favorite movies, Kurosawa's Dreams. It's a very ethereal read- some of the stories not having any sense of conclusion at all adds to this effect.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 12, 2011, 02:01:05 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 08:44:42 AM
I would say that the market solution [to economic armegedon] is transparency, complete disclosure, and an even playing field--with government regulation to punish the crooks and prevent their depredations, rather than to reward them and make their crimes possible.

This is the problem with big, excessively powerful government:  it ALWAYS gets commandeered by the crooks who use its power to their advantage.  Outsized ambition, greed, and their efforts to corrupt will be with us as long as human nature is so selfishly short-sighted.  The founders of our republic recognized that the British Parliament was the corrupt tool of powerful commercial interests more than 200 years ago, and they were smart enough to understand that great power and great corruption go hand in glove precisely because it is only the corrupt who seek such power.  Thus they took pains to severely limit the power of our national government.  The Articles of Confederation proved too weak to restrain impediments to beneficial commerce.  The Constitution remedied that by giving only the feds power to coin money and regulate trade--and by expressly limiting the authority of the federal government to the few powers specifically enumerated in the document--and by equally specifically reserving ALL other powers to the states and the people.

We're in deep doo-doo because we let the foxes take over the hen house in Washington, D.C., and they've turned the federal government into a protection racket that serves the highest bidders.

When politicians become the lackeys commercial interests -- very much now the case in the US today -- that's when the foxes get put in charge of the hen houses. Bear in mind that the British Parliament of the 1770's was a far cry from being really democratic.  For a start only minority of males could vote and there was no secret ballot; people were easily bought or intimidated.  Of course there are a lot of so called democracies today where it's not a matter of who votes or for whom they vote, but who counts the votes that matters.

However when democracy is genuine, government is the protector of the people. To believe otherwise is to denigrate democracy itself and accept the powerlessness of voters to resist the duplicity and lies of the likes of Fox News and Rupert Murdoch. (Odd choice of names, "Fox", eh?) Personally I am loath to write off democracy.

Further, it's absurdly naive to believe that free play of so-call free market will ensure an equitable economic system -- in any case it would do nothing to protect the environment for instance. To further strip government's regulatory power is to throw the baby out with the bath water.  That's because reducing the powers of government won't return power to the people but instead deliver it all, finally, to the most crass of global commercial and financial interest who -- and you can believe this -- don't give a damn about the US or any other country.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on July 12, 2011, 02:29:44 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 09:37:08 AM
Solve?  No.  As long as there are slimy people, slimy people will gravitate to influence peddling.  The point of limited government is to limit the scope of the problem and to contain its effects.

I get it!  No police, no police corruption!  No doctors, no medical malpractice.   No journalists, no bad news. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 12, 2011, 02:54:33 PM
Quote from: Daverz on July 12, 2011, 02:29:44 PM
I get it!  No police, no police corruption!  No doctors, no medical malpractice.   No journalists, no bad news. 

I don't know if that's practical, but, man: how sweet it sounds!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 04:50:51 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on July 12, 2011, 02:01:05 PM
However when democracy is genuine, government is the protector of the people.
Huh?  This strikes me as naïve beyond belief.

Quote from: Fëanor on July 12, 2011, 02:01:05 PM
To believe otherwise is to denigrate democracy itself and accept the powerlessness of voters to resist the duplicity and lies of the likes of Fox News and Rupert Murdoch. (Odd choice of names, "Fox", eh?) Personally I am loath to write off democracy.
Democracy is tyranny of the majority.  Fox and Murdoch are a strange lot to cite, as they are relatively recent arrivals on the scene and provide a much-needed but still insufficient counterbalance to a mainstream press that tilts far to the left.  Partisan Democrats sneer, but based on the little I've seen of Fox News its claim to be "Fair & Balanced" holds water--certainly in comparison with its lefty counterparts.  Interesting also that in a short period of time it has come to dominate its market segment--an indication of public hunger for a source of news, information, and commentary that's comparatively unbiased and reflects the values of mainstream America, rather than the values self-appointed elites try to force upon the public against its own best interests.

Quote from: Fëanor on July 12, 2011, 02:01:05 PMFurther, it's absurdly naive to believe that free play of so-call free market will ensure an equitable economic system -- in any case it would do nothing to protect the environment for instance. To further strip government's regulatory power is to throw the baby out with the bath water.  That's because reducing the powers of government won't return power to the people but instead deliver it all, finally, to the most crass of global commercial and financial interest who -- and you can believe this -- don't give a damn about the US or any other country.
Who said anything about equitable?  The point of the market is simply that it works better than any other system of economic distribution yet devised.  Like Democracy, its far from perfect ... but the alternatives are all much worse.  If people don't properly value the environment, that's not the market's fault, but their own short-sighted stupidity.  As far as "delivering power to the most crass of global commercial and financial interests" -- that's exactly what the system we now have does.  It was bad enough when the cynical bastards in our government offered their services to whichever Americans paid the most, but ever since Al Gore started political fundraising from the Communist Chinese, political whores have been selling themselves without regard for national loyalties.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 04:52:19 PM
Quote from: Daverz on July 12, 2011, 02:29:44 PM
I get it!  No police, no police corruption!  No doctors, no medical malpractice.   No journalists, no bad news.
Y'all love the strawmen.  It's not a binary proposition.  But then, you really knew that, didn't you?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on July 12, 2011, 07:20:17 PM
Quote from: Greg on July 12, 2011, 01:08:12 PM
(http://www.tradebit.com/usr/ebook-reader/pub/9002/37959781412241298108108Pic.jpg)
Read a couple of the dreams that I hadn't read before, though they aren't quite as good as the ones I've already read.

This is a good little book (only ~47 pages), and the inspiration to one of my favorite movies, Kurosawa's Dreams. It's a very ethereal read- some of the stories not having any sense of conclusion at all adds to this effect.

Ooh, that looks great.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 13, 2011, 04:04:32 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 04:50:51 PM
...
Who said anything about equitable?  The point of the market is simply that it works better than any other system of economic distribution yet devised.  Like Democracy, its far from perfect ... but the alternatives are all much worse. ...

In fact I do believe in the free market and also private enterprise as the main engine of the economy.  I that respect I'm like John Maynard Keynes himself whose aim it was to preserve calpitalism by compensating its weaknesses.

Quote from: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 04:50:51 PM...
  If people don't properly value the environment, that's not the market's fault, but their own short-sighted stupidity. ...

In fact it is the market's fault.  The market values things for which the consumer is willing to pay.  It isn't overly simplistic to say that because we don't pay to breath, the market doesn't value the atmosphere.

Quote from: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 04:50:51 PM...
As far as "delivering power to the most crass of global commercial and financial interests" -- that's exactly what the system we now have does.  ...

Indeed -- and you can see where it's got us.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 14, 2011, 02:19:40 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on July 12, 2011, 04:50:51 PM
...
Democracy is tyranny of the majority.  Fox and Murdoch are a strange lot to cite, as they are relatively recent arrivals on the scene and provide a much-needed but still insufficient counterbalance to a mainstream press that tilts far to the left.  Partisan Democrats sneer, but based on the little I've seen of Fox News its claim to be "Fair & Balanced" holds water--certainly in comparison with its lefty counterparts.  Interesting also that in a short period of time it has come to dominate its market segment--an indication of public hunger for a source of news, information, and commentary that's comparatively unbiased and reflects the values of mainstream America, rather than the values self-appointed elites try to force upon the public against its own best interests.
...
"Fair & Balanced", Fox News?  If you believe that you have a perverted vision of reality, David.  "Comparatively unbiased" -- give me a break. There is not need to balance fairness with bigotry; no need to balance public generosity with personal greed, no need to balance science with superstition; no need to balance truth with lies.  I have more faith in typical Americans than to believe that Fox News actually reflects their values,

In fact there is no better example of a "self-appointed elite" trying to thrust a set of values on people, Americans, Brits, Australians, and Canadians, than Murdoch's News Corporation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rubio on July 14, 2011, 12:22:59 PM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on July 14, 2011, 07:14:17 AM
Any comment on this one? It's waiting in my bookshelf  :)


I'm about halfway through and enjoying it.  It's very readable, which for me is kind of a key requirement, no matter how worthy the book.

The author is attempting an updated version of War and Peace, set against a background of the Battle of Stalingrad.  He follows the events which befall a number of groups of Russians - in a German KZ, in a Soviet work camp, Muscovites evacuated to the Ukraine, a family behind the lines in Kazan, as well as battle groups in and around Stalingrad.  The narrative is in short sections, some no more than a page, and doesn't follow a linear track, though it does continually intersect and connect e.g. one of the prisoners in the Gulag is the first husband of a woman in Kazan whose son has just fallen in battle.

The author doesn't preach, but equally he doesn't flinch from saying it the way he saw it (as a war journalist "embedded" with the Red Army) so it's not hard to see why it took such a struggle to get it published.  I've no doubt it's a major work.  If you've read And Quiet Flows The Don by Sholokhov, this is kind of similar, but significantly better, in my view.  For one thing, there's not an ounce of sentimentality anywhere in it, but neither is it cynical.  Sympathetic but bitingly analytical, and powerfully written.

Thank you very much for your detailed comment! And Quiet Flows The Don by Sholokhov is also on my list of books to read, but for sure I will read Life and Fate first. It will be a nice read for this autumn and winter to come.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on July 14, 2011, 01:23:54 PM
.[asin]0142004308[/asin]
Cracking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on July 16, 2011, 11:33:41 AM
I reread A Tale of Two Cities.  That was a favorite back in high school, it still holds up but is not my favorite Dickens novel by far anymore.  I guess my problem is that it doesn't have enough of the Dickensian humor and quirky characters, and everything is too black and white.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on July 16, 2011, 12:25:55 PM
Yes, it's an unusually drive-to-the-end novel for Dickens.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on July 17, 2011, 07:33:33 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AG8p4X7WL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
It's good (possibly the best book on the subject), but as easy to understand as an advanced book on philosophy.

I know part of that has to do with the nature of multithreading (which is a matter not of simply typing something and seeing results, but mainly just theoretical good and bad practices), but I'm going to have to look into other stuff that makes comprehending certain stuff a bit easier (if I can find a book that can pull that off).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 17, 2011, 10:22:48 AM
Boy, I've not posted here in a while, but I have been reading a lot of books!  :D

Currently, Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild (2010) by Lee Sandlin - great reviews & ratings on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-River-Mississippi-When-Last/dp/0307378519/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310926549&sr=1-1) - reading the book off my iPad2 - using an app called Overdrive which allows borrowing from various libraries, so out on a 2 week loan - enjoying this e-reading - :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GkvDD35iL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on July 21, 2011, 07:23:32 PM
I don't know if I posted this already...

Read up to page 92/256 of How to Kill a Mockingbird. I read it based on its reputation. I know I'll upset a few people, but I have to ask... does this get any better? If not, how is this even considered a great work of art? I feel like I'm reading a kids' movie.

Maybe there's something at the end that will totally amaze and shock me?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on July 22, 2011, 05:52:19 AM
Greg you can't judge a novel until you have finished reading it. If you can't finish that short read then you will have failed where millions of ninth graders have succeeded (including me). ::)  The main character is a child, but the issue of racism is a mature topic handled seriously.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JerryS on July 22, 2011, 07:04:03 AM
Quote from: Greg on July 21, 2011, 07:23:32 PM
I don't know if I posted this already...

Read up to page 92/256 of How to Kill a Mockingbird. I read it based on its reputation. I know I'll upset a few people, but I have to ask... does this get any better? If not, how is this even considered a great work of art? I feel like I'm reading a kids' movie.

Maybe there's something at the end that will totally amaze and shock me?  :)

You might find this discussion helpful:

http://www.neabigread.org/books/mockingbird/radioshow.php (http://www.neabigread.org/books/mockingbird/radioshow.php)

Don't expect any huge shocks, but there is some fearful business toward the end and a satisfying catharsis.

Oh, and by the way, this isn't a "How to" book.    :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on July 22, 2011, 06:08:53 PM
Okay, I'll have to finish it, then.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 23, 2011, 09:28:25 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TsDNU6yML._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 23, 2011, 09:29:49 PM
Quote from: Greg on July 21, 2011, 07:23:32 PM
I don't know if I posted this already...

Read up to page 92/256 of How to Kill a Mockingbird. I read it based on its reputation. I know I'll upset a few people, but I have to ask... does this get any better? If not, how is this even considered a great work of art? I feel like I'm reading a kids' movie.

Maybe there's something at the end that will totally amaze and shock me?  :)

My favorite novel of all time (or tied with LOTR).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on July 25, 2011, 04:13:03 PM
New Wolfe.
[asin]0765328186[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on July 25, 2011, 07:30:34 PM
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176270237l/609614.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on July 26, 2011, 03:45:00 AM
Quote from: Coco on July 25, 2011, 07:30:34 PM
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176270237l/609614.jpg)

:o How is it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on July 31, 2011, 07:22:24 AM
.[asin]0765360268[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on August 02, 2011, 07:51:08 AM
,[asin]085768325X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 02, 2011, 08:12:51 AM
Re-reading this tasty sucker:

The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War

[asin]0385520603[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on August 02, 2011, 10:17:43 AM
After reading Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamazov and Crime & Punishment, what should be next to read in the Dostoevsky catalogue?

Please and thank you.   :)

Should The Idiot be next?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 02, 2011, 10:19:26 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on August 02, 2011, 10:17:43 AM
Should The Idiot be next?

Да.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 02, 2011, 04:38:07 PM
To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 (2011) by Adam Hochschild - a Kindle download to my iPad2 - thought that I'd not enjoy this method of reading a book but I'm wrong - it is easy, convenient, and versatile - believe that this book was on my list from an excellent NY Times Book Review - enjoying - :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517i1GtC8kL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on August 02, 2011, 06:01:56 PM
.[asin]0143119206[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on August 04, 2011, 02:04:28 AM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SV6FZJJQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
P.G. Wodehouse
The Coming of Bill
Everyman  (http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1841591408?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=1841591408)


Continuing my Wodehouse binge. One Wodehouse a week, at least.  This is "as close as Wodehouse ever came to a serious story", tackling the issue of eugenics in the 1920s.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on August 04, 2011, 05:03:02 AM
Downloaded this for $1.99. A mystery that takes place in Minnesota. Pretty good so far.
[asin]1416556745[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on August 04, 2011, 05:48:53 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 04, 2011, 02:04:28 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SV6FZJJQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
P.G. Wodehouse
The Coming of Bill
Everyman  (http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1841591408?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=1841591408)


Thought this had to do with Bill's trip to Boston and his visit with Karl.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 04, 2011, 05:54:14 AM
By Raymond Knapp:

[asin]0945193904[/asin]

A couple chapters were too technical and went right over my head, but the parts that - uh - went straight at my head? - the other parts are very good and very interesting.  :P The author does a mostly good job of hiding his admittedly rather endearing desire to do some rah-rah-gimme-a-B Brahms cheerleading. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 04, 2011, 06:46:35 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on June 07, 2011, 04:06:33 AM
Cussler has a surprisingly bad style for such a supposedly popular writer - every page offered something to annoy me. I picked this up as the only available reading material during a particularly tedious out of town wait, but I don't care what happens when the action starts moving, as the writer will no doubt be too busy describing every inane technical detail behind every piece of equipment that the characters are using. It's a relatively simple adventure story, but only an adult could enjoy this - a child would never put up with such stilted writing :\

[asin]0425177173[/asin]

Okay, rage. I am actually still reading this, at an incredibly slow pace due to frequent rage quits, then restarts. I don't know whether this is what people call a "page-turner", because that implies that the book is an enjoyable light read, and this is an unenjoyable light read. For some reason as the plot got even stupider I wanted to know where it went.

Everybody in this book "grins widely", everybody has auburn hair and green eyes, every female is described as being highly sexually attractive and only independent to the point that a man stops them because Clive Cussler must surely loathe non-fictional women. when an enemy escapes in a car, the person who got a glimpse of it will describe its model number, engine power and how fast it goes from 0-60 (I wish this was made up). The author at some points dedicates an entire paragraph towards listing the model names of the diving equipment that the characters are currently using. It's so face-crushingly bad that it's quite impressive, yet I feel that by continuing to read it I am in some way condoning or even supporting the awfulness.

It also includes blonde Nazi octuplets or something as one of the main antagonists. When the protagonist found one dead, Cussler still felt the need to talk about what a hot bod the corpse has. Seriously, if this is a "best seller" I am very happy that high street bookstore chains are closing in droves.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 04, 2011, 07:44:58 AM
"A Dirk Pitt novel"


It's obviously the pitts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on August 04, 2011, 07:45:27 AM
...de profundis clamavi...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 04, 2011, 07:49:58 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on August 02, 2011, 04:38:07 PM
To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 (2011) by Adam Hochschild - a Kindle download to my iPad2 - thought that I'd not enjoy this method of reading a book but I'm wrong - it is easy, convenient, and versatile - believe that this book was on my list from an excellent NY Times Book Review - enjoying - :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517i1GtC8kL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

As well as not taking up space on our already crammed to to the gills bookshelves.  We are becoming very choosy on what we buy in "hard copy" format these days, ie OOP books and a few history ones we want for our library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 04, 2011, 10:57:09 AM
Quote from: Bogey on August 04, 2011, 07:49:58 AM
As well as not taking up space on our already crammed to to the gills bookshelves.  We are becoming very choosy on what we buy in "hard copy" format these days, ie OOP books and a few history ones we want for our library.

Hi Bill - sounds like you enjoyed your vacation & meeting w/ Karl - hope the weather was kind to you & family -  :)

Yep, Susan & I are kind of on a non-physical no purchase binge at least for books & videos at the moment - I'm reading on an iPad2 and she is loving her Nook Color and has learned to get books from the library - I've got a couple of ones also on my list and even recent recommendations, just have to wait for them a little bit; however, still buying CDs!  - Dave  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 04, 2011, 01:01:44 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on August 04, 2011, 06:46:35 AM
Okay, rage. I am actually still reading this, at an incredibly slow pace due to frequent rage quits, then restarts.

There is nothing wronging with quitting it, it's not Ulysses! :D  Buy another novel or visit the library. :)

I think he was supposed to be good at one point before ghost writers took over.  Let me find the review for the one I had the misfortune of reading one a few years back...

Quote from:  
Christian J. Graham "whisker88"My best friend and co-worker is a Paramedic. He reads alot of books. Or rather that is he did before reading Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler.

Wisely, my friend would fill his idle hours with reading books of varying quality. It usually took him three days to finish a decent sized novel. Often based on his assessment I would decide whether a novel was worth my time or not.

Not so with Valhalla Rising, on day one of him reading this book. He became quiet and withdrawn. Many times I would see him finish a chapter only to see him stare off into space, pale with an expression on his face like he'd just been slapped.

On day two the mumbling began. Walking past him I would catch snatches of phrases "Nemo's sub", "teleporting briefcase" ect. His eating habits became irregular. Oddly, I also noticed he began to carry around a long handled wooden kitchen spoon in his duffel bag.

On day three and completion of the novel he stood up and screamed "How can the author (Clive Cussler) write himself into a piece of his own fiction as a character?!?" "How dare he!" Just then he hurled Valhalla Rising into the garbage can. Ran to his duffel bag and retrieved the long handled wooden spoon. Right then and there he sat cross-legged on the floor and began rocking back and forth hitting himself in the head with the wooden spoon over and over shouting "Oatmeal Spoon!"

Is there a link between the Oatmeal Spoon and Mr. Cussler's poorly written piece of fiction? I cannot say. However, I know in my heart it is Valhalla Rising that destroyed my friends higher brain functions just as surely as I know the sun shall rise tomorrow. In other words, avoid this book!

Best.  Book.  Review.  Ever. ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 04, 2011, 01:28:32 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 04, 2011, 01:01:44 PM
Let me find the review for the one I had the misfortune of reading one a few years back...

Best.  Book.  Review.  Ever. ;D ;D ;D ;D


It's very good.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 04, 2011, 01:57:56 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 04, 2011, 01:01:44 PM
There is nothing wronging with quitting it, it's not Ulysses! :D  Buy another novel or visit the library. :)

I wish I could quit it, I'd love to chalk it down as something I don't like - but more grotesquely, something inside me in some way enjoys it :(

Oh god, having read that review, I might have to read that book too ;____; I am very familiar with the end of chapter cliffhanger numbness - the author has a great way of ending things in the most silly ways possible, often adding a stupid amount of dramatic weight to a joke that doesn't even make sense.

Edit: Oh dear god: he has a character called MacD Lawless.

.
...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on August 04, 2011, 02:10:46 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on August 04, 2011, 01:57:56 PM
I wish I could quit it, I'd love to chalk it down as something I don't like - but more grotesquely, something inside me in some way enjoys it :(


Poe called that the "Imp of the Perverse".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on August 04, 2011, 03:01:36 PM
Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on August 04, 2011, 02:10:46 PM

Poe called that the "Imp of the Perverse".

I have several.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 08, 2011, 01:32:44 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on August 04, 2011, 01:57:56 PM
I wish I could quit it, I'd love to chalk it down as something I don't like - but more grotesquely, something inside me in some way enjoys it :(

Oh god, having read that review, I might have to read that book too ;____; I am very familiar with the end of chapter cliffhanger numbness - the author has a great way of ending things in the most silly ways possible, often adding a stupid amount of dramatic weight to a joke that doesn't even make sense.

Edit: Oh dear god: he has a character called MacD Lawless.

You really, really need to read Harry Stephen Keeler. Keeler is the The Room (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S9Ew3TIeVQ) of American literature.

Here, for your delectation, is the first paragraph of the 1927 Keeler novel When Thief Meets Thief:

Quote   MY name is Jerry Hammond. J. Hammond, yeggman in the vernacular of gangsterdom and the underworld, safe-cracker in everyday English. Also gentleman – and take that last or leave it! So now I'm placed in the general scheme of things. Yeggman, boxman, peterman, ironworker, blaster – there are more names for the racket that has kept wrinkles out of the lining of my interior for a good eight years than there are fleas on a cat's ear when he's being dipped to his whiskers in insecticide. I know how to cook dynamite in a pail of hot water over a one-hole gas burner, and take off from the bottom a half-ounce of pure nitro-glycerine, known among us users of the stuff as soup. Or how to crumble the dynamite into wood-alcohol and bring the nitro-glycerine out – and straight to the top! – with cold distilled water. I know how to drill into an ordinary fire-proof safe and lay my nitro-glycerine, fused and timed, all ready for the touch-off that will bring the door away. I know how to get to the inside of a chilled-steel receptacle with no more noise than a cockroach, drunk after emerging from an uncorked gin-bottle in a garbage can, would make as he sneaked back to Mrs. C., waiting up to biff him on the beezer for leaving her to mind the youngsters while he went skyhooting. I can saw past the bolts of any cast-iron contraption, using two saws at the same time, one in each mitt. Or I can blowpipe an entry to an armourplated vault, and leave any driller, who's had no more sense than to try and blow it open, to scuttle off faster than a hold-up man at the wheel of a sports Dusenberg, when he hears the radio outfit on it squawking – "Calling all cars!"

And here is the full text. (http://site.xavier.edu/polt/keeler/etexts/index.html) You can also hear the above paragraph read aloud (http://www.trickcoin.net/2010/10/harry-stephen-keeler-audiobook.html) by some sainted genius who manages to betray not even the slightest suspicion that he's reading anything more unusual than a phone book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on August 08, 2011, 01:41:11 AM
Clive Cussler (I've read a couple) is so stupid, unbelievable and clicheridden that it is a shame NOT to give up.

Re giving up: After reading over 600 pages of Umbert Eco's incomprehensible "Foucaults Pendulum" I gave up with about 50 pages left, and haven't regretted it one day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 08, 2011, 03:35:53 AM
Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on August 04, 2011, 07:44:58 AM
"A Dirk Pitt novel"


It's obviously the pitts.

Dirk Pitt. Oh god...that's a porno name.  ;D

I'd never heard of Clive Cussler or his series of adventure novels. I took a look at his Wiki entry and read this: "Most of the creative effort is devoted to highly detailed descriptions of events and technology that are not necessarily mandatory to get the story across." So, Sara is not exaggerating  :D

Thread duty: I recently watched The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968 version) which has compelled a re-read of Cardigan's biography.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/may11/cardigan.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 08, 2011, 05:37:40 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 08, 2011, 03:35:53 AM
Thread duty: I recently watched The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968 version) which has compelled a reread of Cardigan's biography.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/may11/cardigan.jpg)


Sarge

That looks fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 08, 2011, 06:04:05 AM
Quote from: Bogey on August 08, 2011, 05:37:40 AM
That looks fascinating.

It is a fascinating read because he's a fascinating character who was both reviled (for good reasons) and loved (for good reasons). Almost everything that was said about him, the good and the bad, was true. He embodied a shocking personality dichotomy: he was an adulterer, murderer, racist, bigot. He was vain, pompous but women loved and respected him (even as he openly fucked around on them). He was very wealthy and spared himself no expense but he was also unbelievably generous to those less fortunate. He was courageous (he didn't balk at the insane order to charge) but he disdained intellect and intelligence as beneath a gentleman. He wasn't impressed by military experience and competence. His officers hated him; his men loved him.  He believed in duty as an Englishman and didn't shirk his.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 08, 2011, 06:13:46 AM
Re-reading (together with an old Wooster classmate) The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War by Alexander Waugh (Evelyn's grandson, and a talented writer, and a keen mind, in his own right):

[asin]0307278727[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on August 08, 2011, 08:46:14 AM
Quote from: The new erato on August 08, 2011, 01:41:11 AM
Re giving up: After reading over 600 pages of Umbert Eco's incomprehensible "Foucaults Pendulum" I gave up with about 50 pages left, and haven't regretted it one day.
I just had to look at this book to see what you meant. I browsed through it and it seems roughly Ulysess-level (this observation based on first glance).

So, according to this here,  Finnigan's Wake is the most difficult book to read.


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006042519695


Quote"riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to
tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface."

Um... half of those words aren't even on my online popup dictionary. Has anyone here actually read this book and understood it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on August 09, 2011, 02:36:24 PM
.[asin]1439157286[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on August 09, 2011, 04:56:46 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on August 09, 2011, 02:13:19 PM
Did you just cite yahoo answers? I'd hope you'd do better research than that.

As to Finnegans Wake... it took 17 years to write, it should take 17 years to understand... I think Joyce said that or something like that.
Yeah, I didn't put a lot of effort into that one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on August 15, 2011, 06:47:10 PM
(http://www.bibliotecagiapponese.it/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/beautyandsadness2.jpg?w=192)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 16, 2011, 05:49:08 PM
That's pretty cool Philo! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on August 16, 2011, 05:53:15 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 16, 2011, 05:49:08 PM
That's pretty cool Philo! :)

Indeed!  Tres cool, Philo.   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on August 18, 2011, 06:03:30 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on August 16, 2011, 05:41:22 PM
I came across this fantastic link that creates literature maps. I've come across some awesome authors because of it. So I thought I'd share it.

http://www.literature-map.com/

Interesting. I type in "William S Burroughs" and, among others, I get AA Milne and Sylvia Plath.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on August 23, 2011, 06:32:54 AM
(http://images.51eng.com/p/97806/187/056/9780618705641.jpg)


It's time I did some more in-depth reading on China, but I didn't want to dive into a heavy duty work right now, so I opted for a lighter work by James Kynge, the former China bureau chief for the Financial Times.  I've read the first three chapters so far, and his style is crisp, quick to read, a bit willy-nilly in terms of focus (it's almost stream of consciousness in how it moves from topic to topic), and relies heavily on anecdotes.  The opening one describes how a Chinese firm bought, disassembled, transported, and rebuilt a steel factory from Germany.  Neat stuff.  The description of industrial competition, no official property right enforcement for anyone, excess savings and the issues that brings, and of course dense and urbanizing population is informative in its detail.  Still, I will need some other books to delve more deeply into these subjects.  I must say the blunder about William Howard Taft once being Secretary of State makes me question the quality of fact checking in the book, but it's still entertaining.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mc ukrneal on August 23, 2011, 06:59:28 AM
Quote from: Todd on August 23, 2011, 06:32:54 AM
(http://images.51eng.com/p/97806/187/056/9780618705641.jpg)


It's time I did some more in-depth reading on China, but I didn't want to dive into a heavy duty work right now, so I opted for a lighter work by James Kynge, the former China bureau chief for the Financial Times.  I've read the first three chapters so far, and his style is crisp, quick to read, a bit willy-nilly in terms of focus (it's almost stream of consciousness in how it moves from topic to topic), and relies heavily on anecdotes.  The opening one describes how a Chinese firm bought, disassembled, transported, and rebuilt a steel factory from Germany.  Neat stuff.  The description of industrial competition, no official property right enforcement for anyone, excess savings and the issues that brings, and of course dense and urbanizing population is informative in its detail.  Still, I will need some other books to delve more deeply into these subjects.  I must say the blunder about William Howard Taft once being Secretary of State makes me question the quality of fact checking in the book, but it's still entertaining.
Wiki says that Taft was once the acting Secretary of State.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on August 23, 2011, 07:09:27 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on August 23, 2011, 06:59:28 AMWiki says that Taft was once the acting Secretary of State.


True enough, though he never held the official title.  The State Department does not list him as a former secretary, for instance.  Perhaps it's hair splitting, but someone of Taft's achievements could have been more accurately and appropriately described as, say, former President, Secretary of War, Governor of the Philippines, or Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 23, 2011, 07:14:12 AM
Howard Pollack, George Gershwin: His Life and Work.  Very good, indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mc ukrneal on August 23, 2011, 07:22:40 AM
Quote from: Todd on August 23, 2011, 07:09:27 AM

True enough, though he never held the official title.  The State Department does not list him as a former secretary, for instance.  Perhaps it's hair splitting, but someone of Taft's achievements could have been more accurately and appropriately described as, say, former President, Secretary of War, Governor of the Philippines, or Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
I don't know the context in the book. But if they mentioned him as Sec'y of State considering all the titles you mentioned (and some of the other, prestigious, positions he held), that is a bit odd indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on August 23, 2011, 07:33:54 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on August 23, 2011, 07:22:40 AMI don't know the context in the book. But if they mentioned him as Sec'y of State considering all the titles you mentioned (and some of the other, prestigious, positions he held), that is a bit odd indeed.



He's mentioned in one line (well, so far at any rate, though I don't expect him to figure much going forward) regarding the myth and reality of China's potentially huge consumer market, and how it's always been a lofty dream.  Taft is quoted as referring to one of the great prizes of commerce being the then 400 million Chinese.  I would have thought just writing "William Howard Taft once said" would have been enough, but for some reason the Secretary of State title is included. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mc ukrneal on August 23, 2011, 07:45:25 AM
Quote from: Todd on August 23, 2011, 07:33:54 AM


He's mentioned in one line (well, so far at any rate, though I don't expect him to figure much going forward) regarding the myth and reality of China's potentially huge consumer market, and how it's always been a lofty dream.  Taft is quoted as referring to one of the great prizes of commerce being the then 400 million Chinese.  I would have thought just writing "William Howard Taft once said" would have been enough, but for some reason the Secretary of State title is included.
Strange...Anyway, I have heard good things about the book, and a fairly minor quibble considering the topic is China. Hope it keeps your interest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on August 23, 2011, 07:51:29 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on August 23, 2011, 07:45:25 AMand a fairly minor quibble considering the topic is China. Hope it keeps your interest.


Definitely a minor quibble, but such things raise questions for me as to how thorough certain other aspects of the work are.  That written, this book was selected for its brevity, topic, and general good reviews, which seem well-founded. 

As an aside, the flub about Taft isn't that bad in comparison to some others.  In General of the Army, an outstanding bio of George Marshall, right there on page one of the book is the claim that George Marshall was related to John Marshall, described as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.  Oops.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 23, 2011, 08:24:17 PM
Just bought this:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0785134816.jpg)

I've been wanting to read more of Frank Miller's Daredevil ever since I finished the mini-series The Man Without Fear.

I'm a big fan of graphic novels especially those written by Frank Miller (Daredevil, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City), Alan Moore (The Swamp Thing, The Watchmen, V For Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, The Books of Magic, Black Orchid, Marvel 1602), Mark Waid (Kingdom Come, Kingdom Come, The Flash), and Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Batman: Arkham Asylum, The Invisibles).

Anybody else here a fan of these comic writers? I know some people here may roll their eyes about comics and that's okay, but there are some very good stories that have been written. You just have to open your mind a little. :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 24, 2011, 04:37:21 AM
Not exactly, but I did enjoy seeing the movie with Ben Affleck & al.  Not sure I'd need to see it again, but . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 24, 2011, 05:50:41 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on August 23, 2011, 08:24:17 PM
Just bought this:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0785134816.jpg)

I've been wanting to read more of Frank Miller's Daredevil ever since I finished the mini-series The Man Without Fear.

I'm a big fan of graphic novels especially those written by Frank Miller (Daredevil, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City), Alan Moore (The Swamp Thing, The Watchmen, V For Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, The Books of Magic, Black Orchid, Marvel 1602), Mark Waid (Kingdom Come, Kingdom Come, The Flash), and Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Batman: Arkham Asylum, The Invisibles).

Anybody else here a fan of these comic writers? I know some people here may roll their eyes about comics and that's okay, but there are some very good stories that have been written. You just have to open your mind a little. :)

Not so much these days, but I have read a number of the ones you mention and particularly liked Moore's work.

It's surprising how many of these have been made into films, something one would never have expected when the works were originally published. Now we've had Watchmen, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell, Sin City, 300, etc. (I commented recently on the Watchmen film in the movie thread.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 24, 2011, 07:35:24 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on August 24, 2011, 05:50:41 AM
Not so much these days, but I have read a number of the ones you mention and particularly liked Moore's work.

It's surprising how many of these have been made into films, something one would never have expected when the works were originally published. Now we've had Watchmen, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell, Sin City, 300, etc. (I commented recently on the Watchmen film in the movie thread.)

I never liked film adaptations of comic books. They just never work well because there's a lot of internalizing that happens in comic books that doesn't happen in the films.

Edit: I did like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Both of these seemed to be more story-oriented than Hollywood special effects.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 24, 2011, 07:43:49 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on August 24, 2011, 07:35:24 AM
I never liked film adaptations of comic books. They just never work well because there's a lot of internalizing that happens in comic books that doesn't happen in the films.

How is that different to actual literature on which movies are based? I ask out of curiosity . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 24, 2011, 07:46:47 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 24, 2011, 07:43:49 AM
How is that different to actual literature on which movies are based? I ask out of curiosity . . . .

I'm not sure, Karl. I haven't watched many movies based on books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 24, 2011, 09:29:56 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 24, 2011, 07:43:49 AM
How is that different to actual literature on which movies are based? I ask out of curiosity . . . .

It certainly makes for a weird dilemma: with traditional literature, the director has a fair amount of leeway to interpret the story into a visual storytelling medium. With comics, you already have a visual storytelling medium. With comics like Sin City, 300, and Watchmen, the directors used them as storyboards and literally translated the panels into motion, which is interesting on a technical level but ultimately redundant. Why not put your own stamp on the raw material?

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 24, 2011, 07:35:24 AM
I never liked film adaptations of comic books. They just never work well because there's a lot of internalizing that happens in comic books that doesn't happen in the films.

Edit: I did like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Both of these seemed to be more story-oriented than Hollywood special effects.

The Spider-Man films (the first in particular) were good, too, capturing the essence of comics and keeping the focus on the characters and their dilemmas. Some of the most interesting comic book films have been ones not based on actual properties but investigating the superhero myth: Unbreakable, Hancock, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 24, 2011, 09:42:27 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on August 24, 2011, 09:29:56 AM
Some of the most interesting comic book films have been ones not based on actual properties but investigating the superhero myth: Unbreakable, Hancock, etc.

Meh, mediocre.  I think that American splendor is the best comic book movie I've seen (but my favorite is really The Dark Knight), but I agree with MI that the ones that create their own stories work better than literal adaptions of graphic novels.

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0VXjQvg_XMA/TYaPMo3bHMI/AAAAAAAAAlo/RWE_ErS_eaY/s1600/american%2Bsplendor.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on August 24, 2011, 06:30:12 PM
(http://sumnonrabidus.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/rilke.jpg?w=321&h=500)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 24, 2011, 09:57:06 PM
Just bought some more Daredevil written by Frank Miller:

(http://dyn4.media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/17370110.jpg.size-300_square-true.jpg) (http://dyn1.media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/1795230.jpg.size-300_square-true.jpg) (http://dyn4.media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/17647890.jpg.size-300_square-true.jpg)

Now I own all of Miller's Daredevil: these three volumes, which collects the death of Elektra, his classic fight with Bullseye, etc., the book Born Again, and the mini-series detailing Daredevil's origin called The Man Without Fear, which I already owned the single issues of that I bought years ago. Can't wait to dig into these as Daredevil has always been a favorite of mine.

Edit: I'm missing one TPB of Daredevil with Miller at the helm and it's called Daredevil: Love and War and appears to be out-of-print. Has anyone read this one? I don't think I've ever seen it in a comic store come to think of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 24, 2011, 10:14:14 PM
I really need to finish Gaiman's Sandman series as I think I'm only on Fables & Reflections. I also need to start reading Alan Moore's Swamp Thing as I bought all of the TPBs a couple of years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 24, 2011, 10:38:13 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 24, 2011, 04:37:21 AM
Not exactly, but I did enjoy seeing the movie with Ben Affleck & al.  Not sure I'd need to see it again, but . . . .

Karl, that was a horrendous movie. I hate Affleck and Garner, so it's no surprise I wouldn't like it. The casting was just a big mistake. Affleck has no affinity for Matt Murdock and Garner wasn't convincing as Elektra. Kingpin was a joke. Colin Farrell as Bullseye? Please. ::)

Like I said, there aren't many movies adapted from a comic book that have been successful, because as mentioned, and a very valid point from Dave, there's not a new storyline being written specifically for that film. The only winning examples of this, in my opinion, have been Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. I thought Spider-Man and the X-Men films were good but not outstanding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 25, 2011, 04:53:25 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on August 24, 2011, 10:38:13 PM
Karl, that was a horrendous movie. I hate Affleck and Garner, so it's no surprise I wouldn't like it. The casting was just a big mistake. Affleck has no affinity for Matt Murdock and Garner wasn't convincing as Elektra. Kingpin was a joke. Colin Farrell as Bullseye? Please. ::)

I liked it ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 05:02:21 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on August 24, 2011, 10:38:13 PM
Karl, that was a horrendous movie. I hate Affleck and Garner, so it's no surprise I wouldn't like it. The casting was just a big mistake. Affleck has no affinity for Matt Murdock and Garner wasn't convincing as Elektra. Kingpin was a joke. Colin Farrell as Bullseye? Please. ::)

Like I said, there aren't many movies adapted from a comic book that have been successful, because as mentioned, and a very valid point from Dave, there's not a new storyline being written specifically for that film. The only winning examples of this, in my opinion, have been Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. I thought Spider-Man and the X-Men films were good but not outstanding.

I think another dilemma (beyond the question of directly translating an actual comic's panels into moving visuals) that faces filmmakers is tone: traditional superhero comics are inherently cheesy since they're fundamentally about juvenile male power fantasies. But then you have writers and directors who understandably want to try to inject more mature tone and content into the films, thereby leaving the brightly colored--but morally black & white--world of the comics behind.*

I think the first Spider-Man film was probably the best at capturing the look, feel, and fun of comics, while at the same time making the characters sympathetic and reasonably believable without getting angsty or artsy.

This problem is why, in part, I was disappointed with the Watchmen film: they left out some of the more interesting self-referential bits of the comic that looked at the nonsense of guys running around in tights and solving every problem with their fists.

* Even the supposedly "mature" comics are usually just more graphic and violent, but not more mature in the sense of presenting a more nuanced, sophisticated view of human nature, morality, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 25, 2011, 05:05:59 AM
.[asin]0521523958[/asin]
Not reading this (lol) but check the price and total size ??? I love the You Save: $13.12
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on August 25, 2011, 05:12:10 AM
$2,611.88
12,306 pages...
???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 25, 2011, 05:16:28 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 05:02:21 AM
. . . traditional superhero comics are inherently cheesy . . . .

The entire post, well taken. But thank you especially for this.  Testify!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 05:19:32 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 25, 2011, 05:16:28 AM
The entire post, well taken. But thank you especially for this.  Testify!

And I don't mean that as an insult! That's part of what makes them fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 25, 2011, 05:22:20 AM
Ho capito. Not all art can (nor should) be serious : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 05:30:28 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 25, 2011, 05:22:20 AM
Ho capito. Not all art can (nor should) be serious : )

(http://www.three-stooges.com/3-stooges.jpg)

FTW!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 25, 2011, 05:31:39 AM
I'm more an Addams Family sort of chap . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 25, 2011, 07:50:35 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 05:02:21 AM
I think another dilemma (beyond the question of directly translating an actual comic's panels into moving visuals) that faces filmmakers is tone: traditional superhero comics are inherently cheesy since they're fundamentally about juvenile male power fantasies. But then you have writers and directors who understandably want to try to inject more mature tone and content into the films, thereby leaving the brightly colored--but morally black & white--world of the comics behind.*

I think the first Spider-Man film was probably the best at capturing the look, feel, and fun of comics, while at the same time making the characters sympathetic and reasonably believable without getting angsty or artsy.

This problem is why, in part, I was disappointed with the Watchmen film: they left out some of the more interesting self-referential bits of the comic that looked at the nonsense of guys running around in tights and solving every problem with their fists.

* Even the supposedly "mature" comics are usually just more graphic and violent, but not more mature in the sense of presenting a more nuanced, sophisticated view of human nature, morality, etc.

As I said, there's a lot of internalizing in comic books that doesn't translate well into a film and this is one reason why Watchmen failed. The story was too complex for a movie. It just didn't work and I read Alan Moore had a hand in the film, but not even he could save it. I only watched this film once, but that was enough for me.

Well, I'm in the midst of reading and re-reading the classic comic book tales, especially those written by Frank Miller, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman. I think they are a unique example of writers that were able to transcend the typical comic book trappings and make it into something innovative and groundbreaking. Where would Daredevil be today without Frank Miller? Where would the X-Men be today without Chris Claremont? Where would Swamp Thing be today without Alan Moore? Anyway, you get my point. These characters wouldn't have had much impact in popular culture had it not been for these gifted writers doing some serious revamping.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 25, 2011, 08:02:54 AM
Internalizing probably doesn't translate, period. (Just saying.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 08:34:55 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 25, 2011, 08:02:54 AM
Internalizing probably doesn't translate, period. (Just saying.)

I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing :) , but the movie equivalent of thought balloons--voiceovers--usually feel hokey, almost like artistic cheating. Another option is spoken soliloquies, which probably only feel right in Shakespeare adaptations, where it's an understood/expected convention. Of course, there's the more subtle but more challenging alternative: use really good acting, direction, lighting, music, etc. to show the character's inner life. Certainly, good films regardless of genre have had no problem portraying or implying emotional subtleties.

Interestingly (having just skimmed through my copies of V for Vendetta and Watchmen), there aren't any thought balloons that I can see, only a few places that use the equivalent of voiceover, with one person's speech carrying across multiple panels in caption boxes (as ironic commentary to the visuals, for instance).

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 25, 2011, 07:50:35 AM
As I said, there's a lot of internalizing in comic books that doesn't translate well into a film and this is one reason why Watchmen failed. The story was too complex for a movie. It just didn't work and I read Alan Moore had a hand in the film, but not even he could save it. I only watched this film once, but that was enough for me.

I don't know that the story itself was too complex--though it is baroque--but rather that the things that make Watchmen unique in comics might not translate well to screen, if at all: namely the complex implementation of flashbacks and all the "false documents" and mise-en-abîme. (I think Watchmen is ultimately more interesting not for the story it tells, but rather how it tells its story.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 25, 2011, 08:35:28 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 25, 2011, 08:02:54 AM
Internalizing probably doesn't translate, period. (Just saying.)

It does in the comic books. :) Or are you just talking about films?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 25, 2011, 08:39:25 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 08:34:55 AMI don't know that the story itself was too complex--though it is baroque--but rather that the things that make Watchmen unique in comics might not translate well to screen, if at all: namely the complex implementation of flashbacks and all the "false documents" and mise-en-abîme. (I think Watchmen is ultimately more interesting not for the story it tells, but rather how it tells its story.)

Yes, the flashbacks were a hard pill to swallow, because they were done without any kind of smooth transition. You should read Watchmen sometime. It's a great read. One of the best comic books I've ever read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 08:43:38 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on August 25, 2011, 08:39:25 AM
Yes, the flashbacks were a hard pill to swallow, because they were done without any kind of smooth transition. You should read Watchmen sometime. It's a great read. One of the best comic books I've ever read.

I have read it. Those characteristics I was discussing were in reference to the original comic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 25, 2011, 08:54:44 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 08:43:38 AM
I have read it. Those characteristics I was discussing were in reference to the original comic.

It's an excellent read. Do you have other favorite comic books? Have you read any of Gaiman's Sandman?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 25, 2011, 08:59:20 AM
Watchmen might have been interesting when it was first published... but giving superheroes complex personalities and real world issues is now old hat.  Not only that but the cold war era paranoia is gone.  There is no resonance anymore.  This means that the movie needed to translate some of the issues of that comic to make it fit with our world right now.  Instead Snyder gave us a literal interpretation trying to visually match the comic frame by frame.  So not only did he not try to build new themes that would resonate with an audience today, but his adaptation left the soul of the work behind leaving only a hollow shell.  He didn't really work hard enough in establishing the characters as real people with real problems as much as the comic series did.

When you watch the movie don't you feel bored and unengaged?  I liked Rorschach alot, but that was about it.  It didn't even find a new equilibrium for a narrative flow or momentum for a film.  It was kind of a dud.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 25, 2011, 09:43:13 AM
For my birthday yesterday my family gave me a wheelbarrow full of books. My father pushed an actual wheelbarrow (cleaned beforehand thankfully) into the living room, covered with a couple towels, and they whipped the towels off and it was full of books.

The haul (literally), divided into non-fiction and otherwise:
- The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross
- Defending the Guilty, Alex McBride (a lawyer relates his biggest screw-ups and adventures)
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace
- 2011 Guide to Literary Agents
- Garner's Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner
- Diaries: The Python Years, Michael Palin (inspired by Karl!)

- American Gods, Neil Gaiman
- 60 & 40 Stories, Donald Barthelme
- Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
- The Pale King, David Foster Wallace
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on August 25, 2011, 10:02:56 AM
Well first...Happy Birthday! And a big mess o' books is a mighty fine gift (and points to your family for presentation).  The Rest is Noise is excellent; there's a reason it's been translated into 15 languages. The only other one I can affirm is the Donald Barthelme collection, which I think has some of the most imaginative short stories ever penned.

But I'd bet the Palin book - oops, I do mean Michael Palin  ;D - is wonderful.

--Bruce

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 25, 2011, 10:06:59 AM
Quote from: DavidW on August 25, 2011, 08:59:20 AM
Watchmen might have been interesting when it was first published... but giving superheroes complex personalities and real world issues is now old hat.  Not only that but the cold war era paranoia is gone.  There is no resonance anymore.  This means that the movie needed to translate some of the issues of that comic to make it fit with our world right now.  Instead Snyder gave us a literal interpretation trying to visually match the comic frame by frame.  So not only did he not try to build new themes that would resonate with an audience today, but his adaptation left the soul of the work behind leaving only a hollow shell.  He didn't really work hard enough in establishing the characters as real people with real problems as much as the comic series did.

When you watch the movie don't you feel bored and unengaged?  I liked Rorschach alot, but that was about it.  It didn't even find a new equilibrium for a narrative flow or momentum for a film.  It was kind of a dud.

Yes. I was just mentally checking off the scenes I remembered from my last reading of the source material back in the day. "Giant Dr. Manhattan blasts the VC, check..."

Your response very much parallels mine. The most interesting aspects of the comic are questions of text and texture and probably couldn't be directly translated to the screen even if anyone had wanted to. By only half-heartedly dealing with those and focusing too much on literally recreating the visuals of the main story arc, the film lost forward momentum, tension, and clarity. Sub-par acting didn't help.

Like I said earlier, it's more interesting to me when a film re-examines the basic idea of the superhero myth itself, as in Unbreakable, or to a lesser extent, Hancock.

Quote from: Mirror Image on August 25, 2011, 08:54:44 AM
It's an excellent read. Do you have other favorite comic books? Have you read any of Gaiman's Sandman?

V for Vendetta was always a fave. I read Sandman back in the day but don't remember any details. Many of the ones you mentioned a while back I read years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on August 25, 2011, 03:54:11 PM
Digging it.
[asin]B003R4ZGBO[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 25, 2011, 04:20:10 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 25, 2011, 09:43:13 AM
- American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Awesome! 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on August 25, 2011, 05:48:34 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 25, 2011, 05:22:20 AM
Ho capito. Not all art can (nor should) be serious : )

Yes, but balance is key. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 25, 2011, 07:06:59 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 25, 2011, 08:59:20 AM
Watchmen might have been interesting when it was first published... but giving superheroes complex personalities and real world issues is now old hat.  Not only that but the cold war era paranoia is gone.  There is no resonance anymore.  This means that the movie needed to translate some of the issues of that comic to make it fit with our world right now.  Instead Snyder gave us a literal interpretation trying to visually match the comic frame by frame.  So not only did he not try to build new themes that would resonate with an audience today, but his adaptation left the soul of the work behind leaving only a hollow shell.  He didn't really work hard enough in establishing the characters as real people with real problems as much as the comic series did.

When you watch the movie don't you feel bored and unengaged?  I liked Rorschach alot, but that was about it.  It didn't even find a new equilibrium for a narrative flow or momentum for a film.  It was kind of a dud.

I didn't enjoy the Watchmen movie at all. Nothing about it was as interesting to me as the comic. Even Rorschach wasn't convincing, so I agree with you on all points about this film adaptation. The whole superhero movie thing is getting old to me now. I'm tired of directors putting special effects above an engaging story. Without a story, you don't have a film in my view.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on August 26, 2011, 12:59:40 AM
DAVID S. LANDES:     "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations"

Why are some nations so wealthy and others so poor? Landes studies the problem in a very detailed and documented book. His conclusions have nothing to do with political correctness, and that is good. However they are polemical and many people hated them when the book was published (1998). Even if I don't agree with some of them I find this essay very stimulating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 26, 2011, 04:32:20 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/719SBA98RVL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.gif)

Is it any good? Elementary, dear GMG'ers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 26, 2011, 07:28:45 PM
Just bought Bendis's Daredevil run, which I've read is one of the best in the character's history next to Frank Miller's:

(http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/2/22664/1529917-dd_by_bdml_ultcll_1_large.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aFiR1O5HL.jpg)

(http://www.operacionmandril.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/DaredevilBendisMaleevVol3.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 26, 2011, 08:12:35 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on August 26, 2011, 04:19:33 PM
A pleasant fellow approached me on campus and gave me this:

(http://www.dhirashanta.com/images/bhagavad-gita-front%5B1%5D.jpg)

I had a cultist (in the nicest possible sense) of this type sell me some manual or other in town a while back - as I am ridiculously timid I couldn't really say no. I recall the same "His Divine Grace" title and purple/gold design - I wonder what the religion is, I never thought to look.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 27, 2011, 04:26:26 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on August 26, 2011, 08:12:35 PM
I had a cultist (in the nicest possible sense) of this type sell me some manual or other in town a while back - as I am ridiculously timid I couldn't really say no. I recall the same "His Divine Grace" title and purple/gold design - I wonder what the religion is, I never thought to look.

That edition is one handed out by Hare Krishnas, but the Bhagavad Gita itself is a key text of Hinduism and one of the world's most important (and interesting) religious classics, up there with the Bible, Quran, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on August 27, 2011, 05:31:06 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YYb-66DoL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Speeding my way through this easy stuff...
Supposedly, JSF isn't nearly as good as Spring (which I will learn next), but I find it very impressive, nevertheless. You can do stuff that I never even would think of.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 27, 2011, 05:30:51 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51v3XBOP3sL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 27, 2011, 05:31:47 PM
And Bill?  What did you think?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on August 27, 2011, 07:07:54 PM
Intellectually, I know that my name is a first name in Norway and (I think) Denmark . . . but it always takes me a bit aback actually to see such a name . . . .

Bill, I've a wee parcel I'll send in Tuesday's post (counting on Monday being a little messy with Irene's misbehaviors . . . .)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 27, 2011, 07:19:46 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 27, 2011, 07:07:54 PM
Intellectually, I know that my name is a first name in Norway and (I think) Denmark . . . but it always takes me a bit aback actually to see such a name . . . .

Bill, I've a wee parcel I'll send in Tuesday's post (counting on Monday being a little messy with Irene's misbehaviors . . . .)

There was a Henning character in a novel I read, and another character was, I kid you not, Gustav Mahler! :D

It was this novel:

[asin]B0057DCMNI[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 27, 2011, 08:19:47 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 27, 2011, 05:31:47 PM
And Bill?  What did you think?

Only a few pages in and it already grabbed me by the collar.  This one was written later, but is the first chronologically speaking.  The recent shows we watched help with visioning the mood of the characters.  You would enjoy it I believe, David.

Thanks, Karl....hope all is safe your way.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 27, 2011, 09:43:55 PM
Bill, I like the show and keep meaning to read the novels.  Lis is also a fan.  Anyway I should read one of those Wallander mysteries! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on August 28, 2011, 04:59:11 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on August 26, 2011, 07:28:45 PM
Just bought Bendis's Daredevil run, which I've read is one of the best in the character's history next to Frank Miller's:


Let us know. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on August 28, 2011, 08:46:23 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 28, 2011, 04:59:11 AM
Let us know. :)

Will do, Dave, will do. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on August 29, 2011, 10:11:42 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41jAAe7uO5L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

A concise intro (116 pages with line drawings and B&W photos) that lucidly covers the basics: origins, texts, architecture, rituals, relations to the state, interactions with Buddhism, etc. Shinto is certainly an interesting and elegant expression of spirituality, sanctifying or commemorating the mundane and the material, focusing on the communal over the hierarchical, and on ritual over doctrine and conceptualization.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 29, 2011, 02:08:05 PM
Just about to start this. My first attempt to read Faulkner in English.

(http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/4676/5374146163c30147b21cz.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 30, 2011, 07:16:21 AM
Does anyone know of any little measures you can take to make ex-library books less horrible? I am collecting a series that is expensive new, but almost all the second hand copies (certainly all the cheap ones) are ex-library, and a fair portion of them have that shelf-stench that 50 year old books with glossy pages tend to accumilate (much more offensive than the more musty/burning smell of cheap paper).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on August 30, 2011, 07:19:19 AM
No. :( And half the time you end up destroying the covers if you try to take the annoying stickers and things off. -___-
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 30, 2011, 08:14:47 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on August 30, 2011, 07:16:21 AM
Does anyone know of any little measures you can take to make ex-library books less horrible? I am collecting a series that is expensive new, but almost all the second hand copies (certainly all the cheap ones) are ex-library, and a fair portion of them have that shelf-stench that 50 year old books with glossy pages tend to accumilate (much more offensive than the more musty/burning smell of cheap paper).

Yeah you can buy books online instead!  Same price but way less crappy. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on August 30, 2011, 04:26:20 PM
A lot of the books I bought online ended up being ex-library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 30, 2011, 04:37:53 PM
That's too bad.  I've had better luck.  But I spend alot of time looking at not just condition comments but on seller feedback.  I'm a fuss budget! :D  But now that I've finally gone electronic only, it doesn't matter. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on August 30, 2011, 11:40:57 PM
ANDRÉ TUBEUF:          "LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN"

A poetic meditation on Beethoven's work, in special the piano Sonatas and string Quartets. The literary style of Mr. Tubeuf is superb.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on August 31, 2011, 09:00:17 AM
Quote from: Coco on August 30, 2011, 04:26:20 PM
A lot of the books I bought online ended up being ex-library.

Indeed - they usually admit or imply this in the condition, and I stupidly buy them thinking the best but getting the worst ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 31, 2011, 09:02:54 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on August 31, 2011, 09:00:17 AM
Indeed - they usually admit or imply this in the condition, and I stupidly buy them thinking the best but getting the worst ;D

One penny plus shipping... how bad could it be? ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on September 02, 2011, 03:28:10 AM
I've gotten lots of good books for 1p! :)

Can anybody comment on Voinovich's Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin? From the descriptions I've read about it, it could either be neat or just be a rehash of Good Soldier Švejk.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 02, 2011, 03:47:58 AM
Quote from: Bogey on August 27, 2011, 05:30:51 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51v3XBOP3sL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

You've got the wrong Wallender as your avatar.   Here's the right one:

(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQsWvd3vS253MhmtWHCqy2cIg8dsUP8Dcx3m9Nn2pqThuiEzsWF)

(I do like Branagh, I just prefer the Swedish show.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on September 02, 2011, 04:03:01 AM
The best non-fiction I've read in a long time.  This a really hard-hitting book wherein Prof. Sitlitz addresses the causes of, and responses to, the still-current Great Recession, and also the lessons the ought to have been learned (but mostly have not).

Stiglitz' main focus is the US financial sector whom he severely criticizes and blames for precipitating the Recession.  He severely criticizes US Government and Federal Reserve, (i.e. Greenspan, especially, and Bernanke), for permitting the private sector to assume reckless and ultimately self-injurious risk.  Whence he goes on to point out emphasis the result has been in effect to "socialized" bank losses while leaving profits in the private hands.

Partisan Republicans can take some heart in that much criticism is reserved for Obama and his financial team, drawn as it was from the old guard of private sector-biases insiders.

Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy ~ Joseph E. Stiglitz

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41esiPVShTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on September 02, 2011, 05:28:16 AM
COLD HAND IN MINE by Robert Aickman.

Of course it's good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on September 07, 2011, 06:00:50 PM
.[asin]0679723234[/asin]
Of course it's good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on September 11, 2011, 05:58:27 PM
Two:

(http://kuwcnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/look-at-me.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wo6wSCoZL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 11, 2011, 07:28:21 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NYYDP6H8L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

just finished listening to this on CD after reading it a couple of years back.  Cannot say enough about how great this book is
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on September 12, 2011, 12:22:55 PM
I finished this one, which I loved - unfortunate that its unorthodox POV and approach will not garner much interest, but for anyone interested in a mixture of astute observations on the nature of music, performance, and sketches of musical and cultural life in mid-century Europe (especially England and Germany) from a non-musician "outsider", then it is a little gem. It's done a lot to make me deeply interested in historical recordings (which I didn't care about before) to hear with the knowledge of the character performing the music:

[asin]0907689361[/asin]
Amongst the valuble miscellaneous commentry in this one, there is considerable valuable material on Delius, Elgar and Bantock:

[asin]0907689191[/asin]
Covers a lot of ground, a good intro to Kahn's life, movings and ideas:

[asin]0789300990[/asin]
I like the style of this one and wish there were more like it - I lent it to a friend who doesn't care about classical and I was delighted to find (as I had dared to suspect) that she could enjoy it from a philosophical POV alone:

[asin]0907689159[/asin]
The title sums up whether you would care about this or not - if you do, then it's nourishingly detailed and with decent amount of illustrations (but not printed on seperate photo paper):

[asin]0801856221[/asin]

Slowly working my way through this and nearing the end - the composer is a remarkable character and the anecdotes the author provides are respectful but not blinkered:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41gC02XBkCL._SL500_AA300_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0859679233/?tag=goodmusicguideco)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on September 12, 2011, 01:09:54 PM
Nice to see Paul Rapoport there several times - I 'know' him as a reader, I befriended him on Facebook and I met him in person a day after the 'Gothic' performance...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on September 12, 2011, 01:21:08 PM
n__n I can't claim that it was anything other than coincidence that I checked those books after reading Opus Est: Six composers from Northern Europe, he just has similar tastes to me and has cornered the market somewhat ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on September 12, 2011, 01:37:59 PM
After finishing to read Freud's "Beyond the principle of Pleasure" and "Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious", and Baudelaire's "Artificial Paradises"; now I think I'll start Nieztsche's "Die fröhliche Wissenschaft".

(http://static2.shoutem.com/pictures/L0qaiUbpc0me2oErM3oBwQ/large/die_froehliche_wissenschaftla_gaya_scienza_id4491728.jpg)

Ilaria
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on September 12, 2011, 01:58:23 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Pettersson on September 12, 2011, 01:21:08 PM
n__n I can't claim that it was anything other than coincidence that I checked those books after reading Opus Est: Six composers from Northern Europe, he just has similar tastes to me and has cornered the market somewhat ;D


Opus Est was a seminal book for me. I read it in 1980 (18/19 years old) and it really influenced my thinking about 20th-century art in general. It was nice to be able to say that to him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on September 14, 2011, 08:49:43 AM
.[asin]030747450X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on September 16, 2011, 11:06:44 AM
.[asin]0472034707[/asin]
Yes. Yes, we are.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on September 16, 2011, 11:33:05 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on September 14, 2011, 08:49:43 AM
.[asin]030747450X[/asin]

What's he struggling for? Them ladies is half nekkid! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Robert on September 16, 2011, 11:35:43 AM
I became aware of Paul Rapoport about 25 years ago in Fanfare magazine....I enjoyed his reviews....We seem to be on the same wavelength.  When I found out about his opus book I spent months trying to locate a copy.  I even spoke to Martin Anderson about trying to locate a copy.  He was not able to help me.  Finally I was able to locate a used copy on Amazon.   .....excellent...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on September 16, 2011, 11:41:38 AM
No Name by Wilkie Collins:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41dJJXeDm5L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Too early to tell how good it is, but I can say that Wilkie Collins wrote one of the coolest Victorian novels, The Woman in White, a huge hit "sensation novel" that made Collins rich and famous. Imagine a Victorian Hitchcock suspense thriller with an unusual heroine and an unforgettable villain:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xzMq7cMjL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Armadale and The Moonstone are quite good, too.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on September 16, 2011, 12:03:32 PM
Quote from: Grazioso on September 16, 2011, 11:33:05 AM
What's he struggling for? Them ladies is half nekkid! :D

Look behind him!!!  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 16, 2011, 02:18:20 PM
Grazioso, I love The Woman in White and the Moonstone.  If No Name and Armadale are as good I suppose I should read those... so are they as good?" ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 16, 2011, 04:37:04 PM
Quote from: Grazioso on September 16, 2011, 11:33:05 AM
What's he struggling for? Them ladies is half nekkid! :D

And they all look like Betty Page!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on September 17, 2011, 01:28:09 AM
Quote from: Robert on September 16, 2011, 11:35:43 AM
I became aware of Paul Rapoport about 25 years ago in Fanfare magazine....I enjoyed his reviews....We seem to be on the same wavelength.  When I found out about his opus book I spent months trying to locate a copy.  I even spoke to Martin Anderson about trying to locate a copy.  He was not able to help me.  Finally I was able to locate a used copy on Amazon.   .....excellent...


I am glad for the happy outcome! So you know Martin Anderson, too?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on September 17, 2011, 05:28:32 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on September 16, 2011, 12:03:32 PM
Look behind him!!!  :o

Who cares about the guy being eaten by panthers? There are half-nekkid women!

Quote from: Daverz on September 16, 2011, 04:37:04 PM
And they all look like Betty Page!

If I can get half an hour with four Betty Page lookalikes, you may then feed me to the panthers  :D

Quote from: DavidW on September 16, 2011, 02:18:20 PM
Grazioso, I love The Woman in White and the Moonstone.  If No Name and Armadale are as good I suppose I should read those... so are they as good?" ;D

Too early to tell on No Name, but of the other three I'd rank The Woman in White at the top, then Armadale, then The Moonstone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on September 17, 2011, 05:50:58 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on September 16, 2011, 11:41:38 AM
Wilkie Collins

Have you read DROOD by Dan Simmons?

[asin]B003GAN3VE[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on September 17, 2011, 06:19:57 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on September 17, 2011, 05:50:58 AM
Have you read DROOD by Dan Simmons?

[asin]B003GAN3VE[/asin]

No, but it looks like a very interesting read! 784pp. Very Victorian in that regard :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on September 17, 2011, 06:33:50 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on September 17, 2011, 06:19:57 AM
No, but it looks like a very interesting read! 784pp. Very Victorian in that regard :)

I made it through the whole thing somehow and actually enjoyed the ride.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 20, 2011, 01:58:40 PM
(http://biblioklept.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/rings.jpg?w=307&h=475)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 20, 2011, 02:08:42 PM
Quote from: Grazioso on September 17, 2011, 05:28:32 AM
Too early to tell on No Name, but of the other three I'd rank The Woman in White at the top, then Armadale, then The Moonstone.

Thanks!  I'll read Armadale soon. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 20, 2011, 06:49:08 PM
causing some major brain damage

(http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/4013/41kco4gvfblbo2204203200.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on September 21, 2011, 03:49:41 AM
Along with my new wave non-fiction and adventure fiction book, I'm reading Nickleby.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 21, 2011, 03:55:03 AM
Cool. That's one I've not read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on September 21, 2011, 03:58:58 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 21, 2011, 03:55:03 AM
Cool. That's one I've not read.

:o

...Also reading some good horrific, historical fiction on me iPhone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 21, 2011, 04:52:57 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 21, 2011, 03:55:03 AM
Cool. That's one I've not read.

One of his better ones.  It has the quirky characters, biting satire... you should enjoy it Karl.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 21, 2011, 07:46:17 AM
Well, some recent books finished and some now being read:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nVlG%2BGtUL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517i1GtC8kL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516czpjonHL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K0PDjLbZL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 21, 2011, 07:48:16 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 20, 2011, 01:58:40 PM
(http://biblioklept.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/rings.jpg?w=307&h=475)

How's that? I've never read Sebald before and was just considering either that one or Austerlitz.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on September 21, 2011, 08:42:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PpbUUDKzL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Traditional, awkward, non-intuitive programming: C++ for Windows.  8)
Good book, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 21, 2011, 10:21:52 AM
Quote from: Greg on September 21, 2011, 08:42:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PpbUUDKzL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Traditional, awkward, non-intuitive programming: C++ for Windows.  8)
Good book, though.

>:(
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-IGzDFLLL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 21, 2011, 10:27:49 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 21, 2011, 07:48:16 AM
How's that? I've never read Sebald before and was just considering either that one or Austerlitz.

Very good, but I am a huge fan of Sebald

The Emigrants is a good first book

Austerlitz is so devastatingly bleak it might be good to save until you are familiar with his style to get the full effect

Vertigo and Rings of Saturn are kind of rambling reflections of historical events without a set overarching narrative while Austerlitz & The Emigrants have more clear narratives that run through the books (although The Emigrants is three separate pieces)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 21, 2011, 10:31:30 AM
Quote from: Greg on September 21, 2011, 08:42:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PpbUUDKzL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Traditional, awkward, non-intuitive programming: C++ for Windows.  8)
Good book, though.

For some odd reason I thought that was a photoshopped joke! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on September 21, 2011, 10:33:55 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 21, 2011, 10:21:52 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-IGzDFLLL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Which one's that, the 178th edition?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 21, 2011, 10:36:00 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on September 21, 2011, 10:33:55 AM
Which one's that, the 178th edition?
9th Edition. How come you're familiar with the book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 21, 2011, 10:45:37 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on September 21, 2011, 10:33:55 AM
Which one's that, the 178th edition?

I prefer the 1st myself - only four elements and handy recipes for gold
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on September 21, 2011, 10:49:52 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 21, 2011, 10:36:00 AM
9th Edition. How come you're familiar with the book?

I thought it was a fairly well-known book.

And I'm a nerd.

Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 21, 2011, 10:45:37 AM
I prefer the 1st myself - only four elements and handy recipes for gold

The one for which Newton wrote a blurb?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 21, 2011, 12:04:20 PM
Quote from: Opus106 on September 21, 2011, 10:49:52 AM
I thought it was a fairly well-known book.

And I'm a nerd.

Yes, it's a well-known book, but I don't think people who haven't studied science at university know about the book. I was just wondering if you're a uni student or a chemist/physicist/whatnot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on September 21, 2011, 12:08:40 PM
Quote from: North Star on September 21, 2011, 12:04:20 PM
I was just wondering if you're a uni student or a chemist/physicist/whatnot.

Was. Physics. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 21, 2011, 01:15:11 PM
Quote from: Opus106 on September 21, 2011, 12:08:40 PM
Was. Physics. :)
Cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 21, 2011, 01:17:17 PM
Quote from: North Star on September 21, 2011, 12:04:20 PM
Yes, it's a well-known book, but I don't think people who haven't studied science at university know about the book. I was just wondering if you're a uni student or a chemist/physicist/whatnot.

Hello North Star - LOL  ;D

I'm a just retired academic radiologist but took a lot of math & science back in the 1960s @ the University of Michigan, including a couple of calculus courses and a physical chemistry class in my junior undergrad year (i.e., after 2 general chemistry & 2 organic chemistry courses) - can't remember the physical chemistry text used, a while ago -  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 21, 2011, 02:16:56 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on September 21, 2011, 01:17:17 PM
Hello North Star - LOL  ;D

I'm a just retired academic radiologist but took a lot of math & science back in the 1960s @ the University of Michigan, including a couple of calculus courses and a physical chemistry class in my junior undergrad year (i.e., after 2 general chemistry & 2 organic chemistry courses) - can't remember the physical chemistry text used, a while ago -  :)

Well now that you've got spare time...  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 21, 2011, 02:30:16 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 21, 2011, 10:27:49 AM
Very good, but I am a huge fan of Sebald

The Emigrants is a good first book

Austerlitz is so devastatingly bleak it might be good to save until you are familiar with his style to get the full effect

Vertigo and Rings of Saturn are kind of rambling reflections of historical events without a set overarching narrative while Austerlitz & The Emigrants have more clear narratives that run through the books (although The Emigrants is three separate pieces)

Thanks! The new Serbian translation of The Emigrants is in the making (the old one is out of print). Should come out next year. But if I get impatient (which is most likely) I'll pick up Rings of Saturn or Austerliz.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on September 22, 2011, 10:16:06 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 21, 2011, 10:21:52 AM
>:(
lol, why the angry face?


Quote from: DavidW on September 21, 2011, 10:31:30 AM
For some odd reason I thought that was a photoshopped joke! :D
Now that I look at it, it does look kinda crazy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 22, 2011, 11:38:06 AM
Quote from: Greg on September 22, 2011, 10:16:06 AM
lol, why the angry face?

Well physical chemistry isn't as fun as it may seem. Other than that, nothing wrong with the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on September 22, 2011, 11:40:00 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 22, 2011, 11:38:06 AM
Well physical chemistry isn't as fun as it may seem. Other than that, nothing wrong with the book.
I would imagine mixing dangerous chemicals together can be stressful at times...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 22, 2011, 11:45:17 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 22, 2011, 11:38:06 AM
Well physical chemistry isn't as fun as it may seem.

QFT
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: karlhenning on September 22, 2011, 11:46:09 AM
Quote from: Greg on September 22, 2011, 11:40:00 AM
I would imagine mixing dangerous chemicals together can be stressful at times...

Well, all right . . . unless you're Guy Fawkes
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 22, 2011, 11:48:10 AM
Quote from: Greg on September 22, 2011, 11:40:00 AM
I would imagine mixing dangerous chemicals together can be stressful at times...

Well that sounds more like inorganic chemistry. But then blowing things up is very much in this genre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on September 22, 2011, 12:09:08 PM
Quote#include <windows.h>
#include "resourceMDI.h"

#define INIT_MENU_POS    0
#define HELLO_MENU_POS   2
#define RECT_MENU_POS    1

#define IDM_FIRSTCHILD   50000

LRESULT CALLBACK FrameWndProc  (HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM) ;
BOOL    CALLBACK CloseEnumProc (HWND, LPARAM) ;
LRESULT CALLBACK HelloWndProc  (HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM) ;
LRESULT CALLBACK RectWndProc   (HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM) ;

     // structure for storing data unique to each Hello child window

typedef struct tagHELLODATA
{
     UINT     iColor ;
     COLORREF clrText ;
}
HELLODATA, * PHELLODATA ;

     // structure for storing data unique to each Rect child window

typedef struct tagRECTDATA
{
     short cxClient ;
     short cyClient ;
}
RECTDATA, * PRECTDATA ;
     // global variables

TCHAR     szAppName[]    = TEXT ("MDIDemo") ;
TCHAR     szFrameClass[] = TEXT ("MdiFrame") ;
TCHAR     szHelloClass[] = TEXT ("MdiHelloChild") ;
TCHAR     szRectClass[]  = TEXT ("MdiRectChild") ;
HINSTANCE hInst ;
HMENU     hMenuInit, hMenuHello, hMenuRect ;
HMENU     hMenuInitWindow, hMenuHelloWindow, hMenuRectWindow ;

int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                    PSTR szCmdLine, int iCmdShow)
{
     HACCEL   hAccel ;
     HWND     hwndFrame, hwndClient ;
     MSG      msg ;
     WNDCLASS wndclass ;
     
     hInst = hInstance ;
     
          // Register the frame window class
         
     wndclass.style         = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW ;
     wndclass.lpfnWndProc   = FrameWndProc ;
     wndclass.cbClsExtra    = 0 ;
     wndclass.cbWndExtra    = 0 ;
     wndclass.hInstance     = hInstance ;
     wndclass.hIcon         = LoadIcon (NULL, IDI_APPLICATION) ;
     wndclass.hCursor       = LoadCursor (NULL, IDC_ARROW) ;
     wndclass.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) (COLOR_APPWORKSPACE + 1) ;
     wndclass.lpszMenuName  = NULL ;
     wndclass.lpszClassName = szFrameClass ;
     
     if (!RegisterClass (&wndclass))
     {
          MessageBox (NULL, TEXT ("This program requires Windows NT!"),
                      szAppName, MB_ICONERROR) ;
          return 0 ;
     }
       
          // Register the Hello child window class
         
     wndclass.style         = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW ;
     wndclass.lpfnWndProc   = HelloWndProc ;
     wndclass.cbClsExtra    = 0 ;
     wndclass.cbWndExtra    = sizeof (HANDLE) ;
     wndclass.hInstance     = hInstance ;
     wndclass.hIcon         = LoadIcon (NULL, IDI_APPLICATION) ;
     wndclass.hCursor       = LoadCursor (NULL, IDC_ARROW) ;
     wndclass.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) GetStockObject (WHITE_BRUSH) ;
     wndclass.lpszMenuName  = NULL ;
     wndclass.lpszClassName = szHelloClass ;
         
     RegisterClass (&wndclass) ;
         
          // Register the Rect child window class
         
     wndclass.style         = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW ;
     wndclass.lpfnWndProc   = RectWndProc ;
     wndclass.cbClsExtra    = 0 ;
     wndclass.cbWndExtra    = sizeof (HANDLE) ;
     wndclass.hInstance     = hInstance ;
     wndclass.hIcon         = LoadIcon (NULL, IDI_APPLICATION) ;
     wndclass.hCursor       = LoadCursor (NULL, IDC_ARROW) ;
     wndclass.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) GetStockObject (WHITE_BRUSH) ;
     wndclass.lpszMenuName  = NULL ;
     wndclass.lpszClassName = szRectClass ;
         
     RegisterClass (&wndclass) ;

          // Obtain handles to three possible menus & submenus
     
     hMenuInit  = LoadMenu (hInstance, TEXT ("MdiMenuInit")) ;
     hMenuHello = LoadMenu (hInstance, TEXT ("MdiMenuHello")) ;
     hMenuRect  = LoadMenu (hInstance, TEXT ("MdiMenuRect")) ;
     
     hMenuInitWindow  = GetSubMenu (hMenuInit,   INIT_MENU_POS) ;
     hMenuHelloWindow = GetSubMenu (hMenuHello, HELLO_MENU_POS) ;
     hMenuRectWindow  = GetSubMenu (hMenuRect,   RECT_MENU_POS) ;
         
          // Load accelerator table
     
     hAccel = LoadAccelerators (hInstance, szAppName) ;

          // Create the frame window
     
     hwndFrame = CreateWindow (szFrameClass, TEXT ("MDI Demonstration"),
                               WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW | WS_CLIPCHILDREN,
                               CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
                               CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
                               NULL, hMenuInit, hInstance, NULL) ;
     hwndClient = GetWindow (hwndFrame, GW_CHILD) ;
     
     ShowWindow (hwndFrame, iCmdShow) ;
     UpdateWindow (hwndFrame) ;
     
          // Enter the modified message loop
     
     while (GetMessage (&msg, NULL, 0, 0))
     {
          if (!TranslateMDISysAccel (hwndClient, &msg) &&
              !TranslateAccelerator (hwndFrame, hAccel, &msg))
          {
               TranslateMessage (&msg) ;
               DispatchMessage (&msg) ;
          }
     }
          // Clean up by deleting unattached menus
     
     DestroyMenu (hMenuHello) ;
     DestroyMenu (hMenuRect) ;
     
     return msg.wParam ;
     }
     
LRESULT CALLBACK FrameWndProc (HWND hwnd, UINT message,
                               WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
     static HWND        hwndClient ;
     CLIENTCREATESTRUCT clientcreate ;
     HWND               hwndChild ;
     MDICREATESTRUCT    mdicreate ;
         
     switch (message)
     {
     case WM_CREATE:           // Create the client window
         
          clientcreate.hWindowMenu  = hMenuInitWindow ;
          clientcreate.idFirstChild = IDM_FIRSTCHILD ;
         
          hwndClient = CreateWindow (TEXT ("MDICLIENT"), NULL,
                                     WS_CHILD | WS_CLIPCHILDREN | WS_VISIBLE,   
                                     0, 0, 0, 0, hwnd, (HMENU) 1, hInst,
                                     (PSTR) &clientcreate) ;
          return 0 ;

     case WM_COMMAND:
          switch (LOWORD (wParam))
          {
          case IDM_FILE_NEWHELLO:       // Create a Hello child window
               
               mdicreate.szClass = szHelloClass ;
               mdicreate.szTitle = TEXT ("Hello") ;
               mdicreate.hOwner  = hInst ;
               mdicreate.x       = CW_USEDEFAULT ;
               mdicreate.y       = CW_USEDEFAULT ;
               mdicreate.cx      = CW_USEDEFAULT ;
               mdicreate.cy      = CW_USEDEFAULT ;
               mdicreate.style   = 0 ;
               mdicreate.lParam  = 0 ;
               
               hwndChild = (HWND) SendMessage (hwndClient,
                                   WM_MDICREATE, 0,
                                   (LPARAM) (LPMDICREATESTRUCT) &mdicreate) ;
               return 0 ;
               
          case IDM_FILE_NEWRECT:        // Create a Rect child window
               
               mdicreate.szClass = szRectClass ;
               mdicreate.szTitle = TEXT ("Rectangles") ;
               mdicreate.hOwner  = hInst ;
               mdicreate.x       = CW_USEDEFAULT ;
               mdicreate.y       = CW_USEDEFAULT ;
               mdicreate.cx      = CW_USEDEFAULT ;
               mdicreate.cy      = CW_USEDEFAULT ;
               mdicreate.style   = 0 ;
               mdicreate.lParam  = 0 ;
               
               hwndChild = (HWND) SendMessage (hwndClient,
                                   WM_MDICREATE, 0,
                                   (LPARAM) (LPMDICREATESTRUCT) &mdicreate) ;
               return 0 ;
               
          case IDM_FILE_CLOSE:          // Close the active window
               
               hwndChild = (HWND) SendMessage (hwndClient,
                                               WM_MDIGETACTIVE, 0, 0) ;
               
               if (SendMessage (hwndChild, WM_QUERYENDSESSION, 0, 0))
                    SendMessage (hwndClient, WM_MDIDESTROY,
                                 (WPARAM) hwndChild, 0) ;
               return 0 ;
          case IDM_APP_EXIT:            // Exit the program
               
               SendMessage (hwnd, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0) ;
               return 0 ;
               
               // messages for arranging windows

          case IDM_WINDOW_TILE:
               SendMessage (hwndClient, WM_MDITILE, 0, 0) ;
               return 0 ;
               
          case IDM_WINDOW_CASCADE:
               SendMessage (hwndClient, WM_MDICASCADE, 0, 0) ;
               return 0 ;
               
          case IDM_WINDOW_ARRANGE:
               SendMessage (hwndClient, WM_MDIICONARRANGE, 0, 0) ;
               return 0 ;
               
          case IDM_WINDOW_CLOSEALL:     // Attempt to close all children
               
               EnumChildWindows (hwndClient, CloseEnumProc, 0) ;
               return 0 ;
               
          default:             // Pass to active child...

               hwndChild = (HWND) SendMessage (hwndClient,
                                               WM_MDIGETACTIVE, 0, 0) ;
               if (IsWindow (hwndChild))
                    SendMessage (hwndChild, WM_COMMAND, wParam, lParam) ;
               
               break ;        // ...and then to DefFrameProc
          }
          break ;
         
     case WM_QUERYENDSESSION:
     case WM_CLOSE:                      // Attempt to close all children
               
          SendMessage (hwnd, WM_COMMAND, IDM_WINDOW_CLOSEALL, 0) ;
               
          if (NULL != GetWindow (hwndClient, GW_CHILD))
               return 0 ;
               
          break ;   // i.e., call DefFrameProc

     case WM_DESTROY:
          PostQuitMessage (0) ;
          return 0 ;
     }
          // Pass unprocessed messages to DefFrameProc (not DefWindowProc)
     
     return DefFrameProc (hwnd, hwndClient, message, wParam, lParam) ;
}

BOOL CALLBACK CloseEnumProc (HWND hwnd, LPARAM lParam)
{
     if (GetWindow (hwnd, GW_OWNER))         // Check for icon title
          return TRUE ;
     
     SendMessage (GetParent (hwnd), WM_MDIRESTORE, (WPARAM) hwnd, 0) ;
     
     if (!SendMessage (hwnd, WM_QUERYENDSESSION, 0, 0))
          return TRUE ;
     
     SendMessage (GetParent (hwnd), WM_MDIDESTROY, (WPARAM) hwnd, 0) ;
     return TRUE ;
}

LRESULT CALLBACK HelloWndProc (HWND hwnd, UINT message,
                               WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
     static COLORREF clrTextArray[] = { RGB (0,   0, 0), RGB (255, 0,   0),
                                        RGB (0, 255, 0), RGB (  0, 0, 255),
                                        RGB (255, 255, 255) } ;
     static HWND     hwndClient, hwndFrame ;
     HDC             hdc ;
     HMENU           hMenu ;
     PHELLODATA      pHelloData ;
     PAINTSTRUCT     ps ;
     RECT            rect ;
     
     switch (message)
     {
     case WM_CREATE:
               // Allocate memory for window private data
         
          pHelloData = (PHELLODATA) HeapAlloc (GetProcessHeap (),
                              HEAP_ZERO_MEMORY, sizeof (HELLODATA)) ;
          pHelloData->iColor  = IDM_COLOR_BLACK ;
          pHelloData->clrText = RGB (0, 0, 0) ;
          SetWindowLong (hwnd, 0, (long) pHelloData) ;
         
               // Save some window handles
         
          hwndClient = GetParent (hwnd) ;
          hwndFrame  = GetParent (hwndClient) ;
          return 0 ;
         
     case WM_COMMAND:
          switch (LOWORD (wParam))
          {
          case IDM_COLOR_BLACK:
          case IDM_COLOR_RED:
          case IDM_COLOR_GREEN:
          case IDM_COLOR_BLUE:
          case IDM_COLOR_WHITE:
                    // Change the text color
               
               pHelloData = (PHELLODATA) GetWindowLong (hwnd, 0) ;
               
               hMenu = GetMenu (hwndFrame) ;
               
               CheckMenuItem (hMenu, pHelloData->iColor, MF_UNCHECKED) ;
               pHelloData->iColor = wParam ;
               CheckMenuItem (hMenu, pHelloData->iColor, MF_CHECKED) ;
               
               pHelloData->clrText = clrTextArray[wParam - IDM_COLOR_BLACK] ;
               
               InvalidateRect (hwnd, NULL, FALSE) ;
          }
          return 0 ;
         
     case WM_PAINT:
               // Paint the window
               
          hdc = BeginPaint (hwnd, &ps) ;
               
          pHelloData = (PHELLODATA) GetWindowLong (hwnd, 0) ;
          SetTextColor (hdc, pHelloData->clrText) ;
               
          GetClientRect (hwnd, &rect) ;
               
          DrawText (hdc, TEXT ("Hello, World!"), -1, &rect,
                    DT_SINGLELINE | DT_CENTER | DT_VCENTER) ;

          EndPaint (hwnd, &ps) ;
          return 0 ;
               
     case WM_MDIACTIVATE:
               // Set the Hello menu if gaining focus
               
          if (lParam == (LPARAM) hwnd)
               SendMessage (hwndClient, WM_MDISETMENU,
                            (WPARAM) hMenuHello, (LPARAM) hMenuHelloWindow) ;
               
               // Check or uncheck menu item
               
          pHelloData = (PHELLODATA) GetWindowLong (hwnd, 0) ;
          CheckMenuItem (hMenuHello, pHelloData->iColor,
                    (lParam == (LPARAM) hwnd) ? MF_CHECKED : MF_UNCHECKED) ;
               
               // Set the Init menu if losing focus
               
          if (lParam != (LPARAM) hwnd)
               SendMessage (hwndClient, WM_MDISETMENU, (WPARAM) hMenuInit,
                            (LPARAM) hMenuInitWindow) ;
               
          DrawMenuBar (hwndFrame) ;
          return 0 ;

     case WM_QUERYENDSESSION:
     case WM_CLOSE:
          if (IDOK != MessageBox (hwnd, TEXT ("OK to close window?"),
                                  TEXT ("Hello"),
                                  MB_ICONQUESTION | MB_OKCANCEL))
               return 0 ;
               
          break ;   // i.e., call DefMDIChildProc
               
     case WM_DESTROY:
          pHelloData = (PHELLODATA) GetWindowLong (hwnd, 0) ;
          HeapFree (GetProcessHeap (), 0, pHelloData) ;
          return 0 ;
     }
          // Pass unprocessed message to DefMDIChildProc
     
     return DefMDIChildProc (hwnd, message, wParam, lParam) ;
}
LRESULT CALLBACK RectWndProc (HWND hwnd, UINT message,
                              WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
     static HWND hwndClient, hwndFrame ;
     HBRUSH      hBrush ;
     HDC         hdc ;
     PRECTDATA   pRectData ;
     PAINTSTRUCT ps ;
     int         xLeft, xRight, yTop, yBottom ;
     short       nRed, nGreen, nBlue ;
     
     switch (message)
     {
     case WM_CREATE:
               // Allocate memory for window private data
         
          pRectData = (PRECTDATA) HeapAlloc (GetProcessHeap (),
                                   HEAP_ZERO_MEMORY, sizeof (RECTDATA)) ;
         
          SetWindowLong (hwnd, 0, (long) pRectData) ;
         
               // Start the timer going
         
          SetTimer (hwnd, 1, 250, NULL) ;
         
               // Save some window handles
          hwndClient = GetParent (hwnd) ;
          hwndFrame  = GetParent (hwndClient) ;
          return 0 ;
         
     case WM_SIZE:             // If not minimized, save the window size
         
          if (wParam != SIZE_MINIMIZED)
          {
               pRectData = (PRECTDATA) GetWindowLong (hwnd, 0) ;
               
               pRectData->cxClient = LOWORD (lParam) ;
               pRectData->cyClient = HIWORD (lParam) ;
          }
         
          break ;        // WM_SIZE must be processed by DefMDIChildProc
         
     case WM_TIMER:            // Display a random rectangle
         
          pRectData = (PRECTDATA) GetWindowLong (hwnd, 0) ;
          xLeft   = rand () % pRectData->cxClient ;
          xRight  = rand () % pRectData->cxClient ;
          yTop    = rand () % pRectData->cyClient ;
          yBottom = rand () % pRectData->cyClient ;
          nRed    = rand () & 255 ;
          nGreen  = rand () & 255 ;
          nBlue   = rand () & 255 ;
         
          hdc = GetDC (hwnd) ;
          hBrush = CreateSolidBrush (RGB (nRed, nGreen, nBlue)) ;
          SelectObject (hdc, hBrush) ;
         
          Rectangle (hdc, min (xLeft, xRight), min (yTop, yBottom),
               max (xLeft, xRight), max (yTop, yBottom)) ;
         
          ReleaseDC (hwnd, hdc) ;
          DeleteObject (hBrush) ;
          return 0 ;
         
     case WM_PAINT:            // Clear the window
         
          InvalidateRect (hwnd, NULL, TRUE) ;
          hdc = BeginPaint (hwnd, &ps) ;
          EndPaint (hwnd, &ps) ;
          return 0 ;
         
     case WM_MDIACTIVATE:      // Set the appropriate menu
          if (lParam == (LPARAM) hwnd)
               SendMessage (hwndClient, WM_MDISETMENU, (WPARAM) hMenuRect,
                            (LPARAM) hMenuRectWindow) ;
          else
               SendMessage (hwndClient, WM_MDISETMENU, (WPARAM) hMenuInit,
                            (LPARAM) hMenuInitWindow) ;
         
          DrawMenuBar (hwndFrame) ;
          return 0 ;
         
     case WM_DESTROY:
          pRectData = (PRECTDATA) GetWindowLong (hwnd, 0) ;
          HeapFree (GetProcessHeap (), 0, pRectData) ;
          KillTimer (hwnd, 1) ;
          return 0 ;
     }
          // Pass unprocessed message to DefMDIChildProc
     
     return DefMDIChildProc (hwnd, message, wParam, lParam) ;
}
I've been looking at the MDI chapter for a few days now from that book. It's easy, but there are so many steps, that I just might skip over it!  :o I have a feeling this is not something meant to be memorized...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 07, 2011, 09:50:29 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 16, 2011, 02:18:20 PM
Grazioso, I love The Woman in White and the Moonstone.  If No Name and Armadale are as good I suppose I should read those... so are they as good?" ;D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41dJJXeDm5L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Finished No Name. As good as The Woman in White? No, but what Sensation novel could be? :) Nevertheless, it's a fun read about two orphaned sisters who are bereft of their intended inheritance by a quirk in the law. One humbly submits to fate and becomes a governess. The other, our heroine, begins a life of deceit, disguise, and plotting to get the money back from a cousin (a nasty, miserly little twerp) who inherits it.

On the bright side, the novel exposes and slyly mocks the arbitrariness of conventional social roles and morality and features a clever central section that plays out like a tense chess game, with two pairs of characters scheming and counter-scheming against one another over the course of weeks. Like his friend Dickens, Collins has a gift for creating delightfully strange and funny characters, and he doesn't let us down here.

Sadly, Collins resorts to some wild coincidences, and he artificially, awkwardly, and intermittently tries to imbue the work with a lofty moral tone to assuage the potential outrage of readers. The final chapters display a level of conventional sentimentality that would have been more in keeping with Trollope. Nonetheless, fun Collins.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on October 07, 2011, 12:53:08 PM
Currently reading, because I really need to:   :(

[asin]1886230692[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 07, 2011, 04:19:20 PM
If you buy only one zombie fiction antho in your life...
[asin]0307740897[/asin]
'Tis to drool for.


And this slim volume has plenty of interesting tidbits.
[asin]0316511579[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 09, 2011, 03:30:05 PM
From Vintage Crime/Black Lizard:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AktjMbv4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-48,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 09, 2011, 04:35:57 PM
Quote from: Bogey on October 09, 2011, 03:30:05 PM
From Vintage Crime/Black Lizard:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AktjMbv4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-48,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I love the Martin Beck series.  I plan to read the whole series again at some point.  BTW, this has been made into a film twice.

Martin Beck character at IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0017774/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 11, 2011, 08:32:02 PM
Quote from: Daverz on October 09, 2011, 04:35:57 PM
I love the Martin Beck series.  I plan to read the whole series again at some point.  BTW, this has been made into a film twice.

Martin Beck character at IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0017774/)

Done well?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 11, 2011, 09:53:17 PM
Quote from: Bogey on October 11, 2011, 08:32:02 PM
Done well?

I think I've seen both productions, but I can't recall much about them, so I guess that gives you an idea. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 12, 2011, 05:07:32 AM
Just finished a mystery by Ed Gorman: Bad Moon Rising. Takes place in the late 60's featuring his series character Sam McCain.

Now reading Planet of the Apes and still dipping into the two books mentioned previously.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 12, 2011, 09:41:05 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51v10Jkb4EL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

In time for Halloween, Richard Matheson's seminal 1954 novel I Am Legend. A mix of horror and SF, it tells the tale of the last man on earth, holed up in a Los Angeles neighborhood after a plague has turned everyone else into nocturnal vampire-like creatures. While the book isn't particularly well crafted, and the prose and dialogue leave something to be desired, it's an interesting tale of how one man copes with terrible loneliness amid a horrific situation. Interesting twist at the end, too.

It's ultimately more interesting as the matrix for a bunch of SF/horror tropes that are now standard: post-apocalyptic survival after a plague has decimated civilization, blending the traditional attributes of vampire and zombie, giving the monsters a scientific instead of supernatural basis, etc.

It's the source material for multiple films, such as

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MvRlzFlpL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on October 12, 2011, 07:02:35 PM
(http://www.mandalabooks.com/WebRoot/Store/Shops/Mandala/479A/8984/585D/2EA9/67E1/AC10/0351/25A2/9752049.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 13, 2011, 04:41:40 AM
Quote from: Coco on October 12, 2011, 07:02:35 PM
(http://www.mandalabooks.com/WebRoot/Store/Shops/Mandala/479A/8984/585D/2EA9/67E1/AC10/0351/25A2/9752049.jpg)

As companions to Suzuki's classic writings on Zen, which helped introduce it to the West, I'd highly recommend the works of Alan Watts, particularly The Way of Zen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on October 13, 2011, 06:55:36 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on October 13, 2011, 04:41:40 AM
As companions to Suzuki's classic writings on Zen, which helped introduce it to the West, I'd highly recommend the works of Alan Watts, particularly The Way of Zen.

Thanks, I will do that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 13, 2011, 08:34:40 AM
Quote from: Coco on October 13, 2011, 06:55:36 AM
Thanks, I will do that.

This is one of the best.

http://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-Plain-Simple-Steve-Hagen/dp/0767903323
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 13, 2011, 10:07:57 AM
Quote from: Coco on October 13, 2011, 06:55:36 AM
Thanks, I will do that.

Watts was one of the more entertaining and insightful 20th-century thinkers. He approached Zen and other Eastern thought from a fresh and unfettered, yet sympathetic, outsider's perspective. Along with Suzuki, yet coming from a very different angle, he was one of the key early popularizers of Zen in the West and was also an interesting philosopher in his own right.

For a good scholarly yet approachable overview of Buddhism in general:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lkfLT4fyL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on October 13, 2011, 11:43:33 AM
Speaking of Buddhism, how about a messianic proto-nazi Buddhist convert?

also some interesting background on 19th century Tibetan Buddhism, which easily made the worst excesses of the Medieval Papacy look tame

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jKzgD4pKhNk/SW-A_wctJBI/AAAAAAAAA-c/YxhNmUqt8Gw/s400/Bloody+White+Baron.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 13, 2011, 12:04:19 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on October 13, 2011, 11:43:33 AM
Speaking of Buddhism, how about a messianic proto-nazi Buddhist convert?

No thanks!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 14, 2011, 09:27:10 AM
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/66/c3/bacf224128a0444deac99010.L._AA300_.jpg)

Seminal 1984 novel by one of the most important SF writers. A noir heist story set in the near future, this novel fathered the Cyberpunk SF subgenre and predicted and popularized the concept and term cyberspace well before it was an everyday reality. Gibson is not only a gifted prognosticator and observer, but a master of richly baroque prose, with a prodigious gift for rendering hyper-vivid concrete details in words.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 15, 2011, 12:47:46 PM
.[asin]0857683675[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on October 15, 2011, 01:17:52 PM
2 books finished recently :

[asin]014005667X[/asin]

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5110Ax-5NuL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on October 15, 2011, 01:34:11 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on October 13, 2011, 11:43:33 AM
Speaking of Buddhism, how about a messianic proto-nazi Buddhist convert?

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jKzgD4pKhNk/SW-A_wctJBI/AAAAAAAAA-c/YxhNmUqt8Gw/s400/Bloody+White+Baron.jpg)

Ungern-Sternberg was fascinating character. I first found about him through Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese comic.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JfGG7fU-Ro4/Rc9QO9WaL0I/AAAAAAAAAMA/3Qa6sONR338/s400/medium_mn_unger.jpg)

But I have avoided that Palmer book till now, it received some criticism for quite a few historic inaccuracies. Wonder should I give it a go anyway?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on October 17, 2011, 05:49:11 PM
(http://i1.bibtopia.com/o/617/422/9780679422617.RH.jpg)

I'm three chapters in and it's been quite engaging thus far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 17, 2011, 06:06:39 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on October 17, 2011, 05:49:11 PM
(http://i1.bibtopia.com/o/617/422/9780679422617.RH.jpg)

I'm three chapters in and it's been quite engaging thus far.

I keep forgetting I need that. Thanks for the reminder.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 19, 2011, 05:37:10 PM
.[asin]0140449493[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on October 21, 2011, 12:25:05 AM
Quote from: Drasko on October 15, 2011, 01:34:11 PM
Ungern-Sternberg was fascinating character. I first found about him through Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese comic.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JfGG7fU-Ro4/Rc9QO9WaL0I/AAAAAAAAAMA/3Qa6sONR338/s400/medium_mn_unger.jpg)

But I have avoided that Palmer book till now, it received some criticism for quite a few historic inaccuracies. Wonder should I give it a go anyway?

Sounds like a character from a Flashman novel.

.(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hY5j4J01L._AA300_.jpg)
P.G. Wodehouse
The Man With Two Left Feet
Everyman  (http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1590202414?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=1590202414)


Continuing my Wodehouse binge. One Wodehouse a week, at least. Lots of short stories, these days. Didn't like the shorter ones as much as the full length novels in the beginning, but have gotten around to them.
Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets  and   The Clicking of Cuthbert are just behind me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 22, 2011, 04:54:54 AM
More classic SF, this time Heinlein's 1959 novel Starship Troopers

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T3Iwe0YZL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

This is the granddaddy of military SF and enormously influential: authors like David Weber and Jack Campbell, films like Aliens, games like WH40K and Tribes, and so on owe much to Heinlein's vision.

Not surprisingly, the novel bears only a superficial similarity to the film of the same name. (Director Verhoeven never finished reading the novel.) The movie is mostly an action spectacular, with bits of comedy and a running satire of fascist militarism.

The book is completely serious in tone and tells the story of one young man's coming of age in the military, going from recruit to noncom to junior officer. There are only two relatively brief battle sequences; the great majority of the book is a disquisition on moral and political philosophy, a look at military culture (particularly training and leadership), and a love letter to the infantry. The values espoused are conservative, but not fascist, as some critics have oddly claimed.

As for the SF elements themselves, this is the book that gave us the concept of powered, armored combat exoskeletons with jump jets, along with the idea of troop "drops" from orbit for surgical strikes (an extrapolation of existing airborne infantry).

Good stuff if you're interested in political thought or military life, but don't expect lots of shoot 'em ups.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 23, 2011, 03:13:39 AM
nvm
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on October 23, 2011, 04:48:57 AM
Quote from: -abe- on October 23, 2011, 03:13:39 AM
nvm

Is it any good?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 25, 2011, 06:19:22 AM
Quote from: Coco on October 23, 2011, 04:48:57 AM
Is it any good?

I linked three books and their pictures all came blank.  >:(

They were two I recently read:

"The Storm of War: A New History of WWII" by Andrew Roberts and "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin" by Timothy Snyder.

And another I'm currently reading: "Stalingard: The Fateful Siege: 1942 - 1943" by Antony Beevor. I enjoyed the WWII book mainly because I hadn't read any history of WWII before ( I'm sure a one volume history can't do that topic justice). The Snyder book was a compelling account of the barbarities committed by Hitler and Stalin. I just started the Beevor and, 60 pages in, I already think it's the best written of the three.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 26, 2011, 05:21:52 AM
Quote from: -abe- on October 25, 2011, 06:19:22 AM
I linked three books and their pictures all came blank.  >:(

They were two I recently read:

"The Storm of War: A New History of WWII" by Andrew Roberts and "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin" by Timothy Snyder.

And another I'm currently reading: "Stalingard: The Fateful Siege: 1942 - 1943" by Antony Beevor. I enjoyed the WWII book mainly because I hadn't read any history of WWII before ( I'm sure a one volume history can't do that topic justice). The Snyder book was a compelling account of the barbarities committed by Hitler and Stalin. I just started the Beevor and, 60 pages in, I already think it's the best written of the three.

I can vouch for the Beevor book: he does a fine job humanizing the conflict, from the infantryman on the ground up to the highest levels of "leadership" (I use the term loosely!). Beevor also pulls no punches in showing just how stupid, ghastly, and costly the battle was.

This is a dry but clear and useful overview of the Eastern Front conflict

[asin]B0047XAEIY[/asin]

A fine overall history of WWII is John Keegan's book The Second World War. An indispensable reference is The Oxford Companion to World War II.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: chasmaniac on October 26, 2011, 05:28:46 AM
For the military history per se of WWII's eastern front, in English at least, David Glantz is an excellent source.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 27, 2011, 04:18:27 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FLINz4QhL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Interesting, but no great novel. Basically, it's a gentle English drawing room mystery, where the victim, detective, and diverse cast of suspects happen to be stuck on a snowed-in train instead of in a manor house. The mystery is a fun brain-teaser, though the ending will have you either nodding your head at its cleverness or angrily saying, "What a load of improbable BS!"

This is a "sit around and talk" mystery, rather in the tradition of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, with little action or drama during the course of the novel. Rather, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and his two allies interview suspects and discuss the case from the comfort of the dining car. This sort of thing can work with Holmes because he's one of the most memorable characters put to paper; Poirot, at least in this novel, is eminently forgettable: just some small, rotund guy with a big mustache who likes to put "his little grey cells" to the test.

The interesting thing about this book is how it's the product of its time. It's clearly inspired by the Lindbergh kidnapping--a huge event in its day--and on every other page someone is casually voicing a stereotype about another race or nationality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on October 27, 2011, 06:23:06 AM
The one quip I generally have with Holmes' stories is that reader cannot participate, so to speak, along with Watson in trying to figure out what happened and why. The details, although noticed by Holmes sometimes right at the beginning of the novel or short story, are by and large hidden from the reader. Even though it creates for great ta-da! moments for Holmes, I find it a sort of let down. Maybe it was intentional on ACD's part. This isn't as bad as in Christie's novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 27, 2011, 09:59:47 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on October 27, 2011, 06:23:06 AM
The one quip I generally have with Holmes' stories is that reader cannot participate, so to speak, along with Watson in trying to figure out what happened and why. The details, although noticed by Holmes sometimes right at the beginning of the novel or short story, are by and large hidden from the reader. Even though it creates for great ta-da! moments for Holmes, I find it a sort of let down. Maybe it was intentional on ACD's part. This isn't as bad as in Christie's novels.

That's quite true. For me, I can live with that because those moments where Holmes shows off his brilliance to the amazement of all are quite entertaining in their own right and have their own literary merit. Doyle does a great job in portraying Holmes as walking a very fine line between towering--and exasperating--smugness and genuine cleverness. I can easily see how YMMV, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on October 27, 2011, 10:24:09 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on October 27, 2011, 09:59:47 AM
[T]hose moments where Holmes shows off his brilliance to the amazement of all are quite entertaining in their own right and have their own literary merit. Doyle does a great job in portraying Holmes as walking a very fine line between towering--and exasperating--smugness and genuine cleverness. I can easily see how YMMV, though.

Oh, I end up being star-struck by the man, no doubt about that. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 27, 2011, 10:34:00 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on October 27, 2011, 10:24:09 AM
Oh, I end up being star-struck by the man, no doubt about that. ;D

Avoiding a spoiler, I'll say that I found it interesting that Orient Express ends with Poirot and friends making the same sort of moral decision about the culprit that Holmes often makes once he's gotten his abstract intellectual pleasure out of solving the crime.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on October 27, 2011, 01:53:59 PM
Sigmund Freud
"The Wit and its Relationship with the Unconscious"

(http://img4.webster.it/BIT/966/9788854119666g.jpg)

Ilaria
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on October 27, 2011, 04:43:02 PM
About to start this:

(http://i40.tinypic.com/1zlpwlg.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on October 27, 2011, 11:38:16 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on October 17, 2011, 06:06:39 PM
I keep forgetting I need that. Thanks for the reminder.

I'm close to half way through the book yet and I can strongly recommend it.  It's very informative and also well-written.  Brahms is a fascinating character, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: springrite on October 27, 2011, 11:40:08 PM
I am just starting to read Devil's Music Master. Great reading so far!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 28, 2011, 03:53:44 AM
What are you reading? This.
[asin]0815412533[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on October 28, 2011, 04:35:48 AM
Quote from: Coco on October 27, 2011, 04:43:02 PM
About to start this:

(http://i40.tinypic.com/1zlpwlg.png)

A translation of some of the Pali suttas, I take it? Those are very interesting and edifying.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on October 28, 2011, 05:28:39 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on October 28, 2011, 03:53:44 AM
What are you reading? This.
[asin]0815412533[/asin]

I was reading something similar last night. It's a collection of short stories titled The World's Greatest Short Stories. I was at Walter de la Mare's The Nap, but I went into "the story" before I could complete it. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 28, 2011, 05:51:12 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on October 28, 2011, 05:28:39 AM
I was reading something similar last night. It's a collection of short stories titled The World's Greatest Short Stories. I was at Walter de la Mare's The Nap, but I went into "the story" before I could complete it. ;D

Last night in bed, I read "The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller" by Gustave Flaubert but snuggled with no leper.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on October 28, 2011, 06:19:16 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on October 28, 2011, 04:35:48 AM
A translation of some of the Pali suttas, I take it? Those are very interesting and edifying.

Yeah — a compilation of sermons and parables from the different sutras, with added commentary and a reading guide.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on October 28, 2011, 08:31:12 AM
BEASTS, MEN AND GODS - Ferdinand Ossendowski
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on November 01, 2011, 05:44:00 AM
Quote from: Coco on October 27, 2011, 04:43:02 PM
About to start this:

(http://i40.tinypic.com/1zlpwlg.png)

I would recommend this to anyone. Wallis's commentary shows great erudition but also places the concepts in a setting applicable to modern life.

Now starting:

(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175628829l/538173.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 06:06:24 AM
Quote from: Coco on November 01, 2011, 05:44:00 AM
I would recommend this to anyone. Wallis's commentary shows great erudition but also places the concepts in a setting applicable to modern life.

So are you practicing or just reading the literature?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on November 01, 2011, 06:14:15 AM
Quote from: Coco on November 01, 2011, 05:44:00 AM
I would recommend this to anyone. Wallis's commentary shows great erudition but also places the concepts in a setting applicable to modern life.

Now starting:

(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175628829l/538173.jpg)

In studying Buddhism, it's also important, to my mind, to study how it's been transmitted to the West and interpreted or modified to suit. You might want to try books like Batchelor's Awakening of the West or McMahan's The Making of Buddhist Modernism. A big oversimplification: Western scholars and practitioners have historically tended to try to divorce Buddhist philosophy and meditation from ritual, theology, and cosmology, positioning Buddhism as a rational, godless alternative or antithesis to both Hinduism in the East and Christianity and Judaism in the West.

Jowcol here at GMG might have some insights to offer if you're interested in such matters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on November 01, 2011, 06:54:54 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 06:06:24 AM
So are you practicing or just reading the literature?

Both. Otherwise, why bother unless your interest derives from a historical or literary standpoint?

Quote from: Grazioso on November 01, 2011, 06:14:15 AM
In studying Buddhism, it's also important, to my mind, to study how it's been transmitted to the West and interpreted or modified to suit. You might want to try books like Batchelor's Awakening of the West or McMahan's The Making of Buddhist Modernism. A big oversimplification: Western scholars and practitioners have historically tended to try to divorce Buddhist philosophy and meditation from ritual, theology, and cosmology, positioning Buddhism as a rational, godless alternative or antithesis to both Hinduism in the East and Christianity and Judaism in the West.

Jowcol here at GMG might have some insights to offer if you're interested in such matters.

Thanks, I'll look for those. I know that D.T. Suzuki is considered a Buddhist Modernist. I agree with you in that Buddhism is mostly misunderstood. I think people underestimate how much it is colored by the cultures in which it thrives and how much it has absorbed from other indigenous religions. There are a disorienting number of different schools/sects, and it's extremely difficult to sum up "Buddhist belief" without ignoring or disregarding a lot of tradition. I'm interested in teachings that appeal to what I find experientially to be true.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 06:59:06 AM
Quote from: Coco on November 01, 2011, 06:54:54 AM
There are a disorienting number of different schools/sects, and it's extremely difficult to sum up "Buddhist belief" without ignoring or disregarding a lot of tradition. I'm interested in teachings that appeal to what I believe intuitively and experientally to be true.

Oh, there aren't that many varieties, not of the popular ones anyway. (Personal favorite: Theravada. Stripped down concentration on what the Buddha actually "said.") I got into Buddhism in 1990 with a book called Teach Yourself Zen. Epiphany City.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on November 01, 2011, 07:05:15 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 06:59:06 AM
Oh, there aren't that many varieties, not of the popular ones anyway. (Personal favorite: Theravada. Stripped down concentration on what the Buddha actually "said.") I got into Buddhism in 1990 with a book called Teach Yourself Zen. Epiphany City.

I seem to be leaning towards Theravada as well, as the focus on the fact that practicing mindfulness is a process appeals to me.

Another book I'm planning on reading soon (it's sitting on my nightstand):

(http://dpbookstore.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/what-makes-you-not-a-buddhist.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 07:08:15 AM
Quote from: Coco on November 01, 2011, 07:05:15 AM
I seem to be leaning towards Theravada as well, as the focus on the fact that practicing mindfulness is a process appeals to me.

Another book I'm planning on reading soon (it's sitting on my nightstand):

Read any Thich Nhat Hanh yet? :) OLD PATH WHITE CLOUDS is wonderful. And THE MIRACLE OF MINDFULNESS is a handy, quick read. But, uh, he's Zen. ;)

After a while, the books will become repetitive to you and all there will be left to do is sit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 01, 2011, 07:09:16 AM
Don't do something, just sit there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on November 01, 2011, 07:16:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 01, 2011, 07:09:16 AM
Don't do something, just sit there.

Walk, don't run. ;D

Quote from: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 07:08:15 AM
Read any Thich Nhat Hanh yet? :) OLD PATH WHITE CLOUDS is wonderful. And THE MIRACLE OF MINDFULNESS is a handy, quick read. But, uh, he's Zen. ;)

After a while, the books will become repetitive to you and all there will be left to do is sit.

I've read "True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart", which was given to me by a friend. I enjoyed it, but I think his book "Anger" might feel more relevant to me.

To answer your first question more accurately: I am in an experimenting phase.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 07:18:44 AM
Quote from: Coco on November 01, 2011, 07:16:59 AM
To answer your first question more accurately: I am in an experimenting phase.

Yeah, try it out and see if it's for you. That's what the Buddha said.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on November 01, 2011, 08:39:51 AM
I found a nice old edition of Waverley, printed in pocket Bible style (embossed cover, gilded pages) with those super thin pages. I can indulge in my silly passtimes with it, such as when a sentence uses the now increasingly outdated proper meaning of "intercourse", to then count the words after the instance and see how long it takes to silence the initial giggle at the choice of word:

"Their intercourse, however, though thus renewed, continued to be rather formal and civil than partaking of brotherly cordiality; yet it was sufficient to the wishes of both parties"

26 words later and he could still be talking about sex. Maybe not a record, but quite impressive. I also ran into this slightly bizarre cluster of words:

"his preceptor proposed the perusal"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on November 01, 2011, 01:53:11 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 06:59:06 AM
(Personal favorite: Theravada. Stripped down concentration on what the Buddha actually "said.")

With the caveat that the Pali canon was first written down around 80BC or 29BC (depending on your source), centuries after the Buddha's death. Scholars still debate just how those texts represent/are related to the Buddha's actual words. It's interesting to read of the Buddhist Councils that led up to this, including the sending forth of Buddhist monks to Ancient Greece--makes you wonder about philosophical developments there.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on November 01, 2011, 02:05:23 PM
Quote from: Coco on November 01, 2011, 06:54:54 AM
Both. Otherwise, why bother unless your interest derives from a historical or literary standpoint?

Thanks, I'll look for those. I know that D.T. Suzuki is considered a Buddhist Modernist. I agree with you in that Buddhism is mostly misunderstood. I think people underestimate how much it is colored by the cultures in which it thrives and how much it has absorbed from other indigenous religions. There are a disorienting number of different schools/sects, and it's extremely difficult to sum up "Buddhist belief" without ignoring or disregarding a lot of tradition. I'm interested in teachings that appeal to what I find experientially to be true.

Buddhism's relative lack of dogmatism and emphasis on personal empirical experimentation can feel like a blast of fresh air.

It's a very complex and interesting question as to how/if Buddhism per se can ever be divorced from its cultural "trappings," as well as how it's been, so to speak, packaged and sold to different "buyers" as it has traveled to and been transformed by the West. I haven't read it in some time, but Tricycle Magazine http://www.tricycle.com/ used to be an interesting (I almost said enlightening :) ) place to see that process in action.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 03:03:08 PM
Quote from: Grazioso on November 01, 2011, 01:53:11 PM
Scholars still debate ...

Yes, scholars will debate.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on November 02, 2011, 04:57:16 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on November 01, 2011, 02:05:23 PM
Buddhism's relative lack of dogmatism and emphasis on personal empirical experimentation can feel like a blast of fresh air.

It's a very complex and interesting question as to how/if Buddhism per se can ever be divorced from its cultural "trappings," as well as how it's been, so to speak, packaged and sold to different "buyers" as it has traveled to and been transformed by the West. I haven't read it in some time, but Tricycle Magazine http://www.tricycle.com/ used to be an interesting (I almost said enlightening :) ) place to see that process in action.

Cool, thanks. :)

Maybe we should start a thread?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on November 02, 2011, 05:03:38 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 03:03:08 PM
Yes, scholars will debate.  :)

Someone should.

Quote from: Coco on November 02, 2011, 04:57:16 AM
Cool, thanks. :)

Maybe we should start a thread?

A good idea. Funny how many GMGer's study or practice Buddhism. Small world :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mn Dave on November 02, 2011, 05:04:00 AM
Quote from: Coco on November 02, 2011, 04:57:16 AM
Cool, thanks. :)

Maybe we should start a thread?

I was thinking that. A Buddhism thread.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 02, 2011, 05:50:47 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on November 01, 2011, 03:03:08 PM
Yes, scholars will debate.  :)

To echo a line from The Terminator: that's what they do, it's all they do!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on November 03, 2011, 12:36:57 AM
Marcelo Gleiser:     "Imperfect Creation"

Gleiser is a physicist in the USA. This remarkable book is a very convincing critique to the Theory of All or other unified theories in physics or biology. He shows that symmetry involving different levels of organization is impossible. From the Big Bang to the beginning of life only singularities, asymmetries, can provide a development and a result.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 03, 2011, 06:11:55 AM
The House of Wisdom (2011) by Jim Al-Khalili (impressive sub-title: The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance) - fascinating read w/ some hyperbole - purchase stimulated by an excellent review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review a number of months ago - HERE (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/books/review/book-review-the-house-of-wisdom-by-jim-al-khalili.html?pagewanted=all) for those interested! :)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mfb1RHJdZyo/TbSdxeWgEAI/AAAAAAAAFkI/U0GrSuKrDBU/s400/The-House-of-Wisdom-Al-Khalili-Jim-9781594202797.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 03, 2011, 06:31:42 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41F6UtWXivL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Good, indeed.  Sadly, those who would benefit most from it are among the least likely to read it, since they fear challenging their own prejudices.

Sigh.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on November 03, 2011, 06:51:07 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on November 03, 2011, 06:11:55 AM
The House of Wisdom (2011) by Jim Al-Khalili (impressive sub-title: The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance) - fascinating read w/ some hyperbole - purchase stimulated by an excellent review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review a number of months ago - HERE (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/books/review/book-review-the-house-of-wisdom-by-jim-al-khalili.html?pagewanted=all) for those interested! :)

That's on my to-read list, Dave. I definitely came across, but not sure if I participated in a poll for deciding the title of the book sometime last year or thereabouts. I'm interested to know what are some of the things you find hyperbolic in the book, so when you have the time, please let us know. :)


Thread duty: Contact, Carl Sagan. The movie is an all-time favourite... saw it first when I was an impressionable 14-year-old who had just discovered pop-sci books. 0:)


EDIT: This (http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/help-name-a-new-book/) is the poll I was referring to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 03, 2011, 06:52:57 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 03, 2011, 06:31:42 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41F6UtWXivL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Good, indeed.  Sadly, those who would benefit most from it are among the least likely to read it, since they fear challenging their own prejudices.

Sigh.

This was yesterday (that I read it, I mean), but: a piece by Geo. Will (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/conformity-for-diversitys-sake/2011/11/01/gIQAUBOmgM_story.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 03, 2011, 07:42:33 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 03, 2011, 06:52:57 AM
This was yesterday (that I read it, I mean), but: a piece by Geo. Will (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/conformity-for-diversitys-sake/2011/11/01/gIQAUBOmgM_story.html)
Yes...I posted a facebook link to that Will column today.  One thing I love about you, Karl, is that you are one of the few consistently "liberal" friends I have who brings an open mind to investigating diverse points of view on "hot button" issues and who focuses on policies, principles, and outcomes instead of demonizing others with ad hominem attacks.  Anne and I just spent a few days in Austin with another such friend--what a pleasure it is to discuss politics from differing perspectives while respectfully recognizing one another's full humanity and good faith!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on November 03, 2011, 11:00:30 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 03, 2011, 06:52:57 AM
This was yesterday (that I read it, I mean), but: a piece by Geo. Will (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/conformity-for-diversitys-sake/2011/11/01/gIQAUBOmgM_story.html)

Good article. I'm always impressed at the paternalistic intellectual gymnastics routine that confuses "coerced uniformity" and "diversity." I give it a 0.0!

(http://brannockpe.wikispaces.com/file/view/judges.jpg/72052677/judges.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 04, 2011, 01:28:51 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 03, 2011, 06:31:42 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41F6UtWXivL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Good, indeed.  Sadly, those who would benefit most from it are among the least likely to read it, since they fear challenging their own prejudices.

Sigh.
There is lots of bias in the media, but Liberal media? Which are those? Fox News maybe?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 04, 2011, 06:36:16 PM
Quote from: Opus106 on November 03, 2011, 06:51:07 AM
That's on my to-read list, Dave. I definitely came across, but not sure if I participated in a poll for deciding the title of the book sometime last year or thereabouts. I'm interested to know what are some of the things you find hyperbolic in the book, so when you have the time, please let us know. :)

Hi Navneeth - just half way through the book (reading so many others!) - a strong recommendation; the author has a British mother & Shiite Persian father, so an interesting background - obviously many of the comments as to the origins of the ideas of those ages vs. Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian beginnings are quite debatable - often the discussion in the book is concerned as to whether the Arabic writers/scientists came up w/ their own ideas vs. just interpreting them from more ancient sources - often the author assumes that these ideas are original w/ the Arabic writers, so a debatable issue(s) which the author often projects the 'truth' being original w/ the later writers, hence my suggestion of some hyperbole (believe this has also appeard in te NY Times review and those found on Amazon) - BUT, this is an excellent book worth reading for those interested - Dave :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on November 04, 2011, 11:48:32 PM
Thanks, Dave.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on November 07, 2011, 06:49:42 AM
(https://www.bookprincipal.com/media/images/9780449213940.jpeg)



About a third of the way in.  Not bad at all.  Not sure it's the greatest war novel of all time.  I'll be following up with Pat Barker's Regeneration in the not too distant future.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on November 07, 2011, 07:53:25 AM
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HF-7BiYhl7w/RpKa-hdoC_I/AAAAAAAAAEc/uFKXsEQodrM/s400/4142CX5V21L._SS500_.jpg)

Should be interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Grazioso on November 07, 2011, 09:32:50 AM
Quote from: Coco on November 07, 2011, 07:53:25 AM
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HF-7BiYhl7w/RpKa-hdoC_I/AAAAAAAAAEc/uFKXsEQodrM/s400/4142CX5V21L._SS500_.jpg)

Should be interesting.

That title reminds me of this fun and interesting book
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xwfds7uvL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

A Western writer's account of his stay amongst the monks of a Thai Buddhist monastery.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 07, 2011, 04:17:22 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on November 04, 2011, 01:28:51 PM
There is lots of bias in the media, but Liberal media? Which are those? Fox News maybe?
Contempt prior to investigation, coupled with a mind closed by predjudice, ensures that learning is impossible and ignorance insurmountable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 08, 2011, 04:26:16 AM
Short & sharp:

As radicalism creeps in, credibility retreats from OWS (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/as-radicalism-creeps-in-credibility-retreats-from-ows/2011/11/07/gIQA866IxM_story.html?hpid=z2)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 08, 2011, 04:43:43 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 08, 2011, 04:26:16 AM
Short & sharp:

As radicalism creeps in, credibility retreats from OWS (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/as-radicalism-creeps-in-credibility-retreats-from-ows/2011/11/07/gIQA866IxM_story.html?hpid=z2)

Excellent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 08, 2011, 05:09:40 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 08, 2011, 04:43:43 AM
Excellent!

My healthy skepticism was engaged at an early stage in the Boston phase, when there were some tweets which gave the impression that the "protesters" would not feel fulfilled until they had managed to provoke the police . . . and the Boston Police Dept have been doing all they could to help keep things orderly.  The City, BTW, has been paying overtime through the proverbial nose in order to maintain order.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 08, 2011, 06:44:21 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 08, 2011, 04:26:16 AM
Short & sharp:

As radicalism creeps in, credibility retreats from OWS (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/as-radicalism-creeps-in-credibility-retreats-from-ows/2011/11/07/gIQA866IxM_story.html?hpid=z2)
Thanks, Karl, for linking to this thoughtful essay.  The OWS folks' behavior speaks for itself.  Unfortunately, mainstream news coverage has worked hard to spin the facts rather than report them.

Particularly telling in regard to the endemic bias in the mainstream press is the disparity in treatment of the uniformly civil tea party protests (these folks obey the law, get permits, pay for porta-potties, police themselves, and clean up whatever litter some might have left behind) and the uniformly uncivil OWS protests.  The tea partiers get demonized, the OWS folks are lionized.

Consider the non-existent mainstream news reports about the OWS assault on conservative conference attendees in Washington DC on Sunday, which not only threatened women and children and folks just driving by the area, but included pushing a 78-year-old woman down some stairs (perhaps inadvertently -- see http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-occupy-dc-push-this-elderly-woman-down-the-stairs/ ).

Compare that with the week-long media circus damning tea partiers after Rep. John Lewis claimed they shouted racial slurs and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver claimed they spit on him.  Not only did the media hasten to repeat the charges as if they were facts, but they never retracted the stories even when video of the event surfaced showing the claims were false (the people in the video are shouting "Kill the bill," not epithets of any sort, and Cleaver walks right in front of one of the shouters and appears to get sprayed by the man's spittle--a clear case of "say it, don't spray it," not the intentional, insulting spitting that Cleaver claimed and the biased media reported without investigation).  See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/28/congressman-spit-on-by-te_n_516300.html

If we refuse to understand how our main media sources distort the news, by framing events to fit a biased narrative and by selective reporting of relevant facts, then we are co-conspirators in making gullible patsies of ourselves.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 08, 2011, 06:48:17 AM
Left is good even when it's bad; right is bad even when it's good. Keep this dogma in mind and you won't be surprised by media reports anymore.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 08, 2011, 04:28:53 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on November 04, 2011, 01:28:51 PM
There is lots of bias in the media, but Liberal media? Which are those? Fox News maybe?

You don't see it because you're mind has been distorted.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 10, 2011, 05:17:51 AM
Quote from: Daverz on November 08, 2011, 04:28:53 PM
You don't see it because you're mind has been distorted.

Oh, I see; I watch too much MSNBC and PBS, (and CBC and BBC).  Well maybe.

But what made me think of Fox News is not only their flagrant bias and destructive ideologies, but even more their anti-science and anti-intellectual attitudes, blatant ignorance, irrationality, and self-contradiction.

I've never felt the need to "balance" knowledge & reason with egregious nonsense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 10, 2011, 05:38:11 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on November 10, 2011, 05:17:51 AM

Oh, I see; I watch too much MSNBC and PBS, (and CBC and BBC).  Well maybe.

But what made me think of Fox News is not only their flagrant bias and destructive ideologies, but even more their anti-science and anti-intellectual attitudes, blatant ignorance, irrationality, and self-contradiction.

I've never felt the need to "balance" knowledge & reason with egregious nonsense.
Fox is about as far right as PBS is to the left--not much.  MSNBC, on the other hand, is probably so far left that it would be banned in the PRC.  I don't see enough news on CBC or the BBC to offer an informed judgment.  And I've never seen "anti-science and anti-intellectual attitudes, blatant ignorance, irrationality, and self-contradiction" on their broadcasts, but having seen perhaps a dozen hours of their programming over as many years, I'm hardly in a position to say whether they feature prominently or not.  (Incidently, your frothingly irrational assault on Groseclose's study, based apparently on willful ignorance of its content and methodology, betrays an anti-scientific and anti-intellectual attitude that contradicts your claims to respect such things.)

That you think Fox is flagrantly biased only confirms Groseclose's point, that ubiquitous leftist bias in the media has so distorted Americans' (yes, I know you're in Canada) political perspective that they believe a middle-left perspective is centrist and unbiased.  Yes, Fox is biased to the right--slightly--but since you seem to be such a frequent viewer you must know that--unlike the three major commercial US networks (but just like PBS)--they often conduct live interviews with politicians from all points on the spectrum and allow them to present their own views so they can be heard intact, instead of edited into soundbites that distort their comments by decontextualizing them.

Finally, that you claim--and seem to really believe--that "knowledge & reason" are exclusively leftist provinces, and that "egregious nonsense" belongs solely to the right, is a clear statement of your prejudices--and of your pride in them. 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 10, 2011, 09:59:41 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 10, 2011, 05:38:11 AM
Fox is about as far right as PBS is to the left--not much.

I suspect what you mean by "left" here is "not directly supportive of movement conservatism."

My main objection to Fox is not that they are "far right", but that they are essentially a GOP propaganda outlet and that they constantly make shit up.

As for PBS being "left", perhaps you could you give some specifics. 

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-7-2011/npr-vs--conservative-talk-radio

Quote
MSNBC, on the other hand, is probably so far left that it would be banned in the PRC.

You do know that MSNBC features 3 hours of Joe Scarborough in the morning, right?

For a genuinely liberal show, I highly recommend Chris Hayes weekend panel show on weekends (I watch it on the web.)

http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/ (http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/)

One of the best political panel shows I've ever seen on TV.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on November 10, 2011, 12:20:20 PM
Someone here referred me to Montaigne's essays but I'm reading this first (dunno why). Anyway, I am enjoying it very much and want to thank whomever it was who put me on to this fellow in the first place.
[asin]1590514254[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 10, 2011, 12:50:31 PM
Quote from: Daverz on November 10, 2011, 09:59:41 AM
I suspect what you mean by "left" here is "not directly supportive of movement conservatism."
Your suspect wrong (but then you already knew that, didn't you?) ;)

Quote from: Daverz on November 10, 2011, 09:59:41 AM
My main objection to Fox is not that they are "far right", but that they are essentially a GOP propaganda outlet and that they constantly make shit up.
You're making that shit up.

Quote from: Daverz on November 10, 2011, 09:59:41 AM
As for PBS being "left", perhaps you could you give some specifics. 
Sure.  Of course they're only moderately left, like Fox is moderately right, not extreme like CBS or MSNBC.  Their inherent bias is not manifiested in their format, which I like quite a bit and which encourages the airing of diverse points of view, but rather in the stories they choose to air and emphasize (how many stories have they done on Eric Holder's sandbagging the Congressional investigation into the Fast & Furious fiasco?), and in the way they frame some issues, using the Democratic Party's rhetoric instead of more factually accurate and politically neutral language.  For instance, IIRC, they framed the controversy over personal income tax rates last year as about a Republican effort to cut taxes, not a Democrat effort to raise tax rates.  And their reporters frequently make the egregious category error of conflating tax rate increases with tax revenue increases.  Not that I think such things are intentional, but simply reveal the inherent biases that lead them to uncritically accept the Democrats' (and mainstream media's) way of describing and framing issues, often unaware that such framing imposes a biased perspective on the issue that predetermines the way it will be seen.

Think of framing in the literal sense. Imagine that you have a photograph showing a crowd of happy people waving signs advertising certain political sentiments, but off to one side there is a brutal gang rape taking place.  If you crop the photo--that is, frame it--so that only the happy sign-wavers are shown, you have not presented the picture in its full context.  The same thing happens all the time, sometimes intentionally--as I've seen often the case when MSNBC's popular talking heads pontificate about issues--and sometimes unintentionally, as when a reporter, editor, or producer's ignorance precludes recognition of the relevance of the details they omitted.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 10, 2011, 12:59:44 PM
(http://mondialbooks.netfirms.com/bookstore/nfoscomm/catalog/images/emile-zola-downfall-debacle-rougon-macquart.jpg)

so far, an engaging novel about the French defeat in 1870
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 10, 2011, 02:59:14 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 10, 2011, 05:38:11 AM
Fox is about as far right as PBS is to the left--not much.  MSNBC, on the other hand, is probably so far left that it would be banned in the PRC.  ...

Part of the problem is the so many American have no concept of Left-wing, so for example, Obama gets call socialist -- which is an absurdity.  American politics is atypically weighted to the Right vs. most of the world.

The PRC isn't the issue here.  ;D

Quote from: DavidRoss on November 10, 2011, 05:38:11 AM...
Yes, Fox is biased to the right--slightly--but since you seem to be such a frequent viewer you must know that--unlike the three major commercial US networks (but just like PBS)--they often conduct live interviews with politicians from all points on the spectrum and allow them to present their own views so they can be heard intact, instead of edited into soundbites that distort their comments by decontextualizing them.

Finally, that you claim--and seem to really believe--that "knowledge & reason" are exclusively leftist provinces, and that "egregious nonsense" belongs solely to the right, is a clear statement of your prejudices--and of your pride in them.
No, Fox is very Right-wing in the populist, social/religious, ideological sense. (Some people would call that "Fascist" -- not me you of course.)

It isn't my contention that knowledge & reason is the exclusive province of the Left; I'm specifically say that egregious nonsense is what you get from Fox.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 10, 2011, 03:11:44 PM
Quote from: Daverz on November 10, 2011, 09:59:41 AM
I suspect what you mean by "left" here is "not directly supportive of movement conservatism."

My main objection to Fox is not that they are "far right", but that they are essentially a GOP propaganda outlet and that they constantly make shit up.

As for PBS being "left", perhaps you could you give some specifics. 

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-7-2011/npr-vs--conservative-talk-radio (http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-7-2011/npr-vs--conservative-talk-radio)
...
Yeah, good one on the Daily Show, (which I watch, uhmm, daily).  For my part I didn't mean to imply that PBS was Left-wing, only that was mostly rational and knowledge-based, (unlike, say, FOX).

Actually FOX is a Rupbert Murdoch propaganda outlet.  Ironic that there is so much vacuous US flag waving on FOX being owned by an Aussie, eh? FOX/Murchoch has cynically adopted the Republican Party as being closest to its globalish/corporatist, greed-centric agenda. For it's part the GOP has co-opted social/religious conservatism to sucker gulible Americans to vote for globalist agenda.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: marvinbrown on November 11, 2011, 03:39:55 AM

 
Last night I bought the following 2 books in French:

  [asin]2070349578[/asin]

  and

  [asin]207036805X[/asin]


  I first read Albert Camus L'Etranger (The Stranger) in French and I was drawn to existentialism. This whole idea of the absurdity of existence, the idea of trying to find oneself and survive in an uncaring emotionally detached world (and let's not forget the inevitability of death and its meaning to our very existence) I found all too profound.

  I am very fortunate to be able to read these works in their original language. This is philosophical literature at its finest. 

  Both Camus and Sartre received the Nobel Prize in Literature.  Sartre refused to accept his.

  marvin

 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: drogulus on November 12, 2011, 04:26:41 PM

     Why is liberal or conservative bias interesting? I don't find it so. The problem with Fox is you have to be an idiot to watch it, which is much less true of the anti-Fox like MSNBC, though all the haranguing at high volume gets tiresome after a bit. I care more who is right, which needs facts, or who presents an interesting analysis, which requires intelligence, which Fox suspects is a liberal plot. They're right, it is a liberal plot to be smart. It's a big part of why liberalism exists, as well as why it's resented.

     That leaves Fox the dumb franchise. They know their audience and are more consistent in satisfying it than their counterparts on the left. But denying bias as a way of agreeing with one side is not very convincing, and unimportant. What difference could it possibly make? Everyone complains about it, so it's discounted already. The thing to notice is when a biased person says something true and salient. Biased people do that all the time.

     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on November 15, 2011, 11:55:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k5jHy3UAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

I'm not sure that there's anything more satisfying in the arts than pushing through one's own prejudice and being rewarded by the discovery of something life-enhancing and new.

I looked at this in the bookshop. Put it down. Picked it up again; admired it as an artefact - approached just as a piece of book design, it's brilliant, even dazzling; but again I put it down. Picked it up again; it had been signed by the author, which just gave it an edge, and it didn't cost much. So I bought it after all, thinking it would likely end up in a charity bookshop somewhere.

I started reading it; wasn't at all sure about the author's excessive use of the short paragraph for highlighting. It just scraped through the 50-page test (that's where I usually decide whether it's worth continuing or not). By 100 pages I was up and running. By the time I completed the book I was enchanted, charmed, and fully persuaded, against all my initial misgivings, that this book made the world a better place by being in it. I suspect it's a love it or hate it book. If you want a novel with some basic sense of realism, with characters that develop along with the plot, then forget it. This isn't for you. (I'm not sure it's a 'novel' at all.) But if you want to suspend disbelief and enter a world where one delectable vision after another is opened up, a world which will leave you haunted by mental images of great beauty despite their dark side, then you could do worse than this. For all its faults (to list them would miss the point), it's the most memorable fiction I've encountered in the last five years.

[I gather it's received enormous publicity in the US - I didn't know about any of that when I bought it, or when I read it. For me it was just another book.]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on November 15, 2011, 06:31:00 PM
Thanks for the rec, my good man.

Me? This:
[asin]0312877153[/asin]

Welcome to the territory. Leave your metal behind, all of it. The bugs will eat it, and they'll go right through you to get it...Don't carry it, don't wear it, and for god's sake don't come here if you've got a pacemaker.

The bugs showed up about fifty years ago--self-replicating, solar-powered, metal-eating machines. No one knows where they came from. They don't like water, though, so they've stayed in the desert Southwest. The territory. People still live here, but they do it without metal. Log cabins, ceramics, what plastic they can get that will survive the sun and heat. Technology has adapted, and so have the people.

Kimble Monroe has chosen to live in the territory. He was born here, and he is extraordinarily well adapted to it. He's one in a million. Maybe one in a billion.

In 7th Sigma, Gould builds an extraordinary SF novel of survival and personal triumph against all the odds.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on November 16, 2011, 12:26:38 AM
I can't be sure because I haven't done an actual count, Dave, but I think there are more mechanical metal-eating insects in your book than mine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on November 16, 2011, 03:44:33 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on November 16, 2011, 12:26:38 AM
I can't be sure because I haven't done an actual count, Dave, but I think there are more mechanical metal-eating insects in your book than mine.

No doubt.

It's off to a fine start by the way.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 05:51:55 AM
Quote from: drogulus on November 12, 2011, 04:26:41 PM
     Why is liberal or conservative bias interesting? I don't find it so. The problem with Fox is you have to be an idiot to watch it, which is much less true of the anti-Fox like MSNBC, though all the haranguing at high volume gets tiresome after a bit. I care more who is right, which needs facts, or who presents an interesting analysis, which requires intelligence, which Fox suspects is a liberal plot. They're right, it is a liberal plot to be smart. It's a big part of why liberalism exists, as well as why it's resented.

     That leaves Fox the dumb franchise. They know their audience and are more consistent in satisfying it than their counterparts on the left. But denying bias as a way of agreeing with one side is not very convincing, and unimportant. What difference could it possibly make? Everyone complains about it, so it's discounted already. The thing to notice is when a biased person says something true and salient. Biased people do that all the time.
Your expression of extremely biased opinion as if it were fact is an old story and I learned long ago not to expect better--from you or most folks who repeat the same mantras: Conservatives are stupid, Fox is for idiots, liberals are smart.  If "liberals" were smart, they would recognize their own biases and would actually apply reason to examining issues instead of simply assuming that their biases already tell them everything they need to know.

There's no point in going over the same ground again and again, so I won't.  But you do raise a new issue that deserves to be addressed:
Quote from: drogulus on November 12, 2011, 04:26:41 PM
  What difference could [bias] possibly make? Everyone complains about it, so it's discounted already. The thing to notice is when a biased person says something true and salient. Biased people do that all the time.
The difference media (and other) bias makes despite "everyone discounting it already" is that the bias is far more pronounced than "everyone" recognizes, so they fail to "discount" enough.  If people believe, as many do, that the NY Times tilts slightly to the left, then they will compensate slightly for the bias.  But the NY Times does not tilt slightly left; its editorial stance is pretty far to the left, so all those folks who think they're compensating by discounting the Times slightly are misleading themselves, for after applying the discount they are still seeing an interpretation that is at least center-left, but now believe that it's centrist, fair and balanced.

You can see this same sort of thing manifested in the tiresomely repeated leftist mantra to the effect that:
Quote...so many American have no concept of Left-wing, so for example, Obama gets call socialist -- which is an absurdity.  American politics is atypically weighted to the Right vs. most of the world.
Yes, I would agree (because I believe the statement consistent with reality) that "American politics is...weighted to the Right vs. most of the world." But this is not the statement about "how far to the right America is" that its maker imagines.  Rather, it is a statement about how far to the left "most of the world" has drifted.

Although the American welfare state is hardly as extreme as, say, Great Britain's, it's still a welfare state that post-War has shifted so far leftward that moderate, non-partisan, truly democratic principles like "government limited by the rule of law (not men)" and "government serving the will of the people (not an elite imposing its will on the people)" are regarded in our civil discourse today as expressions of right-wing extremism!

Why is any of this important?  Well, it's not--at least, not if you have no children or grandchildren to care about and believe that your job in life is to get everything you can for yourself and screw everyone else.  But otherwise it matters very much, because we want our choices and our actions to make things better not just for ourselves, but for our children, our friends and colleagues, our communities, our nations, and our world.  And if we really want them to be better, we cannot escape the moral imperative to cast off the shackles of lazy bigotry and make the hard effort to open our minds and see things as they really are, lest our uncritical acceptance of the status quo lead us to behave as agents of our own destruction rather than as agents of healing, growth, and rebirth.

And the great irony, of course (giving Olympian Gods no end of chuckles, no doubt!), is that even as the great socialist experiments of the 20th Century have all crashed and burned, and the more modest socialist accommodations of Western Europe are even now crumbling into disorder and ruin, the glassy-eyed true-believers in America still cling to their discredited faith, while denying that it really is their faith and denying the great historical lesson of the 20th Century that was written in the blood of millions. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 16, 2011, 06:21:55 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on November 16, 2011, 12:26:38 AM
I can't be sure because I haven't done an actual count, Dave, but I think there are more mechanical metal-eating insects in your book than mine.

Cannot have too many of those, I think. I know they improved Coriolanus.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 07:45:06 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 16, 2011, 06:21:55 AM
Cannot have too many of those, I think. I know they improved Coriolanus.
Flesh-eating zombies, too. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on November 16, 2011, 08:22:39 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 16, 2011, 06:21:55 AM
Cannot have too many of those [mechanical metal-eating insects], I think. I know they improved Coriolanus.

Agreed. Though I always felt that they were something of a facile intrusion in A Tale of Two Cities - I mean the bit at the end where when Sydney Carton escapes because the guillotine blade gets eaten on its way down.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 16, 2011, 08:25:39 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 07:45:06 AM
Flesh-eating zombies, too. ;)

Wasn't that Lear? . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 16, 2011, 08:26:20 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on November 16, 2011, 08:22:39 AM
Agreed. Though I always felt that they were something of a facile intrusion in A Tale of Two Cities - I mean the bit at the end where when Sydney Carton escapes because the guillotine blade gets eaten on its way down.

What hath Ken Russell wrought?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 16, 2011, 01:14:07 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 05:51:55 AM
...

Although the American welfare state is hardly as extreme as, say, Great Britain's, it's still a welfare state that post-War has shifted so far leftward that moderate, non-partisan, truly democratic principles like "government limited by the rule of law (not men)" and "government serving the will of the people (not an elite imposing its will on the people)" are regarded in our civil discourse today as expressions of right-wing extremism!

Why is any of this important?  Well, it's not--at least, not if you have no children or grandchildren to care about and believe that your job in life is to get everything you can for yourself and screw everyone else.  But otherwise it matters very much, because we want our choices and our actions to make things better not just for ourselves, but for our children, our friends and colleagues, our communities, our nations, and our world.  And if we really want them to be better, we cannot escape the moral imperative to cast off the shackles of lazy bigotry and make the hard effort to open our minds and see things as they really are, lest our uncritical acceptance of the status quo lead us to behave as agents of our own destruction rather than as agents of healing, growth, and rebirth.

And the great irony, of course (giving Olympian Gods no end of chuckles, no doubt!), is that even as the great socialist experiments of the 20th Century have all crashed and burned, and the more modest socialist accommodations of Western Europe are even now crumbling into disorder and ruin, the glassy-eyed true-believers in America still cling to their discredited faith, while denying that it really is their faith and denying the great historical lesson of the 20th Century that was written in the blood of millions.
Nice rant; it really does have its moments of profundity.

But It's not true that all "the modest socialist accommodations of Western Europe are even now crumbling ...". Scandanavian coutries are doing pretty well and are rated pleasanter places to live than the USA.  A principal thing in their case is that they believe that nation can achieve things as a community, that these things have cost the individual must pay, and that payment in the from of taxes is reasonable and basically good value in terms of delivering a civil society.

I'm not going to -- nor do I need to -- justify a country like Greece where people demand much but aren't willing to pay for it.  That's a untenable situation.  Actually it reminds me of the California situation I've been reading about in ...

Michael Lewis: Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513eWM%2B%2B9gL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Come to think of it, I guess Lewis is saying CA is really part of the 3rd world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 02:53:03 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on November 16, 2011, 01:14:07 PM
Nice rant; it really does have its moments of profundity.

But It's not true that all "the modest socialist accommodations of Western Europe are even now crumbling ...". Scandanavian coutries are doing pretty well and are rated pleasanter places to live than the USA.  A principal thing in their case is that they believe that nation can achieve things as a community, that these things have cost the individual must pay, and that payment in the from of taxes is reasonable and basically good value in terms of delivering a civil society.

I'm not going to -- nor do I need to -- justify a country like Greece where people demand much but aren't willing to pay for it.  That's a untenable situation.  Actually it reminds me of the California situation I've been reading about in ...

Michael Lewis: Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513eWM%2B%2B9gL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Come to think of it, I guess Lewis is saying CA is really part of the 3rd world.
Rant?  My statements have been calm and temperate.  For an example of ranting you had better look elsewhere...some of your own statements on this thread will do for a start.

Interesting that you mention Scandinavia.  People always seem to insist on equating very small homogenous countries whose people enjoy a shared language and culture and genetic heritage--in other words, nations--with the very different set of social and cultural factors, not least of which is sheer numbers, prevailing in the United States.  Rather like equating the audience at a grammar school dance recital with the crowd at a Manchester United football match.

And if you haven't noticed, lately Scandinavia has been backing away from socialism.  Sweden, for instance, is reducing business taxes and privatizing medicine, public employee pensions, and many formerly state-owned industries.  They've seen the shortcomings of socialism and have been wise enough to take steps to make a relatively painless transition to a more sustainable market-oriented political economy--unlike those Mediterranean states to the south that seem determined to prolong and expand  their suffering until it wreak havoc on the entire continent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 16, 2011, 03:53:00 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 05:51:55 AM
Fox is for idiots

Are you actually a consumer of Fox News yourself?

EDIT: that seems to be a snarky question, but it isn't meant as one.   I was merely curious whether David actually watched the network with any regularity, because I can't imagine that someone as cultured as he seems to be actually does.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LqynbphlL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I told myself I wasn't going to get sucked back into the A Song of Fire and Ice series, but I my resolve didn't hold out.  I'm actually reading it on my iPod Touch, which is barely usable for the purpose.  Now I'm thinking of getting a Kindle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 16, 2011, 04:18:52 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 02:53:03 PM
...
Interesting that you mention Scandinavia.  People always seem to insist on equating very small homogenous countries whose people enjoy a shared language and culture and genetic heritage--in other words, nations--with the very different set of social and cultural factors, not least of which is sheer numbers, prevailing in the United States.  Rather like equating the audience at a grammar school dance recital with the crowd at a Manchester United football match.

And yet Amercians like to brag about the "great melting pot".


Quote from: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 02:53:03 PM...
And if you haven't noticed, lately Scandinavia has been backing away from socialism.  Sweden, for instance, is reducing business taxes and privatizing medicine, public employee pensions, and many formerly state-owned industries.  They've seen the shortcomings of socialism and have been wise enough to take steps to make a relatively painless transition to a more sustainable market-oriented political economy--unlike those Mediterranean states to the south that seem determined to prolong and expand  their suffering until it wreak havoc on the entire continent.

Yes, true, from time to time this or that Scandinavia country backs off this or that socialist or welfare measure, depending on the government in power.  However it's not accurate to imply that they are rejecting socialism, (i.e. what you refer to as "socialism" which strictly speaking it is not).  In any case, they remain a long, long way ahead of the USA, (or Canada for that matter), in health, education, and delivery of community services.

I can understand the angst of Americans like yourself when you look at your own, current situation.  Permit me to observe that the US does much more resemble southern Europe than Scandinavia in the way that people want stuff but aren't willing to pay for it.  Of course the stuff you want is a little different: you want to invade courtries rather than provide healthcare for your own people, but the financial consequences are similar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 17, 2011, 08:33:07 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 02:53:03 PM
Interesting that you mention Scandinavia.  People always seem to insist on equating very small homogenous countries whose people enjoy a shared language and culture and genetic heritage--in other words, nations--with the very different set of social and cultural factors, not least of which is sheer numbers, prevailing in the United States.  Rather like equating the audience at a grammar school dance recital with the crowd at a Manchester United football match.

That's indeed the crux of the matter. How anyone can seriously believe that a country's social, political and economical order that evolved from, and is based on, centuries upon centuries of specific ethnic, cultural and religious homogeneity can be translated tale quale to another, whose ethnic, cultural and religious background is completely different on all accounts, is beyond me...

Personally and theoretically I admire the Scandinavian model more than the US one but I am fully aware that neither the former nor the latter have any chance of materializing on Romanian soil. I want my country to progress not by a servile - and futile - import of foreign models but by a pragmatic fusion between modernity (about which both Scandinavia and US offer valuable insights) and our national traditions (which in their turn can offer valuable insights to a modernity that more often than not seems to have lost its spiritual compass).


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 18, 2011, 06:53:09 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 17, 2011, 08:33:07 AM
...

Personally and theoretically I admire the Scandinavian model more than the US one but I am fully aware that neither the former nor the latter have any chance of materializing on Romanian soil. I want my country to progress not by a servile - and futile - import of foreign models but by a pragmatic fusion between modernity (about which both Scandinavia and US offer valuable insights) and our national traditions (which in their turn can offer valuable insights to a modernity that more often than not seems to have lost its spiritual compass).
Sure, but what you say ends up sounding like just another assertion of the American Myth and American Exceptionalism.

Don's say that some of us are suggesting that Amercians adopt (with servility and futility) some foreign model -- that's 'straw horse' argument.  So take for example universal healthcare, a rational solution to assuring everyone protection at reasonable cost.  There is no single formula for this, and each country has it's own model.  Let the USA get on and formulate its own model for universal care rather than just resist everything on the basis that it's un-Amercian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on November 18, 2011, 08:32:14 AM
Quote from: Ataraxia on November 10, 2011, 12:20:20 PM
Someone here referred me to Montaigne's essays but I'm reading this first (dunno why). Anyway, I am enjoying it very much and want to thank whomever it was who put me on to this fellow in the first place.
[asin]1590514254[/asin]

I'm learning a lot and having a good time so this is one of those rare occasions when the book will be returned to the shelf and not sent out the door.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 19, 2011, 07:28:51 AM
(http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6507229-L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 23, 2011, 04:55:32 AM
More of a "reference" than a straight read for the new 10 dvd set I hope to net at Christmas.....many thanks, Kevin P.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517ZVZFNH0L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on November 23, 2011, 11:27:36 AM
just finished; served itss purpose very well - does exactly what it said on tin :

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41yuxEKJ68L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)


now onto :

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T6j4cjdHL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

part 1 - Sounds and symbols
part 2 - Harmony and counterpoint
part 3 - musical forms
part 4 - instruments and voices
part 5 - scores and score-reading

halfway through part one - very clearly explain so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on November 26, 2011, 03:20:17 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VgQ5HqN3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on November 27, 2011, 03:51:51 AM
[asin]1848630611[/asin]
[asin]0857660160[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: coffee on November 29, 2011, 04:14:09 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on November 15, 2011, 11:55:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k5jHy3UAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

I'm not sure that there's anything more satisfying in the arts than pushing through one's own prejudice and being rewarded by the discovery of something life-enhancing and new.

I looked at this in the bookshop. Put it down. Picked it up again; admired it as an artefact - approached just as a piece of book design, it's brilliant, even dazzling; but again I put it down. Picked it up again; it had been signed by the author, which just gave it an edge, and it didn't cost much. So I bought it after all, thinking it would likely end up in a charity bookshop somewhere.

I started reading it; wasn't at all sure about the author's excessive use of the short paragraph for highlighting. It just scraped through the 50-page test (that's where I usually decide whether it's worth continuing or not). By 100 pages I was up and running. By the time I completed the book I was enchanted, charmed, and fully persuaded, against all my initial misgivings, that this book made the world a better place by being in it. I suspect it's a love it or hate it book. If you want a novel with some basic sense of realism, with characters that develop along with the plot, then forget it. This isn't for you. (I'm not sure it's a 'novel' at all.) But if you want to suspend disbelief and enter a world where one delectable vision after another is opened up, a world which will leave you haunted by mental images of great beauty despite their dark side, then you could do worse than this. For all its faults (to list them would miss the point), it's the most memorable fiction I've encountered in the last five years.

[I gather it's received enormous publicity in the US - I didn't know about any of that when I bought it, or when I read it. For me it was just another book.]

Sounds innarestin'! Good post.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 29, 2011, 07:47:31 AM
Quote from: Daverz on November 16, 2011, 03:53:00 PM
Are you actually a consumer of Fox News yourself?

EDIT: that seems to be a snarky question, but it isn't meant as one.   I was merely curious whether David actually watched the network with any regularity, because I can't imagine that someone as cultured as he seems to be actually does.
I've seen it...might have watched a dozen or so hours of it over the past ten years.  From what I've seen it is far more objective than the mainstream press and actually does substantial interviews with persons from all points on the political spectrum, similar to PBS newshour, letting them speak for themselves rather than taking soundbites out of context and maliciously charactering them. I haven't watched enough to have an opinion as to whether they slant the news to the right to the same degree as the media mainstream slants it to the left (via story selection and framing, mostly).

Quote from: Fëanor on November 16, 2011, 04:18:52 PM
Of course the stuff you want is a little different: you want to invade courtries rather than provide healthcare for your own people, but the financial consequences are similar.
Sheer nasty bigotry.

Quote from: Philoctetes on November 19, 2011, 08:35:58 AM
Currently some Japanese poetry from after the most gruesome of U.S. atrocities.
And more of the same.

"Tis a pity that honor and integrity are in such short supply.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on November 29, 2011, 07:48:56 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on November 15, 2011, 11:55:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k5jHy3UAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
I missed Alan's recommendation of this earlier.  Thanks for calling it to our attention, coffee!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 29, 2011, 09:25:53 AM
Pretty good so far:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PkhiqL9qL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on December 01, 2011, 02:25:35 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 29, 2011, 07:47:31 AM
I've seen it...might have watched a dozen or so hours of it over the past ten years.  From what I've seen it is far more objective than the mainstream press

Fascinating.  At least I'm forming a better idea of where your head is at, David.

Quote
Sheer nasty bigotry.

What you're responding to seems to be a simple statement of fact.

Quote
And more of the same.

True, the U.S. has committed more gruesome atrocities, just at a slower pace.

Quote
"Tis a pity that honor and integrity are in such short supply.

Now you're just being a jerk.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: chasmaniac on December 01, 2011, 02:50:36 AM
I read the label on a bottle of Worstershire sauce recently. Seems there are anchovies in that there condiment. Learn sumfin every day!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on December 01, 2011, 07:21:24 AM
Quote from: Daverz on December 01, 2011, 02:25:35 AM
Fascinating.  At least I'm forming a better idea of where your head is at, David.

What you're responding to seems to be a simple statement of fact.

True, the U.S. has committed more gruesome atrocities, just at a slower pace.

Now you're just being a jerk.
You call Feanor's false and hateful characterization of Americans as "wanting to invade other countries rather than provide healthcare for your people" a fact. Either you know better and are just trying to pull my chain, or you are just as hateful and bigoted as Feanor.

Likewise, for Philo to characterize America's war-ending nuclear strikes on Japan as "atrocities" is an equally vicious and hateful mischaracterization of the event and its circumstances. If you want to read about atrocities, I suggest reading The Rape of Nanking or Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account.

Those with no regard for the truth, who are willing to distort facts in order to slander others and bear false witness against them, or to demonize an entire people with bigoted stereotypes, have no integrity.  And those who lack integrity likewise have no honor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 01, 2011, 07:26:42 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 01, 2011, 07:21:24 AM
You call Feanor's false and hateful characterization of Americans as "wanting to invade other countries rather than provide healthcare for your people" a fact....

I call 'em the way I see 'em, DR ... but I suppose you'd say the same.  Oh well  :(

Quote from: DavidRoss on December 01, 2011, 07:21:24 AM
...
Those with no regard for the truth, who are willing to distort facts in order to slander others and bear false witness against them, or to demonize an entire people with bigoted stereotypes, have no integrity. And those who lack integrity likewise have no honor.

Your pompus indignation is tedious as well as misplaced.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on December 01, 2011, 08:11:15 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on December 01, 2011, 07:26:42 AM

I call 'em the way I see 'em
That's not a defense against bigotry, but rather a justification for it. An honorable person, when informed that his statements reek of bigotry, would investigate them to see if this is so, and upon discovering that it's true, would acknowledge his fault and then remedy it. In the case at hand, the hateful bigotry of your statement regarding Americans is bloody obvious and you would have to be an extraordinary dunce not to recognize it.  You are not a dunce.
 
Quote from: Fëanor on December 01, 2011, 07:26:42 AM
Your pompus indignation is tedious as well as misplaced.
Your characterization of my response to Daverz, explaining the linkage he claims not to see between honor & integrity and malicious slander, is just more of the same nasty BS that's becoming your stock in trade.

And now, given the turn this discussion has taken--starting with bigoted insults attacking an entire nation, which when objected to then turned to bigoted insults attacking the whistle blower--it seems there is no good likely to be served by my continuing participation. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 01, 2011, 08:16:03 AM
Mr Magoo as an umpire calls 'em the way he sees 'em, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on December 01, 2011, 11:37:27 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 01, 2011, 08:11:15 AM
An honorable person

You're the only honorable person here?  The only one with integrity?  Go to hell.

There's a discussion that could be had here over whether the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were atrocities (they quite clearly were, and I'd make a larger point about the Allied policy of bombing civilian populations in WWII).

There's a discussion to be had about American foreign policy vs. domestic policy. 

But clearly you're more interested in pearl-clutching and making ridiculous squealing noises than having a discussion.

As Barbara Bush would say, "I'm through with you."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on December 01, 2011, 06:44:47 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 01, 2011, 07:21:24 AM
You call Feanor's false and hateful characterization of Americans as "wanting to invade other countries rather than provide healthcare for your people" a fact. Either you know better and are just trying to pull my chain, or you are just as hateful and bigoted as Feanor.
Change that to American government and it's true. Of course, the government fails at so much that health care would probably be a pointless waste by now, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 02, 2011, 12:04:55 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on December 01, 2011, 08:11:15 AM
....
And now, given the turn this discussion has taken--starting with bigoted insults attacking an entire nation, which when objected to then turned to bigoted insults attacking the whistle blower--it seems there is no good likely to be served by my continuing participation.
More self-righteous, self-delusional huffing & buffing.

Is it false & bigotted to say that "Americans prefer invading other peoples's coutries rather than providing their own people with health care"? Rather than name-calling, explain to me how the preceeding is not a statement of fact?

Obviously not every single American supported invading Iraq or opposes universal healthcare, but the USA in purportedly a democracy so the population has to take collective responsibility for what the government does.

~~~~~~~~~~

I'm currently reading ...

Chris Hedges: Death of the Liberal Class

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KMYekL6UL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 02, 2011, 04:36:30 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21kMtxcu-bL._AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on December 02, 2011, 04:46:44 PM
(http://www.opusmusica.com/007/images/bach.jpg)

Ramón Andrés, Johann Sebastián Bach - Los días, las ideas y los libros, Ed. El Acantilado, 2005, ISBN 84- 961 36-96-5, 338 págs.

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on December 04, 2011, 12:45:18 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 02, 2011, 04:36:30 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21kMtxcu-bL._AA300_.jpg)

Interesting choice. I read it many years ago, on the grounds that it was a strong recommendation of CS Lewis's (whose writing I've always admired). My memory of it is very hazy now, but I recall enjoying the journey, while lifting several eyebrows at some of the arguments - including some strange notions about the spiritual condition of 'early man'. But the recollection is very vague. How have you found it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on December 04, 2011, 12:51:25 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 29, 2011, 07:48:56 AM
I missed Alan's recommendation of this earlier [The Night Circus: Erin Morgenstern].  Thanks for calling it to our attention, coffee!

Worth emphasising that I suspect it's a 'love it or hate it' book, Dave. In my case I wasn't sure which until halfway through! But I know of nothing else like it, and still, a few weeks later, it haunts me; and I leave the book lying around the house simply because it's such a delight to pick up and look at now and then, while remembering the strange atmosphere of the tale it contains.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 04, 2011, 02:35:33 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on December 04, 2011, 12:45:18 AM
Interesting choice. I read it many years ago, on the grounds that it was a strong recommendation of CS Lewis's (whose writing I've always admired). My memory of it is very hazy now, but I recall enjoying the journey, while lifting several eyebrows at some of the arguments - including some strange notions about the spiritual condition of 'early man'. But the recollection is very vague. How have you found it?

Just got out of the cave man chapter.  A handful of lines worth revisiting to this point, ie Art is man's signature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on December 05, 2011, 01:52:20 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 04, 2011, 02:35:33 PM
A handful of lines worth revisiting to this point, ie Art is man's signature.

Oh that's so good I ought to have remembered it, and I'm sorry I didn't, so thanks for highlighting it. It calls to mind something Ruskin said. (A very different kind of statement, except in its emphasis on the significance of art):

"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts: the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others; but of the three, the only quite trustworthy one is the last."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on December 09, 2011, 05:46:28 AM
Which is Hardy's least depressing novel, if such a thing exists?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on December 14, 2011, 01:04:57 AM
Edward J. Larson:     "Evolution: the remarkable History of a scientific theory"

This book won the Pulitzer Price. I don't understand why since, in my opinion, it is a very superficial work. Better read Stephan Jay Gould, "The structure of the Theory of Evolution" to have a much more complete perspective of the "evolution" of the scientific concept of Evolution.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on December 16, 2011, 08:31:11 PM
Tao Te Ching

QuoteThe Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of the ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.

thanks to jowcol... how could you not want to read something that starts off like this?

It would be so awesome to write an orchestral score that has nothing but this as the page right before the score, and to proceed with music in this style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 19, 2011, 10:50:04 AM
Quite good so far, though I think a few areas are covered too briefly.  One doesn't get much detail on how Haydn went about his self-education in music theory, for example.

[asin]0520043170[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on December 21, 2011, 04:50:49 PM
The Essential Jung - ed. Anthony Storr

[ASIN]0691029350[/ASIN]

Much saner than I expected, so far. It's easy to read, but I'm always conscious that I'm reading a digest, as the subtleties of his thought process are elided to some degree. He uses mystical language, but to express fairly practical ideas about the human mind. I find him much more convincing than sex-crazed Freud.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 21, 2011, 11:27:27 PM
Quote from: eyeresist on December 21, 2011, 04:50:49 PM
I find him much more convincing than sex-crazed Freud.

QFT.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 22, 2011, 09:37:34 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RF53BA6NL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Chuckling my way through.  Most charming.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on December 23, 2011, 06:54:43 AM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dQ4Z2g5agPM/TP57O7X-jWI/AAAAAAAAAMA/BG5u7mdZ4uo/s1600/FYjPDUw0qm4olghh3dmWaimKo1_500.jpg)

Incredibly beautiful so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 23, 2011, 07:07:30 AM
Quote from: Coco on December 23, 2011, 06:54:43 AM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dQ4Z2g5agPM/TP57O7X-jWI/AAAAAAAAAMA/BG5u7mdZ4uo/s1600/FYjPDUw0qm4olghh3dmWaimKo1_500.jpg)

Incredibly beautiful so far.

Hah! I've just bought my Romanian copy these days.  :D

(http://liviu.joacadeamine.ro/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/cartea_nelinistirii.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on December 23, 2011, 11:52:04 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HoIph98KL.jpg)

Not this exactly, but the Serbian translation of complete Szindbad stories (this is selection). Very nice, but Zoltan Huszarik's film based on them is better (one of best things I've seen in years).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on December 25, 2011, 08:27:23 AM
Seeing as I expressed to my parents that I was interested in art, in addition to the $250 they gave me for Christmas, I was very surprised, and thrilled, to have received these two books this morning:

(http://images.borders.com.au/images/bau/97818445/9781844515646/0/0/plain/world-art-the-essential-illustrated-history.jpg)

(http://cdn.dickblick.com/items/683/41/68341-1001-3ww-l.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 26, 2011, 06:53:05 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on December 25, 2011, 08:27:23 AM
Seeing as I expressed to my parents that I was interested in art, in addition to the $250 they gave me for Christmas, I was very surprised, and thrilled, to have received these two books this morning:

(http://images.borders.com.au/images/bau/97818445/9781844515646/0/0/plain/world-art-the-essential-illustrated-history.jpg)

(http://cdn.dickblick.com/items/683/41/68341-1001-3ww-l.jpg)

A review, when you can, MI.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on December 26, 2011, 12:23:58 PM
Quote from: Bogey on December 26, 2011, 06:53:05 AM
A review, when you can, MI.

I'm sure if I give either one of them a proper review as I'm just starting to read them, but the book World Art: The Essential Illustrated History covers a lot of ground and talks about many artists, some well-known and some not. This book is also a hardback and contains some excellent illustrations of the paintings by each artist. The other book 50 Artists You Should Know is more or less a condensed overview of 50 innovative artists and features some great illustrations of their work. Both books are laid-out in an organized way which makes the reading much easy to follow. I would say if you're interested in art, then, from what I can tell so far, these are two very fine books to have in your collection. Unfortunately, World Art: The Essential Illustrated History is out-of-print and quite expensive to buy new. I'm sure you can find one for a good price in the used market.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 26, 2011, 07:42:11 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on December 26, 2011, 12:23:58 PM
I'm sure if I give either one of them a proper review as I'm just starting to read them, but the book World Art: The Essential Illustrated History covers a lot of ground and talks about many artists, some well-known and some not. This book is also a hardback and contains some excellent illustrations of the paintings by each artist. The other book 50 Artists You Should Know is more or less a condensed overview of 50 innovative artists and features some great illustrations of their work. Both books are laid-out in an organized way which makes the reading much easy to follow. I would say if you're interested in art, then, from what I can tell so far, these are two very fine books to have in your collection. Unfortunately, World Art: The Essential Illustrated History is out-of-print and quite expensive to buy new. I'm sure you can find one for a good price in the used market.

In 50 Artists You Should Know, who do they start with....is it chronological?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on December 27, 2011, 02:22:58 PM
Quote from: Bogey on December 26, 2011, 07:42:11 PM
In 50 Artists You Should Know, who do they start with....is it chronological?

The first artist the book starts with is Giotto di Bondone. Here's the product description that I pulled from Amazon:

This vibrant reference guide profiles 50 major artists alongside their representative works. The entries are presented in an eye-catching format that includes brief biographies, time lines, and critical analyses. Additional information helps readers locate the artist's work online and in museums, a glossary of important terms, and sidebars highlighting relevant movements and techniques. Arranged chronologically, the selection of artists includes every major artistic movement and development since the Gothic period, giving readers a clear understanding of the evolution of the visual arts. Perfect for casual reading or easy reference, this accessible overview is a fun and practical art history lesson that everyone can enjoy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on December 29, 2011, 05:09:42 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510aKu0sPTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
The book to read if you want to learn about modern lucid dreaming. There have been other induction techniques developed by others that have gained popularity, but he puts forth explanations of MILD and DILD and much more- lots of psychology-type information and many dream excerpts (I skipped through about half of them).

I hope to read The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep eventually...


A dream excerpt:
QuoteYou don't need to talk to shadow figures to make peace with them. If you can find it in your heart to genuinely
love your dream enemies, they become your friends. Embracing the rejected with loving acceptance symbolically integrates the shadow into your model of your self, as illustrated by one of my own dreams: I was in the middle of a riot in a classroom. A violent mob of thirty or forty was taking the place apart, throwing chairs and people through windows, grappling convulsively with each other, and letting fly random shrieks, war cries, and insults; in short, the sort of thing that is likely to happen in certain grade schools when the teacher steps out of the classroom for a moment. The leader, a huge, repulsive barbarian with a pockmarked face, had locked me in an
iron-clad grip and I was desperately struggling to get away. Then, I realized that I was dreaming, and in a flash, I
remembered the lessons of past experience.

I stopped struggling, for I knew that the conflict was with myself. I reasoned that the barbarian was a dream
personification of something I was struggling with in my self. Or perhaps it represented someone, or some quality
in another, that I disliked. In any case, this barbarian was a shadow figure if I had ever seen one! Experience had my enemies as myself. What I needed to do, I realized, was to completely accept with open arms the shadow I had been attempting to disown.
So, I tried to feel loving as I stood face to face with the shadow barbarian. I failed at first, feeling only repulsion
and disgust. My gut reaction was that he was simply too ugly and barbarous to love. Determined to overcome the
initial shock of the image, I sought love within my heart. Finding it, I looked the barbarian in the eyes, trusting
my intuition to supply the right things to say. Beautiful words of acceptance flowed out of me, and as they did,
my shadow melted into me. The riot had vanished without a trace, the dream faded, and I awoke, feeling wonderfully calm.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on December 30, 2011, 05:07:16 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JAtdCuyqL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Excellent book. This is what you read after you read Windows Programming by Charles Petzold.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on January 03, 2012, 04:09:02 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P8TFF0WNL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Just got this in the mail.
People don't learn this stuff as much any more, but if I want a chance at a certain job...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 03, 2012, 08:04:26 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R-U8uoilL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 12, 2012, 12:50:30 AM
(http://www.polirom.ro/_images/carti_normale/jivago2.jpg)

Boris Pasternak - Doctor Zhivago
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on January 12, 2012, 05:23:47 AM
(http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6551412-L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 12, 2012, 07:42:42 AM
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President (2011) by Candice Millard - a highly rated NY Times Book Review story about James Garfield, his assassination, and the dismal medical care at the time.  The author has put together a well researched book - an eBook borrow from my local library.

Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution (2008) by David Clary - another eBook borrow - excellent account of the relationship between George Washington & Lafayette - an enlightening read for me, i.e. I knew the story but not how deeply each felt in this 'father-son' type of interaction nor about the many contributions that Lafayette made during & after the American Revolution; excessive letter quoting does make the book drag on a little too long - :)


(http://images.betterworldbooks.com/038/The-Destiny-of-the-Republic-Millard-Candice-9780385526265.jpg)  (http://www.strandbooks.com/resources/strand/images/products/partitioned/3/6/9/0553383450.1.zoom.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 12, 2012, 01:29:07 PM
THE BIG SLEEP
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 13, 2012, 07:21:41 AM
Voltaire's England (Desmond Flower)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41v2Iabz%2B5L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Can't find a cover pic, there might not have been one. Perhaps one of  the only admirable figures who emerged from 1000 years of English-French interaction?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 14, 2012, 07:42:50 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on January 12, 2012, 07:42:42 AM
[
Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution (2008) by David Clary - another eBook borrow - excellent account of the relationship between George Washington & Lafayette - an enlightening read for me, i.e. I knew the story but not how deeply each felt in this 'father-son' type of interaction nor about the many contributions that Lafayette made during & after the American Revolution; excessive letter quoting does make the book drag on a little too long - :)


(http://www.strandbooks.com/resources/strand/images/products/partitioned/3/6/9/0553383450.1.zoom.jpg)

We have this on the shelf, Dave.  Will try to crack it this summer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 17, 2012, 07:42:21 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 22, 2011, 09:37:34 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RF53BA6NL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Chuckling my way through.  Most charming.

I own that but never managed to chuckle the whole way through. Not yet anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 17, 2012, 07:43:21 AM
Quote from: Ataraxia on January 12, 2012, 01:29:07 PM
THE BIG SLEEP

This is living up to my high expectations. It's exactly what I thought it would be.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 17, 2012, 08:24:17 AM
Cool. I still chuckle at the thought that they were making the movie, and called Chandler to ask which character had bumped another character off, and he wasn't sure, himself . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 17, 2012, 08:24:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 17, 2012, 08:24:17 AM
Cool. I still chuckle at the thought that they were making the movie, and called Chandler to ask which character had bumped another character off, and he wasn't sure, himself . . . .

I know the feeling.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 17, 2012, 08:58:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 17, 2012, 08:24:17 AM
Cool. I still chuckle at the thought that they were making the movie, and called Chandler to ask which character had bumped another character off, and he wasn't sure, himself . . . .

That's the surest mark of a great writer: to create characters with a life of their own, of which not even the author is aware...  ;D :D 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 17, 2012, 09:31:08 AM
: )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 17, 2012, 09:37:42 AM
Or he just forgot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 17, 2012, 09:38:58 AM
Who?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 17, 2012, 09:43:00 AM
Chandler.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 17, 2012, 09:47:08 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 17, 2012, 09:38:58 AM
Who?

(Joke.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 17, 2012, 09:50:19 AM
I just finished The House That Jack Built by Masterton and I have a hankering for a change of pace with a mystery of some kind... hmm... :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 17, 2012, 09:53:37 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 17, 2012, 09:47:08 AM
(Joke.)

Ah.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 17, 2012, 09:55:12 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 17, 2012, 09:50:19 AM
I just finished The House That Jack Built by Masterton and I have a hankering for a change of pace with a mystery of some kind... hmm... :)

Masterton! I like PREY, THE CHOSEN CHILD, FEAST and MASTER OF LIES.

Not that you asked.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 17, 2012, 09:57:12 AM
Quote from: Ataraxia on January 17, 2012, 09:55:12 AM
Masterton! I like PREY, THE CHOSEN CHILD, FEAST and MASTER OF LIES.

Not that you asked.  ;D

I'll have to read those. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 18, 2012, 01:02:03 AM
A bit salesmaney like most psychology self-help books but not bad at all for what it is:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51s7bUHhnSL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

I've read, far, far worse and far less clear self-help books in the past.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 18, 2012, 03:56:08 AM
I have returned to this one after setting it aside. It's wasn't the books fault as it is excellent.
[asin] 1590514254[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 18, 2012, 06:10:19 PM
My 7th grade son just wiped out Jurassic Park in a week.  He's kicking my tail with the amount he is reading.  He's about to blast Lost World.  Dude is a relentless reader.  Ah, youth.

Speaking of which, (and you will especially love this one MN Dave) he asked me a few months ago how in the world a book could scare you.  He was like (literally), "Hey, it's just a book.  What is there to be afraid of." 

When he got to the T-Rex in the above going after some river snacks, I asked him, "So, scared?"

"A bit creeped out." was the response.  Man, is he in for some rides. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on January 18, 2012, 06:42:29 PM
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5217/5407360143_bf0774f7e6_z.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 19, 2012, 04:29:29 AM
I'm also dipping into Grimms' fairy tales complete. The essay at the beginning was fascinating because I knew nothing about them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 19, 2012, 04:36:19 AM
Aye, scholars were they.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 19, 2012, 04:55:14 AM
Quote from: Ataraxia on January 19, 2012, 04:29:29 AM
I'm also dipping into Grimms' fairy tales complete. The essay at the beginning was fascinating because I knew nothing about them.

Which edition/publisher?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 19, 2012, 05:05:44 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 19, 2012, 04:36:19 AM
Aye, scholars were they.

I enjoy learning history while I read about musicians or writers.  ;D

QuoteWhich edition/publisher?

[asin]1607103133[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 19, 2012, 05:11:25 AM
Quote from: Ataraxia on January 19, 2012, 05:05:44 AM
[asin]1607103133[/asin]

Thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 19, 2012, 05:13:20 AM
Very happy with my order. This is a beautiful book to display on a book shelf in your home. I recomend this book to others. (http://www.amazon.com/review/REQLW8YQPOYF6/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1607103133&nodeID=283155&tag=&linkCode=)


::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 19, 2012, 05:16:32 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 19, 2012, 05:13:20 AM
Very happy with my order. This is a beautiful book to display on a book shelf in your home. I recomend this book to others. (http://www.amazon.com/review/REQLW8YQPOYF6/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1607103133&nodeID=283155&tag=&linkCode=)


::)

:D

And it has a pretty red ribbon too!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 19, 2012, 03:41:50 PM
I'm currently juggling these two:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419hFDD5ApL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
(http://swingleydev.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/wolff_bach_bio.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 19, 2012, 03:45:04 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on January 19, 2012, 03:41:50 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419hFDD5ApL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

First time?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 19, 2012, 04:06:37 PM
On hold at the moment due to mental state (can't read fiction when like this) but it's quite good if one likes Fantasy and is one of the better stand-alone novels I've read in the genre:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KYNwJ%2BdbL._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 19, 2012, 04:16:24 PM
Wow both of those fantasy novels are on my to read list!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 19, 2012, 04:19:09 PM
Quote from: Ataraxia on January 19, 2012, 03:45:04 PM
First time?

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 19, 2012, 04:35:22 PM
I read Thomas Covenant a looong time ago and TIGANA is on my TBR shelf.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 21, 2012, 01:00:11 PM
I didn't want to start a brand new thread over just one book so:


Is this worth picking up for a novice?

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51w9aRGsGqL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-Listeners-Guide-Michael-Steinberg/dp/0195126653/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327183100&sr=1-8
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 21, 2012, 04:06:01 PM
Quote from: nesf on January 21, 2012, 01:00:11 PM
I didn't want to start a brand new thread over just one book so:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51w9aRGsGqL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-Listeners-Guide-Michael-Steinberg/dp/0195126653/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327183100&sr=1-8

Hello and no need to start a thread over a music book; Michael Steinberg is a good writer - I own that book and also his on 'Concertos' - these read like notes that you would get in attending a concert - i.e. a nice introduction to the works that he discusses - you might want to review the TOC and if those are compositions & composeres that interest you, and if you are indeed a newbie, then these books would likely be of interest - check out the reviews on Amazon (a little mixed) - good luck in your choices!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 21, 2012, 04:15:19 PM
Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson - about 2/3 through this bio - WHAT do you think for those who have read this book on an amazing entrepreneur of the end of the 20th century?  I don't want to go into details on my thoughts at the moment but he was the impetus for so many changes in the computer & the digital 'environment' at the end of the latter century and the beginning of the current one - probably deserves a thread on this topic itself?  Any thoughts, ideas, comments - a fascinating character to say the least! :) 

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TNSBq4F5L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 21, 2012, 04:42:57 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on January 21, 2012, 04:06:01 PM
Hello and no need to start a thread over a music book; Michael Steinberg is a good writer - I own that book and also his on 'Concertos' - these read like notes that you would get in attending a concert - i.e. a nice introduction to the works that he discusses - you might want to review the TOC and if those are compositions & composeres that interest you, and if you are indeed a newbie, then these books would likely be of interest - check out the reviews on Amazon (a little mixed) - good luck in your choices!  :)

Well, define newbie! My classical listening time runs into hundreds of hours but I still feel like I know very little about classical music! There's listening and then there's listening after all. :)

I reviewed the TOC and yeah, there's definitely some pieces in it I'm interested in learning more about. I was looking at the other books in the series too. We'll see, I'll have a think about it. I suppose what drives me here is that I find my enjoyment of a symphony or concerto really increased if I've read some bit about the movements and ideas in the piece.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 21, 2012, 06:08:10 PM
.[asin]1907992448[/asin]

Imagine there was a supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made. A grand epic produced at the studio's peak, which played like a cross between the Dracula and Frankenstein films and Dr Terror's House Of Horrors...

Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive. As the 'Arkangel' races through the war-torn countryside, they must find out:

What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of?

What is the tragic secret of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them?

Why is their fellow passenger the army brigadier so feared by his own men?

And what exactly is the devilish secret of the Arkangel itself?

Bizarre creatures, satanic rites, terrified passengers and the romance of travelling by train, all in a classically styled horror novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on January 22, 2012, 01:14:35 PM
Palmen (a diary book), Gorter (poems), Nietzsche (Human all to Human, The Gay Science), Empedocles, Dostojevski (Winter remarks about summer impressions), Van Middelaar (The Passage to Europe). And a bit of Horatius and Gerbrandy (The torture of pleasure). Going to continue Vergilius also (Country life). :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on January 22, 2012, 05:02:39 PM
Quote from: Henk on January 22, 2012, 01:14:35 PM
Palmen (a diary book), Gorter (poems), Nietzsche (Human all to Human, The Gay Science), Empedocles, Dostojevski (Winter remarks about summer impressions), Van Middelaar (The Passage to Europe). And a bit of Horatius and Gerbrandy (The torture of pleasure). Going to continue Vergilius also (Country life). :)


Judging by this impressive list, I think your eyes must be a good deal better than mine.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 24, 2012, 11:45:46 AM
.[asin]055357342X[/asin]

I don't usually read recent fiction, but experienced a curiously strong urge for some fantasy, and this series stood out on the bookshelf. If I had any sense I'd have gone home and Wikipedia'd it to check the chronology but I decided that I wanted this one, which turned out to be bang in the middle of an extended series. Not too bothered, though, as I doubt I would manage the whole set.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 24, 2012, 12:39:14 PM
Lethe, but the first novel is the best and then it's just downhill (not bad though)!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 24, 2012, 01:00:27 PM
Seconded, the first novel is superb. The latter novels are ok bar the 4th which annoyed me, all very good by fantasy standards though, just paling in comparison to the first. I'd strongly urge picking up A Game of Thrones as even my "I don't read fantasy" wife really like the series.


If you're looking for a long complete fantasy cycle I quite like Steven Erickson's Malazan series, starting with "Gardens of the Moon". Very convoluted and sometimes confusing plot but rewarding overall.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on January 24, 2012, 01:11:18 PM
Quote from: DavidW on January 24, 2012, 12:39:14 PM
Lethe, but the first novel is the best and then it's just downhill (not bad though)!

Ah curses, I had vague memories of people obsessing over this series like mana from heaven. If I like this book, I'll definitely get the few that preceeded it (this is #3?).

Quote from: nesf on January 24, 2012, 01:00:27 PM
If you're looking for a long complete fantasy cycle I quite like Steven Erickson's Malazan series, starting with "Gardens of the Moon". Very convoluted and sometimes confusing plot but rewarding overall.

Sounds neat, I'll be on the lookout (rule of thumb: if a book has a cool cover, it sticks in my mind, and Gardens... does) ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 24, 2012, 01:36:49 PM
Quote from: Lethevich Dmitriyevna Pettersonova on January 24, 2012, 01:11:18 PM
Sounds neat, I'll be on the lookout (rule of thumb: if a book has a cool cover, it sticks in my mind, and Gardens... does) ;D

It's worth it just for Chain of Dogs alone. Though that's a fair bit into the series. Some weak books in the series, the same as any long fantasy epic but for complicated fantasy it's pretty good. All lovely shades of grey too which is welcome! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 24, 2012, 01:47:53 PM
Quote from: Lethevich Dmitriyevna Pettersonova on January 24, 2012, 01:11:18 PM
Ah curses, I had vague memories of people obsessing over this series like mana from heaven. If I like this book, I'll definitely get the few that preceeded it (this is #3?).

Many fans went from obsession to meh to hatred with the huge multiple year gaps between volumes with no end in sight.  There are still obsessed fanboys but they are newbies that got into the series from watching the tv show and haven't felt the slow burn of the glacial release schedule and the slowing momentum of the story.

That being said even if Martin published every year like Erikson did the first novel is still the strongest, the best.  Martin fell into the Robert Jordan trap-- too many plot threads sunk the momentum of the series and also led to more bookkeeping on resolving the plot and less rewarding character arcs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: TheGSMoeller on January 24, 2012, 01:49:33 PM
About to read Neil Gaimen's American Gods for the first time, kindle/nook did a sale for $1.99 for a day so I jumped on it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 24, 2012, 01:51:03 PM
Quote from: nesf on January 24, 2012, 01:36:49 PM
It's worth it just for Chain of Dogs alone. Though that's a fair bit into the series. Some weak books in the series, the same as any long fantasy epic but for complicated fantasy it's pretty good. All lovely shades of grey too which is welcome! :)

Do you mean the chain of dogs story in the Deadhouse Gates or do you mean House of Chains?  Gardens of the Moon blows.  If I hadn't pushed myself to read Deadhouse Gates I would have given up on the series.  It seems like Erikson became a much better writer after the first novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 24, 2012, 02:39:44 PM
Quote from: DavidW on January 24, 2012, 01:51:03 PM
Do you mean the chain of dogs story in the Deadhouse Gates or do you mean House of Chains?  Gardens of the Moon blows.  If I hadn't pushed myself to read Deadhouse Gates I would have given up on the series.  It seems like Erikson became a much better writer after the first novel.

You're correct I'm thinking of Deadhouse Gates. I enjoyed Gardens of the Moon on my second reading of it. I was a bit so-so on it at the first but it grew on me.


Edit: Wrong book first time. :/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 24, 2012, 07:25:37 PM
Quote from: nesf on January 24, 2012, 02:39:44 PM
You're correct I'm thinking of Deadhouse Gates. I enjoyed Gardens of the Moon on my second reading of it. I was a bit so-so on it at the first but it grew on me.


Edit: Wrong book first time. :/

I figure it would be a much easier read for me now than it was then! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 25, 2012, 03:39:47 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 24, 2012, 07:25:37 PM
I figure it would be a much easier read for me now than it was then! ;D

It all makes a lot more sense on a reread. I'd agree that the first book of series should be more like Deadhouse Gates though than Gardens of the Moon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on January 26, 2012, 07:11:49 AM
(http://srvimg09.tablica.pl/images_dealfishcoke/124182_1_644x461.jpg)


I have a hard time sleeping sometimes, knowing that China is growing in wealth and power.  Fortunately, Martin Jacques has written a book on the subject that can put one to sleep. 

Mr Jacques, a current or former Marxist (he served as the editor of a Marxist journal) tends to present his central idea in a decidedly Marxist – ie, deterministic – way, and his very brief histories of Europe and Japan gloss over a few things, even if they get the sweep of history right.  Early on he mentions the need to look at things in new ways, but then proceeds to look back to a time when China was "dominant" and tries to project that forward.  Of course, I'm only about half way through, but the on-the-street feel of China Shakes the World is missing, and the historical insights of professional historians is also missing.  I'm hoping that he considers modern day realities – shifting alliances between various actors in Asia, international organizations, strategic nukes, etc – a bit more later on.  I don't know his conclusions, but I won't be surprised if they are different than mine.  I'll have to try some other books in this field.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 26, 2012, 05:31:42 PM
It's been on my shelves for a few years and was a gift from my father-in-law and I'm finally getting around to reading it:

[asin]1400040817[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 26, 2012, 05:32:45 PM
I keep seeing that one at the store.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 26, 2012, 05:42:44 PM
Quote from: Ataraxia on January 26, 2012, 05:32:45 PM
I keep seeing that one at the store.

I really liked his "The man who mistook his wife for a hat", so I've high hopes for this book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on January 26, 2012, 06:01:00 PM
Nikolai Grozni, Bulgarian-born classical pianist and now novelist: Wunderkind takes place in 1987 Sofia, Bulgaria, at a classical music academy for gifted children and teenagers.  The book offers a sarcastically brutal account of life in a People's Socialist Paradise, especially the contradiction of a socialist society giving special treatment to an artistic and political elite.

Crude at times, the book offers a good number of interesting opinions on classical music (Chopin, Rachmaninov, etc.)

See:

http://www.nikolaigrozni.com/novel.html (http://www.nikolaigrozni.com/novel.html)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on January 27, 2012, 02:21:26 AM
Some serious maths porn (http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/an-adventure-in-the-nth-dimension)! Try it.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on January 27, 2012, 04:19:57 AM
I'm reading GREAT EXPECTATIONS and it seems very familiar...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on January 27, 2012, 09:39:04 AM
Quote from: nesf on January 26, 2012, 05:31:42 PM
It's been on my shelves for a few years and was a gift from my father-in-law and I'm finally getting around to reading it:

[asin]1400040817[/asin]

A few chapters in. Quite interesting so far, he's talked about musicophilia (either a sudden obsession with music where no particular interest was there before, or in one case someone who suddenly became a player and composer of piano music after a lightening strike) suddenly induced by temporal lobe seizures and tumours in that area as well as music induced epileptic fits. If you like science/neurology this is quite an interesting book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on January 31, 2012, 09:03:54 PM
Quote from: Ataraxia on January 27, 2012, 04:19:57 AM
I'm reading GREAT EXPECTATIONS and it seems very familiar...

I had a great time experiencing that book in audiobook form. The first person narration was well suited to audiobook form and the performance was great! If only I could remember who the reader was...

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 01, 2012, 09:01:45 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 27, 2012, 02:21:26 AM
Some serious maths porn (http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/an-adventure-in-the-nth-dimension)! Try it.  0:)
Much more fun reading these   ;)
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0199236178.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1429218126.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0198503466.01.L.jpg)   (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0470746386.01.L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on February 01, 2012, 09:48:05 AM
Quote from: North Star on February 01, 2012, 09:01:45 AM
Much more fun reading these   ;)
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0199236178.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1429218126.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0198503466.01.L.jpg)   (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0470746386.01.L.jpg)

I see your science and raise you some social!

[asin]0691042896[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 01, 2012, 09:55:52 AM
Quote from: nesf on February 01, 2012, 09:48:05 AM
I see your science and raise you some social!

[asin]0691042896[/asin]
I find it hard to believe that that was a 'raise'.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on February 01, 2012, 10:46:03 AM
Quote from: North Star on February 01, 2012, 09:55:52 AM
I find it hard to believe that that was a 'raise'.  8)

Hah, it's a good deal more difficult than the book on the right of your selection, the authors of which taught me actually. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on February 01, 2012, 11:02:45 AM
Actually I'll raise you some proper (applied) maths porn:

[asin]0124808735[/asin]

Just to be less controversial. ;)

Also one of those bizarre academic books where the hardback is cheaper than the paperback...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 01, 2012, 11:35:07 AM
Quote from: nesf on February 01, 2012, 10:46:03 AM
Hah, it's a good deal more difficult than the book on the right of your selection, the authors of which taught me actually. ;)

True, that physics book is light reading, unlike the chemistry books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on February 01, 2012, 12:24:54 PM
Quote from: North Star on February 01, 2012, 11:35:07 AM
True, that physics book is light reading, unlike the chemistry books.

It's a good book though, I learned quite a lot from it when I started Physics in college.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on February 01, 2012, 10:20:36 PM
Quote from: North Star on February 01, 2012, 09:01:45 AM
Much more fun reading these   ;)
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0199236178.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1429218126.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0198503466.01.L.jpg)   

*Yawns* Move along, people, nothing to see here... just applied QM.

[The occasion calls for an XKCD comic: http://xkcd.com/435/]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 02, 2012, 07:05:14 AM
The Sexual History of London: From Roman Londinium to the Swinging City---Lust, Vice, and Desire Across the Ages (2011) by Catharine Arnold - prompted by an excellent piece in the NY Times Book Review and a bargain ($10) from the History Book Club - just on the third chapter which discusses the spread of syphilis in Europe in the 1490s and Henry VIII's approach to the problem in London; but the book covers nearly 2000 years; the first chapter on 'Londinium' and the Roman occupation was fascinating - highly recommended if you're into this topic -  ;D


(http://booktrib.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/COVER-Arnold_SexHistoryLondon.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 02, 2012, 07:45:52 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 01, 2012, 10:20:36 PM
*Yawns* Move along, people, nothing to see here... just applied QM.

[The occasion calls for an XKCD comic: http://xkcd.com/435/]

Oldies, but goldies.
You do know that math is just a tool for the real scientists, though, don't you?


Quote from: nesf on February 01, 2012, 12:24:54 PM
It's a good book though, I learned quite a lot from it when I started Physics in college.
You might be biased, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on February 02, 2012, 07:58:46 AM
Quote from: North Star on February 02, 2012, 07:45:52 AM
Oldies, but goldies.

Who or what are you referring to? ???

QuoteYou do know that math is just a tool for the real scientists, though, don't you?

And I hope you know that much of theoretical physics is essentially maths with a human spin on things? ;D ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 02, 2012, 08:08:19 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 02, 2012, 07:58:46 AM
Who or what are you referring to? ???

And I hope you know that much of theoretical physics is essentially maths with a human spin on things? ;D ;)

I was referring to the comic.

-------------------

Yes, I do know that theoretical physics was only invented after the mathematical inventions needed. But the point is, what is maths without reality and other sciences - not much more than fun.  ;D  Mathematics is needed in order to create models that can be used to help us understand how/why the world is the way it is, but pure math isn't what I'd call a science, since it isn't based on reality, but models, some of which are used in natural sciences.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on February 02, 2012, 08:14:38 AM
Quote from: North Star on February 02, 2012, 08:08:19 AM[P]ure math isn't what I'd call a science, since it isn't based on reality, but models, some of which are used in natural sciences.

*Sound of can of worms opening*

Define reality. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 02, 2012, 08:20:55 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 02, 2012, 08:14:38 AM
*Sound of can of worms opening*

Define reality. :)

By reality I mean the world in which people, or most of us anyway, live, and the observations made in this world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on February 02, 2012, 08:25:37 AM
Quote from: North Star on February 02, 2012, 07:45:52 AM
You might be biased, though.

Probably.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on February 02, 2012, 09:04:30 AM
Quote from: North Star on February 02, 2012, 08:20:55 AM
By reality I mean the world in which people, or most of us anyway, live, and the observations made in this world.

Assuming that mathematical entities are purely human creations, namely a series of firings of neurons in the brain (I'm in a reductionist mood today), wouldn't that make them a part of reality?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 02, 2012, 09:15:48 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 02, 2012, 09:04:30 AM
Assuming that mathematical entities are purely human creations, namely a series of firings of neurons in the brain (I'm in a reductionist mood today), wouldn't that make them a part of reality?

And also posts on GMG are a part of reality. But not all mathematical models give us any valuable information of the structure of the universe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 02, 2012, 09:20:34 AM
This is too nerdy even for me! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 02, 2012, 09:22:15 AM
Hah! Davey has been out-nerded!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 02, 2012, 09:24:24 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on February 02, 2012, 09:22:15 AM
Hah! Davey has been out-nerded!

Haha!  That happens to me everyday by one of my students who likes to make references to video games and tv shows that go right over my head. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 02, 2012, 09:26:04 AM
What can I say, but
Quote from: Cato on November 11, 2011, 04:36:32 PMAnd I'm glad, I tell you!  Glad!!!   ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on February 02, 2012, 09:26:19 AM
Is Dave getting old? :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 02, 2012, 10:49:41 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 02, 2012, 09:26:19 AM
Is Dave getting old? :o

All you have to do to feel old is be around teenagers, trust me. :D  Greg would feel old after a day with my students. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 02, 2012, 05:23:52 PM
Quote from: DavidW on February 02, 2012, 09:20:34 AM
This is too nerdy even for me! :D

David - agree! I had to take all of those courses as a pre-med student in the 1960s - just do it!   ;D   Dave  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on February 12, 2012, 06:20:31 AM
It was a hard decision, but I decided to spend part of my vacation time reading Law, Legislation & Liberty:

(http://www.baumanrarebooks.com/BookImages/81412f.jpg)

One of the most stimulating readings of the last years, so addictive as The Road of Serfdom.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 12, 2012, 06:36:43 AM
I read The Paradox of Choice, reread Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and I'm now rereading the Shadow Rising. :)

[asin]B000TDGGVU[/asin]
Paradox of Choice is well researched and is compelling.  I also found it's very simple advise helpful on making choices, and I find myself spending less time making choices, feeling better about them and using things like netflix more often now that I'm not as overwhelmed by the choices.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RIJc7q6yL._SS500_.jpg)
This is one of the better Harry Potter novels, and the film adaptation is my favorite.  It's funny that one of the strongest entries only lightly touches on Voldemort.  It has more to do with the bonds of both friendship and kinship and honoring your loved ones even if they've passed on.

[asin]B00329UWL8[/asin]
Shadow Rising is my favorite novel in the Wheel of Time series.  It has completely tossed aside it's LoTR roots.  Each character matures into the adult characters ready to take on the responsibility they must for the last battle.  It also shows through first person perspective what it was like in the age of legends when the dark one is first released from his prison.  It adds complexity to the villains and heroes alike.  And in this novel you really feel the characters burden-- duty as heavy as a mountain, death as light as a feather.

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on February 12, 2012, 06:53:32 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 12, 2012, 06:36:43 AM
I read The Paradox of Choice, reread Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and I'm now rereading the Shadow Rising. :)

[asin]B000TDGGVU[/asin]
Paradox of Choice is well researched and is compelling.  I also found it's very simple advise helpful on making choices, and I find myself spending less time making choices, feeling better about them and using things like netflix more often now that I'm not as overwhelmed by the choices.


It looks very interesting, David. Particularly in "cultural" affairs the overabundance of choices can be paralyzing these days.  :(

P.S.: Damn! Amazon offers a Kindle edition; i.e., I can get a copy in one minute...  :-\ I need to recall why less is more.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 12, 2012, 07:16:17 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on February 12, 2012, 06:53:32 AM
It looks very interesting, David. Particularly in "cultural" affairs the overabundance of choices can be paralyzing these days.  :(

P.S.: Damn! Amazon offers a Kindle edition; i.e., I can get a copy in one minute...  :-\ I need to recall why less is more.  :)

Only problem with it is that it's redundant and a pretty short read... but I don't regret the purchase. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 12, 2012, 07:17:25 AM
Here is a taste, the same taste that got me to read the book-- his TED talk (also on youtube):

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html (http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nesf on February 12, 2012, 08:13:43 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 12, 2012, 06:36:43 AM
I read The Paradox of Choice, reread Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and I'm now rereading the Shadow Rising. :)

[asin]B000TDGGVU[/asin]
Paradox of Choice is well researched and is compelling.  I also found it's very simple advise helpful on making choices, and I find myself spending less time making choices, feeling better about them and using things like netflix more often now that I'm not as overwhelmed by the choices.

I've been eyeing that for ages.


Currently reading after getting bored of case study after case study in Musicophilia:

[asin]B005FQ1GSO[/asin]

Fascinating. Very nerdy obviously but great fun if you find etymology interesting. Bread is a loanword? Etc.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513XsauqgCL._SL500_AA300_PIaudible,BottomRight,13,73_AA300_.jpg)

Interesting. I don't know enough about acoustics to say whether he's always correct or not but his physics is right anyway. Listening as an audiobook and he makes good use of the format to show examples of phenomena such as how we have insane difficulty identifying an instrument if we cut off the first part of the note being played and similar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on February 14, 2012, 05:10:20 AM
Is there a good book (ideally audiobook, but wishful thinking maybe) on black Americans between the end of the civil war and the mid-20th century civil rights movements?

Edit: specifically this, because the other parts before and after seem much better covered.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 14, 2012, 05:24:04 AM
Landed yesterday:

[asin]0312031874[/asin]

Certainly it's good if you're an Avengers fan . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on February 14, 2012, 09:10:05 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51urRHaC8BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

A book that will polarise readers into lovers and haters. I'm in the lovers camp. I was hooked into Niffenegger's world - a strange amalgam of the ordinary with the astounding - within the first few pages. Partly this is because of her ability to capture the reader's sympathy in simple, unpretentious ways, but partly it's because very quickly one recognises the vulnerability of all the characters, and feels for them. Even, please note, though one of them is a ghost. The existence of a ghost in this novel, without any of the usual trappings of the ghost story, but as something that just happens, is one of the most beguiling of her achievements.

It's a tale about polarities and contrasts; about loss, and the necessity of accepting it, and the catastrophic consequences of trying to evade it. I felt that it broke my heart at the end. Not that all the characters end badly. But there was something inevitable about aspects of this. I'm still thinking about it. Still wondering if I should read it again from the beginning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 14, 2012, 09:31:09 AM
Sounds great Elgarian, I'll put it on my to read list! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on February 14, 2012, 11:29:26 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 14, 2012, 09:31:09 AM
Sounds great Elgarian, I'll put it on my to read list! :)

Thing is Dave, ... even though I was (and still am) captivated by its characters and quite obsessed by the feel of its strangeness, it's not a novel I could safely recommend across the board. I'd put it, in some ways, in a similar category to Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, in the sense that it deals with an invasion of the mysterious, magical and spooky into the everyday world. Charles Williams's novels have the same sort of quality. All these books are very different, and yet there is this thread linking them which means they'll be dismissed as nonsense by as many people as are inspired by them.

You might like to hear the author herself talking about it? See here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVK-e4eBNLs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVK-e4eBNLs)

And it might also be helpful to consider The Night Circus:
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg577486.html#msg577486 (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg577486.html#msg577486)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 14, 2012, 11:30:42 AM
My curiosity is well and truly piqued, though, I'll tell you that, Alan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on February 14, 2012, 11:49:29 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on February 14, 2012, 11:30:42 AM
My curiosity is well and truly piqued, though, I'll tell you that, Alan.

Then I think there's a good chance it's for you, Karl. One thing that I found extraordinary (quite apart from the intrigue of the plot) was the directness of her writing - her ability to convey quite subtle impressions in very few, simple words. So for instance, of the two twin 21-year-old girls in the novel, we're told:

'Valentina didn't feel well that morning, so Julia went to the Tesco Express to buy chicken soup, Ritz crackers and Coke, which the twins considered to be the proper cuisine for invalids.'

That conveyed so much intimate knowledge* about the twins all in one small dollop, that I laughed, immediately felt more affection for them, and found myself going back to read the sentence again several times even after having moved a few pages on.

* I mean knowledge in the connaitre, not the savoir sense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on February 15, 2012, 06:14:11 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 12, 2012, 07:17:25 AM
Here is a taste, the same taste that got me to read the book-- his TED talk (also on youtube):

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html (http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html)

BTW, thank you very much for this link, David. TED is a wonderful site. Now I have "attended" several talks there and all of them have been excellent.  :) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 15, 2012, 06:48:09 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on February 15, 2012, 06:14:11 AM
BTW, thank you very much for this link, David. TED is a wonderful site. Now I have "attended" several talks there and all of them have been excellent.  :)

Yes those talks are great!  I have an app on my roku box just for ted talks. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 19, 2012, 10:40:38 AM
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/102590000/102599177.jpg)

I had laid down the first Martin Beck novel and over the past few days plunged back into it and just finished.  Highly recommended if you enjoy grind out detective novels with a no-nonsense gum shoe. 

I am going to give this one a try next:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51moA-Y%2Bp8L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Here is a blip from Amazon:
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

My wife Linda in the meantime has been caught up with these two authors:

(http://www.cozy-mystery.com/images/lesliemeierwicked.jpg)  (http://www.cozy-mystery.com/Holiday-Mystery-Books/gingerbreadcookiemurder.jpg)


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518LbHTOO9L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YExX5taRL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

She has enjoyed both of these authors and will probably read all they wrote over the next couple of years.

In short, we both love murder mysteries and these have taken over much of our reading time. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 19, 2012, 10:45:43 AM
Anyone read this author.  Here is his upcoming book:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aSGo0pHAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

December, 1942. Texas Ranger Virgil Tucker receives a plea for protection from Madeline Kimbell, a terrified young woman who witnessed a crime. Keeping Madeline safe from the men who want to hurt her turns out to be harder than he imagined. When a prominent attorney is murdered, Virgil is drawn into the dangerous world of the New Orleans Mafia as the top mob bosses try to take over  alveston's gambling empire. Chockfull of Southern charm, this book is perfect for fans of historical
mysteries and for anyone who loves Texas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on February 20, 2012, 12:04:39 PM
Ali Smith - The Accidental
Redonnet - Forever Valley

So twee "^____^" but not liking either.

(Although Redonnet is a good writer, Smith I have no clue about, I found the book quite hateable.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on February 21, 2012, 07:57:49 AM
I posted a few days ago about Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. Here's another of her books:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AcQH61uzL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

I first encountered this in 2008, when it was serialised, one page per week, in The Guardian. Within a few weeks it began to haunt me. Despite being someone for whom books have been of supreme importance all my life, I was surprised at its impact. I didn't think 'graphic novels' would be my thing at all. I didn't realise, then, that Audrey Niffenegger had long and deep experience of printmaking as a graphic artist, though I soon became aware that this wasn't just 'some sort of comic'.

Like all Niffenegger's books, it concerns the consequences of normal reality being subverted by the strange and mysterious. It explores, visually and in words, the significance of books in the life of Alexandra, a rather vulnerable lover of books. She stumbles one night across a mysterious travelling library that contains all the books she's ever read, and the rest of the graphic novel explores how events unfold from there. I still remember the shock - the sudden clutch at the heart - 'oh no, no, no, not that' - that comes a few pages before the end.

It was subsequently published as a hardback book, and I have one of these (signed by Niffenegger on the title page). I've re-read it maybe half a dozen times. Each time I see more in the visual artwork; each time the story acquires extra depth. When I read it last night, it left me so choked up with emotion that it took me some time to recover afterwards. So I thought it was time I posted it here.

The original version, published in The Guardian, can still be read on their website, though the separate pages are presented inconveniently backwards. See here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/nightbookmobile?page=3 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/nightbookmobile?page=3)

You need to start with no 31 and work backwards (page 1 being the end!) Click on each thumbnail to see the whole page, and then click again to enlarge it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on February 24, 2012, 04:42:28 AM
.[asin]0547577443[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on February 26, 2012, 05:06:35 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Private_Memoirs_and_Confessions_of_a_Justified_Sinner
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Antoine Marchand on February 26, 2012, 06:38:53 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on February 14, 2012, 09:10:05 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51urRHaC8BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

A book that will polarise readers into lovers and haters. I'm in the lovers camp. I was hooked into Niffenegger's world - a strange amalgam of the ordinary with the astounding - within the first few pages. Partly this is because of her ability to capture the reader's sympathy in simple, unpretentious ways, but partly it's because very quickly one recognises the vulnerability of all the characters, and feels for them. Even, please note, though one of them is a ghost. The existence of a ghost in this novel, without any of the usual trappings of the ghost story, but as something that just happens, is one of the most beguiling of her achievements.

It's a tale about polarities and contrasts; about loss, and the necessity of accepting it, and the catastrophic consequences of trying to evade it. I felt that it broke my heart at the end. Not that all the characters end badly. But there was something inevitable about aspects of this. I'm still thinking about it. Still wondering if I should read it again from the beginning.
Sold!  :) I read some pages on Amazon (it's available as a Kindle edition) and I immediately was hooked by her style. I don't know if this will be finally true, but Niffenegger's style recalled me to Ethan Canin, a writter who I love from the Emperor of the Air (short stories) and For Kings and Planets (novel).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 26, 2012, 06:55:30 AM
Read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:

[asin]B003K16PXC[/asin]

Read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Haven't seen the movie, but the book does a very good job of interweaving the Dresden firebombing, Hiroshima and 9/11. At it's finest it echoes the poignant, resigned introspection and dark humor of Slaughterhouse Five, at it's worst it's sentimental schlock. The experimental visual style of interspersing the main narrative with the grandfather's diary and pictures works very well at elevating the novel, but wouldn't translate at all for film. Also it seems like both the child and the grandfather suffer from Asperger's to such a degree that the sheer insanity of their thoughts are sometimes hard to read. The chronology jumps around in precise imitation of Slaughterhouse Five (but the characters are not unhinged in time). Anyway thumbs up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 26, 2012, 08:35:29 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 26, 2012, 06:55:30 AM
Read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:

[asin]B003K16PXC[/asin]

Read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Haven't seen the movie, but the book does a very good job of interweaving the Dresden firebombing, Hiroshima and 9/11. At it's finest it echoes the poignant, resigned introspection and dark humor of Slaughterhouse Five, at it's worst it's sentimental schlock. The experimental visual style of interspersing the main narrative with the grandfather's diary and pictures works very well at elevating the novel, but wouldn't translate at all for film. Also it seems like both the child and the grandfather suffer from Asperger's to such a degree that the sheer insanity of their thoughts are sometimes hard to read. The chronology jumps around in precise imitation of Slaughterhouse Five (but the characters are not unhinged in time). Anyway thumbs up.

What drew you to this book, David?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 26, 2012, 09:50:00 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 26, 2012, 08:35:29 AM
What drew you to this book, David?

I saw the trailer for the movie.  I didn't feel like watching the movie, but liked the idea for the story... which meant that reading the original novel was what I wanted to do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 26, 2012, 10:34:50 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 26, 2012, 09:50:00 AM
I saw the trailer for the movie.  I didn't feel like watching the movie, but liked the idea for the story... which meant that reading the original novel was what I wanted to do.


Cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on February 26, 2012, 10:49:16 AM
Got to get "Creating capabilities" by Martha Nussbaum. Her book is published in Dutch in March. I think this is an important publication.

Going to read much (all?) of Foucault's work. The history of sexuality, Power and The Courage to Truth.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on February 26, 2012, 11:19:06 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on February 26, 2012, 06:38:53 AM
Sold!  :) I read some pages on Amazon (it's available as a Kindle edition) and I immediately was hooked by her style. I don't know if this will be finally true, but Niffenegger's style recalled me to Ethan Canin, a writter who I love from the Emperor of the Air (short stories) and For Kings and Planets (novel).

Don't know Ethan Canin, Antoine - thanks for the observation. I'm currently re-reading Her Fearful Symmetry, very slowly, from the beginning, and finding it very rewarding. I'm picking up much that I missed the first time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on February 29, 2012, 05:45:01 PM
Currently I'm reading:

Charles Taylor and Liberia by Waugh
Fixing the Facts by Rovner
Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy by Pillar
Marx and Whitehead by Pomeroy
The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere by Habermas
Archaeologies of the Future by Jameson
Organizational Sociology edited by W. Richard Scott
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 02, 2012, 11:11:59 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51urRHaC8BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

I'm now re-reading Her Fearful Symmetry, very slowly, savouring every sentence and discovering so many nuances I missed first time round. I often re-read favourite books (sometimes many times), but I don't think I've ever done this before - i.e. reach the end, and start again at the beginning almost immediately. It's full of faults - one can pick holes in it for all sorts of reasons; but they count for nothing in the end because I simply adore this book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 02, 2012, 11:17:29 AM
Thanks for the reminder, Alan . . . I've now ordered a copy of the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 03, 2012, 10:34:03 AM
(https://www.printersrowbooks.com/images/t/33-7301-PrimaryImage.image.ashx)

A biography on Christopher Columbus.  Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus.  Though there are many bios out there I chose this one from the early 40's because of this:

Admiral of the Ocean Sea is Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison's classic biography of the greatest sailor of them all, Christopher Columbus. It is written with the insight, energy, and authority that only someone who had himself sailed in Columbus' path to the New World could muster. Morison undertook this expedition in a 147-foot schooner and a 47-foot ketch, the dimensions of these craft roughly matching those of Columbus' Santa Maria and Niña. The result is this vivid and definitive biography that accurately details the voyages that, for better or worse, changed the world.

and

This recreation lends credibility to his writing. But more than that, it makes much of the book, particularly those parts at sea, seem as if the reader is experiencing the voyages through the person of Columbus. Not only the particulars of what he saw, but the smells of land breezes, the feel of the trade winds, the motion of the boat.

Our 1942 copy belonged to my father-in-law, so there is also that neat feeling of reading the same exact book as he did.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on March 03, 2012, 10:53:14 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 03, 2012, 10:34:03 AM
[T]he greatest sailor of them all, Christopher Columbus.

!

Seriously?

;D ;)

Quote
Our 1942 copy...

Interesting juxtaposition of the digits. :)


Thread duty: The Strangest Man, by Graham Farmello. A highly researched biography of the theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate, Paul Dirac. For someone whose personal life (early life, anyway, as far as I've read) was not much to write home about*, Farmello has managed to write in a manner that makes me want to read further.


*In fact, as a researcher at Cambridge, the unusually quiet Paul didn't write much to his anxious parents back in Bristol, while he, along with a few other colleagues in Europe, was changing the way people thought about science.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 03, 2012, 11:50:04 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on March 03, 2012, 10:53:14 AM
!

Seriously?

;D ;)



I almost got rid of that part from the quote....  8)

Quote from: Opus106 on March 03, 2012, 10:53:14 AM

Interesting juxtaposition of the digits. :)



:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 05, 2012, 04:50:53 AM
 Quote from: Elgarian on March 02, 2012, 04:11:59 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg606594#msg606594) >(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51urRHaC8BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

I'm now re-reading Her Fearful Symmetry, very slowly, savouring every sentence and discovering so many nuances I missed first time round. I often re-read favourite books (sometimes many times), but I don't think I've ever done this before - i.e. reach the end, and start again at the beginning almost immediately. It's full of faults - one can pick holes in it for all sorts of reasons; but they count for nothing in the end because I simply adore this book.
    Quote from: karlhenning on March 02, 2012, 04:17:29 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg606598#msg606598) >Thanks for the reminder, Alan . . . I've now ordered a copy of the book.
 
Curiously, the Amazon third-party seller just cancelled my order. But I've now ordered another copy of the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 05, 2012, 04:59:30 AM
.[asin]0553807714[/asin]
I don't dislike it so far but many Amazon reviewers did...apparently.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 05, 2012, 08:18:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 05, 2012, 04:50:53 AM
Curiously, the Amazon third-party seller just cancelled my order. But I've now ordered another copy of the book.

Obviously one of those phantom third party sellers. Quite appropriate for this particular book though.

I've finished my re-reading, and am even more profoundly affected than before. Also a second reading clarifies some things that seemed obscure first time around. I find myself very reluctant to leave this strange world of twins (two sets) and cemeteries and ghosts and The Little Kitten of Death, and these flawed and vulnerable people.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 08, 2012, 04:14:43 PM
After finishing Wolff's biography of Bach after an embarrassingly long period of time (damn that TV in front of the only reading spot in this house...) I've started on The Best Short Stories of William Kittredge and a biography of Leonardo da Vinci by Charles Nicholl.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on March 08, 2012, 11:20:45 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on March 08, 2012, 04:14:43 PM
After finishing Wolff's biography of Bach after an embarrassingly long period of time

And how was the book? I have it unread for an embarassingly long period of time. :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 09, 2012, 04:32:15 AM
The Vintage Guide to Classical Music (http://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Guide-Classical-Music/dp/0679728058/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1) by Jan Swafford is an old, much-loved friend. So now I am happy to say I am finally reading his Brahms bio which is off to a splendid start.

Hell, the day may come when I read his Ives bio, a composer I have little interest in; he's that good.

[asin]0679745823[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 09, 2012, 05:52:46 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on March 08, 2012, 11:20:45 PM
And how was the book? I have it unread for an embarassingly long period of time. :-[

It is excellent.  There are a few parts here and there that will bore the non-scholar, but I can't fault him for including them, and he really digs into the details where possible to give you an interesting picture of a life that looks rather 'normal' for a musical genius of Bach's level from the perspective of an outsider.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 09, 2012, 05:56:18 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 09, 2012, 04:32:15 AM
The Vintage Guide to Classical Music (http://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Guide-Classical-Music/dp/0679728058/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1) by Jan Swafford is an old, much-loved friend. So now I am happy to say I am finally reading his Brahms bio which is off to a splendid start.

Hell, the day may come when I read his Ives bio, a composer I have little interest in; he's that good.

I'm very glad to see someone reading this!  Yes, Swafford is a fine writer and this biography is excellent.  Brahms lived a fascinating life and he's a much more complex character than he is commonly made out to be.  You will enjoy this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 09, 2012, 05:57:41 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on March 09, 2012, 05:56:18 AM
I'm very glad to see someone reading this!  Yes, Swafford is a fine writer and this biography is excellent.  Brahms lived a fascinating life and he's a much more complex character than he is commonly made out to be.  You will enjoy this.

Thank you.

Have you read the Ives?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on March 09, 2012, 06:13:31 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on March 09, 2012, 05:52:46 AM
[Wolff] really digs into the details where possible to give you an interesting picture of a life that looks rather 'normal' for a musical genius of Bach's level from the perspective of an outsider.

Thanks. That's generally what I read in reviews also, and what I can glean from the obligatory interviews the he often gives in Bach-related documentaries. Despite the seemingly, as you said, 'normal' life a historical figure of his stature led, in a way I find it satisfying to not know much about Bach's life, or at least not have a thick layer of romanticised story-telling laid upon history as is the case with the lives of most composers who came after him. The music speaks clearly to me, and how wonderfully!

I should consider picking the book up once more regardless of my shortcomings with regard to understanding the technicalities of the music (although I would very much like to learn that as well, some day). If I remember correctly, I stopped somewhere in the preface where he starts dissecting Bach's obit. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 09, 2012, 06:15:46 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on March 09, 2012, 06:13:31 AM
Thanks. That's generally what I read in reviews also, and what I can glean from the obligatory interviews the he often gives in Bach-related documentaries. Despite the seemingly, as you said, 'normal' life a historical figure of his stature led, in a way I find it satisfying to not know much about Bach's life, or at least not have a thick layer of romanticised story-telling laid upon history as is the case with the lives of most composers who came after him. The music speaks clearly to me, and how wonderfully!

I should consider picking the book up once more regardless of my shortcomings with regard to understanding the technicalities of the music (although I would very much like to learn that as well, some day). If I remember correctly, I stopped somewhere in the preface where he starts dissecting Bach's obit. ;D

Thanks for the discussion, lads. Checking this book out on Amazon has me asking this question (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,16363.msg608918.html#msg608918).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 10, 2012, 02:30:46 AM
I'm not just a lover of books in terms of their content. I'm also a lover of books as physical objects - most particularly if the book-making and design has been part of an artistic creative process in itself.

Audrey Niffenegger was, long before she became a best-selling novelist, an original printmaker and maker of books; so when I learned that in addition to the usual commercial mass-publication, she'd designed two special editions of Her Fearful Symmetry herself (one for the USA and another one for elsewhere), I couldn't rest until I was able to see/hold/buy/own one. I now have a copy of the UK special edition. Presented in a slip case dominated by Niffenegger's drawing of 'The Little Kitten of Death', set against a background of faded typescript from the pages of the novel, it's such an intriguing object that it gives me goosebumps. The endpapers are funeral black (appropriate for a book whose chief location is Highgate cemetery), and the page edges are bright red. The lettering on the spine records initials only of the book title and author (HFS/AN), in a most attractive way. Some photos:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/P1000535-1.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/P1000536.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/P1000537.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 10, 2012, 03:07:53 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 09, 2012, 05:57:41 AM
Thank you.

Have you read the Ives?

No, I haven't.  I'll probably get to it eventually, but Brahms was on the priority list because he's one of my favorite composers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 10, 2012, 03:44:05 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on March 10, 2012, 03:07:53 AM
No, I haven't.  I'll probably get to it eventually, but Brahms was on the priority list because he's one of my favorite composers.

It's good that Brahms' father was a musician and wanted his son to work in music and that young Brahms knew precisely what he wanted to do (compose)! And that he had such understanding teachers. How often does that happen?

Oh, I suppose sending him off to play piano in a whorehouse wasn't the best idea.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 10, 2012, 07:03:17 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on March 09, 2012, 06:13:31 AM
Thanks. That's generally what I read in reviews also, and what I can glean from the obligatory interviews the he often gives in Bach-related documentaries. Despite the seemingly, as you said, 'normal' life a historical figure of his stature led, in a way I find it satisfying to not know much about Bach's life, or at least not have a thick layer of romanticised story-telling laid upon history as is the case with the lives of most composers who came after him. The music speaks clearly to me, and how wonderfully!

I should consider picking the book up once more regardless of my shortcomings with regard to understanding the technicalities of the music (although I would very much like to learn that as well, some day). If I remember correctly, I stopped somewhere in the preface where he starts dissecting Bach's obit. ;D

I found that I developed a greater appreciation of Bach's music as a result of this book precisely because he wasn't romanticized.  The man's life is a wonderful demonstration of what can happen of what can happen when a very bright individual works his (or her) ass off to hone his craft, in spite of personality flaws that may get in the way.  I suffer from being unable to read music and a lack of knowledge of music theory and I still enjoyed the book with the exception of the detailed genealogy sections.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on March 10, 2012, 07:22:16 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on March 10, 2012, 07:03:17 AM
I found that I developed a greater appreciation of Bach's music as a result of this book precisely because he wasn't romanticized.  The man's life is a wonderful demonstration of what can happen of what can happen when a very bright individual works his (or her) ass off to hone his craft, in spite of personality flaws that may get in the way.  I suffer from being unable to read music and a lack of knowledge of music theory and I still enjoyed the book with the exception of the detailed genealogy sections.

That's good to know... well, apart from the "suffering" part :).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 11, 2012, 10:13:58 AM
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309209925l/40129.jpg)(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316130817l/792165.jpg)

Along with these two I've started on this and the accompanying workbook, partly in an attempt to rid myself of my math phobia prior to re-entering college and partly because the concept of calculus fascinates me.

(http://ak1.ostkcdn.com/images/products/muze/books/0764524984.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on March 12, 2012, 10:53:12 AM
Reading Wodehouse's novel The Code of the Woosters. Best exchange so far:

At Jeeves suggestion, Wooster, in despondent mood over a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't situation, adjusts the length of his trousers by a quarter inch to effect the perfect break. He then says:

"There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself "Do trousers matter?"

"The mood will pass, sir."

;D :D ;D


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 12, 2012, 11:04:46 AM
I love that one! Possibly the first Wodehouse book I read myself!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on March 12, 2012, 02:50:10 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on February 29, 2012, 05:45:01 PM
Charles Taylor and Liberia by Waugh
Fixing the Facts by Rovner
Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy by Pillar
Marx and Whitehead by Pomeroy
The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere by Habermas
Archaeologies of the Future by Jameson
Organizational Sociology edited by W. Richard Scott

Charles Taylor and Liberia by Waugh: This book is really the first of its kind, and I cut it some slack because of that. It's supposed to be historical, but it lacks a methodology. It's really more of a journalistic affair, but it does cover quite a bit of material in regards to Taylor that had not been really been mentioned previously. It also exposed Sirleaf's dealings with Taylor in the early 1990s, which actually pretty important. Other than that it's just a common flair, but if you're interested in modern Liberia, I would definitely suggest this book.

Fixing the Facts by Rovner. This book is utterly fantastic. It covers the entire history of intelligence politicization. It's goes in depth, and offers a sound empirical theoretical foundation. It's fairly unique because this literature is really just beginning, and this will be a really hard act to follow. The other main text is the one by Pillar that I'll talk about in a second. This is definitely on the top of the list if that is your topic of interest.

Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy by Pillar. This one isn't as good as the first, because oddly enough it lacks rigor, and if you know Pillar this is pretty surprising. He really only focuses on one type of politicization which shows that he really didn't give the topic much thought. It's really a book more about reform, so the title is a bit of a lie. More than half the book deals with what he thinks should be done to correct the intelligence process. While it isn't a bad book, it's not one I'd suggest unless you're really into intelligence reform.

The books by Pomeroy, Habermas, and Jameson were simply too boring for me to struggle through. Pomeroy is the one that I got through the most pages, but it didn't really offer me anything that I thought would be interesting. Habermas led me to a book that I'm going to start reading (Toqueville). Jameson was just plodding, but if you're a late-Marxist who dislikes post-modernism but enjoys literary theory, you just might enjoy this book.

Currently reading:
Organizational Sociology edited by Scott
Tocqueville's Road Map by Boesche
The Poet and the President by Coyle
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on March 12, 2012, 08:46:53 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 12, 2012, 11:04:46 AM
Possibly the first Wodehouse book I read myself!

Ditto.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 13, 2012, 02:42:27 AM
Stendhal - The Red and The Black

This is one of those books that literally make you happy when reading it.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 13, 2012, 08:17:30 AM
Inspired by my recent decision to start following geology blogs again I have restarted my read-through of the second edition of this:

[asin]1577665201[/asin]

If my reading habits continue trending in this direction, I may even find myself restarting my reading of Rudwick's Worlds Before Adam (http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Before-Adam-Reconstruction-Geohistory/dp/0226731294/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1331655234&sr=8-2) soon, the second volume in an excellent two volume set on the history of geology.  I made it about a third of the way through before I sought a (long) intermission, but I need to clear my plate of some other reading material before resuming it, I suspect.

Unfortunately, music is taking a back seat to all of the reading, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on March 14, 2012, 02:33:19 AM
STEPHEN W. HAWKING:      The Grand Design  (2010)

A very interesting book, in defense of the possibility of the M Theory. It is even more interesting when we compare it to the recent book  (2010) of Marcelo Gleiser, "Imperfect Creation", defending the opposite perspective.
Sometimes, reading this works I ask myself if Physics, in some moments, are not becoming Metaphysics in the minds of certain scientists.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on March 14, 2012, 02:42:39 AM
Quote from: val on March 14, 2012, 02:33:19 AM
I ask myself if Physics, in some moments, are not becoming Metaphysics in the minds of certain scientists.

It has to, if you want to mass-publish your book. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 14, 2012, 01:35:14 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hGvZlKhXL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

Having been knocked for six by Audrey Niffenegger in recent months, at last I turned to the runaway bestseller that made her famous: The Time Traveller's Wife. It's beautifully written (inevitably, because it's A.N.), but by that I mean that the language is wonderfully economical and effective, and doesn't draw attention to itself. The story is imaginative and gripping. The character of Henry (the involuntary time-traveller) remains a bit sketchy to this reader; the character of Clare (his wife) much more attractive and rounded and - one might say - noble. I found myself close to tears on several occasions - there are some very poignant moments in this novel. When I laid the book down I felt well-satisfied by a well-crafted and emotionally fulfilling ending (inevitably not a happy one, conventionally, at least).

So how does it compare with Her Fearful Symmetry, which is one of the most profoundly affecting novels I've ever read? Well, I'd hardly suppose (except from the wide-ranging operation of imagination that's apparent in both) they were by the same author. Time Traveller's Wife is deservedly the hit novel that it is. People love it. But I don't find myself tempted to re-read it immediately, contemplating each sentence carefully to extract all its meaning, and continually finding new depths, new richnesses of nuance - as I did with Her Fearful Symmetry. It's a chalk and cheese issue. Time Traveller's Wife thrilled, entertained, and engaged me for days and left me sad to finish it but well-pleased with the experience. But Her Fearful Symmetry changed me (and is still changing me), permanently, I think, in ways that I still can't quite grasp but which feel important.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lethevich on March 14, 2012, 03:14:12 PM
I was lucky enough to be somewhere earlier today where I could stumble across and read a monthly periodical edited by Trollope (St Paul's magazine). It featured all kinds of content on tons of subjects giving useful insights into how Londoners thought back then, including interesting topics such as how anybody in their right mind when shown the evidence will come to understand that Jupiter is certainly inhabited by "persons" who look radically different from humans (intriguing that the less creative modern man, with his X Files and so on, still feels that aliens must look fairly humanoid). But the journal doesn't seem available in any way for purchase. There is one volume on Amazon, but it's £100 -_- Worst feeling :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ggluek on March 14, 2012, 04:35:49 PM
Recently read "Xylophone Fragments" by Mark Woodward.

Weird, but entertaining, and full of musical references.

george
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on March 14, 2012, 09:12:34 PM
Quote(intriguing that the less creative modern man, with his X Files and so on, still feels that aliens must look fairly humanoid).

Carl Sagan actually put forward the hypothesis that there could beings, something like huge jelly fish, floating in the uppermost layers of Jupiter's atmosphere with its fast winds.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 15, 2012, 09:24:01 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on March 14, 2012, 01:35:14 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hGvZlKhXL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

Having been knocked for six by Audrey Niffenegger in recent months, at last I turned to the runaway bestseller that made her famous: The Time Traveller's Wife. It's beautifully written (inevitably, because it's A.N.), but by that I mean that the language is wonderfully economical and effective, and doesn't draw attention to itself. The story is imaginative and gripping. The character of Henry (the involuntary time-traveller) remains a bit sketchy to this reader; the character of Clare (his wife) much more attractive and rounded and - one might say - noble. I found myself close to tears on several occasions - there are some very poignant moments in this novel. When I laid the book down I felt well-satisfied by a well-crafted and emotionally fulfilling ending (inevitably not a happy one, conventionally, at least).

So how does it compare with Her Fearful Symmetry, which is one of the most profoundly affecting novels I've ever read? Well, I'd hardly suppose (except from the wide-ranging operation of imagination that's apparent in both) they were by the same author. Time Traveller's Wife is deservedly the hit novel that it is. People love it. But I don't find myself tempted to re-read it immediately, contemplating each sentence carefully to extract all its meaning, and continually finding new depths, new richnesses of nuance - as I did with Her Fearful Symmetry. It's a chalk and cheese issue. Time Traveller's Wife thrilled, entertained, and engaged me for days and left me sad to finish it but well-pleased with the experience. But Her Fearful Symmetry changed me (and is still changing me), permanently, I think, in ways that I still can't quite grasp but which feel important.

Alan, my adventures with Her Fearful Symmetry are mutating into a short story.

I mentioned that the first attempt to order became a seller's cancellation.

My second order arrived, only it was the paper edition (I had ordered hard cover — as Walter Sobchak would say, Am I wrong?)  It was rattier than I want (the book I ordered was listed as Used — like new).  And the amount of the order was utterly different (though, admittedly, even cheaper . . . this ratty paperback copy was priced at one red cent).

So, I've packed this copy back up with a shipping label provided by the seller, who are now sending me the book which I actually ordered.

I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 15, 2012, 09:31:54 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 15, 2012, 09:24:01 AM
Alan, my adventures with Her Fearful Symmetry are mutating into a short story.

I mentioned that the first attempt to order became a seller's cancellation.

My second order arrived, only it was the paper edition (I had ordered hard cover — as Walter Sobchak would say, Am I wrong?)  It was rattier than I want (the book I ordered was listed as Used — like new).  And the amount of the order was utterly different (though, admittedly, even cheaper . . . this ratty paperback copy was priced at one red cent).

So, I've packed this copy back up with a shipping label provided by the seller, who are now sending me the book which I actually ordered.

I think.

This is more bad luck than a single Amazon buyer should have to put up with!

All I can say is ... I  consider the book is worth all this hassle. (I just hope you agree!!!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 15, 2012, 01:27:17 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on March 13, 2012, 08:17:30 AM
Inspired by my recent decision to start following geology blogs again I have restarted my read-through of the second edition of this:

[asin]1577665201[/asin]


I ended up ditching that to start on this one, as sedimentology is where my heart lies:

[asin]0521897165[/asin]

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on March 15, 2012, 03:07:24 PM
I've just looked at the beginning of Shostakovich: a life remembered  (now with added water damage - thanks, Amazon UK!).
Sadly, Elizabeth Wilson is not a good writer, expressingly herself clumsily and cramming in various cliched expressions. The typos don't help, e.g. she advises that she will use the conventional English spelling for such names as "Rachmanninov". Also, on page 2 of the book proper (that's as far as I've gone so far), she says that Rimsky was dismissed from the St Petersburg conservatory "for his condemnation of the 1905 Uprising", when I'm pretty sure that the issue was his SUPPORT for the rebels (I have somewhere on CD his orchestration of Dubinushka (http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2479), a popular song associated with the rebellion).
I really hope the book improves as I go along.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 15, 2012, 03:35:53 PM
Well, the value of the book is the oral history. I hadn't worried about infelicities in Wilson's English.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 19, 2012, 04:29:10 AM
Well, it did, though: you had to mend.

Did you see? I've joined the e-reader madness (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,16363.msg612031.html#msg612031) . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 19, 2012, 04:33:17 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 19, 2012, 04:29:10 AM
Well, it did, though: you had to mend.

Did you see? I've joined the e-reader madness (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,16363.msg612031.html#msg612031) . . . .

A Nook, eh? How do you like it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 19, 2012, 04:35:23 AM
Very well!  Why, I was reading some Shakespeare just this morning on the train.

It was my brother down south who put me onto comparing this with the Kindle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 19, 2012, 04:36:24 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 19, 2012, 04:35:23 AM
Very well!  Why, I was reading some Shakespeare just this morning on the train.

It was my brother down south who put me onto comparing this with the Kindle.

Yeah, all the Shakespeare is free.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 19, 2012, 04:52:54 AM
Well, I sprang $1.99 for it, which I do not begrudge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 19, 2012, 04:55:27 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 19, 2012, 04:52:54 AM
Well, I sprang $1.99 for it, which I do not begrudge.

Right after you downloaded all the Robert E. Howard I'm sure.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 19, 2012, 05:10:35 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 19, 2012, 04:55:27 AM
Right after you downloaded all the Robert E. Howard I'm sure.  ;D

Knew I was forgetting something! But, bien sûr, mon ami — the Swan of Avon must come first.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 19, 2012, 05:18:37 AM
The novelty of my reader has worn off. I haven't touched it in a while. Of course I've been immersed in music and haven't been reading as much as I should.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 19, 2012, 05:20:21 AM
Nothing wrong with immersion in music, certamente!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 19, 2012, 05:24:03 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 19, 2012, 05:20:21 AM
Nothing wrong with immersion in music, certamente!

Yes, unless you take its consumption to stupid levels...like I have been.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 19, 2012, 09:03:21 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 19, 2012, 05:18:37 AM
The novelty of my reader has worn off. I haven't touched it in a while. Of course I've been immersed in music and haven't been reading as much as I should.

I can understand the glow easing; still, I see this as a long-term thungumbob
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 19, 2012, 10:17:16 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 19, 2012, 09:03:21 AM
I can understand the glow easing; still, I see this as a long-term thungumbob

I'm reading about the Caesars on my phone.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 19, 2012, 10:18:56 AM
I could download a Nook app on my Droid, only I feel silly, just having typed that ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 19, 2012, 07:29:24 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 19, 2012, 04:55:27 AM
Right after you downloaded all the Robert E. Howard I'm sure.  ;D

That was my first Kindle downloadmany moons ago....the boxing stories were worth it alone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 01:51:37 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 19, 2012, 07:29:24 PM
That was my first Kindle downloadmany moons ago....the boxing stories were worth it alone.

You know, I had no idea he wrote boxing stories until we watched The Wide World.

(I almost typed bunny stories. I need tea . . . .)

Thread duty: 231.2, steady on.  Warm spell in Boston, so I should go for a good walk to-night.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 03:49:10 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 19, 2012, 07:29:24 PM
That was my first Kindle downloadmany moons ago....the boxing stories were worth it alone.

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 04:30:12 AM
 8)
[asin]0671774557[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 04:38:03 AM
....and the westerns!  *pounds table...really hard*
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 04:38:46 AM
I need to read those...  :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 04:40:31 AM
Source for the best free epub files of Howard?

(Man, we are so utterly OT . . . .)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 04:42:22 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 04:40:31 AM
Source for the best free epub files of Howard?

(Man, we are so utterly OT . . . .)

Most of mine's on paper. Maybe read some reviews?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 04:44:23 AM
This (http://manybooks.net/authors/howardr.html) seems to be the best I've scared up yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 04:48:27 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 04:44:23 AM
This (http://manybooks.net/authors/howardr.html) seems to be the best I've scared up yet.

Well, it looks like a good start anyway. I know there are downloads with practically everything he wrote.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 04:53:38 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 20, 2012, 04:48:27 AM
. . . I know there are downloads with practically everything he wrote.

That's what I am counting on, as it must all be PD.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 04:55:17 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 04:53:38 AM
That's what I am counting on, as it must all be PD.

Yep. 'Tis.

Lovecraft too.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 04:56:03 AM
Aye, I have him in view, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 04:57:15 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 04:56:03 AM
Aye, I have him in view, too.

And Clark Ashton Smith and...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 05:19:40 AM
Well, and thank goodness B&N this Nook has a slot for a MicroSD card . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 06:52:44 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 04:40:31 AM
Source for the best free epub files of Howard?


Forget the free....2 bones, for the Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Robert-Howard-Omnibus-ebook/dp/B003O86R5M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332254955&sr=1-1

Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 04:40:31 AM
(Man, we are so utterly OT . . . .)

Depends.  I am working on my "bus" features. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 07:02:28 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 06:52:44 AM
Forget the free....2 bones, for the Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Robert-Howard-Omnibus-ebook/dp/B003O86R5M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332254955&sr=1-1

You're right, at that, Bill, and thanks! I saw that in poking around B&N this morning, so it's good to have a friend reader bespeak that edition. When I get my Nook home to Wi-Fi (or, maybe I'll hit a Wi-Fi hot-spot for lunch) I'll find that puppy sitting in My Library.

QuoteLength: 2032 pages (estimated)

Ah, if my ol' dad could see . . . 2000+ pages of Robt E Howard! At the flick of a touch-screen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 07:06:26 AM
M.R. James...E.A. Poe... Sheridan Le Fanu...

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 07:08:02 AM
Poe's already on!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 07:09:16 AM
Good man.

Arthur Conan Doyle as well?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 07:20:36 AM
I just got the dee-vice day afore yesterday, so I've not thought of everyone.

And for that reason, am grateful for your kind reminders!

Cor, there's another trigger pulled . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 07:58:50 AM
I believe it is missing a good chunk of the Conan canon....which used to be available in a nice omnibus, but seems to have vanished.  Probably something to do with the movie?  Either way, still worth the 2....bugs me that I did not snag the Conans....grrrrrr.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 08:02:58 AM
Here is one....not reviewed, so buyer beware. 

http://www.amazon.com/Conan-Anthology-Robert-Howards-ebook/dp/B004VTHBPS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1332259190&sr=1-1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 20, 2012, 09:35:47 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 13, 2012, 02:42:27 AM
Stendhal - The Red and The Black

This is one of those books that literally make you happy when reading it.  :)

The Charterhouse of Parma is in the same league. A joy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 10:22:24 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 20, 2012, 04:30:12 AM
8)
[asin]0671774557[/asin]

Would my 13 year-old dig this?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 10:25:28 AM
I do not know because I do not know your 13-year-old.  ;D

I certainly dig it and I don't usually like novelizations. Does that count?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 10:27:03 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on March 15, 2012, 09:31:54 AM
This is more bad luck than a single Amazon buyer should have to put up with!

All I can say is ... I  consider the book is worth all this hassle. (I just hope you agree!!!)

I am sure it will, Alan. I wonder if I should just get it on the Nook, instead, now!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 11:04:48 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 20, 2012, 10:25:28 AM
I do not know because I do not know your 13-year-old.  ;D

I certainly dig it and I don't usually like novelizations. Does that count?

That was what I was getting at....superhero novelizations....not usually very good.  Sounds as if this has a shot.  Is it overly graphic with its violence?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 11:08:08 AM
Quote from: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 11:04:48 AM
That was what I was getting at....superhero novelizations....not usually very good.  Sounds as if this has a shot.  Is it overly graphic with its violence?

I'm only 90 pages in or so but I think if he can read the DC comic, he can read this. However I accept no responsibility for the Joker's actions later in the book.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 11:09:11 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 20, 2012, 11:08:08 AM
I'm only 90 pages in or so but I think if he can read the DC comic, he can read this. However I accept no responsibility for the Joker's actions later in the book.  ;D

:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 11:11:07 AM
Joker
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 11:17:23 AM
I'm still reading the Brahms bio as well because that's how I roll...

And the violence in the Brahms bio is excruciating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 11:19:02 AM
Dude, you are wicked: I've downloaded the Nook app for my Droid . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 11:20:43 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 11:19:02 AM
Dude, you are wicked: I've downloaded the Nook app for my Droid . . . .

You'll be reading Dickens in the outhouse.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 11:20:59 AM
Now, if the Swafford Ives bio had been available for Nook . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 11:21:49 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 11:20:59 AM
Now, if the Swafford Ives bio had been available for Nook . . . .

Yeah, that one's on my radar even though I don't care much for Ives (yet?).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2012, 11:29:47 AM
Maybe it's a case of not yet; in all events, you'll find his bio a rattlin' good read, laddie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 20, 2012, 11:31:31 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 11:29:47 AM
Maybe it's a case of not yet; in all events, you'll find his bio a rattlin' good read, laddie.

Yep, Swafford hasn't let me down yet. His classical volume is well-thumbed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 20, 2012, 06:41:38 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IVwDyVwqL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

http://www.amazon.com/Nights-Red-Moon-Milton-Burton/dp/0312648006/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1332295150&sr=1-1-catcorr#_

Worth a look, Dave.  This author seems to take a Texas/noir angle....at least based on his book reviews I looked at.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on March 21, 2012, 04:27:34 AM
Thanks.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on March 21, 2012, 07:38:14 AM
Blackhorse Riders

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/jan11/blackhorseriders.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 21, 2012, 09:07:44 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on March 15, 2012, 09:31:54 AM
This is more bad luck than a single Amazon buyer should have to put up with!

All I can say is ... I  consider the book is worth all this hassle. (I just hope you agree!!!)

Quote from: karlhenning on March 20, 2012, 10:27:03 AM
I am sure it will, Alan. I wonder if I should just get it on the Nook, instead, now!

This is so entirely the right idea that, even though a parcel landed yesterday which I figure must be the proper book . . . I've not opened it, and I am inquiring into returning the hard copy.

Iron discipline, really, for I am intensely curious to read the book. Shouldn't take long to sort things out, and then a download of the e-book will be all but instantaneous.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 21, 2012, 09:25:04 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 21, 2012, 09:07:44 AM
This is so entirely the right idea that, even though a parcel landed yesterday which I figure must be the proper book . . . I've not opened it, and I am inquiring into returning the hard copy.

Iron discipline, really, for I am intensely curious to read the book. Shouldn't take long to sort things out, and then a download of the e-book will be all but instantaneous.

Well, I wouldn't know: I'm so emphatically a 'book in the hands' chap, that the notion of ebooks upsets my digestion. Particularly with Her Fearful Symmetry, where all the US hardback editions (illustrated with faded photos of Highgate Cemetery and artificially aged title pages) have such a physical presence that they actively contribute to the atmosphere of the book. In fact, I hope to proceed to post some photos of my newly acquired US Special signed edition (designed by the author) before long.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 21, 2012, 09:27:19 AM
I don't like to think of having interfered with your digestion, dear chap. Not at all what a hero is supposed to do, so far as I can tell.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 21, 2012, 09:30:15 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 21, 2012, 09:27:19 AM
I don't like to think of having interfered with your digestion, dear chap. Not at all what a hero is supposed to do, so far as I can tell.

Fortunately, it's only e-digestion. So it doesn't really count.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bulldog on March 21, 2012, 09:31:16 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on March 21, 2012, 09:25:04 AM
Well, I wouldn't know: I'm so emphatically a 'book in the hands' chap, that the notion of ebooks upsets my digestion. Particularly with Her Fearful Symmetry, where all the US hardback editions (illustrated with faded photos of Highgate Cemetery and artificially aged title pages) have such a physical presence that they actively contribute to the atmosphere of the book.

"Atmosphere" is a great word to use in this context and a quality that's non-existent with downloads.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 21, 2012, 12:48:36 PM
Well, thanks for your input, gents.

Quote from: Elgarian on March 21, 2012, 09:25:04 AM
. . . Particularly with Her Fearful Symmetry, where all the US hardback editions (illustrated with faded photos of Highgate Cemetery and artificially aged title pages) have such a physical presence that they actively contribute to the atmosphere of the book. In fact, I hope to proceed to post some photos of my newly acquired US Special signed edition (designed by the author) before long.

You tipped the balance here, Alan, and I have relented.  I cracked the book open, and will begin a-reading . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 21, 2012, 01:15:55 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 21, 2012, 12:48:36 PM
Well, thanks for your input, gents.

You tipped the balance here, Alan, and I have relented.  I cracked the book open, and will begin a-reading . . . .

Karl, I stand here (well, sit actually), hand on heart (but not actually while I'm typing), and I say: "This will make you a better person."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 21, 2012, 01:17:06 PM
(Hard tho' that may be to imagine.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on March 21, 2012, 01:46:38 PM
So here's a glimpse of the US Special (signed) Edition of Her Fearful Symmetry. Like the UK edition (see #4667 above), it was designed by Niffenegger (who is as formidable as an artist as she is as a novelist), but represents a completely different design concept. Here, the dust jacket is based on a painting by the author, and the design is deeply embossed into the paper. The page edges are black; a pale photograph of a sepulchral monument decorates the end papers. Both these special editions give me tingles up the spine when I pick them up and handle them, each in quite different ways.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/HFSUSSpecialspine.jpg)    (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/HFSUSSpecialfront.jpg)   (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/HFSUSSpecialendpaper.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Alan_/HFSUSSpecialtitlepage.jpg) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 21, 2012, 04:35:20 PM
I finished reading Best Short Stories of William Kittredge.  Review here. (http://omnivorousintellectual.blogspot.com/2012/03/book-review-best-short-stories-of.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on March 24, 2012, 04:08:31 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41X3PGGW1XL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on March 24, 2012, 09:12:02 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on March 12, 2012, 02:50:10 PM
The Poet and the President by Coyle

Got a bit distracted with some of my school reading.

The Poet and the President by Coyle was not the book that I thought it was going to be. It's more of a historical recording of Whitman and Lincoln. It contains mostly primary sourcing, so for that it's aces. It also contains a lot of criticism surrounding Whitman in regards to Lincoln which is also historical. This is really a sound book for historians interested in Whitman, but it doesn't really offer any sort of insight, and not much is left to be drawn from what is seen. I was sort of hoping for more of an overarching sort of theoretical book, but for what it is, it's pretty amazing.

All in all: 5 out of 5

I also read Walt Whitman's Camden Conversations which was edited by Walter Teller and Readings on Walt Whitman which was edited by Gary Wiener. Neither of these books were that great. I'd definitely not suggest either. Teller edited the Conversations in an odd ways, and instead of allowing them to occur organically, he put them under subheadings, so it reads more like a word-of-the-day calender. Wiener edited the book so it appeared to not be coherent at all, and was simply a hodgepodge of essays assembled because a book needed to be made.

All in all (for both): 2 out of 5

Currently reading:
Organizational Sociology edited by Scott (selections)
Tocqueville's Road Map by Boesche
Selected Poems by Carl Sandburg (Lincoln)
Coping with Minority Status edited by Fabrizio Butera and John Levine (selections)
The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen by Alexander Herzen (selections)
Russian Thinkers by Isaiah Berlin
Isiah Berlin by George Crowder (selections)
Psychologism by Martin Kusch
Philosophy, Psychology, and Psychologism edited by Dale Jacquette
Europe Old and New by Ray Taras
The Migration Apparatus by Gregory Feldman
The European Unioin edited by Brent Nelsen
The Euro edited by Amy Verdun (selections)
Building Sci-Fi Moviescapes by Matt Hanson

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on March 28, 2012, 06:02:11 PM
(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/124/873/400000000000000124873_s4.jpg)

Red Pine's erudition is really astounding — his translation is taken from several different Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan sources, and he uses commentary from the greatest Zen masters of the past to help illuminate this beautiful and important text for the reader.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 29, 2012, 05:04:33 AM
I just started on this yesterday:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41oxg-E8TFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I'm glad I conducted some informal research (at Amazon) and spent a few bucks more for a copy of a great translation.  It's been excellent thus far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on April 02, 2012, 07:15:52 AM
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327973531l/13049569.jpg)


OK, not really.  But I did read the long excerpt from the book in the most recent New Yorker.  It's like no time had passed since reading Master of the Senate.  My only issue is that the book doesn't conclude the biography, going only until 1964.  I'm wondering who, if anyone, will receive the Coke Stevenson and Richard Russell mini-biography this time.

Haven't been this excited for a bio since HW Brands' Traitor to His Class.  (I guess that wasn't too long ago.) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 02, 2012, 07:17:45 AM
Re-reading The Silmarillion, actually. Not everybody's thing, but I really enjoy it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on April 02, 2012, 10:03:36 AM


Quote from: karlhenning on Today at 11:17:45 (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg616712#msg616712)>Re-reading The Silmarillion, actually. Not everybody's thing, but I really enjoy it.


Me too.  I'll read it again soon for the fourth or fifth time.

On the other hand, after a couple of them, I found the endless series of compilations of J.R.R.'s works by Christopher Tolkien pretty tedious.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 02, 2012, 10:08:02 AM
The Lays of Beleriand and Unfinished Tales I like very well, too.  Although I have both volumes of The Book of Lost Tales on my shelf (and have had, for quite a while), I've never been able / felt motivated to dig into them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 02, 2012, 10:14:34 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on April 02, 2012, 10:03:36 AM

Quote from: karlhenning on Today at 11:17:45 (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg616712#msg616712)>Re-reading The Silmarillion, actually. Not everybody's thing, but I really enjoy it.


Me too.  I'll read it again soon for the fourth or fifth time.

On the other hand, after a couple of them, I found the endless series of compilations of J.R.R.'s works by Christopher Tolkien pretty tedious.

I like the Silmarillion and avoid that series like the plague!  I also like the Children of Hurin which is a short novel expanded from the original story in the Silmarillion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 02, 2012, 10:23:09 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 02, 2012, 10:14:34 AM
I like the Silmarillion and avoid that series like the plague!  I also like the Children of Hurin which is a short novel expanded from the original story in the Silmarillion.

If you like Tolkien's turn with poetry (and not everyone does), you might want to give The Lays of Beleriand a shot.  The heart of the book is extensive poetic treatments of both Narn i Hin Húrin and the Lay of Leithian (the story of Beren and Lúthien).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scion7 on April 09, 2012, 02:14:38 AM
Four issues of the Hammer fanzine  Little Shoppe of Horrors  that I didn't order at the time they were published because I got behind in 'life.'

Volume II of John Toland's  The Rising Sun - specifically, the sections concerning Battle of Leyte Gulf.

And finally, spot-reading my biography on Bartok by Chalmers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on April 09, 2012, 04:33:41 AM
In the mood for some fantasy, so...
[asin]B004L9MFG8[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 09, 2012, 08:30:14 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 02, 2012, 10:23:09 AM
If you like Tolkien's turn with poetry (and not everyone does), you might want to give The Lays of Beleriand a shot.  The heart of the book is extensive poetic treatments of both Narn i Hin Húrin and the Lay of Leithian (the story of Beren and Lúthien).

That reminds me Karl, as nook friends we can lend each other books!  I saw that feature yesterday, it's really cool!  Most of my ebooks are on the kindle unfortunately, and out of my nook books the only one with the lending feature is the Hunger Games, sorry dude.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on April 09, 2012, 08:48:28 AM
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172870566l/226404.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on April 09, 2012, 08:49:01 AM
Quote from: Coco on April 09, 2012, 08:48:28 AM
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172870566l/226404.jpg)

Dude, get out of the 19th Century.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Coco on April 09, 2012, 08:50:38 AM
Hey, the last book I read was from 1914! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on April 09, 2012, 08:57:41 AM
Quote from: Coco on April 09, 2012, 08:50:38 AM
Hey, the last book I read was from 1914! :D

WOW!!!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 09, 2012, 09:14:57 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 09, 2012, 08:30:14 AM
That reminds me Karl, as nook friends we can lend each other books!  I saw that feature yesterday, it's really cool!  Most of my ebooks are on the kindle unfortunately, and out of my nook books the only one with the lending feature is the Hunger Games, sorry dude.

That is a nice feature; how do we connect there? I mean, at some point you've got to have something lendable other than Hunger Games, right? : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 09, 2012, 09:18:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 09, 2012, 09:14:57 AM
That is a nice feature; how do we connect there? I mean, at some point you've got to have something lendable other than Hunger Games, right? : )

There is a social part on the tablet where I can look at what friends are readiing and it also has available books to lend from friends.  It looks like anyone on good reads I see as friends, but only nook friends have the lending feature.  There should be something similar on the simple touch... if not you have to go peaking around on your account page on the bn website.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on April 10, 2012, 01:22:23 AM
MICHEL ONFRAY:        Contre-Histoire de la philosophie (7): La Construction du Surhomme

As usual a very original approach of some major moments in the History of Philosophy. This volume his dedicated to Jean-Marie Guyau and Friedrich Nietzsche.
I specially liked the interpretation given by Onfray of "Also sprach Zarathustra".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on April 11, 2012, 04:28:36 AM
Currently reading books about masculinity and grief, as well as prepping for two lectures (Intelligence, being one. Liberia, being the other).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on April 11, 2012, 05:13:02 AM
In the process of continuously lowering the level my literary pursuits, I have now arrived at this...
in this particular, very nicely made and beautiful Penguin hardcover edition.



(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0718153839.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)
I. Fleming
Introducing James Bond
Casino Royale
Penguin, 2008 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153839/goodmusicguide-20)

German link (http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153839/goodmusicguide-21), UK link (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153839/goodmusicguideUK-21)



(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0718153847.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)
I. Fleming
Introducing James Bond
Live and Let Die
Penguin, 2008 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153847/goodmusicguide-20)
German link (http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153847/goodmusicguide-21), UK link (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153847/goodmusicguideUK-21)



(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0718153855.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)
I. Fleming
Agent 007 at Home and Abroad
Moonraker
Penguin, 2008 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153855/goodmusicguide-20)
German link (http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153855/goodmusicguide-21), UK link (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153855/goodmusicguideUK-21)


Mainly, I am just curious how differently the book experience is, given that the films have probably taken on greater cultural significance than their origin. Certainly for me, since the Bond films played a considerable role in my adolescence [not to mention the joy of discovering all the crude innuendo that I had innocently overheard when young], whereas I've never read anything by Fleming, not even chitty-chitty-bang-bang.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 11, 2012, 05:19:37 AM
It's been quite a while, but I've read Casino Royale and Live and Let Die.  Very different to the cinematic treatment (of course, in the case of the campy 60s version of the former, that goes without saying . . . .)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 11, 2012, 08:22:02 AM
Casino Royale reads more like a gentleman's adventure rather than a modern action movie.  Ditto the Bourne Identity, reading it is a completely different experience from watching it (at least the Matt Damon version, have not seen the Richard Chamberlain version).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: chasmaniac on April 11, 2012, 08:38:32 AM
Quote from: Coco on April 09, 2012, 08:50:38 AM
Hey, the last book I read was from 1914! :D

The last book I read was in 1914!

I'm reading a goat's innards right now, and lemme tell ya, The future is gross!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on April 11, 2012, 08:43:45 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 11, 2012, 05:19:37 AM
It's been quite a while, but I've read Casino Royale and Live and Let Die.  Very different to the cinematic treatment (of course, in the case of the campy 60s version of the former, that goes without saying . . . .)

I never read the original film Casino Royale, but from what I hear it was either a spoof or hiding behind pretending to be a spoof, no?

Ah, answering my own question, courtesy Rotten Tomatoes:
QuoteRetired after years of international espionage, Agent 007 is lured back into action to battle the evil spy organization SMERSH in this notoriously incoherent parody of the James Bond films. David Niven portrays the aging Bond, who atypically rejects the advances of a variety of women, and agrees to battle SMERSH's hold on the lavish Casino Royale only after organization head M is murdered.

The new Casino Royale film was great... and as quickly as it had raised my hopes that James Bond was going into the right direction again, as a series, it went below all the lows that the later Brosnan adventures hit (not that he's to blame). A series of music/action videos in search of a plot. Gross. A Quantum of something..., alright.

Right now I'm reading up on Baccarat online to better understand the inner workings of the book. One gets side-tracked, though... with Lord Lucan and such.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 11, 2012, 08:45:58 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on April 11, 2012, 08:43:45 AM
I never read the original film Casino Royale, but from what I hear it was either a spoof or hiding behind pretending to be a spoof, no?

Well, with Woody Allen playing Jimmy Bond, Jr, it had better have been a spoof!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on April 11, 2012, 09:00:11 AM
Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale - An entertaining look at grammar, from an author who encourages people to consider when to break the rules in writing (hence the "sin"  ;D). Lots of fresh thinking here--and good for writers of all levels.

[asin]0767903099[/asin]

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 11, 2012, 09:01:18 AM
Misread that as good for writers of all evils, Bruce . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on April 11, 2012, 09:04:16 AM
Well, who knows? Hale may have intended that as well!

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on April 12, 2012, 04:58:06 PM

Sequel to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ...

The Honourable School Boy ~ John le Carré

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XNW92D95L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on April 13, 2012, 07:07:39 AM
This book should be better known:

[asin]B004YTN23A[/asin]

Solomon Northup wrote this account of his kidnapping by con men, who lured him away from his home in Saratoga, New York, drugged him, and sold him in Washington D.C. into slavery.  He lost 12 years of his life before being rescued and returned to his family.

Highly recommended: you will feel so outraged at times that you will want to reach back across the decades and do something to save him!  An antidote to the "happy slaves" of Scarlett O'Hara, whom Northup did occasionally find, but they were a great exception: even while admitting that some slaves were "happy," he is not willing to compromise on the issue, as one can imagine!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on April 13, 2012, 02:31:21 PM
Currently reading Ovid's Metamorphoses translated by Charles Martin, The Iliad translated by Richmond Lattimore, and Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges.  All are fine works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on April 16, 2012, 01:06:15 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on April 11, 2012, 08:43:45 AM
Ah, answering my own question, courtesy Rotten Tomatoes:
The new Casino Royale film was great... and as quickly as it had raised my hopes that James Bond was going into the right direction again, as a series, it went below all the lows that the later Brosnan adventures hit (not that he's to blame). A series of music/action videos in search of a plot. Gross. A Quantum of something..., alright.


I enjoyed Casino Royal as well.

The sequel was really hurt by the Hollywood writers' strike from a few years back.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/daniel-craig-says-writers-strike-fucked-quantum-of-solace-he-rewrote-scenes-with-marc-forster#

Actor Daniel Craig and the director desperately tried to save by themselves a barebones script that was turned in hours before the writers' strike. Obviously they didn't succeed.  :(



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on April 17, 2012, 03:21:38 PM
Robert McCammon's USHER'S PASSING, thanks to a certain Mr. W.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on April 18, 2012, 04:26:29 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Willoughby earl of Itacarius on April 20, 2012, 09:56:22 AM
J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Text.
J. H. Hospers, A basic Bibliography for the study of the Semitic Languages.
K. Galling, Textbuch zur geschichte Israels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: springrite on April 21, 2012, 05:17:25 AM
Deep Simplicity--Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity (John Gribbon)

It has been a while since I read my last science book so this is toughing going and my brain is about to explode. But I enjoy it very much, like I did with all of Gribbon's other books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on April 21, 2012, 06:21:26 AM
Quote from: springrite on April 21, 2012, 05:17:25 AM
Deep Simplicity--Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity (John Gribbon)

It has been a while since I read my last science book so this is toughing going and my brain is about to explode. But I enjoy it very much, like I did with all of Gribbon's other books.

I enjoyed reading many of his books during my pop-physics stage; definitely a favourite. I came across somewhere that he had tread into the multiverse territory recently, but I haven't read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: springrite on April 21, 2012, 06:26:11 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on April 21, 2012, 06:21:26 AM
I enjoyed reading many of his books during my pop-physics stage; definitely a favourite. I came across somewhere that he had tread into the multiverse territoy recently, but I haven't read it.

Yes, I know some of his books in those areas but I am not planning to read them any time soon, or ever. I want to get a bit more into complexity/chaos/simplicity because some of the things I learn in there aid in my study and personal interest in Budhism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on April 21, 2012, 07:01:03 AM
(http://business.livetalksla.org/files/2012/01/Rothkopf-Power-Inc-Book-Jacket.jpg)


About a third of the way through David Rothkopf's Power, Inc..  It's certainly an ambitious book by a former Clintonista.  The author attempts to make the case that the struggle between corporations and states is akin to the struggle between church and state from centuries past.  Well, maybe.  While the book offers a most intriguing glimpse at the beginning of corporations – starting with the selling of shares in Stora Kopparberg in 1288 (the company still exists as Stora Enso) – the author has so far not convinced me his main idea is true.  I know some good stuff is coming about the modern world, but his historical arguments are a bit weak at times.  Beyond that, some of the writing is repetitive and not especially effective (he's no Daniel Yergin).  It's also incredibly biased toward the West.  That's certainly understandable in many regards, but it will be interesting to see how he handles the different approaches to relationships between governments and corporations in other parts of the world.  Anyway, it's still an interesting read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on April 23, 2012, 05:46:50 PM
Currently reading up on my main man, David Addington.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on April 24, 2012, 01:30:03 AM
(http://thelesseroftwoequals.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/a_clash_of_kings.jpg)

I loved the first one, and so far its sequel has been gripping. The HBO series looks sumptuous, but from what I hear HBO has overemphasized sexual elements just to be HBO.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 26, 2012, 05:00:57 AM
(http://www.bookblog.ro/cover/fructele.jpg)

John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath






Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 26, 2012, 05:41:45 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 26, 2012, 05:00:57 AM
The Grapes of Wrath

Just where are they stored, I've wondered . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on April 27, 2012, 01:02:00 AM
FRANÇOIS CHESNAYS:          "Les dettes illégitimes"

Chesnais is a well known French Professor of Economy. In his perspective, the huge debts of most countries in West, today, are the result of Bank operations against the interest of the citizens and with the only profit for the Bankers themselves. He fights the politics of austerity and is in favor of a severe control of the Bank and Finance activity.
Let's wait the result of French elections. The socialist candidate seems not far from Chesnays perspective.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on April 27, 2012, 03:30:57 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 26, 2012, 05:00:57 AM
(http://www.bookblog.ro/cover/fructele.jpg)

John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on April 27, 2012, 03:50:10 AM
Alison Wonderland by Helen Smith, a detective novel, sort of.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oYLyMauYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-64,22_AA300_SH20_OU03_.jpg)

My name's Alison Temple and I used to have this line when people asked me if I'm married. I'd say, "I'm waiting for Mr. Wonderland and when I find him I'll get married. Until then I'm staying single." The kind of people who need to know whether or not you're married don't see the humour in a joke like that.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on April 27, 2012, 04:20:58 AM
I'm reading an ARC of The Void by Brett J. Talley, a science fiction/horror novel.

Also dipping into a giant noir ficiton antho. Mmm. Delish! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on April 27, 2012, 05:27:11 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HDxdfB9AL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

Very useful and pretty interesting

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S7gRUabFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click-small,TopRight,12,-30_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

Interesting and illuminating if you're into France. Juste finished these two.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51M54oOgZNL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

Now reading this. Damn interesting!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on May 03, 2012, 12:41:43 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 04, 2011, 01:42:08 AM
As an aside, could you please let me know whether there is any difference between Mletacka and Venecija and what's the origin of the former word?
Quote from: Drasko on April 04, 2011, 02:55:04 AM
There is some difference, but nothing is very clear cut. Mletačka Republika is Serbo-Croatian (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrian) name for Venetian Republic, and Mleci, Mlečani or Mlečići for its citizens. And that would be more commonly used form in everyday speech - e.g. we are in war with Mleci (not we are in war with Mletačka Republika), you came back from Mletaka, you traded with Mlecima ...
On the other hand Venecija is the name of the city itself (and always was), and today, when there is no more Venetian Republic, when you refer to the denizens of Venice you'd say Venecijanci, not Mleci.
I don't know the etymology of the word, and I'm not even sure that there is a very clear one. The one I heard but strikes me as far-out is Latini (another name used for Venetians) -> Latte -> Mleko -> Mlečići.
Quote from: Florestan on April 04, 2011, 04:20:34 AM
Thanks for this very informative reply. Indeed that etymology sounds rather far-fetched, and this Wikipedia note (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mlechchhas#Other) isn't very helpful either. Anyway, it's interesting that Serbo-Croatian use for the historical Venetian state and its citizens a name that is not derived from "Venezia". I am not aware of any other language with this feature.
Quote from: Drasko on April 06, 2011, 11:01:09 AM
Neiter am I. Now you got me curious about the etymology of the name. Friend of mine teaches linguistics at university, maybe he'll know or know who will know. I'll ask him next time I see him.
Quote from: Florestan on April 07, 2011, 12:53:12 AM
Please do. I'm curious too.  :)


Well this was conversation from ages ago, but I finally remembered to ask my linguistics professor friend. Etymology is quite simple actually. Old Slavonic for Venice was Vnetia or Bnetia and then through consonant dissimilation consonant group bn turns into ml. So Vnetia > Bnetia > Mletia = Mletacka, Mleci ...   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 03, 2012, 12:44:40 AM
Quote from: Drasko on May 03, 2012, 12:41:43 AM

Well this was conversation from ages ago, but I finally remembered to ask my linguistics professor friend. Etymology is quite simple actually. Old Slavonic for Venice was Vnetia or Bnetia and then through consonant dissimilation consonant group bn turns into ml. So Vnetia > Bnetia > Mletia = Mletacka, Mleci ...   

Wow, you did remember it after a whole year! Thank you.  :-*
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on May 03, 2012, 12:50:59 AM
Nothing really, I was curious as well. Interesting thing is that the term developed and used in parallel with the usual standard 'Venecija' but used for different purposes: city vs state. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 03, 2012, 01:11:52 AM
Quote from: Drasko on May 03, 2012, 12:50:59 AM
Nothing really, I was curious as well. Interesting thing is that the term developed and used in parallel with the usual standard 'Venecija' but used for different purposes: city vs state.

Yes, very interesting. Are there any other examples of "vn" turning into "ml" that are still in use today in Serbo-Croatian?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Willoughby earl of Itacarius on May 03, 2012, 01:32:36 AM
A few things I am reading now.

The Idea of history in the Ancient Near East, by R.C. Dentan
Geschichtsbild und Geschichtschreibung in Agypten by E. Otto.
History and the Gods by B. Albrektson.
Probleme einer politischen Geschichte des Spatbronzezeitlichen Syrien, by H. Klengel
Grundzuge der Hethitischen and alttestamentlichen Geschichtsschreibung by H. Cancik.

Just doing some research for a article I am suppose to write, very interesting though, quite forgot that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 03, 2012, 10:45:25 AM
Finished re-reading The Silmarillion to-day.  The Quenta Silmarillion proper, in particular, I find cumulatively powerful, every time I read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on May 03, 2012, 12:18:36 PM
I started on Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and his Cosmic American Music a few days ago.  Excellent stuff, thus far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on May 03, 2012, 02:26:49 PM
Tim Flannery--The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on May 03, 2012, 04:58:44 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tHjn8vEYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Very good, but eventually I'll have to look for a book which doesn't use the GLUT extensions (this will be when I'm ready to take off the training wheels).
Currently on the Pixel Mapping section... I kinda like the way OpenGL is used. The commands are pretty straightforward- it's just a matter of learning the formulas, algorithms, and theory to get it to do what you want it to do. It's nothing quirky and insane like Windows programming with C.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Davenport's Mozart
Post by: Lisz on May 05, 2012, 06:26:45 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41xt-ehS5fL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Is anybody familiar with this book or author? I came across it quite by accident at a street vendor's. Seemed to call out to me, lol! 1987 printing first Copyright in 1932 by Scribner's. It's in such excellent condition! (no, I'm not selling!  :)

Knew nothing about her, but have come to find out that Marcia Davenport was a writer for The New Yorker among other things and very involved in the classical music scene. She's an excellent writer, and now I'm surprised to see paperbacks of this are selling on Amazon for $75.

Just started reading, but I'm already fascinated by her style and approach to my favorite composer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Davenport's Mozart
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 05, 2012, 07:00:57 AM
Quote from: Hildegard on May 05, 2012, 06:26:45 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41xt-ehS5fL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Is anybody familiar with this book or author? I came across it quite by accident at a street vendor's. Seemed to call out to me, lol! 1987 printing first Copyright in 1932 by Scribner's. It's in such excellent condition! (no, I'm not selling!  :)


Hello Hildegard - I've had so many Mozart books over the years, including the one by Davenport - looking on Amazon (and the best that I can recall) I would have to agree w/ the 3* reviewer, i.e. the book is well written and easy to read, emotionally involves one w/ Wolfie, but when written the facts were not all there, so as long as that is kept in mind, a worthwhile read.

Now my wife & I buy so many books that we donate many to a local charity; at the moment, I have the first 2 books below on Mozart (and the Sadie New Grove mainly for a listing of his works) - more up to date but 'drier' reads perhaps? 

Now, I've also been contemplating the book below by Wates; 2010 publication date and good reviews - curious if others know this new one?

Finally, I just purchased the DVD 'In Search of Mozart' - great comments but yet to watch completely - will report back!  Dave :)

(http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/102400000/102404790.jpg)  (http://i.ebayimg.com/15/!B8272OQCWk~$(KGrHqIOKpgEy+jC)cqkBM4I4jD8zw~~_3.JPG)

(http://static.musicroom.com/img/c/sp/HL00332826.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BkL7mFo4L._SX500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Davenport's Mozart
Post by: Lisz on May 05, 2012, 06:54:32 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on May 05, 2012, 07:00:57 AM
Hello Hildegard - I've had so many Mozart books over the years, including the one by Davenport - looking on Amazon (and the best that I can recall) I would have to agree w/ the 3* reviewer, i.e. the book is well written and easy to read, emotionally involves one w/ Wolfie, but when written the facts were not all there, so as long as that is kept in mind, a worthwhile read.

Thanks SonicMan for your perspective on the Davenport as well as the other Mozart books in your collection.

I am enjoying the Davenport very much, despite any factual faults it may have. It's been called a labor of love for Davenport and that personal feeling is very palpable. It's a very different approach from  most other biographies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Davenport's Mozart
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 05, 2012, 07:25:09 PM
Quote from: Hildegard on May 05, 2012, 06:54:32 PM
..........I am enjoying the Davenport very much, despite any factual faults it may have. It's been called a labor of love for Davenport and that personal feeling is very palpable. It's a very different approach from  most other biographies.

Glad that you're liking the Davenport book - as already stated, worth a read IMHO! :)

BTW - I went ahead and ordered the Wates book - should arrive early in the week!  Dave  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Davenport's Mozart
Post by: The new erato on May 06, 2012, 12:16:36 AM
Quote from: Hildegard on May 05, 2012, 06:54:32 PM
Thanks SonicMan for your perspective on the Davenport as well as the other Mozart books in your collection.

I am enjoying the Davenport very much, despite any factual faults it may have. It's been called a labor of love for Davenport and that personal feeling is very palpable. It's a very different approach from  most other biographies.
A labor of love with factual faults? Sure this isn't Rob Newman writing under pseudonym?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Davenport's Mozart
Post by: Lisz on May 06, 2012, 06:47:12 AM
Quote from: The new erato on May 06, 2012, 12:16:36 AM
A labor of love with factual faults? Sure this isn't Rob Newman writing under pseudonym?

Not factual faults as much as the fact that Mozart scholarship is always evolving and has so since this book was written in the 1930s.

For anyone interested, the Mozart Society is hosting the Mozart Early Biographies projects, collecting Mozart biographies that go back as early as 1793.  The Society Newsletters are also always a good read when one is more in scholarship mode.

http://www.mozartsocietyofamerica.org/ (http://www.mozartsocietyofamerica.org/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 07, 2012, 06:23:04 AM
Re-reading (on my Nook Simple Touch) The Lord of the Rings.  This has to be something like the 15th time I'm reading it . . . but this may be the very first time I actually read Bilbo's poem about Eärendil (a translation from the Elvish, really, and the one in which he needed to consult "the Dúnadan" on a couple of matters) in its entirety.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 07, 2012, 06:39:05 AM
Karl I never knew that you were such a hardcore LOTR fan! :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 07, 2012, 07:08:06 AM
Quote from: DavidW on May 07, 2012, 06:39:05 AM
Karl I never knew that you were such a hardcore LOTR fan! :D

Well, I devoured the book first, one summer when I was in my teens.  For some while after that, I read it at least once every summer.  It holds up staggeringly well.

My mom-in-law and I watched the first disc of the extended version of the first Jackson movie yesterday, Davey.  I don't think Mom has read the book, so she was simply impressed (and perfectly fairly) with the look, the cinematography, the locations, the sets.

Now that I know to expect the unforgiveable deviations from the source, I can just enjoy the movies for what they are.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Leon on May 07, 2012, 07:11:35 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 07, 2012, 07:08:06 AM
Well, I devoured the book first, one summer when I was in my teens.  For some while after that, I read it at least once every summer.  It holds up staggeringly well.

My mom-in-law and I watched the first disc of the extended version of the first Jackson movie yesterday, Davey.  I don't think Mom has read the book, so she was simply impressed (and perfectly fairly) with the look, the cinematography, the locations, the sets.

Now that I know to expect the unforgiveable deviations from the source, I can just enjoy the movies for what they are.

Do you have the same opinion of Howard Shore's music as you do for John Williams'?

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: chasmaniac on May 07, 2012, 07:26:28 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 07, 2012, 06:23:04 AM
Re-reading (on my Nook Simple Touch) The Lord of the Rings.  This has to be something like the 15th time I'm reading it . . . but this may be the very first time I actually read Bilbo's poem about Eärendil (a translation from the Elvish, really, and the one in which he needed to consult "the Dúnadan" on a couple of matters) in its entirety.

The Flammifer of Westernesse! (Only bit I remember off the top of my head.)

Re. the Quenta Silmarillion: whatever the author's intentions, I've always read this as the bible as it should have been written, a consecutive and consistent (and dowenright believable!) account of exile from idyllic origins. Extraordinarily powerful, I find it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on May 07, 2012, 01:52:10 PM
Quote from: -abe- on April 16, 2012, 01:06:15 PM

I enjoyed Casino Royal as well.

The sequel was really hurt by the Hollywood writers' strike from a few years back.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/daniel-craig-says-writers-strike-fucked-quantum-of-solace-he-rewrote-scenes-with-marc-forster#

Actor Daniel Craig and the director desperately tried to save by themselves a barebones script that was turned in hours before the writers' strike. Obviously they didn't succeed.  :(

They sure as hell didn't. What a train-wreck. Brought his average nearly down to Brosnan's Bond. With some distance, and with my man-crush on Brosnan (that is: wanting to be Brosnan) overcome, I can now see just how much Bond suffered in the four films he was at the helm, three of which are just various kinds of awful. Cumulating in "The World is Not Enough", of course, which is rivals "Quantum of Solace" for 'horribility'. I hope there are people who feel ashamed, every day, for having had a hand in either of those train wrecks. They only serve the purpose to make "Moonraker" look like a classy, plausible masterpiece, I suppose.

Interesting link.

Now reading:


(http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kveo21qUEp1qze2m9o1_500.jpg)
Ian Fleming
Diamonds are Forever
Penguin (Ed. 2008) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0718153871/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguideuk-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0718153871)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 07, 2012, 02:17:36 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 07, 2012, 06:23:04 AM
Re-reading (on my Nook Simple Touch) The Lord of the Rings.  This has to be something like the 15th time I'm reading it . . . but this may be the very first time I actually read Bilbo's poem about Eärendil (a translation from the Elvish, really, and the one in which he needed to consult "the Dúnadan" on a couple of matters) in its entirety.
I've read it only twice, and to my everlasting (well, at least until I have enough time to make amends), I have only read it translated into Finnish. The translation is excellently done, though, but it's still far from reading the original, of course.
Next challenge for you, Karl - read it in Dutch, Finnish, French and German, as a friend of mine has done (in addition to the original, of course)  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 07, 2012, 02:55:59 PM
In re-reading "The Council of Elrond," I am aghast all over again at what Jackson makes of the scene . . . more a barroom brawl, so that Elrond hardly seems Master even in's own house.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 08, 2012, 02:41:54 AM
Jackson did take a lot of awful liberties, and for no reason.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 08, 2012, 04:06:36 AM
Well in that scene Jackson was trying to create dramatic tension and demonstrate the corrupting power of the ring.  Also when Frodo takes the ring, the moment has been made more significant due to the fact that it is eliminating the introduced conflict.  These are exactly the kind of departures you have to make for a movie.  Jackson did right.  Movies are not meant to be literal interpretations of novels.

This is just a case where the movie needs to sensationalize a scene that reads fine, but would be flat and dull on screen.  I don't agree with some of the changes that Jackson made, but I would not say that they were for no reason.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 08, 2012, 04:21:20 AM
Dude, I get that movies are not meant to be literal interpretations of novels, entirely.  Some of the departures are fine, some of them are fundamental re-drawing of central characters.  I suppose it's a matter of opinion, but I disagree entirely that the latter are exactly the kind of departures you have to make for a movie.  I agree completely that the Council, as it is written in the book (and artfully, too) is too expository to be presented literally on screen;  I think there are ways to make it cinematic without violating the fabric of the novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 08, 2012, 04:27:48 AM
But of course, now that I stand revealed to you as so utterly hardcore a LoTR fan, you expect me to take this line ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 08, 2012, 08:13:29 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 08, 2012, 04:27:48 AM
But of course, now that I stand revealed to you as so utterly hardcore a LoTR fan, you expect me to take this line ; )

Indeed I do! >:D  I am more selective in my criticism.  What they did with Faramir was terrible.  That criticism of the council of Elrond scene is just nitpicking.

But my problem was not that you criticized the departure, it was that North Star described all such changes as "for no reason".  Peter Jackson is just as much of a fan of Lord of the Rings as anyone else, and he put alot of thought into the changes that he made.  The movies are a labor of love from a fellow fan.  He had to wrestle with the fact that in these days to reach a large audience you have to make a wall to all wall action movie, any other approach to the epic would unfortunately flop.

There is reason to the changes, and many changes I don't personally agree, but I don't think that they were irrational or arbitrary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 08, 2012, 08:21:36 AM
Quote from: DavidW on May 08, 2012, 08:13:29 AM
That criticism of the council of Elrond scene is just nitpicking.

WHAT??!!??!!! ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 08, 2012, 10:55:33 AM
Council of Elrond and Faramir were not done well. If they only didn't touch to the cleansing of shire, especially since Galadriel showed the vision to Sam in the movie...

David, 'no reason' wasn't exactly right, i agree. Jackson undoubtedly had reasons, but I don't think they were sound.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 08, 2012, 11:20:48 AM
There are false notes galore in the Rivendell sequence. Elrond tells Gandalf that the Ring cannot stay there (something which Gandalf already knows, for mercy's sake), and Ian McKellen practically snorts in apparent surprise.  Tolkien's Council is orderly and sober.  Now, we all agree that it were impossible to block the scene "faithfully" to that chapter of the book — I have no quarrel with such things as the fact that Bilbo is absent from the Council, or that Gimli is present (it was his father, Glóin, who represented Dain's people at the Council in the book, of course), nor the fact that Jackson wants to explain the danger of the Ring.  But the loss of that orderly sobriety of the Council is just the most obvious of the distortions.  Boromir pipes in first (or about first), and not merely reaches physically for the Ring, but sneers at Aragorn; Legolas of Mirkwood, of all people (he himself doesn't actually know who Aragorn is, before the Council, does he?) is the one to try to chide Boromir; Gimli actually swings an ax in the middle of the Council.  It is all much less like how one of the mightiest Elves would host a Council in his own house, and more like a weekly meeting of the staff of the Gingrich campaign.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes on May 08, 2012, 03:41:43 PM
GRE Prep Books so I can remember effing Geometry.  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 08, 2012, 04:15:15 PM
Quote from: North Star on May 08, 2012, 10:55:33 AM
Council of Elrond and Faramir were not done well. If they only didn't touch to the cleansing of shire, especially since Galadriel showed the vision to Sam in the movie...

David, 'no reason' wasn't exactly right, i agree. Jackson undoubtedly had reasons, but I don't think they were sound.

I think we're on the same page then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 08, 2012, 04:46:03 PM
Dang, we all agree! : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 08, 2012, 05:16:57 PM
Quote from: North Star on May 08, 2012, 10:55:33 AM
If they only didn't touch to the cleansing of shire, especially since Galadriel showed the vision to Sam in the movie...

That blasphemous change of the ending reminded me of in the Critic when they changed the ending to Casablanca--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr1Jm5cK2b4&t=5m0s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr1Jm5cK2b4&t=5m0s)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on May 22, 2012, 10:52:57 AM
You guys need to read more books.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2012, 10:56:29 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 22, 2012, 10:52:57 AM
You guys need to read more books.  ;D

Only reached the beginning of The Return of the King to-day . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on May 22, 2012, 10:57:12 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2012, 10:56:29 AM
Only reached the beginning of The Return of the King to-day . . . .

I'm reading a Western. Dang tootin'. Or whatever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 22, 2012, 11:17:24 AM
I read 32 Fangs and something by some hack named Wilbanks. ;)

Currently reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy by John le Carre and Healing Anger: The Power of Patience by the Dalai Lama.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on May 22, 2012, 11:19:39 AM
Ouch!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 22, 2012, 12:58:17 PM
btw your book was exactly 100 page turns on my favorite settings on my kindle.  That meant that every time I advanced a page it the percent increased by 1%.  I thought that was neat. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on May 22, 2012, 01:23:45 PM
Quote from: DavidW on May 22, 2012, 12:58:17 PM
btw your book was exactly 100 page turns on my favorite settings on my kindle.  That meant that every time I advanced a page it the percent increased by 1%.  I thought that was neat. :D

I planned it that way just for you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 22, 2012, 02:55:29 PM
It was a pretty good read btw.  It amused me during my trials of stress.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on May 22, 2012, 03:45:29 PM
Quote from: DavidW on May 22, 2012, 02:55:29 PM
It was a pretty good read btw.  It amused me during my trials of stress.

Thanks, bud. Much appreciated. I was going for that Heavy Metal (movie) vibe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philoctetes3 on May 25, 2012, 10:38:20 AM
Finally started by book reading portion of the researching. First up:

(http://ia600804.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/5/items/olcovers61/olcovers61-L.zip&file=615260-L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on May 27, 2012, 01:11:21 PM
Franz Kafka--The Trial
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on May 28, 2012, 01:10:03 PM
Covering an issue that remains topical today:

Maria Edgeworth: Patronage
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on May 28, 2012, 01:52:10 PM
I've just finished Bill C. Malone's Country Music, USA and started on Willie Nelson: An Epic Life by Joe Patoski.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 29, 2012, 08:23:39 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5184VYXHxRL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Some of his paintings are coming to Denver in the fall.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jake on May 29, 2012, 08:31:14 PM
[asin]0822347946[/asin] [asin]069105052X[/asin]

Preparing for my move this summer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 01, 2012, 04:01:27 AM
Alan will wonder just what's taken me so long (the book has been on my shelf for some months now), but at last I have cracked open Her Fearful Symmetry.  I am entirely in its grip, now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 01, 2012, 05:48:33 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 01, 2012, 04:01:27 AM
Alan will wonder just what's taken me so long (the book has been on my shelf for some months now), but at last I have cracked open Her Fearful Symmetry.  I am entirely in its grip, now.

No, I don't wonder. I know what it's like. A book just sits and sits and suddenly the time is right.

I firmly predict that you will respond to it in one of the following ways:

1. Best novel I've read for years.
2. Worst novel I've read for years.
3. Somewhere in between 1 and 2.
4. It's profound.
5. It's silly.
6. Somewhere between 4 and 5.
7. I'd really like to see the movie.
8. Oh  thank goodness there's no movie of it that I ought to see.
9. Somewhere between 7 and 8.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 01, 2012, 06:26:16 AM
Now that I've moved I plan on checking out the novel myself soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 01, 2012, 06:34:55 AM
I sem to recall, Alan, that you made a similarly firm prediction regarding The Spirit of England, and by gum, if ye wasn't right!

Good to see you've moved into the Shed, Davey.  (You've always lived here, of course.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 01, 2012, 06:38:00 PM
QuoteHe belonged to one on-line forum that existed to allow various scholars worldwide to debate the merits of various texts and to amuse each other by ridiculing the work of translators who didn't belong to the forum.

So true to life!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 02, 2012, 01:16:15 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 01, 2012, 06:34:55 AM
I sem to recall, Alan, that you made a similarly firm prediction regarding The Spirit of England, and by gum, if ye wasn't right!

Actually, I've had a massive spate of novel-reading during recent months (I found, years ago, that my strike rate for novels was so poor - I had to read a lot of them to find one that seemed to reward the effort - that I pretty much switched off.) Some quick comments:

Top of the tree
Audrey Niffenegger: Her Fearful Symmetry. Most profoundly affecting novel I've read in the last ten years, in so many ways and through so many layers. Maybe ever.

Highly memorable
Erin Morgenstern: The Night Circus
Eowen Ivey: The Snow Child

Good, well-written, but probably forgettable
Sadie Jones: The Outcast, Small Wars, The Uninvited Guests. She has a 'thing' about looking beneath the veneer of respectable living, and exposing the worms that lurk there.
M L Stedman: The Light Between Oceans. A real page-turner, very moving (about a lighthouse-keeper and his wife who find an abandoned baby in a boat, and keep it) but I find I'm disappointingly unchanged by the experience of reading it.
Wendy Jones: The Thoughts & Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals. Very nicely done, and a happy ending! Hoorah!
Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveller's Wife. Famous, beautifully written in an easy style, like all her stuff, but doesn't have the depth of HFS.
Dana Spiota: Stone Arabia. Fascinating idea, about a failed rock musician who spends his life constructing a fantasised archive about what would have happened if he'd succeeded. Fine until the ending, which is incomprehensible, and which makes me want to throw the damn book out of the window.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 02, 2012, 06:16:32 AM
Almost done with Part I of HFS. Digging it! I hesitate to speak in detail, lest I spill spoilers.

If I were not on my way to the museum, I'd ring you, dude. Another time!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 02, 2012, 09:04:09 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 02, 2012, 06:16:32 AM
Almost done with Part I of HFS. Digging it! I hesitate to speak in detail, lest I spill spoilers.

If I were not on my way to the museum, I'd ring you, dude. Another time!

That's good news all round. It's the later half of the book that some people complain about, but provided one keeps in mind the central theme - that our tendency to cling to things that we should be letting go is not a good idea - everything (in hindsight) turns out to have an interlocked inevitability about it.

I promise not to move more than 2 metres from the phone in the meantime. (A promise surprisingly easy to keep - I fell off my bike today and landed on my backside; so am having a bit of difficulty moving anywhere!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 02, 2012, 01:16:38 PM
I've checked it out of the library and will start it as soon as I finish Unsinkable.

[asin]B001GIPSDY[/asin]

Unsinkable is very informative and mostly free of the bias of other accounts of the sinking of the Titanic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 02, 2012, 06:04:37 PM
Quote from: DavidW on June 02, 2012, 01:16:38 PM
I've checked it out of the library and will start it as soon as I finish Unsinkable.

[asin]B001GIPSDY[/asin]

Unsinkable is very informative and mostly free of the bias of other accounts of the sinking of the Titanic.

Cool David.  Did not know that you enjoyed reading about the Titanic.  Did you see the traveling exhibit?

http://www.rmstitanic.net/exhibitions.html

I am not sure that they are all the same, but the one that came to Denver a few years back was incredible....is the TX one in range?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 02, 2012, 07:05:12 PM
The Houston one isn't but the SC one will be once I move. :)

It will be worth the drive to see White Star Line china!  Thanks for the headsup Bill.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 03, 2012, 12:15:21 AM
Quote from: DavidW on June 02, 2012, 01:16:38 PM
Unsinkable is very informative and mostly free of the bias of other accounts of the sinking of the Titanic.

What is the kind of bias you refer to?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 03, 2012, 04:10:17 PM
Quote from: Opus106 on June 03, 2012, 12:15:21 AM
What is the kind of bias you refer to?

Egalitarianism... many make the story out to be about class warfare, which it is not.  Nobody was willfully trying to ensure that the 3rd class passengers did not make it to the lifeboats.  It amounts to libel since most of the passengers and nearly all of the crew acted heroically during the sinking of the ship.  So many of the crew deliberately gave their lives to fulfill their duty.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 03, 2012, 10:25:59 PM
Quote from: DavidW on June 03, 2012, 04:10:17 PM
Egalitarianism... many make the story out to be about class warfare, which it is not.  Nobody was willfully trying to ensure that the 3rd class passengers did not make it to the lifeboats.  It amounts to libel since most of the passengers and nearly all of the crew acted heroically during the sinking of the ship.  So many of the crew deliberately gave their lives to fulfill their duty.

Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 04, 2012, 11:37:09 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on June 02, 2012, 09:04:09 AM
That's good news all round. It's the later half of the book that some people complain about, but provided one keeps in mind the central theme - that our tendency to cling to things that we should be letting go is not a good idea - everything (in hindsight) turns out to have an interlocked inevitability about it.

I promise not to move more than 2 metres from the phone in the meantime. (A promise surprisingly easy to keep - I fell off my bike today and landed on my backside; so am having a bit of difficulty moving anywhere!)

Hope you're mending quickly!

Very much enjoying the book, though my progress is slower (quite some napping yesterday) than I anticipated.  It is not normally the sort of book I read, but I find it so well written, that detail of normality doesn't much seem to matter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 04, 2012, 12:39:56 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 04, 2012, 11:37:09 AM
It is not normally the sort of book I read, but I find it so well written, that detail of normality doesn't much seem to matter.

What strikes me about the quality of the writing is the remarkable combination of its natural flow (it's a very easy, comfortable read, as you're finding) with its richness (which only became fully apparent to me on subsequent readings). It's packed with simple sentences that convey a great deal more than they appear to at first sight. The words often seem almost perfectly chosen, with unusual resonances: so for instance, the name that the twins choose for the kitten - 'The Little Kitten of Death' - fits perfectly the circumstances in which they first see it, and introduces an element of gentle dark humour, but also develops a kind of prophetic character as the narrative unfolds. Then there are the insights into the way we behave, driven subconsciously - as when Robert observes how nothing that happened to him ever seemed quite real until he'd told Elspeth about it. That told me volumes about Robert and Elspeth, and also made me recognise an aspect of myself that I'd never quite seen clearly. Marvellous stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 05, 2012, 09:23:32 AM
The catching of the kitten, in particular: an expert touch.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 05, 2012, 09:42:31 AM
All right! A book with the word "bloviating"! Hot diggity!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 05, 2012, 10:13:14 AM
The diaries as "unexploded ordnance": beautiful!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 05, 2012, 11:03:57 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 05, 2012, 10:13:14 AM
The diaries as "unexploded ordnance": beautiful!

You're definitely not bloviating, Karl.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 05, 2012, 11:19:47 AM
I may never before have used the expression hot diggity.

Just finished reading of Valentina's outing, and the subsequent dust-up with Julia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 05, 2012, 11:48:16 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on June 05, 2012, 11:03:57 AM
You're definitely not bloviating, Karl.

I learned that word on The O'Reilly Factor. True story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 05, 2012, 11:59:36 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 05, 2012, 11:48:16 AM
I learned that word on The O'Reilly Factor. True story.

Until I encountered the word in HFS, I was bloviationally ignorant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 05, 2012, 07:50:40 PM
Decided to introduce myself to some Asimov.  Starting with this:

(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1335782224l/41811.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on June 05, 2012, 08:17:49 PM
Elizabeth Gaffney--Metropolis
Title: Re: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 06, 2012, 03:20:36 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on June 05, 2012, 11:03:57 AM
You're definitely not bloviating, Karl.

Just finished Part II. Damn, but this is mighty good, Alan!
Title: Re: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 06, 2012, 04:57:46 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 06, 2012, 03:20:36 AM
Just finished Part II. Damn, but this is mighty good, Alan!

At the very least, it's unbloviational.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 06, 2012, 05:11:42 AM
It possesses that virtue, also.

The occasional borderline-bloviating narrative (The Sot-Weed Factor ?) I can get into, too, though . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 06, 2012, 06:27:45 AM
Oh, well, I fear I have (or may have) done Jn Barth a disservice.

I don't think that The Sot-Weed Factor bloviates at all.  It is just an effusion of language, and an exultation in the twists of narrative.  Very different in make-up and tone to the rich economy of Her Tearful Mimicry.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 06, 2012, 06:29:23 AM
I'm not sure if you gents are revealing anything about the story as such, but I'd appreciate the occasional spoiler alert. ;) Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 06, 2012, 06:34:00 AM
I'm trying to tread carefully, Nav.  This page is certainly safe! : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 06, 2012, 09:17:35 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on June 06, 2012, 06:29:23 AM
I'm not sure if you gents are revealing anything about the story as such, but I'd appreciate the occasional spoiler alert. ;) Thanks.

Nothing here to worry about Nav. We're giving nothing of significance away. (I should explain that my comment that the central theme of the book is concerned with the consequences of trying to hang on to those things that we should have let go of isn't a spoiler. In fact Niffenegger herself has said this many times in interviews, without in any way revealing what those consequences are.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 06, 2012, 09:21:57 AM
And, much as I do like my Nook, Alan, I must thank you for speaking up for the hard copy edition.

For only one thing (and among the least of things), I am making use of a magnetic bookmark, which cannot be done with the Nook.  Not with any real chance of success . . . .

Was just speaking to a co-worker who likes The Time-Traveller's Wife very much.  I've given her to understand that, if anything, she will enjoy HFS yet more : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 06, 2012, 09:23:43 AM
Thanks for the re-assurances. :) I'm a bit obsessive of not knowing or knowing very little of a literary work or film, even the most banal of them, let alone a good mystery or fantasy story. (This goes back to a traumatic incident nearly a decade ago: someone revealed to me the plot of The Sixth Sense just days before I watched it for the first time.  :'()
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 06, 2012, 09:48:37 AM
Navneeth, the story isn't really about the plot but about the characters.  If you knew the entire plot, it still wouldn't spoil the story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 06, 2012, 09:52:31 AM
Quote from: DavidW on June 06, 2012, 09:48:37 AM
Navneeth, the story isn't really about the plot but about the characters.  If you knew the entire plot, it still wouldn't spoil the story.

Understood. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 06, 2012, 11:52:31 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 06, 2012, 09:21:57 AM
Was just speaking to a co-worker who likes The Time-Traveller's Wife very much.  I've given her to understand that, if anything, she will enjoy HFS yet more : )

I'd say that too, and yet curiously the majority of fans of TTTW seem to have been disappointed by HFS. Perversely, I read HFS first (several times over) and was a bit disappointed when I read TTTW later; or rather, I responded to TTTW as a good, well-told tale, but HFS was more like a direct lightning strike, with more hits on repeated reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 06, 2012, 12:04:40 PM
Well, if my co-worker find HFS at all disappointing, she will receive that experience philosophically . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 06, 2012, 05:40:30 PM
Her Fearful Symmetry was an exceptional read, thanks for the recommendation Elgarian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 06, 2012, 11:37:53 PM
Quote from: DavidW on June 06, 2012, 05:40:30 PM
Her Fearful Symmetry was an exceptional read, thanks for the recommendation Elgarian.

Thanks for letting me know Dave. I'm glad it worked out, because although I'm besotted with the book myself, I know its reception has been very mixed - so actually recommending it to other folks is a risky pastime!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on June 06, 2012, 11:39:50 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on June 06, 2012, 11:37:53 PM
I know its reception has been very mixed - so actually recommending it to other folks is a risky pastime!

Not that it needs reminding, but this is GMG. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on June 07, 2012, 12:57:54 AM
CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS:      "L'Anthropologie face aux problèmes du monde moderne"

This book is composed by three lectures gave by Levi-Strauss in Japan in 1986. There is nothing new here,  most of the ideas having been more deeply expressed is his great works like "Tristes Tropiques" or "La Pensée sauvage".
Anyway a good introduction to the work of Levi-Strauss.
Title: Re: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2012, 03:27:31 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on June 06, 2012, 11:37:53 PM
Thanks for letting me know Dave. I'm glad it worked out, because although I'm besotted with the book myself, I know its reception has been very mixed - so actually recommending it to other folks is a risky pastime!

Dude, I've just now finished. The ending in particular is perfect. I'm marveling at how very well wrought the whole story is. So many turns in the narrative which are sharply dramatic, and yet consummately staged. Rather hard cheese on ... the crow-rider, but if that be perhaps the one niggling dissatisfaction I feel, it is slight. A little time, even, will probably iron it over, and I shall simply find it a smooth, perfect fabric.

Again, one of the things over which I chuckle with quiet pleasure is: if someone had summarized the story in a (longish) paragraph, I might well have found it "creepy," and felt, no, not at all the thing I take pleasure in reading. But (on lines of a comment of Davey's) it is a touching story entangling a number of interesting, and likeable (though enfoibled) characters ... what's going to happen to them?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2012, 04:33:29 AM
Nav, don't read this before you've read the book!

*** Her Fearful Symmetry SPOILER ALERT !!! ***

Alan & Davey . . . I really enjoyed how Niffenegger set up the kitten episode with Elspeth "killing" the telly.  And I totally got that gut presentiment, that it would not be V. who was "reanimated" — nor do I think it was baldly telegraphed.  I like the hint, from Robert's cautionary remark to V., that Elspeth has reasons behind her reasons, that this was the intention all along.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 07, 2012, 06:38:38 AM
I saw that plot twist coming a mile away, but it still shocked me!

I liked how every character got what they needed but not necessarily what they wanted.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 07, 2012, 12:14:12 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 07, 2012, 04:33:29 AM
Nav, don't read this before you've read the book!

*** Her Fearful Symmetry SPOILER ALERT !!! ***

Alan & Davey . . . I really enjoyed how Niffenegger set up the kitten episode with Elspeth "killing" the telly.  And I totally got that gut presentiment, that it would not be V. who was "reanimated" — nor do I think it was baldly telegraphed.  I like the hint, from Robert's cautionary remark to V., that Elspeth has reasons behind her reasons, that this was the intention all along.

MORE HFS SPOILERS NAVNEETH - AVOID!

Being generally slow on the uptake (particularly when reading novels), I missed quite a lot on my first reading of the book but picked up a lot more on my second.

I thought that comment of Robert's about Elspeth having 'reasons behind her reasons' was one of the little treasures of human understanding that are studded through the book like diamonds.

Also on my first reading I was puzzled about what Robert's sudden insight (not explicitly explained) was, in the library, a few pages before the end. It was only after the second reading that I understood what it was, how it linked to the closing sentence of the book, and indeed to the entire theme of the novel. Just call me Speedy.

It still gives me thrilling little shivers, even now, just thinking about this tale, and these people, and how it all wraps together in such satisfying ways.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2012, 12:15:49 PM
A very cool book, indeed. Thanks for bringing it to my/our attention, Alan!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 07, 2012, 12:18:05 PM
Quote from: DavidW on June 07, 2012, 06:38:38 AM
I liked how every character got what they needed but not necessarily what they wanted.

Do you think Elspeth gets what she needs? (I think it could go either way.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2012, 12:24:17 PM
Nav, don't read this before you've read the book!

*** Her Fearful Symmetry SPOILER ALERT !!! ***

Quote from: Elgarian on June 07, 2012, 12:18:05 PM
Do you think Elspeth gets what she needs? (I think it could go either way.)

I'm not sure which is worse, Alan: the moral bed which Elspeth has made and must now lie in, or the fact that (unlike Robert) she seems to have the stomach for it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 07, 2012, 12:41:02 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 07, 2012, 12:24:17 PM
Nav, don't read this before you've read the book!

*** Her Fearful Symmetry SPOILER ALERT !!! ***

I'm not sure which is worse, Alan: the moral bed which Elspeth has made and must now lie in, or the fact that (unlike Robert) she seems to have the stomach for it.

Yes, there's something  dismaying about that, whichever way one looks at it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 07, 2012, 01:34:55 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on June 07, 2012, 12:18:05 PM
Do you think Elspeth gets what she needs? (I think it could go either way.)

Yeah I think she always needed to be a mother.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on June 07, 2012, 11:34:56 PM
SPOILER ALERT!

Quote from: DavidW on June 07, 2012, 01:34:55 PM
Yeah I think she always needed to be a mother.

I like the simplicity of that, but feel I can't be sure because the 'motherhood' situation  is so intricately complicated by the relations between Elspeth and her sister, and Julia and Valentina, and also the ultimate loss of Robert. Hard to weigh up the gains and losses!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: springrite on June 08, 2012, 08:34:50 AM
As a frequent traveler, often one-city-per-day for weeks on end, I never complain about flight delays and cancelations. That is because I always bring music and books. A delay just give me a chance to read, which I usually don't have time for.

Yesterday's delay gave me the chance to finish reading this:

"Serving Genius", a biography of Carlo Maria Giulini.

Always loved this man, and more so now than ever. I had tears many times as I was reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 08, 2012, 07:05:47 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 05, 2012, 07:50:40 PM
Decided to introduce myself to some Asimov.  Starting with this:

(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1335782224l/41811.jpg)

I'm hooked....roared throught the above in basically two days and now for the sequel:

(http://scholarsarena.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Isaac-Asimov-The-Naked-Sun.jpg)

A nicely written murder mystery in the first, and now I want to see what happens to the characters in the second novel.  Thanks for your guidance here, David.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 08, 2012, 08:04:04 PM
Awesome Bill! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 09, 2012, 12:14:17 AM
Quote from: DavidW on June 08, 2012, 08:04:04 PM
Awesome Bill! :)

Seconded. Those are excellent classics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on June 09, 2012, 05:37:21 PM
Too much excellent posts, I feel like a salmon trying to go up the river. Just too much to catch up to.

Right, now, Grisham's Ford County Chronicles.

Next: volume 2 of Naguib Mahfouz' "Cairo Trilogy". My favourite author right now, in the Mann, Steinbeck, Ivo Andric mould.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 09, 2012, 08:45:19 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 09, 2012, 12:14:17 AM
Seconded. Those are excellent classics.

Well, I am half way through the second book.  I am taking other suggestions after the third....may just continue with the Asimov run, but always like suggestions, especially for sci-fi, which I have read very little.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 10, 2012, 01:48:46 AM
Quote from: André on June 09, 2012, 05:37:21 PM
Too much excellent posts, I feel like a salmon trying to go up the river. Just too much to catch up to.

Right, now, Grisham's Ford County Chronicles.

Next: volume 2 of Naguib Mahfouz' "Cairo Trilogy". My favourite author right now, in the Mann, Steinbeck, Ivo Andric mould.

Ha! Andre sighting! So nice to see you around again, my friend.

As for my current reading, as usual it's several books at the same time:

Ullman & Konemann's excellent coffee-table book on Romanesque architecture. Read half of it, then left it aside for long time, now picking it up from where I left it: early French Cluniac period.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51J0gz4cGtL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
It's very cheap, shouldn't be missed by those interested in architecture in some general manner.

Just Starting Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (in Serbian translation). My favorite American writer ( with Hemingway).
(http://www.polovneknjige.net/images/knjige/strane/avesalome_avesalome_mlado_pokolenje_1961.jpg)
Serbian edition from 1961

Still reading Gyula Krudy's Szindbad stories. Short wistful, somewhat proustian stories about male-female relationships in fin-de-siecle Hungary. I read one or two of them when I'm in the mood so Serbian edition of complete stories (about 90 of them) should take me several months to finish.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HoIph98KL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
English translation, selection of stories.

And last but not least, fresh of the press The Sugardust Star, a new book of poetry by a friend. She is a wonderful poet.
(https://sites.google.com/site/edicijanajboljapoezija/_/rsrc/1337021482645/knjige-2012/ana-seferovic-zvezda-od-prah-secera/predsef.jpg)
Title poem in English translation
http://trgnisepoezija.blogspot.com/2012/05/ana-seferovic.html

edit: horrible spelling, even more than usual.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 10, 2012, 04:14:03 AM
Quote from: Drasko on June 10, 2012, 01:48:46 AM
Ha! Andre sighting! So nice to see you around again, my friend.

As for my current reading, as usual it's several books at the same time:

Ullman & Konemann's excellent coffee-table book on Romanesque architecture. Read half of it, than left it aside for long time, now picking it up from where left it: early French Cluniac period.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51J0gz4cGtL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
Iit's very cheap, shouldn't be missed for those interested in architecture in some general manner.


Cool.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 10, 2012, 06:10:18 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 09, 2012, 08:45:19 PM
Well, I am half way through the second book.  I am taking other suggestions after the third....may just continue with the Asimov run, but always like suggestions, especially for sci-fi, which I have read very little.

Try Frank Herbert's Dune cycle. Another classic winner.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 10, 2012, 07:14:59 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 10, 2012, 06:10:18 AM
Try Frank Herbert's Dune cycle. Another classic winner.

Thanks, Florestan.

Just finished Naked Sun.  On to:

(http://www.alexholden.net/books/covers/The_Robots_Of_Dawn_f.jpeg)

Should be interesting seeing that the previous two books were written in the 50's and this on in the 80's.  I have enjoyed Asimov's clarity of writing.  Very clean with his prose.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 11, 2012, 06:05:27 AM
About two-thirds through this. Very much enjoying it, but especially because I've watched the series prior to reading what the author has to say about each episode.

[asin]1879505096[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 12, 2012, 06:51:47 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 11, 2012, 06:05:27 AM
About two-thirds through this. Very much enjoying it, but especially because I've watched the series prior to reading what the author has to say about each episode.

[asin]1879505096[/asin]

On my shelf downstairs I have a book that collected some of Serling's short stories.  Brilliant.  He is one of the greatest story tellers of our time, Karl....and I say that without reservation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 12, 2012, 07:02:41 AM
Submitted for your approval, Bill. . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on June 15, 2012, 02:52:41 AM
I'm reading the biography of George Szell. An interesting fact from his youth: a child prodigy who began playing piano before he was potty trained and began composing shortly thereafter (he was likened to Mozart--aren't all prodigies?), he was the perfect little boy and son--until puberty hit with a vengeance and he turned rebellious. He was so incorrigible, his parents sent him away to be treated by Carl Jung. Jung failed. Szell came back home "quite unchanged but with a rich vocabulary of psychoanalytical terms to amuse his friends and exasperate his parents."  ;D

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/apr12/szellalifeofmusic.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on June 28, 2012, 04:41:03 PM
Currently I'm reading ...

Paul Krugman: End this Depression Now!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Zl-bSmwdL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Another book everybody should read. Actually, I'm only about 1/2 way through at the moment, but I have confidently reached that conclusion.

If you know beans about Krugman, you'll know he's an unabashed Keynesian. So you'll know that he believes that the stimulus should have been much larger and longer sustained; you'll know that he would have preferred supporting states to keep public service workers on the payroll. And you'll know that he would have preferred much tougher conditions on the banks when the bailouts were handed out. (With hindsight, he says that the banks should have been placed in formal receivership.)

But if you're an anarcho-capitalist Ayn Rand devotee this book won't convince you. Likewise if you're Neo-classical a.k.a. "freshwater"  economist, you'll be in a state of full denial about the causes as well as the solutions to the current recession -- or depression, as Krugman identifies it based on account of what will happen if effective action isn't taken.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 28, 2012, 05:31:43 PM
The Obamacare opinions. (http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf) Maybe I'm crazy, but it's a really interesting read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 28, 2012, 08:05:09 PM
The first two chapters were interesting reading while waiting for jury duty

(http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~felluga/foucault.jpeg)
Title: Re: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 29, 2012, 03:03:07 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 28, 2012, 05:31:43 PM
The Obamacare opinions. (http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf) Maybe I'm crazy, but it's a really interesting read.

As a purely disinterested (but non-juridical) party, I am of the opinion that you are not crazy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on June 29, 2012, 08:18:54 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 28, 2012, 05:31:43 PM
The Obamacare opinions. (http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf) Maybe I'm crazy, but it's a really interesting read.
Yes. A badly cobbled together majority opinion authored by Roberts that will surely provide fodder for Con Law class discussions in law schools nationwide for many years to come, perhaps ranking with poor Harry Blackmun's Roe v Wade decision as one of the most convoluted and rationally vacuous opinions ever issued in such a significant case.

Interestingly (though utterly wrong) I thought Ginsburg's dissent to limiting Federal power much better argued from precedent, though completely missing the clear intent of the law. Yes, the Court has allowed the camel of unrestrained federal power to stick it's nose, head, forelegs, and middle into the nation's tent -- but that's no reason to allow it to get its ass in, too, and shit all over the place!

Congrats to you, Brian, for actually reading the opinion instead of just parroting whatever your chosen demagogue says about it! Available on the SCOTUS website, here http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on June 30, 2012, 04:38:28 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 28, 2012, 05:31:43 PM
The Obamacare opinions. (http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf) Maybe I'm crazy, but it's a really interesting read.
Taking a slightly distant, rational perspective, no law should be necessary to "command individuals to purchase insurance" because health care ought to be paid for from general tax revenues.  This is the case in many developed nations and those nations tend to have the most effective health care systems in terms of outcomes, and the most efficient health care systems in terms of % of GDP per resident.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 30, 2012, 04:44:16 AM
Re-reading David Copperfield on my Nook.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 30, 2012, 09:09:10 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 19, 2012, 10:45:43 AM
Anyone read this author.  Here is his upcoming book:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aSGo0pHAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

December, 1942. Texas Ranger Virgil Tucker receives a plea for protection from Madeline Kimbell, a terrified young woman who witnessed a crime. Keeping Madeline safe from the men who want to hurt her turns out to be harder than he imagined. When a prominent attorney is murdered, Virgil is drawn into the dangerous world of the New Orleans Mafia as the top mob bosses try to take over  alveston's gambling empire. Chockfull of Southern charm, this book is perfect for fans of historical
mysteries and for anyone who loves Texas.

Just pulled the trigger on this one after enjoying Burton's Nights of the Red Moon.  (MN Dave, you "gotta" try this guy! and any others here that like "noir" and gritty crime reads without the gore factor.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on June 30, 2012, 01:05:36 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Gq3qQ6LUL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Great book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 02, 2012, 03:21:22 PM
.[asin]1608190552[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 03, 2012, 12:20:10 PM
Finished the above in only two days....that good.  Tried some non-fiction, but just is not grabbing me, so on to the second novel in this series from the folks at Black Lizard:

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2clk4oNmDwI/Th_Ek0MRZxI/AAAAAAAAEZI/9BinTJgDM8g/s1600/The%2BMan%2BWho%2BWent%2BUp%2Bin%2BSmoke%2B%252B%2BWahloo.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 03, 2012, 01:40:31 PM
Quote from: Bogey on July 03, 2012, 12:20:10 PM
Finished the above in only two days....that good.  Tried some non-fiction, but just is not grabbing me, so on to the second novel in this series from the folks at Black Lizard:

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2clk4oNmDwI/Th_Ek0MRZxI/AAAAAAAAEZI/9BinTJgDM8g/s1600/The%2BMan%2BWho%2BWent%2BUp%2Bin%2BSmoke%2B%252B%2BWahloo.jpeg)

I love that series, Bill!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 03, 2012, 03:02:48 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 03, 2012, 01:40:31 PM
I love that series, Bill!


My first round with it.  Neat to read some detective novels that are set in this time period of the 60's and 70's.  Just gives it a different feel to the way the investigation has to be approached without our recent technology....part of the charm of our Columbo, don't you think? :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 03, 2012, 05:40:44 PM
Quote from: Bogey on July 03, 2012, 03:02:48 PM

My first round with it.  Neat to read some detective novels that are set in this time period of the 60's and 70's.  Just gives it a different feel to the way the investigation has to be approached without our recent technology....part of the charm of our Columbo, don't you think? :)

Goodness, yes. Forensic investigation is set to kill a good contemporary mystery - all the killer has to do is leave a hair at the crime scene and it's no fun anymore.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zizekian on July 03, 2012, 05:44:59 PM
I recently finished reading:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41URFNJSWML._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

I'm currently reading:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41anakKdE4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 03, 2012, 06:24:48 PM
I've been renewing my acquaintance with Shakespeare over the past few months, as I do every few years -- revisiting old favorites, and chipping away at the dozen or so of the plays that I haven't yet read (just started King John).  I've been reading some decidedly old-school criticism as I go along, notably William Hazlitt and Harold Bloom (amusingly curmudgeonly, but a lifetime of insight and love on the subject)...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517-S6hcm4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 03, 2012, 06:29:51 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 30, 2012, 04:44:16 AM
Re-reading David Copperfield on my Nook.

If it were anything but Shakespeare I'd probably be reading it on my Nook as well.  For the Bard, I've been gathering up the Arden series paperbacks over the years.  More notes and commentary than one could ever hope to shake a stick at, in a whole lifetime of stick-shaking.  Although the RSC Shakespeare ebooks are pretty good, I've tried a couple and would recommend them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zizekian on July 03, 2012, 06:31:45 PM
Quote from: jwinter on July 03, 2012, 06:24:48 PM
I've been renewing my acquaintance with Shakespeare over the past few months, as I do every few years -- revisiting old favorites, and chipping away at the dozen or so of the plays that I haven't yet read (just started King John).  I've been reading some decidedly old-school criticism as I go along, notably William Hazlitt and Harold Bloom (amusingly curmudgeonly, but a lifetime of insight and love on the subject)...

The Bloom book is a great read, as is his book on the Western Canon. He's equal parts Andy Rooney and Falstaff!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 04, 2012, 12:02:31 PM
Quote from: Zizekian on July 03, 2012, 06:31:45 PM
The Bloom book is a great read, as is his book on the Western Canon. He's equal parts Andy Rooney and Falstaff!

Yes; I read somewhere that Bloom actually played Falstaff on a couple of occasions -- that must have been a hoot!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 05, 2012, 05:08:11 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 30, 2012, 04:44:16 AM
Re-reading David Copperfield on my Nook.

What chapter are you on, Karl?

Decided to join you in your Copperfield plights, Karl.  The young "shaver" was just sent off to boarding school.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 05, 2012, 05:51:08 PM
MAN PLUS
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 06, 2012, 09:12:16 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 05, 2012, 05:08:11 PM
What chapter are you on, Karl?

Decided to join you in your Copperfield plights, Karl.  The young "shaver" was just sent off to boarding school.

"Take care of him. He bites."

Here, he's just rejoined his mum, Peggotty — and a new character.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on July 06, 2012, 09:48:36 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on June 30, 2012, 04:38:28 AM
Taking a slightly distant, rational perspective, no law should be necessary to "command individuals to purchase insurance" because health care ought to be paid for from general tax revenues.  This is the case in many developed nations and those nations tend to have the most effective health care systems in terms of outcomes, and the most efficient health care systems in terms of % of GDP per resident.

Pulling numbers out of thin air won't make it so. Health care ought decidedly NOT be paid for by general tax revenues. Not because it wouldn't be in theory a nice and desirable thing, but because it would achieve the exact opposite of that which the underlying motivation desires.
Having lived in countries like the US, Germany, and Norway, I would suggest that although universal healthcare is probably desirable, and a mandate perhaps a necessary evil (Germany didn't have one until 2006 or 2007 -- and such laws do entail unintended consequences that undermine the very effect they propose to have), only more free market and more competition among doctors will help reduce the ever increasing burden on society that is health care cost.

But enough on the politics of health care: What am I reading?


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uy2wOBG1L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Ian Fleming
James Bond
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Penguin (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153944/goodmusicguide-20)


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rZmofLCrL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
P.G.Wodehouse
Bachelors Anonymous
Everyman Library (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590208579/goodmusicguide-20)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 06, 2012, 09:52:55 AM
 Quote from: jlaurson on Today at 01:48:36 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg642047#msg642047)
But enough on the politics of health care: What am I reading?

>
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uy2wOBG1L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Ian Fleming
James Bond
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Penguin (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153944/goodmusicguide-20)

  Ah, I love Fleming, the original novels are so much better than the movies (though I like most of the movies as well -- a shame that they couldn't get Connery to stick around for OHMSS).  The books always make me hungry; it's fascinating how Fleming always goes through every meal Bond eats in great detail.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 06, 2012, 10:03:17 AM
Quote from: jwinter on July 06, 2012, 09:52:55 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on Today at 01:48:36 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg642047#msg642047)
But enough on the politics of health care: What am I reading?

>
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uy2wOBG1L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Ian Fleming
James Bond
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Penguin (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0718153944/goodmusicguide-20)

  Ah, I love Fleming, the original novels are so much better than the movies (though I like most of the movies as well -- a shame that they couldn't get Connery to stick around for OHMSS).  The books always make me hungry; it's fascinating how Fleming always goes through every meal Bond eats in great detail.

And the first book taught me to play...whatever that card game was.  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 06, 2012, 10:06:04 AM
Authors?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 06, 2012, 10:07:23 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 06, 2012, 10:03:17 AM
And the first book taught me to play...whatever that card game was.  ???

Baccarat.  I actually had a Hoyle CD-ROM game that I used to play back in the day (before I was allowed to have martinis...)   ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on July 06, 2012, 10:14:08 AM
Quote from: jwinter on July 06, 2012, 10:07:23 AM

Baccarat.  I actually had a Hoyle CD-ROM game that I used to play back in the day (before I was allowed to have martinis...)   ;D

Ah, yes... Casino Royale with Baccarat (in the movie they play Texas Hold'em instead -- oy!) -- and, to a lesser extent, Moonraker with Bridge. Moonraker, incidentally, the story upon which Die Another Day is based to a large degree (minus the many unsalvageably idiotic bits of the film), rather than the film of the novel's title.

Quote from: jwinter on July 06, 2012, 09:52:55 AM
  Ah, I love Fleming, the original novels are so much better than the movies (though I like most of the movies as well -- a shame that they couldn't get Connery to stick around for OHMSS). The books always make me hungry; it's fascinating how Fleming always goes through every meal Bond eats in great detail.

I know. That's one of the aspects I really like. And it's a window into a culinary world that's changed, considerably since then.

I would love to see a series of films that treats the Bond novels as period pieces, with excruciating attention detail in dress and drink and decor and behavior (the Mad Men advisers might be able to help); fairly unknown but talented actors (who won't distract from the story though personal fame, thus breaking the 4th wall the way cameos do)...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 06, 2012, 11:15:22 AM
 Quote from: jlaurson on Today at 02:14:08 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg642060#msg642060)
I would love to see a series of films that treats the Bond novels as period pieces, with excruciating attention detail in dress and drink and decor and behavior (the Mad Men advisers might be able to help); fairly unknown but talented actors (who won't distract from the story though personal fame, thus breaking the 4th wall the way cameos do)...
   
I agree -- that would be spiffy.  I like the current run of Bond movies as action flicks, but they just don't feel very James Bondish, if you know what I mean.  Yes, they have the theme music, and he's got a fast car and all that, but it's not the same.  They're too brutally violent, for one thing -- yes, the books definitely have a harder edge than the films, but these last few seem modelled more on Hong-Kong style action movies.  They badly need a sense of style -- more escapist fantasy, less video game.  Bond should be violent when he needs to be, but there should be an elegance about it, he should be suave, with a bit of humor (just a bit -- I'm not big on Roger Moore's last few movies, which degenerated into extreme camp).  I seem to remember Judi Dench at one point calling the current Bond a thug -- nobody would have ever thought to apply that term to Connery or Moore, or to Fleming's character in the novels.

Sorry to go off on a movie tangent on the book thread.  Umm... I have the new Bond novel Carte Blanche on my Nook, but I haven't read it yet.  Any opinions?   ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 06, 2012, 11:28:34 AM
Quote from: jwinter on July 06, 2012, 11:15:22 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on Today at 02:14:08 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg642060#msg642060)
I would love to see a series of films that treats the Bond novels as period pieces, with excruciating attention detail in dress and drink and decor and behavior (the Mad Men advisers might be able to help); fairly unknown but talented actors (who won't distract from the story though personal fame, thus breaking the 4th wall the way cameos do)...
   

All fans of the books dream of this, JW.  In fact, it might be better off if a BBC type unit that has done things like the Brett Holmes or Downton or other period pieces (yes, this needs the "period" treatment) get behind them instead of a movie studio.  Novels become each a three part series instead of the ol' squeeze play.  Let each novel breathe fully.

Karl,
Our lad just had a waiter help him with his meal of chops and pudding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on July 06, 2012, 11:31:18 AM
Quote from: jwinter on July 06, 2012, 11:15:22 AM
I agree -- that would be spiffy.  I like the current run of Bond movies as action flicks, but they just don't feel very James Bondish, if you know what I mean.  Yes, they have the theme music, and he's got a fast car and all that, but it's not the same.  They're too brutally violent, for one thing -- yes, the books definitely have a harder edge than the films, but these last few seem modelled more on Hong-Kong style action movies.  They badly need a sense of style -- more escapist fantasy, less video game.  Bond should be violent when he needs to be, but there should be an elegance about it, he should be suave, with a bit of humor (just a bit -- I'm not big on Roger Moore's last few movies, which degenerated into extreme camp).  I seem to remember Judi Dench at one point calling the current Bond a thug -- nobody would have ever thought to apply that term to Connery or Moore, or to Fleming's character in the novels.

Sorry to go off on a movie tangent on the book thread.  Umm... I have the new Bond novel Carte Blanche on my Nook, but I haven't read it yet.  Any opinions?   ;D

I couldn't agre more. Bond used to be about a leisurely pace, enjoying the good things in life, then short spurts of action and suspense. The late Roger Moore films had their problems, but except for the unsalvageable, geriatric "View to a Kill", they worked for me, because I was a kid and my sense of humor had only matured roughly to the point of that of an average adult movie-goer... not yet a sentient person. In retrospect the two Dalton films seem like an island of Bond-glory... but I was too young to appreciate them when they came out.
Golden Eye was the first I saw in the theater, and I loved Pierce Brosnan as the suave Bond -- and even had a poster in my college room, if I remember correctly. (Perhaps partly because of Onatop and the proper Bond girl.) Unfortunately the Brosnan films took a turn to the worse, each one more and more becoming exactly what you say: Hong Kong action flicks with lots of explosions, random machine-gunning, and a MTV music video editing. Not Brosnan's fault... but by Die Another Day, they had become nearly unwatchable. Casino Royale, despite the card-game adjustment and the somewhat heavy-handed avoidance of catch-phrases and Bond-clichees (and Bond-traditions), was marvelous... as if all the criticism of the previous films had been taken to heart. And then came Quantum of Solace... which I think caused a mild attack of epilepsy in me, and a strong case of utter boredom and disengaged anger. Th writer's strike is hardly an excuse for such a load of tosh... easily the worst Bond film to date... and that's saying a lot, given Die Another Day and A View to a Kill.

Quote from: Bogey on July 06, 2012, 11:28:34 AM
All fans of the books dream of this, JW.  In fact, it might be better off if a BBC type unit that has done things like the Brett Holmes or Downton or other period pieces (yes, this needs the "period" treatment) get behind them instead of a movie studio.  Novels become each a three part series instead of the ol' squeeze play.  Let each novel breathe fully.

Absolutely. Brett's Holmes and (to a slightly lesser extent) Suchet's Poirot are excellent examples. With lots of air, as you aptly describe it. There's a lot of doing little and boredom for Bond, after all. And then a lot of banging ladies -- a la 50 Ahades of Gray (which I've just read up on, on Wikipedia, so that I know what the hell is going on in the outside world).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 06, 2012, 11:48:44 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on July 06, 2012, 11:31:18 AM
. . . In retrospect the two Dalton films seem like an island of Bond-glory...

(* pounds the table with his Walther PPK *)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 06, 2012, 11:50:10 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 06, 2012, 11:28:34 AM
Karl,
Our lad just had a waiter help him with his meal of chops and pudding.

One of many scenes in Dickens which never stale, however many times you revisit them!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zizekian on July 07, 2012, 11:44:13 AM
The first time I tried reading this I loved it, but for some reason I ended up stopping halfway through. This time, I'm going to read it from cover to cover...wish me luck!

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/b7/6a/a6f4810ae7a0a9eb9687c110.L.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 07, 2012, 11:53:54 AM
Quote from: Zizekian on July 07, 2012, 11:44:13 AM
The first time I tried reading this I loved it, but for some reason I ended up stopping halfway through. This time, I'm going to read it from cover to cover...wish me luck!

My favorite novel!

Your description of your first attempt is like my first read of Don Quixote. Finished it the second time, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zizekian on July 07, 2012, 12:14:51 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 07, 2012, 11:53:54 AM
My favorite novel!

Your description of your first attempt is like my first read of Don Quixote. Finished it the second time, though.

Funny you should mention Cervantes, because I was actually trying to decide whether to return to The Brothers Karamazov or to start Don Quixote! Maybe I'll tackle Cervantes next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on July 07, 2012, 12:37:14 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 06, 2012, 11:48:44 AM
(* pounds the table with his Walther PPK *)

I'd pound the table too, but I see you've already smashed it to bits  ;D  Speaking of Timothy Dalton, Mrs. Rock and I have been watching Chuck fourth season. Dalton's performance as evil master-mind Alexei Volkoff is a delight.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mc ukrneal on July 07, 2012, 12:42:55 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 07, 2012, 11:53:54 AM
My favorite novel!

I love it too. The first time I read it, I was reading it on the train to and from work. I couldn't wait to get on the train and continue reading every day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lilas Pastia on July 07, 2012, 06:03:47 PM
Art Spiegelman' Maus. Following the full, 11 volume series of Boneville graphic story (Jeff Smith)

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HjDT3wDzNFA/TN5PE9Lps9I/AAAAAAAAAXc/yob_wG15Mpc/s1600/0679729771%255B1%255D.jpg) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XhmTBMs1IV4/S_SsrOHyUUI/AAAAAAAAAGU/ctftNumZ4gg/s1600/bone_jeff_smith_great_cow_race.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 08, 2012, 06:24:45 AM
The Complete World of Human Evolution (Second Edition) (2012) by Chris Stringer & Peter Andrews - I've been reading about this topic since my teen days (e.g. Origin of Species by Darwin) and further stimulated by a couple of anthropology courses as an undergrad - a LOT of new discoveries & better understandings since my early days!

The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea (2012) by Callum Roberts - bought as a Kindle edition for my iPad (enjoy reading books on this device!) - purchase stimulated by an interview w/ him (Diane Rehm NPR show) - the rather shocking story of the impact of man on the present oceans and how climate change has interacted w/ these changes -  :-\

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cCsJwawcL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ny2vzWR%2BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on July 08, 2012, 06:32:56 PM
Stephen King--The Shining
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on July 08, 2012, 07:45:09 PM
http://www.spiked-online.com/site/reviewofbooks_article/12590/

An interesting reassessment of Allan Bloom's "The closing of the American mind." Handily saves me the trouble of reading the book ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on July 08, 2012, 11:08:35 PM
Samuel Butler: The Way of All Flesh
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on July 09, 2012, 08:15:15 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on July 08, 2012, 07:45:09 PM
http://www.spiked-online.com/site/reviewofbooks_article/12590/

An interesting reassessment of Allan Bloom's "The closing of the American mind." Handily saves me the trouble of reading the book ;)
Does it? Consider these two quotes from the review:
QuoteIn a cruel twist, the culture wars that propelled Bloom to fame have also led his book to be largely misinterpreted. If you view The Closing of the American Mind through the prism of the culture wars, as most on the left and right still do, you miss what's vital and distinct about it.
QuoteIt is annoying to read that he believes only a few are capable of accessing philosophical ideas (refuted, of course, by the number of people who bought his book).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 09, 2012, 08:26:40 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on July 08, 2012, 07:45:09 PM
http://www.spiked-online.com/site/reviewofbooks_article/12590/

An interesting reassessment of Allan Bloom's "The closing of the American mind." Handily saves me the trouble of reading the book ;)

Are there really "hymns to the joys of onanism or the killing of parents," do you think?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on July 09, 2012, 09:20:34 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 09, 2012, 08:26:40 AM
Are there really "hymns to the joys of onanism or the killing of parents," do you think?

Hello! What about" Copper Blimp's" infamous B-Side: "Getting off to Sister, offing Mom & Dad" and the "Flightless Jackson's" "Ride the Red Rocket to Orphan-Hood"... really gratuitous stuff.


Not to forget classics like:

"Two Ways to Pull the Trigger"

"A Real Load Off Me"

... feel free to chip in...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 09, 2012, 09:32:33 AM
Well, songs about ... is every song a hymn? : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on July 09, 2012, 05:55:19 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 09, 2012, 09:32:33 AMWell, songs about ... is every song a hymn? : )

Hey dude, did you hear? Hymns are the new thing, man - everything's got to be slow and worshipful of God or it just ain't groove.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 10, 2012, 06:11:36 AM
(http://www.curteaveche.ro/newsletter/Nr12/carteaneagra.jpg)

Orhan Pamuk - The Black Book

TBH, I don't even know where to begin learning why he has received the Nobel Prize. His style is very poetical but that is all. I have never read more disconnected books than his. He starts at some point in time and then the action is lingering on and on and on, with countless asides and notes until you lose track of the main action and just delight in well-written but completely disconnected chapters. The only Pamuk's book that I really enjoyed was "Snow". All others I've read  ("My Name is Red", "The White Fortress" (unfinished till now since 4 years ago - I know, I know: since doesn't match ago but neither does the book matches its times, one of the most boring books I've ever (tried to) read  ;D -  and "The New Life") follow the pattern above. IM(not so)HO he should have been writing poems rather than novels...  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 10, 2012, 06:21:29 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c8/FallCamus.jpg/180px-FallCamus.jpg)

Albert Camus
The Fall

The last one of his fiction works, and the last one I read. La Peste and L'Étranger are some of my favourites, and this is definitely there, too.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zizekian on July 10, 2012, 11:46:48 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 10, 2012, 06:21:29 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c8/FallCamus.jpg/180px-FallCamus.jpg)

Albert Camus
The Fall

The last one of his non-fiction works, and the last one I read. La Peste and L'Étranger are some of my favourites, and this is definitely there, too.

The Fall was a novel, not a nonfiction work. Great book, though!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 10, 2012, 12:11:22 PM
Quote from: Zizekian on July 10, 2012, 11:46:48 AM
The Fall was a novel, not a nonfiction work.

Maybe he was there . . . . ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 10, 2012, 01:24:54 PM
Quote from: Zizekian on July 10, 2012, 11:46:48 AM
The Fall was a novel, not a nonfiction work. Great book, though!

:-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 10, 2012, 06:28:19 PM
I can't believe it's taken me so long to finally get around to Philip K. Dick!  Very interesting read, I devoured most of it this afternoon.  Quite different from Blade Runner, but excellent.  I'm definitely up for another -- any recs from resident PK Dick fans?

(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/081/350/400000000000000081350_s4.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 10, 2012, 06:46:29 PM
Quote from: jwinter on July 10, 2012, 06:28:19 PM
I can't believe it's taken me so long to finally get around to Philip K. Dick!  Very interesting read, I devoured most of it this afternoon.  Quite different from Blade Runner, but excellent.  I'm definitely up for another -- any recs from resident PK Dick fans?

(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/081/350/400000000000000081350_s4.png)

I have enjoyed all that I have read of PKD.  Here is one rec:

(http://www.philipkdick.com/images-smallcovers/cov-flowmytears-v-200.jpg)

PS

You have to hear this one on Shakespeare:

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/156370259/a-one-man-madhouse-with-murder-on-his-mind
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on July 10, 2012, 07:00:31 PM
Quote from: jwinter on July 10, 2012, 06:28:19 PM
I can't believe it's taken me so long to finally get around to Philip K. Dick!  Very interesting read, I devoured most of it this afternoon.  Quite different from Blade Runner, but excellent.  I'm definitely up for another -- any recs from resident PK Dick fans?

(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/081/350/400000000000000081350_s4.png)
[/quote

I would highly recommend "Through A Scanner Darkly"  {the movie starring Keanu Reeves as well} "The Man In The High Castle" , "The Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" and "Total Recall", to name but a few that come to mind right away.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 11, 2012, 04:11:39 AM
Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on July 11, 2012, 06:45:33 AM
I don't read many graphic novels but couldn't resist this one   8)

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/asheville/sgtrocklostbn.jpg)


Being a South Park fan, I love these panels  ;D


(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/asheville/Sgt-Rock-the%20lost%20battalion.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on July 11, 2012, 07:42:46 AM
Been digging into cyberpunk, lately.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VFZYSPPFL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
This is the quintessential volume, and it still lives up to that. Nearly every story is a hit. The top of the heap was 400 Boys by Marc Laidlaw. If you only read one cyberpunk text, this is it.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JK6pNcYqL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
This is a much more ambitious project, as it combines fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. This is also why it was a weaker text, as none of the non-fiction pieces were really complete, and the poetry was rather disjointed (and not in the good sort of way). The fiction though was, again, top notch. It had some repeats from Mirrorshades, but it also included something called Cyberpunk 101, which is an amazing basic premier. Top of the heap here was The Toliet Was Full of Nietzsche by Richard Kadrey, from the best cyberpunk text by one author called Metrophage.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51c7ztQaG0L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Conceptually, this was easily my favorite of the three anthologies, and it contained the strongest story, but overall the text was the ultimate failure because the editor made many poor choices, and included a lot of stories that were, at best, loosely cyberpunk. Top of the heap, and the best story overall from these three collections was The Wedding Album by David Marusek.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on July 11, 2012, 04:58:17 PM
David McCullough--The Path Between The Seas: The Creation Of The Panama Canal, 1870-1914
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zizekian on July 14, 2012, 02:56:40 AM
Well, I gave up on The Brothers Karamazov for the second time. I'm not sure why, but I haven't been in the mood to read fiction lately. Anyway, I started Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise yesterday and I'm loving it so far. The beginning chapter on Strauss and Mahler is fascinating and has made me interested in listening to Strauss' operas at some point.

(http://alexrossmusic.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/25/pb_cover_6.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Marc on July 15, 2012, 11:21:12 AM
Some poems by my favourite Dutch poet, Rutger Kopland, who died this week.

http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/4035

Two examples of his poetry (one of them posted before somewhere on this board), translated by James Brockway:

ONDER DE APPELBOOM

Ik kwam thuis, het was
een uur of acht en zeldzaam
zacht voor de tijd van het jaar,
de tuinbank stond klaar
onder de appelboom

ik ging zitten en ik zat
te kijken hoe de buurman
in zijn tuin nog aan het spitten
was, de nacht kwam uit de aarde
een blauwer wordend licht hing
in de appelboom

toen werd het langzaam weer te mooi
om waar te zijn, de dingen
van de dag verdwenen voor de geur
van hooi, er lag weer speelgoed
in het gras en verweg in het huis
lachten de kinderen in het bad
tot waar ik zat, tot
onder de appelboom

en later hoorde ik de vleugels
van ganzen in de hemel
hoorde ik hoe stil en leeg
het aan het worden was

gelukkig kwam er iemand naast mij
zitten, om precies te zijn jij
was het die naast mij kwam
onder de appelboom, zeldzaam
zacht en dichtbij
voor onze leeftijd.

UNDER THE APPLE TREE

I came home, it was about
eight and remarkably
close for the time of the year,
the garden seat stood waiting
under the apple tree

I took my place and sat
watching how my neighbour
was still digging in his garden,
the night came out of the soil
a light growing bluer hung
in the apple tree

then slowly it once again became
too beautiful to be true, the day's
alarms disappeared in the scent
of hay, toys again lay
in the grass and from far away in the house
came the laughter of children in the bath
to where I sat, to
under the apple tree

and later I heard the wings
of wild geese in the sky
heard how still and empty
it was becoming

luckily someone came and sat
beside me, to be precise it was
you who came to my side
under the apple tree,
remarkably close
for our time of life.

----

Zoals de pagina's van een krant
in het gras langzaam om
slaan in de wind, en het is de wind
niet, die dit doet,

zoals wanneer een deken in de avond,
buiten, ligt alsof hij ligt
te slapen, en het is de deken
niet, zo

niets is het, niets dan de verdrietige
beweging van een hand, de weerloze
houding van een lichaam,

en er is geen hand, er is
geen lichaam, terwijl ik toch
zo dichtbij ben.

Like the pages of a newspaper
flapping slowly to and fro in the grass
and it is not the wind
that is doing this,

as when of an evening, a blanket,
left outdoors, lies as though it lay
asleep, and it is not the blanket,
so near it is

to being nothing, nothing but the grieving
gesture of a hand, the vulnerable
attitude of a body,

and there is no hand, there is
no body, while I, after all,
am so close.

Taken from the collection: Rutger Kopland, Memories of the Unknown. London, Harvill Press, 2001.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Memories-Rutger-Kopland/dp/1860468950
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 17, 2012, 12:11:25 PM
****
[asin]1846687217[/asin]

Just finished this. No one here will want to read it but it was good stuff.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on July 17, 2012, 07:16:54 PM
borrowed from a friend, who recommended:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71SCAGSDG8L._SS500_.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 18, 2012, 10:44:00 AM
From my fortune cookie to-day (and in curious resonance with remarks Hank Azaria made on the Monty Python Conquers America DVD):

QuoteIn the midst of a busy life, take some time to be a kid again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on July 18, 2012, 01:40:47 PM
William Philpott--Three Armies On The Somme: The First Battle Of TheTwentieth Century
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on July 19, 2012, 11:17:40 AM
Quote from: jwinter on July 10, 2012, 06:28:19 PM
I can't believe it's taken me so long to finally get around to Philip K. Dick!  Very interesting read, I devoured most of it this afternoon.  Quite different from Blade Runner, but excellent.  I'm definitely up for another -- any recs from resident PK Dick fans?

(http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/081/350/400000000000000081350_s4.png)

I've read this one and others, but my favorite of the ones I read are Ubik and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 19, 2012, 11:19:19 AM
DICK is good stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 19, 2012, 12:59:04 PM
Since my last post, I've gone through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Flow My Tears The Policeman Said, The Man in the High Castle, and am halfway through Ubik as I type.  Needless to say, I'm amused.

My library has a copy of his late notebooks and musings, the Exegesis.  About the size of a phonebook.  Don't know if I'm quite brave enough to try that yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: annie on July 19, 2012, 01:11:13 PM
(http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/4342/sweetmm.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on July 20, 2012, 02:50:18 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 17, 2012, 12:11:25 PM
****
[asin]1846687217[/asin]

Just finished this. No one here will want to read it but it was good stuff.  ;D

Not true. I'd like to read it. Does it just cover the early years or are there chapters on the rockabilly revival in the late 70s, early 80s too? Does it get into the rockabilly offshoots like cowpunk (country punk) or psychobilly? I'm particularly interested in Jason and the Scorchers and The Cramps, whose description in Wiki I think you'll like  ;D

"Also festering at CBGB's punk environs were The Cramps, who combined primitive and wild rockabilly sounds with lyrics inspired by old drive-in horror movies in songs like "Human Fly" and "I Was a Teenage Werewolf"."

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 20, 2012, 03:49:32 AM
QuoteAlso festering at CBGB's punk environs . . . .

Love it!  Geographically, I was so near, and yet so far from, that venue at that festeriffic time . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 20, 2012, 03:53:01 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on July 20, 2012, 02:50:18 AM
Not true. I'd like to read it. Does it just cover the early years or are there chapters on the rockabilly revival in the late 70s, early 80s too? Does it get into the rockabilly offshoots like cowpunk (country punk) or psychobilly? I'm particularly interested in Jason and the Scorchers and The Cramps, whose description in Wiki I think you'll like  ;D

"Also festering at CBGB's punk environs were The Cramps, who combined primitive and wild rockabilly sounds with lyrics inspired by old drive-in horror movies in songs like "Human Fly" and "I Was a Teenage Werewolf"."

Sarge

It's mainly about the original rockabillies and what happened to them, however it does mention The Cramps later on in the book and the guy who wrote it plays in a band that toured with them.

What, Sarge, no Stray Cats?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 20, 2012, 03:58:19 AM
I'm back to reading Swafford's excellent Brahms bio.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 20, 2012, 04:03:58 AM
I ought to read that at some point.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 20, 2012, 04:20:21 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 20, 2012, 04:03:58 AM
I ought to read that at some point.

Yes, you oughta.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fafner on July 20, 2012, 05:43:28 AM
Read The Prague Cemetery, by Umberto Eco.

In the end, I have to say it was not worth it.  The underlying topic is the creation of the famous forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and if you read it to the end you miraculously discover that there is a story there, but along the way you find yourself buried under and avalanche of 19th century name-dropping and endless historical factoids that do not seem necessary to advance the narrative.  Doesn't touch Eco's masterpiece, The Name of the Rose.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on July 20, 2012, 04:39:18 PM
(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm101116880/great-santini-pat-conroy-paperback-cover-art.jpg)

I'm a third of the way through this gripping and bittersweet novel about a military colonel who is abusive and domineering towards his family. It appears to have fictional elements but the title character is modeled after the author's own father:

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/14/us/donald-conroy-77-model-for-the-great-santini-dies.html

QuoteThe closest his father ever came to acknowledging his violence, Mr. Conroy said, was when he turned to him after seeing the 1979 movie of ''The Great Santini,'' and said, ''If I'd beaten you more, you'd be a better writer.''

;D

You guys read anything else by Pat Conroy?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 21, 2012, 04:27:22 AM
Very cool so far. Hip and funny.
[asin]1451667159[/asin]
No, I have not seen the movie.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 22, 2012, 04:45:59 PM
(http://bookxcessblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/The-Code-of-the-Woosters-by-P.G-Woodhouse.jpg) (http://www.tamtambooks.com/images/vian_cover.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on July 22, 2012, 10:33:19 PM
Quote from: Drasko on July 22, 2012, 04:45:59 PM
(http://bookxcessblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/The-Code-of-the-Woosters-by-P.G-Woodhouse.jpg)

Hehe... enjoy! I'm reading 'The Mating Season' at the moment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 23, 2012, 08:43:54 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on July 22, 2012, 10:33:19 PM
Hehe... enjoy! I'm reading 'The Mating Season' at the moment.

I am enjoying it, quite. It's my first Wodehouse novel (though I've seen previously Jeeves & Wooster TV series with Fry and Laurie). Some of the literary references and allusions tend to fly over my head, but it still is huge fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on July 23, 2012, 08:55:08 AM
Quote from: Drasko on July 23, 2012, 08:43:54 AM
I am enjoying it, quite. It's my first Wodehouse novel (though I've seen previously Jeeves & Wooster TV series with Fry and Laurie). Some of the literary references and allusions tend to fly over my head, but it still is huge fun.

Oh, in that case, you have a lot more fun discoveries ahead. :) As for J&W, I've only seen clips on YouTube. What it misses out is  -- correct me if I'm wrong -- Bertie's narration. Much of Wodehouse's brilliance comes through the head of this one character.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 23, 2012, 09:04:32 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on July 23, 2012, 08:55:08 AM
Oh, in that case, you have a lot more fun discoveries ahead. :) As for J&W, I've only seen clips on YouTube. What it misses out is  -- correct me if I'm wrong -- Bertie's narration. Much of Wodehouse's brilliance comes through the head of this one character.

Yes, exactly. That is the main difference. It alters somewhat the overall tone, and automatically places Jeeves bit more as a separate entity since you don't see him exclusively through Bertie's perception. One annoying feat of the series is changing actors who play supporting characters from season to season.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wanderer on July 24, 2012, 02:05:25 AM
Apart from a bunch of rather unpalatable for non-lawyers Greek and European Law tomes, a book I've recently read that made a very favourable impression  is this: [asin]0307352145[/asin]
The theme is more than interesting, it covers in quite comprehensive manner past and recent research on introversion and I think it succeeds in getting its message across without getting needlessly technical.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 24, 2012, 04:35:15 AM
Most interesting, Tasos.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zizekian on July 24, 2012, 05:13:29 AM
Quote from: Wanderer on July 24, 2012, 02:05:25 AM
The theme is more than interesting, it covers in quite comprehensive manner past and recent research on introversion and I think it succeeds in getting its message across without getting needlessly technical.

That looks really interesting. As an introvert, I think I'll have to check it out!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on July 24, 2012, 06:28:56 AM
Interesting indeed. Came across the book in a blog review (http://backreaction.blogspot.in/2012/03/book-review-quiet-by-susan-cain.html) from a few months ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 24, 2012, 06:36:24 AM
Quote from: Drasko on July 22, 2012, 04:45:59 PM
(http://bookxcessblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/The-Code-of-the-Woosters-by-P.G-Woodhouse.jpg)

This is probably the very first Bertie-&-Jeeves what I ever read. Magical!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 24, 2012, 01:00:47 PM
On my nook, first of a five-volume biography (not sure if I'll make it through, but good so far...)

(http://ts3.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=4724039480182038&id=d326e88ae8424b3c09c86124f9c49d5e)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 25, 2012, 01:15:51 PM
Quote from: jwinter on July 24, 2012, 01:00:47 PM
On my nook, first of a five-volume biography (not sure if I'll make it through, but good so far...)

(http://ts3.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=4724039480182038&id=d326e88ae8424b3c09c86124f9c49d5e)

What is your favorite Hemmi read, JW?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on July 25, 2012, 07:32:53 PM
William L. Shirer--The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on July 25, 2012, 07:34:08 PM
Harry Harrison--Deathworld
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 26, 2012, 04:21:24 AM
Good old Harry Harrison. Stainless Steel Rat anyone?

I've finished SAVAGES and anyone who likes a good crime novel should enjoy it.

Now I'm determined to finished this fine, and lengthy, Brahms bio by Swafford...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 26, 2012, 04:23:59 AM
Quote from: Gold Knight on July 25, 2012, 07:32:53 PM
William L. Shirer--The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich

I should re-read that one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 26, 2012, 05:42:27 AM
 Quote from: karlhenning on Today at 08:23:59 AM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg646839#msg646839) >I should re-read that one. [ie Rise & Fall of the Third Reich]
   
It's a classic, although at this point there are literally millions of pages of historical documents out there that Shirer wouldn't have had access to.  But he was actually in 1930s Berlin, which certainly counts for something.

For a more up-to-date view, I can strongly recommend Richard J. Evans' 3 volume history of the period.  That may be a bit more than you want on such a grim topic, but it's quite readable.  Available on nooks, kindles, etc.

  Quote from: Bogey on July 25, 2012, 05:15:51 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg646644#msg646644)
What is your favorite Hemmi read, JW?
 
The ones I go back to the most are The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and many of the short stories, but I enjoy most of Hemingway (well, perhaps not Death in the Afternoon -- I can only follow him so far when it comes to bullfighting).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 26, 2012, 05:47:23 AM
Quote from: jwinter on July 26, 2012, 05:42:27 AM
For a more up-to-date view, I can strongly recommend Richard J. Evans' 3 volume history of the period.  That may be a bit more than you want on such a grim topic, but it's quite readable.  Available on nooks, kindles, etc.

Thank you, indeed!  That sounds right up my street.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 26, 2012, 05:55:44 AM
 Quote from: karlhenning on Today at 09:47:23 AM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg646860#msg646860) >Thank you, indeed!  That sounds right up my street.
 
It's a good read.  In the first volume, covering the years up until Hitler becomes Chancellor, Evans does as fine a job as I've ever run across of answering the ultimately unknowable question of how such a civilized nation could have ended up in such a horrifying state.  There is no simple answer, obviously, but he very nicely illuminates the complexities behind the question.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z3W738YYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 27, 2012, 04:20:25 PM
Quote from: jwinter on July 26, 2012, 05:55:44 AM
[Quote from: karlhenning on Today at 09:47:23 AM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg646860#msg646860)
>Thank you, indeed!  That sounds right up my street.

It's a good read.  In the first volume, covering the years up until Hitler becomes Chancellor, Evans does as fine a job as I've ever run across of answering the ultimately unknowable question of how such a civilized nation could have ended up in such a horrifying state.  There is no simple answer, obviously, but he very nicely illuminates the complexities behind the question.
...


Perhaps I'll read that one since the Nazi era interests me, especially the party's rise to power and the lead-up to the war.

Regarding the question of how a civilized nation could end up in such a state, I fear there are lessons to be learned that have not been learned. It seems that there are always those willing to exploit the ignorance, bigotry, and fear of populations to sized power opportunistically.  Especially if time are tough, populations seem willing to grasp at the straws of race, culture, and religion.  Tough times are hear and are likely to be around for awhile in the USA and Europe: this doesn't bode well.

I greatly fear, (as a neighbouring Canadian), the Americans are far more vulnerable to the fascist impulse they understand, and therein lies a huge risk.  In that regard, I a few months ago I read and appreciated ...

Chris Hedges: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510zK6TbkgL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

... wherein a Hedges posits a take over of the USA by religiously inspire social conservatives.  The parallels to pre-war Germany are eerie -- a wealthy & powerful elite willing to exploit populist ignorance & bigotry through social conservatism in order to suppress the Left (liberals).  This with the predictable, but not predicted, consequence that tyranny seizes control.
Title: Re: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 27, 2012, 04:48:24 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on July 27, 2012, 04:20:25 PM
... wherein a Hedges posits a take over of the USA by religiously inspire social conservatives.  The parallels to pre-war Germany are eerie -- a wealthy &amp; powerful elite willing to exploit populist ignorance &amp; bigotry through social conservatism in order to suppress the Left (liberals).  This with the predictable, but not predicted, consequence that tyranny seizes control.

That is (interesting, but) genuine science-fiction. (And not very flattering, but let that go.)

Just won't happen. Neither the religious element of the US population, nor the "1 percent," are anywhere near so monolithic to "go there." And there's not going to be any burning of the Reichstag. The US (by the way) has a longer-established home Rule of Law than even Canada, let alone the hapless Weimar republic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zizekian on July 28, 2012, 03:24:46 AM
Seeing a lot of discussion on here recently about the Bertie and Jeeves novels, I decided to return to Wodehouse:

(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100406557/how-right-you-are-jeeves-p-g-wodehouse-paperback-cover-art.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 29, 2012, 04:48:20 AM
Along with me Brahms bio:

[asin]0679601082[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on July 30, 2012, 04:27:42 AM
Along with me Brahms bio and me poetry:
[asin]0812983580[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 31, 2012, 05:52:33 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on July 27, 2012, 04:20:25 PM
I greatly fear, (as a neighbouring Canadian), the Americans are far more vulnerable to the fascist impulse they understand, and therein lies a huge risk. 

With all due respect, this is as bigot and supercilious a remark as it gets.

First of all, please define "fascism".

Secondly, please show us in what respect the Americans come close to being vulnerable to the "fascism" you previously defined.

Thirdly, please show us in what respect the Canadians are immune to the "fascism" you previously defined.

TIA.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 31, 2012, 05:54:12 AM
On behalf of the people of the United States: thank you, Andrei!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 31, 2012, 05:55:07 AM
Quote from: Zizekian on July 28, 2012, 03:24:46 AM
Seeing a lot of discussion on here recently about the Bertie and Jeeves novels, I decided to return to Wodehouse:

(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100406557/how-right-you-are-jeeves-p-g-wodehouse-paperback-cover-art.jpg)

(* has his valet pound the table *)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 31, 2012, 06:00:45 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 31, 2012, 05:54:12 AM
On behalf of the people of the United States: thank you, Andrei!

On behalf of the people of Romania, you're welcome, Karl!  :)

NB: I have my own reservations about "The American Way" and even plainly dislike some of its features --- but to accuse the Americans as being "far more vulnerable to fascism" (far more than who, I wonder?) seems to me an absurdity...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 31, 2012, 06:03:46 AM
In a curious coincidence, an old Wooster mate of mine is at a dance festival in Romania this week (or, these weeks), Andrei.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 31, 2012, 07:34:20 AM
Nice update on the subject since Gibbon...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XWA76XLYL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zizekian on July 31, 2012, 07:47:00 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 31, 2012, 06:03:46 AM
In a curious coincidence, an old Wooster mate of mine is at a dance festival in Romania this week (or, these weeks), Andrei.

Was it Gussie Fink-Nottle?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 31, 2012, 08:08:20 AM
A surprisingly trim Tuppy Glossop!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 31, 2012, 09:07:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 31, 2012, 05:52:33 AM
With all due respect, this is as bigot and supercilious a remark as it gets.

First of all, please define "fascism".

Secondly, please show us in what respect the Americans come close to being vulnerable to the "fascism" you previously defined.

Thirdly, please show us in what respect the Canadians are immune to the "fascism" you previously defined.

TIA.

First, then, I define fascism as a populist political ideology that relies on the bigotry, ignorance, and fear of its rant-and-file supporters in order for its leaders to assume and consolidate power their power without regard to democratic laws or traditions.  The fascist agenda tends to be economically regressive -- though there might be "bread & circuses" for the masses -- and in general fascist leaders enthusiastically seek the patronage of established elites who in term support them in order to resist progressive or democratic change.  Various actual governments have embodied fascist basics with variations: the "origiinal" Italian Fascists, various eastern European governments in the pre-War interval, Spanish Franco-Falangists, Argentine Peronists, and as it appears by current trends, the Putinist Russian Federation.

Secondly, pertaining to the US situation, the partial success of the Tea Party in the USA  is indicative of the weakness of the country.  The Tea Party quintessentially embodies grass roots "bigotry, ignorance, and fear". The Tea Partiers themselves are disproportionately religious, anti-science (viz. deniers of evolution and global warming), and inclined to believe absurd lies that humor their biases such as Obama's supposed Nigerian birth and Islamic religion. Meanwhile the Tea Party is sponsored, as fascist movements usually are, by quite funding from the economic elite, e.g. the Koch brothers.

Many Americans are encumbered by as messianic belief in the perfection of laissez-faire capitalism and, worse, in a regressive social view that we can accurately call Social Darwinism; (see William Graham Sumner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sumner)). One might observe that it's inherent in the American Myth that American is the country "where anyone can succeed", the corollary is that anyone who doesn't, (especially where money is concerned), is undeserving of any sympathy or support.

Many Americans are also encumbered by a form of Christianity, (call it Evangelic or Fundamentalist), that depends on naive Bible literalism and simplistic, Old Testament moral rules.  (IMO, these Christians aren't really Christian but what I call "Neo-Pharisees" because their interpretation of righteousness precludes the essentially Christian aspect of compassion). Again, see Chris Hedges' American Fascists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Fascists:_The_Christian_Right_and_the_War_on_America).

All the while so many American seem blissfully unaware that the USA is not longer democracy in the practical sense. It is now a full plutocracy run by and for an elite of the super-rich and multi-national corporations who, by their inherent situation, care nothing at all about middle-class or less fortunate citizens. US Supreme Court has seal this situation by declaring that money is free speech and corporations are people: a truly grotesque situation.

It's startling that, (according to CNN polls for example), while Obama is thought more competent than Romney in virtually every other respect, Romney is favored on the economy.  This is deeply ironic since, if enacted, the Republican austerity platform would not only not reduce the Debt but, at the same time and more importantly, precipitate a recession cum depression from which the USA might never fully recover. The frightening but quite plausible consequence of the collapse of the US economy will be a grasping-at-straws which is populist fascism -- ultimately this will do it.

Thirdly, what makes Canada immune to fascism? Unfortunately nothing.  In fact we currently have regressive Conservative Party government that is bend on making itself as much like the Republican Party, and Canada as much like the USA, as it possibly can.

By the way, I'm currently finishing and strongly recommend ...

Robert B. Reich: Beyond Outrage (http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Outrage-economy-democracy-ebook/dp/B0078XCKUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343754313&sr=1-1)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41aOVq%2BWOUL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-63,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 31, 2012, 09:09:23 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 31, 2012, 05:54:12 AM
On behalf of the people of the United States: thank you, Andrei!

I urge Americans, our neighbours, to pull their heads out of the sand -- or from "where the sun don't shine".
Title: Re: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 31, 2012, 09:20:03 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 27, 2012, 04:48:24 PM
That is (interesting, but) genuine science-fiction. (And not very flattering, but let that go.)

Just won't happen. Neither the religious element of the US population, nor the "1 percent," are anywhere near so monolithic to "go there." And there's not going to be any burning of the Reichstag. The US (by the way) has a longer-established home Rule of Law than even Canada, let alone the hapless Weimar republic.

As yet the USA is favored by rule of law. But then so was Germany before the Nazi take over. Circumstances might change. With sufficient hardship and disaffection of the American people coupled with an economic near-collapse -- such as might very will result from enactment of the Republican Party's agenda -- the unexpected could happen.

The Reichstag wasn't burned by the Nazis, (as postulated by William L. Shirer, for example), but by a Dutch Communist. But the situation was exploited by the Goering and the Nazis to clamp down on any & all dissent from Nazi rule. Certain parallels to post 9-11 are disturbing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 31, 2012, 09:23:13 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on July 31, 2012, 09:09:23 AM
I urge Americans, our neighbours, to pull their heads out of the sand -- or from "where the sun don't shine".

Very flattering (and certainly neighbourly) again, thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on July 31, 2012, 10:00:34 AM
Currently:

Prosthetic Impulse edited by Smith  and Morra (cyberpunk)
First Look at Communication Theory by Griffin (communications)
Mass Communication Theory by Baran and Davis (communications)
Stagecraft and Statecraft by Schill (communications)
In the Flesh by Pitts (cyberpunk)
Communicating in the Third Space by Ikas and Wagner (communications)
Liberal Eugenics by Agar (cyberpunk)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 31, 2012, 04:31:30 PM
The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene (2012) by Lydia V. Pyne  & Stephen J. Pyne - nice bargain from the 'History Book Club' - title is self-explanatory, i.e. the Plesitocene start is dated @ 2.6M years ago and ends @ 10-12K years (the start of human civilization), so encompasses the evolving Homo genus - excellent so far (half way through) if you're into this topic - recommended!

Spray Finishing - Made Simple (2010) by Jeff Jewitt - as some of you know, I'm an amateur woodworker, and now that I'm retired, I've been updating my basement shop and getting better organized (now that I have time!) - WELL, I decided to get into spraying finishes and basically 3 choices: 1) wipe them on; 2) brush them on; and 3) spray them on (or a combination) - I've been doing the first two for ever, so NOW want to try spraying finishes; Jeff's book + my new acquisition, i.e. the Earlex Spray Station shown @ the bottom will get me started; have made a plastic spray booth and tomorrow will construct a revolving spray platform (as suggested by Jewitt) - and then, will give this HVLP sprayer a trial run - :)


(http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/160680000/160682774.JPG)  (http://www.buildersbooksource.com/booksite/images/items/9781600850929.jpg)

(http://www.woodcraft.com/Images/products/152797.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 01, 2012, 03:26:10 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on July 31, 2012, 09:07:41 AM
pertaining to the US situation, the partial success of the Tea Party in the USA  is indicative of the weakness of the country.  The Tea Party quintessentially embodies grass roots "bigotry, ignorance, and fear". The Tea Partiers themselves are disproportionately religious, anti-science (viz. deniers of evolution and global warming), and inclined to believe absurd lies that humor their biases such as Obama's supposed Nigerian birth and Islamic religion. Meanwhile the Tea Party is sponsored, as fascist movements usually are, by quite funding from the economic elite, e.g. the Koch brothers.

If the only evidence you can offer for the American fascism is the Tea Party movement I'm afraid you have a very weak case. TP is anything but fascist: it has no strong and charismatic supreme leader, it has no clearly defined ideology, it has no anthem, uniform and emblems, it organizes no marches and holds no grandiose parades and meetings, it doesn't want to conquer the power by any means in order to do away with all other political parties and adversaries etc etc etc.

It is now clear for me that you apply the term "fascist" to anyone and anything you dislike, regardless of whether it really qualifies or not.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 01, 2012, 03:55:43 AM
He's also not paying any particular attention to US politics (normally, who could blame him? Only he's accusing us Americans of brewing the cauldron for a new Hitler).  The Tea Party's "success" was an entirely predictable reaction-vote in Congressional mid-term elections;  they've been a signal failure in the House, and have tended to alienate members of even their own party (i.e., Republicans).

The book seems to make the all-too-common error of starting with the sensational conclusion — the US is turning to fascism! — and back-loading facts to seem to drive the conclusion.  It's tabloid pop-poli-sci.  But I guess people in Canadian airports need something to read while waiting for their planes, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on August 01, 2012, 04:16:35 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 01, 2012, 03:55:43 AM
He's also not paying any particular attention to US politics (normally, who could blame him? Only he's accusing us Americans of brewing the cauldron for a new Hitler).  The Tea Party's "success" was an entirely predictable reaction-vote in Congressional mid-term elections;  they've been a signal failure in the House, and have tended to alienate members of even their own party (i.e., Republicans).

The book seems to make the all-too-common error of starting with the sensational conclusion — the US is turning to fascism! — and back-loading facts to seem to drive the conclusion.  It's tabloid pop-poli-sci.  But I guess people in Canadian airports need something to read while waiting for their planes, too.

The USA isn't "turning to fascism", nor did I say that. I said there was predisposition and a risk. Ignore that at your peril. If circumstances worsen -- which is likely -- Americans could turn to something that resembles fascism in critical respects.

I've got to give the Tea Party credit for the fact that these folks know that something is wrong -- pity that they've scarcely a clue what it is, much less what to do about it. People in this condition are the fodder of fascist movements.

Whose book are you referring to? Hedges's or Reich's? Hedges is a serious intellectual but given to occasional hyperbole. Reich's is aimed at a general audience but is very solid economics and very solid about the plutocratic character of US governance today.  If you want to criticize Canadians, find something of substance to criticize -- everyone needs something to read in airports.

Actually I follow US federal politics a good deal more closely than most Americans. Present company excepted perhaps, but present company seems to have a very myopic insight into the current state of affairs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on August 01, 2012, 04:24:43 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 01, 2012, 03:26:10 AM
If the only evidence you can offer for the American fascism is the Tea Party movement I'm afraid you have a very weak case. TP is anything but fascist: it has no strong and charismatic supreme leader, it has no clearly defined ideology, it has no anthem, uniform and emblems, it organizes no marches and holds no grandiose parades and meetings, it doesn't want to conquer the power by any means in order to do away with all other political parties and adversaries etc etc etc.

It is now clear for me that you apply the term "fascist" to anyone and anything you dislike, regardless of whether it really qualifies or not.

Good point about no charismatic leader nor uniforms, perhaps is the main missing ingredients. What the TP has got is a lot of ignorant, irrational, bigots: they are the key input for any fascist movements.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 01, 2012, 04:52:15 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on August 01, 2012, 04:24:43 AM
Good point about no charismatic leader nor uniforms, perhaps is the main missing ingredients. What the TP has got is a lot of ignorant, irrational, bigots: they are the key input for any fascist movements.

Your equating ignorance and bigotry with fascism is far-fetched and historically inaccurate. Fascist movements attracted intelligent people as well, both in file-and-rank and the top echelon, while the original and arguably the only fascists proper, the Italians, were notoriously irreligious and anti-clerical.

Besides, ignorant or bigot members are not limited to TP; any party in any country has them in scores.

OTOH, do conservative Christians have the right to organize politically and to act by peaceful and democratic means in order to achieve their goals?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Leon on August 01, 2012, 06:44:53 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on August 01, 2012, 04:24:43 AM
What the TP has got is a lot of ignorant, irrational, bigots: they are the key input for any fascist movements.

From where I sit, you are the only one meriting something like these pejoratives.  Nothing like smearing with a broad brush a lot of people, none of whom you have probably ever met or had a single conversation with to base you rather hyperbolic opinion on.

TD: [asin]0226041298[/asin]

So far, this book is proving to be a very enjoyable read.

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on August 01, 2012, 07:41:45 AM
If anyone wants to have a further discussion of Fascism in America, perhaps starting up a thread in The Diner would be preferable to continuing it here. Then we can all pitch in. :)

Thanks,
8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on August 01, 2012, 07:43:00 AM
Quote from: Arnold on August 01, 2012, 06:44:53 AM
TD: [asin]0226041298[/asin]

So far, this book is proving to be a very enjoyable read.

:)

I look forward to further elucidation, Arnold.   0:)

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 01, 2012, 07:43:43 AM
Help! Help! I'm bein' repressed!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Leon on August 01, 2012, 07:48:01 AM
Quote from: Gurnatron5500 on August 01, 2012, 07:43:00 AM
I look forward to further elucidation, Arnold.   0:)

8)

I've only just begun to scratch the surface of it - but judging from what I've read so far, it is a most welcome book.   His style is not so scholarly as to be obtuse, although it is a well researched book, but that does not render it an unpleasant read. 

When I have assimilated enough of his overall premise I will post in The Haus my thoughts.

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on August 01, 2012, 07:57:26 AM
Quote from: Gurnatron5500 on August 01, 2012, 07:41:45 AM
If anyone wants to have a further discussion of Fascism in America, perhaps starting up a thread in The Diner would be preferable to continuing it here. Then we can all pitch in. :) That way, it makes it easier to put a lock on the damn thing ASAP. >:D

Thanks,
8)

0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on August 01, 2012, 08:06:30 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 01, 2012, 07:43:43 AM
Help! Help! I'm bein' repressed!

No more than you should be.  $:)

Quote from: Arnold on August 01, 2012, 07:48:01 AM
I've only just begun to scratch the surface of it - but judging from what I've read so far, it is a most welcome book.   His style is not so scholarly as to be obtuse, although it is a well researched book, but that does not render it an unpleasant read. 

When I have assimilated enough of his overall premise I will post in The Haus my thoughts.

:)

Good deal. I found his essay  (in Sisman's book "Haydn & His World", IIRC) to be quite readable too. The other authors in your book are all familiar names, so that speaks well for the scholarship in there. The writers are the ones who are obtuse? Hell, I thought it was me!  :)

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Leon on August 01, 2012, 08:14:31 AM
Quote from: Gurnatron5500 on August 01, 2012, 08:06:30 AM
No more than you should be.  $:)

Good deal. I found his essay  (in Sisman's book "Haydn & His World", IIRC) to be quite readable too. The other authors in your book are all familiar names, so that speaks well for the scholarship in there. The writers are the ones who are obtuse? Hell, I thought it was me!  :)

8)

I had not even noticed that Beghin was the editor and not the author, and had assumed that it was his book entirely.   :D

Shows you how early I am in the journey of discovery.

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on August 01, 2012, 08:24:50 AM
Quote from: Arnold on August 01, 2012, 08:14:31 AM
I had not even noticed that Beghin was the editor and not the author, and had assumed that it was his book entirely.   :D

Shows you how early I am in the journey of discovery.

:)

Yeah, I think he just wrote the introductory essay to establish the theme, and then the others wrote variations from there. I've been holding off waiting for a price drop on it, but I'm thinking that will never happen (although it was $45+ for quite a while).  Guess it's time to un-ass a few $$ in that direction. :-\

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Leon on August 01, 2012, 08:53:32 AM
Quote from: Gurnatron5500 on August 01, 2012, 08:24:50 AM
Yeah, I think he just wrote the introductory essay to establish the theme, and then the others wrote variations from there. I've been holding off waiting for a price drop on it, but I'm thinking that will never happen (although it was $45+ for quite a while).  Guess it's time to un-ass a few $$ in that direction. :-\

8)

It took several weeks, at least six, for my copy to ship.  I am unsure why, and don't know if the publisher needed to print more and now ship times would be quicker.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on August 01, 2012, 01:32:28 PM
Quote from: Florestan on August 01, 2012, 04:52:15 AM
Your equating ignorance and bigotry with fascism is far-fetched and historically inaccurate. Fascist movements attracted intelligent people as well, both in file-and-rank and the top echelon, while the original and arguably the only fascists proper, the Italians, were notoriously irreligious and anti-clerical.

Besides, ignorant or bigot members are not limited to TP; any party in any country has them in scores.

OTOH, do conservative Christians have the right to organize politically and to act by peaceful and democratic means in order to achieve their goals?
This will be my last post on the "American Fascists" topic per the request to clam it.

Fascism has always assumed a local character. Italy, Germany, Spain, Argentine, etc. where all different. US fascism, (if it were to emerge and I'm not predicting that it will necessarily), would have its own complexion. Reread my definition of fascism: it doesn't require jackboots or anti-Semitism. Mainly it require a mass of gullible voters being mislead with phoney issues concocted by opportunistic leaders determined to rule without democratic input, (humm ... Dick Cheney??).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 02, 2012, 06:38:29 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on August 01, 2012, 01:32:28 PM
This will be my last post on the "American Fascists" topic per the request to clam it.


That is actually a funny line. 


Thread duty:

50% through Mr. Copperfield, Mr. Henning.  I am greatly enjoying it.  Here are some lines that I have returned to a number of times:

"Let us have no meanderings."
(I believe I will use this one with my students when they come back in two weeks. ;D)

";of the evening schoolroom dimly lighted and indifferently warmed, and the morning schoolroom which was nothing but a great shivering machine."

"There was a second lady in the dining room, of a slight short figure, dark, and not agreeable to look at, but with an appearance of good looks too...."

"I find my breath gets short, but it seldom gets longer as a man gets older."

"I thought about my predecessor, who had died of drink and smoke; and I could have wished he had been been so good as to live and not bother me with his decease."






Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on August 02, 2012, 06:46:15 AM
THE BURNING COURT by John Dickson Carr (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dickson_Carr).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 02, 2012, 06:49:25 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 02, 2012, 06:46:15 AM
THE BURNING COURT by John Dickson Carr (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dickson_Carr).

Thanks for the link, Dave.  I will try his works down the road a bit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 02, 2012, 06:53:04 AM
Quote from: Bogey on August 02, 2012, 06:38:29 AM
Thread duty:

50% through Mr. Copperfield, Mr. Henning.  I am greatly enjoying it.  Here are some lines that I have returned to a number of times:

"Let us have no meanderings."
(I believe I will use this one with my students when they come back in two weeks. ;D)

";of the evening schoolroom dimly lighted and indifferently warmed, and the morning schoolroom which was nothing but a great shivering machine."

"There was a second lady in the dining room, of a slight short figure, dark, and not agreeable to look at, but with an appearance of good looks too...."

"I find my breath gets short, but it seldom gets longer as a man gets older."

"I thought about my predecessor, who had died of drink and smoke; and I could have wished he had been been so good as to live and not bother me with his decease."

Cheers, Bill! : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 04, 2012, 11:14:15 AM
Just started my re-read of Bleak House.

Dickens uses the phrase "old school" in one of the opening chapters. But as urbandictionary.com informs me:

QuoteThe term old school is of English origin and dates back to at least the 19th Century and is used to denote something that is considered to be out of date with currents trends/ideas and thinking. An early example of the term can be found in the Charles Dickens novel Bleak House (first published 1852).
Description of Mr. Tulkinghorn from the novel Bleak House. "He is of what is called the old school—a phrase generally meaning any school that seems never to have been young".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 04, 2012, 12:24:27 PM
Quote from: -abe- on August 04, 2012, 11:14:15 AM
Just started my re-read of Bleak House.

Dickens uses the phrase "old school" in one of the opening chapters. But as urbandictionary.com informs me:

Hope you post some favorite lines from the book.  My wife LOVED the Gillian Anderson effort.  I want to read it before viewing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: springrite on August 04, 2012, 12:30:52 PM
Because of the Camels by Brenda Blair

Brenda Blair is a mentor, friend and collegue of mine. In my most recent trip to Nigeria, I worked with her to bring Employee Assistance to the African nation. We worked on 5 EAP trainings in China. Last year she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the EAP Association at the conference in Denver (where I also met Bogey)

She spent some time in Nigeria in the 70's and met her husband, an expert in African history.

The novel is based on historical events and facts, but other parts are fictionalized. It is about the time when the US Department of War decided to buy camels from Africa and bring them to Texas to be used by the military. This event changed the life of many people, including an Egyptian who came with the camel, the sea captain, a young girl who was somehow involved in this, the families, etc.

Engaging story, made all the better when you know it's not just made up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 04, 2012, 08:31:18 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 04, 2012, 12:24:27 PM
Hope you post some favorite lines from the book.  My wife LOVED the Gillian Anderson effort.  I want to read it before viewing.

I'll be reading it pretty slowly this time around. 20 minutes before falling asleep.

One interesting feature of the book is that Dickens alternates an omniscient narrative with a first person narrative by one of the central characters. Since the book is pretty long, this really helps in keeping your interest.

My above post is incomplete -- i meant to add that I thought the phrase "old school" was a relatively modern Americanism.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 06, 2012, 02:20:33 AM
Quote from: Bogey on August 04, 2012, 12:24:27 PM
Hope you post some favorite lines from the book.

Bill, I've totally crashed in my effort to re-read Copperfield. This free e-book I found is only about a quarter of the novel. Before seeking an e-book to replace it properly, I am re-reading Cato's first novel.  (Well, I don't know that it is absolutely his first, but it's the first I've read.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 06, 2012, 02:21:25 AM
Quote from: -abe- on August 04, 2012, 08:31:18 PM
My above post is incomplete -- i meant to add that I thought the phrase "old school" was a relatively modern Americanism.

Not a bit of it, old bean.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 06, 2012, 01:10:33 PM
My favorite experience of Dickens has been an audio-book version of Great Expectations.  It's a book that's very well suited to audio book form and the reader (whose name I don't remember -- it was a library loan) was quite fantastic. I look forward to re-experiencing David Copperfield  that way years down the road.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 06, 2012, 03:49:11 PM
Were early humans unabashed swingers? This book questions the focus on the nuclear family as being central to the role of parenting in the human species.

(http://www.bookswim.com/images_books/large/Sex_at_Dawn_The_Prehistoric_Origins_of_Modern_Sexuality-66743.jpg)

Quote from the book:

QuoteCould it be that the atomic isolation of the husband-wife nucleus with an orbiting child or two is in fact a culturally imposed aberration for our species--as ill-suited to our evolved tendencies as corsets, chastity belts, and suits of armor? Dare we ask whether mothers, fathers and children are all being shoe-horned into a family structure that suits none of us? Might the contemporary pandemics of fracturing families, parental exhaustion, and confused, resentful children be predictable consequences of what is, in truth, a distorted and distorting family structure inappropriate for our species?

Quite a good read so far.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 06, 2012, 04:00:57 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 06, 2012, 02:20:33 AM
Bill, I've totally crashed in my effort to re-read Copperfield. This free e-book I found is only about a quarter of the novel. Before seeking an e-book to replace it properly, I am re-reading Cato's first novel.  (Well, I don't know that it is absolutely his first, but it's the first I've read.)

No worries, Karl.  25% Copper is pure gold.  I hope to read the canon of work in the next 12 years or so.  That would give me a number of years after to reflect on the total and re-read what I want.  I also would like to finish off Hemmingway, Austen, and Lewis as well.  I cranked out another 25% of the Copper yesterday and hope to finish it up in the next week or so.

Abe,
Thanks for the heads up on the audio....who is the reader you so much enjoy?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 06, 2012, 04:17:41 PM
That's the thing, I don't remember his name. I'll look into it.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 06, 2012, 04:30:33 PM
I'm 80% certain the narrator was John Lee. Here you can listen to a sample of his reading of Great Expectations:

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Expectations/dp/B004H887QA
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 06, 2012, 04:42:13 PM
Quote from: -abe- on August 06, 2012, 04:30:33 PM
I'm 80% certain the narrator was John Lee. Here you can listen to a sample of his reading of Great Expectations:

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Expectations/dp/B004H887QA

I will check it out....thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on August 07, 2012, 06:47:52 AM
Quote from: CaughtintheGaze on July 31, 2012, 10:00:34 AM
First Look at Communication Theory by Griffin (communications)
Mass Communication Theory by Baran and Davis (communications)
Stagecraft and Statecraft by Schill (communications)

To the first: Foundational text for communication theory, covers every major aspect with considerable depth offering full critiques of each (some from the creators of the theory). Makes for really entertaining and engrossing reading.

To the second: Only perused, the information in this book is covered in the books by Griffin and Schill.

To the third: A pretty fantastic text which will make you question the veracity (if you already don't) of those things you see on television. This was more about stagecraft than statecraft. Although, the latter can be subsumed under the former. Gives some really good example, and gives an insider look into the construction of media events and offers a cogent response to our contemporary political situation. My favorite part was about the planning of spontaneous events, so much lovely irony. The book is quite short, not lacking but concise. The writing is definitely academic but it deals in things that everyone can understand making it readable by the layperson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 08, 2012, 02:21:29 PM
Finished Copperfield today after a marathon session last night.....went into the wee hours until fatigue prevented further reading.  I found myself cheering aloud for Micawber and Traddles (probably my favorite character in the book) as good news was penned.

Thread duty:

On to A Tale of Two Cities.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 08, 2012, 03:45:54 PM
I loved that chapter in David Copperfield called "Two Penitents." Yea, pretty unnecessary in terms of plot but it was Dickens trying to be as comical as possible in order to satisfy his subscribers as the book concluded.

A Tale of Two Cities was the first Dickens I read, and one that gave me a wrong impression about his earlier works. The book, like much of Dickens later work, is pretty tightly plotted, and I had a similar expectation for Oliver Twist and his other earlier works and was somewhat confounded by their more meandering plots as he most likely just made those up as he went along.





Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 08, 2012, 08:08:24 PM
Quote from: -abe- on August 08, 2012, 03:45:54 PM
I loved that chapter in David Copperfield called "Two Penitents."


It was a bit too convenient, but fun....I do wish we had not had another visit by Mr. Pegotty toward the end.  The newspaper article about Micawber finding its way to Copper would have sufficed.   Sometimes not wrapping up every question of the reader is a stronger suit to play.  ...but I ain't Dickens, so.... ;D

Quote from: -abe- on August 08, 2012, 03:45:54 PM
I loved that chapter in David Copperfield called "Two Penitents." Yea, pretty unnecessary in terms of plot but it was Dickens trying to be as comical as possible in order to satisfy his subscribers as the book concluded.

A Tale of Two Cities was the first Dickens I read, and one that gave me a wrong impression about his earlier works. The book, like much of Dickens later work, is pretty tightly plotted, and I had a similar expectation for Oliver Twist and his other earlier works and was somewhat confounded by their more meandering plots as he most likely just made those up as he went along.

Are you referring to such plots like the The Five Sisters of York from Nickleby? 8)  However, without these alley ways, how would the books break 800 pages? :D  I am learning to embrace them as nice short stories and try to take them in and not rush back to the plot.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 10, 2012, 12:20:09 PM
Quote from: -abe- on August 08, 2012, 03:45:54 PM
A Tale of Two Cities was the first Dickens I read,

His description of Tellson's Bank was worth two reads through.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 10, 2012, 01:46:55 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 08, 2012, 08:08:24 PM
It was a bit too convenient, but fun....I do wish we had not had another visit by Mr. Pegotty toward the end.  The newspaper article about Micawber finding its way to Copper would have sufficed.   Sometimes not wrapping up every question of the reader is a stronger suit to play. 

Indeed. Mr. Micawber is the secret hero of the book and I remember rejoicing when he got his big moment.

QuoteAre you referring to such plots like the The Five Sisters of York from Nickleby? 8)  However, without these alley ways, how would the books break 800 pages? :D  I am learning to embrace them as nice short stories and try to take them in and not rush back to the plot.

When I got through Oliver Twist I realized that Dickens was more free flowing and meandering (though no less entertaining) in his early years and went on to enjoy his subsequent books with that fact mind. I adored Nikleby.

My least favorite Dickens work is Dombey & Son. Skipped The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge.

I only, regrettably, read half of The Pickwick Papers, despite enjoying what I read immensely.

I'm saving Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend for the future...

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 10, 2012, 03:46:42 PM
Quote from: -abe- on August 10, 2012, 01:46:55 PM
Indeed. Mr. Micawber is the secret hero of the book and I remember rejoicing when he got his big moment.

When I got through Oliver Twist I realized that Dickens was more free flowing and meandering (though no less entertaining) in his early years and went on to enjoy his subsequent books with that fact mind. I adored Nikleby.

My least favorite Dickens work is Dombey & Son. Skipped The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge.

I only, regrettably, read half of The Pickwick Papers, despite enjoying what I read immensely.

I'm saving Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend for the future...

There are so many I have not read.  I started the Pickwick, but did not finish.  I believe that because it is what it is, I might take a certain night and read it then....like a tv show.  I have not read The Old Curiosity Shop, but was wondering why you did not care for it.  My wife is familiar with it through movies and finds it too depressing.  I am with you with Nikleby.  That is one that I can read wherever I open to it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 10, 2012, 05:20:24 PM
Barnaby Rudge and The Old Curiosity Shop aren't very well regarded, which is why I've avoided them. Dombey and Son simply bored me to tears, though I did manage to complete it. A lot of people seem to like it however.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 11, 2012, 09:07:43 AM
Completed two relatively short books recently.

The Prague Orgie - Philip Roth.

Talk of sex but no sex in this book.  It describes a trip made by an American author to Soviet dominated Prague to retrieve a supposedly great book written in Yiddish by an acquaintance's father.  The trip turns into a Kafka-esq farse when the American must deal with a community of writers distorted by political oppression and their own insecurities.  An insightful, entertaining and interesting book.  Not necessarily a great book.

Home - Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is one of my favorite writers.  This book did not disappoint.  It is a very short book (150 pages) but packs a lot in those few pages.  The subject is an black American soldier who has returned from Korea to a racist America.  He must deal with traumatic war experiences, as well as traumatic memories of his upbringing in the rural south.   He finds strength in a mission to save his sister from harm, but in the end it is not clear who saved who.  A worthwhile read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on August 12, 2012, 07:48:24 AM
(http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/12/77/13/2880226/5/628x471.jpg)


A few chapters in.  The first chapter is weak, in that it basically rehashes material from prior books, but it gets going with mini bios of the Kennedy brothers.  Caro's style is as page turning as before.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on August 14, 2012, 12:54:43 PM
I started the first book in that series a couple of months ago, and then got distracted into other things -- I need to go back to it.  I often end up losing interest in the early parts of biographies -- there's often that initial chunk of dense stuff about the grandparents and siblings et al to plow through, hopefully not followed by tons of Freudian fictionalizing.  Caro was much better than average on that front, if I recall.

Still, I'm in no rush -- even if I do a chapter a month, I'll probably be caught up by the time he finishes the next one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on August 16, 2012, 04:26:03 AM
My buddy Jon on Kindle.
[asin]B004KSQVBA[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on August 16, 2012, 04:26:52 AM
The Omen - David Seltzer
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 16, 2012, 04:27:54 AM
Just finished Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on August 22, 2012, 06:50:35 AM
Unsurprisingly:

(https://www.dharmaduta.com/uploads/book/the-myth-of-freedom-(2897).jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on August 22, 2012, 02:56:31 PM
All the volumes:

(http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/a/akira1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on August 29, 2012, 01:03:46 AM
CLAUDE ALLÉGRE:    "Peut-on encore sauver l'Europe?"

The title seems too dramatic, but this book presents a good diagnostic of the situation in Europe today. Allègre shows the danger of the excessive power of the Commission (whose members are not elected), the catastrophic results of a liberal conception of the economy in special the financial system and the mystake of including in the same monetary union countries with very different level of economic development.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on August 29, 2012, 03:45:02 AM
Quote from: Corey on August 22, 2012, 06:50:35 AM
Unsurprisingly:
8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on August 29, 2012, 08:14:46 AM
Good stuff.
[asin]0062025821[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on August 30, 2012, 12:00:54 PM
Being an admirer of Joseph Conrad was a bit of a trial before electronic books.  Conrad's best known books have always been in print, but some of the more obscure titles have been out-of-print or difficult to track down.  At one point I was was considering trying to get a copy of the collected works of Conrad (either Malay Edition or Canterbury Edition, published in the early 20th century).  But now there is Project Gutenberg, and as far as I can see, all of Conrad's books are available as free Kindle editions on Amazon.   So I am currently carrying the collected works of Joseph Conrad in my pocket.

Just finished "An Arrow of Gold."  One of those more obscure volumes, but a beautifully written Novel about a goatherd turned wealthy heiress, her cousin, a smuggler, a southern American gentleman, and a pretender to the throne of Spain, and true love.  (No, I'm not kidding.)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 30, 2012, 04:37:40 PM
I was gently prodded into reading Araby by James Joyce.  An interesting short story, worth the read.  It helped me being able to discuss it with an expert though. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 30, 2012, 07:46:20 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 30, 2012, 04:37:40 PM
I was gently prodded into reading Araby by James Joyce.  An interesting short story, worth the read.  It helped me being able to discuss it with an expert though. ;D

Hey David!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 31, 2012, 02:23:35 AM
How 'bout that House of the Seven Gables, Davey?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 31, 2012, 09:15:43 AM
I'll have to come back to that Karl, I wasn't into it.  I need to approach it in summer when I have the time and am carefree.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on August 31, 2012, 10:02:45 AM
Quote from: CaughtintheGaze on August 22, 2012, 02:56:31 PM
All the volumes:
(http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/a/akira1.jpg)

Mindblowing. The books that I'm reading currently tend toward things that are oriented toward my research, so under the Communication auspice or specifically rhetorical theory.
Title: Re: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 31, 2012, 12:48:26 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 31, 2012, 09:15:43 AM
I'll have to come back to that Karl, I wasn't into it.  I need to approach it in summer when I have the time and am carefree.

Understood.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 01, 2012, 06:20:59 AM
I might read some more from the Dubliners, in the meantime though the Dark Tower awaits... :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on September 05, 2012, 04:57:30 PM
Currently reading:
The Ghost in the Shell Volumes 1 and 2

New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism by Kennedy
Greek Rhetorical Origins of Christian Faith by Kinneavy
Gender and Rhetorical Space in American Life, 1866-1910 by Johnson
First Converts: Rich Pagan Women and the Rhetoric of Mission in Early Judaism and Christianity by Matthews
Amid the Fall, Dreaming of Eden by Stull
The Rhetoric of Redemption: Kenneth Burke's Redemption Drama and Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have a Dream Speech by Bobbitt
Yes We Can: Barack Obama's Proverbial Rhetoric by Mieder
Three Centuries of American Rhetorical Discourses edited by Reid

Recently just finished:
Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition by Kennedy
In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification by Pitts
Tokyo Cyberpunk by Brown
Cyberspace, Cyberbodies, Cyberpunk edited by Featherstone and Burrows
The Prosthetic Impulse edited by Smith and Morra
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on September 05, 2012, 05:00:03 PM
The Stand - Stephen King

The complete and uncut version.  I'm finding it extremely riveting so far!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 06, 2012, 03:56:32 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 05, 2012, 05:00:03 PM
The Stand - Stephen King

The complete and uncut version.  I'm finding it extremely riveting so far!  :)

The villain of the piece is the low level villain in The Dark Tower fyi.  In the fourth volume the Gunslingers wander into the world of The Stand, and encounter R. F. at the end.  The Stand is one of his best novels, and I wasn't even disappointed with the ending.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 06, 2012, 05:21:00 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41-jZ-Wt9lL._SS500_.jpg)

Time and again I revisit this classic masterpiece. One of the most passionate, principled and clear pleads for liberty that have ever been proposed. Unfortunately, also one of the most ignored...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on September 06, 2012, 05:26:44 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 29, 2012, 08:14:46 AM
Good stuff.
[asin]0062025821[/asin]

This was really great. An impressive debut for this author. If you like apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic fiction (in this case, an asteroid smashing into the earth and the aftermath), you should definitely consider it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 06, 2012, 09:21:47 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 06, 2012, 03:56:32 AM
. . . The Stand is one of his best novels, and I wasn't even disappointed with the ending.

Dang it, Davey, you've got even me considering the possibility of reading a Stephen King book . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on September 06, 2012, 11:04:36 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on Today at 01:21:47 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg657088#msg657088)>Dang it, Davey, you've got even me considering the possibility of reading a Stephen King book . . . .

The Stand is definitely King's masterpiece-- or at least it was until the Dark Tower books came out, which I still haven't read (but mean to).  It's one of my all-time faves, in any genre.

And, if you get the ebook, you can always tell anyone who asks that you're reading Proust!   ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 08, 2012, 10:06:17 AM
Just finished Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and I need now something bit different and maybe slightly easier to read. I thought I had no Jane Austin, but dug out a copy of Northanger Abbey, paperback of 60 year old Serbian translation. Most interesting is that publisher changed the title to Katarina (Catherine), probably thinking that Northanger Abbey is too tongue breaking and not catchy enough, though later publications of the same translation reverted to original title. Found picture of the edition on line, my copy looks about equally worn:

(http://s8.postimage.org/6nppq83x1/DZEJN_OSTEN_Katarina_slika_L_1666602.jpg)
Title: Re: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 08, 2012, 02:06:40 PM
Quote from: jwinter on September 06, 2012, 11:04:36 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on Today at 01:21:47 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=68.msg657088#msg657088)&lt;blockquote&gt;Dang it, Davey, you've got even me considering the possibility of reading a Stephen King book . . . .
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
The Stand is definitely King's masterpiece-- or at least it was until the Dark Tower books came out, which I still haven't read (but mean to).  It's one of my all-time faves, in any genre.

And, if you get the ebook, you can always tell anyone who asks that you're reading Proust!   ;D

Bill, you're a chum! : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on September 09, 2012, 01:31:36 PM
.[asin]0061828513[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on September 09, 2012, 03:02:42 PM
Partly for school, partly for my own edification:

Francis Bacon - New Organon
René Descartes - Discourse on Method
Michel de Montaigne - Essays
Albert Guérard - A Short History of the International Language Movement
Lipset and Marks - It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on September 10, 2012, 11:51:28 AM
An objective and insightful history of the liberation of Paris and the aftermath of WW2 in France... Covers a wide range of aspects (political tensions within the allies, within the various French movements, handling/trials of collaborators, the actions of artists and writers...).

Mind-opening particularly on the subject of collaboration, still a highly sensitive subject in France and with which it is still slowly coming to terms.

[asin]0141032413[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on September 11, 2012, 05:56:56 PM
.[asin]0749956895[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 11, 2012, 06:03:20 PM
Wow.....their book is three times as much as their cds. ;D

I hope you bought it on Amazon because now there will be some type of Apocalyptic zombie book in the section Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on September 11, 2012, 06:27:16 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 11, 2012, 06:03:20 PM
Wow.....their book is three times as much as their cds. ;D

I hope you bought it on Amazon because now there will be some type of Apocalyptic zombie book in the section Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought  :D

Haha! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on September 13, 2012, 06:05:13 PM
Orlando Figes--A People' s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on September 13, 2012, 07:33:51 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 11, 2012, 06:03:20 PMWow.....their book is three times as much as their cds. ;D

:D


I am the very model of a modern intellectual....

Never had much of an attention span, but it's getting worse. Interrupted reading the architectural history of the State Library of New South Wales (essential research), in order to read the commentary on my new King James Bible.

(http://www.shop.nsw.gov.au/shopnsw//admin/webeditor/Agency%20Images/pubs/agency85/9780908449248xl.jpg) (http://www.shop.nsw.gov.au/agencypubdetail.jsp?agency=85&publicationId=8769&categoryid=1&subcategoryid=13)

[asin]0199535949[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 13, 2012, 07:43:49 PM
Quote from: eyeresist on September 13, 2012, 07:33:51 PM

[asin]0199535949[/asin]

I may have to grab that one as it has the Apocrypha.  I may get the Kindle edition for $5.   My wife got me this for commentary a while back:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jaU9sDn6L._AA300_.jpg)

Huge, but valuable.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: eyeresist on September 13, 2012, 08:31:53 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 13, 2012, 07:43:49 PMI may have to grab that one as it has the Apocrypha.  I may get the Kindle edition for $5.   My wife got me this for commentary a while back:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jaU9sDn6L._AA300_.jpg)

Huge, but valuable.

Wow, that looks pretty comprehensive.

Reviews of the Kindle version of Oxford's James bible have been fairly scathing, I should warn you.


EDIT: I'm also thinking of getting the Anglican "Book of Common Prayer", which apparently is an important phrase-making source in English literature ('In the midst of life we are in death, et cetera'). Currently finding it a bit hard to sift out copies of the actual book from various monographs and commentaries.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 14, 2012, 05:01:08 PM
Quote from: eyeresist on September 13, 2012, 08:31:53 PM


Reviews of the Kindle version of Oxford's James bible have been fairly scathing, I should warn you.



Thanks for the heads up.  It took me quite a bit of time to find a decent one last time where navigation was not a huge issue,so purchased this one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sq4L5NX-L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-52,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

May have to go hard copy on the other one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on September 15, 2012, 12:52:44 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 08, 2012, 10:06:17 AM
... Most interesting is that publisher changed the title to Katarina (Catherine), probably thinking that Northanger Abbey is too tongue breaking and not catchy enough, though later publications of the same translation reverted to original title.

(http://s8.postimage.org/6nppq83x1/DZEJN_OSTEN_Katarina_slika_L_1666602.jpg)

Even more eye-catching is the transliteration of the name of Jane Austen.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 15, 2012, 06:15:14 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on September 15, 2012, 12:52:44 AM
Even more eye-catching is the transliteration of the name of Jane Austen.  :)

To Serbian readers it wouldn't be as it is standard practice to transliterate foreign names, toponyms and whatnot. Slightly eye-catching would be that the more usual transliteration of Austen is actually Ostin. Transliterations are not always very consistent.

Anyhow, finished that one, was very enjoyable. I was thinking picking up some more Austen in original this time. So if I may ask what are fellow forumites favorite Austen novels? 

Currently reading Onegin, also in Serbian translation.
     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 15, 2012, 02:54:07 PM
Quote from: Drasko on September 15, 2012, 06:15:14 AM
So if I may ask what are fellow forumites favorite Austen novels? 


Northanger Abbey for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 15, 2012, 09:24:40 PM
Persuasion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on September 17, 2012, 01:29:35 AM
Have to put my other readings on hold for this:

Political and Social Essays by Louisa McCord

(http://img.zvab.com/member/92637b/2842128.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 17, 2012, 01:57:50 PM
Quote from: DavidW on September 15, 2012, 02:54:07 PM
Northanger Abbey for me.
Quote from: Bogey on September 15, 2012, 09:24:40 PM
Persuasion.

I quite liked Northanger Abbey, very nice touch for switching between parody and romance, and Catherine Morland is wonderfully written character.

I will be probably getting next either Persuasion or S&S.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 18, 2012, 12:37:31 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 08, 2012, 10:06:17 AM
(http://s8.postimage.org/6nppq83x1/DZEJN_OSTEN_Katarina_slika_L_1666602.jpg)

Is it customary for Serbian books to be printed in Latin alphabet? AFAIK the official script is a variant of Cyrillic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on September 18, 2012, 04:04:23 AM
(http://www.wickedlocal.com/medway/archive/x1058315599/g244000000000000000497451cb5d30afc4e387acf6fc07ee976d801df9.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on September 18, 2012, 04:13:35 AM
Neal Stephenson Cryptonomicon.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/sep2012/cryptonomicon.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on September 18, 2012, 08:56:16 AM
Viking fiction.
[asin]0345535073[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 18, 2012, 02:22:06 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 18, 2012, 12:37:31 AM
Is it customary for Serbian books to be printed in Latin alphabet? AFAIK the official script is a variant of Cyrillic.

Yes, it is. Cyrillic is the official script but Serbian is I believe the only European language with active digraphia: in everyday use Cyrillic and Latin alphabet are in equal use (or even these days it seems that Latin alphabet is almost prevailing).

QuoteStandard Serbian language uses both Cyrillic (ћирилица / ćirilica) and Latin script (latinica / латиница).

Although Serbian language authorities have recognized the official status for both scripts in contemporary standard Serbian language for more than half of a century now, due to historical reasons, Cyrillic was made the official script of Serbia's administration by the 2006 Constitution. However, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language, or standard language itself by any means, leaving the choice of script as a matter of personal preference and to the free will in all aspects of life (publishing, media, trade and commerce, etc.), except in government paperwork production and in official written communication with state officials which have to be in Cyrillic. Even in official government documents this constitutional requirement is rarely enforced. Serbian is a rare example of synchronic digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them. An example of diagraphia is the media in Serbia. The public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia, predominantly uses the Cyrillic script while the privately run broadcasters, like RTV Pink, predominantly uses the Latin script.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 18, 2012, 04:03:13 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 18, 2012, 08:56:16 AM
Viking fiction.
[asin]0345535073[/asin]

that looks stinkin' cool, Dave.....watcha think so far?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ataraxia on September 18, 2012, 05:04:43 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 18, 2012, 04:03:13 PM
that looks stinkin' cool, Dave.....watcha think so far?

I think it's stinkin' cool. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on September 18, 2012, 07:07:41 PM
Ray Bradbury--A Pleasure To Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 19, 2012, 12:13:31 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 18, 2012, 02:22:06 PM
Yes, it is. Cyrillic is the official script but Serbian is I believe the only European language with active digraphia: in everyday use Cyrillic and Latin alphabet are in equal use (or even these days it seems that Latin alphabet is almost prevailing).

Although Serbian language authorities have recognized the official status for both scripts in contemporary standard Serbian language for more than half of a century now, due to historical reasons, Cyrillic was made the official script of Serbia's administration by the 2006 Constitution. However, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language, or standard language itself by any means, leaving the choice of script as a matter of personal preference and to the free will in all aspects of life (publishing, media, trade and commerce, etc.), except in government paperwork production and in official written communication with state officials which have to be in Cyrillic. Even in official government documents this constitutional requirement is rarely enforced. Serbian is a rare example of synchronic digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them. An example of diagraphia is the media in Serbia. The public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia, predominantly uses the Cyrillic script while the privately run broadcasters, like RTV Pink, predominantly uses the Latin script.
Thanks for the explanation. Is this digraphia also extended to school handbooks? I mean, is it possible for a kid to have a Latin-script mathematics handbook and a Cyrillic-script history handbook?

This digraphia is rather peculiar. Do you think it will last forever or some day a definitive choice will be made?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 19, 2012, 08:42:58 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 19, 2012, 12:13:31 AM
Thanks for the explanation. Is this digraphia also extended to school handbooks? I mean, is it possible for a kid to have a Latin-script mathematics handbook and a Cyrillic-script history handbook?

This digraphia is rather peculiar. Do you think it will last forever or some day a definitive choice will be made?

Honestly can't remember about schoolbooks, I do remember that some of my books for university were in Cyrillic some in Latin.

Don't think it would ever be regulated in any definitive manner.

If anything there might be a fear that Cyrillic might become archaic and obsolete at some point in future, because Latin alphabet in todays world just gets more and more convenient.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on September 20, 2012, 05:22:20 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 15, 2012, 06:15:14 AM
Anyhow, finished that one, was very enjoyable. I was thinking picking up some more Austen in original this time. So if I may ask what are fellow forumites favorite Austen novels?       

This might come in handy in your exploration of her oeuvre.
http://thebrowser.com/interviews/patricia-meyer-spacks-on-jane-austen?print

(Spacks! :o)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 20, 2012, 06:15:45 AM
The only Faulkner I've read yet is Absalom, Absalom! and I found it a page turner from start till end. Maybe it's high time I tackle his trilogy?  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 20, 2012, 06:18:00 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 19, 2012, 08:42:58 AM
If anything there might be a fear that Cyrillic might become archaic and obsolete at some point in future, because Latin alphabet in todays world just gets more and more convenient.
That would indeed be a cultural loss but since, judging from outside, the Serbs are rather attached to their traditions perhaps it is not to be feared much. Am I wrong though?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on September 20, 2012, 07:07:24 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 20, 2012, 06:18:00 AM
That would indeed be a cultural loss but since, judging from outside, the Serbs are rather attached to their traditions perhaps it is not to be feared much. Am I wrong though?

They don't use Arabic script so much these days (do they?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 20, 2012, 07:14:42 AM
Quote from: Corey on September 20, 2012, 07:07:24 AM
They don't use Arabic script so much these days (do they?)

They never used Arabic script. I'm really puzzled.  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 20, 2012, 08:29:53 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on September 20, 2012, 08:24:50 AM
If you are somewhat new to Faulkner (having read just one book) I might not suggest you go next to the Snopes books next, but steer you instead to maybe an earlier book, e.g. Light In August, As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, or Sartoris.  This is not because I do not consider the Snopes books some of his best writing, but mainly because I think the trilogy is best appreciated in direct proportion to the more Faulkner one has read.

Thank you for your suggestion. It so happens that I already own the trilogy so it would be easier and cheaper for me to read them.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 20, 2012, 09:55:19 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on September 20, 2012, 05:22:20 AM
This might come in handy in your exploration of her oeuvre.
http://thebrowser.com/interviews/patricia-meyer-spacks-on-jane-austen?print

(Spacks! :o)

Thanks, that was interesting read. Some of her thoughts (especially on S&S) are actually quite similar to mine, though obviously with incomparable level of knowledge on the matter.

Quote from: Florestan on September 20, 2012, 06:18:00 AM
That would indeed be a cultural loss but since, judging from outside, the Serbs are rather attached to their traditions perhaps it is not to be feared much. Am I wrong though?

Very attached, on words definitely, but unfortunately when it comes down to actually do something about something, bit less so I'm afraid.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on September 20, 2012, 10:43:31 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 20, 2012, 07:14:42 AM
They never used Arabic script. I'm really puzzled.  ???

I'm probably just confused. I got the impression that under the Ottomans they used Arabic script, when it's probably just that Arabic was the preferred language.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on September 21, 2012, 10:13:42 AM
An interpretation of the Universal History (around Toynbee), by José Ortega y Gasset.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41V25UnO1KL._SS500_.jpg)

http://www.laeditorialvirtual.com.ar/pages/Ortega_y_Gasset/InterpretacionHistoria/Interpretacion_00.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on September 23, 2012, 01:30:59 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FVKzPX4eL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on September 23, 2012, 01:41:10 PM
The Arrow of Gold, Joseph Conrad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on September 24, 2012, 09:52:40 AM
Beatlesongs by William J. Dowlding
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on September 24, 2012, 07:45:25 PM
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2311/2531363432_bc26726e4b_o.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on September 24, 2012, 08:05:41 PM
Quote from: Corey on September 24, 2012, 07:45:25 PM
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2311/2531363432_bc26726e4b_o.jpg)

Looks exactly like my old copy. 

Just finished "Our Mutual Friend," Dickens.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on September 25, 2012, 04:25:53 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on September 24, 2012, 08:05:41 PM
Looks exactly like my old copy. 

Just finished "Our Mutual Friend," Dickens.

I'm reading a later edition, but I like the cover I posted more :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on September 25, 2012, 07:49:14 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kXcuD-I2L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
I was at first skeptical, even despite the great reviews (and generally great reputation of the series) that a manga presentation would be effective in teaching math, but it turned out to be a great intro to Linear Algebra.

The explanations were pretty effective and the concepts well explained. It starts with preliminary stuff (functions, matrices, determinants, etc.) and then tackles two main topics: Linear Transformations and Eigenvalues/Eigenvectors.

I'll still need to find some more practice problems, though...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on September 25, 2012, 07:55:46 AM
Quote from: Greg on September 25, 2012, 07:49:14 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kXcuD-I2L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

!

I'm definitely going to take a look inside. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on September 25, 2012, 08:56:41 AM
Up next:

[asin]B007K4NERA[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 28, 2012, 08:49:58 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Dx64togTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 28, 2012, 06:51:44 PM
Some Ernie:

(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Book-Sun-Also-Rises-Hemingway-1930-Random-House-Modern-Library-/00/s/MTYwMFgxMTE2/$(KGrHqF,!gsE+NC))rm1BP3Ru7bepQ~~60_35.JPG)

Love these little Modern Library editions.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on October 03, 2012, 04:55:36 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71MKAG4186L._SL500_AA300_.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on October 05, 2012, 04:54:55 AM
(http://www.cwbr.com/civilwarbookreview/images/jackets/ReadingSouthernHistory.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 05, 2012, 05:13:23 AM
I tried A Casual Vacancy and I hated it.

I'm reading now Dark Tower novel and not liking it at all.  Apparently at the end he criticizes his fans, what a lovely way to end a series.  This I have to read to believe.  It's too bad that the western elements that characterized the early volumes are largely absent now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on October 05, 2012, 06:37:34 AM
Quote from: Bogey on September 28, 2012, 06:51:44 PM
Love these little Modern Library editions.

Me too. Have quite a few of them.

Reading selections from both of these (fun only in a strenuous sense):

(http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/111070000/111077546.jpg) (http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1347516140l/208054.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 05, 2012, 07:24:28 PM
Well, I've not been posting much in this thread despite reading a LOT of books (either on my iPad or in print) recently, but one for non-classical music lovers that may be of interest:

Louisiana Music (2002) by Rick Koster - sub-titled A Journey From R&b To Zydeco, Jazz To Country, Blues To Gospel, Cajun Music To Swamp Pop To Carnival Music And Beyond , which just emphasizes the importance of this this area of the USA in musical history (of course add in Texas and adjacent regions) - just getting started in the first part on 'Jazz' - already ordered 5 new CDs!  Hope that this foolishness stops since I already have PLENTY of this music!  Dave :)

(http://images.indiebound.com/039/810/9780306810039.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on October 08, 2012, 06:15:58 AM
Fun times had.

[asin]B008XQ7YZ2[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on October 09, 2012, 06:31:52 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41CGT9fKOYL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100774838/louisa-s-mccord-poems-drama-biography-letters-susannah-cheves-hardcover-cover-art.jpg)
(http://images.betterworldbooks.com/116/The-Half-Century-Davis-Emerson-9781163869932.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 09, 2012, 03:16:51 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iwj0Y7s-L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Ever have a book that you a took a run at more than three times.  This is mine.  I have posted it before, but seem to stall.  I do not care for the format.  Even though primary sources are used throughout, it loses something in its fusion of them.  however, I may be visiting the battlefield in the spring, as my son's history teacher has a trip set up for his class to go out from Colorado.  I may be going as a chaperon and wanted to sharpen up on this battle.  I read a handful of books on it in the past and this just seems to top many lists for single volume editions.  So, I set a goal to be finished with it by the end of the month.  18 pages a day needed at this point. After this, I want to continue to clip out on Gettysburg book each month before April hits.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on October 09, 2012, 04:39:33 PM
Quote from: Bogey on October 09, 2012, 03:16:51 PM
Ever have a book that you a took a run at more than three times.  This is mine.  I have posted it before, but seem to stall.  I do not care for the format.  Even though primary sources are used throughout, it loses something in its fusion of them.  however, I may be visiting the battlefield in the spring, as my son's history teacher has a trip set up for his class to go out from Colorado.  I may be going as a chaperon and wanted to sharpen up on this battle.  I read a handful of books on it in the past and this just seems to top many lists for single volume editions.  So, I set a goal to be finished with it by the end of the month.  18 pages a day needed at this point. After this, I want to continue to clip out on Gettysburg book each month before April hits.
If it's tough sledding, why not try a different approach. Shelby Foote's Stars in Their Courses might be a better read. Here's the Amazon link, and the "Look Inside" link offers a significant excerpt so you can judge whether the style works for you, Bill.  http://www.amazon.com/Stars-Their-Courses-Gettysburg-June-July/dp/0679601120/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349829111&sr=1-7&keywords=gettysburg

Or you can just watch the terrific TBS movie to brush up before you go!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 09, 2012, 04:50:28 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on October 09, 2012, 04:39:33 PM
If it's tough sledding, why not try a different approach. Shelby Foote's Stars in Their Courses might be a better read. Here's the Amazon link, and the "Look Inside" link offers a significant excerpt so you can judge whether the style works for you, Bill.  http://www.amazon.com/Stars-Their-Courses-Gettysburg-June-July/dp/0679601120/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349829111&sr=1-7&keywords=gettysburg

Or you can just watch the terrific TBS movie to brush up before you go!

Thanks, David.  Foote's series I read in its entirety back in '92-93 or so. Incredible read as he was an author first that turned out to be an incredible historian on the war, IMO.  I was considering the extract as one of my reads, though.  Have you tried his works?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 09, 2012, 05:00:45 PM
This looks to be a standard read that I missed in my earlier days, but is another overview.  However, it would absorb more then a month's worth of reading.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41tDSZBeb-L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)


Maybe after the Trudeau and the Foote, I will get more specific like these possibilities:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kovCGpwyL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517jy7XqUQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)


Isn't it amazing that three days of battle produced more literature than one could probably read in a lifetime?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on October 09, 2012, 05:17:07 PM
I read some of his narrative history after Ken Burns's series on the war was telecast. (Was that 20 years ago already?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 09, 2012, 05:23:03 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on October 09, 2012, 05:17:07 PM
I read some of his narrative history after Ken Burns's series on the war was telecast. (Was that 20 years ago already?)

Couldn't be. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on October 12, 2012, 05:34:19 AM
Marguerite Yourcenar - The Abyss
Bertrand Russell - The Problems of Philosophy
Immanuel Kant - A Critique of Pure Reason (selections)
G.W.F. Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit (selections)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 13, 2012, 06:41:03 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on October 12, 2012, 05:02:56 AM
For a great narrative history that reads very much like a novel but is based on a huge amount of research, try Shelby Foote's three volume history of the WBTS.

EDIT: I posted this before I saw your earlier post.

That's ok.  Cool that yuo enjoyed it as well.  Yes, Foote is my favorite read of the CW to date.  In fact, I even hadd the opportunity to ask him a question on line before he passed away.  It was back when AOL was the "knees" and a chat system was just taking off.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on October 18, 2012, 09:58:56 AM
An excellent interview with writer Michael Frayn (Noises Off, Copenhagen) in The Paris Review:

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/80/the-art-of-theater-no-15-michael-frayn

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on October 18, 2012, 11:26:51 AM
A.A. Stolyar - Introduction to Elementary Mathematical Logic

It's fun, really!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on October 26, 2012, 07:03:14 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 28, 2012, 08:49:58 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Dx64togTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Instantaneously, Ferrero recalls me my old days in the university and names so heterogeneous like Leon Homo, Fustel de Coulanges and Michel Villey.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 26, 2012, 11:08:23 AM
Quote from: Soapy Molloy on October 12, 2012, 03:05:52 AM
(http://www.maillife.co.uk/medias/sys_master/8817272815646.jpg)
Savage Continent Europe in the Aftermath of World War II
Keith Lowe (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Savage-Continent-Europe-Aftermath-World/dp/067091746X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350039631&sr=1-1)

Depressing as hell, but an important corrective to some of the triumphalist history I was fed in school.

Also some lighter reading on the Kindle:

[asin]B0081BU42O[/asin]

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 26, 2012, 08:08:02 PM
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/182720000/182722781.JPG)

Shoul only take a week or so as it is less than 200 pages, but has received high praise.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 27, 2012, 12:16:19 PM
Quote from: Bogey on October 26, 2012, 08:08:02 PM
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/182720000/182722781.JPG)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518%2Bn%2BuAieL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_SX342_SY445_CR,0,0,342,445_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Shoul only take a week or so as it is less than 200 pages, but has received high praise.

Bill - I've not read that one, but many other accounts of the battle; a good bio of J.L. Chamberlain is always a nice accompaniment to reading about Gettysburg and the fight for Little Round Top - enjoy!  Dave :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on October 28, 2012, 11:34:49 AM
Two stacks of books:

Pile 1 deals with my textual analysis of Louisa McCord's Caius (includes her texts, some secondary sources, and Plutarch's Lives)
Pile 2 deals with my genre defining of Neo-Nazi music (includes mainly secondary sources)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on October 31, 2012, 01:50:10 AM
HEIDEGGER:          "Zollikoner Seminarie"

The seminaries gave by Heidegger in Zurich between 1959 and 1969.  As usual, in this period of his life, the recurrent subject is the objection to science. Heidegger insists that he is not against science but the scientific method. However, I don't see how Physics would exist without their own method. In fact I don't see a real difference between modern physics and the method they use.
To say that the method is subjective and arbitrary doesn't solve anything. What matters is the correspondence between a physical description and the natural event that is described. Not exactly the "why" of something, but the "how".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on October 31, 2012, 04:49:31 PM
Edward J. Erickson--Gallipoli and The Middle East, 1914-1918: From The Dardanelles To Mesopotamia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 01, 2012, 09:00:39 AM
Quote from: val on October 31, 2012, 01:50:10 AM
HEIDEGGER:          "Zollikoner Seminarie"

The seminaries gave by Heidegger in Zurich between 1959 and 1969.  As usual, in this period of his life, the recurrent subject is the objection to science. Heidegger insists that he is not against science but the scientific method. However, I don't see how Physics would exist without their own method. In fact I don't see a real difference between modern physics and the method they use.
To say that the method is subjective and arbitrary doesn't solve anything. What matters is the correspondence between a physical description and the natural event that is described. Not exactly the "why" of something, but the "how".

if Heidegger was so brilliant, then why was he a f-ng Nazi? 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on November 01, 2012, 09:54:13 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on November 01, 2012, 09:00:39 AM
if Heidegger was so brilliant, then why was he a f-ng Nazi?

Probably for the same reason Thomas Jefferson was a white supremacist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on November 01, 2012, 10:09:03 AM
Quote from: Corey on November 01, 2012, 09:54:13 AM
Probably for the same reason Thomas Jefferson was a white supremacist.

Thomas Jefferson, in my view, was far worse than a white supremacist. 

In those days if you never saw a non-white you would be a white supremacist by default, since the culture taught you that whites were superior.  Since slaves had no access to education, even a slave owner could rationalize his action to himself by saying 'Africans are not like us, so we have to manage them as we would any other domestic animal.'

Thomas Jefferson had sex, and reproduced with one of his own slaves.  There is no escape.  Either he viewed Africans as non-human, yet he reproduced with one, or he knew they were as human as he was, yet kept them as slaves (including his own offspring).  I'm not sure which is worse.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on November 01, 2012, 10:30:42 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on November 01, 2012, 10:09:03 AM
Thomas Jefferson, in my view, was far worse than a white supremacist. 

In those days if you never saw a non-white you would be a white supremacist by default, since the culture taught you that whites were superior.  Since slaves had no access to education, even a slave owner could rationalize his action to himself by saying 'Africans are not like us, so we have to manage them as we would any other domestic animal.'

Thomas Jefferson had sex, and reproduced with one of his own slaves.  There is no escape.  Either he viewed Africans as non-human, yet he reproduced with one, or he knew they were as human as he was, yet kept them as slaves (including his own offspring).  I'm not sure which is worse.

I was about to say something similar, as I was also surprised by Corey's soft stance. Jefferson was a rapist.

Currently reading books on genre and subcultural theory.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 01, 2012, 12:27:44 PM
just about every European that lived in the 18th and 19th century was a white supremacist by today's standards, the fact hardly excuses Heidegger for writing stuff like this:

QuoteHundreds of thousands die en masse. Do they die? They succumb. They are done in. Do they die? They become mere quanta, items in an inventory in the business of manufacturing corpses. Do they die? They are liquidated inconspicuously in extermination camps. And even apart from that, right now millions of impoverished people are perishing from hunger in China. But to die is to endure death in its essence. To be able to die means to be capable of this endurance. We are capable of this only if the essence of death makes our own essence possible
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 01, 2012, 02:33:13 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on November 01, 2012, 12:27:44 PM
just about every European that lived in the 18th and 19th century was a white supremacist by today's standards, the fact hardly excuses Heidegger for writing stuff like this:

I know I'm going to be offended... just as soon as I figure out what the hell he's trying to say.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on November 01, 2012, 05:07:05 PM
Quote from: Daverz on November 01, 2012, 02:33:13 PM
I know I'm going to be offended... just as soon as I figure out what the hell he's trying to say.

It's a slow-burner.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 01, 2012, 07:01:41 PM
Quote from: Daverz on November 01, 2012, 02:33:13 PM
I know I'm going to be offended... just as soon as I figure out what the hell he's trying to say.

how about this one, its less obtuse

QuoteLet not propositions and 'ideas' be the rules of your being (Sein). The Führer alone is the present and future German reality and its law. Learn to know ever more deeply: that from now on every single thing demands decision, and every action responsibility. Heil Hitler![

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidegger_and_Nazism
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 04, 2012, 05:11:16 PM
A great, topical read ...

Joseph E. Stiglitz: The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mZrTe1oeL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Tuesday, Nov. 6th, we'll learn whether the trend to ever greater inequality in the USA is to be moderated or redoubled.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on November 04, 2012, 05:22:03 PM
Bertrand de Jouvenel, On Power. The Natural History of Its Growth.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mEv46BFBL._SS500_.jpg)

I'm reading a Spanish translation. Totally fascinating.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scarpia on November 04, 2012, 06:07:09 PM
Just finished reading (for the second time) The Return of the Native.  If there is a better novel written, I don't know of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on November 08, 2012, 12:50:52 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NDWymqW%2BL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Quote from: Scarpia on November 27, 2009, 07:04:01 PM
The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters.  This is part historical fiction, part ghost story, a tale of a family living in a deteriorating English estate in the post-war 1940's.  One by one the residents meet a bad end, and we are left wonder if the demons assailing them are supernatural, or in their minds.

A well told story, but not as vivid as Water's earlier work, particularly Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet.   I recommend it, but I recommend those earlier works even more, if you don't know them.

Scarps recommended this to me a few months ago and I've finally got around to reading it. I'm just over halfway through and I am completely hooked. It's beautifully written - the kind of prose that seems effortlessly to conjure up the events, places and people in the imagination. And I find it fascinating to inhabit this imagined space, feeling deep head-shaking sympathy for these people who are hanging on to a mode of living that's no longer sustainable (shades of Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry), and watching it all dissolve, slowly and painfully. Of course I don't know how it's all going to end - so don't tell me - but in truth I don't want it to end. I wish the novel were twice as long as it is.

Many, many thanks to Scarps for his recommendation. A real winner.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on November 08, 2012, 04:18:09 PM
Barbara Tuchman--The Guns of August
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on November 08, 2012, 05:04:56 PM
Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations
W.V. Quine - Philosophy of Logic
E.M. Cioran - A Short History of Decay
Max Weber - The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on November 09, 2012, 08:29:16 AM
Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher volume 1.  It's been a while since I read a graphic novel and this one seems to be a fine recommendation by a friend.  The combination of twisted humor, interesting (and twisted) characters, and what seems to be an interesting plot hits the spot nicely.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on November 16, 2012, 05:06:10 AM
Read "The Derelict" by William Hope Hodgson last night, and some Chet Williamson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 16, 2012, 05:17:24 AM
My Nook died!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on November 16, 2012, 05:20:38 AM
I'm reading on an iPad now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 16, 2012, 05:53:20 AM
Wasn't the Nook's fault. I was thrown from my seat on a train (fool conductor driving the train too fast), and the Nook was in the bag which I landed on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on November 16, 2012, 05:58:20 AM
Why did they let the conductor drive the train? :o :D



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on November 16, 2012, 07:44:43 PM
Barbara Tuchman--The Proud Tower
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wanderer on November 17, 2012, 02:05:48 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 16, 2012, 05:53:20 AM
Wasn't the Nook's fault. I was thrown from my seat on a train (fool conductor driving the train too fast), and the Nook was in the bag which I landed on.

Ouch...  >:(

Quote from: Opus106 on November 16, 2012, 05:58:20 AM
Why did they let the conductor drive the train? :o :D

Painful but still funny.  :D $:)

Thread duty: Dan Simmons' Hyperion & Richard Preston's The Wild Trees.

(also always assume I'm reading one or another legal ten-pounder on the side)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on November 18, 2012, 09:19:21 PM
(http://images.betterworldbooks.com/140/Spies-for-Hire-9781400157723.jpg)
(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm101178357/american-skinheads-mark-s-hamm-paperback-cover-art.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Gv9XirYjL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on November 21, 2012, 03:57:38 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B8qVafXGL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 21, 2012, 06:56:59 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VfqQ9wy6L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

The history of US as I have never read before. Very intriguing and thought-provoking although somehow in line with my own thinking in matters political and economical.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 21, 2012, 12:06:45 PM
Quote from: Florestan on November 21, 2012, 06:56:59 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VfqQ9wy6L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

The history of US as I have never read before. Very intriguing and thought-provoking although somehow in line with my own thinking in matters political and economical.

I believe that this book was written quite a few years ago. There have been a lot of changes since then but I guess libertarian, anarcho-capitalist twaddle hasn't changed much.

BTW I'm curious, assuming your are basically libertarian, whether you are in favor of women's choice on abortion and unrestricted immigration?

~~~

I'm presently reading Joseph Stiglitz: The Price of Inequality

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MxM2SPQvL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on November 21, 2012, 01:00:33 PM
I finished Old Man Logan in one sitting earlier today and I'm currently starting on The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 22, 2012, 12:22:50 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on November 21, 2012, 12:06:45 PM
BTW I'm curious, assuming your are basically libertarian, whether you are in favor of women's choice on abortion and unrestricted immigration?

I am not libertarian; acknowledging the obvious historical fact that the origin of the state is conquest and exploitation doesn't make me one any more than it makes me a Marxist, which again I am not. Facts don't have ideological color.

Anyway, to answer your question, I personally consider abortion to be morally reprehensible (except in cases of rape or when the mother's life is endangered by the continuation of the pregnancy) and a crime but the ultimate responsibility lies with both the mother and the father (provided it is known) and in order to make an informed choice they must be presented with all the medical and psychological facts related to abortion. In any case abortion should not be publicly subsidized.

As for unrestricted immigration, I am not American so I can't tell.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 22, 2012, 08:07:26 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 22, 2012, 12:22:50 AM
...

As for unrestricted immigration, I am not American so I can't tell.
Ah, forgive me, I see you are Romania. Reading a book by an American author and with a especially American scope, I assumed you were in the USA.

The unrestricted immigration question could well apply in the European context of course. If I'm not mistaken there is unrestricted migration in EU countries.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 22, 2012, 08:51:55 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on November 22, 2012, 08:07:26 AM
If I'm not mistaken there is unrestricted migration in EU countries.

You are mistaken. (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/immigration/irregular-immigration/index_en.htm)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 22, 2012, 04:58:45 PM
Quote from: Florestan on November 22, 2012, 08:51:55 AM
You are mistaken. (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/immigration/irregular-immigration/index_en.htm)

I mean movement of EU citizens from one EU country to another.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 22, 2012, 11:56:07 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on November 22, 2012, 04:58:45 PM
I mean movement of EU citizens from one EU country to another.

I thought you meant something similar to the US immigration: non-Europeans coming to, and settling in, EU (or non-EU European countries). In this respect I disfavor unrestricted immigration, on the contrary, I should like to see a more cautionary policy and a toughening of the rules especially in the case of Muslim immigrants: anyone found to be involved in Islamist propaganda or to be member of a terrorist group (even if he did nothing more) should immediately be deported in his country of origin and never again allowed to set foot in EU.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on November 23, 2012, 02:15:38 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 22, 2012, 11:56:07 PM
In this respect I disfavor unrestricted immigration, on the contrary, I should like to see a more cautionary policy and a toughening of the rules especially in the case of Muslim immigrants: anyone found to be involved in Islamist propaganda or to be member of a terrorist group (even if he did nothing more) should immediately be deported in his country of origin and never again allowed to set foot in EU.

In the past - under Vlad III - Romania had a strict migratory policy to stop "illegal immigration" of its oriental neighbors. I hope you're thinking of something more moderate.  ;D  :D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 23, 2012, 02:29:21 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on November 23, 2012, 02:15:38 AM
In the past - under Vlad III - Romania had a strict migratory policy to stop "illegal immigration" of its oriental neighbors.

Except that it was not "illegal immigration" but plain military invasion. ;D :D ;D


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 23, 2012, 04:52:08 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 22, 2012, 11:56:07 PM
I thought you meant something similar to the US immigration: non-Europeans coming to, and settling in, EU (or non-EU European countries). In this respect I disfavor unrestricted immigration, on the contrary, I should like to see a more cautionary policy and a toughening of the rules especially in the case of Muslim immigrants: anyone found to be involved in Islamist propaganda or to be member of a terrorist group (even if he did nothing more) should immediately be deported in his country of origin and never again allowed to set foot in EU.
Here in Canada we have a quite a "points-base" immigration system where potential new comers, (except close family members), must have qualifications.  As I understand, the U.S. system is more of a quota system; Canada has about 3x higher annual immigrant per capita than the USA.

Canada is today more ethnically diverse than most European countries, (I believe). But I can understand that many European natives would object to new comers who have no intention of accommodating to local culture.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 23, 2012, 05:55:25 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on November 23, 2012, 04:52:08 AM
Here in Canada we have a quite a "points-base" immigration system where potential new comers, (except close family members), must have qualifications.

I know. There are many, many Romanian immigrants in Canada and no less than 3 or 4 families amongst my own acquaintances. It seems to me a reasonable system.

Quote
As I understand, the U.S. system is more of a quota system

Do you refer to the visa lottery?

Quote
Canada is today more ethnically diverse than most European countries, (I believe). But I can understand that many European natives would object to new comers who have no intention of accommodating to local culture.

Well, exactly. IMO anyone coming to Europe, and EU in particular, looking for a better life for he and his family should be welcomed, treated according to the laws of hospitality and, as far as possible, helped with integration, including allowing him to practice his religion undisturbed --- on one simple, common-sense and reasonable condition: that they in turn try their best to accommodate to the society that has received them and in any case not try to impose their religion or way of life on it.

Out of curiosity: in the specific case of your country would you favor giving up any qualifications and admitting unrestricted immigration?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 23, 2012, 09:02:24 AM
Two on the table:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k%2Bm4wwAoL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

My wife got me this back in the 90's and just starting it.   ;D

And this one from 1973 (which I will read in chunks):

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/The_Imperial_Presidency_(Schlesinger_book).jpg)

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/01/us/01schlesinger0.190.jpg)

I always enjoyed catching interviews with Schlesinger.  I had to read his book back in my college days (late 80's) and remember actually finding it one of the VERY few books that grabbed my attention.  It will be fun to revisit it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 23, 2012, 10:59:14 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 23, 2012, 05:55:25 AM...

Out of curiosity: in the specific case of your country would you favor giving up any qualifications and admitting unrestricted immigration?

Certainly not, but then I'm not a Libertarian!  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 25, 2012, 10:55:03 AM
Okay, I've got a new Nook!  Bill, it's high time I resumed (and finished) David Copperfield! The problem was mostly that I had somehow downloaded an incomplete e-book . . . but now I've brassed up and bought the $2.99 Nook edition of the complete Dickens . . . .

Must see if the MBTA cannot be made to pay for the replacement.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 25, 2012, 01:45:51 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 25, 2012, 10:55:03 AM
Okay, I've got a new Nook!  Bill, it's high time I resumed (and finished) David Copperfield! The problem was mostly that I had somehow downloaded an incomplete e-book . . . but now I've brassed up and bought the $2.99 Nook edition of the complete Dickens . . . .

Must see if the MBTA cannot be made to pay for the replacement.

Enjoy the read, Karl.  Wonderful book.  I may have to drop everything and pick up some of his Christmas stories! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 25, 2012, 02:34:37 PM
And back to Thomas Traddles for my avatar, Karl.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 25, 2012, 02:38:51 PM
I live for the exquisite moments in Dickens, like David going back home and having that brief time just the three of them, his mother, Peggotty & he. An oasis of Murdstonelessness.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 25, 2012, 02:46:58 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 25, 2012, 02:38:51 PM
I live for the exquisite moments in Dickens, like David going back home and having that brief time just the three of them, his mother, Peggotty & he. An oasis of Murdstonelessness.

Indeed.  I just finished it this past summer and could very easily pick it up again now.  My goal is still to have all his works read before I kick off. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 25, 2012, 04:34:21 PM
Just finished this, Karl (and other fans of Dickens):

http://charlesdickenspage.com/mr_minns_and_his_cousin.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on November 26, 2012, 05:11:07 AM
For those that use ereaders, kindle, nook, apple and google are having Cybermonday sales.  A few thousand ebooks are 80% off today.  As a horror fan I was pleased to see that most of Robert McCammon's novels are $2.  On the more literary side Michael Chabon is heavily featured on the discounts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on November 28, 2012, 04:14:09 AM
After next week:
(http://www.public-republic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/2666275x415.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 28, 2012, 04:17:28 AM
Quote from: Bogey on November 25, 2012, 02:46:58 PM
Indeed.  I just finished it this past summer and could very easily pick it up again now.  My goal is still to have all his works read before I kick off.

I've plugged right back into it, Bill, as if I'd set it down the day prior, rather than half a year ago.

Come to think of it, I feel the same sort of narrative "familiarity" with our Cato's work . . . which I need to load onto the new Nook . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on November 30, 2012, 07:05:51 AM
(http://www.kpfa.org/system/files/3/daniel_yergin_book_0.png)


Daniel Yergin's The Quest, surveying all things energy, from an oil analyst's point of view.  The first section, which I am still reading, is like an extension of The Prize from the First Gulf War to the present, filled with a fine, brief summary of the oil industry in Central Asia.  (A couple times Yergin's writing reads just like Steve Levine's The Oil and the Glory, and sure enough that book is cited.)  I got the book for the sections on other forms of energy and conservation, though, and those should be quite good as well.  Well written and researched, and a really quick read.  Just right for the holiday season.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 30, 2012, 07:41:07 AM
Ha:
Author of THE PRIZE
Winner of THE PULITZER PRIZE
I would be interesting to read your summarization of his views on alternative energy,when you've read the thing, Todd.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on November 30, 2012, 11:48:02 AM
Quote from: Philo on November 28, 2012, 04:14:09 AM
After next week:
(http://www.public-republic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/2666275x415.jpg)

Great! Bolaño was a giant; he didn't merely make up stories, but he created entire universes. In Spanish, my favorite novelist from the second half of the XXth Century.... He also was an extraordinarily lucid essayist and a very good writer of short stories.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 30, 2012, 12:09:18 PM
Quote from: Philo on November 28, 2012, 04:14:09 AM
After next week:
(http://www.public-republic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/2666275x415.jpg)
"One of the giants of the post-Marquez era"? But the post-Marquez era hasn't begun yet. And Bolano was actively publishing from 1993-2003, during which time Marquez published 5 books and after which Marquez added his last. You could say that Marquez's high point, his best work, was 1965-1985, but that's the only way that saying his era is over makes much sense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on November 30, 2012, 01:10:35 PM
Gordon: Thanks for that.
Brian: They're talking about 100 Years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on November 30, 2012, 03:44:53 PM
Quote from: Brian on November 30, 2012, 12:09:18 PM
"One of the giants of the post-Marquez era"? But the post-Marquez era hasn't begun yet. And Bolano was actively publishing from 1993-2003, during which time Marquez published 5 books and after which Marquez added his last. You could say that Marquez's high point, his best work, was 1965-1985, but that's the only way that saying his era is over makes much sense.
Who knows. I don't totally disagree with that statement. Yes, Jimmy Page is alive, but now guitar players live the-post Jimmy Page era, although Page is still alive. IMO, this  has something to do with the "sacred fire" and the peak of creativity of every great artist.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on December 03, 2012, 05:17:22 AM
Fantastic book:

(http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/148160000/148163807.JPG)
Title: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on December 14, 2012, 07:12:39 PM
The Best Buddhist Writing 2012
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on December 14, 2012, 08:40:16 PM
Starting next week:
History of Epic Poetry by Clark
Uncertain Shield by Posner
2666 by Bolano
Privileged and Confidential by Abner et. al.
Content Analysis by Krippendorff
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 15, 2012, 07:14:05 AM
Well, I've not posted recently here but continue to read -   ;D

Now working on 3 books the last few weeks:

Darwin's Ghosts - The Secret History of Evolution (2012) by Rebecca Stott - liking the latter chapters the best (Lamarck, Cuvier, Chambers, Wallace and others); 4+ stars on Amazon (HERE (http://amazon.com/Darwins-Ghosts-Secret-History-Evolution/dp/1400069378/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355586490&sr=1-1&keywords=darwin's+ghosts)) - I'd probably do 4* there.

Inventing Wine - A New History of One of the World's Most Ancient Pleasures (2012) by Paul Lukacs - a just released Wine Spectator recommendation - only through the first two chapters (beginnings into the medieval era) but enjoying the read; well researched and written in a conversational style.

Printmaking - A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes (2009) by Beth Grabowski & Bill Fick - we've been collecting 'fine art' prints since the early 1970s (our walls are virtually filled w/ these & other media objects), and although I have a lot of books on art & printmaking, the latter are rather dated; much has changed in the materials used, the methods, and the introduction of computers and newer printing methods - SO, a refresher course for me - :)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8sgTPWkfg7Y/UAGYN2d63fI/AAAAAAAAELU/fCjkq_QMvoM/s400/0927+Darwin+v1+lores.jpg)  (http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780393064520_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)  (http://www.marylyndintenfass.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/1_Print.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kaergaard on December 15, 2012, 11:16:43 AM
This year's winner of the Nobelprice in Literature: Mo Yan WOW!. I have read his The Garlic Ballads and was captivated by his talent of taking me to places I have never been physically, but after reading him, feel as if I had spend my entire life in China. Mo Yan vaguely reminds me of Günter Grass, both great story tellers without tiresome 'Messages'. Mo entertains me, that's why I read books!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on December 16, 2012, 04:41:17 AM
Finished my first semi-fun read. It wasn't all that fantastic. It didn't offer up anything all that new, and the author makes some rather wild claims. I do appreciate that the author was up front with his lack of expertise and that he was agenda-setting. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have at least a fair amount of knowledge about the Intelligence industry, as this book will likely lead you to make believe foolhardy things.

[asin]B007HWN6CS[/asin]
Title: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on December 16, 2012, 07:11:51 AM
At the Earth's Core by ERB.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 16, 2012, 01:26:19 PM
Boning up for the movie which I'm going to see tonight with my family. We'll see the 3D, 48 fps version.

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ERngZyv1L._SS500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on December 16, 2012, 04:19:35 PM
Justus D. Doenecke--Nothing Less Than War: A New History Of America's Entry Into World War One
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 16, 2012, 05:13:37 PM
Oy, Karl!  Just finished A Christmas Carol....many interpretations out there, but it doesn't get better than the source. 0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on December 16, 2012, 11:40:15 PM
Quote from: Bogey on December 16, 2012, 05:13:37 PM
Oy, Karl!  Just finished A Christmas Carol....many interpretations out there, but it doesn't get better than the source. 0:)

Many interpretations, Bill? ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on December 17, 2012, 03:44:37 AM
Pellucidar by ERB.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 17, 2012, 03:50:36 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 16, 2012, 05:13:37 PM
Oy, Karl!  Just finished A Christmas Carol....many interpretations out there, but it doesn't get better than the source. 0:)

Quote from: Opus106 on December 16, 2012, 11:40:15 PM
Many interpretations, Bill? ???

I expect, Nav, that what Bill has in mind is the wide variety of cinematic (and divers other dramatick) realiizations of the tale.  Some of which, I do shuddetr to contemplate ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 17, 2012, 04:44:18 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 17, 2012, 03:50:36 AM
I expect, Nav, that what Bill has in mind is [...]

Or maybe this.

http://mises.org/daily/573 (http://mises.org/daily/573)

http://thetyee.ca/Views/2003/12/22/In_Defense_of_Scrooge/ (http://thetyee.ca/Views/2003/12/22/In_Defense_of_Scrooge/)

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer93.html (http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer93.html)

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 17, 2012, 04:52:47 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 17, 2012, 04:44:18 AM
Or maybe this.

http://mises.org/daily/573 (http://mises.org/daily/573)
;D

Saints preserve us from the Greed is actually good, you know revisionists! : )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 17, 2012, 07:07:32 AM
Oooh now that's a very interesting read, Soapy!

I wonder if anyone else has recommendations for cookbooks that are fairly "accessible" in terms of ingredients, preparations, and instructions, but with particularly tasty/exotic results? I'm currently making my way through Ruhlman's Twenty and Classic Turkish Cooking, but there's a heavy stress on recipes which take an afternoon or even an entire week to fully create...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 17, 2012, 04:15:34 PM
I may have mentioned this already but I'm working my way through the Transmetropolitan series.  It's a cyberpunk political comic series centered around a journalist based on Hunter S. Thompson, only living in the future and interacting with the politicians and people in that time period.  Definitely not the kind of comic you'd let your kids get their hands on, but the whole series thus far has made for a great read and some of the observations made have been quite prescient, though some scenarios hit close enough to home to be pretty scare.  The little touches are brilliant, too.  I love the idea of people freely smoking cigarettes because they can take an anti-cancer pill to prevent any problems associated with usage, for example.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on December 18, 2012, 06:20:53 AM
Christopher Hitchens: God is Not Great

[asin]0446697966[/asin]

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 18, 2012, 06:33:34 AM
"An all-out attack on all aspects of religion." Sober and fair, then. Should sell well in the sizeable I already scorn anyone who ascribes to a religion market.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on December 18, 2012, 06:46:47 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 18, 2012, 06:33:34 AM
"An all-out attack on all aspects of religion." Sober and fair, then. Should sell well in the sizeable I already scorn anyone who ascribes to a religion market.

Well, that market is certainly out there, but the book is interesting, in any case. I'm about 100 pages in.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 18, 2012, 06:52:10 AM
I didn't question whether the book is interesting, only sober and fair ; )

Of course, many people who would agree that bigotry is a horrible, horrible thing, somehow feel that bigotry is a virtue when the object of one's bigotry is people of faith.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on December 18, 2012, 06:57:09 AM
Well, read it!  :D  I'd be interested to know what you think. (Yes, I know, the title is deliberately provocative.)

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 18, 2012, 07:06:23 AM
Quote from: Brewski on December 18, 2012, 06:57:09 AM
Well, read it!  :D  I'd be interested to know what you think. (Yes, I know, the title is deliberately provocative.)

All things being equal, I might indeed find the book of interest, Bruce. I resent the penny-dreadful title and subtitle, and not merely from my perspective as a person who finds in religion a source of much that is not poisonous (unlike that book's subtitle, e.g.)

This month I am somehow particularly sensitive to how "sexed-up" new music has to be to get any purchase, not so much with the public, but with the performers and ensembles who champion new music.  I'm not going to throw a provocative subtitle onto my music to get the attention;  I'm all music and zero bullshit.

So a book like this, which in its subtitle embraces the bullshit, doesn't pass my sniff test.

If you need, I can lend you a clothespin ; )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 18, 2012, 07:07:53 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on December 18, 2012, 07:01:35 AM
. . . It is interesting how each "fact" conspiracy buffs trumpet is proved to be, actually, not a fact at all.

Oh, we had ample exposure to that phenomenon, with a resident wacko in the past who had this daft idea that Mozart hadn't actually written any of Mozart's music . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on December 18, 2012, 07:15:45 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 18, 2012, 07:06:23 AM
So a book like this, which in its subtitle embraces the bullshit, doesn't pass my sniff test.

Sniff test for the editor's marketing tactics, maybe. Not really for the author and his ideas, is it? :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 18, 2012, 07:21:29 AM
What if the subtitle is the author's own?

At some level the author is complicit, Nav.

A quick search on Amazon suggests, in a range of titles by the same author, that this is not any matter of an editor glossing the author's intent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on December 18, 2012, 07:32:06 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 18, 2012, 07:21:29 AM
What if the subtitle is the author's own?

At some level the author is complicit, Nav.

A quick search on Amazon suggests, in a range of titles by the same author, that this is not any matter of an editor glossing the author's intent.

That is not surprising, given the author in this example. Some might even say that he was a little too honest with the titles, and brutally so. But plenty of cases out there where the author had to accede to silly editorial wishes simply to get the book out, sexed-up and everything.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 18, 2012, 09:01:58 AM
When it comes to the so-called "New Atheists" I tend to favor Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett.  Both are easily described as sober and fair.  Hitchens, while a fascinating man and a walking encyclopedia, was also a self-styled polemicist and while it makes for some chuckles (he had a sharp wit) it did result in over-extending his arguments (and conclusions) at times.  Dawkins can be the same way.  PZ Myers is not worth mentioning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 18, 2012, 09:06:49 AM
I think the key is to respect the fellow who disagrees with you; and to conduct your part of the discussion in a way which commands his respect, in turn.  "How Religion Poisons Everything" isn't there, is it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 18, 2012, 09:19:34 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 18, 2012, 09:06:49 AM
I think the key is to respect the fellow who disagrees with you; and to conduct your part of the discussion in a way which commands his respect, in turn.  "How Religion Poisons Everything" isn't there, is it?

No disagreement there.  'How Religion Poisons Everything' screams 'polemic.'

EDIT:  The conversation above about not wanting to read the book reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend of mine some time ago.  She's the kind of person who watches Fox News, listens to Limbaugh occasionally, etc. so she can be angry at them.  She's also a voracious reader.  When Sarah Palin's first book came out I informed her that I expected a thorough review within the week.  She drew the line there in spite of my insistence that it would be written by a ghost writer and thus be filled with comprehensible English. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 18, 2012, 05:45:44 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ds8ojJpVL._AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 19, 2012, 06:08:37 AM
"How Religion Poisons Everything"

Right. One of the most venomous things on Earth is Bach's Mass in B Minor. Taking even a fugitive look at Velasquez's Christ on The Cross is the equivalent of drinking a cup of hemlock. And reading just the first four stanzas of Dante's The Divine Comedy is guaranteed to get you to a toxicological emergency room...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 19, 2012, 10:20:08 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 19, 2012, 06:08:37 AM
"How Religion Poisons Everything"

Right. One of the most venomous things on Earth is Bach's Mass in B Minor. Taking even a fugitive look at Velasquez's Christ on The Cross is the equivalent of drinking a cup of hemlock. And reading just the first four stanzas of Dante's The Divine Comedy is guaranteed to get you to a toxicological emergency room...

Yes, clearly 'everything' was intended to be read literally. :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on December 19, 2012, 11:45:41 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 19, 2012, 06:08:37 AM
"How Religion Poisons Everything"

Right. One of the most venomous things on Earth is Bach's Mass in B Minor.

If the Church hadn't placed restrictions on what could be and, more importantly, what should not be composed and performed, the world would have discovered atonality a long time ago! :P And the intervening 500 or so years would have been ample time to realise some actually listenable contemporary music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on December 20, 2012, 12:03:48 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oMtez1MSL._AA160_.jpg)

Carol Rifka Brunt: Tell the Wolves I'm Home. Told from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl whose much-loved uncle (an artist) dies of AIDS. This happens early in the book, and the novel unfolds the tale of what happened next. If that baldly-stated theme suggests this is a miserable, depressing affair, or something mawkish, rest easy: it isn't. It's exquisitely written in a prose that never goes over the top but is so fluent that one barely notices it. Delicate, nuanced, sensitive and at times so deeply moving that it's hard to read some passages out loud without choking with emotion. At the end of the book, the eccentric young June Elbus felt like a character I'd actually met, and become extremely fond of. She taught me to go back and listen again to Mozart's Requiem, and to buy some more versions of it and listen to those too, trying to recapture an 'innocent ear'. She showed me prejudices within myself that I didn't know I had, and made me feel all the better for having recognised them.

This is one of those very rare novels that had me re-reading it almost immediately after finishing it the first time, and finding the second reading even more rewarding. If Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry won my 'Favourite novel of the last ten years' award, this runs it a close second. (Not that the two have anything in common beyond excellence.) Every time I think of it, Philip Larkin's line comes to mind:

"What will survive of us is love."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 20, 2012, 04:35:45 AM
Quote from: Philip LarkinWhat will survive of us is love.

Beautiful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 20, 2012, 04:51:30 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on December 18, 2012, 09:19:34 AM
No disagreement there.  'How Religion Poisons Everything' screams 'polemic.'
...

Yes, Heaven forbid polemics: possibly hurtful to those who don't agree.  It is the a favourite logical fallacy of religionists: the Appeal to Politeness.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 20, 2012, 04:59:10 AM
What is the problem, exactly, with treating the other fellow with respect?  Just asking.

And may I point out the obvious? If your ideas have the strength of logic and truth, you needn't rely on mere scorn.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 20, 2012, 06:00:45 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 20, 2012, 04:59:10 AM
What is the problem, exactly, with treating the other fellow with respect?  Just asking.

And may I point out the obvious? If your ideas have the strength of logic and truth, you needn't rely on mere scorn.

Not a word you say above that I disagree with, Karl.  The problem is that many religionists perceive any criticism of their faith, (what they believe or the fact of that they believe), however reasoned, as "mere scorn".  This is then becomes a means to suppress discussion.

Richard Dawkins makes this same argument -- which is not to say that he isn't scornful at times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 20, 2012, 06:06:47 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on December 20, 2012, 06:00:45 AM
Not a word you say above that I disagree with, Karl.  The problem is that many religionists perceive any criticism of their faith, (what they believe or the fact of that they believe), however reasoned, as "mere scorn".  This is then becomes a means to suppress discussion.

A reasonable, and indeed largely a worthwhile objection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 20, 2012, 06:41:42 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on December 20, 2012, 06:38:07 AM
If someone believes something to be superstition or myth, does that mean it is in fact superstition or myth?  I would have no argument with atheists if their billboards (http://atheistbillboards.com/) were phrased more as their beliefs and not so categorical as

Yes, Virginia, there is no God
Enjoy life now, there is no afterlife
Keep the merry - dump the myth

Can you not admit that this attitude by atheists is disrespectful to others whose beliefs are of a different kind?

It's almost as if these atheists want people of faith to hate them. Which is a cheap way of feeling instantly "superior," even though it is an abysmally ignoble pastime. "Look: we must be right, and they must be wrong, because we so easily provoked them to behavior which their own religion decries!"

Or perhaps some atheists suffer a martyrdom complex . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on December 20, 2012, 06:45:46 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on December 20, 2012, 06:38:07 AM
If someone believes something to be superstition or myth, does that mean it is in fact superstition or myth?

If what one holds to be true is demonstrably false and they offer nothing in return beyond "I just believe it", then for all practical purposes yes, it is a myth to the rest of the world. But I won't deny that there people out there (e.g. those who put messages on London's buses) who go to extremes and are, in my opinion, stupid.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 20, 2012, 07:05:28 AM
Sorry if I gave you the impression I was speaking of your hating or not.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 20, 2012, 07:44:24 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on December 20, 2012, 06:38:07 AM
If someone believes something to be superstition or myth, does that mean it is in fact superstition or myth?  I would have no argument with atheists if their billboards (http://atheistbillboards.com/) were phrased more as their beliefs and not so categorical as

Yes, Virginia, there is no God
Enjoy life now, there is no afterlife
Keep the merry - dump the myth

Can you not admit that this attitude by atheists is disrespectful to others whose beliefs are of a different kind?
Can you admit the disrespect is in the eye of the beholder?

I ask for a little sympathy for atheists.  The simple fact is that most atheists are also skeptics who, in fact, do not respect beliefs in absence of empirical evidence. Thus it takes a supreme effort to seem to show respect (what they consider) groundless beliefs -- and sometimes they fail.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 20, 2012, 07:54:45 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on December 20, 2012, 06:50:18 AM
Oh, I don't hate them.  I just find them intellectually dishonest.  Since proving or disproving the existence of God is impossible it all comes down to what someone would prefer to believe and reliance on that evidence they find compelling to support their chosen belief.  However, atheists suffer under the illusion that theirs are facts and religious folk are the ones with beliefs.

Sorry you feel that way about it.  However your comment illustrates a basic misconception religionists have about atheistm: that atheism is simply the belief that God does not exist.  The basis of atheism for most atheists is skepticism which strives to resist all belief that lacks empirical evidence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on December 20, 2012, 08:44:04 AM
I wish, I wish, I wish, that this 'religion v atheism' discussion were not taking place in the extremely valuable 'what are you reading?' thread. It will turn nasty sooner or later, and end in tears. Please could I ask - as politely and as respectfully as I possibly can - for a separate thread to be started for those who want to continue this discussion?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 20, 2012, 01:31:50 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on December 18, 2012, 09:01:58 AM
When it comes to the so-called "New Atheists" I tend to favor Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett.  Both are easily described as sober and fair.  Hitchens, while a fascinating man and a walking encyclopedia, was also a self-styled polemicist and while it makes for some chuckles (he had a sharp wit) it did result in over-extending his arguments (and conclusions) at times.  Dawkins can be the same way.  PZ Myers is not worth mentioning.

If I can respect Alan's wishes by limiting myself solely to a discussion of their books, I think Daniel Dennett is the most "sober and fair" of the quartet, and I actually think Harris is the least so. Harris is the clearest, most powerful writer on atheism (his books are superior to God Is Not Great, I think), but he is also by a long distance the angriest, and he can reach a white heat of fury which is scary to behold, even to a fellow heathen like me. Dennett is the only one of the four I still read willingly, and the only book on atheism I can earnestly recommend (aside from my own manuscript, unpublished) is Walter Kaufmann's long out-of-print The Faith of a Heretic, which is a far better treatment of the subject than anything by Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, or Hitchens.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 20, 2012, 01:44:28 PM
A few words by Walter Kaufmann, from the essay (http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kaufmann.htm) which he later expanded into The Faith of a Heretic:

Some evils and some kinds of suffering can be abolished, but not all suffering can be eliminated, and the beauty, goodness, and greatness that redeem life on earth are inseparable from suffering. Nietzsche once said: "If you have an enemy, do not requite his evil with good, for that would put him to shame. Rather prove that he did you some good." If life hurts you, the manly thing is neither to whine nor to feel martyred, but to prove that it did you some good.

I do not believe in any afterlife any more than the prophets did, but I don't mind living in a world in which people have different beliefs. Diversity helps to prevent stagnation and smugness; and a teacher should acquaint his students with diversity and prize careful criticism far above agreement. His noblest duty is to lead others to think for themselves.

I do not believe that anybody will suffer after death nor do I wish it.

Some scientists tell us that in our own galaxy alone there are probably hundreds of thousands of planets with living beings on them, more or less like those on the earth, and that there are about 100 million galaxies within the range of our telescopes. Man seems to play a very insignificant part in the universe, and my part is surely negligible. The question confronting me is not, except perhaps in idle moments, what part might be more amusing, but what I wish to make of my part. And what I want to do and would advise others to do is to make the most of it: put into it all you have got, and live and, if possible, die with some measure of nobility.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on December 20, 2012, 01:51:42 PM
Quote from: Brian on December 20, 2012, 01:31:50 PM
... the only book on atheism I can earnestly recommend (aside from my own manuscript, unpublished) is Walter Kaufmann's long out-of-print The Faith of a Heretic...

I could have sworn that you were a good boy, dear Brian! O tempora, o mores.  :P ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 20, 2012, 03:06:14 PM
I should be honored to take some hot cocoa with you, Brian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on December 20, 2012, 03:36:39 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 20, 2012, 03:06:14 PM
I should be honored to take some hot cocoa with you, Brian.

Well, me too. After all that's what my people do with lost sheeps... at least today.  :-[  :)

Seriously, I'm a Catholic, but I'm not easy to offend in these issues. Generally, I can even enjoy some "attacks" to my faith, when they are well written, for instance: "Here in Australia (we have an atheist Prime Minister), we don't invoke medieval supernatural forces to effect change". It's probably because I'm deeply persuaded that religion is the realm of indemonstrable things, where logical thinking has nothing to do. Religion, oh surprise, is about beliefs and not about ideas. But that's just my personal opinion, or maybe not even an opinion, but only another belief.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 22, 2012, 03:21:11 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 20, 2012, 01:44:28 PM
A few words by Walter Kaufmann, from the essay (http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kaufmann.htm) which he later expanded into The Faith of a Heretic:
...

I do not believe in any afterlife any more than the prophets did, but I don't mind living in a world in which people have different beliefs. Diversity helps to prevent stagnation and smugness; and a teacher should acquaint his students with diversity and prize careful criticism far above agreement. His noblest duty is to lead others to think for themselves.
...

What a pity this attitude is so rare amongst religionists.  Conformity to dogma and behaviours and suppression of dissent is more commonly their goal, to wit, the Roman Catholic and myriad Evangelical churches, and let's not omit fundamentalist Muslim organizations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 22, 2012, 03:26:02 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on December 20, 2012, 03:36:39 PM
... I'm deeply persuaded that religion is the realm of indemonstrable things, where logical thinking has nothing to do. Religion, oh surprise, is about beliefs and not about ideas. But that's just my personal opinion, or maybe not even an opinion, but only another belief.

Yes, but this strikes me as just the standard attempt to put "personal faith" above critical discussion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 22, 2012, 03:50:11 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 20, 2012, 01:31:50 PM
If I can respect Alan's wishes by limiting myself solely to a discussion of their books, I think Daniel Dennett is the most "sober and fair" of the quartet, and I actually think Harris is the least so. Harris is the clearest, most powerful writer on atheism (his books are superior to God Is Not Great, I think), but he is also by a long distance the angriest, and he can reach a white heat of fury which is scary to behold, even to a fellow heathen like me. Dennett is the only one of the four I still read willingly, and the only book on atheism I can earnestly recommend (aside from my own manuscript, unpublished) is Walter Kaufmann's long out-of-print The Faith of a Heretic, which is a far better treatment of the subject than anything by Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, or Hitchens.

Interesting.  I've read Harris' first two books, check out his blog occasionally, and I've seen him give speeches and debates and I've never detected any white heat of fury from him.  I'm not familiar with Kaufmann's work, but there are a lot of other books on atheism out there, they're just a bit more obscure than the work of any of the 'big four'.

Quote from: Fëanor on December 20, 2012, 04:51:30 AM
Yes, Heaven forbid polemics: possibly hurtful to those who don't agree.  It is the a favourite logical fallacy of religionists: the Appeal to Politeness.

I believe you've misinterpreted by post.  Perhaps it's my fault - many of my posts are first drafts and thus not always as clear as they should be.  I'm not a religionist nor do I believe that politeness is a necessity by any means.  It's simply that -- as I stated earlier -- I find that polemics tend to mix good arguments with bad quite frequently.


Thread duty:  I've just started reading the first book in the Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson, The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story.  Interesting book, but not for the faint of heart.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on December 22, 2012, 04:21:59 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on December 22, 2012, 03:26:02 AM
Yes, but this strikes me as just the standard attempt to put "personal faith" above critical discussion.

I would be not worried if this were the standard attitude because it would avoid a good dose of violence in the world. Religion is a part of my personal life, protected by my inalienable right to freedom of conscience; like it's your right to don't believe and all the imaginable intermediate points. How could we discuss about my religion if we don't have a minimum common/shared language to this effect? A discussion like this is condemned to be a big misunderstanding, a shouting match. I always recall the famous "dialogue" between Bertrand Russell and Frederick Copleston (available in YouTube) as an exemplary and particularly vivid model of this. So, sorry, as I said before, I don't see how you could do a "critical" evaluation of my religion to decide if it's true or not, if that religion is not a set constructed on the basis of logical propositions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 22, 2012, 07:58:40 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on December 22, 2012, 04:21:59 AM
I would be not worried if this were the standard attitude because it would avoid a good dose of violence in the world. Religion is a part of my personal life, protected by my inalienable right to freedom of conscience; like it's your right to don't believe and all the imaginable intermediate points. How could we discuss about my religion if we don't have a minimum common/shared language to this effect? A discussion like this is condemned to be a big misunderstanding, a shouting match. I always recall the famous "dialogue" between Bertrand Russell and Frederick Copleston (available in YouTube) as an exemplary and particularly vivid model of this. So, sorry, as I said before, I don't see how you could do a "critical" evaluation of my religion to decide if it's true or not, if that religion is not a set constructed on the basis of logical propositions.

Well we aren't disagreeing so much.  If it's true that we have no common basis for discuss, then attempting to do so will result in a shouting match ... which we ought to be avoided.

On the other hand I don't agree necessarily that "we don't have a minimum common/shared language".  I had a religious upbringing and a mother who was a believer all her life; I've heard the language for 65 years.  More importantly, I think it is quite possible to discuss personal faith as a psychological phenomenon and whether it is can be a bad thing at times.

So if you feel people can't discuss personal faith then just don't join in the discuss but let others have at it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 22, 2012, 08:06:05 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on December 22, 2012, 03:50:11 AM
...
I believe you've misinterpreted by post.  Perhaps it's my fault - many of my posts are first drafts and thus not always as clear as they should be.  I'm not a religionist nor do I believe that politeness is a necessity by any means.  It's simply that -- as I stated earlier -- I find that polemics tend to mix good arguments with bad quite frequently.
...

That's very often true.  On the other hand it isn't necessarily true. The definition of polemic per Dictionary.com is simply "a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 22, 2012, 08:31:56 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on December 22, 2012, 08:06:05 AM
That's very often true.  On the other hand it isn't necessarily true. The definition of polemic per Dictionary.com is simply "a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc."

As I suspected, we have no real disagreement to resolve. :)

Also, I must voice my agreement with this:  "So if you feel people can't discuss personal faith then just don't join in the discuss but let others have at it."

While I don't think it was Gordon's intent to do so, I see this point brought up - generally in a hit-and-run post - quite often in discussions about religious beliefs with an intent to suppress the discussion.  I wouldn't be annoyed by it or even feel it worth mentioning if it wasn't for the fact that those beliefs which are supposedly beyond discussion are often acted on in a way that affects others.

Thread duty:  Finished The Real Story (it's a short book), will soon be starting on The Gap Into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on December 22, 2012, 08:52:16 AM
I'm going to ask again, please - as nicely as I can: could we keep this thread as a 'what are you reading?' exchange? Obviously people read books about atheism and religion, and there's no reason why they can't report their responses to those books here. But for the kind of extended discussion that's taking place there are any number of appropriate threads elsewhere, or a new one could be started. Unfortunately they usually turn sour, so please don't spoil this one. When used for its proper purpose, it's one of the most useful threads on GMG.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on December 26, 2012, 05:17:44 AM
I'm reading this fine novel by a Facebook friend.
[asin]184751328X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 26, 2012, 07:43:45 AM
Quote from: Lake Swan on December 26, 2012, 05:17:44 AM
I'm reading this fine novel by a Facebook friend.
[asin]184751328X[/asin]

Looks like a cool read, Dave.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on December 26, 2012, 07:57:38 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 26, 2012, 07:43:45 AM
Looks like a cool read, Dave.

It's a very cool read.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on December 26, 2012, 08:05:49 AM
(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/sep2012/high%20fidelity%20book.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 26, 2012, 08:31:52 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on December 26, 2012, 08:05:49 AM
(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/sep2012/high%20fidelity%20book.jpg)

Sarge, I suspect I should read that soon, myself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 26, 2012, 08:33:21 AM
Quote from: Lake Swan on December 26, 2012, 07:57:38 AM
It's a very cool read.  8)

And available on Kindle!  Complete coolness.  I may take a peek after this read:


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Fo8xXXpRL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on December 26, 2012, 09:41:24 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on December 26, 2012, 08:14:39 AM
This was given to me for my birthday

[asin]078515356X[/asin]

I have never read a graphic novel before, so this will be a unique experience.

I think I've read that but don't remember a thing about it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on December 26, 2012, 09:45:38 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 26, 2012, 08:31:52 AM
Sarge, I suspect I should read that soon, myself.

Great novel, lots of fun (and you'll read some dialogue that was used verbatim in the film). Although I don't relate to a thirtysomething guy who can't commit (I was ready to commit at age 14  ;D ) I can relate to many of his "girl" problems, including his Desert Island All-Time Top Five Split-Ups, which, in many ways, reads like my own history: five relationships too, all ending badly or inexplicably, with the fifth resulting in a complete change of direction, leaving university and beginning an unforseen career.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on December 27, 2012, 01:36:43 AM
SLAVOJ ZIZEK:        " Plaidoyer en Faveur de l'Intolerance"       (2007)

A very stimulating book discussing certain political aspects of Capitalism in the present phase of globalisation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 27, 2012, 03:37:56 AM
Gwynne Dyer: Crawling from the Wreckage  Basically a compilation of Dyer's articles about the state of the world, 2000 - 2010, with some additional commentary.  Sure, Dyer is a "liberal"; you got a problem with that??

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OOv9Vo3TL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 27, 2012, 06:37:11 PM
I'm on the third book in the Gap series, A Dark and Hungry God Arises.  This series gets better and better.
Title: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on December 30, 2012, 05:41:35 AM
In the Heat of the Night
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Leo K. on December 30, 2012, 08:32:31 AM
A very wonderful and interesting study (and yet outdated to a degree) that I wasn't aware of until recently, downloaded for iPad.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51o7N%2BgD4yL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I found this next book before the above, which is great because it's updated with modern studies.

QuoteThis handbook is intended as a reference for the student or scholar seeking knowledge of the history and contemporary practice of the cult of the Virgin Mary. It provides new essays that give overviews of particular areas of study - both historical and thematic - together with texts from primary sources and important scholarly articles, some of which appear in English for the first time. The book is divided into five Parts. Part One looks at the Virgin Mary in Earliest Christianity, Part Two focuses on the Middle Ages - the period in which the Virgin's cult developed to its greatest extent. Part Three deals with Mariology, or theological doctrines surrounding the Virgin, such as the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception. Part Four considers traditions of devotion to Mary, including the development of the rosary and Marian apparitions. Part Five examines the image of Mary in Art, Literature, and Film.

[asin]B005ZOFL4Q[/asin]

Title: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on December 30, 2012, 07:00:27 PM
.[asin]1590171993[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lake Swan on January 03, 2013, 06:08:49 PM
STONER was so good that I ordered two more John Williams novels.

But for now...

[asin]0061236837[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 04, 2013, 03:21:00 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on December 27, 2012, 06:37:11 PM
I'm on the third book in the Gap series, A Dark and Hungry God Arises.  This series gets better and better.

Now on the fifth and final book in the series.  This has been one of the most rewarding fiction series that I've ever read, though it can be rough going for the light of heart.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on January 08, 2013, 04:28:34 AM
A.R. Ammons: COLLECTED POEMS
ISBN: 0393321924

I love this guy's poems.  I was on a real Ammons kick ~1 year ago, but I'm picking this volume back up after a hiatus, and it's become even better on revisitation.  I also plan on reading his SNOW POEMS again.  I guess I find some of his poems a little difficult....maybe.  Maybe quite difficult at times.  I'd like to read some intelligent writing about his work, to gain some context and insight.  The relationship with the natural world, the very shaky line between humans and non-humans, or even between organic life and everything else----this seems to be the territory he keeps plunging back into.  He was also known for his epic long poems, none of which are in this volume.  GARBAGE is a famous one that won awards; I remember being even more taken with SPHERE, if memory serves.  I need to take notes as I read this stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on January 09, 2013, 11:08:57 AM
Two books I'm considering at the moment:

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/090768954X.01.L.jpg)

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0907689655.01.L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on January 10, 2013, 12:40:47 PM
El cronista de cine (1534 pages)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xgnhrKqwL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Cabrera Infante is probably one of the greatest cinema critics in any language and this book collects an important part of his output as a critic. Although he wrote fluently in English (for instance, he co-wrote the script for Richard C. Sarafian's 1971 cult film Vanishing Point), many times his prose in Spanish is quite untranslatable because of his love for palindromes, among other reasons.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on January 10, 2013, 01:17:59 PM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41V8jItN10L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click-small,TopRight,12,-30_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Ian Fleming
Goldfinger
James Bond - Book 7
Various Publishers (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1612185509/goodmusicguide-20)

Cover of Penguin edition - the one I have - which is no longer available as hardcover or paper back.

In a word: Trash.

If that sounds harsh, take a whiff of this:

"The encounter put Bond in good humour. For some reason Goldfinger had decided against killing them. He wanted them alive. Soon Bond would know why he wanted them alive but, so long as he did, Bond intended to stay alive on his own terms. Those terms included putting Oddjob and any other Korean firmly in his place, which, in Bond's estimation, was rather lower than apes in the mammalian hierarchy."

Also: the wanna-be classiness of Fleming is unbearable when every champagne Bond drinks is always pink and "ice-cold". Then again, the swill that the poseur Bond thinks is the best would probably best be drunk ice-cold... it probably was Asti Spumante with food coloring.

I loved "Casino Royale" (a culture study of the 50s and the Riviera), I liked "Live and let Die" (a nice look at the Harlem of the 50s), I went along with "Moonraker" (which has little to do with the film of the same name; much of the plot's sub-structure was (badly) recycled in "The World is Not Enough"), "Diamonds Are Forever" was at least better than the film...    "From Russia, with Love" is just excellent (for the genre), and "Dr. No" is weak and preposterous. But "Goldfinger" is shocking. Partly it's because I'm becoming more painfully aware of the tosh Fleming writes: always good-old-England, patronizing, nationalist, narrow-minded, and racist... and so very, very hard trying to describe a desirable, glamorous life-style for the petty bourgeois reader (himself, essentially). And no wonder every f37(*@9ng drink Bond drinks is "ice-cold" "perfectly chilled in ice" and so forth... because Fleming is sweating his b@lls off on Goldeneye, his estate in Jamaica, as he was writing these.

I don't mind racist characters, mind you. The times were different then and we have to respect history for better and worse -- or else we're committing a much greater sin. But I do mind when a writer is projecting his own petty mind on a wanna-be classy act and thinks he is thereby infusing him with all the cool in the world.

Anyway... I'll continue reading them... but the books are beginning to be exasperating. I can TOTALLY understand the critics at the time now... who I always thought were poh-pohing oversensitive academics and pretentious literary wankers. (The kind of person that condemned Monty Python's Life of Brian, say, by calling it a "tenth rate little film" repeatedly.)

Rant over.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 10, 2013, 04:07:50 PM
I just started The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 10, 2013, 05:26:14 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on January 10, 2013, 04:07:50 PM
I just started The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov.

Coolness!  Except for a few dated "sayings" I loved the first three books from this series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 11, 2013, 05:04:35 PM
Finished Caves of Steel.  On to The Naked Sun tomorrow.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 13, 2013, 09:18:57 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on January 11, 2013, 05:04:35 PM
Finished Caves of Steel.  On to The Naked Sun tomorrow.

More of the same, but still enjoyable.  I look forward to your review on installment three, Robots of Dawn, as it was written later than the first two.  Hope you stick with it.  I have not read the fourth in this series, but your reading has rekindled my interest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 13, 2013, 09:26:21 AM
Hoy, Bill! I am in the thick of Copperfield, and will surely plough my way through to the end. As I was saying off-line to Cato, there must have been a chunk in the middle which I somehow skipped, back when (probably hadn't left a bookmark, and then, three weeks later, tried to find my place sort of deal, I expect) because I am certain that if I had read the interview between Mr Peggotty and Steerforth's mother, I should never have forgot it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 13, 2013, 09:28:29 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 13, 2013, 09:26:21 AM
Hoy, Bill! I am in the thick of Copperfield, and will surely plough my way through to the end. As I was saying off-line to Cato, there must have been a chunk in the middle which I somehow skipped, back when (probably hadn't left a bookmark, and then, three weeks later, tried to find my place sort of deal, I expect) because I am certain that if I had read the interview between Mr Peggotty and Steerforth's mother, I should never have forgot it.

I am about 100 pages into Oliver Twist, Karl. Copperfield dominates this read....for that matter, Nicholas Nickleby does as well, IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 13, 2013, 07:41:04 PM
Quote from: Bogey on January 13, 2013, 09:18:57 AM
More of the same, but still enjoyable.  I look forward to your review on installment three, Robots of Dawn, as it was written later than the first two.  Hope you stick with it.  I have not read the fourth in this series, but your reading has rekindled my interest.

I agree with your assessment.  I've put Robots of Dawn on the reading list because I like the philosophy that Asimov presents in these stories and I'm curious to see what he does with the new setting 30 years later in his writing life.  Hopefully the library will have it ready for me soon. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on January 14, 2013, 02:02:38 AM
New slew of books:
National Intelligence Systems edited by Treverton and Agrell
Geopolitics by Sempa
Wars of Disruption and Resilience by Demchak
The Arab Revolt by Various
Privileged and Confidential by Absher, Desch, Popadiuk, et. al.
From Disgust to Humanity by Nussbaum
Dead Languages by Ryuichi
The Japanese Effect in Contemporary Irish Poetry by Angelis
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 14, 2013, 05:59:53 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 13, 2013, 09:28:29 AM
I am about 100 pages into Oliver Twist, Karl. Copperfield dominates this read....for that matter, Nicholas Nickleby does as well, IMO.

I've always found Dickens' obsession for mistreated and abused children rather morbid. To judge from his novels, Victorian England was hell on earth for kids. One wonders how on earth (pun intended) they managed to survive their childhood.  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on January 14, 2013, 06:44:31 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on January 10, 2013, 12:40:47 PM
El cronista de cine (1534 pages)
Cabrera Infante is probably one of the greatest cinema critics in any language and this book collects an important part of his output as a critic. Although he wrote fluently in English (for instance, he co-wrote the script for Richard C. Sarafian's 1971 cult film Vanishing Point), many times his prose in Spanish is quite untranslatable because of his love for palindromes, among other reasons.

Thanks for mentioning this.  I was reminded of his name when VERTIGO was being discussed in the film thread recently, as I think we was an early admirer of that film in this hemisphere?  But I cannot where I've read that, or read his memories of seeing it.  I wish had Spanish so I could read that edition; thanks for mentioning it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Klaze on January 14, 2013, 11:04:56 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2B5rvi7ylL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Diaghilev-A-Life-Sjeng-Scheijen/dp/0199891788/ref=reader_auth_dp)

Diaghilev - A Life by Sjeng Scheijen

Very good read so far. I would say: recommended, but since it's the first book I'm reading on Les Ballets Russes or Diaghilev, I've got no comparison. 
It offers really vivid peeks into the life and work of Diaghilev and those around him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 14, 2013, 01:44:36 PM
I'm now reading Tom Godwin's The Cold Equations and Other Stories. I was planning on starting with the short story The Cold Equations since it was the reason I bought the book, but I decided to start at the beginning on the editor's recommendation with the novel The Survivors. I'm glad I did, it was an excellent work! Those who are interested can find that novel for free (http://www.amazon.com/Space-Prison-ebook/dp/B004TIKGAI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358203440&sr=8-1&keywords=space+prison+kindle) if you're a Kindle owner under the title Space Prison.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on January 14, 2013, 02:41:15 PM
IMHO, The Cold Equations is one of the best sci-fi short stories ever written, bar none!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 14, 2013, 03:41:12 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 14, 2013, 05:59:53 AM
I've always found Dickens' obsession for mistreated and abused children rather morbid. To judge from his novels, Victorian England was hell on earth for kids. One wonders how on earth (pun intended) they managed to survive their childhood.  ;D

I think that is what Twist suffers from for me...not enough let-up and to over the top punishment.  I found Copperfield more plausible, as well as Nickleby.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 14, 2013, 04:27:52 PM
Taking a break from The Cold Equations to read Robert Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century, Vol. 1 by William H. Patterson.  The nice thing about short story collections is that you can jump back in whenever you please.  Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the biography.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on January 14, 2013, 06:48:05 PM
Quote from: Philo on January 14, 2013, 02:02:38 AM
1. National Intelligence Systems edited by Treverton and Agrell
2. Geopolitics by Sempa

1. Utterly fantastic book for intelligence theory. Covers the major models whilst adding in new insights. Complete recognition that intelligence is underpinned by realism, making this a must read.

2. A foundational text summing up Mackinder´s theories on geopolitics. Clearly demonstrates the far teaching impact and how it became firmly established as the theory. Also, showed it applicability to today's world and how the cold war mindset was settled long before. Simply a stunning read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on January 14, 2013, 07:14:06 PM
Philo, thanks for the brief lowdown on you reading; the titles you mention sound fascinating.  I would like it if you'd make a routine of giving us nutshell impressions of these books you're reading.  Do you mind saying a word about the Nussbaum?  I rarely ever watch TV, but stumbled across a talk she was giving on "Book TV" (CSPAN2?) recently re: double-standards used persecutorially [sic?] against Muslims in America.  I didn't find her actual reasoning always that compelling when she expanded individual examples to the status of exhibits, but the arc of her argument was persuasive, and of course makes loads of sense even/especially in the context of the past ~12 years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on January 14, 2013, 11:35:53 PM
Will do, Octave.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on January 15, 2013, 05:50:44 AM
Quote from: Philo on January 14, 2013, 02:02:38 AM
1. Wars of Disruption and Resilience by Demchak
2. The Arab Revolt by Various

1. She largely overstates her case and miscasts political realism, but she does offer up some very interesting ideas. The first that jumps out is the reinstating of city-states as a dominant metaphor for understanding the global north. The second is the transformation of the concept of cyber-terrorism into cybered conflict. The first term she felt was far too limiting and truly misrepresented the threat level. Through this decoupling she brings to light that warfare of this sort is still largely camped within realism.

2. This text is just a collection of articles that stem from either Foreign Affairs or the Council on Foreign Relations, most of them have a pro-United States slants making the reading slightly less interesting, and the insights all the more obvious for anyone who has kept up on the region. Only two articles really stood out: Bahrain's Base Politics and The Mythology of Intervention. The first laid out, in fairly great detail, Mackinder's theory about the pivot of the world lying in Central Asia, and the U.S.'s struggle in maintaining a balance between idealism and pragmatism. The second simply dispelled many of the myths, held in the west about the effectiveness of U.S. interventions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on January 16, 2013, 11:35:22 AM
On Nussbaum: Her points are well argued, and she articulates with great nuance. Not being a legal philosopher, I can capture only the broad strokes. I found them most persuasive, but will admit that I was already biased toward them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on January 21, 2013, 07:17:38 PM
Quote from: Philo on January 14, 2013, 02:02:38 AM
1. Privileged and Confidential by Absher, Desch, Popadiuk, et. al.
2. Dead Languages by Ryuichi
3. The Japanese Effect in Contemporary Irish Poetry by Angelis

1. This is the book on the presidency and politicization of intelligence. It goes deep into the history of the advisory board and shows, quite clearly, that this board was designed only to bolster the president's position on whatever he laid a stake to. It is a bit scary to realize that one with so much power might keep his own counsel, especially when there are a multitude of dedicated services, which can provide a much more dispassioned appeal. It is understandable that the fragility of his position would make him want to seek the comfort of the board.

2. Simply one of the greatest collection of poetry I've come across. A poet who was alive during the atrocity of the nuclear age's actualization, his poetry is always a reflection of that. Highly fragmented, and constantly breaking down. Reminds me of Celan, with bold declarations and immense lyricism.

3. Decided to pass on this book for the time.

New slew of books:
Containment or Liberation by Burnham
Terrorism and Counterintelligence by Mobley
Condemned to Repeat by Anderson
Democratic Ideals and Reality by Mackinder
America's Strategy by Spykman
The Influence of Sea Power 1660-1783 by Mahan

... and the book I'm most excited for:
A Theory of Security and Strategy for Our Time by Shiping Tang
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on January 21, 2013, 07:24:00 PM
Philo, are you doing a lot of this reading toward/for a diss?  It's all pretty interesting, but I'm curious if it's reading with a thesis in mind.  What's yr field?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on January 21, 2013, 07:31:18 PM
Quote from: Octave on January 21, 2013, 07:24:00 PM
Philo, are you doing a lot of this reading toward/for a diss?  It's all pretty interesting, but I'm curious if it's reading with a thesis in mind.  What's yr field?

Well I'd be reading this stuff for fun, but it will likely be for my Ph.D dissertation in History. Currently I'm getting my MA in Communications, and the reading I do for that is mostly from academic peer reviewed journals, so there's not much to review. My MA thesis is a content analysis regarding National Socialist Black Metal. My Ph.D thesis will likely be around the failure of realist geopolitics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 22, 2013, 12:26:50 PM
I've just finished Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars and I'm now starting Childhood's End.

EDIT: review of The City and the Stars here. (http://omnivorousintellectual.blogspot.com/2013/01/book-review-city-and-stars-by-arthur-c.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 22, 2013, 04:23:32 PM
Medical Book, The (2012) by Clifford Pickover - based on 250 'milestones' in medical history from the ancients to the present; presentation is for the lay public and is presented as 'snippets' w/ text on one page and a facing image on the other - short summaries of these 'chosen' milestones; as a physician (and always interested in medical history), a lot of this is a refresher course, BUT for someone new to the topic and not that familiar w/ the events described, an easy & fascinating read - excellent reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Medical-Book-Surgeons-Milestones-Medicine/dp/1402785852/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358900260&sr=1-1&keywords=medical+book+pickover) - :)

Fat Chance (2012) by Robert Lustig (MD; pediatric neuroendrocrinologist) - subtitle on the cover art pretty much explains the topic(s) of the book; purchase prompted by an interview w/ the author on the Diane Rehm show (PBS - probably a podcast available for those interested); the first third is NOT an easy read for a non-physician but the reasoning & science are sobering - I'm already talking w/ Susan about changing our approach to food (although not that bad @ the moment) - for those interested, see the reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Chance-Beating-Against-Processed/dp/159463100X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358903712&sr=1-1&keywords=fat+chance) - and watch the FRUCTOSE!   ;) ;D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61xcpRb5iFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QRY33F2ZL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 22, 2013, 05:15:17 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kUx9iTH-L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

"Over 400 pictures, many exclusive. Covers Keaton, Chaplin, Sennett, Langdon, Lloyd, Laurel, Hardy, Maxi Linder and many others. 374pp."

(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Silent-Clowns-by-Walter-Kerr-Films-Movies-Film-Movie-Motion-Pictures-FREE-Ship-/00/s/NDgwWDY0MA==/$(KGrHqJ,!n4FCoolBsQKBQtYH4P)bw~~60_12.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on January 22, 2013, 05:57:16 PM
Bogey, this is the second time I have seen that SILENT CLOWNS book mentioned and/praised; I am forgetting where else someone discussed it...an Amazon user?  I need to get my hands on it, if it's still affordable.  Do you like it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 22, 2013, 07:06:43 PM
Quote from: Octave on January 22, 2013, 05:57:16 PM
Bogey, this is the second time I have seen that SILENT CLOWNS book mentioned and/praised; I am forgetting where else someone discussed it...an Amazon user?  I need to get my hands on it, if it's still affordable.  Do you like it?

See PM.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on January 23, 2013, 01:12:23 AM
CHARLES ROSEN:        The Classic Style: Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven

It's the third time I read this book, perhaps the best book I know about the three great masters of the Classic Period. The way Rosen shows us the deep relations between the style and language of this three men is amazing.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on January 23, 2013, 01:22:40 AM
Quote from: val on January 23, 2013, 01:12:23 AM
CHARLES ROSEN:        The Classic Style: Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven

It's the third time I read this book, perhaps the best book I know about the three great masters of the Classic Period. The way Rosen shows us the deep relations between the style and language of this three men is amazing.

Here here!  It's funny, not too long ago, I even ran across a reference to this book in an interview with the French philosopher Alain Badiou, appended to his book ETHICS.  Not a very deep reference, but an acknowledgment of Rosen's use of the term "constellation", iirc.  I think maybe there was a passing reference to Rosen and maybe the same book in Jean-Luc Nancy's little essay/book LISTENING, as well.  Back atcha, Frenchies!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on January 23, 2013, 04:47:09 PM
Adam Hochschild--To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion. 1914-1918
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on January 27, 2013, 01:13:13 AM
P.G Wodehouse:   AUNTS AREN'T GENTLEMEN   (1974)
I think it's at least 45 years since I last read any Wodehouse - except for a couple of musical librettos.
Not much change in style over his career, reliable diversions when you want one.
Title: Re: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 27, 2013, 08:42:55 AM
Quote from: listener on January 27, 2013, 01:13:13 AM
P.G Wodehouse:   AUNTS AREN'T GENTLEMEN   (1974)
I think it's at least 45 years since I last read any Wodehouse - except for a couple of musical librettos.
Not much change in style over his career, reliable diversions when you want one.

One of my favorites.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 27, 2013, 04:40:57 PM
I just finished and reviewed (http://omnivorousintellectual.blogspot.com/2013/01/book-review-fountains-of-paradise-by.html) The Fountains of Paradise.  I'm now starting on Perdido Street Station.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 27, 2013, 07:54:49 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on January 22, 2013, 04:23:32 PM
Fat Chance (2012) by Robert Lustig (MD; pediatric neuroendrocrinologist) - subtitle on the cover art pretty much explains the topic(s) of the book; purchase prompted by an interview w/ the author on the Diane Rehm show (PBS - probably a podcast available for those interested); the first third is NOT an easy read for a non-physician but the reasoning & science are sobering - I'm already talking w/ Susan about changing our approach to food (although not that bad @ the moment) - for those interested, see the reviews on Amazon HERE (http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Chance-Beating-Against-Processed/dp/159463100X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358903712&sr=1-1&keywords=fat+chance) - and watch the FRUCTOSE!   ;) ;D

Dave, how would you recommend this book as a work of persuasion? My father is 57, has very high blood pressure and probably 40 pounds too many for his frame, but he seems unwilling to make any kind of effort. Even giving up soft drinks is too big a sacrifice to his frame of mind. My mother and I are trying to find some way to get him to clean up his act. There's only so much you can do, of course, but a good sobering up might be what he needs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on January 27, 2013, 07:58:27 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on January 27, 2013, 04:40:57 PM
I'm now starting on Perdido Street Station.

I really dug that; I want to read more China Mieville.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on January 28, 2013, 03:56:38 AM
Quote from: Philo on January 21, 2013, 07:17:38 PM
America's Strategy by Spykman

Simply an amazing book on military geo-strategy, made even more fascinating because it was published in 1942, so it offers up some interesting insights given that we know the outcome of the war. It focused a lot on the transition from 2-d war to 3-d war, which Germany was the first country to truly understand and implement. It also revolved around the realist concept of balance of power, and how this weakened states who had not yet been caught up with the transformation of war. The sections on Japan were of keen interest, and it touched on the weakness of appeasement, and the importance of distance, and also some American folly in relations to their reluctance to utilize economic warfare. Overall, it's a must read if you're at all interested in geopolitics and how realists continue to shape the global terrain.

Taking a bit of a break to read some fun books:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mX-qdMKEL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click-small,TopRight,12,-30_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
(http://i43.tower.com/images/mm101710562/eating-honey-words-new-selected-poems-robert-bly-paperback-cover-art.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 28, 2013, 04:48:31 AM
Quote from: Octave on January 27, 2013, 07:58:27 PM
I really dug that; I want to read more China Mieville.

That book is the first of a trilogy, The Scar and The Iron Council being the second and third books in said trilogy.  That might be a place to start. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on January 28, 2013, 09:08:47 PM
On the Kindle:

[asin]B00A8ICOEY[/asin]

Not sure I needed another QM book, but Weinberg's perspective is interesting, though fairly traditional.  The equations are a bit too small on the smaller Kindles, though the graphics on my HD kindle are crisp enough to make it readable.  This is still a big improvement over the mangled crap that Kindle translation makes of many technical books.

[asin]B007IVWAT8[/asin]

Light techno-thriller.  A bit cheesy but fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on January 31, 2013, 06:36:38 AM
Quote from: Philo on January 28, 2013, 03:56:38 AM
Taking a bit of a break to read some fun books:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mX-qdMKEL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click-small,TopRight,12,-30_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

Didn't really care for this book at all. It didn't seem put together all that well. I think the best pieces were Lee's Journal and Ginsberg Notes, and I did like that it seemed to laid the seeds for the novels that were to follow it.

Up next:
(http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/ace%20potpouri/o5N-single/o41842.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 01, 2013, 07:34:41 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Di4E9lhvL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-67,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Sampling (I love my Kindle) the first in the Moscow police detective Porfiry Rostnikov series.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on February 02, 2013, 04:58:06 AM
(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4ja04ciN61qkrye0o1_500.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on February 02, 2013, 07:56:29 AM
After reading through part of 2001 and the beginning of ...Rama I've realized that Clarke's style has started to wear on me and I need a change. I can always return to Clarke later. I grabbed the LoA '50s sci-fi collection and started on The Space Merchants. It was just the jolt of caffeine I needed. (No pun intended.;))
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on February 03, 2013, 07:08:07 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61qwjGOzA-L._AA1500_.jpg)

A Spanish translation of this book:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D51iz93mL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Machine-Technics-Human-Development/dp/0156623412/ref=sr_il_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359907605&sr=1-4&keywords=lewis+mumford
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on February 03, 2013, 02:36:24 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on February 02, 2013, 07:56:29 AM
After reading through part of 2001 and the beginning of ...Rama I've realized that Clarke's style has started to wear on me and I need a change. I can always return to Clarke later. I grabbed the LoA '50s sci-fi collection and started on The Space Merchants. It was just the jolt of caffeine I needed. (No pun intended.;))

Alastair Reynolds's Pushing Ice is somewhat of an homage to Rama:

[asin]0441015026[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on February 07, 2013, 01:09:36 PM
The Making of ... by Brecht Evens
I'm not really into graphic novels and thought I had made a bad mistake when I started this English edition of a Flemish original, but the humour started to click in about page 15 and I'm quite happy with the purchase.   Rather like Flight of the Conchords in its laid-back tone, with suble watercolours instead of the usual bold black-and-white outlines.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on February 07, 2013, 04:23:09 PM
Finished The Space Merchants and Sturgeon's More Than Human.  Now I'm starting on The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on February 08, 2013, 12:57:48 AM
VARGAS LLOSA:        "La civilizacion del espectáculo"   (2012)

Nobel Prize of Literature a few years ago, Vargas Llosa was always a deep critic of our modern civilization. This essay is a very lucid analysis of the false values, the mediocrity, the emptiness of modern culture, including art.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 09, 2013, 06:35:49 AM
(http://www.pravaliacucarti.ro/images/produse/mari/20078_8722.jpg)

Edward Behr - The Last Emperor
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on February 11, 2013, 06:38:30 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 09, 2013, 06:35:49 AM
(http://www.pravaliacucarti.ro/images/produse/mari/20078_8722.jpg)

Edward Behr - The Last Emperor

I hadn't seen this name before.

Edward Behr's titles look quite varied and resounding (which I like):

Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus

Anyone Here Been Raped and Speaks English?

Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America

The Artful Eater: A Gourmet Investigates the Ingredients of Great Food

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on February 11, 2013, 07:11:06 AM
Starting on Bradbury's Martian Chronicles now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 12, 2013, 04:00:59 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on February 11, 2013, 07:11:06 AM
Starting on Bradbury's Martian Chronicles now.

Just stop it: you're reminding me of my Sci-Fi obsessed period of forty years ago.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on February 12, 2013, 04:05:55 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on February 12, 2013, 04:00:59 PM
Just stop it: you're reminding me of my Sci-Fi obsessed period of forty years ago.  ;)

Can't help it, I have research to do. :P

Finished The Martian Chronicles, great stuff.  Now working on Asimov's Foundation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on February 12, 2013, 08:23:44 PM
I've been making my way through this book:

(https://images.bookworld.com.au/images/bau/2b140476/2b140476-b2f8-4388-8727-5468fcd2c5b5/0/0/plain/delius-as-i-knew-him.jpg)

Up to Chapter 4 now. Really a fantastic book so far!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on February 15, 2013, 06:55:26 PM
I've been enjoying the book Delius As I Knew Him immensely. 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on February 15, 2013, 07:13:17 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on February 12, 2013, 04:05:55 PM
Can't help it, I have research to do. :P

Finished The Martian Chronicles, great stuff.  Now working on Asimov's Foundation.

Are you writing a thesis on SF?  I actually read that big Bradbury STORIES anthology recently when it was reissued by the Everyman's Library imprint, simply because I'd been a kid when I checked him out last.  I really liked it a lot, and it was quite a shock how much his writing and thinking had affected my own in the meantime, though we're not talking about "influences" on "my work" or anything quite that important.  Remarkable, though how his voice or his tone had stayed in my head so long, I'd forgotten it was him.  Kind of spooky!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on February 16, 2013, 03:42:41 AM
Quote from: Octave on February 15, 2013, 07:13:17 PM
Are you writing a thesis on SF?  I actually read that big Bradbury STORIES anthology recently when it was reissued by the Everyman's Library imprint, simply because I'd been a kid when I checked him out last.  I really liked it a lot, and it was quite a shock how much his writing and thinking had affected my own in the meantime, though we're not talking about "influences" on "my work" or anything quite that important.  Remarkable, though how his voice or his tone had stayed in my head so long, I'd forgotten it was him.  Kind of spooky!

No, no thesis, but I'm planning on taking a crack at a novel and want to know the field well before doing so.  Great story, by the way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on February 17, 2013, 03:10:15 PM
(http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/images/1848.JPG)


You say you want a revolution?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on February 17, 2013, 03:25:20 PM
Found 7 books today at the annual book sale fundraiser for the Winnipeg Humane Society:

*Misery - Stephen King

*The Dark Tower (The Gunslinger) - Stephen King

*The Dark Tower II (The Drawing of the Three) - Stephen King

*The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje

*The Cider House Rules - John Irving

*Paradise Lost - John Milton

*Moby Dick - Herman Melville (My favourite book of all time)  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 17, 2013, 11:56:29 PM
(http://i2.best-price.ro/images/preturi/big_new/0/3/8/429038.jpg)

A Romanian translation of Ricarda Huch's monumental two-volume work on German literary Romanticism.

Vol. 1: Die Blütezeit der Romantik (The Blossoming of Romanticism)
Vol. 2: Ausbreitung und Verfall der Romantik (Expansion and Decline of Romanticism)

An excellent dissection of the mind of the German Romantics. Although limited to literature, the insights and comments can be fruitfully applied on musical philosophy as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on February 18, 2013, 10:21:12 PM
I have returned to reading William Blake and looking at reproductions of his engravings and other visual art.  Can anyone recommend some excellent writing on/about Blake and his work?  Books or essays, paper/glue or online; I don't care what the angle is: scholarly, synoptic, biographical, critical.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on February 19, 2013, 12:22:16 PM
Foundation and Empire.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on February 20, 2013, 05:09:06 PM
.[asin]B004FYZ3KY[/asin]

Robert Levine - Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back [Kindle Edition]

A book exposing the position of the media (against the technology industries, here called "parasites"), in the battle for the copyright. 

And also these:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nPj0y808L._SS500_.jpg)

George Steiner - Los logócratas [original title: Les logocrates, Éditions de l'Herne, 2002]

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41eOfVB9dML._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Exactly this Spanish translation:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nRoimiV8L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

G.B. Shaw - Manual de socialismo y capitalismo para mujeres inteligentes
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 23, 2013, 06:13:43 PM
(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781933397580_p0_v1_s260x420.jpg)

Second in the series of the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov mystery series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on February 23, 2013, 06:52:12 PM
Now reading:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wjJtmJ04L._SY300_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nOxn59MAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-52,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on February 24, 2013, 09:21:45 PM
Can anyone recommend a superior English translation of Dostoyevsky's HOUSE OF THE DEAD?  There is always Constance Garnett, but I know readers---multi-lingual or otherwise---are more vicious about their translation preferences than we all are about our preferred interpretations of musical works.   >:D
This is a FD work I have never read, one of the very few afaik; the Janacek connection is drawing me to it belatedly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 04, 2013, 07:55:14 AM
Quote from: Octave on February 24, 2013, 09:21:45 PM
Can anyone recommend a superior English translation of Dostoyevsky's HOUSE OF THE DEAD?  There is always Constance Garnett, but I know readers---multi-lingual or otherwise---are more vicious about their translation preferences than we all are about our preferred interpretations of musical works.   >:D
This is a FD work I have never read, one of the very few afaik; the Janacek connection is drawing me to it belatedly.

Justifiably: Constance Garnett took a lot of liberties with Dostoevsky's prose at a time when critics thought (oh so foolishly!) that Dostoevsky's prose needed a lot of help. This is why many of her translations sound so, well, Victorian - that and the rumors that if she didn't know a word, she skipped it.

Some of the highest-grade levels of Dostoevsky snob (e.g. David Foster Wallace) are frustrated by ALL translations of his work, but I like the Pevear & Volokhonsky translations. That duo has unfortunately not done House of the Dead, so my recommendation would be the Oxford copy:

[asin]0199540519[/asin]

Haven't actually read/compared, but I almost always find Oxford's translations good and their notes/explanatory essays valuable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AdamFromWashington on March 05, 2013, 09:32:18 PM
Blood Meridian, right now. I love it, but darn, it's really violent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on March 05, 2013, 10:01:23 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 04, 2013, 07:55:14 AM
Justifiably: Constance Garnett took a lot of liberties with Dostoevsky's prose at a time when critics thought (oh so foolishly!) that Dostoevsky's prose needed a lot of help. This is why many of her translations sound so, well, Victorian - that and the rumors that if she didn't know a word, she skipped it.

Some of the highest-grade levels of Dostoevsky snob (e.g. David Foster Wallace) are frustrated by ALL translations of his work, but I like the Pevear & Volokhonsky translations. That duo has unfortunately not done House of the Dead, so my recommendation would be the Oxford copy:

Haven't actually read/compared, but I almost always find Oxford's translations good and their notes/explanatory essays valuable.

Thanks for that suggestion, Brian; I will act on it.  DFW: "How does one 'fly at' someone?"  (from his Dostoevsky-via-Joseph-Frank essay, paraphrased from memory)
I too have really liked the P&V translations of the central canon (or at any rate the most famous books); at any rate, I have relied upon those translations, as they are all I know aside from the Garnetts, which did seem stiff to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 06, 2013, 04:29:30 AM
Quote from: Octave on March 05, 2013, 10:01:23 PM
Thanks for that suggestion, Brian; I will act on it.  DFW: "How does one 'fly at' someone?"  (from his Dostoevsky-via-Joseph-Frank essay, paraphrased from memory)

(which I intend to re-read, by the way, as Joseph Frank died Feb. 27)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on March 06, 2013, 04:40:16 AM
After reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Turn of the Screw, I've almost finished Wordsworth/Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 06, 2013, 04:46:46 AM
Great stuff, Ilaria.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on March 06, 2013, 05:16:44 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 06, 2013, 04:46:46 AM
Great stuff, Ilaria.

Thank you, Karl.

I should start thinking what I could read next.....

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 16, 2013, 11:29:15 AM
My sci-fi search delves further into the past.  Right now I'm reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas out of this volume (on Kindle):

(http://www.cclapcenter.com/archives/amazingjourneys.jpg)

It contains a set of five new translations of some of Verne's novels.  I actually switched from the Mercier translation to this one mid-book and the difference is astounding.

Prior to that I read Frankenstein, the 1818 version.  It was wonderful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on March 16, 2013, 12:49:57 PM
A friend of mine read one of the individual works by Verne in Walter's annotated translation and said it was fantastic; I'm guessing this nice omnibus volume doesn't have all the annotations as well.  I will have to get to it

Geo Dude, where do you find out about SF/speculative/fantastic fiction that you want to read?  Just curious if there are any particularly good resources for kicking off the cross-referencing machine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 16, 2013, 01:56:45 PM
Quote from: Octave on March 16, 2013, 12:49:57 PM
Geo Dude, where do you find out about SF/speculative/fantastic fiction that you want to read?  Just curious if there are any particularly good resources for kicking off the cross-referencing machine.

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/ is a great resource.  Tons of knowledgeable people there about various genres and time periods of speculative fiction who are generally friendly, even if they can occasionally be a pugnacious lot.  Sort of the GMG of the speculative fiction world. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on March 16, 2013, 02:54:01 PM
Thanks for that tip, it's appreciated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on March 16, 2013, 04:32:41 PM
A revisit to the 4-volume epic Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann.

In today's Wall Street Journal there is an article about the influence of screenwriters on novelists: a certain Derek Haas, screenwriter of the remake of 3:10 To Yuma, advises "Keep it tight, keep those pages turning!"

I had just read Thomas Mann's nearly one-page description of the bearing and face of Eliezer, which includes the following 2 sentences on p. 322 of the Modern Library translation by John Woods:

When one tried to imagine the person of that ancient wanderer and friend of God,* the features of Eliezer's face might have lent assistance, not only because they were as grand and imposing as his whole figure and bearing, but even more importantly because they also had something unique about them, a soothing universality, a divine vagueness, that made it easier to transfer his image to some venerable unknown out of the primal past...His still dark eyebrows ran in narrow, low arcs from the shallow onset of the nose to the temples, while the almost lashless eyelids, both upper and lower, were so heavy and somehow swollen that they looked like lips from between which the black orbs of his eyes bulged.

* i.e. Abraham

Obviously opposed to keeping it "tight," Thomas Mann expands things ("a soothing universality, a divine vagueness,"  "the black orbs of..." ).  But note the richness thereby gained, how the mystery of Eliezer is increased, how his "somehow swollen" eyes become tongues between "lips" and so capable of silent speech, all adding to his mystical connection to the divine.

I am sure Mr. Haas would complain about the redundancy ("...both upper and lower" after "eyelids" and "the black orbs of" rather than just using "eyes") and the length of the sentences.

The purposes of the two authors are, however, quite different.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 16, 2013, 07:19:33 PM
Quote from: Octave on March 16, 2013, 02:54:01 PM
Thanks for that tip, it's appreciated.

Glad to help.  Let me know if you sign up there. :)

By the way, in case you're not an ebook user I should warn you that the reviews on that Verne omnibus indicate that the paper version is huge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on March 16, 2013, 09:28:28 PM
Thanks for the Verne paper/glue warning, GD. 

Cato or whoever-among-Mannomanes, has anyone had some personal experience comparing the translations of Mann's DOCTOR FAUSTUS by Lowe-Porter and by Woods, respectively?  I've not read the book, but I'm thinking about it soon, as a summer project.  I think I heard one account that Mann himself liked the Lowe-Porter, but I cannot remember the source of this anecdote.  I don't think Mann set aside the time to try the Woods.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on March 16, 2013, 09:50:34 PM
Re: screenwriters: I think most of the truly great film directors ignore them, as they perhaps should.  I would like to see narrative advice from great film editors.  The closest I've gotten is from the fascinating Walter Murch, though he's too humble a workman to actually condescend to give novelists tips.  He also has better taste than that Hollywood whore quoted in the WSJ; Murch raves about Curzio Malaparte, making me wonder if he's intent to draw nourishment from those sources instead of simply dictating necessary shortcuts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on March 16, 2013, 10:08:15 PM
Around India in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh
ideal for the armchair traveller, written  by someone who loves train travel but is not the sort of train buff that describes wheel arrangements and train sheds instead of the places visited. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on March 17, 2013, 05:29:01 AM
Quote from: Octave on March 16, 2013, 09:28:28 PM
Thanks for the Verne paper/glue warning, GD. 

Cato or whoever-among-Mannomanes, has anyone had some personal experience comparing the translations of Mann's DOCTOR FAUSTUS by Lowe-Porter and by Woods, respectively?

Good for you for tackling Doctor Faustus!

John Woods began new translations back in the 1990's I believe.

Both translations have their merits, but the one by Woods is less Victorian, and therefore does what an "updated translation" is supposed to do. 

I can say that his translation of Joseph and His Brothers is a huge improvement over Löwe-Porter's.

Quote from: Octave on March 16, 2013, 09:50:34 PM
Re: screenwriters: I think most of the truly great film directors ignore them, as they perhaps should.  I would like to see narrative advice from great film editors.  The closest I've gotten is from the fascinating Walter Murch, though he's too humble a workman to actually condescend to give novelists tips. 

Murch got a shot at directing back in the 1980's with Return to Oz a very dark sequel with no singing or dancing, which is not what audiences were expecting of course, and so the movie nose-dived.  It is, however, an excellent movie with a marvelous score by David Shire.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 17, 2013, 09:53:18 AM
I'm taking a break in the middle of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas to read Moby Dick (first time, the damn thing just kept calling out to me after I downloaded the complete Melville to my Kindle).  My mind is currently envisioning returning to the Verne as being a sort of calm after the storm. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 17, 2013, 11:08:17 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on March 17, 2013, 09:53:18 AM
Moby Dick (first time)

I'll join you soon, I have a whole bunch of sleepless nights ahead.  :D

Octave, Cato:

My favorite Doktor Faustus line (quoted by memory): The main merit of Romanticism is to have gotten music out of her previous town's brassband status and to have integrated it into the general intellectual circuit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on March 22, 2013, 01:08:46 AM
Late thanks for that quote, Florestan; priceless.

Have any of the GMG squad read part or all of Will Durant's STORY OF CIVILIZATION books?  If so, how do you rate them?  Can any insiders offer a hint at how trends and changes in historiography have treated Durant over the decades since his death?  I am interested in reading at least some of this series, but it's hard for me to know if there is a proper or ideal way in; it's a big undertaking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on March 22, 2013, 11:13:26 AM
(http://womensvoicesforchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/thomasjeffersoncover.jpg)


Starting in on the second section - Revolution era stuff.  Pretty good so far, though Meacham throws in a bit too much speculative writing for my liking sometimes.  If it is unknown what Jefferson felt or thought, one ought not to opine on the matter; one ought to focus solely on what Jefferson said, wrote, and did.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on March 23, 2013, 09:33:40 AM

(http://www.renaud-bray.com/ImagesEditeurs/PG/1246/1246918-gf.jpg)
Snobs
Julian Fellowes (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/075382793X/nectarandambr-20)
UK Link (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/075382793X/nectarandambrUK-21) Krautmazon (http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/075382793X/nectarandambr-21)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on March 26, 2013, 09:56:43 AM
(http://press.princeton.edu/images/k7352.gif)

Just started today...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on March 28, 2013, 04:57:36 AM
I saw the Peter Jackson movie recently and am now reading THE HOBBIT for the second time in my life. Having a fine time. I'm not quite sure yet if I'll proceed directly to Lord of the Rings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on March 29, 2013, 03:04:51 PM
George R.R. Martin--A Game Of Thrones
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on March 29, 2013, 03:53:50 PM
Quote from: Gold Knight on March 29, 2013, 03:04:51 PM
George R.R. Martin--A Game Of Thrones

NICE!  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on March 29, 2013, 08:49:50 PM
Quote from: Beorn on March 29, 2013, 03:53:50 PM
NICE!  8)
[/quote

@ Beorn, Thanks. I guess you enjoyed reading this, then?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on March 30, 2013, 04:28:17 AM
Quote from: Gold Knight on March 29, 2013, 08:49:50 PM
Quote from: Beorn on March 29, 2013, 03:53:50 PM
NICE!  8)

@ Beorn, Thanks. I guess you enjoyed reading this, then?

Of course! What's not to like? :) I have to get back to that series one of these days.

Thread duty:

I'm reading an ARC of this "literary" horror antho.
[asin]1906331367[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 30, 2013, 05:42:00 PM
The beast is slain!  I've finished Moby Dick.  It took longer than expected due to the essay sections being a bit of a drag at times, but when Melville is writing as a novelist (or a playwright) his prose is brilliant.  I detected what I thought was a Shakespeare influence--some quick Googling confirmed that I was correct, which left me proud of my ability to detect that influence because I'm not particularly well-versed in Shakespeare--and this lead me to start on Shakespeare.  I read A Midsummer Night's Dream and then decided that I should go further back down the chain of literary influences and do a full read-through of The Bible.  I selected the ESV on the grounds of it being free on Kindle and (allegedly) aiming for a literal, accurate translation.  Walt Whitman wedged himself in there somehow or another so I'm also working on Leaves of Grass.  I will also be restarting 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on March 30, 2013, 06:15:12 PM
Cloud Atlas.  Yeah, I saw the movie first.  I assume the book will be less...Matrixy.  Enjoying the prose so far.

[asin] 0812984412[/asin]

Bonus Doona Bae:

http://www.youtube.com/v/CQQUEicr6d8
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on March 30, 2013, 06:20:35 PM
I've heard good things about Cloud Atlas.  Let me know what you think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wanderer on March 30, 2013, 11:55:50 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on March 30, 2013, 06:20:35 PM
I've heard good things about Cloud Atlas.  Let me know what you think.

Go for it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on April 02, 2013, 03:49:52 AM
The great stuff.  8)
[asin]0375708677[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 02, 2013, 04:56:21 PM
I will mark down the Archer novels, Dave.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on April 02, 2013, 05:11:58 PM
Quote from: Bogey on April 02, 2013, 04:56:21 PM
I will mark down the Archer novels, Dave.

Good man. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: huntsman on April 03, 2013, 11:26:59 PM
After an age of being nagged by my wife, I finally decided to read this novel of a convict on the run, who falls in love with Bombay. Supremely insightful, the volume has a strong base in truth, yet covers the gambits between love and hate, success and abject failure, kindness and disaster, in spades.


(http://imageshack.us/a/img507/7677/shantaram.jpg)




It is well-paced, beautifully written, and perfectly captures the spirit of Bombay and the Indian people and ex-patriots that swell its ranks.

9/10. (Nothing gets 10!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on April 04, 2013, 02:29:21 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on March 30, 2013, 06:20:35 PM
I've heard good things about Cloud Atlas.  Let me know what you think.

Having finished the novel, I have to say that the film is a travesty as an adaptation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 11, 2013, 03:14:56 PM
Picked up a book for my Kindle. I'm now, the Kindle says, 70% finished - after starting it on the train ride to work this morning!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yWIAYrd1L._SY300_.jpg)

Unreasonably entertaining! Actually, given this story's narrator, I should say... shrewdly reasonably entertaining!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 11, 2013, 04:01:56 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2013, 03:14:56 PM
. . . Unreasonably entertaining! Actually, given this story's narrator, I should say... shrewdly reasonably entertaining!

+ 1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 13, 2013, 06:28:06 AM
(http://images.indiebound.com/579/122/9780143122579.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on April 13, 2013, 11:25:40 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2013, 03:14:56 PM
Picked up a book for my Kindle. I'm now, the Kindle says, 70% finished - after starting it on the train ride to work this morning!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yWIAYrd1L._SY300_.jpg)

Unreasonably entertaining! Actually, given this story's narrator, I should say... shrewdly reasonably entertaining!

Many thanks!   ;)

My "agent" in fact promised today that Volume II, Dial Emma for Murder, will be ready for Kindle in two weeks.

However, he has been promising this for over 2 years!  :o   This time...it might actually happen!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on April 15, 2013, 04:21:36 AM
Has anyone opinions on the relative merits of two unabridged translations of Hugo's LES MISERABLES, the old Wilbour vs. the new (2008) Julie Rose?  I was set to check out the Julie Rose, but a harsh comment at Amazon led me to some other harsh comments.  I've yet to look up a review or critique by someone who clearly has serious credentials, but maybe some of you have experience with the French original and one or both translations?  The critiques of the Rose translation seem to center on extraordinary liberties she takes with the language to make it "more contemporary" (to us).  This book remains a huge gap in my booksense; unfortunately my French is super weak, otherwise I'd just tough it out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 15, 2013, 04:33:13 AM
Quote from: Cato on April 13, 2013, 11:25:40 AM
Many thanks!   ;)

My "agent" in fact promised today that Volume II, Dial Emma for Murder, will be ready for Kindle in two weeks.

Excellent!  Will there be hard copy for those of us who ain't kindling?

(Although, there's an Amazon Kindle app on my Droid, will I nil I . . . so I may be able to do with the Kindle edition, after all!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on April 15, 2013, 08:51:53 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2013, 03:14:56 PM
Picked up a book for my Kindle. I'm now, the Kindle says, 70% finished - after starting it on the train ride to work this morning!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yWIAYrd1L._SY300_.jpg)

Unreasonably entertaining! Actually, given this story's narrator, I should say... shrewdly reasonably entertaining!

Quote from: Cato on April 13, 2013, 11:25:40 AM
Many thanks!   ;)

My "agent" in fact promised today that Volume II, Dial Emma for Murder, will be ready for Kindle in two weeks.

However, he has been promising this for over 2 years!  :o   This time...it might actually happen!

Quote from: karlhenning on April 15, 2013, 04:33:13 AM
Excellent!  Will there be hard copy for those of us who ain't kindling?

(Although, there's an Amazon Kindle app on my Droid, will I nil I . . . so I may be able to do with the Kindle edition, after all!)

I was told that yes, a regular paperback copy will be available, although the Kindle edition will be out first.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 15, 2013, 08:55:46 AM
Quote from: Cato on April 15, 2013, 08:51:53 AM
I was told that yes, a regular paperback copy will be available, although the Kindle edition will be out first.

Very good. Will be happy to support the author by buying both editions!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on April 15, 2013, 11:35:11 AM
A CLASH OF KINGS  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: HIPster on April 15, 2013, 07:28:26 PM
Enjoying this very much!

Wonderful read:

[asin]1416535349[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on April 17, 2013, 12:53:44 AM
FRANS C. LEMAIRE:          "La Passion dans l'Histoire et la Musique"     (2011)

I was disappointed with this book. I was expecting a much deeper analysis of the musical interpretations of the Passion, but Lemaire seems more concerned with the search of antisemitic traces in the Passions (including the Gospels).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 21, 2013, 03:05:29 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iojman86L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_SX285_SY380_CR,0,0,285,380_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Solid but not soporific scholarship -- a good read. A nice companion to George Stewart's Committee of Vigilance: Revolution in San Francisco, 1851.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 21, 2013, 06:15:18 PM
 We're kinda in the same era with our reading David:

On the "pad":

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YQEUP3IIL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_SX225_SY300_CR,0,0,225,300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on April 22, 2013, 09:41:10 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q7CrGJMpL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-65,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 22, 2013, 10:55:18 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on April 22, 2013, 09:41:10 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q7CrGJMpL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-65,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
That's the translation that helped me finally finish Don Quixote. A (very long) joy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 22, 2013, 11:07:42 AM
I remember the summer that I read Light in August. That's a book I should re-read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 22, 2013, 11:12:27 AM
Quote from: Bogey on April 21, 2013, 06:15:18 PM
We're kinda in the same era with our reading David:

On the "pad":

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YQEUP3IIL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_SX225_SY300_CR,0,0,225,300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Hey, Bill ... love the history of the American West. Seems to me I read a bio of the gentleman dentist from Georgia many years ago, but it probably wasn't a patch on Roberts's exhaustive work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 22, 2013, 03:17:28 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 22, 2013, 11:12:27 AM
Hey, Bill ... love the history of the American West. Seems to me I read a bio of the gentleman dentist from Georgia many years ago, but it probably wasn't a patch on Roberts's exhaustive work.

We may be sliding through Tombstone on our way to CAl this year, so thought I would happily brush up a bit. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on April 23, 2013, 10:47:17 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 22, 2013, 10:55:18 AM
That's the translation that helped me finally finish Don Quixote. A (very long) joy!

I know what you mean; my first step when delving into a translated book--a long one in particular--is to look around and see what information I can find on accuracy and readability.  Bad experiences with free and/or cheap Victorian translations has taught me that lesson well.  I considered Raffel's translation (Norton Critical) because it's supposed to be an easier read, but I'm finding that the jaunty tone found in this translation (resulting from more rigid standards of literalism if the reviewers are to be believed) helps bring across the humor well.  It gives off the feeling of being told an entertaining story by a smart ass, which I do believe is a good quality. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 30, 2013, 10:39:56 AM
Just started John Gardner's On Moral Fiction. Seems like an ideal start to a GMG Book Club, if we ever had one; talks not so much about fiction as why we have art in general, and what art ought to do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian on April 30, 2013, 12:08:43 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 30, 2013, 10:39:56 AM
Just started John Gardner's On Moral Fiction. Seems like an ideal start to a GMG Book Club, if we ever had one ...

On first reading your post, Brian, I misread the title as On Moral Friction and thought sure, we have lots of that on GMG!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 30, 2013, 12:31:29 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 30, 2013, 10:39:56 AM
Just started John Gardner's On Moral Fiction. Seems like an ideal start to a GMG Book Club, if we ever had one; talks not so much about fiction as why we have art in general, and what art ought to do.
A fine book. Helps perceptive readers understand why fine writers like Gardner and L'Heureux enjoy but a fraction of the commercial success of writers like King and Patterson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on April 30, 2013, 12:45:21 PM
Since I got a Kindle at the beginning of the year, I decided to go back and reread some books that I hadn't read in many years, which are easily had for Kindle.

The first was a book that shaped my outlook on conservation and preservation of the wilderness; Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. Better known for his eco-terrorism thoughts later on, especially towards Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, this was Abbey's first book, and one that documents his first season as a US Parks Ranger in Canyonlands Park in Utah in the late 1960's. His relationship with the outdoors is compelling. Just finished it, may read it again. :)

And I have also a book that I read many times as a teen and even well after that. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, all 4 novels and 56 short stories, with the original illustrations. Just started A Study in Scarlet while at lunch today. Boy, that takes me back!   :)

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on April 30, 2013, 04:09:45 PM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 30, 2013, 12:45:21 PM
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey.
Love it. Are there any cool dudes of our generation who weren't Abbey fans?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on May 01, 2013, 06:05:42 AM
Abbey heavily shaped my thoughts, too.  I picked up Desert Solitaire a few years ago and subsequently read nearly everything else he's written.  What a great book that is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 01, 2013, 06:15:48 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on April 30, 2013, 04:09:45 PM
Love it. Are there any cool dudes of our generation who weren't Abbey fans?

Not if they've ever been west of the Rockies. I discovered him on, like, my first day in Arizona. :)

Quote from: Geo Dude on May 01, 2013, 06:05:42 AM
Abbey heavily shaped my thoughts, too.  I picked up Desert Solitaire a few years ago and subsequently read nearly everything else he's written.  What a great book that is.

A lot of his futuristic bad feelings (I don't call them predictions) are coming to be now. Not a lot of desert left. I like how he compares the desert to Schoenberg. :)


8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on May 01, 2013, 06:24:06 AM
On a related note...

The Ballad of Edward Abbey (http://youtu.be/dbOs1QAUQJw)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on May 01, 2013, 08:29:32 PM
 O. Henry--The Best Short Stories of O. Henry, edited by Bennet Cerf
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on May 03, 2013, 05:39:35 AM
Dostojevski - The Brothers Karamazov
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on May 03, 2013, 06:10:31 PM
(http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/8969/pmb9788126514632.jpg)



Very, very fun!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on May 04, 2013, 01:14:35 AM
ANTONIO DAMASIO:           "Looking for Spinoza - Joy, Sorrow and the feeling Brain"

The book is mostly about the description of how emotions and feelings are created by the brain, and why. The reference to Spinoza has to do with the passion of Mr. Damasio for the work of the Dutch philosopher.

To me, this is the most interesting book of Damasio I read until now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on May 07, 2013, 08:10:07 AM
Haydn: His Life and Music by H.C. Robbins Landon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 07, 2013, 03:39:50 PM
Second time:

(https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQIbMMpoLH3f672oDsa_YNppOlBz8tev3HfrmTMw4DbzYF1B_Z5)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on May 07, 2013, 03:41:03 PM
Recently finished reading The Rescue by Joseph Conrad.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on May 07, 2013, 06:13:15 PM
George R.R. Martin--A Clash Of Kings
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 08, 2013, 10:20:19 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2013, 03:14:56 PM
Picked up a book for my Kindle. I'm now, the Kindle says, 70% finished - after starting it on the train ride to work this morning!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yWIAYrd1L._SY300_.jpg)

Unreasonably entertaining! Actually, given this story's narrator, I should say... shrewdly reasonably entertaining!

I've now bought the Kindle edition, and am re-reading it on my Droid!

Can't wait for to dial Emma!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 08, 2013, 10:53:17 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 08, 2013, 10:20:19 AM
I've now bought the Kindle edition, and am re-reading it on my Droid!

Can't wait for to dial Emma!!

According to my agent, the Kindle version of Dial Emma for Murder is due to appear at any time!

He has been saying this for about 3 weeks!  (Typical)   ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 08, 2013, 04:03:33 PM
Near the end of the August 6 entry, a subtle Prisoner allusion? ("That would be telling")
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 11, 2013, 12:17:46 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2013, 03:14:56 PM
Picked up a book for my Kindle. I'm now, the Kindle says, 70% finished - after starting it on the train ride to work this morning!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yWIAYrd1L._SY300_.jpg)

Unreasonably entertaining! Actually, given this story's narrator, I should say... shrewdly reasonably entertaining!

Again, many thanks to Brian for the review! 

Brian and other readers will want to know that the next volume is now available on Kindle with a print version coming in a few weeks:

http://www.amazon.com/Dial-Murder-Capsule-Murders-ebook/dp/B00CQBYHFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368297837&sr=8-1&keywords=dial+emma+for+murder (http://www.amazon.com/Dial-Murder-Capsule-Murders-ebook/dp/B00CQBYHFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368297837&sr=8-1&keywords=dial+emma+for+murder)

[asin]B00CQBYHFU[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 11, 2013, 02:54:45 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 07, 2013, 03:39:50 PM
Second time:

(https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQIbMMpoLH3f672oDsa_YNppOlBz8tev3HfrmTMw4DbzYF1B_Z5)
A good un, Bill!

Looking for some light reading for my Kindle. These should fit the bill!

[asin]B00BB0NJFG[/asin][asin]B00CQBYHFU[/asin]

20 seconds later and they're loaded and ready to go!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 11, 2013, 06:32:17 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 11, 2013, 02:54:45 PM
A good un, Bill!

Looking for some light reading for my Kindle. These should fit the bill!

[asin]B00BB0NJFG[/asin][asin]B00CQBYHFU[/asin]

20 seconds later and they're loaded and ready to go!

Many thanks!  I hope the result matches the anticipation!   0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 11, 2013, 06:45:38 PM
I've bought my Emma, too!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on May 11, 2013, 07:41:51 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on May 11, 2013, 06:59:09 PM
One of my favorite writers.   :)

Him, Cormac McCarthy and Faulkner are three that I re-read a lot.  Do you like Nostromo?  It is probably the Conrad book I enjoy the most.

I'm on a project to read all of Conrad's fiction (after accumulating it all in Kindle/Project Gotenberg editions).  I re-read Nostromo a few months back.  It is was of the great books in the English language, I'd say.  Aside from Conrad's established masterpieces (Heart of Darkness, etc) I'm very partial to "Victory."

I also have a strong affinity for Faulkner (McCarthy not so much).  I want to re-read the Snopes Trilogy and Absalom Absalom soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 11, 2013, 08:56:20 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on May 11, 2013, 08:12:36 PM
I just finished Absalom - great book, some think it his best.
Prob'ly
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 12, 2013, 06:39:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 11, 2013, 06:45:38 PM
I've bought my Emma, too!

This book may be a work of fiction, love it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 12, 2013, 07:18:09 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 11, 2013, 02:54:45 PM
A good un, Bill!

Looking for some light reading for my Kindle. These should fit the bill!

[asin]B00BB0NJFG[/asin][asin]B00CQBYHFU[/asin]

20 seconds later and they're loaded and ready to go!


Quote from: karlhenning on May 12, 2013, 06:39:59 AM
This book may be a work of fiction, love it!

Many thanks, and welcome to the mysterious world of The Unknown Narrator!   ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on May 12, 2013, 10:37:48 AM
A smartass adolescent narrator who knows more than s/he should, but without Holden Caulfield's potty mouth or shoulder chip (and perhaps more suited for adaptation as a Disney series...?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 12, 2013, 10:50:50 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 12, 2013, 10:37:48 AM
A smartass adolescent narrator who knows more than s/he should, but without Holden Caulfield's potty mouth or shoulder chip (and perhaps more suited for adaptation as a Disney series...?)
Only if the Disney series manages never to reveal his/her gender!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 12, 2013, 12:41:51 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on May 12, 2013, 10:37:48 AM
A smartass adolescent narrator who knows more than s/he should, but without Holden Caulfield's potty mouth or shoulder chip (and perhaps more suited for adaptation as a Disney series...?)

Quote from: Brian on May 12, 2013, 10:50:50 AM
Only if the Disney series manages never to reveal his/her gender!

IF we ever reach the number of sales where Disney or anyone else starts to pay attention to the series, I have proposed that there simply be two versions, one for each gender.

A third possibility - where the camera is the narrator (?) with alternating voices, or an "asexual" voice which could sound like both - might be too much for the modern audience!   0:)

When my brother proposed that I should start a mystery series, during my (short) period of sudden unemployment, he said the story and characters would need to be "edgy" to appeal to the modern adolescent.

No Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew stuff allowed! 

Hence the home-schooled, admittedly arrogant - and proud to admit his/her arrogance! - and too-wise-for-the-age narrator, along with the discussion of details about death by hanging, etc.

I was told by the mother of one reader of Dial Emma for Murder that a scene where girls are encouraged to use their budding sexuality to trap a suspect was almost too "edgy" for her!   0:)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 04:05:29 PM
Gotta be careful, Cato.  Look what they did to Burroughs! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 12, 2013, 04:31:04 PM
Bring it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 12, 2013, 04:55:12 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 04:05:29 PM
Gotta be careful, Cato.  ;D  Look what they did to Burroughs! 

Quote from: karlhenning on May 12, 2013, 04:31:04 PM
Bring it!

In one sense, the books are (almost) scripts: but yes, as soon as one sells a book to Hollywood, beware!

As they say in Germany, much, much water must first flow down the Rhine, before any such thing happens!

I puckishly told my brother he should offer the books to e.g. David Lynch   ???  Brian De Palma  :o and Wes Anderson   8).   

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 04:58:36 PM
Or Spielberg....PAY DAY, but script will take turns that even you cannot predict. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 12, 2013, 05:27:47 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 04:58:36 PM
Or Spielberg....PAY DAY, but script will take turns that even you cannot predict. ;D

Camera pans through a typical high-school corridor and focuses slowly on a girl, with the camera coming up from the floor and centering on her face, as she frowns about something.

Suddenly a flood crashes through a wall: a great white shark in the water eats her.

Then a tyrannosaurus rex crashes through a wall and eats the shark.

Okay, so that was entirely predictable after all!   $:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 12, 2013, 05:40:35 PM
Roughly five sixths of the way through this 300 pager. 
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wXb4lhIgL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Unlike his book on Custer's Last Stand,  he doesn't let his modern political filter get too much in the way, although once every chapter or so he can't help but bring in something to show that Blacks, Women and Native Americans were oppressed by colonial white males--sometimes relevant to what the narrative is focusing on, but often not.  But packed with first hand citations and narrative details not found in a lot of other books on the Revolution, in part because his focus is relentlessly on what happened in Boston and environs in 1774-75, introducing events in the other colonies or England only when needed to make sense of the narrative flow.  Although the title refers to Bunker Hill, the book covers the entire series of events from (approximately) the Boston Tea Party through the British evacuation of Boston under Washington's guns.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 12, 2013, 05:44:53 PM
Quote from: Cato on May 12, 2013, 04:55:12 PM
I puckishly told my brother he should offer the books to e.g. David Lynch   ???  Brian De Palma  :o and Wes Anderson   8).
Wes Anderson is an inspired choice! But you may also want to seek out the film Brick, a bona fide high-school film noir directed by Rian Johnson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 05:50:38 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 12, 2013, 05:40:35 PM
Roughly five sixths of the way through this 300 pager. 
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wXb4lhIgL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Unlike his book on Custer's Last Stand,  he doesn't let his modern political filter get too much in the way, although once every chapter or so he can't help but bring in something to show that Blacks, Women and Native Americans were oppressed by colonial white males--sometimes relevant to what the narrative is focusing on, but often not.  But packed with first hand citations and narrative details not found in a lot of other books on the Revolution, in part because his focus is relentlessly on what happened in Boston and environs in 1774-75, introducing events in the other colonies or England only when needed to make sense of the narrative flow.  Although the title refers to Bunker Hill, the book covers the entire series of events from (approximately) the Boston Tea Party through the British evacuation of Boston under Washington's guns.

Jeffrey, might I also rec. this one. Probably one of the best that I have read on the American Revolution:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KQqRyvlQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

What took it to another level was that I finished it not a week before we visited the area. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 12, 2013, 05:53:41 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 05:50:38 PM
Jeffrey, might I also rec. this one. Probably one of the best that I have read on the American Revolution:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KQqRyvlQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

What took it to another level was that I finished it not a week before we visited the area. :)

I'll look for it, thank you. 
I noticed in the Amazon listings that Joseph Ellis has a new book coming out on June 4 covering the same time period, roughly, but (going by the title) not so focused on Boston.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 06:09:29 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 12, 2013, 05:53:41 PM
I'll look for it, thank you. 
I noticed in the Amazon listings that Joseph Ellis has a new book coming out on June 4 covering the same time period, roughly, but (going by the title) not so focused on Boston.

Ellis is an excellent writer.  My wife and I have read some of his books.  I just gave my teammate at school His Excellency to read and she cannot put it down.  However, I warned her that every sentence is necessary to take in when reading Ellis.  There is no room for a skim moment or you end up rereading the page. I found his Founding Brothers very much in this category. This is the one my wife, just today, put on her wishlist:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516AVoTtbgL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

She got the 1776 Illustrated for Mother's Day today and already spent two hours just perusing it.  I just received this one in the mail the other day:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TQ6FK5R6L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Not sure when I will read it.  I have a number on the shelf to get to, including an Alexander Hamilton bio.  My wife is ahead of me in this era as I spent a lot of time with the Civil War.  She also enjoys the books of this era that deal more with the common man and lesser known personalities, hence the Ellis book above.  I am only 60 pages into 1776 (second go around), so I will wait until I am finished to see what I want to read next.  I want to also go back and restart and finish this one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TsDNU6yML._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I have it on my Kindle, but I am finding I hate reading history books on it as I cannot flip back and forth to pages when I have forgotten a name or a date.  Please list any others that you enjoyed from this time period. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 12, 2013, 06:33:14 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 06:09:29 PM
Ellis is an excellent writer.  My wife and I have read some of his books.  I just gave my teammate at school His Excellency to read and she cannot put it down.  However, I warned her that every sentence is necessary to take in when reading Ellis.  There is no room for a skim moment or you end up rereading the page. I found his Founding Brothers very much in this category. This is the one my wife, just today, put on her wishlist:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516AVoTtbgL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

She got the 1776 Illustrated for Mother's Day today and already spent two hours just perusing it.  I just received this one in the mail the other day:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TQ6FK5R6L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Not sure when I will read it.  I have a number on the shelf to get to, including an Alexander Hamilton bio.  My wife is ahead of me in this era as I spent a lot of time with the Civil War.  She also enjoys the books of this era that deal more with the common man and lesser known personalities, hence the Ellis book above.  I am only 60 pages into 1776 (second go around), so I will wait until I am finished to see what I want to read next.  I want to also go back and restart and finish this one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TsDNU6yML._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

I have it on my Kindle, but I am finding I hate reading history books on it as I cannot flip back and forth to pages when I have forgotten a name or a date.  Please list any others that you enjoyed from this time period.

There's a writer who did a book on Paul Revere and another on the Washington's Crossing of the Delaware that were nice reads, but I can't remember his name at the moment (Hackett Fisher?  possibly).  I think I've seen the Hibbert book at the public library; if it's the one I think it is,  I've never been able to persuade myself to check it to read: looks large and sometimes snooze inducing.

I'm more interested in European history, actually;  I've read Founding Brothers and possibly one more by Ellis.  McCullough is one write I've read extensively--the only book of his I didn't much like was his most recent one about Americans in Paris.   I've got my eye out for that new biography of Jefferson when it comes out in paperback.

Next up is to finish off Paul Reid's continuation/conclusion of William Manchester's biography of Churchilll.  It's not at the level of the first two volumes, but good enough in its own right. (If you have never read the second of Manchester's volumes--Alone--do so, and see how a great writer dissects how the West allowed Hitler to get to September 1939 without any real opposition.  Manchester was merciless.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 12, 2013, 06:34:31 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 12, 2013, 05:44:53 PM
Wes Anderson is an inspired choice! But you may also want to seek out the film Brick, a bona fide high-school film noir directed by Rian Johnson.

Thanks for the recommendation!

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 12, 2013, 05:40:35 PM
Roughly five sixths of the way through this 300 pager. 
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wXb4lhIgL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Unlike his book on Custer's Last Stand,  he doesn't let his modern political filter get too much in the way, although once every chapter or so he can't help but bring in something to show that Blacks, Women and Native Americans were oppressed by colonial white males--sometimes relevant to what the narrative is focusing on, but often not ...

I have read a few book reviews recently which complain that the authors felt compelled either to tsk-tsk the obvious, or to include a politically correct tsk-tsking in a tangent.

Your comment on the book reminded me of something.  Some years ago the Advanced Placement Examination for European History had a question about the effects of the slave trade on the economies of certain European countries.  It generated terrible answers: students told us how awful slavery was, how racism was awful, and people should not own people as property, etc. etc. etc. 

Too few actually answered the question: the belief was apparently that "if I write a diatribe against slavery, they can't possibly give me a bad grade!"   ??? ::)

In this case, being against slavery was nice, but not relevant!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 06:39:59 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 12, 2013, 06:33:14 PM
There's a writer who did a book on Paul Revere and another on the Washington's Crossing of the Delaware that were nice reads, but I can't remember his name at the moment (Hackett Fisher?  possibly).  I think I've seen the Hibbert book at the public library; if it's the one I think it is,  I've never been able to persuade myself to check it to read: looks large and sometimes snooze inducing.

I'm more interested in European history, actually;  I've read Founding Brothers and possibly one more by Ellis.  McCullough is one write I've read extensively--the only book of his I didn't much like was his most recent one about Americans in Paris.   I've got my eye out for that new biography of Jefferson when it comes out in paperback.

Next up is to finish off Paul Reid's continuation/conclusion of William Manchester's biography of Churchilll.  It's not at the level of the first two volumes, but good enough in its own right. (If you have never read the second of Manchester's volumes--Alone--do so, and see how a great writer dissects how the West allowed Hitler to get to September 1939 without any real opposition.  Manchester was merciless.)

I have read the Fischer Revere book many moons ago.  As I recall, a lot about other things than just Revere.  My wife's favorite on him, and maybe of all from that era is:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VmewC1MJL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

She also wants you to know how impressed she is with your read of the Bunker Hill book due to the fact that it just came out.  Pretty cool!  On a side note, are you the GMG member that read a lot about Russia during WWII?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 12, 2013, 06:56:11 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 06:39:59 PM


She also wants you to know how impressed she is with your read of the Bunker Hill book due to the fact that it just came out.  Pretty cool!  On a side note, are you the GMG member that read a lot about Russia during WWII?

So that's three interesting books you've put me onto in the last half hour.

The credit goes to the Broward County Public Library for having it on its shelves.  Normally I only buy history books if 1)they're not available through the library and 2) they've come out in paperback.  I have a lot of books as it is--accumulated in my 20s and 30s and I now prefer to buy CDs.   Philbrick attracted my interest with his "In the Heart of the Sea" although results can be variable.  The book on Custer was a fine one, whenever it moved away from moralizing.

I'm not the GMG who likes Russia/WWII.  in fact, one of the eras of history I'm least interested in.  Which is odd, come to think of it, since I'm always up for a book on Stalinist Russia in the 1930s.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 07:59:46 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 12, 2013, 06:56:11 PM
So that's three interesting books you've put me onto in the last half hour.

The credit goes to the Broward County Public Library for having it on its shelves.  Normally I only buy history books if 1)they're not available through the library and 2) they've come out in paperback.  I have a lot of books as it is--accumulated in my 20s and 30s and I now prefer to buy CDs.   Philbrick attracted my interest with his "In the Heart of the Sea" although results can be variable.  The book on Custer was a fine one, whenever it moved away from moralizing.

I'm not the GMG who likes Russia/WWII.  in fact, one of the eras of history I'm least interested in.  Which is odd, come to think of it, since I'm always up for a book on Stalinist Russia in the 1930s.

With changing screen names and avatars (and your interest in WWII) I thought it might be you.  Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 13, 2013, 03:50:48 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 12, 2013, 06:34:31 PM
Thanks for the recommendation!

I have read a few book reviews recently which complain that the authors felt compelled either to tsk-tsk the obvious, or to include a politically correct tsk-tsking in a tangent.

Your comment on the book reminded me of something.  Some years ago the Advanced Placement Examination for European History had a question about the effects of the slave trade on the economies of certain European countries.  It generated terrible answers: students told us how awful slavery was, how racism was awful, and people should not own people as property, etc. etc. etc. 

Too few actually answered the question: the belief was apparently that "if I write a diatribe against slavery, they can't possibly give me a bad grade!"   ??? ::)

In this case, being against slavery was nice, but not relevant!

Pavlov would have been proud, though . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 13, 2013, 04:00:01 AM
Quote from: Bogey on May 12, 2013, 05:50:38 PM
Jeffrey, might I also rec. this one. Probably one of the best that I have read on the American Revolution:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KQqRyvlQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

What took it to another level was that I finished it not a week before we visited the area. :)

Hm, looks like one I ought to read . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 13, 2013, 04:11:46 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 12, 2013, 06:56:11 PM

I'm not the GMG who likes Russia/WWII.  in fact, one of the eras of history I'm least interested in.  Which is odd, come to think of it, since I'm always up for a book on Stalinist Russia in the 1930s.

Do you know Everyday Stalinism by Sheila Fitzpatrick?

(http://images.51eng.com/p/97801/950/500/9780195050011.jpg)

Highly recommended!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 13, 2013, 04:17:08 AM
And everyday correctly deployed! I'm gonna read it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 13, 2013, 04:38:57 AM
"Stopping morons is always my business," I said with a smile. The smile confused him, maybe because he really was a moron.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 13, 2013, 05:05:14 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 13, 2013, 04:38:57 AM
"Stopping morons is always my business," I said with a smile. The smile confused him, maybe because he really was a moron.

What a wise-guy line!   ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 13, 2013, 10:56:45 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 13, 2013, 04:11:46 AM
Do you know Everyday Stalinism by Sheila Fitzpatrick?

(http://images.51eng.com/p/97801/950/500/9780195050011.jpg)

Highly recommended!

Didn't know it, but I do now!  Thanks.  My 'to be read' pile may start to pile up again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 14, 2013, 05:22:52 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 13, 2013, 10:56:45 AM
Didn't know it, but I do now!  Thanks.  My 'to be read' pile may start to pile up again.

A high-school friend once showed me 2 stacks of books a yard high, which he called his "to-be-read pile"   ???   !

I hope yours does not rival that!

In the same vein as Everyday Stalinism is another excellent look at Communism's impact on the average person in Russia/Soviet Union:  Night of Stone

[asin]B000CDG824[/asin]

Only 10 years old, I see that it is out-of-print already, but used paperback versions are available for as little as a penny!

In one sense it is a micro-history of people not allowed to mourn or even speak of their dead friends and relatives.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 06:11:19 AM
I haven't decided quite whether this review (http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/book-review-dan-browns-inferno/2013/05/13/53a7b7ba-bbcf-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html?hpid=z2) is artfully ambivalent, or just one producer of tripe praising a fellow tripester.

Still I love bits like:

QuoteOne is still excited — one must be; Doubleday is printing a whopping 4 million copies[....]

QuoteHis novels are like high-stakes, 500-page Mad Libs[....]

QuoteFortunately, his fetching doctor, Sienna — a former child prodigy with an absurd IQ — is willing to sling him on the back of her moped and help him figure it out.

QuoteNo matter. As with Brown's other works, it's more fun to read "Inferno" when you accept that every whoa-ful tidbit is true[....]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 06:13:45 AM
The last line ought to have been italicized, or otherwise set apart from the review proper, yes?  Just seemed to me part of the article for a long second . . . .

Hesse is a Style writer and the author of "Stray," a novel being published next month.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 14, 2013, 06:32:43 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 14, 2013, 06:13:45 AM
The last line ought to have been italicized, or otherwise set apart from the review proper, yes?  Just seemed to me part of the article for a long second . . . .

Hesse is a Style writer and the author of "Stray," a novel being published next month.

Yes, italics would have helped immensely.

And if my last name were Hesse and I had a novel coming out, I think I would be using a pseudonym of some sort!   ;)

On the other hand, are many people reading Hermann Hesse these days?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 06:36:43 AM
She should really name her daughter "Hermione," nicht wahr?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 06:38:59 AM
QuoteNo matter. As with Brown's other works, it's more fun to read "Inferno" when you accept that every whoa-ful tidbit is true[....]

This is still striking me as essentially, it's more fun to read the rubbish after your lobotomy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 14, 2013, 06:52:19 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 14, 2013, 06:11:19 AM
I haven't decided quite whether this review (http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/book-review-dan-browns-inferno/2013/05/13/53a7b7ba-bbcf-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html?hpid=z2) is artfully ambivalent, or just one producer of tripe praising a fellow tripester.

Still I love bits like:
QuoteFortunately, his fetching doctor, Sienna — a former child prodigy with an absurd IQ — is willing to sling him on the back of her moped and help him figure it out.

I bet that the fetching Dr. Sienna's IQ is 'cat'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 06:55:53 AM
Is that a tie-in with Hesse's forthcoming book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 14, 2013, 07:06:07 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 14, 2013, 06:55:53 AM
Is that a tie-in with Hesse's forthcoming book?
No.

I did read Siddhartha a year ago, though. Should read Narziß und Goldmund and Gertrud soon, too, as I have them in the same hardback.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 07:12:21 AM
"cat" does make for a nice absurd IQ, though!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 07:13:49 AM
Should I re-read Siddhartha?  When I was just out of high school I read it, and I was underwhelmed.  Maybe I just expected . . . something else.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 14, 2013, 07:24:40 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 14, 2013, 07:13:49 AM
Should I re-read Siddhartha?


No.   0:)

Quote from: North Star on May 14, 2013, 07:06:07 AM
I did read Siddhartha a year ago, though. Should read Narziß und Goldmund and Gertrud soon, too, as I have them in the same hardback.

Yes, that one is preferable to Siddhartha, which comes across almost as a satire on Indian fables, although that is not the intention!  Narziß und Goldmund is probably Hesse's best...yet even it at times is too consciously symbolic.  The other book I have not read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 14, 2013, 07:35:59 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 14, 2013, 07:24:40 AM

No.   0:)

Yes, that one is preferable to Siddhartha, which comes across almost as a satire on Indian fables, although that is not the intention!  Narziß und Goldmund is probably Hesse's best...yet even it at times is too consciously symbolic.  The other book I have not read.
I think I agree with Cato here.
Somehow I would have expected you to have read Gertrud, though!

Quote from: Wikipedia
Styled as the memoir of a famous composer named Kuhn, Gertrud tells of his childhood and young adult years before it comes to the heart of the story; his relationships to two troubled artists, the eponymous Gertrud Imthor, and the opera singer Heinrich Muoth. Kuhn is drawn to Gertrud upon their first encounter, but she falls in love with and marries Muoth, whom the composer befriended as well some years before. The two are hopelessly ill-matched, and their destructive relationship provides the basis for Kuhn's magnum opus.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 07:43:35 AM
Thanks, gents!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 14, 2013, 08:46:50 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on May 14, 2013, 07:46:39 AM
Re: Hermann Hesse

Demian is probably my favorite Hesse book, followed closely by Steppenwolf - those two were very important to me in my early college years.  Although I tried to read the Glass Bead Game I could not finish it.  I think I read one or two of the others but they did not make much of an impression.

That book (which at one time had an English translation with a Latin title Magister Ludi ) has an excellent premise - a future society that is quasi-medieval - but so much does NOT happen in the book that it is difficult to finish.

It is almost a meditation on a future, medievalistic society than an actual story about such.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on May 14, 2013, 09:40:15 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 14, 2013, 06:38:59 AM
This is still striking me as essentially, it's more fun to read the rubbish after your lobotomy.

That seems to be a reasonable interpretation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 09:59:16 AM
Dan Brown's Inferno: Reviews round-up (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22523759)

Including:

QuoteIn his two-star review, the Telegraph's Jake Kerridge said Inferno was Dan Brown's most ambitious novel yet - and his worst.

"As a stylist Brown gets better and better: where once he was abysmal he is now just very poor," wrote Kerridge. "His prose, for all its detailing of brand names and the exact heights of buildings, is characterised by imprecision. It works to prevent the reader from engaging with the story.

"This mattered less in his previous novels, but with Inferno I sense for the first time that Brown is aiming at a tauter, better book, one more interested in the real world, longing to escape from the prison of his pleonasm.

"But in the end this is his worst book, and for a sad, even noble, reason - his ambition here wildly exceeds his ability."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 14, 2013, 10:09:15 AM
Quote
[Dan Brown's] ambition here wildly exceeds his ability.

As if he had any...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 14, 2013, 10:22:29 AM
Evaluation of his ambitions and ability is such a different matter if we speak of his marketing a book, rather than writing one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 14, 2013, 10:57:18 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 14, 2013, 10:22:29 AM
Evaluation of his ambitions and ability is such a different matter if we speak of his marketing a book, rather than writing one.

This reminds me:

A former stuntman-turned-director named Hal Needham formed a company in the late 1960's with stunt-car drivers in order to crank out movies featuring very little plot, but with very many car stunts and crashes.   ??? :o

Needham even wrote a script called Smokey and the Bandit

He and his friend Burt Reynolds made that and a series of other movies with cardboard characters, very dumb and in some cases very old jokes, and all kinds of car crashes.

They also made a fortune as a result!  Needham once took out a full page ad in (maybe?) Variety with a picture of himself laughing and lying in a wheelbarrow of money, which a guard was wheeling into a bank.  I believe the caption was something like: To All the Critics Who Hate My Movies.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on May 14, 2013, 12:24:09 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2013, 10:09:15 AM
As if he had any...


Or creativity for that matter.  Plagiarize another (crappy) writer's work and then have your publisher sue said writer when they point out that you have plagiarized their work.  A brilliant strategy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on May 14, 2013, 05:46:56 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2013, 10:09:15 AM
As if he had any...

Well, it's clear you're talking about literary abilities, but I would like to have his ability to make money, as Cato has suggested. You know, pecunia non olet.

The problem with cheap literature aren't writers, but readers and their horrible and deformed tastes. But it's like porn: somebody must do the dirty work, if they want to spend their money.  :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on May 15, 2013, 01:56:51 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on May 14, 2013, 05:46:56 PM
The problem with cheap literature aren't writers, but readers and their horrible and deformed tastes. But it's like porn: somebody must do the dirty work, if they want to spend their money.  :(

This comment brings back traumatizing memories of reading Amazon reviews of Faulkner after Oprah put some of his novels on the recommended list.:(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2013, 04:39:40 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on May 14, 2013, 05:46:56 PM
Well, it's clear you're talking about literary abilities, but I would like to have his ability to make money, as Cato has suggested. You know, pecunia non olet.

;D

Quote
The problem with cheap literature aren't writers, but readers and their horrible and deformed tastes. But it's like porn: somebody must do the dirty work, if they want to spend their money.  :(

There is a huge difference though: with internet all around, one must really be nuts to spend money on porn.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 15, 2013, 04:52:43 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 14, 2013, 10:57:18 AM
This reminds me:

A former stuntman-turned-director named Hal Needham formed a company in the late 1960's with stunt-car drivers in order to crank out movies featuring very little plot, but with very many car stunts and crashes.   ??? :o

Needham even wrote a script called Smokey and the Bandit

He and his friend Burt Reynolds made that and a series of other movies with cardboard characters, very dumb and in some cases very old jokes, and all kinds of car crashes.

They also made a fortune as a result!  Needham once took out a full page ad in (maybe?) Variety with a picture of himself laughing and lying in a wheelbarrow of money, which a guard was wheeling into a bank.  I believe the caption was something like: To All the Critics Who Hate My Movies.

Probably I am rephrasing slightly . . . back when Michael Caine passed, I recall a column of tribute which mentioned Jaws: The Revenge, which (the writer of the column suggested) was quite the turkey.

Caine, naturally possessed of more charm and wit than Mr Needham above, responded, "I've not seen the movie, but I have seen the very nice house which it helped me buy."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2013, 04:53:20 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on May 14, 2013, 12:24:09 PM
Or creativity for that matter.  Plagiarize another (crappy) writer's work and then have your publisher sue said writer when they point out that you have plagiarized their work.  A brilliant strategy!

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is the only book I've ever regretted buying in 25 years of purchasing all sorts of books. Even Paulo Coelho has more ideas and makes for a more pleasant reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2013, 04:56:25 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 15, 2013, 04:52:43 AM
Probably I am rephrasing slightly . . . back when Michael Caine passed, I recall a column of tribute which mentioned Jaws: The Revenge, which (the writer of the columne suggested) was quite the turkey.

Caine, [...] responded, "I've not seen the movie, but I have seen the very nice house which it helped me buy."

Good reply but I wonder:first he passed and then he responded or the other way around?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 15, 2013, 04:58:30 AM
The article had some retrospective elements, as I recall  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2013, 05:11:27 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 15, 2013, 04:58:30 AM
The article had some retrospective elements, as I recall  8)

:D

Back to Dan Brown: as Cato and Eric mentioned, his ability to make money is commendable and I have nothing against it; the fault lies with those who, like myself, let themselves be fooled by marketing.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 15, 2013, 05:33:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2013, 05:11:27 AM
:D

Back to Dan Brown: as Cato and Eric mentioned, his ability to make money is commendable and I have nothing against it; the fault lies with those who, like myself, let themselves be fooled by marketing.  ;D

During the Harry Potter frenzy, I thumbed through a few of the books in bookstores, so that I could see what all the fuss was about.

Certainly the author had some very good luck in plugging into the Zeitgeist, and shows a good amount of talent, and again, it is hard to argue with a billion-dollar result! 

My little books have failed to plug into much of anything!   :laugh:

We shall see if they last as long as e.g. the books of Dr. Seuss.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: HIPster on May 15, 2013, 05:04:24 PM
About to start Anathem:

[asin]0061694940[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on May 15, 2013, 05:50:16 PM
Re: ANATHEM and Neal Stephenson:

By way of an intersection of interests, have you seen this?  Stephenson mentions recordings of chant that he likes, especially things he was listening to as he wrote ANATHEM.  I ran across this several years ago and have enjoyed a few of the recommendations.  The actual blog entry (link immediately below) also contains hotlinks to artist/etc sites.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/living-with-music-a-playlist-by-neal-stephenson/
QuoteSeptember 17, 2008, 10:53 am
Living With Music:
A Playlist by Neal Stephenson
By DWIGHT GARNER
Neal StephensonNeal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson's books include "Snow Crash," "The Diamond Age," "Cryptonomicon" and the three-volume Baroque Cycle. His new novel is "Anathem."

Neal Stephenson's September 2008 Playlist:

Most of my music listening happens while I'm working, and so the music has to be compatible with the book I'm writing. Lately I've been working on "Anathem," which is all about cloistered monks. I needed to get my head into a medieval/monastic frame of mind. At first blush this would seem to call for Gregorian chant. But a little of that goes a long way. Moreover, the monks I've been writing about are scientific monks in the distant future of an alternate world. There's no reason to assume they'd sound like Gregorians. And their monasteres are co-educational, so I wanted to hear some sopranos and altos in the mix.

* My first recommendation is actually a meta-recommendation: Liturgica.com, which enables you to search for many different styles of chant other than Gregorian; their "power search" drop-down menu lists Bulgarian, Syrian, Byzantine, Russian and many others while their "chant type" menu spills out the bottom of my screen.

* The entity known as the Patriarchal Choir of Moscow or the Russian Patriarchate Choir cranks out soul-shaking drones and vaguely Eastern-inflected chants in "Suprasl Orthodox Mosaic." If that's too heavy and serious for you, their album "Early Russian Plain Chant" is a bit more melodious and folk-songy.

* On the soprano/alto end of the spectrum, Anonymous 4 have generated any number of fine albums, my current favorites being "The Origin of Fire" and "1000: A Mass for the End of Time."

* My favorite style of chant is Byzantine, which I learned about by attending concerts by the Portland, Oregon-based group Cappella Romana. The single most powerful piece of music I've heard in recent years is the "Lament for the Fall of Constantinople." Close your eyes and you can almost see the Blachernae Walls crumbling before the onslaught of Sultan Mehmet's colossal artillery. Cappella Romana have recorded this piece twice; I prefer the somewhat slower and longer version on their album "The Fall of Constantinople."

* Moving forward into Renaissance polyphony, I'm a heavy listener of Seattle-based Tudor Choir, in particular to a bootleg tape of their Music for Candlemas concert of a couple of years ago, which I realize doesn't help the average reader very much. Easier to get is their album "Jacob Clemens non Papa: Requiem and Motets," available through their website http://www.tudorchoir.org/.

* A friend in California recently introduced me to The Hilliard Ensemble's recording of Ockeghem's "Requiem" and "Missa Mi-Mi," a 1995 Veritas Edition CD of a 1984 performance in Temple Church, London. The same material is now available in a more recent recording by Edward Wickham and the Clerks Group.

* It's no surprise that so many recordings can be had of these oldies but goodies. What is more remarkable, to my mind, is that modern composers are at work carrying the same traditions forward. "Darkness into Light," another Anonymous 4 recording, mixes medieval songs with recently composed works by John Tavener — a modern composer not to be confused with his 16th-Century ancestor John Taverner (note minor spelling difference), who was also a composer of this sort of music. A similar feat is achieved by Trio Medieval in "Stella Maris" which mingles 13th and 14th Century music with compositions by the modern composer Sungji Hong

* Lisa Gerrard has the most awe-inspiring voice I know of, and she put it to use in several Dead Can Dance recordings before breaking away to work on her own. Dead Can Dance, a collaboration with Brendan Perry, recorded an amazingly eclectic range of music, of which the best for evoking a medieval feeling is "Aion." In collaboration with, respectively, Patrick Cassidy and Pieter Bourke, she later recorded "Immortal Memory" and "Duality," which are very different from each other but both fine examples of music that is medieval without being old-fashioned.

* Finally, David Stutz (who sings in both Cappella Romana and The Tudor Choir) has composed several pieces directly based on "Anathem," most of which are mathematical proofs set in a (non-religious) liturgical chant style. That album, entitled "IOLET: Music from the World of Anathem," is available here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on May 15, 2013, 06:25:39 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2013, 04:53:20 AM
Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is the only book I've ever regretted buying in 25 years of purchasing all sorts of books. Even Paulo Coelho has more ideas and makes for a more pleasant reading.

I don't get the Dan Brown hating.  I listened to the da Vinci code as a book on tape during an unaccompanied cross country car trip.  It wasn't a well of deep thoughts, but I found it a very well crafted mystery story.  I wasn't tempted to read another Dan Brown book, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 15, 2013, 06:48:05 PM
Quote from: Parsifal on May 15, 2013, 06:25:39 PM
I don't get the Dan Brown hating.  I listened to the da Vinci code as a book on tape during an unaccompanied cross country car trip.  It wasn't a well of deep thoughts, but I found it a very well crafted mystery story.  I wasn't tempted to read another Dan Brown book, though.

Of which I did.  I enjoyed the da Vinci Code.  In fact, I read the illustrated version that was packed with photos of the settings and the art work being referenced.  I enjoyed so much that I did not put it down for two days straight and almost finished it in that time.   I then read a couple more of his books, and found them entertaining, but that is about it. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: HIPster on May 15, 2013, 07:01:38 PM
Quote from: Octave on May 15, 2013, 05:50:16 PM
Re: ANATHEM and Neal Stephenson:

By way of an intersection of interests, have you seen this?  Stephenson mentions recordings of chant that he likes, especially things he was listening to as he wrote ANATHEM.  I ran across this several years ago and have enjoyed a few of the recommendations.  The actual blog entry (link immediately below) also contains hotlinks to artist/etc sites.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/living-with-music-a-playlist-by-neal-stephenson/

Octave!  Thank you so much for posting this.  Fantastic.

By any chance, do you have that Stutz recording he mentions as an accompaniment to the book itself?  OOP and amazon lists an insane price for it. . .

Lotsa good stuff though!  Thanks again.  I am very eager to begin reading and have sort of held this in reserve for a while now.  Both Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle are favorites of mine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on May 15, 2013, 08:33:44 PM
Hi HIPster, I'm sorry that I do not have that Stutz ANATHEM-related recording; in fact, that's one that I have not heard yet.  I would like to know about it, if you track it down.  I did get the Cappella Romana FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, and I thought it was awesome; I once terrified some neighbors, playing it much too loud.  "Are you a Satanist?" one of them asked me.  I responded: "Aren't we all?"
Also, I was careless saying that all the recordings he mentioned were 'chant'; I see that that is not really the case.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 16, 2013, 04:37:42 AM
While (standing, actually) at the train station at half past ten last night, I finished Dial Emma for Murder. Yet more than with Why Begins With W (which I've read four times, three with hard copy, once with the Kindle app), I couldn't put the book down.

Now, given my schedule yesterday, this is what couldn't put the book down meant: I read Emma on my morning train ride into Boston, and again while riding the Green Line from Government Center to the MFA, again during my break at the museum, and then again on the Green Line from the MFA to North Station, and then finishing the book off while waiting at the station for my train home.

So, to such a degree as my day's agenda permitted, I read far the greater part of the book in one breath.

What to say, that will not blurt out any spoiler? The smart-alecky-but-likeable (I wanted to say simpatico, but realized I couldn't without suggesting a gender, a continued unknown quantity) narrator is more on edge than in W, the confidence at times wavers, and when a number of apparently important elements come to light, they of necessity admit of more than one reasonable possibility, and . . . there is danger of error.

And what of Lana? Is she a ditz? Or does she have a chunk of brain, which perhaps falls into place at odd times, if she cocks her ear just so? . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 16, 2013, 05:26:23 AM
Quote from: Parsifal on May 15, 2013, 06:25:39 PM
I don't get the Dan Brown hating.  I listened to the da Vinci code as a book on tape during an unaccompanied cross country car trip.  It wasn't a well of deep thoughts, but I found it a very well crafted mystery story. 

Well, you're a big fan of Twitter so I do not wonder...  ;D

Irony aside, what most irked me was not the story in itself (which is trite) but the falsehoods and fabrications about history and religion that were presented as facts. I am not Roman Catholic but I can't stand someone bashing Catholicism* and masquerading it as truth.

* Or any other denomination / religion


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 16, 2013, 05:33:36 AM
Quote from: Bogey on May 15, 2013, 06:48:05 PM
I enjoyed the da Vinci Code. 

I'm flabbergasted to say the least. IIRC you're a Roman Catholic. How can you then enjoy a compendium of blatant lies about, and vicious attacks on, the religion you profess?  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on May 16, 2013, 06:25:33 AM
If it helps any, DVC got me interested in etymology. And it brought me back into reading fiction.

This thread isn't about what one's not reading, is it? ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on May 16, 2013, 06:56:10 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on May 16, 2013, 06:25:33 AM
If it helps any, DVC got me interested in etymology. And it brought me back into reading fiction.

That's frequently "diagnosed" as a "healthy" result of some bestsellers over some intelligent readers. A sort of provocation in order to search more and better books.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 16, 2013, 07:13:29 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 16, 2013, 04:37:42 AM
While (standing, actually) at the train station at half past ten last night, I finished Dial Emma for Murder. Yet more than with Why Begins With W (which I've read four times, three with hard copy, once with the Kindle app), I couldn't put the book down.

Now, given my schedule yesterday, this is what couldn't put the book down meant: I read Emma on my morning train ride into Boston, and again while riding the Green Line from Government Center to the MFA, again during my break at the museum, and then again on the Green Line from the MFA to North Station, and then finishing the book off while waiting at the station for my train home.

So, to such a degree as my day's agenda permitted, I read far the greater part of the book in one breath.

What to say, that will not blurt out any spoiler? The smart-alecky-but-likeable (I wanted to say simpatico, but realized I couldn't without suggesting a gender, a continued unknown quantity) narrator is more on edge than in W, the confidence at times wavers, and when a number of apparently important elements come to light, they of necessity admit of more than one reasonable possibility, and . . . there is danger of error.

And what of Lana? Is she a ditz? Or does she have a chunk of brain, which perhaps falls into place at odd times, if she cocks her ear just so? . . .

Many thanks for such a marvelous recommendation!   ;)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 16, 2013, 01:16:36 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 16, 2013, 05:26:23 AM
Well, you're a big fan of Twitter so I do not wonder...  ;D

Irony aside, what most irked me was not the story in itself (which is trite) but the falsehoods and fabrications about history and religion that were presented as facts. I am not Roman Catholic but I can't stand someone bashing Catholicism* and masquerading it as truth.

* Or any other denomination / religion

I gave up reading* DaVinci Code about three chapters in, not because of any possible fabrications but because it was just so boringly predictable and stereotypical in its characters and action.  And the writing style simply made things worse.   Well made mystery? Possibly, in the same way that Kentucky Fried Chicken presents its customer with a well made basket of fried chicken.   I had the feeling he was following the sort of instructions that come with do it yourself furniture.
It's possible to have cardboard characters and yet have a first class thriller--Hunt for Red October is one such book--but DaVinci didn't manage that feat.

*that understates my reaction.  I was so bored and disgusted by the writing and the flat characters and the overall predictability of it that I threw it across the room.  If was checked out from the library, which is why I didn't throw it into the wastebasket.

Quote from: Cato on May 15, 2013, 05:33:13 AM
During the Harry Potter frenzy, I thumbed through a few of the books in bookstores, so that I could see what all the fuss was about.

Certainly the author had some very good luck in plugging into the Zeitgeist, and shows a good amount of talent, and again, it is hard to argue with a billion-dollar result! 

My little books have failed to plug into much of anything!   :laugh:

We shall see if they last as long as e.g. the books of Dr. Seuss.


I predict they'll last quite a long time.  They are very well written,  but to appreciate how well written they are requires more than just thumbing through them.   For instance, it's only when you've gotten near the end of the series that you understand how the very first book in the series lays out the major themes and even the narrative of the last volume.  Valdemort refuses to accept his own mortality, and to escape the possibility of death is ready to do anything and everything;  Harry, however, unwillingly, accepts his own mortality and when faced with what seems to be the necessity of his own death, makes no attempt to escape it.    Harry's self sacrifice in Book Seven is prefigured in Ron's act of self sacrifice in Book One. 

And this goes on through the entire series. 

Add to that the fact that Rowling was successful in giving us a complex and more or less consistent "subcreation" (to use the term invented by the most successful subcreator of modern times) of which the movie versions only scratch the surface.

Some of this is obscured by the fact that the series was written with an audience of older children/younger teens in mind,  and there are parts that I could have done without (like all the Polyjuice Potioning in the second volume),  but I think the whole series could be read profitably* by adults and children both.

*Profitably for the reader, not for Ms. Rowling, who, as you point out, has made quite a bit of profit already from these books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 17, 2013, 06:10:47 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 16, 2013, 01:16:36 PM
I gave up reading* DaVinci Code about three chapters in, not because of any possible fabrications but because it was just so boringly predictable and stereotypical in its characters and action.  And the writing style simply made things worse.   Well made mystery? Possibly, in the same way that Kentucky Fried Chicken presents its customer with a well made basket of fried chicken.   I had the feeling he was following the sort of instructions that come with do it yourself furniture.
It's possible to have cardboard characters and yet have a first class thriller--Hunt for Red October is one such book--but DaVinci didn't manage that feat.

*that understates my reaction.  I was so bored and disgusted by the writing and the flat characters and the overall predictability of it that I threw it across the room.  If was checked out from the library, which is why I didn't throw it into the wastebasket.

I completely sympathize with both your assessment and your reaction.  8)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on May 17, 2013, 01:02:28 PM
So far the key text in my research:

(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9780820488769_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 18, 2013, 08:17:38 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ga5a4NXQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-49,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on May 19, 2013, 02:06:24 PM
HARPO SPEAKS!

...and others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 19, 2013, 04:26:03 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 19, 2013, 02:06:24 PM
HARPO SPEAKS!

...and others.

I need to read that 'un.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on May 19, 2013, 05:47:30 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 19, 2013, 04:26:03 PM
I need to read that 'un.

Yes, I recommend it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on May 19, 2013, 08:36:01 PM
Christopher Tyerman--God's War: A New History Of The Crusades
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 21, 2013, 02:11:03 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on May 19, 2013, 05:47:30 PM
Yes, I recommend it.

I still had some of my gift card left, so I've bought the Nook edition!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on May 21, 2013, 03:45:33 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 21, 2013, 02:11:03 AM
I still had some of my gift card left, so I've bought the Nook edition!

Excellent! Last night, I was reading about his adventure in 1933 USSR.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 21, 2013, 04:43:36 AM
Thanks, I should read that one. I think the only Faulkner I've read to date are Light in August and The Sound and the Fury.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 21, 2013, 10:13:32 AM
The only Faulkner I've read was Absalom, Absalom! --- a masterpiece and a tour de force in multidimensional points of view. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 21, 2013, 10:40:06 AM
Well, the term had to be used somehow before there was an Internet . . . . (j/k)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 21, 2013, 07:31:55 PM
In high school,  our class read As I Lay Dying and Light in August.  In my twenties,  I read Absalom, Absalom and Sound and the Fury and apparently didn't understand half of what I was reading.  For instance,  not realizing the main character kills himself.   

But I do think As both of the books I read in high school would make good introductions to Faulkner, as would Intruder in the Dust,  which some people consider an apologia for Southern racism.  Faulkner uses the same techniques as in his other book, but less dense and a much tighter plot, which in a way is To Tell a Mockingbird as seen through Faulkner's eyes. (Black man accused of murder, although he's innocent.  White spinster, white teenager and black teenager combine to exonerate him,  exhuming corpses and staring down a mob of would be lynchers along the way.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on May 21, 2013, 08:23:12 PM
Most of my reading is for my thesis, but I'm striving to read these two books for fun over the summer break:

[asin]B004KAB4D8[/asin]
(http://constructionlitmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Mao-II1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 21, 2013, 08:25:15 PM
Just purchased:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519ajY-bfIL._SY300_.jpg)

In 1279, near what is now Hong Kong, Mongol ruler Khubilai Khan fulfilled the dream of his grandfather, Genghis Khan, by conquering China. The Grand Khan now ruled the largest empire the world has ever seen--one that stretched from the China Sea to the plains of Hungary. He also inherited the world's largest navy--more than seven hundred ships. Yet within fifteen years, Khubilai Khan's massive fleet was gone. What actually happened to the Mongol navy, considered for seven centuries to be little more than legend, has finally been revealed. Renowned archaeologist and historian James P. Delgado has gone diving with a Japanese team currently studying the remains of the Khan's lost fleet. Drawing from diverse sources--sunken ships, hand-painted scrolls, drowned bodies, and historical and literary records-- in this gripping account that moves deftly between the present and the past, Delgado pieces together the fascinating tale of Khubilai Khan's maritime forays and unravels one of history's greatest mysteries: What sank the great Mongol fleet?

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Rf5vtIjaL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on May 23, 2013, 01:08:42 PM
My eye problems increasingly restricted the my daily reading time so I tend to choose to not reading fiction -- this book, though, is definitely not fiction.

Chrystia Freeland: Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Zpxdw9FLL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on May 23, 2013, 06:00:47 PM
(http://seattletimes.com/ABPub/2013/02/20/2020393864.jpg)


A few chapters into Amity Shlaes' bio of Silent Cal.  As befits an author with a degree in English, the prose is expertly written and reads nice 'n' quick.  The unrepentant revisionism, particularly with regard to economics, is a bit much, and I'm sure it will get worse – and I know her treatment of the Kellogg-Briand pact will be way too apologetic – but it's not as bad as James Grant's feeble attempt at revisionism with respect to Warren Harding last year (I believe) in an op-ed.  (Mr Grant should stick to investing.)  Coolidge comes off as a guy I would like to have met, given the chance.  I suspect Ms Shlaes will downplay his impact on the market crash and Great Depression (which he couldn't have done much about anyway), and I'm curious to see how she will handle his relative inaction on the reemergence of the Klan, especially in the North (which he could have done much more about; if Ulysses Grant could, Coolidge could).  Still, it is a good read, and sheds some light on a lesser president.  It is certainly better than, and less fawning than, Jon Meacham's sub-par bio of Jefferson I recently finished. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on May 28, 2013, 03:29:57 PM
 8)
[asin]1423463846[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dave b on May 28, 2013, 04:47:29 PM
Just finished Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin....very hard to put down.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on May 30, 2013, 03:53:29 AM
They knew how to design book covers back in '65.  ;)
(http://img3.etsystatic.com/000/1/6147943/il_fullxfull.204962551.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 03, 2013, 10:45:37 AM
Read this in order to review it for the Musical Reference Services Quarterly. Wonderfully informative, fascinating anthology of source documents;  priced for the institutional market, no question.  Almost can't believe that the fellow who "reviewed" it on Amazon seems to have mistaken his umbrage at the price, for a discussion of the book's merits.  Even more horrified that his idea of "a better deal" is the MacDonald.

[asin]184383703X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dave b on June 04, 2013, 10:16:01 AM
Plato--The Republic--for the third time in 5 or 6 years. All his dialogues are riveting.
Reading this, years ago, was the reason I changed my college major the day after I finished the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on June 04, 2013, 02:52:12 PM
The Strange Tale of Panorama Island by the 'Japanese Edgar Allen Poe'  Edogawa Ranpo in a very smooth translation by Elaine Kazu Gerbert, set in the world of the panorama as an entertainment spectacle.   Good introductory note on the history and construction of panoramas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on June 04, 2013, 09:28:37 PM
Quote from: listener on June 04, 2013, 02:52:12 PM
The Strange Tale of Panorama Island by the 'Japanese Edgar Allen Poe'  Edogawa Ranpo in a very smooth translation by Elaine Kazu Gerbert, set in the world of the panorama as an entertainment spectacle.   Good introductory note on the history and construction of panoramas.

Thanks for mentioning that...the day before you posted this, I watched a film based on some Edogawa: BLACK LIZARD (Umetsugu Inoue, 1962).  Apparently the same book was made into a better and stranger film in 1968 by Kinji Fukasaku, with Yukio Mishima involved (writing and apparently cameoing as a living statue); but I might have to resort to "other means" to see that one.  (The Inoue was not really to my taste, aside from the fun/cheesy and mildly kinky opening musical number.) 
Your post's comment about Edogawa's status in Japan got me interested, and in my thumbnail-intro reading, I came across his involvement with "ero guro nansensu".  Now I really am interested!  I know nothing of his writing, but now I am keyed up to read him.

Do you know some other Edogawa as well?  Is there an ideal way to start with him in English?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on June 05, 2013, 08:20:22 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 03, 2013, 10:45:37 AM
Read this in order to review it for the Musical Reference Services Quarterly. Wonderfully informative, fascinating anthology of source documents;  priced for the institutional market, no question.  Almost can't believe that the fellow who "reviewed" it on Amazon seems to have mistaken his umbrage at the price, for a discussion of the book's merits.  Even more horrified that his idea of "a better deal" is the MacDonald.

[asin]184383703X[/asin]

This looks quite interesting.  It's too bad that the Amazon reviewer seems unfamiliar with the use of inter-library loans.  I hope that people don't skim the title, see the two star review and refuse to read it without even checking out the review.

Thread duty:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EuGwLr4nL._AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-49,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xwVIGf-dL._SY300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on June 05, 2013, 10:45:59 AM
Quote from: Octave on June 04, 2013, 09:28:37 PM
Your post's comment about Edogawa's status in Japan got me interested, and in my thumbnail-intro reading, I came across his involvement with "ero guro nansensu".  Now I really am interested!  I know nothing of his writing, but now I am keyed up to read him.

Do you know some other Edogawa as well?  Is there an ideal way to start with him in English?
That was my first encounter, inspired by the review in the Japan Times. ( http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/05/19/books/ranpos-novella-of-a-desecrated-grave-continues-to-send-shivers/#.Ua-Fqn5rbIU ).   I was interested in the panorama as an entertainment medium and the possibility of some technical background, and a low price (I used abebooks.com for the free shipping) got the "buy now".  This is a nice edition with its good introduction and translation, a favourable start for me.    Possibly a film version (in Japanese, unsubtitled) at http://www.yesasia.com/us/search/edogawa-ranpo/0-0-0-bpt.48_q.Edogawa+Ranpo-en/list.html#
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on June 05, 2013, 11:41:59 AM
Quote from: Dave B on June 04, 2013, 10:16:01 AM
Plato--The Republic--for the third time in 5 or 6 years. All his dialogues are riveting.
Reading this, years ago, was the reason I changed my college major the day after I finished the book.

The allegory of the cave in your own flesh....  :)

It would be great if these revelations/glares were more usual in the philosophical field (and not so frequent in religious matters). 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on June 05, 2013, 12:01:34 PM
arrived this morning from the LSO, signed by  the author, Gareth Davies
The Show Must Go On: On Tour with the LSO in 1912 and 2012.   Davies is a flautist whose blog from inside the orchestra makes for a good read.   It just came in, I have not yet read this (but would not have bought it if I didn't think I would enjoy it), posting to gloat over the early arrival.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 05, 2013, 01:33:49 PM
You need to report on the 1912 run.  I bet it is fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on June 09, 2013, 08:28:43 PM
Ian M. Banks has passed away.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/09/iain_m_banks_dies_of_cancer/

The first book in the Culture series has been sitting on my shelf unread far too long...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 10, 2013, 09:55:12 AM
Hey -abe- and Karl, just restarted Oliver Twist.  About half way through.  I would not put it at the level of A Tale of Two Cities or David Copperfield, but a nice read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 10, 2013, 10:04:06 AM
Cheers, Bill!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on June 10, 2013, 06:34:14 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 10, 2013, 09:55:12 AM
Hey -abe- and Karl, just restarted Oliver Twist.  About half way through.  I would not put it at the level of A Tale of Two Cities or David Copperfield, but a nice read.

8)

You guys ever hear of this novel? Haven't read it myself yet.

"Drood" by Dan Simmons.

http://www.amazon.com/Drood-Dan-Simmons/dp/B005EP26IK

QuoteOn June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world--hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.

Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 10, 2013, 06:51:12 PM
Quote from: -abe- on June 10, 2013, 06:34:14 PM

8)

You guys ever hear of this novel? Haven't read it myself yet.

"Drood" by Dan Simmons.

http://www.amazon.com/Drood-Dan-Simmons/dp/B005EP26IK

Where is MNDave when you need him.  ;D  Sounds pretty creepy.  I do not know much about Dickens, so maybe I need to change that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on June 10, 2013, 07:37:36 PM
That Dan Simmons sounds very cool.  I've been meaning to read those of his books whose universe adapts Shakespeare and Ancient Greek mythos to an epic SF milieu.  Several friends have recommended it as wildly inventive and ambitious. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MishaK on June 11, 2013, 08:03:46 AM
Started reading Little Dorrit by Dickens.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 11, 2013, 08:30:56 AM
Quote from: MishaK on June 11, 2013, 08:03:46 AM
Started reading Little Dorrit by Dickens.

Dickens sighting!  Report when you can.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: val on June 12, 2013, 01:09:13 AM
HANS KÜNG:      " Das Christentum. Wesen und Geschichte"

An History of Christianism, trying to define what is really essential in this religion. Küng sees Christianism as a religion - the only one - based not only in a set of rules and dogmas but, more than that, in the existential reality of the life and death of Jesus, as example and model of life for all Christians. It is also a book very severe to the Church, in the past and the present.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on June 14, 2013, 09:24:35 PM
About 11 months ago I read Russel Banks' latest novel: Lost Memory of Skin.  It was on display at a library and the interesting cover and author's name compelled me to pick it up. The only other work by Banks' I read was Rule of the Bone, and I had seen the film adaptation of The Sweet Hereafter.

Anyway, Lost Memory of Skin has to be one of the most surreal novels I've read. It's about a young man living in Florida who is a homeless registered sex offender and a genius sociology professor who takes interest in him. It's a literary novel with engaging prose and I found myself reading it like a page turner.

Recommended.

(http://bostonbookbums.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/the-lost-memory-of-skin.jpg)

http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Memory-Skin-Russell-Banks/dp/B00A1ACXG8/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371273691&sr=1-4
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on June 21, 2013, 09:57:10 PM
Taking somewhat of a break from my research and am loving this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zPwgqFSBL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on June 22, 2013, 01:30:50 AM
Quote from: Philo on June 21, 2013, 09:57:10 PM
Taking somewhat of a break from my research and am loving this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zPwgqFSBL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

A book subject to perhaps the worst book review I've ever read:

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geographyfacpub (http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geographyfacpub)

(The author's name of this moronic tripe should not be omitted: Robert Stoddard. Robert H. Stoddard, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588 (well, in 1988, at least).)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on June 22, 2013, 02:51:29 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on June 22, 2013, 01:30:50 AM
A book subject to perhaps the worst book review I've ever read:

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geographyfacpub (http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geographyfacpub)

(The author's name of this moronic tripe should not be omitted: Robert Stoddard. Robert H. Stoddard, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588 (well, in 1988, at least).)

That's priceless.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on June 22, 2013, 03:40:00 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 10, 2013, 06:51:12 PM
I do not know much about Dickens, so maybe I need to change that.

It's good for Dickens that he was such a brilliant writer. Otherwise  his appalling behavior towards his wife would utterly condemn him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 23, 2013, 08:20:12 AM
Quote from: Ten thumbs on June 22, 2013, 03:40:00 AM
It's good for Dickens that he was such a brilliant writer. Otherwise  his appalling behavior towards his wife would utterly condemn him.
I'm just reading a New York Times book review about an English author who truly sets the bar for terrible behavior toward women (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/books/review/how-to-create-the-perfect-wife-by-wendy-moore.html?ref=books). He decided to enslave little girls and train them to be the perfect wives... and from their the story only gets weirder.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 23, 2013, 08:27:14 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on June 22, 2013, 01:30:50 AM
A book subject to perhaps the worst book review I've ever read:

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geographyfacpub (http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geographyfacpub)

(The author's name of this moronic tripe should not be omitted: Robert Stoddard. Robert H. Stoddard, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588 (well, in 1988, at least).)

"The index is helpful" - they'll put that on the cover of the paperback.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on June 23, 2013, 11:34:03 PM
Probably starting this next:

(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9780810128477_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)

I wish they made more books like the last one that I read. I simply have a massive adoration for annotated bibliographies. So much good content compressed into usually a paragraph.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 24, 2013, 05:57:29 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nbbc4khqL._SY300_.jpg)

Just finished this one last night.  Well done and a quick read.  I learned a number of  new things about Camelot as well as reviewing other events such as The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis which I had just read about in the fantastic book The Presidents' Club.  The parallel component that follows Lee Harvey Oswald was probably one of the strongest parts of the book.  The assassination itself is only covered in the last part of the book, so if you are looking for just that event, then probably look elsewhere.  And on a final note, "conspiracy theorists" need not apply. 

Now starting this one:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C0BawLEPL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

The King and the Cowboy: Theodore Roosevelt and Edward the Seventh, Secret Partners
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jay F on June 24, 2013, 06:47:23 AM
Quote from: -abe- on June 14, 2013, 09:24:35 PM
About 11 months ago I read Russel Banks' latest novel: Lost Memory of Skin.  It was on display at a library and the interesting cover and author's name compelled me to pick it up. The only other work by Banks' I read was Rule of the Bone, and I had seen the film adaptation of The Sweet Hereafter.

Anyway, Lost Memory of Skin has to be one of the most surreal novels I've read. It's about a young man living in Florida who is a homeless registered sex offender and a genius sociology professor who takes interest in him. It's a literary novel with engaging prose and I found myself reading it like a page turner.

Recommended.

(http://bostonbookbums.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/the-lost-memory-of-skin.jpg)

http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Memory-Skin-Russell-Banks/dp/B00A1ACXG8/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371273691&sr=1-4

Thanks. That looks good, so I just ordered it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: CaughtintheGaze on June 25, 2013, 07:08:27 PM
Quote from: Philo on June 23, 2013, 11:34:03 PM
Probably starting this next:

(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9780810128477_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)

I wish they made more books like the last one that I read. I simply have a massive adoration for annotated bibliographies. So much good content compressed into usually a paragraph.

Replacing my Herzen spot with this (Herzen will come after, likely):

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347516604l/1476639.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on June 25, 2013, 07:19:29 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on June 24, 2013, 06:48:19 AM
In the last few months I have read about 7 novels by William Faulkner.  I decided to switch gears and have now started re-reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.  I have said in the past this was one of my favorite books and it will interesting to see how it holds up.  so far so good, although I am amazed how much I have forgotten about the book.

[asin]0679728759[/asin]

Not my edition, but the same text.

Yuk!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on June 26, 2013, 05:30:56 AM
I would certainly second the McCarthy, though his books are mostly ~10 years behind me now; I am due for another read.  I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't read BLOOD MERIDIAN, but let me say that the "wedding dresses" came charging back through my mind just a couple weeks ago, sending a cold chill through me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on June 26, 2013, 06:15:34 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on June 26, 2013, 04:11:41 AM
Not for you?   Whom do you prefer?

I can't say it wasn't impressive, but so much graphic violence!

I think we've been over this ground before.  For American authors, Faulkner, Hawthorne, Atwood (Blind Assassin, Alias Grace) Toni Morrison
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on June 26, 2013, 09:04:58 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on June 26, 2013, 06:41:04 AM
Even among McCarthy fans, some do not care for Blood Meridian.   However, I like it.  As probably can be detected from my posts in this thread, Faulkner is a primary author for me.

Yes, Faulkner contains cultural violence, not eyeballs popping out of people's heads!  (groan, maybe I'll read B.M. again)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 30, 2013, 10:29:43 AM
My summer "presidential" reading continues:

(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9781416568407_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 30, 2013, 10:51:48 AM
Revisiting Ives's Essays Before a Sonata, with relish.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on July 02, 2013, 05:53:32 PM
The great Steinbeck. Haven't read him in a looong time. And this is the first time reading this novel:
[asin]0670033049[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 03, 2013, 03:41:34 AM
Zis is KAOS: Ve don't shush here!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 03, 2013, 03:52:52 AM
Thread Duty:

Revisiting that marvelous classic, "Rip van Winkle."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 03, 2013, 05:09:53 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 02, 2013, 05:53:32 PM
The great Steinbeck. Haven't read him in a looong time. And this is the first time reading this novel:
[asin]0670033049[/asin]

One of the greatest novels of the 20th Century! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on July 03, 2013, 05:28:17 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 03, 2013, 05:09:53 AM
One of the greatest novels of the 20th Century! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

I am enjoying it very much. What other Steinbeck do you like? I don't think I've read one I didn't.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 03, 2013, 05:31:26 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 03, 2013, 03:52:52 AM
Thread Duty:

Revisiting that marvelous classic, "Rip van Winkle."

My first time with this story was on TV: Rip van Flintstone.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 03, 2013, 05:31:48 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 03, 2013, 05:28:17 AM
I am enjoying it very much. What other Steinbeck do you like? I don't think I've read one I didn't.

The Winter of Our Discontent, The Grapes of Wrath
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 03, 2013, 05:35:58 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on July 03, 2013, 05:31:26 AM
My first time with this story was on TV: Rip van Flintstone.  :)

I grew up watching The Flintstones, but I think I may somehow have missed that one!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on July 03, 2013, 05:43:16 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 03, 2013, 05:31:48 AM
The Winter of Our Discontent, The Grapes of Wrath

I've read these:
Tortilla Flat (1935)
Of Mice and Men (1937)
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962)
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)

Not as much as I thought. A long way to go to read them all!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on July 03, 2013, 06:01:48 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on July 02, 2013, 05:53:32 PM
The great Steinbeck. Haven't read him in a looong time. And this is the first time reading this novel:
[asin]0670033049[/asin]

Must revisit that one again -- I recall enjoying every bit of it, especially the parts concerning the character who is evil incarnate.  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on July 03, 2013, 06:03:36 PM
Quote from: Jay F on June 24, 2013, 06:47:23 AM
Thanks. That looks good, so I just ordered it.

Hope you enjoy it Jay!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 06, 2013, 09:50:23 AM
Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens. It is probably my favorite work from him, probably because it avoids many of his cliches: there are many morally grey characters, when usually dickens uses only about one or two per book and others are either saints or irredeemable villains. For example Hugh, the bastard son of Sir John Chester, does many bad deeds and probably is the character closest to commit a rape in Dickens novel... yet he still manages to be fairly tragic and even sympathetic character. He also does some good things and his redemption at the end of the book (even though still dying in typical dickens fashion) is heart-warming. The blind man, Stagg, gives pretty good reasoning for his villainy and merciless nature, Simon Tappertit is master study of a inferiority complex, Mr. Haredale though seems a stern man is pretty matshmallow-y inside. Even the murderer, Rudge sr., manages to evoke tiny bit of sympathy and tragic feeling. Of course there are some outright evil characters like Sir John Chester, who is probably the most evil character in the book... while at the sime time being probably the most polite! Many other memorable characters appear, from conniving Gashford to actual historic person, Sir George Gordon, the half-witted Barnaby Rudge, shrewish Miss Miggs and tyrannically stupid John Willet. Ironically this is probably Dickens's least-read novel, which is sad, because if you ask me, it doesn't deserve its neglect!

(http://asiaing.com/images/stories/2009/BarnabyRudge.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on July 06, 2013, 10:26:32 AM
Mozart: A Life by Maynard Solomon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 06, 2013, 12:56:17 PM
Quote from: Alberich on July 06, 2013, 09:50:23 AM

(http://asiaing.com/images/stories/2009/BarnabyRudge.jpg)

Dickens' sighting!  Ring that bell!

(http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/m/m3-9UEuJ8tIPUC3Z1_H31Gg/96.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 07, 2013, 09:19:42 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 06, 2013, 12:56:17 PM
Dickens' sighting!  Ring that bell!

(http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/m/m3-9UEuJ8tIPUC3Z1_H31Gg/96.jpg)

Ring it some more . . . not sure if I mentioned that my brother earned his Ph.D. in Dickens, and I just (finally!) asked him what his favorite is.  So now I've started reading The Pickwick Papers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jay F on July 07, 2013, 12:15:20 PM
I just finished reading this compelling little novel, which takes place in New York and suburban Westchester in AIDS-ridden 1987. Couldn't put it down.

[asin]0812982851[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 07, 2013, 12:24:14 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 07, 2013, 09:19:42 AM
Ring it some more . . . not sure if I mentioned that my brother earned his Ph.D. in Dickens, and I just (finally!) asked him what his favorite is.  So now I've started reading The Pickwick Papers.

My favorite Dickens are, in order, (1) A Tale of Two Cities (up there among my favorite 10 novels ever!), (2) Nicholas Nickleby and (3) Oliver Twist; I have read David Copperfield too and I have yet to read The Pickwick Papers.

If hardpressed to choose 3 favorite English writers I would nominate, in order: (1) Joseph Conrad,, (2) Charles Dickens, (3) ex aequo, Byron. Wordsworth, Coleridge.

:D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 07, 2013, 06:52:46 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 07, 2013, 09:19:42 AM
Ring it some more . . . not sure if I mentioned that my brother earned his Ph.D. in Dickens, and I just (finally!) asked him what his favorite is.  So now I've started reading The Pickwick Papers.

Put him on the map, I believe.  Great stuff.  I have read about half of them.  Still finishing Oliver Twist.  I am finding it much less engaging than David Copperfield and Tale of Two Cities from my last summer reads. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 08, 2013, 12:52:58 PM
(http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/m/m3-9UEuJ8tIPUC3Z1_H31Gg/96.jpg)

JUST finished Oliver Twist.  Better toward the  end than the start and middle.  Based on Alberich's review, I will now crack open Barnaby Rudge.  I did not realize how long it is. It tilts over 600 pages.  One of his longer efforts?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on July 08, 2013, 03:02:14 PM
I got halfway into The Pickwick Papers a few years back. I suppose life got in the way at the time, but that book is quite unlike anything else Dickens wrote in its lightheartedness and full blown comedic nature, and it's certainly a respectable choice for a Dickens favorite. Now, a novel like Dombey & Son on the other hand...

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 08, 2013, 06:31:09 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 07, 2013, 12:24:14 PM
My favorite Dickens are, in order, (1) A Tale of Two Cities (up there among my favorite 10 novels ever!), (2) Nicholas Nickleby and (3) Oliver Twist; I have read David Copperfield too and I have yet to read The Pickwick Papers.


We are close, very close in agreement.  However, I have not read yet half of his works.  I hope to read two books each year and hopefully be around to complete the library. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on July 08, 2013, 08:08:08 PM
Check out The Woman in White by his friend Wilkie Collins in your journey. It's quite a page turner!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 08, 2013, 08:17:48 PM
Read that one about 22 years ago (just before I was married).  Indeed a wonderful read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on July 09, 2013, 09:37:25 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 06, 2013, 09:50:23 AM
Ironically this is probably Dickens's least-read novel, which is sad, because if you ask me, it doesn't deserve its neglect!

I also really enjoyed it.  It has been along time but I seemed to recall that it was a bit more light hearted and comedic *in comparison to his other novels excepting the Pickwick Papers.* 

I think that Dombey and Son and/or Martin Chuzzlewit are read less frequently than Barnaby Rudge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 09, 2013, 10:31:29 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 08, 2013, 06:31:09 PM
We are close, very close in agreement.

I'm very glad to know.  8)

QuoteHowever, I have not read yet half of his works.  I hope to read two books each year and hopefully be around to complete the library. :)

Oh, I have no such ambition. As good a writer as he was, there are many more at least as good who are in the waiting line.  ;D

For instance, next week I'll be far from the madding crowd and going to immerse myself in these two:

(http://i2.best-price.ro/images/preturi/big_new/7/8/6/426786.jpg)(http://librarie.carturesti.ro/images/temp/26-249577-Coperta_fata.jpg)

Fernando Pessoa - Poetical Works
Fernando Pessoa - The Book of Disquiet

(both in Romanian translation)

8)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 09, 2013, 10:42:14 AM
That book of disquiet gives me an uneasy feeling . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 09, 2013, 10:45:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 09, 2013, 10:42:14 AM
That book of disquiet gives me an uneasy feeling . . . .

I wonder how, I wonder why...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 09, 2013, 12:02:34 PM
Quote from: DavidW on July 09, 2013, 09:37:25 AM
I also really enjoyed it.  It has been along time but I seemed to recall that it was a bit more light hearted and comedic *in comparison to his other novels excepting the Pickwick Papers.* 

I think that Dombey and Son and/or Martin Chuzzlewit are read less frequently than Barnaby Rudge.

I think us Yanks never quite forgave Dickens for Martin Chuzzlewit.

I would suggest Dombey and Son is Dicken's best novel, followed by Hard Times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 09, 2013, 12:04:14 PM
But what a great name, Chuzzlewit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 10, 2013, 11:25:08 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 09, 2013, 10:31:29 AM
[img height=350]http://i2.best-price.ro/images/preturi/big_new/7/8/6/426786.jpg[/img

This little gem from the above (English translation).

You talk about civilization, and that it shouldn't be,
Or shouldn't be the way it is.
You say everybody suffers, or the majority of everybody,
And it's because humans make things that way.
You say if things were different, we'd suffer less.
You say if things were like you want them, it would be better.
I hear you without listening.
Why should I want to listen to you?
Listening to you won't make me know any better.
If things were different, they'd be different: that's all.
If things were like you want them, they'd only be like you want them.
Oh, you and everybody else going through life
Wanting to invent a machine for making happiness!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 11, 2013, 12:24:42 PM
Quote from: Fernando Pessoa
Political ideology:
 He believes the monarchy is the ideal system for an essentially imperialistic anarchistic country such as Portugal. Romania. He also believes it is not possible to have a monarchy in Portugal. Romania. Therefore, in the case of a referendum, he would vote, with regret, for the Republic Monarchy. A conservative in the English style, meaning, he admitted liberty within a conservative context and was absolutely anti-reactionary.

The paragraph above describes me to the core.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on July 14, 2013, 05:40:51 AM
Now reading/still reading:

The Occult Madonna by Douglas D. Hawk (horror)
Punk Rock: An Oral History (non-fiction)
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Alien Legion Omnibus Volume 1 (sf comics)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on July 14, 2013, 06:48:57 AM
At the moment:

Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49
Helen Waddell - The Desert Fathers
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 14, 2013, 07:02:44 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 09, 2013, 10:31:29 AM
I'm very glad to know.  8)

Oh, I have no such ambition. As good a writer as he was, there are many more at least as good who are in the waiting line.  ;D

For instance, next week I'll be far from the madding crowd and going to immerse myself in these two:

(http://i2.best-price.ro/images/preturi/big_new/7/8/6/426786.jpg)(http://librarie.carturesti.ro/images/temp/26-249577-Coperta_fata.jpg)

Fernando Pessoa - Poetical Works
Fernando Pessoa - The Book of Disquiet

(both in Romanian translation)

8)

This is one of my favorite books ever (although before this one I had another translation):

(http://image.casadellibro.com/libros/0/libro-del-desasosiego-9788495359988.jpg)

I don't know if exists a translation into the Romanian language, but if you write the title in Spanish, there are online translations available.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 14, 2013, 07:03:28 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on July 14, 2013, 07:00:09 AM
This is one of my favorite books ever (although before this one I had another translation):

(http://image.casadellibro.com/libros/0/libro-del-desasosiego-9788495359988.jpg)

I don't know if exists a translation into the Romanian language, but if you write the title in Spanish, there are online translations available.  :)

The Romanian translation is exactly the one I mentioned:

(http://librarie.carturesti.ro/images/temp/26-249577-Coperta_fata.jpg)

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 14, 2013, 07:09:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 14, 2013, 07:03:28 AM
The Romanian translation is exactly the one I mentioned:

(http://librarie.carturesti.ro/images/temp/26-249577-Coperta_fata.jpg)

8)

Excellent!Quite naively I never imagined that Cartea nelinistirii could mean Libro del desasosiego (Livro do Desassossego).  :-[ :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 14, 2013, 07:36:54 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on July 14, 2013, 07:09:41 AM
Excellent!Quite naively I never imagined that Cartea nelinistirii could mean Libro del desasosiego (Livro do Desassossego).  :-[ :)

Yes, this is an instance when Romanian, though mainly neo-Latin, is incomprehensible to other neo-Latins!  :D

Cartea means the book and is derived from the Latin word charta which in its turn comes from the Greek word  χάρτης (khartēs) meaning paper (from the very same source Romanian has hârtie, meaning exactly paper.

neliniştirii is complicated: ne- is a Slavic prefix meaning un-; lin derives from the Latin word lenis, meaning smooth, gentle, kind, mild; -işte is a Slavic suffix which transforms an adjective into a noun, thus linişte means both silence and tranquility; -ire is a suffix which indicates the result of an action; and -ii indicates the genitive of a feminine noun. The final result ne-lin-işt-ir-ii means "of disquiet".

If you ever thought French was the most diffcult neo-Latin language, think again.  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 15, 2013, 11:32:58 AM
Quote from: DavidW on July 09, 2013, 09:37:25 AM
I think that Dombey and Son and/or Martin Chuzzlewit are read less frequently than Barnaby Rudge.

With Dombey I kind of agree, but chuzzlewit at least has the popular villains Seth Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit. Pecksniff basically is an incarnation of hypocricy.

My top 10 favorite Dickens novels:

1. Barnaby Rudge.
2. Little Dorrit
3. Great Expectations
4. David Copperfield
5. Nicholas Nickleby
6. Our Mutual Friend
7. Hard Times
8. Oliver Twist
9. A tale of two cities
10. The Old Curiosity Shop


Currently rereading Little Dorrit and David Copperfield. I always loved the characterization of mr. Merdle, William Dorrit, Henry Gowan and Miss Wade. You kind of feel sorry for Merdle even though his actions ruin many people, because he has such a crappy life: he's visibly guilt-ridden (the handcuffing gesture), ill, lonely and everybody just worships him for his wealth. I love the way he is portrayed in BBC 2008 production, when he talks to his pet parrot it kind of brings tears in my eyes. Henry Gowan has probably the funniest line in literature history when he congratulates mr. Sparkler for getting a place in Circumlocution office, calling him the most lovable and wonderful jackass that ever has walked on earth etc. Miss Wade's and Gowan's cynicism kind of reflects my own personality. But the cherry on the cake is William Dorrit's tragicomic end: before falling fatally ill he welcomes dinner guests... to Marshalsea debtor's prison! And of cource everything concerning circumlocution office gets a big laugh out of me. And Pancks, you must not forget Pancks, the guy is genius!

I remember when I read David Copperfield for the first time that while I usually like villains much more than heroes because they have more "freedom" in their actions, the exception came when I read about mr Murdstone. Seriously, the guy is such an asshole that I wanted to spank his ass when he whipped david. Nowadays, I am bit more calm when talking about Murdstones, I acknowledge that he at least seems to feel guilt for some of his actions, while at the same time admitting that the guy is still a massive dick. And I like how Dickens didn't use one of the cliches I hate most on Murdstone: he didn't get some divine karma punishment like usually Dickens villains get, some are even outright ridiculous, like casually saying how Mr. Bounderby died because of fit he had one day while all the good guys never die blah blah blah. Although to be fair, Murdstones actions were completely legal at the time when Dickens lived so it was not like they could have arrested him or anything.
My favorite character in the book is the lovable rogue, Steerforth, maybe because even when he's acting like a dick (like getting poor mr mell fired) I just can't get over how badass and charismatic he is. Many (including me) have known someone like him in school: the rich and popular kid who gets everything he wants and still he avoids being a dull character. And he does seem to genuinely like David...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 16, 2013, 10:49:52 AM
(http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/m/m3-9UEuJ8tIPUC3Z1_H31Gg/96.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on July 16, 2013, 12:25:00 PM
Ugh. Dickens.



;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: HIPster on July 17, 2013, 04:26:23 PM
Totally immersed in The Wave, by Susan Casey:
[asin]0767928857[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 17, 2013, 05:25:50 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 14, 2013, 07:36:54 AM
If you ever thought French was the most diffcult neo-Latin language, think again.  :D

Yes, it doesn't look easy. When I saw "cartea", I thought it was a sort of epistolary, as "letter" is "carta" in Spanish.

Now I'm reading these two:

[asin]B00D02BM5C[/asin][asin]B000FC1IEK[/asin]

The second is a sort of posthumous tribute to Roger Ebert, recently died.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on July 20, 2013, 07:43:13 PM
George R.R. Martin--A Storm of Swords {Book # 3 in the Game of Thrones series}
Arthur C. Clarke--Childhood's End
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on July 24, 2013, 06:51:54 AM
Alberich, I also love Little Dorrit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: modUltralaser on July 24, 2013, 08:00:01 PM
(http://history.ucdavis.edu/people/btezcan/front_cover_cup_smaller.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on July 26, 2013, 02:09:48 PM
If you have read The Sorrows of Werther and enjoyed it, you should also read Emmeline. Charlotte Smith acknowledges Goethe in the first volume but takes the situation to a higher level with penetrating internalization of the lover - reluctant beloved relationship through a series of metamorphoses (at first the pursuit is literal). Whilst recognising the greatness of Werther, Emmeline is surely not less so. Reprints of this novel are fairly expensive but it can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg for various platforms.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on July 27, 2013, 05:51:56 PM
Quote from: Alberich on July 15, 2013, 11:32:58 AM
With Dombey I kind of agree, but chuzzlewit at least has the popular villains Seth Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit. Pecksniff basically is an incarnation of hypocricy.

My top 10 favorite Dickens novels:

1. Barnaby Rudge.
2. Little Dorrit
3. Great Expectations
4. David Copperfield
5. Nicholas Nickleby
6. Our Mutual Friend
7. Hard Times
8. Oliver Twist
9. A tale of two cities
10. The Old Curiosity Shop


Currently rereading Little Dorrit and David Copperfield. I always loved the characterization of mr. Merdle, William Dorrit, Henry Gowan and Miss Wade. You kind of feel sorry for Merdle even though his actions ruin many people, because he has such a crappy life: he's visibly guilt-ridden (the handcuffing gesture), ill, lonely and everybody just worships him for his wealth. I love the way he is portrayed in BBC 2008 production, when he talks to his pet parrot it kind of brings tears in my eyes. Henry Gowan has probably the funniest line in literature history when he congratulates mr. Sparkler for getting a place in Circumlocution office, calling him the most lovable and wonderful jackass that ever has walked on earth etc. Miss Wade's and Gowan's cynicism kind of reflects my own personality. But the cherry on the cake is William Dorrit's tragicomic end: before falling fatally ill he welcomes dinner guests... to Marshalsea debtor's prison! And of cource everything concerning circumlocution office gets a big laugh out of me. And Pancks, you must not forget Pancks, the guy is genius!

I remember when I read David Copperfield for the first time that while I usually like villains much more than heroes because they have more "freedom" in their actions, the exception came when I read about mr Murdstone. Seriously, the guy is such an asshole that I wanted to spank his ass when he whipped david. Nowadays, I am bit more calm when talking about Murdstones, I acknowledge that he at least seems to feel guilt for some of his actions, while at the same time admitting that the guy is still a massive dick. And I like how Dickens didn't use one of the cliches I hate most on Murdstone: he didn't get some divine karma punishment like usually Dickens villains get, some are even outright ridiculous, like casually saying how Mr. Bounderby died because of fit he had one day while all the good guys never die blah blah blah. Although to be fair, Murdstones actions were completely legal at the time when Dickens lived so it was not like they could have arrested him or anything.
My favorite character in the book is the lovable rogue, Steerforth, maybe because even when he's acting like a dick (like getting poor mr mell fired) I just can't get over how badass and charismatic he is. Many (including me) have known someone like him in school: the rich and popular kid who gets everything he wants and still he avoids being a dull character. And he does seem to genuinely like David...

Well put, Alberich.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on July 28, 2013, 11:23:41 AM
Currently reading:

Radley Balko - Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces
Alan Moore - V For Vendetta
Maynard Solomon - Mozart
Nigel Spivey - Greek Sculpture


BTW, if anyone can recommend to me a pictorial book of Greek Sculpture (Classical or Hellenestic would be fine, but I'm not picky), I'd be very appreciative.  Spivey's book is a textbook, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it would be nice to have something focused on colored plates.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 29, 2013, 08:31:02 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518GpaB4w8L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 05, 2013, 07:04:28 AM
As a side:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rkMKt76IL._SX260_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on August 05, 2013, 03:11:48 PM
Elizabeth by Jessica Hamilton was good and creepy.

Now I'm reading this, which is great so far:
[asin]1590173481[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on August 07, 2013, 01:04:33 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 05, 2013, 07:04:28 AM
As a side:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rkMKt76IL._SX260_.jpg)

I have no doubt that this is both fascinating and delightful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 07, 2013, 01:20:22 PM
Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice. Kindle edition. This will (should) make a great film.

[asin]B005CRQ3H0[/asin]


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 12, 2013, 04:20:09 AM
The Rest is Noise

Next: Darmstadt chapter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 12, 2013, 04:39:52 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on August 07, 2013, 01:04:33 PM
I have no doubt that this is both fascinating and delightful.

No too bad.  A nice overview, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 13, 2013, 01:20:16 AM
(http://s16.postimg.org/yu2qjlcdx/6109.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31yXAXpukeL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 13, 2013, 11:01:35 AM
Quote from: Drasko on August 13, 2013, 01:20:16 AM
(http://s16.postimg.org/yu2qjlcdx/6109.jpg)

A great book that falls short of excellence because its author loves his subject too too much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 14, 2013, 02:25:27 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 13, 2013, 11:01:35 AM
A great book that falls short of excellence because its author loves his subject too too much.

I'm about hundred pages in and so far I'm quite satisfied with both detailedness and flow of the narrative. Loving the subject isn't bad position for an author, so far I haven't noticed much pronounced bias, but we'll see when I come to 1204, that would be a litmus test.

He does seem even more in love with de Hautevilles. He wrote two volume 800+ pages book on Normans in Sicily, covering less than 200 years. Talk about pet project.

Mediterranean history (medieval mostly) has always been fascinating subject for me, and I finally found some time for reading on it in bit more detail. Read Ostrogorsky's History of Byzantine State, Runciman's Fall of Constantinopole, now reading History of Venice and have in plan two more books: Kinross' Ottoman Centuries and Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II.

Have you read any of these two by any chance? Or something else interesting on this subject?   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 14, 2013, 06:54:47 AM
Quote from: Drasko on August 14, 2013, 02:25:27 AM
I'm about hundred pages in and so far I'm quite satisfied with both detailedness and flow of the narrative. Loving the subject isn't bad position for an author, so far I haven't noticed much pronounced bias, but we'll see when I come to 1204, that would be a litmus test.

He does seem even more in love with de Hautevilles. He wrote two volume 800+ pages book on Normans in Sicily, covering less than 200 years. Talk about pet project.

Mediterranean history (medieval mostly) has always been fascinating subject for me, and I finally found some time for reading on it in bit more detail. Read Ostrogorsky's History of Byzantine State, Runciman's Fall of Constantinopole, now reading History of Venice and have in plan two more books: Kinross' Ottoman Centuries and Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II.

Have you read any of these two by any chance? Or something else interesting on this subject?

I've read so much over the years they all blend into it.   The Kinross book sticks out for me, however. 
Didn't know about Norwich's Sicily books, but I've read his triple decker about the Byzantines (the first two volumes are better than the third volume).  Once you read the Venice book,  you'll probably want to read that.  Speaking of 1204, it's interesting to watch his two passions--Venice and Constantinople--collide.  Venice commits the unforgiveable sin, but he manages to forgive her anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 14, 2013, 08:00:47 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 12, 2013, 04:20:09 AM
The Rest is Noise

Next: Darmstadt chapter.

Ah, the really Noisy Rest  :D

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 14, 2013, 09:05:02 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 14, 2013, 08:00:47 AM
Ah, the really Noisy Rest  :D

Sarge
:P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 14, 2013, 09:13:36 AM
You're reaching that part of the book with which I am more apt to have the odd quarrel. (I mean: Wuorinen mentioned only in passing on one page, but an effusive near-hagiography of Reich; really?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 14, 2013, 10:51:25 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 14, 2013, 06:54:47 AM
I've read so much over the years they all blend into it.   The Kinross book sticks out for me, however. 
Didn't know about Norwich's Sicily books, but I've read his triple decker about the Byzantines (the first two volumes are better than the third volume).  Once you read the Venice book,  you'll probably want to read that.  Speaking of 1204, it's interesting to watch his two passions--Venice and Constantinople--collide.  Venice commits the unforgiveable sin, but he manages to forgive her anyway.

Yes, I know of Norwich's three volumes on Byzantium, but I'll probably will be skipping that. Ostrogorski's book on the matter is excellent, and I even have Vassilev's three volume Byzantine history as e-book (for spot checking and cross referencing, can't read on computer screen and no plans for e-reader).
Kinross and Braudel will keep me going for months.

and now some comics:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-ABh5PbNL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 14, 2013, 01:22:39 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 14, 2013, 09:13:36 AM
You're reaching that part of the book with which I am more apt to have the odd quarrel. (I mean: Wuorinen mentioned only in passing on one page, but an effusive near-hagiography of Reich; really?)
Hmm, I don't really know much of either composer's music, but Reich must have much more commercial appeal. (revisiting Wuorinen String Sextet now).
Yeah, that Wuorinen name-drop was pretty lame.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: HIPster on August 15, 2013, 06:07:48 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 14, 2013, 06:54:47 AM
I've read so much over the years they all blend into it.   The Kinross book sticks out for me, however. 
Didn't know about Norwich's Sicily books, but I've read his triple decker about the Byzantines (the first two volumes are better than the third volume).  Once you read the Venice book,  you'll probably want to read that.  Speaking of 1204, it's interesting to watch his two passions--Venice and Constantinople--collide.  Venice commits the unforgiveable sin, but he manages to forgive her anyway.

Drasko and Jeffrey - thank you for your comments!  They are timely for me, as I just finished the following in succession:
[asin]055338273X[/asin]
[asin]0393343405[/asin]

I had previously read the Wells (in '07-ish) and completed the Greenblatt mere days ago, while on a plane home from vacation.  Both are good reads imo.  The Greenblatt had a slightly disjointed ending in my view, but was a fascinating and enjoyable book.

As it so happens, I have been listening of late to this fine CD:
[asin]B001Q7A8LW[/asin]

*And a hat tip to Octave for the Neal Stephenson link, which led me to this wonderful recording!  Thank you.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on August 15, 2013, 09:02:16 PM
Christopher Clark--The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gold Knight on August 15, 2013, 09:03:20 PM
Christopher Clark--The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 18, 2013, 04:04:08 AM
(http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/600/16/16361.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on August 18, 2013, 04:57:15 AM
Quote from: Drasko on August 18, 2013, 04:04:08 AM
(http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/600/16/16361.jpg)

Hm...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on August 18, 2013, 07:53:11 AM
.[asin]0857866206[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 18, 2013, 08:00:34 AM
Hey Dave, I'm listening my way through Art Blakey albums right now! Had Mosaic on about an hour ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on August 18, 2013, 08:07:29 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 18, 2013, 08:00:34 AM
Hey Dave, I'm listening my way through Art Blakey albums right now! Had Mosaic on about an hour ago.

What are your findings?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 18, 2013, 09:04:45 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 18, 2013, 04:57:15 AM
Hm...

It's really good. Some of the finest drawing I've seen in years, and even better, very cinematic, way of composing pages. I read all three stories (it's a three stories integral) in one sitting, stories are ok, relatively simple but atmospheric, Sam Spade kind of stuff. I think it would be worth your time.

I'm in the mood for comic books this summer, after long time. And again reading huge amount the same time: random re-reading of Corto Maltese, 8th book of Lieutenant Blueberry, 1st of Torpedo, 2nd of Modesty Blaise, 1/3 through Regis Loisel's Peter Pan, 2nd volume of Yslaire's Sambre, occasional page of Liberty Meadows, Fearless Dawn, The Bellybuttons ... 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on August 18, 2013, 10:08:57 AM
Quote from: Drasko on August 18, 2013, 09:04:45 AM
It's really good. Some of the finest drawing I've seen in years, and even better, very cinematic, way of composing pages. I read all three stories (it's a three stories integral) in one sitting, stories are ok, relatively simple but atmospheric, Sam Spade kind of stuff. I think it would be worth your time.

I'm in the mood for comic books this summer, after long time. And again reading huge amount the same time: random re-reading of Corto Maltese, 8th book of Lieutenant Blueberry, 1st of Torpedo, 2nd of Modesty Blaise, 1/3 through Regis Loisel's Peter Pan, 2nd volume of Yslaire's Sambre, occasional page of Liberty Meadows, Fearless Dawn, The Bellybuttons ...

I'll check it out on your recommendation. Thanks much!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 18, 2013, 05:11:05 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 18, 2013, 08:07:29 AM
What are your findings?

The "Holiday for Skins" albums are an acquired taste (lots of African drumming and chanting), but the Blakey+Messengers albums I've heard, Roots & Herbs, A Night in Tunisia, Mosaic, and the self-titled CBS outing, are all fantastic. If a friend of mine were to turn off the stereo during a Blakey solo, they would no longer be a friend. The numerous fake endings at the end of their recording of "Night in Tunisia" are pretty annoying-hilarious.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 23, 2013, 12:36:40 PM
(https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1368531600l/130025.jpg) (http://www.happynovisad.com/slike/stripovi/to_sc_1.jpg)

Any opinions on Anatole France? I'm really in the mood for some fin de siecle French writing (that isn't Zola). I have on hand France's Histoire Contemporaine, but it is rather large thing and I've never read him before.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 23, 2013, 07:18:01 PM
Quote from: Drasko on August 23, 2013, 12:36:40 PM

Any opinions on Anatole France? I'm really in the mood for some fin de siecle French writing (that isn't Zola). I have on hand France's Histoire Contemporaine, but it is rather large thing and I've never read him before.

I've read Penguin Island.  Fell rather flat for me, but I suspect that if I had more knowledge of that era in French history, I'd have gotten more references and enjoyed it more.  Also, as I think of it,  I don't particularly enjoy much of anything written during that time period even among British and American writers,  other than the Sherlock Holmes stories and late Mark Twain.  It's rather as if there is a big gap between (to stick to French references)  Hugo and Proust.....So on those grounds,  I would suspect you'll like him more than I did.

BTW,  am I correct in remembering that Anatole France was the author of the story on which Massenet's Thais was based?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beorn on August 24, 2013, 05:12:04 AM
Downloaded last night.
[asin]1556522754[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 24, 2013, 06:01:44 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 23, 2013, 07:18:01 PM
I've read Penguin Island.  Fell rather flat for me, but I suspect that if I had more knowledge of that era in French history, I'd have gotten more references and enjoyed it more.  Also, as I think of it,  I don't particularly enjoy much of anything written during that time period even among British and American writers,  other than the Sherlock Holmes stories and late Mark Twain.  It's rather as if there is a big gap between (to stick to French references)  Hugo and Proust.....So on those grounds,  I would suspect you'll like him more than I did.

BTW,  am I correct in remembering that Anatole France was the author of the story on which Massenet's Thais was based?

Yes, exactly that was the period I was interested in: between Flaubert and Proust (maybe even bit after Proust). Penguin Island is kind of fable/satire, right? I'm looking for something with more conventional narrative, some middle/upper class melodrama from that, turn of the century, period. I was also considering Romain Rolland, Daudet, Martin du Gard, thought I'd skip on Gide and Zola this time. Well, anyhow, I'll give Histoire Contemporaine a shot, if it proves dull drop it and move on. 

Yes, France wrote Thais, the novel, libretto based on his novel wrote somebody else.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2013, 09:15:25 AM
Quote from: Drasko on August 23, 2013, 12:36:40 PM
Any opinions on Anatole France? I'm really in the mood for some fin de siecle French writing (that isn't Zola). I have on hand France's Histoire Contemporaine,  but it is rather large thing and I've never read him before.

Go for it without hesitation. It's a page turner. Penguins' Island is also quite good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on August 25, 2013, 09:29:16 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on August 21, 2013, 07:07:33 PM
I didn't read War and Peace and at this point of my life I believe it's difficult to do it, so this could be a good alternative.  :)

Quote from: Florestan on August 22, 2013, 10:24:26 AM
You should redress this ASAP.  :D

It's a great suggestion, I know; but there are so many books piled on my nightstand that currently it's near impossible to read it.  :( 

BTW, these days I'm totally absorbed by Cornelius Castoriadis' book Lo que hace a Grecia – 1. De Homero a Heráclito. Seminarios 1982-1983; transcriptions of his lectures at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. It's a great book, perfect combination of intelligent creativity, amazing erudition and clear exposition... Impossible to predict, coming from an author of his intellectual tradition, so different of my own.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2013, 09:33:16 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on August 25, 2013, 09:29:16 AM
It's a great suggestion, I know; but there are so many books piled on my nightstand that currently it's near impossible to read it.  :( 

No, it's not. Just begin to read it and all of a sudden all that pile would look insignificant...  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on August 25, 2013, 09:35:33 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2013, 09:15:25 AM
Go for it without hesitation. It's a page turner. Penguins' Island is also quite good.
Today it's almost impossible to believe that, when he died in 1924, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.

Sic transit gloria mundi.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on August 25, 2013, 09:56:36 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2013, 09:33:16 AM
No, it's not. Just begin to read it and all of a sudden all that pile would look insignificant...  ;D

When I was - I don't exactly recall it - 12 or 13 y.o., I prayed my mother to purchase what it would be my first personal collection of books. It was a weekly collection - from a magazine named Ercilla - of great books of the universal literature. The first delivery included volumes first and forty: The Iliad (not a bad decision at all) and El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges. The second volume was The Odyssey and the next four volumes were War and Peace. Therefore, that book has been waiting for me during 30 years... Then, who knows, maybe I will take your suggestion soon.  :)   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 25, 2013, 11:19:57 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2013, 09:15:25 AM
Go for it without hesitation. It's a page turner. Penguins' Island is also quite good.

Started last night. It is an easy read, at least at the beginning.

Quote from: Gordon Shumway on August 25, 2013, 09:29:16 AM
there are so many books piled on my nightstand that currently it's near impossible to read it.  :( 

Same. Actually multiple piles.  :-[

QuoteBTW, these days I'm totally absorbed by Cornelius Castoriadis' book Lo que hace a Grecia – 1. De Homero a Heráclito. Seminarios 1982-1983; transcriptions of his lectures at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. It's a great book, perfect combination of intelligent creativity, amazing erudition and clear exposition... Impossible to predict, coming from an author of his intellectual tradition, so different of my own.

You got my interest. I see La Montée de l'insignifiance is the only book of his readily available in Serbian translation. Another one for the pile, I guess.

some comics:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rpwhCeYFL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5163CBKD84L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on September 06, 2013, 04:57:17 AM
Quote from: Drasko on August 23, 2013, 12:36:40 PM
(https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1368531600l/130025.jpg) (http://www.happynovisad.com/slike/stripovi/to_sc_1.jpg)

Any opinions on Anatole France? I'm really in the mood for some fin de siecle French writing (that isn't Zola). I have on hand France's Histoire Contemporaine, but it is rather large thing and I've never read him before.

Have you read Huysmans's "La-bas"? I think you'd like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 06, 2013, 12:51:14 PM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on August 25, 2013, 09:35:33 AM
Today it's almost impossible to believe that, when he died in 1924, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

In 1924 they still had good taste...  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on September 06, 2013, 03:32:31 PM
Just finished Game of Thrones, by Martin.  He's no Tolkein and the book is not particularly "literary" but it is a story that draws you in.  Perhaps a case where the TV show is better than the book.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 06, 2013, 07:22:33 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on September 06, 2013, 03:32:31 PM
Just finished Game of Thrones, by Martin.  He's no Tolkein and the book is not particularly "literary" but it is a story that draws you in.  Perhaps a case where the TV show is better than the book.

I wouldn't go that far.

The first 3 books are excellent, but some of Martin's flaws as a writer start to become more apparent in the 4th, and 5th book was a slog.  I get very annoyed by Martin's inability to move the story forward, and his insistence on continuously adding new characters I don't give a crap about.  That said, I hope he is able to finish the series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on September 06, 2013, 08:07:06 PM
Quote from: Daverz on September 06, 2013, 07:22:33 PM
I wouldn't go that far.

The first 3 books are excellent, but some of Martin's flaws as a writer start to become more apparent in the 4th, and 5th book was a slog.  I get very annoyed by Martin's inability to move the story forward, and his insistence on continuously adding new characters I don't give a crap about.  That said, I hope he is able to finish the series.

Saying the TV series is better isn't a really a criticism of Martin, since he was involved in writing the screenplay, I believe.  In any case, some of the scenes in the book were livened up in the TV show by having nekkid women frolicking around in the shot.   :-[

How many volumes are there supposed to be, anyway?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 07, 2013, 04:33:34 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on September 06, 2013, 08:07:06 PM
How many volumes are there supposed to be, anyway?

7
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on September 07, 2013, 04:48:42 PM
Émile Zola
The Ladies' Paradise

(http://retroactivefr.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/280px-zolaladiesdelight.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 07, 2013, 06:22:54 PM
Tim Powers
Hide Me Among The Graves

published last year, but I didn't know about it until last week.

This is in a sense a sequel to The Stress of Her Regard,  one of the principals being the son of the hero/heroine of that earlier novel;  the famous literary figures who share center stage in this novel are the Rossettis (Dante Gabriele  and Christina); the central vampire seems to be Dr.Polidori.  I'm only fifty pages in out of a total of about 500, so it's too early to say how it measures up to the predecessors.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 07, 2013, 08:10:49 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 07, 2013, 06:22:54 PM
This is in a sense a sequel to The Stress of Her Regard, 

Tim Powers is one of my favorite authors, but The Stress of Her Regard was not one my favorite of his novels, so I haven't picked up the new one.  I should probably re-read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on September 08, 2013, 04:07:51 PM
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9780306821301_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)


A few chapters into Harlow Giles Unger's too-short bio of John Quincy Adams.  Mr Adams' life as a teenager would have been almost impossible to write as a work of fiction, with all of the people he met and all the places he saw and events he experienced - imagine breakfasting with Thomas Jefferson and watching a parliamentary debate in England with Edmund Burke speaking and being alone in Sweden as a 15 year old boy.  Unger's research is as solid as John Meacham's in his Jefferson bio, and his writing even more fluent and decidedly more focused than Amity Schlaes' in her bio of Coolidge, and it so far escapes the worship and puffery of the other two authors.  My only lament is that the book has only around three hundred pages of text, so it will be light on detail.  I couldn't find a really in-depth bio that intrigued me.  This book may make me search for something heftier on the younger Adams.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 09, 2013, 11:26:46 AM
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, one of my favorite books of all time. I enjoyed every single page of it! It is hard to find better villain than Smerdyakov!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 09, 2013, 12:27:11 PM
Quote from: Daverz on September 06, 2013, 07:22:33 PM
I wouldn't go that far.

The first 3 books are excellent, but some of Martin's flaws as a writer start to become more apparent in the 4th, and 5th book was a slog.  I get very annoyed by Martin's inability to move the story forward, and his insistence on continuously adding new characters I don't give a crap about.  That said, I hope he is able to finish the series.

He has Robert Jordan-itis.  I'm feeling the pain in the worst example of high fantasy bloat-- I'm in the middle of my Wheel of Time reread.  I couldn't stand to reread past Lord of Chaos so I switched to very detailed summaries in the Wheel of Time Reread by Leigh Butler to get me through.  Many characters not doing anything but walking around having inane conversations about things that we the audience already knows, but they the characters don't know.  And Jordan hyperfocuses on completely unimportant details like the fabric in the dress a minor character is wearing. :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 09, 2013, 12:28:08 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 07, 2013, 06:22:54 PM
Tim Powers
Hide Me Among The Graves


I picked this up as a Kindle daily deal a few months back, haven't read it yet.  Tell me if you like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 09, 2013, 07:33:09 PM
Quote from: Todd on September 08, 2013, 04:07:51 PM
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9780306821301_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)


A few chapters into Harlow Giles Unger's too-short bio of John Quincy Adams.  Mr Adams' life as a teenager would have been almost impossible to write as a work of fiction, with all of the people he met and all the places he saw and events he experienced - imagine breakfasting with Thomas Jefferson and watching a parliamentary debate in England with Edmund Burke speaking and being alone in Sweden as a 15 year old boy.  Unger's research is as solid as John Meacham's in his Jefferson bio, and his writing even more fluent and decidedly more focused than Amity Schlaes' in her bio of Coolidge, and it so far escapes the worship and puffery of the other two authors.  My only lament is that the book has only around three hundred pages of text, so it will be light on detail.  I couldn't find a really in-depth bio that intrigued me.  This book may make me search for something heftier on the younger Adams.

Cool, Todd. Very cool.  I have been keeping my presidential reading to books that put the president in a situation or limited time span.  The bios within them are usually enough for me.  However, having been to this lads home(s), I might reconsider.  There are two presidential reads coming out this year on my radar that may or may not interest you:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51y0%2BA50WmL._SY346_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51q-O7LrElL._SY346_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 09, 2013, 07:42:54 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 09, 2013, 07:33:09 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51y0%2BA50WmL._SY346_.jpg)

I know Doris Kearns Goodwin is a bit of a celebrity "brand," but I'm a little intrigued by this one. There is a lot of discussion in Edmund Morris' great Theodore Rex about the way TR manipulated the media to achieve his ends; he played them so easily that reading about it you can't help feeling awe. Hmm. Maybe I'll just reread that book. :)

The JQ Adams book is intriguing. I don't know enough about him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 11, 2013, 08:12:45 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 07:04:39 AM
And if Rowling's books manage to cultivate a reading habit in more youngsters, then her work is immune from intelligent criticism, too.  I don't see how the opposition's viewpoint here is other than common sense, so if someone can draw me a diagram, I shall be grateful.
So, is there something wrong with Rowling's books or their success?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2013, 08:20:33 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 11, 2013, 08:12:45 AM
So, is there something wrong with Rowling's books or their success?

As to whether there is anything wrong with the books, that is a question for those who have read them;  I restrict myself to observing that I have read intelligent criticism of the books, and that some of this has provoked impassioned (if generally orthogonal) response.

Personally, I applaud both Ross and Rowling for their success.  Perhaps they miss that servant who accompanied Cæsar on his triumphs, whispering in his ear, Remember, Cæsar, that thou are mortal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 11, 2013, 08:31:43 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 08:20:33 AM
As to whether there is anything wrong with the books, that is a question for those who have read them;  I restrict myself to observing that I have read intelligent criticism of the books, and that some of this has provoked impassioned (if generally orthogonal) response.

Personally, I applaud both Ross and Rowling for their success.  Perhaps they miss that servant who accompanied Cæsar on his triumphs, whispering in his ear, Remember, Cæsar, that thou are mortal.
I have read the Potter books - in fact I have read 2½ of them in the past 5 days for the second time, and can't think of anything negative about them. The characters and the story are extremely well managed over the series. I haven't seen or read anything that would lead me to think that Rowling is in any way arrogant. Fans are another matter, of course...
I would be genuinely interested to read this criticism, though, so any links would be appreciated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2013, 08:42:59 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 11, 2013, 08:31:43 AM
I have read the Potter books - in fact I have read 2½ of them in the past 5 days for the second time, and can't think of anything negative about them. The characters and the story are extremely well managed over the series. I haven't seen or read anything that would lead me to think that Rowling is in any way arrogant. Fans are another matter, of course...

I would be genuinely interested to read this criticism, though, so any links would be appreciated.

Well, if I seemed to accuse Rowling of arrogance, I apologize.  I have no reason to expect that she (or Ross) is other than an earthy, likeable person.  And her rags-to-riches story is touching.  My admittedly curt reference was not oriented to arrogance, but the matter of how overwhelming success may interfere with one's development as an artist, or with one's artistic filters.

It is some years since I read the articles, Karlo, and I know neither the URLs for them, nor whether those URLs are still valid.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on September 11, 2013, 08:44:19 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 08:20:33 AM
As to whether there is anything wrong with the books, that is a question for those who have read them;  I restrict myself to observing that I have read intelligent criticism of the books, and that some of this has provoked impassioned (if generally orthogonal) response.

Personally, I applaud both Ross and Rowling for their success.  Perhaps they miss that servant who accompanied Cæsar on his triumphs, whispering in his ear, Remember, Cæsar, that thou are mortal.

A billion dollars would seem to imply there is more right with the Harry Potter books than wrong, or that, even if there is something overarchingly wrong with them, their "rightness" still trumps that.

Of course, perhaps they will end up selling for a quarter in some 21st-century antique store, not unlike the Tom Swift books of the early 1900's.  I just saw in one "junque" shop Tom Swift and His Photo-Telephone.

(http://covers.feedbooks.net/book/2343.jpg?size=large&t=1303072880)

Or how about one of my favorites from Grandpa's attic?

(http://www.hatonthebed.net/images/roverboys.jpg)

Possibly the Potter books will persist the way the Oz books have persisted, or Beatrix Potter's (no relation to Harry).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2013, 08:55:20 AM
Karlo, here (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=24&cad=rja&ved=0CEMQFjADOBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fflorida.theorangegrove.org%2Fog%2Ffile%2F1c8115fc-50d1-7dd6-0a2a-6446e33c7437%2F1%2Fdestiny.pdf&ei=758wUsPbOIXr2AX_4YCYAQ&usg=AFQjCNF4exOD8RMBox12DmL4j_rptvC5pg&sig2=hlclbGEDcjPcgClvloBmpw) is an interesting (and warmly sympathetic) critique.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2013, 08:58:04 AM
And a quick-&-dirty search yields this potentially interesting resource (http://danny.oz.au/books/notes/harry-potter-criticism.html).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 11, 2013, 09:06:38 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 08:42:59 AM
Well, if I seemed to accuse Rowling of arrogance, I apologize.  I have no reason to expect that she (or Ross) is other than an earthy, likeable person.  And her rags-to-riches story is touching.  My admittedly curt reference was not oriented to arrogance, but the matter of how overwhelming success may interfere with one's development as an artist, or with one's artistic filters.

It is some years since I read the articles, Karlo, and I know neither the URLs for them, nor whether those URLs are still valid.
Okay, Karl. No need to go out of your way searching for them. (spell checkers are a PITA, btw - mine didn't even recognise ( >:D) likeable. Oh well, it's probably for the common good that Microsoft and their likes choose which spellings are acceptable and which are not  ::))
I guess I should read Rowling's two books written after the Potters to see how she has developed since then. Of course, quite a few artists have been influenced by 'overwhelming success', and, at least from the ones that are well known, many have continued to thrive. But then, there are probably many of whom most haven't heard, and some who never really lived up to their promising start.

---

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 08:55:20 AM
Karlo, here (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=24&cad=rja&ved=0CEMQFjADOBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fflorida.theorangegrove.org%2Fog%2Ffile%2F1c8115fc-50d1-7dd6-0a2a-6446e33c7437%2F1%2Fdestiny.pdf&ei=758wUsPbOIXr2AX_4YCYAQ&usg=AFQjCNF4exOD8RMBox12DmL4j_rptvC5pg&sig2=hlclbGEDcjPcgClvloBmpw) is an interesting (and warmly sympathetic) critique.
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 08:58:04 AM
And a quick-&-dirty search yields this potentially interesting resource (http://danny.oz.au/books/notes/harry-potter-criticism.html).
Thanks!


Quote from: Cato on September 11, 2013, 08:44:19 AM
A billion dollars would seem to imply there is more right with the Harry Potter books than wrong, or that, even if there is something overarchingly wrong with them, their "rightness" still trumps that.

Of course, perhaps they will end up selling for a quarter in some 21st-century antique store, not unlike the Tom Swift books of the early 1900's.  I just saw in one "junque" shop Tom Swift and His Photo-Telephone.

Or how about one of my favorites from Grandpa's attic?

Possibly the Potter books will persist the way the Oz books have persisted, or Beatrix Potter's (no relation to Harry).
Or Tolkien or Austen.
Curiously, there is a character named Beatrix Lestrange in the Potter books. But maybe that's just a coincidence...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on September 11, 2013, 09:10:08 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 11, 2013, 09:06:38 AM
Curiously, there is a character named Beatrix Lestrange in the Potter books. But maybe that's just a coincidence...

Bellatrix. I haven't read a single volume of the series, but I know my stars. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 11, 2013, 09:24:20 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on September 11, 2013, 09:10:08 AM
Bellatrix. I haven't read a single volume of the series, but I know my stars. ;)
Oooh, now I am embarrassed.  :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 11, 2013, 09:34:09 AM
While I like Harry Potter, I am concerned with Protagonist-centered morality. When "good guys" stuff a guy in vanishing cabinet which almost kills him - not a big deal. When "bad guy" tries to take points from you - scum of the Earth!

Also I wish Draco would have won at least once for ex. in Quidditch against Harry and only times when Harry loses it's only because of accident etc. And his polyjuice potion is goldcolored. Jeez!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on September 11, 2013, 09:37:39 AM
Currently working on these two: 

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XDRo86RaL._SY346_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D9v69U45L._SY346_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2013, 09:50:49 AM
I need to read that Ives bio.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 11, 2013, 10:20:20 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 08:55:20 AM
Karlo, here (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=24&cad=rja&ved=0CEMQFjADOBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fflorida.theorangegrove.org%2Fog%2Ffile%2F1c8115fc-50d1-7dd6-0a2a-6446e33c7437%2F1%2Fdestiny.pdf&ei=758wUsPbOIXr2AX_4YCYAQ&usg=AFQjCNF4exOD8RMBox12DmL4j_rptvC5pg&sig2=hlclbGEDcjPcgClvloBmpw) is an interesting (and warmly sympathetic) critique.

Oh dear.
"
QuoteHarry is supposed to be a powerful wizard, even if he doesn't quite realize it yet. More importantly, Harry is supposed to be clever, quick thinking, and calm under pressure. Here is an opportunity for him to demonstrate those traits, rather than be handed an unearned solution."
Harry has known that he has magical powers for under two years at this point, and he most certainly is not supposed to be a powerful wizard yet..
And why should he remain calm and quick-witted when one of his best friends is paralyzed in a hospital and another's little sister is dead or at least could soon be, and it's up to him to save them and kill a huge poisonous snake whose eyes are deadly?? But this critic thinks it would make more sense if Harry would march to the Chamber of Secrets triumphantly, flick his wand a couple of times, killing the basilisk with the disarming charm, which is about as dangerous a charm he knows at this point.
Furthermore, does it make the writing intrinsically worse that the school's headmaster is a powerful and intelligent wizard who decides help the students on the school's premises, even if someone tried to get him elsewhere by inviting him to a meeting? A really smart headmaster would enjoy London instead.  ::)


From the list:

That The Age rant (I wouldn't use the word review here) doesn't offer us a single sentence from the book that it criticizes, just a list of words that shouldn't apparently be used. Half a dozen of quotations from approved passages, though, which is nice, in itself.

"Nobody is trying to save or destroy anything beyond Harry Potter and his friends and family."
Yes, that's right - apart from everyone who isn't pure-blood, or opposes their killing.

"All of the central evil characters and senior authority figures in the books are men." (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jun/18/harrypotter.jkjoannekathleenrowling)
Bellatrix, Professor Minerwa McGonagal, Dolores Umbridge, Molly Weasley, I always thought you were women.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on September 11, 2013, 10:22:03 AM
Just finished

Philip Roth, The Humbling

Just started

William Faulkner, The Hamlet.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2013, 10:25:21 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 11, 2013, 10:20:20 AM
Oh dear.
"Harry has known that he has magical powers for under two years at this point, and he most certainly is not supposed to be a powerful wizard yet..
And why should he remain calm and quick-witted when one of his best friends is paralyzed in a hospital and another's little sister is dead or at least could soon be, and it's up to him to save them and kill a huge poisonous snake whose eyes are deadly?? But this critic thinks it would make more sense if Harry would march to the Chamber of Secrets triumphantly, flick his wand a couple of times, killing the basilisk with the disarming charm, which is about as dangerous a charm he knows at this point.
Furthermore, does it make the writing intrinsically worse that the school's headmaster is a powerful and intelligent wizard who decides help the students on the school's premises, even if someone tried to get him elsewhere by inviting him to a meeting? A really smart headmaster would enjoy London instead.  ::)


From the list:

That The Age rant (I wouldn't use the word review here) doesn't offer us a single sentence from the book that it criticizes, just a list of words that shouldn't apparently be used. Half a dozen of quotations from approved passages, though, which is nice, in itself.

"Nobody is trying to save or destroy anything beyond Harry Potter and his friends and family."
Yes, that's right - apart from everyone who isn't pure-blood, or opposes their killing.

"All of the central evil characters and senior authority figures in the books are men." (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jun/18/harrypotter.jkjoannekathleenrowling)
Bellatrix, Professor Minerwa McGonagal, Dolores Umbridge, Molly Weasley, I always thought you were women.

Thanks for your response.  Of course, my post did not constitute an endorsement   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2013, 10:39:51 AM
At the least, Karlo, he made an attempt at compiling some criticism (of what quality soever) which was not of the yahoo-ish There's magic! Those books are the words of Satan! variety. (Thought that latter does not rise to the dignity of "criticism.")

My little direct experience was reading a brief passage or two.  What I read did not draw me in to try out a whole book.  And much of what I've read even of, let's say fandom (for not all that much of the admittedly limited amount that I have seen, rises to the level of favorable criticism, either) has not appealed to me.  (Very small, and current, example: the article by the chap who compiled that list writes that the books will appeal to adults, too, "if their imagination is not stunted" . . . which is pointlessly insulting . . . I'm a composer, no one is going to imply that my imagination is stunted.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 11, 2013, 10:53:54 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 10:25:21 AM
Thanks for your response.  Of course, my post did not constitute an endorsement   :)
Of course. :)

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 10:39:51 AM
At the least, Karlo, he made an attempt at compiling some criticism (of what quality soever) which was not of the yahoo-ish There's magic! Those books are the words of Satan! variety. (Thought that latter does not rise to the dignity of "criticism.")

My little direct experience was reading a brief passage or two.  What I read did not draw me in to try out a whole book.  And much of what I've read even of, let's say fandom (for not all that much of the admittedly limited amount that I have seen, rises to the level of favorable criticism, either) has not appealed to me.  (Very small, and current, example: the article by the chap who compiled that list writes that the books will appeal to adults, too, "if their imagination is not stunted" . . . which is pointlessly insulting . . . I'm a composer, no one is going to imply that my imagination is stunted.)
Yes, it's definitely levels above that kind of "criticism".
I wouldn't say that reading a brief passage would give the books much justice, though - it's like sampling a Bruckner symphony from the middle of a movement - actually, I'd say that reading a single book is like that, too, or perhaps like listening to an idle movement that is totally linked to the others. "Gee, I just heard the middle movement of Beethoven's 23th PS, and it isn't worth the fuss". Rowling's books are all about the characters and their development across the books. But of course one can see many things from a brief passage already.
Bad wording on the stunted imagination bit, even though I know many people who are too 'grownup' to read even Lord of the Rings (I don't think that seeing the Jackson movies really makes a difference, even though they certainly aren't good PR for the books)


Quote from: Alberich on September 11, 2013, 09:34:09 AM
While I like Harry Potter, I am concerned with Protagonist-centered morality. When "good guys" stuff a guy in vanishing cabinet which almost kills him - not a big deal. When "bad guy" tries to take points from you - scum of the Earth!

Also I wish Draco would have won at least once for ex. in Quidditch against Harry and only times when Harry loses it's only because of accident etc. And his polyjuice potion is goldcolored. Jeez!
Well, Harry was very close to being expelled on numerous occasions, and Dumbledore had very good reasons to not expel Harry whatever he did. If Snape's behaviour towards the students isn't bad, I don't know what is - even though there are reasons for this behaviour, in Snape's past.
And really, Draco (and Slytherin's house champs and quidditch team) did quite well, and only lost in quidditch because Harry & the rest of the team just were so good, but especially Harry was extremely talented. Why should the boy who got in the team because his dad bought everyone in the team the most expensive broomstick win? And, in the end, he was certainly one of the luckiest of all the characters. But, I agree that the characters have faults, and they're not perfect, not a single one of them is. Rather like me & most people I've known or read of.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2013, 10:56:54 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 11, 2013, 10:53:54 AM
. . . even though I know many people who are too 'grownup' to read even Lord of the Rings (I don't think that seeing the Jackson movies really makes a difference, even though they certainly aren't good PR for the books)

I've probably said this before, but I cringed when I heard a good friend of mine say, "I never could get into the books, but I love the movies . . . ."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 11, 2013, 11:06:06 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 10:56:54 AM
I've probably said this before, but I cringed when I heard a good friend of mine say, "I never could get into the books, but I love the movies . . . ."
Yes, that's probably the best response, along with quickly changing the subject. It's a shame that in so many adaptations the main element - the language - has suffered so much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 11, 2013, 11:24:55 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 11, 2013, 10:53:54 AM
Well, Harry was very close to being expelled on numerous occasions, and Dumbledore had very good reasons to not expel Harry whatever he did. If Snape's behaviour towards the students isn't bad, I don't know what is - even though there are reasons for this behaviour, in Snape's past.
And really, Draco (and Slytherin's house champs and quidditch team) did quite well, and only lost in quidditch because Harry & the rest of the team just were so good, but especially Harry was extremely talented. Why should the boy who got in the team because his dad bought everyone in the team the most expensive broomstick win? And, in the end, he was certainly one of the luckiest of all the characters. But, I agree that the characters have faults, and they're not perfect, not a single one of them is. Rather like me & most people I've known or read of.  8)

You're making some good points. I just find it kind of boring for the good guy to win over and over again (although being an orphan and living with abusive assholes certainly means that he has enough shit on his plate already). But now that I think about it there is at least one time when draco kind of won against harry: in HBP he almost managed to send him back to London with broken nose (although Harry being the lucky bastard that he is, was eventually saved by Tonks).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 11, 2013, 08:14:30 PM
Being something of a Potter fan,  I think the series would do well viewed even as serious adult literature.  The whole series is a long arc in which we watch Harry become a mature individual, and many details add up over the series into important themes.  The entire moral crux of the book--the acceptance of one's own mortality and the acceptance even of self sacrifice--are explored even in the very first book, and the real contrast is not so much good Harry/evil Valdemort as it  Harry-who-accepts-his-own-mortality (even if he's not too keen on dying) versus Valdemort who does everything he can, including murder and totalitarian dictatorship,  to become immortal.  And it's not until the last two books that we see how much Harry and Valdemort have in common--something that Harry sees at least in part but Valdemort does not.  Two lonely boys whose mothers died to give them life, brought up by uncaring, even hostile, adults in an abusive environment,  finding in Hogwarts the only true home they will ever have--but then they choose completely different responses:  Harry chooses to love,  Valdemort to hate.  (In part because of the nature of the love affairs between their respective sets of parents, but only in part.     And subsidiary to this is the thread, developed in the latter half of the series, that the three men who Harry truly idolizes--Harry's father,  Sirius, and Dumbledore--have serious character flaws--and we see the progress in Harry's maturity as he successively comes to terms with the fact that each of his idols were not superhuman and had in some circumstances prodigious feet of clay.

I'm perhaps being a bit long winded tonight,  but I do think Rowling achieved something that only the best of children's literature achieves--blending in serious adult level explorations of morality with what is, admittedly sometimes a cumbersome and even tiresome plot.  (Just keep track of how many times characters resort to Polyjuice Potion, starting with the second book.)

ETA: if you want a contrast with a book that fails to do that,  try Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 12, 2013, 12:50:26 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 11, 2013, 08:14:30 PM
Being something of a Potter fan,  I think the series would do well viewed even as serious adult literature.  The whole series is a long arc in which we watch Harry become a mature individual, and many details add up over the series into important themes.  The entire moral crux of the book--the acceptance of one's own mortality and the acceptance even of self sacrifice--are explored even in the very first book, and the real contrast is not so much good Harry/evil Valdemort as it  Harry-who-accepts-his-own-mortality (even if he's not too keen on dying) versus Valdemort who does everything he can, including murder and totalitarian dictatorship,  to become immortal.  And it's not until the last two books that we see how much Harry and Valdemort have in common--something that Harry sees at least in part but Valdemort does not.  Two lonely boys whose mothers died to give them life, brought up by uncaring, even hostile, adults in an abusive environment,  finding in Hogwarts the only true home they will ever have--but then they choose completely different responses:  Harry chooses to love,  Valdemort to hate.  (In part because of the nature of the love affairs between their respective sets of parents, but only in part.     And subsidiary to this is the thread, developed in the latter half of the series, that the three men who Harry truly idolizes--Harry's father,  Sirius, and Dumbledore--have serious character flaws--and we see the progress in Harry's maturity as he successively comes to terms with the fact that each of his idols were not superhuman and had in some circumstances prodigious feet of clay.

I'm perhaps being a bit long winded tonight,  but I do think Rowling achieved something that only the best of children's literature achieves--blending in serious adult level explorations of morality with what is, admittedly sometimes a cumbersome and even tiresome plot.  (Just keep track of how many times characters resort to Polyjuice Potion, starting with the second book.)
Hear, hear!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mc ukrneal on September 12, 2013, 01:11:48 AM
Quote from: Alberich on September 11, 2013, 11:24:55 AM
You're making some good points. I just find it kind of boring for the good guy to win over and over again (although being an orphan and living with abusive assholes certainly means that he has enough shit on his plate already). But now that I think about it there is at least one time when draco kind of won against harry: in HBP he almost managed to send him back to London with broken nose (although Harry being the lucky bastard that he is, was eventually saved by Tonks).
These types of books are not usually downers (especially for kids(. But if you are looking for dark fantasy (with all sorts of conflict of morals, actions, etc.), this is the book that did it for me:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nnyAqxfaL._SY346_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 12, 2013, 03:09:51 AM
Thanks for that, Jeffrey. Chances are, I shall remain a Potter agnostic, but it is a refreshing change on this thread to have the books defended by gents of even keel whose opinions I hold in high regard.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on September 12, 2013, 04:54:29 AM
Since entering grade-school teaching in 2006, I have necessarily skimmed through the fantasy books which the kids are reading.  I think I have given Harry Potter a fair shot: an Irish teacher I knew had gotten hooked on the books, and because of that I delved into the first one, and then skimmed through others.

For whatever reason, I was not interested in continuing.  Perhaps it is just the genre: e.g. I like science-fiction movies in general, but science-fiction stories, whether novels or from the magazines, have never impressed me.

One exception from a completely unexpected author: Franz Werfel's Stern der Ungeborenen (Star of the Unborn) about life 100,000 years in the future.

Tolkien: I thought The Hobbit was very good, but as I forced my way through the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I kept wondering why every chapter became just a little bit worse and more turgid.

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 12, 2013, 03:09:51 AM
Thanks for that, Jeffrey. Chances are, I shall remain a Potter agnostic, but it is a refreshing change on this thread to have the books defended by gents of even keel whose opinions I hold in high regard.

Amen!  0:) 

One of the best books of the last 20 years, "a book about childhood but not for children," is from German author Patrick Süskind: Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer (The Story of Mr. Summer). 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 12, 2013, 05:17:50 AM
BTW, I hope I phrased that in a way that suggests, if not indicates, that I consider Karlo's keel even, too . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 12, 2013, 05:23:48 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 12, 2013, 05:17:50 AM
BTW, I hope I phrased that in a way that suggests, if not indicates, that I consider Karlo's keel even, too . . . .
I at least hoped you meant that, Karl.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 12, 2013, 05:50:56 AM
Very good!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 12, 2013, 10:17:52 AM
I grew up on the Potter books - got the first two for my 10th birthday back in 1999. When the final book in the series was released, I re-read the first six in preparation as something more of an adult than I had been at age 10.

The series' biggest asset is its imagination. Like all great kid-lit, the Harry Potter books just overflow with imaginative touches which make the book's world a fun one to spend time in. And it's not like Rowling does all the imagining for you; there's plenty of room for kids to conjure up mental landscapes.

Aside from that, I can't say there's too much innovative about the books. Dumbledore is basically Gandalf. There are a few characters who are much more entertaining now that I'm older (like the alcoholic fortune-teller Trelawney), but a great many who are simple stock characters. Worst of all is Harry himself, a rather dull sullen teenager who benefits from a lot of luck and a great many smarter, funnier, more interesting friends. Of course, fantasy heroes have always been rather flat - I liked Bilbo a lot more than Frodo, for instance, and can't remember the names of any kids from Narnia.

It's an entertaining series and it has its pleasures. The writing can be sometimes witty, sometimes cliche-laden. "Dry" can be a good word for it too. But then you have chapters where people choke up on ear-wax-flavored jelly beans. There's charm and generosity and humor and a sometimes compelling storyline (the best book may still be the first, but reasonable readers can disagree; I liked 3 and 4 too), but if you have a lot of books to read and not a lot of time, Harry Potter certainly doesn't demand a spot on the list. I don't expect to ever revisit them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on September 12, 2013, 10:36:48 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 12, 2013, 10:17:52 AM
I grew up on the Potter books - got the first two for my 10th birthday back in 1999. When the final book in the series was released, I re-read the first six in preparation as something more of an adult than I had been at age 10.

The series' biggest asset is its imagination. Like all great kid-lit, the Harry Potter books just overflow with imaginative touches which make the book's world a fun one to spend time in. And it's not like Rowling does all the imagining for you; there's plenty of room for kids to conjure up mental landscapes.

Aside from that, I can't say there's too much innovative about the books. ...

...but if you have a lot of books to read and not a lot of time, Harry Potter certainly doesn't demand a spot on the list. I don't expect to ever revisit them.

That was my main impression also.

Brian: you might enjoy the book I mentioned earlier: Patrick Süskind's Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer (The Story of Mr. Summer). 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 12, 2013, 11:03:20 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 12, 2013, 03:09:51 AM
Thanks for that, Jeffrey. Chances are, I shall remain a Potter agnostic, but it is a refreshing change on this thread to have the books defended by gents of even keel whose opinions I hold in high regard.

Thank you for the high regard!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 12, 2013, 01:13:31 PM
Returning to Tolkien, to me his best book is and probably always will be Silmarillion. I love for ex. Fëanor's characterization and how awesome and charismatic Sauron is in this book. A real magnificent bastard!

I kind of hope someone would make a movie of it, even though it wouldn't be as easy compared to LotR concerning how many plots there are going simultaneously. I just hope Peter Jackson won't go and ruin it like what he did with LotR...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 12, 2013, 01:37:53 PM
Quote from: Alberich on September 12, 2013, 01:13:31 PM
Returning to Tolkien, to me his best book is and probably always will be Silmarillion. I love for ex. Fëanor's characterization and how awesome and charismatic Sauron is in this book. A real magnificent bastard!

I kind of hope someone would make a movie of it, even though it wouldn't be as easy compared to LotR concerning how many plots there are going simultaneously. I just hope Peter Jackson won't go and ruin it like what he did with LotR...
It would be totally impossible to make one movie out of the whole Silmarillion.
Silmarillion is actually the one I read first, then Hobbit and then LotR, I think. All of them in junior high, together with the last Potters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 13, 2013, 03:54:26 AM
Quote from: North Star on September 12, 2013, 01:37:53 PM
Silmarillion is actually the one I read first, then Hobbit and then LotR, I think. All of them in junior high, together with the last Potters.

Hm, that makes sense in Middle-Earth chronology, but . . . well, much as I do enjoy the Silmarillion, it's certainly a post-mortem compendium with its inconsistencies of tone and narrative granularity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 13, 2013, 07:25:25 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 13, 2013, 03:54:26 AM
Hm, that makes sense in Middle-Earth chronology, but . . . well, much as I do enjoy the Silmarillion, it's certainly a post-mortem compendium with its inconsistencies of tone and narrative granularity.
Most certainly agreed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 13, 2013, 09:11:46 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 13, 2013, 03:54:26 AM
Hm, that makes sense in Middle-Earth chronology, but . . . well, much as I do enjoy the Silmarillion, it's certainly a post-mortem compendium with its inconsistencies of tone and narrative granularity.

But you could actually make several different films out of Silmarillion without artificially stuffing in irrelevancies or cutting in arbitrary places, like a certain director has done with both LoTR and Hobbit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 13, 2013, 09:19:14 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 13, 2013, 09:11:46 AM
But you could actually make several different films out of Silmarillion without artificially stuffing in irrelevancies or cutting in arbitrary places, like a certain director has done with both LoTR and Hobbit.

Did they add a love interest in the Hobbit films?  A sexy hobbitess or gobliness?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 13, 2013, 09:23:03 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 13, 2013, 09:11:46 AM
But you could actually make several different films out of Silmarillion without artificially stuffing in irrelevancies or cutting in arbitrary places, like a certain director has done with both LoTR and Hobbit.
Absolutely, and the Christopher Tolkien edited Hurin's Children would be a natural choice for one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 13, 2013, 09:23:56 AM
Quote from: Daverz on September 13, 2013, 09:19:14 AM
Did they add a love interest in the Hobbit films?  A sexy hobbitess or gobliness?

You're thinking of the Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 13, 2013, 09:55:54 AM
(//)
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 13, 2013, 09:23:56 AM
You're thinking of the Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings.

Those bastards!  They put me off Tolkien for a while.  But I've still managed to read LOTR 4 or 5 times over the last 40 years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 13, 2013, 10:11:08 AM
Well, but I still smile on remembering odd bits like, "Aiyee! A Ballhog!"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on September 13, 2013, 01:27:33 PM
Quote from: Daverz on September 13, 2013, 09:55:54 AM
(//)
Those bastards!  They put me off Tolkien for a while.  But I've still managed to read LOTR 4 or 5 times over the last 40 years.

:o  5 Times!  I've read it once, and I think that will do for me, although I've reached a point where I am reading things for a second time (Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Conrad and Faulkner).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 13, 2013, 03:06:47 PM
Quote from: Corey on September 06, 2013, 04:57:17 AM
Have you read Huysmans's "La-bas"? I think you'd like it.

Hey Corey, very sorry for replying this late, but somehow missed the post completely (I blame it on The Curse of last post on the page).

No, I haven't read any Huysmans before, but it sure does seem like something I'd like. Thanks much for bringing it up! I've bookmarked Serbian translations of La-bas and A rebours. La-bas is first part of some sort of trilogy, have you read the other two as well: En Route and La Cathedrale?

just starting:
(http://s15.postimg.org/wvby8eei3/EMIL_SIORAN_ISTORIJA_I_UTOPIJA_slika_O_3775254.jpg)
Emil M. Cioran - History and Utopia
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 14, 2013, 12:12:35 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 13, 2013, 03:06:47 PM
just starting:
(http://s15.postimg.org/wvby8eei3/EMIL_SIORAN_ISTORIJA_I_UTOPIJA_slika_O_3775254.jpg)
Emil M. Cioran - History and Utopia

Excellent! The name, though, is misspelled: the correct spelling would be Čoran, because that's exactly how it is pronounced in Romanian. Sioran is the French erroneous pronunciation, but then again to pronounce Č is torture for a Frenchman.  ;D

What other books of his have you read?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 14, 2013, 02:28:58 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 14, 2013, 12:12:35 AM
Excellent! The name, though, is misspelled: the correct spelling would be Čoran, because that's exactly how it is pronounced in Romanian. Sioran is the French erroneous pronunciation, but then again to pronounce Č is torture for a Frenchman.  ;D

What other books of his have you read?

Pronouncing č, poses no problem whatsoever for Serbian (since we have it in our own alphabet), but still French erroneous pronunciation is the one wholly accepted. I never ever heard him pronounced Čoran here. 

I've read only some articles and excerpts before, and I might have read Fall into Time, but that was really long time ago, so this is more or less the first.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on September 15, 2013, 06:24:24 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 11, 2013, 09:50:49 AM
I need to read that Ives bio.

Yes you do.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NONsh9L4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-66,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X03aTS8tL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-64,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 16, 2013, 07:07:20 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 14, 2013, 02:28:58 AM
Pronouncing č, poses no problem whatsoever for Serbian (since we have it in our own alphabet)

I know; that's why I wrote the proper spelling was Čoran (as a rule without exception, Ci in Romanian is always pronounced as Č, irrespective of what vowel or consonant follows).  :D

Quote
, but still French erroneous pronunciation is the one wholly accepted. I never ever heard him pronounced Čoran here. 

Yes, of course, because of the French cultural imperialism... Just like George Enescu (proper pronunciation DŽORDŽE ENESKU) is incorrectlly transliterated Georges Enesco.  ;D   But pray tell, as a Serbian what is easier for you to pronounce, Sioran or Čoran?  :)

Quote
I've read only some articles and excerpts before, and I might have read Fall into Time, but that was really long time ago, so this is more or less the first.

You're in for a treat. Enjoy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 16, 2013, 06:50:20 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 16, 2013, 07:07:20 AM

Yes, of course, because of the French cultural imperialism... Just like George Enescu (proper pronunciation DŽORDŽE ENESKU) is incorrectlly transliterated Georges Enesco.  ;D   But pray tell, as a Serbian what is easier for you to pronounce, Sioran or Čoran?  :)


Thank you for raising a smile--I'm thinking of how often complaints about American cultural imperialism seem to have a French accent....and I must say the proper Romanian spelling would probably be easier for an American  to handle than the French, which inevitably provokes a pronounciation on the lines of  "See-oran" (as in "See Oran on Tuesday and Tangiers on Wednesday", or, more likely in America,  "See Orrin Hatch run again for Senate")
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 17, 2013, 01:03:09 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 16, 2013, 06:50:20 PM
Thank you for raising a smile--I'm thinking of how often complaints about American cultural imperialism seem to have a French accent....

;D ;D ;D

Quote
and I must say the proper Romanian spelling would probably be easier for an American  to handle than the French, which inevitably provokes a pronounciation on the lines of  "See-oran" (as in "See Oran on Tuesday and Tangiers on Wednesday", or, more likely in America,  "See Orrin Hatch run again for Senate")

:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 17, 2013, 01:16:25 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 16, 2013, 07:07:20 AM
But pray tell, as a Serbian what is easier for you to pronounce, Sioran or Čoran?  :)

Čoran is easier actually, because when pronouncing Sioran there is natural tendency to sound j in between i and o, like Sijoran, and there is a rule against it.

QuoteYes, of course, because of the French cultural imperialism... Just like George Enescu (proper pronunciation DŽORDŽE ENESKU) is incorrectlly transliterated Georges Enesco.

Here we are free of imperialist yoke, we pronounce it Džordže Enesku, only we go slightly soft on the Dž-s - not like G in George but more like Gi in Giorgio. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 17, 2013, 01:26:48 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 17, 2013, 01:16:25 AM
Čoran is easier actually, because when pronouncing Sioran there is natural tendency to sound j in between i and o, like Sijoran, and there is a rule against it.

Thanks.

Quote
Here we are free of imperialist yoke

:D

Quote
, we pronounce it Džordže Enesku, only we go slightly soft on the Dž-s - not like G in George but more like Gi in Giorgio.

That's correct, actually.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 17, 2013, 01:33:58 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 17, 2013, 01:26:48 AM
That's correct, actually.  :)

In which case Romanian George is pronounced exactly the same as Serbian version of the same name: in Cyrillic Ђорђе, or in Latin alphabet Đоrđe or Djordje.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 17, 2013, 04:00:04 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 17, 2013, 01:33:58 AM
In which case Romanian George is pronounced exactly the same as Serbian version of the same name: in Cyrillic Ђорђе, or in Latin alphabet Đоrđe or Djordje.

Exactly.  :)

A question, please: I infer that dž is stronger than đ --- could you please give me an example of a name that uses the former? And what is the Serbian letter for it (I found it in the Croatian alphabet and thought, wrongly perhaps, that it is used in Serbian Latin transliteration as well). Okay, that makes 2 questions, actually. TIA.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 17, 2013, 04:02:18 AM
Is there a limit on the number of questions?  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 17, 2013, 04:08:31 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 17, 2013, 04:02:18 AM
Is there a limit on the number of questions?  0:)
There wasn't in out jr. high school's final year history exam - there were over 20 essay questions (the exam lasted 60 minutes), and with about 15% of the theoretical maximum points you got an A... We were allowed to use any books and one A4 cheat sheet. Anyway, this might not be what you meant...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 17, 2013, 04:49:44 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 17, 2013, 04:00:04 AM
Exactly.  :)

A question, please: I infer that dž is stronger than đ --- could you please give me an example of a name that uses the former? And what is the Serbian letter for it (I found it in the Croatian alphabet and thought, wrongly perhaps, that it is used in Serbian Latin transliteration as well). Okay, that makes 2 questions, actually. TIA.

Dž in Cyrillic is Џ/џ.

Џ/џ - Dž/dž as in John, James, George, Gipsy, Jakarata, jump. In Serbian I can't recall off top of my head any first name with dž, apart from few Muslim names like Džemal or Dženan, but there are many last names that end with -džić, like Karadžić, Adžić, Nerandžić ... or constructed with prefix Hadži which infers that someone along the ancestral line has been to pilgrimage to holy land.

Ђ/ђ - Đ/đ or Dj/Dj is softer, like Italian Giorgio, Gianni or Magyar, Gyula, Gyorgy in Hungarian (though Hungarians go really soft and the sound gets formed slightly different), generally very difficult to manage for anglophones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 17, 2013, 08:09:18 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 17, 2013, 04:49:44 AM
Dž in Cyrillic is Џ/џ.

Џ/џ - Dž/dž as in John, James, George, Gipsy, Jakarata, jump. In Serbian I can't recall off top of my head any first name with dž, apart from few Muslim names like Džemal or Dženan, but there are many last names that end with -džić, like Karadžić, Adžić, Nerandžić ... or constructed with prefix Hadži which infers that someone along the ancestral line has been to pilgrimage to holy land.

Ђ/ђ - Đ/đ or Dj/Dj is softer, like Italian Giorgio, Gianni or Magyar, Gyula, Gyorgy in Hungarian (though Hungarians go really soft and the sound gets formed slightly different), generally very difficult to manage for anglophones.

Interesting how subtle phonetics can be sometimes.  In (American, at least) English,  the difference you're describing doesn't really exist:  all those would take a soft "G" or a J, as opposed to the hard "G" found in words such as gulf and grand.

Am I correct in thinking that Enescu's first name has two syllables (Dzor-dze)?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 18, 2013, 12:45:33 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 17, 2013, 04:49:44 AM
Dž in Cyrillic is Џ/џ.

Џ/џ - Dž/dž as in John, James, George, Gipsy, Jakarata, jump. In Serbian I can't recall off top of my head any first name with dž, apart from few Muslim names like Džemal or Dženan, but there are many last names that end with -džić, like Karadžić, Adžić, Nerandžić ... or constructed with prefix Hadži which infers that someone along the ancestral line has been to pilgrimage to holy land.

Ђ/ђ - Đ/đ or Dj/Dj is softer, like Italian Giorgio, Gianni or Magyar, Gyula, Gyorgy in Hungarian (though Hungarians go really soft and the sound gets formed slightly different), generally very difficult to manage for anglophones.

Thanks, Drasko, for the detailed answer.

Gyorgy, though, is not quite like Gianni or Giorgio, but more like Gjorgje in Serbian or Gheorghe in Romanian.

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 17, 2013, 08:09:18 AM
Interesting how subtle phonetics can be sometimes.  In (American, at least) English,  the difference you're describing doesn't really exist:  all those would take a soft "G" or a J, as opposed to the hard "G" found in words such as gulf and grand.

Romanian doesn't differentiate either between soft and hard, neither graphically nor phonetically. For instance, the phonetic transliteration of "John, James, George, Gipsy, Jakarata, jump" would be "Gion/Geon, Geimz, Georgi/Giorgi (one syllable, with a very short i at the end), gipsi (with a long i at the end), giacarta/geacarta, giamp/geamp", exactly the same as Giorgio or Gianni. How soft or hard the pronunciation is depends on the speaker but there is no rule whatsoever to differentiate: either way is right and is considered the same sound, graphically and phonetically. Personally I pronounce Jakarta and Gianni exactly the same and can't hear any marked difference when hearing them pronounced by other people.

OTOH, there is a clear difference between ge/gi and ghe/ghi. For instance, Gheorghe, which is a variant of George: the group ghe sounds like the ge in get but with a more defined transition from g to e, as if you inserted a short  i in between. (I don't know if that makes any sense to you. :) )

Quote
Am I correct in thinking that Enescu's first name has two syllables (Dzor-dze)?

Yes you are. The final e is clearly pronounced and sounds like the one in "hen".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on September 18, 2013, 11:11:15 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513CRq2HkML._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aquablob on September 18, 2013, 04:32:17 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on September 18, 2013, 11:11:15 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513CRq2HkML._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Nice! I just read the blog.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on September 20, 2013, 02:44:16 PM
Quote from: aquariuswb on September 18, 2013, 04:32:17 PM
Nice! I just read the blog.

The blog can be fun, too. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 20, 2013, 06:01:18 PM
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9780375758973_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)

Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith

I knew that Van Gogh didn't have it easy, but i didn't know that the things were so bad. I don't think I've read a biography about someone that'd make me feel so sad about that person. I found this to be a very good book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on September 22, 2013, 06:27:23 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VRtPKpyLL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-65,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QRoX9NysL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-67,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 27, 2013, 05:34:36 AM
On Amazon:

Quotewhen it comes to music, there are a few gifted and talented people who have always had my ear and burt bacharach is definitely one of them. whether he's composing for the average listener or for a broadway show, this guy has got it. that's spelled 'IT'. this album is a partial collection of tunes made famous because of his abilities and deserved radio play way back in the 60s. regardless of the fact that many of the collection is 50 or more years of age, they are , thanks to mr. bacharach, as timeless as ever. different artists come together under this album's songs to give their personal rendition of each song presented. each one is a gem . if you are going to spend some down time listening to easy listening, this album is as easy listening as it gets. bravo, mr. bacharach.

Impressed that the only caps in that review are reserved for IT.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on September 27, 2013, 06:11:40 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on September 22, 2013, 06:27:23 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VRtPKpyLL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-65,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QRoX9NysL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-67,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

More Than Human is brilliant and highly recommended.  Still working on the second one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 28, 2013, 03:58:28 PM
Vertigo by W. G. Sebald

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414weBGM1TL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

"Vertigo" is Sebald's firts novel and possibly the least enjoyable out of the few book that he published before his untimely death. It shares similar structure and themes that he uses in later works, but it is just not as engaging as "The Rings of Saturn", for example.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on September 29, 2013, 12:23:47 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GCvNaFomL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_SX385_SY500_CR,0,0,385,500_SH20_OU02_.jpg)

Today I was at my brothers house.  I took this on my Kobo, and have nearly finished it.  As many know, Feynman was a Physicist Nobel prize winner who among other things 'worked on the bomb' and blew NASA's cover story wide open in the wake of the Challenger disaster. 
Anyway, I have been reading this book, and whilst at my brothers, his severely disabled daughter is sitting doing some home schoolwork.  I look to see what she is up to and couldn't believe my eyes.  She has pages and pages of equations and stuff, squaring numbers, cubing numbers, applying Pythagoras theorem to calculate angles, blah, blah...well, I am amazed at this, as this little girl is way ahead of me in mathematics. She showed me how to calculate so many angles on other angles, and how to use certain formulas to do this, that and the next thing.  I was amazed.
And here was me thinking about how much I admire Feynman...and then my own Niece sits me down to show me how fundamental mathematics can provide answers to most things...bless that wee lassie.  I am now off on a mathematics kick, and I suspect I will ask her advice and even seek her tutelage in my new quest to understand mathematics and stuff... ;D
How amazing some wee people are.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on September 29, 2013, 12:34:32 PM
Quote from: Scots John on September 29, 2013, 12:23:47 PM

Anyway, I have been reading this book, and whilst at my brothers, his severely disabled daughter is sitting doing some home schoolwork.  I look to see what she is up to and couldn't believe my eyes.  She has pages and pages of equations and stuff, squaring numbers, cubing numbers, applying Pythagoras theorem to calculate angles, blah, blah...well, I am amazed at this, as this little girl is way ahead of me in mathematics....
How amazing some wee people are.

We expect nothing less from the plucky Scots!   0:)

John:How old is your niece?  Teenager?

Feynman said he usually needed some sort of image which "reified" the mathematics he worked on.  One example of his, which became standard in Quantum Physics, is the Feynman Diagram for showing the behavior of the assorted subatomic particles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 29, 2013, 12:54:07 PM
Quote from: Scots John on September 29, 2013, 12:23:47 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GCvNaFomL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_SX385_SY500_CR,0,0,385,500_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
John, you ought to check out some lectures by Feynman on Youtube!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on September 29, 2013, 01:03:00 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Feynman-Diagram.svg/200px-Feynman-Diagram.svg.png)

My niece is a teenager, fifteen I think,  but because of her disability she is very, very wee and could be taken for an eight year old.  I know she has had a good standard mainstream education, but by all the theorems I had no idea she was so far, far ahead of me and most in mathematics.   ;D

Quote from: North Star on September 29, 2013, 12:54:07 PM
John, you ought to check out some lectures by Feynman on Youtube!

Thanks  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on September 29, 2013, 01:35:57 PM
Quote from: Scots John on September 29, 2013, 12:23:47 PM
I am now off on a mathematics kick, and I suspect I will ask her advice and even seek her tutelage in my new quest to understand mathematics and stuff... ;D

Maths is a difficult subject to get across using words alone, but if you are so inclined to read further on the topic I would recommend Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem. It was my own gateway to the subject, at a time when I had a grudge against it but enough curiosity to borrow it from the library. You may have heard about the theorem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem) in the title, which started life as a marginal note, beat the best minds in the world for over 350 years, and was eventually beaten by a decade-long struggle by a mathematician (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wiles) who solved it nearly single-handedly (you know what they say about shoulders and giants...).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on September 29, 2013, 04:43:12 PM
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/files/2013/07/All-the-Great-Prizes.jpg)



I'm a few chapters into All the Great Prizes, by John Taliaferro, a lengthy bio of John Hay, apparently the first in 80 or so years.  Well written and researched, the sizeable samples of Hay's writing show him to have a pen on par qualitatively with John Quincy Adams and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, though more florid in style and more readily accessible to modern readers.  His mind was also as sharp as those august gentlemen, it seems.  It'll be a little while before I get to the good stuff - ie, his work with McKinley and TR - but the early stuff with Lincoln is informative on fine points.  (The young Hay may have been the author of the famous letter to Mrs Bixby - the one cited in Saving Private Ryan.)  Mr Taliaferro is quite a good writer as well.  It's a page turner as far as bios go. 

Now, if only someone will do something similar for Elihu Root. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 29, 2013, 04:50:24 PM
Quote from: Todd on September 29, 2013, 04:43:12 PM
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/files/2013/07/All-the-Great-Prizes.jpg)



I'm a few chapters into All the Great Prizes, by John Taliaferro, a lengthy bio of John Hay, apparently the first in 80 or so years.  Well written and researched, the sizeable samples of Hay's writing show him to have a pen on par qualitatively with John Quincy Adams and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, though more florid in style and more readily accessible to modern readers.  His mind was also as sharp as those august gentlemen, it seems.  It'll be a little while before I get to the good stuff - ie, his work with McKinley and TR - but the early stuff with Lincoln is informative on fine points.  (The young Hay may have been the author of the famous letter to Mrs Bixby - the one cited in Saving Private Ryan.)  Mr Taliaferro is quite a good writer as well.  It's a page turner as far as bios go. 

Now, if only someone will do something similar for Elihu Root.

Looks excellent, Todd.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on October 01, 2013, 06:42:47 PM
Not actually reading these now--I've read them more than a few times, and my copies need to be replaced on account of wear and tear, so I ordered these from Amazon MP--but this thread seemed to be the most logical place to report a book purchase.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MKNKVM8PL._SY344_PJ.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yU3TT6OdL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oWu0s8wZL._SY344_PJ.jpg)

Members of a musical forum might be interested in Bruce Montgomery aka Edmund Crispin.  Under his own name he composed, mostly film music;  under the Crispin alias he wrote a series of mysteries featuring Gervase Fen, Oxford professor of Literature.    Case of the Gilded Fly was the first, and Moving Toyshop possibly the best of the series from a technical standpoint (not merely the corpse, but the entire scene of the crime disappears!),  but the musically oriented might best appreciate Swan Song, which is set against the backdrop of a production of Die Meistersinger in the post war years.  Crispin/Montgomery had a taste for locked room mysteries (of which both Gilded Fly and Moving Toyshop are examples) and as time went on, he recycled some formulas too much), but all the stories are moved into excellence by the outbreaks of authorial humor that might remind the reader of Douglas Adams, and are never ever found in Agatha Christie (although, to a lesser extent,  Sayers could produce some tongue in cheek moments worthy of everlasting fame)--and sometimes a very grim humor.   Perhaps the best of the series overall is the last, which was written after a hiatus of many years,  Glimpses of the Moon.

At any rate, if you like classic British mysteries and have never read any of the cases of Gervase Fen (there's also a collection of short stories, Fen Country),  I highly suggest seeking them out.


BTW,  this order marks a first for me: I've never ordered a book from Amazon or Amazon MP until now!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on October 02, 2013, 02:08:19 PM
Donald Harington The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks. The story of the Ingledew family set in the town of Stay More Arkansas: six generations of Stay Morons.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/sep2013/arkansasosarksharington.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 03, 2013, 05:50:07 PM
Those who are friends with me on Facebook already know that I'm reading these:

Sequel to the Shining.
[asin]1476727651[/asin]

[asin]0306808552[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 03, 2013, 06:20:54 PM
Quote from: Scots John on September 29, 2013, 01:03:00 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Feynman-Diagram.svg/200px-Feynman-Diagram.svg.png)

My niece is a teenager, fifteen I think,  but because of her disability she is very, very wee and could be taken for an eight year old.  I know she has had a good standard mainstream education, but by all the theorems I had no idea she was so far, far ahead of me and most in mathematics.   ;D

The Feynman Lectures on Physics would make a great gift.

[asin]0465023827[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Opus106 on October 03, 2013, 10:10:58 PM
Quote from: Daverz on October 03, 2013, 06:20:54 PM
The Feynman Lectures on Physics would make a great gift.

As an aside: the LATEX-formatted HTML version of the first volume was put up online recently, with the consent of the publishers.

http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_toc.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 06, 2013, 07:19:16 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zNDT6ZLNL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Finished this book recently. Very interesting approach to covering the band's history by following recording of each of their songs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 07, 2013, 09:10:51 AM
I should read that, in hopes of finding it more responsible writing than his Shostakovich book . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on October 07, 2013, 04:18:48 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2Bw3gmDPLL._SX258_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QRoX9NysL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-67,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sHvILBkpL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Currently working on these three.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 07, 2013, 07:19:54 PM
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9781257370207_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)

A double dosage of disastrously delectable detective delights from the most devious and deranged writer in American history! Harry Stephen Keeler is truly the Florence Foster Jenkins of world literature.

These are two of three books from a trilogy, and somewhere in the trilogy (I read an abridged one-book version) is my favorite line of narratorial prose in all the wide world of words:

"O'Rourke paused belligerently."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 07, 2013, 07:24:52 PM
Oh man I'm at the bottom of page 1 and it's already deliriously racist!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 07, 2013, 08:01:02 PM
Oh my gosh on page 25 some characters canoe down the Amazon to escape a bunch of horny jaguars.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 07, 2013, 09:04:02 PM
I think you need one of those twittertwat accounts, Brian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 08, 2013, 07:44:34 PM
Quote from: Daverz on October 07, 2013, 09:04:02 PM
I think you need one of those twittertwat accounts, Brian.
http://twitter.com/bgreinhart
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on October 12, 2013, 11:05:30 AM
(http://cache1.bdcdn.net/assets/images/book/large/9781/8457/9781845764180.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Josefa89 on October 16, 2013, 12:06:15 AM
I'm reading "The Casual Vacancy" by J.K. Rowling, it's actually very nice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on October 19, 2013, 06:57:24 PM
Four days ago, I started this project: To read the six volumes of A History of Greek Philosophy (Spanish translation in three volumes) by W. K. C. Guthrie... I hope the gods join me on this journey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on October 24, 2013, 08:48:17 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5127J-MIf-L.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WJ8HZMJ2L.jpg)

Both in Serbian translations. Got almost complete Bernard Prince series (2-14, minus first volume) for bargain at publishers sale recently.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on October 24, 2013, 10:04:12 AM
Quote from: Drasko on October 24, 2013, 08:48:17 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5127J-MIf-L.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WJ8HZMJ2L.jpg)

Both in Serbian translations. Got almost complete Bernard Prince series (2-14, minus first volume) for bargain at publishers sale recently.

No, no, no, no, dear Drasko. If you want to read a great contemporary Chilean novelist, the right name is Roberto Bolaño. :)

Los detectives salvajes, if possible.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on October 24, 2013, 10:35:57 AM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on October 24, 2013, 10:04:12 AM
No, no, no, no, dear Drasko. If you want to read a great contemporary Chilean novelist, the right name is Roberto Bolaño. :)

Los detectives salvajes, if possible.

Nocturno de Chile is on my shopping list. Unfortunately only that and 2666 is available here in translation currently (Putas Asesinas is also translated but long out of print).

You don't care for Sepulveda much? I'm rather enjoying that one, has certain sort of laconic, vignette-ish, storytelling which is refreshing from time to time. I was halfway through in one sitting, will finish it tonight.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on October 24, 2013, 05:39:52 PM
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Egleman.  Fascinating reading on consciousness and the brain.

I also just received Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye in the mail but it will probably be a bit before I dig into it.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on October 24, 2013, 07:13:40 PM
Pete Brown: Shakespeare's Pub

A very chatty history of the George Inn in Southwark--it may or may not be the oldest surviving pub in London like the subtitle claims but it goes back a few centuries, at least, and he inserts as much as is known about the pub and its neighbors (one of which was Chaucer's Tabard, which survived, derelict at the end, until the late 1800s), together with relevant side topics,  off topic and often off color footnotes,  a nice amount of snark, and a consistent attempt to be scholarly without writing in a scholarly style--I'll be seeking out his other books, which seem to deal mostly with beer. 

Shakespeare, btw, is mostly a peg to hang a story on, an excuse to snark at the people who think Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare,  and a way  make a nice sounding title.  He lived in Southwark,  the Globe was in the neighborhood (although there were plenty of establishments offering solid and liquid provender even closer to the Globe) and, since you can't prove he never was in the George, you're free to assume he was there from time to time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 25, 2013, 10:46:54 AM
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9781433284861_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)

One of the worst books I've read this year. A contemptuous parable of tiresome, one-dimensional characters doing bad things to each other, studded with ignorant descriptions of baseball action, absurd villainy, misogyny that would be unpublishable today, and a tone that clumsily mishandles the combination of realism and cartoonish folk legend. There were occasional pleasures, but not enough to compensate for the overall failure of the work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 25, 2013, 10:56:49 AM
Not this version. Scary clown novel, and pretty good so far.
[asin]B001YQF2SO[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 25, 2013, 11:00:22 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 25, 2013, 10:46:54 AM
misogyny that would be unpublishable today

Does it surpass Schopenhauer's?  ;D

And, oh please: unpublishable reminds me of the Communist censorship...  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on October 25, 2013, 11:07:54 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 25, 2013, 10:46:54 AM
One of the worst books I've read this year. A contemptuous parable of tiresome, one-dimensional characters doing bad things to each other, studded with ignorant descriptions of baseball action, absurd villainy, misogyny that would be unpublishable today, and a tone that clumsily mishandles the combination of realism and cartoonish folk legend. There were occasional pleasures, but not enough to compensate for the overall failure of the work.

Hey Brian, you might like this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Fugitive-Moon-Ron-Faust/dp/0812522591/ref=la_B001HMTUEM_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382727963&sr=1-9
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on October 25, 2013, 11:16:22 AM

Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

Woolf seems to anticipate Seinfeld's invention of a show about nothing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 25, 2013, 11:54:34 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on October 25, 2013, 11:24:32 AM
Bernard Malamud is one of my favorite writers.  But I have not read The Natural (saw the movie but that doesn't count).  He has some great books, The Fixer, The Assistant, and short stories (maybe try something else?).   Or it could be that his period is too far removed from your experience that it does not resonate with you.
I'd be surprised if it was being distant from the period; I've never had a problem finding resonance in Dostoevsky, or Dickens or Collins or any number of other authors even further from my own time and place. But I always have had a struggle, it's true, connecting with a certain group of American postwar authors - Malamud, Updike, Roth, DeLillo, Bellow. Perhaps it's just that the issues they obsess with (e.g., powerlessness and male sexuality) don't interest me in the slightest. Women in their universe seem to exist primarily to dispense or withhold sex - and the same is true in The Natural.

The prose was good enough I'd consider giving one of his other books a try, but not for a while. This one really raised my metaphorical hackles.

Quote from: Batty on October 25, 2013, 11:07:54 AM
Hey Brian, you might like this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Fugitive-Moon-Ron-Faust/dp/0812522591/ref=la_B001HMTUEM_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382727963&sr=1-9

$0.01 for a used copy? Hey, the price is right, I might try it out!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on October 25, 2013, 12:55:57 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 25, 2013, 11:54:34 AM
I'd be surprised if it was being distant from the period; I've never had a problem finding resonance in Dostoevsky, or Dickens or Collins or any number of other authors even further from my own time and place. But I always have had a struggle, it's true, connecting with a certain group of American postwar authors - Malamud, Updike, Roth, DeLillo, Bellow. Perhaps it's just that the issues they obsess with (e.g., powerlessness and male sexuality) don't interest me in the slightest. Women in their universe seem to exist primarily to dispense or withhold sex - and the same is true in The Natural.

The prose was good enough I'd consider giving one of his other books a try, but not for a while. This one really raised my metaphorical hackles.

Interesting posts, Brian.

As sanantonio I liked very much some short stories and one or two novels by Malamud, but until today I wasn't aware that one of my favorite movies (also titled The Natural, starred by Robert Redford) was an adaptation of Malamud.

I recall I watched that movie some 20 years ago and I simply loved it, as a sort of ellipsis of Rip van Winkle (!). I have no idea if the novel is close to that or not, but it was extraordinary (after all it's easier to make movies on bad books than using great novels).  :)
   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 25, 2013, 01:08:48 PM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on October 25, 2013, 12:55:57 PM
I recall I watched that movie some 20 years ago and I simply loved it, as a sort of ellipsis of Rip van Winkle (!). I have no idea if the novel is close to that or not, but it was extraordinary (after all it's easier to make movies on bad books than using great novels).  :)
I have not seen the movie, but the book ends unhappily and the movie ends happily. Hollywood endings!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on October 25, 2013, 01:13:45 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 25, 2013, 01:08:48 PM
I have not seen the movie, but the book ends unhappily and the movie ends happily. Hollywood endings!

Absolutely off-topic: Do you see the TV show How I met your mother?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 25, 2013, 01:27:29 PM
Quote from: Gordon Shumway on October 25, 2013, 01:13:45 PM
Absolutely off-topic: Do you see the TV show How I met your mother?
I have seen every episode!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on October 25, 2013, 03:03:01 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 25, 2013, 01:27:29 PM
I have seen every episode!

Me too! :) The expression "happy ending" recalled me the question of how they will do to avoid the natural ending of this series: I mean Robin and Ted together.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on October 25, 2013, 06:07:39 PM
While looking on Amazon for Pete Brown's other books, this caught my attention,  for the title alone.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nNOvWrpHL._SY344.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on October 27, 2013, 06:43:33 PM
String Theory for Dummies by Andrew Zimmerman Jones with Daniel Robbins

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CooH5sxzL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on November 07, 2013, 09:16:00 PM
"Penguin Psychology" by Robert Benchley
I was brought to a halt by a passage in the chapter 'The Bathroom Revolution'
    "Even in one small bathroom, when there are children in the house, one finds rocking horses, odd books, overshoes and skates, and once in a while, reefers and stocking caps belonging to neighbors' children..."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 10, 2013, 07:40:35 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61nEDyKJCpL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I laughed long and hard at the cameo by real classical violinist Charlie Siem, whom I once gave a scathing review in the pages of MusicWeb (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Feb11/Siem_2564678047.htm) and accused of being a fame-seeking narcissist. The fact that he'd show up in a viciously satirical Austenesque novel about the fame-seeking narcissists of Asia's upper classes is indicative of the author's awe-inspiring knowledge of the material. Every detail is perfect.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on November 11, 2013, 06:21:57 PM
Recently finished this, which is one of the best books I've ever read:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/415UMs4tULL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Currently reading:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Cwac%2Ba4HL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-64,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gv6b4hsfL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-67,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on November 12, 2013, 02:33:03 AM
Not sure how much sense it would make to read Thomas Bernhard in another language, or even without knowing his surroundings at least somewhat...

In the train from Vienna:
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1400077567.01.L.jpg)
Wittgenstein's Nephew
Thomas Bernhard
Vintage (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400077567/goodmusicguide-20)
German link (http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400077567/goodmusicguide-21) - UK link (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400077567/goodmusicguideuk-21)

Next, on the train to Vienna:
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0670026379.01.L.jpg)
Mozart - A Life
Paul Johnson
Viking (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670026379/goodmusicguide-20)
German link (http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670026379/goodmusicguide-21) - UK link (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670026379/goodmusicguideuk-21)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 12, 2013, 05:38:01 PM
Do you like Thomas Bernhard?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on November 13, 2013, 02:51:43 AM
It's a wounded world.
[asin]0231134770[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 13, 2013, 03:57:05 AM
So many families are difficult, aren't they?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 13, 2013, 03:58:06 AM
Not actually reading this at present, but it played well into a post my brother made on Facebook:

Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment With a Chainsaw
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on November 13, 2013, 04:11:57 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 13, 2013, 03:57:05 AM
So many families are difficult, aren't they?
Yes. And perhaps you know what Tolstoy said?
I think a lot of people might find that book illuminating. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 13, 2013, 05:27:42 AM
Very cool, sanantonio! Been enjoying those painters after watching Andrew Graham-Dixon's Art of America (BBC) series recently - and Feldman and Cage, too, of course.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 13, 2013, 05:28:40 AM
There was a fabulous de Kooning retrospective at MoMA a couple of years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on November 14, 2013, 03:03:51 PM
Quote from: Brian on November 10, 2013, 07:40:35 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61nEDyKJCpL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

a viciously satirical Austenesque novel about the fame-seeking narcissists of Asia's upper classes is indicative of the author's awe-inspiring knowledge of the material. Every detail is perfect.
I've just started this, your description hit the spot with me as I've worked with a lot of Asians... Laughing out on almost every page,   thanks for the recommendation,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 14, 2013, 03:58:05 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on November 13, 2013, 05:20:06 AM
Checked this out of the library yesterday and have been enjoying it so far.

[asin]0415936942[/asin]

I liked this book a lot when i read it earlier this year.

I followed it with Renee Levine Packer's This Life of Sounds: Evenings for New Music in Buffalo, which is less about expressionist art but more about Cage and Feldman. Good book too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 14, 2013, 06:11:29 PM
Quote from: listener on November 14, 2013, 03:03:51 PM
I've just started this, your description hit the spot with me as I've worked with a lot of Asians... Laughing out on almost every page,   thanks for the recommendation,

Glad to hear this! I finished the book. The entertainment never ends.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on November 14, 2013, 06:29:01 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IAybd4qaL._SY344_.jpg)



Going for some fiction in the form of Pat Barker's Regeneration, an historical novel about poet and British WWI officer Siegfried Sassoon and his treatment for the mental ravages of war.  Very writerly so far, and pretty good, but it lacks the punch and immediacy of All Quiet on the Western Front.  If it's good enough, I may very well go for the other two volumes in the trilogy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on November 15, 2013, 12:56:20 AM
(http://www.atomicbooks.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/p/apathyfordevil.jpg)
Just started this but so far it's pretty fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 17, 2013, 04:04:19 PM
Recently, I finished reading Thomas Bernhard's authobiographical Gathering Evidence/My Prizes and a newly relesased collection of short pieces by Robert Walser titled A Schoolboy's Diary and Other Stories. I enjoyed Bernhard's book a lot. Not so much with Walser.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 22, 2013, 08:04:29 AM
Crikey! I've been reading all the wrong books!  :o
[asin]1573225142[/asin]

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 25, 2013, 11:37:25 AM
I am reading The Martian Chronicles. It is wonderful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 25, 2013, 11:53:15 AM
Yes, the occasional preachy bit aside.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 25, 2013, 11:57:29 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 25, 2013, 11:53:15 AM
Yes, the occasional preachy bit aside.

I haven't encountered anything I'd consider preachy but I'm not even halfway through yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 25, 2013, 12:01:53 PM
Even those possible quarrels aside, you're right, it is wonderful.  Carry on!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on November 27, 2013, 04:57:07 AM
Just started this. Lately I've been interested in the 70s and why they seem to have been a decade of surpassing musical and cinematic creativity.  [asin]0684857081[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 27, 2013, 05:00:36 AM
Re-reading Hex High School. And I know what I'm getting my sister for her birthday . . . .

[asin]0989406520[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 27, 2013, 05:03:16 AM
Along with The Martian Chronicles I'm reading the first volume of Marvel's Tomb of Dracula comic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 27, 2013, 12:29:52 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on November 27, 2013, 05:03:16 AM
Along with The Martian Chronicles I'm reading the first volume of Marvel's Tomb of Dracula comic.

Coolness!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 27, 2013, 12:36:08 PM
Atget's photographs and some related texts next to each by Szarkowski :)
[asin]0870700944[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 27, 2013, 02:09:04 PM
Whoa, isn't that, like, The Most Important Book You'll Ever Read?!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 27, 2013, 02:21:27 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 27, 2013, 02:09:04 PM
Whoa, isn't that, like, The Most Important Book You'll Ever Read?!
Oh, absolutely!  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on November 28, 2013, 03:57:46 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on November 25, 2013, 11:37:25 AM
I am reading The Martian Chronicles. It is wonderful.

Geez, I read The Martian Chronicles almost 50 years ago.  I can't remember much of it specifically, but it couldn't have been too bad:  I've kept on reading sci-fi on and off since then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 28, 2013, 04:51:16 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on November 28, 2013, 03:57:46 AM
Geez, I read The Martian Chronicles almost 50 years ago.  I can't remember much of it specifically, but it couldn't have been too bad:  I've kept on reading sci-fi on and off since then.

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 02, 2013, 06:18:11 PM
Dickens' posting!  Ring that bell!

(http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/m/m3-9UEuJ8tIPUC3Z1_H31Gg/96.jpg)

(http://www.charlesdickensonline.com/Gallery/images/g157.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 02, 2013, 07:45:58 PM
Quote from: Bogey on December 02, 2013, 06:18:11 PM
Dickens' posting!  Ring that bell!

The first book I read in 2013 was Bleak House. I think I want to make my first book of 2014 a Dickens, too. I've read only BH and Two Cities. What should I take up next?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 03, 2013, 04:53:37 AM
Dadfrazzanabbit, I need to get back to The Pickwick Papers . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on December 03, 2013, 07:16:26 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 02, 2013, 06:18:11 PM
Dickens' posting!  Ring that bell!

(http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/m/m3-9UEuJ8tIPUC3Z1_H31Gg/96.jpg)

(http://www.charlesdickensonline.com/Gallery/images/g157.gif)

Yes!  Those "other" Christmas stories are in some ways better than A Christmas Carol.  Although it's actually been a while since I read any of them.

Quote from: Brian on December 02, 2013, 07:45:58 PM
The first book I read in 2013 was Bleak House. I think I want to make my first book of 2014 a Dickens, too. I've read only BH and Two Cities. What should I take up next?

Do you want dark Dickens or lighter Dickens.  If you want more of the good humor,  Pickwick Papers or Martin Chuzzlewit.  If you want dark,  Hard Times (which is the shortest of the "big" novels, in contrast to Bleak House, which is the longest) or Our Mutual Friend.    Or if you want to clean up your "I should have read this classic book years ago" list,  David Copperfield and Great Expectations.

ETA: And if you want to step up your BritLit game,  try Trollope and Eliot: I'd suggest Barchester Towers and Daniel Deronda for first dates with them.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 03, 2013, 03:57:52 PM
David Copperfield is my favorite to date.  Have not read everything, though.  You ay want to take in A Christmas Carol right now.  The description of the dinner prep at the Cratchit's will be read each year by me prior to Christmas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on December 03, 2013, 04:12:38 PM
For a slightly different taste of British literature, check out Lord of the World by Anglican AND Catholic priest Robert Benson!

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-World-Robert-Hugh-Benson/dp/1484127064/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386119359&sr=8-2&keywords=lord+of+the+world (http://www.amazon.com/Lord-World-Robert-Hugh-Benson/dp/1484127064/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386119359&sr=8-2&keywords=lord+of+the+world)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 04, 2013, 03:52:54 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 03, 2013, 03:57:52 PM
. . .  The description of the dinner prep at the Cratchit's will be read each year by me prior to Christmas.

"Why, where's our Martha?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pessoa on December 06, 2013, 02:44:43 PM
Quote from: Cato on December 03, 2013, 04:12:38 PM
For a slightly different taste of British literature, check out Lord of the World by Anglican AND Catholic priest Robert Benson!

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-World-Robert-Hugh-Benson/dp/1484127064/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386119359&sr=8-2&keywords=lord+of+the+world (http://www.amazon.com/Lord-World-Robert-Hugh-Benson/dp/1484127064/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386119359&sr=8-2&keywords=lord+of+the+world)
Amazing summary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on December 06, 2013, 03:11:48 PM
Quote from: Pessoa on December 06, 2013, 02:44:43 PM
Amazing summary.

The book was ahead of its time in many disturbing ways.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 09, 2013, 06:45:37 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 04, 2013, 03:52:54 AM
"Why, where's our Martha?"

;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 10, 2013, 06:05:23 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417HZCB3WWL._SY344_.jpg)


The excellent bio of John Hay piqued my interest in teacher, preacher, Civil War general, Congressman, and second shortest serving President, James Garfield, one of several Ohio heavyweights from the late 19th Century.  Allan Peskin's hefty book - about 600 pages of text - seemed the right choice for a bit more info.  Meticulously researched and written, it reads very fast and has the occasional wry comment.  Garfield was clearly very sharp, and some of his writing approaches Grant's in its concision and lucidity, though Garfield could succumb to purple prose and rhetoric from time to time.  His extremely short tenure limited his impact, but I still await some more in-depth coverage of his challenge to Senate prerogative and some New York political heavies.  No mention so far of his love of lasagna.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 11, 2013, 08:58:41 PM
Quote from: Todd on December 10, 2013, 06:05:23 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417HZCB3WWL._SY344_.jpg)


The excellent bio of John Hay piqued my interest in teacher, preacher, Civil War general, Congressman, and second shortest serving President, James Garfield, one of several Ohio heavyweights from the late 19th Century.  Allan Peskin's hefty book - about 600 pages of text - seemed the right choice for a bit more info.  Meticulously researched and written, it reads very fast and has the occasional wry comment.  Garfield was clearly very sharp, and some of his writing approaches Grant's in its concision and lucidity, though Garfield could succumb to purple prose and rhetoric from time to time.  His extremely short tenure limited his impact, but I still await some more in-depth coverage of his challenge to Senate prerogative and some New York political heavies.  No mention so far of his love of lasagna.

Excellent. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on December 12, 2013, 03:12:05 AM
Sorry if I'm in the wrong thread. I wanted to ask if anyone had any idea of this book. As someone without any formal music background, this is tempting.
[asin]0452297087[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on December 12, 2013, 03:37:46 AM
Quote from: milk on December 12, 2013, 03:12:05 AM
Sorry if I'm in the wrong thread. I wanted to ask if anyone had any idea of this book. As someone without any formal music background, this is tempting.
[asin]0452297087[/asin]

I have taken several of Robert Greenberg's "Great Courses" including this one, and they are indeed excellent from my perspective as a non-musically trained person.  Dr. Greenberg is an outstanding and highly entertaining lecturer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on December 12, 2013, 03:50:51 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on December 12, 2013, 03:37:46 AM
I have taken several of Robert Greenberg's "Great Courses" including this one, and they are indeed excellent from my perspective as a non-musically trained person.  Dr. Greenberg is an outstanding and highly entertaining lecturer.
Cool! Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 12, 2013, 04:03:02 AM
Looks like an interesting read . . . I may try the Kindle edition.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on December 12, 2013, 04:06:58 AM
Currently in the middle of 'Das Boot'.  Spellbinding, tension filled reading, as riveting as the 1981 classic film.  I highly recommend it.

[asin]0304352314[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 16, 2013, 03:51:54 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on November 25, 2013, 11:37:25 AM
I am reading The Martian Chronicles. It is wonderful.

It is, indeed!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517G5CKYSGL._SY300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 18, 2013, 04:19:17 PM
The Copland book is a really good listening guide, too imo.

Beethoven: His Spiritual Development J.W. Sullivan

You have to be about as much of a sycophant of LVB as I am to enjoy this book at all. I know for a fact I'm a sycophant because I found myself pompously nodding in agreement over and over while reading this at times outrageously sycophantic, bombastic love letter.

So...I like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 21, 2013, 11:06:40 AM
Charles Dickens --- A Christmas Carol

Just google "in defense of scrooge" and you'll come up with a great deal of libertarian nonsense.

Let me give you just one single example, extracted from a Romanian blog:

He: "A normal  society would have a lot of institutions concerned with helping the orphans, the widows, the poors a.s.o., to which I'd gladly contribute a good deal of my revenue!"

Me: "Well, why waiting for such institutions to be created? What about starting one yourself? Better yet, why not contributing a good deal of your revenue to  such existing institutions?"

He: "Silence, silence, silence..."


;D ;D ;D



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on December 21, 2013, 11:13:34 AM
Hi Florestan, happy holidays!

About to start The Mind's I (Dennett, etc.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Eli on December 27, 2013, 10:40:10 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qXBG5ZW1L._SS500_.jpg)

A short introduction to the book Dostoevsky wanted to write.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on December 27, 2013, 03:14:34 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XFEGGGYSL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bn9csNzQL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 27, 2013, 07:11:02 PM
#3 in the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series.  A great character to follow and the supporting cast is always a treat.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41i6dI7Ob7L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-67,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on December 30, 2013, 08:40:33 AM
After Zola's Au bonheur des dames and the collections of Poe's poems and tales of terror, since I've studied the American Civil War:

William T. Sherman
Memoirs
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on December 30, 2013, 12:30:42 PM
FEVRE DREAM by George R.R. Martin is amazing!

GRR Martin, steamboats and vampires. That's all you need to know.

AMAZING!

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 01, 2014, 07:53:26 PM
This year's Dickens is chosen: David Copperfield!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 02, 2014, 02:34:10 AM
Just reading the title, I beheld a sort of vision, a panoply of richly-drawn characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on January 02, 2014, 11:24:08 AM
David A. Riley's tales of terror.
[asin]095390329X[/asin]
Creepy.  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 02, 2014, 12:16:13 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 01, 2014, 07:53:26 PM
This year's Dickens is chosen: David Copperfield!

Nothing better out there, IMO, Brian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 02, 2014, 12:19:03 PM
Quote from: mn dave on January 02, 2014, 11:24:08 AM
David A. Riley's tales of terror.
[asin]095390329X[/asin]
Creepy.  :o

David Creeperfield?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on January 02, 2014, 12:32:47 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 02, 2014, 12:19:03 PM
David Creeperfield?

:)

He's a nice bloke too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 03, 2014, 06:16:19 AM
My phone autocorrects it to David Centerfold, by Charles Sickens.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 03, 2014, 06:21:38 AM
Eeeewwww
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on January 03, 2014, 07:57:43 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 03, 2014, 06:16:19 AM
My phone autocorrects it to David Centerfold, by Charles Sickens.
What the dickens?!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on January 03, 2014, 11:37:03 AM
In the middle of this collection of essays
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WYnAnylsL._SY344_.jpg)

One of the Amazon reviews is headlined "spiky and opinionated" , and that is a good description.  First section is devoted to Venice,  second to music, other sections to life in Italy, the war between the sexes, and the world outside Italy.    Well written,  mostly short (longest seems to be about ten pages),  and opinions worth reading even if you don't agree with them--too many potential good quotes to post here.    She's a fan (junkie is her term) of opera and Handel, especially Handel's operas, with only short excursions into other realms of music (including one viewing of Tristan und Isolde that serves as a vehicle to express all that's wrong with Wagner--and for Donna Leon, there's a lot that's wrong with Wagner, and one of I Puritani which serves as a vehicle to express all that's wrong with regietheater).  One essay, the longest one in the book, is a sort of narrated interview with Anne-Sofie van Otter that seems to have been done ten years ago.  Another is a quick tribute to Maria Callas as the most interesting opera singer.  (One major flaw:  there seems to be no indication of where or when these essays were originally published.)

All in all,   very enjoyable, and the sections on music will add some interest to GMGers.  Not very long either, about 220 pages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 03, 2014, 09:18:41 PM
Just purchased:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hOTLxNoOL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brahmsian on January 04, 2014, 04:55:40 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 03, 2014, 09:18:41 PM
Just purchased:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hOTLxNoOL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Hey Bill!

I remember this one:  Vernon vs Roy (circa 1997?)

The much shorter Vernon took this one, if I recall.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on January 06, 2014, 05:52:55 AM
If he's good enough for JRR Tolkien...
[asin]1603862056[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 06, 2014, 08:25:59 AM
Quote from: mn dave on January 06, 2014, 05:52:55 AM
If he's good enough for JRR Tolkien...
Have you ever read anything by Amanda McKittrick Ros?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on January 06, 2014, 08:28:40 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 06, 2014, 08:25:59 AM
Have you ever read anything by Amanda McKittrick Ros?

I don't think so, Brian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 06, 2014, 08:36:29 AM
Quote from: mn dave on January 06, 2014, 08:28:40 AM
I don't think so, Brian.

Amanda McKittrick Ros was an 1890s writer so bad that Tolkein and CS Lewis had contests with their friends to see who could read aloud the longest without bursting into laughter.

Here's an excerpt from her novel Irene Iddlesleigh (free online! (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34181/34181-h/34181-h.htm)) - all her books had alliterative titles like Fumes of Formation.

"Though a man of forty summers, he never yet had entertained the thought of yielding up his bacheloric ideas to supplace them with others which eventually should coincide with those of a different sex; in fact, he never had bestowed a thought on changing his habits and manner of living, nor until fully realising his position of birthright, that had been treasured by his ancestors for such a lengthened period, and which, sooner or later, must pass into strangers' hands, did the thought ever occur to him of entering into the league of the blessed."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on January 06, 2014, 09:47:17 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 06, 2014, 08:36:29 AM
Amanda McKittrick Ros was an 1890s writer so bad that Tolkein and CS Lewis had contests with their friends to see who could read aloud the longest without bursting into laughter.

Here's an excerpt from her novel Irene Iddlesleigh (free online! (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34181/34181-h/34181-h.htm)) - all her books had alliterative titles like Fumes of Formation.

"Though a man of forty summers, he never yet had entertained the thought of yielding up his bacheloric ideas to supplace them with others which eventually should coincide with those of a different sex; in fact, he never had bestowed a thought on changing his habits and manner of living, nor until fully realising his position of birthright, that had been treasured by his ancestors for such a lengthened period, and which, sooner or later, must pass into strangers' hands, did the thought ever occur to him of entering into the league of the blessed."

That must have been fun for Tolkein and Lewis. I mean, I just had fun reading that mess. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 06, 2014, 10:11:00 AM
Quote from: mn dave on January 06, 2014, 09:47:17 AM
That must have been fun for Tolkein and Lewis. I mean, I just had fun reading that mess. :)
Have you heard of Harry Stephen Keeler? He's one of my literary heroes, an amazingly badgood warped genius who wrote tons of 1930s pulp mystery novels. Try the first chapter of 'Riddle of the Traveling Skull'! (http://www.ramblehouse.com/travellingskullchapter.htm)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on January 06, 2014, 10:22:39 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 06, 2014, 10:11:00 AM
Have you heard of Harry Stephen Keeler? He's one of my literary heroes, an amazingly badgood warped genius who wrote tons of 1930s pulp mystery novels. Try the first chapter of 'Riddle of the Traveling Skull'! (http://www.ramblehouse.com/travellingskullchapter.htm)

Can't access from work but will try later. Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 08, 2014, 07:07:14 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on January 06, 2014, 08:49:44 AM
Over the holiday break I read or am in the process reading these:

Generally, I won't read these kinds of books from start to finish, but dip into them over the course of a few weeks.  However, I did read the Alvin Lucier book, Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music, rather fast, is was a very interesting read, and not that long but very informative for anyone interested in this music. 

Twelve-Tone Music in America is a good book, and one I recommend since it explodes common false assumptions about  twelve-tone composition in general, and points out some unique aspects of the composers from the US working in this style. 

Serial Music, Serial Aesthetics: Compositional Theory in Post-War Europe is not as enjoyable, but I am slogging through it nonetheless. 

In Search of a Concrete Music by Pierre Schæffer, should prove interesting, but I have only begun reading it.

I have that Lucier book, but I haven't finished yet, because after flipping through it, i found that many of the compositions that he talks about are unknow to me. So my plan is to use this book as a sort of limited guide.

Oh, and I've wishlited the Twelve Tone book. Looks like there'll be a paperback version of it soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 09, 2014, 08:21:39 PM
Here's a list (http://bgreinhart.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/books-of-the-year/) of all the books I read in 2013, and quick reviews of my top ten favorites!

Keen-eyed readers might notice a certain GMGer's novel in the list!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on January 09, 2014, 09:09:38 PM
I need to read Bleak House - I've already begun that project in 2008..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 10, 2014, 04:07:13 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 09, 2014, 08:21:39 PM
Here's a list (http://bgreinhart.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/books-of-the-year/) of all the books I read in 2013, and quick reviews of my top ten favorites!

Keen-eyed readers might notice a certain GMGer's novel in the list!

Huzzah for "anonymousish"!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 10, 2014, 04:08:11 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 09, 2014, 09:09:38 PM
I need to read Bleak House - I've already begun that project in 2008..

You remind me to go back to The Pickwick Papers . . . though I really want to see to a couple of arrangements/Sibeliusifications first . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on January 10, 2014, 04:23:44 AM

Quote from: Brian on January 09, 2014, 08:21:39 PM
Here's a list (http://bgreinhart.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/books-of-the-year/) of all the books I read in 2013, and quick reviews of my top ten favorites!

Keen-eyed readers might notice a certain GMGer's novel in the list!

Quote from: karlhenning on January 10, 2014, 04:07:13 AM
Huzzah for "anonymousish"!

Glad to see that Why Begins With W made the cut!   :D

Don't forget Parts II and III are now available, so that you can discover the rest of the story!

Dial Emma for Murder

http://www.amazon.com/Dial-Emma-Murder-Killers-Capsule/dp/0989406504/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389360195&sr=1-1&keywords=dial+emma+for+murder (http://www.amazon.com/Dial-Emma-Murder-Killers-Capsule/dp/0989406504/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389360195&sr=1-1&keywords=dial+emma+for+murder)

and Hex High School

http://www.amazon.com/Hex-High-School-Courses-Capsule/dp/0989406520/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389360099&sr=1-1&keywords=hex+high+school (http://www.amazon.com/Hex-High-School-Courses-Capsule/dp/0989406520/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389360099&sr=1-1&keywords=hex+high+school)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 10, 2014, 04:37:08 AM
Quote from: Abe LincolnA Harry Potter for the rest of us.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 10, 2014, 04:38:17 AM
Quote from: Cato on January 10, 2014, 04:23:44 AM
Glad to see that Why Begins With W made the cut!   :D

Don't forget Parts II and III are now available, so that you can discover the rest of the story!

Dial Emma for Murder
and Hex High School

Do not fear! They are on the list for 2014!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Six on January 13, 2014, 04:32:07 PM
Just got done with this gem. Don't want to spoil anything, but the polar pinkie at the end was unexpected!

(http://24.media.tumblr.com/d5fc0a39a85b1168e081ad040e886291/tumblr_my7i4zGlzI1s71q1zo1_1280.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 13, 2014, 07:03:11 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61KLVOO92eL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-66,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vt92JEMxL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-67,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 14, 2014, 07:47:48 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 09, 2014, 09:09:38 PM
I need to read Bleak House

Same here.

Speaking of Dickens, I'm currently rereading Nickleby. While it has my favorite dickens character, Ralph Nickleby, I really hate most of the ending, especially when Nicholas like nobly renounces an opportunity to marry Madeline Bray and gain her inheritance for himself yet later unbeliavable coincidence allows him to "honourably" marry Madeline and steal her inheritance to himself. I know this was victorian times when women often had no right to have money etc. and I am not exactly a feminist but I still absolutely loathe that ending and in typical Dickens fashion all good characters gain happiness and bad ones gain misery. I loathe that too.

However, the part of the ending where Ralph learns the terrible truth about Smike and convincing psychological torment he undergoes redeems some of the ending. I have read that most of the critics consider Ralph Nickleby cardboard cutout villain. I don't agree with that, I think he is extremely complex character, very humane villain who clearly struggles with his conscience and his end really makes me feel sad for him. People usually like more one of the secondary villains, Wackford Squeers. While I enjoy him too, I consider Ralph and Sir Mulberry Hawk much more interesting characters. Hawk is also often called cardcarrying villain, even worse than Ralph but I find his obsession with Kate fascinating and he has strong charisma a la James Steerforth, Harthouse and Henry Gowan. However I agree that third secondary villain, Arthur Gride is pretty feeble figure. Only time I find him even remotely convincing is the scene where he talks with Newman Noggs and offers him some "golden water".

All in all, Nickleby is a great work but it has some serious flaws.

Funny how much I talk about Dickens in this topic considering that I don't outright adore him (like Dostoyevsky, Dumas sr., Victor Hugo, Shakespeare or R.L. Stevenson) but have instead a complex love-hate relationship with his books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on January 14, 2014, 09:08:43 AM
Since I picked up a Kindle Paperwhite, I've begun reading again on a more regular basis. I belong to a book club locally and my choice for them was A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I'm about halfway through it (and have seen the first episode of the series) and I am liking it so far. For my own reading I decided to give Hugh Howey's Wool series a try. I've only just started but it seems like it will be a good read. For lighter fare, I've finished The Colour Of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Equal Rites from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Mort, the next book in the series is sitting waiting on my Kindle in case I'd like a diversion from the other two.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on January 18, 2014, 08:15:25 PM
Just started this tonight:
[asin]0826417736[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 18, 2014, 08:27:13 PM
Just looked it up....very cool. There is a show that does this as well....cannot remember what it is called.  Hold on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 18, 2014, 08:29:19 PM
Called Classic Albums, Alan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8GwEX7nn6o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on January 19, 2014, 05:26:18 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 06, 2014, 08:36:29 AM
Amanda McKittrick Ros was an 1890s writer so bad that Tolkein and CS Lewis had contests with their friends to see who could read aloud the longest without bursting into laughter.
I probably would have been terrible at that game... couldn't even finish that excerpt without laughing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on January 19, 2014, 12:01:27 PM
Thanks Bogey! 

Quote from: Bogey on January 18, 2014, 08:29:19 PM
Called Classic Albums, Alan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8GwEX7nn6o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on January 20, 2014, 06:29:09 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41cCUr8fVUL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CP54GP6JL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 25, 2014, 08:47:52 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41i23pi-q1L._AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-48,22_AA300_SH20_OU15_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uHOlHve7L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU15_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mDAmQWUmL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU15_.jpg)

I enjoyed Bernhard and Sciascia's books a lot. Didn't like the "Dinner" all that much, because it felt too exagerated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 26, 2014, 07:27:22 AM
Some books on the modern history of Romania (roughly 1750 to 1950). Interestingly how, despite the time span of 2 centuries and a half, the same problems are nowadays still waiting for a convenient and definitive solution.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on January 26, 2014, 06:14:34 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 26, 2014, 07:27:22 AM
Some books on the modern history of Romania (roughly 1750 to 1950). Interestingly how, despite the time span of 2 centuries and a half, the same problems are nowadays still waiting for a convenient and definitive solution.  ;D

cele mai multe lucrurile se schimba mai mult ele rămân aceleași

As Talleyrand would have said, if he had been from Romania and not France.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on January 27, 2014, 01:10:47 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on January 20, 2014, 06:29:09 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41cCUr8fVUL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CP54GP6JL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
How do you find Miller these days? Some things wear less well over time than others, so I'm curious. When I was in my twenties, no one author buoyed my sprits or opened my outlook as much as Miller. So I feel he has a special place in my heart. However, I found in recent years that when I look up quotes or passages from Miller, they fall flat. I had an argument with a friend who said he was overrated. Now I'm not sure I disagree. They only thing I could say is, he can't be that bad if he was admired by the likes of Orwell.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on January 27, 2014, 06:41:04 AM
Concurrently reading three (which is very unusual for me...)

A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin
Wool - Hugh Howey
Mort - Terry Pratchett
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on January 28, 2014, 09:30:36 PM
Quote from: The Six on January 13, 2014, 04:32:07 PM
Just got done with this gem. Don't want to spoil anything, but the polar pinkie at the end was unexpected!

(http://24.media.tumblr.com/d5fc0a39a85b1168e081ad040e886291/tumblr_my7i4zGlzI1s71q1zo1_1280.png)

Oh.My.God. LOL. 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 29, 2014, 01:33:34 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on January 26, 2014, 06:14:34 PM
cele mai multe lucrurile se schimba mai mult ele rămân aceleași

This time you got it wrong, the above phrase has no meaning.  :D

A Romanian Talleyrand would have said:

Cu cât lucrurile se schimbă mai mult, cu atât ele rămân la fel.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on January 31, 2014, 10:30:57 AM
Flashing Swords #2
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on February 01, 2014, 10:00:22 AM
Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey - Really good world-building, which is essential for a science fiction novel, and interesting characters too. The ending was a little weak for me in terms of how it unfolded, but it's still a fine piece of writing. In fact, I've started on the second book in the series - Shift.

So, currently reading:
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Shift by Hugh Howey
Mort by Terry Pratchett
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on February 02, 2014, 06:15:20 AM
Quote from: stingo on February 01, 2014, 10:00:22 AM
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

How is this book treating you?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on February 02, 2014, 07:55:34 AM
Quote from: mn dave on February 02, 2014, 06:15:20 AM
How is this book treating you?

I quite like it. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and can tell it's basically setting up the chess board for the game to follow. Which is kind of funny considering it's a 600+ page book. I bought the 5 book omnibus Kindle edition so I have the other 4 ready to go when that one's done. As a side note, I've seen the first episode of the first season of the HBO series and the book and it are recognizably the same. I understand Martin has some creative control over what goes into the series, and he develops themes in it that he only hints at in the novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 03, 2014, 04:40:36 AM
Quote from: stingo on February 02, 2014, 07:55:34 AMI understand Martin has some creative control over what goes into the series, and he develops themes in it that he only hints at in the novels.
He has in fact written entire episodes himself. (Not that I've read the books or seen the show.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on February 03, 2014, 05:27:32 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 03, 2014, 04:40:36 AM
He has in fact written entire episodes himself. (Not that I've read the books or seen the show.)

Oh really? I didn't know that. Makes it all the more awesome I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on February 03, 2014, 05:31:41 AM
I picked up a few books for my Kindle Paperwhite, including the Batman Chronicles Vol. I. I was curious to see how they'd handle a graphic format on the Kindle and was pleasantly surprised by how they got around it. It shows the page in full, then you can swipe through the individual panels.

As for Batman, it's interesting to see how far the character, lore and art style has progressed through the years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on February 03, 2014, 05:32:17 AM
The delightful Portraits From Memory and Other Essays by Bertrand Russell, recently downloaded (PDF) from the World Public Library: http://worldlibrary.org/default.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Portraits-Memory-Essays-Bertrand-Russell/dp/140674588X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391437713&sr=8-1&keywords=portraits+from+memory

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on February 07, 2014, 04:59:49 AM
Finished Russell, I've begun two new books:

A compilation of two books of essays by Nora Ephron: Crazy Salad (Some Things About Women) & Scribble Scribble (Notes on the Media) [New York: Vintage Books].

I have just read the first essay ("A Few Words About Breasts", May 1972), but I'm totally hooked:

QuoteMy husband is fond of reminding me of the story of Moses, who kept the Israelites in the desert for forty years because he knew a slave generation could not found a new free society.

Its title (Crazy Salad) comes from an enigmatic verse by W.B. Yeats.

[asin]B00AQVFKS0[/asin]

Also a Spanish translation of the hypnotizing complete essays by Paul Auster:

[asin]B00EPNSEWO[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 10, 2014, 07:11:20 AM
spot.colorado.edu/~pasnau/seminar/berlin.pdf (http://spot.colorado.edu/~pasnau/seminar/berlin.pdf)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on February 10, 2014, 11:45:48 AM
On my iPad, I'm reading Storm Over Warlock, a 1960 sf novel by Andre Norton.

Enjoying it so far and the price was right: FREE.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 10, 2014, 12:46:48 PM
Gore Vidal: Creation

A highly entertaining and, in many respects, historically accurate historical novel set in the reigns Persian "Great Kings", Darius I and Xerxes I.  Chief protagonist, Cyrus Spitima is the supposed grandson of Zoroaster.  He travels far & wide as ambassador of the Great King and gets to meet Pericles, Socrates, Ajatasatru, the Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tsu, and Confucius about whom he forms a few conclusions.  A great read -- go for it.

(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n4/n24082.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on February 10, 2014, 03:50:56 PM
Sounds good!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on February 10, 2014, 05:35:52 PM
Quote from: Fëanor on February 10, 2014, 12:46:48 PM
Gore Vidal: Creation

A highly entertaining and, in many respects, historically accurate historical novel set in the reigns Persian "Great Kings", Darius I and Xerxes I.  Chief protagonist, Cyrus Spitima is the supposed grandson of Zoroaster.  He travels far & wide as ambassador of the Great King and gets to meet Pericles, Socrates, Ajatasatru, the Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tsu, and Confucius about whom he forms a few conclusions.  A great read -- go for it.

(http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n4/n24082.jpg)

I've not read all of Vidal's novels--mainly Burr and the other novels centering on 19th century America--and find what I did read to be high quality but not enjoyable stuff I would want to re-read--except for this one.  Creation is the one Vidal novel I actually like (and one of the few American novels written in my lifetime that I like, as well).

I should mention that while most of the background details have sound scholarship behind them,  Zoroaster himself is now believed to have lived at least a few centuries before the Persian Empire came into existence, and several of the worthies Cyrus Spitama meets in the novel, while they all lived in the same century, were spaced far enough apart in time that a real life Cyrus would have met only some of them on his travels.  (Scholars are not even sure if Lao Tzu existed!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 11, 2014, 10:37:23 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on February 10, 2014, 05:35:52 PM
I've not read all of Vidal's novels--mainly Burr and the other novels centering on 19th century America--and find what I did read to be high quality but not enjoyable stuff I would want to re-read--except for this one.  Creation is the one Vidal novel I actually like (and one of the few American novels written in my lifetime that I like, as well).

I should mention that while most of the background details have sound scholarship behind them,  Zoroaster himself is now believed to have lived at least a few centuries before the Persian Empire came into existence, and several of the worthies Cyrus Spitama meets in the novel, while they all lived in the same century, were spaced far enough apart in time that a real life Cyrus would have met only some of them on his travels.  (Scholars are not even sure if Lao Tzu existed!)

Not being the literati I wish I were, I've only read Creation and Julian the Apostate by Vidal  I started on Burr but didn't get to0 far with it.  (I am inclined to dry-eyes and eye strain nowadays and must ration my reading.)

Yes, I believe what you say is quite correct as to the actual historical circumstances.  Yet it's true that, coincidentally or otherwise, the religious leaders in question lived (or supposedly lived) within the span of just a few centuries of each other.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on February 11, 2014, 10:40:29 AM
Quote from: mn dave on February 10, 2014, 11:45:48 AM
On my iPad, I'm reading Storm Over Warlock, a 1960 sf novel by Andre Norton.

Enjoying it so far and the price was right: FREE.

Indeed, the price was right.  Sometimes you get what you pay for.  I read some Norton in my time -- but that was long ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 14, 2014, 08:52:36 AM
The Liberalism/Conservatism Of Edmund Burke and F. A. Hayek: A Critical Comparison (http://www.nhinet.org/raeder.htm)

Now, that whole website (http://www.nhinet.org/) is a treasure trove of interesting articles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on February 14, 2014, 09:35:35 AM
Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White, from Project Gutenberg.  Were people in the 19th Century really this thick?  Oh well, I will perservere for a bit longer.

[asin]B00EMXBDMA[/asin]

Bought after reading the sample.  Fun techno SF so far.

[asin]0155510053[/asin]

A cheap used hardback of an old edition.

The bane of generations of math students, but I appreciate the insights of Strang's opinionated writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on February 14, 2014, 12:04:32 PM
Quote from: Daverz on February 14, 2014, 09:35:35 AM

[asin]B00EMXBDMA[/asin]


I hear good things. Have ordered it myself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on February 17, 2014, 11:26:04 AM
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JF_xMlSb2EQ/TgAGiU5VglI/AAAAAAAAABA/FS4hWZ8i0ps/s1600/15559833e7a086a2585d0110.L.jpg)


A few chapters into Mr Republican, the detailed and thorough biography of Robert Taft, the most accomplished of the third generation of the political dynasty that started with his grandfather Alphonso (Secretary of War for Grant) and as recently as 2007 included an Ohio governor.  Patterson's writing is concise and informative, and thus far Taft is depicted as a smart but somewhat inflexible soul, at least politically, though he was also actually principled, and not purely pragmatic.  This rather explains his stance against the Nuremburg trials on the grounds they were antithetical to concepts such as no use of ex post facto laws and the undeniable fact that the trials were show trials with mostly preordained outcomes.  Even JFK couldn't help but single this out for praise.  He also wasn't a big fan of Wall Street, though when one is named Taft, attends the Taft School (!) before going to Yale and Harvard, and has doors opened because of a rather, um, influential, father, I suppose one can be choosier than most.  Still, for the faults I've read about thus far, the ones I will read about, and the ones I already know about, it would be nice to have some more serious politicians of this type.  This book also makes me want to get a bio of William Howard Taft post-haste.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on February 18, 2014, 08:22:37 AM
Have finished the solid thriller Skin by Mo Hayder...

Now revisting Vonnegut: God Bless You, Mr Rosewater
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on February 18, 2014, 08:59:12 AM
Finished A Game Of Thrones - planning on starting A Clash of Kings soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on February 19, 2014, 12:59:38 PM
Just finished reading Emmeline again. Already I'm tempted to start on those opening scenes: you just can't beat some of these old novels!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on February 23, 2014, 12:54:07 AM
The seminal work on CIA relations with Congress:
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$T2eC16Z,!)EE9s2uiP,4BR3DVoVtt!~~_32.JPG?set_id=89040003C1)

Continuing the work of Jaworski and Saville-Troike:
(https://benjamins.com/covers/3d_web/dapsac_48_hb.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on February 23, 2014, 04:43:24 PM
These two:

[asin]B00FHTY1V8[/asin]

[asin]B007679QTG[/asin]

Both of them in Kindle edition and Spanish translation.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on February 26, 2014, 07:48:33 PM
Simply a brilliant book with insights galore:

(https://p.gr-assets.com/max_square/fill/books/1347324314/503148.jpg)

A rare book written by an insider (former CIA director) lending a key historical eye to an oft overlooked (rather misrepresented) position of the DCI through the W years:

(http://www.tantor.com/BookImage/0181_BurnBeforeReading_D.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on March 01, 2014, 10:53:58 AM
Finished Mort. Going to concentrate on A Clash Of Kings and Shift now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 04, 2014, 09:14:46 AM
QuoteIn the conquest of knowledge of the human mind this CD will be most helpful to you.

Oh. Kay.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on March 04, 2014, 12:54:12 PM
.[asin]0765335956[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on March 04, 2014, 02:13:43 PM
Quote from: mn dave on March 04, 2014, 12:54:12 PM
.[asin]0765335956[/asin]

Is this Wolfe's latest?  Gotta read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on March 04, 2014, 02:46:07 PM
Ben Aaronovitch   RIVERS OF LONDON
London Police with wizardry.   Author  wrote  one of the Dr. Who series
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 04, 2014, 04:27:06 PM
A few recent reads...

[asin]B001P80KNS[/asin]

Easy, breezy read with an amiable host. Natalie MacLean meets with winemakers in Burgundy and Napa, serves as sommelier for a night at a fancy restaurant, meets with the Riedel glassmaking family, and very frequently gets a little too drunk for her own good. It's refreshing to read a wine writer who admits to enjoying getting drunk, and the book is a lot of fun, although experts and geeks may find that it's not worth more to them than the $6 Amazon bargain book price.

[asin]081298076X[/asin]

Collection of short stories by one of Mississippi's great recent writers. So far they range from okay to outstanding. Some of these are true classics.

The next book I'll be reading...

[asin]0316055433[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on March 04, 2014, 04:59:03 PM
Quote from: listener on March 04, 2014, 02:46:07 PM
Ben Aaronovitch   RIVERS OF LONDON
London Police with wizardry.   Author  wrote  one of the Dr. Who series

These sort of stories interest me, so I looked it up.  Your copy has the UK title;  Yanks should look for it under the title "Midnight Riot".  And it's the first of a series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 04, 2014, 06:03:02 PM
Genetics a conceptual approach

[asin]B001O8MTLA[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Six on March 04, 2014, 07:38:07 PM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bhnr9i2IQAIWUsC.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 04, 2014, 08:10:43 PM
Quote from: listener on March 04, 2014, 02:46:07 PM
Ben Aaronovitch   RIVERS OF LONDON
London Police with wizardry.   Author  wrote  one of the Dr. Who series

Just downloaded a sample on my Kindle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on March 05, 2014, 05:46:59 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on March 04, 2014, 02:13:43 PM
Is this Wolfe's latest?  Gotta read.

It is indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on March 06, 2014, 01:49:00 PM
Grabbed this from a bookstore sale, since they were practically giving it away.
(Finnish Conductors: From Sibelius to Salonen, Kajanus to Franck) (http://oga.otava.fi/books/finnish-conductors-from-sibelius-to-salonen-kajanus-to-franck/)
(http://www.prisma.fi/tuotekuvat//large/38/i9dw9xsxvtrzs81n.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on March 07, 2014, 02:06:18 PM
Now that my thesis is finished I actually have some time to read for pleasure. First up:

Hardy - Jude the obscure
Scott - The art of not being governed
Schoots - Living dangerously
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 09, 2014, 02:57:54 PM
Finished these two books recently:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PRg-xHZFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU15_.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419F926MLuL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 10, 2014, 05:18:34 AM
This morning, in MS.: "The Capture of Major Mosby"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on March 15, 2014, 11:09:42 AM
A Clash of Kings, by George R. R. Martin - this has pretty much swallowed up my reading time because it's so good. I'm about halfway through the book, with at least three more to go.

The Monuments Men, by Robert M. Edsel - started this as the next book for the book club to which I belong. About 100 pages in, it's ok, but I am hoping (as some Amazon reviewers have suggested) that it picks up in ensuing pages.

Shift, by Hugh Howey - I check in for about a chapter or two at a time of this one but only because ACOK takes up so much of my reading time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on March 15, 2014, 10:02:10 PM
Image and the Witness edited by Guerin and Hallas
German Idealism by Beiser
Rhetorical Criticism by Foss
Collage of Myself by Miller
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on March 16, 2014, 11:08:12 AM
So I developed a problem over the last few years: My reading pace has considerably slowed down. I only completed about six books in 2012, and less than that in 2013. I probably averaged about 16 from 2000 to 2007. There's two epic novels I started in 2013 and stopped reading half-way through despite enjoying them ("A Storm of Swords" by GRRM and "Little Dorrit" by Charles Dickens) due to distractions and my inability to stay focused.

So I started exploring audiobooks, a form that I only sampled over the years. I signed up for Audible.com. It's a bit pricey at $15 a month, but you get one credit per month for any audiobook in their selection. Combined with the fact that you can simply install the Audible app on your smartphone/tablet, the service makes it easy to experience audiobooks. This is my current selection:

(http://scribblers.us/nhtj/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/11.22.63.jpg)

Stephen King at his absolute best!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on March 16, 2014, 11:11:35 AM
This was my previous selection:

(http://spectrum.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/Second-Machine-Age-cover.png)





Hear hear for audiobooks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on March 17, 2014, 04:08:19 AM
I finished A Clash of Kings yesterday and thought it was very good (since I spent part of Saturday and most of Sunday finishing it). I also took a glimpse into A Storm of Swords which I've been told is even better. So now, I have:

A Storm of Swords, by George R. R. Martin
The Monuments Men, by Robert M. Edsel
Shift, by Hugh Howey
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on March 17, 2014, 04:13:47 AM
Quote from: stingo on March 15, 2014, 11:09:42 AM
A Clash of Kings, by George R. R. Martin - this has pretty much swallowed up my reading time because it's so good. I'm about halfway through the book, with at least three more to go.

I'm never going to read those Martin books -- though I'll follow the TV series for sure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on March 19, 2014, 07:38:48 PM
Received this book in the mail today:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91KbSfaX2IL._SL1500_.jpg)

A very nice laid-out book and what makes this book particularly invaluable are the interviews with the composer himself. Can't wait to dig into this book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on March 20, 2014, 09:09:34 AM
(http://lisathatcher.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/the-corrections1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on March 21, 2014, 04:49:32 AM
So far, the best I've read in a packed field.

[asin]0316118788[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on March 21, 2014, 11:42:36 AM
Quote from: listener on March 04, 2014, 02:46:07 PM
Ben Aaronovitch   RIVERS OF LONDON
London Police with wizardry.   Author  wrote  one of the Dr. Who series

Bought this today, in its US edition with a different title and cover (although apparently newer copies have been published reverting to the UK cover design but keeping the US title).
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51q%2BA06l2SL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 21, 2014, 01:29:48 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on March 21, 2014, 04:49:32 AM
So far, the best I've read in a packed field.

[asin]0316118788[/asin]
You a Maupassant fan Z7?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on March 21, 2014, 03:29:13 PM
Quote from: Ken B on March 21, 2014, 01:29:48 PM
You a Maupassant fan Z7?

Big time.  (Flaubert was his mentor, you prob. know).  I've been meaning to ask - your Nietzsche quotation compels me to inquire: have you ever heard his piano music? 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 21, 2014, 04:31:05 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on March 21, 2014, 03:29:13 PM
Big time.  (Flaubert was his mentor, you prob. know).  I've been meaning to ask - your Nietzsche quotation compels me to inquire: have you ever heard his piano music?
I have but a long time ago, little memory of it.
Maupassant is one of my 3 or 4 favourite writers. I have managed some in French, but his vocabulary is hard as I recall. I always say though that the best short stories in English are the ones Maupassant wrote in French. :) an excuse not to better my French!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on March 21, 2014, 05:02:31 PM
Quote from: Ken B on March 21, 2014, 04:31:05 PM
I have but a long time ago, little memory of it.
Maupassant is one of my 3 or 4 favourite writers. I have managed some in French, but his vocabulary is hard as I recall. I always say though that the best short stories in English are the ones Maupassant wrote in French. :) an excuse not to better my French!

My sole exposure to Maupassant is one story of which I can not even remember the title, and Albert Herring.  Are there any specific translations you would recommend?

My Flaubert is also relatively weak--Salammbo, and not even the obvious one (Madame Bovary).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 21, 2014, 05:17:36 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on March 21, 2014, 05:02:31 PM
My sole exposure to Maupassant is one story of which I can not even remember the title, and Albert Herring.  Are there any specific translations you would recommend?

My Flaubert is also relatively weak--Salammbo, and not even the obvious one (Madame Bovary).
None in particular. There are lots of good anthologies. Penguin. An older Viking collection was good. I have seen several "best of" anthologies with no stories in common! Boule de Suif probably the most famous story, his first published one I believe, and a good one. It is anthologized quite a lot. I like the stories of peasant life the most, but Parisian ones are more popular and  a popular and excellent one is the necklace.
Dover has a couple dual language books if your French is up to it. I find the ability to cheat my way out of confusion is helpful  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 23, 2014, 01:41:45 PM
I finished Andres Neuman's "Traveler of the Century" today. Such a great book, was really moved by it, which I find to be a rare occasion for modern novels with me. At certain points as I was reading it I was reminded of Musil, Mann and Kafka, but it is also very modern and has a very strong sexual aspect to it. The author calls this book a love story and it is also a story of ideas, wonderful images and characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 24, 2014, 06:48:05 AM
A great typo in a quiz at the on-line Christian Science Monitor:

QuoteTrue or false? All marijuana is derived from the plant species Cannabis saliva.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 24, 2014, 06:50:39 AM
I completed the quiz, and I suppose I do not know all that much about weed:  I had 10 correct answers and 10 incorrect.  I beat the "Average Reader," whose score was 45%.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on March 24, 2014, 09:17:20 AM
How do you do an ASIN link for books? I see the ISBN listings, but no ASIN numbers for them.

A Storm Of Swords by George R. R. Martin
The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel
Shift by Hugh Howey
Saints Alive by Lou Schuler
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 24, 2014, 09:27:13 AM
Quote from: stingo on March 24, 2014, 09:17:20 AM
How do you do an ASIN link for books? I see the ISBN listings, but no ASIN numbers for them.

A Storm Of Swords by George R. R. Martin

Find the URL at Amazon . . . and it's that ten-digit dealy after the /dp/:

Code Select
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Swords-Song-Ice-Fire/dp/1613832796/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1395681768&sr=1-1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on March 24, 2014, 11:15:40 AM
Thanks!

[asin]0553106635[/asin] [asin]B002LHRLNE[/asin] [asin]B00B6Z6HI2[/asin] [asin]B00ISCOOJU[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 24, 2014, 11:17:59 AM
Quote from: stingo on March 24, 2014, 11:15:40 AM
Thanks!

Al vostro servizio!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on March 28, 2014, 07:00:10 PM
an insider's history of the Allen Organ Company (caution: 20th Century electronics)
Triumphs & Trials of an Organ Builder  by  Jerome Markowitz
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 29, 2014, 04:31:18 PM
Finished W.G. Sebald's On the Natural History of Destruction and Leonardo Sciascia's The Day of the Owl. Both short but very good books. Sebald's is a collection of lectures on writers and history, with the main one being the destruction of German cities during the WWII. Sciascia is becoming my new favourite author. His writing about Italy, the mafia is fascinating and almost like watching a good Italian movie from the 1960s.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EWBF8BNML._SL500_AA300_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HDP7axZ%2BL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on March 31, 2014, 08:49:09 AM
Finished A Storm Of Swords, and have just started:

[asin]0553801503[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 31, 2014, 09:25:33 AM
Oh, the crows will be pleased!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on March 31, 2014, 12:37:43 PM
science nerds might dig my current read.
[asin]0804139024[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 02, 2014, 05:25:01 AM
Oh, and I'm also catching up on The Walking Dead comic via Comixology.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: chasmaniac on April 02, 2014, 05:31:52 AM
Volume 2 of the Twain set, a bit at a time.

[asin]B00DCCQEBW[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 02, 2014, 06:27:51 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41U5Zuia7fL._SX105_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51pkdeNg-ZL._SX105_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41EHDjZqKbL._SX105_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51pTcauIGJL._SX105_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 02, 2014, 12:27:50 PM
Quote from: chasmaniac on April 02, 2014, 05:31:52 AM
Volume 2 of the Twain set, a bit at a time.

What were your opinions on Volume 1? I heard a lot of people say that it alternately was and was not worth the slog. I have a bit of a hard time imagining Mark Twain not being entertaining, but have not yet read these volumes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 03, 2014, 02:58:41 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 02, 2014, 12:27:50 PM
Quote from: chasmaniac on April 02, 2014, 05:31:52 AM
Volume 2 of the Twain set, a bit at a time.
[asin]B00DCCQEBW[/asin]

What were your opinions on Volume 1? I heard a lot of people say that it alternately was and was not worth the slog. I have a bit of a hard time imagining Mark Twain not being entertaining, but have not yet read these volumes.

Thank you both for this alert!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: chasmaniac on April 03, 2014, 03:13:24 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 02, 2014, 12:27:50 PM
What were your opinions on Volume 1? I heard a lot of people say that it alternately was and was not worth the slog. I have a bit of a hard time imagining Mark Twain not being entertaining, but have not yet read these volumes.

There is a long intro plus notations in vol 1 that are of academic interest only. The Twain is great fun, if longwinded. You find yourself listening to him speak at length, rather than reciting an edited, final draft. Vol 2 loses the intro of course. I wouldn't call either great literature, but they are a delightful and fascinating revelation of the man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 03, 2014, 04:00:42 AM
Well, I'd approach it as a document rather than as literature, and I expect to enjoy it. I've now got Vol. 1 on my Kindle . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on April 04, 2014, 10:56:35 PM
The second book in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch,  'Moon Over Soho'.
Crime and wizards are an unusual genre for me, I must be enjoying it as I've read the other two.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 05, 2014, 11:00:04 AM
(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781455550616_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)

For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 05, 2014, 11:13:13 AM
Quote from: listener on April 04, 2014, 10:56:35 PM
The second book in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch,  'Moon Over Soho'.
Crime and wizards are an unusual genre for me, I must be enjoying it as I've read the other two.

It's all your fault that I now own Midnight Riot. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 05, 2014, 05:30:19 PM
Quote from: Bogey on April 05, 2014, 11:00:04 AM


For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic.

Yup that is a good read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 05, 2014, 07:03:28 PM
Quote from: DavidW on April 05, 2014, 05:30:19 PM
Yup that is a good read.

Did you catch the Amazon pilot yet?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 05, 2014, 09:07:55 PM
Quote from: mn dave on April 05, 2014, 11:13:13 AM
It's all your fault that I now own Midnight Riot. :)
Me too, although I have not yet actually started to read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on April 06, 2014, 02:31:18 AM
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/66/9a/3637224128a0ee57c2a65010.L.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412dDQfjH2L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 06, 2014, 04:03:30 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 05, 2014, 09:07:55 PM
Me too, although I have not yet actually started to read it.

It's the first in the series, mo?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on April 06, 2014, 04:29:33 AM
Quote from: mn dave on April 06, 2014, 04:03:30 AM
It's the first in the series, mo?
Yes.   Moon over Soho and Whispers under Ground are sequels and should be read in order as there is some character development in the sequence.
Like the Three conetts film series: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 06, 2014, 04:31:32 AM
Quote from: listener on April 06, 2014, 04:29:33 AM
Like the Three conetts film series: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End

  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 06, 2014, 05:53:58 AM
Quote from: Bogey on April 05, 2014, 07:03:28 PM
Did you catch the Amazon pilot yet?

?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 06, 2014, 09:18:14 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 06, 2014, 05:53:58 AM
?

http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-HD/dp/B00I3MQNWG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1396804671&sr=8-5&keywords=bosch
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 06, 2014, 10:27:13 AM
Awesome thanks I'll watch it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 07, 2014, 07:19:55 PM
A Feast For Crows finished - now onto:

[asin]0553801473[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 07, 2014, 07:33:09 PM
A Storm of Swords.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 08, 2014, 11:07:30 AM
Going to re-read The Crystal Cave.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 10, 2014, 12:50:23 PM
First Steinbeck I've read, first four chapter / 32 pages are very promising indeed. :)
(http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article8730529.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/49.-The-Grapes-of-Wrath.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 10, 2014, 01:47:51 PM
Quote from: North Star on April 10, 2014, 12:50:23 PM
First Steinbeck I've read, first four chapter / 32 pages are very promising indeed. :)
(http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article8730529.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/49.-The-Grapes-of-Wrath.jpg)

Hell yeah!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 10, 2014, 02:45:57 PM
Already itching to trample out that vintage....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 10, 2014, 03:07:42 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 10, 2014, 02:45:57 PM
Already itching to trample out that vintage....
Where vintage is trampled, I'll be there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 10, 2014, 03:35:57 PM
Finished The Monuments Men. I've not seen the movie, but the book wasn't really for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 10, 2014, 03:38:17 PM
Quote from: stingo on April 10, 2014, 03:35:57 PM
Finished The Monuments Men. I've not seen the movie, but the book wasn't really for me.
With the name Stingo I assume you've read Sophie's Choice?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 10, 2014, 05:55:13 PM
The Guide for the Perplexed.  So steeped in Aristotlean physics and metaphysics, not to mention Ptolemaic astronomy, it results in enough perplexities that A Guide To The Guide would be a very handy thing.

And for lighter reading Nexus 7 For Dummies.  This tablet thingy does not have a gentle learning curve.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 11, 2014, 03:38:34 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 10, 2014, 03:38:17 PM
With the name Stingo I assume you've read Sophie's Choice?

I have indeed. Have not seen the movie though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on April 11, 2014, 09:18:30 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 10, 2014, 05:55:13 PM
The Guide for the Perplexed.  So steeped in Aristotlean physics and metaphysics, not to mention Ptolemaic astronomy, it results in enough perplexities that A Guide To The Guide would be a very handy thing.

I do believe there is a Guide for the Guide, but why are you reading it?

(https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.svpply.com/large/902440.jpg?1387406819)

And oddly I cannot find an image for this text:

Five Norwegian poets : Tarjei Vesaas, Rolf Jacobsen, Olav Hauge, Gunvor Hofmo, Stein Mehren
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 13, 2014, 04:05:54 AM
Ibsen's play John Gabriel Borkman, very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 13, 2014, 05:48:14 PM
Quote from: Philo on April 11, 2014, 09:18:30 PM
I do believe there is a Guide for the Guide, but why are you reading it?

First, it has been long enough since I last read it that it has gotten pretty hazy in my mind.
Second, Maimonides covered this ground twice.  First in the Book One (of fourteen) of the Mishneh Torah, as part of Jewish religious law (halacha), and then again in the Guide, from the POV of philosophy.  There are some subtle differences, mostly of emphasis, and the contrast is interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Octave on April 13, 2014, 06:05:02 PM
Which translation/edition of the Maimonides did you read, Jeffrey?  I have only spent time with the Shlomo Pines.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 13, 2014, 06:14:09 PM
Quote from: Octave on April 13, 2014, 06:05:02 PM
Which translation/edition of the Maimonides did you read, Jeffrey?  I have only spent time with the Shlomo Pines.
Friedlander, I think.  It is downstairs at the moment--I mostly read it as I eat (feed soul and body at the same time).  The Dover paperback.  When I first read it, it was the Pires, but the bindings fell apart, and the Dover turned out to be cheaper and much better bound.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 14, 2014, 01:56:49 PM
Quote from: Octave on April 13, 2014, 06:05:02 PMI have only spent time with the Shlomo Pines.
Shlomo Pines sounds like a Jewish retirement community.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 14, 2014, 02:56:37 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 14, 2014, 01:56:49 PM
Shlomo Pines sounds like a Jewish retirement community.

I live in Pembroke Pines, not far from the big retirement community of Century Village (Red Buttons Place as it used to be advertised).

Friedlander made the first complete English translation;  Pines is the modern translator,  published by University of Chicago.

The subject is further complicated by the fact that Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon, or RAMBAM--RAbbi Moshe Ben Maimon) wrote the Guide in Arabic, and although a Hebrew translation was immediately made for European Jews and served as the standard text for the next thousand years,  it's the Arabic text which is authoritative, even though it's a major landmark in Jewish philosophy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 14, 2014, 03:22:22 PM
Jason Merkoski: Burning the Page: The eBook Revolution and the Future of Reading [Kindle Edition]

[asin]B00BEXP52K[/asin]

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jay F on April 14, 2014, 03:28:41 PM
Quote from: Bogey on April 05, 2014, 11:00:04 AM
(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781455550616_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)

For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic.

I'm rereading Bosch in order. I'm up to Trunk Music. I started as a result of seeing the Amazon pilot, btw, Bill. I like it, and though I would never have thought to cast Titus Welliver, I like him a lot. Twenty-however many years ago, I pictured Richard Dreyfus, and he's stayed as my mental picture of Harry Bosch.

[asin]B000FC1MMS[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 14, 2014, 03:52:42 PM
Quote from: Jay F on April 14, 2014, 03:28:41 PM
I'm rereading Bosch in order. I'm up to Trunk Music. I started as a result of seeing the Amazon pilot, btw, Bill. I like it, and though I would never have thought to cast Titus Welliver, I like him a lot. Twenty-however many years ago, I pictured Richard Dreyfus, and he's stayed as my mental picture of Harry Bosch.


Want to know something?  I picture Bosch as looking like Harnoncourt just because all those pics make that conductor look so world weary!! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 14, 2014, 05:05:09 PM
Ha!  Saw the pilot first so Titus Welliver works fine.  :D  Always tell my kiddos to read the book first.  Shame on me.  How does the series seem as a whole, Jay?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jay F on April 14, 2014, 06:12:45 PM
Quote from: Bogey on April 14, 2014, 05:05:09 PM
Ha!  Saw the pilot first so Titus Welliver works fine.  :D  Always tell my kiddos to read the book first.  Shame on me.  How does the series seem as a whole, Jay?

I like it a lot, Bill. I watched it a second time. It combined stories from two books, which I found slightly confusing, then quite amusing. I look forward to more episodes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on April 17, 2014, 01:19:42 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 13, 2014, 05:48:14 PM
First, it has been long enough since I last read it that it has gotten pretty hazy in my mind.
Second, Maimonides covered this ground twice.  First in the Book One (of fourteen) of the Mishneh Torah, as part of Jewish religious law (halacha), and then again in the Guide, from the POV of philosophy.  There are some subtle differences, mostly of emphasis, and the contrast is interesting.

I guess what I mean is this of interest to your personal thought?

I'm still continuing my foray into the poetry of the frigid North.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 17, 2014, 06:58:52 PM
This came the other day

(http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/images/glaen1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 18, 2014, 02:14:55 PM
Ordered from Amazon MP  (need to beat the start of Florida sales tax on May 1)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AOkg7jzUL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
essays by Donna Leon,  with a CD of Complesso Barocco performing music of Vivaldi (not sure what exact works are involved; I'm guessing isolated movements from the Four Seasons and other Greatest Hits)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EXrLs0j3L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511IuTzvBTL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WLCy1lMzL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
because I liked the one book of his I read a couple of months ago ("Shakespeare's Pub")

And from Barnes and Noble, one online and one instore,  because I'm liking the first of the series (Midnight Riot aka Rivers of London),  entries 2 and 3 of the Peter Grant series from Ben Aaronovitch,  Moon over Soho and Whispers Underground.  H/T to Listener.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 18, 2014, 04:25:54 PM
The Long Firm by Jake Arnott, a novel about gay gangsters in London in 1964.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 19, 2014, 06:10:04 AM
"The beer drinker's Bill Bryson"? I'll have to read that; it sounds terrific. Although it's also a contradiction: Bill Bryson is quite the beer drinker himself, as you'll know if you read The Lost Continent, which is mostly an account of getting wasted in various American cities and having unfriendly encounters with staircases.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 21, 2014, 09:31:51 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 10, 2014, 05:55:13 PM
The Guide for the Perplexed.

At first sight I thought of E. F. Schumacher...  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 22, 2014, 04:40:39 AM
Finished A Dance With Dragons. Now to wait for The Winds Of Winter...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 22, 2014, 05:37:07 AM
Quote from: stingo on April 22, 2014, 04:40:39 AM
Finished A Dance With Dragons. Now to wait for The Winds Of Winter...

Well done! But waiting sucks. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 22, 2014, 05:43:03 AM
Quote from: mn dave on April 22, 2014, 05:37:07 AM
Well done! But waiting sucks. :)

I know, right? Actually I could read the chapters of it that have been released, but having read some 2k+ pages of the same story, it will be nice to read something else for a change of pace.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 22, 2014, 07:52:59 AM
Quote from: stingo on April 22, 2014, 05:43:03 AM
I know, right? Actually I could read the chapters of it that have been released, but having read some 2k+ pages of the same story, it will be nice to read something else for a change of pace.

Yeah, I like switching off. So many genres of good fiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 22, 2014, 09:13:24 AM
New one, from the book club to which I belong....

[asin]B000PDZFKC[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on April 22, 2014, 02:35:59 PM
Quote from: stingo on April 22, 2014, 09:13:24 AM
New one, from the book club to which I belong....

[asin]B000PDZFKC[/asin]
One of the few contemporary novels I enjoyed without reservations over the last few years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on April 22, 2014, 02:43:17 PM
Quote from: mn dave on March 31, 2014, 12:37:43 PM
science nerds might dig my current read.
[asin]0804139024[/asin]
Thanks for this. It wasn't the most well-written or thoroughly realized book - in terms of characterization - but it was a lot of fun and will eventually make a good flick...as opposed to this:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c0/Thecorrectionscvr.jpg/200px-Thecorrectionscvr.jpg)
...which was well-written and fully realized yet mostly succeeded only in annoying me.
I just started this one but it already seems quite interesting:
(http://theskiesbelongtous.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/bookauthorpage.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 22, 2014, 02:51:35 PM
Quote from: milk on April 22, 2014, 02:43:17 PM
Thanks for this. It wasn't the most well-written or thoroughly realized book - in terms of characterization - but it was a lot of fun and will eventually make a good flick...as opposed to this:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c0/Thecorrectionscvr.jpg/200px-Thecorrectionscvr.jpg)
...which was well-written and fully realized yet mostly succeeded only in annoying me.

I have attempted to read that book 4 times. The farthest I've gotten is page 3, because the prose annoys me so much. It's very, very rare that I start a book and do not finish it, and unprecedented to give up so many times on the same book, so quickly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on April 22, 2014, 03:10:20 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 22, 2014, 02:51:35 PM
I have attempted to read that book 4 times. The farthest I've gotten is page 3, because the prose annoys me so much. It's very, very rare that I start a book and do not finish it, and unprecedented to give up so many times on the same book, so quickly.
It took a lot of will to get through to the end. I see Franzen is considered in some quarters to be one of the greatest contemporary authors. I originally read Franzen's "Freedom" because I confused him with Safran Foer, who I think is better. Freedom wasn't great either but I think it was better than Corrections. Changing pace here, has anyone here ever read Amitav Ghosh? Another totally unrelated question is, not having ever read Dune, am I missing a great experience?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 22, 2014, 03:17:54 PM
Quote from: milk on April 22, 2014, 03:10:20 PMI see Franzen is considered in some quarters to be one of the greatest contemporary authors.

Personally I consider Franzen to be a writer who has spent his career obsessed with correcting the fact that he is not David Foster Wallace, a sort of Salieri-in-the-movie figure in contemporary literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 22, 2014, 03:42:32 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 22, 2014, 02:51:35 PM
I have attempted to read that book 4 times. The farthest I've gotten is page 3, because the prose annoys me so much. It's very, very rare that I start a book and do not finish it, and unprecedented to give up so many times on the same book, so quickly.
I used to be like that. Then I realized I had on my shelves more than I can read in a decade.
One of the advantages of reading mostly non fiction is you can drop a book and it wasn't a total waste.

Thread Duty How Jesus Became God, by Bart Ehrman
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 22, 2014, 03:47:33 PM
Quote from: milk on April 22, 2014, 02:43:17 PM
Thanks for this. It wasn't the most well-written or thoroughly realized book - in terms of characterization - but it was a lot of fun and will eventually make a good flick...

Indeed!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 22, 2014, 06:16:08 PM
Quote from: milk on April 22, 2014, 03:10:20 PM
Another totally unrelated question is, not having ever read Dune, am I missing a great experience?

you might like it, but it's very much a child of its time in terms of themes, etc.  If you ever saw the SciFi channel adaptation,  you can probably skip it.  (or at least judge from that version if you'd like the book).   If you ever saw the first movie adaptation, with Sting and Jose Ferrer,  understand that you missed out on about 90 percent of it (the SciFI version missed out on quite a bit, but mostly kept its cuts to the stuff that probably doesn't translate well to the screen in the first place).   A lot of the goodness of the book lies in the background detail--Herbert was an excellent "Subcreator", to use JRR's term.

Overall, try it,  but you may not actually like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 22, 2014, 07:53:54 PM
Quote from: milk on April 22, 2014, 03:10:20 PM
It took a lot of will to get through to the end. I see Franzen is considered in some quarters to be one of the greatest contemporary authors. I originally read Franzen's "Freedom" because I confused him with Safran Foer, who I think is better. Freedom wasn't great either but I think it was better than Corrections. Changing pace here, has anyone here ever read Amitav Ghosh? Another totally unrelated question is, not having ever read Dune, am I missing a great experience?
Ahhh. Dune. Another entry for the hate threads. It starts so, so well. I loathe that book.

Is this "let's discuss all the stuff Ken B hates" week? Is a Deepak Chopra thread in the offing? Fried liver recipes?

Of course it could be I just hate a lot of stuff. But it does seem you guys are hitting an awful lot of them!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on April 22, 2014, 10:23:10 PM
Almost done with the kindle sample of

[asin]067443000X[/asin]

He writes well, or at least it reads well in translation, so I think I'll get the whole thing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on April 22, 2014, 10:24:49 PM
A lone reviewer selling viewers on reading Pynchon's Mason & Dixon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juItmzOPmYE
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on April 23, 2014, 12:40:53 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 22, 2014, 06:16:08 PM
you might like it, but it's very much a child of its time in terms of themes, etc.  If you ever saw the SciFi channel adaptation,  you can probably skip it.  (or at least judge from that version if you'd like the book).   If you ever saw the first movie adaptation, with Sting and Jose Ferrer,  understand that you missed out on about 90 percent of it (the SciFI version missed out on quite a bit, but mostly kept its cuts to the stuff that probably doesn't translate well to the screen in the first place).   A lot of the goodness of the book lies in the background detail--Herbert was an excellent "Subcreator", to use JRR's term.

Overall, try it,  but you may not actually like it.
I'm looking for some sci-fi to love. Over my last vacation I tried the Robinson Mars series and Hyperion. Both start well. Hyperion was much better but I still felt like I'd had enough by the time I started the second one. To me, like a Song of Fire and Ice, Mars is potentially a better TV series than book-series. You'd think those authors were getting paid by the word.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 23, 2014, 04:54:22 AM
Quote from: milk on April 23, 2014, 12:40:53 AM
I'm looking for some sci-fi to love. Over my last vacation I tried the Robinson Mars series and Hyperion. Both start well. Hyperion was much better but I still felt like I'd had enough by the time I started the second one. To me, like a Song of Fire and Ice, Mars is potentially a better TV series than book-series. You'd think those authors were getting paid by the word.

If dystopian futures are your thing, you might want to try Hugh Howey's Silo Trilogy - Wool, Shift and Dust.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 23, 2014, 04:57:36 AM
Quote from: stingo on April 23, 2014, 04:54:22 AM
If dystopian futures are your thing...
I'd love to live in a dystopian future!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 23, 2014, 06:32:24 AM
Quote from: milk on April 23, 2014, 12:40:53 AM
I'm looking for some sci-fi to love. Over my last vacation I tried the Robinson Mars series and Hyperion. Both start well. Hyperion was much better but I still felt like I'd had enough by the time I started the second one. To me, like a Song of Fire and Ice, Mars is potentially a better TV series than book-series. You'd think those authors were getting paid by the word.

Have you read the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 23, 2014, 06:54:47 AM
Court halts Oklahoma executions: why lethal injection is now so controversial (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2014/0422/Court-halts-Oklahoma-executions-why-lethal-injection-is-now-so-controversial)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 23, 2014, 06:56:45 AM
Rereading Harry Potter books, it seems I have grown into love-hate relationship with it, as seems to be case with more and more works that I read.

Sorry about having so old quote from North Star but when I was browsing through this topic, this caught my attention.
Quote from: North Star on September 11, 2013, 10:53:54 AM
Why should the boy who got in the team because his dad bought everyone in the team the most expensive broomstick win?

I don't know. Part of me believes that wasn't the only reason he got in team. I think it's a case of bit of a protagonist centered morality. While I have no doubt that it was part of the reason he got in the team I think it is remarked at least once, I think in Philosopher's stone, that Draco really is a good flyer. Harry is perhaps better than him, having won against him several times, but I'm not sure if that makes him a bad one (a flyer, that is, as person, see below). I remember that you said earlier in that post that Slytherin team really wasn't that bad, that remark about him buying his way in team just caught my attention. I am sure the bribe from Lucius played a part, maybe even a big part in it, I just don't think that was the only reason.

Now, about other things in Harry Potter. The biggest problems I have with this book are the main character being much of a Mary Sue, succeeding in almost everything (sure it is mentioned that in past, before he knew he was a wizard, he was always picked as last one in physical education: the thing is we never actually see those moments, the moments we actually see are mostly him about winning again and again and again.). Other important part I don't like in these series is the afore mentioned protagonist centered morality. I think the worst parts of this are evident when:
a) In philosopher's stone Dumbledore first congratulates Slytherin about winning a house cup but then says he has to give a "few" last minute-points, which end up being, if I remember correctly, 170 points, just enough for Gryffindor to win Slytherin. Seems rather unfair and prejudiced, doesn't it, considering Dumbledore himself was in Gryffindor.
b) In one book it is mentioned that Fred and George shove this guy named Montague in vanishing cabinet, which, it is mentioned, could have have fatal consequences. He is mentioned having tried to take unfairly points from them but does that justify essentially attempted murder? Even Hermione is only worried that Fred and George would get in trouble for doing this, not because their actions were, you know, homicidal. The fact that they don't care about things like that (including many others, I think one book actually ends with Draco and his friends turned into some slug-like creatures) makes it inconsistent when, in Half-blood Prince, Harry is horrified when he uses Sectumsempra against Draco, almost killing him. And in that instance using a spell like that sounds to me more understandable, considering that Draco didn't try to take points from him but to use a cruciatus curse on him. Sure, it was still a horrifying occurrence but you know, they didn't care about things like that earlier.
c) Portraying Slytherins as jerks. Sure there are nice slytherins like Slughorn but I don't think that's quite enough. Even though Rowling herself has said that there are many nice Slytherins. Then there are guys like Snape and Draco, who are definitely jerks but in the end they try to take steps of atonement for their wrong-doings. Which leads us to things that I really love in these books.

First, I have to say that Rowling is really innovative, having created a beautifully constructed fantasy setting. Her books also have a strong structural unity. And finally I like that (in the last books that is) she uses shades of grey in these books. Yes, I know I complained earlier about protagonist centered morality but things are not quite so all the time. Mentioning some characters now that have either showed remarkable growth in character or at least passing shade of humanity.

Draco is a piece of work. He is definitely not a nice man but he's hardly a psychopath. In last two books he shows a humane side in him, a scared teenager, afraid of that the new Hitler could kill him and his parents if he doesn't obey him. While his attempts to murder Dumbledore are very bad things, you must remember the rule "Blood is thicker than water". Dumbledore, even if he was justified in doing so, was responsible for imprisoning his father in a place that is described as a horrific, human rights abusing place. Lucius of course hardly deserves great food and soft beds, but you can still at least see bit of a Draco's point of view. And ultimately, Draco can't bring himself to directly murder him. I love that. In last book it also is hinted that he recognices Potter and his friends in Malfoy manor, but he seems reluctant to rat them out. It is also mentioned by Rowling that he probably tried to raise his son Scorpius as a better person, meaning that he learned something after all.

About other Malfoys etc: I believe that several fans believed that Lucius's and Narcissas marriage was loveless but I think the final book pretty much proves that while they are not nice persons they really genuinely care about each other. Even one of the most evil characters in the series, Bellatrix Lestrange, seems to genuinely love Narcissa as a sister. Not so sure about her other, disowned sister Andromeda, though.

Then of course there is Snape. He bullies children, is emotionally abusive to them. That is one of the worst things teacher can do to a student. Yet he is also painfully humane. While I guessed from the start that Snape was in love with Lily (as I also guessed about 95 % of things that happened in the last book) I think it is still very craftfully done.

Sorry for the long post and possible typos!


Edit: One final thing I really like about the way Rowling handled Malfoys was the fact that all of them managed to avoid prison. That was probably not completely fair but that kind of thing really happens in real life and I hate it when in some books (cough, Dickens, cough) every single not so likable person gets some divine retribution. So I am glad that Rowling handled it this way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on April 23, 2014, 07:38:25 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 23, 2014, 06:32:24 AM
Have you read the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds?
Quote from: stingo on April 23, 2014, 04:54:22 AM
If dystopian futures are your thing, you might want to try Hugh Howey's Silo Trilogy - Wool, Shift and Dust.
Thanks! I'll look into these.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 23, 2014, 08:05:36 AM
Quote from: Alberich on April 23, 2014, 06:56:45 AM
Rereading Harry Potter books, it seems I have grown into love-hate relationship with it, as seems to be case with more and more works that I read.

Sorry about having so old quote from North Star but when I was browsing through this topic, this caught my attention.
I don't know. Part of me believes that wasn't the only reason he got in team. I think it's a case of bit of a protagonist centered morality. While I have no doubt that it was part of the reason he got in the team I think it is remarked at least once, I think in Philosopher's stone, that Draco really is a good flyer. Harry is perhaps better than him, having won against him several times, but I'm not sure if that makes him a bad one (a flyer, that is, as person, see below). I remember that you said earlier in that post that Slytherin team really wasn't that bad, that remark about him buying his way in team just caught my attention. I am sure the bribe from Lucius played a part, maybe even a big part in it, I just don't think that was the only reason.

Now, about other things in Harry Potter. The biggest problems I have with this book are the main character being much of a Mary Sue, succeeding in almost everything (sure it is mentioned that in past, before he knew he was a wizard, he was always picked as last one in physical education: the thing is we never actually see those moments, the moments we actually see are mostly him about winning again and again and again.). Other important part I don't like in these series is the afore mentioned protagonist centered morality. I think the worst parts of this are evident when:
a) In philosopher's stone Dumbledore first congratulates Slytherin about winning a house cup but then says he has to give a "few" last minute-points, which end up being, if I remember correctly, 170 points, just enough for Gryffindor to win Slytherin. Seems rather unfair and prejudiced, doesn't it, considering Dumbledore himself was in Gryffindor.

Surely you can't mean that the points he awarded were unfair - or that Snape giving points to his students and taking from others at whim is less objectionable, and not further justification for those additional points (which, again, were more than deserved)? I doubt that Dumbledore's own house when he was a student there literally a hundred years earlier influenced his judgement there.

Quoteb) In one book it is mentioned that Fred and George shove this guy named Montague in vanishing cabinet, which, it is mentioned, could have have fatal consequences. He is mentioned having tried to take unfairly points from them but does that justify essentially attempted murder? Even Hermione is only worried that Fred and George would get in trouble for doing this, not because their actions were, you know, homicidal. The fact that they don't care about things like that (including many others, I think one book actually ends with Draco and his friends turned into some slug-like creatures) makes it inconsistent when, in Half-blood Prince, Harry is horrified when he uses Sectumsempra against Draco, almost killing him. And in that instance using a spell like that sounds to me more understandable, considering that Draco didn't try to take points from him but to use a cruciatus curse on him. Sure, it was still a horrifying occurrence but you know, they didn't care about things like that earlier.
Remember that Harry used the curse without knowing what it would do - of course he is horrified to discover that this curse he saw written in his school book by a former student was so severe. Sectumsempra was also irreversible when it cut a body part away. Most of the other nonlethal curses, poisonings or other physical damages were curable or reversible.

Quotec) Portraying Slytherins as jerks. Sure there are nice slytherins like Slughorn but I don't think that's quite enough. Even though Rowling herself has said that there are many nice Slytherins. Then there are guys like Snape and Draco, who are definitely jerks but in the end they try to take steps of atonement for their wrong-doings. Which leads us to things that I really love in these books.
Slughorn did have his unpleasant features too - possibly a paedophile, who 'collects' the most promising students, and "you can only say 'no' to the Death Eaters so many times" was rather ambiguous too. Trouble is, the nice Slytherins may be there, but they aren't likely to be included in the stories, as being nice and being a 'double agent' aren't the same thing.
Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor, and obviously the original trio of Gryffindor pals (Potter sr., Lupin, Black) weren't exactly pleasant or tolerant people in school, but they grew up.

QuoteFirst, I have to say that Rowling is really innovative, having created a beautifully constructed fantasy setting. Her books also have a strong structural unity. And finally I like that (in the last books that is) she uses shades of grey in these books. Yes, I know I complained earlier about protagonist centered morality but things are not quite so all the time. Mentioning some characters now that have either showed remarkable growth in character or at least passing shade of humanity.

Draco is a piece of work. He is definitely not a nice man but he's hardly a psychopath. In last two books he shows a humane side in him, a scared teenager, afraid of that the new Hitler could kill him and his parents if he doesn't obey him. While his attempts to murder Dumbledore are very bad things, you must remember the rule "Blood is thicker than water". Dumbledore, even if he was justified in doing so, was responsible for imprisoning his father in a place that is described as a horrific, human rights abusing place. Lucius of course hardly deserves great food and soft beds, but you can still at least see bit of Draco's point of view. And ultimately, Draco can't bring himself to directly murder him. I love that. In last book it also is hinted that he recognices Potter and his friends in Malfoy manor, but he seems reluctant to rat them out. It is also mentioned by Rowling that he probably tried to raise his son Scorpius as a better person, meaning that he learned something after all.
Draco is definitely a victim of circumstances, since his parents are the proud, opportunistic racist scumbags they are - and between the rock and the hard place themselves, with Voldemort's new rise to power, and Draco doesn't really have a choice until in the very end.
And yes, he actually did develop into an excellent seeker, and was a good flier.

QuoteAbout other Malfoys etc: I believe that several fans believed that Lucius's and Narcissas marriage was loveless but I think the final book pretty much proves that while they are not nice persons they really genuinely care about each other. Even one of the most evil characters in the series, Bellatrix Lestrange, seems to genuinely love Narcissa as a sister. Not so sure about her other, disowned sister Andromeda, though.
Racial purity and family sort of go together, so it's only natural that they get along very well with family members who share their ideas.

QuoteThen of course there is Snape. He bullies children, is emotionally abusive to them. That is one of the worst things teacher can do to a student. Yet he is also painfully humane. While I guessed from the start that Snape was in love with Lily (as I also guessed about 95 % of things that happened in the last book) I think it is still very craftfully done.
Well yes, he was stuck in a job he didn't especially like, and was constantly reminded of Lily and James when Harry was around, and the actions that lead to their death, and had rather heavy workload in addition to the teaching - no wonder he was a bit snappy.

QuoteSorry for the long post and possible typos!
You are forgiven ;)
QuoteEdit: One final thing I really like about the way Rowling handled Malfoys was the fact that all of them managed to avoid prison. That was probably not completely fair but that kind of thing really happens in real life and I hate it when in some books (cough, Dickens, cough) every single not so likable person gets some divine retribution. So I am glad that Rowling handled it this way.
Agreed. Again, it's one thing to kill and torture on a whim, and quite another when you are yourself killed unless you do as you are told.

Anyway, there are so many great characters in the books, and plots, subplots and sub-subplots that are rather finely managed, and written in wonderful language, that the books are a joy to (re)read
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 23, 2014, 08:42:51 AM
Quote from: North Star on April 23, 2014, 08:05:36 AM
Surely you can't mean that the points he awarded were unfair - or that Snape giving points to his students and taking from others at whim is less objectionable, and not further justification for those additional points (which, again, were more than deserved)? I doubt that Dumbledore's own house when he was a student there literally a hundred years earlier influenced his judgement there.

Slughorn did have his unpleasant features too - possibly a paedophile, who 'collects' the most promising students, and "you can only say 'no' to the Death Eaters so many times" was rather ambiguous too. Trouble is, the nice Slytherins may be there, but they aren't likely to be included in the stories, as being nice and being a 'double agent' aren't the same thing.

No, I didn't mean that: they were richly deserved and Snape's taking points from other students is certainly not justified. I guess the problem I have with this is that Dumbledore gave just barely enough points for Gryffindor to win, I think it was by a marginal of 10 points or so and it kind of feels like he's saying "ha ha, in your face!" I'm not so sure about Slughorn being possibly a paedophile and yes, I agree that his collecting of gifted students is a bit elitistic but I still think that he is a relatively nice person.

Always nice to talk about Harry Potter with you! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on April 23, 2014, 05:08:20 PM
Look Who's Back    (translated from the Hungarian)
not for those who offended by Sacha Baron Cohen and the like
Adolf returns as a TV host.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 24, 2014, 05:44:16 AM
(http://www.danfintescu.ro/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/conversatie-la-catedrala.jpg)

Mario Vargas Llosa - Conversation in the Cathedral

Excellent on all accounts, just as each and every MVL's book I've read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 24, 2014, 05:48:07 AM
I dipped a toe into Main Street by Sinclair Lewis last night.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 24, 2014, 06:01:54 AM
Well, I have plunged into a re-read of Madeleine L'Engle's "Time quintet."

A Wrinkle in Time is a favorite from childhood, so I could not hope to be dispassionate.

I found A Wind in the Door better this second time.

At present, in the middle of A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 24, 2014, 06:23:03 AM
Actually, living as I do, split between three households (ours, my parents' and my in-laws') I read three books simultaneously. The other two are:

(http://www.humanitas.ro/files/tome/cover/978-973-50-3563-1.jpg?1370266866)
Gregor von Rezzori - The Snows Of Yesteryear

(http://www.bookblog.ro/cover/jurnalintim.jpg)
Miguel de Unamuno - Intimate Diary

Needless to say, I enjoy them immensely.

In fact, my reading philosophy is not to read the books I enjoy, but to enjoy the books I read.  :D The only exception so far has been Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code --- the only book I've ever regretted buying in 30 years of bookworming.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 24, 2014, 06:41:07 AM
Well, the provocation was exceptional ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 24, 2014, 06:47:34 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 24, 2014, 06:41:07 AM
Well, the provocation was exceptional ;)

Bah, it was just humbug!  ;D Three historical inaccuracies every other page... it made Alexandre Dumas look like the most scrupulous historian evere known...  :D


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: HIPster on April 24, 2014, 08:34:15 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 24, 2014, 06:01:54 AM
Well, I have plunged into a re-read of Madeleine L'Engle's "Time quintet."

A Wrinkle in Time is a favorite from childhood, so I could not hope to be dispassionate.

I found A Wind in the Door better this second time.

At present, in the middle of A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

Nice!

I've been thinking of doing a re-read myself, Karl.  I recently thumbed through a copy of the somewhat recently released graphic novel adaptation - are familiar with it?  Looks interesting as a nice supplemental read:
[asin]0374386153[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on April 24, 2014, 08:35:49 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 24, 2014, 06:01:54 AM
Well, I have plunged into a re-read of Madeleine L'Engle's "Time quintet."

A Wrinkle in Time is a favorite from childhood, so I could not hope to be dispassionate.

I found A Wind in the Door better this second time.

At present, in the middle of A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

I think I bought one of those on your recommendation. Still wedged in the TBR pile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 24, 2014, 08:56:24 AM
Quote from: mn dave on April 24, 2014, 08:35:49 AM
I think I bought one of those on your recommendation. Still wedged in the TBR pile.

Mrs Who, with her penchant for quotation (and often in languages other than English) appealed to me in my nerdly youth ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 24, 2014, 11:49:06 AM
Quote from: WikipediaDavid Rowley found it to be an "obvious copy of Bob Dylan", as where Lennon refers to the listener as a "friend", Dylan does the same on "Blowin' in the Wind".

Well, of course:  how could a songwriter address the listener as my friend unless he's copying Bob Dylan!

Pinheads on parade . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 24, 2014, 01:24:48 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 24, 2014, 08:56:24 AM
Mrs Who, with her penchant for quotation (and often in languages other than English) appealed to me in my nerdly youth ;)
What appealed to you in your non-nerdy youth?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 25, 2014, 04:52:18 AM
At this remove, I wonder if it had been all nerdly, all the time . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 25, 2014, 06:15:37 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 24, 2014, 05:44:16 AM
(http://www.danfintescu.ro/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/conversatie-la-catedrala.jpg)

Mario Vargas Llosa - Conversation in the Cathedral

Excellent on all accounts, just as each and every MVL's book I've read.
That's the only LLosa's book that I've read. Do you recommend anything else by him?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 25, 2014, 06:53:20 PM
Finished Saints Alive. Continuing Saturday and Shift.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 25, 2014, 07:05:03 PM
I bought the paper edition of Diary of a Bad Year; but after that, I changed my mind and decided to read the Kindle version of Elizabeth Costello (Spanish translation).

[asin]B0062X5H66[/asin]

I love this sort of novel of ideas: the dissection of a life and its history.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 25, 2014, 07:13:00 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 24, 2014, 05:44:16 AM
(http://www.danfintescu.ro/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/conversatie-la-catedrala.jpg)

Mario Vargas Llosa - Conversation in the Cathedral

Excellent on all accounts, just as each and every MVL's book I've read.

I agree: he is one of the greatest novelists alive.

That said, I am not that enthusiast in regards his (quite prolific) work as essayist. He is a great writer, but not a great thinker.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 27, 2014, 08:43:12 AM
Lots of rereading novels going on with me. Now it's time for David Copperfield. Last time I read it I noticed that the second half of the book is far less enjoyable than the first half. Coincidentally it gets worse right after my favorite character, Steerforth, has exited the story. Even the drowning of Steerforth in one chapter of the second half, "Tempest" felt far less dramatic than I remembered (well, actually, the drowning itself is dramatic but everything else in the chapter is far less impressive than I remembered after I first read it). Steery just isn't as much interesting character as a dead man as he is as a live one (from obvious reasons). I also find Agnes, the second wife of David, as much less interesting character than his first wife, Dora.

The second half of the book has it's merits too. This book doesn't have a single one pure evil character: even the most villainous ones have some humanizing factor. I never really understood the accuzation that Dickens makes his heroes pure good and his villains pure evil. He has several not-so-likable "heros" such as Pip, Gradgrind and Eugene Wrayburn and while he has some pure evil villains, it's not any unusually large amount of them that are pure evil. However I agree that he makes many young female characters unrealistically good and pure. The book is also remarkably funny. I never fail to laugh at micawber's "Heep of infamy" or "You know what I want?" "A strait-waistcoat."

If I would now list my favorite Dickens novels, it would be somewhat different from previous one. For ex. the old curiosity shop has proven itself much more enjoyable than Nickleby and while I still love David Copperfield, I somewhat dislike most of the second half.

I am also reading Victor Hugo's The history of a crime. It is a very impressive (if prejudiced) account of Napoleon III:'s coup d'etat from author's point of view.

(http://www.mondialbooks.com/pics/victor-hugo-history-of-a-crime-big.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 27, 2014, 10:38:48 AM
Quote from: Alberich on April 27, 2014, 08:43:12 AM
Lots of rereading novels going on with me. Now it's time for David Copperfield. Last time I read it I noticed that the second half of the book is far less enjoyable than the first half. Coincidentally it gets worse right after my favorite character, Steerforth, has exited the story. Even the drowning of Steerforth in one chapter of the second half, "Tempest" felt far less dramatic than I remembered (well, actually, the drowning itself is dramatic but everything else in the chapter is far less impressive than I remembered after I first read it). Steery just isn't as much interesting character as a dead man as he is as a live one (from obvious reasons). I also find Agnes, the second wife of David, as much less interesting character than his first wife, Dora.

The second half of the book has it's merits too. This book doesn't have a single one pure evil character: even the most villainous ones have some humanizing factor. I never really understood the accuzation that Dickens makes his heroes pure good and his villains pure evil. He has several not-so-likable "heros" such as Pip, Gradgrind and Eugene Wrayburn and while he has some pure evil villains, it's not any unusually large amount of them that are pure evil. However I agree that he makes many young female characters unrealistically good and pure. The book is also remarkably funny. I never fail to laugh at micawber's "Heep of infamy" or "You know what I want?" "A strait-waistcoat."

If I would now list my favorite Dickens novels, it would be somewhat different from previous one. For ex. the old curiosity shop has proven itself much more enjoyable than Nickleby and while I still love David Copperfield, I somewhat dislike most of the second half.

I am also reading Victor Hugo's The history of a crime. It is a very impressive (if prejudiced) account of Napoleon III:'s coup d'etat from author's point of view.

(http://www.mondialbooks.com/pics/victor-hugo-history-of-a-crime-big.jpg)
Mutual House are the top for me. Never read OCS.
Ever read Anthony Trollope?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 27, 2014, 11:47:59 AM
No, haven't really read Trollope. Don't even know much about him. Other victorian british author that I really love (and unlike with dickens it's not love-hate) is Robert Louis Stevenson. Also I should read some Thackeray. I recommend Old curiosity shop, it has really fun villain, Quilp, and he's source of much black humor. For ex. his emotional abuse of his wife can be very funny yet at the same time you almost think that you shouldn't laugh at things like these.

Here is a gem of a conversation with mr. Quilp and mrs. Quilp after latter has had tea with her mother without asking for Quilp's permission:

'Mrs Quilp.'

'Yes, Quilp.'

'If ever you listen to these beldames again, I'll bite you.'

Our Mutual friend also has awesome villain, tragic and sympathetic Bradley Headstone. I really feel sorry for him and his uncontrollable passion and love for Lizzie Hexam is superbly written. As for Bleak house, haven't read that yet although I know essentially what happens in it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 27, 2014, 12:57:31 PM
Quote from: Alberich on April 27, 2014, 11:47:59 AM
No, haven't really read Trollope. Don't even know much about him. Other victorian british author that I really love (and unlike with dickens it's not love-hate) is Robert Louis Stevenson. Also I should read some Thackeray. I recommend Old curiosity shop, it has really fun villain, Quilp, and he's source of much black humor. For ex. his emotional abuse of his wife can be very funny yet at the same time you almost think that you shouldn't laugh at things like these.

Here is a gem of a conversation with mr. Quilp and mrs. Quilp after latter has had tea with her mother without asking for Quilp's permission:

'Mrs Quilp.'

'Yes, Quilp.'

'If ever you listen to these beldames again, I'll bite you.'

Our Mutual friend also has awesome villain, tragic and sympathetic Bradley Headstone. I really feel sorry for him and his uncontrollable passion and love for Lizzie Hexam is superbly written. As for Bleak house, haven't read that yet although I know essentially what happens in it.
Give Trollope a try sometime.
Bleak House has fewer of the things to hate about Dickens than most of them, for me at least.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 27, 2014, 01:00:34 PM
Since I spent so long with A Song Of Ice And Fire, I decided to start over reading Hugh Howey's Shift.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 27, 2014, 03:16:23 PM
Finished two W. G. Sebald's books recently.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qoNhLg0sL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU15_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21j0baUGVfL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 27, 2014, 06:11:22 PM
My upcoming vacation to Denmark and Sweden is gonna have a crap-ton of book-readin' time: flights from Texas to Europe and back, three-hour ferry boats to and from the island of Gotland, possibly the train trips from Copenhagen to Stockholm if my traveling partner isn't a genius conversationalist.

So I have loaded a whole pile of diverse books onto my Kindle. Alphabetically now:
- Ball Four, Jim Bouton, the classic baseball memoir;
- Foreign Gods, Inc., Okey Ndibe, new thriller about a Nigerian immigrant finding lucrative ways to exploit his heritage;
- Mad Men on the Couch, Stephanie Newman, a psychotherapist diagnosing the TV show's characters;
- Making of a Chef, Michael Ruhlman, adventures in cooking school;
- Six Amendments, John Paul Stevens, short but brand-new book by the 94-year-old former justice, with his suggestions for constitutional amendments;
- Vampires in the Lemon Grove, Karen Russell, short stories.

Plus a clutch of Great Big Books I'm saving for a Summer of Russians: Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov, collected Tolstoy short stories.

Yeah, that should be plenty.

Currently reading The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, 2013 novel about a group of clever friends from teenage summer camp, and how they cope with each other's success, failure, envy, and pain. So far, better than I expected. Wolitzer's writing style and insightful reads on her characters suggest that I will enjoy her other novels, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 27, 2014, 07:32:41 PM
Quote from: Daverz on April 22, 2014, 10:23:10 PM
Almost done with the kindle sample of Thomas Piketty. He writes well, or at least it reads well in translation, so I think I'll get the whole thing.

Let us know about this, because I am keenly interested.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 29, 2014, 07:46:28 AM
Quote from: Artem on April 25, 2014, 06:15:37 PM
That's the only LLosa's book that I've read. Do you recommend anything else by him?

Our dear Florestan has been a bit slow this time, so I will take the word.  ;D

La ciudad y los perros, literally The City and the Dogs, translated as The Time of the Hero.

It was his first novel, also his first book publicly burnt in Lima.  :D

(Un)fortunately, I read it in Spanish, so I don't know anything about the quality of its English translation.

[asin]0571173209[/asin]

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 29, 2014, 08:01:57 AM
Quote from: Artem on April 27, 2014, 03:16:23 PM
Finished two W. G. Sebald's books recently.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qoNhLg0sL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU15_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21j0baUGVfL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

thought After Nature was one of his best works, how was Campo Santo?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 29, 2014, 08:50:40 PM
Quote from: Gordo on April 29, 2014, 07:46:28 AM
Our dear Florestan has been a bit slow this time, so I will take the word.  ;D

La ciudad y los perros, literally The City and the Dogs, translated as The Time of the Hero.

It was his first novel, also his first book publicly burnt in Lima.  :D

(Un)fortunately, I read it in Spanish, so I don't know anything about the quality of its English translation.

[asin]0571173209[/asin]

I liked Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, and the movie adaptation, forget the name, with Barbara Hershey and Peter Falk. (Tune in tomorrow?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 29, 2014, 09:17:13 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 29, 2014, 08:50:40 PM
I liked Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, and the movie adaptation, forget the name, with Barbara Hershey and Peter Falk. (Tune in tomorrow?)

I haven't watched that movie and I have always loved Hershey (from The Entity), so it sounds like a very good idea.  :)

P.S.: Yes, I see the title is Tune in Tomorrow...

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 30, 2014, 01:52:10 AM
Quote from: Gordo on April 29, 2014, 07:46:28 AM
Our dear Florestan has been a bit slow this time.  ;D

Raising my son is a full-time job now.  :D

Quote
La ciudad y los perros, literally The City and the Dogs, translated as The Time of the Hero.

It was his first novel, also his first book publicly burnt in Lima.  :D

(Un)fortunately, I read it in Spanish, so I don't know anything about the quality of its English translation.

[asin]0571173209[/asin]

I haven't read that, but coming from you I certainly second it.

So far I've read these:

1.The Green House (La casa verde)
2.The War of the End of the World (La guerra del fin del mundo)
3.Who Killed Palomino Molero? (¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero?)
4. Death in the Andes (Lituma en los Andes)
5. The Way to Paradise (El paraiso en la otra esquina)

I've enjoyed them all. Now it depends what you like to read. For a complicated story of love and betrayal set in coastal and jungle-ish Peru, go for 1. For a massive historical novel set in the early years of the Republic of Brazil and based on a real popular religious uprising, go for 2. For something on the lighter side, some detective stories with political overtones, go for 3 and 4. For a fictional account of Gauguin's life in the Marquise Islands intertwined with the life of his grandmother, the socialist and feminist writer and activist Flora Tristan, go for 5. Better yet, go for all of them, they are all of high literary quality.

Quote from: Gordo on April 25, 2014, 07:13:00 PM
I am not that enthusiast in regards his (quite prolific) work as essayist.
I haven't read any of his essays, just some political articles that I enjoyed but i am biased because I am quite a liberal myself.  ;) What topics does he cover?

Speaking of essays, I am very fond of Ernesto Sabato's.

One of his best is Man and Mechanism (http://webshells.com/spantrans/manmech.html) (original title Hombres y engranajes)

Quote
He is a great writer, but not a great thinker.

Oh, but that's a very rare combination. Who fits the bill for you?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 30, 2014, 06:07:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 30, 2014, 01:52:10 AM
Oh, but that's a very rare combination. Who fits the bill for you?

Ayn Rand is an awful thinker, but I was surprised at how suspenseful and page-turning her novels can be, even the parts that made me cringe because they were so poorly thought out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 30, 2014, 04:25:03 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 30, 2014, 01:52:10 AM

Oh, but that's a very rare combination. Who fits the bill for you?

Steven Pinker.
Cervantes.
Ayn Rand.
Homer.



okay, Ayn Rand is just there to make Brian's head explode.  >:D :laugh:
I haven't been able to read more than a page of her, and don't feel like I am missing much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 30, 2014, 04:36:31 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 30, 2014, 04:25:03 PM
okay, Ayn Rand is just there to make Brian's head explode.  >:D :laugh:
?? My head would explode because you agreed?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 30, 2014, 04:58:57 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 30, 2014, 04:36:31 PM
?? My head would explode because you agreed?
The combination is great writer AND thinker. So my list includes Rand as a great thinker.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 30, 2014, 06:15:00 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 29, 2014, 08:01:57 AM
thought After Nature was one of his best works, how was Campo Santo?
I didn't like Campo Santo as much as I though I would like it (except for the Corsica essays), considering that I've enjoyed On the natural history of destruction. For some reason, I didn't feel Sebald's voice in the selected essays for that book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 30, 2014, 07:01:06 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 30, 2014, 04:58:57 PM
The combination is great writer AND thinker. So my list includes Rand as a great thinker.

Ohhhhh I thought you were listing more people you thought were great writers but poor thinkers. So I was more confused why you were so mean about Cervantes and Homer!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 02, 2014, 11:20:27 AM
"Initially, I thought he was sleeping," she told the paper. "Then I saw he was texting." What a relief. (http://gothamist.com/2014/05/02/video_mta_bus_driver_bored_by_road.php)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 02, 2014, 11:33:58 AM
The 20 most fascinating accidental inventions (http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2012/1005/The-20-most-fascinating-accidental-inventions/Potato-chips)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 02, 2014, 02:49:40 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 02, 2014, 11:33:58 AM
The 20 most fascinating accidental inventions (http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2012/1005/The-20-most-fascinating-accidental-inventions/Potato-chips)
...by Americans?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 05, 2014, 12:24:13 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 30, 2014, 04:25:03 PM
Steven Pinker.
Haven't read anything by him.

Quote
Cervantes.
Homer.

Yes to both.

Quote
Ayn Rand.
No. Not for me in any case.  ;D

I suggest two lists:

1. More on the thinking side, but with excellent literary quality
Pascal
Schopenhauer
Nietzsche
Unamuno

2. More on the writing side, but with sharp and penetrating thoughts
Dante
Goethe
Proust
Tolstoy




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 05, 2014, 01:56:12 AM
My present reading:

[asin]0521162904[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on May 05, 2014, 07:51:07 AM
Emile Zola
Doctor Pascal

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/ZolaDoctorPascal.jpg/250px-ZolaDoctorPascal.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 05, 2014, 08:27:47 AM
Finished Shift, and started Dust, the last book in the Silo trilogy.

[asin]B00CYNGPTG[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 05, 2014, 11:04:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 05, 2014, 12:24:13 AM
Haven't read anything by him.

Yes to both.
No. Not for me in any case.  ;D

I suggest two lists:

1. More on the thinking side, but with excellent literary quality
Pascal
Schopenhauer
Nietzsche
Unamuno

2. More on the writing side, but with sharp and penetrating thoughts
Dante
Goethe
Proust
Tolstoy
Dante and Goethe yes, If I hadn't just been tweaking Brian I might have listed them. Tolstoy no no no. Great great novelist. I read WP twice. But a wretched thinker.
Flaubert, Stendahl, Maupassant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 05, 2014, 11:32:16 AM
Going through an Eliot phase...
2/3 through and for the moment it is slow going.  ???   However, she is a great writer. No doubt about it!

[asin] 0199538484[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 05, 2014, 11:34:38 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 05, 2014, 01:56:12 AM
My present reading:

[asin]0521162904[/asin]

How do you like that companion Karl?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 05, 2014, 11:57:25 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 05, 2014, 11:34:38 AM
How do you like that companion Karl?

Inhaling it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 05, 2014, 11:58:11 AM
Also reading:  Violence thwarted through community vigilance (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2014/0502/Minnesota-school-massacre-averted-template-for-community-vigilance).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 05, 2014, 12:04:15 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 05, 2014, 11:57:25 AM
Inhaling it!

That great, eh?  Hmm, some people inhale cookies while other inhale glue. You inhale the Cambridge companions...

(http://markb4.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/inhale.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 05, 2014, 12:08:13 PM
Not just any Cambridge Companion, buddy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 05, 2014, 12:12:23 PM
Well, then....

(http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/62906/cover/9780521162906.jpg) (http://markb4.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/inhale.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 05, 2014, 12:36:00 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 05, 2014, 11:57:25 AM
Inhaling it!
I knew you were on something,  after the Elgar > Wagner thing.

:o 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 05, 2014, 02:40:25 PM
I did not say that Elgar was greater than Wagner;  I only gave Elgar as an example of composers who learnt something from Wagner, and whose work made it worth the hassle of enduring Wagner.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 06, 2014, 01:43:36 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 05, 2014, 11:04:48 AM
Tolstoy [...] a wretched thinker.

Why?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on May 06, 2014, 03:55:47 AM
A Feast for Crows by GRRM
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 06, 2014, 04:48:53 AM
Quote from: stingo on May 05, 2014, 08:27:47 AM
Finished Shift, and started Dust, the last book in the Silo trilogy.

[asin]B00CYNGPTG[/asin]
Who recommended this to me here?????? I'm on the first one and so far so good!!! Fun fun!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 06, 2014, 01:01:51 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 06, 2014, 01:43:36 AM
Why?
1 the last 100 pages of wp
2 the maudlin rose colored view of the peasants in ak
3 the religiosity
4 the kreutzer sonata's implicit views on women and sex
5 his collection of Stockhausen CDs

Don't get me wrong. He had an incredible pull on me when I was in high school. But that's an age when many are seduced by nonsense. (How many fell victim to Ayn Rand at that age?) i am thankful I never had a chance to meet Leo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 06, 2014, 01:03:46 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 05, 2014, 02:40:25 PM
I did not say that Elgar was greater than Wagner;  I only gave Elgar as an example of composers who learnt something from Wagner, and whose work made it worth the hassle of enduring Wagner.  8)

See now I'm picturing a tee-shirt. "We lived through Wagner and all I got was this Elgar."

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 06, 2014, 01:09:05 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 06, 2014, 01:01:51 PM
1 the last 100 pages of wp
2 the maudlin rose colored view of the peasants in ak
3 the religiosity
4 the kreutzer sonata's implicit views on women and sex
5 his collection of Stockhausen CDs

Don't get me wrong. He had an incredible pull on me when I was in high school. But that's an age when many are seduced by nonsense. (How many fell victim to Ayn Rand at that age?) i am thankful I never had a chance to meet Leo.
Do you include in 2 and 3 the embrace of nonviolence and surrendering of possessions? Tolstoy's nonviolence had a huge influence on later thinkers - Gandhi wrote him a fan letter, and the last thing Tolstoy wrote was a reply to Gandhi. On the other hand, his decision to give up all his worldly goods and live the life of a hermit led directly to his death, which does a better job explaining how foolhardy he was than you or I ever could.

Also how would you compare his thinking to, say, Dostoevsky? Dostoevsky is certainly religious (#3), but an outstanding thinker, no?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 06, 2014, 01:27:28 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 06, 2014, 01:09:05 PM
Do you include in 2 and 3 the embrace of nonviolence and surrendering of possessions? Tolstoy's nonviolence had a huge influence on later thinkers - Gandhi wrote him a fan letter, and the last thing Tolstoy wrote was a reply to Gandhi. On the other hand, his decision to give up all his worldly goods and live the life of a hermit led directly to his death, which does a better job explaining how foolhardy he was than you or I ever could.

Also how would you compare his thinking to, say, Dostoevsky? Dostoevsky is certainly religious (#3), but an outstanding thinker, no?
As for the peasants I meant the near total obliviousness to the darker side of the peasantry's ignorance and capacity for evil. Very incorrect to state it so baldly. Maupassant and Gorky had clearer vision.
You cite other examples of his unworldly foolishness.
Yes Dost seems a better thinker. But I am glad he wrote novels not philosophy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 06, 2014, 02:08:12 PM
Quote from: milk on May 06, 2014, 04:48:53 AM
Who recommended this to me here?????? I'm on the first one and so far so good!!! Fun fun!

It is. I just finished the trilogy and liked it a lot.

Just started Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

[asin]B004J4WKUQ[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 06, 2014, 04:19:41 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 06, 2014, 01:09:05 PM
Do you include in 2 and 3 the embrace of nonviolence and surrendering of possessions? Tolstoy's nonviolence had a huge influence on later thinkers - Gandhi wrote him a fan letter, and the last thing Tolstoy wrote was a reply to Gandhi. On the other hand, his decision to give up all his worldly goods and live the life of a hermit led directly to his death, which does a better job explaining how foolhardy he was than you or I ever could.

Also how would you compare his thinking to, say, Dostoevsky? Dostoevsky is certainly religious (#3), but an outstanding thinker, no?
I once thought Grand Inquisitor was a nice piece of thinking - not in its conclusions about God but about Freedom. However, it's been years and I find that I sometimes do change my mind about things when I revisit them. I'm equivocating!   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 07, 2014, 12:20:21 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 06, 2014, 01:01:51 PM
1 the last 100 pages of wp
2 the maudlin rose colored view of the peasants in ak
3 the religiosity
4 the kreutzer sonata's implicit views on women and sex

  Couldn't agree more.  When he describes a scene, it's like you are really there, and he can go on and on about a fairly mundane event and hold you riveted, but I cringe when he tries to get symbolic or go beneath the surface of things.  For me this is the opposite of Dostoevsky, who doesn't try to paint a living, breathing scene, but [asin]lives[/asin] beneath the surface of things. To me a really telling difference is that Tolstoy espoused a kind of liberal egalitarianism, but he has scenes that go on for pages before you realize there are servants in the room with the protagonists. They are invisible to him.  Dostoevsky was a social conservative and elitist (especially after his 10 years in Siberia) and yet the servants in his novels always have complex personalities--they may be repulsive, but he is incapable of not seeing them, and seeing them as people.   

thread duty:
[asin]978-0394720241[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 07, 2014, 03:51:57 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 06, 2014, 01:03:46 PM
See now I'm picturing a tee-shirt. "We lived through Wagner and all I got was this Elgar."

:)

Well played!  I don't endorse the sentiment, but I know good work when I see it ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 07, 2014, 03:59:01 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 06, 2014, 01:01:51 PM
1 the last 100 pages of wp
2 the maudlin rose colored view of the peasants in ak
3 the religiosity
4 the kreutzer sonata's implicit views on women and sex
5 his collection of Stockhausen CDs

Don't get me wrong. He had an incredible pull on me when I was in high school. But that's an age when many are seduced by nonsense.

Many years ago, I read a wonderfully detailed bio of Britten, which I ought to go back to for lots of refreshers.  But one of the bits which stuck is, how as a young musician he was besotted with Brahms, but later, the pendulum swung.  If I am not misremembering, when not far from death he jested that his greatest regret was that he would perforce follow soon after Brahms in the music dictionary.

Britten's personal struggle over time with Brahms doesn't touch the latter's immortality.

I am sure you see my point without my needing to etch it.

I only note that Сергей Сергеевич (a man with a fascinating religious view) seemed to suffer no such reservations as your'n.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 07, 2014, 04:01:11 AM
Quote from: milk on May 06, 2014, 04:19:41 PM
I once thought Grand Inquisitor was a nice piece of thinking - not in its conclusions about God but about Freedom.

And yet, it's a tale which could have been written today:  about how the people who wear Christ's name like a sort of badge, would crucify Him anew if He walked among us today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 07, 2014, 06:12:19 AM
I have never really warmed to Tolstoy, I tried reading both war and peace and anna karenina but I wasn't able to finish either one. On the other hand, Dostoyevsky is one of my favorite authors of all time. I think the brothers karamazov is one of the greatest novels ever written, even though I am technically an atheist. Only things in Karamazov that I kind of dislike is at times little patronizing religious views and Aloysha. Now you might say isn't that a pretty big factor, him being one of the main characters. Well yes, but the book is so full of other superbly portrayed characters. And Aloysha is not all bad - he has interesting qualities in him, only thing I actually find kind of jarring about him is his apparently perfect kindness to everyone (except I am not sure if he judged Smerdyakov in the end or not, who despite his villany is very complex and even sympathetic character,  and I was also annoyed how he chastises Kolja about replying sharply to a complete asshole doctor). I think that Karamazov is an excellent book to read, whether you belive in God or not.

By the way, am I only one who finds Dostoyevsky's books at times extremely funny? I have heard several opinions that his books don't have anything funny in it. I disagree with it, I find several parts of his books very funny, often in some very bizarre way, but still.

I also read that one of the authors who had largest impact on him was Dickens. I read about an interview between Dostoyevsky and Dickens, which unfortunately turned out to be a faux. Which isn't that surprising considering the obvious language barrier.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 07, 2014, 06:23:35 AM
Reading some old chuckleworthy posts from the archives . . .

Quote from: James on June 06, 2007, 09:33:52 AM
pffff whatever....

Quote from: James on June 27, 2007, 02:45:49 PM
You must be dreaming...

Quote from: James on August 21, 2007, 04:13:23 PM
its not ridiculous...when you think about it...

Quote from: James on August 22, 2007, 04:51:32 AM
ive been around for along time, probably longer than you and most of the others here...Bach is my fave
you seem like an upset LvB fanboy....

Quote from: James on August 22, 2007, 07:28:07 AM
Are you that hurt over that, really? how do you manage in the real world...in any event here;

(http://blog.danielkenneth.com/images/kleenex.jpg)

Quote from: James on March 31, 2008, 06:12:14 AM
Performing Beethoven and Haydn on period instruments and tinkly fortepianos is so…yesterday.

“You love and defend traditions that no longer exist for me. The dust of the past is not always to be respected.” - Claude Debussy

Quote from: James on May 12, 2008, 09:57:33 AM
Not necessarily? Pffffff

Quote from: James on May 13, 2008, 03:13:37 PM
Pffffffffffffffffffffffffff whatever...

Quote from: James on June 13, 2008, 07:29:40 AM
Ooo you're so righteous. ;D

This explains everything; maybe it's time to get laid?  ;)

Quote from: James on August 03, 2008, 12:04:29 PM
More horseshit mythology.

Quote from: James on August 24, 2008, 02:49:57 PM
Just goes to show how much you know Tommy Boy, and more importantly how much you've actually heard! You're out of your depth on this im afraid, and it's quite transparent.

Quote from: James on September 01, 2008, 06:20:32 PM
Look at Mr. Serious. LIGHTEN UP!!!

Quote from: James on September 03, 2008, 10:04:10 AM
Karl, it's not dogma, it's common sense for fuck sakes...

Quote from: James on October 02, 2008, 05:03:32 AM
you didn't get my point. re-read what i did say...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 07, 2014, 06:26:07 AM
Excellent material for the GMG novella Cato should write..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 07, 2014, 06:28:15 AM
Quote from: North Star on May 07, 2014, 06:26:07 AM
Excellent material for the GMG novella Cato should write...
...Actually, that thing would more likely be a long novel - a murder mystery (one or more members disappear) solved on-line.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 07, 2014, 06:29:18 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 07, 2014, 06:23:35 AM
Reading some old chuckleworthy posts from the archives . . .

It sounds like 2007-08 was a vintage year..?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 07, 2014, 06:34:47 AM
No, that's really just Vol. 1 . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 07, 2014, 06:40:22 AM
But that's how the legend was born . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 07, 2014, 06:45:48 AM
Quote from: Alberich on May 07, 2014, 06:12:19 AM
I have never really warmed to Tolstoy, I tried reading both war and peace and anna karenina but I wasn't able to finish either one. On the other hand, Dostoyevsky is one of my favorite authors of all time. I think the brothers karamazov is one of the greatest novels ever written, even though I am technically an atheist. Only things in Karamazov that I kind of dislike is at times little patronizing religious views and Aloysha. Now you might say isn't that a pretty big factor, him being one of the main characters. Well yes, but the book is so full of other superbly portrayed characters. And Aloysha is not all bad - he has interesting qualities in him, only thing I actually find kind of jarring about him is his apparently perfect kindness to everyone (except I am not sure if he judged Smerdyakov in the end or not, who despite his villany is very complex and even sympathetic character,  and I was also annoyed how he chastises Kolja about replying sharply to a complete asshole doctor). I think that Karamazov is an excellent book to read, whether you belive in God or not.

By the way, am I only one who finds Dostoyevsky's books at times extremely funny? I have heard several opinions that his books don't have anything funny in it. I disagree with it, I find several parts of his books very funny, often in some very bizarre way, but still.

I also read that one of the authors who had largest impact on him was Dickens. I read about an interview between Dostoyevsky and Dickens, which unfortunately turned out to be a faux. Which isn't that surprising considering the obvious language barrier.

  I liked War and Peace and Anna K a lot, personally. A lot of fantastic writing in each one, on an episode by episode basis, but I agree that Dostoyevsky is the king.   I can't think of anything funny offhand, however.  I believe that the Dickens influence is real.  I've heard that before, and when reading Martin Chuzzlewit recently, felt positive that one section of it had inspired Dost in a portion of "The Idiot" and "Crime and Punishment".  25 years should have been plenty of time for the books to get to him--if they weren't translated into Russian, he could have read them in French.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 07, 2014, 06:51:55 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 07, 2014, 03:59:01 AM
Many years ago, I read a wonderfully detailed bio of Britten, which I ought to go back to for lots of refreshers.  But one of the bits which stuck is, how as a young musician he was besotted with Brahms, but later, the pendulum swung.  If I am not misremembering, when not far from death he jested that his greatest regret was that he would perforce follow soon after Brahms in the music dictionary.

Britten's personal struggle over time with Brahms doesn't touch the latter's immortality.

I am sure you see my point without my needing to etch it.

I only note that Сергей Сергеевич (a man with a fascinating religious view) seemed to suffer no such reservations as your'n.

Well I did pick Tolstoy as a great writer who is not a great thinker. I still think he's perhaps the greatest novelist ever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 07, 2014, 06:54:31 AM
Before Al Gore poisoned it by calling it his favourite book, The Red and The Black by Stendahl was my favourite novel.
Still is, but I do feel a twinge saying it now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 07, 2014, 07:01:00 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 07, 2014, 06:54:31 AM
Before Al Gore poisoned it by calling it his favourite book, The Red and The Black by Stendahl was my favourite novel.
Still is, but I do feel a twinge saying it now.

  That's the only Stendhahl I read, but I read it twice. My favorite part is when the protagonist wants to seduce a very proper lady, and his friend gives him a suitcase of letters to copy and send her, in order, slowly warming from respectful solicitude to passionate love (over what, a two year period?).  Sometimes he'd forget to change place names and seasons when copying the letters, and would have to cover up later :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 07, 2014, 07:01:49 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on May 07, 2014, 07:01:00 AM
  That's the only Stendhahl I read, but I read it twice. My favorite part is when the protagonist wants to seduce a very proper lady, and his friend gives him a suitcase of letters to copy and send her, in order, slowly warming from respectful solicitude to passionate love (over what, a two year period?).  Sometimes he'd forget to change place names and seasons when copying the letters, and would have to cover up later :laugh:
Yeah, don't you hate when that happens?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 07, 2014, 07:12:34 AM
Quote from: stingo on May 06, 2014, 02:08:12 PM
It is. I just finished the trilogy and liked it a lot.

Just started Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

[asin]B004J4WKUQ[/asin]

I liked Player One a lot.  It reminded me of a faster-paced, slicked up and toned-down version of Suarez "Daemon" and "Freedom" set.  The celebration of 80s pop culture as something worth celebrating and worshiping, however, got on my nerves at times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 07, 2014, 07:50:48 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on May 07, 2014, 07:12:34 AM
I liked Player One a lot.  It reminded me of a faster-paced, slicked up and toned-down version of Suarez "Daemon" and "Freedom" set.  The celebration of 80s pop culture as something worth celebrating and worshiping, however, got on my nerves at times.

I'm only about 40 pages into it and it's getting on my nerves already. It seems like an exercise in packing in as many 80s references as you possibly can in the smallest amount of space.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 07, 2014, 04:18:20 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 07, 2014, 04:01:11 AM
And yet, it's a tale which could have been written today:  about how the people who wear Christ's name like a sort of badge, would crucify Him anew if He walked among us today.
I loved reading all the Russian stuff but Dostoyevsky best of all. Yes, this idea still resonates. The other ideas in there are fascinating as well. I think many politicians would agree with the GI's ideas. And as you say...
I love D's madness.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 07, 2014, 04:23:06 PM
Quote from: milk on May 07, 2014, 04:18:20 PM
I loved reading all the Russian stuff but Dostoyevsky best of all. Yes, this idea still resonates. The other ideas in there are fascinating as well. I think many politicians would agree with the GI's ideas. And as you say...
I love D's madness.
I have to stop reading this thread! I do not have time to reread Dost.

On the other hand, I keep thinking, I wish I could find a book as good as The Brothers K ....

:(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 07, 2014, 04:33:23 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 07, 2014, 04:23:06 PM
I have to stop reading this thread! I do not have time to reread Dost.

On the other hand, I keep thinking, I wish I could find a book as good as The Brothers K ....

:(
Some new translations came out of Dost and Tolstoy over the last few years by a team...I think a husband and wife team. I acquired a few of them but then realized I just can't. I just can't. Not now. Maybe some day. When I was younger I just plowed through all that stuff. Now I'm just like, "Um...not today. Not this month. Not this year."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 08, 2014, 01:31:53 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 06, 2014, 01:01:51 PM
1 the last 100 pages of wp
2 the maudlin rose colored view of the peasants in ak
3 the religiosity
4 the kreutzer sonata's implicit views on women and sex
5 his collection of Stockhausen CDs

Don't get me wrong. [Tolstoy] had an incredible pull on me when I was in high school. But that's an age when many are seduced by nonsense. (How many fell victim to Ayn Rand at that age?)

Without getting into a point-by-point debate (I concede #5 is irrefutable), I would like to say two things.

1. I agree that Tolstoy is not a comfortable, nor a comforting, thinker. His ideas are hard to swallow, and his ethics even harder to follow, especially in the contemporary society. But this doesn't make them less interesting, less thought-provoking or in some cases less true. Calling them teenage-ish "nonsense" and putting him in the same class with Ayn Rand puzzles me greatly...

2. You see, by great thinker I don't mean someone who I agree with on everything, not even on something. I mean someone whose ideas it is difficult for me both to reject and to accept; who made a tremendous effort to thoroughly think through all the important issues that confront human beings; and whose works and thought had an enormous influence on their posterity. Tolstoy is exactly one of those, with the additional twofold distinction of (1) having a truly great and noble heart and (2) really practicing what he preached.

Quote
i am thankful I never had a chance to meet Leo.

Oh, you would have had nothing to worry about, I'm sure the dislike would have been reciprocal...  ;D  :P

(Sorry, couldn't resist the temptation.)

Quote from: Baklavaboy on May 07, 2014, 12:20:21 AM
  Tolstoy espoused a kind of liberal egalitarianism, but he has scenes that go on for pages before you realize there are servants in the room with the protagonists. They are invisible to him.

He was actually a Christian Anarchist, but he was also far too great an artist not to know the difference between art and ideology. He was not writing Cristian Anarchist novels, he was a Christian Anarchist who wrote novels --- there is all the difference in the world between the two.


Quote from: Baklavaboy on May 07, 2014, 12:20:21 AM
Dostoevsky was a social conservative and elitist (especially after his 10 years in Siberia)

Hmmmm.... Given that universal love and brotherhood are the exact opposite of elitism and that never and nowhere were they established as a social norm, in his novels Dostoevsky could not be actually farther from social conservatism and elitism. His political articles are a different matter altogether

Re: Tolstoy vs Dostoevsky as social and political thinkers

Between Tolstoy's Christian Anarchism and Dostoevsky's redeeming mission of Russia, I choose the former for all its flaws and utopian features. I'd rather live in a Quaker world than in a Russian one, because if Russia gives you a hug, beware! you run the risk of suffocation.  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 08, 2014, 01:33:41 AM
Quote from: milk on May 07, 2014, 04:18:20 PM
I think many politicians would agree with the GI's ideas.

Actually, the modern welfare State is the exact embodiment of those ideas.  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on May 08, 2014, 05:13:36 AM
Advance Reading Copy
[asin]1476736553[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 09, 2014, 06:12:28 AM
Leo Tolstoy --- What Then Must We Do? (http://arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/whatthenmustwedo.pdf)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 09, 2014, 06:30:35 AM
Must be Что Делать? Which is the simple sort of everyday Russian question, which the utterly formal English translation fails to hint at  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 09, 2014, 07:53:00 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 08, 2014, 05:13:36 AM
Advance Reading Copy
[asin]1476736553[/asin]

  After looking at the Amzn stuff on this, it looks like it could be embarrassingly entertaining. I may give the first volume a peek and see...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 09, 2014, 08:01:51 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on May 09, 2014, 07:53:00 PM
  After looking at the Amzn stuff on this, it looks like it could be embarrassingly entertaining. I may give the first volume a peek and see...
He  blogs, but be warned that he has some very conservative political views  http://monsterhunternation.com
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 09, 2014, 08:14:37 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 09, 2014, 08:01:51 PM
He  blogs, but be warned that he has some very conservative political views  http://monsterhunternation.com

:D :D Believe me, I will not be reading it to learn from his insights into the best paths to social betterment.  I'm still reading Robert Caro's 1200 page biography of Robert Moses for that side of things.  Books which project the idea that an ultra-violent superhero is what is needed to right the world's wrongs are pretty likely to stem from a less than highly evolved sense of the intricacies of social justice.  Still, could be fun and diverting for a couple of hours ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 09, 2014, 08:16:22 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 09, 2014, 08:01:51 PM
He  blogs, but be warned that he has some very conservative political views  http://monsterhunternation.com
So? I support gay marriage, abortion, ending drug laws, separation of church and state, trimming back the Patriot Act, and other such extremely conservative  :blank: positions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 09, 2014, 08:58:55 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 09, 2014, 08:01:51 PM
He  blogs, but be warned that he has some very conservative political views  http://monsterhunternation.com

"Conservative" political views are not at all unusual for SF authors.  The real issue with this guy is that he is a troll who associates himself with virulent racist sack of shit Vox Day.  More info:

http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2014/04/if-i-dont-win-award-its-because-youre.html
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/04/20/no-the-hugo-nominations-were-not-rigged/
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/05/science-fiction-assholes-nominate-larry-correira-hugo-award-solely-can-dangle-front-quickly-jerk-away-saying-psych
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on May 10, 2014, 02:59:17 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on May 09, 2014, 08:14:37 PM
:D :D Believe me, I will not be reading it to learn from his insights into the best paths to social betterment.  I'm still reading Robert Caro's 1200 page biography of Robert Moses for that side of things.  Books which project the idea that an ultra-violent superhero is what is needed to right the world's wrongs are pretty likely to stem from a less than highly evolved sense of the intricacies of social justice.  Still, could be fun and diverting for a couple of hours ;D

Guns and monsters. Win/win. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 11, 2014, 05:33:16 PM
Finished Ready Player One. While the stream of 80s references and explanations can get to be a bit much, I did like story and the characters.

Now reading Art's Cello, by James N. McKean.

[asin]B00I2XXR3Y[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 12, 2014, 03:18:25 AM
Finished Art's Cello. Started The Misremembered Man by Christina McKenna.

[asin]B004ZMWUCU[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 12, 2014, 03:42:57 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 10, 2014, 02:59:17 AM
Guns and monsters. Win/win. :)

  Read the first one.  It was one of those rare books that you can't put down but you really wish you could...   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 12, 2014, 02:59:14 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 07, 2014, 04:23:06 PM
I have to stop reading this thread! I do not have time to reread Dost.

On the other hand, I keep thinking, I wish I could find a book as good as The Brothers K ....

:(

Have you read Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 12, 2014, 03:17:52 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 12, 2014, 02:59:14 PM
Have you read Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate?
No. Is it good?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 13, 2014, 12:05:16 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 12, 2014, 03:17:52 PM
No. Is it good?

It isn't good, it is excellent.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 13, 2014, 03:48:16 AM
http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/life-and-fate/

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n20/john-lanchester/good-day-comrade-shtrum

There was also a radio serialization of life and fate on the BBC a few years back but I have not listened to any of it


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 13, 2014, 04:10:23 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 13, 2014, 03:48:16 AM
http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/life-and-fate/

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n20/john-lanchester/good-day-comrade-shtrum

There was also a radio serialization of life and fate on the BBC a few years back but I have not listened to any of it

None other than comrade Joseph Stalin kept Grossman in high esteem by considering him "even more dangerous than Boris Pasternak" --- and he was right. This book is one of the most devastating critiques of communism I've ever read, more direct, more explicit and more vivid than Doctor Zhivago --- and that's quite an achievement. The pages in which the Nazi officer Liss shows the bolshevik prisoner Mostovskoy that they should in fact be on the same side of the fence and not at all opposed are magical, but the whole book is really a masterpiece, both literary and political.

And it's also greatly and appropriately funny. For instance, one Russian sniper during the Siege of Leningrad confronts a political commissar (politruk) by asking him: "Comrade, I've always wanted to ask someone from the Party about that. If 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need' was implemented, wouldn't most of them be drunk by noon?"

IMNSHO this book is the "War and Peace" of the 20th century.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 13, 2014, 07:22:47 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 13, 2014, 04:10:23 AM
None other than comrade Joseph Stalin kept Grossman in high esteem by considering him "even more dangerous than Boris Pasternak" --- and he was right. This book is one of the most devastating critiques of communism I've ever read, more direct, more explicit and more vivid than Doctor Zhivago --- and that's quite an achievement. The pages in which the Nazi officer Liss shows the bolshevik prisoner Mostovskoy that they should in fact be on the same side of the fence and not at all opposed are magical, but the whole book is really a masterpiece, both literary and political.

And it's also greatly and appropriately funny. For instance, one Russian sniper during the Siege of Leningrad confronts a political commissar (politruk) by asking him: "Comrade, I've always wanted to ask someone from the Party about that. If 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need' was implemented, wouldn't most of them be drunk by noon?"

IMNSHO this book is the "War and Peace" of the 20th century.
So, not a book you'd read when going through one of your Left phases the?
;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 13, 2014, 07:55:32 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 13, 2014, 07:22:47 AM
So, not a book you'd read when going through one of your Left phases the?
;)

:D  :D :D

My leftist phases are very short and in any case I sympathize (on a purely theoretical level, mind you) with such non-Marxist, non-Communist, non-Soviet left such as Proudhon, Oscar Wilde or Christian Anarchism. In the real life and at the bottom of my heart I am a convinced liberal (small l), with strong christian-democratic overtones.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 13, 2014, 03:11:23 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 13, 2014, 07:55:32 AM
:D  :D :D

My leftist phases are very short and in any case I sympathize (on a purely theoretical level, mind you) with such non-Marxist, non-Communist, non-Soviet left such as Proudhon, Oscar Wilde or Christian Anarchism. In the real life and at the bottom of my heart I am a convinced liberal (small l), with strong christian-democratic overtones.
Ever read Jacques Ellul?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 13, 2014, 09:39:28 PM
Quote from: milk on May 13, 2014, 03:11:23 PM
Ever read Jacques Ellul?

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 14, 2014, 12:43:36 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 13, 2014, 09:39:28 PM
Yes.
Speaking of Christian anarchy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 14, 2014, 05:41:35 AM
Quote from: milk on May 14, 2014, 12:43:36 AM
Speaking of Christian anarchy.

Exactly. He has some interesting views on technology, too. And he pretty much sums up my own views on anarchy:

No society can last in conditions of anarchy. This is self-evident and I am in full agreement. But my aim is not the establishment of an anarchist society or the total destruction of the state. Here I differ from anarchists. I do not believe that it is possible to destroy the modern state. It is pure imagination to think that some day this power will be overthrown. From a pragmatic standpoint there is no chance of success. Furthermore, I do not believe that anarchist doctrine is the solution to the problem of organization in society and government. I do not think that if anarchism were to succeed we should have a better or more livable society. Hence I am not fighting for the triumph of this doctrine.
On the other hand, it seems to me that an anarchist attitude is the only one that is sufficiently radical in the face of a general statist system. (The Ethics of Freedom)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 14, 2014, 06:16:28 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2014, 05:41:35 AM
Exactly. He has some interesting views on technology, too. And he pretty much sums up my own views on anarchy:

No society can last in conditions of anarchy. This is self-evident and I am in full agreement. But my aim is not the establishment of an anarchist society or the total destruction of the state. Here I differ from anarchists. I do not believe that it is possible to destroy the modern state. It is pure imagination to think that some day this power will be overthrown. From a pragmatic standpoint there is no chance of success. Furthermore, I do not believe that anarchist doctrine is the solution to the problem of organization in society and government. I do not think that if anarchism were to succeed we should have a better or more livable society. Hence I am not fighting for the triumph of this doctrine.
On the other hand, it seems to me that an anarchist attitude is the only one that is sufficiently radical in the face of a general statist system. (The Ethics of Freedom)
Thanks for the quote. I guess I never read this one. Yes, I like what thoughts I've understood of his about technology, propaganda, freedom, violence, etc. - I've been interested in some of his theology also although I am not a Christian. Sometimes I get a bit pessimistic thinking over his ideas. I was interested a few months back in the opposite view espoused by Richard Rorty, that liberal humanism has made progress and that, absent a dirty bomb, progress can continue towards more just and free societies. It's easy to think the sky is falling when we look at the state of things. Yet I come back to a kind of pessimism I feel in Ellul about the nature of the technological society and its imperatives. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 14, 2014, 06:18:16 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2014, 05:41:35 AM
Exactly. He has some interesting views on technology, too. And he pretty much sums up my own views on anarchy:

No society can last in conditions of anarchy. This is self-evident and I am in full agreement. But my aim is not the establishment of an anarchist society or the total destruction of the state. Here I differ from anarchists. I do not believe that it is possible to destroy the modern state. It is pure imagination to think that some day this power will be overthrown. From a pragmatic standpoint there is no chance of success. Furthermore, I do not believe that anarchist doctrine is the solution to the problem of organization in society and government. I do not think that if anarchism were to succeed we should have a better or more livable society. Hence I am not fighting for the triumph of this doctrine.
On the other hand, it seems to me that an anarchist attitude is the only one that is sufficiently radical in the face of a general statist system. (The Ethics of Freedom)
Except on your Leftist days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 14, 2014, 08:30:29 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 14, 2014, 06:18:16 AM
Except on your Leftist days.

It's more like hours, really.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 14, 2014, 09:12:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2014, 08:30:29 AM
It's more like hours, really.  :)
Be careful!
QuoteFor, if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing, and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 12:37:45 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 14, 2014, 09:12:13 AM
Be careful!

Who is that quote from?  :D :D :D 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 15, 2014, 12:39:33 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 12:37:45 AM
Who is that quote from?  :D :D :D

It is inscribed on the BRO's shopping cart....

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 12:44:02 AM
Quote from: milk on May 14, 2014, 06:16:28 AM
Thanks for the quote. I guess I never read this one. Yes, I like what thoughts I've understood of his about technology, propaganda, freedom, violence, etc. - I've been interested in some of his theology also although I am not a Christian. Sometimes I get a bit pessimistic thinking over his ideas. I was interested a few months back in the opposite view espoused by Richard Rorty, that liberal humanism has made progress and that, absent a dirty bomb, progress can continue towards more just and free societies. It's easy to think the sky is falling when we look at the state of things. Yet I come back to a kind of pessimism I feel in Ellul about the nature of the technological society and its imperatives.

Well, Ellul says (and he is not alone in saying it) that it is exactly the progress of liberal humanism that brought us into the current state of things. ;D

I think you might find this essay by Ernesto Sabato quite interesting: Man and Mechanism (http://webshells.com/spantrans/manmech.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 01:05:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 12:44:02 AM
Well, Ellul says (and he is not alone in saying it) that it is exactly the progress of liberal humanism that brought us into the current state of things. ;D

I think you might find this essay by Ernesto Sabato quite interesting: Man and Mechanism (http://webshells.com/spantrans/manmech.html)
Right. And Richard Rorty attacks this aspect of post-modernism (while agreeing with other aspects of it). I think Rorty is right that the ideas of individual rights and freedoms created through humanism have brought more people out of misery than, say, the Buddha ever dreamed of. Yet I look at noxious aspects of modernism that Ellul examines and feel pessimistic. I will check out the essay. I look forward to it.   

"The first element of awareness in the context of sociological propaganda is extremely simple, and from it everything else derives. What starts out as a simple situation gradually turns into a definite ideology, because the way of life in which man thinks he is so indisputably well off becomes a criterion of value for him. This does not mean that objectively he is well off, but that, regardless of the merits of his actual condition, he thinks he is. He is perfectly adapted to his environment, like 'a fish in water'. From that moment on, everything that expresses this particular way of life, that reinforces and improves it, is good; everything that tends to disturb, criticize or destroy it is bad."
- Jacques Ellul, "Propaganda: The formation of Men's Attitudes."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 01:23:39 AM
Quote from: milk on May 15, 2014, 01:05:54 AM
Right. And Richard Rorty attacks this aspect of post-modernism (while agreeing with other aspects of it). I think Rorty is right that the ideas of individual rights and freedoms created through humanism have brought more people out of misery than, say, the Buddha ever dreamed of.

Buddha never dreamed of liberating people from physical, political or social misery, which is what Rorty means by "misery" --- he knew that all these were just symptoms and consequences of the most important misery there is, namely spiritual misery. One can debate whether the cures Buddha proposed for it are adequate (I think they aren't, at least not all of them), but to compare them with liberal humanism and find them wanting, as Rorty seems to do, is to completely misunderstand them. Just saying.

Quote
"The first element of awareness in the context of sociological propaganda is extremely simple, and from it everything else derives. What starts out as a simple situation gradually turns into a definite ideology, because the way of life in which man thinks he is so indisputably well off becomes a criterion of value for him. This does not mean that objectively he is well off, but that, regardless of the merits of his actual condition, he thinks he is. He is perfectly adapted to his environment, like 'a fish in water'. From that moment on, everything that expresses this particular way of life, that reinforces and improves it, is good; everything that tends to disturb, criticize or destroy it is bad."
- Jacques Ellul, "Propaganda: The formation of Men's Attitudes."

This sounds as if written precisely with Rorty and his liberal humanism in mind.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 04:55:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 01:23:39 AM
Buddha never dreamed of liberating people from physical, political or social misery, which is what Rorty means by "misery" --- he knew that all these were just symptoms and consequences of the most important misery there is, namely spiritual misery. One can debate whether the cures Buddha proposed for it are adequate (I think they aren't, at least not all of them), but to compare them with liberal humanism and find them wanting, as Rorty seems to do, is to completely misunderstand them. Just saying.

This sounds as if written precisely with Rorty and his liberal humanism in mind.  :D
For the sake of argument: what is it that's led to people to being lifted up en masse out of grossly miserable conditions in terms of overall well being? Liberal humanism. Perhaps Buddhism or some other "religions" did not seek to inspire fairer, perhaps even less violent, physical conditions of humanity. In any case, they did not succeed generally. Maybe they even opposed it although their is no shortage of people like Thich Nhat Hanh that interpret religion to be applicable to physical well-being presently.
Rorty's pragmatism proposes that people should and can be educated to be engaged in creating their own future. I still think their is something to be recommended in individual development and the pragmatic ideal of each generation creating a new and better future - in democracy generally and humanistic education specifically. However, where I live people are put through a mill of de-education propaganda a la Ellul where freedom and a different future are not thought of at all. Deep propaganda feeds the belief in what spreads the "same," as Ellul says, like fish in water, without much thought to new horizons, to making things better or to the possibility of things being different. Maybe it's just a matter of degree and Europe and the U.S. are also on the way. Rorty thought we should all be more like Sweden. But I'm sure some people here will say how Sweden is not all its cracked up to be. I don't know. I've never been there.     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 05:02:33 AM
It's convenient of me to oppose the two thinkers as one really does defend western civilization against the post-modern conclusion that the whole of western civilization is rotten to the core and must be deconstructed. Ellul is not a post-modernist as far as I know but does believe that the technological society is, by its very nature, a threat to freedom. However, Ellul and Rorty probably shared some beliefs coming from the same tradition of learning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 15, 2014, 05:16:08 AM
Buddhism would say that material prosperity is merely an different type of misery, trapping people in the realm of Hungry Ghosts, to use a term from Buddhist mythos.  But the practice of compassion includes working to end or at least alleviate the physical  misery of others.   The Bible has a similar outlook.  I do shake my head at neocon Catholics who got upset with the Pope for being insufficiently in love with freemarket capitalism.  They forget his job is to channel Moses, not Mises.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 05:39:03 AM
Quote from: milk on May 15, 2014, 04:55:55 AM
For the sake of argument: what is it that's led to people to being lifted up en masse out of grossly miserable conditions in terms of overall well being? Liberal humanism.

For the sake of argument: between 1870 and 1914, which was the richest, most developed European country, in which the welfare of the workers constantly improved to the point of them being envied by all other workers in Europe and even in the world? Well, exactly: Germany! Not quite liberal and not quite humanist, either. ;D

Quote
Perhaps Buddhism or some other "religions" did not seek to inspire fairer, perhaps even less violent, physical conditions of humanity. In any case, they did not succeed generally. Maybe they even opposed it although their is no shortage of people like Thich Nhat Hanh that interpret religion to be applicable to physical well-being presently.

I don't make a case for religions being completely uninterested in the physical well being of people. All I say is that one cannot judge Buddhism by the standards of liberal humanism. They start from different backgrounds and have different goals.

Quote
Rorty's pragmatism proposes that people should and can be educated to be engaged in creating their own future. I still think their is something to be recommended in individual development and the pragmatic ideal of each generation creating a new and better future - in democracy generally and humanistic education specifically.

I am not at all convinced that democracy by itself can produce good education. A good education is something that depends on so many factors which are completely outside any political control. There are plenty of well educated people in non-democratic countries and plenty of ignoramuses in democratic ones.  ;D

Quote
However, where I live people are put through a mill of de-education propaganda a la Ellul where freedom and a different future are not thought of at all.

Where do you live, actually?[/quote]

Quote
Deep propaganda feeds the belief in what spreads the "same," as Ellul says, like fish in water, without much thought to new horizons, to making things better or to the possibility of things being different. Maybe it's just a matter of degree and Europe and the U.S. are also on the way. Rorty thought we should all be more like Sweden. But I'm sure some people here will say how Sweden is not all its cracked up to be. I don't know. I've never been there.     

"The Swedish Way" is the product of some specific, concrete and quite unique historical, social, economical, political and religious conditions which are very hard, impossible actually, to reproduce anywhere else. Rorty repeats the Enlightenment error of thinking that everything can work everywhere given the right education, but he is dead wrong, as were les philosophes before him.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 05:43:47 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 15, 2014, 05:16:08 AM
Buddhism would say that material prosperity is merely an different type of misery, trapping people in the realm of Hungry Ghosts, to use a term from Buddhist mythos.

One of the earliest critiques of consumerism, indeed, millennia before it actually made its appearance.  ;D

QuoteI do shake my head at neocon Catholics who got upset with the Pope for being insufficiently in love with freemarket capitalism.  They forget his job is to channel Moses, not Mises.

:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 05:49:31 AM
Quote from: milk on May 15, 2014, 05:02:33 AM
It's convenient of me to oppose the two thinkers as one really does defend western civilization against the post-modern conclusion that the whole of western civilization is rotten to the core and must be deconstructed.

Just for the record: I do not believe that at all.

Quote
Ellul is not a post-modernist as far as I know but does believe that the technological society is, by its very nature, a threat to freedom.

That I do believe, though.  ;D

Quote
However, Ellul and Rorty probably shared some beliefs coming from the same tradition of learning.

One is a Christian consciously, the other a self-styled liberal humanist, but liberal humanism is the secularized version of Christian humanism, so there.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 06:17:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 05:39:03 AM
For the sake of argument: between 1870 and 1914, which was the richest, most developed European country, in which the welfare of the workers constantly improved to the point of them being envied by all other workers in Europe and even in the world? Well, exactly: Germany! Not quite liberal and not quite humanist, either. ;D
So you are questioning whether humanism contributed to a vast improvement in humanity's physical conditions?

Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 05:39:03 AM
I don't make a case for religions being completely uninterested in the physical well being of people. All I say is that one cannot judge Buddhism by the standards of liberal humanism. They start from different backgrounds and have different goals.
But we may still ask, what is it good for?

Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 05:39:03 AM
I am not at all convinced that democracy by itself can produce good education. A good education is something that depends on so many factors which are completely outside any political control. There are plenty of well educated people in non-democratic countries and plenty of ignoramuses in democratic ones.  ;D

I agree. But certainly the carrying out of the idea that education is a right has had advantages over the idea that only a tiny elite ought to be educated. I am skeptical also though of where we are heading with the way education is now.

Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 05:39:03 AM
Where do you live, actually?
Japan. Higher education here is rightly considered to be second kindergarten. The best universities here are far inferior to what I got at ye olde generic state university in the States. One may complain but having been a student at several American universities and now being able to compare it to Japanese universities I can say that American universities are pretty darn great (in many ways) by comparison.  This is indisputable. They are getting to be much too expensive though. 

Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 05:39:03 AM
"The Swedish Way" is the product of some specific, concrete and quite unique historical, social, economical, political and religious conditions which are very hard, impossible actually, to reproduce anywhere else. Rorty repeats the Enlightenment error of thinking that everything can work everywhere given the right education, but he is dead wrong, as were les philosophes before him.  ;D
Perhaps this is my fault but I doubt we are being very fair to Mr. Rorty. I very much doubt he believed that everything can work everywhere. I accept, and he may have as well, that Sweden and other Northern European countries have unique situations such as perhaps a high degree of trust in the societies. I think Rorty probably meant moving toward higher taxes guaranteeing free healthcare and low-cost university education (and how about longer vacations!). Stuff like that. Perhaps it would be a disaster. I know many people here will think so. But we can't rule it out on the basis of not having the specific conditions of Sweden. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 06:23:26 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 15, 2014, 05:16:08 AM
Buddhism would say that material prosperity is merely an different type of misery, trapping people in the realm of Hungry Ghosts, to use a term from Buddhist mythos.  But the practice of compassion includes working to end or at least alleviate the physical  misery of others.   The Bible has a similar outlook.  I do shake my head at neocon Catholics who got upset with the Pope for being insufficiently in love with freemarket capitalism.  They forget his job is to channel Moses, not Mises.
I'm a fan of Buddhism so I don't mean to take cheap shots at it. But I think if we do believe that Buddhism is attuned towards alleviating physical suffering then Rorty's contention is fair game and that it just didn't work out anywhere near as well as humanism. Having said that, I think some forms of Buddhism could be helpful in countering selfish materialism. I'm a fan of Hanh these days. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 06:36:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 05:49:31 AM
Just for the record: I do not believe that at all.

That I do believe, though.  ;D

One is a Christian consciously, the other a self-styled liberal humanist, but liberal humanism is the secularized version of Christian humanism, so there.  :D
Yeah, at the same time I share your belief that the technological society is a threat to freedom. It has to be countered by something. Ellul's take on the relationship between the technological society and propaganda convinces me. It often takes the form of nationalism as well - I think - in its Ellulian propaganda. I see that in Japan where the word "culture" is constantly spoken and the spread of propaganda is so literal and unsophisticated. It is no exaggeration to say that you can watch, as entertainment, people eating udon and cooing "delicious" on TV in Japan several times a day, everyday.     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 06:41:15 AM
Quote from: milk on May 15, 2014, 06:17:55 AM
So you are questioning whether humanism contributed to a vast improvement in humanity's physical conditions?

Not at all. I question humanism's threefold failure:

1. It started out as an individualistic movement and it ended in a mass society.
2. It started out as a naturalistic movement and it ended in a mechanistic, technological society.
3. It started out as a humanist movement and it ended in a dehumanized society.

Quote
But we may still ask, what is it good for?

I'm not sure what "it" you mean.

Quote
I agree. But certainly the carrying out of the idea that education is a right has had advantages over the idea that only a tiny elite ought to be educated.

The right to be educated amounts to nothing and it is even pernicious if education means indoctrination and propaganda. Between an illiterate and a product of the contemporary mass education I prefer the former --- at least he uses his own brain. ;D

Quote
I am skeptical also though of where we are heading with the way education is now.

I too.

Quote
Japan. Higher education here is rightly considered to be second kindergarten. The best universities here are far inferior to what I got at ye olde generic state university in the States. One may complain but having been a student at several American universities and now being able to compare it to Japanese universities I can say that American universities are pretty darn great (in many ways) by comparison.  This is indisputable. They are getting to be much too expensive though.

I see.

Quote
Perhaps this is my fault but I doubt we are being very fair to Mr. Rorty. I very much doubt he believed that everything can work everywhere. I accept, and he may have as well, that Sweden and other Northern European countries have unique situations such as perhaps a high degree of trust in the societies. I think Rorty probably meant moving toward higher taxes guaranteeing free healthcare and low-cost university education (and how about longer vacations!). Stuff like that. Perhaps it would be a disaster. I know many people here will think so. But we can't rule it out on the basis of not having the specific conditions of Sweden.

Our friend Todd can spend hours talking, data and graphs in hand,  about how higher taxes and higher educational spending did nothing to improve education.  ;D

IF you ask me "who killed genuine education?" I answer unhesitatingly: liberal humanism and democracy.  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 15, 2014, 06:46:56 AM
I'm currently rereading Meistersinger's libretto and while it has it's faults I think that Wagner used many innovative ways here and is mostly free from turgid, pompous prose in his writings outside opera. Like deryck cooke said from ring's libretto that although he has tendency to overuse superlatives it has some 'raw' style of poetry in it and IMO the worlds that he creates (even though taken from before wagner existing mythologies but hey, even Shakespeare wasn't completely original) are really convincing and interesting. I think the part in Meistersinger's libretto that I most like is when Beckmesser asks from Sachs whether "Morgendlich leuchtend im rosigen Schein" is from him. The clever play with words in it is that Beckmesser asks: "Ist das eure Hand?", which could mean both whether he wrote the song or whether it is his handwriting. And since Sachs wrote the song down while Walther was singing Sachs isn't really lying when he responds in affirmative.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 06:47:30 AM
Quote from: milk on May 15, 2014, 06:36:53 AM
Yeah, at the same time I share your belief that the technological society is a threat to freedom. It has to be countered by something. Ellul's take on the relationship between the technological society and propaganda convinces me.

Excellent!  8)

Quote
It often takes the form of nationalism as well - I think - in its Ellulian propaganda. I see that in Japan where the word "culture" is constantly spoken and the spread of propaganda is so literal and unsophisticated. It is no exaggeration to say that you can watch, as entertainment, people eating udon and cooing "delicious" on TV in Japan several times a day, everyday.   

Well, nationalism is precisely a byproduct of liberal humanism.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on May 15, 2014, 07:04:40 AM
The Complete Diaries of Samuel Pepys

Tither to the bookshop, where I did see a greate booke, handsome in binding, and I did haggle with the bookseller to pay 2s for it.  Then by oars to GMG, where Sir Milk and Sir Florestan were giving high with words, to which I resolved to play no part.  And so home and to bed....     :P   I love Sammy Peyps, he was a top fellow.   ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 07:12:28 AM
Quote from: Scots John on May 15, 2014, 07:04:40 AM
The Complete Diaries of Samuel Pepys

Tither to the bookshop, where I did see a greate booke, handsome in binding, and I did haggle with the bookseller to pay 2s for it.  Then by oars to GMG, where Sir Milk and Sir Florestan were giving high with words, to which I resolved to play no part.  And so home and to bed....     :P   I love Sammy Peyps, he was a top fellow.   ;D

How's it going with the independence, John?  :D
Title: The Swedish Way
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 15, 2014, 07:12:39 AM
Worth mentioning that

- Swedish socialism, unlike English or other democratic socialist models, did not nationalize entire industries, rather it focused on providing a generous social safety net and protections

- Sweden's cultural homogeneity gave it an advantage in avoiding freeloading problems

- Racist eugenics, not far removed from the Nazi variety, was a foundational principle of Swedish socialism.  As late as the 1970s the state was still inflicting forced sterilizations on those it thought were unfit to reproduce
Title: Re: The Swedish Way
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 07:15:08 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 15, 2014, 07:12:39 AM
Worth mentioning that

- Swedish socialism, unlike English or other democratic socialist models, did not nationalize entire industries, rather it focused on providing a generous social safety net and protections

Entirely in line with "We don't nationalize industries, we nationalize souls!". I can't remember who said that, though.  ;D ;D ;D

Quote
- Sweden's cultural homogeneity gave it an advantage in avoiding freeloading problems

Exactly.

Quote
- Racist eugenics, not far removed from the Nazi variety, was a foundational principle of Swedish socialism.  As late as the 1970s the state was still inflicting forced sterilizations on those it thought were unfit to reproduce

Entirely in line with other Socialists. I can't remember which ones, though.  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on May 15, 2014, 07:17:13 AM
Quote from: milk on May 15, 2014, 06:17:55 AMI think Rorty probably meant moving toward higher taxes guaranteeing free healthcare and low-cost university education (and how about longer vacations!).


Problem is, such healthcare is not "free," and such tuition is not "low-cost."  They are paid for by taxpayers, only some of whom use the services at any given time.




Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 06:41:15 AMOur friend Todd can spend hours talking, data and graphs in hand,  about how higher taxes and higher educational spending did nothing to improve education.



High levels of spending on education has led to a well educated population throughout the developed world, including the US, with roughly 40% of the US adult population having two and four year college degrees.  Whether the quality of education has improved is another matter. 

Such a glut of highly educated people, many of whom acquire degrees in interesting sounding but ultimately not very useful disciplines (eg, sociology), has led, and will continue to lead, to so-called underemployment among the educated.  Hey, I'm all for college education, but people should come to the realization that an ever higher number of graduates has and will increase the supply of educated workers, driving down the price for their labor.  The comparative advantage associated with a college degree has eroded and will continue to erode.  (And who sends their kids to college in hopes of them earning a median salary?)  At least in the US, a college degree still results in significantly higher lifetime earnings - and therefore socially useful taxes paid to the state - but bang for the education buck has diminished, and this overall fact masks significant disparities among degrees.

As to the notion I read earlier in this thread about the benefits of liberal humanism, and how it lifts people out of gross misery better than anything else, well, that can be debated.  Economic reforms in China, initiated under Deng Xiaoping, have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of dire poverty in only one generation.  One could argue that authoritarian capitalism is the best way to improve the economic lot of people in a short period of time.  Of course, the results in China could not have been achieved without an increasingly globalized capitalist system that China benefited and benefits from, and this system is, broadly speaking, liberal in nature and has been dominated by a liberal country, but I'm not so sure that the system has humanist aims at its core.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 07:44:27 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 06:41:15 AM
The right to be educated amounts to nothing and it is even pernicious if education means indoctrination and propaganda. Between an illiterate and a product of the contemporary mass education I prefer the former --- at least he uses his own brain. ;D
Yes. I see this exactly where I live: socialization to remove ones ability to be creative, to express individual emotions and desires, and to develop empathy. No education at all would be better than that!

Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 06:41:15 AM
Well, nationalism is precisely a byproduct of liberal humanism.  ;D

Pernicious to the core! Still, if we could only throw out the bathwater of nationalism and keep the baby of individual freedoms and rights. Maybe another nobel prize for the EU will do the trick.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 07:57:51 AM
Quote from: Todd on May 15, 2014, 07:17:13 AM

Problem is, such healthcare is not "free," and such tuition is not "low-cost."  They are paid for by taxpayers, only some of whom use the services at any given time.






High levels of spending on education has led to a well educated population throughout the developed world, including the US, with roughly 40% of the US adult population having two and four year college degrees.  Whether the quality of education has improved is another matter. 

Such a glut of highly educated people, many of whom acquire degrees in interesting sounding but ultimately not very useful disciplines (eg, sociology), has led, and will continue to lead, to so-called underemployment among the educated.  Hey, I'm all for college education, but people should come to the realization that an ever higher number of graduates has and will increase the supply of educated workers, driving down the price for their labor.  The comparative advantage associated with a college degree has eroded and will continue to erode.  (And who sends their kids to college in hopes of them earning a median salary?)  At least in the US, a college degree still results in significantly higher lifetime earnings - and therefore socially useful taxes paid to the state - but bang for the education buck has diminished, and this overall fact masks significant disparities among degrees.

As to the notion I read earlier in this thread about the benefits of liberal humanism, and how it lifts people out of gross misery better than anything else, well, that can be debated.  Economic reforms in China, initiated under Deng Xiaoping, have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of dire poverty in only one generation.  One could argue that authoritarian capitalism is the best way to improve the economic lot of people in a short period of time.  Of course, the results in China could not have been achieved without an increasingly globalized capitalist system that China benefited and benefits from, and this system is, broadly speaking, liberal in nature and has been dominated by a liberal country, but I'm not so sure that the system has humanist aims at its core.
I share a certain skepticism here in that I don't think the education system (primary and secondary) in a supposed democracy like Japan is necessarily more humanist than China's. I can't even say I enjoyed or would want my (imaginary) kids to experience the kind of pre-university education I had in the States, either. Although, I recommend the higher U.S. education I received because I think it did encourage critical thinking, self-development, etc. I became a much richer person as a result. I can't imagine being able to afford it in the future though. But I can't say anything bad about it in substance. Primary and secondary education is where I think the real tragedy is.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 08:00:15 AM
Quote from: Todd on May 15, 2014, 07:17:13 AM

Problem is, such healthcare is not "free," and such tuition is not "low-cost."  They are paid for by taxpayers, only some of whom use the services at any given time.

Healthcare costs either way. Only some use the services, but I think the argument is that many benefit and that it should be within reach of many. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on May 15, 2014, 08:16:09 AM
Quote from: milk on May 15, 2014, 07:57:51 AMAlthough, I recommend the higher U.S. education I received because I think it did encourage critical thinking, self-development, etc.



US higher education, taken as a whole, is probably the best in the world qualitatively, though obviously there are many fine universities elsewhere.  That written, a lot of US universities focus too much energy on non-academic pursuits (ie, sports), and many have developed organizational bloat, and to fund such bloat rely on cries for public support and higher tuition for out of state residents, with out of country students especially welcome since they always pay cash and always on time. 

I'm getting to see the effects of some of the bloat right now.  My son is entering university this fall, and he is attending the same university I did (and my father before me, at that).  Student enrollment is marginally larger than it was when I attended (less than 10% or so higher), yet tuition has tripled - which is well ahead of the CPI during the same time - but the college has added at least four new buildings and has at least five additional senior administrative positions, all of which have support staff.  Perhaps these people and these buildings add a lot to the educational experience, and will render my son's education significantly superior to mine - and I hope that is the case - but I have my doubts.  I know my experience is anecdotal, but I also know similar things are happening at many universities. 

A college education is certainly a fine thing if it helps an individual to learn to think critically, and so on, but even more public funding needs more tangible benefits, ones that can be measured, and ones that benefit society as whole.  Just giving educational institutions more money because education is a good thing is not enough.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on May 15, 2014, 08:22:17 AM
Quote from: milk on May 15, 2014, 08:00:15 AMHealthcare costs either way. Only some use the services, but I think the argument is that many benefit and that it should be within reach of many.



True, but it should never be labelled free, because it is not free.  I don't know why people are so afraid to call socialized healthcare by its real name.  In the US, if far right fools start a-blatherin', one can point out that even Austrian economists though it was a good idea.  And I think it's not too late for business, through Republicans, to strike a grand bargain: repeal some onerous and wasteful regulation (eg, some SOX, some Dodd Frank) in exchange for offloading benefit administration and the imposition of efficient taxation to funds the system.  One can daydream.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 15, 2014, 08:28:31 AM
Quote from: Todd on May 15, 2014, 08:16:09 AM


US higher education, taken as a whole, is probably the best in the world qualitatively, though obviously there are many fine universities elsewhere.  That written, a lot of US universities focus too much energy on non-academic pursuits (ie, sports), and many have developed organizational bloat, and to fund such bloat rely on cries for public support and higher tuition for out of state residents, with out of country students especially welcome since they always pay cash and always on time. 

I'm getting to see the effects of some of the bloat right now.  My son is entering university this fall, and he is attending the same university I did (and my father before me, at that).  Student enrollment is marginally larger than it was when I attended (less than 10% or so higher), yet tuition has tripled - which is well ahead of the CPI during the same time - but the college has added at least four new buildings and has at least five additional senior administrative positions, all of which have support staff.  Perhaps these people and these buildings add a lot to the educational experience, and will render my son's education significantly superior to mine - and I hope that is the case - but I have my doubts.  I know my experience is anecdotal, but I also know similar things are happening at many universities. 

A college education is certainly a fine thing if it helps an individual to learn to think critically, and so on, but even more public funding needs more tangible benefits, ones that can be measured, and ones that benefit society as whole.  Just giving educational institutions more money because education is a good thing is not enough.
Makes sense. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 15, 2014, 10:26:02 AM
Florestan the quotation is from Thomas DeQuincey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mahler10th on May 15, 2014, 06:07:53 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 07:12:28 AM
How's it going with the independence, John?  :D

Up betimes, and went forth by carriage unto GMG, where Sir Florestan gave me a message from Sir Florestan to me.  I did look at it, and wonder about the question, it being the first ever I saw made to me.  Thence to my office, where I set upon answering his question, which did vex me, but by and by I did announce in a letter to him that the Scotts are growing dissatisfied with Westminster, being governed by publik schoolboys and men of great wealth which the Scotts care more and more to dispense with, the only danger being they get called fanatiques in such a duty, I among them.  And so to supper and to bed myself, my wife being divorced abroad all these many years.   0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 15, 2014, 06:10:29 PM
Quote from: Scots John on May 15, 2014, 06:07:53 PM
Up betimes, and went forth by carriage unto GMG, where Sir Florestan gave me a message from Sir Florestan to me.  I did look at it, and wonder about the question, it being the first ever I saw made to me.  Thence to my office, where I set upon answering his question, which did vex me, but by and by I did announce in a letter to him that the Scotts are growing dissatisfied with Westminster, being governed by publik schoolboys and men of great wealth which the Scotts care more and more to dispense with, the only danger being they get called fanatiques in such a duty, I among them.  And so to supper and to bed myself, my wife being divorced abroad all these many years.   0:)
We went to the Pepys collection in Cambridge the day we were there, but it is only open a few hours a month!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2014, 11:52:25 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 15, 2014, 10:26:02 AM
Florestan the quotation is from Thomas DeQuincey.

Thanks. It's very funny.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 12:03:56 AM
Quote from: Scots John on May 15, 2014, 06:07:53 PM
Up betimes, and went forth by carriage unto GMG, where Sir Florestan gave me a message from Sir Florestan to me.  I did look at it, and wonder about the question, it being the first ever I saw made to me.  Thence to my office, where I set upon answering his question, which did vex me, but by and by I did announce in a letter to him that the Scotts are growing dissatisfied with Westminster, being governed by publik schoolboys and men of great wealth which the Scotts care more and more to dispense with, the only danger being they get called fanatiques in such a duty, I among them.  And so to supper and to bed myself, my wife being divorced abroad all these many years.   0:)

I see. Well, good luck with it then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:13:47 AM
Quote from: milk on May 15, 2014, 07:44:27 AM
Yes. I see this exactly where I live: socialization to remove ones ability to be creative, to express individual emotions and desires, and to develop empathy. No education at all would be better than that!

Ellul would say that it is no mere coincidence that this happens in a society obsessed with robotics and technological gadgets. When automated efficiency becomes the highest value and aim, eventually men themselves will be trained (trained, not educated, mind you) into automata.  ;D

Quote
Pernicious to the core! Still, if we could only throw out the bathwater of nationalism and keep the baby of individual freedoms and rights. Maybe another nobel prize for the EU will do the trick.

EU is not the solution, it's part of the problem itself.  ;D

Let's take a break for a moment from the ideological claptrap of rights and freedoms and look at the matter without the prejudices of our time. We are very proud that we have liberated themselves from the servitude of our ancestor and that we are freer and happier than they ever were. But is it really so? Have we not simply replaced their forms of servitude with ours? Why, yes we have --- even the language reflects that. People are referred to these days not as "people", not even as "John and Jane Doe" but as citizens, taxpayers and consumers, thus reflecting our threefold servitude: political, economical and social.

1. As citizens, one "owe", and is often forced to pledge, allegiance to states one never has been asked whether they want to live in or not, to states whose actions are often contrary to, or damaging of, the interests of the very citizens they are supposed to serve and protect, to states that engage in all kind of destructive actions, going from economic sanctions to full-fledged war, against other states who treat their citizens just the same. These states are run by a caste of professional politicians and bureaucrats, organized in gangs known as "parties", whose sole interest is to get into power and stay there as long as possible, in the process securing themselves all kinds of privileges and advantages the common man in the street can only dream of, and who in order to get elected lie, cheat, swindle, blackmail, do anything just to get into power. In the making of their policies the common man has no saying whatsoever if he is not the member, the client or the sympathizer of a party or of a lobby --- and most of them aren't. If this is not servitude, then what is it?

2. As taxpayers, they are forced by the same states to renounce a part (arbitrarily established) of their earnings for "the common good". This is actually the very same old servitude people hated so much always and everywhere.

3. As consumers, they are made believe that, (1) in order for them to be happy and for the economy (ie, the state) to be prosperous, they need all kind of things big and small, and not only do they need them, but they also need replacing them every 2 years (or even less), and (2) in order to procure themselves those indispensable things they need to work more and borrow more and after buying them they need to work even more to repay the debts. As David Ramsay put it, "We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like". If this is not servitude, then what is it?

Not to speak of other types of servitude, perhaps even more pressing. How about the servitude to the clock? We're always in a hurry, always on rush, not to miss some deadline, or business opportunity, ora job interview, or something else which always makes us look at the watch impatiently, because "time is money", isn't it?. Or how about the servitude to technology? Our whole life is so utterly dependent on technology that I dread to think what effects a 1-hour power outage will have on the life of the inhabitants of New York, Tokyo or London. Or how about a servitude that specifically, but not exclusively, affects younger people: the servitude to internet and computer games? They spent hours and hours long sitting in front of a monitor, completely isolated from the outside world; their whole knowledge and information about the selfsame world comes from the internet; their communication with others, their socializing, actually their whole life is centered around internet and computer games ("hey, buddy, it's snowing!" "cool! send me the link!"). Turn their computers off for only a quarter of an hour: they are at a loss about what to do and crave the moment they can return to surfing or gaming.

So, bottom line: yes, we are better fed, better clothed, better housed, better taken for medically, better protected against the loss of life, liberty and property than ever before. But who can say with the same certainty that we are happier and freer than ever before?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 16, 2014, 01:43:34 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:13:47 AM
Ellul would say that it is no mere coincidence that this happens in a society obsessed with robotics and technological gadgets. When automated efficiency becomes the highest value and aim, eventually men themselves will be trained (trained, not educated, mind you) into automata.  ;D

EU is not the solution, it's part of the problem itself.  ;D

Let's take a break for a moment from the ideological claptrap of rights and freedoms and look at the matter without the prejudices of our time. We are very proud that we have liberated themselves from the servitude of our ancestor and that we are freer and happier than they ever were. But is it really so? Have we not simply replaced their forms of servitude with ours? Why, yes we have --- even the language reflects that. People are referred to these days not as "people", not even as "John and Jane Doe" but as citizens, taxpayers and consumers, thus reflecting our threefold servitude: political, economical and social.

1. As citizens, one "owe", and is often forced to pledge, allegiance to states one never has been asked whether they want to live in or not, to states whose actions are often contrary to, or damaging of, the interests of the very citizens they are supposed to serve and protect, to states that engage in all kind of destructive actions, going from economic sanctions to full-fledged war, against other states who treat their citizens just the same. These states are run by a caste of professional politicians and bureaucrats, organized in gangs known as "parties", whose sole interest is to get into power and stay there as long as possible, in the process securing themselves all kinds of privileges and advantages the common man in the street can only dream of, and who in order to get elected lie, cheat, swindle, blackmail, do anything just to get into power. In the making of their policies the common man has no saying whatsoever if he is not the member, the client or the sympathizer of a party or of a lobby --- and most of them aren't. If this is not servitude, then what is it?

2. As taxpayers, they are forced by the same states to renounce a part (arbitrarily established) of their earnings for "the common good". This is actually the very same old servitude people hated so much always and everywhere.

3. As consumers, they are made believe that, (1) in order for them to be happy and for the economy (ie, the state) to be prosperous, they need all kind of things big and small, and not only do they need them, but they also need replacing them every 2 years (or even less), and (2) in order to procure themselves those indispensable things they need to work more and borrow more and after buying them they need to work even more to repay the debts. As David Ramsay put it, "We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like". If this is not servitude, then what is it?

Not to speak of other types of servitude, perhaps even more pressing. How about the servitude to the clock? We're always in a hurry, always on rush, not to miss some deadline, or business opportunity, ora job interview, or something else which always makes us look at the watch impatiently, because "time is money", isn't it?. Or how about the servitude to technology? Our whole life is so utterly dependent on technology that I dread to think what effects a 1-hour power outage will have on the life of the inhabitants of New York, Tokyo or London. Or how about a servitude that specifically, but not exclusively, affects younger people: the servitude to internet and computer games? They spent hours and hours long sitting in front of a monitor, completely isolated from the outside world; their whole knowledge and information about the selfsame world comes from the internet; their communication with others, their socializing, actually their whole life is centered around internet and computer games ("hey, buddy, it's snowing!" "cool! send me the link!"). Turn their computers off for only a quarter of an hour: they are at a loss about what to do and crave the moment they can return to surfing or gaming.

So, bottom line: yes, we are better fed, better clothed, better housed, better taken for medically, better protected against the loss of life, liberty and property than ever before. But who can say with the same certainty that we are happier and freer than ever before?
I agree with much of what you're saying here. It reminds me a bit of George Carlin's late comedic diatribes. It is easy to read Japan as an example of Ellul.  Believe me, I know without the lecture because I live here. So I already minded it. The rest of the world may be there or getting there as well but there is no pretense or irony around it here. You're right that it is no coincidence that artificiality is one of, if not the, main characteristic of Japanese society. Again, I put two and two together even before reading your thoughtfully articulated posts because it's the job I go to and the life I lead every day. I think you put these ideas very well.     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 16, 2014, 01:46:59 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:13:47 AM

EU is not the solution, it's part of the problem itself.  ;D

I'm sure it's problematic in many ways, as you say, but I'm a fan of its anti-nationalistic tendencies. To me, that's one good point at least. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:48:36 AM
Quote from: milk on May 16, 2014, 01:43:34 AM
I agree with much of what you're saying here. It reminds me a bit of George Carlin's late comedic diatribes. It is easy to read Japan as an example of Ellul.  Believe me, I know without the lecture because I live here. So I already minded it. The rest of the world may be there or getting there as well but there is no pretense or irony around it here. You're right that it is no coincidence that artificiality is one of, if not the, main characteristic of Japanese society. Again, I put two and two together even before reading your thoughtfully articulated posts because it's the job I go to and the life I lead every day. I think you put these ideas very well.     

A question, if I may: if you don't like Japanese society, why are you still there? Is it because of the servitude to a job?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:52:16 AM
Quote from: milk on May 16, 2014, 01:46:59 AM
I'm sure it's problematic in many ways, as you say, but I'm a fan of its anti-nationalistic tendencies. To me, that's one good point at least.

Just wait till May, 25 (European parliamentary elections). Looks like nationalist parties will be on the rise.

Besides, as long as you'll have nations you'll also have nationalism.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 16, 2014, 01:55:31 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:48:36 AM
A question, if I may: if you don't like Japanese society, why are you still there? Is it because of the servitude to a job?  :)
I like many things about my life here. Perhaps I'd be just as critical of the States in the States. Perhaps. Yes, I am here because of work. I'm not sure how many of us can live exactly where we'd like. What did Steve Martin say, "I'm a Ramblin Man"?   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 16, 2014, 01:56:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:52:16 AM

Besides, as long as you'll have nations you'll also have nationalism.  ;D
Sadly true!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:58:47 AM
Thanks for asking.

Quote from: milk on May 16, 2014, 01:55:31 AM
I'm not sure how many of us can live exactly where we'd like.

Only those who like to live exactly where they can.  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 16, 2014, 02:01:57 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:58:47 AM
Thanks for asking.

Only those who like to live exactly where they can.  :D
Thanks for all the interesting posts. I think it was you who linked me to an article. I've got it bookmarked.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 05:09:51 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 01:58:47 AM
Thanks for asking.

I can be such a fool sometimes... I actually wanted to write "thanks for answering".  :)

Quote from: milk on May 16, 2014, 02:01:57 AM
Thanks for all the interesting posts. I think it was you who linked me to an article. I've got it bookmarked.

You're welcome. Here, I have yet another one for you.  :D

http://webshells.com/spantrans/resaba.htm (http://webshells.com/spantrans/resaba.htm)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 16, 2014, 05:45:40 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 16, 2014, 05:09:51 AM
I can be such a fool sometimes... I actually wanted to write "thanks for answering".  :)

You're welcome. Here, I have yet another one for you.  :D

http://webshells.com/spantrans/resaba.htm (http://webshells.com/spantrans/resaba.htm)
I like the title!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 20, 2014, 06:49:12 AM
(http://www.litera.ro/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/400x/040ec09b1e35df139433887a97daa66f/p/e/per_1.jpg)

Henrik Pontoppidan - Lucky Per

As an engineer not particularly in love with engineering, this book touches me quite deeply.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 20, 2014, 08:33:53 AM
If Left Florestan will look away for a moment I will recommend to the Centre and Right Florestani Roger Scrutton on the nation state.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 20, 2014, 09:05:05 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 20, 2014, 08:33:53 AM
If Left Florestan will look away for a moment I will recommend to the Centre and Right Florestani Roger Scrutton on the nation state.

Any link to that?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 20, 2014, 09:19:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 20, 2014, 09:05:05 AM
Any link to that?


http://www.amazon.com/Political-Philosophy-Arguments-Conservatism/dp/0826496156/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400606120&sr=1-8&keywords=roger+scruton

http://www.amazon.com/England-Need-Nations-Roger-Scruton-ebook/dp/B007A19RSI/ref=sr_1_42?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400606194&sr=1-42&keywords=roger+scruton

There's a lot I disagree with Scruton on, but the nation state and its value is one of the things he nails. And it is profoundly important.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 20, 2014, 04:11:37 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 20, 2014, 09:19:13 AM

http://www.amazon.com/Political-Philosophy-Arguments-Conservatism/dp/0826496156/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400606120&sr=1-8&keywords=roger+scruton

http://www.amazon.com/England-Need-Nations-Roger-Scruton-ebook/dp/B007A19RSI/ref=sr_1_42?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400606194&sr=1-42&keywords=roger+scruton

There's a lot I disagree with Scruton on, but the nation state and its value is one of the things he nails. And it is profoundly important.
I'll have to glance at it. I doubt it would change my mind that nationalism is humanity's most destructive fiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 20, 2014, 04:19:47 PM
Quote from: milk on May 20, 2014, 04:11:37 PM
I'll have to glance at it. I doubt it would change my mind that nationalism is humanity's most destructive fiction.
"Nationalism" is an ethnic idea. Not what Scruton advocates at all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on May 20, 2014, 04:27:30 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 20, 2014, 04:19:47 PM
"Nationalism" is an ethnic idea. Not what Scruton advocates at all.
Yes I know. I do mean ethnic-nationalism. He advocates for "territorial loyalty." I'm not sure I agree with that either. You know what John Lennon said...Imagine there's no country...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 21, 2014, 12:59:43 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 20, 2014, 09:19:13 AM

http://www.amazon.com/Political-Philosophy-Arguments-Conservatism/dp/0826496156/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400606120&sr=1-8&keywords=roger+scruton

http://www.amazon.com/England-Need-Nations-Roger-Scruton-ebook/dp/B007A19RSI/ref=sr_1_42?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400606194&sr=1-42&keywords=roger+scruton

There's a lot I disagree with Scruton on, but the nation state and its value is one of the things he nails. And it is profoundly important.

Thanks for the links.

Quote from: Roger ScrutonThe nation state provides us with the surest model for peace, prosperity, and the defence of human rights.

Ummm.... no, it doesn't.

The birth of France as a nation state was accompanied by some of the worst massacres in history and a bloody civil war; prosperity was not its most conspicuous feature, except for those who enriched themselves at the expense of others; and it resulted in more than 20 years of uninterrupted war with other nations. As for human rights, just ask Madame la Guillotine. Besides, what a miraculously steady regime: in 200 years, 4 revolutions, 5 republics, 2 kingdoms, 2 empires and a French State.

Spain's path to the nation state lead into 4 civil wars, countless military coups and risings and 2 military dictatorships; prosperity was not its most conspicuous feature, except for those who enriched themselves at the expense of others; the same goes for its former American colonies, the difference being that they outdid the former masters in terms of the sheer quantity of civil wars and military coups.

The rise of Germany as a nation state --- need I comment much upon how peaceful and respectful of human rights it was?

Romania. After turning into a nation state it was in a continuous state of political turmoil and violence, with 2 prime ministers and one leader of the opposition assassinated; corruption was rampant and so was poverty, especially in rural areas; emergency state was declared several times, during which the government acted almost dictatorially; elections were regularly rigged; this sick and dysfunctional democracy was followed by a royal dictatorship, then by a military dictatorship and finally by Russian conquest and Communist takeover.

The list can go on and on and on. Italy, Yougoslavia, Greece, Japan etc etc etc.

The truth is that Western nation states began to behave themselves and to really work for peace, prosperity and human rights only after their follies and crimes had brought the world on the verge of destruction. It's only after they agreed to renounce, or at least to play down, their full sovereignty, after they agreed that some form of trans- and supra-national cooperation and supervision is necessary, that peace, prosperity and the respect of human rights made their way into the life of those nations.

And in any case, the nation state, just like any other human creation, had a beginning and will have an end. Nothing lasts forever. If I were into conspiracy theory, I would even say that it's being destroyed by exactly the same forces that created it in the past.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jochanaan on May 21, 2014, 12:37:22 PM
Gene Wolfe: Pirate Freedom.  On a Wolfe binge...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 21, 2014, 01:46:33 PM
For my vacation to Denmark and Sweden, I brought some light, airy beach reading:

[asin]B00I2WNYJW[/asin]

There were certainly flaws in the book. The most glaring one, not because it was the biggest but because it was the weirdest, is Piketty's inexplicable vendetta against Bill Gates. The passage where he praises Jobs, trashes Gates, and implies that Gates doesn't deserve to be rich left my jaw hanging open. There's also a repetition of the common mistake of saying the average mortality of an earlier era being 40 meant most adults died at 40; it didn't, since so many people died before age 5. And every so often Piketty's language about capitalism, taming capitalism, defeating capitalism, etc. betrayed an ideological edge that I, as a good old capitalist, didn't much like.

On the other hand, much of the book is outstanding. The book is hard to read in the sense that it's very long, detailed, and concerning a difficult subject. The book is easy to read, though, in the sense that Piketty writes clearly, explains things well for non-economist readers, and strenuously avoids (or illuminates) jargon. In fact, even given the occasional clunker of a sentence, I'm willing to say Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a landmark of prose non-fiction, since it brings such clarity to such a tangled Christmas tree light strand of a subject.

As for the ideas, I am no economist, but I find myself persuaded by a lot of them. Truth is, the book is surprisingly low on ideas. It's high on data, but the data pretty irresistibly pushes you to certain ideas. Income and wealth inequality are, now, a lot like climate change: we know they're happening, we have a good idea why, we have some sketchy ideas on how to fix them, but we have to overcome the people who are still ready to deny there's a problem in the first place. This book serves as a weighty assembly of the evidence.

I can say, as a "lay reader," that I will now permanently carry around in my mind some core economic concepts thanks to this book, particularly "r > g" (rate of return on capital usually beats traditional economic growth) and "wealth/income = savings/growth." Also, somehow I had never heard that inflation didn't exist until 120ish years ago. Glad that's been corrected for me.

P.S. Thomas Piketty repeatedly discusses Jane Austen and Honore de Balzac. He also cites Django Unchained and Disney's The Aristocats.

P.P.S. I read the Kindle edition, because the hardcover is sold out almost everywhere. The hardcover is probably well worth buying, however, because flipping back and forth to read tiny charts on the Kindle version was not always fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 21, 2014, 02:23:22 PM
Inflation certainly existed in premodern times.   Anytime you read about a government debasing coinage,  you're reading about the ancient/medieval version of printing fiat money.    In fact, inflation in the later Roman Empire was so bad that Diocletian introduced some of the strictest wage and price controls in history.  (They didn't work, of course.)  Did he actually say that?  If so, his value as an economist is seriously in doubt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 21, 2014, 03:17:41 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 21, 2014, 02:23:22 PMDid he actually say that?  If so, his value as an economist is seriously in doubt.
No, I said that, because again it's something I'm not too aware of. He was talking about roughly the 1600-1800s, I think (?). With a Kindle it's hard to go back and look.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 21, 2014, 03:50:52 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 21, 2014, 01:46:33 PM
For my vacation to Denmark and Sweden, I brought some light, airy beach reading:

And I thought you would be reading Strindberg.....      :'( :'( :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 21, 2014, 05:17:50 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 21, 2014, 03:17:41 PM
No, I said that, because again it's something I'm not too aware of. He was talking about roughly the 1600-1800s, I think (?). With a Kindle it's hard to go back and look.

More likely the period after 1700.  The 1500s were actually a time of severe inflation,  something that lasted into the 1600s; the main cause was the influx of gold and silver mined by Spain in its New World colonies.  Ironically, the very thing that made Spain a world power was the root cause of its decline into being the first Sick Man of Europe, since the Spanish political and financial system  was not flexible enough to adapt to the new financial realities (that, and the fact that the Spanish spent much of their new wealth trying to beat the Protestants across Europe into submission).

I'm not sure when this inflationary surge tapered off; it would have been sometime in the 1600s. 
This is probably something Todd or Florestan might be able to clarify.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 21, 2014, 05:58:21 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 21, 2014, 05:17:50 PM
More likely the period after 1700.  The 1500s were actually a time of severe inflation,  something that lasted into the 1600s; the main cause was the influx of gold and silver mined by Spain in its New World colonies.  Ironically, the very thing that made Spain a world power was the root cause of its decline into being the first Sick Man of Europe, since the Spanish political and financial system  was not flexible enough to adapt to the new financial realities (that, and the fact that the Spanish spent much of their new wealth trying to beat the Protestants across Europe into submission).

I'm not sure when this inflationary surge tapered off; it would have been sometime in the 1600s. 
This is probably something Todd or Florestan might be able to clarify.

He talks about gold - in fact, at one point his argument is such that he is obliged to explain why, despite saying a few things in favor of the gold standard, he's not a true supporter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 21, 2014, 05:58:53 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 21, 2014, 03:50:52 PM
And I thought you would be reading Strindberg.....      :'( :'( :'(

Funnily enough, I did attempt to see Strindberg's excellent paintings, but the museum is closed for renovations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on May 21, 2014, 05:59:20 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 21, 2014, 05:17:50 PMI'm not sure when this inflationary surge tapered off; it would have been sometime in the 1600s.  This is probably something Todd or Florestan might be able to clarify.



It's been a good long while since I covered this subject, but I believe sometime in the 17th Century, the inflation rate decreased because the influx of gold and silver slowed.



Quote from: Brian on May 21, 2014, 01:46:33 PM
For my vacation to Denmark and Sweden, I brought some light, airy beach reading:

[asin]B00I2WNYJW[/asin]


I can say, as a "lay reader," that I will now permanently carry around in my mind some core economic concepts thanks to this book, particularly "r > g" (rate of return on capital usually beats traditional economic growth) and "wealth/income = savings/growth." Also, somehow I had never heard that inflation didn't exist until 120ish years ago. Glad that's been corrected for me.


I've so far only read about the book, and I may or may not read it.  The r > g is a seductive, simple formulation that seems to answer all questions surrounding inequality, and sets the framework for the prescribed global wealth tax - which has as much chance of coming into being as I do of becoming pope.  The problem is, this simple formulation is inaccurate, and most critiques I've read bring up the obvious reality that not all r is created equal - sovereign debt does not offer the same return as equity, etc – and while inheritance obviously contributes to inequality over time, not all fortunes remain; capital can and has been destroyed as well as created, and not just during big wars.  His cited equivalence is also a bit unusual, too, at least as presented in your statement.  I have to refrain from critiquing too much since I've not read it, but there may be some more interesting nuggets in there.

There are a couple things that irk me about the author's overall approach.  First is the hubris in obviously referencing Marx in the title of his book.  Having slogged my way through a good chunk of the first volume of Das Kapital, and finding no neat and tidy answer like r > g, I find it presumptuous for an author, or his publisher, to use the name thusly.  Second, a recent-ish remark by Picketty that Americans probably have a higher income than the French because they work more seemed a bit daft for a serious scholar, but I didn't see the entire exchange.  It will be interesting to see if this work has the impact the author hopes it does.  Me, I think I should read Robert Gordon's paper Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds first, and get some heavyweight analysis in before digesting a bigger work aimed at a bigger audience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 21, 2014, 06:07:13 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 21, 2014, 05:58:53 PM
Funnily enough, I did attempt to see Strindberg's excellent paintings, but the museum is closed for renovations.

Yes, he does have some interesting paintings although I always tended to look at his writings.  Wild swirling raw paintings...
Somehow this one reminds me of El Greco.. hmmm..

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/The_Town%2C_1903.jpg/334px-The_Town%2C_1903.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 12:22:36 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 21, 2014, 05:17:50 PM
I'm not sure when this inflationary surge tapered off; it would have been sometime in the 1600s. 
This is probably something Todd or Florestan might be able to clarify.

Not me, I'm not an economist. Todd is much more qualified than me --- and lo!, he delivered.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2014, 02:12:24 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 21, 2014, 03:17:41 PM
. . . With a Kindle it's hard to go back and look.

One word: highlights :)

. . . a note may be better.  I really do enjoy this feature of the e-books, particularly, the knowledge that I can "mark up" a book at will, without spoiling physical property.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on May 22, 2014, 03:31:48 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 21, 2014, 02:23:22 PM
Inflation certainly existed in premodern times.   Anytime you read about a government debasing coinage,  you're reading about the ancient/medieval version of printing fiat money.    In fact, inflation in the later Roman Empire was so bad that Diocletian introduced some of the strictest wage and price controls in history.  (They didn't work, of course.)  Did he actually say that?  If so, his value as an economist is seriously in doubt.

Amen!

And yes, inflation existed at many points in ancient and medieval times.  Crushing taxation and inflation and other such policies showed the lack of imagination in attacking the assorted problems of the later empire: when a "solution" was not working, the solution to that failure was to increase the dosage of the failing solution.

Sound familiar?   ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2014, 03:44:51 AM
Presently re-reading The Seven Souls of Chaos Part I: A Center of the Universe

Someday, this will be in publication, and it won't be as big as Stephen King.  Because it's too good for that  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on May 22, 2014, 07:06:45 AM
Quote from: Philo on May 21, 2014, 06:14:34 AM
One of the greatest works of poetry.

(http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/images/vixencv.gif)

+1!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on May 22, 2014, 07:33:27 AM
Elledge has really done his homework for this biography of the compelling outsider artist, Henry Darger.  Truly, it's both biography and social history.  How accurate psychologically it is I'll withhold judgment until finished.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 22, 2014, 09:54:02 AM
Quote from: Todd on May 21, 2014, 05:59:20 PM
I've so far only read about the book, and I may or may not read it.  The r > g is a seductive, simple formulation that seems to answer all questions surrounding inequality, and sets the framework for the prescribed global wealth tax - which has as much chance of coming into being as I do of becoming pope.  The problem is, this simple formulation is inaccurate, and most critiques I've read bring up the obvious reality that not all r is created equal - sovereign debt does not offer the same return as equity, etc – and while inheritance obviously contributes to inequality over time, not all fortunes remain; capital can and has been destroyed as well as created, and not just during big wars.  His cited equivalence is also a bit unusual, too, at least as presented in your statement.  I have to refrain from critiquing too much since I've not read it, but there may be some more interesting nuggets in there.

There are a couple things that irk me about the author's overall approach.  First is the hubris in obviously referencing Marx in the title of his book.  Having slogged my way through a good chunk of the first volume of Das Kapital, and finding no neat and tidy answer like r > g, I find it presumptuous for an author, or his publisher, to use the name thusly.  Second, a recent-ish remark by Picketty that Americans probably have a higher income than the French because they work more seemed a bit daft for a serious scholar, but I didn't see the entire exchange.  It will be interesting to see if this work has the impact the author hopes it does.  Me, I think I should read Robert Gordon's paper Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds first, and get some heavyweight analysis in before digesting a bigger work aimed at a bigger audience.

Well, of course, he doesn't claim that any of the "basic laws" he introduces are hard and fast laws, or even that they will be true in a given place or time. They function as sort of averages or rules of thumb - for example, a nation's capital/income ratio should be similar to savings rate divided by growth rate, but it won't always be so. Piketty would contend that when a big difference exists between the two ratios, some type of course correction results (he cites 80s-90s Japan as an example here).

"r > g" tends to be most true in periods of low growth, obviously, because the hurdle to clear is lower. Piketty is taking the very long view here: he believes that, as demographic changes take effect first in Europe and then slowly across the rest of the world (except Africa), economic growth will drop to about 1% on average. In a 1% growth context, he is saying those who already have capital will accumulate wealth more steadily and quickly than those who depend on working wages for a living. (He points out that the wealthy are typically smart enough to beat "g"; he also uses American university endowments to debate whether you get a higher return simply by virtue of having more wealth to invest.)

Piketty does address both the title (he's more sour on the "Twenty-First Century" part than on the "Capital" part; I don't blame him for Marx using such a central word) and the fact that the global wealth tax is, in his word, "utopian". He's more optimistic that a few countries in Europe will sign up, although even with that I wish him luck.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on May 22, 2014, 10:29:01 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 22, 2014, 09:54:02 AMIn a 1% growth context, he is saying those who already have capital will accumulate wealth more steadily and quickly than those who depend on working wages for a living.



The problem with this is that over the last 40 years or so, a large and expanding part of growing wealth inequality in the US and a few other countries (eg, UK) has been attributed to growing income inequality.  That is, higher paid professionals are earning relatively more than the rest of society, which translates to greater wealth.  These individuals may or may not be able to invest in such a way that ensures their wealth will consistently grows more rapidly than the economy.  (Incidentally, inequality grows fastest during depressions and recessions.)  How does Picketty account for this?

Establishing a rule like capital/income equating in some way to savings/growth, but then saying it will not always be so, strikes me as a trying to have it all ways.  I would have to read the book to understand such an approach.

It's good he takes a really long-term view.  From what I have read argues that the trends we are now witnessing began in the 70s rather than 1980, that supposedly magical, and/or evil year, though I think it is clear how he would view Reagan, Thatcher, et al.  Just as in the US the almost, but not quite, political detente between "conservatives" and "liberals" of the Cold War era has since given way to a more traditional rough and tumble politics akin to that of the 1770s through 1930s, the entire developed world could, possibly, revert to a more stagnant, rigidly hierarchical system - that is, neo-feudalism.  Such a state could last for centuries.  Unless, of course, great powers maneuver themselves into a situation where large scale conflict again becomes possible or even common, though with nukes around that seems hard to fathom. 

That's why the Gordon piece I mentioned earlier is higher up on my list of economic works to read; identifying causes of slower long-term growth and possible remedies can alleviate some of these issues, if only for the US.  But what if Friedman was right all along, and the long-term US real GDP growth rate really is 3%, rather than Picketty's 1%?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 22, 2014, 12:23:58 PM
Quote from: Todd on May 22, 2014, 10:29:01 AM
The problem with this is that over the last 40 years or so, a large and expanding part of growing wealth inequality in the US and a few other countries (eg, UK) has been attributed to growing income inequality.  That is, higher paid professionals are earning relatively more than the rest of society, which translates to greater wealth.  These individuals may or may not be able to invest in such a way that ensures their wealth will consistently grows more rapidly than the economy.  (Incidentally, inequality grows fastest during depressions and recessions.)  How does Picketty account for this?
He has a whole chapter about what he calls "supermanagers," this particular class of persons, and in particular how they come to earn more for their work than they ever would have in the past. (An unsurprising combination of new powers to suggest/name salaries, a near-total lack of information about how valuable these executives are [how much of Apple's success is the result of Steve Jobs, measured in dollars, versus the result of all their other employees and contractors? who knows?], and greed, too.) I can't immediately recall the discussion of why these individuals so rarely invest badly conservatively (EDIT), but there is discussion as to why most of the biggest fortunes return 6-7% rather than only 3-4% (access to unlisted investments and opportunities, more energy put into research and strategy, etc.).

Piketty does note one prominent example of a filthy rich investor who prefers low-yield holdings: Saudi Arabia, which buys up US Treasury debt for political reasons.

Quote from: Todd on May 22, 2014, 10:29:01 AMthough I think it is clear how he would view Reagan, Thatcher, et al.
Yup, I think your imagination can handle that one. Bonus points for guessing what he thinks of the current Euro austerity plan.

Quote from: Todd on May 22, 2014, 10:29:01 AM
the entire developed world could, possibly, revert to a more stagnant, rigidly hierarchical system - that is, neo-feudalism.... identifying causes of slower long-term growth and possible remedies can alleviate some of these issues, if only for the US.
This is Piketty's worst-case scenario and his fear. But he thinks that faster long-term growth in the 20th century was an anomaly, not a new normal, and thus he thinks the ultimate cause of slower long-term growth is reversion to a historical norm after a century of population booms, world wars, and globalized trade. (Remembering, of course, that this would happen at different paces in different places.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:23:50 PM
And thus spake on that ancyent Man,
  The bright-eyed Marinere. (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancyent_Marinere_%281798%29)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:28:30 PM
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. (http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.htm)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:31:00 PM
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
  Colder thy kiss;   
Truly that hour foretold   
  Sorrow to this. (http://www.bartleby.com/101/597.html)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on May 22, 2014, 01:32:29 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 22, 2014, 12:23:58 PMHe has a whole chapter about what he calls "supermanagers," this particular class of persons, and in particular how they come to earn more for their work than they ever would have in the past.



In this instance, I'm not referring to the "supermanagers", but rather to the observable increase in relative income to the top quintile (or so) as a whole; the focus on the top 1%, or whatever other really elite group, is misplaced, and will or at least could lead to improper policy responses - like a global wealth tax.

Is the 6-7% return he refers to real or nominal?



Quote from: Brian on May 22, 2014, 12:23:58 PMand thus he thinks the ultimate cause of slower long-term growth is reversion to a historical norm after a century of population booms, world wars, and globalized trade. (Remembering, of course, that this would happen at different paces in different places.)


Population is no longer growing rapidly in most rich countries, true, but population growth can still be maintained or boosted by proper immigration policy, though xenophobia needs to be overcome.  Large wars should be avoided, even allowing for the fact that they do act as an economic stimulus.  As for globalized trade, perhaps consider reading World 3.0 for a very data intensive but accessible survey of the more mundane realities of globalized trade and finance.  The impact of globalization to date is overstated; more can be done to open trade and finance and even free movement of labor.  But this runs into predictable opposition: evil transnational/multinational corporations would be more powerful/accountable to no one; the 1%ers would reap all the benefits; the environment would be ruined; those funny looking foreigners would take all the good jobs, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 22, 2014, 01:32:55 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:23:50 PM
And thus spake on that ancyent Man,
  The bright-eyed Marinere. (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancyent_Marinere_%281798%29)
That's probably my favourite poem, at least if you exclude epics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:38:19 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 22, 2014, 01:32:55 PM
That's probably my favourite poem, at least if you exclude epics.

Exclude epics, and the poem comes to nothing!

Water, water, every left,
And all the boards did shrink;:
Water, water, every right;
Nor any drop to drink.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:41:33 PM
Some of the most vivid lines I've ever read in English (it not being my mother tongue)

Day after day, day after day,
  We stuck, ne breath ne motion,
As idle as a painted Ship
  Upon a painted Ocean.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 22, 2014, 03:20:11 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:38:19 PM
Exclude epics, and the poem comes to nothing!

Water, water, every left,
And all the boards did shrink;:
Water, water, every right;
Nor any drop to drink.
:)
Well I meant aside from The Odyssey really.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 23, 2014, 02:13:49 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:41:33 PM
Some of the most vivid lines I've ever read in English (it not being my mother tongue)

Day after day, day after day,
  We stuck, ne breath ne motion,
As idle as a painted Ship
  Upon a painted Ocean.

Aye, a beauty.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 23, 2014, 05:46:09 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:41:33 PM
Some of the most vivid lines I've ever read in English (it not being my mother tongue)

Day after day, day after day,
  We stuck, ne breath ne motion,
As idle as a painted Ship
  Upon a painted Ocean.
I am listening to San Franciso Polyphony, by Ligeti

This man hath penance done
And penance more will do
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 23, 2014, 09:30:23 PM
Finished The Misremembered Man, now re-reading Hugh Howey's Wool for the book club to which I belong.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 24, 2014, 07:03:58 PM
I just finished "The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies" and am now reading "Minding Movies: Observations on the Art, Craft, and Business of Filmmaking" Both are by David Bordwell, the second co-authored with his wife, Kristin Thompson.  I don't know why suddenly I'm all psyched to be reading about movies again after having lost interest for years...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5196-FCQDnL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 24, 2014, 07:08:12 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on May 24, 2014, 07:03:58 PM
I just finished "The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies" and am now reading "Minding Movies: Observations on the Art, Craft, and Business of Filmmaking" Both are by David Bordwell, the second co-authored with his wife, Kristin Thompson.  I don't know why suddenly I'm all psyched to be reading about movies again after having lost interest for years...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5196-FCQDnL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

It is because we can buy megaboxes of movies now!!    >:D

[asin] B000I5YUE4[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 24, 2014, 07:17:36 PM
Graded French Reader, Bauer

I have a shelf of French books of various sorts, graded readers, dual language, French only. Even cookbooks
QuoteLa chair riche en pétrole de Moonfish le rend idéal pour la plupart des types de méthodes de cuisson, de pan-brûlante de la grille. Plus communément appelé opah, poissons lune est un grand poisson tropical se trouve principalement dans les eaux profondes entourant Hawaii. Moonfish ont différente couleur chair dans divers domaines de leur corps, mais la plupart de la cuisson jusqu'à ferme et blanche. Semblable à l'espadon, poisson-lune est le plus souvent coupé en filets de steak épais. Cependant vous avez décidé de les faire cuire, les servir avec une sauce sucrée qui complète sa saveur, comme une salsa de fruits épicés, ou une sauce à base de miel ou d'érable.

>:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 25, 2014, 12:43:52 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 24, 2014, 07:08:12 PM
It is because we can buy megaboxes of movies now!!    >:D

[asin] B000I5YUE4[/asin]

That's an interesting list. I've seen the majority of those, but some I've never even heard of.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 25, 2014, 01:00:53 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on May 25, 2014, 12:43:52 AM
That's an interesting list. I've seen the majority of those, but some I've never even heard of.

Yes, it is a great compilation. A bit on the expensive side though...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on May 25, 2014, 07:22:36 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on May 24, 2014, 07:03:58 PM
I just finished "The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies" and am now reading "Minding Movies: Observations on the Art, Craft, and Business of Filmmaking" Both are by David Bordwell, the second co-authored with his wife, Kristin Thompson.  I don't know why suddenly I'm all psyched to be reading about movies again after having lost interest for years...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5196-FCQDnL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Bordwell (among other things) is an authority on Ozu and provides commentaries or appreciations (sometimes with his wife) on Criterions.  I believe Ozu and Mizoguchi are his "desert-island" directors.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 25, 2014, 08:02:33 AM
Rereading Jedi search.



(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/58/Jedisearch.jpg)

As older I have started to see the flaws in Kevin J. Anderson's writing. The best parts of the book to me are those involving Natasi Daala who ironically is almost universally loathed by fans, I am one exception. I however see the problem many people have with this character. The most defining part of her character to many people is her complete failure to win a single battle. However, imo, it wasn't first that bad, her incompetence grew steadily in the books of other authors and some have even tried to explain rather clumsily that her incompetence is a result of brain damage or alternately (this seems a bit more well done saving throw) that she simply excelled in infantry tactics and therefore she had no experience with battling in space. However despite her incompetence I find her a very interesting character. The bad parts... well, let's just say that the dialogue really gets cheesy in parts that describe Leia's hardships as a mother to Jacen and Jaina. Oh well, Anderson is no Timothy Zahn who has pretty much flawless writing style. After I've reread book version of original star wars I think I'm going to move to remaining books in jedi academy trilogy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on May 25, 2014, 08:32:45 AM
For the benefit of GMG members and Moonfish (run or swim very fast!) I took the liberty of translating Ken B's Modest Proposal.  Bracketed bits are grammatically improved.

La chair riche en pétrole de Moonfish le rend idéal pour la plupart des types de méthodes de cuisson, de pan-brûlante de la grille. Plus communément appelé opah, poissons lune est un grand poisson tropical se trouve principalement dans les eaux profondes entourant Hawaii. Moonfish ont différente couleur chair dans divers domaines de leur corps, mais la plupart de la cuisson jusqu'à ferme et blanche. Semblable à l'espadon, poisson-lune est le plus souvent coupé en filets de steak épais. Cependant vous avez décidé de les faire cuire, les servir avec une sauce sucrée qui complète sa saveur, comme une salsa de fruits épicés, ou une sauce à base de miel ou d'érable.

The rich, oily Moonfish flesh makes it ideal for most types of cooking, [from searing to the grill].  Formerly known as opah, moonfish are a large tropical fish found principally in deep waters around Hawaii.  Moonfish have different color flesh in various parts of their bodies, but [most cook until firm and white].  Similar to swordfish, moonfish is most often cut into thick steak filets.  However you decide to cook them, serve with a sweet sauce that complements its flavor, like a spicy fruit salsa or a maple honey-based sauce.

Speaking personally, the flesh of the Zauberdrachen, particularly #7, is tough and sinewy, bien dégoûtant. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 25, 2014, 12:33:58 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on May 25, 2014, 08:32:45 AM
For the benefit of GMG members and Moonfish (run or swim very fast!) I took the liberty of translating Ken B's Modest Proposal.  Bracketed bits are grammatically improved.

La chair riche en pétrole de Moonfish le rend idéal pour la plupart des types de méthodes de cuisson, de pan-brûlante de la grille. Plus communément appelé opah, poissons lune est un grand poisson tropical se trouve principalement dans les eaux profondes entourant Hawaii. Moonfish ont différente couleur chair dans divers domaines de leur corps, mais la plupart de la cuisson jusqu'à ferme et blanche. Semblable à l'espadon, poisson-lune est le plus souvent coupé en filets de steak épais. Cependant vous avez décidé de les faire cuire, les servir avec une sauce sucrée qui complète sa saveur, comme une salsa de fruits épicés, ou une sauce à base de miel ou d'érable.

The rich, oily Moonfish flesh makes it ideal for most types of cooking, [from searing to the grill].  Formerly known as opah, moonfish are a large tropical fish found principally in deep waters around Hawaii.  Moonfish have different color flesh in various parts of their bodies, but [most cook until firm and white].  Similar to swordfish, moonfish is most often cut into thick steak filets.  However you decide to cook them, serve with a sweet sauce that complements its flavor, like a spicy fruit salsa or a maple honey-based sauce.

Speaking personally, the flesh of the Zauberdrachen, particularly #7, is tough and sinewy, bien dégoûtant.

Carnivorous humans!!!!!  ??? :'( :'( :'(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K_6-OccmXo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K_6-OccmXo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K_6-OccmXo
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 25, 2014, 12:41:55 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 25, 2014, 12:33:58 PM
Carnivorous humans!!!!!  ??? :'( :'( :'(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K_6-OccmXo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K_6-OccmXo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K_6-OccmXo

Bouillabase

OOPS Thought this was the one-word thread. Apologies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on May 25, 2014, 01:44:29 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 25, 2014, 12:41:55 PM
Bouillabase

OOPS Thought this was the one-word thread. Apologies.

KB :  surprised you didn't say:  "Boulezabase."  But then, I'm kinda grateful you didn't!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 25, 2014, 04:06:40 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on May 25, 2014, 07:22:36 AM
Bordwell (among other things) is an authority on Ozu and provides commentaries or appreciations (sometimes with his wife) on Criterions.  I believe Ozu and Mizoguchi are his "desert-island" directors.

  Yeah, he's the authority on a lot of stuff.  His book on Hong Kong cinema was my bible for a long time, although over the long run I suppose my favorite of his book is his "Narration and the Fiction Film"...where has that gotten to? I need to did that up and give it another look...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 25, 2014, 08:00:38 PM
(http://images.randomhouse.com/cover/9780307390479?&height=281&maxwidth=190)

Third in the series.  The grind of the plots in the first two were magical. Made me feel as if I was there.  Crime writers Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö have created a character and a "theme" that I will savor throughout the run.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 25, 2014, 08:09:07 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 25, 2014, 08:00:38 PM
(http://images.randomhouse.com/cover/9780307390479?&height=281&maxwidth=190)

Third in the series.  The grind of the plots in the first two were magical. Made me feel as if I was there.  Crime writers Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö have created a character and a "theme" that I will savor throughout the run.
An excellent series. I have read most of them twice.

Are you Kvant and me Kvastmo, or vice versa?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 25, 2014, 08:12:29 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 25, 2014, 08:00:38 PM
(http://images.randomhouse.com/cover/9780307390479?&height=281&maxwidth=190)

Third in the series.  The grind of the plots in the first two were magical. Made me feel as if I was there.  Crime writers Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö have created a character and a "theme" that I will savor throughout the run.

Yes, that series is a classic one in Sweden. I think there even was a few movies made of the books. Hmm..  I wish I could find some copies in the original Swedish. They read much better in Swedish than in English!

[asin] 6304702000[/asin]
[asin] 1567301479[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on May 26, 2014, 03:03:45 PM
(http://www.cclapcenter.com/archives/taste.jpg)


A Taste for Intrigue.  I decided to take a break from bios of American leaders and instead focus on a French one, namely Francois Mitterrand.  I'm a few chapters in, up to the point up France's liberation, and Philip Short's work is as good a bio on a Frenchie as I can imagine.  His prose is clear and crisp, his detail and research impressive, his footnotes filled with irresistible tidbits – for instance, Mitterrand referred to Hitler as the God of Bayreuth during the Anschluss, leading me to think he my not have loved Wagner later in life – and his description of the rather nasty French political scene of the 20s and especially pre-war 30s puts current events into perspective.  It's also a very fast read, at least so far, making me think that 600-ish page length should be digested fairly quickly.  My only beef is with the name - the US edition should have stuck with the original Mitterand: A Study in Ambiguity. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 26, 2014, 04:05:20 PM
Started Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney.

[asin]B00HE2JK4Y[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 28, 2014, 10:00:53 AM
Why Sam Adams' church is selling a bit of its history to pay for its future (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/1203/Why-Sam-Adams-church-is-selling-a-bit-of-its-history-to-pay-for-its-future)

Quote from: Allison TerryThe congregation authorized the auction of one of its two copies of the Bay Psalm Book, one the first books ever published in North America. Only 11 copies remain of the original printing, published in 1640 by the first printer in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Stephen Daye. The church's two copies have been kept in the rare book collection across the street at the Boston Public Library since 1866. Other items, which will be sold privately, include 19 pieces of Colonial-era silver held in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts since 1939.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 28, 2014, 10:04:36 AM
Never mind where Joe DiMaggio has gotten to: Where have you gone, John Quincy Adams? (http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2014/0526/John-Quincy-Adams-often-forgotten-yet-highly-distinguished)

Quote from: David HolahanWhen called, Adams served, whether as a lowly state senator, as a U.S. Congressman (eight terms after his White House tour), U.S. Senator, Secretary of State (he authored the Monroe Doctrine), diplomat to myriad European courts, War of 1812 peace negotiator, and distinguished advocate before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was 73 in 1841 when he argued successfully for the freedom of the Amistad's enslaved Africans. Now that's a resume.

This son of our second president had a quaint view of public service and personal rectitude. He put duty before personal or political considerations. When his conscience and his career were in conflict, he chose the former. He resigned his senate seat in 1808 when he believed his Federalist party was placing its interests above the welfare of the country; he was well aware that his bipartisan advocacy had doomed his reelection chances in an era when state legislatures elected senators. Modern "mavericks" pale in comparison to John Quincy, who would leave the White House poorer than when he had entered it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 28, 2014, 10:30:54 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 28, 2014, 10:04:36 AM
Never mind where Joe DiMaggio has gotten to: Where have you gone, John Quincy Adams? (http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2014/0526/John-Quincy-Adams-often-forgotten-yet-highly-distinguished)
The best part of Adam's career was breaking the congressional gag order on slavery in the 1840s. He fought that with persistence, cunning, and a wicked sense of humour, for years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 28, 2014, 11:11:01 AM
Finished Babel-17. Re-reading Wool for the book club to which I belong.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 28, 2014, 11:12:25 AM
Quote from: stingo on May 28, 2014, 11:11:01 AM
Finished Babel-17. Re-reading Wool for the book club to which I belong.

How was Babel? I read Nova a couple of years back, but have not yet tackled other Delany works. Babel has a strong linguistic twist, right?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 28, 2014, 11:42:13 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 28, 2014, 11:12:25 AM
How was Babel? I read Nova a couple of years back, but have not yet tackled other Delany works. Babel has a strong linguistic twist, right?

Yes. I liked it, and will probably more of his works in the future. And yes, it's about language and how it affects the speaker, their thoughts and the wider world about them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on May 28, 2014, 09:21:48 PM
The KEILLOR Reader
Garrison Keillor celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Prairie Home Companion with back stories about Lake Woebegon and his own life
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on May 31, 2014, 12:17:50 PM
Started Benjamin Franklin's Bastard: A Novel by Sally Cabot. I picked this up in one of the monthly Kindle sales, and I'm glad I did. I'm about a fifth of the way done, and it seems rather like Downton Abbey - a soap opera with higher production values. Still, it's a good read so far and I am interested to see how it unfolds.

[asin]0062241923[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 11:19:34 AM
Quote from: Philo on May 31, 2014, 11:05:33 PM
Marxist-Leninist policies

Id est, famine, massacres and terror!  ;D ;D ;D

I am not kidding, --- anyone advocating Marxist Leninist policies is a mass murderer for me!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 01, 2014, 11:41:11 AM
A recently published biography of Paul Valéry:

(http://www.fabula.org/actualites/documents/62109.jpeg)

Very approachable and entertaining, giving insights into the life of a poet who, even if his star has faded slightly in the recent past, remains IMO one of the greats of 20th century French literature...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 01, 2014, 11:56:10 AM
I'm beginning my absurdly ambitious summer project: a 3-4 month immersion in some pinnacles of Russian literature. The reading list, roughly in the order I plan to read them:

Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Chekhov, collected short stories
Sorokin, The Queue
Tolstoy, collected short stories
Dostoevsky, The Idiot
Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
Bely, Petersburg
Gogol, Dead Souls
Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov

I've read C&P, Brothers K, Eugene, and Petersburg before. The Idiot, and all the Chekhov, Sorokin, Tolstoy, Gogol, and Bulgakov, will be new to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 11:57:58 AM
Quote from: ritter on June 01, 2014, 11:41:11 AM
(http://www.fabula.org/actualites/documents/62109.jpeg)

Quote from: Paul Valery
Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business.

The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 12:01:03 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 01, 2014, 11:56:10 AM
I'm beginning my absurdly ambitious summer project: a 3-4 month immersion in some pinnacles of Russian literature.

Stick with Dostoyevsky and let us know when you finish it...  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 01, 2014, 12:39:47 PM
A Dickens' sighting!

(https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT7hYBs8Y0EPDmDgP2nHdQ9bhNWdo-YACbhTxb1R0szCxgHhd4E)

Ring that bell, Karl!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 12:41:05 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 01, 2014, 12:39:47 PM
A Dickens' sighting!

(https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT7hYBs8Y0EPDmDgP2nHdQ9bhNWdo-YACbhTxb1R0szCxgHhd4E)

Ring that bell, Karl!

Oliver Twist, anyone?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 01, 2014, 12:48:32 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 12:41:05 PM
Oliver Twist, anyone?

Read that one last summer.  Found it decent.  However, much rather re-read David Copperfield or Nicholas Nickleby.  Your thoughts? 

I also started Barnaby Rudge a while back, but got sidetracked.  I need to go back to this one as I was enjoying it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on June 01, 2014, 01:13:19 PM
Derek Parfit: Razones y personas

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81LEnElQsBL._SL1500_.jpg)

Spanish translation of Reasons and Persons.

It's a good translation (and quite expensive) , but I'm seriously considering the Kindle version of the original edition in English.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 01:16:30 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 01, 2014, 12:48:32 PM
Read that one last summer.  Found it decent.  However, much rather re-read David Copperfield or Nicholas Nickleby.  Your thoughts? 

I remember reading Nicholas Nickleby sometimes (ie, many years) ago and finding it much, much better than either David Copperfield. or Oliver Twist].

It might be because of my mother and father adnotating this very book with their own handwriting. be it as it may, I cherish this Dickens book, which is old and weared, more than any other of my library...  ;D

I would re-read these three last novels anytime.

Anyway, I think Dickens is one of the greatest English writers ever, together with Joseph Conrad.  ;D ;D ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on June 01, 2014, 01:31:32 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 01:16:30 PM
Anyway, I think Dickens is one of the greatest English writers ever, together with Joseph Conrad.  ;D ;D ;D

Joseph Conrad! To me his name it's eternally tied to The Duel, not to his more important stories. 

I recall a Saturday morning almost 35 years ago, when my mother brought me from the market this novel (not from a store, but a street market).

It was so demonically absorbing that I read it, complete, that very same afternoon.

This is an important memory to me as my mother died almost 20 years ago in 1995, just 4 years older than me now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on June 01, 2014, 01:42:00 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 01:16:30 PM
I remember reading Nicholas Nickleby sometimes (ie, many years) ago and finding it much, much better than either David Copperfield. or Oliver Twist].

It might be because of my mother and father adnotating this very book with their own handwriting. be it as it may, I cherish this Dickens book, which is old and weared, more than any other of my library...  ;D

I would re-read these three last novels anytime.

Anyway, I think Dickens is one of the greatest English writers ever, together with Joseph Conrad.  ;D ;D ;D

Methinks that if a Christian read only Dickens, one would read the only English testimony to Jesus Christ!

I must completely agree with you in terms of Dickens and Conrad (although I yet have to tackle Nicholas Nickleby).  It must be quite an experience to have your parents' notes scribbled throughout the novel?

What are your thoughts about Eliot?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 01:43:39 PM
Quote from: Gordo on June 01, 2014, 01:31:32 PM
Joseph Conrad! To me his name it's eternally tied to The Duel, not to his more important stories. 
Try Lord Jim[/b, my friend, and you'll find out one of the best novels ever written in English! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 01, 2014, 01:59:26 PM
George Eliot! a.k.a. Mary Ann Evans
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 02:00:33 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 01, 2014, 01:59:26 PM
George Eliot! a.k.a. Mary Ann Evans

Ha ha ha  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 01, 2014, 03:26:30 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 11:19:34 AM
Id est, famine, massacres and terror!  ;D ;D ;D

I am not kidding, --- anyone advocating Marxist Leninist policies is a mass murderer for me!
Nice to see the change Florestan!

>:D :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 01, 2014, 03:30:26 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 01:43:39 PM
Try Lord Jim[/b, my friend, and you'll find out one of the best novels ever written in English!
You should try Trollope Florestan. For you I suggest the political novels, the Palliser series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 01, 2014, 03:34:25 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 01:43:39 PM
Try Lord Jim[/b, my friend, and you'll find out one of the best novels ever written in English!
The man's THIRD language! He didn't even learn English as a child, not until his twenties.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on June 01, 2014, 05:11:53 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2014, 11:19:34 AM
Id est, famine, massacres and terror!  ;D ;D ;D

I am not kidding, --- anyone advocating Marxist Leninist policies is a mass murderer for me!

Amen!  Not to be forgotten: Maoist...not much difference, a variation on a theme: the body count disallows any kind of apologia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on June 01, 2014, 08:29:14 PM
Finished Benjamin Franklin's Bastard: A Novel - I picked this book up in a Kindle sale, thinking since it was historical fiction that I might enjoy it. I am actually surprised by how well I liked it. It certainly is a page turner that reminds me of Downton Abbey - a soap opera with higher production values. Apart from an anachronistic reference to an Emerson quote, I very much enjoyed this book.

Started The Book Of Lost Things: A Novel by John Connolly

[asin]B000JMKVJE[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 02, 2014, 06:14:36 AM
these...
[asin]0812978153[/asin]
[asin]0553582038[/asin]
[asin]0306810018[/asin]
All pretty kick-ass, but the Joe Jackson especially so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 02, 2014, 06:46:09 AM
"... a relentlessly pugnacious city ..." nice!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 02, 2014, 06:47:38 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 02, 2014, 06:46:09 AM
"... a relentlessly pugnacious city ..." nice!

I dare say you would enjoy that Joe Jackson book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 02, 2014, 06:51:11 AM
I've right away sent a sample to my Kindle.  I assume you are right  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 02, 2014, 06:52:00 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 02, 2014, 06:51:11 AM
I've right away sent a sample to my Kindle.  I assume you are right  8)

Do let me know if you ever get around to it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 02, 2014, 07:01:26 AM
Will do, but it probably will not be until after the 9th Ear concerts this weekend. Just so's you know, laddie!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 02, 2014, 07:02:14 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 02, 2014, 07:01:26 AM
Will do, but it probably will not be until after the 9th Ear concerts this weekend. Just so's you know, laddie!

No rush. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 02, 2014, 07:14:38 AM
Always something breaking us in two . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on June 02, 2014, 07:36:02 AM
@MN Dave - I'd like to know what you think of A Feast for Crows, having read it myself a few months ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 02, 2014, 07:37:39 AM
Quote from: stingo on June 02, 2014, 07:36:02 AM
@MN Dave - I'd like to know what you think of A Feast for Crows, having read it myself a few months ago.

I am still working my way through it but will let you know when I'm finished. It seems a bit slow moving right now but I don't mind because I enjoy experiencing the different characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 05, 2014, 06:45:50 AM
Rereading these two classics:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Louis_Fran%C3%A7ais-Dant%C3%A8s_sur_son_rocher.jpg/225px-Louis_Fran%C3%A7ais-Dant%C3%A8s_sur_son_rocher.jpg)

(http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/treasure-island.gif)

I think Count of Monte cristo is one of the most perfect books I have ever read. Only minor complaints about it that I have are some of the female characters, (particularly Valentine Villefort but it helps there are a great many staggeringly convincing, even feministic characters such as Danglars's daughter Eugenie) and the fact that Count aka Edmond Dantes's help of Madame Villefort to poison several people in Villefort household is never morally questioned. It's only after Villefort's young son dies that Count thinks he's gone too far in his revenge. However the great parts of the novel outweigh these minor problems outstandingly. The villains are superbly portrayed, from Count himself to manipulating and calculating Danglars, loveable rogue Caderousse, "green eyed monster" Fernand Mondego aka count de Morcerf, and my favorite character in the book, Villefort. He kind of reminds me of Javert, my favorite character in les miserables. Both working in law yet they can be seen as villains (even though anti-villains). They are both so complex.

I have often called Stevenson "Dickens done perfectly".  He is devoid of flaws that Dickens has (mainly over-sentimentalism, divine karmic retribution to almost all villains and weakness of plots, others would probably add black and white-characters but I don't really agree with that). Treasure island is... well, awesome! Hate to sound like a fan boy but it really is! Especially Long John Silver has kind of Steerforth-like charm in him that really makes you root for him. My favorite quote from the book is probably this:

"Well, he's dead now and under hatches; but for two year before that, shiver my timbers, the man was starving! He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and starved at that, by the powers!"

I think I should reread Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde too. That is superb novel as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 05, 2014, 06:48:20 AM
Besides the three books above, I'm also reading an advance reading copy of Buster Voodoo by Mason James Cole (a buddy's pen name). Good stuff if you like Stephen King and the like.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 05, 2014, 06:53:14 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 05, 2014, 06:45:50 AM
(http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/treasure-island.gif)

I have often called Stevenson "Dickens done perfectly".  He is devoid of flaws that Dickens has (mainly over-sentimentalism, divine karmic retribution to almost all villains and weakness of plots, others would probably add black and white-characters but I don't really agree with that). Treasure island is... well, awesome! Hate to sound like a fan boy but it really is! Especially Long John Silver has kind of Steerforth-like charm in him that really makes you root for him. My favorite quote from the book is probably this:

"Well, he's dead now and under hatches; but for two year before that, shiver my timbers, the man was starving! He begged, and he stole, and he cut throats, and starved at that, by the powers!"

You might find this article interesting.

Treasure Island: A Healthy Dose of Danger (http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2013/12/treasure-island-robert-louis-stevenson-healthy-dose-danger.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 05, 2014, 06:54:15 AM
I should read that again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 05, 2014, 07:09:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 05, 2014, 06:53:14 AM
You might find this article interesting.

Treasure Island: A Healthy Dose of Danger (http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2013/12/treasure-island-robert-louis-stevenson-healthy-dose-danger.html)

Thank you. I did.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 05, 2014, 07:58:17 AM
Oh, and I recommend this one to the urban fantasy fans. Should be out soon!
[asin]0765328550[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 05, 2014, 08:11:23 AM
Those are the bones he wants to jump . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 05, 2014, 01:19:50 PM
(http://images.bookoutlet.com/covers/large/isbn978030/9780307265852-l.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on June 06, 2014, 07:53:01 AM
Started Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule, but will be taking it pretty slowly, so may finish after a few months...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 06, 2014, 07:58:19 AM
Also, am almost done with this, which I have been dipping into via the Dark Horse app. Love the artwork!
[asin]1593079737[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on June 07, 2014, 02:32:37 AM
This new and excellent translation into Spanish of the stories of Father Brown:

(http://www.communitas.pe/11995-thickbox/los-relatos-del-padre-brown.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 07, 2014, 05:48:32 AM
Quote from: Gordo on June 07, 2014, 02:32:37 AM
This new and excellent translation into Spanish of the stories of Father Brown:

(http://www.communitas.pe/11995-thickbox/los-relatos-del-padre-brown.jpg)
+1 for Father Brown (in English :))

My favorite is The Honour of Israel Gow, but there's a bunch of great ones there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on June 07, 2014, 07:49:50 PM
Finished The Book Of Lost Things - A very unusual variation on the coming of age story. I was reminded of a cross between Time Bandits and The Fisher King as I was reading it, and those are two of my favorite stories. The writing is by turns eloquent and sparse as the situation demands, and the plot moves along at a brisk pace. Definitely worth a look.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on June 07, 2014, 08:09:12 PM
I am reading the first Nero Wolf mystery, by Rex Stout. A friend had me read one when I was 14 or so, and it didn't do anything for me.  Now I'm 47, and I am finding it pleasantly diverting...so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 07, 2014, 09:35:57 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on June 07, 2014, 08:09:12 PM
I am reading the first Nero Wolf mystery, by Rex Stout. A friend had me read one when I was 14 or so, and it didn't do anything for me.  Now I'm 47, and I am finding it pleasantly diverting...so far.
Fer de lance you mean? The next few are way better. League of frightened men, red box in particular, young pup.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on June 07, 2014, 10:14:30 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 07, 2014, 09:35:57 PM
Fer de lance you mean? The next few are way better. League of frightened men, red box in particular, young pup.  :)

  No problem. I like to begin at the beginning (I have put the first 3 on my kindle).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on June 08, 2014, 07:54:27 AM
Started The Wanderer In Unknown Realms by John Connolly. Saw this was available as a Kindle single and since I'd just finished one of his books, I thought I'd give it a go. I'm glad I did.

[asin]B00CCX9DNI[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 08, 2014, 08:57:23 AM
The Discovery of France
Graham Robb
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on June 08, 2014, 01:47:17 PM
Finished The Wanderer in Unknown Realms. A really good novella, especially after The Book Of Lost Things. Connolly further investigates the power of books, but with a decidedly darker view.

Started The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

[asin]B005ZOBNOI[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on June 08, 2014, 11:39:09 PM
Finished The Fault In Our Stars - Since the movie's newly out I figured I'd read the book which has stayed at the top of Amazon's Kindle bestseller list for a while now. The plot and characters seem pretty conventional to me, given the type of story that's being told. The two main characters are likeable enough, sometimes sounding like teenagers, but more often than not like literary professors which seemed incongruous to me. I know I am not the target demographic for this book, but I did enjoy it, and Green's writing as well.

Started The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

[asin]B000FC2RR2[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on June 10, 2014, 08:18:28 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 08, 2014, 08:57:23 AM
The Discovery of France
Graham Robb

Ironically enough, I just stumbled across that last night on Amazon and immediately put it on hold at the library. :) 

Currently:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2B%2B-1Z9r7L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516jWMyMOrL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX278_SY278_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41kEUxDFtjL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX278_SY278_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 10, 2014, 08:31:20 AM
Reading this soon, for review.
[asin]1940250056[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 10, 2014, 08:36:28 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on June 10, 2014, 08:18:28 AM
Ironically enough, I just stumbled across that last night on Amazon and immediately put it on hold at the library. :) 

Currently:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2B%2B-1Z9r7L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516jWMyMOrL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX278_SY278_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41kEUxDFtjL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX278_SY278_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

You are a Dude of uncommon taste and perception.
Those look interesting, especially the Robespierre book. I learnt long ago to never truat any French author on Robespierre; he is still a proxy for Left vs Right in French politics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 10, 2014, 09:17:00 AM
Quote from: Philo on June 10, 2014, 08:36:51 AM
That cover is awesome.  8)

Indeed. The story has a lot to live up to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on June 10, 2014, 09:43:23 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 10, 2014, 08:36:28 AM
You are a Dude of uncommon taste and perception.

Thanks. :)

QuoteThose look interesting, especially the Robespierre book. I learnt long ago to never truat any French author on Robespierre; he is still a proxy for Left vs Right in French politics.

Fortunately, Scurr is British. ;)  She actually brings up that issue in the introduction, quoting a French historian that begged "Robespierreians and anti-Robespierreians" [historians] to quit fighting over politics and instead do their job and try to get to the truth about him.  For her part, she argues that she wishes to take a "friendly" approach, trying to see what drove him to his infamous actions.  I'll admit that I'm a bit skeptical about this approach, largely because I'm rather jaded after reading Damrosch's biography of Rousseau recently (he was a bit too sympathetic to his subject for my tastes), but the reviews on this are consistently good, so I'll take a crack at it.  It certainly wouldn't be the first time someone attempted an "Inside Look At A Monster" type history.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 10, 2014, 10:30:38 AM
Quote from: Geo Dude on June 10, 2014, 09:43:23 AM
It certainly wouldn't be the first time someone attempted an "Inside Look At A Monster" type history.
Dreams of My Father for instance.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on June 10, 2014, 11:20:04 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 10, 2014, 10:30:38 AM
Dreams of My Father for instance.  ;)

:D :D

When you mentioned Robespierre and how politicized his biographies were the first thing that came to my mind were biographers that attempt to white-wash Stalin.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 10, 2014, 12:35:22 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on June 10, 2014, 11:20:04 AM
:D :D

When you mentioned Robespierre and how politicized his biographies were the first thing that came to my mind were biographers that attempt to white-wash Stalin.
Walter Damrosch spent his life doing that.
I really liked Ulam's biography ages ago, and The Court of The Red Tsar recently.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 11, 2014, 09:30:44 AM
To say that this opening statement is obviously from an activist website is an understatement  8)

QuoteTo say that marijuana has been given a bad rap over the past few decades is an understatement.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on June 12, 2014, 04:21:01 PM
This has gotten to be a habit with me: every summer (well, this is summer #3) I re-read Edith Wharton's Summer.  Little appreciated when first published (1917) it has more recently come into its own as a worthy sibling to Ethan Frome.  At once a study of New England mores and Bildungsroman, it is masterfully writ, psychologically/sociologically penetrating and a quick and affecting read.  Recommended. 

[asin]1453734805[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 12, 2014, 04:27:40 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on June 12, 2014, 04:21:01 PM
This has gotten to be a habit with me: every summer (well, this is summer #3) I re-read Edith Wharton's Summer.  Little appreciated when first published (1917) it has more recently come into its own as a worthy sibling to Ethan Frome.  At once a study of New England mores and Bildungsroman, it is masterfully writ, psychologically/sociologically penetrating and a quick and affecting read.  Recommended. 

[asin]1453734805[/asin]

Thanks.  I love Wharton but have not read this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on June 13, 2014, 12:20:47 PM
Saw this on sale for Father's Day, so I picked it up for my Kindle. Pretty good so far.

[asin]B000XUBG9Q[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 16, 2014, 04:44:34 AM
About to start:

(http://www.davidpietrusza.com/Web_1920_jacket.jpg)

We are making a stop at The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum this summer (one of my bucket lists is to visit at least one site of every president), and this looked like an interesting read that features Mr. Hoover.

On a side note, Pietusza has a number of books that look interesting:
http://www.amazon.com/David-Pietrusza/e/B001HCYTWU/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on June 16, 2014, 04:51:12 AM
(http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/sites/default/files/book_image/9780670082209.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on June 16, 2014, 04:52:38 AM
BTW, this was a fascinating read.
(http://www.bookotron.com/agony/images/2013/13-reviews/koerner-the_skies_belong_to_us.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on June 16, 2014, 02:35:16 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on June 12, 2014, 04:21:01 PM
This has gotten to be a habit with me: every summer (well, this is summer #3) I re-read Edith Wharton's Summer.  Little appreciated when first published (1917) it has more recently come into its own as a worthy sibling to Ethan Frome.  At once a study of New England mores and Bildungsroman, it is masterfully writ, psychologically/sociologically penetrating and a quick and affecting read.  Recommended. 

[asin]1453734805[/asin]

Ahh, you talked me into reading it (summer and all.... :)). Edith Wharton has always been in my TBR pile. but her works tend to succumb to other books piling up on top of hers.... (sounds familiar?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on June 16, 2014, 11:57:25 PM
for the record:  ATTACK OF THE GIANT ROBOT CHCKENS
by Alex McCall
             
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 18, 2014, 07:02:23 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 01, 2014, 11:56:10 AM
I'm beginning my absurdly ambitious summer project: a 3-4 month immersion in some pinnacles of Russian literature. The reading list, roughly in the order I plan to read them:

Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Chekhov, collected short stories
Sorokin, The Queue
Tolstoy, collected short stories
Dostoevsky, The Idiot
Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
Bely, Petersburg
Gogol, Dead Souls
Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov

I've read C&P, Brothers K, Eugene, and Petersburg before. The Idiot, and all the Chekhov, Sorokin, Tolstoy, Gogol, and Bulgakov, will be new to me.

I'm sorry that I've just saw this list, but I'm so happy that somebody is reading Andrey Bely's "Petersburg". It is really a beautiful book. It's companion "White dove" is also great. And you got the best Sorokin on your list too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on June 18, 2014, 10:11:28 PM
Quote from: Artem on June 18, 2014, 07:02:23 PM
I'm sorry that I've just saw this list, but I'm so happy that somebody is reading Andrey Bely's "Petersburg". It is really a beautiful book. It's companion "White dove" is also great. And you got the best Sorokin on your list too.
Turgenev is another author one could add.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 19, 2014, 04:30:59 AM
I once read Turgenev's Fathers and Sons in the courthouse waiting room, while on jury duty.

Artem, good timing! I am halfway through Petersburg right now. Perhaps those GMGers who have unluckily not yet read it will enjoy this excerpt:

-

Petersburg Vanished into the Night

An enormous crimson sun raced above the Neva, and the buildings of Petersburg seemed to be melting away, turning into the lightest of smoky amethyst lace. The windowpanes sent off cutting flame-gold reflections, and from the tall spires flashed rubies. And indentations and projections stretched away into the burning conflagration: caryatids, cornices of brick balconies.

The row of lines and walls was slowly darkening against the waning lilac sky, and sparking torches flamed here and there, and here and there blazed the tiniest of flames.

And there the past was having its sunset.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on June 23, 2014, 02:00:57 PM
Quote from: Philo on June 21, 2014, 09:28:24 PM
It delves fairly deeply into the political structure of Chile and offers up a rigorous explanation based upon the facts that exists and presents the case that the economy was the real mover of the plotters rather than the oft-touted conspiracy of a US led coup.

Unfortunately, this assures that a significant portion of the target audience will never read it. :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 23, 2014, 04:20:54 PM
Eagle in the Snow a novel of the Roman Empire by Wallace Breem.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 30, 2014, 05:04:14 AM
Another book I'm in the middle of.

The Compleat Traveller in Black by John Brunner
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 30, 2014, 10:49:47 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 01, 2014, 11:56:10 AM
I'm beginning my absurdly ambitious summer project: a 3-4 month immersion in some pinnacles of Russian literature. The reading list, roughly in the order I plan to read them:

Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Chekhov, collected short stories
Sorokin, The Queue
Tolstoy, collected short stories
Dostoevsky, The Idiot
Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
Bely, Petersburg
Gogol, Dead Souls
Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov

I've read C&P, Brothers K, Eugene, and Petersburg before. The Idiot, and all the Chekhov, Sorokin, Tolstoy, Gogol, and Bulgakov, will be new to me.

Updating above to show how many of the Russian books I've gotten through. Tolstoy, Gogol, and The Idiot will be my vacation reading while I'm in France July 4-20.

Right now I'm in the middle of being bowled over by the sheer musical beauty of Andrey Platonov's novella Soul, and the other short fictions in this volume:

[asin]159017254X[/asin]

Truly extraordinary, a tender and wonderfully descriptive book filled with the kind of writing that makes me feel like writing is one of the noblest jobs anyone can have. I will be buying the NYRB's other Platonov collections as soon as possible.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 30, 2014, 10:51:03 AM
Brian, how did you like Crime & Punishment?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 30, 2014, 10:56:17 AM
Got the audiobook version of Ulysses and just finished the Telemachus episode
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 30, 2014, 10:56:55 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on June 30, 2014, 10:56:17 AM
Got the audiobook version of Ulysses and just finished the Telemachus episode

Who's reading?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 30, 2014, 11:00:20 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 30, 2014, 10:51:03 AM
Brian, how did you like Crime & Punishment?

Can be a little bit tough at times, but ultimately found it a rewarding and engrossing read. Pevear & Volokhonsky translation.

Here are my comments copied and pasted from another discussion forum:

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on June 30, 2014, 11:04:52 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 30, 2014, 10:49:47 AM
Right now I'm in the middle of being bowled over by the sheer musical beauty of Andrey Platonov's novella Soul, and the other short fictions ...

How does this work, I wonder, when it's translated? How much of this beauty is the author's, and how much is the translator's?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 30, 2014, 11:12:21 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 30, 2014, 11:00:20 AM
Can be a little bit tough at times, but ultimately found it a rewarding and engrossing read. Pevear & Volokhonsky translation.

Here are my comments copied and pasted from another discussion forum:

  • The vivid and realistic dreams and nightmares in the book. A lot of novels depict dreams terribly: either the dreams make too much sense, or they form too "perfect" a narrative, or they just happen to nail all the major plot themes right on the nose. There are a lot of really great dream sequences in this book, particularly the disturbing one near the very end when Svidrigailov gets a room in the super nasty hotel by the river.
  • Raskolnikov, Marmeladov, Svidrigailov, Razumikhin, Zamyotov, Lebezyatnikov, the surname-less Porfiry Petrovich... there are some great names in this novel. (And with relevant meanings.)
  • Man, I love Razumikhin. He disproves the trope that a stereotypical "good guy" can't also be fascinating. I love when he starts to crack under drink and says a bunch of stuff that mortifies his sober self, and love the gradations in his gradual realization that Raskolnikov is guilty. On top of everything else, isn't it interesting that a close study of violence and murder and self-destruction etc., also has a, like, top ten Character You'd Like to Hang Out With.
  • Once I started fantasizing about a really good modern-day Paul Thomas Anderson movie adaptation, I couldn't stop fixating on the idea of Porfiry Petrovich being cast as a woman instead. Not sure who yet. Lauren Lapkus? But gosh, I love Porfiry Petrovich, and his spiritual grandson, Columbo.
  • Svidrigailov's departure really, really stunned me. And I had read the book once already.
  • It was awfully hard keeping track, at times, of who knew who back in the countryside, and which peripheral characters to trust and distrust, although the answer is really "distrust all males except PP and Razumikhin". I think.
  • Speaking of which, is it at all a problem that the major women - Sonya, Dunya, Lizaveta, and maybe to a lesser degree Raskolnikov's mom (though apparently not the old lady who gets axed) - are all sweet, loving, redeeming, and heart-of-gold-ish?

Thanks for the color;  and glad you engaged with it!

On the last point: don't expect a 19th-c. Russian to write like someone from our era! 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 30, 2014, 11:30:49 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 30, 2014, 10:56:55 AM
Who's reading?

Donal Donnelly and its the 1984 edition of the book
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 01, 2014, 04:37:19 AM
Finished The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. Took me a bit to get into it, but I ended up liking it. I'm not sure I'd rush into the sequel right away, but I will probably end up returning at some point.

Started Queen of the Big Time by Adriana Trigiani for the book club to which I belong.

[asin]B000FC1RU0[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 01, 2014, 07:08:49 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on June 30, 2014, 11:04:52 AM
How does this work, I wonder, when it's translated? How much of this beauty is the author's, and how much is the translator's?

That is a darn good question. In this case, the prose is so striking that I've stopped to wonder about author/translator at least 6 or 7 times. Like a line about a dead person whose mouth is hanging open, and "the sand and the wind are saying something to each other in his mouth." Did the translator luck into that image, that perfect phrase "saying something," that rhythm? How true is this? I really wanna know.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 01, 2014, 07:16:09 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 01, 2014, 07:08:49 AM
That is a darn good question. In this case, the prose is so striking that I've stopped to wonder about author/translator at least 6 or 7 times. Like a line about a dead person whose mouth is hanging open, and "the sand and the wind are saying something to each other in his mouth." Did the translator luck into that image, that perfect phrase "saying something," that rhythm? How true is this? I really wanna know.

I guess you'd have to read all the translations. Or learn Russian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on July 01, 2014, 03:52:22 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xGU3W7Ugqn4/SwRpW_KejgI/AAAAAAAABoE/5JjpxR7JRfg/s640/Harpo+Speaks+cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 01, 2014, 04:48:05 PM
Quote from: milk on July 01, 2014, 03:52:22 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xGU3W7Ugqn4/SwRpW_KejgI/AAAAAAAABoE/5JjpxR7JRfg/s640/Harpo+Speaks+cover.jpg)

Great book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on July 02, 2014, 02:04:29 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on July 01, 2014, 04:48:05 PM
Great book!
Vaudeville is so totally forgotten, is it not? But there's like a million stories to tell. What a wild, crazy, time it seemed. People just got by by wits and chutzpa. Mother Minnie Marx seems like a lunatic, dragging her kids around the country and yelling about the mortgage from offstage if they got dangerously off script. I haven't gotten into the hollywood years yet. I'm still reading about their vaudeville escapades. I think it's a pretty unimaginable world in many ways. And those were some street-wise guys. Has anyone here every played pinochle?
(http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxatp0FiCb1r1x0ppo1_400.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 02, 2014, 03:58:09 AM
Paul Cienniwa's By Heart: A Treatise on the Art of Memorizing Music in manuscript (I've been invited to proof it).  Thumbnail:  Paul started as a piano major (and therefore, memorizing the music), but when he switched to harpsichord, he entered a culture in which it was expected he would not memorize.  Years later, he decided to go back to memorization, and finds that both his musicianship, and the performance & presentation of the music, improve enormously.  Naturally, we're great friends, and I read it hearing him speaking aloud, practically;  but I find it an engaging and endearing read.  It is, in fact, a book that anyone, musician or not, would derive intellectual and spiritual benefit from the reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on July 02, 2014, 04:31:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 02, 2014, 03:58:09 AM
Paul Cienniwa's By Heart: A Treatise on the Art of Memorizing Music in manuscript (I've been invited to proof it).  Thumbnail:  Paul started as a piano major (and therefore, memorizing the music), but when he switched to harpsichord, he entered a culture in which it was expected he would not memorize.  Years later, he decided to go back to memorization, and finds that both his musicianship, and the performance & presentation of the music, improve enormously.  Naturally, we're great friends, and I read it hearing him speaking aloud, practically;  but I find it an engaging and endearing read.  It is, in fact, a book that anyone, musician or not, would derive intellectual and spiritual benefit from the reading.
This is something I've always wondered about but thought it was maybe a silly question. At the two Jorge Demus concerts I went to I noticed he goes entirely from memory - whether Bach or Chopin. But at the other concerts I've been there's always sheet music. Why do some memorize and others don't? My friend's wife is an avant garde pianist but she always uses sheet music I think. I'm curious what goes into this.  I guess maybe one might need sheet music depending on the music? I wonder if avant garde-ish music is harder to memorize.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 02, 2014, 04:55:33 AM
From the time of Liszt, a pianist playing from memory became the norm.  Detractors considered it "showing off," but (in part) if your eye is not a slave to tracking the page, you gain more capacity for focus and attention to the music.  (Tangentially, as a clarinetist, I never play from memory, but perhaps for a single-line instrument player, that focus and attention is easier to achieve, even while reading from the page.)  In the relatively recent Early Music subculture (possibly as an allergic reaction to the Romantic Liszt example), it has been the norm to play from music.

In playing new music, however (especially ensemble music), pianists do typically play from the page.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on July 02, 2014, 05:17:48 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 02, 2014, 04:55:33 AM
From the time of Liszt, a pianist playing from memory became the norm.  Detractors considered it "showing off," but (in part) if your eye is not a slave to tracking the page, you gain more capacity for focus and attention to the music.  (Tangentially, as a clarinetist, I never play from memory, but perhaps for a single-line instrument player, that focus and attention is easier to achieve, even while reading from the page.)  In the relatively recent Early Music subculture (possibly as an allergic reaction to the Romantic Liszt example), it has been the norm to play from music.

In playing new music, however (especially ensemble music), pianists do typically play from the page.
I see. Thanks.
I saw Angela Hewitt play the Goldbergs. She also played from memory. But she must know the music backwards and forwards anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 02, 2014, 05:29:42 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 02, 2014, 03:58:09 AM
Paul Cienniwa's By Heart: A Treatise on the Art of Memorizing Music in manuscript (I've been invited to proof it).  Thumbnail:  Paul started as a piano major (and therefore, memorizing the music), but when he switched to harpsichord, he entered a culture in which it was expected he would not memorize.  Years later, he decided to go back to memorization, and finds that both his musicianship, and the performance & presentation of the music, improve enormously.  Naturally, we're great friends, and I read it hearing him speaking aloud, practically;  but I find it an engaging and endearing read.  It is, in fact, a book that anyone, musician or not, would derive intellectual and spiritual benefit from the reading.
That must be an interesting read indeed!
In the days before Liszt & others, when Beethoven's Piano Sonatas & other established classics gained and the proportion of new music in concerts began to decrease, and this no doubt played a part in pianists playing from memory. I agree that the advantages of memorization must be huge, as they force one to know the music on a much deeper level.
(Paavali Jumppanen played the Brahms 2nd PC here in Oulu from memory last season, and very well, too.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 02, 2014, 06:23:57 AM
I think Marmeladovs wife (Sonya's mom/stepmom?) is quite colorful and not as idealized as Dunya or Sonya.
There are more colorful women (actually often quite dark/grey characters) in other Dostoevsky novels: Nastassya Filipovna in "Idiot", Lisa? in "Demons", Grushenka in "Brothers Karamazov". Not to forget the Granny in "The gambler"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 02, 2014, 08:07:20 AM
I found a price tracker for Kindle books (http://www.ereaderiq.com) if anyone's interested.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 02, 2014, 08:12:10 AM
Quote from: stingo on July 02, 2014, 08:07:20 AM
I found a price tracker for Kindle books (http://www.ereaderiq.com) if anyone's interested.

Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 02, 2014, 08:26:25 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 02, 2014, 08:12:10 AM
Thanks!
Got "As I Lay Dying" for $2.50!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 02, 2014, 08:46:35 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7f/A_God_Strolling_in_the_Cool_of_the_Evening_cover.jpg/220px-A_God_Strolling_in_the_Cool_of_the_Evening_cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 04, 2014, 01:08:58 AM
(http://www.raobooks.com/images/titluri/coperta_2963_big.gif)

Just finished Tom Knox - The Genesis Secret. Kind of Dan Brown-ish, with three major differences: (1) much better written, literary speaking; (2) much more accurate historical facts and data, thus making the speculation more plausible; and (3) much more macabre.  :D

Now reading

(http://www.humanitas.ro/files/tome/cover/978-973-50-1867-2.jpg?1216286311)

Julius Evola - The Mistery of The Grail. Fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on July 04, 2014, 07:34:48 AM
  Just read M.T. Anderson's "Feed", mostly on an airplane coming home from vacation.  I suppose it's dystopian sci-fi, but the weird thing about it is that it's so recognizable from what I was seeing around me in airports and on the plane (everyone constantly "plugged in" while being fed information coated in advertising).  It was creepy.  It's a fast read, and more valuable as a possible--and surprisingly convincing--vision of the near future rather than for any remarkable story (this is the author's intention, I believe).  I got it for $1 at a book store.  Recommended.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wTO7fyUOL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 04, 2014, 01:23:34 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 02, 2014, 08:26:25 AM
Got "As I Lay Dying" for $2.50!

Me too. I've got about 36 books price watched as of now.

It wouldn't surprise me the site was connected to camelcamelcamel. Since CCC (for some reason) is not allowed to track Kindle books, and eqreader has a Chrome widget similar to the camelizer.

On a related note, I started reading Lancelot by Walker Percy. This is a book I would not otherwise have known about, but saw it one of Amazon's sales. Liking it so far, but I am only a quarter of the way into it.

[asin]B004TLVNGQ[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 05, 2014, 12:42:43 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on July 04, 2014, 07:34:48 AM
  Just read M.T. Anderson's "Feed", mostly on an airplane coming home from vacation.  I suppose it's dystopian sci-fi, but the weird thing about it is that it's so recognizable from what I was seeing around me in airports and on the plane (everyone constantly "plugged in" while being fed information coated in advertising).  It was creepy.  It's a fast read, and more valuable as a possible--and surprisingly convincing--vision of the near future rather than for any remarkable story (this is the author's intention, I believe).  I got it for $1 at a book store.  Recommended.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wTO7fyUOL.jpg)

You must have looked like a primitive barbarian, a paper book in hand amongst all those supercivilized plugged-in people.  ;D :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Que on July 05, 2014, 01:06:31 AM
(http://soulart.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fernando-pessoa-03.jpg)

Pessoa's Book of Disquiet - in a Dutch translation, of course. :)

Q

Note to myself: should visit Lisbon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 05, 2014, 01:12:38 AM
Quote from: Que on July 05, 2014, 01:06:31 AM
(http://soulart.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fernando-pessoa-03.jpg)

Pessoa's Book of Disquiet - in a Dutch translation, of course. :)

Q

Note to myself: should visit Lisbon.

How do you like it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Que on July 05, 2014, 09:12:23 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 05, 2014, 01:12:38 AM
How do you like it?

Like it very much. Well deserving of its special status, I think.

Of course it is a certain specific type of book. No structure, no story line, just a continuous stream of observations, thoughts, memories, daydreams, and  theories about art, life and human nature by a brilliant social recluse.  What makes it special is that it is intellectually interesting, emotionally engaging and the poetic quality of the writing. The last quality makes a good translation indispensable.

My edition combines his diaries with several short essays. The whole book is pretty sizable.  But considering its nature it is perfect to put down and pick up where you left off at a later moment. Not recommended if you feel a bit down or are personally confromted by your purpose in life. Don't know if Pessoa's views on those matters will offer much consolation..... ::)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 05, 2014, 09:33:09 AM
Quote from: Que on July 05, 2014, 09:12:23 AM
Like it very much. Well deserving of its special status, I think.

Of course it is a certain specific type of book. No structure, no story line, just a continuous stream of observations, thoughts, memories, daydreams, and  theories about art, life and human nature by a brilliant social recluse.  What makes it special is that it is intellectually interesting, emotionally engaging and the poetic quality of the writing. The last quality makes a good translation indispensable.

My edition combines his diaries with several short essays. The whole book is pretty sizable.  But considering its nature it is perfect to put down and pick up where you left off at a later moment. Not recommended if you feel a bit down or are personally confromted by your purpose in life. Don't know if Pessoa's views on those matters will offer much consolation..... ::)

It's a wonderful book, principally because of the heterogeneous nature pointed out by you. I read it several years ago, but these days I'm reading it again it because last Monday I bought a new translation available in Spanish (although the first one by Ángel Crespo is already superb). And it has been that stimulating as the first time. For some extra variety (maybe unnecessary), I have started at the same time a new reading of Anaïs Nin's diaries. I can say they do an incredible couple of artists by nature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 05, 2014, 10:08:08 AM
Quote from: Que on July 05, 2014, 09:12:23 AM
Like it very much. Well deserving of its special status, I think.

Of course it is a certain specific type of book. No structure, no story line, just a continuous stream of observations, thoughts, memories, daydreams, and  theories about art, life and human nature by a brilliant social recluse.  What makes it special is that it is intellectually interesting, emotionally engaging and the poetic quality of the writing. The last quality makes a good translation indispensable.

My edition combines his diaries with several short essays. The whole book is pretty sizable.  But considering its nature it is perfect to put down and pick up where you left off at a later moment. Not recommended if you feel a bit down or are personally confromted by your purpose in life. Don't know if Pessoa's views on those matters will offer much consolation..... ::)

Quote from: Gordo on July 05, 2014, 09:33:09 AM
It's a wonderful book, principally because of the heterogeneous nature pointed out by you. I read it several years ago, but these days I'm reading it again it because last Monday I bought a new translation available in Spanish (although the first one by Ángel Crespo is already superb). And it has been that stimulating as the first time. For some extra variety (maybe unnecessary), I have started at the same time a new reading of Anaïs Nin's diaries. I can say they do an incredible couple of artists by nature.

A fascinating book, indeed. Each time I open it randomly I find some interesting thought, or some striking poetic imagery.

His poetry is also fascinating. Of all his heteronims my favorite is Alberto Caeiro.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on July 05, 2014, 05:57:30 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 05, 2014, 12:42:43 AM
You must have looked like a primitive barbarian, a paper book in hand amongst all those supercivilized plugged-in people.  ;D :D

  Yeah ;D  I like a to take a real book on planes because all the "no electrical devices at this time stuff" drives me crazy!  However, the US airlines finally stopped hassling us about this.  I also had my kindle with Ken Auletta's "Googled", which is a few years old, but very good.

    Right now I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" and a book of his essays "What the Dog Saw".   I love his prose.  Short, muscular sentences that are full of info yet really hop along nicely.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 05, 2014, 06:41:14 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on July 05, 2014, 05:57:30 PM
  Yeah ;D  I like a to take a real book on planes because all the "no electrical devices at this time stuff" drives me crazy!  However, the US airlines finally stopped hassling us about this.  I also had my kindle with Ken Auletta's "Googled", which is a few years old, but very good.

    Right now I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" and a book of his essays "What the Dog Saw".   I love his prose.  Short, muscular sentences that are full of info yet really hop along nicely.
Indeed. If only he actually understood everything he writes about.  :(
Still, I enjoy his demolition of the FBI profiler John Douglas a lot. I read Douglas's book when it first came out, and decided it was twaddle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 07, 2014, 11:20:15 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on June 02, 2014, 06:14:36 AM
these...
[asin]0812978153[/asin]

Finishing this off. I like it so much I'll probably read his others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 07, 2014, 11:33:56 AM
Will dip into this as well. Highly recommended apparently.
[asin]1618730606[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 07, 2014, 11:52:19 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on July 07, 2014, 11:20:15 AM
Finishing this off. I like it so much I'll probably read his others.

Excellent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 07, 2014, 12:11:03 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on July 07, 2014, 11:20:15 AM
Finishing this off. I like it so much I'll probably read his others.
Rubicon by Holland
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on July 07, 2014, 12:15:00 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 07, 2014, 12:11:03 PM
Rubicon by Holland

I purchased something by him. I forget what. Maybe it's that one.

[It might be Persian Fire.]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 07, 2014, 01:17:41 PM
Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on July 08, 2014, 10:33:46 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 02, 2014, 08:26:25 AM
Got "As I Lay Dying" for $2.50!

On that note....

[asin]B00AM7E2DW[/asin]
[asin]B00IQ9JEWC[/asin]

That translation of Les Miserables is a recent one, so I'm pretty sure that price is an accident.  The OWC Three Musketeers series tends to run from $5 to $9 or so for each book, so I"m guessing that's an accident too.  Either way, I took advantage!

Thread duty:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5163EKK2JSL.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PpRzL7uIL.jpg)(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386279197l/19216987.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on July 08, 2014, 12:38:06 PM
Geo Dude,
If you like books on the Kindle there are plenty of great works in the Delphi Classics series. Very cheap and well formatted.
E.g. for Dumas:

[asin] B007YUYWQM[/asin]

or Hugo

[asin] B006H9WQDW[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 08, 2014, 01:34:18 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on July 08, 2014, 10:33:46 AM
On that note....

[asin]B00AM7E2DW[/asin]
[asin]B00IQ9JEWC[/asin]

That translation of Les Miserables is a recent one, so I'm pretty sure that price is an accident.  The OWC Three Musketeers series tends to run from $5 to $9 or so for each book, so I"m guessing that's an accident too.  Either way, I took advantage!

Thread duty:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5163EKK2JSL.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PpRzL7uIL.jpg)(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386279197l/19216987.jpg)

Oh dear. I have not read that Dumas so bought it on Kindle.  I cannot imagine rereading the Hugo. So, for now, I passed.

Thread
The End Of Empire
About Attila and the fall of Rome
C Kelly
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Geo Dude on July 08, 2014, 01:40:36 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on July 08, 2014, 12:38:06 PM
Geo Dude,
If you like books on the Kindle there are plenty of great works in the Delphi Classics series. Very cheap and well formatted.

I've taken advantage of Delphi's sets several times when it comes to English language writers, but I tend to be a bit more picky when I'm hunting down something that has to be read in translation.  (Lord help the poor fellow who buys a $3 Kindle edition of Verne's novels in translation.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on July 08, 2014, 02:34:45 PM
I'm almost done with Michael Lewis's book, "Flashboys".  It reads like a novel. I haven't been able to put it down!

[asin]0393244660[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 08, 2014, 02:35:06 PM
(http://courtlodgeestate.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/2439059148_b916e90f25_z.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on July 08, 2014, 02:43:22 PM
Quote from: Geo Dude on July 08, 2014, 01:40:36 PM
I've taken advantage of Delphi's sets several times when it comes to English language writers, but I tend to be a bit more picky when I'm hunting down something that has to be read in translation.  (Lord help the poor fellow who buys a $3 Kindle edition of Verne's novels in translation.)

That is very true - the translations can be iffy at times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on July 08, 2014, 09:36:22 PM
Tom Holt   Expecting Someone Smaller
Ingolf, the youngest brother of Fasolt and Fafner escaped with the Ring and the Tarnhelm and used their powers to transform himself into a badger in rural England to evade the hunt by Alberich, Hagen and the others to obtain it for themselves.  Unfortunately he is run over and passes the Ring and Tarnhelm to the rather naïve driver who then is the object of the Nibelung's search.   Light summer fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 14, 2014, 05:11:53 PM
Finished The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell. I liked this second book in the Saxon Tales series better than the first (The Last Kingdom). Maybe it was getting to know the main character, Uhtred, more, or maybe the pacing was a bit better, but it was a more riveting read, especially at the end.

Started The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.

[asin]B003XRELZM[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 15, 2014, 07:02:53 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on July 08, 2014, 12:38:06 PM
Geo Dude,
If you like books on the Kindle there are plenty of great works in the Delphi Classics series. Very cheap and well formatted.
E.g. for Dumas:

[asin] B007YUYWQM[/asin]

or Hugo

[asin] B006H9WQDW[/asin]

Two greatest french authors of all time, to me at least! *pounds the table*
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 15, 2014, 08:51:05 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 15, 2014, 07:02:53 AM
Two greatest french authors of all time, to me at least! *pounds the table*
Poppycock! Diderot's Encyclopédie puts him solely on the lead.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 15, 2014, 09:43:17 AM
Quote from: stingo on July 14, 2014, 05:11:53 PM
[asin]B003XRELZM[/asin]

I am given to understand that the US Kindle version of The Day Of The Triffids is abridged/censored. Would anyone happen to know if this is the case?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 15, 2014, 10:05:19 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 15, 2014, 08:51:05 AM
Poppycock! Diderot's Encyclopédie puts him solely on the lead.  8)

I actually forgot to mention Voltaire, I really like to quote him when I'm drinking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 15, 2014, 10:08:32 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 15, 2014, 10:05:19 AM
I actually forgot to mention Voltaire, I really like to quote him when I'm drinking.
Cough cough Guy de Maupassant Cough
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 15, 2014, 10:08:57 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 15, 2014, 10:05:19 AM
I actually forgot to mention Voltaire, I really like to quote him when I'm drinking.

Aye; Voltaire isn't half so entertaining when one has sobered up ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 15, 2014, 10:22:19 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 15, 2014, 10:08:57 AM
Aye; Voltaire isn't half so entertaining when one has sobered up ;)

Well, I can't say I didn't see that one coming.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 15, 2014, 10:31:04 AM
You're being a good sport.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on July 15, 2014, 11:58:25 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 15, 2014, 10:08:57 AM
Aye; Voltaire isn't half so entertaining when one has sobered up ;)

Except for "Candide"....    ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 15, 2014, 01:27:26 PM
Quote from: Alberich on July 15, 2014, 10:05:19 AM
I actually forgot to mention Voltaire, I really like to quote him when I'm drinking.
Dude, Camus is a Cognac, and wrote a book about nothing else than chatting over a Jenever glass..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 15, 2014, 03:48:40 PM
Quote from: stingo on July 15, 2014, 09:43:17 AM
I am given to understand that the US Kindle version of The Day Of The Triffids is abridged/censored. Would anyone happen to know if this is the case?

Discovered that the Amazon US Kindle version is the American version of the book which was abridged and censored. I've ordered a paperback from Amazon.co.uk which to the best of my knowledge seems to be the original UK version. (Apparently Kindle books are country specific.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on July 15, 2014, 04:32:26 PM
Quote from: stingo on July 15, 2014, 03:48:40 PM
Discovered that the Amazon US Kindle version is the American version of the book which was abridged and censored. I've ordered a paperback from Amazon.co.uk which to the best of my knowledge seems to be the original UK version. (Apparently Kindle books are country specific.)

The missing parts are described here:

http://triffids.wuthering-heights.co.uk/versions.php
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 15, 2014, 04:53:16 PM
Thanks. Yes, that's how I found out definitively there were two versions. I've located where on my copy the edit was made in Chapter 1. So I've decided to hold off reading it til the original UK copy arrives.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 15, 2014, 05:32:49 PM
Quote from: stingo on July 15, 2014, 03:48:40 PM
Discovered that the Amazon US Kindle version is the American version of the book which was abridged and censored. I've ordered a paperback from Amazon.co.uk which to the best of my knowledge seems to be the original UK version. (Apparently Kindle books are country specific.)

??? :o ???

That's a staple of HS reading lists. Is the US version in schools bowdlerized?  >:(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 16, 2014, 03:38:01 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 15, 2014, 05:32:49 PM
??? :o ???

That's a staple of HS reading lists. Is the US version in schools bowdlerized?  >:(

Daverz' link gives a play by play of what was cut. I understand the obscenities were removed as well from the American version.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on July 18, 2014, 11:01:48 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 15, 2014, 08:51:05 AM
Poppycock! Diderot's Encyclopédie puts him solely on the lead.  8)

N'oublions son Neveu de Rameau que j'suis en train de lire en commémoration du 250ème anniversaire de la mort du célèbre compositeur dijonnais.  Moi, j'éprouve une fascination pour lui.   

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on July 18, 2014, 05:03:25 PM
I just finished Ken Auletta's "Googled" and am now reading

[asin]1416596585[/asin]
  This second is, so far, more fun than the first, although both are very good, IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 18, 2014, 07:06:12 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on July 18, 2014, 05:03:25 PM
I just finished Ken Auletta's "Googled" and am now reading

[asin]1416596585[/asin]
  This second is, so far, more fun than the first, although both are very good, IMO.
Don't be evil. That's our job.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 19, 2014, 04:40:31 PM
Put Triffids on hold and am re-reading The Once and Future King by T. H. White (and really loving it so far).

[asin]B00AEDDSQG[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 19, 2014, 06:07:48 PM
Quote from: stingo on July 19, 2014, 04:40:31 PM
Put Triffids on hold and am re-reading The Once and Future King by T. H. White (and really loving it so far).

[asin]B00AEDDSQG[/asin]
Lancelot's return from the Grail Quest is a passage that always made me, not precisely cry, but at least get very moisteyed and melancholy, in part because it is magnificently understated.
Thread duty
Bart D. Ehrman. How Jesus Became God.
Only three chapters in but not terribly impressed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 19, 2014, 06:42:19 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 19, 2014, 06:07:48 PM
Lancelot's return from the Grail Quest is a passage that always made me, not precisely cry, but at least get very moisteyed and melancholy, in part because it is magnificently understated.
Thread duty
Bart D. Ehrman. How Jesus Became God.
Only three chapters in but not terribly impressed.
It's his least impressive book. Apocalyptic Prophet is his best. On the same general topic as Became, Rubenstein has an excellent book of the same name (or very nearly). I recommend Shadow of the Sword if the origins of Islam interest you Jeffrey (pm me if you want some more detailed books on that.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 19, 2014, 06:58:32 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 19, 2014, 06:42:19 PM
It's his least impressive book. Apocalyptic Prophet is his best. On the same general topic as Became, Rubenstein has an excellent book of the same name (or very nearly). I recommend Shadow of the Sword if the origins of Islam interest you Jeffrey (pm me if you want some more detailed books on that.)
Thanks, I just put a hold for one copy of Shadow at the local lubrary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 22, 2014, 10:42:45 AM
Reading Nietzsche and Foucault.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 22, 2014, 02:26:42 PM
Finished The Queen Of The Big Time by Adriana Trigiani. Not a book I'd've chosen given my druthers but I liked it well enough.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on July 22, 2014, 03:36:01 PM
I'm juggling several things:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51s3kTGfN6L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
The first chapter was surprisingly funny.
(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330072073l/13498241.jpg)
I just started this. It's fun so far but let's see if it keeps my interest.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513t9hhjqpL.jpg)
So far I'm in suspense. But I haven't gotten very far yet. I'm betting this is going to keep me interested.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 22, 2014, 04:21:59 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 01, 2014, 11:56:10 AM
I'm beginning my absurdly ambitious summer project: a 3-4 month immersion in some pinnacles of Russian literature. The reading list, roughly in the order I plan to read them:

Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Chekhov, collected short stories
Sorokin, The Queue
Tolstoy, collected short stories
Dostoevsky, The Idiot
Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
Platonov, Soul and Other Stories
Bely, Petersburg
Gogol, Dead Souls
Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
Platonov, The Foundation Pit
Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov
Updating on progress. Right now, Dead Souls is reminding me just how much I love Gogol, which is a lot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 22, 2014, 04:34:55 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 22, 2014, 04:21:59 PM
Updating on progress. Right now, Dead Souls is reminding me just how much I love Gogol, which is a lot.
That has been on my to read list for 25 years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 23, 2014, 03:02:13 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 22, 2014, 04:21:59 PM
Updating on progress. Right now, Dead Souls is reminding me just how much I love Gogol, which is a lot.

When you've read Brothers Karamazov do share how you feel about  it! It is extremely intriguing and rewarding book. I can never read the nose conversation near the end between two certain characters without laughing my ass off.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 23, 2014, 03:20:46 AM
Of all Russian classics, Turgenyev gets the least attention and it's a pity because he is a very fine writer and a delicate and compassionate observer of human soul's pains and sorrows.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 23, 2014, 03:44:53 AM
Apart from Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky I have never read that much russian classics (and with Tolstoy I never really finished the books that I started), so I really don't know Turgenyev. I consider reading some of his books but I often have difficulties getting started with a new author. What novel/s Turgenyev has that you would recommend for the first-timer?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 23, 2014, 04:19:12 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 23, 2014, 03:44:53 AM
Apart from Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky I have never read that much russian classics (and with Tolstoy I never really finished the books that I started), so I really don't know Turgenyev. I consider reading some of his books but I often have difficulties getting started with a new author. What novel/s Turgenyev has that you would recommend for the first-timer?

Fathers and Sons and A Nest of Gentlefolks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 23, 2014, 07:02:57 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 23, 2014, 04:19:12 AM
Fathers and Sons and A Nest of Gentlefolks.
The opening chapter of Fathers is brilliant. So brilliant in fact that the rest of the book adds nothing, it's all there in the opening chapter. So my feeling is that this is one of the very best short stories, needlessly expanded. YMMV.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 23, 2014, 07:03:44 AM
Thanks, I'll see if I can find them in local library. At least I'll try.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 23, 2014, 07:04:13 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 23, 2014, 07:02:57 AM
The opening chapter of Fathers is brilliant. So brilliant in fact that the rest of the book adds nothing

I beg to differ.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 23, 2014, 12:12:18 PM
Quote from: Alberich on July 23, 2014, 03:02:13 AM
When you've read Brothers Karamazov do share how you feel about  it! It is extremely intriguing and rewarding book. I can never read the nose conversation near the end between two certain characters without laughing my ass off.

I loved Brothers Karamazov when I read it the first time, in fact my favorite novel ever, but that was in 2008, so a reread is badly needed.

Quote from: Alberich on July 23, 2014, 03:44:53 AM
Apart from Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky I have never read that much russian classics (and with Tolstoy I never really finished the books that I started), so I really don't know Turgenyev. I consider reading some of his books but I often have difficulties getting started with a new author. What novel/s Turgenyev has that you would recommend for the first-timer?

Disregard Turgenev; read Gogol. Dead Souls and the big book o' glorious short stories. The Inspector General is one of the funniest plays ever written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 23, 2014, 04:52:07 PM
Brothers Karamazov is one of my least favourite books by Dostoyevsky, but, nonetheless, I think it is worth reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 27, 2014, 03:07:26 AM
Too many things at the same time, as usual  ::)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51A5FZ87RML.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518gXquha6L.jpg)

(http://s3.postimg.org/5zptd6d2r/Gradac_160_161_Melanholija_slika_L_3653225.jpg)

Gradac vol.160/61 - is local art magazine, in book format, with themed issues.
This volume is about Melancholy, the term which had much wider connotations throughout history than it has now. Incudes texts from Hippocrates, Aristotle, Hildegard of Bingen, analysis of Durer's Melencolia I, Robert Burton, Keats' Ode, Constant, Nerval ..... to Freud, Bela Hamvas and Julia Kristeva among others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 27, 2014, 07:07:39 AM
Reading a really good short story anthology - Warriors edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

[asin]B00AEBUPSM[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 27, 2014, 09:35:07 AM
Quote from: Drasko on July 27, 2014, 03:07:26 AM
Too many things at the same time, as usual  ::)


Same here:  :)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71sv3qjE%2B7L._SL1500_.jpg)
Pierre Rosanvalon: The Society of Equals
http://www.amazon.com/Society-Equals-Pierre-Rosanvallon-ebook/dp/B00FDYLVPQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406481798&sr=8-1&keywords=rosanvallon

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Tn5BJZAcL._.jpg)
Arthur Schopenhauer: Senilia. An Old's Man Reflections

(http://www.agapea.com/portada-i6n1462434.jpg)
The Private Memoirs of Madame Roland
http://www.amazon.com/The-private-memoirs-Madame-Roland/dp/B003HGGJQ8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406481990&sr=8-2&keywords=private+roland+madame
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 27, 2014, 05:45:46 PM
Quote from: Drasko on July 27, 2014, 03:07:26 AM
Too many things at the same time, as usual  ::)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51A5FZ87RML.jpg)



Mmm.  A Hemingway book I did not know about.   Is it as good as Death in the Afternoon?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 28, 2014, 07:26:26 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 27, 2014, 05:45:46 PM
Mmm.  A Hemingway book I did not know about.   Is it as good as Death in the Afternoon?

For me Death in the Afternoon is definitely better, but The Dangerous Summer is quite sufficiently different to be worth reading. While the first is more a general overview, The Dangerous Summer is, again non fictional, account of  the rivalry between two great bullfighters (Dominguin and Ordones) over single summer season of 1959.
If you liked  Death in the Afternoon you're most likely to enjoy The Dangerous Summer.


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516D95G4BVL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 29, 2014, 12:04:39 PM
Not that anyone cares, but I got a copy of the (physical) book - The Day of the Triffids - from Amazon.co.uk and am pleased to report it's the original UK edition. (Not surprising, but you never know...) I'll be reading this one in preference to the Kindle edition that I already own. Just sucks that you can't get the UK version on Kindle here in the US.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 29, 2014, 12:36:32 PM
We rejoice with you!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 29, 2014, 05:14:17 PM
(http://www.brainpickings.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/wheretheheartbeats.jpg)

I rather enjoyed this book, although most of the Zen discussions went over my head. But the interrelations of composers and artists during 50s-60s is really fascinating to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 29, 2014, 05:49:33 PM
Bill of the Century by Risen, about passing the voting rights act.

Speaking of legislative acts, and flagrant national one upmanship, do you know what very first act passed by the parliament of Upper Canada was, when the colony was founded in 1891? A ban on slavery.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 30, 2014, 03:55:22 AM
You mean 1791, surely?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 30, 2014, 11:35:52 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 30, 2014, 03:55:22 AM
You mean 1791, surely?
Oops. Yes, 1791.
Be kinda late to the party in 1891 wouldn't it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 30, 2014, 11:38:25 AM
They'd be embarrassed laggards, I should think :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on August 15, 2014, 10:01:31 AM
In observance of WWI centenary.  Hope I don't regret it - though I know I will - I'm a veteran of Remarque's brilliant All Quiet on the Western Front, among other works, and I don't wanna study war no more.  [asin]0142437905[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 15, 2014, 10:41:10 AM
Elijah Woods (who played Huck in the early 90s film) has a great audiobook recording of Huckelberry Finn.  Not having read it since college, I am continually floored by how dark it really is (even beyond the now obvious and understood points about slavery).   I could easily imagine the events in the book, narrated in a somewhat different tone, comprising a Cormac McCarthy novel.

Elijah gets the dialects right as far as I can tell, and importantly in this book, uses the n-word with the right amount of casualness (much like I remember other Southern whites using it 20-30 years ago - fortunately have not heard anyone talk like that in quite some time)

(http://bookwormsreadmorebooks.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/huck-finn-elijah-wood.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 15, 2014, 10:59:54 AM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on August 15, 2014, 10:01:31 AM
In observance of WWI centenary.  Hope I don't regret it - though I know I will - I'm a veteran of Remarque's brilliant All Quiet on the Western Front, among other works, and I don't wanna study war no more.  [asin]0142437905[/asin]
Quite a remarkable book. A different take on the war! I am curious about your reaction Z7.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on August 15, 2014, 12:03:10 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on August 15, 2014, 10:01:31 AM
In observance of WWI centenary.  Hope I don't regret it - though I know I will - I'm a veteran of Remarque's brilliant All Quiet on the Western Front, among other works, and I don't wanna study war no more.  [asin]0142437905[/asin]

Two days ago, a friend of mine gave me this as a gift:

(http://www.corazonliterario.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/diario-de-guerra-1914-1918-ernst-junger.jpg)

Ernst Jünger: War Diary (1914-1918)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on August 16, 2014, 08:09:22 AM
Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities - Heavens, what a beautiful book. Not sure whether it's a novel, poetry, a group of stories, or something else, but the writing is incredibly imaginative. Wish I'd read this decades ago, but there you have it.

[asin]0156453800[/asin]

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 19, 2014, 05:53:25 AM
I really need to read some Calvino again - I listened to a stunning reading of one of his Cosmicomics stories and realized how much I missed his writing.

Finished The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry - very well written if a bit unrelentingly grim in parts.

[asin]B0018MS1YG[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 19, 2014, 06:39:41 AM
There's gold in college sports . . . and that's the problem. (http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2014/0814/There-s-gold-in-college-sports)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 19, 2014, 06:57:53 AM
Finished Huck Finn, Hemingway was right-  you should just skip the last dozen or so chapters (from where Tom Sawyer shows up)


On to -
(http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/l/last-stories-and-other-stories/9780670015979_custom-9b2f71d0d009add555f9c195385d47b3da0f0459-s99-c85.jpg)

"a place where one desired nothing, by virtue either of eternally shining joy or of nothingness itself."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/books/review/william-t-vollmanns-last-stories-and-other-stories.html?_r=0
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 19, 2014, 06:28:24 PM
Quote from: Brewski on August 16, 2014, 08:09:22 AM
Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities - Heavens, what a beautiful book. Not sure whether it's a novel, poetry, a group of stories, or something else, but the writing is incredibly imaginative. Wish I'd read this decades ago, but there you have it.

[asin]0156453800[/asin]

--Bruce
My problem is the reverse: I read this decades ago, and forget it. I liked it though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on August 19, 2014, 07:46:21 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 19, 2014, 06:28:24 PM
My problem is the reverse: I read this decades ago, and forget it. I liked it though.

  Me too. I went through a Calvino phase in the mid-80s.  I don't remember anything about this book except the title. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 19, 2014, 08:22:59 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on August 19, 2014, 07:46:21 PM
  Me too. I went through a Calvino phase in the mid-80s.  I don't remember anything about this book except the title.
I am flirting with reading Boswell's Hebrides. A good idea? (Never read any Boswell or Johnson.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on August 19, 2014, 10:23:09 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 19, 2014, 08:22:59 PM
I am flirting with reading Boswell's Hebrides. A good idea? (Never read any Boswell or Johnson.)

   Good choice, really.  This was his "test run" for the big bio, but instead of focusing on Johnson's whole life, it is a trip the two of them took in Scotland.  The tone and style are the same, but it is a bit livelier and doesn't have some of the big slow spells that occurred when Boswell was writing about slower periods in Johnson's life and pursuits. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 20, 2014, 02:33:31 AM
(http://www.polirom.ro/_images/esantioane/5400/coperta1.jpg)

Ian McEwan - Sweet Tooth

One of McEwan's finest female characters, Serena Frome--"rhymes with plume," the author tells us in the opening line--is both clever and beautiful, a speed-reading lit geek and a math whiz, a 1970s version of the Harvard MBA types who launch life-changing Internet startups. But in the dark and troubled Cold War days in London, there were few options for bright young women. So when a mysterious lover recruits her for the British intelligence service, MI5, Serena throws herself body and soul into an undercover operation code-named Sweet Tooth. What unfolds is a mystery, a romance, and a dazzling display of literary workmanship.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 20, 2014, 10:05:09 AM
I have read and loved McEwan's Saturday. Should this ^^^ be the next step?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 20, 2014, 01:17:02 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on August 19, 2014, 10:23:09 PM
   Good choice, really.  This was his "test run" for the big bio, but instead of focusing on Johnson's whole life, it is a trip the two of them took in Scotland.  The tone and style are the same, but it is a bit livelier and doesn't have some of the big slow spells that occurred when Boswell was writing about slower periods in Johnson's life and pursuits.
Thanks.
I have a rec for you Al. The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth. Pastiche 18th C picaresque, screamingly funny for the right sense of humour. Yours seems twisted just right for it.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 20, 2014, 03:11:46 PM
Hey! Another fan of The Sot-Weed Factor!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on August 20, 2014, 05:39:04 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 20, 2014, 01:17:02 PM
Thanks.
I have a rec for you Al. The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth. Pastiche 18th C picaresque, screamingly funny for the right sense of humour. Yours seems twisted just right for it.  8)

thanks, ken, (and Karl :)) for the recommendation.  I know the name, and read "Lost in the Funhouse" years ago.  I'll keep an eye out. For funny 18th century, however, the originals are hard to beat--well, Fielding, anyway.  Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews are fantastic, IMHO.  Joseph Andrews is actually a parody of Samuel Richardson's goody-goody weird "Pamela". 

Thread duty: I'm reading this at the moment

[asin]0520043170[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 20, 2014, 05:51:31 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on August 20, 2014, 05:39:04 PM
thanks, ken, (and Karl :)) for the recommendation.  I know the name, and read "Lost in the Funhouse" years ago.  I'll keep an eye out. For funny 18th century, however, the originals are hard to beat--well, Fielding, anyway.  Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews are fantastic, IMHO.  Joseph Andrews is actually a parody of Samuel Richardson's goody-goody weird "Pamela". 

Thread duty: I'm reading this at the moment

[asin]0520043170[/asin]
TJ is my favourite novel in English. I have read quite a lot of that period actually, Smollett, Sterne, Dryden, Pope, etc. plus plays. they order these things much better in France.
SWF is the only Barth I could get through, but it's great.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 20, 2014, 05:54:33 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 20, 2014, 03:11:46 PM
Hey! Another fan of The Sot-Weed Factor!
Big time. Alas nothing else by Barth really did it for me.
I had a friend who disliked it because of the Newton section. That section is when I knew I loved it!  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 21, 2014, 04:05:30 AM
Quote from: stingo on August 20, 2014, 10:05:09 AM
I have read and loved McEwan's Saturday. Should this ^^^ be the next step?

Frankly, I don't know. I'm not a McEwan expert, besides that I've read only On Chesil Beach, which I also enjoyed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 21, 2014, 04:35:17 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 21, 2014, 04:05:30 AM
Frankly, I don't know. I'm not a McEwan expert, besides that I've read only On Chesil Beach, which I also enjoyed.

Fair enough. McEwan seems to be one of those writers whose books are of consistently high quality, so I will just jump in wherever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 21, 2014, 04:43:40 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 20, 2014, 05:51:31 PM
TJ is my favourite novel in English.

I love it.  I still remember the time in Charlottesville when I read it first.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 21, 2014, 04:44:59 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 20, 2014, 05:54:33 PM
Big time. Alas nothing else by Barth really did it for me.

I wasn't crazy about Giles Goat-Boy, and I've not sought out anything other.  I should definitely set to a re-read of the Sot-Weed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 21, 2014, 06:42:57 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 21, 2014, 04:44:59 AM
I wasn't crazy about Giles Goat-Boy, and I've not sought out anything other.  I should definitely set to a re-read of the Sot-Weed.
I gave up on Giles part way through. The one about Scheherazade was readable.
I assume a recommendation of Tristram Shandy would be otiose?
I need to consider rereading Tom Jones ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 21, 2014, 07:02:19 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 21, 2014, 06:42:57 PM
I gave up on Giles part way through. The one about Scheherazade was readable.
I assume a recommendation of Tristram Shandy would be otiose?
I need to consider rereading Tom Jones ...
Try Amelia instead.
There is also Anne Radcliffe:  I prefer The Italian,  but The Mysteries of Udolpho turns out to be excellent if you make it past the ubersentimental first portion (roughly the first quarter of the novel)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 21, 2014, 07:26:15 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 21, 2014, 07:02:19 PM
Try Amelia instead.
There is also Anne Radcliffe:  I prefer The Italian,  but The Mysteries of Udolpho turns out to be excellent if you make it past the ubersentimental first portion (roughly the first quarter of the novel)
I rather liked Udolpho too. I read Amelia, but wasn't wild about it. Of course I may have been hoping for TJ 2 and been disappointed thereby. It was a long time ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: HIPster on August 21, 2014, 07:59:10 PM
Just started:
[asin]0307407969[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 25, 2014, 04:52:29 PM
Will get around to this one in a few years. I'm glad it's out.

(http://welltempered.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/jan-swafford-beethoven-cover.jpeg?w=370)

I think the last major biography of LvB was the one by Lewis Lockwood, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 26, 2014, 04:18:51 AM
They're spread across three anthologies, but I've been reading GRRM's Dunk and Egg tales. The first, The Hedge Knight, was really good and I am looking forward to the others. Having read the available ASOIF I thought it was really great how he made subtle tie-ins between the two worlds (Dunk and Egg's stories take place about 100 years prior to the events in ASOIF).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 26, 2014, 04:20:49 AM
I am reading this fine book about my man PM.
[asin]080417914X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 27, 2014, 10:28:06 AM
I may or may not like the movie better than this reviewer, but I did enjoy this review:

Quote from: By RICHARD EDER | Published: June 26, 1976The Omen (1976)

The Screen: 'Omen' Is Nobody's Baby

The best thing that can be said about "The Omen" is that very few viewers will want to walk out. They will stay, but they will feel foolish.

A member of the "Exorcist" family, it is a dreadfully silly film, which is not to say that it is totally bad. Its horrors are not horrible, its terrors are not terrifying, its violence is ludicrous—which may be an advantage—but it does move along.

Movies about Satanic possession do not depend for their effectiveness on making their central device convincing. They should, however, make all the details surrounding this device so plausible that when the Thing appears the audience's skepticism has gone to sleep. It was this peripheral credibility that gave "Rosemary's Baby" its strength.

"The Omen," which opened yesterday at the National, Loews Cine and other theaters, takes its details with no seriousness at all. It is not a put-on—it is terribly solemn, in fact—but it often seems like one.

There are miles of plot. It deals with the problems of a rich and privileged American—he happens to be Ambassador to Great Britain, which is the source of a great deal of the movie's incredibility — whose wife gives birth to a dead baby. A devil-possessed priest slips them another baby who is destined to grow up to rule the world in the name of Satan.

The baby becomes a lovely little boy, but when he is 4 years old or so, a mysterious black dog turns up. In quick order the boy's nursemaid hangs herself and a mysterious new nursemaid, a malevolent Mary Poppins, arrives to replace her.

Things begin to go badly wrong and the Ambassador, played by Gregory Peck, can't figure out why. A mad-looking priest arrives—not the one who supplied the baby —and warns him that the child is the Antichrist. Soon the priest is impaled by a spire falling off a church.

The Ambassador begins to be convinced. Joined by a photographer, played by David Warner, he goes to Italy to try to find the origins of his adopted child, and from that point the disasters begin to mount.

From the moment Mr. Peck comes home after a hard day and tells his wife, played by Lee Remick, that they're off to be Ambassadors, the film's working-level reality is hopelessly scratched. This must be the most unattended American emissary to Great Britain since John Jay. Scenes in which he and his wife look for a house—the United States Ambassador in London has an official residence—or in which he runs around London by himself are quite impossible.

Yet the movie is reasonably well-paced. We don't have time to brood about the sillinesses of any particular scene before we are on to the next. There is not a great deal of excitement, but we manage to sustain some curiosity as to how things will work out. "The Omen" is the kind of movie to take along on a long airplane trip.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 27, 2014, 10:43:54 AM
(Should be) reading this for review.
[asin] 0062290363[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 27, 2014, 10:51:13 AM
Very nice, too (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-omen-1976).

Quote from: Roger Ebert. . . And the conclusion, which will leave you thinking that Nixon wasn't half bad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 27, 2014, 10:53:27 AM
Quote from: -abe- on August 25, 2014, 04:52:29 PM
Will get around to this one in a few years. I'm glad it's out.

(http://welltempered.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/jan-swafford-beethoven-cover.jpeg?w=370)

Swafford is good. Can't wait to read this one.

Well, I can wait but it will be nice when it happens.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 27, 2014, 10:56:23 AM
Is it another of those the facts just aren't nearly enough "biographies"?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 27, 2014, 10:58:45 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 27, 2014, 10:56:23 AM
Is it another of those the facts just aren't nearly enough "biographies"?

You don't know Swafford??? :)

He wrote the best beginners book on classical music I've ever read. And then there are those books on Ives and Brahms...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 27, 2014, 11:02:56 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on August 27, 2014, 10:58:45 AM
You don't know Swafford??? :)

He wrote the best beginners book on classical music I've ever read.

I did not know, tell me more.

Quote from: Mn Dave on August 27, 2014, 10:58:45 AM
And then there are those books on Ives and Brahms...

I know the Ives book is well regarded.  I have somehow got the idea that he "sexed up" Brahms.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 27, 2014, 11:11:32 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 27, 2014, 11:02:56 AM
I did not know, tell me more.

I know the Ives book is well regarded.  I have somehow got the idea that he "sexed up" Brahms.

Well, you don't need this, do you. http://www.amazon.com/The-Vintage-Guide-Classical-Music/dp/0679728058
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 27, 2014, 11:14:26 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on August 27, 2014, 11:11:32 AM
Well, you don't need this, do you. http://www.amazon.com/The-Vintage-Guide-Classical-Music/dp/0679728058 (http://www.amazon.com/The-Vintage-Guide-Classical-Music/dp/0679728058)

I do not, but the title is good to know, for when I am asked  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 27, 2014, 11:16:54 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 27, 2014, 11:14:26 AM
I do not, but the title is good to know, for when I am asked  :)

Highly recommended. One of several books I'll never be without.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 27, 2014, 11:25:52 AM
Very good, sir.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 27, 2014, 05:56:21 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 27, 2014, 10:51:13 AM
Very nice, too (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-omen-1976).

I am not very "in" to horror movies, but I remember The Omen being far more believable than The Exorcist,  none of the silly things complained of in the review being of much importance during the actual watching, and certainly I always looked askance at any boy named Damien after seeing it.  Ebert's review accords more closely to my memory of it.  It does contain some horrifying scenes by any sccount.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 28, 2014, 05:02:15 AM
Dipping into this as well...
[asin] 0765302357[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 28, 2014, 05:09:10 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 27, 2014, 05:56:21 PM
I am not very "in" to horror movies, but I remember The Omen being far more believable than The Exorcist,  none of the silly things complained of in the review being of much importance during the actual watching, and certainly I always looked askance at any boy named Damien after seeing it.  Ebert's review accords more closely to my memory of it.  It does contain some horrifying scenes by any sccount.

Aye, my gratitude for the absurdities in The Exorcist made it a little easier to shrug off the disgust.  And your counterpoint viz. The Omen is well taken . . . that old truism about impossible-but-probable trumping possible-buit-improbable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 28, 2014, 05:11:03 AM
THE EXORCIST is awesome. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 28, 2014, 05:21:31 AM
Thread Duty:  On my Kindle, revisiting that stunning classic, Churchill's The Second World War.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 28, 2014, 05:23:43 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on August 28, 2014, 05:11:03 AM
THE EXORCIST is awesome. :D

I'll always be grateful that it fed some of Richard Pryor's funniest gags.

http://www.youtube.com/v/DU8HDLwbLVU
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 28, 2014, 05:25:36 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 28, 2014, 05:23:43 AM
I'll always be grateful that it fed some of Richard Pryor's funniest gags.

http://www.youtube.com/v/DU8HDLwbLVU

Tied into that, one of my favorite horror novels is the sequel novel, LEGION. Spooky shit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 30, 2014, 05:00:50 AM
Finished Warriors edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. A very good anthology about those who go into battle. The stories are drawn from all different genres, not just sci-fi/fantasy so it kept things fresh and interesting. In fact, my two favorites were not sci-fi/fantasy at all. I imagine most who pick this up will do so only for the GRRM story The Mystery Knight, but they'd be missing out on some other really good stories.

[asin]B00AEBUPSM[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 31, 2014, 08:03:27 AM
Yesterday I read the novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu for the first time (believe it or not!). I'm happy to report that it's a classic for a reason! 25 years before Dracula, and still a wonderfully spooky read.

FREE! (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10007)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 31, 2014, 10:08:37 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on August 28, 2014, 05:02:15 AM
Dipping into this as well...
[asin] 0765302357[/asin]

Cool.  Why dip when you can plunge!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 31, 2014, 01:50:04 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on August 31, 2014, 08:03:27 AM
Yesterday I read the novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu for the first time (believe it or not!). I'm happy to report that it's a classic for a reason! 25 years before Dracula, and still a wonderfully spooky read.

FREE! (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10007)
Great story. Next, Uncle Silas.
It's marvellous.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on August 31, 2014, 01:52:13 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 31, 2014, 01:50:04 PM
Great story. Next, Uncle Silas.
It's marvellous.

Yeah, excellent novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 31, 2014, 02:16:14 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on August 31, 2014, 01:52:13 PM
Yeah, excellent novel.
Ah, then you can test drive Wylder's Hand for me.  :) Supposed to be excellent as well, but I have not read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 31, 2014, 07:37:31 PM
Contested Will by Shapiro, pushed by several here.

Which I am really liking. Nice to see that someone in the humanities retains a bit of skepticism and disdain for twaddle. I was beginning to wonder frankly.

I never knew Mary Queen of Scots wrote Macbeth.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 01, 2014, 03:14:28 AM
Now reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Even though everyone knows the reveal in the end that doesn't make the tremendous psychological insight the book provides any smaller. Hell, there are many well-known reveals where even though I know what the reveal is already,  rewatching (or rereading in this case) it still sends shivers down my spine.

The video game sucks though. Ask James Rolfe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on September 01, 2014, 11:32:14 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 28, 2014, 05:21:31 AM
Thread Duty:  On my Kindle, revisiting that stunning classic, Churchill's The Second World War.

The abridged or the full version?   :-X
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 01, 2014, 12:31:21 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on September 01, 2014, 11:32:14 AM
The abridged or the full version?   :-X

I've begun The Gathering Storm (The Full Winston).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 01, 2014, 01:03:20 PM
(http://s3.postimg.org/6e55rkhgz/17717886410052138770e8aaf.jpg)

William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 01, 2014, 01:22:42 PM
Latest Hugo winning novel:

[asin]031624662X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on September 01, 2014, 01:47:22 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 01, 2014, 12:31:21 PM
I've begun The Gathering Storm (The Full Winston).

Ahh, you are an inspiration!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 01, 2014, 02:36:01 PM
Quote from: Drasko on September 01, 2014, 01:03:20 PM
(http://s3.postimg.org/6e55rkhgz/17717886410052138770e8aaf.jpg)

William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
Cool. Not the easiest book to translate I imagine. You reading it in both languages?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 01, 2014, 03:06:19 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 01, 2014, 02:36:01 PM
Cool. Not the easiest book to translate I imagine. You reading it in both languages?

Not in both, just the Serbian translation, but it's a good one, I can tell when the translation from English isn't working. I have read some Faulkner in English and if I had The Sound and the Fury in English at hand I would have gone for it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 01, 2014, 03:11:16 PM
Quote from: Drasko on September 01, 2014, 01:03:20 PM
(http://s3.postimg.org/6e55rkhgz/17717886410052138770e8aaf.jpg)

William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury

Do the Dutch always transliterate the names of Western authors like this?  I can understand transliterating names from Cyrillic or Mandarin, but this seems very odd to me.  (Oops, it seems Viljem may be Slovene, not Dutch.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 01, 2014, 03:17:27 PM
Quote from: Daverz on September 01, 2014, 03:11:16 PM
Do the Dutch always transliterate the names of Western authors like this?  I can understand transliterating names from Cyrillic or Mandarin, but this seems very odd to me.

Don't know about the Dutch, but in Serbian transliteration of names is standard, whether Cyrillic or Latin alphabet is used.

I guess Latin alphabet threw you off, Serbian language has complete synchronic digraphia (using two alphabets).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidRoss on September 01, 2014, 03:28:35 PM
(http://645e533e2058e72657e9-f9758a43fb7c33cc8adda0fd36101899.r45.cf2.rackcdn.com/harpercollins_us_frontbookcovers_648H/9780062231765.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 01, 2014, 03:39:56 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on September 01, 2014, 03:28:35 PM
(http://645e533e2058e72657e9-f9758a43fb7c33cc8adda0fd36101899.r45.cf2.rackcdn.com/harpercollins_us_frontbookcovers_648H/9780062231765.jpg)

Musta happened before my time.  Or I missed Norma Rae VII at the cineplex.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 02, 2014, 05:43:12 AM
An actual book (i.e., not on my e-reader):  Oscar Levant's autobiographical musings, The Memoirs of an Amnesiac
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 02, 2014, 05:45:58 AM
For just a taste . . . one of his daughters was born on 12 October, a year when both Columbus Day and Yom Kippur fell on that date.  One of his witty friends (George S. Kaufman, IIRC) advised him that the child be named Christopher Kipper.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 02, 2014, 06:47:21 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 02, 2014, 05:45:58 AM
For just a taste . . . one of his daughters was born on 12 October, a year when both Columbus Day and Yom Kippur fell on that date.  One of his witty friends (George S. Kaufman, IIRC) advised him that the child be named Christopher Kipper.

  I loved Oscar Levant when I was a junior high school student. He was in a quite a few movies, and his dry, sarcastic, deadpan delivery was terrific.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 12:43:57 PM
Just started

(http://www.grupulcorint.ro/magazin/images/detailed/Swann.jpg)

Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time, vol. I (Romanian translation)

This is soooooo much right up my literary alley.... The way he describes a stove-heated room, only Schubert could have put to music...

Mesmerizing!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 02, 2014, 12:53:34 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 12:43:57 PM
Just started

(http://www.grupulcorint.ro/magazin/images/detailed/Swann.jpg)

Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time, vol. I (Romanian translation)

This is soooooo much right up my literary alley.... The way he describes a stove-heated room, only Schubert could have put to music...

Mesmerizing!

Mesmer, Mesmer. Rings a bell. Wait, wait. He's the one puts people to sleep, right?
Yes, fits Swann's Way well.

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 02, 2014, 12:56:36 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 12:43:57 PM
Just started

(http://www.grupulcorint.ro/magazin/images/detailed/Swann.jpg)

Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time, vol. I (Romanian translation)

This is soooooo much right up my literary alley.... The way he describes a stove-heated room, only Schubert could have put to music...

Mesmerizing!
Your starting one wonderful journey here, Florestan! If your liking Swann (which is such a marvel), just wait until you get to the À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur or  to Le Coté de Guermantes...it's all so varied, so rich, so beautiful at times...The characters, the descriptions, the insightsd...and it grows and grows on you...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 12:57:58 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 02, 2014, 12:53:34 PM
Mesmer, Mesmer. Rings a bell. Wait, wait. He's the one puts people to sleep, right?
Yes, fits Swann's Way well.

8)

Margaritas ante porcos.  ;D ;D ;D :P :P :P >:D >:D >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 02, 2014, 01:07:06 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 12:57:58 PM
Margaritas ante porcos.  ;D ;D ;D :P :P :P >:D >:D >:D
Hey, i just had a margarita AND bacon. How did you know?

:laugh:

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 01:08:12 PM
Quote from: ritter on September 02, 2014, 12:56:36 PM
Your starting one wonderful journey here, Florestan! If your liking Swann (which is such a marvel), just wait until you get to the À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur or  to Le Coté de Guermantes...it's all so varied, so rich, so beautiful at times...The characters, the descriptions, the insightsd...and it grows and grows on you...

Proust's writing is right up my alley, so I won't stop until the final volume.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 01:09:32 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 02, 2014, 01:07:06 PM
Hey, i just had a margarita AND bacon. How did you know?

:laugh:

Reading Proust opens the third eye.  :D :D :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 02, 2014, 01:16:22 PM
The Chinese version is better
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Stone-Dream-Chamber-Vol/dp/0140442936/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-1&keywords=story+of+the+stone

The link is to volume 1 of five.  There is at least one abridged translation, which I read as a teen before this complete translation appeared. 
Do not know if a Romanian translation was ever made, although I suspect there must be at least one.
After the original,  read Barry Hughart's alternate history, the second Master Li novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 01:35:01 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 02, 2014, 01:16:22 PM
Do not know if a Romanian translation was ever made, although I suspect there must be at least one.

There is a classic one. Come to think of it: the Romanian translator never finished his translation, because he was imprisoned for bourgeois formalism and died before having the time to revise the whole translation. The last two volumes were revised, and translated where need be, by his wife.

You guys of the free world cannot even imagine someone being imprisoned for translating  Proust.  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 02, 2014, 02:25:42 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 01:35:01 PM
There is a classic one. Come to think of it: the Romanian translator never finished his translation, because he was imprisoned for bourgeois formalism and died before having the time to revise the whole translation. The last two volumes were revised, and translated where need be, by his wife.

You guys of the free world cannot even imagine someone being imprisoned for translating  Proust.  ;D
Wait, was he translating Proust or Cao Xueqin?  I was referring to the Houng Lou Meng, not Proust.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 03, 2014, 03:44:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 02, 2014, 01:08:12 PM
Proust's writing is right up my alley, so I won't stop until the final volume.  :)

When you finish it, and I have no doubts that you will (I couldn't put it down when I read it few years ago), try to find second version of sixth volume, Albertine disparue. Late in life Proust made a huge revision of Albertine, cutting half of it and making some very important changes, but the manuscript was found only some thirty years ago and then published for the first time. That second version can't be incorporated in the whole work because changes Proust made demand revision of the seventh volume to which he never gotten around to. Still I found it to be amazing 'what could have been' and really intriguing addition to regular canon. Don't know if there is Romanian translation, but it is available in English under the title Albertine Gone:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Albertine-Gone-Marcel-Proust/dp/0701133597
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on September 03, 2014, 03:56:51 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 02, 2014, 02:25:42 PM
Wait, was he translating Proust or Cao Xueqin?  I was referring to the Houng Lou Meng, not Proust.

Wishlisted that book. In return I can recommend this one (if you already don't know it):


http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Mountain-Mandarin-Chinese-English/dp/1556591403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409745350&sr=8-1&keywords=han+shan (http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Mountain-Mandarin-Chinese-English/dp/1556591403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409745350&sr=8-1&keywords=han+shan)

Didn't complete reading it, but I love the atmosphere it breathes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 03, 2014, 03:58:49 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 02, 2014, 02:25:42 PM
Wait, was he translating Proust or Cao Xueqin?  I was referring to the Houng Lou Meng, not Proust.

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood your post.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 03, 2014, 03:59:44 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 03, 2014, 03:44:39 AM
When you finish it, and I have no doubts that you will (I couldn't put it down when I read it few years ago), try to find second version of sixth volume, Albertine disparue. Late in life Proust made a huge revision of Albertine, cutting half of it and making some very important changes, but the manuscript was found only some thirty years ago and then published for the first time. That second version can't be incorporated in the whole work because changes Proust made demand revision of the seventh volume to which he never gotten around to. Still I found it to be amazing 'what could have been' and really intriguing addition to regular canon. Don't know if there is Romanian translation, but it is available in English under the title Albertine Gone:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Albertine-Gone-Marcel-Proust/dp/0701133597

Thanks, I'll try to get it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 03, 2014, 05:58:24 AM
The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by R I Moore.

It's not quite what I expected; I was looking for more of a how-to book, this is medieval history!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 03, 2014, 06:49:18 AM
First, you find the goat . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 03, 2014, 07:05:30 AM
I finished Contested Will which I picked up because of some of the comments here. An excellent book. One thing That dismays me is the rising tide (as I see) of antirationality. This book nicely addresses a small portion of that, making points relevant to the whole.
It is also a book that implicitly argues for the value of art and grappling with it, a topic we have obliquely debated here. Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 03, 2014, 07:08:32 AM
Glad you enjoyed it, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on September 03, 2014, 07:44:02 AM
I just finished Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs for an online book club to which I belong. It's not something I'd pick up left to my own devices, but it was actually a quick read, which, for a 382 page book says a lot I suppose. I am intrigued enough with the world and characters Riggs created to pick up subsequent volumes, the next being the already available Hollow City.

[asin]B004FGMDOQ[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 04, 2014, 02:12:40 PM
serious look at the risks of Artificial Intelligence, which if feasible promises to be the last invention humans ever make

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61uLf1NhflL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 04, 2014, 02:46:40 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 04, 2014, 02:12:40 PM
serious look at the risks of Artificial Intelligence, which if feasible promises to be the last invention humans ever make

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61uLf1NhflL.jpg)
You lookin' at me?  You lookin' at me? Well I don't know who else you could be lookin' at. You lookin' at me?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 09, 2014, 08:10:34 AM
Quote
Published: May 6, 1990

To the Editor [of The New York Times]:

The colorful canard that Adolf Hitler's last name was "originally" Schicklgruber continues to live on. I'm referring to your April 14 "About New York" column on the third reunion of the Mobile Radio Broadcasting Companies of World War II — the psychological warfare experts who were responsible for boosting our morale while demoralizing the enemy by using lies or the truth — whichever was more effective.

In the case of Hitler's presumed last name, it seems a lie was more effective, perhaps because "Schicklgruber" sounds more ridiculous than "Hitler," even today. Therefore, the lie lives on, being more preferable than the truth. This may be the most enduring success of our psychological warfare experts.

As you report it, Hans Habe, leader of the Broadcasting Companies and post-World War II novelist, was responsible for having "broken the story that Hitler's original name was Schicklgruber."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on September 09, 2014, 08:31:44 AM
On me iPad.
[asin]1569474788[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2014, 09:26:51 AM
Why Muslims from US, Europe join Islamic State (http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2014/0909/Why-Muslims-from-US-Europe-join-Islamic-State)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 11, 2014, 10:39:32 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 11, 2014, 09:26:51 AM
Why Muslims from US, Europe join Islamic State (http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2014/0909/Why-Muslims-from-US-Europe-join-Islamic-State)
Dreadful article. Religion really is vital here. The stuff about "religious novices" whitewashes that fact that converts are often the most zealous, in any religion or cause.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 12, 2014, 12:11:47 AM
Antonin Artaud: Les Tarahumaras.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41R8KXSM00L.jpg)

Poetic at times, scatologiocal at others, oscillationg between luicidity and irrationality (or plain weirdness)...but as often is the case with Artaud, nothing short of fascinating!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on September 12, 2014, 04:34:14 AM
In the middle of Snow by Orhan Pamuk so far and I think it's really good.

[asin]B000MAH7UO[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 12, 2014, 04:50:07 AM
Quote from: stingo on September 12, 2014, 04:34:14 AM
In the middle of Snow by Orhan Pamuk so far and I think it's really good.

[asin]B000MAH7UO[/asin]

The only Pamuk's novel I liked. The others are the epitome of boredom for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on September 12, 2014, 08:39:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 12, 2014, 04:50:07 AM
The only Pamuk's novel I liked. The others are the epitome of boredom for me.

Interesting. I am really liking it, though I understand public opinion doesn't care for this book as much as his others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 12, 2014, 08:43:55 AM
It may sound strange, but the question must be asked: Will New Jersey take a lesson from Singapore? (http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2014/0910/Sports-betting-friends-and-foes)

QuoteLast year, a probe by Europol investigators found 680 matches worldwide were fixed by syndicates with links to Singapore. Asia-dominated criminal groups are laundering about $140 million a year through illegal sports betting, according to the International Centre for Sport Security.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 12, 2014, 10:01:18 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 12, 2014, 08:43:55 AM
It may sound strange, but the question must be asked: Will New Jersey take a lesson from Singapore? (http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2014/0910/Sports-betting-friends-and-foes)

Soccer proves cheating and fixing are no bar to popularity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 12, 2014, 10:02:21 AM
There is that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on September 14, 2014, 04:34:09 AM
Incoherent essay from A.O Scott. "The Death of Adulthood."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/magazine/the-death-of-adulthood-in-american-culture.html?_r=0

Shorter A.O Scott: "Adulthood is dead and not cool anymore and this is bad, but it's also good because feminism."

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 16, 2014, 12:53:55 PM
(http://delfi.rs/_img/artikli/knjige/380/v/delfi_moskva_-_petuski_venedikt_jerofejev.jpg)

Venedikt Erofeev  - Moscow-Petushki
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 17, 2014, 05:53:24 AM
... the strange spectacle of four foreigners being the stars of a New Zealand political rally (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0916/Why-Snowden-and-Assange-line-up-with-alleged-digital-pirate-Kim-Dotcom-video) ....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The Six on September 17, 2014, 07:19:34 PM
A classic children's book
(http://33.media.tumblr.com/75aa5d6bd7c35913651fc75783a01b94/tumblr_nabx409ixb1s71q1zo1_r1_1280.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 18, 2014, 07:43:34 AM
... can you also with total confidence grant Apple the ability to write files of its choosing onto your hardware? That is a strictly rhetorical question because, too bad, you already did. (http://www.wired.com/2014/09/apples-devious-u2-album-giveaway-even-worse-spam/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 18, 2014, 09:46:34 AM
More Dickens. Rereading his last completed novel, Our mutual friend.

Critics usually say that the previous book, Great Expectations, was his last great one. But I dunno, I think this has some good stuff in it. Although admittedly much bad or mediocre as well, but I run to that in his other books too. So maybe this doesn't count as a great book. It's just that the best thing in the book is so unbelievably good that it overshadows everything else.

Many Dickens's novels have usually one side-story along with the main one. This has actually two. The main one, concerning John Harmon, Boffins, the villain Silas wegg, Bella Wilfer, Mr. Venus and Betty Higden, is mainly pretty weak. In fact I could almost swear that Dickens was high when he wrote this story. There is some of that in the second storyline too, what with Lizzie and Charley Hexam looking into fire and seeing pictures in it, but at least it's not present almost all the time. John Harmon, the "our mutual friend" of the title is bland and uninteresting. The villain Silas Wegg is thoroughly tiresome with his insistence that there is something valuable hidden in giant dust heaps that Boffins inherit along with lot of money. And to make the matters worse, there is. Nicodemus Boffin aka "Golden dustman" has some interesting qualities, is pretty funny when he appears to have become miser but then Dickens, seemingly running out of time, decides to try to explain it as mere pretending. Many critics, and me too, agree that Dickens's original intention was to really make Boffin asshole, to show all the corruption money causes, which he would later repent. But like many critics said, he probably run out of time since this novel was published in twenty monthly parts and he couldn't quite fit it or something else. But I wonder, if that's the case then why did he waste space by constantly shouting about "My lords and gentlemen and honorable boards" in passages describing Betty Higden's selflessness. She is boring enough without them. Venus annoys me as well, with his catch-phrase regarding Pleasant Riderhood's refusal to marry him. Although Timothy Spall seemed to portray him more interestingly in 1998 tv serial. But that has probably more to do with Timothy Spall's acting skills than with the character himself. Easily the best part of the main story line is Bella Wilfer's characterization. Her family in general doesn't interest me that much but Bella herself is one of the most convincing female characters Dickens has created. She is no Rosa Dartle but she works well enough. My favorite part with her is when she turns pale after hearing that her husband, John Harmon, is severely accused of murder (of murdering himself, no less. It's a complicated situation). You might for the moment think that she is horrified that she possibly married a murderer. But then she shouts: "How dare they!" The build-up is perfect. You might think that anyone would respond that way after hearing their loved one being accused of something horrible. And they probably would but I think the way this works best for me at least is that at first Bella is described as mercenary gold digger, full of insecurities etc. and as, well, a jerkass. But that's mostly only on the surface. The way her inner beauty comes more and more in plain sight is described pretty convincingly. There are times when she annoys me as well but mostly she is described fine, at parts even superbly.

The second storyline of the book is easily the best. It involves Hexams, Roger "Rogue" Riderhood and his daughter Pleasant, Doll's dressmaker Jenny Wren, dissolute Eugene Wrayburn and schoolmaster Bradley Headstone. Lizzie Hexam is one of those "perfect" womans Dickens is so fond of. However she is more realistically portrayed than usually is the case with Dickens heroines. Still extremely boring character though. I can bearly read her thoughts during her rescue of Eugene Wrayburn. It tastes like diabetes. And how come she speaks perfect King's english despite being a working class woman and her father certainly doesn't talk King's English? It's like in Oliver Twist. Her brother Charley is not interesting either. He is uninterestingly portrayed selfish jerk, that's it. Their father Jesse "Gaffer Hexam", is more interesting. He is fierce and aggresssive man and petty criminal, often compared to a bird of prey but he seems to be loving father, at least towards Lizzie. Rogue Riderhood is even more likable. This might seem shocking seeing how he is easily the most evil character in the entire book and the nicest thing that can be said about him is grim admiration towards how much of a cunning bastard he is. But he is extremely funny. Some might think this just stupid but I laugh at how he thinks affidavit is "Alfred David" and at his drunken rants about how he is a honest man who gains his honest living by the sweat of his brow all the while committing more and more jerkass actions. Plus his belief that once a man has almost drowned he can never be drowned again. He is so delightful that I actually kind of hope he hadn't died in the end, even though he seemed to have it coming. One critic called Silas Wegg a delightful rascal. But I think that title belongs to Rogue here. Pleasant, Rogue's loving daughter is not half the fun her abusive father is. Go figure. Jenny Wren is often praised but I find her insufferable usually. And then easily the greatest character in the whole book, who is so unbelieavbly powerfully written that I have very hard time believing it's from the same guy who wrote something like rants to his Lords and gentlemen and honorable boards. The character who has the honor being in my avatar picture right now, portrayed by David Morrissey in 1998 tv serial. His name is Bradley Headstone. Outwardly cool and civil schoolmaster, he has incredibly powerful passionate side inside which makes him fall in love with Lizzie Hexam and ultimately trying in his jealousy to murder his rival, Eugene Wrayburn. Now you might think that this guy is eeeviiiiiilll like Riderhood. Nope. He is extremely complex and sympathetic character. Sure attempted murder is attempted murder but the situation is more complex in that he has worked hard his entire life to achieve a respectful position in society. He falls in love with a girl, girl doesn't fall in love with him but instead falls in love with a  well-bred and educated guy who constantly mocks Bradley and his lower class position and treads upon his self-respect, makes Bradley seem clumsy in his attempts to talk back to him, for the most part of the book treats Lizzie manipulatingly, knowing his power and considers even taking her by force and finally: he knows that Headstone constantly follows him around at night, believing Eugene might take him to Lizzie who has gone hiding, Eugene leads him around the London aimlessly, at times turning around and going right past him and pretending Headstone doesn't even exist, even talking about Headstone in front of him how he (Eugene) is making Headstone undergo grinding torments, in other words, sadistically torturing him. Now Eugene is not all-bad, after almost murdered by Headstone he repents and marries Lizzie,and even before that he pays for Lizzie's education but I still think one critic makes a good point in saying that although Headstone is technically the "bad half" and Eugene the "good half" of each other, Headstone still is, paradoxically, more sympathetic. Wrayburn is portrayed superbly as well but I prefer Headstone in his hauntingly convincing psychological insight he provides. Headstone is actually probably the Dickens character I most identify with. So while the second storyline isn't perfect either, the stuff that is good is so unbeliavably good that it overshadows the actual main storyline.

Finally, the third storyline, involves Society such as Lammles, Veneerings, Podsnaps, Mortimer Lightwood, Twemlow, and Fascination Fledgeby. Similar to main storyline, this is not always that interesting. Lammles are mainly forgettable and boring, except maybe getting a few chuckles out of Alfred Lammle's  "Give me your nose, sir!" shouts which also makes me think that Dickens was high when writing this. I'm not sure what to think about lawyer Lightwood. I guess he has some interesting characteristics here and there but he's bit bland character as well. Fascination Fledgeby is boring. Podsnap is mainly interesting in that he is modelled on Dickens's best friend, Forster. The satire involving him and other society members doesn't usually raise my interests.

So while Our Mutual Friend is a flawed book, the stuff that is good is usually excellent, in case of Headstone actually unbeliavably good. This is often the case in Dickens but probably in no other book as plainly visible as in this.

Oh, and did I mention that "Our mutual friend" is bad english?

Edit: After rereading Hard times I'm gonna read Pickwick and Dombey which I have never read from beginning to end.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 18, 2014, 09:55:40 AM
Dadgummit, you remind me that I left off Pickwick!  My brother will avow that I have some 'splainin' to do . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 18, 2014, 01:42:10 PM
Quote from: Alberich on September 18, 2014, 09:46:34 AM
More Dickens. Rereading his last completed novel, Our mutual friend.

Critics usually say that the previous book, Great Expectations, was his last great one. But I dunno, I think this has some good stuff in it. Although admittedly much bad or mediocre as well, but I run to that in his other books too. So maybe this doesn't count as a great book. It's just that the best thing in the book is so unbelievably good that it overshadows everything else.

Many Dickens's novels have usually one side-story along with the main one. This has actually two. The main one, concerning John Harmon, Boffins, the villain Silas wegg, Bella Wilfer, Mr. Venus and Betty Higden, is mainly pretty weak. In fact I could almost swear that Dickens was high when he wrote this story. There is some of that in the second storyline too, what with Lizzie and Charley Hexam looking into fire and seeing pictures in it, but at least it's not present almost all the time. John Harmon, the "our mutual friend" of the title is bland and uninteresting. The villain Silas Wegg is thoroughly tiresome with his insistence that there is something valuable hidden in giant dust heaps that Boffins inherit along with lot of money. And to make the matters worse, there is. Nicodemus Boffin aka "Golden dustman" has some interesting qualities, is pretty funny when he appears to have become miser but then Dickens, seemingly running out of time, decides to try to explain it as mere pretending. Many critics, and me too, agree that Dickens's original intention was to really make Boffin asshole, to show all the corruption money causes, which he would later repent. But like many critics said, he probably run out of time since this novel was published in twenty monthly parts and he couldn't quite fit it or something else. But I wonder, if that's the case then why did he waste space by constantly shouting about "My lords and gentlemen and honorable boards" in passages describing Betty Higden's selflessness. She is boring enough without them. Venus annoys me as well, with his catch-phrase regarding Pleasant Riderhood's refusal to marry him. Although Timothy Spall seemed to portray him more interestingly in 1998 tv serial. But that has probably more to do with Timothy Spall's acting skills than with the character himself. Easily the best part of the main story line is Bella Wilfer's characterization. Her family in general doesn't interest me that much but Bella herself is one of the most convincing female characters Dickens has created. She is no Rosa Dartle but she works well enough. My favorite part with her is when she turns pale after hearing that her husband, John Harmon, is severely accused of murder (of murdering himself, no less. It's a complicated situation). You might for the moment think that she is horrified that she possibly married a murderer. But then she shouts: "How dare they!" The build-up is perfect. You might think that anyone would respond that way after hearing their loved one being accused of something horrible. And they probably would but I think the way this works best for me at least is that at first Bella is described as mercenary gold digger, full of insecurities etc. and as, well, a jerkass. But that's mostly only on the surface. The way her inner beauty comes more and more in plain sight is described pretty convincingly. There are times when she annoys me as well but mostly she is described fine, at parts even superbly.

The second storyline of the book is easily the best. It involves Hexams, Roger "Rogue" Riderhood and his daughter Pleasant, Doll's dressmaker Jenny Wren, dissolute Eugene Wrayburn and schoolmaster Bradley Headstone. Lizzie Hexam is one of those "perfect" womans Dickens is so fond of. However she is more realistically portrayed than usually is the case with Dickens heroines. Still extremely boring character though. I can bearly read her thoughts during her rescue of Eugene Wrayburn. It tastes like diabetes. And how come she speaks perfect King's english despite being a working class woman and her father certainly doesn't talk King's English? It's like in Oliver Twist. Her brother Charley is not interesting either. He is uninterestingly portrayed selfish jerk, that's it. Their father Jesse "Gaffer Hexam", is more interesting. He is fierce and aggresssive man and petty criminal, often compared to a bird of prey but he seems to be loving father, at least towards Lizzie. Rogue Riderhood is even more likable. This might seem shocking seeing how he is easily the most evil character in the entire book and the nicest thing that can be said about him is grim admiration towards how much of a cunning bastard he is. But he is extremely funny. Some might think this just stupid but I laugh at how he thinks affidavit is "Alfred David" and at his drunken rants about how he is a honest man who gains his honest living by the sweat of his brow all the while committing more and more jerkass actions. Plus his belief that once a man has almost drowned he can never be drowned again. He is so delightful that I actually kind of hope he hadn't died in the end, even though he seemed to have it coming. One critic called Silas Wegg a delightful rascal. But I think that title belongs to Rogue here. Pleasant, Rogue's loving daughter is not half the fun her abusive father is. Go figure. Jenny Wren is often praised but I find her insufferable usually. And then easily the greatest character in the whole book, who is so unbelieavbly powerfully written that I have very hard time believing it's from the same guy who wrote something like rants to his Lords and gentlemen and honorable boards. The character who has the honor being in my avatar picture right now, portrayed by David Morrissey in 1998 tv serial. His name is Bradley Headstone. Outwardly cool and civil schoolmaster, he has incredibly powerful passionate side inside which makes him fall in love with Lizzie Hexam and ultimately trying in his jealousy to murder his rival, Eugene Wrayburn. Now you might think that this guy is eeeviiiiiilll like Riderhood. Nope. He is extremely complex and sympathetic character. Sure attempted murder is attempted murder but the situation is more complex in that he has worked hard his entire life to achieve a respectful position in society. He falls in love with a girl, girl doesn't fall in love with him but instead falls in love with a  well-bred and educated guy who constantly mocks Bradley and his lower class position and treads upon his self-respect, makes Bradley seem clumsy in his attempts to talk back to him, for the most part of the book treats Lizzie manipulatingly, knowing his power and considers even taking her by force and finally: he knows that Headstone constantly follows him around at night, believing Eugene might take him to Lizzie who has gone hiding, Eugene leads him around the London aimlessly, at times turning around and going right past him and pretending Headstone doesn't even exist, even talking about Headstone in front of him how he (Eugene) is making Headstone undergo grinding torments, in other words, sadistically torturing him. Now Eugene is not all-bad, after almost murdered by Headstone he repents and marries Lizzie,and even before that he pays for Lizzie's education but I still think one critic makes a good point in saying that although Headstone is technically the "bad half" and Eugene the "good half" of each other, Headstone still is, paradoxically, more sympathetic. Wrayburn is portrayed superbly as well but I prefer Headstone in his hauntingly convincing psychological insight he provides. Headstone is actually probably the Dickens character I most identify with. So while the second storyline isn't perfect either, the stuff that is good is so unbeliavably good that it overshadows the actual main storyline.

Finally, the third storyline, involves Society such as Lammles, Veneerings, Podsnaps, Mortimer Lightwood, Twemlow, and Fascination Fledgeby. Similar to main storyline, this is not always that interesting. Lammles are mainly forgettable and boring, except maybe getting a few chuckles out of Alfred Lammle's  "Give me your nose, sir!" shouts which also makes me think that Dickens was high when writing this. I'm not sure what to think about lawyer Lightwood. I guess he has some interesting characteristics here and there but he's bit bland character as well. Fascination Fledgeby is boring. Podsnap is mainly interesting in that he is modelled on Dickens's best friend, Forster. The satire involving him and other society members doesn't usually raise my interests.

So while Our Mutual Friend is a flawed book, the stuff that is good is usually excellent, in case of Headstone actually unbeliavably good. This is often the case in Dickens but probably in no other book as plainly visible as in this.

Oh, and did I mention that "Our mutual friend" is bad english?

Edit: After rereading Hard times I'm gonna read Pickwick and Dombey which I have never read from beginning to end.
I liked OMF and BH best.
I am not reading the comment above as OMF is on my to reread pile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 19, 2014, 03:11:47 AM
I actually forgot to mention Riah, benevolent Jew character meant as an apology for Fagin after one of Dickens's Jewish friends accused him of Anti-semitism. I agree with critics that unlike Fagin, the unforgettable diabolic yet likable character, Riah is mostly tiresome. But I guess it was still a nice gesture to try to make amends. Some critics have noted that good Jews in literature have rarely been as successful as bad ones, although to be fair at least Shakespeare's Shylock was portrayed as very complex and painfully humane and while Dickens's Fagin corrupted children at least he gave them place to stay, seemed to have pride on at least Dodger and the chapter Fagin's last night alive portrays him in pitiable light. You might argue even Barabas has at times humane moments.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 19, 2014, 10:59:02 AM
What's a better read, Stoker's Dracula? Or Shelley's Frankenstein?

I've never read either one, probably because of the extensive exposure to these two novels through Movies, TV and other various outputs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 19, 2014, 11:00:25 AM
I don't think I've read the Shelley.  I should let an enthusiast speak ahead of me, but I found Dracula rather a wearisome read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on September 19, 2014, 12:12:22 PM
A superb Kanji dictionary with all 2136 Jouyou Kanji. Well worth the $25 I paid for it.

http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Kanji-Kana-Complete-Writing/dp/4805311169/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-1&keywords=kanji+and+kana+dictionary+tuttle

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 19, 2014, 12:26:15 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 19, 2014, 11:00:25 AM
I don't think I've read the Shelley.  I should let an enthusiast speak ahead of me, but I found Dracula rather a wearisome read.

Not an enthusiast myself for either, but I would pick, ceteris paribus, Stoker.

Shelley suffered from all the defects of early 19th century gothic novels, with few of the virtues.  Stoker suffered from many of the defects of the Victorian era thriller, but has some good parts, if you can slog through the wearisome sections.  I did not find enough good parts in Frankenstein to be worth slogging through the wearisome sections. but if you don't mind the longuers of c. 1820 philosophy and sentiment,  you'll do okay by Frankenstein which was very much a work of its era.  Just be aware that by and large the cinematic versions are improvements from the viewpoint of modern story telling.

With Dracula, that is less so; almost every movie version misses something from the original, and some things never really make it into any movie. At the very least,  I've never seen a movie version which matches the power of Stoker's presentation of Renfrew and, later, the destruction of Vampire Lucy.  The one with Gary Oldman and Keanu Reeves is, I think, the one that tries to faithful to the original, and even that misses some things and adds in others (Stoker, for instance,  never goes into the subject of how Dracula himself became a vampire;  comments by Van Helsing in the book suggest that he was such an evil human,  undeadness was simply a natural result of his human career.)

So unless you have a special interest in Frankenstein,  I'd go with Dracula first.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 19, 2014, 12:43:57 PM
Thank you, Karl and Jeffrey, for your replies.
I actually have both on my Kindle from free downloads, and I've always been more of a Dracula fan than Frankenstein.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 19, 2014, 01:02:24 PM
Minor embarrassment. 
I referred to "Renfrew"  but should have said "Renfield".
I realized the error when seeking that GMGer Renfield turns 26 today.  (Although it seems it's been a while since he's been here).

There is a real Renfrew: the Barony of Renfrew is one of the appanages dangling from the royal titles of the Prince of Wales.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 19, 2014, 06:30:57 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on September 19, 2014, 12:43:57 PM
Thank you, Karl and Jeffrey, for your replies.
I actually have both on my Kindle from free downloads, and I've always been more of a Dracula fan than Frankenstein.
It depends. If turgid prose is your thing go for Shelley. If you prefer a good read go for Stoker. But neither is as good as its reputation alas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 19, 2014, 10:07:33 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 19, 2014, 06:30:57 PM
It depends. If turgid prose is your thing go for Shelley. If you prefer a good read go for Stoker. But neither is as good as its reputation alas.

  I didn't like the Shelley much when I read it, but I kind of thought the Stoker was worse.  It's real pot-boiler type.  He has plotting, and the story moves forward (which Shelley's doesn't, so much), but it's wordy, with cliched characters and dull writing (but you do tend to keep turning the pages...). 

  Thread duty:
  I'll be reading this--
[asin]1476736553[/asin]

  I'm teaching a 15 year old boy English. He loves these books. This will be his third.  It ain't literature, but it's great for his language skills. I actually enjoy the books myself, but there isn't a fresh thought or turn of phrase to be found. Just lots of monster brains getting splattered around.  They are like fun action movies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on September 20, 2014, 02:25:05 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on September 19, 2014, 10:07:33 PM
  I didn't like the Shelley much when I read it, but I kind of thought the Stoker was worse.  It's real pot-boiler type.  He has plotting, and the story moves forward (which Shelley's doesn't, so much), but it's wordy, with cliched characters and dull writing (but you do tend to keep turning the pages...). 

  Thread duty:
  I'll be reading this--
[asin]1476736553[/asin]

  I'm teaching a 15 year old boy English. He loves these books. This will be his third.  It ain't literature, but it's great for his language skills. I actually enjoy the books myself, but there isn't a fresh thought or turn of phrase to be found. Just lots of monster brains getting splattered around.  They are like fun action movies.

Oh that is hilarious stuff Baklavaboy!  I read the Kindle samples (for this one as well as Monster International). They seem like a violent anime and left me a bit empty afterwards. I can see how your 15 year-old student could get enchanted by reading them.  Gory fun!

In terms of Shelley and Stoker I personally very much like both of them. I remember reading Shelley (entering the book with the Frankenstein Hollywood stereotype in my mind) and becoming very attached to the story. I found it interesting and enriching on so many levels as the characters were developed by Shelley. Great settings as well! Hmm, I should revisit it soon!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on September 20, 2014, 02:26:23 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 19, 2014, 06:30:57 PM
It depends. If turgid prose is your thing go for Shelley. If you prefer a good read go for Stoker. But neither is as good as its reputation alas.

I thought Shelley was substantially better than its reputation. The film industry has very much ruined Shelley's work (surprise, surprise).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 20, 2014, 02:42:48 PM
You want horror, read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Or something by Poe. Although I have read only parts of Dracula and Frankenstein, I would definitely go with Dracula.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 20, 2014, 03:47:35 PM
Speaking of Poe, I've gotta read Gold bug. IIRC, Stevenson admitted it influenced some of the aspects in Treasure island.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 20, 2014, 04:38:01 PM
Poe has aged very well, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 20, 2014, 06:19:52 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 20, 2014, 04:38:01 PM
Poe has aged very well, I think.
Yes he has. I don't like him in large doses, but individual stories work. And The Raven is a marvel.

I heard recently a modern composer's setting of Annabel Lee. Perhaps some here know it. Because I have an evil streak as wide as, well, me, I will only say I liked it better than Mennin 8.  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 20, 2014, 06:27:56 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 20, 2014, 06:19:52 PMAnd The Raven is a marvel.

And Raven was at least partly inspired by that much neglected Dickens novel, Barnaby Rudge. I believe Poe and Dick met once, during latter's first american tour in 1842.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 20, 2014, 07:03:55 PM
When you read Poe's two mystery stories, it is clear that Conan Doyle didn't borrow from them for Holmes and Watson, but lifted them wholesale. He really deserves more credit for that. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 20, 2014, 07:23:14 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on September 20, 2014, 07:03:55 PM
When you read Poe's two mystery stories, it is clear that Conan Doyle didn't borrow from them for Holmes and Watson, but lifted them wholesale. He really deserves more credit for that.
Now I wouldn't tweak most posters here, but but for you Al .... OK, all credit to Doyle for the lift.

:laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 20, 2014, 07:52:46 PM
Now for some Verne and old Bill. Firstly, rarely-read Golden volcano which technically wasn't completely by Jules but some parts of it were written by his son. It certainly shows in the quality of the book (even if it still is pretty good read), compared to other Verne book now rereading: In search of the castaways, featuring my favorite Verne character of all time: Tom Ayrton. Yet I haven't read the mysterious island where not only Ayrton reappears but also captain Nemo!

As for Shakespeare I'm tackling one of his less esteemed plays, The two gentlemen of Verona. I think it is fine achievement, except of course the infamous part in the end where, in Hilary Spurling's words, "Valentine is so overcome [by Proteus' apology] that he promptly offers to hand over his beloved to the man who, not three minutes before, had meant to rape her." Of course the line "All that was mine in Silvia I give thee" can be interpreted differently as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 20, 2014, 08:22:22 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 20, 2014, 07:23:14 PM
Now I wouldn't tweak most posters here, but but for you Al .... OK, all credit to Doyle for the lift.

:laugh:

  Come on, Ken, it's not like I have a PhD in English, or am an English teacher or anything... :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Linus on September 21, 2014, 07:17:07 AM
Just finished Dostoyevsky's short story White Nights.

(https://kirja.elisa.fi/sites/default/files/imagecache/product/bookcovers/9177423771_1.jpg)

Not bad at all. It's baffling the many illusions we make up in order to save ourselves from disappointment and despair. Deliciously bitter and pathetic, this stuff.

Perhaps the ultimate "friendzone" novella, to use hip vernacular. 8)

Grade: ***--

(Is Dostoyevsky's overall tone always this high school-y, though?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 21, 2014, 07:59:22 AM
Quote from: Linus on September 21, 2014, 07:17:07 AM
Just finished Dostoyevsky's short story White Nights.

(https://kirja.elisa.fi/sites/default/files/imagecache/product/bookcovers/9177423771_1.jpg)

Not bad at all. It's baffling the many illusions we make up in order to save ourselves from disappointment and despair. Deliciously bitter and pathetic, this stuff.

Perhaps the ultimate "friendzone" novella, to use hip vernacular. 8)

Grade: ***--

(Is Dostoyevsky's overall tone always this high school-y, though?)
Paging Mr. Henning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 21, 2014, 09:47:11 AM
Quote from: Linus on September 21, 2014, 07:17:07 AM
Just finished Dostoyevsky's short story White Nights.

(https://kirja.elisa.fi/sites/default/files/imagecache/product/bookcovers/9177423771_1.jpg)

Not bad at all. It's baffling the many illusions we make up in order to save ourselves from disappointment and despair. Deliciously bitter and pathetic, this stuff.

Perhaps the ultimate "friendzone" novella, to use hip vernacular. 8)

Grade: ***--

(Is Dostoyevsky's overall tone always this high school-y, though?)

Oh, gosh . . . I'm not sure I'd call it "high-schooley" . . . the narrator is certainly older than that.  But there is a touching simplicity about which I found winning enough to compose a ballet after it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 21, 2014, 09:49:34 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 21, 2014, 07:59:22 AM
Paging Mr. Henning.

Hah!

To address the question, though . . . most of Dostoyevsky is a good deal darker.  If you're ready to plunge headlong into the abyss, I suggest The Devils/The Possessed.  More corpses strewn about the stage at the end than in Hamlet.  (I should like to write an opera on that one . . . .)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 21, 2014, 09:51:15 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 21, 2014, 09:47:11 AM
Oh, gosh . . . I'm not sure I'd call it "high-schooley" . . . the narrator is certainly older than that.  But there is a touching simplicity about which I found winning
I'll say! I found it devastating. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on September 21, 2014, 11:13:04 AM
Georges Lebanc, per the publisher, is directed at 7-10 year-olds.  But like many a 'children's book' before it (eg: Wind in the Willows and Alice) it's adults who I think will appreciate it the most.  (or is that merely my excuse to read such exquisite works?).  Georges - as you may have guessed - is a park bench, a sentient one with a taste for adventure.  By turns comic, fantastic, touching and always visually and verbally clever and très français, this is a work that deserves broader readership and won't get it 'cause it's in French.  'Twould be tough to translate.  But even looking at the pictures would be a treat for anyone. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on September 21, 2014, 11:15:33 AM
A scene from Georges Lebanc by Claude Ponti. Shown are the Rats Kmaninotts vacuuming-up the notes sung in the very early morning.  Without them, they die of silence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 21, 2014, 04:07:56 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on September 21, 2014, 11:15:33 AM
A scene from Georges Lebanc by Claude Ponti. Shown are the Rats Kmaninotts vacuuming-up the notes sung in the very early morning.  Without them, they die of silence.
I assume you have watched A Cat in Paris.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 21, 2014, 08:26:14 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 21, 2014, 09:49:34 AM
Hah!

To address the question, though . . . most of Dostoyevsky is a good deal darker.  If you're ready to plunge headlong into the abyss, I suggest The Devils/The Possessed.  More corpses strewn about the stage at the end than in Hamlet.  (I should like to write an opera on that one . . . .)
What do you think about the Idiot?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Linus on September 22, 2014, 03:09:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 21, 2014, 09:47:11 AM
Oh, gosh . . . I'm not sure I'd call it "high-schooley" . . . the narrator is certainly older than that.  But there is a touching simplicity about which I found winning enough to compose a ballet after it.
Quote from: karlhenning on September 21, 2014, 09:49:34 AM
Hah!

To address the question, though . . . most of Dostoyevsky is a good deal darker.  If you're ready to plunge headlong into the abyss, I suggest The Devils/The Possessed.  More corpses strewn about the stage at the end than in Hamlet.  (I should like to write an opera on that one . . . .)
Quote from: Baklavaboy on September 21, 2014, 09:51:15 AM
I'll say! I found it devastating. 

To clarify, I did find White Nights quite dark -- devastating even -- and, psychologically, I find Dosto to be one of the most spot-on, mature authors out there, even though I have only read White Nights, Crime and Punishment and The Double so far.

But throughout those stories, I can't help but feel that the narrator sounds a bit insecure and shaky, like someone who just figured something out and wants to test his hypothesis, rather than a rugged, experienced fellow who has "been there, done that".

It doesn't have to be a bad thing, it's not a biggy, but personally I think it clashes a bit with Dosto's psychological insights. :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 22, 2014, 03:27:45 AM
Quote from: Linus on September 22, 2014, 03:09:59 AM
To clarify, I did find White Nights quite dark -- devastating even -- and, psychologically, I find Dosto to be one of the most spot-on, mature authors out there, even though I have only read White Nights, Crime and Punishment and The Double so far.

But throughout those stories, I can't help but feel that the narrator sounds a bit insecure and shaky, like someone who just figured something out and wants to test his hypothesis, rather than a rugged, experienced fellow who has "been there, done that".

It doesn't have to be a bad thing, it's not a biggy, but personally I think it clashes a bit with Dosto's psychological insights. :-\

That's true about the narrator in White Nights;  but remember, the character an author creates, and the author's character, are distinct matters 8)

Take our Dave . . . he writes about zombies . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 22, 2014, 03:28:14 AM
Quote from: Artem on September 21, 2014, 08:26:14 PM
What do you think about the Idiot?

A great favorite;  in fact, I've just started to re-read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on September 22, 2014, 04:21:39 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 21, 2014, 04:07:56 PM
I assume you have watched A Cat in Paris.

Yes, and enjoyed it but not as much as Triplets and some other French animated work.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Linus on September 22, 2014, 08:14:49 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 22, 2014, 03:27:45 AM
That's true about the narrator in White Nights;  but remember, the character an author creates, and the author's character, are distinct matters 8)

I didn't mean to imply that Dosto is some sort of sophomore. ;)

Nor his characters, really. Only that his style (I suppose that's it) has a certain quality.

Quote
Take our Dave . . . he writes about zombies . . . .

I've noticed some users are referred to by first names here. I'm afraid I have no idea who Dave is. :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 22, 2014, 08:33:54 AM
Quote from: Linus on September 22, 2014, 08:14:49 AM
I didn't mean to imply that Dosto is some sort of sophomore. ;)

Nor his characters, really. Only that his style (I suppose that's it) has a certain quality.

I've noticed some users are referred to by first names here. I'm afraid I have no idea who Dave is. :-\
MN Dave. No idea if his username is that at the moment.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 22, 2014, 09:16:38 AM
Quote from: Linus on September 22, 2014, 08:14:49 AM
I've noticed some users are referred to by first names here. I'm afraid I have no idea who Dave is. :-\

Gosh, nor does it help that, actually, we have several Daves!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 23, 2014, 06:40:56 AM
Deal of the Week: 54% Off John Wayne: The Epic Collection (with Amazon Exclusive "Duke" Belt Buckle)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 29, 2014, 08:43:01 AM
French Muslims to Islamic State: We are also 'dirty French' (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2014/0926/French-Muslims-to-Islamic-State-We-are-also-dirty-French)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on September 29, 2014, 10:14:49 AM
Finally started reading the Legends anthology (edited by Robert Silverberg) I'd started when I read George R. R. Martin's first Dunk and Egg tale. So far I've been introduced to Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and had a fantastic Discworld story from Terry Pratchett involving one of his best characters - Granny Weatherwax.

[asin]B005LVO6FS[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 29, 2014, 04:20:45 PM
Finished my third Sciascia's book called Equal Danger. I like Sciascia writing very much and this book didn't dissapoint.
(http://assets.nybooks.com/media/img/books/9781590170625.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 30, 2014, 07:26:21 AM
See Spot ran run, your Honor. (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2014/0929/Atlanta-cheating-scandal-moves-to-the-courtroom-video)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on September 30, 2014, 09:44:03 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 30, 2014, 07:26:21 AM
See Spot ran run, your Honor. (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2014/0929/Atlanta-cheating-scandal-moves-to-the-courtroom-video)
And people in the States wonder what is wrong with their education system. Standardized tests, and directing funding based on success, are not the best way to control the quality of education. Unless by 'control' one means keeping it from improving.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on September 30, 2014, 03:31:04 PM
I've a job interview tomorrow.  If I don't get it, I'll have plenty o' time to read this - so I win either way! 

[asin] 0374522782[/asin]

Fascinating to me, Brendel writes in the same style as his playing!  "Master of narrative line" indeed...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 30, 2014, 08:01:22 PM
Good luch with the interview. What does Brendel mostly talk about in that book you're reading?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 01, 2014, 03:39:27 AM
Good luck!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on October 01, 2014, 08:07:48 AM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on September 30, 2014, 03:31:04 PM
I've a job interview tomorrow.  If I don't get it, I'll have plenty o' time to read this - so I win either way! 

[asin] 0374522782[/asin]

Fascinating to me, Brendel writes in the same style as his playing!  "Master of narrative line" indeed...

Good luck with your interview!  :)

I agree about Brendel. I like to hear his German, too: quiet and a bit professorial, but still impassioned. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on October 01, 2014, 05:36:47 PM
Merci, mes amis!  I've just dipped into this work (NB: this is the 2nd ed.) so far, but more than anything or anyone, Liszt is the focus of Brendel's attn. here - the why and wherefore and historical significance of his transcriptions, performance style, and approaching Liszt's work.  13 pages are devoted to "Notes on A Complete Recording of Beethoven's Sonatas," three essays on Busoni and several about Brendel's teacher, Edwin Fischer.  There's nothing in this book which does not grab me but I am esp. looking forward to :  "Schubert's Piano Sonatas, 1822-28,"  and "Form & Psychology in Beethoven's Piano Sonatas."  There's also an interview with Brendel and a discussion about coping with different pianos.  A funny thing, to crave text like one's favorite ice cream...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 03, 2014, 02:16:57 PM
My first approach to this author's work:

Claude Levi-Strauss: Tristes Tropiques
[asin]2070118029[/asin]

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 07, 2014, 07:51:43 AM
More shakespeare and dickens. Rereadings mostly before moving on to ones I haven't read. Just reread taming of the shrew which is still quite funny play, although many parts of it haven't obviously aged that well. Currently I'm enjoying once again Othello and Hard times.

Iago is probably my favorite Shakespeare character and even the fact that his plan would have failed instantly if not for certain convenient circumstances, this doesn't ultimately matter to me. He is so well written and he is once again one of those characters that even though you realise he is bastard, in this case apparently complete bastard (seemingly without redeeming qualities many other shakespeare villains do have), I still want and will root for him and feel almost sadness when he is led off-stage to torture and possible execution. I agree with very common theory that the true main character in the play is not, despite it's name, Othello but Iago. He even has much more lines than Othello. It doesn't matter that Othello just happens to conveniently miss from Cassio's and Iago's discussion about Bianca the parts that would have instantly burned Iago's ass. This play (and several other of Shakespeare's plays) is to be enjoyed with feeling, not completely with reason (although the devilishly good lines of Iago actually make a lot of sense). Although everyone points out the irony of "honest Iago"-nickname, it should be noted that much of (although not all) what Iago says is actually perfectly honest. He causes much more damage with what he doesn't say than what he does say. Along with Hamlet, this play was the one that really got me into Shakespeare.

With hard times, I sure have had hard times (hardy har) with concentration. Although I like the book, it has (like most of Dickens's books) its good parts and... not so good parts. Reading this book makes me actually think I am getting more and more stupid, not only because DIckens really seems to think of reader as one, at several parts he force-feds his "righteous" views to reader, instead of using some more clever way to make his point. Although this is still much more endurable than Our mutual friend's "my lords and gentlemen and honourable boards"-speeches (and I really hope that Dickens wrote those passages only because he had to fill twenty monthly numbers).

The protagonist, Mr. Thomas Gradgrind senior is one of DIckens's more morally ambiguous (and thus more interesting) lead characters. He seems well-intentioned extremist who means well but ultimately ruins the lives of his children. While I think of Dombey as (anti)villain protagonist, and Pip as flawed righteous protagonist, Gradgrind falls in between them, along with Wrayburn from Our mutual friend. Although I haven't still read Dombey (after I'm finished with these, I'm moving on to it) from what I know about him is that he seems more like villain (albeit pitiable one) than anti hero like Wrayburn and Gradgrind. I may change my mind after I've actually read the book. As for Pip, as much as I like him, I never agreed with Pip's internal judgement of himself in the book. Yes, clearly he is intended to be sympathetic enough to obtain reader's compassion but it seems like Dickens intended him as more flawed character than someone like David Copperfield. Hell, I actually think Pip is more likable than David. Most of his snob behaviour is in his thoughts, rarely in his actions and as such I regard him more as a hero. Actually, the moment he realises his "asshole behaviour" and starts to act "nicer", I start to like him much less and actually think in those parts of him as asshole. Same thing happens with Wrayburn sometimes, when author intends him to be nicer he actually at times seems more like a jerk. I still agree he is anti hero, though, because of reasons I addressed in my previous post about Our mutual friend. Some other heroes of Dickens such as Nicholas from Nickleby and Joe Willet and Edward Chester also seem to me like assholes at some points, although critics usually think of them as morally upright heroes. But it's merely question of interpretation.

Ok, enough about those guys. Onward. Gradgrind's children, particularly two of them, (hell, the other three have so little screentime that you easily forget about them), are superbly portrayed. Their facts only-education from their father affects them in different ways, but in both cases in bad way. Louisa suppresses her emotions, becoming eventually wife of Bounderby, Gradgrind's friend, even though inside she knows she's making a mistake. This makes her more vulnerable when young cynical gentleman James Harthouse sets his eyes on her.

Louisa's brother, Tom, is an example of selfish brother done right (other example would be Tip Dorrit from Little Dorrit). Charley Hexam is crudely painted jerk, Monks vicious melodramatic figure, Frederick Trent hardly worth mentioning. But Tom's negative development is presented completely compellingly and believably. He is ultimately as much of victim of circumstances as Louisa is. His upbringing leads him to a life of gambling and eventually to a path of crime. He doesn't really mean harm to Stephen Blackpool when he frames him for robbery Tom himself has committed. The unemotional upbringing merely has made him unable to understand fully the consequences and it probably lead him to thinking (like Steerforth from David Copperfield) that Blackpool doesn't feel in the same way as other people do. If never taught to do any good to other people, can it be expected that he would do such a thing? He has complex relationship with his sister. She seems to be only person he truly unquestionably cares about and even then he manipulates her and uses her quite selfishly. Yet he in the end repents and it's quite sad he never got to meet again her after been sent to overseas. Thus, he is pretty much only major Dickens villain who could be said to have obtained redemption, even if in the very end and in few sentences. But ultimately there really is no need for his repentance to be more elaborately described, since his earlier selfishness is part of his character development and its natural conclusion is repentance. Denying your emotional and humane qualities ultimately backfires and they come flying out. His selfishness and lecherous behaviour in fact, paradoxically, was already part of his humane attributes trying to force themselves out. To be selfish is to be a human. To be lecherous is to be human. It's merely sad that from his humane qualities the selfish and lecherous attributes came out first and pretty much ruined his life. Wow, I am writing so much irrational and tedious prose here that I am starting to sound like Wagner. Moving on.

Sissy, one of the two moral centres in the book is so tediously emotional and sentimental that it ironically contradicts Dickens's intention to show that suppressing your emotions is a bad thing. I've heard Florence Dombey bursts in tears over 100 times. That's a lot of crying but I can swear that this Sissy girl never keeps her eyes dry either. Pretty much every scene she's on she starts to cry. When describing perfectly good characters Dickens is at his worst.

Which leads us to other morally most upright character, Stephen Blackpool, who seriously gets on my nerves. However, at few parts he actually makes couple of convincing points which makes me like him slightly more than Sissy. But it's at times hard to make out what he's saying, though I am glad that for once Dickens didn't have every poor character inherit upper class King's English.

My favorite character in the book, James Harthouse is ofen compared to Steerforth, often unfavourably. I seem to really like these Byronic heroes. Harthouse is extremely captivating character. However, my rereading of the book still going on, I don't have that much to say about him what I didn't already say when I commented about Steerforth. Yet they are in some ways quite different characters. Let's see if I ever write more about him. One last word about him: if I recall, his letter to his brother, when Harthouse leaves Coketown, is full of blunt hilarity.

One last character I am going to mention is Bitzer, Gradgrind's model student who in one of the greatest scenes in the book turns Gradgrind's own philosophy against him and shoves it down his throat. Pure awesomeness.

I think I'll move to Dombey after Othello and Hard times. I've heard very different opinions about it. Florence Dombey's constant weeping worries me a little though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 07, 2014, 08:04:35 AM
Btw, I have hard time understanding why one of Dickens's contemporaries dismissed Hard times as "sullen socialism". Stephen Blackpool refuses to join the Union, for God's sake!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on October 07, 2014, 08:59:50 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61lIo87c29L.jpg)

I was undecided between this one and much more recent one by Scheijen, but in the end price decided.
Captivating, read about third of it in just two sittings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 08, 2014, 09:43:14 AM
Would you do it with a Magic Dragon?
http://reason.com/blog/2014/10/08/i-think-i-accidentally-started-an-urban (http://reason.com/blog/2014/10/08/i-think-i-accidentally-started-an-urban)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 09, 2014, 08:03:14 PM
My friend and I started a Hate Book Club where we read books we hate. Here's my first book report (http://bgreinhart.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/hate-book-club-real-marriage/) (and a link to hers, also amusing).

The subject of our hate this month: an evangelical Christian manual for marriage.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on October 09, 2014, 08:15:56 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 09, 2014, 08:03:14 PM
My friend and I started a Hate Book Club where we read books we hate. Here's my first book report (http://bgreinhart.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/hate-book-club-real-marriage/) (and a link to hers, also amusing).

The subject of our hate this month: an evangelical Christian manual for marriage.

  Weird book. Good review.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 09, 2014, 10:19:11 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on October 09, 2014, 08:15:56 PM
  Weird book. Good review.
Well, I wanted to hear more on what he had say about anal. But that was my reaction to A Brief History of Time too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on October 09, 2014, 11:37:53 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 09, 2014, 10:19:11 PM
Well, I wanted to hear more on what he had say about anal. But that was my reaction to A Brief History of Time too.

:laugh:
I was rather curious on that topic, too, actually, but was too timid to say so :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 10, 2014, 04:44:46 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 09, 2014, 10:19:11 PM
Well, I wanted to hear more on what he had say about anal. But that was my reaction to A Brief History of Time too.

Haven't returned my copy to the library yet, so wish granted! The anal section is two pages long, and, like all the other "Can We Do This in Bed" FAQs, broken into three parts:
- Is it lawful? This is where he says married couples can bang butts because Sodomy is all about being gay, not behinds. For some reason he also parenthetically adds that "burning asphalt" is what killed everyone in Sodom.
- Is it helpful? "Some couples choose to use this method to prevent pregnancy." But generally you must both have "a clear conscience" before trying it.
- Is it enslaving? (That's a real question they ask.) "For men who have had gay sex, if it conjures up for them past fantasies and memories, then, while the act may not be sinful in general, it may be sinful in particular for them."

In answer to a question Al asked, and two questions you guys might ask:
- I take a train to work and have an hour of reading time daily. Last year I read 80ish books; this year I've read 55.
- Yes, I did check out another, more urbane library book because of the judgment I thought I'd incur from the lady at the desk.
- The other "Can We Do This in Bed" things are masturbation, oral & menstrual sex, "Role-Playing", toys, and birth control. Plus bonus sections on abortion and cosmetic surgery. "In purchasing [sex] toys, you may be best served to purchase them from one of the more discreet Web sites, including those overtly run by Christians, where there are not photos of nude people..."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on October 10, 2014, 05:26:58 AM
Maybe -phalt was a bid for respectability?

Thread Duty: Not sure if I mentioned finishing Snow by Orhan Pamuk, but I did. Good book even if the last chapter was longer than it needed to be. I've stared reading the Collected Stories v4 of Arthur C. Clarke. Why start at volume 4? Because the book club to which I belong is reading The Wind from the Sun, and volume 4 collects those stories and a few others, albeit in a different order. I've liked what I read so far - the stories are entertaining, thought provoking and just the right length to get me involved, but not so long as to drag on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on October 10, 2014, 11:27:27 AM
Currently enjoying and learning about England's history:

[asin]0349117314[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 10, 2014, 11:40:12 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 10, 2014, 04:44:46 AM
Haven't returned my copy to the library yet, so wish granted! The anal section is two pages long, and, like all the other "Can We Do This in Bed" FAQs, broken into three parts:
- Is it lawful? This is where he says married couples can bang butts because Sodomy is all about being gay, not behinds. For some reason he also parenthetically adds that "burning asphalt" is what killed everyone in Sodom.
- Is it helpful? "Some couples choose to use this method to prevent pregnancy." But generally you must both have "a clear conscience" before trying it.
- Is it enslaving? (That's a real question they ask.) "For men who have had gay sex, if it conjures up for them past fantasies and memories, then, while the act may not be sinful in general, it may be sinful in particular for them."

In answer to a question Al asked, and two questions you guys might ask:
- I take a train to work and have an hour of reading time daily. Last year I read 80ish books; this year I've read 55.
- Yes, I did check out another, more urbane library book because of the judgment I thought I'd incur from the lady at the desk.
- The other "Can We Do This in Bed" things are masturbation, oral & menstrual sex, "Role-Playing", toys, and birth control. Plus bonus sections on abortion and cosmetic surgery. "In purchasing [sex] toys, you may be best served to purchase them from one of the more discreet Web sites, including those overtly run by Christians, where there are not photos of nude people..."

Hooo dogggy. His is a loving god.

Can he wear cotton-polyester blends though? 

(Lev 19:19)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on October 10, 2014, 05:24:46 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 10, 2014, 04:44:46 AM
Haven't returned my copy to the library yet, so wish granted! The anal section is two pages long, and, like all the other "Can We Do This in Bed" FAQs, broken into three parts:
- Is it lawful? This is where he says married couples can bang butts because Sodomy is all about being gay, not behinds. For some reason he also parenthetically adds that "burning asphalt" is what killed everyone in Sodom.
- Is it helpful? "Some couples choose to use this method to prevent pregnancy." But generally you must both have "a clear conscience" before trying it.
- Is it enslaving? (That's a real question they ask.) "For men who have had gay sex, if it conjures up for them past fantasies and memories, then, while the act may not be sinful in general, it may be sinful in particular for them."

In answer to a question Al asked, and two questions you guys might ask:
- I take a train to work and have an hour of reading time daily. Last year I read 80ish books; this year I've read 55.
- Yes, I did check out another, more urbane library book because of the judgment I thought I'd incur from the lady at the desk.
- The other "Can We Do This in Bed" things are masturbation, oral & menstrual sex, "Role-Playing", toys, and birth control. Plus bonus sections on abortion and cosmetic surgery. "In purchasing [sex] toys, you may be best served to purchase them from one of the more discreet Web sites, including those overtly run by Christians, where there are not photos of nude people..."

Of course I only buy sex toys from overt Christians! I highly recommend the Jesus and Mary Oversized Dildo Store.  Every purchase comes with a free rosary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 10, 2014, 05:29:16 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on October 10, 2014, 05:24:46 PM
Of course I only buy sex toys from overt Christians! I highly recommend the Jesus and Mary Oversized Dildo Store.  Every purchase comes with a free rosary.
That was one of things I really liked about Cincinnati. I met a couple who ran bachelorette parties  where they sold sex toys. In other words, door to door dildo salesmen. They were rock-ribbed Republicans.
What a great town.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on October 14, 2014, 06:33:31 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 08, 2014, 09:43:14 AM
Would you do it with a Magic Dragon?
http://reason.com/blog/2014/10/08/i-think-i-accidentally-started-an-urban (http://reason.com/blog/2014/10/08/i-think-i-accidentally-started-an-urban)

You could, but prob. ill-advised, those magic dragons are just way too hot.   :laugh:

Interesting article.  This kind of thing, btw, happens all the time with children's books.  Even the Little Engine that Could comes under fire, for sexism:

"In a 1976 letter to the New York Times, Judith Weinstein asserts that the Little Engine story was sexist, because the "`big strong' males do the important work and can't be bothered with children's concerns and that only the `little, kind' female can be relied upon to help out children and become a part of their world.". On the other hand, an article in Publishers Weekly has called it a "good example of pioneer feminist lore." More recently, Stefan Kanter, writing in Men's Health in 2000, complains that the "thrusting locomotive, one or the most obvious phallic symbols in the lexicon, was now female." According to Diane Ravitch in The Language Police (2003), a version of  the story contained in a reader was criticized by California school textbook adopters because the engine was portrayed as male.  I have done a quick analysis of the available versions of the story, focusing on the genders of the unhelpful "big, strong" engines of the helpful "little engine." All possible variants are found. For example, in Thinking One Can (1906) and The Pony Engine (1910, 1916,1957) all locomotives were neuter.  In the Little Switch Engine (1912) the little engine is identified as "he."   The Little Steam Engine (1911) and both the My Book House and Watty Piper versions of Little Engine that Could (1920, 1930) have the big engines as male and the small engine as female.  Interpret this how you want!"  from:  http://tigger.uic.edu/~plotnick/littleng.htm
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on October 14, 2014, 08:09:47 AM
I'm reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in Mandarin Chinese. I've been working on it for several years, actually, but just got back to it in a serious way this week and polished off a couple of chapters.  Pretty hard going, as my Chinese isn't very good, and the translation is quite poor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 14, 2014, 08:11:51 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on October 14, 2014, 08:09:47 AM
I'm reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in Mandarin Chinese. I've been working on it for several years, actually, but just got back to it in a serious way this week and polished off a couple of chapters.  Pretty hard going, as my Chinese isn't very good, and the translation is quite poor.
Why on earth don't you read it in English? ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on October 14, 2014, 08:22:13 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 14, 2014, 08:11:51 AM
Why on earth don't you read it in English? ???

Gotta learn Chinese somehow ;)  Reading a fairly easy novel is one of the best ways to build vocabulary.  I've read it in Japanese, and used the English version to teach several students (I teach English as a second language), so I know the content very well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 14, 2014, 09:22:51 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on October 14, 2014, 08:22:13 AM
Gotta learn Chinese somehow ;)  Reading a fairly easy novel is one of the best ways to build vocabulary.  I've read it in Japanese, and used the English version to teach several students (I teach English as a second language), so I know the content very well.
Ah yes, if your purpose is learning Chinese, it makes sense. :)


E:   Thread duty

[asin]0140424547[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on October 14, 2014, 09:27:15 AM
...  in the mean time Mark Driscoll (author of Real Marriage... discussed above) has been kicked out as leader of the Mars Hill congregation in Seattle.

Octavia, Daughter of God
a history of the Panacea Movement in Britain led by two very eccentric women.
I was exposed to some religious extremism in my youth and have been tracking the wacky Brother Stair lately.   The parallels between the groups are incredibly similar.
To me, fascinating because I'm interested, not likely to register with a general reader.
[asin]B005OQ6OGO[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 14, 2014, 10:06:24 AM
That does look like a fascinating read.  But I may not read it, simply because I should find the arc of the story terribly, terribly sad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 14, 2014, 10:28:42 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 14, 2014, 10:06:24 AM
That does look like a fascinating read.  But I may not read it, simply because I should find the arc of the story terribly, terribly sad.
At first I thought you were commenting on modern poetry, Karl, but I suppose you replied to listener's post.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 14, 2014, 10:33:32 AM
Yes!  Sorry to have perpetrated yet another ambiguity! 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 14, 2014, 10:39:22 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 14, 2014, 10:33:32 AM
Yes!  Sorry to have perpetrated yet another ambiguity! 8)
A delicious one, too.  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 14, 2014, 06:42:17 PM
Quote from: Alberich on October 07, 2014, 08:04:35 AM
Btw, I have hard time understanding why one of Dickens's contemporaries dismissed Hard times as "sullen socialism". Stephen Blackpool refuses to join the Union, for God's sake!

I liked the trajectory of "Hard Times," but it's a novel of its time meant to address social ills peculiar to Dickens' period. I read it about nine years ago, I recall being satisfied that I read it (it was quite short for Dickens.) The father was monstrous to his children, someone dies at the end, etc etc.

In other Dickens news, I've officially been reading Little Dorrit longer than Dickens took to write it. Not Dickens' fault -- I just don't read as much these days and I've been stuck at the half way point for two years or so, reading a chapter every four months. It doesn't help that TV writer Armando Iuannuci spoiled the ending for me in a interview he gave to the BBC for the Dickens bicentennial.  :-X




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on October 14, 2014, 07:53:35 PM
Currently, re-reading Eric Fenby's book Delius As I Knew Him. Great read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on October 15, 2014, 04:53:14 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on October 14, 2014, 07:53:35 PM
Currently, re-reading Eric Fenby's book Delius As I Knew Him. Great read.

Yes! 'Tis! I should re-read, too. You might like Bax's autobiography, Farewell, My Youth, if you haven't read it yet. Easily the best book by a composer I've ever read (outside of music theory).  Edit : ok, even inside music theory!  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 15, 2014, 10:34:09 AM
Quote from: listener on October 14, 2014, 09:27:15 AM
...  in the mean time Mark Driscoll (author of Real Marriage... discussed above) has been kicked out as leader of the Mars Hill congregation in Seattle.


The butt thing? Or the general wing-nut thing?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 15, 2014, 11:05:40 AM
If I'd known how big a thing "Big Data" would become,  I wouldn't have skipped the second half of the "Probability and Statistics" courses as an undergrad.

[asin]0486637603[/asin]

This book is a pretty easy read.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 15, 2014, 12:35:00 PM
Quote from: Daverz on October 15, 2014, 11:05:40 AM
If I'd known how big a thing "Big Data" would become,  I wouldn't have skipped the second half of the "Probability and Statistics" courses as an undergrad.

[asin]0486637603[/asin]

This book is a pretty easy read.

Strong ditto, on all parts of this post.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on October 15, 2014, 07:31:18 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on October 15, 2014, 04:53:14 AM
Yes! 'Tis! I should re-read, too. You might like Bax's autobiography, Farewell, My Youth, if you haven't read it yet. Easily the best book by a composer I've ever read (outside of music theory).  Edit : ok, even inside music theory!  >:D

Thanks for the suggestion, but not being a fan of Bax's music pretty much puts a damper on any kind of enthusiasm I would have for a book on his life. His music completely baffles me and leaves me scratching my head most of the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 15, 2014, 07:53:30 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on October 15, 2014, 07:31:18 PM
Thanks for the suggestion, but not being a fan of Bax's music pretty much puts a damper on any kind of enthusiasm I would have for a book on his life. His music completely baffles me and leaves me scratching my head most of the time.

I think his tone poems are his most accessible music.  Garden of Fand for example.

[asin]B000027QWV[/asin]

The symphonies are pretty baffling, but I enjoy their strange sound world.  Woops, are we discussing classicla music in the diner?  Is that allowed?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on October 15, 2014, 07:57:04 PM
Quote from: Daverz on October 15, 2014, 07:53:30 PM
I think his tone poems are his most accessible music.  Garden of Fand for example.

[asin]B000027QWV[/asin]

The symphonies are pretty baffling, but I enjoy their strange sound world.  Woops, are we discussing classicla music in the diner?  Is that allowed?

It's not that I don't find the music accessible, it clearly is written in an idiom I'm comfortable and familiar with, but, for whatever reason, the music hasn't spoken to me yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on October 16, 2014, 04:09:09 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 15, 2014, 10:34:09 AM
The butt thing? Or the general wing-nut thing?
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/10/unwise-strategy-pastor-mark-driscolls-church-responds-to-book-buying-claims/
His letter of resignation was delivered this week.
http://www.religionnews.com/2014/10/15/exclusive-mark-driscolls-resignation-letter-to-mars-hill-church/
  Real life stories, hard to beat 'em.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 16, 2014, 04:31:07 AM
Quote from: Daverz on October 15, 2014, 07:53:30 PMThe symphonies are pretty baffling, but I enjoy their strange sound world.  Woops, are we discussing classicla music in the diner?  Is that allowed?
No, you're both banned, immediately.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on October 16, 2014, 04:50:20 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/Into_Thin_Air.jpg)
Just finished this. Interesting in a way.

Started this today. I think it has a more compelling subject matter maybe:
(http://mybreadandjam.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/into-the-wild.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on October 16, 2014, 05:54:36 AM
I found the one on the Everest desaster more compelling and more interesting. Maybe because Krakauer actually was there (for most of it).

A (fictional) funny and sometimes macabre account of Hippie enthusiasm encountering the real wilderness is found in TC Boyles's "Drop City". If one likes Boyle in general, I'd recommend it, of the half dozen of his I read, it is among my favorites (the favorite is probably "Tortilla Curtain")
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 16, 2014, 12:26:10 PM
Richard Wagner and the Jews by Milton E. Brener. This of course is never an easy subject for a book (although there are countless books still about it) but so far what I've read it actually stays pretty objective about it, not denying that Wagner was a huge antisemite but that doesn't necessarily mean every single even remotely friendly recognition he gives to some of his jewish associates was all 100 % manipulation. The book at times actually gets a few laughs out of me as well, such as Wagner's letters to Baron Robert von Hornstein where he pretty much demands ridiculous sums of money which as author of the book points out, could be seen as a joke.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on October 16, 2014, 01:02:35 PM
On that subject, two quotes that sum up my view.
One is from Leonard Bernstein: I hate Wagner on bended knee
Second is a long comment by a character in the detective story Swan Song by Edmund Crispin (pen name of Bruce Montgomery, himself a composer, mostly of film scores, and an organist), referring to unofficial ban on Wagner related to WII,  to that that was rather nonsensical, since if the Nazis had actually paid attention to the Ring, they would have noticed that not even the gods could get out of a promise without literally bringing the world down over their heads. (Paraphrase, of course.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 17, 2014, 03:26:19 AM
With thanks owed to Brian (IIRC) I have been reading the introduction to Vol. I of the Twain autobiography.  Even this account of the background, false starts, metamorphosing mission, and work methods of the sheaf document, is an absorbing read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 19, 2014, 04:56:02 AM
(http://youthvoices.net/sites/default/files/image/22958/apr/inkheart.jpg)

Reading this in tandem with our daughter.  I read Dragon Rider to our son many moons ago, but this one has a better edge to it.  So far, I am impressed 100+ pages in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 19, 2014, 06:54:31 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 17, 2014, 03:26:19 AM
With thanks owed to Brian (IIRC) I have been reading the introduction to Vol. I of the Twain autobiography.  Even this account of the background, false starts, metamorphosing mission, and work methods of the sheaf document, is an absorbing read.
Hmm, I have not read it, but I have asked a lot of people for their opinions of it! You probably recall that...and understand the subtext of this reply. Thanks for your notes so far. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 20, 2014, 03:19:48 AM
Currently reading Dombey. And my God, they were right. Florence cries ALL THE TIME. Can't wait until I get to Edith's introduction. She is often considered to be the first thoroughly convincing complex female character Dickens created.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on October 20, 2014, 05:20:53 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on October 15, 2014, 07:57:04 PM
It's not that I don't find the music accessible, it clearly is written in an idiom I'm comfortable and familiar with, but, for whatever reason, the music hasn't spoken to me yet.

John, might I recommend Tale the Pine-Trees Knew as a path to Bax?  Did it for me, in any case!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 21, 2014, 03:57:28 AM
Still lingering in the Kaatskills, we might say . . . I've been slowly re-reading "Rip van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," as well as proceeding (with no less pleasure) with the Twain autobiography.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on October 22, 2014, 03:25:26 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on October 16, 2014, 05:54:36 AM
I found the one on the Everest desaster more compelling and more interesting. Maybe because Krakauer actually was there (for most of it).

A (fictional) funny and sometimes macabre account of Hippie enthusiasm encountering the real wilderness is found in TC Boyles's "Drop City". If one likes Boyle in general, I'd recommend it, of the half dozen of his I read, it is among my favorites (the favorite is probably "Tortilla Curtain")
Thanks. I don't know of Boyle. I'll check it out. I'm almost done with Into the Wild and quite liked it. The Everest one was a good read but I had a hard time sympathizing with the people and I skipped over the fancy passages about fascination and the history of climbing Everest. Into the Wilderness, on the other hand, focuses on a character that I find compelling. I know a tramp who lives the life on principle - a guy I met years back and have intermittently stayed in touch with. A highly intelligent person who rejects society on principle, not necessarily or solely out of bitterness, fascinates me. It made me want to reread London (even though he was a bit of a hypocrite - but that's another story).   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 22, 2014, 04:00:41 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 19, 2014, 06:54:31 PM
Hmm, I have not read it, but I have asked a lot of people for their opinions of it! You probably recall that...and understand the subtext of this reply. Thanks for your notes so far. :)

The account of Gen. Grant in his last years, the question of his memoirs, the circumstances of his conceding to write magazine articles, the publications environment, and the matter of Gerhardt's clay bust, all of it is fascinating, wonderfully humane.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 22, 2014, 04:09:11 AM
Just ordered this
[asin]0393339432[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on October 22, 2014, 04:12:41 AM
Finished the Arthur C. Clarke short story collection (A Meeting with Medusa - Collected Stories Vol. 4) and the first Legends anthology. Now onto Legends II also edited by Robert Silverberg and Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat by Hal Herzog.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on October 22, 2014, 07:49:08 AM
I should get back at some Wodehouse to deal with impending autumn darkness, I suppose!
Looks like a nice anthology, although I think "Right ho, Jeeves" is actually the first book in a rather loose trilogy. So the story of Gussie, Madeline continues...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 22, 2014, 07:59:09 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on October 22, 2014, 07:49:08 AM
I should get back at some Wodehouse to deal with impending autumn darkness, I suppose!
Looks like a nice anthology, although I think "Right ho, Jeeves" is actually the first book in a rather loose trilogy. So the story of Gussie, Madeline continues...
Already own that one.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 22, 2014, 08:28:59 AM
"That ghastly Spink-Bottle!"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 22, 2014, 11:50:21 AM
'This has been the "sharks with laser beams" of the Ebola outbreak.' (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/1021/Signs-of-victories-against-Ebola-in-Africa-and-the-United-States)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on October 22, 2014, 01:38:45 PM
Apparently the order is
Right ho, Jeeves
The code of the Woosters
The mating season

And some characters return in

Stiff upper lip, Jeeves
Much obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the tie that binds)

But I seem to recall that the last two are considerably weeker.

The first three and "Joy in the morning" are among the best Wodehouse I have read (I usually prefer Jeeves&Wooster to Blandings and the standalones, because Bertie recounting the tales is always a special delight, and, except for Lord Emsworth, I am not so fond of the Blandings setting anyway.)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 22, 2014, 02:12:00 PM
Leave It to Psmith was my first-ever Wodehouse, so I do think fondly of that 'un.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 22, 2014, 02:28:28 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 22, 2014, 02:12:00 PM
Leave It to Psmith was my first-ever Wodehouse, so I do think fondly of that 'un.
I will definitely want to explore that part of Wodehouse's work. Well, all the other facets of this fascinating fantasist, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 23, 2014, 04:57:48 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 22, 2014, 02:28:28 PM
I will definitely want to explore that part of Wodehouse's work. Well, all the other facets of this fascinating fantasist, too.

Aye.

In general, I too feel that I enjoy the Bertie-&-Jeeves tales best.  Next-best, probably the Mulliner stories.

But he is always witty and entertaining, which is a great gift.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 23, 2014, 05:20:49 AM
Quote from: Mark TwainIt is impossible to overestimate the enormity of this gouge. If the Century people knew anything at all;  if they were not steeped to the marrow in ignorance and stupidity, they knew that a single page of General Grant's manuscript was worth more than a hundred of mine. But they were steeped to such a degree in ignorance and stupidity.  They were honest, honorable and good-hearted people according to their lights, and if anybody could have made them see that it was shameful to take such an advantage of a dying soldier, they would have rectified the wrong. But all the eloquence that I was able to pour out upon them went for nothing, utterly for nothing. They still thought that they had been quite generous to the General and were not able to see the matter in any other light.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 23, 2014, 05:39:46 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 23, 2014, 04:57:48 AMIn general, I too feel that I enjoy the Bertie-&-Jeeves tales best.  Next-best, probably the Mulliner stories.
I'll have to look into the Mulliner stories.

QuoteBut he is always witty and entertaining, which is a great gift.
Yes indeed, and having a virtuoso's command of the language helped.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 24, 2014, 06:27:44 AM
I'm wheeling among:

The Twain autobiography, which (to judge so far) is always very good reading
The first volume of the Churchill history of WWII
Probably my very favorite of all Robert Sheckley's short stories (well, of all his writings, probably): "The Robot Who Looked Like Me."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 24, 2014, 06:31:03 AM
I ordered Great Gatsby and Animal Farm as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on October 24, 2014, 07:19:11 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 24, 2014, 06:31:03 AM
I ordered Great Gatsby and Animal Farm as well.

Wow, you're lucky, two great reads ahead of you, I almost envy you 8)

For a month or two, I decided to impose a new discipline on myself. I have to FINISH ALL THESE BOOKS I BEGUN before I have the right to start any other one ::)

Still a dozen to go... Zola's La Débâcle and Haskell's Forest unseen are my two tasks for the weekend :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 24, 2014, 07:24:09 AM
Quote from: Cosi bel do on October 24, 2014, 07:19:11 AM
Wow, you're lucky, two great reads ahead of you, I almost envy you 8)

For a month or two, I decided to impose a new discipline on myself. I have to FINISH ALL THESE BOOKS I BEGUN before I have the right to start any other one ::)

Still a dozen to go... Zola's La Débâcle and Haskell's Forest unseen are my two tasks for the weekend :D
Reminds me I should perhaps give For Whom the Bell Tolls another try - it's been years since I stopped reading it, after finding it really tedious. I think I was still in sr. high back then. And then there's The Bleak House, of which I have a translation (Finnish) that I didn't finish.. I'll definitely read some Dickens in the future, but not translations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on October 24, 2014, 07:35:46 AM
Literature in English is the only one I can read in original language, and I end up reading as much in English than in my own language (which is French). But it makes choices more difficult, as it really widens the choice (I don't think I would have read and loved so many contemporary Americans books if I only read translations).
Dickens is on my list too, a bunch of them actually (Bleak House, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities...). I think that will be a proper reading project one day, too.

For Whom The Bell Tolls has been watching me from the shelf for quite a long time and will be one of my "close future" readings, with a few Faulkner I have not read already and want to (Light in August and Requiem for a Nun, mainly).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 24, 2014, 07:39:01 AM
I read very little in Finnish actually, apart from translations from languages other than English. Ditto on the Dickens project, and the same trio, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 24, 2014, 07:40:42 AM
Quote from: Cosi bel do on October 24, 2014, 07:19:11 AM
Wow, you're lucky, two great reads ahead of you, I almost envy you 8)

For a month or two, I decided to impose a new discipline on myself. I have to FINISH ALL THESE BOOKS I BEGUN before I have the right to start any other one ::)

Still a dozen to go... Zola's La Débâcle and Haskell's Forest unseen are my two tasks for the weekend :D

Good luck on that one!  :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:   >:D

I almost always fail....   :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on October 24, 2014, 07:44:31 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 24, 2014, 07:39:01 AM
I read very little in Finnish actually, apart from translations from languages other than English. Ditto on the Dickens project, and the same trio, too.

Well, I must admit my ignorance about Finnish literature. The only author widely translated in French is Paasalinna and I haven't tried it yet, but it seems to be light literature. Oh and Waltari, yes that might interest me one day. But I guess being Finnish allows to discover the diversity of foreign literature earlier and more thoroughly :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 24, 2014, 07:55:59 AM
Quote from: Cosi bel do on October 24, 2014, 07:44:31 AM
Well, I must admit my ignorance about Finnish literature. The only author widely translated in French is Paasalinna and I haven't tried it yet, but it seems to be light literature. Oh and Waltari, yes that might interest me one day. But I guess being Finnish allows to discover the diversity of foreign literature earlier and more thoroughly :)

Well there are Kalevala and Kanteletar the epic and the lyric poem collections by Elias Lönnrot, I read that (or some of it) in high school, and The Seven Brothers, the first Finnish novel, written by Aleksis Kivi, read it in both jr. and sr. high, a great book still. There's also Waltari (Sinuhe, e.g.), F. E. Sillanpää (Nobel prize winner), Minna Canth (some excellent realist plays, particularly about women's position), Eino Leino, a poet who died at the age of 47, wrote a good bit of poetry (influenced very much by Kalevala) and translated e.g. Dante.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on October 24, 2014, 08:05:10 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 24, 2014, 07:55:59 AM
Well there are Kalevala and Kanteletar the epic and the lyric poem collections by Elias Lönnrot, I read that (or some of it) in high school, and The Seven Brothers, the first Finnish novel, written by Aleksis Kivi, read it in both jr. and sr. high, a great book still. There's also Waltari (Sinuhe, e.g.), F. E. Sillanpää (Nobel prize winner), Minna Canth (some excellent realist plays, particularly about women's position), Eino Leino, a poet who died at the age of 47, wrote a good bit of poetry (influenced very much by Kalevala) and translated e.g. Dante.

  My Ex-brother-in-law is Estonian. He said the Kalevala is Estonia's national epic.... Didn't know it was Finnish til now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on October 24, 2014, 08:07:36 AM
Yes of course, Kalevala, I'll have to read this one day. Big project :D
Thanks for the names, The Seven Brothers seems interesting, out of print in French but quite cheap as a used book. Sillanpää seems hardest to find, but not impossible (the title of his translated novel, translated from French to English would be Silja, or A Brief Destiny). There seems to be a Minna Canth volume of collected short stories, also. Nothing from Eino Leino, though.
Thanks anyway, I'll sure read all that sometime in the future :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 24, 2014, 08:16:11 AM
The only Finnish writer I´ve read is Mika Waltari and I like his works, he is very good at writing historical novels.  My favorite is The Dark Angel (Johannes Angelos, 1952), a love story set in Constantinople right before its fall to the Turks.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 24, 2014, 08:35:38 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on October 24, 2014, 08:05:10 AM
  My Ex-brother-in-law is Estonian. He said the Kalevala is Estonia's national epic....

He also said, "Finland? Where is that?"   8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 24, 2014, 08:38:28 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 24, 2014, 07:55:59 AM
Well there are Kalevala and Kanteletar the epic and the lyric poem collections by Elias Lönnrot, I read that (or some of it) in high school, and The Seven Brothers, the first Finnish novel, written by Aleksis Kivi, read it in both jr. and sr. high, a great book still. There's also Waltari (Sinuhe, e.g.), F. E. Sillanpää (Nobel prize winner), Minna Canth (some excellent realist plays, particularly about women's position), Eino Leino, a poet who died at the age of 47, wrote a good bit of poetry (influenced very much by Kalevala) and translated e.g. Dante.

Kalevala is monumental. I think even Harold Bloom included it in his Western Canon list!! Alas, I have yet to read it. Aren't a number of Sibelius' tone poems inspired by the stories from Kalevala?
I used to read Zacharias Topelius when I was a kid (my dad read his stories to me) . How are his works regarded in Finland today? Not top tier?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 24, 2014, 09:00:36 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on October 24, 2014, 08:05:10 AM
  My Ex-brother-in-law is Estonian. He said the Kalevala is Estonia's national epic.... Didn't know it was Finnish til now.
And consider the fact that Estonia's national anthem is the same as ours, just with different lyrics..

Quote from: Moonfish on October 24, 2014, 08:38:28 AM
Kalevala is monumental. I think even Harold Bloom included it in his Western Canon list!! Alas, I have yet to read it. Aren't a number of Sibelius' tone poems inspired by the stories from Kalevala?
I used to read Zacharias Topelius when I was a kid (my dad read his stories to me) . How are his works regarded in Finland today? Not top tier?
Sibelius' music was certainly influenced by Kalevala (Kullervo, Lemminkäinen, Pohjola's Daughter, Luonnotar, and to a lesser extent En Saga and Tapiola) - like the whole national romantic movement in Finland, Leino and Gallen-Kallela included.
Kalevala was obviously a strong influence on Tolkien, too - Túrin Turambar is "an attempt to reorganize...the tale of Kullervo the hapless, into a form of my own", as Tolkien wrote in one of his letters.

Topelius is well regarded, his stories, hymns and songs are definitely core 'repertoire'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 24, 2014, 09:01:53 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on October 24, 2014, 08:05:10 AM
  My Ex-brother-in-law is Estonian. He said the Kalevala is Estonia's national epic.... Didn't know it was Finnish til now.
I thought you were still amongst the pre-divorced Al.  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on October 24, 2014, 10:59:07 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 24, 2014, 08:35:38 AM
He also said, "Finland? Where is that?"   8)
;D

Quote from: Ken B on October 24, 2014, 09:01:53 AM
I thought you were still amongst the pre-divorced Al.  >:D
Ken, Ken, Ken, your schadenfreude is showing ;).
      My sister's ex-husband. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 24, 2014, 11:07:05 PM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on October 24, 2014, 10:59:07 PM
;D
  Ken, Ken, Ken, your schadenfreude is showing ;).
 

I'm told it's slimming.

TD Intuition Pumps by Daniel Dennett
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 25, 2014, 07:49:37 AM
Another particularly fine short story by Robert Sheckley, "Ask a Foolish Question."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 25, 2014, 10:38:53 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 25, 2014, 07:49:37 AM
Another particularly fine short story by Robert Sheckley, "Ask a Foolish Question."
Why are you reading Robert Sheckley?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 25, 2014, 10:47:06 AM
Decades ago, a schoolmate made a gift to me of Dramocles:  An Inter-Galactic Soap Opera, which was the most rattling fun I'd ever had reading science-fiction.  Now and again over the years, I go back to him (Sheckley, I mean).  There's still a sort of "pulp science-fiction" moldy-paper vibe to the writing, yet in large part it holds up surprisingly well, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 25, 2014, 10:54:36 AM
I wonder what would happen if I bought a copy of Waiting for Godot online - it would probably get lost in the mail and never arrive..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 25, 2014, 11:51:24 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 25, 2014, 10:47:06 AM
Decades ago, a schoolmate made a gift to me of Dramocles:  An Inter-Galactic Soap Opera, which was the most rattling fun I'd ever had reading science-fiction.  Now and again over the years, I go back to him (Sheckley, I mean).  There's still a sort of "pulp science-fiction" moldy-paper vibe to the writing, yet in large part it holds up surprisingly well, I think.
I was asking a foolish question.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 25, 2014, 03:28:34 PM
And I knew it not!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 26, 2014, 09:45:41 AM
Not reading; purchased today.  :D

(http://static.elefant.ro/images/43/223243/oblomov_1_fullsize.jpg)

Ivan Goncharov - Oblomov

(http://static.elefant.ro/images/11/218511/dusmanul-poporului_1_fullsize.jpg)

Olga Slavnikova - Light Head (Romanian translation: The Enemy of the People)

(http://static.elefant.ro/images/28/221828/liga-tinerimii_1_fullsize.jpg)

Henrik Ibsen - The League of Youth
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 26, 2014, 11:23:23 AM
Finished reading Thomas Bernhard three short novellas. Not an easy but very rewarding reading nonetheless.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41H1NQ25XKL._SL500_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-big,TopRight,35,-73_OU01_AA300_.jpg)

Also preordered on Amazon collection of novellas by Patrick Modiano, who won this year's Nobel Prize in literature. Looking forward to read that one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on October 26, 2014, 10:46:28 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 26, 2014, 09:45:41 AM
Not reading; purchased today.  :D

Ivan Goncharov - Oblomov

Oblomov is quite amazing, IMO.  Hilariously funny.  It is kind of like the original of O'Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces".  That said, I didn't finish it. It is on the book shelf, with many other unfinished (but good) books with a book mark in it...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on October 27, 2014, 02:01:12 AM
Quote from: Artem on October 26, 2014, 11:23:23 AM

Also preordered on Amazon collection of novellas by Patrick Modiano, who won this year's Nobel Prize in literature. Looking forward to read that one.

I'll be interested to hear what you think of it (even if I haven't read these 3 novellas in particular, that I think are not among his best selling ones).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 27, 2014, 03:37:03 AM
One of the books I started re-reading on my Nook™, and which I wind up neglecting for long stretches, yet returning to with a note of gladsome surprise:  The Blithedale Romance.

The Scarlet Letter is obligatory reading in the US public schools;  and under those circs, I didn't much care for Hawthorne at that age.  I certainly needed to be in my mid-20s before I could appreciate him properly.  I do enjoy all his work (I've not read quite all of it, even yet), but I probably like the "sleeper hit," The Blithedale Romance, best of all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 27, 2014, 07:05:26 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on October 26, 2014, 10:46:28 PM
It is on the book shelf, with many other unfinished (but good) books with a book mark in it...

Welcome to the club!  :D

I have never bought more CDs than I could listened to, the concept of a CDs pile is alien to me. Books on the other hand, oh boy! a pile of 50 is always the norm!  :D

This might be of interest to some of you: what prompted me to buy Slavnikova´s book on the spot was a quote from her about the book:

There is in the Russian tradition a real cult of suffering, that can be seen both in literature and in the Orthodox faith. Suffering is seen as a prerequisite for spiritual completion. But my leading character doesn´t want to suffer or to sacrifice himself; he doesn´t care a fig about spiritual completion. All that he wants is to preserve his liberty - his, and everybody else´s, because in this country you can always become a martyr against your will, and nobody will ever ask if you´re prepared to suffer or not.



   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 27, 2014, 07:38:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 26, 2014, 09:45:41 AM

(http://static.elefant.ro/images/28/221828/liga-tinerimii_1_fullsize.jpg)

Henrik Ibsen - The League of Youth

I have read only 3 Ibsen plays so far (Peer Gynt, A doll's house and John Gabriel Borkman) and I've enjoyed him immensely (Peer Gynt and Borkman had their bit awkward moments, though, although they're splendid plays). Doll's house has aged very well, I can't believe it was written in 19th century! It is easily my favorite of those three.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 27, 2014, 07:45:43 AM
Quote from: Alberich on October 27, 2014, 07:38:55 AM
I have read only 3 Ibsen plays so far (Peer Gynt, A doll's house and John Gabriel Borkman) and I've enjoyed him immensely (Peer Gynt and Borkman had their bit awkward moments, though, although they're splendid plays). Doll's house has aged very well, I can't believe it was written in 19th century! It is easily my favorite of those three.

A Doll´s House is very good, but my favorites are An Enemy of the People and The Pillars of the Society.

Of his more poetical and symbolic plays, I just loooove Peer Gynt and I would just loooove to read Brand. If you happen to know of an online English translation please let me know. TIA.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 27, 2014, 08:14:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 27, 2014, 07:45:43 AM
A Doll´s House is very good, but my favorites are An Enemy of the People and The Pillars of the Society.

Of his more poetical and symbolic plays, I just loooove Peer Gynt and I would just loooove to read Brand. If you happen to know of an online English translation please let me know. TIA.
Only a Finnish translation on Project Gutenberg. :/
I've only read A Doll's House from  Ibsen, in either elementary or jr. high school. I certainly thought (still do) highly enough of it already back then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 27, 2014, 08:20:31 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 27, 2014, 08:14:48 AM
Only a Finnish translation on Project Gutenberg. :/
I've only read A Doll's House from  Ibsen, in either elementary or jr. high school. I certainly thought (still do) highly enough of it already back then.

What is the status of Swedish in Finland these days? Sibelius grew up speaking Swedish I believe, because the upper class did back then. Is that right, and is it still the case?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 27, 2014, 08:25:48 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 27, 2014, 08:20:31 AM
What is the status of Swedish in Finland these days? Sibelius grew up speaking Swedish I believe, because the upper class did back then. Is that right, and is it still the case?
It's taught to everyone in jr. & sr. high school, and there's one mandatory course in university. Swedish is definitely a very small minority as a mother tongue these days, there might be more Russian speakers. My Swedish is not on the level it should be for reading fiction, though, and I'm not really that interested in reading Swedish fiction anyway. Not sure how well I'd cope with Bergman sans subtitles..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 27, 2014, 08:52:49 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 27, 2014, 08:14:48 AM
Only a Finnish translation on Project Gutenberg. :/
I've only read A Doll's House from  Ibsen, in either elementary or jr. high school. I certainly thought (still do) highly enough of it already back then.

I read a selection of Ibsen´s plays in my first (out of four) high school year (NB, it was in 1987, two years before the fall of the Communism), to the recommendation of my Literature teacher (God bless his soul!) and I was spellbound. The Communist censorship must have been sleeping while allowing An Enemy of the People and The Pillars of the Society to be published. They are still among the most passionate pleas for Freedom and Truth (two notions Communism is irreconcilably antithetical to) I´ve ever read.  8)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 27, 2014, 09:07:46 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 27, 2014, 08:52:49 AM
I read a selection of Ibsen´s plays in my first (out of four) high school year (NB, it was in 1987, two years before the fall of the Communism), to the recommendation of my Literature teacher (God bless his soul!) and I was spellbound. The Communist censorship must have been sleeping while allowing An Enemy of the People and The Pillars of the Society to be published. They are still among the most passionate pleas for Freedom and Truth (two notions Communism is irreconcilably antithetical to) I´ve ever read.  8)
And the only Romanian book I remember seeing in a (university) library in Finland is an organic chemistry book (perhaps polymer chemistry, don't remember..) by Elena Ceausescu.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 27, 2014, 09:21:16 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 27, 2014, 09:07:46 AM
And the only Romanian book I remember seeing in a (university) library in Finland is an organic chemistry book (perhaps polymer chemistry, don't remember..) by Elena Ceausescu.  ::)

Polymer chemistry, yes!  ;D

There were lots of untranslatable jokes about her ´´knowldege´´ of Chemistry...  ;D

Trust me, my friend: she could barely write her name, let alone write down the chemical formula of water...

All of ´´her ´´ bools were written by prostituting scientists.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 27, 2014, 09:46:06 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 27, 2014, 09:21:16 AM
Polymer chemistry, yes!  ;D

There were lots of untranslatable jokes about her ´´knowldege´´ of Chemistry...  ;D

Trust me, my friend: she could barely write her name, let alone write down the chemical formula of water...

All of ´´her ´´ bools were written by prostituting scientists.  ;D
I know, the books were put in the library in return for something, don't remember what. Dad would probably know..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on October 27, 2014, 12:25:17 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YzoeqSYQL.jpg)
http://www.amazon.com/Harum-Scarum-Spiffy-Adventures-McConey/dp/1560972882
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on October 27, 2014, 12:30:29 PM
Great choice. Evrything by Trondheim is killing, starting with Lapinot (apparently "McConey" in English :D)
His first Lapinot volumes were better though, more in the style of graphic novels, and published at L'Association (a publisher created by a few artists themselves). These Dargaud books are more recent and some of them remakes of the previous ones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on October 27, 2014, 12:47:05 PM
Quote from: Cosi bel do on October 27, 2014, 12:30:29 PM
Great choice. Evrything by Trondheim is killing, starting with Lapinot (apparently "McConey" in English :D)
His first Lapinot volumes were better though, more in the style of graphic novels, and published at L'Association (a publisher created by a few artists themselves). These Dargaud books are more recent and some of them remakes of the previous ones.

I completely agree re Trondheim, I've yet to read something poor by him.

I'm actually reading it in Croatian translation, where Zekan is basically direct translation of Lapinot.
Just posted English translation picture and link, so that if there's anyone interested here could check it out.

Unfortunately I can't find those first three books by L'Association in any language that I can understand, only Dargaud's single book Slaloms which I believe is some sort of recomposition of those.

(http://www.fibra.hr/ZEKAN_FB_1.jpg)
actual book that I have
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on October 27, 2014, 01:50:12 PM
More a shortened version that a recomposition. The very first Lapinot (Lapinot and the carrots of Patagonia) is fascinating as it was completely improvised as an exercise, for Trondheim to learn basically how to draw, as he was only a scriptwiter up to this point.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on October 27, 2014, 05:38:42 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 27, 2014, 07:45:43 AM
A Doll´s House is very good, but my favorites are An Enemy of the People and The Pillars of the Society.

Of his more poetical and symbolic plays, I just loooove Peer Gynt and I would just loooove to read Brand. If you happen to know of an online English translation please let me know. TIA.

Here is the complete Ibsen listing from the Online Books Pages
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Ibsen%2c%20Henrik%2c%201828-1906

Brand is available, but not for download, at the Hathi Trust site....and at least some of the entries are US only access.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on October 27, 2014, 07:51:19 PM
There's also this for Kindle for $2.51 from Amazon US.

[asin]B00BKNAPEC[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on October 28, 2014, 09:53:57 AM
Quote from: Cosi bel do on October 27, 2014, 01:50:12 PM
Lapinot and the carrots of Patagonia

I'd love to read that if I ever get the chance.

Have you read Ile Bourbon 1730? Local bookshop is having it on sale at the moment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 28, 2014, 12:05:16 PM
Just finished rereading Entropy and the Second Law by Arieh Ben-Naim. Very high recommendation. Requires a modicum of mathematical sophistication and some knowledge of thermodynamics, but not that you be a physicist or math major. Nate could handle it comfortably.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on October 28, 2014, 12:31:12 PM
Quote from: Drasko on October 28, 2014, 09:53:57 AM
I'd love to read that if I ever get the chance.

Have you read Ile Bourbon 1730? Local bookshop is having it on sale at the moment.
No, not this one. I have not read many comic books for quite a long time, I can't seem to find enough time :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 29, 2014, 12:13:01 PM
Reading Sam & Max: Freelance Police comics. I originally fell in love with Sam & Max franchise when I played Telltale games. I still haven't finished Hit the road, though. The jokes are witty, comedic sociopathy of these two is amusing and while I don't necessarily laugh out loud all the time (I relatively rarely do so anyway unless it happens to be a certain kind of joke) but it gets me in the really good mood. And that's all that matters.

Still wishing Telltale would make season 4...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on November 01, 2014, 07:03:46 AM
(http://www.rtvbn.com/slike/original/321684_1.jpg)

Been yesterday evening to Belgrade Book Fair. It's an annual thing, rather large, lasts a week and attracts about 150-200 thousand visitors. Publishers tend to give nice discounts and in the past I used to spend couple hundred euros and need a cab to carry the haul back. Nowdays I'm much more moderate, but I still got few things:

(http://www.mediterran.rs/images/stories/Arhipelag/kaneti.jpg)(http://www.ikzs.com/slike/korice/48787030.jpg)(http://www.srpskaknjizevnazadruga.com/images//foto/2010/big/ljudi-govore.jpg)
(http://www.srpskaknjizevnazadruga.com/images//foto/2008/big/ujka-vanja.jpg)(http://s14.postimg.org/jtb5qjcu9/SVI_MRTVACI_IMAJU_ISTU_KOZU_Boris_Vijan_slika_O.jpg)(http://www.darkwood.co.rs/assets/images/cover/10/715/29266_1354010319.jpg)

Elias Canetti - Crowds and Power
Theodor Adorno - Minima Moralia
Rastko Petrovic - People Talk
Anton Chekhov - Uncle Vanya
Boris Vian - The Dead All Have the Same Skin
Franquin - Gaston Lagaffe (integral first four books)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on November 04, 2014, 04:02:26 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/DWCity.jpg)
Just starting this one. It seems that people like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 04, 2014, 05:20:29 AM
Quote from: milk on November 04, 2014, 04:02:26 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/DWCity.jpg)
Just starting this one. It seems that people like it.

I did. Holmes is one my family names ...  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on November 04, 2014, 08:11:45 PM
Exhausted. In the mood for sword & sorcery! Woohooo!   >:D

[asin]0886773210[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on November 05, 2014, 12:52:00 AM
Reading Alfred Einstein's "Mozart". 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 05, 2014, 05:23:09 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on November 04, 2014, 08:11:45 PM

[asin]0886773210[/asin]
You seem to have a thing for Helene Dolmetsch pictures ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on November 05, 2014, 06:03:18 AM
Quote from: Baklavaboy on November 05, 2014, 12:52:00 AM
Reading Alfred Einstein's "Mozart".

I can't help it. I always think when hearing his name: "Since when did Al study Mozart?" It doesn't help that I read they are distantly related.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 05, 2014, 06:08:33 AM
Quote from: Alberich on November 05, 2014, 06:03:18 AM
I can't help it. I always think when hearing his name: "Since when did Al study Mozart?" It doesn't help that I read they are distantly related.


(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/01/31/science/31essay.184.jpg)
HARMONY OF THE UNIVERSE

[Albert] Einstein, who learned to play the violin as a child and often turned to music in difficult times, was especially fond of the sonatas by Mozart. (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/science/31essa.html?_r=0)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on November 05, 2014, 06:44:07 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 05, 2014, 05:23:09 AM
You seem to have a thing for Helene Dolmetsch pictures ...

Yeah, they forgot to draw the cello on that cover.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 06, 2014, 04:57:24 AM
"Are snake laxatives a thing?" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/06/a-man-volunteered-to-be-eaten-alive-by-an-anaconda-discovery-is-going-to-air-it/?tid=hp_mm&hpid=z4)

(Shan't watch The Show, of course, but I'm enjoying this article.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 06, 2014, 03:04:09 PM
Quote from: North Star on October 24, 2014, 06:31:03 AMI ordered Great Gatsby and Animal Farm as well.
Finished Gatsby an hour ago, both were very enjoyable to read, to say the least.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 06, 2014, 04:21:15 PM
I like Fitzgerald a lot. Have you read anything else by him besides The Great Gatsby?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 06, 2014, 04:36:30 PM
Quote from: Artem on November 06, 2014, 04:21:15 PM
I like Fitzgerald a lot. Have you read anything else by him besides The Great Gatsby?
Not yet, but I sure intend to. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 06, 2014, 04:54:10 PM
Of course I've read it before, long ago.
[asin]0450054799[/asin]
Stephen King's NIGHT SHIFT
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on November 07, 2014, 02:27:55 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 04, 2014, 05:20:29 AM
I did. Holmes is one my family names ...  ???
Alright then. I'll see how it grabs me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on November 10, 2014, 07:06:16 AM
I finished Zola's La Débâcle (The Debacle). I still have the 20th and last novel of the Rougon-Macquart series to read (Le docteur Pascal) and I can only heartily recommend it (except La Débâcle was my least favourite).

Also, I read Dora Bruder again, by recent Nobel prize recepient Patrick Modiano. Probably one of his best books, not exactly fiction, not really nonfiction, typical Modiano. Good book, short, not a masterpiece though. You don't read Modiano if you're looking for a masterpiece...

Currently around one third into Vasily Grossman's For a Just Cause (Pour une juste cause in French), which is volume 1 of Life and Fate I have already read a few years ago. This first half hadn't been translated back then. I never really understood why Life and Fate was widely read as a single book. Well yes, I understand, For a Just Cause is a lot less anti-stalinian, but still, it is the beginning of the story... I think it still hasn't been translated into English, by the way...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on November 10, 2014, 04:35:00 PM
Terry Teachout's comments of a biography of pianist Harriet Cohen http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/2014/11/laugh-and-you-laugh-alone.html
got me to find a cheap copy and order it.   She was the mistress of Arnold Bax (and others), unaware of his other mistress, hoped to make the affair permanent but Bax's wife was a Catholic and wouldn't agree to a divorce.  Sounds like the sort of book usually read under the hair dryers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 13, 2014, 04:11:48 PM
I finished Jan Swafford's Johannes Brahms: A Biography, which was a very enjoyable book and enhanced my discovery of Brahms' music. I also have his book on Beethoven, but I think I'm going to read some non-fiction for a change before getting into another biography, which is 1000 pages at that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 16, 2014, 01:37:37 PM
Reading these on the side in no particular order, but enjoying them.  I am also reading them out loud to my 12 year old daughter at the dinner table.  She tends to eat slowly and these are not helping her with leaving the table as she always asks for another story from them.

(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398263111l/22002990.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 16, 2014, 02:50:01 PM
As for my straight through read:

(http://www.dandwiki.com/w/images/4/47/The_Crystal_Shard_PB_1988.jpg)

I believe I posted this on a thread somewhere and it got a favorable nod, but I left it on my nightstand collecting dust.  Just a few chapters in and already hooked.

Here it be:

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,13790.msg811974/topicseen.html#msg811974
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on November 17, 2014, 12:23:12 AM
Only Salvatore book I've read is attack of the clones. Much better than the movie, goes without saying. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Linus on November 17, 2014, 01:13:48 PM
Atonement by Ian McEwan

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/Atonement_(novel).jpg)

So, I looked up some "Best novels of the 2000s" lists, started reading a few, but put them down soon enough, pretty disappointed. But then I picked this one up.

I've never read McEwan before. I'm a few chapters in and already feel this might be a future favourite book, if not a favourite author of mine. I'm thinking McEwan might be God, at least his omniscient side -- he seems to know everything about everyone's minds. (It's almost embarrassing to read, undressing us like that. :P)

I fear this book will end up a huge disappointment as well, but there's always hope, right? ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 17, 2014, 01:16:29 PM
I love Atonement and think it a very good novel, but one way or another you WILL have strong feelings about the end. Because the end is something unique.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on November 17, 2014, 05:35:15 PM
I've yet to read Atonement, but McEwan's Saturday was really good and really well-written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 17, 2014, 11:29:14 PM
Brian, I'm tackling my first Agatha Christie as well. :D
(The Murder of Roger Ackroyd)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 17, 2014, 11:57:33 PM
It will be a disappointment, I am afraid. The first part of "Atonement" is one of the best things I ever read. It is incredibly well done as far as atmosphere, psychology, tension and the viewpoint of the young girl narrator are concerned. The second part is decent, the third and therefore more or less the "clou" of the whole thing terrible, IMO. I think he should have made it a short novel consisting only of the first part.
I have not read anything else by this author neither have I seen the movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on November 18, 2014, 05:38:32 AM
Quote from: North Star on November 17, 2014, 11:29:14 PM
Brian, I'm tackling my first Marple as well. :D
(The Murder of Roger Ackroyd)
That is a Poirot.
The plot twist was apparently groundbreaking in its day,  but probably less impressive now.   I think the Christie that I liked most was Ten Little Indians but overall I did prefer the Marples to the Poirots.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 18, 2014, 06:09:38 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on November 18, 2014, 05:38:32 AM
That is a Poirot.
The plot twist was apparently groundbreaking in its day,  but probably less impressive now.   I think the Christie that I liked most was Ten Little Indians but overall I did prefer the Marples to the Poirots.

Thanks for reminding me of the 1945 And Then There Were None . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 18, 2014, 06:18:28 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on November 18, 2014, 05:38:32 AM
That is a Poirot.
The plot twist was apparently groundbreaking in its day,  but probably less impressive now.   I think the Christie that I liked most was Ten Little Indians but overall I did prefer the Marples to the Poirots.
Yes, I don't know how I managed to mix Christie & Marple in my mind.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 18, 2014, 07:08:34 AM
Quote from: North Star on November 17, 2014, 11:29:14 PM
Brian, I'm tackling my first Agatha Christie as well. :D
(The Murder of Roger Ackroyd)
When I taught a class on murder mysteries, that was one of the books I had my students read! The plot twist is still amazing today, but my students all objected over a giant plot hole which rendered it invalid. Unfortunately...I can't remember what the giant plot hole was. Maybe you will notice it and let me know? :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 18, 2014, 07:10:12 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 18, 2014, 07:08:34 AM
When I taught a class on murder mysteries, that was one of the books I had my students read! The plot twist is still amazing today, but my students all objected over a giant plot hole which rendered it invalid. Unfortunately...I can't remember what the giant plot hole was. Maybe you will notice it and let me know? :)
I sure will, if I will ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 18, 2014, 07:10:28 AM
Quote from: North Star on November 18, 2014, 06:18:28 AM
Yes, I don't know how I managed to mix Christie & Marple in my mind.  ::)
Gives me an idea for a book. We find a Finn murdered in Foglo, the motive obscure, and everyone baffled -- until a cross-dressing Belgian detective Marpot arrives and deduces that a crazed Agatha Christie fan killed him for defaming The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 18, 2014, 10:55:04 AM
Governor Christie?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Phrygian on November 20, 2014, 11:08:09 AM
I'm currently reading two books in tandem, the first one of which is proving alarming:

"Democracy in Decline:  Steps in the Wrong Direction", James Allan (Garrick Professor of Law at the University of Queensland, Australia)

"In Defence of Freedom", Chris Berg

I've emailed Professor Allan about his book and he's been very generous in discussing further aspects of the issue.   

The book was published in Canada and its main concerns are about declining democracy in the USA, GB, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on November 28, 2014, 12:55:05 PM
KLOP by Peter Day
a biography of Klop Ustinov, Peter U's father and his activities in international spying and  counter-spying mainly in WWII.   
There seems to be a half-dozen new characters introduced every other page but the books is so well written that they don't get confused and there is a 14-page cast of characters for reference if you need it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Klop-Britains-Most-Ingenious-Spy/dp/1849546932/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417211157&sr=1-1&keywords=klop
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Linus on November 29, 2014, 06:32:26 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 17, 2014, 11:57:33 PM
It will be a disappointment, I am afraid. The first part of "Atonement" is one of the best things I ever read. It is incredibly well done as far as atmosphere, psychology, tension and the viewpoint of the young girl narrator are concerned. The second part is decent, the third and therefore more or less the "clou" of the whole thing terrible, IMO. I think he should have made it a short novel consisting only of the first part.
I have not read anything else by this author neither have I seen the movie.

I've finished it and feel that, overall, it's a good novel.

The first part is still the best part, even if it was weaker towards the end. By then, I had lost interest in the characters (not a good sign) and the second part did little to redeem that. By the end of the second part, however, it got more interesting again, and the beginning of the third part is excellent in my opinion. While the second part didn't seem to connect well with what happened before (or perhaps I'm just slow on the uptake), I think the third part's hospital scene metaphors were emotionally quote "accurate" and horribly effective. Strong stuff.

As a whole, I think this novel would have worked so much better if the "epilogue" wasn't so short, so instead of an epilogue we'd have a proper fourth part. I suppose McEwan thought it more effective or provocative to admit only a few pages of justification, but I personally needed something more well-reasoned, an outlet for analysis, like a part of the book where its whole philosophy is explored intellectually.

Anyhow, it was definitely worth the read. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 29, 2014, 11:38:37 PM
Some light holiday reading.  This one has been on my to-read pile for years

[asin]0345321383[/asin]

I didn't realize that there were more stories, and they've been gathered together here:

[asin]B005ISOYLK[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on November 30, 2014, 12:08:44 PM
Quote from: Daverz on November 29, 2014, 11:38:37 PM
Some light holiday reading.  This one has been on my to-read pile for years

[asin]0345321383[/asin]

I didn't realize that there were more stories, and they've been gathered together here:

[asin]B005ISOYLK[/asin]

Oh yes....I have had all three individual paperbacks.
The first is the lightest and most inventive in its use of Chinese lore, but the third, which is darker and runs much deeper emotionally, is IMO the best.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on November 30, 2014, 03:50:14 PM
Circus of Dr. Lao and Other Improbable Stories
:)[asin]B000HY7AX4[/asin]
A paperback from 1956.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on December 01, 2014, 04:27:21 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zXGdw7YIL.jpg)

Rubbish. Whoever created pulpy trash delight that is True Blood out of this dross is a genius.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: mn dave on December 01, 2014, 12:04:58 PM
Quote from: Drasko on December 01, 2014, 04:27:21 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zXGdw7YIL.jpg)

Rubbish. Whoever created pulpy trash delight that is True Blood out of this dross is a genius.

My wife loves those.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 02, 2014, 06:09:45 PM
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFg5MDA=/z/qr4AAOSwiCRUfilb/$_57.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 03, 2014, 07:32:02 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 02, 2014, 06:09:45 PM
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFg5MDA=/z/qr4AAOSwiCRUfilb/$_57.JPG)

Awesome book, going to re-read it one of these days. And if you're into Stevenson and haven't checked it out yet, I strongly recommend Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 03, 2014, 10:49:58 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 02, 2014, 06:09:45 PM
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFg5MDA=/z/qr4AAOSwiCRUfilb/$_57.JPG)
I read that when I was about 35. I liked it a lot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 03, 2014, 07:35:15 PM
Quote from: Alberich on December 03, 2014, 07:32:02 AM
Awesome book, going to re-read it one of these days. And if you're into Stevenson and haven't checked it out yet, I strongly recommend Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

We'll do.  I will let you and Ken know what I think.  I have two editions.  The paperback you see I have at home and the one I am mainly reading from.  I have an annotated copy at work.  In the morning when I have a cup of coffee,I look over the annotations that go with the reading from the night before.  Kind of cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on December 05, 2014, 03:28:14 PM
Quote from: Brian on November 18, 2014, 07:08:34 AMWhen I taught a class on murder mysteries, that was one of the books I had my students read! The plot twist is still amazing today, but my students all objected over a giant plot hole which rendered it invalid. Unfortunately...I can't remember what the giant plot hole was. Maybe you will notice it and let me know? :)
I'm not sure, maybe it has to do with a postmortem.. I am very familiar with the Suchet adaptations, so the plot twist wasn't a surprise, although obviously it's more potent in the novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 06, 2014, 11:25:11 AM
I finished Gert Hofmann's Lichtenberg and the Little Flower Girl and Patrick Modiano's Suspended Sentences and enjoyed both of them.

Hofmann's book is a very touching, sometimes funny love story between and old professor and a young girl. Modiano reminded me of Bolano. There's a feeling of dark mystery to his stories, but, unlike with Bolano, they end up more prosaic are true to real life. Having read these books I would definitely like to read some more of these authors' works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fagotterdämmerung on December 07, 2014, 11:45:10 AM
 
  Just finished Annie Ernaux's A Simple Passion. A light novella, but there is a certain earnestness given to a subject often addressed in a coy, cutesy way, or, on the other hand, given an overly graphic and exploitive treatment. This one finds just the right way in between.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on December 07, 2014, 11:52:18 AM
Dubliners.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 07, 2014, 12:31:38 PM
Quote from: North Star on December 07, 2014, 11:52:18 AM
Dubliners.
Easily his best book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 07, 2014, 01:06:10 PM
(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328764487l/7720773.jpg)



Climate of Uncertainty, by William Stewart.  Mr Stewart is an environmental lawyer, and his short tome – just 159 text pages – is written in a lawyerly way, with precise use of language, especially adjectives, and a tidal wave of evidence, most effectively in the first part of the book, which deals with the evidence of global warming while handling arguments used by skeptics and deniers deftly.  He dismisses denier arguments, and concedes that some skeptical arguments have merit, but one of his main arguments is that environmental policy must be viewed as risk management*, so that absolute proof is not needed to act.  His book is also intellectually honest, and, with more lawyerly precision, he address the facts that both "sides" (his quotes) in the debate are engaged in what amounts to a propaganda war – and yes, he includes incriminating quotes from oil men and Al Gore, among others, and yes, he uses the word propaganda; that mitigation policies will require the largest transfer of wealth in history from wealthy countries to developing countries; and that implementation of coercive policies will be needed to make international agreements work, thereby weakening national sovereignty.  He also points out why the far superior carbon tax has and will continue to lose out to inferior cap and trade schemes when formulating emission control policies – people get too emotional about the word "tax".

The second half of the book, which deals with specific policies, is not as good.  While still fact-rich and grounded in practical political reality, it is no match for Daniel Yergin's masterly The Quest, and the fact that this was written in 2009 and published in 2010 means that some of the information is stale, such as the emphasis given to comparatively imminent "peak oil".  (Oops.)  There are also unfortunately some factual errors: the Byrd-Hagel Amendment is reported to have passed in 2007, though it was accurately covered earlier in the book, and Russia is said to have joined the World Trade Association, for instance.  Seeing such obvious errors always makes me wonder what lesser errors may have been made.  These caveats aside, this is an excellent book, with tons of citations, and it is a really fast read.





* Why more prominent environmental types haven't adopted this approach is something of a mystery.  When I see global warming presented as risk management, I can't help but think of the opportunities for new insurance products, bond issues, expanding secondary markets for these products, and other eye-wateringly profitable undertakings.  Greed is good, folks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 07, 2014, 03:23:48 PM
(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780393051582_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)

O read this about every two years....sometimes push it to three.  However, Linda snagged this one for me and there seems to be more annotation than text along with a meaty introduction.  So far I am enjoying it, but just hard to decide when to stop and read the annotations.  Not recommended for first time readers of this story, but for those who have enjoyed "as is", grab this.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Annotated-Christmas-Carol-Prose/dp/0393051587
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 08, 2014, 04:25:36 AM
Quote from: Bogey on December 07, 2014, 03:23:48 PM
(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780393051582_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)

O read this about every two years....sometimes push it to three.  However, Linda snagged this one for me and there seems to be more annotation than text along with a meaty introduction.  So far I am enjoying it, but just hard to decide when to stop and read the annotations.  Not recommended for first time readers of this story, but for those who have enjoyed "as is", grab this.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Annotated-Christmas-Carol-Prose/dp/0393051587

Yes, it's on our shelf!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on December 08, 2014, 09:30:40 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 08, 2014, 04:25:36 AM
Yes, it's on our shelf!

Mine also!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on December 09, 2014, 05:37:44 PM
Currently reading:
James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain
Robert Bly's The Letters of Robert Bly and Tomas Transtromer
T.S. Eliot's Collected Poems 1909-1962
Richard Wright's Lawd Today!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on December 09, 2014, 11:27:15 PM
Just got this early Christmas present for myself in the mail (from Book Depository's Amazon UK mp site), and spent an hour skimming Szarkowski's intro and glancing through each plate. Good stuff.  8)
[asin]0821221345[/asin]

Other titles recently-ish gotten from the actual Book Depository:
Yeats: Collected Poems (Vintage)
Auden: Selected Poems (Vintage)
Robert Frost's Poems (St. Martin's Paperbacks)
Orwell: Nineteen-Eightyfour (Penguin)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on December 10, 2014, 04:06:07 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/A1xu1qL3cVL.jpg)

I've had it on shelf for years but kept avoiding it, not knowing just how much of its immersion in specifics of Italian pop-culture would fly over my head, that and the fact that Baudolino bored me to tears. Finally decided to give it a go anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 10, 2014, 12:12:07 PM
Quote from: Drasko on December 10, 2014, 04:06:07 AM
Baudolino bored me to tears.
I'm convinced "Umberto Eco" is actually an MBA marketing and brand management class experiment. Simplest explanation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on December 10, 2014, 03:15:21 PM
I remember Name of the Rose as both boring and enthralling all at once, a singular feat.  The next Eco I read--at this length of time I do not remember which one--struck me as boring and pompous....a sort of snobbish DaVinci Code.  Have not attempted him since.
Thread duty
(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781556591952_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)
Part of an effort to reconnect with Chinese poetry.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on December 10, 2014, 03:35:39 PM
I quite liked The Name of the Rose. But I started and can't seem to finish (I will, but it will be painful) The Prague Cemetery, fitting exactly the "boring and pompous" description.

Currently reading The copper garden, after Marc's recommendation here (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,23695.msg842553.html#msg842553) (and also continuing to read Grossman's For a just cause at the same time). Maybe it is because of the translation, but I don't really find Vestdijk's prose an easy read. But it is certainly interesting, I'll comment it further in response to Marc.
I'm reading it in French but there is also an English translation.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71xhdjrUnbL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DKEKP15NL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on December 10, 2014, 03:43:28 PM
Currently reading Auden's poetry.

Epitaph on a Tyrant

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

(Jan '39)


Quote from: J. H. Motley (1814-77) (Rise of the Dutch Republic, about William the Silent)When he died the little children died in the sreets
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 11, 2014, 01:30:00 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on December 10, 2014, 03:15:21 PM
I remember Name of the Rose as both boring and enthralling all at once, a singular feat.  The next Eco I read--at this length of time I do not remember which one--struck me as boring and pompous....a sort of snobbish DaVinci Code. 

That must have been Foucault´s Pendulum and I must be the paradigmatic snob, having read it 3 times.  ;D

Seriously now, comparing Eco to Dan Brown is like comparing Sting to Justin Bieber...  :D

All Eco novels I read I found to be page-turners from start till end. (Name of the Rose, Foucault´s Pendulum, Baudolino, The Island of Yesterday).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on December 11, 2014, 01:35:28 AM
I really like the bits Amazon has spotlighted from the reviews here :P
(and no, I am not currently reading this, nor have I bought it.)
[asin]032109333X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on December 11, 2014, 06:01:09 AM
I seem to have started a bit of an Eco bash, unintentionally. The Name of the Rose is actually one of my favorite novels, and I enjoyed both Foucault's Pendulum and The Island Of the Day Before immensely. My only disappointment was Baudolino which I found really flat, with little spark in ether ideas or characters and a lot of tedium in unfolding of the story. It felt like the author was far more interested in the way he is telling than in what he is telling (which I presume works much better in original language). Loana doesn't look too promising at first 30 pages but I'll persevere.

also:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C0YC8ER2L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on December 11, 2014, 08:50:29 AM
I like The Name of the Rose a lot as a teenager (probably read it twice, but it's been ages), slogged dutifully through the Pendulum which I found boring and of course I didn't know anything about postmodernism it might have been a satire about. I might have started the one with the shipwrecked person but I certainly didn't finish it and have since ignored the author...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jochanaan on December 11, 2014, 09:02:52 AM
Dan Brown: Inferno.  Another in the Robert Langdon crypto-thriller series. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 11, 2014, 09:03:29 AM
Quote from: Drasko on December 11, 2014, 06:01:09 AM
I seem to have started a bit of an Eco bash, unintentionally. The Name of the Rose is actually one of my favorite novels, and I enjoyed both Foucault's Pendulum and The Island Of the Day Before immensely. My only disappointment was Baudolino which I found really flat, with little spark in ether ideas or characters and a lot of tedium in unfolding of the story. It felt like the author was far more interested in the way he is telling than in what he is telling (which I presume works much better in original language). Loana doesn't look too promising at first 30 pages but I'll persevere.

I've not read any Eco yet . . . I think I'll give that Island a try.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 11, 2014, 09:58:57 AM
. . . that the collective term for wild cats is a destruction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on December 11, 2014, 11:33:52 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 11, 2014, 09:58:57 AM
. . . that the collective term for wild cats is a destruction.
Post more details in the thread "From which source are you currently reading?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on December 11, 2014, 01:23:12 PM
Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 12, 2014, 11:21:42 AM
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on December 11, 2014, 01:23:12 PM
Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg.

Italian or English translation? or the original Mittelhochdeutsch text?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 12, 2014, 11:41:14 AM
Re: Umberto Eco

I think that in appreciating his novels an interest (at all levels) in the historical period his novels are set in is very helpful.

Personally, I have a keen interest in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque, not only musically, but also literary, scientifically, philosophically and theologically --- hence my immensely enjoying his novels dealing with precisely those historical periods, and possibly my lack of interest in his more "modern" novels, such as Moana-whatever and The Prague-Cemetery-Whatever.

Now, of course this is not a sufficient criterion by itself. For instance, there are two Orhan Pamuk´s novels set in historical eras roughly corresponding to Renaissaance and Baroque, yet one of them (My Name Is Red) I reluctantly finished, lingering the reading over almost a whole year, and the other one (The White Fortress) I never made it past the introductory chapters. Boredom, thy name is Pamuk! (But then again, his other novel "Snow" --- set in modern Turkey --- was a captivating page-turner).






Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 12, 2014, 11:44:12 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 12, 2014, 11:41:14 AM
Re: Umberto Eco

I think that in appreciating his novels an interest (at all levels) in the historical period his novels are set in is very helpful.
Whiskey helps too.

>:D :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 12, 2014, 12:04:22 PM
Quote from: Ken B on December 12, 2014, 11:44:12 AM
Whiskey helps too.

>:D :laugh:

Whiskey helps pretty much any situation a man can find himself stuck in... with obvious exceptions, of course.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on December 12, 2014, 12:44:17 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 12, 2014, 11:21:42 AM
Italian or English translation? or the original Mittelhochdeutsch text?  :D

Well, Italian translation; but I would really like to try to read Gottfried's romance in its original Middle High German text.  ;) I read the English translation of Wolfram's Parzival.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kaergaard on December 13, 2014, 09:13:58 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 11, 2014, 09:03:29 AM
I've not read any Eco yet . . . I think I'll give that Island a try.

Karl, please do give it a try. I never knew Eco has a sense of humour but he shows it in this book.
Lis
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cosi bel do on December 13, 2014, 12:52:03 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 12, 2014, 11:41:14 AM
Re: Umberto Eco

I think that in appreciating his novels an interest (at all levels) in the historical period his novels are set in is very helpful.

Personally, I have a keen interest in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque, not only musically, but also literary, scientifically, philosophically and theologically --- hence my immensely enjoying his novels dealing with precisely those historical periods, and possibly my lack of interest in his more "modern" novels, such as Moana-whatever and The Prague-Cemetery-Whatever.

Now, of course this is not a sufficient criterion by itself. For instance, there are two Orhan Pamuk´s novels set in historical eras roughly corresponding to Renaissaance and Baroque, yet one of them (My Name Is Red) I reluctantly finished, lingering the reading over almost a whole year, and the other one (The White Fortress) I never made it past the introductory chapters. Boredom, thy name is Pamuk! (But then again, his other novel "Snow" --- set in modern Turkey --- was a captivating page-turner).

I don't agree with you on Pamuk. I loved My Name is Red, and found The Black Book (set in contemporary Istanbul) a little less gripping (but still a good book). I still have to read Snow, though, but I wouldn't say his historical novels are less interesting than contemporary ones.
And I'm also very keen on the periods you name ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 14, 2014, 10:01:03 PM
Quote from: Discobolus on December 13, 2014, 12:52:03 PM
I don't agree with you on Pamuk. I loved My Name is Red, and found The Black Book (set in contemporary Istanbul) a little less gripping (but still a good book).

Oh yes, how could I forget The Black Book? It bored me just as much as My Name Is Red, although it has some redeeming qualities in Galip´s newspaper articles, which are quite poetic. As a whole, though, it´s way too long and prolix. Seems like once Pamuk begins to put pen to paper, he is unable to stop. ;D

Quote
I still have to read Snow, though, but I wouldn't say his historical novels are less interesting than contemporary ones.

That´s the only Pamuk I liked. I might try again The White Fortress, at least it´s short.  :D

Quote
And I'm also very keen on the periods you name ;)

Very good!  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on December 18, 2014, 04:57:08 AM
Schopenhauer - About philosophy
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 19, 2014, 05:52:08 PM
"All you need is a bit of cold water in your left ear!"

This is the most remarkable thing you will read today.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/20/the_apologist_and_the_revolutionary/ (http://lesswrong.com/lw/20/the_apologist_and_the_revolutionary/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on December 20, 2014, 06:20:37 AM
Investigating this free online magazine. http://epicmagazine.com/ (http://epicmagazine.com/)

"AS FUN AS FICTION,
BUT FULL OF FACTS.

You know that feeling you get when a good true-life tale grabs you right from the start? You can't stop turning the page — because you realize incredible things happen to real people — and it's hard to believe that what you're reading is non-fiction. That is the kind of story we like to tell.

Epic writers travel the world searching for encounters with the unknown. Wartime romance, unlikely savants, deranged detectives, gentlemen thieves, and love struck killers: stories that tap into the thrill of being alive."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 20, 2014, 10:11:37 AM
Some Tim Minchin. He has recorded some of his stuff too. Here he reads a dandy little poem, which will offend many.

http://youtu.be/HhGuXCuDb1U
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 21, 2014, 11:25:30 AM
I usually re-read the chapter on embracing "downward mobility" around this time each year. 

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Uum%2BlNBkL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on December 25, 2014, 03:59:32 PM
Just getting around to a book that I planned on reading back in August:

(http://michaelmjones.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/extremes.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on December 25, 2014, 10:02:57 PM
Nothing, absolutely nothing. Just too much internet nonsense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 26, 2014, 09:11:32 AM
Quote from: -abe- on December 25, 2014, 10:02:57 PM
Nothing, absolutely nothing. Just too much internet nonsense.

Me too last month or so.  :(
need to get back to reading actual books.

I always have at least 5 books on the go. Two being neglected this month are a novel of ancient Rome, The Art of War by M Scott; and a book on Bayesianism by Howson. I got book store gift certificates too, so I can buy more books to not read.  :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 26, 2014, 09:55:53 AM
Rereading Tawastjerna's 5-part Sibelius biography. Currently on part II, which includes years 1893-1903, starting from Karelia suite and ending with violin concerto. Excellent analysis certainly, although I still think he's bit too hard on Sibelius's skills (or lack of) of writing compelling choir works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 26, 2014, 11:34:47 AM
(http://www.edituraparalela45.ro/imagini/coperti/medii/nuvele_exemplare_Cervantes_coperta1.jpg)

Cervantes - Exemplary Novels
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 26, 2014, 12:21:14 PM
Speaking of Cervantes, never read Don Quijote (nor exemplary novels) but the tone poem by Strauss is certainly splendid. Listened to it an hour ago 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 26, 2014, 12:30:13 PM
.
[asin]B00C8S9XC8[/asin]



So Far From God, by John SD Eisenhower, covering the Mexican-American War.  If a country is going to engage in an aggressive war of territorial expansion, US policy and actions during this war show how it's done.  Eisenhower's one-sided, and understandably very military oriented history of the war goes into more than a fair amount of detail of the campaigns, includes quick but informative and comparatively apolitical analysis of the US politics involved, and even includes some dry wit.  Having already read Eisenhower's excellent bio on Winfield Scott, and Walter Borneman's bio on James K Polk, the big draw of this book for me was to learn more about Zachary Taylor's conduct of the first part of this wicked war, to borrow General Grant's phrase, and Eisenhower does not disappoint.  Given the significance of this war - it has the highest casualty rate of any US war, added an immense amount of territory to the country, and ended up serving as practical training for Grant, Lee, Meade, and Bragg, among other Civil War officers - it is something of a shame that more isn't written about it.  Must be the dubious nature of how the war started.  I may yet have to read Robert Merry's A Country of Vast Designs to get a bigger picture treatment.


(The title is taken from a quote attributed to Mexican general and president Pofirio Diaz, who supposedly said "Poor Mexico!  So far from God and so close to the United States.")
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on December 27, 2014, 10:25:30 AM
(http://s12.postimg.org/zbvbp5ux9/TESKO_JE_NACI_DOBROG_COVEKA_Fleneri_O_Konor_slik.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 27, 2014, 10:28:29 AM
The Rise of the Warrior Cop
Radley Balko

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 28, 2014, 08:47:30 AM
The process of secularization with its vacuums of horror and the appearance of pseudo-religions (which are not genuine because they imply the passionate denial of any transcendent force, and the self-deification of man) makes politics the real center of all thoughts and activities and the uni­versal point of reference. The dislodging of reli­gion means the complete "politicalization" of exist­ence. The self-deification of man takes the form of the deification of the society, which now becomes the real idol of men. Here is one of the origins of that mentality which may be found among many liberals and is one of the greatest curses of our times; the social obsession which makes men un­able to judge anyone or anything without reference to society. It is this social obsession which, by exaggerating a respectable feeling to the point of absurdity, deprives people of all pleasures because they are haunted by the idea that some people are unable to eat oysters or whipped cream and to live in comfortable houses. It casts suspicion on any ac­tivity which, like the study of Sanskrit, has no im­mediate "social" value. By the way, it is a note­worthy fact that, through a significant arbitrari­ness, this obsessive sense of social solidarity usually pertains only to co-nationals; which is one more proof of the fact that collectivist ideas are power­ful forces for what may be called the nationaliza­tion of man. (http://bradbirzer.com/2014/12/21/the-malady-of-progressivism-1951-by-wilhelm-roepke/)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 01, 2015, 06:07:04 AM
Just set a goal for reading 20 books this year over on the Goodreads site.  You in Karl, Dave (Sonic), MNDave and others?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 01, 2015, 10:14:32 AM
Very instructive parallel readings.

Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France

James Mackintosh - Vindiciae Gallicae

Thomas Paine - Rights of Man

Why Burke is hailed by some avowed liberals as an intellectual hero is beyond my power of comprehension. A liberal of sorts he certainly was, for he generally professed liberal opinions and defended liberal causes (with one major exception which form the substance of the three books, namely the French Revolution), but that a principled and rational liberal agenda can be founded upon his ideas is a dellusion, firstly because for principles and reason he had nothing but utter contempt and secondly, because his ideas can justify both the most opressive and the most liberal regime, his only condition for its legitimacy being for how long it has been in existence.

As for the French Revolution, he made a few strong cases in particular points (and even in these, he rather happened to be right, than was right in principle) but, overall and in the greater picture, Paine and Mackintosh were in the right and refuted his errors , misunderstandings or plain bad will the more brilliantly as they indeed proceeded from a principled and well reasoned out liberalism.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 01, 2015, 10:24:59 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 01, 2015, 06:07:04 AM
Just set a goal for reading 20 books this year over on the Goodreads site.  You in Karl, Dave (Sonic), MNDave and others?
My goodreads score for the past year is 39 books with 10650 pages, which is very close to my average for yearly reading of about 40 books. Last year I did read more longer books and I think I may spend more time reading than listening to music overall, because it is easier to find time for reading that for music for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on January 01, 2015, 10:33:52 AM
"Mot fedrenes fjell". A substantial David Monrad Johansen (Norwegian composer) biography.

(https://www.tanum.no/sek-asset/products/9788230010709.jpg?w=960)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 01, 2015, 11:45:28 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 01, 2015, 10:14:32 AM
Very instructive parallel readings.

Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France

James Mackintosh - Vindiciae Gallicae

Thomas Paine - Rights of Man

Why Burke is hailed by some avowed liberals as an intellectual hero is beyond my power of comprehension. A liberal of sorts he certainly was, for he generally professed liberal opinions and defended liberal causes (with one major exception which form the substance of the three books, namely the French Revolution), but that a principled and rational liberal agenda can be founded upon his ideas is a dellusion, firstly because for principles and reason he had nothing but utter contempt and secondly, because his ideas can justify both the most opressive and the most liberal regime, his only condition for its legitimacy being for how long it has been in existence.

As for the French Revolution, he made a few strong cases in particular points (and even in these, he rather happened to be right, than was right in principle) but, overall and in the greater picture, Paine and Mackintosh were in the right and refuted his errors , misunderstandings or plain bad will the more brilliantly as they indeed proceeded from a principled and well reasoned out liberalism.

We can still be friends.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 01, 2015, 12:33:26 PM
Quote from: Ken B on January 01, 2015, 11:45:28 AM
We can still be friends.

Oooopsss! I´d have never guessed you were a Burkean.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 02, 2015, 06:35:52 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 01, 2015, 06:07:04 AM
Just set a goal for reading 20 books this year over on the Goodreads site.  You in Karl, Dave (Sonic), MNDave and others?

It will mean being a bit more diligent about plugging in at Goodreads, but I shall try!

(And I hope re-reads will count  8) )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on January 02, 2015, 11:45:41 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 01, 2015, 06:07:04 AM
Just set a goal for reading 20 books this year over on the Goodreads site.  You in Karl, Dave (Sonic), MNDave and others?

I am. Set mine for 52, just like 2014.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 02, 2015, 01:11:48 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 02, 2015, 06:35:52 AM
It will mean being a bit more diligent about plugging in at Goodreads, but I shall try!

(And I hope re-reads will count  8) )

Absolutely.  Let's try to tap one an other on the shoulder over there, folks. 
Title: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 02, 2015, 02:43:39 PM
Excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on January 03, 2015, 03:35:07 PM
This one:

Frans de Waal: The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society

[asin]B002PYFW8Y[/asin]

... but the paper Spanish translation:

(http://image.casadellibro.com/a/l/t0/06/9788483833506.jpg)

This book discusses the vision of a primatologist about which are/ should be the real foundations of our society, facing the classic debate freedom v/s social collaboration, and using knowledge from his own professional field to discuss it.

Intriguingly, the last two or three years I became to be aware that I frequently derive more pleasure and stimulation from people formed in different intellectual traditions and/or with different political views than reading people of 'my own side'.

As when I did read "Misquoting Jesus" which I found encouraging as a Catholic. I mean if that it's all what Mr. Ehrman has against our "foundational myth", c'mon!...  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 03, 2015, 04:12:15 PM
Quote from: Gordo on January 03, 2015, 03:35:07 PM
This one:

Frans de Waal: The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society

[asin]B002PYFW8Y[/asin]

... but the paper Spanish translation:

(http://image.casadellibro.com/a/l/t0/06/9788483833506.jpg)

This book discusses the vision of a primatologist about which are/ should be the real foundations of our society, facing the classic debate freedom v/s social collaboration, and using knowledge from his own professional field to discuss it.

Intriguingly, the last two or three years I became to be aware that I frequently derive more pleasure and stimulation from people formed in different intellectual traditions and/or with different political views than reading people of 'my own side'.

As when I did read "Misquoting Jesus" which I found encouraging as a Catholic. I mean if that it's all what Mr. Ehrman has against our "foundational myth", c'mon!...  :D
Read Apocalyptic Prophet. It's Ehrman's best book.

If you want a book that will shake your faith and turn you atheist, might I suggest the bible?  >:D :laugh:

TD
Five Days in Philadelphia, C Peters
About Wendell Wilkie winning the republican nomination in 1940, and the turn against isolationism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on January 04, 2015, 08:58:33 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 03, 2015, 04:12:15 PM
Read Apocalyptic Prophet. It's Ehrman's best book.

If you want a book that will shake your faith and turn you atheist, might I suggest the bible?  >:D :laugh:

Well, generation after generation, myriads of human beings have thought something different; but I guess not all is about statistics, isn't it?  :)

About Ehrman: three weeks ago I bought Lost Christianities (Spanish translation), but I haven't started it yet. After this one I have other two Ehrman's books in my list: Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene. The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend and your recommendation Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on January 05, 2015, 07:01:35 AM
Volume 1:

(http://www.catscradlebks.net/pictures/1630073.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on January 05, 2015, 08:08:57 AM
Started this late in 2014, but didn't want to rush to finish it.

[asin]B00GWLQBUY[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 05, 2015, 08:35:31 AM
Quote from: Philo on January 05, 2015, 07:01:35 AM
(http://www.catscradlebks.net/pictures/1630073.jpg)

I love the design of that box, local edition that I have is seven separate hardcovers in some rather unfortunate shade of purple.


[asin]0520203089[/asin]
Hope to finish both volumes by the end of the year.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on January 05, 2015, 10:50:08 AM
Quote from: Drasko on January 05, 2015, 08:35:31 AM
I love the design of that box, local edition that I have is seven separate hardcovers in some rather unfortunate shade of purple.

[asin]0520203089[/asin]
Hope to finish both volumes by the end of the year.

It is very sleek. We'll see how far I make it through. I'm only a 100 or so pages in right now.

That's one of those books that is also on my list to read. I did utilize some of his theories for my graduate work though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 05, 2015, 04:26:45 PM
Quote from: Philo on January 05, 2015, 07:01:35 AM
Volume 1:

(http://www.catscradlebks.net/pictures/1630073.jpg)
This is a wonderful book.

Several years ago it was published in Russian in this beautiful edition with impressionistic covers.

(http://i.livelib.ru/boocover/1000118352/l/013e/Marsel_Prust__Po_napravleniyu_k_Svanu.jpg)(http://i.livelib.ru/boocover/1000119935/l/013e/Marsel_Prust__U_Germantov.jpg)(http://mirknig.com/uploads/posts/2008-11/1181151414_c1042dff7629.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on January 10, 2015, 12:48:07 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Shadows
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 10, 2015, 04:10:38 PM
Recently finished the Overwhelmed book, which I thought I would relate to but it turned out some people are way to hard on themselves. Wouldn't recommend it.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rO%2BMUHbJL.jpg)

Also finally found the time to look through Ronis' book of photographs, which are quite nice.
(http://www.ljplus.ru/img4/t/a/tarti/w11.jpg)

This is one of my favorite photos by Ronis, but, unfortunately, it wasn't in the book that I bought.

(http://le75020.fr/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/RH097328.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on January 11, 2015, 03:39:21 AM
Very Good, Jeeves

I also picked this up from Book Depository's January sale.

(http://wodehouse.ru/cover/e/32-23.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on January 11, 2015, 03:43:44 AM
Quote from: Artem on January 10, 2015, 04:10:38 PM
This is one of my favorite photos by Ronis, but, unfortunately, it wasn't in the book that I bought.

(http://le75020.fr/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/RH097328.jpg)

Where is this? I guess Prague?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 11, 2015, 06:05:21 AM
Part 3 of Tawastjerna's sibelius biography, years 1904-1914. The birth process of Fourth symphony is given 2 chapters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on January 11, 2015, 06:40:49 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 11, 2015, 03:43:44 AM
Where is this? I guess Prague?

Paris.


[asin]2842300815[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on January 11, 2015, 07:30:10 AM
Quote from: Artem on January 10, 2015, 04:10:38 PM
Recently finished the Overwhelmed book, which I thought I would relate to but it turned out some people are way to hard on themselves. Wouldn't recommend it.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rO%2BMUHbJL.jpg)


It seemed interesting.  :(

Currently, I'm finishing The Age of Empathy (a good book, though I don't believe its central thesis) and started with this, I think quite related to Overwhelmed:     

[asin]B00G3L6KOA[/asin]

Digital version (ePub) bought on the Appstore.  :)

I have just read the introduction, but looks promising.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 11, 2015, 08:30:10 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 11, 2015, 03:39:21 AM
I also picked this up from Book Depository's January sale.

(http://wodehouse.ru/cover/e/32-23.jpg)

My very first Wodehouse encounter!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 12, 2015, 05:54:26 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 11, 2015, 03:39:21 AM
Very Good, Jeeves

I also picked this up from Book Depository's January sale.

(http://wodehouse.ru/cover/e/32-23.jpg)

"Say it with flowerpots!"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on January 12, 2015, 06:02:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 11, 2015, 08:30:10 AM
My very first Wodehouse encounter!
Very nice, I'm sure.
Quote from: karlhenning on January 12, 2015, 05:54:26 AM
"Say it with flowerpots!"
Hey! No pspoilers!  >:D 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 12, 2015, 06:07:14 AM
Across the pale parabola of joy . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 12, 2015, 10:07:21 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 12, 2015, 06:07:14 AM
Across the pale parabola of joy . . . .
... ran the fretful porpentine?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 12, 2015, 10:11:36 AM
Is it pork or is it turpentine?  It's porpentine!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on January 14, 2015, 05:39:17 AM
Reading sections from this (only when I've completed by Daily Proust):

(http://www.yalie.com/wp-content/uploads/Harold-Bloom-Genius.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on January 16, 2015, 08:07:56 AM
Two new reads for me...

[asin]B008EKOIN8[/asin]

and

[asin]B009Y3ON4I[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 17, 2015, 04:39:44 AM
(https://markhstevens.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-laughing-policeman-1.jpg)

On to the fourth book in this quietly amazing series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 17, 2015, 05:18:19 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 17, 2015, 04:39:44 AM
(https://markhstevens.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-laughing-policeman-1.jpg)

On to the fourth book in this quietly amazing series.

One of the best series ever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 17, 2015, 05:24:17 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 17, 2015, 05:18:19 AM
One of the best series ever.

It's the grind of the first three that draw me in.  The pacing is absolutely brilliant and make you feel as if you are along with the characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 17, 2015, 05:36:59 AM
Quote from: Bogey on January 17, 2015, 05:24:17 AM
It's the grind of the first three that draw me in.  The pacing is absolutely brilliant and make you feel as if you are along with the characters.
Reading some of the threads here makes feel as if I were right along with Kvant and Kvastmo ...
>:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on January 17, 2015, 09:09:13 AM
Yeah, except for that they would not rant in English!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on January 18, 2015, 12:01:34 AM
This:

(http://millstonenews.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1927-One-Summer-America-Bill-Bryson-001.jpg)

Brilliant, entertaining and educating as usual from Bill.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 18, 2015, 05:02:48 AM
Quote from: The new erato on January 18, 2015, 12:01:34 AM
This:

(http://millstonenews.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1927-One-Summer-America-Bill-Bryson-001.jpg)

Brilliant, entertaining and educating as usual from Bill.

Wow. That looks cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 18, 2015, 06:00:45 AM
Quote from: The new erato on January 18, 2015, 12:01:34 AM
This:

(http://millstonenews.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1927-One-Summer-America-Bill-Bryson-001.jpg)

Brilliant, entertaining and educating as usual from Bill.
A fun book as ever from BB.
Recommended for all Double Indemnity fans! The sash-weight murder ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on January 18, 2015, 06:34:28 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 18, 2015, 06:00:45 AM
A fun book as ever from BB.
Recommended for all Double Indemnity fans! The sash-weight murder ...
I love that movie and found that part of the book very interesting. Also some nuggets on Barbara Stamwyck's backgroud (she wasn't always named that).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on January 18, 2015, 07:13:40 AM
I haven't been reading much the last couple of years, but just had a little binge:
[asin]B003K16P4G[/asin]

   A fine memoir.

  I was sick all day (again), and read a Rex Stout, which was fun but whet my appetite for the real thing--some Dashiell Hammett.  Been a long time since I read two novels in one day.  I should do it more often :)

[asin]B00413QACE[/asin]

[asin]B00IXQE2WU[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on January 18, 2015, 07:24:09 AM
Eckermann - Conversations with Goethe
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 18, 2015, 07:28:44 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on January 18, 2015, 07:13:40 AM
I haven't been reading much the last couple of years, but just had a little binge:
[asin]B003K16P4G[/asin]

   A fine memoir.

  I was sick all day (again), and read a Rex Stout, which was fun but whet my appetite for the real thing--some Dashiell Hammett.  Been a long time since I read two novels in one day.  I should do it more often :)

[asin]B00413QACE[/asin]

[asin]B00IXQE2WU[/asin]

First time I read RH I thought it a lot weaker than the Glass Key. Second time I read it I thought it was a masterpiece. Still think so after a third reading.  8)
Might be time to rerereread some more Hammett. Only Dain is weak.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on January 18, 2015, 12:27:35 PM
Quote from: Bogey on January 17, 2015, 04:39:44 AM
(https://markhstevens.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-laughing-policeman-1.jpg)

On to the fourth book in this quietly amazing series.

They must of run out of umlauts for the cover.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on January 19, 2015, 04:59:59 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 18, 2015, 07:28:44 AM
First time I read RH I thought it a lot weaker than the Glass Key. Second time I read it I thought it was a masterpiece. Still think so after a third reading.  8)
Might be time to rerereread some more Hammett. Only Dain is weak.

  I like Dain a lot, although it is even more over-the-top than the others. Re-read "The Thin Man" today. I didn't remember anything from it, except the one "secret" you aren't supposed to find out til the end.   I hadn't read it in 25 years.  Read Raymond Chandler's "Killer in the Rain" last night--which turned out to be an early version of "The Big Sleep".  Still fun to read.  It's too bad those guys have so few novels between them.   Hammett's books are so crammed with people and events that if I wait enough years, I really don't remember much of what happened and can get a really enjoyable re-read.  I doubt that will be the case with Chandler--but I don't think I've re-read any of his yet.  I'll have to give one a go and see what happens. I've really got the hard-boiled detective bug these days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 19, 2015, 05:11:43 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on January 19, 2015, 04:59:59 AM
  I like Dain a lot, although it is even more over-the-top than the others. Re-read "The Thin Man" today. I didn't remember anything from it, except the one "secret" you aren't supposed to find out til the end.   I hadn't read it in 25 years.  Read Raymond Chandler's "Killer in the Rain" last night--which turned out to be an early version of "The Big Sleep".  Still fun to read.  It's too bad those guys have so few novels between them.   Hammett's books are so crammed with people and events that if I wait enough years, I really don't remember much of what happened and can get a really enjoyable re-read.  I doubt that will be the case with Chandler--but I don't think I've re-read any of his yet.  I'll have to give one a go and see what happens. I've really got the hard-boiled detective bug these days.

When I reread Chandler I was pleasantly surprised how they held up. He's due for a third reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on January 19, 2015, 08:25:00 AM
Interspersed amongst Proust and Bloom is Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 19, 2015, 01:02:34 PM
Quote from: Philo on January 19, 2015, 08:25:00 AM
Interspersed amongst Proust and Bloom is Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil.

No Ken, no. Some jokes are just too easy. Let this one go.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 21, 2015, 01:27:57 AM
Novalis - Europe, or Christendom

Online here: http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/13_Class.Romanticism_Doc.3_English.pdf

I was particularly impressed with this paragraph which, although written in 1799, looks almost like a commentary on some events which have recently disturbed the tranquil community of GMG...

By downright preference the common people were enlightened and educated to that cultivated enthusiasm, and in this way there arose a new European guild: the Lovers of Mankind and Enlighteners. What a pity that Nature remained so wondrous and incomprehensible, so poetic and infinite, in defiance of all the efforts to modernize her. If somewhere an old superstition about a higher world and the like turned up, a hue and cry was straightway raised on all sides and wherever possible the dangerous spark was quenched into ashes by "philosophy" and wit. And yet Tolerance was the watchword of the cultured, and particularly in France was reckoned synonymous with "philosophy."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on January 21, 2015, 01:50:06 AM
Interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on January 21, 2015, 06:20:35 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 19, 2015, 05:11:43 AM
When I reread Chandler I was pleasantly surprised how they held up. He's due for a third reading.
I just went back and read Lady in the Lake, Playback, and The High Window.  I'm sure I read Lady in the Lake and the High Window before, but I didn't remember anything from either, like they had been wiped from my memory. Unfortunately, I also just re-read the Thin Man, which uses the same plot-twist as Lady in the Lake, so I could see most of the story coming...still, it's a fun ride.  Just started "Trouble is My Business"--some Chandler short stories. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on January 21, 2015, 06:39:09 AM
Just completed Swann's Way (will have a write up in a few days). Still working my way through the Bloom (will also have a write up in a few days). Before I begin Book 2 of Proust, in this brief respite I'll be reading some of the works of Alexander Pope (thanks to Bloom's prompting).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 22, 2015, 08:23:59 PM
Quote from: Philo on January 21, 2015, 06:39:09 AM
I'll be reading some of the works of Alexander Pope (thanks to Bloom's prompting).
True wit is nature to advantage dressed:
What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed.
-- Al Pope

I am reading several books at once as ever, but concentrating on Thank You, Jeeves and The Battle of Bretton Woods.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 23, 2015, 07:45:08 AM
Quote from: Philo on January 21, 2015, 06:39:09 AM
Before I begin Book 2 of Proust ...

Book 2, Within a Budding Grove, is probably my favorite of the seven.

Next to last Spirou and Fantasio episode:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81%2BXfccYS4L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on January 23, 2015, 11:08:01 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 22, 2015, 08:23:59 PM
True wit is nature to advantage dressed:
What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed.
-- Al Pope

Pope is one of the first authors I've read where I feel I need to be wearing a monocle.

Quote from: Drasko on January 23, 2015, 07:45:08 AM
Book 2, Within a Budding Grove, is probably my favorite of the seven.

I'm very excited to begin the trek again. I'm hoping to have my thoughts wrapped up about Swann's Way by Sunday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 23, 2015, 11:38:56 AM
Quote from: Philo on January 23, 2015, 11:08:01 AM
Pope is one of the first authors I've read where I feel I need to be wearing a monocle.


I'm not sure I understand the comment but I found it oddly funny!
Pope is incredibly brilliant -- that couplet above is some sort of pinnacle in the English language -- and often funny but I find him too bloodless to read in large amounts. I'll take Milton or Donne or Blake.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on January 23, 2015, 11:46:45 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 23, 2015, 11:38:56 AM
I'm not sure I understand the comment but I found it oddly funny!
Pope is incredibly brilliant -- that couplet above is some sort of pinnacle in the English language -- and often funny but I find him too bloodless to read in large amounts. I'll take Milton or Donne or Blake.

I might call the Dunciad many things, including obscene and cruel, but not "bloodless".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on January 23, 2015, 06:53:51 PM
Pope's just not for me. The rhyming was driving me batty. I will say that I did enjoy reading about him and definitely value his ends (just not his means).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 24, 2015, 10:55:05 AM
Quote from: Philo on January 23, 2015, 06:53:51 PM
Pope's just not for me. The rhyming was driving me batty. I will say that I did enjoy reading about him and definitely value his ends (just not his means).

Milton.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on January 24, 2015, 01:29:09 PM
Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche contra Wagner by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on January 25, 2015, 03:30:37 AM
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on January 24, 2015, 01:29:09 PM
Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche contra Wagner by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Curious about your opinion. Not the easiests texts by Nietzsche.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on January 25, 2015, 06:13:18 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 25, 2015, 03:30:37 AM
Not the easiest texts by Nietzsche.
Now that's saying something

Still on my hard-boiled binge. Reread Maltese Falcon today. First read it about 25 years ago. That is a gem.  Probably the best of all of them.  Tight controlled, and with terrific momentum.   I've seen the movie a million times, and it is a testament to the quality of Hammett's dialogue just how much of it made it into the film.  Houston really kept it close. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 25, 2015, 06:20:51 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on January 25, 2015, 06:13:18 AM
Now that's saying something

Still on my hard-boiled binge. Reread Maltese Falcon today. First read it about 25 years ago. That is a gem.  Probably the best of all of them.  Tight controlled, and with terrific momentum.   I've seen the movie a million times, and it is a testament to the quality of Hammett's dialogue just how much of it made it into the film.  Houston really kept it close.

Yep. Hammett never characterizes or explains, just describes. No "he said angrily" or inner monologue or what he thought, etc. One of the reasons why he films so well. And he trimmed and trimmed. No fat.

You'd like Eric Ambler, assuming you haven't read him already.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on January 25, 2015, 06:30:44 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 25, 2015, 06:20:51 AM
Yep. Hammett never characterizes or explains, just describes. No "he said angrily" or inner monologue or what he thought, etc. One of the reasons why he films so well. And he trimmed and trimmed. No fat.

You'd like Eric Ambler, assuming you haven't read him already.

I haven't, Ken. Thanks. I've been wishing there was somewhere new to turn to.

  For the last few years I've mainly been reading biographies and history (tons of presidential bios, preferably 3 or more volumes).  Then I sort of stopped reading.  It's nice to have my head back in a book ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 25, 2015, 06:58:29 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on January 25, 2015, 06:30:44 AM
I haven't, Ken. Thanks. I've been wishing there was somewhere new to turn to.

  For the last few years I've mainly been reading biographies and history (tons of presidential bios, preferably 3 or more volumes).  Then I sort of stopped reading.  It's nice to have my head back in a book ;D

I like Dimitrios best. Several variant titles all the same book. Lots of splendid books though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on January 25, 2015, 07:12:00 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 25, 2015, 03:30:37 AM
Curious about your opinion. Not the easiests texts by Nietzsche.

I'll write it after finishing. I think there aren't easy texts by Nietzsche; when you deal with his books, you need to have carefully read comments and introductions and know the matter well to understand what Nietzsche is talking about.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 25, 2015, 06:27:55 PM
Hey Al

If you ate looking specifically for private eye books
Ross Macdonald -- anything from the 60s. I like The Chill especially. Earlier books are different.
James Crumley -- his early three books from the 70s, eg The Last Good Kiss
These are great.

And for something a bit odd, Paul Auster's NY trilogy
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on January 25, 2015, 07:28:18 PM
Quote from: Ken B on January 25, 2015, 06:27:55 PM
Hey Al

If you ate looking specifically for private eye books
Ross Macdonald -- anything from the 60s. I like The Chill especially. Earlier books are different.
James Crumley -- his early three books from the 70s, eg The Last Good Kiss
These are great.

And for something a bit odd, Paul Auster's NY trilogy
Thanks again, Ken.  I've only read the Paul Auster.  I haven't heard the name Ross Macdonald in years, and have never heard of Crumley, but will have a look-see ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on January 26, 2015, 05:39:36 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 24, 2015, 10:55:05 AM
Milton.

Back to Proust. Perhaps Milton once I get to my next slight respite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on January 26, 2015, 10:45:21 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 23, 2015, 11:38:56 AM
I'm not sure I understand the comment but I found it oddly funny!
Pope is incredibly brilliant -- that couplet above is some sort of pinnacle in the English language -- and often funny but I find him too bloodless to read in large amounts. I'll take Milton or Donne or Blake.

The first time I was interested in Pope was when I read this from the Spoon River Anthology:

Quote89. Mrs. George Reece

TO this generation I would say:   
Memorize some bit of verse of truth or beauty.   
It may serve a turn in your life.   
My husband had nothing to do   
With the fall of the bank—he was only cashier.            5
The wreck was due to the president, Thomas Rhodes,   
And his vain, unscrupulous son.   
Yet my husband was sent to prison,   
And I was left with the children,   
To feed and clothe and school them.     10
And I did it, and sent them forth   
Into the world all clean and strong,   
And all through the wisdom of Pope, the poet:   
“Act well your part, there all the honor lies."   

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 27, 2015, 08:22:56 AM
Quote from: Drasko on December 27, 2014, 10:25:30 AM
(http://s12.postimg.org/zbvbp5ux9/TESKO_JE_NACI_DOBROG_COVEKA_Fleneri_O_Konor_slik.jpg)

Just finished this, and I'm in awe. Absolutely love it! Now have to get everything else this woman wrote, unfortunately that's not much: two novels and one other collection of stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on January 27, 2015, 04:08:39 PM
Quote from: Drasko on January 27, 2015, 08:22:56 AM
Just finished this, and I'm in awe. Absolutely love it! Now have to get everything else this woman wrote, unfortunately that's not much: two novels and one other collection of stories.

  Yeah, O'connor is amazing, and so weirdly brutal. For some reason I've been thinking about several of her stories recently. The darkest ones just imprint themselves on your mind forever (I haven't read any of the stuff in 25 years, I think). Unfortunately, the two novels are closer to novellas in length.  If you haven't, you might also want to try Carson McCullers.  Even less prolific, and less dark, less quirky, but very powerful with the same weird "southern gothic" sensibility (Ballad of the Sad Cafe, for example). 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on January 27, 2015, 05:51:00 PM
I'm three chapters into Ulysses by James Joyce.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 29, 2015, 06:31:26 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on January 27, 2015, 04:08:39 PM
  Yeah, O'connor is amazing, and so weirdly brutal. For some reason I've been thinking about several of her stories recently. The darkest ones just imprint themselves on your mind forever (I haven't read any of the stuff in 25 years, I think). Unfortunately, the two novels are closer to novellas in length.  If you haven't, you might also want to try Carson McCullers.  Even less prolific, and less dark, less quirky, but very powerful with the same weird "southern gothic" sensibility (Ballad of the Sad Cafe, for example).

Thanks for mentioning McCullers. I was familiar with the name but never read anything. Though I've seen the movie John Huston made from her novel Reflections in a Golden Eye which I did like. Interestingly Huston also made a movie from Flannery O'Connor's novel Wise Blood as well, which I really loved (that was the way I first heard of O'Connor). O'Connor and McCullers apparently couldn't stand one another. I sure will try some McCullers writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 29, 2015, 07:06:43 AM
Carson McCullers is extraordinary. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a beautiful, fascinating, and sad novel, and the novella (The Member of the Wedding, I think?) is especially surreal, funny, and heartbreaking. It actually made me uncomfortable. That one follows a teenage girl so madly in love with the wedding party that she thinks she can follow them on their honeymoon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 30, 2015, 01:08:41 PM
(http://www.musicologie.org/actu/2013/11/la_musique_a_paris_sous_l-occupation_450.jpg)
I bought this about a year ago in Brussels, and have finally got around to reading it...It's a collection of studies of the role some musicians played during those dark years (e.g. Honegger, Poulenc, Messiaen...). Not an indispensable read by any means... :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 30, 2015, 06:27:19 PM
The main plot of The Doll follows a story of a merchant, who falls in love with a girl from an aristocratic class. But, being over 600 pages the novel covers many dimensions of class, history, ideas and other subjects. Frankly speaking, I found it a bit dull during the first 300-400 pages of it, but it was worth finishing it.

(http://assets.nybooks.com/media/images/productimage-picture-the-doll-132.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on February 01, 2015, 07:04:09 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 29, 2015, 07:06:43 AM
Carson McCullers is extraordinary. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a beautiful, fascinating, and sad novel, and the novella (The Member of the Wedding, I think?) is especially surreal, funny, and heartbreaking. It actually made me uncomfortable. That one follows a teenage girl so madly in love with the wedding party that she thinks she can follow them on their honeymoon.

McCullers wrote the "Lonely Hunter" when she was 23, I think. I find that staggering.

  About O'connor not liking her, from the little I've read, nobody liked her very much.  She apparently didn't have very good social skills. 

   That "Member of the Wedding" used to be shown on network TV every year when I was a kid--often live, as I recall.  Sometimes a 40(?) year old actress played the 13 year old girl.  And did a great job.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 01, 2015, 07:24:32 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on February 01, 2015, 07:04:09 PM
McCullers wrote the "Lonely Hunter" when she was 23, I think. I find that staggering.

  About O'connor not liking her, from the little I've read, nobody liked her very much.  She apparently didn't have very good social skills. 

   That "Member of the Wedding" used to be shown on network TV every year when I was a kid--often live, as I recall.  Sometimes a 40(?) year old actress played the 13 year old girl.  And did a great job.
It's been a week. Which 14 hard-boiled classics did you read?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on February 01, 2015, 09:57:29 PM
Quote from: Ken B on February 01, 2015, 07:24:32 PM
It's been a week. Which 14 hard-boiled classics did you read?

   Got way slowed down.  I'm about 1/2 way through "Journey into Fear" which is quite good.  Too good, probably.  Not pulpy enough to just mash through.  I read the first 5 chapters of a Ross Macdonald and really disliked it.  I've mostly been downloading digital copies of all my {music} box sets as back-ups.  10 times easier than copying them myself, but still surprisingly time consuming (especially adding tags and cover art, etc).   It's winter break here, which means I am taking more care of my kids, and doing a lot more teaching (parents make their kids take extra classes during vacation). 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on February 02, 2015, 06:20:14 AM
Lots of academic texts on Shinto and Japanese religion -- pretty much deathly dull to anyone not studying it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 02, 2015, 07:29:15 AM
(http://s3.postimg.org/shn2l32tf/james_graham_ballard_pot.png)

J. G. Ballard - The Drowned World
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2015, 07:43:37 AM
(http://www.autentici.ro/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Scrisori-catre-V-Alecsandri..-196x300.jpg)

Ion Ghica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Ghica) - Letters to Vasile Alecsandri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasile_Alecsandri)

Of absolutely no value to anyone not interested in, and moderately familiar with, Romanian history in the general context of the diplomatic and military relationships between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, England and France, roughly between 1812 and 1859.

But from time to time there is something that I think it can make even the general audience laugh. For instance, this paragraph (my translation, slightly adapted):

As the year 1840 was approaching, all kind of catastrophic rumors were circulated: we´re going to be fried, believed some people, we´re going to be boiled, said another; to be thrown deep down in the abyss of the universe, some astrologers thought, to be lifted up high in the sky, said some prophets.

I must confess that I was ROTFL for about 10 minutes reading that.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 02, 2015, 08:36:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2015, 07:43:37 AM
(http://www.autentici.ro/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Scrisori-catre-V-Alecsandri..-196x300.jpg)

As the year 1840 was approaching, all kind of catastrophic rumors were circulated: we´re going to be fried, believed some people, we´re going to be boiled, said another;

I must confess that I was ROTFL for about 10 minutes reading that.  :D

Oh sure, you laugh NOW, but when you are fry-boiled in another few years then we'll see who's laughing!

>:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2015, 09:28:23 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 02, 2015, 08:36:55 AM
Oh sure, you laugh NOW, but when you are fry-boiled in another few years then we'll see who's laughing!

>:D

I could name a few who´d rejoice over my being fry-boiled...  :D ;D :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 02, 2015, 09:40:36 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2015, 09:28:23 AM
I could name a few who´d rejoice over my being fry-boiled...  :D ;D :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broasting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broasting)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2015, 09:44:09 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 02, 2015, 09:40:36 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broasting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broasting)

Yeah, but is it halal?  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 03, 2015, 10:08:17 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513be8XWyoL.jpg)

Pretty interesting work that explains why the internet is strange and so addictive and how it's leading to some bad habits. Not needlessly polemical.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 03, 2015, 10:09:44 PM
I'm experiencing that work as an Audiobook through the service Audible.com. Thanks internet!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 12, 2015, 09:39:07 AM
(http://s15.postimg.org/a95epr0d7/tiffanys.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 12, 2015, 11:08:17 AM
Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers; very amusing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 12, 2015, 02:46:40 PM
Quote from: aligreto on February 12, 2015, 11:08:17 AM
Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers; very amusing.

A number of fans here of this book, including me. 

Quote from: Drasko on February 12, 2015, 09:39:07 AM
(http://s15.postimg.org/a95epr0d7/tiffanys.jpg)

OK, I only know, and very much enjoy, the movie.  Let me know if this is one worth taking in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 12, 2015, 02:54:12 PM
Quote from: Bogey on February 12, 2015, 02:46:40 PM
OK, I only know, and very much enjoy, the movie.  Let me know if this is one worth taking in.

I love the movie. I'm halfway through the novella and while much of it is very similar there are differences, it's bit more explicit in tone, and for instance the narrator isn't 'a kept man' as in the movie (so far at least). Capote's writing style is very nice and fluid, I like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on February 12, 2015, 06:18:50 PM
I actually haven't seen the movie, but I loved that book. I read In Cold Blood right after it and it was just as amazing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 13, 2015, 07:10:54 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 12, 2015, 02:46:40 PM
OK, I only know, and very much enjoy, the movie.  Let me know if this is one worth taking in.

The book is GREAT.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 13, 2015, 07:24:31 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 13, 2015, 07:10:54 AM
The book is GREAT.
I read it in high school, and liked it. ICB is even better.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jubal Slate on February 13, 2015, 12:52:11 PM
I like this Gemmell fella's style.
[asin]0345379020[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 14, 2015, 01:15:11 PM
The Moving Target (Lew Archer #1)

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1335761101l/648640.jpg)

From one of the hard-boiled pillars.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on February 15, 2015, 05:21:14 PM
I teach a teen-aged boy English (here in Taiwan), and decided to try him on Zelazney's "Chronicle's of Amber" series.  I don't know if he'll be "hooked" or not, but now I find myself unable to stop reading them.  A friend lent them to me when I was in high school and I enjoyed them a lot. Apparently still do, as I read the first 3 over the weekend.  It's a little like hard-boiled fantasy--lots of characters, mystery, double and triple-dealings, violence,  and intrigue, and then swords and magic and whatnot.  I've been overworked and have some free-time now and want something page turning and light.
   I generally find fantasy unreadable.  This series, however, is very smart, and has a great premise.  The author won 3 nebulas and 6 hugos, so I guess he is sort of the Babe Ruth of the genre.  The plotting is very good, although the writing is uneven and could have used a better editor.  I can't help feeling that they could have been true classics, if Zelazny had just pushed himself that extra bit,  polished them with another re-write or two. I will not show the cover, as they are embarrassing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 15, 2015, 05:34:50 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on February 15, 2015, 05:21:14 PM
I teach a teen-aged boy English (here in Taiwan), and decided to try him on Zelazney's "Chronicle's of Amber" series.  I don't know if he'll be "hooked" or not, but now I find myself unable to stop reading them.  A friend lent them to me when I was in high school and I enjoyed them a lot. Apparently still do, as I read the first 3 over the weekend.  It's a little like hard-boiled fantasy--lots of characters, mystery, double and triple-dealings, violence,  and intrigue, and then swords and magic and whatnot.  I've been overworked and have some free-time now and want something page turning and light.
   I generally find fantasy unreadable.  This series, however, is very smart, and has a great premise.  The author won 3 nebulas and 6 hugos, so I guess he is sort of the Babe Ruth of the genre.  The plotting is very good, although the writing is uneven and could have used a better editor.  I can't help feeling that they could have been true classics, if Zelazny had just pushed himself that extra bit,  polished them with another re-write or two. I will not show the cover, as they are embarrassing.

CO-VER! CO-VER! CO-VER!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on February 15, 2015, 05:59:36 PM
Quote from: Ken B on February 15, 2015, 05:34:50 PM
CO-VER! CO-VER! CO-VER!

[asin]0380809060[/asin]

  Ask and you shall receive.  This is much more respectable than the super cheesy e-book cover I have. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on February 15, 2015, 06:20:30 PM
Preparation for the trip I am planning in May.
Burke Davis, To Appomattox
My copy is a library paperback 1997 reprint.  The original was published when I was 3 months old.  Eyewitness accounts roiled into a narrative divided into sections focused on each army and the civilians around them.  But possibly a bit of bias...sections devoted to the Army of Northern Virginia (Lee) are titled The Army, while those devoted to the Army of the Potomac  (Grant) are titled The Enemy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 15, 2015, 06:35:16 PM
Chamberlain's salute was always a fascinating event within the scope of the proceedings. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 15, 2015, 06:49:38 PM
Quote from: Bogey on February 15, 2015, 06:35:16 PM
Chamberlain's salute was always a fascinating event within the scope of the proceedings.

It scares me that I understand that. GMG is like an old couple who talk in fragments.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 16, 2015, 12:13:26 PM
So now I've read Dombey. I have to confess that this is not one of the better books of Dickens. I've read that this is often considered to be Dickens's first "mature" novel and one of the first books of his that were elaborately planned from the beginning to end before he started the writing process, in contrast to some of his earlier novels in where he used picaresque style before trying often rather clumsily to knit a plot together, instead of solid on-going plot with distinct purpose from the very beginning. On maturity part... well, I can see the reasons why people think so. For starters, this is the first novel of his where he starts to understand women psychology and create truly complex female characters which later leads to magnificent Rosa Dartle of Copperfield, Lady Dedlock of Bleak house, Louisa Gradgrind of Hard times, Miss Wade of Little dorrit etc. In this book the complex female character is Edith Dombey, the second wife of Paul Dombey senior. She is easily the greatest thing about this book. She is haughty, she is spiteful, she is a piece of work. She is also a loving stepmother to Florence Dombey. a loving stepmother, well what do you know. But I still don't think she is good enough a character to make up for hundreds and hundreds of pages of clutter. The farewell of Edith and Florence still makes me very moved, no thanks to Florence though. She's annoying as hell and literally bursts into tears over hundred times in the book. Edith for me. 

And about the elaborate planning in his later novels; supposedly from Chuzzlewit or from Dombey onwards... Umm. Firstly, one of my favorite Dickens novels, Little Dorrit, has "reveal", towards which the book was going for almost thousand, albeit mostly very entertaining, pages. And the reveal is unbelievably stupid, unnecessarily complicated mess of a "plot reveal" (containing of course the "necessary" inheritance) that makes absolutely no sense. You have to read the book in order to understand it... IF you understand it even then. I certainly can't recall the force-fed narrative in whole at this very moment. And this was one of Dickens's truly mature novels, the one which made Bernard Shaw renounce capitalism altogether and turn to communism (if you consider that a positive attribute). And that stupid plot device and reveal was the product of the same mind that created in the same book probably more wonderful characters than in any other book of his. Several of his earlier novels have far better plots. Oliver Twist although picaresque in style, has Dickens figure out actually a relatively believable and convincing story. The old curiosity shop, although I admit its plot doesn't really make sense and is stupid, is still for some reason so dear to me that I love it nonetheless. Nickleby's "plot" was probably along with Little Dorrit's the worst I've read so far. Nickleby though has far less entertaining characters, while Little dorrit has unbelievably good ones and amazing narrative and hilarious satire, which makes Dorrit one of my favorite Dickens novels, despite mostly stupid plot and the convoluted childish reveal. But the creator of Nickleby was young man in his late twenties, the creator of Little Dorrit was middle-aged experienced writer with several masterpieces behind him. So it is justified to expect better stuff from him as he matures. Now, finally to the point: like with Little Dorrit, Dombey has severe problems with plot IMO even though critics seem to praise it. Or no, I actually think the plot itself is decent but it's just way... too... circuitous and overlong. This book could have been easily the length of Oliver Twist without missing anything significant. For god's sake the eponymous "Son" in the title of the book dies when only quarter of the book's length has passed. To its credit, the remaining three quarters of the book introduce the best character in the book (Edith Dombey) but there is so much mediocre and downright odd stuff along it. And I guess the reason the son dies so early is because this book is more about Dombey's lack of affection for his daughter in favor of his son than about him and his son. Like Miss Tox said: "...Dombey and Son should be a daughter after all." Still, it doesn't make the book any less tedious. The language style book uses is convoluted mess in most parts. Even reading this in my own language is extremely difficult to me. This language seems to prevail in Dickens's middle novels; I noticed similar kind of language style in the second half of Copperfield which makes me prefer the first half. To book's credit, this has also an ongoing motive: Pride, as Dickens himself confessed. But that doesn't make the book much more interesting if it isn't brought about convincingly. Which it is not. Paradoxically, Dickens really seems to know where he is getting at, handles plot lines with great care in his own way, and seems to think this is how he should write it. The problem is, I don't agree with him. At all.

The book's other mostly convincing character is Paul Dombey junior, which allows Dickens show his true understanding of children psychology. Of course Dickens has to kill him then in a most melodramatic fashion so that there will be no more great psychology on his part. **** you, Dickens.

Paul Dombey senior, the villain protagonist of the book, has all the possibilities to be a memorable character, which Dickens even demonstrates in the preface of the book when defending himself against accusations about Dombey's  sudden change of heart:

"Mr Dombey undergoes no violent change, either in this book, or in real life. A sense of his injustice is within him, all along. The more he represses it, the more unjust he necessarily is. Internal shame and external circumstances may bring the contest to a close in a week, or a day; but, it has been a contest for years, and is only fought out after a long balance of victory."

That is extremely convincing psychology. The question is... why the hell you didn't use that kind of reasoning in the book itself!? Dombey's development as a character is not brought about convincingly in the book. He just suddenly stops being an asshole. That's it. The last lines of his in the book which demonstrate his remorse, are pretty effective, I guess. But so much clutter...

The other villain of the book, Carker, is one of the most boring, bland villains I have ever encountered in Dickens. And villains are usually his bravura so for him to mostly fail at that, you know something's seriously wrong. The most interesting part about Carker occurs during the chapter where he dies. His state of mind is actually one of the most naturally flowing moments in the whole book, one of those parts which either doesn't taste like diabetes, or isn't convoluted, or both. Characters he encounters during his flight talk actually like real people and he does as well. He is even given a moment of sympathy. I think the biggest villain in the book is Dombey himself and his struggle with himself. But like I said, I really don't believe in Dombey's development. It doesn't feel natural. And like with Paul junior, whenever the character becomes interesting, the best solution In Dickens's opinion is to kill him and go on with endless melodrama. Smooth. So long, Carker.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 16, 2015, 03:37:30 PM
Quote from: Bogey on February 12, 2015, 02:46:40 PM
OK, I only know, and very much enjoy, the movie.  Let me know if this is one worth taking in.

Now that I've finished the book I can tell you that even though a lot of, especially Hollys, lines in the movie have been picked word for word from the novel there are significant and pretty fundamental differences between the two, and while I think they both work well in what they are separately trying to do and say if pushed I'd say I prefer the novel, while still loving the movie as well.

Knowing a bit your tastes from the board I think you'd prefer the movie but the novel is definitely worth reading.     
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 16, 2015, 04:58:26 PM
Quote from: Drasko on February 16, 2015, 03:37:30 PM
Now that I've finished the book I can tell you that even though a lot of, especially Hollys, lines in the movie have been picked word for word from the novel there are significant and pretty fundamental differences between the two, and while I think they both work well in what they are separately trying to do and say if pushed I'd say I prefer the novel, while still loving the movie as well.

Knowing a bit your tastes from the board I think you'd prefer the movie but the novel is definitely worth reading.   

I will check it out.  Thanks for the follow up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on February 17, 2015, 07:21:42 AM
Finished Ulysses by James Joyce. Continuing with Cooked by Michael Pollan and started The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Corey on February 17, 2015, 09:10:00 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/7l3wcum.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 17, 2015, 01:43:59 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IPuXOM884fE/UOtDgsikGkI/AAAAAAAABG0/93okZ-0Y80w/s1600/Corman-FINAL.jpg)

Actually I am rereading The Red Box by Rex Stout. The cover is just Al-bait.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on February 17, 2015, 05:02:58 PM
Quote from: Ken B on February 17, 2015, 01:43:59 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IPuXOM884fE/UOtDgsikGkI/AAAAAAAABG0/93okZ-0Y80w/s1600/Corman-FINAL.jpg)

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

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

By the way, I'm on book 9 of the Zelazney series.  This is Chinese New Year's vacation (yes, I'm serious) and I have some nice down time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 17, 2015, 05:57:52 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on February 17, 2015, 05:02:58 PM
  Actually, Ken, that book looks very interesting.  My undergrad and MA are in film studies. 

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

Dragon-bait

(https://robertarood.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/discovery.jpg)

Recommended too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on February 18, 2015, 10:14:11 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on February 17, 2015, 05:02:58 PM
  Actually, Ken, that book looks very interesting.  My undergrad and MA are in film studies.  From a cultural studies perspective, Roger Corman is a much more important figure in film studies than, say, Orson Welles or Fellini... I can read the book and not have to bother with the actual films :)

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

If I recall correctly the quality of the Amber books deteriorated quite a bit towards the end of the series. Do you agree, Al?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on February 18, 2015, 06:02:02 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on February 18, 2015, 10:14:11 AM
If I recall correctly the quality of the Amber books deteriorated quite a bit towards the end of the series. Do you agree, Al?

  I'm still not at the end.  The last section has a new protagonist who's far less of a he-man, and the story is less exciting with fewer surprising revelations.  However, it still reads like a comic book for grown-ups and is, for me at least, fun and enjoyable. I can't put it down even though it is not suspenseful.  There was about a 20 page section that was an extended acid trip in an alternative reality with a bunch of Alice in Wonderland characters.  That got tedious and I ended up skimming through most of it.  The author was born in 1937 and wrote it in the late 1970s, I think, and you can kind of see him coming to terms with the era and exercising his inner youthful hippy.   I like long books over short books, always, and as I like this series' diegetic world and characters very much my only real complaint is that the author died before writing more.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 18, 2015, 09:10:22 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on February 18, 2015, 06:02:02 PM
  I'm still not at the end.  The last section has a new protagonist who's far less of a he-man, and the story is less exciting with fewer surprising revelations.  However, it still reads like a comic book for grown-ups and is, for me at least, fun and enjoyable. I can't put it down even though it is not suspenseful.  There was about a 20 page section that was an extended acid trip in an alternative reality with a bunch of Alice in Wonderland characters.  That got tedious and I ended up skimming through most of it.  The author was born in 1937 and wrote it in the late 1970s, I think, and you can kind of see him coming to terms with the era and exercising his inner youthful hippy.   I like long books over short books, always, and as I like this series' diegetic world and characters very much my only real complaint is that the author died before writing more.

Inner hippie is a complaint. Or should be.
:laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on February 18, 2015, 09:53:45 PM
Quote from: Ken B on February 18, 2015, 09:10:22 PM
Inner hippie is a complaint. Or should be.
:laugh:

   I just meant he was into his time period.  He's actually rather cynical and ironic--the books are full of intrigue and a host of cagey characters.  It actually reads kind of like Raymond Chandler on acid.  Zelazney had an MA in Elizabethan poetry and worked in Civil Service.  If you have a kindle, I'd like to send you the first book. I think you might like it--you'd know in about 5 pages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 20, 2015, 11:32:52 AM
Arrived a couple of days ago from the US:

[asin]1421413450[/asin]

The book has chapters on Reynaldo Hahn, Gabriel de Yturri, José-Maria de Heredia and Ramón Frenandez, plus shorter sections on tangential issues. An interesting and pleasant read, although at times I get the impression that Mr. Gallo is prone to overinterpretation...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 20, 2015, 01:38:03 PM
(http://www.archivespratt.net/Images_hugo_pratt/corto_Maltese_Fr/52_corto_maltese.jpg)

Also, in a strike of luck managed today to pick up a copy of Huysmans À Rebours in Serbian translation from a street seller for equivalent of one euro. Been looking for it for some time since it is out of print and asking price for used copies is generally much bigger.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 20, 2015, 03:59:11 PM
Martial, Epigrams

Quote
I could have managed without your embrace,
darling Chloë, and without your face,
and without your breasts and hair and hands,
your neck, your legs, your eyes, your shoulders and – it's too long to pass each part in review –
I could have managed without all of you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on February 23, 2015, 09:03:55 PM
Puntarella salad
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 27, 2015, 12:15:09 PM
Robert schumann biography by John Worthen. I laughed at the way Schumann describes his hangovers, such as "afternoon hangover", "wonderful hangover" and the real gem: " an iron hammer in the head".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 27, 2015, 06:38:36 PM
Also read HP and philosopher's stone again. I still can't get over the fact that Dumbledore freaking congratulates Slytherins that yes you did won, I only give few more points, nothing to worry about. And then he takes their prize away from them,after congratulating them and we're not supposed to feel bad about it. And he gives points to both Neville for trying to stop Harry & co. as well as to harry & co. for saving the school. Come on, you can't take both sides. That's biased. Almost as bad as permanently disfiguring a student for snitching DA out or almost killing a student for trying to take points from them or using spells into students without provocation or because they asked too many questions.

Thinking of reading some Cervantes as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 27, 2015, 07:01:26 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Victor_Hugo-Hunchback.jpg/220px-Victor_Hugo-Hunchback.jpg)

Reading Hunchback by Hugo. Still extremely well-written novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on February 27, 2015, 09:18:11 PM
My little dip into fantasy with the Amber books was so pleasant I picked up a book I hadn't read by the only other fantasy writer I like.  I don't know if Ambercrombie's stuff is really considered fantasy.  Mythical middle ages type setting, but with all the brutality, ignorance, suffering and lawlessness left in.  The main characters are generally terrible people, but some are making some feeble attempts to be less so.  Also plenty violent and strangely fun.  This is not as good as his earlier books, IMO, but I still sat up half the night finishing it.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81d4ZAaOYFL._SL1005_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 28, 2015, 01:58:48 AM
Quote from: Alberich on February 27, 2015, 06:38:36 PM
Also read HP and philosopher's stone again. I still can't get over the fact that Dumbledore freaking congratulates Slytherins that yes you did won, I only give few more points, nothing to worry about. And then he takes their prize away from them,after congratulating them and we're not supposed to feel bad about it.
Don't worry, later on you will find out that Dumbledore did some other vile stuff, too. Whether or not his actions during Harry's life are justified by what would happen if Voldy would have absolute power, you'll have to judge for yourself, I guess.
(and Slytherins had won the cup for a few years in a row, mostly thanks to Snape. . .)

QuoteAnd he gives points to both Neville for trying to stop Harry & co. as well as to harry & co. for saving the school. Come on, you can't take both sides. That's biased.
Now there's a paradox. And wrong in any case, they all deserved points for what each got them for, as surely as they deserved to have some taken away for some of the things they did.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 28, 2015, 06:02:21 AM
Quote from: Alberich on February 27, 2015, 07:01:26 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Victor_Hugo-Hunchback.jpg/220px-Victor_Hugo-Hunchback.jpg)

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

Love that illustration.  What is the source?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on February 28, 2015, 06:25:56 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 28, 2015, 06:02:21 AM
Love that illustration.  What is the source?
Luc-Olivier Merson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc-Olivier_Merson) (1846-1920)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victor_Hugo-Hunchback.jpg
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 28, 2015, 01:29:58 PM
Quote from: North Star on February 28, 2015, 06:25:56 AM
Luc-Olivier Merson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc-Olivier_Merson) (1846-1920)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victor_Hugo-Hunchback.jpg

Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 28, 2015, 01:35:08 PM
(http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/reviews/karlins/Images/karlins2-28-8.jpg)

I guess the original is an ink wash.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on March 01, 2015, 01:29:04 AM
I was rather disappointed by "Red Country". Seems like a lot of missed chances (and some twists for twists sake). I think overall Abercrombie is a little overhyped in Fantasy circles. He is pretty good but very reliant on brutality and shock value and the books are about as realistic or plausible as modern action movies, in fact a lot of them seems to be modelled after modern action movies. (There is hilarious review/trashing of "Heroes" on Goodreads or somewhere else pointing out how completely clueless the author is on military history, of course a feature he shares with most other fantasy stuff out there.)
This may be nitpicking but for me it gives them a thoroughly modern feel and I miss the "otherworldly" fantastic mood.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 01, 2015, 02:11:53 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on March 01, 2015, 01:29:04 AM
I was rather disappointed by "Red Country". Seems like a lot of missed chances (and some twists for twists sake). I think overall Abercrombie is a little overhyped in Fantasy circles. He is pretty good but very reliant on brutality and shock value and the books are about as realistic or plausible as modern action movies, in fact a lot of them seems to be modelled after modern action movies. (There is hilarious review/trashing of "Heroes" on Goodreads or somewhere else pointing out how completely clueless the author is on military history, of course a feature he shares with most other fantasy stuff out there.)
This may be nitpicking but for me it gives them a thoroughly modern feel and I miss the "otherworldly" fantastic mood.

   Red Country has a formulaic story compared to the other books of his I've read. In fact, the overall feel is that of a western, and the trajectory reminds me of Larry McMurtry.  He is well aware of it, the book is dedicated to Clint Eastwood.  If you read history, there is nothing of "shock value" in the brutality.  Red Country is, if anything, sanitized.  I don't read much fantasy, but his is the only fantasy that I've encountered that has any actual grasp of how politics used to affect human lives.  He has a muscular prose style, IMO, and lots of sharp lines and even insights.  However, he mixes modern idiom into the dialogue in a rather random fashion, which sometimes strikes me as awkward. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 01, 2015, 05:42:54 AM
Al, you'll be hip deep in Poul Anderson by Easter. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 01, 2015, 06:26:02 AM
Quote from: Ken B on March 01, 2015, 05:42:54 AM
Al, you'll be hip deep in Poul Anderson by Easter. ;)

  Uh...I doubt it. As I recall, that fits into the 99.3% of fantasy that I can't read. 

  TD:
   today I was working on Alfred Einstein's Mozart bio. I've been nibbling at it off and on for a couple of months. I'm about half way through.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 01, 2015, 01:51:04 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/The_Book_Thief_by_Markus_Zusak_book_cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 01, 2015, 03:07:54 PM
 'Balcony in the Forest' - Julien Gracq.

A dreamer floats through life, happily in denial (in part, firmly reinforced by encounters with a nymph) in the face of encroaching war.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 01, 2015, 05:20:52 PM
I think Gracq is a very interesting writer. I've only ready his Château d'Argol, but I liked it a lot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 01, 2015, 05:44:38 PM
He's certainly an interesting writer, yes. And quite different from anyone else I've read. 'Château d'Argol' is on my (near infinite!) 'to read' list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 05, 2015, 12:54:47 AM
I just read Kristin Thompson's "The Frodo Franchise"--about how the LOTRs production/distribution affected both the movie industry and the lives of many peripheral figures, like bloggers and webmasters and tourguides, etc.  Thompson and her Husband David Bordwell are two of the best writers on film. I have pretty much all of their stuff.  They are academics, so break everything down into incredible detail and analyse what is going on (empirically, without all the Big Theory shenanigans), but also really love movies--which is surprisingly rare in academic film writing.  Perhaps it's because I am starting a new semester and am feeling a lot of stress (which makes me want to read, for some reason), but I couldn't put this book down. 
   I am now reading the new Anne Tyler.  To my amazement, it seems to be very good. I am a huge fan of her work, and feel that in spite of her Pulitzer she tends to be under-appreciated.  She is the ultimate chronicler of American domesticity. However, her last book was abysmal.  I thought she was finished (she is 70 now).  Her best work was from the mid 60s through the mid-80s (before her Pulitzer), but this is pretty darned good so far. 
[asin]1101874279[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 05, 2015, 12:56:26 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on March 05, 2015, 12:54:47 AM
I just read Kristin Thompson's "The Frodo Franchise"--about how the LOTRs production/distribution affected both the movie industry and the lives of many peripheral figures, like bloggers and webmasters and tourguides, etc.  Thompson and her Husband David Bordwell are two of the best writers on film. I have pretty much all of their stuff.  They are academics, so break everything down into incredible detail and analyse what is going on (empirically, without all the Big Theory shenanigans), but also really love movies--which is surprisingly rare in academic film writing.  Perhaps it's because I am starting a new semester and am feeling a lot of stress (which makes me want to read, for some reason), but I couldn't put this book down. 
   I am now reading the new Anne Tyler.  To my amazement, it seems to be very good. I am a huge fan of her work, and feel that in spite of her Pulitzer she tends to be under-appreciated.  She is the ultimate chronicler of American domesticity. However, her last book was abysmal.  I thought she was finished (she is 70 now).  Her best work was from the mid 60s through the mid-80s (before her Pulitzer), but this is pretty darned good so far. 
[asin]1101874279[/asin]
No sword of power? No earth-force only female gorlons can feel?

😜
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Minor Key on March 05, 2015, 01:30:29 PM
The Divine Comedy, the Musa translation.  About halfway through "The Inferno".  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 09, 2015, 01:17:15 AM
The Brian Hooker translation of Cyrano. It's a reread. This copy has been with me for years.


(http://i.imgur.com/FIYkmc7.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 09, 2015, 04:56:11 PM
I'm only about 100 pages in, but just what I was hoping for.  Wonderfully well researched and written.  Not too much time is given to any one person, but gives a very good general picture.  Also, there is a magic sword called Hurdsbeckerandum :)
[asin]B00JGAS65Q[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on March 17, 2015, 07:36:38 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41I%2Bfz4BMdL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


I've been hopscotching around The 40s: The Story of Decade, a collection of articles from The New Yorker from the 40s.  Some are light and fun; some are more pointed fun (like George Orwell's scathing review of Graham Greene's The Heart of the Mattter); some interesting for the personages being written about while alive (eg, Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein); and others are a bit heavier, as one would expect.  The centerpiece of the book, and by far the longest work, is John Hersey's 1946 piece simply titled Hiroshima.  Well worth reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on March 18, 2015, 05:51:27 AM
(http://s16.postimg.org/axbwwphqt/zoris_karl_uismans_nasuprot_slika_16434462.jpg)

Joris-Karl Huysmans - À rebours

Halfway through, feels more like a catalogue than a narrative. I like catalogues.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 18, 2015, 06:10:25 AM
Quote from: Drasko on March 18, 2015, 05:51:27 AM
(http://s16.postimg.org/axbwwphqt/zoris_karl_uismans_nasuprot_slika_16434462.jpg)

Joris-Karl Huysmans - À rebours

Halfway through, feels more like a catalogue than a narrative. I like catalogues.

One of my favourites. I hope you continue to enjoy it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on March 18, 2015, 07:29:12 PM
Quote from: Drasko on March 18, 2015, 05:51:27 AM
(http://s16.postimg.org/axbwwphqt/zoris_karl_uismans_nasuprot_slika_16434462.jpg)

Joris-Karl Huysmans - À rebours

Halfway through, feels more like a catalogue than a narrative. I like catalogues.

Huysmans is the sort of writer for whom narrative is a literary formality, an inconvenience to be supplied to the reader only when absolutely necessary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kitsune on March 19, 2015, 08:01:59 PM
Quote from: NikF on March 18, 2015, 06:10:25 AM
One of my favourites. I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Same here.

Now reading (first time):

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x7XYuo93uVI/UA4EdkKHpmI/AAAAAAAAAI0/P0MYiFAEzFE/s1600/madame_bovary.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 20, 2015, 03:14:52 AM
Another hot MS.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kitsune on March 20, 2015, 06:57:44 AM
For some reason I chose to read Sentimental Education some years ago over Bovary, but the former is lovely for sure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 22, 2015, 01:17:11 AM
I'm reading Shantaram, by David Gregory Roberts.   It's a hell of a book.  I've been working on it for a couple of years, which is really strange for me. I tend to finish books quickly.  The problem for me is that it is half memoir and half novel, and the mix throws me off in some ways. Instead of losing myself in it, I am always picking it apart and questioning the author's decisions.  That's too bad. It deserves more unconditional appreciation.
  I tried to put up an image, but they are either too big or are something other than simple images. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 22, 2015, 01:06:19 PM
This week I am working on these:

The Touchstone of Life, Loewenstein. Information processing in cells.
French verbs Past Tenses, Heminway. Drills mostly.
Bayes' Rule, J V Stone. Yes the title has a possessive error. Stats.
Live By Night, Dennis Lehane. Crime novel set in the 20s and 30s.
The Sense of Style, Steven Pinker.
The French Correction, susskind. Superb little grammar book.

I usually have several on the go at once.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Linus on March 22, 2015, 06:39:07 PM
The Monk by Matthew Lewis

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410PnN8cPCL.jpg)

Has anyone stumbled upon this?

It's from 1796 and seems an example of the pulp fiction of the time. Think Jane Austen + The Name of the Rose + a soap opera of your choice.

It's pretty fun to know that high-quality trash was written even in those days. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on March 22, 2015, 07:27:30 PM
Quote from: Linus on March 22, 2015, 06:39:07 PM
The Monk by Matthew Lewis

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410PnN8cPCL.jpg)

Has anyone stumbled upon this?

It's from 1796 and seems an example of the pulp fiction of the time. Think Jane Austen + The Name of the Rose + a soap opera of your choice.

It's pretty fun to know that high-quality trash was written even in those days. :)
I tried to read it once. But failed.
Much better is Mrs. Radcliffe. The Mysteries of Udolpho starts slow and sentimental, but kicks into high gear. And once it does that, it is unstoppable. Her other great book is The Italian, which I prefer, since it skips the sentimentality and gets to work right away.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Linus on March 22, 2015, 07:38:35 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on March 22, 2015, 07:27:30 PM
I tried to read it once. But failed.
Much better is Mrs. Radcliffe. The Mysteries of Udolpho starts slow and sentimental, but kicks into high gear. And once it does that, it is unstoppable. Her other great book is The Italian, which I prefer, since it skips the sentimentality and gets to work right away.

Much obliged for the recommendations. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 23, 2015, 05:15:16 AM
Quote from: Linus on March 22, 2015, 06:39:07 PM
The Monk by Matthew Lewis

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410PnN8cPCL.jpg)

Has anyone stumbled upon this?

It's from 1796 and seems an example of the pulp fiction of the time. Think Jane Austen + The Name of the Rose + a soap opera of your choice.

It's pretty fun to know that high-quality trash was written even in those days. :)

I have not read The Italian, but I also gave up on The Monk but liked Udolpho.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on March 23, 2015, 08:21:30 AM
(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351213545l/15823461.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on March 23, 2015, 09:00:15 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Cq9DKptuL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 26, 2015, 05:16:31 AM
Richard Wagner: the lighter side by Terry Quinn. Interesting book although I'm a bit distracted by constant errors ranging from wrong dates to names, characters etc.

Curiously, the part I most enjoyed about this book wasn't about Wagner himself at all but about composer Max Reger. The book had a quote from his mocking letter to a critic that had written an unfavorable review about his composition. I bursted in tremendous laughter in subway and everyone stared at me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 26, 2015, 05:18:24 AM
Quote from: Alberich on March 26, 2015, 05:16:31 AM
Richard Wagner: the lighter side by Terry Quinn. Interesting book although I'm a bit distracted by constant errors ranging from wrong dates to names, characters etc.

Curiously, the part I most enjoyed about this book wasn't about Wagner himself at all but about composer Max Reger. The book had a quote from his mocking letter to a critic that had written an unfavorable review about his composition. I bursted in tremendous laughter in subway and everyone stared at me.

If that is the letter cited by Nicolas Slonimsky in his Lexicon of Musical Invective, your burst of amusement is entirely understandable  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 26, 2015, 05:20:55 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 26, 2015, 05:18:24 AM
If that is the letter cited by Nicolas Slonimsky in his Lexicon of Musical Invective, your burst of amusement is entirely understandable  :)

Not sure if that's the one but considering it is probably the most well-known quote from him, it probably is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 27, 2015, 04:33:10 PM
Two books that I finished recently:

(http://assets.nybooks.com/media/images/productimage-picture-thus-were-their-faces-505.png)
(http://assets.nybooks.com/media/images/productimage-picture-the-wine-dark-sea-291.png)

Sciascia is highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 27, 2015, 05:12:25 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/Fablehaven.jpg)

Considering this for a read aloud to my kids next year, so thought I would take it in now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on March 27, 2015, 05:54:59 PM
Wendy Doniger.  The Hindus:  An Alternative History
From the Amazon page
Quote
Note that Doniger is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of Religions at the University of Chicago and the author of many books. Note that alternative neatly defines her. Learned, fluent, and entertaining in spite of the complexity of this ambitious undertaking, Doniger is also controversial, a role she embraces, confident that fresh viewpoints are essential to understanding the worlds that shaped the Hindu tradition, and the ways Hindus shaped society. While Doniger delves deeply into the Vedas and the "two great poems," Ramayana and Mahabharata, she searches other spheres for clues to the lives of women and the lower castes. She also analyzes depictions of animals, which are central to Hindu tales and the "cultural ideal" of nonviolence. As she energetically parses the relationships between gods and humans, karma and renunciation, asceticism and sensuality, priests and kings, men and women, she is also seeking glimpses into everyday Hindu life during each of India's empires. Lavishly detailed, dynamic, and encompassing, Doniger's multidimensional history celebrates Hindu wisdom, diversity, and pluralism with knowledge, insight, and passion. --Donna Seaman
Also chatty and snarky.  After listing competing scholarly theories about one artifact from the prehistoric Indus Valley Civilization, she wonders what the various scholars were smoking.
Nor is she afraid to point out that the Sanskrit word for fortunate also means has a good vagina.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on March 28, 2015, 06:59:32 AM
Quote from: Artem on March 27, 2015, 04:33:10 PM
Two books that I finished recently:

(http://assets.nybooks.com/media/images/productimage-picture-thus-were-their-faces-505.png)


Wow! Silvina is a rarity even for readers in Spanish. I haven't read any of her books translated into English, but I guess it's quite difficult to reflect certain poetic quality of her prose.

Nice cover.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 28, 2015, 11:55:36 AM
I can't remember now how I discovered her only that it was late last year, but it wasn't from the Borges / Bioy Casares connection. Maybe she was mentioned in Roberto Bolano's interview that I read. I found her stories, especially the early ones, very enjoyable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on March 28, 2015, 01:31:10 PM
I've read a few books since I last posted here, but thought I'd share the fact I'd started on the 5th Discworld book - Sourcery. I had already begun reading the Discworld series, but Terry Pratchett's passing made the idea a lot more compelling.

[asin]0062225723[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kitsune on March 28, 2015, 02:20:46 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on March 27, 2015, 05:54:59 PM
Wendy Doniger.  The Hindus:  An Alternative History
From the Amazon pageAlso chatty and snarky.  After listing competing scholarly theories about one artifact from the prehistoric Indus Valley Civilization, she wonders what the various scholars were smoking.
Nor is she afraid to point out that the Sanskrit word for fortunate also means has a good vagina.

I foolishly did not go to a talk she was giving at my University a few months back; seems like a very interesting individual.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 29, 2015, 07:25:31 AM
Read Raven and the Gold-bug from Poe. I liked both but gold-bug immensely more. It is a very clever short story. I heard Stevenson was inspired by Gold-bug when he wrote Treasure island, particularly the way skeleton/s "guard" the treasure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 30, 2015, 07:46:23 PM
(https://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-400/1493-1/661/AD9/81/%7B661AD981-84EF-446E-AF89-FCEF09D6C8DD%7DImg400.jpg)

Beautiful little book by an author who was unknown to me previously. I bought it on a whip and wasn't a bit disappointed. Will look for other Johnson's work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on April 03, 2015, 11:11:43 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hTW4QCLoL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NOTEgzvfL.jpg)

Really digging these books. Excellent works!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 03, 2015, 12:05:01 PM
Quote from: Henk on April 03, 2015, 11:11:43 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hTW4QCLoL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NOTEgzvfL.jpg)

Really digging these books. Excellent works!

I recommend The Roman Builders by Rabun Taylor. It is filled with academic crap and jargon but also with fascinating details of the how and why of ancient Roman buildings. A lot. Not for those with only a casual interest, but you clearly have more than that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on April 03, 2015, 02:33:19 PM
Just started on this Mahler biography and it is quite interesting...

[asin] 0300134444[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 03, 2015, 04:30:41 PM
.[asin]1468310100[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on April 03, 2015, 05:32:44 PM
Some light biography.

(http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/39/264x/209898.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on April 05, 2015, 02:31:20 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 03, 2015, 12:05:01 PM
I recommend The Roman Builders by Rabun Taylor. It is filled with academic crap and jargon but also with fascinating details of the how and why of ancient Roman buildings. A lot. Not for those with only a casual interest, but you clearly have more than that.

Thanks, Ken! I'm gonna stick to Clarke first though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Beaumarchais on April 05, 2015, 10:22:06 AM
Because of the computer I've gone from being a regular reader to an infrequent one but I'm currently re reading a book that I published some years ago and have not read for some time. I have written a couple of others, one of which I had published recently, and the third is waiting for revision (which is soul-destroying) but will probably be completed some time this year.
However, here's my magnum opus and, for anyone who might be interested, it can be Googled for a synopsis.

(http://i.imgur.com/jwwhggh.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 05, 2015, 12:15:10 PM
.[asin]0743272056[/asin]

[asin]0195125002[/asin]

[asin]1935251767[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on April 05, 2015, 12:50:33 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 05, 2015, 12:15:10 PM
.[asin]0743272056[/asin]


How do you like the Zimmer's writing, Ken?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 05, 2015, 12:51:39 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on April 05, 2015, 12:50:33 PM
How do you like the Zimmer's writing, Ken?
I like this. His Parasite Rex is a fantastic book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on April 05, 2015, 01:01:32 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 05, 2015, 12:51:39 PM
I like this. His Parasite Rex is a fantastic book.

I haven't read "Soul Made Flesh", but I must agree on Parasite Rex! Interesting experiments for the tapeworm life cycle, eh?  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on April 05, 2015, 05:17:27 PM
Ken, looks like a fantastic trio! I will look into all 3 of those.
 
  I just started:
(https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRtP-nyOhkfd8-HglrPUfYMrth1qZvAtPtgbzVX2_WL4chZToqu)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 05, 2015, 05:19:30 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on April 05, 2015, 05:17:27 PM
Ken, looks like a fantastic trio! I will look into all 3 of those.
 
  I just started:
(https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRtP-nyOhkfd8-HglrPUfYMrth1qZvAtPtgbzVX2_WL4chZToqu)

Report back please! That has been just below my threshold of "I will read that now" for 40 years ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on April 05, 2015, 06:16:51 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 05, 2015, 05:19:30 PM
Report back please! That has been just below my threshold of "I will read that now" for 40 years ...

  ;) Yeah, I've been meaning to read it for about 15. I had it in my kindle, but John Cleese raved about it in his autobiography, so I put it up in the first slot. 
    Would like to hear about your books as well, especially the Resenberger book on the cell. I have the Changizi and a different Zimmerman book: "Evolution, the Triumph of an Idea", so will give those a go (or at least a look).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 06, 2015, 04:18:00 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T1u8kqi-L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 10, 2015, 03:48:23 PM
Not reading these yet, but ordered

[asin]0241955440[/asin]
[asin]0091940176[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on April 10, 2015, 04:58:43 PM
For some reason I jumped to this as soon as I saw Ken's post. will finish soon.

[asin]0061138401[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jubal Slate on April 10, 2015, 05:05:13 PM
I love Rodgers and Hart (thanks, Ella) and so am reading this...
[asin]1416594264[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on April 10, 2015, 05:14:22 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 10, 2015, 05:05:13 PM
I love Rodgers and Hart (thanks, Ella) and so am reading this...
[asin]1416594264[/asin]

Thanks for pointing this out!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jubal Slate on April 10, 2015, 05:19:20 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on April 10, 2015, 05:14:22 PM
Thanks for pointing this out!

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 12, 2015, 07:58:53 AM
Just started reading....


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ycNGzc%2BOL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 12, 2015, 12:20:30 PM
Taking a break from my other reading with a Florestan special.

[asin]B003H4I49U[/asin]

I haven't given up on you Andrei!  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 12, 2015, 12:30:34 PM
Just starting...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41W7X10DGWL.jpg)

Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk (1796), "retold" by Antonin Artaud...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on April 12, 2015, 02:50:26 PM
Started

[asin]B00EMXBDMA[/asin]

and

[asin]B00E9FYU7G[/asin]

today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on April 13, 2015, 01:13:10 AM
Started this:
[asin]0801494214[/asin]


  Ken, so far not loving "Lucky Jim".  It's engaging after a fashion, and the writing is good, of course, but its one of those books where the main character is a guy of weak character with a propensity to be a loser.  He keeps doing stupid things that throw him into embarrassing and awkward situations. I'm not finding it fun or funny, but maybe I just need to get further into it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 13, 2015, 07:26:34 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 12, 2015, 12:20:30 PM
Taking a break from my other reading with a Florestan special.

[asin]B003H4I49U[/asin]

I haven't given up on you Andrei!  8)

Your effort is worth a better cause.  :D

http://www.amazon.com/Irreligion-Mathematician-Explains-Arguments-Just-ebook/product-reviews/B003H4I49U/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0 (http://www.amazon.com/Irreligion-Mathematician-Explains-Arguments-Just-ebook/product-reviews/B003H4I49U/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 13, 2015, 07:40:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 13, 2015, 07:26:34 AM
Your effort is worth a better cause.  :D

http://www.amazon.com/Irreligion-Mathematician-Explains-Arguments-Just-ebook/product-reviews/B003H4I49U/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0 (http://www.amazon.com/Irreligion-Mathematician-Explains-Arguments-Just-ebook/product-reviews/B003H4I49U/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0)

Actually it is quite a weak book. Not worth reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 13, 2015, 07:59:38 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 13, 2015, 07:40:53 AM
Actually it is quite a weak book. Not worth reading.

I imagined that much by reading the title.   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 14, 2015, 03:43:40 AM
QuoteYour search - isboulezdeadyet.com - did not match any documents.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 14, 2015, 03:48:05 AM
https://www.google.com/search?&q=boulezisdead.com
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 14, 2015, 03:56:01 AM
(* black-humor chortle *)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jubal Slate on April 14, 2015, 06:19:06 AM
Tastes just like the movie.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51L%2BIhwSBkL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 14, 2015, 08:26:28 AM
Four ways airlines are changing – for better or for worse (http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2015/0413/Four-ways-airlines-are-changing-for-better-or-for-worse-video)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on April 14, 2015, 02:24:28 PM
Je vais lire Tous les matins du monde.  Chacun d'eux. 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on April 14, 2015, 06:22:32 PM
(http://www.newrepublic.com/sites/default/files/u188521/waking_up_2.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 14, 2015, 06:27:18 PM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on April 14, 2015, 02:24:28 PM
Je vais lire Tous les matins du monde.  Chacun d'eux.

Few days ago I saw a translation into Spanish... maybe I should purchase it.

I liked the movie, especially the superb soundtrack recorded by Savall.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2015, 12:19:30 AM
(http://books.google.com/books/content?id=JDW1KoVHtHkC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE73CCMWDRhASz_V1Od1Y6G8Y06KjlV7kQUd5EngaXyYqnQwHEsP8zZVypGohc3LVjzu2z6YDTnpMRyKTcWelMfCo-etIuSPe6jJIXCZwtMPFmjlRspABP9xjehnm7NJ5CBhpQ6J7) (http://books.google.ro/books/about/On_Music_and_Musicians.html?id=JDW1KoVHtHkC&redir_esc=y)

Click on image to open clickable Table of Content.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jubal Slate on April 15, 2015, 04:56:51 PM
On deck.
[asin]0060931752[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 16, 2015, 03:58:37 AM
General Introduction
[asin]0230200958[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 16, 2015, 06:29:28 AM
Purchased yesterday on Amazon.es:

One Hundred and One Nights

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71tmvFRLgIL.jpg)

3,424 pages (3 vols.) directly translated from Arabic, with a great introductory study and profusion of erudite footnotes.

http://www.atalantaweb.com/libro.php?id=104
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 16, 2015, 07:15:04 AM
Quote from: Gordo on April 16, 2015, 06:29:28 AM
Purchased yesterday on Amazon.es:

One Ten Hundred and One Nights


Fixed.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 16, 2015, 07:32:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 16, 2015, 07:15:04 AM
Fixed.  :)

What was I thinking of? It will remain a mystery, I guess.  :)

P.S.: That's not totally true, I was thinking if was better to write "One Thousand Nights and One Night", or "One Thousand and One Nights", and then...  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 16, 2015, 07:38:12 AM
Quote from: Gordo on April 16, 2015, 07:32:39 AM
"One Thousand Nights and One Night More",

Fixed again.  ;D

In Romanian it reads O mie și una de nopți, word for word One thousand and one of nights.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 16, 2015, 10:43:36 AM
The literal meaning of the Arabic title is The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night.

My copy is another used book store find, the 1962 reprint
1934 Limited Editions Club edition: The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: The Complete Burton Translation with the Complete Burton Notes, the Terminal Index, and 1001 Decorations by Valenti Angelo, 3 Volumes in slipcase (reprinted by The Heritage Press, 1962)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 16, 2015, 10:55:56 AM
I read (and was read to) some translation of The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night as a child at my grandparents'. I see the only translation of the whole book directly from the original into Finnish was done in 2010. Will have to investigate
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 16, 2015, 11:37:40 AM
Quote from: North Star on April 16, 2015, 10:55:56 AM
I read (and was read to) some translation of The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night as a child at my grandparents'. I see the only translation of the whole book directly from the original into Finnish was done in 2010. Will have to investigate

As far as I know, in Spanish there are, at least, three translations from the Arabic, and several translations from French editions, principally the classical translations by Galland and Mardrus.

I started with Mardrus translated into Spanish by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, some time a famous novelist and screenwriter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 16, 2015, 12:32:35 PM
Quote from: Gordo on April 16, 2015, 11:37:40 AM
As far as I know, in Spanish there are, at least, three translations from the Arabic, and several translations from French editions, principally the classical translations by Galland and Mardrus.

I started with Mardrus translated into Spanish by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, some time a famous novelist and screenwriter.
There are 11 other translations into Finnish from various other translations - e.g. a Norwegian on - or incomplete translations of the original.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 16, 2015, 03:30:39 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 16, 2015, 10:43:36 AM
The literal meaning of the Arabic title is The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night.

My copy is another used book store find, the 1962 reprint
1934 Limited Editions Club edition: The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: The Complete Burton Translation with the Complete Burton Notes, the Terminal Index, and 1001 Decorations by Valenti Angelo, 3 Volumes in slipcase (reprinted by The Heritage Press, 1962)

Burton is notoriously inaccurate alas. And did you know Ali Baba and Aladdin's Lamp are not supposed to be in the 1001?
Most translations are from faulty texts too, unless it's relatively modern.
I have and recommend the Haddawy translation, based on the oldest extant manuscript.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 16, 2015, 05:44:14 PM
Quote from: North Star on April 16, 2015, 12:32:35 PM
There are 11 other translations into Finnish from various other translations - e.g. a Norwegian on - or incomplete translations of the original.

An outstanding number considering Finland's population.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 16, 2015, 06:00:56 PM
Quote from: Gordo on April 16, 2015, 05:44:14 PM
An outstanding number considering Finland's population.

Not really. It's a very dirty book.





>:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 16, 2015, 06:02:34 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 16, 2015, 03:30:39 PM
Burton is notoriously inaccurate alas. And did you know Ali Baba and Aladdin's Lamp are not supposed to be in the 1001?
Most translations are from faulty texts too, unless it's relatively modern.
I have and recommend the Haddawy translation, based on the oldest extant manuscript.

All of this is technically true, but - as usually happens with classics - I think there is not inaccuracy powerful enough to destroy them.

That being said, the reasons that you point out were, precisely, what I considered to pay EUR 120 for a new version.

BTW, this Borges essay is a jewel:

http://www.oocities.org/tidbits4you/ArabianNights.Borges.html

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 16, 2015, 06:08:06 PM
Quote from: Gordo on April 16, 2015, 06:02:34 PM
All of this is technically true, but - as usually happens with classics - I think there is not inaccuracy powerful enough to destroy them.

That being said, the reasons that you point out were, precisely, what I considered to pay EUR 120 for a new version.

BTW, this Borges essay is a jewel:

http://www.oocities.org/tidbits4you/ArabianNights.Borges.html

Damn you all! Now I want to read the frigging thing again and I do not have the time!
Instead of books it would help if you guys justed posted free time I could use to read them.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 16, 2015, 06:21:33 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 16, 2015, 06:00:56 PM
Not really. It's a very dirty book.





>:D

Which is why Burton's version is so valuable. >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 16, 2015, 06:27:33 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 16, 2015, 06:08:06 PM
Damn you all! Now I want to read the frigging thing again and I do not have the time!
Instead of books it would help if you guys justed posted free time I could use to read them.  :laugh:

It's the awful truth.

Anyway, as a sad single 45 y.o. man  :), the last five years I have read things like The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Essays of Montaigne, Boswell's Life of Johnson and some other monumental classic (all of them in good Spanish translations).

I also tried Chateaubriand's Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb and Mommsen's History of Rome. but I quit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 17, 2015, 12:12:00 AM
Quote from: Gordo on April 16, 2015, 06:27:33 PM
Mommsen's History of Rome

That one was a page turner for me.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 17, 2015, 03:03:47 AM
Quote from: Gordo on April 16, 2015, 05:44:14 PM
An outstanding number considering Finland's population.
Quote from: Ken B on April 16, 2015, 06:00:56 PM
Not really. It's a very dirty book.
Most of the translated editions are cleaned up.  :-X
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 17, 2015, 03:22:34 AM
Bowdlerized!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 17, 2015, 04:04:32 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 17, 2015, 12:12:00 AM
That one was a page turner for me.  :)

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

I recently enjoyed very much the "History of Rome" by the journalist Indro Montanelli. A collection of essays more than a conventional "history", it's an extremely interesting¡g and fresh book.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on April 17, 2015, 04:57:22 AM
Quote from: Gordo on April 17, 2015, 04:04:32 AM
I was interested in Mommsen from my childhood, when I read some volumes devoted to Rome by Carl Grimberg. I started full of expectations, but maybe it wasn't the right moment to me.

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

  I'm just starting the Rome volume of Durant's "Story of Civilization".  I read a one volume "Rise and Fall" about 20 years ago, and later bought the full 3 volume in a gorgeous set, but haven't even cracked it :-[   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on April 17, 2015, 05:03:08 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on April 17, 2015, 04:57:22 AM
  I'm just starting the Rome volume of Durant's "Story of Civilization".  I read a one volume "Rise and Fall" about 20 years ago, and later bought the full 3 volume in a gorgeous set, but haven't even cracked it :-[

I thought it was 11 volumes (don't want you to be cheated outta some civilization!)  I've read many of them and am always impressed at Durant's accomplishment.  Be aware, however, that specialists (aka envious bastards) find fault with him all over the place.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 17, 2015, 05:03:43 AM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on April 17, 2015, 05:03:08 AM
I thought it was 11 volumes (don't want you to be cheated outta some civilization!)

I need all the civilization I can get!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on April 17, 2015, 06:41:07 AM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on April 17, 2015, 05:03:08 AM
I thought it was 11 volumes (don't want you to be cheated outta some civilization!)  I've read many of them and am always impressed at Durant's accomplishment.  Be aware, however, that specialists (aka envious bastards) find fault with him all over the place.

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

    And yeah, I know academics love to beat up on Durant.  Of course he made mistakes and some sloppy generalizations. He was, after all, just an "amateur historian". However, unlike 97.89% of academics, he knew how to write clearly, succinctly, and with style. Perhaps that is the real reason they can't forgive him ::) 
   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 17, 2015, 06:51:32 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on April 17, 2015, 06:41:07 AM
However, unlike 97.89% of academics, he knew how to write clearly, succinctly, and with style. Perhaps that is the real reason they can't forgive him ::) 

I like that  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 17, 2015, 09:31:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 17, 2015, 12:12:00 AM
That one was a page turner for me.  :)

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

>:D
With apologies to Oscar Wilde
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on April 17, 2015, 03:21:10 PM
I'm curious, dear GMGers.

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

Mine are:

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

2) As a teenager (around 16 y.o.): Demian by Hermann Hess.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on April 17, 2015, 03:49:12 PM
Quote from: Gordo on April 17, 2015, 03:21:10 PM
I'm curious, dear GMGers.

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

Mine are:

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

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

That's a good question. For me -

1) Watership Down by Richard Adams.

2) Black Spring by Henry Miller.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 17, 2015, 04:13:35 PM
For me
1) My mother made sure I read heavily as a child, with the result that no book stands out in my mind above the rest.  As a preteen, I remember two books by Thomas Costain, The Silver Chalice and The Tontine, Desiree by Anne Marie Selinko, and The Roman by Mika Waltari (although Wikipedia's description of the latter does not match my faint memories of the story).  These all happened to be books my mother owned.
2)As a high school student,  The Lord of the Rings and Will Durant's Story of Philosophy
And to add one more level
3)In college,  Jane Austen and  Homer in Lattimore's translation, and Ariosto.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Gurn Blanston on April 17, 2015, 04:35:21 PM
Quote from: Gordo on April 17, 2015, 03:21:10 PM
I'm curious, dear GMGers.

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

Mine are:

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

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

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

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

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

8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 17, 2015, 04:56:50 PM
Early childhood & teenage: Rowling's Potter series
Teenage: Tolkien
Very late teens: Camus' Plague, The Stranger, The Fall
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 17, 2015, 06:30:24 PM
Hmmm.
About 10, And then there were none by Agatha Christie
About 16. Harder to say. Probably The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. That or Anna Karenina.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 17, 2015, 06:33:31 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 17, 2015, 04:13:35 PM
For me
1) My mother made sure I read heavily as a child, with the result that no book stands out in my mind above the rest.  As a preteen, I remember two books by Thomas Costain, The Silver Chalice and The Tontine, Desiree by Anne Marie Selinko, and The Roman by Mika Waltari (although Wikipedia's description of the latter does not match my faint memories of the story).  These all happened to be books my mother owned.
2)As a high school student,  The Lord of the Rings and Will Durant's Story of Philosophy
And to add one more level
3)In college,  Jane Austen and  Homer in Lattimore's translation, and Ariosto.

Costain is from my home town.

I may be one of the few here who failed to finish TLOTR.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 17, 2015, 06:39:29 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 17, 2015, 06:33:31 PM
Costain is from my home town.

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

There are a couple of chapters which even I find it a chore to make my way through . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 17, 2015, 06:45:10 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 17, 2015, 06:39:29 PM
There are a couple of chapters which even I find it a chore to make my way through . . . .

I remember giving up on the word Lo! somewhere deep in an orc battle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 17, 2015, 07:14:06 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 17, 2015, 06:45:10 PM
I remember giving up on the word Lo! somewhere deep in an orc battle.

If it was the final battle before the Black Gate...I fully understand why.  That LO! is the low point of the book.  JRR was bad at battle scenes.  And you can not skip it, since that is the chapter which describes Sauron's fall.
Title: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 17, 2015, 07:36:30 PM
Men of the West! Who brought the Captain Morgan?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 17, 2015, 08:20:13 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 17, 2015, 07:14:06 PM
If it was the final battle before the Black Gate...I fully understand why.  That LO! is the low point of the book.  JRR was bad at battle scenes.  And you can not skip it, since that is the chapter which describes Sauron's fall.

I believe it was. It was deep in third volume.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 18, 2015, 01:47:26 AM
Quote from: Gordo on April 17, 2015, 03:21:10 PM
I'm curious, dear GMGers.

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

Mine are:

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

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

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

2) Probably Hesse for me as well: Der Steppenwolf. Also, around that time, but I'm not quite sure if I was still in my teens, I first read Borges' Ficciones. That was huge, completely changed my perception of art.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on April 18, 2015, 02:01:35 AM
If I go back to before nine or ten I can recall reading 'Hurrah for the Circus' by Enid Blyton. It made me want to run away and join the circus. And frankly, sometimes I still do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2015, 03:18:05 AM
As a child (7-12) my daily literary meals consisted of Romanian and international folktales, Charles Perrault, The Grimm Brothers, Wilhelm Hauff, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, Paul Feval, Fenimore Cooper, R. L. Stevenson. Eugene Sue and so on. Also, one brick of a book, an encyclopedic dictionary (quite similar an experience to that of Gurn). Nothing groundshattering or transcendental, but I owe to them a lifelong passion for literature in all its forms, and also a deep interest in history, geography and linguistics.

While in my teens the first literary shock was discovering the poems of Poe (and his prose) and Baudelaire in excellent Romanian translation. I was instantly hooked and poetry has been one of my favorite genres ever since.

The second shock came in my late teens when I read Pascal´s Meditations, which lead me to The Bible, and then to a book written by a Romanian Jew who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy while he was imprisoned during the Communist regime for the capital crime of having read Emil Cioran. I didn´t consider myself an atheist even before reading these three books, but they positively turned me to Christianity.

So, these are the books which heavily influenced me in childhood and teenage. :D




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 18, 2015, 03:25:52 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 18, 2015, 03:18:05 AMAlso, one brick of a book, an encyclopedic dictionary (quite similar an experience to that of Gurn). Nothing groundshattering or transcendental, but I owe to them a lifelong passion for literature in all its forms, and also a deep interest in history, geography and linguistics.

While in my teens the first literary shock was discovering the poems of Poe (and his prose) and Baudelaire in excellent Romanian translation. I was instantly hooked and poetry has been one of my favorite genres ever since.
Encyclopedias were important in my childhood as well. I knew all of the history taught in elementary school beforehand.
Poe was important in my teens as well, I don't remember exactly when, but I got first a translated edition of his stories and poems, and a couple of months later the Penguin complete tales & poems. Still haven't read The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2015, 06:25:06 AM
Quote from: North Star on April 18, 2015, 03:25:52 AM
Encyclopedias were important in my childhood as well. I knew all of the history taught in elementary school beforehand.

History, yes --- and geography, too. As a child, I spent hours studying maps, a pleasure which I still experience. Give me a world atlas and lock me in an empty room --- you won´t hear from me for days!  ;D ;D ;D

Quote
Poe was important in my teens as well, I don't remember exactly when, but I got first a translated edition of his stories and poems, and a couple of months later the Penguin complete tales & poems. Still haven't read The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, though.

I discovered Poe in an excellently translated Romanian two-volume edition of his works from my parents´ library. The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Gold Bug and The Fall of the House of Usher were instant hits for me. I was in high school and fortunate enough to have a few colleagues interested in literature, so we established something of a Poe club.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 18, 2015, 06:39:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 18, 2015, 06:25:06 AM
History, yes --- and geography, too. As a child, I spent hours studying maps, a pleasure which I still experience. Give me a world atlas and lock me in an empty room --- you won´t hear from me for days!  ;D ;D ;D
Oh yes, I too spent countless hours looking at maps.

Quote from: Florestan on April 18, 2015, 06:25:06 AMI discovered Poe in an excellently translated Romanian two-volume edition of his works from my parents´ library. The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Gold Bug and The Fall of the House of Usher were instant hits for me. I was in high school and fortunate enough to have a few colleagues interested in literature, so we established something of a Poe club.
I didn't have any 'colleagues' in high school that were at all interested in literature, let alone visual arts (I started to get into visual arts later myself too, though, last year of sr. high) or classical music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on April 18, 2015, 06:43:22 AM
'Buddhist Boot Camp'
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 18, 2015, 08:26:54 AM
Quote from: North Star on April 18, 2015, 03:25:52 AM
Encyclopedias were important in my childhood as well. I knew all of the history taught in elementary school beforehand.
Poe was important in my teens as well, I don't remember exactly when, but I got first a translated edition of his stories and poems, and a couple of months later the Penguin complete tales & poems.

Well, we really were separated at birth  8)

Although I have read The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 18, 2015, 08:27:30 AM
And Andrei, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 18, 2015, 08:33:08 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 18, 2015, 08:26:54 AM
Well, we really were separated at birth  8)

Although I have read The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
The separation was very thorough, in time and place.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 18, 2015, 08:34:59 AM
Aliens were probably involved.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 18, 2015, 08:35:15 AM
Or, The Twilight Zone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2015, 08:35:33 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 18, 2015, 08:26:54 AM
I have read The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.

Quote from: karlhenning on April 18, 2015, 08:27:30 AM
And Andrei, too.

Oh, yes, I have read it.  :D :D :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on April 18, 2015, 09:20:54 AM
Quote from: North Star on April 18, 2015, 08:33:08 AM
The separation was very thorough, in time and place.

Quote from: karlhenning on April 18, 2015, 08:35:15 AM
Or, The Twilight Zone.

I know somebody whose younger brother (by 12 years) is so similar to him - psychologically and  physically - that I have called them identical twins separated by 12 years.

Quote from: Florestan on April 18, 2015, 06:25:06 AM
History, yes --- and geography, too. As a child, I spent hours studying maps, a pleasure which I still experience. Give me a world atlas and lock me in an empty room --- you won´t hear from me for days!  ;D ;D ;D


You whippersnappers are in the club: I also used to peruse maps of all kinds, and read many history books on my own in grade school.   0:)

Quote from: North Star on April 18, 2015, 06:39:50 AM
Oh yes, I too spent countless hours looking at maps.

I didn't have any 'colleagues' in high school that were at all interested in literature, let alone visual arts (I started to get into visual arts later myself too, though, last year of sr. high) or classical music.

I went to an all-boy Catholic high school, and fortunately found a good number of budding experts on what the Germans might call "hochgeistiges Zeug"   ;D  : many of us had already discovered e.g. Orwell, Poe, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Dumas, Hesse, E.T.A. Hoffmann, etc. and science-fiction authors like Heinlein, Asimov, and Bradbury.

I was a Brucknerian in grade school already, but there were "perfect Wagnerites" among us, pro-Stravinsky people and pro-Schoenberg people.  There was even an acolyte of Stockhausen!

One was an American version of Eduard Hanslick: "Up Brahms, Down Bruckner (and Wagner)!" :laugh:



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2015, 09:28:21 AM
Quote from: North Star on April 18, 2015, 06:39:50 AM
I didn't have any 'colleagues' in high school that were at all interested in literature, let alone visual arts (I started to get into visual arts later myself too, though, last year of sr. high) or classical music.

Classical music fans there were two, myself and another guy. Literature, on the other hand, was quite popular in my class.  :)

As for visual arts, my father is an amateur painter and has a very good library of books about visual arts, so I was exposed to them very early.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on April 18, 2015, 10:24:28 AM
I think I loved the Atlas before I could properly read longer books; it was somewhat intermediate between picture-dominated books and text-dominated books. In any case I knew most European capitals by heart before I even entered primary school. I read voraciously as a child, almost everything I could get. The first famous/serious novel was probably "Treasure Island" I was 8 or 9, in hindsight certainly too young but I had been obsessed with pirates already a few years before that. I still love that book, it is among the best adventure stories I know, has a cool ambiguous villain, a heroic (but not extremely unrealistically so) young protagonist etc.

But my favorite book around 11 was probably Ende's "Neverending Story" (and when the movie came out, my first time in a cinema, it was traumatically disappointing, so until today I am very wary of movie adaptations of books, most of them suck)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jubal Slate on April 18, 2015, 05:11:03 PM
Good right off.
[asin]B00AHFJ8ZG[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on April 18, 2015, 07:47:34 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 18, 2015, 05:11:03 PM
Good right off.
[asin]B00AHFJ8ZG[/asin]

As far as Jazz writing goes, Gary Giddins is tops.  Very knowledgeable, he always sees things in a big-picture, holistic way, like a top-shelf academic, but also has the writing chops of a great journalist. 

TD:
  Based on Ken's recommendation I got this.
[asin]0195125002[/asin]

  I'm only 20 pages in, but it is clear this is a gem.  Very engaging writing style that is dense with information yet wonderfully lucid.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 20, 2015, 04:54:07 PM
This one goes out to MN Dave:

(https://scontent-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10458335_618309148283363_7329763019830372345_n.jpg?oh=b731be1630340e69a06fda4fa6661026&oe=55A43A27)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 21, 2015, 03:49:42 AM
(* chortle *)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 21, 2015, 04:18:22 AM
Continue reading Oblomov (and enjoying it immensely).

Dostoevsky said about Goncharov: "In [him] one meets the soul of a small time clerk, a head devoid of any idea and the eyes of a boiled fish; and God, as if to make a joke, gave him a brilliant talent ".  ;D

Be it as it may, the delicate poetry and humor in the chapter titled "Oblomov´s Dream" is pure genius. Reading through it I wish some Russian composer took inspiration from it and wrote some Kinderszenen. I know Tchaikovsky´s, but they don´t match exactly that marvelous chapter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 21, 2015, 07:46:51 AM
(http://s24.postimg.org/tzd8l3md1/psel.jpg)

Michael Psellus - Chronographia
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on April 21, 2015, 07:58:10 AM
Fetched from the post today, in a package that was large enough for half a dozen volumes.
[asin]0091940176[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 21, 2015, 08:54:56 AM
Quote from: Draško on April 21, 2015, 07:46:51 AM
(http://s24.postimg.org/tzd8l3md1/psel.jpg)

Michael Psellus - Chronographia

My version of that....
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jyHde6MDL.jpg)

TD
Bruce Catton
A Stillness at Appomattox
More prep for my little trip next month to Virginia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 21, 2015, 09:46:06 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on April 21, 2015, 09:27:23 AM
If you want a great read (and excellent history), find Douglas Southall Freeman's Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (3 Volumes).  Best book on the Civil War, IMO.  Most libraries have it.  Shelby Foote's 3-vol. narrative history is also very good.

They are the classics.
But this is for a focused purpose.  I will be B"H with a tour group for four days, literally going over the ground from Petersburg to Appomattox that saw the final week of the Army of Northern Virginia's existence.
Last year I went with the same group to visit the sites of the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse. We were there literally 150 years to the day after the fighting at Spotsylvania.  If you want, you can see the pictures I took then on my Flickr stream. (Hit the globe under my avatar.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jubal Slate on April 21, 2015, 09:52:30 AM
 8)
(http://ttapress.com/images/content/794_large.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 21, 2015, 11:57:26 AM
There's a bulletin:

Quote"It is no secret that popular media have a real struggle communicating complexity," Camosy wrote.

What do Americans really think about abortion? The answer may surprise you. (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0420/What-do-Americans-really-think-about-abortion-The-answer-may-surprise-you)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 23, 2015, 04:48:30 PM
This remarkably good blog post.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/04/22/growth-mindset-3-a-pox-on-growth-your-houses/ (http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/04/22/growth-mindset-3-a-pox-on-growth-your-houses/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on April 25, 2015, 11:03:15 PM
Just started on this one. Very interesting...   8)

[asin] 0312427719[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 26, 2015, 12:43:14 PM
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTEwOVgxMzQ2/z/3~MAAOxyW1NREc9r/$(KGrHqF,!g0FELUl62hGBREc9qkqy!~~60_35.JPG)

Reads like a spy novel. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 26, 2015, 01:34:25 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UF-wT6yoL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX324_SY324_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA346_SH20_OU02_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on April 28, 2015, 06:26:45 AM
A biography of Billy Strayhorn.

(http://i.imgur.com/E0vWKbi.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 29, 2015, 05:09:37 AM
(http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/0/4/36682-5339-40999-1-ken-parker-magazine.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 02, 2015, 12:10:21 AM
Just started The Rainbow by DH Lawrence....


(https://img1.etsystatic.com/055/0/9594054/il_570xN.756855845_ed5c.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 05:17:05 AM
I finished the first volume a bit ago, and am nearing the end of vol. 2. 
[asin]0393307069[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on May 02, 2015, 12:14:15 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 05:17:05 AM
I finished the first volume a bit ago, and am nearing the end of vol. 2. 
[asin]0393307069[/asin]

What an eccentric character was Patrick O'Brian! And what a sharp intellect. I love this quote where he expresses his dislike for the inquisitiveness of strangers: "Question and answer is not a civilised form of conversation."

No doubt, he didn't enjoy interviews. 

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 05:05:45 PM
Quote from: Gordo on May 02, 2015, 12:14:15 PM
What an eccentric character was Patrick O'Brian! And what a sharp intellect. I love this quote where he expresses his dislike for the inquisitiveness of strangers: "Question and answer is not a civilised form of conversation."

No doubt, he didn't enjoy interviews. 

:)

  I'm sorry to say that I had never heard of him, or this whole series until just recently.   I have some criticisms, but find the books (so far) hard to put down.  The jump in quality between books 1 and 2 is surprisingly large.  I suppose I will end up reading these for some time to come. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 02, 2015, 05:08:07 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 05:05:45 PM
  I'm sorry to say that I had never heard of him, or this whole series until just recently.   I have some criticisms, but find the books (so far) hard to put down.  The jump in quality between books 1 and 2 is surprisingly large.  I suppose I will end up reading these for some time to come.
I bet not.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on May 02, 2015, 05:41:38 PM
Another Bernhard for me. Pretty much in his usually style, but good.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41jO2SbKMLL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 05:53:34 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 02, 2015, 05:08:07 PM
I bet not.

   ?  Why's that? Do you feel they pall pretty quickly?
    A few years ago I re-read the whole C.S. Forster "Hornblower" series, which this one seems to be modeled after.  O'Brian brings in a lot more of the politics of the times, and larger social issues, which is sometimes interesting and sometimes not.   However, he has technical problems with scenes, in my opinion, especially complicated ones with action or multiple characters.  It is often not clear who pronouns refer to, or the physical relations between the participants.  That's extremely unusual in work of this stature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 02, 2015, 06:03:31 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 05:53:34 PM
   ?  Why's that? Do you feel they pall pretty quickly?
    A few years ago I re-read the whole C.S. Forster "Hornblower" series, which this one seems to be modeled after.  O'Brian brings in a lot more of the politics of the times, and larger social issues, which is sometimes interesting and sometimes not.   However, he has technical problems with scenes, in my opinion, especially complicated ones with action or multiple characters.  It is often not clear who pronouns refer to, or the physical relations between the participants.  That's extremely unusual in work of this stature.

They do. And they get diffuse. A friend said that in the end he couldn't figure out why O'Brian wrote them. Seems a good summary. The one I liked best was about chasing a 74, but I forget which it was. Nutmeg perhaps or Mauritius.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on May 02, 2015, 06:20:37 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 05:05:45 PM
  I'm sorry to say that I had never heard of him, or this whole series until just recently.   I have some criticisms, but find the books (so far) hard to put down.  The jump in quality between books 1 and 2 is surprisingly large.  I suppose I will end up reading these for some time to come.

Actually, I have read very few historical novels in my life (most of them when I was a boy), but O'Brian interested me as an eccentric character, specially after I did read some years ago this article written by his son:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/nov/28/fiction.film

Apparently, his life was quite enigmatic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 06:50:10 PM
Quote from: Gordo on May 02, 2015, 06:20:37 PM
Actually, I have read very few historical novels in my life (most of them when I was a boy), but O'Brian interested me as an eccentric character, specially after I did read some years ago this article written by his son:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/nov/28/fiction.film

Apparently, his life was quite enigmatic.

  Thanks for the link.  From the article, though, I didn't see anything particularly enigmatic.  He seems to be a selfish jerk who abandoned his wife and children for an attractive younger woman...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on May 02, 2015, 06:59:09 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 06:50:10 PM
  Thanks for the link.  From the article, though, I didn't see anything particularly enigmatic.  He seems to be a selfish jerk who abandoned his wife and children for an attractive younger woman...

It's a legit reading, I guess.  ;D

But newspapers and journalists needed to do a lot of work to reconstruct his past, when he was already a famous writer. A lot, really... and his son's article is like a final brick on the wall, when a great part of the mysteries had been solved.  :)   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 07:20:21 PM
Quote from: Gordo on May 02, 2015, 06:59:09 PM
It's a legit reading, I guess.  ;D

But newspapers and journalists needed to do a lot of work to reconstruct his past, when he was already a famous writer. A lot, really... and his son's article is like a final brick on the wall, when a great part of the mysteries had been solved.  :)   

  Oh, I see. That article is 100% of my knowledge of the man, so you cannot blame me--I just looked where you pointed me ;)
    When I heard "enigmatic" I thought Daniel Defoe enigmatic.  What a life! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 02, 2015, 07:40:43 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 07:20:21 PM
  Oh, I see. That article is 100% of my knowledge of the man, so you cannot blame me--I just looked where you pointed me ;)
    When I heard "enigmatic" I thought Daniel Defoe enigmatic.  What a life!

Ever read The Quest for Corvo?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 08:55:08 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 02, 2015, 07:40:43 PM
Ever read The Quest for Corvo?

No, but just checked out the amazon page. Looks very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 03, 2015, 05:52:06 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 02, 2015, 08:55:08 PM
No, but just checked out the amazon page. Looks very interesting.

Might be up your alley.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 03, 2015, 05:36:21 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on April 13, 2015, 01:13:10 AM
Started this:
[asin]0801494214[/asin]

Al,

How is Walker's Liszt biography? It has been on my TBR pile for a long time....    :'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 03, 2015, 06:00:36 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 03, 2015, 05:36:21 PM
Al,

How is Walker's Liszt biography? It has been on my TBR pile for a long time....    :'(

  I'm about 1/2 way through the second volume.  He is very thorough and it is full of facts and information.  It is very readable, but one has the feeling Walker himself is probably a rather dull guy with little non-academic life experience.  He has very little insight into human nature. Liszt himself comes out rather 2-D, mostly, I think, because Walker is suppressing most of what is negative about him.  It's not hagiography, but he does make Liszt out to be a kind of saintly figure.  He keeps mentioning that all his friends and peers turn against him, but can't seem to figure out why (well, he says they are all jealous of Liszt's generously helping other people).  It's fairly easy to read between the lines as you read and feel like you understand Liszt better than Walker does...   
   Anyway, Liszt life was so interesting the book cannot avoid being engaging, and as Liszt engaged closely with most of the key composers and musicians of the era--plus lots of other famous people, the book gives a nice view into 19th century European musical culture.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 11, 2015, 02:57:20 AM
I had read Trout Fishing in America before;  this volume was my introduction to In Watermelon Sugar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 11, 2015, 05:59:07 AM
I used to have a single volume with Trout Fishing and Watermelon which I read over 20 years ago. I only remember one thing from both of them combined, and that probably incorrectly: 

   Trout Fishing in America cast at some old woman. I think she was ascending a set of steps going up a hill. She yelled something like "Hey what did you do that for!" and he said "Oh, sorry. I thought you were a trout stream," and she answered, "Well, I'm not". 

TD:
  I'm on volume 5 of the Patrick O'brian Jack Aubrey books. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MagicMark on May 11, 2015, 07:24:40 AM
The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Classical Music
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 11, 2015, 05:49:25 PM
This article, which I will just leave here to irk a few people.
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/10/the_left_has_islam_all_wrong_bill_maher_pamela_geller_and_the_reality_progressives_must_face/ (http://www.salon.com/2015/05/10/the_left_has_islam_all_wrong_bill_maher_pamela_geller_and_the_reality_progressives_must_face/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on May 16, 2015, 06:22:15 AM
(http://www.gdprice.com/j/31691.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 16, 2015, 06:30:02 AM
I can't stop reading this series. Now on volume 7.   ???
[asin] 0393308200[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 16, 2015, 06:54:55 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 16, 2015, 06:30:02 AM
I can't stop reading this series. Now on volume 7.   ???
[asin] 0393308200[/asin]

Yes you can. I have faith in you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 16, 2015, 07:12:31 AM
I'm positive I'll read no more than 13 more...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 16, 2015, 07:44:40 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 16, 2015, 07:12:31 AM
I'm positive I'll read no more than 13 more...

I ended up reading about ten or twelve.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 16, 2015, 07:58:39 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 16, 2015, 07:44:40 AM
I ended up reading about ten or twelve.

  That's probably where I'll end up, if I make it that far. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 16, 2015, 08:59:03 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 16, 2015, 07:58:39 AM
  That's probably where I'll end up, if I make it that far.

I'm a slow learner. Hell, I still listen to La Mer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 16, 2015, 09:28:32 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 16, 2015, 08:59:03 AM
I'm a slow learner. Hell, I still listen to La Mer.
"Hope surges eternal.:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on May 16, 2015, 01:19:49 PM
1st attempt at reading some Shakespeare. starting with Hamlet.

(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780760703328_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 16, 2015, 02:27:14 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on May 16, 2015, 01:19:49 PM
1st attempt at reading some Shakespeare. starting with Hamlet.

Hast thou read any text from that yonder time afore, Olivier? The complete works is a mighty tome indeed. I'm soon finishing RIII.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 16, 2015, 02:51:41 PM
Quote from: North Star on May 16, 2015, 02:27:14 PM
Hast thou read any text from that yonder time afore, Olivier? The complete works is a mighty tome indeed. I'm soon finishing RIII.

Always one of my favourites.
I keep planning on reading HIV, but never doing so. Itsits on the shelf, lowering balefully at me. I have the Shakespeare Without Fear edition in fact! It was 2.99 for both parts together with decent type. I just have to be carefull which side I read is all.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 16, 2015, 02:59:51 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on May 16, 2015, 01:19:49 PM
1st attempt at reading some Shakespeare. starting with Hamlet.

(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780760703328_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)

I believe that Shakespeare's plays should be experienced...  Ideally in a live performance, but I must admit that subtitles help a great deal!
BBC actually recorded all of his plays. They vary in quality, but overall I was very pleased with BBC's efforts. I usually read a play after having "seen" it.

A great set:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Collection-DVD-Alan-Rickman/dp/B000B6F8V4 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Collection-DVD-Alan-Rickman/dp/B000B6F8V4)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZGNVHB6KL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 16, 2015, 03:03:41 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 16, 2015, 02:59:51 PM
I believe that Shakespeare's plays should be experienced...  Ideally in a live performance, but I must admit that subtitles help a great deal!
BBC actually recorded all of his plays. They vary in quality, but overall I was very pleased with BBC's efforts. I usually read a play after having "seen" it.

A great set:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Collection-DVD-Alan-Rickman/dp/B000B6F8V4 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Collection-DVD-Alan-Rickman/dp/B000B6F8V4)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZGNVHB6KL.jpg)

Bad kitty!




That's my wallet talking. This is kinda tempting. The library has a lot but still ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 16, 2015, 03:31:57 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 16, 2015, 03:03:41 PM
Bad kitty!




That's my wallet talking. This is kinda tempting. The library has a lot but still ...

Well worth it as it has a number of plays which are very hard to see/get otherwise as they are rarely performed. The actors are very good overall even though the sets can be rustic at times. Regardless, Shakepeare's words carry the day!  0:)

PS! You will need a region-free player!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 16, 2015, 03:34:28 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 16, 2015, 02:59:51 PM
I believe that Shakespeare's plays should be experienced...  Ideally in a live performance, but I must admit that subtitles help a great deal!
BBC actually recorded all of his plays. They vary in quality, but overall I was very pleased with BBC's efforts. I usually read a play after having "seen" it.

A great set:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Collection-DVD-Alan-Rickman/dp/B000B6F8V4 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Collection-DVD-Alan-Rickman/dp/B000B6F8V4)
Well I'm not going to see Shakespeare in English in theatres here, even less in original pronunciation. But seeing the play/movie on screen is a definitely a fine experience. That doesn't replace being able to read the text, though.
That box is something I definitely would like.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on May 17, 2015, 03:57:14 AM
Quote from: North Star on May 16, 2015, 02:27:14 PM
Hast thou read any text from that yonder time afore, Olivier? The complete works is a mighty tome indeed. I'm soon finishing RIII.

1st attempt to that kind of text as well, Karlo but i thought I should give Shakespeare a proper go, so went straight in with the complete works. For their price, these Barnes and Noble Leatherbound books are really neat. Also got the complete Holmes / Conan Doyle as well at the time. Definitely considering other volumes of writers I never read before (Poe, Dickens, HG Wells, Twain...at least not in original English versions for some of them).

Will skip on the DVD set for now though, Moonfish ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 17, 2015, 05:17:35 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on May 16, 2015, 01:19:49 PM
1st attempt at reading some Shakespeare. starting with Hamlet.

(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780760703328_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)

Hamlet is a good place to start, I for ex. did so :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on May 18, 2015, 03:24:49 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on May 17, 2015, 03:57:14 AM

Will skip on the DVD set for now though, Moonfish ;D

But...seeing is believing....    ;)
Go Shakespeare!!!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2015, 12:53:12 PM
(http://www.edituraparalela45.ro/imagini/coperti/medii/nuvele_exemplare_Cervantes_coperta1.jpg)

Cervantes - Exemplary Novels
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 18, 2015, 01:45:16 PM
Very good so far. Technical enough to be accurate but not a text book.
[asin]3527404708[/asin]

It requires a little math. If you know what a complex number is, what a vector is, and what an expected value is that's enough.

Rereading this
[asin]0316289299[/asin]

Ant it is pronounced taw-gallyant Al. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 18, 2015, 05:13:06 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 18, 2015, 01:45:16 PM
Ant it is pronounced taw-gallyant Al. :)

  I didn't know that.  I reread the Hornblower series a few years back.  Enjoyed it a lot.   Started 8 of Aubrey yesterday, but hope to stop soon. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: rockerreds on May 19, 2015, 06:47:41 AM
Doris Lessing- Stories
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 19, 2015, 07:37:06 AM
A few days ago, I finished Oscar Levant's Memoirs of an Amnesiac, which towards the end becomes less an entertaining train-wreck, and more something one practically squirms to read.  The title is no mere amusing affectation, as he was a substance abuser, and (as he writes here) there is a year of his life, most of his awareness of which is no matter of what he can remember, but of what his wife recounts to him as having occurred.  So, yes, the first 80% (say) of the book is plausibly a rattling good time, if at times verging on the wild (and, without culpability, might simply be enjoyed);  but the wildness takes rather a disconcerting turn for the final chapters (the last chapter IIRC is titled "My Bed of Nails").

This "mind-messing-with" aspect, perhaps, may be why the book has not been made available as an e-book (or is it still under copyright, and thus the heirs/owners are chary of letting it all hang out afresh?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 19, 2015, 10:18:11 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 19, 2015, 07:39:48 AM
Your timing is extraordinary (unless you're at my shoulder, in which case, it's creepy):  I just lit on a book here on my shelf, which I had not thought about for (say) three years, and am thinking of starting to read it:

Prompted by the Snobbery thread, I've begun reading:

[asin]B003UV91CE[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2015, 06:28:22 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 19, 2015, 10:18:11 AM
Prompted by the Snobbery thread, I've begun reading:

[asin]B003UV91CE[/asin]

This is good fun.

Also:  popcorn-munching reading (http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4075/what-is-the-origin-of-zomg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 22, 2015, 09:51:34 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2015, 06:28:22 AM
This is good fun.

Also:  popcorn-munching reading (http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4075/what-is-the-origin-of-zomg)

Pffft. Who can waste their time reading such books?

Think about it ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2015, 09:53:12 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 22, 2015, 09:51:34 AM
Pffft. Who can waste their time reading such books?

Think about it ...

Well played!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on May 22, 2015, 05:36:31 PM
Two books that I finished recently by two authors that are new to me:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MFJ511QCL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)(https://archipelagobooks.org/wp-content/uploads/Telegrams-of-the-Soul-Cover1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 22, 2015, 06:17:13 PM
I'm a big fan of McCullough. 

[asin]1476728747[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 26, 2015, 05:06:28 PM
Taking a fiction break, starting with
The Judge and his Hangman
Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Been on my book shelf for a very long time, maybe 15 years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 06, 2015, 12:36:29 AM
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/4715#.VXKvmnD3arU (http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/4715#.VXKvmnD3arU)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 06, 2015, 01:25:48 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 26, 2015, 05:06:28 PM
Taking a fiction break, starting with
The Judge and his Hangman
Friedrich Dürrenmatt

This is sometimes assigned in middle school in Germany (we did it in 8th grade or so, although the most popular Dürrenmatt for school reading are the plays "The visit" (of an elderly lady) and "The physicists"). To my recollection, this is quite good.

There are a few more crime novels by Dürrenmatt, some with the same protagonist but this is the first and probably the best (it's been a long time I read them).

I do not know if all of them have been translated but there are another handful of somewhat unconventional Swiss (and with more local feeling than Dürrenmatt) mysteries: Friedrich Glauser's "Sergeant Studer" and sequels (written and taking place in the 1930s). Glauser died 1938 in his early 40s after years of drug addiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 06, 2015, 07:41:15 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on June 06, 2015, 01:25:48 AM
This is sometimes assigned in middle school in Germany (we did it in 8th grade or so, although the most popular Dürrenmatt for school reading are the plays "The visit" (of an elderly lady) and "The physicists"). To my recollection, this is quite good.

There are a few more crime novels by Dürrenmatt, some with the same protagonist but this is the first and probably the best (it's been a long time I read them).

I do not know if all of them have been translated but there are another handful of somewhat unconventional Swiss (and with more local feeling than Dürrenmatt) mysteries: Friedrich Glauser's "Sergeant Studer" and sequels (written and taking place in the 1930s). Glauser died 1938 in his early 40s after years of drug addiction.
I will look for Glauser. This is the third of Durrenmatt's I read. I will probably reread The Quarry soon. They are good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 06, 2015, 10:01:08 AM
"The quarry" (Der Verdacht) is a loose sequel to The judge... with Baerlach in the hospital. There is another one "Das Versprechen" which is connected to a rather famous movie from the late 50s (with "Goldfinger" Gert Froebe) but Duerrenmatt changed it slightly for the novel. And then there is a latecomer, "Justiz" from the 1980s.

Glauser is different but also quite original (they are often said to be the first crime/mystery novels written in German)

In a poll among German crime fiction writers and critics about the all time best crime novels, the first Glauser novel "Wachtmeister Studer" came as #4 (behind "The postman always rings twice", "The long goodbye" and "The maltese falcon") as the best German language one. "The Judge and his hangman" was #8 (the next German language one in the list). (The list is a little strange, I think. Clearly biased towards the hardboiled, spies etc. stuff. According to the text, Simenon was mentioned a lot but always with different books, so none made the list. And "Gaudy Night" the best of Sayers'...?)

http://www.krimilexikon.de/dkp/die119.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 06, 2015, 11:40:33 AM
Interesting danke. I have read almost all through 15th place.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 06, 2015, 02:06:33 PM
Coincidentally, I am reading about free tulips in Finland.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/06/against-tulip-subsidies/ (http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/06/against-tulip-subsidies/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on June 06, 2015, 02:43:25 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 06, 2015, 02:06:33 PM
Coincidentally, I am reading about free tulips in Finland.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/06/against-tulip-subsidies/ (http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/06/against-tulip-subsidies/)

You must have so much free time, Ken....!    >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on June 07, 2015, 01:27:21 AM
I picked this up for my kindle and nibble at it now and then...

[asin]0743243129[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 08, 2015, 05:32:12 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on June 06, 2015, 01:25:48 AM
This is sometimes assigned in middle school in Germany (we did it in 8th grade or so, although the most popular Dürrenmatt for school reading are the plays "The visit" (of an elderly lady) and "The physicists"). To my recollection, this is quite good.

There are a few more crime novels by Dürrenmatt, some with the same protagonist but this is the first and probably the best (it's been a long time I read them).

I do not know if all of them have been translated but there are another handful of somewhat unconventional Swiss (and with more local feeling than Dürrenmatt) mysteries: Friedrich Glauser's "Sergeant Studer" and sequels (written and taking place in the 1930s). Glauser died 1938 in his early 40s after years of drug addiction.

I ordered one of Glauser's novels in the Studer series off Amazon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 08, 2015, 11:16:45 PM
I hope you like it. They are somewhat "slow" compared to contemporary (or 1930s hardboiled) crime fiction and some of the peculiarly Swiss moods and manners are probably lost in translation. (They are basically written in standard German but better German edition do have a glossary for Swiss regionalisms).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 12, 2015, 11:19:19 AM
Well, and are we surprised?

QuoteThe US has embraced more-liberal ideas of policing in the wake of a number of fatal confrontations between police and black men. But a spike in crime is testing that shift.

RTHT here (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/0610/Crime-spike-could-throw-police-reform-efforts-into-doubt).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 12, 2015, 11:30:13 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 12, 2015, 11:19:19 AM
Well, and are we surprised?

RTHT here (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/0610/Crime-spike-could-throw-police-reform-efforts-into-doubt).

Depends on whom you mean by 'we'. I am not. I was in Cincinnati during and after the anti-police riots after a white cop killed a fleeing black petty criminal. Afterwards the cops basically left parts of the city alone for a while. Crime exploded, and the murder rate (rather low so the effect might be just chance) doubled. The big losers were, of course, the mostly poor, mostly black, folks who lived in those areas. The Czech social justice warrior faction may get different mileage.

(BTW the way the Cinci cops handled the case of the officer involved was disgraceful. He was found in an internal investigation to have acted recklessly and violated all sorts of department policies. (He avoided conviction for manslaughter because it's hard to prove he didn't think he saw a gun.) They "fired" him with much fanfare. But the firing was a sham; a week later he was silently hired by the police force in one of the suburbs. In essence they moved him a few miles. The blue wall in action.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 12, 2015, 11:32:41 AM
It wants fixing, not the show trials . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 14, 2015, 04:52:50 AM
Anais Nin

(http://i.imgur.com/9aKA414.jpg)

A selection from two of her short story collections - I think 'Delta of Venus' and 'Little Birds'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 15, 2015, 06:42:05 AM
Last year, for the first time, the number of unmarried American adults outnumbered those who were married. (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2015/0614/Singles-nation-Why-so-many-Americans-are-unmarried)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 17, 2015, 05:10:45 AM
(http://s28.postimg.org/e8axr64xp/Right_Ho_Jeeves.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on June 17, 2015, 05:32:12 AM
Gary Giddins, the great Jazz critic and anthologist's bio of Bing.  I'm only up to 1929, but great so far.  Not exciting or novelistic, but very well researched with lots of socio-historical details that really add rich background to the events.

[asin]0316886459[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 17, 2015, 05:37:44 AM
Quote from: Draško on June 17, 2015, 05:10:45 AM
(http://s28.postimg.org/e8axr64xp/Right_Ho_Jeeves.jpg)

Brilliant!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on June 17, 2015, 08:50:55 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 17, 2015, 05:37:44 AM
Brilliant!
I'll be finishing that one during the autumn myself.

My holiday reading (well, a Finnish translation of the Renoir). Both brilliant, of course.
[asin]0140424547[/asin]

[asin]0940322773[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 17, 2015, 08:57:50 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 17, 2015, 05:37:44 AM
Brilliant!
Isn't that the last one with the Gussie-Madeline-story?
In any case this edition has a big spoiler on the title illustration...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 17, 2015, 09:00:18 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on June 17, 2015, 08:57:50 AM
Isn't that the last one with the Gussie-Madeline-story?

I never dug into the proper chronology . . . I've just read stories/novels pell-mell.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 17, 2015, 09:32:16 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 17, 2015, 05:37:44 AM
Brilliant!

'Tis.

Quote from: Jo498 on June 17, 2015, 08:57:50 AM
Isn't that the last one with the Gussie-Madeline-story?

No, it's the first one. The Code of the Woosters is something of a sequel, after that I don't know.

edit: after The Code of the Woosters, come The Mating Season and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on June 17, 2015, 11:44:50 AM
The Evolution of God by Robert Wright

A good combination of anthropological fact and reasoned speculation.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41sJhAqkVcL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on June 17, 2015, 12:22:26 PM
I began this behemoth today! Wish me luck! It is definitely intriguing in its scope.

Jürgen Osterhammel: The Transformation of the World - A Global History of the Nineteenth Century

Review from NYRB (http://www.politique-actu.com/dossier/where-fritz-stern-nyrb/1333019/).

[asin] 0691147450[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 17, 2015, 02:20:51 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on June 17, 2015, 12:22:26 PM
I began this behemoth today! Wish me luck! It is definitely intriguing in its scope.

Jürgen Osterhammel: The Transformation of the World - A Global History of the Nineteenth Century

Review from NYRB (http://www.politique-actu.com/dossier/where-fritz-stern-nyrb/1333019/).

[asin] 0691147450[/asin]

Interesting looking but ... Let us know.
I see Tyler Cowen blurbed the book. The world knows few greater masters of the incomprehensible sentence, the garbled paragraph, than Tyler Cowen.

TD
Just started a novel, The Homesman by Glendon Swarthout
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 18, 2015, 01:29:22 AM
Quote from: Draško on June 17, 2015, 09:32:16 AM
No, it's the first one. The Code of the Woosters is something of a sequel, after that I don't know.

edit: after The Code of the Woosters, come The Mating Season and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.
right! I consider "The mating season" (where I think no less than 4 couples have to be sorted out) as the proper finale, the last one is not as good I seem to recall (although it does have the fearful Spode!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 18, 2015, 03:26:37 AM
At new erato's suggestion, I started reading this on the bus ride home yesterday:

[asin]B00555X8OA[/asin]

As Sam Gamgee is reported to have said, this is an eye opener, and no mistake.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on June 18, 2015, 01:52:45 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 17, 2015, 02:20:51 PM
Interesting looking but ... Let us know.
I see Tyler Cowen blurbed the book. The world knows few greater masters of the incomprehensible sentence, the garbled paragraph, than Tyler Cowen.

It is fascinating. His initial musing on archives, libraries and museums as 19th century phenomena are well worth reading. Very interesting perspectives.

Re-reading Birkerts' essays as well. Have you read it?

[asin] 0865479577[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 18, 2015, 04:37:24 PM
Last Nights of Paris - Soupault


(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/NikF65/Mobile%20Uploads/PSX_20150619_012509_zpsxgwwpt8r.jpg)

At the moment my girlfriend has a couple of days work away (in Florence...where it's raining?) and so I've been indulging myself without any sort of distraction or break; including being able to listen to more music than usual and to read. Also: steak, wine, etc.
As part of that I'm enjoying a surreal and somewhat charming meander around nocturnal Paris.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 18, 2015, 05:50:59 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on June 17, 2015, 12:22:26 PM
I began this behemoth today! Wish me luck! It is definitely intriguing in its scope.

Jürgen Osterhammel: The Transformation of the World - A Global History of the Nineteenth Century

Review from NYRB (http://www.politique-actu.com/dossier/where-fritz-stern-nyrb/1333019/).

[asin] 0691147450[/asin]
Whishlisted it on amazon. Looks interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 18, 2015, 07:35:29 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on June 17, 2015, 12:22:26 PM
I began this behemoth today! Wish me luck! It is definitely intriguing in its scope.

Jürgen Osterhammel: The Transformation of the World - A Global History of the Nineteenth Century

Review from NYRB (http://www.politique-actu.com/dossier/where-fritz-stern-nyrb/1333019/).

[asin] 0691147450[/asin]

This appeals to my prejudices. I think the 19th century, especially if you take 1815-1914, saw more change of a more fundamental change in the world and how we view than any century before or since (that's a sample size of 1  :)) . And people spout such twaddle about the Victorians ... But it also matters how well a book is written. It sounds dire in that respect.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 19, 2015, 11:58:41 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 18, 2015, 07:35:29 PM
This appeals to my prejudices. I think the 19th century, especially if you take 1815-1914, saw more change of a more fundamental change in the world and how we view than any century before or since (that's a sample size of 1  :)) . And people spout such twaddle about the Victorians ... But it also matters how well a book is written. It sounds dire in that respect.
I feel the same way, especially after attempting to read a few pages of the Amazon preview.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on June 19, 2015, 12:01:49 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 19, 2015, 11:58:41 AM
I feel the same way, especially after attempting to read a few pages of the Amazon preview.

It is a bit dense (perhaps the translation?), but excellent (so far)...    0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 19, 2015, 12:28:56 PM
I haven't read this one but you have to keep in mind that when a book by a German history professor is considered "easy reading" by German academic standards, it's probably considered dense and barely readable by anglophone standards. (If you want to get a taste of what's considered dense by German standards, have a look at some Hegel.... or better, don't.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on June 19, 2015, 12:41:37 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on June 19, 2015, 12:28:56 PM
I haven't read this one but you have to keep in mind that when a book by a German history professor is considered "easy reading" by German academic standards, it's probably considered dense and barely readable by anglophone standards. (If you want to get a taste of what's considered dense by German standards, have a look at some Hegel.... or better, don't.)
Yes, I am familiar with Hegel (in translation). Great stuff (but not exactly entertaining - brick and mortar). I was not referring to the density of the text in terms of the author but rather the intricacy of the art of translation. Phrases can become awkward in the transition between languages as I am sure you are well aware. Regardless, I like the book very much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 19, 2015, 01:32:31 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on June 19, 2015, 12:28:56 PM
I haven't read this one but you have to keep in mind that when a book by a German history professor is considered "easy reading" by German academic standards, it's probably considered dense and barely readable by anglophone standards. (If you want to get a taste of what's considered dense by German standards, have a look at some Hegel.... or better, don't.)
My father tackled Kant in English and German both, and he failed both times...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 19, 2015, 01:38:13 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 19, 2015, 01:32:31 PM
My father tackled Kant in English and German both, and he failed both times...
As opposed to Kant, who only failed in German.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 24, 2015, 09:46:27 AM
Quote... Until no one feels a need to kill those of another race.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2015/0622/Looking-for-ways-to-prevent-another-Charleston
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 24, 2015, 11:09:49 AM
[quote  link=topic=68.msg903440#msg903440 date=1435167987]
... Until no one feels a need to kill those of another race.
[/quote]

Rather a low bar. Despite what the nazis said, most of the people they killed were of their own race. Most of those killed in Nanking were of the same race as their killers ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 24, 2015, 11:16:03 AM
Point taken.  Is "until no one feels the need to kill anyone else" too quixotic? . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 27, 2015, 04:46:52 AM
(http://covers.feedbooks.net/book/699.jpg?size=large&t=1425660243)

Contrary what the cover says, only part of this christmas number for Household Words in 1856 is written by Dickens. Major part of this is also written by Wilkie Collins and the middle section contains short stories by authors Percy Fitzgerald, Harriet Parr, Adelaide Anne Procter and Reverend James White. While this is definitely one of the greatest christmas numbers of Dickens in charge of, there were several bad things. For starters, it took me forever to find a copy of this with the complete text, not only the Wreck part written by Dickens. I always wondered why did it end so abruptly. I was amazed when I heard that there were much much more to come. Also the uneven quality is influenced by several different authors writing this, some clearly greater than others. Although, oddly enough, the parts I most hated were written by the two most important authors of this collaboration: Dickens and Collins. Holy shit, the biggest sin of this collaboration is the stupid death of Mr. Rarx, "the jerk", and after previously having described the main character Captain Ravender's "death"... in the end it's revealed that he didn't die after all and he was saved and everyone lived happily ever after etc. Oh give me a break, Dickens! I am so sick of these miraculous recoveries and your inability to let your main characters die (A tale of two cities could be seen as an exception, although Dickens probably saw Charles Darnay (which doesn't in any way sound like the name of our author, oh no) as the true main character, who of course survives and lives happily ever after). And Mr. Rarx "the jerk"... I say "jerk" in quotation marks because everyone seems to hate him even when he is doing nothing bad (which means most of the time). Designated jerk, not an actual jerk. Actually, much of this work before the shipwreck (and even after it) reminds me of HMS Pinafore, including having a character on the ship who is supposed to be seen as a jerk but actually fails to seem that bad. Hell, even in work like David Copperfield or Little Dorrit it bothered me how the main characters treat the bad guy like shit far before he actually has done anything bad, or anything that would even imply that he would commit bad actions. That's why I like main characters like Pip more, because even though he is meant to be seen as a more flawed character, I actually feel that he is much more humane and much less jerkass towards other people. I like jerks, though, but they have to be written effectively, and actually meant to be jerks, not straight-out- goodies who just fail being good in reader's eyes.

That being said, there is something to enjoy for. The shipwreck is described powerfully enough, I like several of the characters, the "jerk" mr. Rarx is given some interesting attributes, and even redeeming qualities which seem to be redeeming qualities even in the author's eyes. Of course, like I said, it's hard to talk about redeeming qualities when the character doesn't seem that much of a bad guy. The description of scenery is vivid, shining in colors of the Golden Mary of the title, the lust for gold is often superbly powerful and the several "lesser" authors actually write quite effectively. Having female authors in the group also is a nice plus, and they write fine prose and poetry. And it's interesting to see several authors trying their hands in one entirety, and to read about the development of this christmas number. If I am not mistaken, this was one of the first collaborations of Dickens and Collins, if not their very first one. Maybe I should start reading more Collins. I've heard that he creates a magnificent scoundrel in Count Fosco in The Woman in White. The Moonstone has gathered much praise as well.

Has anyone ever read Collins? Are his books worthwhile to read?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 27, 2015, 05:39:15 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 27, 2015, 04:46:52 AM
(http://covers.feedbooks.net/book/699.jpg?size=large&t=1425660243)

Contrary what the cover says, only part of this christmas number for Household Words in 1856 is written by Dickens. Major part of this is also written by Wilkie Collins and the middle section contains short stories by authors Percy Fitzgerald, Harriet Parr, Adelaide Anne Procter and Reverend James White. While this is definitely one of the greatest christmas numbers of Dickens in charge of, there were several bad things. For starters, it took me forever to find a copy of this with the complete text, not only the Wreck part written by Dickens. I always wondered why did it end so abruptly. I was amazed when I heard that there were much much more to come. Also the uneven quality is influenced by several different authors writing this, some clearly greater than others. Although, oddly enough, the parts I most hated were written by the two most important authors of this collaboration: Dickens and Collins. Holy shit, the biggest sin of this collaboration is the stupid death of Mr. Rarx, "the jerk", and after previously having described the main character Captain Ravender's "death"... in the end it's revealed that he didn't die after all and he was saved and everyone lived happily ever after etc. Oh give me a break, Dickens! I am so sick of these miraculous recoveries and your inability to let your main characters die (A tale of two cities could be seen as an exception, although Dickens probably saw Charles Darnay (which doesn't in any way sound like the name of our author, oh no) as the true main character, who of course survives and lives happily ever after). And Mr. Rarx "the jerk"... I say "jerk" in quotation marks because everyone seems to hate him even when he is doing nothing bad (which means most of the time). Designated jerk, not an actual jerk. Actually, much of this work before the shipwreck (and even after it) reminds me of HMS Pinafore, including having a character on the ship who is supposed to be seen as a jerk but actually fails to seem that bad. Hell, even in work like David Copperfield or Little Dorrit it bothered me how the main characters treat the bad guy like shit far before he actually has done anything bad, or anything that would even imply that he would commit bad actions. That's why I like main characters like Pip more, because even though he is meant to be seen as a more flawed character, I actually feel that he is much more humane and much less jerkass towards other people. I like jerks, though, but they have to be written effectively, and actually meant to be jerks, not straight-out- goodies who just fail being good in reader's eyes.

That being said, there is something to enjoy for. The shipwreck is described powerfully enough, I like several of the characters, the "jerk" mr. Rarx is given some interesting attributes, and even redeeming qualities which seem to be redeeming qualities even in the author's eyes. Of course, like I said, it's hard to talk about redeeming qualities when the character doesn't seem that much of a bad guy. The description of scenery is vivid, shining in colors of the Golden Mary of the title, the lust for gold is often superbly powerful and the several "lesser" authors actually write quite effectively. Having female authors in the group also is a nice plus, and they write fine prose and poetry. And it's interesting to see several authors trying their hands in one entirety, and to read about the development of this christmas number. If I am not mistaken, this was one of the first collaborations of Dickens and Collins, if not their very first one. Maybe I should start reading more Collins. I've heard that he creates a magnificent scoundrel in Count Fosco in The Woman in White. The Moonstone has gathered much praise as well.

Has anyone ever read Collins? Are his books worthwhile to read?

Collins definitely is. The Woman in White is one of the most readable books I ever came across. I read it in just over one day and then started on The Moonstone. He's less reliable once you get past those two, but Armadale was good.
I also recommend Uncle Silas by Le Fanu as a great read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 27, 2015, 06:14:00 AM
I haven't read "Woman in White" but Collins' "Moonstone" is a fun read and is also widely credited as the first true detective novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 27, 2015, 06:42:16 AM
Thank you! I'll read him more as soon as I can!

Recently finished these three Stevenson short stories:

(https://p.gr-assets.com/200x200/scale/books/1400300354/22124790.jpg)

(http://content.lsf.com.ar/getcover.ashx?ISBN=9789504926870&size=3&coverNumber=1)

(https://kirja.elisa.fi/sites/default/files/imagecache/product/bookcovers/%7B70B57E98-509A-4D4D-AB25-85C64BE3FBF2%7DImg100_0.jpg)

Didn't care much for Janet (the language style was annoying) but Markheim and Falesá are definitely among the best stuff I've ever read from Stevenson. Markheim reminds me of Raskolnikov, I wonder if Stevenson ever read Dostoyevsky? Falesá is a very appealing work what with its neat handling of racism etc. I really like the main character. Yes, he is a deeply flawed character but that only makes him more complex and layered.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 27, 2015, 08:03:52 AM
+1 for Collins' The Woman in White.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 27, 2015, 06:51:13 PM
Two books that I finished recently:

(http://podacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/book-jacket.png)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41eb7mVaILL.jpg)

Satantango was great and I look forward to reading more books by this writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 27, 2015, 11:35:55 PM
"Woman in White" is very good (I read this in German, it was translated by Arno Schmidt, a notoriously difficult postwar author who did quite a few translations (to make a living, I guess) and also had a taste for the underrated/trashy), the "Moonstone" might be even better, it is certainly funnier because the main narrator (an elderly butler of the family where the mystery takes place) is very comically drawn. This may not be as deep as e.g. Dickens but it is at least as readable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 27, 2015, 11:59:30 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 19, 2015, 01:38:13 PM
As opposed to Kant, who only failed in German.
His first academic language was Latin although he was among the first German academics to write all of his major works in German (there are a bunch of rather early academic dissertations in Latin). Leibniz around 1700 wrote only Latin and French. (Academic papers in many subjects were still mostly in Latin until decades later (e.g. Gauss), in Classics and related subjects until the early 20th century.)
There are some oddities in grammar which I suspect to stem from this factor but these are probably not the main problems. It's not so bad once one gets used to it (Hegel is much worse, also because his ideas are harder to understand).

Germany was almost 100 years behind e.g. Britain in this respect. I am not exactly sure why (because Luther's bible translation that brought he German language "to the people" is almost 100 years before King James) but the first great German language drama and poetry appears also only around Kant's time in the mid-late 18th century.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 28, 2015, 04:50:56 AM
Quote from: Artem on June 27, 2015, 06:51:13 PM
(http://podacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/book-jacket.png)

Satantango was great and I look forward to reading more books by this writer.

I'm planning to start reading The Melancholy of Resistance. Haven't read Satantango but I've seen the film, and Werckmeister Harmonies as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 29, 2015, 10:15:00 AM
.
[asin]1567923658[/asin]

[asin]1560978694[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 02, 2015, 05:08:30 AM
Quote from: Draško on February 12, 2015, 09:39:07 AM
(http://s15.postimg.org/a95epr0d7/tiffanys.jpg)

Started this one this morning right at dawn.  As you know, I could not have chosen a better time of the day to start this one, Miloš, and it was just by chance.

About a quarter of the way through and absolutely glued to the pages Kindle while sometimes re-reading lines as I go.  A couple that stood out so far:

"For all her chic thinness, she had an almost breakfast-cereal air of health, a soap-and-lemon cleanness, a rough pink darkening of the cheeks."

"A disquieting loneliness came into my life, but it induced no hunger for friends of longer acquaintance: they seemed now like a salt-free, sugarless diet."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 02, 2015, 05:24:09 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 02, 2015, 05:08:30 AM
(http://s15.postimg.org/a95epr0d7/tiffanys.jpg)

I have used that same Audrey's picture as wallpaper for my Mac.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 02, 2015, 05:37:49 AM
I don't know if I can ever bring myself to watch the movie;  but I can certainly appreciate the merits of that still  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 02, 2015, 07:44:48 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 02, 2015, 05:37:49 AM
I don't know if I can ever bring myself to watch the movie;  but I can certainly appreciate the merits of that still  :)

By all means, feel free to judge this book by its cover.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 02, 2015, 07:46:02 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 02, 2015, 07:44:48 AM
By all means, feel free to judge this book by its cover.


Hah!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 02, 2015, 02:45:31 PM
From 1940:

(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1427632277l/25241822.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 03, 2015, 01:28:08 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 02, 2015, 05:08:30 AM
Started this one this morning right at dawn.  As you know, I could not have chosen a better time of the day to start this one, Miloš, and it was just by chance.

About a quarter of the way through and absolutely glued to the pages Kindle while sometimes re-reading lines as I go.  A couple that stood out so far:

“For all her chic thinness, she had an almost breakfast-cereal air of health, a soap-and-lemon cleanness, a rough pink darkening of the cheeks.”

"A disquieting loneliness came into my life, but it induced no hunger for friends of longer acquaintance: they seemed now like a salt-free, sugarless diet."

I knew you'd gonna like it. Great novel, beautiful writing. Harder hitting that the movie version.

Haven't had much reading time myself last few weeks, currently at about 2/3 through Right Ho, Jeeves and maybe 1/6 through Braudel's Mediterranean, but that one is huge and I was planning to go slowly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 03, 2015, 05:22:54 AM
Quote from: Draško on July 03, 2015, 01:28:08 AM
I knew you'd gonna like it. Great novel, beautiful writing. Harder hitting that the movie version.

Haven't had much reading time myself last few weeks, currently at about 2/3 through Right Ho, Jeeves and maybe 1/6 through Braudel's Mediterranean, but that one is huge and I was planning to go slowly.

At only 110 pages, I was able to finish it in one day as I had the day off.  Agree with you on it being a bit more harder hitting.  In fact, the movie should have just followed the book.  I was sure that this would have been one of those instances where I was going to like the movie more, but after a day of reflection the book is superior IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 03, 2015, 06:32:45 AM
Dreaming of Babylon

[asin]0395547032[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 03, 2015, 07:01:28 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 03, 2015, 05:22:54 AM
At only 110 pages, I was able to finish it in one day as I had the day off.  Agree with you on it being a bit more harder hitting.  In fact, the movie should have just followed the book.  I was sure that this would have been one of those instances where I was going to like the movie more, but after a day of reflection the book is superior IMO.

In this case I prefer to say the same of my signature.  ;D

Seriously, I think some changes were necessary to do a commercial movie. For instance, to hide and soften the professional activities of Holly. Additionally, her Southern origins don't fit very well with Audrey's persona.

To follow more faithfully the book, Holly should have been performed by Marilyn, as Truman Capote originally wanted. Probably had been a wonderful choice, too.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 03, 2015, 07:06:04 AM
Quote from: Gordo on July 03, 2015, 07:01:28 AM
In this case I prefer to say the same of my signature.  ;D

Seriously, I think some changes were necessary to do a commercial movie. For instance, to hide and soften the professional activities of Holly. Additionally, her Southern origins don't fit very well with Audrey's persona.

To follow more faithfully the book, Holly should have been performed by Marilyn, as Truman Capote originally wanted. Probably had been a wonderful choice, too.  :)

I believe the start of the book about her being photographed in Africa and the ending of the book would have played well in the movie.  But then again, I am a sucker for not so perfect endings. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 03, 2015, 07:18:20 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 03, 2015, 07:06:04 AM
I believe the start of the book about her being photographed in Africa and the ending of the book would have played well in the movie.  But then again, I am a sucker for not so perfect endings. :)

This recalls me Capote's unfinished novel Answered Prayers, a true page-turner... and yes, the perfectly closed romantic ending of the movie is a bit artificial.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 03, 2015, 07:42:11 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on July 03, 2015, 07:03:18 AM
I think we exchanged comments on Brautigan a little while back when I reconnected with this sweet spot from my past.

The artful simplicity always draws me in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 03, 2015, 08:49:43 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 29, 2015, 10:15:00 AM
.
[asin]1567923658[/asin]
That snippet at FB certainly made me add that to my wishlist.

Thread duty: My portable holiday library.

[asin]0140424547[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 03, 2015, 09:01:47 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 03, 2015, 05:22:54 AM
At only 110 pages, I was able to finish it in one day as I had the day off.  Agree with you on it being a bit more harder hitting.  In fact, the movie should have just followed the book.  I was sure that this would have been one of those instances where I was going to like the movie more, but after a day of reflection the book is superior IMO.

I agree that the novel is superior, but I like the movie as well.

Quote from: Gordo on July 03, 2015, 07:01:28 AM
Seriously, I think some changes were necessary to do a commercial movie. For instance, to hide and soften the professional activities of Holly. Additionally, her Southern origins don't fit very well with Audrey's persona.

Agreed, doubt that more closer to the book movie could have happened. The Hays Code was still in place and some of novel's themes would never have flied unless massively toned down. Also some aspects of novel's structure, like the narrator as mere observer as written by Capote would have never worked on screen. I think hey did a good job by turning him into protagonist and foil for Holy. Even though it's heavily romanticized and lots of the actual story altered the movie works for me, the new romantic story is well plotted, if bit sentimental at the end, Audrey Hepburn is incandescent and most of Capote's finest dialogue has been picked up verbatim. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 03, 2015, 09:19:08 AM
Quote from: Draško on July 03, 2015, 09:01:47 AM
Agreed, doubt that more closer to the book movie could have happened. The Hays Code was still in place and some of novel's themes would never have flied unless massively toned down. Also some aspects of novel's structure, like the narrator as mere observer as written by Capote would have never worked on screen. I think hey did a good job by turning him into protagonist and foil for Holy. Even though it's heavily romanticized and lots of the actual story altered the movie works for me, the new romantic story is well plotted, if bit sentimental at the end, Audrey Hepburn is incandescent and most of Capote's finest dialogue has been picked up verbatim.

Full agreement.

I always wonder if, for instance, 40 or 50 years ahead, some cinephiles will love some actresses of the present as much as we love people like Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner, Ingrid Bergman and so, or if the 50s and 60s were simply a "golden age." I'm quite inclined to accept the last response as true.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 03, 2015, 12:35:25 PM
Quote from: Gordo on July 03, 2015, 09:19:08 AM
Full agreement.

I always wonder if, for instance, 40 or 50 years ahead, some cinephiles will love some actresses of the present as much as we love people like Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner, Ingrid Bergman and so, or if the 50s and 60s were simply a "golden age." I'm quite inclined to accept the last response as true.

That might have been special.  Here is a shot of her that may have been for the later part of the movie:

(https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xat1/v/t1.0-9/11391283_1613060188968502_7551267397992969789_n.jpg?oh=dec74bc08f18c3a368a0a8b46ec718ba&oe=5632C4BD)

And do not get me started on Mancini's brilliant score for the film. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 04, 2015, 03:13:21 AM
Giovanni Boccacio - The Decameron

Just love his style. Oh, and it goes very well with the music of Jacopo da Bologna and Francesco Landino.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 04, 2015, 04:50:25 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 03, 2015, 08:49:43 AM
That snippet at FB certainly made me add that to my wishlist.

It's great fun.  One of his titles was published with a foreword by P.G. Wodehouse, expressing warm admiration.  Naturally, this caught my attention   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 04, 2015, 06:02:09 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 04, 2015, 04:50:25 AM
It's great fun.  One of his titles was published with a foreword by P.G. Wodehouse, expressing warm admiration.  Naturally, this caught my attention   :)
Aye.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 04, 2015, 08:05:43 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 04, 2015, 03:13:21 AM
Giovanni Boccacio - The Decameron

Just love his style. Oh, and it goes very well with the music of Jacopo da Bologna and Francesco Landino.  8)

That's my favourite book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on July 06, 2015, 11:28:18 PM
from Kevin Kwan, author of CRAZY RICH ASIANS
CHINA RICH GIRLFRIEND
more of the same (not an adverse comment), great summer read here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 07, 2015, 02:51:32 AM
On the bus ride home yesterday, the first essay, "Mozart as Mid-Cult";  roughly equal parts no sympathy with Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (or, with the film thereof, mostly), and an engaging argument for the Ken Russell film on Tchaikovsky:

[asin]1555532187[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 07, 2015, 05:56:08 AM
I don't share Horowitz's tendency to wring his hands over the demise of Classical Music, of course;  and in places where we come close to agreement, he is often the more fastidious of us two.  I have to thank him for pointing out (what I ought to have been able to observe myself) that Salieri's preoccupation (in Shaffer's Amadeus) with the "ghosts of the Future" is rather an anachronism (though we might argue that the whole exercise of the play/movie is Romantification Rampant).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 10, 2015, 06:17:00 AM
(http://s1.postimg.org/967x9j3zj/s27030423.jpg)

Faulkner - Wild Palms / Old Man
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 11, 2015, 11:29:08 AM

(http://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/2c0/product_9782070774340_195x320.jpg)
Playright René Peter, a childhood friend of Marcel Proust's, recalls--40 years after they took place--the convesrations the two men had over 5 months in 1906, when they were both staying in Versailles. An engaging memoir of Proust before he was a celebrity. The book has a short chapter on Debussy (I haven't reached it yet)...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 11, 2015, 06:02:22 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yUUGVytWL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Great autobiography. Very straightforward and open talk from Herbie Hancock.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XG9vvZFLL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
This was my second book from this Icelandic writer, Sjon, who has a very interesting writing style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 13, 2015, 09:54:17 AM
Quote from: ritter on July 11, 2015, 11:29:08 AM
(http://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/2c0/product_9782070774340_195x320.jpg)
Playright René Peter, a childhood friend of Marcel Proust's, recalls--40 years after they took place--the convesrations the two men had over 5 months in 1906, when they were both staying in Versailles. An engaging memoir of Proust before he was a celebrity. The book has a short chapter on Debussy (I haven't reached it yet)...

Very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 13, 2015, 09:58:23 AM
Re-reading (for I know not whatth time) Evelyn Waugh's Decline & Fall.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 13, 2015, 01:09:16 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 13, 2015, 09:58:23 AM
Re-reading (for I know not whatth time) Evelyn Waugh's Decline & Fall.

Waugh was a wonderful author and I do not think that his works lose anything with a re-read. Enjoy.....again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 15, 2015, 02:09:17 PM
Thumbprint, translation of Wachtmeister Studer
Friedrich Glauser
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 15, 2015, 04:28:23 PM
Tonight I have started this one:

[asin]B007EDOLJ2[/asin]

... translated into Spanish:

[asin]B00JXTEXKW[/asin]

Physical book, not Kindle.

It's a thick book of more than 1,000 pages in which I was interested after watching an Andrew Solomon's TED talk titled "Love, no matter what":

https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_solomon_love_no_matter_what

It's one of the most moving and deep talks that I have heard the last time.

So much that I bought and started this book about parents and children being a single man without children!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 17, 2015, 03:38:12 AM
Quote from: DavidW on July 16, 2011, 11:33:41 AM
I reread A Tale of Two Cities.  That was a favorite back in high school, it still holds up but is not my favorite Dickens novel by far anymore.  I guess my problem is that it doesn't have enough of the Dickensian humor and quirky characters, and everything is too black and white.

Sorry for bringing up such an old quote but this roused my interest since I am going to re read tale of two cities one of these days. I never saw tale of two cities as that black and white, since a) the villainess of the novel, Madame Defarge, has one hell of an freudian excuse, even though her bloodthirstiness is still alarming. And b) The author clearly has grudging admiration towards her, praising her intellect, firmness, beauty and dedication to her cause. She is kind of Lady Macbeth of Dickens's oeuvre, having certain type of grandness about her. This quote from the book in particular seems pretty clear admiration to me (horror inducing admiration but still):

"There were many women at that time, upon whom the time laid a dreadfully disfiguring hand; but, there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and animosity, but to strike into others an instinctive recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have heaved her up, under any circumstances."

There is also Gaspard (who murders certain heartless Marquis who run over his son and mocked his grief by tossing him a gold coin as compensation) and repenting grave robber Jerry Cruncher. Dickens clearly intends us to see Sydney Carton as a flawed character because of his wasted life, but much like Pip in Great Expectations, he never does anything bad. And he actually commits the most noble act in the book. It is interesting how Dickens invites sympathy for the oppressed but is alarmed when the oppressed become oppressors themselves.

I agree though about the lack of humor. Other than Jerry Cruncher's antics, this book doesn't have that much of comedy. However, I think it brings refreshing change, differing from his earlier satirical works.

Now reading: William Berger, Wagner without fear. Very enjoyable, similar to his Verdi with a vengeance. By the way, this book's full title (Wagner without fear: learning to love - and even enjoy - opera's most demanding genius) reminds me of Dr Strangelove. Possibly intentional?



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 17, 2015, 04:26:29 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 17, 2015, 03:38:12 AM
Sorry for bringing up such an old quote but this roused my interest since I am going to re read tale of two cities one of these days. I never saw tale of two cities as that black and white, since a) the villainess of the novel, Madame Defarge, has one hell of an freudian excuse, even though her bloodthirstiness is still alarming. And b) The author clearly has grudging admiration towards her, praising her intellect, firmness, beauty and dedication to her cause. She is kind of Lady Macbeth of Dickens's oeuvre, having certain type of grandness about her. This quote from the book in particular seems pretty clear admiration to me (horror inducing admiration but still):

"There were many women at that time, upon whom the time laid a dreadfully disfiguring hand; but, there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and animosity, but to strike into others an instinctive recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have heaved her up, under any circumstances."

There is also Gaspard (who murders certain heartless Marquis who run over his son and mocked his grief by tossing him a gold coin as compensation) and repenting grave robber Jerry Cruncher. Dickens clearly intends us to see Sydney Carton as a flawed character because of his wasted life, but much like Pip in Great Expectations, he never does anything bad. And he actually commits the most noble act in the book. It is interesting how Dickens invites sympathy for the oppressed but is alarmed when the oppressed become oppressors themselves.

I agree though about the lack of humor. Other than Jerry Cruncher's antics, this book doesn't have that much of comedy. However, I think it brings refreshing change, differing from his earlier satirical works.


Incredible book.  As far as the character Sydney Carton, I did not know Dickens "had it in him" to to put together such a complex character.  Most of the time he has many characters to fill many roles.  I would like to delve into the reviews of this as it came out in its weekly installments and how it was perceived by the general public. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 17, 2015, 04:30:21 AM
I need to finish Pickwick, so that I can re-read Tale of Two Cities  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 17, 2015, 04:58:17 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 17, 2015, 04:26:29 AM
Incredible book.  As far as the character Sydney Carton, I did not know Dickens "had it in him" to to put together such a complex character.  Most of the time he has many characters to fill many roles.  I would like to delve into the reviews of this as it came out in its weekly installments and how it was perceived by the general public.

It is often said that in this book Dickens focused more on plot than in characterization but I actually find characters much stronger than the plot since the only reason Sydney Carton is able to make his magnificent rescue of Darnay at the end is the unbelievable coincidence that they just happen to run into Miss Pross's long lost evil brother, whom Carton can blackmail. Plot was never Dickens's strongest point but damn, that's almost on Nickleby level of poor plot handling.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 17, 2015, 04:59:38 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 17, 2015, 04:30:21 AM
I need to finish Pickwick, so that I can re-read Tale of Two Cities  ;)

With caution, Karl.  You never know what someone might be knitting. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 17, 2015, 05:01:46 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 17, 2015, 04:58:17 AM
It is often said that in this book Dickens focused more on plot than in characterization but I actually find characters much stronger than the plot since the only reason Sydney Carton is able to make his magnificent rescue of Darnay at the end is the unbelievable coincidence that they just happen to run into Miss Pross's long lost evil brother, whom Carton can blackmail. Plot was never Dickens's strongest point but damn, that's almost on Nickleby level of poor plot handling.

Oh, how correct you are.  There always seems to be large coincidental moments that one has to give into for the story to move along.  These I do not mind as the frosting on the cake takes care of these turns for me. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 17, 2015, 06:31:26 AM
I have just started to read Nickolas Niclelby....


(http://www.yesteryearbooks.eu/images/052147.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 17, 2015, 07:02:44 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 17, 2015, 06:31:26 AM
I have just started to read Nickolas Niclelby....


(http://www.yesteryearbooks.eu/images/052147.jpg)

I enjoyed that one.  I have others I like more, but glad to have it on the shelf.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 17, 2015, 07:03:00 AM
This weekend, I'm fixin' again to watch Chas Sturridge's film of Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust.

Why mention that here?  Because of Sir Alec Guinness's character, Mr Todd, who likes to have someone to read Dickens with . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 17, 2015, 07:55:49 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 17, 2015, 06:31:26 AM
I have just started to read Nickolas Niclelby....


(http://www.yesteryearbooks.eu/images/052147.jpg)

Good book but I prefer Oliver Twist, Old curiosity shop and Barnaby rudge, when it comes to his early works. Old curiosity shop is a very special book to me in a way that although I recognize it's flaws, even it's major major flaws and diabetes-tasting sentimentalism surrounding Little Nell... I am unable to hate it. I love it. Even the sentimental parts. It's one of my guilty pleasures. Barnaby Rudge may not anymore be my favorite Dickens book, but it most certainly is IMO his most underrated one. It seems Barnaby's neglect arouses mainly from the fact that it didn't sell that good when it was first published and ultimately its bad reputation led to several people just skipping it, thinking it's not worth reading.

Btw, I am also reading Dombey, this time in English, and I don't know if the earlier chapters were better than I remembered than when I first read it in finnish... but I like this book now a lot more. Then again, I have still 4/5 of English Dombey to go. The rich language Dickens uses doesn't always translate that well, that's one of the reasons Martin Chuzzlewit has never been translated in my language. Try translating Sarah Gamp's language, now there's a challenge. Chuzzlewit is actually one of the few Dickens novels I still haven't read, others including that goddamn Pickwick, Bleak House and Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dickens also has many other fictional or non-fictional works of high quality. His letters in particular are very interesting to read. When a certain Jewish person Eliza Davis protested against Dickens's portrayal of Fagin in Oliver Twist, Dickens makes so good counterarguments that I am quite frankly amazed. Even though Fagin was a product of greatly prejudiced mind, he certainly knew how to stand his ground. Of course Eliza Davis then annihilates him in her reply letter with even more insightful arguments.


And finally, I am also reading this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZJg39sgPL._SX396_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 17, 2015, 09:45:11 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 17, 2015, 07:55:49 AM
Good book but I prefer Oliver Twist, Old curiosity shop and Barnaby rudge, when it comes to his early works. Old curiosity shop is a very special book to me in a way that although I recognize it's flaws, even it's major major flaws and diabetes-tasting sentimentalism surrounding Little Nell... I am unable to hate it. I love it. Even the sentimental parts. It's one of my guilty pleasures. Barnaby Rudge may not anymore be my favorite Dickens book, but it most certainly is IMO his most underrated one. It seems Barnaby's neglect arouses mainly from the fact that it didn't sell that good when it was first published and ultimately its bad reputation led to several people just skipping it, thinking it's not worth reading.

Btw, I am also reading Dombey, this time in English, and I don't know if the earlier chapters were better than I remembered than when I first read it in finnish... but I like this book now a lot more. Then again, I have still 4/5 of English Dombey to go. The rich language Dickens uses doesn't always translate that well, that's one of the reasons Martin Chuzzlewit has never been translated in my language. Try translating Sarah Gamp's language, now there's a challenge. Chuzzlewit is actually one of the few Dickens novels I still haven't read, others including that goddamn Pickwick, Bleak House and Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dickens also has many other fictional or non-fictional works of high quality. His letters in particular are very interesting to read. When a certain Jewish person Eliza Davis protested against Dickens's portrayal of Fagin in Oliver Twist, Dickens makes so good counterarguments that I am quite frankly amazed. Even though Fagin was a product of greatly prejudiced mind, he certainly knew how to stand his ground. Of course Eliza Davis then annihilates him in her reply letter with even more insightful arguments.


I had just read Oliver Twist last month. That is a wonderful book to read; great characters and a good strong plot.
I had never thought of the difficulties of translating Dickes. How would the humour, wit and irony of Pickwick Papers translate?!?!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 18, 2015, 06:07:29 AM
Cass Sunstein on Gone with the Wind

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/gone-with-the-wind-confederacy/398663/?utm_source=nl__link10_071715 (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/gone-with-the-wind-confederacy/398663/?utm_source=nl__link10_071715)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on July 18, 2015, 04:54:20 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Kcjdy%2B4OL._SX500_.jpg)



Reagan: The Life, by HW Brands.  I needed me a Reagan bio sans fictional characters (Edmund Morris), and I didn't want to undertake Lou Cannon's two volumes just yet, so HW Brands' new one volume bio seemed a good choice.  I enjoyed Brands' bios of Jackson and FDR, and as in those two books, his writing style is clear, cogent, and makes for lickety split fast reading.  I'm in the first presidential term now, and if the work is not a heavy duty scholarly take (call it "scholarly light"), it contains details I did not know until now.  Brands appears to like Reagan, though he also acknowledges flaws, though not enough for Reagan-haters, no doubt.  The book also definitely makes me want to read detailed, unbiased bios of some hired hands, namely James Baker and George Schultz, even more than before, though they may not be available during my lifetime.  Anyway, getting a refresher in the Gipper's style and approach, and reading some of his earlier letters and speeches, makes it all the more obvious how some current day conservatives who aspire to assume his mantle are nothing more than political chipmunks.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 19, 2015, 05:44:30 AM
Hey!  The chipmunks don't appreciate that remark!  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 21, 2015, 09:13:40 AM
California's Anti-GMO Hysteria (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/374585/californias-anti-gmo-hysteria-henry-miller)

Quote from: Henry MillerThe push to require labeling of genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) food is one of those causes that sounds worthy — like "protect the Delta smelt" or "save the snail darter" — until you actually learn a little about them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 21, 2015, 11:40:44 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 21, 2015, 09:13:40 AM
California's Anti-GMO Hysteria (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/374585/californias-anti-gmo-hysteria-henry-miller)
Imagine we are being watched by aliens, who decide,before shipping us off as slave labor,  to cull the herd of dolts and dimwits. They'd want a way for the dolts and dimwits to identify themselves, right?

Thus are this story and the Trump boomlet explained.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 21, 2015, 06:24:41 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on July 21, 2015, 12:28:15 PM
The article in the National Review is written and designed, I might say modified, to taint those opposed to ingesting GM food as fruits, nuts and flakes.  No doubt they got their "factual" information from the vested industrial interests like Monsanto.  I count myself among those who reject GMO because contrary to what the industry-bought-and-paid-for media will tell you, there have been no long term studies done to see if ingesting food from seeds genetically modified to be resistant to pesticides (or in some cases contain the pesticide themselves) do to people.  I for one want as little RoundUp (another Monsanto product) on my food as possible, not as much as possible.

To put it simply: I do not trust Monsanto for my food.

The FDA is in the pocket of the big agro industrial complex (Donald Rumsfeld went from heading the FDA where he fast-tracked aspartame approval despite red flags) to being a highly paid exec for Searle, owner of Monsanto.

This country is fast becoming a place I no longer feel safe because of creeping soft-fascism such as branding a commonsense skepticism about GMO, vaccines, and other issues as nutty.

Twaddle.

That's an accurate, and kind, summary but let me expand. There is no evidence GMO foods are harmful. There is considerable benefit from their use. Vaccination is the greatest health technology ever invented.
Ramblings about bogey men and vague cries of "cui bono" don't cut it as evidence or argument.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on July 21, 2015, 06:34:46 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on July 21, 2015, 12:28:15 PMDonald Rumsfeld went from heading the FDA where he fast-tracked aspartame approval despite red flags



Donald Rumsfeld was never head of the FDA.  You need to stop reading conspiracy sites.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 22, 2015, 03:01:03 AM
I get the Monsanto-skepticism.  But just because I have a quarrel with Boeing's business practices in 2H13, does not mean anything against the technology of the airplane.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 22, 2015, 03:06:01 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 21, 2015, 11:40:44 AM
Thus are this story and the Trump boomlet explained.

I think he's just resentful because he was turned away (as shiftless and lazy) at the Mexican border.  "You cannot pull the poncho over our ojos, gringo!"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 22, 2015, 03:08:55 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on July 21, 2015, 12:28:15 PM
The article in the National Review is written and designed, I might say modified, to taint those opposed to ingesting GM food as fruits, nuts and flakes.

If you say "portray" rather than "taint," I think we may quite agree.  Fact is, the person closest to me who suffers from this hysteria actually used the neologism "Frankenfood."  She is impervious to rational argument on the question.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 22, 2015, 08:06:46 AM
(http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/Voicespb.jpg)

Some Icelandic writing in Belgrade's Saharan heat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 22, 2015, 01:30:36 PM
Not really  reading yet, but rather browsing this lavishly produced tome on that fascinating personality that was Rolf de Maré...

[asin]1852731281[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on July 22, 2015, 06:04:14 PM
Fascinating and must listen to more of the man's work than I have :

[asin]0393071022[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 23, 2015, 04:11:03 AM
Commandant of Auschwitz by Rudolph Hoess

and

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 23, 2015, 05:42:13 AM
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/NikF65/Mobile%20Uploads/PSX_20150723_143749_zps20b6zmrw.jpg)

There are two volumes of this and I finally managed to get both combined in the one (used) edition. And this is the sort of book I can enjoy casually dipping into over an extended period of time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 24, 2015, 11:06:33 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bpSN2LO8L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Ayone here who has read Emerson? What are your thoughts?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 24, 2015, 11:09:17 AM
I've read Emerson, but I do not recall his philosophy being oriented towards prosperity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 24, 2015, 03:00:37 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 24, 2015, 11:09:17 AM
I've read Emerson, but I do not recall his philosophy being oriented towards prosperity.
Like reading Anita Bryant's Guide to Gay Sex.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 24, 2015, 06:45:29 PM
(http://www.barterbooks.co.uk/catalog/images/books/evy0990.jpg)

...specifically the section of essays on Samuel Johnson, Boswell and their circle, and a selection of the others
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 25, 2015, 07:59:01 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 24, 2015, 11:09:17 AM
I've read Emerson, but I do not recall his philosophy being oriented towards prosperity.

How do you recall it then?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 27, 2015, 03:29:34 AM
A rich life, but not in the narrow material sense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 27, 2015, 05:03:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 27, 2015, 03:29:34 AM
A rich life, but not in the narrow material sense.

But also a philosophy you can apply on your own life imo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 27, 2015, 05:12:44 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31eGgH9YJqL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Finished this book a few weeks ago. Going back in times, for his time alluminating without doubt, still valuable insights. Related to Heidegger and existentialism. Accessible.

Ortega mentions he introduced the term "existence" in philosophy, ancitipating on existentialism as a genre in philosophy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 27, 2015, 09:36:21 AM
Quote from: Henk on July 27, 2015, 05:03:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 27, 2015, 03:29:34 AM
A rich life, but not in the narrow material sense.
But also a philosophy you can apply on your own life imo.
That's rather obvious - after all, philosophy is what one does and reads when one's material prosperity is narrow.  ;)
But, in all seriousness, yes, it's definitely good philosophy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 28, 2015, 04:54:41 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 27, 2015, 09:36:21 AM
But also a philosophy you can apply on your own life imo.

That's rather obvious - after all, philosophy is what one does and reads when one's material prosperity is narrow.  ;)
But, in all seriousness, yes, it's definitely good philosophy.

Books aren't cheap though. You better philosophy yourself, without having to read any book. ;)

NR:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PWiKHO4AL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 28, 2015, 06:10:28 AM
actually, "existence" has been a technical term in philosophy already in the middle ages. But of course not mainly in the sense of the 20th century "existentialists", rather for subtle distinctions in metaphysics and theology.
Commonly, Kierkegaard is referred to as the first "existentialist" in the later sense, so I am not sure what Ortega y Gasset wants to claim here...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 28, 2015, 06:19:15 AM
A public marketplace for hackers—what could possibly go wrong? (http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/07/a-public-marketplace-for-hackers-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 28, 2015, 06:22:36 AM
Quote from: Henk on July 28, 2015, 04:54:41 AM
Books aren't cheap though. You better philosophy yourself, without having to read any book. ;)

Books aren't cheap? Sure, some books that are directed to a limited portion of the academia can be very expensive indeed, but you can get a whole lot of philosophy on paper at the price of a decent meal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 28, 2015, 06:23:06 AM
And there may be free e-book editions of the classics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 28, 2015, 06:25:20 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 28, 2015, 06:22:36 AM
Books aren't cheap? Sure, some books that are directed to a limited portion of the academia can be very expensive indeed, but you can get a whole lot of philosophy on paper at the price of a decent meal.

Could be, but are those the books you want to read. To select the books you want to read, you are bound to the prices of them.

Moreover, I don't always want to print stuff, the published book is a far nicer thing to have. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 28, 2015, 06:38:22 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 28, 2015, 06:23:06 AM
And there may be free e-book editions of the classics.
And just plain old PDFs of pretty much every canonized classic.

Quote from: Henk on July 28, 2015, 06:25:20 AM
Could be, but are those the books you want to read. To select the books you want to read, you are bound to the prices of them.
Oxford World's Classics (OUP), Penguin & al. have very reasonably priced editions of pretty much everything I want to read in English. Plenty of RW Emerson on Penguin, Dover, Everyman's Library, for example.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 28, 2015, 06:39:35 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 28, 2015, 06:38:22 AM
Oxford World's Classics (OUP), Penguin & al. have very reasonably priced editions of pretty much everything I want to read in English. Plenty of RW Emerson on Penguin, Dover, Everyman's Library, for example.

Yes, indeed.  And Emerson himself is IMO much more interesting and engaging than . . . commentary about Emerson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 28, 2015, 07:07:55 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 28, 2015, 06:39:35 AM
Yes, indeed.  And Emerson himself is IMO much more interesting and engaging than . . . commentary about Emerson.

That book by Emerson I read also contain the orginal essays.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 28, 2015, 07:44:28 AM
Quote from: Henk on July 28, 2015, 07:07:55 AM
That book by Emerson I read also contain the orginal essays.

Seems, then, that the book is expensive, because one pays for the copyrighted chit-chat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 28, 2015, 07:53:33 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 28, 2015, 06:38:22 AM
And just plain old PDFs of pretty much every canonized classic.
Oxford World's Classics (OUP), Penguin & al. have very reasonably priced editions of pretty much everything I want to read in English. Plenty of RW Emerson on Penguin, Dover, Everyman's Library, for example.

RWE online
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Ralph+Waldo+Emerson&amode=words
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 28, 2015, 07:56:36 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 28, 2015, 07:53:33 AM
RWE online
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Ralph+Waldo+Emerson&amode=words

You are the man, Jeffrey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 28, 2015, 08:05:29 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 28, 2015, 07:56:36 AM
You are the man, Jeffrey.

The Online Books Page is perhaps the first website I ever bookmarked when first I Interneted.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 28, 2015, 08:34:21 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 28, 2015, 07:44:28 AM
Seems, then, that the book is expensive, because one pays for the copyrighted chit-chat.

The essays are as well rewritten in more simpler form, so I can actually understand them.. :)

Nice to have the book, as I said, printing them you don't have a nice book in your hands.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 28, 2015, 08:37:21 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 28, 2015, 07:53:33 AM
RWE online
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Ralph+Waldo+Emerson&amode=words

Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 28, 2015, 08:46:39 AM
To make my point clear, I would rather buy this book...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cU3NQErjL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

...then read the texts in plain format on the internet or print all that stuff. I wonder how much people on earth do that??

Maybe indeed, if you don't have any money. But then yet, one probably ends up watching tv or something.. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 28, 2015, 08:51:11 AM
This one is probably better.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BsNYjlaYL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on July 28, 2015, 08:57:00 AM
Other highly recommendable websites are:

Internet Archive: https://archive.org

World Public Library: http://worldlibrary.org/Home

The last one requires a small incorporation fee.

:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 29, 2015, 11:31:04 AM
Cosby's legal situation seems to be getting exponentially worse, as the number of women claiming he sexually abused them now could fill a school bus. The number of accusers is now reportedly more than 40 women, according to various media accounts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 02, 2015, 02:56:16 AM
Quote from: Draško on July 22, 2015, 08:06:46 AM
(http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/Voicespb.jpg)

Some Icelandic writing in Belgrade's Saharan heat.

This turned out to be quite decent. I can easily recommend it to fans of Wallander type detective novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on August 02, 2015, 05:29:35 AM
(http://booklikes.com/photo/max/220/330/upload/books/22/58/78072c9b9b9bcdc700b127d87d24d3ab.jpg)

Dutch book. Philosopical work which shows the meaning of three Godesses and translate it to our current world. Gives rise to imagination and reflection, making this more complex than easier, which is good but also confusing. I haven't sort out yet what's its practical value. IJsseling said that some polytheism make life more imaginative and interesting. He holds it as a kind of valid thinking. I'm curious.. so I read further.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on August 02, 2015, 05:43:58 AM
(http://www.books-antiquarian.com/boeken/031740.jpg)

A book by Dutch philosopher and scientist Frits Staal. Title: "Three mountains and seven rivers". I only read the essay Postrelativism so far. Staal gives a critique on relativism. Though philosophy isn't universal, and religion doesn't know common ground as well, science is universal and progressive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on August 03, 2015, 01:35:55 PM
I'm taking a well-deserved break from the Gesualdo book for this, a visually astounding history in comic form (Disney influence readily apparent) of WWII in which the French are rabbits, frogs & squirrels, the Germans wolves, the British dogs, and Americans are bison.

[asin]2070590739[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on August 04, 2015, 03:51:00 AM
Have you come across this one?

CHAPTER I.

    I.    No, I am willing as usual to testify that you are a charming woman, but this I will not do, though a sweeter creature never sat on a donkey which was rather small for her weight, or wore a blue veil twisted round her neck, where it was of no use in the world. — You are looking rather well to-day.

    She.    I am glad you think so.  I like you to appreciate me.

    I.    Of course you do.  We all like to be appreciated.  I consider it probable that even an oyster, a good oyster, if he could know that he was to be eaten, would wish that it should be by one who could appreciate him.  I am quite capable of sympathizing with him so far as to be certain that he would feel hurt if, when he was swallowed, it was said that he was stale.  I lately read some acrostics of yours so neat and regular that I thought they must have been "machine made."  Now will that compliment satisfy you, and induce you to leave me alone?

    She.    Certainly not.  You ought to do something for the world.  It has always been agreed among us that you were far the cleverest member of our family.

    I.    You will allow that that is not saying much!  Why do you laugh?  This I assure you is a very serious matter.

    She.    I told you it was: then will you write me this book?

    I.    A minute ago it was a book, now it is this book.

    She.    Yes, I see it already.  I think it has a blue cover.

    I.    You shall repent this!  Well, if I do, as I never could write a formal opening, may I begin in the middle?

    She [after a pause].  You may if you can.

    I.    Of course I can.

    She.    I should have said not.  I should have said that, wherever you commenced, there would be the beginning, and that you would not attain to the middle till afterwards.

    I.    We shall see.

    She.    O, "we shall see."  Now you have promised, and you know we must not disappoint expectations which we have raised ourselves.

    I.    No, it would be a cruel thing to promise a hungry man a dinner, and then set before him a lump of raw blubber.

    She [with gravity].  It would indeed.

    I.    Unless he was a Greenlander.  No man could have been more energetic, more industrious (with a butterfly net) than I.  And now I have promised to idle away my time in writing a book.  I fear that, when I have once joined the dangerous classes, I shall often look back with regret on these unpublished days of comparative innocence.

    She.    The dangerous classes?

    I.    The dangerous classes!  So surely as the race invents a new sort of villany, the authors hasten (by way of warning) to spread it abroad, and all our most ridiculous mistakes they first make and then disseminate.  Dangerous?  Yes indeed, I wonder, author as you are, that I ever ventured to sit in-doors with you.  It must be use.

    She.    Why do you call me an author?  Ridiculous!

    I.    Because you copied the manuscript of your grandmother's little book for her, and put mottoes to all the chapters.  Yes, it must be use.  I have become callous.  Indeed, it has long been well known that you may dare the most dangerous things, such as London crossings, and tough pie-crust, if you are but used to them, and yet you may be startled out of all propriety if a few Gatling guns go off when you think you are standing in their way.

    Observing that I was roused, she said no more, but turned her donkey's head and proceeded up the lane, while I took up my butterfly net and went on.  "It will have to be done!" I thought, and as I walked I cogitated as follows.

    I was told a strange legend lately which bore upon this point.  A certain angel was sent to collect stones in the moon and distribute them down here where fords were going to be wanted over the rivers.  A sufficiently difficult enterprise; but he went on with it well, till, drawing near the earth, he saw, as I understood, a lot of pterodactyls fluttering about in a bog, and was so much startled and astonished that he accidently upset the bag containing the stones, and they came clattering down all over New England.

    He was accustomed, no doubt, to get out of the way of a speeding planet as she came rolling up in her oval; a volcano seen below spreading mushroom-shaped smoke over its mouth did not put him out; but pterodactyls heaving their long necks out of the swamp he had not been used to, he could not stand.

    It was a Yankee who told me this story.

    I wish to state, without any mental reservation, that I do not believe it.  It does not appear to me to account in a satisfactory manner for the stones which plague the New England farmer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on August 04, 2015, 04:39:31 AM
Quote from: Ten thumbs on August 04, 2015, 03:51:00 AM
Have you come across this one?


Yes!  John Jerome : His thoughts and ways from the 1880s!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 04, 2015, 04:49:26 AM
Started re-reading this, this morning:

[asin]1595943587[/asin]

When I was younger than a young adult (and arguably precocious as a reader), I read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.  That book and its sequels are generally regarded as YA books which even unqualified adults (so to speak) may enjoy, and that is an evaluation I endorse.  However, I think that the author of The Time Capsule Murders does the talented Madame L'Engle even one better.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 04, 2015, 04:52:42 AM
Hey, it's a while since I visited that Amazon page, and it is worth noting that all seven reviewers give this book five stars! Huzzah!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on August 04, 2015, 05:01:29 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 04, 2015, 04:49:26 AM
Started re-reading this, this morning:

[asin]1595943587[/asin]

When I was younger than a young adult (and arguably precocious as a reader), I read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.  That book and its sequels are generally regarded as YA books which even unqualified adults (so to speak) may enjoy, and that is an evaluation I endorse.  However, I think that the author of The Time Capsule Murders does the talented Madame L'Engle even one better.

Quote from: karlhenning on August 04, 2015, 04:52:42 AM
Hey, it's a while since I visited that Amazon page, and it is worth noting that all seven reviewers give this book five stars! Huzzah!

Many thanks for the high praise!  I am hoping to get a few more reviews for the other parts of the trilogy, again preferably 5-star!   0:)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 05, 2015, 12:30:24 AM
Some recent bookchat from Clive James:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41l4R2gOJJL._SX300.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41yS6lwB32L._SX300.jpg)

...and still have his Dante translations to get to at some point
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 05, 2015, 04:06:11 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81J1zdCJvyL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 05, 2015, 04:58:48 AM
Two books started:

War of the Whales by Joshua Horvitz

Oz Complete by L. Frank Baum

One soon to start:

Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 05, 2015, 05:05:51 AM
Quote from: stingo on August 05, 2015, 04:58:48 AM



Oz Complete by L. Frank Baum



Excellent!!!!!!

Oh, does it have the original illustrations?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 05, 2015, 05:37:32 AM
Quote from: Bogey on August 05, 2015, 05:05:51 AM
Excellent!!!!!!

Oh, does it have the original illustrations?

For the first book, The Wizard of Oz, it certainly does. I picked up the Kindle edition of the complete set for $0.99.

[asin]B00C448DL8[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 05, 2015, 05:41:52 AM
You will then be the second person of my acquaintance who will have read the whole of the Oz canon (unless our Bill is #2, in which case you must be third)  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 05, 2015, 05:59:00 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 05, 2015, 05:41:52 AM
You will then be the second person of my acquaintance who will have read the whole of the Oz canon (unless our Bill is #2, in which case you must be third)  8)

Well, I'm two books in so far - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz. 12 more to go. I intend to spread them out though because I think they'd suffer same-iness from binge reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 05, 2015, 06:14:37 AM
Quote from: stingo on August 05, 2015, 05:59:00 AM
Well, I'm two books in so far - The Wizard of Oz and the The Wonderful Land of Oz. 12 more to go. I intend to spread them out though because I think they'd suffer same-iness from binge reading.

By all means, pace yourself!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 05, 2015, 06:37:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 05, 2015, 06:14:37 AM
By all means, pace yourself!  :)

I shall. I also updated my original post with the correct book names. (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 07, 2015, 10:41:05 AM
Thieves Like Us
Bill and Hillary Clinton Edward Anderson
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 07, 2015, 04:36:51 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 05, 2015, 05:41:52 AM
You will then be the second person of my acquaintance who will have read the whole of the Oz canon (unless our Bill is #2, in which case you must be third)  8)

Yup. Read all the Baum stuff and even dabbled in the Ruth Plumly Thompson run.   My favorite illustrator for the run was John R. Neill.  Always was bummed that he did not do the first book.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ikXVT5YCNz0/U1i1_-pLakI/AAAAAAAAAyA/veVbtucebe4/s1600/ShaggyMan_RoadtoOz_1909.jpg)

One of my favorites was this of Dorothy and the Shaggy Man in The Road to Oz.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 07, 2015, 07:04:10 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 07, 2015, 04:36:51 PM
Yup. Read all the Baum stuff and even dabbled in the Ruth Plumly Thompson run.   My favorite illustrator for the run was John R. Neill.  Always was bummed that he did not do the first book.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ikXVT5YCNz0/U1i1_-pLakI/AAAAAAAAAyA/veVbtucebe4/s1600/ShaggyMan_RoadtoOz_1909.jpg)

One of my favorites was this of Dorothy and the Shaggy Man in The Road to Oz.

Dear gawd. All of them?
My son loved them when he was very young, so we tag-teamed through about four of them. Then we decided an illiterate child isn't so bad after all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 08, 2015, 01:27:56 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 07, 2015, 07:04:10 PM
Dear gawd. All of them?
My son loved them when he was very young, so we tag-teamed through about four of them. Then we decided an illiterate child isn't so bad after all.

I think that statement will strike a chord with a lot of parents with regard to their offspring's various reading choices.  8)  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 08, 2015, 06:13:53 AM
I have not read any of them . . . I am, however, fixin' to watch Return to Oz for the first time this weekend.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 08, 2015, 11:09:01 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 07, 2015, 07:04:10 PM
Dear gawd. All of them?
My son loved them when he was very young, so we tag-teamed through about four of them. Then we decided an illiterate child isn't so bad after all.

Stellar stuff, Ken.  The first four or five of them multiple times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bob_cart on August 08, 2015, 11:49:02 AM
One to learn something:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61gJuAhTAmL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
and one fantasy/steampunkish for relaxing:
(http://www.chriswooding.com/wp-content/uploads/retfalls1-220x336.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 10, 2015, 04:24:20 AM
Again:

[asin]0989406520[/asin]

Will he really believe that she is a Theatre major? . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on August 10, 2015, 02:55:15 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 10, 2015, 04:24:20 AM
Again:

[asin]0989406520[/asin]

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

Hmmm...  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 13, 2015, 06:06:34 AM
Ordered this lot as I had a 10% off discount coupon at an online bookstore. I did have a copy of Of Mice And Men but it vanished before I had the chance to read it.  :-X

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0147505607.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0199537372.01.L.jpg)
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0199539189.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0143105779.01.L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 13, 2015, 06:51:45 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 13, 2015, 06:06:34 AM
Ordered this lot as I had a 10% off discount coupon at an online bookstore. I did have a copy of Of Mice And Men but it vanished before I had the chance to read it.  :-X

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0147505607.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0199537372.01.L.jpg)
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0199539189.01.L.jpg)  (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0143105779.01.L.jpg)

Good stuff. I recommend Ted Hughes's Tales from Ovid most strongly.
I have the Fagles Odyssey yet to read; it sits on my table and lowers at me. (I have read two other translations.)
I read the old Humphries Metamorphoses, but the Mandelbaum is much better. I have also dipped into the Lombardo, which I like, on the strength of his Iliad. Fast and brutal! 
I have only read The Aeneid once (Fitzgerald), but I also read about half the Dryden. It has some lovely bits in it. About a cape named for a dead member of the party:
"Thy name -- 'tis all a ghost can have -- remains."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 13, 2015, 08:37:41 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 13, 2015, 06:51:45 AM
Good stuff. I recommend Ted Hughes's Tales from Ovid most strongly.

Cheers, it looks nice.

Quote from: Carson/Aeschylus' AgamemnonYet there drips in sleep before my heart
  a griefremembering pain.
Good sense comes the hard way.
  And the grace of the gods
   (I’m pretty sure)
 is a grace that comes by violence.


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


Here's the opening of Fagles' Aeneid

Quote from: Virgil/FaglesWars and a man I sing — an exile driven on
by Fate,
he was the first to flee the coast of Troy,
destined to reach Lavinian shores and
Italian soil,
yet many blows he took on land and sea
from the gods above. ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 13, 2015, 09:57:14 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 13, 2015, 08:37:41 AM
Cheers, it looks nice.


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


Here's the opening of Fagles' Aeneid

I loved Milton when I read him. I doubt I'd get through PL again, but it made a hell of an impression on me way back when. The only two English poets who I could recite more than tiny amounts of were Milton and Blake. Donne, Milton, Blake are my favorite English poets.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on August 13, 2015, 10:12:40 AM
I did "Of mice and men" in school about 25 years ago. Later I read Cannery Row which is quite funny and Grapes of Wrath which is rather depressing. Have not got around to East of Eden, although it's included in the doorstopper that also has Grapes of Wrath.

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

I am reading lighter fantasy stuff now: "Half a King" by J. Abercrombie, going to be a nice quick read. And I got another doorstopper on the Kindle: Struggle for Rome (Ein Kampf um Rom) but I am not sure If I'll get through this one. I saw the movie as a kid in the 80s. Lots of intrigues and monumental battles between Goths, Romans and Byzantines in the 6th century...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 13, 2015, 11:56:12 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 13, 2015, 09:57:14 AM
I loved Milton when I read him. I doubt I'd get through PL again, but it made a hell of an impression on me way back when. The only two English poets who I could recite more than tiny amounts of were Milton and Blake. Donne, Milton, Blake are my favorite English poets.

That is some heavyweight group, for sure! Have you read all the big Blake works? (I certainly haven't yet).
Shakespeare (sonnets & other poems), Milton, Donne, Traherne, Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth,  Keats, Yeats and Auden are my favourites, but I haven't read enough of any of them, let alone others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 13, 2015, 12:53:43 PM
Just finished The Three Musketeers. That was fun! Are the sequels as entertaining?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 13, 2015, 01:18:28 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 13, 2015, 12:53:43 PM
Just finished The Three Musketeers. That was fun! Are the sequels as entertaining?
No, but Iron Mask is well worth reading.

Monte Cristo beckons too. I read an abridgement  :-[ but am tempted to read the whole thing. Don't read the first few pages! They are incredibly appealling ...  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 13, 2015, 01:25:08 PM
Quote from: North Star on August 13, 2015, 11:56:12 AM
That is some heavyweight group, for sure! Have you read all the big Blake works? (I certainly haven't yet).
Shakespeare (sonnets & other poems), Milton, Donne, Traherne, Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth,  Keats, Yeats and Auden are my favourites, but I haven't read enough of any of them, let alone others.
Not all. Read a lot, long ago. The odd thing is I loathe mysticism, but like Blake! I did read most of Milton, aside from Regained.

Don't forget De Rerum Natura; it's my favourite Roman book, even over Plautus, and certainly over Virgil.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 13, 2015, 02:11:07 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 13, 2015, 01:25:08 PMNot all. Read a lot, long ago. The odd thing is I loathe mysticism, but like Blake! I did read most of Milton, aside from Regained.
Yeah, good writing is often just that, regardless of values and ideas of the writer - and Blake's 'Satanic Mills' certainly contain more than just mysticism.

QuoteDon't forget De Rerum Natura; it's my favourite Roman book, even over Plautus, and certainly over Virgil.
Thanks, I'll certainly put it on the list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 14, 2015, 10:37:49 AM
And of course Bookdepository sends a soon-to-expire 10 % off coupon just after I bought the previous lot . .
(http://d4rri9bdfuube.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/large/9780/1404/9780140444254.jpg) (https://somesuchlike.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-oresteia-fagles.jpg?w=500) (http://d4rri9bdfuube.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/large/9780/1414/9780141441672.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 14, 2015, 01:41:58 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 13, 2015, 01:18:28 PM
No, but Iron Mask is well worth reading.

Monte Cristo beckons too. I read an abridgement  :-[ but am tempted to read the whole thing. Don't read the first few pages! They are incredibly appealling ...  >:D
I read Monte Cristo last year. There are parts that lag, but if your abridgment did not contain the lesbian affair escape sequence, you're missing out for sure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 14, 2015, 01:53:39 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 14, 2015, 01:41:58 PM
I read Monte Cristo last year. There are parts that lag, but if your abridgment did not contain the lesbian affair escape sequence, you're missing out for sure.
Damn! I read an abridged Finnish translation in elementary school, and a lesbian affair escape sequence would surely have enriched the experience.  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on August 14, 2015, 11:52:41 PM
(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c0/f3/86/c0f386f9daa94522291a8743ccd96961.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 15, 2015, 07:56:43 AM
Coincidentally, I started rereading Monte Cristo about a week ago. Non-abridged, by Jalmari Finne.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 15, 2015, 08:12:19 AM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OBdNf6Vjw8U/Vbnc-uT_8DI/AAAAAAAAEfg/w10DWVMLBpo/s400/montecristo.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 15, 2015, 08:18:49 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 15, 2015, 07:56:43 AM
Coincidentally, I started rereading Monte Cristo about a week ago. Non-abridged, by Jalmari Finne.
[unabridged]

Very nice.

Thread duty

I returned just now after bathing in the bright summer's sun on the beach in the best of companies:
[asin]0199535795[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 15, 2015, 09:25:51 AM
Well, excuse meee, I wrote that in a hurry.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 15, 2015, 09:35:23 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 15, 2015, 09:25:51 AM
Well, excuse meee, I wrote that in a hurry.

No apology is necessary. ;)
I certainly didn't intend to grumble. . .

How is the Finne translation, by the way? I see it's from 1912.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 15, 2015, 09:45:49 AM
1911, actually. It's excellent, although there are some outdated expressions (the word "tyhmeliini" sounds a bit silly, like straight out of old fairy tales).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 15, 2015, 09:46:19 AM
Starting with this recent purchase:

[asin]8831719394[/asin]
I still haven't reached the musical part of these memoirs by one of Italy's foremost (and most scathing) music critics. The first few pages are rather pompously loaded with latin quotes (from Virgil and Horace), but then as he starts talking about himself, Paolo Isotta is one of those raconteurs who manage to make you take a keen interest in the vicissitudes of, for instance, their third-grade teacher. Definitely a fun read so far...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 15, 2015, 09:49:32 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 15, 2015, 09:45:49 AM
1911, actually. It's excellent, although there are some outdated expressions (the word "tyhmeliini" sounds a bit silly, like straight out of old fairy tales).
Hah! It's a good word in the appropriate place, though.
I'll certainly keep this one in mind if/when I want to read the whole thing later on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 15, 2015, 10:06:28 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 15, 2015, 09:45:49 AM
1911, actually. It's excellent, although there are some outdated expressions (the word "tyhmeliini" sounds a bit silly, like straight out of old fairy tales).

What does tyhmeliini mean?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 15, 2015, 10:49:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 15, 2015, 10:06:28 AM
What does tyhmeliini mean?
I was wondering the same thing..saw it translated as "nincompoop" in some webpage.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 15, 2015, 10:50:51 AM
Well, it basically means "an idiot" but it's a really odd way to say it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 15, 2015, 10:51:19 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 15, 2015, 10:49:29 AM
I was wondering the same thing..saw it translated as "nincompoop" in some webpage.  ;)

Yes, that's it, pretty much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 15, 2015, 11:56:19 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 15, 2015, 10:49:29 AM
I was wondering the same thing..saw it translated as "nincompoop" in some webpage.  ;)
Nincompoop is quite accurate. It's an affectionate form - well, maybe not that affectionate - of tyhmä, i.e. stupid. The Dude might say foolerino, if he wasn't into the whole brevity thing.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 15, 2015, 03:28:29 PM
Quote from: ritter on August 15, 2015, 10:49:29 AM
I was wondering the same thing..saw it translated as "nincompoop" in some webpage.  ;)

Quote from: Alberich on August 15, 2015, 10:50:51 AM
Well, it basically means "an idiot" but it's a really odd way to say it.

Well, and if you please, nincompoop is perhaps an odd way of saying an idiot  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 15, 2015, 03:29:13 PM
Quote from: North Star on August 15, 2015, 11:56:19 AM
Nincompoop is quite accurate. It's an affectionate form - well, maybe not that affectionate - of tyhmä, i.e. stupid. The Dude might say foolerino, if he wasn't into the whole brevity thing.  0:)

Reminds me of Sam's old Gaffer calling him a ninnyhammer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 16, 2015, 04:41:04 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 17, 2015, 02:20:51 PM
Interesting looking but ... Let us know.
I see Tyler Cowen blurbed the book. The world knows few greater masters of the incomprehensible sentence, the garbled paragraph, than Tyler Cowen.

;D

I ran into him at a shopping mall a year ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 17, 2015, 03:37:32 AM
A book that my sister wrote;  she began just by sending e-mail messages to keep our youngest sister in good cheer, and then she was encouraged to make it a complete story.  Reading it makes me smile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 17, 2015, 06:25:14 PM
(http://www.postmodernmystery.com/images/the_lime_works.gif)

As usual with Bernhard, I enjoyed this book. It is a story of a man, trying to write a work of his life entitled On the sense of hearing. He lives with his wife far away from the society but ends up killing her. It is the first thing that you learn on page one of the book about the main character in the novel.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NDXIXQiTL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The book is an account of an imaginary literary club. It is a short and fun read, but won't stay on your mind for too long after you finish it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 21, 2015, 11:24:19 AM
I don't suppose this really counts as reading...

(http://i.imgur.com/haLgT9t.jpg)

We moved into this house last year and still have boxes needing unpacked. But that's nothing, because this afternoon we found a couple of boxes containing many guitar magazines dating from about 1977 to 1987. I don't remember where these came from. Anyway, one of us is continuing to soldier on with the task of unpacking, organising, storing etc. And one of us is laying back on the sofa reading about guitars with pointy headstocks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 21, 2015, 11:57:27 AM
Quote from: NikF on August 21, 2015, 11:24:19 AM
I don't suppose this really counts as reading...

We moved into this house last year and still have boxes needing unpacked. But that's nothing, because this afternoon we found a couple of boxes containing many guitar magazines dating from about 1977 to 1987. I don't remember where these came from. Anyway, one of us is continuing to soldier on with the task of unpacking, organising, storing etc. And one of us is laying back on the sofa reading about guitars with pointy headstocks.
I am appalled. Please. for the love of all things bright and beautiful, read instead about guitars with open-book headstocks or those round Fender-style headstocks, and not those awful pointy things! I quite like the Randy Rhoads signature design, though - but that's probably the only decent design from the 1980s. You may read about that one.  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 21, 2015, 12:30:36 PM
Quote from: North Star on August 21, 2015, 11:57:27 AM
I am appalled. Please. for the love of all things bright and beautiful, read instead about guitars with open-book headstocks or those round Fender-style headstocks, and not those awful pointy things! I quite like the Randy Rhoads signature design, though - but that's probably the only decent design from the 1980s. You may read about that one.  :P

Ah, no, it's more that I'm considering how some can find such headstocks aesthetically pleasing, while I can only think of them as being useful if I were stranded on a desert island and could use them for spearing fish or making holes in coconuts or poking snakes or something.
I'll have a look later and see if Randy Rhodes and his guitar appear in any of the issues. For now, I can only offer either Julian Bream, Joe Pass, or Yngwie Malmsteen and his ego. No difference between those three. Heh.


(http://i.imgur.com/WOg6Drj.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 24, 2015, 01:00:04 PM
Quote from: NikF on August 21, 2015, 12:30:36 PM
Ah, no, it's more that I'm considering how some can find such headstocks aesthetically pleasing, while I can only think of them as being useful if I were stranded on a desert island and could use them for spearing fish or making holes in coconuts or poking snakes or something.
Well I certainly think that violins are rather more aesthetically pleasing (in more ways than one).

(http://www.violini-villa.com/exsitovittoriovilla.com/mioSOIL1.jpg)


Thread duty - Ordered this:
(https://www.adlibris.com/images/2840664/collected-fictions.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 24, 2015, 01:18:21 PM
Quote from: North Star on August 24, 2015, 01:00:04 PM
Thread duty - Ordered this:
(https://www.adlibris.com/images/2840664/collected-fictions.jpg)
I guess you knew today is his birthday. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 24, 2015, 02:13:16 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 24, 2015, 01:18:21 PM
I guess you knew today is his birthday. :)
Even more appropriately, I actually did not know that. No wonder you would know that, though, Brian.  8) Happy Birthday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 24, 2015, 02:41:22 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 24, 2015, 01:18:21 PM
I guess you knew today is his birthday. :)

Is it his birthday, or is it the birthday of some other Borges?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2015, 08:25:51 AM
Quote from: Mark TrumbullIf a stock market goes too long in one relentless direction with little volatility, it's often a sign that investors have mentally checked out.

(Probably worth pointing out, that if that one relentless direction is down, the investors are probably still checked in . . . .)

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2015/0824/Calls-for-calm-Dow-falls-nearly-4-percent-but-is-there-really-a-recession-coming
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 26, 2015, 05:32:03 AM
(http://knjigeobradovic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CAR-EDIP-ANTIGONA-SOFOKLE.jpg)

Sophocles - Oedipus Rex, Antigone
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 26, 2015, 05:39:27 AM
Quote from: Draško on August 26, 2015, 05:32:03 AM
(http://knjigeobradovic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CAR-EDIP-ANTIGONA-SOFOKLE.jpg)

I cyphered that out, even before I got to Antigona  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 26, 2015, 05:57:53 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 26, 2015, 05:39:27 AM
I cyphered that out, even before I got to Antigona  8)

8)

Funny how these things work, I was listening to Strauss' Elektra a bit recently, and got hankering for some ancient Greek literature. I had this one handy, even though I've read both before, and now planing to move to Homer, whom I haven't read since high school and to complete Aeschylus, some of which I've never read before. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 26, 2015, 06:58:53 PM
Quote from: Draško on August 26, 2015, 05:32:03 AM
(http://knjigeobradovic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CAR-EDIP-ANTIGONA-SOFOKLE.jpg)

Sophocles - Oedipus Rex, Antigone

No  Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ?

Which I think is the finest of the three.

I have Aeschylus and Sophocles in a combination of Penguin and Modern Library.  Herodotus and Thucydides also in Modern Library translations.  But  Richmond Lattimore is the man who Hellenized me.  Homer, Hesiod,  Pindar, Sappho and a host of lesser, fragmentary poets,  all from his pen,  and Euripides, who he translated in partnership with a fellow named Grene.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 27, 2015, 05:26:06 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 26, 2015, 06:58:53 PM
No  Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ?

Which I think is the finest of the three.

I have Aeschylus and Sophocles in a combination of Penguin and Modern Library.  Herodotus and Thucydides also in Modern Library translations.  But  Richmond Lattimore is the man who Hellenized me.  Homer, Hesiod,  Pindar, Sappho and a host of lesser, fragmentary poets,  all from his pen,  and Euripides, who he translated in partnership with a fellow named Grene.
Can't say I ever liked Lattimore. Certainly not his Homer. Fitzgerald. I have read some very fine versions of Homer and Ovid by Lombardo, who is sort of an anti-Lattimore, emphasizing swiftness and directness. Fagles still awaits. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 27, 2015, 08:28:16 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 26, 2015, 06:58:53 PM
No  Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ?

No, I haven't read it, or seen it. Serbian translation of Oedipus on Colonus is bit hard to find these days, haven't had a reprint in ages. Might have to go for English one. It's also the least often staged of Sophocles' Theban Plays (here at least), for instance both Antigone (http://www.narodnopozoriste.rs/en/antigone) and Oedipus Rex (http://www.narodnopozoriste.rs/en/oedipus-rex) are currently on repertoire of the Belgrade National Theatre, and I can't even remember when was last Oedipus on Colonus.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 29, 2015, 12:29:21 PM
(https://bookpeopleblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/beethoven.jpg)

I'm 250 pages (of 850 or so) into this and I'm adoring it. The last LvB biography I read was the one by Lewis Lockwood, which I barely remember as I read it ten years ago. I do recall Lockwood kept stating that Beethoven was under-appreciated as a melodist. 

Swafford's book is more sweeping, and it took him 12 years to write. It also serves as a vignette of the last days of the Holy Roman Empire, and I'm appreciating just how helpful the aristocracy was to Beethoven and what a jackass he could be (there's been a running joke in the book so far with many of Beethoven's relationships ending with "unfortunately there was a falling out.")

Something else I'm learning with this book is just how much of a hard worker Beethoven was -- as a teen and a young man in his 20s he labored away thousands of hours in seclusion practicing the piano endlessly, and he wasn't as effortless a genius as Mozart.  Much effort and preparation went into those early opus numbers. For instance, he was trying to sketch a C major symphony for years before producing the Opus 21.

As I read along I'm listening to pieces the author discusses which I'm not familiar with -- the Electoral sonatas, the early piano quartet, the Opus 17 Horn sonata, etc. I like how there's a story behind many of the pieces -- Beethoven composed the horn sonata for a virtuouso of the instrument he was accompanying to some central European city, likewise for those early cello sonatas.

This is a book I'm savoring.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 29, 2015, 03:58:02 PM
I bought this book recently too, but I'm of reading it until I'm ready to discover Beethoven. Swafford is a very enjoyable writer. I read his bio of Brahms and it was one of the best books I've recently read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: TheGSMoeller on August 31, 2015, 07:00:11 PM
Been revisiting some old comic book favorites, and some I've missed since I took a break. Getting these on my Kindle Fire for a good price.

[asin]B00EARP0HM[/asin]
[asin]B00AAJQYDI[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on September 01, 2015, 04:10:33 AM
The Kindle version of Swafford's Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph Kindle edition is $2.99 just now. Typical price is $22.49.

[asin]B00E78IB3E[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on September 01, 2015, 04:14:06 AM
Finished Life in a Medieval City (Frances and Joseph Gies), and Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (Terry Jones and Alan Ereira). Completing the trifecta in starting Life in a Medieval Castle (Frances and Joseph Gies). Also listened to the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales on audiobook.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 01, 2015, 04:26:23 AM
Quote from: stingo on September 01, 2015, 04:10:33 AM
The Kindle version of Swafford's Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph Kindle edition is $2.99 just now. Typical price is $22.49.

[asin]B00E78IB3E[/asin]

Thanks for the alert.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 01, 2015, 06:53:21 AM
Frustrated musicians: The New York Times doesn't want to hear your "continued complaints" about its "Creative Apocalypse" numbers (http://www.salon.com/2015/08/28/frustrated_musicians_the_new_york_times_doesnt_want_to_hear_your_continued_complaints_about_its_creative_apocalypse_numbers/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 01, 2015, 09:40:41 AM
Japan's worst day for teen suicides (http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/01/asia/japan-teen-suicides/?iid=ob_article_topstories_pool&iref=obnetwork)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 01, 2015, 07:09:24 PM
Picked this up randomly. Had very low expectations (in fact, I thought it would be reactionary and preachy), but it's very interesting, insightful and well written (so far).

[asin]0465031463[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 01, 2015, 07:10:22 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on September 01, 2015, 07:09:24 PM
Picked this up randomly. Had very low expectations (in fact, I thought it would be reactionary and preachy), but it's very interesting, insightful and well written (so far).
I just finished that book last month, and thought it very good indeed. A lot of material is dated (1990s), but the message continues to resonate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 02, 2015, 04:03:44 AM
Grandville - British comic series by Brian Talbot. Antropomorphic victorian alternate history steampunk Sherlock Holmes James Bond cross. Very decently written. Four books so far, I've read first two.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Grandville_comics.jpg) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Grandville_mon_amour.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 02, 2015, 05:15:33 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on September 01, 2015, 07:09:24 PM
Picked this up randomly. Had very low expectations (in fact, I thought it would be reactionary and preachy), but it's very interesting, insightful and well written (so far).

[asin]0465031463[/asin]
Quote from: Brian on September 01, 2015, 07:10:22 PM
I just finished that book last month, and thought it very good indeed. A lot of material is dated (1990s), but the message continues to resonate.

It's nice that you guys give your opinion but a link would be better.

>:D ;) :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on September 02, 2015, 08:23:16 AM
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/NikF65/Mobile%20Uploads/PSX_20150902_171739_zpsawxl9acj.jpg)

So pleased to find this in one of the (sadly, few remaining) local used bookstores, because I've been wanting to read some Marcel Ayme for a long time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on September 04, 2015, 02:14:19 PM
Quote from: stingo on September 01, 2015, 04:10:33 AM
The Kindle version of Swafford's Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph Kindle edition is $2.99 just now. Typical price is $22.49.

[asin]B00E78IB3E[/asin]

Thanks. Though I strongly prefer physical books, I picked this up as my copy is a library loan with multiple reserves!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 08, 2015, 11:45:07 AM
Bought at Barnes and Noble last night. 
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ulUayQPcL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A bilingual edition of selected poems.


(http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780393303858_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 08, 2015, 11:49:08 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 27, 2015, 05:26:06 AM
Can't say I ever liked Lattimore. Certainly not his Homer. Fitzgerald. I have read some very fine versions of Homer and Ovid by Lombardo, who is sort of an anti-Lattimore, emphasizing swiftness and directness. Fagles still awaits.

Read through some of Fagles last night at B&N.  Struck me as brutal and very nonpoetic in its meter.  Well, that is to say, it didn't see to have any meter.
Also Fitzgerald,  who does seem to remember he is translating poetry, but I did not find the grace of sound that Lattimore achieved.   Fitzgerald seemed to overemphasize the swiftness and directness.  For me, Lattimore achieved the correct balance.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 10, 2015, 06:29:41 AM
British Airways fire: Why you shouldn't escape with carry-on luggage (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2015/0910/British-Airways-fire-Why-you-shouldn-t-escape-with-carry-on-luggage)

. . . but my moment, or my belongings, are more important than the next guy's physical safety.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 10, 2015, 06:50:28 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 10, 2015, 06:29:41 AM
British Airways fire: Why you shouldn't escape with carry-on luggage (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2015/0910/British-Airways-fire-Why-you-shouldn-t-escape-with-carry-on-luggage)

. . . but my moment, or my belongings, are more important than the next guy's physical safety.

You can be charged for disobeying the orders of a flight attendant. Seems a good time to deploy this law.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 11, 2015, 01:06:23 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41k2BnvL44L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Superb.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2015, 10:58:53 AM
How FBI foiled a 9/11 anniversary terror plot (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/0911/How-FBI-foiled-a-9-11-anniversary-terror-plot)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 11, 2015, 12:23:37 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 11, 2015, 10:58:53 AM
How FBI foiled a 9/11 anniversary terror plot (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/0911/How-FBI-foiled-a-9-11-anniversary-terror-plot)
counterpoint (http://knappster.blogspot.com/2015/09/shenanigans.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 11, 2015, 06:53:39 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 11, 2015, 12:23:37 PM
counterpoint (http://knappster.blogspot.com/2015/09/shenanigans.html)
This is hilarious, in a bad way. Knapp asserts there was no conspiracy while admitting Goldberg assumed the bomb would go off and wanted to assist in a bombing. That's a strange definition of "non-existent".

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 11, 2015, 07:22:38 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 11, 2015, 06:53:39 PM

This is hilarious, in a bad way. Knapp asserts there was no conspiracy while admitting Goldberg assumed the bomb would go off and wanted to assist in a bombing. That's a strange definition of "non-existent".

You are missing the point.
To have a conspiracy, you need at least two people with a common intent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 11, 2015, 07:39:52 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 11, 2015, 07:22:38 PM
You are missing the point.
To have a conspiracy, you need at least two people with a common intent.
Oh come on. You had one guy and the cop who caught him by pretending. The guy had serious intent and belief. if I get you to plot with me to murder Karl and then arrest you are you seriously going to say "No plot here!"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on September 11, 2015, 07:52:57 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 11, 2015, 07:39:52 PM
Oh come on. You had one guy and the cop who caught him by pretending. The guy had serious intent and belief. if I get you to plot with me to murder Karl and then arrest you are you seriously going to say "No plot here!"
The usual term for that is entrapment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 12, 2015, 06:21:30 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on September 11, 2015, 07:52:57 PM
The usual term for that is entrapment.

That requires that the cop induce you to commit a crime you were not previously inclined to commit. Evidence of that here?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 17, 2015, 05:02:01 AM
Nick Cohen is unhappy. http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9637452/why-ive-finally-given-up-on-the-left/ (http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9637452/why-ive-finally-given-up-on-the-left/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 17, 2015, 01:34:11 PM
On the bus:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41l4R2gOJJL._SX227_.jpg)

At home:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oYkvAZowL._SX227.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 18, 2015, 06:07:40 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on September 11, 2015, 11:11:29 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KzTUfRqDL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
I haven't read this specific collection, but I love reading Carver, even though his stories are almost always devastating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 19, 2015, 06:54:13 PM
Here are some books that I finished recently.

(https://theasylum.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/9780312428747.jpg)

This is my second book by Denis Johnson. I quite like him as a writer. This short collection of stories reminded me of Raymond Carver but with a heavier focus on drug abuse.

(http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/d/dylan-goes-electric/9780062366689_custom-952dc84f08457cd230dbe9434f9084a0af244d80-s400-c85.jpg)

A large part of the book deals with Newport music festival and the clash between folk and rock crowds, so it is not about Dylan all the time.

(http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/t/the-vorrh/9781101873786_custom-a1fc95829af43f8bd45cc87a903b4e69253ea0e5-s400-c85.jpg)

That novel was really great. I suppose it is considered fantasy, which is something I don't normally read, but it is such an odd story with so many interesting characters. Highly recommended. I'll just post this here:
QuoteNext to the colonial town of Essenwald sits the Vorrh, a vast—perhaps endless—forest. It is a place of demons and angels, of warriors and priests. Sentient and magical, the Vorrh bends time and wipes  memory. Legend has it that the Garden of Eden still exists at its heart. Now, a renegade English soldier aims to be the first human to traverse its expanse. Armed with only a strange bow, he begins his journey, but some fear the consequences of his mission, and a native marksman has been chosen to stop him. Around them swirl a remarkable cast of characters, including a Cyclops raised by robots and a young girl with tragic curiosity, as well as historical figures, such as writer Raymond Roussel and photographer and Edward Muybridge.  While fact and fictional blend, and the hunter will become the hunted, and everyone's fate hangs in the balance, under the will of the Vorrh.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on September 19, 2015, 07:33:55 PM
Audiobook via audible.com

(http://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-100/0211-1/%7BF7155B70-8CEC-404B-9CF0-9ED4EECA22E9%7DImg100.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 29, 2015, 10:40:08 AM
One Virginia teen's journey from ISIS rock star to incarceration (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/0929/One-Virginia-teen-s-journey-from-ISIS-rock-star-to-incarceration)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 29, 2015, 11:16:07 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 29, 2015, 10:40:08 AM
One Virginia teen's journey from ISIS rock star to incarceration (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/0929/One-Virginia-teen-s-journey-from-ISIS-rock-star-to-incarceration)

Worth noting that he found no support for his radical views from his local religious leaders. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 29, 2015, 01:46:21 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 29, 2015, 11:16:07 AM
Worth noting that he found no support for his radical views from his local religious leaders. 

Indeed!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 30, 2015, 08:46:01 AM
Makes me think a little about the Robt Sheckley story, "Is That What People Do?"

Woman admits storing 93-year-old mom's corpse while she cashed checks for a year (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/30/woman-admits-storing-3-year-old-mom-corpse-while-cashed-checks-for-year/?intcmp=hplnws)

[ The really strange thing about chancing on that story is, I only heard about Gloversville for the first time at the church choir picnic this past Saturday. ]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 02, 2015, 03:58:55 AM
Volkswagen is a de facto German national icon, and so its deception is forcing Germans to rethink their most basic assumptions about their country. (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/1001/Not-just-about-cars-Volkswagen-scandal-pierces-German-identity-video)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 02, 2015, 05:18:08 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 02, 2015, 03:58:55 AM
Volkswagen is a de facto German national icon, and so its deception is forcing Germans to rethink their most basic assumptions about their country. (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/1001/Not-just-about-cars-Volkswagen-scandal-pierces-German-identity-video)

Like perhaps basing your view of your country on a single company?  ::)

Insert Tim Horton's joke here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 02, 2015, 05:41:29 AM
Quote from: Sara Miller LlanaIn a YouGov poll released this summer, Germans chose Volkswagen as the national icon they most identify with, with 63 percent voting for it – far ahead of Bach, Goethe, and even Chancellor Angela Merkel.

I cannot decide which is the occasion for greater national disgrace: far ahead of Bach, Goethe or and even Chancellor Angela Merkel . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 02, 2015, 07:29:13 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 02, 2015, 05:41:29 AM
I cannot decide which is the occasion for greater national disgrace: far ahead of Bach, Goethe or and even Chancellor Angela Merkel . . . .
I suppose we shouldn't expect the average person to identify themselves with Leibniz, Kant, Wittgenstein, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Einstein, Planck, Dürer, CD Friedrich, Mann, Grass, Lang, Schubert or Hartmann.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on October 02, 2015, 08:04:44 AM
These are all dead white males (except Merkel), most of them boring, whereas almost everyone can buy a Volkswagen... ;)
Schubert, Wittgenstein, Schrödinger were all Austrian. Not that there is any lack of unquestionably German great composers, philosophers or scientists.

I hate those polls (often coupled with a TV show) about the "greatest German" or so, because the results are always so terribly embarrassing. I seem to recall that 10 years ago or so, Adenauer (first postwar chancellor) came out before Goethe, Bach, Beethoven etc. Beckenbauer or Kohl would have been worse, but it's ridiculous anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 02, 2015, 08:20:11 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on October 02, 2015, 08:04:44 AM
I hate those polls (often coupled with a TV show) about the "greatest German" or so, because the results are always so terribly embarrassing.

Well, I suppose I take comfort in the thought that the malaise is not, after all, unique to the U.S.  0:)  8)  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 02, 2015, 08:27:53 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on October 02, 2015, 08:04:44 AM
These are all dead white males (except Merkel), most of them boring, whereas almost everyone can buy a Volkswagen... ;)
You're dead right.  0:)
QuoteSchubert, Wittgenstein, Schrödinger were all Austrian. Not that there is any lack of unquestionably German great composers, philosophers or scientists.
Yes of course. Silly of me to not remember it in each of those cases.

QuoteI hate those polls (often coupled with a TV show) about the "greatest German" or so, because the results are always so terribly embarrassing. I seem to recall that 10 years ago or so, Adenauer (first postwar chancellor) came out before Goethe, Bach, Beethoven etc. Beckenbauer or Kohl would have been worse, but it's ridiculous anyway.
Ridiculous they certainly are. A dozen years ago there was one here too. Mostly politicians/war heroes, the pediatrician Ylppö, the three most significant literary figures (Agricola, Kivi, Lönnrot), and Sibelius in the eighth place. Edelfeldt and Salonen didn't make it to the top 100, Akseli Gallen-Kallela was no. 56. But it is to be expected that politicians, pop musicians, athletes and racing drivers will do better than artists.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 02, 2015, 08:31:07 AM
Quote from: North Star link=topic=68.msg923053#msg923053  But it is to be expected that politicians, pop musicians, athletes and racing drivers will do better than artists.
/quote]
For a while.

To An Athlete Dying Young
QuoteThe time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

Today, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears.

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 02, 2015, 10:30:29 AM
The Suppression of Speedy (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/654711/posts)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on October 02, 2015, 11:16:07 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on October 02, 2015, 08:04:44 AM
These are all dead white males (except Merkel), most of them boring, whereas almost everyone can buy a Volkswagen... ;)
Schubert, Wittgenstein, Schrödinger were all Austrian. Not that there is any lack of unquestionably German great composers, philosophers or scientists.

I hate those polls (often coupled with a TV show) about the "greatest German" or so, because the results are always so terribly embarrassing. I seem to recall that 10 years ago or so, Adenauer (first postwar chancellor) came out before Goethe, Bach, Beethoven etc. Beckenbauer or Kohl would have been worse, but it's ridiculous anyway.

I would have thought a good mug of beer would have placed in first, or close to it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 02, 2015, 11:48:31 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on October 02, 2015, 11:16:07 AM
I would have thought a good mug of beer would have placed in first, or close to it.

Indeed.

Anything but a particular company to be honest.
If I had to name one company I associate with Germany it would not be one the Germans would be happy about!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wandering Aengus on October 03, 2015, 05:54:28 AM
Quote from: Artem on September 18, 2015, 06:07:40 PM
I haven't read this specific collection, but I love reading Carver, even though his stories are almost always devastating.

This is my favourite collection of his stories.  And the short story 'Cathedral' itself always leaves me in (joyous) tears.  'A Small, Good Thing' is in that collection also if I recall. 

'Devastating' is an apt word for Carver's stories!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wandering Aengus on October 03, 2015, 06:36:22 AM
I tend to read two or three books at a time, but the main one which has preoccupied me lately is Augustine's Confessions, which I'm coming close to finishing now.  I've desperately tried to give it a generous reading, but it's gotten much more difficult toward the end (full disclosure: I've been a non-theist for about 15 years, but not dogmatically so -- Dawkins, Hitchens, et al do not interest me).

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/318R1XnKGAL.jpg)

The first half of the book was not terrible because at least it takes the form of a narrative -- to put it in the broadest terms possible, a quest for meaning.  And I can identify (to some degree) with Augustine's struggle -- years ago I was a Christian going through my own search from everything from Origen to Tillich.  Understood in general terms, and bearing the historical context in mind, I actually found Augustine to be interesting, even if I disagreed with him almost every step of the way.  Augustine's chief source of misery seems to me not sin at all but rather his fierce perfectionism.  Too often he seems to be chasing his own metaphysical tail in circles.

His insights on the nature of the self and the will are nevertheless interesting, to say the least and he's raised interesting philosophical questions for me -- though hardly in the way Augustine ever intended!  But I'll need something to wash down the bitter taste of his religious fervour (which is quite exhausting!), so the more even-handed self scrutiny Montaigne's Essays are next for my reading. lol

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on October 03, 2015, 08:44:13 AM
(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02704/catastrophe-hastin_2704481a.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on October 04, 2015, 12:56:01 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NeOaIguDL._SX425_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Power and Plenty, by Ronald Findlay and Kevin H O'Rourke.  A vastly ambitious book that strives to cram in a full millennium of (nearly) global economic history into 546 text pages.  The authors carve the Eurasian and North African landmasses into seven broad territories and consider each in turn in each chapter.  (Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas are not really considered, at least in the early going, though gold from the Ghana Empire is of course mentioned.)  I've finished the first three of ten chapters, and to give an idea of what the authors do, the first 42 page chapter offers a whirlwind world history to roughly the year 1000; the second 44 page chapter covers the  global economy around year 1000; and the 55 page third chapter covers world trade until the year 1500, with a decent portion given over the benefits of the Pax Mongolica and the economic and geopolitical impacts of the Black Death.  Each paragraph and page is fact-dense and shows how the known facts either do or do not conform with liberal economic theories.  (Those wanting a Marxist or alternative history should look elsewhere.)  Statistical data is of course light in the early going, but it starts ramping up in the third chapter, and later on the book it riddled with statistics.  Trade, politics, and war are all intertwined of course, and this book offers a magnificent synthesis of global history over the last thousand years.  It also mentions title after title of other works that appear just as appealing as this, but there is not enough time for a non-academic to read them all.  Great stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Super Blood Moon on October 06, 2015, 12:54:03 PM
You can drink it, but can you read it?
[asin]0802120431[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on October 07, 2015, 11:55:14 AM
Currently reading a lot of texts, but the one that is the most pressing is Comparative Rhetoric by George Kennedy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 08, 2015, 07:53:27 PM
Finished these books recently:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OpXMCa9sL._SX374_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WvdAFFBQL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(https://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/outline.jpg?w=300&h=456)

Szabo and Cusk's books were pretty good. The Door is fairly straightforward story about the relationship of two women, while nothing really happens in the Outline, which is about a writer that goes to Greece to teach a course on writing. Both books are written in a kind of minimalistic style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on October 09, 2015, 05:03:54 AM
Quote from: Philo on October 07, 2015, 11:55:14 AM
Currently reading a lot of texts, but the one that is the most pressing is Comparative Rhetoric by George Kennedy.

Finished Kennedy. My second time through and yet still insight. A must read for anyone interested in rhetoric prior to the Greeks or from oral cultures.

Currently reading After Babel by Steiner
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 09, 2015, 05:09:46 AM
I have started to re-read a book I loved 30 years ago, The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth.

Karl knows it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 09, 2015, 05:10:49 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 09, 2015, 05:09:46 AM
I have started to re-read a book I loved 30 years ago, The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth.

Karl knows it!

Aye, I need to re-read that one!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on October 11, 2015, 02:52:02 PM
I have been halfway through Down and Out in Paris and London for a couple of months...I should go back to reading it once school is over forever in November.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 11, 2015, 03:18:33 PM
Quote from: ComposerOfAvantGarde on October 11, 2015, 02:52:02 PM
I have been halfway through Down and Out in Paris and London for a couple of months...I should go back to reading it once school is over forever in November.

^One of my absolute favorite books, along with his unjustly neglected Keep The Aspidistra Flying. But then practically everything Orwell wrote, however big or small, is essential reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on October 11, 2015, 04:22:24 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 11, 2015, 03:18:33 PM
^One of my absolute favorite books, along with his unjustly neglected Keep The Aspidistra Flying. But then practically everything Orwell wrote, however big or small, is essential reading.

I agree re Orwell. His writings ring true for every time in history, the present and the future, he is probably one of the most influential people who ever lived. 1984 made me hate Murdoch's Newscorp regime and stuff like that lol.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 11, 2015, 05:06:03 PM
Quote from: David FriezeClearly, the boys in that theater were there for the songs; the girls were there for their hormones.

My friend David Frieze's wonderful blog post about going to see A Hard Day's Night.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 12, 2015, 04:05:43 PM
Reading the remaining short stories in this, on account of Gautier having written the libretto for the ballet we watched last night.

(http://i.imgur.com/UBsEd9x.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 13, 2015, 08:32:49 AM
Going through Faust II. Amazing, so overwhelming that I'm exhausted. It lingers a bit too much with the mythological characters, though. It's great for a while but when it continues for too long, you want change. It was better in scenes with the Emperor. Mephistopheles steals the show, even from Faust himself. The real joy comes from the multiple ways he can be interpreted, he is so layered character. He can be played as incarnation of pure evil who still manages to have outward charm that fools people but also as a noble demon who isn't merely manipulating Faust 100 % of the time but has some genuine redeeming qualities.

After I'm finished with this and Richard III, I'll probably move on to Wilhelm Meister.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on October 14, 2015, 05:32:58 AM
Quote from: The new erato on October 03, 2015, 08:44:13 AM
(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02704/catastrophe-hastin_2704481a.jpg)

Such an interesting subject. I'm going through Dan Carlin's epic length aural tour of WW1 (the series is titled "Blueprint for Armageddon") and I wanted to delve into books on the subject afterwards. Any recs?

ps that Dan Carlin podcast link is here:

http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 14, 2015, 12:29:47 PM
Well written and argued, but way more nerdy detail than I was prepared for.  My thumb gets sore paging thru the chapter endnotes.  I'm sticking with it, though.  No spoilers, please!

[asin]B00B23DEBQ[/asin]

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 14, 2015, 01:05:09 PM
Quote from: Daverz on October 14, 2015, 12:29:47 PM
Well written and argued, but way more nerdy detail than I was prepared for.  My thumb gets sore paging thru the chapter endnotes.  I'm sticking with it, though.  No spoilers, please!

[asin]B00B23DEBQ[/asin]

You probably want to pass on Erickson then ... But Beevor's book on Stalingrad is great.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on October 14, 2015, 03:11:53 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 14, 2015, 01:05:09 PM
You probably want to pass on Erickson then ...

This is Stalin's War with Germany in 2 volumes?

I did enjoy Richard J. Evans 3 volume history of the Third Reich.  Stahel's book seems to be for a more academic audience, focusing somewhat relentlessly on his thesis.

[asin]B0023SDQGW[/asin]

Quote
But Beevor's book on Stalingrad is great.

I've heard good things about it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 14, 2015, 03:19:58 PM
Quote from: Daverz on October 14, 2015, 03:11:53 PM
This is Stalin's War with Germany in 2 volumes?

I did enjoy Richard J. Evans 3 volume history of the Third Reich.  Stahel's book seems to be for a more academic audience, focusing somewhat relentlessly on his thesis.

[asin]B0023SDQGW[/asin]

I've heard good things about it.

Yes, I think that's the title. I stopped part way. I have read book 1 of Evans and liked it. I have the second on my shelf. Burleigh is good too.
The one I liked best is an old one by Bracher, The German Dictatorship. Mostly about the process of consolidating power.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on October 16, 2015, 08:37:54 AM
Finished After Babel. I've never taken so many notes reading a text. I'd only suggest it to one deeply interested in the philosophy of translation at the graduate level.

Next up is Calvin Schrag's chapter in Rhetoric and Hermeneutics in Our Time, the Ecology chapter from Lingua Fracta (but I'll likely read the whole thing), and Serequeberhan's Contested Memories (he's swiftly becoming a philosopher I love).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Philo on October 19, 2015, 11:55:35 AM
My Belief by Hesse
Totality and Infinity by Levinas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 23, 2015, 01:20:49 PM
With Toots out socialising with her little friends, I'm afforded the simple pleasure of an evening in Clochemerle.

(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/NikF65/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20151023_221525-1_zps3yajoxgv.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 23, 2015, 01:36:29 PM
I have just started to read 1Q84....


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VkZtP1lmL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 05, 2015, 10:43:18 AM
A tale of two [proposed] time zones (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/daylight-saving-time-is-terrible-heres-a-simple-plan-to-fix-it/281075/?utm_source=SFFB)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pretorious on November 12, 2015, 11:10:30 AM
Currently reading The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith.

(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328864318l/1258599.jpg)

I must say, I'm quite enjoying it so far, more so than I thought I would. I've come off reading a few lengthy books and this is a welcome reprieve from them, being just over a hundred pages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Doulton on November 14, 2015, 04:22:21 PM
I read and reread and reread again the novels of Anthony Trollope.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on November 14, 2015, 08:07:51 PM
Finished

[asin]B00C448DL8[/asin]

and

[asin]B009IPQKLQ[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 17, 2015, 04:01:57 AM
Quote from: Doulton on November 14, 2015, 04:22:21 PM
I read and reread and reread again the novels of Anthony Trollope.

Interesting! What do you like about his work?

Thread Duty:

Hate crimes in America dropped by 8 percent in 2014 (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/1116/Hate-crimes-in-America-dropped-by-8-percent-in-2014)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 17, 2015, 04:02:48 AM
Quote from: stingo on November 14, 2015, 08:07:51 PM
Finished

[asin]B00C448DL8[/asin]

I've never read any of the Baum books. What's your opinion?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on November 18, 2015, 04:47:22 AM
I'm about 10% of the way into this on a Kindle. 

[asin]B00E78IB3E[/asin]

I started the Lockwood bio a year or two back and lost my way.  I don't expect to have that problem with this one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on November 18, 2015, 08:45:27 AM
Way out from my usual taste but the idea of 'concept books' appeals to me (like the Phaic Tan, Molvania and Sin Sombrero Guidebooks)  HORRORSTÖR  (Grady Hendrix) is set in a home furnishing store like the Swedish one that is overtaken by its location.   Short, quick read, graphics to match.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on November 18, 2015, 09:16:31 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 17, 2015, 04:02:48 AM
I've never read any of the Baum books. What's your opinion?

I found that the stories were engaging, if repetitive. The formula from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is repeated, especially in the stories that just come after it. But toward the end of the series, Baum starts to use some pretty interesting opening premises. If you do decide to take the plunge, reading a story now and again is probably the best approach.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 21, 2015, 02:14:25 PM
Finished this yesterday...

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517aoTIAdtL._SX351_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Nicholas Fox Weber's book sometimes has what from a European perspective can be seen as too casual and gossipy a style, but in the end, this is clearly a work of love and admiration for the characters it depicts, and provides a fascinating insight into a period in which some art that we now take for granted was new, and to a certain extent had almost to be forced on a resisting public. Well worth the read...

..and then started:

[asin]2070227243[/asin]
Miracle de la Rose, after these first pages, is turning out to be one of Jean Genet's most succesful books IMHO. The depiction of the relationships within the prison, of the lives and desires of the low and down-and-out is very poetically done (in spite--or because--of the use of slang), and interpersed with the authors thoughts and musings. And the way time is dealt with ( in an almost imperceptible back-and-forth) is quite clever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 25, 2015, 04:38:15 AM
Thought I would post this here:

(https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/12112033_10153246611093379_6863092711922515092_n.jpg?oh=6c4fd13ce9071616b0e692a7b367ee18&oe=56E2D5E9)

My wife and I were just reflecting yesterday on how we would always head to a favorite independently owned book shop here in Colorado during this time of year and spend hours perusing new (and old) titles for gifts for friends and family.  One can still do this, but the hustle and bustle throughout the shop is now down to traffic that need not merge.  Really miss this experience and maybe those that are old enough to remember this, you might concur. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 25, 2015, 04:52:58 AM
Quote from: Bogey on November 25, 2015, 04:38:15 AM
Thought I would post this here:

My wife and I were just reflecting yesterday on how we would always head to a favorite independently owned book shop here in Colorado during this time of year and spend hours perusing new (and old) titles for gifts for friends and family.  One can still do this, but the hustle and bustle throughout the shop is now down to traffic that need not merge.  Really miss this experience and maybe those that are old enough to remember this, you might concur.

One would have to be very young to not be able to remember the times when bookstores drew more people, especially during Christmas sales and such.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 25, 2015, 04:59:36 AM
Quote from: North Star on November 25, 2015, 04:52:58 AM
One would have to be very young to not be able to remember the times when bookstores drew more people, especially during Christmas sales and such.

Indeed.  But time passes quickly.  Our daughter turns 13 tomorrow.  She never experienced it like we did.  My son, 17, barely recollects it. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pretorious on November 25, 2015, 09:30:52 AM
Quote from: Bogey on November 25, 2015, 04:38:15 AM
Thought I would post this here:

(https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/12112033_10153246611093379_6863092711922515092_n.jpg?oh=6c4fd13ce9071616b0e692a7b367ee18&oe=56E2D5E9)

My wife and I were just reflecting yesterday on how we would always head to a favorite independently owned book shop here in Colorado during this time of year and spend hours perusing new (and old) titles for gifts for friends and family.  One can still do this, but the hustle and bustle throughout the shop is now down to traffic that need not merge.  Really miss this experience and maybe those that are old enough to remember this, you might concur.

I remember spending what seemed like hours in book stores as a child. I still do so, and for many of the same reasons. I love perusing the different titles, finding ones I like or think I'll like; the look and feel; the smell of the store; the thought of sitting and reading with a cup of tea; of gleaning some knowledge each and every time; it's all so intoxicating. But it was, ultimately, the stories that kept me returning for more. The wonderful stories of humanity, science and love. Of passions and thought and ideas. I suppose that's what made me want to become a writer in my own life, though many things affected that.

I lamented when the local Border's finally closed down. Unfortunately, the main bookstores still in business just don't feel the same, not to mention that prices are outrageous, which naturally have pushed me to Amazon, as well. Conversely, there's a used store nearby that opened in the last few years and that has now become one of my favorite establishments. I love the feeling of being able to walk out with a stack of books for cheap that will keep me occupied, and that will add to my library at home.

It is a shame that this experience isn't more pervasive now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on November 25, 2015, 09:59:49 AM
Nice book store here in Groninger. Prices the same as online.

Made a visit this morning and I always feel the experience you describe. Searching and picking the right books. Often also books I didn't saw on internet book stores already (of course online stores have them as well, but retail stores present them differently).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2015, 12:26:33 AM
Quote from: esMussSein on November 25, 2015, 09:30:52 AM
I remember spending what seemed like hours in book stores as a child. I still do so, and for many of the same reasons. I love perusing the different titles, finding ones I like or think I'll like; the look and feel; the smell of the store; the thought of sitting and reading with a cup of tea; of gleaning some knowledge each and every time; it's all so intoxicating. But it was, ultimately, the stories that kept me returning for more. The wonderful stories of humanity, science and love. Of passions and thought and ideas. I suppose that's what made me want to become a writer in my own life, though many things affected that.

My thoughts / feelings / sentiments exactly.

Fortunately, there are a few brick-and-mortar bookstores in Bucharest where I can still have that thrilling experience, one of them being located quite close to my home (in a mall no less :) ).

QuoteIt is a shame that this experience isn't more pervasive now.

Yes but it didn´t just happen. There a lot of factors and influences behind this sad state of affairs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on November 26, 2015, 09:21:57 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UZVuVIsqL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)



Breakfast with the Borgias.  DBC Pierre's short-story foray into 'horror' is neither scary or suspenseful, but it does boast much of Pierre's crackling prose, sharp critiques of modern life (an over-dependence on technology, in particular), and crazy similes, some of which work fantastically well and some that fall flat.  Not up to the quality of his novels, but it'll have to tide me over until he writes a new one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on November 26, 2015, 09:46:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2015, 12:26:33 AM
Yes but it didn´t just happen. There a lot of factors and influences behind this sad state of affairs.

Yes, there are retail stores with their own online shop. I try to buy my books from this local company as much as possible. Why support the internet giants if there are other ways? Books aren't priced higher as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on December 01, 2015, 08:24:12 PM
Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (The Empty Box and the Zeroth Maria)

(http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/1/158179.jpg)

http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Utsuro+no+Hako+to+Zero+no+Maria

QuoteUtsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria, tells the sinister story of Kazuki Hoshino, who is almost madly attached to his everyday life, and his antagonist Aya Otonashi, who suddenly transfers into his class—for the 13,118th time. She majestically announces to "break" him, without paying heed to anyone else around them.

This is but the start of a dark roller coaster ride that turns the two against themselves, the people around them and the one who may be god. Read on as their relationship slowly changes and they go against their most basic values in their struggle against the world itself.

This is a series of 7 light novels that I discovered on MyAnimeList. The average rating was 9.2 (rank #2), with 60% of those who have read it giving it a 10.
And on goodreads, the last two novels in the series have a 4.47 and 4.48 rating, which is incredibly high for that site.

Considering I love stories with repeating timelines, I'm just going to have to read this. 47 pages in and I can tell this is going to be really, really good stuff. Of course, at 1800 or 1900 pages, it's quite a monster and will take a really long time to finish.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on December 02, 2015, 12:55:07 AM
Quote from: Greg on December 01, 2015, 08:24:12 PM
Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (The Empty Box and the Zeroth Maria)

(http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/1/158179.jpg)

http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Utsuro+no+Hako+to+Zero+no+Maria

This is a series of 7 light novels that I discovered on MyAnimeList. The average rating was 9.2 (rank #2), with 60% of those who have read it giving it a 10.
And on goodreads, the last two novels in the series have a 4.47 and 4.48 rating, which is incredibly high for that site.

Considering I love stories with repeating timelines, I'm just going to have to read this. 47 pages in and I can tell this is going to be really, really good stuff. Of course, at 1800 or 1900 pages, it's quite a monster and will take a really long time to finish.

Better than watching screens all the time.. Hope you enjoy the novels. You have to use your imagination in contrary to films and gaming. It will give you opportunities to relate to your own life more, making your life probably more interesting, even if it is boring. Your experience of everyday life will get richer. Embrace it. This may sound like the most stupid advice to you, but the more you flow and fuse with virtual worlds on screens and identify with avatars, the more deattached to and so the more boring your life gets.

Just some thoughts for thinking. I'm reading the book Mind Change now, really good stuff. It's all about this. Not boring at all to be confronted with how we live nowadays. Especially for people, like you and me, who interact a lot with screens. She gives a lot thoughts for reflection. Still reading, the most interesting chapters are ahead of me still. It's not just negative, it's also about how we can use the digital technologies for the better.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51O0rDf5HeL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Change-Digital-Technologies-Leaving/dp/0812993829/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8 (http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Change-Digital-Technologies-Leaving/dp/0812993829/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nickcar on December 02, 2015, 06:16:32 PM
fan fiction!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on December 02, 2015, 09:28:13 PM
(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02668/PD69409376_Danubia_2668065a.jpg)

A very good read, prompted by my 3 week long summer vacation in Austria/Hungary/Slovakia/the Czech Republic this summer.

Now I want to go back!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 02, 2015, 09:35:36 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KYWGHLY7L._SX398_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Keep coming across references to this book in other things I've been reading - so clearly high time I took a look at it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 03, 2015, 08:51:46 PM
That is a great book. I love Sebald. I discovered him a few years ago and quickly read almost everything that was published by him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 04, 2015, 12:51:02 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xeLUXoqGL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ibanezmonster on December 04, 2015, 05:31:56 PM
Quote from: Henk on December 02, 2015, 12:55:07 AM
Better than watching screens all the time.. Hope you enjoy the novels. You have to use your imagination in contrary to films and gaming. It will give you opportunities to relate to your own life more, making your life probably more interesting, even if it is boring. Your experience of everyday life will get richer. Embrace it. This may sound like the most stupid advice to you, but the more you flow and fuse with virtual worlds on screens and identify with avatars, the more deattached to and so the more boring your life gets.
(http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/clashofclans/images/c/ce/Why_not_both%3F.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130824200436)

I'm reading this on my computer screen, too, btw, because there is no published English version. It's just a fan translation.

I finished volume 1. "Hakomari" is the nickname of the series.

Anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller will enjoy this. Very reminiscent of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, my all-time favorite anime which involves trying to escape from an endless time loop that often ends in violent murders and insanity, all while trying to understand the workings of what is actually going on.


QuoteI think HakoMari can be classified as "Chaos Theory". It's completely erratic, yet very systematic. It's completely irrational, yet makes absolutely perfect sense. It's abstract, yet completely logical. It messes with your head like nothing else from essentially the first sentence of the first volume and it never ever stops, but neither does it stop fascinating you with what it's capable of. The plot twists are so incredibly difficult to predict, but they always make you feel like the answer was so obvious all along once the truth is revealed. It's just that well-written, and as a result it never fails to make you smile and impress you.

Quote
"Do you have a wish?"

I don't think myself able to write an objective critic to HakoMari, not while the last volume is still so vivid in my mind. As such, this is not a review, but a love letter to this wonderful novel.

HakoMari is, in a nutshell, a wild ride. A crazy, reckless and downright cruel wild ride.

Next up: the only volume that isn't regarded so highly. But I will continue on, because it supposedly only gets better after volume 1, and that was some pretty amazing stuff already.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on December 05, 2015, 04:18:03 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4168CHYVRPL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Started reading this book thursday.

(https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fi.cbc.ca%2F1.3334357.1448396053!%2FfileImage%2FhttpImage%2Fimage.jpg_gen%2Fderivatives%2F16x9_1180%2Fpaul-mason-end-of-capitalism.jpg&f=1)

He has an interesting face, so I hope it means it's a good book. First pages are nice.

"Over the past two centuries or so, capitalism has undergone profound changes--economic cycles that veer from boom to bust--from which it has always emerged transformed and strengthened. Surveying this turbulent history, Paul Mason's Postcapitalism argues that we are on the brink of a change so big and so profound that this time capitalism itself, the immensely complex system within which entire societies function, will mutate into something wholly new.

At the heart of this change is information technology, a revolution that is driven by capitalism but, with its tendency to push the value of much of what we make toward zero, has the potential to destroy an economy based on markets, wages, and private ownership. Almost unnoticed, in the niches and hollows of the market system, swaths of economic life are beginning to move to a different rhythm. Vast numbers of people are changing how they behave and live, in ways contrary to the current system of state-backed corporate capitalism. And as the terrain changes, new paths open.

In this bold and prophetic book, Mason shows how, from the ashes of the crisis, we have the chance to create a more socially just and sustainable economy. Although the dangers ahead are profound, he argues that there is cause for hope. This is the first time in human history in which, equipped with an understanding of what is happening around us, we can predict and shape the future."


Trying to spend at least some hours in a productive way today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 11, 2015, 07:55:27 AM
The results explain why it's so rare for "a good guy with a gun" to stop active shooters. According to the FBI's report on active shooter events between 2000 and 2013, only about 3 percent were stopped by a civilian with a gun. Unarmed civilians actually stopped more incidents — about 13 percent. (http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/12/11/9891664/daily-show-mass-shootings)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on December 11, 2015, 04:51:35 PM
http://www.eoneill.com/texts/blemie/contents.htm

The Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O'Neill.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 11, 2015, 05:13:17 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RkvKHdjCL._SX300.jpg)

"Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of Twenty Lost Buildings from the Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers" - James Crawford
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 11, 2015, 08:40:21 PM
Experimental novel, a story within a story, similar to some of Italo Calvino writing. An elderly writer is writing his final script, while a talented young female composer decides to become a writer under the influence of hypnosis.

(http://quarterlyconversation.com/images/no-world-concerto.jpg)

I never paid attention to the Booker prize, but I decided to give a try to their finalists this year. Obioma is a young writer, not yet 30 years old, and The Fishermen is his debut. It is an impressive novel with very good story. It starts almost like a classic Achebe novel, folk like, but get more disturbing and grim by the end.

(http://d156cuxvwk59my.cloudfront.net/sites/manbooker/files/images/books/Chigozie%20Obioma-The%20Fisherman.jpg)

Anne Tyler was another finalist of Booker prize this year. I never heard of her before but that is her 20th or 30th or something book, which was rather enjoyable. It is a story of a family, nothing extraordinary, but her clear writing style makes it an enjoyable read.

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421710381l/22501028.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 12, 2015, 12:04:44 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 11, 2015, 05:13:17 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RkvKHdjCL._SX300.jpg)

"Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of Twenty Lost Buildings from the Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers" - James Crawford

Interestingly I heard that being promoted on the radio only yesterday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on December 12, 2015, 12:13:17 AM
Quote from: Artem on December 11, 2015, 08:40:21 PM

Anne Tyler was another finalist of Booker prize this year. I never heard of her before but that is her 20th or 30th or something book, which was rather enjoyable. It is a story of a family, nothing extraordinary, but her clear writing style makes it an enjoyable read.

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421710381l/22501028.jpg)

Anne Tyler is a phenomenal writer, but you want to go back to the 60s, 70s, maybe 80s ( pre-pulitzer, anyway)for her best stuff.

TD:
[asin]B00OZ0TKL6[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on December 12, 2015, 02:27:07 AM
Beevor on the Ardennes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on December 13, 2015, 09:22:36 AM
While I liked The Fishermen, I wasn't really emotionally attached to the characters. Still, a stunning first effort.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 17, 2015, 06:12:17 AM
Muslim judge sworn in on Koran in New York (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/16/muslim-judge-sworn-in-on-koran-in-brooklyn/)

Fox News is reporting this, so apparently it is newsworthy.  So here is my question:  Why should not a Muslim be sworn in using the Koran?  There can be no legal compulsion to use the Bible, right?  I am inclined to say Nothing to see here, folks.

Dog-whistle journalism?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 17, 2015, 06:21:18 AM
Were I made a judge, they'd have to swear me in on a study score edition of the Beethoven symphonies!



...or maybe the Constitution?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 17, 2015, 06:33:43 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 17, 2015, 06:12:17 AMDog-whistle journalism?



Catering to their audience.  Lefty sources do the same thing.  Check out Salon, or, for a more timely example, Melissa Harris-Perry's racial analysis of Darth Vader.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 17, 2015, 06:36:40 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 17, 2015, 06:33:43 AM
Catering to their audience.  Lefty sources do the same thing.  Check out Salon, or, for a more timely example, Melissa Harris-Perry's racial analysis of Darth Vader.

I see your point.  (I don't think I've actually read anything on Salon . . . .)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 17, 2015, 06:40:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 17, 2015, 06:36:40 AM
I see your point.  (I don't think I've actually read anything on Salon . . . .)



Salon used to run some good stories when it was new/new-ish.  Over time it degenerated into basically just another clickbait specialist.  They are in the running for Clickbait Headline of the Year for this year. (http://www.salon.com/2015/11/25/i_fcked_a_republican_on_thanksgiving/)  (At least it's holiday themed, right?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on December 17, 2015, 05:27:29 PM
Quote from: Todd on December 17, 2015, 06:33:43 AM


Catering to their audience.  Lefty sources do the same thing.  Check out Salon, or, for a more timely example, Melissa Harris-Perry's racial analysis of Darth Vader.

And Jewish outlets were quick to tell of how a rabbi being sworn in a few days ago as a cabinet minister in Argentina used  Jewish Scripture for his ceremony ( also supposed to be the first rabbi to serve on a cabinet outside Israel).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on December 18, 2015, 01:40:36 PM
Quote from: Todd on December 17, 2015, 06:40:59 AM


Salon used to run some good stories when it was new/new-ish.  Over time it degenerated into basically just another clickbait specialist.  They are in the running for Clickbait Headline of the Year for this year. (http://www.salon.com/2015/11/25/i_fcked_a_republican_on_thanksgiving/)  (At least it's holiday themed, right?)

All the aggregators use clickbait headlines.  I've only been checking Salon lately because Amanda Marcotte moved over there.  The worst stuff they've done lately were some idiotic "I won't vote if Bernie is not the nominee" clickbait articles, but at least I haven't seen any recent Camille Paglia articles there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on December 22, 2015, 06:48:38 PM
Got this in Barnes and Noble today
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6189uYWm4mL._SX492_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
More or less a companion to The Louvre: All The Paintings and The Vatican: All the Paintings

Amazon description
This is the most comprehensive book on the paintings and frescoes of Florence ever undertaken, with nearly 2,000 beautifully reproduced artworks from the city's great museums and churches-produced in the same manner as BD&L's The Louvre and The Vatican.
Every painted work that is on display in the Uffizi Gallery, The Pitti Palace, the Accademia, and the Duomo is included in the book, plus many or most of the works from 28 of the city's other magnificent museums and churches. The research and text are by Ross King (best-selling author), Anja Grebe (author or The Louvre and The Vatican), Cristina Acidini (former Superintendent of the public museums of Florence) and Msgr. Timothy Verdon (Director of the artworks for the Archdiocese of Florence).
One glaring omissions is sculpture.  Michelangelo's David and one of the Slaves is included, but no others that I saw:  no Medici tombs, no Loggia, no Donatello, none of the statues in the Uffizi.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on December 23, 2015, 04:24:08 PM
Finally getting around to this. Pretty grim.  Pretty timely.

[asin]0679763880[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on December 23, 2015, 04:36:18 PM
(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/be/eb/e4/beebe42aaf4ed6155344f973042a9c23.jpg)

Following this, by Robin Cook:

(http://media.kjonline.com/images/Book-Review-Death-Benefit.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on December 23, 2015, 09:10:57 PM
Finished Beevor's Stalingrad book and now starting his WWII book.

[asin]B007ME5BUG[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on December 29, 2015, 12:37:15 AM
Boy was Beevor's "Stalingrad" a dense book. I've added the above to my wishlist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 30, 2015, 07:11:04 AM
Creationists of the Secular Kind (https://patriotpost.us/opinion/39712)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on December 30, 2015, 08:03:08 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 30, 2015, 07:11:04 AM
Creationists of the Secular Kind (https://patriotpost.us/opinion/39712)


QuoteIn "The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge," Matt Ridley refutes the secular creationists' fallacious idea that because social complexity is the result of human actions, it must, or should, be the result of human design. In fact, Ridley says, "Far more than we like to admit, the world is to a remarkable extent a self-organizing, self-changing place."

I find this to be true in my own creations, whether stories or musical compositions (back when I composed).  The work takes on a logic of its own, like the growth of a crystal, and often evolves along lines unexpected by the creator.  Part of the joy of artistic creation is observing the coming together of elements not expected by the artist.

With mediocre art, or worse, the artist forces things, and interferes with the logic of the work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on December 30, 2015, 09:24:39 AM
Christmas present: excellent translation so far!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BJMrA9ZDL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


http://www.amazon.com/Iliad-New-Translation-Caroline-Alexander/dp/0062046276/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451499740&sr=1-1&keywords=iliad+caroline+alexander (http://www.amazon.com/Iliad-New-Translation-Caroline-Alexander/dp/0062046276/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451499740&sr=1-1&keywords=iliad+caroline+alexander)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 30, 2015, 10:17:04 AM
Chop suey, per Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chop_suey)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Super Blood Moon on December 30, 2015, 11:45:14 AM
Moorcock, REH and ghost comics.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on December 30, 2015, 05:15:36 PM
creme dela creme of popular science writing.

[asin]1400096235[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on January 01, 2016, 12:05:00 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on December 30, 2015, 05:15:36 PM
creme dela creme of popular science writing.

[asin]1400096235[/asin]

Wishlisted.

Sean Carroll recently posted a very ambitious pop-sci and pop-philosophy reading list:

http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2015/12/16/reading-list/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 02, 2016, 06:03:45 PM
Ended 2015 with that wonderful book. I enjoyed it much more than Sinbad's stories. I've been on a Hungarian literature kick recently. I wonder if anybody has any other favorite Hungarian writers or books.

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320520827l/382619.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on January 02, 2016, 06:13:48 PM
I've just begun to read John Eliot Gardiner's excellent book on Bach.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 02, 2016, 07:25:39 PM
There should also be a film with him about Bach on youtube, which is rather nice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on January 02, 2016, 09:42:48 PM
Quote from: Artem on January 02, 2016, 07:25:39 PM
There should also be a film with him about Bach on youtube, which is rather nice.
I haven't been compelled to watch it just yet (my focus is usually in the past century) but I'm becoming more intrigued!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 03, 2016, 07:11:13 AM
I assume the video follows the book closely, so probably don't watch it before you finish the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on January 03, 2016, 12:43:42 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V2lsgltgL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)



Destiny and Power.  Jon Meacham's beefy bio of 41.  Perhaps a little too reverent toward Bush the person, and at least unerringly polite (Meacham did have direct access to a lot of personal material, so it makes sense), it is detailed and informative and comparatively neutral overall, which is quite a feat for a living former President.  (The tone, though, is of a President now gone.)  It fortunately lacks Meacham's tendency to offer psychological evaluations of his subject as he did in his bio of Jefferson, which is no doubt aided by the lengthy direct quotes from Bush's letters and recorded diary.  (The letter he wrote about the death of his daughter is very moving.)  There are some fun facts about Bush's privilege (while at Yale, he studied music with Paul Hindemith and, being captain of the baseball team, accepted a manuscript from Babe Ruth), constant reminders of his family's influence up until at least the 1960s, and so forth, and even though I'm not up to the presidential years yet, there is plenty to offer evidence of Bush's cold-hearted calculation and opportunism.  Of course, he doesn't come off as a fire-breathing ideologue in the process.  Meacham's smooth and sometimes elegant prose makes for easy reading, even if it may lack the page turning crackle that Richard Ben Kramer's obviously more limited bio of Bush in What It Takes has, but then Kramer does something different.

With Brand's light 'n' easy Reagan bio and Meacham's smooth Bush bio now out, one can only hope for something of similar quality about Slick Willy in the not too distant future.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on January 04, 2016, 03:22:19 PM
My daughters and wife conned me into reading Hunger Games. About 30 pages in I figured I had enough information about the basic canvas and characters. I think the writing is quite basic and not really interesting. I decided to leave it at that and to watch the movies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on January 04, 2016, 03:24:47 PM
Quote from: André on January 04, 2016, 03:22:19 PM
My daughters and wife conned me into reading Hunger Games. About 30 pages in I figured I had enough information about the basic canvas and characters. I think the writing is quite basic and not really interesting. I decided to leave it at that and to watch the movies.
Try the original: Battle Royale. Hunger Games is basically just a second rate copy of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on January 04, 2016, 03:36:27 PM
I see a similarity in contents. But is the writing interesting ?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on January 04, 2016, 05:57:00 PM
(http://michaelcavacini.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/lee-child-the-enemy.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 05, 2016, 12:05:41 AM
The Bark Tree (Le Chiendent) by Raymond Queneau.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 05, 2016, 02:57:38 AM
Quote from: André on January 04, 2016, 03:22:19 PM
My daughters and wife conned me into reading Hunger Games. About 30 pages in I figured I had enough information about the basic canvas and characters. I think the writing is quite basic and not really interesting.

My perforce limited experience with the Harry Potter books is no great distance from this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 06, 2016, 09:07:01 AM
QuoteWhile the armed militia is likely made up of weekend warriors who drink beer and shoot, just for the sake of shooting, at innocent animals . . . .

http://news.groopspeak.com/the-oregon-militia-is-about-to-be-taken-down-by-birders/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 07, 2016, 10:04:20 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51U9PqzN8lL._SL500_.jpg)

Just finished the Compton-Burnett which proved to be somewhat harder read than I had anticipated. Pretty much entire novel is in dialogue and some of those are so veiled and oblique that there were whole stretches where I had no idea what they are actually talking about. Not sure if that's to Victorian manner of the characters, Compton-Burnett's particular style or me not being native speaker.

Moving onto something lighter, Boris Akunin's Turkish Gambit. Akunin's Erast Fandorin series are shaping up to become my favorite detective/mystery novels.

(http://www.delfi.rs/_img/artikli/2015/10/turski_gambit_vv-2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on January 07, 2016, 12:24:00 PM
Detective or mystery novels are my péché mignon. Have they been translated into English (or better, French  :laugh:)? Please let me know !!

Recently I discovered the detective novels of swedish author Henning Mankell. He doesn't spare one false lead. Takes 400 pages to another author's 150. I love it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 07, 2016, 01:00:26 PM
Quote from: André on January 07, 2016, 12:24:00 PM
Detective or mystery novels are my péché mignon. Have they been translated into English (or better, French  :laugh:)? Please let me know !!

Yes, both in English and French. There are 15 novels so far and they are chronological.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erast_Fandorin#Novels

The first one is titled Azazel (The Winter Queen in English)
http://www.amazon.ca/Azazel-Boris-Akounine/dp/2258054672
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Winter-Queen-A-Novel/dp/0812968778

The second is Turkish Gambit
http://www.amazon.ca/Le-gambit-turc-Boris-Akounine/dp/2258054664
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Turkish-Gambit-Boris-Akunin/dp/0812968786

The third is Leviathan (Murder on the Leviathan in English)
http://www.amazon.ca/L%C3%A9viathan-Boris-Akounine/dp/2258054656
http://www.amazon.ca/MURDER-THE-LEVIATHAN-BORIS-AKUNIN/dp/0753818434

etc ...

Quoteecently I discovered the detective novels of swedish author Henning Mankell. He doesn't spare one false lead. Takes 400 pages to another author's 150. I love it.

I've read few of the Wallander novels, and seen some of the films. Swedish TV made I think all Mankell's Wallander novels into films, plus he has developed separate series of Wallander films for Swedes that are not based on novels, plus British made Wallander series with Kenneth Branagh starring and directing.

If you like Mankel you could also try Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason who has somewhat similar style:
http://www.amazon.ca/Jar-City-Reykjavik-Murder-Mystery/dp/0099541831
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 07, 2016, 05:45:49 PM
Akunin's books are pretty enjoyable. I think i read most of them when they were published in Russian.  There were also a few films based on the first 2 or 3 books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 07, 2016, 06:03:36 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510oKX4m-GL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on January 10, 2016, 01:34:28 PM
Thanks, Milos. I will check at my local 'multicultural' library.

(makes note and stucks in wallet next to library card).  ;)

Edit: wow ! There seems to be a lot of Akounine books in French that are available at the library:  http://www.biblio.ville.laval.qc.ca/in/faces/browse.xhtml?queryid=500dde8b-ce1f-4527-b0df-6ccbff60b359   (http://www.biblio.ville.laval.qc.ca/in/faces/browse.xhtml?queryid=500dde8b-ce1f-4527-b0df-6ccbff60b359)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on January 10, 2016, 01:36:41 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on January 07, 2016, 06:03:36 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510oKX4m-GL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

For some reason this reminds me of my sister, who always asks about anything I recommend "Does it have a happy ending?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on January 10, 2016, 03:09:29 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ouead5z%2BL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana-Medical, Recreational, and Scientific. Via audible.

An interesting and fair book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 11, 2016, 04:02:19 AM
Quote from: Daverz on January 10, 2016, 01:36:41 PM
For some reason this reminds me of my sister, who always asks about anything I recommend "Does it have a happy ending?"

'Murica wins, so this one has a happy ending
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on January 13, 2016, 07:20:10 AM
Nearing the end of Fagles' translation of The Odyssey, and ordered these from a Scandiwegian online bookstore.


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511p7JC%2BLpL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (http://zoamorphosis.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/grant_johnson.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on January 18, 2016, 01:19:31 AM
Moll Flanders. Defoe's language is surprisingly clear and modern for a writer spanning the Baroque in music (1660-1731). The preface said he was one of the fathers of the English novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on January 18, 2016, 10:23:50 AM
Boris Akounine: The Coronation

(http://pmcdn.priceminister.com/photo/Akounine-Boris-Le-Couronnement-Livre-895468080_L.jpg)

Surprisingly like Michel Strogoff (Jules Verne). Thanks, Milos !  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Super Blood Moon on January 19, 2016, 10:00:53 AM
ASHLEY BELL by Dean Koontz. Enjoying it halfway through.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on January 19, 2016, 04:20:40 PM
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on January 18, 2016, 01:19:31 AM
Moll Flanders. Defoe's language is surprisingly clear and modern for a writer spanning the Baroque in music (1660-1731). The preface said he was one of the fathers of the English novel.

Indeed, very readable prose.  But I found the plot too episodic and gave up about 3/4 through.  The TV production with the very yummy Alex Kingston was fabulous, but avoid the film, which has next to nothing to do with the novel and is crap.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 24, 2016, 08:39:37 AM
Two books that I finished recently. They were very different, War and War is experimental while Sahota's book is more of a straight forward storytelling, but I enjoyed them equally.

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348457780l/605684.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZaVlHdVyL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on January 25, 2016, 03:31:27 PM
I'm thoroughly enjoying this:

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 25, 2016, 09:37:56 PM
Starting:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51h7SbxRxAL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on January 26, 2016, 08:41:14 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 25, 2016, 09:37:56 PM
Starting:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51h7SbxRxAL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I have only seen the film and I really, really liked it....


(http://images.moviepostershop.com/sheltering-sky-movie-poster-1990-1020470087.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 02, 2016, 12:55:47 PM
Just started "The Guest Cat"....


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yUZ21SpGL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Super Blood Moon on February 03, 2016, 01:56:47 PM
NOTHING!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 04, 2016, 06:27:37 AM
Quote from: Super Blood Moon on February 03, 2016, 01:56:47 PM
NOTHING!

You are such a fibber!  How does Roz endure you?   0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 04, 2016, 06:56:34 AM
After watching the movie last month, now reading Laura by Vera Caspary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 04, 2016, 06:56:56 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 04, 2016, 06:56:34 AM
After watching the movie last month, now reading Laura by Vera Caspary.

The Preminger movie?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on February 05, 2016, 04:16:30 AM
Quote from: aligreto on February 02, 2016, 12:55:47 PM
Just started "The Guest Cat"....


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yUZ21SpGL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'll be interested to hear what you think of it. I read it a few months ago and liked it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Super Blood Moon on February 05, 2016, 04:37:46 AM
If you've never heard of him, where you been hiding, bro?

[asin]0143107380[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 05, 2016, 06:13:34 AM
The 'holiday' book.

(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/NikF65/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20160205_150818_zpscbz8orab.jpg)

Something of a standing joke, where I'm asked "Have you packed the book?" and I reply that I have and will definitely read it this time.  But now I'm admitting defeat and it's my current choice of reading at home.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 05, 2016, 10:20:23 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on February 04, 2016, 06:56:56 AM
The Preminger movie?
Indeed! Many details of plot are different, and there are occasional very strange metaphors in Caspary's writing toolbox, but the spirit is very much the same, including Waldo's ambiguous sexuality. Plus, there's a very neat structure where every character (well, almost) gets to narrate for at least part of the novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 08, 2016, 08:14:59 AM
Quote from: stingo on February 05, 2016, 04:16:30 AM

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yUZ21SpGL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'll be interested to hear what you think of it. I read it a few months ago and liked it.

Despite not really liking the first three or four essays/chapters I did eventually grow into it and ended up liking it. Despite being [obviously] about a cat it had a warm, human dimension to it. I would like to read an alternative translation of it though as I felt that is where it fell down a bit for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on February 13, 2016, 03:19:56 PM
Henning Mankell, The Chinese Man.

One of his non-Wallander books. I enjoyed the acrobatics of the storyline. The characters are well drawn, although some are by force cardboard-like (the brother and sister duet of Chinese nouveau riche and Party apparatchik). Not fakes, but rather predictably one-dimensional. For Mankell fans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on February 13, 2016, 04:29:49 PM
I had read the first book in The Expanse some years ago, and had not been moved to continue on by the mashup of solar system space opera, zombies, and Lovecraftian horror.  I decided to reread it again after watching the SyFy production.  The elements of pastiche didn't bother so much this time (these guys do write well), and so continued on to the second book, which is even better than the first.   (It really annoys me that everything SF and Fantasy these days is part of some gigantic series, but that's the way it is.)  I'm now on the 3rd volume, which seems to be the inevitable falling off point, with some "I don't care about this person" type characters.  But hopefully it will improve.

[asin]0316311294[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 17, 2016, 05:10:18 AM
I think I do like the movie, and in spite of the fact that, if I had read Ebert's surgical review, I should certainly have seen his points and agreed with them:

Quote from: Roger Ebert"The Thing" is a great barf-bag movie, all right, but is it any good? I found it disappointing, for two reasons: the superficial characterizations and the implausible behavior of the scientists on that icy outpost. Characters have never been Carpenter's strong point; he says he likes his movies to create emotions in his audiences, and I guess he'd rather see us jump six inches than get involved in the personalities of his characters. This time, though, despite some roughed-out typecasting and a few reliable stereotypes (the drunk, the psycho, the hero), he has populated his ice station with people whose primary purpose in life is to get jumped on from behind. The few scenes that develop characterizations are overwhelmed by the scenes in which the men are just setups for an attack by the Thing.

That leads us to the second problem, plausibility. We know that the Thing likes to wait until a character is alone, and then pounce, digest, and imitate him--by the time you see Doc again, is he still Doc, or is he the Thing? Well, the obvious defense against this problem is a watertight buddy system, but, time and time again, Carpenter allows his characters to wander off alone and come back with silly grins on their faces, until we've lost count of who may have been infected, and who hasn't. That takes the fun away.

"The Thing" is basically, then, just a geek show, a gross-out movie in which teenagers can dare one another to watch the screen. There's nothing wrong with that; I like being scared and I was scared by many scenes in "The Thing." But it seems clear that Carpenter made his choice early on to concentrate on the special effects and the technology and to allow the story and people to become secondary. Because this material has been done before, and better, especially in the original "The Thing" and in "Alien," there's no need to see this version unless you are interested in what the Thing might look like while starting from anonymous greasy organs extruding giant crab legs and transmuting itself into a dog. Amazingly, I'll bet that thousands, if not millions, of moviegoers are interested in seeing just that.

Yesterday, I watched a 12-minute YouTube video of a fan of the movie discussing fine points of who was infected and when, which right away seems to gainsay Ebert's objection that the fun has been removed.

My point being that, if I had simply read Ebert's review, I should have been impressed that the matter was cut and dried. But, perhaps it is not.  (That said, I love Ebert's zingers like, he has populated his ice station with people whose primary purpose in life is to get jumped on from behind.)

This weekend, perhaps, I shall revisit the movie.

(More great Ebert lines . . . in reviewing Alien Resurrection, he wrote:   In "Alien3" she told this life form: "I've known you so long I can't remember a time when you weren't in my life." I'm telling the aliens the same thing. This is a series whose inspiration has come, gone, and been forgotten. I'm aliened out. And: Like the bugs in "Starship Troopers," these aliens are an example of specialization. They have evolved over the eons into creatures adapted for one purpose only: To star in horror movies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 17, 2016, 05:45:32 AM
Yesterday, I watched a YouTube review-comparison (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,33.msg955692.html#msg955692) of the three movies based on Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, in which the reviewer at one point gives the opinion that Heston in The Omega Man is the best of the lot;  but at the end, he concludes that none of the three does the literary source justice.

Now, even from the clips which the above reviewer provides, I did not find myself inclined to give the 1971 flick a shot.

Furthermore, here is Ebert. (And yes, I know that I found myself happy to disregard his critique w/r/t John Carpenter's The Thing . . .)

Quote from: Roger EbertIf anybody has to be the last man in the world, I suppose it might as well be Charlton Heston. At least we know we're in good hands. He outmaneuvered the apes in "Planet of the Apes" (1968), so why not send him up against the ghouls in "The Omega Man"? They're not a whole lot smarter. Also, if God should decide to start the human race again, Heston could always be Moses. Or God.

The ghouls, by the way, have been produced as a side effect of biological warfare between China and Russia. They can't stand light, they all have nasty bruises over their left eyebrows, and they wear the costumes of medieval monks. Why? Because that's what ghouls wear, I guess.

Heston is immune to the plague, thanks to a vaccine he was working on just before things broke loose. He barricades himself in a Los Angeles penthouse with floodlights outside to scare away the ghouls and puts in a 20-year supply of the best imported Scotch. Prudent of him. Even if biological warfare doesn't break out and leave him marooned with a city full of ghouls, at least he can have a drink while thinking about his close call.

The ghouls, alas, are a little too ridiculous to quite fulfill their function in the movie. They make all the wrong decisions, are incompetent and ill-coordinated, and speak in an elevated "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" sort of English. Wouldn't you like to hear a little slang from a ghoul for a change?

The others in the movie are more interesting, however. Heston is the only truly immune man, but he stumbles across a band of survivors who haven't yet fallen to the plague, and provides them with a serum that will save the human race. This band includes Rosalind Cash, who is engagingly brash and rescues Heston from cremation. Then there's an obligatory motorcycle chase (well done) and a creepy interlude in a ghoul-infested wine cellar before the movie sort of bogs down. Not even a shot of Heston in the obligatory crucifixion pose can quite mend things.

"The Omega Man" is based on an uncredited novel by Richard Matheson. I wonder if it was I Am Legend, a very good work about the last normal man left in a world of vampires. He held them off with mirrors, crosses, and garlic--the usual mixture -- and did very nearly as well as Heston with his spotlights.

Postscript:  So why, and why not?  I guess I don't mind Ken Russell as the hero in the Antarctic, but I find Heston not to my narrative taste.  More importantly, my ear is lured in by the Morricone soundtrack, where watching Heston with a cloned Mod Squad soundtrack sends me packing.

Post postscript:  I think I liked the Will Smith I Am Legend all right, but never need to watch it again.  I liked Vincent Price in The Last Man on Earth, but would not necessarily agree with my buddy David Frieze that it is clearly the best movie of the three.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Marsch MacFiercesome on February 17, 2016, 06:13:04 AM
(https://mises.org/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow/public/static-page/img/TheTragedyoftheEuro_Bagus_20101206_bookstore.jpg?itok=D3bg8HCZ)

Eurodammerung.

When has counterfeiting ever produced prosperity?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on February 17, 2016, 09:05:29 AM
Quote from: Daverz on February 13, 2016, 04:29:49 PM
I had read the first book in The Expanse some years ago, and had not been moved to continue on by the mashup of solar system space opera, zombies, and Lovecraftian horror.  I decided to reread it again after watching the SyFy production.  The elements of pastiche didn't bother so much this time (these guys do write well), and so continued on to the second book, which is even better than the first.   (It really annoys me that everything SF and Fantasy these days is part of some gigantic series, but that's the way it is.)  I'm now on the 3rd volume, which seems to be the inevitable falling off point, with some "I don't care about this person" type characters.  But hopefully it will improve.

[asin]0316311294[/asin]

Three and out for me- the Amazon reviews seem to support my decision.  Alastair Reynolds seems to be the only consistently good living Space opera writer
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 19, 2016, 02:18:16 AM
(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag92/NikF65/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20160219_111429_zpskoqj4o8d.jpg)

"She hath wrists which, did her bangles not contain,
Would run from out her sleeves in silvern rain."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on February 19, 2016, 06:31:44 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on February 17, 2016, 09:05:29 AM
Three and out for me- the Amazon reviews seem to support my decision.  Alastair Reynolds seems to be the only consistently good living Space opera writer

Yup, already the 3rd book is a falling off.  Not bad, exactly, but the focus is obviously failing.  I thought the 2nd book was the best.  The 4th book sounds so dire, that I think I'll cut my losses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on February 19, 2016, 07:21:20 PM
News alert.
:'(
http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2016/02/20/news/morto_lo_scrittore_umberto_eco-133816061/?refresh_ce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 02, 2016, 11:38:41 AM
Sexus by Henry Miller. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rosy_Crucifixion#Sexus

I'm making a start on the trilogy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 03, 2016, 11:15:25 PM
Tipped off by some fellow GMGers in the (IIRC) "What is the composer's intention?" thread, I bought this, and it is proving to be a fascinating read:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/MusicAtNight.JPG/220px-MusicAtNight.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 04, 2016, 08:50:57 AM
John Fowles: The Collector....


(http://www.giraffedays.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/collector-183x300.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 04, 2016, 10:09:35 PM
Quote from: aligreto on March 04, 2016, 08:50:57 AM
John Fowles: The Collector....


(http://www.giraffedays.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/collector-183x300.jpg)

That's an interesting book - offering insights into two different mindsets. A good read but perhaps not the most comfortable one. At least, that's the way I remember it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 05, 2016, 01:19:09 AM
Quote from: NikF on March 04, 2016, 10:09:35 PM
That's an interesting book - offering insights into two different mindsets. A good read but perhaps not the most comfortable one. At least, that's the way I remember it.

Yes indeed. I am only a short way into it but it is a bit disconcerting in the cold, calculating approach of the protagonist. I look forward to the development of the intrigue.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 06, 2016, 05:18:24 AM
PDK

(http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSeuyZafh2ol0jzyIzdba5v37-V-zHZhbpTabDb89kTkBW8mKUp)

One of my all time favorite authors.  This one launches a bit slowly and ping pongs around a bit, however I hit about page 40 and now I cannot put it down. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 06, 2016, 10:48:01 AM
Bogey, thank you for the explanation regarding the book you're reading in the listening thread.

I've only read one Philip K Dick book that was Ubik. I rather liked it. I rarely read science fiction novels though, I try to read one book in that genre a year.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 06, 2016, 11:21:50 AM
Quote from: Artem on March 06, 2016, 10:48:01 AM
Bogey, thank you for the explanation regarding the book you're reading in the listening thread.

I've only read one Philip K Dick book that was Ubik. I rather liked it. I rarely read science fiction novels though, I try to read one book in that genre a year.

About the same.  PDK is the exception.  I usually read one in the summer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on March 06, 2016, 01:06:40 PM
PK Dick has several books with classical music references. It's been a while, so I am hazy on the details but I think in "Martian timeslip" Mozart's great g minor symphony is somehow relevant and "Flow my tears, the policeman said" refers to the Dowland song.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 07, 2016, 03:35:35 PM
If you ever come across the name of author Boileau-Narcejac, you might want to know that they are actually a pair. Writer Boileau plots the outlines of the novel (most often a mystery) and writer Narcejac fleshes it in fluent, superbly french prose. Hugely successful, many of their novels have been adapted to the screen, most notably Clouzot's Diabolique and Hitchcock's Vertigo. They are also responsible for the scenario of Franju's Eyes Without a Face.

Highly recommended if available in translation at your library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 08, 2016, 06:22:56 AM
Just an amusing snippet from a listener's review on Amazon:

FYI - I think his own music [Boulez's] is terrible and an evil influence on modern music. But I am very glad he gets to direct orchestras.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 11, 2016, 03:28:59 AM
Curt von Westernhagen's Wagner biography. While it contains some interesting information, I am seriously annoyed by the author's constant attempts to whitewash Wagner's behaviour. He does say at the very beginning of the book that he intends to be the one Wagner biographer who does not complain about his bad character and I'm fine with that, it's just that he constantly twists around the truth in order to make everyone else but Wagner seem like the bad guy. I'm not saying Wagner didn't have some good in him, surely he did but come on, Westernhagen even goes so far as to disgracefully blame Minna for not having a saint's patience with Wagner's constant skirt-chasing, narcissistic manipulations, streaks of sadism etc. WTF?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 14, 2016, 11:22:42 PM
Hell: Barbusse.

[asin]1885983018[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on March 16, 2016, 10:22:36 AM
Finishing the zenith storyline, before moving onto early years. Not a greatest fan of Boulet's drawing, looking forward to Christophe Blain.

[asin]1561635502[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 16, 2016, 01:13:15 PM
Just received - and I got flak from my better half for clotting the postal bx with my stuff  ::) ... Mesa Selimovic' Le Derviche et la Mort (Death and the Dervish). After I'm finished with Michael Connelly's The Last Coyote, that is.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 17, 2016, 03:37:13 AM
Garrison Keillor: We Are Still Married....


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UPPwBaQSL._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on March 17, 2016, 01:24:01 PM
Quote from: André on March 16, 2016, 01:13:15 PM
Mesa Selimovic' Le Derviche et la Mort (Death and the Dervish)

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

On topic: Chekhov's Platonov (re-reading).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 17, 2016, 03:36:53 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IpBsW%2B9PL._SX300_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 18, 2016, 02:23:42 PM
Quote from: aligreto on March 17, 2016, 03:37:13 AM
Garrison Keillor: We Are Still Married....


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UPPwBaQSL._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

How did you get on with the John Fowles?


In other news -

The second part of the trilogy.
(http://i.imgur.com/jkCredV.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 18, 2016, 02:31:29 PM
Quote from: NikF on March 18, 2016, 02:23:42 PM
How did you get on with the John Fowles?


I really enjoyed it I must say. I really liked the way that the narrative switched in the middle section to give "the other side of the story"; a clever technique.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 18, 2016, 02:44:21 PM
Quote from: aligreto on March 18, 2016, 02:31:29 PM
I really enjoyed it I must say. I really liked the way that the narrative switched in the middle section to give "the other side of the story"; a clever technique.

Yeah, it's clever indeed and quite the contrast.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 18, 2016, 03:15:26 PM
Quote from: NikF on March 18, 2016, 02:44:21 PM
Yeah, it's clever indeed and quite the contrast.

Have you read his "The Magus"?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 18, 2016, 03:19:53 PM
Quote from: aligreto on March 18, 2016, 03:15:26 PM
Have you read his "The Magus"?

No, I haven't. Have you?
I've only read The Collector and The French Lieutenant's Woman.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 19, 2016, 02:18:25 AM
Yes I did, some years ago now but I am still left with a disturbing impression from it. It is like The Collector in that it has a strong psychologically disquieting element to it but in a different way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 20, 2016, 11:06:24 AM
Quote from: Draško on March 17, 2016, 01:24:01 PM
That's a wonderful novel. But why I keep thinking that you've read it already, ages ago when we were talking about Serbian/Yugoslavian literature (Selimovic, Andric, Pekic, Kis ...)

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

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

PS: I always re-read really exceptional books.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 21, 2016, 05:18:41 AM
(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1399313258l/78129.jpg)

My fourth Reacher novel.  Already just as fun as the past three.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on March 21, 2016, 06:30:03 AM
Quote from: André on March 20, 2016, 11:06:24 AM
I DID read it about 5 years ago, but in an English translation, and it was borrowed from the library. Now it'is in mine, and it's in French, which will lend it a different reading angle (perspective).  ;D

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

Oh good, I was fearing I had first signs of early onset of senility. ;D I've read Selimovic in highschool, maybe I could give it another read one of these days, but on the other hand I've never read Fortress, his other big novel, should definitely get that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on March 22, 2016, 12:26:26 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51av9mkuf0L.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51828GVYHDL.jpg)

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

Along with Trondheim's Lapinot, Sfar/Trondheim Donjon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_(comics)) series (universe more precisely, with three parallel story lines and two off-shot series) is probably the best of what the current wave of authors of bande dessinée can offer. Apart from main writers Sfar and Trondheim it includes as artists many of the best known French comic authors: Larcenet, Blain, Kerascoët ...  I like it but time will tell can it stand along the classics as Gaston, Spirou et Fantasio, Asterix, Lucky Luke or Iznogoud.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 24, 2016, 04:55:17 AM
Mann: The Magic Mountain.

[asin]0749386428[/asin]

A reread due to us having most of our stuff packed away.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 24, 2016, 10:30:34 AM
One of the most important and enigmatic books written in the last century. Very much Mahler7ish. One of my top 10 books ever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on March 24, 2016, 11:51:47 AM
I found "Der Zauberberg" somewhat enigmatic and struggled with several chapters when I first read it with about 19. When I re-read it with 27 or 28 I discovered it to be highly readable and often very funny. There are a few strange chapters (and many allusions) where it helps to have some commentary or background but overall this is not that necessary. That second reading is now again 16 or more years in the past...
(I seem to live on some magic mountain where time somehow passes too fast - I am now more than ten years older than Hans is when he leaves for the war - so I do not know how I would like it/rate it today. But it is a very great book (and, as I said, fairly readable, compared to e.g. Ulysses or similar stuff).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 24, 2016, 12:08:24 PM
The humour in Mann's works comes at the least predictable moments. Whether in Die Buddenbrooks, where he mocks an accent in the funniest way, or in Zauberberg (some of the entretiens between Settembrini and "the Jew Naphta") or even - in many instances - in his mammoth saga Joseph und seine Brüder (most often in relationship with the mischievious Jakob). This is the sign a master storyteller.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on March 24, 2016, 01:20:43 PM
I never got into the Joseph books (read about half of one of them). The humor in "The magic mountain" is often very dark because (unlike Hans) many of the inhabitants are actually moribund. E.g. quite soon after Hans arrives he meets a group of people some of which can whistle in a way that only works (and demonstrates) their defective lungs. This is both hilarious and spine-chilling.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on March 26, 2016, 03:37:17 PM
(http://www.mediterran.rs/images/stories/Arhipelag/kaneti.jpg)

Elias Canetti - Masse und Macht (Crowds and Power)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 27, 2016, 07:26:56 AM
(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1444683708l/26771521.jpg)

So far, fantastic!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 27, 2016, 09:52:15 AM
Stefan Zweig's loving tribute to the land in which he found shelter:

(http://www.suhrkamp.de/cover/640/35908.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 27, 2016, 11:56:58 PM
Quote from: ritter on March 27, 2016, 09:52:15 AM
Stefan Zweig's loving tribute to the land in which he found shelter:

(http://www.suhrkamp.de/cover/640/35908.jpg)

He seems to have had second thoughts about Brazil´s (and the whole world´s, for that matter) future, though... 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 28, 2016, 01:58:28 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 27, 2016, 11:56:58 PM
He seems to have had second thoughts about Brazil´s (and the whole world´s, for that matter) future, though...
ndeed, it is striking that only months after having written this panegyric on Brazil, Zweig fell into the depression that led to such a tragic outcome for him and his wife. Yet, I'd say the source of that depression was the news from Europe rather than anything related to his country of exile. AFAIK the reaction of other émigrés--mainly in the US--to this double suicide was one of disgust at what was perceived as an act of cowardice in those dark times. All very sad (but none of that be sensed in this book, which is a pleasant and entertaining read).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 29, 2016, 06:56:43 PM
Haven't posted here in a while. Here are some books that I read since my last post. Yes was a favorite of the bunch.

(https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/4f08de63-68e9-405f-9a1f-fdc06b44c72b/180/1000/False/in-red-1.jpg)

(http://31.media.tumblr.com/00af3b2bc0a32b534603696ab0551141/tumblr_inline_n1lslvJOuO1rkk65z.jpg)

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348755081l/882045.jpg)

(http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/static/images/uploads/Enrique_Vila-Matas_The_Illogic_of_Kassel.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 29, 2016, 09:16:26 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WHW6ZtiDL._SX300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Super Blood Moon on March 30, 2016, 09:14:58 AM
My first Rex Stout novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 30, 2016, 09:24:04 AM
Quote from: Super Blood Moon on March 30, 2016, 09:14:58 AM
My first Rex Stout novel.

Which one?

Philosophically, as a fan of the Timothy Hutton/Maury Chaykin series, I am ready to take the plunge.

I want to consult my brother, who is my Stout expert . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Super Blood Moon on March 30, 2016, 11:19:46 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 30, 2016, 09:24:04 AM
Which one?

Philosophically, as a fan of the Timothy Hutton/Maury Chaykin series, I am ready to take the plunge.

I want to consult my brother, who is my Stout expert . . . .

I always begin at the beginning.

[asin]0553385453[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 30, 2016, 01:21:53 PM
Excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on March 30, 2016, 01:33:45 PM
Having read about 80% or so of the Nero Wolfe books since last summer, I'd also recommend to start at the beginning although overall the order is not terribly important. The first two are a little lengthy, but certainly not bad and have most of the standard features. I hit "Some buried Caesar" accidentally as the first one and this is one of the best ones (and also introduces an important minor character). The other pre-war books:
The Rubber Band
The Red Box
Too Many Cooks
Some Buried Caesar
Over My Dead Body
are all essential, I'd say. "Too many Cooks" is also one that especially highlights Wolfe's obsession with food and one of the few where he leaves his house. (These are often more entertaining because the "routine" can get sometimes a little tedious, especially if one reads them at a rate of about one per week or so.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 31, 2016, 04:31:26 AM
Thanks
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 31, 2016, 11:28:08 AM
Author Imre Kertesz died this week. Nobel Prize in 2002. Anybody knows his oeuvre ?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 31, 2016, 04:05:29 PM
Quote from: André on March 31, 2016, 11:28:08 AM
Author Imre Kertesz died this week. Nobel Prize in 2002. Anybody knows his oeuvre ?

I read Fatelessness and also Kaddish For An Unborn Child maybe ten years ago, and know I admired them at the time, but can't remember them well now. Should reinvestigate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ludwigii on April 06, 2016, 01:15:30 PM
(http://www.renaud-bray.com/ImagesEditeurs/PG/401/401743-gf.jpg)

So far interested me particularly for the color's theories (Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Nicholas Rood), good the illustrations and the text of Hajo Düchting.


But tonight finally I start reading Peer Gynt   8)

(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTUwMFgxNjAw/z/OTYAAOSw-7RVGaKm/$_35.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 07, 2016, 07:34:33 AM
Quote from: ludwigii on April 06, 2016, 01:15:30 PM
But tonight finally I start reading Peer Gynt   8)

(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTUwMFgxNjAw/z/OTYAAOSw-7RVGaKm/$_35.JPG)

Gynt is awesome. Grieg's music is not bad either. In fact, before I really started to listen to classical music, one of the few pieces I liked was Grieg's incidental music to that play.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 08, 2016, 08:25:02 PM
Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51f%2BMOTspjL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

It was part of my unofficial tradition of reading one sic-fi book per year. Southern Reach Trilogy is a story about an ecological anomaly that is slowly spreading while a group of people try to investigate and stop it. Certain people in that group have different connections with the anomaly called Area X. The trilogy received mixed results on goodreads.com mostly because of the books ending, I gather. I agree with some of the reviewers that the writing was rather clunky at times, but the good parts of the book are really good. And even though it felt like a long read, I didn't feel that my time was wasted after almost 600 pages of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on April 09, 2016, 03:14:29 PM
The last Henning Mankell story of Kurt Wallander. When he trips over a half-buried hand and starts a new investigation.

What's what with swedish detective stories ? They have emerged as one of the most captivating litterary genres over the last 30 years, spilling over into cinematic and TV adaptations, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 10, 2016, 07:42:03 AM
(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1434911529l/22079262.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 10, 2016, 01:35:30 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516c4r7VI%2BL._SX300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ludwigii on April 13, 2016, 11:46:54 AM
Quote from: Alberich on April 07, 2016, 07:34:33 AM
Gynt is awesome. Grieg's music is not bad either. In fact, before I really started to listen to classical music, one of the few pieces I liked was Grieg's incidental music to that play.

I also started to listen to classical music with Grieg !
The play is a deep work of genius, with multiple meanings, I'm reading mostly to thoroughly understand the Peer Gynt by Schnittke, one of my favorite compositions ever.

For example, the Trolls in this play, and in mithology and folklore in general, represent the darker side of human nature, specifically sexuality, greed for food, power and possession, and emotion like anger.

So I realize that the whole play is full of double meanings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 14, 2016, 03:07:47 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 10, 2016, 01:35:30 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516c4r7VI%2BL._SX300_.jpg)

Briefly:


Thread Duty:

Although I started to read it (and left it half-finished) a year ago (at a guess), this morning I finally finished Night Flight.  It is not, I believe, any poor reflection on the book that I did not find myself magnetized upon it.  Indeed, I find it a beautiful snapshot of the mindset/worldview of an earlier era.  Chalk the delay up to a composer whose attentions are daily on the fragmented side.

(I am glad I left reading the preface until after I read the book itself, as Gide larded it with a spoiler.  Of course, "the spoiler" is arguably a creature of a time later than Gide's . . . .)

[asin]0156656051[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 14, 2016, 04:26:29 AM
(http://s22.postimg.org/6t8klp4r5/TRAG_186_MICKEY_SPILLANE_VELIKA_LOVINA_slika_O_4.jpg)

Mickey Spillane - The Big Kill

In Serbian translation, cheap pulpy paperback edition (appropriately).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 16, 2016, 03:52:19 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51asTwT9vNL.SX316.jpg)

So far a very good read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 17, 2016, 09:24:36 AM
Re-reading De Lillo, White Noise.  This one always casts something of a spell on me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on April 20, 2016, 10:11:34 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OfifmqVJL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on April 21, 2016, 07:12:40 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 17, 2016, 09:24:36 AM
Re-reading De Lillo, White Noise.  This one always casts something of a spell on me.

Casting a spell on youhttp://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/royorbison/castingmyspellonyou.html (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/royorbison/castingmyspellonyou.html):
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 22, 2016, 08:24:39 AM
Personal link:  her husband was my college roommate.
https://paper-republic.org/pubs/read/self-portrait/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 26, 2016, 08:28:13 AM
QuoteMight [ name of company ] Eventually Hire a CEO Who Understands [ the business in which the company is engaged ]?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 26, 2016, 08:33:29 AM
Soon, hopefully, I'm going to dive into the world of Wilhelm Meister.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on April 26, 2016, 11:54:13 AM
Among other books.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RKUffBbyL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Rather typing passages (copying by hand) than reading. First read the book, selecting passages, then typing it into a document (and after that arrange it with other sources into a Prezi document). A way to keep hold of the stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on April 26, 2016, 11:59:30 AM
You know what. Foucault is in my view referring with "the birth of biopolitics" as something which happened and happens in The Netherlands rather than any other country. All his interpreters are pretty ignorant about this. And I'm gonna follow the direction, the very short hint, he gives at the end of that title.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on April 26, 2016, 12:06:12 PM
Two other books I've read recent days.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41hMGO0BgkL._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LXirOUgwL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Interesting stuff, just little books in which Derrida gives some thought directions considering the topics. Really useful stuff to me. Need to reread but these are thin books.

I am busy on some integrative work considering topics as biopolitics, cosmopolitism, asylum problem, (right to) philosophy, city-land (nature) relation ("soil not oil"), eros-thymos matters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 01, 2016, 09:53:00 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eq24cRtRL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Been a number of years, so returning to one of my all time favorite stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 01, 2016, 10:16:50 AM
(http://static.elefant.ro/images/57/153157/muncile-lui-persiles-si-ale-sigismundei-editia-a-ii-a_1_fullsize.jpg)

Cervantes - The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda

(Romanian translation)

8) 8) 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 02, 2016, 12:49:05 AM
Quote from: Bogey on May 01, 2016, 09:53:00 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eq24cRtRL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Been a number of years, so returning to one of my all time favorite stories.

Great book although I still prefer silmarillion By a mile
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 03, 2016, 05:34:04 PM
Quote from: Alberich on May 02, 2016, 12:49:05 AM
   

Great book although I still prefer silmarillion By a mile

I snagged this all in one edition due to the appendices.  Not sure how much I will reference them, but its nice to know that they are there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 17, 2016, 08:24:00 AM
The Door, a novel by Magda Szabó:

[asin] 1590177711[/asin]

Hot damn. I'm almost to the end and really want to shut my office door and read. What starts as a character study of a young woman and her housekeeper builds in tension until it goes to some really crazy places. Szabó's control of her narrative, and her language, is really breathtaking. One of those books where I feel confident that the author is taking me somewhere great.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on May 17, 2016, 03:48:22 PM
I read that book earlier this year and agree that it is pretty good. I really liked the way the domestic life of the writer is contrasted with her interaction with the housekeeper Emerence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 18, 2016, 07:12:16 AM
More than halfway through Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. Not an easy book to read but I still enjoy it. Nice combination of picaresque style and elaborate planning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on May 19, 2016, 03:26:14 AM
Life: A User's Manual - Georges Perec.

[asin]1567923739[/asin]


"La Vie mode d'emploi is a tapestry of interwoven stories and ideas as well as literary and historical allusions, based on the lives of the inhabitants of a fictitious Parisian apartment block, 11 Rue Simon-Crubellier (no such street exists, although the quadrangle Perec claims Simon-Crubellier cuts through does exist in Paris XVII arrondissement). It was written according to a complex plan of writing constraints, and is primarily constructed from several elements, each adding a layer of complexity."

I've finally been having a reread after many years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 19, 2016, 10:18:51 AM
The top 10 Alfred Hitchcock movies (http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/22201/the-top-10-alfred-hitchcock-movies)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 19, 2016, 11:00:17 AM
This "Top 25 Hitchcock Movies, sorry, Films" (http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/alfred-hitchcocks-top-25-films-ranked-20150407) puzzles me a bit.   I don't understand why #25 is not a film they genuinely like, rather than one which they make a point of pooh-poohing.  (Or is it too much to ask that a "Top 25" include only items which are favorably regarded?)

All the same, an enjoyable read, methought.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on May 20, 2016, 04:55:21 AM
ikigai [Los secretos de Japón para una vida larga y feliz]
Héctor García (Kirai) & Francesc Miralles

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81UYF8QleIL.jpg)

ikigai - The Secrets of Japan for a Long and Happy Life
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 20, 2016, 06:10:36 AM
this

[asin]B004VRHKY2[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 21, 2016, 09:31:42 AM
Before moving on with Wilhelm, I sat down to read Titus Andronicus. Having heard about mixed reception of this play, I was fearing the worst, but I have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 21, 2016, 10:13:01 AM
Quote from: Alberich on May 21, 2016, 09:31:42 AM
Before moving on with Wilhelm, I sat down to read Titus Andronicus. Having heard about mixed reception of this play, I was fearing the worst, but I have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Quite tasty.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 21, 2016, 11:23:24 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 21, 2016, 10:13:01 AM
Quite tasty.
Yaay, Ken's back!! I must have conjured you up by listening to a HIP recording of La mer this week. Tonight I'll put on one or two Preston Sturges movies to celebrate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 22, 2016, 07:11:18 AM
Quote from: North Star on April 23, 2014, 08:05:36 AM
Slughorn did have his unpleasant features too - possibly a paedophile, who 'collects' the most promising students, and "you can only say 'no' to the Death Eaters so many times" was rather ambiguous too.

You do know that pedophile is not the same thing as a child molester? While most of the child molesters are pedophiles, not even remotely every pedophile is a child molester - in fact, I know several p:s, who have sexual thoughts about children, and feel terrible guilt about it, and for no reason because they would never even hurt a fly, much less any children. And everyone in Harry Potter has his/her unpleasant attributes - Harry, for ex. has often ridiculously short temper and very black and white-worldview, also certain lack of respect towards authorities. Hermione goes all yandere in Half-Blood Prince.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 22, 2016, 10:58:51 AM
I have an urge to re-read the great american novel, Moby Dick which I recall having liked, though at times the information about whaling was a bit too encyclopedic. Mardi is also on my must read-list when it comes to Melville.

Btw, I did literature character test one day and I got captain Ahab!
Title: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2016, 11:03:59 AM
I'm a huge fan of Moby-Dick.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 22, 2016, 11:07:41 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2016, 11:03:59 AM
I'm a huge fan of Moby-Dick.

Glad to know, Karl. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 22, 2016, 12:04:13 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519e%2B2qwvmL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Just downloaded the sample.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 23, 2016, 12:40:41 AM
Quote from: Alberich on May 22, 2016, 10:58:51 AM
I did literature character test one day and I got captain Ahab!

I did three different such tests. First, I got Tom Sawyer, then Jo March and thirdly Sherlock Holmes.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 05:04:15 AM
Myself. Wohoo. My* first book has arrived from the printers!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjJFuYbWEAAZm3q.jpg) (http://www.surprisedbybeauty.org)


(Co-authored, rather than translated [done] or solely authored [to do list])
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 23, 2016, 06:50:37 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 05:04:15 AM
Myself. Wohoo. My* first book has arrived from the printers!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjJFuYbWEAAZm3q.jpg) (http://www.surprisedbybeauty.org)


(Co-authored, rather than translated [done] or solely authored [to do list])
Woo hoo indeed! Congratulations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 06:57:28 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 23, 2016, 06:50:37 AM
Woo hoo indeed! Congratulations.

Thank you, Ken. Maybe something less morbid for your gray cat to read.  ;)

[Yes, I know it's most probably not your cat.]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 23, 2016, 06:59:31 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 23, 2016, 06:50:37 AM
Woo hoo indeed! Congratulations.

+1.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 23, 2016, 07:34:53 AM
Huzzah, Jens!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 23, 2016, 08:20:48 AM
Congratulations from me as well!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: HIPster on May 23, 2016, 10:18:58 AM
Bravo!

Congratulations Jens.

Added to my wishlist.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 11:11:42 AM
Quote from: HIPster on May 23, 2016, 10:18:58 AM
Bravo!

Congratulations Jens.

Added to my wishlist.  ;)

That's very flattering, indeed. My contributions are mainly Braunfels, Saygun, Schoeck, Mittler, Zeisl and Shostakovich -- and re-doing or updating all the record recommendations. And trying to take the sting out of the anti-Schoenberg diatribe. :-)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 23, 2016, 11:30:44 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 11:11:42 AM
. . . And trying to take the sting out of the anti-Schoenberg diatribe. :-)

Rut-roh!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 23, 2016, 12:15:00 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 05:04:15 AM
Myself. Wohoo. My* first book has arrived from the printers!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjJFuYbWEAAZm3q.jpg) (http://www.surprisedbybeauty.org)


(Co-authored, rather than translated [done] or solely authored [to do list])

Congratulations indeed. That is a fine achievement and you must be very proud  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 23, 2016, 06:35:50 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 22, 2016, 12:04:13 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519e%2B2qwvmL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Just downloaded the sample.

Did not enjoy the premise after I started so went to my next one:

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329024278l/765469.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 24, 2016, 08:07:47 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 11:11:42 AM
That's very flattering, indeed. My contributions are mainly Braunfels, Saygun, Schoeck, Mittler, Zeisl and Shostakovich -- and re-doing or updating all the record recommendations. And trying to take the sting out of the anti-Schoenberg diatribe. :-)

Bravo Jens!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 24, 2016, 12:03:49 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 11:11:42 AM
Saygun

Please name the one European composer he most closely resembles. TIA.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on May 25, 2016, 08:26:58 AM
She is one of my favorite crime fiction writers. Her novels are gritty, and at times, not for the faint of heart.

(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1380699919l/17572973.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on May 25, 2016, 09:55:40 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 24, 2016, 12:03:49 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 11:11:42 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 05:04:15 AM
Myself. Wohoo. My* first book has arrived from the printers!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjJFuYbWEAAZm3q.jpg) (http://www.surprisedbybeauty.org)


(Co-authored, rather than translated [done] or solely authored [to do list])
That's very flattering, indeed. My contributions are mainly Braunfels, Saygun, Schoeck, Mittler, Zeisl and Shostakovich -- and re-doing or updating all the record recommendations. And trying to take the sting out of the anti-Schoenberg diatribe. :-)
Please name the one European composer he most closely resembles. TIA.

Is that a joke? Or a test?  ;) [see attached]

I'm not sure, because superficially, the answer is very, very obvious. But of course looking at it just a little beneath the surface, there are tremendous differences. Still, if you like one you'll like the other.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 25, 2016, 11:42:16 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 25, 2016, 09:55:40 AM
Is that a joke? Or a test?  ;)

Neither.  :)

I have never heard one note of Saygun´s music and I just wanted to know what to expect. I like Bartok so I´ll try Saygun too. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 27, 2016, 02:34:23 PM
The Invention of Science
D Wooton

A new, rather scholarly, history of the scientific revolution. A corrective to Kuhn.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on May 28, 2016, 12:31:33 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 25, 2016, 11:42:16 AM
Neither.  :)

I have never heard one note of Saygun´s music and I just wanted to know what to expect. I like Bartok so I´ll try Saygun too. Thanks.

then you will LOVE the string quartets!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 28, 2016, 04:01:27 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 25, 2016, 11:42:16 AM
Neither.  :)

I have never heard one note of Saygun´s music and I just wanted to know what to expect. I like Bartok so I´ll try Saygun too. Thanks.

I also hear hints of  Kodaly and Shostakovich.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 29, 2016, 12:32:16 PM
Picked this up at the public library this afternoon
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411zJIgrlXL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on May 29, 2016, 01:14:22 PM
Quote from: Daverz on May 28, 2016, 04:01:27 PM
I also hear hints of  Kodaly and Shostakovich.

I think there's that and perhaps more than just hints. You might also say Enescu is in that group...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 29, 2016, 03:30:04 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 29, 2016, 12:32:16 PM
Picked this up at the public library this afternoon
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411zJIgrlXL.jpg)

A review when you get done would be appreciated. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 29, 2016, 07:00:31 PM
Quote from: Bogey on May 29, 2016, 03:30:04 PM
A review when you get done would be appreciated. :)

Already done: a slim book, consisting of an unfinished prose version of the Kullervo story with outbreaks of verse sort of in the style of the original, two versions of a talk about the Kalevala in general,  again not quite complete, aimed at people not familiar with the Kalevala, and much editorial writing on the subject of this story as precursor to the Turin story of the Similarrion, incidental influences on  Elvish language, etc.

The story breaks off just after the suicide of Kullervo's sister, but covers the entire back story of Kullervo's parentage, how his uncle killed his father (the editor claims this was the origin of the Hamlet story) and brought him up as a servant, tried to kill him off, discovers Kullervo is lousy at every task set him,sells him off as a slave to Ilmarinen,  whose wife tries to kill him, and whom (the wife, that is) he does kill, then goes off to kill his uncle and as collateral damage kills his mother and two oldest siblings (nasty people)---although the last part is reduced to a plot outline attached to the end of the fragment.  Tolkien keeps only some of the names found in the Kalevala.

The story was probably written 1914, the talk somewhat later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on May 30, 2016, 12:23:17 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 17, 2016, 08:24:00 AM
The Door, a novel by Magda Szabó:

[asin] 1590177711[/asin]

Hot damn. I'm almost to the end and really want to shut my office door and read. What starts as a character study of a young woman and her housekeeper builds in tension until it goes to some really crazy places. Szabó's control of her narrative, and her language, is really breathtaking. One of those books where I feel confident that the author is taking me somewhere great.

Now reading this book for the second time. Something special.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 30, 2016, 04:44:17 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 29, 2016, 07:00:31 PM
Already done: a slim book, consisting of an unfinished prose version of the Kullervo story with outbreaks of verse sort of in the style of the original, two versions of a talk about the Kalevala in general,  again not quite complete, aimed at people not familiar with the Kalevala, and much editorial writing on the subject of this story as precursor to the Turin story of the Similarrion, incidental influences on  Elvish language, etc.

The story breaks off just after the suicide of Kullervo's sister, but covers the entire back story of Kullervo's parentage, how his uncle killed his father (the editor claims this was the origin of the Hamlet story) and brought him up as a servant, tried to kill him off, discovers Kullervo is lousy at every task set him,sells him off as a slave to Ilmarinen,  whose wife tries to kill him, and whom (the wife, that is) he does kill, then goes off to kill his uncle and as collateral damage kills his mother and two oldest siblings (nasty people)---although the last part is reduced to a plot outline attached to the end of the fragment.  Tolkien keeps only some of the names found in the Kalevala.

The story was probably written 1914, the talk somewhat later.

Thank you. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 30, 2016, 06:21:38 AM
Almost finished with Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship but I think I'll leave further commenting to future, when I have also read Wilhelm Meister's journeyman years. I cannot find that book in finnish translation anywhere, hell, it's possible it has never even been translated in finnish, so I'll probably buy an english translation from somewhere, perhaps that excellent one by Carlyle, and get on with it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 31, 2016, 08:59:47 AM
I'm reading the power of branding with Hidden Lakes Estates . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 01, 2016, 09:56:11 AM
I have at last begun to read Melville's The Confidence-Man . . . I do not really expect that there is any similarity, but renewed awareness of this classic has hovered in the back of my mind while I have been reading of the adventures of one John Graustein as he wrestles the cheerful chaos with which a certain Anselm barrages his beige world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 01, 2016, 02:30:48 PM
These past days:

[asin]0804744009[/asin]
A highly entertaining, well written and thoroughy researched biography of a character who, despite being to a certain extent a historical oddity, is quite fascinating. Simultaneously, the author guides us by the hand in an exploration of Brazilian history during most of the 19th century.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 06, 2016, 06:31:28 AM
Before moving on to Wanderjahre, I think I should comment about Lehrjahre after all, my impressions. While the book has many merits (being one of the first, if not the first Bildungsroman, having great character development and psychology is often masterful), I still found the book pretty hard to read. It doesn't help I have very old finnish translation of the book. I consider even books like The Brothers Karamazov often easy to read, but this book, with this book I had to exert my brains and be just in the right state of mind to enjoy most pages of it. This is more my fault than the author's but I think it is possible for book to be both cleverly written and still easily understandable. This book certainly was cleverly written and it certainly wasn't always easily understandable. I think the book would have been a bit more balanced if it would have had more easy-going passages like when Wilhelm and co. are staying at Count's place. I have no problem with having to use your brain, with this book it was just a bit too much for comfort. Criticism can also be directed towards convenient (and at times inconvenient) coincidences that the book has. You think Dickens uses lot of coincidences? Read Lehrjahre!

Btw, I adore Jarno's character. Easily the greatest character in the book. I already know he returns in Wanderjahre, although under different alias. Can't wait.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on June 06, 2016, 12:45:08 PM
The Master and Margarita

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

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

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

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 06, 2016, 12:51:00 PM
Revisiting Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence....


(https://img1.etsystatic.com/056/0/9594054/il_570xN.749511639_8f43.jpg)


I enjoy reading DH Lawrence in general but there is one irritation which constantly recurs and that is his penchant for repetition of a thought or an idea, frequently in close proximity to each other. It is as though he was saying "what a clever idea this is!"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2016, 09:40:51 AM
Reading a short biography of Washington Irving.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 07, 2016, 11:37:28 AM
.[asin]0671604295[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 07, 2016, 02:42:30 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZU8cvf1PL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

China In Ten Words - Yu Hua
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 07, 2016, 06:45:58 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 07, 2016, 11:37:28 AM
.[asin]0671604295[/asin]

How is this one, Ken?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 07, 2016, 07:28:32 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 07, 2016, 06:45:58 PM
How is this one, Ken?

It's very interesting. I read it in high school, before I had seen most of the movies. There are often really insightful things about filmmaking but the best book on movies remains The Genius of the System.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 08, 2016, 08:01:41 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 07, 2016, 07:28:32 PM
It's very interesting. I read it in high school, before I had seen most of the movies. There are often really insightful things about filmmaking but the best book on movies remains The Genius of the System.

Just ordered Genius of the System.  Thanks, Ken!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on June 09, 2016, 01:24:17 PM
Decided to beef up my holdings of Greek poetry
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41yd8wkdpML.jpg)
With the companion volumes for Sophocles II, Aeschylus I and II
I have the full run of Euripides in this series since college.  These are updated or new translations of the Grene/Lattimore originals.
Sophocles and Aeschylus I have already in other translations.  Next up will be Aristophanes, to keep company with the Hadas translation I also have had for years.
Also
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51R92BDBVpL.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5146gcPxDtL.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51oclB62pyL.jpg)

Apollonius and the Hymns are new.  The lyric poems I have in (again)Lattimore's translation.  (I also have his Homer, Hesiod, and Pindar.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 09, 2016, 04:00:51 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on June 09, 2016, 01:24:17 PM
Decided to beef up my holdings of Greek poetry
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41yd8wkdpML.jpg)
With the companion volumes for Sophocles II, Aeschylus I and II
I have the full run of Euripides in this series since college.  These are updated or new translations of the Grene/Lattimore originals.
Sophocles and Aeschylus I have already in other translations.  Next up will be Aristophanes, to keep company with the Hadas translation I also have had for years.
Also
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51R92BDBVpL.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5146gcPxDtL.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51oclB62pyL.jpg)

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

That Argonautika is sitting in my pile, glowering at me. Unread for many years now. As is the Fagles Homer.
Can't say I could ever abide Lattimore in anything. Fitzgerald or Lombardo are more to my liking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on June 10, 2016, 06:58:30 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 09, 2016, 04:00:51 PM
That Argonautika is sitting in my pile, glowering at me. Unread for many years now. As is the Fagles Homer.
Can't say I could ever abide Lattimore in anything. Fitzgerald or Lombardo are more to my liking.

At least read the introduction Green wrote to the Argonautika.  He takes academic snark to a new level.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 11, 2016, 02:59:57 AM
While I am waiting for Genius of the System to land:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51SZZ5XHAZL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

As an Amazon review put it: Wallace's "ruminations on various happenings in Tinseltown's history".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 13, 2016, 10:32:20 AM
Henning Mankell, Before the Frost. A mystery and crime novel author, Mankell's books have sold over 40 million copies. Left-wing social activist, widely involved in african issues (he lived in Mozambique for many years). He is the son-in-law of movie director Ingmar Bergman.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 16, 2016, 10:18:47 AM
It Took Us Just 38 Minutes To Buy An AR-15 In Orlando (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ar-15-orlando_us_576059f3e4b0e4fe5143fd4d)

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

We would have been locked and loaded within five minutes, but the gun shop employee we spoke to said the queue on background checks was longer than usual because people were scrambling to buy AR-15s in the wake of the shooting. That's both terrifying and unsurprising — gun sales often skyrocket after mass shootings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 17, 2016, 02:06:08 AM
(http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u623/NikF64/IMG_20160617_105845_zps46gig0rn.jpg)

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

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 20, 2016, 03:43:40 AM
Nabokov: Laughter in the Dark.

[asin]0141186526[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 20, 2016, 11:01:27 AM
Second time in past two years:

(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409491483l/23128158.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 20, 2016, 11:03:15 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 20, 2016, 11:01:27 AM
Second time in past two years:

(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409491483l/23128158.jpg)
Read the Parkers?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 20, 2016, 11:53:47 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 20, 2016, 11:03:15 AM
Read the Parkers?

We'll do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 20, 2016, 03:46:51 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 20, 2016, 11:53:47 AM
We'll do.
Uneven but usually enjoyable. Deadly Edge is the best.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 21, 2016, 02:37:19 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 20, 2016, 03:46:51 PM
Uneven but usually enjoyable. Deadly Edge is the best.

This one above is an incredible crime/"noir" type read.  I feel like I am watching an excellent film from the genre.  Its original title was The Mercenaries and I believe it was re-titled once again as The Cutie.

https://www.amazon.com/Cutie-Hard-Case-Crime-Book-ebook/dp/B005O0ZSDU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466505335&sr=8-1&keywords=westlake+cutie

You need to read this one, Ken if you have not.  I'm 100 pages in after a day  and cannot wait to get back to it later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 21, 2016, 07:47:15 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 21, 2016, 02:37:19 AM
This one above is an incredible crime/"noir" type read.  I feel like I am watching an excellent film from the genre.  Its original title was The Mercenaries and I believe it was re-titled once again as The Cutie.

https://www.amazon.com/Cutie-Hard-Case-Crime-Book-ebook/dp/B005O0ZSDU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466505335&sr=8-1&keywords=westlake+cutie

You need to read this one, Ken if you have not.  I'm 100 pages in after a day  and cannot wait to get back to it later.

No, have not read that one. I've read a lot of DEW though!
That one is available from my library as an audiobook ... 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 21, 2016, 09:13:44 PM
Before the movie, there was

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512bIduU9GL._AC_UL320_SR216,320_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 22, 2016, 11:02:22 AM
Well, I had never heard about this.  But, we wouldn't have expected me to.

"More barn!" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neil-young-more-barn_us_576927bae4b015db1bca809f?section=)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 23, 2016, 07:04:21 AM
I'm in the gym and waiting for a bench. I knew it would be busy so I brought a book which I'm reading while alternately checking out the women and sneering at the hoi polloi.

(http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u623/NikF64/IMG_20160623_155248_zpskbad0kzi.jpg)

You might have seen the film based on the book http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049291/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on June 23, 2016, 07:15:43 AM
This is turning out to be significantly better than I expected.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 23, 2016, 05:41:50 PM
.
[asin]1400079713[/asin]

One of several on the go. Another is Likelihood by Edwards.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on June 26, 2016, 11:23:25 AM
A terrific run, one of the best for this title.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 27, 2016, 02:58:15 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 21, 2016, 09:13:44 PM
Before the movie, there was

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512bIduU9GL._AC_UL320_SR216,320_.jpg)

A lot of the movie was within....some differences, but it was a fun read.  FWIW, Marilyn's character in the book was a redhead.

TD:

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7039/6920889481_fda559d562_z.jpg)

Picked this up for the McGinnis artwork on the front.  Same guy that did all the Bond Thunderball art.  There are 80 or so of these Mason novels out there, so thought I would give one a go.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on June 27, 2016, 03:23:24 PM
I read this over and over, probably my favorite fiction writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 28, 2016, 05:22:37 AM
(http://covers.feedbooks.net/book/64.jpg?size=large&t=1462756690)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 28, 2016, 05:45:09 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 26, 2016, 11:23:25 AM
A terrific run, one of the best for this title.

Superhero comics are not really my cup of tea, but Kurt Busiek had also a phenomenal run on Dark Horse's Conan, with equally superb artist Cary Nord. Unfortunately none of the subsequent writers (or artists) was anywhere near in quality, brief return of legend that is Roy Thomas was saddled with some truly awful art. But those first five trade paperbacks by Busiek/Nord (mostly) are definitely worth reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 28, 2016, 06:25:38 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 27, 2016, 03:23:24 PM
I read this over and over, probably my favorite fiction writer.

I need to revisit Братья Карамазовы.  I have (not that I could have read it when I was a schoolboy) a sort of schoolboyish fondness for Crime & Punishment.  But the two books I should have to clutch to my breast as I drift toward that proverbial desert island are The Possessed (monumental downer of a catastrophe though it is) and The Idiot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on June 28, 2016, 07:13:46 AM
Quote from: Draško on June 28, 2016, 05:45:09 AM
Superhero comics are not really my cup of tea, but Kurt Busiek had also a phenomenal run on Dark Horse's Conan, with equally superb artist Cary Nord. Unfortunately none of the subsequent writers (or artists) was anywhere near in quality, brief return of legend that is Roy Thomas was saddled with some truly awful art. But those first five trade paperbacks by Busiek/Nord (mostly) are definitely worth reading.

Hi Draško, great to hear from you! Busiek and Nord did CONAN?  :o I love Conan! I have to pick those books up. I so loved the Roy Thomas years, John Buscema was a great artist for the character imo. That was my favorite for Conan comics, by far.

Quote from: karlhenning on June 28, 2016, 06:25:38 AM
I need to revisit Братья Карамазовы.  I have (not that I could have read it when I was a schoolboy) a sort of schoolboyish fondness for Crime & Punishment.  But the two books I should have to clutch to my breast as I drift toward that proverbial desert island are The Possessed (monumental downer of a catastrophe though it is) and The Idiot.

All very amazing, but my favorite (non philosophy) book by anybody is probably The Idiot. I never got over that prince as a character. An amazing story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 28, 2016, 07:34:34 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 28, 2016, 07:13:46 AM
Hi Draško, great to hear from you! Busiek and Nord did CONAN?  :o I love Conan! I have to pick those books up. I so loved the Roy Thomas years, John Buscema was a great artist for the character imo. That was my favorite for Conan comics, by far.

Yes, Thomas and Buscema in The Savage Sword of Conan, black and white, large magazine format with no censorship. Grew up on those!

Here's Busiek / Nord:

vol.0 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-0-Battlefield-Kurt-Busiek/dp/1593079818) Not by Nord but still excellent
vol.1 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-Frost-Giants-Daughter-Stories/dp/1593073011)
vol.2 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-Vol-Bowl-Other-Stories/dp/1593074034)
vol.3 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-Vol-Tower-Elephant-Stories/dp/1593075472)
vol.4 (https://www.amazon.com/Hall-Dead-Other-Stories-Conan/dp/1593077750)
vol.5 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-Rogues-House-Other-Stories/dp/1593079036)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on June 28, 2016, 07:53:16 AM
Quote from: Draško on June 28, 2016, 07:34:34 AM
Yes, Thomas and Buscema in The Savage Sword of Conan, black and white, large magazine format with no censorship. Grew up on those!

Here's Busiek / Nord:

vol.0 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-0-Battlefield-Kurt-Busiek/dp/1593079818) Not by Nord but still excellent
vol.1 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-Frost-Giants-Daughter-Stories/dp/1593073011)
vol.2 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-Vol-Bowl-Other-Stories/dp/1593074034)
vol.3 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-Vol-Tower-Elephant-Stories/dp/1593075472)
vol.4 (https://www.amazon.com/Hall-Dead-Other-Stories-Conan/dp/1593077750)
vol.5 (https://www.amazon.com/Conan-Rogues-House-Other-Stories/dp/1593079036)

Oh no! I just ordered no.1...I'll have to grab 0 next. See? Mention Busiek and Conan to me and I'm all over it lol. And THANKS!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 28, 2016, 08:51:27 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 28, 2016, 07:53:16 AM
Oh no! I just ordered no.1...I'll have to grab 0 next. See? Mention Busiek and Conan to me and I'm all over it lol. And THANKS!

And if you have a Kindle Ange, be sure to get this beauty of a set:

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-E-Howard-Omnibus-Collected-ebook/dp/B003O86R5M/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1467132625&sr=8-14&keywords=robert+e+howard#nav-subnav

Check out the list by clicking the Read More tab.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on June 28, 2016, 10:45:02 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 28, 2016, 08:51:27 AM
And if you have a Kindle Ange, be sure to get this beauty of a set:

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-E-Howard-Omnibus-Collected-ebook/dp/B003O86R5M/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1467132625&sr=8-14&keywords=robert+e+howard#nav-subnav

Check out the list by clicking the Read More tab.

Oh heck, I'll probably just buy the omnibus in print. I just can't seem to convert to the digital format (hate it). I'm one of those weirdos whom still buy CDs, books, comics, blu-rays....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 28, 2016, 01:52:47 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 28, 2016, 10:45:02 AM
Oh heck, I'll probably just buy the omnibus in print. I just can't seem to convert to the digital format (hate it). I'm one of those weirdos whom still buy CDs, books, comics, blu-rays....

I am the same way (in fact, the old paperbacks are my choice), but paper versions of all of Howard's stuff....if you can find it all....would be hundreds of dollars I believe. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 28, 2016, 03:24:36 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 28, 2016, 01:52:47 PM
I am the same way (in fact, the old paperbacks are my choice), but paper versions of all of Howard's stuff....if you can find it all....would be hundreds of dollars I believe.

What I like about the Kindle is font size. big help

Also the previously hard to find books. You would love Aunt Agatha's in Ann Arbor bill. They have a rack of good condition 40s, 50s and 60s Pockets.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 29, 2016, 02:56:07 AM
At last (because I chanced to learn yesterday that there is now a Kindle edition):

[asin]B019N4X23A[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on June 29, 2016, 08:04:49 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 29, 2016, 02:56:07 AM
At last (because I chanced to learn yesterday that there is now a Kindle edition):

[asin]B019N4X23A[/asin]

Waittaminute...I have (and LOVE) the Schoenberg by Charles Rosen, but haven't even HEARD of this. Okay, this is mandatory for me. Thanks for the head up, Karl.


Quote from: Bogey on June 28, 2016, 01:52:47 PM
I am the same way (in fact, the old paperbacks are my choice), but paper versions of all of Howard's stuff....if you can find it all....would be hundreds of dollars I believe.

Hi Bill! I am super lucky in that my old German uncle is an ex-literature professor whose apartment is practically composed of books. He sends me all kinds from Amazon (he's a Prime addict), so when it comes to printed material, I get practically whatever I want (I don't read erotica, so don't even ask...lol!). He'll probably shoot me the whole collection. The only Howard I have (and keep in mind I've had ALL the Conan over the years) currently are his often super creepy short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 29, 2016, 11:33:33 AM
Had to abandon the Perry Mason novel.  Got about a third in and could not take anymore of the wooden dialogue.  Still, a very cool cover.  So, moving to this, which seems to be serviceable so far:

(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349965333l/16080425.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 29, 2016, 04:36:50 PM
Quote from: AndyD. on June 29, 2016, 08:04:49 AM
Waittaminute...I have (and LOVE) the Schoenberg by Charles Rosen, but haven't even HEARD of this. Okay, this is mandatory for me. Thanks for the head up, Karl.


Hi Bill! I am super lucky in that my old German uncle is an ex-literature professor whose apartment is practically composed of books. He sends me all kinds from Amazon (he's a Prime addict), so when it comes to printed material, I get practically whatever I want (I don't read erotica, so don't even ask...lol!). He'll probably shoot me the whole collection. The only Howard I have (and keep in mind I've had ALL the Conan over the years) currently are his often super creepy short stories.
Lovely discussion of Verklärte Nacht.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on June 29, 2016, 04:43:32 PM
I'm just finishing this fantastic arc, one of the best I've read from Marvel; beginning from Avengers Disassembled , moving onto House of M, Messiah Complex and Messiah Wars, and pretty much finishing with X-men: Second Coming. Terrific epic, with characters I grew quite fond of (Cable).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 01, 2016, 09:25:12 AM
It has been a while since I have read any Evelyn Waugh....


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-25Md8LWseUE/UEwLBOBbXzI/AAAAAAAAFsw/JW-eRLfl9Vw/s1600/%22Put+Out+More+Flags%22+++%22Evelyn+Waugh%22.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 01, 2016, 12:41:57 PM
Got this today
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41T21KnnYeL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 01, 2016, 01:14:43 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZqnqI0bcL._SX306_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on July 02, 2016, 12:14:31 PM
(http://covers.audiobooks.com/images/covers/full/9781427200860.jpg)

I am just finishing this novel, which purports to be both a mystery story and a history of philosophy. The book was apparently a best-seller in Europe several decades ago (though who knows how many read it through), and the conceit is interesting: Sophie, a Norwegian teenager, is mysteriously contacted by an unknown teacher who introduces her to philosophy, and as the book goes on, we find that Sophie and her teacher are actually characters in a book being written about both of them for another girl (Hilde), and of course all these characters exist only in the book published by Jostein Gaarder. As the book proceeds, we get capsule summaries of many of the great philosophers and other important thinkers including Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Darwin, Marx, Freud, and Sartre (though some other key figures like Leibniz, Heidegger, and Nietzsche get short shrift). Though the book is valuable for all its intros to the major philosophers, the textbook/history side of things doesn't fit very well with the slim novelistic plot, and none of the characters has much personality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 02, 2016, 11:23:53 PM
Yeah, this was in the early mid/nineties an unexpected success. It is a nice introduction but overall I do not think the fusion with the novel plot works very well. Bishop Berkeley's idealism is supposed to provide the link (but even this was not easy for me to understand when I read it >20 years ago not having been familiar with Berkeley before).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 03, 2016, 08:47:14 AM
(http://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9781403715777-us-300.jpg)

Not the same edition as in the picture, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on July 04, 2016, 03:59:07 AM
As I get old (ahem, "-er"), I find myself reading more and more for the fun of reading. This was the perfect bit of hilarious super...uh, mercenary joy for the day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 04, 2016, 05:16:40 AM
.
[asin]0857685813[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 04, 2016, 05:21:57 AM
Ordered more Roman poetry
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519os-gWXLL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 04, 2016, 05:26:30 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 04, 2016, 05:16:40 AM
.
[asin]0857685813[/asin]

Thoughts so far, Ken?  I appreciate the artwork on the covers to try and put the reader instantly in the era of the story.  Nice to see that this genre is being explored by young authors in mass at this time.  Let me know if you hit any newer authors that are exceptional in your opinion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 07, 2016, 07:18:34 PM
Quote from: NikF on June 23, 2016, 07:04:21 AM
I'm in the gym and waiting for a bench. I knew it would be busy so I brought a book which I'm reading while alternately checking out the women and sneering at the hoi polloi.

(http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u623/NikF64/IMG_20160623_155248_zpskbad0kzi.jpg)

You might have seen the film based on the book http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049291/

How's it so far?  I may have to track down a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 08, 2016, 01:36:38 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 07, 2016, 07:18:34 PM
How's it so far?  I may have to track down a copy.

That was my second time around with the book and I found it held up well, both as an expose of human frailty and also simply as a period piece that's rife with the expected snappy dialogue of the characters and time.
And if you do read it and enjoy it, I'd recommend the same author's earlier 'What Makes Sammy Run?'-  another depiction of the pursuit of fame and fortune at personal cost, this time set in Hollywood.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 08, 2016, 04:30:01 AM
Quote from: NikF on July 08, 2016, 01:36:38 AM
That was my second time around with the book and I found it held up well, both as an expose of human frailty and also simply as a period piece that's rife with the expected snappy dialogue of the characters and time.
And if you do read it and enjoy it, I'd recommend the same author's earlier 'What Makes Sammy Run?'-  another depiction of the pursuit of fame and fortune at personal cost, this time set in Hollywood.

It may sound odd, but I am trying to track down the "Corgi" printing like the one you have.  The artwork on that cover is fantastic.  May take a bit to find one here in the U.S.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 08, 2016, 05:12:21 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 08, 2016, 04:30:01 AM
It may sound odd, but I am trying to track down the "Corgi" printing like the one you have.  The artwork on that cover is fantastic.  May take a bit to find one here in the U.S.

No, I understand about the artwork. I find it cool and often part of the whole experience when reading that stuff.

abebooks.co.uk has a poor condition copy offered by a UK seller here http://goo.gl/EtcxQ8 and they appear to ship to the US. I only looked at the first page of search results and so there could be more.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 08, 2016, 01:59:28 PM
Quote from: NikF on July 08, 2016, 05:12:21 AM
No, I understand about the artwork. I find it cool and often part of the whole experience when reading that stuff.

abebooks.co.uk has a poor condition copy offered by a UK seller here http://goo.gl/EtcxQ8 and they appear to ship to the US. I only looked at the first page of search results and so there could be more.

Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 11, 2016, 02:15:15 PM
Quote from: Bogey on July 04, 2016, 05:26:30 AM
Thoughts so far, Ken?  I appreciate the artwork on the covers to try and put the reader instantly in the era of the story.  Nice to see that this genre is being explored by young authors in mass at this time.  Let me know if you hit any newer authors that are exceptional in your opinion.

First book was fine, if unexceptional. Taking a break and will report back if I continue.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 14, 2016, 10:48:29 AM
From Henning Mankell I have moved to Arnaldur Indridason. and from the latter to Jo Nesbø. From Ystad, Sweden, to Reykjavik, Iceland, to Oslo, Norway. Crime knows no bounds in dark, shady northern countries. It's both a thrill and a huge culture shock to discover the back scenes, alleyways and inner life of scandinavian cities.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 15, 2016, 05:45:14 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 11, 2016, 02:15:15 PM
First book was fine, if unexceptional. Taking a break and will report back if I continue.

Thanks.  TD

(http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/lZ4AAOSwvUlWsODo/s-l1600.jpg)

My second book from W.R. Burnett.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on July 15, 2016, 06:02:46 AM
Finished up the Deadpool, hilarious fun!

Now, an interesting read so far.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 16, 2016, 04:23:06 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/IEAwQem.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 16, 2016, 04:47:01 AM
Quote from: NikF on July 16, 2016, 04:23:06 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/IEAwQem.jpg)

I avidly read Hemingway in my youth but have not done so in later years. I wonder why? I still remember the initial impact that his writing had on me all those years ago. Enjoy  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 16, 2016, 05:29:26 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 16, 2016, 04:47:01 AM
I avidly read Hemingway in my youth but have not done so in later years. I wonder why? I still remember the initial impact that his writing had on me all those years ago. Enjoy  :)

Exactly my experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 16, 2016, 05:33:40 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 16, 2016, 04:47:01 AM
I avidly read Hemingway in my youth but have not done so in later years. I wonder why? I still remember the initial impact that his writing had on me all those years ago. Enjoy  :)

I usually only take this collection off the shelf in order to read 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place' - a bare bones story which I find gains solidity with each year that passes - but then find myself settling down with the book in hand for the longer term.
I'm sure I'll enjoy reading them. Thanks, man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on July 16, 2016, 05:42:05 AM
Quote from: NikF on July 16, 2016, 05:33:40 AM
I usually only take this collection off the shelf in order to read 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place' - a bare bones story which I find gains solidity with each year that passes - but then find myself settling down with the book in hand for the longer term.
I'm sure I'll enjoy reading them. Thanks, man.

He was at his best a wonderful writer, and when I was teaching literature many years ago I always used several of his stories in my Short Fiction class. Some of my favorites included "The Killers," "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Day's Wait," with its great ending line: "He cried very easily at little things that were of no importance."

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on July 16, 2016, 07:04:11 AM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on July 16, 2016, 05:42:05 AM
He was at his best a wonderful writer, and when I was teaching literature many years ago I always used several of his stories in my Short Fiction class. Some of my favorites included "The Killers," "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Day's Wait," with its great ending line: "He cried very easily at little things that were of no importance."

He was one of the greatest...I have trouble arguing with people when they mention him as the greatest American writer (same with Dickinson, Poe, Faulkner...or, more fun: Vonnegut). You listed some amazing fiction there, my friend.

I'm going to have to take out my short stories now, love Hemingway. Thanks for the remind.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 16, 2016, 12:16:08 PM
For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of the greatest, non-partisan novels ever written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on July 16, 2016, 01:56:11 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 16, 2016, 12:16:08 PM
For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of the greatest, non-partisan novels ever written.

I love it. Reading the stories now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 17, 2016, 02:27:38 PM
My second round with Craig Rice (Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig) and her lawyer sleuth John Joseph Malone. 

(http://www.royalbooks.com/pictures/131093.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 17, 2016, 03:07:25 PM
I've still a few stories remaining in this and so I'll finish them tonight -

(http://i.imgur.com/CTst6MO.jpg)

Then this -

(http://i.imgur.com/KO8Fduf.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on July 17, 2016, 03:26:59 PM
I'm mostly grounded in Hegelian Phenomenology, Nietzschean Existentialism, Schoepenhauer/Wagnerian pessimism, and to a lesser degree Husserl. So this was often an interesting change.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 17, 2016, 03:35:05 PM
Went for more classical poetry
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41TG9fNJh8L.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kZYB9ciLL.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416EuU6M8sL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 17, 2016, 03:39:00 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 17, 2016, 03:35:05 PM
Went for more classical poetry
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41TG9fNJh8L.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kZYB9ciLL.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416EuU6M8sL.jpg)
You read Latin, or are these just the most convenient editions?

That Argonautika is in my short list ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 17, 2016, 04:05:11 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 17, 2016, 03:39:00 PM
You read Latin, or are these just the most convenient editions?

That Argonautika is in my short list ...

Mostly convenience.  I don't know Latin, but like having the original texts, and like having a relatively literal  translation instead of someone's versified modern equivalent.  The price is not that much more than an English only version.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 18, 2016, 12:10:02 PM
Has anybody read any novels by John Williams? Not the Star Wars composer, nor the classical guitarist, but the northeast Texas man who spent decades teaching writing at the University of Denver.

I just finished his "western" novel, Butcher's Crossing, which seems to be considered, by many critics, the darkest, gloomiest western novel before Cormac McCarthy arrived on the scene. At the very beginning, it suffers from a few cases of overwriting and the novelist adding details which serve only to draw attention to himself; but when the main character meets Miller, a buffalo hunter, and begins his journey, the prose tightens to a mesmerizing focus. The ensuing events, which I shall not reveal, are fascinating in their tragedy; one could easily imagine this being a better movie than The Revenant. The novel works as a metaphoric investigation of the American dream and the poisonous consequences of American hunger/ambition, but it's also a straightforwardly fascinating tale.

Someone once wrote that John Williams is like Hemingway without the brusque machismo, Fitzgerald without the fashion, or Faulkner without the pomp. An interesting comment.

A few months ago I read one of his other novels, a totally different beast: Augustus, a series of letters and diary entries documenting the life of the Roman emperor. It is such a remarkable achievement that by the end, I forgot I was reading fiction, so absorbing were the narrative voices and so completely believable were the characterizations. The final section is a rhetorical firework show, as Augustus himself writes what he seems to intuit will be his final letter, and rushes to document all he has learned about the disappointments of life and power. The writing here achieves an elegiac beauty I could compare to late Richard Strauss, or The Tempest.

There are only three mature novels by John Williams, but the two I've read are uncontestably masterpieces, and the third - Stoner - which I will read soon - is considered by many critics to be even better.

Without doubt (edit: but with apologies to Magda Szabo), my literary discovery of the year.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 18, 2016, 01:47:49 PM
I read Butcher's crossing in German translation a month ago or so. It is quite good but trying a little too hard to be (almost) Moby Dick with buffalo hunting instead of whaling.
Wasn't "Stoner" Williams' debut or the one that made him famous?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 18, 2016, 07:29:48 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 18, 2016, 01:47:49 PM
I read Butcher's crossing in German translation a month ago or so. It is quite good but trying a little too hard to be (almost) Moby Dick with buffalo hunting instead of whaling.
Wasn't "Stoner" Williams' debut or the one that made him famous?
This is potentially a fair criticism (about Moby Dick) - though I think the obsessions of the characters are for very different reasons. And I do appreciate Williams' brevity.

None of Williams' novels were famous - Butcher's Crossing was first, Stoner second, and Augustus was his last. Augustus sold poorly even after winning the National Book Award for best fiction. It is true, however, that in the last 10-15 years Stoner has been the most highly acclaimed and it has been the focus of the Williams "revival".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 18, 2016, 07:37:10 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 18, 2016, 12:10:02 PM
Has anybody read any novels by John Williams? Not the Star Wars composer, nor the classical guitarist, but the northeast Texas man who spent decades teaching writing at the University of Denver.

I just finished his "western" novel, Butcher's Crossing, which seems to be considered, by many critics, the darkest, gloomiest western novel before Cormac McCarthy arrived on the scene. At the very beginning, it suffers from a few cases of overwriting and the novelist adding details which serve only to draw attention to himself; but when the main character meets Miller, a buffalo hunter, and begins his journey, the prose tightens to a mesmerizing focus. The ensuing events, which I shall not reveal, are fascinating in their tragedy; one could easily imagine this being a better movie than The Revenant. The novel works as a metaphoric investigation of the American dream and the poisonous consequences of American hunger/ambition, but it's also a straightforwardly fascinating tale.

Someone once wrote that John Williams is like Hemingway without the brusque machismo, Fitzgerald without the fashion, or Faulkner without the pomp. An interesting comment.

A few months ago I read one of his other novels, a totally different beast: Augustus, a series of letters and diary entries documenting the life of the Roman emperor. It is such a remarkable achievement that by the end, I forgot I was reading fiction, so absorbing were the narrative voices and so completely believable were the characterizations. The final section is a rhetorical firework show, as Augustus himself writes what he seems to intuit will be his final letter, and rushes to document all he has learned about the disappointments of life and power. The writing here achieves an elegiac beauty I could compare to late Richard Strauss, or The Tempest.

There are only three mature novels by John Williams, but the two I've read are uncontestably masterpieces, and the third - Stoner - which I will read soon - is considered by many critics to be even better.

Without doubt (edit: but with apologies to Magda Szabo), my literary discovery of the year.

I read a few books from "best westerns" lists, and BC was on a few. I have not read it yet.
FWIW the best westerns I know are still ones I read a while ago, Lonesome Dove and True Grit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 19, 2016, 03:24:28 AM
My publisher, knowing how I have enjoyed dipping into Pogo, feels that I need more Southern in my reading diet, so he sent me a copy of this:

[asin]B007VTEGMQ[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on July 19, 2016, 04:55:45 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 17, 2016, 03:39:00 PM

That Argonautika is in my short list ...

The version of the story by Apollonius Rhodius has often puzzled readers with the rather passive characterization of Jason.  In the vast Cato Archives I have a translation from 50 + years ago, which is no longer available from what I can glean from the Internet/Amazon.  I saw a claim where "only two translations" have been available, and the one I possess was not one of them!  Possibly the version I picked up is more of a "retelling" than a translation.

I have no access to it right now, but will look for it soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on July 19, 2016, 05:51:34 AM
I've read the Rosen Schoenberg at least a dozen times, and I'm just starting this one. A favorite subject of mine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 19, 2016, 05:58:04 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on July 19, 2016, 05:51:34 AM
I've read the Rosen Schoenberg at least a dozen times, and I'm just starting this one. A favorite subject of mine.

I'm at about the two-thirds point; very well done.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 19, 2016, 06:07:49 AM
Say, Karl: did you ever finish Pickwick?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 19, 2016, 06:09:00 AM
Thread duty: started Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 19, 2016, 06:10:25 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 19, 2016, 06:07:49 AM
Say, Karl: did you ever finish Pickwick?

I blush to answer that I have not.  And yes: I ought, really I ought.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 19, 2016, 06:17:03 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 19, 2016, 06:10:25 AM
I blush to answer that I have not.  And yes: I ought, really I ought.

Don't feel bad. I haven't even started reading it.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 19, 2016, 06:47:27 AM
Quote from: Alberich on July 19, 2016, 06:17:03 AM
Don't feel bad. I haven't even started reading it.  8)

Well, I have multiple motivations.  I just need to interiorize it  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 19, 2016, 07:06:16 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 19, 2016, 06:47:27 AM
Well, I have multiple motivations.  I just need to interiorize it  8)

Now I have visions of you eating it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 20, 2016, 09:02:29 PM
I do enjoy reading about history and Karl's recent posts on WWII with his World At War dvd set reminded me of how little I know about this event.  Sure, I know the basic timeline and such, with a general knowledge of some of the bigger events, but when it comes to knowing details of specific battles, I fall way short.  Instead of working through chronologically, I have decided to read about events during this time period based on what grabs my attention.  I remember having some of these Ballantine books as a kid because I enjoyed the artwork on the covers.  (Still do.)  So, I found one in a used shop the other day and got cracking on it.  So far, a very solid read and easy to follow while netting some stories that only these authors would be privy to. 

(http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~vwAAOSw2zlXhtEa/s-l1600.jpg)

This landmark study was first published in English by the Naval Institute in 1955 and was added to the Classics of Naval Literature series in 1992. Widely acknowledged for its valuable Japanese insights into the battle that turned that tide of war in the Pacific, the book has made a great impact on American readers over the years. Two Japanese naval aviators who participated in the operation provide an unsparing analysis of what caused Japan's staggering defeat.
Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the first air strike on Pearl Harbor, commanded the Akagi carrier air group and later made a study of the battle at the Japanese Naval War College. Masatake Okumiya, one of Japan's first dive-bomber pilots, was aboard the light carrier Ryujo and later served as a staff officer in a carrier division. Armed with knowledge of top-secret documents destroyed by the Japanese and access to private papers, they show the operation to be ill-conceived and poorly planned and executed, and fault their flag officers for lacking initiative, leadership, and clear thinking. With an introduction by an author known for his study of the battle from the American perspective, the work continues to make a significant contribution to World War II literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 21, 2016, 05:24:33 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 20, 2016, 09:02:29 PM
I do enjoy reading about history and Karl's recent posts on WWII with his World At War dvd set reminded me of how little I know about this event.  Sure, I know the basic timeline and such, with a general knowledge of some of the bigger events, but when it comes to knowing details of specific battles, I fall way short.  Instead of working through chronologically, I have decided to read about events during this time period based on what grabs my attention.  I remember having some of these Ballantine books as a kid because I enjoyed the artwork on the covers.  (Still do.)  So, I found one in a used shop the other day and got cracking on it.  So far, a very solid read and easy to follow while netting some stories that only these authors would be privy to. 

(http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~vwAAOSw2zlXhtEa/s-l1600.jpg)

This landmark study was first published in English by the Naval Institute in 1955 and was added to the Classics of Naval Literature series in 1992. Widely acknowledged for its valuable Japanese insights into the battle that turned that tide of war in the Pacific, the book has made a great impact on American readers over the years. Two Japanese naval aviators who participated in the operation provide an unsparing analysis of what caused Japan's staggering defeat.
Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the first air strike on Pearl Harbor, commanded the Akagi carrier air group and later made a study of the battle at the Japanese Naval War College. Masatake Okumiya, one of Japan's first dive-bomber pilots, was aboard the light carrier Ryujo and later served as a staff officer in a carrier division. Armed with knowledge of top-secret documents destroyed by the Japanese and access to private papers, they show the operation to be ill-conceived and poorly planned and executed, and fault their flag officers for lacking initiative, leadership, and clear thinking. With an introduction by an author known for his study of the battle from the American perspective, the work continues to make a significant contribution to World War II literature.

A general history of the war in toto is worth reading. Keegan's is not too long.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AndyD. on July 21, 2016, 07:32:26 AM
Pretty darn good! The rivalry between Keats and Shelly is always amusing to me, I actually prefer Shelly's works. #ozymandias

Once I finish, I'll probably have to reread the graphic novel, a very great favorite of mine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 21, 2016, 10:09:09 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/4159sr6a1tL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 22, 2016, 01:38:46 PM
During a four weeks stay - again, for the third year in a row - in the Galilee, preparing again for a visit to Jerusalem: these superb memoirs of a youth spent in Jerusalem in the 1940s
(http://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780099450030-us-300.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 23, 2016, 07:08:25 AM
(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418353971l/20200400.jpg)

2/3 of the way through. Scary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 26, 2016, 06:11:54 AM
"Eichmann in Jerusalem" by Hannah Arendt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 26, 2016, 06:34:53 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 26, 2016, 06:11:54 AM
"Eichmann in Jerusalem" by Hannah Arendt.
Worthwhile follow up
[asin]B0000541UX[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 02, 2016, 11:01:02 AM
(http://img.welt.de/img/literarischewelt/crop119444721/7966607684-ci3x2s-w300-ai2x3l/zgbdc5-6bgishpkjyo17vwthkyo-original-2-.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Walt Whitman on August 02, 2016, 08:24:32 PM
sublime
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 05, 2016, 02:53:33 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51W3jOgCIoL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A great read so far.  If you enjoyed the movie, give it a go.  Staggs can write!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 05, 2016, 03:51:04 PM
(http://www.collecting-fleming.com/images/books/_watermarked/thunderball-pan-hawkey-x201.jpg)

So far (2/3 in), this is the one I like the most out of 3 or 4 Bond novels I've read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 05, 2016, 04:05:12 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513-cBcM5ML.jpg)
Shmuel [Samuel] ha Nagid was a court official and governor of the Jewish community in Granada c. 1035 CE, and the first major Jewish poet of the medieval era, writing on both religious and secular subjects, merging Arabic technique in poetry with the Hebrew language.

This translation was done in the early 1990s and perhaps makes the piems sound too modern. But overall worthwhile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 05, 2016, 06:38:59 PM
Quote from: Bogey on August 05, 2016, 02:53:33 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51W3jOgCIoL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A great read so far.  If you enjoyed the movie, give it a go.  Staggs can write!

His book on All About Eve is beyond dreadful. It's beyond even beyond dreadful. It's Trump and Hillary screwing dreadful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 05, 2016, 06:39:55 PM
Quote from: Draško on August 05, 2016, 03:51:04 PM
(http://www.collecting-fleming.com/images/books/_watermarked/thunderball-pan-hawkey-x201.jpg)

So far (2/3 in), this is the one I like the most out of 3 or 4 Bond novels I've read.

I liked From Russia best.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 06, 2016, 06:15:13 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 05, 2016, 04:05:12 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513-cBcM5ML.jpg)
Shmuel [Samuel] ha Nagid was a court official and governor of the Jewish community in Granada c. 1035 CE, and the first major Jewish poet of the medieval era, writing on both religious and secular subjects, merging Arabic technique in poetry with the Hebrew language.

This translation was done in the early 1990s and perhaps makes the piems sound too modern. But overall worthwhile.

Very, very interesting.

My literary acquaintance with the fascinating interplay between Christian, Jewish and Arabic culture on Spanish soil stems form this book:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51q7lhhkKtL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Have you read it?

Lion Feuchtwanger is not at all a bad writer, although he is largely forgotten or ignored today. Stefan Zweig is another Jewish writer of the same fate. I was fortunate enough to read some of their books in my youth. I praise both of them highly.

Actually, the latest book I´ve read --- finished it just yesterday --- was Zweig´s The World of Yesterday. Exceptional.

(http://static.elefant.ro/images/61/193061/lumea-de-ieri-amintirile-unui-european_1_fullsize.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on August 06, 2016, 06:29:00 AM
"The First Four Years" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I read and reread everything around here, so was fairly desperate. This book was hiding among some other stuff I found by the way, probably from the kids' school library. Actually, it is quite good and sobering at the same time. As my father used to say "When ships were made of wood, men were from iron. Now ships are made of iron and men are made from wood." Well, not literally of course and don't mean to bash men. Laura herself was an iron lady.
Her husband, Almanzo Wilder, cheerfully tackled the job of plowing 50 acres that failed everytime for 7 years in the Dakotas besides raising stock and caring for orchards that also dried up. Meanwhile, their baby son died, the house burned down, he got diphtheria that left him somewhat paralyzed. She initially lost all the money earned over a year to buy a new house in Missouri but found it after a few days. After that, I didn't feel like my problems were so big.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 06, 2016, 06:33:08 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 06, 2016, 06:15:13 AM
Very, very interesting.

My literary acquaintance with the fascinating interplay between Christian, Jewish and Arabic culture on Spanish soil stems form this book:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51q7lhhkKtL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Have you read it?

Lion Feuchtwanger is not at all a bad writer, although he is largely forgotten or ignored today. Stefan Zweig is another Jewish writer of the same fate. I was fortunate enough to read some of their books in my youth. I praise both of them highly.

Actually, the latest book I´ve read --- finished it just yesterday --- was Zweig´s The World of Yesterday. Exceptional.

(http://static.elefant.ro/images/61/193061/lumea-de-ieri-amintirile-unui-european_1_fullsize.jpg)
Zweig  isn't that forgotten, at least in English. I read some of him long ago, stories.
But I want to recommend a book you have probably read, The Radetzky March by Roth. I think you would like it a lot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 06, 2016, 07:16:52 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 05, 2016, 06:39:55 PM
I liked From Russia best.

I liked Goldfinger best.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 06, 2016, 07:19:40 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 06, 2016, 06:33:08 AM
Zweig  isn't that forgotten, at least in English. I read some of him long ago, stories.
But I want to recommend a book you have probably read, The Radetzky March by Roth. I think you would like it a lot.

Thank you, Ken, but as you said, I´ve already read it, together with its accompanying novel The Kapuziner Crypt. Youare absolutely right: I did enjoy them both a lot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 06, 2016, 07:19:48 AM
Almost through the first of the three books of Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre and I have to say that so far, mostly, I like this better than Lehrjahre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 06, 2016, 07:48:54 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 05, 2016, 06:38:59 PM
His book on All About Eve is beyond dreadful. It's beyond even beyond dreadful. It's Trump and Hillary screwing dreadful.

I've seen poor reviews about it as well.  Was hopeful based on what I have read here, but will pass on the Eve book.  Too bad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on August 06, 2016, 10:16:43 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 06, 2016, 07:19:40 AM
Thank you, Ken, but as you said, I´ve already read it, together with its accompanying novel The Kapuziner Crypt. Youare absolutely right: I did enjoy them both a lot.

Have you read anything by Heimito von Doderer? The most famous one is "Die Strudlhofstiege" (a fairly impressive public stairs in Vienna that is still in existence). I admittedly got stuck in the middle but, similarly to Roth he is also considered as one of the most important describers of the late and post-k.-k. world. I read Die Kapuzinergruft and probably another one by Roth and while I realize that they are good books this one not quite my cup of tea. I am probably to far away geographically and culturally from old Austria to really appreciate it.

(I don't think I read anything by Feuchtwanger yet but I have a couple on my shelves... the name is known in Germany/Austria but I don't know how frequently read)

A lighter but often highly entertaining writer was Leo Perutz (a Prague Jew writing in German, originally an insurance mathematician). Most of his book are fairly short, historical, sometimes with fantastic elements. The most famous one, "The master of the day of judgement" (Der Meister des jüngsten Tages), is somewhat of an exception and takes place in Vienna shortly before the first World War. Not sure how much of him has been translated. He was very famous for a while between the wars but mostly forgotten afterwards although he lived until the 1950s and has one or two post-war books as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 06, 2016, 11:03:07 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on August 06, 2016, 10:16:43 AM
Have you read anything by Heimito von Doderer?

No. But I have read Gregor von Rezzzori´s The Snows of Yesteryear, which is also very good and of special interest to me since he was born of German stock in Northern Bukovina (originally part of Moldavia, then annexed by the Austrian Empire, afterwards reunited with Romania, then taken by the USSR as part of the infamous Molotov-Ribentropp Pact (an ideological misnomer for Hitler-Stalin) and finally given to Ukraine, to which it belongs today). The book is a treasure trove as it describes, in a very pleasant and quite melancholy literary style, the truly multicultural European atmosphere and experience of that region, AD 1918 - 1940.

Next on my reading list is Memoirs of an Anti-Semite, by the same guy. I can hardly wait for it.

Quote
I read Die Kapuzinergruft and probably another one by Roth and while I realize that they are good books this one not quite my cup of tea. I am probably to far away geographically and culturally from old Austria to really appreciate it.

Well, a very important part of nowadays Romania has been for centuries part of the old Austria and later Austria-Hungary, therefore I feel much closer in terms of mentality to the old Austria than to the old Prussia / Germany, although I have no personal ties with Transylvania.

Quote
A lighter but often highly entertaining writer was Leo Perutz (a Prague Jew writing in German, originally an insurance mathematician). Most of his book are fairly short, historical, sometimes with fantastic elements. The most famous one, "The master of the day of judgement" (Der Meister des jüngsten Tages), is somewhat of an exception and takes place in Vienna shortly before the first World War. Not sure how much of him has been translated. He was very famous for a while between the wars but mostly forgotten afterwards although he lived until the 1950s and has one or two post-war books as well.

I have read, and enjoyed, The Swedish Cavalier..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 06, 2016, 11:37:12 AM
Shklovsky

[asin]1564784827[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 06, 2016, 11:15:46 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 05, 2016, 06:39:55 PM
I liked From Russia best.

As did I, though its been a while.

That Pan paperback cover above brought back memories:

(http://www.collecting-fleming.com/images/books/_watermarked/pan-painted-from-russia-with-love-6th.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 07, 2016, 01:11:44 AM
Did you know From Russia was in John F. Kennedy's top 10 novels?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ludwigii on August 07, 2016, 04:36:41 PM
Desmond Morris : The Naked Ape

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZlSYwVM%2BL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on August 07, 2016, 05:55:43 PM
(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1427482401l/24717332.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on August 09, 2016, 04:41:35 AM
Picked up because I saw it on one of my Kindle pricetracker emails. It's not a bad read so far, but I'm only 3 chapters in.

Ballerina by Edward Stewart

[asin]B00I3TJIFI[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 13, 2016, 01:32:04 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 07, 2016, 01:11:44 AMDid you know From Russia was in John F. Kennedy's top 10 novels?
Quite surprised that he actually read ten.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on August 13, 2016, 03:49:42 PM
Quote from: Christo on August 13, 2016, 01:32:04 AM
Quite surprised that he actually read ten.

Ouch  !!  ::)

Politicians are sometimes thought-oriented, sometimes action-oriented, and sometimes disoriented  >:D. I'm not sure I'd choose our next leader based on his/her reading choices.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 14, 2016, 02:04:25 AM
Quote from: André on August 13, 2016, 03:49:42 PMI'm not sure I'd choose our next leader based on his/her reading choices.  ;)

I would be happy with reading capacities (not sure about them re one specific American presidential candidate).  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on August 14, 2016, 08:22:04 AM
It's amazing how Spielberg turned a 37-page short story into a 2.5 hour movie!

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511LyfwPPkL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on August 14, 2016, 01:48:21 PM
I'm also reading this rather densely written book from 1927. Had Joseph Conrad lived longer, one might think he wrote it! Interesting, but not a page-turner.

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/23/72/2a/23722a99cc7c3cc5ee3a230303c69c8b.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 14, 2016, 01:52:29 PM
Quote from: Toccata&Fugue on August 14, 2016, 08:22:04 AM
It's amazing how Spielberg turned a 37-page short story into a 2.5 hour movie!

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511LyfwPPkL.jpg)

Indeed.  L enjoyed both versions, though I do need to read this one again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on August 16, 2016, 10:08:49 AM
(http://nosalive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/stromae-destaque.jpg)

That pic reminds me of Stromae.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 16, 2016, 10:19:56 AM
How Milwaukee flipped the script after fatal police shooting (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2016/0815/How-Milwaukee-flipped-the-script-after-fatal-police-shooting)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 16, 2016, 10:26:57 AM
Recently on a nonfiction streak. Just finished "Food in History" by Reay Tannahill, an excellent single-volume treatment of exactly what the title says. Now midway through "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer, a history of the political contributions and leanings of American oligarchs like the Koch brothers and Richard Mellon Scaife.

Next: "Memories," the Russian writer Teffi's memoir of her escape from the revolution in 1917. Then, finally, some fiction again!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 16, 2016, 10:34:17 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 16, 2016, 10:26:57 AM
Recently on a nonfiction streak.

I've been sampling each of three volumes of a Liszt bio.  May likely spring for the ebooks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 16, 2016, 10:40:32 AM
(https://s4.postimg.org/e0ss5gwzh/Dugo_vrelo_leto_Vilijem_Fokner_slika_O_48613497.jpg)

William Faulkner - The Hamlet (Dugo, Vrelo Leto (The Long, Hot Summer) in Serbian translation)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on August 16, 2016, 11:37:31 AM
Please let us know what you thought of it. Faulkner is one of my literary heroes (Light in August, Sound and the Fury, Intruder int he Dust, Sartoris...).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 16, 2016, 02:04:08 PM
Quote from: André on August 16, 2016, 11:37:31 AM
Please let us know what you thought of it. Faulkner is one of my literary heroes (Light in August, Sound and the Fury, Intruder int he Dust, Sartoris...).

Will do. 8)
I love Faulkner. He is most likely my favorite American writer, though Flannery O'Connor of lately is giving him a run for his money. I've read pretty much all of his major works: August, Fury, Absalom, As I lay Dying (probably a favorite), Sartoris, Sanctuary, Unvanquished, Wild Palms ...
Snopes Trilogy (The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion) is more or less the last large body of work of his that I haven't read, apart of some standalone pieces that don't seem that interesting (to me) like A Fable, The Reivers and some early novels. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost Sonata on August 18, 2016, 10:19:34 AM
For the third time, Adam's Diary, an extraordinary novel by Norwegian author Knut Faldbakken.  Clever, devastating and highly recommended.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on August 20, 2016, 12:52:42 AM
Just started this behemoth and it's already fascinating:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416CMVGZE3L._SX306_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost Sonata on August 24, 2016, 08:27:25 AM
Rather than begin a thread devoted to it, I thought I'd ask here:  has anyone read or heard of Edward Rothstein's comparison of music and maths, Emblems of Mind: the Inner Life of Music and Mathematics (1995).  Wondering how revelatory and readable it might be.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 24, 2016, 09:04:32 AM
Quote from: Ghost Sonata on August 24, 2016, 08:27:25 AM
Rather than begin a thread devoted to it, I thought I'd ask here:  has anyone read or heard of Edward Rothstein's comparison of music and maths, Emblems of Mind: the Inner Life of Music and Mathematics (1995).  Wondering how revelatory and readable it might be.

I don't know. Curious now, myself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ludwigii on August 27, 2016, 08:48:38 PM
AA.VV. (Enzo Restagno, Alexander Ivashkin, Elizabeth Wilson)

SCHNITTKE

EDT (Torino)

(http://www.musicasimeoli.com/public/shop/prodotti/1777.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 31, 2016, 04:49:33 AM
Books I'm bringing on my vacation:

- The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism, by Kristin Dombek
- Stoner, by John Williams
- Flashman, by George Macdonald Fraser
- Dear Life, by Alice Munro
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 31, 2016, 05:49:31 AM
Finished recently:

(http://www.eamonn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/181115sub.jpg)

(the Spanish translation of Michel Houellebecq's Submission)

Currently reading:

(http://static.elefant.ro/images/48/215548/blandetea-noptii_1_fullsize.jpg)

F. Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the Night (Romanian translation)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 31, 2016, 06:39:27 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a9/TheClovenViscount.jpg/220px-TheClovenViscount.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 31, 2016, 01:55:23 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41V6hmjabNL._SX352_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tien-journalistieke-idealen-Johan-Snel/dp/908953993X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472680394&sr=8-1&keywords=Johan+Snel
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on September 01, 2016, 07:45:35 AM
Manon Lescaut.

[asin]0199554927[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on September 01, 2016, 04:25:46 PM
Quote from: Florestan on August 31, 2016, 05:49:31 AM
Finished recently:

(http://www.eamonn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/181115sub.jpg)

(the Spanish translation of Michel Houellebecq's Submission)


For a moment I thought this was the romanian translation. Isn't there one ? Houellebecq is an extremely trendy and timely read author these days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on September 02, 2016, 10:16:29 AM
Quote from: Draško on August 16, 2016, 10:40:32 AM
(https://s4.postimg.org/e0ss5gwzh/Dugo_vrelo_leto_Vilijem_Fokner_slika_O_48613497.jpg)

William Faulkner - The Hamlet (Dugo, Vrelo Leto (The Long, Hot Summer) in Serbian translation)

I wonder what Faulkner is like in Serbian translation. So much in Faulkner is in the reproduction of colloquial speech of different ethnic groups.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 02, 2016, 10:26:30 AM
Quote from: André on September 01, 2016, 04:25:46 PM
For a moment I thought this was the romanian translation. Isn't there one ?

Not yet.

The novel is good, but rather naive --- for instance, it implies that the Sorbonne Islamic University would still offer courses on Huysmans and Peguy...  ;D

It depicts extremely well the irresponsibility and stupidity of a certain type of French intellectuals, who talk about France being turned into an islamic state, and Sorbonne into an islamic university, as if it were the most natural and benign phenomenon in the world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 02, 2016, 02:57:03 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51wa8le6-lL.jpg)

Conversations between Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa on classical music and recordings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on September 02, 2016, 03:41:12 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on September 02, 2016, 10:16:29 AM
I wonder what Faulkner is like in Serbian translation. So much in Faulkner is in the reproduction of colloquial speech of different ethnic groups.

It depends a lot on quality and ambition of translator though something gets lost in translation inevitably. Various colloquial speeches can be rendered in some more or less corresponding local colloquial speeches. English and Serbian have different syntax so the rhythm and flow of original sentence can't be preserved quite the same anyhow. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 03, 2016, 05:59:48 AM
(https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1312026748l/1265289.jpg)

So far, and absolute blast!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 05, 2016, 12:25:59 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5128FE-TzZL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 05, 2016, 12:39:09 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 05, 2016, 12:25:59 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5128FE-TzZL.jpg)
Hey Bill,the complete Continental Op comes out for Kindle later this month, $10

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 05, 2016, 02:47:26 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 05, 2016, 12:39:09 PM
Hey Bill,the complete Continental Op comes out for Kindle later this month, $10

Link me, Ken.  Just purchased this a few minutes before your post:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51STFgsu3wL._SX335_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

From Good Reads
3 sub-sections: the amateur, the private investigator, and the police detective
A detective fiction anthology filled with award winning short stories, information on the authors who wrote them, discussion about the history and evolution of the genre, and important literary criticism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 05, 2016, 04:29:14 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 05, 2016, 02:47:26 PM
Link me, Ken.  Just purchased this a few minutes before your post:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51STFgsu3wL._SX335_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

From Good Reads
3 sub-sections: the amateur, the private investigator, and the police detective
A detective fiction anthology filled with award winning short stories, information on the authors who wrote them, discussion about the history and evolution of the genre, and important literary criticism.

https://www.amazon.com/Continental-Op-Complete-Case-Files-ebook/dp/B01HFUTQ3E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473121693&sr=8-1&keywords=Complete+continental+op
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 05, 2016, 04:58:27 PM
Thanks, Ken!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on September 06, 2016, 07:18:40 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514C8aVV4gL._SX298_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 10, 2016, 11:08:35 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 02, 2016, 02:57:03 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51wa8le6-lL.jpg)

Conversations between Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa on classical music and recordings.
This book looks interesting. I didn't know about it. I read a collection of pieces Murakami wrote about jazz music that was enjoyable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 10, 2016, 11:32:08 PM
Quote from: Artem on September 10, 2016, 11:08:35 PM
This book looks interesting. I didn't know about it. I read a collection of pieces Murakami wrote about jazz music that was enjoyable.

It is interesting. Murakami, though not a musician, is a very perceptive and close listener, as well as being articulate about the recordings he's listening to with Ozawa, and guides the conversation well. Ozawa even expresses surprise.

Its a fast undemanding read, but still more interesting than I was expecting.

His jazz book hasn't been translated into English yet, as far as I'm aware. Which language were you lucky enough to find it in?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 10, 2016, 11:59:49 PM
It was translated into Russian language.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 11, 2016, 10:58:51 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511lIkPuQmL._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Should be a treat!  Oy, Ken!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 11, 2016, 11:04:47 AM
Quote from: Bogey on September 11, 2016, 10:58:51 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511lIkPuQmL._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Should be a treat!  Oy, Ken!

I've read 'em all Bill! An uneven series but well worth getting to know. You'll enjoy the ride. The best are Rare Coin, Sour Lemon, and my favourite, Deadly Edge.

That one was filmed with Lee Marvin, the perfect Parker, as Point Blank I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 11, 2016, 12:08:01 PM
Paolo Isotta: Altri canti di Marte

[asin]883172181X[/asin]

This book follows La virtù dell'elefante, the author's previous tome of memoires and opinions on art, literature and the arts in general.

Mr. Isotta is one of the doyens of musical criticism in Italy, having written for Il Corriere della Sera in Milan for many years. He is not devoid of controversy, to the point that--for instance--the previous general manager of La Scala (Stéphane Lissner) tried to ban him from that theatre.

This volume appears more valuable than its predecessor, as the style is less catty and gossipy, and contains a rather interesting chapter on Enescu and Szymanowki, and a quite inspired essay on Parsifal. Still, Mr. Isotta's insistence on his hates and likes is annoying. The former include Abbado, Pollini, Nono and all the Milan intelligentsia, and among the latter are Muti, Franco Alfano and composer/conductor Gino Marinuzzi (whose symphony the author tells us over and over is "the best of the 20th century"--fortunately we're spared having to read that it's better even than Parsifal  ::) ). And yet, there is a bizarre chapter in which Isotta accuses Muti of "treason"  ???, for not following his advice as to what to program in Chicago (Martucci, for instance). Other artists are dismissed rather disrespectfully (both John Eliot Gardiner and Mitsuko Uchida are labelled "ridiculous", just like that  >:( ).

In any event, a book that denotes a real knowledge of music and the arts in general, and that would be much better if the tone were more balanced (and less as if written by a "marica mala", to use an untranslatable Spanish term).

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 11, 2016, 06:15:12 PM
The Tyranny of Experts
William Easterly
An argument that the mainstream approach to development in the poorer parts of the world is often ineffective, because it fails to respect the rights of the poor.

In Matto's Realm
F Glauser
A detective novel written in Switzerland in 1936.

The Conquering Tide
Ian Toll
Second part of his excellent history of the Pacific War. Listening to this on audio.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Hilltroll73(Ukko) on September 13, 2016, 05:18:12 PM
The past couple days I was reading The Thicket, by Joe R. Lansdale. Helluva story. Near as I can tell, it is set in maybe the early 1920s. The locale is East Texas, the Thicket and environs. Kirkus Reviews says it's "alternately violent and tender, with a gently legendary quality that makes this tall tail just about perfect." I sure don't recognize hardly any of that in the story I read, except maybe the 'about perfect' part. When a 4 gauge shotgun and a 600 pound companion boar pig are active but supporting players, it may be legendary but it ain't gentle.

I loved it, any country boy ought to. I do wish the protagonist was a little better shot.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 13, 2016, 06:43:57 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 11, 2016, 11:04:47 AM
I've read 'em all Bill! An uneven series but well worth getting to know. You'll enjoy the ride. The best are Rare Coin, Sour Lemon, and my favourite, Deadly Edge.

That one was filmed with Lee Marvin, the perfect Parker, as Point Blank I think.

Finished up The Hunter, Ken.  Enjoyed it a lot o looking forward to the rest of the series.  Probably hit my 5th Reacher book next.  Ah, the essence of "brain candy" continues.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 13, 2016, 07:05:04 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 13, 2016, 06:43:57 PM
Finished up The Hunter, Ken.  Enjoyed it a lot o looking forward to the rest of the series.  Probably hit my 5th Reacher book next.  Ah, the essence of "brain candy" continues.

Excellent. 

I've never read a Reacher, but I did enjoy the movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on September 14, 2016, 12:50:44 AM
Anthony Powell

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41IWLFbgu-L._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(Folio Society Edition, v.1 of 4) (http://amzn.to/2cWV7UD)




(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41R6%2BU2pxAL.jpg)
A Dance to the Music of Time, v.1
A Question of Upbringing (http://amzn.to/2c9Wzpt)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/4175%2BoROoHL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
A Dance to the Music of Time, v.2
A Buyer's Market (http://amzn.to/2cvWnwl)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41eakbu-ABL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
A Dance to the Music of Time, v.3
The Acceptance World (http://amzn.to/2cdVtHM)


It starts convoluted, with the strained comparison of the opening scene to the painting that gives this series its name... and it continues that way, mostly.
A Question of Upbringing has a fine, Tom Brown's Schooldays-feel to it, but less naive.
A Buyer's Market is, although better readers and writers than I disagree, atrocious writing; comical even.
The Acceptance World is either getting better, so far as my experience with the first chapter is concerned, or I have simply entered the Acceptance World myself, and come to terms with Powell's style of endless hedging, double negatives, and subordinate clauses and endless asides. How this was ever considered good writing is entirely lost on me. I'm with V.S.Naipaul on this. Got them, because Wodehouse wrote enthusiastically about these books to Powell himself... but either he was being nice or he liked the sentimental all-English aspect that flooded him with fond memories from the world that Wodehouse had left behind. Endlessly, characters are yanked back into the narrative that really have no place being there [constant discussion how a third party would have commented upon the things currently happening], there's that typically odd mix of total memory, down to the last phrase and casual "I don't know if she said anything else that night; at least I don't remember anything being said" dismissal. But the fact that he can't just write a simple sentence is absolutely unnerving me. Here's a fine example:

"In spite of the apparently irresistible nature of the circumstances, when regarded through the larger perspectives that seemed, on reflection, to prevail - that is to say of a general subordination to an intricate design of cause and effect - I could not help admitting, in due course, the awareness of a sense of inadequacy. There was no specific suggestion that anything had, as it might be said, 'gone wrong'; it was merely that any wish to remain any longer present in those surroundings had suddenly and violently decreased, if not disappeared entirely. This feeling was, in its way, a shock. Gypsy, for her part, appeared far less impressed than myself by consciousness of anything, even relatively momentuous, having occurred. In fact, after the brief interval of extreme animation, her subsequent indifference, which might almost have been called torpid, was, so it seemed to me, remarkable. This imperturbability was inclined to produce, more or less, an impression that, so far from knowing each other a great deal better, we had progressed scarcely at all in that direction; even, perhaps, become more than ever, even irretrievably, alienated. Barbara's recurrent injunction to avoid any question of 'getting sentimental' seemed, here in the embodiment of Gypsy, now carried to lengths which might legitimately be looked upon as such a principle's logical conclusion." ("A Buyer's Market")

So there you have it: "extreme animation", reflected upon somberly, while dragging secondary characters back into the contemplation of the state as such, is the extent to which Powell, hiding the act, if an act you can call it, in sub-clauses and draping it with not entirely irrelevant double negatives, goes into the explicit description of carnal lust and passion.

But I'll get all the way through, now that I've started.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 15, 2016, 07:11:52 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 13, 2016, 07:05:04 PM
Excellent. 

I've never read a Reacher, but I did enjoy the movie.

Absolutely mindless fun.  If you do read one, look them up for a chronological order.  Start with The Enemy.  I was hooked after this one, but the next couple were better than ok, but I would not call great story lines.  Also, a lot of folks that are into the novels are upset that they did not cast a taller more rugged star for the role.  However, I love Cruise in this kind of stuff, so I'm good with it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on September 17, 2016, 12:07:42 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bsm1cnhfL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 17, 2016, 05:28:19 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/510VsnraGaL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: arpeggio on September 17, 2016, 08:21:12 PM
Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer.

This is a novel in the Southern Reach Trilogy.  It was very confusing and it made no sense to me.  About a third of the way through I then discovered that Acceptance is actually the third book in the trilogy.   :-[   The three novels in the Trilogy are Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance.  Annihilation received the 2014 Nebula Award (Science Fiction/Fantasy) for best novel and 2014 Shirley Jackson Award (psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic) for best novel.

If I read it in the correct order it may now start to make sense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 17, 2016, 09:36:12 PM
I read the Southern Reach Trilogy earlier this year. The first volume was the best in the trilogy for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on September 18, 2016, 05:21:08 AM
Finally getting around to Moby Dick, appreciate it better now than when I was in high school.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 18, 2016, 05:56:26 AM
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on September 18, 2016, 05:21:08 AM
Finally getting around to Moby Dick, appreciate it better now than when I was in high school.

I read it many years ago and found it difficult going at the time. I wonder if I could read it with more ease now?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 18, 2016, 06:21:54 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 18, 2016, 05:56:26 AM
I read it many years ago and found it difficult going at the time. I wonder if I could read it with more ease now?

By a peculiarity of marketing it often shows up in the children's books section.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on September 18, 2016, 11:43:02 PM
Currently I am wading through a text book on Social Policy, set for a course I am starting shortly.

But for pleasure, I am reading Mary Beard's Pompeii.

Very readable, she is clear eyed and non-sensationalist. The opening explains about the dead who were found with their possessions. So many carried keys, clearly thinking they would be coming back, but in reality they probably only managed a street or so. It is also interesting to learn that the town was by no means caught completely unawares and frozen in its normal 'life'. A lot of evidence suggests that many rich had moved out of the town after an earlier earthquake 17 years before and that of those left, many had taken the early warning rumbles and small quakes seriously and had escaped, taking piles of valuables with them.

I thought that I had quite a good knowledge of this event.....I certainly did not.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 19, 2016, 12:36:49 AM
Robert Harris has a nice (and I believe well researched) novel "Pompeii" that I'd recommend if you have not read it. Although it might be a little redundant if read shortly after a scholarly book on the subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on September 19, 2016, 12:46:23 AM
Thanks, I have read it and enjoy his work a lot. Only a moment ago on radio he was discussing his latest Conclave, about the election of a pope. It is on my list for when I can get it a whole lot cheaper.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on September 19, 2016, 01:04:18 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 18, 2016, 05:56:26 AM
I read it many years ago and found it difficult going at the time. I wonder if I could read it with more ease now?

Back then, I found the exhaustive (for his time) "compleat whale" tedious but now find the meeting of the two worlds, human and leviathan, fascinating. Melville has quite a sense of humor and profound understanding of human psychology, much of it derived from being confined in a small space with a few people for long stretches of time. Personality traits, good and bad, become magnified.

I still don't understand how ships were able to carry supplies for years on end (this voyage was supposed to take three), notably fresh water. Also I don't get why they had to go around Africa to follow whales after furnishing a good description of those in northern waters, as around Greenland. OK, the Captain felt compelled to follow one in particular, the premise of the story...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 19, 2016, 01:07:34 AM
Pliny the Younger's first-hand description of fleeing Pompeii, which can be found in the Penguin Classics edition of his letters, is essential reading, though doubtless Mary Beard referred to it and quoted from it.

Speaking of Mary Beard: just today I finished watching her four-part documentary on "Rome: Empire Without Limit", and am considering pushing her book SPQR to the top of the pile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on September 19, 2016, 01:36:04 AM
Simon,

Yes re the younger Pliny, I have read what he wrote and Beard does mention it. The SPQR is well worth reading. She is very good at clearing the rubble of legend, then examining why that legend became important. I enjoyed the book, though she does repeat one or two points, a small issue when there is such a lot of absorbable scholarship. And although her TV programmes can concentrate a bit on the salacious, her books treat the readers as adults rather than teens who need to be kept amused. The nature of TV up to a point.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on September 19, 2016, 01:55:06 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on September 14, 2016, 12:50:44 AM
Anthony Powell
..... with the first chapter is concerned, or I have simply entered the Acceptance World myself, and come to terms with Powell's style of endless hedging, double negatives, and subordinate clauses and endless asides. How this was ever considered good writing is entirely lost on me. I'm with V.S.Naipaul on this. Got them, because Wodehouse wrote enthusiastically about these books to Powell himself... but either he was being nice or he liked the sentimental all-English aspect that flooded him with fond memories from the world that Wodehouse had left behind. Endlessly, characters are yanked back into the narrative that really have no place being there [constant discussion how a third party would have commented upon the things currently happening], there's that typically odd mix of total memory, down to the last phrase and casual "I don't know if she said anything else that night; at least I don't remember anything being said" dismissal. But the fact that he can't just write a simple sentence is absolutely unnerving me. Here's a fine example:

"In spite of the apparently irresistible nature of the circumstances, when regarded through the larger perspectives that seemed, on reflection, to prevail - that is to say of a general subordination to an intricate design of cause and effect - I could not help admitting, in due course, the awareness of a sense of inadequacy. There was no specific suggestion that anything had, as it might be said, 'gone wrong'; it was merely that any wish to remain any longer present in those surroundings had suddenly and violently decreased, if not disappeared entirely. This feeling was, in its way, a shock. Gypsy, for her part, appeared far less impressed than myself by consciousness of anything, even relatively momentuous, having occurred. In fact, after the brief interval of extreme animation, her subsequent indifference, which might almost have been called torpid, was, so it seemed to me, remarkable. This imperturbability was inclined to produce, more or less, an impression that, so far from knowing each other a great deal better, we had progressed scarcely at all in that direction; even, perhaps, become more than ever, even irretrievably, alienated. Barbara's recurrent injunction to avoid any question of 'getting sentimental' seemed, here in the embodiment of Gypsy, now carried to lengths which might legitimately be looked upon as such a principle's logical conclusion." ("A Buyer's Market")

So there you have it: "extreme animation", reflected upon somberly, while dragging secondary characters back into the contemplation of the state as such, is the extent to which Powell, hiding the act, if an act you can call it, in sub-clauses and draping it with not entirely irrelevant double negatives, goes into the explicit description of carnal lust and passion.

But I'll get all the way through, now that I've started.

Well congratulations Jens. When I was about 20 I waded through the first volume and was horrified by the clotted locutions. I imagine there is a certain aesthetic that finds this mode of writing to be clever,clever. But I could not stand the Russian doll-like style which makes plain things complicated.

It did not help that, assuming the writer liked Poussin, he got me off to a bad start; as I can't stand his wet, romanticised, muscleless paintings. I eventually watched the TV adaptationand enjoyed it a good deal. As to the books, even a long life is too short.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 19, 2016, 09:24:38 AM
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on September 18, 2016, 05:21:08 AM
Finally getting around to Moby Dick, appreciate it better now than when I was in high school.

That was one of the books which I didn't bother reading (for the most part) when my class was covering it.

Later, I picked up the Norton Critical Edition at the UVa bookstore, and I couldn't put it down.  I just love that book inordinately.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 19, 2016, 09:52:41 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Grxrz3E5L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on September 19, 2016, 10:08:49 AM
Brian, Are you going to enlighten us? Without copying across any of the illustrations of course.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 19, 2016, 11:03:08 AM
Quote from: knight66 on September 19, 2016, 10:08:49 AM
Brian, Are you going to enlighten us? Without copying across any of the illustrations of course.

Mike
The book seeks to establish a consensus definition for assholes, so we can judge peoples' behavior and decide whether or not they qualify. It then goes into follow-up questions: why are most assholes men? What, if anything, can be done to reduce asshole behavior? How should we properly deal with assholes in everyday life?

Chapter 2, which I'm about to start on, looks promising: it's called "Naming Names" and includes dozens of real-life examples! Of people, not anatomy.

The book was published in 2012 and, interestingly, suggests that Donald Trump is a textbook case - unless (the author says) he is actually an "assclown", which is a different type entirely.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on September 19, 2016, 11:08:07 AM
Brian,

Perhaps when you finish with it, we could circulate it round the Mods.....just to self-check our own behavious of course.

Interesting that Trump gets a dishonourable mention.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 19, 2016, 11:24:37 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 19, 2016, 11:03:08 AM
The book seeks to establish a consensus definition for assholes, so we can judge peoples' behavior and decide whether or not they qualify. It then goes into follow-up questions: why are most assholes men? What, if anything, can be done to reduce asshole behavior? How should we properly deal with assholes in everyday life?

Chapter 2, which I'm about to start on, looks promising: it's called "Naming Names" and includes dozens of real-life examples! Of people, not anatomy.

The book was published in 2012 and, interestingly, suggests that Donald Trump is a textbook case - unless (the author says) he is actually an "assclown", which is a different type entirely.
Sounds recursive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 19, 2016, 11:42:42 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 19, 2016, 11:24:37 AM
Sounds recursive.
Well, I'll tell you the definition he suggests. (He, I should note, is a philosophy professor.)

"In interpersonal or cooperative relations, the asshole: (1) allows himself to enjoy special advantages and does so systematically; (2) does this out of an entrenched sense of entitlement; and (3) is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people.

"So, for example, the asshole is the person who habitually cuts in line. Or who frequently interrupts in a conversation. Or who weaves in and out of lanes of traffic. Or who persistently emphasizes another person's faults. Or who is extremely sensitive to perceived slights while being oblivious to his crassness with others*. An insensitive person - a mere "jerk" - might allow himself to so enjoy such "special advantages" in such interpersonal relationships. What distinguishes the asshole is the way he acts, the reasons that motivate him to act in an abusive and arrogant way. The asshole acts out of a firm sense that he is special, that the normal rules of conduct do not apply to him. He may not deliberately exploit interpersonal relations but simply remains willfully oblivious to normal expectations. Because the asshole sets himself apart from others, he feels entirely comfortable flouting accepted social conventions, almost as a way of life. Most important, he lives this way more or less out in the open. He stands unmoved when people indignantly glare or complain....Indeed, he will often himself feel indignant when questions about his conduct are raised."

*not unheard of on GMG, this
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 19, 2016, 11:51:26 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 19, 2016, 11:42:42 AM
Well, I'll tell you the definition he suggests. (He, I should note, is a philosophy professor.)

"In interpersonal or cooperative relations, the asshole: (1) allows himself to enjoy special advantages and does so systematically; (2) does this out of an entrenched sense of entitlement; and (3) is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people.


Interesting. 2 and 3 seem to overlap. But on to "recursive":
1. Calls people who cannot respond assholes by name in print. CHECK.
2. Does so under the rubric of a "public intellectual" credentialed by a PhD. CHECK.
3. No direct evidence just from what you quoted but I'd bet the house on this, as it flows naturally from the conditions I cite in 2. PROBABLY CHECK.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 19, 2016, 12:33:50 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 19, 2016, 11:51:26 AM
Interesting. 2 and 3 seem to overlap. But on to "recursive":
1. Calls people who cannot respond assholes by name in print. CHECK.
2. Does so under the rubric of a "public intellectual" credentialed by a PhD. CHECK.
3. No direct evidence just from what you quoted but I'd bet the house on this, as it flows naturally from the conditions I cite in 2. PROBABLY CHECK.
Aha! I see what you mean. Apparently this, too, is discussed later on in the book. There is a praise quote on the back cover saying that the author confronts the issue of how big of an asshole he is, himself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on September 19, 2016, 03:01:00 PM
Quote from: knight66 on September 19, 2016, 01:55:06 AM
Well congratulations Jens. When I was about 20 I waded through the first volume and was horrified by the clotted locutions. I imagine there is a certain aesthetic that finds this mode of writing to be clever,clever. But I could not stand the Russian doll-like style which makes plain things complicated.

It did not help that, assuming the writer liked Poussin, he got me off to a bad start; as I can't stand his wet, romanticised, muscleless paintings. I eventually watched the TV adaptationand enjoyed it a good deal. As to the books, even a long life is too short.

Mike

I'm just so glad I'm not the only one to think that this is NOT good writing. There are other things, too, that are a bit annoying. The overt and ostentatious name-dropping of paintings ("the banana peel on the pavement, forlorn, or rather: lost to its own account of existence, if you can call it that, as it were, struck me immediately as representing the discarded hulls of fruit in Plátanombre della Oxordista's La Fruitage de Amor Pintura, for its grays and, seagull-like spots of yellow and white notwithstanding, dark tan stripes...")
...and a few other things. That said, I find that "An Acceptance World" is much less tedious than "A Buyer's Market", style-wise!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on September 19, 2016, 03:34:36 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on September 19, 2016, 03:01:00 PM
I'm just so glad I'm not the only one to think that this is NOT good writing. There are other things, too, that are a bit annoying. The overt and ostentatious name-dropping of paintings ("the banana peel on the pavement, forlorn, or rather: lost to its own account of existence, if you can call it that, as it were, struck me immediately as representing the discarded hulls of fruit in Plátanombre della Oxordista's La Fruitage de Amor Pintura, for its grays and, seagull-like spots of yellow and white notwithstanding, dark tan stripes...")
...and a few other things. That said, I find that "An Acceptance World" is much less tedious than "A Buyer's Market", style-wise!

That paragraph you cited is terrible. This is just a personal thing, but I get highly annoyed by a blizzard of commas, creating sentences that are inordinately tedious to read. A writer I know -- who is generally excellent at his craft -- now and then drops positively Brucknerian sentences, with too many clauses balancing precariously on exquisite use of commas, semicolons, and the occasional dash. He sometimes makes it work, but the effect is far too delicate to be appreciated by most readers.

My feeling: if you have to read a paragraph more than once to grasp it, that's once too many.

(That said, your descriptions of the Powell are somewhat tempting.)

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 19, 2016, 10:39:43 PM
There is nothing wrong with long sentences per se. As almost everything in art it mainly depends if one can pull it off. There are great authors who use long sentences for a kind of breathless intensity (in German one of the most famous examples is the early romantic Heinrich von Kleist). Or for elaborate detailed descriptions (e.g. Thomas Mann although I think he is overdoing it sometimes).
But the example from Powell is indeed horrible, not only or mainly because of the sheer length.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on September 19, 2016, 11:03:03 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 19, 2016, 09:24:38 AM
That was one of the books which I didn't bother reading (for the most part) when my class was covering it.
Later, I picked up the Norton Critical Edition at the UVa bookstore, and I couldn't put it down.  I just love that book inordinately.

There is something Dickensian in the approach - psychological depth, sophisticated literary constructions and sense of humor, too. Or maybe they are general features of mid-19th century English literature.

I think Melville tried to convey in words (a partial reason for the extra padding of esoteric information about whales), the vastness of the sea and the monumental creatures that inhabit it. Something similar to Sibelius in depicting expanses of Arctic tundra in musical notes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on September 19, 2016, 11:17:54 PM
Bruce, I think you are fevered after all these loooong films you have been watching. If you want a multi volume saga set in the past, then try John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga. Not so much read now, but he did win the Nobel Literature Prize. It starts in Victorian times and: how many authors in 1906 would start their book with the most buttoned up of characters ruminating while he sits on the toilet?

I know that I am certainly guilty of writing overlong sentences. Also of overusing punctuation, especially the Oxford comma and this....

I now usually go back over what I write and divide the sentences down. I still let flurries of typos through.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 20, 2016, 12:14:29 AM
Quote from: knight66 on September 19, 2016, 11:17:54 PM
...
I know that I am certainly guilty of writing overlong sentences. Also of overusing punctuation, especially the Oxford comma and this....

I now usually go back over what I write and divide the sentences down. I still let flurries of typos through.

Mike
Ah, the Oxford comma! The horror, the horror...  :D

I still recall my teachers (and even my dad) insisting on a sort of rule of thumb: "sentences in English should be much shorter than in Spanish". I still regard the English language as one that benefits form short, terse sentences, while writers in French, German, Italian or Spanish can get away with much longer constructions, studded with suordinate sentences and the whole lot.

And then there's the problem of pargarpohs. I think Adorno, for instance, really went too far in this respect

And yes, that paragrapph by Powell is really something. I read the first tome, and stopped there. Why read an English imitation of Proust, when you can have the real thing?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on September 20, 2016, 12:33:41 AM
Quote from: ritter on September 20, 2016, 12:14:29 AM
I still recall my teachers (and even my dad) insisting on a sort of rule of thumb: "sentences in English should be much shorter than in Spanish". I still regard the English language as one that benefits form short, terse sentences, while writers in French, German, Italian or Spanish can get away with much longer constructions, studded with subordinate sentences and the whole lot.

I don't think that in English it is a matter of length of sentences but using too many loaded words that gets tiresome. Maybe in scientific writing in which the readers are expected to know the meanings it is not such a problem. In a sentence where there are short, terse words, a compound one stands out and can have a nice effect. Mixing too many descriptive words is a mistake.
When I proofread my own writing, I try to get rid of clauses where participles can do the job just as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jlaurson on September 20, 2016, 12:46:30 AM
Quote from: ritter on September 20, 2016, 12:14:29 AM
Ah, the Oxford comma! The horror, the horror...  :D

I still recall my teachers (and even my dad) insisting on a sort of rule of thumb: "sentences in English should be much shorter than in Spanish". I still regard the English language as one that benefits form short, terse sentences, while writers in French, German, Italian or Spanish can get away with much longer constructions, studded with suordinate sentences and the whole lot.

And then there's the problem of pargarpohs. I think Adorno, for instance, really went too far in this respect

And yes, that paragrapph by Powell is really something. I read the first tome, and stopped there. Why read an English imitation of Proust, when you can have the real thing?  ;D

I'll read the Mahler book(s) of Adorno, yet, but he's a terrible writer for all that I am concerned, along there with a whole slew of German philosophers who knew how to hide behind tedious language to aggrandize their thoughts, whether they were mediocre or not. No one questioned them, because by the time you got to the heart of the meaning in the center of a labyrinthian sentence, you no longer had the power to question the veracity of it. Hegel, Heidegger... all deliberately bad writing. Kant bad, but not deliberate, I would think. Good writers among German philosophers are all the more rare for the language lending itself to length, but they exist -- most prominently Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, both geniuses at how to use the language.

Not Powell is cranking up the esoteric, to which I am particularly allergic. He really is making it effin' difficult for me to continue with the series. But I have the books, so plow-on I must.

Quote from: zamyrabyrd on September 20, 2016, 12:33:41 AM
I don't think that in English it is a matter of length of sentences but using too many loaded words that gets tiresome. Maybe in scientific writing in which the readers are expected to know the meanings it is not such a problem. In a sentence where there are short, terse words, a compound one stands out and can have a nice effect. Mixing too many descriptive words is a mistake.
When I proofread my own writing, I try to get rid of clauses where participles can do the job just as well.

A beautiful English sentence, however long or short, comes into being when one word necessarily leads to the next; when one sentence necessarily leads to the next. And, as Bruce points out, if any sentence needs to be read only once and, further, only *feels* like it needed to be read once... as there are some sentences we don't actually re-read but, half-way into the next sentence, wonder if we might not better have read them again. Those are also rubbish.

The reason why I cannot credit Wodehouse to have been genuine when he wrote flatteringly to Powell, is that Wodehouse knew better than perhaps anyone how to make one sentence or phrase follow the next. His writing is almost an antithesis to Powell's.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 20, 2016, 08:27:18 AM
Quote from: ritter on September 20, 2016, 12:14:29 AM

I still recall my teachers (and even my dad) insisting on a sort of rule of thumb: "sentences in English should be much shorter than in Spanish". I still regard the English language as one that benefits form short, terse sentences, while writers in French, German, Italian or Spanish can get away with much longer constructions, studded with suordinate sentences and the whole lot.



I think that I recall reading that Hemingway was a ferocious editor of his own work and operated on the basis that if a word did not add value then leave it out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 20, 2016, 08:30:41 AM
Well, I have just finished If I Ever Get Back to Georgia, I'm Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground by Lewis Grizzard (does not rhyme with blizzard).  A nice courtroom scene near the end, too.  With that title, the anticipation ran throughout the book as to just where outside of The Peachtree State he was a-goin' to wind up.  And now I've found out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 20, 2016, 08:44:03 AM
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on September 18, 2016, 05:21:08 AM
Finally getting around to Moby Dick, appreciate it better now than when I was in high school.

I am coincidentally reading it, too. Heavy reading at times, certainly, but it has its merits. My favorite chapter so far is the chapter 41, which describes how Ahab lost his leg and became mad. Very convincing psychological description going on there. I find it remarkable how ahead of his time Melville seemed to be when concerning african americans, native americans etc. Certainly there is a bit of exaggerated stereotyping concerning Tashtego, Daggoo and Queequeg but they are all described as sympathetic characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on September 20, 2016, 08:57:15 AM
Quote from: Alberich on September 20, 2016, 08:44:03 AM
I am coincidentally reading it, too. Heavy reading at times, certainly, but it has its merits. My favorite chapter so far is the chapter 41, which describes how Ahab lost his leg and became mad. Very convincing psychological description going on there. I find it remarkable how ahead of his time Melville seemed to be when concerning african americans, native americans etc. Certainly there is a bit of exaggerated stereotyping concerning Tashtego, Daggoo and Queequeg but they are all described as sympathetic characters.

Oh great, I am on Chapter 61, won't give you any spoilers though. I bought the book on the cheap a couple years ago and it meanwhile retreated to the back of my double shelved library. I was desperate for something to read recently and found it by chance. Happy surprise!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 20, 2016, 09:58:20 AM
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on September 20, 2016, 08:57:15 AM
Oh great, I am on Chapter 61, won't give you any spoilers though. I bought the book on the cheap a couple years ago and it meanwhile retreated to the back of my double shelved library. I was desperate for something to read recently and found it by chance. Happy surprise!

(Again:) Excellent!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: knight66 on September 20, 2016, 10:09:24 AM
Quote from: ritter on September 20, 2016, 12:14:29 AM
Ah, the Oxford comma! The horror, the horror...  :D

And yes, that paragrapph by Powell is really something. I read the first tome, and stopped there. Why read an English imitation of Proust, when you can have the real thing?  ;D

Haha, very good, the words 'nail' and 'head' come to mind.

Mike
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 21, 2016, 06:58:52 PM
An old locked room murder mystery

[asin]1601870612[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on September 22, 2016, 12:50:21 AM
Apparently there is a Star Trek derivation of the Moby Dick saga (more than one reference):
Check out 4:59 (original "mortar" was changed to "cannon")

https://www.youtube.com/v/btxMWZeO88Y

"He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on September 22, 2016, 11:33:38 PM
Does anyone remember the "Moby Grape" jokes back then?

Q: "What's purple and huge and swims in the ocean?"
A: "Moby Grape."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on September 24, 2016, 05:14:45 AM
Show and tell for Moby Dick, was ignominiously nailed to the mast...

(http://www.goldbergcoins.net/catalogarchive/20020604/images/s_502415n2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on September 24, 2016, 08:41:34 PM
Just finished The Crystal Palace by Amitav Ghosh. It is a historical novel that begins with the removal and exile of the last king of Burma and follows the lives of various members of his household down to the late 20th century. The protagonists in the later part of the tale are not members of the royal family, but descendants of the queens servant and the wife of the Indian official put in charge of the exiled king. Interesting themes are treated, including the role of India troops in the British imperial army during colonial times and up to WWII. A very interesting and rewarding book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on September 25, 2016, 12:49:48 AM
Crazy Cock (Miller, Henry)

[asin]0802132936[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 25, 2016, 01:41:59 AM
I have about 100 pages to go in N. Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon". This author had been recommended to me several times and I finally got around to read first "Snow Crash" a few weeks ago and then what is probably his most famous book. Snow Crash was a wild ride and a fairly quick read and quite entertaining, despite a somewhat weaker ending. It must have been amazingly impressive in the early 90s when the internet and virtual reality were still in the future.

Cryptonomicon is about 2.5 times the length (about 900p in my pbck edition) and a little too ambitious for its own good, I think. It takes almost a 3rd of the book to pick up a decent pace but then it gets quite good although I find the "dotcom" part of the action (contemporary with its publication in 1999) not as interesting and even slower than the WW II part.

(I also wonder it Stephenson found it necessary to invent German words to make the Nazis even more obtuse or if he/the publisher were simply too lazy to check the German words for errors (most of them are slight but obvious for a competent speaker/reader). This seems amazingly widespread (both the "Fringe" TV series as well as a book or two by Ben Aaronson are even worse in this regard), considering that German is not an exotic language and it should be easy to find someone to check such stuff)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 25, 2016, 02:40:59 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41CMI3TCWfL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on September 26, 2016, 12:25:01 PM
Just finished this book:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q5NTAH1FL._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Do music critics influence taste?  Mark Grant says...maybe?  Sometimes?  He doesn't provide any definitive answer to the questions he asks, which may be just as well, but a range of personalities are found within this lively and very readable history of American criticism, from those who loved everything new they came across to the most bitter of reactionaries (I hadn't known, or had forgotten, that Henry Pleasants lived long enough to see the thesis of his anti-modernist screed completely disproven).  Olin Downes' fawning letters to Sibelius are excerpted, as are the usual panoply of derogatory bon mots which some critics loved to traffic in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 27, 2016, 03:17:31 AM
(http://static.elefant.ro/images/73/249773/memoriile-unui-antisemit_1_fullsize.jpg?w=56&h=56&crop)

Gregor von Rezzori - Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

A splendid page turner, full of humanity, humor, tenderness and nostalgia. Highly recommended.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on October 01, 2016, 10:17:58 AM
(https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1388225584l/2054.jpg)

and

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51XpZWz02ZL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 02, 2016, 04:58:16 AM
I recently bought Warren Darcy's study of Rheingold. Can't wait to dive in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 02, 2016, 05:45:19 AM
(http://www.eastridingbooks.co.uk/shop_image/product/7822.jpg)


....because I know virtually nothing of Holst or his music [other than the obvious].
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 08, 2016, 05:55:31 PM
On Bogey's recommendation Make Me, a Jack Reacher novel, by Lee Child.

Straightforward easy reading fun, which I appreciate after the last 2 weeks solid craziness at work.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Eli on October 09, 2016, 09:14:14 PM
Crazy book
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 10, 2016, 04:36:23 AM
The Garden of Eden: Ernest Hemingway.

[asin]0684804522[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harvey_20 on October 10, 2016, 04:37:46 AM
The new Harry Potter :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 10, 2016, 04:56:27 PM
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, by G.B. Edwards

Wow - loved this novel. Part of a genre I have fallen in love with this year, of novels spanning the entire lifespan of an ordinary person and their ordinary emotional ups and downs, made extraordinary by poetic narrative and empathetic author. Stoner by John Williams was another great one. Hoping the Ferrante series might be of similar quality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on October 11, 2016, 01:59:20 AM
Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow

Re-reading this one. A welcome relief to be back with my favourite author after enduring my first (and last) Tom Wolfe phonebook.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: arpeggio on October 11, 2016, 08:25:41 AM
The Southern Reach Trilogy of Jess Vandermeer.  Kind of a hybrid fantasy scifi novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 12, 2016, 02:05:24 AM
Going through the trilogy - Plexus by Henry Miller.

[asin]0141399120[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on October 12, 2016, 09:16:10 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 10, 2016, 04:56:27 PM
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, by G.B. Edwards

Wow - loved this novel. Part of a genre I have fallen in love with this year, of novels spanning the entire lifespan of an ordinary person and their ordinary emotional ups and downs, made extraordinary by poetic narrative and empathetic author. Stoner by John Williams was another great one. Hoping the Ferrante series might be of similar quality.

Sounds too interesting to pass up, have obtained the Kindle edition.  The last two books on my list have been historical novels describing horribly violent phases of human history. I'm hoping to find something gentler on frayed nerves.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on October 14, 2016, 04:05:44 AM
(https://s21.postimg.org/ir44clchz/456205982273956c3294577b0a.jpg)

Iliad for the first time since high school, and I'm immensely enjoying it, far more than back then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 14, 2016, 06:16:12 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on October 12, 2016, 09:16:10 AM
Sounds too interesting to pass up, have obtained the Kindle edition.  The last two books on my list have been historical novels describing horribly violent phases of human history. I'm hoping to find something gentler on frayed nerves.
Well, I should warn you, there is a Nazi occupation in there, and there are some truly heartbreaking moments, but nothing that's outright disturbing or super-violent or that kind of thing. It achieves a specific kind of beauty.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on October 14, 2016, 10:09:46 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 14, 2016, 06:16:12 AM
Well, I should warn you, there is a Nazi occupation in there, and there are some truly heartbreaking moments, but nothing that's outright disturbing or super-violent or that kind of thing. It achieves a specific kind of beauty.

That's fine. My current book, Paradise Alley, deals with the New York draft riots of 1863. The civil war battle scenes in the book are a relief, by contrast.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on October 14, 2016, 01:18:34 PM
This may be a bit off topic, but to those who read ebooks may be interested in subscribing to bookbub. It is a service which sends you a daily email with a list of ebook bargains, typically 2 or 3 per day. You can put in favorite categories (literary fiction, historical fiction, etc) and you can also select authors you are interested in. Typically they notify you of books which have been discounted from more than $10 to $1.99 or $2.99.  The discounts are usually available on both Amazon.com and Apple iBook, I'm not sure if these discounts are specific to the U.S. market or if they are available globally.

Most days I'm not interested in the books they bring to my attention, but I have gotten a fair number of books by my favorite authors, or which sounded just intriguing, for a steep discount.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 14, 2016, 11:42:47 PM
Taking a break from Henry Miller.

Doting by Henry Green -

(https://i.sli.mg/kxTtaj.jpg)

"Satirizing the tedium of upper-middle-class life in post-war London, this novel depicts a world in which substance is far less important to anyone than appearance. The question asked throughout the text concerns the differences between doting and loving."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 14, 2016, 11:53:19 PM
(https://www.penguin.co.uk/content/dam/catalogue/pim/editions/29/9781910701874/cover.jpg.rendition.460.707.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 15, 2016, 11:49:39 PM
Love by Stendhal -

[asin]014044307X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Turbot nouveaux on October 17, 2016, 07:00:23 AM
Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)

This is my second attempt to read this quite experimental novel - in preparation I have read "The Voyage Out" and "Jacob's Room". My bookmark, a train ticket from 1994 marks my previous voyage like an abandoned base camp.

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/03/ce/ff/03ceff65a62c28f5d5d7fe0e0f46c071.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on October 17, 2016, 07:11:43 PM
Quote from: Turbot nouveaux on October 17, 2016, 07:00:23 AM
Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)

This is my second attempt to read this quite experimental novel - in preparation I have read "The Voyage Out" and "Jacob's Room". My bookmark, a train ticket from 1994 marks my previous voyage like an abandoned base camp.

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/03/ce/ff/03ceff65a62c28f5d5d7fe0e0f46c071.jpg)

For what it's worth I read it twice in succession and found it far more satisfactory the second time through. The first reading gave me the structure to organize the interlocking series of episodes that make up the novel. In the end I found it very moving.

There is other Woolf that is a lot more experimental, in my opinion. I found Orlando utterly unreadable, although some regard it highly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on October 17, 2016, 07:32:22 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LDseR1BoL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A book about the draft riots that took place in New York City in 1863. If you want proof that things were a lot worse than they are now, this is your book. The cruelty and brutality is hard to fathom, with mobs racing through the streets, dragging black people from their homes, torturing them and hanging them from lamp posts to die. Not an easy book to read but worth the effort, I believe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 17, 2016, 10:00:34 PM
Nexus by Henry Miller.

[asin]0141399104[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Androcles on October 18, 2016, 12:26:00 PM
John Calvin: The Institutes of the Christian Religion.

He was not a big fan of music, unfortunately for large swathes of Northern Europe and later, North America. Luther was the music dude.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 24, 2016, 10:39:07 AM
Roger Ebert on Crimes and Misdemeanors (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-crimes-and-misdemeanors-1989)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 25, 2016, 08:48:54 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41otlTVPYDL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on October 26, 2016, 05:18:51 PM
Just finished this book:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51EgyLHpx9L._SX370_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Filled with information about the genesis of many of these works, Zaslaw digs into the questions of provenance and occasionally disagrees with the editors of the latest edition of Mozart's works.  His discussions of period practice and of the shift in the purpose of symphonies that began in the middle of Mozart's career are thorough and fascinating.  Although the book is not especially heavy on analysis, and what analysis there is leans more towards the less well-known early works, it remains a valuable study.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 28, 2016, 03:41:01 AM
Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos.

[asin]0140449574[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 28, 2016, 11:57:18 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jsNKGzK9L._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

My second Arnaldur book. Deceptively simple writing. Nothing fancy in terms of structure (it's a mystery novel). Just the dogged, clue by clue, slow step by slow step inquest of police inspector Erlendur Sveinsson.

I had to look up wiki to find out Erlendur's last name (it is never mentioned in the books). Iceland telephone book pages are organized by first names... ???

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on October 31, 2016, 06:30:53 AM
Just finished "Hood" by Emma Donogue. Although Donogue is now considered a period novel specialist, this book is a contemporary story in the genre of "lesbian fiction." It is actually a story of human relationship which seems rather universal in its themes, with social complications that come into play in a same-sex relationship. The outline of the story is that the Penelope's long-term life partner is killed in a traffic accident and Penelope must cope with the loss, a society that she is not allowed to reveal the relationship to, and the local same-sex community which seems to want to take possession of the memory of her deceased partner. There was only one part of the book where I found there was too much information about same-sex sexual practices, but that's just me. A fine book, I'd say.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 31, 2016, 08:49:54 AM
Having read about 2/3 of the Wanderjahre, I decided to also return once again to Faust. I seem to prefer latter parts in Goethe's work, what I've read so far about Wanderjahre appeals to me more than some things in Lehrjahre and Faust part two I've always preferred to first one, especially the development of Mephistofeles's character. Yet, from what I've read, it took a long time for Wanderjahre and Faust part two to receive the same admiration their predecessors instantly got. Guess I'm not always as conventional as I usually am. :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 02, 2016, 10:05:05 AM
I finished The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which won this year's Man Booker Prize. It was good satire, like contemporary take on Vonnegut.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 02, 2016, 12:43:21 PM
Quote from: Artem on November 02, 2016, 10:05:05 AM
I finished The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which won this year's Man Booker Prize. It was good satire, like contemporary take on Vonnegut.
Thoroughly enjoyed this, too. The donut intellectual society, the fruits of his farming, the bus party sequence - memorable stuff. And unusually funny while being dead serious.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on November 02, 2016, 01:47:56 PM
Quote from: Artem on November 02, 2016, 10:05:05 AM
I finished The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which won this year's Man Booker Prize. It was good satire, like contemporary take on Vonnegut.

On my list. Now I regret that I have the paper copy rather than the Kindle edition, since it will make it harder to fit it into my daily routine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 03, 2016, 04:24:01 AM
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.

[asin]0241259746[/asin]

A book that I always meant to read but never got around to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 05, 2016, 03:33:46 PM
(http://thumbs1.picclick.com/d/w1600/pict/142104691252_/DEFEAT-IN-THE-EAST-bu-Juergen-THorwald.jpg)

These WWII books from Ballantine can sometimes be problematic in their thoroughness of an event as they are written from one perspective.  However, they never fail in adding another layer of insight but one has to be wary of the misinformation and omitted events.  This one was pretty difficult to keep reading as there are some accounts that are brutally graphic in nature that I sometimes had to take a break and then come back to the reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 05, 2016, 05:59:06 PM
(http://pictures.abebooks.com/LWCURREY/md/md1350958113.jpg) 

Burnett is always a go to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 07, 2016, 09:52:14 AM
Mr Norris Changes Trains/Goodbye To Berlin - Christopher Isherwood.

[asin]0749397020[/asin]

Two more books that I've been wanting to read for a long time but only getting around to now.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 07, 2016, 10:05:11 AM
Quote from: NikF on November 07, 2016, 09:52:14 AM
Mr Norris Changes Trains/Goodbye To Berlin - Christopher Isherwood.

[asin]0749397020[/asin]

Two more books that I've been wanting to read for a long time but only getting around to now.
Ha! Talk about appropriate for you. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048188/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048188/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 07, 2016, 10:33:19 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 07, 2016, 10:05:11 AM
Ha! Talk about appropriate for you. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048188/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048188/)

Yeah, it is. Although I haven't seen it, I've only seen Cabaret.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 07, 2016, 01:04:11 PM
A chat with the 2016 Giller Finalist author of Yiddish for Pirates. (http://49thshelf.com/Blog/2016/11/072/The-Chat-With-2016-Giller-Finalist-Gary-Barwin)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 15, 2016, 03:05:09 PM

The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazán.


[asin]0141392959[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on November 17, 2016, 03:03:37 AM
Well, this looks interesting!!!

https://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-Music-Conversations-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0385354347
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 17, 2016, 05:56:05 AM
Not for the squeamish (all verbal content): A real-life horror story.

Man who dissolved in boiling Yellowstone hot spring slipped while checking temperature to take bath (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/17/man-who-dissolved-in-boiling-yellowstone-hot-spring-slipped-while-checking-temperature-to-take-bath/?hpid=hp_hp-morning-mix_mm-yellowstone%3Ahomepage%2Fstory)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 17, 2016, 09:07:54 PM

The Opposing Shore by Julien Gracq.


[asin]1846559294[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on November 18, 2016, 08:06:06 AM
The reading of Faust part two being well on it's way I also have started to reread Little Dorrit, but this time in charming 1920s Finnish translation instead of English which I did previous times.

I didn't quite finish Moby Dick yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 18, 2016, 08:52:06 AM
Quote from: NikF on November 17, 2016, 09:07:54 PM
The Opposing Shore by Julien Gracq.
Gracq is a very interesting writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 18, 2016, 10:04:10 PM
Quote from: Artem on November 18, 2016, 08:52:06 AM
Gracq is a very interesting writer.


You have a favourite work of his? I've only read 'Balcony in the Forest' before this and I found it had a potent and almost dreamlike quality that has stayed with me since. And I've also a copy of 'Château d'Argol' which I've never got around to reading yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 20, 2016, 07:47:02 AM
More classic "pulp" crime:

(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/50/79/c3/5079c3979ccf62568226c509f8653d0e.jpg)

Had to grab the original print as the cover was from Mitchell Hooks, a favorite cover artist of mine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on November 20, 2016, 09:43:47 AM
(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348679759l/922402.jpg)

The biography part is not all that interesting after the glimpses of Boulez's early life and development, after which it becomes an endless succession of "then he did this, conducted this ensemble, and wrote this piece, etc. etc."  The author obviously reveres his subject, though this doesn't stop him from the occasional criticism of Boulez's character (sometimes authoritarian) or his pronouncements (sometimes too sweeping).  The analyses at the back of the book, however, while not especially in-depth on a technical level, serve well to orient the listener towards Boulez's often elusive music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 20, 2016, 10:27:27 AM
Quote from: Mahlerian on November 20, 2016, 09:43:47 AM
(http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348679759l/922402.jpg)

The biography part is not all that interesting after the glimpses of Boulez's early life and development, after which it becomes an endless succession of "then he did this, conducted this ensemble, and wrote this piece, etc. etc."  The author obviously reveres his subject, though this doesn't stop him from the occasional criticism of Boulez's character (sometimes authoritarian) or his pronouncements (sometimes too sweeping).  The analyses at the back of the book, however, while not especially in-depth on a technical level, serve well to orient the listener towards Boulez's often elusive music.
The book has the merit of being (as the Harvard University Pree blurb says) the first "thorough" biography of Boulez, but it originally appeared in French in the mid-80s, so the last 30+ years of the composer's life (and work) are not covered. It also is vastly superior to the gossipy book by Joan Peyser, and compared to, for instance, the--much earlier-- book by Antoine Goléa, it's almost exemplary in its impartiality  ;). Most of the later literature on Boulez is mainly in the form of books of conversations with him, or technical analyses of his compositions (the latter not being really suitable for the wider public--in which I include myself).

I suppose a really complete (and detached) biography is still outstanding, but is bound to appear sometime in the future (as the subject matter--the man and his art--is fasciniating IMHO).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on November 20, 2016, 11:45:21 AM
Quote from: ritter on November 20, 2016, 10:27:27 AM
The book has the merit of being (as the Harvard University Pree blurb says) the first "thorough" biography of Boulez, but it originally appeared in French in the mid-80s, so the last 30+ years of the composer's life (and work) are not covered. It also is vastly superior to the gossipy book by Joan Peyser, and compared to, for instance, the--much earlier-- book by Antoine Goléa, it's almost exemplary in its impartiality  ;). Most of the later literature on Boulez is mainly in the form of books of conversations with him, or technical analyses of his compositions (the latter not being really suitable for the wider public--in which I include myself).

I suppose a really complete (and detached) biography is still outstanding, but is bound to appear sometime in the future (as the subject matter--the man and his art--is fasciniating IMHO).

I have access to Peyser's book, but everything I knew about it led me to avoid it.  As someone who can understand extremely technical analyses of serial compositions, I can say that they usually aren't all that enlightening, as they more often focus on minutiae than on the actual functioning of those details within a larger context.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 21, 2016, 04:07:19 AM
I once owned (and read at least part of) the Peyser . . . I do not much remember what I did read . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 21, 2016, 07:28:01 AM

The Lover by Marguerite Duras.


(https://i.sli.mg/pyuo8a.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 21, 2016, 11:34:03 AM
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1271255414l/8040094.jpg)

Another from Donald Westlake.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on November 21, 2016, 11:58:15 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on November 21, 2016, 11:51:09 AM
Wow, that looks great.

A bit slow to start, but then it grinds into pulpy crime squalor with no sap running from the pages.  Only 120 plus pages for this one, but I am looking into Rabe's next book in his Daniel Port series.  You can get the first three (including this one) here for $0.79 plus shipping:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1429637474l/25401653.jpg)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933586656/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1933586656&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2

Donald Westlake and W. R. Burnett are right now my favorites for this genre, but I can see Rabe moving up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 23, 2016, 11:11:33 PM
Harpo Speaks!


[asin]0879100362[/asin]


Rereading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 24, 2016, 08:12:35 AM
Just began to read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho....


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MeC94AxIL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 26, 2016, 04:35:44 AM
Letters by Marcel Proust to the duc de Valentinois (later to be Prince Pierre of Monaco), recently released by the Monaco palace, scrupulously edited by Jean-Marc Quaranta, and lovingly prefaced by Jean-Yves Tadié.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416O6URZ0PL._SX392_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on November 26, 2016, 10:48:21 PM
http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426804837l/25177983.jpg
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on November 27, 2016, 01:01:07 PM
This will make Florestan very happy:

As I will spend 3 weeks in Myanmar over christmas, I need to brush up on my Buddhism.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71eyu-cUwqL._SL1500_.jpg)

By the way, this is the best book that was ever written on the ideas behind religions, and yes, Mircea Eliade is a Romanian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 27, 2016, 01:41:23 PM
Mircea Eliade is someone I've been meaning to read for a long time, particularly his The Sacred And The Profane. Perhaps I should take this as a reminder and a nudge. Is it one of his you'd also recommend?

(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/868/118/885118868.0.l.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 27, 2016, 01:42:02 PM
Quote from: Spineur on November 27, 2016, 01:01:07 PM

By the way, this is the best book that was ever written on the ideas behind religions, and yes, Mircea Eliade is a Romanian.

How many victims did he have?
>:D ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on November 27, 2016, 05:59:28 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 27, 2016, 01:41:23 PM
Mircea Eliade is someone I've been meaning to read for a long time, particularly his The Sacred And The Profane. Perhaps I should take this as a reminder and a nudge. Is it one of his you'd also recommend?

(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/868/118/885118868.0.l.jpg)
If I recall correctly, this is a shorter more acessible book, less centered on the history of religion.  I would recommend sticking to the big book on the history of religions.  It is segmented in 3-4 pages sections each of which can be read in a short time.  Usually, one is not interested to read everything.  The  beginning of the first volume deals with the prehistoric stuff and human sacrifice.  It is useful only when you read about the Inca and Aztec.  Not for far-east or western religions.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ps8pjKQNL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 27, 2016, 09:40:21 PM
Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide.

[asin]0141185244[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost Sonata on November 28, 2016, 04:28:43 AM
Quote from: NikF on November 27, 2016, 09:40:21 PM
Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide.

[asin]0141185244[/asin]

+1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost Sonata on November 28, 2016, 04:38:49 AM
I am a big fan of the crotchety Julian Barnes.  Just began his short novel about Shosty:

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on November 28, 2016, 05:09:16 AM
Poems by Bukowski: What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire, 409 pages.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/feb2016/Bukowski%20What%20Matter%20Most.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 29, 2016, 06:55:33 AM
Just finished a history of the crusades...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51c32NYZEbL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

...now:

(http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0726/9203/products/JourneybyMoonlight_1024x1024.jpg?v=1427565830)

Antal Szerb - Journey by Moonlight
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 29, 2016, 10:01:40 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 29, 2016, 06:55:33 AM
Just finished a history of the crusades...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51c32NYZEbL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)



How, and why, is this more authoritative than Steven Runciman's?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 29, 2016, 10:32:03 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 29, 2016, 10:01:40 AM
How, and why, is this more authoritative than Steven Runciman's?  ;D
There is a difference in opinion; Runciman, I feel, portrayed the crusaders as greedy, horrible cynics, and Asbridge captures both this quality and the genuine piety & religious fervor felt by many of them. He makes an earnest effort to re-evaluate every figure, comparing his assessments with those of Runciman & other western figures, along with a consideration of the Muslim historians from c. 1200 to the present day. Another difference of opinion - Asbridge believes, against the propaganda of al-Qaeda and American right-wing Christians, that the crusades have almost no relevance to 21st century geopolitics, and that the Crusades did not create a "culture clash" of centuries-long religious hatred, for the simple reason that the Muslim world thought of the wars as a sideshow to the real wars - their internal power struggles between Ayyubids, Fatimids, Mamluks, and Mongols - and quickly forgot about what they called the "Frankish wars."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 29, 2016, 10:36:06 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 29, 2016, 10:32:03 AM
There is a difference in opinion; Runciman, I feel, portrayed the crusaders as greedy, horrible cynics, and Asbridge captures both this quality and the genuine piety & religious fervor felt by many of them. He makes an earnest effort to re-evaluate every figure, comparing his assessments with those of Runciman & other western figures, along with a consideration of the Muslim historians from c. 1200 to the present day. Another difference of opinion - Asbridge believes, against the propaganda of al-Qaeda and American right-wing Christians, that the crusades have almost no relevance to 21st century geopolitics, and that the Crusades did not create a "culture clash" of centuries-long religious hatred, for the simple reason that the Muslim world thought of the wars as a sideshow to the real wars - their internal power struggles between Ayyubids, Fatimids, Mamluks, and Mongols - and quickly forgot about what they called the "Frankish wars."
Thanks! a useful answer, sounds interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 29, 2016, 11:12:36 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 29, 2016, 10:36:06 AM
Thanks! a useful answer, sounds interesting.

Yes, + 1, thank you very much!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 29, 2016, 11:59:33 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 29, 2016, 10:32:03 AM
There is a difference in opinion; Runciman, I feel, portrayed the crusaders as greedy, horrible cynics, and Asbridge captures both this quality and the genuine piety & religious fervor felt by many of them. He makes an earnest effort to re-evaluate every figure, comparing his assessments with those of Runciman & other western figures, along with a consideration of the Muslim historians from c. 1200 to the present day. Another difference of opinion - Asbridge believes, against the propaganda of al-Qaeda and American right-wing Christians, that the crusades have almost no relevance to 21st century geopolitics, and that the Crusades did not create a "culture clash" of centuries-long religious hatred, for the simple reason that the Muslim world thought of the wars as a sideshow to the real wars - their internal power struggles between Ayyubids, Fatimids, Mamluks, and Mongols - and quickly forgot about what they called the "Frankish wars."

I have not read anything about the Crusades in a long time but I recall liking
[asin]B008SBXGCW[/asin] which bolsters the "it was a side show" theory and
[asin]1559704144[/asin] which is an attempt to get at the motivations of the crusaders, from contemporary sources.
Rodney Stark has a good, if very biased, book as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on December 01, 2016, 08:26:39 AM
Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61pQeNijzJL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A very find book, perhaps not measuring quite up to the hyper.

It is a historical novel focusing on the escape of a slave named Cora from slavery in Georgia. However, it combines historical detail with fantasy, reimagining the underground railroad as a real railroad running in tunnels underground. Cora also seems to travel in time as well as space, since after various transits on the railroad she arrives at some places that did not really exist at the time, such as a town in South Carolina with a large skyscraper which is centered around eugenics project that reminds me of various movements that existed in the early 20th century.

In any case, I'm glad I read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on December 04, 2016, 09:40:23 AM
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZiYH0ASD6snwiqApYNxPmymXZFxhpCFhHbujePQRZx0iGMC6i)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 05, 2016, 10:13:56 AM
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe.

(https://i.sli.mg/h2ek7T.jpg)

I've enjoyed the film many times. And while I don't completely identify with the protagonist, I do kind of understand where he's coming from.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 08, 2016, 05:04:40 PM
.[asin]1607066327[/asin]
crime comic
[asin]0356506932[/asin]
fantasy novel
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 09, 2016, 03:14:44 AM
The Invention Of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares.

I had started reading this and then was sidetracked and never got back to it. But nowadays I have more time.

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/9781590170571.01.L.jpg)

Also, years ago I dated a girl with long hair who left for London and returned weeks later with a Louise Brooks bob. That's neither here nor there, but she was cool as hell.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 09, 2016, 07:56:56 AM
The 10 highest-earning YouTube stars made $70.5 million in 2016 (http://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/9/13894186/highest-earning-youtube-stars-2016)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 09, 2016, 08:29:15 AM
Maybe the best book that I've read this year. Highly recommended for fans of well written artists' biographies.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51R03APGSPL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on December 09, 2016, 03:32:40 PM
Fetched off Amazon MP
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512dZSwUfcL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 10, 2016, 12:45:57 PM
Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler.

[asin]0141182245[/asin]

This was recommended to me by an art student I spent a few days with. She described it "...the most beautiful book I've ever read." So I picked a copy of it up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 10, 2016, 01:10:34 PM
Long ago I saw a movie I thought was great, Cutter's Way. I noted the book and looked for it for ages. Finally it appeared on Kindle, and I bought it.

[asin]ISBN-10: 1852426764[/asin]

This week I got around to reading it. This is a terrific novel, the best I have read this year. It is now 99 cents on Kindle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Hollywood on December 11, 2016, 12:22:52 AM
I'm reading "The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England" by Dan Jones. I love reading books written about my royal ancestors.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kutzKwN6L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 11, 2016, 06:24:26 PM
The Emperor of Paris by C.S. Richardson.

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1846271134.01.L.jpg)

This was in my unread/half read pile. Maybe I'll find it should have stayed there? Or perhaps not. But I'll give it a try anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 13, 2016, 04:21:51 AM
Starting this recently published book:

[asin]1784785687[/asin]
So far, it seems quite approchable and very entertaining.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 15, 2016, 11:39:29 AM
^Michael Dirda, a reviewer I particularly admire and trust, gave that a glowing write-up:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/grand-hotel-abyss-life-among-the-original-anti-consumerists/2016/09/27/db60f46a-84e3-11e6-a3ef-f35afb41797f_story.html?utm_term=.8633f652c0a5
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 15, 2016, 02:37:19 PM

Journey to the End of the Night by Celine.


[asin]1847492401[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on December 17, 2016, 05:48:44 PM
And your thoughts ?

Voyage was a huge scandal/success when it missed the Goncourt in 1932 (got the Renaudot Prize). Its use of french slang (argot) mixed with very classical (almost never used) verb tenses created a stir. And of course, the subject matter and its treatment were quite novel also, if possibly just a mutation of Zola's preoccupations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 17, 2016, 07:49:39 PM
Quote from: André on December 17, 2016, 05:48:44 PM
And your thoughts ?

Voyage was a huge scandal/success when it missed the Goncourt in 1932 (got the Renaudot Prize). Its use of french slang (argot) mixed with very classical (almost never used) verb tenses created a stir. And of course, the subject matter and its treatment were quite novel also, if possibly just a mutation of Zola's preoccupations.
I can't get my head around it yet. Quite often it can take a long time for me to understand what I've read.
Having said that, the intial and most immediate impact was from the misanthropy - layers and layers of it - and disenchantment with life in general, although I felt that was sometimes the result of a kind of super honesty or a lack of illusion. Also, Henry Miller came to mind quite often and I wasn't prepared for that. Finally, it's yet another book I wish I could read in the original language.

Thanks for posting your own opinion and insights. I like to know what others think about a work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 19, 2016, 09:05:49 AM
I spent 7 years working in retail. I'll never complain about a long Starbucks line again. (http://www.vox.com/2015/2/25/8103861/retail-job-description)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 19, 2016, 10:10:02 AM
Elective Affinities by Goethe.

[asin]0199555362[/asin]

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke.

[asin]0575077336[/asin]

This year when it comes to Xmas I don't want to play. So I'm going away for a few days to avoid it. These books are accompanying me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 20, 2016, 07:24:34 AM
Quote from: NikF on December 19, 2016, 10:10:02 AM
Elective Affinities by Goethe.

[asin]0199555362[/asin]

Always wanted to read that one. Maybe one day... I've read that some of the material of Elective affinities was planned to appear in Wilhelm Meister's journeyman years (which I am still reading) or vice versa.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 21, 2016, 02:44:27 AM
Quote from: Alberich on December 20, 2016, 07:24:34 AM
Always wanted to read that one. Maybe one day... I've read that some of the material of Elective affinities was planned to appear in Wilhelm Meister's journeyman years (which I am still reading) or vice versa.

Sadly, I'd never heard of the journeyman years until now. What do you think of it?

I'm certainly looking forward to reading Elective Affinities. I've also a copy of Italian Journey and I considered taking that with me, but Elective Affinities was so strongly recommended.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 21, 2016, 03:26:51 AM
Journeyman years includes dry text at times, even by Goethe's standards. Mostly I however think very highly of it. It is a sequel to more well-known Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship, so-called Bildungsromans both in which character development is essential and that's what I like. Like with Faust preferring the latter part, so far Journeyman years seems more interesting than apprenticeship, which although I liked, was a bit too dry to my taste at points. I encounter it in journeyman years and both Faust parts too. I wonder if Goethe was getting a bit senile?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 21, 2016, 12:52:41 PM
Quote from: Alberich on December 21, 2016, 03:26:51 AM
Journeyman years includes dry text at times, even by Goethe's standards. Mostly I however think very highly of it. It is a sequel to more well-known Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship, so-called Bildungsromans both in which character development is essential and that's what I like. Like with Faust preferring the latter part, so far Journeyman years seems more interesting than apprenticeship, which although I liked, was a bit too dry to my taste at points. I encounter it in journeyman years and both Faust parts too. I wonder if Goethe was getting a bit senile?
I'm not very well read at all, but you've made that sound interesting. Thanks. And I hope you are eventually able to get around to reading Elective Affinities.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 22, 2016, 05:31:20 AM
Quote from: NikF on December 21, 2016, 12:52:41 PM
I'm not very well read at all, but you've made that sound interesting. Thanks. And I hope you are eventually able to get around to reading Elective Affinities.  :)

You're welcome. Thanks likewise.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on December 22, 2016, 02:15:02 PM
Slogging through (just over halfway) The Tin Drum by Guenter Grass. I know the writing is good, but I just can't get into the story or the characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on December 23, 2016, 01:28:54 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91M9SIPCI9L.jpg)

in Serbian translation
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kontrapunctus on December 26, 2016, 06:42:20 PM
(http://www.catspawdynamics.com/images/the_man_in_the_high_castle_frontcover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 26, 2016, 06:47:09 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/414dI32ZrTL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on December 30, 2016, 09:58:16 AM
Henry and June by Anais Nin.

[asin]0141183284[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 31, 2016, 02:49:40 AM
I bought this book on Monet some months ago but I am only getting around to it now....


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/DIVERSITYBOOKS/md/md14285363299.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on December 31, 2016, 03:29:39 AM
A couple of books on Myanmar

Donovan Webster "The burma road", the epic story of China-Burma-India theater during WWII

and Joseph Kessel "The valley of rubies"

I enjoyed both books

Also got Orwell
"The burmese days"
"A hanging"

But havent read them yet
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on January 02, 2017, 09:31:47 PM
Just finished The Book of Ebenezer La Page by Gerald Edwards, which was recommended by Brian. A slow burn of a novel, which is framed as the autobiography of a fictional character who was born on the island of Guernsey in the late 19th century and who lived through the two world wars and the postwar period in which the traditional culture of the island of Guernsey was swept away by modernism and tourism. A moving book.

Next up, The Wonder by Emma Donoghue.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 03, 2017, 05:05:40 AM
I Served The King of England by Bohumil Hrabal.

[asin]0099540932[/asin]

Because I've a generally sweet disposition that's allied to the most innocent countenance, strangers are often inclined to speak to me. Some weeks ago I was sitting in a charming tearoom, quietly reading a paperback while leering at one of the waitresses out the corner of my eye. An older couple at a nearby table made a show of trying to see the cover of the book. I acknowledged them and displayed the title. This sparked a friendly chat that included the recommendation of this book.  :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 07, 2017, 02:47:39 AM
Sea Adventures by Henry de Monfreid.

(http://i.imgur.com/Kd3ZiZz.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Turbot nouveaux on January 07, 2017, 08:11:50 AM
Cat Stories
Ed. Diana Secker Tesdell

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kRdrOE0OL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Entertaining. The last story in this collection, by Steven Milhauser, a dead-pan account of a Tom and Jerry episode with asides,  had me laughing aloud.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on January 07, 2017, 09:39:11 AM
Still on the topic of comparative religions

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41UUlel-pHL._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 08, 2017, 05:14:23 AM
I recently finished Moscow-Petushki by Venedikt Yerofeyev and Shatuny by Yuri Mamleev. Both books are sort of underground Soviet classics and rather grotesque. Also finished Gargoyles that is one of the earlier Thomas Bernhard's books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on January 08, 2017, 12:09:15 PM
Plato's Symposium translated by Christopher Gill.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on January 10, 2017, 07:27:52 AM
Honoré de Balzac  - Lost Illusions (translated by Herbert J. Hunt)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on January 10, 2017, 07:56:45 AM
Just finished "Death in the Afternoon" by Ernest Hemingway, surprisingly good and so says Orson Welles:

https://www.youtube.com/v/NyTi9v9QPxE
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on January 10, 2017, 02:49:32 PM
Proust's In Search of Lost Time

[asin]B006NKL8BQ[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 10, 2017, 04:55:03 PM
Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood.

[asin]1551113678[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on January 10, 2017, 09:53:16 PM
Quote from: stingo on January 10, 2017, 02:49:32 PM
Proust's In Search of Lost Time

I still prefer a non-literal translation: "Remembrance of the Things Past"
What's "lost time" anyway? Not a very idiomatic expression.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 12, 2017, 03:34:53 PM
The Most Beautiful Woman in Town by Charles Bukowski.

[asin]0872861562[/asin]

I haven't read anything by Charles Bukowski before. I know nothing at all about his work and so I'm not sure what to  expect. But I thought I'd give it a try and bought this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on January 12, 2017, 05:52:54 PM
So, my chronological listen through the works of Stravinsky has been guided by this biography:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41DHSHB15ZL._SX338_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Walsh doesn't shy away from the thorny issues of Stravinsky's revisionist accounts of various events and opinions, any more than he avoids discussing Stravinsky's dubious attitudes towards Jews or Mussolini.  He does give a more sympathetic picture of an undoubtedly difficult man who had many personal flaws, and certainly covers the fascinating genesis of works from Le Sacre up through Apollo and beyond.  I'll definitely be reading volume 2.

(Karl might or might not remember seeing me holding this book)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 13, 2017, 10:17:34 AM
Good book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 13, 2017, 10:17:52 AM
'Exorcist' Author Dead (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/exorcist-author-william-peter-blatty-dead-89-n706621)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on January 13, 2017, 10:44:16 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 13, 2017, 10:17:52 AM
'Exorcist' Author Dead (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/exorcist-author-william-peter-blatty-dead-89-n706621)

Another example of the "Hitchcock Rule" that mediocre or even downright bad novels can be transmogrified   ???   into great movies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 13, 2017, 11:03:18 AM
8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: James on January 15, 2017, 04:50:37 AM
Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus, Vol. 1
by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko
Marvel Worldwide Incorporated, 1065 pages

In 1962, in the pages of a comic book slated for cancellation, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko gave birth to one of the most enduring icons in American popular media: the one and only Amazing Spider-Man! Turning the concept of a super hero on its head, they imbued the young, guilt-ridden Peter Parker with the fantastic powers of an arachnid and the fantastic pressures of an everyday teenager. The combination was pure magic. During the course of 40 issues of web-slinging, wisecracking wonderment, Lee and Ditko built the foundation for 45 years of Spidey spectaculars -- girl trouble; bill trouble; bully trouble; the Daily Bugle; and a cast of friends, family and, of course, super villains unlike any other! Completing the entire Stan Lee/Steve Ditko Spider-Man run in one massive volume including every page, every pinup and every letters column. Not to mention unused covers, critical essays and bonuses galore! Collecting AMAZING FANTASY #15, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1-38 and ANNUAL #1-2, STRANGE TALES ANNUAL #2 and FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1.

[asin]130290082X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 17, 2017, 09:51:12 PM
Tristana by Benito Perez Galdos.

[asin]1590177657[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ludwigii on January 18, 2017, 12:42:17 PM
Tonight I start reading "Sentimental education"

(http://image.anobii.com/anobi/image_book.php?item_id=01e2589d97ff6c5fca&time=&type=4)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 18, 2017, 01:17:16 PM
Quote from: ludwigii on January 18, 2017, 12:42:17 PM
Tonight I start reading "Sentimental education"

(http://image.anobii.com/anobi/image_book.php?item_id=01e2589d97ff6c5fca&time=&type=4)

I have a copy of that in my pile of books to read. Hope you enjoy it. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ludwigii on January 18, 2017, 03:35:12 PM
Quote from: NikF on January 17, 2017, 09:51:12 PM
Tristana by Benito Perez Galdos.

[asin]1590177657[/asin]

Happy reading to you. There's also the film of Bunuel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 18, 2017, 03:55:00 PM
Quote from: ludwigii on January 18, 2017, 03:35:12 PM
Happy reading to you. There's also the film of Bunuel.

Thanks! :) Yeah, I've seen the film featuring Deneuve. It has some lovely photography by Jose Aguayo.  8)
(http://i.imgur.com/AuL4nUa.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 19, 2017, 07:58:51 AM
Wilhelm Meister novels seem pretty equal in my eyes in terms of quality, now that I've read both of them. Goethe's prose style is remarkably dry, for all ingenious attributes of these works, I was still at times swearing in my mind that I never want to read the word "pleasant" ever again. It was occurring way too much. Both novels also have outrageous coincidences which makes coincidences in Dickens novels seem natural. I liked the touch of cleverness how Wilhelm found out about Mariane's "affair" in Apprenticeship as well as the foreshadowing how Felix was going to be saved from being poisoned. The characterization is one of the strengths of these works and also at times astonishing psychological insight regarding character development. Apprenticeship was after all, one of the first Bildungsroman. Character names were a bit weird, though. Journeyman years also is hardly a novel in the usual sense: more like a collection of novellas held together by loose plot threads. Also I wonder what the hell was in that casket? Why did Goethe keep it a secret?

Despite my reservations regarding Goethe's prose style I did enjoy it a lot and now I am reading "Conversations of German refugees". I have read the fairy tale "Green snake and the beautiful lily" that concludes the work, separately from "Conversations" in finnish. For a long time I had no idea whatsoever about it being part of the Conversations, thought of it as a stand-alone work. So now it is extremely fascinating to have possibly a completely different interpretation of the fairy tale, coloured by it's unity with Conversations. Also the fact that now I am reading it in english may help with the different approach.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 19, 2017, 08:44:56 AM
Oh and in case I haven't made it clear: Jarno/Montan is easily the greatest character in both Wilhelm Meister novels. His wit never leaves one cold.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 20, 2017, 07:42:18 PM
Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys.

[asin]0241261406[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 21, 2017, 03:50:20 AM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780451053800-us.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 21, 2017, 01:36:36 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517ijcGKZqL._SX337_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on January 21, 2017, 01:42:45 PM
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 22, 2017, 10:08:51 PM
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb.

[asin]1901285502[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 23, 2017, 12:03:59 PM
4th time for this.

[asin]B004G8P2M8[/asin]

The source for Yojimbo by the way.

Added: The only book I ever liked a lot more on a second reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 23, 2017, 12:07:53 PM
Just finished reading for the third time.

[asin]B004HFRJGW[/asin]

This is Hammett's weakest book, which is still better than most stuff out there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on January 23, 2017, 01:41:40 PM
Philip Roth - The Human Stain
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 23, 2017, 03:58:18 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Xmp2Fx3fL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this one for the last three months.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 24, 2017, 05:47:57 AM
I have a strange feeling that I may have said this before but I couldn't find anything when I searched: my excessive reading of Goethe has given me a perfect picture about where Wagner possibly gained influence to his prose style and stage directions and excessive use of superlatives. Of course, it is pretty obvious that such an important author and poet as Goethe was, would leave his mark to many, Wagner not being the only one.

It has been some time since I read Schiller. Is his writing style similar (which could imply that it was a common feature at the time in German literature)? Of course, he mainly wrote dramas, not much prose (IIRC).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 25, 2017, 10:51:20 PM
Pleasure by Gabriele D'Annunzio.

[asin]0143106740[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on January 26, 2017, 10:49:01 AM
JB Priestly: Margin Released....


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hLfgCnvmL._SX339_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 26, 2017, 10:55:18 AM
Quote from: NikF on January 25, 2017, 10:51:20 PM
Pleasure by Gabriele D'Annunzio.

[asin]0143106740[/asin]

How is it? Have you read The Flame of Life? I remember enjoying it a lot --- but then again I'm a huge fan of all novels set in Venice, my favoritest city on Earth.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 26, 2017, 05:12:06 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 26, 2017, 10:55:18 AM
How is it? Have you read The Flame of Life? I remember enjoying it a lot --- but then again I'm a huge fan of all novels set in Venice, my favoritest city on Earth.  :)

I've only started it and so it's difficult to form a full impression. However I can say that while tame by current standards I can imagine it being considered hugely risque on publication.
No, I haven't read ' The Flame of Life', but I'll keep an eye open for it. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 26, 2017, 05:37:37 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 26, 2017, 10:55:18 AM
How is it? Have you read The Flame of Life? I remember enjoying it a lot --- but then again I'm a huge fan of all novels set in Venice, my favoritest city on Earth.  :)
Ever read the Donna Leon novels? People recommend them to me but I have never actually made the effort to read one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 28, 2017, 07:46:29 AM
Watership Down by Richard Adams.

[asin]0141354968[/asin]

Time for a reread of an old favourite. I was first prompted to read and borrow this by a librarian in the local public library, but not before she enquired if my hands were clean ("...both sides?") and had elicited a promise to tell her what I thought about it when I finished reading it. I was just a little kid and took her request so seriously. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on January 28, 2017, 08:06:38 AM
Quote from: NikF on January 28, 2017, 07:46:29 AM
Watership Down by Richard Adams.

[asin]0141354968[/asin]

Time for a reread of an old favourite. I was first prompted to read and borrow this by a librarian in the local public library, but not before she enquired if my hands were clean ("...both sides?") and had elicited a promise to tell her what I thought about it when I finished reading it. I was just a little kid and took her request so seriously. ;D

A great read with dark and violent undertones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 28, 2017, 08:22:22 AM
Quote from: aligreto on January 28, 2017, 08:06:38 AM
A great read with dark and violent undertones.

Yeah, it is. And I was saying in another thread that only on the second time of reading did I become aware of the cool Joseph Campbell monomyth/Jung 'all stories are one story' stuff. Also, I liked the character of Hazel.

It's weird, because although books were important during my childhood the only other one I can really remember was 'The Black Cloud' - a science fiction novel by Fred Hoyle. You familiar with it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 28, 2017, 08:57:09 AM
Quote from: NikF on January 28, 2017, 07:46:29 AM
Watership Down by Richard Adams.

[asin]0141354968[/asin]

Time for a reread of an old favourite. I was first prompted to read and borrow this by a librarian in the local public library, but not before she enquired if my hands were clean ("...both sides?") and had elicited a promise to tell her what I thought about it when I finished reading it. I was just a little kid and took her request so seriously. ;D

Read that few months ago. The writing style reminded me much of Tolkien's.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on January 28, 2017, 10:31:33 AM
Quote from: NikF on January 28, 2017, 08:22:22 AM
Yeah, it is. And I was saying in another thread that only on the second time of reading did I become aware of the cool Joseph Campbell monomyth/Jung 'all stories are one story' stuff. Also, I liked the character of Hazel.

It's weird, because although books were important during my childhood the only other one I can really remember was 'The Black Cloud' - a science fiction novel by Fred Hoyle. You familiar with it?

Agreed on the Hazel character - strong, yet vulnerable.
I do not know 'The Black Cloud'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 28, 2017, 12:12:02 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 26, 2017, 10:55:18 AM
How is it? Have you read The Flame of Life? I remember enjoying it a lot --- but then again I'm a huge fan of all novels set in Venice, my favoritest city on Earth.  :)

And what are your favorite novels set in Venice?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 28, 2017, 07:34:45 PM
Quote from: Alberich on January 28, 2017, 08:57:09 AM
Read that few months ago. The writing style reminded me much of Tolkien's.

I remember someone else saying the same thing. But I haven't read enough Tolkien to see if I agree. Still, it's an interesting comment. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: HIPster on January 28, 2017, 07:47:15 PM
Quote from: NikF on January 28, 2017, 08:22:22 AM
Yeah, it is. And I was saying in another thread that only on the second time of reading did I become aware of the cool Joseph Campbell monomyth/Jung 'all stories are one story' stuff. Also, I liked the character of Hazel.

Quote from: Alberich on January 28, 2017, 08:57:09 AM
Read that few months ago. The writing style reminded me much of Tolkien's.

Quote from: NikF on January 28, 2017, 07:34:45 PM
I remember someone else saying the same thing. But I haven't read enough Tolkien to see if I agree. Still, it's an interesting comment. :)

Appropriate to the discussion, perhaps; a remembrance of John Hurt:

https://theringer.com/john-hurt-obituary-994414174f79?source=collection_home---4------0----------

. . .he was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Max, a drug-addicted prisoner in Midnight Express, before providing his voice in the animated adaptations of two essential British works of fiction: Watership Down, as Hazel, and The Lord of the Rings, as Aragorn. His voice, a secret weapon if he had one, communicated erudition, suspicion, and playfulness all at once. When he spoke, it sounded like tobacco burning.

RIP John Hurt
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 28, 2017, 08:16:01 PM
Quote from: HIPster on January 28, 2017, 07:47:15 PM
Appropriate to the discussion, perhaps, a remembrance of John Hurt:

https://theringer.com/john-hurt-obituary-994414174f79?source=collection_home---4------0----------

. . .he was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Max, a drug-addicted prisoner in Midnight Express, before providing his voice in the animated adaptations of two essential British works of fiction: Watership Down, as Hazel, and The Lord of the Rings, as Aragorn. His voice, a secret weapon if he had one, communicated erudition, suspicion, and playfulness all at once. When he spoke, it sounded like tobacco burning.

RIP John Hurt

Good stuff. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 29, 2017, 04:02:54 AM
One reason for why it reminds me of Tolkien is possibly because the person who translated Watership Down in finnish, Kersti Juva, is also renowned for her translations of Tolkien's books. She has also translated Dickens and A.A.Milne, for example.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on January 29, 2017, 04:09:31 AM
(https://s23.postimg.org/wz9nrd6zf/chekhov_cr.jpg)

Anton Chekhov - One act plays: The Road House, Swansong, The Bear, A Marriage Proposal, Tatiana Ryepina, A Tragedian in Spite of Himself, The Wedding, The Jubilee, On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 29, 2017, 08:55:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5162ZC14DFL.jpg)

My first Collins novel. Extremely fascinating so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 29, 2017, 09:56:47 AM
Quote from: Alberich on January 29, 2017, 08:55:30 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5162ZC14DFL.jpg)

My first Collins novel. Extremely fascinating so far.

Cool. That's another on my 'to read' list. The only work of his that I've read is The Woman in White.
When you've finished reading The Moonstone let us know what you think? :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 29, 2017, 11:15:51 AM
Quote from: NikF on January 29, 2017, 09:56:47 AM
Cool. That's another on my 'to read' list. The only work of his that I've read is The Woman in White.
When you've finished reading The Moonstone let us know what you think? :)
I readthose back to back in a day and a half when I was young and foolish.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 29, 2017, 04:11:15 PM
Quote from: NikF on January 29, 2017, 09:56:47 AM
Cool. That's another on my 'to read' list. The only work of his that I've read is The Woman in White.
When you've finished reading The Moonstone let us know what you think? :)

I most certainly will, although it may take some time because I'm reading so many novels at the same time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 29, 2017, 10:43:03 PM
Quote from: Ken B on January 29, 2017, 11:15:51 AM
I readthose back to back in a day and a half when I was young and foolish.

Ah well, at least being young passes. ;D

Quote from: Alberich on January 29, 2017, 04:11:15 PM
I most certainly will, although it may take some time because I'm reading so many novels at the same time.

Of course. :) I've tried reading more than one book at a time - usually a novel alongside some kind of non-fiction - but I found it resulted in a growing pile of 'books I've started and yet to finish'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 01:16:52 AM
Quote from: Draško on January 28, 2017, 12:12:02 PM
And what are your favorite novels set in Venice?

Paul Heyse - Andrea Delfin
D'Annunzio - The Flame of Life
Barry Unsworth - Stone Virgin

Not a novel, but just as fascinating, if not more: Casanova's Memoirs, the relevant chapters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 02, 2017, 01:26:23 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 26, 2017, 05:37:37 PM
Ever read the Donna Leon novels? People recommend them to me but I have never actually made the effort to read one.
I have read maybe a handful years ago, usually when travelling and out of stuff to read. I don't think they are very good although not that bad either. I have been to Venice but not often or long enough to evaluate them on that aspect. What struck me is that the Commisario and his wife (who happens to be a professor of English literature) often seem the lonely PC lighthouses within an utterly corrupt and hypocritical if quaintly stylish Italian society. (I think this also pissed off Italians who don't think an elderly American lady should paint them like and lecture them on that.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 01:39:30 AM
The absolute worst Venice nove I've readl is "The Vivaldi Enigma" by Peter Harris (nom de plume for a Spanish author). Suffice to say that in this book people and the Police move around in Venice by car...  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 02, 2017, 01:39:58 AM
Quote from: NikF on January 29, 2017, 09:56:47 AM
Cool. That's another on my 'to read' list. The only work of his that I've read is The Woman in White.
When you've finished reading The Moonstone let us know what you think? :)
I have read both (although the Woman in White only in translation). There are both pretty good, the "Moonstone" is somewhat lighter and more entertaining with the changing narrators (the funniest of which is an old butler who takes "Robinson Crusoe" as his bible and general guiding light of life). Both are early and quite convincing cases of "Mystery + Romance".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 02, 2017, 01:43:36 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 01:39:30 AM
The absolute worst Venice nove I've readl is "The Vivaldi Enigma" by Peter Harris (nom de plume for a Spanish author). Suffice to say that in this book people and the Police move around in Venice by car...  :o
I'll grant the Donna Leon is better than that. She has been living in Venice for quite a while, I think, and knows her way around. Still, there are probably better books around, even when restricted to the genre "crime mystery in colorful/famous city". Didn't Highsmith (certainly a more convincing and more original writer than Leon) write a book taking place in Venice?

A fun romp is Alejo Carpentier's "Concierto barocco" with Handel, Bach and Vivaldi meeting in Venice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 01:46:17 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on February 02, 2017, 01:43:36 AM
A fun romp is Alejo Carpentier's "Concierto barocco" with Handel, Bach and Vivaldi meeting in Venice.

That's been on my wishlist for quite a while. Thanks for the reminder.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 02, 2017, 01:51:36 AM
Mademoiselle de Maupin by Theophile Gautier.

[asin]0140448136[/asin]

Now that Hazel has scurried off to join his new Owsla, I thought I'd start reading this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on February 02, 2017, 01:58:42 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 01:46:17 AM
That's been on my wishlist for quite a while. Thanks for the reminder.  :)

As Carpentier was one of the most baroque writers in Spanish during the XXth Century, it's probably quite apt for his theme...

P.S.: I love Casanova's Histoire de ma vie, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 02:47:11 AM
Quote from: Gordo on February 02, 2017, 01:58:42 AM
As Carpentier was one of the most baroque writers in Spanish during the XXth Century, it's probably quite apt for his theme...

I've read --- and loved --- The Rite of Spring, The Lost Steps and The Harp and the Shadow.

Quote
P.S.: I love Casanova's Histoire de ma vie, too.

One of the most enjoyable, entertaining and humane books ever written. I have it in an abridged Romanian translation but I would love to read the whole French original.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on February 02, 2017, 04:12:26 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 02:47:11 AM
One of the most enjoyable, entertaining and humane books ever written. I have it in an abridged Romanian translation but I would love to read the whole French original.

Yes, it is! Fortunately, we have a "complete" edition in two vols., wonderfully released by Atalanta:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/MONTGIBER/13282089211_5.jpg)

I have slowly progressed through its 3,500 pages during the last year or something so.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 02, 2017, 04:32:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 01:39:30 AM
The absolute worst Venice nove I've readl is "The Vivaldi Enigma" by Peter Harris (nom de plume for a Spanish author). Suffice to say that in this book people and the Police move around in Venice by car...  :o

Why does that appear to be a parasite upon The Da Vinci Code? (Not that one feels sorry for this host . . . .)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 06:10:13 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 02, 2017, 04:32:39 AM
Why does that appear to be a parasite upon The Da Vinci Code? (Not that one feels sorry for this host . . . .)

Frankly, I can't even remotely remember the plot.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 02, 2017, 10:10:58 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 02, 2017, 01:16:52 AM
Paul Heyse - Andrea Delfin
D'Annunzio - The Flame of Life
Barry Unsworth - Stone Virgin

Not a novel, but just as fascinating, if not more: Casanova's Memoirs, the relevant chapters.

Thank you! Of the three the Unsworth hasn't been translated to Serbian, will have to get it in English.

I've been meaning to read Casanova's Memoirs for some time, there is very nice ex-Yu edition in five volumes, but it's a large text and the time has proven bit difficult to find.

(https://s23.postimg.org/3savcykkr/15350129854898156c494133f9b1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on February 02, 2017, 05:29:17 PM
I have never read the novels, but Donna Leon has a book of essays out centred on living in Venice which is worth reading once.

Even better is Judith Martin's book about Venice.  Those who don't recognize her name will undoubtedly know her pen name: Miss Manners.

TD
Via Google Books, partly inspired by this discussion
Henry James, Italian Hours.  Not stories, but travel essays, the first of which is devoted to Venice.

ETA
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hi5NxQuJL.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dgGSlRCbL.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51lppDQgkwL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 03, 2017, 02:06:27 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on February 02, 2017, 05:29:17 PM

Even better is Judith Martin's book about Venice.  Those who don't recognize her name will undoubtedly know her pen name: Miss Manners.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dgGSlRCbL.jpg)

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with her pen name but what I am familiar with is the subtitle of her book, which is paraphrase of a title of another obscure early 20th century novel set in Venice that I've been meaning to read - The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole by Frederick Rolfe.

Talking of essays on Venice my favorite book of essays (short lyrical ones in this case) is Watermark by Josif Brodsky.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 03, 2017, 12:20:22 PM
Quote from: Draško on February 03, 2017, 02:06:27 AM

Talking of essays on Venice my favorite book of essays (short lyrical ones in this case) is Watermark by Josif Brodsky.

I was thinking of Brodsky's Watermark as I was reading this discussion, and heartily second its recommendation.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51a-JQxb9jL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on February 04, 2017, 07:04:37 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31FTgq17XCL._SX325_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ka2i0dz%2BL._SX325_.jpg)


A couple short books that are timely now more than ever.  From the 1980s, Harry Frankfurt's On Bullshit.  The brief essay, written by an actual philosopher, seeks nothing less than a "theoretical understanding of bullshit."  Complete with the use of words like "pleonastic" and references to Wittgenstein, its intellectual bona fides cannot be denied.  Ultimately, it is not wholly satisfying.

Much better is Edward Bernays' Propaganda from the 1920s.  This nephew of Freud and collaborator of Lippman and member of the Great War era Committee on Public Information writes in a clear, concise style, and some of what he writes could be written today.  For instance, one could just replace what constitutes new media, and the rest of his argument pertaining to dissemination of ideas and its impact holds, and the same could be true of various public associations, just throwing online echo chambers into the mix.  The PR man uses a neutral definition of propaganda and offers examples of how it can be used, how it is used, to direct public opinion.  He is brief and unsentimental and practical.  No less a personage than Noam Chomsky offers (sort of?) praise in a cover blurb.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 05, 2017, 04:20:40 PM
http://www.gq.com/story/cary-grant-on-style

Still perfectly applicable 50 years later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 08, 2017, 05:07:28 AM
Quote from: Draško on February 05, 2017, 04:20:40 PM
http://www.gq.com/story/cary-grant-on-style

Still perfectly applicable 50 years later.

Yeah, and so much he refers to is about the fit and function. Good stuff.


Anyway...

Sparring with Hemingway: And Other Legends of the Fight Game by Budd Schulberg

[asin]1861050720[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 13, 2017, 04:49:16 AM
Selected Works - Cesare Pavese.

[asin]0940322854[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 13, 2017, 07:22:15 AM
Some short stories by John O'Hara selected more or less at random.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on February 13, 2017, 10:08:16 AM
Quote from: NikF on February 08, 2017, 05:07:28 AM
Yeah, and so much he refers to is about the fit and function. Good stuff.

Definitely. Though I have to admit to have sinned when it comes to function(ality), often in my younger days, but fit in men's clothes/style is absolutely paramount (as in location, location, location).


(https://s16.postimg.org/u9wmtqkw5/201e81ad78d4e0c46bd051492296eb33.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 13, 2017, 10:20:11 AM
Quote from: Draško on February 13, 2017, 10:08:16 AM
Definitely. Though I have to admit to have sinned when it comes to function(ality), often in my younger days, but fit in men's clothes/style is absolutely paramount (as in location, location, location).


I think we all have past fashion indiscretions...



Quote
(https://s16.postimg.org/u9wmtqkw5/201e81ad78d4e0c46bd051492296eb33.jpg)

Capote is yet another author I havent read all that much of, however I've a 'complete stories' collection somewhere, I think.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on February 13, 2017, 10:21:34 AM
For the second time in my life (cause am supposed to write an essay on it); William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954). About 35 years ago this was the last of Golding's novels that I read (his last three were still to appear) and just like then, I think I literally prefer all of his other novels, especially the middle ones and the posthumously published The Double Tongue. How to explain the popularity of this early novel, actually his first one?  ::)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3502/4009533569_d35ced7787.jpg)(http://kirklandbooks.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/thumbnail/600x/17f82f742ffe127f42dca9de82fb58b1/b/0/b0012031a.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 17, 2017, 03:18:23 AM
Starting volume 1 of Hans Mayer's memoirs:

[asin]3518036467[/asin]
A major figure in literary critique in Germany after WW2, and also soemone who had a passion for music (his books on Wagner are quite succesful), Mayer's oeuvre doesn't seem to travel well, and I have not seen any translations into English or Spanish. The career of a man who as a communist, a jew and a homosexual really had trouble in the dark years, to later become quite a prominent personalty in the Federal Republic, promises to be an interesting read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on February 17, 2017, 01:01:18 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41xsMhoaN0L._SX336_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Just finished the second volume of Walsh's Stravinsky biography.  Walsh treats the many delicate issues surrounding these years with skill and tact.  He does not vilify Robert Craft, though he does show him as vulnerable, frustrating, occasionally sympathetic and sometimes infuriating.  Stravinsky's own creativity remained fully undiminished up until 1966, and if we have Craft to thank for even a portion of that artistic life, Walsh suggests, history will treat him far better than the composer's children, with whom he developed an acrimonious relationship before and after their father's death.  Above all, the book shows a respect for its subject that is not tainted by sanctimonious reverence, and Stravinsky emerges as a complex, deeply flawed individual, albeit one far more likable on a personal level than I had previously imagined.  Walsh clearly loves the composer and his music, and that love is infectious.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 18, 2017, 02:47:00 AM
Re-visiting perhaps my favorite novel of all time.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CgvcqaV8L._SY346_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on February 18, 2017, 10:40:42 AM
Quote from: Alberich on February 18, 2017, 02:47:00 AM
Re-visiting perhaps my favorite novel of all time.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CgvcqaV8L._SY346_.jpg)

I need to revisit Hugo. Curious how the titles of his big two novels are treated.  Les Miserables is always presented with the French title untranslated  (or at least, I have yet to see a version which gives an English language equivalent), while Quasimodo is promoted to the status of title character even though in the original French, the cathedral itself is the title "character".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 19, 2017, 02:29:58 AM
I agree and even the closest human character to fit the role of the protagonist IMO fits more Frollo rather than Quasimodo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on February 19, 2017, 04:44:16 AM
Quote from: Alberich on February 18, 2017, 02:47:00 AM
Re-visiting perhaps my favorite novel of all time.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CgvcqaV8L._SY346_.jpg)
Read it at 15.  Never again.  My favorite Victor Hugo is 93.  And then all the poetry. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 19, 2017, 05:09:14 AM
"What would the throne of France be to me when I could rebuild the empire of the Orient?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 19, 2017, 11:12:31 AM
The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing

[asin] 1883011469[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 19, 2017, 11:32:02 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 19, 2017, 11:12:31 AM
The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing

[asin] 1883011469[/asin]

Ken, I've noticed you read crime novels. You ever read this one? I'm thinking of ordering it.

Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze.

[asin]1590179161[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 19, 2017, 12:28:10 PM
Nik
No. Never seen that one before.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on February 19, 2017, 12:41:22 PM
Quote from: Ken B on February 19, 2017, 11:12:31 AM
The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing

[asin] 1883011469[/asin]
I read all of them.  My favorite is Cornell Woolrich "I married a dead man", then Mc Cain "The postman rings twice".  The big clock is not quite in the same league nor is nightmare alley, but they are still good reads.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 19, 2017, 12:53:27 PM
Quote from: Ken B on February 19, 2017, 12:28:10 PM
Nik
No. Never seen that one before.

Thanks anyway. :) I'll probably give it a try in any case.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 19, 2017, 03:38:01 PM
Quote from: Spineur on February 19, 2017, 12:41:22 PM
I read all of them.  My favorite is Cornell Woolrich "I married a dead man", then Mc Cain "The postman rings twice".  The big clock is not quite in the same league nor is nightmare alley, but they are still good reads.
All of these have been filmed, some several times. I have seen Nightmare Alley, but have not yet decided if I will read it. I am quite liking Clock, halfway through.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 20, 2017, 02:45:41 AM
Quote from: Spineur on February 19, 2017, 04:44:16 AM
My favorite Victor Hugo is 93. 

Mine, too. And Les travailleurs de la mer (Toilers of the Sea)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 20, 2017, 03:35:38 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 20, 2017, 02:45:41 AM
Mine, too. And Les travailleurs de la mer (Toilers of the Sea)

Still haven't read those two. :/ After I have read unabridged les Miserables, I think I'll  finally pick up Ninety-three. And considering Les miserables is one of the longest novels ever written, in its unabridged form, it may take a while. But it's Hugo so I think I'm gonna have a good time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 25, 2017, 05:18:45 AM
Dancing on my Grave by Gelsey Kirkland.

(http://i.imgur.com/bEdyd31.jpg)

A reread.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ludwigii on February 25, 2017, 09:48:07 PM
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
Essays and Aphorisms

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1290346059l/9743203.jpg)


INGO F.WALTHER
Picasso
Taschen

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61zixSXmq2L._SX359_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 26, 2017, 12:04:18 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 19, 2017, 11:12:31 AM
The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing

[asin] 1883011469[/asin]
Now onto Nightmare Alley by Gresham
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 26, 2017, 05:48:05 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JcKXOJu-y7I/TOBvVrRDwxI/AAAAAAAABJ8/8pfGwGDAhfs/s1600/bond_moonraker.jpg)

This is an excellent story.  Much better than the Roger Moore adaptation which I find unwatchable.  Other notable recent reads:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1325349438l/13347938.jpg)  (https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1176388266l/618543.jpg)
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1178844396l/844793.jpg)  (https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1329024278l/765469.jpg)
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1321111302l/80616.jpg)  (https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1380114958l/18585669.jpg)
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1311976228l/461055.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 26, 2017, 05:50:56 AM
How was the Goodis, Bill?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 26, 2017, 05:55:48 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 26, 2017, 05:50:56 AM
How was the Goodis, Bill?

You know, a lot of folks over at Good Reads at the pulp fiction group really enjoyed this one.  I found it slow, not much of a page turner, and overall, meh.  I really enjoyed his Night Patrol book, and this was suppose to be one of his best.  However the Stark (Westlake) was terrific....but you already knew that. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on February 26, 2017, 07:27:05 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BiBv%2BE9GL.jpg)

Might be of interest to several people here. Covers both his book and movie work, including unused posters and originals of art on which the publishers unleashed Daniele da Volterra.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on February 26, 2017, 08:01:38 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on February 26, 2017, 07:27:05 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BiBv%2BE9GL.jpg)

Might be of interest to several people here. Covers both his book and movie work, including unused posters and originals of art on which the publishers unleashed Daniele da Volterra.

Absolutely.  I am guessing you are a Mitchell Hooks fan as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 26, 2017, 09:36:37 AM
Quote from: Bogey on February 26, 2017, 05:48:05 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JcKXOJu-y7I/TOBvVrRDwxI/AAAAAAAABJ8/8pfGwGDAhfs/s1600/bond_moonraker.jpg)

This is an excellent story.  Much better than the Roger Moore adaptation which I find unwatchable.

Indeed, by then they had passed the point of no return from the goofiness.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 27, 2017, 07:01:07 AM
Jaws trying to fly by flapping his hands.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 27, 2017, 07:06:49 AM
I am not reading George Gershwin: His Life and Work by Howard Pollack, which is the book I want to finish.  (It is on a shelf somewhere at home, and I must hunt more diligently.)

So instead, I am reading an e-book edition of Ean Wood's George Gershwin: His Life & Music which is four or five clicks nearer a fanzine biography than I quite like, but, faute de mieux . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 01, 2017, 05:51:32 AM
Reading Mark Twain's "Roughing it".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 01, 2017, 10:23:57 AM
Third time for Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 05, 2017, 02:27:49 PM
Quote from: Ken B on March 01, 2017, 10:23:57 AM
Third time for Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.

I can see that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 05, 2017, 10:16:57 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41RT8%2BnHaVL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 06, 2017, 07:59:45 AM
(http://www.celebrityautographbook.com/resources/Jeffrey-Archer-autograph-book-signed-memorabilia-author-novel-short-stories-twist-in-the-tale-kane-abel-MP-Baron.jpg.opt324x500o0,0s324x500.jpg)


A collection of short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 10, 2017, 01:35:30 PM
Two short essays from this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31yeXACZv3L._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
In Small Proust Commentaries (originally a radio broadcast), Adorno makes some insightful remarks on In Search of Lost Time (a work he had in high esteem and that features rather prominently in Minima Moralia). In Words from Afar, the author justifies and explains the use of foreign words in the Proust comentaries (as a reply to a listener's letter complaining exactly about that). Interesting in that it sheds some light into the author's approach to writing, and also that there are some (uncharacteristic) moments approaching humour. A pleasure to read, I must say...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on March 12, 2017, 09:05:42 AM
Just ordered now, but posting in the non-Classical purchases thread didn't seem quite right either...
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519oTQ50MsL._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 12, 2017, 09:33:31 AM
Quote from: North Star on March 12, 2017, 09:05:42 AM
Just ordered now, but posting in the non-Classical purchases thread didn't seem quite right either...
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519oTQ50MsL._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Lovely. :)

"Whatever rules you have adopted, abide by them as laws, and as if you would be impious to transgress them; and do not regard what any one says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours."

Good stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on March 12, 2017, 09:39:42 AM
Quote from: NikF on March 12, 2017, 09:33:31 AM
Lovely. :)

"Whatever rules you have adopted, abide by them as laws, and as if you would be impious to transgress them; and do not regard what any one says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours."

Good stuff.
Yeah, your post in that other thread reminded me that I had yet to get a hard copy of this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 12, 2017, 09:53:41 AM
Quote from: North Star on March 12, 2017, 09:39:42 AM
Yeah, your post in that other thread reminded me that I had yet to get a hard copy of this.

Well, I certainly find it a nice thing to have a hard copy of for occasional dipping in to purposes. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on March 15, 2017, 09:16:43 AM
(http://www.delfi.rs/_img/artikli/knjige/23/vv/delfi_svi_ti_lepi_konji_kormak_makarti.jpg)

Cormac McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 15, 2017, 01:09:27 PM
Quote from: NikF on March 12, 2017, 09:33:31 AM
"Whatever rules you have adopted, abide by them as laws, and as if you would be impious to transgress them; and do not regard what any one says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours."

There was that guy who did exactly that and is alluded to in Godwin's Law. Just saying.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 15, 2017, 01:59:38 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 15, 2017, 01:09:27 PM
There was that guy who did exactly that and is alluded to in Godwin's Law. Just saying.  ;D
I wasn't going to say anything, but ... yes. That quotation you criticize is one of the most idiotic imaginable. "Make up your mind then no matter what happens never change it."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 15, 2017, 03:03:22 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 15, 2017, 01:09:27 PM
There was that guy who did exactly that and is alluded to in Godwin's Law. Just saying.  ;D

That's his problem. Just sayin' that back at you.   ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 15, 2017, 03:05:25 PM
Quote from: Ken B on March 15, 2017, 01:59:38 PM
I wasn't going to say anything, but ... yes. That quotation you criticize is one of the most idiotic imaginable. "Make up your mind then no matter what happens never change it."

That's not what I take from it at all. But you obviously do. Fair enough. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on March 26, 2017, 10:17:07 PM
Listened to a discussion of the recently deceased poet Derek Walcott on NPR On Point. Found it very compelling, and am now reading a large compilation of his works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 26, 2017, 10:23:21 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hP2huLzDL._SX337_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on March 28, 2017, 07:13:07 AM
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344947518l/15827999.jpg)

Wanted to get to this before watching my film copy.  So far, Dorothy Hughes is fantastic with her descriptions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 28, 2017, 07:21:17 AM
Having finished today The Moonstone, I must say it was a very enjoyable book. The characters are not as quirky or memorable as Dickens's but it doesn't matter because the plot holds together remarkably well. Explaining of a certain laudanum incident in the novel caused almost unbearable tension which was resolved satisfyingly. Odd how it worked even though I predicted it. The ending was maybe a bit rushed, odd considering how slowly the narratives moved along generally, causing this to be relatively long novel for a detective story.

I'm a bit undecided whether this work has some pretty racist elements mixed in or whether the entire point of novel is to be anti-racist. It seemed a bit ambiguous, kind of like The Searchers. And that's how I like it best.

Edit: My next Collins novel will most likely be "No Name", which I've heard is ranked among his top four novels, like "The Moonstone". It may take some time however, before I get to it, focusing currently on Mark Twain.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on March 30, 2017, 07:29:29 PM
Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017) - Hard not to think of this as one of the year's most essential books.

[asin]0804190119[/asin]

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 02, 2017, 11:42:07 AM
A Bogey special,

[asin]1933586427[/asin]

Kill the Boss on Kindle 99 cents
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 02, 2017, 12:30:05 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 02, 2017, 11:42:07 AM
A Bogey special,

[asin]1933586427[/asin]

Kill the Boss on Kindle 99 cents

Score!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on April 03, 2017, 10:20:23 AM
(http://www.darkwoodprodavnica.rs/assets/images/cover/242/820/30377_1413905419.jpg)

Alex Raymond - Rip Kirby vol.2 (1948-50)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 06, 2017, 06:46:06 PM
Just ordered this
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51laUl7chQL.jpg)
QuoteNearly a decade after its initial publication, Picasso: The Monograph 1881-1973 is back in print, updated and redesigned in a more user-friendly format. Poligrafa's brand new edition of this classic volume offers more than 1,200 newly scanned reproductions, spanning Picasso's entire career and illustrating his breathtaking range of artistic expression, including paintings, drawings, lithographs, ceramics and sculpture. Elegantly translated from the original French, the monograph weaves biographical details with thorough elucidations of the artist's work into a concise and seamless narrative. All three contributors are highly regarded in Picasso scholarship: Brigitte Léal and Marie-Laure Bernadac, both former curators of the Musée Picasso in Paris, are now respectively curators of the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre Museum, while Christine Piot co-authored the catalogue raisonné of Picasso's sculpture. Leal covers Picasso's formative years through 1916, including his co-invention of Cubism with Georges Braque. Piot focuses on the artist's glory years from 1917 through 1952, and Bernadac discusses the vigor of Picasso's later years, from 1953 until his death in 1973. With clearly organized visual sources, acknowledgements of leading art historians' interpretations and quotes from Picasso's contemporaries, this book remains unsurpassed as the definitive Picasso monograph for students and art lovers alike.

I am finding that my interest in visual arts such as painting, sculpture, and photography, is growing as I get older.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 07, 2017, 08:41:51 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 06, 2017, 06:46:06 PM
Just ordered this
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51laUl7chQL.jpg)
I am finding that my interest in visual arts such as painting, sculpture, and photography, is growing as I get older.

Interestingly, having thought about that statement I must confess to having found the exact opposite personally. I must endeavour to re-kindle those interests.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 13, 2017, 02:55:10 PM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780801490149-us-300.jpg)

and now wanting to get the full "History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison" from which this stand-alone section is taken I learn for the first time that its been done in two Library of America volumes:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51e7B86NBBL._SX318_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41EK61ohPOL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on April 13, 2017, 03:27:42 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 13, 2017, 02:55:10 PMand now wanting to get the full "History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison" from which this stand-alone section is taken I learn for the first time that its been done in two Library of America volumes:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51e7B86NBBL._SX318_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41EK61ohPOL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I read both of those volumes many years ago, fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 14, 2017, 11:32:46 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on April 13, 2017, 03:27:42 PM
I read both of those volumes many years ago, fascinating.

I have those LoA volumes, and have read them more than once.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 14, 2017, 11:50:45 AM
Finished Roughing it couple of days ago. It was an amazing read, even though, this being early Twain, some of the writer's views haven't aged well. Not always clear how much of this book was Twain's own invention and how much true. I do know that the main frames of this work are what really happened to Twain, but I cannot help thinking that some of the several anecdotes about other people were added in by the author to make the work more interesting.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 19, 2017, 01:43:42 AM
http://schillerinstitute.org/music/2015/murder_of_music.html (http://schillerinstitute.org/music/2015/murder_of_music.html)

Compared to Lyndon LaRouche and his disciples, Rob Newman looks almost like a genuine scholar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on April 19, 2017, 06:30:16 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 19, 2017, 01:43:42 AM
http://schillerinstitute.org/music/2015/murder_of_music.html (http://schillerinstitute.org/music/2015/murder_of_music.html)

Compared to Lyndon LaRouche and his disciples, Rob Newman looks almost like a genuine scholar.

Where do you dig this stuff up?  It reads like a screed from one of those cultish Ayn Rand followers or a conspiracy theorist who thinks that everyone is out to get them personally.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 19, 2017, 10:49:12 AM
Quote from: Mahlerian on April 19, 2017, 06:30:16 AM
Where do you dig this stuff up?  It reads like a screed from one of those cultish Ayn Rand followers or a conspiracy theorist who thinks that everyone is out to get them personally.

I stumbled upon Lyndon LaRouche and his Schiller Institute long ago, and it has been an inexhaustible source of fun ever since. Their outlandishness is fascinating in its own way.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 19, 2017, 05:12:49 PM
Henry James: A Little Tour in France

A bit disappointing, in fact: much of it a cursory description of Renaissance chateaus and medieval churches seen in the Loire, Burgundy, Provence. He doesn't evoke the human element until relatively late in the game, when seeing the Rhone approach and then surpass flood stage seems to have catalyzed him into paying attention to more than buildings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on April 20, 2017, 03:50:37 AM
(https://s.s-bol.com/imgbase0/imagebase3/large/FC/4/3/4/3/1001004006453434.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 20, 2017, 04:43:41 AM
B. Traven's Treasure of Sierra Madre, the novel on which is based my favorite Bogart flick.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 20, 2017, 07:47:57 AM
Quote from: Christo on April 20, 2017, 03:50:37 AM
(https://s.s-bol.com/imgbase0/imagebase3/large/FC/4/3/4/3/1001004006453434.jpg)

I lasted through Napoleon then put it down, more my issue than the book's.  Some interesting personalities and family dynamics w/ Frederick the Great
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on April 21, 2017, 12:24:40 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 20, 2017, 07:47:57 AMI lasted through Napoleon then put it down, more my issue than the book's.  Some interesting personalities and family dynamics w/ Frederick the Great
Will be reading it next week during a sojourn in the German (lower) mountains, but hope that the story of the last emperor - William/Wilhelm - will be of some interest too. In preparance of our discussion of the book, my circle of friends plan to visit his final residence at Doorn in the Netherlands, where he lived from 1920 tils his death in 1941, and preserved all things Prussian dear to him (in a house that is kept completely intact as he left it, a true 'time capsule'). This one:
(http://www.huisdoorn.nl/files/thumbnails/web-emuseum.900x400x1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost Sonata on April 22, 2017, 05:55:53 AM
On an Amtrak train, just finished Life and Death of Classical Music by Lebrecht.  Surely one of the most depressing reads ever.  For most GMGers parts of this book will not be news, though it's not unlike staring at a photo of a really bad train wreck, bodies hanging out of doors and windows, voices of anguish audible as is the steady drip of precious blood...  Of course, not everyone (inc. myself) will agree with the author (he's esp. merciless on Lenny and his "enthusiasms" - Nielsen and Milhaud are "underpowered").  The book seems hastily composed and Lebrecht has a predilection for focusing on personal foibles, but whatever its failings it is nevertheless well worth the read.  Also cleared-up many questions I had about who owned whom when and who distributed whose CDs in what country, etc.  The best and worst recordings are of course highly debatable and Lebrecht, to his credit, recognizes that.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 22, 2017, 12:36:41 PM
Quote from: Ghost Sonata on April 22, 2017, 05:55:53 AM
On an Amtrak train, just finished Life and Death of Classical Music by Lebrecht.  Surely one of the most depressing reads ever.  For most GMGers parts of this book will not be news, though it's not unlike staring at a photo of a really bad train wreck, bodies hanging out of doors and windows, voices of anguish audible as is the steady drip of precious blood...  Of course, not everyone (inc. myself) will agree with the author (he's esp. merciless on Lenny and his "enthusiasms" - Nielsen and Milhaud are "underpowered").  The book seems hastily composed and Lebrecht has a predilection for focusing on personal foibles, but whatever its failings it is nevertheless well worth the read.  Also cleared-up many questions I had about who owned whom when and who distributed whose CDs in what country, etc.  The best and worst recordings are of course highly debatable and Lebrecht, to his credit, recognizes that.

I'm curious about the 20 worst. One assumes all recordings of Gruppen are on the list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost Sonata on April 22, 2017, 02:59:31 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 22, 2017, 12:36:41 PM
I'm curious about the 20 worst. One assumes all recordings of Gruppen are on the list.

Nope, far from it! (Though notably it doesn't appear in the Top 100 either).  Here's his list which he observes is "generally subjective (though augmented by consultation with many artists and producers)."

1. Bach: Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra, Heifetz, RCA 1946
2. Beethoven: Triple Concerto, Richter, Oistrakh, Rostropovich, EMI, 1969
3. Elgar: Enigma Variations, Lenny, DG 1982
4. Klemperer: Merry Waltz; Weill: Threepenny; Hindemith: Nobilissima, Klemperer, EMI, 1961
5. Mahler: 2nd, Maazel, CBS, 1983 (Jessye Norman has the unfortunate distinction of appearing twice in the worst 20)
6. Kreisler: Concertos in the Baroque Style, Vorhees, RCA, 1945
7. Schubert, Winterreise, Pears & Britten, Decca, 1963
8. Albinoni, Adagio, Pachelbel, Canon, etc. Karajan, DG, 1983
9. Jazz Sebastian Bach (U.S.: Bach's Greatest Hits), Swingle Singers, Philips, 1962
10. A Different Mozart, Dawn Atkinson, Imaginary Road, 1996 "sounds like the scores Mozart sold to Starbucks."
11. Verdi: Requiem, Fleming, Bocelli, Borodina, et al, Decca, 2000
12. The Jazz Album, Rattle, EMI 1987
13. Mahler for Dummies, Tennstedt et al, EMI 1996
14. Beethoven: VC, Kremer, Marriner, Philips, 1982
15. Weill, September Songs, various artists, Sony, 1997
16. Bizet: Carmen, Ozawa, Philips, 1988
17. Scorpions: Moment of Glory, EMI, 2000
18. Satie: Vexations, de Leeuw, Philips, 1977
19. Christmas with Kiri, Decca, 1985
20. Pavarotti: the Ultimate Collection, Decca, 1997. "Most odious of all was Pavarotti's duet with the dead. In the Ultimate Collection the great man took on a tape of Frank Sinatra in 'My Way'... A record of sorts, an indelible stain that will linger for all time on the voice of the century."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 22, 2017, 03:21:36 PM
Quote from: Christo on April 21, 2017, 12:24:40 PM
Will be reading it next week during a sojourn in the German (lower) mountains, but hope that the story of the last emperor - William/Wilhelm - will be of some interest too. In preparance of our discussion of the book, my circle of friends plan to visit his final residence at Doorn in the Netherlands, where he lived from 1920 tils his death in 1941, and preserved all things Prussian dear to him (in a house that is kept completely intact as he left it, a true 'time capsule'). This one:
(http://www.huisdoorn.nl/files/thumbnails/web-emuseum.900x400x1.jpg)

He got let off way too easy, should have strung him up in 1918. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: James on April 22, 2017, 06:24:36 PM
Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol 1
They were visionaries. Explorers. Imaginauts. They were Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. And like the Fantastic Four, they continually strove to overcome the impossible and achieve the extraordinary. Now, the first three years of their landmark run are collected in one oversized volume. This keepsake edition also includes all original letters pages and pinups, critical commentaries, a historical overview, and other DVD-style extras. COLLECTING: FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) 1-30, FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL (1963) 1

[asin]0785185666[/asin]

and ..

(http://cbr2.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/MAD-545-COVER.jpg?auto=format&cs=tinysrgb&q=20&w=864&h=1116&fit=crop)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 23, 2017, 01:56:34 PM
Quote from: Ghost Sonata on April 22, 2017, 02:59:31 PM
Nope, far from it! (Though notably it doesn't appear in the Top 100 either).  Here's his list which he observes is "generally subjective (though augmented by consultation with many artists and producers)."

1. Bach: Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra, Heifetz, RCA 1946
2. Beethoven: Triple Concerto, Richter, Oistrakh, Rostropovich, EMI, 1969
3. Elgar: Enigma Variations, Lenny, DG 1982
4. Klemperer: Merry Waltz; Weill: Threepenny; Hindemith: Nobilissima, Klemperer, EMI, 1961
5. Mahler: 2nd, Maazel, CBS, 1983 (Jessye Norman has the unfortunate distinction of appearing twice in the worst 20)
6. Kreisler: Concertos in the Baroque Style, Vorhees, RCA, 1945
7. Schubert, Winterreise, Pears & Britten, Decca, 1963
8. Albinoni, Adagio, Pachelbel, Canon, etc. Karajan, DG, 1983
9. Jazz Sebastian Bach (U.S.: Bach's Greatest Hits), Swingle Singers, Philips, 1962
10. A Different Mozart, Dawn Atkinson, Imaginary Road, 1996 "sounds like the scores Mozart sold to Starbucks."
11. Verdi: Requiem, Fleming, Bocelli, Borodina, et al, Decca, 2000
12. The Jazz Album, Rattle, EMI 1987
13. Mahler for Dummies, Tennstedt et al, EMI 1996
14. Beethoven: VC, Kremer, Marriner, Philips, 1982
15. Weill, September Songs, various artists, Sony, 1997
16. Bizet: Carmen, Ozawa, Philips, 1988
17. Scorpions: Moment of Glory, EMI, 2000
18. Satie: Vexations, de Leeuw, Philips, 1977
19. Christmas with Kiri, Decca, 1985
20. Pavarotti: the Ultimate Collection, Decca, 1997. "Most odious of all was Pavarotti's duet with the dead. In the Ultimate Collection the great man took on a tape of Frank Sinatra in 'My Way'... A record of sorts, an indelible stain that will linger for all time on the voice of the century."

I can kinda agree on the Pears/Britten. The voice. But there is also a lot of musical intelligence there. Haven't heard the others.

I just had a fresh vision of musical hell:  Pavarotti sings La Mer. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 23, 2017, 05:21:15 PM
Quote from: Ghost Sonata on April 22, 2017, 02:59:31 PM
Nope, far from it! (Though notably it doesn't appear in the Top 100 either).  Here's his list which he observes is "generally subjective (though augmented by consultation with many artists and producers)."

1. Bach: Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra, Heifetz, RCA 1946
2. Beethoven: Triple Concerto, Richter, Oistrakh, Rostropovich, EMI, 1969
3. Elgar: Enigma Variations, Lenny, DG 1982
4. Klemperer: Merry Waltz; Weill: Threepenny; Hindemith: Nobilissima, Klemperer, EMI, 1961
5. Mahler: 2nd, Maazel, CBS, 1983 (Jessye Norman has the unfortunate distinction of appearing twice in the worst 20)
6. Kreisler: Concertos in the Baroque Style, Vorhees, RCA, 1945
7. Schubert, Winterreise, Pears & Britten, Decca, 1963
8. Albinoni, Adagio, Pachelbel, Canon, etc. Karajan, DG, 1983
9. Jazz Sebastian Bach (U.S.: Bach's Greatest Hits), Swingle Singers, Philips, 1962
10. A Different Mozart, Dawn Atkinson, Imaginary Road, 1996 "sounds like the scores Mozart sold to Starbucks."
11. Verdi: Requiem, Fleming, Bocelli, Borodina, et al, Decca, 2000
12. The Jazz Album, Rattle, EMI 1987
13. Mahler for Dummies, Tennstedt et al, EMI 1996
14. Beethoven: VC, Kremer, Marriner, Philips, 1982
15. Weill, September Songs, various artists, Sony, 1997
16. Bizet: Carmen, Ozawa, Philips, 1988
17. Scorpions: Moment of Glory, EMI, 2000
18. Satie: Vexations, de Leeuw, Philips, 1977
19. Christmas with Kiri, Decca, 1985
20. Pavarotti: the Ultimate Collection, Decca, 1997. "Most odious of all was Pavarotti's duet with the dead. In the Ultimate Collection the great man took on a tape of Frank Sinatra in 'My Way'... A record of sorts, an indelible stain that will linger for all time on the voice of the century."

Eight of those--40%--are crossover CDs of one sort or another.  Well, for the rest, if he doesn't like Lenny's Elgar, that's his problem, not mine.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81rzmKH2aPL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 24, 2017, 06:53:03 PM
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426984298l/25191440.jpg)

Just finished the 1st in the Daniel Port series.  I read the 2 and 3 previously, but thought I would backtrack and fill in.  4 is in the mail.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on April 25, 2017, 05:15:11 AM
[audio][/audio]
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 22, 2017, 03:21:36 PMHe got let off way too easy, should have strung him up in 1918.
The same would apply for many others responsible for the Great War.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 25, 2017, 07:00:40 AM
Quote from: Christo on April 25, 2017, 05:15:11 AM
[audio][/audio]The same would apply for many others responsible for the Great War.

They were not only German, though.  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 25, 2017, 07:30:13 AM
Quote from: Christo on April 25, 2017, 05:15:11 AM
[audio][/audio]The same would apply for many others responsible for the Great War.

but no one had greater responsibility, Germany knew issuing 'the blank check' to Austria-Hungary in regards to invading Serbia would lead to war with Russia.  Their strategic view that a war in 1914 was preferable to a later war against a Russia that was rapidly industrializing and modernizing its armed forces.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 25, 2017, 07:42:56 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71pDJkFtB0L._AC_UL320_SR194,320_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 25, 2017, 07:57:51 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 25, 2017, 07:30:13 AM
but no one had greater responsibility, Germany knew issuing 'the blank check' to Austria-Hungary in regards to invading Serbia would lead to war with Russia.  Their strategic view that a war in 1914 was preferable to a later war against a Russia that was rapidly industrializing and modernizing its armed forces.
Quote from: Florestan on April 25, 2017, 07:00:40 AM
They were not only German, though.  ;D

Berchtold, perhaps after Moltke, was probably the single person most responsible for starting the war, and he lived another 25 years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost Sonata on April 26, 2017, 06:25:08 AM
Been looking forward to this for some time:

[asin] 0547391315[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost Sonata on April 26, 2017, 06:31:45 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 23, 2017, 05:21:15 PM
Eight of those--40%--are crossover CDs of one sort or another.  Well, for the rest, if he doesn't like Lenny's Elgar, that's his problem, not mine.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81rzmKH2aPL.jpg)

I noticed that as well; personally, I think his list would have been improved had the crossovers been excluded - there are so many candidates! - but it makes editorial sense for them to be included, as labels saw them as potential saviors in the era Lebrecht details most revealingly. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on April 27, 2017, 07:58:59 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 25, 2017, 07:00:40 AMThey were not only German, though.  ;D
That's my point. Am around page 500 by now and haven't reached at the Kaiser yet.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 27, 2017, 08:31:32 AM
So far Sierra Madre has been a colossal disappointment. I can't even begin to understand how they managed to make one of the greatest movies of all time out of this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 27, 2017, 08:58:08 AM
Quote from: Alberich on April 27, 2017, 08:31:32 AM
So far Sierra Madre has been a colossal disappointment. I can't even begin to understand how they managed to make one of the greatest movies of all time out of this.

I think it may be an extension of what Jeffrey observed about The Witches of Eastwick:  a charming and well-made movie, but a forgettable book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 27, 2017, 09:09:52 AM
Quote from: Alberich on April 27, 2017, 08:31:32 AM
So far Sierra Madre has been a colossal disappointment. I can't even begin to understand how they managed to make one of the greatest movies of all time out of this.
John Huston.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 27, 2017, 09:22:01 AM
It took me the longest time to learn that Spielberg's Jaws was based on a book as well! Never have read it and don't know if I ever will.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 27, 2017, 09:23:46 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 27, 2017, 09:09:52 AM
John Huston.

Point taken.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on April 27, 2017, 10:36:10 AM
Quote from: Alberich on April 27, 2017, 08:31:32 AM
So far Sierra Madre has been a colossal disappointment. I can't even begin to understand how they managed to make one of the greatest movies of all time out of this.

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 27, 2017, 08:58:08 AM
I think it may be an extension of what Jeffrey observed about The Witches of Eastwick:  a charming and well-made movie, but a forgettable book.

B. Traven now and then pops up in academic journals for Germanic Studies.  Every now and then a professor decides to scour the admittedly inelegant to downright clumsy prose for "Germanisms."

e.g.

Quote...In 1964, Swiss writer Max Schmid posited Traven obtained the knowledge he would need to write some (or all) of his books from another person, a willing or unwilling transference of stories from an "authentic" source. Known as the Erlebnisträger hypothesis ("carrier of the experiences"), this theory attempts to explain how Traven could have written as expertly as he did about itinerant life in Mexico within his first year in the country.

The carrier hypothesis gives the Traven authorship question a rugged mystique. Envision Traven in a Mexican desert town encountering a grizzled American prospector. Over glasses of tequila the American regales Traven with wild tales of gold, grit, and the Sonoran sun. How well could these orally transmitted stories translate to the page where Traven's expertise on a variety of details—technical (mining, Mexican law) and cultural (Native Mexican society and language)—seems absolute? Thus the Erlebnisträger theory has been expanded to Traven accepting (or stealing) manuscripts from the experience-carrier, and perhaps events more sinister. (Baumann suggested in 1997 that Croves/Torsvan was the experience-carrier, cooperating with Marut as a contributor rather than the rooked tramp Schmid proposed.)

This is one of the oddest aspects of researching B. Traven's past, and in particular the Marut theory. To entertain the possibility that a man who survived World War I, fomented a Communist revolution and became a member of its Soviet, survived a bloody dissolution of that state, stood charged with treason and marked for execution, eluded arrest and prison, made an Atlantic crossing by ship under various assumed names, then completely reestablished his identity on a separate continent—that such a man would have to rely on another for experiences to write a novel. If it's true.

The carrier theory also explains one of the more puzzling aspects of B. Traven's writing which is easily lost on readers (and I include myself): The German versions of Traven's work are in a distinct German argot infused with clunky translations of Americanisms, while his English versions are written in an American style with translations of Germanisms peculiar to Bavaria, that is, language tics a German-American would probably not possess. (Traven insisted he translated his own work, claiming to be an American who'd lived in Germany at points in his life as way of explanation.)

Some of his novels were even published in German first, although he maintained he always penned his novels in English and translated from there....

...An American academic fluent in German, Baumann makes a strong case that Traven's so-called American vernacular is actually a German-speaker's poor attempts to make his characters "sound" American, fooling American readers who assume the coarse and butchered language is authentic of the lower classes. Traven's characters order "another cock well iced" at a bar. They tell someone to "shut your grub-hold." Baumann theorizes these came from German approximations of American slang clumsily translated back to English, much like the unintentional hilarity provided by English As She Is Spoke. As Baumann says, "Whatever the final explanation may be, the Erlebnisträger hypothesis would appear to force itself on us as soon as we reflect upon Traven's particular use of the English language."

See:

http://j-nelson.net/2014/10/twenty-writers-b-traven-the-treasure-of-the-sierra-madre/ (http://j-nelson.net/2014/10/twenty-writers-b-traven-the-treasure-of-the-sierra-madre/)

If you are looking for a hobby, answering the question "Who was B. Traven?" would be a good one! ;)

I recall reading both The Death Ship and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre wondering how on earth they were ever published (while I received rejection slips, and still do  ;)  ), given such an odd and clumsy style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on April 28, 2017, 06:23:55 PM
More Henry James travel writing. Tonight, Portraits of Places, via Google Books.

A bit of humor.  In A Little Tour of France James makes a lightly dismissive remark on the ubiquity of Tauchnitz editions, a German publishing venture which produced a long series of literature for the general public, a sort of Victorian version of Modern Library or Penguin Classics.
The humor lies in this:
The Google copy of PoP is a scan of a Tauchnitz edition, complete with a page listing other Jamesian works available in Tauchnitz editions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 29, 2017, 04:37:09 AM
An interesting biography of Ernesto Halffter (published some 20 years ago to accompany an exhibition on the composer's life and work here in Madrid):

[asin]8492108843[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 29, 2017, 05:15:22 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 25, 2017, 07:57:51 AM
Berchtold, perhaps after Moltke, was probably the single person most responsible for starting the war, and he lived another 25 years.

Come on, Ken! Such a colossal historical event had many more roots, reasons and motifs than the will and actions of a single individual.

Quote from: Christo on April 27, 2017, 07:58:59 AM
That's my point. Am around page 500 by now and haven't reached at the Kaiser yet.  :)

;D

Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 25, 2017, 07:30:13 AM
but no one had greater responsibility, Germany knew issuing 'the blank check' to Austria-Hungary in regards to invading Serbia would lead to war with Russia. 

Which obvously makes Russia as culpable.

And how about England and France looking just for a good reason to curtail Germany's steadily and thoroughly march towards European industrial and economical hegemony?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 29, 2017, 10:53:58 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 29, 2017, 05:15:22 AM
Come on, Ken! Such a colossal historical event had many more roots, reasons and motifs than the will and actions of a single individual.


Of course it does, but Berchtold and Moltke both wanted to use the crisis to start a war and worked to that end. They are a lot more responsible than the average man in the street!  We were discussing whether leaders were punished. Berchtold was the most culpable single man in the world still alive at the war,s end, but wasn't executed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 30, 2017, 05:56:47 PM
(http://static.flickr.com/85/244121747_a30d7d32e8_o.jpg)

Hitting some of Howard's Conan.  Reading it in order of publishing date.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 01, 2017, 07:02:50 AM
Interesting take: You May Be Wrong About Billy Joel (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447189/billy-joel-rock-critics)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on May 01, 2017, 04:37:44 PM
Belle du Seigneur: Albert Cohen

[asin]0140188711[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 01, 2017, 04:58:19 PM
Pineapple rock, lemon platt, butter scotch. A sugarsticky girl shovelling scoopfuls of creams for a christian brother. Some school treat. Bad for their tummies. Lozenge and comfit manufacturer to His Majesty the King. God. Save. Our. Sitting on his throne, sucking red jujubes white.

(Not reading the whole book again, just  a few chapters)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on May 04, 2017, 04:46:48 PM
(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1168051414l/30097.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 06, 2017, 10:08:47 AM
Reading a collection of Goethe's scientific writings. Boy it's gonna be a jolly good fun when I get to Farbenlehre.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on May 07, 2017, 10:37:17 PM
Swing Time, by Zadie Smith. If I try to summarize the plot, it will seem nothing to base a book on. And yet, like every book I've read by this author, it is extremely compelling. The story of two childhood friends who like to dance.

In the prologue, we are introduced to this bit of film history, whose existence is a source of astonishment to me. Fred Astaire, in blackface, performing a dance which is ostensibly a tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A6h12Qj9Cc

You can't un-see this.

Then, there's Jeni Legon in "Ali Baba Goes to Town."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtsxiw4ZHa8&t=76s



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 08, 2017, 05:02:07 AM
Quote from: Alberich on May 06, 2017, 10:08:47 AM
Reading a collection of Goethe's scientific writings. Boy it's gonna be a jolly good fun when I get to Farbenlehre.  :D

That should be proof enough for Unamuno's dictum: Science is a cemetery of dead ideas  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on May 20, 2017, 06:31:57 AM
I'm making my way through Absolute Preacher, Vol. 1:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61VX23JKDJL.jpg)

Absolutely love this series so far!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nodogen on May 21, 2017, 07:47:21 AM
A short, practical work in these times when the world is staring into the abyss.

[asin]1847924883[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 21, 2017, 09:47:44 AM
QuoteCoplas

                    i

'One cannot lose what one has not possessed.'
So much for that abrasive gem.
I can lose what I want. I want you.


                    ii

Oh my dear one, I shall grieve for you
For the rest of my life with slightly
Varying cadence, oh my dear one.


                    iii

Half-mocking the half-truth, I note
'The wild brevity of sensual love'.
I am shaken, even by that.


                    iv

It is to him I write, it is to her
I speak in contained silence. Will they be touched
By the unfamiliar passion between them?



[asin]014102500X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 21, 2017, 10:52:48 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Yp48G1jML._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 22, 2017, 04:46:14 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 21, 2017, 10:52:48 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Yp48G1jML._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'm also currently back (once again) reading Dickens. David Copperfield, that is. I've read A tale of two cities only once and recall liking it, even if it doesn't rank among my personal favorites.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 22, 2017, 04:49:24 AM
Also, I am finally getting more acquainted with other plays than Faust with Goethe. Started recently reading Iphigenia in Tauris. Never have read Euripides's version.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on May 22, 2017, 07:07:33 AM
Dickens for me as well.
(http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781593083113_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg)
This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.
(http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/art/illustration/phiz/bleakhouse/7.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 22, 2017, 07:13:53 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 22, 2017, 07:07:33 AM
Dickens for me as well.
(http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781593083113_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg)
This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.
(http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/art/illustration/phiz/bleakhouse/7.jpg)

That is one of the total of four novels of his I still haven't read. I've also heard that it quite possibly is his longest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 22, 2017, 09:54:16 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 22, 2017, 07:07:33 AM
Dickens for me as well.
(http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781593083113_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg)
This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.
(http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/art/illustration/phiz/bleakhouse/7.jpg)

That and Our Mutual Friend are the best. I keep thinking of rereading each.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2017, 09:56:34 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 22, 2017, 09:54:16 AM

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 22, 2017, 07:07:33 AM
Dickens for me as well.
(http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781593083113_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg)
This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.
(http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/art/illustration/phiz/bleakhouse/7.jpg)

That and Our Mutual Friend are the best. I keep thinking of rereading each.


I do need to read both of those.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 22, 2017, 10:12:20 AM
I finally broke down/took the plunge/got around to this

[asin]0618057072[/asin]

I am enjoying it so far. Is it weird to call such a book beautifully written? It really is, Gibbon-like, elegant, clear, flowing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 22, 2017, 03:30:48 PM
Its my first time reading Tale Of Two Cities, which has some of his best descriptive passages of time and place, alongside some pretty standard potboiler characters and characterization.

I remember liking Bleak House very much. Great Expectations probably remains my favorite. Haven't read Our Mutual Friend, but intend to.

Has anyone read American Notes? I've been considering that one recently, along with some of his other nonfiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 23, 2017, 08:51:05 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 22, 2017, 09:54:16 AM
That and Our Mutual Friend are the best. I keep thinking of rereading each.

Our Mutual Friend is definitely the best. Fitting that his last finished novel should be his greatest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 23, 2017, 02:57:17 PM
Interesting. What is it that makes it the best?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 23, 2017, 11:05:17 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 23, 2017, 02:57:17 PM
Interesting. What is it that makes it the best?

For example, the often mentioned point, more and more morally grey characters. Best example is probably Bradley Headstone, who despite his unpleasantness evokes sympathy in the reader, showing great skill of mature writer. In fact I find it hard to find single one pure evil character in the book who doesn't have at least a fleeting moment of sympathy. Silas Wegg seems a most jovial fellow when he's not scheming (as noted by G.K. Chesterton) and IMO Rogue Riderhood as well, who is funny as hell despite being probably the most "evil" character in the book and he gets his spotlights of sympathy as well, and a kind of begrudging acknowledgement from his skill in plotting. And the other one of the book's two heroines as well as of the heroes are not always the most pleasant people to be around, at least initially. Now, complex characters are not a new thing at all in literature - those have existed pretty much as long as literature has existed in the world but Dickens in general has often been accused of flat, black-and white characters which don't develop much. Sure there were some exceptions here and there (Rosa Dartle and James Steerforth in Copperfield, Pip, Estella, Magwitch and Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, Miss Wade and Mr. Merdle in Little Dorrit) but many can basically be divided in the league "the character agrees with the author" and "the character doesn't agree with the author" and have relatively few redeeming qualities. Of course this also depends on how the reader interprets the characters.

The plot handling is remarkably strong in Our Mutual Friend, many small points in the book are found out to have relevance later.

Hope I didn't spoil too much, the best part is reading the book and finding out all the cool things yourself and making your own reflections.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 23, 2017, 11:40:05 PM
Wow - great information. Thanks!

It also highlights the points I had to deduct from Tale Of Two Cities for the three or four ultimately bland pure-of-heart characters.

Speaking of TOTC: one thing i didn't understand was why Sydney Carton thinks of himself - and, more importantly, why we are meant to agree - as a squandered life of no merit, when he's clearly an excellent lawyer who can save his clients, and his worst character flaws are just alcoholism and possibly depression.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 23, 2017, 11:51:17 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 23, 2017, 11:40:05 PM
Speaking of TOTC: one thing i didn't understand was why Sydney Carton thinks of himself - and, more importantly, why we are meant to agree - as a squandered life of no merit, when he's clearly an excellent lawyer who can save his clients, and his worst character flaws are just alcoholism and possibly depression.

Hmm, that may have had something to do with Victorian standards - about striving towards "perfection", in the Victorian sense of the word. In Our Mutual Friend there is a minor character who clearly suffers from alcoholism and he is not handled as understandingly as modern society probably would - especially as he isn't shown beating anyone while drunk or anything.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 25, 2017, 06:12:38 AM
(http://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442971216i/16108613._UY200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 25, 2017, 06:53:19 AM
As informative and enjoyable as I had expected.

[asin]0815605358[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on May 28, 2017, 05:23:20 AM
Started reading this book.

(http://s.s-bol.com/imgbase0/imagebase/large/FC/8/7/3/7/9200000006227378.jpg)

It's a historial thriller, in Dutch. About the Dutch colonial past in Indonesia. First pages truely great. Going to be a long read, since it's a thick book and I am a slow reader, but might read longer each time I dive into it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on May 28, 2017, 05:28:16 AM
Gonna try to read this book by Derrida, parallel and related to my course about the design of technology (and society and technology).

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c7/ea/e0/c7eae0b22f4a2bc977adedb9def14926.jpg)

"In Archive Fever, Jacques Derrida deftly guides us through an extended meditation on remembrance, religion, time, and technology—fruitfully occasioned by a deconstructive analysis of the notion of archiving. Intrigued by the evocative relationship between technologies of inscription and psychic processes, Derrida offers for the first time a major statement on the pervasive impact of electronic media, particularly e-mail, which threaten to transform the entire public and private space of humanity. Plying this rich material with characteristic virtuosity, Derrida constructs a synergistic reading of archives and archiving, both provocative and compelling."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 02, 2017, 11:22:50 AM
Starting Hermann Broch's Demeter:

[asin]3518011995[/asin]
This is the third and final (unfinished) version of Broch's Bergroman ("Mountain Novel"), after The Seducer and The Spell (neither of which I have read). Broch tells the story of the apparition of irrational forces in a small alpine village (as a parable of the ascent of nazism).

I very much enjoyed (years ago) The Sleepwalkers and his essay Hugo von Hofmannsthal and his Time, but I remain intimidated by his magnum opus The Death of Virgil, which stands unread in my bookshelves since...ever.  :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 02, 2017, 03:27:52 PM
^I've also had The Death Of Virgil sitting on my shelves unread for far too long.

CR:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51zlg0GxKFL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Compelling, if rather unstructured, mix of politics, history and travel narrative surrounding the troubled and tragic stories of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 04, 2017, 08:03:06 AM
I started reading Les Miserables, this time unabridged. This may take some time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 04, 2017, 12:06:57 PM
Tom Sawyer
By Mark Twain

Never read before this actually.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 04, 2017, 02:30:55 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 04, 2017, 12:06:57 PM
Tom Sawyer
By Mark Twain

Never read before this actually.

That was the first book from Twain that I read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 04, 2017, 04:13:58 PM
Quote from: Alberich on June 04, 2017, 02:30:55 PM
That was the first book from Twain that I read.
It is for a lot of people, and the second for most of the rest! It's an old hole in my reading. Quite funny so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 06, 2017, 10:15:13 PM
I'm rereading 'Princess Mary' from this in anticipation of rewatching 'Un cœur en hiver.'

[asin]0143105639[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 07, 2017, 05:56:44 AM
Most SciFi is set tens or hundreds of years in the future, this is set 6 million years or so from now

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/House_of_Suns_%28Amazon%29.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 07, 2017, 06:02:50 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on June 07, 2017, 05:56:44 AM
Most SciFi is set tens or hundreds of years in the future

Of course there is that one particular scifi franchise which takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away... Yes, I noted the word "most" in your post, just messing around. :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 07, 2017, 06:10:41 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 07, 2017, 06:02:50 AM
Of course there is that one particular scifi franchise which takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away... Yes, I noted the word "most" in your post, just messing around. :P

should have qualified it with 'hard' scifi
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 07, 2017, 07:16:36 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 04, 2017, 04:13:58 PM
It is for a lot of people, and the second for most of the rest! It's an old hole in my reading. Quite funny so far.
It was the first by Twain for me when I was around 8 or 9 and together with "Treasure Island" which I read at about the same time it was probably the first book I read that could qualify as a "great book" or at least claim to transcend children's literature.

But I definitely was too young for "Huckleberry Finn" and I am not even sure I finished the latter when I tried it a year or so after Tom Sawyer. I was considerably disappointed because I had expected something much closer to a typical sequel of Tom Sawyer. (When I read Huckleberry Finn again a few year ago as an adult and in the original I found that the bits that try to bridge back to Tom Sawyer, especially the ending, are actually the weakest ones.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 07, 2017, 08:53:00 AM
Also started reading The Gilded Age, collaboration between Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2017, 08:53:50 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 07, 2017, 08:53:00 AM
Also started reading The Gilded Age, collaboration between Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner.

I've not read that.  (Yet.)  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 07, 2017, 09:12:00 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 07, 2017, 08:53:50 AM
I've not read that.  (Yet.)  8)

The beginning seems promising enough. Who knows, maybe this will become my choice for the greatest American novel?  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2017, 09:17:06 AM
(* chortle *)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 07, 2017, 10:14:48 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on June 07, 2017, 07:16:36 AM
It was the first by Twain for me when I was around 8 or 9 and together with "Treasure Island" which I read at about the same time it was probably the first book I read that could qualify as a "great book" or at least claim to transcend children's literature.

But I definitely was too young for "Huckleberry Finn" and I am not even sure I finished the latter when I tried it a year or so after Tom Sawyer. I was considerably disappointed because I had expected something much closer to a typical sequel of Tom Sawyer. (When I read Huckleberry Finn again a few year ago as an adult and in the original I found that the bits that try to bridge back to Tom Sawyer, especially the ending, are actually the weakest ones.)

Ironically Moby Dick is now often sold as a children's book! I was asked by a prof once if he should get it for his kid aged about 8. I boggled. But I have seen it, unabridged, unaltered, on sale in the children's section!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 07, 2017, 10:57:50 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61MjKAY2d%2BL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Henning Mankell's last book, the Swedish Rubber Boots (2015). All of Mankell's novels are bleak. They are about small gestures, insignificant events. Words that come out do so at a cost. His characters are mentally and emotionally weaker at the end vs at the beginnning.

For some reason it doesn't seem to be available in English yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 07, 2017, 12:36:07 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 22, 2017, 07:07:33 AM
Dickens for me as well.
(http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781593083113_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg)
This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.
(http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/art/illustration/phiz/bleakhouse/7.jpg)

Enjoyed that one....not on the Copperfield level for me, but what is,as it is my favorite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 07, 2017, 12:42:49 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/I_Robot_-_Runaround.jpg)

After this, I will hit the  Elijah Baley series for a second read. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 10, 2017, 11:04:47 AM
It bothers me a bit that my edition of "Gilded age" does not have page numbers. This may be one of the only times that I ever have had to use a bookmark!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on June 10, 2017, 06:07:04 PM
On the topic of fake news
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/journalist.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: James on June 12, 2017, 02:48:32 AM
(http://www.dreadcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/bts-alien-covenant-book.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 12, 2017, 06:44:07 AM
Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist by Erich Kastner.

[asin]1590175840[/asin]

The last time I was in the gym some woman told me it was the first occasion she's seen me without a book. I usually take one with me because while some people play on their phones when waiting for a bench or punchbag to be vacated, I don't have that kind of phone. Anyway, due to packing and putting stuff into storage I've left myself nothing to read and so today I bought a few books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 12, 2017, 06:54:37 AM
Quote from: James on June 12, 2017, 02:48:32 AM
(http://www.dreadcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/bts-alien-covenant-book.jpg)

I haven't seen this yet but I'm going to make time to see it on the big screen.

Quote from: Bogey on June 07, 2017, 12:42:49 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/I_Robot_-_Runaround.jpg)

After this, I will hit the  Elijah Baley series for a second read. 

Reminds me of the OTR (old time radio) shows I used to download with a 28.8 kbit(?) connection. It was shows like Dimension X and X Minus One and Quiet, Please. Surprisingly few were cheesy and most were atmospheric and cool. X Minus One in particular had stories from (amongst others) Asimov and Pohl and Heinlein and Simak. Good stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 14, 2017, 06:34:51 PM
Quote from: NikF on June 12, 2017, 06:54:37 AM


Reminds me of the OTR (old time radio) shows I used to download with a 28.8 kbit(?) connection. It was shows like Dimension X and X Minus One and Quiet, Please. Surprisingly few were cheesy and most were atmospheric and cool. X Minus One in particular had stories from (amongst others) Asimov and Pohl and Heinlein and Simak. Good stuff.

You download and listen to OTR Nik because you are a cool cat. I have been buying some Ace Doubles for future sci-fi reading.  Nothing like a sci-fi paperback from the 50's for back porch summer reading!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 15, 2017, 12:54:23 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 07, 2017, 10:14:48 AM
Ironically Moby Dick is now often sold as a children's book! I was asked by a prof once if he should get it for his kid aged about 8. I boggled. But I have seen it, unabridged, unaltered, on sale in the children's section!
That's amazing. Although I also remember from my childhood/youth (early 1980s) that usually heavily abridged and edited "classics" like "Moby Dick", "Robinson Crusoe", "Gulliver's travels" and also "Count of Monte Cristo", "Three Musketeers" "Oliver Twist" or "David Copperfield" were offered as children's books. I guess that often went almost as far as re-telling the main story in accessible language but sometimes they were also older cheaply re-published editions only moderately abridged. I do not remember details.
I think that the Moby Dick translation I read with about 15 was not or (probably) only slightly abridged but I do not remember exactly (and cannot check as it was a borrowed copy).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on June 15, 2017, 04:44:14 AM
(http://wodehouse.ru/cover/e/57-03.jpg)

My first venture into several Wodehouse worlds which I haven't explored this far: Blandings, golf, Mr.Mulliner and Ukridge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on June 15, 2017, 08:12:24 AM
His best known book is probably Battle Cry of Freedom.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51utP0TJ9FL.jpg)

The naval aspect of the Civil War is sometimes lost--as he notes at the start, the forces on land, and the number of casualties, of the forces on land were greater by orders of magnitude--but crucial.  He keeps the narrative going, sometimes at the cost of making the background details clear.  And sometimes he strikes an oddly modern note.  Thus, one commander in charge of the fighting, faced with a plan from Washington that does not match reality, is said to "wonder what Fox was smoking".

But overall, gets an A from me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 19, 2017, 12:47:50 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513zXoiv5zL.jpg)

Father's Day gift. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 19, 2017, 12:55:07 PM
Quote from: Bogey on June 19, 2017, 12:47:50 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513zXoiv5zL.jpg)

Father's Day gift.

Good stuff.   8).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 21, 2017, 05:22:19 AM
Enjoying Gilded age so far, a great book but unfortunately an awful, awful edition. It's full of typos and errors and doesn't even have page numbers, as noted before.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2017, 01:52:08 PM
Quote from: Alberich on June 21, 2017, 05:22:19 AM
Enjoying Gilded age so far, a great book but unfortunately an awful, awful edition. It's full of typos and errors and doesn't even have page numbers, as noted before.

Pirate edtion, perhaps?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 21, 2017, 02:23:11 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2017, 01:52:08 PM
Pirate edtion, perhaps?  ;D

It has pirates? Is this like that Pride And Prejudice With Zombies?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 25, 2017, 11:35:16 AM
Bogey alert.

http://www.listchallenges.com/pulp-fiction-the-best-noir-novels (http://www.listchallenges.com/pulp-fiction-the-best-noir-novels)

36
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: arpeggio on June 25, 2017, 05:48:05 PM
Reading an old classic: Lord Jim.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 27, 2017, 09:05:54 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 25, 2017, 11:35:16 AM
Bogey alert.

http://www.listchallenges.com/pulp-fiction-the-best-noir-novels (http://www.listchallenges.com/pulp-fiction-the-best-noir-novels)

36
10...embarrassing. I need to get some reading done!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 27, 2017, 10:21:34 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 27, 2017, 09:05:54 AM
10...embarrassing. I need to get some reading done!
Especially if those 10 don't include all the Hammett.

TD Huck Finn. Or having it read; I got an audible edition for $2 from Amazon. It's been 40 years since I read this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on June 27, 2017, 10:25:47 AM
Quote from: arpeggio on June 25, 2017, 05:48:05 PM
Reading an old classic: Lord Jim.

Great book. Victory is another book by Conrad which I love, but which doesn't seem to get as much mention as some of his other works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 27, 2017, 10:46:50 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 27, 2017, 10:21:34 AM
Especially if those 10 don't include all the Hammett.

TD Huck Finn. Or having it read; I got an audible edition for $2 from Amazon. It's been 40 years since I read this.
Zowie!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 27, 2017, 11:33:57 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 27, 2017, 10:46:50 AM
Zowie!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Yeah. The trick is to buy a free Kindle copy of Huck Finn, and add narration for $2.
I have Barchester Towers too, which was $3.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 27, 2017, 11:38:38 AM


Quote from: Ken B on June 27, 2017, 11:33:57 AM
Yeah. The trick is to buy a free Kindle copy of Huck Finn, and add narration for $2.

Is the narrator good?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 27, 2017, 11:39:05 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 27, 2017, 11:38:38 AM

Is the narrator good?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Yes, quite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 28, 2017, 01:56:03 AM
I never really got into Joseph Conrad. Even more than in Faulkner's case I am disappointed with myself. Because I *should* like such sea and adventure stories.
I read "The secret agent", another one with anarchists (probably "Under Western Eyes") and "Typhoon" but was not really gripped by any of them, except maybe the first one but this was also considerably less exciting than I had expected. I tried "Heart of Darkness"  at least twice but got stuck before/around the middle, with "Lord Jim" I got stuck even closer to the beginning. Maybe I should try again (it has been 10-20 years since I read most of them).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 28, 2017, 02:50:25 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41WOXdF8GCL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 28, 2017, 05:29:06 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 25, 2017, 11:35:16 AM
Bogey alert.

http://www.listchallenges.com/pulp-fiction-the-best-noir-novels (http://www.listchallenges.com/pulp-fiction-the-best-noir-novels)

36

Love it, Ken!  However, no Peter Rabe! (My man!)  No W. R. Burnett!  Where is Dorothy Hughes? I guess if I made a list, I would choose one novel from each author.   At least they snuck in Westlake (Stark). 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 28, 2017, 06:32:59 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 28, 2017, 05:29:06 AM
Love it, Ken!  However, no Peter Rabe! (My man!)  No W. R. Burnett!  Where is Dorothy Hughes? I guess if I made a list, I would choose one novel from each author.   At least they snuck in Westlake (Stark).
I agree we could do better.  ;) There are some gaps and some authors over represented, but it's a good list overall.

But what's your score Bill?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 28, 2017, 07:46:11 AM
Quote from: Bogey on June 28, 2017, 05:29:06 AM
Love it, Ken!  However, no Peter Rabe! (My man!)  No W. R. Burnett!  Where is Dorothy Hughes? I guess if I made a list, I would choose one novel from each author.   At least they snuck in Westlake (Stark).
Dorothy Hughes is incredible. Has rapidly become one of my favorites; In a Lonely Place is really, really good and Expendable Man is arguably even better. I need to read more of her stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 28, 2017, 08:12:40 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 28, 2017, 07:46:11 AM
Dorothy Hughes is incredible. Has rapidly become one of my favorites; In a Lonely Place is really, really good and Expendable Man is arguably even better. I need to read more of her stuff.
Place is very different from the movie! I think the library has Expendable ....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 28, 2017, 08:27:10 AM
Gilded age has been great so far, although I find it a bit repetitive the way it is constantly built up that now the protagonists are finally going to sell their land, each time for greater and greater sum - and they always turn it down, sometimes so abruptly it seems a mere necessity. I get that it is supposed to show the way greed takes over men and in order to not solve a major plot point too quickly but it could have been written much more naturally. It was effective enough the first time, no need to be a broken record about it.

On the plus side, there is much brilliant satire in the book. The character of Beriah Sellers is very similar in personality to Mr. Micawber from Dickens's David Copperfield. It seems he re-used the character in "The American Claimant", although this time as Mulberry Sellers, having received objections from actual person named Beriah Sellers.

Laura is a very successfully written woman character, being witty and clever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on June 28, 2017, 08:33:10 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 28, 2017, 06:32:59 AM
I agree we could do better.  ;) There are some gaps and some authors over represented, but it's a good list overall.

But what's your score Bill?

Only hit 11. Some of the authors I have read, but not the books listed. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 28, 2017, 12:27:28 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 28, 2017, 08:12:40 AM
Place is very different from the movie! I think the library has Expendable ....
Yep, read the book and was very surprised to say the least when I saw the movie!

Do as little research about Expendable Man as possible. There is a plot reveal about 50 pages in which still has the capacity to surprise readers!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 02, 2017, 09:18:33 PM
The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen.

[asin]1906998337[/asin]

I usually have two books on the go at any one time. This is what I'm currently reading during the interval at a concert or ballet or while waiting for a bus and also at the gym when the benches are all being monopolized by a bunch of special snowflake dicks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 03, 2017, 08:31:35 AM
The Dain Curse. About two thirds through at the moment.  I have to say that the section set in the Temple is so weird it sounds like it might be parody of some pulp  fiction tropes.

The only other Hammett I've ever read is The Thin Man.  I have to admit I prefer the Thin Man...

After this,  a Chandler multiplex that includes The Big Sleep and Farewell My Lovely.  Heretofore, my acquaintance with Chandler has been solely through the medium of Bogart.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 03, 2017, 08:41:51 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 03, 2017, 08:31:35 AM
The Dain Curse. About two thirds through at the moment.  I have to say that the section set in the Temple is so weird it sounds like it might be parody of some pulp  fiction tropes.

The only other Hammett I've ever read is The Thin Man.  I have to admit I prefer the Thin Man...

After this,  a Chandler multiplex that includes The Big Sleep and Farewell My Lovely.  Heretofore, my acquaintance with Chandler has been solely through the medium of Bogart.

Dain is by far his weakest book. Try Red Harvest to see the Op in best form.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 03, 2017, 09:16:19 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 03, 2017, 08:41:51 AM
Dain is by far his weakest book. Try Red Harvest to see the Op in best form.

Well, considering the only three dimensional character just got thrown over the side of a cliff (it's a crime novel, so I'm guessing it was no accident)....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 05, 2017, 09:56:30 AM
Next up on audible

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/ThreeSoldiers.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 06, 2017, 02:15:54 PM
Quote from: Draško on June 15, 2017, 04:44:14 AM
(http://wodehouse.ru/cover/e/57-03.jpg)

My first venture into several Wodehouse worlds which I haven't explored this far: Blandings, golf, Mr.Mulliner and Ukridge.

Ukridge stories I didn't like at all, Mr.Mulliner and Drones Club ones so-so, Blandings is represented by one longer story 'Crime wave at Blandings' which is very good, but the ones I liked the most, somewhat unexpectedly, are the golf stories. I know next to nothing about the game of golf but it didn't matter. Wodehouse obviously had great affection for the game and it shows.

Now moving onto:

(https://img0.etsystatic.com/168/0/14635707/il_340x270.1184519174_d77m.jpg)

I've seen the movie Talented Mr.Ripley (both versions) but haven't read any of the books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost Sonata on July 06, 2017, 02:21:24 PM
Surprisingly readable and rewarding, so far :

[asin]0801499607[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 06, 2017, 05:36:29 PM
Bought today at Barnes and Noble. Their own edition, not this one
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51N07rwOfdL.jpg)
The preface says that Wister started on a music career, studying piano and composition in Europe after Liszt told his family Wister had the necessary talent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 06, 2017, 11:48:03 PM
Quote from: Draško on July 06, 2017, 02:15:54 PM
Ukridge stories I didn't like at all, Mr.Mulliner and Drones Club ones so-so, Blandings is represented by one longer story 'Crime wave at Blandings' which is very good, but the ones I liked the most, somewhat unexpectedly, are the golf stories. I know next to nothing about the game of golf but it didn't matter. Wodehouse obviously had great affection for the game and it shows.

Now moving onto:

(https://img0.etsystatic.com/168/0/14635707/il_340x270.1184519174_d77m.jpg)

I've seen the movie Talented Mr.Ripley (both versions) but haven't read any of the books.
But you have to start with the first one, not one of the last ones!

I am not sure I have read any Ukridge story. Of the Wodehouse I read I think the Jeeves and Wooster series (I have read all) are the best by some margin (except a few late ones). The main reason for this is Bertie as narrator; most of the other stuff seems far more conventionally narrated (Although they are also superlative as far as characters go, only Lord Emsworth himself is as good as a whole bunch of the Jeeves/Wooster supporting cast.) Of the Blandings (I read most of them) some are almost as good (even the very first one where Lord Emsworth is quite different from the later character is surprisingly good) but the later ones are considerably weaker (I quite dislike his "aged rake" characters like Galahad and Uncle Fred). I have read a few more standalones and short stories and they are generally weaker, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 07, 2017, 03:03:10 AM
Quote from: Draško on July 06, 2017, 02:15:54 PM

I've seen the movie Talented Mr.Ripley (both versions) but haven't read any of the books.

Two movies? Investigating this I see there's a version called Plein Soleil with Alain Delon from 1960. You've seen this? If so, what's it like?

Which reminds me: there's a 2005 film of Ripley Under Ground which has still not made it out my way in any format.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 07, 2017, 05:01:14 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 06, 2017, 11:48:03 PM
But you have to start with the first one, not one of the last ones!

Ripley Under Ground is only the second one, right after The Talented Mr.Ripley, which I thought to skip on account of already seeing the movie.

QuoteI am not sure I have read any Ukridge story.

He is this rather annoying schemer whose only preoccupation is how to swindle some money, mostly from his rich aunt. Tiresome.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on July 07, 2017, 05:08:28 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 07, 2017, 03:03:10 AM
Two movies? Investigating this I see there's a version called Plein Soleil with Alain Delon from 1960. You've seen this? If so, what's it like?

It's leaner and tauter than more baroque and lavish Minghella film. It's a decent film, worth seeing on its own but I don't prefer it to the Minghella one. I find it bit hard to buy Delon with his looks and charisma as someone who needs to scheme, con, assume others identities in order to succeed in life. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 07, 2017, 07:34:10 AM
I still think it is better to start with the first novel despite the movies (in my recollection it is the best one although the others are all pretty good while mainly repeating very similar plots/tropes but it's been almost 20 years that I read them)

I don't think I ever saw the movie with Delon; I did not like the newish one very much and it has considerable changes vs. the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 08, 2017, 12:30:22 AM
La Placa del Diamant/In Diamond Square by Merce Rodoreda.

[asin]1844087379[/asin]

The weather has picked up, although I'm not sure how long for. But while the going is good I'm off to the park with a book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 08, 2017, 02:17:38 AM
Quote from: NikF on July 08, 2017, 12:30:22 AM
La Placa del Diamant/In Diamond Square by Merce Rodoreda.

[asin]1844087379[/asin]

The weather has picked up, although I'm not sure how long for. But while the going is good I'm off to the park with a book.

It is Wimbledon fortnight after all  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 08, 2017, 03:11:20 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 08, 2017, 02:17:38 AM
It is Wimbledon fortnight after all  ;D

I forgot about that. But you're right. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nodogen on July 09, 2017, 02:13:20 PM
Comrade Corbyn
by Rosa Prince.

When I bought this book not long ago I thought I'd be reading about someone who was about to have his political career terminated.

"A week's a long time in politics."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 10, 2017, 03:55:13 AM
Reading Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 14, 2017, 06:15:41 AM
(https://images.booklooker.de/s/00b0xK/Thomas-Mann+K%C3%B6nigliche-Hoheit.jpg)

I think this is my first time reading Thomas Mann. The satire in the opening chapter is absolutely hilarious.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 14, 2017, 06:29:07 AM
Big Mann fan, but I never read that one ! Must locate a copy. Thanks for the tip !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 14, 2017, 10:49:02 AM
It is comparably short and light.
It was something like a "bridal gift" to Katia. The millionaire's daughter shares some features with her, among others she is also a student of maths and there is an  brilliant description how algebra lecture notes look to someone who has absolutely no clue about what they are supposed to be.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on July 15, 2017, 05:12:31 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519lB7Q3XVL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 16, 2017, 09:48:38 AM
Having finished Julius Caesar, now reading King John.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on July 16, 2017, 01:50:37 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5187hEqUrzL._SX329_.jpg)


Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World, by Thomas Madden.  A short/medium length history of Istanbul (358 text pages), Madden's book zooms right through the ancient city's historical highpoints with just enough depth and a quick reading style.  Reading it, I have once again resolved to read more on the ancient eastern empires, and maybe this time the resolve will amount to something.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 16, 2017, 02:48:20 PM
For the Byzantines, Gibbon is still the best read. Norwich's three decker about the Byzantine Empire is possibly the best modern one, but not quite as good as his history of Venice. (He did a one volume history of Byzantium, but I haven't read that: I assumed it was an abridgement of the three volume work.). His one flaw is that he loves his subjects too much.

I remember reading Lord Kinross's history of the Ottomans and thinking it good, but there are alternatives there I don't remember reading.

Speaking of Norwich, I am reading this at the moment.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NB3qALs4L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on July 16, 2017, 03:04:44 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 16, 2017, 02:48:20 PM
For the Byzantines, Gibbon is still the best read. Norwich's three decker about the Byzantine Empire is possibly the best modern one, but not quite as good as his history of Venice. (He did a one volume history of Byzantium, but I haven't read that: I assumed it was an abridgement of the three volume work.). His one flaw is that he loves his subjects too much.

I remember reading Lord Kinross's history of the Ottomans and thinking it good, but there are alternatives there I don't remember reading.


Thanks of the tips.  The Kinross looks like my speed for the Ottomans.  As a point on clarity, I meant more the Persian and Chaldean empires, but more info on the eastern remnants of Rome is always welcome.  (I'm just not sure I want a three volume history, at least for now.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 16, 2017, 03:18:43 PM
Quote from: Todd on July 16, 2017, 03:04:44 PM

Thanks of the tips.  The Kinross looks like my speed for the Ottomans.  As a point on clarity, I meant more the Persian and Chaldean empires, but more info on the eastern remnants of Rome is always welcome.  (I'm just not sure I want a three volume history, at least for now.)

Can't help you there. Gore Vidal's Creation is a great historical novel, but it is 1)a novel and 2)used a view of the Persian Empire's chronology that was outdated even when he wrote it. But that's the only pertinent book I've read on Persia and Mesopotamia that was not narrowly focused on the Jews of those areas.
People like Tom Holland's books, but in what I have read of him, I have found errors in tangential matters that suggested in some things his research was confined to skimming for fun looking factoids.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 16, 2017, 04:20:18 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41dKkez-1rL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

finished:

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

This much praised bestseller I found merely serviceable in laying out the chronology, letting a number of key players speak in their own words, debunking a few myths and giving equal weight to all the parts of his career. Where it lets itself down is in the constant repetition of already made conclusions and in the four or five same amateur-psychology "insights" that the author too easily falls back on and beats like a drum all the way through the book.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 16, 2017, 08:04:27 PM
This fantastic column https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/opinion/how-we-are-ruining-america.html?_r=0 (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/opinion/how-we-are-ruining-america.html?_r=0)

I will read the Small Differences book I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 16, 2017, 11:27:56 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5126QVQPB4L._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51YVM5K5H2L._SX282_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

"Vasiliev's survey of Byzantine history is unique in the field.  It is complete, including a sketch of literature and art for each period, while all other works of the kind, even the most recent, either are restricted to a shorter time, or neglect some side of eastern civilization. . . . This widely known and highly prized History of the Byzantine Empire needs not the commendation of any reviewer.  Written originally in Russian, it has been turned into English, French, Spanish, and Turkish.  It has always been a favorite with students."—The Catholic Historical Review

I have it in the two-volume-in-one Romanian edition and can attest to its enormous scope and erudition.

And a small correction: The "Byzantine" Empire (originally an ideologically-motivated misnomer) was not some "eastern remnant of Rome" --- it was THE Roman Empire, continuing its existence, albeit in mostly diminished territorial extension, until 1453. The 476 Fall of the Roman Empire is a legend; nothing of the sort happened, and if somebody would have told the then-Emperor Zeno in Constaninople that the Empire felt, that person would have been (rightly) laughed off the court.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 16, 2017, 11:41:35 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 16, 2017, 11:27:56 PMAnd a small correction: The "Byzantine" Empire (originally an ideologically-motivated misnomer) was not some "eastern remnant of Rome" --- it was THE Roman Empire, continuing its existence, albeit in mostly diminished territorial extension, until 1453. The 476 Fall of the Roman Empire is a legend; nothing of the sort happened, and if somebody would have told the then-Emperor Zeno in Constaninople that the Empire felt, that person would have been (rightly) laughed off the court.
Correct, I never taught otherwise and will normally refer to the Roman Empire only. And of course to the so-called Holy Roman Empire, which lasted til 1809 in some enclaves of the German Order, and might be said to survive in the tiny form of Liechtenstein. :-)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 17, 2017, 12:08:15 AM
Of course the Eastern part of the Roman Empire was still going strong for several centuries. But it is also misleading to claim that nothing happened in 476 when the western branch "fell"/was taken over by Germanic tribes. Or especially after the 7th century when the East lost quite a bit of its territory to Arab expansion. Or in 800 when Charlemagne claimed the title of Holy Roman Emperor (which pissed off the real (Eastern) Roman Emperor considerably). All these are important landmarks in European/Mediterranean history.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 17, 2017, 12:42:43 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 17, 2017, 12:08:15 AMOr especially after the 7th century when the East lost quite a bit of its territory to Arab expansion.
The most important game changer, and if one feels inclined to discern a 'Byzantine' period in Roman history, this is the only meaningful starting point.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 17, 2017, 03:13:22 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 17, 2017, 12:08:15 AM
Of course the Eastern part of the Roman Empire was still going strong for several centuries. But it is also misleading to claim that nothing happened in 476 when the western branch "fell"/was taken over by Germanic tribes.

In any case, nothing akin to "the Fall of the Roman Empire". It is quite significant that after deposing the child emperor Romulus Augustulus*, Odoacer sent the imperial inisgnia to Constantinople**.

*A move which was actually of less practical importance for Odoacer than deposing the Magister Militum, Orestes, who happened to be Romulus Augustulus's father.

More importantly, perhaps, Orestes in his turn had deposed the previous emperor Julius Nepos in 475 and forced him to fled Italy, but the latter was still acknowledged as the only legitimate emperor by his colleague in Constantinople, so actually Odoacer deposed an usurper. Shall we then substitute 475 for 476 as "the year the Roman Empire" fell?

** "the Fall of Rome" would be even farther from being true: all throughout 476 AD life in Rome was business as usual in a rather unimportant city. Odoacer's coup took place in Ravenna, which had taken Rome's place as the capital of the Western Empire in 402.

Quote
Or especially after the 7th century when the East lost quite a bit of its territory to Arab expansion. Or in 800 when Charlemagne claimed the title of Holy Roman Emperor (which pissed off the real (Eastern) Roman Emperor considerably). All these are important landmarks in European/Mediterranean history.

True, but despite all these momentous events, all the "Byzantine" emperors, from Charlemagne's time up to the very last one in 1453, called themselves βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων, "emperor of the Romans" and their state Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, "Empire of the Romans", while the inhabitants called themselves Ῥωμαίωί, "Romans". Inventing a "Byzantine" Empire ruled by "Byzantine" Emperors and inhabited by "Byzantines" has nothing to do with the historical reality and everything to do with ideology and prejudice. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then call it a rabbit.

For an in-depth discussion of what really happened in 476 and why "Byzantine" is a gross misnomer, prejudice-ladden and concocted for ideological reasons, see this excellent online article:

Decadence, Rome and Romania, the Emperors Who Weren't, and Other Reflections on Roman History (http://www.friesian.com/decdenc1.htm)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 17, 2017, 07:49:35 AM
Francoise Sagan: Bonjour Tristesse....


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41KIHRD9fKL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This one was recommended to me by my daughter and it it did not disappoint. I found the outlook to be incisive and mature for one so young.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 17, 2017, 07:57:07 AM
The Byzantines called themselves Romans, their empire the Roman Empire, and their emperor Emperor of the Romans until the bitter end.  But perhaps the best marker is linguistic:  Justinian was the last Emperor who spoke Latin as his mother tongue.  He was the one who reconquered Italy and North Africa, but even in his day laws and decrees were promulgated in vernacular Greek to ensure the populace understood them (even though the Institutes and related publications were written in Latin).  It seems people used to say Heraclius made Greek the official language, but that was mostly legend.  Still, it would seem that by the early 7th century, just before the advent of the Islamic Conquest, one could reasonably think of an Eastern Empire that was significantly different in organization and culture from its predecessor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 17, 2017, 09:34:52 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 17, 2017, 07:57:07 AM
The Byzantines called themselves Romans, their empire the Roman Empire, and their emperor Emperor of the Romans until the bitter end.  But perhaps the best marker is linguistic:

I beg to differ. Especially in the case of an Empire, the linguistic mark is more often than not misleading.

Quote
  Justinian was the last Emperor who spoke Latin as his mother tongue.

This is a fact, but its relevance is somehow offset by a number of other facts

1. Greek had been the second language of the educated Romans, and Greek preceptors were the most sought-after, long before the Empire was established. With the possible exception of some soldier-emperors who lacked a thorough education, in all probability all other Roman emperors, starting with Octavian Augustus and including Justinian himself, spoke and wrote Greek fluently, and some of them even used Greek for writing their works, the most famous example being Marcus Aurelius.

2. Justinian was preceded by several emperors whose mother tongue was not Latin and who weren't even ethnically Latin (he had himself Illyrian / Thracian blood in his veins and was born in present-day Macedonia), the most famous being Diocletian (born Diokles --- a Greek name --- in Dalmatia, present-day Croatia, probably of Illyrian descent), Galerius (of certain Thracian / Dacian origin, born in present-day Sofia) and Constantine the Great (born in present-day Serbia of Illyrian / Dacian - Greek descent).

3. Latin proper had been the language of only a fraction of the entire population of the Roman Empire, and even of the city of Rome proper, long before the administrative split of Diocletian.

There was hardly any town of importance in the West in which the Greek tongue was not in everyday use. In Rome, North Africa, and Gaul, the use of Greek was prevalent up to the third century.  (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=2786)

Ironically, it is arguably only after Constantinople was founded and the Eastern Empire established and the Germanic tribes began to settle on Roman soil that Rome became a purely Latin-speaking city due to the Greek-speaking population massively going eastward and the Germanic peoples being gradualy "Romanized".

With the progressive "Romanization" and conversion of the races of the West, the influence of the Greek culture is gradually dethroned. According to H. Lietzmann, J. Jungmann, T. Klauser, "Greek lasted up until the middle of the third century, when the Roman Christians had made Latin their popular language and readily adopted it into the Roman culture."23 During the ensuing years, the gulf between the language of the Liturgy and the language of the people widened. Nevertheless in due consideration of the many problems involved, Greek in the Liturgy ceded definitely to Latin in the fourth century because Latin was then the common language of the people. (This evolution was accomplished in the course of two centuries—from the beginning of the third to the end of the fourth century.) The transition of the liturgical language took place in Rome, and the initiative for the change is attributed to Pope Damasus. (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=2786)


QuoteHe was the one who reconquered Italy and North Africa, but even in his day laws and decrees were promulgated in vernacular Greek to ensure the populace understood them (even though the Institutes and related publications were written in Latin).

One more proof for #3 above.

Quoteit would seem that by the early 7th century, just before the advent of the Islamic Conquest, one could reasonably think of an Eastern Empire that was significantly different in organization and culture from its predecessor.

But that is the whole point of contention: the Eastern Roman Empire was not the successor of a preceding Roman Empire, nor was a preceding Roman Empire succeeded by the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman / "Byzantine" Empire had always been simply the Roman Empire, period. And after the Western Empire disintegrated, it became THE Roman Empire.

As for "significantly different in organization and culture", the formula applies to the Roman Empire during Nero and during Diocletian before his move to administratively split it. Should we therefore say that they were two different empires?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 17, 2017, 06:47:31 PM
The Western Empire, which includes the little known town called Rome, indubitably did fall. It became fashionable in recent decades to (nonsensically) deny this. The Eastern Empire was whittled away over time, but I think Andrei has a point. It was the same empire in the same sense that modern England is still Plantagenet England, despite the different language.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 17, 2017, 06:56:23 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 17, 2017, 09:34:52 AM
I beg to differ. Especially in the case of an Empire, the linguistic mark is more often than not misleading.
 

This is a fact, but its relevance is somehow offset by a number of other facts

1. Greek had been the second language of the educated Romans, and Greek preceptors were the most sought-after, long before the Empire was established. With the possible exception of some soldier-emperors who lacked a thorough education, in all probability all other Roman emperors, starting with Octavian Augustus and including Justinian himself, spoke and wrote Greek fluently, and some of them even used Greek for writing their works, the most famous example being Marcus Aurelius.

2. Justinian was preceded by several emperors whose mother tongue was not Latin and who weren't even ethnically Latin (he had himself Illyrian / Thracian blood in his veins and was born in present-day Macedonia), the most famous being Diocletian (born Diokles --- a Greek name --- in Dalmatia, present-day Croatia, probably of Illyrian descent), Galerius (of certain Thracian / Dacian origin, born in present-day Sofia) and Constantine the Great (born in present-day Serbia of Illyrian / Dacian - Greek descent).

3. Latin proper had been the language of only a fraction of the entire population of the Roman Empire, and even of the city of Rome proper, long before the administrative split of Diocletian.

There was hardly any town of importance in the West in which the Greek tongue was not in everyday use. In Rome, North Africa, and Gaul, the use of Greek was prevalent up to the third century.  (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=2786)

Ironically, it is arguably only after Constantinople was founded and the Eastern Empire established and the Germanic tribes began to settle on Roman soil that Rome became a purely Latin-speaking city due to the Greek-speaking population massively going eastward and the Germanic peoples being gradualy "Romanized".

With the progressive "Romanization" and conversion of the races of the West, the influence of the Greek culture is gradually dethroned. According to H. Lietzmann, J. Jungmann, T. Klauser, "Greek lasted up until the middle of the third century, when the Roman Christians had made Latin their popular language and readily adopted it into the Roman culture."23 During the ensuing years, the gulf between the language of the Liturgy and the language of the people widened. Nevertheless in due consideration of the many problems involved, Greek in the Liturgy ceded definitely to Latin in the fourth century because Latin was then the common language of the people. (This evolution was accomplished in the course of two centuries—from the beginning of the third to the end of the fourth century.) The transition of the liturgical language took place in Rome, and the initiative for the change is attributed to Pope Damasus. (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=2786)


One more proof for #3 above.

But that is the whole point of contention: the Eastern Roman Empire was not the successor of a preceding Roman Empire, nor was a preceding Roman Empire succeeded by the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman / "Byzantine" Empire had always been simply the Roman Empire, period. And after the Western Empire disintegrated, it became THE Roman Empire.

As for "significantly different in organization and culture", the formula applies to the Roman Empire during Nero and during Diocletian before his move to administratively split it. Should we therefore say that they were two different empires?

As to the last (good) question: AD 381. The Empire really did begin to change its culture and raison d'être after it became officially Christian. That was a process not an event but 381 is a good marker.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 17, 2017, 10:14:10 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 17, 2017, 06:47:31 PM
The Western Empire, which includes the little known town called Rome, indubitably did fall.

I don't deny that, but as you correctly point out, it was a process, not an event. What I do deny is that the Roman Empire as an official, continuous entity fell at any other date than May 29, 1453.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on July 18, 2017, 11:18:12 PM
Don DeLillo - Libra

DeLillo's psychological and blackly satirical take on the events leading up to the assassination of JFK. Split between an almost comical look at a group of CIA agents who are trying to plot a failed attempt on the President's life as a pretext for full blown war with Cuba, and the meticulously researched and convincingly dramatised biography of Lee Harvey Oswald, the plot alternates as the two stories converge, in a similar but not quite the same structure as DeLillo contemporary Thomas Pynchon's V.. Jack Ruby, who is the main character of a few sections, is also richly fleshed out. There is also a third story, arguably a frame narrative of sorts, though it first appears a good way into the novel rather than at the beginning, in which a CIA archivist is piecing together the events surrounding the assassination.

DeLillo's writing style, as usual, jumps deftly between poignant psychological insights, colloquial banter, and deadpan absurdism that can be both hilarious and depressing at the same time. His "biography" of Oswald shows off his rich characterisation abilities, and delivers a very complex character, neither a monster or a hero, a weird and insecure guy who doesn't really know what he's doing, but finds himself at odds with American society because of his communist political leanings. As he is drawn into an unfolding plot, the designers of which find him to be a near perfect match for their projected shooter/patsy, his ability to balance family and politics, which are ever in conflict, is steadily demolished. I won't go into detail about the book's depiction of the Oswald family, but the way DeLillo eschews sensationalist conspiracy theory fiction in favour of keenly observed domestic scenes to build the foundations of Oswald's character, his tether to the real world, is well worth mentioning as one of the book's strongest elements.

The book weaves its themes together convincingly. These are dense and multi-layered, but the idea of Libra, scales, balance between opposing forces, a mediating influence between them, is applied to almost everything. The book makes a great deal of coincidence, personal agency, and the ineluctable modality* of history. Oswald himself is presented as someone who is trying to escape history but is at the same time drawn to the romanticism of fate. He is taken in by the manic David Ferrie, who is obsessed with fate and astrology, and claims to find Oswald intriguing because of his star sign, Libra. It is never clear how much of Ferrie's interest in Oswald is guided by the personal vs. his involvement with the Kennedy plot, but this sort of ambiguity of motive is the book's bread and butter. It is a highly engaging and thoughtful book that is beautifully constructed, and I recommend it muchly.

*just started my second attempt at James Joyce's Ulysses
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 18, 2017, 11:31:33 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 17, 2017, 06:56:23 PMThe Empire really did begin to change its culture and raison d'être after it became officially Christian. That was a process not an event but 381 is a good marker.
Which simply means that 'Roman' became the equivalent of 'Christian' for over a thousand years; and that's the meaning that stuck, in many languages, even til the present day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 19, 2017, 12:28:10 AM
Because this fits:
I am roughly in the middle of Vidal's novel "Julian" about Julianus Apostata. I did not check with independent sources but at that time (350s) there was already a marked linguistic gap. Julian speaks "soldier's Latin" so he might have been technically bilingual but he does not really feel at home in the language and reads older Roman authors (like Cicero) in Greek translation. And it is frequently mentioned that the (partly pagan, partly christian) Greek rhetoric professors and philosophers in the Eastern part despise Latin as "barbaric language". On the other hand "Asian" and "Greekling" are derogative names Julian is called in the West.

About a generation later, St. Augustine knew some Greek but apparently not very well. And later in the "Latin" middle ages there was the phrase "Graeca non leguntur" because Greek quotations were basically skipped in the lectures and only some specialists read and translated Greek authors, despite the high status of Plato and especially Aristotle; cf. The name of the Rose where as far as I recall only about two of the learned monks read Greek (that's why the mysterious book is both hard/easy to identify).

I really find it interesting that whereas the later Western middle ages were basically bilingual (Latin + local vernacular) and from the 16th century humanism on, "educated" persons were usually supposed to read Greek as well, the actual antiquity that caused the cultural importance of these languages was in practice mostly monolingual, Greek dominated until the first century AD (the classical Greeks basically ignored "barbaric tongues"), then somewhat bilingual for two or three centuries (with Greek being still more common as lingua franca, probably also because most of the commercial an intellectual centers were in the East: Athens, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria etc.) and divided into a Western Latin and an Eastern Greek half afterwards.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 01:01:16 AM
Peter Charanis (1908 - 1985), former Voorhees Professor of History at Rutgers University, born on the island of Lemnos under Ottoman rule, recalled this extremely telling anecdote from his childhood.

When the island was occupied by the Greek navy [during the First Balkan War in 1912], Greek soldiers were sent to the villages and stationed themselves in the public squares. Some of the children ran to see what these Greek soldiers, these Hellenes, looked like. "What are you looking at?" one of them asked. "At Hellenes," we replied. "Are you not Hellenes yourselves," he retorted. "No, we are Romans".

(as quoted in Anthony Kaldellis: Hellenism in Byzantium, The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition)

This is absolutely amazing: 459 years after the Fall of Constantinople, Roman identity still persisted in the minds of Greek speaking children.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 19, 2017, 01:27:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 01:01:16 AMThis is absolutely amazing: 459 years after the Fall of Constantinople, Roman identity still persisted in the minds of Greek speaking children.
Even today, Greek minorities in the Middle East are locally known as Romans, in Arabic, Turkish, and no doubt in Georgian and other languages as well. "Hellenes" is the nomer nationalists opted for, but it always had a strong connotation of "pagans". Even in the TV news I occasionally hear and see "Romans" being translated as Greeks, and correctly so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 19, 2017, 05:45:17 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51eEtvB3DAL.jpg)

Fascinating look at the transformation of economic life since 1870. 

Quotethe kind of rapid economic growth we still consider our due, and expect to continue forever, was in fact a one-time-only event. First came the Great Inventions, almost all dating from the late 19th century. Then came refinement and exploitation of those inventions — a process that took time, and exerted its peak effect on economic growth between 1920 and 1970. Everything since has at best been a faint echo of that great wave
Gordon suggests that the future is all too likely to be marked by stagnant living standards for most Americans, because the effects of slowing technological progress will be reinforced by a set of "headwinds": rising inequality, a plateau in education levels, an aging population and more...

It's a shocking prediction for a society whose self-image, arguably its very identity, is bound up with the expectation of constant progress. And you have to wonder about the social and political consequences of another generation of stagnation or decline in working-class incomes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/books/review/the-powers-that-were.html?mcubz=0
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 19, 2017, 06:37:44 AM
So far King John has been great. I wonder why this is one of his lesser-known plays apart from the famous "Gild the lily" quote, which is a misquote anyway. In actual play, it doesn't go like that. I think I should nominate this one of his most underrated plays, among with Timon of Athens and Two Gentlemen of Verona. I am always on edge whether or not add The Winter's Tale in the list. It is a great play for sure in my opinion, but I cannot figure out what the general consensus about the play is.

Maybe it's a bit premature of me to add King John in the underrated plays-list before I've read it all the way through. But I'm almost done and I have hard time believing that a genius like Shakespeare could mess up that bad during almost the last moments of the work.

I never stated my opinion about Julius Caesar. I liked it but the last two acts were not nearly as good as the first three. My edition of Julius Caesar had an absolutely wonderful preface by Jotaarkka Pennanen which greatly influenced my reading of the actual play.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on July 19, 2017, 06:55:16 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 19, 2017, 05:45:17 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51eEtvB3DAL.jpg)

Fascinating look at the transformation of economic life since 1870. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/books/review/the-powers-that-were.html?mcubz=0


How is it overall?  The main thesis has gotten attention in a number of outlets, and the few times I've read Gordon outside of old textbooks has been enlightening. 

(Part of his thesis was driven home in the last couple years when I was reading on DACs and learned that some of the theoretical work that is relied on in today's digital electronics stretches back to at least WWI.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 19, 2017, 07:23:19 AM
Quote from: Todd on July 19, 2017, 06:55:16 AM

How is it overall?  The main thesis has gotten attention in a number of outlets, and the few times I've read Gordon outside of old textbooks has been enlightening. 

(Part of his thesis was driven home in the last couple years when I was reading on DACs and learned that some of the theoretical work that is relied on in today's digital electronics stretches back to at least WWI.)

So far, its a great read.  Well-written and its (at least for me) fascinating to read about the trans formative nature of things we take for granted like chain grocery stores.  When A&P and Kroger started in the late 19th century people whined about them putting small family-owned stores out of businesses just like people complain about Wal-Mart today.  Nevermind that working class people saw their food prices drop by more than 20%, a huge improvement for people who spent 40%+ of their income on food.  As to the thesis, I agree that it is hard to imagine anything new that could make a comparable improvement in my standard of living as having electricity, plumbing, vaccines and antibiotics
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on July 19, 2017, 07:34:00 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 19, 2017, 07:23:19 AMAs to the thesis, I agree that it is hard to imagine anything new that could make a comparable improvement in my standard of living as having electricity, plumbing, vaccines and antibiotics


When I first read book reviews, I have to admit that I was struck by how profound it was not only in terms of implications for economics, but in everyday terms.  I also thought of my paternal grandmother.  She was born in 1910 in the Canadian plains and she literally lived in a dwelling carved into a hill with no running water, no electricity, no paved roads, etc.  She passed way in 2005, in the age of the internet.  While there have certainly been technological advances and social changes in my lifetime, there will be nothing like the changes she experienced in one long lifetime.  Oh, who am I kidding, I had it rough when all I had for entertainment was a black and white TV and crappy transistor radios while I ate my popsicles.

I think I'll have to get the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 19, 2017, 07:50:33 AM
Quote from: Todd on July 19, 2017, 07:34:00 AM

When I first read book reviews, I have to admit that I was struck by how profound it was not only in terms of implications for economics, but in everyday terms.  I also thought of my paternal grandmother.  She was born in 1910 in the Canadian plains and she literally lived in a dwelling carved into a hill with no running water, no electricity, no paved roads, etc.  She passed way in 2005, in the age of the internet.  While there have certainly been technological advances and social changes in my lifetime, there will be nothing like the changes she experienced in one long lifetime.  Oh, who am I kidding, I had it rough when all I had for entertainment was a black and white TV and crappy transistor radios while I ate my popsicles.

I think I'll have to get the book.

Yes, and what took 95 years for your grandmother has happened in a generation many Asian countries (and from a much lower starting point, 19th century American peasants were much better off than 20th century Chinese, Japanese or Korean ones)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 19, 2017, 08:00:50 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 19, 2017, 12:28:10 AM
Because this fits:
I am roughly in the middle of Vidal's novel "Julian" about Julianus Apostata. I did not check with independent sources but at that time (350s) there was already a marked linguistic gap. Julian speaks "soldier's Latin" so he might have been technically bilingual but he does not really feel at home in the language and reads older Roman authors (like Cicero) in Greek translation. And it is frequently mentioned that the (partly pagan, partly christian) Greek rhetoric professors and philosophers in the Eastern part despise Latin as "barbaric language". On the other hand "Asian" and "Greekling" are derogative names Julian is called in the West.

About a generation later, St. Augustine knew some Greek but apparently not very well. And later in the "Latin" middle ages there was the phrase "Graeca non leguntur" because Greek quotations were basically skipped in the lectures and only some specialists read and translated Greek authors, despite the high status of Plato and especially Aristotle; cf. The name of the Rose where as far as I recall only about two of the learned monks read Greek (that's why the mysterious book is both hard/easy to identify).

I really find it interesting that whereas the later Western middle ages were basically bilingual (Latin + local vernacular) and from the 16th century humanism on, "educated" persons were usually supposed to read Greek as well, the actual antiquity that caused the cultural importance of these languages was in practice mostly monolingual, Greek dominated until the first century AD (the classical Greeks basically ignored "barbaric tongues"), then somewhat bilingual for two or three centuries (with Greek being still more common as lingua franca, probably also because most of the commercial an intellectual centers were in the East: Athens, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria etc.) and divided into a Western Latin and an Eastern Greek half afterwards.

Warning about Vidal: he did sometimes play fast and loose with the sources, and some of the theories he accepted as fact are now known to be false.  Some of them were known to be false at the time he used them for his books.  A good illustration of this is his novel "Creation" which is premised on dating the life of Zoraoster to a period we know to be much too late (and which was known to be too late even when Vidal wrote the book).  Of course, this does not keep "Creation" from being one of the best historical novels ever written.  If you've never read it, put it on your to-do list.


Also, the earlier Empire could be thought of as trilingual.  Theoretically an upper class resident of Galilee, Samaria, Phoenicia and Syria would need three languages:  the local Aramaic dialect to speak with his neighbors, Greek to speak with residents of urban areas and trading partners from Greek speaking areas,  and Latin to communicate with the local agents of Rome when Greek would not work.   Similar usage of a local vernacular used in parallel with Greek and Latin probably occurred to throughout the eastern half of the Empire (Egypt, for example), but we know more about Aramaic because it was used over a large area that spread into the Persian/Parthian empire, and because of its importance in Christian history as the mother tongue of Jesus and the apostles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 09:10:20 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 19, 2017, 08:00:50 AM
Also, the earlier Empire could be thought of as trilingual.  Theoretically an upper class resident of Galilee, Samaria, Phoenicia and Syria would need three languages:  the local Aramaic dialect to speak with his neighbors, Greek to speak with residents of urban areas and trading partners from Greek speaking areas,  and Latin to communicate with the local agents of Rome when Greek would not work.   Similar usage of a local vernacular used in parallel with Greek and Latin probably occurred to throughout the eastern half of the Empire (Egypt, for example), but we know more about Aramaic because it was used over a large area that spread into the Persian/Parthian empire, and because of its importance in Christian history as the mother tongue of Jesus and the apostles.

Precisely the reason why the linguistic marker is particularly misleading when it comes to define an Empire.

Think of the "Holy Roman Empire" (which was actually neither Holy, nor Roman): it began as a Germanic-ruled entity, whose official language --- as in state documents --- was Latin but which incorporated a wide range of every-day-spoken languages, from various Germanic dialects to various Romance dialects to various Slavic dialects, out of which there eventually evolved, among others, the literary German and Italian and Czech. In its later days, when the Habsburg / Austrian (ie, Germanic) domination was firmly established and acknowledged, only a fraction of the population spoke German while the lingua franca of educated classes was French and in the realm of opera --- which back then was THE most popular and "democratic"form of art --- Italian reigned supreme.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 19, 2017, 09:21:29 AM
You are probably right about some regions. On the other hand, hellenized Jews like Philo in Egypt basically only knew Greek, that's why the LXX translation was made. My point was rather that apart from everyday transactions in the Levante the classical Greek *culture* was monolingual. Everything non-Greek was "barbarian" and usually uninteresting. Whereas Roman culture was for several centuries bilingual with the educated upper class using Greek somewhat like the Russian nobles in War and Peace preferring French to their mother tongue. But this bilinguality apparently was never so well established in the Eastern Mediterrean where Greek dominated (although laws and some official documents were in Latin) and it broke down rather quickly around 400 or so. Otherwise it would be really odd that a highly educated rhetorics professor like Augustine of Hippo was weak in Greek. And he was also a (neo)platonist, so one would expect him to have some motivation to study Greek.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 19, 2017, 09:23:47 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 09:10:20 AM
Precisely the reason why the linguistic marker is particularly misleading when it comes to define an Empire.

Think of the "Holy Roman Empire" (which was actually neither Holy, nor Roman): it began as a Germanic-ruled entity, whose official language --- as in state documents --- was Latin but which incorporated a wide range of every-day-spoken languages, from various Germanic dialects to various Romance dialects to various Slavic dialects, out of which there eventually evolved, among others, the literary German and Italian and Czech. In its later days, when the Habsburg / Austrian (ie, Germanic) domination was firmly established and acknowledged, only a fraction of the population spoke German while the lingua franca of educated classes was French and in the realm of opera --- which back then was THE most popular and "democratic"form of art --- Italian reigned supreme.

All true.  But my original point was regarding use of the new language for official documents.  This seems to have happened gradually, but the process was finished in the early 7th century.  In 200 CE, the Emperor issued decrees which were in Latin, and then translated into Greek for the benefit of his subjects.  In 700 CE, the Emperor issued decrees in Greek.

Did Latin ever stop being used for state documents in the HRE?

An apposite case is England, where Norman French was the language of government from the time of the Conquest up to the middle Plantagenets, and then was purposely switched to the vernacular, except in the courts, where French continued to be used, via a jargon known as 'law French' for several centuries thereafter. 

(I don't recall the precise dates when the changes to English occurred.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 09:46:52 AM
Quote from: Christo on July 19, 2017, 01:27:13 AM
Even today, Greek minorities in the Middle East are locally known as Romans, in Arabic, Turkish, and no doubt in Georgian and other languages as well. "Hellenes" is the nomer nationalists opted for, but it always had a strong connotation of "pagans". Even in the TV news I occasionally hear and see "Romans" being translated as Greeks, and correctly so.

Actually, even today there is a country called Romania and a people who identify themselves as Romanians.  :D

I will not go so far as to claim that we are indeed the last remnant of the Roman Empire (although the internationally-celebrated Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga came the closest one could get to making exactly this claim in his 1935  " Byzance après Byzance " (full text available here in the original French: http://www.unibuc.ro/CLASSICA/byzance/cuprins.htm (http://www.unibuc.ro/CLASSICA/byzance/cuprins.htm) --- even if you will not agree with his claims, it still makes for a fascinating reading) --- I will only say that the awareness of our essential Roman origins and identity has been always preserved in our collective memory and the works of all Romanian chroniclers and historians.

Now, of course the present-day Romanian people, just like any other European people, is a mixture; in our case, the three main ingredients are Romans, Dacians and (later on) Slavs. But the language, despite its irreplaceable Slavic  / Hungarian (although this is debatable, since there are Hungarian scholars who claim the other way around, namely that Hungarians loaned those words from Romanian) / Turkish loan-words (proportionally and functionally speaking, the Slavic ones far surpass the others), still preserves an essentially Latin grammatical structure (including cases long lost in all other Romance language, such as the vocative) and a mostly Latin every-day vocabulary.

Bottom line, we might not be Romans, but we surely are Romanians, which in itself is no small accomplishment, all things considered.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 19, 2017, 09:52:56 AM
We're Romaniacs!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 10:00:36 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 19, 2017, 09:23:47 AM
Did Latin ever stop being used for state documents in the HRE?

That I really don't know. Maybe Jo can help.

Quote
An apposite case is England, where Norman French was the language of government from the time of the Conquest up to the middle Plantagenets, and then was purposely switched to the vernacular, except in the courts, where French continued to be used, via a jargon known as 'law French' for several centuries thereafter. 

Three comments.

1. England was not an empire (at least for the time frame you considered).

2. Norman French was itself an acculturation phenomenon since the Normans were originally Vikings who did not speak a iota of French.

3. French itself is a curious case: a Romance language which derives its name from a Germanic tribe which originally did not speak a iota of Latin.

The (unbiased and honest) study of the Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages is actually the best antidote for nationalism that I am aware of.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 10:07:14 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 19, 2017, 09:52:56 AM
We're Romaniacs!

About the "Third Rome", perhaps?  ;D  >:D :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on July 19, 2017, 10:09:35 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 10:07:14 AM
About the Third Rome perhaps?  ;D  >:D :P


Tee-hee.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 19, 2017, 12:20:27 PM
Actually, it is (or at least was) routine among historians to speaking of the "Angevin Empire" in speaking of the Plantagenet state in the last half of the 12th century. 

BTW
QuoteNicolae Iorga came the closest one could get to making exactly this claim in his 1935  " Byzance après Byzance
Note which term he used...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 19, 2017, 12:28:34 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 19, 2017, 09:23:47 AM
Did Latin ever stop being used for state documents in the HRE?
To my knowledge Latin remained the official document language in the HRE and even later in Poland and Hungary (I don't have a good source, only a German language wikipedia article that mentions this in passing).

Apart from legal documents Latin clearly dominates as lingua franca of science (and related stuff, simply anything vaguely scholarly) until the 18th century. During the 18th century French becomes also important, especially in diplomacy.
But even until about 1900 Latin was very important and many academic writings (such as dissertations) were (or had to be) written in Latin.
I think at some universities one is still allowed to turn in a Latin dissertation but I guess it is by now uncommon even in Classics. But prefaces and critical apparatus for editions of Latin and Greek texts are still done in Latin as are of course all official papal writings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Latin#Notable_works_.281500.E2.80.931900.29
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 19, 2017, 12:42:28 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 09:46:52 AMActually, even today there is a country called Romania and a people who identify themselves as Romanians.  :D
Bottom line, we might not be Romans, but we surely are Romanians, which in itself is no small accomplishment, all things considered.  :)
I read Nicolae Iorga's classic already in the 1990s and yes, am aware of Romania's Roman heritage. But the very name - Romania- is a 19th Century invention, isn't it?

Reading here and now, in a very Roman, but even hotter, Cyprus:
(https://media.bloomsbury.com/rep/bj/9781408839997.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 19, 2017, 12:46:02 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 19, 2017, 12:28:34 PM
To my knowledge Latin remained the official document language in the HRE and even later in Poland and Hungary (I don't have a good source, only a German language wikipedia article that mentions this in passing).

Apart from legal documents Latin clearly dominates as lingua franca of science (and related stuff, simply anything vaguely scholarly) until the 18th century. During the 18th century French becomes also important, especially in diplomacy.
But even until about 1900 Latin was very important and many academic writings (such as dissertations) were (or had to be) written in Latin.
I think at some universities one is still allowed to turn in a Latin dissertation but I guess it is by now uncommon even in Classics. But prefaces and critical apparatus for editions of Latin and Greek texts are still done in Latin as are of course all official papal writings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Latin#Notable_works_.281500.E2.80.931900.29

Thanks.  I realize how long Latin survived in the professions and academia, just was not sure of its use in actual government.

My high school library had Latin translations of Lewis Carroll.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 19, 2017, 12:48:02 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 19, 2017, 12:28:34 PM
To my knowledge Latin remained the official document language in the HRE and even later in Poland and Hungary (I don't have a good source, only a German language wikipedia article that mentions this in passing).
Correct. And of course in Austria, where replacing Latin by German later in the 18th Century - as it happened- only managed to damage delicate internal relations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 20, 2017, 12:35:27 AM
Quote from: Christo on July 19, 2017, 12:42:28 PM
I read Nicolae Iorga's classic already in the 1990s and yes, am aware of Romania's Roman heritage. But the very name - Romania- is a 19th Century invention, isn't it?

România as the name of the country is indeed a 19-th century creation, but român/rumân for the people and românește/rumânește for the language are documented the 16th century, as well as the term Țeara Rumânească, ie The Romanian Land.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 20, 2017, 02:52:52 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 19, 2017, 12:46:02 PM
Thanks.  I realize how long Latin survived in the professions and academia, just was not sure of its use in actual government.
I think one reason might also be that some regional (slavic) languages were hardly standardized until rather late. Of course this is a feedback loop: if anything official/printed is in Latin or French or German or whatever, it will take a long time for standardized written Polish or whatever to develop.
Again it is interesting that the early missionaries (like Cyril and Method or (W)Ulfilas mentioned in the article Florestan linked) took a different approach, they helped developing alphabets for illiterate cultures and translated parts of the bible into the regional languages.
(This is still a difference between the orthodox churches that use local languages (or ancient versions of some local languages) and the Roman catholic church that has been a Latin church since late antiquity. Of course this also is because there is no orthodox Pope.)
And I also have read what Christo hints at that in the 18th/19th century Latin was often a compromise because German would have felt oppressive to the regional lower administrators and Czech or whatever would have been too separatist and inacceptable to the German speaking higher bureaucrats.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 20, 2017, 06:40:26 AM
Just finished this.  Beyond excellent.  On to the next installment.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hVG1omllL._SX301_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 20, 2017, 08:30:46 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 20, 2017, 06:40:26 AM
Just finished this.  Beyond excellent.  On to the next installment.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hVG1omllL._SX301_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Hullo! Did not know that one existed. I've only read the "trilogy".  Must investigate.

BTW, you won't fully understand and appreciate the first book of the Trilogy until you've read the last book....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 20, 2017, 08:38:13 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 20, 2017, 08:30:46 AM
Hullo! Did not know that one existed. I've only read the "trilogy".  Must investigate.

BTW, you won't fully understand and appreciate the first book of the Trilogy until you've read the last book....

I do feel that I want to re-read it . . . fond memories of inhaling the trilogy when I was a teenager.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 20, 2017, 10:08:13 AM
There are two prequels and I believe two sequels to the series to bring it to seven....I believe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 20, 2017, 10:35:09 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 20, 2017, 12:35:27 AM
România as the name of the country is indeed a 19-th century creation, but român/rumân for the people and românește/rumânește for the language are documented the 16th century, as well as the term Țeara Rumânească, ie The Romanian Land.

The strong Roman identity retained by Romanians throughout the centuries can be also seen in their onomastics: arguably the only Romance people in which Traian and Constantin are common forenames (the latter being also a common surname in the form of Constantinescu; cf. former Romanian presidents Emil Constantinescu and Traian Băsescu --- the very common suffix -escu, of uncertain etymology, originally denoted paternal filiation, as in Emil son of Constantin).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 20, 2017, 11:04:42 AM
Also finishing up this:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392010790l/8473006.jpg)

Peter David knew from my comic collecting days, so thought I would give one of his Star Trek novels a whirl. Just decent enough to keep me reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 20, 2017, 11:29:25 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 20, 2017, 10:35:09 AM
The strong Roman identity retained by Romanians throughout the centuries can be also seen in their onomastics: arguably the only Romance people in which Traian and Constantin are common forenames (the latter being also a common surname in the form of Constantinescu; cf. former Romanian presidents Emil Constantinescu and Traian Băsescu --- the very common suffix -escu, of uncertain etymology, originally denoted paternal filiation, as in Emil son of Constantin).
Come on, that "tradition" no doubt only started in the 19th c. as well, about the same time Hungarian boys were named Attila and Georgian and Finnish girls Nino and Aino, respectively. Or would you suggest in the Romanian case there's a real, continuous, tradition? I myself never saw any example in Europe, not even in the Greek case.

And as to the historical "Țările Române" or Românească that I saw much referred to in the Romanian history that I read, what we really need to know is what exact meaning this terminology in these 16th c. sources bore. In any case, my wild guess would be that they are a typical modern and premodern (Renaissance) interpretation of history, not a traditional one. No doubt, you know a better answer.  ;)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 20, 2017, 12:34:17 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 20, 2017, 10:35:09 AM
The strong Roman identity retained by Romanians throughout the centuries can be also seen in their onomastics: arguably the only Romance people in which Traian and Constantin are common forenames (the latter being also a common surname in the form of Constantinescu; cf. former Romanian presidents Emil Constantinescu and Traian Băsescu --- the very common suffix -escu, of uncertain etymology, originally denoted paternal filiation, as in Emil son of Constantin).

Trajan I will allow you, but Constantine had a long and illustratious use in the Greek speaking Roman Empire, and then a prominent use in Russia. If nought else: an older brother, son, and grandson of Tsar Nikolai I Pavlovich were all named Constantine, all of course related to the great granddaughter of Nikolai who happened to marry King Ferdinand of Romania.  That name had much closer sources of propogation
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 20, 2017, 03:57:33 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 19, 2017, 07:23:19 AM
As to the thesis, I agree that it is hard to imagine anything new that could make a comparable improvement in my standard of living as having electricity, plumbing, vaccines and antibiotics

Wait until you see what Intersectional Queer Theory does for you!

The book sounds like it strokes some of my prejudices. In particular my belief the 19th was the century of the most dramatic and fundamental change, and that most people don't appreciate it. I recommend the book Inventing the Victorians, which debunks many myths.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 20, 2017, 04:02:54 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 19, 2017, 10:00:36 AM
That I really don't know. Maybe Jo can help.

Three comments.

1. England was not an empire (at least for the time frame you considered).

2. Norman French was itself an acculturation phenomenon since the Normans were originally Vikings who did not speak a iota of French.

3. French itself is a curious case: a Romance language which derives its name from a Germanic tribe which originally did not speak a iota of Latin.

The (unbiased and honest) study of the Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages is actually the best antidote for nationalism that I am aware of.  :laugh:

Last sentence: odd to read that Andrei, from a Romanian nationalist!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on July 20, 2017, 05:40:32 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 20, 2017, 03:57:33 PM
Wait until you see what Intersectional Queer Theory does for you!

The book sounds like it strokes some of my prejudices. In particular my belief the 19th was the century of the most dramatic and fundamental change, and that most people don't appreciate it. I recommend the book Inventing the Victorians, which debunks many myths.

I agree.
Thought experiment
Imagine yourself talking with someone from 1900.  You might need long explanations but you would find yourself able to describe our technology in terms of 1900 technology, as extensions or adaptations of things already existing in 1900, with the possible exception of perhaps nuclear physics and computers.

Then imagine that person from 1900 trying to describe the technology of his era to a person from 1800. He would have a long heavy slog before he  finished, because so much of 1900 stuff had no real analog in 1800.

And finally, have that person from 1800 describe the technology of 1800 to a person from 1700.  It would be a fairly brief conversation, but not much actually changed.  Even the first phases of the Industrial Revolution were not that,er, revolutionary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 20, 2017, 11:13:20 PM
This book sounds interesting and I already seem to agree with most of its claims. What is not mentioned in the review linked (so I don't know how much the book says about it) is the obvious connection with fossil fuels powering that growth. This fact might be one explanation why it speeded up in the century from ca. 1860 - 1960. The peak everything crowd would point out the use of fossil fuels as the most salient factor, not invention.

And it has been fairly clear since a few decades that real invention and growth have slowed. The fastest practical airplane travel speed has not changed for decades. The fastest practical trains (TGV, Shinkansen) are ca. 1980 technology. In these two fields it is also interesting that more advanced technology was tried and practically abolished because the modest gains were not worth the expense (Concorde and magnetic monorail trains). With automobiles it is even worse because heavier and more luxurious cars eat up all the savings from more efficient engines and jammed traffic makes faster cars moot anway.
Space tech has basically stagnated since then as well.
It is only computers and communications that have advanced since the 1980s. And a lot of this goes into fairly silly stuff, basically entertainment, while some other applications (like fast computer-based stock trading) might actually be more of a problem than a gain.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 20, 2017, 11:23:00 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 20, 2017, 12:34:17 PM
Trajan I will allow you, but Constantine had a long and illustratious use in the Greek speaking Roman Empire, and then a prominent use in Russia. If nought else: an older brother, son, and grandson of Tsar Nikolai I Pavlovich were all named Constantine, all of course related to the great granddaughter of Nikolai who happened to marry King Ferdinand of Romania.  That name had much closer sources of propogation
And at the other end of the Roman world, Hispania (now known as Spain), the name Constantino, if not very widespread, is not uncommon by any means. And as of late, the name Adrián has become very popular (but that is a new development).

I get a feeling that the "romanness" of the Eastern part of the empire (as opposed to the West)  is being slightly exaggerated here.... ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 01:51:41 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 20, 2017, 12:34:17 PM
Trajan I will allow you, but Constantine had a long and illustratious use in the Greek speaking Roman Empire, and then a prominent use in Russia.

Did I say it is a uniquely Romanian name? No. All I said was that Constantin is much more common in Romania than in all other Romance people.

Quote from: Ken B on July 20, 2017, 04:02:54 PM
Last sentence: odd to read that Andrei, from a Romanian nationalist!

I am not a nationalist, but it seems that these days the mere mention of nations, their origins and history is politically incorrect.  ;D

Quote from: ritter on July 20, 2017, 11:23:00 PM
And at the other end of the Roman world, Hispania (now known as Spain), the name Constantino, if not very widespread, is not uncommon by any means.

Quick, my friend: how many Constantino do you know, personally or otherwise? In my family I personally know three from my paternal line, one from my maternal line and one from my wife's family. I can cite additionally Constantin Silvestri, Constantin Lipatti (that's how he was baptized; Dinu is to Constantin what, say, Joe is to Joseph), Constantin Marin, Constantin Brăiloiu, Constantin Dimitrescu --- and that's limiting myself to music only. And let's not forget Constantin Brâncuși.

Quote
I get a feeling that the "romanness" of the Eastern part of the empire (as opposed to the West)  is being slightly exaggerated here.... ::)

I don't know what you mean by "Romanness", but from my point of view it has nothing, or very little, to do with ethnicity. Since 212, when Caracalla's Constitutio Antoniniana granted full Roman citizenship to all free men in the Enpire, it became a strictly political marker, not an exclusively ethnic one as it had been before.

I honestly don't know where you get the idea that I somehow oppose the "Romanness" of East to that of the West. If anything, it's the West who, for too long and for political reasons, denied the East its "Romanness". And that was indeed some exaggerated nerve, to see some upstart Germanic kings denying "Romanness" to the direct successors of Octavian Augustus in unbroken line residing in Cosntantinople.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 21, 2017, 02:27:35 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 01:51:41 AM

Quick, my friend: how many Constantino do you know, personally or otherwise? In my family I personally know three from my paternal line, one from my maternal line and one from my wife's family. I can cite additionally Constantin Silvestri, Constantin Lipatti (that's how he was baptized; Dinu is to Constantin what, say, Joe is to Joseph), Constantin Marin, Constantin Brăiloiu, Constantin Dimitrescu --- and that's limiting myself to music only. And let's not forget Constantin Brâncuși.

I don't know what you mean by "Romanness", but from my point of view it has nothing, or very little, to do with ethnicity. Since 212, when Caracalla's Constitutio Antoniniana granted full Roman citizenship to all free men in the Enpire, it became a strictly political marker, not an exclusively ethnic one as it had been before.

I honestly don't know where you get the idea that I somehow oppose the "Romanness" of East to that of the West. If anything, it's the West who, for too long and for political reasons, denied the East its "Romanness". And that was indeed some exaggerated nerve, to see some upstart Germanic kings denying "Romanness" to the direct successors of Octavian Augustus in unbroken line residing in Cosntantinople.
The directory of my company lists 39 Constantino (in Spain and South America), of which I know 3 personally, plus another one who left a couple of years ago., then there's the late TV presenter Constantino Romero (who had an inimitable voice). Quick enough?  :D

I understand your point concerning the Barbarian upstarts in the West, and I actually had a classmate back in Caracas who could claim descent from the Byzantine emperors (she was a Ghica-Cantacuzino), although many historians say such claims are unfounded (or rather, that the descent was fabricated by these families in the 16th century to boost their prestige).   

Of course, no old family in Spain claims such a thing, and (surprisingly) they usually don't even wish to, brandishing "their good visigothic stock" instead (but just looking at some of them, there's as much Jewish and Arab blood running through their veins as anything else).

But still, I really cannot see any closer cultural affinity to "the spirit of Rome" in Cluj than in Córdoba (to take two originally Roman cities at random). This reminds me of discussions I had as a teenager with a friend of mine (son of Italian immigrants to Venezuela) who still believed that modern Italy was the heir to classical Rome (all that Mussolini-inspired gibberish). And my reply was basically the same: there's as much of a Roman in a modern day inhabitant of Tarragona than in one of Naples. In any case, I'm (obviously) not an expert in such matters.

Of course, we are the "reserva espritual de Occidente", but that's another story. ;)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 02:37:13 AM
Quote from: Christo on July 20, 2017, 11:29:25 AM
Come on, that "tradition" no doubt only started in the 19th c. as well, about the same time Hungarian boys were named Attila and Georgian and Finnish girls Nino and Aino, respectively. Or would you suggest in the Romanian case there's a real, continuous, tradition?

Oh, I certainly do not claim the there is a continuous tradition of naming Romanian children Constantin which dates back to Constantin the Great's days, for the simple reason that there were no Romanians back then. But for instance Constantin Cantacuzino (1598 - 1663), an influent and powerful aristocrat, Constantin Șerban (d. 1682) and Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654 - 1714 ), Princes of Wallachia and Moldavia, were not a 19th century creation.

BTW, Attila is a Gothic name meaning "little father"; his ethnicity itself is uncertain, and even it were indeed a Hun, Hungarians are not descendants of Huns. Árpád and the Magyars, on the other hand...

Quote
And as to the historical "Țările Române" or Românească that I saw much referred to in the Romanian history that I read, what we really need to know is what exact meaning this terminology in these 16th c. sources bore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Romania (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Romania)

\It's Wikip[edia, I know, but the article is well researched.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 02:46:03 AM
Quote from: ritter on July 21, 2017, 02:27:35 AM
But still, I really cannot see any closer cultural affinity to "the spirit of Rome" in Cluj than in Córdoba (to take two originally Roman cities at random).

What is "the spirit of Rome", anyway? In the case of Romania, my point is about linguistics and a "folklorically" preserved sense of continuity, not about metaphysics.

QuoteThe directory of my company lists 39 Constantino (in Spain and South America), of which I know 3 personally, plus another one who left a couple of years ago., then there's the late TV presenter Constantino Romero (who had an inimitable voice). Quick enough?  :D

Quick and fair enough. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on July 21, 2017, 04:08:01 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 02:37:13 AM
BTW, Attila is a Gothic name meaning "little father"; his ethnicity itself is uncertain, and even it were indeed a Hun, Hungarians are not descendants of Huns. Árpád and the Magyars, on the other hand...
And the Huns were an army with any number of different ethnicities represented, of course.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 05:15:12 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 21, 2017, 04:08:01 AM
And the Huns were an army with any number of different ethnicities represented, of course.

Of course.

What I find amusing is that for genuine Romanian nationalists I am too cosmopolitan, while for non-Romanians I might come across as a Romanian nationalist.  :laugh:

And anyway, since 1980s the fashion among Romanian nationalists has been to downplay the Roman ingredient and to exalt the Dacian one, all the way to pretending that it is in fact the latter who taught Latin to the former. Reading through all 400-something pages of one such internet board has been an inexhaustible source of chuckles and downright Homeric laughters.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 21, 2017, 05:39:10 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 05:15:12 AM
What I find amusing is that for genuine Romanian nationalists I am too cosmopolitan, while for non-Romanians I might come across as a Romanian nationalist.  :laugh:

That has a name: "contrarian"  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 21, 2017, 06:25:54 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 20, 2017, 10:08:13 AM
There are two prequels and I believe two sequels to the series to bring it to seven....I believe.

You may well be right; in an Author's Note to Prelude to Foundation (1988) Asimov spells out a "future chronology" of his books.  At that time there were six Foundation novels, and just the one, then-hot-off-the-press prequel.


Thread Duty:  I have indeed started to re-read Foundation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 21, 2017, 08:16:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 02:37:13 AMBTW, Attila is a Gothic name meaning "little father"; his ethnicity itself is uncertain, and even it were indeed a Hun, Hungarians are not descendants of Huns. Árpád and the Magyars, on the other hand...
There's no single Hungarian descendancy, no more than there is a Romanian one - or German or French, for that matter. The Magyar story is played large in a dominant nationalist idea of history, but that's about all that can be said of it. What we know for sure is that for many centuries many different steppe peoples settled in the great Carpathian basin, and that no doubt these multi-layered settlement patterns somehow left their traits. But just how the Hungarian language developed, is largely unknown, isn't it?

Quote from: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 02:37:13 AM
Oh, I certainly do not claim the there is a continuous tradition of naming Romanian children Constantin which dates back to Constantin the Great's days, for the simple reason that there were no Romanians back then. But for instance Constantin Cantacuzino (1598 - 1663), an influent and powerful aristocrat, Constantin Șerban (d. 1682) and Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654 - 1714 ), Princes of Wallachia and Moldavia, were not a 19th century creation.
Constantin is a standard Christian name, like those of any of the apostles and saints; the real testing case would be Traian - and I doubt if you'll find examples of that 'pagan' name before the 19th c.

As to the Wikipedia entry: many thanks! It appears to be, as expected, very much a Renaissance thing, isn't?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 10:25:49 AM
Quote from: ritter on July 21, 2017, 05:39:10 AM
That has a name: "contrarian"  ;D

And yet in dealing with both parties I do nothing but state the obvious: that Romanian is a Romance language and that the Romanian people is a neo-Latin one, no less than the Italians, Spaniards, French of Portuguese (with apologies to other that I have no time or space to nominate). I am pretty confident you won't find one single mainstream non-Romanian historian or linguist who documentedly claims otherwise.

Anyway, your post reminded me an anecdote about one of my intellectual heroes. Miguel de Unamuno was taking a walk in Madrid with a friend and they arrived in front of the Ateneo. "De que se trata en la conferencia de hoy?", he asked. "Lo ignoro", replied his friend. "Pues entramos, estoy en contra!"  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 21, 2017, 10:40:00 AM
(https://www.parigibooks.com/pictures/26878.jpg?v=1455341268)

One of my favorite authors.  I was able to find an Ace Double like the one above. I love these old sci-fi paperbacks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 21, 2017, 10:45:05 AM
Quote from: Christo on July 21, 2017, 08:16:00 AM
There's no single Hungarian descendancy, no more than there is a Romanian one - or German or French, for that matter.

Precisely what I have already stated in plain English: the Romanian people, just like every other European people, is a mixture.

Quote
The Magyar story is played large in a dominant nationalist idea of history, but that's about all that can be said of it. What we know for sure is that for many centuries many different steppe peoples settled in the great Carpathian basin, and that no doubt these multi-layered settlement patterns somehow left their traits. But just how the Hungarian language developed, is largely unknown, isn't it?

I am not an expert in Hungarian linguistics, but my understanding is that the language belongs to the Fino-Ugric family, togther with Finnish and Estonian, although they are not mutually inteligible.

QuoteConstantin is a standard Christian name, like those of any of the apostles and saints;

Correction 1: a standard Christian name in Orthodox countries, such as Greece, Russia or Romania (certainly a "Byzantine" heritage and influence). I haven't heard about that many Constantin(e) in UK, France, Germany or The Netherlands. John, Peter, Paul and George are obviously much more common in Western Europe than Constantin(e).

Correction 2: it was originally a pagan name; it became Christian only after Constantine the Great, feasted as a saint together with his mother Helena in both the Catholic and the Orthdox churches, but at different dates.

Quote
As to the Wikipedia entry: many thanks! It appears to be, as expected, very much a Renaissance thing, isn't?

All those Italian, Polish, German or Hungarian scholars were indeed Renaissance men, or even later. But I very much doubt that they also instructed all those illiterate and unschooled Romanian peasants they were visiting and interviewing what to answer when questioned about their ethnicity and language.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 21, 2017, 10:50:44 AM
Quote from: Bogey on July 21, 2017, 10:40:00 AM
(https://www.parigibooks.com/pictures/26878.jpg?v=1455341268)

One of my favorite authors.  I was able to find an Ace Double like the one above. I love these old sci-fi paperbacks.

I need to read some.  Back in the Deeps of Time, when there was a Borders on Washington Street, I leafed a bit through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but (not at all fairly, to the author) I was a little annoyed that it so little resembled Blade Runner.

In my defense, somehow I was jonesing for a view of Blade Runner at the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 21, 2017, 02:19:07 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 21, 2017, 10:50:44 AM
I need to read some.  Back in the Deeps of Time, when there was a Borders on Washington Street, I leafed a bit through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but (not at all fairly, to the author) I was a little annoyed that it so little resembled Blade Runner.

In my defense, somehow I was jonesing for a view of Blade Runner at the time.

Anyone who saw he movie first is probably guilty of this act....I as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on July 24, 2017, 07:05:34 AM
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430055209l/76679.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 28, 2017, 06:23:59 AM
(http://images2.onionstatic.com/clickhole/4876/4/16x9/800.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on July 28, 2017, 11:35:15 AM
I rarely reread books I have read previously unless it is a lifetime endeavor like Proust A la recherche du temps perdu.  Today I suddenly felt a very strong urge to read this Bulgakov book on Molière for the 4th time

(https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51uHxdkZc5L._AC_SX348_SY500_FMwebp_QL65_.jpg)

Bulgakov in one of my favorite author and this is probably his most touching book.  His best is naturally "Le maitre et Margerite"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 29, 2017, 01:14:30 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 28, 2017, 06:23:59 AM
(http://images2.onionstatic.com/clickhole/4876/4/16x9/800.jpg)

What a title  8)  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 30, 2017, 02:34:43 PM
So far Royal Highness has proven a very enjoyable read. My favorite characters so far are the dry-witted minister Knobelsdorff and naturally Imma and Samuel Spoelmann. Imma is hilarious with her excellent sarcasm. I love especially the part where she discusses with Klaus Heinrich the steamer Imma and her father had crossed the ocean in. Imma says the ship had five storeys to which Klaus Heinrich asks: "Counting from below?" In the blink of an eye Imma answers: "Of course. Six, counting from above."  :laugh:

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on July 31, 2017, 05:21:06 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dceL1R3jL._SX425_.jpg)


A brief (<90 text pages) thesis by David Nicolas at the Naval Postgraduate School about China's proposed $900 billion+ "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which, if completed and successful, could force a major geopolitical realignment, and significantly reduce the strategic advantage the US has due to its overwhelming naval superiority.  The author is more sanguine about the implications of the project than I am and spends basically no time covering the implications of the shift from sea-based to overland shipping, relying on economic efficiency as the sole reason, though the financial and economic interconnectedness of the projects exposes vulnerabilities that other great powers might be able to exploit if needed.  When I see such eye watering amounts of money, I always wonder how much ends up lining the pockets of various people.  This subject is way too big for one brief thesis and will take decades to play out, so more reading will be needed, and this serves as really just a primer on the topic.  It's well enough written as far as theses go.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 31, 2017, 06:39:24 AM
Count Lev Tolstoy: The death of Ivan Ilyich, Kreutzer Sonata, other later stories
+ plus his religious writings ('The Lion and the Honeycomb') as edited by A.N. Wilson in his better days.
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/SEKKESCONSULTANTS/8584378686.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 31, 2017, 11:10:07 AM
The third in a series of French readers, this a selection of short stories.

[asin]B009O30DO2[/asin]

Coming soon: Bel-Ami en francais.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 02, 2017, 03:20:47 AM
(http://www.ikzs.com/slike/korice/48787030.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 02, 2017, 04:30:24 AM
Quote from: Draško on August 02, 2017, 03:20:47 AM
(http://www.ikzs.com/slike/korice/48787030.jpg)
Well, Draško...you're watching a film by one of my favourite directors ever (if not my very favourite), and reading a book by an author I find fascinating... What next? listen to some Boulez, perhaps?  ;)

Regards,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 02, 2017, 04:42:00 AM
Just finished re-reading (this morning) Foundation and Empire.  The first volume (arguably) sets up the The-Foundation-is-inevitable theme;  the wild exogenous variable in the second volume therefore makes for a more engaging narrative.  In ways that are not crucial to that superior narrative, the second volume also (I can see in this re-reading) amply justifies my friend Charles's remark, "I re-read it [the Foundation trilogy] and was disgusted at how sexist it is."

I suppose the argument would be, that the entrenched sexism in society required slow, gradual remediation.  But where we might observe that the scripts in The Twilight Zone (e.g.) do not have much in the way of interesting female characters, somehow the arrant condescension is more in-the-bone in Foundation and Empire.  It is possibly even more vexatious because the science-fiction genre is so often all about telling us how wonderful the future is, and better than the present.  Well, of course, I shall go on and complete the series nonetheless.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Drasko on August 03, 2017, 03:37:40 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 02, 2017, 04:30:24 AM
Well, Draško...you're watching a film by one of my favourite directors ever (if not my very favourite), and reading a book by an author I find fascinating... What next? listen to some Boulez, perhaps?  ;)

Regards,

I've been reading it very slowly, couple of chapters per day. Excellent book, bit severe at times, but still relevant.
Haven't read much Adorno prior, just a cursory read through Dialectics of Enlightenment, to which I plan to give proper attention at some future date.
For Boulez keep an eye on the listening thread  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 03, 2017, 05:08:28 AM
Quote from: Draško on August 03, 2017, 03:37:40 AM
I've been reading it very slowly, couple of chapters per day. Excellent book, bit severe at times, but still relevant.
Haven't read much Adorno prior, just a cursory read through Dialectics of Enlightenment, to which I plan to give proper attention at some future date.
For Boulez keep an eye on the listening thread  8)
I've seen your listening today! Great! Even if Structures is IMHO a really tough nut to crack.  :)

Yes, Minima Moralia is an excellent book, and one which--despite its severity (very well chosen word!  ;))--is approachable and has a poetic beauty to it which is hard to describe (for me at least).

I have read quite a bit of Adorno, but mainly the shorter essay stuff, as I do not have the philosophical training to approach the large works like the Aesthetic Theory (an impossible read as far as I am concerned) or the Negative Dialectics. A very demanding author, in any case, with a style which often seems impenetrable, but which once you've managed to decipher it, yields many rewards, and that I find immensely appealing.

Regards,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 03, 2017, 08:32:23 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 03, 2017, 05:08:28 AM
« Muchacho, no te metas en dibujos, sino haz lo que ese señor te manda: sigue tu canto llano y no te metas en contrapuntos, que se suelen quebrar de sotiles. »

Where is this quote extracted from, Rafael? It reminds me of Loaysa from El Celoso extremeño.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 03, 2017, 08:59:52 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 03, 2017, 08:32:23 AM
Where is this quote extracted from, Rafael? It reminds me of Loaysa from El Celoso extremeño.
You got the author right, Andrei...bravo! But not the book. It's from chapter XXVI of the second part of Don Quixote, as adapted  (slightly) by Manuel de Falla for his El retablo de Maese Pedro. Kind of cool, don't you think?  :)

Un abrazo,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 03, 2017, 09:02:44 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 03, 2017, 08:59:52 AM
You got the author right, Andrei...bravo! But not the book. It's from chapter XXVI of the second part of Don Quixote, as adapted  (slightly) by Manuel de Falla for his El retablo de Maese Pedro. Kind of cool, don't you think?  :)

Muy cool!  :)

Quote
Un abrazo,

Likewise!  :-*
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 03, 2017, 09:06:13 AM
Last book I read was by A Anatoli (Kuznetsov): 'Babi-Yar' before my visit to Kyiv. Now my daughter is reading it. It is one of the few books that I have read more than once.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 03, 2017, 09:09:07 AM
I'll be reading these when they arrive..

(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199569410.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199555956.jpg)   (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/2412/9780241200131.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/5712/9780571227112.jpg)(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/5712/9780571238033.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 03, 2017, 09:11:08 AM
(http://static.elefant.ro/images/43/5143/structura-revolutiilor-stiintifice_1_fullsize.jpg)

Thomas S. Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (in Romanian translation)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 03, 2017, 09:12:45 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 03, 2017, 09:09:07 AM
I'll be reading these when they arrive..


Have I recommended Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 03, 2017, 09:18:35 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 03, 2017, 09:09:07 AM
I'll be reading these when they arrive..

(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199569410.jpg)    (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/2412/9780241200131.jpg) 

I have the complete published Rilke and Pessoa poems (plus The Book of Disquiet) in Romanian translation. Exquisite.

(https://images.okr.ro/serve/auctions.v7/2016/dec/24/4e906d191399e3cd5a5e1fb6144641eb-189827-700_700.jpg) (http://static.elefant.ro/images/02/116802/opera-poetica_1_fullsize.jpg)  (http://static.elefant.ro/images/24/92524/cartea-nelinistirii_1_fullsize.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 03, 2017, 09:20:45 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 03, 2017, 09:12:45 AM
Have I recommended Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes?
You've mentioned it before, I think. Added to my list now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 03, 2017, 10:16:59 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 03, 2017, 09:09:07 AM
I'll be reading these when they arrive..

  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199555956.jpg)   

Did you ever read Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet? He draws on Cavafy's poems, especially The Gods Abandon Antony.

TD

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51SzS-W9LwL.jpg)

Masterfully snarkful look at how England is both a wonderful place to live yet falling apart at the cultural seams (in Bryson's view).
Including the English language.  This book will delight any denizen of Cato's Grammar Grumbles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 03, 2017, 10:24:35 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 03, 2017, 10:16:59 AM
Did you ever read Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet? He draws on Cavafy's poems, especially The Gods Abandon Antony.
No, I haven't.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 03, 2017, 11:40:22 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 03, 2017, 09:09:07 AM
I'll be reading these when they arrive..

(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199569410.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199555956.jpg)   (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/2412/9780241200131.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/5712/9780571227112.jpg)(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/5712/9780571238033.jpg)
Quite a florilège  of 20th century poetry coming your way, Karlo!  Each and every one of them wonderful. You have a great summer of poetry ahead of you...

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 03, 2017, 10:16:59 AM
Did you ever read Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet? He draws on Cavafy's poems, especially The Gods Abandon Antony.
It's fallen out of critical fadhion as of late, I'm afraid, but I find it a literary achievement of the highest rank. I really, really enjoyed it when I read it...

"The sea is high again today..."  :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 03, 2017, 12:31:59 PM
Quote from: ritter on August 03, 2017, 11:40:22 AM
Quite a florilège  of 20th century poetry coming your way, Karlo!  Each and every one of them wonderful. You have a great summer of poetry ahead of you...
I love florilèges, Rafael!  8)  I've read a a few poems from each but no more, so I'm definitely looking forward to exploring each writer's works.


QuoteIt's fallen out of critical fadhion as of late, I'm afraid, but I find it a literary achievement of the highest rank. I really, really enjoyed it when I read it...

"The sea is high again today..."  :)
Fadhion? What an ingenius portmanteau of fad and fashion!  :laugh:
I'll have to look into the Durrell.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 03, 2017, 11:32:26 PM
Finished this 'short history of about everything' as long as it's related to the 'center of the world', the Persian regions of Central Asia or the connections between the two centers of global civilization, East Asia and the Middle East, later the West. From about 2000 BC till 2015, a genuine tour de force. Very informative and inspiring in its chapters on antiquity and especially the medieval world, less convincing in modern times (esp. 1800-present), because the theme gets overstretched and would require a different book. Yet: recommended.
(https://media.bloomsbury.com/rep/bj/9781408839973.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 04, 2017, 03:40:12 AM
Just finished this Christie Poirot novel and enjoyed the whodunnit ride.
(https://leavesandpages.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/the-murder-on-the-links-agatha-christie-3.jpg)

Started this one and am enjoying it as well:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1261255748l/388314.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 04, 2017, 05:44:20 AM
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d2/2f/ac/d22fac0c7d784a85478eff329d099431--best-novels-thomas-mann.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on August 04, 2017, 10:18:26 AM
A classic I never tire of !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on August 04, 2017, 10:22:39 AM
Quote from: Bogey on August 04, 2017, 03:40:12 AM
Just finished this Christie Poirot novel and enjoyed the whodunnit ride.
(https://leavesandpages.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/the-murder-on-the-links-agatha-christie-3.jpg)

Regarding the cover, any representation of Poirot other than David Suchet seems wrong to me. Delightful book, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on August 04, 2017, 10:31:50 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 04, 2017, 05:44:20 AM
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d2/2f/ac/d22fac0c7d784a85478eff329d099431--best-novels-thomas-mann.jpg)

I wonder how many people are afraid to go to the Dentist after reading that book. The tooth decay that Thomas Mann is responsible for boggles the mind. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on August 05, 2017, 04:23:02 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on August 04, 2017, 10:22:39 AM
Regarding the cover, any representation of Poirot other than David Suchet seems wrong to me. Delightful book, though.

Truth.  The new Orient Express movie coming out will be interesting.  We'll see if Kenneth Branagh can pull it off, but our entire family loved Suchet in the role. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 05, 2017, 04:44:48 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 04, 2017, 05:44:20 AM(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d2/2f/ac/d22fac0c7d784a85478eff329d099431--best-novels-thomas-mann.jpg)
Second book - after Faust I and II - I ever read in German; this one proved a little easier.  :) Promised to read it again with a group of friends for our October meeting. Any thoughts on it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 05, 2017, 05:13:03 AM
Quote from: Christo on August 05, 2017, 04:44:48 AM
Any thoughts on it?

I'm not very far yet - just finished the first part. The very first pages were rather dull in my opinion but after that the quality improved dramatically. So far I think I like the book very much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 05, 2017, 10:47:03 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 05, 2017, 05:13:03 AM
The very first pages were rather dull in my opinion but after that the quality improved dramatically.

My thoughts exactly about The Magic Mountain.

On the contrary, Doktor Faustus's and Lotte in Weimar's first pages gripped me by the neck and did not let go until the end.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 05, 2017, 03:16:33 PM
Quote from: Christo on August 05, 2017, 04:44:48 AM
Second book - after Faust I and II - I ever read in German;

I think both parts of Faust were the first German works for me as well - (unless one counts opera libretti as well which were the ones I really started with). After Faust, Das Märchen, also from Goethe and then finally I turned to German novels, to both Wilhelm Meister novels, once again (surprise surprise) from Goethe. After that I read some biographies, collection of Goethe's scientific writings, Iphigenia, then finally my first Thomas Mann novel (Royal Highness) and now finally I'm reading Buddenbrooks. As you can see, my knowledge of German literature is rather... shallow. That doesn't mean I am not greatly interested in it, of course.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 05, 2017, 04:50:28 PM
Quote from: Alberich on August 05, 2017, 03:16:33 PM
I think both parts of Faust were the first German works for me as well - (unless one counts opera libretti as well which were the ones I really started with). After Faust, Das Märchen, also from Goethe and then finally I turned to German novels, to both Wilhelm Meister novels, once again (surprise surprise) from Goethe. After that I read some biographies, collection of Goethe's scientific writings, Iphigenia, then finally my first Thomas Mann novel (Royal Highness) and now finally I'm reading Buddenbrooks. As you can see, my knowledge of German literature is rather... shallow. That doesn't mean I am not greatly interested in it, of course.

I aspire to read Mann in German, especially Venice. I have read some Kafka stories and some Grimm. Right now I am trying Flaubert and Maupassant in French.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on August 05, 2017, 08:19:51 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 05, 2017, 04:50:28 PM
I aspire to read Mann in German, especially Venice. I have read some Kafka stories and some Grimm. Right now I am trying Flaubert and Maupassant in French.
Go for Maupassant short stories.  They are so powerful.  After reading "A vendetta" you will feel like you got a slap in the face: "La claque"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 05, 2017, 11:47:56 PM
Quote from: Spineur on August 05, 2017, 08:19:51 PM
Go for Maupassant short stories.  They are so powerful.  After reading "A vendetta" you will feel like you got a slap in the face: "La claque"

He's one of my favourite authors. Even in translation. The best short stories in English are the ones Maupassant wrote in French.

I have read almost 200 of the stories in translation, but so far only about 4 or 5 in French.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on August 06, 2017, 06:12:51 AM
La petite Roque is one of my favourites. When you're doomed, you're doomed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 06, 2017, 07:24:17 AM
To clarify: I am not reading Mann (or any German literature) in German but in Finnish and/or English translations. I know a few sentences and words in German from what I've learned from operas but I never would go so far as to say that I can fluently read or speak or understand German. I misread Christo's post.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 06, 2017, 11:13:03 AM
Quote from: Christo on August 03, 2017, 11:32:26 PM
Finished this 'short history of about everything' as long as it's related to the 'center of the world', the Persian regions of Central Asia or the connections between the two centers of global civilization, East Asia and the Middle East, later the West. From about 2000 BC till 2015, a genuine tour de force. Very informative and inspiring in its chapters on antiquity and especially the medieval world, less convincing in modern times (esp. 1800-present), because the theme gets overstretched and would require a different book. Yet: recommended.
(https://media.bloomsbury.com/rep/bj/9781408839973.jpg)

I read the first few chapters of this book last night, and frankly Frangopan comes across as a highly politicized, somewhat meretricious writer.

For instance, he blames the movement of nomadic tribes in Central Asia which helped catalyze the "barbarian" invasion and overrunning of the Western Roman Empire on climate change, and only climate change, ignoring all the other factors involved, and totally ignoring the complex connections the "barbarians" had with the Roman Empire to begin with (most importantly, the barbarians were not so barbarian and the invasion was not really an invasion, since many of the "barbarians" served as the core of the Roman army and were already settled in the Empire, or on its borders, long before Rome "fell").   

Second instance: he wants to depicts Islam as tolerant of other faiths.  So having made sure to fully describe Christian persecution of heretics and Zoroastrian persecution of Christians and Buddhists, and inserting the one lone episode of Jewish persecution of Christians (in pre-Islamic Yemen--admittedly, the main reason this was the only example is the fact that this is probably the only instance in history in which Jews were in a position to persecute Christians), he then describes in not quite glowing terms Mohammed's original treaty with the Jews of Medina--and then makes no mention of the expulsion/massacre which Mohammed inflicted on those Jews of Medina several years later.  Then he airbrushes over the Sunni-Shia schism (trying to make it sound like it was simply a political struggle with no religious implications), talks about Islamic rule of non Moslem populations in general terms, and makes no mention of Moslem intolerance other than a reference to the Taliban's destruction of the giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan--and even there he adverts to a Christian parallel, the iconoclastic outbreaks which were sparked by the Protestant Reformation.

A more honest account would acknowledge the contrary evidence and give explanations that would fit into the basic theory.  He just pretends the contrary evidence doesn't exist.


When not trying to overtly push an agenda, he tells an important story, but the tendentious treatment of material on political grounds is a deep structural flaw.  I have not yet returned this to the library, but I doubt I will read further from it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 06, 2017, 01:58:19 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 06, 2017, 11:13:03 AM
I read the first few chapters of this book last night, and frankly Frangopan comes across as a highly politicized, somewhat meretricious writer.

For instance, he blames the movement of nomadic tribes in Central Asia which helped catalyze the "barbarian" invasion and overrunning of the Western Roman Empire on climate change, and only climate change, ignoring all the other factors involved, and totally ignoring the complex connections the "barbarians" had with the Roman Empire to begin with (most importantly, the barbarians were not so barbarian and the invasion was not really an invasion, since many of the "barbarians" served as the core of the Roman army and were already settled in the Empire, or on its borders, long before Rome "fell").   

Second instance: he wants to depicts Islam as tolerant of other faiths.  So having made sure to fully describe Christian persecution of heretics and Zoroastrian persecution of Christians and Buddhists, and inserting the one lone episode of Jewish persecution of Christians (in pre-Islamic Yemen--admittedly, the main reason this was the only example is the fact that this is probably the only instance in history in which Jews were in a position to persecute Christians), he then describes in not quite glowing terms Mohammed's original treaty with the Jews of Medina--and then makes no mention of the expulsion/massacre which Mohammed inflicted on those Jews of Medina several years later.  Then he airbrushes over the Sunni-Shia schism (trying to make it sound like it was simply a political struggle with no religious implications), talks about Islamic rule of non Moslem populations in general terms, and makes no mention of Moslem intolerance other than a reference to the Taliban's destruction of the giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan--and even there he adverts to a Christian parallel, the iconoclastic outbreaks which were sparked by the Protestant Reformation.

A more honest account would acknowledge the contrary evidence and give explanations that would fit into the basic theory.  He just pretends the contrary evidence doesn't exist.


When not trying to overtly push an agenda, he tells an important story, but the tendentious treatment of material on political grounds is a deep structural flaw.  I have not yet returned this to the library, but I doubt I will read further from it.

Thanks for this. Extremely helpful review. I'll pass.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 07, 2017, 03:28:50 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 06, 2017, 11:13:03 AM
I read the first few chapters of this book last night, and frankly Frangopan comes across as a highly politicized, somewhat meretricious writer.

For instance, he blames the movement of nomadic tribes in Central Asia which helped catalyze the "barbarian" invasion and overrunning of the Western Roman Empire on climate change, and only climate change, ignoring all the other factors involved, and totally ignoring the complex connections the "barbarians" had with the Roman Empire to begin with (most importantly, the barbarians were not so barbarian and the invasion was not really an invasion, since many of the "barbarians" served as the core of the Roman army and were already settled in the Empire, or on its borders, long before Rome "fell").   

Second instance: he wants to depicts Islam as tolerant of other faiths.  So having made sure to fully describe Christian persecution of heretics and Zoroastrian persecution of Christians and Buddhists, and inserting the one lone episode of Jewish persecution of Christians (in pre-Islamic Yemen--admittedly, the main reason this was the only example is the fact that this is probably the only instance in history in which Jews were in a position to persecute Christians), he then describes in not quite glowing terms Mohammed's original treaty with the Jews of Medina--and then makes no mention of the expulsion/massacre which Mohammed inflicted on those Jews of Medina several years later.  Then he airbrushes over the Sunni-Shia schism (trying to make it sound like it was simply a political struggle with no religious implications), talks about Islamic rule of non Moslem populations in general terms, and makes no mention of Moslem intolerance other than a reference to the Taliban's destruction of the giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan--and even there he adverts to a Christian parallel, the iconoclastic outbreaks which were sparked by the Protestant Reformation.

A more honest account would acknowledge the contrary evidence and give explanations that would fit into the basic theory.  He just pretends the contrary evidence doesn't exist.


When not trying to overtly push an agenda, he tells an important story, but the tendentious treatment of material on political grounds is a deep structural flaw.  I have not yet returned this to the library, but I doubt I will read further from it.

Ugh.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 07, 2017, 03:59:31 AM
(https://www.penguin.co.uk/content/dam/catalogue/pim/editions/158/9780241969359/cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 07, 2017, 11:34:45 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 06, 2017, 01:58:19 PMThanks for this. Extremely helpful review. I'll pass.
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 07, 2017, 03:28:50 AM
Ugh.
Plaise wait, will respond later. There's more to be said.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 07, 2017, 11:52:05 AM
Quote from: Christo on August 07, 2017, 11:34:45 AM
Plaise wait, will respond later. There's more to be said.  :)

No doubt. And the WaPo says more!

QuoteIn chapter after chapter, Europeans emerge as the villains. Heaven knows, there is much to justify this view, and we have scores of excellent studies that detail heinous actions by Europeans in the Middle East, Africa and the New World. But Frankopan is not content just to retell this story. Instead, he preaches endlessly about how the modern states of Europe arose as "the strong [i.e., the West] devoured the weak," how they prospered through "consolidation and covetousness," how overall the West succeeded in placing itself in the center of the world thanks to its "entrenched relation with violence and militarism." Lest we somehow miss the point, he concludes that "Europe's distinctive character as more aggressive, more unstable, and less peace-minded than other parts of the world now paid off."

Having worked himself into a rage, he dismisses European art of the 17th and 18th centuries as having been "forged by violence," a mark of opprobrium he withholds from most of the art produced under tyrants of the Eastern world clear to the Mughals in India.

Tendentious virtue-signalling is what it sounds like. The Guardian complains of factual errors, as well as the tendentiousness -- especially about Islam, as JS noted. Both reviews praise its readability, say it has lots of fascinating stuff, and applaud the idea of forefronting this history. But I suspect my tolerance for being told what to think, even when I know better, is no greater than Jeffrey's. I'll still pass :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 07, 2017, 11:56:51 AM
The best history books are judgmental about the past and happy to assign credit and blame as a natural part of the lesson-learning process.

But so are the worst.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 07, 2017, 12:29:45 PM
A very good book, that avoids the PC BS noted above, sparing neither the Comanches, Mexicans, Texans or Americans

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51M2Q6nfcjL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The Comanches weren't monsters or noble savages, just raiders who acted no better or worse than Mongols or Vikings did back in their day.  Fascinating story of how in about 200 years with the introduction of the horse, the Comanches went from pitiful root-grubbers in Wyoming to the most militarily dominant Native American group, one that took nearly 50 years to subjugate

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 07, 2017, 01:23:27 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 07, 2017, 11:56:51 AM
The best history books are judgmental about the past and happy to assign credit and blame as a natural part of the lesson-learning process.

But so are the worst.
My problem was not with assigning blame. It was with skipping over important data that did not fit easily into his thesis. He was dishonest.

To take the massacre/expulsion of the Jews of Medina, for example:. Muslim sources say the Jewish tribal leaders broke the treaties and started helping Mohammed's enemies, and that Mohammad's treatment of them was in response to that, which he took as an act of betrayal. Frankopan could have easily used that explanation without detracting from his presentation of Islam as a generally tolerant religion.  He could have admitted to Moslem persecution of minorities while pointing out that Christian Europe was far less tolerant. There were some episodes like the Almohads in Spain, but far less often than what occurred in Europe. There was no real equivalent of the Albigensian Crusade, the Inquisition or the religious violence of the Reformation in Moslem history.  And there is a reason Jews often found a haven from Christian persecution in Moslem lands.
But Moslems did persecute minorities and burden them with various legal disabilities. A good advocate would have acknowledged that and explained how it did not weaken his case.  A bad advocate tries to pretend inconvenient facts do not exist, and that is what Frankopan did.

Ken B
QuoteBoth reviews praise its readability, say it has lots of fascinating stuff, and applaud the idea of forefronting this history.

That it least is perfectly true. It could have been an excellent, even necessary book. As it stands, it is a useless book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 07, 2017, 01:41:27 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 07, 2017, 01:23:27 PM
There was no real equivalent of the Albigensian Crusade, the Inquisition or the religious violence of the Reformation in Moslem history.

The Muslim invasions of India at least equivalent - unlike Christians or Jews, Hindus were considered Pagans and subjected to persecution as bad as any dealt by Medieval Christian groups
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_India#Pre-colonial_India (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_India#Pre-colonial_India)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 07, 2017, 01:44:27 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 07, 2017, 01:41:27 PM
The Muslim invasions of India at least equivalent - unlike Christians or Jews, Hindus were considered Pagans and subjected to persecution as bad as any dealt by Medieval Christian groups
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_India#Pre-colonial_India (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_India#Pre-colonial_India)

Thank you, I had forgotten about that. Possibly a result of the Eurocentric viewpoint Frankopan campaigns against.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 07, 2017, 02:04:22 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 07, 2017, 12:29:45 PM
A very good book, that avoids the PC BS noted above, sparing neither the Comanches, Mexicans, Texans or Americans

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51M2Q6nfcjL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The Comanches weren't monsters or noble savages, just raiders who acted no better or worse than Mongols or Vikings did back in their day.  Fascinating story of how in about 200 years with the introduction of the horse, the Comanches went from pitiful root-grubbers in Wyoming to the most militarily dominant Native American group, one that took nearly 50 years to subjugate
Merci. I have wanted a book on this period, but don't trust anything written after 1970 , or before 1970, on this kind of thing. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 01:18:14 AM
Quote from: Peter FrankopanEurope's distinctive character as more aggressive, more unstable, and less peace-minded than other parts of the world

Oh yes, the world would have been far more quiet, stable and peace-minded, and generally a far better place, without Europe.

What a wanker.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nodogen on August 08, 2017, 02:01:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 01:18:14 AM
Oh yes, the world would have been far more quiet, stable and peace-minded, and generally a far better place, without Europe.

What a wanker.

Couldn't have put it better myself. 👍
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 05:45:43 AM
[Peter Frankopan] dismisses European art of the 17th and 18th centuries as having been "forged by violence," a mark of opprobrium he withholds from most of the art produced under tyrants of the Eastern world clear to the Mughals in India.

This guy is either a dimwit or he has a heavily ideological axe to grind. Either case, definitely not worth my time. I'll pass too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 08, 2017, 05:58:32 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 01:18:14 AM
Oh yes, the world would have been far more quiet, stable and peace-minded, and generally a far better place, without Europe.

What a wanker.

Quote from: nodogen on August 08, 2017, 02:01:48 AM
Couldn't have put it better myself. 👍

Note my tag line!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on August 08, 2017, 06:31:47 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 07, 2017, 01:23:27 PM
He could have admitted to Moslem persecution of minorities while pointing out that Christian Europe was far less tolerant. There were some episodes like the Almohads in Spain, but far less often than what occurred in Europe. There was no real equivalent of the Albigensian Crusade, the Inquisition or the religious violence of the Reformation in Moslem history. 
I have heard people arguing that rough equivalents of the religious conflicts following the Reformation are taking place NOW in the islamic world. I have heard orientalists and historians speak of the near/middle east situation as similar to the 30 years war. Of course, like around 1600 religion is only one factor among many; there are external forces and interests as well (like France and Sweden in the 1630s who became more powerful while Germany/Bohemia etc. were plundered and devastated for decades).

This may not concern the Silk Road region but while "the crusades" are mentioned all the time, it is frequently not mentioned that the crusades were preceded by 400 years of islamic expansion, capture of the Iberic peninsula and virtually constant harrassment of southern Europe, up to the Alps by islamic raiders and pirates. Even long after the crusades and the Spanish reconquista, the Ottoman Empire was a real danger for Europe and the Barbary coast pirates even more so. It is estimated that from the 16th to the late 18th century more than a million Europeans (mostly from captured ships, so not only from the Mediterranean region) were captured and sold as slaves by the barbary pirates. (The maltese knights and others did some raiding, capturing and slaving of their own but on a far smaller scale.) Mozart's Abduction comes at the tail end of this period but it was by no means an outlandish scenario.

These were hard conflicts that lasted centuries and only because the West "won" after centuries of such struggles in the early 19th century (the barbary coast piracy only stopped when France began conquering Algeria in 1830) it does not at all follow that this was due to special ruthlessness or unilateral aggressive expansion of the "West". (The reason for the West winning in the Mediterranean was probably more overextension of the Ottoman Empire that had been on the decline since the late 17th century.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 08, 2017, 06:32:14 AM
(http://fantasy-faction.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Dune-cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 08, 2017, 06:54:08 AM
"An unparalleled achievement of imagination"?  Some days, I feel that such hyperbole is practically a catalogued allergen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nodogen on August 08, 2017, 06:59:15 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 08, 2017, 05:58:32 AM
Note my tag line!

Well, I'm shocked.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 07:07:01 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on August 08, 2017, 06:31:47 AM
while "the crusades" are mentioned all the time, it is frequently not mentioned that the crusades were preceded by 400 years of islamic expansion, capture of the Iberic peninsula and virtually constant harrassment of southern Europe, up to the Alps by islamic raiders and pirates.

Bravo, bravissimo! Hear, hear!

Islamic violent and brutal expansion, let the truth be told.

The Crusades, for all their faults and crimes --- which were actually neither greater nor lesser than those of the non-Christians of that time --- were originally a defensive move taken only after centuries of Islamic aggressive expansion in Christian / Jewish territory.

QuoteEven long after the crusades and the Spanish reconquista, the Ottoman Empire was a real danger for Europe and the Barbary coast pirates even more so.

Once again: bravo!

People like Frankopan and their ilks, who in the protected privacy of their homes write works freely printed and distributed, much to the applause of some academic corners, can and will never be grateful enough to those "aggressive", "violent" and "war-minded" Europeans such as the Romans (aka the Byzantines), the Austrians (both Spanish and Germans), the Venetians, the Wallachians, the Moldavians and the Poles who valiantly and nobly fought the Islamic expansion towards the very heart of Europe. Without these people and their determination and sacrifice, Frankopan and the likes would have been today no more than some dhimmi kissing the feet of the Sultan as a token of gratitude for being allowed to practice their religion and trade; as for writing peer-reviewed, academically praised books, that would not have happened even in their wettest dreams.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 08, 2017, 10:15:22 AM
QuoteThe Crusades, for all their faults and crimes --- which were actually neither greater nor lesser than those of the non-Christians of that time --- were originally a defensive move taken only after centuries of Islamic aggressive expansion in Christian / Jewish territory.

They were particularly daft. The 4th especially was self-destructive ...

They were a much bigger deal in Europe than in the Islamic world, where they were a large scale nuisance rather than a serious threat.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 10:24:27 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 08, 2017, 10:15:22 AM
They were particularly daft. The 4th especially was self-destructive ...

The 4th was an unmitigated disaster (for which the Romans themselves were partially responsible) --- but with respect to Islam the 1st was a defensive, long belated move.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on August 08, 2017, 10:39:56 AM
On the suject this is quite a nice read

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZWNgU%2B%2BIL._SY400_.jpg)

Amin Maalouf was elected at the french academy a couple years back.  He wrote the libretti of many K. Saarahio operas
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 10:51:46 AM
Quote from: Spineur on August 08, 2017, 10:39:56 AM
On the suject this is quite a nice read

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZWNgU%2B%2BIL._SY400_.jpg)

Amin Maalouf was elected at the french academy a couple years back.  He wrote the libretti of many K. Saarahio operas

Haven't read it but I have read and enjoyed many of his books. He has an eminently readable style and touches upon interesting cultural, historical and social topics, wrapping them in adventure-and-mystery sort of novels. Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 08, 2017, 11:43:56 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 10:51:46 AM
Haven't read it but I have read and enjoyed many of his books. He has an eminently readable style and touches upon interesting cultural, historical and social topics, wrapping them in adventure-and-mystery sort of novels. Recommended.
I have read it and liked it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 08, 2017, 11:34:55 PM
Quote from: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 10:51:46 AM
Haven't read it but I have read and enjoyed many of his books. He has an eminently readable style and touches upon interesting cultural, historical and social topics, wrapping them in adventure-and-mystery sort of novels. Recommended.
Read it and did'nt like it at all.  ;) Of course his sources are very much worth reading, but everything is commented in the most stereotypical fashion ('what the West doesn't know nor will ever understand'). The only other historian I ever encountered with such an extremely naive perspective is the member of the Knights of Malta, Desmond Seward, who writes about the Crusades in similarly apologetic terms - but from the opposite perspective.

Quote from: Florestan on August 08, 2017, 10:51:46 AM
Haven't read it but I have read and enjoyed many of his books. He has an eminently readable style and touches upon interesting cultural, historical and social topics, wrapping them in adventure-and-mystery sort of novels. Recommended.
You would be appalled by the political correctness that informs his whole account - and wouldn't like this one at all (whatever the merits of his artistic writings).  8) If ever there was an 'ideologically distorted' book on the crusades, it is this over-naive and amateurish paraphrasing of Arab sources without any analytical merit. A pity, because these sources are of course very much worth knowing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 09, 2017, 07:40:14 AM
(http://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780345806291)

Not long begun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 10, 2017, 03:19:54 AM
Promised to return on the stunning book - yes, it is - by Oxford historian Peter Frankopan and will do so in a few lines. I read a review in The Guardian by William Dalrymple, himself the author of From the Holy Mountain, the most inspiring and eye-opening account of the world the Christian minorities of the Middle-East that I ever read (visited many of these forgotten places myself over the years and wish I'd written as he did, though I wrote a few articles). Fully recommended to start with:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GPMM0P04L._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)      (https://www.historytoday.com/sites/default/files/reviews/silkroads.png)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61cFrXMRzeL._SX345_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Now on The Silk Roads. Dalrymple, who's certainly as well at home in the subject, writes that Frankopan is the true heir to the legacy of Steven Runciman. Now that read Silk Roads myself, I can fully support his findings on this 'brilliant history of the world as seen from the east':
    Runciman's great insight was that the real heirs of Roman civilisation were not the crude chain-mailed knights of the rural west, but instead the sophisticated Byzantines of Constantinople and the cultivated Arabs of Damascus, both of whom had preserved the Hellenised urban tradition of antiquity long after it was destroyed in Europe: "Our civilisation," he wrote, "has grown ... out of the long sequence of interaction and fusion between Orient and Occident."
   This is history on a grand scale, with a sweep and ambition that is rare. I learned a huge amount about subjects I thought I knew well: who would have guessed that Indian Buddhist monasteries once reached as far as Persia, Syria and the Gulf; that the Romans sent embassies as far as China; that Kashgar had a Christian cathedral before Canterbury; that the Chinese were the first to use toilet paper; that the "exceedingly savage" Huns wore robes made of field mice and ate raw meat "partially warmed by being placed between their thighs"; or that the Roman emperor Diocletian's proudest achievement was the size of his cabbages?
   Undaunted by the complexity of the material, and the scale of the subject he has taken on, Frankopan marches briskly through the centuries, disguising his erudition with an enviable lightness of touch, enlivening his narrative with a beautifully constructed web of anecdotes and insights, backed up by an impressively wide-ranging scholarly apparatus of footnotes drawing on works in multiple languages.

IIR correctly, some here responded negatively (without actually having read the book) for two reasons:

- the factual errors that are mentioned by some reviewers, Dalrymple including.
Re: True, and I observed a few myself that were not mentioned yet; e.g. Frankopan mistaking the badly documented revolt of North-African Jewish communities under Trajan (115-117, the so-called Kitos War) with one of the two well-known revolts in Roman Palestine. But on the whole, these slips of the pen dwindle in the light of the overwhelming abundance of the story, and, as often, 'factual errors' mostly serve the self-esteem of jealous, out-classed reviewers (and readers).  :)

- what Jeffrey Smith calls the 'political' and tendentious scheme underlying the story, in his eyes.
Re: I can see the point, but, with your permission, largely disagree. The book is certainly not as one-sided or apologetic as your first impressions suggest. Of course this is far too big an issue to discuss here, but reading Ken's response it became clear to me that it's probably rather the other way around: some readers will not endure too much history. Because it would not fit into a political scheme of the world that's being promoted with remarkable ease in some circles nowadays, namely one in which good and evil are simply identified as 'us' versus 'them', Mani redivivus. In the case of JS, I'm well aware that the sensitivity lies in things related to Jewish history and for good reasons (that I share myself). However, I read to many factual errors in the few lines you devote to the theme to be completely convinced.  ;) Hope people will be able to read Silk Roads with less ideological ballast and more joy of discovery.

BTW, here's the Guardian review by William Dalrymple: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/06/silk-roads-peter-frankopan-review
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 10, 2017, 03:32:18 AM
Re-reading this, because it is good fun.

[asin]1595943587[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 10, 2017, 04:41:56 AM
Quote from: Christo on August 10, 2017, 03:19:54 AM
Hope people will be able to read Silk Roads with less ideological ballast and more joy of discovery.

You read the book and are familiar with it so I have two questions, if I may.

1. Is "Europe's distinctive character as more aggressive, more unstable, and less peace-minded than other parts of the world now paid off." (emphasis mine) in Frankopan's own words?

2. Is this claim from the WaPo review Ken cited true?

[H]e dismisses European art of the 17th and 18th centuries as having been "forged by violence,"

As for the historical trivia, I knew about Romans getting as far East as China, Huns warming their raw meat under their saddles, and Diocletian and his cabbages. I was not able, though, to find online anything about a cathedral in Kashgar. Apparently, the first Christian missionaries (Swedes) arrived in the Xinjiang province in 1892. What sources does he cite for this claim?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 10, 2017, 05:27:15 AM
Quotewho would have guessed that Indian Buddhist monasteries once reached as far as Persia, Syria and the Gulf; that the Romans sent embassies as far as China; that Kashgar had a Christian cathedral before Canterbury; that the Chinese were the first to use toilet paper; that the "exceedingly savage" Huns wore robes made of field mice and ate raw meat "partially warmed by being placed between their thighs"; or that the Roman emperor Diocletian's proudest achievement was the size of his cabbages?

Actually I knew all that, except about Kahsgar (I don't even know where Kashgar is, but I know Canterbury as not an early church in European terms) and this is not an area I know a lot about.

QuoteOf course this is far too big an issue to discuss here, but reading Ken's response it became clear to me that it's probably rather the other way around: some readers will not endure too much history

Yes, we ignoramuses like our ignorance.

Addressing JS:
QuoteI read to
  • many factual errors in the few lines you devote to the theme to be completely convinced.
Since I have seen those same errors identified by professional historians of the period, I must demur.

Let's take a step back. You recommend a book. Jeffrey relates flaws he found reading, and details some of them. I found reviews by historians who agree with Jeffery. Then I conclude I don't want to read it. I don't suggest no-one else read it, and I don't call it a bad book. I say it doesn't sound like I want to read it, and I say why.  Your response is to insult me and Jeffery in a snide, smug, self-serving post.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 10, 2017, 05:35:12 PM
From Wikipedia on Kashgar
QuoteAt around the same era, Nestorian Christians were establishing bishoprics at Herat, Merv and Samarkand, whence they subsequently proceeded to Kashgar, and finally to China proper itself.

To be honest, I knew about the Nestorians (and Jews and Moslems) in China c 500 CE long ago.

I didn't know about Diocletian's cabbages, but now that I do, I can suspect the source from which Voltaire took the ending of Candide.

I actually think the book's actual thesis is a good one, and deserves a better author.

BTW, Frankopan was not wrong about the Kitos War. The primary fighting was elsewhere, but did include a rebellion in Judea itself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 11, 2017, 12:41:01 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 10, 2017, 05:35:12 PM
From Wikipedia on Kashgar
To be honest, I knew about the Nestorians (and Jews and Moslems) in China c 500 CE long ago.

Yes I had read that,  but there is no mention of any cathedral.

I suspect that by cathedral he means simply a big church, but this would be another factual error. A cathedral is a church (large or small, doesn't matter) where a bishop officiates and that implies the existence of a bishopric. While the Herat, Merv and Samarkand bishoprics are nominally mentioned in Wikipedia, there is no mention of a Kashgar one.

Now, to the claim that the hypothetical Kashgar cathedral was older than the Canterbury one. Says Wikipedia:

Buddhist scholar Xuanzang passed through Kashgar (which he referred to as Ka-sha) in 644 on his return journey from India to China. [...]

At around the same era, Nestorian Christians were establishing bishoprics at Herat, Merv and Samarkand, whence they subsequently proceeded to Kashgar, and finally to China proper itself.

It can be safely inferred from the above that the founding of any church / cathedral in Kashgar is subsequent to 644. But the oldest Cathedral of Canterbury was founded in 597, when St. Augustine (not the famous one) was consecrated as Bishop and took as his seat a church which is still extant and in use (https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/heritage/history/cathedral-history-in-a-nutshell/ (https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/heritage/history/cathedral-history-in-a-nutshell/)). That was indeed the first Cathedral of Canterbury and it predates the hypotethical Kashgar one by at least 50 years.






Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on August 11, 2017, 12:42:39 AM
To cultivate the garden was the original pre-Fall purpose of Man in Genesis, so I am not sure if Voltaire needed Diokletian (I didn't know about his cabbages either) ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 11, 2017, 08:19:57 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 11, 2017, 12:41:01 AM
Yes I had read that,  but there is no mention of any cathedral.

I suspect that by cathedral he means simply a big church, but this would be another factual error. A cathedral is a church (large or small, doesn't matter) where a bishop officiates and that implies the existence of a bishopric. While the Herat, Merv and Samarkand bishoprics are nominally mentioned in Wikipedia, there is no mention of a Kashgar one.

Now, to the claim that the hypothetical Kashgar cathedral was older than the Canterbury one. Says Wikipedia:

Buddhist scholar Xuanzang passed through Kashgar (which he referred to as Ka-sha) in 644 on his return journey from India to China. [...]

At around the same era, Nestorian Christians were establishing bishoprics at Herat, Merv and Samarkand, whence they subsequently proceeded to Kashgar, and finally to China proper itself.

It can be safely inferred from the above that the founding of any church / cathedral in Kashgar is subsequent to 644. But the oldest Cathedral of Canterbury was founded in 597, when St. Augustine (not the famous one) was consecrated as Bishop and took as his seat a church which is still extant and in use (https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/heritage/history/cathedral-history-in-a-nutshell/ (https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/heritage/history/cathedral-history-in-a-nutshell/)). That was indeed the first Cathedral of Canterbury and it predates the hypotethical Kashgar one by at least 50 years.

One minor correction. That IS the famous Augustine. I say that because people routinely conflate them. Being believed the same Augustine, he shares the same fame. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on August 11, 2017, 09:20:50 AM
Re those here showing their sincerest interest in the Christians of Kashgar, I'll quote what Frankopan's The Silk Roads actually states, p. 55:

'By the middle of the sixth century there were archbishoprics deep within Asia. Cities including Basra, Mosul and Tikrit had burgeoning Christian populations. The scale of evangelism was such that Kokhe, situated close to Ctesiphon, was served by no fewer than five dependent bishoprics. Cities like Merv, Gondēshāpūr and even Kashgar, the oasis town that was the entry point to China, had archbishops long before Canterbury did."

So, according to Frankopan, it was (1) an archbishopric, (2) middle of the sixth century, (3) based on a whole series of sources of which I read only one: P. Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity (at my office, will check later). But his main source appears to be: S. Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia, 2 vols. (USA 1998). BTW there's no other mention of the 'most famous' of both St. Augustines in the book.

Quote from: Florestan on August 10, 2017, 04:41:56 AMI have two questions, if I may
You're more than welcome! Will respond later, with your permission.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 11, 2017, 09:42:31 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51egCJXTc4L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Currenly up to the 1830s, being a time period I dont know much about, a few takeaways

- hard to overstate Napoleon's influence in shaping the liberal movements that swept across Europe after the wars

- the Greek revolution looked much like the 1990s Yugoslav civil war with widespread massacres of women and children by both the Greeks and Turks

- Romania had slavery, primarily of gypsies, until the mid part of the 19th century

- the internal political dynamics of the major european powers - attempted coups by mid level officers, multi-year swings in tide between liberalism and autocracy look alot like recent experience in the developing world
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 11, 2017, 12:26:19 PM
Quote from: Christo on August 11, 2017, 09:20:50 AM
Re those here showing their sincerest interest in the Christians of Kashgar, I'll quote what Frankopan's The Silk Roads actually states, p. 55:

'By the middle of the sixth century there were archbishoprics deep within Asia. Cities including Basra, Mosul and Tikrit had burgeoning Christian populations. The scale of evangelism was such that Kokhe, situated close to Ctesiphon, was served by no fewer than five dependent bishoprics. Cities like Merv, Gondēshāpūr and even Kashgar, the oasis town that was the entry point to China, had archbishops long before Canterbury did."

I'll give him Merv and Gondēshāpūr, but I'm still unconvinced about Kashgar.

Plus: Nestorianism was condemned as heretical at Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451), two Ecumenical Councils which both the "Roman Catholic" and the "Eastern Orthodox" Churches  --- both of them misnomers --- acknowledge as valid. So, establishing a heretical bishopric in some Far East town "long before" establishing an orthodox one in Canterbury has only minor importance with respect to the subsequent development of the Christian theology and civilization in Europe.

Quote
You're more than welcome! Will respond later, with your permission.  :)

Take all the time you need, and thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 12, 2017, 08:05:20 AM
Continuing on Dune. This Baron Harkonnen seems deliciously evil character. I can see why Wanderer voted for him as a nominee for the greatest scifi villain. I see it unlikely that Harkonnen ever could beat Darth Vader, in my opinion, due to certain nostalgic feeling and that impressive bad-assery Vader has in the original trilogy (which of course was tried to demolish entirely by prequels). But who knows. So far I can well see why Herbert is called Tolkien of Science fiction. The sheer lore he has created is impressive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 14, 2017, 03:33:42 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61DHrPccq8L.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on August 14, 2017, 06:19:58 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51arQw4RUOL.jpg)


Generally well-written, with a snappy, contemporary prose style, and chock full of useful facts, factoids, and quasi-case studies on water policy, this book is something of a page turner.  I'm about halfway done, and expect to complete it shortly.  Changes to water supply management could offer some juicy returns to investors in the right companies.  I need to do me some more research in that area.  The only company mentioned in the book to this point is Nalco, which is now part of Ecolab.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 14, 2017, 09:39:30 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 11, 2017, 09:42:31 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51egCJXTc4L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Currenly up to the 1830s, being a time period I dont know much about, a few takeaways

- Romania had slavery, primarily of gypsies, until the mid part of the 19th century

Until 1866 there was no Romania.

Quote
- the internal political dynamics of the major european powers - attempted coups by mid level officers, multi-year swings in tide between liberalism and autocracy look alot like recent experience in the developing world

The major European powers in the timeframe 1815-1830 were France, England, Russia, The Austrian Empire, and Prussia. I am not aware of a single instance of attempted coups by mid level officers in any of these countries. If he means Spain, it had ceased to be a major European power ever since the War of Spanish Succession, 1700-1714. If he means the Decembrist Revolt in Russia, then it was not a coup.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 14, 2017, 11:26:40 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 14, 2017, 09:39:30 AM
Until 1866 there was no Romania.

Used the term as it is more recognizable than Moldavia and Wallachia, which were the actual political entities.  Used the same way historians use the word 'Germany' to collectively describe the various German states prior to unification

QuoteThe major European powers in the timeframe 1815-1830 were France, England, Russia, The Austrian Empire, and Prussia. I am not aware of a single instance of attempted coups by mid level officers in any of these countries. If he means Spain, it had ceased to be a major European power ever since the War of Spanish Succession, 1700-1714. If he means the Decembrist Revolt in Russia, then it was not a coup.

True about the coups, my term and badly used.  The author's point was that mid-level army officers were a significant pro-liberal political force in most European countries at that time.  There was significant opposition to the Bourbon restoration within the French military and the Decembrist Revolt fits this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 14, 2017, 01:16:09 PM
Quote from: Florestan on August 14, 2017, 09:39:30 AM
Until 1866 there was no Romania.

So you're saying you were slavers from the get-go?


>:D :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 15, 2017, 12:46:45 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 14, 2017, 11:26:40 AM
Used the term as it is more recognizable than Moldavia and Wallachia, which were the actual political entities.  Used the same way historians use the word 'Germany' to collectively describe the various German states prior to unification

They use it wrongly. There were huge social, cultural, economic, religious and political differences between those states; lumping them together under the "Germany" umbrella makes no sense.

Quote
The author's point was that mid-level army officers were a significant pro-liberal political force in most European countries at that time. 

That is true.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Hollywood on August 22, 2017, 12:08:45 PM
I'm currently reading this book:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5148kabeAxL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on August 22, 2017, 03:25:32 PM
Quote from: Hollywood on August 22, 2017, 12:08:45 PM
I'm currently reading this book:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5148kabeAxL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

"Man out of time." That means he was nuts before it became fashionable?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 22, 2017, 05:19:03 PM
That looks like a Dalek on the cover. Perhaps they want to suggest he was a Time Lord?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 22, 2017, 05:28:05 PM
Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on August 22, 2017, 03:12:39 PM
Time to grab out Dantes Divine Comedy again  :D

I thought I was the only one weird enough to reread that.  :D but can you reread Paradise Lost? I loved PL, an astonishing thing. One of the highlights of decades of reading. But I doubt I'll ever read it a second time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 22, 2017, 05:31:44 PM
Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on August 22, 2017, 05:24:10 PM
Found a copy of Dante in the library  8)

Which translation? There seems to have been a few new ones in the last few years.  The one I have is a prose translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 22, 2017, 05:45:10 PM
Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on August 22, 2017, 05:37:11 PM
"midway upon the course of this our life, I found myself within a gloom dark wood"?
Sounds very 19th century.

Ciardi is good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 22, 2017, 05:56:02 PM
Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on August 22, 2017, 05:50:30 PM
I chose a flashy looking translation of the inferno segment with old English and Hieronymus Bosch art on the cover  :D

About to meet a girl in ten minutes so I issued it out and ran  :laugh:

Feeling like ingesting a bit of Dante into my system today/this week

Here's to the second circle!

(Or maybe the 7th ...)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on August 22, 2017, 06:08:24 PM
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on August 23, 2017, 07:45:20 AM
James Joyce - Ulysses

640 pages of sheer tedium dressed up in myriad literary styles, linguistic and structural games, references to literature, history, myth, and whatever else. Very clever but impossibly boring.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 23, 2017, 07:56:15 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on August 23, 2017, 07:45:20 AM
James Joyce - Ulysses

640 pages of sheer tedium dressed up in myriad literary styles, linguistic and structural games, references to literature, history, myth, and whatever else. Very clever but impossibly boring.

Its a great book, worthy of its reputation.  I dont find it boring at all, one of the few things I go back and re-read from time to time
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on August 23, 2017, 09:04:38 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 23, 2017, 07:56:15 AM
Its a great book, worthy of its reputation.  I dont find it boring at all, one of the few things I go back and re-read from time to time
I think most readers are in agreement with you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 23, 2017, 10:55:03 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on August 23, 2017, 09:04:38 AM
I think most readers are in agreement with you.
Selection bias.

QuoteIts ... worthy of its reputation
I agree, but I suspect I am referring to a different reputation than you are.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on August 23, 2017, 11:09:14 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 23, 2017, 10:55:03 AM
Selection bias.
Right, very few people who dislike it would actually bother to say so, either for fear of being considered stupid or contrarian. I also dare say there are quite a few people who would happily proclaim it to be the best novel of the 20th century but have never actually read it. I actually quite enjoy Dubliners and Finnegans Wake (a very fun book to dip into, not so much to read from start to finish), but both the Portrait and Ulysses leave me cold.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 23, 2017, 11:16:13 AM
Funny, I like Portrait and find Finnegans Wake incomprehensible
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 23, 2017, 11:22:10 AM
I can't imagine anyone not finding Finnegans Wake incomprehensible - not that that should stop everyone from enjoying it, of course.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on August 23, 2017, 11:40:20 AM
I think the fact that it has taken Joyce scholars decades to decipher any sort of plot from the text is testament enough to its incomprehensibility. I think it's preferable not to approach it as a novel at all, what meaning or characters or stories may or may not be in there doesn't really matter to me, I just like to open it up to a random page and enjoy the style for a little bit before putting it back away.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 23, 2017, 11:42:48 AM
Ulysses is similar in that you can just read any chapter on a stand-alone basis.  The first time I read it cover to cover, now I will read (or better listen - Joyce seems to work better on audiobook for me) a couple of random chapters from time to time
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BasilValentine on August 23, 2017, 12:14:42 PM
2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Had heard of it. Saw it in the local thrift store for $.50. I'm 125 pages in and have no idea where it's going but am enjoying it. Various literary scholars, when they aren't screwing one another, are in search of their favorite and apparently reclusive and elusive author.

I read Ulysses to see what all the ballyhoo is about and because I heard the claim that my favorite novel, William Gaddis's The Recognitions, wouldn't have existed without it. (I later discovered that Gaddis only read the first forty pages of Ulysses and then got bored.) I'm glad I read it, but have not joined the fan club.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on August 23, 2017, 12:22:06 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 23, 2017, 07:56:15 AM
Its a great book, worthy of its reputation.  I dont find it boring at all, one of the few things I go back and re-read from time to time

I've tried to tackle it more than once. I find the beginning captivating, but about 20% in I hit a brick wall. That's where my Kindle app. says I am currently stalled. :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 24, 2017, 01:23:33 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 23, 2017, 11:42:48 AM
Ulysses is similar in that you can just read any chapter on a stand-alone basis.  The first time I read it cover to cover, now I will read (or better listen - Joyce seems to work better on audiobook for me) a couple of random chapters from time to time

Hmmm, audiobook Ulysses, there is an idea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 27, 2017, 11:32:47 AM
It's been a while since I last read anything by Jean Cocteau:

(https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/M6gAAOSwmgJY32M9/s-l225.jpg)
La Difficulté d'être is a collection of musings, reminiscences and reflections, originally published in 1947. Even taking into account the nature of this text, and its author's notoriously narcissistic personality, the incessant use of the word "je" becomes tiresome (I don't recall ever reading a text that uses "je"--or "I", "yo", "io" or "ich" for that matter--so often). Paradoxically though, the book is at its most interesting when Cocteau doesn't write about himself, but about others (e.g. Radiguet or Satie).

In any case, the book does display a certain charme désuet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 28, 2017, 02:21:55 PM
Quote from: ritter on August 27, 2017, 11:32:47 AM
It's been a while since I last read anything by Jean Cocteau:

(https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/M6gAAOSwmgJY32M9/s-l225.jpg)
La Difficulté d'être is a collection of musings, reminiscences and reflections, originally published in 1947. Even taking into account the nature of this text, and its author's notoriously narcissistic personality, the incessant use of the word "je" becomes tiresome (I don't recall ever reading a text that uses "je"--or "I", "yo", "io" or "ich" for that matter--so often). Paradoxically though, the book is at its most interesting when Cocteau doesn't write about himself, but about others (e.g. Radiguet or Satie).

In any case, the book does display a certain charme désuet.

So what would you recommend reading by Cocteau? :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on August 28, 2017, 02:36:05 PM
Quote from: BasilValentine on August 23, 2017, 12:14:42 PM
2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Had heard of it. Saw it in the local thrift store for $.50. I'm 125 pages in and have no idea where it's going but am enjoying it. Various literary scholars, when they aren't screwing one another, are in search of their favorite and apparently reclusive and elusive author.

If I had paid $0.50 for it I would still regret the outlay. If I recall correctly, you'll soon get to the section of the book which is basically a laundry list of mutilated bodies discovered in some border town. Insidious because the impression was created that the book would eventually come to some sort of redeeming message, but that never happened.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 28, 2017, 11:47:48 PM
Quote from: NikF on August 28, 2017, 02:21:55 PM
So what would you recommend reading by Cocteau? :)
That's actually a good question, NikF. Cocteau was someone who did many things in the arts (poetry, drama, novels, films, libretti, painting) in a rather dilettantish way, and one would be hard-pressed to come up with a work that really stands out or could be called a "masterpiece" (whatever that may be). His constant striving to promote himself, and to make his work palatable to the beau monde, often gives his output a patina of superficiality which masks what I think deep-down is an original and interesting voice.

I think Les Enfants terribles (The Holy Terrors), his short novel from 1929, would be a good starting point, and some of his plays based on classical themes (Antigone, La machine infernale) are quite accomplished. I also remember enjoying Maalesh: A Theatrical Tour of the Middle East, his journal of a tour in 1949 to Egypt and Turkey, where the chaos of everyday theatrical life is vividly depicted (in an appropriately exotic setting).

Then, there's Le Coq et l'Arlequin, important as a manifesto of musical aesthetics in France in the 20s (he being the "godfather" of Les Six). I really don't share almost any of his tenets there, but it does make for interesting reading.

Not something you can read of course, but I must correct myself: if anything of Cocteau's can be dubbed a "masterpiece", I'd say it's his film Beauty and the Beast. One of the most beautiful motion pictures I've ever seen.  :)

(http://www.alalettre.com/pics/candelabres.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on August 29, 2017, 12:24:19 AM
(https://www.images-booknode.com/book_cover/807/full/au-bonheur-des-dames-806868.jpg)

What a great story! A real page turner. Drama, melodrama, love & hate, misery - good stuff.

P.

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/af/48/0c/af480c9cfa1286aafcc31860bfd4fe86.jpg)
My copy.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 29, 2017, 03:35:10 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 28, 2017, 11:47:48 PM
Not something you can read of course, but I must correct myself: if anything of Cocteau's can be dubbed a "masterpiece", I'd say it's his film Beauty and the Beast. One of the most beautiful motion pictures I've ever seen.  :)

(http://www.alalettre.com/pics/candelabres.jpg)

Thanks for the reminder;  I really need to watch this . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 29, 2017, 03:48:57 AM
Thread Duty:

Just finished Guy Rickard's Hindemith, Hartmann and Henze (Oh, My!)

I was rather hoping that this would (in line with similar reading about this or that composer in the past) quicken more of a sympathy with Henze.  The absorbing reading about Hindemith and Hartmann I entirely counted on;  and on the whole, the intertwined, chronological narrative I found very well advised.  Perhaps the problem (for me) is simply, that Henze was determined to politicize art (a requiem to honor Che, for out loud crying);  this is, sadly, in line with a like problem in our day, the determination to favor (and support) art which is "socially relevant."

A kind of Eugenics in Art, it feels like.

As a result, and given the structure of the book, the last 50-ish pages were rather a chore.

I suppose I'll try to read it again, five years hence perhaps.  The tough break for Henze is, the book has whetted my appetite for Hindemith and Hartmann, but quite firmly put me off any short-term interest in Henze.  In fact, it rather has me feeling that the Henze in my library at present, is probably as much as I shall ever need.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 29, 2017, 05:22:30 AM
Quote from: pjme on August 29, 2017, 12:24:19 AM
(https://www.images-booknode.com/book_cover/807/full/au-bonheur-des-dames-806868.jpg)

What a great story! A real page turner. Drama, melodrama, love & hate, misery - good stuff.

P.

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/af/48/0c/af480c9cfa1286aafcc31860bfd4fe86.jpg)
My copy.

Never read Zola yet, although I do know his open letter J'accuse...! And I mean "know it" in the way of "know the background of it, never actually read it".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 29, 2017, 06:00:41 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 29, 2017, 05:22:30 AM
Never read Zola yet, although I do know his open letter J'accuse...! And I mean "know it" in the way of "know the background of it, never actually read it".
Exactly my situation...strangely, I don't really feel attracted by his work. My loss, for sure...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 29, 2017, 09:27:46 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 29, 2017, 03:48:57 AM
Thread Duty:

Just finished Guy Rickard's Hindemith, Hartmann and Henze (Oh, My!)

I was rather hoping that this would (in line with similar reading about this or that composer in the past) quicken more of a sympathy with Henze.  The absorbing reading about Hindemith and Hartmann I entirely counted on;  and on the whole, the intertwined, chronological narrative I found very well advised.  Perhaps the problem (for me) is simply, that Henze was determined to politicize art (a requiem to honor Che, for out loud crying);  this is, sadly, in line with a like problem in our day, the determination to favor (and support) art which is "socially relevant."

A kind of Eugenics in Art, it feels like.

As a result, and given the structure of the book, the last 50-ish pages were rather a chore.

I suppose I'll try to read it again, five years hence perhaps.  The tough break for Henze is, the book has whetted my appetite for Hindemith and Hartmann, but quite firmly put me off any short-term interest in Henze.  In fact, it rather has me feeling that the Henze in my library at present, is probably as much as I shall ever need.

Nice phrase, eugenics in art. Conveys the idea pithily.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 29, 2017, 09:36:36 AM
Wow: $57.14 for the Kindle edition?

[asin]0810858770[/asin]

I feel really happy about having found a good copy for $15 . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on August 29, 2017, 09:55:23 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 29, 2017, 03:48:57 AM
Thread Duty:

Just finished Guy Rickard's Hindemith, Hartmann and Henze (Oh, My!)

I was rather hoping that this would (in line with similar reading about this or that composer in the past) quicken more of a sympathy with Henze.  The absorbing reading about Hindemith and Hartmann I entirely counted on;  and on the whole, the intertwined, chronological narrative I found very well advised.  Perhaps the problem (for me) is simply, that Henze was determined to politicize art (a requiem to honor Che, for out loud crying);  this is, sadly, in line with a like problem in our day, the determination to favor (and support) art which is "socially relevant."

A kind of Eugenics in Art, it feels like.

As a result, and given the structure of the book, the last 50-ish pages were rather a chore.

I suppose I'll try to read it again, five years hence perhaps.  The tough break for Henze is, the book has whetted my appetite for Hindemith and Hartmann, but quite firmly put me off any short-term interest in Henze.  In fact, it rather has me feeling that the Henze in my library at present, is probably as much as I shall ever need.
As long as Royal Winter Music is in there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 29, 2017, 10:02:07 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 29, 2017, 09:55:23 AM
As long as Royal Winter Music is in there.

It is not, yet.  And it may be a while before I feel I really want to address that  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on August 29, 2017, 10:05:55 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 29, 2017, 06:00:41 AM
Exactly my situation...strangely, I don't really feel attracted by his work. My loss, for sure...
I have read a number of Zola's books.  He started the realist style that inspired the Italian post-war cinema (Victorio de Sica,...)
A very strong book is Thérèse Raquin.  It has been adapted to the cinema by Marcel Carné with Simone Signoret as Thérèse Raquin.
IMHO both book and movie are worth it.

Another classic adaptation of Zola is La bete Humaine by Jean Renoir with Jean Gabin.  In spite of the cinematography and the great actors, I always felt Zola's story was dated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on August 29, 2017, 10:22:35 AM
I am re-reading a french classic

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gKMOrGtmL._SY400_.jpg)

Although Stendhal left the book unfinished, it is the best novel he wrote, better than La chartreuse de Parme or le rouge et le noir.
I would recommend a detailed edition with the different endings that Stendhal sketched.  La Pleiade has it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 29, 2017, 10:26:22 AM
Quote from: Spineur on August 29, 2017, 10:22:35 AM
I am re-reading a french classic

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gKMOrGtmL._SY400_.jpg)

Although Stendhal left the book unfinished, it is the best novel he wrote, better than La chartreuse de Parme or le rouge et le noir.

That's quite a bold statement! Having read both LCDP and LRELN, I dare doubt it!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on August 29, 2017, 11:00:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 29, 2017, 10:26:22 AM
That's quite a bold statement! Having read both LCDP and LRELN, I dare doubt it!  ;D
Try it: 700 pages of pure happiness.

Here is a critique "Lucky Lucien" in english everybody can read

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v08/n03/stephen-vizinczey/lucky-lucien (https://www.lrb.co.uk/v08/n03/stephen-vizinczey/lucky-lucien)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 29, 2017, 11:48:45 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 28, 2017, 11:47:48 PM
That's actually a good question, NikF. Cocteau was someone who did many things in the arts (poetry, drama, novels, films, libretti, painting) in a rather dilettantish way, and one would be hard-pressed to come up with a work that really stands out or could be called a "masterpiece" (whatever that may be). His constant striving to promote himself, and to make his work palatable to the beau monde, often gives his output a patina of superficiality which masks what I think deep-down is an original and interesting voice.

I think Les Enfants terribles (The Holy Terrors), his short novel from 1929, would be a good starting point, and some of his plays based on classical themes (Antigone, La machine infernale) are quite accomplished. I also remember enjoying Maalesh: A Theatrical Tour of the Middle East, his journal of a tour in 1949 to Egypt and Turkey, where the chaos of everyday theatrical life is vividly depicted (in an appropriately exotic setting).

Then, there's Le Coq et l'Arlequin, important as a manifesto of musical aesthetics in France in the 20s (he being the "godfather" of Les Six). I really don't share almost any of his tenets there, but it does make for interesting reading.

Not something you can read of course, but I must correct myself: if anything of Cocteau's can be dubbed a "masterpiece", I'd say it's his film Beauty and the Beast. One of the most beautiful motion pictures I've ever seen.  :)

(http://www.alalettre.com/pics/candelabres.jpg)

Yeah, La Belle et la Bête is indeed a thing of beauty. I'm really only familiar with his film work (and to a lesser extent, ballet) but what an output throughout his career. And the circles he moved in, both professionally and socially - how rich!

Those are thoughtful insights and a fine list of suggestions. I'll look into them.
I appreciate it you taking the time to put it together. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 29, 2017, 12:33:35 PM
Quote from: NikF on August 29, 2017, 11:48:45 AM
Those are thoughtful insights and a fine list of suggestions. I'll look into them.
I appreciate it you taking the time to put it together. Thanks.
 votre service, cher ami :).

Quote from: Spineur on August 29, 2017, 10:05:55 AM
I have read a number of Zola's books.  He started the realist style that inspired the Italian post-war cinema (Victorio de Sica,...)
A very strong book is Thérèse Raquin.  It has been adapted to the cinema by Marcel Carné with Simone Signoret as Thérèse Raquin.
IMHO both book and movie are worth it.

Another classic adaptation of Zola is La bete Humaine by Jean Renoir with Jean Gabin.  In spite of the cinematography and the great actors, I always felt Zola's story was dated.
Many thanks for that, Spineur. I might approach Zola through films (I don't know either of the ones you mentioned) and then perhaps aller à la source  :).

Regards,

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 29, 2017, 11:57:34 PM
Quote from: Spineur on August 29, 2017, 11:00:13 AM
Try it

I will, thanks for the recommendation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 30, 2017, 04:58:05 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 29, 2017, 11:57:34 PM
I will, thanks for the recommendation.

Let me know! You can be the canary in the mine!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 30, 2017, 05:08:49 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 30, 2017, 04:58:05 AM
Let me know! You can be the canary in the mine!

It won't be very soon, so please be patient.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 30, 2017, 05:23:50 AM
Why the canary in the yours, buddy?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 30, 2017, 06:41:42 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 30, 2017, 05:23:50 AM
Why the canary in the yours, buddy?

Selfishness. Pure, raw selfishness. All your subterranean tunnels are mine!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 30, 2017, 06:45:03 AM
"An African in Greenland," by Tété-Michel Kpomassie, the memoir of - wait for it - an African who went to Greenland. (The longer summary is even better: he ran away from his home in Togo as a teenager because he was terrified of pythons and his family had promised him to join the high priesthood of a python cult. He chose Greenland because it didn't have any snakes.)

(https://northernlightsreading.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/tete_michel_kpomassie.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on August 30, 2017, 08:07:42 AM
"I might approach Zola through films (I don't know either of the ones you mentioned) and then perhaps aller à la source  :)."

"Au bonheur des dames" was at least used twice to inspire a film scenario.
In 1929/30 by Julien Duvivier ( a silent film) and in 1943 by André Cayatte. Duvivier has Dita Parlo as Denise, Cayatte has Michel Simon as Baudu.

I haven't seen these films.

(https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/find-a-grave-prod/photos/2012/336/9750775_135446675437.jpg)

Dita Parlo

(http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv9/francomac123/Travail%20en%20cours/Travail%20par%20albums%205/Cayatte-1943-Au%20bonheur%20des%20dames/gr_bonheur_dames01.jpg~original)

Michel Simon

Zola uses a very rich language, full of detailed description. A goldmine for cinematographers, decorators, prop buyers & costume designers.

P.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 31, 2017, 12:40:03 AM
Quote from: pjme on August 30, 2017, 08:07:42 AM
"I might approach Zola through films (I don't know either of the ones you mentioned) and then perhaps aller à la source  :)."

"Au bonheur des dames" was at least used twice to inspire a film scenario.
In 1929/30 by Julien Duvivier ( a silent film) and in 1943 by André Cayatte. Duvivier has Dita Parlo as Denise, Cayatte has Michel Simon as Baudu.

I haven't seen these films.

(https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/find-a-grave-prod/photos/2012/336/9750775_135446675437.jpg)

Dita Parlo

(http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv9/francomac123/Travail%20en%20cours/Travail%20par%20albums%205/Cayatte-1943-Au%20bonheur%20des%20dames/gr_bonheur_dames01.jpg~original)

Michel Simon

Zola uses a very rich language, full of detailed description. A goldmine for cinematographers, decorators, prop buyers & costume designers.

P.
Thanks for the info, pjme!

Met vriendelijke groeten,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on August 31, 2017, 10:12:07 AM
Preceding discussion motivated me to go looking for Zola here at the public library.  And found one offering in the general stacks

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/510J8Qg8S-L.jpg)

Which is how Penguin decided to issue its edition of  "The Ladies Paradise" translated by Ernest Vizetelly back in 1886.  It will be going home with me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 31, 2017, 10:13:15 AM
That isn't Steve Martin's Shop Girl?...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 02, 2017, 06:09:38 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 29, 2017, 03:48:57 AM
Thread Duty:

Just finished Guy Rickard's Hindemith, Hartmann and Henze (Oh, My!)

I was rather hoping that this would (in line with similar reading about this or that composer in the past) quicken more of a sympathy with Henze.  The absorbing reading about Hindemith and Hartmann I entirely counted on;  and on the whole, the intertwined, chronological narrative I found very well advised.  Perhaps the problem (for me) is simply, that Henze was determined to politicize art (a requiem to honor Che, for out loud crying);  this is, sadly, in line with a like problem in our day, the determination to favor (and support) art which is "socially relevant."

A kind of Eugenics in Art, it feels like.

As a result, and given the structure of the book, the last 50-ish pages were rather a chore.

I suppose I'll try to read it again, five years hence perhaps.  The tough break for Henze is, the book has whetted my appetite for Hindemith and Hartmann, but quite firmly put me off any short-term interest in Henze.  In fact, it rather has me feeling that the Henze in my library at present, is probably as much as I shall ever need.

This (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,19639.msg1086604.html#msg1086604) sort of thing is a large part of why slogging through the all-Henze-all-the-time section of the book was such a chore.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 02, 2017, 01:44:35 PM
Hmm. I guess I should be glad that I know very little about Henze's politics and can just enjoy his music (which I do). I've actually got the book you mention, but haven't read it yet - though I doubt it would bother me to the extent it does you, much in the way Boulez's rants don't stop me liking a large amount of his music.

OT:

the Zola talk here has reminded me that much as I love his work (The Debacle is one of my favorite novels) I haven't read anything of his in years. So have started L'Assommoir:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/418QM3TWGZL._SX295_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on September 03, 2017, 10:15:05 AM
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

Not bad. I find Atwood's prose style a little grating, it's a clumsy would-be witty style that doesn't flow all that well for me, and falls over into poetics too often, struggling to maintain the first person voice. It also suffers from the 1984 problem of clearing everything up with an epilogue, if it had ended where it seems like it should it would have been much more impactful for its ambiguity. Some of the Christian derived stuff seems silly to me, but maybe that's just a matter of contemporaneity, today it seems far more likely that unchecked growth of Islam would give rise to such a dystopia in the west. Overall I liked it, but I don't quite get the hype.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 03, 2017, 10:44:21 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on September 03, 2017, 10:15:05 AM
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

Not bad. I find Atwood's prose style a little grating, it's a clumsy would-be witty style that doesn't flow all that well for me, and falls over into poetics too often, struggling to maintain the first person voice. It also suffers from the 1984 problem of clearing everything up with an epilogue, if it had ended where it seems like it should it would have been much more impactful for its ambiguity. Some of the Christian derived stuff seems silly to me, but maybe that's just a matter of contemporaneity, today it seems far more likely that unchecked growth of Islam would give rise to such a dystopia in the west. Overall I liked it, but I don't quite get the hype.

Canadian writing is about lists. Her prose is full of lists. As you say, she's a clumsy writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 03, 2017, 02:19:15 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ad/Jar_City_US_hard_cover.jpg/220px-Jar_City_US_hard_cover.jpg)

The first in the Detective Erlendur series to be translated into English.  Reads a lot like Martin Beck novels only more present time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 03, 2017, 04:20:44 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 03, 2017, 02:19:15 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ad/Jar_City_US_hard_cover.jpg/220px-Jar_City_US_hard_cover.jpg)

The first in the Detective Erlendur series to be translated into English.  Reads a lot like Martin Beck novels only more present time.

High praise! Those are terrific books.

Reading something right now you might like Bill, Thick as Thieves by Spiegelman. A high tech heist novel from a few years ago. Little over half done.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on September 03, 2017, 06:29:15 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 03, 2017, 02:19:15 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ad/Jar_City_US_hard_cover.jpg/220px-Jar_City_US_hard_cover.jpg)

The first in the Detective Erlendur series to be translated into English.  Reads a lot like Martin Beck novels only more present time.

I love Arnaldur's books ! Pretty sure he's partly responsible for all those tourists flocking to Iceland !  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on September 04, 2017, 07:36:28 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 03, 2017, 04:20:44 PM
High praise! Those are terrific books.

Reading something right now you might like Bill, Thick as Thieves by Spiegelman. A high tech heist novel from a few years ago. Little over half done.

Just book marked it on Goodreads, Ken. Thanks for the tip.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 04, 2017, 11:01:17 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 03, 2017, 10:44:21 AM
Canadian writing is about lists. Her prose is full of lists. As you say, she's a clumsy writer.
Alice Munro doesn't list iirc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 04, 2017, 12:22:01 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 04, 2017, 11:01:17 AM
Alice Munro doesn't list iirc.

She seems to have escaped the disease.

TD starting this
[asin] B003WUYOP2[/asin]

Brian recommended it but I thought I'd try it anyway.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on September 04, 2017, 03:37:11 PM
The Captive, by Marcel Proust
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 08, 2017, 04:20:56 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 04, 2017, 12:22:01 PM
She seems to have escaped the disease.

TD starting this
[asin] B003WUYOP2[/asin]
I gave it my brother as a present a year or two ago, it is supposedly lengthy but he loved it as he is something of a viking fan.
We also both loved Farley Mowat: Westviking, ISBN-13: 978-0771066924. A book by an experienced sailor about both the explorations of the viking in Greenland and North America and their sailing/navigation technique I don't know how up to date as far as historical research goes Mowat is, but it was a fascinating read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 08, 2017, 06:49:24 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on September 08, 2017, 04:20:56 AM
I gave it my brother as a present a year or two ago, it is supposedly lengthy but he loved it as he is something of a viking fan.
We also both loved Farley Mowat: Westviking, ISBN-13: 978-0771066924. A book by an experienced sailor about both the explorations of the viking in Greenland and North America and their sailing/navigation technique I don't know how up to date as far as historical research goes Mowat is, but it was a fascinating read.

Thanks for the Mowat tip: he was quite a popular Canadian author when I was younger. There's a good movie based on one of his books, Never Cry Wolf

I've had little time for reading but am liking The Long Ships so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 08, 2017, 03:57:05 PM
Jerry Pournelle has died.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 09, 2017, 12:52:01 AM
Maurice Walsh: The Honest Fisherman...


(http://www.anglebooks.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/3/7/37306.jpg)


Some very light reading in a collection of six short stories. Walsh is one of the best tellers of a tale that I have read and he does so with a twinkle in his eye.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Turbot nouveaux on September 09, 2017, 04:27:37 AM
Quote from: nodogen on May 21, 2017, 07:47:21 AM
A short, practical work in these times when the world is staring into the abyss.

[asin]1847924883[/asin]


I might get that for my politically active offspring, nodogen, thanks for bringing it to attention.
And hello, by the way, nice to see you again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on September 11, 2017, 12:49:23 AM
I found this in a secondhand book shop in Edinburgh at the weekend and picked it up on the recent recommendation of oor ritter.

(https://i.imgur.com/QcxBy7f.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on September 11, 2017, 03:03:46 AM
Cormac McCarthy - No Country for Old Men

Having already seen the Coen brothers film adaptation a couple of times I was well spoiled on plot, but it was interesting to note the similarities and divergences between the two tellings of essentially the same story. I like McCarthy's stripped down prose, even more than The Road it is notable for its brutal frankness. I have yet to read his acclaimed earlier novels (mainly because they're hard to find around here without paying exorbitant prices, and ordering online is not presently a possibility for me) so I have not encountered his "best", but if his latest two are pulpy dime novels then his best stuff must really be something.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2017, 03:10:30 AM
My brother recommended this (listening to the audiobook via OverDrive, on loan from the BPL):

[asin]1939529840[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 11, 2017, 09:51:36 AM
Slowly but steadily continuing my way through the unabridged Les Miserables. Just finished the first book of Volume 2, the one describing the battle of Waterloo. I'm actually surprised how similar that part was to abridged version. Unlike the first book of Vol. 1 which describes Bishop Myriel's life, including a very detailed description of his house. Luckily Hugo writes extremely well even when getting side-tracked so it's not of much consequence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 11, 2017, 07:03:48 PM
Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on September 11, 2017, 07:00:59 PM
Picked up a copy of "Silence" by John Cage from the library:


(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c0/SilenceBook.jpg/220px-SilenceBook.jpg)


8)
Never heard of that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 13, 2017, 09:16:56 AM
A Scott Alexander column. So it's long. He's always interesting but looooong. But this one is, even for him, brilliant. http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/ (http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on September 13, 2017, 06:54:10 PM
This looks like an interesting - and entertaining - read:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459887352l/29799814.jpg)

Reviews here:

The short one:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29799814-class (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29799814-class)

And the long one:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-miserable-it-must-be-to-be-a-progressive/2017/09/13/2b783eda-97ef-11e7-b569-3360011663b4_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop&utm_term=.b4fc219ec21f (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-miserable-it-must-be-to-be-a-progressive/2017/09/13/2b783eda-97ef-11e7-b569-3360011663b4_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop&utm_term=.b4fc219ec21f)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 14, 2017, 03:34:47 AM
Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on September 11, 2017, 07:00:59 PM
Picked up a copy of "Silence" by John Cage from the library:


(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c0/SilenceBook.jpg/220px-SilenceBook.jpg)


8)

Is that the edition where 4' 33 plays when you open it?

(Sorry someone had to make a 4'33 joke)

I saw john cage speak around 1990, he came to our music school.  Was an engaging guy and a great experience to hear him expound on his ideas about listening to music and sound
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 15, 2017, 03:13:26 AM
Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on September 15, 2017, 02:28:08 AM
You met Cage??  :o :o

No, just attended a lecture he gave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 15, 2017, 11:02:29 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NrUO-uxML._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 15, 2017, 06:58:32 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AJTjfs%2BQL._SL500_.jpg)

First of a planned three volume 2000+ page biography.  Very well written and avoids a lot of far-to-easy psychoanalysis or counterfactuals.  Amazing how incompetent both the Tsarist regime and the provisional government that replaced it were.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 15, 2017, 07:21:05 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41iR%2BUzWxbL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A.A. Gill - Pour Me

I'm generally a fan of his, but this is probably the best thing he's written

also listened to an audiobook of Stephen Fry's third volume of memoirs, which was much better than I was expecting and has made me want to get the earlier two

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81CeS1VEb8L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 16, 2017, 03:52:59 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 15, 2017, 07:21:05 PM

also listened to an audiobook of Stephen Fry's third volume of memoirs, which was much better than I was expecting and has made me want to get the earlier two

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81CeS1VEb8L.jpg)

He has a wonderful speaking voice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on September 16, 2017, 07:39:00 AM
Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on September 15, 2017, 10:38:19 PM
Any JG Ballard fans?

Yo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 17, 2017, 04:12:38 AM
Any Fitzgerald fans? I think the book I am reading now, The Last Tycoon, is my first one from him. After this, I'm going to read The Great Gatsby.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on September 17, 2017, 07:14:30 AM
Quote from: Alberich on September 17, 2017, 04:12:38 AM
Any Fitzgerald fans? I think the book I am reading now, The Last Tycoon, is my first one from him. After this, I'm going to read The Great Gatsby.
Read and enjoyed
- This Side of Paradise
- The Beautiful and Damned
- The Great Gatsby
some of his short stories.

From the point of view of english style, he is a very readable writer for a european.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 18, 2017, 11:18:40 PM
Reading this interesting account about the scandal in Argentina after the local permière (in 1967) of Ginastera's opera Bomarzo was cancelled by direct order of the then dictator Onganía. The book also provides some very interesting background information on the opera.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/VENTARA/16032898078.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 20, 2017, 07:52:44 AM
Finished Buddenbrooks. I enjoyed it greatly, although I liked the beginning and the middle parts more than the ending, the ending got a bit too depressing for my current state of mind (yes, I know that is exactly the point of the novel, decline of a family and all that) although I enjoyed the Wagner references.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on September 29, 2017, 01:11:36 PM
Currently finishing up John Toland's The Rising Sun. Hopefully I'll be into something new ( or old ) tomorrow.

Cheers,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 29, 2017, 01:17:07 PM
Quote from: LKB on September 29, 2017, 01:11:36 PM
Currently finishing up John Toland's The Rising Sun. Hopefully I'll be into something new ( or old ) tomorrow.

Cheers,

LKB
Want another Pacific War book? Fire in the Sky by Eric Bergerud. About the air war in the South Pacific.

TD Dead Souls, just starting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on September 29, 2017, 10:20:14 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 29, 2017, 01:17:07 PM
Want another Pacific War book? Fire in the Sky by Eric Bergerud. About the air war in the South Pacific.

TD Dead Souls, just starting.

Thanks Ken B, I'll definitely look into that one.

Cheers,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on September 30, 2017, 09:04:30 PM
The Shape of a City by Julien Gracq.

[asin]1885586396[/asin]

On Monday I've a train journey and this is the book I'll be reading during the increasingly smaller gaps that exist between long and dreamy gazes out of the window.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 01, 2017, 05:30:58 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/TheGreatGatsby_1925jacket.jpeg)

Let's see if this is really The Great American Novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Parsifal on October 17, 2017, 09:01:50 AM
Stone Mattress, by Margaret Atwood

This is a marvelous collection of short stories. The first three are a set of interlocking stories of a group of writers, told at different times from different points of view. The others range from the literary to the macabre. The final tale veers towards Atwood's dystopian style. A pair of residents of an assisted living facility try to survive when their facility is under siege from a populist movement, of sorts.

A really good book.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51F5jN6Kx%2BL._SX336_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on October 17, 2017, 09:46:44 AM
Quote from: Alberich on September 20, 2017, 07:52:44 AMFinished Buddenbrooks. I enjoyed it greatly, although I liked the beginning and the middle parts more than the ending, the ending got a bit too depressing for my current state of mind (yes, I know that is exactly the point of the novel, decline of a family and all that) although I enjoyed the Wagner references.
Thanks for letting us know! I read it back in 1978, when I was 16; it was my second book in German, after Faust I & II - and I didn't get all the details, but read it with pleasure. Now it's on the agenda - for November - of one of my reading circles. Hope to report back.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on October 17, 2017, 11:24:33 AM
Currently bouncing between Farnham's Freehold by Heinlein, and Chaos by James Gleick.

Cheers,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 19, 2017, 08:02:45 AM
Had a 10% off coupon for Bookdepository and no French poetry in the shelf, so I ordered this lot.

(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199535583.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199537921.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199538959.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199554010.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 19, 2017, 08:07:36 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 19, 2017, 08:02:45 AM
Had a 10% off coupon for Bookdepository and no French poetry in the shelf, so I ordered this lot.

(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199535583.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199537921.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199538959.jpg)  (https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1995/9780199554010.jpg)
All wonderful, wonderful! A couple of verses by Baudelaire grace my signature on this forum, Verlaine has some stunningly beautiful poems which I know by heart, Mallarmé is challenging (in the best possible way). Perhaps I'm a bit less fond of Rimbaud, I must admit...

Enjoy, Karlo, cher ami.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 19, 2017, 08:28:18 AM
Quote from: ritter on October 19, 2017, 08:07:36 AM
All wonderful, wonderful! A couple of verses by Baudelaire grace my signature on this forum, Verlaine has some stunningly beautiful poems which I know by heart, Mallarmé is challenging (in the best possible way). Perhaps I'm a bit less fond of Rimbaud, I must admit...

Enjoy, Karlo, cher ami.
Merci beaucoup, Rafael! They're all completely unknown to me really, apart from their vast reputation and influence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on October 19, 2017, 08:57:35 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 19, 2017, 08:28:18 AM
Merci beaucoup, Rafael! They're all completely unknown to me really, apart from their vast reputation and influence.
Is is unfortunate that there is no translation of the prestigious "La Pléiade" collection which contains real treasures.  André Gide made an anthology of french poetry which contains what most people would consider as the pinnacle of french poetry in a small volume that you can take on a trip with you.  I always do.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71CDWjQgkKL.jpg)

The two poets who I treasure that are not represented in this anthology are Jean Cocteau and Jacques Prévert.  They came after Gide.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 19, 2017, 09:15:10 AM
Quote from: Spineur on October 19, 2017, 08:57:35 AM
Is is unfortunate that there is no translation of the prestigious "La Pléiade" collection which contains real treasures.  André Gide made an anthology of french poetry which contains what most people would consider as the pinnacle of french poetry in a small volume that you can take on a trip with you.  I always do.

The two poets who I treasure that are not represented in this anthology are Jean Cocteau and Jacques Prévert.  They came after Gide.
That makes the French poetic tradition sound very compact - but of course the 'greatest hits' that 'most people' know is inevitably that, in any language. And it does indeed sound like a good idea to translate such an anthology.
Thinking even more recent poets, have you read Yves Bonnefoy?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on October 19, 2017, 09:35:13 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 19, 2017, 09:15:10 AM
Thinking even more recent poets, have you read Yves Bonnefoy?
I have and I like a number of his poems.  He has also done what is considered as the best translation of William Shakespeare plays.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on October 19, 2017, 09:41:41 AM
Quote from: Spineur on October 19, 2017, 09:35:13 AM
I have and I like a number of his poems.  He has also done what is considered as the best translation of William Shakespeare plays.
Very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 19, 2017, 09:55:48 AM
Re-reading much beloved Herman Melville classic, "Mardi, and a Voyage Thither.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 19, 2017, 09:29:50 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41v7CqYrKaL._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on October 20, 2017, 01:56:09 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on October 19, 2017, 10:22:15 AMAn excellent history of the "hillbilly" music of North Carolina, Virginia and the Piedmont area.  Tells a lot of the settlement and economic history of this region as well as focusing on the musicians and music from the turn of the 20th century to post-WWII country music.
That story sounds really interesting. But is there any music in it, worth hearing?  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 26, 2017, 12:22:25 PM
Today, while waiting for my car to be repaired:

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/s5QCUUktakij7ajeVuaXV1TDVjmZS_RebfR6cF3aVql2GxWdpDpNjfoj0oDHsJ2QpT8KKCiZ0sgIi-2ISDi5yca1j4h0ssSNlr1Dr_vd4QeYsye45_UJuLEX=w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu)

Dostoevsky - Humiliated and Insulted

I started and almost finished it. Not among his best novels and a quite implausible main plot imho, but recognizably his style and themes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on October 26, 2017, 01:45:53 PM
Moon Shot, nominally by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.

It may not be the best overview of America's race to the moon during the 1960's, but I've found it worthwhile.

Remembering,

LKB

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 01, 2017, 09:31:44 AM
Anne Bronte: Agnes Grey....


(https://bramanswanderings.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/penguin-3.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 03, 2017, 07:03:18 AM
The Earth's ozone hole is shrinking and is the smallest it has been since 1988 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/11/03/the-earths-ozone-hole-is-shrinking-and-is-the-smallest-its-been-since-1988/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_ozone-358am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.20f403d48a39)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on November 03, 2017, 11:49:05 AM
Blue Highways

William Least Heat Moon

Traveling,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 06, 2017, 05:04:49 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BWPWwUwqL._SX315_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This must be the most defamatory book I've ever read about anything and anyone.

What does one learn from it? Well, many lovely things such as:

1. All along the 19th century, but with roots in its deepest history, the Russian society was a stultifying, soul-poisoning mixture of madhouse and prison, marked by extreme vicioussness, depravity and perversion of both mind and body in all social strata.

2. All Russian composers from Glinka to Medtner, with the possible but improbable exception of Borodin but including Scriabin, were:

(a) emotionally repressed / immature / unstable;

(b) unable or unwilling to initiate, nurture and preserve healthy relationships with women, be it as wives, mistresses or friends;

(b) either very effeminate or aggresively mysoginistic, both instances betokening either latent / repressed / inveterate homosexuality or impotence, in many cases probably both;

(c) heavy drinkers (all things considered, though, this appears as their lesser, even endearing, vice) and heavy masturbators;

(c) damned if they did, damned if they didn't: Mussorgsky was freakish for drinking himself to death, but so was Balakirev for being a teetotaller; Mussorgsky (again; for Bowers he is clearly the poster boy for everything that was physically repugnant and morally repulsive in Imperial Russia) is chastised for willingly mingling with, and greatly enjoying the company of, the lowest scums, while Taneyev is reprimanded for being austere, polite and pudic.

3. The famous piano teacher Nikolai Zverev was actually an inveterate pederast for whom the piano lessons were only so many opportunities to pervert his innocent pupils (among his victims, Scriabin himself but also Rachmaninoff, Igumnov and Goldenweiser).

And all this marvelous stuff is scattered through the introductory chapters only. I guess, and expect, that the chapters dedicated to Scriabin proper will reveal more information.  ;D

One cannot help but wonder: how could such miserable, wretched and (depending on the readers' own moral stance) either despicable or pitiful human beings, fit rather for the mental asylum than for the salons, social circles and concert halls where they spent their lives,  have composed at all, let alone compose such music as they have composed.  :o

Seriously now, the book is funny (pun) in its own peculiar way.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 06, 2017, 11:03:42 AM
Quote from: San Antonio on October 19, 2017, 10:22:15 AM
An excellent history of the "hillbilly" music of North Carolina, Virginia and the Piedmont area.  Tells a lot of the settlement and economic history of this region as well as focusing on the musicians and music from the turn of the 20th century to post-WWII country music.

(https://d1xwerhqtnbyw0.cloudfront.net/resized/width-280/path-assets/covers/v3/9781469621913.jpg)

Good book and great music !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on November 06, 2017, 01:25:13 PM
Quote from: San Antonio on November 06, 2017, 11:05:07 AM
I read that ages ago, but remember liking it.

I did as well, when it was a bestseller in the early '80's. But l don't think l finished it the first time, as l was easily distracted in those years. I probably abandoned it for the latest Niven-Pournelle opus...

In any case, Moon/Trogden gives the personalities he encounters the respect they deserve, even those who serve more as comic relief than as a source of local info or color. It is very much the successor of Travels with Charley, though the author's intent and motivations differ significantly from Steinbeck.

I recommend Blue Highways to anyone and everyone who enjoys reading in English.

Wandering,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on November 08, 2017, 11:22:35 AM
Got myself a copy of this year Goncourt prize

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41R9uBRWMaL._AC_SY400_.jpg)

It is the story of compromision: how the Krups, the Schindler, the Pecht met in 1933 to decide what they should do about the rise national socialism party.  This leads into to all the austrian compromisions when the Anschlutz came.

This still seems as relevant today as it was.

Also got Claudio Magris most recent book Blameless

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/417gSal5N0L._SY400_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 09, 2017, 03:43:56 AM
Quote from: San Antonio on November 08, 2017, 11:34:53 AM

Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy
by Jeffrey Meyers

Tell me more!

Thread Duty:

The autobiography of the extraordinary (and extraordinarily witty) Philip Proctor:

[asin]138970503X[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 09, 2017, 04:44:46 AM
Quote from: San Antonio on November 09, 2017, 04:41:41 AM
Jeffrey Meyers was one of the authors who contributed to the recent PBS film on Poe and I enjoyed his interview segments.  He displayed a sense of humor and casualness about Poe which brought a freshness to the subject.  I, like many other Americans, have grown up with Poe's poetry and tales -
having read them in grade school - and somewhat taking him for granted.  While watching the film it occurred to me that Poe, the person, had become obscured by the myth and legend.

Meyer's biography is well done, imo, and since most of the others were decades old, I decided to read his.  Poe's upbringing was tragic, having lost three maternal figures to early deaths in less than two years, the experience left an indelible mark on his psyche.  Of course he was self-destructive as well.  I was also interested in revisiting Poe since reading the book on Mallarme who revered Poe's work, as did many French writers at the time.  My impression is that Poe was more famous and acknowledged in France than the US, surely that was the case during his lifetime.

If you are interested in Poe beyond the literature, watch the film and/or read this book.  The film was a bit melodramatic at times and your reaction to the actor playing Poe will determine whether you would enjoy it more or less.  The book, however, is a good read with no distracting aspects.

Exactly what I was hoping, Poe was one my earliest literary loves . . . and a sane bio has been wanted for a long time, it seems.

(. . . and then, to be sure, I wandered to the University of Virginia, which maintains a kind of Poe shrine adjacent to The Lawn.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on November 10, 2017, 12:10:51 PM
Has anyone else read Herman Melville's "Mardi: and a Voyage Thither"? I'm re-reading it for second time and enjoy the book immensely. Sure the plot gives eventually way to philosophical ponderings but considering how greatly portrayed those ponderings are, the plot derailment doesn't bother me that much. Plus the scenery, as the protagonists travel across Mardi, is absolutely gorgeous.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 12, 2017, 10:03:46 AM
Unforgivable Blackness - a biography of Jack Johnson, by Geoffrey C. Ward.

(https://i.imgur.com/4zRxtsc.jpg)

A tentative start to unpacking boxes of books has revealed a number of books I'd forgotten I bought.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on November 14, 2017, 06:51:54 AM
My book guy knows that the condition described as a 'reading copy' doesn't mean I'll refuse to buy.

(https://i.imgur.com/2Q60eGA.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 14, 2017, 08:24:07 AM
Quote from: San Antonio on November 08, 2017, 11:34:53 AM
Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy
by Jeffrey Meyers

This is good, I am inhaling it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 14, 2017, 08:31:23 AM
second Stephen King book I have read (The Shining was the other), entertaining enough and much creepier than the 80s adaptation (have not seen the new movie) The descriptions of characters inner thoughts get tedious (surprise, the bully kid is beaten by his father).

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781501175466_p0_v2_s550x406.jpg)

Interesting guy, who rediscovered Boolean logic and developed the basis for digital computing while still a grad student

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91fqbKT9j0L._AC_UL320_SR212,320_.jpg)

Both a debunking of alot of traditional rules of thumb (like pitcher wins and saves being worthless stats) and  a look at modern analytics where teams like the Astros are employing comp science PhDs to digest the terabytes of game data now available

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780062490254_p0_v4_s550x406.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 14, 2017, 09:18:05 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on November 14, 2017, 08:31:23 AM
second Stephen King book I have read (The Shining was the other), entertaining enough and much creepier than the 80s adaptation (have not seen the new movie) The descriptions of characters inner thoughts get tedious (surprise, the bully kid is beaten by his father).

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781501175466_p0_v2_s550x406.jpg)

Interesting, thanks.  The summer that I worked at the Viking-Penguin return center (then in East Rutherford, NJ) this was The Big Title.  I never read it (i.e., never read It) . . . have been idly curious, but never curious enough to, you know, read the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 14, 2017, 09:19:08 AM
Further parenthesis:  that was the summer (and the place) that I discovered T. Coraghessan Boyle.  I still love Water Music inordinately.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 18, 2017, 12:20:27 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51OMjSXzW7L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fa%2B3s-vAL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 18, 2017, 02:11:31 AM
Francis MacManus: The Greatest of These....


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/TERRYMONTAGUE/md/md20805012799.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on November 18, 2017, 06:29:47 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/515WnanAsUL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Harlow Giles Unger's First Founding Father, about Richard Henry Lee, of the Northern Neck Lees, back when Virginia politics really mattered.  Unger specializes in bios of Founding Fathers, including The Last Founding Father James Monroe, as well James Quincy Adams, one of the most impressive political personages in US history, if not a particularly good president.  The only other Unger work I've read is the JQA bio, and this book has the same easy familiarity with the subject matter as that one.  It's fairly slim at only 258 text pages, but it quickly and efficiently conveys pertinent information and leaves out fluff.  The story of the era is well known, of course, but some of the additional details are most useful, and the inclusion of the complete Leedstown Resolves from 1766 is a nice touch.  One also gets to read the final portion of Patrick Henry's most famous speech in context, and one can't help but notice that the name George Washington pops up a lot.  My only gripe is how the author frequently cites what certain things cost and then attempts to put a modern price tag on it, which is neither accurate nor necessary.  I should probably get that Monroe book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on November 20, 2017, 05:57:14 PM
I may be visiting Gettysburg this spring, and having never read a dedicated account of the battle, have found a few books to fuel my knowledge. First off was this one, which I just finished tonight
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GKJP%2BZOBL.jpg)
At times a moment by moment account, almost homeric in tone by the time it reaches Pickett's Charge, trying to set the whole campaign in the context of the war's politics and strategy, and carries through to Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg address. He tries to skewer a few sacred cows along the way, too. It's very detailed-- perhaps to the point of confusion--but certainly gives a clear picture of how the battle was almost a disastrous defeat for the North. The Union army in essence just barely outlasted the Confederate assaults--but that was enough to decimate Lee's army and ensure the rest of the war was fought on Southern territory and Northern terms.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on November 22, 2017, 11:07:55 AM
A friend's (someone I have indeed met) recent Facebook update:

"Let's drive to Pennsylvania on Wednesday, they said. It'll be fun, they said."

And one reply:

"Yup... We're still stuck just on the other side of the GW Bridge.... Oi, what were we thinking, driving NYC the day before Thanksgiving??"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 27, 2017, 08:36:01 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kcdNkSFtL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Absolutely brilliant. Possibly the best book I've read this year.

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51rf-aB95NL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on November 27, 2017, 09:56:49 PM
After a detour of several days to read James Clavell's Shogun, I'm back to Blue Highways. Hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow.

Weaving,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on December 03, 2017, 02:39:21 PM
More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow

I rather enjoyed it. Reminded me quite a lot of Philip Roth, but maybe a bit warmer, if you like. Of course, I know Bellow came first.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on December 03, 2017, 11:37:06 PM
I finished reading Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March a few months ago. It held my interest to the end (it's a long book) but it seemed to fall apart at the end.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 04, 2017, 12:38:04 AM
Beowulf....


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51iuDva-zeL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: You did it on December 04, 2017, 01:43:40 AM
For me, so many books: so little time  :'( :'(  :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on December 04, 2017, 05:14:28 AM
Enjoyable fantasy series, original world with a story and characters that do not stray too far from the normal tropes of the genre

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5d/Brandon_Sanderson_Oathbringer_book_cover.jpg/220px-Brandon_Sanderson_Oathbringer_book_cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 05, 2017, 06:00:54 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hApMwQBCL._SX327_.jpg)


Having read bios of three of McKinley's most important subordinates - TR, Root, and Hay - and with a new bio out, I thought it was about time to read up on the third president to be assassinated and the first proper imperialist to occupy the White House.  Well researched and a nice one-volume length of 488 text pages, Mr Merry's bio flows along nicely enough and covers the big issues in sufficient detail (eg, tariff issues, monetary issues, McKinley's war service, US imperialism in its early stages).  I've not made it through all the imperialist portions yet, but based on the solid coverage so far, I have a pretty strong idea of what those chapters will be like.  The relative brevity of the book does mean that coverage of McKinley's tenure as Governor of Ohio is breezy, with more focus on the financial scandal he faced, but even in its brevity, the book takes a stab at rehabilitating Mark Hanna and covers recurring themes in US politics: the prevalence of gerrymandering, demonstrated by the fact that McKinley's district was changed pretty much every two years by Dems; nasty infighting among Republicans; insurgent groups inside the Republican Party; the flexible use of non-treaty tools to pursue foreign policy objectives, here the annexation of Hawaii; martial provocations, with sending the USS Maine to Havana Harbor reminiscent of Polk sending Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande; and deliciously nasty personal attacks against political foes, exemplified by TR's attack on William Jennings Bryan, something nearly Trumpian in nature, though much longer than 140 or 280 characters.  Also, McKinley's first presidential campaign was the first one that can be considered modern, with targeted mass-mailing and a professional organization.  This is one thing that attracted Karl Rove to McKinley and spurred him to write his own book, but I wasn't so interested in that one.

I'm not convinced that McKinley can be called the architect of the American Century - no one person can, of course - but he was more important than is usually mentioned.  While reading, it became evident that my long interest in reading bios of some less well known figures from the era needs to expand.  I need to get my hands on a good Cleveland bio (Robert McElroy's just will not do), a good one on Hayes, and one on James Blaine (Neil Rolde's Continental Liar from the State of Maine: James G. Blaine is already on my wish list). 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on December 05, 2017, 06:53:34 AM
Quote from: -abe- on December 03, 2017, 11:37:06 PM
I finished reading Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March a few months ago. It held my interest to the end (it's a long book) but it seemed to fall apart at the end.
Heartbreak is my first time reading Bellow, so I can't comment much on his other work. In a sort of "comic realist" fashion, it ends on a deliberately unsatisfying note, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 05, 2017, 07:05:04 AM
I plan to start this one tommorow:

(http://static.elefant.ro/images/98/390298/portret-al-artistului-la-tinerete_1_fullsize.jpg)

James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on December 05, 2017, 09:24:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 05, 2017, 07:05:04 AM
I plan to start this one tommorow:

(http://static.elefant.ro/images/98/390298/portret-al-artistului-la-tinerete_1_fullsize.jpg)

James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

In Romanian?  wonder how it translates
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: You did it on December 05, 2017, 11:06:53 PM
Quote from: North Star on August 23, 2017, 11:22:10 AM
I can't imagine anyone not finding Finnegans Wake incomprehensible - not that that should stop everyone from enjoying it, of course.


Trying to logistify it in traditional terms will inevitably result in that conclusion but the truth is that the book is so dense (with every kind of word-play I know of + ). Plus the way that it treats time, in a non-linear way, how there are so many timelines mirroring each other at the same time and how these stories are constantly repeating themselves in different ways - akin to a fractal), combined with the constant references (and jokes too!) is a complete mindfuck. But a good mindfuck is good and this mindfuck in particular is an amazing one)

It's reputation (as it's often classified as an "avant garde" book) has resulted in three fascinating frames of thought to do with how people interpret it:

A. It's random (which is a bullshit assertion, but an understandable first reaction for seeing a page from it for the first time)
B. It is completely open to interpretation (outside of general subjectivity) but not random
C. It has a definite story but nobody has worked it out (or the reader is unaware of the re-evaluated consensus on that)


But there are lots of scholarly analysis books (one of them being Joseph Campbell's famous Skeleton Key), that offer lots of insight. And I think Crudblud is right in saying that nobody has agreed to a single interpretation of the overall story, despite the structural devises I mentioned above. Yet, that is kind of a contradictory thing, when first of all, it's not a singular (there are many parallel, multiple) linear story to begin with.


Aside from the technical stuff, it is the most equally entertaining and profound book I think I've read (in general western literature) and it's a book that is impossible to exhaust.  :-*


p.s. if there are any other Joyce fans around, I salute you  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 06, 2017, 04:21:38 AM
I am re-reading this:

[asin]138970503X[/asin]

While reading this in parallel:

[asin]1593930437[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 07, 2017, 05:56:09 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 06, 2017, 04:21:38 AM
I am re-reading this:

[asin]138970503X[/asin]

And this is the review I have just posted on Amazon:

The Fortune Cookie That Got Away

It isn't enough to say, this is the More Sugar you've clamored for all these years. We've all yearned for that second tub of slaw, and here the justly celebrated and certified pre-cloned Philip Proctor has drawn the curtain at last to reveal the flaming Ford.

Has he told us too much? You'll never know until you follow the yellow rubber line to your seat. As we begin reading this Psychic, Psurrealistic Pstory with all its rich detail, the author's winning, humane tone (which grounds the elemental force of his quicksilver sense of humor), and with the seemingly inexhaustible cast with which the stage of his life has been peopled, the good Proctor's head-spinning autobiographical no-regrets vignettes have us by the thrusters.

My mind, too, by design owes more to the 4 or 5 Crazy Guys than my analyst could, without violating confidences, attest to, let alone relate. Had I stumbled upon the vast alien warehouse in which my several grammar schools have been tidily crated & stacked (and I know they have, I just haven't found the warehouse yet) the awe thus inspired would scarcely vie with the candid tour of his life whereon Phil P. leadeth us.

In writing his stories and novels, P.G. Wodehouse arranged his narrative so that the reader would be sure to find a laugh on every page. Mr. Proctor does this, and more; for I find not only amusement on each page, but something educative, as well. ("Unless you're careful," as my late Dad was wont to say, "you'll learn something new every day.")

With all good-faith attempt not to spoil anything for anyone – nowhere else, but in Gospodin Proctor's non-noir memoir, have I learnt:  the real purpose of Soviet-era movie-houses;  the flight path of Og's pants;  the true story behind "Yale Distorts";  how a theatrical professional copes with the irresistible reflex provoked by the appearance of a cross-eyed cat wrangler;  just how tough Vaughn Meader's luck was;  the product which an industry paid out $650K to bury forever – "Nasal Hipstick";  and much else which propriety and fairness to the author suggests I ought to leave it to you, Gentle Reader, to buy the book and find out for your own self.

All right, so I've absorbed a great load of learning, and was amused practically beyond human endurance in the process, but is it any use?  Is anything any use?  As Bartholomew Fayrsijn, the great Phleggmish philosopher and mutton confectioner argued, "Just dig a hole deep enough, and if you're not in orbit in those dark times then, when will you ever be?  Folk you, too."  Sure, you could be sealed in a steel box just like Nino, but what chance do you stand of thinking your way out again, if you don't read this book?  Twenty years later, and it will still knock you out.

From here, the story is visualization.  Reading this book did what I asked of it, but it did far more, and we're still trying to put the kitchen garden back in order, a week later.  What did I expect of the book?  That it would fill me in on the History, Linear and Otherwise, of The Firesign Theatre;  that it would instruct me in a great deal else of Philip Proctor's activity, at least of all that has so far been declassified;  and that I would know more of Phil (I call him "Phil," though he'll wring my neck if he catches me at it) as a person, as a Mensch, как человек, as a result.  Well, seekers, I have been informed, at my hotel.  I was re-grooved, without the need of being taken away, no zizzing or dripping.  But if I expected a Groupon for appetizers for two and a pitcher of apple-cinnamon mojitos at Ernie's Chock-o'-Taqueria in San Clamarón, well, I've got another think coming, and I can wait.

If I have not yet left you with the semi-delible impression that this is the best book I have read this year, let me conclude with the straightest poop of all, an instance of instant inspiration from one of innumerable, hefty slices of life under which this literary pie plate groans so copiously.  We learn that Phil's maternal grandmother's family, the Stivers (this is in the chapter which, in an unauthorized pirate edition, was headed "Encounter in Goshen") were makers of furniture and coffins.  In a flash, it was revealed to me:  And what is a coffin, but the last piece of furniture you'll ever need?"

I read this book (I first saw it in the author's own hands, not in vain but in Washington, D.C.), I love it – the book, not the District – and I encourage any of you who can still read, at any time when you come down out of the tree where you've sat to learn how to play the flute, to read it and love it yourselves.

Read it, love it, read it again.

Karl Henning
Boston, Mass.

[The substitution Folk was made because the original text caused the Amazon algorithm to reject the review at first.]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on December 07, 2017, 07:34:19 PM
Extending the theory to music works for me....
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/why-you-should-stop-feeling-bad-about-all-those-books-you-buy-dont-read.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on December 07, 2017, 09:06:41 PM
Space Chronicles by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on December 08, 2017, 12:10:59 AM
(https://godischange.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_4070.jpg?w=700&h=400&crop=1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: nodogen on December 10, 2017, 11:59:07 PM
A Guide to the Good Life (the Ancient Art of Stoic Joy)

- William B. Irvine

A very readable introduction to Stoic philosophy. Stoicism is a very practical, rational, suck-it-up philosophy of life and Irvine tries to show how it is still as relevant today as it ever was in times past. I'm not fully on-board with all of it, but then Stoicism expects critical thinking ☺️



(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41oP29YgLtL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 11, 2017, 06:17:17 AM
Just ordered Wilkie Collins's "No Name". I can't wait to get my hands on it, The Moonstone was absolutely wonderful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 11, 2017, 07:26:27 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71WjMrCh-sL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on December 12, 2017, 04:02:52 PM
Quote from: milk on December 08, 2017, 12:10:59 AM
(https://godischange.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_4070.jpg?w=700&h=400&crop=1)
In Butler's post-apocalyptic future (c. 1983), a populist presidential candidate has the following slogan: "Make America Great Again."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on December 13, 2017, 01:20:00 AM
Quote from: Alberich on December 11, 2017, 06:17:17 AM
Just ordered Wilkie Collins's "No Name". I can't wait to get my hands on it, The Moonstone was absolutely wonderful.
Check out "The woman in white". It is more romantic mystery than crime mystery, compared to the Moonstone and it lacks a narrator as entertaining as the Robinson-Crusoe-obsessed butler, but it is pretty good and has a remarkable villain character.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 13, 2017, 10:11:09 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on December 13, 2017, 01:20:00 AM
And has a remarkable villain character.

Yes, I've heard much positive about Count Fosco. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on December 13, 2017, 05:20:02 PM
Gore Vidal - Virgin Islands

Very enjoyable essay collection with subjects ranging from American literary figures to presidents to policy at home and abroad. On the strength of this I would like to get my hands on the much larger (and indeed large in general) United States collection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 14, 2017, 06:21:32 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on December 13, 2017, 01:20:00 AM
Check out "The woman in white". It is more romantic mystery than crime mystery, compared to the Moonstone and it lacks a narrator as entertaining as the Robinson-Crusoe-obsessed butler, but it is pretty good and has a remarkable villain character.

TWIW is incredibly readable. I read that and the Moonstone back to back one weekend.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on December 21, 2017, 04:57:46 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UQHtUJo%2BL._SX425_.jpg)

Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President.  Due to a bargain basement price for this recently reprinted bio, I ended up with a bio of a lesser president.  It's a slim volume, but even so there are extended sections that cover the political scene of Fillmore's era and location rather than the president himself.  Not that there's a huge amount to cover.  Domestically, the Compromise of 1850 is the major thing he is remembered for, and that was more the work of the political giant Henry Clay (which reminds me that I need to get to a bio on him).  The book was written in the 50s, and some of the writing style is dated, and some if it is kind of clunky.  Also, I believe this is the first time I've seen the word "bailiwick" used twice in a bio.  There aren't exactly shelves full of works on Fillmore, so this will have to do. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on December 21, 2017, 06:30:49 PM
Got this today
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51VRwmcsh1L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 22, 2017, 08:03:06 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on December 21, 2017, 06:30:49 PM
Got this today
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51VRwmcsh1L.jpg)

I hope that you enjoy that. I read a lot of Dylan Thomas when I was younger and always liked his energy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on December 22, 2017, 10:04:24 AM
Quote from: aligreto on December 22, 2017, 08:03:06 AM
I hope that you enjoy that. I read a lot of Dylan Thomas when I was younger and always liked his energy.

The way he forces the reader to stop and unpack the meaning of his phrases is what attracted me....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on December 22, 2017, 11:12:48 AM
Re-reading The Crying of Lot 49. As is typical of Pynchon, a second reading offers greater clarity on things you noticed previously but may present yet more new questions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on December 22, 2017, 11:34:03 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on December 22, 2017, 11:12:48 AM
Re-reading The Crying of Lot 49. As is typical of Pynchon, a second reading offers greater clarity on things you noticed previously but may present yet more new questions.

Wonder how Trystero would have managed all the Amazon.com Christmas deliveries?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on December 22, 2017, 11:42:35 AM
Kotkin convincingly portrays Stalin as a rational (and ruthless) ideologue rather than some sort of deranged psychopath.  All he did was obstinately apply Leninist ideology, refusing any concessions or compromise.

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781594203800_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 22, 2017, 12:15:26 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51djjPcqXxL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Superb. An oral history of the Russians' hopes of realising a better form of socialism in the early 90s, and their crushing disappointment at ending up with the worst aspects of capitalism and the creation of the oligarchy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 22, 2017, 05:25:26 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on December 22, 2017, 11:42:35 AM
Kotkin convincingly portrays Stalin as a rational (and ruthless) ideologue rather than some sort of deranged psychopath.  All he did was obstinately apply Leninist ideology, refusing any concessions or compromise.

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781594203800_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg)
So does Ulam, though he does not underplay the paranoia.
Stalin, when he had to be, was impressively capable and competent. It was only when he could that he indulged his paranoia. He impressed men not easily impressed, like FDR and Churchill. Montefiore's book is outstanding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 22, 2017, 10:55:45 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on December 22, 2017, 11:42:35 AM
Kotkin convincingly portrays Stalin as a rational (and ruthless) ideologue rather than some sort of deranged psychopath.  All he did was obstinately apply Leninist ideology, refusing any concessions or compromise.

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781594203800_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg)

But, but... anyone who rigidly and ruthlessly tries to force a whole society to conform to an ideology is ipso facto a deranged sociopath.

Anyway, so much for all those who still think in terms of "the good Lenin" against "the bad Stalin". The former was no less rigid and ruthless than the later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 23, 2017, 04:55:44 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 22, 2017, 10:55:45 PM
But, but... anyone who rigidly and ruthlessly tries to force a whole society to conform to an ideology is ipso facto a deranged sociopath.

Anyway, so much for all those who still think in terms of "the good Lenin" against "the bad Stalin". The former was no less rigid and ruthless than the later.

True.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 23, 2017, 05:22:59 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 22, 2017, 12:15:26 PM
Superb. An oral history of the Russians' hopes of realising a better form of socialism in the early 90s, and their crushing disappointment at ending up with the worst aspects of capitalism and the creation of the oligarchy.
Her book about women that participated in the WW2 is heartbreaking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 23, 2017, 10:30:21 AM
Quote from: Artem on December 23, 2017, 05:22:59 AM
Her book about women that participated in the WW2 is heartbreaking.

Of the four of her books that are available in English that's the one I don't have. I got the ones on Chernobyl and on the Afganistan War lined up to be read very soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 30, 2017, 07:54:38 AM
Starting my first Christopher Marlowe play, the controversial "The Jew of Malta".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 30, 2017, 11:00:20 AM
Also finished another Elizabethan-era play, Shakespeare's As You Like It (did I write about it already in this thread?). Mixed feelings about this one. There were plenty of fine insights and observational lines made by the characters but the execution of the plot was beyond clumsy (Oliver's and Duke Frederick's heel face turns were way too sudden and unbelievable, for example). I know it was the standard of the comedies of the time to have these last minute-conversions (hell, Shylock's forceful conversion to Christianity in The Mechant of Venice was probably supposed to be a "happy ending" for him, merciful Christians, my ass), but I'd expect from a writer of Shakespeare's calibre to do better than that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on December 30, 2017, 08:53:02 PM
(http://faithljustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/telling-cover.jpg)
I've been interested in science fiction the last few years but I have to admit I haven't liked 90% of the popular novels I've picked up. Hyperion is one exception but, like most work in the genre these days, it was followed by two more (in a series) that weren't worth the read. Oryx and Crake suffered the same fate. Same with Three Body Problem (on Obama's list  :P). There's some new law that science fiction books have to be trilogies. Anyway, the only really reliable writer, that I've come across, of a series is Ursula Le Guin. She's a serious writer, in command of the language, and she's after interesting, important and moving themes.
(http://three%20body%20problem)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on December 30, 2017, 10:06:51 PM
Quote from: milk on December 30, 2017, 08:53:02 PM
(http://faithljustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/telling-cover.jpg)
I've been interested in science fiction the last few years but I have to admit I haven't liked 90% of the popular novels I've picked up. Hyperion is one exception but, like most work in the genre these days, it was followed by two more (in a series) that weren't worth the read. Oryx and Crake suffered the same fate. Same with Three Body Problem (on Obama's list  :P). There's some new law that science fiction books have to be trilogies. Anyway, the only really reliable writer, that I've come across, of a series is Ursula Le Guin. She's a serious writer, in command of the language, and she's after interesting, important and moving themes.
(http://three%20body%20problem)

Yes, it seems nearly all SF these days only comes as massive series.  The days of the tight 50,000 word novel are long gone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on December 30, 2017, 10:15:07 PM
Quote from: Daverz on December 30, 2017, 10:06:51 PM
Yes, it seems nearly all SF these days only comes as massive series.  The days of the tight 50,000 word novel are long gone.
I guess it's all about the cash. And they all want to be Tolkien. Ever tried to read Game of Thrones? Good T.V. show but (IMO) terrible books. There's only one Tolkien!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on December 31, 2017, 09:08:28 AM
The thing Tolkien has going for him is the worldbuilding, which is rich and extensive. However, what's been taken from his example is the model of writing epic multi-book series, not the foundation that made the Baggins saga actually sustainable for 1500 pages. I wouldn't be surprised if George R.R. Martin, who it seems nears or bests 1000 pages in a single book, is making his Ice and Fire series up as he goes along—although the TV show, which I think has now caught up to him, probably throws a spanner into the works there. But the vast amount of money the franchise has made is bait for both authors and studios, who will be trying to write and looking for the next big fantasy series respectively. It will probably blow up like the cinematic universe craze in Hollywood, there's already a Witcher series in the works for Netflix, I expect more will be hopping on the bandwagon in the coming years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on December 31, 2017, 11:34:55 PM
Quote from: Crudblud on December 31, 2017, 09:08:28 AM
The thing Tolkien has going for him is the worldbuilding, which is rich and extensive. However, what's been taken from his example is the model of writing epic multi-book series, not the foundation that made the Baggins saga actually sustainable for 1500 pages. I wouldn't be surprised if George R.R. Martin, who it seems nears or bests 1000 pages in a single book, is making his Ice and Fire series up as he goes along—although the TV show, which I think has now caught up to him, probably throws a spanner into the works there. But the vast amount of money the franchise has made is bait for both authors and studios, who will be trying to write and looking for the next big fantasy series respectively. It will probably blow up like the cinematic universe craze in Hollywood, there's already a Witcher series in the works for Netflix, I expect more will be hopping on the bandwagon in the coming years.
I think so. But even when some of them try to focus on the details of world building, they just aren't as adept with language or their worlds aren't as interesting as they think they are. A Tolstoy or a Tolkien is so very rare. It takes a lot of gumption to think readers want a thousand pages from you in one book. It's another reason why I admire Le Guin. She's very economical. I think SHE thinks, "how can I say this with clarity and brevity?" Martin obviously has something going for him but I think the harsh limit of TV does him a service that he can't do for himself. I think Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series is similar in that it would make a good TV series whereas the books are windy and ponderous. He's another guy who thinks every word he types is golden. I crave science fiction these days but most of it isn't very good.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 01, 2018, 08:38:08 AM
Quote from: milk on December 31, 2017, 11:34:55 PM
I think so. But even when some of them try to focus on the details of world building, they just aren't as adept with language or their worlds aren't as interesting as they think they are. A Tolstoy or a Tolkien is so very rare. It takes a lot of gumption to think readers want a thousand pages from you in one book. It's another reason why I admire Le Guin. She's very economical. I think SHE thinks, "how can I say this with clarity and brevity?"

I need to re-read Earthsea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Judith on January 01, 2018, 08:53:25 AM
Reading a novel biography at the moment

Trio
Boman Desai

About Brahms involvement with the Schumanns, the very subject I'm interested in.

Nearly finished it.  Up to the part where Brahms is ill.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Judith on January 01, 2018, 12:12:36 PM
Quote from: San Antone on January 01, 2018, 10:27:56 AM
Sounds like a very interesting book.  What is your sense of how much is fiction and how much fact?
Think by checking facts, that the book is accurate.  Just told in novel form.  Starts off with Brahms performing in seedy bars, Claras marriage to Robert against her father and the court case, Roberts illness and death, Brahms loving Clara, falling out with Joachim and now Brahms being ill.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 01, 2018, 01:03:35 PM
Quote from: Daverz on December 30, 2017, 10:06:51 PM
Yes, it seems nearly all SF these days only comes as massive series.  The days of the tight 50,000 word novel are long gone.

Sf or fantasy?  Sf still does the stand alone novel well - witness Alastair Reynolds.

The franchise 10000 page epic is more of a fantasy thing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on January 01, 2018, 07:04:22 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on January 01, 2018, 01:03:35 PM
Sf or fantasy?  Sf still does the stand alone novel well - witness Alastair Reynolds.

The franchise 10000 page epic is more of a fantasy thing.

I was exaggerating, but note that most of Reynolds's novels are in his Revelation Space and Poseidon's Children series and it looks like he has a third one going.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 02, 2018, 05:50:27 AM
Dead Man's Blues
Ray Celestin

A crime novel set in the Jazz world of Chicago, 1928.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on January 02, 2018, 07:18:00 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 01, 2018, 08:38:08 AM
I need to re-read Earthsea.
Are those books good from beginning to end (of the series)? I've never read them. I go more for science fiction than fantasy but I like her so much it might be worth a try.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 02, 2018, 07:47:38 AM
Hard for me to say, as I read them decades ago.  It is not a direct answer, but FWIW I would periodically re-read The Lord of the Rings, but I never went back to Earthsea.

(I suppose she may have written more books afterwards, so I might specify that I read A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, & The Farthest Shore.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: TheGSMoeller on January 08, 2018, 04:02:10 AM
I'll admit I'm not reading it, but rather listening to it, which I find appropriate.  ;D
I had two free Amazon Audible credits, and this was one i chose. Plus it has provided me with hours (over 20 to be exact I believe) of entertainment for my drives.


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41bVxDu-zhL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on January 09, 2018, 12:05:44 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on January 08, 2018, 04:02:10 AMI'll admit I'm not reading it, but rather listening to it, which I find appropriate.  ;D
I had two free Amazon Audible credits, and this was one i chose. Plus it has provided me with hours (over 20 to be exact I believe) of entertainment for my drives.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41bVxDu-zhL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Please keep us informed! (#oneofthosebooksontheshelveswhichIwishhopewanttoreadonetimetimeproviding)  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on January 09, 2018, 04:38:37 AM
I am also reading Ross' book, although in German translation. Now about 220 pages in (of 600+). Not so sure what to make of it. I think Ross is overambitious and it's a little bit of everything but impossible to go into depth because he wants to cover so much.
And he sometimes slips into a somewhat gossipy mode. I think he has more than a page overall on the ominous 8th symphony of Sibelius; not a smart move if one wants to cover a lot of ground, better stick to stuff that was actually published and played...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on January 09, 2018, 06:14:39 PM
Quote from: Christo on January 09, 2018, 12:05:44 AM
Please keep us informed! (#oneofthosebooksontheshelveswhichIwishhopewanttoreadonetimetimeproviding)  :)

#getitofftheshelfandreadit

(We won't mention the unread books I put into piles because I don't have enough shelves)

TD
http://www.dallasobserver.com/restaurants/why-are-there-so-many-fake-dallas-restaurants-on-google-10222671
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 10, 2018, 01:11:56 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on January 09, 2018, 04:38:37 AM
I am also reading Ross' book, although in German translation. Now about 220 pages in (of 600+). Not so sure what to make of it. I think Ross is overambitious and it's a little bit of everything but impossible to go into depth because he wants to cover so much.
And he sometimes slips into a somewhat gossipy mode.

Maybe it's a matter (IIRC) of the book originating, not as a book, but as an accumulation of blog posts.  I found the book a bit of a mix, and probably because a serious musical reader has different expectations for A Book than for skimming through a blog.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on January 10, 2018, 01:28:18 PM
Off the Skelligs
by Jean Ingelow

Ingelow is not everybody's cup of tea (frequently enters into moral and religious argument), but at least she's original. I'm nearly halfway through and I've no idea what's going to happen yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 11, 2018, 09:38:16 AM
I Thought of Daisy by Edmund Wilson.

(https://i.imgur.com/lRXpyUX.jpg)

I'm sure at least some of you guys will know this author, but he's both new and cool to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kishnevi on January 11, 2018, 05:30:48 PM
Quote from: NikF on January 11, 2018, 09:38:16 AM
I Thought of Daisy by Edmund Wilson.

(https://i.imgur.com/lRXpyUX.jpg)

I'm sure at least some of you guys will know this author, but he's both new and cool to me.

Good to see you!

I've read some Wilson as literary critic, but know nothing about his fiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on January 12, 2018, 01:25:48 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 10, 2018, 01:11:56 AM
Maybe it's a matter (IIRC) of the book originating, not as a book, but as an accumulation of blog posts.  I found the book a bit of a mix, and probably because a serious musical reader has different expectations for A Book than for skimming through a blog.
Right. I now recall that it started as a blog. This clearly explains what I described as certain weaknesses. Short columns that need to captivate the reader quickly and come to certain point. While understandable, he should have spent more time transforming those blog entries into a book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 12, 2018, 10:01:07 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on January 11, 2018, 05:30:48 PM
Good to see you!

I've read some Wilson as literary critic, but know nothing about his fiction.

Thanks, Jeffrey. Good to see you too!

Yeah, same here, I'd read little more than a couple of quotes attributed to him and they were interesting enough to make me look for info about him. And that led me to his novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 12, 2018, 10:05:54 AM
Quote from: NikF on January 12, 2018, 10:01:07 AM
Thanks, Jeffrey. Good to see you too!

Yeah, same here, I'd read little more than a couple of quotes attributed to him and they were interesting enough to make me look for info about him. And that led me to his novels.

To The Finland Station is a bit dated and naive about the Bolsheviks but it's an extremely interesting book, well worth reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 12, 2018, 10:09:48 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 12, 2018, 10:05:54 AM
To The Finland Station is a bit dated and naive about the Bolsheviks but it's an extremely interesting book, well worth reading.

As ever, suggestions and recommendations are welcome.  Cheers, Ken.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 12, 2018, 11:07:49 AM
Axel's Castle and The Wound And The Bow are two of the finest collections of literary criticism I've read.

There's a couple of very useful Library Of America editions if you're interested in his nonfiction:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/417JUtaCsqL._AC_UL320_SR198,320_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41y3zHC6KyL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 12, 2018, 12:02:33 PM
Started reading Wilkie Collins's "No Name". Most enjoyable so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 12, 2018, 12:16:53 PM
Quote from: Alberich on January 12, 2018, 12:02:33 PM
Started reading Wilkie Collins's "No Name". Most enjoyable so far.

I'm keen to hear, as it's on my maybe list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 13, 2018, 12:56:36 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 12, 2018, 11:07:49 AM
Axel's Castle and The Wound And The Bow are two of the finest collections of literary criticism I've read.

There's a couple of very useful Library Of America editions if you're interested in his nonfiction:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/417JUtaCsqL._AC_UL320_SR198,320_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41y3zHC6KyL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Cool. Thanks, Simon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on January 13, 2018, 06:46:38 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51yQD83OIhL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Curious by some recent publicity around this book...just started it but quite a page-turner.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: TheGSMoeller on January 13, 2018, 07:07:00 AM
Quote from: Christo on January 09, 2018, 12:05:44 AM
Please keep us informed! (#oneofthosebooksontheshelveswhichIwishhopewanttoreadonetimetimeproviding)  :)

Quote from: Jo498 on January 09, 2018, 04:38:37 AM
I am also reading Ross' book, although in German translation. Now about 220 pages in (of 600+). Not so sure what to make of it. I think Ross is overambitious and it's a little bit of everything but impossible to go into depth because he wants to cover so much.
And he sometimes slips into a somewhat gossipy mode.

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 10, 2018, 01:11:56 AM
Maybe it's a matter (IIRC) of the book originating, not as a book, but as an accumulation of blog posts.  I found the book a bit of a mix, and probably because a serious musical reader has different expectations for A Book than for skimming through a blog.


I'm enjoying The Rest is Noise, but some good points were made by you two, that I do mostly agree with. A good amount of the basic history of the composers, their music, I've known for a while, but some of the gossip bits are entertaining. I like hearing about the interaction between certain composers, and Ross goes deep into the political aspect surrounding the music.
I am really enjoying the music theory evaluations that Ross inserts when describing the impact of individual works.
Still have 12 hours to go.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 13, 2018, 07:50:20 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on January 13, 2018, 07:07:00 AM

I'm enjoying The Rest is Noise, but some good points were made by you two, that I do mostly agree with. A good amount of the basic history of the composers, their music, I've known for a while, but some of the gossip bits are entertaining. I like hearing about the interaction between certain composers, and Ross goes deep into the political aspect surrounding the music.
I am really enjoying the music theory evaluations that Ross inserts when describing the impact of individual works.
Still have 12 hours to go.  8)

Does he talk about AS's syphillis?

(This is a dig at Cato. I have read (heard) the book)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 13, 2018, 11:21:04 AM
Bernard Barber - Resistance by Scientists to Scientific Discoveries (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.392.3311&rep=rep1&type=pdf).

Mandatory reading for 71dB, I should say.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on January 15, 2018, 03:05:08 PM
Recently read Goethe's Faust, Peter Sculthorpe's autobiography Sun Music, Absolutely on Music by Murakami with Ozawa and now on The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 16, 2018, 08:09:13 AM
Quote from: jessop on January 15, 2018, 03:05:08 PMAbsolutely on Music by Murakami with Ozawa
How did you like this? Any comments? I have been tempted by it in bookstores, but have also seen a critic or two say that it is light on substance.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on January 16, 2018, 01:44:16 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 16, 2018, 08:09:13 AM
How did you like this? Any comments? I have been tempted by it in bookstores, but have also seen a critic or two say that it is light on substance.

I read the book whilst on holiday and it isn't really a book which you would need to think too much about to enjoy it. But light on substance? Strange remark to make. The whole premise of the book is that it is anecdotal rather than anything really substantial about music history or anything like that. I enjoyed it for what it was: a conversation between music lovers about stuff they enjoy and, of course, Ozawa's anecdotes about his experience conducting. Murakami even says the book is intended to be enjoyed by people who might not even understand much about music at all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 16, 2018, 01:53:39 PM
I was surprised by what an attentive long-time classical listener Murakami obviously was, and how he was able to highlight and articulate differences in specific sections of various recordings of the same works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on January 16, 2018, 06:40:53 PM
For me, just some light reading:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780841908321-us.jpg)

(That's The Destruction of the European Jews, by Raul Hilberg. Just started volume one. That's what my set looks like, but that's not my photo.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 16, 2018, 08:12:51 PM
Thanks, Jessop! Will probably buy, then. :)
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 16, 2018, 01:53:39 PM
I was surprised by what an attentive long-time classical listener Murakami obviously was, and how he was able to highlight and articulate differences in specific sections of various recordings of the same works.
I'm not surprised after 1Q84 began with a whole page of description about Janacek's Sinfonietta!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 20, 2018, 06:12:06 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 09, 2017, 04:44:46 AM
Exactly what I was hoping, Poe was one my earliest literary loves . . . and a sane bio has been wanted for a long time, it seems.

(. . . and then, to be sure, I wandered to the University of Virginia, which maintains a kind of Poe shrine adjacent to The Lawn.)

This is excellent, and everything I had hoped for, and more. Thanks again, David.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on January 21, 2018, 12:30:09 AM
Quote from: Alek Hidell on January 16, 2018, 06:40:53 PM
For me, just some light reading:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780841908321-us.jpg)

(That's The Destruction of the European Jews, by Raul Hilberg. Just started volume one. That's what my set looks like, but that's not my photo.)
I think I read this but I don't remember it being so long! 3 volumes?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 22, 2018, 08:50:23 AM
1/3 through "No name" already. Collins did it again, he sucked me in with The Moonstone last winter and now with this. Collins, though 12 years younger than Dickens, learned very early one vital lesson which apart from an exception here or there took Dickens until his very latest novels to learn. Namely, that having characters with depth in them is more interesting than unceasing flow of well-made but in large doses tiresome caricatures. Plus the fact that having too much painted in black and white reduces suspense between the characters. And oh boy, I love it how even though in many cases I anticipate the plot twists Collins prepares, he still manages to pull them off convincingly. I think you could even argue that creating predictable plot twists that work in spite of being predictable, shows even greater skill in plotting than having completely unpredictable ones work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 22, 2018, 09:13:57 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on December 22, 2017, 11:42:35 AM
Kotkin convincingly portrays Stalin as a rational (and ruthless) ideologue rather than some sort of deranged psychopath.  All he did was obstinately apply Leninist ideology, refusing any concessions or compromise.

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781594203800_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg)

Now into the Great Terror.  Kotkin refrains from speculating on Stalin's psychology, but does state that it went well beyond  a cold, calculated effort to preemptively eliminate any potential rivals. 

One tidbit- one purge list of 'Trotskyite Fascists' that Stalin had drawn up included Mao Zedong, but for some reason this list was never acted upon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 26, 2018, 08:25:56 AM
More British literature - started The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on January 26, 2018, 05:42:59 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/93/The_Eye_of_the_Heron_by_Ursula_K._Le_Guin.jpg/180px-The_Eye_of_the_Heron_by_Ursula_K._Le_Guin.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on January 26, 2018, 07:55:26 PM
Quote from: milk on January 21, 2018, 12:30:09 AM
I think I read this but I don't remember it being so long! 3 volumes?

Well, there's an abridged version that's much more readily available (I think it's all you can find on Amazon, for example). Maybe you read that?

Anyway, I found my copy of this unabridged version on AbeBooks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on January 26, 2018, 09:31:30 PM
Quote from: milk on January 26, 2018, 05:42:59 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/93/The_Eye_of_the_Heron_by_Ursula_K._Le_Guin.jpg/180px-The_Eye_of_the_Heron_by_Ursula_K._Le_Guin.jpg)

I should really read some of her science fiction work. Sad to hear of her recent passing, but she left a good amount of stuff for us all to read!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on January 26, 2018, 09:40:55 PM
Quote from: jessop on January 26, 2018, 09:31:30 PM
I should really read some of her science fiction work. Sad to hear of her recent passing, but she left a good amount of stuff for us all to read!
I can't find anyone quite like her. I do recommend her "Hainish" books. They're not continual or chronological. You can read any one of them (the first novella isn't great but after that they're all interesting and fun too). She really wrote a kind of imaginary sociology and presented problems that shine a mirror on our assumptions about the self and human culture. Le Guin was very economical. She didn't "waste words," unlike most contemporary sci-fi writers. Her language is often beautiful but never extravagantly so. I don't find her peer, really.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on January 26, 2018, 10:07:05 PM
Quote from: milk on January 26, 2018, 09:40:55 PM
I can't find anyone quite like her. I do recommend her "Hainish" books. They're not continual or chronological. You can read any one of them (the first novella isn't great but after that they're all interesting and fun too). She really wrote a kind of imaginary sociology and presented problems that shine a mirror on our assumptions about the self and human culture. Le Guin was very economical. She didn't "waste words," unlike most contemporary sci-fi writers. Her language is often beautiful but never extravagantly so. I don't find her peer, really.
Thanks for that overview! I have wanted to read the Hainish cycle for a while but never got around to it. Now, I plan to read them after I finish a couple of books I gotta read first................
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 27, 2018, 01:47:40 AM
A selection of the prose by Victoria Ocampo (extracts from her autobiography and sketches about other people):

[asin]8492543795[/asin]

Ocampo was a member of an extremely wealthy Argentinian family, but had intellectual inclinations that led her to frequent the company of many renowned figures of her time (e.g., Ernest Ansermet and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle). At the behest of José Ortega y Gasset, she founded Sur (one of the most influential literary reviews in the Spanish-speaking world during the middle years of the 20th century).

Perfectly fluent in French (as was the custom among the aristocracy in South America in the early to mid 1900s), she performed the title rôles in Stravinky's Perséphone—under the composer—and Honegger's Le Roi David—under Ansermet—in Buenos Aires  (even if she was never a professional actress).

Victoria's younger sister Silvina Ocampo (also a writer) was married to Adolfo Bioy Casares (and they were all close to Jorge Luis Borges).

So far, the book has covered the childhood and adolescence of a rich girl, in rather undistinguished prose, but it is a good portrait of the Argentinian beau monde of the time. I suppose it'll get more interesting as her passion for literature and the arts comes into full blossom.





Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 29, 2018, 11:34:10 AM
This.
[asin]B071XN75S1[/asin]

A somewhat odd book. The name comes from a huge apartment block in which lived many Old Bolsheviks and high officials in Russia in 1931. The book is about them, their fate, their mindset. Parts of it drift off into theory, but mostly it's a convincing portrait of a community of True Believers. He likens bolshevism to other millenerian cults, like early Christianity.
It does assume a basic familiarity with the history. The NEP is not explained for example, not even the acronym, and the details of Stalin's rise are assumed, etc.   Overall an outstanding book so far, a little over half way through.

Recommended for Andrei
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ten thumbs on February 01, 2018, 01:33:58 AM
Quote from: Ten thumbs on January 10, 2018, 01:28:18 PM
Off the Skelligs
by Jean Ingelow

Ingelow is not everybody's cup of tea (frequently enters into moral and religious argument), but at least she's original. I'm nearly halfway through and I've no idea what's going to happen yet.

This is actually a very good novel and contains some powerful scenes. Ingelow is not a Romantic, which makes a change and she is definitely not sentimental. Ought not to be forgotten.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 03, 2018, 12:19:28 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51eoQWNPhQL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41xLnVh8izL._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on February 03, 2018, 02:54:17 AM
(https://s18.postimg.org/kcz0f6zh5/22681927347.jpg)

The World of Jeeves

Complete Jeeves & Wooster short stories, thirty-something of them. I've been enjoying them for most of last year. Bit by bit, they never should be read back to back. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 03, 2018, 03:08:11 AM
Of the short stories I usually read them in bunches as they were grouped in the older collections. Overall, I think they are usually better than the longer novels. Especially the later novels are not that good anymore although usually Jeeves and Wooster is still better than the late "Blandings" novels. (The earlier Blandings are among the best but I tend to find Galahad insufferable.)

A few days ago I finished a rather interesting SF novel by Lem: Niezwyciężony (The Invincible). Written in 1964 this already has a fully fledged conception of something like "nanobots" and I wonder if Lem was the first one with the idea. Maybe not (wiki says "one of the first" without source/citation) but it is very well explained and developed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on February 14, 2018, 06:34:53 AM
rereading from about 25 years ago, mostly the audiobook, which is well done but you need the book sometimes to see the section changes.  There does not seem to be much thought into the audiobook chapters other than each of the 43 'chapters' is about 50 minutes long.  The book itself has four large chapters with numerous unnumbered sections within

(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lxvoqiP-2mc/WRaPA09U3qI/AAAAAAAAEqo/QbOjM7FW_mk1FM4SxOjxvda9482CwsyAACLcB/s400/gravitysrainbowpenguin2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 14, 2018, 06:39:20 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on February 03, 2018, 03:08:11 AM
(The earlier Blandings are among the best but I tend to find Galahad insufferable.)
:( Galahad is my favorite, but I have noticed that he is best when he doesn't appear often, and you wish for more of him, rather than when he is a central character.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on February 14, 2018, 06:54:40 AM
Re-reading:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FAoH5dKxL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 15, 2018, 03:48:36 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on February 14, 2018, 06:34:53 AM
rereading from about 25 years ago, mostly the audiobook, which is well done but you need the book sometimes to see the section changes.  There does not seem to be much thought into the audiobook chapters other than each of the 43 'chapters' is about 50 minutes long.  The book itself has four large chapters with numerous unnumbered sections within

(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lxvoqiP-2mc/WRaPA09U3qI/AAAAAAAAEqo/QbOjM7FW_mk1FM4SxOjxvda9482CwsyAACLcB/s400/gravitysrainbowpenguin2.jpg)

As with tagging mp3s (?) there is a tension between cookie-cutter organization, and variations in the organization of an artwork  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 15, 2018, 03:49:42 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 14, 2018, 06:39:20 AM
:( Galahad is my favorite, but I have noticed that he is best when he doesn't appear often, and you wish for more of him, rather than when he is a central character.

Very interesting!  (FWIW, I have not yet plunged in at Blandings.)

We never feel that about Jeeves, or Psmith, meseems.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 15, 2018, 03:53:05 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on February 14, 2018, 06:54:40 AM
Re-reading:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FAoH5dKxL.jpg)

That looks mighty interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on February 15, 2018, 04:31:45 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 15, 2018, 03:48:36 AM
As with tagging mp3s (?) there is a tension between cookie-cutter organization, and variations in the organization of an artwork  8)

Yes, but at least mp3/cd tracks can be meaningfully lapeled.  Don't know why audible can't label chapters
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on February 15, 2018, 11:52:10 AM
An entertaining read so far:

[asin] B004J4WNJE[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 16, 2018, 01:33:32 AM
David Ossman (yes, of course, that David Ossman), The Ronald Reagan Murder Case.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 16, 2018, 11:21:14 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81h4dB0jjjL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Jw4f5abqL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The Wolff book was much better than I expected it to be, and is kind of misrepresented by the "shocking revelations!" advertising its had.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 18, 2018, 02:03:31 AM
Accompanying my recent revisiting of late 19th to early 20th century Italian opera (scapigliatura to verismo and decadentismo) with this book by eminent left-wing critic Rubens Tedeschi (who died in 2015 at the age of 101):

[asin]887692342X[/asin]
I got to Tedeschi through conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni, as both men had a bit of a feud concerning many of the composers of the period (particularly Mascagni—a guilty pleasure of mine, I must admit  ;)). Gavazzeni was a great promoter of this repertoire (in the opera house, on record and in print), and Tedeschi called him "a champion of lost causes", contradicting many of the arguments given by the conductor. Most interesting to compare these two views of a troubled but IMHO fascinating era in operatic history.

The subtitle of the book is slightly misleading. The first edition started with Boito and the scapigliatura, and essays on the "big four" (Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi) seem to have been appended at the end in this later reprint.

Tedeschi also wrote a book on d'Annunzio and music. Apparently rather difficult to get hold of, but I've just ordered the one copy that was being offered on AbeBooks  :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-py497d2L._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 18, 2018, 05:38:34 PM
Also picking away at this on audiobook at about one disc per day,and finding it very good:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51srKrnnEfL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 18, 2018, 08:32:20 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 18, 2018, 05:38:34 PM
Also picking away at this on audiobook at about one disc per day,and finding it very good:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51srKrnnEfL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A dreadful book. It is deeply unreliable. Armstrong is either unaware of,or ignores the large corpus of modern historians and their work on the sources. Cf ibn Warraq, The Quest for the Historical Mohammed.
Even Robert Spencer's extremely hostile and tendentious book is better than Armstrong's.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 18, 2018, 08:41:26 PM
Interesting. Im not at all familiar with the scholarship. What sort of things does she get wrong?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 18, 2018, 10:44:05 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 18, 2018, 08:41:26 PM
Interesting. Im not at all familiar with the scholarship. What sort of things does she get wrong?
She relies pretty much entirely and uncritically on traditional Muslim sources, which are of course all late. Just as one example, Patricia Crone has shown there was no trade route through the Medina/Mecca region at that time. That's a huge hit for any claim of historicity. She makes, as I recall from my reading of her, no mention of the problems with isnads and ahadith, nor the early variants of the Koran, the theories it has origins nearer Syria, bupkis, and so on. Just religious apologetics.

Aside from warraq as I recommended, Andrew Rippin has a good book on Islam that discusses this. The Oxford short intro to the Koran is excellent.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on February 19, 2018, 01:59:53 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 18, 2018, 10:44:05 PM
She relies pretty much entirely and uncritically on traditional Muslim sources, which are of course all late. Just as one example, Patricia Crone has shown there was no trade route through the Medina/Mecca region at that time. That's a huge hit for any claim of historicity. She makes, as I recall from my reading of her, no mention of the problems with isnads and ahadith, nor the early variants of the Koran, the theories it has origins nearer Syria, bupkis, and so on. Just religious apologetics.

Oh gosh, I read Armstrong's Islam, a Short History (2000), very superficial. People like her become apologetic for something they have not even the basic understanding. I do have a thing about "former" nuns, though, priests, too, like Martin Luther. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 19, 2018, 07:58:26 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 18, 2018, 10:44:05 PM
She relies pretty much entirely and uncritically on traditional Muslim sources, which are of course all late. Just as one example, Patricia Crone has shown there was no trade route through the Medina/Mecca region at that time. That's a huge hit for any claim of historicity. She makes, as I recall from my reading of her, no mention of the problems with isnads and ahadith, nor the early variants of the Koran, the theories it has origins nearer Syria, bupkis, and so on. Just religious apologetics.

Aside from warraq as I recommended, Andrew Rippin has a good book on Islam that discusses this. The Oxford short intro to the Koran is excellent.

I'll see if i can track those down. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 20, 2018, 02:59:21 AM
Nabokov's Dozen

(https://i.imgur.com/jZlMhYs.jpg)

For my train journey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on February 21, 2018, 06:36:35 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 18, 2018, 08:32:20 PM
A dreadful book. It is deeply unreliable. Armstrong is either unaware of,or ignores the large corpus of modern historians and their work on the sources. Cf ibn Warraq, The Quest for the Historical Mohammed.
Even Robert Spencer's extremely hostile and tendentious book is better than Armstrong's.
I read a book by her years ago, I can't remember which one. If I am not mistaken, her thesis is that religions have a more-than-superficial commonality. If I remember right, her view is a bit pollyannish, like, all religion tends to the uplifting of humanity - something that appealed to me at the time but seems like quackery now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Judith on March 02, 2018, 07:23:01 AM
Reading a wonderful book on the story of "Academy of St Martin in the Fields" by Meirion and Susie Harries. Tells about the history of the church St Martins and Neville Marriner starting the orchestra.

Sorry. Maybe wrong thread as it's music related!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on March 02, 2018, 05:31:38 PM
They Call it Pacific by Clark Lee

Mr. Lee was working with the Associated Press in Asia when the USA was drawn into WWII. This book is an engaging account of his various encounters and adventures during the Japanese conquest of the Philippines, as well as the subsequent campaigns which began to change the course of the Pacific War.

Readers considering this opus should bear in mind its contemporary nature ( it was published in 1943 ), and set their expectations accordingly. With that caveat stated, I'm happy to recommend this work.

Cheers,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 02, 2018, 08:47:58 PM
Started:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309211714l/183645.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 03, 2018, 04:32:24 AM
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327908745l/17877.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 03, 2018, 05:14:08 AM
Robert Littel
The Company

An 800 page novel about the CIA. After 400 pretty good pages it has bogged down a bit, but not enough to give up on yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 06, 2018, 10:29:46 AM
Starting this well-researched and rather engaging survey of Gabriele d'Annunzio's relation to music and composers:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-py497d2L._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I recently finished author Rubens Tedeschi's scathing but very interesting survey of Italian opera at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries (but skipped—for the time being—his essays on diverse works by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi that we're appended to the book in the reprint I own).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on March 06, 2018, 06:17:39 PM
For probably the rest of the week, I'll be perusing the scores of Bach's Mass in b minor and the Brandenburg Concertos. Old friends, but it's been a few years since l went searching out any secrets that may have been eluding me.

Dover Miniatures ftw,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on March 07, 2018, 01:13:19 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 16, 2018, 11:21:14 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81h4dB0jjjL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Jw4f5abqL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The Wolff book was much better than I expected it to be, and is kind of misrepresented by the "shocking revelations!" advertising its had.
My findings too (though I read it superficially only, skipping some parts). It's a convincing chronicle of all the gossip that not only fills, but represents the present White House.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 07, 2018, 04:42:13 AM
Quote from: LKB on March 06, 2018, 06:17:39 PM
Dover Miniatures ftw

srsly!

Thread Duty:

[asin]0300108826[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 07, 2018, 07:31:28 AM
Finnish literature for a change.

(https://s1.adlibris.com/images/7975487/the-egyptian.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 07, 2018, 10:41:51 AM
An excellent book. I read it in the French translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 11, 2018, 07:57:06 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/doUkfrF.jpg)

I donate a bunch of stuff to the charity shop but usually end up buying something too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 16, 2018, 05:57:51 AM
I've never read any Dickens. So I'm going to read this.

(https://i.imgur.com/9au4wlM.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 16, 2018, 08:29:26 AM
Quote from: NikF on March 16, 2018, 05:57:51 AM
I've never read any Dickens. So I'm going to read this.

(https://i.imgur.com/9au4wlM.jpg)

I've read that once and recall liking it. Many of Dickens's endings have left me cold (although there are exceptions of course such as Our Mutual Friend) but this just might have the very best last sentences in a Dickens novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 16, 2018, 08:40:54 AM
Quote from: Alberich on March 16, 2018, 08:29:26 AM
I've read that once and recall liking it. Many of Dickens's endings have left me cold (although there are exceptions of course such as Our Mutual Friend) but this just might have the very best last sentences in a Dickens novel.

I'll look forward to that - and the rest of it, of course!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on March 18, 2018, 05:32:39 AM
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1317063575l/40865.jpg)
The last year or so I've been trying to read sci-fi. Of the many books I've tried, I only ended up liking a handful. Many well-regarded sci-fi bored me to tears. Some exceptions are Hyperion and almost any book by Ursula Le Guin. Anyway, this vintage wacky sci-fi pulp is a surprisingly fun read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 18, 2018, 05:52:19 AM
Quote from: NikF on March 16, 2018, 05:57:51 AM
I've never read any Dickens. So I'm going to read this.

(https://i.imgur.com/9au4wlM.jpg)

Depending on taste, you're in either for a treat or for being bored to tears. Fwiw, it's my favorite Dickens novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on March 18, 2018, 05:58:49 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41-7Wr3zi0L._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WL-nnQz2L._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Two sets of lectures given at Harvard by well-known composers.  I have to say that while some parts of Hindemith's idealistic vision of the composer's role in society resonate with me, his disparagement of the 12-tone method would laughable if it weren't the prototype of many of the same nonsensical criticisms that Bernstein brought out again in his own lecture series (and which continue to be parroted as gospel truth by people who have never listened to much 12-tone music anyway).

Sessions speaks from an equally erudite but less lofty viewpoint, and his discussion of his own creative process feels very familiar to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 18, 2018, 08:59:52 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 18, 2018, 05:52:19 AM
Depending on taste, you're in either for a treat or for being bored to tears. Fwiw, it's my favorite Dickens novel.

So far, at this (very early) stage it's a treat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 18, 2018, 12:21:53 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 18, 2018, 05:52:19 AM
Depending on taste, you're in either for a treat or for being bored to tears. Fwiw, it's my favorite Dickens novel.

I picture you Andrei, settled into a comfortable chair, knitting.

;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 19, 2018, 03:21:14 AM
Quote from: Ken B on March 18, 2018, 12:21:53 PM
I picture you Andrei, settled into a comfortable chair, knitting.

;)

(* chortle *)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 19, 2018, 04:00:48 AM
Quote from: Ken B on March 18, 2018, 12:21:53 PM
I picture you Andrei, settled into a comfortable chair, knitting.

;)

Knitting while mentally writing the text of citizen Ken B's denouncement to the Public Salvation Committee.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 19, 2018, 03:05:40 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 19, 2018, 04:00:48 AM
Knitting while mentally writing the text of citizen Ken B's denouncement to the Public Salvation Committee.  ;D

I was born denounced. ;)

TD Richard Stark, The Jugger
One of the Parker novels that Bogey and I like.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on March 24, 2018, 04:41:38 AM
Philip Kerr, Scottisch crime writer passed away at age 62

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/24/philip-kerr-author-of-bernie-gunther-novels-dies-aged-62 (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/24/philip-kerr-author-of-bernie-gunther-novels-dies-aged-62)

I only read his Berlin trilogy, which I greatly enjoyed.  I will check what other books of his I should read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 25, 2018, 04:29:43 AM
Finished:

(http://shakespeareandcompany.com/files/isbn/9780857867643.jpg)

Started:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9781408460047-us-300.jpg)

which is quite a bit better than the "mere" popular history I was expecting, with considerable presentation and critical examination of the sources and overview of the historiography at every daily step in this compressed but well packed narrative covering mere weeks
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 25, 2018, 06:47:56 AM
Reading Sherlock Holmes short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Just finished "Silver Blaze".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 27, 2018, 03:53:22 AM
Quote from: Alberich on March 25, 2018, 06:47:56 AM
Reading Sherlock Holmes short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Just finished "Silver Blaze".

Good stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 27, 2018, 03:55:44 AM

(https://i.imgur.com/i69W87f.jpg)

I've no idea what this will be like.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 27, 2018, 08:22:18 AM
Quote from: NikF on March 27, 2018, 03:55:44 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/i69W87f.jpg)

I've no idea what this will be like.

I spent a lot of my younger years reading Hardy. I always enjoyed reading the combination of both hard nosed realism set in idealistic settings. I hope that you enjoy it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on March 29, 2018, 01:54:19 AM
"Landscapes are repetitions. On a simple train ride I uselessly and restlessly waver between my inattention to the landscape and my inattention to the book that would amuse me if I were someone else." Reading Pessoa on the train.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on March 29, 2018, 02:14:42 AM
(https://moly.hu/system/covers/big/covers_118160.jpg)

Just starting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on March 29, 2018, 03:44:23 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 27, 2018, 08:22:18 AM
I spent a lot of my younger years reading Hardy. I always enjoyed reading the combination of both hard nosed realism set in idealistic settings. I hope that you enjoy it.

Cheers, mate. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 29, 2018, 12:54:51 PM
About halfway through this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Fo1QlcvAL._SX313_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Lovingly and painstakingly researched, superbly written book. It's hard to realize Munch's star status among conductors in his 'golden period' (1940-1960). I had always been intrigued by him being such an intensely private person as well as a diffident, courteous, elegant and unshowy podium presence, even as his concerts and recordings radiated so much passion and brilliance. What I was not aware of is the sheer love he elicited among musicians, whether in Paris (OSCC), London (LPO), NY or Boston. They loved him to pieces.

The book sheds a very interesting light on the inner transformation of the alsatian conductor from a german-oriented man (he enlisted in the german army in WWI and his musical gods were all german) to a total rejection of Germany during WWII (he never returned after 1939, even though he had been concermaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus for many years). And of course, petty politics were at play in France after 1945. Conductors Paul Paray and André Cluytens come in for some tough criticism.

Fascinating. Lucky Bostonians !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on March 30, 2018, 11:03:58 PM
I've been reading the English translation of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, an unfortunate movie tie-in cover with Sean Connery's fake monk face on it, but whatever. I've read Foucault's Pendulum in translation before and enjoyed it, as I am enjoying this one. I really like Eco's meticulously researched settings and kind of pulpy stories, it makes me think of a more straight-laced Pynchon in some ways. One of these days my Italian will be good enough to read his stuff in the original.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 31, 2018, 05:40:01 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on March 30, 2018, 11:03:58 PM
[...] an unfortunate movie tie-in cover with Sean Connery's fake monk face on it, but whatever.

Unfortunate, but in this imperfect world, unavoidable, I fear.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 31, 2018, 05:48:05 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 31, 2018, 05:40:01 AM
Unfortunate, but in this imperfect world, unavoidable, I fear.

My copy of Tom Jones shows a guy in really tight pants ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on March 31, 2018, 11:29:26 AM
Quote from: Ken B on March 31, 2018, 05:48:05 AM
My copy of Tom Jones shows a guy in really tight pants ...

it's not unusual...  :blank:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on March 31, 2018, 11:51:19 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on March 31, 2018, 11:29:26 AM
it's not unusual...  :blank:

;D :D ;D

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 01, 2018, 06:14:58 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-599_1AW7Nao/T_G-3EWRH0I/AAAAAAAADkQ/yK1hZZhLqOA/s1600/daf-signet-book.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 01, 2018, 07:28:02 AM
Revisiting Stefan Zweig's Die Welt von Gestern ("The World of Yerterday"), which I had stated many years ago, but had to abandon due to family issues that required my full attention at the time.

[asin]3866478992[/asin]
The book, full of nostalgia, is extremely engaging and beautifully written. Still (at least at the point I'm at now—some 50 pages into it), Zweig's melancholic description of a bygone world of privilege, stability, progress and high culture seems to have been generated in a sort of "vacuum", as those who didn't  enjoy those privileges or lived away from the cultural beacon that was turn-of-the-century Vienna are completely ignored. This is all the more surprising as the book was written in Zweig's Brazilian exile, where his own personal conditions were less propitious, and the fact that  segments of society with a sense of entitlement were coexisting with the disadvantaged and destitute could not have escaped the author's notice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 07, 2018, 07:47:27 AM
Slowly but steadily continuing my progress through the unabridged Les Misérables. About halfway through both the volume III (Marius) and thus the whole work in general. That is, assuming all the volumes are about the same length. Hugo is such a wonderful writer, I could quote him all day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on April 07, 2018, 08:36:25 AM
Quote from: Alberich on April 07, 2018, 07:47:27 AM
Slowly but steadily continuing my progress through the unabridged Les Misérables. About halfway through both the volume III (Marius) and thus the whole work in general. That is, assuming all the volumes are about the same length. Hugo is such a wonderful writer, I could quote him all day.

That one's a page turner ! Except there are so many pages to turn, one wonders if it will ever come to an end  :D. Still, the grandfather of all socio-historic sagas, and magnificently written to boot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 07, 2018, 01:52:34 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81DesTbTLAL.jpg)

Tom Holland - Rubicon: The Triumph And Tragedy Of The Roman Republic
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 07, 2018, 03:32:33 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 07, 2018, 01:52:34 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81DesTbTLAL.jpg)

Tom Holland - Rubicon: The Triumph And Tragedy Of The Roman Republic

An excellent book. Even better is his In The Shadow of the Sword
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bogey on April 08, 2018, 05:26:18 AM
Quote from: San Antone on April 07, 2018, 04:10:28 PM
Good stuff; I've got all the Bond books on my Kindle.  Fun ride.

Picking off about one a year. Moonraker was fantastic and makes me scratch my head of why the movie was the way it was.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 08, 2018, 06:55:15 AM
Quote from: Bogey on April 08, 2018, 05:26:18 AM
Picking off about one a year. Moonraker was fantastic and makes me scratch my head of why the movie was the way it was.

Well might you scratch!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 08, 2018, 06:58:44 AM
Thread Duty:  Started this the other day, good fun.

[asin]1629331937[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on April 08, 2018, 09:02:00 AM
First novel by Kenzaburo Oé (Nobel)

Crisp laconic style very different from his latter style full of humanity.  I find Oé way of writing stunning.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41mzAyOkEyL._SY400_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 08, 2018, 05:56:23 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 07, 2018, 03:32:33 PM
An excellent book. Even better is his In The Shadow of the Sword

I've got that on the pile to read shortly after. Have you read his book on the Ceasar Dynasty?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2018, 05:58:41 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 08, 2018, 05:56:23 PM
I've got that on the pile to read shortly after. Have you read his book on the Ceasar Dynasty?

It is one of several books I have on the go at the moment. So far, good but not up to his others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on April 12, 2018, 11:31:31 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 31, 2018, 05:40:01 AM
Unfortunate, but in this imperfect world, unavoidable, I fear.
Well, at least he isn't dressed in his Zardoz gear.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on April 16, 2018, 08:46:41 AM
Finished my reread of Gravity's Rainbow, and what stood out is how much stranger and  barely comprehensible it is compared to Pynchon's later work like Against the Day, Mason & Dixon or Vineland (but still entertaining)

now another reread but something a little more sober

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41AuvhVDTJL._SY346_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 16, 2018, 05:29:54 PM
The Darkest Part of the Woods - Ramsey Campbell
CIRSOVA magazine, issue one.
And a bio on Ernic Kovacs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 17, 2018, 08:48:42 AM
1133 pages. Done.

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1440746679l/10821772.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on April 17, 2018, 10:13:58 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on April 16, 2018, 08:46:41 AM


now another reread but something a little more sober

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41AuvhVDTJL._SY346_.jpg)

A very good book, as most Sebald works.  On this topic I am reading this book on exiled composer.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41JMIE1VtxL._SY400_.jpg)

An annecdote from this book: Giovanni Baptista Lulli was abducted in Rome for la Duchesse de Montpensier who wanted a young italian to teach her the language.  You know the next part of the story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on April 22, 2018, 08:09:05 AM
(https://s14.postimg.cc/ae68tizlt/RAKOVA-_OBRATNICA-_Henri-_Miler_slika_O_17474873.jpg)

Henry Miller - Tropic of Cancer
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 22, 2018, 08:17:37 AM
Re-reading The Great Gatsby.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 23, 2018, 08:10:29 AM
Quote from: Alberich on April 22, 2018, 08:17:37 AM
Re-reading The Great Gatsby.

That is a great read  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 23, 2018, 04:14:39 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bu8jyphkL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Very poorly written. I'm about a third of the way in and already amazed that someone can make an insiders story of flipping mob wiseguys so dull. I doubt I'll make it to the Trump parts unless I jump ahead.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Baron Scarpia on April 24, 2018, 10:42:01 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 23, 2018, 04:14:39 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bu8jyphkL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Very poorly written. I'm about a third of the way in and already amazed that someone can make an insiders story of flipping mob wiseguys so dull. I doubt I'll make it to the Trump parts unless I jump ahead.

Well, he's a cop, not a writer. Good evidence that he actually wrote it, that it was not ghost-written (attributed or not).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on April 27, 2018, 10:11:52 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 16, 2018, 05:29:54 PM
The Darkest Part of the Woods - Ramsey Campbell
CIRSOVA magazine, issue one.
And a bio on Ernic Kovacs.
The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman (great!)
The Black Company by Glen Cook
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on April 30, 2018, 08:32:06 PM
I don't know anything about this but thought I'd give it a try.

(https://i.imgur.com/98j6Vih.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 30, 2018, 08:43:36 PM
Quote from: NikF on April 30, 2018, 08:32:06 PM
I don't know anything about this but thought I'd give it a try.

(https://i.imgur.com/98j6Vih.jpg)

I have not read that but Trollope is a favorite. The Way We Live Now or The Warden are the usual first Trollope.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 30, 2018, 09:26:42 PM
The Way We Live Now is a book I keep meaning to get to. Would you rate it as one of his best?

TD:

One of the few Geoff Dyer books I hadn't read. Short and fast, but with his trademark freewheeling intelligence and unexpected digressions and connections.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780753827543-us.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on May 01, 2018, 02:06:42 AM
Trying to get into the habit of writing more about what I read. I posted some thoughts on my blog (https://cazoozerdon.wordpress.com/2018/05/01/some-thoughts-on-the-name-of-the-rose/) about Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, which I finished reading about a week ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 01, 2018, 02:13:13 AM
So I finally finished The Egyptian - while there were many great passages (I especially enjoyed the rather clever portrayal of negative effects that a pacifist pharaoh causes in his kingdom) Waltari is also prone to rambling which probably is one of the reasons of the book's length and there are also several oxymoron-ish sentences that don't make much sense. Overall, as a Finnish literature, it passes well enough - although if he had cut the rambling passages he could have reduced the length of the book by a half or so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 01, 2018, 04:27:32 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on May 01, 2018, 02:06:42 AM
Trying to get into the habit of writing more about what I read. I posted some thoughts on my blog (https://cazoozerdon.wordpress.com/2018/05/01/some-thoughts-on-the-name-of-the-rose/) about Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, which I finished reading about a week ago.

Can you really read grey font on dark blue background without your eyes aching?  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on May 01, 2018, 04:36:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 01, 2018, 04:27:32 AM
Can you really read grey font on dark blue background without your eyes aching?  ;D
I can, it actually hurts my eyes less than black and white for longer reads on a screen. I change the theme every once in a while trying to find something optimal, so far unsuccessful.

Edit: I made the colours lighter, seems better so far. Wordpress's customisation tools seem to be quite fickle about colour palettes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on May 01, 2018, 04:45:08 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on May 01, 2018, 04:36:50 AM
I can, it actually hurts my eyes less than black and white for longer reads on a screen. I change the theme every once in a while trying to find something optimal, so far unsuccessful.

Edit: I made the colours lighter, seems better so far. Wordpress's customisation tools seem to be quite fickle about colour palettes.
I found the colors, and writing, eminently readable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 01, 2018, 04:47:21 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on May 01, 2018, 04:36:50 AM
I can, it actually hurts my eyes less than black and white for longer reads on a screen. I change the theme every once in a while trying to find something optimal, so far unsuccessful.

In my (admittedly very personal, non-transmissible) experience, the best is black font on pale yellow background.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 01, 2018, 05:54:41 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 30, 2018, 09:26:42 PM
The Way We Live Now is a book I keep meaning to get to. Would you rate it as one of his best?

TD:

One of the few Geoff Dyer books I hadn't read. Short and fast, but with his trademark freewheeling intelligence and unexpected digressions and connections.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780753827543-us.jpg)

Yes,Way is really good and it's standalone, not part of the Palliser or the Barchester sets. I keep meaning to get to Barchester Towers myself, which most reckon his best book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 01, 2018, 05:57:02 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on May 01, 2018, 04:36:50 AM
I can, it actually hurts my eyes less than black and white for longer reads on a screen. I change the theme every once in a while trying to find something optimal, so far unsuccessful.

Edit: I made the colours lighter, seems better so far. Wordpress's customisation tools seem to be quite fickle about colour palettes.

That's what I like about Kindle: no backlight. Everything else gets wearing after a while. I find white on Black tolerable for phones. Plus it saves battery  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on May 01, 2018, 06:13:16 AM
Years ago I dated an occupational therapist who told me that light text on a dark background was useful for those with eyesight problems. She had red hair.
Also, on the android tablet I'm using right now I believe that by enabling developer mode in order to simulate a colour space (in this instance, 'monochromacy') it helps save the battery.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on May 04, 2018, 10:47:51 AM
Another reread, will probably skip the Shostakovitch parts despite great quote like this:

Best listened to in a windowless room, better than best in an airless room—correctly speaking, a bunker sealed forever and enwrapped in tree-roots—the Eighth String Quartet of Shostakovich (Opus 110) is the living corpse of music, perfect in its horror. Call it the simultaneous asphyxiation and bleeding of melody. The soul strips itself of life in a dusty room

(https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/ae07acaf-7186-4d6f-9340-cbe2eca3be6e/353/569/90/False/europe-central-4.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on May 04, 2018, 07:02:35 PM
.
[asin]0316042730[/asin]
The man has long needed a good biography, and this is just the man to write it. Very good so far (I'm about 100 pages in).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on May 06, 2018, 04:57:11 AM
Choo choo, choo choo, ch'boogie!

For the train journey -

(https://i.imgur.com/BjGf7XZ.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on May 06, 2018, 11:34:25 PM
Cynics by Anatoly Mariengof.

(https://cdn.27.ua/499/62/79/221817_1.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 12, 2018, 04:57:08 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51su7NVbLDL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 12, 2018, 05:12:43 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 29, 2018, 11:34:10 AM
This.
[asin]B071XN75S1[/asin]

A somewhat odd book. The name comes from a huge apartment block in which lived many Old Bolsheviks and high officials in Russia in 1931. The book is about them, their fate, their mindset. Parts of it drift off into theory, but mostly it's a convincing portrait of a community of True Believers. He likens bolshevism to other millenerian cults, like early Christianity.
It does assume a basic familiarity with the history. The NEP is not explained for example, not even the acronym, and the details of Stalin's rise are assumed, etc.   Overall an outstanding book so far, a little over half way through.

Recommended for Andrei

I was over at a friends place today (to watch the final episode of Ken Burns' Vietnam) and he was raving about this book, saying it was the best thing he'd read over the last year. What was your impression after finishing?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 12, 2018, 09:54:01 AM
Simon, I recall mentioning the Holland, which is great.

I very much liked the House of Government. But it comes with caveats. There is some more general theory of millenarian movements he discusses at length, such as early Christianity, and he comes back to it a lot. It also demands as I said some familiarity with the narrative history. But it gives a great insight into the mindset of the first generation or two of bolsheviks. It's unlike any other book on the period I have read too. If you are are interested I recommend it highly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 12, 2018, 05:47:01 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 12, 2018, 09:54:01 AM
Simon, I recall mentioning the Holland, which is great.

I very much liked the House of Government. But it comes with caveats. There is some more general theory of millenarian movements he discusses at length, such as early Christianity, and he comes back to it a lot. It also demands as I said some familiarity with the narrative history. But it gives a great insight into the mindset of the first generation or two of bolsheviks. It's unlike any other book on the period I have read too. If you are are interested I recommend it highly.

thanks for the Recommendation. Just nabbed a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 19, 2018, 04:43:49 PM
This
[asin]0393331660[/asin]

Which is based on the oldest manuscript. So it is the original version as it were, without some later stories such as Sinbad. I have the accompanying volume of those tales too.

Certain to offend prudes, SJWs, #MeTooers, and scolds of all stripes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on May 20, 2018, 08:53:52 PM
This:

[asin]0199744645[/asin]

I'm not really reading this from front to back as this isn't one of those kinds of books, but I do pick up this book periodically and read about a Barber work I'm interested in learning about which this particular book provides background history to each composition, when it was written, when it was first premiered, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 21, 2018, 05:44:35 AM
And now, arriving in Les Misérables to what is arguably the creepiest part in the book - Marius stalking Cosette. I guess this passed as romantic in the 19th century. Still, it is so very well written...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 22, 2018, 01:30:24 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51iaLBekj2L._SX228_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 22, 2018, 04:00:16 PM
(https://www.booktopia.com.au/http_coversbooktopiacomau/big/9780141188997/memories-of-the-ford-administration.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on May 23, 2018, 07:40:20 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/7rXC3fH.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on May 23, 2018, 08:43:41 PM
In an attempt to be more varied and active in my reading I'm going through some history with Rise to Globalism by Ambrose and Brinkley. I'm also looking at Norman Stone's Europe Transformed, 1878-1919. Taking them both very slowly so that I don't get my head stuffed with a bunch of stuff that just disappears the next day.

On my way to meet a friend yesterday I picked up William Gibson's Neuromancer and Joseph Conrad's Nostromo from an Oxfam bookshop. Looking forward to reading those soon. While the shop is reasonably priced I must protest at their use of stickers with segmented flaps, which make it quite a pain to remove them cleanly. I mean, I don't like stickers on books at all; my favourite bookshop, now closed down as of almost a year ago, just used to lightly pencil the price on the inside cover.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 26, 2018, 09:19:57 AM
Soon, I'm going to re-read The Silmarillion (amazing book, easily my favorite Tolkien work) and then probably read for the first time The book of lost tales. Although I've read that they (along with Unfinished tales) deal mostly with the same material only written a bit differently (IIRC, Melkor is still called Melko in The Book of Lost Tales).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 01, 2018, 09:57:07 AM
Before embarking on the reading of José Lezama Lima's monumental Paradiso (widely regarded as one of the greatest novels written in Spanish in the 20th century), I've bean leafing through the magazine Orígenes, which the author (along with a group of collaborators) edited in Havana from 1944 to 1956, and which in those years established itself as one of the leading art and literature periodicals in the Spanish speaking world. Apart from Lezama, there are contributions by most relevant Cuban authors of those years, as well as by prestigious authors from Spain (Juan Ramón Jiménez, Luis Cernuda, Vicente Aleixandre), Latin America (Octavio Paz, Gabriela Mistral) and other countries (T.S. Eliot, Paul Valéry, Paul Éluard...).

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/DANIELPARIENTELIBROS/10782743155.jpg) (https://pictures.abebooks.com/DANIELPARIENTELIBROS/10782743157.jpg)

All the issues were published again in 1992 in facsimile form (in 7 volumes) jointly by publishers Turner from Spain and El Equilibrista from Mexico, with funding from Spain's Fifth Centennial Commission. The set is an object of beauty...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on June 03, 2018, 04:11:17 PM
These two... 

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389386476l/225983.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mf70Pjz8L._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 04, 2018, 05:36:58 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on June 03, 2018, 04:11:17 PM
These two... 

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389386476l/225983.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mf70Pjz8L._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Great!  8) Haven't read that Rachmaninov study but anything related to that great composer must be great. As for Buddenbrooks, it is one of my favorite German novels ever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on June 04, 2018, 05:49:05 AM
'The President's Hat' by Antoine Laurain. VG
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on June 09, 2018, 12:31:36 PM
From the Score to the Stage: An Illustrated History of Continental Opera Production and Staging

large format, beautiful presentation on opera stagecraft



https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0226035085/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on June 10, 2018, 05:00:24 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 04, 2018, 05:36:58 AM
Great!  8) Haven't read that Rachmaninov study but anything related to that great composer must be great.

As for Buddenbrooks, it is one of my favorite German novels ever.

Amen  0:)  and Amen again!  0:)

I am currently near the end of proof-reading my own latest novel:

From the Temples of the Cloud  It is a counterpart, if not exactly a sequel, to an earlier novel from c. 4 years ago, From the Caves of the Cloud.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on June 10, 2018, 01:13:41 PM
Quote from: listener on June 09, 2018, 12:31:36 PM
From the Score to the Stage: An Illustrated History of Continental Opera Production and Staging

large format, beautiful presentation on opera stagecraft



https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0226035085/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That looks extremely enticing!!!!!  I think that will end up on my reading list towards the end of the summer thanks to you, Listener!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 11, 2018, 12:59:07 AM
On the train today -

(https://i.imgur.com/unkXBgp.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 11, 2018, 12:22:38 PM
The seven volume The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon, translated from the French. This is the first

[asin]0007491263[/asin]

I have almost finished the second now. Seems like a Florestan kind of book, or Mookalafalas.
And Moonfish too, as an I, Claudius fan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 11, 2018, 12:31:56 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 11, 2018, 12:22:38 PM
The seven volume The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon, translated from the French. This is the first

[asin]0007491263[/asin]

I have almost finished the second now. Seems like a Florestan kind of book, or Mookalafalas.

I have read the whole series long ago and enjoyed it immensely.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 11, 2018, 12:58:09 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 11, 2018, 12:31:56 PM
I have read the whole series long ago and enjoyed it immensely.

Glad to know I haven't lost my touch  :D
And that it's good!

Do you know Robert Merle's series, The Fortunes of France? It looks interesting but I was put off by a random page I looked at.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 12, 2018, 02:41:03 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 11, 2018, 12:58:09 PM
Glad to know I haven't lost my touch  :D
And that it's good!

For me every volume was a page turner.

Quote
Do you know Robert Merle's series, The Fortunes of France? It looks interesting but I was put off by a random page I looked at.

Never heard of him.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 12, 2018, 05:43:20 AM
(https://kansaspress.ku.edu/images/publications/raw/9780700624942.jpg)

Great historian and writer, attempts to answer the question:

QuoteBy 1943, the war was lost, and most German officers knew it. Three quarters of a century later, the question persists: What kept the German army going in an increasingly hopeless situation?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 13, 2018, 08:18:25 AM
Quote from: NikF on June 11, 2018, 12:59:07 AM
On the train today -

(https://i.imgur.com/unkXBgp.jpg)

Interesting as I have recently begun to read Balzac's "Pierrette".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on June 14, 2018, 02:33:46 AM
(https://s22.postimg.cc/4unkuo9ap/IMG_0396.jpg)

Gradac is Serbian art magazine, with themed issues, in book format. This one is triple issue (300 pages) and the theme is Dandyism.

It opens with an article on English 18th century 'Fashionable Novel' (Disraeli & co.) and critique of it by Thomas Carlyle and William Hazlitt. Continues with excerpts from Gautier's Mademoiselle de Maupin, Baudelaire's writings on Gautier, Balzac and Barbey d'Aurevilly articles on George Brummell, article on Robert de Montesquiou (Huysmans' model for des Esseintes and Proust's for Baron de Charlus), excerpts from Huysmans, Wilde, Proust and articles by Sartre, Camus and Roland Barthes among others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 15, 2018, 01:44:26 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 13, 2018, 08:18:25 AM
Interesting as I have recently begun to read Balzac's "Pierrette".

And how are you finding it?  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 15, 2018, 01:48:40 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/9P0nzG6.jpg)

The gym I've started to use has less benches than my old gym. While only a minor issue it does mean there can be extended periods of waiting for one to become available. So I've been taking a book along.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 15, 2018, 03:43:21 AM
Quote from: NikF on June 15, 2018, 01:48:40 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/9P0nzG6.jpg)

The gym I've started to use has less benches than my old gym. While only a minor issue it does mean there can be extended periods of waiting for one to become available. So I've been taking a book along.

Book as bait? 

;) :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 15, 2018, 03:45:31 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 15, 2018, 03:43:21 AM
Book as bait? 

;) :laugh:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 15, 2018, 07:20:17 AM
Hitchcock's most familiar film is probably "Psycho" (1960), with its famous scene in which Anthony Perkins stabs Janet Leigh to death in a shower. The scene inspired one of Hitch's most famous exchanges with a viewer, "Dear Mr. Hitchcock," the fan wrote, "after seeing 'Diabolique," my daughter was afraid to take a bath. Now she has seen 'Psycho' and Is afraid of the shower. What should I do?"

Hitchcock's reply: "Take her to the dry cleaners." (https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/hitchcock-he-always-did-give-us-knightmares)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 15, 2018, 08:50:52 AM
Quote from: NikF on June 15, 2018, 01:44:26 AM
And how are you finding it?  :)

Slow to start but I like the characterization.
Did you enjoy Lost Illusions?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 15, 2018, 09:23:07 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 15, 2018, 08:50:52 AM
Slow to start but I like the characterization.
Did you enjoy Lost Illusions?

Good. I do enjoy it if characters are well written or shaded to offer depth. Hope the pace picks up for you. :)

Yes, I'm enjoying it so far. But I had to pause in my reading because - and I'm going to be blunt here - I needed a book for taking to the gym, and because I like to run there/back something smaller in size than Lost Illusions was required.  ;D

Also -

Quote from: Ken B on June 15, 2018, 03:43:21 AM
Book as bait? 

;) :laugh:

Scurrilous, tabloid worthy rumour. My innocence in such matters remains lily-white.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 15, 2018, 09:26:21 AM
Quote from: NikF on June 15, 2018, 09:23:07 AM
Good. I do enjoy it if characters are well written or shaded to offer depth. Hope the pace picks up for you. :)

Yes, I'm enjoying it so far. But I had to pause in my reading because - and I'm going to be blunt here - I needed a book for taking to the gym, and because I like to run there/back something smaller in size than Lost Illusions was required.  ;D


Perhaps you could use it as part of you weight lifting regime  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 15, 2018, 09:36:02 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 15, 2018, 09:26:21 AM
Perhaps you could use it as part of you weight lifting regime  ;D

As it is my year on slow reduction in strength is enough of a different kind of Lost Illusion to deal with.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 15, 2018, 09:51:34 AM
Illusions Regained!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 15, 2018, 10:00:41 AM
Nick might find "Penis Reduction Surgery For Beginners" useful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on June 15, 2018, 12:19:19 PM
(http://www.stripovi.com/naslovnice/Diabolik/DK_LU_6.jpg)

In former Yugoslavia we all pretty much grew up on Italian comics in the 70s and 80s, and I still have the soft spot for them today, despite their quality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 15, 2018, 12:30:44 PM
Quote from: Draško on June 15, 2018, 12:19:19 PM
(http://www.stripovi.com/naslovnice/Diabolik/DK_LU_6.jpg)

In former Yugoslavia we all pretty much grew up on Italian comics in the 70s and 80s, and I still have the soft spot for them today, despite their quality.

protiv svakog pravila = against [...] law?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on June 16, 2018, 02:02:10 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 15, 2018, 12:30:44 PM
protiv svakog pravila = against [...] law?

Against every rule  :D Law would be zakon
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 16, 2018, 02:13:14 AM
Quote from: Draško on June 16, 2018, 02:02:10 AM
Against every rule  :D Law would be zakon

Thanks.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 21, 2018, 12:05:25 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/Ctx6dHu.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 22, 2018, 02:56:19 AM
Geo. Will's tribute

The Charles Krauthammer I knew (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-charles-krauthammer-i-knew/2018/06/21/960807a4-731c-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html?utm_term=.5c567889ae16)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 23, 2018, 02:51:19 AM
(https://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780525521952)

Finished (whew!) 1,000 well-packed excellently written pages on one of my favorite figures in American history. More sympathetic to the subject than many other biographies while still acknowledging his various frustrating limitations, mostly the result of putting guileless trust in the duplicitous surrounding him. Brilliant at background detail and context.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on June 23, 2018, 04:07:05 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 23, 2018, 02:51:19 AM
(https://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780525521952)

Finished (whew!) 1,000 well-packed excellently written pages on one of my favorite figures in American history. More sympathetic to the subject than many other biographies while still acknowledging his various frustrating limitations, mostly the result of putting guileless trust in the duplicitous surrounding him. Brilliant at background detail and context.

I like Chernow, but have read two other Grant bios in the last few years, so am going to have to wait for a while before I read this one. I love how he has been regenerated, however. He really is one of the true American heroes of the 19th century.

TD:
  [asin]B00L744ZRW[/asin]

It seems a lot of people dislike this because it has not plot or action.  I'm enjoying it a lot so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: TheGSMoeller on June 23, 2018, 06:55:19 AM
Author, humorist, essayist David Sedaris' new book, Calypso. A gift for my birthday from my wife, one of our first dates was seeing Sedaris speak live in Richmond, VA. Calypso also has my vote for book cover of the year (so far).

https://www.amazon.com/Calypso-David-Sedaris/dp/0316392383/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529765455&sr=8-1&keywords=david+sedaris

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Mpyi1NzNL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 23, 2018, 07:16:04 AM
Finished Silmarillion (again) and now turning to The Book of Lost Tales. Also reading Little Dorrit every now and then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 23, 2018, 07:17:39 AM
(https://images.ucpress.edu/covers/300/9780520206489.jpg)

James H. Johnson - Listening in Paris: A Cultural History

Just finished this. An extremely interesting, well-written (the author's sense of humor is exquisite) and thought-provoking book. The parallels between the political and ideological instrumentalization of music during the French Revolution (especially during the Reign of Terror) and the treatment of music in the Socialist Republic of Romania (especially during the 1980s) are striking. Also, who'd have thought that it was Rossini of all people who paved the way for Beethoven's triumph in Paris in the 1830s?

Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on June 23, 2018, 07:22:13 AM
Used to re-read Tolkein every 5-6 years, now I am on my 3rd time through Steven Erkison's Malazan Book of the Fallen. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jamie on June 23, 2018, 12:58:01 PM
Enjoying the coincidentally topical House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea. For a non North American it is an interesting take on one family's Mexican-American experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 23, 2018, 12:58:22 PM
Just realized I never posted my final thoughts about Collins's "No Name". I enjoyed it a lot, although the first quarter was so unbelievably good that it overshadowed the rest of the book, which was very good too. The ending was a bit cliché though.

To most people Captain Wragge seems to be their favorite character in the book. He was definitely one of my favorites as well, liked the development of friendship between him and Magdalen. Not a simple case of business relations. I also enjoyed Mrs. Lecount, the charismatic well-rounded female adversary and Noel Vanstone makes me think of Niles Crane in all his neurotic tendencies. Or rather the other way around. But Mr. Clare possibly takes the cake as the greatest character. (one of my top reasons why I liked the first quarter so much). At first he seems like your typical emotionally abusive father who doesn't think his son ever amounts to anything. But then you start to see his son's increasing irresponsibility and see that Mr. Clare does have a good point and his kindness to Magdalen in the book under his gruff exterior is really touching.

Overall, a great book. I recommend it if you can get past occasional convoluted plot threads and the traditional cliché ending.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on June 23, 2018, 09:29:54 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 23, 2018, 07:17:39 AM
(https://images.ucpress.edu/covers/300/9780520206489.jpg)

James H. Johnson - Listening in Paris: A Cultural History

Just finished this. An extremely interesting, well-written (the author's sense of humor is exquisite) and thought-provoking book. The parallels between the political and ideological instrumentalization of music during the French Revolution (especially during the Reign of Terror) and the treatment of music in the Socialist Republic of Romania (especially during the 1980s) are striking. Also, who'd have thought that it was Rossini of all people who paved the way for Beethoven's triumph in Paris in the 1830s?

Highly recommended.

My kinda book! thanks for mentioning this one. Goes on the list (most of which I will probably not live long enough to get to ;D)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 24, 2018, 05:06:59 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 23, 2018, 12:58:22 PM
Just realized I never posted my final thoughts about Collins's "No Name". I enjoyed it a lot, although the first quarter was so unbelievably good that it overshadowed the rest of the book, which was very good too. The ending was a bit cliché though.

To most people Captain Wragge seems to be their favorite character in the book. He was definitely one of my favorites as well, liked the development of friendship between him and Magdalen. Not a simple case of business relations. I also enjoyed Mrs. Lecount, the charismatic well-rounded female adversary and Noel Vanstone makes me think of Niles Crane in all his neurotic tendencies. Or rather the other way around. But Mr. Clare possibly takes the cake as the greatest character. (one of my top reasons why I liked the first quarter so much). At first he seems like your typical emotionally abusive father who doesn't think his son ever amounts to anything. But then you start to see his son's increasing irresponsibility and see that Mr. Clare does have a good point and his kindness to Magdalen in the book under his gruff exterior is really touching.

Overall, a great book. I recommend it if you can get past occasional convoluted plot threads and the traditional cliché ending.

Thanks for the review.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on June 27, 2018, 11:45:37 AM
Gym reading while waiting for a bench  -

(https://i.imgur.com/sqa6DtG.jpg)

At the same time filing my nails. I'd also file my calluses, but they usually require a belt sander.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 27, 2018, 11:50:48 AM
Vacation starts soon, most of July. I always have a reading project. The main one this summer is Maupassant's Bel Ami in French.

I am also pondering reading Orlando furioso. Anyone read it? I'm looking at you Florestan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 28, 2018, 09:31:34 AM
Tolkien's poem "Kortirion among the trees" that I recently read from The Book of Lost Tales is absolutely mind-blowing. I think I like best the first version, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 29, 2018, 10:46:20 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 27, 2018, 11:50:48 AM
Vacation starts soon, most of July. I always have a reading project. The main one this summer is Maupassant's Bel Ami in French.

I am also pondering reading Orlando furioso. Anyone read it? I'm looking at you Florestan.

No, I haven't read it but I've heard only good things about it.  :laugh:

I warmly recommend you try this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fu6bs2EeL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I read it in an excellent Romanian translation. If you are into Cervantes it should be a page turner.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on June 29, 2018, 12:05:25 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 29, 2018, 10:46:20 AMIf you are into Cervantes
Disappointed by the only thing I tried, Don Quixote. Though fascinating for its cryptic references to the underground life of conversos - giving rise to questions about Cervantes himself - and Jewish and other Moorish backgrounds of early modern Spain in general.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 29, 2018, 12:12:59 PM
Quote from: Christo on June 29, 2018, 12:05:25 PM
Disappointed by the only thing I tried, Don Quixote.

Why?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on June 29, 2018, 01:52:20 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 29, 2018, 12:12:59 PM
Why?
Tell my why you don't find it humourless - that especially - and also somewhat grotesque, or pointless.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 29, 2018, 05:24:35 PM
Quote from: Christo on June 29, 2018, 01:52:20 PM
Tell my why you don't find it humourless - that especially - and also somewhat grotesque, or pointless.

Did you find it humourless, or did it find you?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 29, 2018, 06:52:39 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71PU0gcB7FL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 29, 2018, 10:31:29 PM
Quote from: Christo on June 29, 2018, 01:52:20 PM
Tell my why you don't find it humourless - that especially - and also somewhat grotesque, or pointless.

Answering a question with another question is a non-answer and rather bad form, professor. Anyway, if you really find Don Quijote humourless and grotesque and pointless I'm afraid my thoughts will make no difference. The book is obviously not your cup of tea. I'd like to get an idea of your literary taste, though. What work(s) do you find humorous, normal and valuable?

Quote from: Ken B on June 29, 2018, 05:24:35 PM
Did you find it humourless, or did it find you?

;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on June 29, 2018, 11:15:09 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 29, 2018, 10:31:29 PMWhat work(s) do you find humorous, normal and valuable?
Medieval or early modern, you mean? At least the Commedia, rightfully subnamed 'divine'. What I read of Rabelais - not much - reminded me of Cervantes, but I loved the early Britons: Swift, Defoe. Read the Quixote only once and couldn't understand its popularity, though I also oncer 'studied' these references to the Iberian conversos.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 29, 2018, 11:52:46 PM
Quote from: Christo on June 29, 2018, 11:15:09 PM
Medieval or early modern, you mean? At least the Commedia, rightfully subnamed 'divine'. What I read of Rabelais - not much - reminded me of Cervantes, but I loved the early Britons: Swift, Defoe. Read the Quixote only once and couldn't understand its popularity, though I also oncer 'studied' these references to the Iberian conversos.

Great list. Strange, though, that you love Swift but not Cervantes. I find them equally humorous.

I first read Don Quijote when in early secondary school and naturally I didn't make much of it (I don't even remember finishing it). Then I read it a few years ago and was spellbound, a page turner from start to finish. Whatever interpretation one subscribes to  --- DQ as a paradigmatic madman (Ortega y Gasset) or as a noble and sentimental idealist (Dostoyevsky, who modelled his own Myshkin after DQ) --- I find this book full of great insights into the human condition presented in a humorous, heartfelt and humane style. It's not an easy reading, though, I was helped enormously by the translator's erudite and exhaustive preface, notes and commentaries.

Maybe a new and fresh reading would change your perspective?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on June 30, 2018, 12:33:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 29, 2018, 11:52:46 PM
Great list. Strange, though, that you love Swift but not Cervantes. I find them equally humorous.

I first read Don Quijote when in early secondary school and naturally I didn't make much of it (I don't even remember finishing it). Then I read it a few years ago and was spellbound, a page turner from start to finish. Whatever interpretation one subscribes to  --- DQ as a paradigmatic madman (Ortega y Gasset) or as a noble and sentimental idealist (Dostoyevsky, who modelled his own Myshkin after DQ) --- I find this book full of great insights into the human condition presented in a humorous, heartfelt and humane style. It's not an easy reading, though, I was helped enormously by the translator's erudite and exhaustive preface, notes and commentaries.

Maybe a new and fresh reading would change your perspective?
Many thanks, that's exactly what I was hoping for.  ;D Yes, read it 30 years ago an although nothing wiser by now, love to give it another try.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 30, 2018, 05:48:34 AM
Quote from: Christo on June 30, 2018, 12:33:41 AM
Many thanks, that's exactly what I was hoping for.  ;D Yes, read it 30 years ago an although nothing wiser by now, love to give it another try.  :D

You should. And as I said, it's of paramount importance to have a very good and copiously annotated translation. Good luck and keep us informed of your progress (or lack thereof).  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 02, 2018, 10:05:10 AM
I have never read Cervantes yet, nor Spanish literature in general either. The closest I have ever got to reading Spanish literature is when I read Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", which is a portuguese-language novel, and Portugal geographically is close to Spain. And btw, I bloody hated that book! Also tries to take fame away from Ben Jonson's masterpiece of a play "The Alchemist" so that annoys me as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 02, 2018, 11:31:18 PM
Quote from: Alberich on July 02, 2018, 10:05:10 AM
I have never read Cervantes yet, nor Spanish literature in general either. The closest I have ever got to reading Spanish literature is when I read Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", which is a portuguese-language novel, and Portugal geographically is close to Spain.

But Brazil, where Coelho actually is from, is not.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 03, 2018, 02:14:49 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 02, 2018, 11:31:18 PM
But Brazil, where Coelho actually is from, is not.  :laugh:

I am well aware of that. ;) FWIW, portuguese and spanish are sister languages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 03, 2018, 09:07:40 AM
It's a cruel world. Here's why being a virtuous music listener feels harder than ever. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/07/02/feature/separate-art-from-artist-cultural-appropriation/?utm_term=.2d5fd16b02ea)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 03, 2018, 09:11:26 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 03, 2018, 09:07:40 AM
It's a cruel world. Here's why being a virtuous music listener feels harder than ever. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/07/02/feature/separate-art-from-artist-cultural-appropriation/?utm_term=.2d5fd16b02ea)

Good gravy . . . I believe I just read the phrase "the single greatest musician of our time" . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 03, 2018, 10:17:08 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 03, 2018, 09:07:40 AM
It's a cruel world. Here's why being a virtuous music listener feels harder than ever. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/07/02/feature/separate-art-from-artist-cultural-appropriation/?utm_term=.2d5fd16b02ea)

What a prat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 03, 2018, 10:28:45 AM
Who wants to listen to virtuous music anyway?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 03, 2018, 11:00:17 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 03, 2018, 10:17:08 AM
What a prat.

I wouldn't know, WaPo doesn't let me judge for myself without paying them.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 03, 2018, 11:57:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 03, 2018, 11:00:17 AM
I wouldn't know, WaPo doesn't let me judge for myself without paying them.  ;D

Pffft. You can take my word for it. I am reliable on prats. Also on twats, wankers, burks, pecksniffs, pillocks, flopdoodles, and pinheads.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 03, 2018, 12:05:28 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 03, 2018, 11:57:29 AM
I am reliable on prats. Also on twats, wankers, burks, pecksniffs, pillocks, flopdoodles, and pinheads.

I certainly doubt not your expertise. And thank you for expanding my English vocabulary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 03, 2018, 02:37:32 PM
Another surprisingly unfunny book is The Divine Comedy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on July 04, 2018, 04:37:00 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 03, 2018, 09:07:40 AM
It's a cruel world. Here's why being a virtuous music listener feels harder than ever. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/07/02/feature/separate-art-from-artist-cultural-appropriation/?utm_term=.2d5fd16b02ea)

It's funny that when he's talking about separating the art from the artist, most of what he discusses is commercial product (buying CDs, paying through streaming revenue) rather than art.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 05, 2018, 11:33:28 AM
Starting tonight with what is widely considered one of the greatest novels written in Spanish in the 20th century:

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qQqRvIBDrDI/To6lWkGordI/AAAAAAAAA24/hRLCH6l-bK8/s1600/CIMG0003.JPG)

José Lezama Lima's Paradiso had a long gestation (over 30 years), and once it was published in 1966, it was heavily attacked by the official critics in its author's native Cuba—with few exceptions, notably Alejo Carpentier—, due to its exuberant and hermetic style, and explicit eroticism (partly homoerotic). Abroad, Julio Cortázar and Octavio Paz championed the work, and a revised edition in Mexico in 1968 launched its international career.

Its 600+ pages of ultra-baroque prose (one reviewer says it's so baroque he couldn't figure out what it was actually about  ;D) apparently mix "normal" narrative with essay-like sections and poetry, and appear quite daunting. But I look forward to them...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on July 05, 2018, 09:36:55 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/OE00Id7.jpg)

For reading today while at the gym, between sets and perhaps even reps.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 05, 2018, 11:24:19 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/411Jyo32ByL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 05, 2018, 11:48:38 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 05, 2018, 11:24:19 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/411Jyo32ByL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Quote from: ritter on October 14, 2016, 01:36:00 AM
Transcript of the deliberations of the Nobel prize committee:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CupNsNFWAAA0i30.jpg)

- Let's give the prize to Haruki Miru...Huraki...
- It's Hikaru Makirumi
- Hariku Mukirami?
- Haiku...
- To hell with it, let Bob Dylan have it...
;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 10, 2018, 04:42:09 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 29, 2018, 11:52:46 PM
Great list.

And good to know that you love the calvinist Daniel Defoe too.  :D https://www.christianforums.com/threads/robinson-crusoe-a-calvinist-tract.676850
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2018, 12:50:00 PM
Quote from: Christo on July 10, 2018, 04:42:09 AM
And good to know that you love the calvinist Daniel Defoe too.  :D https://www.christianforums.com/threads/robinson-crusoe-a-calvinist-tract.676850

I like Defoe as a writer. I had no idea he was a Calvinist (just how Robinson Crusoe can be interpreted as Calvinist propaganda is beyond me), but hey nobody's perfect, not even a great writer.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 12, 2018, 07:03:20 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2018, 12:50:00 PM
I like Defoe as a writer. I had no idea he was a Calvinist (just how Robinson Crusoe can be interpreted as Calvinist propaganda is beyond me), but hey nobody's perfect, not even a great writer.  ;D
He couldn't help it, it was predestined.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 13, 2018, 01:11:39 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 12, 2018, 07:03:20 PM
He couldn't help it, it was predestined.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 19, 2018, 09:40:32 AM
Reading Ben Jonson's "The Alchemist".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 21, 2018, 12:38:06 AM
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1407108948l/653992.jpg)

a history of Eritrea through the twentieth century
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 22, 2018, 11:29:07 AM
Fitzgerald's Tales of the Jazz Age, the short story "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on July 22, 2018, 09:56:20 PM
I don't read much fiction these days.  These detective novels are set in the pre-war Third Reich.

[asin] B006LFO1DA[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on July 23, 2018, 12:50:02 AM
Quote from: Daverz on July 22, 2018, 09:56:20 PM
I don't read much fiction these days.  These detective novels are set in the pre-war Third Reich.

[asin] B006LFO1DA[/asin]

I've wanted to read those for some time. Like the TV series Babylon Berlin I like detective stories set in that time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 23, 2018, 02:33:06 AM
An old favourite, in this very classical format:
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/GDP/6774812243.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 23, 2018, 04:24:51 AM
Quote from: Daverz on July 22, 2018, 09:56:20 PM
I don't read much fiction these days.  These detective novels are set in the pre-war Third Reich.

[asin] B006LFO1DA[/asin]

Excellent, all three of them. Kerr has supplied spin-offs set in German-occupied Prague, Nazi-infested Argentina under Perón, pre-Castro Cuba, etc. Like the proverbial cat, Bernie Gunther has many lives !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on July 23, 2018, 05:31:06 AM
(https://s15.postimg.cc/xgargatcr/KAZANOVA-_MEMOARI-_KNJIGA-_V-_POGRESAN-_OMOT-_RETKO_slika_O_69113171.jpg)

Picked up a random volume of Giacomo Casanova's memoirs (Histoire de ma vie), just to see whether it's readable and worth spending the time, the whole thing is rather long.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 23, 2018, 01:49:40 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on July 23, 2018, 12:50:02 AM
I've wanted to read those for some time. Like the TV series Babylon Berlin I like detective stories set in that time.

Slightly a mixed bag, but I enjoyed them. The later ones I read were not as good as these three IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on July 24, 2018, 07:50:17 AM
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles which I'm enjoying greatly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 24, 2018, 08:06:47 AM
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled


(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/48/The_Unconsoled.jpg/220px-The_Unconsoled.jpg)


I am about one third of the way through this book and I have no idea what is really going on here. I find it disconcerting. Other than very well stage managed choreography within the linear plot and credible characters, if a somewhat incredible storyline, the basic premise eludes me or has yet to be revealed later. I hope that it is the latter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on July 24, 2018, 02:46:27 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 23, 2018, 01:49:40 PM
Slightly a mixed bag, but I enjoyed them. The later ones I read were not as good as these three IMO.

Thank you Ken.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on July 24, 2018, 03:12:58 PM
Quote from: aligreto on July 24, 2018, 08:06:47 AM
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled


(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/48/The_Unconsoled.jpg/220px-The_Unconsoled.jpg)


I am about one third of the way through this book and I have no idea what is really going on here. I find it disconcerting. Other than very well stage managed choreography within the linear plot and credible characters, if a somewhat incredible storyline, the basic premise eludes me or has yet to be revealed later. I hope that it is the latter.

No, it won't get any clearer or more linear by the end.  >:D

I absolutely loved the novel. One of my very favorite contemporary pieces.

I understood it / read it as four parts being four dreams over four nights of a concert pianist on a tour in some random city, where his everyday experiences of travel, hotels, practicing, anxiety about the concerts get mixed and jumbled with his memories of his life, family, his youth, his fears and frustrations and all in this dream logic where everything is familiar but not quite, where one can enter a broom closet and exit miles away, where nothing resolves and multiple characters can represent the same person, but in some strange way it all makes sense. It did to me at the time, at least.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 25, 2018, 07:51:49 AM
Quote from: Draško on July 24, 2018, 03:12:58 PM
No, it won't get any clearer or more linear by the end.  >:D

I absolutely loved the novel. One of my very favorite contemporary pieces.

I understood it / read it as four parts being four dreams over four nights of a concert pianist on a tour in some random city, where his everyday experiences of travel, hotels, practicing, anxiety about the concerts get mixed and jumbled with his memories of his life, family, his youth, his fears and frustrations and all in this dream logic where everything is familiar but not quite, where one can enter a broom closet and exit miles away, where nothing resolves and multiple characters can represent the same person, but in some strange way it all makes sense. It did to me at the time, at least.   

Thank you for that; it actually makes some sense to me as I understand what you are saying. I thought that some coherence might eventually evolve but as it will not I will reappraise my outlook on the experiences related as I move on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 26, 2018, 08:20:55 AM
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz is freaking amazing! It is absurd as hell - but it doesn't matter!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zeus on July 26, 2018, 09:21:42 AM
The notion of causality (ie A causes B) is extremely fundamental but very poorly understood.  The social sciences in particular appear clueless about causality.  When scientists tried to answer the question "does smoking cause cancer", it turned out they lacked the tools to properly study the question.

Daniel Pearl has led the charge amongst the machine learning crowd to tackle this fundamental problem, and invented a "causality calculus" to that end.  This book is his attempt to discuss his (and others') progress in the field to lay persons (such as myself).

The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect
by Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie

I am reading the book slowly because I think the book may be IMPORTANT.  Hopefully he won't disappoint.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on July 26, 2018, 09:33:31 AM
Quote from: Bubbles on July 26, 2018, 09:21:42 AM
The notion of causality (ie A causes B) is extremely fundamental but very poorly understood.  The social sciences in particular appear clueless about causality.

That's because none of them have read much philosophy, and many of them ridicule it (which goes for most scientists, actually).  If they actually looked at what's been said over the years, they would know that actually proving that one event caused another particular event to happen is logically and epistemologically thorny.

Hume, anyone?

Oh, thread duty:

村上春樹: 1Q84

The Japanese split long novels into multiple volumes.  I'm on "Book 2" now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 26, 2018, 10:39:35 AM
Quote from: Mahlerian on July 26, 2018, 09:33:31 AM


Oh, thread duty:

村上春樹: 1Q84

The Japanese split long novels into multiple volumes.  I'm on "Book 2" now.

How are you finding that? I've heard very mixed reports.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on July 26, 2018, 10:49:23 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 26, 2018, 10:39:35 AM
How are you finding that? I've heard very mixed reports.

Granted that I'm only just over one third of the way through, but I'm interested in continuing.  There is perhaps an over-the-top element in the situations involved (every character seems to have gone through some kind of major abuse, or knows someone who has), but at least so far it's all handled with an almost detached perspective.  Obviously I can't speak to the quality of the English translation, but I like the way Murakami's prose reads in Japanese (even though he sends me to my dictionary relatively frequently).

Translation from Japanese into English is very difficult to do well; things that sound elegant and succinct in Japanese often come out clunky and belabored in English because of several peculiarities about the former.

If there's something that would make me think differently after the halfway point, I'm not there yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 26, 2018, 04:27:17 PM
BOY - I've not responded to this thread in a LONG time, but I'm always reading - below are a half dozen books, half finished and the other half ongoing - reading these over the last few months - if any interest, please ask - Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51oersFMxhL._SX384_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jgOkr9mAL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jOs5XN3uL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)[

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-%2BWuQgWqL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)    (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51z%2Be8LuIpL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51cE0khUb4L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 27, 2018, 06:24:08 AM
Quote from: Bubbles on July 26, 2018, 09:21:42 AM
The notion of causality (ie A causes B) is extremely fundamental but very poorly understood.  The social sciences in particular appear clueless about causality.  When scientists tried to answer the question "does smoking cause cancer", it turned out they lacked the tools to properly study the question.

Daniel Pearl has led the charge amongst the machine learning crowd to tackle this fundamental problem, and invented a "causality calculus" to that end.  This book is his attempt to discuss his (and others') progress in the field to lay persons (such as myself).

The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect
by Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie

I am reading the book slowly because I think the book may be IMPORTANT.  Hopefully he won't disappoint.

I am reading it too, also slowly. So far my likely winner of Book of the Year.
If you want a related recommendation, Statistics Done Wrong.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 27, 2018, 06:29:35 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on July 26, 2018, 04:27:17 PM
BOY - I've not responded to this thread in a LONG time, but I'm always reading - below are a half dozen books, half finished and the other half ongoing - reading these over the last few months - if any interest, please ask - Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51oersFMxhL._SX384_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This looks of interest, Dave  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 27, 2018, 06:34:58 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on July 26, 2018, 04:27:17 PM
BOY - I've not responded to this thread in a LONG time, but I'm always reading - below are a half dozen books, half finished and the other half ongoing - reading these over the last few months - if any interest, please ask - Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51oersFMxhL._SX384_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jgOkr9mAL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jOs5XN3uL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)[

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-%2BWuQgWqL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)    (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51z%2Be8LuIpL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51cE0khUb4L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Looks like interesting stuff. Just bought the Winchester as an audio book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 27, 2018, 06:40:14 AM
In fairness, yes, all of interest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 27, 2018, 07:59:48 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 27, 2018, 06:29:35 AM
This looks of interest, Dave  0:)

Hi Karl - bought the musical instruments book in hardcover - just $18 from Amazon (see pic below) - well organized w/ plenty of pics (go to Amazon and peruse the half dozen images of the inside of the book, if interested) - brief (just over 200 pages) but well written w/ nice overviews on the development and history of the instruments.

For those into country music, the 3rd edition (since 1968) of Bill C. Malone's Country Music USA is a MUST - the best single volume on the topic w/ excellent discussion of the pre-WW II musical roots - over 500 pages in length - highly recommended if the genre is of interest?  Dave :)

QuoteBill C. Malone (born August 25, 1934) is an American musician, author and historian specializing in country music and other forms of traditional American music, he is a noted scholar. He is the author of the 1968 book Country Music, U.S.A., the first definitive academic history of country music.[1] Malone is Professor Emeritus of History at Tulane University and now resides in Madison, Wisconsin. (from his Wiki bio)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-dBCGcVh/0/def6041d/M/MusicalInstruments-M.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 27, 2018, 08:03:14 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ED1NA4EPL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on July 27, 2018, 08:10:37 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 27, 2018, 08:03:14 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ED1NA4EPL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

7-33 sets.

Good book though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 27, 2018, 08:38:56 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on July 27, 2018, 08:03:14 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ED1NA4EPL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Quote from: Mahlerian on July 27, 2018, 08:10:37 AM

7-33 sets.

Good book though.


Recommended to aid with comprehension or develop further insights? Is there anything else worth considering here? Genuine interest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mahlerian on July 27, 2018, 09:20:38 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 27, 2018, 08:38:56 AM


Recommended to aid with comprehension or develop further insights? Is there anything else worth considering here? Genuine interest.

I was being a little facetious about that first comment, though because of that book's constant reference to them, I have come to understand what a 7-33 set is.

Still, while the book does discuss some of the technical details of the music, there's also a good explication of the growth of Takemitsu's style and its aesthetic, not merely technique.  Burt tries to connect these things.  There are a good number of score excerpts, and I suppose the main audience is people who have studied music rather than the layman, but I don't know of any comparable book that is geared entirely towards a general audience.

This book, containing some of Takemitsu's writings translated into English, is nice to have, but it doesn't really go into depth about any of the subjects involved, and only a few of the essays touch on his own music much at all:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jyAFSFN0L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I've never read this one, which seems to be out of print:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511koDjGHoL._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 27, 2018, 09:33:39 AM
Quote from: Mahlerian on July 27, 2018, 09:20:38 AM
I was being a little facetious about that first comment, though because of that book's constant reference to them, I have come to understand what a 7-33 set is.

Still, while the book does discuss some of the technical details of the music, there's also a good explication of the growth of Takemitsu's style and its aesthetic, not merely technique.  Burt tries to connect these things.  There are a good number of score excerpts, and I suppose the main audience is people who have studied music rather than the layman, but I don't know of any comparable book that is geared entirely towards a general audience.

This book, containing some of Takemitsu's writings translated into English, is nice to have, but it doesn't really go into depth about any of the subjects involved, and only a few of the essays touch on his own music much at all:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jyAFSFN0L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I've never read this one, which seems to be out of print:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511koDjGHoL._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Thank you for the comments.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on July 27, 2018, 10:00:09 AM
Quote from: Mahlerian on July 27, 2018, 08:10:37 AM
7-33 sets.

Good book though.

Still on  the 50s and early 60s - Requiem and so forth, the 7-33 set is the first part of the row for Le Son Calligraphie

7-33 btw is Forte's nomenclature for the set 0,1,2,4,6,8,10 (counting semitones from 0).  It also can be thought of as a whole tone scale with an added note
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 29, 2018, 10:19:58 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZMQ1UHXSL._SX304_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Started:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1435700350l/1054471.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 02, 2018, 08:55:01 PM
took a break from the jazz book to knock off this quick read:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1431039869l/71965.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 03, 2018, 04:50:27 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 02, 2018, 08:55:01 PM
took a break from the jazz book to knock off this quick read:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1431039869l/71965.jpg)

Is it good? I've only read Fear& Loathing, but it was screamingly funny.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 03, 2018, 04:54:00 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 03, 2018, 04:50:27 AM
Is it good? I've only read Fear& Loathing, but it was screamingly funny.

Its more straightforward less wild than his later style. Its a light fun read nevertheless and captures a time and place well (Puerto Rico in the late 1950s). I'd recommend it, but its by no means essential reading.

I was curious after seeing the movie which does kind of vaguely follow the book, but exaggerates the Thompson character's excesses so they're more in line with Fear and Loathing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 05, 2018, 09:49:38 AM
Today I read "A Scandal in Bohemia". What a great story, Irene Adler is such an amazing character! Outsmarting Sherlock Holmes is an admirable achievement. It's too bad Doyle never used her again, although I can see why she is often portrayed as a love interest of Holmes in other media.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 05, 2018, 10:57:34 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 05, 2018, 09:49:38 AM
Today I read "A Scandal in Bohemia". What a great story, Irene Adler is such an amazing character! Outsmarting Sherlock Holmes is an admirable achievement. It's too bad Doyle never used her again, although I can see why she is often portrayed as a love interest of Holmes in other media.

Yes, that's a great story. Charles Augustus Milverton is another one I like very much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 05, 2018, 01:34:34 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on August 05, 2018, 10:57:34 AM
Yes, that's a great story. Charles Augustus Milverton is another one I like very much.
Yes that's one of the best.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 05, 2018, 02:30:58 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 29, 2018, 10:19:58 PM
.....................
Started:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1435700350l/1054471.jpg)  (https://pictures.abebooks.com/RALFRINDLE/22890891375.jpg)

Boy, I read that book years ago and still in my collection (inserted above w/ different cover) - from the late 1970s - never updated, I believe?

I've read Collier's bios on Armstrong, Goodman, and Ellington, although in my current collection I have other newer books on these jazz greats which seem to be better (BUT, hard to say w/o doing back-to-back comparisons) - hope that you enjoy!  For 'general' jazz books, I've like Gary Giddins' more recent books.  Dave :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 06, 2018, 02:54:51 AM
Yesterday, I finally finished reading:

[asin]0815605358[/asin]

A book so good, I shall write up a proper review.  The final chapter, "Aftermath," is heartrending in its relentless description of the butchery and "sausage-making" of the network "preparing" the show for syndication.  Folks, if you have not watched Rod Serling's Night Gallery as reissued on DVD, you have only watched a mangled facsimile of the show.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 07, 2018, 04:38:22 PM
Twain's essay on James Fennimore Cooper.

Also rereading Winter, by Len Deighton.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 08, 2018, 05:10:17 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 07, 2018, 04:38:22 PM
Also rereading Winter, by Len Deighton.

I thought that was a good book back when I read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 09, 2018, 05:27:40 AM
Ghost Music by Graham Masterton (horror)
The Shores of Space by Richard Matheson (short genre stories)
Various sequential art stories at all times. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 09, 2018, 01:24:44 PM
Currently reading (almost finished with) We Were Soldiers Too: The Second Korean War--The DMZ Conflict. It covers an almost completely unknown period of US military history and the first book I've ever seen recording it. It's the experiences and recollections of seven infantry soldiers who served on the DMZ in Korea between 1966 and 1969 when the North Koreans were at their most aggressive. I was there too, in that hostile fire zone, although my experience was considerably different than these grunts who patrolled the perimeter. Still, there are enough similarities and places mentioned to bring back memories, both good and bad.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/june2017/We%20Were%20Soldiers%20Too.jpg)

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 09, 2018, 01:32:37 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 09, 2018, 01:24:44 PM
Currently reading (almost finished with) We Were Soldiers Too: The Second Korean War--The DMZ Conflict. It covers an almost completely unknown period of US military history and the first book I've ever seen recording it. It's the experiences and recollections of seven infantry soldiers who served on the DMZ in Korea between 1966 and 1969 when the North Koreans were at their most aggressive. I was there too, in that hostile fire zone, although my experience was considerably different than these grunts who patrolled the perimeter. Still, there are enough similarities and places mentioned to bring back memories, both good and bad.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/june2017/We%20Were%20Soldiers%20Too.jpg)

Sarge

I've never had reason to ask you about your service. And it's none of my business anyway. But in this instance I'd like to ask if reading such histories is something you often do, that you seek out.
I hope it doesn't seem I'm prying.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 09, 2018, 01:47:10 PM
Quote from: NikF on August 09, 2018, 01:32:37 PM
I've never had reason to ask you about your service. And it's none of my business anyway. But in this instance I'd like to ask if reading such histories is something you often do, that you seek out.
I hope it doesn't seem I'm prying.

I do seek out the histories (Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War) trying to make sense of not only my own history, but my country's. It's often not easy reading but most of these books have come out decades after the fact and that makes them somewhat easier to digest.

Sarge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 09, 2018, 01:54:19 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 09, 2018, 01:47:10 PM
I do seek out the histories (Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War) trying to make sense of not only my own history, but my country's. It's often not easy reading but most of these books have come out decades after the fact and that makes them somewhat easier to digest.

Sarge

Cheers, Sarge.
I can't imagine any of that. But i can imagine a desire to make sense of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 09, 2018, 02:48:01 PM
Thanks, Sarge. Deeply appreciate your sharing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 09, 2018, 05:02:00 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71Ct4nMTGBL.jpg)

Started:

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/12/df/7c12df3405faac80fb9b887966056d6d.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 09, 2018, 10:53:41 PM
(https://s33.postimg.cc/40r7ll9n3/IMG_20180810_073653_894.jpg)

Not for the faint of heart, paid per word Miller (and/or Caresse Crosby) shocks for the sake of shocking, but imparted with enough wit to get away with it.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 09, 2018, 11:54:19 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 09, 2018, 05:02:00 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71Ct4nMTGBL.jpg)

Started:

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/12/df/7c12df3405faac80fb9b887966056d6d.jpg)

KGB book looks interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on August 10, 2018, 04:11:56 AM
Quote from: NikF on August 09, 2018, 10:53:41 PM
(https://s33.postimg.cc/40r7ll9n3/IMG_20180810_073653_894.jpg)

Not for the faint of heart, paid per word Miller (and/or Caresse Crosby) shocks for the sake of shocking, but imparted with enough wit to get away with it.

Interesting, I didn't know about that book. Recently have re-read Tropic of Cancer and it has put me in the mood for more of his Europe based novels. I was considering Quiet Days in Clichy or The Colossus of Maroussi, but this one looks very tempting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 10, 2018, 04:19:10 AM
Quote from: Draško on August 10, 2018, 04:11:56 AM
Interesting, I didn't know about that book. Recently have re-read Tropic of Cancer and it has put me in the mood for more of his Europe based novels. I was considering Quiet Days in Clichy or The Colossus of Maroussi, but this one looks very tempting.

Tropic of Cancer was cool, whereas this one is so cheap and so grubby that the ink will come off on your fingers, even if read as an eBook.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on August 10, 2018, 05:23:04 AM
Quote from: NikF on August 10, 2018, 04:19:10 AM
Tropic of Cancer was cool, whereas this one is so cheap and so grubby that the ink will come off on your fingers, even if read as an eBook.

Cheap and grubby works for me. The cover of Serbian translation certainly doesn't try too hard dispel that notion. ;D

https://static.kupindoslike.com/Henri-Miler-OPUS-PISTORUM_slika_O_85065089.jpg

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 10, 2018, 05:35:51 AM
Quote from: Draško on August 10, 2018, 05:23:04 AM
Cheap and grubby works for me. The cover of Serbian translation certainly doesn't try too hard dispel that notion. ;D

https://static.kupindoslike.com/Henri-Miler-OPUS-PISTORUM_slika_O_85065089.jpg

Oh my. ;D. But I must add that it doesn't quite accurately represent the contents. :laugh: Anyway, enjoy. 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 10, 2018, 05:46:08 AM
(https://static.kupindoslike.com/Henri-Miler-OPUS-PISTORUM_slika_O_85065089.jpg)

Good grief!  :o ::). Only sold in bookstores on the Belgrade equivalent of 42nd Street?  ;)

Pity we don't have a "Worst looking Book Covers" thread...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 10, 2018, 05:57:29 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 10, 2018, 05:46:08 AM
(https://static.kupindoslike.com/Henri-Miler-OPUS-PISTORUM_slika_O_85065089.jpg)

Good grief!  :o ::). Only sold in bookstores on the Belgrade equivalent of 42nd Street?  ;)

Pity we don't have a "Worst looking Book Covers" thread...

42nd Street has cleaned up since the days of that reputation.  Travis Bickel would almost not recognize it;  Times Square is practically family-friendly these days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 10, 2018, 06:00:26 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 10, 2018, 05:57:29 AM
42nd Street has cleaned up since the days of that reputation.  Travis Bickel would almost not recognize it;  Times Square is practically family-friendly these days.
Must update my information for my next trip to NYC, then?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on August 10, 2018, 06:17:42 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 10, 2018, 05:46:08 AM
Good grief!  :o ::). Only sold in bookstores on the Belgrade equivalent of 42nd Street?  ;)

;D In no bookstores at all, actually  :(  It's 70s or 80s printing and there hasn't been any more recent edition at all. So I'll have to get it used, in only one way hopefully  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 10, 2018, 06:30:03 AM
Continuing Sherlock Holmes stories. Now tackling The Final Problem...which turned out not to be the final problem after all. Funny how they inserted the line about  "Napoleon of Crime" even in The Great Mouse Detective.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 10, 2018, 07:08:29 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 10, 2018, 06:30:03 AM
Continuing Sherlock Holmes stories. Now tackling The Final Problem...which turned out not to be the final problem after all. Funny how they inserted the line about  "Napoleon of Crime" even in The Great Mouse Detective.

After Holmes, try a few of his "rivals" (as some collections of stories from era were named in the 70s). The best by far are the early Father Brown stories by Chesterton. The Thinking Machine by Futrelle is fun. Free or very cheap on Kindle too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 10, 2018, 07:12:47 AM
Also, here's a shocker: I've never read Agatha Christie yet in my entire life!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 10, 2018, 07:13:57 AM
Rereading, in bits, the complete mystery stories of Stanley Ellin.

[asin] ASIN: B00L2TDSR0[/asin]

These are utterly fantastic stories. My favourite is the one about the executioner challenged by his son ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 10, 2018, 07:17:48 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 10, 2018, 07:12:47 AM
Also, here's a shocker: I've never read Agatha Christie yet in my entire life!

I have read about 65 of them ... about 50 of them in grades 9 and 10.

The one everyone should read is And Then There Were None.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 10, 2018, 08:17:00 AM
My childhood reading of that nature was Ellery Queen. Usually Gollancz yellow hardback editions from the local ("Hands clean? Both sides?") public library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 10, 2018, 08:33:37 AM
Quote from: NikF on August 10, 2018, 08:17:00 AM
My childhood reading of that nature was Ellery Queen. Usually Gollancz yellow hardback editions from the local ("Hands clean? Both sides?") public library.
Yeah, I loved those, like the Chinese Orange Mystery, when I was younger. Alas I found EQ doesn't stand up very well to re reading decades later. Conan Doyle does  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 10, 2018, 08:39:34 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 10, 2018, 08:33:37 AM
Yeah, I loved those, like the Chinese Orange Mystery, when I was younger. Alas I found EQ doesn't stand up very well to re reading decades later. Conan Doyle does  :)

Funny you should say that about EQ, because although once in a while I like to visit the past I've never been tempted to reread them. And yeah, Conan Doyle is always cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 16, 2018, 06:00:37 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51lPJDcI5UL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on August 17, 2018, 02:38:09 AM
My first David Sedaris.  Probably the funniest book I've ever read.  A weird mix of sweet naivete and brutal cynicism.  He treads lightly through dark places and somehow makes poetry out of both mundane and taboo topics.  I look forward to reading the rest of his books, and already dread coming to the end...

[asin]B00FOR2JRQ[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on August 17, 2018, 05:48:27 AM
Rebel Buddha for the 2nd time
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 17, 2018, 10:00:59 AM
(https://s33.postimg.cc/n8i444azj/IMG_20180817_185401_431.jpg)

I recently recommended to someone that they watch Un coeur en hiver by Claude Sautet and then later added the suggestion that Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time should be read too (if you know the Sauter film you'll understand the connection) or at least, the Princess Mary section. Finally, it seemed obvious that if there was interest still that Plato's Symposium could round it all off. The latter is something I feel might be worthwhile for me to read again at this juncture, and so I picked up an old and worn copy in order to not feel guilty about cramming it in my back pocket when out and about. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 17, 2018, 01:01:32 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on August 17, 2018, 02:38:09 AM
My first David Sedaris.  Probably the funniest book I've ever read.  A weird mix of sweet naivete and brutal cynicism.  He treads lightly through dark places and somehow makes poetry out of both mundane and taboo topics.  I look forward to reading the rest of his books, and already dread coming to the end...

[asin]B00FOR2JRQ[/asin]
Even for those who don't do audiobooks I recommend it for him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 17, 2018, 02:06:10 PM
Quote from: milk on August 17, 2018, 01:01:32 PM
Even for those who don't do audiobooks I recommend it for him.

I heard the audiobook of Me Talk Pretty One Day and loved his voice (which I'd never heard before) and delivery.

What made me especially glad to have "read" it that way was that at one point he talks about doing TV jingles in the voice of Billie Holliday - in a misguided attempt to impress a music teacher - and here we get to appreciate the perfection of his impersonation as he launches into it with gusto.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 17, 2018, 02:49:45 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 17, 2018, 02:06:10 PM
I heard the audiobook of Me Talk Pretty One Day and loved his voice (which I'd never heard before) and delivery.

What made me especially glad to have "read" it that way was that at one point he talks about doing TV jingles in the voice of Billie Holliday - in a misguided attempt to impress a music teacher - and here we get to appreciate the perfection of his impersonation as he launches into it with gusto.
yeah that's funny. He did that on NPR for a Christmas maybe twenty years ago. That's what got me started on him. Some thing about elves and Billy Holiday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 19, 2018, 01:33:41 PM
Does Florestan read this thread? A Romanian novel was recently sent to me - The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter, by Matei Calinescu - and I have no idea what to expect from it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 19, 2018, 11:58:44 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 19, 2018, 01:33:41 PM
Does Florestan read this thread?

He does, when he is able to access GMG.

Quote
A Romanian novel was recently sent to me - The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter, by Matei Calinescu - and I have no idea what to expect from it.

I haven't read it but I remember it having been praised rather highly by the Romanian literary critics --- which is perhaps unsurprising and doesn't mean much. Bear in mind it was written in 1969 so it probably contains arcane allusions to, and hidden criticism of, the political regime back then. I'll try to read it myself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 20, 2018, 10:00:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 19, 2018, 11:58:44 PM
He does, when he is able to access GMG.

I haven't read it but I remember it having been praised rather highly by the Romanian literary critics --- which is perhaps unsurprising and doesn't mean much. Bear in mind it was written in 1969 so it probably contains arcane allusions to, and hidden criticism of, the political regime back then. I'll try to read it myself.
Thanks! It is very short, only 140 pages, so I will read the whole book even if it is not good.  ;D will report back to you - hoping that this translation has an introduction for English speakers since the book is indeed subversive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on August 23, 2018, 06:56:36 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71yL8O7qitL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 24, 2018, 05:36:38 AM
Today at the gym, reading material while waiting for a bench.

(https://s33.postimg.cc/5wp5sefn3/IMG_20180824_143238_153.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 24, 2018, 06:08:36 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 20, 2018, 10:00:50 AM
Thanks! It is very short, only 140 pages, so I will read the whole book even if it is not good.  ;D will report back to you - hoping that this translation has an introduction for English speakers since the book is indeed subversive.
So far - after 32 pages - it's not my cup of tea. It's a philosophy parody, and as such the novel has no plot and just one "character" whose job is to have nonsensical metaphysical ideas. (Sample: he believes the devil invented stupidity as revenge on humanity - funny - but the revenge is because he does not exist and is displeased about his nonexistence.)

I got a good laugh at the reveal that Lichter is a beggar, and a smirk from his terrible, terrible poetry, but so far the ratio of one brief reward every 10 pages is not great.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 24, 2018, 07:02:49 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KCyqbBjWL._SX348_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

One of the best accounts of WW2 from the German side I have read - following AG Center through 1941, it combines modern scholarship on the failed overall strategy with on the ground experiences of ordinary soldiers and does not skirt the issue of the Wehrmacht's war crimes and the general enthusiasm of the Lanser for the Nazi mission of Lebensraum.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 24, 2018, 07:15:32 AM
I guess I never told my final opinions about Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead. In short, I hated it. This is the first Dostoyevsky book I really disliked.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 24, 2018, 07:55:07 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 24, 2018, 06:08:36 AM
So far - after 32 pages - it's not my cup of tea. It's a philosophy parody, and as such the novel has no plot and just one "character" whose job is to have nonsensical metaphysical ideas. (Sample: he believes the devil invented stupidity as revenge on humanity - funny - but the revenge is because he does not exist and is displeased about his nonexistence.)

I got a good laugh at the reveal that Lichter is a beggar, and a smirk from his terrible, terrible poetry, but so far the ratio of one brief reward every 10 pages is not great.

Sounds as if it is in the league of At Swim Two Birds.
Which was assigned to us in spring semester of my junior year by a visiting prof as part of a course on 20th century Irish literature, and which the entire class refused to read more than the opening chapters.  It says a lot when you have a roomful of 20/21 year olds, and can not find one who thought the book at least moderately interesting. 
The professor was furious, but being a visiting prof, and being the end of the academic year, there was little he could do about it except display some bad temper.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 24, 2018, 08:35:32 AM
I am about one third of the way through Balzac's The Abbé Birotteau and am enjoying it thus far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 02:40:43 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 24, 2018, 07:15:32 AM
I guess I never told my final opinions about Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead. In short, I hated it. This is the first Dostoyevsky book I really disliked.

Why?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 02:45:49 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 24, 2018, 06:08:36 AM
So far - after 32 pages - it's not my cup of tea. It's a philosophy parody, and as such the novel has no plot and just one "character" whose job is to have nonsensical metaphysical ideas. (Sample: he believes the devil invented stupidity as revenge on humanity - funny - but the revenge is because he does not exist and is displeased about his nonexistence.)

I got a good laugh at the reveal that Lichter is a beggar, and a smirk from his terrible, terrible poetry, but so far the ratio of one brief reward every 10 pages is not great.

Hah! I've been reading the first three chapters online and I found it to be utterly and irredeemably rubbish. As for subversive, I'll take The Emperor's New Clothes, thank you.

This book is pure escapism, a genre which was succesfully --- and understandably --- cultivated back then but that today can have no relevance, importance or value whatsoever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 25, 2018, 03:38:27 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 02:40:43 AM
Why?

Boring, full of sentences that make no sense whatsoever, that seem contradictory. Can't believe a masterful writer like Dostoyevsky wrote this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2018, 03:51:30 AM
I sort of fell into re-reading The Two Towers.  Appreciating all over again how beautifully it is written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 03:55:44 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 25, 2018, 03:38:27 AM
Boring, full of sentences that make no sense whatsoever, that seem contradictory. Can't believe a masterful writer like Dostoyevsky wrote this.

Are you sure you really read Dostoyevsky's The House of The Dead? (Actually the original Russian title is Memoirs from The House of The Dead) That's not how I recall it, not by a long stretch. Dark, disturbing, morbid, sometimes as if taken straight out of Dante's Inferno --- yes, by all means. But boring and absurd? Sigh. Could it be a matter of translation?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 25, 2018, 03:58:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 03:55:44 AM
Could it be a matter of translation?

It could be, I read it in Finnish and the translation was definitely poor - full of typos, for example.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 25, 2018, 04:00:55 AM
The finnish translation of the title actually translates roughly as Memoirs from The House of the Dead as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 04:08:57 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 25, 2018, 03:58:50 AM
It could be, I read it in Finnish and the translation was definitely poor - full of typos, for example.

Ah, well, that might explain a lot.

Have you read The Gulag Archipelago? Compared to it, The House of The Dead is a description of a walk in the park.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 25, 2018, 04:11:24 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 04:08:57 AM
Have you read The Gulag Archipelago?

Not yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 04:25:49 AM
Quote from: Alberich on August 25, 2018, 04:11:24 AM
Not yet.

I recommend you do it asap --- provided, of course, there is a really good Finnish translation. The reality it describes is much more gruesome than anything Dostoyevsky ever experienced (and probably ever imagined) but paradoxically the style is gentler, more humorous and humane --- reading it I laughed while crying and viceversa. I don't hesitate to nominate it for the best 20-th century book.

Btw, another firm recommendation is Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate --- sort of a War and Peace set during WWII. A masterpiece as well.

Sometimes I ask myself how come that, while I'm being unabashedly and unapologetically Russophobe when it comes to politics, at the same time I'm being unabashedly and unapologetically Russophile when it comes to music and literature.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2018, 04:43:14 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 04:25:49 AM
... while I'm being unabashedly and unapologetically Russophobe when it comes to politics....

I (and the Russians in my life) consider that in light of plain good sense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 04:48:27 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 25, 2018, 04:43:14 AM
I (and the Russians in my life) consider that in light of plain good sense.

Please, send all my best to them. If we ever met in person, I'd be glad to buy the gentlemen a glass of vodka and the ladies a glass of whatever they wish (kvass maybe?).  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2018, 06:37:35 AM

Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 04:48:27 AM
Please, send all my best to them. If we ever met in person, I'd be glad to buy the gentlemen a glass of vodka and the ladies a glass of whatever they wish (kvass maybe?).  :)

A nice cup of tea will do handsomely.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 06:41:09 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 25, 2018, 06:37:35 AM
A nice cup of tea will do handsomely.

Duly noted, Karl. And what would you like?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on August 25, 2018, 07:52:23 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 04:25:49 AM


Btw, another firm recommendation is Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate --- sort of a War and Peace set during WWII. A masterpiece as well.



Have you seen the Russian 2012 miniseries?  Not perfect, but very watchable and available on Amazon Prime in the US
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 08:02:19 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 25, 2018, 07:52:23 AM
Have you seen the Russian 2012 miniseries?  Not perfect, but very watchable and available on Amazon Prime in the US

I haven't.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 28, 2018, 09:01:11 AM
Replacing a copy I lost as part of the great dividing of goods and chattels that occurred a few years ago.

[asin]2097542026[/asin]

Someone could look at this collection and reduce it to 'portraits featuring heavy burning interspersed with somewhat voyeuristic studies of legs and derrieres'. Actually, they probably wouldn't say that at all. Instead, past form would indicate they'd go on at great length, happy in ignorant belief that their uninformed opinion is automatically a fact carved in stone. In any case, fuck them.
My own opinion is simple. I believe that Sieff loved his subjects for a number of reasons, that he didn't interfere, and was never intimidated by what they had to offer.
In any case, I'm enjoying browsing this right now, post gym with a cheeseburger and fries and a pint of milk.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 28, 2018, 09:47:50 AM
^ The posture of the guy on the cover made me immediately think of the Robert Mapplethorpe self portrait where he's got a whip up his ass.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on August 28, 2018, 10:09:01 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 28, 2018, 09:47:50 AM
^ The posture of the guy on the cover made me immediately think of the Robert Mapplethorpe self portrait where he's got a whip up his ass.

Yeah, suppose it does. :) One of the cool things about Mapplethorpe is his unashamed, unapologetic efforts to turn people on via what he created. Good stuff.
The model in the Sieff shot is Patrick Dupond who danced with the Paris Opera Ballet in fine company.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 30, 2018, 12:50:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 08:02:19 AM
I haven't.
If you have a tolerance for BBC-style period dramas, it's pretty fun. But that's very much a taste thing and I wouldn't blame anyone for hating it. I liked it though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 30, 2018, 12:55:59 AM
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72579.Alias_Grace (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72579.Alias_Grace)
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1298545436l/72579.jpg)
I think Atwood wrote a thrilling novel. She's quite masterful at the prose and patchwork of historical fiction and she's created a very compelling portrait. This is a masterpiece and one of the very best books of fiction I've read from the last few decades.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 30, 2018, 01:20:49 AM
Quote from: milk on August 30, 2018, 12:50:00 AM
If you have a tolerance for BBC-style period dramas, it's pretty fun. But that's very much a taste thing and I wouldn't blame anyone for hating it. I liked it though.

I'm a bit confused. Is it "Life and Fate" or "War and Peace"?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 30, 2018, 02:03:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 30, 2018, 01:20:49 AM
I'm a bit confused. Is it "Life and Fate" or "War and Peace"?
Sorry, I got confused. Carry on :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 01, 2018, 02:09:33 AM
Renoir's Table


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61mhKKjiCaL._SX378_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


I bought this book recently and I have been browsing through its visual and verbal delights with great relish. It even includes recipes of the dishes displayed and spoken of. The following is courtesy of the Amazon page


QuoteThis book takes an unusual angle to view one of the masters of Impressionism. We are taken on a visual and culinary tour around late nineteenth-century Paris, and are introduced to the favourite haunts of the Impressionist group, captured in the good-natured festivities of Renoir's painting, "Dejeuner des Canotiers" for example, painted from life in the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou or we are invited to join the diners on the banks of the Seine, evoking the atmosphere of "The Luncheon of the Boating Party". No one knew better than Renoir how to capture the sensuality and relaxation of the open air, the joy of living on a brilliant summers afternoon. Alongside a selection of Renoirs much-loved paintings we have gastronomic portraits; from Bouillabaisse Provengale to Potage Crecy and Firtures de Goujon, Chicken Renoir or Baked Tomatoes Cezanne, made especially by Madame Renoir, for a visit from the artist to her home. Each recipe is taken from an authentic contemporary source, recreating the feel of turn of the century Paris. Also depicted is Renoir's family life, an essential element in his often hectic career, a life which arrived late into his middle age. The Renoir family spent summers in Essoyes, in the eastern French countryside where the bucolic climate and hospitable style of daily life there is portrayed in ninety colour photographs of the region. Towards the end of his life Renoir was enchanted by this rural environment; featuring an abundance of flowers and olive trees framed by azure skies, captured in his later landscapes. The cast of characters in this bohemian, though sometimes harsh life include a list of the most gifted people of the day, Zola, Manet, and Cezanne as well as minor painters, writers, art dealers, society hostesses, cooks, restaurateurs, maids - all are drawn with loving recall; their stories taken from contemporary letters, and especially Jean Renoirs memoirs which invoke the heady, pleasure-seeking lifestyle which epitomises this fascinating era.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 01, 2018, 05:31:12 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41QB9ozVhZL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

And only after I finished it do I learn its part of a loosely connected sequence of novels involving the same characters and I haven't read any of the three earlier. Nevertheless I enjoyed this and thought it worked well as a stand alone.

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81XOtwm8NeL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on September 03, 2018, 07:55:12 AM
Comic books. Specifically DC's Rebirth using this reading order (http://"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QVsAv9kPYAy3jqrWU6gJGDNTnx13I08Ihy14aVEC-zg/edit#gid=609998967").
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on September 04, 2018, 12:27:43 PM
About 60 pages in, and it's already one of the best science books in my experience.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51cE0khUb4L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

>:D,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on September 04, 2018, 01:06:39 PM
Quote from: milk on August 30, 2018, 12:55:59 AM
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72579.Alias_Grace (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72579.Alias_Grace)
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1298545436l/72579.jpg)
I think Atwood wrote a thrilling novel. She's quite masterful at the prose and patchwork of historical fiction and she's created a very compelling portrait. This is a masterpiece and one of the very best books of fiction I've read from the last few decades.

This and The Blind Assassin are her masterpieces, I think. I like them much better than her dystrophic books (Maddadam, Handmaid's tale).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 04, 2018, 02:11:41 PM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on September 04, 2018, 01:06:39 PM
This and The Blind Assassin are her masterpieces, I think. I like them much better than her dystrophic books (Maddadam, Handmaid's tale).

You must have meant dystopian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 04, 2018, 02:17:59 PM
 :(
Quote from: Florestan on September 04, 2018, 02:11:41 PM
You must have meant dystopian.
Plural dystopera.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on September 04, 2018, 02:22:02 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 04, 2018, 02:11:41 PM
You must have meant dystopian.


Yes. Autocorrect.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 04, 2018, 02:24:38 PM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on September 04, 2018, 02:22:02 PM

Yes. Autocorrect.

I am continually amazed by autocorrect. My hovercraft is full of eels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on September 04, 2018, 02:31:06 PM
I often can't spell well enough to get into the basin of attraction of the word I am thinking of.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 04, 2018, 03:36:41 PM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on September 04, 2018, 02:31:06 PM
I often can't spell well enough to get into the basin of attraction of the word I am thinking of.
I know the sort of thing you mean. I was trying to remember an adjective for duckish: of or pertaining to ducks. It's anatine. This was years ago when I wanted to remark on the American obsession with anatine collineation. Americans talk about anatine collineation all the time. It's very weird.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on September 05, 2018, 03:05:47 PM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on September 04, 2018, 01:06:39 PM
This and The Blind Assassin are her masterpieces, I think. I like them much better than her dystrophic books (Maddadam, Handmaid's tale).
I'm looking forward to the Blind Assasin. I liked the first Maddadam book but they went downhill after that. I've never worked up the interest in Handmaid's. Glad to hear Blind Assasin is good!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 07, 2018, 05:10:12 AM
She made the discovery but a man got the Nobel. A half-century later, she's won a $3 million prize. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/09/07/she-made-the-discovery-but-a-man-got-the-nobel-a-half-century-later-shes-won-a-3-million-prize/?utm_term=.54407a47cf16)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on September 09, 2018, 01:17:52 AM
A reread, but fitting for the train journey -

(https://s33.postimg.cc/vtqdjgfkv/IMG_20180909_101310_854.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 10, 2018, 05:03:40 AM
Ursual Le Guin essays/blog posts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 10, 2018, 06:20:01 AM
(https://newsoutofafrica.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/51p1rsl4dyl_sl160_.jpg?w=575)


QuoteAll Things Must Fight to Live stands out for me because it is not gratuitous. It would have been far more easy to write a book that focuses only on the depravity of the war (and it has been done too many times already-The Rebels Hour, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, etc.). Instead, Mealer offers balanced war reporting and a nuanced look at the lives of ordinary Congolese.

In addition to following the war in both urban and rural conflict zones, the author immersed himself in a two-thousand mile journey by barge, bicycle, and train through the heart of the country. While his meandering trip was fraught with complications such as a train derailment, he was able to see the impact that the war has had on Congolese living in the vast and impoverished interior.

Here's a brief except to pique your interest:

We went in first with soldiers, young and terrified Ugandan kids straight from the villages, whip-thin in their baggy fatigues and wound tight around their triggers even high above the clouds. The Ugandan army flew Antonov-26s into Congo, scrapped by the Soviet bloc and born again for African war, steel Trojan horses loaded with gun-mounted jeeps, barrels of diesel, and crates of banana moonshine. You found a place on the floor and instantly started sweating, nestled between rifles and rocket launchers so close to your eyeballs you could study the paint chips on the grenades. There was little cabin pressure to soothe the landings, and going in fast, you felt like your eyes would pop out of your skull. The soldiers buried their faces in their hats to hide the tears. And all you could do was wince and give a thumbs-up and be thankful that the engines were so loud that no one could hear you scream. (xiii)

https://newsoutofafrica.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/africa-reading-challenge-review-viii-all-things-must-fight-to-live/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sydney Nova Scotia on September 10, 2018, 04:50:49 PM
When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin
Biography by Mick Wall

Good God they ripped off every one and every thing..................
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Sydney Nova Scotia on September 10, 2018, 04:53:07 PM
Not reading yet, as still getting copy

The Big Note: A Guide to the Recordings of Frank Zappa
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 11, 2018, 07:35:43 AM
Now at the beginning of Volume IV in Les Misérables, starting the very chapter which reportedly has the longest sentence in French literature, 823 words long.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 11, 2018, 12:22:58 PM
Quote from: Alberich on September 11, 2018, 07:35:43 AM
Now at the beginning of Volume IV in Les Misérables, starting the very chapter which reportedly has the longest sentence in French literature, 823 words long.

I found Les Misérables to be a sometimes cumbersome but always interesting read and I did enjoy it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 11, 2018, 12:28:04 PM
Quote from: aligreto on September 11, 2018, 12:22:58 PM
I found Les Misérables to be a sometimes cumbersome but always interesting read and I did enjoy it.
#metoo But I am not seriously tempted to reread it. I am planning to reread a lot of thick books ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 11, 2018, 12:49:20 PM
Quote from: aligreto on September 11, 2018, 12:22:58 PM
I found Les Misérables to be a sometimes cumbersome but always interesting read and I did enjoy it.

Ditto. My favorite Hugo novels, though, are 1793 and Les travailleurs de la mer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 11, 2018, 12:58:14 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 11, 2018, 12:49:20 PM
Ditto. My favorite Hugo novels, though, are 1793 and Les travailleurs de la mer.
Anyone have interest in a REreading thread?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 11, 2018, 01:17:28 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 11, 2018, 12:58:14 PM
Anyone have interest in a REreading thread?

After I go through the 100+ books awaiting for a first reading, count me in.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 11, 2018, 01:30:13 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 11, 2018, 12:49:20 PM
My favorite Hugo novels, though, are 1793 ...

Is that the page count?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 12, 2018, 12:53:33 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 11, 2018, 01:30:13 PM
Is that the page count?

Fortunately not. Actually the original title is Quatrevingt-treize (Ninety-three).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 12, 2018, 05:20:49 AM
ELRIC
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 12, 2018, 05:34:51 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 12, 2018, 05:20:49 AM
ELRIC

Have you seen this?  Michael Moorcock said it was the story he would have written today.  Alan Moore is also involved with the comic adaptation

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gpYmgA5VL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 12, 2018, 05:36:29 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 12, 2018, 05:34:51 AM
Have you seen this?  Michael Moorcock said it was the story he would have written today.  Alan Moore is also involved with the comic adaptation

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gpYmgA5VL.jpg)

Yes, I've read it. Moore does the intro to the Elric collection I'm reading, first of a series (Del Rey).

[This will be my second reading of the Elric saga, the first since I was a teen. We'll see how far I get. Have not much patience for fiction these days.]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 12, 2018, 06:15:12 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 11, 2018, 12:58:14 PM
Anyone have interest in a REreading thread?

Well, I am re-reading The Lord of the Rings . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on September 12, 2018, 06:21:12 AM
A rereading thread appeals to me for a number of reasons. What a lot of people consider as a reread, is a first read for me. And so as long as when imparting their thoughts they're capable of leaving their ego at the door, I'm happy to benefit from their insights.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 12, 2018, 06:23:54 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 11, 2018, 12:58:14 PM
Anyone have interest in a REreading thread?

Did Gravity's Rainbow earlier this year and now rereading Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen (which is over 10x the page count of LOTR FWIW)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on September 12, 2018, 06:24:17 AM
(http://www.darkwoodprodavnica.rs/assets/images/cover/216/972/32415_1533736903.jpg)

Modesty Blaise - O'Donnell/Holdaway - omnibus consisting of first eight episodes. In Serbian, large format, hardcover, first of planned 12 books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on September 12, 2018, 06:35:25 AM
Quote from: Draško on September 12, 2018, 06:24:17 AM
(http://www.darkwoodprodavnica.rs/assets/images/cover/216/972/32415_1533736903.jpg)

Modesty Blaise - O'Donnell/Holdaway - omnibus consisting of first eight episodes. In Serbian, large format, hardcover, first of planned 12 books.

Drasko appears to enjoy a broad canvas. And apparently is a balletomane too? Oh my  ;D
Okay... Whoever she is or how she's depicted - Holdaway/Vitti - light her like a man. And if you don't get that shit, try building your knowledge from the ground up. LMAO.  8)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 12, 2018, 08:57:12 AM
Jeffrey Archer: A Prisoner of Birth


(https://i0.wp.com/feedsnitt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/A_Prisoner_of_Birth_Jeffrey_Archer.jpg?resize=316%2C445&ssl=1)


About half way through and enjoying it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 13, 2018, 10:27:05 AM
Tackling this monster:

[asin]2070227235[/asin]

I haven't read any Sartre for many, many years (and I must confess that many of the man's political positions I find repulsive), but I have long admired much of Jean Genet's work, and this book (which had a devastating effect on its subject) was considered by its author one of the few he would like to be remembered for. Let's see... ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 14, 2018, 06:49:19 AM
Quote from: ritter on September 13, 2018, 10:27:05 AM
Tackling this monster:

[asin]2070227235[/asin]

I haven't read any Sartre for many, many years (and I must confess that many of the man's political positions I find repulsive), but I have long admired much of Jean Genet's work, and this book (which had a devastating effect on its subject) was considered by its author one of the few he would like to be remembered for. Let's see... ;)

I saw a good documentary on Arte recently about Genet in Palestine. When I was a teenager I read Journal du Voleur and I thought it was fabulous, sexy. That's the life I wanted to lead I think! I tried St Genet but I don't think I got far with it.

I've started to read a very strange book, I'm half way through and I'm reserving judgement even though it's painful to read. I'm almost hesitant to say what it is, its reputation is so bad, but I wanted to see for myself and I like the author. Robbe-Grillet's Un roman sentimental.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dungeon Master on September 15, 2018, 12:02:12 AM
This is my wife's first book, released just last week. It is the true story of how we got one Afghan refugee kid out of Australia's asylum detention system, how he has adjusted to life in Australia while living with us over the last 4 years, and how he has enriched our lives. It throws a light on how inhumanely we (Australia) are treating asylum seekers, but the politics takes a back seat to the human story.

[asin] B07D3JZVMY[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 15, 2018, 12:52:59 AM
Quote from: Dungeon Master on September 15, 2018, 12:02:12 AM
This is my wife's first book, released just last week. It is the true story of how we got one Afghan refugee kid out of Australia's asylum detention system, how he has adjusted to life in Australia while living with us over the last 4 years, and how he has enriched our lives. It throws a light on how inhumanely we (Australia) is treating asylum seekers, but the politics takes a back seat to the human story.

[asin] B07D3JZVMY[/asin]

Wow!! Very impressive, on a number of levels. Kudos, to you and your wife.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 15, 2018, 02:34:44 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on September 15, 2018, 12:52:59 AM
Wow!! Very impressive, on a number of levels. Kudos, to you and your wife.

+ 1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dungeon Master on September 15, 2018, 03:27:32 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on September 15, 2018, 12:52:59 AM
Wow!! Very impressive, on a number of levels. Kudos, to you and your wife.

This is one of the reasons I couldn't devote much time to sort out this forum's bugs. Hopefully sorted now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 15, 2018, 03:29:45 AM
Quote from: Dungeon Master on September 15, 2018, 03:27:32 AM
This is one of the reasons I couldn't devote much time to sort out this forum's bugs.

Compared to your actual life this forum is a trifle. That you are able to combine them is all the more remarkable and impressive. You're a great person. Thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on September 15, 2018, 08:50:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 15, 2018, 03:29:45 AM
Compared to your actual life this forum is a trifle. That you are able to combine them is all the more remarkable and impressive. You're a great person. Thank you.

+1

Good on you, mate,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 15, 2018, 10:09:08 AM
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a6/2f/6f/a62f6fbfcbdcfad9fd6c235560211c02.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 17, 2018, 08:55:27 AM
Steinbeck bio. Very good so far. It is a weighty tome.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 17, 2018, 09:56:17 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 17, 2018, 08:55:27 AM
Steinbeck bio. Very good so far. It is a weighty tome.

Cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 19, 2018, 10:53:00 AM
Just started this

(https://www.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/59/1012/5F/352230.jpg)

(The Story of San Michele --- the Romanian traditional translation actually reads The Book of San Michele)

and it's a page turner. One of the most humane and enjoyable books I've ever read. It literally made me happy while reading. Fwiw, the latest occasions in which I felt something similar was when listening for the first time to Saint-Saëns's Septet and Moeran's Violin Concerto.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on September 19, 2018, 11:32:41 AM
I've got 5 translations of the Tao Te Ching I've immersed myself in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 19, 2018, 11:44:30 AM
(https://www.babelio.com/couv/CVT_Couleurs-de-lincendie_5803.jpg)

Good for beach and train.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on September 19, 2018, 11:57:40 AM
Quote from: Dungeon Master on September 15, 2018, 12:02:12 AM
This is my wife's first book, released just last week. It is the true story of how we got one Afghan refugee kid out of Australia's asylum detention system, how he has adjusted to life in Australia while living with us over the last 4 years, and how he has enriched our lives. It throws a light on how inhumanely we (Australia) are treating asylum seekers, but the politics takes a back seat to the human story.

[asin] B07D3JZVMY[/asin]

Adding my astonished look -- and praise -- to the chorus. Bravo, and good for you for your perspective on life's important issues.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 19, 2018, 04:15:35 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 19, 2018, 10:53:00 AM
Just started this

(https://www.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/59/1012/5F/352230.jpg)

(The Story of San Michele --- the Romanian traditional translation actually reads The Book of San Michele)

and it's a page turner. One of the most humane and enjoyable books I've ever read. It literally made me happy while reading. Fwiw, the latest occasions in which I felt something similar was when listening for the first time to Saint-Saëns's Septet and Moeran's Violin Concerto.

I confess to surprise. This is an older, non fiction, book. But as you made plain on another thread, you are the perfect Whig: the past is only a prelude to us.

As I understand, not having read it, he "restores" a Roman villa. Restores? As in in HIB, Historically Informed Building?  SURELY NOT! rebuilding it in the style of le Corbusier is perfectly correct, right?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 20, 2018, 12:03:03 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 19, 2018, 04:15:35 PM
I confess to surprise. This is an older, non fiction, book. But as you made plain on another thread, you are the perfect Whig: the past is only a prelude to us.

As I understand, not having read it, he "restores" a Roman villa. Restores? As in in HIB, Historically Informed Building?  SURELY NOT! rebuilding it in the style of le Corbusier is perfectly correct, right?

You sorely misunderstood both me and the book, I'm afraid. For starters, he does not restore any Roman villa. He builds one from scratch, the way he wanted it to be built, according to his own ideas and taste.

And boy, are you fond of false analogies to music! Now it's architecture's turn. 

Anyway, instead of taking me to task in every post for my heinous crimes (mass murderer and unrepentant HIP heretic) you'd better read the book. I have good reasons to suppose you'll love it. 

(You know, I'm perfectly aware you were just teasing me. I just reciprocate it.  :-* )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 20, 2018, 06:44:21 AM
I couldn't wait anymore so I started reading Ninety-Three.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 20, 2018, 07:27:48 AM
Quote from: Alberich on September 20, 2018, 06:44:21 AM
I couldn't wait anymore so I started reading Ninety-Three.

You're in for a treat. Please report when you have time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 20, 2018, 07:38:06 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 20, 2018, 07:27:48 AM
You're in for a treat. Please report when you have time.

Will do.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 20, 2018, 09:19:22 AM
Well, left a post a few months ago - now on another half dozen books (tend to mix physical & e-books):

Click Here To Kill Everybody - Bruce Schneier (2018) - security in today's world of the 'Internet of Things' - scary read so far!
Fear - Bob Woodward (2018) - bought on Apple's Books - Susan & I both reading - yet another scary book!
History of Jazz, The - Ted Gioia (2011 - 2nd ed) - had the first edition - missed this one until now - just starting in paperback.
Rome: A History in Seven Sackings - Matthew Kneale (2018) - major sacks of Rome from before Caesar to WW II.
Something Wonderful - Todd Purdum (2018) - just finished - excellent read (covers Hart, too) - MUST for musical show lovers!
Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood & Bricks - David Frye (2018) - just started on Kindle app - should be good.  Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51q1GiFyajL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416N358DJfL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NIGTMZTbL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519WBUIrIQL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51eFveAhmJL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WcPjwXNeL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on September 22, 2018, 02:47:03 AM
(https://i.postimg.cc/nh9GnB3R/IMG_20180922_114455_888.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 22, 2018, 03:03:11 AM
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSq2xDmP1mKKApqR_5nTsfrbtQwnvvyEyuAe4n8Rij3BG6A5JGMtA)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: hpowders on September 25, 2018, 03:40:26 PM
"Hitler's Willing Executioners; Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust" by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen

Reading it for the third time. Like all great works of art, multiple encounters always provide something new.

Recommended to those members interested in this still inconceivable historical subject. A brilliant job!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian Redux on September 26, 2018, 12:41:20 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b3/Frederica.jpg/220px-Frederica.jpg)

My wife has been reading Georgette Heyer's Regency novels since the 1960s, but I never thought to sit down with any of them myself until recently (see here: http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,28492.msg1172072.html#msg1172072 (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,28492.msg1172072.html#msg1172072)). I discover that they are like chocolates: finish one, and you want another. They're variable in quality (not surprising, since she wrote so many), but all have charm, delightful wit, and are written with exquisite delicacy. She also has a profound knowledge of the period, with which she creates a world into which I can enter almost instantly and suspend disbelief.

Just finished Frederica, and it is one of the most satisfying I've read so far, with characters in whose company it's a pleasure to spend time.

Another aspect of this that appeals especially to me is the interest Heyer took in the dust jacket designs for the hardback editions of the books - the best being by Arthur Barbosa, like this one here for Frederica.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 26, 2018, 05:26:54 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/The_Magic_Mountain_%28novel%29_coverart.jpg)

First read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 26, 2018, 05:57:40 AM
Quote from: Alberich on September 26, 2018, 05:26:54 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/The_Magic_Mountain_%28novel%29_coverart.jpg)

First read.

You're done with Ninety-Three, I presume.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 26, 2018, 06:47:34 AM
Quote from: Alberich on September 26, 2018, 05:26:54 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/The_Magic_Mountain_%28novel%29_coverart.jpg)

First read.

I've attempted to climb that mountain twice.

And failed. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 26, 2018, 07:02:27 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 26, 2018, 05:57:40 AM
You're done with Ninety-Three, I presume.  :D

Nope, not even close. I like to read several books at once.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 26, 2018, 10:40:34 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on September 26, 2018, 06:47:34 AM
I've attempted to climb that mountain twice.

And failed. :)

Non c'è due senza tre.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on September 26, 2018, 12:31:51 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81I1CE-9XfL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 26, 2018, 01:12:49 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 26, 2018, 10:40:34 AM
Non c'è due senza tre.  :)

:'(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Omicron9 on September 27, 2018, 02:22:55 AM
"The Big Love: Life and Death with Bill Evans," by Laurie Verchomin.  I'm a huge Bill Evans fan; Laurie was his life partner for the final couple of years of his life, and was there when he passed.  Well-written and fascinating; however, it is not an easy read.  The author holds nothing back, and in many passages it almost reads as a personal journal.  By "not an easy read," I mean the facts and details of the last couple of years of Bill's life are not easy to read.

Highly recommended.

-09
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Omicron9 on September 27, 2018, 02:41:05 AM
Quote from: Omicron9 on September 27, 2018, 02:22:55 AM
"The Big Love: Life and Death with Bill Evans," by Laurie Verchomin.  I'm a huge Bill Evans fan; Laurie was his life partner for the final couple of years of his life, and was there when he passed.  Well-written and fascinating; however, it is not an easy read.  The author holds nothing back, and in many passages it almost reads as a personal journal.  By "not an easy read," I mean the facts and details of the last couple of years of Bill's life are not easy to read.

http://www.billevanswebpages.com/biglove-varrallo.htm (http://www.billevanswebpages.com/biglove-varrallo.htm)

Highly recommended.

-09
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 28, 2018, 06:35:27 AM
Quote from: Omicron9 on September 27, 2018, 02:22:55 AM
"The Big Love: Life and Death with Bill Evans," by Laurie Verchomin.  I'm a huge Bill Evans fan; Laurie was his life partner for the final couple of years of his life, and was there when he passed.  Well-written and fascinating; however, it is not an easy read.  The author holds nothing back, and in many passages it almost reads as a personal journal.  By "not an easy read," I mean the facts and details of the last couple of years of Bill's life are not easy to read.

Highly recommended.

-09
Sounds very much like Sue Graham Mingus's memoir of her last few years with Charles. That was a beautiful, excellent, difficult read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 28, 2018, 11:57:07 PM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/LELIVRE/md/md11541176989.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 29, 2018, 05:17:40 PM
(https://thepolicytensor.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/crashed.png)

A definitive history of the 2008 Financial Crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/26/crashed-adam-tooze-masterful-account-financial-crisis
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 30, 2018, 08:28:03 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 29, 2018, 05:17:40 PM
(https://thepolicytensor.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/crashed.png)

A definitive history of the 2008 Financial Crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/26/crashed-adam-tooze-masterful-account-financial-crisis

I likedTooze's book on WWII. Let us know if this is good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 30, 2018, 08:48:26 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 30, 2018, 08:28:03 AM
I likedTooze's book on WWII. Let us know if this is good.

It is - I work in finance and followed the whole debacle in detail - like the good historian he is, does a great job of separating what was known and reasonably believed at the time vs what was not widely understood.  His key point is the SIVs - highly levered off balance sheet pools of non agency RMBS issued by banks and funded with short term securities purchased by money market funds- were the primary mechanism that rendered the US and European banking systems insolvent.  After all, if the banks had really just securitized bad mortgages and sold them all off to investors then they would not have failed - the investors would have just taken the losses. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 30, 2018, 03:51:48 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 30, 2018, 08:48:26 AM
It is - I work in finance and followed the whole debacle in detail - like the good historian he is, does a great job of separating what was known and reasonably believed at the time vs what was not widely understood.  His key point is the SIVs - highly levered off balance sheet pools of non agency RMBS issued by banks and funded with short term securities purchased by money market funds- were the primary mechanism that rendered the US and European banking systems insolvent.  After all, if the banks had really just securitized bad mortgages and sold them all off to investors then they would not have failed - the investors would have just taken the losses.
Thanks. Placed a hold at the library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 30, 2018, 05:44:47 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 19, 2018, 10:53:00 AM
Just started this

(https://www.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/59/1012/5F/352230.jpg)

(The Story of San Michele --- the Romanian traditional translation actually reads The Book of San Michele)

and it's a page turner. One of the most humane and enjoyable books I've ever read. It literally made me happy while reading. Fwiw, the latest occasions in which I felt something similar was when listening for the first time to Saint-Saëns's Septet and Moeran's Violin Concerto.

Actually Andrei I suspect my wife might like this a lot, as a Christmas present. Have you finished it? Good all the way through?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 30, 2018, 05:58:11 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51m7DKpgMlL.jpg)
The piano in question being the one which FC used while in Majorca, and which decades later found and restored by Wanda Landowska, kept in her Paris apartment until she had to flee the Nazis. Which is why the last part of the book is heavily focused on the topic of Nazi loot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 01, 2018, 01:35:03 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 30, 2018, 05:44:47 PM
Actually Andrei I suspect my wife might like this a lot, as a Christmas present. Have you finished it? Good all the way through?

I'm halfway through. Consistently good. (And he hasn't even started building his "Roman" villa yet. :D ).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 01, 2018, 05:27:45 AM
John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography
The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1: 1920-1963
The Brickeaters by the Residents
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 01, 2018, 08:40:05 AM
From the Loyal Opposition:

Because Christians start with two false beliefs, they can't possibly begin to empathize with the victims of abuse and disasters.

Premise 1: The Christian god loves his followers and wants to help them wherever he can, except when he makes cheap bets with Satan, of course.

Premise 2: Sinful behavior stymies this omnimax god's efforts to help.

Conclusion: Anybody who suffers must have come by that suffering through some sin they committed. They need to quit doing that, so they can receive the help of their divine safety net.

It's a purely insidious line of thinking. And yet we see examples of it everywhere in the religion. (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rolltodisbelieve/2018/09/29/the-just-world-belief-rejected/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 01, 2018, 10:04:44 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 01, 2018, 08:40:05 AM
From the Loyal Opposition:

Because Christians start with two false beliefs, they can't possibly begin to empathize with the victims of abuse and disasters.

Premise 1: The Christian god loves his followers and wants to help them wherever he can, except when he makes cheap bets with Satan, of course.

Premise 2: Sinful behavior stymies this omnimax god's efforts to help.

Conclusion: Anybody who suffers must have come by that suffering through some sin they committed. They need to quit doing that, so they can receive the help of their divine safety net.

It's a purely insidious line of thinking. And yet we see examples of it everywhere in the religion. (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rolltodisbelieve/2018/09/29/the-just-world-belief-rejected/)

Jeez Louise. I am about as atheistic an atheist as you can be and even I find that kind of argument stupid. Look around. Do you see the ThereIsNoSalvation Army collecting for the poor?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 01, 2018, 10:10:56 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 01, 2018, 10:04:44 AM
Jeez Louise. I am about as atheistic an atheist as you can be and even I find that kind of argument stupid. Look around. Do you see the ThereIsNoSalvation Army collecting for the poor?

Separately . . . there is a scene in Jacob's Ladder where the title character has fallen to the street out of a moving car, his back injured, and a Salvation Army Santa lifts his wallet.


Aye, there has to be a better way to make his points;  "except when he makes cheap bets with Satan, of course" would probably have struck almost any other writer on the planet as cheaper than the cheap bets.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 01, 2018, 11:07:49 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 01, 2018, 10:10:56 AM
Separately . . . there is a scene in Jacob's Ladder where the title character has fallen to the street out of a moving car, his back injured, and a Salvation Army Santa lifts his wallet.


Aye, there has to be a better way to make his points;  "except when he makes cheap bets with Satan, of course" would probably have struck almost any other writer on the planet as cheaper than the cheap bets.

The wallet joke works because it's incongruous. Like a catholic priest who prefers grown women ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 01, 2018, 04:38:40 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 01, 2018, 11:07:49 AM
The wallet joke works because it's incongruous. Like a catholic priest who prefers grown women ...

Good stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 02, 2018, 08:43:11 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 01, 2018, 10:04:44 AM
Jeez Louise. I am about as atheistic an atheist as you can be and even I find that kind of argument stupid. Look around. Do you see the ThereIsNoSalvation Army collecting for the poor?

Quote from: Ken B on October 01, 2018, 11:07:49 AM
The wallet joke works because it's incongruous. Like a catholic priest who prefers grown women ...

It's What I was currently reading, not An argument I absolutely stand by.  So, yes:  point taken.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on October 03, 2018, 03:54:49 PM
Having read all the novels, I'm currently reading all of Ursula Le Guin's Hainish short stories. They're scattered throughout various collections. Le Guin is the only sci-fi writer I really love. For one thing, she has a great command of language: she never wastes a word and she's quite elegant. But Le Guin always presents a deep idea for consideration. And she also always pushes our understanding of ourselves as human beings in imaginative ways. She's not dark; she's not verbose; she's not technical or "scientific." She's "human" to the core: anthropological and sociological. There's no one like her. I recommend all things Hainish (except her very very first short novel "Rocannon's world").

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT6mB-UMDlG8W26jMH3I2-Ihvyb0XaCbeUhzLxkM3ayieNproA6Aw)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 03, 2018, 06:28:42 PM
(https://i.postimg.cc/k46Zpfr2/IMG_20181004_032038_778.jpg)

Victorian filth first published in 1880 or thereabouts.

This differs from much of the other material I've read of that genre/era, in that it ranges from being generally less than charming, to (as in the account offered by dear wheelchair bound Lady Beatrice as she imparts her love of the dick) being delivered in an air where camphor fights with lavender, but both failing in a combined bid to hide slowly decaying health, withering and rot that's brought on by natural human frailty, all hurried along by an excess of the good things in life. But as they say, we've all got to go some time.  8)

I suspect reading this can only be augmented with random glances at the often well stuffed period upholstery depicted by Henry Hayler of Pimlico (good luck there) and/or a soundtrack of the Rondo alla Zingarese, courtesy Brahms Op. 25
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 09, 2018, 11:50:44 AM
Alexa, Should We Trust You? (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/alexa-how-will-you-change-us/570844/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 09, 2018, 12:57:32 PM
Rereading The Talented Mr Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 10, 2018, 10:06:58 AM
How the Yankees Became Baseball's Most Improbable Underdogs (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/10/red-sox-triumph-over-underdog-yankees/572605/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 11, 2018, 05:01:33 AM
Verne Troyer, Mini-Me of 'Austin Powers,' fought a drinking addiction. His death was ruled a suicide by alcohol intoxication. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/10/11/verne-troyer-mini-me-of-austin-powers-fought-a-drinking-addiction-his-death-was-ruled-a-suicide-by-alcohol-intoxication/?utm_term=.0f8dbbc0b24c)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 11, 2018, 06:31:25 AM
Dan Brown: Origin


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/913hhYLKs3L.jpg)


I had promised someone that I would read this book after a discussion that I had with them as to why I had decided to stop reading Dan Brown. I am about twenty per cent of the way into this book and I am struggling with it and it has already confirmed why I originally made my decision. My thesis is that he has a template, changes the concept involved, changes the name of the protagonists and the City involved and then makes a ton of money. Good luck to him.
[Disclaimer: I did not buy this book - it was given to me to read.]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 11, 2018, 08:25:51 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/6119uQRFfnL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 11, 2018, 10:18:14 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 11, 2018, 06:31:25 AMI had promised someone that I would read this book after a discussion that I had with them as to why I had decided to stop reading Dan Brown. I am about twenty per cent of the way into this book and I am struggling with it and it has already confirmed why I originally made my decision. My thesis is that he has a template, changes the concept involved, changes the name of the protagonists and the City involved and then makes a ton of money. Good luck to him.
[Disclaimer: I did not buy this book - it was given to me to read.]

The Da Vinci code was immensely entertaining. I was not tempted to read further, for the reasons you cite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 11, 2018, 10:27:18 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 11, 2018, 10:18:14 AM
The Da Vinci code was immensely entertaining. I was not tempted to read further, for the reasons you cite.

You have, essentially, covered it all there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 11, 2018, 12:43:23 PM
(https://www.livredepoche.com/sites/default/files/styles/manual_crop_269_435/public/images/livres/couv/9782253131182-T.jpg?itok=zD0D4q_2)

I'm still in the Introduction (80 pages long). I read practically all of Maupassant's novels and contes (tales) when I was a teen. Now I'm going back to the Contes normands, or Tales from Normandy. That's another 800 pages, and is but a fraction of his output. The rest will wait some more, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 11, 2018, 12:48:24 PM
Quote from: André on October 11, 2018, 12:43:23 PM
(https://www.livredepoche.com/sites/default/files/styles/manual_crop_269_435/public/images/livres/couv/9782253131182-T.jpg?itok=zD0D4q_2)

I'm still in the Introduction (80 pages long). I read practically all of Maupassant's novels and contes (tales) when I was a teen. Now I'm going back to the Contes normands, or Tales from Normandy. That's another 800 pages, and is but a fraction of his output. The rest will wait some more, I think.
Probably my favorite writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 11, 2018, 12:50:07 PM
Quote from: André on October 11, 2018, 12:43:23 PM
(https://www.livredepoche.com/sites/default/files/styles/manual_crop_269_435/public/images/livres/couv/9782253131182-T.jpg?itok=zD0D4q_2)

I'm still in the Introduction (80 pages long). I read practically all of Maupassant's novels and contes (tales) when I was a teen. Now I'm going back to the Contes normands, or Tales from Normandy. That's another 800 pages, and is but a fraction of his output. The rest will wait some more, I think.

Quote from: Ken B on October 11, 2018, 12:48:24 PM
Probably my favorite writer.

An author definitely worth reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 12, 2018, 06:43:14 AM
STEM is bad! Bad STEM! Bad!

https://pjmedia.com/trending/canadian-profs-claim-stem-promotes-eurocentrism-and-white-supremacy/ (https://pjmedia.com/trending/canadian-profs-claim-stem-promotes-eurocentrism-and-white-supremacy/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on October 12, 2018, 07:28:18 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 12, 2018, 06:43:14 AM
STEM is bad! Bad STEM! Bad!

https://pjmedia.com/trending/canadian-profs-claim-stem-promotes-eurocentrism-and-white-supremacy/ (https://pjmedia.com/trending/canadian-profs-claim-stem-promotes-eurocentrism-and-white-supremacy/)

Funny, I always thought it promoted Asiacentrism and Indo-Sino-supremacy
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 12, 2018, 02:40:15 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81-xgZ4HmnL.jpg)

Jack Reacher #6.

I'm enjoying this series more than I thought I would, especially as the quality of the writing has been improving as they progress after the quite clunky #1 and the okayish #2. I hope though that at some point he learns to create an endind that is something other than a mano-a-mano showdown with a damsel in distress, and villains that are other than sociopaths, A large amount of detail of secret service bodyguard duty in this one, which seemed very well researched.

Started:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1178657417l/817474.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 12, 2018, 02:43:57 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 12, 2018, 02:40:15 PM
Started:

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1178657417l/817474.jpg)

I'm not usually one for indulging in (what appears to be) mere trivia, but this looks cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 12, 2018, 02:49:22 PM
Quote from: NikF on October 12, 2018, 02:43:57 PM
I'm not usually one for indulging in (what appears to be) mere trivia, but this looks cool.

Yeah, even only a small way in I can immediately tell its a more carefully and intelligently edited collection than others with a similar idea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 12, 2018, 03:00:00 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 12, 2018, 02:49:22 PM
Yeah, even only a small way in I can immediately tell its a more carefully and intelligently edited collection than others with a similar idea.

If you find it continues in that manner, do update? It does sound to have the potential to be cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 13, 2018, 05:26:05 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 11, 2018, 12:48:24 PM
Probably my favorite writer.

I am a huge fan of French literature but haven't read Maupassant yet. My favorite French writers are Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas pére.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 13, 2018, 08:17:45 AM
Quote from: Alberich on October 13, 2018, 05:26:05 AM
I am a huge fan of French literature but haven't read Maupassant yet. My favorite French writers are Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas pére.
His best stuff are the stories rather than the novels.
I once flipped through several different anthologies of "best stories". There was almost no overlap, because there are so many to choose from.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 13, 2018, 08:58:42 AM
Quote from: Alberich on October 13, 2018, 05:26:05 AM
I am a huge fan of French literature but haven't read Maupassant yet. My favorite French writers are Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas pére.

Quote from: Ken B on October 13, 2018, 08:17:45 AM
His best stuff are the stories rather than the novels.
I once flipped through several different anthologies of "best stories". There was almost no overlap, because there are so many to choose from.


I would agree with Ken B; focus on the short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 14, 2018, 03:00:53 AM
Sherlock Holmes once again: The Adventure Of The Golden Pince Nez.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 15, 2018, 08:25:37 AM
Françoise Gilot's book on her years with Picasso:

[asin]2264042605[/asin]
Very entertaining.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 15, 2018, 08:39:01 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 13, 2018, 08:58:42 AM


I would agree with Ken B; focus on the short stories.

For what it's worth, I found "The Complete Short Stories" of Guy de Maupassant on Amazon.com in a Kindle edition by Centaur Classics for the princely sum of $0.99.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F873EH0/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can't comment on the quality of the edition yet, have not really looked at it, but it does have a live table of contents. I don't know of it's availability on other amazon sites. (Amazon only lets you buy kindle content on the site that matches the locale of your account.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 15, 2018, 01:15:07 PM
Looks like a fantastic deal, Baron. You can pick and choose from the various stories (norman, parisian, others) by Maupassant. Hope you enjoy them !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 15, 2018, 06:09:27 PM
You don't need Amazon when you can get it from Project Gutenberg
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Maupassant
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 15, 2018, 06:47:33 PM
As always folks, translations matter. Pick a modern translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 15, 2018, 06:52:50 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 15, 2018, 06:47:33 PM
As always folks, translations matter. Pick a modern translation.

In my experience these cheapie Kindle collections are the same translations as thise listed on PG . So why pay 99 cents for what you can get for free?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 15, 2018, 08:45:25 PM
Quote from: JBS on October 15, 2018, 06:52:50 PM
In my experience these cheapie Kindle collections are the same translations as thise listed on PG . So why pay 99 cents for what you can get for free?

For the princely sum of $0.99 the publisher makes the ebook available in my Kindle library for transparent download on on my Kindle and in the Kindle Apps in all of my iOS, MacOS and Windows devices. It is a price I am willing to pay to be freed of the chore of managing a file downloaded from PG.

Quote from: André on October 15, 2018, 01:15:07 PM
Looks like a fantastic deal, Baron. You can pick and choose from the various stories (norman, parisian, others) by Maupassant. Hope you enjoy them !

One drawback of this edition is that the stories are not grouped in the categories you mention. Wikipedia is no help. Also, no mention or credit to translators. Oh well.

I know I read Bel Ami at some point, don't remember it. What's the first story I should read?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 16, 2018, 06:44:44 AM
I don't know the english titles, but it must be easy to get it through a wiki article on Maupassant. Try these:

Boule de suif
La maison de Mme Tellier (the maison is of course a brothel)
La petite Roque
Miss Harriet
Le rosier de Mme Husson (Britten used it for his comic opera Albert Herring)
Toine
Le Horla (a fantastic/horror story)
Le Père Amable

Etc, etc.

Among the novels, try Une vie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 16, 2018, 07:19:11 AM
Quote from: André on October 16, 2018, 06:44:44 AM
I don't know the english titles, but it must be easy to get it through a wiki article on Maupassant. Try these:

Boule de suif
La maison de Mme Tellier (the maison is of course a brothel)
La petite Roque
Miss Harriet
Le rosier de Mme Husson (Britten used it for his comic opera Albert Herring)
Toine
Le Horla (a fantastic/horror story)
Le Père Amable

Etc, etc.

Among the novels, try Une vie.

Thanks for the suggestions!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on October 19, 2018, 05:59:15 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f9/Seveneves_Book_Cover.jpg/220px-Seveneves_Book_Cover.jpg)

Apparently Ron Howard is currently at work on a movie adaptation that will be released next year. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 19, 2018, 09:37:09 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 15, 2018, 08:45:25 PM
For the princely sum of $0.99 the publisher makes the ebook available in my Kindle library for transparent download on on my Kindle and in the Kindle Apps in all of my iOS, MacOS and Windows devices. It is a price I am willing to pay to be freed of the chore of managing a file downloaded from PG.

One drawback of this edition is that the stories are not grouped in the categories you mention. Wikipedia is no help. Also, no mention or credit to translators. Oh well.

I know I read Bel Ami at some point, don't remember it. What's the first story I should read?
Boule de suif  was his first published story, and a good one. Aka Ball of Fat. I like the peasant stories the best but The Necklace is 5he most frequently anthologized and good.

But any best of anthology.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 22, 2018, 10:06:09 AM
'Halloween' crushed the box office — and here's how Jamie Lee Curtis made history (https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/10/22/halloween-crushed-box-office-heres-how-jamie-lee-curtis-made-history/?utm_term=.bec2f8421088)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 22, 2018, 10:39:09 AM
QuoteThe Volkswagen brand name, logo or shield does not feature anywhere in the film [The Love Bug (1968)], as the automaker did not permit Disney to use the name. The only logos can be briefly seen in at least two places, however. The first instance is on the brake pedals during the first scene where Herbie takes control with Jim inside (on the freeway when Herbie runs into Thorndyke's Rolls Royce), and it is shown in all the future scenes when Jim is braking. The second instance is on the ignition key, when Jim tries to shut down the braking Herbie. The later sequels produced, however, do promote the Volkswagen name (as sales of the Beetle were down when the sequels were produced).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 26, 2018, 01:51:50 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71lc7CF%2B7zL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71tOXVuE1yL.jpg)

and wanting something a little lighter next have moved on to Jack Reacher #7:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fNN8M0TXL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 26, 2018, 02:04:34 PM
(https://i.postimg.cc/05pkgjx5/IMG-20181026-230112-225.jpg)

A reread, although this time I've got a chess board out.  ;D And anyone familiar with this work knows what I mean by that. Hahaha
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 26, 2018, 02:09:35 PM
Good evening, NikF! I should read Perec sometime. Any comments?

THREAD DUTY:

Approaching Pierre Drieu la Rochelle's work for the first time, with Le feu follet (Will O' the Wisp, also translated as The Fire Within):

[asin]2070118851[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 26, 2018, 02:17:09 PM
Quote from: NikF on October 26, 2018, 02:04:34 PM
(https://i.postimg.cc/05pkgjx5/IMG-20181026-230112-225.jpg)

A reread, although this time I've got a chess board out.  ;D And anyone familiar with this work knows what I mean by that. Hahaha

^Many times I've considered collecting/reading all the volumes in that numbered Harvill series.

I read that book of Perec's using only words without the letter E in them - "A Void" in English - decades ago, but can no longer remember anything else about it. Does Life: A Users Manual have references to chess in it?

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/JBSMACKELLAR/md/md22382371500.jpg)

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--Ca6VmyIrZ8/WR5pUG8eKRI/AAAAAAAAR9A/Mm79bFY_LLAxAJ6Eb_fSUL6utM8QT1BAQCK4B/s1600/old%2Bharvills.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 26, 2018, 02:35:01 PM
Quote from: ritter on October 26, 2018, 02:09:35 PM
Good evening, NikF! I should read Perec sometime. Any comments?



Hello ritter.

Here's the thing; your frame of reference is far, far broader than my own. Still, I believe that in reply to your question what I can impart has value because it's honest and true. Maybe the whole 'Oulipo' school is familiar to you. To me, it doesnt mean shit. And I fully accept that's a fault on my part. But on my second reading of this work it makes more sense. And I think it's great. I really liked it.
Having said that, I can completely understand the viewpoint of those who might consider if contrived and perhaps even tailored to meet some kind of ideal or be noted for making a statement, meeting the criteria in order to further an ideal.
If you do get around to reading this work, do post your thoughts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 26, 2018, 03:09:24 PM
Quote from: NikF on October 26, 2018, 02:35:01 PM
Hello ritter.

Here's the thing; your frame of reference is far, far broader than my own. Still, I believe that in reply to your question what I can impart has value because it's honest and true. Maybe the whole 'Oulipo' school is familiar to you. To me, it doesnt mean shit. And I fully accept that's a fault on my part. But on my second reading of this work it makes more sense. And I think it's great. I really liked it.
Having said that, I can completely understand the viewpoint of those who might consider if contrived and perhaps even tailored to meet some kind of ideal or be noted for making a statement, meeting the criteria in order to further an ideal.
If you do get around to reading this work, do post your thoughts.
Thanks for that. I must really read Perec's book sometime soon....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 26, 2018, 06:25:22 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ link=topic=68.msg1180355#msg1180355 date=Does Life: A Users Manual have references to chess in it?


Hey bro.  :)
Yeah, in the broadest terms it's possible to clearly see Perec has employed a reference to chess via the 'Knight's tour' - that's an integral part of the book I refer to, although I admit not picking up on that aspect until after the fact.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on October 26, 2018, 06:58:12 PM
Quote from: ritter on October 26, 2018, 03:09:24 PM
Thanks for that. I must really read Perec's book sometime soon....

You're welcome.
And if/when you do read it, post your thoughts. That would be cool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 27, 2018, 06:31:22 AM
Started reading one of the most esteemed German Romantics in literature, Ludwig Tieck.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416173VvacL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on October 28, 2018, 05:50:58 AM
I'm enjoying this at the moment, quite informative but as with the TV series, Prof Cox is excellent at stimulating a sense of awe and wonder in the reader 8).

[asin]0007386907[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 29, 2018, 06:36:33 PM
^I admire the sense of optimism he conveys.

TD:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51lGYttHnOL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 29, 2018, 06:47:12 PM
The Brethren
Robert Merle
Translation from the French.

This is a historical novel set in the late 16th century in France, about a family of Huguenots. Florestan would like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 31, 2018, 09:12:22 AM
Gluten-free food isn't healthier for you, new study indicates

Eating gluten-free food isn't necessarily beneficial for your health, a new study has claimed.

The study, published in the February issue of the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, compared the nutrient content and cost of regular and gluten-free food products in the UK.

Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire assessed the nutritional information and costs of the food products by collecting the data from manufacturer and supermarket websites.

While many people nowadays have begun following gluten-free diets or eating a reduced amount of food containing gluten, this may not be a wise course of action.

For those who have medical conditions such as coeliac disease, eating gluten-free foods is essential for their wellbeing.

However, for others, this isn't the case.

According to the researchers, there's no reason why anyone who doesn't have a medical condition affected by the consumption of gluten should be avoiding it altogether. (https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/gluten-free-food-healthy-not-better-diet-study-eating-a8167326.html)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on October 31, 2018, 01:08:43 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 31, 2018, 09:12:22 AM
Gluten-free food isn't healthier for you, new study indicates


According to the researchers, there's no reason why anyone who doesn't have a medical condition affected by the consumption of gluten should be avoiding it altogether. [/i] (https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/gluten-free-food-healthy-not-better-diet-study-eating-a8167326.html)

But gluten is a Chemical!  The 'researchers' must be stooges of big wheat
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 03, 2018, 02:54:20 AM
Just finished Robert L Chapman's Ireland


(https://www4.alibris-static.com/robert-l-chapmans-ireland-photographs-from-the-chapman-collection-1907-1957/isbn/9781905172771_l.jpg)


Chapman was interested in two things, namely cycling and photography. He amassed a large and very interesting collection over his lifetime and this book offers some very interesting insights into that collection as well as commentary on things from national events to local beauty spots [interesting to see them then and now].
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 03, 2018, 06:14:10 AM
Interspersing the Drieu La Rochelle novel I mentioned some days ago with these two art-related books:


[asin]2070249476[/asin]
Jean Paulhan (one of the most influential literary critics in France in the 20th century) somehow manages, in the 150 pages of this loving and poetic text, to convey the essence of.Georges Braque's elusive and fascinating art. A beautiful little book.



[asin]207029630X[/asin]
This is my first contact with Francis Ponge, and I must say his prose is not really to my liking; his casual style, in which some obscure terms and—sometimes contrived—wordplays appear relatively often, and his tendency to address the reader directly with the informal "tu",are slightly tiresome to me. And yet, a short homage to the lithographic stone, "Matière et Mémoire", is a delight. I still have to get to the texts dedicated to Braque (the reason I got this book).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on November 06, 2018, 12:27:17 PM
Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, by Michael Benson.

Only a few pages in, but it's already my favorite book concerning my favorite film.

Applauding,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 07, 2018, 08:57:03 AM
More art related stuff: Pierre Assouline's biography of legendary art dealer D.-H. Kahnweiler.

(https://pmcdn.priceminister.com/photo/1112190414.jpg)

Great fun to read (so far—some 50 pages into the book).  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 07, 2018, 07:55:17 PM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/BESTBATES/md/md22767426814.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on November 10, 2018, 05:36:50 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41qhyXgRnXL.jpg)

and

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/8100ZgUaIBL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on November 10, 2018, 05:44:36 AM
Damn, that Billy Budd cover image was big!  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 15, 2018, 06:18:01 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QTDQZ7YZL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 15, 2018, 06:30:45 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 15, 2018, 06:18:01 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QTDQZ7YZL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

How is that? I have two, and am finishing the third, of his Time Traveller's Guide to...series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 15, 2018, 07:00:15 PM
Quote from: JBS on November 15, 2018, 06:30:45 PM
How is that? I have two, and am finishing the third, of his Time Traveller's Guide to...series.

First time I've read him, though I want to look at his Time Traveler books at some point. Which did you like best?

This one is deliberately provocative (see title), trying to rehabilitate Edward III's reputation which has diminished with each passing century, by going to the opposite extreme. Its at best only partially successful in convincing me of that thesis, and then only for specific facets, but if you can put that aside its a well written work of popular history on a neglected figure, and provides some clarity to complex events his long reign touched upon, not least of which is the beginning of the Hundred Years War, and is a vivid narrative.

Recommended, but with those warnings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 15, 2018, 07:15:51 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 15, 2018, 07:00:15 PM
First time I've read him, though I want to look at his Time Traveler books at some point. Which did you like best?

This one is deliberately provocative (see title), trying to rehabilitate Edward III's reputation which has diminished with each passing century, by going to the opposite extreme. Its at best only partially successful in convincing me of that thesis, and then only for specific facets, but if you can put that aside its a well written work of popular history on a neglected figure, and provides some clarity to complex events his long reign touched upon, not least of which is the beginning of the Hundred Years War, and is a vivid narrative.

Recommended, but with those warnings.

I like the most recent, on the Restoration era, but all three are close enough in style and quality, that the best bet is to pick the era you are most interested in.  It's all details about daily life, so actual events are treated as tangential to the description...

I have read one bio of Edward III. Don't remember who wrote it, but the author was probably from Scotland. He was very unsympathetic to Edward, and vividly so in regards to Scotland.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 15, 2018, 08:29:24 PM
Quote from: JBS on November 15, 2018, 07:15:51 PM
I like the most recent, on the Restoration era, but all three are close enough in style and quality, that the best bet is to pick the era you are most interested in.  It's all details about daily life, so actual events are treated as tangential to the description...

I have read one bio of Edward III. Don't remember who wrote it, but the author was probably from Scotland. He was very unsympathetic to Edward, and vividly so in regards to Scotland.
As I recall you are a Costain fan. He wrote one, about the three Edwards. I read that in high school. Maybe that?

Mortimer is the guy with the outre theory about Edward II faking his own death. That discourages me from reading what otherwise look like interesting books ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 15, 2018, 08:47:19 PM
Quote from: Ken B on November 15, 2018, 08:29:24 PM

Mortimer is the guy with the outre theory about Edward II faking his own death. That discourages me from reading what otherwise look like interesting books ...

No, he thinks that Edward II escaped murder but was kept alive and prisoner by Mortimer for an unknown amount of time and was so even after Mortimer's death. He explains some of Edward III's more curious and secretive actions in the early years of his reign as trying to find out if his father really was still alive and where he was being held. He leans heavily on a controversial document called the Fieschi Letter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 16, 2018, 07:04:57 AM
I am not reading this but I thought I'd drop the link here for Florestan

https://strategypage.com/bookreviews/1727 (https://strategypage.com/bookreviews/1727)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 16, 2018, 08:01:23 AM
If you want more detail on Edward III in the Hundred Year's War (with our without the apostrophe) there is this

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518dShR7Y-L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

672 pages to get only as far as the Battle of Crecy
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 16, 2018, 09:59:14 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 15, 2018, 08:29:24 PM
As I recall you are a Costain fan. He wrote one, about the three Edwards. I read that in high school. Maybe that?

Mortimer is the guy with the outre theory about Edward II faking his own death. That discourages me from reading what otherwise look like interesting books ...

No.  This book was much more recent.  BTW, it also discussed the theory about Edward II's fake death, about which it was skeptical but not dismissive.

Paging through Amazon, I don't find many other possibilities.  Perhaps it was the Mortimer book, but my memory of it doesn't accord very well with Simon's description.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 16, 2018, 01:23:46 PM
Quote from: JBS on November 16, 2018, 09:59:14 AM
No.  This book was much more recent.  BTW, it also discussed the theory about Edward II's fake death, about which it was skeptical but not dismissive.

Paging through Amazon, I don't find many other possibilities.  Perhaps it was the Mortimer book, but my memory of it doesn't accord very well with Simon's description.

Possibly the volume in the Penguin Monarchs series? And apparently Alison Weir covers Edward II's "death" and subscribes to the view that he survived in her book on Isabella.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514W1NHSoJL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZgTxPOkoL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 16, 2018, 01:28:45 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on November 16, 2018, 08:01:23 AM
If you want more detail on Edward III in the Hundred Year's War (with our without the apostrophe) there is this

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518dShR7Y-L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

672 pages to get only as far as the Battle of Crecy

That series has been on my to-read wishlist for years. No idea when I'll find the time.

Ian Mortimer praises it in the intro to his E3 book, fwiw.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 16, 2018, 04:27:07 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 16, 2018, 01:23:46 PM
Possibly the volume in the Penguin Monarchs series? And apparently Alison Weir covers Edward II's "death" and subscribes to the view that he survived in her book on Isabella.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514W1NHSoJL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZgTxPOkoL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I know it's not Weir, because I have read a few of her books and they were all War of the Roses or later.
The other does not look familiar.
The book I read was especially hostile to Edward on the subject of Scotland, depicting him as greedy for power and nearly villainous in his treatment of the Scots. Would that describe Mortimer?

Speaking of Mortimer, I got from the library today his biography of Roger Mortimer (the author blurb takes care to say there is no family relationship).
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ar2oXsF8L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 16, 2018, 04:43:21 PM
Dear me.
I just realized I was getting my Edwards all mixed up
The book I actually read was
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CxDYrTgIL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 16, 2018, 06:04:00 PM
Quote from: JBS on November 16, 2018, 04:43:21 PM
Dear me.
I just realized I was getting my Edwards all mixed up
The book I actually read was
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CxDYrTgIL.jpg)
Florida recount!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 16, 2018, 09:29:26 PM
Ah well, criticisms of villainous treatment of the Scots would certainly apply.

Ian Mortimer doesn't really criticize E3 for anything, going out of his way - too far out of his way on many occasions - to plead that his actions were within a Chivalric ideal and worldview, and claims - rather sophomorically - that applying our 21st century notions of governance and war is anachronistic.

But the book has other merits and those regular moments of apology don't obscure them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 17, 2018, 08:24:28 AM
I really get tired of all the portrayals of the Scots as The World's Most Noble People.  There was never going to be peace in the Island with separate kingdoms with opposing interests. The English were no more or less moral than any other group at the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 21, 2018, 08:54:03 AM
Better watch out with these anti-Edward tracts. The British cops might not be amused. https://reason.com/archives/2018/11/20/uk-anti-terrorism-efforts-are-terrifying (https://reason.com/archives/2018/11/20/uk-anti-terrorism-efforts-are-terrifying)

In 2017 British police laid over 3600 charges ... for Facebook posts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on November 21, 2018, 08:56:06 PM
Yes there is the infamous case of a schoolchild who tried to tell the teacher he lived in a terraced house but ignorantly said terrorist house so the police went round :-[. I wasn't aware of this one though and it sounds very dangerous :(.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 23, 2018, 12:48:33 PM
This holiday so far:

- And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie)
- Garlic and Sapphires (Ruth Reichl's memoir of her disguise-happy life as a NY Times food critic... fascinating look behind the curtain with lots of stories of her work adventures, but I disapprove of her practice of using the disguises as excuses to act like an asshole to wait staff, and she seems to regret it too)
- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America (Nancy Isenberg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 23, 2018, 01:12:58 PM
Various things on the go

Pale Horse, by Agatha Christie, one of the few I have never read.
The Rise of Germany, by Holland. The war in the west to 1941.
Puzzle For Puppets, Patrick Quentin.
Bleak House. Rereading this, but episodically.
The Button Man, Brian Freemantle. Rereading this spy thriller.

Flirting with starting The Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb, about the raid on the Norwegian heavy water. Coming up soon, Big Week by Holland, about operation Pointblank, the destruction of the Luftwaffe.

Recently gave up on:
Red Sparrow. Oy.
Anatomy of Ghosts, by Andrew Taylor. People seem to love it, I found it formulaic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on November 25, 2018, 06:20:02 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/812mjm--3zL.jpg)

The latest enfant terrible of French literature, though given the novel is 15 years old they may have a newer one nowadays. The opening reads like Houellebecq-lite, but let's wait and see ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 25, 2018, 02:31:49 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91x2cDrpDqL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 09:33:50 AM
(http://www.herbertpauls.com/uploads/3/8/6/7/38677623/8940819.jpg?1459261464)

Available for free here:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/books/Pauls_two_centuries_in_one.pdf (http://www.musicweb-international.com/books/Pauls_two_centuries_in_one.pdf)

This book greatly appeals to my unabashedly and unapologeticallly romantic self --- and will probably infuriate hardcore modernists no end.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on November 26, 2018, 10:56:15 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 09:33:50 AM

Available for free here:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/books/Pauls_two_centuries_in_one.pdf (http://www.musicweb-international.com/books/Pauls_two_centuries_in_one.pdf)

This book greatly appeals to my unabashedly and unapologeticallly romantic self --- and will probably infuriate hardcore modernists no end.  :laugh:

well you get what you pay for (looked at it briefly)

You should start a drinking game for every time the author uses the word 'emotion'

like emotion is somehow the exclusive province of traditional tonality

he does not seem to understand that Schoenberg, Berg and other modernists were expressionists, defined by Adorno as seeking "the truthfulness of subjective feeling without illusions, disguises or euphemisms"

he seems equally perplexed that people could ascribe emotion to later composers in this tradition such as Ferneyhough
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 26, 2018, 11:14:46 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 09:33:50 AM
(http://www.herbertpauls.com/uploads/3/8/6/7/38677623/8940819.jpg?1459261464)

Available for free here:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/books/Pauls_two_centuries_in_one.pdf (http://www.musicweb-international.com/books/Pauls_two_centuries_in_one.pdf)

This book greatly appeals to my unabashedly and unapologeticallly romantic reactionary self --- and will probably infuriate bore hardcore modernists no end.  :laugh:

Fixed for you!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 26, 2018, 11:20:03 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 09:33:50 AM
(http://www.herbertpauls.com/uploads/3/8/6/7/38677623/8940819.jpg?1459261464)

Available for free here:
....
Still appears a bit too expensive to me.... ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 11:34:44 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on November 26, 2018, 10:56:15 AM
well you get what you pay for (looked at it briefly)

You should start a drinking game for every time the author uses the word 'emotion'

like emotion is somehow the exclusive province of traditional tonality

he does not seem to understand that Schoenberg, Berg and other modernists were expressionists, defined by Adorno as seeking "the truthfulness of subjective feeling without illusions, disguises or euphemisms"

he seems equally perplexed that people could ascribe emotion to later composers in this tradition such as Ferneyhough

The tables can be turned just as easily: if "emotion" is such a negative term / concept, then why the need to ascribe it to Schoenberg and Ferneyhough?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 11:37:44 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 26, 2018, 11:14:46 AM
Fixed for you!  :)

Why, thanks! In my book "reactionary" is a badge of honor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 26, 2018, 11:39:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 11:34:44 AM
The tables can be turned just as easily: if "emotion" is such a negative term / concept, then why the need to ascribe it to Schoenberg and Ferneyhough?

The point is not that emotion is a negative term. The point is that the author mistook his inability to grasp the emotional content of modern music for an absence of emotional content in modern music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 11:41:03 AM
Quote from: ritter on November 26, 2018, 11:20:03 AM
Still appears a bit too expensive to me.... ;D

It certainly doesn't sing any praise of Boulez, that's for sure.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 11:43:00 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 26, 2018, 11:39:48 AM
The point is not that emotion is a negative term. The point is that the author mistook his inability to grasp the emotional content of modern music for an absence of emotional content in modern music.

Should I assume that you took the care to read the book and think through its arguments? That would be quite a feat, reading a 500-page book in 10 minutes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 26, 2018, 11:45:17 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 11:43:00 AM
Should I assume that you took the care to read the book and think through its arguments? That would be quite a feat, reading a 500-page book in 10 minutes.

No, but I read BWV1080's comments and it seems clear to me what he meant and that you misrepresented them. He can clarify if I mistook him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 11:55:19 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 26, 2018, 11:45:17 AM
No

I rest my case.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 26, 2018, 11:56:52 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 11:55:19 AM
I rest my case.

Many a case is rested and lost. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 12:05:57 PM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 26, 2018, 11:56:52 AM
Many a case is rested and lost. :)

Certainly. One of the most blatant such cases is Schoenberg's claim that "one day even mailboys will whistle my tunes"...  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 26, 2018, 12:16:40 PM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2018, 12:05:57 PM
Certainly. One of the most blatant such cases is Schoenberg's claim that "one day even mailboys will whistle my tunes"...  ;D

Maybe in Vienna they do...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 26, 2018, 01:01:39 PM
And we all know that street sweepers in Bucharest  are whistling Schumann all the time.... ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 26, 2018, 05:52:22 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on November 26, 2018, 10:56:15 AM
well you get what you pay for (looked at it briefly)

You should start a drinking game for every time the author uses the word 'emotion'

like emotion is somehow the exclusive province of traditional tonality

he does not seem to understand that Schoenberg, Berg and other modernists were expressionists, defined by Adorno as seeking "the truthfulness of subjective feeling without illusions, disguises or euphemisms"

he seems equally perplexed that people could ascribe emotion to later composers in this tradition such as Ferneyhough

Explain disguises, illusions, and euphemisms in music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 26, 2018, 06:03:49 PM
Found this on Facebook. Probably the best thread to post this to.
http://assets.londonist.com/uploads/2018/11/fictionalbritainversion4.jpg
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 27, 2018, 02:47:28 AM
Quote from: ritter on November 26, 2018, 01:01:39 PM
And we all know that street sweepers in Bucharest  are whistling Schumann all the time.... ;)

If they do or don't is irrelevant because Schumann, unlike Schoenberg, never expressed any such concern.  :D

But talking about street sweepers: Manuel de Falla once overheard one in the streets of Madrid whistling one of his (de Falla's) Seven Spanish Folksongs. Intrigued, he asked the man where he learned it, upon which the guy replied "Why, Sir, I really don't know. I must have heard it somewhere and it got stuck in my head." That's precisely what Schoenberg had hope for.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 27, 2018, 02:52:49 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 26, 2018, 05:52:22 PM
Explain disguises, illusions, and euphemisms in music.

I am reminded of Lichtenberg aphorism to the effect that, while it's true that there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamt of in philosophy, it's also true that there are many things in philosophy of which there's no trace in heaven and earth.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 27, 2018, 05:17:53 AM
Quote from: JBS on November 26, 2018, 06:03:49 PM
Found this on Facebook. Probably the best thread to post this to.
http://assets.londonist.com/uploads/2018/11/fictionalbritainversion4.jpg

Very nice. A large number of them must be from Wodehouse...

For some reason I pictured Kirrin Island (if this is from Blyton's Famous Five) further north, certainly not in the Channel. And Jack Vance's Lyonesse is far bigger and far further southwest (but this was probably to fit it onto the map at all or maybe there is another Lyonesse). Finally, I had thought Hogwarts was not quite so far up, rather closer to the border between England and Scotland.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on November 27, 2018, 06:17:35 AM
I am considering reading Balzac's Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes when by chance saw a copy at a local library. Didn't take it yet since I have a bit too many books going on simultaneously.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 27, 2018, 08:10:21 AM
Hesse: The Glass Bead Game


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BCtLwWfAL._SX287_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


About half way through and I am enjoying it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 27, 2018, 10:11:14 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 27, 2018, 05:17:53 AM
Very nice. A large number of them must be from Wodehouse...

For some reason I pictured Kirrin Island (if this is from Blyton's Famous Five) further north, certainly not in the Channel. And Jack Vance's Lyonesse is far bigger and far further southwest (but this was probably to fit it onto the map at all or maybe there is another Lyonesse). Finally, I had thought Hogwarts was not quite so far up, rather closer to the border between England and Scotland.

I believe the traditional legends place Lyonesse fairly close to shore. 
I am not sure if the books themselves give a location, but all the extracanonical mentions of Hogwarts's location put it in one or another sparsely settled part of the Highlands.

There are a few locations on the map that derive from the Lord Peter Wimsey stories, but as far as I can see it doesn't show Duke's Denver.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on November 28, 2018, 05:57:16 AM
About 3/4 through Magic Mountain and only now do I find out that the Finnish translation is abridged. It wasn't mentioned anywhere. As rewarding as the novel has been, after an initially boring start, I really don't feel like instantly borrowing English edition and hunting down every single possible missing sentence. I have pretty good memory but even I can't remember every single detail in this book. Not to mention the only way to be totally sure AND still make sense out of the book would require basically starting all the way from the beginning, with English edition and I'm not going to do that, at least not yet. This is no Les Misérables but it's still a relatively long book. The most infuriating part is that from what I understand, the abridged parts were mostly from the middle part of the book, from the several debates between Settembrini, Naphta, Castorp and Joachim. And those were easily the best parts in the book! Why would they omit those?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on November 28, 2018, 11:30:46 AM
Quote from: Alberich on November 28, 2018, 05:57:16 AM
About 3/4 through Magic Mountain and only now do I find out that the Finnish translation is abridged. It wasn't mentioned anywhere. As rewarding as the novel has been, after an initially boring start, I really don't feel like instantly borrowing English edition and hunting down every single possible missing sentence. I have pretty good memory but even I can't remember every single detail in this book. Not to mention the only way to be totally sure AND still make sense out of the book would require basically starting all the way from the beginning, with English edition and I'm not going to do that, at least not yet. This is no Les Misérables but it's still a relatively long book. The most infuriating part is that from what I understand, the abridged parts were mostly from the middle part of the book, from the several debates between Settembrini, Naphta, Castorp and Joachim. And those were easily the best parts in the book! Why would they omit those?

The debates are indeed crucial to penetrate the novel's spirit. Hans Castorp and his cousin are mostly spectators in the verbal jousts opposing the humanist Settembrini and the nihilist Naphta. There is a case for considering them sterile digressions, but the way they culminate in brutal fashion gives Mann one of his most dramatic effects.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 28, 2018, 11:46:33 AM
.[asin]978-0316292108[/asin]

Yoo-hoo Florestan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 28, 2018, 01:04:13 PM
(https://hachette.azureedge.net/books/thumbnails/9780297864318.jpg?v=17&scale=both&width=440)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: North Star on November 28, 2018, 01:54:00 PM
Quote from: Ken B on November 28, 2018, 11:46:33 AM
[asin]0316292109[/asin]

Yoo-hoo Florestan.
Slightly less clandestine when I replace the ISBN code you had put in the ASIN code's place.  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 28, 2018, 04:24:12 PM
Quote from: North Star on November 28, 2018, 01:54:00 PM
Slightly less clandestine when I replace the ISBN code you had put in the ASIN code's place.  0:)
Danke.

That reform bill looks good!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 28, 2018, 05:30:03 PM
Quote from: Ken B on November 28, 2018, 04:24:12 PM


That reform bill looks good!

It is, though much more focused on  telling the story from parliaments point of view than the grass roots. The Captain Swing riots etc are mentioned in passing but are not part of the main narrative. And no clear picture of the various forms of outcry and petition from a variety of factions throughout the country. It also sticks almost exclusively to 1830-32,, leaving out the long backstory of earlier attempts and calls for reform.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 28, 2018, 06:07:57 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 28, 2018, 05:30:03 PM
It is, though much more focused on  telling the story from parliaments point of view than the grass roots. The Captain Swing riots etc are mentioned in passing but are not part of the main narrative. And no clear picture of the various forms of outcry and petition from a variety of factions throughout the country. It also sticks almost exclusively to 1830-32,, leaving out the long backstory of earlier attempts and calls for reform.
Sounds even better! I generally know the story of the great reform overall but not the drama of the actual enactment. Borrowed the library copy tonight.

You sound like a guy who might enjoy one of the best history books I have ever read, Arguing About Slavery by William Lee Miller. Much concerned with JQA's machinations in Congress breaking the great gag rule. He was a wonderfully evil tactician.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 28, 2018, 06:32:08 PM
JQA is someone I'd like to learn more about so that sounds interesting. Thanks.

Can you recommend something that covers his dodgy election?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 28, 2018, 07:06:30 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 28, 2018, 06:32:08 PM
JQA is someone I'd like to learn more about so that sounds interesting. Thanks.

Can you recommend something that covers his dodgy election?
Not specifically. I read book on it once, the period from Madison to Jackson generally, but cannot recall the name. I also read a book about the various wonky elections, 1800, 1824, 1876 but can't remember the name. (I think 1876 was a justified theft as the situation only arose from a corruption of black ballots).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 07, 2018, 07:35:35 AM
Scaling new heights of wankery. https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/evergreen-state-flaunts-its-virtue-once-again-by-policing-language/#comments (https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/evergreen-state-flaunts-its-virtue-once-again-by-policing-language/#comments)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on December 07, 2018, 10:45:14 AM
Quote from: Ken B on December 07, 2018, 07:35:35 AM
Scaling new heights of wankery. https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/evergreen-state-flaunts-its-virtue-once-again-by-policing-language/#comments (https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/evergreen-state-flaunts-its-virtue-once-again-by-policing-language/#comments)

They decided to change the wording of their own documents.  How is that policing language?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 07, 2018, 01:18:48 PM
Quote from: Daverz on December 07, 2018, 10:45:14 AM
They decided to change the wording of their own documents.  How is that policing language?
The link works. Try reading it.

And please explain how the official documents of the university are "their" documents. The faculty does not own or control university documents (they might control the faculty handbook). They are someone else's documents.

Which is beside the point early, which is the stupidity not Coyne's word for it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 07, 2018, 01:33:28 PM
A couple of lighter things on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZyQ1VpGgL._SX318_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41PjsTsRmpL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on December 07, 2018, 01:35:49 PM
Quote from: Ken B on December 07, 2018, 01:18:48 PM
The link works. Try reading it.

And please explain how the official documents of the university are "their" documents. The faculty does not own or control university documents (they might control the faculty handbook). They are someone else's documents.

Which is beside the point early, which is the stupidity not Coyne's word for it.

I read it and looked over the sight, which I hadn't visited in a long time.  It's all anti-SJW gasbaggery, and reminds me why I stopped calling myself an atheist, because people then think you're a dick like Coyne (or Dawkins or Harris, etc).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 07, 2018, 01:37:22 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 07, 2018, 01:33:28 PM
A couple of lighter things on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZyQ1VpGgL._SX318_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41PjsTsRmpL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
I liked both. I read the Ipcress File over 40 years ago. I wonder if it holds up.
Bryson is pretty consistently good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 07, 2018, 01:42:09 PM
Quote from: Daverz on December 07, 2018, 01:35:49 PM
I read it and looked over the sight, which I hadn't visited in a long time.  It's all anti-SJW gasbaggery, and reminds me why I stopped calling myself an atheist, because people then think you're a dick like Coyne (or Dawkins or Harris, etc).
Well I agree about the atheism thing, and Dawkins and Coyne! I really do not see the point of atheist conferences and talks, etc. And the worship of James Randi ... creepy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 07, 2018, 02:10:43 PM
Quote from: Ken B on December 07, 2018, 01:37:22 PM
I liked both. I read the Ipcress File over 40 years ago. I wonder if it holds up.
Bryson is pretty consistently good.

A qualified Yes. A lot of the police-procedural stuff seems clunky and unlikely and must even have seemed that way when it first came out. But I guess thats typical of most of the genre so neednt be considered a disqualifier. The class stuff is handled well - the working class main character out of place among the Philby-like "my dear boy/old chap" toffs of the secret service establishment, especially with the unexpected but regular bursts of very dry and biting sarcasm. I'm happy to keep going with it. Not much like the film, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 07, 2018, 09:17:15 PM
Quote from: Ken B on December 07, 2018, 07:35:35 AM
Scaling new heights of wankery. https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/evergreen-state-flaunts-its-virtue-once-again-by-policing-language/#comments (https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/evergreen-state-flaunts-its-virtue-once-again-by-policing-language/#comments)

LOL all they need do is use a different language that doesn't have any connotations for English speaking people 0:).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 07, 2018, 09:33:28 PM
(http://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/5f5/product_9782070727124_195x320.jpg)

I have this strong feeling that Bergounioux is the real McCoy, I mean genuinely poetic and original with important things to say. But it's very difficult for me to read, I'm being challenged in a conceptual and literary way, and I'm really posting this to see if anyone here has thought about the book, who might have some ideas about it. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 08, 2018, 06:54:34 AM
Quote from: 2dogs on December 07, 2018, 09:17:15 PM
LOL all they need do is use a different language that doesn't have any connotations for English speaking people 0:).
Klingon!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 08, 2018, 08:24:07 AM
Quote from: Ken B on December 08, 2018, 06:54:34 AM
Klingon!

I'm not 100% certain Klingons actually get the concept of political correctness :-\.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 08, 2018, 08:40:34 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 07, 2018, 09:33:28 PM
(http://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/5f5/product_9782070727124_195x320.jpg)

I have this strong feeling that Bergounioux is the real McCoy, I mean genuinely poetic and original with important things to say. But it's very difficult for me to read, I'm being challenged in a conceptual and literary way, and I'm really posting this to see if anyone here has thought about the book, who might have some ideas about it.
I must confess I had never heard of Bergounioux.  : :-[. Some information on him on the web looks interesting. Thanks for bringing him to my attention.

THREAD DUTY:

After finishing Pierre Assouline's biography of legendary art dealer D.H. Kahnweiler (which was illuminating and fun to read), embarking on Michel Leiris's autobioraphical L'Age d'homme. So far, Leiris's clinical and detached self-presentation appears strangely fascinating.

[asin]2070114554[/asin]

In Assouline's book (from 1988), Leiris is still referred to as Kahnweiler's brother-in-law. It turns out he was actually Kahnweiler wife's son-in-law, as Leiris's wife (the Louise Leiris who gave her name to the famed art gallery from the German occupation onwards) was a child Lucie Gordon had had out of wedlock years before meeting Kahnweiler (and presented to the world as her sister).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on December 09, 2018, 08:49:04 AM
Quote from: 2dogs on December 08, 2018, 08:24:07 AM
I'm not 100% certain Klingons actually get the concept of political correctness :-\.

An astute observation, as we in the Empire most assuredly do not indulge in the societal frailties of the human species.

Qa'pla,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 09, 2018, 01:51:13 PM
Well, still reading a couple of books from my last posting - usually have 4-5 books going at once, both on my iPad and also as hard copies (still enjoy the feel and smell of a real book and them donate then to a local charity for their book sale) - at the moment:

How the Internet Happened - From Netscape to the iPhone (2018) by Brian McCullough - about a third done w/ a lot on the phenomenal early events in the mid to later 1990s which I remember well - for those interested in this history, a strong recommendation.

The Earth is Weeping (2016) by Peter Cozzens - a comprehensive history of the Indian wars for the American West and winner of several book awards - have as a paperback - I've been reading this history for decades so always a topic of interest to me - again, if this history excites you, then another recommendation.

Sword and Scimitar (2018) by Raymond Ibrahim - subtitled "Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West", yet another expansive coverage of many of the major conflicts between Islam and the European & Byzantine world, starting shortly after the death of Muhammad with the 'Battle of Yarmouk' in 636 CE - the final siege of Constantinople in 1453 and Vienna in 1683 were highlights for me.  Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512eI6Xb1OL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51DflX3QQML.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NHcUkR-CL._SY346_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 09, 2018, 04:25:49 PM
Thar last book says it has a foreword by Victor Davis Hanson, who used to be a good classical scholar but has turned into a right wing hack. I would therefore Ibrahim's book is heavily biased against Islam, because Hanson certainly is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 09, 2018, 05:06:25 PM
Quote from: JBS on December 09, 2018, 04:25:49 PM
Thar last book says it has a foreword by Victor Davis Hanson, who used to be a good classical scholar but has turned into a right wing hack. I would therefore Ibrahim's book is heavily biased against Islam, because Hanson certainly is.
Ibrahim is an apostate from Islam, and a convert to Christianity.  I have read a couple of his articles. They are indeed harsh in tone, and polemical, though seemed well researched. He criticizes Mohammed for his murder of Jews, which many Islamic apologists do not do.

I confess I dislike hearing criticism of a religion described as bias against it. All religions are demonstrably false.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 09, 2018, 05:15:34 PM
Quote from: Ken B on December 09, 2018, 05:06:25 PM
Ibrahim is an apostate from Islam, and a convert to Christianity.  I have read a couple of his articles. They are indeed harsh in tone, and polemical, though seemed well researched. He criticizes Mohammed for his murder of Jews, which many Islamic apologists do not do.

I confess I dislike hearing criticism of a religion described as bias against it. All religions are demonstrably false.

Religions may be false, but God is very real. Dogmatic atheism is as false as dogmatic Christianity or dogmatic Islam.
I know about Muhammad's penchant for killing others, including Jews. Interestingly, he fits very well into Jewish teaching about prophecy, which takes into account that even valid prophets can be misled by their egos into becoming false prophets.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 09, 2018, 05:29:00 PM
Quote from: JBS on December 09, 2018, 05:15:34 PM
Religions may be false, but God is very real. Dogmatic atheism is as false as dogmatic Christianity or dogmatic Islam.
I know about Muhammad's penchant for killing others, including Jews. Interestingly, he fits very well into Jewish teaching about prophecy, which takes into account that even valid prophets can be misled by their egos into becoming false prophets.
God is false too, but I just want to point out that is not what I claimed. I can prove all extant monotheistic religions are false. God is a different question. I freely confess I cannot prove Bal and Thor do not exist, only that there is no reason to believe they do. The only god who canbe proven not to exist is an all all knowing, all powerful, all good god. You know the kind I mean.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on December 09, 2018, 07:13:12 PM
Quote from: 2dogs on December 08, 2018, 08:24:07 AM
I'm not 100% certain Klingons actually get the concept of political correctness :-\.

Trying telling a Klingon, oh, say "Kahless wasn't such a great warrior."  You may find out what is politically incorrect for a Klingon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 11, 2018, 09:50:37 AM
More Sherlock Holmes. Blue Carbuncle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 12, 2018, 06:58:21 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Q2R8spk3L._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on December 12, 2018, 07:43:09 AM
Quote from: Alberich on December 11, 2018, 09:50:37 AM
More Sherlock Holmes. Blue Carbuncle.
you are a little early, that's a Christmas story, isn't it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 12, 2018, 09:02:53 AM
You're right, it is. I just didn't know it before I started reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on December 12, 2018, 09:09:57 AM
Quote from: JBS on December 09, 2018, 05:15:34 PM
Religions may be false, but God is very real. Dogmatic atheism is as false as dogmatic Christianity or dogmatic Islam.
I know about Muhammad's penchant for killing others, including Jews. Interestingly, he fits very well into Jewish teaching about prophecy, which takes into account that even valid prophets can be misled by their egos into becoming false prophets.

Religions are true, all of them, they are a manifestation of biology. God is an invention.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 12, 2018, 11:52:45 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on December 12, 2018, 09:09:57 AM
Religions are true, all of them, they are a manifestation of biology. God is an invention.

It's amazing what the clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms resulting from the Big Bang have produced over 13 billion years, so much diversity, complexity and beauty and even into the immaterial realms of music and ideas such as those religions with all their commentaries and embellishments 8).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 17, 2018, 01:04:40 AM
In the last couple of months it's been mostly rereading for me. Finished Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and planning to finish rereading all the W.G.Sebald's books that I have. So far I'd finished After Nature, Vertigo and The Emigrants. He's one of my favourite writers and it's been a real pleasure to read him again.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320451449i/88444._UY450_SS450_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348258687i/730376._UY400_SS400_.jpg)(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385153902l/18888313.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on December 17, 2018, 06:38:10 AM
Quote from: Artem on December 17, 2018, 01:04:40 AM
In the last couple of months it's been mostly rereading for me. Finished Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and planning to finish rereading all the W.G.Sebald's books that I have. So far I'd finished After Nature, Vertigo and The Emigrants. He's one of my favourite writers and it's been a real pleasure to read him again.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320451449i/88444._UY450_SS450_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348258687i/730376._UY400_SS400_.jpg)(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385153902l/18888313.jpg)

Been doing the same on the two audiobooks that are on audible - Austerlitz and The Emigrants
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on December 21, 2018, 06:29:58 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41HL%2Bqq37rL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


nice collection of short stories focused on China in the 80s and 90s and the transition to the current state capitalist system and focused on ordinary people trying to make the best of their opportunities
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 22, 2018, 12:18:28 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QMxJi1QiL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/BerlinGame.JPG/220px-BerlinGame.JPG)

Various things on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2Bgeo5zjjL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51v7tBnFImL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/79/MexicoSet.jpg/220px-MexicoSet.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 22, 2018, 07:13:55 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 22, 2018, 12:18:28 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QMxJi1QiL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/BerlinGame.JPG/220px-BerlinGame.JPG)

Various things on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2Bgeo5zjjL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51v7tBnFImL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/79/MexicoSet.jpg/220px-MexicoSet.jpg)
Game, Set, Match are on my shelf, hoping to be re read soon. I read Jardine's Ingenious Pursuits, and it was pretty interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 22, 2018, 08:54:43 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51imyALXrjL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 22, 2018, 08:56:11 AM
Quote from: Alberich on December 22, 2018, 08:54:43 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51imyALXrjL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Your literary taste is impeccable, good sir!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on December 22, 2018, 08:57:33 AM
Thanks! Enjoying the book so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 22, 2018, 02:12:00 PM
Quote from: Ken B on December 22, 2018, 07:13:55 AM
Game, Set, Match are on my shelf, hoping to be re read soon. I read Jardine's Ingenious Pursuits, and it was pretty interesting.

Berlin Game was even better than The Ipcress File, so I'll happily do all three of Game, Set and Match - and I learn that there are three trilogies involving this group of characters. Also that there was a tv series of GSM made in the 80s with Ian Holm that I was unaware of and want to track down.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 22, 2018, 03:06:55 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 22, 2018, 02:12:00 PM
Berlin Game was even better than The Ipcress File, so I'll happily do all three of Game, Set and Match - and I learn that there are three trilogies involving this group of characters. Also that there was a tv series of GSM made in the 80s with Ian Holm that I was unaware of and want to track down.
Yes, a trilogy of trilogies. LD says they can be read in any order — which cost him much effort — but I read them long ago in order. There is also Winter, a family saga of WW2, in which earlier generations of Samsons and Renssalears appear.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 24, 2018, 06:57:07 AM
Simon and Ken are making me nostalgic. Lisa Jardine was the chair of my department in graduate school, and taught one of my classes. She was absolutely brilliant and gave flawless crystalline seminar talks, but wore her brilliance (and her insane schedule, also hosting a radio show and running the UK IVF authority) very lightly. Wonderfully silly and fun. Lisa enticed me into a year of close study of 1600s English philosophical thought - a year from which she disappeared early, sadly, due to the first appearance of the cancer which killed her much much later on. She arranged for me to have a very picky thesis adviser who hadn't taken on any students in a decade. But she also made me try a Scotch egg and took photos of my face tasting it, and she was simply outraged that I would arrive from Texas without any cowboy boots, and continually threatened that if I didn't buy myself some, she'd have to buy them herself. Her own pair was painted turquoise. Even after the cancer, I don't remember ever seeing her when she wasn't grinning like a little kid.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 24, 2018, 07:19:26 AM
Became curious about Irons's avatar. Which led to this
http://spenceralley.blogspot.com/2018/04/glamorous-life-and-early-death-of.html
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oK-N1mkJraE/WnZ89B2qYUI/AAAAAAAB2Ig/kE-sIspAf0onwjsfsYy_6e71e2ahzc89ACLcBGAs/s640/Wood-Christopher-Self-Portrait-1927-oil-on-canvas-Kettle%2527s-Yard-University-of-Cambridge.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 24, 2018, 11:24:00 AM
What wonderful memories, Brian. Thanks for sharing them!

I also have Jardine's book Going Dutch at home waiting to be read, so I've moved that to near the top of the pile.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NvGOS2IGL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 24, 2018, 05:21:54 PM
Christmas reading
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41zGJDpbrPL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 24, 2018, 08:57:32 PM
Quote from: JBS on December 24, 2018, 05:21:54 PM
Christmas reading
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41zGJDpbrPL.jpg)

That sounds interesting,  I hadn't heard of it before. Do be sure to pay attention to any Tarot related coincidences around you - numbers, shapes, meanings, scenes resembling the images - a Tarot related novel was one of the things that opened my eyes to it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Omicron9 on January 02, 2019, 09:00:21 AM
Currently reading the new Chopin biography by Alan Walker and totally diggin' it.

[asin]0374159068[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 02, 2019, 09:25:52 AM
Re-reading The Hobbit.  And my first reading of Our Mutual Friend
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 02, 2019, 10:26:14 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 02, 2019, 09:25:52 AM
Re-reading The Hobbit.  And my first reading of Our Mutual Friend

Yay!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 02, 2019, 05:46:12 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 02, 2019, 09:25:52 AM
Re-reading The Hobbit.  And my first reading of Our Mutual Friend
Fine reading both of them. OMF is on my reread list, it was the Dickens I liked most.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 03, 2019, 08:05:06 PM
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Mario Vargas Llosa

A fabulous and hilarious book, certain to enrage the resident scolds.
Recommended for Florestan though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 03, 2019, 08:45:31 PM
Quote from: Ken B on January 03, 2019, 08:05:06 PM
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Mario Vargas Llosa

A fabulous and hilarious book, certain to enrage the resident scolds.
Recommended for Florestan though.

Haven't read the book but love the film of that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: zamyrabyrd on January 03, 2019, 10:42:28 PM
This was a lucky gift, that I wouldn't have necessarily bought for myself. From a review:

History as it's supposed to be told: true and thrilling.

History is about so much more than memorizing facts. It is, as more than half of the word suggests, about the story. And, told in the right way, it is the greatest one ever written: Good and evil, triumph and tragedy, despicable acts of barbarism and courageous acts of heroism.

The things you've never learned about our past will shock you. Miracles and Massacres is history as you've never heard it told. It's incredible events that you never knew existed. And it's stories so important and relevant to today that you won't have to ask, Why didn't they teach me this?

(https://books.google.ps/books/content?id=AUCcAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE71pk-sAZuvokYvuYoUr1STeiZHeWREyvBC_yKXkkUlBXwh-D-XxsibWcGqOIT538GleQnIeNmWT9Xe6gcLBy-9giylFmz9KbI8B5fWt0mGwsF9cnmA8FkgitcmxCoRkN_di7S0n)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 03, 2019, 11:23:07 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 03, 2019, 08:45:31 PM
Haven't read the book but love the film of that.
Yes, it's excellent. Saw it 25 years ago, and finally got around to reading the book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on January 04, 2019, 12:23:17 AM
I recently read something old & classic, Paul et Virginie, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre.
Last year, I found a lovely old, illustrated copy in a garage sale. Today, it may seem strange that this (18th century short, sentimental) novel became immensely popular, and I wouldn't classify it as "great literature" (compared to Stendhal, Balzac, Sue...etc.). However, Bernardin de Saint Pierre does raise some very interesting and pertinent questions concerning love, slavery, respect for nature, motherhood, poverty/wealth, friendship. The language is old fashioned but very elegant and refined.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Paul_virginie_1806_6_naufrage_prudhon.jpg/800px-Paul_virginie_1806_6_naufrage_prudhon.jpg)

I started Annie Proulx ' Barkskins (2016) ... translated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 04, 2019, 07:57:35 AM
Quote from: pjme on January 04, 2019, 12:23:17 AM
I recently read something old & classic, Paul et Virginie, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre.
Last year, I found a lovely old, illustrated copy in a garage sale. Today, it may seem strange that this (18th century short, sentimental) novel became immensely popular, and I wouldn't classify it as "great literature" (compared to Stendhal, Balzac, Sue...etc.). However, Bernardin de Saint Pierre does raise some very interesting and pertinent questions concerning love, slavery, respect for nature, motherhood, poverty/wealth, friendship. The language is old fashioned but very elegant and refined.

I'll gladly grant you Stendhal and Balzac --- but Sue? In what respect are his swashbuckling fictions superior to the sentimentality of Paul and Virginie? Not to mention that "old fashioned" is a very good shorthand for "elegant and refined".  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on January 04, 2019, 01:48:34 PM
Ah! You are such a strict master!
Sue definitely is less sentimental (less naive) than de Saint Pierre.
They are both adorably "old fashioned".
Mais, que c'est beau!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 05, 2019, 03:22:22 AM
Quote from: pjme on January 04, 2019, 01:48:34 PM
Ah! You are such a strict master!
Sue definitely is less sentimental (less naive) than de Saint Pierre.
They are both adorably "old fashioned".
Mais, que c'est beau!

I actually like Sue.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on January 05, 2019, 06:09:42 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31WiGsdx4%2BL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 05, 2019, 06:42:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 05, 2019, 03:22:22 AM
I actually like Sue.  :)
Have you read that whole frickin Mysteries of Paris? And is it good?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 05, 2019, 09:36:30 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 05, 2019, 06:42:41 AM
Have you read that whole frickin Mysteries of Paris? And is it good?

I've started reading it in my teens, loved it, but never finished the whole thing. I do remember it's about a Rudolph count chasing his low-class love all around Paris (long before Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann made it a modern metropolis, mind you!). Sort of a second-rate Victor Hugo and a first-rate Paul Feval. --- so yes, in my book it's good, very good (just think of it --- the Paris of Paganini, Rossini, Liszt, Thalberg, Chopin, Herz --- truly the misterious one!)

NB: Me likes both Sue and (Hugo and Feval).  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 05, 2019, 11:25:08 AM
Quote from: Draško on January 05, 2019, 06:09:42 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31WiGsdx4%2BL.jpg)

The only work by Calvino that I've read so far is The Cloven Viscount. It was okay.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 05, 2019, 02:04:30 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 05, 2019, 09:36:30 AM
I've started reading it in my teens, loved it, but never finished the whole thing. I do remember it's about a Rudolph count chasing his low-class love all around Paris (long before Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann made it a modern metropolis, mind you!). Sort of a second-rate Victor Hugo and a first-rate Paul Feval. --- so yes, in my book it's good, very good (just think of it --- the Paris of Paganini, Rossini, Liszt, Thalberg, Chopin, Herz --- truly the misterious one!)

NB: Me likes both Sue and (Hugo and Feval).  :)
Merci. There is a new translation available, and it does tempt me a bit.
I should really read Monte Cristo first though ... (I read the Blair abridgment eons ago).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 05, 2019, 02:30:32 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/412enZy7-CL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1183384799l/1409931.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 06, 2019, 09:12:47 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71KFijiCNJL.jpg)

I'd be very interested to know if anyone's read this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 06, 2019, 05:57:29 PM
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/bracing-impact
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 06, 2019, 07:12:09 PM
Quote from: JBS on January 06, 2019, 05:57:29 PM
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/bracing-impact
Repressed memory is a myth.
And the U of Chicago letter is excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 09, 2019, 01:13:50 PM
Quote from: Alberich on January 02, 2019, 10:26:14 AM
Yay!

Quote from: Ken B on January 02, 2019, 05:46:12 PM
Fine reading both of them. OMF is on my reread list, it was the Dickens I liked most.

This is wonderful!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 10, 2019, 07:05:14 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ovjfirq1L._SX260_.jpg)

Badly written incoherent mess of a historic novel. Hard to believe a genius like Ludwig Tieck wrote this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 10, 2019, 07:42:53 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81tWCOksLVL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51R6wZHoCQL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Hadn't intended to read another book on the Hilary campaign, but this unexpectedly turns out to be the one I was wanting: a blow by blow warts and all view from inside pieced together from very candid interviews (because of the promise of anonymity) from everyone involved. The authors say at the beginning that there was no one they wanted to talk to who they didn't get.

What emerges is endless infighting and jockeying for position and access to a distant candidate with no clear and consistent message and being constantly pulled in conflicting directions or stuck in indecision. I'm only up to the winning of the primaries, but already there's been much more information about the fear of a Biden run and about the inability to grasp the appeal of Sanders than elsewhere. Lots and lots of good detail about the mechanics of money getting, vote getting, and delegate getting.


First time I've read Niall Fergusson. His writing style is very good, an excellent communicator.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 11, 2019, 07:57:23 AM
(https://i.postimg.cc/K8XXNdBZ/IMG-20190111-082243-763.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on January 12, 2019, 12:45:48 PM
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 04:25:49 AMBtw, another firm recommendation is Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate --- sort of a War and Peace set during WWII. A masterpiece as well.
Four years ago, met a Russian woman at the airport and in the plane on my way back from Saint-Peterburg and we discussed Russian literature. I promised her to read Life and Fate - already long envisaged - and only now started this undertaking. Will report back when I'm finished.
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/0995/9780099506164.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on January 13, 2019, 12:01:28 AM
(https://pixl.varagesale.com/http://s3.amazonaws.com/hopshop-image-store-production/120174885/6c6b4f89c568672eb4d9a455b3c02870.jpg?_ver=large_uploader_thumbnail&w=640&h=640&fit=crop&s=2dbb39d97e757470cc6028207511e002)

Alright, to get a bit personal, this is one of my favorite books, as someone who is not exactly where he'd like to be in life, professionally.  I find the audiobook very therapeutic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7xqmkOx-W4

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on January 13, 2019, 03:44:49 AM
I enjoyed The Consolations of Philosophy book and TV series. Much unhappiness comes from comparing yourself against other people and judging your own worth by their expectations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 14, 2019, 05:22:50 AM
Quote from: Christo on January 12, 2019, 12:45:48 PM
Four years ago, met a Russian woman at the airport and in the plane on my way back from Saint-Peterburg and we discussed Russian literature. I promised her to read Life and Fate - already long envisaged - and only now started this undertaking. Will report back when I'm finished.
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/0995/9780099506164.jpg)

You're in for a real threat. Enjoy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on January 14, 2019, 12:28:24 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 14, 2019, 05:22:50 AM
You're in for a real threat. Enjoy!

I got a chuckle out of the typo, considering the picture on the book's jacket.

:D,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 14, 2019, 06:14:14 PM
Quote from: Christo on January 12, 2019, 12:45:48 PM
Four years ago, met a Russian woman at the airport and in the plane on my way back from Saint-Peterburg and we discussed Russian literature. I promised her to read Life and Fate - already long envisaged - and only now started this undertaking. Will report back when I'm finished.
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/0995/9780099506164.jpg)
I just bought that. But it will have to wait. I am on a Mexican beach for the rest of January.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 15, 2019, 01:00:20 AM
Quote from: LKB on January 14, 2019, 12:28:24 PM
I got a chuckle out of the typo, considering the picture on the book's jacket.

:D,

LKB

Ouch! Haven't noticed it. I think I'll leave it as it is.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 15, 2019, 05:57:56 AM
There is a very watchable Russian-produced 2012 miniseries on Life and Fate.  It was available on Amazon prime in the US

(https://www.talkclassical.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=111655&d=1547484085)

Another good and very readable Chinese history book. Platt also wrote a great book on the Taiping Rebellion (the costliest war of the 19th century BTW) a few years back
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 15, 2019, 07:56:36 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31nCl%2BhBrcL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'm about 100 pages in and it's funny, laugh out loud funny. Whether it will turn out to be more than that is a question I can't answer.

Nouvel Obs said it was a masterpiece, the greatest thing since Extension du domaine de la lutte, which is a book I very much appreciated. We shall see.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 15, 2019, 12:43:29 PM
C. S. Lewis - The Problem of Pain (http://www.samizdat.qc.ca/cosmos/philo/PDFs/ProblemofPain_CSL.pdf)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 15, 2019, 05:24:20 PM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on January 15, 2019, 05:57:56 AM
There is a very watchable Russian-produced 2012 miniseries on Life and Fate.  It was available on Amazon prime in the US

(https://www.talkclassical.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=111655&d=1547484085)

Another good and very readable Chinese history book. Platt also wrote a great book on the Taiping Rebellion (the costliest war of the 19th century BTW) a few years back
I read God's Chinese Son. Might have been by him  :laugh: interesting anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 16, 2019, 08:04:51 PM
(https://d3fa68hw0m2vcc.cloudfront.net/9c7/144760096.jpeg)

Murakami's first two novels "Hear The Wind Singing" and "Pinball, 1973" repackaged together as "Wind / Pinball".

Received wisdom is that these are unlike his later style, but I found them immediately recognizable as Murakami, both in prose style and subject preoccupations. The first work I liked very much, the second a little less so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on January 17, 2019, 11:06:56 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71pySqtGi6L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 17, 2019, 06:59:39 PM
Quote from: Draško on January 17, 2019, 11:06:56 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71pySqtGi6L.jpg)
I hear good things about Akunin but am deeply skeptical. I am not sure why.  Let us know how it is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 18, 2019, 04:10:07 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 15, 2019, 07:56:36 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31nCl%2BhBrcL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'm about 100 pages in and it's funny, laugh out loud funny. Whether it will turn out to be more than that is a question I can't answer.

Nouvel Obs said it was a masterpiece, the greatest thing since Extension du domaine de la lutte, which is a book I very much appreciated. We shall see.

4/5  through and it's totally mediocre. Flat style of writing, conventional structure, peopled with caricatures who are there just for moving along a pretty episodic plot, no digging deep into any ideas at all,stuffed with mannerisms which get rapidly annoying (detailed descriptions of food and restaurants, pointless scientific details),  the only good bit is the description of a video where a beautiful Japanese lady gives a blow job to a couple of dogs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on January 18, 2019, 05:32:06 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 17, 2019, 06:59:39 PM
I hear good things about Akunin but am deeply skeptical. I am not sure why.  Let us know how it is.

I've read four Akunin's Erast Fandorin novels before and I definitely like them. I'm not big reader of mystery/detective novels in general so can't quite compare them with anything else out there. They're well written, clever, with an occasional nod to some famous literature, like Master and Margarita in the first one. Cover period that hasn't been done to death (late 19th century imperial Russia) and Akunin definitely knows his way around that period. They don't repeat themselves neither in subject nor stylistically, some are first person view, some are narrated from point of view of some supporting character, sometimes Fandorin is a supporting character for most of the novel. The aspect I especially liked is that novels are chronological, in the first one Fandorin is this eager 20 year old civil servant of the lowest rung working in St.Petersburg police in 1876, and as years and novels go on he gets more capable, kind of mix of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, and rises in the peculiar ranks of imperial bureaucracy.

As mystery novels go I find them superbly entertaining. If you'd want to try them just start with the first one chronologically, I think it's titled The Winter Queen in English, Azazel in original. That one is also probably my favorite so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on January 18, 2019, 05:37:49 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 18, 2019, 04:10:07 AM
4/5  through and it's totally mediocre. Flat style of writing, conventional structure, peopled with caricatures who are there just for moving along a pretty episodic plot, no digging deep into any ideas at all,stuffed with mannerisms which get rapidly annoying (detailed descriptions of food and restaurants, pointless scientific details),  the only good bit is the description of a video where a beautiful Japanese lady gives a blow job to a couple of dogs.

His style was always flat, but if he's gone bereft of ideas that's not good. It's not yet translated in Serbian, next month probably. I haven't read his previous though. Did you like that one?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on January 18, 2019, 05:42:02 AM
Quote from: Draško on January 18, 2019, 05:32:06 AM
I've read four Akunin's Erast Fandorin novels before and I definitely like them. I'm not big reader of mystery/detective novels in general so can't quite compare them with anything else out there. They're well written, clever, with an occasional nod to some famous literature, like Master and Margarita in the first one. Cover period that hasn't been done to death (late 19th century imperial Russia) and Akunin definitely knows his way around that period. They don't repeat themselves neither in subject nor stylistically, some are first person view, some are narrated from point of view of some supporting character, sometimes Fandorin is a supporting character for most of the novel. The aspect I especially liked is that novels are chronological, in the first one Fandorin is this eager 20 year old civil servant of the lowest rung working in St.Petersburg police in 1876, and as years and novels go on he gets more capable, kind of mix of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, and rises in the peculiar ranks of imperial bureaucracy.

As mystery novels go I find them superbly entertaining. If you'd want to try them just start with the first one chronologically, I think it's titled The Winter Queen in English, Azazel in original. That one is also probably my favorite so far.

I've read two of the Erast Fandorin novels. Great fun, very resourceful and inventive plots. Fandorin reminds me a bit of Rodolphe, the hero of Eugène Sue's Les Mystères de Paris.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 18, 2019, 05:47:31 AM
Quote from: Draško on January 18, 2019, 05:37:49 AM
His style was always flat, but if he's gone bereft of ideas that's not good. It's not yet translated in Serbian, next month probably. I haven't read his previous though. Did you like that one?

The one I liked most was the first, Extension du domaine de la lutte. His previous was Soumission I think, I thought it was OK for a plane or a train -- the main character is a sympathetic loser, and he had some ideas which weren't totally un-interesting about the way that the way we organise sexual relationships in the west does no good, makes no one happy.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 18, 2019, 05:59:40 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 18, 2019, 04:10:07 AM
the only good bit is the description of a video where a beautiful Japanese lady gives a blow job to a couple of dogs.

Think I'll skip this one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on January 18, 2019, 06:15:10 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 18, 2019, 05:47:31 AM
The one I liked most was the first, Extension du domaine de la lutte. His previous was Soumission I think, I thought it was OK for a plane or a train -- the main character is a sympathetic loser, and he had some ideas which weren't totally un-interesting about the way that the way we organise sexual relationships in the west does no good, makes no one happy.

Interesting, I haven't read his first. I'll pick it up, thanks. Out of The Elementary Particles, Platform and The Map and the Territory, Platform was my favorite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 18, 2019, 03:48:55 PM
Quote from: Ken B on January 15, 2019, 05:24:20 PM
I read God's Chinese Son. Might have been by him  :laugh: interesting anyway.

Have not read that one - it is by Jonathan Spense, Platt's Taping book is Autumn in The Heavenly Kingdom
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 18, 2019, 05:59:29 PM
Quote from: Draško on January 18, 2019, 05:32:06 AM
I've read four Akunin's Erast Fandorin novels before and I definitely like them. I'm not big reader of mystery/detective novels in general so can't quite compare them with anything else out there. They're well written, clever, with an occasional nod to some famous literature, like Master and Margarita in the first one. Cover period that hasn't been done to death (late 19th century imperial Russia) and Akunin definitely knows his way around that period. They don't repeat themselves neither in subject nor stylistically, some are first person view, some are narrated from point of view of some supporting character, sometimes Fandorin is a supporting character for most of the novel. The aspect I especially liked is that novels are chronological, in the first one Fandorin is this eager 20 year old civil servant of the lowest rung working in St.Petersburg police in 1876, and as years and novels go on he gets more capable, kind of mix of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, and rises in the peculiar ranks of imperial bureaucracy.

As mystery novels go I find them superbly entertaining. If you'd want to try them just start with the first one chronologically, I think it's titled The Winter Queen in English, Azazel in original. That one is also probably my favorite so far.

Thanks. Very helpful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 21, 2019, 06:49:20 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51DJRLHHONL._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Still as fresh and relevant as on previous readings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 21, 2019, 07:11:06 AM
(https://i.postimg.cc/2yWhTf8S/IMG-20190121-160146-931.jpg)

I like to have something on the go for enjoying a quick dip in to and right now this fits the bill nicely.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 21, 2019, 03:48:21 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2B2SKggrrL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Started:

(http://media.api.aucklandmuseum.com/id/media/p/66720c8711f8c9c08f8f3b388b3fd6baf105abae?rendering=standard.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 24, 2019, 05:38:06 PM
The Count Of Monte Cristo
The newish complete translation by Buss, in Penguin.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wendell_E on January 25, 2019, 03:20:07 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 24, 2019, 05:38:06 PM
The Count Of Monte Cristo
The newish complete translation by Buss, in Penguin.

Wow! You speak Penguin?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 25, 2019, 05:36:11 AM
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3d/bb/fd/3dbbfd9fbcdf325d4416123827a56c81.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on January 25, 2019, 06:35:44 PM
Quote from: Wendell_E on January 25, 2019, 03:20:07 AM
Wow! You speak Penguin?  :D
Sqtwt. Fwwwsqt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 26, 2019, 12:47:45 AM
(https://i.postimg.cc/DwSchTsd/IMG-20190126-094201-119.jpg)

Saturday morning waiting for a bench in the busy gym will mean rereading 'Among Women Only' from this collection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 26, 2019, 01:06:47 AM
Quote from: NikF on January 26, 2019, 12:47:45 AM
(https://i.postimg.cc/DwSchTsd/IMG-20190126-094201-119.jpg)

Saturday morning waiting for a bench in the busy gym will mean rereading 'Among Women Only' from this collection.
Great stuff. I read Pavese with pleasure many years ago, and should revisit him sometime soon.

Antonioni's film adaptation of Tra Donne sole, Le amiche (one of his early films) is most enjoyable as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 26, 2019, 03:55:10 PM
Quote from: ritter on January 26, 2019, 01:06:47 AM
Great stuff. I read Pavese with pleasure many years ago, and should revisit him sometime soon.

Antonioni's film adaptation of Tra Donne sole, Le amiche (one of his early films) is most enjoyable as well.

Cool. Yeah, the Antonioni might be where the name of Pavese was first brought to my attention, back when I was studying the work of cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo - 8 1/2, Le mani sula cita, La notte etc.
Anyway, I keep meaning to read The moon and the bonfires/la luna e falo. You familiar with that one?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 27, 2019, 07:36:09 AM
A bleak outlook

Is journalism's 'pivot to dust' arriving?
https://wapo.st/2FOSsgR
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 27, 2019, 08:24:58 AM
Quote from: NikF on January 26, 2019, 03:55:10 PM
Cool. Yeah, the Antonioni might be where the name of Pavese was first brought to my attention, back when I was studying the work of cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo - 8 1/2, Le mani sula cita, La notte etc.
Anyway, I keep meaning to read The moon and the bonfires/la luna e falo. You familiar with that one?
I too got to Pavese vía Antonioni. I have rarely had such a strong impression of a work in any medium as La notte had on me in my late teens, and this led me to explore as much as possible about the Italian director (which at the time wasn't that easy, as this was way before the advent of DVDs). The name of Pavese came up in some book, and I read The Beautiful Summer.  It was only much later that I got to watch Le amiche.

I haven't read La luna.... It's in my Italian Pléiade edition of all of Pavese's novels and novellas, so you've given me an idea... ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on January 27, 2019, 09:28:29 AM
Quote from: ritter on January 27, 2019, 08:24:58 AM
I too got to Pavese vía Antonioni. I have rarely had such a strong impression of a work in any medium as La notte had on me in my late teens, and this led me to explore as much as possible about the Italian director (which at the time wasn't that easy, as this was way before the advent of DVDs). The name of Pavese came up in some book, and I read The Beautiful Summer.  It was only much later that I got to watch Le amiche.

I haven't read La luna.... It's in my Italian Pléiade edition of all of Pavese's novels and novellas, so you've given me an idea... ;)

Yeah, I can imagine La notte making such an impression. It is still capable of creating an impact. And true, before DVD it was difficult to explore a filmography, whereas now it is (almost) all out there, often available even on a whim. But your journey was interesting.  8)
I'll pick up a copy of La luna when I'm next in town. Do enjoy your own reading of it. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 27, 2019, 11:40:07 AM
I must have noticed this book in my parents' library some 35 years ago, yet somehow I never managed to read it:

(http://www.targulcartii.ro/galerie/cache/I119/cesare-pavese-luna-si-focurile-femei-singur-pentru-literatura-1966-l-140400-510x510.JPG)

(La luna e i falò & Tra donne sole in Romanian translation, part of a literature collection titled Biblioteca pentru toți, ie A Library for All)

Is it high time to rectify it?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 28, 2019, 08:12:28 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 27, 2019, 11:40:07 AM
I must have noticed this book in my parents' library some 35 years ago, yet somehow I never managed to read it:

(http://www.targulcartii.ro/galerie/cache/I119/cesare-pavese-luna-si-focurile-femei-singur-pentru-literatura-1966-l-140400-510x510.JPG)

(La luna e i falò & Tra donne sole in Romanian translation, part of a literature collection titled Biblioteca pentru toți, ie A Library for All)

Is it high time to rectify it?
I couldn't tell. The novellas in The Beautiful Summer are very much of the "coming of age" type—as I understand is most of Pavese output—, but beautifully written as I remember. So, for a young man, they were really touching and made a strong impression. Now that I'm not that young anymore, I don't know what effect they'd have on me. That's why I think tackling The Moon and the Bonfires sometime soon could be a good idea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 29, 2019, 07:13:43 PM
https://deadspin.com/hate-the-patriots-for-the-right-reason-1832130758/amp
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on January 30, 2019, 08:37:44 AM
I occasionally read some of my daughter's books which she has long grown out of. She had good taste in reading when she was a teenager and her choices were always interesting.
I was looking for some light reading recently and I have just finished reading these two


(https://www.scholastic.com/content5/media/products/33/9780545281133_mres.jpg)   (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81EsmHdK8jL.jpg)


Recommended good reads for early teens.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on January 30, 2019, 02:52:31 PM
Geoff DYER    BROADWAY CALLING DANNY BOY
a scene-by-scene companion to the Hollywood vision of WWII as shown in the movie "Where Eagles Dare".
I've not seen that film, but this read makes it sound like a hilarious romp.  116 pages probably can be read in a shorter time than seeing the 158 minute-long film.
[asin]0141987626[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 31, 2019, 05:56:49 AM
Reread two more Sebald's novels from my collection, The Rings of Saturn and Austerlitz, both of which were great. Also read The Order of the Day by Éric Vuillard that won 2017 Goncourt Prize and Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. The last one left me with mixed feelings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 01, 2019, 12:23:40 PM
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8a/5c/7e/8a5c7e94d8969481b09f7ad1931af2ab.jpg)

I'm not sure if it's just pornography or something else, I'm only up to page 100. Neither am I sure if it's imaginative fiction or biography. She certainly liked to fuck when she was a teenager.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 01, 2019, 02:50:04 PM
Quote from: listener on January 30, 2019, 02:52:31 PM
Geoff DYER    BROADWAY CALLING DANNY BOY
a scene-by-scene companion to the Hollywood vision of WWII as shown in the movie "Where Eagles Dare".
I've not seen that film, but this read makes it sound like a hilarious romp.  116 pages probably can be read in a shorter time than seeing the 158 minute-long film.


This is unusual because Geoff Dyer has previously deliverately never written a full book on the same subject twice, and has already published a shot by shot study of Tarkovsky's Stalker called "Zona"

I want to add a comment about going from the sublime to the ridiculous, but I haven't seen Where Eagles Dare since I was a kid and there may be a lot more there than I realize.


TD: 3/4 through both of these:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-YXQfQyuL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91GYkVk0OcL.jpg)

The Roosevelt biography - volume 2 of 3, this one covering the presidency - is as good as I'd heard and easily recommended. The one on Svetlana Alliluyeva much less so as the first third covering her childhood just reiterates her own autobiography with little on the Stalin era more generally, the second section on surviving in Russia after his death is better, but the book doesn't really become worthy until it gets to her defection and publishing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 01, 2019, 06:07:55 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 01, 2019, 12:23:40 PM
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8a/5c/7e/8a5c7e94d8969481b09f7ad1931af2ab.jpg)

I'm not sure if it's just pornography or something else, I'm only up to page 100. Neither am I sure if it's imaginative fiction or biography. She certainly liked to fuck when she was a teenager.
So, judging from the photo, did her partners!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 03, 2019, 01:03:07 AM
Hemingway: Men Without Women


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/LIBRODIFACCIA/md/md17145202694.jpg)


I have always liked Hemingway's short stories. A good many of them are real moments in time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 04, 2019, 01:04:27 AM
Quote from: aligreto on February 03, 2019, 01:03:07 AM
Hemingway: Men Without Women


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/LIBRODIFACCIA/md/md17145202694.jpg)


I have always liked Hemingway's short stories. A good many of them are real moments in time.

Indeed.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place - perhaps the short story I've read most from this collection -

(https://i.postimg.cc/Y2YgwNfw/IMG-20181106-200124-190.jpg)

(photo taken years ago by my then girlfriend, who when first getting behind a camera went through the 'I'm going to shoot everything with wide open primes' newbie phase using my work lenses. I held the reflectors. ;D )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 04, 2019, 07:49:03 AM
Quote from: NikF on February 04, 2019, 01:04:27 AM
Indeed.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place - perhaps the short story I've read most from this collection -

(https://i.postimg.cc/Y2YgwNfw/IMG-20181106-200124-190.jpg)

(photo taken years ago by my then girlfriend, who when first getting behind a camera went through the 'I'm going to shoot everything with wide open primes' newbie phase using my work lenses. I held the reflectors. ;D )

I need to re read those. The ones I remember best are that one, The Killers, and Hills Like White Elephants, which is a perfect example of the caught instant.
The library has a copy of his collected stories, but there is a waiting list!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF on February 04, 2019, 07:57:32 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 04, 2019, 07:49:03 AM
I need to re read those. The ones I remember best are that one, The Killers, and Hills Like White Elephants, which is a perfect example of the caught instant.
The library has a copy of his collected stories, but there is a waiting list!

Not sure if I should be surprised to hear that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 04, 2019, 11:05:00 AM
 John Cleese's " So, Anyway... "

About 2/3 finished, and there have been no slow or dull portions.

Recommended,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 06, 2019, 06:52:28 AM
More Hugo, having finished Ninety-three, this time re-reading the masterfully written account of Napoleon III's coup d'état, The History of a Crime.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51inY-e5p4L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 06, 2019, 07:15:58 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/JoyceUlysses2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 06, 2019, 07:35:54 AM
Quote from: Alberich on February 06, 2019, 06:52:28 AM
More Hugo, having finished Ninety-three, this time re-reading the masterfully written account of Napoleon III's coup d'état, The History of a Crime.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51inY-e5p4L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
What did you think of 93?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 06, 2019, 08:01:49 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 06, 2019, 07:35:54 AM
What did you think of 93?

While not as good as Notre Dame de Paris or those parts of Les Misérables that I've read, it is still guaranteed Hugo quality. I especially enjoyed characters of Cimourdain and Lantenac, well-rounded characters. Cimourdain kind of reminded me of Frollo from Notre Dame, both priests, both have protegés whom they care for, yet who are somehow responsible for their deaths, both witty yet gloomy at the same time. Though I have to say that I like Frollo quite a bit more than Cimourdain. Lantenac's final speech in the book is impressive and kind of makes one want to root for him. Not much what I particularly disliked, except maybe rather cringe-worthy description of baby babble and Hugo's views on Bretons which seem quite racist at times. The book is filled with so many good quotes that, ironically, sometimes it lessens the impact of the book as whole with it's power. Quotes galore, so to speak, a little bit overwhelming. I do not run into that in his other works despite there being equally a great number of splendid quotes. In them it feels a bit more natural. I guess we all have our inconsistencies.

All in all, I still enjoyed it. I haven't yet ran into a work by Hugo which I did not like (admittedly, there is still a lot of his output more to go).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 06, 2019, 12:00:14 PM
Quote from: Alberich on February 06, 2019, 08:01:49 AM
While not as good as Notre Dame de Paris or those parts of Les Misérables that I've read, it is still guaranteed Hugo quality. I especially enjoyed characters of Cimourdain and Lantenac, well-rounded characters. Cimourdain kind of reminded me of Frollo from Notre Dame, both priests, both have protegés whom they care for, yet who are somehow responsible for their deaths, both witty yet gloomy at the same time. Though I have to say that I like Frollo quite a bit more than Cimourdain. Lantenac's final speech in the book is impressive and kind of makes one want to root for him. Not much what I particularly disliked, except maybe rather cringe-worthy description of baby babble and Hugo's views on Bretons which seem quite racist at times. The book is filled with so many good quotes that, ironically, sometimes it lessens the impact of the book as whole with it's power. Quotes galore, so to speak, a little bit overwhelming. I do not run into that in his other works despite there being equally a great number of splendid quotes. In them it feels a bit more natural. I guess we all have our inconsistencies.

All in all, I still enjoyed it. I haven't yet ran into a work by Hugo which I did not like (admittedly, there is still a lot of his output more to go).

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Next you should read Les travailleurs de la mer.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 06, 2019, 03:05:26 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51nKXYmUJAL._AC_SY400_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 06, 2019, 07:39:31 PM
Quote from: Alberich on February 06, 2019, 08:01:49 AM
While not as good as Notre Dame de Paris or those parts of Les Misérables that I've read, it is still guaranteed Hugo quality. I especially enjoyed characters of Cimourdain and Lantenac, well-rounded characters. Cimourdain kind of reminded me of Frollo from Notre Dame, both priests, both have protegés whom they care for, yet who are somehow responsible for their deaths, both witty yet gloomy at the same time. Though I have to say that I like Frollo quite a bit more than Cimourdain. Lantenac's final speech in the book is impressive and kind of makes one want to root for him. Not much what I particularly disliked, except maybe rather cringe-worthy description of baby babble and Hugo's views on Bretons which seem quite racist at times. The book is filled with so many good quotes that, ironically, sometimes it lessens the impact of the book as whole with it's power. Quotes galore, so to speak, a little bit overwhelming. I do not run into that in his other works despite there being equally a great number of splendid quotes. In them it feels a bit more natural. I guess we all have our inconsistencies.

All in all, I still enjoyed it. I haven't yet ran into a work by Hugo which I did not like (admittedly, there is still a lot of his output more to go).

This reminds me how little I remember Hunchback! I read that before Florestan was born. Even before Cato was old!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 05:45:17 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51yDLwAOvOL.jpg)
A history of Weimar politics. While parallels to modern politics can be seen, there are also clear differences that make it clear that comparing the contemporary USA to 1931/32 Germany is not valid...and some of those are structural (for instance, the states of Germany such as Prussia and Bavaria were much weaker compared to the national government than US states are), cultural (no religious parties to divide the electorate), and none of the enormous turmoil of defeat and economic weakness that Germany endured throughout the 1920s. But it does make clear how the authoritarian right wanted to destroy democracy and thought Hitler was a useful tool.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 11, 2019, 05:51:24 PM
Quote from: JBS on February 11, 2019, 05:45:17 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51yDLwAOvOL.jpg)
A history of Weimar politics. While parallels to modern politics can be seen, there are also clear differences that make it clear that comparing the contemporary USA to 1931/32 Germany is not valid...and some of those are structural (for instance, the states of Germany such as Prussia and Bavaria were much weaker compared to the national government than US states are), cultural (no religious parties to divide the electorate), and none of the enormous turmoil of defeat and economic weakness that Germany endured throughout the 1920s. But it does make clear how the authoritarian right wanted to destroy democracy and thought Hitler was a useful tool.

Very interesting. Do you see any parallels between Hitler wanting Lebensraum in Eastern Europe and your fellow Zionist cult wanting likewise in the West Bank?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 11, 2019, 06:01:52 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 05:51:24 PM
Very interesting. Do you see any parallels between Hitler wanting Lebensraum in Eastern Europe and your fellow Zionist cult wanting likewise in the West Bank?
Is that you Ilhan?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:04:17 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 05:51:24 PM
Very interesting. Do you see any parallels between Hitler wanting Lebensraum in Eastern Europe and your fellow Zionist cult wanting likewise in the West Bank?

There are obvious similarities between the genocidal aims of the Nazis and Hamas, of course. And less obvious ones, such as Hamas's use of the Big Lie to get Westerners to ignore its agenda and crimes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:10:27 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:06:45 PM
Hamas -- you mean the organization representing some of the people that your ethno-state dispossessed and is currently oppressing, never-mind why Hamas in Gaza should justify continuing settlements in the West Bank, you ethno-nationalist tool?

You support Hamas. Hamas's goal is killing Jews. Therefore you support killing Jews.
Be honest and admit that you support killing Jews, and I will restrain myself from further arguments with you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 11, 2019, 06:13:43 PM
Quote from: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:10:27 PM
You support Hamas. Hamas's goal is killing Jews. Therefore you support killing Jews.
Be honest and admit that you support killing Jews, and I will restrain myself from further arguments with you.

Does demonizing the Palestinians relentlessly make it easier for you to stomach your ethnic kin oppressing them and stealing their land? Be honest.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 11, 2019, 06:15:30 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:13:43 PM
Does demonizing the Palestinians relentlessly make it easier for you to stomach your ethnic kin oppressing them and stealing their land? Be honest.
Wow, you really are a puke aren't you?
Be honest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 11, 2019, 06:16:02 PM
Quote from: Ken B on February 11, 2019, 06:15:30 PM
Wow, you really are a puke aren't you?
Be honest.

Be more substantive or fuck off.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:23:20 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:13:43 PM
Does demonizing the Palestinians relentlessly make it easier for you to stomach your ethnic kin oppressing them and stealing their land? Be honest.

I am not demonizing the Palestinians.
It is telling that you seem unable to differentiate between Hamas and the Palestinians in general.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 11, 2019, 06:28:16 PM
Quote from: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:23:20 PM
I am not demonizing the Palestinians.
It is telling that you seem unable to differentiate between Hamas and the Palestinians in general.

You're attempting to distract from the perfidy your people are engaging in by demonizing a defense organization against said perfidy.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 11, 2019, 06:32:11 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:16:02 PM
Be more substantive or fuck off.
okay. You really are a rude jew-hating puke aren't you?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 11, 2019, 06:35:30 PM
Quote from: Ken B on February 11, 2019, 06:32:11 PM
okay. You really are a rude jew-hating puke aren't you?

I sincerely admire many Jews, and, admittedly, one of the warmest persons I've ever known is a right-wing Zionist. No hate. Just impassioned speech at the hope of reaching the humanity of a people who have turned callous as a response to unimaginable tragedy.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 11, 2019, 06:40:19 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:35:30 PM
I sincerely admire many Jews, and, admittedly, one of the warmest persons I've ever known is a right-wing Zionist. No hate. Just impassioned speech at the hope of reaching the humanity of a people who have turned callous as a response to unimaginable tragedy.
Which is why, unprovoked, you troll a Jewish member, making comments about his ethnicity, and indulging in a little holocaust taunting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 11, 2019, 06:43:03 PM
Quote from: Ken B on February 11, 2019, 06:40:19 PM
Which is why, unprovoked, you troll a Jewish member, making comments about his ethnicity, and indulging in a little holocaust taunting.

He engaged me in another thread. It's basically part of the same conversation. And "holocaust taunting"? Where?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:51:38 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:28:16 PM
You're attempting to distract from the perfidy your people are engaging in by demonizing a defense organization against said perfidy.

Hamas is a defense organization in the same way that the SA was a defense organization.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:54:19 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:43:03 PM
He engaged me in another thread. It's basically part of the same conversation. And "holocaust taunting"? Where?

-abe- criticized the Democratic leadership for criticizing antiSemitic tweets by a freshman Congresswoman, and then objected when I pointed out the antiSemitic nature of those tweets. (In the Trump thread).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 11, 2019, 06:55:11 PM
Quote from: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:51:38 PM
Hamas is a defense organization in the same way that the SA was a defense organization.

Be careful with the Nazi comparisons, it's your chauvinist, ethno-nationalist and exclusivist ethnic kin down there that are Nazi-esque. No offense.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:56:24 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:55:11 PM
Be careful with the Nazi comparisons, it's your chauvinist, ethno-nationalist and exclusivist ethnic kin down there that are Nazi-esques. No offense.

The Nazi comparisons are intentional and accurate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 11, 2019, 06:58:12 PM
Quote from: JBS on February 11, 2019, 06:54:19 PM
-abe- criticized the Democratic leadership for criticizing antiSemitic tweets by a freshman Congresswoman, and then objected when I pointed out the antiSemitic nature of those tweets. (In the Trump thread).

Begging the question big time. Do not trust the characterizations of this Zionist who is practicing what his people call hasbara.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 11, 2019, 07:21:39 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:43:03 PM
He engaged me in another thread. It's basically part of the same conversation. And "holocaust taunting"? Where?

This would be an example of that unwanted "spillover from political threads" that people have requested please not happen.

TD: nearly finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5151VTT02QL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Also re-reading Germain Greer's collected reportage 1967-85, and once again admiring the sharp and original view she brings to any subject. These piecesalmost certainly read better now than they did when her name inspired knee jerk reactions or misunderstandings.

(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347859830l/118117.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 07:27:17 PM


Repost so it doesn't get lost amid -abe-'s defense of genocide
Quote from: JBS on February 11, 2019, 05:45:17 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51yDLwAOvOL.jpg)
A history of Weimar politics. While parallels to modern politics can be seen, there are also clear differences that make it clear that comparing the contemporary USA to 1931/32 Germany is not valid...and some of those are structural (for instance, the states of Germany such as Prussia and Bavaria were much weaker compared to the national government than US states are), cultural (no religious parties to divide the electorate), and none of the enormous turmoil of defeat and economic weakness that Germany endured throughout the 1920s. But it does make clear how the authoritarian right wanted to destroy democracy and thought Hitler was a useful tool.

But this the Diner, and my original post had political relevancem albeit not the relevance -abe- wants it to have..

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 11, 2019, 07:31:53 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 11, 2019, 07:21:39 PM
This would be an example of that unwanted "spillover from political threads" that people have requested please not happen.

TD:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5151VTT02QL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Excuse me?

Also, Shakespeare was an English ethno-nationalist. I mean, have you seen this nonsense??!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvFHRNGYfuo

;)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 07:32:43 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 11, 2019, 07:21:39 PM
This would be an example of that unwanted "spillover from political threads" that people have requested please not happen.

TD:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5151VTT02QL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

How new is that?
The other book I am reading is literally Norwich's last book. The UK and US editions seem to have different covers.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61ZCAEFdUiL.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61RKiEcw-sL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 11, 2019, 07:38:12 PM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 07:31:53 PM
Excuse me?


http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,28827.0.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 11, 2019, 07:44:54 PM
Quote from: JBS on February 11, 2019, 07:32:43 PM
How new is that?
The other book I am reading is literally Norwich's last book. The UK and US editions seem to have different covers.

Published 1999 apparently. A good serviceable overview of how and where the history plays differ from what we now know as History, and of the sources Shakespeare used. And of how much the differences really matter - Norwich actually thinks not that much.

I've yet to read any other work of his, including his famous Byzantium set. I started his one on the Popes, but had to stop as it wasn't going to be what i wanted: he wanted to give potted biographies of the dozen or so famous ones, whereas I wanted light shone on the obscure and especially early ones.

I'd be interested to know how you'd rate the one on France.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 11, 2019, 07:55:10 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 11, 2019, 07:44:54 PM
Published 1999 apparently. A good serviceable overview of how and where the history plays differ from what we now know as History, and of the sources Shakespeare used. And of how much the differences really matter - Norwich actually thinks not that much.

I've yet to read any other work of his, including his famous Byzantium set. I started his one on the Popes, but had to stop as it wasn't going to be what i wanted: he wanted to give potted biographies of the dozen or so famous ones, whereas I wanted light shone on the obscure and especially early ones.

I'd be interested to know how you'd rate the one on France.

So far of interest but only as a general introduction to the subject.
The one indispensable work he wrote is the History of Venice, probably the best one volume work on that topic I have ever read (by a man who truly loved Venice). I read the first two volumes of his Byzantium series, which was good but got bogged down in details.
He hated the Fourth Crusade...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 12, 2019, 12:39:56 AM
Quote from: -abe- on February 11, 2019, 06:16:02 PM
Be more substantive or fuck off.

Actually, it's you who should fuck off. You poison just about every thread you post in with your obsessive anti-Israel rants and constantly and viciously attack and provoke another member of this forum. The number of your posts related to classical music amounts to zero. You are obviously a troll who deserves at least a temporary ban.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 12, 2019, 06:48:16 AM
I read Shakespeare's Kings years ago. It was useful for more on the plays, but I preferred other books on the period.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on February 12, 2019, 10:08:25 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71tpeYC6R3L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 13, 2019, 02:28:38 AM
Starting André Breton's Nadja:

[asin]2070111385[/asin]

Breton is one of those figures I've read about, but I've never actually come around to reading any of his major works. High time to remedy that... :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on February 14, 2019, 03:33:57 AM
(https://i.postimg.cc/cHzL7kBG/IMG-20190214-123203-185.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 14, 2019, 09:46:56 AM
Quote from: NikF4 on February 14, 2019, 03:33:57 AM
(https://i.postimg.cc/cHzL7kBG/IMG-20190214-123203-185.jpg)

Read it in an abridged Romanian translation. A delight form start to finish.

Is it the whole thing? I mean, the original French edition has 10 volumes.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on February 14, 2019, 09:58:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 14, 2019, 09:46:56 AM
Read it in an abridged Romanian translation. A delight form start to finish.

Is it the whole thing? I mean, the original French edition has 10 volumes.  :)

No, this version is abridged too. But hopefully I'll enjoy it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 14, 2019, 10:02:54 AM
Quote from: NikF4 on February 14, 2019, 09:58:00 AM
No, this version is abridged too. But hopefully I'll enjoy it.

You're in for a threat. He was a man after your own's heart...  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on February 14, 2019, 10:10:52 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 14, 2019, 10:02:54 AM
You're in for a threat. He was a man after your own's heart...  :D

Ah, my reputation precedes me. Oh well, too late to worry about that.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on February 14, 2019, 02:01:44 PM
Quote from: NikF4 on February 14, 2019, 09:58:00 AM
No, this version is abridged too. But hopefully I'll enjoy it.

I think abridged/highlights version is the way to go.

Some time ago I picked up one random volume of the full version (4th one, out of 5 iirc) and it was a bit of a slog to get through, gets quite repetitive: he travels to somewhere, and great man that he is they greet him with open arms, he seduces woman or two, then he gets into trouble (usually business or gambling related) through no fault of his own (he's never at any fault), some evil men on account of that trouble want to kill/imprison/rob him, and he has to run ... and then he arrives in another place and rinse & repeat. Maybe that is down to that particular volume and the earlier ones are more varied, but I anyway decided against reading the whole thing and to maybe go for abridged version in some indefinite future. Also his extremely high opinion of himself gets somewhat tiresome across that many pages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on February 15, 2019, 08:38:04 AM
Quote from: Draško on February 14, 2019, 02:01:44 PM
I think abridged/highlights version is the way to go.

Some time ago I picked up one random volume of the full version (4th one, out of 5 iirc) and it was a bit of a slog to get through, gets quite repetitive: he travels to somewhere, and great man that he is they greet him with open arms, he seduces woman or two, then he gets into trouble (usually business or gambling related) through no fault of his own (he's never at any fault), some evil men on account of that trouble want to kill/imprison/rob him, and he has to run ... and then he arrives in another place and rinse & repeat. Maybe that is down to that particular volume and the earlier ones are more varied, but I anyway decided against reading the whole thing and to maybe go for abridged version in some indefinite future. Also his extremely high opinion of himself gets somewhat tiresome across that many pages.

I'll continue on with the read tonight (friday night spent at home reading a book  :o ) and see how I get on with it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 15, 2019, 10:40:10 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/811zq%2B9%2BhNL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/510MunpIG3L._SX313_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 16, 2019, 10:45:46 AM
Quote from: lisa needs braces on February 16, 2019, 12:04:04 AM
I am anti-Israel as I would have been anti-Nazi.

Israel is not perfect --- there's no such thing as a perfect country, anyway --- but comparing it with Nazi Germany is either insane or trollish. Don't bother to reply, I'm done with you right now for ever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 16, 2019, 01:33:47 PM
Quote from: lisa needs braces on February 16, 2019, 12:04:04 AM
I am anti-Israel as I would have been anti-Nazi.
Well, I believe half of that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 17, 2019, 02:05:40 PM
Quote from: Florestan on February 14, 2019, 10:02:54 AM
You're in for a threat. He was a man after your own's heart...  :D

< Imagines a Casanova Zombie staggering about, intent upon ripping Nik's beating heart from his body for a quick snack. >

Run Nik, run!

:P,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 18, 2019, 12:00:25 AM
Quote from: LKB on February 17, 2019, 02:05:40 PM
< Imagines a Casanova Zombie staggering about, intent upon ripping Nik's beating heart from his body for a quick snack. >

Run Nik, run!

:P,

LKB

Drat! It's the second time I made this typo. Coincidentally, it worked in both cases. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 18, 2019, 01:37:19 PM
Well, some more books in various stages of being read - some on my iPad and others as hardbacks - still love the feel of a physical book! :)  Dave

Rush - Benjamin Rush (2018) by Stephen Fried - done & an excellent read; one of the 'founding fathers', signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a famous physician of Philadelphia.

The War Before the War (2018) by Andrew Delbanco - historical account of slavery in America, especially in the antebellum era of the early 1800s - extremely well researched w/ plenty of details - about a third of the way done.

The Plot to Destroy Democracy (2018) by Malcolm Nance - the cover tells it all - half way done and the facts are astounding - cannot see Trump getting 'off the hook' if this ends as I expect?

Wireless Networking (2017) by Gordon Colbach - done - always trying to maintain my knowledge about this topic since I'm the home IT guy and I have an aging Apple Extreme router that may need replacement soon?

The Great War in America (2018) by Garrett Peck - not started yet but about the aftermath of WW I in the USA - should be good!

Heirs of the Founders (2018) by H.W. Brands - not started yet (last 2 from the History Book Club - just arrived) - basically, the followers of the 'Founding Fathers' - US politics in the first part of the 19th century w/ Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, & Daniel Webster.

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-XXp46vQ/0/bea7aa88/M/BooksA_Feb19-M.png)
.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-ZxPzd7c/0/927e4293/M/BooksB_Feb19-M.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on February 21, 2019, 08:06:22 AM
Slowly continuing with Ulysses. Much outrageously funny and insightful lines but at the same time all those chaotic lines which at first glance seem to have no thematic unity contribute to slow progress.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: lisa needs braces on February 22, 2019, 11:01:19 PM
On Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers (1956).

More therapy via audible. Jordan Peterson spoke highly of this psychologist.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 25, 2019, 08:49:34 AM
(http://www.litera.ro/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/ce5473653a2a129bd046c41876e3eaf5/2/0/2047.jpg)

The Cats' Bridge

Halfway through this highly recommended, page turner love story set in Oriental Prussia in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 25, 2019, 09:01:56 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 25, 2019, 08:49:34 AM
(http://www.litera.ro/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/ce5473653a2a129bd046c41876e3eaf5/2/0/2047.jpg)

The Cats' Bridge

Halfway through this highly recommended, page turner love story set in Oriental Prussia in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.

"Oriental" Prussia?  Are you implying that Kant's inscrutable writing style was due to the fact that he was from China? >:D :P


TD
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61BINBREWTL.jpg)

An epic poem, written in sort of modern English (some middle English vocabulary creeps in) adaptation of the alliterative poetry of the Anglo Saxons, but abandoned after several cantos.  Based on what is here, rather a  shame.  But one needs to lament that  in moderation, since what Tolkien abandoned it for was the start of the Middle Earth mythos.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 25, 2019, 09:16:59 AM
Quote from: JBS on February 25, 2019, 09:01:56 AM
"Oriental" Prussia?  Are you implying that Kant's inscrutable writing style was due to the fact that he was from China? >:D :P

:D

I should have wriiten East Prussia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussia)  Oriental Prussia is the Romanian name of the region.

Anyway, if you find Kant inscrutable I wonder what you call Hegel.  :laugh:

FWIW, I prefer Schopenhauer to both of them; he's far more realistic and his prose is a sheer delight (read it in translation only but the tranlations were made by professional philosophers and writers and they all praised the high literary qualities of his writings).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 25, 2019, 01:23:26 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41MopoXB9FL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Disturbing, imaginative. Unputdownable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 25, 2019, 01:35:50 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 25, 2019, 01:23:26 PM
Unputdownable.

Please, give us your musical equivalents to this. The first five coming to your mind will do. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on February 27, 2019, 04:15:21 AM
I haven't read this before -


(https://i.imgur.com/WVydaOZ.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on February 27, 2019, 06:23:09 AM
Quote from: NikF4 on February 27, 2019, 04:15:21 AM
I haven't read this before -


(https://i.imgur.com/WVydaOZ.jpg)
That's on my kindle. I loaded it up last month, after 30 years on the to be read list. I am keen to hear your reaction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on February 27, 2019, 06:49:21 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 27, 2019, 06:23:09 AM
That's on my kindle. I loaded it up last month, after 30 years on the to be read list. I am keen to hear your reaction.

I'll do that, yes. I'm looking forward to starting it and when finished I'll certainly post any thoughts I might have.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Draško on February 28, 2019, 02:36:46 AM
(https://europakiado.hu/content/2018/3/Product/300/711203F.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 01, 2019, 12:49:35 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91AgrfJeM9L.jpg)

off and on, among other things:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61pksxfy%2BjL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on March 02, 2019, 09:24:02 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 01, 2019, 12:49:35 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91AgrfJeM9L.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61pksxfy%2BjL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-WTDkWQT/0/9f5caced/O/EuropeHistory.png)

Hi Simon - love those books that that seem to cover too much in the span of one-volume - just ordered the book inserted above, A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin from the History Book Club - not released yet but should arrive late next week?  However, I have 3 other books to start, so may be a while for that one?  Dave :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 02, 2019, 01:15:35 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on March 02, 2019, 09:24:02 AM
Hi Simon - love those books that that seem to cover too much in the span of one-volume - just ordered the book inserted above, A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin from the History Book Club - not released yet but should arrive late next week?  However, I have 3 other books to start, so may be a while for that one?  Dave :)

I didn't mean to keep going with The Penguin History Of The World. I picked it up expecting to confirm that it would just be everything once over lightly with a succession of names, places and dates. But it actually justifies its much reprinted status, largely because the personality and quirks of the author come through so clearly and unapologetically - in the manner of, say, your favorite lecturer at university. Likewise the threads he choses to follow and his take on things are often unexpected - try not to raise your eyebrows  when you hear how unimpressed he is with the "achievements" and "legacy" of ancient Egypt, for example. And, of course, plenty of signposts for things I now want to look into in more detail.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 02, 2019, 01:55:22 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 02, 2019, 01:15:35 PM
I didn't mean to keep going with The Penguin History Of The World. I picked it up expecting to confirm that it would just be everything once over lightly with a succession of names, places and dates. But it actually justifies its much reprinted status, largely because the personality and quirks of the author come through so clearly and unapologetically - in the manner of, say, your favorite lecturer at university. Likewise the threads he choses to follow and his take on things are often unexpected - try not to raise your eyebrows  when you hear how unimpressed he is with the "achievements" and "legacy" of ancient Egypt, for example. And, of course, plenty of signposts for things I now want to look into in more detail.
I hesitate to ask about the Mitchell book. She's an icon in Canada of course, proving no country is without its flaws. I truly loathe Big Yellow Taxi.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 02, 2019, 02:14:43 PM
Quote from: Ken B on March 02, 2019, 01:55:22 PM
I hesitate to ask about the Mitchell book. She's an icon in Canada of course, proving no country is without its flaws. I truly loathe Big Yellow Taxi.

Actually that was pretty good. The author got access to everyone, including Mitchell herself, and in covering her entire career with nearly equal focus it highlights some neglected gems on later albums. Some backstory and autobiographical elements in the songs which I hadn't been aware of before, despite having listened to and read about Joni for most of my adult life. Good, if tragic, coverage of the development of  her 80s and onwards self-destructive impulses and waspish character.

Not overly critical, though. Nothing is actually bad or a total misstep. The author describes having written an early article about Joni with a couple of innocuous asides she didn't like and being blackballed be her for years following. He's clearly not going to make that mistake again, so most things are presented best foot forward, and when presenting various takes on a situation is careful to let Joni's spin be the final word - even knowing that's not how the reader will weigh the charges. Way more gushing about the first two albums than I would care to do - While I quite like the first one I think the unique voice really comes into its own with the third.


There's considerably more to her than "Big Yellow Taxi" or "Both Sides Now" if that's all you really know of her. The decade of albums she made in the 70s are a remarkable run, including "Hejira" which is just about my favorite album by anyone. And "Blue" and "Court And Spark" I've played thousands of times. I could give more and specific recommendations if you want them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on March 06, 2019, 02:47:53 PM
https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2019/03/06/how-get-your-digital-affairs-order/sM9xWUrECUGzfmnzfkA83H/story.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 07, 2019, 06:03:46 AM
If you don't mind me asking, Karl, do you like Our Mutual Friend so far?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 08, 2019, 11:07:12 AM
Now reading Mann's The Magic Mountain in English - unabridged, finally.  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 08, 2019, 12:47:10 PM
Quote from: Alberich on March 08, 2019, 11:07:12 AM
Now reading Mann's The Magic Mountain in English - unabridged, finally.  ::)

A milestone in one's life, I say  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 09, 2019, 03:51:15 AM
Good and rather scary. Schweblin is an interesting young writer from Argentine living in Germany whose work I look forward to following.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5151kMMt4nL._SX355_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 09, 2019, 06:57:04 PM
I just finished

Death of a Hollow Man
Caroline Graham

This is a Barnaby novel. Midsomer is not mentioned but these are the source of Midsomer Murders.

This book is terrible. Terrible.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 12, 2019, 08:08:08 AM
That study people cite about women and blind Orchestra auditions? https://medium.com/@jsmp/orchestrating-false-beliefs-about-gender-discrimination-a25a48e1d02 (https://medium.com/@jsmp/orchestrating-false-beliefs-about-gender-discrimination-a25a48e1d02)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 12, 2019, 11:42:39 PM
(https://www.babelio.com/couv/CVT_Je-voudrais-que-la-nuit-me-prenne_9092.jpg)

I think it's rather good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on March 13, 2019, 06:10:09 AM
Quote from: Ken B on March 09, 2019, 06:57:04 PM
I just finished

Death of a Hollow Man
Caroline Graham

This is a Barnaby novel. Midsomer is not mentioned but these are the source of Midsomer Murders.

This book is terrible. Terrible.

As my auld granny would say "Hell mend ye".
;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 14, 2019, 11:58:21 AM
Just started:

https://bibliotheque-russe-et-slave.com/Livres/Lermontov%20-%20Un%20heros%20de%20notre%20temps.pdf (https://bibliotheque-russe-et-slave.com/Livres/Lermontov%20-%20Un%20heros%20de%20notre%20temps.pdf)

Lermontov - A Hero of Our Time (French translation)

Hat tip to NikF4, this looks very promising. I wonder why I've been waiting for that long before reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 16, 2019, 03:06:25 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hsMB5VMYL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fSEpfEB4L._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

this had better improve soon, because the opening chapters on roots and causes are a mess, with no attempt at untangling


also on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jGoZLY48L._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/313uYnnIkvL._SX316_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 16, 2019, 06:33:22 PM
On tape, at the gym, so in short sessions:

The Perilous Question
Antonia Fraser

I am enjoying it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 17, 2019, 09:31:16 AM
(https://img.archambault.ca/images/PG/1361/1361072-gf.jpg?404=default&w=400)

Gaston Leroux' first big success (1907). His most famous opus was yet to come: The Phantom of the Opera.

The Yellow Room was adapted on the screen (5 times), on tv, radio, on cartoon series. Much admired by Agatha Christie, Jean Cocteau and the Surrealists.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on March 24, 2019, 08:18:09 AM
Well, some new ones - first two Kindle DLs on my iPad and two others as physical books - all in the process of being read:

Earth-Shattering (2019) by Bob Berman - purchased based on a recent NPR interview w/ the author - fascinating account of the universe's cataclysmic events from the 'Big Bang' 13.8 billion years ago, to the creation of the earth & moon, and many other events that will astound - highly recommended, esp. to astronomy fans!

An Elegant Defense (2019) by Matt Richtel - also bought after hearing the author's comments on an NPR interview - the history, science, research, and other topics regarding the human immune system - about half way through and fascinating to me (as a retired physician).

A Short History of Europe (2019) by Simon Jenkins - from Pericles to Putin - LOL!  Of course, not easy books to write - conciseness a must but now up to the start of the Crusades and enjoying; much of the history is familiar to me but there are a lot of 'new' facts that are new (for me) - recommended if you like these 'short overview' attempts to sum up a complicated portion of the world's history.

Oxford History of Western Music, 2nd Ed (2019) by Richard Taruskin & Christopher Gibbs - about every six years or so, I like buying a 'college type' tome on Western Classical Music; usually have obtained the Norton book (have the 8th ed from 2010) - the price on these books has really escalated, so likely the last one that I'll purchase - so far, an excellent read - into the Baroque period - I only do about 10 pages at a time, so will take a number of weeks.  Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51s5x42E32L._SY346_.jpg)  (https://cdn.sfstation.com/assets/images/events/0237/2377728/1550806681-2377728a_orig.png)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517ZdFvBIwL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WdYtEgaeL._SX398_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 24, 2019, 04:10:52 PM
Quote from: Ken B on March 09, 2019, 06:57:04 PM
I just finished

Death of a Hollow Man
Caroline Graham

This is a Barnaby novel. Midsomer is not mentioned but these are the source of Midsomer Murders.

This book is terrible. Terrible.

Ooh, curious. We are watching Midsomer on Netflix and loving almost every minute (that one about crop circles was dodgy...). I have no familiarity with the original novels. Are the TV adaptations such a huge improvement??
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 24, 2019, 04:42:53 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 24, 2019, 04:10:52 PM
Ooh, curious. We are watching Midsomer on Netflix and loving almost every minute (that one about crop circles was dodgy...). I have no familiarity with the original novels. Are the TV adaptations such a huge improvement??
I watched some of the early seasons and liked them (I am told they have fallen off in later years). They are somewhat different from the books based on this one. The TV series is a perfect embodiment of "Mayhem Parva". I think there are only 6 or 7 books so the series became independent.
There is no Midsomer in the books, just Causton. Troy is a fat homophobic sexist looking for a chance to cheat on his wife. There was no murder until more than a third into the book, but in the show bodies drop like rain.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 24, 2019, 10:51:27 PM
Great collection of short stories by Lucia Berlin. Fans of Raymond Carver style may enjoy her writing.

(https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59bdcebae3df28bd2da4482d/59bdd2d3cd0f681dbe29b0e4/5b9b3b256d2a731111411145/1537061974834/41r59S%2ByyuL._SX331_BO1%2C204%2C203%2C200_.jpg?format=500w)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on March 25, 2019, 03:40:40 AM
(https://www.bookelis.com/49310-image_librairie/A-DOLL-S-HOUSE.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 27, 2019, 02:27:39 AM
Knocked off this quickie:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41EWB0WNjgL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

...and was mostly disappointed. Despite being ostensibly set after the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war It reads like something Le Carre had in a drawer since the mid sixties with no change in the depiction of technology or spycraft.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on March 27, 2019, 03:26:54 AM
So better than average for him then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 27, 2019, 09:38:11 PM
Quote from: Ken B on March 27, 2019, 03:26:54 AM
So better than average for him then.

Heh. Its been a long time since I read his two famous ones, but the other couple of his I've read in recent years seemed slight and easily forgotten.

I did, however, like his collection of miscellaneous nonfiction The Pigeon Tunnel - especially the long interview with Kim Philby's boss (his British one, that is).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on March 31, 2019, 03:58:56 AM
Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

When mentioning I was going to read this I was asked to post my thoughts

I believe it was worth reading. I'm not going to mention motifs or symbols or morality tales. Instead, I'll highlight the accurate insight into human nature. Usually I regret having to read a translation of a book in the language other than it was originally written, but in this instance the message is still clear. Sometimes people will fuck with - or simply fuck - someone just because they can. Dress it up as grand as you like, but it's as straightforward as that. So despite the way seduction is being presented here as a game there's also reward for those well informed and mature enough to see a clearer picture of what's going on. For others lacking in life experience (or personal honesty) it might be reduced to a series of 'wonderfully wicked!' or 'delightfully devilish!' incidents relatable only within a comfortable soap opera style frame of reference. Definitely for adults. Definitely not for children of any age.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on April 01, 2019, 12:53:22 AM
Tonight on the train I will be (re?;D)reading -

(https://i.postimg.cc/g2sXZcSD/IMG-20190401-080441-745.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 04, 2019, 02:51:26 AM
Finished

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81GCEcjAAdL.jpg)

Not the best Murakami, not the worst. But I enjoy his variations on familiar themes, even if this seems like only two thirds of a book he just ran out of ideas on and wrapped up quickly.


Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ysT0nUz7L._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on April 04, 2019, 04:22:16 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 27, 2019, 02:27:39 AM
Knocked off this quickie:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41EWB0WNjgL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

...and was mostly disappointed. Despite being ostensibly set after the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war It reads like something Le Carre had in a drawer since the mid sixties with no change in the depiction of technology or spycraft.

I have read only a few Le Carré altogether but one pretty good post-cold war (although more precisely it does contain episodes from the cold war era) is "Absolute friends". At least to me it did not read like a recycled sixties plot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 04, 2019, 02:59:13 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on April 04, 2019, 04:22:16 AM
I have read only a few Le Carré altogether but one pretty good post-cold war (although more precisely it does contain episodes from the cold war era) is "Absolute friends". At least to me it did not read like a recycled sixties plot.

i haven't read that one, but will give it a chance if it comes my way. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on April 10, 2019, 05:50:30 AM
Started reading Hamlet in original English although in an edition with footnotes explaining obsolete words, sentences and sayings. Thus the reading is slow but also very rewarding.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 10, 2019, 08:21:44 AM
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood Of 1927
John M Barry

So far a fascinating book. I read Barry's book on Roger Williams, which was also excellent.

The Axeman's Jazz
Ray Celestin
A novel about a real series of murders in New Orleans in 1919
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: StarThrower62 on April 11, 2019, 11:26:40 AM
The Mind's I by Daniel Dennett and Douglas Hofstadter
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on April 14, 2019, 08:54:42 AM
The Eighth day, Thorton Wilder

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NvbxhKN2L._SY346_.jpg)

I don't know where I found this one. A sort of murder mystery that takes place in an early 20th century mining town in the central U.S. Along the way there are a lot of philosophical and cultural musings. A good book, but more ponderous than I was expecting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on April 14, 2019, 12:11:02 PM
Rereading Ringworld by Larry Niven.

As entertaining as l remember from the first time around, a few decades ago.

" I have a variable sword ",

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on April 14, 2019, 01:43:43 PM
A vacation trip to the US wouldn't be complete without a book. John Grisham's The Whistler will be in my suitcase.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 15, 2019, 10:24:37 PM
A very interesting article about one man's religious conversion. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/05/why-i-became-muslim (https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/05/why-i-became-muslim)
An antidote to Woke.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 16, 2019, 11:52:52 AM
Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point

This is a re-read after many years. I cannot remember how I got on the first time, even tough I read quite a lot of his novels when I was a young man. This time around, however, I found it tough going. Perhaps as one grows older one gets impatient when a plot or character development is slow and tedious?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 16, 2019, 12:09:40 PM
Quote from: aligreto on April 16, 2019, 11:52:52 AM
Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point

This is a re-read after many years. I cannot remember how I got on the first time, even tough I read quite a lot of his novels when I was a young man. This time around, however, I found it tough going. Perhaps as one grows older one gets impatient when a plot or character development is slow and tedious?
It is interesting how your reaction changes to some things over time. I can think of several books I really l8ked but could not reread. I can only think of a few I liked more the second time. In general I find the "classics" hold up very well, but more "commercial" stuff like thrillers does not.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 16, 2019, 12:14:16 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 16, 2019, 12:09:40 PM
It is interesting how your reaction changes to some things over time. I can think of several books I really l8ked but could not reread. I can only think of a few I liked more the second time. In general I find the "classics" hold up very well, but more "commercial" stuff like thrillers does not.

All true here too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 16, 2019, 12:15:55 PM
My experience is usually the reverse --- on the first reading I struggle with some books but then on the 2nd or 3rd I eventually ask myself: how could I have not like this excellent book? The most striking case in this respect is Stendhal's Le rouge et le noir, which I finished and greatly enjoyed on the 3rd reading only.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on April 16, 2019, 12:17:30 PM
The Log from the Sea of Cortez, by John Steinbeck.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 16, 2019, 12:21:15 PM
Quote from: LKB on April 16, 2019, 12:17:30 PM
The Log from the Sea of Cortez, by John Steinbeck.

I read that about 40 years ago! I devoured Steinbeck when I was a young man. Based on the relevant comments above I am afraid to re-visit his writing for fear that I will not appreciate them as much as I once did. Perhaps I will find more in them now? It is something of a conundrum for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on April 16, 2019, 12:32:33 PM
Quote from: aligreto on April 16, 2019, 11:52:52 AM
Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point

This is a re-read after many years. I cannot remember how I got on the first time, even tough I read quite a lot of his novels when I was a young man. This time around, however, I found it tough going. Perhaps as one grows older one gets impatient when a plot or character development is slow and tedious?

That is a book I read and enjoyed many years ago and which I've been planning to re-read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 16, 2019, 12:37:04 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 16, 2019, 12:15:55 PM
My experience is usually the reverse --- on the first reading I struggle with some books but then on the 2nd or 3rd I eventually ask myself: how could I have not like this excellent book? The most striking case in this respect is Stendhal's Le rouge et le noir, which I finished and greatly enjoyed on the 3rd reading only.
Some are a bit slow, as they put it in the South.  :laugh:

That has been my favorite novel since I read it. I have read it 3 times, and next time will read it in French.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 16, 2019, 12:41:24 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 16, 2019, 12:37:04 PM
Some are a bit slow, as they put it in the South.  :laugh:

That has been my favorite novel since I read it. I have read it 3 times, and next time will read it in French.

I liked La chartreuse de Parme better, in that I finished and greatly enjoyed it on the first reading. Rumor has it that Lucien Leuwen is even  better than both LRELNR and LCDP --- have you read it? If yes, can you confirm or infirm the rumor?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 16, 2019, 12:50:46 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 16, 2019, 12:41:24 PM
I liked La chartreuse de Parme better, in that I finished and greatly enjoyed it on the first reading. Rumor has it that Lucien Leuwen is even  better than both LRELNR and LCDP --- have you read it? If yes, can you confirm or infirm the rumor?
Have not read it. Parma is on the reread list.
Empty your mailbox!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 16, 2019, 12:56:01 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 16, 2019, 12:50:46 PM
Empty your mailbox!

Done.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on April 16, 2019, 05:31:32 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 16, 2019, 12:15:55 PM
My experience is usually the reverse --- on the first reading I struggle with some books but then on the 2nd or 3rd I eventually ask myself: how could I have not like this excellent book? The most striking case in this respect is Stendhal's Le rouge et le noir, which I finished and greatly enjoyed on the 3rd reading only.

May I point out that you found enough in Rouge et Noir  on the first try to read it a second time, and then a third time?

I admit that I have never read a page of Stendahl.  Any suggestions on which to try first?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on April 17, 2019, 12:31:18 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 15, 2019, 10:24:37 PM
A very interesting article about one man's religious conversion. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/05/why-i-became-muslim (https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/05/why-i-became-muslim)
An antidote to Woke.
And an indication for the total failure of the churches. If I get it right, this guy was at least as much looking for something like "christendom", i.e. a culture and tradition he could affirm as his own and live in as he was looking for spiritual enlightenment. That's why even as a muslim he stresses some common roots (like classical antiquity) and his fondness for British culture. But this was spoiled for him by the absurd stance towards 2500 years of Classical and Western/Christian culture of some modern academics. And the Christian churches apparently didn't offer much for him either (I don't think the paradoxes of the incarnation and trinitarism were the crucial point, this seems more like a rationalization.)

Now we see how weak cultural christianity (that still worked for atheist Evensong-loving Richard Dawkins) has become.
So finally, it is also a warning that postchristian atheism is probably not going to be stable and attractive. The Eastern bloc de-christianized its official culture but overall was quite affirmative towards many of to the grand cultural traditions, not that dissimilar from Dawkins love for church music. And of course it did have a powerful alternative narrative in communist ideology. The secularized West of today seems to have  seriously weakened the attachment and appreciation of tradition and it's ersatz narrative is less pompous but even hollower than what socialism offered: hedonist consumer culture in practice and vague and shallow ideas of internationalism and social justice in theory (or contrived and irrelevant postmodernist stuff in some niches).

So don't be surprised if vacua get filled by not very desirable options.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 17, 2019, 12:47:52 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on April 17, 2019, 12:31:18 AM
And an indication for the total failure of the churches. If I get it right, this guy was at least as much looking for something like "christendom", i.e. a culture and tradition he could affirm as his own and live in as he was looking for spiritual enlightenment. That's why even as a muslim he stresses some common roots (like classical antiquity) and his fondness for British culture. But this was spoiled for him by the absurd stance towards 2500 years of Classical and Western/Christian culture of some modern academics. And the Christian churches apparently didn't offer much for him either (I don't think the paradoxes of the incarnation and trinitarism were the crucial point, this seems more like a rationalization.)

Now we see how weak cultural christianity (that still worked for atheist Evensong-loving Richard Dawkins) has become.
So finally, it is also a warning that postchristian atheism is probably not going to be stable and attractive. The Eastern bloc de-christianized its official culture but overall was quite affirmative towards many of to the grand cultural traditions, not that dissimilar from Dawkins love for church music. And of course it did have a powerful alternative narrative in communist ideology. The secularized West of today seems to have  seriously weakened the attachment and appreciation of tradition and it's ersatz narrative is less pompous but even hollower than what socialism offered: hedonist consumer culture in practice and vague and shallow ideas of internationalism and social justice in theory (or contrived and irrelevant postmodernist stuff in some niches).

So don't be surprised if vacua get filled by not very desirable options.

Excellent post. And let's nor forget that in Eastern Europe one of the major forces opposed to, and by, the official ideology was precisely the Christian religion. Poland is the prime example, and remains probably the only European Catholic country where the Church is thriving and plays a major social, cultural and even political role.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on April 17, 2019, 12:54:09 AM
I read both the Sea of Cortez, Point Counterpoint and Rouge and Noir in my youth. These days I mostly read non-fiction, biographies and crime novels for lighter relieff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 17, 2019, 10:45:32 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on April 16, 2019, 12:32:33 PM
That is a book I read and enjoyed many years ago and which I've been planning to re-read.

It would be interesting to read your thoughts whenever you do so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 17, 2019, 11:22:47 AM
Quote from: JBS on April 16, 2019, 05:31:32 PM
May I point out that you found enough in Rouge et Noir  on the first try to read it a second time, and then a third time?

True.  :)

Quote
I admit that I have never read a page of Stendahl.  Any suggestions on which to try first?

If you like your psychological analysis wrapped in rather page-turning action, try La chartreuse de Parme. If action is not much of a concern, then Le rouge et le noir.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 18, 2019, 03:46:42 AM
Quote from: aligreto on April 16, 2019, 11:52:52 AM
Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point

This is a re-read after many years. I cannot remember how I got on the first time, even tough I read quite a lot of his novels when I was a young man. This time around, however, I found it tough going. Perhaps as one grows older one gets impatient when a plot or character development is slow and tedious?

Huxley's Point Counter Point made a big impression on me when I was in my late teens, in a way that none of his other novels quite matched.

Coincidentally I found one of his essay collections I hadn't yet read in a secondhand shop just a few days ago and am looking forward to getting into it:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/WORLDOFRAREBOOKS/md/md30191635731.jpg)


recently finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71y8eo8LQ6L.jpg)

Jack Reacher No.8. This is the one that's set back in 1990. The writing, structure and plots  keep getting better in steady increments, but he still hasn't learned how to wrap things up well. A couple of plot twists were obvious right from the start. But I'll continue with the series.

on the go, depending on whether I want something a litte easier or a little heavier:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71VMXi4EFcL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/419kQz%2Bi9CL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on April 18, 2019, 07:06:06 AM
Had a wonderful time voraciously working my way through Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series, e.g. Pillars of the Earth, World Without End and lastly, A Column of Fire.  I had purchased the first book in the series ages ago, but for some reason or another (I'm embarrassed to admit), had never gotten around to reading it 'til about a month or so ago.  I can certainly see why it was a world-wide best seller!

I thought of it the other day whilst watching the news coverage of Notre Dame; they even contacted Mr. Follett--who, from what I understand, had spent an extensive amount of time in the cathedral researching it for his novels and discussing what he thought about the fire and how it had spread so rapidly, etc. and also bringing up what one of his characters had done in Pillars.  I don't want to say more and spoil it for those who are interested in reading the book(s).

Are there other fans of this series here? 

Serendipitously, I ran across a nice used hardcover copy of Fall of Giants by him at a bookstore whilst waiting for a takeout.  Hope to start that one in the near future.

Best wishes,

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 18, 2019, 08:47:39 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 18, 2019, 03:46:42 AM
Huxley's Point Counter Point made a big impression on me when I was in my late teens, in a way that none of his other novels quite matched.

Coincidentally I found one of his essay collections I hadn't yet read in a secondhand shop just a few days ago and am looking forward to getting into it:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/WORLDOFRAREBOOKS/md/md30191635731.jpg)



I have not read those essays. I would be interested in reading your thoughts whenever you get to read them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 19, 2019, 05:54:26 AM
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/6747/9780674779341.jpg)

Although it's mostly too technical for me, I greatly enjoy the general comments he makes and his humorous and witty style. Lots of stuff for the Quotations thread, actually, liek for instance this one: Liszt's early works are shallow and great, his later ones are admirable and minor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 19, 2019, 11:09:23 AM
The Great Awokening. https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/17/listening-at-the-great-awokening/ (https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/17/listening-at-the-great-awokening/)

Andrei, do look at this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 19, 2019, 11:43:56 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 19, 2019, 11:09:23 AM
The Great Awokening. https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/17/listening-at-the-great-awokening/ (https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/17/listening-at-the-great-awokening/)

Andrei, do look at this.

I just did and I have only one comment:

Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on April 19, 2019, 01:39:15 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 19, 2019, 11:09:23 AM
The Great Awokening. https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/17/listening-at-the-great-awokening/ (https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/17/listening-at-the-great-awokening/)

Andrei, do look at this.
So what do you think is the fundamental drive for people joining the cult?

I saw an interview recently with Anton LaVey and what he said about God and Satan is the same basic concept. People want to be on the correct and winning team, but they also need an enemy. Without the existence of Satan, think of how much less the impact is of the goodness of God. Without there being any sports teams in other cities, the local football team will have no opponents, and therefore won't be able to win anything.

So it's all tribalism. To appear good, you need an enemy at any cost, even at the expense of facts (as demonstrated by the article). Which weirds me out as someone who actually doesn't want to "fit in" with a group, to see people so desperate to belong somewhere.

As for the end of the article, as the saying goes... Get Woke, Go Broke (it's a saying supported by many examples over the last few years).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 21, 2019, 09:22:56 AM
Revisiting that monument of world poetry that is Baudelaire's Les fleurs du mal, this time in the edition illustrated by Henri Matisse:

[asin]2754109536[/asin]

« Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté ».

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 21, 2019, 09:42:14 AM
Quote from: ritter on April 21, 2019, 09:22:56 AM
Revisiting that monument of world poetry that is Baudelaire's Les fleurs du mal, this time in the edition illustrated by Henri Matisse:

[asin]2754109536[/asin]

« Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté ».

Pour l'enfant, amoureux de cartes et d'estampes,
L'univers est égal à son vaste appétit.
Ah! que le monde est grand à la clarté des lampes!
Aux yeux du souvenir que le monde est petit!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on April 21, 2019, 01:18:48 PM
A long but excellent article explaining the technical issues in the 737 Max

https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/how-the-boeing-737-max-disaster-looks-to-a-software-developer (https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/how-the-boeing-737-max-disaster-looks-to-a-software-developer)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 02, 2019, 06:56:27 PM
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-disquieting-power-of-wilhelm-furtwangler-hitlers-court-conductor/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 03, 2019, 05:57:46 AM
Quote from: JBS on May 02, 2019, 06:56:27 PM
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-disquieting-power-of-wilhelm-furtwangler-hitlers-court-conductor/

Interesting article. I wonder if the title is the author's own or if some editorial board plugged it on ?

Knappertsbusch disliked rehearsals and recordings, relying on the inspiration of the concert/opera night. I don't think that would make his a 'more disciplined approach' than Furtwängler's.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 03, 2019, 06:12:28 AM
Quote from: André on May 03, 2019, 05:57:46 AM
Interesting article. I wonder if the title is the author's own or if some editorial board plugged it on ?

Knappertsbusch disliked rehearsals and recordings, relying on the inspiration of the concert/opera night. I don't think that would make his a 'more disciplined approach' than Furtwängler's.

Especially as Furtwangler had a reputation for being demanding. I too think the headl8ne unfair.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 03, 2019, 06:53:54 AM
In my experience writing for various publications, I've been asked to suggest headlines if the editor isn't clear what point I'm trying to make  ;D , but generally that is the domain of the editors, not the writers.

I thought the article was a fascinating read.

André, I have hardly listened to any Knappertsbusch, but I interpreted that discipline comment as referring to audible traits like rubato rather than work habits.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 03, 2019, 09:48:02 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 03, 2019, 06:53:54 AM
In my experience writing for various publications, I've been asked to suggest headlines if the editor isn't clear what point I'm trying to make  ;D , but generally that is the domain of the editors, not the writers.

I thought the article was a fascinating read.

André, I have hardly listened to any Knappertsbusch, but I interpreted that discipline comment as referring to audible traits like rubato rather than work habits.

That could be. The article doesn't make it clear IMO. Having Karajan and Knappertsbusch as examples of 'more discipline' in the same sentence/context does invite questioning. Still, a very interesting read as you mention.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 03, 2019, 10:22:28 AM
Well has been a few months since my last posting and onto some new books - the top two are currently being read (first in hardback & second on my iPad - same author); the lower two are hardbacks in my 'to read' pile - Dave :)

The Great War in America: World War I and Its Aftermath (2018) by Garrett Peck - a different look at the Great War through an American perspective - short review HERE (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/garrett-peck/the-great-war-in-america/) for those interested in the topic (and its aftermath relative to WW II and the Middle East).

The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet (2009) by Garett Peck - enjoyed the author's writing in the Great War book and looked for others by him - this one on 'alcohol in America' piqued my interest being an avid wine drinker - short description below from Amazon.

Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants (2018) by H.W. Brands - biography of the three giants who dominated Congress in the first half of the 19th Century, namely Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster.

The Pirate World: A History of the Most Notorious Sea Robbers (2019) by Angus Konstam - I've loved pirates since boyhood and could not resist this new book on the topic; plus, living just hours from the Carolina coast where Blackbeard roamed furthers the interest - looking forward to starting this one soon!  Dave :)

QuoteSociety is constantly evolving, and so are our drinking habits. "The Prohibition Hangover" examines the modern American temperament toward drink amid the $189-billion- dollar-a-year industry that defines itself by the production, distribution, marketing, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Based on primary research, including hundreds of interviews with those on all sides--clergy, bar and restaurant owners, public health advocates, citizen crusaders, industry representatives, and more--as well as secondary sources, Garrett Peck provides a panoramic assessment of alcohol in American culture and history. (Amazon Source)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51wkOQTqWoL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41FmpMLWDwL.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519PgJJPswL.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51M28XOBMsL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on May 03, 2019, 10:35:20 AM
Quote from: JBS on May 02, 2019, 06:56:27 PM
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-disquieting-power-of-wilhelm-furtwangler-hitlers-court-conductor/

$229 for a collection of 70+ year old recordings?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 03, 2019, 10:39:11 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on May 03, 2019, 10:22:28 AM
The Pirate World: A History of the Most Notorious Sea Robbers (2019) by Angus Konstam - I've loved pirates since boyhood and could not resist this new book on the topic; plus, living just hours from the Carolina coast where Blackbeard roamed furthers the interest - looking forward to starting this one soon!  Dave :)
I read a fun little book a couple years ago called, I think, "The Invisible Hook: The Economics of Pirates" - would recommend that!

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on May 03, 2019, 10:35:20 AM
$229 for a collection of 70+ year old recordings?

Everything on that label is outrageously expensive. I see a set of Rattle conducting the four Schumann symphonies for $53.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 03, 2019, 01:12:37 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 03, 2019, 10:39:11 AM
I read a fun little book a couple years ago called, I think, "The Invisible Hook: The Economics of Pirates" - would recommend that!

Everything on that label is outrageously expensive. I see a set of Rattle conducting the four Schumann symphonies for $53.

Thanks Brian for the recommendation - sounds like the book below - will put on my 'Kindle list' - :)  Dave
.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-FMkkLHT/0/6f6d9ed2/L/InvisibleHook-L.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 03, 2019, 01:26:09 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on May 03, 2019, 01:12:37 PM
Thanks Brian for the recommendation - sounds like the book below - will put on my 'Kindle list' - :)  Dave
.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-FMkkLHT/0/6f6d9ed2/L/InvisibleHook-L.png)
Interesting book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 03, 2019, 05:51:01 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ERJ1ZW7FL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51qOmeGcPAL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: geralmar on May 03, 2019, 07:23:06 PM
(https://i.postimg.cc/SKqsqxBj/903829-UY200.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
1999

The more I read by Clarke the smaller he becomes.  It becomes abundantly clear in reading this 500+ page book he was his own greatest admirer.  Decades ago when I was in junior high school, the schoolmate son of a respected academic told me his father had recently met Clarke at a scientific conference and the author was greatly offended that the father had no idea who he (Clarke) was.

As the subtitle indicates, the book is a collection of Clarke's published brief essays and writings (110) over six decades.  Breezily written, the essays strike me as mostly vapid and I especially tired of his travelogue writings on Ceylon since obviously I will never be privileged or important enough (like Clarke) to live there.  His observations on science fiction writing and science (especially on rocketry and space exploration) are certainly interesting and worthwhile; but not particularly original, and his earlier essays, while reasonably and commendably accurate about the future, do not make him a prophet.  I was amused by the photograph selection in the middle of the book.  Except for the first, which showed a young Clarke in military uniform, every photo that followed could be captioned, "The author shaking hands with xxx celebrity/dignitary."  I did find interesting his experiences with Kubrick on 2001 and the sequel; but they amount to only a few pages.  In fairness to Clarke, he refers the reader to a previous book. 

The book gets generally positive reviews, however, so maybe I'm just being curmudgeonly.  I left science fiction along with my youth long ago and therefore did not approach Clarke with particular reverence.  I do hope, however, to find "A Fall of Moondust".   I started it in junior high and would like to finish it some day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 11, 2019, 11:06:52 AM
(https://archive.org/services/img/romenaplesetflor02sten)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 11, 2019, 12:37:29 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 11, 2019, 11:06:52 AM
(https://archive.org/services/img/romenaplesetflor02sten)

I have never read Stendhal yet (although I have, of course, heard of him). Is he good?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 11, 2019, 12:46:45 PM
Quote from: Alberich on May 11, 2019, 12:37:29 PM
Is he good?

Excellent!  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on May 13, 2019, 08:12:29 AM
I just finished rereading Failure is not an Option, by Gene Kranz. For anyone interested in the American manned space program ( the " race to the Moon " ) during the 1960's, l would say this book is indispensable.

3... 2... 1...,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 13, 2019, 11:24:16 AM
Starting this:

[asin]2072846781[/asin]
This recently released book by critic Thierry Laget, dealing with the controversy surrounding the awarding of the Prix Goncourt to Marcel Proust for À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur (Within a Budding Grove) in 1919 has received excellent reviews in France. What nowadays would be seen as nothing more than a historical footnote, is apparently used to give an insightful account of French literary life at the time, and unveil some hitherto unexplored angles about Proust the man and his relationship to the establishment and the press. There's a mention this treatise is published "under the direction of Jean-Yves Tadié" (arguably the greatest living Proust scholar)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 14, 2019, 01:08:07 PM
I have just finished reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón: The Labyrinth of the Spirits  [Translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves]


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51nJ21yuCkL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This has been one of the most compelling reads that I have experienced in many years. The style of writing is [in English anyway] quite simple and flowing and easily lends itself to storytelling. This may have a lot to do with the translation which, if this is true, seems excellent; I don't know. The power of the writing gives great impact to the visualization process which can be powerfully cinematic in places. The characters are well rounded, believable and engaging. This was one of those books where I was torn between wanting to hurriedly devour and simultaneously prolong the enjoyment for as long as possibly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 15, 2019, 07:15:18 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AzH0oUqyL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This is first George Eliot novel that I've read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 15, 2019, 07:49:37 AM
Quote from: Alberich on May 15, 2019, 07:15:18 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AzH0oUqyL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This is first George Eliot novel that I've read.

I have not read that one in a long time but I do remember liking it for its strong characterization.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zeus on May 16, 2019, 08:52:42 PM
Bad Blood - The Theranos scandal in glorious detail!

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41tmqEUIbSL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 17, 2019, 01:42:46 PM
Quote from: Zeus on May 16, 2019, 08:52:42 PM
Bad Blood - The Theranos scandal in glorious detail!

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41tmqEUIbSL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I found that a real page turner.

TD: Ten Great Ideas About Chance
Diaconis & Skyrms
A dense but so far excellent historical look at foundational ideas in probability.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 17, 2019, 02:36:08 PM
My gf also thought the Theranos book was a great read. She kept reading me passages from it while I tried to read my own book   ;D

I update her on Holmes stories now. She is happily dating some poor oblivious guy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 17, 2019, 05:30:21 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ag0FdvFqL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1IWiZNj6PL.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81bIyYrbGcL._AC_UL320_SR216,320_.jpg)

as well as still picking away at the Swafford Beethoven biography off and on
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 17, 2019, 07:17:30 PM
The Shamed interests me. We seem to have settled on Gladys Kravitz as our new role model. Was it worth reading?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 17, 2019, 07:46:21 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 17, 2019, 07:17:30 PM
The Shamed interests me. We seem to have settled on Gladys Kravitz as our new role model. Was it worth reading?

I thought conservatives were all for public shaming.  Well, except when it's directed at them apparently.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 17, 2019, 08:16:20 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 17, 2019, 07:17:30 PM
The Shamed interests me. We seem to have settled on Gladys Kravitz as our new role model. Was it worth reading?

In a freewheeling, non-scholarly way it's actually very good. Somehow I was expecting something much more frivolous, but he chooses his case studies well and with empathy  - and with much self criticism for having himself long been part of the righteous online shaming brigade. Interesting views on the various types of public shaming, the deserving and undeserving, and who gets to rebuild their lives and who never does and why. And of the unforgetting and unforgiving memory of the internet.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 17, 2019, 08:58:57 PM
Quote from: Daverz on May 17, 2019, 07:46:21 PM
I thought conservatives were all for public shaming.  Well, except when it's directed at them apparently.

Ronson doesn't address it, but I was thinking of the differences in D and R reactions to shaming all the way through reading the book, and of the differences in causes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 18, 2019, 05:57:37 AM
Quote from: Daverz on May 17, 2019, 07:46:21 PM
I thought conservatives were all for public shaming.  Well, except when it's directed at them apparently.
I am sure you believe lots of false things about conservatives.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 18, 2019, 01:13:18 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 18, 2019, 05:57:37 AM
I am sure you believe lots of false things about conservatives.

It's true that conservatives are constantly readjusting my conception of how low they can go all the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on May 18, 2019, 01:53:18 PM
Quote from: Daverz on May 18, 2019, 01:13:18 PM
It's true that conservatives are constantly readjusting my conception of how low they can go all the time.
Funny. You trip over one of your prejudices, and see it as confirmation!  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on May 18, 2019, 04:57:02 PM
(https://i.postimg.cc/SNwyq65W/IMG-20190519-014741-985.jpg)

Reading for the train journey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 03, 2019, 02:02:35 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518k5q1%2BjFL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

3/4 way through

As good as a one volume history of the subject can be, but there are paragraphs that could have been chapters and chapters that could easily have been entire books. As great a writer as Chernow is, its too much story for for a mere 800 pages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 10, 2019, 05:49:49 PM
(https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/onix/cvr9781501181115/1941-the-year-germany-lost-the-war-9781501181115_lg.jpg)

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/1941-The-Year-Germany-Lost-the-War/Andrew-Nagorski/9781501181115
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 11, 2019, 08:42:44 AM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780722183564-uk.jpg)

Fascinating reading. Ken, JBS, Todd, don't miss it if you haven't read it already.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on June 11, 2019, 10:34:38 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 11, 2019, 08:42:44 AM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780722183564-uk.jpg)

Fascinating reading. Ken, JBS, Todd, don't miss it if you haven't read it already.
Thanks for heads up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 11, 2019, 06:03:39 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 11, 2019, 08:42:44 AM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780722183564-uk.jpg)

Fascinating reading. Ken, JBS, Todd, don't miss it if you haven't read it already.

Noted
But if it's not at the public library, I may wait a while to read it.
Amazon US MP pricing
QuotePrice
New from   Used from
Hardcover   
—
—   $115.00
Paperback   
—
$1,027.25   $499.99
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: NikF4 on June 12, 2019, 04:56:20 AM
Anais Nin: Cities of the Interior, Volume 2.

(https://i.postimg.cc/j5Wkf9mX/LRM-EXPORT-46500560260171-20190612-133845985.jpg)

Took the opportunity offered by enforced absence to go through stuff in my gym locker and forgot I had this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 12, 2019, 08:33:31 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51sC8gPxGQL.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51k2GPq3bJL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on June 13, 2019, 12:05:00 PM
Halfway both:
(https://s.s-bol.com/imgbase0/imagebase3/large/FC/7/5/9/4/1001004008794957.jpg) (https://exlibris.azureedge.net/covers/9783/9580/1054/3/9783958010543xxl.jpg) (https://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/styles/nodeimage/public/blogs_2016/01/zweig.jpg?itok=5KzBTxvy)
                                                                                       The authors, Zweig and Roth, both exiled, meeting in the Summer of 1936 in the Belgian seaside resort of Ostende.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Muzio on June 16, 2019, 05:45:38 AM
Quote from: Daverz on May 17, 2019, 07:46:21 PM
I thought conservatives were all for public shaming.....
Yes, for example, the Covington school children and the local bakery near Oberlin College.  Those pesky conservatives!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 19, 2019, 03:53:32 PM
on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81WPSrPwLGL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61tOJyZ0NIL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 25, 2019, 08:04:03 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Ra3Rhp%2BrL._SX290_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

"Great" here meaning notable or worthy of attention - a few are damning portraits, including one on Adolph Hitler assessing and warning of his menace and ambition as viewed at the time of writing in 1935.

On the whole an excellent collection of biographical and psychological portraits (well, except for his unconvincingly positive assessment of Haig). I'm surprised it hasn't remained one of Churchill's more popular books.


Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41DNiDApjrL._SX314_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 26, 2019, 08:29:18 AM
Honoré De Balzac: Cousin Betty

Translated by: James Waring
Published by: The Home Library Book Co.

I am about one quarter of the way through this version and I am enjoying it. The translation is obviously very good as the narrative, and indeed the dialogue, flows very freely, neither of which is laboured in any way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 26, 2019, 09:31:11 AM
Starting this now almost forgotten novel:

[asin]2070202496[/asin]
I was only vaguely aware of Marcel Arland (1899-1986), but recently stumbled on his name again as his art collection was auctioned off in Paris. It included some rather interesting items, among them two terracotta bas-reliefs (one of the really superb) by Manolo Hugué (which alas way exceeded their pre-sale estimates and were thus beyond my reach).

Arland became director of La Nouvelle Revue Française in the 50s, succeeding Jean Paulhan (with whom he had closely collaborated). In 1968, he was elected to the Académie Française.

His novel L'Ordre, a roman de formation dealing with two brothers who had not fought in WW1 because of their age (something that must have been refreshing in literary circles at the time), won the Prix Goncourt in 1929. So far (two chapters in) the writing is rather accomplished and evocative. Let's see whether it can retain my interest for its 500+ pages...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 03, 2019, 04:36:01 PM
finished a couple of quickies:

Still going with Henry Adams

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c3/Yes_Please_book_cover.png/220px-Yes_Please_book_cover.png) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fVXztE8vL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 12, 2019, 03:28:48 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5148PbgSHHL._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41-D5dtDKmL.jpg)

Had Castiglione on my shelves unread for nearly two decades, but once dipped into I read it in a headlong rush in two sessions.

I was expecting a standard hectoring and priggish Etiquette Book, now only of historical intensest, but this is presented not in the author's voice but as a debate between nobles of the court of Urbino, some whose values reflect the Courtly tradition, others who are remarkably forward-looking, and we're left to judge the best advice/argument for ourselves.

There's a wonderful long middle section on humour that gives examples of varieties of jokes from the time, which would make an enjoyment on its own if anyone doesn't want to do the whole thing.

Will be following up soon with Peter Burke's history of the literary reception and influence of the work across the centuries, which I've also had waiting for two decades.

But in the meantime have started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514nz05memL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 12, 2019, 05:46:31 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 12, 2019, 03:28:48 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5148PbgSHHL._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41-D5dtDKmL.jpg)

Had Castiglione on my shelves unread for nearly two decades, but once dipped into I read it in a headlong rush in two sessions.

I was expecting a standard hectoring and priggish Etiquette Book, now only of historical intensest, but this is presented not in the author's voice but as a debate between nobles of the court of Urbino, some whose values reflect the Courtly tradition, others who are remarkably forward-looking, and we're left to judge the best advice/argument for ourselves.

There's a wonderful long middle section on humour that gives examples of varieties of jokes from the time, which would make an enjoyment on its own if anyone doesn't want to do the whole thing.

Will be following up soon with Peter Burke's history of the literary reception and influence of the work across the centuries, which I've also had waiting for two decades.

But in the meantime have started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514nz05memL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Never read the Castiglione.

Embracing Defeat was good as I recall. Long ago I read a Japanese mystery written in 1947. In it was a character who was like a Japanese version of a Southern Lost Cause type. What amazed me was that by the author and the other characters he was treated as a joke. This in a pop novel two years after the war. A small but perfect example of the phenomenon of embracing defeat. So unlike the confederacy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 13, 2019, 08:34:49 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AH6W%2BgHcL._SX348_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Technicalities aside, I relish his revisionist outlook and his sense of humour.  Hands down my favourite musicologist / music critic / writer about music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on July 13, 2019, 04:29:41 PM
SimonNZ: I saw a few pages back that you read the first volume of Guralnick's Elvis bio. Have you read the second?

TD: Just finished this one -

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1qkvgKry9L.jpg)

And just started this one -

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91MrxdduTtL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 13, 2019, 08:16:41 PM
Quote from: Alek Hidell on July 13, 2019, 04:29:41 PM
SimonNZ: I saw a few pages back that you read the first volume of Guralnick's Elvis bio. Have you read the second?



Only volume one so far. Would you recommend the second?

Guralnick's certainly a good writer, and there was plenty of interesting detail I didn't know (not that I'm a particularly big Elvis fan), including the difficulty of a small operation like Sun having a major success nearly bankrupt them. Recreates the historical time and place well, too.

The Attica book looks interesting. How did you rate it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on July 14, 2019, 06:46:23 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 13, 2019, 08:16:41 PM
Only volume one so far. Would you recommend the second?

Guralnick's certainly a good writer, and there was plenty of interesting detail I didn't know (not that I'm a particularly big Elvis fan), including the difficulty of a small operation like Sun having a major success nearly bankrupt them. Recreates the historical time and place well, too.

The Attica book looks interesting. How did you rate it?

I recommend both. Of course the second half of Elvis' life is much sadder than the first, with Colonel Parker's exploitation of his meal ticket, the movie years, the great comeback in '68 followed by the eventual tragic decline to the end.

The Attica book is sad in its own way, too, but it's a well-told account that gives time to all sides. I read some Amazon reviews that accused the author of being biased in favor of the convicts, glossing over the crimes that landed them in the prison in the first place, but those seem to me to be barely relevant. No matter what their crimes, they had many legitimate grievances and, of course, the response to the riot - state police charging in like the Einsatzgruppen - was a total clusterfuck.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 14, 2019, 07:11:21 PM
Quote from: Alek Hidell on July 14, 2019, 06:46:23 PM
I recommend both. Of course the second half of Elvis' life is much sadder than the first, with Colonel Parker's exploitation of his meal ticket, the movie years, the great comeback in '68 followed by the eventual tragic decline to the end.


I thought Guralnick, in that first part at least, was much less damning of the Colonel than is usual. Presley wanted to be big and Parker had the connections and knew how to get him national rather than local exposure and market saturation. And if the films weren't that good, well, he seems to say, most films aren't. Still early days at the end of volume one, though.

I'll see if I can track down the Attica nook. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 22, 2019, 05:09:09 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/4192m-A-OOL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 22, 2019, 11:44:20 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/718BT2dz0BL.jpg)

This was published about three years ago, one of the few novels he's written in French and not Czech. It's very very good!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on July 25, 2019, 07:10:56 PM
Just started this... only about 40 pages in, but good so far.  And well-written, not too academic or dry.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31YB9tQE6rL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 25, 2019, 07:29:36 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 22, 2019, 11:44:20 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/718BT2dz0BL.jpg)

This was published about three years ago, one of the few novels he's written in French and not Czech. It's very very good!
Interesting. I read all of his books then in print sometime in the late 80s, but have lost track of him since. But I was thinking of him just last week. So, a book for the TBR list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Andy D. on July 29, 2019, 02:36:54 AM
It's convenient that Shostakovich's 7th clicked for me yesterday, as I just received and am about to dive into this book:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 29, 2019, 04:46:35 AM
Quote from: Andy D. on July 29, 2019, 02:36:54 AM
It's convenient that Shostakovich's 7th clicked for me yesterday, as I just received and am about to dive into this book:

Do report, when you may.

Thread Duty:

I am boldly going where our Gurn has gone long before, reading Haydn: His Life and Music by H.C.Robbins Landon and David Wyn Jones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on July 29, 2019, 06:19:32 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41WB3SINfTL.jpg)
Strenously detailed. The narrative is sometimes bogged down by what might best be called psychological speculation when documentary evidence does not exist . But gripping reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 30, 2019, 05:47:24 AM
Quote from: JBS on July 29, 2019, 06:19:32 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41WB3SINfTL.jpg)
Strenously detailed. The narrative is sometimes bogged down by what might best be called psychological speculation when documentary evidence does not exist . But gripping reading.
It occurs to me that you would like Freedom National by Oakes. I also highly recommend his Scorpion's Sting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on July 30, 2019, 11:21:08 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 30, 2019, 05:47:24 AM
It occurs to me that you would like Freedom National by Oakes. I also highly recommend his Scorpion's Sting.

I will keep an eye out for them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on July 30, 2019, 02:07:22 PM
Several things on the go

Devil in the Grove, King. Thurgood Marshall in Florida.
Sharpe's Revenge, Cornwell. Kinda wavering on this. I have read and liked several in the past but maybe enough.
Half life of facts, Arbesman. Audio book in the car.
Two textbooks on probability theory and stochastic processes. One more in queue.
Bleak House, Dickens. Reread
Some vintage whodunnit to be named in the next day or so. Probably Halfway House by Ellery Queen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 02, 2019, 01:16:27 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/919FEGKjb1L.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91K7UH5zgmL.jpg)


also my bus book for the past couple of weeks has been LeCarre's Little Drummer Girl which I'm finding to be the best thing he's written (of what I've read so far). This is by far the most attention he's paid to fleshing out characters and motivations and in general scene setting. Instead of just getting to the business of moving the story he seems to have enjoyed the process of writing this one and in taking his time.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/817u4WXIEUL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 02, 2019, 01:39:54 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 02, 2019, 01:16:27 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/919FEGKjb1L.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91K7UH5zgmL.jpg)


also my bus book for the past couple of weeks has been LeCarre's Little Drummer Girl which I'm finding to be the best thing he's written (of what I've read so far). This is by far the most attention he's paid to fleshing out characters and motivations and in general scene setting. Instead of just getting to the business of moving the story he seems to have enjoyed the process of writing this one and in taking his time.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/817u4WXIEUL.jpg)

The Evans is excellent.

I liked dDrummer Girl. If you are implying he is generally dull, I agree. Not much of interest after the Karla books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 02, 2019, 04:29:39 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 02, 2019, 01:39:54 PM
The Evans is excellent.

I liked dDrummer Girl. If you are implying he is generally dull, I agree. Not much of interest after the Karla books.

I meant that he usually only provides enough characterization to move the story along. It's unusual to see it being the point and the development and interior monologue done so extensively and so successfully.

Have you read the two following Evans third reich books?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 02, 2019, 04:44:15 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 02, 2019, 04:29:39 PM
I meant that he usually only provides enough characterization to move the story along. It's unusual to see it being the point and the development and interior monologue done so extensively and so successfully.

Have you read the two following Evans third reich books?

I am half way through the second. It got mislaid during packing and moving, but I plan to finish it once I find it ;)

My favorite book o the rise of the Nazis is still an old one, the German dictatorship by Bracher.

TD
I did settle on that Ellery Queen and am halfway. Not quite halfway with the Devil in the Grove. Good not great. The top of the queue is now The Marshall Plan by Steil.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 02, 2019, 04:54:14 PM
Quote from: Ken B on August 02, 2019, 04:44:15 PM
The Marshall Plan by Steil.

And that's another book in my queue though further down just st the moment. I'll be very interested to know what you think of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 07, 2019, 12:09:10 PM
Quote from: JBS on July 29, 2019, 06:19:32 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41WB3SINfTL.jpg)
Strenously detailed. The narrative is sometimes bogged down by what might best be called psychological speculation when documentary evidence does not exist . But gripping reading.

Well, I've debated about reading that book not because of the historic importance of Douglass, but the length is over 900 pages (according to Amazon - and have looked before) and at my age and attention span, I tend to now sway away from books that hit 500+ pages - just me, I guess.  Dave :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 07, 2019, 12:29:01 PM
Below my current books (first a hard copy and others on my iPad Pro) - all started - Pogue about done in view of my recent acquisition described below:

Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants (2018) by H.W. Brands - biography of the three giants who dominated Congress in the first half of the 19th Century, namely Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster - this was on my list back in early May, but just getting a start.

The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator (2019) by Timothy C. Winegard - just released - author interviewed on NPR recently which prompted my Kindle purchase - just started and already astounded by the numbers and history going back to the Jurassic era of the dinosaurs!

Turing's Vision: The Birth of Computer Science (2016) by Chris Bernhardt - another Kindle purchase and just starting; in part, prompted by the film The Imitation Game (2014) about Turing and the breaking of the code of the Enigma machine in WW II.

iPhone: The Missing Manual 12 edition by David Pogue - last week took Susan into Verizon to replace her old iPhone w/ the XR - well, they basically had a 'buy one and get one free' promo - now, I wasn't planning to replace my Jitterbug 'dumb' phone, but DID w/ that deal! Enjoying this 'new toy' and as usual, a Pogue book always helps.  Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519PgJJPswL._SY346_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31IGiaEcZnL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51RqPG90rSL.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51BsINmFoRL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 07, 2019, 01:59:39 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on August 07, 2019, 12:09:10 PM
Well, I've debated about reading that book not because of the historic importance of Douglass, but the length is over 900 pages (according to Amazon - and have looked before) and at my age and attention span, I tend to now sway away from books that hit 500+ pages - just me, I guess.  Dave :)
Heck, I'm 29 and I try to limit the 500+ pagers to only one or two per year. My attention span is fine, but there are so many books in the world!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on August 07, 2019, 02:24:13 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 07, 2019, 01:59:39 PM
Heck, I'm 29 and I try to limit the 500+ pagers to only one or two per year. My attention span is fine, but there are so many books in the world!

Hey Brian -  :laugh:  Well, in my 20s, I was going through medical books that could easily hit a 1000 pages or more!  But you're right, there are just too many good books on all sorts of topics to read, and despite the 'computer age' authors seem to continue to put out numerous ones on a weekly basis, both as 'hard copies' and electronic editions which I do enjoy!  Dave
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 07, 2019, 05:20:46 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/919AelgxUKL.jpg)

Started today, having also finished the first Evans volume which I found excellent:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ShmdTH6JL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

edit: interesting - the first volume was a straightforward narrative, whereas this one has a thematic framework
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Andy D. on August 08, 2019, 01:12:04 AM
Quote from: Andy D. on July 29, 2019, 02:36:54 AM
It's convenient that Shostakovich's 7th clicked for me yesterday, as I just received and am about to dive into this book:

Over halfway through and I learned so much about this era. Really engaging work about both Mitya and the historical period.

Reccomended, though I'm not sure how valuable this would be if you already know his biography and that part of history well.

I went on a wartime symphony binge while reading this one :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 10, 2019, 04:01:40 PM
https://opensourcedefense.org/blog/what-is-going-on-with-mass-shootings-lessons-from-past-solved-problems
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 10, 2019, 04:23:50 PM
Quote from: JBS on August 10, 2019, 04:01:40 PM
https://opensourcedefense.org/blog/what-is-going-on-with-mass-shootings-lessons-from-past-solved-problems

Interesting read. I saw a good analysis of school shootings along those lines a while ago. But the media want clicks and the political want tsuris.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 11, 2019, 04:51:49 AM
(https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1295660894l/7967.jpg)
I found Ender's Game to be rather unmemorable but I heard this was different so I've given it a chance. I'm finding that this is surprisingly good and even reminds me of Ursula Le Guin. Sadly, I find 99% of SciFi unreadable but, happily, this one is a pleasurable fluke.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 11, 2019, 04:55:18 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 17, 2019, 07:17:30 PM
The Shamed interests me. We seem to have settled on Gladys Kravitz as our new role model. Was it worth reading?
I thought this was a very engaging, entertaining and moving read. It's also very timely. I think people still are not considering this problem enough. Actually, I wish there were more writers as god as Ronson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 11, 2019, 05:42:12 PM
Quote from: milk on August 11, 2019, 04:55:18 AM
I thought this was a very engaging, entertaining and moving read. It's also very timely. I think people still are not considering this problem enough. Actually, I wish there were more writers as god as Ronson.
Thanks for the feedback. I agree about this kind of problem.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 17, 2019, 01:47:35 PM
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1958
[asin]0385422229[/asin]

And

[asin] 0802128394[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on August 17, 2019, 02:28:29 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51EBogBpyXL.jpg)

About a quarter of the way through. A page turner indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 17, 2019, 11:54:43 PM
Here's what I read over a week time of a vacation. All were moderately enjoyable but definitely not those authors' best work.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ej%2BdIS9VL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ptAh057zL.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Oedt0MoPL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 18, 2019, 05:06:15 PM
After Dark is almost certainly my least favorite Murakami, not downright bad, but his least typical, the least of what I like reading in him.

TD:

Finished volume two of the Richard Evans third reich series, which was even better than the already excellent volume one. Didn't think I'd continue into the third volume on the war years as military history is less interesting to me and I've already read quite a bit about the holocaust, but the sheer quality has me pushing forward. So starting today:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91watvqYq8L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 18, 2019, 05:48:41 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 18, 2019, 05:06:15 PM
After Dark is almost certainly my least favorite Murakami, not downright bad, but his least typical, the least of what I like reading in him.

TD:

Finished volume two of the Richard Evans third reich series, which was even better than the already excellent volume one. Didn't think I'd continue into the third volume on the war years as military history is less interesting to me and I've already read quite a bit about the holocaust, but the sheer quality has me pushing forward. So starting today:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91watvqYq8L.jpg)


I saw your post about the first volume, and got it today after work at Barnes and Noble.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 18, 2019, 06:11:04 PM
Quote from: JBS on August 18, 2019, 05:48:41 PM

I saw your post about the first volume, and got it today after work at Barnes and Noble.

I'll be very interested to hear your opinion of it whenever you get to it.


edit I also realise now I shouldn't have given away my unread copies of the Klemperer diaries some years back, thinking I'd never get around to them. Evans refers to many such source material, but Klemperer is one he returns to repeatedly, and the extracts have whetted my appetite for more. Will have to buy again.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5186RNHGMBL._SX340_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51SRXD2V57L._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

and another I'll have to get but hadn't heard of before reading vol.2 is Freidrich Reck's Diary Of A Man In Despair, which I see is now in a NYRB edition:

(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0726/9203/products/productimage-picture-diary-of-a-man-in-despair-317_c7dc4b20-6599-48b2-b524-87fd847e8ea1_1024x1024.png?v=1528394399)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on August 20, 2019, 01:47:27 PM
 https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/183033/israel-insider-guide (https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/183033/israel-insider-guide)

Never seen the Reck, but my library has a copy. Added to the list, which grows faster than it should.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on August 31, 2019, 05:50:16 PM
I am reading Rachel Cusk's Kudos. It is the 3rd part of a trilogy, but as there are is no plot and no characters (except the author), it shouldn't matter that I am reading it out of order (I read book 1 some time ago). Beautiful writing and provocative ideas. I'm a big fan.
[asin]B077DZ1WNZ[/asin]

   Exact OPPOSITE of my summer reading experience, which might serve as a warning for some. I wanted some light "beach fare"--and chose a famous fantasy series. I like the escapism of fantasy, but find it is usually (pretty much always?) unreadably bad. Anyway, after hearing of it off and on for years, I started Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time".  I have big problems with aspects of the writing--huge mountains of unnecessary detail and description--but it was narratively engaging enough that I kept reading. It ended up being 14 LONG books. I kept deciding to stop, but then fell back in... It ate my summer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 01, 2019, 12:40:42 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on August 31, 2019, 05:50:16 PM
I am reading Rachel Cusk's Kudos. It is the 3rd part of a trilogy, but as there are is no plot and no characters (except the author), it shouldn't matter that I am reading it out of order (I read book 1 some time ago). Beautiful writing and provocative ideas. I'm a big fan.
[asin]B077DZ1WNZ[/asin]

   Exact OPPOSITE of my summer reading experience, which might serve as a warning for some. I wanted some light "beach fare"--and chose a famous fantasy series. I like the escapism of fantasy, but find it is usually (pretty much always?) unreadably bad. Anyway, after hearing of it off and on for years, I started Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time".  I have big problems with aspects of the writing--huge mountains of unnecessary detail and description--but it was narratively engaging enough that I kept reading. It ended up being 14 LONG books. I kept deciding to stop, but then fell back in... It ate my summer.
I am told you have to read it twice to fully appreciate it ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: jwinter on September 01, 2019, 05:36:30 PM
Quote... Anyway, after hearing of it off and on for years, I started Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time".  I have big problems with aspects of the writing--huge mountains of unnecessary detail and description--but it was narratively engaging enough that I kept reading. It ended up being 14 LONG books. I kept deciding to stop, but then fell back in... It ate my summer.

You finished all 14 books?!  I'm impressed, I tried to read it years ago and stalled out around book 5, too many unresolved plotlines and characters to keep track of.... I really loved the first book though.

Having finished it, was it worth the 10,000+ pages?  I enjoy epic fantasy, but that's like half a dozen Lords of the Rings....

My father keeps trying to get me to start Terry Goodkind, but I can't get past the first few chapters.  I just can't take his prose; too wooden, no sense of style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 01, 2019, 08:25:42 PM
Quote from: jwinter on September 01, 2019, 05:36:30 PM
You finished all 14 books?!  I'm impressed, I tried to read it years ago and stalled out around book 5, too many unresolved plotlines and characters to keep track of.... I really loved the first book though.

Having finished it, was it worth the 10,000+ pages?  I enjoy epic fantasy, but that's like half a dozen Lords of the Rings....

My father keeps trying to get me to start Terry Goodkind, but I can't get past the first few chapters.  I just can't take his prose; too wooden, no sense of style.

  Jordan was a smart guy, and the action and political motivation of his characters and their respective cultures, etc. were consistent and complex, But his powers of description are very limited--he returns to the same adjectives, motifs, and expressions over and over again. I am a guy who generally feels obligated to read every word of a book, but in this series I skimmed massively.  Clearly he loved working on it, because he inserts a gazillion mundane details, which often do little to develop his world. The work has 100s of characters, and dozens of plot lines--and you're right, many just disappear.  He died before he finished the series, and a guy named Brandon Sanderson wrote the last 3 books. Happily, Sanderson is a much more disciplined writer, with a better sense of pacing, sharper sense of irony, broader vocabulary, and better instincts about what can safely be skipped or elided. In other words, the series was stronger at the end than the middle. I guess that's why I couldn't stop.  But, I'm very glad it's over.

  And no, KEN, I will not be reading it again ??? ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 02, 2019, 10:41:39 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on September 01, 2019, 08:25:42 PM
  Jordan was a smart guy, and the action and political motivation of his characters and their respective cultures, etc. were consistent and complex, But his powers of description are very limited--he returns to the same adjectives, motifs, and expressions over and over again. I am a guy who generally feels obligated to read every word of a book, but in this series I skimmed massively.  Clearly he loved working on it, because he inserts a gazillion mundane details, which often do little to develop his world. The work has 100s of characters, and dozens of plot lines--and you're right, many just disappear.  He died before he finished the series, and a guy named Brandon Sanderson wrote the last 3 books. Happily, Sanderson is a much more disciplined writer, with a better sense of pacing, sharper sense of irony, broader vocabulary, and better instincts about what can safely be skipped or elided. In other words, the series was stronger at the end than the middle. I guess that's why I couldn't stop.  But, I'm very glad it's over.

  And no, KEN, I will not be reading it again ??? ???
Can't blame a guy for trying.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 02, 2019, 10:53:07 AM
Actually Mook it sounds like you would enjoy Guy Gavriel Kay. He is not really my cup of tea but he is strong in the ways Jordan is weak. He writes mostly fantasy based on history. So a book based on Constantinople, or French troubadours, or early china etc. I might read his Last Light of the Sun "about" medieval Iceland.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 02, 2019, 07:23:28 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 02, 2019, 10:53:07 AM
Actually Mook it sounds like you would enjoy Guy Gavriel Kay. He is not really my cup of tea but he is strong in the ways Jordan is weak. He writes mostly fantasy based on history. So a book based on Constantinople, or French troubadours, or early china etc. I might read his Last Light of the Sun "about" medieval Iceland.
I'll keep an eye out, but I tend to really dislike that particular mix. When a writer creates an alternate reality with a tight set of rules to govern how things work, it's quite a challenge I think. But as far as our own world goes, I prefer cold logic, reasonable physics, and probability for everything. If it is supposed to be "our" world, even when fate and karma take a hand, or aboriginal peoples suddenly have mystical visions and insights, it turns me off cold.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 02, 2019, 10:24:28 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on September 02, 2019, 07:23:28 PM
  I'll keep an eye out, but I tend to really dislike that particular mix. When a writer creates an alternate reality with a tight set of rules to govern how things work, it's quite a challenge I think. But as far as our own world goes, I prefer cold logic, reasonable physics, and probability for everything. If it is supposed to be "our" world, even when fate and karma take a hand, or aboriginal peoples suddenly have mystical visions and insights, it turns me off cold.
My mantra is "nature has no mind". Any book that violates that gets turfed. I once gave up on a 1000 page novel on page 950 when something like those mystical powers happened.

I hope then I can enroll you in the "magical realism is shit" club. Every year we pick a Garcia Marquez book to not read. Each October a book will not arrive by mail.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 03, 2019, 12:05:19 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 02, 2019, 10:24:28 PM

I hope then I can enroll you in the "magical realism is shit" club. Every year we pick a Garcia Marquez book to not read. Each October a book will not arrive by mail.

I haven't read Marquez (started one once and stopped after a few pages for reasons I can't remember now) or really anything else that self-describes itself as "magical realism", but am a pretty big fan of Murakami, whose occasional dashes of dream-like elements are said to fall within the wider definition of that genre. have you read anything of his?

TD: into the last quarter of Richard Evans, vol.3. Am reminded that I have been meaning to read Ian Kershaw's The End. Might try that immediately after, depending on the extent and approach to which Evans covers the fall of Berlin, and if I feel in the mood for a compare-and-contrast. If not that then probably Giles MacDonough's After The Reich, which is also waiting.

Apparently Evans also has a couple of stand-alone volumes out there on the legacy and changing memory of the war, which I'll also have to track down.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91hSrN7xtuL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71TonkKBC6L.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51k3mdJcSEL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 05, 2019, 11:41:41 AM
Re: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Not everything he wrote is a masterpiece --- Chronicle of A Death Foretold is a huge letdown --- but when he's good, he's actually very good, nay excellent: Hundred Years of Solitude, The General in His Labyrinth, Love in the Time of Cholera, Of Love and Other Demons are masterpieces IMO. Plus, he was an avowed Communist, good friends with Fidel Castro --- yet there's no trace of Communist ideology in any of the above named masterpieces --- a big plus (pun) in my book.

In the same vein I heartily recommend Alejo Carpentier: The Lost Steps, The Rite of Spring, The Harp and the Shadow --- all very good.

And now that I think of Latin American literature, I also heartily recommend Augusto Roa Bastos' I, the Supreme and Alvaro Mutis' The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll

I also read Ernesto Sabato's On Heroes and Tombs but honestly it's too dark and enigmatic for my taste --- the chapter on blind people was downright repulsive to me. On the other hand, his essay Man and Mechanism (http://webshells.com/spantrans/manmech.html) is interesting and insightful, albeit not very original.

That being said, my favorite Latin American writer is Mario Vargas Llosa.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 12:39:15 PM
The General in His Labyrinth is the book we won't be reading next month.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 05, 2019, 12:43:45 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 12:39:15 PM
The General in His Labyrinth is the book we won't be reading next month.

Your loss, big big time. Count me out of your darn club.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 12:57:29 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 05, 2019, 12:43:45 PM
Your loss, big big time. Count me out of your darn club.

In Solitude a woman learns of a tragedy, I think the death of her son, when the pot of milk on the stove turns into snakes. The world is full of books that never get quite that silly or that maudlin. It's the stuff Cervantes mocked.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 05, 2019, 01:08:35 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 12:57:29 PM
In Solitude a woman learns of a tragedy, I think the death of her son, when the pot of milk on the stove turns into snakes. The world is full of books that never get quite that silly or that maudlin. It's the stuff Cervantes mocked.

Margaritas ante porcos.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 01:35:55 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 05, 2019, 01:08:35 PM
Margaritas ante porcos.
Actually today it's Gin&Tonic before the pork. Port afterwards. 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 05, 2019, 01:38:59 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 01:35:55 PM
Actually today it's Gin&Tonic before the pork. Port afterwards. 8)

Nu ştie ţăranul ce e şofranul.  ;D

Google it --- and ask me for genuine translation  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 05, 2019, 06:08:23 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 02, 2019, 10:24:28 PM
My mantra is "nature has no mind". Any book that violates that gets turfed. I once gave up on a 1000 page novel on page 950 when something like those mystical powers happened.

I hope then I can enroll you in the "magical realism is shit" club. Every year we pick a Garcia Marquez book to not read. Each October a book will not arrive by mail.

Wow. A lot of hatred for Marquez.  Actually, I like him fine, and used to be a really big fan.  His favorite writer was William Faulkner, and his first book of short stories "No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories" is amazing, but even bleaker than Faulkner.  When he moved into "magical realism", there is certainly no divine power acting for the benefit of good and making sure everything turns out fair and happy because mystical powers are helping the characters. Just the opposite, usually. To me he is something like Kafka, politically, but poetic and often funny. However, life is equally hopeless and everyone is still doomed by human nature and oppressive governments (Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The General in His Labyrinth, 100 Years of Solitude). And his mid-period short stories tended to be surrealist/absurdist.  I remember really liking "The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World." But there was no power acting for good in these, either. Love in the Time of Cholera was his huge hit, but I considered it a decline. I don't think I read anything after that. I tried his autobiography, but soon got bored with it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 06:52:42 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on September 05, 2019, 06:08:23 PM
Wow. A lot of hatred for Marquez.  Actually, I like him fine, and used to be a really big fan.  His favorite writer was William Faulkner, and his first book of short stories "No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories" is amazing, but even bleaker than Faulkner.  When he moved into "magical realism", there is certainly no divine power acting for the benefit of good and making sure everything turns out fair and happy because mystical powers are helping the characters. Just the opposite, usually. To me he is something like Kafka, politically, but poetic and often funny. However, life is equally hopeless and everyone is still doomed by human nature and oppressive governments (Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The General in His Labyrinth, 100 Years of Solitude). And his mid-period short stories tended to be surrealist/absurdist.  I remember really liking "The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World." But there was no power acting for good in these, either. Love in the Time of Cholera was his huge hit, but I considered it a decline. I don't think I read anything after that. I tried his autobiography, but soon got bored with it.

Sounds like you have a LOT of patience for violations of logic and probability, just not when they make for a happy ending.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 05, 2019, 07:02:14 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 06:52:42 PM
Sounds like you have a LOT of patience for violations of logic and probability, just not when they make for a happy ending.

But most books are full of violations of logic and probability.  The Sherlock Holmes stories are full of them. The difference is that Conan Doyle wrote as if they weren't violations of logic and probability (or provided complicated pseudoexplanations to make them seem to be no violations,  whereas magical realism makes no pretence that they are not violations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 07:15:25 PM
Quote from: JBS on September 05, 2019, 07:02:14 PM
But most books are full of violations of logic and probability.  The Sherlock Holmes stories are full of them. The difference is that Conan Doyle wrote as if they weren't violations of logic and probability (or provided complicated pseudoexplanations to make them seem to be no violations,  whereas magical realism makes no pretence that they are not violations.

Well the point at issue was fantasy novels and *physics*. Al said he like fantasy world building, but if the book was recognizably about "our" world he didn't like the woo, he wanted physics. You don't get that in magical realism. You might think Holmes's logic is full of holes but DOYLE'S physics isn't full of trees that weep blood because *sob* the lovers must part. If a character can read in the sky the death of his brother five hundred miles away I put the book down.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 06, 2019, 12:12:06 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 05, 2019, 07:15:25 PM
Well the point at issue was fantasy novels and *physics*. Al said he like fantasy world building, but if the book was recognizably about "our" world he didn't like the woo, he wanted physics. You don't get that in magical realism. You might think Holmes's logic is full of holes but DOYLE'S physics isn't full of trees that weep blood because *sob* the lovers must part. If a character can read in the sky the death of his brother five hundred miles away I put the book down.
Sorry, for some reason I didn't see any of the intervening posts before mine went up. I didn't mean to ignore all your comments.
  Anyway, the other day some woman running for president in the US put up a post suggesting that if we all concentrate on the hurricane not hitting the coast, maybe it wouldn't.  She deleted the post, but she thought that might work in the real world.  Some writers share her sense of...reality. Paul Coelho, perhaps. I hate that stuff.  I don't think Garcia-Marquez really thinks a tree might, under any circumstances, bleed human blood out of sympathy. But he might use it as a poetic metaphor. In the "General in His Labyrinth" the ocean by the corrupt tyrant's country was gone, and there was a desert where it had been, because he had sold it to an American company. That's clearly an image, and a political statement, rather than an indication of his lack of understanding of basic principles of reality. Shakespeare has lots of magic in "The Tempest." In Macbeth, too, I suppose, and there's the ghost in Hamlet, but those don't bother me at all.  But when a Native American detective sees a vision that helps solve a grisly murder in a "realistic" police procedural, I have a problem.  In Twin Peaks, however, I enjoy it quite a lot (especially as there were giants, dwarves, and people who speak backwards in the vision). I guess my view is that authors can make any laws they want in their fictional world, and its fine if they are consistent. But using the tools of true realism (or naturalism) indicate they are subjecting themselves to the laws of empirical phenomonology, as does using real historical events and figures, unless the story is parody or comedy or tongue-in-cheek.  I hated when Tarantino showed moving and horrific scenes of Nazi brutality and then turned the movie into a fantastical farce. So was all that human suffering just "entertainment"?
  Anyway, sorry to ramble on.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 06, 2019, 03:02:37 AM
If something like karma exists it is not a "mind" in nature but something fairly close to a natural law. Like a ball bounces back from the wall because of conservation of momentum, you reap the fruits of your deeds by some impersonal cosmic connection between certain acts and suffering etc.

But that's beside the point. There is plenty of "poetic justice" in "naturalist" settings in literature without evoking fate, gods, karma etc. Like with other improbable coincidences literature is rife with I think it also  depends for "magical" elements on how well it is done. There are pretty good "supernatural" horror stories, there is probably also good magical realism (I only read a few short pieces by Garcia Marquez ages ago, so I cannot comment on his work). There is also a lot of silly or annoyingly inconsistent stuff out there, of course.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 06, 2019, 06:20:27 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on September 06, 2019, 12:12:06 AM
  Sorry, for some reason I didn't see any of the intervening posts before mine went up. I didn't mean to ignore all your comments.
  Anyway, the other day some woman running for president in the US put up a post suggesting that if we all concentrate on the hurricane not hitting the coast, maybe it wouldn't.  She deleted the post, but she thought that might work in the real world.  Some writers share her sense of...reality. Paul Coelho, perhaps. I hate that stuff.  I don't think Garcia-Marquez really thinks a tree might, under any circumstances, bleed human blood out of sympathy. But he might use it as a poetic metaphor. In the "General in His Labyrinth" the ocean by the corrupt tyrant's country was gone, and there was a desert where it had been, because he had sold it to an American company. That's clearly an image, and a political statement, rather than an indication of his lack of understanding of basic principles of reality. Shakespeare has lots of magic in "The Tempest." In Macbeth, too, I suppose, and there's the ghost in Hamlet, but those don't bother me at all.  But when a Native American detective sees a vision that helps solve a grisly murder in a "realistic" police procedural, I have a problem.  In Twin Peaks, however, I enjoy it quite a lot (especially as there were giants, dwarves, and people who speak backwards in the vision). I guess my view is that authors can make any laws they want in their fictional world, and its fine if they are consistent. But using the tools of true realism (or naturalism) indicate they are subjecting themselves to the laws of empirical phenomonology, as does using real historical events and figures, unless the story is parody or comedy or tongue-in-cheek.  I hated when Tarantino showed moving and horrific scenes of Nazi brutality and then turned the movie into a fantastical farce. So was all that human suffering just "entertainment"?
  Anyway, sorry to ramble on.

No need to apologize, interesting thoughts.

The disappearing ocean is less irksome than communication by milk turn8ng to snakes but both remind me of my dislike for Marvel Comics movies. (Very unlike gods in the Iliad I think.) Lazy and a bit frivolous. You need super villains in order to imagine evil, while Hitler,Stalin, Mao, and ABBA are living memory? I am no fan of Graham Greene, but for some reason I suddenly recall him evoking true, mundane, evil very well indeed without such stuff.

Magicalrealism also reminds me of the kind of hyperbole that Goldman mocks so well in The Princess Bride, which is worth reading.

Interesting question: is moving a hurricane more or less plausible than moving an ocean ...  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 06, 2019, 11:06:18 AM
The last Garcia Marquez I read was non-fiction, and therefore something Ken could tolerate. "Clandestine in Chile," a short (150 page) book narrating the adventures of an anti-Pinochet documentary filmmaker who smuggled himself into the country in disguise to produce a movie about life under the dictatorship.

The book is quite entertaining and written with typical GGM flair. By all accounts, it's more interesting than the actual movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 06, 2019, 01:12:33 PM
I did like the one book I read by Vargas Llosa, but the only South American author I have read several books by is Jorge Amado. I read I 3 or 4 of his, decades ago. He was active in the communist party, so Andrei might enjoy the books ...

Vargas Llosa wrote a murder mystery, which is on my list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 07, 2019, 03:51:34 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 06, 2019, 01:12:33 PM
I did like the one book I read by Vargas Llosa, but the only South American author I have read several books by is Jorge Amado. I read I 3 or 4 of his, decades ago. He was active in the communist party, so Andrei might enjoy the books ...

As long as he keeps his politics away from his books, I really might. What do you recommend for a starter?

Quote
Vargas Llosa wrote a murder mystery, which is on my list.

Actually, he wrote two. Who Killed Palomino Molero? and Death in the Andes, featuring the same policeman, corporal Lituma. Both are quite good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 07, 2019, 07:45:06 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 07, 2019, 03:51:34 AM
As long as he keeps his politics away from his books, I really might. What do you recommend for a starter?

Actually, he wrote two. Who Killed Palomino Molero? and Death in the Andes, featuring the same policeman, corporal Lituma. Both are quite good.

Dona Flor and her two husbands

And The Black Book of Communism ...  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 15, 2019, 10:17:53 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51y2ZzYJvGL._SX355_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I only knew the story in broad strokes, not in the detail presented here, some of which makes the 2016 election look dignified by comparison, and quite a bit makes 2016 look merely "traditional". Highly recommended.

Will be immediately starting on another by Edward Larson:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ndBenTGxL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


also on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41pGz36nSsL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'd seen this around, but hadn't realised what it was until browsing in a secondhand shop a few weeks ago: his autobiography using the framing device and continually returning to the story of the fatwa and his years in hiding - Joseph Anton being the name he lived under.

Its excellent. He's clearly developed his thoughts on his experience, doesn't merely repeat or expand on previous utterances, but offers a thorough and lengthy and unflinching self-review.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 16, 2019, 11:00:36 AM
I don't know of a specific book to suggest, but if you want presidential contests that were triumphs of mudslinging and skullduggery, read on up on the two elections in which John Quincy Adams opposed Andrew Jackson.  The first one JQA won in the House of Representatives, the second one Jackson won.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 16, 2019, 03:59:15 PM
Yeah, that's another one I know in outline but not in detail, if anyone can recommend a study of it.

Or even if they know a particularly good biography of Jackson.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 16, 2019, 04:39:08 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 16, 2019, 03:59:15 PM
Yeah, that's another one I know in outline but not in detail, if anyone can recommend a study of it.

Or even if they know a particularly good biography of Jackson.

As for Jackson, there is a one volume biography by HW Brands--didn't you read his newest one not long ago?--and a book by Meacham that restricts itself to his years as President. I have not read either one, but I read Robert Remini's biography years ago. It is good, but over 20 years old.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 16, 2019, 05:07:23 PM
Quote from: JBS on September 16, 2019, 04:39:08 PM
As for Jackson, there is a one volume biography by HW Brands--didn't you read his newest one not long ago?--and a book by Meacham that restricts itself to his years as President. I have not read either one, but I read Robert Remini's biography years ago. It is good, but over 20 years old.

Not me, though a number of his books have turned up on my radar:

Quote from: SonicMan46 on August 07, 2019, 12:29:01 PM

Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants (2018) by H.W. Brands - biography of the three giants who dominated Congress in the first half of the 19th Century, namely Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster - this was on my list back in early May, but just getting a start.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519PgJJPswL._SY346_.jpg) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 16, 2019, 05:28:39 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 16, 2019, 05:07:23 PM
Not me, though a number of his books have turned up on my radar:

That must have been the post my mind was thinking of...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 16, 2019, 05:38:52 PM
Looking around I see there's also this one, published by Oxford in 2011:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347799387i/5058681._UY400_SS400_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 16, 2019, 05:48:12 PM
Reminded myself of this one, which is focused on the Adamses. Again, I have not read it.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51DYwLyKsdL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 21, 2019, 09:12:34 PM
Instead of starting the Larsen Washington I knocked this off - a quicker read than I expected it to be:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512we-yCGlL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

which was as good as I'd heard, and particularly so in the last quarter dealing with the Ukranian response to Soviet ecological imperialism, the growth of the Ukranian green party, and the cruel turnaround they faced in having to support nuclear power and the site in the face of economic collapse in the post-Soviet era
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 23, 2019, 07:38:36 PM
(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/bundles/5465/nz1cc945gykwqrz3/header_586x192.jpg?t=1510974556)

Just started this massive undertaking- the legendary, one and only, Umineko no Naku Koro ni (it's a visual novel in the mystery genre).

I say massive, because if it were a book, it would be over 3600 pages! Expecting to take about 2 months to finish this.

What led me to pick it up were: 1) it's related to Higurashi When They Cry, which I love, and 2) the reviews of some people make it sound like this was some sort of life-altering experience that it's so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 23, 2019, 07:52:02 PM
Quote from: greg on September 23, 2019, 07:38:36 PM
(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/bundles/5465/nz1cc945gykwqrz3/header_586x192.jpg?t=1510974556)

Just started this massive undertaking- the legendary, one and only, Umineko no Naku Koro ni (it's a visual novel in the mystery genre).

I say massive, because if it were a book, it would be over 3600 pages! Expecting to take about 2 months to finish this.

What led me to pick it up were: 1) it's related to Higurashi When They Cry, which I love, and 2) the reviews of some people make it sound like this was some sort of life-altering experience that it's so good.

Why is it legendary? (Never heard of it...but that applies to most graphic novels)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 24, 2019, 06:42:59 PM
Quote from: JBS on September 23, 2019, 07:52:02 PM
Why is it legendary? (Never heard of it...but that applies to most graphic novels)
(side note, since you used the term "graphic novel" just want to mention there's a difference between a VN and a graphic novel, just in case you didn't know)

Probably a little subjectivity of my own there about being "legendary."  ;)

But on any top 10 list of visual novels, it will be there, as well as the glowing reviews (seriously, I've seen a few that are so over-the-top positive that I've never seen quite as much on anything else- and they are dead serious- taken out of context you'd think they are joking).

For me, its importance is large because the anime adaptation is notoriously unimpressive and also incomplete, so I got the memo that it's worth just going to the source: the visual novel. And since it is strongly connected to my favorite anime/tv show of all time (not in story, but in spirit), and created by the same people who made the original visual novel source material for it, this thing has been on my to-do list for a couple years now.  :)

About ~7 hours into it so far and pretty entertaining even though "nothing" has really happened yet, and it's mainly just character introductions and plot setup.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 24, 2019, 07:48:14 PM
Quote from: greg on September 24, 2019, 06:42:59 PM
(side note, since you used the term "graphic novel" just want to mention there's a difference between a VN and a graphic novel, just in case you didn't know)

Probably a little subjectivity of my own there about being "legendary."  ;)

But on any top 10 list of visual novels, it will be there, as well as the glowing reviews (seriously, I've seen a few that are so over-the-top positive that I've never seen quite as much on anything else- and they are dead serious- taken out of context you'd think they are joking).

For me, its importance is large because the anime adaptation is notoriously unimpressive and also incomplete, so I got the memo that it's worth just going to the source: the visual novel. And since it is strongly connected to my favorite anime/tv show of all time (not in story, but in spirit), and created by the same people who made the original visual novel source material for it, this thing has been on my to-do list for a couple years now.  :)

About ~7 hours into it so far and pretty entertaining even though "nothing" has really happened yet, and it's mainly just character introductions and plot setup.

I  must admit that until now I have never even heard the term "visual novel".

TD
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gL8QrLgmL.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Hby2ZinaL.jpg)
My copy is from the public library, and is the one on the left. I think the one on the right is the UK edition.

A lively collection of what little info is known about Nero's mother.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on September 25, 2019, 01:12:21 AM
VG
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 25, 2019, 09:15:51 AM
Quote from: JBS on September 24, 2019, 07:48:14 PM
I  must admit that until now I have never even heard the term "visual novel".
Oh, if I asked 10 people on the street what it is, probably 8 or 9 would have absolutely no idea.  ;D

Technically they've been around since the early '80s, but doesn't help that they are rarely produced outside of Japan.  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 25, 2019, 09:53:30 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51TaqenuZrL._SX347_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Finished this last week. It's an all-in-one manga (harcover, 752 pages).

It's about this girl who seduces men into murdering and cutting up her body, so she can regenerate into multiple versions of herself. Fun stuff.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 26, 2019, 01:56:51 AM
what's the difference between a graphic and a visual novel? When I was a kid in the 80s they were all called comic books :D And sneered at by adults and regarded as trash (except maybe Asterix because one learned history and Latin there).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on September 27, 2019, 08:21:56 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on September 26, 2019, 01:56:51 AM
what's the difference between a graphic and a visual novel? When I was a kid in the 80s they were all called comic books :D And sneered at by adults and regarded as trash (except maybe Asterix because one learned history and Latin there).
Visual novel example of Umineko:

(just flip through it for a few seconds to get the idea, better to show than to describe in detail).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaIXt4qVJWU&list=PLdyU6Nd-103adhYebWb_yha3RNuadQ0Om&index=3

VN's are either PC programs or sometimes on game consoles. But if they have any game elements at all, it's going to be just a branching storyline based on dialogue choices (like the Choose Your Own Adventure books).

The first VN, interestingly, was made back in 1982 and was based on the book Lolita.



Quote from: Jo498 on September 26, 2019, 01:56:51 AM
And sneered at by adults and regarded as trash (except maybe Asterix because one learned history and Latin there).
Given my general impression of American graphic novels, I might tend to agree... but surely I'd find at least a few to like if I consciously started looking.

Problem is, I've never gotten a good impression of American comics in general. No, I'm not excited about the rehash of same superhero movies based on the same stories again and again... absolutely no creativity.

That's why I mainly stick to the Japanese side of things. I'd rather see a story about kids that are raised peacefully in what they think is an "orphanage" but is actually a human farm, where they are sold to and eaten by monsters when they turn a certain age. Interesting plots like that, not just superheroes until my eyes bleed.  ::)

Trying not to get ranty, just something I've felt more strongly about over time.  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 28, 2019, 03:25:08 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41WCQEMSR7L._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

First read, but wont be the last. While only 150-ish pages its more insightful than most books three times that length, and ranks at least among the best of Didions reportage. The couple of things I picked up after this seemed weak in comparison, so I'm not sure what comes next.

I dont actually have the cover above, I've got it in the big fat Everyman collection of her nonfiction "We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order To Live"

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91PiVEZAZHL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on September 28, 2019, 08:07:25 PM
Just finished tonight The Butchering Art by Fitzharris. Joseph Lister and antisepsis. A very well written book.

Waiting For Sunrise, William Boyd. A novel set in Vienna and England 1914. My 4th or 5th novel by Boyd over a span of 30 years but so far I am a bit undecided.

The Seeds of Life, Dolnick. The history of understanding conception and birth.

I have abandoned several books lately. Maybe we should have a thread for that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 01, 2019, 09:39:00 AM
Julien Gracq. I borrowed Tome 2 of the Pléiade edition, first time I've held one of them,  and I've become completely addicted -- especially Lettrines 2 and La Forme d'une Ville. Initially I was put off by the format of the Pléiade  -- it's small, with pretty small print,  like an old fashioned bible, bound in leather with the feel of luxury -- but now I love the idea of getting to know an author's complete works like that. I like the way the books open flat and aren't too heavy, and they fit nicely in your hand.  I think I'm going to buy it for myself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 01, 2019, 10:02:21 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 01, 2019, 09:39:00 AM
Julien Gracq. I borrowed Tome 2 of the Pléiade edition, first time I've held one of them,  and I've become completely addicted -- especially Lettrines 2 and La Forme d'une Ville. Initially I was put off by the format of the Pléiade  -- it's small, with pretty small print,  like an old fashioned bible, bound in leather with the feel of luxury -- but now I love the idea of getting to know an author's complete works like that. I like the way the books open flat and aren't too heavy, and they fit nicely in your hand.  I think I'm going to buy it for myself.

I can understand what you describe: there is something special in the tactile feel of a well presented book. Go for the purchase I say.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 01, 2019, 10:07:11 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 01, 2019, 09:39:00 AM
Julien Gracq. I borrowed Tome 2 of the Pléiade edition, first time I've held one of them,  and I've become completely addicted -- especially Lettrines 2 and La Forme d'une Ville. Initially I was put off by the format of the Pléiade  -- it's small, with pretty small print,  like an old fashioned bible, bound in leather with the feel of luxury -- but now I love the idea of getting to know an author's complete works like that. I like the way the books open flat and aren't too heavy, and they fit nicely in your hand.  I think I'm going to buy it for myself.
Haven't read any Gracq, but have been an admirer of the Pléiade tomes for decades. The wealth of information they contain on the authors and the works, and the quality of the presentation (despite the—as you point out—slightly old-fashioned format) make for a unique and most enjoyable reading experience. I've collected 46 volumes over the years (mostly 20th century French authors), and they take prides of place in my library. A publishing feat of the highest order...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 03, 2019, 09:31:28 AM
Joseph Brodsky: Watermark


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PwcAAOSwXlpcdl1i/s-l500.jpg)


This is not a travelogue but rather a protracted Essay on Venice and Life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on October 05, 2019, 02:40:55 PM
Quote from: greg on September 23, 2019, 07:38:36 PM
(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/bundles/5465/nz1cc945gykwqrz3/header_586x192.jpg?t=1510974556)

Just started this massive undertaking- the legendary, one and only, Umineko no Naku Koro ni (it's a visual novel in the mystery genre).

I say massive, because if it were a book, it would be over 3600 pages! Expecting to take about 2 months to finish this.

What led me to pick it up were: 1) it's related to Higurashi When They Cry, which I love, and 2) the reviews of some people make it sound like this was some sort of life-altering experience that it's so good.
Ok, I will be finishing chapter one tonight. Out of 8 chapters. It's been two weeks and I've been fairly consistent!  :-X

So considering how long it takes and the fact that I want to read/play/whatever you call experiencing a visual novel, this will be a long-term project for me. Will just pick up and put down every few months, maybe. So might take a long time... also wanting to experience the new Ciconia When They Cry and also Higurashi When They Cry.

But is it great? Yep! I'd say feeling like a 9/10 for now, even if it at this point there are so many unanswered questions (it is called the "Questions" Arc for a reason).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 10, 2019, 01:27:40 PM
JBS mentioned he liked Thomas B Costain. Several of his books are 99 cents in Kindle today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 10, 2019, 06:52:25 PM
Quote from: aligreto on October 03, 2019, 09:31:28 AM
Joseph Brodsky: Watermark


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PwcAAOSwXlpcdl1i/s-l500.jpg)


This is not a travelogue but rather a protracted Essay on Venice and Life.

Aligreto,
That sounds like a great combination. I need to read more of his works - in particular the essays..... 
Thanks for bringing him up in the thread!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 11, 2019, 12:33:00 AM
various things on the go:

(https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51pQKhRoEwL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81Szva6u3tL.jpg)

(https://images1.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780143111238) (https://www.penguin.co.uk/content/dam/prh/books/306/306263/9780241322307.jpg)

the Tharoor is whetting my appetite for Dalrymple's new book on the East India Company
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on October 11, 2019, 04:04:54 AM
Finished volume 1, moving on to volume 2.  After several aborted attempts over 30 years, I seem to have finally cracked this.  Very enjoyable, as a writer Gibbon's prose style is astoundingly good.  And not to be too cliched, but reading it in light of today's political environment, the parallels are many....


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388635064l/672484.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 11, 2019, 05:00:33 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on October 10, 2019, 06:52:25 PM

(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PwcAAOSwXlpcdl1i/s-l500.jpg)

Aligreto,
That sounds like a great combination. I need to read more of his works - in particular the essays..... 
Thanks for bringing him up in the thread!

Cheers. I must admit that it is the only work of his that I have read but I would certainly be encouraged to read more of Brodsky's writings.
Recommendations in this regard would be welcomed after you have immersed yourself further.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 11, 2019, 09:05:27 AM
Hammett The Glass Key. 4th time for this.

Freeman A. D. 381  A follow up to his excellent book on the Christianization of the Roman Empire, The Closing of the Western Mind. This is alas gets much more into the theological weeds, which I have read a lot about, and which is not his strength. However it will annoy both believers and Dawkins fans, which is a plus. 

The Club. Leo Damrosch on Boswell, Johnson, Adam Smith, David Garrick, Sheridan, Joshua Reynolds and a few others friends who constituted The Club.

Still periodically reading a bit of Bleak House.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 11, 2019, 04:23:21 PM
Quote from: j winter on October 11, 2019, 04:04:54 AM
Finished volume 1, moving on to volume 2.  After several aborted attempts over 30 years, I seem to have finally cracked this.  Very enjoyable, as a writer Gibbon's prose style is astoundingly good.  And not to be too cliched, but reading it in light of today's political environment, the parallels are many....


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388635064l/672484.jpg)

I read it and reread it several times over the years, but finally gave away my copy last year. It is great to read, as a matter of literature, but a lot of things 18th century scholarship was, in light of modern scholarship, wrong about, and his obvious prejudices got annoying the more I read them.

One serious fault doesn't show up until the last third of the work. He seriously underrated the importance of Byzantine history after Justinian, and compressed it accordingly compared to earlier eras he wrote about.
Try reading Lord Norwich's history of Byzantium, which has its own faults but in style and breadth may be the closest a modern historian has approached Gibbon's level.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on October 11, 2019, 07:00:05 PM
Quote from: JBS on October 11, 2019, 04:23:21 PM
I read it and reread it several times over the years, but finally gave away my copy last year. It is great to read, as a matter of literature, but a lot of things 18th century scholarship was, in light of modern scholarship, wrong about, and his obvious prejudices got annoying the more I read them.

One serious fault doesn't show up until the last third of the work. He seriously underrated the importance of Byzantine history after Justinian, and compressed it accordingly compared to earlier eras he wrote about.
Try reading Lord Norwich's history of Byzantium, which has its own faults but in style and breadth may be the closest a modern historian has approached Gibbon's level.

Thanks for pointing that out.  I actually just picked up Norwich's Byzantium trilogy in a used bookshop a couple of weeks ago, I've been wanting to read a good history on that subject.  That's next on my list.

I think what got me over the hump with Gibbon this time was a lot of reading up on Roman history prior to trying it again, both to get in the mood and also to refresh on some of the basics (I read a lot of history, but generally not ancient history). I read Mary Beard, a couple from Adrian Goldsworthy, and some Livy, Tacitus, etc. 


I agree that he's got some issues by modern standards; I love the style of it more than anything...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 11, 2019, 08:10:41 PM
Rarely have I seen the complaint that Gibbon's book is too short.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 11, 2019, 09:30:08 PM
Quote from: JBS on October 11, 2019, 04:23:21 PM
I read it and reread it several times over the years, but finally gave away my copy last year. It is great to read, as a matter of literature, but a lot of things 18th century scholarship was, in light of modern scholarship, wrong about, and his obvious prejudices got annoying the more I read them.

One serious fault doesn't show up until the last third of the work. He seriously underrated the importance of Byzantine history after Justinian, and compressed it accordingly compared to earlier eras he wrote about.
Try reading Lord Norwich's history of Byzantium, which has its own faults but in style and breadth may be the closest a modern historian has approached Gibbon's level.

Which sections held up best in your rereadings?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on October 12, 2019, 04:12:58 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bzo0T%2BnhL.jpg) I'm up for something taking place in medieval times and giving it a go.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 05:52:36 AM
Quote from: milk on October 12, 2019, 04:12:58 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bzo0T%2BnhL.jpg) I'm up for something taking place in medieval times and giving it a go.

Oh, do let us know. I am very interested in that but the reviews are so variable! I worry it's a religious parable more or less.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 06:25:09 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 05:52:36 AM
Oh, do let us know. I am very interested in that but the reviews are so variable! I worry it's a religious parable more or less.

It's excellent. Read with confidence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 06:29:37 AM
Quote from: j winter on October 11, 2019, 07:00:05 PM
Thanks for pointing that out.  I actually just picked up Norwich's Byzantium trilogy in a used bookshop a couple of weeks ago, I've been wanting to read a good history on that subject.  That's next on my list.

I think what got me over the hump with Gibbon this time was a lot of reading up on Roman history prior to trying it again, both to get in the mood and also to refresh on some of the basics (I read a lot of history, but generally not ancient history). I read Mary Beard, a couple from Adrian Goldsworthy, and some Livy, Tacitus, etc. 


I agree that he's got some issues by modern standards; I love the style of it more than anything...

This is probably the best book on topic:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41b6yb3SmRL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZoLApzxFL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 12, 2019, 10:32:14 AM
Quote from: milk on October 12, 2019, 04:12:58 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bzo0T%2BnhL.jpg) I'm up for something taking place in medieval times and giving it a go.

I have only read the first volume and enjoyed it quote a bit. I didn't like the English translation very much so I challenged myself and got a copy in Norwegian. It was challenging, but was also a lot fun and added great flavor to Undset's novel. Now I just need to move on to part 2....  Definitely recommended if you like romances set in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 12, 2019, 10:34:15 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 06:29:37 AM
This is probably the best book on topic:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41b6yb3SmRL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZoLApzxFL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

How does this work compare to Norwich's volumes?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 12, 2019, 10:35:44 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 11, 2019, 09:30:08 PM
Which sections held up best in your rereadings?

In terms of style, the whole thing is worth a read. High 18th century prose at its best.

His narratives of the political and diplomatic intrigue, even when modern scholarship says he is wrong, are vivid and entertaining.  And the section near the end, where he sums up his own feelings about his work and its impending conclusion, is a great passage all on its own.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 12, 2019, 10:38:50 AM
I'm in the middle of Cervantes (Grossman translation) - quite immersive and very enjoyable. So much more than I expected. It is kind of embarrassing that I never read this in my past, but I'm making up for it.

(https://katongboyreads.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/dsc07628.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 12, 2019, 10:39:38 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on October 12, 2019, 10:34:15 AM
How does this work compare to Norwich's volumes?
I have read some of Vasiliev. He wrote for people who wanted to learn about the Byzantines. Norwich wrote for people who wanted to enjoy learning about the Byzantines.

Norwich did have some important biases. But he makes an effort to not only acknowledge them, but explain why is biased the way he was,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 11:39:01 AM
Quote from: JBS on October 12, 2019, 10:39:38 AM
I have read some of Vasiliev. He wrote for people who wanted to learn about the Byzantines. Norwich wrote for people who wanted to enjoy learning about the Byzantines.

Norwich did have some important biases. But he makes an effort to not only acknowledge them, but explain why is biased the way he was,

This.

I'd say both Norwich and Vasiliev are far, far better than Gibbon in terms of scholarship and objectivity, their explicit (Norwich) or implicit (Vasiliev) biases notwithstanding, while Gibbon has the upper hand in terms of style --- but N's or V's biases are ultimately a matter of interpretation, while G's biases are ideological through and through.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 12:03:02 PM
Quote from: San Antone on October 12, 2019, 11:54:16 AM
Truly, a book everyone should read.  It has been decades since I have.  This new translation might be enough of a reason for me to revisit this classic novel.

Yes. I read it one and a half times but I haven't read it in decades either, and I have this translation in Kindle.

Moonfish, destroyer of free time!!  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 12, 2019, 12:12:03 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 11:39:01 AM
This.

I'd say both Norwich and Vasiliev are far, far better than Gibbon in terms of scholarship and objectivity, their explicit (Norwich) or implicit (Vasiliev) biases notwithstanding, while Gibbon has the upper hand in terms of style --- but N's or V's biases are ultimately a matter of interpretation, while G's biases are ideological through and through.

That's accurate,  but perhaps too harsh. Gibbon was an 18th century anti-clericalist, with both the strength and weakness of 18th century scholarship and philosophy.
18th century scholarship can be unintentionally hilarious at times. I remember one point where the narrative requires a brief excursion towards China, causing him to note that the Chinese worship "the great god Fu", who is in fact the Buddha.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 12:12:16 PM
Quote from: San Antone on October 12, 2019, 11:54:16 AM
Truly, a book everyone should read. 

Yes, indeed. The Exemplary Novels are excellent, too. And if you really are into Baroquely convoluted or convolutedly Baroque prose, The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda are exemplary (pun).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 12:13:16 PM
Quote from: JBS on October 12, 2019, 12:12:03 PM
18th century scholarship can be unintentionally hilarious at times.

Agreed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 12, 2019, 12:21:13 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 12:03:02 PM
Yes. I read it one and a half times but I haven't read it in decades either, and I have this translation in Kindle.

Moonfish, destroyer of free time!!  :laugh:

It is my mission on earth!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 12, 2019, 12:28:06 PM
Quote from: San Antone on October 12, 2019, 11:54:16 AM
Truly, a book everyone should read.  It has been decades since I have.  This new translation might be enough of a reason for me to revisit this classic novel.

I sense that as well and regret not having done so earlier. It brings a new lens to the literature of Spain and its times as well as its ripple effect towards the present time. Following Don Quijote's bizarre adventures I cannot help but to think of politics in modern times, but perhaps that is a bit farfetched?

I haven't compared translations, but it appears as if Grossman is bringing in a Spanish flavor by using long sentences and intricate word mazes (all in a good way). I always had the impression that Spanish tended to go in that direction by nature (which is part of its beauty).  There seems to be some struggle with Cervantes' play on words, but I guess that is to be expected in most translated works.  I can see myself rereading this in ten years or so, but there are so many great novels as well as other works. This thread makes me want to read Gibbon, revisit ancient history and to dig into the Byzantine empire and its art. Ah.....there should be 60 hours in a day!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 12:33:28 PM
We Romanians are blessed with two different but equally good translations of Don Quijote.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 12, 2019, 01:19:16 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 12:33:28 PM
We Romanians are blessed with two different but equally good translations of Don Quijote.  8)

I wonder what it is like in its original Spanish?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 01:50:40 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 12:13:16 PM
Agreed.

I gotta say this is hilarious coming from two guys arguing over the deranged books of the Old Testament    on another thread — which you both see as reliable guides to truth. Nothing in Gibbon is as ridiculous as Genesis!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 01:57:00 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 01:50:40 PM
I gotta say this is hilarious coming from two guys arguing over the deranged books of the Old Testament    on another thread — which you both see as reliable guides to truth. Nothing in Gibbon is as ridiculous as Genesis!

Okay, I'll play along --- but first tell me: what is ridiculous in Genesis?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 02:02:10 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 01:57:00 PM
Okay, I'll play along --- but first tell me: what is ridiculous in Genesis?
Are you kidding Andrei? How about the two very different creation stories? Or Eve from Adam's rib?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 12, 2019, 02:02:52 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 01:50:40 PM
I gotta say this is hilarious coming from two guys arguing over the deranged books of the Old Testament    on another thread — which you both see as reliable guides to truth. Nothing in Gibbon is as ridiculous as Genesis!

And you called me a bigot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 12, 2019, 02:05:26 PM
Oh oh!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 02:19:07 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 02:02:10 PM
Are you kidding Andrei?

No, I'm not.

Quote
How about the two very different creation stories?

Which ones?

Quote
Or Eve from Adam's rib?

Blimey, I'd never have guessed you're a Bible literalist.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 02:25:18 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 02:19:07 PM


No, I'm not.

Which ones?

Blimey, I'd never have guessed you're a Bible literalist.

So you agree these pleasant tales want only truth and sense?  ;)

Seriously, you agree that those tales are not true, right.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 02:38:59 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 02:25:18 PM
So you agree these pleasant tales want only truth and sense?  ;)

Seriously, you agree that those tales are not true, right.

No, I don't. You sorely missed my point.

Is Hamlet true? Or Don Quijote? Or Norwich's Byzantine history?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 02:50:19 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 02:38:59 PM
No, I don't. You sorely missed my point.

Is Hamlet true? Or Don Quijote? Or Norwich's Byzantine history?

In other words you have already accounted for them not being true but being fictional. Well and good. But *as assertions of fact* they are vastly more ridiculous than anything Gibbon gets wrong. That you personally have a way of dealing with their untruth doesn't make them less untrue.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 03:08:12 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 02:50:19 PM
In other words you have already accounted for them not being true but being fictional.

No, I haven't.

I'm greatly puzzled by your not being able to distinguish between fictional and allegorical.


QuoteBut *as assertions of fact* they are vastly more ridiculous than anything Gibbon gets wrong.

Really ?Let's see.

The Bible (abridged): God created the world and everything that's in it in seven days.

In order to assess the merits of this proposition, which was not originally written in English, one has to know the original Hebrew meanings of the words therein. I don't. Do you?

Gibbon (in plain English, abridged): Christianity is the main culprit for the decadence of the Roman Empire.

If this is so, how come that those decadent Christians were able to restore, preserve and defend the most populous and civilized areas of their empire --- which, btw, they never called anything else than Roman; Byzantine is a malicious, ideologically motivated confection --- for almost a millenium after the Western areas fell prey to Germanic barbarians?

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 03:45:24 PM
You view it as allegory Andrei, but not everyone has over time. And as a factual guide to world it is ... deficient
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 12, 2019, 03:49:58 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 03:45:24 PM
You view it as allegory Andrei, but not everyone has over time. And as a factual guide to world it is ... deficient

Straw men.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on October 12, 2019, 04:08:01 PM
Thanks to all for the guidance on matters Roman.   :)

My birth sign is Gemini, and my wife smiles because I always tend to go two ways at once, usually serious and silly.  Case in point, the other book I'm reading at the moment, in addition to Gibbon, is this (very highly recommended if you're a fan of the show)....

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5156B2jiDjL._SX341_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 12, 2019, 05:12:02 PM
The criticism of Gibbon has concentrated on the Byzantium parts, but that is not the reason I have so far only read excerpts (maybe 800 pages). We know so much that was unknown in Gibbon's time, and you cannot get that from Gibbon. You don't learn enough history per minute, and what you learn you cannot really rely on. It's great as drama.

Peter Heather has written some excellent books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Moonfish on October 16, 2019, 01:00:18 PM
Harold Bloom passed away....    :'(

I liked how he championed the canon and that is of course a whole topic of its own. A thread anybody? I'm grateful for his ideas and guidance navigating the great classics. Of course, his is not the only way to view our global literary heritage, but still an important voice among many others.

(https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2019/10/GettyImages_50435637/lead_720_405.jpg?mod=1571150138)

NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/books/harold-bloom-dead.html

An interesting piece in The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/harold-bloom-read-everything/600022/

New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/misreading-harold-bloom
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 16, 2019, 01:22:09 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on October 16, 2019, 01:00:18 PM
Harold Bloom passed away....    :'(

I liked how he championed the canon and that is of course a whole topic of its own. A thread anybody? I'm grateful for his ideas and guidance navigating the great classics. Of course, his is not the only way to view our global literary heritage, but still an important voice among many others.

(https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2019/10/GettyImages_50435637/lead_720_405.jpg?mod=1571150138)

NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/books/harold-bloom-dead.html

An interesting piece in The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/harold-bloom-read-everything/600022/

New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/misreading-harold-bloom

I liked his attitude: I am not telling anyone what to read or how to read, I am telling them about the books I found worth rereading, and why.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 18, 2019, 01:28:00 AM
Just starting this:

[asin]B07TQYSBPQ[/asin]

The bulk of this is unpublished tales--in various states of completion-- written by the 20 year old Proust (at the time of Les plaisirs et les jours), dealing in different ways with the awareness of his homosxuality (which explains to an extent the suppresison of these texts).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 18, 2019, 01:54:06 AM
Was it you who posted the book on Proust  winning the Prix Goncourt? How was that in the end? I've been waiting for it to show up in English but no sign yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 18, 2019, 02:18:26 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 18, 2019, 01:54:06 AM
Was it you who posted the book on Or just winning the Prix Goncourt? How was that in the end? I've been waiting for it to show up in English but no sign yet.
Indeed, it was me who posted that. It was a pleasure to read. One could have thought that the subject matter wouldn't have warranted its 272 pages, but it went by in a flash. The inside dealings of how the prize is awarded--Léon Daudet (a notorious nationalist and antisemite turned out to be Proust's strongest champion among the jury)--, the machinations of Proust's publishers and of the other strong contender--Roland Dorgèles for his now almost forgotten Les croix de bois (the controversy was mainly about crowning Proust's "escapist" work over Dorgèles's patriotic celebration of war heroes)--, all make for entertaining reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 18, 2019, 02:23:39 AM
Thanks. I hope it won't be too far away in translation.

Also those Camus / Cesares letters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 18, 2019, 03:19:24 AM
(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/221085699-0.jpeg)

Ernst Junger - Das Sanduhrbuch (The Hourglass Book)

A charming and erudite book about the history and philosophy of time measurement with special regard to hourglasses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 18, 2019, 05:54:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 18, 2019, 03:19:24 AM
(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/221085699-0.jpeg)

Ernst Junger - Das Sanduhrbuch (The Hourglass Book)

A charming and erudite book about the history and philosophy of time measurement with special regard to hourglasses.

I assume you read Storm of Steel. I read something else by a much older EJ too, but cannot remember what.

TD, The Sentence is Death, the latest mystery by Anthony Horowitz. Fun so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 18, 2019, 07:31:57 AM
Inside China's Gulag  https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-million-people-are-jailed-at-china-s-gulags-i-escaped-here-s-what-goes-on-inside-1.7994216?fbclid=IwAR1QnBzZkO9j7i5UEl98wKapIIS3pGwL4pNeOp_Lk7LpJTGndqNEOv5bHxs (https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-million-people-are-jailed-at-china-s-gulags-i-escaped-here-s-what-goes-on-inside-1.7994216?fbclid=IwAR1QnBzZkO9j7i5UEl98wKapIIS3pGwL4pNeOp_Lk7LpJTGndqNEOv5bHxs)

Or as LeBron James would say, uneducated lies!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on October 18, 2019, 09:49:19 AM
Quick break from the Gibbon to revisit some classic sci-fi.  It's probably been 35 years since I last read these... Lazarus Long is such a cantankerous old cuss  ;D

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1298797542l/2507097.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91SOOtt9OoL.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 18, 2019, 10:30:10 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 18, 2019, 05:54:55 AM
I assume you read Storm of Steel.

No, I didn't. I read On The Marble Cliffs and Heliopolis. Both excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 18, 2019, 04:48:07 PM
Storm of Steel is a powerful first person account of combats and life on the front during WWI. Jünger was wounded 14 times and was the youngest ever recipient of Pour le Mérite, Prussia's highest war distinction. André Gide considered Storm of Steel the best récit de guerre he had read. Much recommended.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41n5EDb34QL._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on October 18, 2019, 06:33:25 PM
Quote from: André on October 18, 2019, 04:48:07 PM
Storm of Steel is a powerful first person account of combats and life on the front during WWI. Jünger was wounded 14 times and was the youngest ever recipient of Pour le Mérite, Prussia's highest war distinction. André Gide considered Storm of Steel the best récit de guerre he had read. Much recommended.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41n5EDb34QL._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Seconded, that's an amazing book
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 18, 2019, 06:39:36 PM
It seems to be available from Penguin Classics in a couple of different printings. I vote this as the best cover
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ppW3DYKiL.jpg)

The original English translation (1929) is also available.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 18, 2019, 08:03:37 PM
It's a surprising book too. Not at all All Quiet on The Western Front-ish. Junger rather liked the war.  It's a bit unsettling in places.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 19, 2019, 10:40:12 AM
Quote from: Ken B on October 18, 2019, 08:03:37 PM
It's a surprising book too. Not at all All Quiet on The Western Front-ish. Junger rather liked the war.  It's a bit unsettling in places.

Yes it is.

Jünger didn't like war, but he saw combat as a calling, a uniquely prussian trait. That, too, may be unsettling and hard to understand. Jünger was a francophone and a francophile. He harbored no ill will toward 'the Enemy'. Along with Günter Grass and Heinrich Böll he is among the most read german writers in France, where his work is widely admired. He was one of Mitterrand's favourite authors.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 19, 2019, 06:06:44 PM
A bit of a flier, Twilight of Empire by Greg King and Penny Wilson. A recent book on Mayerling and the death of the Habsburg heir. Looks like a Florestan kind of a book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on October 27, 2019, 06:22:41 PM
After seeing Sarge's advocacy lo these many moons, giving this a try....

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388548147l/220682.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 28, 2019, 05:52:13 AM
I have just finished reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón: The Shadow of the Wind


(https://www.easons.com/globalassets/5637150827/all/books/fiction/fiction-a-to-z/contemporary-fiction/9781474609883.jpg?width=270&height=360&mode=max)


This is an interesting thriller set in Barcelona just after WWII. The writing is so powerfully descriptive that it is almost cinematic. It is the second book in a cycle of four by the author that I have read and it is a real page turner. I liik forward to reading the other two books in the series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 28, 2019, 06:05:46 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 28, 2019, 05:52:13 AM
I have just finished reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón: The Shadow of the Wind


(https://www.easons.com/globalassets/5637150827/all/books/fiction/fiction-a-to-z/contemporary-fiction/9781474609883.jpg?width=270&height=360&mode=max)


This is an interesting thriller set in Barcelona just after WWII. The writing is so powerfully descriptive that it is almost cinematic. It is the second book in a cycle of four by the author that I have read and it is a real page turner. I liik forward to reading the other two books in the series.

Yes, this is good. Now you should read the sequel, The Angel's Play which is as good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 28, 2019, 06:14:42 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 28, 2019, 05:52:13 AM
I have just finished reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón: The Shadow of the Wind


(https://www.easons.com/globalassets/5637150827/all/books/fiction/fiction-a-to-z/contemporary-fiction/9781474609883.jpg?width=270&height=360&mode=max)


This is an interesting thriller set in Barcelona just after WWII. The writing is so powerfully descriptive that it is almost cinematic. It is the second book in a cycle of four by the author that I have read and it is a real page turner. I liik forward to reading the other two books in the series.

That has been on my oh how tempting looking list for a very long time. 

TD
Murder in the Crooked House
Soji Shimada 1983

Elaborate fair play murder mysteries of the SS van Dine type have been popular in Japan for decades and Shimada is one of the big names. I read his earlier, excellent, Tokyo Zodiac Murders, which is quite brilliant. So far this is a bit dull, but then I have not reached the solution yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 28, 2019, 07:22:24 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 28, 2019, 06:05:46 AM

(https://www.easons.com/globalassets/5637150827/all/books/fiction/fiction-a-to-z/contemporary-fiction/9781474609883.jpg?width=270&height=360&mode=max)

Yes, this is good. Now you should read the sequel, The Angel's Play which is as good.

I presume that you mean The Angel's Game or am I missing one in the series?



Quote from: Ken B on October 28, 2019, 06:14:42 AM

That has been on my oh how tempting looking list for a very long time. 


Definitely recommended as a very good read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 28, 2019, 07:25:44 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 28, 2019, 07:22:24 AM
I presume that you mean The Angel's Game

Yes, that one. I confused play with game (in Romanian there is a single word for them).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 28, 2019, 08:56:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 28, 2019, 07:25:44 AM
Yes, that one. I confused play with game (in Romanian there is a single word for them).

Cheers. No problem and thank you for the clarification. As I said I just did not want to miss out on one.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 28, 2019, 10:30:00 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51PGYuC5C%2BL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


and my current bus book:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81jd-0oTCVL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 29, 2019, 02:03:29 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 28, 2019, 10:30:00 PM

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81jd-0oTCVL.jpg)

Great subtitle!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on October 29, 2019, 06:49:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 28, 2019, 07:25:44 AM
(in Romanian there is a single word for them).

Like "Hello" and "I surrender" in French.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 29, 2019, 03:58:54 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 29, 2019, 06:49:41 AM
Like "Hello" and "I surrender" in French.

And you call me a bigot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on October 31, 2019, 09:34:38 AM
Recently read the combray half of Swann's way from Proust's In search of lost time. Very impressive. Still a long way to go, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 31, 2019, 10:50:55 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51xitDPb3ZL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on October 31, 2019, 11:03:34 AM
(//)
I took this to Italy with me. It's an enjoyable romp, like an early James Bond story. Despite the anti-semitism (and yet paradoxically Buchan was later considered as a friend of the Jews) I still enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 01, 2019, 02:38:02 AM
It's supposedly one of the "founding" books both of the espionage genre and the trope of an "ordinary guy" getting involved in such stuff (although the latter is older if one casts a somewhat wider net, The prisoner of Zelda would already be an earlier example). As you are probably aware, it also served as an inspiration for quite a bit of the Tintin adventure "The black island".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 01, 2019, 03:57:27 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on October 31, 2019, 11:03:34 AM
(https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=68.0;attach=60688;image)
I took this to Italy with me. It's an enjoyable romp, like an early James Bond story. Despite the anti-semitism (and yet paradoxically Buchan was later considered as a friend of the Jews) I still enjoyed it.

Nostalgia trip; I remember reading that one as a young man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 01, 2019, 06:32:41 AM
Quote from: aligreto on November 01, 2019, 03:57:27 AM
Nostalgia trip; I remember reading that one as a young man.
I read it as a middle aged one. I liked it, it was hammy fun, and fast. Another one I liked was King Solomon's Mines by Haggard, but again you have to turn a blind eye to a few things. And not mind that the plot is ridiculous!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 01, 2019, 06:42:02 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 01, 2019, 06:32:41 AM
.... Another one I liked was King Solomon's Mines by Haggard, but again you have to turn a blind eye to a few things. And not mind that the plot is ridiculous!

:laugh:  :laugh: Very true and quite amusing comments.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Biffo on November 01, 2019, 09:04:18 AM
Each year at school we were given a book to read; we weren't examined on it, I think the intention was to prompt us to read further. In the first year we got A Christmas Carol; I did read it but found it heavy going and it was many years before I read any more Dickens. The next year we got King Solomon's Mines followed by Salute to Adventurers by John Buchan.

I read a couple more Rider Haggard novels including She and one whose title I have forgotten but it was about an aged Odysseus embarking on one last adventure to find Helen of Troy, believed to be in Egypt.

I read more Buchan including The Thirty-nine Steps and its sequel Greenmantle. I can't remember much about the latter but the former has been made into a movie at least twice and more recently a television series, suitably sanitized for modern audiences.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on November 01, 2019, 09:07:14 AM
Dumb question perhaps but is that book perhaps the same The 39 Steps that Hitchcock's famous film was based on (and which, to this date, I still haven't seen)?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 01, 2019, 09:41:00 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on November 01, 2019, 09:07:14 AM
Dumb question perhaps but is that book perhaps the same The 39 Steps that Hitchcock's famous film was based on (and which, to this date, I still haven't seen)?
It is, but you wouldn't know it from their respective plots.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 01, 2019, 11:30:31 AM
Quote from: Biffo on November 01, 2019, 09:04:18 AM
Each year at school we were given a book to read; we weren't examined on it, I think the intention was to prompt us to read further. In the first year we got A Christmas Carol; I did read it but found it heavy going and it was many years before I read any more Dickens. The next year we got King Solomon's Mines followed by Salute to Adventurers by John Buchan.

I read a couple more Rider Haggard novels including She and one whose title I have forgotten but it was about an aged Odysseus embarking on one last adventure to find Helen of Troy, believed to be in Egypt.

I read more Buchan including The Thirty-nine Steps and its sequel Greenmantle. I can't remember much about the latter but the former has been made into a movie at least twice and more recently a television series, suitably sanitized for modern audiences.

Interesting as Greenmantle and She were two that I too read soon after reading their prequels. I was quite young, could not afford to buy books and borrowed them from my local library. Happy days  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: listener on November 01, 2019, 11:57:47 AM
Catching up on current history with Brexit Boris
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 01, 2019, 12:03:39 PM
Life and Fate
V Grossman
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 01, 2019, 12:18:49 PM
Quote from: Ken B on November 01, 2019, 12:03:39 PM
Life and Fate
V Grossman

What do you make of it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 01, 2019, 12:50:30 PM
Quote from: Florestan on November 01, 2019, 12:18:49 PM
What do you make of it?
I am only at 1/4 through. Not much of a connected narrative, more a collage of scenes from a bad time and place to be alive. I am liking it so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 01, 2019, 11:14:53 PM
It's a great book, I think. I'd like it to be more widely known.

I had recently finished Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin that I've been meaning to get to for a long time, but had difficulty with locating a copy. Finally, got one in Helsinki. I had very high expectations for it, probably, but overall it was a great novel. Some really strong imagery.
(https://www.penguin.co.uk/content/dam/prh/books/175/175542/9780141191621.jpg.transform/PRHDesktopWide_small/image.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on November 02, 2019, 02:43:22 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 01, 2019, 02:38:02 AM
It's supposedly one of the "founding" books both of the espionage genre and the trope of an "ordinary guy" getting involved in such stuff (although the latter is older if one casts a somewhat wider net, The prisoner of Zelda would already be an earlier example). As you are probably aware, it also served as an inspiration for quite a bit of the Tintin adventure "The black island".

No I didn't know! As a Tintin fanatic I find that very interesting. Thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on November 02, 2019, 02:44:21 AM
Quote from: aligreto on November 01, 2019, 03:57:27 AM
Nostalgia trip; I remember reading that one as a young man.
Well, I'm glad Fergus to be responsible for you having a nostalgia trip rather than the other way round!
:)

The 39 Steps has an absurd number of coincidences but the plot device of a completely innocent man being pursued by the bad guys and the police is very entertaining. It reminded me of 'North by Northwest' which is itself like a forerunner of a James Bond film.

I bought a collection of Buchan's other books for £2.00. Are they worth reading?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 02, 2019, 06:47:49 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on November 02, 2019, 02:44:21 AM
Well, I'm glad Fergus to be responsible for you having a nostalgia trip rather than the other way round!
:)

The 39 Steps has an absurd number of coincidences but the plot device of a completely innocent man being pursued by the bad guys and the police is very entertaining. It reminded me of 'North by Northwest' which is itself like a forerunner of a James Bond film.

I bought a collection of Buchan's other books for £2.00. Are they worth reading?
Unasked: are they worth buying.
I never knew you were an MP!

;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Biffo on November 02, 2019, 07:00:21 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on November 02, 2019, 02:44:21 AM
Well, I'm glad Fergus to be responsible for you having a nostalgia trip rather than the other way round!
:)

The 39 Steps has an absurd number of coincidences but the plot device of a completely innocent man being pursued by the bad guys and the police is very entertaining. It reminded me of 'North by Northwest' which is itself like a forerunner of a James Bond film.

I bought a collection of Buchan's other books for £2.00. Are they worth reading?

According to Wikipedia Buchan wrote six Richard Hannay adventures. I definitely read two and vaguely remember reading a third (The Three Hostages, possibly) - I also remember there was diminishing returns with The 39 Steps being easily the best. If you have it give Salute to Adventurers a try.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on November 02, 2019, 07:01:29 AM
Quote from: Biffo on November 02, 2019, 07:00:21 AM
According to Wikipedia Buchan wrote six Richard Hannay adventures. I definitely read two and vaguely remember reading a third (The Three Hostages, possibly) - I also remember there was diminishing returns with The 39 Steps being easily the best. If you have it give Salute to Adventurers a try.
Thanks. Will do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 03, 2019, 02:50:41 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on November 02, 2019, 02:44:21 AM
Well, I'm glad Fergus to be responsible for you having a nostalgia trip rather than the other way round!
:)

The 39 Steps has an absurd number of coincidences but the plot device of a completely innocent man being pursued by the bad guys and the police is very entertaining. It reminded me of 'North by Northwest' which is itself like a forerunner of a James Bond film.

I bought a collection of Buchan's other books for £2.00. Are they worth reading?

The only other Buchan book that I have read is Greenmantle. I would say that they are of their time but probably worth reading if one accepts them for what they are,  a light read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 03, 2019, 08:29:56 PM
taking a vacation from the to-read pile with this:

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSsTDQBjyXn59zPz2xJKndExKWzBcx-ykyQtJNVz83PpZ3JsM-a)

and am thoroughly enjoying it
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on November 06, 2019, 08:14:33 AM
(https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-5sppbk3px9/images/stencil/original/products/7908/73694/TheTrial_1__12949.1565198944.JPG?c=2)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 06, 2019, 10:37:05 AM
started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51IlYTT6L7L._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 11, 2019, 07:10:46 PM
Florestan wanted to know what I thought of Grossman's Life and Fate, which I just finished.

I am going to quote a couple Amazon reviews that capture my reaction pretty well between them.

QuoteBut then there are the myriad characters, most of whom are incompletely drawn. This reader found himself returning time and again to the 18 page list of chief characters to keep track of who is who.

QuoteAn incredible look, on a very intimate level, at life in Stalin's Russia. This is how World War II looked to individual Russians on a day to day basis. I've seen nothing else like it. Fair warning: it can be hard to keep track of all the characters. Also, this is not a conventional novel with a linear plot. It's more like a series of short stories or vignettes. But everything is tied together in an over-arching structure.

I still, after 35 years, remember some characters in War and Peace. I won't remember many of those in this book, and that puts a ceiling on my affection for it. But I agree with the second comment too.

Goya and Picasso both painted war in Spain. I prefer Goya. I remember faces from Goya, but Guernica is a great painting too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 12, 2019, 12:21:38 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 11, 2019, 07:10:46 PM
Florestan wanted to know what I thought of Grossman's Life and Fate, which I just finished.

I am going to quote a couple Amazon reviews that capture my reaction pretty well between them.

I still, after 35 years, remember some characters in War and Peace. I won't remember many of those in this book, and that puts a ceiling on my affection for it. But I agree with the second comment too.

Goya and Picasso both painted war in Spain. I prefer Goya. I remember faces from Goya, but Guernica is a great painting too.

That's fair enough.

I remember a few characters, especially an old soldier in the besieged Leningrad who asked his newly arrived politruk something like that: I've always wanted to ask some knowledgeable person form the Party, comrade: if we really apply "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", don't you think that many would be dead drunk at 10 am?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 14, 2019, 09:58:05 AM
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke

Because Life and Fate wasn't long enough ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 14, 2019, 04:32:38 PM
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQBQb2mP78oT_Y6Ma-vAop8jfv7ZWFkrz50gT6jaSCD4M8k5e63)

More a straight autobiography and overview of her political work than getting into the mechanics and the nuts and bolts of UN work I was hoping for. Not essential, then, but still happy to have given it my time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 16, 2019, 06:43:31 PM
So what's everyone else reading?

currently I'm doing a second read of this:

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ksIf9RjnP9k/UiwqRZz7g_I/AAAAAAAAF2s/laMw5tjsBso/s1600/Penguin+6+1042.jpg)

In my early twenties I read practically every word Orwell wrote, but this, while having much to recommend it was never one of my favorites, unlike Down And Out In Paris And London or the unjustly neglected Keep The Aspidistra Flying. And I'm on the whole confirming that with this second reading. I can't imagine I'll need a third in the future.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 17, 2019, 02:52:52 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 16, 2019, 06:43:31 PM
So what's everyone else reading?

currently I'm doing a second read of this:

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ksIf9RjnP9k/UiwqRZz7g_I/AAAAAAAAF2s/laMw5tjsBso/s1600/Penguin+6+1042.jpg)

In my early twenties I read practically every word Orwell wrote, but this, while having much to recommend it was never one of my favorites, unlike Down And Out In Paris And London or the unjustly neglected Keep The Aspidistra Flying. And I'm on the whole confirming that with this second reading. I can't imagine I'll need a third in the future.

I was also an avid reader of Orwell in my early twenties. I wonder how he would read for me after a lifetime of living. You may have persuaded me to revisit him as he had completely disappeared from my radar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 17, 2019, 07:20:43 AM
More proustian stuff:

[asin]8804716207[/asin]

Lorenza Foschini enjoyed an international success some years ago with Proust's Overcoat, which dealt with Jacques Guérin's obsessive quest to save all things related to Proust (manuscripts and personal belongings) from dispersion or destruction. In this new (short—169 pages) book, she deals with Proust's and Reynaldo Hahn's romance and later friendship. Very well written, in short chapters that are precisely located and dated (and profusely annotated, with clear indication of the sources of each and every statement made), this is a very enjoyable read. The book (released in September 2019) was immediately translated into French, and I expect an English version will appear soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 17, 2019, 09:22:15 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81Xpxp-OSTL.jpg)


Really thought provoking! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 18, 2019, 02:53:54 AM
Quote from: ritter on November 17, 2019, 07:20:43 AM
More proustian stuff:

[asin]8804716207[/asin]

Lorenza Foschini enjoyed an international success some years ago with Proust's Overcoat, which dealt with Jacques Guérin's obsessive quest to save all things related to Proust (manuscripts and personal belongings) from dispersion or destruction. In this new (short—169 pages) book, she deals with Proust's and Reynaldo Hahn's romance and later friendship. Very well written, in short chapters that are precisely located and dated (and profusely annotated, with clear indication of the sources of each and every statement made), this is a very enjoyable read. The book (released in September 2019) was immediately translated into French, and I expect an English version will appear soon.

That looks interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 20, 2019, 12:22:49 AM
Shusaku Endo: Silence


(https://www.easons.com/globalassets/5637150827/all/books/fiction/fiction-a-to-z/historical-fiction/9781447299851.jpg?width=270&height=360&mode=max)


I have just finished reading this account of the Japanese suppression and total unacceptance of the attempt by Christian missionaries to introduce Christianity. It is set in the mid seventeenth century and the language [or perhaps the translation] does not give one the dusty feel of an old historic novel. On the contrary, the language is modern, vibrant and alive. I enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 23, 2019, 01:16:11 PM
An interesting article on the dismantling of Boeing's corporate culture.

Florestan or any other techie will find it interesting and depressing and probably familiar

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/how-boeing-lost-its-bearings/602188/ (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/how-boeing-lost-its-bearings/602188/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 23, 2019, 01:22:21 PM
a couple of things on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/516LFxi9beL._SX316_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71uBO6MqVAL.jpg)

The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh

They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 24, 2019, 07:56:48 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71-iPqYMvvL.jpg)

Joseph Roulin was a postman, alcoholic, who befriended Van Gough in Arles. We know him through his picture

(https://www.moma.org/d/assets/W1siZiIsIjIwMTYvMDgvMDEvN293cXQ5cDltM18xOTZfMTk4OV9DQ0NSLmpwZyJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDIwMDB4MTMzM14gLWdyYXZpdHkgQ2VudGVyIC1jcm9wIDIwMDB4MTMzMyswKzAiXV0/196_1989_CCCR.jpg?sha=f4d498960596963b)

I'm reading Pierre Michon's short and very dense and challenging essay on Roulin, an imaginative projection made partly on the basis of what little we know of his life, but equally importantly on the basis of the picture Vincent made of him. The book is difficult because it's like a glimpse into a complex, tortured,disillusioned drunken mind -- the glimpse is so deep it's painful.

I love Michon, I don't know if he's been translated. I've read a book by him on Rimbaud, and another on the First French Republic, Les Onze. All really challenging books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dissily Mordentroge on November 24, 2019, 12:50:29 PM
Quote from: Ken B on November 23, 2019, 01:16:11 PM
An interesting article on the dismantling of Boeing's corporate culture.

Florestan or any other techie will find it interesting and depressing and probably familiar

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/how-boeing-lost-its-bearings/602188/ (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/how-boeing-lost-its-bearings/602188/)
Allowing M BA's to take over an industry or a university is a recipe for absurdity couched in incomprehensible pseudo-theory.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 25, 2019, 08:56:41 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51FqKk4TkpL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 28, 2019, 07:54:29 AM
Helen Pluckrose on fat. But on so much more than fat. https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/december-2019/big-fat-lies/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on November 28, 2019, 08:30:26 AM
Something on the side to suppliment the Gibbon.  Good so far; Wickham is excellent on explaining clearly how various different kinds of ancient sources can be sifted for information.  A bit dry, though.... can only take it in medium size doses.

(https://images3.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9781101105184)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on November 28, 2019, 08:31:43 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Fontane_der_stechlin_titel.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 28, 2019, 08:45:27 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 14, 2019, 09:58:05 AM
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke


Final verdict: don't bother. Not terrible, except in places. Just not worth the time, or even a third of the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 28, 2019, 08:47:04 AM
Quote from: j winter on November 28, 2019, 08:30:26 AM
Something on the side to suppliment the Gibbon.  Good so far; Wickham is excellent on explaining clearly how various different kinds of ancient sources can be sifted for information.  A bit dry, though.... can only take it in medium size doses.

(https://images3.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9781101105184)
I found Heather's books much better. And Ward-Perkins's short book on the fall of Rome is highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on November 28, 2019, 04:11:29 PM
Quote from: Ken B on November 28, 2019, 08:47:04 AM
I found Heather's books much better. And Ward-Perkins's short book on the fall of Rome is highly recommended.

Thanks for that... I think I have an ebook from Peter Heather somewhere, I'll have to dig that up....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on November 29, 2019, 10:22:58 AM
(https://www.memoriapress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/A-Tale-of-Two-Cities-510x777.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on November 29, 2019, 06:15:40 PM
Rereading this informative article by an aircraft engineer about the Boeing 737 max

https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/how-the-boeing-737-max-disaster-looks-to-a-software-developer

And then this

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/2/18518176/boeing-737-max-crash-problems-human-error-mcas-faa

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 04, 2019, 12:05:52 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513pLXwxjqL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51L-us8o%2BsL.jpg)


also nearly finished Jack Reacher No.15:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JLnDr8P2L._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on December 04, 2019, 04:53:19 AM
(https://s.s-bol.com/imgbase0/imagebase3/extralarge/FC/2/7/6/6/9200000109776672.jpg)

For francophiles and lovers of the 19th century.

I'm reading the dutch translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 04, 2019, 08:48:00 AM
Aldous Huxley: Crome Yellow


(https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/plusw/1021989456.jpg)


Huxley is an author whom I read avidly as a young man but have not read anything of his in many years. I picked Crome Yellow randomly off the shelf. I instantly remembered liking Huxley's characters immensely. They are so natural and alive. His writing style is so easy and fluid; everything moved along effortlessly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on December 06, 2019, 09:43:57 AM
Wondering if I shall ever finish Joyce's Ulysses. It's an endless series of alternating between outrageously funny and witty parts and then mind-screwy enigmas impossible to figure out. There have been several months when I haven't read it at all.

Yet I must finish it. This is often regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written and to be fair, it shows often enough. Appropriately enough, I have recently thought a lot of about reading Fleming's From Russia with Love again: I am sure decoders trying to figure out Joyce would have loved to get their hands on Spektor/Lektor. I wonder if Joyce ever decrypted messages in war himself? I know Fleming did.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on December 06, 2019, 11:00:27 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on December 06, 2019, 09:43:57 AM
Wondering if I shall ever finish Joyce's Ulysses. It's an endless series of alternating between outrageously funny and witty parts and then mind-screwy enigmas impossible to figure out. There have been several months when I haven't read it at all.

Yet I must finish it. This is often regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written and to be fair, it shows often enough. Appropriately enough, I have recently thought a lot of about reading Fleming's From Russia with Love again: I am sure decoders trying to figure out Joyce would have loved to get their hands on Spektor/Lektor. I wonder if Joyce ever decrypted messages in war himself? I know Fleming did.

A man after my own heart, can't decide between James Joyce & James Bond...  :laugh:

FWIW, I've tried Ulysses twice and never got more than halfway through it (wonderful stuff, but I can't take it in such large doses.  I bought Finnegan's Wake in college and have honestly never even cracked it open.)  I've read all of Fleming several times (though not for many years now).  I actually thought about re-reading some Bond recently after watching one of the movies -- I might pull On Her Majesty's Secret Service off the shelf this weekend if I have some time....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 06, 2019, 11:03:50 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on December 06, 2019, 09:43:57 AM
Wondering if I shall ever finish Joyce's Ulysses. It's an endless series of alternating between outrageously funny and witty parts and then mind-screwy enigmas impossible to figure out. There have been several months when I haven't read it at all.

Yet I must finish it. This is often regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written and to be fair, it shows often enough. Appropriately enough, I have recently thought a lot of about reading Fleming's From Russia with Love again: I am sure decoders trying to figure out Joyce would have loved to get their hands on Spektor/Lektor. I wonder if Joyce ever decrypted messages in war himself? I know Fleming did.

Finish it.

I did, dammit. And take your cod liver oil too!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 06, 2019, 11:15:16 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on December 06, 2019, 09:43:57 AM
Wondering if I shall ever finish Joyce's Ulysses. It's an endless series of alternating between outrageously funny and witty parts and then mind-screwy enigmas impossible to figure out. There have been several months when I haven't read it at all.

Yet I must finish it. This is often regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written

Written for whom? For literary critics and historians, or for the general audience?  ;D




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 06, 2019, 11:28:10 AM
I doubt he expected the first wave of literary critics to like it, and I believe most were hostile, except the rare few as perceptive as Edmund Wilson. I believe it was other authors who did most of the initial championing of the work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 06, 2019, 11:43:04 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 06, 2019, 11:28:10 AM
I doubt he expected the first wave of literary critics to like it

This, while true, is no argument against the idea that he wrote "Ulysses" rather for literary critics than for the general audience.

If you ask me, a humble member of the general audience, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is much more humane and reader-friendly  --- ie, much more interesting --- than "Ulysses".

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 06, 2019, 12:08:43 PM
I think he wrote it for himself, the only way he knew how to write it. And I think you might have some skewed ideas about both snobby literary critics and the supposedly simple tastes of the "general audience" - of which I'd like to consider myself a member.

Some mountains are worth the climb. (also I'd take Ulysses over Portrait any day)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 06, 2019, 12:24:29 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 06, 2019, 12:08:43 PM
I think he wrote it for himself, the only way he knew how to write it.

I think you're spot on.

And I also think that great novelists truly worth their name know how to write for others. Three names OTTOMH: Dickens, Hugo, Dostoievsky.


Quote
And I think you might have some skewed ideas about both snobby literary critics and the supposedly simple tastes of the "general audience" - of which I'd like to consider myself a member.

It's not a question of snobbery or simplism. It's a question of why, and for whom, one writes novels. See above.

Quote
Some mountains are worth the climb. (also I'd take Ulysses over Portrait any day)

No mountain is worth the climb in abstracto. Do you really claim that anyone who dislikes Ulysses, or is not able to finish it, is a dimwit?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on December 06, 2019, 12:50:09 PM
Well, from what I've heard, Ulysses is the easiest book to read in the world when compared to Finnegan's Wake. It seems Joyce's books got steadily more and more incomprehensible the more he developed as a writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 06, 2019, 12:54:35 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 06, 2019, 12:24:29 PM


Do you really claim that anyone who dislikes Ulysses, or is not able to finish it, is a dimwit?

No, I think you're being unnecessarily defensive because *you* didn't like it. Which I, for one, don't require you to, and don't feel it points toward any larger truth.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 06, 2019, 01:02:46 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 06, 2019, 11:43:04 AM
This, while true, is no argument against the idea that he wrote "Ulysses" rather for literary critics than for the general audience.

If you ask me, a humble member of the general audience, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is much more humane and reader-friendly  --- ie, much more interesting --- than "Ulysses".

I'll take Dubliners over both. I never much liked Portrait. Ulysses at least is often very funny. I could imagine curiosity maybe leading me to re read Ulysses. Not Portrait.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 06, 2019, 01:50:42 PM
Quote from: Ken B on December 06, 2019, 01:02:46 PM
I'll take Dubliners over both. I never much liked Portrait. Ulysses at least is often very funny. Not Portrait.

It shows you're not a Christian. The sermon in Portrait makes for a fascinating reading --- and I have to say it makes some good points.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 06, 2019, 04:15:23 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 06, 2019, 01:50:42 PM
It shows you're not a Christian. The sermon in Portrait makes for a fascinating reading --- and I have to say it makes some good points.
There's a sermon in Portrait??

;)

I remember a priest droning on and on to a bunch of boys. I assumed it was foreplay.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 06, 2019, 04:49:50 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 06, 2019, 01:50:42 PM
It shows you're not a Christian. The sermon in Portrait makes for a fascinating reading --- and I have to say it makes some good points.

It was Joyce's way of showing everything he thought wrong with Irish Catholicism.

I think Portrait is a great book, better than Dubliners, probably better than Ulysses, which I have tried to read but never finished.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 08, 2019, 07:27:49 AM
Historian Richard Evans is rightly admired on GMG.

An open letter to RE
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/11/open-letter-sir-richard-evans-labour-s-anti-semitism-cannot-be-disregarded

His reply
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/vote-labour-jeremy-corbyn-antisemitism-changed-mind-a9227151.html

Related. How is this kind of stuff being covered on this side of the Atlantic
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/295247/red-yellow-journalism
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 08, 2019, 09:43:09 AM
I'm continuing with an illustrated prose version of Dante's "Divine Comedy" on my Kindle, just got to the end of the 8th circle of Inferno. I've been on a few caving trips so can imagine the nightmarish scenery pretty well but the twisted sadistic tortures are quite revolting :o.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 09, 2019, 09:46:35 AM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380041617l/20422.jpg)

Strangely disturbing and very deep.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on December 09, 2019, 10:02:29 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on December 06, 2019, 09:43:57 AM
Wondering if I shall ever finish Joyce's Ulysses. It's an endless series of alternating between outrageously funny and witty parts and then mind-screwy enigmas impossible to figure out. There have been several months when I haven't read it at all.

Yet I must finish it. This is often regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written and to be fair, it shows often enough. Appropriately enough, I have recently thought a lot of about reading Fleming's From Russia with Love again: I am sure decoders trying to figure out Joyce would have loved to get their hands on Spektor/Lektor. I wonder if Joyce ever decrypted messages in war himself? I know Fleming did.

Similar experience. I'm reminded of a quote of Joyce regarding Ulysses

QuoteI've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality.

It seems to me there are writers who assured their immortality by writing a good story. :)

Slow going for me, and the only way forward for me is to read through the enigmas and puzzles, ignore them, to in hopes of getting to the actual story, to the extent there is one. I seem to read 50 pages, get put off, and come back a year or two later. Not clear I will reach the end.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 09, 2019, 10:29:09 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 09, 2019, 09:46:35 AM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380041617l/20422.jpg)

Strangely disturbing and very deep.
Great stuff. I read it many years ago, and was really impressed. The novel is also the first in Duras's "Indian Cycle" (for lack of a better term), as the character of Anne-Marie Stretter appers again in Le Vice-Consul and later becomes central in the extraordinary India Song (book, play, film).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 09, 2019, 10:33:50 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on December 06, 2019, 09:43:57 AM
Wondering if I shall ever finish Joyce's Ulysses. It's an endless series of alternating between outrageously funny and witty parts and then mind-screwy enigmas impossible to figure out. There have been several months when I haven't read it at all.

Yet I must finish it. This is often regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written and to be fair, it shows often enough. Appropriately enough, I have recently thought a lot of about reading Fleming's From Russia with Love again: I am sure decoders trying to figure out Joyce would have loved to get their hands on Spektor/Lektor. I wonder if Joyce ever decrypted messages in war himself? I know Fleming did.

The third section, 16, 17 and 18, where Bloom meets Daedelus in an all night cafe, takes him home, and then,  in one of the most unforgettable, deeply unforgettable, moments in all literature, just when you think that the father has found a son and the son has found a father,  they decide to go their separate ways, is for me unbelievably powerful. (The French call what I've just done divulgâcher-- sorry! No-one reads a book like that for the plot do they?)

I remember using this book when I first read it, only in those days it wasn't new, and I found it helpful -- there are probably others.


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41q1T99uMIL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 09, 2019, 10:34:45 AM
Quote from: ritter on December 09, 2019, 10:29:09 AM
Great stuff. I read it many years ago, and was really impressed. The novel is also the first in Duras's "Indian Cycle" (for lack of a better term), as the character of Anne-Marie Stretter appers again in Le Vice-Consul and later becomes central in the extraordinary India Song (book, play, film).

I just watched this -- she's amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/v/HWBeyd5vufE
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 09, 2019, 11:09:47 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 09, 2019, 10:34:45 AM
I just watched this -- she's amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/v/HWBeyd5vufE
I didn't know that interview. Thanks for posting it. I'll watch it with interest soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 09, 2019, 12:31:44 PM
A change of pace, what someone is not reading. Instead they are proudly burning it.
https://www.webcitation.org/6GJvAbb2t (https://www.webcitation.org/6GJvAbb2t)

And  https://www.blazingcatfur.ca/2019/12/09/book-burning-by-chinese-county-library-sparks-fury/ (https://www.blazingcatfur.ca/2019/12/09/book-burning-by-chinese-county-library-sparks-fury/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on December 09, 2019, 06:37:39 PM
Currently reading this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41LaB43p%2BQL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 09, 2019, 08:18:11 PM
Quote from: Ken B on December 09, 2019, 12:31:44 PM
A change of pace, what someone is not reading. Instead they are proudly burning it.
https://www.webcitation.org/6GJvAbb2t (https://www.webcitation.org/6GJvAbb2t)

And  https://www.blazingcatfur.ca/2019/12/09/book-burning-by-chinese-county-library-sparks-fury/ (https://www.blazingcatfur.ca/2019/12/09/book-burning-by-chinese-county-library-sparks-fury/)

If the librarians have burnt all the biased books they should have a nice easy job from now on ;).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 10, 2019, 01:19:39 AM
Quote from: ritter on December 09, 2019, 10:29:09 AM
Great stuff. I read it many years ago, and was really impressed. The novel is also the first in Duras's "Indian Cycle" (for lack of a better term), as the character of Anne-Marie Stretter appers again in Le Vice-Consul and later becomes central in the extraordinary India Song (book, play, film).
I've just ordered Le Vice Consul.

Is India Song a novel? If it is could you find a link to it for me, in French if indeed it was written in French? When I look on amazon I'm not sure whether I'm ordering a film script or a play or what!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 10, 2019, 02:55:48 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 10, 2019, 01:19:39 AM
I've just ordered Le Vice Consul.

Is India Song a novel? If it is could you find a link to it for me, in French if indeed it was written in French? When I look on amazon I'm not sure whether I'm ordering a film script or a play or what!
You'd actually be ordering "or what"!  ;D India Song is subtitled "Texte - théâtre -  film". The book is meant to be read as such (as the theatrical-cinematographic writing is rather peculiar - the action, or absence thereof,  being narrated by four "off" voices, not enacted by the actors themselves). Its genesis is theatrical, as it was a commission from Peter Hall for the Royal National Theatre in the early seventies--it seems the play was never produced. Duras went on to make the film in 1975, with the wonderful  Delphine Seyrig and Michael Lonsdale among the cast. It has been regarded by some as a masterpiece, but by others as the most boring film ever made, or as "no content and all style" by the NYT on its release.

The film was released on DVD by Benoit Jacob (http://www.benoitjacob-editions.fr/cataloguevideo.html), but seems to be OOP at the moment:

[asin]B002MD2Z1K[/asin]

The gilding of the lily is that Duras went on to make another film, Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert, which uses the soundtrack of India Song with completely new images. This one has never been released on DVD, and I've never watched it. AFAIK, the actors no longer appear on screen in this version.

I've just found out that both films are available complete on YouTube. I'll finally be watching Son nom de Venise... sometime soon.  :)

https://www.youtube.com/v/ubUIAIzLKxQ

https://www.youtube.com/v/asr1h3OEoWM&t=288s

Duras's completely imaginary Calcutta in colonial times is actually the abandoned and dilapidated Château Rothschild in Boulogne-Billancourt outside Paris.  :D


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 10, 2019, 03:54:18 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519SovaqlDL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Aaron Sorkin wrote it better
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 10, 2019, 05:12:03 AM
Quote from: ritter on December 10, 2019, 02:55:48 AM
You'd actually be ordering "or what"!  ;D India Song is subtitled "Texte - théâtre -  film". The book is meant to be read as such (as the theatrical-cinematographic writing is rather peculiar - the action, or absence thereof,  being narrated by four "off" voices, not enacted by the actors themselves). Its genesis is theatrical, as it was a commission from Peter Hall for the Royal National Theatre in the early seventies--it seems the play was never produced. Duras went on to make the film in 1975, with the wonderful  Delphine Seyrig and Michael Lonsdale among the cast. It has been regarded by some as a masterpiece, but by others as the most boring film ever made, or as "no content and all style" by the NYT on its release.

The film was released on DVD by Benoit Jacob (http://www.benoitjacob-editions.fr/cataloguevideo.html), but seems to be OOP at the moment:

[asin]B002MD2Z1K[/asin]

The gilding of the lily is that Duras went on to make another film, Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert, which uses the soundtrack of India Song with completely new images. This one has never been released on DVD, and I've never watched it. AFAIK, the actors no longer appear on screen in this version.

I've just found out that both films are available complete on YouTube. I'll finally be watching Son nom de Venise... sometime soon.  :)

https://www.youtube.com/v/ubUIAIzLKxQ

https://www.youtube.com/v/asr1h3OEoWM&t=288s

Duras's completely imaginary Calcutta in colonial times is actually the abandoned and dilapidated Château Rothschild in Boulogne-Billancourt outside Paris.  :D

Amazing, such bold creativity. Thanks.

That makes two great female French writers I've discovered this year: Sarraute and Duras. If I had more confidence in written French I'd do a degree in French literature. Maybe I should work on my spelling and grammar a bit this coming year, I know it's doable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 10, 2019, 04:03:00 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 10, 2019, 03:54:18 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519SovaqlDL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Aaron Sorkin wrote it better

Was this before or after she married Leopold?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 10, 2019, 05:26:05 PM
Quote from: JBS on December 10, 2019, 04:03:00 PM
Was this before or after she married Leopold?

I thought she must be unaware of the connection but in one bit halfway through she says that every answer to bizarre requests from the players has to be "yes" and then acknowledges her namesake.


Started: Simon Winchester's Exactly on precision engineering

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/413uGW02GDL.jpg)


looks like in America this is titled The Perfectionists:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91WfpcS53KL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on December 15, 2019, 06:28:30 AM
Charles Rosen's The Classical Style

Picked it up yesterday at a bargain price (along with the Hackett edition of Descartes' Discourse and Meditations) at my favourite book shop here in Sheffield. Already falling in love with it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: dissily Mordentroge on December 16, 2019, 01:52:37 AM
Quote from: Ratliff on December 09, 2019, 10:02:29 AM
Similar experience. I'm reminded of a quote of Joyce regarding Ulysses
"Bullshit sells"?
Got one quarter of the way through and threw it at the wall. To me it signalled the beginning of a profound period of decay in Western Culture.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 19, 2019, 09:55:23 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71Jw5yvjP2L.jpg)

This book has the energy of a first novel by a great writer. A memorable account of a man's decline and fall into madness. I intend to read more early Le Clezio.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 19, 2019, 10:10:18 AM
A secondhand bookshop I go to has a copy of The Book Of Flights ( Le Livre des Fuites), which I've been considering, but I'm not sure if that's the best LeClezio to start with.

Have you read that one?

(https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/8b282028-e3e4-456c-9168-a53741e89f54/353/569/90/False/the-book-of-flights.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 19, 2019, 10:43:49 AM
No, the only other one I've read is Désert, and that was a long time ago, and very different from Le Procès-verbal. Oh, and I think I read some of his kid's stories.

I have a feeling that Le Clézio changed, became more "mystical" -- which doesn't appeal to me. That's why I want to explore the earlier books. The next one I'll read will be Le Déluge I think. I may have a go at Désert again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 21, 2019, 07:57:26 AM
Quote from: ritter on December 09, 2019, 10:29:09 AM
Great stuff. I read it many years ago, and was really impressed. The novel is also the first in Duras's "Indian Cycle" (for lack of a better term), as the character of Anne-Marie Stretter appers again in Le Vice-Consul and later becomes central in the extraordinary India Song (book, play, film).

I couldn't get on with The Vice Consul. I didn't like the Vice Consul's character, and I abandoned it after a description of teenage scatalogical antics in a pensionnat. I have started this though, and it looks very promising indeed.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1335028606l/13611455.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 21, 2019, 08:53:35 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 21, 2019, 07:57:26 AM
I couldn't get on with The Vice Consul. I didn't like the Vice Consul's character, and I abandoned it after a description of teenage scatalogical antics in a pensionnat. I have started this though, and it looks very promising indeed.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1335028606l/13611455.jpg)
That's a nice one, with the texts she wrote for Libération. She recorded some excerpts (in her unmistakeable, seductive voice) as La jeune fille et l'enfant. I've had it on cassette since it was first released, and I think that is the only format ever released (no transfer to CD AFAIK, and not on YouTube either).

(https://img.discogs.com/zmY-aOuoeXvKrZgko_J_brOtkw0=/fit-in/309x498/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-10507501-1498874244-6381.png.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 21, 2019, 09:02:43 AM
This seems a bit spoiled by the music.


http://marguerite-duras.blogspot.com/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 21, 2019, 02:52:15 PM
still going with Winchester's "Exactly", but finished these two in the meantime:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71h23Ahb5nL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gufUMfXZL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I would have preferred Hillbilly Elegy to be more sociology and less autobiography, but it was still a good read
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on December 22, 2019, 03:45:45 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 21, 2019, 02:52:15 PM
I would have preferred Hillbilly Elegy to be more sociology and less autobiography, but it was still a good read

Agreed. Serving two masters wasn't the best course I felt.

I'm reading The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on December 22, 2019, 04:17:41 PM
A nice little Christmas treat, Isaacson's recent bio of Leonardo da Vinci.  I have no more than a poor layman's understanding of Renaissance art, so I've been looking forward to this one.  It's outstanding so far, very readable.  And the physical hardcover is nice as well, lots of color illustrations on good paper.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/516OhmSAKqL.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ken B on December 22, 2019, 04:21:21 PM
Death in Captivity
Michael Gilbert

A murder mystery set in a POW camp. First published in 1947 or so. Very enjoyable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on December 23, 2019, 11:34:56 AM
Rereading The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs by Steven B. ( I can't remember the last name and don't have the book at hand atm. )

This second time through I'm just as impressed as l was with the first reading. One of the best science books I've read in fifty years.

Digging,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 23, 2019, 11:40:37 AM
Quote from: LKB on December 23, 2019, 11:34:56 AM
Rereading The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs by Steven B. ( I can't remember the last name and don't have the book at hand atm. )

This second time through I'm just as impressed as l was with the first reading. One of the best science books I've read in fifty years.

Digging,

LKB

Embracing my inner ankylosaur....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on December 23, 2019, 11:43:48 AM
Quote from: LKB on December 23, 2019, 11:34:56 AM
Rereading The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs by Steven B. ( I can't remember the last name and don't have the book at hand atm. )

This second time through I'm just as impressed as l was with the first reading. One of the best science books I've read in fifty years.

Digging,

LKB

I actually have that on Audible, may finally be time to give it a listen.... I'm a sucker for a good popular science book...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on December 24, 2019, 01:48:03 PM
Steve Brusatte is his name:

[asin]0062490435[/asin]

As for my own reading, just finished:

[asin]0993597505[/asin]
This is a self-published book and is a bit amateurish, but the author is admirably interested in getting at the truth (e.g., the myth of the "Chernobyl divers"), there are a lot of good photos of the abandoned city of Pripyat, and the explanation of the circumstances of the accident are probably about as clear as something so complex can be.

And I'm about to begin:

[asin]0393321282[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 24, 2019, 01:53:22 PM
^ what is "the myth of the "Chernobyl divers""?

I'll be very interested to hear what you think of the Hoover, and what new information or opened files the author might have had access to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on December 24, 2019, 07:30:04 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 24, 2019, 01:53:22 PM
^ what is "the myth of the "Chernobyl divers""?

After the accident, firefighters pumped water into the reactor to try to cool it. It flooded the basement with water, which became highly radioactive. It was feared that molten nuclear material was going to melt down through the floors to this water, causing a steam explosion that would have destroyed the entire Chernobyl plant with its three other reactors. One nuclear physicist feared that such a blast could have a force of three to five megatons and would render a large portion of Europe uninhabitable for hundreds of thousands of years.

Anyway, three men volunteered to go down into the water to open some valves to drain it. The myth had it that these three had to submerge themselves in this water, in near-darkness, somehow found the valves even after their flashlight had conked out, and then succumbed to acute radiation poisoning not long afterward. A romantic myth of three brave, selfless heroes.

Well, they were brave indeed, and their finding the valves a near-miracle, but in fact the water was only knee-high (some of it had already been pumped out) and none of the men died shortly thereafter. One died in 2005 of a heart attack and the other two were still alive as of 2015.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 25, 2019, 06:39:26 AM
Chatty, sometimes superficial, but informative
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51n1-n8%2BHAL.jpg)

Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima each get a chapter. He doesn't mention the divers, probably because his emphasis is on the events that caused the meltdown.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 26, 2019, 08:39:56 AM
(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/LVgAAOSwFe5X1Bmd/s-l300.jpg)

Read less than half but I'm convinced it's a major major masterpiece!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 27, 2019, 10:17:24 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 26, 2019, 08:39:56 AM
(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/LVgAAOSwFe5X1Bmd/s-l300.jpg)

Read less than half but I'm convinced it's a major major masterpiece!
That's one I still haven't tackled. Our departed fellow GMGer NikF spoke very highly of it IIRC, and the book enjoys a huge reputation. Sometime soon... ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 30, 2019, 02:51:31 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81O8wUD-75L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 31, 2019, 06:37:17 AM
Quote from: ritter on December 27, 2019, 10:17:24 AM
That's one I still haven't tackled. Our departed fellow GMGer NikF spoke very highly of it IIRC, and the book enjoys a huge reputation. Sometime soon... ;)


I enjoyed it so much, despite not being at all clear what the point of it is supposed to be, that I'm now on this. I'm normally not interested in war memoirs but this is more an exploration of the idea of memoir, of biographical writing. And that's OK.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71iK5WVJOSL.jpg)




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 03, 2020, 10:34:55 PM
For a short read North Korea Confidential was remarkably comprehensive and easily recommended, particularly for dispelling myths and images of the North Korean people as either fanatical leader-worshipers or mindless suffering robots. Particularly good on the cracks in authority opening in black market trading and easy bribery, and in USB and cell phone technology allowing a greater understanding of the outside world and ease in sharing such.


Knocked off a couple of quickies:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51bLYiUwHkL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/510DDV9oRuL.jpg)

Wasn't previously aware PJ O'Rourke had put out a collection of his writings on the 2016 election. Some pieces are among his best work, others especially when he gets into a more general rant on his libertarian worldview are much less so, but then perhaps I'm predisposed to feel that way.

His one-of-a-kind eventual endorsement of Clinton ("She is the second-worst thing that could happen to America.") is worth a read on its own:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pj-orourke-im-endorsing-hillary-clinton-the-devil-we-know

started both of these:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51iWzxxa-HL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312008287l/115976.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 04, 2020, 08:16:44 AM
Re-reading Our Mutual Friend. And alternating it with Geo. MacDonald's Phantastes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 05, 2020, 12:29:46 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/7170nyweG9L.jpg)

Neo Faulknerian prose, long parentheses and no paragraphs for pages and sudden changes of time and place like real thought -  it's remarkable how easy it is to read when you get used to it; French isn't my first language and so how it appears to me may not be how it appears to someone who learnt it at their mothers knee, but to me the language here is so musical, full of rhythms and repeated sounds - rhymes and alliterations - which complement the meaning; extraordinary battle scenes with dying horses and blood and mud, the futility and banality of it all. I'm a great admirer of what I've read of Claude Simon, Acacia and Jardin des Plantes and now this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 05, 2020, 08:16:27 AM
(http://img.fruugo.com/product/9/08/75806089_max.jpg)

Second George Eliot book for me. I enjoyed Silas Marner greatly so I can't wait to read further!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 06, 2020, 09:31:43 AM
Revisiting some Austen: Mansfield Park

A savage, dense book full of sarcasm, cutting hypocrisies, and dagger-like wit. The point is constantly hammered home that "love" is more or less a feeling which is manufactured after careful consideration of the economics and the class implications. One of the main characters is a slave owner and that reflects in his relationships with other (non-slave) characters. Edmund constantly does things which everyone praises as nice and thoughtful, but he never asks anyone if he should do them, and the intended beneficiaries are always resentful. If anyone out there thinks Jane Austen is nice and fluffy and as light as pastry, full of happy couples falling in love, they should be reading more carefully. Absolutely savage novel, like Tarantino with roses instead of guns.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 07, 2020, 09:23:04 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 06, 2020, 09:31:43 AM
Revisiting some Austen: Mansfield Park

A savage, dense book full of sarcasm, cutting hypocrisies, and dagger-like wit. The point is constantly hammered home that "love" is more or less a feeling which is manufactured after careful consideration of the economics and the class implications. One of the main characters is a slave owner and that reflects in his relationships with other (non-slave) characters. Edmund constantly does things which everyone praises as nice and thoughtful, but he never asks anyone if he should do them, and the intended beneficiaries are always resentful. If anyone out there thinks Jane Austen is nice and fluffy and as light as pastry, full of happy couples falling in love, they should be reading more carefully. Absolutely savage novel, like Tarantino with roses instead of guns.

I can never remember whether it was Mansfield Park or Northanger abbey that Austen considered her own favorite from her novels. In any case, it wasn't the one/s most people today would name first when talking about Austen. I need to read Austen after I'm finished with Eliot's Daniel Deronda and a few other projects.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 07, 2020, 01:53:33 PM
I think Persuasion would be my personal favorite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 07, 2020, 07:34:02 PM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DFAPIG4WAAIjA1h.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 08, 2020, 12:23:20 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 07, 2020, 09:23:04 AM
I can never remember whether it was Mansfield Park or Northanger abbey that Austen considered her own favorite from her novels. In any case, it wasn't the one/s most people today would name first when talking about Austen. I need to read Austen after I'm finished with Eliot's Daniel Deronda and a few other projects.
She definitely complained in letters to friends and her publishers that nobody was giving Mansfield Park enough credit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DaveF on January 08, 2020, 01:48:19 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 26, 2019, 08:39:56 AM
(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/LVgAAOSwFe5X1Bmd/s-l300.jpg)

Read less than half but I'm convinced it's a major major masterpiece!

Ah, yes, wonderful book - the end is one of the most deeply moving things I know of.  In fact, all of Perec is worth reading, including La disparition (the one without the letter E), Les revenents (the one whose only vowel is E - quite difficult to get hold of, and quite difficult to read for non-native French speakers as the grammar and spelling are so deliberately and necessarily mangled).  And W, ou le souvenir d'enfance (in which Gaspard Winckler once again appears) deserves to be one of the key texts of the 20th century, up there with 1984 and Ivan Denisovich.  David Bellos's biography is also very good.

My favourite fact about Perec, perfect for a man so fascinated by puzzles, anagrams, palindromes, acrostics etc. - he was born on 7th March 1936, which meant that he turned 37 on 7.3.73.  (On the other hand, lots of other people were born on that date too.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 08, 2020, 04:39:50 PM
Brian Moynihan's Leningrad: Siege and Symphony
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DaveF on January 09, 2020, 12:42:39 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 08, 2020, 04:39:50 PM
Brian Moynihan's Leningrad: Siege and Symphony

I read that shortly before playing in a performance of the symphony last year.  Tremendous book, exhaustively researched and written with an immediacy that almost made you feel you were there - the kind of book you put down, look out of the window and feel a mixture of enormous surprise and relief that there aren't people outside scavenging in rubbish heaps for scraps of dead dog.  My only minor criticism is that Moynihan's writing on the actual music could have been better advised or edited - the fact that the symphony calls for 11 different percussion instruments doesn't mean it requires 11 percussionists (for example).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 09, 2020, 01:25:09 AM
QuoteTel qekqe belvédère qe dégénérescence et sénéscence descellent et jettent en terre, tel des D-C-7 qe des tenks descendent, tel des tertres qe des tremblements de terre ébrenlent, l'ensemble se segmente, et s'ébrèche et se relève pêle-mêle.
– C'est le grend denger de tels enchevêtrements, qelqes reneeflements et c'est décédé ! fêt treestement Tencrède.
Serène, Bérengère prend le temps de plézenter et, tel le grend Gégène, décrête :
– C'est vré qe je m'empêtre dens les membres des prêtres.


Eet weed be neece tee heer eet reed aleed.

(Beeny Heel)


The one I'm starting to explore now is Espèces d'espaces.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DaveF on January 09, 2020, 04:19:09 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 09, 2020, 01:25:09 AM

Eet weed be neece tee heer eet reed aleed.

(Beeny Heel)


The one I'm starting to explore now is Espèces d'espaces.

Ah, tu l'as trouvé!  Génial, n'est-ce pas?

It would make perfect sense if read aloud, since all vowels sound the same in French anyway.  (Runs for cover, hoping Carlo won't see that comment.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 09, 2020, 05:38:23 AM
Quote from: DaveF on January 09, 2020, 04:19:09 AM

since all vowels sound the same in French anyway

N'importe quoi!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on January 09, 2020, 11:02:13 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 09, 2020, 05:38:23 AM
N'importe quoi!

+1  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on January 09, 2020, 12:01:20 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 06, 2020, 09:31:43 AM
Revisiting some Austen: Mansfield Park

A savage, dense book full of sarcasm, cutting hypocrisies, and dagger-like wit. The point is constantly hammered home that "love" is more or less a feeling which is manufactured after careful consideration of the economics and the class implications. One of the main characters is a slave owner and that reflects in his relationships with other (non-slave) characters. Edmund constantly does things which everyone praises as nice and thoughtful, but he never asks anyone if he should do them, and the intended beneficiaries are always resentful. If anyone out there thinks Jane Austen is nice and fluffy and as light as pastry, full of happy couples falling in love, they should be reading more carefully. Absolutely savage novel, like Tarantino with roses instead of guns.

Time to re-read some Austin.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on January 10, 2020, 07:54:19 PM
Orient Express, by Graham Green. The story of a group of passengers who happen to be riding the same train, and who interact in various ways. A perfectly conceived and told story, featuring a wealthy Jewish merchant, a leftist revolutionary fugitive, a chorus girl, a priest, a petty thief fleeing a murder, a lesbian reporter and her female secretary/companion. It takes place between the great wars. Some characterizations seem inappropriate and stereotypical, but it is a window into a different age. An excellent book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 11, 2020, 07:58:26 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512RDNSnSqL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 11, 2020, 02:39:43 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 03, 2020, 10:34:55 PM

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51iWzxxa-HL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This well done biography was particularly good in its coverage and treatment of Yoko Ono, detailing her early life in one of Japan's richest families raised like a medieval princess through to an admiring view of her experimental work with Fluxus, the barely concealed conclusion is that  far from the standard narrative of she being the worst thing to happen to him he may have been the worst thing to happen to her. Particularly so in her marelt supportive and backseat role in dealing with all his emotional inadequacies and his ever-changing championing of various nutty pseudopsychology.

Also a very vivid depiction of time and place in the coverage of the Beatles' Hamburg red light district days.


Also finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fUs%2BsW23L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Hitchens' jet black portrait of Clinton. Actually hard to imagine a Republican creating something this unrelentingly hostile. Many of his arguments are interesting (though most claims unsourced) but ultimately undermined by his loathing permanently set at eleven. And on every page one is forced to wonder just what he would have made of Trump.


started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81CXyrEdyvL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 11, 2020, 07:25:47 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 11, 2020, 02:39:43 PM
This well done biography was particularly good in its coverage and treatment of Yoko Ono, detailing her early life in one of Japan's richest families raised like a medieval princess through to an admiring view of her experimental work with Fluxus, the barely concealed conclusion is that  far from the standard narrative of she being the worst thing to happen to him he may have been the worst thing to happen to her. Particularly so in her marelt supportive and backseat role in dealing with all his emotional inadequacies and his ever-changing championing of various nutty pseudopsychology.

Also a very vivid depiction of time and place in the coverage of the Beatles' Hamburg red light district days.


Also finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fUs%2BsW23L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Hitchens' jet black portrait of Clinton. Actually hard to imagine a Republican creating something this unrelentingly hostile. Many of his arguments are interesting (though most claims unsourced) but ultimately undermined by his loathing permanently set at eleven. And on every page one is forced to wonder just what he would have made of Trump.


His book on Kissinger has the same level of loathing and hostility to its subject, as the title might suggest
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518obm1rMzL.jpg)

He also wrote a book about Mother Teresa that seems to just as hostile to her, if the fact that it was republished  in the same format as the others is a good indicator.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51BdIZm2IqL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 11, 2020, 08:14:57 PM
Quote from: JBS on January 11, 2020, 07:25:47 PM

He also wrote a book about Mother Teresa that seems to just as hostile to her, if the fact that it was republished  in the same format as the others is a good indicator.


I've read what I think may have been the original magazine article version of the Mother Teresa thing in one of the anthologies of his journalism. He's not really hostile towards her - well, he sort of is, but in a roundabout way. He's more interested in the myth the world has made out of her due to some kind of need for a "Mother Teresa" figure, and how very different it is to the actual work she does and to her methods.

For some reason Hitchens' doesn't add the Clintons killing of Vince Foster (et al) to his list of charges - which can only be an oversight as he's happy to advance every other accusation sensible or silly, including being 100% all in on the "Wag The Dog" theory of the post-Monica wars.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 13, 2020, 02:57:47 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Mbj5RMkcL.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on January 14, 2020, 09:19:53 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 13, 2020, 02:57:47 PM
Still going with Jack Reacher, but also started this today and pleased to find it very well written. The section near the beginning on the Curies was a model of potted biography and popular history:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Mbj5RMkcL.jpg)

Obliquely related:

https://books.google.com/books?id=T6PjIRx26FIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22L.+Douglas+Keeney%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwid-cHZ2IPnAhW3GDQIHQmDCtoQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

I recommend 15 Minutes. For those too young to have memories of the most dangerous years of the Cold War, the book will be an eye - opener. The account of the Texas Towers alone makes the book worthwhile.

Duck and cover,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 17, 2020, 04:50:29 PM
RIP Christopher Tolkien
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/01/17/christopher-tolkien-guardian-father-jrr-tolkiens-creations-edited/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 18, 2020, 09:23:46 AM
RIP. Without Christopher we wouldn't have had Silmarillion (my favorite Tolkien book) or other posthumous works published except maybe much later.

Also continuing through latter segments of Proust's Swann's Way (the Finnish translation actually divides Swann's Way in 2 volumes, the first one is about the Combray section, I'm currently in vol 2 of Finnish translation which includes Swann in love and Names of places: the name). IIRC, the next two parts of original In Search of Lost Time (In the Budding Grove and Guermantes Way) are also divided in Finnish translation into 2 volumes each. So in translation this monumental work is 10 volumes in total.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 18, 2020, 05:29:06 PM
Halfway through Age Of Radiance but also knocked of this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jguAzIDuL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A very good deep dive into one pivotal year, corralling a lot of info you'd elsewhere find scattered across a number of volumes, along with the authors reexamination of contemporary reviews and interviews, and his own interviews with many of the Beatles inner circle.

from the back cover:

"The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966—the year of their last concert and Revolver, their first album of songs not intended for live performance. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from the tour circuit, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. It was the year Americans burned their records after John's explosive claim that the group was "more popular than Jesus," the year they were hounded out of the Philippines for "snubbing" the country's first lady, the year John met Yoko Ono, and the year Paul conceived the idea for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on January 18, 2020, 08:04:12 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 18, 2020, 05:29:06 PM
Halfway through Age Of Radiance but also knocked of this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jguAzIDuL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A very good deep dive into one pivotal year, corralling a lot of info you'd elsewhere find scattered across a number of volumes, along with the authors reexamination of contemporary reviews and interviews, and his own interviews with many of the Beatles inner circle.

from the back cover:

"The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966—the year of their last concert and Revolver, their first album of songs not intended for live performance. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from the tour circuit, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. It was the year Americans burned their records after John's explosive claim that the group was "more popular than Jesus," the year they were hounded out of the Philippines for "snubbing" the country's first lady, the year John met Yoko Ono, and the year Paul conceived the idea for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Pop and rock music got so much more experimental and interesting that year after the Beatles picked up the studio sound manipulation techniques of 1950s/60s "classical" music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 25, 2020, 04:35:58 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Mbj5RMkcL.jpg)

This was superb, particularly in the three sections near the end covering Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Up to this point I'd say the book was highly recommended.

Then the conclusion section was so astonishingly bad and bizarrely undermined and contradicted everything that came before it that I was left baffled. It was as though an industry apologist had granted access to all the materials in the book as long as they could have the final word, including the astonishing statement that a meltdown every decade or so is just the price we pay for this glorious energy source along with rolling out all the disingenuous industry spin about "fearmongering" and provable fatality figures. Its been a week since I finished it and I still feel angry and cheated.

Read up to right before the conclusion...then stop.

halfway through both of these:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51x56REyXrL.jpg) (https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51eb2nNasVL.jpg)

aslo dipping into these:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71wdUgVYUlL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513shuUbqDL._SX316_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Oates loses a point for including herself, Burgess gets a point for not including himself
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 26, 2020, 01:40:10 AM
Quote from: ritter on December 21, 2019, 08:53:35 AM
That's a nice one, with the texts she wrote for Libération. She recorded some excerpts (in her unmistakeable, seductive voice) as La jeune fille et l'enfant. I've had it on cassette since it was first released, and I think that is the only format ever released (no transfer to CD AFAIK, and not on YouTube either).

(https://img.discogs.com/zmY-aOuoeXvKrZgko_J_brOtkw0=/fit-in/309x498/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-10507501-1498874244-6381.png.jpg)

Just finished L'amant. About to start L'Amante Anglaise.

Is there a recommendable book on Duras -- biography, critical etc? L'amant has made me curious about her family -- mother, big brother.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on January 26, 2020, 03:00:43 AM
The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music. The discussion of abstruse Boulez books led me to  https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistoryof20thcenturymusic/ (https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistoryof20thcenturymusic/) where I've started reading it on my iPad for free but as there was a cheap paperback "Like New" updated edition on Amazon I've ordered that too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 26, 2020, 08:22:51 AM
Still continuing through Les Misérables (funny that I'm reading at the same time two of the longest French novels).

One stereotype which seems to bother me a bit is that Hugo is apparently of the opinion that all the landladies are nosy and gossiping spies who like nothing better than find out the secrets of every person they come across.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 26, 2020, 10:14:24 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 26, 2020, 08:22:51 AM
Still continuing through Les Misérables (funny that I'm reading at the same time two of the longest French novels).

One stereotype which seems to bother me a bit is that Hugo is apparently of the opinion that all the landladies are nosy and gossiping spies who like nothing better than find out the secrets of every person they come across.

Maybe in France back then they really were.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 27, 2020, 01:25:53 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 26, 2020, 01:40:10 AM
Just finished L'amant. About to start L'Amante Anglaise.

Is there a recommendable book on Duras -- biography, critical etc? L'amant has made me curious about her family -- mother, big brother.
The standard biography of Duras seems to be that by Laure Adler, originally published in 1998 with to popular success:

[asin]2070414728[/asin]

Then there's this book by Alain Vircondelet, which is actually in my library, that has a chapter called "Durasie", which (as per an amazon reviewer) deals with her imaginary reconstruction of her Far Eastern childhood (and which I might take a look at soon).

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dszlA905L._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Note that both Adler and Vircondelet have each published other books on Duras, dealing with more specific issues of her life and/or work. Their biographies have been translated into English.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 27, 2020, 07:14:46 AM
Quote from: ritter on December 09, 2019, 10:29:09 AM
Great stuff. I read it many years ago, and was really impressed. The novel is also the first in Duras's "Indian Cycle" (for lack of a better term), as the character of Anne-Marie Stretter appers again in Le Vice-Consul and later becomes central in the extraordinary India Song (book, play, film).

In fact, I'm not reading L'Amante Anglaise but L'amant de la chine du nord -- my bad. And even there there's a reference to Anne Marie Stretter. Fabulous book by the way, genre bending. And I'm sure it was a naive oversimplification on my part to think that these books are some sort of prototypical autofiction.

Very happy to have discovered Duras -- all those years battling with the French language has let me reap many rewards, and reading Duras is one of them for sure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 27, 2020, 09:02:10 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 27, 2020, 07:14:46 AM
In fact, I'm not reading L'Amante Anglaise but L'amant de la chine du nord -- my bad. And even there there's a reference to Anne Marie Stretter. Fabulous book by the way, genre bending. And I'm sure it was a naive oversimplification on my part to think that these books are some sort of prototypical autofiction.

Very happy to have discovered Duras -- all those years battling with the French language has let me reap many rewards, and reading Duras is one of them for sure.
Yep, I was a bit surprised seeing you turning from L'amant to L'amante anglaise, as the latter is a novel (and play, but both derived from a much earlier theatre piece titled Les viaducs de la Seine-et-Oise) dealing with a particularly gruesome fait divers (based on actual newspaper reports from the late 40s), and is Duras in a completely different vein.

I haven't read L'amant de la Chine du Nord, which Duras wrote in reaction to the film that Jean-Jacques Annaud made of L'amant, which she publicly and notoriously disavowed (even if I suppose she got a hefty check for ceding the rights).

Do explore her films, Mandryka! I very much liked Une aussi longue absence (not directed by her, but by Henri Colpi, the original script is by Duras, though) and, most particularly, Le navire Night (Duras at her most durasien IMHO).

[asin]B0794MC5D2[/asin]
[asin]B010EFKPAA[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 30, 2020, 05:47:15 AM
I've read Daniel Deronda for over 1/3 of it and enjoying it so much that I wonder why this is not usually considered among her very best novels. I have heard the criticism that the two plotlines seem like they are from two different novels and dont seem connected. So far I dont agree with that (although I do agree that Gwendolen's plotline is better written), I think there are parallels between Mirah and Gwendolen in their seeing the world as their enemy but from different reasons and they react to hostility in different ways. Mirah remains innocent and wide-eyed while Gwendolen is haughty though ultimately sympathetic.

Btw, while the book handles serious matters it is still full of extremely funny jokes and witticisms.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 30, 2020, 06:48:59 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 30, 2020, 05:47:15 AM
I've read Daniel Deronda for over 1/3 of it and enjoying it so much that I wonder why this is not usually considered among her very best novels. I have heard the criticism that the two plotlines seem like they are from two different novels and dont seem connected. So far I dont agree with that (although I do agree that Gwendolen's plotline is better written), I think there are parallels between Mirah and Gwendolen in their seeing the world as their enemy but from different reasons and they react to hostility in different ways. Mirah remains innocent and wide-eyed while Gwendolen is haughty though ultimately sympathetic.

Btw, while the book handles serious matters it is still full of extremely funny jokes and witticisms.

I didn't manage to finish it, but I did get as far as 1/3 I think,  and I wondered why it's rep isn't higher too. But either I got distracted or the book deteriorated and I just abandoned it less than half way through. From memory (this may be wrong) there's a load of stuff about zionism and it didn't capture my imagination. I await your reaction to the rest of the book with bated breath (well . . . not quite . . . but you know what I mean.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 30, 2020, 09:59:35 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 30, 2020, 06:48:59 AM
I didn't manage to finish it, but I did get as far as 1/3 I think,  and I wondered why it's rep isn't higher too. But either I got distracted or the book deteriorated and I just abandoned it less than half way through. From memory (this may be wrong) there's a load of stuff about zionism and it didn't capture my imagination. I await your reaction to the rest of the book with bated breath (well . . . not quite . . . but you know what I mean.)

It's been a few years since I read Daniel Deronda, but I do think it's a better novel than most of her other novels, except for Middlemarch.  The zionism is a rather romanticized British thing.  Perhaps it would be better to call it Disraelism.

TD
Just started this
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41fsJ1axYwL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on January 30, 2020, 10:43:25 AM
All the Light we Cannot See:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 30, 2020, 11:47:27 AM
I think Daniel Deronda is rated highly by the critics, its just less popular with the reading public.

Back when I read Eliot I thought Romola was an unexpected treat and deserved to be better known.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 30, 2020, 12:07:36 PM
I'm scared I'm turning into a latter day Casaubon, with medieval music taking the place of biblical philiogy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 30, 2020, 12:22:16 PM
Not if you're keeping up with the latest developments.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on January 30, 2020, 06:37:32 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on January 30, 2020, 10:43:25 AM
All the Light we Cannot See:
(//)

Sounds really interesting, though I'm a bit disappointed it's not about infrared astronomy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on February 01, 2020, 09:21:09 AM
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1430/9780143039075.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on February 01, 2020, 09:58:55 AM
50 pages in, excellent so far....

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41moN4dCoFL._SX320_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 01, 2020, 10:33:34 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on February 01, 2020, 09:21:09 AM
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1430/9780143039075.jpg)
Yes! That section of Remembrance... has possibly the most touching paragraph in prose I've ever read.  Hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on February 01, 2020, 11:11:05 AM
Quote from: ritter on February 01, 2020, 10:33:34 AM
Yes! That section of Remembrance... has possibly the most touching paragraph in prose I've ever read.  Hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.  :)

Thanks, Rafael!  :) I would ask for that paragraph but I do know that Proust's paragraphs (and sentences, for that matter) can be awfully long (with all due respect to Proust, he is an amazing writer, even if verbose, :) ).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 01, 2020, 11:51:36 AM
 :)

Let me know when you've finished the book, and I'll point you to that paragraph (which actually isn't that long  ;) ).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 01, 2020, 01:09:50 PM
Quote from: ritter on January 27, 2020, 01:25:53 AM
The standard biography of Duras seems to be that by Laure Adler, originally published in 1998 with to popular success:


Then there's this book by Alain Vircondelet, which is actually in my library, that has a chapter called "Durasie", which (as per an amazon reviewer) deals with her imaginary reconstruction of her Far Eastern childhood (and which I might take a look at soon).


Note that both Adler and Vircondelet have each published other books on Duras, dealing with more specific issues of her life and/or work. Their biographies have been translated into English.

These are both at the Instut Francais library in London, and I intend to pick them up next time I'm in Kensington (Tuesday probably)

Quote from: ritter on January 27, 2020, 09:02:10 AM
Yep, I was a bit surprised seeing you turning from L'amant to L'amante anglaise, as the latter is a novel (and play, but both derived from a much earlier theatre piece titled Les viaducs de la Seine-et-Oise) dealing with a particularly gruesome fait divers (based on actual newspaper reports from the late 40s), and is Duras in a completely different vein.

I haven't read L'amant de la Chine du Nord, which Duras wrote in reaction to the film that Jean-Jacques Annaud made of L'amant, which she publicly and notoriously disavowed (even if I suppose she got a hefty check for ceding the rights).

Do explore her films, Mandryka! I very much liked Une aussi longue absence (not directed by her, but by Henri Colpi, the original script is by Duras, though) and, most particularly, Le navire Night (Duras at her most durasien IMHO).


I've now seen Le navire night. And clearly this is an interesting film poem story. What I would like now -- and I'm kind of hoping you can point me to something -- is a book not about the structure (eg the relation between voice and image . . .) nor the genre, but the idea.

I know, dans mon for intérieur, that she has something really important to say about the human condition, but what exactly? (Remember I'm an analytic philosopher by training . . . )

Next time I hear a cat howling in the night I shall be overwhelmed with existential angst.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 01, 2020, 01:13:39 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on February 01, 2020, 09:21:09 AM
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/1430/9780143039075.jpg)

This is the new translation, which I've not read. I have very fond memories of Scott Moncrief, not least because of the pictures and the feel of the hardback books, but by all accounts the new one is more faithful.

Have you read Swann's Way, or are you starting with Jeunes filles en fleures? You really do have to know what Marcel sees through a window one day when he's taking a walk if you plan to make sense of the later novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 01, 2020, 01:17:16 PM
Quote from: ritter on February 01, 2020, 11:51:36 AM
:)

Let me know when you've finished the book, and I'll point you to that paragraph (which actually isn't that long  ;) ).

I'd also be interested to know which paragraph that is.

The second book has a lot of whats most memorable and most enjoyable about the whole work...as befits a study of adolescence which creates so many of our most vivid memories.


oh, and currently reading:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41RCzkeFq9L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on February 01, 2020, 01:18:16 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 01, 2020, 01:13:39 PM
This is the new translation, which I've not read. I have very fond memories of Scott Moncrief, not least because of the pictures and the feel of the hardback books, but by all accounts the new one is more faithful.

Have you read Swann's Way, or are you starting with Jeunes filles en fleures? You really do have to know what Marcel sees through a window one day when he's taking a walk if you plan to make sense of the later novels.

Yes, I've read Swann's way, finished it just recently. And the picture is not actually about the edition that I'm reading, for one, I'm reading it actually in Finnish. I thought using a picture about English edition would make it more understandable what I'm reading since I don't think too many people on this forum are fluent in Finnish.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 01, 2020, 01:19:46 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 01, 2020, 01:17:16 PM
I'd also be interested to know which paragraph that is.

The second book has a lot of whats most memorable and most enjoyable about the whole work...as befits a study of adolescence which creates so many of our most vivid memories.

Oh but the best bits have to be those comic scenes with Charlus. Especially his relationship with Charles Morel.

This is maybe the difference between you and me, Simon. You read it for the poetic evocations of innocence. I read it for the sex and violence!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 01, 2020, 01:21:10 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on February 01, 2020, 01:18:16 PM
I'm reading it actually in Finnish.

I just fell off my chair!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 01, 2020, 01:27:43 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 01, 2020, 01:19:46 PM
Oh but the best bits have to be those comic scenes with Charlus. Especially his relationship with Charles Morel.

This is maybe the difference between you and me, Simon. You read it for the poetic evocations of innocence. I read it for the sex and violence!

Ha! I actually find Charlus to be a kind of tragic figure, even early on. I see the humour in the writing, but I just feel sad.

The section in the second book on Elstir's art is probably my most re-read stand alone bit from the whole work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 01, 2020, 01:41:44 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 01, 2020, 01:17:16 PM
I'd also be interested to know which paragraph that is.
It's the last paragraph of Autour de Mme. Swann (Madame Swann at Home), which closes with this beauty (in the C. K. Scott Moncrieff translation):

"And as the average span of life, the relative longevity of our memories of poetical sensations is much greater than that of our memories of what the heart has suffered, long after the sorrows that I once felt on Gilberte's account have faded and vanished, there has survived them the pleasure that I still derive—whenever I close my eyes and read, as it were upon the face of a sundial, the minutes that are recorded between a quarter past twelve and one o'clock in the month of May—from seeing myself once again strolling and talking thus with Mme. Swann beneath her parasol, as though in the coloured shade of a wistaria bower."

(Apologies to AlberichUndHagen for this spoiler of sorts  ;))
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 01, 2020, 01:44:29 PM
Lovely. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 02, 2020, 09:09:59 AM
Quote from: ritter on January 27, 2020, 09:02:10 AM

I very much liked Une aussi longue absence (not directed by her, but by Henri Colpi, the original script is by Duras, though)

Very good, fabulous acting from Georges Wilson. I also tried Vera Baxter, but somehow I was a bit put off by Gérard Depardieu (who normally I can take, but not here, not today, too strong a presence somehow.)

But I'm with you, I think, the most thought provoking one I've seen so far is Le Navire Night.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 02, 2020, 10:34:11 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 02, 2020, 09:09:59 AM
Very good, fabulous acting from Georges Wilson. I also tried Vera Baxter, but somehow I was a bit put off by Gérard Depardieu (who normally I can take, but not here, not today, too strong a presence somehow.)

But I'm with you, I think, the most thought provoking one I've seen so far is Le Navire Night.
Glad you've enjoyed those films, Mandryka. TBH, I didn't appreciate  Baxter, Vera Baxter much either, but not because of Depardieu, but for the film itself. I recall that the incessant repetition of the theme song (a piano piece, think) was terribly irritating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 04, 2020, 03:28:35 AM
Atget: Paris


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51S058YA%2BvL._SX371_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


More perusing than reading.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 07, 2020, 08:12:58 AM
First approach to the work of Claude Simon, with Le jardin des plantes.

[asin]2070117081[/asin]
I had meant to read some Simon for years, but kept putting it off. Then, last summer, a reference to Le jardin des plantes (by now, I don't even remember where  :-[), made me order the first volume of his collected works in the Pléiade edition. When I got it, the peculiar page lay-out of this work appeared daunting to me, and I kept postponing reading it. It's about time now... Voyons.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 08, 2020, 09:10:49 AM
Le Jardin des Plantes is a late  one, maybe the last, and it contains references to previous novels. In fact it was the first one I read too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 10, 2020, 07:48:21 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 08, 2020, 09:10:49 AM
Le Jardin des Plantes is a late  one, maybe the last, and it contains references to previous novels. In fact it was the first one I read too.
Yep. I now remember that the book was mentioned in some article on modern painting, as apparently it tells - in a humorous tone - the first private performance of Picasso's Le désir attrapé par la queue in occupied Paris (I haven't reached that point yet, as I couldn't much advance with reading this weekend).

Fortunately, the Pléaide edition is profusely annotated, so any reference to anything (obscure as it may be) is explained with a wealth of background information. These Pléaides are absolute jewels, a summit in the art of publishing.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 10, 2020, 09:52:19 AM
currently:

(https://images1.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780142437247)

a second reading, after discussing it with someone last weekend and remembering all my favorite parts


also on the go:

(https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51f98drll2L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 17, 2020, 10:39:35 PM
1/4 through Moby Dick, but finished this in the meantime:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tHxiY1y%2BL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

and finding it as good as I'd heard and can easily see how it became a model for the books that followed it, it retains its power even though being much imitated
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on February 18, 2020, 05:48:59 AM
Moby Dick is amazing book! I would also recommend from Melville Mardi, unfortunately it has never been thought of nearly as highly as Moby Dick, perhaps because the story evolves from ordinary adventure into allegorical one rather suddenly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: T. D. on February 19, 2020, 04:11:34 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61PqPKVsKxL.jpg)
Don't read much poetry, but this one appealed to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on February 19, 2020, 08:59:52 PM
Quote from: T. D. on February 19, 2020, 04:11:34 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61PqPKVsKxL.jpg)
Don't read much poetry, but this one appealed to me.

I like the title in connection with the photo of Jupiter but that is enough poetry for me :-\.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 21, 2020, 02:53:18 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on February 18, 2020, 05:48:59 AM
Moby Dick is amazing book! I would also recommend from Melville Mardi, unfortunately it has never been thought of nearly as highly as Moby Dick, perhaps because the story evolves from ordinary adventure into allegorical one rather suddenly.

Thanks for that. Next time I see a copy of Mardi I'll grab it.

The reread of Moby Dick has been put on hold as I've recently started Orlando Figes A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, and am finding it every bit as good as its reputation

(https://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780140243642)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 22, 2020, 01:04:54 AM
I wont be reading it immediately, but at a secocondhand bookshop today I picked up a copy of Mary Chestnut's Diary, and in the store opened it to this entry:

"The Yankees, since the war has begun, have discovered it is to free slaves that they are fighting. So their case is noble.  They also expect to make the war pay. They think we belong to them. We have been good milk cows - milked by the tariff, or skimmed,. We let them have all all of our hard earnings. We bear the ban of slavery; they get the money. Cotton pays everybody who handles it, sells it, manufactures it, but rarely pays the man who grows it. Second hand the Yankees recieve the wages of slavery. They grew rich. We grew poor. The reciever is as bad as the thief. "

(entry for July 8th, 1862 - page 175)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81tT6iMPj4L.jpg)

Ken Burns quoted her extensively in his Civil War series, but I don't remember hearing that one
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on February 26, 2020, 11:50:34 PM
Mansfield Park, Jane Austin. Her most innovative novel, in which a play within the novel sows the seeds of the family's undoing. Ultimately found myself uninterested in the mores and customs of English landed aristocracy. The poor relation, Fanny, becomes the hero of the story due to her submissiveness, desire to be useful to her superiors and deferential character. I found her insufferable, and thought that the supposedly subversive "Miss Crawford" was the most interesting and attractive character in the book.

What I mainly learned there are authors such as Dostoyevsky, Conrad, Faulkner, Hawthorne, Morrison, Attwood who give me great pleasure from re-reading, but Austin is not in this category.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 26, 2020, 11:56:10 PM
I've read very little Atwood. Which of hers have you enjoyed rereading?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on February 26, 2020, 11:59:53 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 26, 2020, 11:56:10 PM
I've read very little Atwood. Which of hers have you enjoyed rereading?

I'm not a huge fan of her dystopian fiction. The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace are her great works, in my opinion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 27, 2020, 07:10:46 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on February 26, 2020, 11:50:34 PM
Mansfield Park, Jane Austin. Her most innovative novel, in which a play within the novel sows the seeds of the family's undoing. Ultimately found myself uninterested in the mores and customs of English landed aristocracy. The poor relation, Fanny, becomes the hero of the story due to her submissiveness, desire to be useful to her superiors and deferential character. I found her insufferable, and thought that the supposedly subversive "Miss Crawford" was the most interesting and attractive character in the book.

What I mainly learned there are authors such as Dostoyevsky, Conrad, Faulkner, Hawthorne, Morrison, Attwood who give me great pleasure from re-reading, but Austin is not in this category.

That was my feeling the first time I read MP.  It took me two more rereadings to catch onto all the nuances that belie the surface appearances. Mary and Henry Crawford are indeed attractive, but are so lacking in a moral core that they become evil without even realizing it. Fanny's outward submissiveness masks an inner determination to not have any man if she can't get the man she wants.

The Austen book I don't reread is Pride and Prejudice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on February 27, 2020, 09:04:27 AM
Quote from: JBS on February 27, 2020, 07:10:46 AM
That was my feeling the first time I read MP.  It took me two more rereadings to catch onto all the nuances that belie the surface appearances. Mary and Henry Crawford are indeed attractive, but are so lacking in a moral core that they become evil without even realizing it. Fanny's outward submissiveness masks an inner determination to not have any man if she can't get the man she wants.

What you are describing are the surface appearances. I wouldn't say that the Crawfords lack a moral code. I would say they have some good intentions but are so much seduced by the wealth and ease that comes to them by default that they lack the moral strength to carry it out.

If I give Austin credit, it would be in the real nuances the belie the surface appearance. Elizabeth's "unacceptable" cynical comments about the clergy are totally justified. Henry Crawford's courtship of Fanny is interrupted when he must go out collecting rents from tenants on his vast land holdings. What is worse, his his profligate antics, or the fact that he is a slumlord whose wealth is sucked from a vast host of impoverished tenants? Things get out of hand when Sir Thomas must travel to Antigua to get his affairs in order. What was he doing there? Antigua at the time was a British colony which employed enslaved labor to produce sugar cane. Probably he was clearing out the indigenous slaves and importing African slaves, which were much more effective. That's what was going on in Antigua at the time. Upon finding out about his daughters fling with Henry, Sir Thomas exiles her from the family and sequesters her at a remote location with the hated Mrs Norris. So the "honorable" sir Thomas is a slave master and human trafficker who renounces his own daughter to avoid "embarrassment" to his neighborhood.

The book is an inditement of the despicable exploitation that supports the landed gentry in England. Now that I think of it, I'm starting to like the book better.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on February 27, 2020, 09:15:18 AM
Re-reading Jan Potocki's The Manuscript Found at Saragossa, which, back in the deeps of Time, our Cato recommended. Although very different in content to Tom Jones, I enjoy it in a roughly similar way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 27, 2020, 11:35:14 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 27, 2020, 09:15:18 AM
Re-reading Jan Potocki's The Manuscript Found at Saragossa, which, back in the deeps of Time, our Cato recommended. Although very different in content to Tom Jones, I enjoy it in a roughly similar way.
That's one book I love...I first read it after seeing a clever stage adaptation by Francisco Nieva here in Madrid some 20  years ago. Potocki's technique of "a story within a story within a story" (almost ad infinitum) is fascinating, and the text is very evocative and atmospheric. The 1965 Polish film adaptation by Wojciech Has did little for me, but a French TV miniseries (https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,24223.msg1165745.html#msg1165745) directed by Philippe Ducrest (La duchesse d'Avila, from 1968) had its merits.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 27, 2020, 01:20:39 PM
The story within a story with so much levels of nesting that one loses count is an exaggeration of a technique already common in the Arabian Nights. It's been several years that I read it but I loved the Potocki and highly recommend it. Not sure how it could really work as a film. While it's not really about books (like Neverending Story or Name of the Rose with famous movie adaptations I rather disliked, partly for the reason that a movie cannot capture the "bookishness") the mentioned narrative technique does not seem to lend itself to film.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 02, 2020, 11:39:08 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on February 27, 2020, 09:04:27 AMSo the "honorable" sir Thomas is a slave master and human trafficker who renounces his own daughter to avoid "embarrassment" to his neighborhood.

The book is an inditement of the despicable exploitation that supports the landed gentry in England. Now that I think of it, I'm starting to like the book better.

Exactly. I just re-read Mansfield Park in January, and the thing that's a struggle is that it's just a vicious read. I'd skim over a paragraph thinking it would be boring descriptions of party planning, then my eye would catch onto a word like a fish hook, and I'd go back and discover that Austen was just seething with sarcasm. Mansfield Park is about as genteel as a knife fight. The fact of slavery hovers over everything Sir Thomas touches - and another thing, too, especially with Fanny's beau, the absolute buffoonery and uselessness of the Church of England on moral issues like slavery. Fanny and Edmund are a uniquely loserly pair of "heroes"; they wind up together because they are useless to anyone else. I don't think Austen had much love for them at all.

The enormous and lengthy subplot about staging the play was - even after I pulled up the play's Wiki and read the scandalous plot summary - not interesting.

EDIT: In her fascinating and highly recommendable (if occasionally far-fetched - but in a quite thought-provoking way) book, "Jane Austen, the Secret Radical," Helena Kelly points out that Mansfield Park received almost no reviews and comment after its publication, and even a column late in Austen's life celebrating her body of work omitted it. The general consensus has been that it's because of the book's weakness; but Kelly, and based on some comments in letters possibly Austen herself, believed it was because of the anti-Church agenda hidden behind Edmund.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 03, 2020, 01:13:57 PM
finished a couple of quickies:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41C2chZQf9L.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/912uhR8M5zL.jpg)

That How Golf Explains Trump book was actually better written and more substantial than the mere chuckle that the reviews and excerpts indicated. It starts with his petty cheating on the course, but goes on to detail shady purchases, vulgar makeovers, false advertising and claims, all the stiffed contractors and insulted locals, and ends by detailing where foreign policy aligns with his golf property interests. Some of the info was familiar but quite a bit was actually fresh. Its actually a well constructed psychological portrait by someone who knew him well and had access to many others who knew or know him well. No kidding: highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 05, 2020, 09:00:58 AM
Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music by Rob Young

A few years ago, I got interested in folk and roots music, and its rock offshoots, and eventually I wanted to know more about the whole subject. This enormous tome (almost 700 pages) covers the UK side of things in exhaustive detail.

One thing I like about it is that the author doesn't really respect genre boundaries. This means he is able to discuss the folk influences and explorations of composers like Vaughan Williams, Bax and Holst as part of the same larger phenomenon as the later folk revivals and the folk-rock explosion of the 60s/70s. He also discusses how folk music in Britain was a "floating signifier" that passed through a number of stages in its significance: the recovery of 'buried" national culture in the early 20th century, the politicized working-class music of the mid-century, and the psychedelic, individualist phase from the 1960s onward.

There's so much detail here that it's easy to get lost in it, but on the positive side, I can open any chapter and learn something interesting. It's really quite an achievement, and I highly recommend it for fans of British classical, folk, or rock (or all three).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on March 05, 2020, 10:49:15 AM
Started reading Mann's lengthiest work:

(https://s2.adlibris.com/images/2433270/joseph-and-his-brothers.jpg)

Based on the opening pages, there is going to be more time-related pondering, a la Magic Mountain.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on March 05, 2020, 12:02:03 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on March 05, 2020, 10:49:15 AM
Started reading Mann's lengthiest work:

(https://s2.adlibris.com/images/2433270/joseph-and-his-brothers.jpg)

Based on the opening pages, there is going to be more time-related pondering, a la Magic Mountain.

From what I remember (it's been several decades since I read it), Mann ponders over a lot of things over the course of the series (isn't it actually a trilogy?).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 05, 2020, 12:26:26 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on March 05, 2020, 10:49:15 AM
Started reading Mann's lengthiest work:

(https://s2.adlibris.com/images/2433270/joseph-and-his-brothers.jpg)

Based on the opening pages, there is going to be more time-related pondering, a la Magic Mountain.

My favourite book, ever. I read it 4 times in the last 35 years. Mann takes his sweet time retelling Joseph's saga - and its many peripheral stories. It is filled with humorous traits that often come unexpectedly (as in Magic Mountain), and the recurrence of character leitmotives is brilliantly handled.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 06, 2020, 03:46:46 AM
Phenomenal writing and scholarship. Like his Teddy Roosevelt trilogy (but unlike his rather cursory LvB), a joy to read. It's not a page turner, but does achieve (for me, anyway) novel-like immersion. And I've always rather disliked Edison.
[asin]081299311X[/asin]

   It's written in reverse chronological order, which as far as I can tell (1/4 in) provides no benefit at all, except welcome novelty.  I read a lot of biography, and it is kind of fun to not start with the parents, ancestors, childhood, etc.   Perhaps when I get to the end there will be some kind of payoff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 06, 2020, 07:14:34 AM
I have just started The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu


(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9781/7885/9781788543002.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on March 06, 2020, 08:05:46 AM
Quote from: JBS on March 05, 2020, 12:02:03 PM
(isn't it actually a trilogy?).

Actually, it's a tetralogy, however it is one novel in 4 parts, not a novel series in 4 parts. Funny how I am reading at the same time 3 novels among the longest in the world (In search of lost time, Joseph and his Brothers, Les Misérables).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on March 06, 2020, 10:47:32 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on March 06, 2020, 03:46:46 AM
Phenomenal writing and scholarship. Like his Teddy Roosevelt trilogy (but unlike his rather cursory LvB), a joy to read. It's not a page turner, but does achieve (for me, anyway) novel-like immersion. And I've always rather disliked Edison.
[asin]081299311X[/asin]

   It's written in reverse chronological order, which as far as I can tell (1/4 in) provides no benefit at all, except welcome novelty.  I read a lot of biography, and it is kind of fun to not start with the parents, ancestors, childhood, etc.   Perhaps when I get to the end there will be some kind of payoff.

Interesting... I got this at Christmas, but haven't started it.  I'm in the middle of big book on Napoleon at the moment, but this is on the list.  I enjoyed his previous books on Roosevelt, haven't read any others...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 06, 2020, 09:14:31 PM
Quote from: aligreto on March 06, 2020, 07:14:34 AM
I have just started The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu


(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9781/7885/9781788543002.jpg)

   I liked that a LOT.  The first has some thriller mystery elements that I had some doubts about, and book two starts off slowly. However, when it eventually moves into the far future, it was the most fascinating and thought provoking Sci-Fi I've read (which isn't much, admittedly).  One point he makes, which I found absolutely persuasive, is that we should NOT be trying to broadcast our presence to ET life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 07, 2020, 12:30:53 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on March 05, 2020, 10:49:15 AM
Started reading Mann's lengthiest work:

(https://s2.adlibris.com/images/2433270/joseph-and-his-brothers.jpg)

Based on the opening pages, there is going to be more time-related pondering, a la Magic Mountain.

I'll be interested to know what you make of that, I'm not sure if  I finished it. He certainly had ideas about time and rebirth, and I vaguely remember being a bit put off by it all, but I may well return to it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 07, 2020, 03:56:10 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on March 06, 2020, 09:14:31 PM

(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9781/7885/9781788543002.jpg)

   I liked that a LOT.  The first has some thriller mystery elements that I had some doubts about, and book two starts off slowly. However, when it eventually moves into the far future, it was the most fascinating and thought provoking Sci-Fi I've read (which isn't much, admittedly).  One point he makes, which I found absolutely persuasive, is that we should NOT be trying to broadcast our presence to ET life.

Cheers. I am some eighty pages in at this point and I too like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 07, 2020, 01:59:28 PM
The Mill on the Floss
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on March 08, 2020, 04:19:43 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 07, 2020, 01:59:28 PM
The Mill on the Floss

Ah, I plan on reading that one at some point too. Btw, I am almost finished with Daniel Deronda and it has been fantastic!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on March 10, 2020, 05:46:07 AM
Lies the Mushroom Pickers Told, Tom Phelan

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41M8cEW5NLL._SY346_.jpg)

A novel telling the story of two deaths that took place in an Irish village in 1951. The tale is recounted by three people who meet in a sunroom, more than 50 years later, consisting of the coroner who presided at the inquests at the time, his wife, and a man who was a boy in the village at the time and witnessed part of the aftermath of the first death. It turns out that both deaths were homicides, and the village overlooked the circumstances of the deaths because they brought justice to the victims, in a larger sense.

A fine book, recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on March 10, 2020, 05:47:03 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 02, 2020, 11:39:08 AM
Exactly. I just re-read Mansfield Park in January, and the thing that's a struggle is that it's just a vicious read. I'd skim over a paragraph thinking it would be boring descriptions of party planning, then my eye would catch onto a word like a fish hook, and I'd go back and discover that Austen was just seething with sarcasm. Mansfield Park is about as genteel as a knife fight. The fact of slavery hovers over everything Sir Thomas touches - and another thing, too, especially with Fanny's beau, the absolute buffoonery and uselessness of the Church of England on moral issues like slavery. Fanny and Edmund are a uniquely loserly pair of "heroes"; they wind up together because they are useless to anyone else. I don't think Austen had much love for them at all.

The enormous and lengthy subplot about staging the play was - even after I pulled up the play's Wiki and read the scandalous plot summary - not interesting.

EDIT: In her fascinating and highly recommendable (if occasionally far-fetched - but in a quite thought-provoking way) book, "Jane Austen, the Secret Radical," Helena Kelly points out that Mansfield Park received almost no reviews and comment after its publication, and even a column late in Austen's life celebrating her body of work omitted it. The general consensus has been that it's because of the book's weakness; but Kelly, and based on some comments in letters possibly Austen herself, believed it was because of the anti-Church agenda hidden behind Edmund.

It was your mention of the book here that prompted me to read the book again. Thanks!

Quote from: Brian on March 07, 2020, 01:59:28 PM
The Mill on the Floss

Another fine book, better than Middlemarch, I think, which is usually mentioned as her best work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 10, 2020, 06:59:06 AM
(https://librariadelfin.ro/site_img/products/400/2019/11/omul-revoltat-albert-camus.jpg)

The Man in Revolt
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on March 13, 2020, 08:45:31 AM
Macbeth
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 13, 2020, 11:13:52 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on March 10, 2020, 05:47:03 AM
Another fine book, better than Middlemarch, I think, which is usually mentioned as her best work.
Interesting! I'm about two-thirds of the way through now (their father just died); like Middlemarch, the book has an interesting inertia-driven pace - that is, at the start, it takes forever to get wound up, and then once it starts moving, it doesn't stop. Getting really engrossed.

The ending of Middlemarch is a beautiful little sermon. I hear that the ending of this one is ... rather different.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on March 13, 2020, 11:26:10 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on March 06, 2020, 09:14:31 PM
   I liked that a LOT.  The first has some thriller mystery elements that I had some doubts about, and book two starts off slowly. However, when it eventually moves into the far future, it was the most fascinating and thought provoking Sci-Fi I've read (which isn't much, admittedly).  One point he makes, which I found absolutely persuasive, is that we should NOT be trying to broadcast our presence to ET life.

I enjoyed that one, particularly the historical backdrop.  But I was not able get into the sequel.

Currently reading:

[asin]B07KVLPYDQ[/asin]

Reminds me of a jazz musician riffing on a tune they wrote earlier in their career. 

[asin]B07GD46PQZ[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on March 13, 2020, 12:08:55 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 13, 2020, 11:13:52 AM
Interesting! I'm about two-thirds of the way through now (their father just died); like Middlemarch, the book has an interesting inertia-driven pace - that is, at the start, it takes forever to get wound up, and then once it starts moving, it doesn't stop. Getting really engrossed.

The ending of Middlemarch is a beautiful little sermon. I hear that the ending of this one is ... rather different.

Now that I'm finished with Daniel Deronda I think I will move on to The Mill on the Floss as my next George Eliot project whenever that may be. Daniel Deronda was awesome, as was Silas Marner. The only minus with Deronda was that the ending felt rather abrupt and anti-climactic. However, I didn't find the two plots of the book unconnected at all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 19, 2020, 11:29:26 AM
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 05, 2020, 09:00:58 AM
Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music by Rob Young

A few years ago, I got interested in folk and roots music, and its rock offshoots, and eventually I wanted to know more about the whole subject. This enormous tome (almost 700 pages) covers the UK side of things in exhaustive detail.

One thing I like about it is that the author doesn't really respect genre boundaries. This means he is able to discuss the folk influences and explorations of composers like Vaughan Williams, Bax and Holst as part of the same larger phenomenon as the later folk revivals and the folk-rock explosion of the 60s/70s. He also discusses how folk music in Britain was a "floating signifier" that passed through a number of stages in its significance: the recovery of 'buried" national culture in the early 20th century, the politicized working-class music of the mid-century, and the psychedelic, individualist phase from the 1960s onward.

There's so much detail here that it's easy to get lost in it, but on the positive side, I can open any chapter and learn something interesting. It's really quite an achievement, and I highly recommend it for fans of British classical, folk, or rock (or all three).
Great book, indeed. Along the line of Simon Reynolds' "Rip it up and start again", but covering a different era.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on March 19, 2020, 12:41:53 PM
Giovanni Boccaccio: The Decameron.
Had this on my shelves for ages but never started, so I thought prophylactic Corona Quarantine must be the time for this. The framestory is 10 people leaving plague-ridden mid-14th century Florence for a country house. For ten days (deka hemerai) everyone tells a story, so we get a 100 stories altogether. Will see how far I'll get.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 19, 2020, 05:05:07 PM
^coincidentally (or not, I guess) I'm currently doing a second read of Camus' The Plague:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gwWD63ROL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spineur on March 21, 2020, 04:34:29 AM
It is difficult to write about music and very few composers or musician succeed in conveying their artistry into text.  This is not the case for Toru Takemitsu complete writings which have been recently translated and published  into french.  Some portion of his text are also available in English.  The book contains some of his autobiographical notes, his thought about music, his inteview of other musicians, his own interviews and a few short stories of his own.  Each of them are between 3-10 pages long, so the book is easy to read, can be read in any order.  Takemitsu was a  very clear person in his music and his musical thoughts.

(https://symetrie.com/images/edition/250/isbn_978-2-36485-042-2.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on March 23, 2020, 04:30:35 PM
The Cat's Table, Michael Ondaatje, started before the Coronavirus hogged the horizon.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41uhR24W2gL.jpg)

This is a great book. It starts somewhat slowly, describing thee young boys traveling by ship from Ceylon to England, where they will attend boarding school. They meet at the "cat's table," the least prestigious dining table on the ship. The book describes their adventures on the ship, interacting with a broad cast of characters, and relates these experiences to their later lives. The three boys explore the physical reality of the ship, and the reality of the adult relationships surrounding them that they only later come to understand. A central mystery of the story involves a prisoner held on the ship, his relationship with others on board, and his attempt to escape. There are flash forwards to the characters in the story interacting decades later, as adults, and coming to terms with what they witnessed on that formative voyage. It also contrasts the culture of Ceylon with that of the West and deals with the issues faced by immigrants. Just a wonderful read. A book that can be grasped upon first reading, and richly reward re-reading, I expect.

For those of you who remember The English Patient, this one is less of a puzzle. I didn't fully grasp what was going on in The English Patient until I read the book, watched the movie, the read the book again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 23, 2020, 05:36:22 PM
Hmmm - thank you, I'm going to wishlist that. I have a list of 25 books already in possession at home to read during this, uhhh, homestay. Last night finished Austen's Persuasion; now on to another pillar of merry olde England, The Scarlet Pumpernickel Pimpernel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on March 23, 2020, 05:50:14 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/90/The_Scarlet_Pumpernickel_Title.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 24, 2020, 08:18:52 AM
One of my favorite cartoons!

Before the current madness descended, a Dallas bar owner was planning to open an English pub called Ye Olde Scarlet Pumpernickel after the cartoon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 24, 2020, 08:39:06 AM
Pumpernickel was my father-in-law's favourite type of brot. Typical german fare. I don't dislike it, but a few slices go a long way for me. Must be sliced very thin.

(https://cdn.tasteatlas.com/images/dishes/795fab43c04641788edf7adec82710b3.jpg?mw=1300)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 25, 2020, 04:26:57 AM
I have just finished reading Graham Greene's Doctor Fischer of Geneva


(https://www.maggs.com/media/3749419/229637.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaga2 on March 25, 2020, 06:12:39 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 25, 2020, 04:26:57 AM
I have just finished reading Graham Greene's Doctor Fischer of Geneva


(https://www.maggs.com/media/3749419/229637.jpg)
I read that over 40 years ago. Don't remember it much. Was it good?

My reading has tanked this past week. Too much time online reading about Covid, and arguing with idiots who insist it's a nothing burger. I am though getting through an old locked room mystery and a couple books of history.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 25, 2020, 07:05:30 AM
Quote from: Kaga2 on March 25, 2020, 06:12:39 AM

(https://www.maggs.com/media/3749419/229637.jpg)

I read that over 40 years ago. Don't remember it much. Was it good?

My reading has tanked this past week. Too much time online reading about Covid, and arguing with idiots who insist it's a nothing burger. I am though getting through an old locked room mystery and a couple books of history.

This was a re-read for me. I also read it about 40 years ago. I did not remember much of the book to be honest but I did remember the "feel" of it. I enjoyed it again but then I do like Greene's easy writing style.

BTW, don't waste your own valuable time with the idiots.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaga2 on March 25, 2020, 07:33:51 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 25, 2020, 07:05:30 AM

BTW, don't waste your own valuable time with the idiots.  ;)

But I just joined!

;) 8)

Seriously, I don't actually try to convince idiots, I just try to make sure other readers see a counter argument. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 25, 2020, 08:30:05 AM
Quote from: Kaga2 on March 25, 2020, 07:33:51 AM
But I just joined!

;) 8)

Seriously, I don't actually try to convince idiots, I just try to make sure other readers see a counter argument.

Fair enough.

BTW do post your history reading. There are a few here interested in that genre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaga2 on March 25, 2020, 08:45:57 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 25, 2020, 08:30:05 AM
Fair enough.

BTW do post your history reading. There are a few here interested in that genre.

Mr Selden's Map of China. 17th century history. Not read very far.
Feeding Nelson's Navy. Odd book, but fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 25, 2020, 10:00:11 AM
Quote from: Kaga2 on March 25, 2020, 08:45:57 AM
Mr Selden's Map of China. 17th century history. Not read very far.
Feeding Nelson's Navy. Odd book, but fun.

Cheers for that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on March 25, 2020, 10:44:26 AM
Been chipping away alternately at War and Peace and Adam Zamoyski's Napoleon bio for a while now, adding this for a bit more background...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1bSVzXvWML.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaga2 on March 25, 2020, 11:02:45 AM
Quote from: j winter on March 25, 2020, 10:44:26 AM
Been chipping away alternately at War and Peace and Adam Zamoyski's Napoleon bio for a while now, adding this for a bit more background...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1bSVzXvWML.jpg)
I devoured W&P twice. Zamoyski's 1812 book was great.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 28, 2020, 09:24:27 AM
Henry James: The Aspern Papers


(https://www.ebayphotogallery.com/zdjecia/z1045/10454703/foto/24.jpg)


I have just finished reading The Aspern Papers. It is curious that my previous read was Graham Greene's Dr. Fisher of Geneva as both it and James's The Aspern Papers deal with avarice. An unintentional coincidence on my part.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 28, 2020, 02:57:07 PM
Quote from: j winter on March 25, 2020, 10:44:26 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1bSVzXvWML.jpg)

   I've got that...somewhere. Started it, liked it, got sidetracked--the story of my life. I think I'll track it down and give it another go. It would be the perfect complement to this, which I just started.

[asin]0312429983[/asin]

   However, I too am mostly diverted by virus news, and am having trouble sleeping and concentrating. As this book is narratively very challenging, I'm having a hard time really getting into it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on March 28, 2020, 05:31:53 PM
Actually you might want the previous volume in the series, to cover most of the Tudors.... I have this too, but haven't read it yet

[asin]0143127918[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaga2 on March 28, 2020, 05:38:50 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on March 28, 2020, 02:57:07 PM
   I've got that...somewhere. Started it, liked it, got sidetracked--the story of my life. I think I'll track it down and give it another go. It would be the perfect complement to this, which I just started.

[asin]0312429983[/asin]

   However, I too am mostly diverted by virus news, and am having trouble sleeping and concentrating. As this book is narratively very challenging, I'm having a hard time really getting into it.

I found it a struggle at first, the odd style, but then something clicked and then it was great. Immersive is the high falutin word they use.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 28, 2020, 06:04:28 PM
Anyone impressed by the Wolf Hall series should be sure to get her brilliant big fat novel on the French Revolution, A Place Of Greater Safety.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 28, 2020, 06:13:46 PM
Quote from: j winter on March 28, 2020, 05:31:53 PM
Actually you might want the previous volume in the series, to cover most of the Tudors.... I have this too, but haven't read it yet


Whoa. Didn't even know there was a series. I'll have to look into it...maybe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 28, 2020, 06:17:56 PM
Quote from: Kaga2 on March 28, 2020, 05:38:50 PM
I found it a struggle at first, the odd style, but then something clicked and then it was great. Immersive is the high falutin word they use.

  Yeah, that's what I figured. It seems like that type. I had insomnia most of last night, and read a chunk in the quiet and sort of wondered why I'd been struggling before.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on March 28, 2020, 06:18:53 PM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on March 28, 2020, 06:13:46 PM
Whoa. Didn't even know there was a series. I'll have to look into it...maybe.

Yes. The last (or at least latest) was just published here in the US.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on March 28, 2020, 06:19:51 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 28, 2020, 06:04:28 PM
Anyone impressed by the Wolf Hall series should be sure to get her brilliant big fat novel on the French Revolution, A Place Of Greater Safety.

   I'll keep that in mind. I'll let you know in...1800 pages or so if I'm still not sated with her storytelling ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaga2 on March 28, 2020, 08:27:31 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 28, 2020, 06:04:28 PM
Anyone impressed by the Wolf Hall series should be sure to get her brilliant big fat novel on the French Revolution, A Place Of Greater Safety.
Seconded. Read it long ago.
Caveat. Be sure you are up on the basic narrative history of the FR.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on March 30, 2020, 11:43:03 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/419WzeRoODL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This was rather better than I thought it was going to be - it was lent to me by somebody whose idea of what is good is often at great variance with mine. A touching and involving account of a young cellist growing up in a British seaside town. With lots of musical detail and characters that feel real, I found myself caring very much about the fate of the protagonist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaga2 on March 30, 2020, 02:32:46 PM
Today, a crime novel by Newton Thornburg, A Man's Game. Vividly told unpleasantness.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 30, 2020, 02:47:14 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71UwAjkknPL.jpg)


Started on Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, which follows Lee Child in the writing process of Make Me. But I don't know if I'll continue as Martin has adopted a prose style mannered and over-literary and at times downright purple - in exactly the way his subject doesn't. Unnecessay and distracting, but I may whip myself forward, even through the second book he wrote With Child, following the publishing reception and author tour for Make Me and the early thoughts on the next novel Night School.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91PGz8WRy6L.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31ePp7xzhHL._SX290_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 02, 2020, 02:25:18 AM
Henry James: The Turn of the Screw


(https://www.ebayphotogallery.com/zdjecia/z1045/10454703/foto/24.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 05, 2020, 03:54:04 AM
Hemingway: Men Without Women


(https://tbn.bidorbuy.co.za/image/fetch/c_limit,h_448,q_auto:eco,w_448/https://blankbooks.co.za/85055/men-without-women.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cadenza on April 05, 2020, 07:58:21 PM
I've been reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas for awhile and hope to finish before the summer's over.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on April 06, 2020, 05:17:24 AM
Back to reading the short novels of Maupassant, from the Contes normands collection. I had stopped reading mid way last year.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on April 06, 2020, 05:54:05 AM
Quote from: Cadenza on April 05, 2020, 07:58:21 PM
I've been reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas for awhile and hope to finish before the summer's over.

Dumas is an excellent choice for times like these -- a fun story, well-told, at great length.  Loved that book, though the Count of Monte Cristo was always my favorite.

Welcome aboard!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaga2 on April 06, 2020, 06:40:24 AM
A book on causal inference in statistics. It's been a long time since stats class ..

A pleasant little mystery by William DeAndrea with TR as detective, The Lunatic Fringe

Still working on my history books I was reading a couple weeks ago ... :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 10, 2020, 02:24:05 AM
Henry James: The Spoils of Poynton


(https://www.ebayphotogallery.com/zdjecia/z1045/10454703/foto/24.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on April 10, 2020, 05:04:14 AM
For a period Henry James was my favourite novelist. I read this in its french translation (Les dépouilles de Poynton) many, many years ago. I had just finished The Bostonians. When I picked it up again (The Bostonians) a decade later, the magic had somehow disappeared and I didn't finish it  :(.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 10, 2020, 05:49:30 AM
I can readily understand what you say André. He is a good story teller but his writing style is now cumbersome for me. It is an effort to read him. You may or may not have noticed above that I interspersed some Hemingway for major stylistic contrast.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on April 10, 2020, 05:57:06 AM
Still sticking largely with the classics at the moment.  I'm approaching mid-point on War and Peace, and have pulled down two volumes of short stories -- Nathaniel Hawthorne and Rudyard Kipling -- and have been diving back and forth between the three.  I have to admit, the prospect of not being able to go out this weekend and staying in with a pile of books (and CD's of course) is not particularly upsetting... :) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on April 10, 2020, 08:05:31 AM
Quote from: j winter on April 10, 2020, 05:57:06 AM
Still sticking largely with the classics at the moment.  I'm approaching mid-point on War and Peace, and have pulled down two volumes of short stories -- Nathaniel Hawthorne and Rudyard Kipling -- and have been diving back and forth between the three.  I have to admit, the prospect of not being able to go out this weekend and staying in with a pile of books (and CD's of course) is not particularly upsetting... :)

Hawthorne short stores and sketches are a favorite of mine. I seem to appreciate them more as the years go by. Rappaccini's Daughter has been a favorite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 10, 2020, 02:08:48 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-LkM8cIUL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

One of the few positive things about lockdown is I'm finally able to find time for this brick. Currently 250 pages in, 1000 to go. And every bit as good as I'd heard.

For slightly lighter reading have also finally started this:

(https://cdn-o.fishpond.co.nz/0005/031/065/1230676107/original.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on April 12, 2020, 05:12:32 PM
I haven't been listening to music recently, but I've been reading more. Most recently book completed has been Bruno's Dream, by Iris Mordoch. Bruno is an elderly man dying of the old age, obsessed with spiders, his stamp collection and his past. His dream is more or less his view of life, or perhaps the hallucination he has at the end of the novel. Most of the action involves the characters that revolve around him, including his son, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, nurse, housekeeper, and some others. A general theme of Murdoch's fiction is that intense feelings of love can be felt by and for people who are not young, attractive, or appropriate mates. The intensity of desire and love overrules all else. A fine book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on April 12, 2020, 10:38:54 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 10, 2020, 02:08:48 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-LkM8cIUL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

One of the few positive things about lockdown is I'm finally able to find time for this brick. Currently 250 pages in, 1000 to go. And every bit as good as I'd heard.

Right up my alley, ordered for a copy.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Kaga2 on April 13, 2020, 08:53:09 AM
A stats refresher before I plunge into a (graduate level) book on causal inference in studies. Theoretically I know the stuff. That theory assumes my memory is better than it is! Roussas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 13, 2020, 11:50:57 AM
''Quantum and the Lotus" Mattieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan.
French Ex-Biologist now-Buddhist and Asian physicist discuss nature of reality, and similarity and differences between Buddhist theories and quantum physics theories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 14, 2020, 01:12:49 PM
The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman's majestic and elegantly opinionated survey of pre-WWI Europe and the USA. The writing is exquisite: it sweeps across the landscape but everything that falls under her eye is cut down precisely to size. It should be possible for a reader inclined to disagree with Tuchman's political sympathies to read past her interpretation and glean important facts, but such a reader would be missing out on most of the fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 21, 2020, 04:53:57 AM
J.S. Le Fanu: Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9781853360473-uk.jpg)


Le Fanu was quite a famous Irish writer of Victorian ghost stories. His fame has somewhat subsided over time; perhaps his stories and themes are not quite shocking enough in these modern times but they are still excellent examples of their particular genre. He was an excellent storyteller and this is why I like his writing. His stories are very well told and his characters are well rounded and quite believable and his stories make for very good reading. I have lived in a part of Dublin where there was a street/road named in his honour close to the setting of a story in this compilation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: pjme on April 21, 2020, 07:34:59 AM
yesterday: a short story by Doris Lessing. 'The grandmothers". Sharp, cruel satire....

Now, inspired by corona, two books are waiting: Mary Shelley's The last man (1826 - cholera) and Aldous Huxley's 1949 - post nuclear/chemical warfare "Ape and essence".
I see that I bought "The last man " in London / 1985 and haven't reread it since. Huxley I found (translated) in a second hand shop, recently.
It just may be too much ....

Ps: I must have some Le Fanu short stories somewhere.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on April 21, 2020, 06:21:19 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 10, 2020, 02:08:48 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-LkM8cIUL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

One of the few positive things about lockdown is I'm finally able to find time for this brick. Currently 250 pages in, 1000 to go. And every bit as good as I'd heard.

Finished that a few months ago. Often difficult reading (due to the violent subject matter, not the writing), but immensely powerful. I came away from it feeling that I'd just finished one of the best books I've ever read.

Have started this (I think upon your recommendation, SimonNZ!):

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513P5eGhNVL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The subsequent two volumes have just arrived, so they will be next, of course.

And I'm also a little way into this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41NhmtCuJUL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Just a little light reading ... :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 21, 2020, 08:50:32 PM
Quote from: Alek Hidell on April 21, 2020, 06:21:19 PM
Finished that a few months ago. Often difficult reading (due to the violent subject matter, not the writing), but immensely powerful. I came away from it feeling that I'd just finished one of the best books I've ever read.

Have started this (I think upon your recommendation, SimonNZ!):

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513P5eGhNVL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The subsequent two volumes have just arrived, so they will be next, of course.

And I'm also a little way into this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41NhmtCuJUL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Just a little light reading ... :D

Yes, I was very impressed by the Evans set. I'll be very interested to hear any thoughts once you finish. I also read Dispatches just 2 or 3 months ago.

TD: still slowly working through the superb Fisk, but its had to focus on it while there's uncertainty about possible/probable redundancies at my work.

In the meantime am half way through this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71PZK76HCWL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on April 22, 2020, 01:38:17 PM
Quote from: aligreto on April 21, 2020, 04:53:57 AM
J.S. Le Fanu: Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9781853360473-uk.jpg)


Le Fanu was quite a famous Irish writer of Victorian ghost stories. His fame has somewhat subsided over time; perhaps his stories and themes are not quite shocking enough in these modern times but they are still excellent examples of their particular genre. He was an excellent storyteller and this is why I like his writing. His stories are very well told and his characters are well rounded and quite believable and his stories make for very good reading. I have lived in a part of Dublin where there was a street/road named in his honour close to the setting of a story in this compilation.
Oh, that sounds like a fun distraction for these days and times (particularly after listening to too much news).  I hadn't heard of him before now and must admit that it's been a while since I've read ghost stories; I did love them growing up and was a big fan of Poe (had to keep a dictionary next to me whilst reading his stories as some of the Victorian words and/or meanings were unknown to me).  Also, loved watching the Poe movies with Vincent Price.   :)

I did have fun (a few months ago...ish) reading some early short stories of George R.R. Martin's ...trying to recall the title now.  Hold on please, I'll try and find it.  I think that it was Dreamsongs, Volume I.  It was a combo of Sci Fi and Horror.  A number of really well-written (and scary!) stories.

At the moment, reading too much news(!), some articles and fun things too about what is going on in the tennis world, a couple of books that I have about birds...how to identify, their habits, how to attract them, etc.

Best,

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on April 22, 2020, 02:01:34 PM
I have had LeFanu on my radar for decades,  but never actually read him. I know about him from mentions in two of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels (Nine Tailors and Gaudy Night) by Dorothy Sayers.

I started Evans's first volume, but got distracted...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 22, 2020, 02:09:27 PM
Quote from: j winter on April 10, 2020, 05:57:06 AM
Still sticking largely with the classics at the moment.  I'm approaching mid-point on War and Peace, and have pulled down two volumes of short stories -- Nathaniel Hawthorne and Rudyard Kipling -- and have been diving back and forth between the three.  I have to admit, the prospect of not being able to go out this weekend and staying in with a pile of books (and CD's of course) is not particularly upsetting... :) 

Nice . . . at some point, I may re-read War and Peace.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 22, 2020, 02:10:39 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 14, 2020, 01:12:49 PM
The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman's majestic and elegantly opinionated survey of pre-WWI Europe and the USA. The writing is exquisite: it sweeps across the landscape but everything that falls under her eye is cut down precisely to size. It should be possible for a reader inclined to disagree with Tuchman's political sympathies to read past her interpretation and glean important facts, but such a reader would be missing out on most of the fun.

Great book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on April 22, 2020, 07:47:32 PM
I've found the Open University have a load of free online courses and have started with In the night sky: Orion.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/the-night-sky-orion/content-section-overview?active-tab=description-tab (https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/the-night-sky-orion/content-section-overview?active-tab=description-tab)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 23, 2020, 02:18:13 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on April 22, 2020, 01:38:17 PM
Oh, that sounds like a fun distraction for these days and times (particularly after listening to too much news).  I hadn't heard of him before now and must admit that it's been a while since I've read ghost stories; I did love them growing up and was a big fan of Poe (had to keep a dictionary next to me whilst reading his stories as some of the Victorian words and/or meanings were unknown to me).  Also, loved watching the Poe movies with Vincent Price.   :)

I did have fun (a few months ago...ish) reading some early short stories of George R.R. Martin's ...trying to recall the title now.  Hold on please, I'll try and find it.  I think that it was Dreamsongs, Volume I.  It was a combo of Sci Fi and Horror.  A number of really well-written (and scary!) stories.

At the moment, reading too much news(!), some articles and fun things too about what is going on in the tennis world, a couple of books that I have about birds...how to identify, their habits, how to attract them, etc.

Best,

PD

The important thing is to keep reading and to encourage it wherever possible, especially among the young.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on April 23, 2020, 03:52:39 AM
Quote from: aligreto on April 23, 2020, 02:18:13 AM
The important thing is to keep reading and to encourage it wherever possible, especially among the young.
Agreed.  By the way, I was the kid with the flashlight reading under the covers past bedtime, belonged to book clubs, and walked out of the library arms filled with books.   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 23, 2020, 04:58:58 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on April 23, 2020, 03:52:39 AM
Agreed.  By the way, I was the kid with the flashlight reading under the covers past bedtime, belonged to book clubs, and walked out of the library arms filled with books.   :)

You were not alone.
Thankfully my daughter also grew up with a love of books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on April 23, 2020, 05:21:14 AM
Quote from: aligreto on April 23, 2020, 04:58:58 AM
You were not alone.
Thankfully my daughter also grew up with a love of books.

I'd read all the books in the children's section of the library by the time I was 11, so they gave me tickets for the adult section ::).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 24, 2020, 02:03:39 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on April 23, 2020, 05:21:14 AM
I'd read all the books in the children's section of the library by the time I was 11, so they gave me tickets for the adult section ::).

I had a somewhat similar experience and in order to help my case I learnt the basics of the Dewey Decimal Classification System  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on April 24, 2020, 05:25:50 AM
wow big book  ???  ;D

you'll need to change the first [img] tag to [img width=250] (or 300) to resize the image to more acceptable size for us browsing  ;)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 24, 2020, 05:38:44 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on April 24, 2020, 05:25:50 AM
wow big book  ???  ;D

you'll need to change the first [img] tag to [img width=250] (or 300) to resize the image to more acceptable size for us browsing  ;)

I've been trying to figure out how to post the same content as yours without getting the tags to actually work and truncate my post. Now I know how to do it, thank you!.  ;)

I'd have replaced width=250 with height=350, though.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on April 24, 2020, 05:43:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 24, 2020, 05:38:44 AM
I've been trying to figure out how to post the same content as yours without getting the tags to actually work and truncate my post. Now I know how to do it, thank you!.  ;)

I'd have replaced width=250 with height=350, though.  :)

Fair point about the height, Andrei. I have only ever used the width one for the CD pictures...never thought of the height  :(  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 24, 2020, 06:01:44 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on April 24, 2020, 05:43:00 AM
Fair point about the height, Andrei. I have only ever used the width one for the CD pictures...never thought of the height  :(  :laugh:

Well, Olivier, that's too funny: I have always used the height for both CDs and books and it works just fine --- never thought of the width.   :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on April 24, 2020, 06:20:39 AM
Good tips on height and width   :)   I think the last book I read might be improved by adjusting the depth... I'll have to experiment with that...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on April 24, 2020, 07:21:45 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 24, 2020, 06:01:44 AM
Well, Olivier, that's too funny: I have always used the height for both CDs and books and it works just fine --- never thought of the width.   :laugh:

Quote from: j winter on April 24, 2020, 06:20:39 AM
Good tips on height and width   :)   I think the last book I read might be improved by adjusting the depth... I'll have to experiment with that...

8)

Does that mean that with all those, we can post pictures of books in multiples volumes....   :o  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 24, 2020, 07:22:40 AM
Quote from: j winter on April 24, 2020, 06:20:39 AM
Good tips on height and width   :)   I think the last book I read might be improved by adjusting the depth... I'll have to experiment with that...

Good one!  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 24, 2020, 09:47:50 AM
Just finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41FltMBG03L._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
A fascinating lecture given by Adorno in 1967. As an unedited spoken text, it is very approachable and straightforward, and its 55 pages touches on some interesting points concerning the rise of right-wing extremism. The text is not (and does not intend to be) a fully developed theoretical framework on its subject matter,  and just touches on some "aspects" of it, as the title suggests.

Adorno had suffered the rise of Nazism firsthand in the 30s, and then in 1967 was addressing the (short-lived) rise of the NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands). Now, we're seeing similar trends in Europe (AfD in Germany, RN in France, Vox in Spain), and the text is once again quite relevant. Not that Adorno was clairvoyant or anything of the sort, simply that the claims and tools used by these political groups were the same in the 30s, 60s and now (with the natural place- and time-related variations).

The book will be published in English translation this month:

[asin]1509541454[/asin]
Highly recommended!

And now starting:

[asin]2221203070[/asin]
I had never read any Julien Green before, and this new edition of the first volume his uncensored diaries, covering the years 1929-1940 (another three volumes covering the rest of his life—he died in 1998–will be published next), seemed like a good starting point (even if I'm afraid the 1200+ pages of this first volume are not suitable to read in one go).

A curious figure, Julien Green. Born Julian (his given name was frenchified by his first editor) in 1900 in Paris into a patrician family from the southern US, he spent most of his life in France, and the vast majority of his literary output was in French. He was elected to the Académie (from which late in life he resigned from for some obscure reason), but rejected French citizenship when it was offered to him by president Pompidou himself.

He converted to Catholicism as a young man, and is considered one of the great French "catholic" writers of the 20th century, as well as a great stylist in the language. But, he also was a homosexual—and a rather promiscuous one, as we only now get to know—, and had a lifelong (and open) liaison with journalist Robert de Saint-Jean (a not uninteresting diarist and essayist himself), until now thought to have been a "platonic"  relationship.

Green's diaries (considered among his best work) were released during his lifetime in the sancta sanctorum of French publishing, the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. It turns out, though, that that edition was expurgated by the author, and the complete manuscripts  (enhanced by ca. 60% compared to what was available until now) were deposited in the Bibliothèque Nationale with the rest of his literary legacy. Parts of what now appears are openly homoerotic (pornographic, really), and random sexual encounters with usually working-class men (shared in some instances with his companion and with other notable literary figures) are profusely described. That a "catholic" author would even put these things in writing is surprising,  and he must have foreseen these pages would eventually see the light of day (given his prestige) after his death. Be that as it may, the diaries' real interest is in their reflection of the author's intellectual pursuits, as a firsthand document of artistic life (mainly) in Paris during the past century, and in their concise but stylish French prose.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 24, 2020, 10:19:43 AM
Quote from: ritter on April 24, 2020, 09:47:50 AM
Just finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41FltMBG03L._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
A fascinating lecture given by Adorno in 1967. As an unedited spoken text, it is very approachable and straightforward, and its 55 pages touches on some interesting points concerning the rise of right-wing extremism.

With all due respect, don Rafael, that's a very outdated book. How about "Aspects of the New Left Radicalism"? Given the recent (ie, since at least Podemos 's rise to governmental influence, if not downright governmental power) developments in your own country, the latter title is much more actual than Adorno's, which incidentally was completely  misplaced and misfired, given that the self-same right-wing radicals he so vocally denounced willingly gave him political asylum and never ever thought of forbidding him the right to print the most vocal critique of the very society that they upholded and that made possible to print his very critique without any fear of retaliation. I think it's only poetical justice that he died of a heart attack induced by students yelling at him the very slogans he yelled at the "bourgeois".  ;D

I say it loud: (petty) bourgeois and proud!  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 24, 2020, 11:28:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 24, 2020, 10:19:43 AM
With all due respect, don Rafael, that's a very outdated book. How about "Aspects of the New Left Radicalism"? Given the recent (ie, since at least Podemos 's rise to governmental influence, if not downright governmental power) developments in your own country, the latter title is much more actual than Adorno's, which incidentally was completely  misplaced and misfired, given that the self-same right-wing radicals he so vocally denounced willingly gave him political asylum and never ever thought of forbidding him the right to print the most vocal critique of the very society that they upholded and that made possible to print his very critique without any fear of retaliation. I think it's only poetical justice that he died of a heart attack induced by students yelling at him the very slogans he yelled at the "bourgeois".  ;D

I say it loud: (petty) bourgeois and proud!  8)
You,ve got this all wrong, querido Andrei, oh so, so wrong.

Primo. Whataboutism has nothing to do with this. Denouncing the rise of right-wing extremism is a necessary thing per se, even if an author does not denounce the rise of left-wing extremism. Both are equally nefarious and dangerous. And Adorno, as Marxist-trained as he was, never embraced communism or the misguided tangible political manifestations of Marxism. He was first and foremost centred on (often very illuminating) cultural critique and the situation of man in modern society, but he never proposed any of the (ultimately catastrophic) false utopias that were being imposed on parts of the world in the 20th century.

Secundo. Adorno's critique was never aimed against representative liberal democracies as such, but rather towards phenomena taking place within those democracies (which were the ones he knew and could study). And, at least AFAIK, he never wrote a word of ingratitude or attack against the country that generously gave him shelter in the darkest of times, and never refers to the US or the Federal Republic of Germany as being "right-wing extremist". What he does is point out, with deep analysis—that one can agree with or not, that is another matter—the problems he perceived within those systems (once again, mainly from a cultural and sociological—but certainly not political—point of view).

Tertio. On a personal note, you will understand that I, an upper-middle class citizen of an advanced western democracy,  of bourgeois/professional background (of many generations), cannot and will not ever embrace the destructive force of the new left-wing radicalism, which in essence is seeking to subvert the whole system I believe in (and is "the least bad of systems" IMHO) and destroy my "class", as well as—and perhaps more importantly—block the perspective of anyone being given the possibility of joining that  "class". And seeing the traditional Social Democrat party of Spain finding support in Podemos (and to a certain degree, embracing the ideology of the latter) breaks my heart. But, this will not make  me turn a blind eye to the quick rise of extremism on the other end of the spectrum (perhaps you do not know that the far-right Vox party now has the third largest representation in the Spanish parliament, ahead of Podemos), and that the traditional centre-right Partido Popular is—similarly to the Socialists, but in the other direction—radicalising itself to stop the drainage of votes on the right (a suicidal attitude, I'm afraid). But this destructive polarisation of politics is not a problem exclusive to Spain. Schlechte Zeit für Zentrismus.  And you will agree with me that the impending potential economic catastrophe worldwide is the perfect breeding ground for extremist solutions, on either side of the political spectrum.

Your (apparently knee-jerk) reaction to the name Adorno, and your saying that a book I doubt you've had the chance to read is "very outdated" appear to reflect only preconceived notions (and possibly complete ignorance of Adorno's oeuvre). I will not  claim a deep knowledge of the man's thought (I lack—by far—the philosophical training to tackle the  "big" books), but what I have read (Minima Moralia, shorter essays, the writings on music, and, many years ago, the Dialectics of Enlightenment—co-authored with Max Horkheimer) has always been thought-provoking and illuminating, even if I have on occasions disagreed with the author's approach and conclusions. On many other occasions, though, I (and many more, of whatever political persuasion) perceive in him an intellect of the highest rank, with whom I at least often feel a close affinity. And his prose, extremely difficult as it may be, can also be extremely rewarding and, yes, beautiful.

So, cher ami, I can only recommend you read this small book, Who knows? You might even like it...  ;)

Un fuerte abrazo,

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on April 26, 2020, 10:01:32 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 22, 2020, 02:09:27 PM
Nice . . . at some point, I may re-read War and Peace.

So far I haven't managed to finish anything by Tolstoy. War and Peace simply didn't click with me. Anna Karenina I liked a lot more that which i managed to read although I didn't get very far because my psychological well-being at that time was very fragile. I'm probably going to eventually return to Tolstoy and perhaps finish both of them (provided the libraries open at some point).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on April 26, 2020, 12:12:14 PM
Try some of the shorter prose pieces, e.g. "The Death of Ivan Ilic", "Hadji Murat", "The cossacks" etc. There are quite a few ranging from short story to short novel length. They are not all similarly great but most of them masterpieces and also accessible.

I finished the Decamerone. It took me more than one month, so a bit longer than the deka hemérai or 10 days (or two weeks, the narrators take breaks for friday and saturday because they don't want to share lascivious stories on the days Jesus suffered) it takes in the fictional setting and the pandemic is not over. I don't know if the plague in Florence was over in 1348 after these two weeks. Probably not.
A hundred stories. They cover a very broad range. Some or fairly silly or maybe also dependent on Italian word play that gets mostly lost in translation. Many are also rather dependent on very ribald confusions being played for laughs and a handful were probably considered as bordering pornography until fairly recently. (The most daring story is maybe the following: One of two close friends begins an affair with the others' wife. Her husband finds out and as revenge he provokes a situation where his friend has to hide in a chest (for fear of being discovered) and the cuckolded guy then has sex with the others wife on top of the chest. Because they were great friends and this was considered a fairly mild revenge (as opposed to killing/maiming whatever) they agree to remain great friends and set up a menage à quatre to everyone's content!)
Mostly still entertaining although the horny monks and some other tropes are a little old when they return for the third time in a very similar fashion. The amazing thing for me is also the window into the mid-14th century. This was written only a few decades after the Divine Comedy, Boccaccio being less than 50 years younger than Dante. And it is mostly the exact opposite: Everyone is horny all the time and very little afraid of ending up in the first circle's storm...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 28, 2020, 02:01:13 AM
Mayle: A Year in Provence


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/MAMMYBEARSBOOKS/30376379206.jpg)


This book was all the rage at one time and everybody read it, except me [because everybody else did at the time]. It describes exactly what it says on the cover. The characters are wonderful and true to life, if something of a caricature. What I found most appealing was the accounts of conversations that were had. I had many laugh out loud moments but I think that one would need a smattering of basic French to fully appreciate the humour.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 28, 2020, 03:37:20 AM
Still going with Robert Fisk, but in the meantime finished this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71hsgKg5cqL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on April 30, 2020, 02:46:31 PM
Quote from: greg on September 23, 2019, 07:38:36 PM
(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/bundles/5465/nz1cc945gykwqrz3/header_586x192.jpg?t=1510974556)

Just started this massive undertaking- the legendary, one and only, Umineko no Naku Koro ni (it's a visual novel in the mystery genre).

I say massive, because if it were a book, it would be over 3600 pages! Expecting to take about 2 months to finish this.

What led me to pick it up were: 1) it's related to Higurashi When They Cry, which I love, and 2) the reviews of some people make it sound like this was some sort of life-altering experience that it's so good.
Finished the first half (Questions arc). The second half (Answers arc) is supposed to be just as long. It took well over 100 hours to get through the first half.

My conclusion is... 10/10. Honestly this is so good that it makes most stories, regardless of genre/format, look bad. It's a murder mystery but there is some really heavy stuff that will make you think, to say the least.

But it will remain a sort of "underground" story because visual novels aren't often read outside of Japan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 30, 2020, 05:18:42 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91Lxdflv7sL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 01, 2020, 12:28:33 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 30, 2020, 05:18:42 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91Lxdflv7sL.jpg)

Does he say when Rome fell? (I presume that by Rome he means not only the city itself but also the empire.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 01, 2020, 12:57:46 AM
I'm only a few chapters in but from the introduction it sounds as though he intends to stop at 476.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 01, 2020, 06:42:29 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 01, 2020, 12:57:46 AM
I'm only a few chapters in but from the introduction it sounds as though he intends to stop at 476.

Thanks, just as I suspected: as wrong as it gets.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 01, 2020, 04:48:20 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 01, 2020, 06:42:29 AM
Thanks, just as I suspected: as wrong as it gets.

Okay. Without further information I'm going to assume you see the "fall of Rome" as happening in 753 BC when Romulus and Remus began an era of ecological destruction.

My second guess is that you date it to the arrival of the first "immigrant boat people" fleeing the war in Troy
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 01, 2020, 05:56:31 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 01, 2020, 04:48:20 PM
Okay. Without further information I'm going to assume you see the "fall of Rome" as happening in 753 BC when Romulus and Remus began an era of ecological destruction.

My second guess is that you date it to the arrival of the first "immigrant boat people" fleeing the war in Troy

Wrong direction in time, I think. Remember that Andrei, being Eastern Orthodox, is in communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople but not the Bishop of Rome.

The "Second Rome" fell in 1453 CE. I would guess that is what he is referring to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 01, 2020, 06:13:40 PM
Well, yeah, I was joking.

I guessed he was dating it the way Gibbon - who I still haven't read - does.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 02, 2020, 02:53:19 AM
Quote from: JBS on May 01, 2020, 05:56:31 PM
Wrong direction in time, I think. Remember that Andrei, being Eastern Orthodox, is in communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople but not the Bishop of Rome.

The "Second Rome" fell in 1453 CE. I would guess that is what he is referring to.

Precisely. The so-called "Byzantine" Empire (a misnomer fabricated post factum for ideological reasons and wrong on multiple levels) was actually the Eastern Roman Empire which after the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire in 476 remained as THE only Roman Empire. The rulers in Constantinople (between 1204 and 1261 in Nicaea) never ever called themselves anything else that Emperor of the Romans (Basileus ton Romaion), their realm the Empire of the Romans (Basileia ton Romaion) and their subjects Romans (Romaioi). It fell on May 29, 1453.  As for Rome itself, it fell into a long period of insignificance in 402 when the capital of the Western Roman Empire was moved to Ravenna; it is in this latter city where Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus and sent the imperial insignia to Constantinople --- in itself an acknowledgment of the continuity of the Empire. Actually, from Octavian Augustus to Constantin XII there is an unbroken succession of emperors.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 02, 2020, 01:16:54 PM
Just resumed Mann's Doctor Faustus. I put it down about 1/3 of the way a few months ago. I find it extremely dense, but fascinating. After having finished Death in Venice a few days ago, which I loved, I've had an appetite for more of this author's work. I'm thinking of getting The Magic Mountain as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on May 03, 2020, 12:29:05 AM
The Magic Mountain is not quite as dense as Faustus although the latter might be relatively more accessible for lovers of classical music. Most of the shorter pieces (like Death in Venice which is probably the weightiest of the novellas and short stories) and most of the other long novels are rather more accessible as well. E.g. his debut "Buddenbrooks" or his last "Felix Krull".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 03, 2020, 12:46:53 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 02, 2020, 01:16:54 PM
Just resumed Mann's Doctor Faustus. I put it down about 1/3 of the way a few months ago. I find it extremely dense, but fascinating. After having finished Death in Venice a few days ago, which I loved, I've had an appetite for more of this author's work. I'm thinking of getting The Magic Mountain as well.

Magic Mountain is the one I've found most interesting, by far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 03, 2020, 04:46:27 AM
I appreciate the feedback. I'm going to get my hands on the Magic Mountain I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on May 03, 2020, 05:33:15 AM
Although it's been almost 30 years that I read Dr. Faustus when I was 20 and I was maybe a little overtaxed, my favorite is also The Magic Mountain (and I re-read this about 20 years ago). Despite the confined setting it feels less contrived than Dr. Faustus. And one could also argue that Mann tried to put a little too much into the latter book. I mean, 12 tone music and the particular German relationship to music, Theology and the Devil, Nietzsche, syphilitic madness and finally the contemporary history between the wars including the 3rd Reich could suffice for at least three books.
I have not read the Joseph cycle (got stuck in the first book I tried which was not the first of the series but one a friend particularly recommended) and neither "Lotte in Weimar" and the one about that Saint or Pope. But I think I read all the other novels and most of the shorter prose although some of this is even more than 30 years ago when I was a teenager.  I think they are all less ambitious (and less "deep") than Magic Mountain and Faustus.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 03, 2020, 05:41:49 AM
I couldn't get past the first half of Doktor Faustus. But I savoured every word of Buddenbrook, The Magic Mountain and the Joseph cycle at least 3 times each. The latter two figure among the handful of books I'd take to the desert island.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on May 03, 2020, 08:27:43 AM
Speaking of Mann, I'm almost done with the first part of Joseph Tetralogy. Usually with Mann (as with Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain) I often find the beginning the least good part. So far, this has been strictly speaking the exact opposite. I liked the beginning quite a lot because it had that certain Mann touch in it. Then it becomes a bit too much like reading the Old Testament itself (I do understand that it is inevitable, this is about characters in Bible after all but some parts of the book are a bit of a chore, rather impressive considering I've read Tolkien's Silmarillion, which I don't find hard to read at all while having heard some people in fact comparing it to reading Bible).

This is not to say that there are not interesting parts even after the beginning, merely saying that it doesn't quite have the quality of say Buddenbrooks or Magic Mountain. During this quarantine I've read far less often than before, which has contributed to my rather slow progress. I've focused more on playing games.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on May 03, 2020, 09:28:49 AM
Buddenbrooks is very entertaining and comparably "light". I have to try the Joseph books again eventually. The most recent one by Mann I read was "Felix Krull" (his last work although began already in the early years of the 20th cent.). This is also supposed to be quite light and it's certainly not bad but I don't think the theme (confessions of a womanizer and con man) lends itself so well to Mann's style. It's quite funny but too longwinded and slow moving for it subject matter. It's also technically a fragment and stops in the middle without really resolving many hints we get early on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on May 03, 2020, 10:21:20 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on May 03, 2020, 09:28:49 AM
Buddenbrooks is very entertaining and comparably "light".

Agreed. I also love Royal Highness.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 03, 2020, 10:38:59 AM
Happy to have prompted this kind of discussion, I had hoped there were some enthusiasts of Mann's work here that might be able to point me in the right direction. I think it might be months before I finish Faustus, probably interspersed with reading other, "easier" books in the meantime.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on May 03, 2020, 10:50:32 AM
Royal Highness is also funny but I seem to remember that it tended to drag on a little later on. It was basically a wedding present with the female protagonist having many features of Mann's wife Katia, among others being a maths student. And there is a very funny description how notes on higher maths look to a layman.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on May 03, 2020, 11:57:45 AM
One of my favorite parts is Klaus Heinrich's discussion with Alex Martini, the entire situation is so very farcical.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 03, 2020, 12:58:39 PM
I decided to start another novel by a 20th century German writer, Herman Hesse's Narcissus & Goldmund. I read a few of Hesse's novels back in high school but never this one. Hesse's simple, parabolic style is miles away from Mann's detailed, ornate, often verbose prose, but the two authors seem to be interested in somewhat similar themes. I have a feeling this will be an easier read, though I'm not giving up on Faustus, just allowing myself to take it more slowly.

I just got to the chapter where Leverkühn first devised his version of the 12-tone technique, very interesting. His rationale behind it definitely seems to line up with my understanding of Schoenberg's motivations for developing the technique, though as I understand it, there are very few other real similarities between Leverkühn and Schoenberg.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 03, 2020, 04:17:46 PM
Re-reading Geo. MacDonald's Phantastes, which is exactly the humane balm I need these days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Zeus on May 03, 2020, 07:13:43 PM
Broken Faith: Inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, One of America's Most Dangerous Cults
by Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2B1Ofq8NtL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This book, which just came out in February, caught my eye because I recently moved to Boone NC, not far from Rutherfordton, the location of the events described in this book.

I am just stunned and horrified by what is happening in that community.  Although I am only halfway through the book, the events described are growing progressively darker.  Moreover, my sense is that this evil is still ongoing.

There are plenty of books that seem like they could have been condensed into a long article.  This is a story that needs to be told in full.

An excellent book.  But very, very disturbing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 05, 2020, 01:59:37 AM
James Joyce: Dubliners


(https://i.etsystatic.com/19895778/r/il/922bc1/2097212894/il_570xN.2097212894_fotw.jpg)


My edition of this book has an insightful introduction by a well known Irish poet, Padraic Colum. Joyce was a master of depicting and describing people. It is somewhat sad that upon reading this book again, albeit in my autumn years, that I see so much of what I grew up with has disappeared. I am sure that it is the same for most cultures. I wonder what Joyce would think of modern Dublin if he came back now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 05, 2020, 04:52:54 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 03, 2020, 04:46:27 AM
I appreciate the feedback. I'm going to get my hands on the Magic Mountain I think.

There are two translations, Lowe-Porter (which is the one I read) and a newer one which everyone seems to agree is better, or at least, closer in feel to Mann's prose,  by John Woods. I have the Woods but haven't read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on May 05, 2020, 05:36:45 AM
The part in Joseph tetralogy where Jacob marries unknowingly Leah instead of Rachel rather blew me away. Even though Laban's deception is obvious even to someone who is not familiar with Old Testament or this particular part of it, doesn't matter. The genius lies in the subtle ways in which Mann repeatedly reinforces the irony of Jacob having in reality married Leah and not Rachel, such as with Jacob noting in the darkness of wedding chamber the sister's voice resemblance, in Jacob's mind completely innocently but the reader comprehends the entire affair in its true hideous light. Mann truly deserves his epithet "The ironic German".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 05, 2020, 05:48:28 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on May 05, 2020, 05:36:45 AM
The part in Joseph tetralogy where Jacob marries unknowingly Leah instead of Rachel rather blew me away. Even though Laban's deception is obvious even to someone who is not familiar with Old Testament or this particular part of it, doesn't matter. The genius lies in the subtle ways in which Mann repeatedly reinforces the irony of Jacob having in reality wed Leah and not Rachel, such as with Jacob noting in the darkness of wedding chamber the sister's voice resemblance, in Jacob's mind completely innocently but the reader comprehends the entire affair in its true hideous light. Mann truly deserves his epithet "The ironic German".

Excellent !

There are many such 'coups de théâtre' in Joseph & His Brothers. Mann prepares them well beforehand, the reader always in the know, and he lets the character be duped in full view, a bit like those scenes in Nozze di Figaro or Falstaff where the Count and Almaviva are fooled by the other characters. Same with Esaü being duped by Jacob and Isaac. Priceless.

The most felicitou (for me) is the 'Recognition Scene'  where Joseph takes his brother Benjamin's hand to fan himself, a gesture that was described early in the first book (like 1500 pages earlier) when the two were only kids. A masterstroke !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 05, 2020, 01:17:55 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on May 05, 2020, 04:52:54 AM
There are two translations, Lowe-Porter (which is the one I read) and a newer one which everyone seems to agree is better, or at least, closer in feel to Mann's prose,  by John Woods. I have the Woods but haven't read it.

Woods is the one I've been looking at, and it is he who translated the Dr. Faustus I've been reading. Think I will go with that one, unless I happen to find the older translation at a used bookshop or something.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 05, 2020, 11:39:44 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on May 05, 2020, 05:36:45 AM
The part in Joseph tetralogy where Jacob marries unknowingly Leah instead of Rachel rather blew me away. Even though Laban's deception is obvious even to someone who is not familiar with Old Testament or this particular part of it, doesn't matter. The genius lies in the subtle ways in which Mann repeatedly reinforces the irony of Jacob having in reality married Leah and not Rachel, such as with Jacob noting in the darkness of wedding chamber the sister's voice resemblance, in Jacob's mind completely innocently but the reader comprehends the entire affair in its true hideous light. Mann truly deserves his epithet "The ironic German".

I'm going to try to read it again.

Amazingly I managed  to find it, or rather, them. Here we go. Very deep is the well of the past. Should we call it bottomless?


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 06, 2020, 06:51:51 AM
Just finished "Barchester Towers," a delightful mixture of Dickens and Wodehouse with a wee splash of Austen for flavoring. Parts of it get very plotty (and then this happened, and then this happened), which is a disadvantage as the plot is very predictable, but the characters and narrator make for such delightful company that it hardly matters.

I had the impression, never having read him, that Trollope was a very serious social commentary novelist in the Dickensian vein, and then just getting started on "The Warden" and "Barchester Towers," I thought that given the subject matter he might be very religious and religion-focused. But happily: no! The real themes of these novels are:
1. The universality of office politics, with all of its caprices and inanity;
2. The ways that people completely fail to communicate with each other; and
3. The total illogic that guides everyone through their day-to-day decisions.

-

Now I'm starting two very very contrasting books: "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson, written as a 300-page letter from a dying rural parson to his young son (what is it with me and religion novels now?), and "How to Be Idle," by Tom Hodgkinson, a collection of essays on topics like sleeping in, calling in sick, taking a long lunch, "The First Drink of the Day," fishing, smoking, rambling, and napping. So far, "Gilead" has a totally extraordinary narrative voice which helps tie together the anecdotal, chapter-free structure, and "How to Be Idle" is charming, witty, a wee bit subversive, but hung up frightfully by the totally unrealistic upper-crust notion that it is practical for everyone to quit their jobs and laze around without worrying about how to pay their rent.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780140432039-us.jpg) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Gileadcover.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41JVuJUcP9L._SX340_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Up next: a first-ever crack at one of the ultimate quarantine reads: Moby-Dick!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 07, 2020, 07:02:19 AM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1354900466l/11686876.jpg)

François Bon is a great, great author. He spent some time teaching creative writing to young prisoners in Bordeaux. This book is based on what they wrote. He encourages to write about what they have lived, what they have experienced in their lives. Very often he will just reproduce their writing, with all its quirks of grammar and style and spelling. And then make a comment about what ideas it provokes for him, or a reflection about the impact the author had on him.

Wonderful book - just 100 pages but maybe you need a week to get through it, a book to sip, not to read all at once.

François Bon is also a great eccentric with a strong YouTube presence, well worth exploring (especially the series of videos he made on Rabelais.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on May 07, 2020, 09:47:13 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Ms0-8mPFL._AC_UL320_ML3_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on May 10, 2020, 11:19:11 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 06, 2020, 06:51:51 AM(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Gileadcover.jpg)
Read Gilead when it appeared, over a decade ago, and was impressed. Somewhat less so by its two sequels, Home and Lila, but a remarkable author she definitely is. Did you see her conversations with another reader/admirer, one Barack Obama?
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/11/05/president-obama-marilynne-robinson-conversation
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 10, 2020, 12:07:01 PM
Quote from: FelixSkodi on May 10, 2020, 11:55:26 AM
I'm meant to be fun reading Clancy's The Hunt for the Red October, but I keep getting sidetracked with my readings for my job.

I read that not so long ago and was more impressed than I expected to be. Particularly by one bit that isn't in the film where one of the Russian subs chasing the October experience a reactor meltdown and Clancy describes the process inside the reactor microsecond by microsecond.

I hope to get around to Cardinal Of The Kremlin at some point.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 10, 2020, 12:17:38 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 10, 2020, 12:07:01 PM
I read that not so long ago and was more impressed than I expected to be. Particularly by one bit that isn't in the film where one of the Russian subs chasing the October experience a reactor meltdown and Clancy describes the process inside the reactor microsecond by microsecond.

I hope to get around to Cardinal Of The Kremlin at some point.

That is good to hear. My idea is to work through, chronologically, Clancy's corpus, but we'll see how that goes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 10, 2020, 01:22:08 PM
Quote from: FelixSkodi on May 10, 2020, 11:55:26 AM
I'm meant to be fun reading Clancy's The Hunt for the Red October, but I keep getting sidetracked with my readings for my job.

That was a fun read, better than the movie, I think. But it did have its faults. The best developed character in the book gets killed on page 3.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on May 10, 2020, 02:01:49 PM
Quote from: JBS on May 10, 2020, 01:22:08 PM
.. But it did have its faults. The best developed character in the book gets killed on page 3.

:laugh:  That does indeed seem like a justified reservation ...


Quote from: Brian on May 06, 2020, 06:51:51 AM... "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson, written as a 300-page letter from a dying rural parson to his young son (what is it with me and religion novels now?) .. So far, "Gilead" has a totally extraordinary narrative voice which helps tie together the anecdotal, chapter-free structure ...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Gileadcover.jpg)

I also have Gilead sitting on a pile of yet to be read books, so interesting to hear the comments here.

I've just begun Talking it Over by Julian Barnes, I probably won't be straying too far from a dictionary as I do, but am enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 10, 2020, 02:13:09 PM
I can't remember...who died on page three?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 10, 2020, 03:51:26 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 10, 2020, 02:13:09 PM
I can't remember...who died on page three?

Do you remember how the captain killed the KGB officer assigned to the ship so he get his plan going?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 10, 2020, 04:01:53 PM
Quote from: JBS on May 10, 2020, 03:51:26 PM
Do you remember how the captain killed the KGB officer assigned to the ship so he get his plan going?

Sort of, though now I think I'm mostly remembering the movie. I don't remember thinking that character was way more interesting in the book, but I'll take your word for it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 10, 2020, 04:35:30 PM
Well this is now on the top of my list (work reading):

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41P9gK9pEFL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 11, 2020, 01:24:34 AM
Mary Robinson: Climate Justice


(https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3643592.1538058844!/image/image.jpg)


Various stories recounted from around the world reflecting the impact that the use of fossil fuel based economies in the leading industrial nations is having on the poorest and most at risk societies. The precept of Climate Justice is a valid one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 11, 2020, 08:50:27 AM
Quote from: aligreto on May 11, 2020, 01:24:34 AM
Mary Robinson: Climate Justice


(https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3643592.1538058844!/image/image.jpg)


Various stories recounted from around the world reflecting the impact that the use of fossil fuel based economies in the leading industrial nations is having on the poorest and most at risk societies. The precept of Climate Justice is a valid one.


Truly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 11, 2020, 09:25:24 AM
UN Special Envoy on Climate Change.

That's already three red flags for me.

the use of fossil fuel based economies in the leading industrial nations

Does she mention China as the greatest oiffender in this respect?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on May 11, 2020, 10:47:59 AM
I've been reading short stories recently, the Collected Stories of William Faulkner, and some stories by Maupassant.

I am an admirer of Faulkner and I recall being less engaged by his short stores than I had been by his novels, on first encounter. This time around the short stories are making a stronger impression.

Boule de suif by Maupassant is a great work, a window into civilian experience of wartime in 19th century France, and a cutting commentary on the hypocrisy of "respectable" people.

Quote from: André on October 16, 2018, 06:44:44 AM
I don't know the english titles, but it must be easy to get it through a wiki article on Maupassant. Try these:

Boule de suif
La maison de Mme Tellier (the maison is of course a brothel)
La petite Roque
Miss Harriet
Le rosier de Mme Husson (Britten used it for his comic opera Albert Herring)
Toine
Le Horla (a fantastic/horror story)
Le Père Amable

Etc, etc.

Among the novels, try Une vie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 11, 2020, 10:56:06 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on May 11, 2020, 10:47:59 AM
Boule de suif by Maupassant is a great work, a window into civilian experience of wartime in 19th century France, and a cutting commentary on the hypocrisy of "respectable" people.

+ 1.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 11, 2020, 04:14:01 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 11, 2020, 09:25:24 AM
UN Special Envoy on Climate Change.

That's already three red flags for me.

And before any question of content   :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 12, 2020, 01:29:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 11, 2020, 09:25:24 AM
UN Special Envoy on Climate Change.

That's already three red flags for me.

the use of fossil fuel based economies in the leading industrial nations

Does she mention China as the greatest oiffender in this respect?

Yes, along with the USA.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 12, 2020, 05:51:03 AM
Quote from: aligreto on May 12, 2020, 01:29:54 AM
Yes, along with the USA.

Good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 12, 2020, 07:21:29 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 11, 2020, 04:14:01 PM

And before any question of content   :P

I said three red flags because UN is usually ineffective at dealing with important problems, "special envoy" is usually a sinecure for some retired politician and climate change is usually a heavily politicized topic.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 12, 2020, 01:29:39 PM
Quote from: aligreto on May 12, 2020, 01:29:54 AM
Yes, along with the USA.

Digging in, it seems more complicated.
On a per capita basis, this source
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions
gives the following for table for per capita emissions
1   Saudi Arabia   16.1T
2   Australia   15.6T
3   United States   14.6T
4   Canada   14.9T
5   South Korea   11.7T
6   Russian Federation   10.6T
7   Japan   8.9T
8   Germany   8.7T

Possibly the US and Canada numbers got flipped, or they need to change places in the rable.

China is at number 12 on that table, with 6.5T, just ahead of the UK and France.

Their table for total emissions is the expected China, US, India, Russia, Japan as the top five.

Wikipedia meantime gives a chart for consumption based emissions per capita (last table on the page)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita
Which shows Luxembourg (!) as the worst offender by far, followed by Qatar, then Brunei and Singapore.  Going by that table, China is above the world average, but not by much, and better than most European countries. (Note for Florestan's benefit: Romania is below the average,) The US, Canada, and Australia are all about the same level. Russia is about the same as the rest of Europe.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/CO2_emissions_per_capita%2C_2017_%28Our_World_in_Data%29.svg/1024px-CO2_emissions_per_capita%2C_2017_%28Our_World_in_Data%29.svg.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 12, 2020, 11:12:35 PM
Quote from: JBS on May 12, 2020, 01:29:39 PM
Their table for total emissions is the expected China, US, India, Russia, Japan as the top five.

Which is of course the only relevant table. Per capita emissions is not relevant, of course Luxembourg with a population of 600,000 will result "worse" than China with 1,3 billion but if you take the per capita figures in that table and multiply them by the respective population you'll see that Luxembourg is far and away behind China, which is indeed world's largest offender in terms of total emissions, which again, is the only measure that really counts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 13, 2020, 09:33:31 AM
Another added to my queue, as I prep for my three chapter dissertation defense on Friday:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HDDrqnU2L._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 13, 2020, 09:42:02 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 13, 2020, 09:33:31 AM
Another added to my queue, as I prep for my three chapter dissertation defense on Friday:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HDDrqnU2L._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Good luck!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 13, 2020, 09:42:59 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 13, 2020, 09:42:02 AM
Good luck!

Many thanks!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 13, 2020, 10:33:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 12, 2020, 11:12:35 PM
Which is of course the only relevant table. Per capita emissions is not relevant, of course Luxembourg with a population of 600,000 will result "worse" than China with 1,3 billion but if you take the per capita figures in that table and multiply them by the respective population you'll see that Luxembourg is far and away behind China, which is indeed world's largest offender in terms of total emissions, which again, is the only measure that really counts.

It's quite relevant. The carbon footprint of the average Luxembourger is almost 7 times that of the average Chinese, almost three times that of the average American, Canadian, and Australian, about four times higher than most of its European neighbors,  and almost twelve times higher than your own in Romania. So it's quite right to ask why. 

Neither China nor Luxembourg are monoliths. And if overall totals are the only standard, then China will almost always be number one, simply by dint of the size of its population.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 13, 2020, 10:35:09 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 13, 2020, 09:42:02 AM
Good luck!

+1.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 13, 2020, 10:37:52 AM
Quote from: JBS on May 13, 2020, 10:35:09 AM
+1.

Many thanks. Added, what I hope to be my last book to my queue for my defense:

(https://blackwells.co.uk/jacket/l/9780679744726.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 13, 2020, 11:18:29 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 13, 2020, 10:37:52 AM
Many thanks. Added, what I hope to be my last book to my queue for my defense:

(https://blackwells.co.uk/jacket/l/9780679744726.jpg)

I'm surprised you haven't read that before.

But having Baldwin's words (and his way of putting them on paper) in your head as you head out the door for your defense is an excellent thing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 13, 2020, 11:43:57 AM
Quote from: JBS on May 13, 2020, 11:18:29 AM
I'm surprised you haven't read that before.

But having Baldwin's words (and his way of putting them on paper) in your head as you head out the door for your defense is an excellent thing.

I've tried to read Baldwin before, but I just couldn't get into it, just wasn't time - well, now it is time.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 13, 2020, 11:44:24 AM
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 13, 2020, 09:33:31 AM
Another added to my queue, as I prep for my three chapter dissertation defense on Friday:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HDDrqnU2L._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Good luck. What is the title of your dissertation?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 13, 2020, 11:49:09 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 13, 2020, 11:44:24 AM
Good luck. What is the title of your dissertation?

Endarkening English rhetoric: Toward black ways of looking
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 13, 2020, 12:32:29 PM
Nice!

Hope your foot's not to sore on the day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 13, 2020, 12:37:02 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 13, 2020, 12:32:29 PM
Nice!

Hope your foot's not to sore on the day.

Thanks.

Sore foot?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 13, 2020, 12:38:18 PM
Good to see you back here by the way, Philo!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 13, 2020, 12:39:57 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 13, 2020, 12:38:18 PM
Good to see you back here by the way, Philo!

Thanks! Good to be back.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 13, 2020, 12:41:18 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 13, 2020, 12:37:02 PM

Sore foot?

From that snake bite you got.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 13, 2020, 12:43:09 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 13, 2020, 12:41:18 PM
From that snake bite you got.

I am very confused, as I've never been bitten by a snake.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 13, 2020, 12:45:41 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 13, 2020, 12:43:09 PM
I am very confused, as I've never been bitten by a snake.

Sure you did. It festered so badly that Odysseus had to leave you on Lemnos.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 13, 2020, 12:46:57 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 13, 2020, 12:45:41 PM
Sure you did. It festered so badly that Odysseus had to leave you on Lemnos.

Ha!

Should be all right by Saturday.  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on May 13, 2020, 01:10:56 PM
Quote from: JBS on May 13, 2020, 10:33:55 AM
It's quite relevant. The carbon footprint of the average Luxembourger is almost 7 times that of the average Chinese, almost three times that of the average American, Canadian, and Australian, about four times higher than most of its European neighbors,  and almost twelve times higher than your own in Romania. So it's quite right to ask why. 

Neither China nor Luxembourg are monoliths. And if overall totals are the only standard, then China will almost always be number one, simply by dint of the size of its population.
Thank you for posting that JBS.  And, yes, it is interesting and important to see things/studies from different angles and studies.  One thought:  studies of carbon emissions by areas and looking at what businesses/companies/factories, etc.  are there., and what they pollute.

Best wishes,

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 14, 2020, 12:55:47 AM
After aluding to the myth of Philoctetes this morning I went back and read the title essay from Edmund Wilson's The Wound And The Bow which is how I know the story (having not yet read or seen a production of the Sophocles play).

Am now rereading the 100-page opening essay on Dickens from that book, writen at a time - 1939 - when, according to Wilson, there were few worthy volumes of biography, fewer still of criticism and a more general suspicion of Dickens "literary"as opposed to popular merit.

The real gem of the collection, which I'm not going to reread today, is his early assessment of Finnegans Wake. Astonishingly having the full measure of the work without previous explanations or the guidebooks we have now.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780416678604-us-300.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: arpeggio on May 14, 2020, 07:10:59 PM
I have not posted here in quit awhile but I have been reading.

There were two classics I have read that I was disappointed in: Lord Jim and For Whom the Bell Tools.  Which is strange since I normally like Conrad and Hemingway.  Now the one classic I have read that I could not put down was Ivanhoe.

I have read some political stuff.  I hesitate to mention the books for fear of starting a tsunami.

I decided to read some junk: Firing Point by George Wallace and Don Keith   The movie Hunter Killer is based on this novel.  I know it is second rate Hunt for the Red October.  It was either this or Moby Dick.  Well they are still both about the sea.  So I am reading about a submarine instead of a whale.

I get my science fiction fix by reading the Magazine Analog.  Some of the stories are great, some not so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 14, 2020, 07:23:45 PM
Quote from: arpeggio on May 14, 2020, 07:10:59 PM

I have read some political stuff.  I hesitate to mention the books for fear of starting a tsunami.


I'd be interested to know.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 14, 2020, 07:28:25 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 14, 2020, 07:23:45 PM
I'd be interested to know.

Me as well, we're all mostly harmless.

I've been reading Kissinger thoughts on the current situation (not in book form though).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 14, 2020, 07:32:05 PM
Have you been reading his thoughts...telepathically?!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 14, 2020, 07:38:03 PM
Quote from: arpeggio on May 14, 2020, 07:10:59 PM
I have not posted here in quit awhile but I have been reading.

There were two classics I have read that I was disappointed in: Lord Jim and For Whom the Bell Tools.  Which is strange since I normally like Conrad and Hemingway.  Now the one classic I have read that I could not put down was Ivanhoe.
.

I never could read Conrad. Even Heart of Darkness wss a chore.

I've never read much Hemingway. FWTBT is a book I tnought was well written but I have no desire to reread. Same with Old Man and the Sea. Sun Also Rises I gave up on. The only Hemingway that left me feeling enthusiastic about it was Death in the Afternoon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 14, 2020, 07:46:39 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 14, 2020, 07:32:05 PM
Have you been reading his thoughts...telepathically?!

Lol. No, online.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 21, 2020, 02:50:59 AM
A few things on the go with less than usual enthusiasm:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GLOWcQ6EL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91d4fL3k-pL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61jnBfS37kL.jpg)

but the one I'm really enjoying and looking forward to getting back into each day is this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71-i6Pe77DL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 21, 2020, 06:19:13 AM
[asin]2070127583[/asin]

After having read Blaise Cendrar's stunning poetry (Du monde entier, which includes Les Pâques à New York, La Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France, and Le Panama, which I now understand why they are seen as foundational for modern poetry) and his fun but rather weird novella La fin du monde, filmée par l'ange N.-D.—my post on that vanished in GMG's recent time warp  ;) —, moving on to another author new to me, Roger Caillois:

[asin]2070772799[/asin]
Caillois is an interesting figure, a polymath with a tangential relationship to the surrealists and a strong link to South America and the fascinating Victoria Ocampo—he spent the WW2 years in exile in Argentina under her protection and later became the strongest promoter of Latin American literature back in France. His late work includes a theory of games and a peculiar study of stones. This Quarto anthology starts with a tribute by Marguerite Yourcenar (in which this author's erudite and donnish, but IMHO ultimately barren and even pointless, style inevitably shines through), and now I'm halfway through Caillois's autobiographical Le fleuve Alphée, which is interesting in charting his intelectual development, but also appears—so far, at least—terribly egotistic. I'm going to finish it out if self-discipline (it's not that long, thankfully), but am not enjoying this that much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 21, 2020, 07:04:27 AM
Maupassant: A Life


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WfAAAOSwFFZbKoFx/s-l1600.jpg)


This was a wonderful book to re-read [English translation unfortunately] after many years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on May 21, 2020, 08:23:36 AM
All my insightful posts about Faulkner novels, gone.  :'(

Now we are only left with our vague, contradictory memories about what I wrote. Sort of like a Faulkner novel.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 21, 2020, 11:08:13 AM
I finished Moby-Dick. Now what am I supposed to do all day long - work?!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on May 21, 2020, 11:26:37 AM
I'm approaching the end of War & Peace -- we could always swap...  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 21, 2020, 01:27:54 PM
Quote from: aligreto on May 21, 2020, 07:04:27 AM
Maupassant: A Life


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WfAAAOSwFFZbKoFx/s-l1600.jpg)


This was a wonderful book to re-read [English translation unfortunately] after many years.

Superb. Heart-rending, especially since it is so dispassionately, almost clinically told.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 21, 2020, 02:58:24 PM
Quote from: j winter on May 21, 2020, 11:26:37 AM
I'm approaching the end of War & Peace -- we could always swap...  :laugh:
Wow! I looked up word counts thinking I could take on W&P... it's actually almost three times the size of Moby-Dick. So you have the easy end of the trade!

How do you like it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on May 21, 2020, 11:51:01 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 21, 2020, 02:58:24 PM
Wow! I looked up word counts thinking I could take on W&P... it's actually almost three times the size of Moby-Dick. So you have the easy end of the trade!

But W & P is a far more "traditional" narrative and overall very readable. The only challenge is the huge length. (I have a pbck edition in 4 volumes which might have made it a little easier.) One gets a few essayish pages with Tolstoy harping on his view of history, namely that it is not "great people" like Bonaparte who "shape history" but anonymous forces and chance. Despite that nursery rhyme "For want of a nail" etc. this was somewhat of a new and provocative position in the mid-19th century but hardly anymore and the theoretical reflection don't take that much space.
No sublibrarian starting with scraps concerning war Krieg guerre bellum polemos, no sermon on just war, no ballistics of cannons or chemistry of gunpowder etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2020, 12:29:12 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on May 21, 2020, 11:51:01 PM
But W & P is a far more "traditional" narrative and overall very readable. The only challenge is the huge length. (I have a pbck edition in 4 volumes which might have made it a little easier.) One gets a few essayish pages with Tolstoy harping on his view of history, namely that it is not "great people" like Bonaparte who "shape history" but anonymous forces and chance. Despite that nursery rhyme "For want of a nail" etc. this was somewhat of a new and provocative position in the mid-19th century but hardly anymore and the theoretical reflection don't take that much space.

And IIRC the essay is placed at the very end of the book so it can be easily skipped (better said, ignored, because there's nothing more to read after it). W&P was a real page turner for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on May 22, 2020, 12:38:40 AM
It must have been about 25 years that I read War and Peace, so I am not sure. I thought there were some reflections in history interspersed within the book. But while not always a page turner it was a readable books and the only challenge is the sheer length, it's not difficult and not particularly longwinded. (Whereas I got stuck roughly in the middle of Anna Karenina because I was bored to death by the Kitty - Levin subplot and the harvesting or whatever. Although AK is a shorter book and probably even more traditional because it has only family/love stories, not politics mixed with family/love)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 22, 2020, 02:01:18 AM
Quote from: André on May 21, 2020, 01:27:54 PM

(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WfAAAOSwFFZbKoFx/s-l1600.jpg)

Superb. Heart-rending, especially since it is so dispassionately, almost clinically told.

Yes indeed; a tragic tale.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on May 22, 2020, 02:44:32 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on May 22, 2020, 12:38:40 AM
It must have been about 25 years that I read War and Peace, so I am not sure. I thought there were some reflections in history interspersed within the book. But while not always a page turner it was a readable books and the only challenge is the sheer length, it's not difficult and not particularly longwinded. (Whereas I got stuck roughly in the middle of Anna Karenina because I was bored to death by the Kitty - Levin subplot and the harvesting or whatever. Although AK is a shorter book and probably even more traditional because it has only family/love stories, not politics mixed with family/love)
I read W and P at university and thoroughly enjoyed it, although I did get a bit fed up with Tolstoy's 40 page philosophical digressions every now and then. I read it a second time as well. Like you I got stuck with AK and never finished it (I preferred the TV dramatisation with Nicola Pagett 8))
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 22, 2020, 03:19:34 AM
I've only read AK once when I was much younger but at the time the Kitty-Levin stuff were my favorite parts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 22, 2020, 03:52:26 AM
I read Anna Karenina in high school and loved it. Never tried W&P. In trying to decide what to read next I'm considering the Kreutzer Sonata which should be a good quick read, but I'm not sure if I'm in a Tolstoy mood.

Finishing Narcissus & Goldmund has left a void in my heart. What an incredible book. I've started a couple of books since, that have been sitting on my shelf forever, but I'm having a hard time to get into them, Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, & Camus's L'Étranger, which I've read in English but never en français.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on May 22, 2020, 05:13:13 AM
Quote from: j winter on May 21, 2020, 11:26:37 AM
I'm approaching the end of War & Peace -- we could always swap...  :laugh:

Relatively speaking, I am approaching the end of Proust's In the shadow of young girls in flower. The narrator recently met Elstir, a painter. Narrator certainly makes me squirm with embarrassment at times with his relentless stalking. At least in this book he is still an adolescent but I understand he continues his borderline narcissistic and possessive traits even in later volumes when he is older.

That being said, especially this Balbec section of the book is incredibly evocative text.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 22, 2020, 05:18:10 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 22, 2020, 03:52:26 AM
I read Anna Karenina in high school and loved it. Never tried W&P. In trying to decide what to read next I'm considering the Kreutzer Sonata which should be a good quick read, but I'm not sure if I'm in a Tolstoy mood.

Finishing Narcissus & Goldmund has left a void in my heart. What an incredible book. I've started a couple of books since, that have been sitting on my shelf forever, but I'm having a hard time to get into them, Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, & Camus's L'Étranger, which I've read in English but never en français.

It really etches in one's mind and heart. Try Demian if you haven't done so already.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on May 22, 2020, 05:19:19 AM
Btw, I found Moby Dick much more readable than that part of War and peace which I managed to read. Of course, one cannot judge a book unless one has completely read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on May 22, 2020, 06:42:14 AM
"Kreutzer sonata" is a quick read but many hate it because it is Tolstoy in his puritan preacher mode. The best of his shorter prose is probably "The Death of Ivan Ilich", an utterly brilliant piece, psychologically infinitely more subtle than Kreutzer sonata.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2020, 08:15:45 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 22, 2020, 03:19:34 AM
I've only read AK once when I was much younger but at the time the Kitty-Levin stuff were my favorite parts.

Finally, something we can agree upon.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 22, 2020, 11:14:13 AM
(https://d1exhaoem38lup.cloudfront.net/b/l/bljr/bljr-square-400.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 22, 2020, 11:16:42 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71r5FvYZ19L.jpg)

Anyone got an opinion about what Ernaux does?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 22, 2020, 11:20:26 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on May 22, 2020, 05:13:13 AM
Relatively speaking, I am approaching the end of Proust's In the shadow of young girls in flower. The narrator recently met Elstir, a painter. Narrator certainly makes me squirm with embarrassment at times with his relentless stalking. At least in this book he is still an adolescent but I understand he continues his borderline narcissistic and possessive traits even in later volumes when he is older.

That being said, especially this Balbec section of the book is incredibly evocative text.

Have you come to the bit yet where the narrator ejaculates in his pants when he sees someone (Gilbert maybe) going for a walk in the Jardin du Luxembourg? That was the moment when I sat up and said to myself that this Recherche du temps perdu isn't quite what it seems.

His stalking is central to the novel IMO. As much as he stalks other people, he can never find out the truth. Other people are in some sense fundamentally unknowable -- I think that's the idea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 22, 2020, 12:26:22 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41t9RiRGasL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 22, 2020, 12:49:49 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 22, 2020, 12:26:22 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41t9RiRGasL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

On a humorous note, reading the title of that book, and the blurb on Amazon, I was reminded of an anecdote that has become famous here in Spain: when bullfighter Rafael "El Gallo" was introduced to José Ortega y Gasset and told the latter was a philosopher, someone tried to explain to him what a philosopher actually did. The bullfighter's response was "Hay gente pa tó"—loosely translatable as "It takes all sorts (to make a world)".   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 22, 2020, 01:04:55 PM
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 22, 2020, 11:14:13 AM
(https://d1exhaoem38lup.cloudfront.net/b/l/bljr/bljr-square-400.jpg)

Found that so fascinating that I read it in one sitting some years back. It is, admittedly quite a short book, but I'm quite a slow reader and that doesn't happen often.

TD: still loving - and highly recommending - Bird Lives! and from the author's background detail of the Kansas City jazz scene in the 30s realise I'm going to have to hunt down his book length study of that subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 22, 2020, 01:10:45 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on May 22, 2020, 06:42:14 AM
"Kreutzer sonata" is a quick read but many hate it because it is Tolstoy in his puritan preacher mode. The best of his shorter prose is probably "The Death of Ivan Ilich", an utterly brilliant piece, psychologically infinitely more subtle than Kreutzer sonata.

I keep meaning to get around to "Hadji Murat", whose reputation as a key Tolstoy work has increased steadily in recent decades - especially since getting a big puff in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: FelixSkodi on May 22, 2020, 04:05:45 PM
Quote from: ritter on May 22, 2020, 12:49:49 PM
On a humorous note, reading the title of that book, and the blurb on Amazon, I was reminded of an anecdote that has become famous here in Spain: when bullfighter Rafael "El Gallo" was introduced to José Ortega y Gasset and told the latter was a philosopher, someone tried to explain to him what a philosopher actually did. The bullfighter's response was "Hay gente pa tó"—loosely translatable as "It takes all sorts (to make a world)".   :)

Lol. Love that story. When folks ask what I do, I simply say I'm a teacher (will be a professor come to December, then I'll say that)

Quote from: SimonNZ on May 22, 2020, 01:04:55 PM
Found that so fascinating that I read it in one sitting some years back. It is, admittedly quite a short book, but I'm quite a slow reader and that doesn't happen often.

It has one of the best openings ever, and the case she covers is endlessly fascinating (eventually evolved into satanic conspiracy with noted conspiracist, now gone, Ted Gunderson).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on May 23, 2020, 12:13:06 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 22, 2020, 01:10:45 PM
I keep meaning to get around to "Hadji Murat", whose reputation as a key Tolstoy work has increased steadily in recent decades - especially since getting a big puff in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon.
It is also good but IMO in no way such a deep psychological "key" work as Death of Ivan Ilich or maybe some others. Very roughly Hadji Murat seems a more mature treatment of topics he did earlier with "The cossacks" and similar stories from the wars in Caucasus or at other borders of the Russian Empire.
I don't know about free kindle or other options (and I was reading the stuff in German translation, you will probably in English, not Russian) but often one finds all or most of the shorter/middle prose pieces by Tolstoy collected in one or two volumes. This is a worthwhile addition for any bookshelf and one can read as many stories as one feels like.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 23, 2020, 12:29:07 AM
Penguin Classics have three or four useful roundups of the shorter works for the English reader.

The Tolstoy I really want to go back to, one I read in mid teens but can barely remember now is the Sebastopol Sketches.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 23, 2020, 12:34:43 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 23, 2020, 12:29:07 AM
Penguin Classics have three or four useful roundups of the shorter works for the English reader.

The Tolstoy I really want to go back to, one I read in mid teens but can barely remember now is the Sebastopol Sketches.

Have you read Orwell's Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool?

I have read War and Peace (though I left out the didactic chapters on Philosophy of History), and I read Anna Karenina (which I very much enjoyed.) But everything else, including Hadji Murat, didn't make an impression, least of all the later works. War and Peace is good because Pierre Bezukhov is such a sympathetic character -- the way he's always losing his glasses etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 23, 2020, 12:41:31 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 21, 2020, 11:08:13 AM
I finished Moby-Dick. Now what am I supposed to do all day long - work?!

Try Billy Budd!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 23, 2020, 12:46:36 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on May 23, 2020, 12:34:43 AM
Have you read Orwell's Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool?
.

No....I've read most of Orwell but that ones not familiar. You'd recommend it?

If we're going to play this game: have you read Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying? It's a favorite of mine and one that I continually recommend to anyone who'll listen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 23, 2020, 01:57:49 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 23, 2020, 12:46:36 AM
No....I've read most of Orwell but that ones not familiar. You'd recommend it?



Very much so. Orwell's journalism, essays and letters are well worth exploring.

Quote from: SimonNZ on May 23, 2020, 12:46:36 AM


If we're going to play this game: have you read Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying? It's a favorite of mine and one that I continually recommend to anyone who'll listen.

Yes I have, very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 23, 2020, 02:15:20 AM
Last night, Henry de Montherlant's play Port-Royal (followed the 1960 TV production with the text in the Pléiade edition):

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31SYhMAyfJL._SX304_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BtmgvjndL.jpg)
This one-acter, set in the Port-Royal convent in Paris during the Jansenist controversy of the 1660s, deals with the nuns being forced to choose between their convictions—which interestingly don't seem to emanate from a deep knowledge of the principles they're supposed to be based on—and power (papal and royal) that they also acknowledge and respect. Quite powerful, IMHO, and rather moving.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 23, 2020, 08:45:15 AM
Quote from: André on May 22, 2020, 05:18:10 AM
It really etches in one's mind and heart. Try Demian if you haven't done so already.

Glad to hear someone feels similarly. I read and loved Demian, but not since high school, I ought to reread it now that I understand life a little bit better.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 24, 2020, 08:55:45 PM
A couple of interesting lists from Literary Hub:

The 50 Best Contemporary Novels Under 200 Pages (https://lithub.com/the-50-best-contemporary-novels-under-200-pages/)

The 50 Best Contemporary Novels Over 500 Pages (https://lithub.com/the-50-best-contemporary-novels-over-500-pages/)

edit: I should include the list that led me over to them:

The 20 Best Works of Nonfiction of the Decade (https://lithub.com/the-20-best-works-of-nonfiction-of-the-decade/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 25, 2020, 02:18:36 AM
Turgenev: Three Short Novels


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/411ErbsIvCL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Asya
First Love
Spring Torrents
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 25, 2020, 07:03:14 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 24, 2020, 08:55:45 PM
A couple of interesting lists from Literary Hub:

The 50 Best Contemporary Novels Under 200 Pages (https://lithub.com/the-50-best-contemporary-novels-under-200-pages/)

The 50 Best Contemporary Novels Over 500 Pages (https://lithub.com/the-50-best-contemporary-novels-over-500-pages/)

edit: I should include the list that led me over to them:

The 20 Best Works of Nonfiction of the Decade (https://lithub.com/the-20-best-works-of-nonfiction-of-the-decade/)

Thanks for these! I confess between 200 and 500 pages is my sweet spot for novels, but probably also much more common and would be a far longer list. Lots on the nonfiction list that looks really good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: arpeggio on May 25, 2020, 08:41:35 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 14, 2020, 07:23:45 PM
I'd be interested to know.

I will chance it:

Charles Sykes How the Right Lost its Mind
David Frum Trumpocarcy: The Corruption of the American Republic
Rick Wilson Everything Trump Touches Dies

The above works are by conservatives that one of our members describes as clowns.

The Mueller Report

E. J. Dionne Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism-from Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 25, 2020, 08:49:49 PM
I'd be interested to know which you'd recommend or any other thoughts.

Barry Goldwater is someone I'd like to understand much better. How much coverage does he get in that lasy book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: arpeggio on May 25, 2020, 09:08:00 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 25, 2020, 08:49:49 PM
I'd be interested to know which you'd recommend or any other thoughts.

Barry Goldwater is someone I'd like to understand much better. How much coverage does he get in that lasy book?

I liked all of them.  The Sykes, Frum and the Wilson all say basically the same thing.  Any one of them would be good.

As far as Goldwater he wrote a great book: The Conscious of a Conservative.  Reading it shows how dramatically the conservative movement has changed in the past forty years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 25, 2020, 09:21:18 PM
Thanks. I'll add it to the wishlist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on May 25, 2020, 09:48:21 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 25, 2020, 08:49:49 PM
I'd be interested to know which you'd recommend or any other thoughts.

Barry Goldwater is someone I'd like to understand much better. How much coverage does he get in that lasy book?

There's also Perlstein's Before the Storm, which I only know by reputation: 

[asin]B0087GZE32[/asin]



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 25, 2020, 09:59:36 PM
For a second I thought that was a parody thing, but I see its well reviewed.

I'll try and check it out. Thanks.


unrelated:

as I clean out my bookmarks etc I see there's another book list that people might perhaps find worth a glance:

Well-read in No Time: 100 Short Nonfiction Books (http://www.listmuse.com/well-read-short-nonfiction.php)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: arpeggio on May 25, 2020, 11:46:56 PM
^^^^
FYI. David Frum has just released a new book:

[asin]B07XKVQ2MJ[/asin]

Frum used to work in the Bush White House and is the senior editor of the Atlantic

He was on TV tonight and stated something many of us have suspected, that it is impossible to convince a Trump supporter that Trump is unfit to be President.  All we can do is try to neutralize the Trump movement if they refuse to compromise.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 26, 2020, 08:24:10 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 10, 2020, 06:59:06 AM
(https://librariadelfin.ro/site_img/products/400/2019/11/omul-revoltat-albert-camus.jpg)

The Man in Revolt

Finished it. Superb! Mandatory reading for anyone interested in political philosophy. Camus belongs to that all too rare breed of writers who are both dedicated left/right wing (left in his case) and completely sincere (that is, they don't brush aside inconvenient facts). Hemingway, Malraux and Orwell come to mind immediately.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 27, 2020, 01:17:09 AM
Hemingway: The Torrents of Spring


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/MARKRUSSELL/md/md12518405765.jpg)


Hemingway's wonderfully satirical cynical and sarcastic first novel. Rereading it after many, many years it really contains a lot of contempt for those of whom he had no respect.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 27, 2020, 03:22:22 AM
Jean Giraudoux 1935 play La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu (The Trojan War Will Not Take Place).

[asin]2070109879[/asin]
It's easy to see why this play was so successful in the years prior to WW2 (and also, in translation, in the postwar years outside of France). An anti-war proclamation, focusing on the war-mongering stances of politicians who will not be on the front line. Particularly noteworthy to me was the appearance of the alleged "neutral" international expert Busiris in Act II. The characters are very well delineated, Giraudoux's colloquial but highly educated French is a delight to read, and the dramatic pacing is impeccable. A great work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 04, 2020, 01:05:22 AM
finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81gSqalGjWL.jpg)

Think I've got only three Reachers to go after this. And this one might now be what I'd recommend as a first read to anyone coming new to them.

Opening lines: "Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers."

half way into:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51utkqsbX4L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Good but not great overview of the inner sanctum of Kennedy advisers. Irresistible, it seems, is the pull towards the gossipy for the JFK historian, even when stating at the outset they intend to avoid it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 04, 2020, 01:40:43 AM
A couple of weeks ago I finished O'Connor's "Wise Blood", read a couple of Rex Stout in between and now I am at Leonhard Frank's "The Robber Band" (1914). The latter is a fascinating window into the working/petit bourgeois class of ca. 1900 Germany. The more a I read such stuff I tend to a historically modified version of that famous saying that who is not a socialist at 20 has no heart etc., namely that who was not at least somewhat socialist between the middle of the 19th and the middle of the 20th century had no heart, but that in many countries the conditions have improved immeasureably despite still considerable social injustice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on June 05, 2020, 08:05:51 AM
(https://s1.adlibris.com/images/43307479/the-guermantes-way.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: accmacmus on June 05, 2020, 03:32:02 PM
Aleph by Borges
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 05, 2020, 03:57:26 PM
Quote from: accmacmus on June 05, 2020, 03:32:02 PM
Aleph by Borges

I've had that one on the shelves waiting to be read for some years now. I'll be interested to know how you rate it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 05, 2020, 06:45:17 PM
Just finished a novel called "Ride a Cockhorse" by Raymond Kennedy. It's a vicious, gossipy satire in which a meek, calm 45-year-old woman suddenly wakes up morning with Trump-level self-confidence, delusions of grandeur, and libido. She seduces everyone she wants, aggrandizes her way into promotions, and organizes a posse of loyal followers, led by her hairdresser.

Kennedy exquisitely pinpoints the way that cowards, potential victims, and sycophants latch on to budding tyrants. At the time of the book the lady at the heart of the matter was an allegory for Hitler, but her essential vapidity and self-absorption makes her a better satirical presentation of our current state.

As for the title, its overt sexuality takes on horrifying meaning about 15 pages before the end. Not a super fun read nowadays, but an astonishing deadpan performance of narration.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 05, 2020, 07:39:40 PM
Well that's a review that makes me want to hunt down a copy. Thanks!

Looking into it I see there's a NYRB edition:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71toFRXn7EL._AC_UL320_SR200,320_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on June 06, 2020, 01:46:56 AM
John Kaag, Hiking with Nietzsche (2018). Sort of Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance based on Nietzsche's mountaineering experiences in the Swiss Alps:

(https://media.s-bol.com/NQRx4nv9X2D/522x840.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on June 06, 2020, 02:37:46 AM
Quote from: Christo on June 06, 2020, 01:46:56 AM
John Kaag, Hiking with Nietzsche (2018). Sort of Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance based on Nietzsche's mountaineering experiences in the Swiss Alps:

(https://media.s-bol.com/NQRx4nv9X2D/522x840.jpg)

Looks interesting.
Time for some Existential psychotherapy:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on June 06, 2020, 10:09:55 AM
My first time reading Emile Zola novel: L'argent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 06, 2020, 08:09:45 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 05, 2020, 07:39:40 PM
Well that's a review that makes me want to hunt down a copy. Thanks!

Looking into it I see there's a NYRB edition:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71toFRXn7EL._AC_UL320_SR200,320_.jpg)
That's the one I have!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 06, 2020, 08:13:59 PM
They have such a sharp eye for the books they choose to reprint. It's one of the very few series where you can buy without even reading the back just knowing that if they are championing it then it's got merit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 07, 2020, 08:48:01 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71rZN+G3M0L.jpg)

In the book she makes a distinction between stories which are about investigation and stories which are about description. This is in the former category, she's trying to see whether she can use a narrative to capture, communicate, her memories of how she felt when she was still a teenager. In particular, her first couple of sexual experiences, her bulimia and her response to her peers' response to her. It's probably the most experimental thing I've read by her, and as such, one of the most stimulating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 07, 2020, 06:43:28 PM
James McBride's new novel "Deacon King Kong," published in March. I'm near the end and totally swept up. McBride is always remarkable for the way he can blend humor into very serious subjects. A lot of serious novels that get praised as "funny" aren't funny at all because most novelists are earnestly deadpan, or scathing, or cutting, rather than funny. McBride is FUNNY. And he's also catching big game here, about race and religion and alcohol and the way people will sacrifice what they really want to have what is easy. Really hope the end lives up to what's transpired so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on June 08, 2020, 06:11:03 AM
Well, I finally finished War and Peace; and having closed the book, blinked, brewed another pot of coffee, and peered out the window, it seems clear alas that God has not taken the hint -- the bloody coronavirus is still here. 

So, on to The Brothers Karamazov.   

Perhaps I should reconsider my tactics... I goofed off a lot in college, so the list of brick-sized great novels that I've always meant to read is rather long.  In some ways I imagine this is like a sneak-preview of my eventual retirement (although I always envisioned a bit more travel being involved, or at least the occasional dinner out...)  :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 08, 2020, 07:05:39 AM
I'm starting W&P soon! My thinking is that now's the time to take on real big books like that. After W&P, I plan to spend a month rereading old favorites, because rereading is something I have done almost not at all for many years. The fact that there are so many books to read kinda inhibits me from going back to ones I love.

... But the big question is ... How did you like it???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 08, 2020, 07:39:44 AM
Have you read any other Dostoevsky? It's been ages that I read the stuff but in my late teens/early twenties Dostoevsky probably was the first "great literature" that really totally fascinated me more than any genre/middlebrow/mystery/thriller etc. ever did (And I re-read most of the bricks at least once, probably should do so again now after another 20 years). But Karamazov is the longest of the bunch and has a few dry spells, so I'd not recommend it as a starter. Although it might feel short after W&P... I think the best starters for Dostoevsky are "The Gambler" and then "Crime and Punishment".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on June 08, 2020, 08:25:25 AM
I have to say, I feel totally inadequate to writing a "review" of War and Peace -- I will say that the book's reputation is well-deserved, as a blend of historical writing and narrative drama I've never read anything like it.  The sheer structural architecture of the thing is deeply impressive.  His characters are beautifully drawn, in part because there is so much space for them to grow -- he can show them from many different angles, how they see the world as children and teens and then later as adults, how they maneuver and interact in social situations ala Jane Austen and also how they fare in the middle of the greatest war yet fought.  Some of his characters are carrying a lot of symbolic weight -- he uses the philosophical struggles of Pierre and Andre to make a lot of points about his country and history in general, and while by modern standards it can be a bit heavy-handed they also come across as real, authentic people, if very much a product of their time and place.  Their relationships are moving; I actually teared up a few times, I won't say where so as to not spoil the plot. 

It's a very cinematic book, by which I mean Tolstoy's very good at zooming the camera out to show things at a high level, be it a battle scene or aspects of Russian society like the nobility or the Freemasons, and then zooming back in to a tight close up on his characters and their reactions; and he uses all of this technique to expand on his main questions, what is the proper relationship and orientation of the self and one's personal desires to one's society, and the related question of what, in the end, drives the forces of history, be they social, military or political.  His take on many historical figures is fascinating, particularly the contrast between Napoleon and the aged Russian top general and his staff, though I'm a bit of a history nerd -- most readers likely find his lengthy digressions on history to be a slog, but I actually enjoyed them (other than the extensive Epilogue at the end, which I have to admit was tough going).  It's an impossible book to summarize -- I found it extremely moving, and am very glad I read it.  I definitely plan to re-read it someday, perhaps in a different translation, as I am sure there are many connections and foreshadowing that I likely missed along the way.


As for Dostoevsky, I am about 75 pages into the Brothers Karamazov and enjoying it so far.  I haven't really read any Dostoevsky prior to this -- I started Crime and Punishment many years ago and didn't get far, which is why I decided to try this one instead (that and I have a good audio version on Audible, which helps).  I may try a few of his short stories as well -- I switched off while reading W&P to read The Death of Ivan Ilyich among other things, which was good to shift gears a bit.


In addition to all of the Russian stuff, I am also reading/re-reading my way slowly through Don Quixote, which I've read most of over the years but never quite made it to the end.  I figure something light will make a good contrast (and again, I have a good audio version which is nice while getting some exercise)....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 08, 2020, 08:29:51 AM
Quote from: j winter on June 08, 2020, 08:25:25 AM
I have to say, I feel totally inadequate to writing a "review" of War and Peace -- I will say that the book's reputation is well-deserved, as a blend of historical writing and narrative drama I've never read anything like it.  The sheer structural architecture of the thing is deeply impressive.  His characters are beautifully drawn, in part because there is so much space for them to grow -- he can show them from many different angles, how they see the world as children and teens and then later as adults, how they maneuver and interact in social situations ala Jane Austen and also how they fare in the middle of the greatest war yet fought.  Some of his characters are carrying a lot of symbolic weight -- he uses the philosophical struggles of Pierre and Andre to make a lot of points about his country and history in general, and while by modern standards it can be a bit heavy-handed they also come across as real, authentic people, if very much a product of their time and place.  Their relationships are moving; I actually teared up a few times, I won't say where so as to not spoil the plot. 

It's a very cinematic book, by which I mean Tolstoy's very good at zooming the camera out to show things at a high level, be it a battle scene or aspects of Russian society like the nobility or the Freemasons, and then zooming back in to a tight close up on his characters and their reactions; and he uses all of this technique to expand on his main questions, what is the proper relationship and orientation of the self and one's personal desires to one's society, and the related question of what, in the end, drives the forces of history, be they social, military or political.  His take on many historical figures is fascinating, particularly the contrast between Napoleon and the aged Russian top general and his staff, though I'm a bit of a history nerd -- most readers likely find his lengthy digressions on history to be a slog, but I actually enjoyed them (other than the extensive Epilogue at the end, which I have to admit was tough going).  It's an impossible book to summarize -- I found it extremely moving, and am very glad I read it.  I definitely plan to re-read it someday, perhaps in a different translation, as I am sure there are many connections and foreshadowing that I likely missed along the way.


As for Dostoevsky, I am about 75 pages into the Brothers Karamazov and enjoying it so far.  I haven't really read any Dostoevsky prior to this -- I started Crime and Punishment many years ago and didn't get far, which is why I decided to try this one instead (that and I have a good audio version on Audible, which helps).  I may try a few of his short stories as well -- I switched off while reading W&P to read The Death of Ivan Ilyich among other things, which was good to shift gears a bit.


In addition to all of the Russian stuff, I am also reading/re-reading my way slowly through Don Quixote, which I've read most of over the years but never quite made it to the end.  I figure something light will make a good contrast (and again, I have a good audio version which is nice while getting some exercise)....

I read maybe 7/8 of the Bros Karamzov but never finished it. Please, if you do finish it, let me know who dunnit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 08, 2020, 08:45:03 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on June 08, 2020, 08:29:51 AM
I read maybe 7/8 of the Bros Karamzov but never finished it. Please, if you do finish it, let me know who dunnit.

You're kidding, right? Everybody and their neighbours knows that.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on June 08, 2020, 09:27:48 AM
I actually never reported this but the last time I re-read Karamazov it ultimately turned out, after a promising opening, to be bit of a disappointment. This goes to the eternal debate of authorial intent. My scruples are: a) that Dostoevsky, in my humble opinion, manages to make the option of atheism much more sensible than faith and knowing Dostoevsky was a devout Orthodox (plus the fact that most atheists in Dostoyevsky in general, such as in this one, turn out to be lacking in moral judgment), this most certainly wasn't the intention. And b) I also find the character of Alyosha absolutely insufferable (really, out of the 4 brothers, Ivan was the only one who had my sympathies 100 %).

Edit: I knew I forgot something. c) Sometimes Dostoevsky is so subtle that when reading all the analyses about this book it really makes me wonder whether the author's intent was really that. For ex. the often made point that the buffoon father Fyodor manages to represent the character traits of all his sons but only in a distorted and twisted form. In retrospect, I can see this for ex. during his conversation with Zosima but I still am a bit doubtful whether Dostoevsky had that in mind when he wrote it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on June 08, 2020, 10:19:17 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 08, 2020, 08:45:03 AM
You're kidding, right? Everybody and their neighbours knows that.  :D

I actually don't, so pretty please no discussion on this thread?   0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 08, 2020, 11:02:29 AM
Quote from: j winter on June 08, 2020, 10:19:17 AM
I actually don't, so pretty please no discussion on this thread?   0:)

Oh, of course. I won't spoil it, don't worry. I was just teasing Mandryka.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 08, 2020, 12:50:04 PM
You can watch the movie with Maria Schell as Grushenka to find out. But that movie is mainly about Dmitri and the two women, the other brothers fade to the background.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 08, 2020, 12:59:53 PM
As I wrote above, it's been ages and I think one can fault FMD for overloading the book with some things like the teachings of Sosima and the Grand Inquisitor etc. And the trial with all the speeches is simply too long, IIRC.
And note that this was supposed to be only the first volume, with the second featuring Alyosha going out into the world.
The Grand Inquisitor parable is really quite brilliant and I think it can be read in mostly secular fashion as it is less about faith than about governance and power.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 08, 2020, 01:31:05 PM
Of the three Dostoyevsky novels I have read, the one I liked most was The Idiot.
C&P and BK were the other two.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on June 08, 2020, 02:42:19 PM
I recall reading the Brothers Karamazov three times, loved it, was disappointed, loved it. I should stop while I am ahead. I recently read The Idiot, which I found brilliant (again). Next I'd like to read The Possessed (again).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 08, 2020, 03:04:25 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 08, 2020, 08:45:03 AM
You're kidding, right? Everybody and their neighbours knows that.  :D

I've read Brothers Karamazov twice...and hand on my heart I can't now remember whodunnit.

I read them all one after the other with a friend of mine  as a project, which looking back was not a great idea as they've all blended into each other and when I now think of a memorable scene I've no idea which its from. Its like one big amorphous 10.000 page urtext.

edit: thinking about this the big exception is The Idiot which has remained the most distinct and vivid in its characters, scenes and story arc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 08, 2020, 03:12:32 PM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on June 08, 2020, 02:42:19 PM
I recall reading the Brothers Karamazov three times, loved it, was disappointed, loved it. I should stop while I am ahead. I recently read The Idiot, which I found brilliant (again). Next I'd like to read The Possessed (again).
I loved it the first time (in college) and was disappointed reading it again 6-7 years later...now you're tempting me to try a third  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ratliff on June 08, 2020, 03:17:04 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 08, 2020, 03:12:32 PM
I loved it the first time (in college) and was disappointed reading it again 6-7 years later...now you're tempting me to try a third  ;D

May have been an expectation game. The second time I read it I expected it to be the summation of all wisdom in the universe. The third time I just found it a great story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 09, 2020, 12:12:46 AM
Quote from: JBS on June 08, 2020, 01:31:05 PM
Of the three Dostoyevsky novels I have read, the one I liked most was The Idiot.
C&P and BK were the other two.
I have not read all of the shorter novels/novellas (I really should catch up on them, I think I have them all on my shelves but don't even clearly remember which ones I have not read/finished) but of the "big 5" (or 6 if one adds "The gambler") I think these three are the best ones (and I read them all at least twice). The Youth is somewhat disappointing, I think, and The demons does have some of the most intense episodes (and it is of course overall the darkest and most disturbing one although I guess we have become somewhat jaded in the last 150 years with darker and more disturbing stuff) but it also takes a long time to get going and is sometimes as "preachy" as the teachings of Sosima (or maybe one should say, politically too close to late 19th century Russia).
I found the first part of The Idiot, from the chance meeting of Myshkin and Rogoshin in the train or at the station until Nastassya Filipovna's birthday party one the the most brillant and breathless streaks of narration I ever encountered. It has to lose a little steam afterwards but if pressed, I might also take this one as my most favorite.
Nevertheless, I think Crime & Punishment is the most accessible of the big 5 because of the comparably straightforward storyline and not quite as sprawling dimensions and cast.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on June 09, 2020, 08:45:53 AM
I have started the second part of Joseph tetralogy: Young Joseph.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 09, 2020, 08:53:09 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on June 09, 2020, 12:12:46 AM
I found the first part of The Idiot, from the chance meeting of Myshkin and Rogoshin in the train or at the station until Nastassya Filipovna's birthday party one the the most brillant and breathless streaks of narration I ever encountered.

Absolutely agreed --- and I'll go even further and say that The Idiot grips the readers by the neck on the first page and never let them go until the last. Although I strongly disagree with Dostoyevsky on Catholicism ("This is not a Christian religion!" interjects Myshkin, but imo the condemnation applies much more to Calvinism/Protestantism than to Catholicism), I think The Idiot is a masterpiece.

And you can call me weird but I think that The Demons --- at least in the first part --- shows Dostoyevsky at his most humorous. The introductory pages on Stepan Verkhovensky had me laughing out loud.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 09, 2020, 09:17:59 AM
Yes, the fate worse than death (or even worse than being the concubine of a cynic bonvivant) for FMD is to get married off to a catholic Pole. (I am not saying to whom this happens to avoid spoilers)
When I read the Demons in my early 20s I certainly found the beginning very slow and it is also confusing that the narrator suddenly drops out after a while. I am not aware of FMD using this device anywhere else (but it does not seem uncommon in general in 19th century literature)
There is quite a bit of humourous Dostoevsky in the shorter pieces (but I haven't read most of them and only dim recollections of the ones I read). And also in the big ones, e.g. the Marmeladovs in C & P do have some comical features and also the old Karamasov.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: accmacmus on June 15, 2020, 05:50:02 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 05, 2020, 03:57:26 PM
I've had that one on the shelves waiting to be read for some years now. I'll be interested to know how you rate it.

Ficciones is one of my favourite books, and Aleph is extremely good too. One story (Story of the warrior and the captive) made me cry.
I am sure that you are aware, but in case you aren't, the book consists of short (some very short) stories plus some musings by Borges.
I love the format as it demands less effort rather than your standard novel.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wakefield on June 15, 2020, 09:24:04 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 05, 2020, 03:57:26 PM
I've had that one on the shelves waiting to be read for some years now. I'll be interested to know how you rate it.

Some time, I listened to the great Guatemalan (Mexican by adoption) writer Augusto Monterroso saying: "Jorge Luis Borges is the greatest writer in Spanish since the Spanish Golden Age." And I instantaneously agreed with his dictum.

As "Fictions" is a book of short stories, I recommend you to try the "Theme of Traitor and the Hero", a sort of humble compilation of many themes deeply loved by Borges.   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 15, 2020, 10:29:52 PM
Thanks to you both for those replies. I've read a few stray stories by Borges but need to give him the attention he's due.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 16, 2020, 02:51:35 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on June 09, 2020, 09:17:59 AM
Yes, the fate worse than death (or even worse than being the concubine of a cynic bonvivant) for FMD is to get married off to a catholic Pole. (I am not saying to whom this happens to avoid spoilers)
When I read the Demons in my early 20s I certainly found the beginning very slow and it is also confusing that the narrator suddenly drops out after a while. I am not aware of FMD using this device anywhere else (but it does not seem uncommon in general in 19th century literature)
There is quite a bit of humourous Dostoevsky in the shorter pieces (but I haven't read most of them and only dim recollections of the ones I read). And also in the big ones, e.g. the Marmeladovs in C & P do have some comical features and also the old Karamasov.

Yes, I remember vaguely all those anti polish passages, and a debate about whether Russia is Slav or European.


Re The Idiots, I found it very hard, maybe I was just too young or not in the mood at the time for the narrative complexities, or maybe the English translation I used isn't so good. (Has angine read it in French?) I saw it in London as. play, done by a Leningrad theatre with English subtitles, over three nights. It was . . . grizzly.

Re Karamazov, if anyone's in the mood for making a list, I'd appreciate a list of the great metaphysical detective stories, stories where searching for the truth about a crime is concurrent with searching for the truth about the meaning of life. Examples are Karamazov and probably Crime and Punishment, Brighton Rock, maybe A la recherche du temps perdu, maybe The Trial, I bet there are many more.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 17, 2020, 07:05:03 PM


Finished:(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fuAdPGzCL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I was worried for the first quarter that this was going to be a manipulative pull-on-the-heartstrings two-hankie weepie, but was glad for the directions it took with the lead character's rapid rise in intelligence, and in its handling of the inevitable conclusion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 17, 2020, 07:24:25 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 17, 2020, 07:05:03 PM

Finished:(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fuAdPGzCL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I was worried for the first quarter that this was going to be a manipulative pull-on-the-heartstrings two-hankie weepie, but was glad for the directions it took with the lead character's rapid rise in intelligence, and in its handling of the inevitable conclusion.

That was required reading in ninth grade English for me. TBH I barely remember anything about it beyond the basic plot.

Did you ever see the movie version?
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91452biSuzL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 17, 2020, 07:38:25 PM
Haven't seen the movie. Would you recommend it? I'd hesitate because I could easily imagine a film version leaning heavily on the sentimental potential of the story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 17, 2020, 07:43:31 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 17, 2020, 07:38:25 PM
Haven't seen the movie. Would you recommend it? I'd hesitate because I could easily imagine a film version leaning heavily on the sentimental potential of the story.

I remember even less of the movie than of the book,  so I can't tell you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on June 19, 2020, 04:23:59 AM
Quote from: JBS on June 17, 2020, 07:24:25 PM
That was required reading in ninth grade English for me. TBH I barely remember anything about it beyond the basic plot.

Did you ever see the movie version?
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91452biSuzL.jpg)
Does that movie have the Ravi Shankar soundtrack? If so, it's excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 19, 2020, 01:47:11 PM
I thought you must have been joking, but you're right. Somehow I'd never heard of this Shankar soundtrack. Will definately check the film out now, thanks!

(https://img.discogs.com/kv5DSMJSlONVKMhnqcVpAJH-69w=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-11136769-1522924903-1676.jpeg.jpg)

TD: adding this to the various things on the go:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51a+pkDdn2L.jpg)

Reading chapters out of order, interesting to learn that the character of Charlie (!) in The Little Drummer Girl is based very closely on his own sister minus the recruitment stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 20, 2020, 06:43:42 AM
I'm almost done with Wuthering Heights. Enjoying it pretty well so far. I've never read it before and am usually not much for Victorian novels, but this one is quite different.

I'm also midway through Gary Lachman's book about Swedenborg. Pretty good too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 20, 2020, 01:12:28 PM
https://medium.com/@craigsnyderphila/the-whispering-majority-d67092d31577
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 24, 2020, 02:16:34 PM
Started Mann's Buddenbrooks a few days ago. Really loving it so far. I find it an easy read coming off of Wuthering Heights, which I really enjoyed, but found dense at times. I'm a big fan of these kinds of multigenerational books...

Really 2020 is the year of me getting back into fiction, after years of not reading much at all, and what I did read was exclusively nonfiction. I feel like a little kid again, getting immersed in the worlds of these stories. Quite exciting. If this is anything like how I was getting into classical music a couple of years ago, I suspect this will be a longstanding obsession.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Carlo Gesualdo on June 28, 2020, 01:03:46 PM
I was reading l'aventure polyphonique de Nicolas Gombert by Paul van Nevel quite interesting but stop because , my eyes are tired, don't have a good eye sight like before, I'm not blind but my vision suffered to a point were it's pain streaking hard to reads whiteout intense light and having m nose pop in the book, I' 43 years old life  unfair, but  I also have to purchase  new glasses need them at all sake, once It were SO HUMILIATING, I though m father was talking to my sister I come outside and say animal my sister, I call her friendly animal because she lack in manners not because she a woman(i'm no sexist) but this time  I did not realize I mistaken an elderly woman for my sister on my street , my father was so laughing at me, and I did  hide inside and said oh no oh no excuse me lady I mistaken you for my sister I felt real bad...

Now when I see this lady I coward inside, that not so funny and stop calling my sister animal :(


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on June 29, 2020, 09:57:28 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 24, 2020, 02:16:34 PM
Started Mann's Buddenbrooks a few days ago. Really loving it so far. I find it an easy read coming off of Wuthering Heights, which I really enjoyed, but found dense at times. I'm a big fan of these kinds of multigenerational books...

Really 2020 is the year of me getting back into fiction, after years of not reading much at all, and what I did read was exclusively nonfiction. I feel like a little kid again, getting immersed in the worlds of these stories. Quite exciting. If this is anything like how I was getting into classical music a couple of years ago, I suspect this will be a longstanding obsession.

Buddenbrooks is definitely a gem. My only complaints really are the first 20-30 pages or so. I seem to run to this often in Mann's work (the beginning being the weakest part) such as in Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain. Joseph is an interesting case in that the beginning section was more interesting than the real beginning of the story itself so it kind of applies here too but once again, for ex. this second part of Joseph and his brothers has been very, very interesting and enjoyable. Although since I've only read about 1/3 of the entire tetralogy I can't tell if things continue to be as good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 29, 2020, 10:33:29 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on June 29, 2020, 09:57:28 AM
Buddenbrooks is definitely a gem. My only complaints really are the first 20-30 pages or so. I seem to run to this often in Mann's work (the beginning being the weakest part) such as in Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain. Joseph is an interesting case in that the beginning section was more interesting than the real beginning of the story itself so it kind of applies here too but once again, for ex. this second part of Joseph and his brothers has been very, very interesting and enjoyable. Although since I've only read about 1/3 of the entire tetralogy I can't tell if things continue to be as good.

Things get better and better. The 'recognition scene' is thrilling. The short epilogue is the only weak part IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 01, 2020, 02:13:31 AM
Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray


(https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/273749802937_/The-Picture-Of-Dorian-Gray-by-Oscar-Wilde.jpg)


This, Wilde's only novel, is always worth another read. One always has to take it slowly so that one does not miss any of the myriad witticisms and aphorisms contained within the text. Still, it is essentially a very dark tale of depravity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 01, 2020, 02:32:26 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on June 29, 2020, 09:57:28 AM
Buddenbrooks is definitely a gem. My only complaints really are the first 20-30 pages or so. I seem to run to this often in Mann's work (the beginning being the weakest part) such as in Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain. Joseph is an interesting case in that the beginning section was more interesting than the real beginning of the story itself so it kind of applies here too but once again, for ex. this second part of Joseph and his brothers has been very, very interesting and enjoyable. Although since I've only read about 1/3 of the entire tetralogy I can't tell if things continue to be as good.

I loved the beginning of Buddenbrooks! I really felt like I was "there" at the big house on Meng Strasse, and I couldn't escape the feeling, "nowhere to go from here but down".

I'm on the last 50 pages or so now. I really burned through it. But it's been one of the most rewarding reading experiences of my life, surely.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 02, 2020, 02:23:46 AM
Quote from: Dowder on July 01, 2020, 02:18:45 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81PwjJf8ovL.jpg)

The author feels the latter were mostly inconsequential and not much of a lasting force for change.
It simply means he dismisses all of the Enlightenment thinkers accept for the happy few he can mould into his own scheme. The most un-historical history books in years.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 02, 2020, 11:34:12 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51TJskargZL._SX347_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51yDLwAOvOL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 02, 2020, 11:40:26 AM
Yesterday I started the project that will take up my July: War and Peace!!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 02, 2020, 12:45:00 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 02, 2020, 11:40:26 AM
Yesterday I started the project that will take up my July: War and Peace!!!

Recently I finally got around to Isaiah Berlin's 90-page essay "The Hedgehog And The Fox" which is a study of the philosophy of history sections of War And Peace. It's been so long since I read WP that I can no longer remember the epilogue he refers to often.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71jUl21CE0L.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wAAMh8NNL.jpg)

read the copy on the lest but gave it away because I discovered it's also in the "Russian Thinkers" collection of Berlin I've got on the right
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 02, 2020, 11:13:09 PM
I think I read a bunch of articles or interviews around Israel's book a few years ago and as I recall I thought that his distinction between "radical" and "moderate" enligthenment thinkers was interesting and a fair point. He seems to exaggerate or be simply wrong about the influence. Surely, a moderate like Kant was very influential. Or Locke before that. I'd also say that Voltaire and Diderot were more moderate than Rousseau, D'Holbach or LaMettrie and comparably important to Rousseau und more so than the last two. (Just random examples, I am not trying to state a thesis).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 03, 2020, 12:26:04 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 02, 2020, 11:13:09 PM
I think I read a bunch of articles or interviews around Israel's book a few years ago and as I recall I thought that his distinction between "radical" and "moderate" enligthenment thinkers was interesting and a fair point. He seems to exaggerate or be simply wrong about the influence. Surely, a moderate like Kant was very influential. Or Locke before that.

Good point.

QuoteI'd also say that Voltaire and Diderot were more moderate than Rousseau, D'Holbach or LaMettrie

Rousseau was no moderate, not by any stretch of imagination. How can one be a moderate who prescribes death for atheists*?

(*all right, by atheism he meant disbelief in the civil religion of the state, but still.Anyone who wishes death upon those who disagree with them is no moderate. It's not even a radical. It's a fanatic.)

Beside, we're talking about the man who abandoned his own children to an orphanage and then went on to write extensively about how children should be educated. Disgusting. Nietzsche was right in calling Rousseau "a moral tarantula".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 03, 2020, 01:04:49 AM
Quote from: Dowder on July 02, 2020, 04:05:57 PM
I don't think he dismisses them completely or denies they have had their admirers or adherents but he just doesn't find their ideas or thought to have been radical or daring enough for the kind of change that has occurred in the last several hundred years, principally starting with the French Revolution. 

That's a teleological and, if you wish, also finalist scheme, both deadly sins for historians. Almost any overview of what the Enlightenment was - there are dozens of them around - will be more reliable.

Quote from: Jo498 on July 02, 2020, 11:13:09 PM
I think I read a bunch of articles or interviews around Israel's book a few years ago and as I recall I thought that his distinction between "radical" and "moderate" enligthenment thinkers was interesting and a fair point. He seems to exaggerate or be simply wrong about the influence. Surely, a moderate like Kant was very influential. Or Locke before that. I'd also say that Voltaire and Diderot were more moderate than Rousseau, D'Holbach or LaMettrie and comparably important to Rousseau und more so than the last two. (Just random examples, I am not trying to state a thesis).

Exactly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 03, 2020, 01:07:52 AM
Wells: Love and Mr. Lewisham


(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/433/336/865336433.0.m.jpg)


This story traces the path of a young idealistic man over a few short years where, through circumstances, he is gradually worn down and transformed into a realist who must surrender his ideals. The tale is made more interesting, nay determined, by the two very different women who enter his life and the effect that they have or could have had on him. It is a good read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 03, 2020, 06:35:34 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 03, 2020, 12:26:04 AM
Beside, we're talking about the man who abandoned his own children to an orphanage and then went on to write extensively about how children should be educated. Disgusting. Nietzsche was right in calling Rousseau "a moral tarantula".
By coincidence, a few weeks ago I read Mary Wollstonecraft's "Vindication of the Rights of Women" and she sees Rousseau as her primary enemy on the subject of how to educate women, to the point of mocking much of the rest of his belief system too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 03, 2020, 11:42:45 AM
Quote from: Dowder on July 03, 2020, 04:34:58 AM
He reminds me of Thomas Jefferson, private life rather sordid and contradictory but a fascinating thinker and person in general.

Agreed about Jefferson, but I can't stand Rousseau, neither as a thinker (a proto-totalitarian) nor as a person in general (a "moral tarantula" in the apt words of Nietzsche).

Voltaire, on the other hand, despite his numerous flaws, was a great and noble soul, keenly aware of, and opposed to, injustice and fanaticism. A proto-liberal. It's no wonder he and Rousseau never got along well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 03, 2020, 12:41:38 PM
But both I and presumeably Israel counted Rousseau among the "radicals". Surely, he was influential but overall more than the more moderate French or the Germans? I am not sure, but are there well known "radicals" not French? One might count Hume among the radicals but hardly the other Scots like Reid and Smith. And who of the Germans would count as radical? Kant and Fichte were considered dangerous, but this was Prussia, after all, so one did not have to be very radical for this. If one looks at the "radical strain" with the socialists in the early/mid 19th etc. one will of course find the older radicals more influential. But one reason for this is that a lot of the moderate enlightenment thought had become mainstream by then, I'd say.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: T. D. on July 03, 2020, 06:50:03 PM
(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0011/0588/7297/products/jarman_cover_550x825.png)  (https://images2.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780679779070)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 05, 2020, 02:22:50 AM
The Rusty Knight and Other Tales from Germany


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61MUIo61wgL._SX336_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This is a book very much in the old style of Tales With A Moral. However, the tales are imaginative and interesting and yes, they do deliver the requisite morals on such topics as Idealism, Sarcasm, Redemption, Disillusionment, Deceit etc. There is also a nice element of wit and humour in the translations so that they are not just old folk or fairy tales. I enjoyed the read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 05, 2020, 02:46:25 AM
Interrupted my reading of Roger Martin du Gard monumental (and fascinating) posthumous novel Le lieutenant-colonel de Maumort (my post on that vanished in GMG's "time warp"  ;))  to tackle Mario Vargas-Llosa's recently published anthology of texts about (and interviews with) Jorge Luis Borges—spanning over half a century.

[asin]842043597X[/asin]
I read its 115 pages in one sitting. I'm much more an admirer of Borges than of Vargas-Llosa, but what the latter conveys in this short book is a work of love and admiration, even if his own literature is diametrically opposed to the Argentinian's positions. Also, Vargas-Llosa manages to show Borges the man in a rather sympathetic light, what for me is no mean feat: IMHO, Borges is one if the greatest authors in Spanish ever, but his literature is cold and distant, and his public persona hardly ever came through as "simpático" (to me at least). A most enjoyable diversion.

Back to Maumort today (the lieutenant-colonel to be has turned 19 years of age at around page 320  :D).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 05, 2020, 04:12:45 AM
^Nice. I'm reading Borges's Labyrinths, an anthology of fictions by the late author, for the first time. It's clear to me and anyone who reads this that he was a genius. This is some truly mind boggling stuff. He writes with such an erudite style that it's almost hard to follow at times, but it's maddeningly clever, thought provoking stuff.

Other than that, I've also started Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing. Other than McCarthy's incredibly mannered prose (to which I'm not entirely a newcomer, having read The Road & No Country for Old Men back in high school, but now, I'm finding it grating at times), I am rather enjoying it. It's certainly less bleak than some of McCarthy's other work, which I see as a plus.

This scene from one of my favorite films is an impeccable parody of McCarthy's style...:

https://youtu.be/XeKjKWXWZOE

Edit: still don't know how to embed videos, apparently. https://youtu.be/XeKjKWXWZOE
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 05, 2020, 02:06:21 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 05, 2020, 04:12:45 AM
Edit: still don't know how to embed videos, apparently. https://youtu.be/XeKjKWXWZOE


Code Select
[flash=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/v/XeKjKWXWZOE[/flash]

https://www.youtube.com/v/XeKjKWXWZOE
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 07, 2020, 05:13:51 AM
Short Stories by Russian Authors


(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/860/430/774430860.0.x.jpg)


This compilation includes works by Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Korolenko, Chekov, Chirikov, Andreyev, Kuprin, Gorky and Sologub.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 07, 2020, 06:26:46 PM
500 pages down, 800 pages left in War and Peace!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 09, 2020, 02:48:18 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 07, 2020, 06:26:46 PM
500 pages down, 800 pages left in War and Peace!

In 1 week? Or am I misremembering that you started at the top of the month...? Impressive!  ;D

I miss Russian lit. I'm thinking of rereading Anna Karenina which I read in high school and enjoyed, but now barely remember. I want to save War & Peace for a few years down the line.

I've made very little progress in The Crossing & Labyrinths, they're both slow reads. I'm thinking of picking up another book that I know I'll be able to finish quickly, just to feel like I'm making progress.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on July 09, 2020, 05:25:18 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 09, 2020, 02:48:18 AM


I've made very little progress in The Crossing & Labyrinths, they're both slow reads. I'm thinking of picking up another book that I know I'll be able to finish quickly, just to feel like I'm making progress.

This site (https://libraryofbabel.info/browse.cgi)  has free online versions of both books along with every analysis that has ever been published, although it may take a while to find

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 09, 2020, 05:32:19 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 09, 2020, 02:48:18 AM
I miss Russian lit. I'm thinking of rereading Anna Karenina which I read in high school and enjoyed, but now barely remember. I want to save War & Peace for a few years down the line.

Why don't you go for Turgenev? His novels are not intimidating bricks, his insights are just as interesting as Dostoyevsky's and Tolstoy's and imho he's more delicate, warm, humane and fun to read than both. Ditto for Chekhov's short stories and novellas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 09, 2020, 05:38:01 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 09, 2020, 05:32:19 AM
Why don't you go for Turgenev? His novels are not intimidating bricks, his insights are just as interesting as Dostoyevsky's and Tolstoy's and imho he's more delicate, warm, humane and fun to read than both. Ditto for Chekhov's short stories and novellas.
Or Gogol for something a little different!

The section of W&P that I read was the only bit I hadn't fully enjoyed so far (the big hunt scene and following sequence of everyone being depressed about various things). So far, Tolstoy juggles his plotlines really skillfully and, unlike in Anna Karenina, none of them are preachy/boring. (AK would be so great without Levin...)

I started W&P on July 1 so averaging 75 pages per day so far, which is a blistering pace and likely unsustainable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 09, 2020, 05:47:35 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 09, 2020, 05:38:01 AM
Or Gogol for something a little different!

Yes, Gogol too is quite fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 10, 2020, 03:18:59 AM
Farrington: Marvels & Mysteries of the Unexplained


(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9781/8483/9781848370753.jpg)


This is one of those larger sized coffee table books which is designed to be dipped into now and then rather than read continuously. That is what I am doing with it around my other reading. It is not hugely informative but it is thought provoking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on July 11, 2020, 06:11:00 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 09, 2020, 05:38:01 AM
(AK would be so great without Levin...)

I admit I haven't read Anna Karenina completely but judging by what I did read, I actually found Levin one of the most enjoyable characters, funny, witty etc. I remember laughing my head off about his story about simple minded Alyosha (ironic since I couldn't stand Alyosha in Dostoyevsky's Karamazov). I never finished Anna Karenina because the constant train imagery (my other older sister committed suicide by jumping under one) was a bit too much. And at that point I didn't even know what was going to be certain character's final destiny! I might read it soon enough provided the currently on-going family conflict I have right now doesn't escalate into an all-out war.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 11, 2020, 06:53:10 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on July 11, 2020, 06:11:00 AM
I admit I haven't read Anna Karenina completely but judging by what I did read, I actually found Levin one of the most enjoyable characters, funny, witty etc. I remember laughing my head off about his story about simple minded Alyosha (ironic since I couldn't stand Alyosha in Dostoyevsky's Karamazov). I never finished Anna Karenina because the constant train imagery (my other older sister committed suicide by jumping under one) was a bit too much. And at that point I didn't even know what was going to be certain character's final destiny! I might read it soon enough provided the currently on-going family conflict I have right now doesn't escalate into an all-out war.
Ah, ok. You also never got to the part about Levin which I didn't like, which is that at the end he ceases to be witty, becomes preachy, and gives up his power to become a farmer with the peasants, and then there's a whole long section about how to operate a farm which is rather boring. We are meant to take the moral that rich people should give up their wealth and return to the earth, but Tolstoy doesn't really consider whether this idea actually makes the world better, or whether it simply allows people like Levin to escape their own guilt feelings.

Also, I'm sorry to hear about your family conflict consuming so much time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 02:32:20 AM
Amis: Lucky Jim


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/LASTING/md/md22417013406.jpg)


This is a very well written account of the exploits, thinking and philosophy of the main character. I found it to be a very entertaining and amusing read. The main character is a very human and believable entity particularly with all of his flaws along with his [very] few good points. Human nature does not really change that much over the decades it seems.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 04:41:26 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 02:32:20 AM
Human nature does not really change that much over the decades millennia it seems.

FTFY.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 04:44:42 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 04:41:26 AM
FTFY.  :D

Yes, more true perhaps. You must be far less tolerant that I am  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Thom on July 12, 2020, 04:52:09 AM
Heat of Autumn by Andrew wareham.
I love this Author, all his books

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41CwkeJ4qYL._SY346_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:15:42 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 04:44:42 AM
Yes, more true perhaps. You must be far less tolerant that I am  ;D

I don't know how tolerant you are, but I am very much so --- precisely because I think that human nature hasn't changed much over the millennia.  ;)

What I am indeed intolerant about, is grand, universal and rational schemes and plans for making the world a paradise on earth --- they invariably end up turning it into hell.  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:22:20 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 11, 2020, 06:53:10 AM
Ah, ok. You also never got to the part about Levin which I didn't like, which is that at the end he ceases to be witty, becomes preachy, and gives up his power to become a farmer with the peasants, and then there's a whole long section about how to operate a farm which is rather boring. We are meant to take the moral that rich people should give up their wealth and return to the earth, but Tolstoy doesn't really consider whether this idea actually makes the world better, or whether it simply allows people like Levin to escape their own guilt feelings.

I think Levin and Kitty are the most humane, likeable and interesting characters of the novel, far more so than the main ones. I mean, really: a shallow, womanizing officer seducing and abandoning the bored wife of a bore? They are both a dime a dozen, but how many Kittys and Levins do you know?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 05:36:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:15:42 AM
I don't know how tolerant you are, but I am very much so --- precisely because I think that human nature hasn't changed much over the millennia.  ;)

What I am indeed intolerant about, is grand, universal and rational schemes and plans for making the world a paradise on earth --- they invariably end up turning it into hell.  ;D


I would like to think that I have mellowed with age but you would really have to ask my wife about that  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on July 12, 2020, 05:47:38 AM
Didn't Tolstoy base the character of Levin on himself?

Another character I really enjoyed was Stiva Oblonsky. I know that he's not particularly a good man (he's a faithless womanizer after all) but somehow his joviality kind of wins me over.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:51:51 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on July 12, 2020, 05:47:38 AM
Didn't Tolstoy base the character of Levin on himself?

Most probably.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:54:01 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 05:36:48 AM

I would like to think that I have mellowed with age but you would really have to ask my wife about that ;D

Never a good move that, deferring one's appreciation, or lack thereof, to one's wife.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 06:27:29 AM
Now that I think of it, I associate Tchaikovsky with Turgenev and Chekhov, Mussorgsky with Dostoyevsky and Balakirev with Tolstoy. What do you guys think?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 07:29:20 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:54:01 AM
Never a good move that, deferring one's appreciation, or lack thereof, to one's wife.  ;D

Too true, my friend. A bad move really. One does not know the level of retort that one will receive  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 07:36:01 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 07:29:20 AM
Too true, my friend. A bad move really. One does not know the level of retort that one will receive  ;D

There's a Romanian joke.

Two old friends who had not met for a very long time meet in a bar. After a few drinks, one of them says:

"You know, my friend, I got married! I tell you, my wife is an angel!"

To which the other one replies:

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from! My wife is no human being either!"

;D ;D ;D

(I'm being unfair here, my wife is really a wonderful human being.  ;) )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 09:18:21 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 07:36:01 AM
There's a Romanian joke.

Two old friends who had not met for a very long time meet in a bar. After a few drinks, one of them says:

"You know, my friend, I got married! I tell you, my wife is an angel!"

To which the other one replies:

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from! My wife is no human being either!"

;D ;D ;D

(I'm being unfair here, my wife is really a wonderful human being.  ;) )

Wonderful; I enjoyed the subtlety of that.  ;D

I would also unreservedly publicly confess that my wife is definitely the better half.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 09:38:30 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 09:18:21 AM
Wonderful; I enjoyed the subtlety of that.  ;D

I would also unreservedly publicly confess that my wife is definitely the better half.  ;)

Given that the Celts inhabited a good part of present day Romania back then, there's no wonder!  ;)

b'fhéidir gur deartháireacha muid.  :-*
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 12, 2020, 10:04:49 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 05:22:20 AMThey are both a dime a dozen, but how many Kittys and Levins do you know?
The American educated left (of which I am a member lol) has a great many Levins, rich people who think they know how to help the poor, and develop elaborate theories to do so, without actually asking the poor themselves about it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 10:23:01 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 12, 2020, 10:04:49 AM
The American educated left (of which I am a member lol) has a great many Levins, rich people who think they know how to help the poor, and develop elaborate theories to do so, without actually asking the poor themselves about it.

Oh, I am absolutely sure about it and I take your word for it, but they are no Levin at all, at all! --- how many of them really do quit their well paid jobs as professors, journalists, psychologists, government clerks etc etc etc whatever, and take to the fields as mere farmers? You see, Tolstoy / Levin was sincere, he eventually practiced what he preached and died in the process. The American educated left on the contrary is as insincere as it gets, not a single one of them would take the Tolstoy/ Levin route; they talk the talk ad nauseam but they never walk the walk. They are all a bunch of hypocrites. If you, Brian, are any different, then kudos to you and my apologies.  ;D

I am reminded of Solzhenitsyn's commentary upon Chekhov's Three Sisters: We want to work, work, work! --- okay, just go working, damn you, who the hell  hinders you from working, damn you?  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 12, 2020, 02:08:40 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 09:38:30 AM

b'fhéidir gur deartháireacha muid.  :-*

b'fhéidir gur bhfuil sin ceart, a chara  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 12, 2020, 02:33:43 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 10:23:01 AM
Oh, I am absolutely sure about it and I take your word for it, but they are no Levin at all, at all! --- how many of them really do quit their well paid jobs as professors, journalists, psychologists, government clerks etc etc etc whatever, and take to the fields as mere farmers? You see, Tolstoy / Levin was sincere, he eventually practiced what he preached and died in the process. The American educated left on the contrary is as insincere as it gets, not a single one of them would take the Tolstoy/ Levin route; they talk the talk ad nauseam but they never walk the walk. They are all a bunch of hypocrites. If you, Brian, are any different, then kudos to you and my apologies.  ;D
I don't follow Levin because I don't see that it actually helps society. It makes him personally feel better, but it doesn't bring about systemic change.

(A modern Levin might be the philosopher Peter Singer, who argues that nobody should accumulate wealth while other people are poor.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 13, 2020, 02:06:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 09, 2020, 05:32:19 AM
Why don't you go for Turgenev? His novels are not intimidating bricks, his insights are just as interesting as Dostoyevsky's and Tolstoy's and imho he's more delicate, warm, humane and fun to read than both. Ditto for Chekhov's short stories and novellas.

I read both Turgenev (Fathers & Sons) and Chekhov (a bunch of plays), and some stories by Gogol for that matter, back in college. I took a great Russian lit class that was one of the highlights of my time there, as far as classes go. But I would love to reread some of that stuff. Thanks for the suggestions.

I just finished Becket's Waiting for Godot for the first time. Very silly stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 13, 2020, 02:21:31 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on July 09, 2020, 05:25:18 AM
This site (https://libraryofbabel.info/browse.cgi)  has free online versions of both books along with every analysis that has ever been published, although it may take a while to find

Hahaha  ;D My brother sent this to me too when he saw I was reading Borges.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 13, 2020, 03:51:54 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 12, 2020, 02:33:43 PM
I don't follow Levin because I don't see that it actually helps society. It makes him personally feel better, but it doesn't bring about systemic change.

I think the main reason you don't follow Levin is that you have no interest in, or calling for, being a farmer to begin with.  :)

Quote
(A modern Levin might be the philosopher Peter Singer, who argues that nobody should accumulate wealth while other people are poor.)

He argues, but does he apply the theory to himself? I'm sure that compared to the poor in Subsaharan Africa Singer is super-rich. Is he willing to renounce his wealth? Why of course not, let others more rich than him begin. You see, Singer is that kind of guy who knows exactly what everybody else should do but he won't do it himself unless everybody else really does it. He talks the talk (and the talk is quite lucrative, actually) but he doesn't walk the walk. This is the hypocrisy I was alluding to. Levin, on the other hand, naive and idealist as he is, practices what he preaches and does himself what he would like others to do without waiting for everybody else to do it. He is honest and sincere. Fiurthermore, Singer is quite totalitarian with his universal prescriptions (which he doesn't follow himself), while Levin wishes to persuade by personal example and acts according to his own theory.They couldn't be more different.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 13, 2020, 04:57:29 AM
Do you actually know all of that about Singer, or are you just guessing?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 13, 2020, 05:57:29 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 13, 2020, 04:57:29 AM
Do you actually know all of that about Singer, or are you just guessing?

I'm guessing that the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and a Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne and a former chair of the philosophy department at Monash University and the aiuthor of numerous books and articles has a standard of living which, in comparison to, say, the poor of Uganda or Burundi, can be described as rich and accumulated wealth.

Look, I'm not faulting him for that, it would be the top of absurdity. What I take issues with is this:

QuotePeter Singer [...] argues that nobody should accumulate wealth while other people are poor.

This is never going to happen, ever, period. It's just unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky rhetoric. Arguing it might make Singer feel better (just as Levin felt better working the fields) but it won't bring about any systemic change, to use your own words.  :)

(We've drifted way off topic, we should actually stop.)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 06:02:55 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 13, 2020, 02:06:13 AM


I just finished Becket's Waiting for Godot for the first time. Very silly stuff.

Yep, it's absurd.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 06:03:57 AM
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/6xjdXLgSGMSvR9YfuoIGC-FOQiO8OA2o4wBNfdfgN3Vr0jsPwz_lDs4j-gGMP1C8nA3l2qNwQ4Ci_JDgvS7qPyOHAeF46nLcioTfY1idiD9-qoHbHaC_D9bPLA)

My feeling is that this is utter crap.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 13, 2020, 06:27:40 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 06:03:57 AM
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/6xjdXLgSGMSvR9YfuoIGC-FOQiO8OA2o4wBNfdfgN3Vr0jsPwz_lDs4j-gGMP1C8nA3l2qNwQ4Ci_JDgvS7qPyOHAeF46nLcioTfY1idiD9-qoHbHaC_D9bPLA)

My feeling is that this is utter crap.

I see nothing at all. What is it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 07:04:42 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 13, 2020, 06:27:40 AM
I see nothing at all. What is it?

That's amusing after my comment about Beckett and the absurd. It is a book called Au commencement du septième jour by Luc Lang.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 13, 2020, 07:06:22 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 07:04:42 AM
That's amusing after my comment about Beckett and the absurd. It is a book called Au commencemen du septième jour by Luc Lang.

Thanks.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 07:07:44 AM
I was thinking of you, in fact, because I just read a comment that Rihm felt an affinity for Schumann partly because Schumann wrote a lot of stuff explaining his music, I was reminded of your thought that it's only modern composers who feel the need to write explanatory texts, give lectures. I'm not sure if the comment about Schumann is true, though the book is seriously serious. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 13, 2020, 07:37:06 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 07:07:44 AM
I was thinking of you, in fact, because I just read a comment that Rihm felt an affinity for Schumann partly because Schumann wrote a lot of stuff explaining his music, I was reminded of your thought that it's only modern composers who feel the need to write explanatory texts, give lectures. I'm not sure if the comment about Schumann is true, though the book is seriously serious.

AFAIK, Schumann wrote a lot of letters to Clara "explaining" his music to her (insofar as his purple prose can be said to be explanatory at all*) but I am not aware of him writing a lot of stuff explaining his music to the readers of the NZfM.

*For instance, he told her this about Kreisleriana: "I'm overflowing with music and beautiful melodies now – imagine, since my last letter I've finished another whole notebook of new pieces. I intend to call it Kreisleriana. You and one of your ideas play the main role in it, and I want to dedicate it to you – yes, to you and nobody else – and then you will smile so sweetly when you discover yourself in it". I guess it might be seen as an explanation of sorts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 13, 2020, 02:35:41 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 13, 2020, 05:57:29 AM
I'm guessing that the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and a Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne and a former chair of the philosophy department at Monash University and the aiuthor of numerous books and articles has a standard of living which, in comparison to, say, the poor of Uganda or Burundi, can be described as rich and accumulated wealth.



If you'd have scrolled down on the Wikipedia page you got that from you'd get this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer#Effective_altruism_and_world_poverty

which then links to this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine,_Affluence,_and_Morality

but try this if you want Singer in his own words:

What Should a Billionaire Give – and What Should You? (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/magazine/17charity.t.html)


and this:

The millennials donating 10% of their pay to save the world
Young high-earners can help the underprivileged with a clear conscience (https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/04/millennials-donating-10-of-their-pay-to-save-the-world)

[...]"Singer says many millennials have become interested and want their donations of time and money to have the most impact possible. After leaving Oxford University in 1971, Singer started to donate 10% of his income. As his earnings increased, so did his level of donations, and today he and his wife, a writer, give away 40%. He recommends 10% as an amount many people could afford. "I think it's an amount that most middle-class people can comfortably afford," he says. "It depends on how much people are earning and how happy they are to live modestly." Singer says he leads a happy yet modest life. "I probably holiday less, and in terms of house purchases we live in a one-bedroom apartment [in New York]. We would have perhaps bought a larger apartment if I hadn't been giving it away but it's a nice apartment in a good area."

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on July 13, 2020, 08:57:28 PM
I started to read this tonight:

V For Vendetta: Absolute Edition

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81oGwRWlmDL.jpg)

I believe I had read this graphic novel years ago, but I only had the trade paperback of it. I gave away all of my trade paperbacks years ago. I'm certainly glad I invested in the hardcovers as they're easier on the eyes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 15, 2020, 10:42:51 AM
Attention French speakers. I want to buy a copy of Du côté de chez Swann. What is a good edition? I mean one that's got a nice typeface, nice paper, not too small, not too heavy to hold. I don't want to buy all of A la recherche du temps perdu, just the first volume.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 15, 2020, 11:08:16 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 15, 2020, 10:42:51 AM
Attention French speakers. I want to buy a copy of Du côté de chez Swann. What is a good edition? I mean one that's got a nice typeface, nice paper, not too small, not too heavy to hold. I don't want to buy all of A la recherche du temps perdu, just the first volume.



If your willing to spend a bit of money (list price is 65€), then volume 1 of the Pléiade edition if À la recherche... is the way to go. Yes, it is smallish (I recall you've already read or bought something in the Pléiade collection by some other author), and you don't only get Swann but also À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur, but the print is readable, the bible paper is of high quality, and the profuse footnotes and introductory texts enhance the reading experience.

[asin]2070111261[/asin]

For Swann alone, sans notes or any other frills, your best bet IMO would be the Gallimard edition in the Collection Blanche (22,50 €). Essentially, AFAIK, this would be the same as the 1913 Grasset first edition, purged of errata over the years. As you may know, Gallimard initially rejected Swann, and Proust had it published at his own expense by Grasset. When the NRF and André Gide realised the huge mistake they had made, they accepted in 1919 to publish À l'ombre... and also struck an agreement with Bernard Grasset by which they bought all surplus copies of the first edition of Swann and rebound them with the NRF-Gallimard livery.

[asin]2070724905[/asin]

And then there's these beauties: two huge leather bound tomes with, respectively, Combray and Un amour de Swann, with all of Proust's corrections to the proofs and with the paperolles (the bits of paper he'd paste to the pages to add additional text).

(http://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/f86/product_9782070142088_195x320.jpg) (http://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/e67/product_9782070106400_195x320.jpg)

But you only get two thirds of Swann, they're rather impractical, and each volume goes for a small fortune. There's a short video here (http://www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD/Hors-serie-Beaux-Livres/Du-cote-de-chez-Swann) describing the books (I have the Combray volume  :)).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DaveF on July 15, 2020, 11:18:31 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 15, 2020, 10:42:51 AM
Attention French speakers. I want to buy a copy of Du côté de chez Swann. What is a good edition? I mean one that's got a nice typeface, nice paper, not too small, not too heavy to hold. I don't want to buy all of A la recherche du temps perdu, just the first volume.

You could just download it for free from Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2650 (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2650)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 15, 2020, 12:21:13 PM
Another short break from Martin du Gard's Maumort, with sections of the second volume (1953) of Jean Cocteau's diary Le passé défini.

[asin]2070700186[/asin]
In this year, Cocteau headed the jury of the Cannes Film Festival (Clouzot's Le salaire du peur—starring Yves Montand—was awarded the Palme d'Or), and then in July made his first trip to Spain. These diaries (I had read volume 1 many years ago) were written with their posthumous release in mind, and are IMO among the best things Cocteau wrote. Some insightful opinions on what's happening around him (in the arts world, mainly, with a focus on—an obsession at times—Picasso), peppered by the inevitable—for this author—gossipy social chitchat, all in a clear and elegant prose. Then there's self-flattery alternating with self-belittlement. And since Cocteau seems to have known everyone of any notoriety in the French and international cultural world of his time, there's a lot of (rather entertaining) name-dropping. A pleasant read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 15, 2020, 12:35:25 PM
Thanks, Ritter. I knew you'd have ethe answer! Galimard ordered.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 15, 2020, 12:36:36 PM
Quote from: DaveF on July 15, 2020, 11:18:31 AM
You could just download it for free from Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2650 (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2650)

I know, I know, but I want to smell the print etc. It's a sensual thing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 15, 2020, 12:46:42 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 15, 2020, 12:35:25 PM
Thanks, Ritter. I knew you'd have ethe answer! Galimard ordered.
You're welcome. I hope you enjoy it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 15, 2020, 04:05:32 PM
Quote from: ritter on July 15, 2020, 12:21:13 PM
Another short break from Martin du Gard's Maumort, with sections of the second volume (1953) of Jean Cocteau's diary Le passé défini.

[asin]2070700186[/asin]
In this year, Cocteau headed the jury of the Cannes Film Festival (Clouzot's Le salaire du peur—starring Yves Montand—was awarded the Palme d'Or), and then in July made his first trip to Spain. These diaries (I had read volume 1 many years ago) were written with their posthumous release in mind, and are IMO among the best things Cocteau wrote. Some insightful opinions on what's happening around him (in the arts world, mainly, with a focus on—an obsession at times—Picasso), peppered by the inevitable—for this author—gossipy social chitchat, all in a clear and elegant prose. Then there's self-flattery alternating with self-belittlement. And since Cocteau seems to have known everyone of any notoriety in the French and international cultural world of his time, there's a lot of (rather entertaining) name-dropping. A pleasant read.

Very interesting, Rafael !

It seems to be a 400+ page book. And it covers only that year 1953 ? Or does it cover a longer period ?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 16, 2020, 12:04:49 AM
Quote from: André on July 15, 2020, 04:05:32 PM
Very interesting, Rafael !

It seems to be a 400+ page book. And it covers only that year 1953 ? Or does it cover a longer period ?
Indeed, it covers only 1953. Le passé défini comprises 8 volumes in total. Volume 1 starts in mid-1951, and volume 8 covers the two last years of Cocteau's life (he died in October 1963).

Cheers,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on July 16, 2020, 07:34:30 AM
Guermantes way almost finished. At times it is a bit dull and heavy reading, probably intentionally as Proust is trying to show the banality and decadence of aristocracy. But I think intentionally dull writing is bit of a shooting yourself in the leg. There is much to enjoy too, however. I'm at the part when the narrator has just left Guermantes dinner and is now headed to Charlus's place.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 17, 2020, 12:29:13 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on July 16, 2020, 07:34:30 AM
Guermantes way almost finished. At times it is a bit dull and heavy reading, probably intentionally as Proust is trying to show the banality and decadence of aristocracy. But I think intentionally dull writing is bit of a shooting yourself in the leg. There is much to enjoy too, however. I'm at the part when the narrator has just left Guermantes dinner and is now headed to Charlus's place.


Some of the dinner party scenes are really special; anything with Charlus in it will be fun. When I read it, I remember skipping a few large sections which seemed neither interesting nor important: there was a long discussion with St Loup about military strategy, and some of the stuff on the etymology of place names too.

À côté de chez Swann arrived this morning, but I'm in the middle of another book, so I haven't done more than read the first four pages or so. Reading them when you know the whole story, as it were, is a very different experience and I was amazed how, even in those first few pages, he sows seeds for ideas I know will come up (much) later. I especially like the bit where he talks about dreaming about a young girl between his legs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 17, 2020, 01:33:51 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on July 16, 2020, 07:34:30 AM
Proust is trying to show the banality and decadence of aristocracy.

Talk about clichés...  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 17, 2020, 03:57:20 PM
In specific places he's showing the banality and decadence of aristocracy, but his overall attitude towards them is much more nuanced, is always pulling in two direction simultaneously, and he's genuinely sad at their decline and their being replaced by the unambiguous banality and decadence of the salon "nobility" (spoiler alert).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 19, 2020, 02:29:54 AM
Huxley: Eyeless in Gaza


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/RAREBOOKCELLAR/22075298378.jpg)


This is the tale of a particular circle of people told over a period of more than thirty years but within different time frame periods. The characters and their interweaving stories are all interesting. However, I have an issue with the structure of the novel. The plot is not linear, not chronological. It is a weighty tome of over six hundred pages and the constant flitting from one period to another I found a struggle to keep up with. Trying to remember who was who and the various interrelationships was a difficult enough task. This is unfortunate as it is essentially a good read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 19, 2020, 02:54:37 AM
Here's a well known example of Proust on aristocratic "decadence."

Swann, a gentleman, is a friend of the Duke and Duchesse de Guermantes. He is ill, and one day as they are getting ready to go into town for a dinner party, he tells them that he has just a couple of months to live. The Duchess, not knowing quite how to deal with the situation, responds by saying "you're joking!" and when he assures her it's no joke, she just says "let's meet up and talk about it over some dinner."

The Duke gets impatient, tells her to hurry up and stop nattering on about morbid things with Swann, or they'll be late or the dinner party, and that'll never do.

But this is the killer. She gets in the carriage and her husband notices that she's forgotten to change her shoes. She's wearing black shoes, not red. She dutifully gets the red ones, putting her costume at a greater priority than sharing a moment with her dying friend.

Quote« Hé bien, en un mot la raison qui vous empêchera de venir en Italie ? questionna la duchesse en se levant pour prendre congé de nous.

- Mais, ma chère amie, c'est que je serai mort depuis plusieurs mois. D'après les médecins que j'ai consultés, à la fin de l'année le mal que j'ai, et qui peut du reste m'emporter tout de suite, ne me laissera pas en tous les cas plus de trois ou quatre mois à vivre, et encore c'est un grand maximum, répondit Swann en souriant, tandis que le valet de pied ouvrait la porte vitrée du vestibule pour laisser passer la duchesse.   

-  Qu'est-ce que vous me dites là ? » s'écria la duchesse en s'arrêtant une seconde dans sa marche vers la voiture et en levant ses beaux yeux bleus et mélancoliques, mais pleins d'incertitude. Placée pour la première fois de sa vie entre deux devoirs aussi différents que monter dans sa voiture pour aller dîner en ville, et témoigner de la pitié à un homme qui va mourir, elle ne voyait rien dans le code des convenances qui indiquât la jurisprudence à  suivre et, ne sachant auquel donner la préférence, elle crut devoir faire semblant de ne pas croire que la seconde alternative eût à se poser, de façon à obéir à la première qui demandait en ce moment moins d'efforts, et pensa que la meilleure manière de résoudre le conflit était de le nier. « Vous voulez plaisanter ?  dit-elle à Swann.   

-  Ce serait une plaisanterie d'un goût charmant, répondit ironiquement Swann. Je ne sais pas pourquoi je vous dis cela, je ne vous avais pas parlé de ma maladie jusqu'ici. Mais comme vous me l'avez demandé et que maintenant je peux mourir d'un jour à l'autre... Mais surtout je ne veux pas que vous vous retardiez, vous dînez en ville », ajouta-t-il parce qu'il savait que, pour les autres, leurs propres obligations mondaines priment la mort d'un ami, et qu'il se mettait à leur place, grâce à sa politesse. Mais celle de la duchesse lui permettait aussi d'apercevoir confusément que le dîner où elle allait devait moins compter pour Swann que sa propre mort. Aussi, tout en continuant son chemin vers la voiture, baissa-t-elle les épaules en disant : « Ne vous occupez pas de ce dîner. Il n'a aucune importance ! » Mais ces mots mirent de mauvaise humeur le duc qui s'écria : « Voyons, Oriane, ne restez pas à bavarder comme cela et à échanger vos jérémiades avec Swann, vous savez bien pourtant que Mme de Saint-­Euverte tient à ce qu'on se mette à table à huit heures tapant. Il faut savoir ce que vous voulez, voilà bien cinq minutes que vos chevaux attendent. Je vous demande pardon, Charles, dit-il en se tournant vers Swann, mais il est huit heures moins dix. Oriane est toujours en retard, il nous faut plus de cinq minutes pour aller chez la mère Saint-Euverte. »

Mme de Guermantes s'avança décidément vers la voiture et redit un dernier adieu à Swann. « Vous savez, nous reparlerons de cela, je ne crois pas un mot de ce que vous dites, mais il faut en parler ensemble. On vous aura bêtement effrayé, venez déjeuner, le jour que vous voudrez (pour Mme de Guermantes tout se résolvait toujours en déjeuners), vous me direz votre jour et votre heure », et relevant sa jupe rouge elle posa son pied sur le marchepied. Elle allait entrer en voiture, quand, voyant ce pied, le duc s'écria d'une voix   terrible : « Oriane, qu'est-ce que vous alliez faire, malheureuse. Vous avez gardé vos souliers noirs ! Avec une toilette rouge ! Remontez vite mettre vos souliers rouges, ou bien, dit-il au valet de pied, dites tout de suite à la femme de chambre de Mme la duchesse de descendre des souliers rouges. »
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on July 19, 2020, 07:14:05 AM
Also, is it just me or does Proust appear extremely misogynist, even for his time? It seems he complains infinitely more about female characters than men, even when in later books the narrator's narcissistical personality goes into extremes yet the fault is almost always the ladies? Although it is hard at times to distinguish what is meant as a narrator's opinion and what as author's (that is assuming the narrator isn't absolute 100 % Proust himself). It also seems a bit inconsistent how the narrator seems to know exactly what every character thinks and what his/her motives are, even though one of the overarching themes is that you really can't perfectly know everything about other people.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 19, 2020, 09:39:29 AM
Huh. I always felt that the narrator's jealousy  and suspicion was presented as the narrator's own fault. I don't think of Proust as hating the women at all. Maybe Madame Verdurun...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 19, 2020, 10:08:49 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on July 19, 2020, 07:14:05 AM
It seems he complains infinitely more about female characters than men,


The nastiest people are blokes -- Charles Morel and the Duc de Guermantes.

In a bit I've just read at the start of A cote de chez Swann, Marcel's jealousy of the time his mother is spending without him at a dinner party with her husband and Swann is presented as a sort of nervous illness, a nervous failing, something ( he comments with hindsight) that Swann would have fully understood. And again it's striking how this sows the seed for what will be a really major idea in the book, so early on (I'm on about page 40.) So yes, as Simon says, his gnawing suspicion is indeed presented as his own fault.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 19, 2020, 04:24:08 PM
That far too frequently quoted bit about the cake near the start also has a parallel in the final volume. But I don't think Proust had the whole structure mapped out at the time of writing book one (or rather: he had a structure, but massively and continually changed it as the work progressed and expanded). He had recurring preoccupations which he examined from various angles which gives an appearance to some facets of the book to deeper structures and intention which in a lot of cases might have been more improvisational and retro-fitted with callbacks to earlier moments.


TD: currently reading:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51YJdRa-NXL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

very Bill Bryson-y, which is fine by me
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 20, 2020, 06:57:06 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 19, 2020, 04:24:08 PM
That far too frequently quoted bit about the cake near the start also has a parallel in the final volume. But I don't think Proust had the whole structure mapped out at the time of writing book one (or rather: he had a structure, but massively and continually changed it as the work progressed and expanded). He had recurring preoccupations which he examined from various angles which gives an appearance to some facets of the book to deeper structures and intention which in a lot of cases might have been more improvisational and retro-fitted with callbacks to earlier moments.





I just read the madeleine incident for the first time since the 1980s. What's remarkable about it is that it leads so smoothly into the second part of the book, it's a good segue. It also is well written, I mean, it made me put the book down, make a cup of tea and eat a bit of cake.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 20, 2020, 01:40:06 PM
Finished War and Peace on Saturday. 18 days! The first half was substantially better than the second, and after the narrative climax at Borodino, there are probably 100 pages of material that are excess to the book's needs.

What's remarkable is that the first 700 pages have no fat whatsoever. They're all plot and all remarkable - insightful but gossipy, operatic but subtle, exciting but restrained. Like Powell & Pressburger in film ("Colonel Blimp"), Tolstoy has a surprising way of backing away at moments you'd expect to be climaxes - he tells stories like the duel sequence with sparse, minimalist detail, almost like a cross between Austen and Hemingway. His way with storytelling is continually surprising. There's also the remarkable late chapter which ends with an offhand, "oh yeah, also they freed Pierre."

I want to know more about how W&P was received at the time, because it is so bizarre to our sensibility now that Tolstoy includes rants, arguments, and citations on the practice of history at the time and the state of Napoleonic scholarship. Just as a random example, you wouldn't expect, say, James McBride to suddenly stop his novel and have a 15 page section of his own views on African American Studies departments at universities.

It is amusing to see the vivid characterization given to people like Dolokhov, Natasha, even Prince Vasily or old man Bolkonsky, contrasted with the utter contempt with which Tolstoy writes real historic figures like Napoleon, whose appearances are laughable.

Tolstoy's own views are so much his own fixation that, after Andrey dies, he nearly abandons the epic plot. Rather than tying together loose ends a la Dickens, Tolstoy seems not to care. People like Kuragin, Dolokhov, and Boris just straight up disappear. Hélène's fall is reported from offstage but not shown. Pierre's own transformation is narrated with detachment. Sonya and Denisov inexplicably do not get married. The book just kind of...ends. Given the epic grandeur of everything through Borodino, the chamber-music finale is quite strange.

It made me think of the ending of Middlemarch, which, besides not being followed by 40 pages of dense argument, manages to flawlessly encapsulate the story's message and its narrative drive at the same time.

I've been telling people two things about W&P. First, it is structured like those sales pitches where you get a free dinner, but you have to listen to a guy explain his get rich quick scheme. You think you're reading for the plot, which really is outstanding for 800 pages or so, but Tolstoy has a totally different agenda.

Second, I'll try to read it again in 15 years or so to see how it grows with age.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 22, 2020, 01:16:51 AM
Golding: The Paper Men


(https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B1%2F2%2F0%2F8%2F1%2F12081690%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D)


This is an interesting study of a man spiraling out of control into self destruction through total selfishness. It is an engaging story that is very well told.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on July 24, 2020, 07:58:23 AM
(https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/61431687-d49c-49ff-8c61-607bd1fd5aa5/1200/1200/False/another-study-of-woman-13.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: kitsune on July 25, 2020, 04:37:50 AM
(https://space.nss.org/book-review-images/red-mars.jpg)

Really engaging terraforming saga -- goes deep into the various politics of the colonists, the ethics of even trying to terraform in the first place, the dangers of corporatism/global capitalism, and the really neat speculative technology of the near future (the year 2026; it was written in 1993).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on July 25, 2020, 09:36:10 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 17, 2020, 12:29:13 PMthere was a long discussion with St Loup about military strategy

Ironically, that was one of my favorite parts in Guermantes Way. I don't know why but it felt really interesting and St Loup is one of my favorite characters. Finished Guermantes way today. Soon will possibly begin Anna Karenina (although considering how my family matters seem to be going increasingly downhill, don't know if I am able to finish it, which would mark the second time I abandon reading this book, for same-ish reasons).

I will probably take at least a short break from Proust since while he is very rewarding writer, he also exhausts me a bit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 26, 2020, 03:54:58 AM
Gogol: Dead Souls


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61Unsu6-C2L.jpg)


This is, in essence, a look at Russia at a particular point in time. It is an interesting socio-economic commentary as it paints a very interesting picture, particularly of the class structure of the time. However, I found it to be a difficult read. The style is weighty and ponderous, with paragraphs sometimes extending to nearly two pages, and the linguistic style is archaic.
My main grievance with it, however, is that, in Part II, it is incomplete with the text being abandoned at random points throughout and the manuscript itself comes abruptly to an [inconclusive] end in mid sentence due to Gogol himself apparently destroying the document. I was not aware of this prior to reading it  :-[
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 26, 2020, 05:20:35 AM
Who translated that edition of Dead Souls? I ask because I remember it being a pleasure, even fun to read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 26, 2020, 06:32:17 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 26, 2020, 05:20:35 AM
Who translated that edition of Dead Souls? I ask because I remember it being a pleasure, even fun to read.

That very thought did cross my mind but I did not mention it because, unbelievably, there is no actual credit for the translation.
Do not get me wrong; I did find the content amusing but the actual reading of it was a chore.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 26, 2020, 07:38:57 AM
It's been ages that I read "Dead Souls" and I was not as fond of it as of some other Russian 19th century books and the main plot element (the making up/blowing up of villages for some kind of fraud) is utterly strange for us nowadays but I don't remember it to be so disjointed. It is a fragment in a sense, though, I believe. As far as I recall it ends with some vision/simile of Russia as a troika or sth. like that? or is this another book and I am confused.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 26, 2020, 09:03:44 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 26, 2020, 05:20:35 AM
Who translated that edition of Dead Souls? I ask because I remember it being a pleasure, even fun to read.

+ 1.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on July 28, 2020, 08:39:22 AM
Started reading Anna Karenina today. 50 pages in already, let's see if I'm gonna beat Brian's reading pace with War and Peace with this book.  :) Most likely not and as long as Karenina is, it is still nothing compared to War and Peace which is one of the longest novels there is. And considering War and Peace is one of the few books I voluntarily quit reading would probably have an effect of slowing things down. Karenina, however, took me in instantly. I know there is still a long way to go but the beginning is very promising. I liked the sections that I read the first time too but not this much. I catched many of the nuances which is not the usual case with me when I'm reading Russian literature. In Dostoevsky there is so much happening between the lines what with many mindgames the characters have on each other yet don't say out loud. However, with Dostoevsky I usually notice the extent of them only much later. Here in Tolstoy it seemed much clearer. Maybe I'm simply having a better day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 29, 2020, 01:02:46 AM
Hartley: The Go-Between


(https://eterniacollectables.co.uk/ekmps/shops/2e9a44/images/readers-union-the-go-between-by-l-p-hartley-1954-hardback-book-sold-567-p.png)


This has been one of the most engaging and engrossing books that I have read in many years. The writing style was so easy and melodious it sounded almost like music in my head.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on July 30, 2020, 10:18:26 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 22, 2020, 01:16:51 AM
Golding: The Paper Men


(https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B1%2F2%2F0%2F8%2F1%2F12081690%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D)


This is an interesting study of a man spiraling out of control into self destruction through total selfishness. It is an engaging story that is very well told.
Fully agreed, though I find his posthumously published The Double Tongue even more compelling (love all of his novels, each of them more than Lord of the Flies, the first one).  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 31, 2020, 12:46:19 AM
Quote from: Christo on July 30, 2020, 10:18:26 AM
Fully agreed, though I find his posthumously published The Double Tongue even more compelling (love all of his novels, each of them more than Lord of the Flies, the first one).  :)

Thank you for that. I do not know The Double Tongue.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 31, 2020, 01:14:19 AM
Just finished Du côté de chez Swann. Poor old Swann, I'd forgotten how much he suffered. And I'd forgotten how much humour there is (f.e. I remember laughing out loud when Swann knocks on the window of an appartement thinking that Odette and Forcheville  are in there up to some hanky panky, and it turns out to be the wrong appartement!) And I'd forgotten how much of a bitch Odette is.


How old do you think Swann is?


Now my real reason for posting is this. In the Scott Moncrieff edition there was a really useful index, this

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/REVIVALBOOKS/30555937236.jpg)

Is there anything similar in French?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 31, 2020, 03:13:28 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 31, 2020, 01:14:19 AM

How old do you think Swann is?


Gilberte is the same age as the narrator. Swann is probably in his early forties in the first book. And in his late twenties at the time of Swann In Love.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 31, 2020, 04:39:41 AM
Yes that explains my confusion, which was caused by not thinking. The Swann of Un amour de Swann is younger than the Swann of Combray.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 31, 2020, 05:33:43 AM
Than again, age is a variable "thing" throughout the whole Recherche .Charles Swann never comes through--to me, at least,  as a young man, not even in Un amour de Swann; he's "perennially middle-aged" IMO (akin to the age relationship one has with those one is close too, I'd say)...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 31, 2020, 12:17:50 PM
Quote from: ritter on July 31, 2020, 05:33:43 AM; he's "perennially middle-aged"

Un ennuyeux, comme disaient les Verdurin?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 31, 2020, 02:25:06 PM
The assumption I make is that the narrator is going through his jealousies of Albertine in The Captive at the same age as Swann was with Odette.

There's also some vague triangulation one can do with the seeming ages of the people around Swann and his attitudes to their age as to guessing his own.


TD: finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/912vq+kzBzL.jpg)

started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oz6+sRKtL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 01, 2020, 12:37:15 PM
This August I'm going to spend a month re-reading old favorites that I haven't read in a long time. I looked at my book log and noticed that in the last few years, I've almost entirely been reading books that are new to me - because there are so many darn books in the world! - and thought it was a shame to have so many beloved books sitting on the shelves waiting until "the time is right" to finally set aside the new book pile and re-read them. So...the time is now!

Among the fluid/unfinished list of re-reads for this month:

A Month in the Country, J.L. Carr
Emma, Jane Austen
the three novels of John Williams
short stories by Tolstoy
On Moral Fiction, John Gardner
Life Itself, Roger Ebert
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
The Selfishness of Others, Kristin Dombek
maybe some Agatha Christie if there's time?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 02, 2020, 04:54:13 AM
Balzac: At the Sign of the Cat and Racket & Other Stories 


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Yv7V7gZ-L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 02, 2020, 08:50:07 AM
Quote from: ritter on July 31, 2020, 05:33:43 AM
Than again, age is a variable "thing" throughout the whole Recherche .Charles Swann never comes through--to me, at least,  as a young man, not even in Un amour de Swann; he's "perennially middle-aged" IMO (akin to the age relationship one has with those one is close too, I'd say)...

Quote from: SimonNZ on July 31, 2020, 02:25:06 PM
The assumption I make is that the narrator is going through his jealousies of Albertine in The Captive at the same age as Swann was with Odette.

There's also some vague triangulation one can do with the seeming ages of the people around Swann and his attitudes to their age as to guessing his own.


Swann's spiritual middle agedness is linked to his suffering, and the sign of suffering, for both Charles Swann and his father, is the gesture of passing his hand across his forehead and wiping his eyes. This is from quite early on

QuoteJ'entendis les pas de mes parents qui accompagnaient Swann; et quand le grelot de la porte m'eut averti qu'il venait de partir, j'allai à la fenêtre. Maman demandait à mon père s'il avait trouvé la langouste bonne et si M. Swann avait repris de la glace au café et à la pistache. «Je l'ai trouvée bien quelconque, dit ma mère; je crois que la prochaine fois il faudra essayer d'un autre parfum.» «Je ne peux pas dire comme je trouve que Swann change, dit ma grand'tante, il est d'un vieux!» Ma grand'tante avait tellement l'habitude de voir toujours en Swann un même adolescent, qu'elle s'étonnait de le trouver tout à coup moins jeune que l'âge qu'elle continuait à lui donner. Et mes parents du reste commençaient à lui trouver cette vieillesse anormale, excessive, honteuse et méritée des célibataires, de tous ceux pour qui il semble que le grand jour qui n'a pas de lendemain soit plus long que pour les autres, parce que pour eux il est vide et que les moments s'y additionnent depuis le matin sans se diviser ensuite entre des enfants. «Je crois qu'il a beaucoup de soucis avec sa coquine de femme qui vit au su de tout Combray avec un certain monsieur de Charlus. C'est la fable de la ville.» Ma mère fit remarquer qu'il avait pourtant l'air bien moins triste depuis quelque temps. «Il fait aussi moins souvent ce geste qu'il a tout à fait comme son père de s'essuyer les yeux et de se passer la main sur le front. Moi je crois qu'au fond il n'aime plus cette femme.»

And much later on, when he's really going through the mill, the poor chap does the same

QuoteQuand il l'eut compris, sa pitié cessa, mais il fut jaloux de l'autre lui-même qu'elle avait aimé, il fut jaloux de ceux dont il s'était dit souvent sans trop souffrir, «elle les aime peut-être», maintenant qu'il avait échangé l'idée vague d'aimer, dans laquelle il n'y a pas d'amour, contre les pétales du chrysanthème et l'«en tête» de la Maison d'Or, qui, eux en étaient pleins. Puis sa souffrance devenant trop vive, il passa sa main sur son front, laissa tomber son monocle, en essuya le verre. Et sans doute s'il s'était vu à ce moment-là, il eut ajouté à la collection de ceux qu'il avait distingués le monocle qu'il déplaçait comme une pensée importune et sur la face embuée duquel, avec un mouchoir, il cherchait à effacer des soucis.

And here when he gets the terrible anonymous letter saying some nasty things about Odette

QuoteQuel critérium adopter pour juger les hommes? au fond il n'y avait pas une seule des personnes qu'il connaissait qui ne pût être capable d'une infamie. Fallait-il cesser de les voir toutes? Son esprit se voila; il passa deux ou trois fois ses mains sur son front, essuya les verres de son lorgnon avec son mouchoir, et, songeant qu'après tout, des gens qui le valaient fréquentaient M. de Charlus, le prince des Laumes, et les autres, il se dit que cela signifiait sinon qu'ils fussent incapables d'infamie, du moins, que c'est une nécessité de la vie à laquelle chacun se soumet de fréquenter des gens qui n'en sont peut-être pas incapables.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 02, 2020, 09:40:06 AM
Nice rereading those passages, Mandryka.  It's been so long...

My point is that, from the viewpoint of the narrator, Swann always has the same age, from his visits to Combray when the narrator is a young boy (and even before that, in Un amour de Swann—events that take place before the narrator's birth) through his death. And this is so for almost all characters in À la recherche... with whom the narrator has contact. Only in Le temps perdu, after the narrator has been separated from the circles he frequented, have the characters (Charlus, the Prince and new Princesse de Guermantes, the Duchesse de Guermantes..) aged significantly (in some cases, beyond recognition). This IMO is a faithful reflection of "real" life: as the age difference between us and those we frequent on a regular basis (family, friends, colleagues) is fixed, the absolute age of each one fades into the background and also becomes "fixed" (unless infirmity or sudden physical decline enter the picture). 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 05, 2020, 01:46:26 AM
Buchan: The Three Hostages


(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/xkRaJbN3gFndYUrRr1nghA_weEdmq34ro6DCyEopHlaw_Rrm34Br5MSy6DKX9M9pqhImTMqztcDNAE4cuxXV1YJjaLaNbU6dSBWErZtsQEvAqLtycwt16ivmPNatSVGf)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 08, 2020, 07:00:00 PM
History of My Life, by Giacomo Casanova. 12 volumes in 6 books. This is my 6-8th read.
What music should I play while I am reading?  What should I drink?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on August 12, 2020, 08:27:38 AM
About halfway through both Joseph in Egypt and Anna Karenina. This time my favorite character so far has been Karenin. I laughed out loud when reading a certain excellent darkly humorous passage in Joseph in Egypt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 12, 2020, 10:20:03 AM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81mc2V2FBuL.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51f1DvfdevL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on August 13, 2020, 10:08:51 AM
Starting a couple of books on the old west, and revisiting some old favorites in Nero Wolfe -- re-read the first four in the series over the past week, great stuff..

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51j0NjfqXFL._SX305_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DflX3QQML.jpg)
(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/44/c1/d1/44c1d13b0f806ad7d176dbb6e814f7a8.jpg)(https://www.lwcurrey.com/pictures/medium/127666.jpg)(https://i.pinimg.com/474x/fb/c1/6c/fbc16c73e43f23a205f263ae2bd65923--fiction-books-pulp-fiction.jpg)(https://live.staticflickr.com/7014/6401932407_f1a9cf1fdb_b.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on August 13, 2020, 11:46:38 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 01, 2020, 02:13:31 AM
Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray


(https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/273749802937_/The-Picture-Of-Dorian-Gray-by-Oscar-Wilde.jpg)


This, Wilde's only novel, is always worth another read. One always has to take it slowly so that one does not miss any of the myriad witticisms and aphorisms contained within the text. Still, it is essentially a very dark tale of depravity.
That's one that I've been wanting to read..particularly after hearing (over radio) a wonderful operatic production years ago.  Tried googling it to see if I could find out who all did it, the production etc.  I happened to come in part way.  It was during the Saturday Met broadcasts but it wasn't from the Met.

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on August 13, 2020, 11:14:12 PM
I love Nero Wolfe, but these covers look like penny dreadfuls! And I think the first two are a bit long winded, the Rubber Band and the Red Box much better although the masterpiece among the earlier ones is probably "Some buried Caesar" for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 14, 2020, 12:48:43 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on August 13, 2020, 11:46:38 AM

(https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/273749802937_/The-Picture-Of-Dorian-Gray-by-Oscar-Wilde.jpg)

That's one that I've been wanting to read..particularly after hearing (over radio) a wonderful operatic production years ago.  Tried googling it to see if I could find out who all did it, the production etc.  I happened to come in part way.  It was during the Saturday Met broadcasts but it wasn't from the Met.

PD

A subject worthy of an opera.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on August 14, 2020, 09:30:23 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on August 13, 2020, 11:14:12 PM
I love Nero Wolfe, but these covers look like penny dreadfuls! And I think the first two are a bit long winded, the Rubber Band and the Red Box much better although the masterpiece among the earlier ones is probably "Some buried Caesar" for me.

I would actually agree with all of that.  I chose the vampy covers because they just amused me... indeed they often bear little to no relation to the actual book... if you recall, in The League of Frightened Men, they're frightened of a male actor, not a platinum blonde.  I'm reading ebooks anyway, so the cover art is a non-issue.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 14, 2020, 09:57:32 AM
That cover art is really funny. I wonder how many people bought them for the covers and ended up being disappointed or confused or, perhaps, Nero's new biggest fans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 18, 2020, 05:14:28 PM
Finished:

(https://panmacmillanapi.blob.core.windows.net/pmapi/e12a8195-4610-4b2d-fa9f-08d58e45775c/editions/d63af02c-c6a6-4cd6-4ca1-08d628aa09c9/original_400_600.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51OBKDp3oUL._SX313_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 21, 2020, 02:38:44 AM
De Bernieres: Notwithstanding


(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fe/Notwithstanding.jpg/220px-Notwithstanding.jpg)


This is a collection of very convivial short stories about the motley characters and happenings of a village in rural England. They are wonderfully written. The characters are very human and very real, warts and all. The stories are independent, stand alone plots but are tenuously interlinked by the strains that bind neighbours and a community. The stories are always very amusing and sometimes poignant and sad and he reflects the oftentimes very eccentric inhabitants extremely well. It is a re-read for me and a terrific book that is most definitely worth your time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on August 22, 2020, 03:55:26 AM
My library currently has a very limited browsing area (due to Covid-19); they have a holds area that is open for one to pick up items and check them out yourself, but they did also put out some books, etc. which they thought might be of interest to folks.  I picked up a copy of The Testaments which is the follow-up novel to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale which I last read many years ago.  Hoping to crack it open this weekend.

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 23, 2020, 01:42:58 AM
Gogol: Diary of a Madman and Other Stories


(https://live.staticflickr.com/6173/6267463202_f550fa985b_b.jpg)


These stories are filled with eccentric and interesting characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on August 27, 2020, 09:41:46 AM
James Joyce: Ulysses

This is my second go-round, but I'm not actually reading it. I'm listening to the spectacular large-cast recording of it, made by RTE in Joyce's 100th anniversary year, 1982.

To my mind, this is the ideal way to experience Ulysses. Since it's one of the most poly-stylistic books ever written, and can be exhausting when you confront it on the page, hearing it read out by multiple voices (with the major characters each getting their own voice), and enhanced by sound effects, really brings it to life.

If you want to sample it, it starts here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY1E-NqPcP0&t=5s
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 28, 2020, 01:09:24 AM
Gabriel García Márquez: Love in the Time of Cholera


(https://cdn.waterstones.com/bookjackets/large/9780/2419/9780241968567.jpg)


I thought this a very good read. It had strong characters and a good plot. However, I thought that it was over long and could have done with some constructive editing; insertion of shorter chapters to break up the sometimes rambling, wandering storytelling [which was, in itself, very good]. The conclusion, literally the last two pages, was  ridiculous in the context of such a detailed novel; perhaps he had a Hollywood film in mind when he concluded it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 28, 2020, 01:11:59 AM
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on August 27, 2020, 09:41:46 AM
James Joyce: Ulysses

This is my second go-round, but I'm not actually reading it. I'm listening to the spectacular large-cast recording of it, made by RTE in Joyce's 100th anniversary year, 1982.

To my mind, this is the ideal way to experience Ulysses. Since it's one of the most poly-stylistic books ever written, and can be exhausting when you confront it on the page, hearing it read out by multiple voices (with the major characters each getting their own voice), and enhanced by sound effects, really brings it to life.

If you want to sample it, it starts here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY1E-NqPcP0&t=5s

You are quite correct, of course. I also believe that it is a much more meaningful book when it is heard as opposed to read. Some of the Joyceans in my country believe that if one is reading it one should read it aloud to oneself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 28, 2020, 02:25:55 AM
knocked off a few quickies:

(https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/covers/original/9780857503770.jpg) (https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/covers/original/9781784705374.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JHB8fVQHL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

and started:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348397280l/7898054.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 28, 2020, 02:56:12 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 28, 2020, 02:25:55 AM
(https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/covers/original/9781784705374.jpg)

I must look out for that one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on August 28, 2020, 07:04:00 AM
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on August 27, 2020, 09:41:46 AM
James Joyce: Ulysses

Speaking of Ulysses, I have almost finished it. Only about 20 pages more to go. I'm at the last chapter which describes Molly Bloom's thoughts. This is often thought of as one of the most difficult chapters of the book but I find it rather easy. The only minor annoyance so far has been the lack of punctuation and extremely long paragraphs. However, that has not been the most baffling thing about Ulysses. The most baffling thing is understanding every single reference in stream of consciousness of the characters, varying from extremely easy to spot to extremely obscure and unknown. And this chapter is easy to understand. My hat's off to anyone who understands only half of the numerous allusions in this book without cheating. I believe Joyce himself said that he had put in so many enigmas that critics are gonna debate this forever and that's the only way to immortality. You can believe I was pissed off when I learned after several hundred pages of reading that there is an annotated translation in existence. Although if I had picked that one, I wouldn't probably be even halfway through.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on August 28, 2020, 07:14:11 AM
Quote from: aligreto on August 28, 2020, 01:11:59 AM
You are quite correct, of course. I also believe that it is a much more meaningful book when it is heard as opposed to read. Some of the Joyceans in my country believe that if one is reading it one should read it aloud to oneself.

I think they are probably right. In addition to this RTE version, I also sampled the Naxos audiobook, read by Jim Norton. He does a really good job with it, but it's still only one voice. I think it would be wearying to listen to one voice for 27 hours. Still, I'm glad he's available for comparison.

Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on August 28, 2020, 07:04:00 AM
Speaking of Ulysses, I have almost finished it.

I think the key to enjoying it is not to worry about the whole mess of allusions, references, minutiae and so forth, but rather to let the style and characterization take control of your mind. That said, it's also helpful to be familiar with Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, because many of the characters in Ulysses make their first appearances in those books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 28, 2020, 07:15:59 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on August 28, 2020, 07:04:00 AM
Speaking of Ulysses, I have almost finished it. Only about 20 pages more to go. I'm at the last chapter which describes Molly Bloom's thoughts. This is often thought of as one of the most difficult chapters of the book but I find it rather easy. The only minor annoyance so far has been the lack of punctuation and extremely long paragraphs. However, that has not been the most baffling thing about Ulysses. The most baffling thing is understanding every single reference in stream of consciousness of the characters, varying from extremely easy to spot to extremely obscure and unknown. And this chapter is easy to understand. My hat's off to anyone who understands only half of the numerous allusions in this book without cheating. I believe Joyce himself said that he had put in so many enigmas that critics are gonna debate this forever and that's the only way to immortality. You can believe I was pissed off when I learned after several hundred pages of reading that there is an annotated translation in existence. Although if I had picked that one, I wouldn't probably be even halfway through.

Yes, but you are enjoying it nonetheless. Well done for staying with it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 28, 2020, 02:06:33 PM
Quote from: aligreto on August 28, 2020, 02:56:12 AM
I must look out for that one.

A short story collection, and like most a mixed bag, though I's still recommend it. The first four of the seven I thought especially good.

Only one story I thought was a total misfire, the one which is Kafka's Metamorphosis in reverse, but others may like the gimmick there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 28, 2020, 04:11:06 PM
Quote from: aligreto on August 28, 2020, 01:09:24 AM
Gabriel García Márquez: Love in the Time of Cholera


(https://cdn.waterstones.com/bookjackets/large/9780/2419/9780241968567.jpg)


I thought this a very good read. It had strong characters and a good plot. However, I thought that it was over long and could have done with some constructive editing; insertion of shorter chapters to break up the sometimes rambling, wandering storytelling [which was, in itself, very good]. The conclusion, literally the last two pages, was  ridiculous in the context of such a detailed novel; perhaps he had a Hollywood film in mind when he concluded it.

The rambling, highly detailed nature of the book stalled me; I had to put it down about halfway through. Hopefully I will pick it up and finish it before the end of the year. I really loved his 100 Years of Solitude; this one seemed to be of a different caliber.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 30, 2020, 01:51:52 AM
Johnston How Many Miles To Babylon?


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408926072l/819524.jpg)


A short but wonderfully written book which really brings characters and landscapes to life. It was a real pleasure to read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 30, 2020, 01:52:21 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 28, 2020, 02:06:33 PM
A short story collection, and like most a mixed bag, though I's still recommend it. The first four of the seven I thought especially good.

Only one story I thought was a total misfire, the one which is Kafka's Metamorphosis in reverse, but others may like the gimmick there.

Cheers and thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 30, 2020, 01:54:36 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 28, 2020, 04:11:06 PM

(https://cdn.waterstones.com/bookjackets/large/9780/2419/9780241968567.jpg)

The rambling, highly detailed nature of the book stalled me; I had to put it down about halfway through. Hopefully I will pick it up and finish it before the end of the year. I really loved his 100 Years of Solitude; this one seemed to be of a different caliber.

I can understand that. Despite the quality of the book it was sometimes a tortuous read. As I have already mentioned, serious editing should have been employed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wendell_E on August 30, 2020, 06:05:15 AM
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on August 28, 2020, 07:14:11 AM
I think they are probably right. In addition to this RTE version, I also sampled the Naxos audiobook, read by Jim Norton. He does a really good job with it, but it's still only one voice. I think it would be wearying to listen to one voice for 27 hours. Still, I'm glad he's available for comparison.


I got that Naxos version recently. Actually, it's two voices, since Marcella Riordan does the female characters' lines. And, as you might expect, Norton varies his voice from character to character. I've only heard the first 4 of 22 discs so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on August 30, 2020, 08:55:42 AM
Quote from: Wendell_E on August 30, 2020, 06:05:15 AM
I got that Naxos version recently. Actually, it's two voices, since Marcella Riordan does the female characters' lines. And, as you might expect, Norton varies his voice from character to character. I've only heard the first 4 of 22 discs so far.

I plan to keep doing some comparative listening with that one. Norton was very engaging in the bits I listened to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 02, 2020, 03:05:33 AM
Somerset Maugham: Liza of Lambeth


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/DAVEBRIMLEY/md/md30616938039.jpg)


As a young man I was an avid reader of Maugham's Novels and short stories. His writing style is so simple and flowing and his characters are very human, believable and engaging. I am embarking upon a renewed acquaintance.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 02, 2020, 07:23:23 AM
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/P0rEhELHP0Zb9HHGWut_ZJop1Dg3hP1J98ly_-FFTozHw0eOfNk1w2qmusV5Z2E2CG84iwL3FBOLHm_FH9mSOzTPUr4EO_hwpDlHiYJgKqpPqv8FblLyjA)

Just finished it, I read it in English 25 years ago and now in French. There's this extraordinary feeling of being immersed in something that really merits a lifetime's attention -- suddenly there's a bit of philosophical reflection which breaks in which is hard, the sort of thing that could be the basis of an academic seminar. A theme caught my attention most, which is to do with knowing people, what it is to get to know someone, their essence, what makes them unique.

The second part, Nom de pays - le pays left the strongest mark on me.

I had forgotten how wonderful the writing is when Marcel first arrives at Balbec, his description of the crowd, the social interactions of the people. And of course the internal turmoil caused by the new scenery -- a break with his habit.

Such a pleasure to meet the band of pubescent girls again! They're so full of life!

Who was Elstir? I mean, in real life.

Anyway, on to Le Cote de Guermantes.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 02, 2020, 10:11:59 AM
Quote from: j winter on August 13, 2020, 10:08:51 AM
Starting a couple of books on the old west, and revisiting some old favorites in Nero Wolfe -- re-read the first four in the series over the past week, great stuff..

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51j0NjfqXFL._SX305_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Late response but Roughing it is one of my personal favorites from Twain. My first exposure to Twain's books was in elementary school when I read Tom Sawyer, which I didn't like (and still don't). In middle school I read Huckleberry Finn which I liked a lot more. Roughing it however is even better. One of the most amazing descriptions of Wild West I've ever read. I don't  mind the fragmentary style of the book, I think it fits the tone perfectly and Twain is extraordinarily droll. I'm pretty sure though that Twain has more than a little bit exaggerated the facts...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 02, 2020, 10:27:11 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on September 02, 2020, 07:23:23 AM
The second part, Nom de pays - le pays left the strongest mark on me.

Same here. The writing of Balbec section is absolutely gorgeous.

Guermantes way was imo stronger on its first half - although I do appreciate the increasing dialogue. I still haven't read anything after Guermantes way but before Guermantes way I thought there was curiously little dialogue. The narrator hardly talks. I realize that this must be intentional.

Perhaps one reason why I don't like Proust as much as say Hugo, Dumas or Balzac is that I appreciate witty dialogue and I think the overall design should be more balanced in favor of both dialogue and ruminative passages equally (as I consider the aforementioned writers to do more than Proust). In Proust the ruminative passages are a bit too long and dialogue kept at minimum. Of course I am only roughly halfway through In Search of lost time so maybe things will change, I don't know.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 02, 2020, 10:55:04 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on September 02, 2020, 10:27:11 AM
Same here. The writing of Balbec section is absolutely gorgeous.

Guermantes way was imo stronger on its first half - although I do appreciate the increasing dialogue. I still haven't read anything after Guermantes way but before Guermantes way I thought there was curiously little dialogue. The narrator hardly talks. I realize that this must be intentional.

Perhaps one reason why I don't like Proust as much as say Hugo, Dumas or Balzac is that I appreciate witty dialogue and I think the overall design should be more balanced in favor of both dialogue and ruminative passages equally (as I consider the aforementioned writers to do more than Proust). In Proust the ruminative passages are a bit too long and dialogue kept at minimum. Of course I am only roughly halfway through In Search of lost time so maybe things will change, I don't know.

Ruminative passages in Dumas?  Care to give some examples ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 04, 2020, 12:59:59 AM
Somerset Maugham: Orientations

This is a collection of six very enjoyable short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on September 04, 2020, 08:17:33 PM
Fireball XL5 Annual 1965
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 06, 2020, 01:44:22 AM
Chekhov: Lady with Lapdog and Other Stories


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/AMBIREBOOKS/19854629743.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 05:08:48 AM
I did it. I finished Ulysses. This just might have been my lengthiest reading project ever (not counting those which I entirely abandoned) - if my calculations are correct it took me roughly a year and a half to get through it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 06, 2020, 05:10:13 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 05:08:48 AM
I did it. I finished Ulysses. This just might have been my lengthiest reading project ever (not counting those which I entirely abandoned) - if my calculations are correct it took me roughly a year and a half to get through it!

And you lived to tell the tale  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 06, 2020, 05:27:48 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 05:08:48 AM
I did it. I finished Ulysses. This just might have been my lengthiest reading project ever (not counting those which I entirely abandoned) - if my calculations are correct it took me roughly a year and a half to get through it!

Did you notice my favourite word? Melonsmelonous.

QuoteHe kissed the plump mellow yellow smellow melons of her rump, on each plump melonous hemisphere, in their mellow yellow furrow, with obscure prolonged provocative melonsmelonous osculation.

(Or did you read it in Finnish? If so, it doesn't count, you have to read it in English.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 05:34:13 AM
Yes, I read it in Finnish. Joyce is one of those writers I would never dare to attempt to read completely in english. It doesn't help that Ulysses has been translated twice in Finnish, with the latter translator having said that the first translator didn't even know english particularly well. And I just happened to read the first translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 06, 2020, 05:35:53 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 05:34:13 AM
Yes, I read it in Finnish. Joyce is one of those writers I would never dare to attempt to read in english.

So can you really say melonsmelonous in Finnish? I mean, do smell and melon share the same sound? What do they do to translate it? Go and look it up, I won't be able to sleep if I don't know. It's in Episode 17 "Ithaca".

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 05:39:11 AM
No, Joyce is particularly hard to translate in Finnish.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 05:41:38 AM
Oh, and I actually have already returned the book into library. Sorry!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 06, 2020, 06:13:49 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 05:39:11 AM
No, Joyce is particularly hard to translate in Finnish.

Joyce can be sometimes difficult to read in English let alone in a Finnish translation. You did very admirably well to persist and complete the book in the circumstances. Well done!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 06:17:13 AM
Thank you!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on September 06, 2020, 06:56:26 AM
"He kissed the plump mellow yellow smellow melons of her rump, on each plump melonous hemisphere, in their mellow yellow furrow, with obscure prolonged provocative melonsmelonous osculation".

I like that bit! :-* :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on September 06, 2020, 07:54:34 AM
 Currently rereading Stranger to the Ground, by Richard Bach.

The writing in this work of Bach's is quite interesting. He seems to be refining his craft as the book progresses, using a variety of tools with varying degrees of success. Those who are only familiar with Bach's later work would do well to acquaint themselves with this early effort.

::),

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 06, 2020, 08:56:10 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on September 06, 2020, 06:17:13 AM
Thank you!  :)

You are most welcome.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 06, 2020, 08:59:08 AM
Quote from: LKB on September 06, 2020, 07:54:34 AM
Currently rereading Stranger to the Ground, by Richard Bach.

The writing in this work of Bach's is quite interesting. He seems to be refining his craft as the book progresses, using a variety of tools with varying degrees of success. Those who are only familiar with Bach's later work would do well to acquaint themselves with this early effort.

::),

LKB

Cheers, LBK. Every composers ultimate success is always a journey, not least the Master's. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 08, 2020, 10:16:07 AM
About 4/5 through Anna Karenina. Some fifty pages back I especially liked the part where Dolly is on her way to visit the adulterers Anna and Vronsky and with her sympathetic thoughts directed towards Anna and her situation there seems to be an implication of Dolly wanting to cheat on Stiva (if the word cheat can be used in this context considering Stiva is unfaithful towards Dolly almost all the time) or perhaps a suppressed wish to separate from him. And then there comes this wonderfully allegorical touch of Dolly and her carriage arriving at the point where the road separates from the main road to road going Vozdvizhenskoe (the estate of Vronsky and Anna, the adulterers). It seems to be allegorical way to describe the danger of entertaining thoughts about cheating and that the main road is the socially acceptable way of staying faithful - and the road that separates from the main one towards the adulterer's estate seems to be the one Dolly is in danger at heading towards, the road of cheating. Once again, I think Dolly has a very good reason to be bitter towards Stiva and his numerous love affairs but I guess this is Tolstoy expressing the "turn the other cheek" way of thinking. Or perhaps I am starting to apply the allegorical thoughts to almost everything nowadays. It just felt appropriate how that part came right after such thoughts by Dolly. Although I don't believe for a moment that Dolly will give way to a temptation.

Anyway,I am enjoying Anna Karenina immensely. There is wonderful wit, irony, psychological observation, humor and it's a coherent whole. Even though I do not enjoy Levin as much as I did before (I think Karenin is the most interesting character).

I have never read Flaubert's Madame Bovary but from what I know about it, do you guys think it had influence on Anna Karenina?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on September 09, 2020, 10:37:55 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on September 02, 2020, 10:11:59 AM
Late response but Roughing it is one of my personal favorites from Twain. My first exposure to Twain's books was in elementary school when I read Tom Sawyer, which I didn't like (and still don't). In middle school I read Huckleberry Finn which I liked a lot more. Roughing it however is even better. One of the most amazing descriptions of Wild West I've ever read. I don't  mind the fragmentary style of the book, I think it fits the tone perfectly and Twain is extraordinarily droll. I'm pretty sure though that Twain has more than a little bit exaggerated the facts...

For Twain I definitely seem to prefer the travel writing (Innocents Abroad, etc.) and the shorter pieces to the novels, other than Huck Finn.  Droll is the perfect word, he's a delightful traveling companion wherever he's going.

Just finished revisiting a sampling of Hemingway's short stories, and a 1st trip through Green Hills of Africa.  Based partly on Ernest's strong recommendation in the latter, I'm next trying Tolstoy's The Cossacks...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91E1X1YiXSL.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51d6t-rPJjL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 13, 2020, 04:27:48 AM
I have read two more books from my Somerset Maugham collection [stock image from Google but very similar to my collection]


(https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjYzWDE2MDA=/z/3h0AAOSw7yVeay79/$_58.JPG)


Mrs. Craddock: This is a wonderful study of a young, self-willed and determined woman and her struggle through life, and particularly her expectations from her marriage.

The Merry-Go-Round: This novel takes one fairly centre character and a few peripheral characters in the Mrs. Craddock novel and explores them and their world in more detail. The links and cross references were interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 13, 2020, 01:15:25 PM
Finished:

(https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/covers/original/9781784707330.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51FVPzhbc0L._AC_UL600_SR390,600_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41f5fgoKikL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Obama: An Oral History was disappointingly light, with every important moment whizzing by with only three or four brief comments from insiders, most of which I'd heard before,  and nothing covered in exhaustive detail. On the evidence of this it might have needed a ten volume set to have been worthwhile.

The Murakami, despite some early uncertainty and a couple of rough patches, proved one of his best, and justified its near 700 pages.. The descriptions of Art and of the work-in-progress artworks were, imo, especially well done.


Started:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1369320241l/17972216.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41NjfzTkNeL._SY445_QL70_ML2_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81qZF+5UB1L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scion7 on September 13, 2020, 02:05:25 PM
(https://i.postimg.cc/kgnRDshV/ddeerrff.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 16, 2020, 02:39:47 AM
Amis: That Uncertain Feeling


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/MILLER1934/md/md18397510994.jpg)


This is the story of a married, indolent and self centred librarian, his affair with a young married woman and the consequences that inevitably come as a result. It is witty, amusing, entertaining and is also full of biting satire on Welsh nationalism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 16, 2020, 07:32:45 PM
Just borrowed (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41PHNcpRa3L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 17, 2020, 06:45:49 AM
Just started

(https://www.printrecarti.ro/images/products/originals/thomas-hardy-departe-de-lumea-dezlantuita-leda-clasic_1583.jpg)

Far from the Madding Crowd

So far so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scion7 on September 17, 2020, 07:01:58 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/21UK3+NC4IL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 17, 2020, 09:50:27 AM
(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1175048792l/473687.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 17, 2020, 10:00:23 AM
Quote from: aligreto on August 23, 2020, 01:42:58 AM
Gogol: Diary of a Madman and Other Stories


(https://live.staticflickr.com/6173/6267463202_f550fa985b_b.jpg)


These stories are filled with eccentric and interesting characters.

I love them. You may like stories by E.T.A. Hoffman as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 18, 2020, 01:54:20 AM
(https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjYzWDE2MDA=/z/3h0AAOSw7yVeay79/$_58.JPG)


Another novel by Somerset Maugham.
This time The Explorer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 18, 2020, 01:55:16 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 17, 2020, 10:00:23 AM
I love them. You may like stories by E.T.A. Hoffman as well.

Cheers and thank you for the recommendation. I do not know E.T.A. Hoffman at all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 18, 2020, 02:39:59 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 18, 2020, 01:55:16 AM
Cheers and thank you for the recommendation. I do not know E.T.A. Hoffman at all.

I second that. You should make his acquaintance asap. You might start with The Sandman which is the inspiration behind Coppelia and Les contes d'Hoffmann.

He was also a composer but his music isn't even a quarter as quirky and interesting as his literary works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 18, 2020, 03:46:02 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 18, 2020, 02:39:59 AM
I second that. You should make his acquaintance asap. You might start with The Sandman which is the inspiration behind Coppelia and Les contes d'Hoffmann.

He was also a composer but his music isn't even a quarter as quirky and interesting as his literary works.

Thank you for that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 18, 2020, 08:28:30 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 18, 2020, 02:39:59 AM

He was also a composer but his music isn't even a quarter as quirky and interesting as his literary works.

Ha ha 🤣🤣🤣
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on September 18, 2020, 01:49:55 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Orfeo%2C_Richard_Powers%2C_cover.jpg)

This has some of the best writing about classical music I've read anywhere. Mahler, Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, Messaien Quartet for the End of Time all appear, contemporary music too, and much else besides.
The plotline is about an unwitting septagenarian bio-terrorist, but really the book is about music, its composition and one man's reaction to it, all from the pen of a very gifted writer. Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 18, 2020, 06:28:09 PM
Quote from: Iota on September 18, 2020, 01:49:55 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Orfeo%2C_Richard_Powers%2C_cover.jpg)

This has some of the best writing about classical music I've read anywhere. Mahler, Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, Messaien Quartet for the End of Time all appear, contemporary music too, and much else besides.
The plotline is about an unwitting septagenarian bio-terrorist, but really the book is about music, its composition and one man's reaction to it, all from the pen of a very gifted writer. Recommended.

There's a copy of that at the local secondhand bookshop and I've been wavering about getting it. I'll probably do so now adding your recomendation on to the scales.

Opened it to a random page while I was looking at it and read something like "You're the Thomas Merton of music: you want to live in a hermitage in Times Square with a big neon sign pointing towards you saying Hermit"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 19, 2020, 06:17:29 AM
I've never heard of Richard Powers before (other than seeing The Overstory in bookstores) but that description of Orfeo has definitely put him on my map. Going to try and find that book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on September 19, 2020, 06:57:17 AM
Gear [asin]0306817837[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 19, 2020, 08:13:26 AM
Didn't really read, but rather listened to Jean Cocteau's monodrama Le bel indifférent, as performed in a 1953 radio broadcast by Édith Piaf (for whom the piece was written).

Ca. 30 minutes of über-melodramatic boulevard theatre, and really, really fun. Piaf is really engaging, and the broadcast ends with one of her classic songs, Je t'ai dans la peau.... Great stuff!

[asin]B00IK18P3A[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 19, 2020, 08:00:33 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 19, 2020, 06:17:29 AM
I've never heard of Richard Powers before (other than seeing The Overstory in bookstores) but that description of Orfeo has definitely put him on my map. Going to try and find that book.
I bought Overstory to read during pandemic and I expect to get to it next month. Will be my first encounter with Powers but agree that Orfeo sounds really interesting.

Edit: currently reading two different books about America's great migration: nonfiction "The Warmth of Other Suns" (Isabel Wilkerson) and brand new fiction "The Vanishing Half" (Brit Bennett). In hindsight this is too much of the same theme at once, but both are impressive in their own ways. Suns, in particular, is an incredible achievement of history writing and research. As a history master's degree holder, my jaw is on the floor at the achievement even if the subject matter makes challenging reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on September 20, 2020, 06:46:26 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 18, 2020, 06:28:09 PM
Opened it to a random page while I was looking at it and read something like "You're the Thomas Merton of music: you want to live in a hermitage in Times Square with a big neon sign pointing towards you saying Hermit"

:D  There's one particular relationship in the book where some memorably caustic opinions are traded, the protagonist being on the end of the majority of them. Though actually I think that one may be from another, also important figure.

Quote from: vers la flamme on September 19, 2020, 06:17:29 AM
I've never heard of Richard Powers before (other than seeing The Overstory in bookstores) but that description of Orfeo has definitely put him on my map. Going to try and find that book.

I hadn't come across him before Orfeo either, but will now be on the look-out for the next possibility.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 20, 2020, 07:56:09 AM
Huxley: Antic Hay


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/WAFER/30144611805.jpg)


This is a rather cynical look at upper class attitudes and cultural life in a time of great change after the end of WWI.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 20, 2020, 08:21:29 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 17, 2020, 10:00:23 AM
I love them. You may like stories by E.T.A. Hoffman as well.

Quote from: aligreto on September 18, 2020, 01:55:16 AM
Cheers and thank you for the recommendation. I do not know E.T.A. Hoffman at all.


Quote from: Florestan on September 18, 2020, 02:39:59 AM
I second that. You should make his acquaintance asap. You might start with The Sandman which is the inspiration behind Coppelia and Les contes d'Hoffmann.

He was also a composer but his music isn't even a quarter as quirky and interesting as his literary works.

I forgot to mention that Offenbach's opera, Tales of Hoffman, is based on three short stories by E.T.A. Hoffman.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 20, 2020, 08:25:06 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 20, 2020, 07:56:09 AM
Huxley: Antic Hay


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/WAFER/30144611805.jpg)


This is a rather cynical look at upper class attitudes and cultural life in a time of great change after the end of WWI.

Gorgeous cover !! I still read his Doors of Perception every year!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 20, 2020, 09:19:35 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 20, 2020, 08:25:06 AM
Gorgeous cover !! I still read his Doors of Perception every year!

As a young man I devoured his books. I am now, as a more "mature" man, embarking on a slow re-reading project.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 20, 2020, 09:44:51 AM
Katherine Mansfield, Stories. A glimpse of death, live and aging in fancy life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 20, 2020, 09:54:46 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 18, 2020, 02:39:59 AM
I second that. You should make his acquaintance asap. You might start with The Sandman which is the inspiration behind Coppelia and Les contes d'Hoffmann.

He was also a composer but his music isn't even a quarter as quirky and interesting as his literary works.
As a composer he revered Mozart (and changes his middle name to Amadeus) and this shows but while he also hailed Beethoven Hoffmann himself remained a more hesitant (and probably simply not as musically gifted) classicist romantic. Admittedly I have never heard his opera, Undine, that was more or less displaced by a later light romantic opera with the same title by Lortzing (which used to be rather popular in Germany until the 60s but has since almost fallen into obscurity).

The most famous piece based on Hoffmann (but rather different in detail) is the Nutcracker.
There is at least one more opera based on Hoffmann (the novella Madame de Scuderi), namely "Cardillac" by Hindemith.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 20, 2020, 10:11:40 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on September 20, 2020, 09:54:46 AM
As a composer he revered Mozart (and changes his middle name to Amadeus) and this shows but while he also hailed Beethoven Hoffmann himself remained a more hesitant (and probably simply not as musically gifted) classicist romantic. Admittedly I have never heard his opera, Undine, that was more or less displaced by a later light romantic opera with the same title by Lortzing (which used to be rather popular in Germany until the 60s but has since almost fallen into obscurity).

The most famous piece based on Hoffmann (but rather different in detail) is the Nutcracker.
There is at least one more opera based on Hoffmann (the novella Madame de Scuderi), namely "Cardillac" by Hindemith.

I've heard his piano sonatas. I've forgotten them as soon as they were over --- but honestly, there's not much beyond Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven which did not suffer the same fate, Scarlatti, Schubert and Chopin excluded.  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 20, 2020, 10:43:10 AM
I think I have heard his symphpony that is modelled after Mozart's E flat K 543 and I have a recording of a piano trio. The latter is nice but not quite Beethoven.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 20, 2020, 10:53:53 AM
Have you guys listened to JJ Rousseau's music? I thought that the music was mediocre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 20, 2020, 07:41:58 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 20, 2020, 10:53:53 AM
Have you guys listened to JJ Rousseau's music? I thought that the music was mediocre.
Not yet but Nietzsche wrote some pretty prosaic piano music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 21, 2020, 01:53:40 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on September 20, 2020, 10:43:10 AM
nice but not quite Beethoven.

I guess you could say that about most composers.  ;D

I strongly disagree to making Beethoven the universal standard by which all other composers are to be judged.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 21, 2020, 02:00:40 AM
Not the universal standard but a plausible standard and comparison for 1812-20 piano trios, wouldn't you say? I have not compared with Hummel, Hoffmann might not be far behind Hummel with that trio and by composing a (pre)romantic opera he was apparently more ambitious than Hummel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Biffo on September 21, 2020, 02:36:05 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 20, 2020, 09:19:35 AM
As a young man I devoured his books. I am now, as a more "mature" man, embarking on a slow re-reading project.  ;D

As a young man I read several of his novels, now, 40+ years later I can remember very little about them. I remember one of the central characters of Point Counterpoint was obsessed with the Heiliger Dankgesang of Beethoven's Op 132 String Quartet; I hadn't heard the work at the time so it didn't mean much to me.

A colleague told me he thought Ape and Essence was the nastiest book he had ever read, can't remember why or whether he ever gave me an explanation.

Goof luck with your re-reading project
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 22, 2020, 12:17:42 AM
(https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41glfGJNlzL._SX195_.jpg)

When she was 15, Vanessa Springora became the partner of Gabriel Matzneff, an author who had published pedophile literature including the diaries of his sexual adventures with teenagers in Thailand, and had published a tract in praise of sex with adolescents less that 15 years old. In the end she dumped him, deciding that his pedophile tendencies would mean that he would stop loving her when she aged. And she was worried that she would figure as a character in one of his books.

This book is her revenge: her revenge consists in turning him into a character in her book.


It is utter rubbish from every point of view - literary or moral. Its only reason for existence is to make a bit of dosh for its author post metoo.

Back to Proust now!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 23, 2020, 12:58:17 AM
Quote from: Biffo on September 21, 2020, 02:36:05 AM
As a young man I read several of his novels, now, 40+ years later I can remember very little about them. I remember one of the central characters of Point Counterpoint was obsessed with the Heiliger Dankgesang of Beethoven's Op 132 String Quartet; I hadn't heard the work at the time so it didn't mean much to me.

A colleague told me he thought Ape and Essence was the nastiest book he had ever read, can't remember why or whether he ever gave me an explanation.

Goof luck with your re-reading project

Cheers. I think that he wrote people very well. However, not all of those characters would necessarily come with a high recommendation. A lot of his characters were wanton and irresponsible but he did not try to justify them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 23, 2020, 03:35:36 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on September 22, 2020, 12:17:42 AM
It is utter rubbish from every point of view - literary or moral. Its only reason for existence is to make a bit of dosh for its author post metoo.
I hope the man's "literature" is unpublished as it is surely much, much worse.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on September 24, 2020, 08:25:45 AM
Finished Anna Karenina couple of days ago which I liked.

Now reading some Shaw essay on Ibsen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 24, 2020, 02:53:03 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 23, 2020, 03:35:36 PM
I hope the man's "literature" is unpublished as it is surely much, much worse.

He is quite well published:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Matzneff#Work
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 25, 2020, 01:27:42 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 24, 2020, 02:53:03 PM
He is quite well published:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Matzneff#Work

A brazen pedophile was awarded (twice!) a prize from the Académie française. Sweet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 25, 2020, 02:11:07 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 25, 2020, 01:27:42 AM
A brazen pedophile was awarded (twice!) a prize from the Académie française. Sweet.

Insane, right. I understand the French literary establishment has been catching some flak in recent years for backing this guy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 25, 2020, 02:33:30 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 25, 2020, 02:11:07 AM
Insane, right. I understand the French literary establishment has been catching some flak in recent years for backing this guy.

Many of the so-called intellectuals have lost their effing minds long time ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 25, 2020, 02:43:57 AM
Basically the whole French intellectual and literary establishment signed a petition for the abolishment of any age of consent laws (it's 15 in France but I think still sufficiently disputed that there is nothing like automatic statutory rape) in the 1970s... They have been libertines since Marquis de Sade...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_petition_against_age_of_consent_laws
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/frances-existential-crisis-over-sexual-harassment-laws/550700/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 25, 2020, 02:51:02 AM
Never read anything by Mr. Matzneff (and TBH have no inclination to do so anytime soon), but perhaps the Académie thought that you can  simultaneously  be a brilliant writer and a pedophile. France (fortunately) is one of the few countries where witchhunts and damnatio memoriae are not applied as easily as elsewhere.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 25, 2020, 03:25:38 AM
Quote from: ritter on September 25, 2020, 02:51:02 AM
Never read anything by Mr. Matzneff (and TBH have no inclination to do so anytime soon), but perhaps the Académie thought that you can  simultaneously  be a brilliant writer and a pedophile.

Apparently, the main topic of his books is exactly his pedophilia. However brilliantly they might be written --- and I have very strong doubts that Matzneff's style is anywhere near Proust's or Cioran's --- this fact, combined with an elementary moral sense, should have give them pause for reflection. But it seems that the aforementioned elementary moral sense, which would make any humble, crass, barely literate plumber who has never read a single book in his life, let alone one prized by the Academie francaise, instantly recoil in horror at Matzneff's deeds, is in short supply among the enlightened, educated and oh so refined French intelligentsia.

Quote
France (fortunately) is one of the few countries where witchhunts and damnatio memoriae are not applied as easily as elsewhere.

Maybe. The fact remains, though, that witchhhunts and damnatio memoriae, while not trademarks of the French Revolution, were applied during that glorious historical event with a tenacity and a thoroughness unparalleled before and which I would qualify as German, were it not incongruous with the context.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 25, 2020, 04:23:44 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on September 25, 2020, 02:43:57 AM
Basically the whole French intellectual and literary establishment signed a petition for the abolishment of any age of consent laws (it's 15 in France but I think still sufficiently disputed that there is nothing like automatic statutory rape) in the 1970s... They have been libertines since Marquis de Sade...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_petition_against_age_of_consent_laws
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/frances-existential-crisis-over-sexual-harassment-laws/550700/

The irony is that Marquis de Sade was a madman whose own family requested his incarceration and he was transferred from Bastille to another prison a few days before the former was taken by storm. And btw, on July 14, 1789 "the Bastille was nearly empty, housing only seven prisoners:[26] four forgers; James F.X. Whyte, a "lunatic" imprisoned at the request of his family; Auguste-Claude Tavernier, who had tried to assassinate Louis XV thirty years before; and one "deviant" aristocrat, the Comte de Solages, imprisoned by his father using a lettre de cachet". Some big deal indeed, taking by storm a prison devoid of any political prisoner...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André Le Nôtre on September 26, 2020, 07:35:13 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on September 22, 2020, 12:17:42 AM

Back to Proust now!

en français ou en anglais?

I have had the very beautiful Modern Library hardcover (1950s?) translated by Scott Moncrief sitting on my shelf for years, but the thought of beginning this immense work is a bit daunting--especially given the many other things on my to-read list.

I have read very little poetry lately. I am looking to diving into either Jim Harrison or possibly Borges, but where to start?

Currently nearly finished with Connemara--Listening to The Wind by Tim Robinson (first in a trilogy. Truly a great writer, but much of the local history of the place is really a bore, for me at least--and I am an Irish citizen. Perhaps volumes two and three are more focused on the natural history and older history (Celtic and earlier), which would be of more interest to me personally.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 27, 2020, 02:24:02 AM
Somerset Maugham: Of Human Bondage


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/HCwAAOSwZGNeRnG4/s-l400.jpg)


This is a two volume, 957 page novel about emotional immaturity, stupidity and lack of common sense. There is no empathy whatsoever accruing from the reader [me] for the situations that the main character finds himself in as it is always blatantly obvious that he is constantly making the wrong decision. Interestingly, Maugham wrote in his preface "This is a novel, not an autobiography; though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 27, 2020, 11:08:26 AM
Quote from: ritter on September 25, 2020, 02:51:02 AM
Never read anything by Mr. Matzneff (and TBH have no inclination to do so anytime soon), but perhaps the Académie thought that you can  simultaneously  be a brilliant writer and a pedophile. France (fortunately) is one of the few countries where witchhunts and damnatio memoriae are not applied as easily as elsewhere.

Quote from: ritter on September 25, 2020, 02:51:02 AM
Never read anything by Mr. Matzneff (and TBH have no inclination to do so anytime soon), but perhaps the Académie thought that you can  simultaneously  be a brilliant writer and a pedophile. France (fortunately) is one of the few countries where witchhunts and damnatio memoriae are not applied as easily as elsewhere.

I downloaded the notorious Les moins de seize ans, a tract in praise of young flesh but not interestingly argued and not poetically written. I also got hold of a copy of a biography of Lord Byron which he wrote, which seems rather more interesting but I haven't read it properly yet.

Just started to read this - and I'm dipping into L'innommable

I mean, I take a break from Proust by reading Beckett - what have I become?  :o

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/417shVp6czL._SX339_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 27, 2020, 11:13:13 AM
Quote from: André Le Nôtre on September 26, 2020, 07:35:13 PM
en français ou en anglais?

I have had the very beautiful Modern Library hardcover (1950s?) translated by Scott Moncrief sitting on my shelf for years, but the thought of beginning this immense work is a bit daunting--especially given the many other things on my to-read list.


In French, I've read Scott Moncrief though, and indeed the new translation of Du côté de chez Swann. One thing I'm very conscious of now is how marvellous Proust's French is, and you just don't get that at all in translation! The music of it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 02, 2020, 03:12:51 AM
Childers: The Riddle of the Sands


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51i9V21dxKL._AC_SY400_.jpg)


This is ostensibly an espionage story but it is really about the skill and craft, and the love of sailing. If one is of a nautical inclination then I would definitely read it. If not, then you will not be deprived of reading a masterpiece of the genre by not reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 02, 2020, 05:10:01 AM
Finished the pair, and after reading came to the conclusion that he was kind of a bad guy

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fCInAu3OL._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/27/books/bookullrich1/bookullrich1-articleLarge.png?quality=90&auto=webp)

Seriously, a few interesting takeaways
A) in the 30s he was a very shrewd politician, not just a demagogue who could rile crowds up
B) His anti-Semitism was sincere and the core of most everything he did and believed, not some 'great lie' to get power
C) He realized the war was lost when Barbarossa failed in late summer 1941, but kept doubling down on long-shots to win, such as Op Blau, Kursk or the Bulge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 02, 2020, 05:30:46 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on October 02, 2020, 05:10:01 AM

B) His anti-Semitism was sincere and the core of most everything he did and believed, not some 'great lie' to get power


I read the first part of Tolamd's classic 70s biography recently and he makes it clear that the antisemitism only began with the "stab in the back" myth after 1918, and wasn't present before. How does that compare with Ullrich?

Toland was particularly good at the homeless and dosshouse years in Vienna - of which I'd like to learn more. And for an unexpectedly touching portrait of the dog Fuchsl he had on the front.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 02, 2020, 05:37:19 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 02, 2020, 05:30:46 AM
I read the first part of Tolamd's classic 70s biography recently and he makes it clear that the antisemitism only began with the "stab in the back" myth after 1918, and wasn't present before. How does that compare with Ullrich?

Toland was particularly good at the homeless and dosshouse years in Vienna - of which I'd like to learn more. And for an unexpectedly touching portrait of the dog Fuchsl he had on the front.

About the same - not much indication of it until the years after the war in Vienna, gives the impression it became an identity he assumed that grew to dominate everything he did
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 03, 2020, 05:24:54 PM
Finished:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1179980361l/981998._SY475_.jpg)

Started:

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/91/df/ba/91dfba4e69e673876c2089f36ee85b04.gif)

needing some easy distractions
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 03, 2020, 08:46:45 PM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on October 02, 2020, 05:10:01 AM
Finished the pair, and after reading came to the conclusion that he was kind of a bad guy

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fCInAu3OL._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/27/books/bookullrich1/bookullrich1-articleLarge.png?quality=90&auto=webp)

Seriously, a few interesting takeaways
A) in the 30s he was a very shrewd politician, not just a demagogue who could rile crowds up
B) His anti-Semitism was sincere and the core of most everything he did and believed, not some 'great lie' to get power
C) He realized the war was lost when Barbarossa failed in late summer 1941, but kept doubling down on long-shots to win, such as Op Blau, Kursk or the Bulge

Was he homosexual?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 03, 2020, 09:03:52 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 03, 2020, 08:46:45 PM
Was he homosexual?

What makes you ask that?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 04, 2020, 02:50:30 AM
Somerset Maugham: The Magician


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/SYBERS/30637211775_2.jpg)


This is a somewhat strange story that starts off as a portrait of a number of modest middle class people about town and gradually ends up as a story that ties them all up in a tale centred around the occult with a somewhat gruesome and horrific ending. It is a most interesting read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 04, 2020, 03:59:23 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 03, 2020, 08:46:45 PM
Was he homosexual?

No evidence of it.  May have abused his niece who later committed suicide

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geli_Raubal
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 04, 2020, 09:06:03 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 04, 2020, 02:50:30 AM
Somerset Maugham: The Magician


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/SYBERS/30637211775_2.jpg)


This is a somewhat strange story that starts off as a portrait of a number of modest middle class people about town and gradually ends up as a story that ties them all up in a tale centred around the occult with a somewhat gruesome and horrific ending. It is a most interesting read.

IIRC the title character was loosely based on Aleister Crowley (or more precisely, the public image of Crowley. I don't think the two ever met.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 04, 2020, 11:25:42 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91KfrxxdZ8L.jpg)

I have absolutely no idea what the fuck it's about but who cares, the French is so beautiful. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 04, 2020, 11:27:16 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 04, 2020, 11:25:42 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91KfrxxdZ8L.jpg)

I have absolutely no idea what the fuck it's about but who cares, the French is so beautiful.
Thinking about tackling that one myself. Perhaps the (shorter) revised version, though...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 04, 2020, 11:29:44 AM
Quote from: ritter on October 04, 2020, 11:27:16 AM
Thinking about tackling that one myself. Perhaps the (shorter) revised version, though...

Apparently you have to read both -- he said they were both so very different!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 04, 2020, 01:07:19 PM
Quote from: JBS on October 04, 2020, 09:06:03 AM

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/SYBERS/30637211775_2.jpg)

IIRC the title character was loosely based on Aleister Crowley (or more precisely, the public image of Crowley. I don't think the two ever met.)

Maugham does not hide his utter dislike for Crowley whom he mentions, without favour, in the preface to this book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 04, 2020, 08:07:44 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 03, 2020, 09:03:52 PM
What makes you ask that?

Sorry, I like homosexual people a lot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on October 04, 2020, 11:09:31 PM
So you would like Hitler better if he had been gay?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 04, 2020, 11:28:17 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on October 04, 2020, 11:09:31 PM
So you would like Hitler better if he had been gay?

Oh shut up!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 04, 2020, 11:33:55 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 03, 2020, 08:46:45 PM
Was he homosexual?

Yes, there's a book about it

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51IoYWQZ6EL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: greg on October 05, 2020, 06:35:15 AM
Wtf lol.



Quote from: BWV 1080 on October 02, 2020, 05:10:01 AM
Finished the pair, and after reading came to the conclusion that he was kind of a bad guy

Quote from: BWV 1080 on October 02, 2020, 05:10:01 AM
B) His anti-Semitism was sincere and the core of most everything he did and believed, not some 'great lie' to get power
What I don't get: did he really, really, think he could get away with what he did?

Or did he more than anything just want to see the world burn?

Because seems you would have to be an idiot to say you want the best for your country and then have them be a target like that. That's what doesn't make sense to me, it seems incredibly stupid and suicidal.


Also, is there anything in there about his obsession with cleanliness? Did he really take 4 baths a day?  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 05, 2020, 06:44:11 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 04, 2020, 11:33:55 PM
Yes, there's a book about it

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51IoYWQZ6EL.jpg)

I will order 10 copies for my entire family.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 05, 2020, 07:34:05 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 04, 2020, 08:07:44 PM
Sorry, I like homosexual people a lot.

Well there is always Ernst Rohm
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 05, 2020, 07:40:57 AM
Quote from: greg on October 05, 2020, 06:35:15 AM
Wtf lol.


What I don't get: did he really, really, think he could get away with what he did?

Or did he more than anything just want to see the world burn?

Because seems you would have to be an idiot to say you want the best for your country and then have them be a target like that. That's what doesn't make sense to me, it seems incredibly stupid and suicidal.


Also, is there anything in there about his obsession with cleanliness? Did he really take 4 baths a day?  ???

Hitler's overall plan was rational, albeit criminal and a wild gamble.  He saw Germany's defeat in WW1 stemming from the superior resources in manpower and material from both the British Empire (remember at the time, the UK could draw on the resources of its colonies) and the US.  He saw the only option for Germany to compete on an equal footing was to create a land empire in the East, exterminating most of the population of the USSR, seizing its abundant natural resources, and resettling it with ethnic Germans - he made analogies to the American conquest of the West and how white American settlers displaced native Americans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 07, 2020, 03:25:28 AM
Huxley: Twice Seven


(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e3/9b/78/e39b789f3fa7e072d0b4416dd9bffd3c.jpg)


This is a selection of short stories. They range in length from a few pages to a novella. The quality is also variable and ranges from the compelling to the inane. Huxley tended towards excessive indulgence in philosophising and moralising at the expense of character and plot development in many of the stories. I know that is what he was about but it is a pity as the storytelling does, for me, suffer as a result.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 07, 2020, 09:44:57 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71zyCvIRZ7L.jpg)

What the hell is the point of this? 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 08, 2020, 05:00:34 PM
Quote from: aligreto on September 06, 2020, 01:44:22 AM
Chekhov: Lady with Lapdog and Other Stories


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/AMBIREBOOKS/19854629743.jpg)

I like Chekhov. I have named one of my dogs Chekhov.
If you like his works, you may like stories by Katherine Mansfield, who was influenced by Chekhov.
Do you happen to know the music "The Lady with Lapdog" composed by Rodion Shchedrin?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 08, 2020, 05:07:57 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 26, 2020, 05:20:35 AM
Who translated that edition of Dead Souls? I ask because I remember it being a pleasure, even fun to read.

If the text is very old, it could be Charles James Hogarth. There are several new translations and they are much better.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on October 09, 2020, 12:23:44 AM
As for the dog. I seem to recall a short story by Cekhov (not sure, could have been another late 19th century writer, it must have been in some anthology) where (as a side note, not a main plot) a boy tortures a dog or dogs by letting them eat bits of meat tied to string so he can pull them up again after the dog had swallowed them.
Title: Louise Glück, new to me
Post by: bhodges on October 09, 2020, 07:04:19 AM
Like many people, I suspect, I was not familiar with the work of Louise Glück, who just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. A friend in Austin (also unfamiliar with her) posted this fine introduction. Like many fine writers, Glück deploys disarming simplicity.

* * * * *

The Denial of Death
Issue no. 226 (Fall 2018)

1. A Travel Diary

I had left my passport at an inn we stayed at for a night or so whose name I couldn't remember. This is how it began. The next hotel would not receive me. A beautiful hotel, in an orange grove, with a view of the sea. How casually you accepted the room that would have been ours, and, later, how merrily you stood on the balcony, pelting me with foil-wrapped chocolates. The next day you resumed the journey we would have taken together.

The concierge procured an old blanket for me. By day, I sat outside the kitchen. By night, I spread my blanket among the orange trees. Every day was the same, except for the weather.

After a time, the staff took pity on me. A busboy would bring me food from the evening meal, the odd potato or bit of lamb. Sometimes a postcard arrived. On the front, glossy landmarks and works of art. Once, a mountain covered in snow. After a month or so there was a postscript: X sends regards.

I say a month, but really I had no idea of time. The busboy disappeared. There was a new busboy, then one more, I believe. From time to time, one would join me on my blanket.

I loved those days! Each one exactly like its predecessor. There were the stone steps we climbed together and the little town where we breakfasted. Very far away, I could see the cove where we used to swim, but not hear anymore the children calling out to one another, nor hear you anymore, asking me if I would like a cold drink, which I always would.

When the postcards stopped, I read the old ones again. I saw myself standing under the balcony in that rain of foil-covered kisses, unable to believe you would abandon me, begging you, of course, though not in words—

The concierge, I realized, had been standing beside me. Do not be sad, he said. You have begun your own journey, not into the world, like your friend, but into yourself and your memories. As they fall away, perhaps you will attain that enviable emptiness into which all things flow, like the empty cup in the Daodejing—

Everything is change, he said, and everything is connected. Also everything returns, but what returns is not what went away.

We watched you walk away. Down the stone steps and into the little town. I felt something true had been spoken, and though I would have preferred to have spoken it myself, I was glad at least to have heard it.

2. The Story of the Passport

It came back but you did not come back.
It happened as follows:

One day an envelope arrived,
bearing stamps from a small European republic.
This the concierge handed me with an air of great ceremony;
I tried to open it in the same spirit.

Inside was my passport.
There was my face, or what had been my face
at some point, deep in the past.
But I had parted ways with it,
that face smiling with such conviction,
filled with all the memories of our travels together
and our dreams of other journeys—
I threw it into the sea.

It sank immediately.
Downward, downward, while I continued
staring into the empty water.
All this time the concierge was watching me.

Come, he said, taking my arm. And we began
to walk around the lake, as was my daily habit.

I see, he said, that you no longer
wish to resume your former life,
to move, that is, in a straight line as time
suggests we do, but rather (here he gestured toward the lake)
in a circle, which aspires to
that stillness at the heart of things,
though I prefer to think it also resembles a clock.

Here he took out of his pocket
the large watch that was always with him. I challenge you, he said,
to tell, looking at this, if it is Monday or Tuesday.
But if you look at the hand that holds it, you will realize I am not
a young man anymore, my hair is silver.
Nor will you be surprised to learn
it was once dark, as yours must have been dark,
and curly, I would say.

Through this recital, we were both
watching a group of children playing in the shallows,
each body circled by a rubber tube.

Red and blue, green and yellow,
a rainbow of children splashing in the clear lake.

I could hear the clock ticking,
presumably alluding to the passage of time
while in fact annulling it.

You must ask yourself, he said, if you deceive yourself.
By which I mean looking at the watch and not
the hand holding it. We stood awhile, staring at the lake,
each of us thinking our own thoughts.

But isn't the life of the philosopher
exactly as you describe, I said. Going over the same course,
waiting for truth to disclose itself.

But you have stopped making things, he said, which is what
the philosopher does. Remember when you kept what you called
your travel journal? You used to read it to me,
I remember it was filled with stories of every kind,
mostly love stories and stories about loss, punctuated
with fantastic details such as wouldn't occur to most of us,

and yet hearing them I had a sense I was listening
to my own experience but more beautifully related
than I could ever have done. I felt

you were talking to me or about me though I never left your side.
What was it called? A travel diary, I think you said,
though I often called it The Denial of Death, after Ernest Becker.
And you had an odd name for me, I remember.

Concierge, I said. Concierge is what I called you.
And before that, you, which is, I believe,
a convention in fiction.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 09, 2020, 04:44:28 PM
Niels Bohr's Times, Abraham Pais.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on October 10, 2020, 04:22:46 AM
(https://www.storytel.com//images/e/320x320/0000762737.jpg)

Haven't yet actually started this but borrowed it from the library the other day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scion7 on October 10, 2020, 05:45:53 AM
(https://img.thriftbooks.com/api/images/m/804e10b8dad2554e2f7ebe42e52f8e729375fd5d.jpg)

A little light reading ...  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 10, 2020, 10:23:41 AM
Some Cocteau: Mon premier voyage (Tour du monde en 80 jours).

(https://images.fr.shopping.rakuten.com/photo/848603730.jpg)
In the mid-1930s, Cocteau managed to convince the Paris-Soir newspaper to sponsor a trip in which he'd emulate Phileas Fogg's feat in Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. As Cocteau would later say, to keep the 80 day deadline was barely possible in those times (aeroplanes were purposefully avoided).

This is a very entertaining book (so far Cocteau and his "Passepartout", Marcel Khill, have reached Kuala Lumpur). The author combines a journalistic style with at times strikingly  poetic images. Of course, some attitudes and expressions regarding "exotic" lands and peoples will raise some eyebrows today, but the book is a product of it's time and culture, not ours.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 10, 2020, 10:33:53 AM
Quote from: ritter on October 10, 2020, 10:23:41 AM
a product of it's time and culture, not ours.

So is the music of JS Bach.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 10, 2020, 10:48:19 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 10, 2020, 10:33:53 AM
So is the music of JS Bach.



?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 10, 2020, 10:54:16 AM
Quote from: ritter on October 10, 2020, 10:48:19 AM
?

?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 10, 2020, 10:56:47 AM
? ?   ;D

I just don't understand what you're trying to say (or imply), cher ami.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 10, 2020, 11:10:57 AM
Quote from: ritter on October 10, 2020, 10:56:47 AM
? ?   ;D

I just don't understand what you're trying to say (or imply), cher ami.

What I'm trying to say, querido amigo,  is that each and every work of art created before we were born is a product of its time and culture, not ours.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 10, 2020, 11:13:47 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 10, 2020, 11:10:57 AM
What I'm trying to say, querido amigo,  is that each and every work of art created before we were born is a product of its time and culture, not ours.
Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 10, 2020, 02:09:51 PM
John D. MacDonald, Soren Kierkegard, and a book on Macca.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 10, 2020, 03:22:19 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 10, 2020, 02:09:51 PM
John D. MacDonald, Soren Kierkegard, and a book on Macca.

Paul McCartney? Which book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on October 10, 2020, 07:54:49 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 10, 2020, 03:22:19 PM
Paul McCartney? Which book?

FAB. It's pretty well done, but the author's sometimes too opinionated for my liking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 15, 2020, 04:41:13 PM
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9781/8770/9781877008917.jpg)

That cover I've got makes it look like a novel so I considered using a different image, but looking now it seems to me that all the other options represent the book equally poorly if in differing ways.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 19, 2020, 01:32:44 AM
First approach to a novel by Julien Green (after having read a good chunk of volume 1 of his recently published "complete" diaries):

Épaves ("The Strange River"") from1932, included in volume 2 of the Pléiade edition.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41MNJVX4V8L._SX358_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The story is taking a while to "take off" (a well-to-do Parisian man witnesses one night a woman being abused by her lover on the banks of the Seine but is too weak to intervene, and four months later--I haven't reached that point--a corpse is found which may or may not be her). The malaise of the high bourgeosie of the 16ème arrondissement seems to be the point of this novel, and the city of Paris is supposed to play a dominant role in it. So far, though, it all feels quite dated and rather uninteresting. Let's see how it evolves...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 19, 2020, 06:19:31 PM
Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam. Poems of ephemerality of life by the Persian philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, and poet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on October 20, 2020, 07:15:01 AM
Goodbye Christopher Robin:
(//)
Set locally on Ashdown Forest in East Sussex.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 26, 2020, 08:36:07 AM
More than two thirds into the 1st volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (Romanian translation). I have mixed feelings about it. Splendid poetical descriptions of landscapes and very fine and insightful psychological observations expressed in, or mixed with, long-winded phrases that often border on, and sometimes cross deep into, anacoluthon territory (might be a translation thing, though). Subtle humor, too. Some sections were page turners, some others not that much. Overall, I like it.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 26, 2020, 08:43:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 26, 2020, 08:36:07 AM
More than two thirds into the 1st volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (Romanian translation). I have mixed feelings about it. Splendid poetical descriptions of landscapes and very fine and insightful psychological observations expressed in, or mixed with, long-winded phrases that often border on, and sometimes cross deep into, anacoluthon territory (might be a translation thing, though). Subtle humor, too. Some sections were page turners, some others not that much. Overall, I like it.
Excellent! Hint: The Recherche only gets better as you advance...  ;) (but many of its--real or percieved--defects persist).

Un abrazo,

P.S.: Haven't forgotten your PM, but really, really tied up at work. Will revert to you ASAP.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 26, 2020, 08:48:07 AM
Quote from: ritter on October 26, 2020, 08:43:53 AM
Excellent! Hint: The Recherche only gets better as you advance...  ;) (but many of its--real or percieved--defects persist).

Un abrazo,

P.S.: Haven't forgotten your PM, but really, really tied up at work. Will revert to you ASAP.

Thanks for the reply. Take all the time you need.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 26, 2020, 10:53:18 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 26, 2020, 08:36:07 AM
More than two thirds into the 1st volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (Romanian translation). I have mixed feelings about it. Splendid poetical descriptions of landscapes and very fine and insightful psychological observations expressed in, or mixed with, long-winded phrases that often border on, and sometimes cross deep into, anacoluthon territory (might be a translation thing, though). Subtle humor, too. Some sections were page turners, some others not that much. Overall, I like it.

Yes some of this I recognise, especially in the first part, Un amour de Swann is more interesting I think. The long sentences aren't a problem for me in French, maybe it's partly to do with the translation as you say.


There's something else I feel - the philosophy is often a bit half baked IMO. I've spent a lot of time trying to make sense of his ideas about memory and about perception and I just get nowhere. My academic background is in philosophy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on October 27, 2020, 02:17:41 AM
It has taken H E Bates to reignite the reading habit which has slipped away of late. The Grapes of Paradise is eight novellas, the first Death of a Huntsman is based on an unlikely friendship between a portly middle-aged man and a beautiful twenty year old girl. The only thing they have in common is an unhappy dull life.

She informs him that she is planning to move away. Bates with great skill makes a simple exchange moving ......."Neither then, nor later, nor in fact at any other time, did they say a word about her mother. They stood for a long time without a word about anything, simply watching the little lake soundlessly embalmed in October sunlight, the quince-lamps setting the little island on fire.
'I don't think you should go away,' he said.
'Why not?'
He answered her in the quiet, uncomplex way that, as everyone so often remarked, was so much part of him, so much the typical Harry Barnfield.
'I don't want you to,' he said."   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 27, 2020, 06:12:13 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 26, 2020, 10:53:18 AM
Yes some of this I recognise, especially in the first part, Un amour de Swann is more interesting I think. The long sentences aren't a problem for me in French, maybe it's partly to do with the translation as you say.


There's something else I feel - the philosophy is often a bit half baked IMO. I've spent a lot of time trying to make sense of his ideas about memory and about perception and I just get nowhere.

Well, memory and perception are amongst the most personal things in the world; what in this respect make sense for Proust might be the top of absurdity for you. Don't try too hard.

Quote
My academic background is in philosophy.

Wow, thanks, I've always wanted to know your background but never asked. Now that I know it, a lot of things are explained.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 27, 2020, 06:17:23 AM
(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/59/1002/ED/1043892.jpg)

Took a break from Proust to read this little novel (more like a novella). Loved every page of it and had not a few chuckles*. It's a big paradox: the more I read classical Russian literature the more I love it; and I can identify with their characters more than with those of any other literature in the world --- yet politically I remain a staunch russophobe.  :D

* I find Turgenev and Chekhov to be the most humane, gentle and humorous of all the famous 19th century Russian writers.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 27, 2020, 08:38:05 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 27, 2020, 06:17:23 AM
(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/59/1002/ED/1043892.jpg)

Took a break from Proust to read this little novel (more like a novella). Loved every page of it and had not a few chuckles*. It's a big paradox: the more I read classical Russian literature the more I love it; and I can identify with their characters more than with those of any other literature in the world --- yet politically I remain a staunch russophobe.  :D

* I find Turgenev and Chekhov to be the most humane, gentle and humorous of all the famous 19th century Russian writers.

Would you be nice and include Pushkin as well please?   :) :) :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 27, 2020, 09:03:49 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 27, 2020, 08:38:05 AM
Would you be nice and include Pushkin as well please?   :) :) :)

I haven't read much Pushkin beside some little poems but I'll take your word for it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 27, 2020, 07:15:00 PM
And Quiet Flows the Don. Sholokhov. Funny, the book was awarded both the USSR Stalin Prize and Nobel Prize. I have read the novel more than 10 times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 28, 2020, 01:25:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 27, 2020, 06:12:13 AM
Well, memory and perception are amongst the most personal things in the world; what in this respect make sense for Proust might be the top of absurdity for you. Don't try too hard.




He does present himself as saying something general about the nature of perception, memory etc. Talking about the human condition in general. And I think he was seriously about exploring contemporary academic philosophers like Henri Bergson (about whom I know nothing.) When I reread the first three volumes recently large parts of it seemed like large passages of philosophical reflection loosely hung onto a story line.

It's a long time since I was a philosopher - I taught it in a couple of universities here, and left it for more financially profitable things when Thatcher restructured British higher education. But unlike maths (my other subject as an undergraduate and graduate student) the philosophy has left its mark but the maths is totally, frighteningly,  forgettable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 28, 2020, 05:46:22 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 27, 2020, 07:15:00 PM
And Quiet Flows the Don. Sholokhov. Funny, the book was awarded both the USSR Stalin Prize and Nobel Prize. I have read the novel more than 10 times.

I have read it 4 times. A splendid epic. Never a dull moment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 28, 2020, 06:26:00 AM
Went through music school with a minor in theory and never once heard of partimento and the various schemata that comprised the building blocks of 18th (and a good chunk of 19th) century music

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41L5x1HBeOL._SX384_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 30, 2020, 06:55:22 AM
Quote from: André on October 28, 2020, 05:46:22 AM
I have read it 4 times. A splendid epic. Never a dull moment.

Agree totally!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 30, 2020, 03:55:03 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z24Lpo2PL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BasilValentine on October 30, 2020, 04:20:42 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 26, 2020, 08:36:07 AM
More than two thirds into the 1st volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (Romanian translation). I have mixed feelings about it. Splendid poetical descriptions of landscapes and very fine and insightful psychological observations expressed in, or mixed with, long-winded phrases that often border on, and sometimes cross deep into, anacoluthon territory (might be a translation thing, though). Subtle humor, too. Some sections were page turners, some others not that much. Overall, I like it.

I read the first two in English translation — struck me as massively trivial and not particularly interesting. Won't be bothering with the rest.

Just finished Swafford's biography of Beethoven and a book of Russian satire that included Bulgakov's The Fatal Eggs. Rereading The Master and Margarita now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Handelian on November 04, 2020, 11:22:18 PM
Madness ofCrowds by Douglas Murray
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 08, 2020, 08:35:28 AM
Starting Louis-Ferdinand Céline's D'un château l'autre (Castle to Castle):

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/313uiCFSjNL._SX292_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
I had read Céline's most famous novel, Journey to the End of the Night, decades ago, and remember being quite impressed at the time (but must admit I now have almost no recollection of it). What led me to tackle this post-war novel was a documentary I recently watched television on the outlandish evacuation of the Vichy government to the Sigmaringen castle in Germany in the final days of WW2. Céline, a noted collaborationist and antisemite, took part in those bizarre events, and the novel deals with them. It starts, though, with a very bitter Céline in Paris (after having spent time incarcerated in Denmark—where he had fled to after the German defeat—and being dishonoured) complaining about his lot. Very bitter, but brilliantly written. Let's see how it progresses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 09, 2020, 06:27:27 AM
Tonio Kro(e)ger. Thomas Mann.

Dilemma between artist and upperclass conscientious man, and between loneliness and contempt for the mass.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on November 09, 2020, 08:41:22 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 09, 2020, 06:27:27 AM
Tonio Kro(e)ger. Thomas Mann.

Dilemma between artist and upperclass conscientious man, and between loneliness and contempt to the mass.

I've been meaning to read that but I'm still reading Joseph   :-\
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 10, 2020, 03:03:44 PM
Still going with Martin Gilbert's memoir of working in the Churchill archives. In the meantime knocked off this, the first of Le Guin's books I've read, but will now quickly be seeking out more:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512ZP8HaWKL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 11, 2020, 12:57:05 AM
You haven't read Earthsea as a kid? It's three fairly short books (and another one much later, supposedly different/worse which I have not read) that were very original in the first 1970s fantasy wave (among other things because they were absolutely no Tolkien clones).
A big book is "The left hand of darkness", maybe LeGuin's most famous single book. Also highly recommendable (although I think that the central and weird biological aspect of that SF society is surprisingly irrelevant for most of the plot).
She was certainly one of the best/most important SF writers of the last ca. 50 years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 11, 2020, 01:29:49 AM
Nope, never read Earthsea. A friend of mine is a big LeGuin fan and has been trying to get me to read The Left Hand Of Darkness and also The Dispossesed, which I'll really have to do now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 11, 2020, 03:05:38 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 09, 2020, 06:27:27 AM
Tonio Kro(e)ger. Thomas Mann.

Dilemma between artist and upperclass conscientious man, and between loneliness and contempt for the mass.

I read this a few months ago. Loved it
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on November 11, 2020, 05:37:04 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 11, 2020, 03:05:38 AM
I read this a few months ago. Loved it

Mann's best short novel IMO. The very last paragraph is exquisite, like a musical theme that has been heard in bits and pieces throughout and is quoted in full only at the very end.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 06:56:29 AM
Quote from: André on November 11, 2020, 05:37:04 AM
Mann's best short novel IMO. The very last paragraph is exquisite, like a musical theme that has been heard in bits and pieces throughout and is quoted in full only at the very end.

+1. Death in Venice is much more praised and popular, but I am not sure if it is better than TK. Other short (shorter) stories by Mann are wonderful as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 07:01:21 AM
This is it.
After Mann, currently reading this renowned novel. My first read was when I was 13y/o. After that I read it more than 10 times.
I am sure many members here know and praise the novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 07:03:58 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 07:01:21 AM
This is it.
After Mann, currently reading this renowned novel. My first read was when I was 13y/o. After that I read it more than 10 times.
I am sure many members here know and praise the novel.

This is also very good, in case you haven't read it yet.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ibvoIPt+L._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 07:11:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 07:03:58 AM
This is also very good, in case you haven't read it yet.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ibvoIPt+L._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I haven't heard about this book. I will have a librarian look for an edition in my primary language.
If it is not available, I will read an English edition.
I appreciate your suggestion of the very interesting book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 11, 2020, 07:57:59 AM
Tonio Kröger was mandatory in my time in German high school around 1990. I wasn't so fond of it (too much focus on that artist vs. bourgeois thesis and not enough story for my taste back then) and never re-read it as I somehow lost my collection of most of Mann's shorter prose. Back then I wasn't a great fan of "Death in Venice" either (too much decadent atmosphere and not enough plot/story). "Tonio Kröger" is a fairly obvious choice for school, though, because of theme and reasonable length.

When around that time (between ca. 17 and 20 yo) I read most of Mann's short stuff and three or four of the major novels, I preferred the longer novels (Zauberberg etc.) and of the shorter ones the shorter bitingly ironic ones like "Wälsungenblut" (an semi-parodistic story inspired by Walküre, Act I) to the above. But it's a long time ago. Had I not lost that collection, I'd probably have revisited the shorter prose.

Tbe Hesse school piece in Germany used to be "Unterm Rad" (Beneath the wheel), but we didn't do it. Siddharta has been a youth favorite since the 60s hippies or earlier. I  preferred "Steppenwolf" (and maybe Glass bead game but the latter is a bit mysterious).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 08:44:49 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 07:11:55 AM
I haven't heard about this book. I will have a librarian look for an edition in my primary language.

What language would that be, if I may ask?

Quote
I appreciate your suggestion of the very interesting book.

I read it many years ago and was quite impressed. If you like Siddharta you'll certainly like this one too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on November 11, 2020, 09:51:54 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 11, 2020, 07:57:59 AM
Tonio Kröger was mandatory in my time in German high school around 1990. I wasn't so fond of it (too much focus on that artist vs. bourgeois thesis and not enough story for my taste back then) and never re-read it as I somehow lost my collection of most of Mann's shorter prose. Back then I wasn't a great fan of "Death in Venice" either (too much decadent atmosphere and not enough plot/story). "Tonio Kröger" is a fairly obvious choice for school, though, because of theme and reasonable length.

When around that time (between ca. 17 and 20 yo) I read most of Mann's short stuff and three or four of the major novels, I preferred the longer novels (Zauberberg etc.) and of the shorter ones the shorter bitingly ironic ones like "Wälsungenblut" (an semi-parodistic story inspired by Walküre, Act I) to the above. But it's a long time ago. Had I not lost that collection, I'd probably have revisited the shorter prose.

Tbe Hesse school piece in Germany used to be "Unterm Rad" (Beneath the wheel), but we didn't do it. Siddharta has been a youth favorite since the 60s hippies or earlier. I  preferred "Steppenwolf" (and maybe Glass bead game but the latter is a bit mysterious).

I never took to Death in Venice either. I prefer the film (Visconti) and the opera (Britten). Wälsungenblut is very good indeed, and more than a little osé. Rolf Thiele made a very good film out of it. I must have been something like 14 when I saw it on tv - rather troubling stuff, I must say  ::). Thiele was kind of a Mann enthusiast, filming Tonio Kröger, Confessions of Felix Krull and His Royal Highness as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 11, 2020, 10:38:04 AM
I haven't seen any of the films and wasn't even aware that there was one on Wälsungenblut. This would have probably been impossible in school in my time (and the Wagner connection completely lost on most of the class). Even Death in Venice would have been a bit borderline as homosexuality wasn't taboo but not really a comfortable topic (and while there is no touching IIRC,  Aschenbach's object of desire is a ca. 14 yo boy) although I could imagine that some teachers would assign it.
There are a few more really funny short pieces, like the Wunderkind/child prodigy or the "Prophet" (some crazy sectarian leader, apparently closely modelled after a real person). But overall I think Mann's main strength is in the longer novels with enough time and space to develop the motives.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 10:50:53 AM
Visconti and Bunuel are my favorite directors. Plus Dirk Bogarde is my fav actor.  I like Death in Venice, Conversation Peace and Ludwig. As for Hesse, have you guys watched the movie of Steppenwolf? It is a weird movie (for the weird novel). I love both the book and movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on November 11, 2020, 10:58:19 AM
Nigel Molesworth - one of my heroes:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on November 11, 2020, 11:56:50 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 10:50:53 AM
Visconti and Bunuel are my favorite directors. Plus Dirk Bogarde is my fav actor.  I like Death in Venice, Conversation Peace and Ludwig. As for Hesse, have you guys watched the movie of Steppenwolf? It is a weird movie (for the weird novel). I love both the book and movie.

Steppenwolf the novel and the film are great. The film correctly follows its own way into surreality instead of attempting a faithful portrait of the novel. Von Sydow, Dominique Sanda and Pierre Clementi are among my favourite actors. The last two also play in Bertolucci's Il Conformista, which I re-re-rewatched last weekend. Movies in the sixties and seventies were often more daring than is the norm today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 11, 2020, 01:26:13 PM
Just to add my 2 cents to this Mann conversation: I started Doktor Faustus about this time last year but never made it all the way through, finding it very challenging, but still interesting and beautifully written if a little over-dense at times. But when I read Death in Venice I was hooked. What an astonishing, impeccably crafted novella that was. I went on to read Tonio Kröger and other short stories, and from there to Buddenbrooks, which I absolutely adored. That was one of the greatest novels I've ever read. I need to get around to the Magic Mountain next. Mann was a phenomenal writer. I only wish I could read his work in the original German.

I'm a big Hesse guy as well, especially Siddhartha, Demian, and Narcissus & Goldmund, all of which I've reread in the past year (around the same time I was reading all that Mann). Together they are my two favorite German writers. They seem to deal with similar themes (but in entirely different ways).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 01:31:10 PM
I've read Doktor Faustus three times. I strongly identify with Serenus Zeitblom.

I've read The Magic Mountain two times. I strongly identify with Naphta.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 11, 2020, 01:54:58 PM
I intend to try again from the beginning with Faustus after I read The Magic Mountain.

Quote from: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 01:31:10 PM
I've read Doktor Faustus three times. I strongly identify with Serenus Zeitblom.

I've read The Magic Mountain two times. I strongly identify with Naphta.

Have you read Buddenbrooks? If so, who do you identify with? For me I identified most with young Johann Buddenbrook, but I found something incredibly relatable in just about every character in the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 03:06:37 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 11, 2020, 01:26:13 PM

I'm a big Hesse guy as well, especially Siddhartha, Demian, and Narcissus & Goldmund, all of which I've reread in the past year (around the same time I was reading all that Mann). Together they are my two favorite German writers. They seem to deal with similar themes (but in entirely different ways).

Me too. Narcissus & Goldmund, as well as Crime & Punishment (D) and Red and Black (S), are my ultimate favorite works in my life time.

Post ed. Btw, as for Mann, can we call TK and Venice "short" story? It is kind of mid-size. Hard to describe them. Plus, the content is not like those of short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 11, 2020, 04:27:46 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 03:06:37 PM
Me too. Narcissus & Goldmund, as well as Crime & Punishment (D) and Red and Black (S), are my ultimate favorite works in my life time.

Post ed. Btw, as for Mann, can we call TK and Venice "short" story? It is kind of mid-size. Hard to describe them. Plus, the content is not like those of short stories.

Perhaps the term I learned in school has dropped out of use, but I usually think of them as novellas.

As a descriptor it can be a bit vague, covering short novels like Washington Square and shorter works like DiV.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 11, 2020, 11:52:21 PM
As I learned it "novella" is the older term, and covers a fairly wide range from a few pages to moderately long narratives as demonstrated by the late medieval novella cycles such as Boccaccio's Decamerone. It should be focussed around one uncommon event or happening (not strictly true, but in German the teachers quote Goethe who called it "eine unerhörte Begebenheit" (an extraordinary event). The greatest and most famous German writer of novellas was the unhappy (suicidal) Heinrich von Kleist whose shortest is a less than two pages (I think) ghost story (The beggar of Locarno) while the longer ones (like Michael Kohlhaas) are almost short novels. Similarly with E.T.A. Hoffmann. In German high school literature class they are the most common genre (at least this was my impression in the 1980s) because they are reasonably short and usually somewhat exciting (often actually a kind of ghost or crime story

The short story in the narrower sense supposedly began with 19th century newspapers, mainly in the US. Mann's shorter prose covers a wide range, some like the one with the train wreck, the "prophet" or the wunderkind are more like sketches or vignettes whereas DiV (the longest, I think) is more like a short novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 12, 2020, 12:28:34 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 11, 2020, 01:26:13 PM
Just to add my 2 cents to this Mann conversation: I started Doktor Faustus about this time last year but never made it all the way through, finding it very challenging, but still interesting and beautifully written if a little over-dense at times. But when I read Death in Venice I was hooked. What an astonishing, impeccably crafted novella that was. I went on to read Tonio Kröger and other short stories, and from there to Buddenbrooks, which I absolutely adored. That was one of the greatest novels I've ever read. I need to get around to the Magic Mountain next. Mann was a phenomenal writer. I only wish I could read his work in the original German.
I have to re-read Doktor Faustus. I read it at 19-20 and I am pretty sure a lot was over my head. (I had read Zauberberg right before and when I re-read that one at ca. 27 it was much more entertaining and rewarding). Faustus is a bit overambitious and probably the most challenging. I still haven't read the Joseph books (and neither the less famous "Lotte in Weimar" and Der Erwählte (The Holy Sinner) but I found that Der Zauberberg has the best balance of philosophical themes, characters and atmosphere although it can also be fairly "heavy" at times. Buddenbrooks is not as weighed down by more theoretical aspects and quite accessible. It was his debut (after some shorter prose pieces) at 25, an incredible achievement.

As for other German language authors from about the same time, there is Thomas' brother Heinrich (Christian Buddenbrook is based on him, I think) whose most famous novels today are "Der Untertan" and "Professor Unrat" (the 1930 movie "The blue angel" with Dietrich is based on the latter). He is not as deep, mostly sharp satire agains the pre WW I bourgeois class and values (Wilhelminian time, the German equivalent of late Victorian and Edwardian era).

A bit later and maybe the greatest picture of interwar Berlin (and the seedy underbelly more than the bourgeois) is "Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Döblin. This is also a German "Ulysses light" with collage-like scraps of advertisements, popular songs etc. glued together to capture the breathless and dirty atmosphere of that huge city.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on November 12, 2020, 06:00:21 AM
Thomas Mann's son Klaus was a very fine writer himself. His autobiography The Turning Point (written in English) is extremely interesting both as literature and as history. Klaus was a translator in the US army and participated in high level police and army interrogations. His long interview with Richard Strauss is fascinating. Klaus had his own 'Tonio Kröger' moment in high school, a rather moving episode in the book. He led a very troubled life. He committed suicide at 43.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 12, 2020, 07:08:42 AM
Quote from: JBS on November 11, 2020, 04:27:46 PM
Perhaps the term I learned in school has dropped out of use, but I usually think of them as novellas.

As a descriptor it can be a bit vague, covering short novels like Washington Square and shorter works like DiV.

Good idea!  I am starting to use the term!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 12, 2020, 08:36:49 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 11, 2020, 01:54:58 PM
Have you read Buddenbrooks?

No, I haven't read it yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 12, 2020, 08:47:12 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 12, 2020, 08:36:49 AM
No, I haven't read it yet.
It's on my reading list as well (I have read, and greatly enjoyed, The Magic Mountain and Doktor Faustus, plus some of the shorter novellas).

My son gave me as a present what apparently was the last printing (1932) of Buddenbrooks by S. Fischer in Germany before the Nazis came to power, which gives it a certain historical value. The gothic font requires some getting used to, but from past experiences I know that after a while you don't even notice it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 12, 2020, 08:54:46 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 11, 2020, 11:52:21 PM
The greatest and most famous German writer of novellas was the unhappy (suicidal) Heinrich von Kleist

You might have forgotten the Nobel laureate Paul Heyse.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 12, 2020, 08:58:49 AM
Just a thought.  Small kids read picture books, and picture books are universally considered to be childish. However, do you think picture books for adult readers with sophisticated illustrations, or literal works like Steppenwolf with a bunch of cool, artistic illustrations, would be great? Certainly the cost and price would increase, but I would be delighted to pay it for such a book.
Title: Re: Louise Glück, new to me
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on November 12, 2020, 09:22:22 AM
Quote from: Brewski on October 09, 2020, 07:04:19 AM
Like many people, I suspect, I was not familiar with the work of Louise Glück, who just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. A friend in Austin (also unfamiliar with her) posted this fine introduction. Like many fine writers, Glück deploys disarming simplicity.

* * * * *

The Denial of Death
Issue no. 226 (Fall 2018)

1. A Travel Diary

I had left my passport at an inn we stayed at for a night or so whose name I couldn't remember. This is how it began. The next hotel would not receive me. A beautiful hotel, in an orange grove, with a view of the sea. How casually you accepted the room that would have been ours, and, later, how merrily you stood on the balcony, pelting me with foil-wrapped chocolates. The next day you resumed the journey we would have taken together.

The concierge procured an old blanket for me. By day, I sat outside the kitchen. By night, I spread my blanket among the orange trees. Every day was the same, except for the weather.

After a time, the staff took pity on me. A busboy would bring me food from the evening meal, the odd potato or bit of lamb. Sometimes a postcard arrived. On the front, glossy landmarks and works of art. Once, a mountain covered in snow. After a month or so there was a postscript: X sends regards.

I say a month, but really I had no idea of time. The busboy disappeared. There was a new busboy, then one more, I believe. From time to time, one would join me on my blanket.

I loved those days! Each one exactly like its predecessor. There were the stone steps we climbed together and the little town where we breakfasted. Very far away, I could see the cove where we used to swim, but not hear anymore the children calling out to one another, nor hear you anymore, asking me if I would like a cold drink, which I always would.

When the postcards stopped, I read the old ones again. I saw myself standing under the balcony in that rain of foil-covered kisses, unable to believe you would abandon me, begging you, of course, though not in words—

The concierge, I realized, had been standing beside me. Do not be sad, he said. You have begun your own journey, not into the world, like your friend, but into yourself and your memories. As they fall away, perhaps you will attain that enviable emptiness into which all things flow, like the empty cup in the Daodejing—

Everything is change, he said, and everything is connected. Also everything returns, but what returns is not what went away.

We watched you walk away. Down the stone steps and into the little town. I felt something true had been spoken, and though I would have preferred to have spoken it myself, I was glad at least to have heard it.

2. The Story of the Passport

It came back but you did not come back.
It happened as follows:

One day an envelope arrived,
bearing stamps from a small European republic.
This the concierge handed me with an air of great ceremony;
I tried to open it in the same spirit.

Inside was my passport.
There was my face, or what had been my face
at some point, deep in the past.
But I had parted ways with it,
that face smiling with such conviction,
filled with all the memories of our travels together
and our dreams of other journeys—
I threw it into the sea.

It sank immediately.
Downward, downward, while I continued
staring into the empty water.
All this time the concierge was watching me.

Come, he said, taking my arm. And we began
to walk around the lake, as was my daily habit.

I see, he said, that you no longer
wish to resume your former life,
to move, that is, in a straight line as time
suggests we do, but rather (here he gestured toward the lake)
in a circle, which aspires to
that stillness at the heart of things,
though I prefer to think it also resembles a clock.

Here he took out of his pocket
the large watch that was always with him. I challenge you, he said,
to tell, looking at this, if it is Monday or Tuesday.
But if you look at the hand that holds it, you will realize I am not
a young man anymore, my hair is silver.
Nor will you be surprised to learn
it was once dark, as yours must have been dark,
and curly, I would say.

Through this recital, we were both
watching a group of children playing in the shallows,
each body circled by a rubber tube.

Red and blue, green and yellow,
a rainbow of children splashing in the clear lake.

I could hear the clock ticking,
presumably alluding to the passage of time
while in fact annulling it.

You must ask yourself, he said, if you deceive yourself.
By which I mean looking at the watch and not
the hand holding it. We stood awhile, staring at the lake,
each of us thinking our own thoughts.

But isn't the life of the philosopher
exactly as you describe, I said. Going over the same course,
waiting for truth to disclose itself.

But you have stopped making things, he said, which is what
the philosopher does. Remember when you kept what you called
your travel journal? You used to read it to me,
I remember it was filled with stories of every kind,
mostly love stories and stories about loss, punctuated
with fantastic details such as wouldn't occur to most of us,

and yet hearing them I had a sense I was listening
to my own experience but more beautifully related
than I could ever have done. I felt

you were talking to me or about me though I never left your side.
What was it called? A travel diary, I think you said,
though I often called it The Denial of Death, after Ernest Becker.
And you had an odd name for me, I remember.

Concierge, I said. Concierge is what I called you.
And before that, you, which is, I believe,
a convention in fiction.

--Bruce
Bruce,

I hadn't heard of her before now, but greatly enjoyed reading the above.   Have you read anything else by her since then?

PD
Title: Re: Louise Glück, new to me
Post by: bhodges on November 12, 2020, 09:36:29 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on November 12, 2020, 09:22:22 AM
Bruce,

I hadn't heard of her before now, but greatly enjoyed reading the above.   Have you read anything else by her since then?

PD

No, alas. (Not for not wanting to -- mostly preoccupied with the election!) But she has quite a bit out there, and now I'll look forward to exploring her output in more detail.

--Bruce
Title: Re: Louise Glück, new to me
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on November 12, 2020, 10:03:40 AM
Quote from: Brewski on November 12, 2020, 09:36:29 AM
No, alas. (Not for not wanting to -- mostly preoccupied with the election!) But she has quite a bit out there, and now I'll look forward to exploring her output in more detail.

--Bruce
Is the "The Denial of Death
Issue no. 226 (Fall 2018)"

the title of her poem (short story?)?  Or is it the name and date of a publication?

I googled "The Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker regarding the reference in it.

I stumbled across this poem which struck a nerve with me.  It's called "The Wild Iris"

At the end of my suffering
there was a door.

Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember.

Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.
Then nothing. The weak sun
flickered over the dry surface.

It is terrible to survive
as consciousness
buried in the dark earth.

Then it was over: that which you fear, being
a soul and unable
to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth
bending a little. And what I took to be
birds darting in low shrubs.

You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
returns from oblivion returns
to find a voice:

from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure seawater.
Title: Re: Louise Glück, new to me
Post by: bhodges on November 12, 2020, 02:10:30 PM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on November 12, 2020, 10:03:40 AM
Is the "The Denial of Death
Issue no. 226 (Fall 2018)"

the title of her poem (short story?)?  Or is it the name and date of a publication?

I googled "The Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker regarding the reference in it.

I stumbled across this poem which struck a nerve with me.  It's called "The Wild Iris"

At the end of my suffering
there was a door.

Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember.

Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.
Then nothing. The weak sun
flickered over the dry surface.

It is terrible to survive
as consciousness
buried in the dark earth.

Then it was over: that which you fear, being
a soul and unable
to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth
bending a little. And what I took to be
birds darting in low shrubs.

You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
returns from oblivion returns
to find a voice:

from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure seawater.

Wow.

Thanks, this is quite a find. Like many great poets, her use of language evokes impressions above and beyond the actual words on the page. If I can use an (untested) comparison to music, it's sort of like sensing the overtones in various instruments. Or to put it another way, how we sense the difference between the same note on a clarinet and a cello.

In any case, quite beautiful and evocative. I'm increasingly convinced that the Nobel committee made the right choice.

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 13, 2020, 12:23:15 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 12, 2020, 08:54:46 AM
You might have forgotten the Nobel laureate Paul Heyse.  :D
I am not the only one who forgot him ;)

Besides (or maybe even before) Kleist and Hoffmann the most popular novellas in German is probably "Der Schimmelreiter" by Storm (who also wrote a whole bunch and several others also used to be common as school reading)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rider_on_the_White_Horse
Also two that (like Hoffmann's Scuderi/Cardillac) can count as crime stories, "Die Judenbuche" by Drose-Hülshoff who is better known as a lyrical poet and "Unterm Birnbaum" by Fontane who is better known for novels, usually about adultery (he wrote 5 or more variants of Emma Bovary, "Effi Briest" is the most famous and even shares the intials).

But you guys should really get to Buddenbrooks. It is understandably by far the most popular Mann novel in Germany, it has all the brilliant language, irony and fun without heavier themes than the decline of a bourgeois merchant family in 19th century Lübeck (that has a lot in common with Mann's own family).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 13, 2020, 12:38:09 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 11, 2020, 01:31:10 PM
I've read Doktor Faustus three times. I strongly identify with Serenus Zeitblom.



Is he the bloke who deliberately infected himself with syphilis, just for the craic?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 13, 2020, 04:01:12 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 13, 2020, 12:38:09 AM
Is he the bloke who deliberately infected himself with syphilis, just for the craic?

Nope. That's Adrian Leverkuhn, the main character.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 13, 2020, 05:19:08 AM
Currently reading three books in turns:

- Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson (a history of caste systems in India, the American South, and Nazi Germany)
- After Trump, by Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith (former lawyers for G.W. Bush and Obama proposing wonky reforms to patch all the legal loopholes Trump has uncovered)
- The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner (essentially thoughts on the proper/good writing of novels)

Up next, a novel:

- Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 13, 2020, 05:48:34 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 13, 2020, 12:23:15 AM


But you guys should really get to Buddenbrooks. It is understandably by far the most popular Mann novel in Germany, it has all the brilliant language, irony and fun without heavier themes than the decline of a bourgeois merchant family in 19th century Lübeck (that has a lot in common with Mann's own family).

Great novel. Visconti's Damned was inspired by the novel.
I like Hoffmann a lot, but it seems to me that there is no philosophical question or social issue in his works. Still I like his works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on November 13, 2020, 07:30:52 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 13, 2020, 12:23:15 AM
I am not the only one who forgot him ;)

Besides (or maybe even before) Kleist and Hoffmann the most popular novellas in German is probably "Der Schimmelreiter" by Storm (who also wrote a whole bunch and several others also used to be common as school reading)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rider_on_the_White_Horse
Also two that (like Hoffmann's Scuderi/Cardillac) can count as crime stories, "Die Judenbuche" by Drose-Hülshoff who is better known as a lyrical poet and "Unterm Birnbaum" by Fontane who is better known for novels, usually about adultery (he wrote 5 or more variants of Emma Bovary, "Effi Briest" is the most famous and even shares the intials).

But you guys should really get to Buddenbrooks. It is understandably by far the most popular Mann novel in Germany, it has all the brilliant language, irony and fun without heavier themes than the decline of a bourgeois merchant family in 19th century Lübeck (that has a lot in common with Mann's own family).

One of the strengths of Buddenbrooks is that the portraits of the secondary characters (there's a lot of them) is filled with amusing, colourful details that immeasurably add to the novel's depth. Mann often uses some of their character traits as recurrent features - like a running gag - as anchors to the storyline. They are not accessories to the story, but an integral part of the family's fabric, its fortunes and failures. Sesemi Weichbrodt, Permaneder, the Langhals... A great novel inded.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 13, 2020, 09:30:04 AM
Quote from: André on November 13, 2020, 07:30:52 AM
One of the strengths of Buddenbrooks is that the portraits of the secondary characters (there's a lot of them) is filled with amusing, colourful details that immeasurably add to the novel's depth. Mann often uses some of their character traits as recurrent features - like a running gag - as anchors to the storyline.

Leitmotive?  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on November 13, 2020, 09:51:04 AM
Quote from: Brewski on November 12, 2020, 02:10:30 PM
Wow.

Thanks, this is quite a find. Like many great poets, her use of language evokes impressions above and beyond the actual words on the page. If I can use an (untested) comparison to music, it's sort of like sensing the overtones in various instruments. Or to put it another way, how we sense the difference between the same note on a clarinet and a cello.

In any case, quite beautiful and evocative. I'm increasingly convinced that the Nobel committee made the right choice.

--Bruce

Agreed, thanks to both of you for posting the above.   :)  I'm now seriously considering this...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41UdQhTKhlL._SX338_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 13, 2020, 10:30:31 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 13, 2020, 04:01:12 AM
Nope. That's Adrian Leverkuhn, the main character.

That's a shame.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: T. D. on November 13, 2020, 10:40:08 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41qVz6E21CL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: Louise Glück, new to me
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on November 13, 2020, 10:47:16 AM
Quote from: Brewski on November 12, 2020, 02:10:30 PM
Wow.

Thanks, this is quite a find. Like many great poets, her use of language evokes impressions above and beyond the actual words on the page. If I can use an (untested) comparison to music, it's sort of like sensing the overtones in various instruments. Or to put it another way, how we sense the difference between the same note on a clarinet and a cello.

In any case, quite beautiful and evocative. I'm increasingly convinced that the Nobel committee made the right choice.

--Bruce
Glad that you enjoyed it.  And I like your musical analogy.  :)

Quote from: j winter on November 13, 2020, 09:51:04 AM
Agreed, thanks to both of you for posting the above.   :)  I'm now seriously considering this...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41UdQhTKhlL._SX338_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)



I did put a hold j winter on that book; needless to say, after winning that special prize, her books are in high-demand!  By the way, I happened to be in a B&N earlier today and ran across one of her books (rather surprised not to see more of them there).  The poem that I copied and pasted is from another book of hers that I'm tempted to get also called "The Wild Iris" and features other poems referencing nature and also human life.

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 13, 2020, 04:07:18 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2020, 03:06:37 PM
Me too. Narcissus & Goldmund, as well as Crime & Punishment (D) and Red and Black (S), are my ultimate favorite works in my life time.

Post ed. Btw, as for Mann, can we call TK and Venice "short" story? It is kind of mid-size. Hard to describe them. Plus, the content is not like those of short stories.

No, I would rate them as novellas.

I was completely blown away by Narcissus & Goldmund reading it this year. A beautiful story. I related strongly with both the titular characters. I love Crime & Punishment too, but have not read it in years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 13, 2020, 04:44:02 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 12, 2020, 12:28:34 AM
I have to re-read Doktor Faustus. I read it at 19-20 and I am pretty sure a lot was over my head. (I had read Zauberberg right before and when I re-read that one at ca. 27 it was much more entertaining and rewarding). Faustus is a bit overambitious and probably the most challenging. I still haven't read the Joseph books (and neither the less famous "Lotte in Weimar" and Der Erwählte (The Holy Sinner) but I found that Der Zauberberg has the best balance of philosophical themes, characters and atmosphere although it can also be fairly "heavy" at times. Buddenbrooks is not as weighed down by more theoretical aspects and quite accessible. It was his debut (after some shorter prose pieces) at 25, an incredible achievement.

As for other German language authors from about the same time, there is Thomas' brother Heinrich (Christian Buddenbrook is based on him, I think) whose most famous novels today are "Der Untertan" and "Professor Unrat" (the 1930 movie "The blue angel" with Dietrich is based on the latter). He is not as deep, mostly sharp satire agains the pre WW I bourgeois class and values (Wilhelminian time, the German equivalent of late Victorian and Edwardian era).

A bit later and maybe the greatest picture of interwar Berlin (and the seedy underbelly more than the bourgeois) is "Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Döblin. This is also a German "Ulysses light" with collage-like scraps of advertisements, popular songs etc. glued together to capture the breathless and dirty atmosphere of that huge city.

I'm going to try and read Berlin Alexanderplatz. Sounds like a fascinating book. Reading Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise earlier this year, my favorite chapter was the one about Berlin in the '20s and '30s. Reading it made me realize I knew almost nothing about Berlin during the Weimar era, but it seems to have been a fascinating time and place.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 13, 2020, 07:06:16 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 13, 2020, 04:44:02 PM
I'm going to try and read Berlin Alexanderplatz. Sounds like a fascinating book. Reading Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise earlier this year, my favorite chapter was the one about Berlin in the '20s and '30s. Reading it made me realize I knew almost nothing about Berlin during the Weimar era, but it seems to have been a fascinating time and place.

The problem I had with Berlin Alexanderplatz is that the English translation didn't work for me. I eventually read it in French and that was much better. But the best, I think, is the video of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's television series. It is, IMO, unforgettable - a real summit of art film. The main actor, Günter Lamprecht, is totally committed and totally in his element: poor tortured soul! Everyman!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 14, 2020, 12:49:33 AM
I can't comment on translations. While some techniques are similar, Berlin Alexanderplatz is far less complex and dense than Ulysses, so it should not be as hard/impossible to translate although it is still challenging for native readers (I think my younger brother had it as an assignment in an AP German literature class in 12th grade, it's certainly not something one would assign an average high school literature class, in any case it is bloody long even for a collegre prep class). I don't think I ever saw the Fassbinder version complete, but is supposed to be among the best things he did. Still, the way the book depicts the huge city by way of language (such as scraps from adverts etc.) is quite special and would be very different on film. E.g. there is one episode where the reader follows the course of a streetcar line through the city and records what passes and is passed. That's a very movie-like thing to do but in literature it was probably fairly original >90 years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 14, 2020, 02:29:20 AM
Not sure which one you read Mandryka, but there was an English translation in 2018 that was supposed to be very good. I might give it a try. I'll check out the series, maybe I can talk my girlfriend into watching it with me. I have been wanting to check out Fassbinder's work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 14, 2020, 06:09:55 AM
Carl Jung.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 15, 2020, 06:38:41 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 14, 2020, 02:29:20 AM
Not sure which one you read Mandryka, but there was an English translation in 2018 that was supposed to be very good. I might give it a try. I'll check out the series, maybe I can talk my girlfriend into watching it with me. I have been wanting to check out Fassbinder's work.
I've read the new translation earlier this year and I thought it was fine.

In general I found Berlin Alexanderplatz to be a good read, but somewhat underwhelming, probably because I had very high expectations for it, fuelled by the music and literature of that time. It must have been a fascinating read upon publication, but some of its "novelties" didn't feel so unique or interesting to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 15, 2020, 07:14:17 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 14, 2020, 02:29:20 AM
Not sure which one you read Mandryka, but there was an English translation in 2018 that was supposed to be very good. I might give it a try. I'll check out the series, maybe I can talk my girlfriend into watching it with me. I have been wanting to check out Fassbinder's work.

Ah, it would have been before that. I read it about 10 years ago. But thanks for telling me, I'll give the new one a try.

By the way the French translation I read had an excellent essay on the book by Fassbinder, I don't know if it's been done in English but I'd say it's worth trying.

If your girlfriend will watch the Fassbinder with you, marry her straight away - she's a woman in a million.

Jo - is there anything else by Döblin worth reading?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 15, 2020, 07:17:02 AM
Quote from: Artem on November 15, 2020, 06:38:41 AM
I've read the new translation earlier this year and I thought it was fine.

In general I found Berlin Alexanderplatz to be a good read, but somewhat underwhelming, probably because I had very high expectations for it, fuelled by the music and literature of that time. It must have been a fascinating read upon publication, but some of its "novelties" didn't feel so unique or interesting to me.

The film has moments which sort of burnt into my soul, and it's true that when I read the book it didn't have the same effect. I'm not talking about Fassbinder's bizarre final episode, I mean just things like when Biberkopf returns to the outside of Tegel prison, or sings with his canary or . . .

It would be nice to do a Berlin Alexanderplatz weekend in Berlin, visit all the important places in and around the city.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on November 15, 2020, 08:49:37 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on November 11, 2020, 10:58:19 AM
Nigel Molesworth - one of my heroes:
(https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=68.0;attach=68624)

Haha, excellent, one of mine too!

"Reality,' sa molesworth 2, 'is so unspeakably sordid it make me shudder'."   ;D

I find the older I get the more like Fotherington-Tomas I get ... "he sa 'hullo clouds, hullo sky'" etc, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 15, 2020, 12:32:29 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 15, 2020, 07:14:17 AM
Jo - is there anything else by Döblin worth reading?
No idea. It is by a wide margin his most famous book and I have not read anything else by him. He apparently wrote quite a bit besides Berlin Alexanderplatz. I recall one title of a shorter prose anthology (The killing of a buttercup) but I don't remember if I read this or only remember the funny title.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 16, 2020, 03:09:07 AM
Just finished: The Duel and other stories by Anton Chekhov (a short collection, I read it all over the weekend). Just started: Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.

Been meaning to get back to the Russians for some time and I'm enjoying everything so far. The Chekhov was amazing. I was only really familiar with his dramas before, but his short stories are just as good. Excellent characters. I've heard him criticized for being too cynical and too morbid, but I didn't find that to be the case.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 16, 2020, 03:16:37 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 16, 2020, 03:09:07 AM
Just started: Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.

You're in for a treat.

QuoteThe Chekhov was amazing. I was only really familiar with his dramas before, but his short stories are just as good. Excellent characters. I've heard him criticized for being too cynical and too morbid, but I didn't find that to be the case.

Cynical and morbid are the last things that come to my mind about Chekhov. I find him humane and humorous, just as Turgenev.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 16, 2020, 06:16:46 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 16, 2020, 03:09:07 AM
The Chekhov was amazing. I was only really familiar with his dramas before, but his short stories are just as good. Excellent characters. I've heard him criticized for being too cynical and too morbid, but I didn't find that to be the case.

To some degrees Chekhov's works present fatalistic and pessimistic views, which I like. In that regard, Thomas Hardy, Katherine Mansfield, and Yasunari Kawabata often remind me of Chekhov. Mansfield was publicly influenced by Chekhov. Her Garden Party and other short stories are terrific.
Btw, Chekhov was a ladys' man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on November 18, 2020, 08:43:51 AM
Halfway through George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss and liking it very much. My favorite characters are Maggie, Mr. Tulliver, Mr. Wakem, Philip Wakem and Mrs. Glegg. For some reason I find Tom Tulliver bit of a boring character. I think Maggie has much more wit in her.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2020, 11:19:21 AM
Finished this:

(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/9789734658169-2994065-240.jpg)

Lermontov - A Hero of Our Time

Excellent. And some very great insight on music, too.

Meanwhile, Princess Mary had finished her song. Murmurs of praise were to be heard all around. I went up to her after all the other guests, and said something rather carelessly to her on the subject of her voice.

She made a little grimace, pouting her lower lip, and dropped a very sarcastic curtsey.

"That is all the more flattering," she said, "because you have not been listening to me at all; but perhaps you do not like music?"...

"On the contrary, I do... After dinner, especially."

"Grushnitski is right in saying that you have very prosaic tastes... and I see that you like music in a gastronomic respect."

"You are mistaken again: I am by no means an epicure. I have a most wretched digestion. But music after dinner puts one to sleep, and to sleep after dinner is healthful; consequently I like music in a medicinal respect. In the evening, on the contrary, it excites my nerves too much: I become either too melancholy or too gay. Both are fatiguing, where there is no positive reason for being either sorrowful or glad. And, moreover, melancholy in society is ridiculous, and too great gaiety is unbecoming"...

Also, I must confess that I have lost interest in Proust. After all, what do I care about the sentimental tribulations of an aging intellectual dandy in love with a winsome coquette, or about the various snobs and fops who grate on his nerves?  ;D


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 26, 2020, 11:58:10 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2020, 11:19:21 AM
...
Also, I must confess that I have lost interest in Proust. After all, what do I care about the sentimental tribulations of an aging intellectual dandy in love with a winsome coquette, or about the various snobs and fops who grate on his nerves?  ;D
"No es la miel para la boca del asno" (Sancho Panza in Don Quijote, Part 1, Chapter LII).  ::) ;D

Good evening to you, Andrei.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2020, 12:08:16 PM
Quote from: ritter on November 26, 2020, 11:58:10 AM
"No es la miel para la boca del asno" (Sancho Panza in Don Quijote, Part 1, Chapter LII).  ::) ;D

Equivalent Romanian proverb: Ce știe țăranul ce e șofranul? (literally, What does the peasant know what is saffron?)

Quote
Good evening to you, Andrei.

Good evening, Rafael.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 26, 2020, 12:33:51 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 16, 2020, 06:16:46 AM
To some degrees Chekhov's works present fatalistic and pessimistic views, which I like. In that regard, Thomas Hardy, Katherine Mansfield, and Yasunari Kawabata often remind me of Chekhov.

Fatalistic and pessimistic views do not preclude a humorous and humane approach, such as Chekhov's and Hardy's*. Haven't read anything by Mansfield or Kawabata.

*I'm currently reading Far from the Madding Crowd and ;pretty much every page gave me at least one chuckle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 26, 2020, 05:40:41 PM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2020, 12:33:51 PM
Fatalistic and pessimistic views do not preclude a humorous and humane approach, such as Chekhov's and Hardy's*. Haven't read anything by Mansfield or Kawabata.

*I'm currently reading Far from the Madding Crowd and ;pretty much every page gave me at least one chuckle.

Well-said. Their novels are humorous as well. I haven't read Madding Crowd, but I heard that it is a great novel. I will buy an edition in my primary language.  I re-read his short stories this summer and they were wonderful. Thousand Cranes (or Snow Country) by Kawabata is worth reading, imo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 26, 2020, 05:44:40 PM
The Cynic Philosophers: From Diogenes to Julian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on November 27, 2020, 08:08:12 AM
I'm reading The Gallery of Geography by Rev. Thomas Milner, 1889. The original owner wrote his name and house name in it so I was able to find it on a house sales website and see where he probably sat and read it looking out at the forested hills of central Scotland.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on November 29, 2020, 05:50:11 AM
Just finished Richard Preston's Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come.

Quite illuminating, I couldn't help feeling relieved that our current pandemic doesn't involve a filovirus.

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on December 03, 2020, 03:26:38 AM
Just picked up a copy of Louise Glück's "Poems 1962-2012" to read.

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 03, 2020, 05:34:35 AM
Fifty Shades of Grey
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 03, 2020, 07:26:05 PM
Quote from: steve ridgway on December 03, 2020, 05:34:35 AM
Fifty Shades of Grey

Verdict?


TD: Finished:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780140430158-us.jpg)

currently on the go:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780747559467-us.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51S0+M5EIuL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 04, 2020, 12:56:18 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51URwfPek1L.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 05, 2020, 07:50:38 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 03, 2020, 07:26:05 PM
Verdict?

Half way through Fifty Shades of Grey it's very easy reading, a transparent writing style that conveys the story clearly with no attempt to impress the reader with sophisticated use of language or references. I'm finding it interesting to learn about the different sexual practices and attitudes, what the attraction is, why people might enjoy them, and the general idea that one's preconceptions and conditioning might have made one reject something as unpleasant or disgusting when in fact when one tries it, it might actually turn out to be rather enjoyable. I doubt I'll be adopting either character as a role model but it's making me think about where I agree or disagree with them and what my own position might be.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 05, 2020, 08:12:40 AM
Schrodinger.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 05, 2020, 08:31:00 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 05, 2020, 08:12:40 AM
Schrodinger.

What's his view of it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 05, 2020, 09:26:26 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 05, 2020, 08:31:00 AM
What's his view of it?

It changed while he was looking. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 05, 2020, 09:28:15 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on December 05, 2020, 09:26:26 AM
It changed while he was looking. ;)

The cat was dead while being alive... or was it viceversa?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 05, 2020, 06:39:40 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 05, 2020, 08:31:00 AM
What's his view of it?

Pretty much the world according to Upanishad, IMO.
Individuality and locality are not real. There is only the Whole.
I am in the middle of the book, and I wonder if he talks about ideality/physicality of time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 06, 2020, 03:46:29 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 05, 2020, 06:39:40 PM
Individuality and locality are not real. There is only the Whole.

I guess if everything began in a single point then there could only be differentiation of that whole. As if you cut a cake in half you don't really get two smaller cakes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on December 06, 2020, 08:53:48 AM
Just started a mammoth-sized book called Black Lamb and Grey Falcon:  A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West.

I stumbled across this book whilst looking for travel books that I thought that a friend might enjoy reading (for Christmas).  Not so certain that it might be his cup of tea, but the description definitely intrigued me.  :D  Rebecca West (her pen name), real name Cicely Isabel Fairfield, was born in 1892 in England.  From what I've been reading so far about her in the introduction, she was an extremely intelligent, forward-thinking, feminist who wrote on a variety of topics, sometimes writing critical studies (like of Henry James) and wrote novels too. You can read more about her on Wiki.  Quite a fascinating woman and life!

In any event, she made a number of trips to what was then Yugoslavia during the 1930's.  It sounds like this book (originally published in two volumes) will be a combination of travel essays, history, politics, religious and cultural studies and thoughts on this former country.  It was published in 1941.

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 06, 2020, 12:43:15 PM
I've had that on the shelves for a while waiting to be read. I'll be very interested to know what you make of it.

I got it after reading an essay by Geoff Dyer on why its one of his favorite books. He highlights the skill of the historical/political analysis and how applicable and insightful it is for events of later years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 07, 2020, 06:50:33 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on December 06, 2020, 03:46:29 AM
I guess if everything began in a single point then there could only be differentiation of that whole. As if you cut a cake in half you don't really get two smaller cakes.


Please imagine 100 video cameras recording a cake from various angles and showing pictures of the cake on 100 monitors. We are like the cake on the monitors.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 07, 2020, 10:02:25 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 07, 2020, 06:50:33 AM

Please imagine 100 video cameras recording a cake from various angles and showing pictures of the cake on 100 monitors. We are like the cake on the monitors.

This is good. From a scientific point of view anyway - I've had my fill of modern conceptual art. 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 07, 2020, 10:08:28 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on December 06, 2020, 08:53:48 AM
Just started a mammoth-sized book called Black Lamb and Grey Falcon:  A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West.

I stumbled across this book whilst looking for travel books that I thought that a friend might enjoy reading (for Christmas).  Not so certain that it might be his cup of tea, but the description definitely intrigued me.  :D  Rebecca West (her pen name), real name Cicely Isabel Fairfield, was born in 1892 in England.  From what I've been reading so far about her in the introduction, she was an extremely intelligent, forward-thinking, feminist who wrote on a variety of topics, sometimes writing critical studies (like of Henry James) and wrote novels too. You can read more about her on Wiki.  Quite a fascinating woman and life!

In any event, she made a number of trips to what was then Yugoslavia during the 1930's.  It sounds like this book (originally published in two volumes) will be a combination of travel essays, history, politics, religious and cultural studies and thoughts on this former country.  It was published in 1941.

PD
I recently read the remarkable and eccentric novel she wrote about her own childhood, called "The Fountain Overflows." It doesn't really have a "plot," just a series of amusing and colorful episodes surrounding the family's perpetual poverty, a house haunted by poltergeists, an acquaintance who becomes a murderer, and, most amusingly, her sister's appalling violin playing, which is described in endlessly entertaining detail.

Actually I'll pull it off the shelf to quote you a bit:

"Had the spirit of music appeared before her, it would have spanked her for there was nothing, absolutely nothing, in her performance except the desire to please. She would deform any sound or any group of sounds if she thought she could thereby please her audience's ear and so bribe it to give her its attention and see how pretty she looked as she played her violin."  ;D ;D

Anyway, I would love to read her nonfiction, having read one of her novels, and this sounds fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 09, 2020, 10:11:33 AM
Moliere.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 10, 2020, 06:59:54 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on December 05, 2020, 07:50:38 AM
Half way through Fifty Shades of Grey it's very easy reading, a transparent writing style that conveys the story clearly with no attempt to impress the reader with sophisticated use of language or references. I'm finding it interesting to learn about the different sexual practices and attitudes, what the attraction is, why people might enjoy them, and the general idea that one's preconceptions and conditioning might have made one reject something as unpleasant or disgusting when in fact when one tries it, it might actually turn out to be rather enjoyable. I doubt I'll be adopting either character as a role model but it's making me think about where I agree or disagree with them and what my own position might be.

The remaining half of Fifty Shades of Grey didn't teach me any more. It turned into more of a romance and ended abruptly, making it clear this was part one of a trilogy. It was OK but didn't leave me desperate to buy the next instalment. The wife (who hasn't finished it yet) or I may or may not continue with it at some point (it's cheaper to buy the individual books on Kindle than the whole trilogy as a single volume). On the whole I'm more inclined to re-read Colin Wilson's fifty year old novel The God of the Labyrinth which has a more interesting and unpredictable (if unbelievable) story while attempting a serious investigation into the nature of the sexual impulse and how it might be used to enhance one's general life experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on December 10, 2020, 11:37:56 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 07, 2020, 10:08:28 AM
I recently read the remarkable and eccentric novel she wrote about her own childhood, called "The Fountain Overflows." It doesn't really have a "plot," just a series of amusing and colorful episodes surrounding the family's perpetual poverty, a house haunted by poltergeists, an acquaintance who becomes a murderer, and, most amusingly, her sister's appalling violin playing, which is described in endlessly entertaining detail.

Actually I'll pull it off the shelf to quote you a bit:

"Had the spirit of music appeared before her, it would have spanked her for there was nothing, absolutely nothing, in her performance except the desire to please. She would deform any sound or any group of sounds if she thought she could thereby please her audience's ear and so bribe it to give her its attention and see how pretty she looked as she played her violin."  ;D ;D

Anyway, I would love to read her nonfiction, having read one of her novels, and this sounds fascinating.
Thanks for the quote and your descriptions of her upbringing!  :)  Poor sister, I hope that she truly wasn't that bad--and vain (or insecure?)!  ;)

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 10, 2020, 12:00:16 PM
Returning to Blade Runner this week, I am more curious than ever to actually read some Philip K. Dick.  I've started The Man in the High Castle.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 11, 2020, 01:21:51 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 10, 2020, 12:00:16 PM
Returning to Blade Runner this week, I am more curious than ever to actually read some Philip K. Dick.  I've started The Man in the High Castle.

He's one of the classic SF authors I used to read when younger, had a lot of imagination and clever ideas as I recall.

I'm wondering whether I dare launch myself into the wife's collection of medical, cell biology, biochemistry and diet books. She's been teaching herself for a few years now and has over 3,600 followers on Twitter where she discusses it all with medical professionals, scientists etc. Not that many regular people are willing to question the authorities and prevailing beliefs, and it sets us at odds with nearly everyone we know, but it might be interesting and useful to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 12, 2020, 07:12:36 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 26, 2020, 11:19:21 AM
Finished this:

(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/9789734658169-2994065-240.jpg)

Lermontov - A Hero of Our Time

Excellent. And some very great insight on music, too.

Meanwhile, Princess Mary had finished her song. Murmurs of praise were to be heard all around. I went up to her after all the other guests, and said something rather carelessly to her on the subject of her voice.

She made a little grimace, pouting her lower lip, and dropped a very sarcastic curtsey.

"That is all the more flattering," she said, "because you have not been listening to me at all; but perhaps you do not like music?"...

"On the contrary, I do... After dinner, especially."

"Grushnitski is right in saying that you have very prosaic tastes... and I see that you like music in a gastronomic respect."

"You are mistaken again: I am by no means an epicure. I have a most wretched digestion. But music after dinner puts one to sleep, and to sleep after dinner is healthful; consequently I like music in a medicinal respect. In the evening, on the contrary, it excites my nerves too much: I become either too melancholy or too gay. Both are fatiguing, where there is no positive reason for being either sorrowful or glad. And, moreover, melancholy in society is ridiculous, and too great gaiety is unbecoming"...


I read that in Russian lit class freshman year in college—it was the second thing we read after Pushkin's Tales of Belkin—but I've forgotten most of it. I just picked up a copy at a used bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina and will try and read it again sometime. I do remember it being quite good, though I found the "superfluous man" main character a little annoying.

I've read some incredible books recently: Turgenev's Fathers & Sons, a couple of the Sherlock Holmes novels, and most recently a couple by Haruki Murakami that I really loved: Men Without Women, a short story collection, and Norwegian Wood, which I guess was his big breakthrough novel. I especially enjoyed the latter, which seemed to perfectly encapsulate so many of the feelings I experienced at age 18-21. I'm hooked, I'd love to read more Murakami now. He's written a ton of books. I love how he incorporates music into his novels; it's obvious that he's quite as obsessed with classical music as the best of us. ;D

I'm curious if anyone here has read any of his work, and what they think of it. I certainly think he has his flaws: namely, he seems very much to be a male-perspective writer like a Hemingway, Vonnegut, or even Bukowski. I get the feeling that a woman reader might not get nearly as much out of the aforementioned books, which I see as a defect. But there is something about his writing that really resonates with me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 12, 2020, 07:14:01 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 10, 2020, 12:00:16 PM
Returning to Blade Runner this week, I am more curious than ever to actually read some Philip K. Dick.  I've started The Man in the High Castle.

I really enjoyed The Man in the High Castle when I read it in college. That might be another book worth revisiting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on December 12, 2020, 09:27:26 AM
Like many books by PK Dick I think "The Man in the High Castle" has a great start and enough ideas for two books (one could make a whole book series out of the alternative history element and a totally different single book from the fake memorabilia idea, I think) but somehow peters out at the end and is a little disappointing. Rumour has it that Dick really churned out some of these short/middle length books within one or two weeks while on amphetamines and when the drugs ran out, so did his energy or inspiration.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 12, 2020, 09:49:09 AM
Jack Challoner - The Cell: A Visual Tour of the Building Block of Life.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61VSznSx8AL._SX474_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 12, 2020, 11:33:43 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on December 12, 2020, 09:27:26 AM
Like many books by PK Dick I think "The Man in the High Castle" has a great start and enough ideas for two books (one could make a whole book series out of the alternative history element and a totally different single book from the fake memorabilia idea, I think) but somehow peters out at the end and is a little disappointing. Rumour has it that Dick really churned out some of these short/middle length books within one or two weeks while on amphetamines and when the drugs ran out, so did his energy or inspiration.

Interesting, thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 12, 2020, 11:56:41 AM
Going on with this:

(https://www.printrecarti.ro/images/products/originals/thomas-hardy-departe-de-lumea-dezlantuita_4385.jpg)

Thomas Hardy - Far From the Madding Crowd

Excellent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 12, 2020, 06:38:32 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 12, 2020, 07:12:36 AM
I read that in Russian lit class freshman year in college—it was the second thing we read after Pushkin's Tales of Belkin—but I've forgotten most of it. I just picked up a copy at a used bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina and will try and read it again sometime. I do remember it being quite good, though I found the "superfluous man" main character a little annoying.

I've read some incredible books recently: Turgenev's Fathers & Sons, a couple of the Sherlock Holmes novels, and most recently a couple by Haruki Murakami that I really loved: Men Without Women, a short story collection, and Norwegian Wood, which I guess was his big breakthrough novel. I especially enjoyed the latter, which seemed to perfectly encapsulate so many of the feelings I experienced at age 18-21. I'm hooked, I'd love to read more Murakami now. He's written a ton of books. I love how he incorporates music into his novels; it's obvious that he's quite as obsessed with classical music as the best of us. ;D

I'm curious if anyone here has read any of his work, and what they think of it. I certainly think he has his flaws: namely, he seems very much to be a male-perspective writer like a Hemingway, Vonnegut, or even Bukowski. I get the feeling that a woman reader might not get nearly as much out of the aforementioned books, which I see as a defect. But there is something about his writing that really resonates with me.

Murakami is popular in the West. It seems to Japanese hipsters Murakami is pop- he likes popular, well-known music/art rather than underground, hip things. Decades ago, his works were considered to be for average high school kids. Now, I don't know.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 12, 2020, 06:39:54 PM
Quote from: steve ridgway on December 12, 2020, 09:49:09 AM
Jack Challoner - The Cell: A Visual Tour of the Building Block of Life.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61VSznSx8AL._SX474_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 12, 2020, 07:48:26 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 12, 2020, 06:39:54 PM
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing.

I'm finding it a very good introductory book, full of photos and diagrams which I find much more interesting and easier to recall than pages of dry text. Technology such as computer coloured electron microscope imaging produces beautiful, clear and detailed pictures.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 12, 2020, 11:24:29 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 12, 2020, 06:38:32 PM
It seems to Japanese hipsters Murakami is pop- he likes popular, well-known music/art rather than underground, hip things. Decades ago, his works were considered to be for average high school kids. Now, I don't know.

I'd disagree strongly with both of those assessments.

Quote from: vers la flamme on December 12, 2020, 07:12:36 AM
and most recently a couple by Haruki Murakami that I really loved: Men Without Women, a short story collection, and Norwegian Wood, which I guess was his big breakthrough novel. I especially enjoyed the latter, which seemed to perfectly encapsulate so many of the feelings I experienced at age 18-21. I'm hooked, I'd love to read more Murakami now. He's written a ton of books. I love how he incorporates music into his novels; it's obvious that he's quite as obsessed with classical music as the best of us. ;D


I'd recommend making The Wind Up Bird Chronicle one of the next ones. As well as being one of his best written and acclaimed it has all of his recurring  themes in their most undiluted form. For his deep knowledge of classical music be sure to read his book of conversations with Seiji Ozawa. I also love his book on running, which isn't really about running but is a jumping off point for talking about his philosophy of life more generally.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 13, 2020, 04:26:10 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 12, 2020, 11:24:29 PM
I'd disagree strongly with both of those assessments.


I was not talking about the English translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 13, 2020, 05:40:08 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on December 12, 2020, 07:48:26 PM
I'm finding it a very good introductory book, full of photos and diagrams which I find much more interesting and easier to recall than pages of dry text. Technology such as computer coloured electron microscope imaging produces beautiful, clear and detailed pictures.

Once I return to the USA next year, I will order the book. Yes I like illustrations for science. So I have many science books with bunch of illustrations for children.
I heard that all the human body cells are renewed every 12-15 years, still we maintain similar appearance, persomalities and even memories of decades ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Judith on December 13, 2020, 08:50:26 AM
Recently became fascinated with women's suffrage movement at the beginning of 20th century (e.g Emmeline Pankhurst). Studied a course about them so now reading a book called

Rise up Women
Diane Atkinson

which is their story
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 13, 2020, 08:59:31 AM
Splendid, Judith!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 13, 2020, 06:26:41 PM
RIP John Le Carre.

I've got a couple of his recent ones near the top of the To Read pile: Agent Running In The Field and A Legacy Of Spies. Has anyone here read either? Also the slightly older An Honorable Schoolboy waiting.

(https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/862c078/2147483647/strip/true/crop/798x449+1+0/resize/1200x675!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb5%2F39%2Fe395de6ad34de6c40d5d4270237b%2Fla-1504635451-9n4er1elys-snap-image)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on December 14, 2020, 12:53:53 AM
I read the "legacy" and it is decent but a fairly close late sequel to some of his 1970s books (actually one in particular, but I am not exactly sure which one, probably Spy who came from the cold?). Of which I mainly knew Soldier, Tailor etc. so I was a bit at a loss wrt details. I started Agent Running... but was not sufficiently enthralled to keep going.
Of the somewhat recent ones I read, I found "Absolute friends" the best, it also has the "legacy" theme but in a more poignant manner, turning from apparently light to very dark indeed. I'd highly recommend that one. But keep in mind, that I have only read a fraction of his books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 14, 2020, 02:27:11 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on December 14, 2020, 12:53:53 AM
I read the "legacy" and it is decent but a fairly close late sequel to some of his 1970s books (actually one in particular, but I am not exactly sure which one, probably Spy who came from the cold?). Of which I mainly knew Soldier, Tailor etc. so I was a bit at a loss wrt details. I started Agent Running... but was not sufficiently enthralled to keep going.
Of the somewhat recent ones I read, I found "Absolute friends" the best, it also has the "legacy" theme but in a more poignant manner, turning from apparently light to very dark indeed. I'd highly recommend that one. But keep in mind, that I have only read a fraction of his books.

Thanks for that. I'll make Absolute Friends one of the next one of his I read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 15, 2020, 01:47:23 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 12, 2020, 06:38:32 PM
Murakami is popular in the West. It seems to Japanese hipsters Murakami is pop- he likes popular, well-known music/art rather than underground, hip things. Decades ago, his works were considered to be for average high school kids. Now, I don't know.

Oddly, perhaps, I could see Murakami's works not going over quite as well in Japan as they do in the West. He has such a Western style; if he wasn't writing about Japan and Japanese people, he could totally pass for an American writer.

@SimonNZ, I have Wind Up Bird on my bookshelf, so that might be next. It's lengthy, so I was considering trying another shorter one first, but it does look really good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 15, 2020, 05:12:45 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 15, 2020, 01:47:23 AM
Oddly, perhaps, I could see Murakami's works not going over quite as well in Japan as they do in the West. He has such a Western style; if he wasn't writing about Japan and Japanese people, he could totally pass for an American writer.

@SimonNZ, I have Wind Up Bird on my bookshelf, so that might be next. It's lengthy, so I was considering trying another shorter one first, but it does look really good.

Divided, if not totally rejected, figure. His books are in tadem with Hello Kitty, anime, etc., things for export. He often appears to be a celebrity, rather than a serious writer. I don't mean to reject his works, but I am just describing how his works are treated. Westerners may know the quality of his works better than Japanese do as Simon NZ presumes.  He likes Elvis, the Beatles' Sargent P., Zeppelin 4, plus famous albums in Jazz and classics. He was influenced by Burroughs (my fav), Kerouac, etc.

My pesonal view is that his works don't have ambiguity and nuances, which many Japanese readers tend to value. But quite possibly he has something many people like. Thank you for bringing up this interesting writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 15, 2020, 10:30:38 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 15, 2020, 05:12:45 AM
Divided, if not totally rejected, figure. His books are in tadem with Hello Kitty, anime, etc., things for export. He often appears to be a celebrity, rather than a serious writer. I don't mean to reject his works, but I am just describing how his works are treated. Westerners may know the quality of his works better than Japanese do as Simon NZ presumes.  He likes Elvis, the Beatles' Sargent P., Zeppelin 4, plus famous albums in Jazz and classics. He was influenced by Burroughs (my fav), Kerouac, etc.

My pesonal view is that his works don't have ambiguity and nuances, which many Japanese readers tend to value. But quite possibly he has something many people like. Thank you for bringing up this interesting writer.

I certainly read two or three books of Murakami but can't even remember the titles, let alone any character or plot.  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 15, 2020, 02:22:59 PM
People either love him or hate him. I like Haruki Murakami earlier books the most. The Sheep trilogy may be his best. However, I think he's been repeating himself with the few latest novels, but I'm still curious to read whatever new is translated into English.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 15, 2020, 02:31:28 PM
A few are largely forgettable variations on his familiar themes, but others are very good indeed. It would be a pity if someone started with the former then have up. Only one I've felt was actually bad: After Dark.

His nonfiction writings on Jazz haven't been translated into English yet, but I strongly suspect that like his conversations with Ozawa they will show more diversity and insight than the occasional mention in his novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 15, 2020, 03:00:01 PM
Yukio Mishima. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 16, 2020, 03:35:47 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 15, 2020, 03:00:01 PM
Yukio Mishima. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea.

The guy who committed Seppuku after a failed coup. What a fascinating story. I've been meaning to check out his work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 16, 2020, 03:49:14 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 16, 2020, 03:35:47 PM
The guy who committed Seppuku after a failed coup. What a fascinating story. I've been meaning to check out his work.

I like this novel, and the movie based on the novel, while his Confession of a Mask is more popular. The both are good introductions to his literary works.  I am not sure if you will like them. But I am certain you and most members here will accept that these are great literay works.

Before the literary debut, he was an elite bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance- the most esteemed admn dept in Japanese gvt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 17, 2020, 02:47:29 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 16, 2020, 03:49:14 PM
I like this novel, and the movie based on the novel, while his Confession of a Mask is more popular. The both are good introductions to his literary works.  I am not sure if you will like them. But I am certain you and most members here will accept that these are great literay works.

Before the literary debut, he was an elite bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance- the most esteemed admn dept in Japanese gvt.

Have you read any of the Sea of Fertility series? I just read the first few pages of the first book, Spring Snow, on Amazon and I liked what I was reading. Ultimately I think it will be some time before I get around to really checking out Mishima, and I'm not sure whether his quasi-fascistic purism and austerity will be my thing, but it's obvious that he is a major artist in Japanese literature. Are you Japanese, DBK? Just curious as you seem to have some insider knowledge of Japan's culture and have alluded to having a primary language that is not English.

I'm fond of the Beats myself, it was through Kerouac and Burroughs (as well as Kurt Vonnegut) that I first really got into reading "serious" literature back in high school. I did pick up on a little bit of that influence in Murakami.

Currently I'm rereading The Great Gatsby. I haven't read this since high school and I seem to be getting somewhat more out of it this time. I was inspired to revisit it after I read references to it in two books I've read and enjoyed recently: the narrator of Murakami's Norwegian Wood cited it as his favorite book, and in Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, the author-narrator describes his view that whatever flaws Fitzgerald has as a person (which are enumerated in humorous detail in that book), they are to be tolerated on account of his ability to write this genius book. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 17, 2020, 04:17:00 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 17, 2020, 02:47:29 AM
Have you read any of the Sea of Fertility series? I just read the first few pages of the first book, Spring Snow, on Amazon and I liked what I was reading. Ultimately I think it will be some time before I get around to really checking out Mishima, and I'm not sure whether his quasi-fascistic purism and austerity will be my thing, but it's obvious that he is a major artist in Japanese literature. Are you Japanese, DBK? Just curious as you seem to have some insider knowledge of Japan's culture and have alluded to having a primary language that is not English.

I'm fond of the Beats myself, it was through Kerouac and Burroughs (as well as Kurt Vonnegut) that I first really got into reading "serious" literature back in high school. I did pick up on a little bit of that influence in Murakami.

Currently I'm rereading The Great Gatsby. I haven't read this since high school and I seem to be getting somewhat more out of it this time. I was inspired to revisit it after I read references to it in two books I've read and enjoyed recently: the narrator of Murakami's Norwegian Wood cited it as his favorite book, and in Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, the author-narrator describes his view that whatever flaws Fitzgerald has as a person (which are enumerated in humorous detail in that book), they are to be tolerated on account of his ability to write this genius book.


Just as most readers do, as for Mishima, I separate his ideology and aesthetics.  While I admire the sophistication and elegance in his works, I dislike, disagree with, and reject his ideology and his view about human and society. Sea of Fertility is a fine, and probably least disturbing, work by M.  The Sailor was one of David Bowie's favorite books.
         I am a big fan of Fitzgerald and I like all of his works including Gatsby. I like the sadness and devastating loneliness in high life described in his works. His deceptively simple writing paradoxically generates the elegant and cool atmosphere. His (deceptively) minimalist and restrained style is similar to Yasunari Kawabata, and diametrically opposite to the opulent and flamboyant style of Mishima.  I would also like to recommend Thousand Cranes, or Snow Country, by Kawabata to see a sharp contrast to Mishima, who admired Kawabata.  I am ashamed to say that I don't know Vonnegut.  I will look for his works.  Thank you for your very insightful reviews on the books in your posts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on December 17, 2020, 07:44:17 AM
Jens Malte Fischer's Mahler biography. Bought it for myself as an early birthday present, and was surprised at its heft, a fair bit more of a forearm workout than I'm used to from a paperback, that's for sure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 17, 2020, 01:42:02 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 17, 2020, 04:17:00 AM

Just as most readers do, as for Mishima, I separate his ideology and aesthetics.  While I admire the sophistication and elegance in his works, I dislike, disagree with, and reject his ideology and his view about human and society. Sea of Fertility is a fine, and probably least disturbing, work by M.  The Sailor was one of David Bowie's favorite books.
         I am a big fan of Fitzgerald and I like all of his works including Gatsby. I like the sadness and devastating loneliness in high life described in his works. His deceptively simple writing paradoxically generates the elegant and cool atmosphere. His (deceptively) minimalist and restrained style is similar to Yasunari Kawabata, and diametrically opposite to the opulent and flamboyant style of Mishima.  I would also like to recommend Thousand Cranes, or Snow Country, by Kawabata to see a sharp contrast to Mishima, who admired Kawabata.  I am ashamed to say that I don't know Vonnegut.  I will look for his works.  Thank you for your very insightful reviews on the books in your posts.

Not to imply that Vonnegut was anything similar to the Beats, just that I was reading his books around the same time I fell in love with On the Road, Dharma Bums, and Junky, & these early experiences are part of what made me a lifelong reader in the first place. You may or may not enjoy Vonnegut's works, but I'd say they're worth reading either way. I find similarities between his work and that of Murakami, though I find Vonnegut much less romantically inclined.

I need to check out more of Scott Fitzgerald's works. Is there any one that you think is (almost) as good as Gatsby?

Never heard of Kawabata, I'll look into him - thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 17, 2020, 07:34:01 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 15, 2020, 02:31:28 PM

His nonfiction writings on Jazz haven't been translated into English yet, but I strongly suspect that like his conversations with Ozawa they will show more diversity and insight than the occasional mention in his novels.

He was an owner of a Jazz cafe (cafe-bar specialised in playing Jazz records) in Tokyo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 17, 2020, 07:35:13 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 17, 2020, 01:42:02 PM
Not to imply that Vonnegut was anything similar to the Beats, just that I was reading his books around the same time I fell in love with On the Road, Dharma Bums, and Junky, & these early experiences are part of what made me a lifelong reader in the first place. You may or may not enjoy Vonnegut's works, but I'd say they're worth reading either way. I find similarities between his work and that of Murakami, though I find Vonnegut much less romantically inclined.

I need to check out more of Scott Fitzgerald's works. Is there any one that you think is (almost) as good as Gatsby?

Never heard of Kawabata, I'll look into him - thanks.


I admire Rich Boy, Winter Dreams, and Ice Palace by Fitzgerald.  They all are short stories.  Kawabata is a Nobel laureate, so he maybe as good as Bob Dylan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on December 18, 2020, 11:26:11 AM
I have never read Murakami's books nor any japanese novels for that matter. I am much more acquainted with mangakas. Kentaro Miura is my favorite, he both writes and draws incredibly. Berserk is a masterpiece. It's a shame that the publishing frequency of new chapters is excruciatingly slow (although this year has been one of his most productive in a while).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 18, 2020, 05:15:09 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on December 18, 2020, 11:26:11 AM
I am much more acquainted with mangakas. Kentaro Miura is my favorite,

Bad ass dandy  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on December 21, 2020, 09:28:53 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 17, 2020, 07:35:13 PM

I admire Rich Boy, Winter Dreams, and Ice Palace by Fitzgerald.

Haven't read Ice palace yet though I've heard it's one of his most beautifully written ones and that's saying a lot. Fitzgerald is definitely one of the greatest writers of 20th century that I've ever read. It's a shame that only The Great Gatsby is brought frequently up in literary discussions. I love The Great Gatsby but he was extremely productive and had very high writing standards so I feel a bit sad that in some circles he is thought as a "one-hit wonder".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 22, 2020, 03:45:21 AM
The other Murakami. Coin Locker Babies (1980), Ryu Murakami. Ryu's works were considered to be hip/cool among the hipsters in the 80s and early 90s.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 23, 2020, 02:15:36 AM
I read two short novels over the past three days: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (which I'd never read before, though of course I knew the plot from countless adaptations and retellings), and Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World. I liked both of these books a lot, and found much to admire in both of these writers and hope to read more from each.

Now, to wrap up the month of December, I'm returning to an anthology of plays by Ibsen that I started in the spring, currently reading Hedda Gabler. She's a great character, like so many of Ibsen's women, and I'm intrigued by the story, which seems to have many complex features.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 23, 2020, 05:21:21 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 23, 2020, 02:15:36 AM
I read two short novels over the past three days: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (which I'd never read before, though of course I knew the plot from countless adaptations and retellings), and Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World. I liked both of these books a lot, and found much to admire in both of these writers and hope to read more from each.

Now, to wrap up the month of December, I'm returning to an anthology of plays by Ibsen that I started in the spring, currently reading Hedda Gabler. She's a great character, like so many of Ibsen's women, and I'm intrigued by the story, which seems to have many complex features.

Several North American people recommended the Floating World to me. I must get the book soon. I guess the floating world is a Western translation of Ukiyo, which means like an ephemeral/evanescent world. But I think the original text of the book is English though Ishiguro is legally Japanese. I liked a movie based on another story written by him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 27, 2020, 03:38:44 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 23, 2020, 05:21:21 PM
Several North American people recommended the Floating World to me. I must get the book soon. I guess the floating world is a Western translation of Ukiyo, which means like an ephemeral/evanescent world. But I think the original text of the book is English though Ishiguro is legally Japanese. I liked a movie based on another story written by him.

If you do read it, let me know what you think. I believe Ishiguro came to England with his family early on in life, and to watch an interview with him, it shows. His English is flawless with no trace of an accent. I mean, he talks like a Beatle. I believe he's on record having said something along the lines of that when he writes about Japan, what he's really writing about a world of the imagination, informed by memories from early childhood. Anyway, as an English writer, he's damn good. I'm excited to read more of his stuff and will try and get Remains of the Day next. I believe some folks were talking about that book a few pages back in this thread.

As for me, I've finished Ibsen (Hedda Gabler and Master Builder—both were phenomenal!) and now am back to Murakami with Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, his first two novellas, published in one volume. What can I say; I'm hooked, but I must admit these early works certainly do betray a certain lack of writing experience. But I am enjoying them nonetheless. I've read about 12 novels and plays in December, most of them very short, but I'm reading more than I ever have. It's a great feeling! I hope to take this habit into 2021.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 27, 2020, 08:47:42 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 27, 2020, 03:38:44 PM
am back to Murakami with Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, his first two novellas, published in one volume.

I seem to recall enjoying the first one more than the second.

TD: still going with Halberstam's book on war during the Clinton years, but am also getting through this when needing something lighter:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517uPXpwl0L._SX318_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 28, 2020, 02:13:24 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 27, 2020, 08:47:42 PM
I seem to recall enjoying the first one more than the second.

TD: still going with Halberstam's book on war during the Clinton years, but am also getting through this when needing something lighter:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517uPXpwl0L._SX318_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Bryson must have written about 50 books on as many completely unrelated subjects. The only one I read was A Walk in the Woods, which I greatly enjoyed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on December 28, 2020, 07:47:27 AM
Somewhat mentally adrift at the moment, reading is quite slow. Recently finished A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins, which for somebody whose knowledge of said subject is sketchy, is full of interest.

Quote from: vers la flamme on December 23, 2020, 02:15:36 AM
I read two short novels over the past three days: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (which I'd never read before, though of course I knew the plot from countless adaptations and retellings), and Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World. I liked both of these books a lot, and found much to admire in both of these writers and hope to read more from each.

I haven't read Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World (might be an apt description of Takemitsu ..), but The Remains of the Day is a spellbinding novel, on a completely different level to the film imo (which wasn't bad).

And The Unconsoled by Ishiguro is one of my favourite novels. A breathtaking feat of imagination about a concert pianist arriving in a foreign city for a concert, and finding almost everything beyond his comprehension or even recall. There's been no other literary experience like it for me, the only book I frequently had to turn back a page, not quite believing I had just read what I had. Moving too. I suspect it's probably a love it or hate it novel, but I'd recommend very highly.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 28, 2020, 09:01:39 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 27, 2020, 03:38:44 PM
If you do read it, let me know what you think. I believe Ishiguro came to England with his family early on in life, and to watch an interview with him, it shows. His English is flawless with no trace of an accent. I mean, he talks like a Beatle. I believe he's on record having said something along the lines of that when he writes about Japan, what he's really writing about a world of the imagination, informed by memories from early childhood. Anyway, as an English writer, he's damn good. I'm excited to read more of his stuff and will try and get Remains of the Day next. I believe some folks were talking about that book a few pages back in this thread.

As for me, I've finished Ibsen (Hedda Gabler and Master Builder—both were phenomenal!) and now am back to Murakami with Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, his first two novellas, published in one volume. What can I say; I'm hooked, but I must admit these early works certainly do betray a certain lack of writing experience. But I am enjoying them nonetheless. I've read about 12 novels and plays in December, most of them very short, but I'm reading more than I ever have. It's a great feeling! I hope to take this habit into 2021.

I agree. When Ishiguro, legally and racially Japanese, writes about Japan, probably he is writing about a foreign country. I will look for the book. Have a great new year. I really enjoyed reading your posts this year.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 28, 2020, 09:05:07 AM
Quote from: Iota on December 28, 2020, 07:47:27 AM

I haven't read Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World (might be an apt description of Takemitsu ..), but The Remains of the Day is a spellbinding novel, on a completely different level to the film imo (which wasn't bad).


The film is a fine, sophisticated and nuanced movie. I liked it a lot. I must get the  book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 28, 2020, 01:27:49 PM
Artforum by Cesar Aira. A very short novella, or a collection of brief personal recollections about the magazine and related experiences, like waiting for it to show up in the mail.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41VSsdUxgvL._SX355_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 29, 2020, 12:41:29 PM
Revisiting Paul Claudel's extraordinary Le Soulier de satin (The Satin Slipper):

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/315Q877092L._SX366_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)   (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61QHPVSUwAL._AC_SL1280_.jpg)


I first read this fascinating work some 30 years ago (when I learned that the title of Pierre Boulez's Dialogue de l'ombre double was inspired by a scene of this play), and since then have also seen Manoel de Oliveira's abridged (only 6 hours long!) screen adaptation, and later (also on DVD) Olivier Py's 2009 staging at the Théâtre de l'Odéon (which, at 9 hours, is slightly less abridged).

What led me to tackle this piece again is that Antoine Vitez's 1987 Avignon production, which was the first staging of the full text (all 11 hours of it) and was filmed sometime later in Brussels, has been released on DVD this year. Reading this work again, using the Pléiade edition as "subtitles" to what's being said onstage (onscreen) is proving a wonderful experience. The wonders of Claudel's text, with it's excesses and all, fully blossoms. What a piece!: the cloak-and-dagger ("the scene of this drama is the world, and more specifically Spain at the end of the 16th century...") alternates with the comic, with the mystical, with the religious, with the beautifully poetic, and there's wonderful meta-theatrical moments, while the underlying story—that of two lovers whose love is impossible, getting close to each other over the years, but never actually meeting—is very engaging. I'm enjoying this (one journée at a time—there's 4 of these "days") immensely, and am thrilled that a work that had made such a strong impression on me so many years can still produce the same effect (and I must say that Vitez's staging appears to me much more accomplished than either Oliveira's or Py's work).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 29, 2020, 01:41:38 PM
Quote from: Iota on December 28, 2020, 07:47:27 AM
Somewhat mentally adrift at the moment, reading is quite slow. Recently finished A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins, which for somebody whose knowledge of said subject is sketchy, is full of interest.


I haven't read Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World (might be an apt description of Takemitsu ..), but The Remains of the Day is a spellbinding novel, on a completely different level to the film imo (which wasn't bad).

And The Unconsoled by Ishiguro is one of my favourite novels. A breathtaking feat of imagination about a concert pianist arriving in a foreign city for a concert, and finding almost everything beyond his comprehension or even recall. There's been no other literary experience like it for me, the only book I frequently had to turn back a page, not quite believing I had just read what I had. Moving too. I suspect it's probably a love it or hate it novel, but I'd recommend very highly.

They both sound excellent! I'm planning on reading Remains of the Day sometime soon. The Unconsoled looks like a more of an involved reading experience so I'll likely save it for later.

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 28, 2020, 09:01:39 AM
I agree. When Ishiguro, legally and racially Japanese, writes about Japan, probably he is writing about a foreign country. I will look for the book. Have a great new year. I really enjoyed reading your posts this year.

Happy new year to you too! I've enjoyed your posts and our conversations as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 29, 2020, 11:19:48 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 28, 2020, 02:13:24 AM
Bryson must have written about 50 books on as many completely unrelated subjects. The only one I read was A Walk in the Woods, which I greatly enjoyed.

A Walk In The Woods would be my favorite of his travel books. Around about 2000 i read everything he'd written up to that point and thought his work was Mother Tongue. Since then I'd have to add that his book on Shakespeare was unexpectedly excellent. But I'll read anything he does. Only the one on Australia was an actual letdown.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on December 31, 2020, 12:25:43 PM
Blue Water Sailor, by Don Sheppard.

An account of life as a mustang posted on a USN destroyer, ca. 1960. Quite enjoyable, and fairly revealing.

$:),

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 31, 2020, 02:24:06 PM
I've just started Honoré de Balzac's Père Goriot yesterday; I'm about a third of the way into it. So far, so good. Such great characters, including the city of Paris, a character itself. I can see how Dostoevsky was influenced by some of these themes as well as Balzac's style of writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 01, 2021, 08:09:57 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 29, 2020, 11:19:48 PM
A Walk In The Woods would be my favorite of his travel books. Around about 2000 i read everything he'd written up to that point and thought his work was Mother Tongue. Since then I'd have to add that his book on Shakespeare was unexpectedly excellent. But I'll read anything he does. Only the one on Australia was an actual letdown.

I haven't read any Bryson in 5-7 years but at the time my favorite of his travel books was The Lost Continent, where he travels around America's rural small towns. It seems to be unpopular because it's more caustic and ruthless than his other travel books, which are kinder and more generous in their descriptions of the locals. Wonder how that book stands up now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 01, 2021, 10:14:48 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 31, 2020, 02:24:06 PM
I've just started Honoré de Balzac's Père Goriot yesterday; I'm about a third of the way into it. So far, so good. Such great characters, including the city of Paris, a character itself. I can see how Dostoevsky was influenced by some of these themes as well as Balzac's style of writing.

I've long been intending to read Pére Goriot. I much prefer Balzac to Proust. I wonder why Marcel Proust who wrote In search of lost time in 20th century, was so steeped in victorian-like hypocrisy that he needed to disguise the lovemaking scene of two lesbians while Balzac wrote about lesbian relations rightfully without any kind of shame and openly almost 100 years earlier in La fille aux yeux d'or. And yes, there is an "openly" homosexual character of Charlus in Proust but I take it this to be once again an implication of Proust's sexist views towards women. And I believe Charlus is referred to specifically as "aberrant", not homosexual.

Must seek out Pére Goriot at some point. I've heard it's very much like King Lear (not that I'm a huge fan of that work).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 01, 2021, 11:29:25 AM
Finished fairly recently the third part of Mann's Joseph tetralogy. Liked it quite a bit, the characterization of Mut-em-enet was superb. My progress was much slower than with the first and second parts however. It may take some time before I'll start the last part, since I am moving out and it stresses me quite a bit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on January 01, 2021, 12:13:35 PM
Indeed, Mut-em-enet is quite the character. But so is her husband in his own way, an imposing yet highly fragile man. The way he rewards the two quarrelling small persons at the end is priceless. It reminds me of Sarastro similarly treating Monastatos in The Magic Flute. And the story of Joseph's watch in the Cretan loggia is also a great piece of writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 01, 2021, 01:36:18 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 01, 2021, 10:14:48 AM
I've long been intending to read Pére Goriot. I much prefer Balzac to Proust. I wonder why Marcel Proust who wrote In search of lost time in 20th century, was so steeped in victorian-like hypocrisy that he needed to disguise the lovemaking scene of two lesbians while Balzac wrote about lesbian relations rightfully without any kind of shame and openly almost 100 years earlier in La fille aux yeux d'or. And yes, there is an "openly" homosexual character of Charlus in Proust but I take it this to be once again an implication of Proust's sexist views towards women. And I believe Charlus is referred to specifically as "aberrant", not homosexual.

Must seek out Pére Goriot at some point. I've heard it's very much like King Lear (not that I'm a huge fan of that work).

Are you sure they were making love?

It's  important to the ideas in the book that we're never clear what they're actually doing. If you read the scene in Du Côté de Chez Swann carefully you'll see that it's at least suggested that the two women know they're being watched and are staging the thing as a sort of joke to wind him up. And (though I haven't checked this for about 20 years) I think there's a moment much later on, in Albertine Disparue maybe, when he's pretty well finished with Albertine, that Gilberte comes to see him and they discuss what he saw through the window in terms which make it unclear what was really going on. This is Proust's point -  unknowability.

I should add that there's plenty of explicit lesbian sexuality in the book. I'm sure that  Proust didn't feel the need to hide it. Think of that scene where the women's tits go hard when they dance with each other, or, better, Charles Morel seducing young girls and then passing them on to Albertine to finish off. But it may be true that all the women who have lesbian sex also have straight sex - while it's hard to imagine Charlus with a woman.

I'll just add that the whole scene seems weird to me, but maybe I'm really sexually naive. Have you ever had S&M sex by getting your partner to break a photo of their dad? I mean, it doesn't sound very hardcore to me - but I'm not a lesbian.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 01, 2021, 04:25:29 PM
Not currently reading Dante, but have a few Dante-related books buried it may be time to put near the top of the pile:

Italy begins year of Dante anniversary events with virtual Uffizi exhibition (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/01/italy-year-long-celebration-dante-700-anniversary-drawings)


currently reading this, having not yet been able to find a copy of Absolute Friends:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/TheMissionSong.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 02, 2021, 06:44:52 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 01, 2021, 01:36:18 PM
Are you sure they were making love?

It's  important to the ideas in the book that we're never clear what they're actually doing. If you read the scene in Du Côté de Chez Swann carefully you'll see that it's at least suggested that the two women know they're being watched and are staging the thing as a sort of joke to wind him up. And (though I haven't checked this for about 20 years) I think there's a moment much later on, in Albertine Disparue maybe, when he's pretty well finished with Albertine, that Gilberte comes to see him and they discuss what he saw through the window in terms which make it unclear what was really going on. This is Proust's point -  unknowability.

I should add that there's plenty of explicit lesbian sexuality in the book. I'm sure that  Proust didn't feel the need to hide it. Think of that scene where the women's tits go hard when they dance with each other, or, better, Charles Morel seducing young girls and then passing them on to Albertine to finish off. But it may be true that all the women who have lesbian sex also have straight sex - while it's hard to imagine Charlus with a woman.

I'll just add that the whole scene seems weird to me, but maybe I'm really sexually naive. Have you ever had S&M sex by getting your partner to break a photo of their dad? I mean, it doesn't sound very hardcore to me - but I'm not a lesbian.

A very good point. I may assume too much. I guess it is mainly Balzac's writing style which makes me prefer him to Proust. Sometimes Proust's sentences are so long (I swear there are some length of an entire page!) that I forget how they started when I get to the end. Although since memory is a very important part of In search of lost time, this may be very fitting, no?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 02, 2021, 10:11:38 AM
Kiss of the Spider Woman, by Argentine writer Manuel Puig.
A friendship between a transsexual avoiding a real-world and a socialist revolutionary in Argentina.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 02, 2021, 10:29:04 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 02, 2021, 06:44:52 AM
A very good point. I may assume too much. I guess it is mainly Balzac's writing style which makes me prefer him to Proust. Sometimes Proust's sentences are so long (I swear there are some length of an entire page!) that I forget how they started when I get to the end. Although since memory is a very important part of In search of lost time, this may be very fitting, no?

There's a great musicality to his way of handling French which may not come across in translation -- the long sentences in French are mostly fine if you read aloud!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 04, 2021, 02:40:45 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 01, 2021, 10:14:48 AM
I've long been intending to read Pére Goriot. I much prefer Balzac to Proust. I wonder why Marcel Proust who wrote In search of lost time in 20th century, was so steeped in victorian-like hypocrisy that he needed to disguise the lovemaking scene of two lesbians while Balzac wrote about lesbian relations rightfully without any kind of shame and openly almost 100 years earlier in La fille aux yeux d'or. And yes, there is an "openly" homosexual character of Charlus in Proust but I take it this to be once again an implication of Proust's sexist views towards women. And I believe Charlus is referred to specifically as "aberrant", not homosexual.

Must seek out Pére Goriot at some point. I've heard it's very much like King Lear (not that I'm a huge fan of that work).

No comment on Proust; I've read nothing of his. What other Balzac have you read? I'm trying to decide where to go next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Biffo on January 04, 2021, 03:40:05 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 04, 2021, 02:40:45 AM
No comment on Proust; I've read nothing of his. What other Balzac have you read? I'm trying to decide where to go next.

Lost Illusions follows on from Pere Goriot more or less chronologically; It has a different protagonist but Rastignac and Vautrin both reappear.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on January 04, 2021, 07:45:40 AM
Dr. Lee Know - Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 04, 2021, 02:39:46 PM
Quote from: Biffo on January 04, 2021, 03:40:05 AM
Lost Illusions follows on from Pere Goriot more or less chronologically; It has a different protagonist but Rastignac and Vautrin both reappear.

Damn long though. But this is the one I was looking at for next. I'll have to see if I can track down a cheap copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 05, 2021, 05:22:15 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on January 04, 2021, 07:45:40 AM
Dr. Lee Know - Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine.

Looks very interesting. I need to get a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 07, 2021, 03:08:02 PM
The Gambler, Dostoevsky.
FD wrote the fine novella under a strict deadline to pay off gambling debts. Because of the time constraint, he dictated the story to a stenographer, who would become his wife later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 07, 2021, 03:21:59 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 07, 2021, 03:08:02 PM
The Gambler, Dostoevsky.
FD wrote the fine novella under a strict deadline to pay off gambling debts. Because of the time constraint, he dictated the story to a stenographer, who would become his wife later.

Never read that one. I'm interested now, I'll have to check it out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 07, 2021, 03:46:26 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 07, 2021, 03:21:59 PM
Never read that one. I'm interested now, I'll have to check it out.

Please do so at your convenience. This could possibly be the most entertaining work by FD. Just like his other novels, the personal characters in the novella are well-defined, contrasting, and realistic. I like the grandma in the story.

Ed. Of course, P composed the music for the operatic adaptation of the novella.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on January 07, 2021, 10:55:02 PM
Admittedly I have not read all of the shorter earlier novels and novellas by Dostoevsky but all the big late ones and a bunch of the shorter ones and I'd also recommend the Gambler. It is fairly short (moderately sized but short compared to the big Five) but both funny and intense and has a similar psychological depth (only here wrt gambling not murder or ill-fated love affairs) to the big ones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on January 10, 2021, 11:17:45 AM
Just finished
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fu26k8ZiL.jpg)

Interesting story, was not aware that there was basically nothing in Florida south of St Augustine until the early 1900s.  Also the FL land bust which began in 26 was the spark that culminated un the Great Depression
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on January 10, 2021, 11:22:24 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on January 04, 2021, 07:45:40 AM
Dr. Lee Know - Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine.

Disappointing, been on a biology reading kick and looking for more material, unfortunately this not a doctor or scientist, just another quack naturopath
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 10, 2021, 04:18:29 PM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on January 10, 2021, 11:17:45 AM
Just finished
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fu26k8ZiL.jpg)

Interesting story, was not aware that there was basically nothing in Florida south of St Augustine until the early 1900s.  Also the FL land bust which began in 26 was the spark that culminated un the Great Depression

A couple of years ago I read another good FL history book called The Swamp which went in depth on the draining of the Everglades and the subsequent real estate boom. Worth a read. I'll have to check this one out. I'm a native Floridian so these things are of special interest to me.

I've just finished Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase and started Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. So far, so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 11, 2021, 05:59:26 AM
Oku No Hosomichi, Narrow Road to the Deep (North), Basho Matsuo.
This is a Heartbreak Hotel of Haiku.  I am sure some mebers like/write haiku.
Basho traveled the deep North- the less developed region in Japan, in the 17th century, and wrote haikus in the journey.


The old pond
A frog leaps in.
Sound of the water.


The summer grasses.
All that remains
Of warriors' dreams.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 13, 2021, 07:14:56 AM
Finished Yesterday George Bernard Shaw's Major Essays, consisting of The Quintessence of Ibsenism, The Perfect Wagnerite, and Sanity of Art. What a ride! Shaw is a master as an art critic and at analyzing stuff. He brought to me several points about Ibsen and Wagner which I never had noticed before!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on January 13, 2021, 11:12:53 AM
Dense, but good science writing -  lays out clearly what are observed facts and then details range of explanations currently under debate without having an obvious axe to grind

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51t3WFKt4dL._SY346_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 14, 2021, 02:49:05 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 10, 2021, 04:18:29 PMKazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. So far, so good.

I'm reading this book slowly but wow, what a book. The end of the long second chapter had me crying like a baby. Incredible writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on January 14, 2021, 06:07:03 AM
I've been re-reading certain sections of this great little book:

[asin]0714544450[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on January 14, 2021, 07:44:47 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on January 10, 2021, 11:22:24 AM
Disappointing, been on a biology reading kick and looking for more material, unfortunately this not a doctor or scientist, just another quack naturopath

Thanks for the warning. I think I've learnt a bit about how mitochondria and cells work from the first section (which is what I was after), not so much from the second about various diseases, will be careful with the last bit about recommendations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 15, 2021, 02:11:24 AM
The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai. Didn't like it as much as some of his other books, but some of the passages were really great, especially the beginning of the novel. I think this novel deserves a rereading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 15, 2021, 04:43:49 AM
Maxims,  La Rochefoucauld.
Insightful observations about human nature and society more relevant today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 15, 2021, 04:47:45 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 14, 2021, 02:49:05 AM
I'm reading this book slowly but wow, what a book. The end of the long second chapter had me crying like a baby. Incredible writing.

I liked the subtle nuances in the movie, and the book is on my list.  It seems to me that all the reviews I read are very positive. For instance, the Guardian offers very enthusiastic review:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jan/07/the-remains-of-the-day-by-kazuo-ishiguro-book-to-share
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on January 15, 2021, 04:47:54 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 14, 2021, 02:49:05 AM
I'm reading this book slowly but wow, what a book. ... Incredible writing.

+1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on January 15, 2021, 05:38:22 AM
Well, someone had to bring the general serious tone of that thread down :laugh: 8)

(https://cdn.waterstones.com/bookjackets/large/9781/5293/9781529361360.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 15, 2021, 04:33:18 PM
Quote from: steve ridgway on January 14, 2021, 07:44:47 AM
Thanks for the warning. I think I've learnt a bit about how mitochondria and cells work from the first section (which is what I was after), not so much from the second about various diseases, will be careful with the last bit about recommendations.

I will get a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 16, 2021, 03:40:03 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 15, 2021, 04:47:45 AM
I liked the subtle nuances in the movie, and the book is on my list.  It seems to me that all the reviews I read are very positive. For instance, the Guardian offers very enthusiastic review:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jan/07/the-remains-of-the-day-by-kazuo-ishiguro-book-to-share

Having finished the novel yesterday afternoon, I share this critic's enthusiasm. I've definitely recommended it already to several friends. What a heartbreaking, amazingly written story. I'm excited for you to read it. I made my girlfriend watch the movie with me last night and we both enjoyed it (as you say, the subtle nuance was at times captivating - what a performance from all actors involved), though I must say the book was much, much better for its sense of inner monologue throughout. Now that I've read both The Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World, I'm hooked, and I just might go out and buy another of Ishiguro's books today, though I'm not sure which to read next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 16, 2021, 05:47:22 AM
Silence, Shusaku Endo.
A 17th century Jesuit missionary's quest for truth in Japan, where Christianity was strictly prohibited.
The protagonist faces a dillemma-  unless he publicly renounces Christianity, his followers would be executed by the government.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on January 16, 2021, 08:13:34 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 16, 2021, 03:40:03 AM
Having finished the novel yesterday afternoon, I share this critic's enthusiasm. I've definitely recommended it already to several friends. What a heartbreaking, amazingly written story. I'm excited for you to read it. I made my girlfriend watch the movie with me last night and we both enjoyed it (as you say, the subtle nuance was at times captivating - what a performance from all actors involved), though I must say the book was much, much better for its sense of inner monologue throughout. Now that I've read both The Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World, I'm hooked, and I just might go out and buy another of Ishiguro's books today, though I'm not sure which to read next.

I agree, good as the film is, it doesn't approach the intimacy created by the book's extraordinary prose, which for me is on another level.

I've read three other Ishiguro books, The Unconsoled, Never Let Me Go and When We Were Orphans. The Unconsoled is a rare and unforgettable novel, one of my favourites. Never Let Me Go is as usual brilliantly written, though I found it somewhat depressing and harrowing at times. And When We Were Orphans I found somewhat confusing and the least engaging.

For all of these, it's well over a decade since I read them last, but the first two certainly, have left very vivid impressions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 08:21:58 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 16, 2021, 05:47:22 AM
Silence, Shusaku Endo.
A 17th century Jesuit missionary's quest for truth in Japan, where Christianity was strictly prohibited.
The protagonist faces a dillemma-  unless he publicly renounces Christianity, his followers would be executed by the government.

As a convinced but not devout Orthodox Christian, I have a hard time solving this dilemma.  :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 16, 2021, 08:44:10 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 16, 2021, 05:47:22 AM
Silence, Shusaku Endo.
A 17th century Jesuit missionary's quest for truth in Japan, where Christianity was strictly prohibited.
The protagonist faces a dillemma-  unless he publicly renounces Christianity, his followers would be executed by the government.

Easy peasy. Renounce.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 08:45:08 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 16, 2021, 08:44:10 AM
Easy peasy. Renounce.

Renounce what?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 16, 2021, 08:52:34 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 08:45:08 AM
Renounce what?

I dunno. Whatever it was he needed to renounce in order to save the lives.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 16, 2021, 08:53:24 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 16, 2021, 08:44:10 AM
Easy peasy. Renounce.

I assume, you indicate that he should "pretend" to renounce Christianity while he could keep his belief inside. That's what the local govt suggested to him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 08:57:57 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 16, 2021, 08:52:34 AM
I dunno. Whatever it was he needed to renounce in order to save the lives.

Easy to talk the talk for a non-Christian.

For a genuine Christian the dilemma is indeed a tough nut to crack. Trust me, my friend, it really is.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 09:03:33 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 16, 2021, 08:53:24 AM
I assume, you indicate that he should "pretend" to renounce Christianity while he could keep his belief inside. That's what the local govt suggested to him.

And that's exactly what a genuine Christian cannot do in full conscience.  I really don't know what I would have done. >:(

That's why I like living in a democracy, albeit an imperfect one: I wouldn't wish anyone to be put on such trial. Let anyone believe (in) whatever they wish.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 16, 2021, 09:10:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 08:57:57 AM
Easy to talk the talk for a non-Christian.

For a genuine Christian the dilemma is indeed a tough nut to crack. Trust me, my friend, it really is.

I'm sorry it seems just clear to me that, although the genuine Christian does not want to renounce, he would surely see that it is right to save the lives.

In fact, something else may be true. The only Christian thing for him to do is to renounce. (Not sure about that - what would Jesus have done?)

As an exercise, scale it up. The evil dictator will press the button to nuke America if you don't renounce. Maybe destroy the whole world. The logic is the same.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 09:18:20 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 16, 2021, 09:10:54 AM
I'm sorry it seems just clear to me that, although the Christian does not want to renounce, he would surely see that it is right to save the lives.

If that were the one and only right reaction, Christianity would have never achieved its current status.

There are a whole lot of Christian saints and martyrs who preferred rather to be killed than abjure their faith.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 16, 2021, 09:22:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 09:18:20 AM
If that were the one and only right reaction, Christianity would have never achieved its current status.

There are a whole lot of Christian saints and martyrs who preferred rather to be killed than abjure their faith.

That's not the same, in this case there are other people who will lose their lives.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 09:24:44 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 16, 2021, 09:10:54 AM
what would Jesus have done?

Nobody knows. Jesus did, taught, and suggested, many things which were apparently contrary to the Law.

QuoteAs an exercise, scale it up. The evil dictator will press the button to nuke America if you don't renounce. Maybe destroy the whole world. The logic is the same.

Thank God and America be praised, there's nobody facing such an alternative.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Amen!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 16, 2021, 09:30:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 09:03:33 AM
And that's exactly what a genuine Christian cannot do in full conscience.  I really don't know what I would have done.

Yes, the end-justifies-means deception could exacerbate, rather than solve, the dilemma.  Very difficult and agonizing situation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 09:34:50 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 16, 2021, 09:30:00 AM
Yes, the end-justifies-means deception could exacerbate, rather than solve, the dilemma.

Precisely.

I really, really don't know what I'd have done. The dilemma might seem as a merely theorical one, but back then it was only too real and life-threatening.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 16, 2021, 09:51:30 AM
I believe this same dilemma was discussed in The Brothers Karamazov, and this is one of the reasons I nowadays dislike that book. Smerdyakov is depicted as being wrong about arguing renouncing one's faith in ridiculous circumstances is more than justified even though the rational thing in such a case as presented would be to renounce it. As bad as Smerdyakov was, I felt more sympathy for him than that hypocrite Alyosha. At least Smerdyakov was rational. Alyosha is a classic example of creating a character intended to be selfless yet only thing Dostoyevsky managed to create was male version of Katerina Ivanovna.

Edit: I actually think renouncing one's faith, whatever it happens to be, is justified in all circumstances.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 16, 2021, 09:57:49 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 16, 2021, 09:51:30 AM
I felt more sympathy for him than that hypocrite Alyosha.

In what way(s) is Alyosha a hypocrite?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AlberichUndHagen on January 16, 2021, 10:21:33 AM
His fundamentalism drives me nuts! He gets mad at Ivan for trying to express his atheism in his Grand Inquisitor poem while still the narrator is constantly trying to uphold his (fake) image of not judging anyone. Also, like Ivan and Dmitri, he never acknowledges Smerdyakov as his brother because he is illegitimate yet he never stops thinking about Fyodor, arguably the most horrible character in the book, as his father, meaning that Alyosha's for the incredibly old-fashioned "bastards are not family" type of hypocritical mentality yet the fathers who rape people and act horrendously are family? I'm not arguing Smerdyakov hasn't done anything bad, I am arguing that Fyodor was worse, as one character in fact in Dmitri's trial very soundly argues Fyodor of having renounced all his duties as a father, even mocked them. And as a cherry on the top, there is his heinous rape of a mentally disabled character who actually happens to be Smerdyakov's mother. I don't remember if it is outright stated if Smerdyakov knew about Fyodor's rape of his mother but considering it appears to be public knowledge in the town I think he does.

I've also studied Dostoevsky's religious views in his Writer's Diary which included his enthusiastic support of murdering Turks, the so called "infidels". Dostoevsky represents the absolute worst aspects of Christianity and he never loses an opportunity to express his obsession in his books. I still like Dostyevsky as a writer but I mostly like from his characters those who express atheism as opposed to faith. His Christian characters are often either incredibly bland or outright annoying.

FWIW, I am an agnostic atheist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 16, 2021, 12:27:59 PM
I'm going to have to go out and get a copy of Remains Of The Day.

currently:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51XAvfAKy1L._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Superbly and succinctly written and argued collection of short pieces (4-6 pages) articles from The Guardian. I'll be finding and reading the rest of his full-length books in the near future.

It occurs to me that its been a while since I read a hard-left author who didn't just sound like the boilerplate easily caricatured image of the hard-left but was a strikingly original voice., and precise and focused rather than broad and sweeping.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 16, 2021, 01:34:29 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 16, 2021, 10:21:33 AM

FWIW, I am an agnostic atheist.

Me too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 16, 2021, 08:02:04 PM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 16, 2021, 10:21:33 AM

FWIW, I am an agnostic atheist.
Same, and I very much enjoyed Brothers Karamazov at age 17 but very much did not enjoy it at 27, when all the philosophical discussions amongst the characters seemed to be unfairly weighted or "rigged." Also, I changed translations - MacAndrew at 17 and the much disliked Pevear & Volokhonsky at 27; perhaps that was part of the problem. On second reading the debates and politics of the book seemed much less subtle and more artificial or staged.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 16, 2021, 08:07:04 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 16, 2021, 08:02:04 PM
Same, and I very much enjoyed Brothers Karamazov at age 17 but very much did not enjoy it at 27, when all the philosophical discussions amongst the characters seemed to be unfairly weighted or "rigged." Also, I changed translations - MacAndrew at 17 and the much disliked Pevear & Volokhonsky at 27; perhaps that was part of the problem. On second reading the debates and politics of the book seemed much less subtle and more artificial or staged.

You didn't like the translation, or are you saying its widely disliked?

I've read it twice, but both times the Constance Garnett translation. I'd like to do a third in another version.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 17, 2021, 04:50:08 AM
I've never read The Brothers Karamazov but the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation has been sitting on my bookshelf for about a year. I did not know it was "much disliked"; rather, I thought it was supposed to be "the one to get". Anyway, I read their translation of Crime and Punishment several times and loved it each time. Ditto for Notes from Underground.

Yesterday I started yet another Ishiguro: A Pale View of Hills, his first novel. So far, so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 17, 2021, 05:52:13 AM
I just found a book I've been seeking out for some time, at one of those "take a book, leave a book" outposts right around the block from my apartment:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31sPZ69-QaL.jpg)

What luck! So I reckon I might read this next. I've been dying to read Mishima for a couple of months now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 06:11:57 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 17, 2021, 05:52:13 AM
I just found a book I've been seeking out for some time, at one of those "take a book, leave a book" outposts right around the block from my apartment:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31sPZ69-QaL.jpg)

What luck! So I reckon I might read this next. I've been dying to read Mishima for a couple of months now.

Excellent work. Pinnacle of Mishima's aestheticism. One of David Bowie's favorite books. The original title of the book is A Ship Towing in the Afternoon.  The story is disturbing to many/most readers, but all readers would recognize Mishima's genius in the work.

The movie is a strangely attractive film as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 06:29:43 AM
Quote from: Iota on January 16, 2021, 08:13:34 AM
I agree, good as the film is, it doesn't approach the intimacy created by the book's extraordinary prose, which for me is on another level.

I've read three other Ishiguro books, The Unconsoled, Never Let Me Go and When We Were Orphans. The Unconsoled is a rare and unforgettable novel, one of my favourites. Never Let Me Go is as usual brilliantly written, though I found it somewhat depressing and harrowing at times. And When We Were Orphans I found somewhat confusing and the least engaging.

For all of these, it's well over a decade since I read them last, but the first two certainly, have left very vivid impressions.

Thank you for the helpful reviews. I need to get The Unconsoled.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 17, 2021, 08:35:42 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 16, 2021, 08:07:04 PM
You didn't like the translation, or are you saying its widely disliked?

I've read it twice, but both times the Constance Garnett translation. I'd like to do a third in another version.
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 17, 2021, 04:50:08 AM
I've never read The Brothers Karamazov but the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation has been sitting on my bookshelf for about a year. I did not know it was "much disliked"; rather, I thought it was supposed to be "the one to get". Anyway, I read their translation of Crime and Punishment several times and loved it each time. Ditto for Notes from Underground.

Yesterday I started yet another Ishiguro: A Pale View of Hills, his first novel. So far, so good.
"Controversial" probably would have been a better word choice. P&V are much-liked by some and disliked by others. The reason is their unusual translation style - Volokhonsky translates the text literally, and then Pevear goes through and tweaks the phrases and word choices to be more colloquial and authentic sounding in English. They've been criticized for often missing the bigger picture on some of the authors' jokes or political/religious double meanings. The upside of their work is that they do not "fix" long, crazy sentence structures (Garnett did this) or try to smooth out the stranger word/grammar choices some of the Russians made. The downside is, basically, a sort of miss-the-forest-for-the-trees critique.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 09:01:05 AM
I wonder if there are a few Russian members and they can provide thoughts/insights about the non-Russian editions of Russian literature. My gut feeling is that about 70 percent of the text could be translated to non-Slavic language accurately and aesthetically.

Big fan of Dostoyevsky, but I don't personally consider the Karamazov his successful work.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 17, 2021, 09:08:01 AM
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 16, 2021, 09:51:30 AM
I actually think renouncing one's faith, whatever it happens to be, is justified in all circumstances.

I'm sure you have faith in democracy. Should your country become a dictatorship (God forbid!) and should the government require that you pledged absolute obedience to them or else, what would you do?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 02:22:07 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 17, 2021, 09:08:01 AM
I'm sure you have faith in democracy. Should your country become a dictatorship (God forbid!) and should the government require that you pledged absolute obedience to them or else, what would you do?

Your connection of religious freedom and (representative) democracy could be fragile at best, theoretically and empirically (historically). Look at how Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are treated in democratic nations today. The religious minorities in Byzantine empire (and others) were treated much better.

This is a book, not sociology, thread, but I couldn't resist. Sorry.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 17, 2021, 03:45:15 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 02:22:07 PM
Your connection of religious freedom and (representative) democracy could be fragile at best, theoretically and empirically (historically). Look at how Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are treated in democratic nations today. The religious minorities in Byzantine empire (and others) were treated much better.

This is a book, not sociology, thread, but I couldn't resist. Sorry.

Speaking as a member of a religious minority whose history includes persecution
by the Byzantines:  they were not treated better
.

It is often claimed that the Byzantine persecution of Monophysites in Egypt and Syria was one reason the Arab conquest of those countries was so successful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 17, 2021, 03:49:47 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 17, 2021, 09:08:01 AM
I'm sure you have faith in democracy. Should your country become a dictatorship (God forbid!) and should the government require that you pledged absolute obedience to them or else, what would you do?

Perhaps a better equivalent in Alberich's case would be science and reasoned inquiry: if a persecution demanded he abandon belief in those things, would he do it to save his own life? To save the lives of others? Would he even be able to do it, given how fundamental those things are to his worldview?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 05:06:01 PM
Quote from: JBS on January 17, 2021, 03:49:47 PM
Perhaps a better equivalent in Alberich's case would be science and reasoned inquiry: if a persecution demanded he abandon belief in those things, would he do it to save his own life? To save the lives of others? Would he even be able to do it, given how fundamental those things are to his worldview?

Wonderful idea. Somebody should write a book based on that theme.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on January 17, 2021, 11:38:20 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 05:06:01 PM
Wonderful idea. Somebody should write a book based on that theme.
This book was written a long time ago: How many fingers are there, Winston?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on January 17, 2021, 11:53:06 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 09:01:05 AM
I wonder if there are a few Russian members and they can provide thoughts/insights about the non-Russian editions of Russian literature. My gut feeling is that about 70 percent of the text could be translated to non-Slavic language accurately and aesthetically.
Do you think that Slavic languages (into say English, French, German...) pose a particular translation problem? I have a very superficial (like one intro class, very far from reading any literature) knowledge of Russian and I am not sure if this is the case. Admittedly, German may be closer in some respects to Russian than English is and there was a lot of cultural influence and immigrants to Russia in the 18th and 19th century as well as many bilingual speakers in the Baltic states and elsewhere so we might have had better translations early on. But there was a huge fuzz in Germany about then (1990s) new Dostoevsky translations by Svetlana Geier who were hailed (usually by people without knowledge of Russian) as very much superior to the ones from the 1920s. (Interestingly, some people who did read Russian felt rather different and saw no clear advantage of the newer translations.) I read Crime and Punishment in that new translation and never got what the fuzz was about. Sure, it encompassed a broader range of language to differentiate between e.g. lower class characters. But overall it was not a hugely different experience and there were also aspects I found stilted in that translation.

Quote
Big fan of Dostoyevsky, but I don't personally consider the Karamazov his successful work.
It is a bit too sprawling (and there was a second volume planned with Alyosha leaving the monastery and town, probably some Entwicklungsroman) and the random collections of the "teachings of Zosima" are boring. But it is nevertheless great. (It's been 20 years since I last read more than a bit of FMD but I read several of the big novels twice and the most brilliant overall is probably "The Idiot")

I don't really get the criticism of the religious themes. FMD was an orthodox reactionary in other writings but I know of no atheist critique as subtle and deep as the one he let's Ivan express (not only in the Grand Inquisitor fable).
(I have seen this also expressed in secondary literature, that Ivan "wins" intellectually and Alyosha and the random teachings of Zosima can hardly balance the brilliance of the Inquisitor story etc. It seems that the suggested answer is practical, Ivan is miserable but Alyosha is quite happy and hopefully will remain so despite not becoming a monk)

In hindsight, I don't know if FMD was correct in his reactionary orthodoxy, but he was very insightful in the "dialectics" of liberalism described in "The demons", long before Adorno and others and long before the real horrors of 20th century totalitarianism. And many aspects seem to play out now very similarly again in the last 60 years (hopefully remaining mostly on the farcical level with a lower body count). What were liberal just causes in the 60s have sped partly out of control and have become dysfunctional madness, including lots of illiberal control.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 18, 2021, 03:14:36 AM
I know nothing about intricacies of literature translation (I'm sure its very laborious process), but as a Russian language speaker I always found Dostoevsky's prose very straightforward and approachable. I have no idea why his work would be difficult to translate, other than the confusion of names that many first time readers of Russian literature usually refer to.

Yesterday I finished (https://s2.adlibris.com/images/58880342/the-discomfort-of-evening.jpg). Every year I make an effort to check out Booker's selection and always find them disappointing. This book was also not to my liking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 18, 2021, 04:04:28 AM
Thank you for the explanation, Jo and Artem. My knowledge on the matter is very limited. I may have overestimated the difference of slavic languages from other (Indo) European languages.


P.s.. It seems to me that Idiot and Crime and Punishment are not comparisons to the Karamazov.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on January 18, 2021, 05:04:50 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 06:11:57 AM
Excellent work. Pinnacle of Mishima's aestheticism. One of David Bowie's favorite books. The original title of the book is A Ship Towing in the Afternoon.  The story is disturbing to many/most readers, but all readers would recognize Mishima's genius in the work.

The movie is a strangely attractive film as well.
It's been years since I read this but nowadays I find Mishima generally disturbing. My recollection of this is alienated, cold, narcissistic and depressing. That could be wrong since it's just a feeling about it that I retained from my youth. Now living in Japan, I can see post-war lit that way, except for Endo. Mishima ends up in a kind of horror - with a coup attempt and then a gory suicide.
Actually, events of late kind of reminded me of Mishima in a way. He didn't have much support at the time but, then again, he didn't have twitter or instagram.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 18, 2021, 05:22:48 AM
Quote from: milk on January 18, 2021, 05:04:50 AM
It's been years since I read this but nowadays I find Mishima generally disturbing. My recollection of this is alienated, cold, narcissistic and depressing. That could be wrong since it's just a feeling about it that I retained from my youth. Now living in Japan, I can see post-war lit that way, except for Endo. Mishima ends up in a kind of horror - with a coup attempt and then a gory suicide.
Actually, events of late kind of reminded me of Mishima in a way. He didn't have much support at the time but, then again, he didn't have twitter or instagram.

Very fair. How about his ability of overall composition, depiction, literary expression and creating and contrasting characters? Do you have negative opinion about them?

Any opinion on Endo's Silence?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 20, 2021, 02:49:22 AM
Well I've started Mishima's Sailor and am finding it bewildering, but fascinating, so far. It's already abundantly clear that Mishima has created a totally unique aesthetic, to which he has committed his life and work. I am unfamiliar with his connections to Western culture, but I'm under the impression that surely, he must have been inspired by Wagner? The titular sailor's musings about love and death seem to be straight out of Tristan. Again, a fascinating read. I'm only about 50 pages in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 20, 2021, 03:29:22 AM
The Yage Letters. William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.

Burroughs' experience with shamanism in Amazon and Ginsberg's responses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 21, 2021, 06:17:55 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 20, 2021, 02:49:22 AM
Well I've started Mishima's Sailor and am finding it bewildering, but fascinating, so far. It's already abundantly clear that Mishima has created a totally unique aesthetic, to which he has committed his life and work. I am unfamiliar with his connections to Western culture, but I'm under the impression that surely, he must have been inspired by Wagner? The titular sailor's musings about love and death seem to be straight out of Tristan. Again, a fascinating read. I'm only about 50 pages in.

I don't know musical influences on him. Literary influences on Mishima include Nietzsche, Cocteau, Oscar Wilde, Marquis de Sade, Kawabata, Akutagawa, etc.

Weird thing is that Mishima wrote a few comedies, and they are hilarious and hysterically funny.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 21, 2021, 10:25:49 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on January 17, 2021, 11:53:06 PM
FMD was an orthodox reactionary

I'm currently reading his Diary of a Writer

(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/9789734609789-24667.jpg)

So far, it contains several recurrent topics, such as: the housing and sanitation condition of the St. Petersburg underdogs; cruelty against children and animals; dissolution of community, solidarity and brotherhood and its effect on humans and society; rampant alcoholism, more often than not associated with violence against women; the moral condition of factory workers; the rule of money and money-making; usncrupulous lawyers; lack of care and compassion for the "humiliated and insulted"; the sterile self-righteousness of the liberal imtelligentsia, their professed love for Humanity (capital H) and their open disdain for the flesh-and-blood fellow man. Honestly, he reminds me much more of Dickens than of Pobedonostsev; anyway, if this is orthodox reactionarism, then count me in.

Quote
he was very insightful in the "dialectics" of liberalism described in "The demons", long before Adorno and others and long before the real horrors of 20th century totalitarianism. And many aspects seem to play out now very similarly again in the last 60 years (hopefully remaining mostly on the farcical level with a lower body count). What were liberal just causes in the 60s have sped partly out of control and have become dysfunctional madness, including lots of illiberal control.

Yes, this probably explains why Dostoevsky gets such a bad rap in some liberal circles: long before liberals took power and began to act on their principles, he saw with prophetic clarity where and how they would end and the implacable dialectics wich starting by unlimited liberty arrives necessarily at unlimited despotism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 21, 2021, 01:03:48 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 21, 2021, 06:17:55 AM
I don't know musical influences on him. Literary influences on Mishima include Nietzsche, Cocteau, Oscar Wilde, Marquis de Sade, Kawabata, Akutagawa, etc.

Weird thing is that Mishima wrote a few comedies, and they are hilarious and hysterically funny.

I was looking at one at Barnes & Noble the other day, called Life For Sale, which looked pretty hilarious, quite the contrast from the über-seriousness of Sailor. Oddly it was the only Mishima they had. Maybe what I'm picking up on is the Nietzschean influence; I don't know, I haven't read any Nietzsche since high school. I ought to do something about that. As for Kawabata, I recently bought his Snow Country (on your recommendation) and look forward to reading it too. Of the three Japanese writers I've read recently, Mishima is the first one whose work strikes me as a wholly Japanese phenomenon, and I kind of hope to find something similar in Kawabata, even if his work itself seems quite different. There's another Japanese writer I'd love to read, one of these days: Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. But I've got plenty on my plate for now... Very grateful to be discovering so much excellent literary fiction these days.

Edit: Finished The Sailor. What an ending. That was definitely one of the more fucked up books I've ever read, but my interest is definitely piqued and I will be reading more Mishima.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 22, 2021, 08:11:23 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 21, 2021, 01:03:48 PM
Oddly it was the only Mishima they had.

This is hilarious. I hope it is a deliberate humor by the BN manager. Life For Sale is an entertaining, if absurd, story by Mishima. It should be a fun read. Mishima jokingly called it a "psychedelic adventure novel," with his characteristic self-caricature. Interestingly, it was written just 2 years before his "death."

In contrast to Mishima's flamboyant writing style, Kawabata's writing is simple and minimalistic.  If Mishima's writing is Baroque architecture, Kawabata's writing is a single-story wooden house.  But both the authors emphasize aesthetics/glory over the mundanity/compromise in life. As for Tanizaki, his works present unique eroticism/aestheticism. Also, I Am a Cat by Natsume is deservedly popular in the West. The House Keeper and the Professor, a recent publication by Ogawa, is popular as well.

As for other works by Mishima in English translation, it seems to me that "Five Modern Noh Plays" is a superb (and less disturbing) book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on January 22, 2021, 03:41:57 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 18, 2021, 05:22:48 AM
Very fair. How about his ability of overall composition, depiction, literary expression and creating and contrasting characters? Do you have negative opinion about them?

Any opinion on Endo's Silence?
I'd have to go back and reread. I'm guessing Mishma was a genius in those areas. And I'd agree about not confusing the writer with what's written. On the other hand, the narcissism and alienation of post-war writing has worn off for me. I think it's particularly captivating in youth. I'm guessing it might not do enough for me now but I'd have to give it a fair shot. Writer's like Endo seem more adult in the grappling with big moral questions in the aftermath of imperial Japan. In Mishima and Dazai, there might be the quality of a Celine, some echo of fascism in this rejection of the present over the past? Sentimentalism, narcissism, oily muscles and fascination with hypocrisy and purity can slide into fascism and brutality?
Maybe I'm also affected by listening to Dan Carlin's podcast on the war. And living in Japan, I can see how hard it is to get out of the narrow view because Japan has that total-izing effect on modern Japanese. And youth-culture seems to reduce everything to banality. I can still imagine militarism filling in the gap of that poorly-developed sense of self and meaningful values. Just my two cents.
Re: Endo: I had a good impression of Silence. It'd be worth it for me to reread that as well. I think Endo was a real thinker.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on January 22, 2021, 03:50:54 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 22, 2021, 08:11:23 AM
This is hilarious. I hope it is a deliberate humor by the BN manager. Life For Sale is an entertaining, if absurd, story by Mishima. It should be a fun read. Mishima jokingly called it a "psychedelic adventure novel," with his characteristic self-caricature. Interestingly, it was written just 2 years before his "death."

In contrast to Mishima's flamboyant writing style, Kawabata's writing is simple and minimalistic.  If Mishima's writing is Baroque architecture, Kawabata's writing is a single-story wooden house.  But both the authors emphasize aesthetics/glory over the mundanity/compromise in life. As for Tanizaki, his works present unique eroticism/aestheticism. Also, I Am a Cat by Natsume is deservedly popular in the West. The House Keeper and the Professor, a recent publication by Ogawa, is popular as well.

As for other works by Mishima in English translation, it seems to me that "Five Modern Noh Plays" is a superb (and less disturbing) book.
I read all of Mishima's novels when I was a youth and enjoyed them except for the trilogy he wrote. Tanizaki wrote a book that reminded me of Lolita. Again, I'm not sure what to think of it now. Soseki had a book called "The Three-Cornered World," which I remember really enjoying.
Kawabata won the Nobel. So did Oe. I'm not sure Oe deserved it but he's still alive. Kawabata is said to be great in the original language. I only read translations and they are beautiful, if memory serves. But also, if my memory is correct, following that sense of cold detachment and alienation which disgusts me now. But Maybe I'd have a different impression upon rereading. I knew a guy, British, who lectured and wrote quite a bit about this group. I used to run into him in Osaka from time to time. He was a real champion of this ilk.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 23, 2021, 07:30:28 AM
Quote from: milk on January 22, 2021, 03:41:57 PM
I'd have to go back and reread. I'm guessing Mishma was a genius in those areas. And I'd agree about not confusing the writer with what's written. On the other hand, the narcissism and alienation of post-war writing has worn off for me. I think it's particularly captivating in youth. I'm guessing it might not do enough for me now but I'd have to give it a fair shot. Writer's like Endo seem more adult in the grappling with big moral questions in the aftermath of imperial Japan. In Mishima and Dazai, there might be the quality of a Celine, some echo of fascism in this rejection of the present over the past? Sentimentalism, narcissism, oily muscles and fascination with hypocrisy and purity can slide into fascism and brutality?
Maybe I'm also affected by listening to Dan Carlin's podcast on the war. And living in Japan, I can see how hard it is to get out of the narrow view because Japan has that total-izing effect on modern Japanese. And youth-culture seems to reduce everything to banality. I can still imagine militarism filling in the gap of that poorly-developed sense of self and meaningful values. Just my two cents.
Re: Endo: I had a good impression of Silence. It'd be worth it for me to reread that as well. I think Endo was a real thinker.


Thank you for the comment. I like Mishima as a romantic aesthete, but Just as most readers, I don't like his philosophy or political ideology.  Mishima found the post-ww2 Japanese society excessively Americanized, ugly, and disagreeable (How would you feel if Americans start wearing Chinese cloth and using Chinese letters and Chinese military/soldiers station in the land ?).   I find his ultra nationalistic view anachronistic, and somewhat comical. But I don't see his political ideology in his literal works much. In the realm of literary works, I assume, Mishima is largely a romantic (or hardcore) aesthete while Endo is a moralist writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 23, 2021, 07:33:27 AM
Le Ble en Herbe (Green Wheat), Colette. An inevitable transformation of the relationship between teenage boy and girl in one summer at a coastal village in Northern France.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 23, 2021, 03:09:32 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 23, 2021, 07:30:28 AM

Thank you for the comment. I like Mishima as a romantic aesthete, but Just as most readers, I don't like his philosophy or political ideology.  Mishima found the post-ww2 Japanese society excessively Americanized, ugly, and disagreeable (How would you feel if Americans start wearing Chinese cloth and using Chinese letters and Chinese military/soldiers station in the land ?).   I find his ultra nationalistic view anachronistic, and somewhat comical. But I don't see his political ideology in his literal works much. In the realm of literary works, I assume, Mishima is largely a romantic (or hardcore) aesthete while Endo is a moralist writer.

In The Sailor, I didn't find much in the way of political ideology, but the writer of this very opinionated wikipedia article seems to think the whole thing is a metaphor for the American occupation of Japan...:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sailor_Who_Fell_from_Grace_with_the_Sea

Someone needs to edit this article and make it less opinionated...

I just started Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men yesterday and I'm about 2/3 of the way through. It's a very easy read, lots of dialogue.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on January 24, 2021, 08:42:57 AM
philosophy, ghost stories, and sf.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 24, 2021, 09:05:38 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 23, 2021, 03:09:32 PM
I just started Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men yesterday and I'm about 2/3 of the way through. It's a very easy read, lots of dialogue.

Finished. Not sure what to read next... more Mishima, more McCarthy, or perhaps something totally different. Stay tuned...  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 25, 2021, 02:39:59 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 24, 2021, 09:05:38 AM
Finished. Not sure what to read next... more Mishima, more McCarthy, or perhaps something totally different. Stay tuned...  :laugh:

Went with the latter option, John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. It's really good so far. I'm about halfway through.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61JA4A8QCnL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 25, 2021, 06:37:35 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 23, 2021, 03:09:32 PM
In The Sailor, I didn't find much in the way of political ideology, but the writer of this very opinionated wikipedia article seems to think the whole thing is a metaphor for the American occupation of Japan...:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sailor_Who_Fell_from_Grace_with_the_Sea

Someone needs to edit this article and make it less opinionated...

I just started Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men yesterday and I'm about 2/3 of the way through. It's a very easy read, lots of dialogue.

Yes the article is a big stretch. The writer and the written are mixed up.

Rereading Boccaccio.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 27, 2021, 01:56:33 AM
Finished the Steinbeck which was an awesome little book. Now for more McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses. So far so good. This must be his most accessible novel, if not the ultra-spare No Country for Old Men which has the caveat of being more violent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 28, 2021, 08:49:14 AM
Tale of Genji, authored by Lady Purple (Murasaki). The work is widely considered to be the world's first novel, authored by the lady in waiting at the Japanese imperial court in the 11th century. The story is about numerous love affairs of a son of emperor, which is partly fictional and partly factual. Fun read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Handelian on January 29, 2021, 12:56:41 PM
Mozart by Jan Swafford

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 29, 2021, 02:34:46 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 27, 2021, 01:56:33 AM
McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses.

Damn, I am really enjoying this book. Not at all what I was expecting after the other McCarthy I've read. I reckon this won't be my last time reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on January 29, 2021, 03:21:17 PM
Ive read The Road some years back, and that really did a number on me. McCarthy really gets under the skin and if you're like me and occasionally prone to be mildly misanthropic, that book will be fuel for the fire!

Now, having experienced that you might think I'd find a more optimistic read, but no. The second McCarthy book I picked up to read was Blood Meridian... Wow. Now, that is a real blood-curdling, soul-draining read. It stayed with me for weeks. McCarthy is a genius - I love the way he writes, it is so easy to read and so rich, but often so chillingly photographic when it comes to the violence. I have a few other books of his on my shelf but haven't had the energy to tackle them since Blood Meridian ... And that was five years ago. Anyway, I highly recommend it in case that wasn't clear. 😎

My recent reading is Ted Chiang's collection of short stories 'Exhalation'. He's another writer who writes so wonderfully eloquently and in a very readable way. Very impressive given the high concept sci-fi of these stories. Half way through and every story has been a treasure so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 29, 2021, 04:23:20 PM
Quote from: Benji on January 29, 2021, 03:21:17 PM
Ive read The Road some years back, and that really did a number on me. McCarthy really gets under the skin and if you're like me and occasionally prone to be mildly misanthropic, that book will be fuel for the fire!

Now, having experienced that you might think I'd find a more optimistic read, but no. The second McCarthy book I picked up to read was Blood Meridian... Wow. Now, that is a real blood-curdling, soul-draining read. It stayed with me for weeks. McCarthy is a genius - I love the way he writes, it is so easy to read and so rich, but often so chillingly photographic when it comes to the violence. I have a few other books of his on my shelf but haven't had the energy to tackle them since Blood Meridian ... And that was five years ago. Anyway, I highly recommend it in case that wasn't clear. 😎

My recent reading is Ted Chiang's collection of short stories 'Exhalation'. He's another writer who writes so wonderfully eloquently and in a very readable way. Very impressive given the high concept sci-fi of these stories. Half way through and every story has been a treasure so far.

I read about half of Blood Meridian in high school, not long after I read The Road, which I loved at the time. Can't remember why I ever put it down. Anyway, I might be reading that next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on January 29, 2021, 05:02:33 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 29, 2021, 04:23:20 PM
I read about half of Blood Meridian in high school, not long after I read The Road, which I loved at the time. Can't remember why I ever put it down. Anyway, I might be reading that next.

Probably because of nervous exhaustion! 😄
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 30, 2021, 07:59:03 AM
Middlemarch.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71AIn7Dl1RL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 31, 2021, 04:29:34 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 29, 2021, 04:23:20 PM
I read about half of Blood Meridian in high school, not long after I read The Road, which I loved at the time. Can't remember why I ever put it down. Anyway, I might be reading that next.

Actually reading Child of God next. So far, so good. An incredibly fucked up book, about brutality, nature, and man's inhumanity to man, as far as I can tell. But I'm only about a third of the way in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 31, 2021, 04:29:55 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 30, 2021, 07:59:03 AM
Middlemarch.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71AIn7Dl1RL.jpg)

Always wanted to read this. What do you think?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on January 31, 2021, 06:46:59 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 31, 2021, 04:29:55 AM
Always wanted to read this. What do you think?

One of those books I put down and thought, do I really ever need to read anything else after that? A wonderful thing imo. (Sorry you didn't ask me, but thought I'd chip in anyway.) Actually was going to reread it a couple of weeks ago until I found my copy had gone missing.  :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 31, 2021, 07:12:21 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 31, 2021, 04:29:55 AM
Always wanted to read this. What do you think?

Too early to tell yet but it is much easier to read than Mill on the Floss.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 01, 2021, 07:24:34 AM
Six Crises, Richard Nixon.
Excellent writing and great insights.
One of the most intelligent presidents of the U.S.A..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 01, 2021, 03:54:16 PM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780517446355-us.jpg)

Finally getting around to this after having had it on the shelves for years, and of course its as good as its reputation and fully justifies being used as a much-quoted primary document in so many histories of the era. Only a hundred pages in but already the extended eyewitness descriptions of the Anschlus and of the fate of the Sudetenland have justified buying and reading. And the close analysis and cataloging of the propaganda at each step. And in the sense of events unfolding daily on top of each other in a headlong rush.

I hadn't heard before this that Hitler had suppressed the publication of any translation of Mein Kampf, as it would undermine his pretense of peaceful intentions and the first English edition didn't appear until 1939.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on February 01, 2021, 04:08:45 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 01, 2021, 03:54:16 PM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780517446355-us.jpg)

Finally getting around to this after having had it on the shelves for years, and of course its as good as its reputation and fully justifies being used as a much-quoted primary document in so many histories of the era. Only a hundred pages in but already the extended eyewitness descriptions of the Anschlus and of the fate of the Sudetenland have justified buying and reading. And the close analysis and cataloging of the propaganda at each step. And in the sense of events unfolding daily on top of each other in a headlong rush.

I hadn't heard before this that Hitler had suppressed the publication of any translation of Mein Kampf, as it would undermine his pretense of peaceful intentions and the first English edition didn't appear until 1939.

Do you know the book Travellers in the Third Reich? If not you might find it a good companion read to your current reading. (I haven't finished reading my copy yet but it was well reviewed)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 01, 2021, 04:16:27 PM
I wasn't aware of it. Looks interesting. Thanks for the heads-up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 03, 2021, 04:02:42 AM
Just finished Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. A fun read. I have this anthology:

[asin]0553212419[/asin]

... of which I'm now about halfway through. I'm only picking it up here and there between other reads and on vacation and the like.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 04, 2021, 03:02:25 AM
Now The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway. Mixed feelings so far. Not my favorite Hemingway.

[asin]0684804441[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 04, 2021, 09:54:30 AM
Le Rouge et Le Noir (The Red and The Black), Stendhal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 04, 2021, 10:12:44 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 04, 2021, 09:54:30 AM
Le Rouge et Le Noir (The Red and The Black), Stendhal.

This is a book I started twice and twice gave it up before reaching its middle. The third time I started it (after a hiatus of more than a decade) 'twas a page turner from start to finish. I guess it's one of those books which require a certain degree of maturity and life experience to be fully enjoyed. A masterpiece.

The Charterhouse of Parma is also very good.

Rumor has it that Lucien Leuwen is at least as good as the two above but I haven't read it.

Stendhal was an avid music lover and his memoirs of his Italy years as an officer in the French army are chock-full of musical references (he was mainly an opera guy). They can be found online but I'm too lazy to provide a link. IIRC, they are titled Rome, Florence & Naples.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 04, 2021, 10:47:46 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 04, 2021, 10:12:44 AM
This is a book I started twice and twice gave it up before reaching its middle. The third time I started it (after a hiatus of more than a decade) 'twas a page turner from start to finish. I guess it's one of those books which require a certain degree of maturity and life experience to be fully enjoyed. A masterpiece.

The Charterhouse of Parma is also very good.

Rumor has it that Lucien Leuwen is at least as good as the two above but I haven't read it.

Stendhal was an avid music lover and his memoirs of his Italy years as an officer in the French army are chock-full of musical references (he was mainly an opera guy). They can be found online but I'm too lazy to provide a link. IIRC, they are titled Rome, Florence & Naples.

Well-said. It is an intriguing, thrilling, and entertaining read. The book has been one of my all-time favorite works since I read it first time when I was 12 y/o. The book also "vividly" depicts the corruption, deception and hypocrisy in church, aristocracy, and local govts.  S's skills in that aspect could possibly be even higher than that of Dostoevsky.

I have 2 biographies of Stendhal. They say that unlike the protagonists in Parma and the Red, he was ugly (or non-good looking at best). I guess, perhaps he admired beautiful people. Yes, he liked everything in Italy. S even admired Casanova and his written memoir (as I do).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 04, 2021, 11:17:51 AM
I enjoyed Red/Black last year on a first read - haven't read Charterhouse yet but want to. Red/Black is definitely one of those books which improves cumulatively from a quiet beginning to a fully developed world.

I'm ping-ponging between Albert Murray's essay collection The Omni-Americans and James M. Cain's pulpy crime noir classic The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 04, 2021, 03:53:04 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51IsEuEdYZL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 04, 2021, 06:18:07 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 04, 2021, 03:02:25 AM
Now The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway. Mixed feelings so far. Not my favorite Hemingway.

[asin]0684804441[/asin]

The only Hemingway books I truly liked were Old Man and the Sea and Death in the Afternoon. For Whom the Bell Tolls is a great novel but I've felt any desire to reread it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on February 05, 2021, 03:03:30 AM
I read Hemingway in the past. Picked him up together with Fitzerald. I have zero recollection of his short stories. War is not my main interest, so I felt kind of indifferent to his novels. The only one that kept me interested was A Moveable Feast.   
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 05, 2021, 03:32:33 AM
I loved The Sun Also Rises. In fact I might call it one of my favorite books. When I first read it, I found a little too much to relate to in the two main characters, and it made me reevaluate my life a bit. Never made as much progress with his other books. I read A Moveable Feast back in the fall and enjoyed it thoroughly but it didn't strike me as a "major" work if that makes any sense.

The aforementioned short story collection, which I finished last night, was hit or miss; even within a single story there were parts I liked and parts I disliked. The final story was The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber which I had read before and enjoyed then, and I enjoyed it again now. It's the pinnacle of Hemingway's macho code of conduct and I'm not sure how I feel about the values expressed, but they were certainly expressed with mastery. Not sure whether I'll be returning to this book or not. I have A Farewell to Arms and another short story collection on the shelf and I reckon I'll get around to one or the other sooner or later in the year.

Edit: I wonder if Francis Macomber and his wife are based on Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald... If you've read it, what do you think?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 06, 2021, 04:19:28 AM
Yesterday I found a copy of Bob Dylan's Chronicles, Vol. 1 for $2 at the local used book store in excellent shape. I'm about halfway through. This is a reread, having first read it in college, but now, some 7 years later, I'm finding it about as fresh as the first time.

[asin]0743244583[/asin]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 06, 2021, 10:46:56 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 04, 2021, 10:47:46 AM
Well-said. It is an intriguing, thrilling, and entertaining read. The book has been one of my all-time favorite works since I read it first time when I was 12 y/o. The book also "vividly" depicts the corruption, deception and hypocrisy in church, aristocracy, and local govts. human nature.

FTFY.

No, really, I mean it 100%. I am absolutely, unshakably and positively convinced that anyone --- and I mean anyone as in I, you and all of our neighbours, all GMGers included --- were prone to corruption, deception and hypocrisy should we be in a position of real power over our neighbours, be it as churchmen, aristocrats or democratically elected government officials.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. --- Lord Acton


I am no anarchist, let alone communist, but I can't help pondering the question: When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?

;D

QuoteS's skills in that aspect could possibly be even higher than that of Dostoevsky.

The only writer who is on the same plane as Dostoevsky in describing the ills of the modern world is Franz Kafka.

OTOH, there are lots (I mean hundreds of thousand, if not millions) of people in this world of ours who have never read Stendhal, Dostoevsky or Kafka but who have been able to lift themselves from poverty to a decent livelihood for them and their family. Moreover, they managed to do it thanks to an economic regime which both S and D and K decried. What do you make of this fact?

QuoteS even admired Casanova and his written memoir (as I do).

Casanova is a superb writer. His Memoirs are excellently written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on February 07, 2021, 07:35:30 AM
William R. Clark - At War Within. To learn some basic stuff about the immune system.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 08, 2021, 02:41:57 AM
Cormac McCarthy, Outer Dark. My fourth of his books recently. I'm enjoying everything though I am getting the impression from this early book that he wrote with some kind of antiquarian thesaurus on his desk  :laugh:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gHw4o+AqL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 08, 2021, 03:08:41 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/Capitalist_Realism_cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 08, 2021, 06:56:19 AM
Borges.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 08, 2021, 02:28:26 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 08, 2021, 06:56:19 AM
Borges.

I need to pick this up. I have a very short anthology of his works but I want to read all of it. Brilliant writer of a very rare breed.

Quote from: vers la flamme on February 08, 2021, 02:41:57 AM
Cormac McCarthy, Outer Dark. My fourth of his books recently. I'm enjoying everything though I am getting the impression from this early book that he wrote with some kind of antiquarian thesaurus on his desk  :laugh:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gHw4o+AqL.jpg)

About halfway through. I really like it so far. Reminds me of a fucked up fairytale.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 09, 2021, 07:34:37 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 08, 2021, 02:28:26 PM
I need to pick this up. I have a very short anthology of his works but I want to read all of it. Brilliant writer of a very rare breed.


He is a great writer, but his themes and writing styles are distinctive. I like some stories while I don't care a few others.

P.s. what do you recommend for Paul Paray's recordings?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 09, 2021, 02:14:50 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 09, 2021, 07:34:37 AM
He is a great writer, but his themes and writing styles are distinctive. I like some stories while I don't care a few others.

P.s. what do you recommend for Paul Paray's recordings?

I only have a few but I love all of them, my favorite being his Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3 which also features a recording of Paray's own Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc, a work that's worth a listen. The others I have are his disc of von Suppé and Auber overtures, perhaps not everyone's cup of tea but it's an amazing performance, and then the Chabrier disc which I think I picked up off your good word. I've been meaning to get some more. This is all with the Detroit SO. Great conductor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 09, 2021, 04:21:59 PM
Yes, the Saint-Saens disc is exceptional. I will look for the Suppe et al. recording. I also like Dances of Death. Also, the Dvorak/Sibelius disc sounds unique/interesting. No. 9 is a little fast, but some parts of the interpretation/performance are interesting. Thank you for your suggestion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 09, 2021, 04:31:58 PM
I don't have much disagreements with what you say, including Casanova and the Hobbesian interpretation of the world.
Writings by La Rochefoucauld offer pessimistic views of human nature. In contrast, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs proffer a contrasting/different view.
I read Kafka decades ago. I must read his works again.
Thank you for your suggestion.

Quote from: Florestan on February 06, 2021, 10:46:56 AM
FTFY.

No, really, I mean it 100%. I am absolutely, unshakably and positively convinced that anyone --- and I mean anyone as in I, you and all of our neighbours, all GMGers included --- were prone to corruption, deception and hypocrisy should we be in a position of real power over our neighbours, be it as churchmen, aristocrats or democratically elected government officials.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. --- Lord Acton


I am no anarchist, let alone communist, but I can't help pondering the question: When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?

;D

The only writer who is on the same plane as Dostoevsky in describing the ills of the modern world is Franz Kafka.

OTOH, there are lots (I mean hundreds of thousand, if not millions) of people in this world of ours who have never read Stendhal, Dostoevsky or Kafka but who have been able to lift themselves from poverty to a decent livelihood for them and their family. Moreover, they managed to do it thanks to an economic regime which both S and D and K decried. What do you make of this fact?

Casanova is a superb writer. His Memoirs are excellently written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Benji on February 11, 2021, 03:59:12 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on February 10, 2021, 05:09:44 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61V0pEcFyRL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Working my way sporadically through all 5 volumes of Philip K Dick's Collected Stories.  There's a certain samey-ness when read in bulk, but there are some real gems in there.  Colony (from Vol 1) and The Crawlers (Vol 3) still give me the creeps just to think about them.

It's uncanny how these stories, mostly written in the 1950's, manage to prefigure the modern reality, in trend if not in detail.  Driverless vehicles, for example, seen as sinister for the further reduction of human agency in an increasingly automated world.

And Dick has insights that escape other writers - e.g. Orwell in 1984, assuming citizens would have to be forced to live with always-on listening devices in their homes, not imagining that notions of convenience might induce people to buy them for themselves and even give to others as presents.

Just last night I was reading Service Call (Vol 4), in which a bunch of technicians get a glimpse of a future in which the must-have item is something called a "swibble" - which turns out to be a device that enables every householder to ensure that their thinking is at all times aligned with the prevailing official ideology - not to have it forced on them, but to want to have one, for the practical advantage that comes from always fitting in.  Can't help feeling that one's only a question of time.

I read all of these way way back. There is one I would really like to find again where a shape shifting amoeba feeds on planetary colonists by taking on familiar shapes and absorbing those unfortunate enough to interact with it - I think early on it mimics a bath towel ... Each time it absorbs a person it grows in size. And IIRC the story ends in panicked colonists trying to escape aboard a 'rescue vessel'... Oops.

A very pulpy kind of sci-fi story but shows some of the authors trademark paranoia. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 12, 2021, 02:30:10 PM
Rereading Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. I must have read this book half a dozen times, but it's been several years. It's just as beautiful, powerful, harrowing, and hilarious as I remember it. I need to get back to more of the Vonnegut books I loved as a youth but haven't thought about in quite some time. What a writer.

Edit: Any recommendations for great fiction inspired by World War 2? Also open for suggestions for great nonfiction on the matter. I've always been fascinated with the War, but have read shamefully little about it.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41utBtkGdTL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I didn't mention it before but I also read James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. An amazing read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 12, 2021, 08:49:48 PM
I need to get Vonnegut's books!
As for a WW2-related fiction, I like The Reader. The story is about guilt- guilt of the illiterate heroine, guilt of the protagonist who didn't help the heroine, and the guilt of entire Germans, who only blame the war criminals but not themselves.
As for non-fictions, I enjoyed American Shogun by Robert Harvey and Lost Victories by Manstein.
Also, Quiet Don is an entertaining story based on the Civil War in Russia after the Soviet revolution. The protagonist, Cossack soldier, oscillates between the Red army and White army. It is a page-turner. The book won both the Nobel prize and Stalin prize in the USSR!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Biffo on February 13, 2021, 03:48:18 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 12, 2021, 02:30:10 PM
Rereading Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. I must have read this book half a dozen times, but it's been several years. It's just as beautiful, powerful, harrowing, and hilarious as I remember it. I need to get back to more of the Vonnegut books I loved as a youth but haven't thought about in quite some time. What a writer.

Edit: Any recommendations for great fiction inspired by World War 2? Also open for suggestions for great nonfiction on the matter. I've always been fascinated with the War, but have read shamefully little about it.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41utBtkGdTL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I didn't mention it before but I also read James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. An amazing read.

Not strictly about WW2 but it will give you a good idea of why it happened - The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J Evans. At the other end, chronologically speaking, Berlin The Downfall : 1945 by Antony Beevor is a good read. I am sure you will get plenty more recommendations. I don't have any for the war in the Pacific and the Far East.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 13, 2021, 05:09:48 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 12, 2021, 08:49:48 PM
I need to get Vonnegut's books!
As for a WW2-related fiction, I like The Reader. The story is about guilt- guilt of the illiterate heroine, guilt of the protagonist who didn't help the heroine, and the guilt of entire Germans, who only blame the war criminals but not themselves.
As for non-fictions, I enjoyed American Shogun by Robert Harvey and Lost Victories by Manstein.
Also, Quiet Don is an entertaining story based on the Civil War in Russia after the Soviet revolution. The protagonist, Cossack soldier, oscillates between the Red army and White army. It is a page-turner. The book won both the Nobel prize and Stalin prize in the USSR!!

I do need to read Shokholov's Don. Somehow I hadn't heard of it until recently when it was referenced in another book I was reading (I forget which, maybe one by Murakami?) I'm going to have to look into the other books you mentioned. They sound fascinating. Thanks.

@Biffo, Coming of the Third Reich sounds great. Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 13, 2021, 07:38:31 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 12, 2021, 08:49:48 PM
the guilt of entire Germans, who only blame the war criminals but not themselves.

If Schlink's idea is that of a collective guilt, I am strongly opposed. A person is responsible amd therefore guilty or not for their own actions only. There is no such thing as collective guilt and least of all in totalitarian systems. Besides, why is it that we never hear or read of the guilt of entire Russians or Chinese, who only blame Stalin or Mao but never themselves?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 13, 2021, 08:53:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 13, 2021, 07:38:31 AM
If Schlink's idea is that of a collective guilt, I am strongly opposed. A person is responsible amd therefore guilty or not for their own actions only. There is no such thing as collective guilt and least of all in totalitarian systems. Besides, why is it that we never hear or read of the guilt of entire Russians or Chinese, who only blame Stalin or Mao but never themselves?

That's an important issue I wouldn't take casually. But the subject is beyond the intended scope and depth of this site.
Thank you for your response. Have you read Sholokhov? I have a feeling that you would like it if you a have not already done so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 13, 2021, 09:11:21 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 13, 2021, 08:53:13 AM
Have you read Sholokhov? I have a feeling that you would like it if you a have not already done so.

I've always intended to read it but somehow never managed to do it. I must rectify it asap.

Btw, I heartily recommend you Bulgakov's The White Guard, and of course his masterpiece The Master and Margarita.

And now that I think of it, you must read Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate --- if only for the fact that Stalin considered Grossman even more dangerous than Pasternak and I think he was actually right.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on February 13, 2021, 11:48:15 AM
Life and Fate is a really great book. Maybe the best Russian novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 13, 2021, 12:14:22 PM
Quote from: Artem on February 13, 2021, 11:48:15 AM
Life and Fate is a really great book. Maybe the best Russian novel.

I picked it up at Barnes and Noble earlier but put it back on the shelf. Too long for my purposes, though it looked amazing. I reckon I'll get around to it in time. I don't think it's possible to name a best Russian novel with how many phenomenal ones there are. The great Russian writers, or at least most of them, seem to have a way with trying to put the entire world into each book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 14, 2021, 01:51:47 AM
Quote from: Artem on February 13, 2021, 11:48:15 AM
Life and Fate is a really great book. Maybe the best Russian novel.

I see it as sort of a 20th Century War and Peace.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 14, 2021, 01:52:26 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 13, 2021, 12:14:22 PM
I don't think it's possible to name a best Russian novel with how many phenomenal ones there are. The great Russian writers, or at least most of them, seem to have a way with trying to put the entire world into each book.

+ 1.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 14, 2021, 08:07:24 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 14, 2021, 01:51:47 AM
I see it as sort of a 20th Century War and Peace.

I've heard that and it is has been on my wishlist for at least a year but my tbr pile is quite long.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 14, 2021, 08:46:04 AM
Andrei, great recommendations! I read excellent reviews on Amazon. I will get the copies.

Yes, so many excellent authors in Russia. While not mentioned much here, I like Gogol, Pushkin, Chekhov and Maxim Gorky as well.  I even named my dog "Chekhov."  When I was a child, I always liked (translated) children's books written by Soviet authors.  There were books of Asian, European, and American stories as well, ie. Huckleberry Finn.  But the Soviet stories were always my favorite. They were modern, cool, and non-childish.

Confession: When I was a teenager, Tolstoy, as well as Hesse and Stendhal, was my favorite author. I don't care his works much anymore..

Now reading Nevsky Street and others by Gogol.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on February 14, 2021, 08:53:40 AM
Neil McGregor's Germany- Memoirs of a Nation.

Currently the most important and interesting European country. Fascinating book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 16, 2021, 02:06:22 PM
I finished Slaughterhouse-Five and another Vonnegut novel related to World War 2 and the Nazis, Mother Night. A good read but not nearly as good as Slaughterhouse-Five, and perhaps not as good as I remember it (first read it back in high school). Those are the only two Vonnegut I still have copies of. I'm going to try and get some of the other classic ones, Cat's Cradle especially I have been meaning to reread.

Now reading another by James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room. So far so good...

(http://0345806565)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 17, 2021, 06:52:55 AM
Sons and Lovers. D. H. Lawrence.
Beautiful story with sensual and psychological aspects. I m a big fan of Lawrence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 17, 2021, 09:14:10 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 16, 2021, 02:06:22 PM
I finished Slaughterhouse-Five and another Vonnegut novel related to World War 2 and the Nazis, Mother Night. A good read but not nearly as good as Slaughterhouse-Five, and perhaps not as good as I remember it (first read it back in high school). Those are the only two Vonnegut I still have copies of. I'm going to try and get some of the other classic ones, Cat's Cradle especially I have been meaning to reread.
I don't know "Mother Night", but of the handful I read, my Vonnegut favorite is "Cat's Cradle"; my odd favorite among the lesser known ones is a more traditional SciFi story "The Sirens of Titan". (Admittedly, I read all these probably in my late 20s around 2000 I have not re-read them since.)
Your timing was spot on as the anniversary of the Dresden bombing was just a few days ago. Interestingly, when Vonnegut wrote his book in the 60s, the official number was around 300k deaths, so Vonnegut claimed it was the worst massacre in history (because the atomic bombs each killed a smaller number immediately, although more due to the later deaths from radiation). This number was apparently exaggerated, it has been corrected many times, only downwards, and now we are at about 30k... go figure...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 17, 2021, 04:01:30 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 17, 2021, 06:52:55 AM
Sons and Lovers. D. H. Lawrence.
Beautiful story with sensual and psychological aspects. I m a big fan of Lawrence.

Ah, that's the copy I have. I've been meaning to read it for about a year but haven't gotten around to it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 17, 2021, 07:13:05 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 17, 2021, 04:01:30 PM
Ah, that's the copy I have. I've been meaning to read it for about a year but haven't gotten around to it.

Somehow very English (and very good). I like the fact that the story is about a blue-collar family and the people are depicted as sensitive, delicate, and refined.
In contrast, the people in Sholokhov's Quiet Don are rough, violent and vulgar. I like it as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Biffo on February 18, 2021, 03:15:51 AM
I have been bingeing on Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The Long Goodbye and just finished The High Window. I bought most of his works in paperback around thirty years ago and read several of them more than once. I have started reading them again on Kindle and greatly enjoying them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on February 18, 2021, 05:45:23 AM
Carl Zimmer - A Planet Of Viruses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 18, 2021, 07:46:59 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on February 18, 2021, 05:45:23 AM
Carl Zimmer - A Planet Of Viruses.

Looks very interesting. I have a few books about bacteria but not virus, and have been looking for a book on the subject.
Though bacteria help the people and earth tremendously, I don't know much contributions by virus.
Perhaps they make us strong?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on February 18, 2021, 08:16:44 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 18, 2021, 07:46:59 AM
Looks very interesting. I have a few books about bacteria but not virus, and have been looking for a book on the subject.
Though bacteria help the people and earth tremendously, I don't know much contributions by virus.
Perhaps they make us strong?

It's a small volume of short essays so I might be able to comment more next week, but has already suggested that viral and bacterial infections in childhood may be protective against immune disorders later in life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 18, 2021, 12:09:11 PM
I had seen the film (who hasn't), but hadn't read the novella it's based on, Colette's Gigi.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/410udTfiRsL._SX314_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
I had read a couple of Colette's Claudine books years ago, and found them wonderfully funny. Gigi is bittersweet (much more so than the musical adaptation), full of melancholy, but also a sharp take on the position of women of a certain class and time in France. A pleasure to read. Let's see how the other short stories in the collection are.

And no, the Maurice Chevalier character in not in the book, and there's no "Thank heavens for little girls".  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 18, 2021, 03:15:56 PM
Patti Smith, Just Kids

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31Lk4u-1UQL._SX500_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Just started it. So far so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 19, 2021, 07:17:34 AM
 Colette's short stories sound very interesting. I will look for a book.


Quote from: ritter on February 18, 2021, 12:09:11 PM
I had seen the film (who hasn't), but hadn't read the novella it's based on, Colette's Gigi.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/410udTfiRsL._SX314_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
I had read a couple of Colette's Claudine books years ago, and found them wonderfully funny. Gigi is bittersweet (much more so than the musical adaptation), full of melancholy, but also a sharp take on the position of women of a certain class and time in France. A pleasure to read. Let's see how the other short stories in the collection are.

And no, the Maurice Chevalier character in not in the book, and there's no "Thank heavens for little girls".  ;)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on February 19, 2021, 07:18:05 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 18, 2021, 07:46:59 AM
Looks very interesting. I have a few books about bacteria but not virus, and have been looking for a book on the subject.
Though bacteria help the people and earth tremendously, I don't know much contributions by virus.
Perhaps they make us strong?

I've finished it now. Quite an easy reading introduction to the subject. I may have to move on to something a bit more complicated next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 19, 2021, 07:39:33 AM
WOW - I've not posted here in a while but still reading a LOT of non-fiction books, most on my iPad but also some physical books (still like the feel and smell of books!) - pic below are some recent books on my iPad (probably going back to mid-2020), all read except the top 2 left - SO, need to consider some new additions; probably also read half that amount as 'real' books, again rather varied topics. Dave :)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-m7VbZDQ/0/8c9ae839/O/ReadBooks.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 19, 2021, 06:49:14 PM
Ravenna looks very interesting! I will get a copy.

Quote from: SonicMan46 on February 19, 2021, 07:39:33 AM
WOW - I've not posted here in a while but still reading a LOT of non-fiction books, most on my iPad but also some physical books (still like the feel and smell of books!) - pic below are some recent books on my iPad (probably going back to mid-2020), all read except the top 2 left - SO, need to consider some new additions; probably also read half that amount as 'real' books, again rather varied topics. Dave :)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-m7VbZDQ/0/8c9ae839/O/ReadBooks.png)


I saw the reviews on Amazon. I must buy the book.

Quote from: steve ridgway on February 18, 2021, 05:45:23 AM
Carl Zimmer - A Planet Of Viruses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on February 20, 2021, 08:23:33 AM
I've now started Molecular Biology Of The Cell. Got the 2002 edition for my wife last summer from a charity bookshop where you donate what you feel like, but she found it heavy going.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 21, 2021, 03:47:43 AM
Still working on Just Kids, but I've also started another Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater. This is one I have not read before. So far, so good.

(https://redemmas.org/uploads/edition/cover/7612/medium_zipview.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 21, 2021, 07:26:40 AM
For those who are interested, the Guardian's new interview article with Kazuo Ishiguro.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/20/kazuo-ishiguro-klara-and-the-sun-interview
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 21, 2021, 08:09:02 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 21, 2021, 07:26:40 AM
For those who are interested, the Guardian's new interview article with Kazuo Ishiguro.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/20/kazuo-ishiguro-klara-and-the-sun-interview

Very much interested in this. Many thanks for sharing!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 21, 2021, 08:36:18 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 21, 2021, 08:09:02 AM
Very much interested in this. Many thanks for sharing!

You are very welcome. :)  He likes Dosty (and Bob Dylan)!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on February 21, 2021, 09:43:23 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 19, 2021, 06:49:14 PM
Ravenna looks very interesting! I will get a copy.

I saw the reviews on Amazon. I must buy the book. RE: Carl Zimmer - A Planet Of Viruses.

Ravenna has been a good read - amazing how complicated the post-Roman Empire was when the Byzantine Empire flourish w/ Justinian - back in 1996, I was invited to speak at a medical meeting in Bologna; we had a day free, so wife and I took a train to Ravenna - was like entering another world, and the architecture, mosaics, etc. were just gorgeous.  The book and pics within will likely stimulate some at least to want to visit.

A Planet of Viruses by Zimmer - read an early edition - the 3rd edition will be released April 1 so should have much on the COVID pandemic - will likely purchase a Kindle app edition for my iPad.  In hardback, currently reading The Plague Cycle, published this year which covers infectious disease in general, so far quite good.  Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51TWG3crsgL._SX355_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51uftmBe2ZL._SY346_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 22, 2021, 07:14:47 AM
My Last Sigh, Luis Bunuel. A memoir by the renowned Spanish cinema director.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on February 22, 2021, 07:19:00 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on February 21, 2021, 09:43:23 AM
A Planet of Viruses by Zimmer - read an early edition - the 3rd edition will be released April 1 so should have much on the COVID pandemic - will likely purchase a Kindle app edition for my iPad.

I think we'll need a few years after the COVID pandemic has played out to get a good retrospective analysis.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 22, 2021, 10:44:20 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 22, 2021, 07:14:47 AM
My Last Sigh, Luis Bunuel. A memoir by the renowned Spanish cinema director.
Oh, I read that when it was first published almost 40 years ago, and it was great fun. The definition of "provocation" he gives is great (I won't spoil it for you  ;)). I hope you enjoy it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on February 22, 2021, 11:39:02 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on February 20, 2021, 08:23:33 AM
I've now started Molecular Biology Of The Cell. Got the 2002 edition for my wife last summer from a charity bookshop where you donate what you feel like, but she found it heavy going.

C'mon its not like biology is complicated
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on February 23, 2021, 04:55:26 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on February 22, 2021, 11:39:02 AM
C'mon its not like biology is complicated

I've already learnt that two molecules of glucose can join together in eleven different ways. ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 23, 2021, 02:49:26 PM
Somerset Maugham: The Moon and Sixpence


(https://www.hcbooksonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/27060.jpg)



This is a novel based on the life of Paul Gaugin. Gaugin is portrayed here as an Englishman. Nothing is withheld in the portrayal of the character of the main protagonist, warts and all. One has little sympathy for him but the storytelling and the characterisation is compelling from the pen of a master craftsman.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 23, 2021, 04:53:30 PM
I saw a book on Maugham by Frederick Raphael in the secondhand store the other day and after considering overnight went back the next day to get it found it already sold. I wonder if it was a Maugham fan or, like me, someone wiling to consider beginning with Maugham knowing Raphael to be a good writer and therefor most probably a good guide.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on February 24, 2021, 04:31:00 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/68/GatewayNovel.JPG/220px-GatewayNovel.JPG)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on February 24, 2021, 05:24:52 AM
Quote from: aligreto on February 23, 2021, 02:49:26 PM
Somerset Maugham: The Moon and Sixpence


This is a novel based on the life of Paul Gaugin. Gaugin is portrayed here as an Englishman. Nothing is withheld in the portrayal of the character of the main protagonist, warts and all. One has little sympathy for him but the storytelling and the characterisation is compelling from the pen of a master craftsman.

Nice to see you popping back in, Fergus 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 24, 2021, 06:05:38 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on February 24, 2021, 05:24:52 AM
Nice to see you popping back in, Fergus 8)

+ 1!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 24, 2021, 07:09:50 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on February 24, 2021, 05:24:52 AM
Nice to see you popping back in, Fergus 8)

+ 1.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 24, 2021, 07:26:06 AM
Quote from: milk on February 24, 2021, 04:31:00 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/68/GatewayNovel.JPG/220px-GatewayNovel.JPG)

Love that and the whole Gateway/Heechee series, especially the way the author's ambition and scope expands outwards with each subsequent book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on February 24, 2021, 08:01:25 AM
Quote from: milk on February 24, 2021, 04:31:00 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/68/GatewayNovel.JPG/220px-GatewayNovel.JPG)

Is that classic SF? I read some of his stuff in the 70s but don't recall any titles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Stürmisch Bewegt on February 24, 2021, 10:12:32 AM
Céline's Journey to the End of Night has been on my read list only since 1974...my French is good but I've resorted to an English translation as it's overfilled with slang I don't recognize. Glad to be fulfilling my post-adolescent reading objectives at long last! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 25, 2021, 02:17:46 AM
Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51DuMTlkn9L._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A suggestion from our own Dry Brett Kavanaugh. So far, I am finding it to be intriguing for its deep inner monologue, exploring in depth the inner world of its tortured protagonist. Parts of it I am finding to be quite relatable, which is probably not a good thing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 25, 2021, 10:52:12 AM
Glad you like the book. It was published in 1949, a few years after the defeat (and total destruction) of Japan in WW2, and the story and the author's talent shocked the people. Mishima was 24 years old, and the chief editor of the publishing company was the father of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Now reading Montaigne's Essay.


Quote from: vers la flamme on February 25, 2021, 02:17:46 AM
Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51DuMTlkn9L._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A suggestion from our own Dry Brett Kavanaugh. So far, I am finding it to be intriguing for its deep inner monologue, exploring in depth the inner world of its tortured protagonist. Parts of it I am finding to be quite relatable, which is probably not a good thing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 25, 2021, 02:00:56 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on February 24, 2021, 05:24:52 AM
Nice to see you popping back in, Fergus 8)


Quote from: Florestan on February 24, 2021, 06:05:38 AM
+ 1!


Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 24, 2021, 07:09:50 AM
+ 1.

Thank you guys.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 25, 2021, 02:02:04 PM
Hemingway: The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GS3gR5usL._SX303_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This is a collection of short stories. I have enjoyed Hemmingway's short stories ever since I was a young man and I have subsequently enjoyed this re-read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 25, 2021, 04:33:50 PM
Quote from: aligreto on February 25, 2021, 02:02:04 PM
Hemingway: The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GS3gR5usL._SX303_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This is a collection of short stories. I have enjoyed Hemmingway's short stories ever since I was a young man and I have subsequently enjoyed this re-read.

I read Macomber earlier this month and found it to be an amazing story. The collection in which I read it seemed to be more of a mixed bag and there was at least one story that I didn't get all that much out of. Hemingway is a great writer, of course, and he's written at least two books that I really love: A Moveable Feast and especially The Sun Also Rises which changed my life when I first read it in high school.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 25, 2021, 07:11:05 PM
Finished:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1e/Amusinghkn.jpg/220px-Amusinghkn.jpg)

Started:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/42/PrisonsWeChooseToLiveInside.jpg/220px-PrisonsWeChooseToLiveInside.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on February 27, 2021, 05:24:45 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 24, 2021, 07:26:06 AM
Love that and the whole Gateway/Heechee series, especially the way the author's ambition and scope expands outwards with each subsequent book.
I'm on to the second one now. I liked the first. I have a hard time with sci-fi. I love Le Guin but most others in the genre don't work out for me. Gateway has a cranky edge to it that I like even though I think I can imagine a lot of people not getting into it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 27, 2021, 08:54:34 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 25, 2021, 02:17:46 AM
Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51DuMTlkn9L._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A suggestion from our own Dry Brett Kavanaugh. So far, I am finding it to be intriguing for its deep inner monologue, exploring in depth the inner world of its tortured protagonist. Parts of it I am finding to be quite relatable, which is probably not a good thing.

Dazai's No Longer Human is a fine book with some similarities to the Mask. But it is not as dark as Mishima.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 27, 2021, 01:57:59 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 27, 2021, 08:54:34 AM
Dazai's No Longer Human is a fine book with some similarities to the Mask. But it is not as dark as Mishima.

I'm unfamiliar with Dazai. I'll have to check that out. I finished Mishima's Confessions yesterday morning, it's such a brilliant book.

Now onto Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a reread, but I'm enjoying it much more this time around.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UiAAL5geL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on February 27, 2021, 02:06:41 PM
Just starting this book:  Sarah Dunant's "Blood & Beauty"

(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-07-31-91YbnNAj4PL._SL1500_.jpg)

It's a work of fiction dealing with the Borgias.  I quite enjoyed her book:  "The Birth of Venus" a number of years ago.  :)

From what I understand, she's a British author who has spent quite some time in Italy and has done a fair bit of research about certain periods and regions in Italian history.
https://www.sarahdunant.com
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 27, 2021, 03:03:53 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 27, 2021, 01:57:59 PM
I'm unfamiliar with Dazai. I'll have to check that out. I finished Mishima's Confessions yesterday morning, it's such a brilliant book.

Now onto Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a reread, but I'm enjoying it much more this time around.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UiAAL5geL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This is an unbelievably heavy book, especially for how short it is. I get the impression that Tolstoy was truly tormented by the idea of his own mortality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 28, 2021, 05:39:37 AM
Somerset Maugham: The Trembling of a Leaf


(https://www.hcbooksonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/25419c.jpg)


This is a fine collection of short stories which are set in the South Sea Islands. Maugham was a master storyteller and these tales are gems.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 28, 2021, 01:40:17 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 27, 2021, 01:57:59 PM
Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Well, that was an absolutely incredible read. As I said it was a reread; I read it during Russian lit class in college, but it did not leave much impression on me at the time. Reading it now a few years down the line, it was a completely different story. I guess I found it so much more relatable this time around. I need to get around to reading more Tolstoy...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 01, 2021, 02:33:47 AM
Just started Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51FIyYKsCXL._SX333_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Another reread (technically) though I don't think I ever finished it in the past. In any case it's been over 10 years since I last read any of it. So far, so good. I know some people dislike the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation, but it seems to be doing it for me well enough so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 01, 2021, 06:50:55 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 28, 2021, 01:40:17 PM
Well, that was an absolutely incredible read. As I said it was a reread; I read it during Russian lit class in college, but it did not leave much impression on me at the time. Reading it now a few years down the line, it was a completely different story. I guess I found it so much more relatable this time around. I need to get around to reading more Tolstoy...

As you will probably be aware, when Tolstoy listened to Tchaikovsky's Andante Cantabile, he was moved and wept. But the relationship between the two was complex.

https://www.pushkinhouse.org/blog/2020/4/22/when-tchaikovsky-met-tolstoy


Currently reading this fine book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 01, 2021, 07:18:32 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 01, 2021, 06:50:55 AM
As you will probably be aware, when Tolstoy listened to Tchaikovsky's Andante Cantabile, he was moved and wept. But the relationship between the two was complex.

https://www.pushkinhouse.org/blog/2020/4/22/when-tchaikovsky-met-tolstoy

An even more detailed analysis here:

http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Lev_Tolstoy (http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Lev_Tolstoy)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on March 02, 2021, 11:46:52 AM
Picked up Robin Olds' Fighter Pilot yesterday. Pretty good read thus far.

Sierra Hotel,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on March 02, 2021, 11:57:32 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 28, 2021, 01:40:17 PM
Well, that was an absolutely incredible read. As I said it was a reread; I read it during Russian lit class in college, but it did not leave much impression on me at the time. Reading it now a few years down the line, it was a completely different story. I guess I found it so much more relatable this time around. I need to get around to reading more Tolstoy...
I am probably missing a few of the not so famous Tolstoy shorter prose but IMO "The death of Ivan Ilyich" is the best (of the one I read). It's probably one of the best medium length prose pieces I have ever read by anyone. As a classical listener you need to read "Kreutzer sonata" but it is not as good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on March 02, 2021, 04:39:23 PM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on February 27, 2021, 02:06:41 PM
Just starting this book:  Sarah Dunant's "Blood & Beauty"

(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-07-31-91YbnNAj4PL._SL1500_.jpg)

It's a work of fiction dealing with the Borgias.  I quite enjoyed her book:  "The Birth of Venus" a number of years ago.  :)

From what I understand, she's a British author who has spent quite some time in Italy and has done a fair bit of research about certain periods and regions in Italian history.
https://www.sarahdunant.com

Thanks, two chapters into this and liking it - been looking for some historical fiction that does not suck.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 02, 2021, 07:38:39 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 01, 2021, 07:18:32 AM
An even more detailed analysis here:

http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Lev_Tolstoy (http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Lev_Tolstoy)

Detailed, good description. It reminds me of a relationship between Wagner and Kierkegaard a little bit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 03, 2021, 12:19:10 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 02, 2021, 07:38:39 PM
Detailed, good description. It reminds me of a relationship between Wagner and Kierkegaard a little bit.

I'm not aware of any close connection between Wagner and Kierkegaard and afaIk they never met. You might have meant Schopenhauer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 03, 2021, 07:51:07 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 03, 2021, 12:19:10 AM
I'm not aware of any close connection between Wagner and Kierkegaard and afaIk they never met. You might have meant Schopenhauer.
It's Nietzsche. I regret my error. Wagner admired Schopenhauer, but the latter was not interested in him or his music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 03, 2021, 08:00:25 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 03, 2021, 07:51:07 AM
It's Nietzsche. I regret my error. Wagner admired Schopenhauer, but the latter was not interested in him or his music.

Nietzsche, yes.

Schopenhauer penned a devastating critique of Wagner's libretti, going so far as to brand him "a deaf musician".

Details here: https://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/html/1996/09/schopenhauer.html (https://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/html/1996/09/schopenhauer.html) (make sure to read the next page as well.)

He vastly prefered Mozart and Rossini above any other composers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 04, 2021, 06:37:09 AM
Confessions of a philosopher. Bryan Magee.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 04, 2021, 06:42:11 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 03, 2021, 08:00:25 AM
Nietzsche, yes.

Schopenhauer penned a devastating critique of Wagner's libretti, going so far as to brand him "a deaf musician".

Details here: https://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/html/1996/09/schopenhauer.html (https://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/html/1996/09/schopenhauer.html) (make sure to read the next page as well.)

He vastly prefered Mozart and Rossini above any other composers.

Some authors say that W became hugely interested in, and influenced by, Buddhism because of Schopenhauer's writings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 04, 2021, 11:28:46 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 04, 2021, 06:37:09 AM
Confessions of a philosopher. Bryan Magee.
Do you like it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 04, 2021, 02:06:18 PM
Quote from: Artem on March 04, 2021, 11:28:46 AM
Do you like it?

Magee is my favorite author/philosopher. The book discusses his life as well as core issues in philosophy. To readers with some philosophical background, the book must be an engaging read. He wrote a few introductory books of philosophy for beginners as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 05, 2021, 12:57:39 PM
Gorky: The Man Who Was Afraid [Foma Gordyeeff]


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/57124449.jpg)


This could equally have been titled The Man Who Could [or Would] Not Conform. It is the tale of a man, born with every materialistic blessing that the world has to offer yet he cannot find it in his soul to settle into the role designated for him. It is the tale of his struggle to free his soul and the cost of this to both him and those around him. It is an interesting and sometimes brutal read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 05, 2021, 03:13:08 PM
Finished:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/22/A_Cooks_Tour_book.jpg/220px-A_Cooks_Tour_book.jpg)

I remember at the time of Bourdain's suicide those who knew him saying he was the last person they would have expected to do this. Its sad to observe now that this book is regularly punctuated by the author describing his heavy mood swings and his self loathing at living the seemingly frivilous life of a celebrity chef in the face of abject poverty and suffering in the peoples who's food he is sampling before returning to comfort.


Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61inIU5EibL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on March 06, 2021, 05:52:50 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 05, 2021, 03:13:08 PM
Finished:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/22/A_Cooks_Tour_book.jpg/220px-A_Cooks_Tour_book.jpg)

I remember at the time of Bourdain's suicide those who knew him saying he was the last person they would have expected to do this. Its sad to observe now that this book is regularly punctuated by the author describing his heavy mood swings and his self loathing at living the seemingly frivilous life of a celebrity chef in the face of abject poverty and suffering in the peoples who's food he is sampling before returning to comfort.

Interesting.

I recently gave Jeremy Fox's book, 'On Vegetables' as a gift, and he went through a period using stimulants and tranquillisers that resembled something out of a Martin Amis novel. They are quite an intense lot chefs. The Bourdain example you cite above though is completely understandable and one I'm sure many would empathise with.

Quote from: SimonNZ on March 05, 2021, 03:13:08 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61inIU5EibL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Visting a nephew at Trinity College, Cambridge a couple of years ago, we went in to the Wren Library (Christopher Wren was a contemporary and good friend of Newton) and seeing Newton's handwriting in his personal copy of the Principia hushed me into awe, much as seeing a Beethoven manuscript up close for the first time did in the British Library many years ago. An extraordinary character Newton.


Here I'm gently going through Bill Bryson's 'The Body'. Brilliantly written as always and crammed with interesting and surprising revelations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 06, 2021, 06:36:45 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 05, 2021, 12:57:39 PM
Gorky: The Man Who Was Afraid [Foma Gordyeeff]


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/57124449.jpg)


This could equally have been titled The Man Who Could [or Would] Not Conform. It is the tale of a man, born with every materialistic blessing that the world has to offer yet he cannot find it in his soul to settle into the role designated for him. It is the tale of his struggle to free his soul and the cost of this to both him and those around him. It is an interesting and sometimes brutal read.

Looks interesting. I haven't read the work. I must get a copy. My Universities, and Lower Depths are my fav.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 06, 2021, 07:03:23 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 05, 2021, 03:13:08 PM
Finished:

I remember at the time of Bourdain's suicide those who knew him saying he was the last person they would have expected to do this. Its sad to observe now that this book is regularly punctuated by the author describing his heavy mood swings and his self loathing at living the seemingly frivilous life of a celebrity chef in the face of abject poverty and suffering in the peoples who's food he is sampling before returning to comfort.
Rewatching his TV shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown since his death, I have noticed that maybe half of all the episodes contain some kind of suicide joke or reference. They are glaring now. The episode in Nicaragua is especially dark.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 06, 2021, 07:08:10 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 04, 2021, 02:06:18 PM
Magee is my favorite author/philosopher. The book discusses his life as well as core issues in philosophy. To readers with some philosophical background, the book must be an engaging read. He wrote a few introductory books of philosophy for beginners as well.
John Cleese cited Bryan Magee's Ultimate Questions as one of his favorite books, I think. I have read it once or maybe twice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 06, 2021, 08:02:03 AM
Liked it but felt confused while reading it most of the time. So many unknown names and it is very fast paced.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51g-tXIxzCL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 06, 2021, 04:21:54 PM
Quote from: Iota on March 06, 2021, 05:52:50 AM

Visting a nephew at Trinity College, Cambridge a couple of years ago, we went in to the Wren Library (Christopher Wren was a contemporary and good friend of Newton) and seeing Newton's handwriting in his personal copy of the Principia hushed me into awe, much as seeing a Beethoven manuscript up close for the first time did in the British Library many years ago. An extraordinary character Newton.


Here I'm gently going through Bill Bryson's 'The Body'. Brilliantly written as always and crammed with interesting and surprising revelations.

Speaking of both the Royal Society and Bill Bryson, I just recently picked up the volume of historical essays on the RS he edited called Seeing Further.

How would The Body read for someone who gets a bit squeamish about gross medical stuff?  I'm, um, asking for a friend.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 06, 2021, 07:00:17 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 06, 2021, 06:36:45 AM

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/57124449.jpg)

Looks interesting. I haven't read the work. I must get a copy. My Universities, and Lower Depths are my fav.

I agree on My Universities; a great read.
I have not read Lower Depths.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 06, 2021, 07:41:56 PM
What is it that makes the third volume of York's autobiography superior to the first two?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on March 07, 2021, 05:40:30 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 06, 2021, 04:21:54 PM
Speaking of both the Royal Society and Bill Bryson, I just recently picked up the volume of historical essays on the RS he edited called Seeing Further.

How would The Body read for someone who gets a bit squeamish about gross medical stuff?  I'm, um, asking for a friend.

Ha, well please inform your friend I'm barely a quarter of the way through, so not really qualified to answer the question .. though being similarly susceptible occasionally, I have found myself skipping rather swiftly through one or two passages when I felt there might be a tad more information than I want. But really nothing too shocking (as yet) .. I think kindly Mr Bryson knows his audience consists of the odd sensitive soul.

Hadn't heard of the Royal Society book, sounds interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 07, 2021, 06:00:49 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 06, 2021, 07:08:10 AM
John Cleese cited Bryan Magee's Ultimate Questions as one of his favorite books, I think. I have read it once or maybe twice.

That's a great, and his last, book. Also he wrote an excellent, and unique, book about Wagner (@Andrei, you will like the book!).

In case, the obituary article by the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jul/26/bryan-magee-obituary
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 08, 2021, 12:26:55 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 07, 2021, 06:00:49 PM
That's a great, and his last, book. Also he wrote an excellent, and unique, book about Wagner (@Andrei, you will like the book!).

Thanks, duly noted.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 09, 2021, 02:56:02 AM
Shit has just hit the fan in The Brothers Karamazov. No spoilers, but a certain someone has just been charged with the murder of a certain someone else, arrested while in bed at last with a girl he's been chasing for hundreds of pages. Exciting stuff. I think I'm just a bit over the halfway point of the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 10, 2021, 12:08:38 AM
I've always enjoyed Ravel's wonderful Histoires Naturelles. The composer only set five of Jules Renard's 45 short texts, so I've decided to read the whole set.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31YLveNWF1L._SX295_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on March 10, 2021, 05:08:28 PM
Purchased today:
Hemingway: The Short Stories: The First Forty Nine Stories

Meaning all of Hemingway's short stories from 1938 or earlier.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 10, 2021, 07:22:07 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61dnh9TRMmL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 12, 2021, 06:12:34 AM
Baudelaire, Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 12, 2021, 07:46:55 AM
Quote from: JBS on March 10, 2021, 05:08:28 PM
Purchased today:
Hemingway: The Short Stories: The First Forty Nine Stories

Meaning all of Hemingway's short stories from 1938 or earlier.

Nice. Enjoy the read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 12, 2021, 08:57:57 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 12, 2021, 06:12:34 AM
Baudelaire, Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil).

Pounds the table! My favorite French poet and one of my Top Five.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 12, 2021, 03:49:58 PM
Still going with Connie Willis, but also half way through this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71nHngQrBhL.jpg)

short articles for the Guardian from 2003 to 2005 that make me now want to read her other books on China, especially those focusing on the lives of Chinese women
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 13, 2021, 03:36:41 AM
I can't believe how beautiful and captivating The Brothers Karamazov has become in its second half. The book I'm currently on, Brother Ivan Fyodorovich, and the previous book, Boys (which was all subplot) are both very beautiful, very intriguing, full of excellent character study. The jump forward of two months really did so much to develop all of the novel's characters, especially in light of the fact that the whole of the first half of the book takes place over some 3 or 4 days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 13, 2021, 07:22:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 12, 2021, 08:57:57 AM
My favorite French poet and one of my Top Five.

Same for me. Verlaine today!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 13, 2021, 10:02:42 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 13, 2021, 07:22:39 AM
Same for me. Verlaine today!

Verlaine, my second favorite French poet after Baudelaire.  8)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 13, 2021, 10:33:34 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 13, 2021, 10:02:42 AM
Verlaine, my second favorite French poet after Baudelaire.  8)

B admired Wagner. I heard that many composers, including Debussy, liked Verlaine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 13, 2021, 10:44:48 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 13, 2021, 10:33:34 AM
B admired Wagner. I heard that many composers, including Debussy, liked Verlaine.

I love Baudelaire, Verlaine and Debussy.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 13, 2021, 01:37:33 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 13, 2021, 10:44:48 AM
....

Par contre, Wagner is the most overrated bore in the whole history of Western music.
O ciel, che noia!  ;D

Good evening, Andrei.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 13, 2021, 11:59:28 PM
Quote from: ritter on March 13, 2021, 01:37:33 PM
O ciel, che noia!  ;D

Good evening, Andrei.

Good morning, Rafael. I edited my post.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 14, 2021, 08:19:26 PM
Gertrude, Hermann Hesse. A love triangle among an introverted composer, a passionate opera singer, and a girl of upper-class family.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 15, 2021, 02:35:22 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 14, 2021, 08:19:26 PM
Gertrude, Hermann Hesse. A love triangle among an introverted composer, a passionate opera singer, and a girl of upper-class family.

Never read this one; sounds good. I'd love to read more Hesse.

Yesterday I finished The Brothers Karamazov. What a book! I was definitely in the mood for more Dostoevsky, so I've started The Double, a much shorter novel from the very beginning of his career. So far so good, it's quite funny:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Vnfl0GSGL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 15, 2021, 08:16:23 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 15, 2021, 02:35:22 AM
Never read this one; sounds good. I'd love to read more Hesse.

Yesterday I finished The Brothers Karamazov. What a book! I was definitely in the mood for more Dostoevsky, so I've started The Double, a much shorter novel from the very beginning of his career. So far so good, it's quite funny:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Vnfl0GSGL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


It is a wonderful novella. Among Hesse's earlier/pre-Demian works, possibly Gertrude and Peter Camenzind are the most accomplished works though Beneath the Wheel is better-known In populace.

I love The Gambler.  The characters and psychologies are well-developed and well-depicted. There are plotter, sycophant, defeatist, nihilist, etc. I like the grandma. I don't listen to Prokofiev's The Gambler much. I should do so occasionally.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 15, 2021, 02:11:51 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 15, 2021, 08:16:23 AM

It is a wonderful novella. Among Hesse's earlier/pre-Demian works, possibly Gertrude and Peter Camenzind are the most accomplished works though Beneath the Wheel is better-known In populace.

I love The Gambler.  The characters and psychologies are well-developed and well-depicted. There are plotter, sycophant, defeatist, nihilist, etc. I like the grandma. I don't listen to Prokofiev's The Gambler much. I should do so occasionally.

I just saw Beneath the Wheel at a used bookstore yesterday but I put it back on the shelf and got something else. Hesse is great but I kind of burned myself out on his work after reading 3 or 4 of his novels back to back last year.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 17, 2021, 03:09:14 AM
Must confess that ultimately I did not like The Double very much. Dostoevsky would go on to write much, much finer things. But I will revisit it in the future.

Just finished a book I started yesterday, another recommendation from our DBK, Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41hNvdvjy0L.jpg)

The story of an ill-fated love affair between a wealthy dilettante and a very young provincial geisha in a resort town of the Japanese snow country, I had somewhat mixed feelings about the book, but did ultimately find Kawabata's spare and lyrical prose very beautiful. Despite that the protagonist, Shimamura, was among the least compelling characters I've ever read about—he has very little personality, he does not work nor endure any serious hardship—I still found him a relatable figure. He seems to experience great pain from the beauty of the world, a feeling I know only too well, though one I've never been able to understand. His relationship with the hard-partying Komako reminded me a bit of some of the flings I've had when I was a bit younger. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in Japanese literature. You can read it very easily in a day or an afternoon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 17, 2021, 07:18:45 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 17, 2021, 03:09:14 AM
Must confess that ultimately I did not like The Double very much. Dostoevsky would go on to write much, much finer things. But I will revisit it in the future.

Just finished a book I started yesterday, another recommendation from our DBK, Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41hNvdvjy0L.jpg)

The story of an ill-fated love affair between a wealthy dilettante and a very young provincial geisha in a resort town of the Japanese snow country, I had somewhat mixed feelings about the book, but did ultimately find Kawabata's spare and lyrical prose very beautiful. Despite that the protagonist, Shimamura, was among the least compelling characters I've ever read about—he has very little personality, he does not work nor endure any serious hardship—I still found him a relatable figure. He seems to experience great pain from the beauty of the world, a feeling I know only too well, though one I've never been able to understand. His relationship with the hard-partying Komako reminded me a bit of some of the flings I've had when I was a bit younger. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in Japanese literature. You can read it very easily in a day or an afternoon.

Thank you for the review. Kawabata's works sometimes appear to be thin, simple, or superficial. There are no explanations or descriptions much let alone psychologies. And the characters in his works don't challenge their circumstances  :D
Funny, Mishima, whose works are like Gothic architecture-flamboyant and energetic, loved Kawabata's works, which are like origami.
Kawabata received Nobel Prize because of Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and the Old Capitol. Though I prefer the latter two and Dancing Girl of Izu, still Snow Country is a beautiful story. It seems to me Thousand Cranes is a solid and fine work.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 17, 2021, 07:21:27 AM
Visconti: Explorations of Beauty and Decay. Analysis of my favorite cinema director.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 17, 2021, 01:08:06 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 17, 2021, 07:18:45 AM
Thank you for the review. Kawabata's works sometimes appear to be thin, simple, or superficial. There are no explanations or descriptions much let alone psychologies. And the characters in his works don't challenge their circumstances  :D
Funny, Mishima, whose works are like Gothic architecture-flamboyant and energetic, loved Kawabata's works, which are like origami.
Kawabata received Nobel Prize because of Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and the Old Capitol. Though I prefer the latter two and Dancing Girl of Izu, still Snow Country is a beautiful story. It seems to me Thousand Cranes is a solid and fine work.

I'll most definitely be reading more Kawabata. I was thinking Thousand Cranes next, which ought to be another very quick read. May even swing by Barnes & Noble tonight and see if they have it. But I will look out for The Dancing Girl of Izu which I hadn't heard of.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 17, 2021, 01:24:38 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 17, 2021, 01:08:06 PM
I'll most definitely be reading more Kawabata. I was thinking Thousand Cranes next, which ought to be another very quick read.

Sounds great. Thousand Cranes is an exemplar of Kawabata's aesthetics and style.

Izu Girl is a fine short story as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 18, 2021, 03:32:19 AM
Somerset Maugham: The Painted Veil


(https://www.hcbooksonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/27061.jpg)


I found this to be a wonderful story told very well in Maugham's very easy storytelling style. It is a story of a wasted youth, a convenient marriage, a trip to China, infidelity and ultimate [unsuspected] retribution. The characters are very credible and come alive on the page. Maugham wrote people really very well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 18, 2021, 07:38:08 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 18, 2021, 03:32:19 AM
Somerset Maugham: The Painted Veil


(https://www.hcbooksonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/27061.jpg)


I found this to be a wonderful story told very well in Maugham's very easy storytelling style. It is a story of a wasted youth, a convenient marriage, a trip to China, infidelity and ultimate [unsuspected] retribution. The characters are very credible and come alive on the page. Maugham wrote people really very well.

I haven't read the work. The plot sounds very interesting. I will get a copy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 18, 2021, 11:27:35 PM
With this book I think I've read all the major works by Thomas Bernhard that have been translated into English language thus far. He's one of my all time favourite authors.
(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0245/3137/products/9780571349999.001_768x1024.jpg?v=1610556111)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 19, 2021, 05:50:55 AM
Rereading Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I first read this as a teenager and loved it, though rereading now, I'm realizing how much of it went over my head, particularly its deep strains of homoeroticism. In any case, its masterful treatment of the tragedies of aging and decadence left a strong mark on me at the time, and it's exciting to revisit this beautiful work. It's such an easy read, too. Anyone could pick up this book and fall in love with it. I reckon it would make a perfect introduction to Victorian literature.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51x-a7gSRJL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This edition contains tons and tons of notes, including many references to an earlier version of the novel, from which Wilde both toned down some of the more explicit homoerotic elements, and added several chapters and even characters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 19, 2021, 06:26:35 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 19, 2021, 05:50:55 AM
Rereading Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I first read this as a teenager and loved it, though rereading now, I'm realizing how much of it went over my head, particularly its deep strains of homoeroticism. In any case, its masterful treatment of the tragedies of aging and decadence left a strong mark on me at the time, and it's exciting to revisit this beautiful work. It's such an easy read, too. Anyone could pick up this book and fall in love with it. I reckon it would make a perfect introduction to Victorian literature.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51x-a7gSRJL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This edition contains tons and tons of notes, including many references to an earlier version of the novel, from which Wilde both toned down some of the more explicit homoerotic elements, and added several chapters and even characters.


Masterpiece by the genius. Elegant and sophisticated writing with occasional irony. It was interesting to read that some characters frequently smoked opium. I love his other stories, such as the Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere's Fan, as well.

There is a movie about him titled "Wilde." It is an enjoyable/interesting, if not excellent, movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 19, 2021, 12:03:07 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 19, 2021, 06:26:35 AM

Masterpiece by the genius. Elegant and sophisticated writing with occasional irony. It was interesting to read that some characters frequently smoked opium. I love his other stories, such as the Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere's Fan, as well.

There is a movie about him titled "Wilde." It is an enjoyable/interesting, if not excellent, movie.

I think I need to read some of his plays next. As much as I loved this book when reading it in my younger life, I never went on to check out anything else by Wilde.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 19, 2021, 12:31:53 PM
Enjoying this poem by John Donne

QuoteI am a little world made cunningly
Of elements and an angelic sprite,
But black sin hath betray'd to endless night
My world's both parts, and oh both parts must die.
You which beyond that heaven which was most high
Have found new spheres, and of new lands can write,
Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might
Drown my world with my weeping earnestly,
Or wash it, if it must be drown'd no more.
But oh it must be burnt; alas the fire
Of lust and envy have burnt it heretofore,
And made it fouler; let their flames retire,
And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zeal
Of thee and thy house, which doth in eating heal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on March 19, 2021, 11:14:05 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on March 19, 2021, 12:31:53 PM
Enjoying this poem by John Donne

That's a very well written and expressive poem but the concept of "sin" has done its damage. I'm getting my spiritual fix for the day by considering the Spring Equinox (Northern Hemisphere). 0:)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 21, 2021, 04:55:26 PM
Love Among the Haystacks, D.H. Lawrence. I like the subtlety and nuance of the story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 21, 2021, 11:18:33 PM
Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as good as Convenience store woman. Wouldn't recommend it as a starting point with Murata.
(https://s2.adlibris.com/images/58508735/earthlings.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 22, 2021, 02:25:10 AM
I started two books yesterday, Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/415mKM3k6LL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

and Leonard Bernstein's The Joy of Music:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41vhShQO9jL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Both are very good so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 22, 2021, 06:29:31 AM
Quote from: Artem on March 21, 2021, 11:18:33 PM
Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as good as Convenience store woman. Wouldn't recommend it as a starting point with Murata.


I heard about Convenience Store Woman, and was going to get a copy.  The below are some works by other female writers in Japan. I haven't read Strange Weather, but many people told me good things about the book. Kitchen and Housekeeper are enjoyable works.

Kitchen/Banana Yoshimoto
The Housekeeper and the Professor/Yoko Ogawa
Strange Weather In Tokyo/Hiromi Kawakami
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 22, 2021, 09:46:18 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 18, 2021, 07:38:08 AM

(https://www.hcbooksonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/27061.jpg)

I haven't read the work. The plot sounds very interesting. I will get a copy!


I am sure that you will like it.



Quote
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 21, 2021, 04:55:26 PM

(https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=68.0;attach=72118;image)

Love Among the Haystacks, D.H. Lawrence. I like the subtlety and nuance of the story.


Interestingly, the other day I was pondering what to get my teeth into once I have finished reading through my Somerset-Maugham collection and I was considering my DH Lawerence collection.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 22, 2021, 11:37:19 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 22, 2021, 06:29:31 AM
I heard about Convenience Store Woman, and was going to get a copy.  The below are some works by other female writers in Japan. I haven't read Strange Weather, but many people told me good things about the book. Kitchen and Housekeeper are enjoyable works.
Kitchen/Banana Yoshimoto
The Housekeeper and the Professor/Yoko Ogawa
Strange Weather In Tokyo/Hiromi Kawakami
I will add Strange Weather to my wish list. I think I saw it in a book shop here. Thank you for pointing it out.

I've been in the mood for reading contemporary Japanese and Korean female writers. Most of the books that I've read in that line like Ogawa's Memory Police or Kawakami's Breasts and Eggs were good, but not like life changing of anything. They do give a good snapshot of their time and concerns, I suppose.

However, Hiroko Oyamada is really good. Her two books, The Factory and The Hole, are very much worth reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 22, 2021, 05:15:53 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51E46H+WC0L.jpg)

Covering the ten years between acting in her first student production to her first Academy award. A little light and gossipy in briefly covering her pre-drama years, but once in a solid almost oral history from everyone who remembers her on the challenges and development of her early years. An especially well detailed recreation of the brutal trial by fire dictatorial years that were the Yale Drama School of the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 23, 2021, 01:57:45 AM
Starting Louis Aragon's 1944 novel Aurélien:

(https://www.pasajeslibros.com/static/img/portadas/_visd_0001JPG0BPVK.jpg)

The book, widely regarded as its author's most successful novel, is supposed to be about the "impossibility of the couple", is also a depiction of the "lost" leisourly bourgeoisie of the interwar years in France, and I've read also permitted Aragon to look back at his surrealist years "without bitterness".

I'm only about 20 pages into the novel, but so far it is beautifully written and very engaging, and already I've detected two or three really worthwhile quotes.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 23, 2021, 02:08:03 AM
Quote from: ritter on March 23, 2021, 01:57:45 AM
Starting Louis Aragon's 1944 novel Aurélien:

(https://www.pasajeslibros.com/static/img/portadas/_visd_0001JPG0BPVK.jpg)

The book, widely regarded as its author's most successful novel, is supposed to be about the "impossibility of the couple", is also a depiction of the "lost" leisourly bourgeoisie of the interwar years in France, and I've read also permitted Aragon to look back at his surrealist years "without bitterness".

I'm only about 20 pages into the novel, but so far it is beautifully written and very engaging, and already I've detected two or three really worthwhile quotes.

Could you please share them?

TD

Luigi Pirandello --- The Old and the Young

(https://images.okr.ro/serve/auctions.v7/2014/dec/05/4c8b99eca6021068dad31b41736adee7-2940851-1000_1000)

Two chapters in. The setting and atmosphere is quite similar to Lampedusa's The Leopard. Love it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 23, 2021, 02:28:23 AM
Quote from: Artem on March 22, 2021, 11:37:19 AM
I will add Strange Weather to my wish list. I think I saw it in a book shop here. Thank you for pointing it out.

I've been in the mood for reading contemporary Japanese and Korean female writers. Most of the books that I've read in that line like Ogawa's Memory Police or Kawakami's Breasts and Eggs were good, but not like life changing of anything. They do give a good snapshot of their time and concerns, I suppose.

However, Hiroko Oyamada is really good. Her two books, The Factory and The Hole, are very much worth reading.

I just found a copy of The Hole in one of those take a book, leave a book boxes at a local park. Excited to read it. I've heard good things about Oyamada.

Really enjoying Kafka on the Shore. Compared to the other Murakami I've read, this one is a truly sprawling epic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 23, 2021, 04:02:31 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 23, 2021, 02:08:03 AM
Could you please share them?
This, right at the beginning, I found rather apt:

"Cela lui fit mal augurer de celle-ci qui portait un nom de princesse d'Orient sans avoir l'air de se considérer dans l'obligation d'avoir du goût".
The name in question is Bérénice (and a line from Racine's tragedy —"Je demeurai longtemps errant dans Césarée..."— is used as a sort of leitmotif in the first pages).

"Il y a des vulgarités qui retiennent"
So true  ;D.

That Pirandello looks very appealing, BTW!

Good day to you, Andrei.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 23, 2021, 06:04:11 AM
Quote from: ritter on March 23, 2021, 04:02:31 AM
This, right at the beginning, I found rather apt:

"Cela lui fit mal augurer de celle-ci qui portait un nom de princesse d'Orient sans avoir l'air de se considérer dans l'obligation d'avoir du goût".
The name in question is Bérénice (and a line from Racine's tragedy —"Je demeurai longtemps errant dans Césarée..."— is used as a sort of leitmotif in the first pages).

"Il y a des vulgarités qui retiennent"
So true  ;D.

Thanks, nice indeed.

Quote
That Pirandello looks very appealing, BTW!

It's a page turner. Love and politics in the context of the end-of-19-th-century Sicilian disillusionment with the Italian unification. This is one of the numerous testimonies I've read according to which for the former Kingdom of Two Sicilies the unification (actually, a military conquest) was rather harmful to the common folks.

QuoteGood day to you, Andrei.

Good day, Rafael.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 23, 2021, 06:06:34 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 22, 2021, 09:46:18 AM
Interestingly, the other day I was pondering what to get my teeth into once I have finished reading through my Somerset-Maugham collection and I was considering my DH Lawerence collection.

Sounds like a wonderful plan. Love the novels and short stories of Lawrence.
Now reading Daughters of the Vicar.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 23, 2021, 06:13:08 AM
Quote from: Artem on March 22, 2021, 11:37:19 AM

However, Hiroko Oyamada is really good. Her two books, The Factory and The Hole, are very much worth reading.

Quote from: vers la flamme on March 23, 2021, 02:28:23 AM
I just found a copy of The Hole in one of those take a book, leave a book boxes at a local park. Excited to read it. I've heard good things about Oyamada.

Really enjoying Kafka on the Shore. Compared to the other Murakami I've read, this one is a truly sprawling epic.

Oyamada's works are considered to be genuine, artistic literature, for the sake of artistic merit, rather than entertaining readers. Interesting to hear positive opinion in the West.






Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 23, 2021, 01:10:59 PM
Been meaning to read some Lawrence. Last week I picked up Sons & Lovers and read the first chapter, but decided I wasn't quite in the mood for it. Is this generally considered the best place to start? I ought to try again soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 23, 2021, 01:25:48 PM
About to start "Circe" by Madeline Miller, a retelling of bits of the Odyssey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 23, 2021, 01:26:33 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 23, 2021, 01:10:59 PM
Been meaning to read some Lawrence. Last week I picked up Sons & Lovers and read the first chapter, but decided I wasn't quite in the mood for it. Is this generally considered the best place to start?

The only Lawrence I tried. I started it many, many moons years ago and never finished it. He doesn't seem to be my cup of tea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 23, 2021, 02:34:28 PM
Maybe there is no chemistry between you and Lawrence, and nothing is wrong with that.  :) :)
Btw, Katherine Mansfield is a good writer with a similar style. Her short stories, such as Garden Party and Her First Ball, are pretty good, I think.
She is like a half Lawrence, half Chekhov.

P.s.. James Joyce is similar to me. When I read his works, nothing happens to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 23, 2021, 02:43:18 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 23, 2021, 02:34:28 PM
Maybe there is no chemistry between you and Lawrence, and nothing is wrong with that.  :) :)

Maybe, and of course.

Honestly, Far from the Madding Crowd (not Lawrence, of course) started as a humorous page turner but ended up less than half way as a complete bore. There's nothing wrong with that, I hope.  :) :)

Pirandello, otoh...

Quote from: Florestan on March 23, 2021, 06:04:11 AM
It's a page turner. Love and politics in the context of the end-of-19-th-century Sicilian disillusionment with the Italian unification. This is one of the numerous testimonies I've read according to which for the former Kingdom of Two Sicilies the unification (actually, a military conquest) was rather harmful to the common folks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 23, 2021, 02:50:20 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 23, 2021, 02:43:18 PM
Maybe, and of course.

Honestly, Far from the Madding Crowd (not Lawrence, of course) started as a humorous page turner but ended up less than half way as a complete bore. There's nothing wrong with that, I hope.  :) :)

Pirandello, otoh...

I was disappointed by Pasternak's Zhivago. It is one of very, very few books not as good as movie adaptations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 23, 2021, 03:04:50 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 23, 2021, 02:50:20 PM
I was disappointed by Pasternak's Zhivago.

Hah! I loved it more than the movie --- especially the appended poems.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 24, 2021, 02:16:17 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 23, 2021, 01:10:59 PM
Been meaning to read some Lawrence. Last week I picked up Sons & Lovers and read the first chapter, but decided I wasn't quite in the mood for it. Is this generally considered the best place to start? I ought to try again soon.

Women in Love for me, and maybe The Rainbow. In truth I can't remember much about the latter except really being impressed, the former has things which I find totally unforgettable. Sons and Lovers was OK but didn't impress me as much, despite some touching family scenes.

For a different tack, try Sea and Sardinia. I vaguely remember Mornings in Mexico was OK too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 24, 2021, 04:01:50 PM
^Going to have to see if I can check out those books sometime.

Anyway, discussion on this page has me remembering that I ought to really check out Pirandello, Pasternak, and also Mansfield, about whom I know little to nothing... Too many interesting books on the world.

Still hooked on Murakami's Kafka. I'm burning through it, with about 70 pages left. God, it's such a fucked up book—deeply flawed, really, but there is something beautiful at the core of it. I'm almost reminded of a book I read this time last year and really loved: Hermann Hesse's Narcissus & Goldmund, a similarly twisted epic of self discovery. But it's pure, peak Haruki Murakami, all cats & classical music & missing persons & twisted sex. The more of his I read, the more I find Haruki Murakami to be a writer with many flaws, very significant ones, perhaps unforgivable for some. But I'm hooked. For better and worse I find this stuff very relatable. It's good to be getting back to his work, which I really discovered late last year, after a few months of reading many other writers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 24, 2021, 06:19:50 PM
To anyone interested in Lawrence but not wanting currently to read any of his books I can heartily recommend Geoff Dyer's freewheeling Out Of Sheer Rage about his obsession with Lawrence. I especially liked that he was far more interested in the nonfiction and the letters (all 30 or 40 volumes of the latter which he describes reading in a headlong rush in their entirety).

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71z0wkuZPIL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 24, 2021, 07:15:03 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 24, 2021, 04:01:50 PM
I'm almost reminded of a book I read this time last year and really loved: Hermann Hesse's Narcissus & Goldmund,

My favorite book since I read it first time when I was around 14 y/o.
The story is based on some contrasts such as Art vs. science, beauty vs. knowledge, pleasure vs. discipline, danger vs. stability, etc.
First time they met, Narcissus and what he represented appeared to be superior vis a vis Goldmund and what he embodied. However, when the latter was dying, the situation was inverse.
When Goldmund was dying, Narcissus, an epitome of rationality and intelligence, says "If I know what love is, it is because of you."
Goldmund's last words were "How are you going to die one day, Narcissus, since you have no mother? Without a mother one cannot love. Without a mother one cannot die."
This work has always been very special to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 24, 2021, 08:00:57 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41CirmFcf6L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

on the "Indo-European" mother tongue and its traces in modern usage
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 25, 2021, 01:30:12 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 24, 2021, 07:15:03 PM
My favorite book since I read it first time when I was around 14 y/o.
The story is based on some contrasts such as Art vs. science, beauty vs. knowledge, pleasure vs. discipline, danger vs. stability, etc.
First time they met, Narcissus and what he represented appeared to be superior vis a vis Goldmund and what he embodied. However, when the latter was dying, the situation was inverse.
When Goldmund was dying, Narcissus, an epitome of rationality and intelligence, says "If I know what love is, it is because of you."
Goldmund's last words were "How are you going to die one day, Narcissus, since you have no mother? Without a mother one cannot love. Without a mother one cannot die."
This work has always been very special to me.

Yes, that last interaction hit me hard, especially because I lost my mother when I was a kid. I suspect I'll be rereading Narcissus & Goldmund at least a few more times throughout my life. There's a few more big Hesse works I still need to read for the first time, too: Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game being the big ones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 25, 2021, 04:25:17 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 25, 2021, 01:30:12 AM


Yes, that last interaction hit me hard, especially because I lost my mother when I was a kid. I suspect I'll be rereading Narcissus & Goldmund at least a few more times throughout my life. There's a few more big Hesse works I still need to read for the first time, too: Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game being the big ones.

I think that you might need to build up a lot of stamina reserves before tackling The Glass Bead Game. I found it to be a very fine read but tough going nonetheless.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 25, 2021, 05:18:20 AM
When I was in the old part of Toulouse 2 years ago I went into a library (fantastic place covering different buildings and different floors with entries on 3 different streets, almost a labyrinth) and came out with 2 items: the complete Contes normands by Maupassant (almost 900 pages) and the complete novels by Hesse. All of them old friends, stuff I had read when I was much younger. I'm still only halfway through the Maupassant, so the Hesse is somewhere in the future. My reading is much slower than it was 40 years ago  :-X. But I'll get there eventually.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 25, 2021, 05:25:10 AM
Quote from: André on March 25, 2021, 05:18:20 AM
When I was in the old part of Toulouse 2 years ago I went into a library (fantastic place covering different buildings and different floors with entries on 3 different streets, almost a labyrinth) and came out with 2 items: the complete Contes normands by Maupassant (almost 900 pages) and the complete novels by Hesse. All of them old friends, stuff I had read when I was much younger. I'm still only halfway through the Maupassant, so the Hesse is somewhere in the future. My reading is much slower than it was 40 years ago  :-X. But I'll get there eventually.

Must be the only library in the world which loans books by years, not by weeks.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 25, 2021, 05:32:19 AM
Quote from: André on March 25, 2021, 05:18:20 AM
When I was in the old part of Toulouse 2 years ago I went into a library (fantastic place covering different buildings and different floors with entries on 3 different streets, almost a labyrinth) and came out with 2 items: the complete Contes normands by Maupassant (almost 900 pages) and the complete novels by Hesse. All of them old friends, stuff I had read when I was much younger. I'm still only halfway through the Maupassant, so the Hesse is somewhere in the future. My reading is much slower than it was 40 years ago  :-X. But I'll get there eventually.
You mean the Ombres Blanches bookstore? Fantastic place indeed...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 25, 2021, 05:33:36 AM
Quote from: ritter on March 25, 2021, 05:32:19 AM
You mean the Ombres Blanches bookstore? Fantastic place indeed...

That's the one !  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 25, 2021, 08:37:48 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 25, 2021, 04:25:17 AM
I think that you might need to build up a lot of stamina reserves before tackling The Glass Bead Game. I found it to be a very fine read but tough going nonetheless.

Well, I did just read The Brothers Karamazov. I'd say my literary stamina is in pretty good shape. Might not be a bad idea to strike while the iron is hot  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 25, 2021, 09:03:06 AM
Two books that I'd recently finished reading. Both were well written, but I didn't enjoy them as much as I expected.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1393955974l/330077.jpg)(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9781/4711/9781471184307.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 25, 2021, 09:30:03 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 25, 2021, 08:37:48 AM
Well, I did just read The Brothers Karamazov. I'd say my literary stamina is in pretty good shape. Might not be a bad idea to strike while the iron is hot  ;D

Good idea!  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 25, 2021, 11:12:07 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 25, 2021, 08:37:48 AM
Well, I did just read The Brothers Karamazov. I'd say my literary stamina is in pretty good shape. Might not be a bad idea to strike while the iron is hot  ;D

Go for it! Good luck if you do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 25, 2021, 11:40:26 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 25, 2021, 11:12:07 AM
Go for it! Good luck if you do.

Well, TBK is almost a fast-paced whodunit, while TGBG is much more abstract and philosophical. I'm very interested in vers la flamme's findings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 25, 2021, 12:13:07 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 25, 2021, 08:37:48 AM
Well, I did just read The Brothers Karamazov.

Who dunnit?  -- I couldn't get to the end and I'm dying to know.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 25, 2021, 12:19:37 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on March 25, 2021, 12:13:07 PM
Who dunnit?  -- I couldn't get to the end and I'm dying to know.

Smerdyakov.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 25, 2021, 12:25:46 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 25, 2021, 12:19:37 PM
Smerdyakov.

Noooooo. I was sure it was Alexei!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 25, 2021, 12:27:21 PM
Here's a good book cover, which kind of gives away the secret

(https://kiasherosjourney.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/hangingcat.jpg?w=474)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 25, 2021, 12:29:05 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on March 25, 2021, 12:25:46 PM
Noooooo. I was sure it was Alexei!

Wrong. Alyosha murdered Zosima.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 25, 2021, 12:29:54 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on March 25, 2021, 12:27:21 PM
Here's a good book cover, which kind of gives away the secret

(https://kiasherosjourney.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/hangingcat.jpg?w=474)

Hah! Spoiler even before the first page is turned.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Stürmisch Bewegt on March 25, 2021, 03:48:13 PM
Quote from: André on March 25, 2021, 05:33:36 AM
That's the one !  :)

:D Librairie = Bookstore; Bibliothèque = Library; Go Figure...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 25, 2021, 04:13:32 PM
Quote from: Stürmisch Bewegt on March 25, 2021, 03:48:13 PM
:D Librairie = Bookstore; Bibliothèque = Library; Go Figure...

Indeed !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 25, 2021, 04:24:52 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 25, 2021, 11:40:26 AM
Well, TBK is almost a fast-paced whodunit, while TGBG is much more abstract and philosophical. I'm very interested in vers la flamme's findings.

I know what you mean, definitely with regard to the second half of the book, especially—it became quite the page turner. But given the whole 800-page book takes place over a couple of days, and then another couple of days several weeks (months?) later, and consists almost entirely of dialogue, I would call it ultimately pretty slow paced. But it was a hell of a book and a fascinating read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 25, 2021, 06:58:44 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 25, 2021, 01:30:12 AM


Yes, that last interaction hit me hard, especially because I lost my mother when I was a kid. I suspect I'll be rereading Narcissus & Goldmund at least a few more times throughout my life. There's a few more big Hesse works I still need to read for the first time, too: Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game being the big ones.

I am rereading it about every 2 years. It's getting better and better. I am sorry about your mother, I think I know how you feel.
Just finished reading The Seagull.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 25, 2021, 07:17:27 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 24, 2021, 08:00:57 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41CirmFcf6L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

on the "Indo-European" mother tongue and its traces in modern usage

Very interesting. Probably I will buy the book.
I was going to buy the books below.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on March 26, 2021, 12:08:49 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/McTeague_First_Edition_cover.jpg)

The film adaptation was terrific (Stroheim's Greed) so I was excited to find this in a library. So far, unfortunately, it doesn't quite have the charm the film has. The book isn't very subtle in its thematic significance and symbolism. Nevertheless, the basic storyline I am familiar with is still there and there are some great passages. Unfortunately certain Jewish character in this book is extremely racistly drawn, even for its time.

Also, I have to say this, Mcteague is a real creep. I mean, he makes out with a passed out woman in dentist's chair. while he's supposed to treat her. How messed up is that?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 26, 2021, 02:29:48 PM
Has anyone read Oil! by Upton Sinclair - the one There Will Be Blood is based on? There's a copy at the secondhand bookshop near me that I'm on the fence about.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2021, 05:00:04 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on March 26, 2021, 12:08:49 PM
The film adaptation was terrific (Stroheim's Greed) so I was excited to find this in a library. So far, unfortunately, it doesn't quite have the charm the film has. The book isn't very subtle in its thematic significance and symbolism. Nevertheless, the basic storyline I am familiar with is still there and there are some great passages. Unfortunately certain Jewish character in this book is extremely racistly drawn, even for its time.

Also, I have to say this, Mcteague is a real creep. I mean, he makes out with a passed out woman in dentist's chair. while he's supposed to treat her. How messed up is that?


As I said before, the original books are usually much better than their movie adaptations- ie, Gatsby, Memoir of Geisha, idiot (Kurosawa), Gone with the Wind, Lady Chatterley, etc. Only exceptions for me are Zhivago and L'amant (The Lover) by Marguerite Duras. I don't know why this happens, besides my personal preference.

The interesting book you discussed reminds me of the book I read and enjoyed several years ago. It is called Fairyland. It is a memoir of the female author's adolescence with homosexual father-poet in San Fransisco in the 1970s. It was a fun read and Abbott's writing was super sharp.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 26, 2021, 05:17:47 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2021, 05:00:04 PM

Only exceptions for me are Zhivago and L'amant (The Lover) by Marguerite Duras.

Golly! What makes you prefer the film to the book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2021, 05:22:43 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 26, 2021, 05:17:47 PM
Golly! What makes you prefer the film to the book?

I was wondering about that. Probably, my bias, lack of understanding/sophistication, etc. But are these all?
Any movie adaptations you prefer to the original literary works?

Ed. I know most people prefer Zhivago to the movie.

Ed. For L'amant, come to think of it, I like the music and the narration by Jeanne Moreau (in French). Plus, cinematography.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 26, 2021, 05:37:23 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2021, 05:22:43 PM

Any movie adaptations you prefer to the original literary works?


I'm sure there are. I'll try and think of some.

I did read half of Jaws recently and admired Spielberg's improvements...but then its not hard for a slick film to be better than a pulpy novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2021, 05:44:07 PM
For artistic merit, I may (or maynot) have to accept that the Duras is better. But for likability, the movie is more attractive and well-organized.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on March 26, 2021, 07:06:18 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2021, 05:22:43 PM
I was wondering about that. Probably, my bias, lack of understanding/sophistication, etc. But are these all?
Any movie adaptations you prefer to the original literary works?

Ed. I know most people prefer Zhivago to the movie.

Ed. For L'amant, come to think of it, I like the music and the narration by Jeanne Moreau (in French). Plus, cinematography.

Witches of Eastwick is a much better film than book.  Of course the cast helps.

World According to Garp might be another. It cuts and elides several parts of the book
Some cuts help, some hurt, and the resulting difference would undoubtedly strike different people differently.  (And again the film's cast certainly helps the movie.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 27, 2021, 02:50:19 PM
Sadly just gave up on "Circe" by Madeline Miller, the latest in a long, diverse series of acclaimed novels from the past ~20 years that I've failed to enjoy. Others include "Overstory" by Richard Powers, "The Last Samurai" by Helen DeWitt, "The Power" by Naomi Alderman, "The Flamethrowers" by Rachel Kushner, anything and everything by Jonathan Franzen (with "The Corrections" I still haven't finished the horrible first chapter)... also barely managed to finish "There There" by Tommy Orange.

I wish I could figure out from the reviews whether a novel would be good or not, but the review industry seems so keen to lavish praise that they're no longer reliable guides for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 28, 2021, 03:05:11 AM
I have read the following two books in succession. These two books have common themes; they are both tales of the sea and they were both set in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Dana: Two Years Before The Mast


(https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/9oYAAOSwrERcf9~y/s-l300.jpg)


Two Years Before The Mast is an autobiographical account of Dana's experience as a common sailor. It depicts the hard life of that occupation and illustrates the characters whom he encountered and the places that he visited on his trip from Boston, around Cape Horn, up to California and back again.


Forester: The Commodore  

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTTLMUHEtINOd_SDOuEZ-4BwyYZKMyQ7T5XAw&usqp=CAU)


The Commodore depicts the adventures of Horatio Hornblower in the Baltic and his influence on the war against Napoleon Bonaparte. It is a good yarn but a work of total fiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 28, 2021, 05:33:17 PM
Quote from: JBS on March 26, 2021, 07:06:18 PM

World According to Garp might be another. It cuts and elides several parts of the book
Some cuts help, some hurt, and the resulting difference would undoubtedly strike different people differently.  (And again the film's cast certainly helps the movie.)

You maybe right about Garp. For me personally, it is difficult to determine as both the book and movie were good. Same for his (John Irving) Hotel New Hampshire. Both the book and movie are excellent though, as for artistic quality, the book is better than the movie. I haven't read or watched Cider House Rules, but I heard that both the book and movie were great.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 29, 2021, 01:32:07 PM
Just finished Hiroko Oyamada's The Hole.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51uc99R5jwL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A very quick read, I read it all today. In short, I loved it. What an eerie, vivid, strange, and beautiful book. I've been enjoying very much my forays into Japanese literature since New Year's. For this recent fascination, I have largely to blame my discovery of Haruki Murakami as well as the guidance of our friend Dry Brett Kavanaugh here, but this one was a random find from one of the take-a-book-leave-a-book boxes in my neighborhood. I'll very much be looking forward to reading Ms. Oyamada's only other published book (at least in English translation), The Factory.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on March 29, 2021, 01:48:26 PM
Newly published:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 29, 2021, 05:09:19 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 29, 2021, 01:32:07 PM
Just finished Hiroko Oyamada's The Hole.

A very quick read, I read it all today. In short, I loved it. What an eerie, vivid, strange, and beautiful book. I've been enjoying very much my forays into Japanese literature since New Year's. For this recent fascination, I have largely to blame my discovery of Haruki Murakami as well as the guidance of our friend Dry Brett Kavanaugh here, but this one was a random find from one of the take-a-book-leave-a-book boxes in my neighborhood. I'll very much be looking forward to reading Ms. Oyamada's only other published book (at least in English translation), The Factory.


Thank you, and Artem, for the interesting reviews of Oyamada. I need to get her books. I read and heard about her many times. Again, it seems that her works are hardcore artistic literature, rather than entertainment novels. Also I heard that The Hole is (just) a little similar to Kobo Abe's Woman In Dunes, which I like. You may want to check it out. When I read various reviews of Japanese literature on Amazon USA, the sophistication of the readers impresses me. But I never see these people in my town! Perhaps they are tiny intelligentsia, which account for 1-3 percent of the population?
Now re-reading here and there in Casanova's History of My Life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on March 30, 2021, 09:03:00 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on March 29, 2021, 01:48:26 PM
Newly published:

Did they not invent Gematria?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 30, 2021, 12:53:20 PM
Finished today. Bolano is one of my all time favourite writers.

(https://s2.adlibris.com/images/58977191/cowboy-graves.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on March 30, 2021, 01:10:48 PM
Quote from: steve ridgway on March 30, 2021, 09:03:00 AM
Did they not invent Gematria?
Haha - had to look up that word.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 30, 2021, 03:01:19 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 29, 2021, 05:09:19 PM
Kobo Abe's Woman In Dunes, which I like. You may want to check it out

Thanks, I'll put that one on the list. Been meaning to check out some Kobo Abe. I don't know if hardcore artistic is how I'd describe Oyamada, though she does seem to be very much an aesthetic-forward writer (not unlike Mishima in that regard, now that I think about it). But I may have picked up on a bit of a "this is serious literature" kind of feeling to her writing, that others might see as a flaw. But again, I did enjoy it a lot. Looking forward to your reviews of her work if you ever do check 'em out. I know there's a whole lot to read out there.

Reading Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Still hooked on Murakami's writing. I don't know whether I'll read all of his books that are available in English, and I don't really have that as a goal, but I'm well on my way there, anyway. I have been wanting to get back into running and this is further inspiration. Murakami is a seriously disciplined kind of dude.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 30, 2021, 04:08:16 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 30, 2021, 03:01:19 PM
Thanks, I'll put that one on the list. Been meaning to check out some Kobo Abe. I don't know if hardcore artistic is how I'd describe Oyamada, though she does seem to be very much an aesthetic-forward writer (not unlike Mishima in that regard, now that I think about it). But I may have picked up on a bit of a "this is serious literature" kind of feeling to her writing, that others might see as a flaw. But again, I did enjoy it a lot. Looking forward to your reviews of her work if you ever do check 'em out. I know there's a whole lot to read out there.

Reading Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Still hooked on Murakami's writing. I don't know whether I'll read all of his books that are available in English, and I don't really have that as a goal, but I'm well on my way there, anyway. I have been wanting to get back into running and this is further inspiration. Murakami is a seriously disciplined kind of dude.

As I haven't read Oyamada, certainly I trust your observation. She won the prestigeous Akutagawa prize, which is usually awarded to serious, artistic literate works. In contrast, the Naoki prize is usually awarded to more mass-oriented novels. Waseda University in Tokyo is opening what is called Murakami Library this year. You may want to visit there someday, make friends, and eat nice food.

https://thesmartlocal.com/japan/haruki-murakami-library/


Quote from: Artem on March 30, 2021, 12:53:20 PM
Finished today. Bolano is one of my all time favourite writers.

Interesting! I will look for a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 30, 2021, 10:28:36 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 30, 2021, 03:01:19 PM
Reading Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Still hooked on Murakami's writing. I don't know whether I'll read all of his books that are available in English, and I don't really have that as a goal, but I'm well on my way there, anyway. I have been wanting to get back into running and this is further inspiration. Murakami is a seriously disciplined kind of dude.
Not all Murakami's books are as great as his earlier work, but I think reading chronologically most of his writing available in English within a year, for example, could be a very enjoyable project. His non-fiction complements well his fiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 01, 2021, 05:37:06 AM
(https://s1.adlibris.com/images/49666908/pride-prejudice.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 01, 2021, 03:28:40 PM
Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51022SGqpXL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Having finished Haruki Murakami's running memoir whose title pays tribute to this classic collection, I figured there's no time like the present to finally read some Ray Carver. Wow. I'm hugely impressed with the beautiful writing here. It's not at all what I expected, which was bleak, joyless, depressing minimalist narratives of downtrodden working-class Americans. Well, I guess that's all there, too, but what I'm finding more impressive is the deep poetry in this writing, which seems obsessed with the minutiae of life and the specter of death. This is dark stuff, sure, but some of it warms my heart, especially the stories toward the middle of the book. I'm fairly close to finishing and I suspect I'll be reading more Carver quite soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 01, 2021, 03:53:16 PM
Nearly finished:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30777750045.jpg)

More than lives up to its reputation as a classic of humour.


Quarter of the way in (and somewhat less funny):

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514ylrFKFnL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 01, 2021, 04:21:38 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 01, 2021, 03:53:16 PM

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30777750045.jpg)


Definitely a worthwhile read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 02, 2021, 03:20:51 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 01, 2021, 03:28:40 PM
Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51022SGqpXL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Having finished Haruki Murakami's running memoir whose title pays tribute to this classic collection, I figured there's no time like the present to finally read some Ray Carver. Wow. I'm hugely impressed with the beautiful writing here. It's not at all what I expected, which was bleak, joyless, depressing minimalist narratives of downtrodden working-class Americans. Well, I guess that's all there, too, but what I'm finding more impressive is the deep poetry in this writing, which seems obsessed with the minutiae of life and the specter of death. This is dark stuff, sure, but some of it warms my heart, especially the stories toward the middle of the book. I'm fairly close to finishing and I suspect I'll be reading more Carver quite soon.

Man, that book was amazing! Going to see if I can't pick up one of Carver's other collections later today, after work.

Curious what the GMG community thinks of Ray Carver. Any fans?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 03, 2021, 11:21:31 PM
I'm a big fan of Raymond Carver. Got to him via Murakami too. I have 3 or 4 of his books. They are all kind of the same, but that doesn't make them less interesting. His writing is great when you want to clear your mind after a reading a dense, long book.

Recently finished these two relatively short novels. My Friends was pretty good, very tranquil and humanistic look into a person's state. Mishima's book was odd and felt like Tales from the Crypt series. It was written for Playboy, which explains its bizarreness.

(http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0726/9203/products/bove.1_grande.jpg?v=1548454943)(https://www.penguin.co.uk/content/dam/prh/books/306/306763/9780241333150.jpg.transform/PRHDesktopWide_small/image.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 04, 2021, 01:19:53 PM
More Raymond Carver, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tszb3o2QL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I love it. Very much in the same vein as the later collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Simple, beautiful stories, sometimes dark, sometimes heartwarming, always featuring characters who are more complex than they might at first seem. This being his debut collection, many of these stories were written before Carver kicked the booze for good. There are only a couple more collections of his stories that I still have yet to read, but I may take up Artem's suggestion of returning to it as a "palate cleanser" after a more challenging read. In any case, I suspect I will be returning to Love and Quiet for a long time to come.

One last brief comment: these Vintage Contemporaries editions are absolutely beautiful. Vintage is probably my favorite publisher of trade paperbacks.

@Artem, it seems you and I may go for the same kind of books. Have you read any other Mishima? I've been wanting to check that one out, but from what I can tell, it's somewhat of an oddity among his works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 04, 2021, 02:44:54 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 02, 2021, 03:20:51 AM
Man, that book was amazing! Going to see if I can't pick up one of Carver's other collections later today, after work.

Curious what the GMG community thinks of Ray Carver. Any fans?

I read many positive reviews on the book at Amazon, I must get a copy.


Quote from: Artem on April 03, 2021, 11:21:31 PM
Mishima's book was odd and felt like Tales from the Crypt series. It was written for Playboy, which explains its bizarreness.

That's an outlier among Mishima's works though I personally love his writing in the novel. Mishima just had fun writing silly and ridiculous, and he showed that he was very good at it. Confessions of a Mask, Sound of Waves, Gold Pavilion, and Sailor Who Fell From Grace (I never liked the English title) are typical works of Mishima. Plus, Death in Midsummer and Other Stories, and Five Noh Plays, are enjoyable collections of his works.

Now reading Medieval Architecture by Nicola Coldstream.

P.s. It's worth watching the movie of Sailors Who Fell.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 04, 2021, 03:46:54 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on April 01, 2021, 05:37:06 AM
(https://s1.adlibris.com/images/49666908/pride-prejudice.jpg)

Great book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 05, 2021, 04:30:15 AM
It most definitely is! Much better than I remembered!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 05, 2021, 06:15:36 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 04, 2021, 01:19:53 PM
@Artem, it seems you and I may go for the same kind of books. Have you read any other Mishima? I've been wanting to check that one out, but from what I can tell, it's somewhat of an oddity among his works.

As Dry Brett Kavanaugh points out Life for Sale is indeed an outlier in Mishima's oeuvre. It is probably worth reading after finishing Mishima's major works.

I've only read a couple of Mishima's novels, including Confessions of a Mask, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and The Frolic of the Beasts. I enjoyed them all to a different degree. To me Mishima is a kind of writer that I would try to read everything he published.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 05, 2021, 06:42:14 AM
I like Mishima when he doesn't bring his social ideology.
In contrast to its cover, Death in Midsummer offers accessible and non-disturbing stories. The Noh Plays compiles interesting and creative plays. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 05, 2021, 10:06:02 PM
I'll follow you recommendations next time I'm buying Mishima's books. Thank you very much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 06, 2021, 03:49:19 AM
Just finished Hiroko Oyamada's The Factory

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/315kmOgK7yL._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

What a strange book, which had a shocking twist ending of sorts. I enjoyed it a lot, for its dense, oppressive atmosphere and its often whimsical world-building. The author really succeeded in conjuring a workplace that seems to go on forever and ever, temporally and spatially. It's a pretty freaky reading experience. My biggest critique is that the story of one of the three narrators really doesn't seem to go anywhere, and fizzles out a little bit before the end of the novel. But that aside, it's a good book. I'd recommend reading both of Oyamada's novellas that have been translated into English, but ultimately I think I preferred The Hole. Excited to read more from this promising young author. Unfortunately it seems she is not the most prolific writer in the world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 06, 2021, 05:41:17 AM
Enjoyed your review. I was also hooked on the atmosphere of that book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 06, 2021, 05:01:35 PM
Quote from: Artem on April 05, 2021, 06:15:36 AM
To me Mishima is a kind of writer that I would try to read everything he published.

Somehow, Mishima' s works lie beyond whether or not you like them. If you want to know Japanese literature, or just literature, you must read some of his works. It seems to me, even a majority of readers who dislike him admit Mishima's talent in elegance, delicacy, structure, paradox, etc. Are his works likable/acceptable? That's a totally different thing.

Quote from: Artem on April 06, 2021, 05:41:17 AM
Enjoyed your review.

+1. Nice and insightful review.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 07, 2021, 01:23:16 PM
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41KAQ5OZoGL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A classic hardboiled mystery. This is my first time reading anything like this. Really enjoying it so far. The insights of the cynical protagonist are often quite hilarious. I might have to read some more Chandler in the near future. These Vintage Crime/Black Lizard editions look excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 07, 2021, 05:15:43 PM
Now reading Botchan (Young Master) by Soseki Natsume. A straight-talking, hot-headed and honest young man of upperclass family in Tokyo goes to a rural and unsophisticated area in Japan to teach at a high school (it's like an upperclass young guy in Boston going to a village in Mississippi). He fights with the people in the conservative, ridiculous, and corrupt system. He doesn't care if he will win the fight or not because he is--- "botchan." Hilarious and ironic.

Ed. Natsume was one of Glenn Gould's favorite writers.

https://www.peterowen.com/extract-damian-flanagan-introduction-to-the-three-cornered-world-by-natsume-soseki/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 08, 2021, 01:35:54 AM
Masterpieces of Maupassant


(https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/HBkAAOSw2x5gVKmS/$_12.JPG?set_id=880000500F)


Over the last couple of months I have read this collection [English translation]. Maupassant was a very admirable author equally at home in the novel or in the short story. He was a progressive writer and was not adverse to tackling delicate subjects. I have enjoyed re-reading these works. There are wonderful characters ranging from farm hands to elite Parisian socialites and they all have their own story. Maupassant was, for me, a bit like Dickens in that he unveiled the under belly of an apparent civilized society. But human nature is human nature whenever or wherever it appears.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 08, 2021, 02:51:08 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 07, 2021, 05:15:43 PM
Now reading Botchan (Young Master) by Soseki Natsume. A straight-talking, hot-headed and honest young man of upperclass family in Tokyo goes to a rural and unsophisticated area in Japan to teach at a high school (it's like an upperclass young guy in Boston going to a village in Mississippi). He fights with the people in the conservative, ridiculous, and corrupt system. He doesn't care if he will win the fight or not because he is--- "botchan." Hilarious and ironic.

Ed. Natsume was one of Glenn Gould's favorite writers.

https://www.peterowen.com/extract-damian-flanagan-introduction-to-the-three-cornered-world-by-natsume-soseki/

That was a fascinating read. I didn't know of the Soseki/Gould connection. I've been meaning to read Kokoro and I Am A Cat, but I'll have to add Botchan and The Three-Cornered World to that list. Haruki Murakami has also cited Soseki as his favorite Japanese author, and references to his works play a big role in Kafka on the Shore.

Edit: I ordered a copy of The Three-Cornered World, along with Yukio Mishima's Star, a novella that was recommended to me highly, and Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata. My obsession with Japanese literature continues!  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 08, 2021, 05:41:24 AM
I haven't read Kusamakura (grass pillow), aka. The Three Cornered World. I will get a copy.  Usually, Kokoro, Botchan, and Cat are considered to be Natsume's major works in Japan, as well as the West. The first English translation of Kusamakura was published in the 1960s under the title, The Three Cornered World. This is the book Glenn Gould was obsessed with. Early in this century, a new edition by a reputed translator was published under the original title, Kusamakura. Unless the publisher (Penguin P.) was confident of its quality vis a vis the quality of older edition, they wouldn't have published the new edition. 


It seems to me, a few questions remain. Was Gould's well-known transformation partially or largely influenced by Natsume's art philosophy? Why did the significance of Kusamakura replace that of Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, which I personally admire?

https://youtu.be/jvI5a3kZl0M

https://youtu.be/w9wjPMBNJXo
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 08, 2021, 05:45:33 AM
Quote from: aligreto on April 08, 2021, 01:35:54 AM
Masterpieces of Maupassant


(https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/HBkAAOSw2x5gVKmS/$_12.JPG?set_id=880000500F)


Over the last couple of months I have read this collection [English translation]. Maupassant was a very admirable author equally at home in the novel or in the short story. He was a progressive writer and was not adverse to tackling delicate subjects. I have enjoyed re-reading these works. There are wonderful characters ranging from farm hands to elite Parisian socialites and they all have their own story. Maupassant was, for me, a bit like Dickens in that he unveiled the under belly of an apparent civilized society. But human nature is human nature whenever or wherever it appears.

Well-said. I admire Maupassant's works, including his short stories.

The books in the pic look so cool and hip!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 08, 2021, 06:18:21 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 08, 2021, 05:45:33 AM

The books in the pic look so cool and hip!

They were published by Heron Books. I have collected a lot of Heron Books over the years. They are well presented with that binding and feel good in the hand.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 08, 2021, 01:05:43 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 08, 2021, 05:41:24 AM
I haven't read Kusamakura (grass pillow), aka. The Three Cornered World. I will get a copy.  Usually, Kokoro, Botchan, and Cat are considered to be Natsume's major works in Japan, as well as the West. The first English translation of Kusamakura was published in the 1960s under the title, The Three Cornered World. This is the book Glenn Gould was obsessed with. Early in this century, a new edition by a reputed translator was published under the original title, Kusamakura. Unless the publisher (Penguin P.) was confident of its quality vis a vis the quality of older edition, they wouldn't have published the new edition. 


It seems to me, a few questions remain. Was Gould's well-known transformation partially or largely influenced by Natsume's art philosophy? Why did the significance of Kusamakura replace that of Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, which I personally admire?

https://youtu.be/jvI5a3kZl0M

https://youtu.be/w9wjPMBNJXo

I went for the older Turney translation, I guess in part because I wanted to read the book that Gould became so obsessed with, me being a fan of his. Excited to read it. But I will have to also check out Botchan soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 08, 2021, 01:46:53 PM
Quote from: aligreto on April 08, 2021, 06:18:21 AM
They were published by Heron Books. I have collected a lot of Heron Books over the years. They are well presented with that binding and feel good in the hand.

They must look gorgeous in your work room/library. Next time would you show the front cover please?  :D

Quote from: vers la flamme on April 08, 2021, 01:05:43 PM
I went for the older Turney translation, I guess in part because I wanted to read the book that Gould became so obsessed with, me being a fan of his. Excited to read it. But I will have to also check out Botchan soon.

Sounds good idea. Please let us know how it is like later !
Gould also had 2 Japanese copies he couldn't read. I thought it was crazy. But come to think of it, I may want original German and Russian editions of some books I like!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 09, 2021, 03:49:58 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 08, 2021, 01:46:53 PM
They must look gorgeous in your work room/library. Next time would you show the front cover please?  :D


Here you go my friend


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/md/md18346332227.jpg)   (https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JXMAAOSwa81XRkjy/s-l300.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 09, 2021, 05:47:21 AM
Quote from: aligreto on April 09, 2021, 03:49:58 AM
Here you go my friend


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/md/md18346332227.jpg)   (https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JXMAAOSwa81XRkjy/s-l300.jpg)

The book is absolutely elegant and deluxe! Maupassant deserves that. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 09, 2021, 02:00:11 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 09, 2021, 05:47:21 AM
The book is absolutely elegant and deluxe! Maupassant deserves that.

Yes, Heron Books are well presented so I go out of my way locally to collect them if I can.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 10, 2021, 02:56:20 AM
Ernest Hemingway, The Nick Adams Stories

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ph8MfRC5L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This is a posthumous compilation of stories that were never published altogether by Hemingway's own volition, but when taken together and arranged in this order, we really do see a biographical arc among all these short stories—semi-autobiographical, as it were. There are some stories I like a lot and some others I don't care for as much. Hemingway had a truly unique writing style that could rub one the wrong way just as easily as it could enrapture. I suppose I'm somewhere in the middle. The reason I keep trying with Hemingway is because he wrote one of my all-time favorite books: The Sun Also Rises, which he wrote in his 20s, and which changed my life when I read it in my teens. But I must admit that nothing else I've read from him has struck me in so permanent a way. Still, I reckon I'll keep trying throughout my life until I've read everything he's ever written, looking for another perfect book like The Sun Also Rises.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 10, 2021, 03:28:37 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 10, 2021, 02:56:20 AM
Ernest Hemingway, The Nick Adams Stories

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ph8MfRC5L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This is a posthumous compilation of stories that were never published altogether by Hemingway's own volition, but when taken together and arranged in this order, we really do see a biographical arc among all these short stories—semi-autobiographical, as it were. There are some stories I like a lot and some others I don't care for as much. Hemingway had a truly unique writing style that could rub one the wrong way just as easily as it could enrapture. I suppose I'm somewhere in the middle. The reason I keep trying with Hemingway is because he wrote one of my all-time favorite books: The Sun Also Rises, which he wrote in his 20s, and which changed my life when I read it in my teens. But I must admit that nothing else I've read from him has struck me in so permanent a way. Still, I reckon I'll keep trying throughout my life until I've read everything he's ever written, looking for another perfect book like The Sun Also Rises.

I do not know that collection but I have read a few Nick Adams stories.
Hemingway had a similar effect on me in my teens also. I think that what he had to offer in his earlier works struck a chord with many people around that age group who were open to such emotions and possibilities. When I read his works now, although I still enjoy them, I see his writing through more cynical eyes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 11, 2021, 05:07:39 AM
Somerset Maugham: Ashenden


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51qdCt2YD2L._SX347_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)   (https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/203238007523_/BOOK-W-Somerset-Maugham-Liza-Of-Lambeth.jpg)   (https://static.nadirkitap.com/fotograf/38790/16/Kitap_202002031912033879011.jpg)


This is, I found, one of Maugham's much lighter works. It is about the adventures and escapades of an author who is recruited into the world of governmental espionage. His travels, encounters and lifestyle are well illustrated but essentially it is just enjoyable light reading.


The extra images are for our friend Dry Brett Kavanaugh who seems to like the presentation of Heron Books.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 11, 2021, 10:54:34 AM
A very strong recommendation for Cercas. Maybe the best book that I've read this year so far. Even Roberto Bolano comes up in the book. The Aosawa Murders was also a pretty good detective novel. Very interesting narrative approach.
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/8570/9780857059192.jpg) (https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563310080l/51054767._SX318_SY475_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 12, 2021, 01:41:40 AM
Loved The Nick Adams Stories so much that by the end of it, I decided to pick up another Hemingway book that I hadn't read, the famous A Farewell to Arms...:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51uApeO-rHL.jpg)

... which I read all in one day. I couldn't put it down. Little did I know on Friday morning that I would plow through 600 pages of Hemingway over the weekend, but what can you do. Wow, that was a great book. So many iconic moments. And what a crushing ending. Wow. I'll definitely have to read some more Hemingway in the near future but I've exhausted my modest collection over the past few months. Like I may have alluded to, I don't always get so much out of Hemingway's writing, but with these two books, it was an overwhelmingly positive experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 12, 2021, 01:46:04 AM
Anyway, I've started this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hC8kgrS9L._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Star, by Yukio Mishima. So far so good. A brilliant novella that is not considered one of his major works by any means, but still it's filled with excellent, thought provoking writing. Inspired by the author's second career as a film actor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 12, 2021, 02:49:12 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 12, 2021, 01:41:40 AM
Loved The Nick Adams Stories so much that by the end of it, I decided to pick up another Hemingway book that I hadn't read, the famous A Farewell to Arms...:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51uApeO-rHL.jpg)

... which I read all in one day. I couldn't put it down. Little did I know on Friday morning that I would plow through 600 pages of Hemingway over the weekend, but what can you do. Wow, that was a great book. So many iconic moments. And what a crushing ending. Wow. I'll definitely have to read some more Hemingway in the near future but I've exhausted my modest collection over the past few months. Like I may have alluded to, I don't always get so much out of Hemingway's writing, but with these two books, it was an overwhelmingly positive experience.

It is great when something unexpected like that happens.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 12, 2021, 05:15:01 AM
Quote from: aligreto on April 11, 2021, 05:07:39 AM
Somerset Maugham: Ashenden

This is, I found, one of Maugham's much lighter works. It is about the adventures and escapades of an author who is recruited into the world of governmental espionage. His travels, encounters and lifestyle are well illustrated but essentially it is just enjoyable light reading.


The extra images are for our friend Dry Brett Kavanaugh who seems to like the presentation of Heron Books.  :)

The book looks sharp and cool! Also, you posted a blue book last year. I forgot what the authorship was, but it looked gorgeous. As for Maugham, I only have read The Moon and Sixpence (decades ago). I am planning to get some other works by him.

Now reading Byzantine Art by Robin Cormack. I saw some of the discussed works in Greece a few times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 12, 2021, 05:19:48 AM
Quote from: Artem on April 11, 2021, 10:54:34 AM
A very strong recommendation for Cercas. Maybe the best book that I've read this year so far. Even Roberto Bolano comes up in the book. The Aosawa Murders was also a pretty good detective novel. Very interesting narrative approach.

Cercas looks interesting. I will look for a copy.
Talking about Japanese hardboiled novel, several people in North America enthusiastically recommended Confessions by Kanae Minato to me. I am planning to read it asap.

P.s. I see that Aosawa Murders won the Naoki Prize, a prestigeous award given to quality "popular" literate works. Oyamada's The Hole received another prestigious award, Akutagawa Prize, which is given to a significant "artistic" literate work annualy.


Quote from: vers la flamme on April 12, 2021, 01:46:04 AM
Anyway, I've started this:

Star, by Yukio Mishima. So far so good. A brilliant novella that is not considered one of his major works by any means, but still it's filled with excellent, thought provoking writing. Inspired by the author's second career as a film actor.

Yes, good writing and good imagination.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 12, 2021, 02:25:49 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 12, 2021, 01:46:04 AM
Anyway, I've started this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hC8kgrS9L._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Star, by Yukio Mishima. So far so good. A brilliant novella that is not considered one of his major works by any means, but still it's filled with excellent, thought provoking writing. Inspired by the author's second career as a film actor.

Loved it. I've now read three Mishima books and all were fantastic reads, though The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, my first, was definitely the hardest pill to swallow. This was an easy and quick read but it was by no means a simplistic book; there are several layers to it. Beautiful writing, and I felt compelled to share this passage, when the narrator is on a film set, filming a scene, and he reflects thus:

Quote from: Yukio Mishima
The piercing fidelity of the landscape must have meant that I was watching from the gates of death. What I saw was as comprehensive as a memory, poor and wretched as a memory, as quiet, as fluorescent...

As I walked along, it became impossible to deny that these empty streets would eventually open onto sprawling tracks where trains came rushing in and out of town, extending naturally to a grand city, and a harbor, and beyond the sea to other countries with their own cities and harbors.

I'm a real sucker for this kind of writing. My only complaint is that this material could have easily been expanded into a full length novel. There were several fascinating characters introduced who could have been explored in much further depth, such as the aging actor, former young heartthrob, who appears only in the novel's final pages. But I'll take what I can get. Strongly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 12, 2021, 03:03:08 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 12, 2021, 02:25:49 PM

I'm a real sucker for this kind of writing.


Same here  :) :).
Many of his short stories/novellas are like this with his characteristically razor-sharp and novel writings.
In contrast, Kawabata's writing is conventional without Mishima's flamboyancy or sharpness.
In Japan, Star and other 4-5 very good stories are compiled within a book, and it is sold for US$ 8-9.
I couldn't believe when I saw that the English edition is sold without other stories and sold for a similar price.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 12, 2021, 04:10:28 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512u-iZRaML._SL500_.jpg)

Delighted to have discovered an audiobook of Gravity's Rainbow with a reader so talented as to make it much more lucid than it appears on the page.

It's narrated by George Guidall, but its actually not the one pictured above which is his second (!!) and official recording of the work some decades after having made a hard to get and much sought after unofficial first.

Its this earlier fan favorite that some friend of humanity has uploaded to Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBiaHGMEb8Y

I especially love how he brings out all the humour, of which there is so much.

more detail here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/books/review/gravitys-rainbow-read-by-george-guidall.html

(also: always loved that Penguin cover with the blueprint of the V2)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on April 12, 2021, 06:33:21 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 12, 2021, 01:41:40 AM
Loved The Nick Adams Stories so much that by the end of it, I decided to pick up another Hemingway book that I hadn't read, the famous A Farewell to Arms...:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51uApeO-rHL.jpg)

... which I read all in one day. I couldn't put it down. Little did I know on Friday morning that I would plow through 600 pages of Hemingway over the weekend, but what can you do. Wow, that was a great book. So many iconic moments. And what a crushing ending. Wow. I'll definitely have to read some more Hemingway in the near future but I've exhausted my modest collection over the past few months. Like I may have alluded to, I don't always get so much out of Hemingway's writing, but with these two books, it was an overwhelmingly positive experience.

Old Man and the Sea is possibly his best work.
I picked up Green Hills of Africa the other day. Hopefully it will be as good as Death in the Afternoon, his other big non-fiction work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on April 12, 2021, 06:43:25 PM
Dos Passos > Hemingway and now cant abide Earnest after learning about this:

https://origins.osu.edu/review/breaking-point-hemingway-dos-passos-and-murder-jose-robles
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 13, 2021, 12:52:23 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on April 12, 2021, 06:43:25 PM
Dos Passos > Hemingway and now cant abide Earnest after learning about this:

https://origins.osu.edu/review/breaking-point-hemingway-dos-passos-and-murder-jose-robles

A great artist who was also a bastard? My, my, my, who'd have believed that? That's shocking news, shocking I tell you.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on April 13, 2021, 01:04:09 AM
Just finished reading this thought-provoking and interesting book:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 13, 2021, 01:32:49 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on April 12, 2021, 06:43:25 PM
Dos Passos > Hemingway and now cant abide Earnest after learning about this:

https://origins.osu.edu/review/breaking-point-hemingway-dos-passos-and-murder-jose-robles

I'd love to read some Dos Passos. Is there a book you recommend to start with?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on April 13, 2021, 03:26:55 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 13, 2021, 01:32:49 AM
I'd love to read some Dos Passos. Is there a book you recommend to start with?
42nd Parallel - the first book in the USA Trilogy
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 13, 2021, 04:26:26 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on April 13, 2021, 03:26:55 AM
42nd Parallel - the first book in the USA Trilogy

Many moons ago I started Manhattan Transfer but I don't think I made it past the first 50 pages before abandoning it. Time for a second try, maybe?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 13, 2021, 04:35:42 AM
As for Hemingway, I can't remember where I read that he was jokingly asked during a party (meaning he was dead drunk) to write the shortest novel in the world, six words only. He obliged: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. In my book this is the very definition of a literary genius, scoundrel or no scoundrel in his private or public life.

Also, For Wom the Bell Tolls is one of the best novels about the Spanish Civil War, and quite non-partisan when it ccomes to describing the atrocities committed by both sides. Malraux's Man's Hope is also good but has a stronger bias towards the Republican side.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 13, 2021, 04:02:35 PM
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517Ga5gjDqL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This book is hilarious, full of an infectious lust for life. An enjoyable read so far. I found this at Half Price Books yesterday; they somehow had absolutely no Hemingway (which is what I came for) but I did find this and a pristine copy of Mishima's Frolic of the Beasts, so I came out okay in the end.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 13, 2021, 04:26:41 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 13, 2021, 04:02:35 PM
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517Ga5gjDqL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This book is hilarious, full of an infectious lust for life. An enjoyable read so far. I found this at Half Price Books yesterday; they somehow had absolutely no Hemingway (which is what I came for) but I did find this and a pristine copy of Mishima's Frolic of the Beasts, so I came out okay in the end.

I have the book in my house, but haven't started reading it yet.
Tokyo was Bourdain's favorite city.  I don't know how old he was. But in terms of education and culture, he was like an avant-garde of millenial generation.

https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-bourdain-japan-favorite-destination-2016-10
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 14, 2021, 02:28:09 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 13, 2021, 04:26:41 PM
I have the book in my house, but haven't started reading it yet.
Tokyo was Bourdain's favorite city.  I don't know how old he was. But in terms of education and culture, he was like an avant-garde of millenial generation.

https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-bourdain-japan-favorite-destination-2016-10

He's a boomer; he was 61 when he died. That's cool about Tokyo. I will have to see the episode of his show where he goes there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 14, 2021, 03:05:49 AM
Conan Doyle Adventures of Gerard


(https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/images/1/13/Thomas-nelson-1915-adventures-of-Gerard.jpg)


The high adventures of a French cavalry officer during the Napoleonic wars. Nothing but light reading and yarns of high adventure but an entertaining read nonetheless.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 14, 2021, 03:10:29 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 13, 2021, 04:26:41 PM

Tokyo was Bourdain's favorite city.  I don't know how old he was. But in terms of education and culture, he was like an avant-garde of millenial generation.

https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-bourdain-japan-favorite-destination-2016-10

My millennial daughter and her millennial husband still are big fans. In pre Covid times when they travelled they would always follow recommendations by him. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 15, 2021, 12:21:31 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 13, 2021, 04:02:35 PM
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517Ga5gjDqL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This book is hilarious, full of an infectious lust for life. An enjoyable read so far. I found this at Half Price Books yesterday; they somehow had absolutely no Hemingway (which is what I came for) but I did find this and a pristine copy of Mishima's Frolic of the Beasts, so I came out okay in the end.
As a millennial and a professional food writer, I can say this book changed our industry forever. It changed food writing in a huge way, from a stuffy old thing for gourmets to compare notes into a visceral, blood-and-guts thing that could be cool rather than elite. It changed the restaurant business in many specific ways - for example, because of Bourdain's comments on when to order fish, restaurants have changed what days they order their fish.

There is also a somewhat strong backlash in the industry against the type of angry, drug/alcohol-fueled, unprofessional kitchen work environments which are depicted in the book. Bourdain was criticized by some as the poster boy (along with Gordon Ramsay and his cursing), but he clearly does not glamorize or glorify it...or at least in his later years, on the TV show, he stopped doing that. Oh, an interesting note for you - the character "Jimmy Sears" in the book is in real life a chef named John Tesar, who lives here in Dallas and whom I've interviewed, met, and reviewed. Tesar is 63 now and hasn't changed very much since Jimmy Sears in the book; he's still a gloriously good chef, a grade-A schmoozer, and a guy who can't stay in the kitchen because he's busy chasing women. (Tomorrow he has a hearing in a custody battle over the kid he had in his late 50s with a 20-something waitress at his own restaurant...if that gives you an idea...  ;D )

I got the Globe 8" chef knife Bourdain recommends in the book and I love it. Have been using it daily for 8 years or so now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:28:58 PM
Actually, what is a millennial?

Related: I was born in 1972. What am I?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 15, 2021, 12:37:33 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:28:58 PM
I was born in 1972. What am I?

Starting to get old  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:46:19 PM
Quote from: aligreto on April 15, 2021, 12:37:33 PM
Starting to get old  ;D

Please, don't!   ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 15, 2021, 12:51:48 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:28:58 PM
Actually, what is a millennial?

Related: I was born in 1972. What am I?
I think they consider millennials to be roughly early 1980s to mid 1990s. 1970ish is "Generation X". But it's all silly stereotypes anyway. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:58:07 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 15, 2021, 12:51:48 PM
I think they consider millennials to be roughly early 1980s to mid 1990s. 1970ish is "Generation X". But it's all silly stereotypes anyway. :)

Generation X, hmmm... Count me out, I'm definitely a romantic.   :laugh:  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 15, 2021, 01:08:23 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:58:07 PM
Generation X, hmmm... Count me out, I'm definitely a romantic.   :laugh:  :P

We're the lucky generation... because we are the ones ignored in the culture war.  There is boomers vs millenials, boomers vs GenZ, GenZ vs millenials (basically everyone hates millenials) and in all that gen x never comes up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 15, 2021, 01:10:08 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:28:58 PM

Related: I was born in 1972. What am I?


Quote from: aligreto on April 15, 2021, 12:37:33 PM
Starting to get old  ;D

Quote from: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:46:19 PM
Please, don't!   ;D



OK, in your prime  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 01:11:12 PM
Quote from: DavidW on April 15, 2021, 01:08:23 PM
We're the lucky generation... because we are the ones ignored in the culture war.  There is boomers vs millenials, boomers vs GenZ, GenZ vs millenials (basically everyone hates millenials) and in all that gen x never comes up.

You lost me. Boomers? Gen Z? Wtf?  :laugh:

Hey, I don't hate millennials because I have no idea who they are.  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 01:12:01 PM
Quote from: aligreto on April 15, 2021, 01:10:08 PM
OK, in your prime  8)

That's more like it!  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 15, 2021, 01:41:12 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 15, 2021, 12:21:31 PM
As a millennial and a professional food writer, I can say this book changed our industry forever. It changed food writing in a huge way, from a stuffy old thing for gourmets to compare notes into a visceral, blood-and-guts thing that could be cool rather than elite. It changed the restaurant business in many specific ways - for example, because of Bourdain's comments on when to order fish, restaurants have changed what days they order their fish.

There is also a somewhat strong backlash in the industry against the type of angry, drug/alcohol-fueled, unprofessional kitchen work environments which are depicted in the book. Bourdain was criticized by some as the poster boy (along with Gordon Ramsay and his cursing), but he clearly does not glamorize or glorify it...or at least in his later years, on the TV show, he stopped doing that. Oh, an interesting note for you - the character "Jimmy Sears" in the book is in real life a chef named John Tesar, who lives here in Dallas and whom I've interviewed, met, and reviewed. Tesar is 63 now and hasn't changed very much since Jimmy Sears in the book; he's still a gloriously good chef, a grade-A schmoozer, and a guy who can't stay in the kitchen because he's busy chasing women. (Tomorrow he has a hearing in a custody battle over the kid he had in his late 50s with a 20-something waitress at his own restaurant...if that gives you an idea...  ;D )

I got the Globe 8" chef knife Bourdain recommends in the book and I love it. Have been using it daily for 8 years or so now.

I appreciate the comments! That's interesting about "Sears"/Tesar, one of the more curious characters mentioned in the book. And I was looking at that same knife. I'd buy it if I cared more about cooking. Maybe in a few years.

I'm a mid 90s baby, a younger millennial. For what it's worth, I can confirm that "foodies" in my generation really look up to Bourdain. I won't pretend I'm one of them, I know next to nothing about food, and even less about international travel, but I do have a lot of the respect for the guy. Anyway I'm fairly close to finishing the book. Enjoying it all the way so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 01:45:05 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 15, 2021, 01:41:12 PM
I'm a mid 90s baby,

About 20 years younger than me... blimey, I'd have never guessed that.  I always thought you were more or less my age. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 15, 2021, 01:46:21 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 15, 2021, 12:21:31 PM
As a millennial and a professional food writer, I can say this book changed our industry forever. It changed food writing in a huge way, from a stuffy old thing for gourmets to compare notes into a visceral, blood-and-guts thing that could be cool rather than elite. It changed the restaurant business in many specific ways - for example, because of Bourdain's comments on when to order fish, restaurants have changed what days they order their fish.

There is also a somewhat strong backlash in the industry against the type of angry, drug/alcohol-fueled, unprofessional kitchen work environments which are depicted in the book. Bourdain was criticized by some as the poster boy (along with Gordon Ramsay and his cursing), but he clearly does not glamorize or glorify it...or at least in his later years, on the TV show, he stopped doing that. Oh, an interesting note for you - the character "Jimmy Sears" in the book is in real life a chef named John Tesar, who lives here in Dallas and whom I've interviewed, met, and reviewed. Tesar is 63 now and hasn't changed very much since Jimmy Sears in the book; he's still a gloriously good chef, a grade-A schmoozer, and a guy who can't stay in the kitchen because he's busy chasing women. (Tomorrow he has a hearing in a custody battle over the kid he had in his late 50s with a 20-something waitress at his own restaurant...if that gives you an idea...  ;D )

I got the Globe 8" chef knife Bourdain recommends in the book and I love it. Have been using it daily for 8 years or so now.

Thank you for the nice review and insightful opinion (and good writing). Enjoyed reading the post.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 15, 2021, 01:47:24 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 15, 2021, 01:41:12 PM
I appreciate the comments! That's interesting about "Sears"/Tesar, one of the more curious characters mentioned in the book. And I was looking at that same knife. I'd buy it if I cared more about cooking. Maybe in a few years.

I'm a mid 90s baby, a younger millennial. For what it's worth, I can confirm that "foodies" in my generation really look up to Bourdain. I won't pretend I'm one of them, I know next to nothing about food, and even less about international travel, but I do have a lot of the respect for the guy. Anyway I'm fairly close to finishing the book. Enjoying it all the way so far.
Always good to meet another person under age 45 on this board!  ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 15, 2021, 01:57:56 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 15, 2021, 01:47:24 PM
Always good to meet another person under age 45 on this board!  ;D ;D

I wouldn't have guessed you were as young as you are just going off of your seniority here at GMG. I'm guessing you're a few years older than me, but still, you must have been around since you were a teenager!

@Florestan, you seem to have such a youthful spirit—which I suppose everyone does, ultimately—that it does seem odd that there's an age gap of a couple decades between you and me. Otherwise, I'm with you; I'm an incurable romantic.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 02:15:26 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 15, 2021, 01:57:56 PM
@Florestan, you seem to have such a youthful spirit

Why, thank you, good Sir! Honestly, I do feel much younger than my biological age --- and many people who don't know the truth do think, and do tell me they think, I am much younger than my biological age.  8)

QuoteI'm with you; I'm an incurable romantic.  ;D

I'm only too glad to learn that the romantic spirit still lives. Carry on, young man!  :P



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 15, 2021, 04:32:41 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 15, 2021, 12:21:31 PM
As a millennial and a professional food writer, I can say this book changed our industry forever. It changed food writing in a huge way, from a stuffy old thing for gourmets to compare notes into a visceral, blood-and-guts thing that could be cool rather than elite. It changed the restaurant business in many specific ways - for example, because of Bourdain's comments on when to order fish, restaurants have changed what days they order their fish.

There is also a somewhat strong backlash in the industry against the type of angry, drug/alcohol-fueled, unprofessional kitchen work environments which are depicted in the book. Bourdain was criticized by some as the poster boy (along with Gordon Ramsay and his cursing), but he clearly does not glamorize or glorify it...or at least in his later years, on the TV show, he stopped doing that. Oh, an interesting note for you - the character "Jimmy Sears" in the book is in real life a chef named John Tesar, who lives here in Dallas and whom I've interviewed, met, and reviewed. Tesar is 63 now and hasn't changed very much since Jimmy Sears in the book; he's still a gloriously good chef, a grade-A schmoozer, and a guy who can't stay in the kitchen because he's busy chasing women. (Tomorrow he has a hearing in a custody battle over the kid he had in his late 50s with a 20-something waitress at his own restaurant...if that gives you an idea...  ;D )

I got the Globe 8" chef knife Bourdain recommends in the book and I love it. Have been using it daily for 8 years or so now.

Have you read Medium Raw? There's a chapter in that about how he's come to regret having put forward the "fish on Mondays" thing.

There's also a where-are-they-now chapter on the characters from Kitchen Confidential. (And lots of other great stuff for anyone who enjoyed KC)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fritz Kobus on April 15, 2021, 09:00:32 PM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1502501998l/34525486.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 15, 2021, 09:28:18 PM
Re: Heron Books editions:

I was wanting a copy of Darkness At Noon and the one I found today at a secondhand book store was the Heron edition:

(I'd forgotten what a distinct fragrance they all have)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WlCuFamYL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Also picked up:

Bob Woodward's Veil:The Secret Wars Of The CIA 1981-1987
Gore Vidal's Burr
Richard Hall's How To Gaze At The Southern Stars
Paul Griffiths' Modern Music: A Concise History From Debussy To Boulez
and Stephen King's Lisey's Story, because apparently it is his personal favorite among his own works


but currently reading Dave Cullen's book on Columbine, alongside listening to the audiobook of Gravity's Rainbow

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41F-OpU1jDL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 16, 2021, 02:20:00 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 15, 2021, 09:28:18 PM
Re: Heron Books editions:

I was wanting a copy of Darkness At Noon and the one I found today at a secondhand book store was the Heron edition:

(I'd forgotten what a distinct fragrance they all have)


That certainly looks very elegant. Enjoy it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on April 16, 2021, 09:20:38 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 15, 2021, 12:58:07 PM
Generation X, hmmm... Count me out, I'm definitely a romantic.   :laugh:  :P

"Trying to forget your generation
You know all the ways when in what I see
The ends must justify the means
Your generation don't mean a thing to me"

- Your Generation by Generation X.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 16, 2021, 11:42:50 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 15, 2021, 04:32:41 PM
Have you read Medium Raw? There's a chapter in that about how he's come to regret having put forward the "fish on Mondays" thing.

There's also a where-are-they-now chapter on the characters from Kitchen Confidential. (And lots of other great stuff for anyone who enjoyed KC)
I haven't and need to! He gave some interviews in late years talking about other things he regretted from Kitchen Confidential. In this interview (https://popula.com/2018/07/15/bourdain-confidential/) he says he's given away all the royalties from the book.

Update - this morning I watched the custody hearing with "Jimmy Sears" and his ex-girlfriend, about their child. It ended with the very unhappy tableau of a slideshow of photos of the ex-girlfriend with bruises, cuts, choke marks, etc., from times that "Jimmy Sears" had attacked her. That was hard to see. Oof.  :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 16, 2021, 12:49:37 PM
L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Don't know why I never read them before....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 16, 2021, 05:23:54 PM
Quote from: philoctetes on April 16, 2021, 10:16:08 AM
Following logically from Beckett, but very much adding his own flavor to the pot.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1223675503l/336067.jpg)

Can tell at a glance that that is going to be a Dalkey Archive edition. One of those rare publishers where you can pick up any obscure thing they put out knowing how carefully their list is curated.

Its a real pity their Context magazine can no longer be read on their website.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 17, 2021, 03:21:54 PM
After a few false starts I'm now well into yet another great book, one that was much discussed here a couple of months ago. Shusaku Endo's Silence.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51J-iv6PQUL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

So far I'm really enjoying it. The images of a religion practiced in persecution in a bleak and destitute corner of the world (from the eyes of the protagonist, a Portuguese priest, that is) are incredibly striking. It's hard for me to fathom being in the shoes of any one of these characters, so rough is the hand that each is dealt. Anyway, reading this has put me very much in a historical frame of mind that I enjoy being in. Clearly a meaningful book. I look forward to reading it more over the days to come.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 17, 2021, 08:06:20 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 17, 2021, 03:21:54 PM
After a few false starts I'm now well into yet another great book, one that was much discussed here a couple of months ago. Shusaku Endo's Silence.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51J-iv6PQUL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

So far I'm really enjoying it. The images of a religion practiced in persecution in a bleak and destitute corner of the world (from the eyes of the protagonist, a Portuguese priest, that is) are incredibly striking. It's hard for me to fathom being in the shoes of any one of these characters, so rough is the hand that each is dealt. Anyway, reading this has put me very much in a historical frame of mind that I enjoy being in. Clearly a meaningful book. I look forward to reading it more over the days to come.

I'm about a third of the way in now. Wow. I wasn't ready for how good this book would be...

By the way, I just read the part where our protagonist wanders the mountains in solitude, while listening to Arvo Pärt's Sarah Was Ninety Years Old. It was such a perfect fit I couldn't help but wonder whether it was inspired by this book. More likely is that both Pärt and Endō were inspired by similar feelings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 18, 2021, 02:34:33 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 17, 2021, 03:21:54 PM
After a few false starts I'm now well into yet another great book, one that was much discussed here a couple of months ago. Shusaku Endo's Silence.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51J-iv6PQUL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

So far I'm really enjoying it. The images of a religion practiced in persecution in a bleak and destitute corner of the world (from the eyes of the protagonist, a Portuguese priest, that is) are incredibly striking. It's hard for me to fathom being in the shoes of any one of these characters, so rough is the hand that each is dealt. Anyway, reading this has put me very much in a historical frame of mind that I enjoy being in. Clearly a meaningful book. I look forward to reading it more over the days to come.

I have read that one albeit a couple of years ago. I found it to be compelling reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 04:12:45 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 17, 2021, 08:06:20 PM
I'm about a third of the way in now. Wow. I wasn't ready for how good this book would be...

By the way, I just read the part where our protagonist wanders the mountains in solitude, while listening to Arvo Pärt's Sarah Was Ninety Years Old. It was such a perfect fit I couldn't help but wonder whether it was inspired by this book. More likely is that both Pärt and Endō were inspired by similar feelings.

Quote from: aligreto on April 18, 2021, 02:34:33 AM
I have read that one albeit a couple of years ago. I found it to be compelling reading.

Looks like a book right up my alley, thank you gentlemen for mentioning it.

And lo and behold! it has been translated into Romanian so I'll order it.

(https://www.polirom.ro/z_bookManager-portlet/upload/3029/copertaFata/copertaFata.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 18, 2021, 04:50:07 AM
Yes vg book and excellent writing/structure though the story is depressing and hard to take. Several people I know in the U.S like the book. Also, Endo's The Sea and Poison is considered to be his masterpiece in Japan while it won the Akutagawa Prize. It is a solid work and I recommend it.

@Andrei, the book looks awsome. Please post your thoughts after reading it. We will discuss.

Correction: Endo's White Man, not The Sea and Poison, won the Akutagawa Prize. I regret my error.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 18, 2021, 05:33:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 04:12:45 AM
And lo and behold! it has been translated into Romanian so I'll order it.

(https://www.polirom.ro/z_bookManager-portlet/upload/3029/copertaFata/copertaFata.jpg)

Serendipity  8)

It is not necessarily an easy read but it is an engrossing one. Enjoy it when you eventually get it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 05:37:11 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 18, 2021, 04:50:07 AM
@Andrei, the book looks awsome. Please post your thoughts after reading it. We will discuss.

I'll surely do, Matt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 06:34:47 AM
Just ordered (Romanian translations all):

Shusaku Endo - Silence
Eric Emmanuel Schmitt - Madame Pylinska and the Secret of Chopin
Thomas Mann - Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann - Lotte in Weimar
Flaubert - Sentimental Education
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 18, 2021, 06:39:42 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 18, 2021, 04:50:07 AM
Yes vg book and excellent writing/structure though the story is depressing and hard to take. Several people I know in the U.S like the book. Also, Endo's The Sea and Poison is considered to be his masterpiece in Japan while it won the Akutagawa Prize. It is a solid work and I recommend it.

@Andrei, the book looks awsome. Please post your thoughts after reading it. We will discuss.

Will definitely check this out next. Thanks. Endo has written a handful of very acclaimed books it seems, many of which seem to be eclipsed today by the success of Silence. It appears he is a Japanese writer of serious stature and is now very much on my radar, now that I've started reading this book. Can't wait to read more of his work.

Quote from: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 06:34:47 AM
Just ordered (Romanian translations all):

Shusaku Endo - Silence
Eric Emmanuel Schmitt - Madame Pylinska and the Secret of Chopin
Thomas Mann - Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann - Lotte in Weimar
Flaubert - Sentimental Education

I read Buddenbrooks last year and it absolutely blew me away. Probably one of the five greatest books I've ever read. Mann was a genius. Please do let me know what you think when you read it. Same goes for Silence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 06:47:15 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 18, 2021, 06:39:42 AM
Mann was a genius.

Wholeheartedly agrred. I read Doktor Faustus and The Magic Mountain several times each --- and each time I was spellbound.

QuotePlease do let me  know what you think when you read it. Same goes for Silence.

Will most certainly do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 18, 2021, 06:50:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 06:34:47 AM
Just ordered (Romanian translations all):

Shusaku Endo - Silence
Eric Emmanuel Schmitt - Madame Pylinska and the Secret of Chopin
Thomas Mann - Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann - Lotte in Weimar
Flaubert - Sentimental Education

Haven't read Lotte In Weimar. I must get a copy.

Quote from: vers la flamme on April 18, 2021, 06:39:42 AM
Will definitely check this out next. Thanks. Endo has written a handful of very acclaimed books it seems, many of which seem to be eclipsed today by the success of Silence. It appears he is a Japanese writer of serious stature and is now very much on my radar, now that I've started reading this book. Can't wait to read more of his work.


Half of his literary works are collections of funny and silly essays while the other half are dark novels highlighting the lack of erhics in the Japanese society/culture. He personally thinks that 1) Japanese lack ethics/moral 2) because they are not Christian. Fine with 1), but not sure about 2).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 07:11:52 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 18, 2021, 06:50:29 AM
Haven't read Lotte In Weimar. I must get a copy.

I've read many moons ago (a loan copy) and I remember enjoying it greatly. Can't hurt having it permanently at hands, methinks.

QuoteHe personally thinks that 1) Japanese lack ethics/moral 2) because they are not Christian. Fine with 1), but not sure about 2).

/OT Rant/

I'm a Christian (Greek Orthodox). I don't know about (1) because I've never been to Japan but I find (2) to be a non-Christian notion. Only God / Jesus Christ know who is a Christian and who is not, cf:

Matthew 7:21-23 (New King James Version)

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

I'm much more interested in practising my faith and correcting my own sins than in reproaching others for not following my own faith and being sinful on their own.

Cf. Romans 12:19 (King James Bible) --- Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

/End of OT rant./
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 18, 2021, 04:08:19 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 06:34:47 AM
Just ordered (Romanian translations all):

Shusaku Endo - Silence
Eric Emmanuel Schmitt - Madame Pylinska and the Secret of Chopin
Thomas Mann - Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann - Lotte in Weimar
Flaubert - Sentimental Education

Are these translations of the original text, or English text? What kind of people are these translators? Academics?
Thank you for the powerful quotes from the Bible.

P.s. I remember you indicated that in the Romanian language, a letter exclusively signifies only one sound, and one sound is wrtitten/expressed by a single letter exclusively, something like that.  Ghoti = fish
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 18, 2021, 11:52:23 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 18, 2021, 04:08:19 PM
Are these translations of the original text, or English text? What kind of people are these translators? Academics?

Usually they are translated from the original by professional translators, some of whom might be academics as well.

QuoteP.s. I remember you indicated that in the Romanian language, a letter exclusively signifies only one sound, and one sound is wrtitten/expressed by a single letter exclusively, something like that.  Ghoti = fish

Yes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 19, 2021, 11:51:52 AM
History of quantum physics and the theory of Quantum Gravity, discussed by my favorite scientist. Always nice read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 19, 2021, 02:38:20 PM
Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter

(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/430/222/359222430.0.m.jpg)

After reading Endo's Silence I decided to check this book out, as Greene was an admirer of Endo's work and this is one of Greene's famous "Catholic" novels. I read one of Greene's books back in high school; I remember I picked The Power & the Glory to write a paper on, though I can't remember what prompted me to make that choice nor do I recall much of the book today. As for this one, so far so good. Interesting characters, interesting setting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 20, 2021, 05:10:32 AM
Endo's Silence has just arrived.

Note to Dry Brett Kavanaugh: it's translated from the original Japanese edition published by Monumenta Nipponica in 1969. (Japanese title: Chinmoku).

Will start reading it asap.

(https://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/98/1685898/tacere-editie-de-buzunar_1_fullsize.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 20, 2021, 05:25:22 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 20, 2021, 05:10:32 AM
Endo's Silence has just arrived.

Note to Dry Brett Kavanaugh: it's translated from the original Japanese edition published by Monumenta Nipponica in 1969. (Japanese title: Chinmoku).

Will start reading it asap.

(https://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/98/1685898/tacere-editie-de-buzunar_1_fullsize.jpg)

Wonderful. I thought that probably it would be a translation of the English edition/translation. Again, nice cover!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 20, 2021, 05:35:04 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 20, 2021, 05:25:22 AM
Wonderful. I thought that probably it would be a translation of the English edition/translation. Again, nice cover!

The publishing house which published it is one the best, largest, most prestigious Romanian ones --- they can obviously afford professional translators for many languages. Plus, they hav a standard to uphold: they publish only high quality stuff, from classics to contemporary writers.

The Romanian title means exactly silence and derives from the Latin tacere --- which is actually obvious. 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 20, 2021, 01:30:59 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 19, 2021, 02:38:20 PM
Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter

(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/430/222/359222430.0.m.jpg)

After reading Endo's Silence I decided to check this book out, as Greene was an admirer of Endo's work and this is one of Greene's famous "Catholic" novels. I read one of Greene's books back in high school; I remember I picked The Power & the Glory to write a paper on, though I can't remember what prompted me to make that choice nor do I recall much of the book today. As for this one, so far so good. Interesting characters, interesting setting.

Enjoying the latter two thirds of the book much more than I did the first third, though the plot does become slightly convoluted toward the end. I guess it shows that Greene was a writer of the genre of intrigue, to which this book does not belong.

Anyway, I'm very excited to read more of his work. Maybe Our Man in Havana or The Quiet American next, both of which ought to be somewhat easier reads.

Edit: Just finished the book. What a horrifically tragic ending that was...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 20, 2021, 02:19:39 PM
I've read The End Of The Affair three times now and at some point there will be a fourth - if you're looking for a Greene recommendation and haven't read that one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 21, 2021, 02:04:20 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 20, 2021, 02:19:39 PM
I've read The End Of The Affair three times now and at some point there will be a fourth - if you're looking for a Greene recommendation and haven't read that one.

Sounds excellent, I'll have to find that one. I did order a copy of The Quiet American which was cheap on Amazon, and I also have The Power and the Glory which I read in high school but would love to reread as an adult. I wasn't expecting The Heart of the Matter to become so bleak, and so powerful. I don't foresee a reread anytime soon. But I was overall impressed with Greene's writing. I've been meaning to see what he's all about for a long time now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on April 21, 2021, 06:52:30 AM
Last few months - top row still reading, bottom row done - about half on my iPad and the others in paperback (still like to feel and smell a real book, so split my purchases) - Dave :)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51h9E0NsJ3L._SY346_.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41iA-YWdrsL.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gpMjAd3bL._SY346_.jpg)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416Wk+IABsL._SY346_.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Sg1zXAQ0L._SY346_.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51CCGPhaWUL._SY346_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 21, 2021, 03:39:11 PM
Yasunari Kawabata, Thousand Cranes

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388205415l/14027.jpg)

This just arrived in the mail in the afternoon and I've just started it. This book is written with such powerful subtlety that it comes off as somehow extremely intense, almost overwhelming. For some reason it brings to mind the image of drinking a glass of red wine that is really blood. (Maybe my recent reading of Greene has put me too much in the mind of Catholic liturgy :P). I don't know how to describe my feelings toward the book itself, but I'm in awe of Kawabata's writing. It's clear to me that the man was a genius.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 22, 2021, 05:50:36 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 21, 2021, 03:39:11 PM
Yasunari Kawabata, Thousand Cranes

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388205415l/14027.jpg)

This just arrived in the mail in the afternoon and I've just started it. This book is written with such powerful subtlety that it comes off as somehow extremely intense, almost overwhelming. For some reason it brings to mind the image of drinking a glass of red wine that is really blood. (Maybe my recent reading of Greene has put me too much in the mind of Catholic liturgy :P). I don't know how to describe my feelings toward the book itself, but I'm in awe of Kawabata's writing. It's clear to me that the man was a genius.

Mishima has a sharp knife and he shows it. In contrast, nihilism, beauty, pessimism and indications in Kawabata's works are subtle. They are disturbing stories without appearing to be disturbing. His works appear to be about ordinary/average people written by an average/normal man. The guy is a scary guy.
Anciet Capitol, Snow Country, Izu Dancer are good, but I like the Cranes, especially the ending.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 22, 2021, 01:57:06 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 22, 2021, 05:50:36 AM
Mishima has a sharp knife and he shows it. In contrast, nihilism, beauty, pessimism and indications in Kawabata's works are subtle. They are disturbing stories without appearing to be disturbing. His works appear to be about ordinary/average people written by an average/normal man. The guy is a scary guy.
Anciet Capitol, Snow Country, Izu Dancer are good, but I like the Cranes, especially the ending.

I agree with you: a scary guy. It disturbs me whenever I recall that his life, like that of his friend Yukio Mishima, ended in suicide. While it doesn't immediately impress on me while reading his writing, it occurs to me that he must have been deeply tortured. I get a similar feeling reading Hemingway, a completely different writer (but yet another suicide).

I ordered The Old Capital. I hope to one day read everything he's written, which is not much compared to some other great writers. It helps that his books are quite short.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 22, 2021, 02:05:55 PM
The only Kawabata I've read is The Master Of Go which I thought superb. Must try more in the bearish future.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 22, 2021, 02:53:50 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 22, 2021, 02:05:55 PM
The only Kawabata I've read is The Master Of Go which I thought superb. Must try more in the bearish future.

Can wholeheartedly recommend Snow Country, and even Thousand Cranes, though I must admit there is something about it that is freaking me out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 22, 2021, 03:02:36 PM
I see now I wrote "the bearish future", which sounds a bit grim.

Nearish.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 22, 2021, 03:11:54 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 22, 2021, 03:02:36 PM
I see now I wrote "the bearish future", which sounds a bit grim.

Nearish.

:laugh: I hadn't noticed; I read it just as you intended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 22, 2021, 05:16:31 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 22, 2021, 01:57:06 PM
I agree with you: a scary guy. It disturbs me whenever I recall that his life, like that of his friend Yukio Mishima, ended in suicide. While it doesn't immediately impress on me while reading his writing, it occurs to me that he must have been deeply tortured. I get a similar feeling reading Hemingway, a completely different writer (but yet another suicide).

I ordered The Old Capital. I hope to one day read everything he's written, which is not much compared to some other great writers. It helps that his books are quite short.

I read the Old Capitol (=Kyoto) decades ago, and don't remember the story. I must get a copy. Sorry that the Cranes was a little disturbing. I thought his Sleeping Beauty might, but not Thousand Cranes.

Quote from: SimonNZ link=topic=T.msg1363442#msg1363442 date=1619129155
The only Kawabata I've read is The Master Of Go which I thought superb. Must try more in the bearish future.

I haven't read The Master. But I heard that Kawabata considered the work as his best work. I will purchase a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 22, 2021, 05:20:10 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 22, 2021, 05:16:31 PM
I read the Old Capitol (=Kyoto) decades ago, and don't remember the story. I must get a copy. Sorry that the Cranes was a little disturbing.

I haven't read The Master. But I heard that Kawabata considered the work as his best work. I will purchase a copy.

No need for apology, I loved it—perhaps more than Snow Country. As I might have mentioned, I want to try and read everything of Kawabata's that has been translated into English. I'm finding him more and more to be a fascinating writer.

It would seem he held his short stories in higher regard than the novels. Going to try and find a copy of The Dancing Girl of Izu & Other Stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 22, 2021, 05:28:47 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 22, 2021, 05:20:10 PM
No need for apology, I loved it—perhaps more than Snow Country. As I might have mentioned, I want to try and read everything of Kawabata's that has been translated into English. I'm finding him more and more to be a fascinating writer.

It would seem he held his short stories in higher regard than the novels. Going to try and find a copy of The Dancing Girl of Izu & Other Stories.

Izu Dancer is a clean, pretty and (deceptively) simple story. I recommend it. Literate classes at some high schools often compare the style, theme, plot, etc in the work with those in Mishima's Sound of Waves.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 22, 2021, 05:30:38 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 22, 2021, 05:28:47 PM
Izu Dancer is a clean, pretty and (deceptively) simple story. I recommend it. Literate classes at some high schools often compare the style, theme, plot, etc in the work with those in Mishima's Sound of Waves.

That Mishima is another one I mean to read. I've thoroughly enjoyed all the Japanese literature I've been reading since New Year's, but Mishima and Kawabata might be my favorites so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 22, 2021, 05:55:40 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 22, 2021, 02:05:55 PM
The only Kawabata I've read is The Master Of Go which I thought superb. Must try more in the bearish future.

I (still and humbly) recommend Thousand Cranes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 22, 2021, 09:57:48 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 22, 2021, 05:55:40 PM
I (still and humbly) recommend Thousand Cranes.

Thanks. I'll grab the next copy I find.

Re: Miishima. I've not read much of his but 'Acts Of Worship" I thought one of the best short stories I'd read by anyone. Looking back now I think I'd compare it to Henry James not just in themes and development but in quality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 23, 2021, 09:16:23 AM
I could've bet that my late father's library had some Yasunari Kawabata, but at a very cursory search I found only Yasushi Inoue's Tea Master. Any thoughts on this one?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 23, 2021, 09:30:13 AM
TD

(https://www.targulcartii.ro/galerie/cache/I045/w-somerset-maugham-vila-de-pe-colina-polirom-2008-l-119679-299x299.JPG)

W. Somerset Maugham --- Up at the Villa. (Romanian translation: The Villa on the Knoll)

A vivid illustration of the old and true dictums that (1) hell is paved with good intentions, and (2) be careful what you wish for, it might actually happen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 23, 2021, 09:47:35 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 23, 2021, 09:16:23 AM
I could've bet that my late father's library had some Yasunari Kawabata, but at a very cursory search I found only Yasushi Inoue's Tea Master. Any thoughts on this one?

Probably it would be a solid/decent work. He is a very good writer and I saw good reviews on the book.
The book is not dealing with a big philosophical or social issue though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 23, 2021, 09:53:18 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 23, 2021, 09:47:35 AM
Probably it would be a solid/decent work. He is a very good writer and I saw good reviews on the book.

Thanks.

QuoteThe book is not dealing with a big philosophical or social issue though.

The Bible, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy and Dickens cover those areas for me more than enough.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 23, 2021, 01:14:20 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 23, 2021, 09:30:13 AM
TD

(https://www.targulcartii.ro/galerie/cache/I045/w-somerset-maugham-vila-de-pe-colina-polirom-2008-l-119679-299x299.JPG)

W. Somerset Maugham --- Up at the Villa. (Romanian translation: The Villa on the Knoll)

A vivid illustration of the old and true dictums that (1) hell is paved with good intentions, and (2) be careful what you wish for, it might actually happen.

Did you enjoy the writing style, Andrei?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 23, 2021, 01:22:49 PM
Quote from: aligreto on April 23, 2021, 01:14:20 PM
Did you enjoy the writing style, Andrei?

Yes I did, very much so. Classical yet humorous --- and praise of Mozart's music.

Excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 23, 2021, 04:45:48 PM
George Orwell's 1984

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41aM4xOZxaL._SX277_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Somehow, I've never read this, or any other Orwell, before. Most people I know had to read this in high school but for whatever reason it was never on the curriculum. Anyway I'm finding it quite shocking, not only for its crushing bleakness, but also for its powerfully vivid language of violence and sexuality. There is something very English about it in that sense. At the same time I'm very much enjoying it. I'm just shy of the halfway point of the book.

I did read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 in school (and really enjoyed it at the time; I'd love to reread as an adult) and it seems there are numerous parallels between the two books, not only in the nature of the dystopian societies depicted, but also in the two protagonists and their stories of rebellion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 25, 2021, 01:37:54 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 23, 2021, 04:45:48 PM
George Orwell's 1984

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41aM4xOZxaL._SX277_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This book depressed me horribly. I found it absolutely crushing. But man, was it riveting. I couldn't put it down; I read the whole sizable book cover to cover in two days. It's one of those books that is so ingrained in the public consciousness that I felt I had already read it long before I ever really had, but I was wrong about that; this book is not what I thought. I can't stop thinking about it. Definitely a new favorite. I want to try and read everything Orwell ever wrote; there's not terribly much of it, as he died young.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on April 25, 2021, 02:12:25 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 25, 2021, 01:37:54 PM
I want to try and read everything Orwell ever wrote; there's not terribly much of it, as he died young.

I need to do this too, or at least a lot more - he was an excellent prose craftsman and a clear-headed thinker (at least from what I have read).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 25, 2021, 02:28:52 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 23, 2021, 09:53:18 AM

The Bible, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy and Dickens cover those areas for me more than enough.  ;D

Strangely/Interestingly, not many people talk about Shakespeare on this thread. Personally I am not a big fan of his works. I maybe missing something since I read his works when I was pretty young.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 25, 2021, 03:03:16 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 25, 2021, 02:28:52 PM
Strangely/Interestingly, not many people talk about Shakespeare on this thread. Personally I am not a big fan of his works. I maybe missing something since I read his works when I was pretty young.

There's a seperate Shakespeare thread, which unfortunately has been largely inactive the last couple of years.

https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,23394.280.html

But speaking of Shakespeare I've off and on been picking away one chapter at a time a John Middleton Murray (he of the Bloomsbury group, married to Katherine Mansfield) study of Shakespeare's works from the 1930's.

I'd had it unread for so long I was considering putting in the next box to go to the charity shop, but as soon as I chanced a few pages I immediately assessed the quality of the intellect and that it would produce distinct individual interpretations and ideas.

(can't find an image of the Jonathan Cape paperback edition from the 60s I've got)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 25, 2021, 03:37:12 PM
The obvious next step with Orwell: Animal Farm

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41NzDuSdIfL._SX277_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

No, I had not read this either. So far, so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 25, 2021, 03:45:03 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 25, 2021, 03:37:12 PM
The obvious next step with Orwell: Animal Farm

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41NzDuSdIfL._SX277_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

No, I had not read this either. So far, so good.

I read practically every word of Orwell when I was in my 20s and have reread a number since, but I've never understood the bestseller status of Animal farm or how it has eclipsed so many better works by him.

Personally I'd recommend Down And Out In Paris And London as the next essential Orwell after 1984. Or a single volume selection of the essays.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 25, 2021, 03:51:04 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 25, 2021, 03:45:03 PM
I read practically every word of Orwell when I was in my 20s and have reread a number since, but I've never understood the bestseller status of Animal farm or how it has eclipsed so many better works by him.

Personally I'd recommend Down And Out In Paris And London as the next essential Orwell after 1984. Or a single volume selection of the essays.

Maybe you'll be pleased to know that I was able to order a copy of Down and Out (which I've been curious to read since noting Anthony Bourdain's brief mention of it in his book Kitchen Confidential, which I read a few weeks ago) for fairly cheap and will be reading that next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 25, 2021, 04:11:09 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 25, 2021, 03:51:04 PM
Maybe you'll be pleased to know that I was able to order a copy of Down and Out (which I've been curious to read since noting Anthony Bourdain's brief mention of it in his book Kitchen Confidential, which I read a few weeks ago) for fairly cheap and will be reading that next.

Nice. I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

I think I've mentioned it on this thread before, but I also feel that Keep The Aspidistra Flying deserves to be much better known than it is, fwiw.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 25, 2021, 04:19:31 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 25, 2021, 04:11:09 PM
Nice. I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

I think I've mentioned it on this thread before, but I also feel that Keep The Aspidistra Flying deserves to be much better known than it is, fwiw.

Can't say I know anything about that one. Care to sell a new but enthusiastic Orwell fan on it? What's it about? Fiction, nonfiction, or what?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 25, 2021, 04:31:02 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 25, 2021, 04:19:31 PM
Can't say I know anything about that one. Care to sell a new but enthusiastic Orwell fan on it? What's it about? Fiction, nonfiction, or what?

A novel. A huge spleen-vent about worship and pursuit of the money-god as the only path in life and the quixotic pursuit of another.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 25, 2021, 04:35:30 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 25, 2021, 04:31:02 PM
A novel. A huge spleen-vent about worship and pursuit of the money-god as the only path in life and the quixotic pursuit of another.

Thanks; that sounds very interesting. Going to be looking out for that and a collection of essays (there are many of these; not sure which would be the one to go for, but I expect one can't go wrong).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 26, 2021, 02:35:10 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 23, 2021, 04:45:48 PM
George Orwell's 1984

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41aM4xOZxaL._SX277_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Somehow, I've never read this, or any other Orwell, before. Most people I know had to read this in high school but for whatever reason it was never on the curriculum. Anyway I'm finding it quite shocking, not only for its crushing bleakness, but also for its powerfully vivid language of violence and sexuality. There is something very English about it in that sense. At the same time I'm very much enjoying it. I'm just shy of the halfway point of the book.

I did read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 in school (and really enjoyed it at the time; I'd love to reread as an adult) and it seems there are numerous parallels between the two books, not only in the nature of the dystopian societies depicted, but also in the two protagonists and their stories of rebellion.

I also devoured quite a large amount of Orwell's novels when I was a young man and I loved them.
Given the two books that you have mentioned it is predictable that I should suggest Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Have you read it? It is basically on the same theme. The writing style is different of course but I like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 26, 2021, 02:41:41 AM
Quote from: aligreto on April 26, 2021, 02:35:10 AM
I also devoured quite a large amount of Orwell's novels when I was a young man and I loved them.
Given the two books that you have mentioned it is predictable that I should suggest Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Have you read it? It is basically on the same theme. The writing style is different of course but I like it.

I've read some of it years ago but never did finish; I'll have to check it out. I know many feel that it offers a more believable dystopian vision for the West. I've read a couple of Huxley's nonfiction books, The Doors of Perception and The Perennial Philosophy, and enjoyed both.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 26, 2021, 02:42:52 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 26, 2021, 02:41:41 AM
I've read some of it years ago but never did finish; I'll have to check it out. I know many feel that it offers a more believable dystopian vision for the West. I've read a couple of Huxley's nonfiction books, The Doors of Perception and The Perennial Philosophy, and enjoyed both.

Yes, Huxley was another one that I became obsessive about.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 05:02:50 AM
Speaking of dystopias, may I recommend you guys read We by Yevgeni Zamyatin, which preceded Huxley by a full decade and Orwell by no less than three, as it was written in 1921 and has the distinction of being the very first book banned the newly instated Soviet censorship.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on April 26, 2021, 06:19:33 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 05:02:50 AM
Speaking of dystopias, may I recommend you guys read We by Yevgeni Zamyatin, which preceded Huxley by a full decade and Orwell by no less than three, as it was written in 1921 and has the distinction of being the very first book banned the newly instated Soviet censorship.

Thank you. I have not come across that one before.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 26, 2021, 06:23:57 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 26, 2021, 02:41:41 AM
I've read a couple of Huxley's nonfiction books, The Doors of Perception and The Perennial Philosophy, and enjoyed both.

+1. As for a similar subject to The Doors, I like One River by Wade Davis. A story about Amazon, hallucinogenic plants, shamanism, a Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Schultes, and his student (Davis).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 06:26:36 AM
Quote from: aligreto on April 26, 2021, 06:19:33 AM
Thank you. I have not come across that one before.

It's really the fountain from which all other dystopias have flown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Zamyatin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Zamyatin)

That's the Romanian edition.

(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/9789734644551-2655438-240.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 06:58:24 AM
(https://www.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/59/1002/65/12084590.jpg)

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt - Madame Pylinska and the Secret of Chopin

A magical little book about Chopin's music, life, love, nature, remembrance, disease, death, literature and... metempsychosis. Melancholy yet humorous. Very short (I read in an hour or so) but very well-written. If in a mood for such things, give it a try.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 26, 2021, 11:11:25 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 23, 2021, 04:45:48 PM
I did read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 in school (and really enjoyed it at the time; I'd love to reread as an adult) and it seems there are numerous parallels between the two books, not only in the nature of the dystopian societies depicted, but also in the two protagonists and their stories of rebellion.
Have you read Zamyatin's We by chance? Second the earlier made recommendation for it.

Reading everything Orwell would be an interesting project. I only read Animal Farm long time ago, but it didn't connect with me to continue reading more Orwell after it. Maybe I will try 1984.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 26, 2021, 11:18:56 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 06:26:36 AM
It's really the fountain from which all other dystopias have flown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Zamyatin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Zamyatin)

That's the Romanian edition.

(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/9789734644551-2655438-240.jpg)
It is a really great book. I have very vivid images of the way Zamyatin described the room of the main character, the big gatherings. The structure of the books is very cool too. Russian literature in the early 20th century was really something.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 11:24:32 AM
Quote from: Artem on April 26, 2021, 11:18:56 AM
Russian literature in the early 20th century all through the 19th and 20th centuries was really something.

Fixed.  8)

I've said it many times but it bears repeating: politically I am a staunch and unrepentant Russophobe, culturally I am a staunch and unrepentant Russophile.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 26, 2021, 11:38:52 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 11:24:32 AM
politically I am a staunch and unrepentant Russophobe, culturally I am a staunch and unrepentant Russophile.  :D
As a Russian I would cosign this. Fully agree with you sentiment.

What I meant about the early 20th century, is that so much artistic talent had been suppressed in the second half of that century.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 11:56:56 AM
Quote from: Artem on April 26, 2021, 11:38:52 AM
As a Russian I would cosign this. Fully agree with you sentiment.

I'm only too glad, Artyom (that's the right transliteration, ain't it?  8) )

QuoteWhat I meant about the early 20th century, is that so much artistic talent had been suppressed in the second half of that century.

Tentatively suppressed yes, agreed --- but never succesfully so. The Russian spirit, just like any other nation's spirit, can never be suppressed. Tyrants come and go --- artists, especially great ones, let alone geniuses, always remain.

Здраствуйце, мой друг! --- and rest assured this is not mere Google Translate at work; I've studied Russian for 4 years in my secondary school --- I can fluently read, if not always completely understand, Russian --- but the above greeting has been in my vocabulary for a long time! I can even sign my name in Russian --- see here:

https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,304.msg1345220.html#msg1345220 (https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,304.msg1345220.html#msg1345220)

:-*
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 26, 2021, 12:00:56 PM
That's really cool, Florestan.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 12:17:12 PM
Quote from: Artem on April 26, 2021, 12:00:56 PM
That's really cool, Florestan.  :)

My Top 20th Century Russian writers, no particular order:

Yevgeny Zamyatin
Mikhail Bulgakov
Boris Pasternak
Nadezhda Mandelstam
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Bulat Okudjava

Have not read yet but on my wishlist: Mikhail Sholokhov, Chingiz Aitmatov

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 26, 2021, 04:20:43 PM
I've started to eye the humongous novels of Vasily Grossman. Someone talk me out of it! ...or into it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 26, 2021, 10:43:09 PM
You should definitely read it. Life and Fate is a great book, one of my favourites.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 27, 2021, 01:09:00 AM
Quote from: Artem on April 26, 2021, 10:43:09 PM
You should definitely read it. Life and Fate is a great book, one of my favourites.

+ 1. It's the 20th-century War and Peace.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 27, 2021, 01:39:22 AM
Yes, I read We by Yevgeny Zamyatin for my Russian literature in translation class back in college, but it's been about 7 years now. I probably owe it a reread.

Edit: Currently reading The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene.

(http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780142437988_p0_v1_s1200x630.jpg)

I'm not very far into the book but I am liking it so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 27, 2021, 08:55:17 AM
The Mel Brooks movie is worth watching!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 27, 2021, 01:34:05 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 26, 2021, 12:17:12 PM
My Top 20th Century Russian writers, no particular order:

Yevgeny Zamyatin
Mikhail Bulgakov
Boris Pasternak
Nadezhda Mandelstam
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Bulat Okudjava

Have not read yet but on my wishlist: Mikhail Sholokhov, Chingiz Aitmatov

Of these I've only read Zamyatin and Bulgakov, strongly preferring the latter—Master & Margarita is a brilliant book, as is the shorter Heart of a Dog which I read for the aforementioned Russian lit class. (Coolest class in college, one of the few I remember in much detail.) Would love to read Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn and Grossman who you didn't mention in this post but did elsewhere. Can't say I know of the others you mentioned. I'm a budding literary Russophile though I've only read the biggest of big names: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Turgenev, and Pushkin. Though my big focus of this year is Japanese literature I would love to spend a year doing a deep dive of exploring all the great Russians I have yet to read. The Brothers Karamazov is one of my most memorable (re)reads of 2021 so far. What a book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 27, 2021, 05:20:59 PM
Read Gogol!!

I have read some Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn but it was a long time ago. Gogol's stories and unfinished novel are spectacular. Last year during the early pandemic I decided to jump right in and read all of War and Peace.

Another dissident fiction writer during the Soviet years who deserves attention is Andrey Platonov. Some of the short stories are powerful indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 27, 2021, 10:37:22 PM
For Platonov I'd recommend his novel Chevengur from the 1920s. It's really dark and wild.

Petersburg by Andrei Bely
Cynics by Anatoly Marienhof
Novel With Cocaine by Mark Ageev

Bely's writing is more on the symbolism, mysticism side of things, but it's really great. Mariengof and Ageev are super gloomy in that pre/post revolutionary doom, death and disintegration.

The best contemporary writer to me is Vladimir Sorokin. I think NYRB had some of his books published. Earlier ones are the best.

On another note, here's a cool list for book lovers: https://www.dw.com/en/buddenbrooks-to-hooligan-links-to-100-german-must-reads-and-their-publishers/a-46289646 (https://www.dw.com/en/buddenbrooks-to-hooligan-links-to-100-german-must-reads-and-their-publishers/a-46289646)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 28, 2021, 12:19:45 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 27, 2021, 05:20:59 PM
Read Gogol!!

Seconded. Dead Souls and The Government Inspector are absolute masterpieces and so are some his novellas and short stories.

Another great Russian book is Ivan Gontcharov's Oblomov, one of the most fun and melancholy books I've ever read. Dostoievsky, Tolstoy and Tchekhov held this writer in high esteem.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 28, 2021, 12:35:17 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 27, 2021, 01:34:05 PM
Of these I've only read Zamyatin and Bulgakov, strongly preferring the latter—Master & Margarita is a brilliant book, as is the shorter Heart of a Dog which I read for the aforementioned Russian lit class. (Coolest class in college, one of the few I remember in much detail.)

I've seen Heart of a Dog dramatized as a play. Excellent. The White Guard, his other novel, is very good too.

QuoteGrossman who you didn't mention in this post but did elsewhere.

Life and Fate is one of the greatest 20th-century books.

QuoteCan't say I know of the others you mentioned.

Nadezhda Mandelstam was the wife of the poet Osip Mandelstam (imprisoned in Gulag on Stalin's direct order, where he died) and wrote two volumes of memoirs about his husband and what life was like in the USSR: Hope against Hope and Hope Abandoned. Worth reading.

Bulat Okudzhava was a Russian / Soviet songwriter, singer and writer of Georgian / Armenian backgground. I've read and very much enjoyed his novel  Nocturne: From the Notes of Lt. Amiran Amilakhvari, Retired (the Romanian title was translated differently and much shorter: The JOurney of the Dilettantes)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 28, 2021, 01:16:50 AM
Quote from: Artem on April 27, 2021, 10:37:22 PM
On another note, here's a cool list for book lovers: https://www.dw.com/en/buddenbrooks-to-hooligan-links-to-100-german-must-reads-and-their-publishers/a-46289646 (https://www.dw.com/en/buddenbrooks-to-hooligan-links-to-100-german-must-reads-and-their-publishers/a-46289646)

For Robert Musil I'd have chosen The Man without Qualities, for Joseph Roth I'd have chosen Radetzky's March, for Hermann Hesse I'd have chosen Steppenwolf, for Ernst Junger I'd have chosen On the Marble Cliffs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 28, 2021, 07:09:43 AM
Finished re-reading Pride and Prejudice a couple of days ago. What a book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 28, 2021, 07:37:23 AM
Thanks for the Gontcharov rec, I will definitely investigate. Petersburg by Bely is an incredible riot of a book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on April 28, 2021, 09:48:09 AM
Astounding Science Fiction May 1942 from archive.org

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 30, 2021, 02:07:48 AM
Just finished rereading Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31YD1x9PJoL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I enjoyed it much more this time around. I think the first time around I was expecting more dystopian tropes, like some kind of underground resistance movement that the characters are intimately involved with, but there's nothing of the sort to be found (besides a subversive book-within-a-book which ultimately plays into a very Dickian conclusion). Instead this book concerns itself primarily with the mundane, everyday interactions of a handful of people in an alternate reality. A surprisingly subtle book. Anyway, I need to read more Dick. Fascinating author.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 03, 2021, 04:39:01 PM
Irène Némirovsky's posthumously published, incomplete epic, Suite Française

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QZmw0iIqL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I was initially drawn to this book, as one might expect, by the Bach connection of the title, but after learning more of the circumstances behind the writing and publication of this book (some 60 years after it was written), I decided that I had to read this. I'm about halfway into the novel and enjoying it so far. It has an ensemble cast of characters, all involved in one way or another in the exodus from Paris to the provinces during the German invasion of France in World War II. There are some extremely harrowing scenes described here. I'm a bit of a budding WWII junkie and I suspect I'll find something to appreciate in any book on the subject, fiction or non, but I guess I must admit that it doesn't quite live up to what I was expecting. I can comfortably blame this on the fact that the author only had the chance to finish about a third of what she was planning to write before she was murdered in the Holocaust. And, of course, my thoughts may change by the end of the book. It seems that I find about half of the many characters much more interesting than the other half.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 03, 2021, 05:00:12 PM
Finished this one by Tom Gauld (light reading)

(https://d243y1uga1q3sn.cloudfront.net/assets/files/349489/department-of-mind-blowing-theories-hardback-cover-9781786898050.jpg)

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1d/4e/df/1d4edff08c31650e58f1f9cab484f2fe.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on May 03, 2021, 05:13:36 PM
This biography on Strauss:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71TAqNUUrxL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 04, 2021, 03:54:48 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 03, 2021, 04:39:01 PM
Irène Némirovsky's posthumously published, incomplete epic, Suite Française

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QZmw0iIqL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I was initially drawn to this book, as one might expect, by the Bach connection of the title, but after learning more of the circumstances behind the writing and publication of this book (some 60 years after it was written), I decided that I had to read this. I'm about halfway into the novel and enjoying it so far. It has an ensemble cast of characters, all involved in one way or another in the exodus from Paris to the provinces during the German invasion of France in World War II. There are some extremely harrowing scenes described here. I'm a bit of a budding WWII junkie and I suspect I'll find something to appreciate in any book on the subject, fiction or non, but I guess I must admit that it doesn't quite live up to what I was expecting. I can comfortably blame this on the fact that the author only had the chance to finish about a third of what she was planning to write before she was murdered in the Holocaust. And, of course, my thoughts may change by the end of the book. It seems that I find about half of the many characters much more interesting than the other half.

Finished; while I did enjoy the book I'm sad that I didn't connect with it as much as I'd hoped to. Must return at a later date.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on May 04, 2021, 05:32:40 PM
Now that I'm back in touch with my Nook (as it were) I am re-reading Our Mutual Friend in earnest
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 05, 2021, 05:07:06 AM
Somerset Maugham: Cosmopolitans


(https://www.hcbooksonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/27889a.jpg)   (https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/AXwAAOSwlvRe9bY-/s-l300.jpg)


This is a series of short stories commissioned by the magazine Cosmopolitan. The commission was based on strict space considerations in the magazine so these stories are naturally more terse that Maugham's more normal flowing style. Also as a result of said restrictions Maugham pared back his descriptive language. As a result of these constrictions the stories make for interesting reading when compared with the greater body of his work [well, for a Maugham fan anyway].
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 05, 2021, 10:03:45 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 20, 2021, 05:10:32 AM
Endo's Silence has just arrived.

(https://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/98/1685898/tacere-editie-de-buzunar_1_fullsize.jpg)

Just finished this. Bleak and tough but impresssive. Raises a lot of difficult questions and challenges for me as a Christian, to which I have only theoretical answers. The moral dilemma of the protagonist is atrocious.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 05, 2021, 10:36:47 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 05, 2021, 10:03:45 AM
Just finished this. Bleak and tough but impresssive. Raises a lot of difficult questions and challenges for me as a Christian, to which I have only theoretical answers. The moral dilemma of the protagonist is atrocious.

Glad to hear that you found Silence by Endo impressive and powerful. As we discussed in January, the values in the moral dilemma are apples and oranges. Impossible to choose one over the other. Yes, the book is very challenging, emotionally and theoretically.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 05, 2021, 11:32:08 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 05, 2021, 10:36:47 AM
Glad to hear that you found Silence by Endo impressive and powerful. As we discussed in January, the values in the moral dilemma are apples and oranges. Impossible to choose one over the other. Yes, the book is very challenging, emotionally and theoretically.

One of the most interesting issues the book raised for me is this: to be a Christian in a Christian country is relatively easy, in the sense that at least nobody will force you to make impossible moral choices and least of all to renounce your faith* --- maybe the true test and trial is to be a Christian in a non-Christian, even anti-Christian, country, where your faith is challenged daily and where your choices may affect not only your life and soul, but those of many others as well.

Truly a disturbing, thought-provoking book, this one.

*although there is tension and even open conflict between the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity of the State, as the cases of Kierkegaard and Tolstoy clearly prove.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 05, 2021, 11:49:52 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 05, 2021, 11:32:08 AM
One of the most interesting issues the book raised for me is this: to be a Christian in a Christian country is relatively easy, in the sense that at least nobody will force you to make impossible moral choices and least of all to renounce your faith* --- maybe the true test and trial is to be a Christian in a non-Christian, even anti-Christian, country, where your faith is challenged daily and where your choices may affect not only your life and soul, but those of many others as well.

Truly a disturbing, thought-provoking book, this one.

*although there is tension and even open conflict between the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity of the State, as the cases of Kierkegaard and Tolstoy clearly prove.


I also read the book, many years ago, in different perspectives, especially in terms of cultural centralism. The protagonist believes that his/Christian belief is universal, absolute, and true. He naturally and strongly believes that Japanese were believing in a wrong god whereas his God is true. He thought that he was helping the people in Japan- attempting to convert their belief- though the much of latter didn't appreciate his "help." Could one possibly consider that the tragedy could be partially due to the self-centered messianism in his belief?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 05, 2021, 02:53:08 PM
i haven't read the book I've only seen the film, but yes to that last post: they weren't merely "being christian in a non-christian land"

(also a joke I'd make in other contexts about "being christian in a non-christian land" would be: "fucking immigrants - why wont they assimilate to to our culture?")

TD:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51z9XMxcsWL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'd started this before and put it aside but now I'm properly into it and after it takes some time to change up through the gears I'm now starting to see why it is Pulitzer-worthy.


and for when I'm wanting something lighter to dip in and out of:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KAKP6PDSL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 02:47:04 AM
Raymond Carver, Cathedral

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41jBlOi0K8L._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The last of Carver's three major story collections for me to read, though there is also the compilation Where I'm Calling From which combines the other three books and adds a handful of new ones, so I suppose I'll have to read that one eventually. As for Cathedral, so far so good. I found the story "A Small, Good Thing", a rewrite of "Bath" from What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, just crushing. I've loved every bit of Carver's work so far. Wish there were more of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 03:14:37 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 05, 2021, 11:49:52 AM

I also read the book, many years ago, in different perspectives, especially in terms of cultural centralism. The protagonist believes that his/Christian belief is universal, absolute, and true. He naturally and strongly believes that Japanese were believing in a wrong god whereas his God is true. He thought that he was helping the people in Japan- attempting to convert their belief- though the much of latter didn't appreciate his "help." Could one possibly consider that the tragedy could be partially due to the self-centered messianism in his belief?

This idea crossed my mind too, but on close inspection it doesn't hold much water.

Rodrigues did not set out for Japan in order to convert them; he did it first in order to help those already converted, who were left without priests, baptism, confession and church services, and second in order to find out what really happened to Ferreira. During the whole book he doesn't try to convert a single person, he only administers baptism to and hears confession from nominal Christians. Moreover, when Ferreira tells him that the Japanese Christians turned the Christian God into something else, believing in a wrong sort of god, he doesn't believe it. What you say about attempting to convert their belief- though the much of latter didn't appreciate his "help." might apply to St. Francis Xavier and his immediate followers, ie to the very first Christian missionaries to Japan. But then again, according to the book, the latter were actually succesful, particularly in the Nagasaki area, where at one time there were 400,000 Christians and the authorities were tolerant or even benevolent.

The dire circumstances of Rodrigues and the Japanese Christians were a direct result of harsh and cruel persecutions but the book is silent (pun) about what caused them. After all, the vast majority of Japanese Christians were poor and destitute peasants who barely made ends meet on a daily basis and desired nothing but to be left alone to peacefully live their miserable life . What extreme danger could they pose to the warlords, the authorities and the Buddhist hierarchy so that they had to be crushed mercilessly?

Inoue tells Rodrigues that he (Rodrigues) is directly responsible for the suffering of his fellow Christians and that if he hadn't come to Japan they woud have not suffered, but this is pure sophistry. Firstly, the persecutions began long before Rodrigues set foot on Japan soil; secondly, it wasn't on Rodrigues' orders that the peasants were crucified in the sea or hanged upside down, but on Inoue's. If the intention was to punish Rodrigues, or break down his will, why such cruelty against people who were not responsible for his deeds?


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 11:14:30 AM
Re-reading this

(https://www.targulcartii.ro/galerie/cache/I048/evgheni-zamiatin-noi-univers-2007-l-120748-299x299.JPG)

Yevgeny Zamyatin --- We

The world it depicts is every bit as bleak and depressive as that of Silence. probably more so --- because in a world of conflicting religions, cultures and countries there is still room aplenty for personal and free choices, actions and creativity, while in a world where there's only one state, one religion (or rather a complete lack thereof) and one culture, all of them organized strictly and exclusively on rational and scientific principles, notions such as "personal", "free", "choice" and "creativity" are regarded and derided as primitive, obsolete and even dangerous.

It's obvious to me that Zamyatin understood Dostoevsky only too well. We is The Demons fast-forwarded a millenium.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 12:18:42 PM
Not without connection to Silence, this illumminating article on Kierkegaard's conception of Philosophy, Theology and Christianity:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334516766_Kierkegaard%27s_Existential_Conception_of_the_Relationship_Between_Philosophy_and_Christianity (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334516766_Kierkegaard%27s_Existential_Conception_of_the_Relationship_Between_Philosophy_and_Christianity)

(Kierkegaard being my favorite Protestant thinker by a wide margin)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 01:06:37 PM
Really, this Shusaku Endo is hands down my greatest literary discovery of this year and quite possibly the most disturbing and thought-provoking writer I've encountered since I can't remember when. (sic!)

Hat tip to vers la flamme and Dry Brett Kavanaugh for that!

Now I must read Graham Greene (believe it or not, I haven't read a single line of his till now).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 01:21:01 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 01:06:37 PM
Really, this Shusaku Endo is hands down my greatest literary discovery of this year and quite possibly the most disturbing and thought-provoking writer I've encountered since I can't remember when. (sic!)

Hat tip to vers la flamme and Dry Brett Kavanaugh for that!

Now I must read Graham Greene (believe it or not, I haven't read a single line of his till now).

Very happy to hear you've enjoyed Endo's Silence. It was similarly eye opening for me. As for Greene, I just read two of his books and enjoyed both: The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair. But he's written so many books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 01:29:07 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 01:21:01 PM
Very happy to hear you've enjoyed Endo's Silence. It was similarly eye opening for me.

I would be very, very interested in your thoughts on what I wrote about Silence.

https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg1366497.html#msg1366497 (https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg1366497.html#msg1366497)

Do you agree even partially? Do you completely disagree?  Either way I thank you in advance for expressing your thoughts.

Quote from: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 01:21:01 PM
As for Greene, I just read two of his books and enjoyed both: The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair. But he's written so many books.

I just bought The Power and the Glory.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 01:39:28 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 01:29:07 PM
I would be very, very interested in your thoughts on what I wrote about Silence.

https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg1366497.html#msg1366497 (https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg1366497.html#msg1366497)

Do you agree even partially? Do you completely disagree?  Either way I thank you in advance for expressing your thoughts.


Give me some time to collect my thoughts and get back to you on that.

Quote from: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 01:29:07 PM
I just bought The Power and the Glory.

I read this in high school and I have it on my shelf, ready for a reread in the near-ish future. It's a good one, and actually rather similar to Silence if I recall correctly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 01:47:07 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 01:39:28 PM
Give me some time to collect my thoughts and get back to you on that.

Take all the time you need, my friend!

QuoteI read this in high school and I have it on my shelf, ready for a reread in the near-ish future. It's a good one, and actually rather similar to Silence if I recall correctly.

Excellent! I'll start reading it asap.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 01:57:23 PM
Spoiler alert in case you haven't read Silence and want to.

Quote from: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 03:14:37 AM
This idea crossed my mind too, but on close inspection it doesn't hold much water.

Rodrigues did not set out for Japan in order to convert them; he did it first in order to help those already converted, who were left without priests, baptism, confession and church services, and second in order to find out what really happened to Ferreira. During the whole book he doesn't try to convert a single person, he only administers baptism to and hears confession from nominal Christians. Moreover, when Ferreira tells him that the Japanese Christians turned the Christian God into something else, believing in a wrong sort of god, he doesn't believe it. What you say about attempting to convert their belief- though the much of latter didn't appreciate his "help." might apply to St. Francis Xavier and his immediate followers, ie to the very first Christian missionaries to Japan. But then again, according to the book, the latter were actually succesful, particularly in the Nagasaki area, where at one time there were 400,000 Christians and the authorities were tolerant or even benevolent.

The dire circumstances of Rodrigues and the Japanese Christians were a direct result of harsh and cruel persecutions but the book is silent (pun) about what caused them. After all, the vast majority of Japanese Christians were poor and destitute peasants who barely made ends meet on a daily basis and desired nothing but to be left alone to peacefully live their miserable life . What extreme danger could they pose to the warlords, the authorities and the Buddhist hierarchy so that they had to be crushed mercilessly?

Inoue tells Rodrigues that he (Rodrigues) is directly responsible for the suffering of his fellow Christians and that if he hadn't come to Japan they woud have not suffered, but this is pure sophistry. Firstly, the persecutions began long before Rodrigues set foot on Japan soil; secondly, it wasn't on Rodrigues' orders that the peasants were crucified in the sea or hanged upside down, but on Inoue's. If the intention was to punish Rodrigues, or break down his will, why such cruelty against people who were not responsible for his deeds?

I don't think that Rodrigues had a messianic complex, either. Okay, maybe a little bit, early on in the book: he does seem to be a bit hung up on the concept of martyrdom, at least until his visions of which were completely shattered after seeing his new friends die brutally on the beach. Nor do I think that Rodrigues was completely misguided in his goal of going to Japan to help the persecuted Christians. While it's true that he never stated a goal of converting more Japanese to Christianity, I don't know if there's any Jesuit in the 17th century who didn't dream of a completely Christianized Japan, which probably in reality never could have happened. But I agree with you; I don't think that was ever really his direct goal.

The character of Inoue was fascinating: especially the whole Pilate connection. I need to brush up on my Gospels, but somehow the comparison feels incomplete. With Inoue, I don't think it was a "forgive them for they know not what they do" situation. But I am having a hard time piecing together his true motivations. I'm not convinced that he was just a violent sociopath or some demonic figure who just wanted to inflict suffering on people, but I'm also not convinced that he was a fervent believer in his own religion of Japanese Buddhism. Still trying to figure out who exactly he was in this book.

While the Japanese Christians as depicted in the book were, as you say, harmless peasants just wanting to live a life of peace and striving toward Christian salvation—it is not quite so simple in my view. Christianity indeed is an existential threat to Japan in the 17th century: a completely Christianized Japan could easily have become a vassal to the Portuguese empire. Obviously, the Japanese are not willing to give up their authority. I wonder if the persecution of Christians in Japan had much more to do with politics than any sense of religious conviction.

My favorite part of the book was Rodrigues' and Garrpe's brief ministry in the mountain shack outside the village. I found their small community of faith very honest and touching, independent of all sociopolitical and historical considerations.

I wonder if our Western perspective colors our interpretation of this wonderfully ambiguous book. Like you, I am a Christian, though surely not the greatest one in the world—I am not (yet) a churchgoer by any means. I like Greene's self identification, later in life, as a Catholic agnostic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 06, 2021, 02:00:00 PM
Gents, I appreciate your great posts of your thoughts. I will reply later.  :)
Florestan, again, delighted to hear that you find the book significant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 02:55:35 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 01:57:23 PM
Spoiler alert in case you haven't read Silence and want to.

Wow, that was quick! Thanks a lot!

QuoteI don't think that Rodrigues had a messianic complex, either. Okay, maybe a little bit, early on in the book: he does seem to be a bit hung up on the concept of martyrdom, at least until his visions of which were completely shattered after seeing his new friends die brutally on the beach. Nor do I think that Rodrigues was completely misguided in his goal of going to Japan to help the persecuted Christians. While it's true that he never stated a goal of converting more Japanese to Christianity, I don't know if there's any Jesuit in the 17th century who didn't dream of a completely Christianized Japan, which probably in reality never could have happened. But I agree with you; I don't think that was ever really his direct goal.

Agreed, completely.

A parallel could be draw with the case of Christianity in China. The Jesuit missionaries there were so succesful that they could have even converted the Imperial family themselves. If only the Pope would have approved (at the request of many Jesuits, first and foremost Matteo Ricci) of equating the Chinese cult of the ancestors with the Christian feast of the remembrance of the dead... Just imagine how a late 17-th century Christian China would have changed the world's history...

QuoteThe character of Inoue was fascinating: especially the whole Pilate connection. I need to brush up on my Gospels, but somehow the comparison feels incomplete. With Inoue, I don't think it was a "forgive them for they know not what they do" situation. But I am having a hard time piecing together his true motivations. I'm not convinced that he was just a violent sociopath or some demonic figure who just wanted to inflict suffering on people, but I'm also not convinced that he was a fervent believer in his own religion of Japanese Buddhism. Still trying to figure out who exactly he was in this book.

Inoue is much worse than Pilate.

First and most important, Pilate himself did not find any fault whatsoever with Christ, sent Him to Herod and when Herod returned Him without any fault whatsoever too, he reluctantly ordered Christ to be harshly flogged --- but not deadly so. He was absolutely convinced that the Sanhedrin would be satisfied with that and no more. Pilate - Inoue 1-0.

Second, Pilate can at least have the (lame) excuse that he simply fulfilled the clearly and vividly expressed desire of the Jewish people assembled in Jerusalem at that particular time. He was fulfilling a democratically sanctioned mandate. Pilate - Inoue 2-0.

Thirdly, Pilate ordered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ alone; he did not order all of his followers to be crucified as well, nor did he see to it that while he was alive each and every Christian should be tortured in order to renounce the Christian faith. Pilate - Inoue 3-0

If you ask me, Pilate is guilty of general human weakness, but not of deliberate wickedness; on the contrary, Inoue is a strong, wicked man.


QuoteWhile the Japanese Christians as depicted in the book were, as you say, harmless peasants just wanting to live a life of peace and striving toward Christian salvation—it is not quite so simple in my view. Christianity indeed is an existential threat to Japan in the 17th century: a completely Christianized Japan could easily have become a vassal to the Portuguese empire. Obviously, the Japanese are not willing to give up their authority. I wonder if the persecution of Christians in Japan had much more to do with politics than any sense of religious conviction.

Yes, of course, I agree. Time and again, politics and religion are intermingled and the latter is more of a loser than the former.

QuoteMy favorite part of the book was Rodrigues' and Garrpe's brief ministry in the mountain shack outside the village. I found their small community of faith very honest and touching, independent of all sociopolitical and historical considerations.

Yes, of course, agreed.

QuoteI wonder if our Western perspective colors our interpretation of this wonderfully ambiguous book.

Well, I'm not Western. I'm Eastern.

Both of them being misnomers, actually.

QuoteLike you, I am a Christian, though surely not the greatest one in the world—I am not (yet) a churchgoer by any means.

I am very glad you identify yourself as a Christian --- ie, a believer in Jesus Christ, albeit an imperfect one. So am I.

That's exactly what Silence questions: can one still be a Christian after one has formally renounced Christianity?

Do you have any answer?


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 03:18:17 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 01:57:23 PM
I like Greene's self identification, later in life, as a Catholic agnostic.

I can identify with that in one sense only: I have often doubt God's justice, but never His existence --- a powerful line from a Finnish Christian writer, Mikka Waltari.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Stürmisch Bewegt on May 06, 2021, 03:46:24 PM
Sometimes I wonder if there should be a thread entitled:  What Should We Be Reading?

I'd nominate this.  I'm nearing the conclusion of Céline's Journey to the End of the Night (English language edition, the French has too much slang I wasn't familiar with).  Not for the faint of heart.  So many quotable passages, so many insights political, social, psychological.  Even biological.  Eg :  "This body of ours, this disguise put on by common jumping molecules, is in constant revolt against the abominable farce of having to endure.  Our molecules, the dears, want to get lost in the universe as fast as they can!  It makes them miserable to be nothing but 'us', the jerks of infinity.  We'd burst if we had the courage, day after day we come very close to it. The atomic torture we love is so locked up inside us with our pride."  Interesting to me that more than one reviewer of the orig. in '32 recognized the author as fascist. 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 04:34:41 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 02:55:35 PM
Wow, that was quick! Thanks a lot!

Agreed, completely.

A parallel could be draw with the case of Christianity in China. The Jesuit missionaries there were so succesful that they could have even converted the Imperial family themselves. If only the Pope would have approved (at the request of many Jesuits, first and foremost Matteo Ricci) of equating the Chinese cult of the ancestors with the Christian feast of the remembrance of the dead... Just imagine how a late 17-th century Christian China would have changed the world's history...

Inoue is much worse than Pilate.

First and most important, Pilate himself did not find any fault whatsoever with Christ, sent Him to Herod and when Herod returned Him without any fault whatsoever too, he reluctantly ordered Christ to be harshly flogged --- but not deadly so. He was absolutely convinced that the Sanhedrin would be satisfied with that and no more. Pilate - Inoue 1-0.

Second, Pilate can at least have the (lame) excuse that he simply fulfilled the clearly and vividly expressed desire of the Jewish people assembled in Jerusalem at that particular time. He was fulfilling a democratically sanctioned mandate. Pilate - Inoue 2-0.

Thirdly, Pilate ordered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ alone; he did not order all of his followers to be crucified as well, nor did he see to it that while he was alive each and every Christian should be tortured in order to renounce the Christian faith. Pilate - Inoue 3-0

If you ask me, Pilate is guilty of general human weakness, but not of deliberate wickedness; on the contrary, Inoue is a strong, wicked man.


Yes, of course, I agree. Time and again, politics and religion are intermingled and the latter is more of a loser than the former.

Yes, of course, agreed.

Well, I'm not Western. I'm Eastern.

Both of them being misnomers, actually.

I am very glad you identify yourself as a Christian --- ie, a believer in Jesus Christ, albeit an imperfect one. So am I.

That's exactly what Silence questions: can one still be a Christian after one has formally renounced Christianity?

Do you have any answer?

I apologize if I've caused any offense by suggesting we share certain aspects of perspective. I guess what I meant is that neither of us is Japanese, and we don't live in the time period in which the book is set, nor that in which it was written. Our environs are bound to influence our interpretation of a story. In any case, it appears we do agree on certain aspects of the book and its problems, at least superficially.

As for the "Catholic agnostic" bit, my tongue was in my cheek as I wrote that, as I'm sure was Greene's when he said that. Until recently, I would have identified as an atheist if prompted, but to be more truthful, religion was just not something that factored into my life; I was never part of a religious family outside of a devoutly Catholic grandmother who died when I was young. I have been trying to follow the teachings of Christ for roughly one year following a series of personal religious experiences.

I'm sure that I do not have an answer to that last question of yours, especially in light of the book's ambiguous ending. Did Rodrigues stop following the teachings of Christ after his formal renunciation? Did Ferreira? Could it even be said that the renunciation of these two priests was a Christian act (ie. out of a motivation to spare the lives of innocents, or even to keep the fledgling Christian community alive in secret)...? Nope, I don't have these answers. Interesting to think about, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 07, 2021, 01:53:29 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 06, 2021, 04:34:41 PM
I apologize if I've caused any offense by suggesting we share certain aspects of perspective. I guess what I meant is that neither of us is Japanese, and we don't live in the time period in which the book is set, nor that in which it was written. Our environs are bound to influence our interpretation of a story. In any case, it appears we do agree on certain aspects of the book and its problems, at least superficially.

Absolutely no need to apologize, it was tongue in cheek from me but I forgot to add an emoticon. Of course we share many aspects.

QuoteAs for the "Catholic agnostic" bit, my tongue was in my cheek as I wrote that, as I'm sure was Greene's when he said that. Until recently, I would have identified as an atheist if prompted, but to be more truthful, religion was just not something that factored into my life; I was never part of a religious family outside of a devoutly Catholic grandmother who died when I was young. I have been trying to follow the teachings of Christ for roughly one year following a series of personal religious experiences.

Interesting story, thanks for sharing.

QuoteI'm sure that I do not have an answer to that last question of yours, especially in light of the book's ambiguous ending. Did Rodrigues stop following the teachings of Christ after his formal renunciation? Did Ferreira? Could it even be said that the renunciation of these two priests was a Christian act (ie. out of a motivation to spare the lives of innocents, or even to keep the fledgling Christian community alive in secret)...? Nope, I don't have these answers. Interesting to think about, though.

I don't have the answers, either but as you say, food for thought aplenty.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 07, 2021, 08:16:25 AM
Mishima OST, Philip Glass. Cross post from the Film Music thread.

https://youtu.be/txoqe611j-o?list=OLAK5uy_nVsXCA2i0ehA2apAx7f0UOUa-crQ7SzGs
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 07, 2021, 08:23:41 AM
Quote from: Stürmisch Bewegt on May 06, 2021, 03:46:24 PM
Sometimes I wonder if there should be a thread entitled:  What Should We Be Reading?

I'd nominate this.  I'm nearing the conclusion of Céline's Journey to the End of the Night (English language edition, the French has too much slang I wasn't familiar with).  Not for the faint of heart.  So many quotable passages, so many insights political, social, psychological.  Even biological.  Eg :  "This body of ours, this disguise put on by common jumping molecules, is in constant revolt against the abominable farce of having to endure.  Our molecules, the dears, want to get lost in the universe as fast as they can!  It makes them miserable to be nothing but 'us', the jerks of infinity.  We'd burst if we had the courage, day after day we come very close to it. The atomic torture we love is so locked up inside us with our pride."  Interesting to me that more than one reviewer of the orig. in '32 recognized the author as fascist.

Was planning to purchase his books including this one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on May 07, 2021, 09:46:09 AM
Some books that I've finished since my last report here. I've been reading mostly short books recently.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348465907l/6303327.jpg)
Love Shoenberg, but Phaidon biographies aren't all that great.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1615817235l/20342656._SY475_.jpg)
A brief personal account of the beginning of WWI that was published by the author's grandson only recently. Interesting read.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328850134l/1965585.jpg)
A fictionalised day in the life of Claude Monet. Beautiful prose and an enjoyable read overall.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361748481l/16004574.jpg)
Maybe the best book of the bunch that I've read. 4 out of 5 stars. Found it from Patti Smith account on Instagram.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1595833794l/54697648._SY475_.jpg)
Rather sad little book about the position of immigrants in Londons during the 1950s.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 07, 2021, 12:43:14 PM
I hadn't heard of The Lonely Londoners before. Sounds interesting.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lonely_Londoners
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 07, 2021, 01:05:11 PM
Read on the train back from Barcelona to Madrid, this loving tribute to Giuseppe Sinopoli and his work at the helm of the Staatskapelle Dresden. It includes recollections by people that collaborated with the conductor, interviews with him from different years, and a list of all his performances and of the recordings  he made while in the Saxon capital. What an interesting figure Sinopoli was!

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41RvTgtfxMS._SX351_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on May 08, 2021, 05:22:55 AM
Getting near the end of Jacques Vest - Vox Machinae: Phonographs and the Birth of Sonic Modernity, 1877-1930 that Tony found online -  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/146079/jacquesb_1.pdf?sequence=1 (https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/146079/jacquesb_1.pdf?sequence=1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 08, 2021, 05:30:23 AM
Just started Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51B8iC9xXdL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This book is insane. To start with, it's riddled with so many vivid descriptions of extreme violence that if I didn't know better, I'd have expected McCarthy to be an avid death metal listener. Then there is the prose. Everyone who's read two pages of McCarthy knows that he writes in a highly individual, mannered style, but here, it's taken to an almost parodistic extreme. The book is set roughly 170 years ago, in the aftermath of the Mexican-American war, and it could be said that McCarthy's use of archaic language is an attempt to evoke the language of the time, but more truthfully, this reads like something biblical: like the events of this book could have taken place immediately before the great flood. In any case, the writing, though occasionally frustrating, is as ornate and detailed as a Gothic cathedral. I'm only about a quarter of the way into the book and looking forward to reading on. These two polarizing factors aside, it's a classic, epic adventure story after the example of Moby Dick or The Odyssey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 08, 2021, 09:01:06 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 08, 2021, 05:30:23 AM
Just started Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51B8iC9xXdL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This book is insane. To start with, it's riddled with so many vivid descriptions of extreme violence that if I didn't know better, I'd have expected McCarthy to be an avid death metal listener. Then there is the prose. Everyone who's read two pages of McCarthy knows that he writes in a highly individual, mannered style, but here, it's taken to an almost parodistic extreme. The book is set roughly 170 years ago, in the aftermath of the Mexican-American war, and it could be said that McCarthy's use of archaic language is an attempt to evoke the language of the time, but more truthfully, this reads like something biblical: like the events of this book could have taken place immediately before the great flood. In any case, the writing, though occasionally frustrating, is as ornate and detailed as a Gothic cathedral. I'm only about a quarter of the way into the book and looking forward to reading on. These two polarizing factors aside, it's a classic, epic adventure story after the example of Moby Dick or The Odyssey.

Looks like a very intriguing book. A quick search and lo and behold! it was translated in Romanian.

(http://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/61/93861/meridianul-sangelui_1_fullsize.jpg)

On the wishlist it goes, then. Thanks for the tip.

TD

(https://cdn.litera.ro/pub/media/mf_webp/png/media/catalog/product/cache/1e07343a9a102fb3a3e7439e492825f8/p/u/puterea_si_gloria.webp)

Two chapters in Greene's The Power and the Glory --- the atmosphere, topic and style seem rather similar to Silence. A very promising start.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on May 08, 2021, 11:06:45 AM
Returning to Pride and Prejudice... While for the most part the book is surprisingly modern-feeling in its views there is one major issue. And that is the whole Wickham-Lydia sideplot. The book and every character condemns Lydia, poor naive teenager for being manipulated and molested by the scumbag Wickham who is about twice her age and everyone in the book thinks that instead of doing the reasonable thing and hauling Wickham's creepy ass in jail, they think the best solution is to marry poor Lydia to that creep. I am well aware that the book written in the beginning of 19th century usually would express such sentiments but I don't think that makes the book immune to criticism when judged from a modern age perspective.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 08, 2021, 12:05:56 PM
The Rich Boy, Fitzgerald. Glamour and loneliness in high life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 08, 2021, 02:21:09 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 08, 2021, 09:01:06 AM
Looks like a very intriguing book. A quick search and lo and behold! it was translated in Romanian.

(http://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/61/93861/meridianul-sangelui_1_fullsize.jpg)

On the wishlist it goes, then. Thanks for the tip.

TD

(https://cdn.litera.ro/pub/media/mf_webp/png/media/catalog/product/cache/1e07343a9a102fb3a3e7439e492825f8/p/u/puterea_si_gloria.webp)

Two chapters in Greene's The Power and the Glory --- the atmosphere, topic and style seem rather similar to Silence. A very promising start.

Would love to hear your thoughts on Blood Meridian when you get around to it. It's a completely insane book. Something that occurs to me over and over again is just how difficult it would be to translate this book into another language; written in such labyrinthine and archaic English, I reckon it would take a gifted translator to get the feeling of this book to come off in other languages. Glad to see it's been translated into Romanian. It is a very difficult book but a major aesthetic achievement.

Also glad you are enjoying The Power and the Glory. I am overdue for a reread of that book as I've been exploring some of Greene's other "Catholic" novels. I also bought The Quiet American which I will try and read sometime over the summer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 12, 2021, 02:09:04 PM
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullers. Loneliness and Deep South.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 12, 2021, 03:53:37 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 12, 2021, 02:09:04 PM
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullers. Loneliness and Deep South.

I have been thinking about reading this author. She hails from my adopted home state of Georgia and seems to have some things in common with the author I am currently reading...:

Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find & Other Stories

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780358139560_p0_v6_s550x406.jpg)

I purchased this book after listening to Bessie Smith sing "A Good Man is Hard to Find" while in her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee where my girlfriend and I were traveling a couple weeks back—I was reminded of O'Connor's story, namesake of this her first short story collection, which I read for a short story composition class in college and loved at the time. Well, it took me until now to explore any of her other work and I'm kicking myself for it. She's a brilliant writer, and it's always a small victory for me to discover a female writer whose work I can appreciate, in light of my shamefully male-centric literary knowledge and collection. She writes a lot about the city I call home, which seems to represent to her everything that the "big city" stands for, especially in comparison to the rural countryside where many of these stories are set. Death and destruction are themes that loom large in her work, but so are grace and redemption; she was above all a Catholic writer, one with a seemingly keen understanding of the suffering of the world. Deceptively simple, fascinating small portraits of my great and terrible homeland, the American South. Reading McCarthy and now O'Connor, I can foresee myself embarking on a bit of a "Southern Gothic" kick over the next couple months...

Also read a bit of the Book of Daniel today (in the King James Version): the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, which was referenced by one of O'Connor's stories, called "A Circle in the Fire"; and the famous Daniel in the lion's den.

P.S. In case I haven't already mentioned it, I finished Blood Meridian a couple of days ago. What a crushing experience that whole book was. I suspect I'll read it again and again over the years, as I feel like I've only begun to appreciate the tip of the iceberg, as it were. There were bits I couldn't make heads or tails of. Blood Meridian marks the 50th book I've read since New Year's Day. I don't know whether I ought to be proud or terribly embarrassed for how much of my valuable time I've sunk into reading (mostly fiction) this year; currently I'm leaning toward the latter feeling. Anyway, I purposely picked a book I thought would make a big impact to ring in this milestone, and I was right to choose it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: bhodges on May 12, 2021, 04:01:39 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 12, 2021, 03:53:37 PM
I have been thinking about reading this author. She hails from my adopted home state of Georgia and seems to have some things in common with the author I am currently reading...:

Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find & Other Stories

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780358139560_p0_v6_s550x406.jpg)

I purchased this book after listening to Bessie Smith sing "A Good Man is Hard to Find" while in her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee where my girlfriend and I were traveling a couple weeks back—I was reminded of O'Connor's story, namesake of this her first short story collection, which I read for a short story composition class in college and loved at the time. Well, it took me until now to explore any of her other work and I'm kicking myself for it. She's a brilliant writer, and it's always a small victory for me to discover a female writer whose work I can appreciate, in light of my shamefully male-centric literary knowledge and collection. She writes a lot about the city I call home, which seems to represent to her everything that the "big city" stands for, especially in comparison to the rural countryside where many of these stories are set. Death and destruction are themes that loom large in her work, but so are grace and redemption; she was above all a Catholic writer, one with a seemingly keen understanding of the suffering of the world. Deceptively simple, fascinating small portraits of my great and terrible homeland, the American South. Reading McCarthy and now O'Connor, I can foresee myself embarking on a bit of a "Southern Gothic" kick over the next couple months...

Also read a bit of the Book of Daniel today (in the King James Version): the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, which was referenced by one of O'Connor's stories, called "A Circle in the Fire"; and the famous Daniel in the lion's den.

Big fan of Flannery O'Connor. First discovered her after seeing the film version of Wise Blood (1979, dir. John Huston), and liked it so much that I read the book. Then came the book above. She is fierce! Haven't read anything by her in far too long (I've been a bit novel-challenged lately), but I admire her style, which is as you say, "deceptively simple."

--Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 12, 2021, 04:51:03 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 12, 2021, 03:53:37 PM
I have been thinking about reading this author. She hails from my adopted home state of Georgia and seems to have some things in common with the author I am currently reading...:

Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find & Other Stories


I purchased this book after listening to Bessie Smith sing "A Good Man is Hard to Find" while in her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee where my girlfriend and I were traveling a couple weeks back—I was reminded of O'Connor's story, namesake of this her first short story collection, which I read for a short story composition class in college and loved at the time. Well, it took me until now to explore any of her other work and I'm kicking myself for it. She's a brilliant writer, and it's always a small victory for me to discover a female writer whose work I can appreciate, in light of my shamefully male-centric literary knowledge and collection. She writes a lot about the city I call home, which seems to represent to her everything that the "big city" stands for, especially in comparison to the rural countryside where many of these stories are set. Death and destruction are themes that loom large in her work, but so are grace and redemption; she was above all a Catholic writer, one with a seemingly keen understanding of the suffering of the world. Deceptively simple, fascinating small portraits of my great and terrible homeland, the American South. Reading McCarthy and now O'Connor, I can foresee myself embarking on a bit of a "Southern Gothic" kick over the next couple months...

Also read a bit of the Book of Daniel today (in the King James Version): the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, which was referenced by one of O'Connor's stories, called "A Circle in the Fire"; and the famous Daniel in the lion's den.

P.S. In case I haven't already mentioned it, I finished Blood Meridian a couple of days ago. What a crushing experience that whole book was. I suspect I'll read it again and again over the years, as I feel like I've only begun to appreciate the tip of the iceberg, as it were. There were bits I couldn't make heads or tails of. Blood Meridian marks the 50th book I've read since New Year's Day. I don't know whether I ought to be proud or terribly embarrassed for how much of my valuable time I've sunk into reading (mostly fiction) this year; currently I'm leaning toward the latter feeling. Anyway, I purposely picked a book I thought would make a big impact to ring in this milestone, and I was right to choose it.


I am (mostly) sure you will like the Lonely Hunter very much. The story and atmosphere in the book is very Deep South. There are race, poverty, hate, violence, corruption, love, dignity, trust, elegance, etc. in the story. The movie adaptation is great as well, and you could possibly start with the movie. I will look for A Good Man and Blood Meridian. I am thinking about making a thread of 10 best books read in 2021 at the end of the year (Good idea or bad idea?). Would you consider listing the books and others?  As for female writers, it seems to me that you enjoyed some works by Japanese female authors. If you are interested, I would like to recommend Green Wheat by Colette, Garden Party/Her First Ball by Mansfield, and Tale of Genji by Shikibu Murasaki (Lady Purple).

I am glad I read many books when I was young. However, I regret I didn't read science books at that time. Also, I went to clubs/bars with some girls, partied and danced almost every night. The economy was great and I had money. But now, I am not sure if I really had fun or not.

P.s. I love Chattanooga, TN. Elegant and sophisticated city.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 13, 2021, 05:23:48 AM
(https://casaliterelor.ro/wp-content/uploads/P1280396.jpg)

In the book's presentation Meyrink is described as a sort of Austrian Poe ---and indeed, so far, so good Gothic. The atmosphere is dark, mysterious, menacing, the characters are strange and the setting in Prague's Jewish Ghetto with its narrow alleys and eerie houses* only adds to the lugubrious feeling. Yet despite the doom & gloom, it's a page turner.

* been there, seen that  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 13, 2021, 12:39:09 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 12, 2021, 03:53:37 PM
Blood Meridian marks the 50th book I've read since New Year's Day.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's remarkable and impressive! Congratulations! I envy you, I really do!

QuoteI don't know whether I ought to be proud or terribly embarrassed for how much of my valuable time I've sunk into reading (mostly fiction) this year; currently I'm leaning toward the latter feeling.

I say you should be proud*. If anything, your quick reading pace has been an inspiration to me, to pick up where I left many years ago and become again the avid reader I used to be. Thank you, good sir!

* As an 18-th century Romanian historian put it: There is no more beautiful and useful pastime in a man's whole life than the reading of books. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miron_Costin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miron_Costin))



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 13, 2021, 01:53:01 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 12, 2021, 04:51:03 PM

I am (mostly) sure you will like the Lonely Hunter very much. The story and atmosphere in the book is very Deep South. There are race, poverty, hate, violence, corruption, love, dignity, trust, elegance, etc. in the story. The movie adaptation is great as well, and you could possibly start with the movie. I will look for A Good Man and Blood Meridian. I am thinking about making a thread of 10 best books read in 2021 at the end of the year (Good idea or bad idea?). Would you consider listing the books and others?  As for female writers, it seems to me that you enjoyed some works by Japanese female authors. If you are interested, I would like to recommend Green Wheat by Colette, Garden Party/Her First Ball by Mansfield, and Tale of Genji by Shikibu Murasaki (Lady Purple).

I am glad I read many books when I was young. However, I regret I didn't read science books at that time. Also, I went to clubs/bars with some girls, partied and danced almost every night. The economy was great and I had money. But now, I am not sure if I really had fun or not.

P.s. I love Chattanooga, TN. Elegant and sophisticated city.

I appreciate the detailed reply, DBK. Definitely excited to read McCullers' Lonely Hunter. It sounds excellent and the author seems like a fascinating character.

I would absolutely participate in such a thread! Great idea. There are some definite front runners for the year that I have in mind already, but then we still have another 7 months of the year, so we'll see what changes.

I'll have to check out those books you mentioned; I know nothing of Colette. Mansfield I have been curious about ever since you or another poster here brought her up a few months back and I'll seek out that book. Tale of Genji has the great esteem of being known as the first novel, and that it was written by a woman (a Japanese woman, no less) is an awesome thing in my book.

Sounds like you spent your 20s well; there's always the rest of your life for science books (something I'd love to read more of myself; while I am a medical professional and passionate about the healthcare field, I spend very little of my time reading full-length books on the natural sciences). I reckon I've done well with my young years so far, but who knows how I'll feel 10, 20, 30 years down the line. I got partying out of my system for the most part in my early 20s; I feel like I've done enough binge drinking, pot smoking and psychedelic drugs for a lifetime, though I am not opposed to returning to this lifestyle if the feeling takes me. This voracious reading thing is kind of a new thing for me in the covid era; I've always been a reader, but never near this pace. I suspect I'll always be an introvert, and what better introverted pastime than books and music.

My girl and I loved Chattanooga, she halfheartedly tried to convince me that we ought to move there. Absolutely beautiful place, very clean, very green, and as you say, very elegant and sophisticated for a city of its size in the South. Reminded me a bit of Tallahassee, Florida where we went to school. Lots of history in that Chattanooga. Then there is Lookout Mountain, the great Tennessee River, etc. I'd love to spend more time in the state of Tennessee.

Sorry to derail the thread so much, but it's always great to talk to you and the other intelligent and sympathetic people of this thread, even if the conversation is not directly related to books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 13, 2021, 01:58:18 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 13, 2021, 12:39:09 PM
Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's remarkable and impressive! Congratulations! I envy you, I really do!

I say you should be proud*. If anything, your quick reading pace has been an inspiration to me, to pick up where I left many years ago and become again the avid reader I used to be. Thank you, good sir!

* As an 18-th century Romanian historian put it: There is no more beautiful and useful pastime in a man's whole life than the reading of books. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miron_Costin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miron_Costin))

Thanks, man. I've found your attitude toward life an inspiration myself, especially the passion for great music and literature that you wear on your sleeve.

I like the Costin quote. I'm not sure whether I totally agree, my love for music and nature is so deep in my bones that literature could not possibly hope to usurp them, but the reading of books has brought immense joy to my life and will continue to do so, hopefully for many years to come.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 13, 2021, 01:58:25 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 13, 2021, 01:53:01 PM
Sorry to derail the thread so much, but it's always great to talk to you and the other intelligent and sympathetic people of this thread, even if the conversation is not directly related to books.

That's one of the greatest pleasures of being a GMGer: there's really no genuine off-topic. Everything is related to everything.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 13, 2021, 02:06:16 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 13, 2021, 01:58:18 PM
I've found your attitude toward life an inspiration myself, especially the passion for great music and literature that you wear on your sleeve.

Thank you too.

QuoteI like the Costin quote. I'm not sure whether I totally agree, my love for music and nature is so deep in my bones that literature could not possibly hope to usurp them, but the reading of books has brought immense joy to my life and will continue to do so, hopefully for many years to come.

Well, literature has been my very first love --- I even dabble(d) in it myself, mostly poetry. That's probably the reason why I love Lieder so much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 13, 2021, 02:17:06 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 13, 2021, 02:06:16 PM
Thank you too.

Well, literature has been my very first love --- I even dabble(d) in it myself, mostly poetry. That's probably the reason why I love Lieder so much.

Nice! While I've kept a journal for several years and occasionally dabble in poetic writing, I can't say I've ever written much with the aim of creating something for others to read. I do however write and sing songs, but the lyrics are always secondary to the music in my case.

Quote from: Florestan on May 13, 2021, 01:58:25 PM
That's one of the greatest pleasures of being a GMGer: there's really no genuine off-topic. Everything is related to everything.

Agreed!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 13, 2021, 03:56:25 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 13, 2021, 01:53:01 PM
I appreciate the detailed reply, DBK. Definitely excited to read McCullers' Lonely Hunter. It sounds excellent and the author seems like a fascinating character.

I would absolutely participate in such a thread! Great idea. There are some definite front runners for the year that I have in mind already, but then we still have another 7 months of the year, so we'll see what changes.

I'll have to check out those books you mentioned; I know nothing of Colette. Mansfield I have been curious about ever since you or another poster here brought her up a few months back and I'll seek out that book. Tale of Genji has the great esteem of being known as the first novel, and that it was written by a woman (a Japanese woman, no less) is an awesome thing in my book.

Sounds like you spent your 20s well; there's always the rest of your life for science books (something I'd love to read more of myself; while I am a medical professional and passionate about the healthcare field, I spend very little of my time reading full-length books on the natural sciences). I reckon I've done well with my young years so far, but who knows how I'll feel 10, 20, 30 years down the line. I got partying out of my system for the most part in my early 20s; I feel like I've done enough binge drinking, pot smoking and psychedelic drugs for a lifetime, though I am not opposed to returning to this lifestyle if the feeling takes me. This voracious reading thing is kind of a new thing for me in the covid era; I've always been a reader, but never near this pace. I suspect I'll always be an introvert, and what better introverted pastime than books and music.

My girl and I loved Chattanooga, she halfheartedly tried to convince me that we ought to move there. Absolutely beautiful place, very clean, very green, and as you say, very elegant and sophisticated for a city of its size in the South. Reminded me a bit of Tallahassee, Florida where we went to school. Lots of history in that Chattanooga. Then there is Lookout Mountain, the great Tennessee River, etc. I'd love to spend more time in the state of Tennessee.

Sorry to derail the thread so much, but it's always great to talk to you and the other intelligent and sympathetic people of this thread, even if the conversation is not directly related to books.



Just like other fancy cities, the cost of living in Chattanooga seems to be high.  Still it is a nice city with good education.

Since you are in medical field, you may read The Sea and Poison by Shusaku Endo in a perspective different from that of other readers. It is a half fiction-half nonfiction based on a real incident of vivisection of American POW by "ordinary" Japanese people. Endo explicitly suggests that the Japanese mass has no conscience. While his Silence is very good, the Sea and Poison is solid and equally challenging.

@Florestan, you too, may like the book, which is not less than Silence IMO.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 14, 2021, 03:14:24 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 13, 2021, 03:56:25 PM


Just like other fancy cities, the cost of living in Chattanooga seems to be high.  Still it is a nice city with good education.

Since you are in medical field, you may read The Sea and Poison by Shusaku Endo in a perspective different from that of other readers. It is a half fiction-half nonfiction based on a real incident of vivisection of American POW by "ordinary" Japanese people. Endo explicitly suggests that the Japanese mass has no conscience. While his Silence is very good, the Sea and Poison is solid and equally challenging.

@Florestan, you too, may like the book, which is not less than Silence IMO.

Thanks for the rec. I looked for it but it hasn't been translated in Romanian. I found this instead:

(https://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/20/217820/samuraiul-top-10_1_fullsize.jpg)

The Samurai

Have you read it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 14, 2021, 03:41:56 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 13, 2021, 02:17:06 PM
Nice! While I've kept a journal for several years and occasionally dabble in poetic writing, I can't say I've ever written much with the aim of creating something for others to read.

My case exactly. I wrote what little I wrote for my own pleasure and because I felt inspired to write, that's all. When I was in elementary school, though, I really dreamt of becoming a writer.  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 14, 2021, 04:27:16 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2021, 03:14:24 AM
Thanks for the rec. I looked for it but it hasn't been translated in Romanian. I found this instead:

(https://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/20/217820/samuraiul-top-10_1_fullsize.jpg)

The Samurai

Have you read it?

I haven't read it, but the book has a good reputation. If available in Romanian edition, you may like A Life of Jesus. I haven't read it either, but my friends in North America like it.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 14, 2021, 11:01:39 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 14, 2021, 04:27:16 AM
I haven't read it, but the book has a good reputation. If available in Romanian edition, you may like A Life of Jesus. I haven't read it either, but my friends in North America like it.

There are only three Endo books available in Romanian: Silence, The Samurai and The Scandal. I'm quite tempted by the latter two.

Also on my wishlist:

(https://www.libris.ro/img/pozeprod//59/1002/2F/20918132.jpg) (https://cdn1.dol.ro/slir/w445/dol.ro/cs-content/cs-photos/products/original//_227051_1_1470221030.jpg)

Thousand Cranes and The Sound of the Mountain

In the same vein: what Mishima novels should I look for?

Speaking of Jesus, I've read and greatly enjoyed Papini's Story of Christ and Renan's Life of Jesus.

(http://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/73/2005773/viata-lui-isus_1_fullsize.jpg) (https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/gB3YUJQXmpOKm6G-jOijDe_NBtXJPGxDwsjl_6PvDkPRFmiodyvatQ5YS5M1iT8fM8_5ctic4EW7y-V-hwnZPRMhia9NEtK9-PIrIvBA10aM1t9YnVxJPj-WIIieOAscrgjnkHHQbrLYgHiW3AiL_8LubYg25b2h2AcQJQuG)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 14, 2021, 11:51:32 AM
^For my part, I can recommend the three Mishima books I've read all very highly: Confessions of a Mask, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, and Star, though I'm not sure which of these, if any, are available in Romanian.

That book Thousand Cranes by Kawabata is brilliant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 14, 2021, 12:01:16 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 14, 2021, 11:51:32 AM
^For my part, I can recommend the three Mishima books I've read all very highly: Confessions of a Mask, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, and Star, though I'm not sure which of these, if any, are available in Romanian.

Confessions... is OOP (btw, so is Blood Meridian  :( ), The Sailor... is available.

QuoteThat book Thousand Cranes by Kawabata is brilliant.

Thanks for the tip.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 14, 2021, 01:00:50 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2021, 12:01:16 PM
Confessions... is OOP (btw, so is Blood Meridian  :( ), The Sailor... is available.

Thanks for the tip.

Hmm, sorry to hear that. I hope one day these classic books return to print in your primary language so you can experience them for yourself.

Today I started Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man & the Sea

(https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/HgELWfwNGxscs9OlZ9vaKh-KCkg=/600x947/filters:fill(auto,1)/oldman-59886720054ad900110a2cf2.jpg)

A high school required-reading special for many in the United States of America, somehow this was never on the curriculum and I've never read it before. So far so good. Lots of beautiful writing about the power of nature, aging, solitude, and inner struggle, both spiritual and physical. Another deceptively simple book, not plot-driven in the slightest. My admiration for Hemingway continues to grow. His books, even when they are difficult, are a pleasure to read. Sadly, I think, the legend of Hemingway, his larger-than-life constructed persona, which is the pinnacle of what we might today call toxic masculinity, has colored much of how people read his books today, in a mixed way that is perhaps largely negative. There is a great deal of sensitivity to his writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 14, 2021, 01:02:36 PM
+1 on Kawabata's Cranes (I like the cover art of Romanian book). For Endo, I would say Samurai. If you are comfortable with English translation, Life of Jesus and The Sea and Poison are preferable.

Generally, I don't recommend Mishima to average/normal people. The Mask and Sailor are his best works, but the stories, if not writing/expression, are challenging. Specially, the Mask partially deals with the psychology of a homosexual protagonist, and some readers are uncomfortable with it. Still, these works evince his genius in writing skills and imagination. His writing is like an elegant Gothic architecture. In contrast, Kawabata's writing is like a small and simple wooden house, but beautiful and deep.

I checked the availability of Romanian editions of Mishima. I would recommend Confessions of a Mask (oop), The Sailor, Dupa Banchet (personal fav of mine), Sete de Iubire, and Templul de aur, in this order. In sharp contrast to Endo, beauty is more important than life or ethics for Mishima, who is mainly an aestheticist writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 14, 2021, 01:04:42 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 14, 2021, 01:00:50 PM
Hmm, sorry to hear that. I hope one day these classic books return to print in your primary language so you can experience them for yourself.

Today I started Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man & the Sea

(https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/HgELWfwNGxscs9OlZ9vaKh-KCkg=/600x947/filters:fill(auto,1)/oldman-59886720054ad900110a2cf2.jpg)

A high school required-reading special for many in the United States of America, somehow this was never on the curriculum and I've never read it before. So far so good. Lots of beautiful writing about the power of nature, aging, solitude, and inner struggle, both spiritual and physical. Another deceptively simple book, not plot-driven in the slightest. My admiration for Hemingway continues to grow. His books, even when they are difficult, are a pleasure to read. Sadly, I think, the legend of Hemingway, his larger-than-life constructed persona, which is the pinnacle of what we might today call toxic masculinity, has colored much of how people read his books today, in a mixed way that is perhaps largely negative. There is a great deal of sensitivity to his writing.

Very true and very unfortunate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 14, 2021, 01:25:54 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 14, 2021, 01:00:50 PM
Hmm, sorry to hear that. I hope one day these classic books return to print in your primary language so you can experience them for yourself.

Today I started Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man & the Sea

(https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/HgELWfwNGxscs9OlZ9vaKh-KCkg=/600x947/filters:fill(auto,1)/oldman-59886720054ad900110a2cf2.jpg)

A high school required-reading special for many in the United States of America, somehow this was never on the curriculum and I've never read it before. So far so good. Lots of beautiful writing about the power of nature, aging, solitude, and inner struggle, both spiritual and physical. Another deceptively simple book, not plot-driven in the slightest. My admiration for Hemingway continues to grow. His books, even when they are difficult, are a pleasure to read. Sadly, I think, the legend of Hemingway, his larger-than-life constructed persona, which is the pinnacle of what we might today call toxic masculinity, has colored much of how people read his books today, in a mixed way that is perhaps largely negative. There is a great deal of sensitivity to his writing.

That's quite possibly his greatest book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 15, 2021, 04:04:56 AM
Quote from: JBS on May 14, 2021, 01:25:54 PM
That's quite possibly his greatest book.

I really enjoyed it. One of those one-day reads, so I wouldn't be surprised if I read it again one of these days before too long. There are still a handful of major Hemingway books that I have yet to read, so I'm in no position to proclaim this or that book as his greatest, but I'm excited to see how this one stacks up once I read more of them. I just got To Have and Have Not and I just ordered For Whom the Bell Tolls and I hope to read both before the year's over.

Anyone watch the new Ken Burns Hemingway PBS doc? I watched the first episode. Pretty good, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2021, 09:42:01 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 15, 2021, 04:04:56 AM
I just ordered For Whom the Bell Tolls

You're in for a treat. One of the greatest, most sincere novels about the Spanish Civil War*.

* I mean, the latest --- historically it's been the fourth, counting the three so-called Carlist Wars before it, which were also civil wars.

Enjoy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2021, 10:30:04 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 14, 2021, 01:02:36 PM
Generally, I don't recommend Mishima to average/normal people. The Mask and Sailor are his best works, but the stories, if not writing/expression, are challenging. Specially, the Mask partially deals with the psychology of a homosexual protagonist, and some readers are uncomfortable with it. Still, these works evince his genius in writing skills and imagination. His writing is like an elegant Gothic architecture. In contrast, Kawabata's writing is like a small and simple wooden house, but beautiful and deep.

I checked the availability of Romanian editions of Mishima. I would recommend Confessions of a Mask (oop), The Sailor, Dupa Banchet (personal fav of mine), Sete de Iubire, and Templul de aur, in this order. In sharp contrast to Endo, beauty is more important than life or ethics for Mishima, who is mainly an aestheticist writer.

Thank you very much for that! I will get The Sailor first, and if I like it I might get the other too. Truth be told, I'm not that much into "art for art's sake" save for poetry proper.

(For comparison, I'm not at all into "sound for sound's sake" --- see my signature line.)

As for homosexuality, while I don't care about anyone's sexual preferences and one of my top five composers is Tchaikovsky, I must confess that I do feel uncomfortable with works of art which seem to extoll the virtues of this vice (excuse the pun).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 15, 2021, 10:57:48 AM
Three quarters into Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. So many thoughts crossing my mind --- I will post them soon.

Two things I can say right now --- (1) it's obvious to me that Silence is very heavily indebted to it, and (2) this is one of the best and greatest books I've ever read, both topic-wise and style-wise (so much quotable lines that I've lost their count). My first Greene reading ever --- What a revelation! What a book! What a writer!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 15, 2021, 03:17:28 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2021, 10:57:48 AM
Three quarters into Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. So many thoughts crossing my mind --- I will post them soon.

Two things I can say right now --- (1) it's obvious to me that Silence is very heavily indebted to it, and (2) this is one of the best and greatest books I've ever read, both topic-wise and style-wise (so much quotable lines that I've lost their count). My first Greene reading ever --- What a revelation! What a book! What a writer!

Your enthusiasm is inspiring; I need to reread this book very soon.

Currently reading Yasunari Kawabata's The Dancing Girl of Izu & Other Stories

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51g-2CASE1L._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I've read the titular story and Diary of My Sixteenth Year so far. Of these I found the latter a bit more impactful. It is seemingly very autobiographical. Kawabata was orphaned as a toddler, and soon lost just about every close family member he had left, losing his grandfather at age 14, and that's exactly what this story describes. There was a very brief passage that I found impactful;

Quote from: Yasunari KawabataWhat seemed strangest to me when I found this diary was that I have no recollection of the day-to-day life it describes. If I do not recall them, where have those days gone? Where have they vanished to? I pondered the things that human beings lose to the past.

A brilliant writer and clearly a very tortured soul.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 15, 2021, 06:57:12 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 15, 2021, 03:17:28 PM

A brilliant writer and clearly a very tortured soul.

He is masterful of leaving important things/atmosphere unsaid. He optimizes expression by not expressing. Miles Davis' music/performance often reminds me of Kawabata.

Recently I read insightful reviews on his First Snow on Fuji at Amazon USA. I must get a copy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 16, 2021, 03:29:23 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 15, 2021, 06:57:12 PM
He is masterful of leaving important things/atmosphere unsaid. He optimizes expression by not expressing. Miles Davis' music/performance often reminds me of Kawabata.

Recently I read insightful reviews on his First Snow on Fuji at Amazon USA. I must get a copy!

First Snow on Fuji looks great too. I wonder if there is overlap with this collection Palm-of-the-Hand Stories which I've also been looking at...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519QbSlKiiL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Interesting comparison with Miles. One of my favorite musicians of all time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 16, 2021, 06:33:23 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 15, 2021, 03:17:28 PM
Your enthusiasm is inspiring; I need to reread this book very soon.

Currently reading Yasunari Kawabata's The Dancing Girl of Izu & Other Stories

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51g-2CASE1L._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I've read the titular story and Diary of My Sixteenth Year so far. Of these I found the latter a bit more impactful. It is seemingly very autobiographical. Kawabata was orphaned as a toddler, and soon lost just about every close family member he had left, losing his grandfather at age 14, and that's exactly what this story describes. There was a very brief passage that I found impactful;

A brilliant writer and clearly a very tortured soul.

Finished the book. Many of the stories that comprise Part Two of this book were incredibly puzzling.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 16, 2021, 07:40:12 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 16, 2021, 03:29:23 AM
First Snow on Fuji looks great too. I wonder if there is overlap with this collection Palm-of-the-Hand Stories which I've also been looking at...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519QbSlKiiL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Interesting comparison with Miles. One of my favorite musicians of all time.

Perhaps no overlap. Originally, they are separate Japanese collections of short stories. I had the Palm, but lost it and other books I had when a tornado destroyed my house 3 years ago. Some people, including American readers, seem to like the book, but I thought it was just fair/good.  Interestingly, the First Snow is oop and not well-known in Japan.

I will reread Koto-Old Capital soon. I read it decades ago and liked it. Originally it is written in elegant/exotic Kyoto-accent Japanese (perhaps corresponding to the 19th century Cambridge English in the U.K. for the Americans?).   But, Conjugations and nouns radically differ among traditional regional languages in Japan. Probably, the differences are bigger than the differences among the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Almost all the people today prefer speaking the standard Japanese though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 17, 2021, 08:34:32 AM
Well my current books over the last month:

The Quaker & the Gamecock - about the Southern Campaign in the American Revolutionary War, mainly the years 1780-81 and an emphasis on two dominant players in mainly the South Carolina theater, i.e. Major General Nathanael Greene of the Continental Army and Brigadier General Thomas Sumter of the local militia army (along w/ the famous Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox) - I've been traveling that state, esp. the coastal areas since the early 1970s, so a LOT of familiarity.

Mac Unlocked (Nov 2020) by David Pogue - been reading Pogue's books for decades - discusses Apple's newest Mac operating system, Big Sur (renamed OS 11.x, now up to 11.3) - of course, Apple is in the process of 'dumping' Intel processors in its laptops/desktops for their own designed silicon (called SoC, 'System on a Chip' - see quote below, if interested), the first being the M1 SoC - this has not been an easy transition for many, and I've still held off upgrading two of my Mac computers (desktop & a laptop) to Big Sur for a variety of reasons - both still doing fine on their previous MacOS Catalina (10.15.7).

The United States Army.....1775-1903 - just getting started today w/ this new hardcover book - an exciting period from the Revolutionary War, establishment of West Point and through the Indian Wars - should be a fun read for a BIG John Wayne fan - might be watching a bunch of westerns during the course of this reading! :)  Dave

QuoteThe Apple M1 is an ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Macintosh computers and iPad Pro tablets. It was inspired by their Apple A14 Bionic chip.[4] The M1 is the first Apple-designed processor deployed in Macintosh computers,[5] and the first personal computer chip built using a 5 nm technology node process. (Source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_M1))

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51xbNuqlmNL._SX353_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)   (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41eweKI15ML.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Rq7sEthXL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 17, 2021, 01:54:32 PM
Ernest Hemingway, To Have and Have Not

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41f0JOpa3IL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Hemingway's "Depression book" has special interest for me, being his only (?) book set mostly in my home state of Florida, specifically Key West, a city whose history has always been fascinating to me. Hemingway seems to have taken up the socialist cause here, creating a book which details the atrocities common people are driven to in dire economic straits. Aside from this, it's an absolute action thriller of a book, and a real page turner. I'm enjoying it greatly except for the incredibly racist language, which has aged quite poorly—I reckon this is not a "cool" book to be reading in today's political climate in this country. Few of Hemingway's books display both his flaws and his strengths in such equal measure as this, I reckon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 17, 2021, 07:10:42 PM
Abraham Maslow, the theorist of the Hierarchy of Needs. Always good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 17, 2021, 08:32:18 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2021, 10:57:48 AM
Three quarters into Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. So many thoughts crossing my mind --- I will post them soon.

Two things I can say right now --- (1) it's obvious to me that Silence is very heavily indebted to it, and (2) this is one of the best and greatest books I've ever read, both topic-wise and style-wise (so much quotable lines that I've lost their count). My first Greene reading ever --- What a revelation! What a book! What a writer!

I must get a copy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 12:56:10 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 17, 2021, 08:32:18 PM
I must get a copy!

Please, do! You'll enjoy it as much as Silence, methinks.

I'll refrain from posting my thoughts, then, as they could be spoilers. We can always discuss the book after you read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 01:45:47 AM
Just started

(https://s13emagst.akamaized.net/products/1841/1840050/images/res_cb8003ad5ba6a37480c50ebf6b534e6d.jpg)

Mori Ōgai - The Wild Goose.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 18, 2021, 02:41:03 AM
Gabriel García Márquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51cK5ch2jeL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

It's been almost a decade since I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude which had a huge impact on me. I still maintain that it's one of the best books I've ever read, but it's taken me until now to get into another book of García Márquez's (I did try and fail to make it through Love in the Time of Cholera last year). This novella or short novel is brilliant, full of richly ornate, detailed, gothic prose, detailing the events leading up to a murder, including an intricate characterization of the whole town in which it occurred, from the perspective of an independent investigator some decades later. I'm about a third of the way in, so far so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 03:37:49 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 18, 2021, 02:41:03 AM
Gabriel García Márquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51cK5ch2jeL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

It's been almost a decade since I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude which had a huge impact on me. I still maintain that it's one of the best books I've ever read, but it's taken me until now to get into another book of García Márquez's (I did try and fail to make it through Love in the Time of Cholera last year). This novella or short novel is brilliant, full of richly ornate, detailed, gothic prose, detailing the events leading up to a murder, including an intricate characterization of the whole town in which it occurred, from the perspective of an independent investigator some decades later. I'm about a third of the way in, so far so good.

Agreed about One Hundred Years... and Chronicle... but I'm surprised you didn't like Love in Time of Cholera. There are other three novels by him I can safely recommend: The General in His Labyrinth, The Autumn of the Patriarch and Of Love and Other Demons.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 18, 2021, 04:46:22 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 03:37:49 AM
..... but I'm surprised you didn't like Love in Time of Cholera.

I think that vers la flamme was lucky that he did not work his way to the end of the book. I felt that it was a good book in principle which could have done with some editing but the main problem for me was the "Hollywood" type ending. I think that it did a grave injustice to the character of the main female protagonist. Just my two cents.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 06:01:25 AM
Quote from: aligreto on May 18, 2021, 04:46:22 AM
I think that vers la flamme was lucky that he did not work his way to the end of the book. I felt that it was a good book in principle which could have done with some editing but the main problem for me was the "Hollywood" type ending. I think that it did a grave injustice to the character of the main female protagonist. Just my two cents.

I'm not sure I can agree*. After all, she had seen it coming and accepted it --- and much more than a grave injustice to her it was great justice for his 53-year-7-month-11-days long, unwavering and faithful love.

(* a polite way of saying I strongly disagree  :laugh: )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 18, 2021, 06:24:51 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 06:01:25 AM
I'm not sure I can agree*. After all, she had seen it coming and accepted it --- and much more than a grave injustice to her it was great justice for his 53-year-7-month-11-days long, unwavering and faithful love.

(* a polite way of saying I strongly disagree  :laugh: )

SPOILER ALERT for those who want to read this novel.







For him, absolutely yes but she, with such strength of character throughout, was sold out in a whimper on the deck of a boat during a very convenient sunset and they all lived happily ever after  ;D

Yes, Andrei, you very much are a True Romantic  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 18, 2021, 06:34:23 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 03:37:49 AM
Agreed about One Hundred Years... and Chronicle... but I'm surprised you didn't like Love in Time of Cholera. There are other three novels by him I can safely recommend: The General in His Labyrinth, The Autumn of the Patriarch and Of Love and Other Demons.

I read 5-7 books by him and also visited Cartagena, Mompox, etc. and a house he lived in Colombia several times. But my reading experience was somehow mixed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 06:50:01 AM
Quote from: aligreto on May 18, 2021, 06:24:51 AM
For him, absolutely yes but she, with such strength of character throughout, was sold out in a whimper on the deck of a boat during a very convenient sunset and they all lived happily ever after  ;D

Sometimes strength of character is just a camouflage for weakness. Beside, it was easy for her to be strong while she was not left alone with him and the prospect of a lonely old age; the moment her protective walls fell, she had no other choice --- and possibly no other desire --- than to surrender. She could have very well surrendered in her own house while brushing the carpets, heavy rain outside; the boat and the sunset, though, are much more magically realistic, don't you think?

Quote
Yes, Andrei, you very much are a True Romantic  :laugh:

Thanks, Fergus, I'll take that a compliment.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 18, 2021, 02:04:13 PM
I'm going to try reading Love in the Time of Cholera sometime. I probably just wasn't in the right mood at the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 18, 2021, 03:56:57 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 18, 2021, 02:41:03 AM
Gabriel García Márquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51cK5ch2jeL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I finished it. Pardon my French, but holy fuck, that book was incredible! A true masterpiece of the Gothic genre. I loved the vivid prose describing violence and disease, and sex of the vilest kind. So many fascinating characters. I reckon this is one I ought to read again and again. I would love to read it in the original Spanish.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on May 18, 2021, 04:29:00 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 15, 2021, 10:30:04 AM
As for homosexuality, while I don't care about anyone's sexual preferences and one of my top five composers is Tchaikovsky, I must confess that I do feel uncomfortable with works of art which seem to extoll the virtues of this vice (excuse the pun).

I know this was three days ago, Andrei, but I can't let it pass. Why do you consider homosexuality a vice?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 09:18:32 PM
Quote from: Alek Hidell on May 18, 2021, 04:29:00 PM
I know this was three days ago, Andrei, but I can't let it pass. Why do you consider homosexuality a vice?

It was a pun marked as such. I don't consider homosexuality per se a vice. What I consider a vice, and am strongly opposed to, is homosexual propaganda and proselytizing  --- and this is the last I'm going to say on this topic. This thread is hardly the place to discuss it and tbh I have no interest in discussing it at all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 19, 2021, 01:27:40 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 01:45:47 AM
Just started

(https://s13emagst.akamaized.net/products/1841/1840050/images/res_cb8003ad5ba6a37480c50ebf6b534e6d.jpg)

Mori Ōgai - The Wild Goose.

Has anyone read this very strange book? It builds up slowly and inexorably towards a predictible end which doesn't happen though (because of, well, a wild goose) and  the reader is (1) left completely baffled and clueless as to what actually happened instead and (2) specifically instructed by the author not to speculate about it. WTF?  ???

Anyway, another day, another book.  ;)

(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/59/1002/9F/368463.jpg)

Stamboul Train

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 19, 2021, 08:26:04 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 09:18:32 PM
I have no interest in discussing it at all.

Disappointing. We should talk about homosexuality Tuesday and Thursday every week.

Quote from: Florestan on May 19, 2021, 01:27:40 AM
Has anyone read this very strange book?

I haven't. In generall, readers are divided on the work. Personally not a big fan of Mori.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on May 19, 2021, 12:48:29 PM
Recently finished

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320421313l/2871400.jpg)
A Christmas story of sorts. I feel it is better to read it during the winter. Will read it again soon.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476986070l/29923051._SY475_.jpg)
Enjoyable book, but it could have been much better if the author's intention was not to make an experiment out of it. Two men meet after not seeing each other for a long time and then.. Probably a spoiler after that.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548742893l/43659536._SY475_.jpg)
The worst book that I've read this year so far. A collection of ridiculous short stories that lucky aren't too long.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1588264748l/52919564._SX318_.jpg)
An experimental surrealistic novel. Unfortunately unfinished, because the author died having completed five chapters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 19, 2021, 05:00:54 PM
Kobo Abe, The Woman in the Dunes

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91Whl6nPuTL.jpg)

My first book by this author; I can't help but to ask, is Abe the Japanese Kafka? I'm about a third of the way into the book and it seems to be a fine absurd, existential drama. Very vivid writing. I love the analytical mind of the unnamed protagonist, which is ultimately futile in dealing with his horrifying situation. I love the vivid descriptions of the dark, fantastical settings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Alek Hidell on May 19, 2021, 06:21:01 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 18, 2021, 09:18:32 PM
It was a pun marked as such. I don't consider homosexuality per se a vice. What I consider a vice, and am strongly opposed to, is homosexual propaganda and proselytizing  --- and this is the last I'm going to say on this topic. This thread is hardly the place to discuss it and tbh I have no interest in discussing it at all.

Fair enough. I won't press, although I am left with questions ...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 19, 2021, 06:36:03 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 19, 2021, 05:00:54 PM
Kobo Abe, The Woman in the Dunes

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91Whl6nPuTL.jpg)

My first book by this author; I can't help but to ask, is Abe the Japanese Kafka? I'm about a third of the way into the book and it seems to be a fine absurd, existential drama. Very vivid writing. I love the analytical mind of the unnamed protagonist, which is ultimately futile in dealing with his horrifying situation. I love the vivid descriptions of the dark, fantastical settings.


Yes, some people think that Abe is like Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia (whoever that is). While I like the Dunes, I haven't read his other works. I must try some of them asap. Mishima liked Abe's works (in spite of the total differences in their styles, themes, and ideology), and he "remained" as only one writer-friend of Abe. Just in case, the below is a WP article about him.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/01/20/kobo-abe-a-figure-apart/26b6d4c3-e3c2-4d8a-b28a-55ecf0f3091f/

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 20, 2021, 04:11:34 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 19, 2021, 06:36:03 PM

Yes, some people think that Abe is like Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia (whoever that is). ...
Curious how our perceptions change depending on our background, etc. When reading the names Kobo Abe and Alberto Moravia in one sentence, my question would be "Who can Kobo Abe be?"  :D, as I've read--and enjoyed--quite a lot of Moravia (his books having been in my parents' library from way before I was born).

But that's the beauty of GMG: one get's exposed to things one wasn't aware above previously.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DaveF on May 20, 2021, 04:32:37 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LrO5A3I6L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I had high hopes of this one, since it's about Elizabethan and Jacobean music and includes walk-on parts for Byrd, Shakespeare, Morley and Richard Mulcaster, as well as the Queen and many of her courtly retinue.  I'm sure the historical research is painstakingly accurate, but the characterisation is non-existent and the writing (admittedly in translation) just dull.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 20, 2021, 06:51:30 AM
Quote from: ritter on May 20, 2021, 04:11:34 AM
Curious how our perceptions change depending on our background, etc. When reading the names Kobo Abe and Alberto Moravia in one sentence, my question would be "Who can Kobo Abe be?"  :D, as I've read--and enjoyed--quite a lot of Moravia (his books having been in my parents' library from way before I was born).

But that's the beauty of GMG: one get's exposed to things one wasn't aware above previously.

Vice versa  :). Curious about Moravia, and will look for his works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 20, 2021, 09:59:54 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 19, 2021, 05:00:54 PM
Kobo Abe, The Woman in the Dunes

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91Whl6nPuTL.jpg)

My first book by this author; I can't help but to ask, is Abe the Japanese Kafka? I'm about a third of the way into the book and it seems to be a fine absurd, existential drama. Very vivid writing. I love the analytical mind of the unnamed protagonist, which is ultimately futile in dealing with his horrifying situation. I love the vivid descriptions of the dark, fantastical settings.

I read it more than a decade ago and I remember not being very impressed, even rather bored --- but I agree about the Kafka comparison. The protagonist is suddenly and unexpectedly caught in an absurd situation and the more he tries to get out of it, the more he is dragged deeper and deeper into it. The difference is that in Kafka there's the absurdity of bureaucracy, to which I can relate only too well, while in this Abe novel the absurdity is completely gratuitous. Not a fan of the latter, honestly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 20, 2021, 10:15:45 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 19, 2021, 06:36:03 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/01/20/kobo-abe-a-figure-apart/26b6d4c3-e3c2-4d8a-b28a-55ecf0f3091f/

Most interesting, thanks for posting.

Quoteas a medical student at Tokyo University in the '40s specializing in gynecology, [Abe] was bored. Bored and lazy. He flunked his exams and his teachers demanded he take them again.

"The truth is," Abe told his elders, "I don't really intend to practice medicine."

"Oh," one professor said. "Why didn't you say so? If I'd known that earlier, I'd have passed you." The two men cut a deal. Abe was granted the title of "doctor" under the condition he never practice medicine.

Hah! Nice story.

QuoteAbe gave up directing and writing plays about five years ago. He says one reason "is that there is no country on earth less interested in the theater than Japan."

Which is quite strange, given the long and glorious Japanese theater tradition.

QuoteLike many Japanese intellectuals of the postwar period, Abe joined the Communist Party. He was an active member from 1950 to 1956, but became disillusioned after a visit to Budapest just before the Hungarian uprising. Abe drifted away from the party until he was formally expelled in 1962.

Abe consistently says in interviews that he is opposed to "obsessive" nationalism and the growth of government interference in private lives.

*Communism* and *opposition to the growth of government interference in private lives* are mutually exclusive --- I am surprised that an intelligent person as Abe did not realize that from the beginning. But the again he was certainly not alone in that, and indeed "communism is the opium of intellectuals" (Raymond Aron).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 20, 2021, 10:34:55 AM
Florestan, glad you liked the article. I must reread the Dunes. When I read it, I thought that it was like an allegory of the Japanese society and work culture in the post WW2 economic boom.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 20, 2021, 11:01:17 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 20, 2021, 10:34:55 AM
Florestan, glad you liked the article.

One more interesting quote:

because of his communist affiliations, the U.S. State Department deals harshly with Abe. Like Graham Greene and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he has "excludability" status under the 1952 McCarran-Walter act. If he is allowed a tourist visa, it is severely restricted. He must report his whereabouts at all times.

Well, one thing I like about Gabriel Garcia Marquez is that he kept his rabid, unrepentant (and to me wholly repellent) communist affiliation separated from his work; there's no novel of his that can be qualified as subtle, let alone open, communist propaganda.

Plus --- I only very recently became aware of Graham Greene's communist leanings, but The Power and the Glory is, among other things, a devastating critique of a militantly atheist regime --- which actually existed in the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco under the socialist dictatorship of Tomas Garrido Canabal and his Red Shirts.

QuoteI must reread the Dunes. When I read it, I thought that it was like an allegory of the Japanese society and work culture in the post WW2 economic boom.

Which it might very well be --- but at the time I read it my knowledge of the Japanese society and work culture in the post WW2 economic boom was nil.  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 20, 2021, 11:51:13 AM
No disagreement with your notion of Marquez, but it reminded me of the episode of workers' strike in the 100 Years Solitude. The story is based on the 1928 Banana Massacre. The Colombian workers, de facto half-slaves, of the United Fruit Company near Santa Marta, Colombia began strike for a better work condition and a humane treatment, and the USA gov threatened the Colombian govt to take a military action. Eventually, a bunch of the workers were murdered by the Colombian military, gangs, militias, etc. There are tons of similar incidents caused by the US imperialism/interventionism in the central and South Americas. That's why the communism became very popular there.

Possibly and arguably, the U.S. interventionism may have strengthened the political and ideological appeal of communism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 20, 2021, 12:28:38 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 20, 2021, 11:51:13 AM
No disagreement with your notion of Marquez, but it reminded me of the episode of workers' strike in the 100 Years Solitude. The story is based on the 1928 Banana Massacre. The Colombian workers, de facto half-slaves, of the United Fruit Company near Santa Marta, Colombia began strike for a better work condition and a humane treatment, and the USA gov threatened the Colombian govt to take a military action. Eventually, a bunch of the workers were murdered by the Colombian military, gangs, militias, etc. There are tons of similar incidents caused by the US imperialism/interventionism in the central and South Americas. That's why the communism became very popular there.

Possibly and arguably, the U.S. interventionism may have strengthened the political and ideological appeal of communism.

No argument from me in this respect, just noticing the bitter irony that communism, which pretended to act on behalf of, and for the good of, workers and peasants actually killed, imprisoned and ruined the lives of, a great many of those workers and peasants --- quite possibly much more than the USA and their Latin American minions combined.  ;D

It's often said that communism is a good idea badly applied. I think and am actually convinced that, on the contrary, communism is a bad idea applied well --- ie, there's a bad idea to suppress private property, Christian religion and/or traditional customs, and there's no way one can do it other than by state terror. Show me one single communist country which did not institute, and survive by, state terrorism and opression --- and I'll show you a unicorn.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on May 20, 2021, 01:37:04 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 20, 2021, 12:28:38 PM
--- and I'll show you a unicorn.

You have a pet unicorn too  8)
I feed mine on lotus leaves and candy floss  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 20, 2021, 01:37:31 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 20, 2021, 10:15:45 AM

*Communism* and *opposition to the growth of government interference in private lives* are mutually exclusive --- I am surprised that an intelligent person as Abe did not realize that from the beginning. But the again he was certainly not alone in that, and indeed "communism is the opium of intellectuals" (Raymond Aron).

Have you actually researched the appeal of communism in the interwar or immediate postwar periods from the point of view of those who were - for their various reasons and degrees of enthusiasm and for however long - attracted to it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 20, 2021, 03:46:03 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 20, 2021, 09:59:54 AM
I read it more than a decade ago and I remember not being very impressed, even rather bored --- but I agree about the Kafka comparison. The protagonist is suddenly and unexpectedly caught in an absurd situation and the more he tries to get out of it, the more he is dragged deeper and deeper into it. The difference is that in Kafka there's the absurdity of bureaucracy, to which I can relate only too well, while in this Abe novel the absurdity is completely gratuitous. Not a fan of the latter, honestly.

That's too bad. I'm enjoying it a good bit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 20, 2021, 04:33:02 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 20, 2021, 03:46:03 PM
That's too bad. I'm enjoying it a good bit.

A little influence of him on HM?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 20, 2021, 04:43:18 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 20, 2021, 04:33:02 PM
A little influence of him on HM?  :D

I would say so! The darkly absurd surreality of the setting, the vivid sexual language, and the thought processes of the loner protagonist all call to mind for me Haruki Murakami at his weirdest. I do wonder what Murakami thought of Abe's work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 21, 2021, 11:54:35 AM
Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/3168mAikBtL._SX355_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I believe this is yet another recommendation from our DBK. That man knows his Japanese literature.

Apparently, this is the second-best selling novel of all time in Japan. I'm not very far into the book, but my impression is that it reminds me a lot of Mishima's great Confessions of a Mask. Both novels are first-person accounts which take a confessional tone, narrated by young male protagonists who have always seen themselves on the fringe of society. Anyway, I'm enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 21, 2021, 04:19:43 PM
H Murakami frequently mentioned that he liked some Beatnik writers. Also, you said that he liked Soseki Natsume. AFIK, (oddly) he never mentioned Kobo Abe. I googled, and didn't find any statement from Murakami about Abe. Personally, I sense Abe's influence on M, but I have no evidence.

I knew Dazai was popular in Japan, but didn't know that NLH was that popular. Though I like the work, I never considered it a mainstream work in terms of style or theme. Furthermore, it amazes me that the work is being well received in the West. Perhaps because of the Millennials?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 21, 2021, 04:53:21 PM
Well, I devoured that book. Read it all within about four or five hours today. What an amazing book it was. Just horrifically dark, but I can't believe how insightful it was about the tragedy and comedy of life. For how bleak its subject matter is, I found myself laughing out loud in places. I found parts of it incredibly relatable, and other parts made me want to scream at the protagonist to make different choices in his life. I don't know a book which better approximates the feelings of severe depression and social anxiety as I have experienced them.

I've never read anything like this book, but some things that come somewhat close are Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and Mishima's Confessions of a Mask. Wow, that was an incredible book.

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 21, 2021, 04:19:43 PM
H Murakami frequently mentioned that he liked some Beatnik writers. Also, you said that he liked Soseki Natsume. AFIK, (oddly) he never mentioned Kobo Abe. I googled, and didn't find any statement from Murakami about Abe. Personally, I sense Abe's influence on M, but I have no evidence.

I knew Dazai was popular in Japan, but didn't know that NLH was that popular. Though I like the work, I never considered it a mainstream work in terms of style or theme. Furthermore, it amazes me that the work is being well received in the West. Perhaps because of the Millennials?

I'm not sure how well-received it is in the West at large, as none of my reading friends have read it. But I found it extremely relatable and relevant to contemporary life in the West. Thanks for your recommendation. I loved it. Definitely going to read Dazai's other famous book, The Setting Sun, ASAP.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 21, 2021, 05:20:16 PM
It's interesting to hear about the relevance of NLH to modern life in the West. The Setting Sun (Shayo) is as good as the former, imo. Shayo could be translated as the "tilted sun."

Also, quite interesting observation about a connection between the Dunes and Mishima's Mask. Never thought about it. I must think about it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 22, 2021, 06:12:03 AM
Ah, I should have clarified, but that connection was supposed to be No Longer Human and Confessions of a Mask. The book I was referring to in the first part of my post was Dazai's. The Woman in the Dunes took me about three days to read, and while I did enjoy it greatly, it wasn't quite as hard-hitting as No Longer Human. There may be some connection also between Abe's and Mishima's work, but if there is, I haven't yet figured it out. As for Dazai and Mishima, it's been said that toward the end of his short life Dazai actually met the young Mishima. Apparently, Dazai was drinking with a group of younger writers, a group including Mishima who was not a drinker, and Mishima told Dazai to his face that he didn't like his writing, and Dazai said something to the effect of "then why are you here?" Amazing story if it's true; have you heard this? I heard it from a Youtuber quoting a biography of Mishima.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 22, 2021, 08:05:50 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 22, 2021, 06:12:03 AM
Ah, I should have clarified, but that connection was supposed to be No Longer Human and Confessions of a Mask. The book I was referring to in the first part of my post was Dazai's. The Woman in the Dunes took me about three days to read, and while I did enjoy it greatly, it wasn't quite as hard-hitting as No Longer Human. There may be some connection also between Abe's and Mishima's work, but if there is, I haven't yet figured it out. As for Dazai and Mishima, it's been said that toward the end of his short life Dazai actually met the young Mishima. Apparently, Dazai was drinking with a group of younger writers, a group including Mishima who was not a drinker, and Mishima told Dazai to his face that he didn't like his writing, and Dazai said something to the effect of "then why are you here?" Amazing story if it's true; have you heard this? I heard it from a Youtuber quoting a biography of Mishima.

Sorry about the confusion on my part. Still I like this confusion (self-justification)  :D.
Yes, I believe the story is true or mostly true. It is weird because Mishima, unlike his works, was usually polite and friendly to anybody and he was liked by most people.
I heard that M didn't like what he considered to be self-pity and romanticization/glorification of loneliness in D's works.
Also, M was a fashionable city boy from Tokyo while Dazai was a country (albeit rich and aristocratic) guy from Aomori, which is like Mississippi, USA.

I was not sure if you would like Dazai (I thought you would like Mishima), but it appears that you liked NLH. Hope you will have good time reading Shayo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 22, 2021, 02:35:02 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71tFU1Ge3kL.jpg)

and also on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41D9H6ANWAL.jpg)

whis is reminding me that I've been wanting to read Browne's Urn-Burial for some long time, so that's been pulled out as well

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1564033424l/51816423._SX318_SY475_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 22, 2021, 03:02:32 PM
Yasunari Kawabata, The Old Capital

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Front_cover_of_The_Old_Capital%2C_1961_Novel_by_Yasunari_Kawabata.jpg)

This is the fourth book I've read from this author in as many months, I think. I am very much in awe of his aesthetic sensibilities. It seems this book is both love letter and elegy for the city of its title, Kyoto, former capital of Japan, which as of the time of this book's writing—the early postwar decades—was in the midst of massive change. Very much a quiet and subdued book, with less of the burning passion that seemed to lie just beneath the surface in Snow Country and Thousand Cranes, both earlier books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on May 23, 2021, 07:15:18 AM
Reading about Capital here too, although a different kind of Capital, in other words: Marx's Das Kapital.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 23, 2021, 07:44:24 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on May 23, 2021, 07:15:18 AM
Reading about Capital here too, although a different kind of Capital, in other words: Marx's Das Kapital.

That makes three "capital" books on one page  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 23, 2021, 07:54:47 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 22, 2021, 02:35:02 PM
Started:

[

whis is reminding me that I've been wanting to read Browne's Urn-Burial for some long time, so that's been pulled out as well

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1564033424l/51816423._SX318_SY475_.jpg)

I have that edition. Browne's style is like a very rich dessert for me: wonderful to taste but a very small amount fills you for a long time. I think I've never been able to read more than 5 pages at a sitting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 23, 2021, 08:03:42 AM
Anybody reading "Capital" the novel by John Lanchester?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 23, 2021, 09:05:28 AM
Piketty's Capital is on my book shelf. Will start reading it this summer. Kawabata's Old Capital next year. Dealing with Marx's Kapital all the time for my work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on May 23, 2021, 09:20:46 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 22, 2021, 02:35:02 PM
and also on the go:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41D9H6ANWAL.jpg)
I love Sebald. He's one of my all time favourite authors. That book made me fall in love with his prose right away.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 23, 2021, 03:46:29 PM
Never heard of Sebald, he sounds like a fascinating writer. I'll have to see if I can find that book, The Rings of Saturn.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 23, 2021, 04:25:26 PM
Quote from: JBS on May 23, 2021, 07:54:47 AM
I have that edition. Browne's style is like a very rich dessert for me: wonderful to taste but a very small amount fills you for a long time. I think I've never been able to read more than 5 pages at a sitting.

That's a fascinating description. I've heard his prose compared to Proust's. Would you agree?

I'm also noticing for the first time that the Penguin edition has Samuel Johnson's Life Of Browne as a bonus appendix.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 23, 2021, 04:26:56 PM
Quote from: Artem on May 23, 2021, 09:20:46 AM
I love Sebald. He's one of my all time favourite authors. That book made me fall in love with his prose right away.

Have you read his novel Austerlitz? How does that compare to his free-associating non-fiction?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on May 23, 2021, 06:58:12 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 23, 2021, 04:25:26 PM
That's a fascinating description. I've heard his prose compared to Proust's. Would you agree?

I'm also noticing for the first time that the Penguin edition has Samuel Johnson's Life Of Browne as a bonus appendix.

I can see why the comparison is made. But I 've only read part of the first volume of Moncrieff Scott's translation, so I can't judge how accurate it is.
I would compare him to Donne and Herrick: what they were doing in poetry he did in prose. And I have to wonder if he didn't influence Joyce.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 24, 2021, 11:05:33 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 19, 2021, 01:27:40 AM
(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/59/1002/9F/368463.jpg)

Stamboul Train

The overall atmosphere here is somewhat lighter than in The Power and the Glory but the moral dilemma of the protagonist is not. The literary style is as engaging and compelling and the characters are as vividly and convincingly portrayed. Yet another Graham Greene success for me.

Next:

(https://humanitas.ro/assets/images/products/978-606-779-049-8.jpg)

Royal Highness
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on May 24, 2021, 11:43:28 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 23, 2021, 04:26:56 PM
Have you read his novel Austerlitz? How does that compare to his free-associating non-fiction?
I read most of his books that were translated into English. I didn't like Austerlitz the first time I read it as much as I liked The Rings of Saturn, for example. Austerlitz maybe the closest to the "normal" novel that Sebald wrote if you compare with his other books. It just crushed me on the second reread. It's a very beautiful and powerful work of literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on May 25, 2021, 05:21:18 AM
Hubble 25: A Quarter-Century of Discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope free from https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/hubble_25_detail.html (https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/hubble_25_detail.html). Just trying out the Books EPUB reader on my iPad and it looks great. 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 25, 2021, 07:11:59 AM
Inspired by vers la flamme's post of No Longer Human (Osamu Dazai), I just started reading Chronicles of My Life by Donald Keene, who translated many Japanese literary works, including No Longer Human. Keene, born in New York, NY, was a prominent scholar of Japanese literature and culture. He was also a classical music lover and a big fan of the Metropolitan Opera. Non-Japanese readers and Japanese people should be grateful to Keene's massive contributions, including his numerous authorship and translations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on May 25, 2021, 10:39:38 AM
It looks very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 27, 2021, 05:12:09 PM
Knocked off this quickie:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IR+r45uZL.jpg)

I could never live as minimally as he does, but his philosophy and methods were nevertheless fascinating
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 28, 2021, 06:18:48 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 27, 2021, 05:12:09 PM
Knocked off this quickie:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IR+r45uZL.jpg)

I could never live as minimally as he does, but his philosophy and methods were nevertheless fascinating

That's my philosophy. I will get the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fritz Kobus on May 28, 2021, 06:48:33 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ml9wC6LJL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 29, 2021, 02:38:18 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 28, 2021, 06:18:48 AM
That's my philosophy. I will get the book.

An unexpected facet was the authors frank description of his pre-minimal problem drinking and how his new philosophy solved that  without having intended to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 29, 2021, 03:17:44 PM
Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81hJb7YycbL.jpg)

This is definitely a great book, but I'm finding it a challenging read given my current state of mind. May or may not shelve it for later reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 30, 2021, 08:05:26 AM
Peter Camenzind, the first novel written by Hermann Hesse. Beautiful, and semi-autobiographical, story with melancholy, joy, and love. The name of protagonist's first love, Rösi Girtanner, sounds so elegant and cool. (It is pronounced like Raisee Ghi-ruh-tanner.)  A few quotes are below.

''That's the way it is when you love. It makes you suffer, and I have suffered much in the years since. But it matters little that you suffer, so long as you feel alive with a sense of the close bond that connects all living things, so long as love does not die!"

"I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 30, 2021, 08:09:04 AM
Quote from: Artem on May 25, 2021, 10:39:38 AM
It looks very interesting.

You will like the book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 30, 2021, 08:51:02 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 30, 2021, 08:05:26 AM
Peter Camenzind, the first novel written by Hermann Hesse. Beautiful story with melancholy, joy, and love. The name of protagonist's first love, Rösi Girtanner, sounds so elegant and cool. (You pronounce like Raisee Ghi-ruh-tanner.)  few quotes are below.

''That's the way it is when you love. It makes you suffer, and I have suffered much in the years since. But it matters little that you suffer, so long as you feel alive with a sense of the close bond that connects all living things, so long as love does not die!"

"I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us."

I went through an extensive Hesse phase in my late teens/early twenties. I recall having liked this one. A couple of years back I bought the collected novels of Hesse. I still have to unwrap it... ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 10:10:26 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 29, 2021, 03:17:44 PM
Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81hJb7YycbL.jpg)

This is definitely a great book, but I'm finding it a challenging read given my current state of mind. May or may not shelve it for later reading.

I read it twice in its entirety and several times fragmentarily. Depending on my mood, I side either with Settembrini or with Naphta --- and always with mynheer Pepperkorn. Oh, and btw, if I were 20 years younger I wouldn't mind a one night stand with Clavdia Chauchat.  :D

Strange coincidence, though, as I've just started this for a first reading:

(http://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/22/214722/casa-buddenbrook-vol-1_1_fullsize.jpg)

Started it yesterday at noon and I'm already more than halfway through the first volume. A real page turner. Thomas Mann, a bourgeois artist, a poet of the bourgeois lifestyle. Excellent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 10:14:31 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 30, 2021, 08:05:26 AM
Peter Camenzind, the first novel written by Hermann Hesse. Beautiful, and semi-autobiographical, story with melancholy, joy, and love. The name of protagonist's first love, Rösi Girtanner, sounds so elegant and cool. (It is pronounced like Raisee Ghi-ruh-tanner.)  A few quotes are below.

''That's the way it is when you love. It makes you suffer, and I have suffered much in the years since. But it matters little that you suffer, so long as you feel alive with a sense of the close bond that connects all living things, so long as love does not die!"

"I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us."

The first Hesse book I ever read --- it blew me right away. A great little book from a guy who would eventually become one of my favorite writers.

What other Hesse have you read, or plan to read?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on May 30, 2021, 10:21:35 AM
I started my journey with Mann with Royal Highness and Buddenbrooks and they are still my favorites. I loved Magic mountain too. I am still not finished with Joseph. So far there is no book by Mann yet which I have not liked.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 10:42:02 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on May 30, 2021, 10:21:35 AM
I started my journey with Mann with Royal Highness and Buddenbrooks and they are still my favorites. I loved Magic mountain too. I am still not finished with Joseph. So far there is no book by Mann yet which I have not liked.

I'm reading Royal Highness in paralel with The Budenbrooks --- as my life is split between two locations, but I find the latter much more of a page turner than the former.

How about Doktor Faustus? Any other fan here?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 30, 2021, 11:13:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 10:10:26 AM
I read it twice in its entirety and several times fragmentarily. Depending on my mood, I side either with Settembrini or with Naphta --- and always with mynheer Pepperkorn. Oh, and btw, if I were 20 years younger I wouldn't mind a one night stand with Clavdia Chauchat.  :D

Strange coincidence, though, as I've just started this for a first reading:

(http://mcdn.elefant.ro/mnresize/1500/1500/images/22/214722/casa-buddenbrook-vol-1_1_fullsize.jpg)

Started it yesterday at noon and I'm already more than halfway through the first volume. A real page turner. Thomas Mann, a bourgeois artist, a poet of the bourgeois lifestyle. Excellent.

That is an absolutely phenomenal book. I read it (Buddenbrooks) last year and it jumped right to the top of my favorite books of all time. You're going to love it. I'm sure The Magic Mountain will prove to be just as good or better, but I'm afraid I may not be in a good state of mind for it at the moment.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 11:32:50 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 30, 2021, 11:13:00 AM
That is an absolutely phenomenal book. I read it (Buddenbrooks) last year and it jumped right to the top of my favorite books of all time. You're going to love it. I'm sure.

Oh, I already love it!

Look, I don't know yet if Tony eventually married Gruenlich or not --- and please don't spoil it for me. My question for you is this: do you think she should have married him? My own answer is yes. Such a marriage would have most likely been exactly like her mother's, ie resulting in a tranquil, peaceful and bourgeouisly happy marriage --- marrying Morten Schwartzkopf would have most likely resulted in misery, bitterness and resentment.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 30, 2021, 11:42:32 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 11:32:50 AM
Oh, I already love it!

Look, I don't know yet if Tony eventually married Gruenlich or not --- and please don't spoil it for me. My question for you is this: do you think she should have married him? My own answer is yes. Such a marriage would have most likely been exactly like her mother's, ie resulting in a tranquil, peaceful and bourgeouisly happy marriage --- marrying Morten Schwartzkopf would have most likely resulted in misery, bitterness and resentment.

Hell no. I won't spoil it, but all is not as it seems with Gruenlich. Can't say whether poor Morten would have made a better match or not.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 11:54:42 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 30, 2021, 11:42:32 AM
all is not as it seems with Gruenlich.

Oh, as far as I can tell Gruenlich is dishonest --- he tells Schwartzkopf sr that Tony succumbed to his proposal, which is a blatant lie. But I still think that eventually Tony would be better off with him than with Morten.

Morten is honest and likeable, don't get me wrong --- but I'm not sure he's the right match for Tony; actually, I think he's the wrong match for her, despite her own feelings --- born a Buddenbrook, always a Buddenbrook.  :laugh:

Be it as it might, I love this book --- a masterpiece.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 30, 2021, 01:16:00 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 11:54:42 AM
Oh, as far as I can tell Gruenlich is dishonest --- he tells Schwartzkopf sr that Tony succumbed to his proposal, which is a blatant lie. But I still think that eventually Tony would be better off with him than with Morten.

Morten is honest and likeable, don't get me wrong --- but I'm not sure he's the right match for Tony; actually, I think he's the wrong match for her, despite her own feelings --- born a Buddenbrook, always a Buddenbrook.  :laugh:

Be it as it might, I love this book --- a masterpiece.

It only gets better. So happy to see you're enjoying it. I burned through it in about a week last summer and as I may have alluded to already, I found it life-changing. It's amazing to think that Mann was 25 when the book was published, as old as I was at the time of reading. It's a fully mature work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on May 30, 2021, 01:18:58 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 11:54:42 AM
Oh, as far as I can tell Gruenlich is dishonest --- he tells Schwartzkopf sr that Tony succumbed to his proposal, which is a blatant lie. But I still think that eventually Tony would be better off with him than with Morten.

Morten is honest and likeable, don't get me wrong --- but I'm not sure he's the right match for Tony; actually, I think he's the wrong match for her, despite her own feelings --- born a Buddenbrook, always a Buddenbrook.  :laugh:

Be it as it might, I love this book --- a masterpiece.

Except that the Buddenbrook genes become weaker with each generation. And yes, a masterpiece.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 30, 2021, 05:42:02 PM
Quote from: André on May 30, 2021, 08:51:02 AM
I went through an extensive Hesse phase in my late teens/early twenties. I recall having liked this one. A couple of years back I bought the collected novels of Hesse. I still have to unwrap it... ::)

I remember that both you and I love the movie of Steppenwolf. Weird and likable movie!  :) :)


Quote from: Florestan on May 30, 2021, 10:14:31 AM
The first Hesse book I ever read --- it blew me right away. A great little book from a guy who would eventually become one of my favorite writers.

What other Hesse have you read, or plan to read?


I have been reading Hermann Hesse since 13 y/o. As I am getting older, his works are getting more and more impressive and impactful. I read most of his novels and a few collection of essays and poems. I even had a book of his painting works. Interestingly, I haven't read Glass Bead Game or Journey to the East. Hesse before Demian and Hesse after D are very different- almost different author. 
I hung portraits of three individuals in my house- Hesse, Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher), and Admiral Heihachiro Togo.


P.s. the book below is an interesting book.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 31, 2021, 01:48:19 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 30, 2021, 05:42:02 PM
I hung portraits of three individuals in my house- Hesse, Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher), and Admiral Heihachiro Togo.

I greatly enjoyed this book.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ClDiUtxRL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Quote
P.s. the book below is an interesting book.

Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 31, 2021, 01:54:33 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 31, 2021, 01:48:19 AM
I greatly enjoyed this book.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ClDiUtxRL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Yes, I like the book (and another biography authored by Cartwright.) The book reveals that S and his mother, a novel writer and more famous than S at that time, didn't get along. Naturally, S didn't like her friends, except for Goethe. He liked Italian operas and didn't like German operas. The book discusses a funny episode about the incident when S visited a park and was examining plants. Intrigued by the well-dressed, aristocratic looking S, an employee at the park politely asked S who he was. His response was " if you could tell me who I am, I should be greatly in your debt."
Also, the book does a good job explaining his and Kantian philosophy. Very good book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 06:43:51 AM
The Charterhouse of Parma (La Chartreuse de Parme), Stendhal. Honor, women, and aunt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 08:25:12 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 31, 2021, 01:54:33 PM

Yes, I like the book (and another biography authored by Cartwright.) The book reveals that S and his mother, a novel writer and more famous than S at that time, didn't get along. Naturally, S didn't like her friends, except for Goethe. He liked Italian operas and didn't like German operas. The book discusses a funny episode about the incident when S visited a park and was examining plants. Intrigued by the well-dressed, aristocratic looking S, an employee at the park politely asked S who he was. His response was " if you could tell me who I am, I should be greatly in your debt."
Also, the book does a good job explaining his and Kantian philosophy. Very good book.

Yes. Schopenhauer was a devotee of Mozart and Rossini and disparaged Wagner in no uncertain terms. He was a mysoginist / misanthrope and a political reactionary. He despised Hegel and his philosophy and was bitterly sarcastic toward them. He was also heavily antagonistic toward Christianity (as he knew it). While I disagree with him on many topics, he's hands down my favorite German philosopher --- not least for his crystal clear, literary, almost poetic prose. I'd take him over his nemesis Hegel any time .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 08:29:28 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 06:43:51 AM
The Charterhouse of Parma (La Chartreuse de Parme), Stendhal. Honor, women, and aunt.

First time I read this book in my early 20s, I abandoned it a quarter-way through.

Second time I read it, 20 years after the first attempt, it was a page-turner.

One of those books which can be truly understood and appreciated only by people who have felt, thought and experienced a lot.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 09:46:17 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 08:25:12 AM
Yes. Schopenhauer was a devotee of Mozart and Rossini and disparaged Wagner in no uncertain terms. He was a mysoginist / misanthrope and a political reactionary. He despised Hegel and his philosophy and was bitterly sarcastic toward them. He was also heavily antagonistic toward Christianity (as he knew it). While I disagree with him on many topics, he's hands down my favorite German philosopher --- not least for his crystal clear, literary, almost poetic prose. I'd take him over his nemesis Hegel any time .


Yes I like philosophies of Schopenhauer and Kant, rather than snake oil/alchemy of Hegel. His straight-ahead writing is very likable. S publicly, and Kant implicitly, were probably among the first atheist philosopher in the West. S admired Buddhism and Hinduism while his favorite book was Upanishads (admired by your friend Wagner as well.)
As for philosophers, he liked Kant, Plato, Gracian, Hume, etc. Albert Einstein hanged three portraits in his work room. They were Maxwell, Michael Faraday, and Schopenhauer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 10:22:14 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 09:46:17 AM
Yes I like philosophies of Schopenhauer and Kant, rather than snake oil/alchemy of Hegel. His straight-ahead writing is very likable. S publicly, and Kant implicitly, were probably among the first atheist philosopher in the West. S admired Buddhism and Hinduism while his favorite book was Upanishads (admired by your friend Wagner as well.)


Well, I'm a Christian who greatly admires Schopenhauer --- but Wagner I can't stand either as a composer or a writer. S yes, W no!

Now that you got me started, my favorite non-Romanian philosophers are Pascal, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Unamuno. Two Roman Catholics, a Lutheran and an atheist --- yet all of them have a lot in common with Eastern Orthodoxy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 10:27:24 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 08:29:28 AM
First time I read this book in my early 20s, I abandoned it a quarter-way through.

Second time I read it, 20 years after the first attempt, it was a page-turner.

One of those books which can be truly understood and appreciated only by people who have felt, thought and experienced a lot.  ;)

The Parma is a fine book though it is not as exciting/thrilling as Red and Black. If the protagonist were highly intelligent, as well as beautiful, just like Julien Sorel in Red and Black, he could have been more fascinating. Still the book is romantic, dramatic, and beautiful, especially the nuanced description of the relationship bet. the protagonist and his aunt is exquisite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 10:35:07 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 10:27:24 AM
If the protagonist were highly intelligent, as well as beautiful,

then it would have been a highly unrealistic book.  ;D

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 10:27:24 AM
romantic, dramatic, and beautiful

Is there any other kind of good books?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 10:43:07 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 10:35:07 AM

Is there any other kind of good books?  ;D

Ie. Endo's Silence is neither beautiful nor romantic. It is upsetting and even unacceptable. But the story is thrilling and it proffers important philosophical questions. Also, philosophers and psychologists have discussed why the people are attracted to sad or scary stories (and music).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 11:12:58 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 10:43:07 AM
Ie. Endo's Silence [is] upsetting and even unacceptable. But the story is thrilling and it proffers important philosophical questions.

Ummm... Werther? Faust? The Robbers? The Hunchback of Notre-Dame? Manfred? The Toilers of the Sea? The Bethroted? Etc, etc, etc?

Look, when in late higschool we were given as class assignment to write down what we personally thought it was the main, most influential literary era, and explain why. I chose Romanticism and explained accordingly --- got an A + !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 01, 2021, 12:34:28 PM
Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London


(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/6227498594_733e375b03_n.jpg)


This was a very rapid read in comparison to my last read [Dickens: Our Mutual Friend - see Pickwick Club]. My initial reaction to this book is that I am very thankful that I was never that poor so that I experienced the hunger and deprivation that is illustrated in this work. The juxtaposition of this work and the mention of Dickens strikes me as opportune because Orwell was describing the plight of the poor worker in the context of working in some well to do hotels and the gruelling life of servitude that these unfortunate people had to endure in order to serve the well to do their daily meals. The dichotomy of the two modes of life is well contrasted by Orwell even though he primarily focuses on the lower end of the social scale. I am also very glad that I was not dining in those exclusive Parisian hotels that Orwell describes from a cleanliness and hygiene point of view.

The other interesting side of his account is the people and characters that he met and knew and their outlook on Life. Orwell's social commentary and philosophy are also both interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 12:44:08 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 10:22:14 AM
Well, I'm a Christian who greatly admires Schopenhauer --- but Wagner I can't stand either as a composer or a writer. S yes, W no!

Now that you got me started, my favorite non-Romanian philosophers are Pascal, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Unamuno. Two Roman Catholics, a Lutheran and an atheist --- yet all of them have a lot in common with Eastern Orthodoxy.

I will check out writings of Pascal and Unamuno. Specially, Unamuno looks interesting.
As you already know, Kant and S explained that what appears to be the world are not real, but our limited and biased perception. Colors are not real. Lights with different wave lengths stimulate eyes, and eyes send electrochemical signals to the brain, which creates the perception of colors. So colors are not there in the real world, but they are a creation by our brain. Same about the sound, odor, taste, etc. Air waves and odor particles stimulate ears and noses, they send signals to the brain, and the brain creates the perception of sound and odor. So there is no sound or smell in the real, physical world.
Kant proceeds that the 3 dimensionality of the world and unidimensional time are perceptions created by our neurological activities as well. The real world is beyond the three dimensional space and time, and unknown to us. We will never be able to see or theoretically understand the real picture of this world because our perception and understanding are constrained within a 3D space and time, according to Kant (and Schopenhauer). Imo, this is also what Niels Bohr indicated in the quote I posted on the other thread.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 12:50:17 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 12:44:08 PM
The real world is beyond the three dimensional space and time, and unknown to us. We will never be able to see or theoretically understand the real picture of this world because our perception and understanding are constrained within a 3D space and time, according to Kant (and Schopenhauer). Imo, this is also what Niels Bohr indicated in the quote I posted on the other thread.

Yes, exactly and precisely. Niels Bohr was absolutely right --- and so was Kant via Schopenhauer. There is no way any human can escape time and causality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 01, 2021, 01:08:40 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 12:44:08 PM
I will check out writings of Pascal and Unamuno. Specially, Unamuno looks interesting.

Both of them are well worth reading.

Start with Pascal, though, I'd say.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 02, 2021, 02:31:03 PM
Quote from: aligreto on June 01, 2021, 12:34:28 PM
Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London


(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/6227498594_733e375b03_n.jpg)


This was a very rapid read in comparison to my last read [Dickens: Our Mutual Friend - see Pickwick Club]. My initial reaction to this book is that I am very thankful that I was never that poor so that I experienced the hunger and deprivation that is illustrated in this work. The juxtaposition of this work and the mention of Dickens strikes me as opportune because Orwell was describing the plight of the poor worker in the context of working in some well to do hotels and the gruelling life of servitude that these unfortunate people had to endure in order to serve the well to do their daily meals. The dichotomy of the two modes of life is well contrasted by Orwell even though he primarily focuses on the lower end of the social scale. I am also very glad that I was not dining in those exclusive Parisian hotels that Orwell describes from a cleanliness and hygiene point of view.

The other interesting side of his account is the people and characters that he met and knew and their outlook on Life. Orwell's social commentary and philosophy are also both interesting.

"It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs — and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it"

I think about that line often.

I also like / am intrigued by how dispassionate his tone is throughout the book, given that elsewhere he's capable of writing with considerable venom (Burmese Days, for example).

Glad to hear you liked it.


TD: amongst everything else on the go I'm knocking off Frederick Pohl's Starburst, recommended somewhere as one of his best, and they were right.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5140Zd0LcIL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 03, 2021, 01:39:28 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 02, 2021, 02:31:03 PM
"It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs — and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it"

I think about that line often.

I also like / am intrigued by how dispassionate his tone is throughout the book, given that elsewhere he's capable of writing with considerable venom (Burmese Days, for example).

Glad to hear you liked it.

Yes, I enjoyed it but it does not make for pretty reading. I had read it before, decades ago, and I had forgotten how realistic it was.
I have actually started Burmese days again and I am enjoying this immensely so far but, more anon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 03, 2021, 07:08:01 AM
Hermann Hesse: Life and Art.  Joseph Mileck
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 03, 2021, 07:25:34 AM
Cross-posted from the opera sub-forum:

Quote from: ritter on June 03, 2021, 06:52:51 AM
Revisiting this recording of one of Gaetano Donizetti's lesser-known operas, the late Caterina Cornaro:

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1eM6eJVUfKo/U3A_4yzGfbI/AAAAAAAAO8w/cXsRvJl7uC8/s1600/GACO+portada.jpg)

I've never been much of a fan of Donizetti (IMHO, he did not have the genius of Rossini nor the melodic gift of Bellini, and was the precursor of the undeniably vulgar and provincial streak that permeates much of Italian opera in the second half of the 19th century), and this is certainly not one of his better scores.

I'm actually listening to this as background music while reading this book on the conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni:

(https://img.ibs.it/images/9788877667458_0_0_847_75.jpg)

The recording of Caterina Cornaro was made live in 1995–the year before the conductor's death at the age of 86—in Gavazzeni's (and Donizetti's) hometown of Bergamo, with the conductor's second wife, the estimable soprano Denia Mazzola, in the lead. It could therefore not be more appropriate, and as background music works perfectly well  ;).

What a fascinating figure Gavazzeni was! A grand seigneur of the baton and the operatic pit, a very gifted writer, and an indefatigable champion of obscure works (many of which, truth be said, lapsed back into oblivion immediately after he had revived them). He was a man of wide-ranging cultural interests, and seems to have met and befriended most of the leading Italian cultural luminaries of the 20th century (in music, painting, and literature). Even if he concentrated his conducting activity mostly on the Italian operatic repertoire of the 19th and early 20th century, his writings display an acute appraisal of —and respect for— styles that were diametrically opposed to his tastes. He was, for instance, a good friend of Petrassi, frequented Luigi Nono, and collaborated with Sylvano Bussotti (the latter was stage director for several opera productions led by Gavazzeni).

Gavazzeni was also a composer, but stopped writing music around 1940 (when he realised his works were out of step with modern trends). As far as I know, none of his compositional output has ever been recorded.

He's one of the few artists who have been given the greatest tribute at La Scala when he died: Riccardo Muti conducted the funeral march of Beethoven's Eroica in the empty theatre, with all the doors open so that the music could be heard on the streets surrounding the opera house.

For someone who never achieved (probably never sought) star status, there's a very sizeable bibliography on the man and his art (apart from his own writings, which are really enjoyable, particularly his dairies from 1950 to 1976, Il sipario rosso). The book I'm reading now is loving tribute to the man, his art, his writing, and the places he frequented (starting with Bergamo). A delightful read!

Alternating between the book on Gavazzeni mentioned above, and Philippe Blay's recently released biography of Reynaldo Hahn:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/B09238XC2C.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SX500_.jpg)
Clearly the biography the composer needed (previous works by Bernard Gavoty —in French— and Daniel Bendahan —in Spanish— were useful, but incomplete and relying mainly on recollections and reminiscences). Thoroughly researched, with a wealth of detail (excessive at times, TBH), and very readable. An excellent biography as well as a good depiction of the conservative cultural milieu associated with the grand monde (as a result, anything remotely avant-garde or "modern" is conspicuously absent) in France at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. I'm about 200 pages into the book (it has some 600 in total), and of course Marcel Proust plays a significant rôle at this stage.

Philippe Blay is the leading authority on Hahn, and it shows. Recommended to anyone with an interest in the composer or in art in France during his lifetime.

As a matter of trivia, there's a very tenuous connection between Hahn and Gavazzeni, as the latter —in his diaries mentioned above— confessed to being intrigued by Hahn's composition Nuit d'amour bergsmasque (Gavazzeni had a keen interest in anything related to his hometown). AFAIK, Nuit d'amour bergsmasque has never been recorded (or even performed in living memory).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 04, 2021, 10:31:14 AM
A few books that i finished recently.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1377649013l/17802942.jpg)
Very French little book, almost like a painting.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403665195l/991272.jpg)
My expectations for it were high, but it was not all that great in the end.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328008358l/9550623.jpg)
Essential for Bolano fans. It includes a few interviews and speeches, but mostly short newspaper columns where Bolano talks about his favourite literature, mostly from Latin America and Spain. So that book has been a great resource for me to discover previously unknown to me writers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 04, 2021, 05:18:08 PM
Quote from: Benji on February 01, 2021, 04:08:45 PM
Do you know the book Travellers in the Third Reich? If not you might find it a good companion read to your current reading. (I haven't finished reading my copy yet but it was well reviewed)

Found this in a secondhand bookshop and had to go back to remember who it was who gave me the heads-up and say thanks again.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41aMGk1uTxL._SX335_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Also found that it was Vers La Flamme I recommended Down And Out In Paris And London to, not Aligreto, which is why I was confused when he said he'd read it before.

Total goldfish memory.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 05, 2021, 08:10:35 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 04, 2021, 05:18:08 PM
Found this in a secondhand bookshop and had to go back to remember who it was who gave me the heads-up and say thanks again.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41aMGk1uTxL._SX335_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Also found that it was Vers La Flamme I recommended Down And Out In Paris And London to, not Aligreto, which is why I was confused when he said he'd read it before.

Total goldfish memory.

Hey, I have moments like that all of the time  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 07, 2021, 06:03:03 AM
E.T.A. Hoffmann.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 07, 2021, 05:35:03 PM
half way through:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/919kooMIwSL.jpg)

on the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and Rwandan history.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 08, 2021, 04:37:30 AM
A new author for me. A book that deals with Germany, memory, WWII. A very strong recommendation.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574029803l/48846410._SY475_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 08, 2021, 07:43:31 AM
Quote from: Artem on June 08, 2021, 04:37:30 AM
A new author for me. A book that deals with Germany, memory, WWII. A very strong recommendation.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574029803l/48846410._SY475_.jpg)

Nice cover. I will look for a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 08, 2021, 07:47:58 AM
'"Old and Fabulous Records of Classical Music" by Haruki Murakami will be published soon in this month.  This is a collection of essays on 486 classical music records he likes. Hope an English edition will be published soon.  Jfyi and I haven't read it yet.

https://tower.jp/article/feature_item/2021/05/19/1111
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 08, 2021, 09:02:28 AM
That's Japanese only? You're killing me.

I've been waiting years for his jazz writings to be translated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 08, 2021, 09:46:37 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 08, 2021, 09:02:28 AM

I've been waiting years for his jazz writings to be translated.

Sorry, that's a good indication that this book may not be translated either.
Publishers think, or know, that unlike his novels, his essays about old music won't sell.
Hope I am wrong and you will read them in English, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on June 08, 2021, 10:21:37 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jtKQg3IQL._SX348_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Even if this was the only book Dickens had ever wrote, I'd still consider him one of the great writers in the English language, it just spills over with so many virtues. And so witty at times too (as he so often is).
There are still some glaring gaps in the list of his novels I've read, which I really must plug before my own final exit down the plughole.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 08, 2021, 01:09:18 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 01, 2021, 12:44:08 PM
I will check out writings of Pascal and Unamuno. Specially, Unamuno looks interesting.
As you already know, Kant and S explained that what appears to be the world are not real, but our limited and biased perception. Colors are not real. Lights with different wave lengths stimulate eyes, and eyes send electrochemical signals to the brain, which creates the perception of colors. So colors are not there in the real world, but they are a creation by our brain. Same about the sound, odor, taste, etc. Air waves and odor particles stimulate ears and noses, they send signals to the brain, and the brain creates the perception of sound and odor. So there is no sound or smell in the real, physical world.
Kant proceeds that the 3 dimensionality of the world and unidimensional time are perceptions created by our neurological activities as well.
This is not Kant, but a vaguely kantian late 20th/21st century "scientistic"  reinterpretation of Kant.
It is *not* our physiological activities that create perceptions. All this biological stuff is part of the picture that is conjectured by science. But Kant wants to get at a far deeper level. Both the theoretical concepts of science as well as the perceptional structure of any being "like us", i.e. a being that has senses AND understanding (so angels could "perceive" differently and God most certainly does it differently via intellectual intuition that is not discursive and split into senses and understanding) are already dependent on the forms of intuition (Anschauungsformen) space and time as well as on some other structures (categories of understanding, incl. logic, causality). This is not neurological or physiological, that would be a re-interpretation. One can do this but I think this mostly misses the point of Kant and uses empirical science to provide something that according to Kant could never be provided empirically, because it is the a priori precondition of empirical knowledge. Empirical knowledge cannot be its own foundation (or maybe it can, but this would be profoundly Anti-Kantian ;))
If it was neurological it would not be a priori and analysable by pure reason. It would also be in a sense question begging because neurology presupposes the more basic sciences like physics and these fundamental sciences according to Kant presuppose the epistemic structures he tries to analyse.

Cold comfort: Kant himself is inconsistent because he presupposes some kind of primordial causality by which things in themselves "affect" (affizieren) our senses (to get the whole process of perception and knowing started). But this cannot be "real" causality because causality as used in theoretical physics etc. (recall that the inspiration for the Kantian project is to explain how mathematical natural science is possible) is a feature of understanding "impressed" on the things in themselves.

Morale: One should bite the bullet and either become a realist or a complete idealist (i.e. get rid of things in themselves that can affect despite causality only coming "later" via understanding). The Kantian way to have both is not stable and probably inconsistent.




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 08, 2021, 10:27:40 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 08, 2021, 07:47:58 AM
'"Old and Fabulous Records of Classical Music" by Haruki Murakami will be published soon in this month.  This is a collection of essays on 486 classical music records he likes. Hope an English edition will be published soon.  Jfyi and I haven't read it yet.

https://tower.jp/article/feature_item/2021/05/19/1111
That looks extremely interesting. Did anybody like his book with Ozawa? I'm yet to pick it up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 08, 2021, 10:29:20 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 08, 2021, 07:43:31 AM
Nice cover. I will look for a copy.
There's also a NYRB version of that novel with a different title, which I assume is a more direct translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 08, 2021, 10:42:36 PM
Quote from: Artem on June 08, 2021, 10:27:40 PM
That looks extremely interesting. Did anybody like his book with Ozawa? I'm yet to pick it up.

Yes - that was actually excellent. Murakami is clearly a close and careful listener, who was able to speak with Ozawa at Ozawa's level, which was a surprise as the way he talks about classical music or jazz in his novels is much lighter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 08, 2021, 10:49:27 PM
Quote from: Artem on June 08, 2021, 10:29:20 PM
There's also a NYRB version of that novel with a different title, which I assume is a more direct translation.

I see he's also done this, which has piqued my curiosity:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408425668l/22963688.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 09, 2021, 04:49:29 AM
Orwell: Burmese Days


(https://livingwithliteraturee.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/0108_burmese_days__penguin_book_cover_-_1969_with_border.jpg?w=640)


It is a long time since I have read Orwell's books. Many, many years later I am going to re-read them. This is his second novel after Down and Out in Paris and London which I re-read lately and both books were published approximately only one year apart. However, from the very first paragraph, Burmese Days is a completely different writing style to Down and Out in Paris and London. It is far more descriptive and detailed of both characters and events. I know that the books are entirely different from the point of view of approach but not so much so that the writing style should also be so very much different from one another. There were also some very interesting characters in Down and Out in Paris and London which could easily have been developed. These are just my very initial thoughts.

Burmese Days is the story of the occupying English ruling class in a small outpost in Burma at that time. It is one man's struggle against the attitudes, arrogance and prejudice of the English and their treatment of the natives. These sentiments manifest themselves in the conversations among the various members of "The Club" where only white English planters are allowed to congregate each evening to be served by the "locals". This is interesting from an English perspective as we do not often get such truths on the social injustice of "The English Empire" and indeed how "Empire" should maintained very often from a dissenting English perspective.

There is also an interesting side story about the corruption of a local Burmese official and both of these parallel stories intersect. It can be an uncomfortable read but it is always a compelling one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 09, 2021, 05:26:09 AM
You think of Down And Out as being a novel rather than memoir?

It is a work that's hard to fix in an exact genre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 09, 2021, 06:49:49 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 01, 2021, 12:34:28 PM
Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London


(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/6227498594_733e375b03_n.jpg)


This was a very rapid read in comparison to my last read [Dickens: Our Mutual Friend - see Pickwick Club]. My initial reaction to this book is that I am very thankful that I was never that poor so that I experienced the hunger and deprivation that is illustrated in this work. The juxtaposition of this work and the mention of Dickens strikes me as opportune because Orwell was describing the plight of the poor worker in the context of working in some well to do hotels and the gruelling life of servitude that these unfortunate people had to endure in order to serve the well to do their daily meals. The dichotomy of the two modes of life is well contrasted by Orwell even though he primarily focuses on the lower end of the social scale. I am also very glad that I was not dining in those exclusive Parisian hotels that Orwell describes from a cleanliness and hygiene point of view.

The other interesting side of his account is the people and characters that he met and knew and their outlook on Life. Orwell's social commentary and philosophy are also both interesting.

Zero hours contract.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 09, 2021, 06:51:09 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 09, 2021, 04:49:29 AM
Orwell: Burmese Days


(https://livingwithliteraturee.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/0108_burmese_days__penguin_book_cover_-_1969_with_border.jpg?w=640)


It is a long time since I have read Orwell's books. Many, many years later I am going to re-read them. This is his second novel after Down and Out in Paris and London which I re-read lately and both books were published approximately only one year apart. However, from the very first paragraph, Burmese Days is a completely different writing style to Down and Out in Paris and London. It is far more descriptive and detailed of both characters and events. I know that the books are entirely different from the point of view of approach but not so much so that the writing style should also be so very much different from one another. There were also some very interesting characters in Down and Out in Paris and London which could easily have been developed. These are just my very initial thoughts.

Burmese Days is the story of the occupying English ruling class in a small outpost in Burma at that time. It is one man's struggle against the attitudes, arrogance and prejudice of the English and their treatment of the natives. These sentiments manifest themselves in the conversations among the various members of "The Club" where only white English planters are allowed to congregate each evening to be served by the "locals". This is interesting from an English perspective as we do not often get such truths on the social injustice of "The English Empire" and indeed how "Empire" should maintained very often from a dissenting English perspective.

There is also an interesting side story about the corruption of a local Burmese official and both of these parallel stories intersect. It can be an uncomfortable read but it is always a compelling one.

Sounds like I must get a copy.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 09, 2021, 09:00:27 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 09, 2021, 05:26:09 AM
You think of Down And Out as being a novel rather than memoir?

It is a work that's hard to fix in an exact genre.

That is a good point and well made  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 09, 2021, 09:01:53 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on June 09, 2021, 06:49:49 AM
Zero hours contract.

Yes, it is amazing how not many things fundamentally change with "Progress".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 09, 2021, 09:03:15 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 09, 2021, 06:51:09 AM

(https://livingwithliteraturee.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/0108_burmese_days__penguin_book_cover_-_1969_with_border.jpg?w=640)

Sounds like I must get a copy.  :)


It is a definite recommended read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 09, 2021, 04:24:45 PM
L'amant (The Lover), Marguerite Duras.
Innovative and delicate writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 10, 2021, 01:51:22 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 08, 2021, 10:42:36 PM
Yes - that was actually excellent. Murakami is clearly a close and careful listener, who was able to speak with Ozawa at Ozawa's level, which was a surprise as the way he talks about classical music or jazz in his novels is much lighter.

When I read that book, I thought "this guy is one of us"  ;D

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 08, 2021, 07:47:58 AM
'"Old and Fabulous Records of Classical Music" by Haruki Murakami will be published soon in this month.  This is a collection of essays on 486 classical music records he likes. Hope an English edition will be published soon.  Jfyi and I haven't read it yet.

https://tower.jp/article/feature_item/2021/05/19/1111

This looks amazing. Also hoping for an English translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 10, 2021, 02:10:55 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 09, 2021, 04:24:45 PM
L'amant (The Lover), Marguerite Duras.
Innovative and delicate writing.
A beautiful book, and one that deservedly catapulted Duras (who already had a very distinguished career behind her at the time) into literary mega-stardom.

A couple of years after L'amant was published, I wrote her a letter expressing my admiration for her work, and she was kind enough to answer (saying that she usually wouldn't reply to readers' letters, but that mine had "touched her for its sincerity and naturalness"  :)). Her framed letter hangs on my walls....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 10, 2021, 03:45:49 AM
That's kind of amazing, ritter!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 10, 2021, 07:36:29 AM
Quote from: ritter on June 10, 2021, 02:10:55 AM
A beautiful book, and one that deservedly catapulted Duras (who already had a very distinguished career behind her at the time) into literary mega-stardom.

A couple of years after L'amant was published, I wrote her a letter expressing my admiration for her work, and she was kind enough to answer (saying that she usually wouldn't reply to readers' letters, but that mine had "touched her for its sincerity and naturalness"  :)). Her framed letter hangs on my walls....

That's wonderful. I don't have anything like that. I like her writing style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 10, 2021, 10:05:28 AM
If Murakami is covering 486 records, there's a good chance I own at least two or three of them  ;D

Wonder if they tried convincing him to find 14 more.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on June 10, 2021, 10:44:07 AM
When the Wolf Rises,

An account of the Linebacker ll campaign written by one of the squadron commanders involved, G. Alan Dugard.

https://www.amazon.com/When-Wolf-Rises-Linebacker-Eleven-ebook/dp/B0792YJ3FZ

Dugard's writing is not overly polished, and his overuse of the exclamation point border's on the comical. Still, he is coherent and successfully presents a turning point in the Vietnam War from an insider's perspective.

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 10, 2021, 11:24:37 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 10, 2021, 10:05:28 AM
If Murakami is covering 486 records, there's a good chance I own at least two or three of them  ;D

Wonder if they tried convincing him to find 14 more.


I "think" (haven't read) that the essays are based on the compositions he likes, and he talks about various recordings per work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 10, 2021, 03:48:12 PM
I'm about a third of the way into Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51veW3WVCgL._SX367_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

So far so good; a very easy read. I think it was someone in this thread who first brought this book to my attention, but I've been wanting to read it for a couple months when I found it at Half Price Books the other day.

I have been struggling to finish books lately; I've started and left unfinished 3 or 4 since I last posted in this thread.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 10, 2021, 03:59:05 PM
Finished the book on Rwanda which was excellent, but needing something lighter so started:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328347479l/11858097.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 12, 2021, 05:28:44 AM
Almost halfway through the second volume of The Buddenbrooks and it gets better and better by the page. I can't believe I waited that much to read this magnificent book.

And since my habit is to read several books simultaneously, I also started this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51nTo2KKdOL._SX294_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 12, 2021, 07:42:05 AM
La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias), Alexandre Dumas Fils.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 12, 2021, 11:48:03 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 12, 2021, 07:42:05 AM
La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias), Alexandre Dumas Fils.

The weight of expectation for an author with a name like that  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 12, 2021, 02:54:53 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 12, 2021, 07:42:05 AM
La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias), Alexandre Dumas Fils.

Love the new avatar, DBK  ;D I have read no Dumas, père nor fils. What do you think of the book so far?

Keeping my reading mostly to the lighter side of things, I have started this short story collection by Haruki Murakami, a new favorite of mine:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41KiQOjMeDL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

So far, so good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 13, 2021, 05:22:32 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 12, 2021, 02:54:53 PM
Love the new avatar, DBK  ;D

I am trying to scare other members, especially Florestan  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 13, 2021, 05:25:28 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 12, 2021, 11:48:03 AM
The weight of expectation for an author with a name like that  ;D

Quote from: vers la flamme on June 12, 2021, 02:54:53 PM
I have read no Dumas, père nor fils. What do you think of the book so far?


Not a fun read. I used to like it when I was a high school kid though. His father is much better writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 13, 2021, 10:27:27 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 12, 2021, 02:54:53 PM
Love the new avatar, DBK  ;D I have read no Dumas, père nor fils. What do you think of the book so far?
Keeping my reading mostly to the lighter side of things, I have started this short story collection by Haruki Murakami, a new favorite of mine:
So far, so good.
I like this collection. Murakami has some great short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 14, 2021, 04:30:36 AM
Somerset Maugham: Theatre


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AR2eHssgL._SX348_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)   (https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/133554979650_/Theatre-Heron-Collected-Works-Of-Somerset-Maugham.jpg)


This novel traces the life, loves and triumphs of a famous female stage actress of her time. It traces the development of both her character and craft from humble beginnings to her total conquest or her realm. One of the interesting aspects of the novel is her own commentary of this development.
Maugham's consummate skill as a storyteller and a portrayer of character is once again very well portrayed here. The writing style is so fluid and the characters are so natural that the plot just flows so effortlessly that one seems to be watching it unfold visually in one's mind's eye.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 15, 2021, 05:50:15 AM
White Identity Politics, Ashley E. Jardina. More fun read than The Lady of the Camellia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 16, 2021, 02:29:49 AM
Hesse: Knulp


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1216435405l/1943736.jpg)



This is the story of a sophisticate who chose the life of a vagabond so that he could observe Life rather than participate in it. The writing style is quite sparse; there is not a wasted word to be found [I wonder if Hemmingway read Hesse?]. One does not overly engage with the main character as Hesse is curtly descriptive and quite dispassionate in his writing [certainly in this English translation]. This does not detract from an engaging narrative style. It was an enjoyable re-read as it is one of those novels that I previously read as a young man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 16, 2021, 02:40:16 AM
Sándor Márai's Embers

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51v2Se1mCAL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A classic of 20th century Hungarian literature if I understand correctly—I know nothing about Hungarian literature, but this came highly recommended. So far so good. Reflections on a world and a way of life that is burning to the end, as it were.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 16, 2021, 04:28:07 AM
Finished that one recently. Will be interesting to hear your thoughts.

By the way, has anyone read the latest international Booker Prize winner David Diop?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 16, 2021, 04:57:25 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 16, 2021, 02:29:49 AM
Hesse: Knulp


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1216435405l/1943736.jpg)



This is the story of a sophisticate who chose the life of a vagabond so that he could observe Life rather than participate in it. The writing style is quite sparse; there is not a wasted word to be found [I wonder if Hemmingway read Hesse?]. One does not overly engage with the main character as Hesse is curtly descriptive and quite dispassionate in his writing [certainly in this English translation]. This does not detract from an engaging narrative style. It was an enjoyable re-read as it is one of those novels that I previously read as a young man.

One of the very few Hesse novels I haven't read yet. Thanks for the comment !
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 16, 2021, 05:29:13 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 16, 2021, 02:29:49 AM
Hesse: Knulp


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1216435405l/1943736.jpg)



This is the story of a sophisticate who chose the life of a vagabond so that he could observe Life rather than participate in it. The writing style is quite sparse; there is not a wasted word to be found [I wonder if Hemmingway read Hesse?]. One does not overly engage with the main character as Hesse is curtly descriptive and quite dispassionate in his writing [certainly in this English translation]. This does not detract from an engaging narrative style. It was an enjoyable re-read as it is one of those novels that I previously read as a young man.

One of my favorite works by Hesse. Beautiful, and somehow innovative, story with a sophisticated, albeit deceptively simple, writing. I see the work as a prototype of Narcissus and Goldmund partially.
I am not sure about the relevance of the cover art. Doesn't matter, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 16, 2021, 05:37:23 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 16, 2021, 05:29:13 AM
One of my favorite works by Hesse. Beautiful, and somehow innovative, story with a sophisticated, albeit deceptively simple, writing. I see the work as a prototype of Narcissus and Goldmund partially.
I am not sure about the relevance of the cover art. Doesn't matter, though.

Indeed, that cover art makes me uncomfortable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 16, 2021, 07:54:17 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 16, 2021, 05:29:13 AM

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1216435405l/1943736.jpg)

One of my favorite works by Hesse. Beautiful, and somehow innovative, story with a sophisticated, albeit deceptively simple, writing. I see the work as a prototype of Narcissus and Goldmund partially.
I am not sure about the relevance of the cover art. Doesn't matter, though.

It actually has a lot of relevance if you remember the end of the book. I obviously don't want to give away any spoilers but it relates to where he revisits his his home town and in particular his father's garden.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 16, 2021, 07:56:19 AM
Ah, thanks for the clarification. He's looking back at his young days, I guess.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 16, 2021, 07:56:46 AM
Quote from: André on June 16, 2021, 04:57:25 AM
One of the very few Hesse novels I haven't read yet. Thanks for the comment !

It is quite a short book and will not take you long to read, André.


Quote
Quote from: André on June 16, 2021, 05:37:23 AM
Indeed, that cover art makes me uncomfortable.


It refers to a pointed and poignant moment in the story.



Quote from: André on June 16, 2021, 07:56:19 AM
Ah, thanks for the clarification. He's looking back at his young days, I guess.

I was being discreet on your behalf as you had not read it but you are correct  8)

It is the time that he is looking at in his younger days and what he felt then and now is the essence of his memory.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 16, 2021, 11:10:04 AM
I figured as much, but only after you opened my eyes with your comment. Sometimes it takes only a spark to light an entire room  ;).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 16, 2021, 12:35:18 PM
Quote from: André on June 16, 2021, 11:10:04 AM
I figured as much, but only after you opened my eyes with your comment. Sometimes it takes only a spark to light an entire room  ;).

It is definitely a recommended read, André.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 16, 2021, 12:40:32 PM
Thanks, I will. Here's the book I bought a couple of years back (still unopened):

(https://static.fnac-static.com/multimedia/FR/Images_Produits/FR/fnac.com/Visual_Principal_340/7/7/6/9782253132677/tsp20120929102253/Romans-et-nouvelles.jpg)

Contents:

ROMANS
Peter Camenzind / L'Ornière
Rosshalde / Knulp / Demian
Le Dernier Eté de Klingsor / Siddhartha
Enfance d'un magicien
Le Loup des steppes / Narcisse et Goldmund
Le Voyage en Orient
Le Jeu des Perles de Verre

Knulp, Le dernier été de Klingsor and Le Voyage en Orient are those I haven't read yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 16, 2021, 06:16:55 PM
Thank you for the clarification, Fergus and Andre. I will re-read Knulp next week. I am in the middle of Demian now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 16, 2021, 06:24:43 PM
Quote from: André on June 16, 2021, 12:40:32 PM
Thanks, I will. Here's the book I bought a couple of years back (still unopened):

Contents:

ROMANS
Peter Camenzind / L'Ornière
Rosshalde / Knulp / Demian
Le Dernier Eté de Klingsor / Siddhartha
Enfance d'un magicien
Le Loup des steppes / Narcisse et Goldmund
Le Voyage en Orient
Le Jeu des Perles de Verre

Knulp, Le dernier été de Klingsor and Le Voyage en Orient are those I haven't read yet.

I don't see Gertrude. Imho, it is a wonderful and enjoyable novella- a story of love triangle among an introverted composer, a passionate opera singer, and a girl of upper-class family.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 17, 2021, 01:57:56 AM
And here I thought I'd already read most of the good Hesse books already. I've only read Demian, Siddhartha, Narcissus & Goldmund, and the Fairy Tales. I have a lot of catching up to do. I've loved everything of his that I have read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 17, 2021, 02:25:47 AM
Quote from: André on June 16, 2021, 12:40:32 PM
Thanks, I will. Here's the book I bought a couple of years back (still unopened):

(https://static.fnac-static.com/multimedia/FR/Images_Produits/FR/fnac.com/Visual_Principal_340/7/7/6/9782253132677/tsp20120929102253/Romans-et-nouvelles.jpg)

Contents:

ROMANS
Peter Camenzind / L'Ornière
Rosshalde / Knulp / Demian
Le Dernier Eté de Klingsor / Siddhartha
Enfance d'un magicien
Le Loup des steppes / Narcisse et Goldmund
Le Voyage en Orient
Le Jeu des Perles de Verre

Knulp, Le dernier été de Klingsor and Le Voyage en Orient are those I haven't read yet.

So you have no excuse; you actually own it  ;D

It only takes a matter of hours to get through it  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 17, 2021, 02:27:12 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 17, 2021, 01:57:56 AM
And here I thought I'd already read most of the good Hesse books already. I've only read Demian, Siddhartha, Narcissus & Goldmund, and the Fairy Tales. I have a lot of catching up to do. I've loved everything of his that I have read.

So lots more to enjoy  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 17, 2021, 02:28:51 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 16, 2021, 06:16:55 PM
Thank you for the clarification, Fergus and Andre. I will re-read Knulp next week. I am in the middle of Demian now.

(https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=68.0;attach=74517;image)   (https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=68.0;attach=74518;image)


And I have read neither of those  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 17, 2021, 05:24:30 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 17, 2021, 02:28:51 AM
And I have read neither of those  ;D


The both are wonderful books. Demian is a psychological-surrealistic story of a young man/intelligentsia of upper-middle class family. The strangely attractive novel was significantly influenced by Carl Jung and his theories of synchronicity, symbols, collective unconscious, dream, etc. At the time of writing the novel, Hesse was receiving a psycho-analysis treatment from a psychiatrist who had been Jung's student. Later, however, Hesse would prefer Freud to Jung. Gertrude is an enjoyable story of romance and music.

Post Ed. Demian has an organist friend, who plays Bach, Max Reger, and Buxtehude. I imagine Hesse liked their organ music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 17, 2021, 06:08:38 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 17, 2021, 05:24:30 AM

The both are wonderful books. Demian is a psychological-surrealistic story of a young man/intelligentsia of upper-middle class family. The strangely attractive novel was significantly influenced by Carl Jung and his theories of synchronicity, symbols, collective unconscious, dream, etc. At the time of writing the novel, Hesse was receiving a psycho-analysis treatment from a physician who was Jung's student. Later, however, Hesse would prefer Freud to Jung. Gertrude is an enjoyable story of romance and music.

Cheers and thank you. They will both be read....eventually  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 17, 2021, 10:31:51 AM
Finished these books recently:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1622125320l/57029140._SY475_.jpg)
My second Vuillard book. Extremely short. 60 something pages. But it piqued my interested to read more about the Peasants war.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1530786857l/40724233._SY475_.jpg)
Collection of contemporary short horror stories from Argentina. Good diversion from the usual stuff I read.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554569217l/42600920._SY475_.jpg)
This was a very pleasant surprise. Beautiful book. Published in 1931. So it has that charming, frivolous, innocent tale and a very gloomy feel in the end, predicting the horrible events to come.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560604437l/45314102.jpg)
It was ok. Not as disturbing as the Big notebook that I read many many years ago.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1445393799l/26889792.jpg)
Disappointing, because this books just takes the style of Bernhard and uses it for a little over then 100 pages to critique the state of affairs in El Salvador. I will try to read something else by this author, because Latin American literature is one of my biggest passions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 17, 2021, 07:02:43 PM
Quote from: aligreto on June 17, 2021, 06:08:38 AM
Cheers and thank you. They will both be read....eventually  :)

Sounds good.  :D  I am in a similar situation. There are many books waiting on my reading list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 18, 2021, 01:33:41 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 17, 2021, 07:02:43 PM
Sounds good.  :D  I am in a similar situation. There are many books waiting on my reading list.

I cannot read and simultaneously listen to music. I must give my full attention to either one or the other. This is a real killer of both time and opportunity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on June 19, 2021, 06:24:31 AM
Some basic Stoicism ...

Epictetus:  The Enchiridion

Marcus Aurelius:  Meditations, (Introduction by Gregory Hays)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JCm18CdyL._SX313_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31cApotXMvS._SY264_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 19, 2021, 11:45:12 AM
Just finished this:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c5/TheGodThatFailed.JPG/220px-TheGodThatFailed.JPG)

My kudos to them all: six honest, sincere and intelligent people who eventually rejected Communism precisely because they were honest, sincere and intelligent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Stürmisch Bewegt on June 19, 2021, 12:41:07 PM
Quote from: aligreto on June 18, 2021, 01:33:41 AM
I cannot read and simultaneously listen to music. I must give my full attention to either one or the other. This is a real killer of both time and opportunity.

I can do it, but am quite aware that both suffer from such foolish multi-tasking.  I had a roommate once decades ago; he was training to be an X-Ray Technician.  He claimed that to study he needed to have the radio AND TV on.  (On reflection, I think they must have served to numb the pain of studying for him, which meant he wasn't studying at all).  He failed his licensing exam 3X, and so was barred from trying that test ever again.  Last I knew he was selling fire extinguishers...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 19, 2021, 12:44:32 PM
Quote from: Stürmisch Bewegt on June 19, 2021, 12:41:07 PM
I can do it, but am quite aware that both suffer from such foolish multi-tasking.  I had a roommate once decades ago; he was training to be an X-Ray Technician.  He claimed that to study he needed to have the radio AND TV on.  (On reflection, I think they must have served to numb the pain of studying for him, which meant he wasn't studying at all).  He failed his licensing exam 3X, and so was barred from trying that test ever again.  Last I knew he was selling fire extinguishers...

It is about concentration, isn't it  ;) Some have greater powers than others. The above is a sorry tale though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Stürmisch Bewegt on June 19, 2021, 12:53:20 PM
This afternoon I began - and with singular determination to complete in full - reading David Cairns' monumental two-vol. biography of Hector Berlioz, my hero and idol.  And no, Symphonie Fantastique will not be on in the background...nor the Roman Carnival Overture...

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 19, 2021, 01:29:03 PM
Quote from: Stürmisch Bewegt on June 19, 2021, 12:53:20 PM
This afternoon I began - and with singular determination to complete in full - reading David Cairns' monumental two-vol. biography of Hector Berlioz, my hero and idol.  And no, Symphonie Fantastique will not be on in the background...nor the Roman Carnival Overture...

(https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=68.0;attach=74612;image)


Interesting. I would be interested in your thoughts when you eventually finish it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 19, 2021, 01:53:25 PM
Issac's Storm (2011) by Erik Larson - about the early September 1900 'hurricane' that directly hit Galveston, TX causing over $100 billion dollars damage, adjusted to 2010 inflation and likely at least 8,000 deaths, the most deadliest natural disaster in USA history (see pic below, same link as in the quote). The book's name refers to Issac Cline (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Cline), chief National Weather Bureau meteorologist in Galveston at the time of the storm - he lost his pregnant wife and almost one of his three children; in his name, the National Weather Service offers the Isaac M. Cline Award as its highest honor.

The Eagle's Claw (2021) by Jeff Shaara - an historic 'novel' about the Battle of Midway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway) in early June, 1941 between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States early in WW II - one of the greatest sea battles of all time, plus the first that involved carrier based aircraft doing all of the fighting.  Dave :)

QuoteMore than $34 million in damage occurred throughout the United States, with about $30 million in Galveston County, Texas, alone. If a similar storm struck in 2010, damage would total approximately $104.33 billion (2010 USD), based on normalization. In comparison, the costliest United States hurricanes – Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017 – both caused about $125 billion in damage. (Source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Galveston_hurricane))

QuoteThe Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank J. Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chūichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondō near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that rendered their aircraft carriers irreparable. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare", while naval historian Craig Symonds called it "one of the most consequential naval engagements in world history, ranking alongside Salamis, Trafalgar, and Tsushima Strait, as both tactically decisive and strategically influential". (Link above)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PFoY49QTL.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nfdBX-lLL.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Classical-Music/i-s3tpVPK/0/8ba03be8/O/HurricaneDisasters.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on June 19, 2021, 02:35:49 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on June 19, 2021, 01:53:25 PM
Issac's Storm (2011) by Erik Larson - about the early September 1900 'hurricane' that directly hit Galveston, TX causing over $100 billion dollars damage, adjusted to 2010 inflation and likely at least 8,000 deaths, the most deadliest natural disaster in USA history (see pic below, same link as in the quote). The book's name refers to Issac Cline (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Cline), chief National Weather Bureau meteorologist in Galveston at the time of the storm - he lost his pregnant wife and almost one of his three children; in his name, the National Weather Service offers the Isaac M. Cline Award as its highest honor.

The Eagle's Claw (2021) by Jeff Shaara - an historic 'novel' about the Battle of Midway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway) in early June, 1941 between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States early in WW II - one of the greatest sea battles of all time, plus the first that involved carrier based aircraft doing all of the fighting.  Dave :)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PFoY49QTL.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nfdBX-lLL.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Classical-Music/i-s3tpVPK/0/8ba03be8/O/HurricaneDisasters.png)

A recommendation for anyone interested in the Battle of Midway who hasn't already had a crack at it:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shattered_Sword
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 19, 2021, 03:48:06 PM
I can't believe Jeff Shaara is still doing his thing writing novels about battles after something like 20 years - and all because his dad did it. Michael Shaara's novel about Gettysburg was remarkable, and then Jeff made it a trilogy about the Civil War. I actually met Jeff and got a book signed at Gettysburg in like 2003. Lost track about that time, however (he was in the middle of a series about the Revolution). Guess he is just doing all of America's wars.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 20, 2021, 03:37:25 AM
I finished Embers. I enjoyed it, though I found the resolution a bit anticlimactic—I guess that's the point.

Now reading Stefan Zweig's Chess Story

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MZ2sDlmTL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

So far, so good. A short book and so far an easy read, but Zweig's language is vivid.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 20, 2021, 04:48:36 AM
Orwell: Keep the Aspidistra Flying


(https://blackwells.co.uk/jacket/l/9780140016987.jpg)


This is the story of a man, Gordon Comstock, who comes from an impoverished middle class English family. His problem is that the family motto, even in their penury, was to "Make Good" by getting a "good" job". Comstock's main ambition in life is to get out of the money-worship cycle. He consciously walks out of two "good" jobs as a result of his principles and ends up as a lowly paid assistant in a book shop while he harbours ambitions to be a poet. He becomes that starving Poet in the garret.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 20, 2021, 06:15:30 AM
Quote from: Fëanor on June 19, 2021, 06:24:31 AM
Some basic Stoicism ...

Epictetus:  The Enchiridion

Marcus Aurelius:  Meditations, (Introduction by Gregory Hays)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JCm18CdyL._SX313_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31cApotXMvS._SY264_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)

My bibles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 20, 2021, 06:20:48 AM
I finished Chess Story. That was surprisingly really good! I am very impressed with Zweig's writing. Going to try and read more of his novellas.

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 20, 2021, 06:15:30 AM
My bibles.

I read Meditations back in high school, but I don't remember much of it. Time for a reread; I am interested in stoicism. Never read any Epictetus.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 20, 2021, 10:44:48 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 20, 2021, 03:37:25 AM
I finished Embers. I enjoyed it, though I found the resolution a bit anticlimactic—I guess that's the point.
That was my feeling too. The ending felt like he just needed to finish it quick and move on to something else.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on June 20, 2021, 10:58:07 AM
My daughter gave me this for Father's Day:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 20, 2021, 03:48:50 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on June 20, 2021, 10:58:07 AM
My daughter gave me this for Father's Day:
(//)

Happy Father's Day, Jeffrey. That's a nice book by great author!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 20, 2021, 03:51:54 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 20, 2021, 06:20:48 AM
I finished Chess Story. That was surprisingly really good! I am very impressed with Zweig's writing. Going to try and read more of his novellas.

I read Meditations back in high school, but I don't remember much of it. Time for a reread; I am interested in stoicism. Never read any Epictetus.

Epictetus is my favorite Stoic philosopher.  He and Michel Montaigne have provided me with solace and hope throughout my life. William Irvin's works from Oxford University Press explain and discuss core issues in Stoicism very well. The books are highly accessible and often entertaining, and they are well-reputed in populace, as well as academics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 20, 2021, 04:06:41 PM
Started this today:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41UDtUZnfYL._SX343_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto. I must admit, it's way, way better than I was expecting. A very visceral illustration of grief, from the perspective of a young woman. I'm impressed with Ms. Yoshimoto's writing and would love to read more. I'm about halfway done with this one.

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 20, 2021, 03:51:54 PM
Epictetus is my favorite Stoic philosopher.  He and Michel Montaigne have provided me with solace and hope throughout my life. William Irvin's works from Oxford University Press explain and discuss core issues in Stoicism very well. The books are highly accessible and often entertaining, and they are well-reputed in populace, as well as academics.

Thanks, man. I will have to put both William Irvine and Epictetus himself on the list, in addition to revisiting Marcus Aurelius.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on June 21, 2021, 05:07:13 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 20, 2021, 03:48:50 PM
Happy Father's Day, Jeffrey. That's a nice book by great author!
Thank you very much Manabu!
I've just about finished the first essay which I enjoyed reading. It confirms what I'd always believed about Italian Fascism - its lack of ideology and interest in achieving power by whatever method.

I love your new Avatar by the way!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 06:33:12 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 20, 2021, 04:06:41 PM
Started this today:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41UDtUZnfYL._SX343_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto. I must admit, it's way, way better than I was expecting. A very visceral illustration of grief, from the perspective of a young woman. I'm impressed with Ms. Yoshimoto's writing and would love to read more. I'm about halfway done with this one.


I read the book right after the publication when I was about your age. I am delighted to  see that you like the book. I remember that my friend, literary major student at a prestigious university (alma mater of H Murakami), and I positively discussed about the book several times. I should re-read it soon. Her father is a well-known social critic/philosopher Ryumei Yoshimoto, and her sister is a cartoonist Yoiko Haruno.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 06:35:18 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on June 21, 2021, 05:07:13 AM
Thank you very much Manabu!
I've just about finished the first essay which I enjoyed reading. It confirms what I'd always believed about Italian Fascism - its lack of ideology and interest in achieving power by whatever method.

I love your new Avatar by the way!

Sounds fascinating! For my job, I partly work on the characteristics and measurements of authoritarian personalities.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on June 21, 2021, 06:58:46 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 06:35:18 AM
Sounds fascinating! For my job, I partly work on the characteristics and measurements of authoritarian personalities.
How very interesting!
I've worked with a few of those in my time - not a pleasant experience.
I think that Godzilla definitely has an authoritarian personality  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 07:04:08 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 06:35:18 AM
Sounds fascinating! For my job, I partly work on the characteristics and measurements of authoritarian personalities.

Interesting. What are these characteristics and measurements?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 07:15:55 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on June 21, 2021, 05:07:13 AM
Thank you very much Manabu!
I've just about finished the first essay which I enjoyed reading. It confirms what I'd always believed about Italian Fascism - its lack of ideology and interest in achieving power by whatever method.

Otoh, lacking an ideology can mean that one is relatively less inclined to enforce one --- and indeed one can argue that, of the three classical totalitarian regimes (USSR, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy), the latter was relatively the most lenient and the least brutal and that life in the late 1930s Italy was relatively more relaxed and enjoyable than in Germany or Russia --- I for one at least I'd have very much prefererred to live in Rome rather than Moscow and Berlin back then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 08:03:32 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on June 21, 2021, 06:58:46 AM
I think that Godzilla definitely has an authoritarian personality  8)

;D ;D ;D
Godzilla, a product of nuclear waste, didn't like the industrialization and new order in the post-WW2 economic boom in Japan.
Godzilla is Nietzschean in that he is beyond good/evil dichotomy.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 08:19:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 07:15:55 AM
Otoh, lacking an ideology can mean that one is relatively less inclined to enforce one --- and indeed one can argue that, of the three classical totalitarian regimes (USSR, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy), the latter was relatively the most lenient and the least brutal and that life in the late 1930s Italy was relatively more relaxed and enjoyable than in Germany or Russia --- I for one at least I'd have very much prefererred to live in Rome rather than Moscow and Berlin back then.

You may possibly/partially be right about Italy. I think the movies, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (de Sica) and 1900 (Conformist as well, Bertolucci) depict the fascist Italy very well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 21, 2021, 08:38:42 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 08:19:50 AM
You may possibly/partially be right about Italy. I think the movies, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (de Sica) and 1900 (Conformist as well, Bertolucci) depict the fascist Italy very well.

Great movies indeed, although I clearly prefer Conformist and Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Two great performances by the enigmatic Dominique Sanda.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on June 21, 2021, 08:57:59 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 06:35:18 AM
Sounds fascinating! For my job, I partly work on the characteristics and measurements of authoritarian personalities.

My boss once came back from some management training course and asked if I thought he was authoritarian. So I replied "only when people don't agree with you". >:(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 09:25:00 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 08:19:50 AM
You may possibly/partially be right about Italy. I think the movies, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (de Sica) and 1900 (Conformist as well, Bertolucci) depict the fascist Italy very well.

Thank you very much for these recommendations, much appreciated. I will watch all of them asap.

One point to be stressed as well is that initially Mussolini was rather critical of Hitler and hoped for a rapprochement with British, American and French "democracies" --- it's only when the latter didn't come that he felt he had no choice other than totally allying himself with Hitler.

Btw, Dolfuss and Salazar were outspoken critics of Hitler and Nazism as well, all their life (the Austrian even paid his stance with his life); Franco, a brazen opportunist, welcomed Hitler's and Mussolini's aid but denied his own to them both --- unlikable, utterly despicable character as he was, it's arguable that he saved both Spain and Europe from being enslaved first by Stalin and then by Hitler.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 09:40:49 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on June 21, 2021, 08:57:59 AM
My boss once came back from some management training course and asked if I thought he was authoritarian. So I replied "only when people don't agree with you". >:(

;D

I would make a lousy dictator, because I would commute on the spot each and every death sentence to a 10-year prison term, and then after a week I'd proclaim a general amnesty. No, really --- I prefer chasing away, rather than kill, flies and mosquitos --- if and only if they won't fuck off I will kill them.

I would make a lousy liberal as well, because I would not defend a liberal order manu militari and I'd rather flee abroad than shooting my own people --- cf. King Louis-Philippe of France in 1848, after abdicating and fleeing to England: The Republic is fortunate, she can shoot at the people!

I guess that at the bottom of my heart I'm an Anarchist.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 09:51:00 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 08:19:50 AM
de Sica

Dear Vittorio, one of my favorite Italian actors and directors --- I just love his trilogy Panne, Amore e.... And Gina Lollobrigida is fantastic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 10:03:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 07:04:08 AM
Interesting. What are these characteristics and measurements?

Characteristics of authoritarian personalities:

-1 Propensity towards obedience and admiration of domineering leaders.
-2 Predilection for order. Eagerness to protect existing norms and values, and resentment to emerging or potential changes.
-3 Illusory view of a division between ingroups- the groups they think they belong to- and outgroups- the groups they think challenge them and the existing norms.  As a result, authoritarians often view ethnic and social minorities as outgroups, and therefore maintain negative feelings toward Jews, African Americans, homosexuals, and Arabs recently.

Measurements:

Decades ago, researchers used to ask the people with questions if the respondents believe that force is more important than laws, and if they are willing to follow a domineering leader, and/or punish individuals who don't adhere to conventional values without due process.  Today only few would say/admit that they do.

Today, a majority of researchers ask people with questions about childrearing values. In this method, responents' authoritarianism is often measured based on the responses to four questions about child-rearing. With each question, respondents are asked which of two traits are more important in children. The questions are based upon 1) independence or respect for their elders, 2) curiosity or good manners, 3) self-reliance or obedience, and 4) being considerate or being well-behaved.

          (Some researchers note that authoritarian personalities had a higher propensity to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.  According to a national poll conducted in December 2015, authoritarianism was significantly related to support for Trump in Republican primaries. However, authoritarianism was not related to support for other Republican candidates. Further, other researchers find a positive connection between authoritarianism and support for Trump in the 2016 general election as well.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 10:08:24 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 09:51:00 AM
Dear Vittorio, one of my favorite Italian actors and directors --- I just love his trilogy Panne, Amore e.... And Gina Lollobrigida is fantastic.

You will like the "Garden" with Dominique Sanda!  :) :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 21, 2021, 04:41:52 PM
Finished:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416pGFhAvHL.jpg)

Aliens: The World's Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Not a book about little green/grey men. This is a collection of essays by leading science writers about the state of work in each of their fields in everything from early evolutionary biology to astronomical spectroscopy (quite a bit on that) as it loosely connects to imagining / predicting "life" and how it may exist or develop in non-earth environments. A couple of authors do have a bit of fun with the total nonsense of the film and tv depiction of aliens. Unexpectedly excellent and often quite heady.


Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/410RTQezHYL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 06:15:43 PM
Quote from: André on June 21, 2021, 08:38:42 AM
Great movies indeed, although I clearly prefer Conformist and Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Two great performances by the enigmatic Dominique Sanda.

They all are great movies, and Dominique Sanda were great. I am a big fan of Romolo Valli, and he is in The Garden and 1900.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 22, 2021, 12:39:17 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 10:03:00 AM
Characteristics of authoritarian personalities:

-1 Propensity towards obedience and admiration of domineering leaders.
-2 Predilection for order. Eagerness to protect existing norms and values, and resentment to emerging or potential changes.
-3 Illusory view of a division between ingroups- the groups they think they belong to- and outgroups- the groups they think challenge them and the existing norms.  As a result, authoritarians often view ethnic and social minorities as outgroups, and therefore maintain negative feelings toward Jews, African Americans, homosexuals, and Arabs recently.

Measurements:

Decades ago, researchers used to ask the people with questions if the respondents believe that force is more important than laws, and if they are willing to follow a domineering leader, and/or punish individuals who don't adhere to conventional values without due process.  Today only few would say/admit that they do.

Today, a majority of researchers ask people with questions about childrearing values. In this method, responents' authoritarianism is often measured based on the responses to four questions about child-rearing. With each question, respondents are asked which of two traits are more important in children. The questions are based upon 1) independence or respect for their elders, 2) curiosity or good manners, 3) self-reliance or obedience, and 4) being considerate or being well-behaved.

          (Some researchers note that authoritarian personalities had a higher propensity to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.  According to a national poll conducted in December 2015, authoritarianism was significantly related to support for Trump in Republican primaries. However, authoritarianism was not related to support for other Republican candidates. Further, other researchers find a positive connection between authoritarianism and support for Trump in the 2016 general election as well.)

Thanks. Food for thought.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 22, 2021, 03:10:09 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 20, 2021, 04:06:41 PM
Started this today:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41UDtUZnfYL._SX343_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto. I must admit, it's way, way better than I was expecting. A very visceral illustration of grief, from the perspective of a young woman. I'm impressed with Ms. Yoshimoto's writing and would love to read more. I'm about halfway done with this one.

This book is just phenomenal, probably one of the best I've read all year. It consists, at least in my edition, of two novellas, one called "Kitchen" and the other called "Moonlight Shadow". I've only just started the second one (which is much shorter) but the first one really hit me hard. I can't believe what a beautiful story it was, and how much I got into the lives of its characters. Very, very well done. Sadly it seems most seem to rate Ms. Yoshimoto's other works well behind this one, but I will seek out more anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 22, 2021, 05:03:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 22, 2021, 12:39:17 AM
Thanks. Food for thought.

My pleasure. (I see you deleted the other response though I enjoyed reading it.)  :)


Quote from: vers la flamme on June 22, 2021, 03:10:09 AM
This book is just phenomenal, probably one of the best I've read all year. It consists, at least in my edition, of two novellas, one called "Kitchen" and the other called "Moonlight Shadow". I've only just started the second one (which is much shorter) but the first one really hit me hard. I can't believe what a beautiful story it was, and how much I got into the lives of its characters. Very, very well done. Sadly it seems most seem to rate Ms. Yoshimoto's other works well behind this one, but I will seek out more anyway.

Good to hear that!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 22, 2021, 06:29:53 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 22, 2021, 05:03:29 AM
My pleasure. (I see you deleted the other response though I enjoyed reading it.)  :)


Good to hear that!

Good to know you enjoyed it too back when it was first published. Worth a reread, I'd say, if you can find a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 22, 2021, 11:39:09 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 22, 2021, 05:03:29 AM
My pleasure. (I see you deleted the other response though I enjoyed reading it.)  :)

Yeah, I thought I might have come up as a mere contrarian and some things could have been interpreted the wrong way, not necessarily by you, so I deleted it but I will post a more carefully worded version if you don't mind.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 24, 2021, 01:58:41 AM
I just finished Stefan Zweig's Journey into the Past.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41OwNddkdML._AC_SY780_.jpg)

I enjoyed this one a lot, if perhaps not as much as the only other Zweig I've read, the famous Chess Story (aka The Royal Game). A short book, but full of interesting reflections on love, war, memory, and the passage of time. I'm very impressed with Zweig's writing and want to read more and more of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 25, 2021, 04:47:51 AM
Somerset Maugham: The Mixture As Before


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/tcwAAOSwVexgYudA/s-l1600.png)


This is another excellent set of short stories. Maugham, as always, portrays wonderful characters very well. They are always true to life. It feels like he is sitting in your head and he is narrating the stories to you.
I also really like reading his occasional philosophy, particularly here as he was getting older.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 25, 2021, 07:30:01 AM
Embarking on Simone de Beauvoir's Les Mandarins.

(http://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/803/product_9782070205158_195x320.jpg)

Let's see...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 25, 2021, 10:01:51 AM
Music in the Eighteenth Century (Western Music in Context: A Norton History) (2012) by John A. Rice and Walter Frisch

Music in the Nineteenth Century (Western Music in Context: A Norton History) (2012) by Walter Frisch

About every 3-4 years, I like to read or re-read a 'general' history of classical music - own a number of these Norton and Oxford books and usually just buy the next edition, but both of these companies have become outrageously expensive (since these are 'college texts' typically) - SO, trying a different approach this time, i.e. RENTING on my Kindle app on the iPad - the 2 volumes above (part of a series) were just $19 each on Amazon and will be on my device through October (already half done w/ the 18th century) - when I finished the 19th century, maybe a Baroque rental?  The purchase price for the Kindle editions were $35 each (and of course more for a hard copy!).  Dave :)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Classical-Music/i-F35nSGK/0/4d50e948/O/Music18_19Centuries.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 25, 2021, 05:16:39 PM
Quote from: ritter on June 25, 2021, 07:30:01 AM
Embarking on Simone de Beauvoir's Les Mandarins.

(http://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/803/product_9782070205158_195x320.jpg)

Let's see...

One of my absolute favorite novels, read many times. I'll be very interested to hear what you think of it.


TD, started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BVnV4s7aL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: T. D. on June 25, 2021, 05:28:14 PM
In the (weird  ;) ) music sector, just finished this
(https://press.uchicago.edu/dam/ucp/books/jacket/978/02/26/73/9780226732107.jpg)
and started on this
(https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/images/9780252078873.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 26, 2021, 03:05:40 AM
Just dipping my toes in the water here...:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51bfILrnJZL._SX348_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Richard Taruskin's Music in the Nineteenth Century. It's a massive tome and I do not expect to finish it anytime soon. But it is an interesting read. The first chapter is all about debunking the myth of Beethoven's primacy in the early decades of the century, and the argument that Rossini was equally as influential a force.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 26, 2021, 05:32:50 AM
Finished Hesse's Knulp.  The wonderful novella, apparently a prototype of Narcissus and Goldmund, is a story about an exceptionally talented drifter. Just like his other pre-Demian novels, the mood is mostly melancholic and nostalgic. The book evinces Hesse's superb writing skills: especially I like the descriptions of Knulp's home town. Fine book.

I also read Demian which I used to like. Now I have a mixed feeling. Although the plot and the themes of mysticism and Jungian collective psychology are good ideas, the book talks about various theories and ideology too much. Now, reading Death in Venice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 26, 2021, 05:52:37 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 26, 2021, 05:32:50 AM
Finished Hesse's Knulp.  The wonderful novella, apparently a prototype of Narcissus and Goldmund, is a story about an exceptionally talented drifter. Just like his other pre-Demian novels, the mood is mostly melancholic and nostalgic. The book evinces Hesse's superb writing skills: especially I like the descriptions of Knulp's home town. Fine book.

I also read Demian which I used to like. Now I have a mixed feeling. Although the plot and the themes of mysticism and Jungian collective psychology are good ideas, the book talks about various theories and ideology too much. Now, reading Death in Venice.

Death in Venice absolutely blew me away last year, as did Buddenbrooks which I read immediately after. Not sure whether you've read it before or not, but I expect you're bound to enjoy it.

I'm awaiting two more Stefan Zweig novellas in the mail: Confusion and 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman. Can't wait to get into these. I am very much infatuated with Zweig's world and his writing style from the two very short books of his I have recently read, Chess Story and Journey into the Past.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 26, 2021, 06:18:43 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 26, 2021, 05:52:37 AM
Death in Venice absolutely blew me away last year, as did Buddenbrooks which I read immediately after. Not sure whether you've read it before or not, but I expect you're bound to enjoy it.

I'm awaiting two more Stefan Zweig novellas in the mail: Confusion and 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman. Can't wait to get into these. I am very much infatuated with Zweig's world and his writing style from the two very short books of his I have recently read, Chess Story and Journey into the Past.

Yes, I like Buddenbrooks. Luchino Visconti's movie, The Damned is partially based on the novel, while he directed Death in Venice as well. As for Zweig, I read his Casanova, Stendhal, Tolstoy a few years ago. It was a fun read, and I may re-read it soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 26, 2021, 06:31:44 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 26, 2021, 06:18:43 AM
Yes, I like Buddenbrooks. Luchino Visconti's movie, The Damned is partially based on the novel, while he directed Death in Venice as well. As for Zweig, I read his Casanova, Stendhal, Tolstoy a few years ago. It was a fun read, and I may re-read it soon.

Been meaning to see the Death in Venice film for a while now, but it will be a hard sell to get my girlfriend to watch it with me. I know you think highly of Visconti. Never heard of The Damned.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Finnish Author Mika Waltari and others
Post by: Cato on June 26, 2021, 06:34:51 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 26, 2021, 05:32:50 AM
Finished Hesse's Knulp.  The wonderful novella, apparently a prototype of Narcissus and Goldmund, is a story about an exceptionally talented drifter. Just like his other pre-Demian novels, the mood is mostly melancholic and nostalgic. The book evinces Hesse's superb writing skills: especially I like the descriptions of Knulp's home town. Fine book.

I also read Demian which I used to like. Now I have a mixed feeling. Although the plot and the themes of mysticism and Jungian collective psychology are good ideas, the book talks about various theories and ideology too much. Now, reading Death in Venice.

Hesse was big in the United States in the 1950's and '60's.  Thomas Mann's fame did not persist much into the later decades here, although books in general have faded from the "Kulcher."  When I was teaching German in a Catholic, all-boy high school, I used some of their short stories or excerpts from their novels in German III and IV.

Literary life in the era of aliteracy (a word coined appropriately c. 1980 at the beginning of the computer/Internet ear) and the era of Internet skimming seems moribund.  I was revisiting a controversy about a forgotten author named James Gould Cozzens and his attempt at literary fame in the late 1950's (i.e. By Love Possessed).    The book was so popular for a while that Time magazine placed Cozzens on a cover (a great honor at the time) of one issue.  However, a nay-saying review pointing out the turgidity of the (too often) vague and even impenetrable prose ( with examples from the book) ruined the rest of Cozzens' career.

"High-brow" vs. "Middle-brow" culture was a topic for debate for many years, and was central to the controversy above.  It has been eliminated by the triumph of aliterate The Kulcher, which makes such a controversy today about a book basically.

Anyway, I have wondered for a while about the BIG authors (best-sellers, movie contracts)  from yesteryear...who today are forgotten.

Have you heard of Lloyd C. Douglas, A.J.Cronin, John P. Marquand, Frank G. Slaughter,  Laura Z. Hobson, Thomas B. Costain (Middle initials apparently were often a prerequisite for being published back then  ;)  ?

Or Frank G. Slaughter, J.F. Powers, Irving Stone, ?

If so, then you are probably 70 years old or more!  8)

So, while visiting an antique store with Mrs. Cato,  I came across two books by once-famous and even lionized authors: The Darkness and the Dawn by Canadian-American Thomas B. Costain and The Roman by Finnish author Mika Waltari.

The former book deals with the end of the Roman Empire and Attila the Hun: it is an "okay" book.  Nicely researched, it offers the cliches of love-at-first-sight, a Romeo-and-Juliet love affair, and makes a villain out of the 5th-century Roman leader Aetius.  It is rather predictable, although not always.

Mika Waltari I recall being in the air fairly often: his book The Egyptian was made into a decent movie with a musical score shared by Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Newman.

No translator is mentioned for The Roman, which I have not yet finished, but find it more interesting - much more interesting - than the Costain book.

A question therefore to our Finnish members: is Mika Waltari still known in Finland?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 26, 2021, 06:35:53 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 26, 2021, 03:05:40 AM
Just dipping my toes in the water here...:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51bfILrnJZL._SX348_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Richard Taruskin's Music in the Nineteenth Century. It's a massive tome and I do not expect to finish it anytime soon. But it is an interesting read. The first chapter is all about debunking the myth of Beethoven's primacy in the early decades of the century, and the argument that Rossini was equally as influential a force.

Taruskin is my favorite musicologist / music-cum-cultural historian. Usually I find myself in perfect agreement with him --- that Oxford series is a real gem.   8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on June 26, 2021, 06:40:58 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 26, 2021, 06:31:44 AM
Been meaning to see the Death in Venice film for a while now, but it will be a hard sell to get my girlfriend to watch it with me. I know you think highly of Visconti. Never heard of The Damned.

The Damned is in turns campy, creepy, gothic melodrama, twisted political/military descent to hell, a study in abnormality and an actor's dream bunch of characters. Not my favourite Visconti, but only he could have pulled it off.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 26, 2021, 06:43:53 AM
Quote from: André on June 26, 2021, 06:40:58 AM
The Damned is in turns campy, creepy, gothic melodrama, twisted political/military descent to hell, a study in abnormality and an actor's dream bunch of characters. Not my favourite Visconti, but only he could have pulled it off.

+1. I don't recommend The Damned. Death in Venice is a great movie and nice introduction to Visconti's world. I wholeheartedly recommend it. Arguably Dirk Bogarde's best acting in his career.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Finnish Author Mika Waltari and others
Post by: Florestan on June 26, 2021, 06:54:36 AM
Quote from: Cato on June 26, 2021, 06:34:51 AM
Have you heard of Lloyd C. Douglas, A.J.Cronin, Irving Stone, ?

Yes. Not only heard of, but as a kid / youngster read several of their books from my parents' library (which is now mine by inheritance --- and I very much doubt that my son will read them...  :( ).

QuoteIf so, then you are probably 70 years old or more!  8)

I'll turn 49 come December 13...  8)

Quote
Mika Waltari

I have bought and read all his books that have been translated in Romanian. My favorite is The Dark Angel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Angel_(Waltari_novel)) --- but I enjoyed all others too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 26, 2021, 06:56:17 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 26, 2021, 06:31:44 AM
Been meaning to see the Death in Venice film for a while now, but it will be a hard sell to get my girlfriend to watch it with me. I know you think highly of Visconti. Never heard of The Damned.

If you cook lasagna, it may significantly help the plan!!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Finnish Author Mika Waltari and others
Post by: Cato on June 26, 2021, 07:11:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 26, 2021, 06:54:36 AM

Yes. Not only heard of, but as a kid / youngster read several of their books from my parents' library (which is now mine by inheritance --- and I very much doubt that my son will read them...  :( ).

I'll turn 49 come December 13...  8)

I have bought and read all his books that have been translated in Romanian. My favorite is The Dark Angel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Angel_(Waltari_novel)) --- but I enjoyed all others too.


You are an avis rara, Florestan, so good for you!   0:)

Many thanks for the recommendation!

If anyone might be interested in the James Gould Cozzens tempest, here is the review which ruined the rest of his career:

https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Books/Doomed/Blog/cozzens1.pdf (https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Books/Doomed/Blog/cozzens1.pdf)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Finnish Author Mika Waltari and others
Post by: Ganondorf on June 26, 2021, 07:40:02 AM
Quote from: Cato on June 26, 2021, 06:34:51 AM
A question therefore to our Finnish members: is Mika Waltari still known in Finland?

He is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Finnish Author Mika Waltari and others
Post by: Florestan on June 26, 2021, 07:50:25 AM
Quote from: Cato on June 26, 2021, 07:11:29 AM
You are an avis rara, Florestan 0:)

I know, Leo, I know! I really am! --- but hush! pride is a mortal sin...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Finnish Author Mika Waltari and others
Post by: Florestan on June 26, 2021, 07:51:05 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on June 26, 2021, 07:40:02 AM
He is.

I'm glad about that. He's a very good writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 26, 2021, 07:51:36 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 26, 2021, 06:35:53 AM
Taruskin is my favorite musicologist / music-cum-cultural historian. Usually I find myself in perfect agreement with him --- that Oxford series is a real gem.   8)

+1 Andrei - I own the books below, the general one w/ Gibbs as a hard copy, and the 17th/18th century book on my iPad.  I find his writing to be easily understood without too much going into details on printed scores (which lose me quickly) - Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51EJ2anYQHL._SX398_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xD8WkMbPL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 26, 2021, 07:56:40 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on June 26, 2021, 07:51:36 AM
+1 Andrei - I own the books below, the general one w/ Gibbs as a hard copy, and the 17th/18th century book on my iPad.  I find his writing to be easily understood without too much going into details on printed scores (which lose me quickly) - Dave :)


Yes --- plus he relishes challenging the received wisdom not for the sake of being a contrarian (which would be fine nevertheless) but with thoughtful and thought-provoking arguments (which is even better). No, really, he's hands down my favorite professional writer on music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Finnish Author Mika Waltari and others
Post by: JBS on June 26, 2021, 09:35:59 AM
Quote from: Cato on June 26, 2021, 06:34:51 AM
Hesse was big in the United States in the 1950's and '60's.  Thomas Mann's fame did not persist much into the later decades here, although books in general have faded from the "Kulcher."  When I was teaching German in a Catholic, all-boy high school, I used some of their short stories or excerpts from their novels in German III and IV.

Literary life in the era of aliteracy (a word coined appropriately c. 1980 at the beginning of the computer/Internet ear) and the era of Internet skimming seems moribund.  I was revisiting a controversy about a forgotten author named James Gould Cozzens and his attempt at literary fame in the late 1950's (i.e. By Love Possessed).    The book was so popular for a while that Time magazine placed Cozzens on a cover (a great honor at the time) of one issue.  However, a nay-saying review pointing out the turgidity of the (too often) vague and even impenetrable prose ( with examples from the book) ruined the rest of Cozzens' career.

"High-brow" vs. "Middle-brow" culture was a topic for debate for many years, and was central to the controversy above.  It has been eliminated by the triumph of aliterate The Kulcher, which makes such a controversy today about a book basically.

Anyway, I have wondered for a while about the BIG authors (best-sellers, movie contracts)  from yesteryear...who today are forgotten.

Have you heard of Lloyd C. Douglas, A.J.Cronin, John P. Marquand, Frank G. Slaughter,  Laura Z. Hobson, Thomas B. Costain (Middle initials apparently were often a prerequisite for being published back then  ;)  ?

Or Frank G. Slaughter, J.F. Powers, Irving Stone, ?

If so, then you are probably 70 years old or more!  8)

So, while visiting an antique store with Mrs. Cato,  I came across two books by once-famous and even lionized authors: The Darkness and the Dawn by Canadian-American Thomas B. Costain and The Roman by Finnish author Mika Waltari.

The former book deals with the end of the Roman Empire and Attila the Hun: it is an "okay" book.  Nicely researched, it offers the cliches of love-at-first-sight, a Romeo-and-Juliet love affair, and makes a villain out of the 5th-century Roman leader Aetius.  It is rather predictable, although not always.

Mika Waltari I recall being in the air fairly often: his book The Egyptian was made into a decent movie with a musical score shared by Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Newman.

No translator is mentioned for The Roman, which I have not yet finished, but find it more interesting - much more interesting - than the Costain book.

A question therefore to our Finnish members: is Mika Waltari still known in Finland?

I remember reading The Roman when I was a teenager, but remember very little of it.
I never read the Costain novel you are reading, but his massive The Tontine, set in 19th century England, is very good; I read it more than once.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Finnish Author Mika Waltari and others
Post by: T. D. on June 26, 2021, 10:16:12 AM
Quote from: Cato on June 26, 2021, 06:34:51 AM
Hesse was big in the United States in the 1950's and '60's.  Thomas Mann's fame did not persist much into the later decades here, although books in general have faded from the "Kulcher."  When I was teaching German in a Catholic, all-boy high school, I used some of their short stories or excerpts from their novels in German III and IV.

Literary life in the era of aliteracy (a word coined appropriately c. 1980 at the beginning of the computer/Internet ear) and the era of Internet skimming seems moribund.  I was revisiting a controversy about a forgotten author named James Gould Cozzens and his attempt at literary fame in the late 1950's (i.e. By Love Possessed).    The book was so popular for a while that Time magazine placed Cozzens on a cover (a great honor at the time) of one issue.  However, a nay-saying review pointing out the turgidity of the (too often) vague and even impenetrable prose ( with examples from the book) ruined the rest of Cozzens' career.

"High-brow" vs. "Middle-brow" culture was a topic for debate for many years, and was central to the controversy above.  It has been eliminated by the triumph of aliterate The Kulcher, which makes such a controversy today about a book basically.

Anyway, I have wondered for a while about the BIG authors (best-sellers, movie contracts)  from yesteryear...who today are forgotten.

Have you heard of Lloyd C. Douglas, A.J.Cronin, John P. Marquand, Frank G. Slaughter,  Laura Z. Hobson, Thomas B. Costain (Middle initials apparently were often a prerequisite for being published back then  ;)  ?

Or Frank G. Slaughter, J.F. Powers, Irving Stone, ?

If so, then you are probably 70 years old or more!  8)

...

Hesse was popular in the US well into the '70s. Some of his novels were highly regarded by the "counterculture", see for instance https://www.newstatesman.com/2018/12/Hermann-hesse-Wanderer-Shadow-Gunnar-Decker-review . When I was in college (74-78), he was still rather trendy.

I recognize most of the other names from library shelves, but don't recall reading any of their works. Many of Costain's titles look interesting, but I wasn't much into historical fiction when he was a bigger deal. Irving Stone was extremely popular when I was growing up. His biographical novels Lust for Life* (van Gogh) and The Agony and the Ecstasy (Michelangelo) were especially prominent; I considered reading them at various times but never got around to it.

*I wonder whether Iggy Pop might have been influenced by this... ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading? Finnish Author Mika Waltari and others
Post by: Cato on June 26, 2021, 10:32:29 AM
Concerning whether Mika Waltari is still a force in Finland's literary life:

Quote from: Ganondorf on June 26, 2021, 07:40:02 AM

He is.



Good to know!


Quote from: Florestan on June 26, 2021, 07:50:25 AM

I know, Leo, I know! I really am! --- but hush! pride is a mortal sin...




Well, a little bit of pride is quite fine!  It is a matter of the dosage!  8)



Quote from: JBS on June 26, 2021, 09:35:59 AM

I remember reading The Roman when I was a teenager, but remember very little of it.

I never read the Costain novel you are reading, but his massive The Tontine, set in 19th century England, is very good; I read it more than once.



That is a recommendation!


Quote from: T. D. on June 26, 2021, 10:16:12 AM

I recognize most of the other names from library shelves, but don't recall reading any of their works. Many of Costain's titles look interesting, but I wasn't much into historical fiction when he was a bigger deal.

Irving Stone was extremely popular when I was growing up. His biographical novels Lust for Life* (van Gogh) and The Agony and the Ecstasy (Michelangelo) were especially prominent; I considered reading them at various times but never got around to it.


Certainly the movies - the former with Kirk Douglas and the latter with Charlton Heston (as Michelangelo) and Rex Harrison (as Pope Julius) - are excellent!


Many thanks for all the nice comments!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 26, 2021, 11:42:33 AM
Did Hesse ever stop being popular in the US among young people? I went to college in the 2010s, and Hesse was one of the more popular authors among my classmates.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on June 26, 2021, 03:41:28 PM
I went through a " Hessian " phase during the early '80's, and picked up a German edition of Steppenwolf while in either Germany or Austria. Alas, l put him aside for historical non-fiction, and never got back to him...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: foxandpeng on June 26, 2021, 03:55:50 PM
Ted Hughes. Collected Poems.

Nothing more to be said.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 26, 2021, 04:10:22 PM
Stefan Zweig, Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51A7YYUbQvL._SX356_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

So much rich detail in Zweig's fiction; the prewar Europe he presents is so real, you can reach out and touch it. But that's not really what this book is about, it's a kind of psychological character study, something Zweig seemed to specialize in. This is my third Zweig novella and I'm enjoying it just as much as the other two. Kind of a random discovery; I wasn't expecting to enjoy this author so much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 26, 2021, 06:10:49 PM
Quote from: foxandpeng on June 26, 2021, 03:55:50 PM
Ted Hughes. Collected Poems.

Nothing more to be said.

Not just a great poet but a brilliant reader. I used to have a recording of him reading his own Crow collection.

Also his reading of TS Eliot's Four Quartets, which is far superior to Eliot's own recording, as heretical as that sounds.

Looking now I see he's also recorded his own works in a set called The Thought Fox And Other Poems, which I was previously unaware of.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: foxandpeng on June 26, 2021, 09:01:18 PM
I find Hughes utterly captivating. His language, his take on the metaphysical and his life choices are all deeply fascinating. Oddly enough, yesterday I picked up the book written on his life by his brother Gerald, at a second hand book shop.

I will look out those recordings, thank you!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 27, 2021, 05:31:10 AM
Quote from: foxandpeng on June 26, 2021, 09:01:18 PM
Oddly enough, yesterday I picked up the book written on his life by his brother Gerald, at a second hand book shop.


Synchronicity, according to Carl Jung.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on June 27, 2021, 06:11:35 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 27, 2021, 05:31:10 AM
Synchronicity, according to Carl Jung.

Or anyone who notices what goes on around them. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 27, 2021, 06:46:34 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ItJjEms8L.jpg)

I started to read Sartre's letters to Simone de Beauvoir a couple of years ago, after reading a very positive recommendation from my favourite author, Pierre Bergounioux. But after the first few years, all before the war, I got bored by him and so put them aside.

Then last night I saw a documentary on Arte about de Beauvoir and it seemed as though their lives got really interesting after the war, so I thought I'd give vol, 2 a chance. And what do I find for the opening paragraph of the first letter? I'm not going to translate, if you don't read French suffice to say that it is scatalogically grotesque

QuoteJe vous écris du coin du feu, tout contre le poêle, bien qu'il fasse beaucoup plus doux à présent. Cette nuit, même, il a dégelé et, comme les conduites d'eau avaient éclaté l'avant-veille, Paul a été réveillé vers deux heures je dormais comme un juste par un ronflement. Il a cru que c'était le feu, mais c'était l'eau. Il s'est habillé à la hâte et précipité dans le couloir déjà inondé. Il y a eu tout un remue-ménage et finalement on a coupé l'eau. Nous n'avons plus la moindre goutte pour nous laver vous savez que ça ne me soucie guère. Ce n'est ennuyeux que pour les cabinets qu'on ne peut plus nettoyer et où des excréments de diverses provenances s'interpénètrent intimement au gré des gels et des dégels jusqu'à former un pudding immonde et volumineux. On « va» dans la campagne. Je crois que Paul en pâtit et se constipe par vergogne de montrer son cul.

Well if it's all like this I'll be like a pig in sh . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 27, 2021, 07:53:22 AM
For those interested, a small interview article (English) w/ Murakami about his Radio DJ activity. Soon, the article will start requiring subscription.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Arts/Haruki-Murakami-on-life-as-a-radio-DJ2
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on June 27, 2021, 09:44:02 AM
A pig in Shipley. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: foxandpeng on June 27, 2021, 09:51:33 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 27, 2021, 05:31:10 AM
Synchronicity, according to Carl Jung.

Indeed.

Quote from: steve ridgway on June 27, 2021, 06:11:35 AM
Or anyone who notices what goes on around them. ;)

Ha
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 27, 2021, 10:45:13 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on June 27, 2021, 06:46:34 AM

their lives got really interesting after the war,

Have you read The Mandarins?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 27, 2021, 10:47:15 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 27, 2021, 07:53:22 AM
For those interested, a small interview article (English) w/ Murakami about his Radio DJ activity. Soon, the article will start requiring subscription.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Arts/Haruki-Murakami-on-life-as-a-radio-DJ2
Thank you for sharing. From his recent books I thought he's been listening to more classical music. It's great to see his strong connection with jazz.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 27, 2021, 12:28:10 PM
Just started Stefan Zweig's Confusion.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/810pxkyDu8L.jpg)

Really good read so far. A wayward student is drawn toward the pursuit of academics (namely, English literature) by a charismatic professor, at a provincial college in prewar Germany. Very detailed writing. An easy, even kind of a cozy read. This is the fourth short novel by Zweig I've read thus far this month and I love each as much as the last. This one is significantly longer than the rest, and I reckon after this one I'll turn to one of his longer works.

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 27, 2021, 07:53:22 AM
For those interested, a small interview article (English) w/ Murakami about his Radio DJ activity. Soon, the article will start requiring subscription.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Arts/Haruki-Murakami-on-life-as-a-radio-DJ2

Interesting read, thanks. I didn't know he'd been dabbling in DJing his own radio show.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 27, 2021, 12:32:45 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 27, 2021, 10:45:13 AM
Have you read The Mandarins?

No, the only thing I've read is Memoires d'une jeune fille rangée. And that was donkeys years ago. I have The Second Sex somewhere in English.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 28, 2021, 05:43:11 PM
Finished reading Thomas Mann's Tristan. The work is one of Mann's better works and it was enjoyable read. Readers will enjoy Mann's dry/weird humor in the work. The theme is familiar- a story of intelligentsia who refuses to accept the banality of the world. However, the protagonist 'aggressively' challenges the worldly conventions. This is in a sharp contrast to Tonio Kreger, a talented and lonely upper-class artist who often yearns for mediocre people.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 29, 2021, 02:42:29 AM
Hesse: Wandering


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/S2wAAOSwLYRgh0JY/s-l1600.jpg)


Hesse crosses the Alps and heads down south into Italy. This is not merely a physical journey but also a spiritual and a metaphysical one as well. Hesse ponders Life and communes with Nature in an attempt to reconcile the two powerful and opposing forces in his life i.e. his longing for a home on the one hand and and his desire to wander the roads on the other hand. The book is also illustrated with his own sketches.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on June 29, 2021, 04:58:04 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 28, 2021, 05:43:11 PM
Finished reading Thomas Mann's Tristan. The work is one of Mann's better works and it was enjoyable read. Readers will enjoy Mann's dry/weird humor in the work. The theme is familiar- a story of intelligentsia who refuses to accept the banality of the world. However, the protagonist 'aggressively' challenges the worldly conventions. This is in a sharp contrast to Tonio Kreger, a talented and lonely upper-class artist who often yearns for mediocre people.

My library has been packed away, but I should revisit that story.  After the chaos of moving settles, I will try again to read all four novels of Joseph and His Brothers.  Long ago I read the last novel without knowing it was the 4th of 4, and thought it was quite fine.  But when I tried the first novel some years later, I found the book over-written and a snooze, which was not my usual reaction to something by Thomas Mann.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 29, 2021, 09:12:11 PM
Quote from: Cato on June 29, 2021, 04:58:04 PM
My library has been packed away, but I should revisit that story.  After the chaos of moving settles, I will try again to read all four novels of Joseph and His Brothers.  Long ago I read the last novel without knowing it was the 4th of 4, and thought it was quite fine.  But when I tried the first novel some years later, I found the book over-written and a snooze, which was not my usual reaction to something by Thomas Mann.

It's a good novella, but not as good as Tonio Kreger.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 29, 2021, 11:54:37 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 28, 2021, 05:43:11 PM
Finished reading Thomas Mann's Tristan. The work is one of Mann's better works and it was enjoyable read. Readers will enjoy Mann's dry/weird humor in the work. The theme is familiar- a story of intelligentsia who refuses to accept the banality of the world. However, the protagonist 'aggressively' challenges the worldly conventions. This is in a sharp contrast to Tonio Kreger, a talented and lonely upper-class artist who often yearns for mediocre people.

Thanks, I didn't even know this existed, I shall read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 30, 2021, 02:06:18 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on June 29, 2021, 11:54:37 PM
Thanks, I didn't even know this existed, I shall read it.

It's a quick read; I liked it too. I expect you'll enjoy it as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 30, 2021, 08:37:07 AM
Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard. Declining aristocracy and rising bourgeoisie. A repeated theme, but excellent and refined writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on June 30, 2021, 10:54:42 AM
Concerning Tristan by Thomas Mann...


Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 29, 2021, 09:12:11 PM
It's a good novella, but not as good as Tonio Kroeger.

Quote from: Mandryka on June 29, 2021, 11:54:37 PM
Thanks, I didn't even know this existed, I shall read it.

Quote from: vers la flamme on June 30, 2021, 02:06:18 AM
It's a quick read; I liked it too. I expect you'll enjoy it as well.


The opening sentence - with the exclamation point! - is both funny and intriguing.

As is the main character's name: note how the name Detlev Spinell is rather odd, the last name sounding more Italian than German, especially a man from Lemberg (Lvov). 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 30, 2021, 12:00:08 PM
Thank you for correcting my spelling of "Kreger."
While the original title is " Tonio Kröger," I haven't seen "Kroeger" in the Anglo-American sphere.
If you think the latter looks sharp and hip, I tend to agree and adopt this spell.
As usual, I maybe mixed up again though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 30, 2021, 02:18:17 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 30, 2021, 12:00:08 PM
Thank you for correcting my spelling of "Kreger."
While the original title is " Tonio Kröger," I haven't seen "Kroeger" in the Anglo-American sphere.
If you think the latter looks sharp and hip, I tend to agree and adopt this spell.
As usual, I maybe mixed up again though.

I haven't seen "Kroeger" specifically, but "oe" for "ö" is a fairly standard substitution in the Anglophone world (look at Arnold Schönberg for example who became Schoenberg when he emigrated to the States). I don't think Cato meant any pedantry in this particular instance.  ;D

Started yet another Stefan Zweig, this one much longer: Beware of Pity

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61P3U5pab+L.jpg)

So far so good. Another kind of comedy/tragedy of manners about a world that doesn't exist anymore: the multicultural utopia of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire—at least that's how Zweig seems to remember it, with rose-tinted glasses. What a brilliant writer; I'm quite obsessed.

I am definitely getting the feeling that our Florestan might enjoy Zweig's works, if he has not already read them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 30, 2021, 03:09:02 PM
Sounds good. I definitely prefer "Kroeger" to "Kreger."  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 30, 2021, 03:18:34 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 30, 2021, 03:09:02 PM
Sounds good. I definitely prefer "Kroeger" to "Kreger."  ;D

I read that last year, part of the same small anthology as contained aforementioned Tristan as well as Death in Venice. I loved Kröger and Death in Venice most of all, but there was a great short story called Gladius Dei that I also enjoyed very much. What an author. Definitely need to get back to The Magic Mountain soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 30, 2021, 03:33:59 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 30, 2021, 03:18:34 PM
I]but there was a great short story called Gladius Dei that I also enjoyed very much.

Yes, excellent and unforgettable work. More similar to Tristan than Tonio Kroeger. I like the work a lot.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on June 30, 2021, 03:47:21 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 30, 2021, 02:18:17 PM

I haven't seen "Kroeger" specifically, but "oe" for "ö" is a fairly standard substitution in the Anglophone world (look at Arnold Schönberg for example who became Schoenberg when he emigrated to the States). I don't think Cato meant any pedantry in this particular instance.  ;D



:D  True!  Whenever the umlaut is not readily available, the "e" can be added to show the sound.

And a big YES to anything by Stefan Zweig!

Quote from: vers la flamme on June 30, 2021, 03:18:34 PM

I read that last year, part of the same small anthology as contained aforementioned Tristan as well as Death in Venice. I loved Kröger and Death in Venice most of all, but there was a great short story called Gladius Dei that I also enjoyed very much. What an author. Definitely need to get back to The Magic Mountain soon.


Der Zauberberg beckons!   0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 01, 2021, 06:48:09 AM
Again re-reading some parts of Casanova's memoirs. Romance, fights, adventure, cultures, etc. in the 18th century European high-circles. Always fun read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 01, 2021, 08:51:16 AM
Today I borrowed R.L. Stevenson's Treasure island (in original English) and a collection of works by a writer who i haven't read much before: collection of short stories by Guy de Maupassant. Unfortunately I've already voluntarily spoiled myself of one of the most known twist endings of his oeuvre: the ending of The Necklace.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on July 01, 2021, 10:12:36 AM
Currently re-reading an old favorite, The Log fromThe Sea of Cortez, by John Steinbeck. Wonderful throughout, and the portrait of his friend, E.F. Ricketts, is unforgettable.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 03, 2021, 10:38:48 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 30, 2021, 02:18:17 PM
I am definitely getting the feeling that our Florestan might enjoy Zweig's works, if he has not already read them.

I read a few of his works and I liked them a lot (The World of Yesterday, Beware of Pity and a few novellas).

Speaking of the latter, I recommend you to read Buchmendel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 03, 2021, 10:40:41 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 01, 2021, 06:48:09 AM
Again re-reading some parts of Casanova's memoirs. Romance, fights, adventure, cultures, etc. in the 18th century European high-circles. Always fun read.

Indeed one of the best memoirs ever written, fun, witty and interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 03, 2021, 12:07:10 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 03, 2021, 10:40:41 AM
Indeed one of the best memoirs ever written, fun, witty and interesting.

Andre, have a great weekend with nice wine or beer, or the both!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 03, 2021, 12:11:43 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 03, 2021, 12:07:10 PM
Andre, have a great weekend with nice wine or beer, or the both!

Thanks! I'm currently on holiday at a Black Sea resort so beer and wine are on my daily diet by default.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 03, 2021, 12:34:31 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 03, 2021, 10:38:48 AM
I read a few of his works and I liked them a lot (The World of Yesterday, Beware of Pity and a few novellas).

Speaking of the latter, I recommend you to read Buchmendel.

Nice, I will check it out! I had a feeling Zweig's work would be right up your alley. I have read four of his novellas: Chess Story, Journey into the Past, 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman and Confusion, and I'm about a third of the way into Beware of Pity. Very good stuff

Quote from: Florestan on July 03, 2021, 12:11:43 PM
Thanks! I'm currently on holiday at a Black Sea resort so beer and wine are on my daily diet by default.  :D

Sounds like an amazing time, I'm jealous. Have a great weekend.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 03, 2021, 01:04:06 PM
Recently finished

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1617653906l/56303219._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421182832l/24484918.jpg)

Bove's book is a collection of short stories about loneliness and friendship. Albert and the Whale has a lot of interesting things about Durer. The writing is similar to Sebald. There's a kind of journey with Durer's art and his life and the life of the author of the book and people who were interested in Durer in some way. A lot about Mann too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 04, 2021, 08:24:57 AM
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Sillitoe. Cool and dope.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 05, 2021, 02:02:06 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 03, 2021, 12:11:43 PM
Thanks! I'm currently on holiday at a Black Sea resort so beer and wine are on my daily diet by default.  :D

Any good seafood at restaurants there? How are they in comparison to the seafood from the Aegean Sea? For years, I've been thinking about visiting a Black Sea coastal area either in Bulgaria or Turkey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 06, 2021, 07:43:18 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 05, 2021, 02:02:06 PM
Any good seafood at restaurants there? How are they in comparison to the seafood from the Aegean Sea? For years, I've been thinking about visiting a Black Sea coastal area either in Bulgaria or Turkey.
Caroline Eden's book Black Sea will really whet your appetite. It is a combination travel book, photography book, and cookbook. (Although the writing in her second book, about Central Asia, is even better.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 06, 2021, 09:02:05 AM
Thinking of perhaps borrowing Dostoyevsky's Demons from the library at some point. Read parts where he makes fun of Turgenev through the character of Karmazinov.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 06, 2021, 10:02:35 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 06, 2021, 07:43:18 AM
Caroline Eden's book Black Sea will really whet your appetite. It is a combination travel book, photography book, and cookbook. (Although the writing in her second book, about Central Asia, is even better.)

Irresistible. Both the books sound excellent. I will get copies.
P.s. I posted about the movie of The Tea House of August Moon. I have a feeling that you may like it.  :)



Quote from: Ganondorf on July 06, 2021, 09:02:05 AM
Thinking of perhaps borrowing Dostoyevsky's Demons from the library at some point. Read parts where he makes fun of Turgenev through the character of Karmazinov.

You should go ahead, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 07, 2021, 02:27:48 AM
Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays & Aphorisms

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q4jqWJFyL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Wow. Completely mind blowing stuff. I read this when I was in high school, but I think some of it went over my head at the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 07, 2021, 04:17:42 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 05, 2021, 02:02:06 PM
Any good seafood at restaurants there? How are they in comparison to the seafood from the Aegean Sea? For years, I've been thinking about visiting a Black Sea coastal area either in Bulgaria or Turkey.

For historical reasons seafood is not as popular în România as in Greece, Turkey or the Mediterranean. That being said, I love it and yesterday we hâd an excelent seafood dish at a restaurant near the well conserved ruins of the ancient city of Histria, some 30 km North away from where we are curently located.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 07, 2021, 06:21:30 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 07, 2021, 02:27:48 AM
Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays & Aphorisms

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q4jqWJFyL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Wow. Completely mind blowing stuff. I read this when I was in high school, but I think some of it went over my head at the time.


The portrait is on the wall, above my vacuum tube amp, in my reading/listening room.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 07, 2021, 06:25:13 AM
Douglas Stuart: Shuggie Bain


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sg1ZqjsJL.jpg)


This novel focuses on one family; Agnes, her husband and the three children in the era that was the Thatcher years in Britain with all of the social deprivation which that brought. Agnes is an idealist, spoilt as a child by her father, who wants more from life. Her husband is a philanderer. Agnes' life is spiralling out of control through alcoholism. Her husband decides to move out and abandon them. This story depicts the poverty, deprivation and the results of addiction on both the individual and their extended group in a detailed and realistic way. There is nothing that is pretty, pleasant or romantic about it. It is a realistic look at the underbelly of a [any] big city, its characters and its way of life. It can often be brutal but it is an excellent portrayal and an excellent book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 07, 2021, 06:27:56 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 07, 2021, 04:17:42 AM
For historical reasons seafood is not as popular în România as in Greece, Turkey or the Mediterranean. That being said, I love it and yesterday we hâd an excelent seafood dish at a restaurant near the well conserved ruins of the ancient city of Histria, some 30 km North away from where we are curently located.

Sounds wonderful! Have a great time there. You may like the book mentioned by Brian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 07, 2021, 02:24:55 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 07, 2021, 06:21:30 AM

The portrait is on the wall, above my vacuum tube amp, in my reading/listening room.

Ah, so I can assume his work spoke to you, too. I can't agree with everything he says, by any means, but a lot of what he says makes a lot of sense to me. (Speaking as someone with next to zero background in philosophy.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 07, 2021, 03:30:34 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 07, 2021, 02:24:55 PM
Ah, so I can assume his work spoke to you, too. I can't agree with everything he says, by any means, but a lot of what he says makes a lot of sense to me. (Speaking as someone with next to zero background in philosophy.)

Personally, Schopenhauer is the man who exerted most influence on me. Other influences include Hesse, Mann, Michel de Montaigne, Epictetus, La Rochefoucauld, etc. S's writing is simple and straight-ahead- no snake oil, no philosopher's stone. His philosophy largely encompasses worldly wisdoms (ie. your book etc.) and metaphysics (plus a little aesthetics and ethics.) For the former, S is substantially/partially with Stoics, Montaigne, Baltasar Gracian, etc. Apropos of the latter, his philosophy is an extension of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Kant said that the world we see and hear is merely an image/perception created by our brain (I am simplyfying.) The very real world independent of our perception/senses, that is independent of three dimensional space and unidimentional time, is unknowable (Kant) or "Will" (Schopenhauer.) As for the book you are reading, I think we have to forgive him for some of the things he says because of the time he lived.

I would like to read a (new) review by Florestan on S. S was admired by Hesse, Mann, Nietzsche, Wagner, Prokofiev, Einstein, Schrodinger, and many others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 07, 2021, 04:04:46 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 07, 2021, 03:30:34 PM
Personally, Schopenhauer is the man who exerted most influence on me. Other influences include Hesse, Mann, Michel de Montaigne, Epictetus, La Rochefoucauld, etc. S's writing is simple and straight-ahead- no snake oil, no philosopher's stone. His philosophy largely encompasses worldly wisdoms (ie. your book etc.) and metaphysics (plus a little aesthetics and ethics.) For the former, S is substantially/partially with Stoics, Montaigne, Baltasar Gracian, etc. Apropos of the latter, his philosophy is an extension of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Kant said that the world we see and hear is merely an image/perception created by our brain (I am simplyfying.) The very real world independent of our perception/senses, that is independent of three dimensional space and unidimentional time, is unknowable (Kant) or "Will" (Schopenhauer.) As for the book you are reading, I think we have to forgive him for some of the things he says because of the time he lived.

I would like to read a (new) review by Florestan on S. S was admired by Hesse, Mann, Nietzsche, Wagner, Prokofiev, Einstein, Schrodinger, and many others.

Very interesting. Thank you for your perspective on this very famous philosopher. Can I assume you've read the whole of The World as Will and Representation? I am curious to read it some day, but find the prospect daunting. I'd also love to read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, but baby steps.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 07, 2021, 04:40:43 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on July 06, 2021, 09:02:05 AM
Thinking of perhaps borrowing Dostoyevsky's Demons from the library at some point. Read parts where he makes fun of Turgenev through the character of Karmazinov.

I'm a big fan of that book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 07, 2021, 05:05:18 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 07, 2021, 04:04:46 PM
Very interesting. Thank you for your perspective on this very famous philosopher. Can I assume you've read the whole of The World as Will and Representation? I am curious to read it some day, but find the prospect daunting. I'd also love to read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, but baby steps.

Numerous times, I read the WWR and PP (Parerga and Paralipomena). I think your book (I have it too with many underlines) is a compilation of some chapters in the PP. The WWR and PP are phenomenal books that would be a great revelation and consolation to the readers. Still, if I may, I would like to suggest reading some introductory books first, that will save your time overall when you read the WWR and PP. They would include your book, Christopher Janaway (Oxford), Bryan Magee, and/or Alex Neill/Janaway (Blackwell.)

I like the book you are reading (it's a mini-PP!), and I hope you will have a good time reading the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 07, 2021, 05:07:39 PM
Half way through:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/ce/Manugactorinconsent2.jpg/220px-Manugactorinconsent2.jpg)

Read a lot of Chomsky in the 90's and thought this was one of them, but it seems I can't have - there's much here that would definitely have stuck even in my sieve-like memory.

Interesting approach of doing a very deep dive into a small handful of examples rather than the more usual scatter-gun approach. And the prose is highly polished.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 07, 2021, 05:07:48 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 07, 2021, 04:40:43 PM
I'm a big fan of that book.

Me too!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 08, 2021, 08:17:21 AM
About halfway through Mann's Joseph the Provider. Just finished the chapter regarding Tamar and what a section that was! Also freaking hilarious, Mann's dry dark humor is excellent. And, once again, one of these parts where reader knows more than a character, most masterfully depicted. This and the second part seem much more well balanced in that they don't feel overwritten the way the first and third parts did. I really do need the laughs that Joseph the Provider, has provided me, in high stress I am currently suffering from.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 08, 2021, 11:17:33 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on July 08, 2021, 08:17:21 AM
About halfway through Mann's Joseph the Provider. Just finished the chapter regarding Tamar and what a section that was! Also freaking hilarious, Mann's dry dark humor is excellent. And, once again, one of these parts where reader knows more than a character, most masterfully depicted. This and the second part seem much more well balanced in that they don't feel overwritten the way the first and third parts did. I really do need the laughs that Joseph the Provider, has provided me, in high stress I am currently suffering from.

Excellent read, Ganondorf !

I assume you have read the other books before Joseph the Provider ? The humour in the Joseph saga is all over the place. It's sometimes just hilarious as you mention (Judah's comical indecision concealing a foregone conclusion), sometimes stunningly theatrical, as in the recognition scene towards the end. One of the greatest books I've ever read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 08, 2021, 12:04:03 PM
Yes, I have read the other books.  I posted about other books under my previous accounts (Alberich and AlberichundHagen).  :) I guess I never explicitly said I am him although I never tried to hide it, I have referred To my earlier accounts' posts at some instances.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 08, 2021, 01:17:51 PM
The Idiot, Dostoevsky.
A social drama largely based upon a love 'rectangle' (not triangle) among Prince Myshkin, Nastasya, Aglaya, and Rogozhin. The tense, and volatile, relationships among them and the surrounding people are depicted very realistically, credibly and beautifully. As always, Dostoevsky skillfully presents a caricature of various, and ubiquitous, human characters such as opportunist, pathological lier, sycophant, nihilist, self-destructionist, schemer, etc. Personally I don't like Myshkin much, but I find Nastasya Filippovna very lively and attractive. Also, I hate Ganya- an ambitious and jealous mediocrity- so much. It's a wonderful read. When I was in high school, I preferred Tolstoy to Dostoevsky by a large margin. But now, it's totally opposite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on July 08, 2021, 02:05:19 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on July 08, 2021, 08:17:21 AM
About halfway through Mann's Joseph the Provider. Just finished the chapter regarding Tamar and what a section that was! Also freaking hilarious, Mann's dry dark humor is excellent. And, once again, one of these parts where reader knows more than a character, most masterfully depicted. This and the second part seem much more well balanced in that they don't feel overwritten the way the first and third parts did. I really do need the laughs that Joseph the Provider, has provided me, in high stress I am currently suffering from.

Many moons ago I came across Joseph the Provider and enjoyed it very much, similar to your experience!

When I started years later to read the entire book, I thought: "What happened?!  This is NOT like Joseph the Provider!"

"Overwritten" is the polite word!   8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 08, 2021, 02:33:37 PM
I haven't read Joseph and His Brothers. Is it enjoyable read even for atheist readers?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 08, 2021, 03:50:02 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on July 08, 2021, 12:04:03 PM
Yes, I have read the other books.  I posted about other books under my previous accounts (Alberich and AlberichundHagen).  :) I guess I never explicitly said I am him although I never tried to hide it, I have referred To my earlier accounts' posts at some instances.

Fine, thanks. Well, welcome back, even if you never totally left  :).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 08, 2021, 04:12:14 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 08, 2021, 02:33:37 PM
I haven't read Joseph and His Brothers. Is it enjoyable read even for atheist readers?

I don't know if I'll get into trouble with the Wall Street Journal, but here is an extract of an article I found on the book:

Quote
Anyone with the least literary pretensions has read one or another work by Thomas Mann. Some will have read "Buddenbrooks," his saga about a Baltic German mercantile family as its energy peters out; others, "The Magic Mountain," that most philosophical of novels, set in a tuberculosis sanitarium in Switzerland. One is likely to have encountered the novella "Death in Venice," or one of his many splendid short stories. But not many people, I suspect, will have read "Joseph and His Brothers," his 1,207-page tetralogy of rich and rewarding complexity.

I, a man of extravagant literary pretensions, had not read it until recently. Fifteen or so years ago, I made a run at it, but hit the wall roughly at page 60. What goaded me to take another shot was finding a clean copy at a used-book store. What I discovered is a true masterpiece of a most extraordinary kind. Not the least unusual thing about this vastly ambitious work is that Mann chose to tell a story that everyone already knows (...)

(the rest: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443343704577551340231008030 (https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443343704577551340231008030))

I think it's a fine description of what can happen if you attempt to read it: block or enter its uniquely alluring archaeological-historical-biblical world and get hooked. There is nothing religious about the tone or subject matter. It's a tale of human relations, from envy to lust, from deception to cunning, from vanity to keeping the moral high ground - all through a series of loosely interrelated stories. The very definition of a human saga.

God is never mentioned in the book. Monotheism was but a mere concept in those far away times, confusingly glimpsed by the main actors - from Abraham to Isaac, Jacob and Joseph - but they all relied more on their own cunning and intelligence to get through tough situations. In the case of Joseph, a combination of unabashed vanity to sheer luck and striking good looks served him well in his adventures.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 08, 2021, 05:02:52 PM
Quote from: André on July 08, 2021, 04:12:14 PM
I don't know if I'll get into trouble with the Wall Street Journal, but here is an extract of an article I found on the book:

(the rest: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443343704577551340231008030 (https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443343704577551340231008030))

I think it's a fine description of what can happen if you attempt to read it: block or enter its uniquely alluring archaeological-historical-biblical world and get hooked. There is nothing religious about the tone or subject matter. It's a tale of human relations, from envy to lust, from deception to cunning, from vanity to keeping the moral high ground - all through a series of loosely interrelated stories. The very definition of a human saga.

God is never mentioned in the book. Monotheism was but a mere concept in those far away times, confusingly glimpsed by the main actors - from Abraham to Isaac, Jacob and Joseph - but they all relied more on their own cunning and intelligence to get through tough situations. In the case of Joseph, a combination of unabashed vanity to sheer luck and striking good looks served him well in his adventures.

Andre, I appreciate your characteristically clear and insightful explanation. Sounds like I should look for a copy. I have read Quo Vadis a few times, and I liked it. Probably I will like this book as well. Thank you very much for your suggestion.

P.s. I read 5 paragraphs of the article, which is good as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 08, 2021, 07:02:27 PM
Quote from: André on July 08, 2021, 03:50:02 PM
Fine, thanks. Well, welcome back, even if you never totally left  :).

Thanks!  :) I actually really was a few months off because at the start of the year I moved To a new apartment and bought a new computer and had once again troubles signing in here so I spent a couple of months at least offline before creating a New nickname. 😀
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 08, 2021, 07:07:21 PM
Quote from: André on July 08, 2021, 04:12:14 PM
I don't know if I'll get into trouble with the Wall Street Journal, but here is an extract of an article I found on the book:

(the rest: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443343704577551340231008030 (https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443343704577551340231008030))

I think it's a fine description of what can happen if you attempt to read it: block or enter its uniquely alluring archaeological-historical-biblical world and get hooked. There is nothing religious about the tone or subject matter. It's a tale of human relations, from envy to lust, from deception to cunning, from vanity to keeping the moral high ground - all through a series of loosely interrelated stories. The very definition of a human saga.

God is never mentioned in the book. Monotheism was but a mere concept in those far away times, confusingly glimpsed by the main actors - from Abraham to Isaac, Jacob and Joseph - but they all relied more on their own cunning and intelligence to get through tough situations. In the case of Joseph, a combination of unabashed vanity to sheer luck and striking good looks served him well in his adventures.

Exceptionally finely written, my friend!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 09, 2021, 05:32:11 AM
For those who are interested, Tower Records Japan discloses (and sells) the 72 available recordings specifically mentioned in Haruki Murakami's "Old and Wonderful Classical Records."  I "think" this means that 414 LP records mentioned by Murakami are not available in CD format. https://tower.jp/article/campaign/2021/07/07/03

Accordingly, at the bottom of the page, there are lists of all the 100 works mentioned in the book, followed by the "relevant" discs. So you will know what works he talked about. I think that these discs feature the recorded works specifically discussed in the book, rather than the discussed compositions played by somebody else. But the text on the web site is vague, confusing, and misleading. If I misunderstood, I apologize. Anyway, these 100 works are Murakami's favorites discussed in the book, I assume.

The customer rating on the book at Amazon jp is currently 4.1. Many customers say that the selection of records in the book is very biased and they like it. Some say that the pictures of records are too small. If you want to read the reviews, please use the Google translate (60-70% accuracy) for the link below. Have a great weekend!

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%8F%A4%E3%81%8F%E3%81%A6%E7%B4%A0%E6%95%B5%E3%81%AA%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B7%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1-%E6%9D%91%E4%B8%8A-%E6%98%A5%E6%A8%B9/dp/4163913831
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 09, 2021, 09:19:33 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on July 08, 2021, 07:02:27 PM
Thanks!  :) I actually really was a few months off because at the start of the year I moved To a new apartment and bought a new computer and had once again troubles signing in here so I spent a couple of months at least offline before creating a New nickname. 😀

Welcome back!!  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 09, 2021, 09:34:54 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 09, 2021, 09:19:33 AM
Welcome back!!  :)

Thank you! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 09, 2021, 11:54:13 AM
Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization (2021) by Edward Slingerland - fascinating story of alcohol and civilization - brief description quoted below (check link for more and also Amazon comments) - Dave :)

QuoteDrunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically-grounded explanation for our love of alcohol. Drawing on evidence from archaeology, history, cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social psychology, literature, and genetics, Slingerland shows that our taste for chemical intoxicants is not an evolutionary mistake, as we are so often told. In fact, intoxication helps solve a number of distinctively human challenges: enhancing creativity, alleviating stress, building trust, and pulling off the miracle of getting fiercely tribal primates to cooperate with strangers. Our desire to get drunk, along with the individual and social benefits provided by drunkenness, played a crucial role in sparking the rise of the first large-scale societies. We would not have civilization without intoxication (Source (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55643282-drunk?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=XAqmibsU5q&rank=11)).

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51l4bsZ6pCS.jpg)  (https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6035b1ca9bf6674bc4d35485/1614711204476-H0I5Z61KFESYUW5GO4T1/edward-slingerland-outside-with-wine.jpg?format=1000w)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 09, 2021, 02:21:56 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on July 09, 2021, 11:54:13 AM
Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization (2021) by Edward Slingerland - fascinating story of alcohol and civilization - brief description quoted below (check link for more and also Amazon comments) - Dave :)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51l4bsZ6pCS.jpg)  (https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6035b1ca9bf6674bc4d35485/1614711204476-H0I5Z61KFESYUW5GO4T1/edward-slingerland-outside-with-wine.jpg?format=1000w)

I have not seen it, Dave, but I would think that "Primitive and Uncivilized" societies were well acquainted with alcohol  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 09, 2021, 02:41:01 PM
Quote from: aligreto on July 09, 2021, 02:21:56 PM
I have not seen it, Dave, but I would think that "Primitive and Uncivilized" societies were well acquainted with alcohol  ;D

I heard that even some monkeys make alcoholic drink and drink it. Maybe some other animals too.

The book looks very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 09, 2021, 02:54:42 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 09, 2021, 02:41:01 PM
I heard that even some monkeys make alcoholic drink and drink it. Maybe some other animals too.


We are supposedly related genetically so I am not too surprised by that. Good for them  ;D
Perhaps we could all mingle together, somewhere, sometime sharing their drinks. I think that would be a very interesting and fruitful experience for us  ;)
I would certainly volunteer for that assignment. I think that it certainly would be beneficial for "Humanity".  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 09, 2021, 03:06:46 PM
Quote from: aligreto on July 09, 2021, 02:54:42 PM
We are supposedly related genetically so I am not too surprised by that. Good for them  ;D
Perhaps we could all mingle together, somewhere, sometime sharing their drinks. I think that would be a very interesting and fruitful experience for us  ;)
I would certainly volunteer for that assignment. I think that it certainly would be beneficial for "Humanity".  ;)

I only know Churchill and Boris Yeltsin as for the examples of great/competent individuals who were also heavy drinkers. Do you happen to know any others? Any composers/conductors who were heavy drinkers?
I was just curious about the qualification of the author, and I googled him. The guy is a real deal. He published several academic books from Oxford and Cambridge University Presses. This book must be authentic and very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 09, 2021, 03:19:00 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 09, 2021, 03:06:46 PM
I only know Churchill and Boris Yeltsin as for the examples of great/competent individuals who were also heavy drinkers. Do you happen to know any others? Any composers/conductors who were heavy drinkers?
I was just curious about the qualification of the author, and I googled him. The guy is a real deal. He published several academic books from Oxford and Cambridge University Presses. This book must be authentic and very good.

Three well known names occur to me immediately, i.e. the great Sibelius, the Irish genius that was Seán O'Riada and the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 09, 2021, 03:33:26 PM
Quote from: aligreto on July 09, 2021, 03:19:00 PM
Three well known names occur to me immediately, i.e. the great Sibelius, the Irish genius that was Seán O'Riada and the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

I didn't know that they were drinkers. I apologize my ignorance, but I must check out the music by Seán O'Riada. Thank you for the info.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 09, 2021, 03:57:51 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on July 09, 2021, 11:54:13 AM
Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization (2021) by Edward Slingerland - fascinating story of alcohol and civilization - brief description quoted below (check link for more and also Amazon comments) - Dave :)
I take it you recommend? I read a favorable review somewhere recently (perhaps the NY Times) and am definitely very interested.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 09, 2021, 07:26:54 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 09, 2021, 03:57:51 PM
I take it you recommend? I read a favorable review somewhere recently (perhaps the NY Times) and am definitely very interested.

Hi Guys - did not think that my post would get SUCH a response, but Slingerland knows his field and has done a lot of research - quote below from Amazon.  The book is fascinating and looks at alcohol, i.e. ethanol (and other mind changing intoxicants) from both a human and non-human perspective - if the descriptions in my links and the topic is of interest, then a strong recommendation from me.  Dave :)

QuoteEdward Slingerland is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, with adjunct appointments in Psychology and Philosophy, as well as Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Evolution, Cognition and Culture and Director of the Database of Religious History. Slingerland is the author of Trying Not to Try, which was named one of the best books of 2014 by The Guardian and Brain Pickings and was the subject of a piece by John Tierney in the New York Times. He has given talks on the science and power of spontaneity at a variety of venues across the world, including TEDx Maastricht and two Google campuses, and has done numerous interviews on TV, radio, blogs, and podcasts, including NPR, the BBC World Service and the CBC.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 10, 2021, 01:22:37 AM
There were too many heavy drinkers or borderline alcoholics among artists to keep track of. Of course, in many cases the historical record is not so clear. E.g. apparently we have information about Goethe (and also Beethoven) drinking around 1-2 bottles of wine everyday but Goethe certainly enjoyed a long healthy life for his age and was incredibly productive.
Mussorgsky drank himself to an early death, E.T.A. Hoffmann likewise, Schumann was probably at least a borderline alcoholic in some phases of his life, maybe also Friedemann Bach (although his life is so shrouded in rumours it is hard to tell). I have read the hypothesis that Mozart composed that introduction to a symphony and violin/viola duets to cover up that Michael Haydn had been too drunk to get the work, and although this has probably been debunked in the meanwhile there was also the hypothesis that Mozart's financial problems were related to drinking and gambling. Glasunov (some credit the failure of the Rachmaninoff symphony conducted by Glasunov to him having been drunk)

Of moderately famous dipsomaniac conductors: Franz Konwitschny, Wyn Morris (and probably lots of Russians... SCNR)

I have no statistics but I do think that alcoholism (or borderline sub-clinical abuse of alcohol) was worse in the 19th and until the mid-20th century than it is today (at least in the West, probably developing nations have more than made up the deficit).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 10, 2021, 05:42:52 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 10, 2021, 01:22:37 AM
Of moderately famous dipsomaniac conductors: Franz Konwitschny, Wyn Morris (and probably lots of Russians... SCNR)

I have no statistics but I do think that alcoholism (or borderline sub-clinical abuse of alcohol) was worse in the 19th and until the mid-20th century than it is today (at least in the West, probably developing nations have more than made up the deficit).
Alexander Gibson, Antonio de Almeida.

Alcoholism in the United States peaked in the 1820s-1850s, when, generally speaking, frankly everyone was constantly drunk. Six gallons of pure alcohol per person per year (or around 10ish gallons of whiskey, rotgut, and other distilled spirits), three times our rate today. And well before that, in 1758, George Washington ran for the Virginia House of Burgesses and gave away booze to voters (he won, of course). He included in his campaign expenses approx. 1 pint of beer, 1 glass of wine, and 1 PINT of rum - per eligible voter in his district!
(Source on that: Susan Cheever's Drinking in America)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 10, 2021, 05:58:30 AM
I've heard Fritz Wunderlich was something of a notorious drunk, possibly contributing to his tragic early death.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 10, 2021, 06:36:40 AM
And Jackson Pollock too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 10, 2021, 06:47:58 AM
Quote from: Artem on July 10, 2021, 06:36:40 AM
And Jackson Pollock too.
When we get to writers, it might be easier to list writers who were NOT alcoholics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 10, 2021, 08:18:01 AM
I'd expect pre-Pollock painters to be among the less frequently drunk artists, though... Maybe sculptors must be the most sober because it's too dangerous otherwise...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 10, 2021, 09:42:18 AM
 ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on July 10, 2021, 10:26:51 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 10, 2021, 01:22:37 AM...Of moderately famous dipsomaniac conductors: Franz Konwitschny, Wyn Morris (and probably lots of Russians... SCNR)...

John Barbirolli as well, or so I've read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 10, 2021, 12:06:29 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 10, 2021, 05:42:52 AM
Alexander Gibson, Antonio de Almeida.

Alcoholism in the United States peaked in the 1820s-1850s, when, generally speaking, frankly everyone was constantly drunk. Six gallons of pure alcohol per person per year (or around 10ish gallons of whiskey, rotgut, and other distilled spirits), three times our rate today. And well before that, in 1758, George Washington ran for the Virginia House of Burgesses and gave away booze to voters (he won, of course). He included in his campaign expenses approx. 1 pint of beer, 1 glass of wine, and 1 PINT of rum - per eligible voter in his district!
(Source on that: Susan Cheever's Drinking in America)

de Almeida is one of the conductors I like. Plus, he had an interesting life. Before pursuing music, AdA studied nuclear chemistry at MIT. The Portuguese American, who used to live in Argentina as well, eventually chose to become French citizen. I like the recordings with him, both from major and budget labels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 10, 2021, 01:14:54 PM
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good & Evil

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ND61b-wqL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Felt like reading a bit more German philosophy. Must say that Nietzsche goes over my head a bit more than does Schopenhauer. Must also reiterate that I have never really been a philosophy guy. But I enjoy his passion and sincerity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 10, 2021, 01:17:10 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 07, 2021, 05:05:18 PM
Numerous times, I read the WWR and PP (Parerga and Paralipomena). I think your book (I have it too with many underlines) is a compilation of some chapters in the PP. The WWR and PP are phenomenal books that would be a great revelation and consolation to the readers. Still, if I may, I would like to suggest reading some introductory books first, that will save your time overall when you read the WWR and PP. They would include your book, Christopher Janaway (Oxford), Bryan Magee, and/or Alex Neill/Janaway (Blackwell.)

I like the book you are reading (it's a mini-PP!), and I hope you will have a good time reading the book.

I'll try and find one or two of those books you recommend as an introduction. I do hope to read the WWR some day, as I find Schopenhauer very interesting, if not necessarily "right" about everything he said.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on July 10, 2021, 01:56:31 PM
Stoner
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 10, 2021, 02:00:22 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on July 10, 2021, 01:56:31 PM
Stoner
(//)

I've heard nothing but very, very good things about this novel. Definitely need to read it one of these days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 10, 2021, 03:32:59 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 10, 2021, 02:00:22 PM
I've heard nothing but very, very good things about this novel. Definitely need to read it one of these days.

+1. It is on my list!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 10, 2021, 03:36:52 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 10, 2021, 01:17:10 PM
I'll try and find one or two of those books you recommend as an introduction. I do hope to read the WWR some day, as I find Schopenhauer very interesting, if not necessarily "right" about everything he said.

It is my understanding that the WWR was one of A. Einstein's favorite books while the PP is more accessible than the WWR. Nowadays, I skip the chapters about women and politics in these books though. The book you read covers the most of his philosophy, so it is a great book.  Also, the biography of S by Cartwright is a nice mix of his life story and an accessible explanation of his philosophy. It is a fun read, imo.

As for S's "Will," today, it sounds a lot like the evolution (or evolutionary process) to me. The WWR was written decades before Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." It seems to me, Will is a characteristics of biological and animal systems, rather than the true picture of the world independently of human perception/senses. So for a metaphysical theory, I personally support Kant's "unknowable" thesis over S's Will. Still S's theory and insights are deep and wonderful. It's amazing that he had some of these insights before Darwin.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 10, 2021, 03:52:56 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 10, 2021, 03:36:52 PM
It is my understanding that the WWR was one of A. Einstein's favorite books

Really! Wow, that's intriguing to know—reading stuff like this, the thought always enters my mind, "what do physicists think of these metaphysicists?"—to which I would guess, not much. I guess I'm wrong, at least as regards this case.

Thinking about Schopenhauer's Will kept drawing to mind some of the (few) things I remember from Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, a book which impressed me very much when I read it some 10 years ago. (My knowledge of Darwin is all secondhand, so no comment there.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 10, 2021, 04:51:13 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on July 10, 2021, 01:56:31 PM
Stoner
(//)
A profoundly sad but beautiful novel about the life of teaching and passing your best self on to others. The passage where his mentor tells him he will be a teacher made me cry in public (airplane). A sort of American version of Middlemarch. I hope you like it and are inspired to pick up Williams' next novel about the life of Augustus. Williams, fitting into our ongoing discussion, was curtailed to only three novels in his mature career by alcoholism and a habit for moving from woman to woman.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 11, 2021, 07:45:36 AM
I need to read The Stoner again. That book got so much buzz when the NYRB published it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 11, 2021, 09:56:13 AM
I have not read Stoner (I think I bought it and then gave it away new and unread when I needed a present...or it is somewhere on the shelves...) but I'd recommend both the Augustus book and the one about Buffalo hunting (the latter is a mix between Moby Dick with buffaloes instead of whales and a more serious book TC Boyle could have written).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 11, 2021, 12:07:16 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on July 09, 2021, 07:26:54 PM
Hi Guys - did not think that my post would get SUCH a response, but Slingerland knows his field and has done a lot of research - quote below from Amazon.  The book is fascinating and looks at alcohol, i.e. ethanol (and other mind changing intoxicants) from both a human and non-human perspective - if the descriptions in my links and the topic is of interest, then a strong recommendation from me.  Dave :)


The Science of Getting Knackered.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on July 11, 2021, 12:08:00 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 10, 2021, 01:22:37 AM
There were too many heavy drinkers or borderline alcoholics among artists to keep track of.

QFT
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 11, 2021, 03:04:46 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/9167XYsjmzL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2021, 08:05:52 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 10, 2021, 01:22:37 AM
I have no statistics but I do think that alcoholism (or borderline sub-clinical abuse of alcohol) was worse in the 19th and until the mid-20th century than it is today

One thing to consider is that until late 19th century genuinely drinking water was quite a rarity and it was healthier to drink wine or beer than water. Plus, alcohol was widely used as a daily painkiller and as an anaesthesic for surgery.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 12, 2021, 08:10:43 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 10, 2021, 06:47:58 AM
When we get to writers, it might be easier to list writers who were NOT alcoholics.

Balzac and Eugene Sue once reportedly had 16 bottles of wine at dinner, after which the former went to the Italian Opera House to watch a Rossini opera. When  the lady seated next to him shouted indignantly "This man smells like wine!" he retorted "No, Madam, I smell like music!"  :laugh:

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Fëanor on July 15, 2021, 03:18:30 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 10, 2021, 01:14:54 PM
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good & Evil

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ND61b-wqL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Felt like reading a bit more German philosophy. Must say that Nietzsche goes over my head a bit more than does Schopenhauer. Must also reiterate that I have never really been a philosophy guy. But I enjoy his passion and sincerity.

I read Beyond Good & Evil many years ago as well as a couple of the Nietzsche works.  I'm very much not a philosophy guy either, (though right now I'm reading Marcus Aurelius).  Don't skip Walter Kaufmann's introduction;  Kaufmann was probably the major Nietzsche schooler and apologist.

My main take-away from Nietzsche was his concept of "ressentiment" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ressentiment).  I think some minor variant of ressentiment by the American White working class is the major explanation for the Trump phenomenon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 15, 2021, 03:38:53 AM
John Connolly: The Dirty South


(https://www.easons.com/globalassets/book-covers/9781529398304--the-dirty-south--trade-pbk---john-connolly-020420-for-ireland.jpg)


This is a crime thriller. It is a page turner but not written in that snappy, sassy style of curt conversation and description. This has a straightforward but detailed plot. The chapters are short as the action is fast paced and is also taken from a different standpoint in each chapter all concluding at one, conclusive point. Characters are well rounded and developed. It is all very well done and it is a well written and well presented book. I enjoyed the read. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 15, 2021, 08:08:12 AM
The World's Top 50 Thinkers 2021, Prospect Magazine.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/the-worlds-top-50-thinkers-2021
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 16, 2021, 05:25:33 AM
Saki, Short Stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 18, 2021, 12:51:00 AM
Started finally these:

(https://www.finlandiakirja.fi/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/a4e40ebdc3e371adff845072e1c73f37/m/2/m2vpij_891181_0.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51W7H0q4HPL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on July 18, 2021, 06:33:17 AM
I read Treasure Island a few months ago.  It is a fun adventure!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 18, 2021, 07:10:05 AM
Quote from: DavidW on July 18, 2021, 06:33:17 AM
I read Treasure Island a few months ago.  It is a fun adventure!

It sure is! This is actually a re-read for me (unlike the collection of short stories by Maupassant which is the first touch for me) and has always been my favorite from Stevenson, even better than Jekyll and Hyde.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 18, 2021, 08:14:17 AM
I love "Treasure Island". It was the first non-children book I read at about 8 years old (I was a bit too young, but so it goes, I think I had loved pirates before because of Pippi Longstocking). It's also my favorite although I have not read all of Stevenson's (and I think I read Jekyll and Hyde only in a simplified vocab version in school), Kidnapped/Catriona is very heavy in scottish history pre-knowledge (and the second one rather boring anyway.
I am not sure if there is a better classic adventure novel. (My next candidate might be the very different "She" by Rider Haggard, which is quite inappropriate for youngsters).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 18, 2021, 12:43:12 PM
There are some good, if not significantly better, adventure novels I like.
They are One Thousand and One Nights, Huckleberry Finn, Three Musketeers, Don Quixote, and Casanova's My Life (memoirs.) I agree that Treasure Island is a wonderful novel though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 18, 2021, 01:16:14 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 18, 2021, 08:14:17 AM
I love "Treasure Island". It was the first non-children book I read at about 8 years old (I was a bit too young, but so it goes, I think I had loved pirates before because of Pippi Longstocking). It's also my favorite although I have not read all of Stevenson's (and I think I read Jekyll and Hyde only in a simplified vocab version in school), Kidnapped/Catriona is very heavy in scottish history pre-knowledge (and the second one rather boring anyway.
I am not sure if there is a better classic adventure novel. (My next candidate might be the very different "She" by Rider Haggard, which is quite inappropriate for youngsters).

There is a name that I have not come across since my childhood, may years ago. The adventures in deep dark Africa in King Solomon's Mines were very awe inspiring when I was a youngster  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 18, 2021, 04:48:39 PM
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81KpmYCzMqL.jpg)

I've been meaning to read Rilke for a very long time, but never got around to it until now. This is a very famous book often recommended as a place to start, despite being that, as a collection of letters, it was never truly intended to be a book by its author. Anyway, the writing is beautiful and hard hitting; I'm enjoying it greatly so far. I wish I'd read it when I was younger. On a more personal note, my mother, a writer herself, was a big fan of Rilke; it's an interesting feeling reading this and knowing my mother would have read the same book and taken similar insights from it. She died when I was very young, so I always value things, books, music that serves, for me, as a kind of connection to her life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on July 18, 2021, 06:19:13 PM
There's a new translation that was just published (June 1 is the date Amazon gives)
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BHSd3B+UL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 18, 2021, 06:42:08 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 18, 2021, 04:48:39 PM
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
I wish I'd read it when I was younger.

Great book. May she rest in peace.
I feel the same for the Essays by Michel de Montaigne.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 19, 2021, 12:34:16 AM
Recently finished

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348493350l/1049724.jpg)
Short tales of poverty and sex, rather explicit, in Cuba. Interesting read.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1625735862l/58514562._SY475_.jpg)
Two short novellas. One is about disturbing childhood emotions and another much stronger one about the WWII.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394420935l/21222632.jpg)
A very French novel about love, passion and crime. Patti Smith in a wonderfully written introduction tells of discovering this book for herself in her early 20s. I think I would have liked it more if I read it about 15-20 years ago too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 19, 2021, 12:39:15 AM
I'd recommend the Duino Elegies as the best place to start with Rilke's poetry, though really its all of consistent quality.

started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81+0biM8g8L.jpg)

After having stumbled on this amazing review of the 50th anniversary in the Guardian:

Violent spring: The nature book that predicted the future
Robert Macfarlane remembers JA Baker's The Peregrine – a fierce, ecstatic, prophetic account of one man's obsession that has held readers in its talon-like grip for 50 years (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/15/the-peregrine-by-ja-baker-nature-writing)

That article mentions Werner Herzog's admiration of the book, and I found a few of his thoughts on it here:

Werner Herzog on 'The Peregrine' (https://www.ttbook.org/interview/werner-herzog-peregrine)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 19, 2021, 01:57:24 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 19, 2021, 12:39:15 AM
I'd recommend the Duino Elegies as the best place to start with Rilke's poetry, though really its all of consistent quality.

started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81+0biM8g8L.jpg)

After having stumbled on this amazing review of the 50th anniversary in the Guardian:

Violent spring: The nature book that predicted the future
Robert Macfarlane remembers JA Baker's The Peregrine – a fierce, ecstatic, prophetic account of one man's obsession that has held readers in its talon-like grip for 50 years (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/15/the-peregrine-by-ja-baker-nature-writing)

That article mentions Werner Herzog's admiration of the book, and I found a few of his thoughts on it here:

Werner Herzog on 'The Peregrine' (https://www.ttbook.org/interview/werner-herzog-peregrine)

I've been meaning to read that book. Let us know what you think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 19, 2021, 03:31:24 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 19, 2021, 01:57:24 AM
I've been meaning to read that book. Let us know what you think.

Its immediately striking what a facility he has with poetical language - its a pity he never published as a poet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 20, 2021, 02:42:49 AM
Orwell: Coming Up For Air


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1325176934l/13335651.jpg)


There are no spoilers in this description of the plot. The joy, detail and the interest is in Orwell's wonderful writing skill. George Bowling is middle aged and fat with false teeth and a red face [his words, not mine] and is dissatisfied and disillusioned with his lot in life, his marriage, his job and he also feels a dissipating anxiety over another potential World War [the book was written between 1938 and 1939]. One day, his pleasant childhood days were suddenly recalled to his memory. His memories are full of very pleasant reminiscences and it was always summer time. He has a sentimental attachment to that bygone world, not just for the sake of his childhood but for the age and values that it represented. So, just to get a break from the fatigue and disillusionment of the rat race and the constant fear of imminent war he decides to revisit the town in which he grew up. He is aghast at what he finds there now. Then an incident happens which is both ironic and symbolic and makes him decide to return home immediately. The joy of the read is in his telling of the story. It is a most enjoyable and engaging read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 20, 2021, 04:06:27 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 18, 2021, 12:43:12 PM
There are some good, if not significantly better, adventure novels I like.
They are One Thousand and One Nights,

Which is not an adventure novel by any stretch of imagination.  :)

QuoteDon Quixote

Much less suitable for kids, if at all, than Treasure Island.  ;)

I'm in contrarian mood today, beware!  >:D :P

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 20, 2021, 04:27:06 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 18, 2021, 12:43:12 PM
There are some good, if not significantly better, adventure novels I like.
They are One Thousand and One Nights, Huckleberry Finn, Three Musketeers, Don Quixote, and Casanova's My Life (memoirs.) I agree that Treasure Island is a wonderful novel though.
Of these only Huckleberry Finn and The Three Musketeers could be classified as adventure novels and I'd say that Huck Finn is more of a picaresque (like Quixote). The two others aren't even novels and while I probably read some children's version of a few Arabian Nights tales (like Sindbad's travels) around the same time in elementary school, the originals are usually too adult.

The good thing about Treasure Island is that it is not as historically loaded as Scott or Dumas (and not as long either...). I suspect that Stevenson got a bit more into that Scott Tradition with Kidnapped/Catriona (while keeping a teenager as main character) and I liked the first (although I read it much later as an adult) I don't think it is as good as Treasure Island.

BTW, for those who like the Arabian Nights, I highly recommend the "The Manuscript found in Saragossa" by Count Jan Potocki. The guy's life was stranger than many novels and that novel is a crazy wild ride (and the book had a strange fate as well).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Potocki
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 20, 2021, 06:36:31 AM
Yes, you guys are right. The 1001 nights may not be an adventure novel because of the surreal nature of the story. Plus, the original text is for adult readers. Treasure Island is an excellent adventure novel for children.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 20, 2021, 03:56:54 PM
I'm constantly blown away by my un-well-read-ness (seriously, there must be an English word for this concept) while reading this thread, and constantly adding to my list of books to read. Many fascinating works named on the previous page. For example I have not read a single of the 1001 Nights. I'm always grateful for these frequent reminders of my own ignorance  0:)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 20, 2021, 06:58:54 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 20, 2021, 04:06:27 AM

I'm in contrarian mood today, beware!  >:D :P

Today? You read Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity too much.
Have you heard about this book? Looks like a (very) good book and I am thinking about purchasing it.

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Black-Sea-Mithridatic-World/dp/0190887842

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on July 20, 2021, 07:01:30 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 20, 2021, 06:36:31 AM
Yes, you guys are right. The 1001 nights may not be an adventure novel because of the surreal nature of the story. Plus, the original text is for adult readers. Treasure Island is an excellent adventure novel for children.

I have the Burton translation, which is for extremely adult readers. But it's a book to dip and out of.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 22, 2021, 04:52:17 PM
Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki & His Years of Pilgrimage

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61X+q-cHGwS.jpg)

Really, really loving this book so far. Like so much of Haruki Murakami's work, music is the lifeblood of the work; the title of course comes from Liszt's famous Années de pélèrinage which plays an important role in the story. But more than that, a story is being told about the mysteries that are sometimes right at the core of our lives. I'm a sucker for this kind of story. For those who are allergic to this author's brand of "magic realism", this book is light on it, although there is still plenty of weird sex and other trademarks of his that are possibly in truth flaws.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 23, 2021, 03:39:16 AM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348682077l/11452118.jpg)

I like Cesar Aira's books a lot. He's one of my favourite contemporary authors. His novels, at least those that have been translated into English language so far, are usually brief, 80-120 pages or so. Some of them are personal reflections, some of them are historic tales. This one is about a civil servant Varamo in Panama in the 1920s who gets his salary in counterfeit money, but ends up writing one of the greatest poems in Spanish language. Although he never wrote anything before.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 23, 2021, 04:43:44 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 20, 2021, 06:58:54 PM
Have you heard about this book? Looks like a (very) good book and I am thinking about purchasing it.

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Black-Sea-Mithridatic-World/dp/0190887842

Never heard about it but looks interesting indeed.

TD

(https://gomagcdn.ro/domains/cartidesuflet.ro/files/product/large/educatia-sentimentala-8939-9569.png)

No translation nedeed, I hope.

So far, so good. A totally different atmosphere than that of The Buddenbrooks and a complete contrast between the lax and frivolous mores of the French bourgeoisie and the austere and serious North German ones. One can see why a mutual distrust and animosity should have gradually developped between the two lifestyles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 23, 2021, 05:34:55 AM
Somerset Maugham: Up at the Villa


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/3boAAOSwH-xe-L0A/s-l400.jpg)


Here is the tale of a young and very beautiful widow. She had married for love and her husband turned out to be a drunk and a gambler. She is living, on a short stay, in said villa just outside of Florence. In her social world there are two men encircling her; two very different characters. One is a high flying diplomat who has just been offered a very important job. He proposes marriage to her but she hesitates, promising to give her answer when he returns from a short trip. The other man is of her own age who has an undenied reputation as a philanderer and an unreliable and untrustworthy character. He has been trying to have an affair with her.
During these three fateful days another man, previously unknown to her, enters her life in a very innocuous way. This eventually leads to a situation where events very quickly spiral out of control. It is in the handling of, and the eventual resolution of the issue that tests the mettle and moral character of the other two men. This novella is an entertaining and engaging read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 23, 2021, 07:09:59 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 23, 2021, 04:43:44 AM
Never heard about it but looks interesting indeed.

TD

(https://gomagcdn.ro/domains/cartidesuflet.ro/files/product/large/educatia-sentimentala-8939-9569.png)

No translation nedeed, I hope.

So far, so good. A totally different atmosphere than that of The Buddenbrooks and a complete contrast between the lax and frivolous mores of the French bourgeoisie and the austere and serious North German ones. One can see why a mutual distrust and animosity should have gradually developped between the two lifestyles.

I only have read Madam Bovary decades ago, and I thought it was fair/average. I will check out his other works.


Quote from: aligreto on July 23, 2021, 05:34:55 AM
Somerset Maugham: Up at the Villa


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/3boAAOSwH-xe-L0A/s-l400.jpg)


Here is the tale of a young and very beautiful widow. She had married for love and her husband turned out to be a drunk and a gambler. She is living, on a short stay, in said villa just outside of Florence. In her social world there are two men encircling her; two very different characters. One is a high flying diplomat who has just been offered a very important job. He proposes marriage to her but she hesitates, promising to give her answer when he returns from a short trip. The other man is of her own age who has an undenied reputation as a philanderer and an unreliable and untrustworthy character. He has been trying to have an affair with her.
During these three fateful days another man, previously unknown to her, enters her life in a very innocuous way. This eventually leads to a situation where events very quickly spiral out of control. It is in the handling of, and the eventual resolution of the issue that tests the mettle and moral character of the other two men. This novella is an entertaining and engaging read.

The work has been on my list. Hope I will get a copy next year!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on July 23, 2021, 11:07:39 AM
Citizens of London by Lynne Olson.

A very detailed and impressive account of the beginnings of the American-British alliance. It's gone a long way in filling some of the gaps in my knowledge of WWII.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 24, 2021, 07:25:37 AM
George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Hr1WWILqL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'm about a quarter of the way into the book. Wow, it's absolutely brilliant. Shocking portrayals of abject poverty, yet I keep finding myself laughing out loud at the sheer humanity of it all. I love Orwell's quintessentially English authorial voice here; he's very polite, even when describing situations of horror. An amazing read so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 24, 2021, 09:07:44 AM
Plutarch, Moralia.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 24, 2021, 01:50:56 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 24, 2021, 07:25:37 AM
George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Hr1WWILqL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'm about a quarter of the way into the book. Wow, it's absolutely brilliant. Shocking portrayals of abject poverty, yet I keep finding myself laughing out loud at the sheer humanity of it all. I love Orwell's quintessentially English authorial voice here; he's very polite, even when describing situations of horror. An amazing read so far.

If you are liking that one I can readily recommend "Keep The Aspidistra Flying" if you have not already read it.


(https://blackwells.co.uk/jacket/l/9780140016987.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 24, 2021, 02:49:23 PM
Quote from: aligreto on July 24, 2021, 01:50:56 PM
If you are liking that one I can readily recommend "Keep The Aspidistra Flying" if you have not already read it.


(https://blackwells.co.uk/jacket/l/9780140016987.jpg)

I have not, and you are not the first to recommend it to me. Will definitely seek this one out ASAP.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 24, 2021, 04:49:21 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51vfcsRwUKL._SX294_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

2/3 way through a second reading of Pale Fire

And feeling the same way I did when first read in my late teens: the poem itself is astonishingly beautiful and its a pity Nabokov didn't write more poetry, and the unreliable biographer/critic stuff is often good parody - but the seemingly endless "Land of Zembla" stuff kills my enjoyment and turns what should have been fun into a slog. No doubt the Zembla story all works on some higher level of meaning if I was willing to read numerous interpretations, but now as before I don't see why I should bother.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 25, 2021, 03:43:48 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 24, 2021, 04:49:21 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51vfcsRwUKL._SX294_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

2/3 way through a second reading of Pale Fire

And feeling the same way I did when first read in my late teens: the poem itself is astonishingly beautiful and its a pity Nabokov didn't write more poetry, and the unreliable biographer/critic stuff is often good parody - but the seemingly endless "Land of Zembla" stuff kills my enjoyment and turns what should have been fun into a slog. No doubt the Zembla story all works on some higher level of meaning if I was willing to read numerous interpretations, but now as before I don't see why I should bother.

Sounds fascinating. I never did read any Nabokov and this seems like an intriguing place to start.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 25, 2021, 06:19:53 AM
Lee & Andrew Child: The Sentinel


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91MAy8VnMiL.jpg)


This is what it is, an entertaining page turner of a crime novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 25, 2021, 12:20:41 PM
Just spent the afternoon hours reading Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51XGCmAFF4L._SX341_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Well, that's about as fucked-up as it gets ;D I know people who call this their favorite book of all time—I certainly wouldn't go that far, but it was an intriguing and disturbing read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 26, 2021, 07:34:56 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 25, 2021, 03:43:48 AM
Sounds fascinating. I never did read any Nabokov and this seems like an intriguing place to start.
I've read almost everything that Nabokov wrote in Russian and English, but for some reason I remember nothing about Pale Fire. Lolita was my introduction to this great author. Nabokov's lectures about Russian and European literature are also a fascinating read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 26, 2021, 09:02:41 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 25, 2021, 12:20:41 PM
Just spent the afternoon hours reading Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51XGCmAFF4L._SX341_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Well, that's about as fucked-up as it gets ;D I know people who call this their favorite book of all time—I certainly wouldn't go that far, but it was an intriguing and disturbing read.

I read the story decades ago, and had a mixed feeling.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 26, 2021, 11:15:12 AM
Quote from: Artem on July 26, 2021, 07:34:56 AM
I've read almost everything that Nabokov wrote in Russian and English, but for some reason I remember nothing about Pale Fire. Lolita was my introduction to this great author. Nabokov's lectures about Russian and European literature are also a fascinating read.

Are there any neglected Nabokov works you feel deserve to be much better known and/or are personal favorites?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on July 26, 2021, 11:39:06 AM
The Sun Also Rises.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 26, 2021, 01:14:04 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 26, 2021, 11:15:12 AM
Are there any neglected Nabokov works you feel deserve to be much better known and/or are personal favorites?

Someday I will attempt to reread Nabokov in chronological order. It's been probably 10 years or so since I last read anything by him.

I like when Nabokov mixes playfulness with despair. Laughter in the Dark explores similar theme to Lolita, but predates it and was written when Nabokov was living in France. It is kind of pulp fiction.

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight and Pnin from his American period are must reads.

Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle is an epic Nabokov. I remember being deeply touched by it as a piece of literary art in addition to it being an enjoyable book to read overall.

The books considered to be part of his American period, starting with The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, are his best works to me. The earlier Russian period may not be the best place to start.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 26, 2021, 02:13:55 PM
Thanks for that. I'll add those recommendations to the queue.

I started his much praised autobiography Speak Memory some years back but found it unengaging and stopped.

Recently someone mentioned Look At The Harlequins as the autobiography fictionalized and viewed as though through fun house mirrors, which sounded intriguing


TD: started Kawabata's Thousand Cranes.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388205415l/14027.jpg)

Which opens with an unexpected and striking visual image.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 26, 2021, 03:12:14 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 26, 2021, 02:13:55 PM
Thanks for that. I'll add those recommendations to the queue.

I started his much praised autobiography Speak Memory some years back but found it unengaging and stopped.

Recently someone mentioned Look At The Harlequins as the autobiography fictionalized and viewed as though through fun house mirrors, which sounded intriguing


TD: started Kawabata's Thousand Cranes.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388205415l/14027.jpg)

Which opens with an unexpected and striking visual image.

Really loved this book when I read it in April or so. I've enjoyed everything I've read from Kawabata, some four books now, but I do think this was my favorite. I have the same edition.

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 26, 2021, 09:02:41 AM
I read the story decades ago, and had a mixed feeling.

I was particularly curious to know your reaction to this book, something told me for sure that you'd read it  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 26, 2021, 03:13:54 PM
I like all the Nabokov talk, getting me curious to read some of his work. I think I will start with Pale Fire which seems the most interesting to me.

Quote from: The new erato on July 26, 2021, 11:39:06 AM
The Sun Also Rises.

One of my favorites!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 26, 2021, 04:06:42 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 26, 2021, 03:12:14 PM
Really loved this book when I read it in April or so. I've enjoyed everything I've read from Kawabata, some four books now, but I do think this was my favorite. I have the same edition.

I was particularly curious to know your reaction to this book, something told me for sure that you'd read it  ;D

There was a revival of Georges Bataille when I was young, and I read several books by him. I like somethings by him while I don't care other things.

As for Kawabata, the Cranes and Izu Dancer are my favorite ( if I have to choose.) Because of his simple writing, Kawabata is not as popular as Mishima, whose writing is flamboyant, intellectual, and paradoxical. But Kawabata was always revered by Mishima. Kawabata's subtle writing is exquisite. He gives readers more freedom (and responsibilities) in imagination, nuances, interpretation, etc. We make stories and pictures with Kawabata.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 26, 2021, 04:14:53 PM
The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 26, 2021, 04:34:52 PM
William S. Burroughs, Junky

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91h44vGqOdL.jpg)

A reread. Orwell's Down & Out had me in the mood for something similar, and I think this is certainly that, but with several key differences; namely, I am much more convinced with Burroughs fitting into this underworld, even though he entered into it as an outsider, a person of privilege, or even a "tourist" much as did Orwell. Still, it's an intriguing and often hilarious read. I have long admired Burroughs, though I have read little of his work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on July 27, 2021, 01:26:50 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 26, 2021, 03:13:54 PM

One of my favorites!
Rereading The Sun Also Rises. Haven't read any Hemingway since the 1970'ies, but Ken Burns' documentary on the author has rekindled my interest and have me dig out my old books. Only half way through, but pondering A Farewell to Arms for the next. Great book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 27, 2021, 01:27:13 AM
Hesse: Siddhartha


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463459876l/30208467._SX318_.jpg)


This is the story of a precocious young boy who leaves his father to find his own way in and the essential meaning of Life. The story narrates this physical and spiritual journey and its final outcome.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 27, 2021, 01:47:17 AM
Quote from: The new erato on July 27, 2021, 01:26:50 AM
Rereading The Sun Also Rises. Haven't read any Hemingway since the 1970'ies, but Ken Burns' documentary on the author has rekindled my interest and have me dig out my old books. Only half way through, but pondering A Farewell to Arms for the next. Great book.

I read A Farewell to Arms for the first time maybe three months ago. I loved it so much, I finished it in a day. While ultimately it didn't have the same impact on me that The Sun Also Rises did when I read it several years ago, there are moments from the book that will stick with me for a long time to come. I was on a bit of a Hemingway kick a few months ago. There are still a handful I have yet to read, including some major ones like For Whom the Bell Tolls; I guess I am saving them for the right moment. I consider him a very fine author even if not everything he wrote is quite a success.

The Ken Burns doc was a good watch. I didn't hear about it at first, and was wondering why I could never find any Hemingway at any used bookstores for a good month or so  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 27, 2021, 01:47:54 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 27, 2021, 01:27:13 AM
Hesse: Siddhartha


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463459876l/30208467._SX318_.jpg)


This is the story of a precocious young boy who leaves his father to find his own way in and the essential meaning of Life. The story narrates this physical and spiritual journey and its final outcome.

Another old favorite, one I ought to reread.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 01:52:14 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 27, 2021, 01:47:54 AM
Another old favorite, one I ought to reread.

You'd surely like Karl Gjellerup's The Pilgrim Kamanita. Give it a try if you have the opportunity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 27, 2021, 02:19:33 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 01:52:14 AM
You'd surely like Karl Gjellerup's The Pilgrim Kamanita. Give it a try if you have the opportunity.

Never heard of it; I'll seek it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

Edit: Not easy to find a copy, I'm afraid.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 03:17:24 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 27, 2021, 02:19:33 AM
Never heard of it; I'll seek it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

Edit: Not easy to find a copy, I'm afraid.

That's too bad. But hey, there might be a solution: learn Romanian and I'll lend you my copy.   :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 27, 2021, 07:03:53 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 26, 2021, 04:34:52 PM
William S. Burroughs, Junky

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91h44vGqOdL.jpg)

A reread. Orwell's Down & Out had me in the mood for something similar, and I think this is certainly that, but with several key differences; namely, I am much more convinced with Burroughs fitting into this underworld, even though he entered into it as an outsider, a person of privilege, or even a "tourist" much as did Orwell. Still, it's an intriguing and often hilarious read. I have long admired Burroughs, though I have read little of his work.

Excellent book!


Quote from: aligreto on July 27, 2021, 01:27:13 AM
Hesse: Siddhartha


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463459876l/30208467._SX318_.jpg)


This is the story of a precocious young boy who leaves his father to find his own way in and the essential meaning of Life. The story narrates this physical and spiritual journey and its final outcome.

Nice book, nice cover!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 27, 2021, 08:01:00 AM
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSMgPvev9NQmXEMLEvFZhDpZcgoGv4WyqHDFqsx4LNJhAwj1QX9T6HGff5PEik&usqp=CAc)

Believe or not, I don't think I've read this before. Animal farm left me with a bit of mixed feelings, let's see if this proves superior.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 11:09:42 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on July 27, 2021, 08:01:00 AM
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSMgPvev9NQmXEMLEvFZhDpZcgoGv4WyqHDFqsx4LNJhAwj1QX9T6HGff5PEik&usqp=CAc)

Believe or not, I don't think I've read this before. Animal farm left me with a bit of mixed feelings, let's see if this proves superior.

Forget them both. Read Yevgeni Zamiatin's We --- the very first book ever to be banned by the Soviet censorship and preceding Orwell by at least two decades.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 27, 2021, 01:24:28 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 11:09:42 AM
Forget them both. Read Yevgeni Zamiatin's We --- the very first book ever to be banned by the Soviet censorship and preceding Orwell by at least two decades.

Do not forget 1984 which remains brilliant - and remains timeless whereas We, for all its merits, feels very much of its time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 01:37:17 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 27, 2021, 01:24:28 PM
Do not forget 1984 which remains brilliant - and remains timeless whereas We, for all its merits, feels very much of its time.

Possibly. But its time is very much timeless, at least for those of of us who have experienced Communism first hand.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 27, 2021, 01:38:54 PM
Having read both We and 1984, I find it quite possible to praise each without trashing the other—for one, because they seem to have quite little in common. Both good reads...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 01:40:04 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 27, 2021, 01:38:54 PM
Having read both We and 1984, I find it quite possible to praise each without trashing the other—for one, because they seem to have quite little in common.

Little?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 27, 2021, 01:42:30 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 01:40:04 PM
Little?

The books are superficially similar, yes. But ultimately I found them to be very different books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 01:44:56 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 27, 2021, 01:42:30 PM
The books are superficially similar, yes. But ultimately I found them to be very different books.

Funny you should say that! I find totalitarianisms superficially different but ultimately very similar.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 27, 2021, 02:11:37 PM
Whilst contemplating Totalitarianism and Dystopian Societies do not forget Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 28, 2021, 12:16:49 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 27, 2021, 02:11:37 PM
Whilst contemplating Totalitarianism and Dystopian Societies do not forget Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World".

That's also very good.

Just to clear up any misunderstanding: I like Orwell's books very much. It's just that We dealt with pretty much the same issues two decades earlier and is virtually unkown.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on July 28, 2021, 01:41:51 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 20, 2021, 03:56:54 PM
I'm constantly blown away by my un-well-read-ness (seriously, there must be an English word for this concept) while reading this thread, and constantly adding to my list of books to read. Many fascinating works named on the previous page. For example I have not read a single of the 1001 Nights.
I am pretty sure you encountered some of the Arabian nights in abridged/bowdlerized versions as a kid. Although I think two of the most famous ones that I was presented with as a kid ("Ali Baba and the 40 thieves" and "Aladin and the magic lamp") are not even in the original but either from another collection or made up in an oriental style. Unless one is really into this, an anthology of better knowns should be enough. But try to get "adult" versions because most do have at least mildly erotic content that is redacted in older editions or those for children.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 28, 2021, 02:31:49 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 27, 2021, 07:03:53 AM
Excellent book!


I think I enjoyed it more this go around than when I last read it some 5 years ago. The first time I was more interested in the anthropological observations of it all, but this time I think I was more in tune with the personality of it all. The book is not in truth a hardboiled recollection of junkie life in the '40s, but a reflection of a side of Burroughs himself, who would become of the most unusual and contradictory characters in American literature. Fascinating stuff. Definitely need to read more Burroughs now; I'm interested in Queer and The Yagé Letters. (Not ready to revisit Naked Lunch which bewildered me upon reading at age 18, after finding a very beat old copy at a used bookshop in Philadelphia.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 28, 2021, 06:14:07 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 28, 2021, 02:31:49 AM
I think I enjoyed it more this go around than when I last read it some 5 years ago. The first time I was more interested in the anthropological observations of it all, but this time I think I was more in tune with the personality of it all. The book is not in truth a hardboiled recollection of junkie life in the '40s, but a reflection of a side of Burroughs himself, who would become of the most unusual and contradictory characters in American literature. Fascinating stuff. Definitely need to read more Burroughs now; I'm interested in Queer and The Yagé Letters. (Not ready to revisit Naked Lunch which bewildered me upon reading at age 18, after finding a very beat old copy at a used bookshop in Philadelphia.)

I like the Yage Letters! I must get a copy of Queer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Carlo Gesualdo on July 28, 2021, 09:20:24 AM
The mising link it's a book about the book f all the herbs and mushroom of the forest, we hide it from humain, the druid gave it to us, the book of the herbs is hidden in the Basque country somewhere, we have another copie in Italia, of super Hogobelin of Sicily it's very good Book.


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 28, 2021, 03:46:22 PM
Coin Locker Babies, Ryu Murakami. 1980s Japan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 28, 2021, 04:12:00 PM
Quote from: deprofundis on July 28, 2021, 09:20:24 AM
The mising link it's a book about the book f all the herbs and mushroom of the forest, we hide it from humain, the druid gave it to us, the book of the herbs is hidden in the Basque country somewhere, we have another copie in Italia, of super Hogobelin of Sicily it's very good Book.

What's the name of book? Is it written by Richard Evans Schultes?

P.s. I think I misunderstood what you are saying (if you are saying.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 28, 2021, 08:12:15 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 26, 2021, 04:34:52 PM
William S. Burroughs, Junky

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91h44vGqOdL.jpg)

A reread. Orwell's Down & Out had me in the mood for something similar, and I think this is certainly that, but with several key differences; namely, I am much more convinced with Burroughs fitting into this underworld, even though he entered into it as an outsider, a person of privilege, or even a "tourist" much as did Orwell. Still, it's an intriguing and often hilarious read. I have long admired Burroughs, though I have read little of his work.

Yes I like the Burroughs very much, especially the defence of heroin at the start. Is that the one where he's always going on about a quest for some sort of weird hallucinatory mescaline drug, something that comes out of a cactus in Mexico?

Have you read the Jean Genet? He's got something in common with Burroughs I think. The Thief's Journal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 28, 2021, 09:06:52 PM
Coincidentally I picked up a copy of The Thiefs Journal at a secondhand bookstore just last weekend.

Along with the copy of Augustus by John Williams I knew they had after seeing it praised on this thread.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 28, 2021, 11:28:37 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 28, 2021, 09:06:52 PM
Coincidentally I picked up a copy of The Thiefs Journal at a secondhand bookstore just last weekend.

Along with the copy of Augustus by John Williams I knew they had after seeing it presided on this thread.

i read it when I was about 18 and loved it! It just seemed so seedy and so spiritual, and I remember visiting the port at Rotterdam one day in a sort of teenage homage to Genet.

Then about five years ago I thought I'd try it again, this time in French. I couldn't finish it, it just seemed over long. But there are still some memorable things.

At some point I'd like to read Sartre's St Genet. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 28, 2021, 11:35:21 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 20, 2021, 03:56:54 PM
I'm constantly blown away by my un-well-read-ness (seriously, there must be an English word for this concept) while reading this thread, and constantly adding to my list of books to read. Many fascinating works named on the previous page. For example I have not read a single of the 1001 Nights. I'm always grateful for these frequent reminders of my own ignorance  0:)

You must read 1001 nights, and in a decent translation - one which keeps all the sex in. It's the sort of thing you keep by the bedside and dip into every so often. The stories are memorable, complicated (because they nest, mise en abîme), very raunchy and humane.

I've read a whole bunch things in this genre - Decameron (which I never got into), Canterbury Tales (which I liked), but 1001 Nights is my favourite.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 28, 2021, 11:43:29 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 27, 2021, 01:44:56 PM
Funny you should say that! I find totalitarianisms superficially different but ultimately very similar.  :D

Maybe everything in the universe is superficially different but ultimately very similar. After all, according to the heart sutra, all things are by nature void.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 29, 2021, 12:12:09 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 28, 2021, 03:46:22 PM
Coin Locker Babies, Ryu Murakami. 1980s Japan.

How do you like Ryu?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 29, 2021, 01:55:54 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 28, 2021, 08:12:15 PM
Yes I like the Burroughs very much, especially the defence of heroin at the start. Is that the one where he's always going on about a quest for some sort of weird hallucinatory mescaline drug, something that comes out of a cactus in Mexico?

Have you read the Jean Genet? He's got something in common with Burroughs I think. The Thief's Journal.

The way the book ends is with his announcement of a quest to find "yagé" which, I believe, is ayahuasca, which comes from a vine in South America. He does also try mescaline while living in Mexico in the final third of the book and seems unimpressed.

Never read any Jean Genet, but I have been meaning to. Will try and find The Thief's Journal. (And 1001 Nights!—is there a translation you recommend?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 29, 2021, 01:57:59 AM
Yesterday I started Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51M92AzzArL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I have been meaning to read Hardy for some time now, but I never make it very far. This one is very good so far. Very vivid language and writing. Hopefully I'll be able to finish as I think this is one of his shorter ones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 29, 2021, 04:28:57 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 29, 2021, 01:55:54 AM
The way the book ends is with his announcement of a quest to find "yagé" which, I believe, is ayahuasca, which comes from a vine in South America. He does also try mescaline while living in Mexico in the final third of the book and seems unimpressed.

Never read any Jean Genet, but I have been meaning to. Will try and find The Thief's Journal. (And 1001 Nights!—is there a translation you recommend?)

Yage, that's right, I was trying to think of the word, I kept thinking Mage. He wrote a whole book about Yage dealing I think.

You Americans take the weirdest drugs -- I'm sure an old mate of mine used to say there was some drink with a worm at the bottom of the bottle and if you eat the work it's . . . yage.

You know about how Burroughs killed his wife?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 29, 2021, 05:56:57 AM
Quote from: Artem on July 29, 2021, 12:12:09 AM
How do you like Ryu?

I am sure you will like the book, but I don't know if you (and other Western readers) will like it very much. I see a 50-50 chance.
In the 1980-90s, probably Ryu was the most popular writer among hipsters in Japan. Haruki was popular among normal/average people.
Ryu's stories often involve with bizarreness/coldness in fashionable, urban life.
You may want to pick and read one of his English translations (ie. Tokyo Decadence is my personal fav.) You won't regret.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 29, 2021, 06:12:59 AM
A fine book on the subject discussed above.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 29, 2021, 08:42:06 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 29, 2021, 04:28:57 AM
Yage, that's right, I was trying to think of the word, I kept thinking Mage. He wrote a whole book about Yage dealing I think.

You Americans take the weirdest drugs -- I'm sure an old mate of mine used to say there was some drink with a worm at the bottom of the bottle and if you eat the work it's . . . yage.

You know about how Burroughs killed his wife?

I do, it's an odd story - sounds like he went back and forth on his story, usually coming back to the idea that it was a drunken game of William Tell gone horribly wrong. Who knows what really happened. Anyway, it happened during the timeline of the events of Junky, the Mexico years, but was of course omitted from the book (along with all but the most oblique references to Burroughs' character having a wife at all!) When I was younger, I was really into all the Beat guys, but never got all that into Burroughs' writings, so I'd love to play catch-up now and read some more of his books.

Can't say I've ever tried ayahuasca/yagé but I have tried mescaline a couple of times. Weird stuff indeed... I also was recently served a shot of Mezcal presented with salt obtained from the worm in the bottle, dried and ground. Better than it sounds!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 29, 2021, 10:21:18 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 29, 2021, 05:56:57 AM
I am sure you will like the book, but I don't know if you (and other Western readers) will like it very much. I see a 50-50 chance.
In the 1980-90s, probably Ryu was the most popular writer among hipsters in Japan. Haruki was popular among normal/average people.
Ryu's stories often involve with bizarreness/coldness in fashionable, urban life.
You may want to pick and read one of his English translations (ie. Tokyo Decadence is my personal fav.) You won't regret.
I read In the miso soup around the time I discovered Haruki Murakami novels and found it too violent for my liking at the time. I didn't pursue Ryu anymore, although I kept devotedly reading Haruki.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 29, 2021, 11:12:31 AM
Talking about Mescaline and Ayahuasca, I'm sure many members know/like The Doors of Perception. One River, Wade Davis, is a great book about Ayahuasca, Amazon, and Richard Evans Schultes- renowned Havard ethnobotanist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 29, 2021, 01:53:22 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 29, 2021, 11:12:31 AM
Talking about Mescaline and Ayahuasca, I'm sure many members know/like The Doors of Perception. One River, Wade Davis, is a great book about Ayahuasca, Amazon, and Richard Evans Schultes- renowned Havard ethnobotanist.

A friend years ago tried to put me onto Wade Davis. Seems like an interesting character. I'll have to seek out the book. I haven't read Huxley's Doors of Perception since I was much younger; I'd love to reread it with a bit more life experience under my belt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 29, 2021, 06:09:59 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 29, 2021, 01:57:59 AM
Yesterday I started Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51M92AzzArL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I have been meaning to read Hardy for some time now, but I never make it very far. This one is very good so far. Very vivid language and writing. Hopefully I'll be able to finish as I think this is one of his shorter ones.

Haven't read the work, but I admire Hardy. Personally, I see similarities bet. him and Kawabata (ie. Fatalism, pessimism, irony, etc.)


Quote from: vers la flamme on July 29, 2021, 01:53:22 PM
A friend years ago tried to put me onto Wade Davis. Seems like an interesting character. I'll have to seek out the book.

Great friend !  ;D  Imo, all undergraduate students in North America should read the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 29, 2021, 06:22:15 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 29, 2021, 06:09:59 PM
Haven't read the work, but I admire Hardy. Personally, I see similarities bet. him and Kawabata (ie. Fatalism, pessimism, irony, etc.)


Great friend !  ;D  Imo, all undergraduate students in North America should read the book.

He is a great friend. We've both put each other onto some great stuff over the years.

I can see the Hardy/Kawabata thematic connection too, though stylistically they couldn't be more different. There are a lot of ideas around the relationships between people and their physical and social environment. I'm excited to finally be reading something of his. I'm roughly a third of the way into the book.

Are there any books by Thomas Hardy that you particularly admire, or recommend? There are a good handful of his novels that I'd like to read, and I'm curious about his poetry, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 29, 2021, 07:04:27 PM
Jude The Obscure is one of the very great novels by any author. An essential read/experience. In many ways its unfortunate that was my introduction to hardy because whatever the many merits of the four or five I read after they never quite met the expectation that set.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 30, 2021, 07:07:29 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on July 29, 2021, 06:22:15 PM
He is a great friend. We've both put each other onto some great stuff over the years.

I can see the Hardy/Kawabata thematic connection too, though stylistically they couldn't be more different. There are a lot of ideas around the relationships between people and their physical and social environment. I'm excited to finally be reading something of his. I'm roughly a third of the way into the book.

Are there any books by Thomas Hardy that you particularly admire, or recommend? There are a good handful of his novels that I'd like to read, and I'm curious about his poetry, too.

I read only few of Hardy's novels, and I believe that some other members know his works much better than I do. I like his Tess and short stories, including Alicia's Diary and Withered Arm. Also, I remember that our man Florestan likes Far from the Madding Crowd. I haven't thought about his poetry. Sounds very interesting and I will check it out!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 30, 2021, 08:30:59 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 30, 2021, 07:07:29 AM
I read only few of Hardy's novels, and I believe that some other members know his works much better than I do. I like his Tess and short stories, including Alicia's Diary and Withered Arm. Also, I remember that our man Florestan likes Far from the Madding Crowd. I haven't thought about his poetry. Sounds very interesting and I will check it out!

Tbh, I'm stuck somewhere about half of it. It was a page turner until then but somehow I lost my interest after --- and I found The Buddenbrooks a much, much better reading. I'll try to finish it nevertheless, hopefully I'll remember enough of it not to start it anew.  :D

I concur with Simon on Jude the Obscure, though. A masterpiece, and just as in his case, my very first Hardy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 30, 2021, 03:42:53 PM
1/3 of the way into:

(http://www.thedarktower.org/custom/images/1440098159-Danse%20Macabre%20DJ%201025x685.jpg)

King's nonfiction freewheeling history and analysis of the horror genre. It's a pity he doesn't write more nonfiction, as this, like On Writing and some few scattered essays I've found is excellent. And, frankly, I'd be quite willing to trade away half of his fiction for one more more nonfiction (though the best of his fiction can be very good indeed).

I don't actually have the edition above, I just liked the author portrait. The one I have is an update with an additional chapter that includes much praise for The Blair Witch Project.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 30, 2021, 05:44:49 PM
The Rubáiyát. Omar Khayyám
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 31, 2021, 04:50:20 PM
Rereading Alexander Pushkin's Tales of Belkin for, I think, the third time.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AINfuVTCL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Pushkin was, of course, one of Russia's greatest writers, and though this is perhaps not one of his more profound works (I wouldn't know as I haven't read much else by him), great writers are meant to be read and reread. Much to admire in these stories; very humane writing. I would love to read some of his poetry, though I've heard it's well nigh untranslatable. Maybe someday I'll learn Russian, but it's not my highest priority at the moment. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 31, 2021, 11:19:34 PM
Vladimir Nabokov translated Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. I haven't read it in English myself, but I bet it is a curious read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 31, 2021, 11:54:49 PM
I used to have that. One slim volume of the poem and one big fat volume of his commentary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 01, 2021, 01:13:09 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 31, 2021, 11:54:49 PM
I used to have that. One slim volume of the poem and one big fat volume of his commentary.

Like Pale Fire! I must dig that out and look at it again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 01, 2021, 04:47:34 PM
Just started Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91fSidoCbkL.jpg)

I found a copy of this Penguin Classics edition for $1 at a Goodwill thrift store earlier today and figured I'd give it a try. I know very little about Conrad except that he is extremely highly regarded by many, and in particular it seems he's something of a writer's writer. This is my first time reading anything of his. My first impression is that he is quite wordy, and that there is something about the protagonist, Marlow, that rubs me the wrong way. Can't say I'm quite hooked yet, but I will persist—it's a short book, in any case, at just over 100 pages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 01, 2021, 10:16:31 PM
I rarely leave books unfinished, but that one by Conrad I stopped reading after 30-40 pages or so.

Recently finished this book. It's my second by Drndic. It's a kaleidoscope kind of novel, with world/country/personal history mixed in one. I have mixed feelings about it, but Drndic is a great author. I look forward to reading more of her books.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1621592070l/58111468._SY475_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 02, 2021, 02:18:23 AM
Quote from: Artem on August 01, 2021, 10:16:31 PM
I rarely leave books unfinished, but that one by Conrad I stopped reading after 30-40 pages or so.


Afraid I'm about to do the same thing. It's a tough slog. I'd better leave it and return in a better state of mind.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 03, 2021, 03:06:58 AM
Last night I started William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

(http://blog.sevenponds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/as-i-lay-dying.jpg)

So far, I'm really enjoying this. Though I may not always understand everything that's happening, it's not nearly as difficult as I was expecting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 03, 2021, 03:11:35 AM
Jennifer Egan: Manhattan Beach


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GZQGbG2IL._SX314_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This is a good story that is well told. It is a well constructed and a well written book. The plot is straightforward and credible and there are not too many characters involved and this allows for very adequate character development. The story is based in New York before and during WWII. One develops a strong affinity with the main character and her father, this relationship being the core of the work. There are moments of both violence and tenderness to be experienced here. It is all set amid a backdrop of crime. A most entertaining and enjoyable read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 03, 2021, 04:38:22 AM
Niklas Frank: 'The Father - A Revenge'.
A most extraordinary work. Many years ago I saw this most impressive German journalist and his Oxford educated daughter interviewed about being, respectively, son and grand-daughter of Hans Frank - 'The Butcher of Poland' (executed at Nuremberg). In the book the author imagines visiting his father in Hell where, seated on a throne, he is surrounded by the blood of all his victims:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: foxandpeng on August 03, 2021, 05:26:55 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on August 03, 2021, 04:38:22 AM
Niklas Frank: 'The Father - A Revenge'.
A most extraordinary work. Many years ago I saw this most impressive German journalist and his Oxford educated daughter interviewed about being, respectively, son and grand-daughter of Hans Frank - 'The Butcher of Poland' (executed at Nuremberg). In the book the author imagines visiting his father in Hell where, seated on a throne, he is surrounded by the blood of all his victims:
(//)

Sounds harrowing stuff. I find the examination of human nature and its relationship to structuralists views of history, really interesting. Enjoy seems the wrong word, but I hope you profit greatly from it! :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 03, 2021, 05:35:00 AM
Quote from: foxandpeng on August 03, 2021, 05:26:55 AM
Sounds harrowing stuff. I find the examination of human nature and its relationship to structuralists views of history, really interesting. Enjoy seems the wrong word, but I hope you profit greatly from it! :)
Many thanks - I'm sure that I will.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 03, 2021, 11:21:33 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 02, 2021, 02:18:23 AM
Afraid I'm about to do the same thing. It's a tough slog. I'd better leave it and return in a better state of mind.

Much the same experience with Heart of Darkness and indeed Nostromo. I quite enjoyed The Secret Agent though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 03, 2021, 11:22:10 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 03, 2021, 03:06:58 AM
Last night I started William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

(http://blog.sevenponds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/as-i-lay-dying.jpg)

So far, I'm really enjoying this. Though I may not always understand everything that's happening, it's not nearly as difficult as I was expecting.

By coincidence I started to read this today, having thoroughly enjoyed making some sort of sense of The Sound and the Fury.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on August 03, 2021, 12:05:04 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 03, 2021, 03:06:58 AM
Last night I started William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

(http://blog.sevenponds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/as-i-lay-dying.jpg)

So far, I'm really enjoying this. Though I may not always understand everything that's happening, it's not nearly as difficult as I was expecting.

Quote from: Mandryka on August 03, 2021, 11:22:10 AM
By coincidence I started to read this today, having thoroughly enjoyed making some sort of sense of The Sound and the Fury.

By coincidence I just finished John Grisham's The Reckoning. It's set in 1950. There's a scene in which one of the main characters dines in a restaurant in Oxford, Mississippi. Knowing it's Faulkner's favourite haunt, he has taken with him books to be signed by the great man (As I lay Dying and « his latest », Intruder in the Dust ). Faulkner of course gracefully obliges. Intruder is one of my favourite books by Faulkner.

The Reckoning is a rather dark opus by Grisham. Nothing good happens to the character - everything goes from bad to worse. It's still captivating though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 03, 2021, 04:08:57 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on August 03, 2021, 11:22:10 AM
By coincidence I started to read this today, having thoroughly enjoyed making some sort of sense of The Sound and the Fury.

Very interesting coincidence. Do let me know what you think. I haven't even tried The Sound & the Fury yet; something told me As I Lay Dying might be an easier place to start.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 03, 2021, 06:30:15 PM
Yukio Mishima, Modern No (Noh) Plays. As always, elegant, paradoxical, and sharp.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 04, 2021, 02:40:59 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 03, 2021, 03:06:58 AM
Last night I started William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

(http://blog.sevenponds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/as-i-lay-dying.jpg)

So far, I'm really enjoying this. Though I may not always understand everything that's happening, it's not nearly as difficult as I was expecting.

I also started reading this book in the last few days. I've read it before, maybe twice before. I've read all of Faulkner's major works and have a goal of reading them again in the next few years. Although I own the hardcover volume my immediate motivation is that the kindle edition was on deep sale last week, and it is much easier to find time to read when I can use my iPad or iPhone.

I don't have. To get to the end to give my opinion. Like all of Faulkner's work, it is brilliant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 04, 2021, 03:14:44 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 04, 2021, 02:40:59 AM
I also started reading this book in the last few days. I've read it before, maybe twice before. I've read all of Faulkner's major works and have a goal of reading them again in the next few years. Although I own the hardcover volume my immediate motivation is that the kindle edition was on deep sale last week, and it is much easier to find time to read when I can use my iPad or iPhone.

I don't have. To get to the end to give my opinion. Like all of Faulkner's work, it is brilliant.

Interesting how three of us decided to read this at once; maybe it's the sweltering summer heat—well, at least for the two of us in the South; can't say I'm familiar with what the weather is like in Mandryka's part of the world (London?). This is my first Faulkner. I am enjoying it, though finding it challenging at times, sometimes difficult to even understand what's going on. But knowing this is not likely to be my one and only time reading this book, I'm trying to be forgiving with myself when I don't pick up on every last detail. I'm about halfway through the book now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 04, 2021, 03:34:11 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 04, 2021, 03:14:44 AM
Interesting how three of us decided to read this at once; maybe it's the sweltering summer heat—well, at least for the two of us in the South; can't say I'm familiar with what the weather is like in Mandryka's part of the world (London?). This is my first Faulkner. I am enjoying it, though finding it challenging at times, sometimes difficult to even understand what's going on. But knowing this is not likely to be my one and only time reading this book, I'm trying to be forgiving with myself when I don't pick up on every last detail. I'm about halfway through the book now.

Even having read the book before and being familiar with Faulkner's style, it is important to take time to absorb it. Often I find myself going back to reread a previous section after something is revealed. In the best works of Faulkner, the interest is in the voices. Often they are telling you things about themselves they don't realize they are telling you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 04, 2021, 04:11:11 AM
I'm on page 20. Anse. I have to read it aloud, I just think it's so musical, so beautiful, so oral. And I'm very moved because it's making me think of when my mother died, of how hard it was to be with her as she took her ast gasp,  the hardest thing ever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 04, 2021, 05:09:26 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on August 04, 2021, 04:11:11 AM
I'm on page 20. Anse. I have to read it aloud, I just think it's so musical, so beautiful, so oral. And I'm very moved because it's making me think of when my mother died, of how hard it was to be with her as she took her ast gasp,  the hardest thing ever.

And, of course, it takes place in a world in which the chance to share your mothers last moments on earth must be weighed against the sacrifice of an opportunity to earn three dollars.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: T. D. on August 04, 2021, 12:38:15 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41+2DiWeWAS._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 04, 2021, 01:12:27 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on July 20, 2021, 04:27:06 AM
Of these only Huckleberry Finn and The Three Musketeers could be classified as adventure novels and I'd say that Huck Finn is more of a picaresque (like Quixote). The two others aren't even novels and while I probably read some children's version of a few Arabian Nights tales (like Sindbad's travels) around the same time in elementary school, the originals are usually too adult.

The good thing about Treasure Island is that it is not as historically loaded as Scott or Dumas (and not as long either...). I suspect that Stevenson got a bit more into that Scott Tradition with Kidnapped/Catriona (while keeping a teenager as main character) and I liked the first (although I read it much later as an adult) I don't think it is as good as Treasure Island.

BTW, for those who like the Arabian Nights, I highly recommend the "The Manuscript found in Saragossa" by Count Jan Potocki. The guy's life was stranger than many novels and that novel is a crazy wild ride (and the book had a strange fate as well).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Potocki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Potocki)

The MS. Found in Saragossa is marvelous! Our Cato put me on to that.

TD:

This is a re-read, but I first read it as a teenager, and I remembered nothing of either of the first two stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 04, 2021, 02:39:39 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on August 04, 2021, 04:11:11 AM
I'm on page 20. Anse. I have to read it aloud, I just think it's so musical, so beautiful, so oral. And I'm very moved because it's making me think of when my mother died, of how hard it was to be with her as she took her ast gasp,  the hardest thing ever.

Sorry for your loss. I lost my mother at quite a young age—probably about the same age as Vardaman in the book—and like him I couldn't make any sense of it at the time, though I was crushed.

@Spotted Horses: Where do you rate this book in comparison to Faulkner's other works? Is it your favorite? I understand it's somewhat unique in comparison to the others, in terms of every (short) chapter being narrated by a different voice.

I'm very fond of Darl's chapters. I also kind of wish we got to hear more from Jewel. He is one of the more intriguing characters, to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 04, 2021, 03:10:08 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 04, 2021, 02:39:39 PM@Spotted Horses: Where do you rate this book in comparison to Faulkner's other works? Is it your favorite? I understand it's somewhat unique in comparison to the others, in terms of every (short) chapter being narrated by a different voice.

I put it in the first tier, along with much of Faulkner's mature work--Absalom, Absalom!, The Snopes Trilogy, The Sound and the Fury. Some of the other novels are a little less ambitious or dense, Light in August, Intruder in the Dust, The Unvanquished, The Wild Palms, but no less successful.

BTW, you may notice my username here refers to a Novella by Faulkner that was later incorporated into his novel, The Hamlet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on August 05, 2021, 01:08:23 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 04, 2021, 02:39:39 PM
Sorry for your loss. I lost my mother at quite a young age—probably about the same age as Vardaman in the book—and like him I couldn't make any sense of it at the time, though I was crushed.

My condolences To both of you. I lost my other older sister when I was 12 and my mother when I was 22, both through suicides. It is awful indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 05, 2021, 02:11:59 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 04, 2021, 03:10:08 PM
I put it in the first tier, along with much of Faulkner's mature work--Absalom, Absalom!, The Snopes Trilogy, The Sound and the Fury. Some of the other novels are a little less ambitious or dense, Light in August, Intruder in the Dust, The Unvanquished, The Wild Palms, but no less successful.

BTW, you may notice my username here refers to a Novella by Faulkner that was later incorporated into his novel, The Hamlet.

Ah indeed. I saw this book at Goodwill the other day but put it back on the shelf; I may go back for it now:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41-F1ZPh7OL._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 05, 2021, 03:48:02 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 05, 2021, 02:11:59 AM
Ah indeed. I saw this book at Goodwill the other day but put it back on the shelf; I may go back for it now:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41-F1ZPh7OL._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Better, perhaps, to read the Hamlet, but it is a nice introduction to the character of Flem Snopes, one of Faulkner's most inspired creations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 05, 2021, 04:37:20 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 05, 2021, 03:48:02 AM
Better, perhaps, to read the Hamlet, but it is a nice introduction to the character of Flem Snopes, one of Faulkner's most inspired creations.

For some reason I had it in my mind that it might be a good idea to leave the Snopes trilogy for later in my Faulkner reading. I expect good things of those books, but it seems they are all quite long, and I'm just barely starting to understand what Faulkner is all about. That being said, As I Lay Dying blew me away and left me hungry for more.

I went to Barnes & Noble today hoping to come home with a copy of Light in August to start tonight, but they did not have it. Instead I bought this...:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71vk7LQbA4L.jpg)

Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis & Other Stories, comprising the entirety of his stories published during his short lifetime. I've only read a handful of them before (& the only other Kafka I've read is The Trial, many years ago) and have been meaning to explore Kafka for about as long as I've been meaning to explore Faulkner. So far, I'm finding the stories about as weird as I expected. The first, "Conversation with the Supplicant", was quite brilliant, the Meditations are somewhat perplexing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 05, 2021, 10:25:51 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 05, 2021, 04:37:20 PM
For some reason I had it in my mind that it might be a good idea to leave the Snopes trilogy for later in my Faulkner reading. I expect good things of those books, but it seems they are all quite long, and I'm just barely starting to understand what Faulkner is all about. That being said, As I Lay Dying blew me away and left me hungry for more.
I think it is a good idea to read the Snopes trilogy the last. I haven't finished the entire thing, but I remember the first book being very readable, very straightforward, but it is no The Sound and the Fury for sure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 05, 2021, 10:44:15 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 05, 2021, 04:37:20 PM
For some reason I had it in my mind that it might be a good idea to leave the Snopes trilogy for later in my Faulkner reading. I expect good things of those books, but it seems they are all quite long, and I'm just barely starting to understand what Faulkner is all about. That being said, As I Lay Dying blew me away and left me hungry for more.

I went to Barnes & Noble today hoping to come home with a copy of Light in August to start tonight, but they did not have it. Instead I bought this...:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71vk7LQbA4L.jpg)

Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis & Other Stories, comprising the entirety of his stories published during his short lifetime. ...

The Snopes Trilogy doesn't seem to have been conceived as a Trilogy from the beginning. The first novel was published in 1940, the second and third in 1957 and 1959. Reading the first novel (The Hamlet) and leaving the other two for a later time isn't an unreasonable choice.

I don't think there is a right or wrong path through Faulkner's books. They are the sort of books that you are likely to read more than once. Light in August is another fine book which is probably less daunting (in terms of narrative technique) than some of the others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 06, 2021, 12:42:56 AM
Orwell: Animal Farm


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JQ0AAOSw-fZgk~dH/s-l1600.jpg)


I think that everybody either knows this book or knows of it. I have read it twice already but it has been a long time since my last reading. My initial reaction when I picked it up again was how slim a volume it was. I remember it as a larger book, possibly because it contains so much valid commentary on history, society and human nature in all its forms. Surely this is a very fine book on political spin.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 06, 2021, 02:47:22 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 05, 2021, 10:44:15 PM
The Snopes Trilogy doesn't seem to have been conceived as a Trilogy from the beginning. The first novel was published in 1940, the second and third in 1957 and 1959. Reading the first novel (The Hamlet) and leaving the other two for a later time isn't an unreasonable choice.

I don't think there is a right or wrong path through Faulkner's books. They are the sort of books that you are likely to read more than once. Light in August is another fine book which is probably less daunting (in terms of narrative technique) than some of the others.

I think in the past I took the wrong path, at least for myself, by trying to start with The Sound & the Fury, of which I couldn't make heads or tails at the time. This put me off of Faulkner for a good bit. I'm sure it's a great book; I still have it on my shelf and hope to get to it before long, but it seems a tough nut to crack. But yes, I agree; these are books to be read and reread. I'm already looking forward to rereading As I Lay Dying.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 06, 2021, 03:58:57 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 06, 2021, 02:47:22 AM
I think in the past I took the wrong path, at least for myself, by trying to start with The Sound & the Fury, of which I couldn't make heads or tails at the time. This put me off of Faulkner for a good bit. I'm sure it's a great book; I still have it on my shelf and hope to get to it before long, but it seems a tough nut to crack. But yes, I agree; these are books to be read and reread. I'm already looking forward to rereading As I Lay Dying.

I think you should revisit The Sound and the Fury, read it aloud or get yourself an audio book. Take a chapter a week.  It is, I am sure, a very great book. The problem people have is the first chapter, Benjy's narrative, has time jumps, but honestly, it's not that difficult and I can assure you the knottiness is reduced if you read it aloud. It is very oral, like Pinter and Beckett, Faulkner is brilliant in that novel at capturing the way people think and speak.

The other problem of course is that the second chapter, Quentin's narrative, is psychologically and morally disturbing -- Did he sleep with Caddy? What exactly is Quentin's perspective on the meaning of life, and what exactly does his father believe about what matters? Why is Caddy sleeping around?

Let me ask the Faulknerians a question. What is going on at the very end of The Sound and Fury?


QuoteThey approached the square, where the Confederate soldier gazed with empty eyes beneath his marble hand into wind and weather. Luster took still another notch in himself and gave the impervious Queenie a cut with the switch, casting his glance about the square. "Dar Mr Jason's car," he said then he spied another group of negroes. "Les show dem niggers how quality does, Benjy," he said, "Whut you say?" He looked back. Ben sat, holding the flower in his fist, his gaze empty and untroubled. Luster hit Queenie again and swung her to the left at the monument.

For an instant Ben sat in an utter hiatus. Then he bellowed. Bellow on bellow, his voice mounted, with scarce interval for breath. There was more than astonishment in it, it was horror; shock; agony eyeless, tongueless; just sound, and Luster's eyes backrolling for a white instant. "Gret God," he said, "Hush! Hush! Gret God!" He whirled again and struck Queenie with the switch. It broke and he cast it away and with Ben's voice mounting toward its unbelievable crescendo Luster caught up the end of the reins and leaned forward as Jason came jumping across the square and onto the step.

With a backhanded blow he hurled Luster aside and caught the reins and sawed Queenie about and doubled the reins back and slashed her across the hips. He cut her again and again, into a plunging gallop, while Ben's hoarse agony roared about them, and swung her about to the right of the monument. Then he struck Luster over the head with his fist.

"Dont you know any better than to take him to the left?" he said. He reached back and struck Ben, breaking the flower stalk again. "Shut up!" he said, "Shut up!" He jerked Queenie back and jumped down. "Get to hell on home with him. If you ever cross that gate with him again, I'll kill you!"

"Yes, suh!" Luster said. He took the reins and hit Queenie with the end of them. "Git up! Git up, dar! Benjy, fer God's sake!"

Ben's voice roared and roared. Queenie moved again, her feet began to clop-clop steadily again, and at once Ben hushed. Luster looked quickly back over his shoulder, then he drove on. The broken flower drooped over Ben's fist and his eyes were empty and blue and serene again as cornice and façade flowed smoothly once more from left to right; post and tree, window and doorway, and signboard, each in its ordered place.


When I first read that I thought to myself: this is Luster's book -- Luster's the hero!  Luster is our one hope, our redemption.

Even the name is marvellous -- a mixture of lust and lustre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 06, 2021, 04:09:31 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 06, 2021, 02:47:22 AM
I think in the past I took the wrong path, at least for myself, by trying to start with The Sound & the Fury, of which I couldn't make heads or tails at the time. This put me off of Faulkner for a good bit. I'm sure it's a great book; I still have it on my shelf and hope to get to it before long, but it seems a tough nut to crack. But yes, I agree; these are books to be read and reread. I'm already looking forward to rereading As I Lay Dying.

Another daunting book, and I think his best, is Absalom, Absalom!. It revolves around a shocking event, a man kills his sisters fiancé, who is also his close friend, at the gate of the family home. The book consists of various people telling and retelling what they know of the events and people involved. From this a story coalesces. As in As I Lay Dying, the story is told by different narrators involved in events, or who heard stories from people involved in events. Even in the end it is not clear what the "truth" is. Maybe a difficult entry point to Faulkner's work. Light in August is probably a good option.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 06, 2021, 04:12:50 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on August 06, 2021, 03:58:57 AM
I think you should revisit The Sound and the Fury, read it aloud or get yourself an audio book. Take a chapter a week.  It is, I am sure, a very great book...

This is a book I read decades ago (maybe twice). I will read it again, if circumstances permit. A lot of stuff that made no sense to me when I was younger becomes clear now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on August 06, 2021, 07:56:21 AM
The 'easiest' read among Faulkner's novels is probably Intruder in the Dust.

Light in August is a great novel where past events come to haunt the characters. The theme of the 'sins of the fathers' weighs heavily on Faulkner's world. A strong sense of fatality pervades his stories.

Sartoris brings the genealogical/family history penchant familiar from southern writers to the fore, mired in the Deep South's complex history. It makes another fine introduction to the complex web of events, people and places that populate Faulkner's world. I find it more theatrical/melodramatic than the more subtle Light in August.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 06, 2021, 09:34:21 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 06, 2021, 04:09:31 AM
Another daunting book, and I think his best, is Absalom, Absalom!.

Agreed. A very difficult yet rewarding read. The only book I've read that's on the same plane of difficulty (multiple, intersected, hard to tell one from another narrative planes & voices) is Mario Vargas Llosa's Conversation in the Cathedral.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on August 06, 2021, 10:39:48 AM
I was actually surprised, when looking at the copy of Finnish translation of The Sound and the Fury at the local library that there actually they had used italics for indicating jumps back and forth between time in Benjy's narration. I believe this is somewhat similar to what Faulkner himself wished (although he had suggested use of colored ink instead) and I was under supposition that very few editions have complied with his wishes. So this may be a good opportunity for me as I have never read the book yet, as easy pathway in. And I've heard that The Sound and the Fury is even more difficult to read than Absalom, Absalom, in fact it has consistently appeared on the list of most difficult books to read, ever.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 06, 2021, 11:11:20 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 04, 2021, 03:10:08 PM

BTW, you may notice my username here refers to a Novella by Faulkner that was later incorporated into his novel, The Hamlet.

Jewel has a spotted horse which he bought from Snopes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 06, 2021, 11:13:15 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on August 06, 2021, 10:39:48 AM
I was actually surprised, when looking at the copy of Finnish translation of The Sound and the Fury at the local library that there actually they had used italics for indicating jumps back and forth between time in Benjy's narration. I believe this is somewhat similar to what Faulkner himself wished (although he had suggested use of colored ink instead) and I was under supposition that very few editions have complied with his wishes. So this may be a good opportunity for me as I have never read the book yet, as easy pathway in. And I've heard that The Sound and the Fury is even more difficult to read than Absalom, Absalom, in fact it has consistently appeared on the list of most difficult books to read, ever.

It's a bastard because you can't totally trust the italics. In fact, the time jumps seem not a great problem -- the problem is sometimes to tell who's speaking, especially in Quentin's chapter. But I don't think it's a big deal. The difficulty of TSATF is, IMO, not so much reconstructing a chronological narrative, it's trying to understand what on earth Faulkner is trying to say. At the end, for example, or in the discussion between Quentin and his father. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 06, 2021, 01:50:49 PM
@Mandryka, I absolutely will take up your suggestion to retry with TSATF, just perhaps not this year. I'm sure it's a brilliant book. As I Lay Dying was nowhere near as difficult as it is sometimes made out to be. Of course, I do also plan on reading Absalom, Absalom!

Love that there are so many Faulknerians here on GMG. He remains an author about whom I know very little, having read only the one book, but I have been interested in—and daunted by—his work for a long time. (Should there be a Faulkner thread like the Dickens thread we have...?) Excited to read Light in August when it gets to me.

Still reading Kafka; currently, The Metamorphosis.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 07, 2021, 04:42:46 PM
Hit or miss, these Kafka stories, but a few of them are truly poignant: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and A Hunger Artist all completely blew my mind. A good many of the shorter stories, especially those in the first person, I couldn't make heads or tales of.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 08, 2021, 12:31:12 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 07, 2021, 04:42:46 PM
Hit or miss, these Kafka stories, but a few of them are truly poignant: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and A Hunger Artist all completely blew my mind. A good many of the shorter stories, especially those in the first person, I couldn't make heads or tales of.
Have you read his letter to his father?

As far as making sense of them, I find them all hard from that point of view, maybe because I don't have the god gene. But I enjoy not being able to make sense of them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 08, 2021, 03:22:06 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 03, 2021, 03:06:58 AM
Last night I started William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

(http://blog.sevenponds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/as-i-lay-dying.jpg)

So far, I'm really enjoying this. Though I may not always understand everything that's happening, it's not nearly as difficult as I was expecting.


Well I'm half way through, I was beginning to lose patience with the realist narrative and gothic and the sheer absurdity, the nonsense, of the trip. And then . . . .Addie's chapter made me prick up my ears. What the fk is that about?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 08, 2021, 04:32:28 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on August 08, 2021, 03:22:06 AM

Well I'm half way through, I was beginning to lose patience with the realist narrative and gothic and the sheer absurdity, the nonsense, of the trip. And then . . . .Addie's chapter made me prick up my ears. What the fk is that about?

Yess, that was the best chapter in the book for me. When I first read it, I thought, she's pure evil, the way she describes taking pleasure in torturing kids, banging the preacher, hating her husband and her kids and whatnot. But of course there's more to it than that. If you have an hour to kill, I enjoyed this lecture on Youtube by Arnold Weinstein; the part about Addie's chapter (I can't remember the time stamp, sorry) was quite illuminating. (It's morning here and I need more coffee, maybe we can talk about this more intelligently later in the day.) Anyway here's the lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3WD1Xf2EcY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXXDMbZT8zE

But finish the book first, of course. I lost patience at the halfway point too, the river bit was particularly trying for me, but it's all well worth it in the end.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 08, 2021, 11:27:13 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 07, 2021, 04:42:46 PM
Hit or miss, these Kafka stories, but a few of them are truly poignant: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and A Hunger Artist all completely blew my mind. A good many of the shorter stories, especially those in the first person, I couldn't make heads or tales of.
I love Kafka's novels. The Castle, The Trial, Amerika are my absolute favourites. But I just could not get into his short stories at all. His diaries were far more interesting to read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 08, 2021, 02:52:56 PM
Quote from: Artem on August 08, 2021, 11:27:13 AM
I love Kafka's novels. The Castle, The Trial, Amerika are my absolute favourites. But I just could not get into his short stories at all. His diaries were far more interesting to read.

Interesting! Sounds like I need to read Castle and Amerika, and reread Trial.

(Just noticed an unintended and very bad pun in my post—"heads or tales", referring to short stories ;D)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 08, 2021, 06:05:22 PM
Just started Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy

(https://i.postimg.cc/MTF2P0N0/1-B6-F4975-D63-B-4411-87-CA-B52-D6-FB7-E66-B.jpg)

So far, so good. I found this at a Goodwill thrift store for $1. Seems it may be an easier read than Beyond Good & Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 08, 2021, 06:32:27 PM
It is a rite of passage. I read a fair bit of Nietzsche when I was around 20 years old. I have never felt the slightest temptation to read any of it again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 08, 2021, 10:55:10 PM
Read this two back to back. Haruki Murakami is one of those authors who's short and long form work is equally great. I love his short stories. These two collections are the latest translated into English. Men Without Women came out several years ago. Except one great story, it's mostly superficial writing. I didn't like it. The latest one "First Person Singular" is much better and is closer to Haruki Murakami's earlier work. It has that fleeting sense of mystery found in the everyday life. I feel encouraged after reading his latest collection that he can still produce great work.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524058220l/33877926.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596717681l/54823892._SY475_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 09, 2021, 01:42:00 AM
Quote from: Artem on August 08, 2021, 10:55:10 PM
Read this two back to back. Haruki Murakami is one of those authors who's short and long form work is equally great. I love his short stories. These two collections are the latest translated into English. Men Without Women came out several years ago. Except one great story, it's mostly superficial writing. I didn't like it. The latest one "First Person Singular" is much better and is closer to Haruki Murakami's earlier work. It has that fleeting sense of mystery found in the everyday life. I feel encouraged after reading his latest collection that he can still produce great work.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524058220l/33877926.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596717681l/54823892._SY475_.jpg)

Personally, I loved Men Without Women. It was my first of Haruki Murakami's fiction. All of the stories resonated with me, unlike The Elephant Vanishes which I read last month, which was more hit or miss for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 09, 2021, 04:18:34 PM
Lady Chatterley's Lover. D. H. Lawrence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 10, 2021, 02:10:35 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 08, 2021, 04:32:28 AM


But finish the book first, of course. I lost patience at the halfway point too, the river bit was particularly trying for me, but it's all well worth it in the end.

Maybe the novel is a study of the power of parents to manipulate children.




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 11, 2021, 01:46:54 PM
This morning I started William Faulkner's Light in August

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fK-tFyoaL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

So far, I really like it. If As I Lay Dying is a saga of the Bundren family and their tribulations following the death of the family's matriarch, Light in August appears to be a saga of a city, the fictional Jefferson, Mississippi (where the story of AILD ends). We see how newcomers to the town interact with its longtime denizens, and the subtle ways in which the town changes with their arrivals. But I'm still in the first fifth of the book or so, and it's a long one—my copy is over 500 pages. I'm finding it a page turner, but I reckon it will take me some time. Narratively, it's much more straightforward than AILD. It does follow several different characters, but the third-person omniscient narration seems to be rather easier to follow.

Was Faulkner interested at all in Thomas Hardy? I can't help but find parallels between the worlds created by these two authors, Hardy's Wessex and Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, though these may be only superficial similarities.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 11, 2021, 03:38:26 PM
Finished these two:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71Ct4nMTGBL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/4170OG8TkcL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

that was a second reading of Founding Brothers which I wanted to do after recently watching the John Adams miniseries

started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514k-U9vsiL.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 12, 2021, 01:04:01 AM
Somerset Maugham: Don Fernando


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/3boAAOSwH-xe-L0A/s-l400.jpg)


This has been my most unsuccessful read as far as Maugham is concerned. I have read it before and was not engaged with it. This time around I am still not enthused by it. Why? It is a work of nonfiction. It is a combination of his own thoughts and impressions of Spain in the Golden Age, its culture, history, food, literature and national characteristics. It is also something of a travelogue. Maugham discusses in detail things that I have no interest in. It is akin to a collected series of essays. Others may find it intriguing and compelling.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 12, 2021, 04:22:11 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 11, 2021, 01:46:54 PM
William Faulkner's Light in August

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fK-tFyoaL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Enjoying this greatly, and kind of plowing through it; I'm about halfway through. Real page-turner. Faulkner's prose is brilliant: though more straightforward here than in AILD, it's still deeply psychological and very disturbing. The last three or four chapters have delved a lot more deeply into the character of Joe Christmas, who is kind of a violent sociopath, but a fascinating character. I seem to get the impression that Faulkner's books are all quite different from each other in style, tone, and technique, even if they share some common ground in terms of thematic material. This book seems to have something to say about race, though I cannot figure out what that something is just yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 12, 2021, 08:44:05 PM
(https://william-golding.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Rites-of-Passage-2013.jpg)

A bit like Magic Mountain, with a ship instead of a sanitorium!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 13, 2021, 05:32:24 AM
Capote, Miriam.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 15, 2021, 11:34:24 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 11, 2021, 01:46:54 PM
William Faulkner's Light in August

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fK-tFyoaL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


I finished it this morning. Pardon my French, but that book was absolutely fucking phenomenal! I loved it, and can't stop thinking about its characters, its themes, its world, and Faulkner's brilliant prose in which thoughts, places, and memories, real and false, come to life in equal measure. If As I Lay Dying didn't get me there on its own, Light in August has made me a believer. I want to read all the Faulkner I can get my hands on, and I'm sure I will in time, but I don't want to burn myself out so I think I'll take a break for a bit. I did go to Barnes & Noble today and picked up a copy of The Unvanquished, so I think that will be next, when the time comes.

Who else has read this book? I wonder if it left as big an impact on anyone else as it did me. It seems most would agree that it belongs in the upper echelon of William Faulkner's work, but it is usually placed somewhat below the "holy trinity" of The Sound & the Fury, As I Lay Dying & Absalom, Absalom!—having only read one of these, I wouldn't be able to say one way or the other. But I do think I liked it better than As I Lay Dying. That may change with rereading, as I'm sure I didn't pick up on everything there is in AILD on the first read, but for now I can say that Light in August was the book to sell me on Faulkner.

P.S. I'm glad I read it in the month of August.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 15, 2021, 01:23:37 PM
A book written by a friend of mine from Buffalo Daze: Gary Barwin: Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on August 15, 2021, 03:59:04 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 15, 2021, 11:34:24 AM
I finished it this morning. Pardon my French, but that book was absolutely fucking phenomenal! I loved it, and can't stop thinking about its characters, its themes, its world, and Faulkner's brilliant prose in which thoughts, places, and memories, real and false, come to life in equal measure. If As I Lay Dying didn't get me there on its own, Light in August has made me a believer. I want to read all the Faulkner I can get my hands on, and I'm sure I will in time, but I don't want to burn myself out so I think I'll take a break for a bit. I did go to Barnes & Noble today and picked up a copy of The Unvanquished, so I think that will be next, when the time comes.

Who else has read this book? I wonder if it left as big an impact on anyone else as it did me. It seems most would agree that it belongs in the upper echelon of William Faulkner's work, but it is usually placed somewhat below the "holy trinity" of The Sound & the Fury, As I Lay Dying & Absalom, Absalom!—having only read one of these, I wouldn't be able to say one way or the other. But I do think I liked it better than As I Lay Dying. That may change with rereading, as I'm sure I didn't pick up on everything there is in AILD on the first read, but for now I can say that Light in August was the book to sell me on Faulkner.

P.S. I'm glad I read it in the month of August.

It's a really great book. I should re-read it myself, as it must be min 15 years since I last read it.

Do give a look at Intruder in the Dust, one of Faulkner's 'simplest' opuses, and a really endearing work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 15, 2021, 04:19:08 PM
Quote from: André on August 15, 2021, 03:59:04 PM
It's a really great book. I should re-read it myself, as it must be min 15 years since I last read it.

Do give a look at Intruder in the Dust, one of Faulkner's 'simplest' opuses, and a really endearing work.

I only just heard about Intruder recently, and I really want to read it. Sounds like a good one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 15, 2021, 05:59:50 PM
Quote from: André on August 15, 2021, 03:59:04 PM
It's a really great book. I should re-read it myself, as it must be min 15 years since I last read it.

Do give a look at Intruder in the Dust, one of Faulkner's 'simplest' opuses, and a really endearing work.

I read both As I Lay Dying and Light in August for high school English classes. I remember AILD as being more understandable but LIA as going deeper into human psyche.

Read Sound and Fury about 20 years ago. Didn't like it. I've read Intruder in the Dust twice. It is a "simpler" book but bear in mind Faulkner supposedly wrote it as a sort of response to Kill A Mockingbird, to support the idea that the South could sort out its problem of racism without external intervention. It's not fair to call him a racist or a Lost Cause advocate (if anything he was its enemy) but he couldn't completely escape being a white Southerner .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 16, 2021, 01:48:56 PM
Another recommendation from our friend Dry Brett Kavanaugh... Yukio Mishima's Five Modern Noh Plays

(https://i.postimg.cc/X7hwnpr9/image.png)

Brilliant, so far. I'm only on the second play. I'm going to watch some youtube videos of classic Noh drama so I can get a bit of context around what this very old art form is supposed to be all about. But even just as literature, I'm finding it impressive. The plays seem to have an almost dreamlike character. I don't know if this is something traditional, or whether it's Mishima adding his own flavor to the form. But like I said, I'm enjoying it. I recently tried to read The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, but had to put it down about halfway through; I just wasn't connecting with it. Everything else of his I've read has really blown me away, and looks like this shouldn't prove an exception. A unique talent.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 16, 2021, 03:06:39 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 16, 2021, 01:48:56 PM
Another recommendation from our friend Dry Brett Kavanaugh... Yukio Mishima's Five Modern Noh Plays

(https://i.postimg.cc/X7hwnpr9/image.png)

Brilliant, so far. I'm only on the second play. I'm going to watch some youtube videos of classic Noh drama so I can get a bit of context around what this very old art form is supposed to be all about. But even just as literature, I'm finding it impressive. The plays seem to have an almost dreamlike character. I don't know if this is something traditional, or whether it's Mishima adding his own flavor to the form. But like I said, I'm enjoying it. I recently tried to read The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, but had to put it down about halfway through; I just wasn't connecting with it. Everything else of his I've read has really blown me away, and looks like this shouldn't prove an exception. A unique talent.


+1. Traditionally, No(h) dramas are centered on surreal, ghostly, and mystical beauty. I would say that today No is only popular among a few intellectuals in Japan. I like these modern No plays by Mishima. I imagine that the translation by Donald Keene, Columbia Univ. professor emeritus who received the prestigious Order of Culture from his majesty Emperor of Japan, is very elegant. My edition has other works, including Dojoji- a humorous and ironic play. But I think it is in "Death in Midsummer and Other Stories." 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 16, 2021, 04:00:47 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 16, 2021, 03:06:39 PM

+1. Traditionally, No(h) dramas are centered on surreal, ghostly, and mystical beauty. I would say that today No is only popular among a few intellectuals in Japan. I like these modern No plays by Mishima. I imagine that the translation by Donald Keene, Columbia Univ. professor emeritus who received the prestigious Order of Culture from his majesty Emperor of Japan, is very elegant. My edition has other works, including Dojoji- a humorous and ironic play. But I think it is in "Death in Midsummer and Other Stories."

I don't know the original Japanese, but I am impressed with Keene's translation. Very direct, and elegant, as you say. I would love to read Death in Midsummer & Other Stories, available from the great New Directions publisher, some of the stories are also translated by Dr. Keene. Of Mishima's short fiction, I only know the great Star, which I have as a standalone, very short novella; I read it in an hour or so.

These plays remind me a bit of Beckett.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Carlo Gesualdo on August 17, 2021, 05:23:03 AM
The scriptures , prophecy of Michel DE Notre Dame,= Nostradamus, before he was a joke but all his prophet came true in the end boiling down to a real prophet a genuine one.

He predicted stuff , that actually happen great fire of London U.K, Hitlers, the fall of the Tsar, every bloody thing he predict came to life, how science explain this?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 17, 2021, 05:36:36 AM
There are many short stories written by Mishima, but only few of them have been translated in English. The stories featured in Death in Midsummer are very good, imo. I haven't read Beckett, I will look for some of his works. In case the below is an article, including an interview, of Donald Keene.

https://medium.com/@oliverjia1014/the-story-of-donald-keene-the-american-who-became-japanese-6644898f56b0
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 17, 2021, 03:48:34 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 17, 2021, 05:36:36 AM
There are many short stories written by Mishima, but only few of them have been translated in English. The stories featured in Death in Midsummer are very good, imo. I haven't read Beckett, I will look for some of his works. In case the below is an article, including an interview, of Donald Keene.

https://medium.com/@oliverjia1014/the-story-of-donald-keene-the-american-who-became-japanese-6644898f56b0

That was a fascinating read! Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 17, 2021, 06:13:19 PM
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. David Eagleman. Fun book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 17, 2021, 06:14:43 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 17, 2021, 03:48:34 PM
That was a fascinating read! Thanks!

It seems to me that you read a lot of Keene translations!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 18, 2021, 03:11:14 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 17, 2021, 06:14:43 PM
It seems to me that you read a lot of Keene translations!

I've read a handful and been impressed by all of them, with the obvious caveat that I don't know the Japanese originals. His translations (and introductions) of Dazai's two major novels were both very enjoyable reads. Seems he just died in 2019, aged 96.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 18, 2021, 05:23:23 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 18, 2021, 03:11:14 PM
I've read a handful and been impressed by all of them, with the obvious caveat that I don't know the Japanese originals. His translations (and introductions) of Dazai's two major novels were both very enjoyable reads. Seems he just died in 2019, aged 96.

Did you read Shayo?  I didn't know.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 19, 2021, 02:06:02 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 18, 2021, 05:23:23 PM
Did you read Shayo?  I didn't know.

Yes, I read it in a single day back in May, I think I was away from the forum at the time. I really enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 20, 2021, 12:16:22 PM
Utilitarianism. J. S. Mill.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 21, 2021, 12:31:11 PM
William Faulkner's The Unvanquished

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91ZLrfnBYEL.jpg)

Couldn't resist returning to Faulkner's work before long. This collection of very closely related (sequential) short stories, originally published separately, deal with the Civil War & its immediate aftermath from the perspective of one Bayard Sartoris, of a family that recurs in many of Faulkner's books, residents of the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. It's somewhat of a straightforward narrative, compared to both As I Lay Dying & Light in August, but does contain plenty of Faulkner's trademark "impressionistic" writing, which I enjoy greatly, but which does present problems when it comes to action sequences. Still, there are unforgettable moments: Bayard and his slave friend Ringo hiding under Granny's skirt after shooting a Yankee horse; Col. John Sartoris capturing with ease a huge Union regiment only to let them go free immediately afterward; the destruction of a bridge leaving an army of freed slaves on a northbound trek totally lost and wayward; Granny & Ab Snopes running a con stealing mules from Yankee regiments and selling them back for a profit. Excellent storytelling, even when it's not exactly easy to follow.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 21, 2021, 04:54:22 PM
half way into:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1173928321l/346311.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 21, 2021, 05:48:03 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 21, 2021, 04:54:22 PM
half way into:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1173928321l/346311.jpg)

I think I've read that, but possibly an earlier edition. She wrote three other books on daily life in London under Elizabeth, during the 18th century, and under Victoria.  I've read the one on the 18th century. If you like this one you'll probably like them all.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51L1PfcIZPL._AC_SY780_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 21, 2021, 06:02:54 PM
That's the first one of hers I've read, but if and when I stumble across the others I'll certainly be grabbing them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 23, 2021, 06:55:06 PM
I, Fellini. Federico Fellini/Charlotte Chandler.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on August 24, 2021, 07:31:03 AM
Just finished Vol. 1 "Unity and Diversity of Life on Earth" of the 7 volume set of ebooks "E. O. Wilson's Life on Earth" from Apple Books on my iPad. A top quality textbook and absolutely free. 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 24, 2021, 02:20:48 PM
Just started Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41zKbh1lnUL.jpg)

This is probably the oldest thing I've read this year, but I've been meaning to explore Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in some more depth (only read about 5 or 6 Shakespeare plays, and not sure I'm ready to take the deep dive into his work just yet, but I am fascinated by the era and style). So far, so good. Quite funny.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 24, 2021, 09:04:23 PM
These two on the go:

(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/3304/9780330447362.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71A-wJ26caL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 25, 2021, 07:13:24 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 24, 2021, 02:20:48 PM
Just started Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41zKbh1lnUL.jpg)

This is probably the oldest thing I've read this year, but I've been meaning to explore Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in some more depth (only read about 5 or 6 Shakespeare plays, and not sure I'm ready to take the deep dive into his work just yet, but I am fascinated by the era and style). So far, so good. Quite funny.

I haven't read this well-respected work. I must get a copy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 25, 2021, 01:54:03 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 25, 2021, 07:13:24 AM
I haven't read this well-respected work. I must get a copy!

Though I've heard about a billion classical takes on the Faust myth, this is my first time reading any substantial version of it (save half of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus two years ago, which is surely a magnificent book, but I couldn't make it all the way through at the time.) Definitely need to get around to Goethe one of these days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 25, 2021, 02:03:29 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 25, 2021, 01:54:03 PM
Though I've heard about a billion classical takes on the Faust myth, this is my first time reading any substantial version of it (save half of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus two years ago, which is surely a magnificent book, but I couldn't make it all the way through at the time.) Definitely need to get around to Goethe one of these days.
As for Marlowe, I would suggest Edward II is actually better than Faustus. Beyond him, look for Webster's Duchess of Malfi, and the very dark and cynical Revenger's Tragedy attributed to Cyril Tourneur.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 25, 2021, 04:47:27 PM
Quote from: JBS on August 25, 2021, 02:03:29 PM
As for Marlowe, I would suggest Edward II is actually better than Faustus. Beyond him, look for Webster's Duchess of Malfi, and the very dark and cynical Revenger's Tragedy attributed to Cyril Tourneur.

Awesome, thanks! Was looking for more recommendations for English renaissance drama.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on August 26, 2021, 02:45:58 PM
This week I've been making brief forays into Alfred Brendel's Music, Sense and Nonsense, a collection of essays, lectures and other offerings spanning a good portion of his career.

I've owned this book for at least a year, and I've read maybe ten pages during that interval. For the most part, the concentrated density of his writing borders on a sort of monolithic grandeur... admittedly impressive in its way, but essentially bereft of humor. ( He does describe a passage in one of Beethoven's works as " hilarious ", but successfully avoids any such failing in the course of his literary exertions. )

Hesitantly recommended for pianists and masochists only...

???,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 26, 2021, 04:42:01 PM
Quote from: LKB on August 26, 2021, 02:45:58 PM
This week I've been making brief forays into Alfred Brendel's Music, Sense and Nonsense, a collection of essays, lectures and other offerings spanning a good portion of his career.

I've owned this book for at least a year, and I've read maybe ten pages during that interval. For the most part, the concentrated density of his writing borders on a sort of monolithic grandeur... admittedly impressive in its way, but essentially bereft of humor. ( He does describe a passage in one of Beethoven's works as " hilarious ", but successfully avoids any such failing in the course of his literary exertions. )

Hesitantly recommended for pianists and masochists only...

???,

LKB

Aw, sorry to hear that; I've been wanting to read that book. May avoid for now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 26, 2021, 05:03:19 PM
Rereading The Novels of Hermann Hesse: A Study in Theme and Structure. Theodore Ziolkowski.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 26, 2021, 05:19:41 PM
If anybody have read Notes of Seven Decades written by Antal Dorati, please let us know how it is like.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 28, 2021, 07:27:02 AM
Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41kI1Ika+jL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Just started it. I don't know whether or not this is intentional, but the book feels very Faulknerian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 28, 2021, 10:41:39 AM
I remember liking that book a lot, but I remember zero of its plot nowadays.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 28, 2021, 10:55:11 AM
Quote from: Artem on August 28, 2021, 10:41:39 AM
I remember liking that book a lot, but I remember zero of its plot nowadays.

So far, there isn't much of a plot to speak of. Quite evocative writing, though. The jumps between past and present, the multiple perspectives, the large cast of tragic characters, and the descriptive nature of the writing—all these things draw to mind the Faulkner books I've read recently. As Susan Sontag points out in her introduction, this is a hell of a way to start a book:

Quote from: Juan RulfoI came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Páramo, lived there. It was my mother who told me. And I had promised her that after she died I would go see him. I squeezed her hands as a sign I would do it. She was near death, and I would have promised her anything.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 29, 2021, 02:21:32 AM
Fred Pearce: The New Wild


(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9781/7857/9781785780516.jpg)


This book is basically a discussion on the impact that the introduction of non native species ["alien species''], both flora and fauna, has on an any given ecosystem. It illustrates and discusses the how and why of these impacts both for good and for bad. These non native "alien species" can be introduced naturally or by human intervention and they may have many varied effects. Once introduced, their initial effect can be either good or bad for the relevant ecosystem and that initial effect may well change over time. The book illustrates the case, globally, for both circumstances.
However, the inevitable conclusion that I am drawing is that we humans actually have no clue as to what is right or wrong in terms of what is good or bad for our global ecosystems. Ultimately Nature will decide the destiny of this planet. That evidently would seem to be the case as far as current prevailing global climatic conditions are concerned.

The other main major concern for me, if Pearce, a journalist and science writer who specialises in global environmental issues, is to be believed, is the veracity of purported fact in terms of the core data that much of global decision making is based on and also the apparent lack of verification and replication of this core basic data, which is worrying from an empirical point of view. A lot of current thinking and decision making would appear to be based on shaky science at best. Are we all doomed simply because we will not verify the information upon which we are basing policy decisions?

Another one of the things that he purports is that apparently some modern ecologists are moving away from the notion that Nature is fixed and balanced in a pristine state in any ecosystem. It is, rather, in a constant state of flux. Therefore, spending both time and money on trying to maintain stability can lead to instability.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on August 29, 2021, 05:40:37 AM
Interesting looking book, aligreto.

Quote from: aligreto on August 29, 2021, 02:21:32 AM
The other main major concern for me, if Pearce, a journalist and science writer who specialises in global environmental issues, is to be believed, is the veracity of purported fact in terms of the core data that much of global decision making is based on and also the apparent lack of verification and replication of this core basic data, which is worrying from an empirical point of view. A lot of current thinking and decision making would appear to be based on shaky science at best. Are we all doomed simply because we will not verify the information upon which we are basing policy decisions?

I'm sure the empirical view of data often gets pushed out of view by vested interests, people commissioning research that gets the answers they want to hear. It seems a depressingly common phenomenon in many areas.


Quote from: aligreto on August 29, 2021, 02:21:32 AM
Another one of the things that he purports is that apparently some modern ecologists are moving away from the notion that Nature is fixed and balanced in a pristine state in any ecosystem. It is, rather, in a constant state of flux. Therefore, spending both time and money on trying to maintain stability can lead to instability.

Interesting and rings very true. If it ain't fixed, don't broke it? ..  (::))
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 29, 2021, 07:16:43 AM
Quote from: Iota on August 29, 2021, 05:40:37 AM
Interesting looking book, aligreto.

I'm sure the empirical view of data often gets pushed out of view by vested interests, people commissioning research that gets the answers they want to hear. It seems a depressingly common phenomenon in many areas.


Interesting and rings very true. If it ain't fixed, don't broke it? ..  (::))

Yes, an interesting one.

His basic argument purports to be that Nature is in a constant state of flux. There is no such thing as a "pristine" ecosystem. "Alien" species constantly invade, sometimes take over but, seemingly, inevitably increase biodiversity. We should not be fighting against this. This is the New Wild. It is Nature doing its thing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on August 29, 2021, 10:54:30 AM
Quote from: aligreto on August 29, 2021, 07:16:43 AM
Yes, an interesting one.

His basic argument purports to be that Nature is in a constant state of flux. There is no such thing as a "pristine" ecosystem. "Alien" species constantly invade, sometimes take over but, seemingly, inevitably increase biodiversity. We should not be fighting against this. This is the New Wild. It is Nature doing its thing.

Quite so. It sounds very right to me!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 29, 2021, 06:02:12 PM
Quote from: aligreto on August 29, 2021, 07:16:43 AM
Yes, an interesting one.

His basic argument purports to be that Nature is in a constant state of flux. There is no such thing as a "pristine" ecosystem. "Alien" species constantly invade, sometimes take over but, seemingly, inevitably increase biodiversity. We should not be fighting against this. This is the New Wild. It is Nature doing its thing.

But it does make a difference if the "invader" is from the next valley or from the next continent, and whether the natural constraints on its growth migrate with or close to it


Quote from: Iota on August 29, 2021, 05:40:37 AM
Interesting looking book, aligreto.

I'm sure the empirical view of data often gets pushed out of view by vested interests, people commissioning research that gets the answers they want to hear. It seems a depressingly common phenomenon in many areas.


That's a generalized version of the argument made by those generally known as climate change skeptics/denialists.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on August 30, 2021, 05:05:34 AM
Quote from: JBS on August 29, 2021, 06:02:12 PM
That's a generalized version of the argument made by those generally known as climate change skeptics/denialists.

That's true, though I'm firmly in the camp of believing that global warming is adversely affected by human behaviour, the evidence overwhelmingly seeming to point that way.

My point, which was not about climate change specifically, was simply that I imagine commissioning research to back up your point of view goes on, on both sides of the political fence in many areas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on August 30, 2021, 05:40:13 AM
Quote from: JBS on August 29, 2021, 06:02:12 PM
But it does make a difference if the "invader" is from the next valley or from the next continent, and whether the natural constraints on its growth migrate with or close to it

Tangentially, one of the pieces we of Triad will sing in November is my friend Pam Marshall's How Spiders Came to Hawaii.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on August 30, 2021, 07:25:53 PM
Finally got started on A Fsrewell to Arms. To my surprized it is situated in Gorizia, which I accidentally visited in 2019.

Reresding Hemingway due to Ken Burns' documentary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 31, 2021, 02:25:23 AM
Quote from: The new erato on August 30, 2021, 07:25:53 PM
Finally got started on A Fsrewell to Arms. To my surprized it is situated in Gorizia, which I accidentally visited in 2019.

Reresding Hemingway due to Ken Burns' documentary.

I read that in the springtime, it really blew my mind.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 31, 2021, 02:27:31 AM
Starting Jean Giraudoux's Siegfried et le Limousin.

(http://www.la-pleiade.fr/var/storage/images/product/3bc/product_9782070111855_180x0.jpg)

What a beautifully written book, enjoying every page if it! The "literary thriller" that triggers the story seems like a precursor if the work of Jorge Luis Borges.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 31, 2021, 04:20:00 AM
Ritter: was it you who was reading The Mandaribs a little while back? What did you think of it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 31, 2021, 04:57:46 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 31, 2021, 04:20:00 AM
Ritter: was it you who was reading The Mandaribs a little while back? What did you think of it?
Yes, it was me, and I was planning to write to you about the book (as I recall you saying it was among your favourite novels).

I must admit I have mixed feelings. It took me very long to finish it (I was very tied up with work, and only managed to advance significantly now that I'm on holidays). I found it very difficult to relate to any of the characters, many of which I found downright unpleasant. Perhaps Perron and Dubreuilh are the most interesting, and their different ways of tackling the role of the "engaged intellectual" are the gist of the whole thing, aren't they? The former is idealistic and "sincere", but when he's faced with issues that affect him personally, he shows no remorse in abandoning his "ideals" (and oddly enough, appears to me even more honest and sincere when doing so). The latter, in pursuit of a goal, turns a blind eye to issues that clash with that goal, and seems rather cynical in that respect (but his final perseverance does generate some sympathy in me). Still, the book nicely deals with these—unsolvable—issues. Also, it appears to me that all the characters slide into a confortable—inevitable?—petit bourgeois complacency as the book advances, which from the point of view of the author must have been a sort of ultimate defeat. Perhaps the devastating (and to me, unexpected) last chapter also reflects this to a certain extent.

The transatlantic love story has some beautiful moments, but then its decline seemed to me to go on and on forever, and it was very difficult for me (as a male reader) to empathise with Anne's sorrow.

What I did not admire is how it is written. The alternation of third and first person is clever at first, and then becomes predictable. But the prose, at moments, verged on the crude: paragraphs and paragraphs of "X said this" followed by "Y said that". Not very fine, I must say.

In any case, I'm glad I read this important book, that touches some interesting issues, but I didn't really admire it.

Good night to you, Simon, and best regards,
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 31, 2021, 05:09:19 AM
Thank you for that. Those are very interesting responses. I'll try and keep them in mind next time I read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 31, 2021, 10:17:32 AM
Quote from: The new erato on August 30, 2021, 07:25:53 PM
Finally got started on A Fsrewell to Arms. To my surprized it is situated in Gorizia, which I accidentally visited in 2019.
I am curious how you accidentally visited a place!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 31, 2021, 10:33:45 AM
I finally finished As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner (actually some time ago).

I find it a great book. William Faulkner himself characterized the book as a tour de force in narration, and I think that is a frank assessment.

It is the story of Addie, who lies on her death bed, as her family around her prepares for her burial (including her son Cash noisily fashioning her casket within earshot outside her window). She is intent on being buried with her people in Jefferson, an arduous journey away (in the aftermath of a strong storm) and her husband makes great hay of being determined to carry this out. It often seems like he is using this as a pretext to serve his own whims. The story is told alternately by the various participants, including her children, her husband, and various people who encounter the burial procession.

I think the point of this book, and a general theme in Faulkner's work, is that we think of ourselves are rational, but we are actually beholden to our own prejudices, obsessions, and emotional limitations. In this work, the distortion of reality by the various participants is exaggerated to a perhaps absurd level. But the effect is there isn "ordinary" people. Faulkner's genius is to illustrate that, and to tell a great, captivating story.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81fN5f-yUOL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 31, 2021, 01:52:21 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 31, 2021, 10:33:45 AM
I finally finished As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner (actually some time ago).

I find it a great book. William Faulkner himself characterized the book as a tour de force in narration, and I think that is a frank assessment.

It is the story of Addie, who lies on her death bed, as her family around her prepares for her burial (including her son Cash noisily fashioning her casket within earshot outside her window). She is intent on being buried with her people in Jefferson, an arduous journey away (in the aftermath of a strong storm) and her husband makes great hay of being determined to carry this out. It often seems like he is using this as a pretext to serve his own whims. The story is told alternately by the various participants, including her children, her husband, and various people who encounter the burial procession.

I think the point of this book, and a general theme in Faulkner's work, is that we think of ourselves are rational, but we are actually beholden to our own prejudices, obsessions, and emotional limitations. In this work, the distortion of reality by the various participants is exaggerated to a perhaps absurd level. But the effect is there isn "ordinary" people. Faulkner's genius is to illustrate that, and to tell a great, captivating story.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81fN5f-yUOL.jpg)

Well said! Glad you enjoyed your rereading. Certainly a great book that I look forward to rereading and rereading in the future.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 31, 2021, 07:29:54 PM
Schopenhauer's Encounter with Indian Thought. Stephen Cross. Univ. of Hawaii Press. Fun read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 01, 2021, 04:34:53 AM
Read these books recently.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1484577371l/33868414.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581821438l/53131055.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518368652l/36203369.jpg)

Wojnarowicz autobiographical essays were rather brutal, many of them dealing with AIDS in the US, religion and politics surrounding the epidemic. I can also see how Hanya Yanagihara could possibly be inspired by some of his writing about, for example, homosexual relationships.

Heroes and Marvels of the Middle Ages is a curious collection of various images, historical and fictional figures from the old times, what they meant back than and how they are presented in modern culture.

The most fascinating thing that I found out from the Pale Rider is that so many issues we are dealing with during the current pandemic were the same ones that people had to decide on during the Spanish Flu 100 years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 01, 2021, 01:54:49 PM
Kobo Abe, The Face of Another

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71SkQYXe1AL.jpg)

So far, so good. A scientist, whose face is disfigured with keloids after an experiment gone horribly wrong, endeavors to create a new face for himself; insanity ensues. (I think: I'm not very far into the book yet.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 01, 2021, 05:44:45 PM
Quote from: Artem on September 01, 2021, 04:34:53 AM
Read these books recently.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1484577371l/33868414.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581821438l/53131055.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518368652l/36203369.jpg)

Wojnarowicz autobiographical essays were rather brutal, many of them dealing with AIDS in the US, religion and politics surrounding the epidemic. I can also see how Hanya Yanagihara could possibly be inspired by some of his writing about, for example, homosexual relationships.

Heroes and Marvels of the Middle Ages is a curious collection of various images, historical and fictional figures from the old times, what they meant back than and how they are presented in modern culture.

The most fascinating thing that I found out from the Pale Rider is that so many issues we are dealing with during the current pandemic were the same ones that people had to decide on during the Spanish Flu 100 years ago.

You might find this of interest regarding Wojnarowicz
http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.com/2009/10/passion-of-david-wojnarowicz.html

http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-second-wojnarowicz-series-in-its.html
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 01, 2021, 06:07:25 PM
I read a number of Jacques Le Goof's books at university. Somehow I've never seen that one before. Is it a posthumous roundup of uncollected pieces?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on September 01, 2021, 07:18:49 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 31, 2021, 10:17:32 AM
I am curious how you accidentally visited a place!
I was driving through a beautiful Slovenian  valley looking at vineyards, passed a nearly unnoticeable border post and were in Italy/Goritza before I even had noticed I were in Italy. Turned around and went back after 100 meters as I really were aiming for Kroatia. My shortest Italian holiday ever.....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 01, 2021, 10:27:00 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 01, 2021, 06:07:25 PM
I read a number of Jacques Le Goof's books at university. Somehow I've never seen that one before. Is it a posthumous roundup of uncollected pieces?
The publication in French dated 2005 and 2008. It has an author's preface. So, probably just a later book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 01, 2021, 10:27:46 PM
Quote from: JBS on September 01, 2021, 05:44:45 PM
You might find this of interest regarding Wojnarowicz
http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.com/2009/10/passion-of-david-wojnarowicz.html

http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-second-wojnarowicz-series-in-its.html
Thank you. I'll check it out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 02, 2021, 06:50:11 AM
Got really disappointed when I saw that his name is not in fact Jacques Le Goof.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 02, 2021, 09:48:06 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 01, 2021, 01:54:49 PM
Kobo Abe, The Face of Another

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71SkQYXe1AL.jpg)

So far, so good. A scientist, whose face is disfigured with keloids after an experiment gone horribly wrong, endeavors to create a new face for himself; insanity ensues. (I think: I'm not very far into the book yet.)

Takemitsu made the music for the movie version.

https://youtu.be/vUilkXF8VIA
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on September 02, 2021, 10:13:33 AM
About 80 pages left in Joseph. Jacob just met Joseph for the first time after all those years and I liked the recalling imagery of glittering, in the first passage, many hundred pages earlier caused by Joseph's coat when arriving to his brothers, in this one, by Joseph's arrival in chariots, this time with happy results rather than tragic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 02, 2021, 06:26:32 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41kF+OZZHVL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 02, 2021, 07:11:32 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 01, 2021, 06:07:25 PM
I read a number of Jacques Le Goof's books

I'm expecting the literary equivalent of Jacques Tati.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 02, 2021, 08:08:26 PM
Ah, I actually posted that.

My first instinct is to blame autocorrect which creates far more problems than it solves, but on the other hand I know I'm capable of lazy typing without proofreading.

Apologies to the memory of a historian I much admire. Insult and schoolyard name calling were unintended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 04, 2021, 06:33:40 AM
Talking To Myself, an autobiography of Chris Jagger, a brother of Mick Jagger, looks very interesting. An article about him is below.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/mick-jaggers-brother-chris-past-24906842
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 04, 2021, 07:40:42 AM
Lova Aira. This is another great novella with a detective/crime kind of twist.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1363584622l/17574842.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 04, 2021, 08:43:06 AM
Galbraith: Troubled Blood


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71Bn3oOvoSL.jpg)


What I do know is that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the real life aspects of it: the plot, the characters, the sense of place and the excellence of the conversational element in the book. It was all really very well written. The book is 900+ pages but it never felt like it, except when I was trying to hold it late at night!
What I did not know, until I finished the book, was that Robert Galbraith and JK Rowling are one and the same person.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 06, 2021, 05:15:51 AM
Just started, around midnight last night, Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41QEZa3nmiL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I cannot remember who in this thread brought this book to my attention, but whoever you are, thank you. I don't know what to make of it so far. I find the "commentator" Kinbote utterly irritating, but the poem itself is vividly written and fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 06, 2021, 06:09:34 AM
Hamsun: Victoria


(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/877/248/9780330248877.OL.0.m.jpg)


This is a story about Love. It is not a happy one however. It is quite dark. The writing style is quite terse and lean which seems to enhance the bleakness of the tale.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 06, 2021, 07:45:27 PM
Lost Victories. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 06, 2021, 09:32:18 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 06, 2021, 05:15:51 AM
Just started, around midnight last night, Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41QEZa3nmiL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I cannot remember who in this thread brought this book to my attention, but whoever you are, thank you. I don't know what to make of it so far. I find the "commentator" Kinbote utterly irritating, but the poem itself is vividly written and fascinating.

Quote from: SimonNZ on July 24, 2021, 04:49:21 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51vfcsRwUKL._SX294_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

2/3 way through a second reading of Pale Fire

And feeling the same way I did when first read in my late teens: the poem itself is astonishingly beautiful and its a pity Nabokov didn't write more poetry, and the unreliable biographer/critic stuff is often good parody - but the seemingly endless "Land of Zembla" stuff kills my enjoyment and turns what should have been fun into a slog. No doubt the Zembla story all works on some higher level of meaning if I was willing to read numerous interpretations, but now as before I don't see why I should bother.

TD: still going with the book on Thatcher's Britain, but in the meantime finished this:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41viPWEkULL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 06, 2021, 10:32:03 PM
Was it your first Didion?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 06, 2021, 10:41:42 PM
Quote from: Artem on September 06, 2021, 10:32:03 PM
Was it your first Didion?

No, I've read most of her nonfiction prior to that one. Just last year I read Miami for the first time, and I've been thinking I'd like to read it again soon - it caught me off guard and deeply impressed me. The first two famous essay collections I've read a couple of times now.

Never tried the novels, though.

You're familiar with her work? What are your favorites?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 06, 2021, 11:36:36 PM
I only read The Year of Magical Thinking a few years ago, but it didn't make me pursue her other work at that time. I wouldn't mind reading something else by her though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 07, 2021, 12:27:23 AM
I can tell you that it's not at all typical of her nonfiction and highly recommend at the very least her collections Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album as a more representative introduction to her work and style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on September 07, 2021, 01:37:05 AM
How it All Began, by Penelope Lively.

(https://images.bookoutlet.com/covers/large/isbn978014/9780143122647-l.jpg)

This is "literary fiction," but on the light side. At the beginning of the story an older lady is mugged and has to stay with her daughter during her recuperation of some months. The novel centers how the effects of this event propagates outward and significantly effects the lives of people who don't even know her.

The narrative technique bears some superficial similarity to William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, with the story told by different characters. However in this case, it is like different cameras viewing different parts of the same scene from different angles. We don't have the dramatic differences of interpretation by the various characters. A pleasant read, not earth-shattering.

I came across this book by Book Bub, a service that notifies you of deep discounts on ebooks from a list of your favorite authors. I think Lively is on my list because I liked another of her novels, The Photograph.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on September 07, 2021, 03:54:21 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 04, 2021, 08:43:06 AM
Galbraith: Troubled Blood

-snip-

What I did not know, until I finished the book, was that Robert Galbraith and JK Rowling are one and the same person.
This is a remarkable feat. You might have been one of the last persons in the Western World to be unaware of this fact. ;) They "leaked" the identity around the publication of the first book of the series years ago (I think the current one is the 5th) when it became clear that it would not sell well on its own merits...

My sister collected the first few, so I think I read all/most of the earlier ones but this one eventually but I don't think I will suffer through almost 1000 pages as I was not at all fond of #4 "Lethal White". They were not horrible but not getting better either and I came to thoroughly dislike the protagonists. In any case, fwiw I think the first two (if you have not read them) are better than the following ones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on September 07, 2021, 11:41:13 AM
Finally finished Mcteague. It's a rather short book yet it took me ages to read it because the first half or so was mostly terrible and not up to the Stroheim's film adaptation. The second half was much better although I still prefer the film.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on September 07, 2021, 12:25:06 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on September 07, 2021, 11:41:13 AM
Finally finished Mcteague. It's a rather short book yet it took me ages to read it because the first half or so was mostly terrible and not up to the Stroheim's film adaptation. The second half was much better although I still prefer the film.

One of the most compelling films ever made. Well, what we have of it. Stroheim's work was taken from him and butchered by the Goldwyn studio.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 07, 2021, 02:10:43 PM
On my e-reader, I've just started a novella by a chap I follow on Twitter: Green Door by Wm Meikle. In print, starting to re-read A Handful of Dust by Evdeleyn Waugh.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 07, 2021, 10:11:32 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 07, 2021, 12:27:23 AM
I can tell you that it's not at all typical of her nonfiction and highly recommend at the very least her collections Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album as a more representative introduction to her work and style.
Thank you for your suggestion. I'll consider it next time I'm buying books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 07, 2021, 11:34:57 PM
Quote from: Artem on September 07, 2021, 10:11:32 PM
Thank you for your suggestion. I'll consider it next time I'm buying books.

If you're seriously considering them then I'd suggest getting the Everyman edition that contains her first seven volumes of nonfiction called  We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order To Live (the title is the opening sentence of Slouching Towards Bethlehem). That volume also contains the book Miami which I praised earlier.

Edit ; just double checked that and actually it's the opening sentence of the second volume The White Album.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 08, 2021, 02:45:29 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 06, 2021, 09:32:18 PM
TD: still going with the book on Thatcher's Britain, but in the meantime finished this:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41viPWEkULL.jpg)

Well, thanks for mentioning this book and opening my eyes to what it's about. Thoroughly enjoying it so far, though it can be a bit of a tough slog at times. There was a part that totally cracked me up, where Kinbote's commentary to part of Line 80, which reads "my bedroom", instantly relaunches into an ongoing story about the prince of Zembla which goes on for some 4 pages, without actually tying in how this has anything to do with the line in question from the poem. I like how the commentator has a political ulterior motive for his whole edition thing. Hilarious. Nabokov is a fine writer. I look forward to reading more of his work once I make it through this one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 11, 2021, 01:45:47 AM
Somerset-Maugham: Creatures of Circumstance


(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/217/713/1354713217.0.x.jpg)


This is another collection of short stories which reflects Maugham's inimitable take on human nature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 11, 2021, 05:58:13 PM
Salome, Oscar Wilde.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 12, 2021, 04:27:59 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 06, 2021, 05:15:51 AM
Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41QEZa3nmiL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Finished last night. This ended up being really, really good—way better than I had imagined it would be at the beginning or even at the halfway point. Wow. I'm impressed with the deep ambiguity of the work. Really gave me a lot to think about. Nabokov is a phenomenal writer. I can't wait to read more of his work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 12, 2021, 07:23:21 AM
Jfyi, an article about "Drive My Car," a movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami's work.

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/07/drive-my-car-movie-review-1234650289/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on September 12, 2021, 07:51:17 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 11, 2021, 05:58:13 PM
Salome, Oscar Wilde.

I've always been interested in this play because it was basis for one of my favorite operas by Richard Strauss.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 12, 2021, 08:50:50 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on September 12, 2021, 07:51:17 AM
I've always been interested in this play because it was basis for one of my favorite operas by Richard Strauss.

A theatrical performance of this play maybe great. But for reading, this is just average for my personal preference.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 12, 2021, 10:54:20 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 12, 2021, 07:23:21 AM
Jfyi, an article about "Drive My Car," a movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami's work.

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/07/drive-my-car-movie-review-1234650289/

Awesome! I did not hear about this film. I'm not sure whether or not I've mentioned this before, but Men Without Women, which contains the story "Drive My Car", was my introduction to Haruki Murakami's fiction and I've been hooked ever since.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 12, 2021, 10:56:48 AM
I've stared Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81hUncXjphL.jpg)

Nabokov is an unbelievably skilled English prose stylist, all the more remarkable when considering English was a third language for him. This book is a farcical take on the Russian immigrant experience in America. So far, so good; quite funny in a very Russian way. I'm hooked on Nabokov's writing style after reading Pale Fire. Need to get around to reading Lolita one of these days, and then there are about 5 other Nabokov books that I'd love to read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 12, 2021, 01:27:54 PM
Waugh: The Loved One


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Rets8F8IL.jpg)


Published in 1948 this short novel is a comic and biting satire on the shallow values of Californian life at the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 12, 2021, 03:26:44 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 12, 2021, 10:54:20 AM
Awesome! I did not hear about this film. I'm not sure whether or not I've mentioned this before, but Men Without Women, which contains the story "Drive My Car", was my introduction to Haruki Murakami's fiction and I've been hooked ever since.

My gut feeling is that the movie will come to the States next year. It won Best Screenplay Award at Cannes this summer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on September 12, 2021, 03:39:42 PM
Quote from: aligreto on September 12, 2021, 01:27:54 PM
Waugh: The Loved One


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Rets8F8IL.jpg)


Published in 1948 this short novel is a comic and biting satire on the shallow values of Californian life at the time.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/The_Loved_One_poster.jpg)

I don't know how true it is to the book, but this was made into a wonderfully quirky film in the '60s.  The screenplay was by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood.

"The film stars Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer and Rod Steiger. Among those making appearances in smaller roles are John Gielgud, Robert Morley, Roddy McDowall, James Coburn, Milton Berle, Dana Andrews, Tab Hunter and Liberace."  -- Wikipedia

They missed that Paul Williams is in there as well.  Rod Steiger plays "Mr. Joyboy"!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 12, 2021, 03:43:55 PM
Quote from: Daverz on September 12, 2021, 03:39:42 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/The_Loved_One_poster.jpg)

I don't know how true it is to the book, but this was made into a wonderfully quirky film in the '60s.  The screenplay was by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood.

"The film stars Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer and Rod Steiger. Among those making appearances in smaller roles are John Gielgud, Robert Morley, Roddy McDowall, James Coburn, Milton Berle, Dana Andrews, Tab Hunter and Liberace."  -- Wikipedia

They missed that Paul Williams is in there as well.

Cheers, Dave. I was not aware of that film and I will try to find it. It would make for interesting viewing for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 12, 2021, 04:23:21 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 12, 2021, 03:26:44 PM
My gut feeling is that the movie will come to the States next year. It won Best Screenplay Award at Cannes this summer.

Definitely will be looking forward to it. I got a kick out of this bit from the review

Quote from: David EhrlichAdapted by "Happy Hour" and "Asako I & II" auteur Ryûsuke Hamaguchi from a short story by Haruki Murakami, "Drive My Car" is a head-on collision between an emerging filmmaker fascinated by the interior lives of women, and a famous author who... is not (to say nothing of his other charms, Murakami is more into mysterious pixie dream girls).

While there are female characters in Murakami's work that I admire, it's true that writing women will never be his strong suit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 12, 2021, 05:03:42 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 12, 2021, 07:23:21 AM
Jfyi, an article about "Drive My Car," a movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami's work.

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/07/drive-my-car-movie-review-1234650289/

Have you seen the film they made of his short story "Tony Takitani"?

I thought it was fascinating, but it's very slow moving which might explain why it's been largely overlooked.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 13, 2021, 02:11:45 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 12, 2021, 05:03:42 PM
Have you seen the film they made of his short story "Tony Takitani"?

I thought it was fascinating, but it's very slow moving which might explain why it's been largely overlooked.

Wow, with a soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto. I must watch this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 13, 2021, 05:33:15 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 13, 2021, 02:11:45 AM
Wow, with a soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto. I must watch this.

+1. I must get a DVD of the movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on September 13, 2021, 08:11:20 AM
Just started Into the Storm, by Tom Clancy and retired US Army General Fred Franks.

Fairly interesting thus far, and recommended for anyone interested in the nuts-and-bolts which held the Desert Storm ground campaign together.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 14, 2021, 04:21:12 AM
Mostly shorter books this time.

Nadas' short story "Own death" is accompanied with photographs of a tree on each page. Carr's is a very English novel, reminded me of "Atonement". Kagge's essay was just OK. The book on Guston was my favourite. It's a short bio with great selection of his work and some photos from the studio.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347246449l/244252.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501755416l/609478._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1616192085l/57463643._SX318_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604384388l/51208746._SX318_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on September 14, 2021, 07:50:56 AM
I've read "A Month in the Country" twice. Easy to do because it's so short. But indeed it's very English, very beautiful, very full of unadmitted emotions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 14, 2021, 07:59:50 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 12, 2021, 01:27:54 PM
Waugh: The Loved One


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Rets8F8IL.jpg)


Published in 1948 this short novel is a comic and biting satire on the shallow values of Californian life at the time.


Love that book. I've since learnt of, and also love, the movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on September 14, 2021, 08:09:20 AM
Quote from: Daverz on September 12, 2021, 03:39:42 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/The_Loved_One_poster.jpg)

I don't know how true it is to the book, but this was made into a wonderfully quirky film in the '60s.  The screenplay was by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood.

"The film stars Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer and Rod Steiger. Among those making appearances in smaller roles are John Gielgud, Robert Morley, Roddy McDowall, James Coburn, Milton Berle, Dana Andrews, Tab Hunter and Liberace."  -- Wikipedia

They missed that Paul Williams is in there as well.  Rod Steiger plays "Mr. Joyboy"!

The only thing I "missed" in the movie, Dave, was basically the closing line of the book: The anniversary card from the Happier Hunting Ground. It's mordantly funny in the book, but just wouldn't work on the screen, I suppose.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 14, 2021, 02:42:20 PM
Quote from: Artem on September 14, 2021, 04:21:12 AM
Mostly shorter books this time.

Nadas' short story "Own death" is accompanied with photographs of a tree on each page. Carr's is a very English novel, reminded me of "Atonement". Kagge's essay was just OK. The book on Guston was my favourite. It's a short bio with great selection of his work and some photos from the studio.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347246449l/244252.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501755416l/609478._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1616192085l/57463643._SX318_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604384388l/51208746._SX318_.jpg)

Guston was a weird, challenging artist. I ought to check that out sometime.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 17, 2021, 06:29:48 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ycnkLPlPL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5161X520UfL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 18, 2021, 05:21:56 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 14, 2021, 07:59:50 AM

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Rets8F8IL.jpg)

Love that book. I've since learnt of, and also love, the movie.

I have not found the film yet, Karl, but it is on the List.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 18, 2021, 06:39:01 AM
The Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 18, 2021, 06:50:02 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 18, 2021, 06:39:01 AM
The Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving.

What do you think? I haven't read anything of his but I'm curious about his work. I liked the film based on The Cider House Rules.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 18, 2021, 06:58:58 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 18, 2021, 06:50:02 AM
What do you think? I haven't read anything of his but I'm curious about his work. I liked the film based on The Cider House Rules.

I like it a lot. This is my favorite Irving book followed by The Cider House Rules.
I read the book for the first time when I was a high school student. I was as young as the protagonist in the beginning of story.
Now I am older than him at the end of story.

Ps. Nice cover art of the book. This simplistic picture casts a sharp contrast to the chaos, violence, promiscuity, incest, etc. in the story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 18, 2021, 08:43:57 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 18, 2021, 06:58:58 AM
I like it a lot. This is my favorite Irving book followed by The Cider House Rules.
I read the book for the first time when I was a high school student. I was as young as the protagonist in the beginning of story.
Now I am older than him at the end of story.

Ps. Nice cover art of the book. This simplistic picture casts a sharp contrast to the chaos, violence, promiscuity, incest, etc. in the story.

Always a pleasure revisiting books throughout life as one changes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 18, 2021, 11:57:05 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 17, 2021, 06:29:48 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5161X520UfL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
It's been on my wish list for a while now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on September 20, 2021, 10:04:26 PM
Excellent so far. Very dark.

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.macmillan.com%2Ffolio-assets%2Fmacmillan_us_frontbookcovers_1000H%2F9781250768544.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 22, 2021, 01:56:26 PM
Been reading Adolfo Bioy Casares' The Invention of Morel

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81T7nrF97KL.jpg)

Eerily I'm finding myself relating a bit too much to the protagonist for my own comfort. An interesting short novel by a younger contemporary and compatriot of Borges, much in a similar vein to his work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 22, 2021, 02:09:31 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 22, 2021, 01:56:26 PM
Been reading Adolfo Bioy Casares' The Invention of Morel

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81T7nrF97KL.jpg)

Eerily I'm finding myself relating a bit too much to the protagonist for my own comfort. An interesting short novel by a younger contemporary and compatriot of Borges, much in a similar vein to his work.

Cover art!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 22, 2021, 02:16:32 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 22, 2021, 02:09:31 PM
Cover art!

Stunning, isn't it. The young Louise Brooks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 22, 2021, 06:17:53 PM
Re-reading various chapters in Essays, by Michel de Montaigne.
Glad to see a man who thought similar things I often think hundreds of years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 23, 2021, 12:45:20 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 22, 2021, 01:56:26 PM
Been reading Adolfo Bioy Casares' The Invention of Morel
Love that book. Read it a few times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 23, 2021, 01:13:14 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 22, 2021, 01:56:26 PM
Been reading Adolfo Bioy Casares' The Invention of Morel

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81T7nrF97KL.jpg)

Eerily I'm finding myself relating a bit too much to the protagonist for my own comfort. An interesting short novel by a younger contemporary and compatriot of Borges, much in a similar vein to his work.
I read that many (30?) years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. rather clever book...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 25, 2021, 06:37:27 AM
Walter de la Mare: Peacock Pie


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/AS4AAOSwdFthKOli/s-l1600.jpg)    (https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/K2oAAOSwOkVfsuBp/s-l1600.jpg)


This is a book of simple rhymes ostensibly written for children but often the profound is hidden in the simple. I found quite a few very attractive verses here. A certain rustic magic prevails throughout. De La Mare's word craft is somewhat suspect in places but the overall effect and atmosphere of the rhymes are quite pleasant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 26, 2021, 07:41:54 AM
Junky, William S. Burroughs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 26, 2021, 08:33:25 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 26, 2021, 07:41:54 AM
Junky, William S. Burroughs.

I reread that in July. Just a phenomenal book... Completely transcends both its genre and subject matter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 27, 2021, 03:18:59 PM
I finished rereading Thomas Mann's Death in Venice this morning...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dEf-blg8L.jpg)

An absolutely brilliant novella. I got through it really quickly this go around. It was a different translation to the one I read previously, the Dover budget version translated by I forget who, and I think far superior—the other one seemed clunkier, this one seemed to really flow.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 27, 2021, 04:43:03 PM
Exquisite novel.

Btw, Mann was influenced by Schopenhauer too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 27, 2021, 05:00:39 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 27, 2021, 04:43:03 PM
Exquisite novel.

Btw, Mann was influenced by Schopenhauer too.

I can surely see that, all the more having reread Schopenhauer's Essays & Aphorisms book a few months prior.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 27, 2021, 07:28:31 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81dNzAoT1gL.jpg)

Having a Le Clezio retrospective. His style is naive and his vision is not very deeply explored. This is a short book, it's about his father, and it benefits from being short, and from a sort of candour. But still, revisiting Le Clezio has made me wonder what why on earth he got the Nobel Prize for literature - is it really because of his literary merits?

By the way one interesting thing happened with another novel of his: Onitsha. Amazon sent me a translation in English by mistake, and before returning it I read some of it. Despite the naivety of the style, it completely fails in translation, the French is so much more fluid and natural. It showed me something about the difficulty of translation.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/OnitshaNovel.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 27, 2021, 07:31:54 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 27, 2021, 03:18:59 PM
I finished rereading Thomas Mann's Death in Venice this morning...

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dEf-blg8L.jpg)

An absolutely brilliant novella. I got through it really quickly this go around. It was a different translation to the one I read previously, the Dover budget version translated by I forget who, and I think far superior—the other one seemed clunkier, this one seemed to really flow.

The Norton edition has some very good material in the essays at the back - stuff of the different types of cholera. I too enjoyed the novel, and indeed Visconti's film. But not Britten's opera!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 27, 2021, 08:01:23 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on September 27, 2021, 07:31:54 PM
The Norton edition has some very good material in the essays at the back - stuff of the different types of cholera. I too enjoyed the novel, and indeed Visconti's film. But not Britten's opera!

Love Dirk Bogarde in the movie!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on September 28, 2021, 04:23:34 AM
Blukowski's Post Office

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516vjpgkrXL.jpg)

Has a literary feel, but Blukowski luxuriates in his own crudity and dissipation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 28, 2021, 06:40:52 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on September 28, 2021, 04:23:34 AM
Blukowski's Post Office

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516vjpgkrXL.jpg)

Has a literary feel, but Blukowski luxuriates in his own crudity and dissipation.

Nice work!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 28, 2021, 06:49:15 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 27, 2021, 08:01:23 PM
Love Dirk Bogarde in the movie!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EnOMppFW8AExw7I.jpg)

Keep young and beautiful, if you want to be loved.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 28, 2021, 09:26:10 AM
Well, has been a while since my last 'book listing' - all sorts of topics; finishing up the music books and just starting on the two Apple OS books - the operating systems due for release soon.  Dave :)

Eagle's Claw, The (2021) by Jeff Shaara - historic novel about Midway; not great but kept me interested.

The United States Army and the Making of America (2021) by Robert Wooster - well researched and lengthy covering the Revolutionary War to just after the Spanish American War - recommended.

Music in the Medieval West (2014) by Margot Fassler - part of the Norton History of Western Music - still reading.  Also finished the one on the Baroque - expensive to purchase but can be rented for about $20 USD w/ about a 3 month reading allotment.

Music in the Renaissance (2012) by Richard Freedman - all of these have been excellent and about 250+ pages on my iPad Kindle app; just about finished - I will have read 5 of the 6 books in the series (skipping the 20th century one).

Take Control of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 (2021) by Josh Centers - well, we're an Apple house from Apple TVs, iPads, iPhones, and 3 Mac computers - Apple is about to release two major upgrades - I'll have 2 iPads and 2 iPhones for iOS 15 upgrades.

Take Control of Monterey (2021) by Joe Kissell - Joe 'runs' the Take Control of... (https://www.takecontrolbooks.com) website, offering plenty of short, concise, and oft updated books on Apple devices and their software; our 2019 iMac did not get the Big Sur upgrade (too many complaints), but will probably go to Monterey - if you're an Apple user, then check the link - highly recommended.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nfdBX-lLL.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Rq7sEthXL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61dQL9OwQaL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) 

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51DtjEQhCeL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/images/Take-Control-of-iOS-15-and-iPadOS-15-cover-300x388.png)  (https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/images/Take-Control-of-Monterey-cover-300x388.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on September 28, 2021, 10:11:46 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on September 28, 2021, 09:26:10 AM... our 2019 iMac did not get the Big Sur upgrade (too many complaints), but will probably go to Monterey...

What's wrong with Big Sur?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on September 28, 2021, 10:40:27 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on September 28, 2021, 10:11:46 AM
What's wrong with Big Sur?

Well, probably nothing if the macOS worked out well on your equipment - but as a member of the MacForums (https://www.mac-forums.com), there were many having issues and Apple's early plethora of releases were bewildering; plus, the shift to Apple silicon further confused (not my consideration yet but in the market for a new laptop) - as the months passed and I procrastinated, it's now time to release Monterey!  :laugh:

Our newest iMac is a 2019 Intel machine that could have easily taken Big Sur, but wife was happy (her computer) on Catalina w/ the apps she uses so I just decided to wait.  My early 2013 MBPro was not compatible w/ Big Sur (nor of course Monterey); my early 2015 MBAir (my travel laptop) is now 'on the fence' (both run Catalina fine).  So thinking of a single replacement for both laptops, i.e. the Air w/ Apple silicon but waiting to see if a newer M-chip will be released?  Dave :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 28, 2021, 11:14:32 AM
Oku no Hosomichi: The Narrow Road to the Deep (North). Basho, Matsuo

Haiku began with this work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on September 30, 2021, 06:09:31 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on September 28, 2021, 10:40:27 AM
Well, probably nothing if the macOS worked out well on your equipment - but as a member of the MacForums (https://www.mac-forums.com), there were many having issues and Apple's early plethora of releases were bewildering; plus, the shift to Apple silicon further confused (not my consideration yet but in the market for a new laptop) - as the months passed and I procrastinated, it's now time to release Monterey!  :laugh:

I have one rule for Apple updates, don't install anything that ends in .0 I just wait a month for the early adopters to find any residual issues before updating. (This applies to major upgrades, not routine security updates, which I install as soon as available.) Cannot recall ever having a problem, other than the occasional, "now why did they change that?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 01, 2021, 05:33:34 PM
Kant: A Biography. Fun read about many scholarly and personal battles.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 03, 2021, 02:22:57 AM
Hamsun: Hunger


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71nwUMwgiRL.jpg)


This is the story of a man who descends into chronic poverty and who has no money for food. This is the description that the lack of food has on the mind and how it changes the way that he thinks. The writing style made this a difficult read for me. I had to force myself to finish reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 03, 2021, 05:05:25 AM


Quote from: aligreto on October 03, 2021, 02:22:57 AM
Hamsun: Hunger


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71nwUMwgiRL.jpg)


This is the story of a man who descends into chronic poverty and who has no money for food. This is the description that the lack of food has on the mind and how it changes the way that he thinks. The writing style made this a difficult read for me. I had to force myself to finish reading it.

Wow, high praise from no less than Thomas Mann on the cover. I've been meaning to read this book for a while now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 03, 2021, 05:52:31 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 03, 2021, 02:22:57 AM
Hamsun: Hunger


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71nwUMwgiRL.jpg)


This is the story of a man who descends into chronic poverty and who has no money for food. This is the description that the lack of food has on the mind and how it changes the way that he thinks. The writing style made this a difficult read for me. I had to force myself to finish reading it.

Wow, nice cover art!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 03, 2021, 06:11:00 AM
The only credit is on the back and reads "Cover Illustration by Paul Leith". I looked him up; and artist and illustrator. I thought that you might like to see his work so here is the Google Images link: https://www.google.ie/search?q=paul+leith+artist&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=935&ei=sbVZYc_pF7CLhbIP0POx0A8&oq=paul+leith+artist&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgFMgUIABCABDIGCAAQCBAeMgYIABAIEB4yBAgAEBgyBAgAEBgyBAgAEBg6CAgAELEDEIMBOggIABCABBCxAzoECAAQHlCI_BZY3ZgXYO3EF2gAcAB4AIABbogBjAWSAQM5LjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZw&sclient=img  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 03, 2021, 06:16:19 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 03, 2021, 06:11:00 AM
The only credit is on the back and reads "Cover Illustration by Paul Leith". I looked him up; and artist and illustrator. I thought that you might like to see his work so here is the Google Images link: https://www.google.ie/search?q=paul+leith+artist&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=935&ei=sbVZYc_pF7CLhbIP0POx0A8&oq=paul+leith+artist&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgFMgUIABCABDIGCAAQCBAeMgYIABAIEB4yBAgAEBgyBAgAEBgyBAgAEBg6CAgAELEDEIMBOggIABCABBCxAzoECAAQHlCI_BZY3ZgXYO3EF2gAcAB4AIABbogBjAWSAQM5LjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZw&sclient=img  ;)

Thank you very much! I was going to search the art and artist. There are some nice works!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 03, 2021, 06:33:48 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 03, 2021, 06:16:19 AM
Thank you very much! I was going to search the art and artist. There are some nice works!

You are most welcome. I like the murals.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 03, 2021, 07:12:12 AM
Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780679775430_p0_v3_s550x406.jpg)

Started a couple days ago, I'm about 100 pages in. I'm not instantly hooked like I normally get with Murakami's work, but I'll persevere because it's a 600 page book and maybe takes its time getting to the point. I was reading Nabokov's Lolita and had to put it down because it was making me uncomfortable; I'll have to revisit when I'm in a less fragile state mentally, lot going on in life at the moment. Sticking to "cozy" reads for now like Murakami.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 04, 2021, 01:45:56 AM
I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle long time ago, but I remember it being not that cosy, compared with his previously published novels. I think there were some military scenes that sort of caught me off guard.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 04, 2021, 04:21:45 AM
Finished these recently.

Baum and Tergit books were published in the early 1930s. Both novels take place in Berlin. So it was rather interesting to read them together keeping in mind Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz in the not so distant background.

Tergit book about journalists, fast changing, uncertain society was trying to achieve something similar to Doblin in style, but its effect is fairly flat. Baum's is a curious tale, perfect for a Hollywood movie about bag guys turning good and people discovering life when it is about to end for them, but again this novel too feels like something to read at the beach. Baum later went to write movie scripts.

The Disaster Tourist is a curious one. It has that kind of ambiguous timeless, placeless feel to it, that I found in other contemporary books by Japanese and Korean writers. Reviewers on goodreads website describe it having a point about destructive effects of tourism industry on native habitats, but I found it more enjoyable without that contemporary moralising side plot.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611781727l/26802076._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1564287348l/38911927._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1624304522l/56852067._SY475_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 04, 2021, 11:20:16 AM
Time to bite off a biggie

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41jKAjlstgL._SX301_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 04, 2021, 01:53:08 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 04, 2021, 11:20:16 AM
Time to bite off a biggie

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41jKAjlstgL._SX301_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Excellent novel!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on October 04, 2021, 02:40:24 PM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1362826587l/17566353.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 04, 2021, 04:57:20 PM
I recently re-watched the BBC production of Bleak House (a gift some time ago from Bogey) and as a result, I've begun reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 04, 2021, 05:53:05 PM
(https://images.renaud-bray.com/images/PG/2725/2725668-gf.jpg?404=404RB.gif)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 04, 2021, 05:57:04 PM
Quote from: André on October 04, 2021, 05:53:05 PM
(https://images.renaud-bray.com/images/PG/2725/2725668-gf.jpg?404=404RB.gif)

Stealing that for the cat thread...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 05, 2021, 02:53:38 AM
Quote from: André on October 04, 2021, 05:53:05 PM
(https://images.renaud-bray.com/images/PG/2725/2725668-gf.jpg?404=404RB.gif)

I just bought a copy of this two days ago. Read it for my Russian lit (in translation) class in college and loved it, excited to revisit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 05, 2021, 04:31:48 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 04, 2021, 01:53:08 PM
Excellent novel!

The prose, in French, is Shakespeare level. If you can read French, listen to the poetry, the humanity, the wisdom in this (Emma's father to Charles just after the death of his first wife.)

Quote— Je sais ce que c'est, disait-il en lui frappant sur l'épaule ; j'ai été comme vous, moi aussi ! Quand j'ai eu perdu ma pauvre défunte, j'allais dans les champs pour être tout seul ; je tombais au pied d'un arbre, je pleurais ; j'appelais le bon Dieu, je lui disais des sottises ; j'aurais voulu être comme les taupes, que je voyais aux branches, qui avaient des vers leur grouillant dans le ventre, crevé enfin ! Et quand je pensais que d'autres, à ce moment-là, étaient avec leurs bonnes petites femmes à les tenir embrassées contre eux, je tapais de grands coups par terre avec mon bâton, j'étais quasiment fou, que je ne mangeais plus ; l'idée seulement d'aller au café me dégoûtait, vous ne croiriez pas. Eh bien, tout doucement, un jour chassant l'autre, un printemps sur un hiver et un automne par-dessus un été, ça a coulé brin à brin, miette à miette ; ça s'en est allé ; c'est parti, c'est descendu, je veux dire, car il vous reste toujours quelque chose au fond, comme qui dirait... un poids, là, sur la poitrine. Mais puisque c'est notre sort à tous, on ne doit pas non plus se laisser dépérir, et, parce que d'autres sont morts, vouloir mourir... Il faut vous secouer, M. Bovary ; ça se passera. Venez nous voir ; ma fille pense à vous de temps à autre, savez-vous bien, et elle dit comme ça que vous l'oubliez. Voilà le printemps bientôt ; nous vous ferons tirer un lapin dans la garenne pour vous dissiper un peu.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 05, 2021, 07:57:32 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 05, 2021, 04:31:48 AM
The prose, in French, is Shakespeare level. If you can read French, listen to the poetry, the humanity, the wisdom in this (Emma's father to Charles just after the death of his first wife.)

Beautiful indeed. Quasi impressionist writing. I've never read it... :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 05, 2021, 05:30:20 PM
Pushkin, The Queen of Spades.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 07, 2021, 06:49:10 AM
Nikolai Gogol, Nevsky Prospekt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on October 08, 2021, 02:29:51 AM
Just finished Code Name Chaos, the memoirs of former Defense Secretary Gen. ( ret. ) Jim Mattis. I would describe the book as a primary reference for anyone wishing to explore excellence in leadership.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 08, 2021, 03:53:04 PM
Far too many books currently on the go at the moment, depending on my mood at any given hour:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518ZthdwupL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518MyFrua-L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81gj-KcQJTL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41En0i6p+NS._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/5702025-L.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510qM0EJfGL._AC_SY780_.jpg)

Pleasantly surprised at how non 80s jargon and readable Said's Orientalism is.

Also finished another smart and fun novel of Christopher Brookmyre's:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41iHT3GJwUL.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 09, 2021, 02:13:36 AM
O'Connor: The Mad Lomasneys and other stories


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1393737992l/20944107.jpg)


Frank O'Connor is a renowned Irish writer known for his short story writing and this book is a collection of some of his short stories. It contains wonderful stories. His succinct narrative style is wonderfully effective in portraying the essence of a story. He also had the ability to portray people very well and certainly understood and portrayed the psyche of the people of his time and place.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 09, 2021, 06:18:58 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 09, 2021, 02:13:36 AM
O'Connor: The Mad Lomasneys and other stories


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1393737992l/20944107.jpg)


Frank O'Connor is a renowned Irish writer known for his short story writing and this book is a collection of some of his short stories. It contains wonderful stories. His succinct narrative style is wonderfully effective in portraying the essence of a story. He also had the ability to portray people very well and certainly understood and portrayed the psyche of the people of his time and place.

Sounds interesting. I will look for a copy.
Reading this book today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 09, 2021, 07:50:34 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 09, 2021, 06:18:58 AM

Reading this book today.

(https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=68.0;attach=78245;image)

The Idylls of Ireland.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 09, 2021, 12:14:06 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 04, 2021, 04:57:20 PM
I recently re-watched the BBC production of Bleak House (a gift some time ago from Bogey) and as a result, I've begun reading it.

That is the only Dickens novel I've had difficulty reading imo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 09, 2021, 12:18:56 PM
Awhile ago I read The Malazan Book of the Fallen which is imho the greatest fantasy ever written BY FAR (I think Steve, i.e. bwv 1080 originally rec'd it).
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fEdoux39L.jpg)

And now I'm reading the followup, which intelligently allows the characters to be closer to normal since all of the op characters are dead or gone:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/815KilYg1qL.jpg)

The publisher wanted a Karsa Orlong trilogy, Erikson wrote something brilliant but thumbed his nose at his masters by not having Karsa show up at all. :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 10, 2021, 12:21:15 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 09, 2021, 12:14:06 PM
That is the only Dickens novel I've had difficulty reading imo.

The best bit is when some guy spontaneously combusts and someone else gets to find out because he can smell burning human fat in his flat.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 10, 2021, 04:35:20 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 10, 2021, 12:21:15 AM
The best bit is when some guy spontaneously combusts and someone else gets to find out because he can smell burning human fat in his flat.

Yeah I remember that! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 10, 2021, 07:54:38 AM
Matthews: The Atlas of Natural Wonders


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51wQiJ9j6OL.jpg)


This is a book that I picked up just to have on the shelf and to occasionally browse and dip into. Unfortunately I have only visited 5 of the 52 wonders listed in the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 10, 2021, 08:06:58 AM
5 out of 52 is a good start. What were the places?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 10, 2021, 08:21:36 AM
Quote from: Artem on October 10, 2021, 08:06:58 AM
5 out of 52 is a good start. What were the places?

Sognefjord in Norway
Mount Vesuvius, Italy
Pamukkale Springs, Turkey
Grand Canyon, USA
Niagara Falls, USA/Canada
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 10, 2021, 08:26:59 AM
Yes, the Niagara Falls is a great place to visit. Were you on the US or the Canadian side? Did you go on a boat?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 10, 2021, 12:47:28 PM
Many years ago, I started reading Ezra Pound's The Cantos, and was initially bowled over by the richness of the imagery and the poetic language .....but, several pages in, I found myself at a loss, as the poetry became increasingly obscure, to the point of unintelligibility.

This summer in Foyles in London I bought Carroll F Terrell's mammoth (816 pages!) A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound, and hopefully it'll help me settle this old score  ;):

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/317tnRG7v7L.jpg)

The edition of The Cantos I have is that of Faber & Faber printed in 1986, which I understand is "ultra-complete". Surprisingly, I cannot find a picture of it online (it's in the traditional Faber & Faber livery, in light grey).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 10, 2021, 01:14:13 PM
Quote from: Artem on October 10, 2021, 08:26:59 AM
Yes, the Niagara Falls is a great place to visit. Were you on the US or the Canadian side? Did you go on a boat?

I was on the US side and I did not go on a boat. I am not too comfortable on the water, particularly in a turbulent situation like that.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 10, 2021, 03:10:18 PM
Quote from: ritter on October 10, 2021, 12:47:28 PM
Many years ago, I started reading Ezra Pound's The Cantos, and was initially bowled over by the richness of the imagery and the poetic language .....but, several pages in, I found myself at a loss, as the poetry became increasingly obscure, to the point of unintelligibility.

This summer in Foyles in London I bought Carroll F Terrell's mammoth (816 pages!) A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound, and hopefully it'll help me settle this old score  ;):

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/317tnRG7v7L.jpg)

The edition of The Cantos I have is that of Faber & Faber printed in 1986, which I understand is "ultra-complete". Surprisingly, I cannot find a picture of it online (it's in the traditional Faber & Faber livery, in light grey).

I tried with the Cantos and had the companion volume you picture and some other secondary Pound stuff. But with the near standstill headway I was making I had to admit to myself I already had enough difficult authors in my life to knock my head against. I gave all my Pound stuff away to someone more enthusiastic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 10, 2021, 05:31:22 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 08, 2021, 03:53:04 PM
Far too many books currently on the go at the moment, depending on my mood at any given hour:


Pleasantly surprised at how non 80s jargon and readable Said's Orientalism is.

Also finished another smart and fun novel of Christopher Brookmyre's:


The orientalism book looks very interesting!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 10, 2021, 11:59:07 PM
Superb book. Totally engrossing and very enjoyable to read. I saw random famously controversial Sally Mann's photographs before, but I was not aware of her as a photographer in a general sense. Besides photography, this book is a very interesting tale of family, art, south in the US history and nature, American history, race and mortality. A very strong recommendation.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1458496047l/26245015.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 11, 2021, 12:46:32 AM
Quote from: ritter on October 10, 2021, 12:47:28 PM
Many years ago, I started reading Ezra Pound's The Cantos, and was initially bowled over by the richness of the imagery and the poetic language .....but, several pages in, I found myself at a loss, as the poetry became increasingly obscure, to the point of unintelligibility.

This summer in Foyles in London I bought Carroll F Terrell's mammoth (816 pages!) A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound, and hopefully it'll help me settle this old score  ;):

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/317tnRG7v7L.jpg)

The edition of The Cantos I have is that of Faber & Faber printed in 1986, which I understand is "ultra-complete". Surprisingly, I cannot find a picture of it online (it's in the traditional Faber & Faber livery, in light grey).

I have the book and have used it, I think it's pretty essential if you want to make sense of the cantos - which is a big project - you'll find yourself getting involved in all sorts of byways of American and Italian history.

(Do you have Hugh Kenner's book The Pound Era?) 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 11, 2021, 01:54:38 AM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9782253010692-uk.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 11, 2021, 04:10:09 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 11, 2021, 01:54:38 AM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9782253010692-uk.jpg)

I read this very recently and liked it very much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 11, 2021, 07:09:58 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 10, 2021, 01:14:13 PM
I was on the US side and I did not go on a boat. I am not too comfortable on the water, particularly in a turbulent situation like that.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Hi Fergus - our last out of the USA trip was to Ontario, Canada in July 2017 (stayed at Lake Simcoe, then Toronto w/ an all day trip to Niagara Falls, out third visit there) - I write travelogues on the iPad Forums - link to our falls day-trip HERE (https://www.ipadforums.net/threads/ontario-lake-simcoe-toronto.132117/page-2), if interested (post #20 or look at the entire trip, plenty of great pics; I'm "Giradman" there).

Below are just 5 pics from my travelogue - the top 2 from the web; we took the helicopter rider (our 3rd tour copter, others Grand Canyon & Juneau Glacier - but this was in a new quiet copter that did not require ear muffs); last 3 our mine w/ two from our Hornblower boat ride (which leaves from the Canadian side; Maid of the Mist from the American side).  Boats were packed that day - not dangerous and fairly smooth sailing.  Dave :) (click on images to enlarge).

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-gJQ8jDv/0/efc7b558/O/Niagra1.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-cDbgV7h/0/3b7fae68/O/Niagra2.jpg)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-JL53frP/0/43a54fcd/O/Niagra3.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-pVdpNnd/0/9ab77536/X4/Niagra4-X4.jpg)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-DmPtSG9/0/98ed407a/O/Niagra5.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 11, 2021, 07:52:40 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 11, 2021, 12:46:32 AM
I have the book and have used it, I think it's pretty essential if you want to make sense of the cantos - which is a big project - you'll find yourself getting involved in all sorts of byways of American and Italian history.

(Do you have Hugh Kenner's book The Pound Era?)
Thanks for the comment, Mandryka. No, I don't know Kenner's book. Noted!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 11, 2021, 08:19:01 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 11, 2021, 04:10:09 AM
I read this very recently and liked it very much.

In French the tone of voice is extraordinary - ton mat. No judgement, no irony, he's like: this is how it is. Quite a far cry from Mme Bovary. I've just finished Part 1.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 13, 2021, 02:42:54 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on October 11, 2021, 07:09:58 AM
Hi Fergus - our last out of the USA trip was to Ontario, Canada in July 2017 (stayed at Lake Simcoe, then Toronto w/ an all day trip to Niagara Falls, out third visit there) - I write travelogues on the iPad Forums - link to our falls day-trip HERE (https://www.ipadforums.net/threads/ontario-lake-simcoe-toronto.132117/page-2), if interested (post #20 or look at the entire trip, plenty of great pics; I'm "Giradman" there).

Below are just 5 pics from my travelogue - the top 2 from the web; we took the helicopter rider (our 3rd tour copter, others Grand Canyon & Juneau Glacier - but this was in a new quiet copter that did not require ear muffs); last 3 our mine w/ two from our Hornblower boat ride (which leaves from the Canadian side; Maid of the Mist from the American side).  Boats were packed that day - not dangerous and fairly smooth sailing.  Dave :) (click on images to enlarge).

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-gJQ8jDv/0/efc7b558/O/Niagra1.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-cDbgV7h/0/3b7fae68/O/Niagra2.jpg)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-JL53frP/0/43a54fcd/O/Niagra3.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-pVdpNnd/0/9ab77536/X4/Niagra4-X4.jpg)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-DmPtSG9/0/98ed407a/O/Niagra5.jpg)

Thank you for your great photos Dave. They capture the atmosphere well. Brought back memories of the place  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 13, 2021, 05:24:08 AM
Guy de Maupassant. Short Stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 13, 2021, 06:06:14 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 13, 2021, 05:24:08 AM
Guy de Maupassant. Short Stories.

I have always liked the short stories of Maupassant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 13, 2021, 04:51:17 PM
Quote from: aligreto on October 13, 2021, 06:06:14 AM
I have always liked the short stories of Maupassant.

Yes they are colorful and dark!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 17, 2021, 05:22:13 AM
Balzac: The Country Doctor


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/TKwAAOSw~05ZwFAM/s-l500.jpg)
That image could be anything but I wanted to show the appealing binding.


This book is delivered in two sections. The first section is a treatise by the Country Doctor on the creation, maintenance and development of both a society and an economy. The second section is an autobiography by the Country Doctor and it explains how and why he came upon his formula for a better life. Added to this there is, in musical terms, a very fine coda to round things off with a sting in the tail.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 17, 2021, 07:03:33 AM
Daughters of the Vicar, by D. H. Lawrence
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 18, 2021, 08:53:06 AM
Finished Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/59/Manhattan_Beach_-_bookcover.jpg)

A novel centering on Annie Kerrigan and her father Eddie. Eddie was a former vaudeville performer who became a stock broker during the roaring 20's, who was left as a low-paid bag man for a local mobster. He switches loyalty to a mob-connect night club owner and has to disappear to escape a mob hit. After her father's disappearance Annie goes to work in the Brooklyn Navy yard, where she becomes involved with he night club owner, who she had met years before when accompanying her father to a meeting with him.

An interesting and engaging book, although the plot points sometimes don't seem to make sense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 18, 2021, 06:06:59 PM
Casanova's Women, Judith Summers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on October 18, 2021, 11:01:01 PM
Quote from: aligreto on October 13, 2021, 06:06:14 AM
I have always liked the short stories of Maupassant.
+1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 19, 2021, 03:57:40 PM
Along with everything else on the go finished this in two sittings:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516A3bz4tfL.jpg)

that subtitle: "The Cold War and the Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjöld"

Which intersects with many subjects I find fascinating Hammarskjöld himself, the murder of Patrice Lumumba, decolonizing in Africa, the "heroic" era of the UN, cold war paranoia and the d"domino theory" etc. The second half of the book goes chronologically through all the theories about the plane crash, their strengths and weaknesses, where they contradict and the current state of disclosed files.

Also started this which has been on the to read pile for far too long:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QbmJhcDVL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 20, 2021, 08:36:54 AM
Blecher's book was a difficult read. Quite experimental, existential tale. I'm rarely in the mood for that type of text. Diop's book was not a favourite either. All my attempts reading Booker International Prize winners of past few years have been a big disappointment.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404961287l/22405661.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1621548026l/58107511._SY475_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 23, 2021, 06:24:36 AM
Bertrand Russell: Autobiography.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 23, 2021, 09:23:57 AM
That must be a fascinating read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 23, 2021, 09:37:18 AM
Quote from: Artem on October 23, 2021, 09:23:57 AM
That must be a fascinating read.

In my late teens I found the part about masturbation particularly fascinating... Made me proud of myself --- I mean, if Sir B. R. himself practised it then it must have been a badge of honor! Then I discovered the joys of having intercourse with flesh-and-blood women and consequently Sir B. R. receded, never to recover his formerly exalted position again. To this day, I'd rather have porn than philosophy... ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 23, 2021, 10:40:30 AM
I like porn, philosophy, and dark chocolate.

BR was born in a prominent aristocratic family, and his grandfather was a prime minister. In spite of the wealth, love, and respect surrounding him, young Russell seriously thought about committing suicide several times.
He was jailed for his protest against WWI when he was 44 years old, and again jailed for his protest against the nuclear armament when he was 89 (!) years old.
Personally, I do not agree with his philosophy much. He thinks that the world as it appears to us is the real world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 23, 2021, 11:22:50 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 23, 2021, 06:24:36 AM
Bertrand Russell: Autobiography.

My father was a Bertrand Russell fan and had many of his books, so I read a number as a teenager, including the autobiography, Why I Am Not a Christian, and parts of A History of Western Philosophy - I was brought up Catholic but after exposure to Russell, stopped going to church at about 16 years of age and got more into Darwin and other evolutionary writers of the era.  Dave :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 23, 2021, 11:45:46 AM
My current readings w/ two on my iPad and the Circus book hardcover:

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America (2009) - born in my state of North Carolina (Pineville near Charlotte), resided in Tennessee, and an Andrew Jackson protégé - won the presidency in 1844 as a Democrat - many accomplishments in his single term (1845-1849), including seeing Texas annexed to the USA, settling the Oregon Territory boundaries w/ Great Britain, and the acquisition of much of the American southwest/California following the Mexican-American War - he increased the size of the United States more than any other president.

Battle for the Big Top: P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling, and the Death-Defying Saga of the American Circus (2021) - a short but concise look at the rise of the American circus in the 19th century, the main and minor entrepreneurs, and the subsequent demise in the next century - just half done - highly recommended to those who (or have not) experience the excitement of the circus many years ago.

The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women: An Inside Look at Women & Sex in Medieval Times (2020) - I've been a medieval history fan for decades, having read numerous books and owning several video courses - about two-thirds through this book which is a fun read - thoroughly researched and ALL you want to know about the sexual relationships between men (and the clergy) and women from Medieval times.  Dave :)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DQR3bAlML.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Vd62RYFwL.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/513KMUAD5JS.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 24, 2021, 03:07:13 AM
Eliot: Silas Marner


(https://i.etsystatic.com/12981283/r/il/a61879/2734491009/il_fullxfull.2734491009_gx6o.jpg)


This book is known to a few people here, I remember. It has been many years since I last read it and I had forgotten many of its details.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 24, 2021, 06:59:48 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on October 23, 2021, 11:22:50 AM
My father was a Bertrand Russell fan and had many of his books, so I read a number as a teenager, including the autobiography, Why I Am Not a Christian, and parts of A History of Western Philosophy - I was brought up Catholic but after exposure to Russell, stopped going to church at about 16 years of age and got more into Darwin and other evolutionary writers of the era.  Dave :)

Cool father, Dave!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on October 24, 2021, 08:27:56 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 23, 2021, 09:37:18 AM...To this day, I'd rather have porn than philosophy... ;D ;D ;D

+1 ( Though it would be preferable to have access to both [ heavily weighted towards porn ] .)

:laugh:,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on October 24, 2021, 08:56:08 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 24, 2021, 06:59:48 AM
Cool father, Dave!

Hi Brett - I was thinking of getting Russell's A History of Western Philosophy as a Kindle edition but stated to be 930 printed pages - at my age, I rarely read books over 400 or so pages (just don't have the attention span of my younger years); so looked at the Five Best Books on Western Philosophy (https://philosophybreak.com/reading-lists/history-of-western-philosophy/) and Anthony Kenny's name is mentioned multiple times, but his 'best book' below is 1000 pages - YIKES!  He has less daunting other books (e.g. 'brief history').  Finally, in my consideration is the Columbia History of Western Philosophy stated to be 800+ pages, a book edited by Richard Popkin w/ 63 contributors.  I may explore Kenny's shorter books?  Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41cDYTy646L._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GeLUZ4LML._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/418RomoMNfL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 24, 2021, 09:30:55 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on October 24, 2021, 08:56:08 AM
Hi Brett - I was thinking of getting Russell's A History of Western Philosophy as a Kindle edition but stated to be 930 printed pages - at my age, I rarely read books over 400 or so pages (just don't have the attention span of my younger years); so looked at the Five Best Books on Western Philosophy (https://philosophybreak.com/reading-lists/history-of-western-philosophy/) and Anthony Kenny's name is mentioned multiple times, but his 'best book' below is 1000 pages - YIKES!  He has less daunting other books (e.g. 'brief history').  Finally, in my consideration is the Columbia History of Western Philosophy stated to be 800+ pages, a book edited by Richard Popkin w/ 63 contributors.  I may explore Kenny's shorter books?  Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41cDYTy646L._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GeLUZ4LML._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/418RomoMNfL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I have the book by Kenny, as well as the book by Russell. While the both are excellent, the former is very enjoyable. You don't have to read all the pages, just pick the sections/issues you would like. The book is a compilation of separate volumes originally issued. You could buy separate volumes of the original books as well.

P.s. Bryan Magee's Great Philosophers is a fun, small book.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 24, 2021, 09:50:25 AM
Russel's is very readable. Conveniently separated into chapters it is manageable, although my paperback is pretty heavy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 24, 2021, 10:11:06 AM
I'm also considering Russell's great big book so appreciate the comments and conversation. I have Bryan Magee's book "Ultimate Questions" summing up his personal life of learning and views and it too is very fun and small. So I'm quite tempted to read more of his work as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 24, 2021, 01:00:01 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91s2xz-XvRL.jpg)

Half way through: "Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany"

Which is a much more serious work than the cover and title might suggest.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 24, 2021, 07:17:51 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 24, 2021, 10:11:06 AM
I'm also considering Russell's great big book so appreciate the comments and conversation. I have Bryan Magee's book "Ultimate Questions" summing up his personal life of learning and views and it too is very fun and small. So I'm quite tempted to read more of his work as well.

All of Magee's books are great (though I haven't read his novels). The book below maybe relevant to this forum.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 25, 2021, 07:01:42 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on October 24, 2021, 08:56:08 AM
Hi Brett - I was thinking of getting Russell's A History of Western Philosophy as a Kindle edition but stated to be 930 printed pages - at my age, I rarely read books over 400 or so pages (just don't have the attention span of my younger years); so looked at the Five Best Books on Western Philosophy (https://philosophybreak.com/reading-lists/history-of-western-philosophy/) and Anthony Kenny's name is mentioned multiple times, but his 'best book' below is 1000 pages - YIKES!  He has less daunting other books (e.g. 'brief history').  Finally, in my consideration is the Columbia History of Western Philosophy stated to be 800+ pages, a book edited by Richard Popkin w/ 63 contributors.  I may explore Kenny's shorter books?  Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41cDYTy646L._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GeLUZ4LML._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/418RomoMNfL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Russel's History of Western Philosophy is very readable and I recall it taking a bemused or irreverent attitude towards many of the philosophical movements it describes. It is a personal account, rather than a textbook.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on October 25, 2021, 08:14:24 AM
Read Russell if you want a smugly biased perspective from an early 20th century analytic philosopher that has not aged that well. If you want to read a good history of philosophy look elsewhere.

If you want to read a good accessible book by Russell read "The Problems of Philosophy". It's much shorter, too, and while it is of course also biased, it has some quite interesting bits, among other things a decent brief argument for universals and a rather odd but interesting theory of states of affairs (such as "Romeo loves Juliet")
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 25, 2021, 12:51:52 PM
Russels' biased perspective is always brought up when his big book is mentioned. What was his bias?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 25, 2021, 01:39:45 PM
Quote from: Artem on October 25, 2021, 12:51:52 PM
Russels' biased perspective is always brought up when his big book is mentioned. What was his bias?

Lord Russell was a mathematician and what he did in philosophy was called analytical philosophy. He is good at logics, but he is not strong or particularly knowledgeable in some areas, including metaphysics and aesthetics. The idealism by Kant, Schopenhauer, Hume, and also existentialist philosophers are not discussed well in the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 25, 2021, 01:51:11 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41iY0KB6LSL._SX296_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The real Miz.

I think this will keep me occupied for a few weeks.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 26, 2021, 09:44:18 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 25, 2021, 01:51:11 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41iY0KB6LSL._SX296_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The real Miz.

I think this will keep me occupied for a few weeks.

Does anyone know if there's a set of notes on this book? For example, I've just spent some time investigating via internet this

QuotePour moi, le frère de Cartouche, enfant innocent, pendu sous les aisselles en place de Grève jusqu'à ce que mort s'ensuive, pour le seul crime d'avoir été le frère de Cartouche, n'est pas moins douloureux que le petit-fils de Louis XV, enfant innocent, martyrisé dans la tour du Temple pour le seul crime d'avoir été le petit-fils de Louis XV.



And this

QuoteQue pensez-vous de Bossuet chantant le Te Deum sur les dragonnades ?



Maybe people who have been to school in France know all about Cartouche and his brother, and Bossuet and the dragonnades -- but I don't. It would be nice to have a book which explained this sort of thing.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 26, 2021, 09:59:14 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 25, 2021, 01:39:45 PM
Lord Russell was a mathematician and what he did in philosophy was called analytical philosophy. He is good at logics, but he is not strong or particularly knowledgeable in some areas, including metaphysics and aesthetics. The idealism by Kant, Schopenhauer, Hume, and also existentialist philosophers are not discussed well in the book.

A History of Western Philosophy is not an impartial overview, so you would have to look elsewhere for something along those line. I read the book many years ago and found his exposition and critique of the various schools of philosophy very interesting. Perhaps a better book for understanding Russell would be his volume "The Problems of Philosophy," which is available in a nice, free Kindle edition, for those who do ebooks.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 26, 2021, 10:24:17 AM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on October 24, 2021, 08:56:08 AM
Hi Brett - I was thinking of getting Russell's A History of Western Philosophy as a Kindle edition but stated to be 930 printed pages - at my age, I rarely read books over 400 or so pages (just don't have the attention span of my younger years); so looked at the Five Best Books on Western Philosophy (https://philosophybreak.com/reading-lists/history-of-western-philosophy/) and Anthony Kenny's name is mentioned multiple times, but his 'best book' below is 1000 pages - YIKES!  He has less daunting other books (e.g. 'brief history').  Finally, in my consideration is the Columbia History of Western Philosophy stated to be 800+ pages, a book edited by Richard Popkin w/ 63 contributors.  I may explore Kenny's shorter books?  Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41cDYTy646L._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GeLUZ4LML._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/418RomoMNfL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Russell's book is too old to be recommendable, it stops with John Dewy!

If you want the history, possibly start by picking a philosopher and reading Wikipedia. Descartes is a good author to kick off with, his Meditations are accessible, you can go to the source.

Anthony Kenny is likely to be quite a difficult read, and risks being a bit biased towards Catholicism. I haven't read it but I have read some other things by him.

If you want an intro to Anglo American philosophical method, then maybe think about Simon Blackburn's book called Think!

If you want an introduction to philosophy post 1968  as practised in France and Germany, so do I and hopefully someone can recommend one.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 26, 2021, 04:19:11 PM
I don't think the reasons that we're interested in Russell are the same reasons we might be interested in reading Wikipedia pages about all the great philosophers.

Personally I like authorial "bias" and voice, an author with strong opinions, because it creates a much more entertaining read and my mind is still strong enough to draw its own conclusions once I've figured out what the author's bias is. Same type of pleasure as reading literature, music, and film critics whose tastes aren't identical to my own.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 27, 2021, 12:12:47 PM
(http://www.la-pleiade.fr/var/storage/images/product/3e8/product_9782070113217_180x0.jpg)

Just read Guillaume Apollinaire's short Le Flâneur des deux rives, a delightful collection of texts on Paris and some specific characters. It was published in 1918, the year of the poet's death, and the book is regarded as a precursor of surrealism.

The above has led me to tackle André Salmon's mammoth Souvenirs sans fin. The 1100+ pages of this memoir cover the years 1903 to 1940. Salmon was a friend of Apollinaire's, an early promoter of cubism, and seems to have met everyone in the French literary and artistic milieu of the first half of the 20th century.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41X7GN6KTXL.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 27, 2021, 01:06:40 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 26, 2021, 04:19:11 PM
I don't think the reasons that we're interested in Russell are the same reasons we might be interested in reading Wikipedia pages about all the great philosophers.

Personally I like authorial "bias" and voice, an author with strong opinions, because it creates a much more entertaining read and my mind is still strong enough to draw its own conclusions once I've figured out what the author's bias is. Same type of pleasure as reading literature, music, and film critics whose tastes aren't identical to my own.

+1

Another book I like is "The Making of the Modern Mind" by John H Randall. Published in 1926, final revision in 1977. I remember being very impressed with I read it many decade ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 27, 2021, 05:13:26 PM
Got these tonight on the way home from work
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511FnlgvK6L.jpg)
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31tTQdYS7sL.jpg)

FAVN was published in 2014, so its poems are not included in what might be called the collected edition, which includes her poetry up to 2012.
WRFTC is brand new (its official publication date was yesterday).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 27, 2021, 06:06:45 PM
The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 28, 2021, 03:02:24 AM
Rereading Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41gdqzKm2oL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A good read for a tumultuous time in my life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 28, 2021, 05:56:41 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 28, 2021, 03:02:24 AM
Rereading Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

A good read for a tumultuous time in my life.

Great novel!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 28, 2021, 06:06:11 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 28, 2021, 03:02:24 AM
Rereading Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41gdqzKm2oL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

A good read for a tumultuous time in my life.

Tumultuous? Based on your participation here, you spend all day reading novels and listening to the stereo. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on October 28, 2021, 08:30:53 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 25, 2021, 01:51:11 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41iY0KB6LSL._SX296_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

The real Miz.

I think this will keep me occupied for a few weeks.

I am currently in the beginning of 5th and final part in Finnish. Yeah I know, I'm slow as hell. There are very long stretches when I don't read it at all. And it's not because of lack of interest either. I love it and Hugo in general is one of my favorite writers ever.

Related to another lengthy book, I today finally finished Mann's Joseph and his Brothers. I very much enjoyed it overall, though to me the easiest and best parts were the second and fourth part. In first and third parts it felt at times convoluted and overwritten although overall the effect I had of Mann's work was very enjoyable as expected from a writer of his stature. Also, the book, like most great literature, moves on so many levels that it is impossible for anyone, maybe even for the writer himself, to catch every single nuance and meaning inherent in the story. Also, the book indeed was very funny as most of all Mann's work while still remaining a serious piece of art.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on October 28, 2021, 01:43:12 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on October 28, 2021, 08:30:53 AM
I am currently in the beginning of 5th and final part in Finnish. Yeah I know, I'm slow as hell. There are very long stretches when I don't read it at all. And it's not because of lack of interest either. I love it and Hugo in general is one of my favorite writers ever.

Related to another lengthy book, I today finally finished Mann's Joseph and his Brothers. I very much enjoyed it overall, though to me the easiest and best parts were the second and fourth part. In first and third parts it felt at times convoluted and overwritten although overall the effect I had of Mann's work was very enjoyable as expected from a writer of his stature. Also, the book, like most great literature, moves on so many levels that it is impossible for anyone, maybe even for the writer himself, to catch every single nuance and meaning inherent in the story. Also, the book indeed was very funny as most of all Mann's work while still remaining a serious piece of art.

+1. Very well put !

Mann's magnum opus is fantastic precisely because it operates on many levels simultaneously. Family drama mingles with vaudeville and tonge-in-cheek humour, history, oneirism, the mysteries of arithmetics, mysticism, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on October 28, 2021, 01:48:18 PM
Recently finished this gruelling read (not without moments of very dark humour):
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 29, 2021, 03:09:06 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on October 28, 2021, 06:06:11 AM
Tumultuous? Based on your participation here, you spend all day reading novels and listening to the stereo. :)

;D I'm pleased to give off that impression. However my life isn't quite all that idyllic. Working full time, taking classes, dealing with the aftermath of a breakup... Siddhartha makes more sense with all this craziness going on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 29, 2021, 06:36:11 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 29, 2021, 03:09:06 AM
;D I'm pleased to give off that impression. However my life isn't quite all that idyllic. Working full time, taking classes, dealing with the aftermath of a breakup... Siddhartha makes more sense with all this craziness going on.

Yes, we all live like that. Plus some of us marry and raise kids, who do the same thing. However, in decades, we won't exist and will be forgotten. Interesting world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on October 29, 2021, 06:51:29 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 29, 2021, 06:36:11 AM
Yes, we all live like that. Plus some of us marry and raise kids, who do the same thing. However, in decades, we won't exist and will be forgotten. Interesting world.

Optimist...

>:D,

LKB
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 29, 2021, 02:01:26 PM
Quote from: LKB on October 29, 2021, 06:51:29 AM
Optimist...

>:D,

LKB

The man's a true Schopenhauerian  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 29, 2021, 04:12:17 PM
Half way through:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416BUrxHe6L._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)

Probably following this up with Jenny Diski's memoir of growing up as a ward of Doris Lessing, and their difficult relationship.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/418dmtA--eL._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 31, 2021, 04:45:08 AM
O'Connor: My Father's Son


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597510201l/54958087._SY475_.jpg)


This is an autobiographical work. It deals with that stage in O'Connors's life where he, as a young man, began his working life and also his literary life. It is also a time where he came into social contact with many of the great literary figures of his time in Ireland. It is interesting in that he treats them as people as opposed to literary figures. O'Connor's writing style is ostensibly simple but it delivers incisive and sensitive insights into his characters, the world in which they inhabit and the contemporary society in general in which he lived. It is a story of his time and also the formative years of a young man maturing. What I found most interesting was the relationship that he had with Yeats both within and without our National Theatre, The Abbey Theatre.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 31, 2021, 06:52:30 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 31, 2021, 04:45:08 AM
O'Connor: My Father's Son



This is an autobiographical work. It deals with that stage in O'Connors's life where he, as a young man, began his working life and also his literary life. It is also a time where he came into social contact with many of the great literary figures of his time in Ireland. It is interesting in that he treats them as people as opposed to literary figures. O'Connor's writing style is ostensibly simple but it delivers incisive and sensitive insights into his characters, the world in which they inhabit and the contemporary society in general in which he lived. It is a story of his time and also the formative years of a young man maturing. What I found most interesting was the relationship that he had with Yeats both within and without our National Theatre, The Abbey Theatre.

The book sounds interesting. I will get a copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 31, 2021, 06:53:52 AM
Boris Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life. Leon Aron.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 31, 2021, 08:03:07 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 31, 2021, 06:52:30 AM
The book sounds interesting. I will get a copy.

He was simply a very good writer irrespective of what he was writing about. He would be best remembered for his short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 31, 2021, 08:30:07 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on October 28, 2021, 08:30:53 AM
I am currently in the beginning of 5th and final part in Finnish. Yeah I know, I'm slow as hell. There are very long stretches when I don't read it at all. And it's not because of lack of interest either. I love it and Hugo in general is one of my favorite writers ever.


I've just finished Cosette, so I'm probably more than one third through. Jean Valjean's strength and resourcefulness reminds me of Ulysses. The romantic nature worship is dated of course, but so is the Homeric cult, so I'll let it pass. It does seem to be a real epic, with Homeric ambitions.

I'm quite surprised by how much of a work of ideas it is. I'm keen to see what he does with the Jean Valjean/Cosette relationship, it's not like anything I've come across before in literature.

The French is a pleasure to read, so clear and easy to follow. And some of Hugo's anti- church diatribes are great fun - f.e. the bit where he draws a long comparison between the life of the prisoners on a labour camp and the life of children in a convent school.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 01, 2021, 04:23:06 AM
Linn Ullmann is a daughter of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman. She recounts her childhood, but mostly Unquiet is about her feelings and attitudes towards her dying father. Children writing about their dead parents is not my favourite genre.

The Ice Palace was another book about death and dead children. Why is Nordics literature so gloomy?

I was very curious about Murakami/Ozawa book, but my expectations were probably too high. Murakami writes well about music, but Ozawa doesn't add too many interesting details to that book during his conversations with Murakami. He's very modest. Murakami's own book about classical music would be great.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1624436919l/57873529._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1509647362l/36200536.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1514556240l/34382959._SY475_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 01, 2021, 01:50:31 PM
Quote from: Artem on November 01, 2021, 04:23:06 AM
Linn Ullmann is a daughter of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman. She recounts her childhood, but mostly Unquiet is about her feelings and attitudes towards her dying father. Children writing about their dead parents is not my favourite genre.

The Ice Palace was another book about death and dead children. Why is Nordics literature so gloomy?

I was very curious about Murakami/Ozawa book, but my expectations were probably too high. Murakami writes well about music, but Ozawa doesn't add too many interesting details to that book during his conversations with Murakami. He's very modest. Murakami's own book about classical music would be great.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1624436919l/57873529._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1509647362l/36200536.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1514556240l/34382959._SY475_.jpg)

I really liked Absolutely on Music. It was actually the first Murakami I ever read. But you're right. Ozawa is pretty quiet for the most part. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that he was convalescing from a pretty serious illness during the time of the interviews. In Ozawa's epilogue to the book, he writes

Quote from: Seiji OzawaI have lots of friends who love music, but Haruki takes it way beyond the bounds of sanity. Jazz, classics: he doesn't just love music, he knows music. Tiny details, old stuff, musicians—it's amazing. He goes to concerts, and to live jazz performances, and he listens to records at home. It really is amazing.

If a damn conductor ever said that about me, I think I could die happy  :P I bet Haruki Murakami feels the same way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 01, 2021, 11:02:22 PM
I hope Murakami's book about classical records will be translated into English. I enjoyed his book about jazz LPs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 01, 2021, 11:37:26 PM
Quote from: Artem on November 01, 2021, 11:02:22 PM
I hope Murakami's book about classical records will be translated into English. I enjoyed his book about jazz LPs.

The jazz writings gave been translated into English?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 02, 2021, 12:28:35 AM
It was translated into Russian.

It is interesting that Murakami book about running was picked up for the English speaking audience for translation, but his music writing hasn't been so far. Perhaps, the book with Ozawa is the beginning.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on November 02, 2021, 05:29:37 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 31, 2021, 08:30:07 PM
I've just finished Cosette, so I'm probably more than one third through. Jean Valjean's strength and resourcefulness reminds me of Ulysses. The romantic nature worship is dated of course, but so is the Homeric cult, so I'll let it pass. It does seem to be a real epic, with Homeric ambitions.

I'm quite surprised by how much of a work of ideas it is. I'm keen to see what he does with the Jean Valjean/Cosette relationship, it's not like anything I've come across before in literature.

The French is a pleasure to read, so clear and easy to follow. And some of Hugo's anti- church diatribes are great fun - f.e. the bit where he draws a long comparison between the life of the prisoners on a labour camp and the life of children in a convent school.
OTOH the Bishop at the beginning is as close to a real saint as anyone in modern literature, and Jean Valjean overall also is a bit of a (more fleshed out) saint.

I should some time re-read this. It was the first "real" literature I ever read (in translation, of course) at about 12 (not really having asked for my parent's consent, I "borrowed" it from their shelves), I had become interested because a few years earlier my mother had read it and recounted a summarized, bowdlerized version to me and my siblings. I vaguely remember that when I first read it I was a bit disappointed at the relative lack of "escape from the galleys" action episodes and I certainly missed a lot of the historical and other background. I re-read once but probably still a teenager or in my early 20s. I am not sure if I have the patience nowadays although I expect it to be a much faster read than most 19th/early 20th century Russians or Germans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 02, 2021, 05:46:30 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 02, 2021, 05:29:37 AM
OTOH the Bishop at the beginning is as close to a real saint as anyone in modern literature, and Jean Valjean overall also is a bit of a (more fleshed out) saint.

I should some time re-read this. It was the first "real" literature I ever read (in translation, of course) at about 12 (not really having asked for my parent's consent, I "borrowed" it from their shelves), I had become interested because a few years earlier my mother had read it and recounted a summarized, bowdlerized version to me and my siblings. I vaguely remember that when I first read it I was a bit disappointed at the relative lack of "escape from the galleys" action episodes and I certainly missed a lot of the historical and other background. I re-read once but probably still a teenager or in my early 20s. I am not sure if I have the patience nowadays although I expect it to be a much faster read than most 19th/early 20th century Russians or Germans.

When it comes to Hugo, I have a soft spot for The Toilers of the Sea. It's written on a more intimate and human scale, the plot is easier to follow and has little, if any, of the moralizing, pseudo-philosophical stuff one encounters so often in his lengthier novels. A deeply touching love story set in the Channel Islands.  If you don't know it yet, give it a try.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 02, 2021, 08:07:17 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 02, 2021, 05:29:37 AM
OTOH the Bishop at the beginning is as close to a real saint as anyone in modern literature, and Jean Valjean overall also is a bit of a (more fleshed out) saint.

I should some time re-read this. It was the first "real" literature I ever read (in translation, of course) at about 12 (not really having asked for my parent's consent, I "borrowed" it from their shelves), I had become interested because a few years earlier my mother had read it and recounted a summarized, bowdlerized version to me and my siblings. I vaguely remember that when I first read it I was a bit disappointed at the relative lack of "escape from the galleys" action episodes and I certainly missed a lot of the historical and other background. I re-read once but probably still a teenager or in my early 20s. I am not sure if I have the patience nowadays although I expect it to be a much faster read than most 19th/early 20th century Russians or Germans.

Monseigneur Bienvenu is amazing, especially his interview with the bloke who was responsible for sending people to the guillotine in the 1792 revolution.
It's unbelievably easy to read in French, It'll take me less than a fortnight to read the whole thing.

But -- I think it's uneven. The book called Marius was hard going for me. I'm just about a third of the way through L'idylle rue Plumet et l'épopée rue Saint-Denis

He says some mad things about Paris. At one point he says that the kids sleeping rough there, though they appear to be rogues on the outside, are pure internally, in their souls . . . and this is something to do with the quality of the air in the city. What would Durkheim have said about that?

Hard to know what to make of Cosette and indeed Jean Valjean's relationship with her. The innocence of the writing -- not the slightest whiff of Freud -- is slightly disconcerting.  We are really dealing with someone pre-Modernity in a way with Hugo. In some sense of modernity.

I know someone (in my family)  who is not entirely unlike La Thenardier  >:(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on November 02, 2021, 09:37:09 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 11, 2021, 08:19:01 AM
In French the tone of voice is extraordinary - ton mat. No judgement, no irony, he's like: this is how it is. Quite a far cry from Mme Bovary. I've just finished Part 1.

Old comment but what you said was very interesting - because I thought Madame Bovary has also been considered extremely objective storytelling to the point that Flaubert was sued over not judging Emma Bovary and her love affair. Or was Flaubert's irony and judgement too subtle for the critics and readers of his time? Or not even that subtle but the thorough double standards of the time still persisted? Or did I misunderstand your comment?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 02, 2021, 12:21:32 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on November 02, 2021, 09:37:09 AM
Old comment but what you said was very interesting - because I thought Madame Bovary has also been considered extremely objective storytelling to the point that Flaubert was sued over not judging Emma Bovary and her love affair. Or was Flaubert's irony and judgement too subtle for the critics and readers of his time? Or not even that subtle but the thorough double standards of the time still persisted? Or did I misunderstand your comment?

I didn't sense irony in Education Sentimentale, and that respect seemed so different from Bovary. What I sensed was tremendous disillusion, and an impulse to tell the world how it is, warts and all . To be honest I abandoned it, I will go back to it or pick up Salammbo soon.

So here's an example of something. When Charles Bovary completely messes up the surgery on that patient's leg, Emma just looks at him and thinks, basically, "What a loser!" I found that scene shocking and almost funny at the same time. The bathos was funny -- we're all set up to feel sorry for Charles's plight, and she can feel no pity, she just sees her husband's mediocrity.

I didn't come across anything like that in the first part of Education Sentimentale.

I also found Education Sentimentale a bit annoying at the level of plot. Part of it is the episodic nature of a bildungsroman. And part of it is the strange nature of the love at first sight which seems to drive the plot -- a bit like Marius seeing Cosette and falling in love!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 05, 2021, 05:32:24 AM
Pasternak: The Last Summer


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1214928401l/625217.jpg)


This is a novella which tells the story of Serezha who, whilst visiting his elder sister, revisits the memories of the summer of 1914. He then worked as a tutor to a wealthy family which gave him both the time and opportunity to have much free time and this allowed him to engage in exploring various relationships with different women. This edition of the book appears to me to be badly translated. It all feels very disjointed and fragmented. There is no overall cohesion. It tried hard to be poetic but it failed badly. I found it to be a difficult and laborious read for such a short work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 07, 2021, 06:01:17 AM
Panzer Leader, General Heinz Guderian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 07, 2021, 06:13:02 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 02, 2021, 05:46:30 AM
When it comes to Hugo, I have a soft spot for The Toilers of the Sea. It's written on a more intimate and human scale, the plot is easier to follow and has little, if any, of the moralizing, pseudo-philosophical stuff one encounters so often in his lengthier novels. A deeply touching love story set in the Channel Islands.  If you don't know it yet, give it a try.

(I'm just about to start the last part)

How could anyone fail to just love Gavroche? The elephant . .  la mouche du coche in the barricade . . . the gun which isn't loaded  . . . the songs  . . .

And Marius -- the change from suicidal tendencies to extraordinary courage on entering the barricade is a real great literary moment.

The whole account of the barricade, the way he sets out the context in the Corinth cabaret bar, is just brilliantly done I think.

I admit that I can do without Valjean, Javere, Les Thenardier and Cosette though.

It would be interesting to read a feminist critique of this book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on November 07, 2021, 10:52:55 AM
To be perfectly honest, at times I find Marius a bit tiresome. And naturally Hugo falls on the typical cliche of the Time: If Marius cannot have Cosette, he emotionally starts to blackmail her by claiming to commit suicide. I dont know if this is a French thing but I especially seem to run into this kind of obsessive love in French literature.

Javert is my favorite character in the book. His background is a psychologically convincing reason for his harsh way to fight crime. I especially like the part at the end of the first volume when he comes to arrest Valjean at Fantine's deathbed and Hugo describes Javert's terrifying joy at having finally cornered Valjean. The language Hugo uses when describing all this is the absolute highest point of this amazing book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 07, 2021, 11:05:49 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on November 07, 2021, 10:52:55 AM


Javert is my favorite character in the book. His background is a psychologically convincing reason for his harsh way to fight crime. I especially like the part at the end of the first volume when he comes to arrest Valjean at Fantine's deathbed and Hugo describes Javert's terrifying joy at having finally cornered Valjean. The language Hugo uses when describing all this is the absolute highest point of this amazing book.

I can't remember the details but there's something about the way Javert laughs.

Javert is a bit like Captain Ahab maybe. I can't remember about his background -- maybe it's in Bk 5.

Marius is annoying in the book called Marius, it's in the chapter called Marius entre dans l'ombre (Bk 4 chap 13) that he starts to become splendid.

(Other things which stay in my mind which I'll mention: the description of the garden in the house on Rue Plumet; the cart carrying prisoners on the way to the labour camp which Jean and Cosette encounter on a walk outside Paris somewhere.)

But Hugo is the best character, the narrator. The humanity and compassion of the man somehow radiates through the prose all through the 1600 pages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 07, 2021, 06:27:01 PM
Y'all are making me excited to read Les Misérables, which I probably won't do for another 5 years or so.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 10, 2021, 10:18:08 AM
Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy (2020) by David Zucchino - winner of 2020 Pulitzer Prize. Just half way through this book about a North Carolina coastal city that pre-Covid, we visit usually twice a year (i.e. Wrightsville Beach) - but in November 1898, Wilmington was the largest city in the state with a 56% black population well integrated into the city's activities, politics, and businesses; as described below (first paragraph of a long Wiki article), a white coup took over the elected government of the city, forcing prominent blacks to leave the town, and resulting in an indefinite number of black deaths (estimates as high as the low hundreds).  A Memorial has been built in Wilmington which we visited in October 2019 (unfortunately, our last trip to the city - hope to return soon) - the additional pics are my own w/ Susan in one.  Dave :)

QuoteThe Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, was a riot and insurrection carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, November 10, 1898. The white press in Wilmington originally described the event as a race riot caused by black people, as the white press typically did when faced with news of race massacres. Since the late 20th century and further study, the insurrection has been characterized as a coup d'état, the violent overthrow of a duly elected government, by a group of white supremacists. (Source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898))

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41c0Tb2NASS.jpg)  (https://www.ipadforums.net/attachments/wvb_10_19_c7-jpg.87974/)

(https://www.ipadforums.net/attachments/wvb_10_19_c8-jpg.87975/)  (https://www.ipadforums.net/attachments/wvb_10_19_c9-jpg.87976/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 10, 2021, 01:34:09 PM
2/3 way through:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51aX4Mi7KeS.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2021, 05:24:08 AM
Giordano Bruno: De La Causa, Principio, e Uno (Cause, Principle and Unity).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 12, 2021, 02:45:08 AM
Hardy: Under the Greenwood Tree


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/16451615869.jpg)


I started to read this recently, got up to about page 50 or so and then I decided to abandon it, something I have rarely done with books. I simply could not take any more of the minute detail of the various characters' every movement and conversation. There is no plot, merely a series of character and situational observations.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 12, 2021, 09:49:48 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41eUMpo3-5L._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Having tried again and failed again to get into L'Education Sentimentale, I'm giving Flaubert one last chance.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 12, 2021, 02:21:35 PM
Quote from: aligreto on November 12, 2021, 02:45:08 AM
Hardy: Under the Greenwood Tree


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/16451615869.jpg)


I started to read this recently, got up to about page 50 or so and then I decided to abandon it, something I have rarely done with books. I simply could not take any more of the minute detail of the various characters' every movement and conversation. There is no plot, merely a series of character and situational observations.

I didn't know this work. I am surprised to hear that Hardy wrote a boring work. Perhaps he just experimented with a new style?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 12, 2021, 05:14:52 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 12, 2021, 02:21:35 PM
I didn't know this work. I am surprised to hear that Hardy wrote a boring work. Perhaps he just experimented with a new style?

It's a very early novel, before even Far from the Madding Crowd.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 14, 2021, 06:47:00 PM
The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam. Mehdi Aminrazavi
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 16, 2021, 06:04:48 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 12, 2021, 09:49:48 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41eUMpo3-5L._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Having tried again and failed again to get into L'Education Sentimentale, I'm giving Flaubert one last chance.

Decided that Flaubert is not for me right now so am just about to finish this, which reminds me of a David Lynch film. It touches on something which I think is really interesting - our relationship in the present to the traces of our own past. Haunting and ungraspable half-memories. And the diegesis is interesting too, because the narrator's act of writing is an important strand in the text itself.

I've got his latest, Chevreuse, lined up for later.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31rhGWeOmfL._SX339_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 16, 2021, 11:45:20 AM
I've read a few Modiano's books. I enjoyed reading them, but I don't remember a single thing about them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 19, 2021, 07:29:50 AM
The Thief's Journal: Jean Genet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 19, 2021, 08:47:36 AM
DH Lawrence: Love Among The Haystacks and Other Stories


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/nigAAOSwZ8ZW7Y71/s-l300.jpg)


This collection of short stories is a re-read for me and it was an enjoyable one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 19, 2021, 08:57:04 AM
Quote from: aligreto on November 19, 2021, 08:47:36 AM
DH Lawrence: Love Among The Haystacks and Other Stories


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/nigAAOSwZ8ZW7Y71/s-l300.jpg)


This collection of short stories is a re-read for me and it was an enjoyable one.

I love "Love Among the Haystacks" ! I like it's subtlety, sensuality, and atmosphere.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 19, 2021, 12:07:34 PM
Quote from: Artem on November 16, 2021, 11:45:20 AM
I've read a few Modiano's books. I enjoyed reading them, but I don't remember a single thing about them.

Indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 19, 2021, 12:10:12 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 19, 2021, 07:29:50 AM
The Thief's Journal: Jean Genet.

I read this in English when I was about 18, and it had a real impact, so much so that I went on a sort of homage to the seedy old drinking places in Rotterdam old port looking for Stilitano. Then I reread it about five years ago in French and found it unbearably dull and adolescent, with its eroticisation of crime.

I'm kind of open to the idea that Genet is a great author who has somehow eluded me though -- there's also Satre's St Genet to think about.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on November 19, 2021, 01:12:46 PM
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

Mostly going over my head, but I've come to expect that of first reads of philosophical treatises.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 19, 2021, 01:34:11 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 19, 2021, 08:57:04 AM

(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/nigAAOSwZ8ZW7Y71/s-l300.jpg)

I love "Love Among the Haystacks" ! I like it's subtlety, sensuality, and atmosphere.

Yes, and also the tension that exists between the two brothers is quite palpable. It is an excellent story indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 20, 2021, 06:26:33 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 19, 2021, 12:10:12 PM
I read this in English when I was about 18, and it had a real impact, so much so that I went on a sort of homage to the seedy old drinking places in Rotterdam old port looking for Stilitano. Then I reread it about five years ago in French and found it unbearably dull and adolescent, with its eroticisation of crime.

I'm kind of open to the idea that Genet is a great author who has somehow eluded me though -- there's also Satre's St Genet to think about.

I was 16 years old when I read the book first time, and I was shocked. Still I like the work. I used to like Sartre but his works don't appeal to me anymore.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 20, 2021, 10:43:33 AM
Strong recommendation for The Unwinding. The others I'd pass.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1616691865l/57525708.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1496922175l/20690885.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385661367l/18377658.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 20, 2021, 01:13:20 PM
Quote from: Artem on November 20, 2021, 10:43:33 AM
Strong recommendation for The Unwinding.

Good to hear. I've got it waiting on the shelves after hearing a string of highly intelligent long-form interviews with the author.

He was/is one of those interviewees who aren't getting through their marketing bullet points, but letting each conversation go where it will, never say the same thing twice but still convey that you know your subject completely, and where each conversation shines a different light on the book, each highly persuasive in its own way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 20, 2021, 01:57:46 PM
Packer is a great writer. You don't want to put the book down. It was also interesting to me how timeless that book felt even though it was published almost 10 years ago on a subject of US history culminating at a certain point in time. I will definitely get his book about Iraq next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 21, 2021, 08:53:40 AM
Taking a break from André Salmon's fascinating (but also very long) memoirs, with a short novella by Jean Giono, Faust au village.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41GGKUEOITL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I had never read anything by Giono, but this short book, dealing with fantastic elements, is very attractive. Very "local" (Giono was the "literary ambassador"of the region that covers northern Provence and the southern Dauphiné), with lots of geographic detail —real and imaginary—, but beautifully written in a folksy way, and quite entertaining.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on November 21, 2021, 10:53:00 AM
Cuba: An American History (2021) by Ada Ferrer - bio of her below from Amazon - well rated there and also at Goodreads - just starting but so far quite enjoyable.  Dave :)

QuoteAda Ferrer is Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University, where she has taught since 1995. She is the author of Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868–1898, which won the 2000 Berkshire Book Prize for the best first book by a woman in any field of history, and Freedom's Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution, which won the Frederick Douglass Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University, as well as multiple prizes from the American Historical Association. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Hill, the American Historical Review, and she has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers and the New York Public Library, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and more. Born in Cuba and raised in the US, she has been traveling to and conducting research on the island regularly since 1990. (Amazon Review)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-cmc4NPP/0/ce9bb272/O/CubaAmHistory.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 21, 2021, 12:11:05 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31SBk83O8DL._SX340_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Difficult because it's often not obvious whether you're reading a dream being narrated, or a memory - this is deliberate. Modiano's idea is precisely that the boundaries between the experienced present, the half remembered past and dreams are porous. Probably a masterpiece.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 21, 2021, 06:57:10 PM
Failure, Colin Feltham.
Nice, successful, philosophy book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 23, 2021, 03:46:54 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51SGJv3gfEL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 24, 2021, 01:16:16 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 23, 2021, 03:46:54 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51SGJv3gfEL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

It's on my list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 25, 2021, 05:12:12 AM
The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson.

A literary ghost story, but I didn't find it as attractive as the other Shirley Jackson works I've read, which focused on dark humor and social commentary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 25, 2021, 05:13:20 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 20, 2021, 06:26:33 AM
I was 16 years old when I read the book first time, and I was shocked. Still I like the work. I used to like Sartre but his works don't appeal to me anymore.

A lot of things I liked when I was a teen no longer engage me, especially books of philosophy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 25, 2021, 05:34:45 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on November 25, 2021, 05:13:20 AM
A lot of things I liked when I was a teen no longer engage me, especially books of philosophy.

+ 1.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on November 25, 2021, 06:16:46 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 25, 2021, 05:34:45 AM
+ 1.

+2
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 25, 2021, 11:56:32 AM
F. Scott-Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/1982149485.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SX500_.jpg)


This is a book that I have already read two or three times, albeit when I was a much younger man. It has been quite a while since I last read it. This time, however, I feel that I have gotten a lot more out of it, having lived and experienced a lot more since my last reading of the novel. This is why I re-read many of the books that I have not read since I was much younger.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 25, 2021, 03:25:36 PM
Quote from: aligreto on November 25, 2021, 11:56:32 AM
F. Scott-Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/1982149485.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SX500_.jpg)


This is a book that I have already read two or three times, albeit when I was a much younger man. It has been quite a while since I last read it. This time, however, I feel that I have gotten a lot more out of it, having lived and experienced a lot more since my last reading of the novel. This is why I re-read many of the books that I have not read since I was much younger.

Maybe I'm still a young man at 26, but I got a lot more out of Gatsby in a recent rereading than I ever did in the past.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 25, 2021, 05:59:40 PM
Definitely masterpiece! I love the sophistication, coolness, subtlety, and loneliness in the work. Have you guys read FSF's Rich Boy and/or Winter Dream? They are somewhat similar styles and unforgettable stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 25, 2021, 06:26:22 PM
Just finished The Sundays of Jean Dézert by Jean de la Ville de Mirmont (what a name!)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gNfM9gaCL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

It was short, and its plot was kind of uneventful, but I really liked it. I've been bad at finishing books lately. I need to read 6 more before New Year's to get to 100 books in 2021, so there will be some short ones ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 25, 2021, 06:50:18 PM
Quote from: aligreto on November 25, 2021, 11:56:32 AM
F. Scott-Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/1982149485.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SX500_.jpg)


This is a book that I have already read two or three times, albeit when I was a much younger man. It has been quite a while since I last read it. This time, however, I feel that I have gotten a lot more out of it, having lived and experienced a lot more since my last reading of the novel. This is why I re-read many of the books that I have not read since I was much younger.

I recently re-read The Great Gatsby, then remembered the book that I wanted to re-read was Tender is the Night. :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 26, 2021, 04:13:43 AM
Quote from: Artem on November 16, 2021, 11:45:20 AM
I've read a few Modiano's books. I enjoyed reading them, but I don't remember a single thing about them.

I'm spending quite a bit of time with Modiano at the moment, and getting a lot out of it. While I can see where you're coming from, I'm arriving at the conclusion that he had a sort of epiphany around the turn of the century, and his books then become rather more than well polished narratives, some of them start to achieve some sort of insight and profound universality. If you haven't read it let me recommend this one.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/22398675741.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 26, 2021, 07:00:35 AM
Kiss of the Spider Woman (El beso de la mujer araña), Manuel Puig. Re-read. A complex friendship between a transvestite and a socialist revolutionary in Buenos Aires.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on November 26, 2021, 12:13:26 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 26, 2021, 04:13:43 AM
I'm spending quite a bit of time with Modiano at the moment, and getting a lot out of it. While I can see where you're coming from, I'm arriving at the conclusion that he had a sort of epiphany around the turn of the century, and his books then become rather more than well polished narratives, some of them start to achieve some sort of insight and profound universality. If you haven't read it let me recommend this one.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/22398675741.jpg)
Thank you for the suggestion. I'll add it to my wish list. I look forward to read more Modiano books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 26, 2021, 07:07:58 PM
Interested in this Modiano character, as I'd love to find a contemporary French writer whose works resonate with me (no luck so far). Anything worth reading in translation? I can read French but it's a chore.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 27, 2021, 06:16:15 PM
The Poems of Wilfred Owen

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41mYm--51OL._SX313_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Really good stuff. Always knew I'd appreciate this poet, it's good to finally read his work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 28, 2021, 02:12:33 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 25, 2021, 03:25:36 PM

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/1982149485.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SX500_.jpg)

Maybe I'm still a young man at 26, but I got a lot more out of Gatsby in a recent rereading than I ever did in the past.


Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 25, 2021, 05:59:40 PM
Definitely masterpiece! I love the sophistication, coolness, subtlety, and loneliness in the work. Have you guys read FSF's Rich Boy and/or Winter Dream? They are somewhat similar styles and unforgettable stories.


Perhaps one definition of a masterpiece is that it continues to offer as long as one continues to revisit it.

No, I have not read either Rich Boy or Winter Dream unfortunately.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on November 28, 2021, 02:13:13 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on November 25, 2021, 06:50:18 PM
I recently re-read The Great Gatsby, then remembered the book that I wanted to re-read was Tender is the Night. :(

Surely not a waste of your time though?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 28, 2021, 05:03:23 AM
Something that I did not quite catch on my first reading of Gatsby which surprised me this go around is that there appears to be a scene in which Carraway is involved in a homosexual encounter with a stranger he meets at a party. I do not know what other way to interpret this scene—it's not quite made explicit—and I'm not entirely sure why Fitzgerald put it in there, but I found it very curious. Does anyone else know the part I'm talking about?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on November 28, 2021, 08:12:08 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 25, 2021, 05:59:40 PM
Definitely masterpiece! I love the sophistication, coolness, subtlety, and loneliness in the work. Have you guys read FSF's Rich Boy and/or Winter Dream? They are somewhat similar styles and unforgettable stories.

I've read both Rich Boy and Winter Dream. Don't remember much about them (unlike with Gatsby) except that I liked them. Fitzgerald was one of the greatest literary minds in 20th century America. I've read several of his short stories and from novels Gatsby and The Last Tycoon. Loved most of them. Fitzgerald's language is very poetic.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 30, 2021, 07:37:53 PM
Churchill: A Life. Martin Gilbert. Re-reading the book about one of my heroes.
I haven't bought the other biography by Andrew Roberts yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 30, 2021, 10:37:10 PM
I read Gilbert's memoir of working in the Churchill archives and writing that series, "In Search Of Churchill", last year.

Highly recommended if you haven't already done it
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on November 30, 2021, 10:41:34 PM
Damned Good Show by Derek Robinson. Sort of an ode to RAF Bomber Command in WWII. A rather punchy prose. I wonder how many women read Robinson, if it's more than 1% of the readership.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385232168l/18910582.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 01, 2021, 07:13:47 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 30, 2021, 10:37:10 PM
I read Gilbert's memoir of working in the Churchill archives and writing that series, "In Search Of Churchill", last year.

Highly recommended if you haven't already done it

Sounds very interesting. I will check it out!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: T. D. on December 01, 2021, 01:49:04 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41bsOwunQDL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 03, 2021, 08:58:09 AM
Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes (2014) by Svante Pääbo - kind of the 'godfather' of ancient DNA evolution - short bio below (much more at the link) - I've been reading about human evolution since my teenage years, so just an ongoing interest with this new book about sorting out the genetics of the Neanderthals - bought the tee shirt on the end a few years ago, of course the meaning is that modern humans (esp. of European descent) have about 3% Neanderthal genes in their DNA - kind of cool to me at least.   :laugh:  Dave

QuoteSvante Pääbo (1955-Present) is a Swedish geneticist specializing in the field of evolutionary genetics. As one of the founders of paleogenetics, he has worked extensively on the neanderthal genome. Since 1997, he has been director of the Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-KhXQbRw/0/6f7140b0/O/Paabo1.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-nQD9kJW/0/0def92c0/O/Paabo2.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-mKmmvsk/0/8acb0f97/O/Paabo3.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 03, 2021, 05:19:53 PM
Started this anthology of plays by August Strindberg today:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511xD8cF2eL._SX342_SY445_QL70_ML2_.jpg)

So far I've read The Father, which was certainly a weird one. Not sure what to make of his writing so far, but it's dark and brutal. I'm intrigued and excited to read on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 03, 2021, 07:43:34 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wl-z91bqL.jpg)
Ms. Picard's most recent, published in 2017, when she was 90.
It seems she worked for the government as a lawyer (she is a graduate of Gray's Inn) until her retirement at age 60, when she began the research for her first book, Restoration London, published when she 70.  Never say you're too old...

The book is structured around Chaucer's pilgrims to depict English society c 1390.
It does seem slightly more superficial in content and more chatty than her previous books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 04, 2021, 06:22:44 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 30, 2021, 07:37:53 PM
Churchill: A Life. Martin Gilbert. Re-reading the book about one of my heroes.
I haven't bought the other biography by Andrew Roberts yet.

Still reading the biography of Churchill. It is very one-sided. Everything WC did was clever and prescient, and whatever his critics did and said were wrong and unreasonable. I may quit the book and switch to Andrew Roberts' book. It is disconcerting that this kind of book is well-liked and respected in the populace.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 04, 2021, 10:18:21 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q1ETND1RL._SX315_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This is pure Mulholland Drive style in literary form. Is it a dream? Is it real? There's even a bit which is like No Hay Banda - the cabaret is called Le Néant! Very good, and like Mulholland Drive, disturbing. This Modiano voice, half Kafka half Lynch, that you find in some of his books post 2000, is special for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 04, 2021, 10:32:17 PM
Finished recently. Belladonna is a really devastating book dealing with WWII atrocities. I strongly urge everyone to check out Drndic. She's a brilliant writer from Croatia. I've already read three of her novels and Belladonna may be my favourite.

Handke and Kluge also deal with WWII. Less enjoyable.

The big heavy book on Joan Mitchell paintings has beautiful reproduction of her work, but the writing and articles are all over the place. I just didn't find it enjoyable. Maybe they were in a rush to publish it for an exhibition.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1371079952l/17674179.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631524837l/58987258._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1475305691l/31939460._SX318_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594446531l/51283483._SX318_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 05, 2021, 02:05:58 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 03, 2021, 05:19:53 PM
Started this anthology of plays by August Strindberg today:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511xD8cF2eL._SX342_SY445_QL70_ML2_.jpg)

So far I've read The Father, which was certainly a weird one. Not sure what to make of his writing so far, but it's dark and brutal. I'm intrigued and excited to read on.

A Dream Play was a trip. Reminded me of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row". The Ghost Sonata I couldn't make heads or tails of... at all...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 06, 2021, 07:18:24 PM
Started this anthology of plays by Henrik Ibsen

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51SQP-9E27L._SX305_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Currently Ghosts. So far, so good...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 07, 2021, 06:33:36 AM
Hardy: The Woodlanders


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/md/md30966641564.jpg)


This is the story of the occupants and their inter-relations of a rural hamlet. The story focuses primarily on one young woman and the extent to which her father does all in his power to elevate her social status. That ever present sense of foreboding that exists in Hardy's novels permeates this work also.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 07, 2021, 12:31:34 PM
Taking another break from André Salmon's memoirs Souvenirs sans fin (which are very interesting and great fun, but do seem to be sans fin in their length) with a first approach to the work of Victor Segalen.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31cJbQPFH9L._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Starting his posthumously published novel René Leys, about China and the Forbidden City  in 1911. It's the record of conversations (real? fictitious?) with the title character (based on a real person) who had direct access and intimate knowledge of the Chinese imperial court in this turbulent times. When the book was finally published in Spanish translation not too long ago, it was hailed as some sort of masterpiece. Let's see.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 07, 2021, 12:38:32 PM
Maiden reading.

(https://lylyantic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/shsaazqcc542.jpg)

More than halfway through and not half bad, especially given the current international context. Playing God is never a good idea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 07, 2021, 01:17:50 PM
Youre just itching to start a political argument in a non political thread.

You know damn well that every advancement in medicine and surgery you would now eagerly approve of for yourself was at some point accused of as playing God. And you could only call state actions in protecting people from covid playing God if you were drunk.

Frankenstein is about personal responsibility and obligations before and after ones actions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 09, 2021, 09:06:31 AM
Quote from: aligreto on December 07, 2021, 06:33:36 AM
Hardy: The Woodlanders

This is the story of the occupants and their inter-relations of a rural hamlet. The story focuses primarily on one young woman and the extent to which her father does all in his power to elevate her social status. That ever present sense of foreboding that exists in Hardy's novels permeates this work also.

I checked the book on the Amazon site and it looks very interesting. I will get a copy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on December 09, 2021, 12:36:44 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dKubZUbkL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Sometimes Dickens' prose gives me pleasure like no other, ineffably warm and witty, it just dances off the page. A somewhat Victorian fairy tale ending, but nobody's perfect.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 09, 2021, 06:06:43 PM
Quote from: Iota on December 09, 2021, 12:36:44 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dKubZUbkL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Sometimes Dickens' prose gives me pleasure like no other, ineffably warm and witty, it just dances off the page. A somewhat Victorian fairy tale ending, but nobody's perfect.

It's probably the most famous of the Christmas stories Dickens wrote as follow-ups to A Christmas Carol.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 09, 2021, 07:38:56 PM
Quote from: Iota on December 09, 2021, 12:36:44 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dKubZUbkL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Sometimes Dickens' prose gives me pleasure like no other, ineffably warm and witty, it just dances off the page. A somewhat Victorian fairy tale ending, but nobody's perfect.

Time I read that 'un!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 11, 2021, 02:44:58 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 09, 2021, 09:06:31 AM
I checked the book on the Amazon site and it looks very interesting. I will get a copy!

Yes it is definitely a good read. It was refreshing to get back to the Hardy that I know after recently abandoning "The Woodlanders".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 11, 2021, 10:38:13 AM
Started:

(https://www.bwb.co.nz/assets/Books/Island-Time-HR__FitWzM1Niw0NDBd.jpg)

from the back cover:

"The task of living in modern New Zealand – and especially in modern Auckland – is not just to understand how to live with different peoples, but how to adapt to the future that has already happened.

New Zealand is a nation that exists on Pacific Islands, but does not, will not, perhaps cannot, see itself as a Pacific Island nation. Yet turning to the Pacific, argues Damon Salesa, enables us to grasp a fuller understanding of what life is really like on these shores.

After all, Salesa argues, in many ways New Zealand's Pacific future has already happened. Setting a course through the 'islands' of Pacific life in New Zealand – Ōtara, Tokoroa, Porirua, Ōamaru and beyond – he charts a country becoming 'even more Pacific by the hour'. What would it mean, this far-sighted book asks, for New Zealand to recognise its Pacific talent and finally act like a Pacific nation?"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on December 12, 2021, 11:35:31 AM
Yesterday, finished reading Maupassant's best known short story:

(https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/boule_de_suif.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 12, 2021, 01:20:15 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on December 12, 2021, 11:35:31 AM
Yesterday, finished reading Maupassant's best known short story:

(https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/boule_de_suif.jpg)

That one is a very cutting story that shines a light on human nature; something that Maupassant was very good at.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 13, 2021, 02:11:25 PM
The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet. Matthieu Ricard.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 14, 2021, 11:50:22 PM
Half way through:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51aYO6YdnQL._SX316_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Also have finally made a start on this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-cukvk+PL._SX305_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on December 15, 2021, 06:28:45 AM
Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood.

(https://img.thriftbooks.com/api/images/m/c055b2dcef88f36708b0ce2c6006d7b1e321bbc5.jpg)

This is Atwood's second novel, published around 1970.

A woman returns to her childhood home on a remote island in a lake in Quebec after, having been notified that her father has gone missing there. She is accompanied by Joe, her lover, and a married couple. In the remote setting, without the distractions of modern life, things start coming to the surface, literally and figuratively. Her friends' marriage seems to unravel and her relationship with Joe, which she can't fully commit to, seems to come undone. And of course they are stranded there.

The story is secondary to themes of isolation, feminism, Canadian nationalism. The themes that Atwood would make more explicit in later dystopia fiction is expressed here in a more subtle context.

I found the book very interesting and worthwhile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 15, 2021, 11:37:56 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81tvxhTcqcL.jpg)

It's amazingly good, I'm not sure I'll stay for the course but it is clearly poetic and iconoclastic. These prisoners he falls in love with, for him they're angels, they're gods, I'm sure it's deep. But me, I just like the sex scenes, and all the thrilling accounts of robbery and violence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on December 16, 2021, 09:52:17 PM
Re-reading Citizens of London by Lynne Olson.

I suppose a sense of being enveloped by negativity has generated a need for it. In any event, those curious about the period and the personalities involved would be well served by the book.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 18, 2021, 05:35:19 AM
Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51C1NG42rcL.jpg)

Never have I heard Japanese aesthetics captured so succinctly and summarily. This man's a great writer. I need to read some of his fiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 18, 2021, 05:39:09 AM
Kipling: Limits and Renewals


(https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/libros-antiguos/tc/2017/06/13/09/89626896_60346652.jpg?size=720x720&crop=true)


This is a book of short stories. Kipling's take on Life and the language that he uses is rather on the quirky side. I found it to be a difficult read sometimes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 18, 2021, 05:59:50 AM
Quote from: aligreto on December 18, 2021, 05:39:09 AM
Kipling's take on Life [...] is rather on the quirky side.

If is quite on the right side, though.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 18, 2021, 06:43:02 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 18, 2021, 05:35:19 AM
Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows

I need to read some of his fiction.


I think Makioka Sisters or 7 Japanese Tales (Portrait of Shunkin) would be a good start. Personally, I think his early short stories are the best, but they have not been translated into English. If you could find "A Boy" or "Secret", I would strongly recommend it.

http://rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-secret-short-story-by-junichiro.html



Post.ed. I think this book has "The Secret" by Tanizaki. Vg short story, imo. Also, "The Children" in the book is a translation of "A Boy."

https://www.amazon.com/Gourmet-Club-Michigan-Monograph-Japanese/dp/0472053353
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 18, 2021, 08:40:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 18, 2021, 05:59:50 AM
If is quite on the right side, though.  ;)

That is very true, Andrei, but these stories were just too idiosyncratic for my taste.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on December 18, 2021, 09:36:55 AM
After Maupassant's best known work I turn to other famous naturalist masterpiece, Emile Zola's "Germinal". Devoured the first part and more in one sitting. Zola is one of my favorite writers and this is very impressive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 18, 2021, 05:44:43 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 18, 2021, 06:43:02 AM

I think Makioka Sisters or 7 Japanese Tales (Portrait of Shunkin) would be a good start. Personally, I think his early short stories are the best, but they have not been translated into English. If you could find "A Boy" or "Secret", I would strongly recommend it.

http://rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-secret-short-story-by-junichiro.html



Post.ed. I think this book has "The Secret" by Tanizaki. Vg short story, imo. Also, "The Children" in the book is a translation of "A Boy."

https://www.amazon.com/Gourmet-Club-Michigan-Monograph-Japanese/dp/0472053353

Thanks my friend. I ordered Makioka Sisters. Might also order this short story collection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 19, 2021, 02:44:57 AM
My planned reading over the Christmas period is this collection of Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories:


(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/dd/11/73dd111fd46b03790b436314589d92f1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 19, 2021, 04:31:33 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on December 18, 2021, 05:44:43 PM
Thanks my friend. I ordered Makioka Sisters. Might also order this short story collection.

Nice choice.
It seems to me, the Gourmet Club is a solid collection of short stories. I find it funny that a renowned, well-respected university press published these twisted stories.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 19, 2021, 04:33:10 AM
Quote from: aligreto on December 19, 2021, 02:44:57 AM
My planned reading over the Christmas period is this collection of Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories:


(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/dd/11/73dd111fd46b03790b436314589d92f1.jpg)

Do you have the books with these covers? They are gorgeous and elegant. Nice color as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 19, 2021, 05:40:30 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 19, 2021, 04:33:10 AM
Do you have the books with these covers? They are gorgeous and elegant. Nice color as well.

Yes I do. I have most of that particular collection. The photo below is a stock photo but the collection would look like this on the shelf


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/7ecAAOSwtcRhWNcJ/s-l1600.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 19, 2021, 05:54:29 AM
Quote from: aligreto on December 19, 2021, 05:40:30 AM
Yes I do. I have most of that particular collection. The photo below is a stock photo but the collection would look like this on the shelf


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/7ecAAOSwtcRhWNcJ/s-l1600.jpg)

They are elegant. I am certain that your library looks great!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on December 19, 2021, 06:11:46 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 19, 2021, 05:54:29 AM
They are elegant. I am certain that your library looks great!
Not particularly, to be honest. It is in my attic which also stores my vinyl, my CD collection, my wife's treasures and miscellaneous junk. We have been trying to declutter over the last few years, including books. It is slow but we have made an impact. Getting rid of the books is difficult though. But once we have decided that we will not read one again it now goes to a charity shop.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on December 19, 2021, 10:57:33 AM
A few days ago I embarked on re-re-re-reading Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain in a new translation in French by Claire de Oliveira. The 'received' translation by Maurice Betz has reigned unchallenged for close to a century. I've compared a few pages and the differences are noticeable. Gone are the quaint syntactic peculiarities (Betz' own way to translate Mann's notoriously idiosyncratic german sentences) that sometimes made for slightly weird results. The pacing of the narrative is more fluid, which certainly helps to move along. I object however to some aspects like the intrusion of the infamous contemporary 'du coup' (as a result, consequently, hence, etc). It jars and slightly cheapens the literary value of the text. Still, as masterpieces go, Mann's magnum opus takes some beating. Against all odds given the subject matter it's a real page turner.

(https://static.fnac-static.com/multimedia/Images/FR/NR/bc/61/ac/11297212/1507-1/tsp20190925081344/La-montagne-magique.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 19, 2021, 01:21:12 PM
The Bright Ages (December 2021) by Matthew Gabriele and David Perry - just released and a 'new look' at the history of medieval Europe which the authors have called not the dark but the bright ages - I've been reading medieval history for a long time and have a number of video courses - a LOT went on over that approximate 1,000 year period (the dates I like, of course arguably, are 476 CE for the beginning when the last emperor in Rome was deposed by invading ruffians and 1453 CE when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire). Just about a third done and enjoyable.

A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe (April 2021) by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe - just finished the book on Neanderthal Man by Svante Päabo who with his 'team' sequenced the genome of the extinct human ancestor; Krause is one of his students and updates the last 10 years of the genetic history of ancient 'humans' in Europe and the Near East.  Just getting started - Dave :)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/618ajcA2UxL._SY346_.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41AaUV3M3JL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 20, 2021, 11:20:36 AM
For those who are interested, an interview article with Hamaguchi, a director of Drive My Car- a movie based on Haruki Murakami's novel with the same title.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-12-20/drive-my-car-explained-ryusuke-hamaguchi-interview
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on December 20, 2021, 11:40:53 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 20, 2021, 11:20:36 AM
For those who are interested, an interview article with Hamaguchi, a director of Drive My Car- a movie based on Haruki Murakami's novel with the same title.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-12-20/drive-my-car-explained-ryusuke-hamaguchi-interview

Thanks for the link. An in-depth interview indeed. I was planning to watch the movie if it is offered on line.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 20, 2021, 11:58:17 AM
Quote from: André on December 20, 2021, 11:40:53 AM
Thanks for the link. An in-depth interview indeed. I was planning to watch the movie if it is offered on line.

My pleasure, Andre. Have a great week!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 20, 2021, 02:59:16 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on December 19, 2021, 01:21:12 PM
The Bright Ages (December 2021) by Matthew Gabriele and David Perry - just released and a 'new look' at the history of medieval Europe which the authors have called not the dark but the bright ages - I've been reading medieval history for a long time and have a number of video courses - a LOT went on over that approximate 1,000 year period (the dates I like, of course arguably, are 476 CE for the beginning when the last emperor in Rome was deposed by invading ruffians and 1453 CE when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire). Just about a third done and enjoyable.

A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe (April 2021) by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe - just finished the book on Neanderthal Man by Svante Päabo who with his 'team' sequenced the genome of the extinct human ancestor; Krause is one of his students and updates the last 10 years of the genetic history of ancient 'humans' in Europe and the Near East.  Just getting started - Dave :)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/618ajcA2UxL._SY346_.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41AaUV3M3JL.jpg)

Dave, do you agree w the bright ages thesis?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 20, 2021, 03:23:48 PM
I was going to say that a recent episode of the Rest Is History podcast had that author on, but looking now I see it was the author of a similar book called not "Bright" but The Light Ages.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 20, 2021, 07:36:41 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 20, 2021, 02:59:16 PM
Dave, do you agree w the bright ages thesis?

If I understand it correctly, the book's thesis is not particularly controversial. I learned about the Carolingian Renaissance when I was in college 40 years ago, for instance. It's more a matter of popular culture never quite catching up to the academic scholarship.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 21, 2021, 04:05:07 AM
Well, the author is a legit guy- professor of Virginia Tech. But it is not from an academic publisher.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 22, 2021, 03:53:20 PM
Thousand Cranes (Senba Zuru), Yasunari Kawabata.
Art of space and unsaid.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 22, 2021, 06:40:58 PM
Quote from: JBS on December 20, 2021, 07:36:41 PM
If I understand it correctly, the book's thesis is not particularly controversial. I learned about the Carolingian Renaissance when I was in college 40 years ago, for instance. It's more a matter of popular culture never quite catching up to the academic scholarship.
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 20, 2021, 03:23:48 PM
I was going to say that a recent episode of the Rest Is History podcast had that author on, but looking now I see it was the author of a similar book called not "Bright" but The Light Ages.

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 20, 2021, 02:59:16 PM
Dave, do you agree w the bright ages thesis?

Thanks Guys for the comments on Bright Ages - having been fascinated with this approximate 1000 year period in history, the 'Dark Ages' is certainly a misnomer as if nothing much happened when the truth is the opposite.  This was a complex story over the those many centuries - I'm about half way through the book and the authors are highlighting these events and history - some 'new' personalities to me are introduced but much is going to be well known to those who have a knowledge of the era - much is a re-hash for me so far (and don't expect many surprises w/ the rest of the book), BUT for someone unfamiliar and un-read in this history will be rewarded in reading the book.  Dave :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 23, 2021, 06:11:12 AM
Nice explanation, Dave. I will get the book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 23, 2021, 01:40:43 PM
Starting Albert Camus' Le Mythe de Sisyphe.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30541665186.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 23, 2021, 01:48:58 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81yAnJg544L.jpg)

"A History of Histories: Epics, Chronicles, Romances and Inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the Twentieth Century"

Superb. Had me up until 2am last night.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 24, 2021, 05:59:41 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on December 24, 2021, 01:13:45 AM
That looks very interesting.  I think I'll get a copy of that. :)

I'm currently re-reading this, after seeing the author on PBS America reminded me how good it is:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51VEZbpylrL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I added both the books to my Amazon wish list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 24, 2021, 06:04:53 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on December 24, 2021, 01:13:45 AM
That looks very interesting.  I think I'll get a copy of that. :)


It really is excellent.

It would have been all too easy for a one volume overview of history writing through the centuries to have been just a once over lightly string of not much better than wikipedia entries and following the simplistic thumbs up or down the current fashion assigns them.

But this is immediately clearly the work of a  professional historian at the end of a long career taking stock of a lifetime thinking about his craft. He is tellingly sympathetic to all of his subjects and the examples he chooses and connections he makes are highly individual. And even though I majored in history at university there are many works previously unknown to me that get signposted along the way.

I was particularly impressed by his section covering the now unfashionable Macauley, and I'll need to find the four-volume Heron edition of his history of the Glorious Revolution I used to see in every secondhand shop but of course is now nowhere to be found.

] (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81vPv13MAyL.jpg)


I hadn't heard of that book The Vanquished before. I'll grab a copy when I see one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 24, 2021, 06:58:43 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 24, 2021, 06:04:53 PM
It really is excellent.

It would have been all too easy for a one volume overview of history writing through the centuries to have been just a once over lightly string of not much better than wikipedia entries and following the simplistic thumbs up or down the current fashion assigns them.

But this is immediately clearly the work of a  professional historian at the end of a long career taking stock of a lifetime thinking about his craft. He is tellingly sympathetic to all of his subjects and the examples he chooses and connections he makes are highly individual. And even though I majored in history at university there are many works previously unknown to me that get signposted along the way.

I was particularly impressed by his section covering the now unfashionable Macauley, and I'll need to find the four-volume Heron edition of his history of the Glorious Revolution I used to see in every secondhand shop but of course is now nowhere to be found.

] (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81vPv13MAyL.jpg)


I hadn't heard of that book The Vanquished before. I'll grab a copy when I see one.

I remember references in my college reading to Macaulay complaining about his alleged bias to the Whigs.

Amazon US has a copy of the Heron edition listed at $299.99 US.

There's a Penguin abridged edition: Hugh Trevor-Roper was the abridger/editor.

TD
Spending the evening with an old friend, Jane Austen's Persuasion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 24, 2021, 07:34:34 PM
I've decided it's time I made good on reading Geo. MacDonald's Phantastes.  I don't exactly know how much I read before ... made a good-ish bit of progress, but certainly did not finish it. No good reason.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 24, 2021, 08:07:45 PM
Quote from: JBS on December 24, 2021, 06:58:43 PM
I remember references in my college reading to Macaulay complaining about his alleged bias to the Whigs.

Amazon US has a copy of the Heron edition listed at $299.99 US.

There's a Penguin abridged edition: Hugh Trevor-Roper was the abridger/editor.

TD
Spending the evening with an old friend, Jane Austen's Persuasion.

300us? Yikes! I better grab that listing I can see on a local site for 25nz.

I've actually had the Penguin abridgment sitting on my shelves for a long while, and yesterday I got it down and had a look and decided that the 50-page introduction by Trevor-Roper could be interesting, but the unusual way the abridgment was done is for me at least going to make it a more not less difficult read. And at any rate after reading Burrow I'd like to experience the uninterrupted flow of Macaulay's thoughts and style the way Burrow describes it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Elgarian Redux on December 25, 2021, 12:37:03 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 24, 2021, 07:34:34 PM
I've decided it's time I made good on reading Geo. MacDonald's Phantastes.  I don't exactly know how much I read before ... made a good-ish bit of progress, but certainly did not finish it. No good reason.

I re-read Phantastes a few months ago too, Karl. It used to be one of my favourite books, though now I'm not so sure about it. But then, I had come at it, this time, straight after reading William Morris's The Well at the World's End which, despite being a fantasy, has a medieval robustness to it that made MacDonald seem a bit watery. Could just have been a mood thing. Still, I must say that the episode where Anodos sits down to rest by a tree - the Beech, I think it is - is unforgettable, and changed my whole imaginative attitude to trees when I first read it in the 1970s.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 28, 2021, 01:37:09 PM
Quote from: Elgarian Redux on December 25, 2021, 12:37:03 AM
I re-read Phantastes a few months ago too, Karl. It used to be one of my favourite books, though now I'm not so sure about it. But then, I had come at it, this time, straight after reading William Morris's The Well at the World's End which, despite being a fantasy, has a medieval robustness to it that made MacDonald seem a bit watery. Could just have been a mood thing. Still, I must say that the episode where Anodos sits down to rest by a tree - the Beech, I think it is - is unforgettable, and changed my whole imaginative attitude to trees when I first read it in the 1970s.

Yes, an especially touching encounter. I've now reached the place which was as far as I had read before: after visiting the cottage of an ogress, Anodos is dogged by his shadow ... his deliverance feels near.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on December 29, 2021, 12:11:22 AM
I just received Robert Massie's Dreadnought for Christmas, so I'll be cuddling with that tiny little thing for a few days...  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 30, 2021, 12:55:58 PM
Compass was very poetic, dreamy, lyrical, encyclopaedic at points. Love story and an ode to the Middle East. Not an easy read, but worth it.

Tesson was a miss for me. A self-help kind of book about living alone with nature.

Labatut was more interesting, although the first half feels like an embellished wikipedia article on physics and scientific discovery.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1481656625l/33380183._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409602471l/23148480.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1619527700l/57874791.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 30, 2021, 07:56:02 PM
Quote from: Artem on December 30, 2021, 12:55:58 PM
Compass was very poetic, dreamy, lyrical, encyclopaedic at points. Love story and an ode to the Middle East. Not an easy read, but worth it.


Yes, very good. There's another one by him which I liked, called in French Zone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 01, 2022, 10:31:40 AM
Whishlisted now. Thank you for the suggestion. It feels like the best contemporary literature is being written in French these days.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 04, 2022, 01:09:06 AM
First book of the year is by a contemporary author from Colombia. A brutal realistic tale of attachment/non-attachement.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1576253911l/49221592.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 04, 2022, 11:19:21 AM
These on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41O6uQq76DL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517BAiUH21L.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71-XMFte9SL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 05, 2022, 08:40:41 AM
Well, some new books - first a hardcover from the History Book Club (member since 1970s) and others new on my iPad (Kindle purchases):

A Brave and Cunning Prince (2021) by James Horn - centers on the Powhatan chief Opechancanough (relative, possibly brother, of Powhatan of Pocahontas fame) - the majority of the relatively short book is about Jamestown (1607), the first permanent English settlement on the North American continent (for those unfamiliar with American history; the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620).  Having read many books on this topic, this new one is well done, concise, and recommended.

The Dawn of Everything; A New History of Humanity (2021) w/ David Graeber and David Wengrow - just getting started and indeed a different approach; expect to enjoy but for more and plenty of reviews check Amazon HERE (https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Everything-New-History-Humanity-ebook/dp/B08R2KL3VY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VP9MQ2TN6V26&keywords=the+dawn+of+everything+a+new+history+of+humanity&qid=1641403236&s=books&sprefix=the+dawn+%2Cstripbooks%2C75&sr=1-1).

Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19 (2021) w/ Alina Chan and Matt Ridley - have not started yet, but 5* Amazon comments and 4.5/5 ratings on Goodreads (review attached for those interested); since the start of this COVID pandemic, I've been reading 2-3 books per year on infectious disease, and viruses in particular.   Dave :)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51EqyuAKyqL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bDwt4ewZL.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mkAi3U7GS._SY346_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on January 07, 2022, 08:44:28 AM
Faulkner, Mosquitoes.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/616SNTsFt+L.jpg)

This is an early Faulkner novel, his second published, which predates his focus on the weight of history on Southern culture.

It is a novel that satirizes artistic culture in New Orleans. A wealthy widow plans a four day yachting excursion, inviting members of the New Orleans artistic community - a painter, a sculptor, a novelist, two poets, a literary critic, as well as a friend who is a hanger-on to the artistic community. Also invited is the widow's neice and nephew. The morning of the departure, the niece invites a perfect stranger, a girl she met "downtown" who brings along her boyfriend.

The novel satirizes the hypocrisy and foolishness of the artists, who spend their time getting drunk, lusting and scheming after the young, attractive "non-artistic" passengers.

I enjoyed the book a lot.

Having finished the novel I realize I made a big mistake. I read a Kindle Edition without realizing that passages removed by the publisher because they were too sexually explicit for 1927 sensibilities were restored in the print version I also have. Now I am debating whether I should read it again.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41WuDAFHJmL._SX313_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 10, 2022, 09:50:19 AM
Drive My Car- the movie based on Haruki Murakami's novel- wins Golden Globe for best non-English film.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/01/93f1b0f499eb-japans-drive-my-car-wins-golden-globe-for-best-non-english-film.html

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on January 10, 2022, 11:51:58 AM
That's pretty cool. Will this make Haruki Murakami even more famous?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 11, 2022, 12:26:56 PM
First approach to the work of Jean Anouilh, with arguably his greatest success, Antigone.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31ma9kEOerL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
This wartime version of Sophocles' play is thought by some to be an "anti-Greek tragedy". It follows the original quite closely, but introduces new characters (Antigone's wet nurse) and although somehow set in antiquity, introduces modern language and customs (they even drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, drive cars   ;D). In any case, it's beautifully written and must be very effective onstage.

It's surprising the author and original producer, André Barsacq, got away with presenting this in the last months of the German occupation of Paris —it was premiered in February 1944– as it is a clear glorification of revolt against injustice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 13, 2022, 08:52:03 AM
(https://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/e63/product_9782070411382_195x320.jpg)

It's really good fun when he's in Waterloo -- reminds me of Voyage au bout de la nuit. The battle is complete chaos!  But Waterloo's over now and I'm asking myself, do I want to go further. It looks like an action novel, but occasionally I think there may be more to it than that (Fabrice seems to be trying to "find himself" maybe.)


Actually looking at Gallimard's blurb I think I'd better press on

QuoteUn livre unique, une somme romanesque, un livre dicté en moins de deux mois et qui est le sommet de l'improvisation, un récit sur Bonaparte, Waterloo, l'Italie, un grand ouvrage politique, que dire encore en faveur de ce qu'Italo Calvino appelait «le plus beau roman du monde». Une comédie humaine, un itinéraire spirituel, plusieurs histoires d'amour enfermées dans une petite ville d'Italie, avec le passage du temps, le charme de la mémoire, les «paysages sublimes», le paradoxe d'un héros qui trouve son paradis en prison, toutes les vertus et toutes les lâchetés, il faudrait tout citer. Manqueraient encore la merveilleuse brièveté de la phrase, et le sens de l'humour. Toute la littérature française en un volume.


Stendhal's prose is good: limpid, lively.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 13, 2022, 09:35:47 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 13, 2022, 08:52:03 AM
(https://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/e63/product_9782070411382_195x320.jpg)

It's really good fun when he's in Waterloo -- reminds me of Voyage au bout de la nuit. The battle is complete chaos!  But Waterloo's over now and I'm asking myself, do I want to go further. It looks like an action novel, but occasionally I think there may be more to it than that (Fabrice seems to be trying to "find himself" maybe.)


Actually looking at Gallimard's blurb I think I'd better press on


Stendhal's prose is good: limpid, lively.

Go ahead, it's a fabulous book. Gallimard is spot on.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on January 13, 2022, 10:02:49 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ofr8YHTQL.jpg)

This relatively unknown gem from H.P. Lovecraft is really really good. I think it is one of my favorite stories from him, ever. The guy was certainly a crazy racist lunatic but he was a genius cracy racist lunatic. What an imagination the guy had.

Also, by Lovecraft's standards, this doesn't exactly reflect the lowest low of his racial prejudices although they most certainly are there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 13, 2022, 10:45:27 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 13, 2022, 08:52:03 AM
(https://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/e63/product_9782070411382_195x320.jpg)

It's really good fun when he's in Waterloo -- reminds me of Voyage au bout de la nuit. The battle is complete chaos!  But Waterloo's over now and I'm asking myself, do I want to go further. It looks like an action novel, but occasionally I think there may be more to it than that (Fabrice seems to be trying to "find himself" maybe.)


Actually looking at Gallimard's blurb I think I'd better press on


Stendhal's prose is good: limpid, lively.

Masterpiece- a story about a romantic young mans quest for meaning of life. In contrast to Julien Sorel in the Red and the Black, who is exceptionally intelligent and beautiful, it seems to me that Fabrice is an average guy except for his social status. Still, the story is exciting and dramatic, and his passionate relationships w women and the nuanced relationship between him and his aunt are beautifully presented in the novel. While Sorel sees an achievement of upper social status as a goal/meaning of his life, Fabrice searches for aesthetic and passionate dimensions in life.

As always, Stendhal proffers his deep insights into the human nature and psychology, as well as the corruption in society.

Jfyi, the below is a fine review article.

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/29/reviews/990829.29mendelt.html

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 14, 2022, 09:04:03 AM
(https://www.targulcartii.ro/galerie/cache/J003/jan-potocki-manuscrisul-gasit-la-saragosa-nemira-2015-l-322961-299x299.JPG)

Jan Potocki --- The Manuscript Found in Zaragoza

One third into it. Stories within stories within stories. My head is spinning.  :)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 14, 2022, 01:43:47 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 14, 2022, 09:04:03 AM

Jan Potocki --- The Manuscript Found in Zaragoza

One third into it. Stories within stories within stories. My head is spinning.  :)

One Thousand and One Nights is like that. I don't recall any other work that presents stories in that manner.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 16, 2022, 11:34:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 13, 2022, 09:35:47 AM
Go ahead, it's a fabulous book. Gallimard is spot on.

I'm at page 240 (out of about 700.)

Anyway I've been listening to this

https://www.youtube.com/v/rTvfO-Jveg0&ab_channel=pianushko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTvfO-Jveg0&ab_channel=pianushko

and this phrase of Stendhal's came to mind: une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation.

L'imagination est touchée par le son lointain de la cloche de quelque petit village caché sous les arbres : ces sons portés sur les eaux qui les adoucissent prennent une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation, et semblent dire à l'homme : la vie s'enfuit, ne te montre donc point si difficile envers le bonheur qui se présente hâte-toi de jouir.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 16, 2022, 01:02:01 PM
Starting Georges Bernanos'novel Monsieur Ouine.

(https://www.dimanoinmano.it/img/819467/full/narrativa/narrativa-classica-straniera/oeuvres-romanesques.webp)

Bernanos, one of the great French catholic writers of the 20th century, took 10 years to finish this novel, considered an extremely pessimistic work, but also kind of a literary tour de force. The works by Bernanos I've read in the past, Diary of a Country Priest (on which Robert Bresson's stunning film is based), Dialogues des Carmélites (used by Poulenc as libretto for his opera) and his book on the Spanish civil war —which he experienced first-hand—, Les Grands cimetières sous la lune, have been quite impressive. The latter is an extremely interesting pamphlet: Bernanos, a catholic of conservative tendencies, initially sympathised with Franco's uprising, but soon became disenchanted and revolted by the repression he was seeing in Majorca (where he was living), and scandalised by the Catholic Church's condoning of the excesses being perpetrated. This very honest stance caused Bernanos to be rejected by the French right-wing circles, to which he traditionally had been close. Apparently, no less a figure than Hannah Arendt considered the book one of the best ever written against fascism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on January 16, 2022, 02:01:49 PM
Quote from: ritter on January 16, 2022, 01:02:01 PM
Starting Georges Bernanos'novel Monsieur Ouine.

(https://www.dimanoinmano.it/img/819467/full/narrativa/narrativa-classica-straniera/oeuvres-romanesques.webp)

Bernanos, one of the great French catholic writers of the 20th century, took 10 years to finish this novel, considered as extremely pessimistic work, but also a kind of literary tour de force. The works by Bernanos I've read in the past, Diary of a Country Priest (on which Robert Bresson's stunning film is based), Dialogues des Carmélites (used by Poulenc as libretto for his opera) and his book on the Spanish civil war —which he experienced firsthand—, Les Grands cimetières sous la lune, have been quite impressive. The latter is an extremely interesting pamphlet: Bernanos, a catholic of conservative tendencies, initially sympathised with Franco's uprising, but soon became disenchanted and revolted by the repression he was seeing in Majorca (where he was living), and scandalised by the Catholic Church's condoning of the excesses being perpetrated. This very honest stance caused Bernanos to be rejected by the French right-wing circles, to which he traditionally had been close. Apparently, no less a figure than Hannah Arendt considered the book one of the best ever written against fascism.

Very interesting, thanks Rafael. I know Bernanos's work by reputation only. Bresson used another Bernanos novel for one his most personal and bleakest (even for him) movies, Mouchette. Obviously Bernanos had a rather pessimistic look on mankind.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 17, 2022, 03:09:27 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 16, 2022, 11:34:13 AM
I'm at page 240 (out of about 700.)

Anyway I've been listening to this

https://www.youtube.com/v/rTvfO-Jveg0&ab_channel=pianushko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTvfO-Jveg0&ab_channel=pianushko

and this phrase of Stendhal's came to mind: une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation.

L'imagination est touchée par le son lointain de la cloche de quelque petit village caché sous les arbres : ces sons portés sur les eaux qui les adoucissent prennent une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation, et semblent dire à l'homme : la vie s'enfuit, ne te montre donc point si difficile envers le bonheur qui se présente hâte-toi de jouir.

Very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2022, 01:56:14 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 17, 2022, 03:09:27 AM
Very good.

I would prefer The Red and The Black to Parma though I think the both are masterpieces. Stendhal loved music, including Rossini and Mozart.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 18, 2022, 10:23:52 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2022, 01:56:14 PM
I would prefer The Red and The Black to Parma though I think the both are masterpieces. Stendhal loved music, including Rossini and Mozart.

Well, TRATB is a book I started twice over a decade and twice gave it up before halfway through. A decade later, I started it again and this time it was a page turner from start to finish. I think it's a book that needs a certain amount of living and life experiences to appreciate. Ditto for TCOP, which I started and abandoned only once before reading it in full, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 18, 2022, 10:27:30 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 16, 2022, 11:34:13 AM
and this phrase of Stendhal's came to mind: une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation.

This is also a very apt description of many places in Mozart's KV 496 which I listened to last night.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 18, 2022, 10:33:49 AM
The phrase which keeps coming up in Chartreuse is "gens d'esprit" So, for example, we learn that in Italy, the "gens d'esprit" are tortured by their imagination, and they lack something in the "sang-froid" department. I suppose people with sang-froid aren't gens d'esprit.

Anyone here feeling up to translating "gens d'esprit"  into English.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 18, 2022, 10:39:15 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on January 18, 2022, 10:33:49 AM
The phrase which keeps coming up in Chartreuse is "gens d'esprit" So, for example, we learn that in Italy, the "gens d'esprit" are tortured by their imagination, and they lack something in the "saing-froid department. Anyone here feeling up to translating "gens d'esprit"  into English.

Reminds me of Pascal's distinguishing between esprit de finesse and esprit de géométrie.

While I get the gist in each case, I can't translate them in Romanian, let alone English.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 19, 2022, 02:12:24 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 18, 2022, 10:23:52 AM
Well, TRATB is a book I started twice over a decade and twice gave it up before halfway through. A decade later, I started it again and this time it was a page turner from start to finish. I think it's a book that needs a certain amount of living and life experiences to appreciate. Ditto for TCOP, which I started and abandoned only once before reading it in full, though.

I was thinking why The Red and The Black remains one of my all-time favorites. First of all, just like Dostoevsky, Stendhal's observation and depiction of human psychology/nature are very insightful, thereby making the characters and incidents very realistic. Jealousy, hypocrisy, intrigues, etc. in the society are well-depicted in the novel (as well as the Charterhouse of Parma). Secondly, the story is romantic and thrilling. Since the plot involves with a love-triangle relationship, interferences from their family members, and Julien Sorel's ruthless, ambitious plan to attain a high social status, it is a page-turner. Thirdly, there are many paradoxes and surprises. Though Julien strives to enter the high circle, he detests and despises the members of high society. He totally focuses on deception and pretends to respect the upper-society. Also, he shoots his former lover for her letter to his fiancé's father, which destroyed his engagement to an aristocratic lady. However, he realizes that he really loves the former, whom he shot, rather than his fiancé. While this lady survives the assault and doesn't lose her life, she realizes that she dearly loves him too!
Because of the innovative (and twisted) plot and credible depiction of characters' psychology, I believe that the R&B is a masterpiece among the masterpieces.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 20, 2022, 09:28:00 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 19, 2022, 02:12:24 PM
characters and incidents very realistic.

I don't think Frabrice de Dongo is like anyone I've ever met. I'd say he's as caricatural as Don Juan.

The class content of Chartreuse is interesting, all those prols, surfs, loyal to their masters and hearts of gold; and the self interested self centred manipulative nastiness of the aristocrats. I wonder if you can be a working class gens d'esprit. I should say that I've only just started Part II -- so maybe things will change in prison. Money is a big big thing in the book -- mostly to say how much money rich people have, rarely, very rarely so far, to say how little poor people have. If I were to criticise the book so far negatively, it would be for a lack of humanity. (Contrast Hugo, where the humanity of the narration is palpable. Can you imagine Stendhal writing a passage like those two little children abandoned to their own devices in Paris in Winter, housed by Gavroche in the elephant, stealing the bread thrown to the swans by the rich people in the Tuileries? I think not.)

Can you imagine any teenager saying to himself, "When I grow up I will be an archbishop, mummy and daddy will make it happen." ?

What's the relation with his aunt? Sexual and unrequited?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 20, 2022, 10:03:38 AM
As you say, I don't see Stendhal as a humanist, or moralist, writer. It seems to me, he is a realist (realpolitik), and analytic, writer.
Sorry, no comment on the relation w his aunt.

Nietzsche called Stendhal "France's last great psychologist".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 21, 2022, 06:01:15 PM
Director Oliver Hermanus did a remake of Akira Kurosawa's famous movie, "Ikiru". The title is "living," and Kazuo Ishiguro wrote the script.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/21/living-bill-night-kurosawa-ikiru-remake
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 21, 2022, 08:26:11 PM
Finished a reread of Joan Didion's first essay collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Sent back to this after hearing an excellent podcast looking at her now forgotten early years as a National Review writer and Goldwater republican before turning democrat. Much discussion of how you can still see traces of that in this post NR collection and in some of her later writing, which may come as a surprise to many of her fans.

now most of the way through:

(https://orion-uploads.openroadmedia.com/lg_8926e0a46d51-wars-of-the-roses.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 24, 2022, 01:27:28 PM
Charteuse abandoned for a while shortly after del Dongo was sent to jail -- I'm tired of Stendhal's tone of voice -- I keep saying to myself "this story is daft" -- I may well finish it later.

But I've gone back to L'education Sentimentale, I've got to the end of Part 1 -- which was where I abandoned it last time. This time I can see it is pretty special actuall, so looking forward to Part 2 tomorrow or Wednesday. It's like music, you have to be in the right frame of mind for these things.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 24, 2022, 02:32:47 PM
(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/11/6/1383747786243/Published-in1961-by-Pengu-005.jpg?width=700&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=90878ed5e7e14c1a1348b1546b037dad)

third reading
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 24, 2022, 03:33:07 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 24, 2022, 02:32:47 PM
(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/11/6/1383747786243/Published-in1961-by-Pengu-005.jpg?width=700&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=90878ed5e7e14c1a1348b1546b037dad)

third reading

Aujourd'hui, maman est morte
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 24, 2022, 07:45:20 PM
For such a seemingly uncomplicated read - 120 pages of at least superficially uncomplicated short sentences - it's really striking me that it's only on this third reading I'm feeling like I'm starting to get the full measure of the work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on January 25, 2022, 02:17:26 AM
CS Lewis: The Screwtape Letters


(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/585/517/1350517585.0.x.jpg)


I read this book with a smile on my face. It is a collection of letters written by Screwtape, a Senior Demon, to his nephew and trainee tempter Wormwood. Wormwood's job is to undermine the Faith of his subject and he submits regular reports on his progress but we do not see these reports. The premise of the book is the letters that Screwtape sends back to his nephew after reading each report offering insights into Human Nature and the benefits and effects of employing temptation as a means of leading the subject down the wrong path. Wormwood is clearly incompetent and failing in his job. The tone of the Screwtape responses can be quite amusing, caustic and astute. One senses the rising sense of Screwtape's frustration and infuriation with his nephew's incompetence as the letters progress.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: relm1 on January 25, 2022, 05:34:59 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HDgRqzB8L._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 25, 2022, 06:32:15 AM
Quote from: aligreto on January 25, 2022, 02:17:26 AM
CS Lewis: The Screwtape Letters


(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/585/517/1350517585.0.x.jpg)


I read this book with a smile on my face. It is a collection of letters written by Screwtape, a Senior Demon, to his nephew and trainee tempter Wormwood. Wormwood's job is to undermine the Faith of his subject and he submits regular reports on his progress but we do not see these reports. The premise of the book is the letters that Screwtape sends back to his nephew after reading each report offering insights into Human Nature and the benefits and effects of employing temptation as a means of leading the subject down the wrong path. Wormwood is clearly incompetent and failing in his job. The tone of the Screwtape responses can be quite amusing, caustic and astute. One senses the rising sense of Screwtape's frustration and infuriation with his nephew's incompetence as the letters progress.

John Cleese did a really good audio version of that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on January 25, 2022, 08:16:02 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 25, 2022, 06:32:15 AM
John Cleese did a really good audio version of that.

Now that would be interesting to hear!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on January 26, 2022, 12:07:54 AM
Speaking of,

I'm currently re-reading So, Anyway..., John Cleese's memoirs. Recommended to anyone who might frequent a classical music BBS.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 02, 2022, 04:28:53 AM
Today is the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses. The day is being marked well here in Ireland.


(https://img.rasset.ie/001af8fe-614.jpg?ratio=1.78)   


(https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2044028.1418999799!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/ratio_4x3_w1200/image.jpg)


I am embarrassed to admit that it is a book that I have never finished despite having started to read it at least twice. It has been a long time since I have attempted it so this year, to mark the occasion, I will give it another go.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on February 02, 2022, 06:02:40 AM
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 04, 2022, 05:49:21 AM
O'Sullivan: Stories From The Deep


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1573768829l/48805554._SY475_.jpg)


I like drinking water. I also like looking at bodies of it and occasionally being on it. However, I am largely averse to being in it except on a very rare occasion. Ken O'Sullivan, on the other hand, was born and bred near to and in the water near the south west coast of Ireland. He ultimately became a marine film maker.

The book opens with a wonderful statement of place and self; what it is to be a product of one's environment, upbringing and heritage. It then progresses to detail the hardships and the lean years  encountered in his early career. One near death experience stands out.

The book continues with his history of filming sharks, whales and exotic jellyfish off the coast of Ireland and all the way down to the Azores. I found it fascinating that such creatures lived in the waters of our coastline.

The book is eloquently and even poetically written [includes a few poems] in places, particularly on the topics which he is passionate about, most especially at the beginning and at the end of the book. It is an easy and engaging style reminiscent of an old Irish seanachaí [fireside story teller] relating a good story to you, personally.


(https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/b336b/38650423.ece/AUTOCROP/w1240h700/2019-11-02_ent_54423651_I3.JPG)


(http://d1trxack2ykyus.cloudfront.net/artwork/176acedf244f0c98/medium_image.jpg)


(https://img.rasset.ie/001315d4-1440.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 04, 2022, 07:23:42 AM
I'm about a quarter of the way through Ian Toll's Pacific Crucible. I'm pretty impressed, and looking forward to the remaining books in the series.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 04, 2022, 12:25:43 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 11, 2021, 01:54:38 AM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9782253010692-uk.jpg)

Four months after starting it, I finished it. I can see a bit of Frederic in myself -- that's not good!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 05, 2022, 04:45:01 PM
Started:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.1dc80a4a38de4c6abfb56151e98df1be?rik=id2zS9%2fUL3ELvg&riu=http%3a%2f%2fg-ecx.images-amazon.com%2fimages%2fG%2f01%2fciu%2f1a%2fba%2f6035228348a0afef27e80110.L.jpg&ehk=MvQTCsGWsnVh%2fJ5cXTVIkNqLsKcUzLmL6US2hjljkXk%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on February 06, 2022, 07:32:15 AM
Shirley Jackson Dark Tales
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 07, 2022, 11:18:06 PM
(https://www.livredepoche.com/sites/default/files/styles/manual_crop_269_435/public/images/livres/couv/9782253160939-001-T.jpeg?itok=pP60opn3)

Errr - this is a bit different from Bovary and L'Education! It reminds me of the movement in modern French literature - which I may explore soon - called post-exoticism.

https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-exotisme
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on February 07, 2022, 11:46:20 PM
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 08, 2022, 12:12:08 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on February 07, 2022, 11:46:20 PM


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--19wTQezNzQ/VQb2qRpROpI/AAAAAAAAAFw/O-2hoOpoA2U/s1600/O2-Bemoredog-20130704110504121.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on February 08, 2022, 10:54:05 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on February 06, 2022, 07:32:15 AM
Shirley Jackson Dark Tales

Good stuff.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on February 10, 2022, 09:43:58 AM
Books that I read over the past month. I'd recommend checking out Locos. The book about China was also interesting.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1418629413l/22929715.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524305735l/39906327._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551615816l/44180842.jpg)
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380494275l/18490870.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522320586l/39676838.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327868819l/595273.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 10, 2022, 05:41:30 PM
The Subterraneans, Jack Kerouac.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 11, 2022, 03:29:52 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 10, 2022, 05:41:30 PM
The Subterraneans, Jack Kerouac.

I wrote a paper about that book freshman year of college  ;D Haven't read it since. You liking it?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 11, 2022, 07:09:23 AM
I remember The Vanity Of Duluoz being my favorite Kerouac, back when I read near all of them in a binge.

TD: finished:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514eeCNx7HL.jpg)

started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/811HzkcB1HL.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 11, 2022, 10:34:33 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 11, 2022, 03:29:52 AM
I wrote a paper about that book freshman year of college  ;D Haven't read it since. You liking it?

I used to like the book a lot when I was young, but I have a mixed feeling about it now. The writing is very good. But the story is a little slow, if not boring. Overall, still fun read with many names of Jazz greats like Bird, Stan Kenton, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 14, 2022, 06:50:11 AM
Thomas Mann: The Clown.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 20, 2022, 06:16:31 PM
Baudelaire: poems.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: foxandpeng on February 21, 2022, 07:39:18 AM
Picked up Shostakovich: A Life Remembered by Elizabeth Wilson yesterday for £2.49. Not the next on my list to read, but soon...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on February 22, 2022, 07:32:00 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 04, 2022, 12:25:43 PM
Four months after starting it, I finished it. I can see a bit of Frederic in myself -- that's not good!
I liked that book. Though I can't remember it.
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 05, 2022, 04:45:01 PM
Started:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.1dc80a4a38de4c6abfb56151e98df1be?rik=id2zS9%2fUL3ELvg&riu=http%3a%2f%2fg-ecx.images-amazon.com%2fimages%2fG%2f01%2fciu%2f1a%2fba%2f6035228348a0afef27e80110.L.jpg&ehk=MvQTCsGWsnVh%2fJ5cXTVIkNqLsKcUzLmL6US2hjljkXk%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
I liked that book. Though I can't remember it.

I'm really enjoying this. Hope I remember it!
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1617877772i/55881796._SR1200,630_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 28, 2022, 01:55:39 AM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51XCFJ2S13L._SX290_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 01, 2022, 01:35:24 PM
I found The Water Statues by Fleur Jaeggy at the park today, and I read it. Could not make heads or tails of it whatsoever. One of the oddest books I've ever read.

(https://ndbooks.imgix.net/9780811229753.jpg)

Any fans of hers here? I was unfamiliar with her name.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 01, 2022, 01:39:22 PM
I checked my goodreads and apparently I read her Sweet Days of Discipline two years ago. I remember nothing of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 02, 2022, 07:50:05 AM
Richard Nixon: Leaders.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 02, 2022, 09:28:32 AM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1483528452l/33791422._SX318_.jpg)

It's good!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 04, 2022, 06:21:50 AM
Trying again with Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61YZuVFUYIL.jpg)

Made it about 50 pages in and stopped back in the fall; now I'm about 100 pages in and enjoying it a lot more this time. Nabokov's writing style is so rich and decadent. The subject matter is absolutely sick and twisted, and the protagonist freaks me the fuck out, but I suppose that's the point. The prose is amazing. I would like to eventually try and read everything Nabokov ever wrote; even though some of it is challenging, I'm quite drawn to his style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 05, 2022, 07:29:10 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on March 02, 2022, 09:28:32 AM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1483528452l/33791422._SX318_.jpg)

It's good!
This appears to be available in English language. Wishlisted now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 05, 2022, 07:33:13 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 04, 2022, 06:21:50 AM
Trying again with Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61YZuVFUYIL.jpg)

Made it about 50 pages in and stopped back in the fall; now I'm about 100 pages in and enjoying it a lot more this time. Nabokov's writing style is so rich and decadent. The subject matter is absolutely sick and twisted, and the protagonist freaks me the fuck out, but I suppose that's the point. The prose is amazing. I would like to eventually try and read everything Nabokov ever wrote; even though some of it is challenging, I'm quite drawn to his style.
Reading everything by Nabokov is a very enjoyable journey. It's clunky at first with his Russian and emigrant novels, but it's smooth sailing after he arrives to the States.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 05, 2022, 07:33:18 AM
Quote from: Artem on March 05, 2022, 07:29:10 AM
This appears to be available in English language. Wishlisted now.

It is a sort of companion piece to his book on Flaubert, Les règles de l'art.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 05, 2022, 07:34:59 AM
That looks interesting too. Thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 05, 2022, 03:28:20 PM
Started

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514YojA-3SL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_.jpg)

Even more interesting than I was expecting for being highly critical of all aspects of the prize.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 06, 2022, 08:46:13 AM
Starting André Gide's Les Faux-monnayeurs (The Counterfeiters).

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30945953589.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on March 06, 2022, 09:13:51 AM
Several books that I finished recently.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327868819l/595273.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554040219l/44668470._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440081795l/26134900._SY475_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 06, 2022, 10:41:41 AM
Quote from: ritter on March 06, 2022, 08:46:13 AM
Starting André Gide's Les Faux-monnayeurs (The Counterfeiters).

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30945953589.jpg)

That was a book I greatly admired when I was in my early 20s. I keep meaning to read it again.

The handful of Gife works I read after it were never able to match it, with the exception of his journals.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 06, 2022, 12:45:15 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 06, 2022, 10:41:41 AM
That was a book I greatly admired when I was in my early 20s. I keep meaning to read it again.

The handful of Gife works I read after it were never able to match it, with the exception of his journals.

Same here. Si le grain ne meurt is fascinating.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 09, 2022, 12:39:23 PM
Quote from: André on March 06, 2022, 12:45:15 PM
Same here. Si le grain ne meurt is fascinating.
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 06, 2022, 10:41:41 AM
That was a book I greatly admired when I was in my early 20s. I keep meaning to read it again.

The handful of Gife works I read after it were never able to match it, with the exception of his journals.
Thanks for you comments, gentlemen. I haven't been able to advance much because of lack of time, but so far I'm finding Les Faux-monnayeurs very attractive.

I loved Les Caves du Vatican many years ago, as well as the other Gide (essays, Perséphone, Saül...) I've read, but Les Faux-monnayeurs is viewed by many as the novel to read by this author.

Good evening, Simon and André!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 11, 2022, 09:23:43 AM
(https://static.okian.ro/media/catalog/product/import/9780141442204.jpg)

Isaiah Berlin is one of my favorite political philosophers and this is a most interesting and very illuminating book, especially given the current context. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 13, 2022, 12:56:52 PM
Close Up and Personal, Catherine Deneuve.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 13, 2022, 12:58:19 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 11, 2022, 09:23:43 AM
(https://static.okian.ro/media/catalog/product/import/9780141442204.jpg)

Isaiah Berlin is one of my favorite political philosophers and this is a most interesting and very illuminating book, especially given the current context. Highly recommended.

Looks interesting. Will get a copy!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 13, 2022, 01:22:53 PM
Finished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51+XdLGtD1L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña


Started:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.nF08wGsWXpLDlx0Cot8JGwAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 22, 2022, 06:04:38 PM
Still going with Vol.1 of Caro's LBj, but also knocked off a couple of quickies:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41TqF+9ymCL._SX310_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ejtj+8QWL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

that second one is "The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on March 23, 2022, 07:03:17 AM
I am not an avid reader and it can take me several months to finish a book. I usually dip in and out, times apart.

I certainly don't read novels.

Then I got offered this book earlier this year : Damon Galgut - The Promise (Booker Prize winner 2021)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81ALBsZGTJL.jpg)

It follows the story in 4 chapters only of a white land-owning South African family (the parents and 3 children), around the dying wish of the mother made in the 80's that the little side house used by their long-serving black domestic help, is to be given to her in full ownership. The "promise" accepted by the husband at time. The book follows the evolution of and the disputes over that promise, with the family (re)linking through a tragedy/loss every decade or so, all intertwined with the South African political background of each period.

I don't read novels. Yet, I read this one in pretty much 4 sittings only, with a few days break between each chapter. It did need such spacing. It is bleak, unrelenting, also feeling quite fast paced due a very particular yet highly descriptive narrative style. Not an easy read due to all the subject matters dealt with but a highly recommended one all the same. Not a book to love per se but one that keeps tugging at you all the way through and might stay with you for quite a while thereafter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on March 23, 2022, 12:32:03 PM
Thanks Olivier, this is one I'd like to read !

André
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 23, 2022, 02:08:54 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on March 23, 2022, 07:03:17 AM
I am not an avid reader and it can take me several months to finish a book. I usually dip in and out, times apart.

I certainly don't read novels.

Then I got offered this book earlier this year : Damon Galgut - The Promise (Booker Prize winner 2021)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81ALBsZGTJL.jpg)

It follows the story in 4 chapters only of a white land-owning South African family (the parents and 3 children), around the dying wish of the mother made in the 80's that the little side house used by their long-serving black domestic help, is to be given to her in full ownership. The "promise" accepted by the husband at time. The book follows the evolution of and the disputes over that promise, with the family (re)linking through a tragedy/loss every decade or so, all intertwined with the South African political background of each period.

I don't read novels. Yet, I read this one in pretty much 4 sittings only, with a few days break between each chapter. It did need such spacing. It is bleak, unrelenting, also feeling quite fast paced due a very particular yet highly descriptive narrative style. Not an easy read due to all the subject matters dealt with but a highly recommended one all the same. Not a book to love per se but one that keeps tugging at you all the way through and might stay with you for quite a while thereafter.

That is a very good summary for a non-reader, Olivier.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on March 24, 2022, 01:13:11 AM
See you in 2025 for my next book summary  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 24, 2022, 02:23:29 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on March 24, 2022, 01:13:11 AM
See you in 2025 for my next book summary  :laugh:

We can't wait that long!  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 24, 2022, 07:51:41 AM
Boris Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life.
Re-read. One of my political heroes along with Churchill and MLK. He wanted the new Russia to be a democratic and developed country.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 24, 2022, 07:57:51 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 24, 2022, 07:51:41 AM
Boris Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life.
Re-read. One of my political heroes along with Churchill and MLK.

Question: What did he have in common with Churchill but not with MLK?   ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 24, 2022, 07:58:24 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 24, 2022, 02:23:29 AM
We can't wait that long!  ;D

We are not even sure the world will last that long...  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 24, 2022, 08:24:11 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 24, 2022, 07:57:51 AM
Question: What did he have in common with Churchill but not with MLK?   ;)

Yeltsin and Churchill were white, caucasian. They were elected officials, and ultimately elected to the leader of the national govt.  unlike MLK, they were not womanizers. Though they had serious conflicts with the mainstream in national politics, they were not the public enemies of the government and authorities like mlk. Plus, they were not assassinated.

While Yeltsin surprisingly won reelection, Churchills party surprisingly "lost"  the post ww2 election and therefore wsc lost premiership.
All the three guys liked drinking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 24, 2022, 08:33:00 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 24, 2022, 08:24:11 AM
All the three guys liked drinking.

Well, that's what I had in mind --- I never knew MLK was a heavy drinker too.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 24, 2022, 08:44:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 24, 2022, 08:33:00 AM
Well, that's what I had in mind --- I never knew MLK was a heavy drinker too.  :D

Hitler didn't drink or eat meat. He didn't attract ladies either.

Anyway, Yeltsin is an extremely fascinating man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on March 24, 2022, 07:32:32 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 24, 2022, 08:44:50 AM
Hitler didn't drink or eat meat. He didn't attract ladies either...

He ate lead, just not soon enough to save millions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 25, 2022, 07:30:39 AM
Quote from: LKB on March 24, 2022, 07:32:32 PM
He ate lead, just not soon enough to save millions.

;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on March 28, 2022, 12:21:36 AM
You make me think of that photo of the man in front of Brandenburger Tor with the board saying something like "Dear Mr. Putin. Why don't we skip to the part where you shoot yourself in a bunker?"

Reading Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness by Norman Lebrecht. Just as fun as the first time.
Sod DG.
A couple of recordings that I should get hold of too I see.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 28, 2022, 03:21:18 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ra8rUPhNL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Totally weird. The ideas and values of the France of 200 years ago have about as much to do with my life now as the Greece of Homer. It doesn't work through story, it rather works through the tension caused by the interaction of alien life forms. Balzac is good at it, 400 pages and no boring bits. He's easy to read and there are some super passages of purple prose -- I mean, it's not Alexandrines but apart from that, the prose is sometimes as purple as Racine's verse. As I'm reading, I'm wondering what should I read next -- Pere Goriod, Peau de Chagrin, Illusions Perdues . . . ?

Without wishing to lower the tone of the forum, why on earth doesn't Felix just shag Henriette -- she'd be a lot better as a result -- and give her husband a good slapping?

There's also some bizarre gender stuff going on which I haven't got my head round. There's a point where Henriette says to Felix something like "you must be a woman!" . . . and Louis XVIII gives him a woman's nickname. Hmmmmm
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 28, 2022, 06:09:01 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on March 28, 2022, 03:21:18 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ra8rUPhNL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Totally weird. The ideas and values of the France of 200 years ago have about as much to do with my life now as the Greece of Homer. It doesn't work through story, it rather works through the tension caused by the interaction of alien life forms. Balzac is good at it, 400 pages and no boring bits. He's easy to read and there are some super passages of purple prose -- I mean, it's not Alexandrines but apart from that, the prose is sometimes as purple as Racine's verse.

I started it twice but neverr finished it. I found the prose too purple even for my taste and the action plodding. I might give it a thrid and final try.

QuoteAs I'm reading, I'm wondering what should I read next -- Pere Goriod, Peau de Chagrin, Illusions Perdues . . . ?

Try Le colonel Chabert. You might find it to have a more modern flavour, if only because one of the main characters is an ambitious, succesful, rich and workaholic lawyer.  ;)

Of the three you listed, I read the first two. Pere Goriot is a very good novel, La peau de Chagrin is a rather Hoffmannesque novella.

QuoteWithout wishing to lower the tone of the forum, why on earth doesn't Felix just shag Henriette -- she'd be a lot better as a result -- and give her husband a good slapping?

Too introvert, too shy, too much a bourgeois nature as opposed to a passional one.

Compare Schumann and Clara (no shagging until marriage, obtained by years long legal battle) with Liszt and Marie d'Agoult ( lots of shagging, to hell with marriage).  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on March 28, 2022, 06:56:35 AM
I have a soft spot among Balzac's oeuvre for La fille aux yeux d'or which many people outright hate not only for the long intro and also the sadistic final scene. However I think it is really relatable and, for its time, handles lesbian themes with relatively large amount of compassion. The book in fact makes it quite clear that the main male character is a heartless cad. Also, the prose is superb (at least, in translation which I read since I don't know any French).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on March 31, 2022, 07:04:04 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 24, 2022, 07:51:41 AM
Boris Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life.
Re-read. One of my political heroes along with Churchill and MLK. He wanted the new Russia to be a democratic and developed country.

He also installed Putin, whose first official act as president was to cancel all ethics investigations of Yeltsin. Yeltsin facilitated the transfer of essentially the entire Soviet State economy to a small group of 'oligarchs' and was in power during the time when the FSB orchestrated the apartment bombings that were used as a justification for the second Chechen war. You might say he showed courage in preventing to putsch against Gorbachov, but once in power he was utterly corrupt, in my view.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 31, 2022, 07:12:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 28, 2022, 06:09:01 AM
I started it twice but neverr finished it. I found the prose too purple even for my taste and the action plodding. I might give it a thrid and final try.



Too introvert, too shy, too much a bourgeois nature as opposed to a passional one.


Ah you probably never got this far but he's definitely not introverted, shy or bourgeois. When he leaves Henriette to go to work for the king in Paris, he straight away meets an older English lady, she's in her thirties, kougar, beautiful,  and they fuck like rabbits, he makes it clear that her age and experience meant that she could show him all sorts of unusual ways to jouir .  She's called Lady Arabelle Dudley, Balzac paints her using all sorts of biblical allusions -- she's the devil, the serpent etc . I'm rather proud that she was English.

Balzac has some things to say about the English . . . he thinks he's got us nailed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 31, 2022, 08:11:19 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on March 31, 2022, 07:12:53 AM
Ah you probably never got this far but he's definitely not introverted, shy or bourgeois. When he leaves Henriette to go to work for the king in Paris, he straight away meets an older English lady, she's in her thirties, kougar, beautiful,  and they fuck like rabbits, he makes it clear that her age and experience meant that she could show him all sorts of unusual ways to jouir .  She's called Lady Arabelle Dudley, Balzac paints her using all sorts of biblical allusions -- she's the devil, the serpent etc . I'm rather proud that she was English.

Balzac has some things to say about the English . . . he thinks he's got us nailed.

Must definitely read it again, then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 31, 2022, 08:11:51 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on March 31, 2022, 07:04:04 AM
He also installed Putin, whose first official act as president was to cancel all ethics investigations of Yeltsin. Yeltsin facilitated the transfer of essentially the entire Soviet State economy to a small group of 'oligarchs' and was in power during the time when the FSB orchestrated the apartment bombings that were used as a justification for the second Chechen war. You might say he showed courage in preventing to putsch against Gorbachov, but once in power he was utterly corrupt, in my view.

+1.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 31, 2022, 02:05:33 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on March 31, 2022, 07:04:04 AM
He also installed Putin, whose first official act as president was to cancel all ethics investigations of Yeltsin. Yeltsin facilitated the transfer of essentially the entire Soviet State economy to a small group of 'oligarchs' and was in power during the time when the FSB orchestrated the apartment bombings that were used as a justification for the second Chechen war. You might say he showed courage in preventing to putsch against Gorbachov, but once in power he was utterly corrupt, in my view.

I partially agree with you. Late Yeltsin became corrupt, if not utterly corrupt. He didn't make the post-Soviet Russia like Switzerland. However, since the condition of the USSR was very bad, I still think Yeltsin contributed to the improvement in human and political condition in Russia. We are dealing with the history of the real-world, rather than a fantasy- ideal place. In Russia in the 1990s with very limited alternatives and resources and bunch of oppositions, who else would have done better than Yeltsin? Sakharov, Popov, Yakovlev?
But again, I think he became substantially corrupt later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on April 03, 2022, 08:59:35 AM
Books that I finished last month. Several short ones among them. Ivan Klima was the best from the bunch. He's been one of my favourite recent literary discoveries. I like this blurb from goodreads about My Golden Trades. Very fitting book for these times.
QuoteOne of the last artistic expressions of life under communism, this novel captures the atmosphere in Prague between 1983 and 1987, where a dance could be broken up by the secret police, a traffic offense could lead to surveillance, and where contraband books were the currency of the underworld.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569117153l/44319015.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585739165l/52867796._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1483619171l/32935093._SY475_.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328701387l/336875.jpg)(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548326785l/43317567.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 04, 2022, 09:33:07 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41uzN2heFvL._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Maybe my French isn't à la hauteur but, I think it's funny -- a bit like Pickwick but not as good. Are you supposed to laugh out loud?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 04, 2022, 06:43:06 PM
These two on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JiQkLPmrL._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg) (https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.d588e629b715ef67f0e006cc93f21371?rik=%2fNKJYRqMUTLf6w&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)

And winding up volume one of Caro's LBJ the next Big Fat Book set to start will be another of Dominic Sandbrook's on modern Britain:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.zthF--Ke1eh_sM6hvqrmIQAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: joachim on April 11, 2022, 06:46:00 AM
The biography of Süssmayr, by Thierry d'Alberto, released in february 2022.

This biography, the only one in French, teaches us a lot about the musical life of the time, about the last year of Mozart and Constance, about the Abbey of Kremsmünster where Süssmayr spent part of his youth, and about his sad end. , undermined by tuberculosis and ruined because of medical care, he dies when he was about to get married!

(https://i.servimg.com/u/f59/20/38/22/06/image14.jpg) (https://servimg.com/view/20382206/5)

This portrait, which has often been attributed as being one of Mozart's, would be that of Süssmayr around 1802.

(https://i.servimg.com/u/f59/20/38/22/06/image12.jpg) (https://servimg.com/view/20382206/3)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 11, 2022, 02:15:05 PM
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. Robert McNamara.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 12, 2022, 01:02:00 PM
This biography of Bruno Maderna, purchased in my recent trip to Italy:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41TrRoLBXhL._SX353_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
I'm at the end of WW2, when Maderna is no longer the conducting child prodigy "Brunetto" and has taken as a young adult conducting courses with Antonio Guarneri and composition lessons  from (among others) Malipiero. He's producing his first important works (of course, not yet serial —even if he's conducted Webern's Variations op. 30 when on leave from military service in wartime Italy). Quite a character!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on April 12, 2022, 01:26:17 PM
Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 14, 2022, 05:38:34 AM
Along with Sandbrook's book on the Heath years in Britain:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FP_nRHgacAE0Oqu.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on April 14, 2022, 06:09:19 AM
Tono-Bungay, by H.G. Wells.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mSPEObOZL.jpg)

I stumbled on this book because it is said that the final chapter was an inspiration for Vaughan-Williams A London Symphony, and a particular passage is often quoted as being the inspiration for the finale epilogue.

QuoteLight after light goes down. England and the Kingdom, Britain and the Empire, the old prides and the old devotions, glide abeam, astern, sink down upon the horizon, pass – pass. The river passes – London passes, England passes.

Bad choice. One of the most unsatisfying books I can remember reading.

It is written as a first person narrative, as though it were a memoir. The narrator is the son of a servant in a grand aristocratic estate (think Downton Abbey). A daughter of the family takes a liking to him, so to placate her he is allowed to hang on with his betters. This seems fine, until one of the aristocratic brats bullies him and he returns the favor by bloodying his nose. Of course he is banished from the housed, and eventually exiled to his uncle. The uncle is a chemist (pharmacist) with a small shop in a nearby village who has grand ideas. He looses his shop and the narrators small endowment in a money-making scheme and has to work as an assistant chemist in London. But then, the uncle invents a patent medicine, Tono-Bungay, which is useless, maybe mildly poisonous, but "goes viral." The uncle becomes a financier on a colossal scale and the narrator gets swept up. It seems like the uncle has entered a new aristocracy, building a monstrous grand building to supplant an elegant but uncomfortable country estate he has acquired. The aristocratic girl then reappears and reveals she has always been in love with our narrator. Of course it goes bust and the love interest announces she is not strong enough to be the wife of a poor man.

This gives H.G. Wells a framework to hang his philosophizing about England, the hollow nobility of the old order, the tawdry, rapacious greed of the new order, the hypocrisy of it all. But the characters are as flat as paper, and are just props for illustrating his social ideas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 14, 2022, 07:41:01 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 14, 2022, 05:38:34 AM
Along with Sandbrook's book on the Heath years in Britain:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FP_nRHgacAE0Oqu.jpg)

I assume you already know that Drive My Car won Academy foreign movie award.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 14, 2022, 08:18:31 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 14, 2022, 07:41:01 PM
I assume you already know that Drive My Car won Academy foreign movie award.

Yes. As it happens I'm actually set to see it tomorrow. Luckily its run here was extended after it got the award , as this is the first chance I've had.

I read the story in the Men Without Women collection not long after it came out, but wont be able to remember it well enough now to tell what's been changed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 15, 2022, 08:53:17 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 14, 2022, 08:18:31 PM
Yes. As it happens I'm actually set to see it tomorrow. Luckily its run here was extended after it got the award , as this is the first chance I've had.

I read the story in the Men Without Women collection not long after it came out, but wont be able to remember it well enough now to tell what's been changed.

Enjoy the movie and have a great weekend!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on April 15, 2022, 12:27:15 PM
Re-reading Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to read it again without seeing Paul Thomas Anderson's casting choices from the film, and there is a little bit of that but actually so much of the book was never adapted for the film that that issue ends up being largely peripheral. I do actually like the film, but even in his lighter works what makes Pynchon Pynchon is the unfalteringly brilliant prose, and for me at least not even the greatest filmmaker could replace one of his paragraphs with one of their shots, no matter how striking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 16, 2022, 11:56:47 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41WIxSrLY2L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Just started it, so far so good -- Falknerian.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 16, 2022, 01:09:13 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on April 16, 2022, 11:56:47 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41WIxSrLY2L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Just started it, so far so good -- Falknerian.
I read Bernanos' Monsieur Ouine recently. A very well written book, with an almost cinematographic action and an uncanny ability to conjure vivid images to the reader. But it's one of the most pessimistic books I've ever read. Very unsettling....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 16, 2022, 01:13:48 PM
Quote from: ritter on April 16, 2022, 01:09:13 PM
I read Bernanos' Monsieur Ouine recently. A very well written book, with an almost cinematographic action and an uncanny ability to conjure vivid images to the reader. But it's one of the most pessimistic books I've ever read. Very unsettling....

It is very helpful for me to have the Livre de Poche edition because it's well annotated. Without it, I'd miss the references to Catholicism, and more. I've just learned, for example, about Frédéric Mistral and what a tarasque is!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 17, 2022, 02:16:27 PM
The New White Nationalism In America, Carol M. Swain.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 20, 2022, 08:42:36 AM
Einstein's Unfinished Revolution, Lee Smolin.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: foxandpeng on April 22, 2022, 05:17:02 AM
Louis MacNeice
Collected Poems

Some good work in this. Not a poet I know well, but thoughtful and serious.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 22, 2022, 08:43:59 AM
The Tide at Sunrise: A History of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905. Denis and Peggy Warner.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 27, 2022, 07:37:01 AM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405769186l/4588176.jpg)

Just finished this superb Romanian novel first published in 1933. Supremely stylish prose, subtle psychological insights and splendid nature descriptions. Proust meets Turgenev in Romanian setting and context.

(Adela is the name of the main female character)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 27, 2022, 10:44:26 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41WcEouODLL._AC_SY1000_.jpg)

Half way through. Excellent, but not the history/sociology book I was expecting, instead a first person travelogue of encounters around black Europe weaving in the history, and meditations on the authors own Afropean-ness, in the style of Afua Hirsh's also excellent book Brit(ish)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on April 29, 2022, 04:07:36 AM
Barnes and Noble promotional email says this is coming out in November.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 29, 2022, 09:54:42 AM
Just started: Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals. Thomas Moore.
Recommended by Vandermolen.
Nice read about the hard-time, depression, tragedies, etc. in life. The book is on the emotional and psychological side more than philosophical/logical side. This could be a strength as well as weakness. Still the book gives consolation and the author is like a readers' brother/sister.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 30, 2022, 03:58:02 AM
(https://imagini.printrecarti.ro/images/products/originals/40/honore-de-balzac-crinul-din-vale_39500.jpg)

The Lily of the Valley --- third attempt at reading the whole thing.

I have a feeling this time I'll succeed. The subtle, poetic and delicate prose of Balzac hit right home this time.

(not the pictured edition but could not find a good image for the one I'm reading).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 03, 2022, 12:13:35 AM
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.4ed70ac2ea45576cb7e6d6bb0c8e1326?rik=kzkMSFzE%2fwLn9w&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)

Reread the "Drive My Car" story, and am very impressed by how much the filmmakers were able to develop and extrapolate from what are the most fleeting one or two lines of information in the story. Also reread the following "Yesterday" and the title story that ends the collection.


Started:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.c29c2273761329711838ca50d1530799?rik=nfO5mvtblYdU6w&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)

Had this sitting unread for far too long. Every bit as good as I expected it to be and beautifully produced with generous reproductions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on May 04, 2022, 06:56:04 AM
The Memory Police, Yoko Ozawa

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mu6IYmy8L.jpg)

I stumbled upon because bookbub alerted me of a deep discount on the Kindle Edition ($1.99) and it sounded interesting.

A dystopian novel depicting an island where things (birds, boats, everyday objects) regularly disappear. The population almost immediately forgets about these disappeared objects. However there are people who remember, either voluntarily or involuntarily. The memory police enforce the loss of memory of disappeared objects, and those who remember are hunted and arrested. The protagonist of the novel has had her mother and father taken into custody and later hides her editor, who is one who retains memory and is in immediate danger of being taken. A compelling read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on May 04, 2022, 10:07:17 AM
Well, has been a few months or so since my last posting - recent books read and still reading the last two:

Crown & Sceptre (2022) by Tracy Borman - hardback from the History Book Club (have 3 more in a pile!) - a concise (500 pages or so) history of the British Monarchy; after some pre-1066 introduction, starts w/ William the Conqueror and the Normans and ends w/ Elizabeth II - not a lot of detail but a good introduction.

Killing the Rising Sun (2016) by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard - 'An enthralling, gripping account of the bloody battles, huge decisions, and historic personalities that culminated in the decision to drop the atomic bomb and brought the war in the Pacific to its climactic end.' - quote from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Rising-Sun-Vanquished-OReillys-ebook/dp/B01CNTUGF4/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3RBCQBWBHM99M&keywords=killing+japan&qid=1651686351&s=books&sprefix=killing+japan%2Cstripbooks%2C92&sr=1-2) - this is my 4th 'Killing Book' by O'Reilly which I've thoroughly enjoyed and will likely purchase more of interest.

Strange Bedfellows (2021) by Ina Park, an M.D. specialized in STDs or STIs (sexually transmitted diseases or infections) - may not be for all but as a retired physician a nice update and refresher course; covers virtually all of the 'bugs' from viruses to bacteria -  :laugh:

Last Days of the Dinosaurs, The (2022) by Riley Black - 66 million years ago, a 7-mile wide asteroid struck the earth in the Yucatan Peninsula wiping out 75% of life on the planet and virtually all of the dinosaurs (except of course birds) - just getting started w/ this newest Kindle purchase - wonderful storytelling so far - probably like many of us I've been a 'dinosaur nut' since boyhood.  Dave :)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vjsNiRggS.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ikB9HUhgL.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41w85oFAdUL._SY346_.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414Y2-Rl7uL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 09, 2022, 08:59:40 AM
Quote from: foxandpeng on April 22, 2022, 05:17:02 AM
Louis MacNeice
Collected Poems

Some good work in this. Not a poet I know well, but thoughtful and serious.
I should revisit that. Many years ago I read "MacSpaunday" (MacNiece, Spender, Auden, Day-Lewis) avidly and profusely, but my recollection  of their work (which I found impressively good at the time) has faded. Time to remedy that!

THREAD DUTY:

Starting Pier Paolo Pasolini's Ragazzi di vita (The Street Kids), his first novel (from 1955), depicting the Roman lumpen proletariat.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51EVvw22J4L._SX344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

On the occasion of the centennial of the author's birth, publisher Garzanti has beautifully  reprinted the original hardback edition of this and of Pasolini's second novel, Una Vita violenta.

Even if my Italian is quite good (as it should be, after decades of listening to opera  ;D), this is not a easy read, as the use of Roman slang is abundant in the text. Thankfully, there's a glossary of some terms at the end (and the internet also helps). I'm only a few pages in, but the book already exudes the poetry that can be found in Pasolini's films depicting the same sordid setting and down and out characters (e.g. Accattone and Mamma Roma), and its strength in part derives that it's narrated without any sort of moral commentary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 15, 2022, 01:27:14 PM
Hans J. Morgenthau: Politics Among Nations.


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tOBrocY0L._SX347_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on May 19, 2022, 07:15:52 AM
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51+bi1rkHVL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I've been a fan of McCullers since I first read her books many years ago. I'm re-reading this book after a long interval.

The book depicts the poverty and limited opportunities that restrict the people who live in a southern mill town. The central character is a deaf-mute named John Singer, who is initially roommate and close friend with another deaf-mute, who eventually becomes insane and is confined to an asylum. When Singer is left alone he moves to a room in a boarding house and starts taking long walks through the town. Singer is able to read lips and communicate by means of a writing tablet and this restricted form of communication allows the people he meets to project their own idea of his identity on him. He is befriended by a disparate group of people who share the trait of being isolated and unable to find their place in society. Other important characters are Mick, a tomboyish girl who dreams of being a musician, a labor agitator who comes to the town at the beginning of the story and leaves at the end, an African-American physician who strives to strives to raise the members of his community from poverty and ignorance, but is unable to relate to his own family, a cafe owner who is fascinated by the flow of people through his restaurant but struggles to engage with them. A gem of a book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 19, 2022, 07:20:53 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on May 19, 2022, 07:15:52 AM
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51+bi1rkHVL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I've been a fan of McCullers since I first read her books many years ago. I'm re-reading this book after a long interval.

The book depicts the poverty and limited opportunities that restrict the people who live in a southern mill town. The central character is a deaf-mute named John Singer, who is initially roommate and close friend with another deaf-mute, who eventually becomes insane and is confined to an asylum. When Singer is left alone he moves to a room in a boarding house and starts taking long walks through the town. Singer is able to read lips and communicate by means of a writing tablet and this restricted form of communication allows the people he meets to project their own idea of his identity on him. He is befriended by a disparate group of people who share the trait of being isolated and unable to find their place in society. Other important characters are Mick, a tomboyish girl who dreams of being a musician, a labor agitator who comes to the town at the beginning of the story and leaves at the end, an African-American physician who strives to strives to raise the members of his community from poverty and ignorance, but is unable to relate to his own family, a cafe owner who is fascinated by the flow of people through his restaurant but struggles to engage with them. A gem of a book.

Great book!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on May 19, 2022, 07:24:23 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 19, 2022, 07:20:53 AM
Great book!

My big McCullers revelation was when I read "A Member of the Wedding" as an adult. I was assigned it in secondary school and I didn't get it at all. But re-reading, it is a very raw look at a person trying to find her maturity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on May 21, 2022, 11:07:11 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511bD+me7VL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


At 900 pages, in prose that I can't help but stop to savour, I must admit it took a while ..

Although sometimes I feel Dickens paints characters a little too good or too bad to be true, they can still be immensely successful, partly owing to his genius for creating unforgettable characters, and partly because the qualities he gives them are often nonetheless very real/familiar human virtues and failings that stimulate empathy or antipathy, such as he clearly often feels himself.
David Copperfield has a rich line-up of such characters, perhaps the most famous being the egregious Uriah Heep, descriptions of whom are just so simultaneously brilliant, hilarious and repugnant, it's a bit like watching Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks sketch while having live maggots poured down your shirt.

His compassion, wit and powers of description seem to come from a quite inexhaustible reservoir, a spectacle in itself, and they light up the novel from beginning to end. A great and immensely enjoyable book.

Almost straight after DC I read the also excellent Drive My Car by Haruki Murakami. Hard to imagine a greater contrast in prose style. Not surprisingly the short story is very different from the (marvellous) three hour film, but its distinct feel/atmosphere very much pervades the whole film I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 21, 2022, 11:14:45 AM
Quote from: Iota on May 21, 2022, 11:07:11 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511bD+me7VL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


At 900 pages, in prose that I can't help but stop to savour, I must admit it took a while ..

Although sometimes I feel Dickens paints characters a little too good or too bad to be true, they can still be immensely successful, partly owing to his genius for creating unforgettable characters, and partly because the qualities he gives them are often nonetheless very real/familiar human virtues and failings that stimulate empathy or antipathy, such as he clearly often feels himself.
David Copperfield has a rich line-up of such characters, perhaps the most famous being the egregious Uriah Heep, descriptions of whom are just so simultaneously brilliant, hilarious and repugnant, it's a bit like watching Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks sketch while having live maggots poured down your shirt.

His compassion, wit and powers of description seem to come from a quite inexhaustible reservoir, a spectacle in itself, and they light up the novel from beginning to end. A great and immensely enjoyable book.

Almost straight after DC I read the also excellent Drive My Car by Haruki Murakami. Hard to imagine a greater contrast in prose style. Not surprisingly the short story is very different from the (marvellous) three hour film, but its distinct feel/atmosphere very much pervades the whole film I think.

My favorite Dickens is Nicholas Nickleby. Also The Bleak House but this I've only seen the ecranization, never read the book proper.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on May 21, 2022, 11:59:08 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 21, 2022, 11:14:45 AM
My favorite Dickens is Nicholas Nickleby. Also The Bleak House but this I've only seen the ecranization, never read the book proper.

I still haven't read Nicholas Nickleby, something I should rectify before I depart this world. Not sure I have a favourite, quite a few I've yet to read. I will say I liked Hard Times a lot more than some seemed to .. also attractively brief in comparison to much of the Dickens canon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on May 22, 2022, 02:02:54 AM
David Copperfield is in my top 5 Dickens books and I enjoy it immmensely. To me the most brilliant and memorable character of the book is James Steerforth. I really enjoy Byronic Heroes.

However, my absolute favorite Dickens book is Our Mutual Friend.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 24, 2022, 12:57:47 AM
These on the go:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sa4hEcvQL._AC_SY1000_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91pi3LwcYzL.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71JMQpXB51L.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51HtyXG2ZoL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on May 24, 2022, 06:53:12 AM
Oh I've read The Club Dumas!  It is significantly different from the movie that they both can stand on their own.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 24, 2022, 07:38:24 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on May 24, 2022, 12:57:47 AM
These on the go:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91pi3LwcYzL.jpg)



I ordered this. Excited to read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 24, 2022, 11:24:04 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 24, 2022, 07:38:24 AM
I ordered this. Excited to read it.

It's in my library. I will open it this summer!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on May 25, 2022, 03:35:32 PM
I've been saving Gardiner on Bach until some time when I can really make a project of listening to the cantatas, because - not surprising given his recordings - apparently the cantatas are a major part of his discussion in the book.

I'm reading "Can You Forgive Her?" If there is a GMG Trollope Society to go with our Dickens fans, please consider me a member.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on May 26, 2022, 01:50:01 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 25, 2022, 03:35:32 PM
I've been saving Gardiner on Bach until some time when I can really make a project of listening to the cantatas, because - not surprising given his recordings - apparently the cantatas are a major part of his discussion in the book.

I'm reading "Can You Forgive Her?" If there is a GMG Trollope Society to go with our Dickens fans, please consider me a member.

On the Bach, me too. I got the book and read about half, but it absolutely becomes clear you need to have a set of the Cantatas on hand to get the most out of the book. I keep meaning to come back to it...
   On the Trollope, I am surprised you're a fan. I gave him a try, and just couldn't get into him. I love Dickens, and did my doctoral diss on 18th century British lit, so you you'd think he'd be in my wheelhouse, if not made to order for me. I'll have to give him another shot...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 26, 2022, 02:58:02 AM
(https://images.routledge.com/common/jackets/crclarge/978041592/9780415928120.jpg)

Very good, and it's prompted me to revisit Rossellini - I watched Europa 51 last night, Germany Year Zero over the weekend. Stromboli is coming up soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 26, 2022, 07:05:56 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on May 26, 2022, 02:58:02 AM
(https://images.routledge.com/common/jackets/crclarge/978041592/9780415928120.jpg)

Very good, and it's prompted me to revisit Rossellini - I watched Europa 51 last night, Germany Year Zero over the weekend. Stromboli is coming up soon.

One of my friends is a big fan of Slavoj Zizek!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on May 28, 2022, 09:25:30 AM
Returned briefly to my reading marathon of whole Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Read today at library the first section of Sodom et Gomorrhe where the narrator (finally!) figures out that Charlus is gay. There was an interesting reference in that section to what the narrator saw going on between Vinteuil and Albertine which renews my suspicions that maybe they were really making love after all. Or am I missing something? The passage in Sodom et Gomorrhe kind of seems to imply that the narrator wants to see what Charlus is doing with Jupien BECAUSE he remembers what he saw at Vinteuil's, kind of like he seems to be anticipating what he shall shortly find out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 28, 2022, 10:24:07 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on May 28, 2022, 09:25:30 AM
Returned briefly to my reading marathon of whole Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Read today at library the first section of Sodom et Gomorrhe where the narrator (finally!) figures out that Charlus is gay. There was an interesting reference in that section to what the narrator saw going on between Vinteuil and Albertine which renews my suspicions that maybe they were really making love after all. Or am I missing something? The passage in Sodom et Gomorrhe kind of seems to imply that the narrator wants to see what Charlus is doing with Jupien BECAUSE he remembers what he saw at Vinteuil's, kind of like he seems to be anticipating what he shall shortly find out.

It's worth going back to the passage in Swann's Way where, Marcel, hiding, looks through the window. Do the two women know that they are being spied on? If so, how does that effect their actions?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 31, 2022, 12:19:53 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on March 28, 2022, 03:21:18 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ra8rUPhNL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Totally weird. The ideas and values of the France of 200 years ago have about as much to do with my life now as the Greece of Homer. It doesn't work through story, it rather works through the tension caused by the interaction of alien life forms. Balzac is good at it, 400 pages and no boring bits. He's easy to read and there are some super passages of purple prose -- I mean, it's not Alexandrines but apart from that, the prose is sometimes as purple as Racine's verse. As I'm reading, I'm wondering what should I read next -- Pere Goriod, Peau de Chagrin, Illusions Perdues . . . ?

Without wishing to lower the tone of the forum, why on earth doesn't Felix just shag Henriette -- she'd be a lot better as a result -- and give her husband a good slapping?

Felix himself answers the question:

Si vous me demandez pourquoi, jeune et plein de fougueux vouloirs, je demeurai dans les abusives croyances de l'amour platonique, je vous avouerai que je n'étais pas assez homme encore pour tourmenter cette femme, toujours en crainte de quelque catastrophe chez ses enfants ; toujours attendant un éclat, une orageuse variation chez son mari ; frappée par lui, quand elle n'était pas affligée par la maladie de Jacques ou de Madeleine ; assise au chevet de l'un d'eux quand son mari calmé pouvait lui laisser prendre un peu de repos. Le son d'une parole trop vive ébranlait son être, un désir l'offensait ; pour elle, il fallait être amour voilé, force mêlée de tendresse, enfin tout ce qu'elle était pour les autres. Puis, vous le dirai-je, à vous si bien femme, cette situation comportait des langueurs enchanteresses, des moments de suavité divine et les contentements qui suivent de tacites immolations. Sa conscience était contagieuse, son dévouement sans récompense terrestre imposait par sa persistance ; cette vive et secrète piété qui servait de lien à ses autres vertus, agissait à l'entour comme un encens spirituel. Puis j'étais jeune ! assez jeune pour concentrer ma nature dans le baiser qu'elle me permettait si rarement de mettre sur sa main dont elle ne voulut jamais me donner que le dessus et jamais la paume, limite où pour elle commençaient peut-être les voluptés sensuelles. Si jamais deux âmes ne s'étreignirent avec plus d'ardeur, jamais le corps ne fut plus intrépidement ni plus victorieusement dompté.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 02, 2022, 02:51:51 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61M1JAA2HYL.jpg)

A fascinating piece of cultural and social history. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 02, 2022, 03:39:28 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 31, 2022, 12:19:53 AM
Felix himself answers the question:

Si vous me demandez pourquoi, jeune et plein de fougueux vouloirs, je demeurai dans les abusives croyances de l'amour platonique, je vous avouerai que je n'étais pas assez homme encore pour tourmenter cette femme, toujours en crainte de quelque catastrophe chez ses enfants ; toujours attendant un éclat, une orageuse variation chez son mari ; frappée par lui, quand elle n'était pas affligée par la maladie de Jacques ou de Madeleine ; assise au chevet de l'un d'eux quand son mari calmé pouvait lui laisser prendre un peu de repos. Le son d'une parole trop vive ébranlait son être, un désir l'offensait ; pour elle, il fallait être amour voilé, force mêlée de tendresse, enfin tout ce qu'elle était pour les autres. Puis, vous le dirai-je, à vous si bien femme, cette situation comportait des langueurs enchanteresses, des moments de suavité divine et les contentements qui suivent de tacites immolations. Sa conscience était contagieuse, son dévouement sans récompense terrestre imposait par sa persistance ; cette vive et secrète piété qui servait de lien à ses autres vertus, agissait à l'entour comme un encens spirituel. Puis j'étais jeune ! assez jeune pour concentrer ma nature dans le baiser qu'elle me permettait si rarement de mettre sur sa main dont elle ne voulut jamais me donner que le dessus et jamais la paume, limite où pour elle commençaient peut-être les voluptés sensuelles. Si jamais deux âmes ne s'étreignirent avec plus d'ardeur, jamais le corps ne fut plus intrépidement ni plus victorieusement dompté.

It's quite a contrast with Frédéric's attitude to sex with Mme Arnoux in L'Éducation sentimentale. Presumably the relationship in the Flaubert is somehow a distorted reflection of the relationship in the Balzac.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on June 02, 2022, 09:39:37 AM
(https://buuks.co.uk/images/product_images/GA/360590.jpg)

I dipped into the above again and read a short story called Yesterday (the title referencing the fact that a character in the book invents a nonsense rhyme in a Japanese dialect to fit the tune, and sings it in the bath).
A beautifully written story, which I'm mentioning mainly because I'm just amazed at how easy Murakami's prose is to read! It's so transparent, it almost reads itself! I'm not sure I've experienced anything else quite like it. I'm very curious if it reads so naturally in the original in Japanese
My feeling may be coloured by the fact that I recently read the 900 page David Copperfield in which I had to park up almost every 5 minutes to admire the view. Wonderful though that was, the contrast with Murakami could hardly be greater.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on June 02, 2022, 10:27:20 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on May 26, 2022, 01:50:01 AM
   On the Trollope, I am surprised you're a fan. I gave him a try, and just couldn't get into him. I love Dickens, and did my doctoral diss on 18th century British lit, so you you'd think he'd be in my wheelhouse, if not made to order for me. I'll have to give him another shot...
Almost done with Can You Forgive Her? now and my enthusiasm has waned a little bit but not a lot.

He is a witty and genial presence as a narrator, somewhat flippant about the seriousness of his story but in an endearing way. (Not an ironic detachment way.) He is insightful about human nature and human flaws. His plots, unlike Dickens', grow organically and are less reliant on surprise coincidences and twists. Both are predictable, in a way; you can always expect a minor Dickens character to come back at the end, and Trollope's characters basically either make the right choice, or make the wrong one.

The prose of both is admirable but imperfect. I love Dickens in full flight, but at times he is clearly padding his word count. Trollope is more straightforward, for better and worse: the highs aren't as high and I don't think there's a single passage I'd describe as being really amazingly written, but the overall reading experience is pleasant. It's kind of like a good thriller novel writer transposed into the Victorian era.

In this book particularly the treatment of female characters and women's rights issues are notable. Even when Trollope hits the limits of his sympathy, it's interesting to see where the limit is. The major flaw of the book is that its plot revolves around a woman trying to decide between two potential husbands and waffling back and forth, but she has basically no character outside of that choice - she doesn't do much else, have hobbies, make witty conversation, etc. At the time, critics apparently nicknamed the book Can You Stand Her?  ;D Interestingly, her dilemma is mirrored in the fates of two other women who are supporting characters and who are much more lively, entertaining, and cheerworthy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 02, 2022, 11:45:09 AM
Unsettled Land (2022) by Sam W. Haynes - sweeping history of Texas from the 1820s, through the 9 years or so of the 'Texas Republic' to statehood in the USA in 1845 - brief summary below.  Recommended to those who are fans of the Lone Star State - I've made over a half dozen visits in previous decades, mostly to San Antonio, location of the Alamo.

Blood and Thunder (2007) by Hampton Sides - epic his of Kit Carson and the American 'conquest' of the West - intermittently covers Carson's life from the late 1820s when he migrated from Missouri to the Santa Fe region to the time of his death in 1868 - summary in second quote - intertwined are stories of many others involved in this James Polk land grab, such as Stephen Kearny, John C. Fremont, and James K. Polk to mention just a few.  Excellent book and highly recommended, again to those with an interest in the topic.  Dave :)

QuoteThe Texas Revolution has long been cast as an epic episode in the origins of the American West. As the story goes, larger-than-life figures like Sam Houston, David Crockett, and William Barret Travis fought to free Texas from repressive Mexican rule. In Unsettled Land, historian Sam Haynes reveals the reality beneath this powerful creation myth. He shows how the lives of ordinary people—white Americans, Mexicans, Native Americans, and those of African descent—were upended by extraordinary events over twenty-five years. After the battle of San Jacinto, racial lines snapped taut as a new nation, the Lone Star republic, sought to expel Indians, marginalize Mexicans, and tighten its grip on the enslaved. (Source (https://www.amazon.com/Unsettled-Land-Revolution-Republic-Struggle-ebook/dp/B09FJLSH38/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3G6EOORBD7BA3&keywords=unsettled+land&qid=1654197798&s=books&sprefix=unsett%2Cstripbooks%2C98&sr=1-1))

QuoteIn the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of "Manifest Destiny," this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness. At the center of this sweeping tale is Kit Carson, the trapper, scout, and soldier whose adventures made him a legend. Sides shows us how this illiterate mountain man understood and respected the Western tribes better than any other American, yet willingly followed orders that would ultimately devastate the Navajo nation. Rich in detail and spanning more than three decades, this is an essential addition to our understanding of how the West was really won. (Source (https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Thunder-Hampton-Sides-ebook/dp/B000W969O0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3A0E2W1S509W&keywords=kit+carson+blood+and+thunder&qid=1654198420&s=books&sprefix=kit+carson%2Cstripbooks%2C94&sr=1-1))

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41D9bsZ-IHL.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51djj9Ru4rL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 02, 2022, 01:26:59 PM
Quote from: Iota on June 02, 2022, 09:39:37 AM
(https://buuks.co.uk/images/product_images/GA/360590.jpg)

I dipped into the above again and read a short story called Yesterday (the title referencing the fact that a character in the book invents a nonsense rhyme in a Japanese dialect to fit the tune, and sings it in the bath).
A beautifully written story, which I'm mentioning mainly because I'm just amazed at how easy Murakami's prose is to read! It's so transparent, it almost reads itself! I'm not sure I've experienced anything else quite like it. I'm very curious if it reads so naturally in the original in Japanese
My feeling may be coloured by the fact that I recently read the 900 page David Copperfield in which I had to park up almost every 5 minutes to admire the view. Wonderful though that was, the contrast with Murakami could hardly be greater.

Yes, it does.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 02, 2022, 07:46:39 PM
Re Trollope: there's a reason Barchester Towers remains a favorite Victorian novel.

It's sort of like  the love child of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 02, 2022, 07:52:11 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PQcJZLwQL.jpg)

The language is just so beautiful. Forget about the the characters, the narrative construction, the ideas etc. The linguistic style is astonishing. I've only had this response before to one other work - and that was in English and more than a century older: Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 02, 2022, 11:46:49 PM
Adding these to the mix:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.007e6076d90e5c3235294f100086087d?rik=eWkko9cFWaRFrA&pid=ImgRaw&r=0) (https://imgv2-1-f.scribdassets.com/img/word_document/250021324/original/8a53183d95/1580272293?v=1)


and surprised at how quickly I got through vol.2 of Caro's LBJ - an unexpected but genuine page turner
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on June 03, 2022, 03:29:55 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 02, 2022, 01:26:59 PM
Yes, it does.

Thanks, that's good to know. I guess if I could master Japanese the same way Kitaru does the Kansai dialect in the story, I could find out for myself ..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on June 04, 2022, 06:59:18 AM
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zVIVWmXXL.jpg)

Iris is a young woman who runs a shop specializing in used and vintage clothing. One day she gets a mysterious letter, then a phone call referencing Esme Lennox, who turns out to be her great aunt, her Grandmother Kitty's sister, who has been confined to a mental hospital for more than 60 years. Iris goes to the mental hospital, which is shutting down, when plans to transfer her to a hostel fall through, she ends up hosting Esme at her flat. Esme has the surreal experience of seeing the places where her early life unfolded more than 60 years earlier. The story of Esme's confinement is told in the present by Iris, and by Esme, in flashbacks to Esme's childhood, and in the semi-coherent thoughts of Kitty, who now suffers Alzheimer's disease. A compelling book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 05, 2022, 11:58:01 AM
Quote from: Iota on June 03, 2022, 03:29:55 AM
Thanks, that's good to know. I guess if I could master Japanese the same way Kitaru does the Kansai dialect in the story, I could find out for myself ..

I loved that story too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on June 05, 2022, 02:48:50 PM
Quote from: philoctetes on June 05, 2022, 02:39:25 PM
Simply an extraordinary work - You can sense Ellison really stretching himself.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41uNORQpl2L._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Having re-read The Invisible Man I resolved to read Ellison's unfinished second novel, which is said to have existed in a 2,000 page unfinished draft. But it is available in two forms, "Juneteenth" (an edited and condensed version) and "Three Days Before the Shooting," which is said to be more complete. What is your perspective?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 05, 2022, 03:20:14 PM
Quote from: philoctetes on June 05, 2022, 02:57:16 PM
You will want to read Three Days Before the Shooting which is not just the complete manuscript, but also contains a wealth of material especially as it regards the editing process. It is not simply a feat fictionally but also academically. The editing process reminds me of O Lost (the restoration) versus Look Homeward, Angel (the "abridged"). It is an extremely worthwhile book, and one which I find more impressive than The Invisible Man, but that is because it plays a bit more toward my predilections. Ellison is much more daring in Three Days.

Welcome back!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 05, 2022, 05:55:49 PM
So many twists and turns.  It is a real chunker, but George uses the length well to develop all of the characters and their relationship well.  There is more complexity and character depth than you would find in shorter mysteries.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/715e3gEmT8L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on June 05, 2022, 07:53:59 PM
Quote from: JBS on June 05, 2022, 03:20:14 PM
Welcome back!

+1

I hope your sojourn here will be longer this time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on June 07, 2022, 11:10:02 AM
Last night l started the first pass at James Hornfischer's final major work, Who can hold the Sea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 07, 2022, 07:18:13 PM
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: Meditations.


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421618636l/30659.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on June 09, 2022, 09:57:04 AM
Started reading these two in library today:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/This_Side_of_Paradise_Cover_1920_Retouched.jpg/1200px-This_Side_of_Paradise_Cover_1920_Retouched.jpg)



(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1309282204l/92967.jpg)

However didn't actually borrow them as I have currently a little too many books borrowed.

I finished the first 2 chapters of L'assommoir and the first chapter of book 1 in This Side of Paradise.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 07:32:38 AM
Joyce: Ulysses


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/gYQAAOSwm4VibyqY/s-l500.jpg)


I have, at last, finally completed reading this opus after at least three attempts to do so.
There are very many appreciations written about this book. I understand its importance as far as the form of The Novel is concerned. One only has to read it to discover how radical it was particularly for its time. I really like and appreciate Joyce's use of words and especially his play on words, being a fellow Dubliner.
However, this was a difficult read for me. It takes stamina to read one's way to the end. It took me three months to get through it without reading anything else concurrently.
In one sense I genuinely do not understand the universal appeal of this book. There are so many specific references to the colloquial essence of a particular place in time [Dublin], particular historical events and persons [in Ireland], colloquial expressions of speech and the manner of local personal inter-reactions that I find it difficult to comprehend how well it appears to have travelled. I wonder how much of it is really comprehended and understood? On the other hand I realise that its appeal can also be universal in the sense that the events, or similar, could have happened in any other European capital city even if the pervading historical background was different.
I must humbly confess that I did not understand or follow large tracts of the prose, particularly when I was presented with some paragraphs that went on for up to two or more pages in length, and sometimes more. There was also that extended "Play" in the novel. What on earth was that about?
Make no doubt about it, this is not an easy read. For me, as a result, this was also not an inspirational read. It was tough going throughout and I sometimes had to force myself to pick up the book again and continue. However, I am very pleased that I have eventually completed reading this epic tome.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 10, 2022, 08:56:24 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 07:32:38 AM
Joyce: Ulysses


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/gYQAAOSwm4VibyqY/s-l500.jpg)


I have, at last, finally completed reading this opus after at least three attempts to do so.
There are very many appreciations written about this book. I understand its importance as far as the form of The Novel is concerned. One only has to read it to discover how radical it was particularly for its time. I really like and appreciate Joyce's use of words and especially his play on words, being a fellow Dubliner.
However, this was a difficult read for me. It takes stamina to read one's way to the end. It took me three months to get through it without reading anything else concurrently.
In one sense I genuinely do not understand the universal appeal of this book. There are so many specific references to the colloquial essence of a particular place in time [Dublin], particular historical events and persons [in Ireland], colloquial expressions of speech and the manner of local personal inter-reactions that I find it difficult to comprehend how well it appears to have travelled. I wonder how much of it is really comprehended and understood? On the other hand I realise that its appeal can also be universal in the sense that the events, or similar, could have happened in any other European capital city even if the pervading historical background was different.
I must humbly confess that I did not understand or follow large tracts of the prose, particularly when I was presented with some paragraphs that went on for up to two or more pages in length, and sometimes more. There was also that extended "Play" in the novel. What on earth was that about?
Make no doubt about it, this is not an easy read. For me, as a result, this was also not an inspirational read. It was tough going throughout and I sometimes had to force myself to pick up the book again and continue. However, I am very pleased that I have eventually completed reading this epic tome.

Welcome back, Fergus!
Yes, it seems to me, Ulysses is not an easy read. I don't know when I will start reading it. Still, it is a best seller book on Amazon USA and it is recommended by Amazon.  I like Dubliners since I read it first time when I was a high-school student.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 10, 2022, 10:19:39 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 07:32:38 AM
Joyce: Ulysses


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/gYQAAOSwm4VibyqY/s-l500.jpg)


I have, at last, finally completed reading this opus after at least three attempts to do so.
There are very many appreciations written about this book. I understand its importance as far as the form of The Novel is concerned. One only has to read it to discover how radical it was particularly for its time. I really like and appreciate Joyce's use of words and especially his play on words, being a fellow Dubliner.
However, this was a difficult read for me. It takes stamina to read one's way to the end. It took me three months to get through it without reading anything else concurrently.
In one sense I genuinely do not understand the universal appeal of this book. There are so many specific references to the colloquial essence of a particular place in time [Dublin], particular historical events and persons [in Ireland], colloquial expressions of speech and the manner of local personal inter-reactions that I find it difficult to comprehend how well it appears to have travelled. I wonder how much of it is really comprehended and understood? On the other hand I realise that its appeal can also be universal in the sense that the events, or similar, could have happened in any other European capital city even if the pervading historical background was different.
I must humbly confess that I did not understand or follow large tracts of the prose, particularly when I was presented with some paragraphs that went on for up to two or more pages in length, and sometimes more. There was also that extended "Play" in the novel. What on earth was that about?
Make no doubt about it, this is not an easy read. For me, as a result, this was also not an inspirational read. It was tough going throughout and I sometimes had to force myself to pick up the book again and continue. However, I am very pleased that I have eventually completed reading this epic tome.

Then you're ready to read Finnegan's Wake....might need only a decade or so to finish it. :)

I've have Ulysses in my bookcase for 30 years, but have never gotten past the opening. FW I've at least read the first hundred or so pages.

From my college courses, I have the impression that part of Ulysses's fame was due to it being a pioneer work in using stream of conciousness--and FW being a logical next step, stream of subconciousness (since its surface layer is presented as one man's night long dream).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 10, 2022, 10:39:54 AM
It's been a long time and it was in translation and I had some commentary/guide book but I made it through Ulysses in my early 20s. There were some passages that I found just irritating or hardly comprehensible, even with a commentary, others are entertaining or immersive or both. Also, the "matching" of episodes to episodes from Homer is sometimes a bit silly (e.g. the Cyclops is paralleled by someone throwing something after Bloom)
I am not sure about translation quality but if one likes the  "many-voiced" style in a more manageable and less difficult way, I'd recommend Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz, basically a novel of 1920s Berlin, incl. its seedy underbelly.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 11:45:07 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 10, 2022, 08:56:24 AM
Welcome back, Fergus!
Yes, it seems to me, Ulysses is not an easy read. I don't know when I will start reading it. Still, it is a best seller book on Amazon USA and it is recommended by Amazon.  I like Dubliners since I read it first time when I was a high-school student.

Thank you, Manabu.
Ulysses was not an easy read but it was ultimately rewarding to finally reach the final page.
It was definitely thought provoking being a Dubliner and, obviously, and Irishman.
It was definitely an epic read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 11:53:36 AM
Quote from: JBS on June 10, 2022, 10:19:39 AM
Then you're ready to read Finnegan's Wake....might need only a decade or so to finish it. :)

I've have Ulysses in my bookcase for 30 years, but have never gotten past the opening. FW I've at least read the first hundred or so pages.

From my college courses, I have the impression that part of Ulysses's fame was due to it being a pioneer work in using stream of conciousness--and FW being a logical next step, stream of subconciousness (since its surface layer is presented as one man's night long dream).

I think that I will leave Finnegan's Wake until I have reach my dotage.  It is only then that I will probably only have any chance of understanding it.  :laugh:
I feel that one would have to totally suspend reality to get anywhere with any comprehension of this work!

Seriously, though, as far as Finnegan's Wake  is concerned, the thinking in Ireland has long been that it is best read aloud. This, apparently, facilitates the flow of language and also the stream of conscientiousness.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 11:57:14 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on June 10, 2022, 10:39:54 AM
It's been a long time and it was in translation and I had some commentary/guide book but I made it through Ulysses in my early 20s. There were some passages that I found just irritating or hardly comprehensible, even with a commentary, others are entertaining or immersive or both. Also, the "matching" of episodes to episodes from Homer is sometimes a bit silly (e.g. the Cyclops is paralleled by someone throwing something after Bloom)
I am not sure about translation quality but if one likes the  "many-voiced" style in a more manageable and less difficult way, I'd recommend Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz, basically a novel of 1920s Berlin, incl. its seedy underbelly.

Honestly, it must be very difficult to translate Ulysses into any language!!
Joyce himself may have made a good fist of it into French or Italian, perhaps.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 10, 2022, 12:45:10 PM
Quote from: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 11:53:36 AM
I think that I will leave Finnegan's Wake until I have reach my dotage.  It is only then that I will probably only have any chance of understanding it.  :laugh:
I feel that one would have to totally suspend reality to get anywhere with any comprehension of this work!

Seriously, though, as far as Finnegan's Wake  is concerned, the thinking in Ireland has long been that it is best read aloud. This, apparently, facilitates the flow of language and also the stream of conscientiousness.

I'm not sure Joyce intended for his readers to understand FW. I mean, would you know unprompted that "Anna Livia Plurabelle" is in part a stand-in for the River Liffey and in part the dreamer's wife?

But reading it aloud does make sense, given that it's in some ways a prose poem filled with portmanteau words and multi-faceted symbols.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 02:45:11 PM
Quote from: JBS on June 10, 2022, 12:45:10 PM

But reading it aloud does make sense, given that it's in some ways a prose poem filled with portmanteau words and multi-faceted symbols.

Also, as music was important to Joyce, reading Finnegan's Wake aloud is also purported to aid and assist with the musicality and lyricism of the text.


(https://www.americamagazine.org/sites/default/files/main_image/james_joyce_in_1915.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on June 10, 2022, 09:08:21 PM
Quote from: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 07:32:38 AM
Joyce: Ulysses


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/gYQAAOSwm4VibyqY/s-l500.jpg)


I have, at last, finally completed reading this opus after at least three attempts to do so.
There are very many appreciations written about this book. I understand its importance as far as the form of The Novel is concerned. One only has to read it to discover how radical it was particularly for its time. I really like and appreciate Joyce's use of words and especially his play on words, being a fellow Dubliner.
However, this was a difficult read for me. It takes stamina to read one's way to the end. It took me three months to get through it without reading anything else concurrently.
In one sense I genuinely do not understand the universal appeal of this book. There are so many specific references to the colloquial essence of a particular place in time [Dublin], particular historical events and persons [in Ireland], colloquial expressions of speech and the manner of local personal inter-reactions that I find it difficult to comprehend how well it appears to have travelled. I wonder how much of it is really comprehended and understood? On the other hand I realise that its appeal can also be universal in the sense that the events, or similar, could have happened in any other European capital city even if the pervading historical background was different.
I must humbly confess that I did not understand or follow large tracts of the prose, particularly when I was presented with some paragraphs that went on for up to two or more pages in length, and sometimes more. There was also that extended "Play" in the novel. What on earth was that about?
Make no doubt about it, this is not an easy read. For me, as a result, this was also not an inspirational read. It was tough going throughout and I sometimes had to force myself to pick up the book again and continue. However, I am very pleased that I have eventually completed reading this epic tome.

After 30 years, I am perhaps 20% of the way through. There are parts of the book which are magical, and other parts of the book which seem pointless and/or unintelligible and I have the feeling that I am missing some essential reference and not getting it. A annotated version where I am endlessly referring to notes explaining what I am missing has no appeal. I want a novel to immerse me in a different world.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 11, 2022, 05:00:28 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on June 10, 2022, 09:08:21 PM
I want a novel to immerse me in a different world.

May I suggest José Saramago's Baltasar and Blimunda. I'm sure the world therein is very different from yours --- and as a bonus, you'll meet Domenico Scarlatti as a character.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 11, 2022, 05:02:53 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 10, 2022, 11:57:14 AM
Honestly, it must be very difficult to translate Ulysses into any language!!

It has been translated into Romanian but I very much doubt I'll ever have the wish and time to tackle it. Heck, I didn't even finish A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 12, 2022, 04:05:16 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 11, 2022, 05:02:53 AM
It has been translated into Romanian but I very much doubt I'll ever have the wish and time to tackle it. Heck, I didn't even finish A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  :D

I think you're missing something special. A lot of it will be untranslatable, but that's not the special bit. The special bit is the first two chapters of Part III.

The story is about a day in which two men who don't know each other just wonder around Dublin, they meet by accident, and then go their separate ways. Leopold is a father in quest of a child, his child died. And Stephen is an orphan, a son in quest of a father. When they meet, in Part III, it almost could happen. You think that Leopold could be the father for Stephen and Stephen could be the son for Leopold. But -- and here's something wonderful -- they transcend that. They go their separate ways. Stephen, young man, goes to live his life, and Leopold, middle aged man, lets him go, and kisses his wife in bed.

That process of them meeting and then separating is, for me, one of the high points in all the literature I know. And in fact, it is not at all hard to read, the language there is simple and the plot is linear.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 12, 2022, 03:46:14 PM
Balzac: Lost Illusions


(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Honor%C3%A9_de_Balzac_%281842%29_Detail.jpg)


My version was, I think, a good translation by one Ellen Marriage. I was quite satisfied with it.
This is a sorry tale of naivete, stupidity, loyalty, deception and narcissism. The plot and the characterisation are both well developed by Balzac. I found it to be a page turner despite the frustration regarding the faults of the main protagonists. As is often the case with men, it is the women in their lives who have the real strength, fortitude and grip on reality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 12, 2022, 03:53:34 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on June 10, 2022, 09:08:21 PM
After 30 years, I am perhaps 20% of the way through. There are parts of the book which are magical, and other parts of the book which seem pointless and/or unintelligible and I have the feeling that I am missing some essential reference and not getting it. A annotated version where I am endlessly referring to notes explaining what I am missing has no appeal. I want a novel to immerse me in a different world.

Joyce's Ulysses certainly immerses one in a different world. There can definitely be no question about that. Whether one comprehends that world seems to be the question. I, for one, did not fully grasp this particular world. However, I did grasp enough to realise that this is quite a unique take on Life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 12, 2022, 03:55:31 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on June 12, 2022, 04:05:16 AM
I think you're missing something special. A lot of it will be untranslatable, but that's not the special bit. The special bit is the first two chapters of Part III.

The story is about a day in which two men who don't know each other just wonder around Dublin, they meet by accident, and then go their separate ways. Leopold is a father in quest of a child, his child died. And Stephen is an orphan, a son in quest of a father. When they meet, in Part III, it almost could happen. You think that Leopold could be the father for Stephen and Stephen could be the son for Leopold. But -- and here's something wonderful -- they transcend that. They go their separate ways. Stephen, young man, goes to live his life, and Leopold, middle aged man, lets him go, and kisses his wife in bed.

That process of them meeting and then separating is, for me, one of the high points in all the literature I know. And in fact, it is not at all hard to read, the language there is simple and the plot is linear.

That is a very fair appreciation of the work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on June 12, 2022, 11:28:54 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 11, 2022, 05:02:53 AM
It has been translated into Romanian but I very much doubt I'll ever have the wish and time to tackle it. Heck, I didn't even finish A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  :D
Portrait of an Artist... has the distinction being one of two books I started reading but never finished because I lost them while travelling! and could never be bothered to buy another copy to finish (the other one was "Sophie's Choice").
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on June 13, 2022, 12:42:55 AM
A friend visiting from South Africa gave me this book which I finished recently. Despite the gloomy subject matter I found it paradoxically uplifting and very moving in places:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 13, 2022, 02:04:59 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on June 13, 2022, 12:42:55 AM
A friend visiting from South Africa gave me this book which I finished recently. Despite the gloomy subject matter I found it paradoxically uplifting and very moving in places:

(https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=68.0;attach=87763;image)

Dying is one of the basic inevitabilities of Life. We should all give it some thought at some stage. It will happen to us all at some stage.
I remember some years ago a person whom I knew died from a very unforeseen and unusual death. That person was not in the least prepared to die in any legal sense [personal affairs not in order nor any will made]. Tragically, when that person realised that death was a reality the unpreparedness caused that person much grief and distress at the end. It took years for the estate to be sorted by the family. This was definitely not something that this person would have wanted to be imposed on the family.

The other aspect, of course is the emotional, spiritual or psychological preparedness for our transition. I have also known someone who did know that they were dying and who finally allowed themself to pass. That was quite a thing to experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 13, 2022, 06:50:24 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on June 13, 2022, 12:42:55 AM
A friend visiting from South Africa gave me this book which I finished recently. Despite the gloomy subject matter I found it paradoxically uplifting and very moving in places:
(//)

The book has been on my list. I think Michel de Montaigne said something like that freedom is an absence of fear of dying. I have tons of books about dying.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 13, 2022, 06:53:58 AM
The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life. David Quammen
Nice book about evolution.


  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41aIGTbw0lL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 13, 2022, 01:07:22 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 13, 2022, 06:50:24 AM
The book has been on my list. I think Michel de Montaigne said something like that freedom is an absence of fear of dying. I have tons of books about dying.

If Montaigne said that he was completely wrong. Freedom is the absence of fear of living, obvs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 13, 2022, 01:18:23 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on June 13, 2022, 01:07:22 PM
If Montaigne said that he was completely wrong. Freedom is the absence of fear of living, obvs.

;D ;D ;D  Well-done.

Actually Schopenhauer wrote that we should be frightened of the life rather than death, something like that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on June 13, 2022, 01:25:32 PM
Interesting follow-ups to my posting the Kathryn Mannix book - thanks.
Now I'm reading this. I heard the last part read on the radio recently and am enjoying it:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 14, 2022, 09:58:32 AM
One of the recent books that I finished that had greatly impressed me. Mieko Kawakami is a really good contemporary writer.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1644426283l/56927764._SY475_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 14, 2022, 10:07:43 AM
Quote from: Artem on June 14, 2022, 09:58:32 AM
One of the recent books that I finished that had greatly impressed me. Mieko Kawakami is a really good contemporary writer.

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1644426283l/56927764._SY475_.jpg)

I think I remember her name in Japanese alphabet. She won a few prestigious literary awards in Japan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on June 14, 2022, 10:57:17 AM
She and Yuko Tsushima are my recent favourites from Japan.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 14, 2022, 11:10:03 AM
.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 15, 2022, 03:18:26 AM
Henry James: Daisy Miller


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30734926041.jpg)


This is the story of the relationship between two young Americans touring in Europe who meet in a hotel. Daisy Miller is a self willed young woman who does not conform to the standards of social behaviour expected of a young woman of the time. She ignores all advice offered to her and chooses to go her own way. This decision obviously has consequences. I enjoyed the re-read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 15, 2022, 03:26:46 AM
First time reading Thackeray's Vanity Fair, five chapters in. So, far, so good, I love the humorous style.

(https://media1.lajumate.ro/media/i/api_list/2/138/13887772_balciul-desertaciunilor-de-thackeray-2-vol-adevarul_2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 15, 2022, 03:29:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 15, 2022, 03:26:46 AM
First time reading Thackeray's Vanity Fair, five chapters in. So, far, so good, I love the humorous style.

(https://media1.lajumate.ro/media/i/api_list/2/138/13887772_balciul-desertaciunilor-de-thackeray-2-vol-adevarul_2.jpg)

Very nice looking edition, Andrei.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 15, 2022, 04:03:12 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 15, 2022, 03:29:13 AM
Very nice looking edition, Andrei.

Yes, indeed. Part of a long series of universal literature classics.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: VonStupp on June 15, 2022, 06:23:38 AM
The Man Who Loved Children (1940)
Christina Stead

I am not sure what to make of this book. A dysfunctional family (apparently originally Australian, but changed to Washington DC) led by a strange father figure who babbles in a made-up language with his children.

I didn't find their situation or interactions funny nor amusing, which I found mostly confusing and concerning. Perhaps some allusions to Uncle Sam as well?

VS

(https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Publication111/v4/06/11/69/06116962-e4a6-24f2-7a19-54cbcbcdea0f/9781453286944.jpg/100000x100000-999.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 15, 2022, 07:13:44 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 15, 2022, 04:03:12 AM
Yes, indeed. Part of a long series of universal literature classics.

Must look very well displayed on a shelf.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 17, 2022, 03:15:40 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 15, 2022, 03:26:46 AM
First time reading Thackeray's Vanity Fair, five chapters in. So, far, so good, I love the humorous style.

(https://media1.lajumate.ro/media/i/api_list/2/138/13887772_balciul-desertaciunilor-de-thackeray-2-vol-adevarul_2.jpg)

Rapidly approaching the end of volume one. It's just as much a page turner as The Buddenbrooks, which it even resembles a bit, although Mann's gentle humour is very different from Thackeray's mordant irony.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 19, 2022, 07:51:37 AM
Book: Hardy: Wessex Tales


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cZYAAOSwx0Zbf43t/s-l500.jpg)


This is a wonderful collection of short stories. The characterisations, the plots, the storytelling and the sense of place are always consistently excellent. Hardy was a wonderful storyteller and word painter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 19, 2022, 08:29:09 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 19, 2022, 07:51:37 AM
Book: Hardy: Wessex Tales


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cZYAAOSwx0Zbf43t/s-l500.jpg)


This is a wonderful collection of short stories. The characterisations, the plots, the storytelling and the sense of place are always consistently excellent. Hardy was a wonderful storyteller and word painter.

My favorite Hardy is Jude the Obscure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 19, 2022, 08:29:23 AM
Quote from: aligreto on June 19, 2022, 07:51:37 AM
Book: Hardy: Wessex Tales


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cZYAAOSwx0Zbf43t/s-l500.jpg)


This is a wonderful collection of short stories. The characterisations, the plots, the storytelling and the sense of place are always consistently excellent. Hardy was a wonderful storyteller and word painter.

Great, great book by the great author. The Withered Arm and other stories are excellent. All the characters are violently affected by the fate. I think A Changed Man and Other Tales (including famous Alicia's Diary) is great as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 19, 2022, 08:31:23 AM
Life's Little Ironies is also very good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 19, 2022, 01:20:04 PM
It is good to see some love here for Hardy. He has long been a favourite author of mine.

Jude the Obscure was indeed a particularly fine work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on June 19, 2022, 03:22:48 PM
Quote from: aligreto on June 19, 2022, 01:20:04 PM
It is good to see some love here for Hardy. He has long been a favourite author of mine.

Jude the Obscure was indeed a particularly fine work.

My favorite, I think, is Return of the Native.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 19, 2022, 03:52:24 PM
Started:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.899d516e3544991b01295ea4a5b2cc78?rik=Z1eiE7gnPZMKEg&riu=http%3a%2f%2fecx.images-amazon.com%2fimages%2fI%2f51fGWHFBWYL._SY445_QL70_.jpg&ehk=Z5atfEDB%2bytm5w6QmHi5Kvfi3yPOkwwZfjNp68rZCqw%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 19, 2022, 04:14:41 PM
Quote from: aligreto on June 19, 2022, 01:20:04 PM
It is good to see some love here for Hardy. He has long been a favourite author of mine.

Jude the Obscure was indeed a particularly fine work.

I've read four Hardy novels. Jude the Obscure and The Mayor of Casterbridge for school; Return of the Native and Far From the Madding Crowd later on.  I must admit none were a favorite of mine.

But he was also a major poet. His most famous poem is The Convergence of the Twain, dealing with the sinking of the Titanic.
Quote
I
            In a solitude of the sea
            Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

II
            Steel chambers, late the pyres
            Of her salamandrine fires,
Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.

III
            Over the mirrors meant
            To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls—grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

IV
            Jewels in joy designed
            To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.

V
            Dim moon-eyed fishes near
            Gaze at the gilded gear
And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" ...

VI
            Well: while was fashioning
            This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything

VII
            Prepared a sinister mate
            For her—so gaily great—
A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.

VIII
            And as the smart ship grew
            In stature, grace, and hue,
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

IX
            Alien they seemed to be:
            No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history.

X
            Or sign that they were bent
            By paths coincident
On being anon twin halves of one august event,

XI
            Till the Spinner of the Years
            Said "Now!" And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 19, 2022, 08:54:23 PM
Not reading, but will be ordering:

Just stumbled on a Proust study I hadn't encountered before - an in a NYRB edition:

(https://res.cloudinary.com/hzpwrwfdi/image/upload/w_220/v1/media/covers/1623223738_vjbtzg.webp)

Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp
By Józef Czapski, Eric Karpeles

"It was because of Proust that I came to learn of the existence of the Polish painter and writer Józef Czapski. While a prisoner of war in the dark heart of Soviet Russia during the Second World War, this singular, cosmopolitan spirit devised a series of lectures on Proust and In Search of Lost Time as a vital counterpoint to the grim surroundings he and his fellow prisoners were forced to endure, offering them a context for addressing their lives and their bleak fates. Freezing, nearly starving, lice-ridden, Czapski mapped out Proust's cosmology in several pages of his journal that served to fuel his talks. Scheherazade-like, night after night, he slowly revealed the already-legendary French novelist's complex world of ideas and characters, giving voice to the life-enhancing magic great art bestows."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 20, 2022, 02:10:59 PM
I've Just finished reading David Ossman's Fighting Clowns of Hollywood With Laffs by The Firesign Theatre memoir. (I had started to read it before my stroke, and only picked it back up a couple of weeks ago. Eye-openingly enlightening and (as fully expected) superbly entertaining. Strongly recommended, especially if you need something to lift you out of the COVID-winding-down funk. Pairs well with Philip Proctor's Where's My Fortune Cookie?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 20, 2022, 04:13:09 PM
Re-reading this, at last. (I read it in fairly short order when I first purchased it. It is the same author whose poem "When" I recently set. Book available here (https://dynatox.storenvy.com/products/21584252-a-volume-of-sleep-by-jayaprakash-satyamurthy-hardcover-dunhams-manor), if you wish.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 22, 2022, 02:17:45 PM
Dinosaur! (Knowledge Encyclopedias).
Fun read. Sexy illustrations.  Nice discussion about evolution.


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gozsdLi8L._SX418_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on June 23, 2022, 02:11:13 AM
Alice Munro, Dear Life

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NE2Ku5xEL.jpg)

I have a great affinity for Munro's writing. I purchased a collection of her short stories, perhaps 10 years ago, and since reading them have been tracking down the individual volumes. These are stories without plot twists, gimmicks, just slices of life presented with grim honesty, often set in a Canada which feels like a backward hinterland about to bloom into multicultural prosperity. I think comparisons between Munro and Chekhov are appropriate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on June 23, 2022, 06:35:40 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 19, 2022, 08:29:09 AM
My favorite Hardy is Jude the Obscure.

Same!  Jude the Obscure is one of my favorite novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DizzyD on June 24, 2022, 06:03:53 AM
What seems to be a pretty good edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales:
(https://i.postimg.cc/sX38Z7tk/9781554811069.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 24, 2022, 06:11:51 AM
Kafka: Description of a Struggle & Other stories.


(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gUaPrC3_EI0/YVPILmIM2NI/AAAAAAAAUG0/xsAx7g_5w2YHh5wOSld6oAffgv3G1pWoACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/650ebb32-9a43-4797-a0d5-af2a7fbfd336.jpeg)


Anyone who has read Kafka is aware of his thought process but reading this collection of stories one is transported to almost another dimension. Here we enter a phantasmagorical world; an alternative reality.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 24, 2022, 10:14:55 AM
Schopenhauer: A Biography. David E. Cartwright.



  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41z7CBKcLdL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 25, 2022, 09:09:20 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 24, 2022, 10:14:55 AM
Schopenhauer: A Biography. David E. Cartwright.

  (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41z7CBKcLdL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I'm a Christian (Eastern Orthodox) yet Schopenhauer is one of my philosophical heroes.

Have you read this?

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51v7b18gDXS._SX336_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on June 25, 2022, 11:51:53 AM
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRT7eF044p6iUTsFb_fxqwto--wrTFReiQeaA&usqp=CAU)

First read.

Also about halfway through Zola's L'assommoir now. Whenever I go to the library, I just can't put it down. It's awesome. Maybe I should have borrowed it, despite having way too many books already going on at the same time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DizzyD on June 26, 2022, 11:16:18 AM
I love Old and Middle English. I've been reading here and there in this edition of the poems of the "Gawain Poet":
(https://i.postimg.cc/sDbVRPvm/9780140424140.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 26, 2022, 01:35:18 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 25, 2022, 09:09:20 AM
I'm a Christian (Eastern Orthodox) yet Schopenhauer is one of my philosophical heroes.

Have you read this?

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51v7b18gDXS._SX336_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Highly recommended.

Yes, I love both the books.
Schopenhauer influenced Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Leo Tolstoy,  Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Marcel Proust, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, etc. After reading S for first time, Wagner had to abandon the work he was working on, and his subsequent works were greatly influenced by S. 

If Darwin had published the Origin of Species a few years earlier, it would have massively changed the final edition of S's WWR.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 28, 2022, 04:36:51 AM
Priestly: Low Notes on a High Level


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/md/md11013090186.jpg)


This is a light read. It is also quite amusing, charming and entertaining. It is filled with larger than life characters and is narrated by quite a deadpan and self deprecating voice. A world famous composer has just finished his tenth symphony. He sends the score to the conductor of the English Broadcasting Orchestra. This conductor character rather reminds me of a Thomas Beecham character. While perusing the score it is discovered that an obbligato passage is written for a unique base bass instrument which must be played by the inventor. This instrument was invented by an inventor friend of the composer who happens to live in London. However, when the inventor is contacted he refuses, point blank, to have anything to do with the plans. And it all revolves around a game of cards! Wonderful stuff!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on June 29, 2022, 06:39:11 AM
Just started Stephen Brusatte's The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. I've had high expectations since reading his first book, and so far, so good...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on June 30, 2022, 06:52:03 AM
André Gide: La Symphonie Pastorale


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1393279970l/110817.jpg)


This is a short novel in two parts. In Part I a Pastor is called to the house of a dying woman. There he finds a girl, a niece of the dead woman, who is blind and has basically been abandoned in surroundings of dire poverty. The girl is non communicative and helpless. The Pastor decides to take her home with him rather than let her end up in the workhouse. The Pastor is married with children. There is much resistance from most of his family to the introduction and integration of the girl into the family circle, particularly from his wife. The Pastor succeeds in helping the girl by educating her and she is finally accepted by his children but not by his wife. The Pastor succeeds in transforming the quality of life of the girl but ultimately faces the dilemma that he has fallen in love with the girl. The outcome of the story is teased out in Part II to its tragic conclusion. I enjoyed reading the story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on June 30, 2022, 08:37:53 AM
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519ijxxoGcL.jpg)

A short novel which tells of the slaughter of the central character in plain sight. The murders told everyone they met of their intentions to commit the crime, apparently hoping that someone would stop them. It didn't work. Mesmerizing, in the manner of most books by this author.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 30, 2022, 11:08:10 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on June 30, 2022, 08:37:53 AM
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519ijxxoGcL.jpg)

A short novel which tells of the slaughter of the central character in plain sight. The murders told everyone they met of their intentions to commit the crime, apparently hoping that someone would stop them. It didn't work. Mesmerizing, in the manner of most books by this author.

Nice. The movie is excellent too. I have visited Marquez's house in Cartagena a few times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 30, 2022, 12:44:15 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 30, 2022, 11:08:10 AM
Nice. The movie is excellent too. I have visited Marquez's house in Cartagena a few times.

Huh. I was unaware of this. Thanks for the heads-up.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Cronica_de_una_Muerte_Anunciada.jpg)

And directed by Francisco Rosi, who made that great film of Carmen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 30, 2022, 01:12:28 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on June 30, 2022, 12:44:15 PM
Huh. I was unaware of this. Thanks for the heads-up.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Cronica_de_una_Muerte_Anunciada.jpg)

And directed by Francisco Rosi, who made that great film of Carmen.

You will like it. His movie adaptation of Christ Stopped At Eboli by Carlo Levi is great as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on June 30, 2022, 01:45:54 PM
Re-reading chapter VI of our Cato's present work-in-progress.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 01, 2022, 03:10:51 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on June 30, 2022, 08:37:53 AM
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519ijxxoGcL.jpg)

A short novel which tells of the slaughter of the central character in plain sight. The murders told everyone they met of their intentions to commit the crime, apparently hoping that someone would stop them. It didn't work. Mesmerizing, in the manner of most books by this author.

I loved that book when I read it last year. Not surprised at all that you enjoyed it, as it reminded me a bit of the Faulkner novels that I was reading around the same time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 01, 2022, 03:28:31 PM
A book by Mark Manson.


(https://http2.mlstatic.com/D_NQ_NP_2X_908777-MCO50313718780_062022-F.webp)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on July 01, 2022, 03:35:50 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 01, 2022, 03:28:31 PM
A book by Mark Manson.


(https://http2.mlstatic.com/D_NQ_NP_2X_908777-MCO50313718780_062022-F.webp)

Thoughts? Seems like it could be either profound or the usual self improvement schlock.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 01, 2022, 03:42:58 PM
Quote from: DavidW on July 01, 2022, 03:35:50 PM
Thoughts? Seems like it could be either profound or the usual self improvement schlock.

Nice book. Imo, its an old wine in new bottle- a new wave Stoics/Skeptics. Good writing skills and enjoyable read though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on July 01, 2022, 04:26:13 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 01, 2022, 03:42:58 PM
Nice book. Imo, its an old wine in new bottle- a new wave Stoics/Skeptics. Good writing skills and enjoyable read though.

I might check it out then.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on July 01, 2022, 09:45:02 PM
Quote from: aligreto on June 28, 2022, 04:36:51 AM
Priestly: Low Notes on a High Level


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/md/md11013090186.jpg)


This is a light read. It is also quite amusing, charming and entertaining. It is filled with larger than life characters and is narrated by quite a deadpan and self deprecating voice. A world famous composer has just finished his tenth symphony. He sends the score to the conductor of the English Broadcasting Orchestra. This conductor character rather reminds me of a Thomas Beecham character. While perusing the score it is discovered that an obbligato passage is written for a unique base instrument which must be played by the inventor. This instrument was invented by an inventor friend of the composer who happens to live in London. However, when the inventor is contacted he refuses, point blank, to have anything to do with the plans. And it all revolves around a game of cards! Wonderful stuff!

Regarding the text I've bolded, l assume you mean " bass "? ( Though I've certainly heard a few base instruments in my time... )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 06, 2022, 12:42:40 AM
Quote from: LKB on July 01, 2022, 09:45:02 PM
Regarding the text I've bolded, l assume you mean " bass "? ( Though I've certainly heard a few base instruments in my time... )

Yes, indeed. Thank you for the correction.
Although, as you say, it might also be referred to as a "base" instrument.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 06, 2022, 12:45:26 AM
E. Bronte: Wuthering Heights


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/31064701988_5.jpg)


The opening section of this novel very well depicts a harsh, brutal, wild and intemperate environment.  And so it is with the introduction of the occupants of Wuthering Heights at the time. This portentous opening sets the tone for the tale that will ultimately be told. This is a re-read after decades and I did not remember the extent of the barbaric brutality that was contained in large tracts of the novel.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on July 06, 2022, 05:17:30 AM
Those who are interested, Haruki Murakami talks about Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Please use Google translate.


https://trilltrill.jp/articles/2676392
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on July 06, 2022, 05:24:28 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 06, 2022, 12:45:26 AM
E. Bronte: Wuthering Heights


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/31064701988_5.jpg)


The opening section of this novel very well depicts a harsh, brutal, wild and intemperate environment.  And so it is with the introduction of the occupants of Wuthering Heights at the time. This portentous opening sets the tone for the tale that will ultimately be told. This is a re-read after decades and I did not remember the extent of the barbaric brutality that was contained in large tracts of the novel.
Never read it but I love Jane Eyre by her sister.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: coffee on July 06, 2022, 07:05:39 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on June 30, 2022, 08:37:53 AM
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519ijxxoGcL.jpg)

A short novel which tells of the slaughter of the central character in plain sight. The murders told everyone they met of their intentions to commit the crime, apparently hoping that someone would stop them. It didn't work. Mesmerizing, in the manner of most books by this author.

My humble opinion is that this book is misunderstood more often than understood. If you enjoy it, it's worth one or two more reads. GGM is a tricky fella. A reader has to watch him closely.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 06, 2022, 08:27:05 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on July 06, 2022, 05:24:28 AM
Never read it but I love Jane Eyre by her sister.

It is well worth a read, Jeffrey. It is always interesting and engaging but it does not always make for pleasant reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on July 06, 2022, 09:14:57 AM
Well, I've not posted for over a month, but below are the books on my agenda - done w/ the first one and still reading the others - Dave :)

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII (2011) - see first quote below; Chester Nez, one of the original Navajos who as Marines developed an unbreakable code using their native language.

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty (2021) by Anderson Cooper & Katherine Howe - Cooper, son of Gloria Vanderbilt and a great etc. grandson of the Commodore writes selectively about the Vanderbilt family - reviews somewhat mixed but I'm enjoying (on the last few chapters) - my interest relates to the famous Biltmore House in Asheville, NC (just a 2 1/2 drive for us and a place we have visited often).

Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution (2022) by Eric Jay Dolin - brief synopsis third quote below - over the decades I've read numerous books on American wars, especially the Revolution and the Civil War, but the finding of the American Navy and the Revolutionary War exploits is often not well covered - just starting but excellent so far.

River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile (2022) by Candice Millard - finding the headwaters of the White Nile - synopsis in the last quote.  About a third into the book - the only hardcover in the bunch, the rest Kindle purchases.  Dave :)

QuoteCode Talker - during World War II, the Japanese had managed to crack every code the United States used. But when the Marines turned to its Navajo recruits to develop and implement a secret military language, they created the only unbroken code in modern warfare—and helped assure victory for the United States over Japan in the South Pacific. (Source (https://www.amazon.com/Code-Talker-Memoir-Original-Talkers-ebook/dp/B005ERIRHW/ref=sr_1_2?crid=PT4E10YTM4S1&keywords=code+talker&qid=1657125916&s=books&sprefix=code+talker%2Cstripbooks%2C89&sr=1-2))

QuoteVanderbilt - a dramatic tale expertly told of rapacious ambition, decadent excess, and covert and overt tyranny and trauma. . . . With resplendent detail, the authors capture the gasp-eliciting extravagance of the Vanderbilt Gilded Age mansions. . . . With its intrinsic empathy and in-depth profiles of women, this is a distinctly intimate, insightful, and engrossing chronicle of an archetypal, self-consuming American dynasty. . . . Irresistible. (Source (https://www.amazon.com/Vanderbilt-Rise-Fall-American-Dynasty-ebook/dp/B08R3WD7WD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2UXJM4M30Q38Z&keywords=vanderbilt+the+rise+and+fall+of+an+american+dynasty&qid=1657126212&s=books&sprefix=vander%2Cstripbooks%2C97&sr=1-1))

QuoteRebels at Sea - the heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America's first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation's character—above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos. (Source (https://www.amazon.com/Rebels-Sea-Privateering-American-Revolution-ebook/dp/B09KMCGT34/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1W3VGM4BYX3HN&keywords=rebels+at+sea&qid=1657126657&s=books&sprefix=rebels+at+sea%2Cstripbooks%2C86&sr=1-1))

QuoteRivers of the Gods - for millennia the location of the Nile River's headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was  a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe – and extend their colonial empires. Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke were sent by the Royal Geographical Society to claim the prize for England. Burton spoke twenty-nine languages, and was a decorated soldier. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officer determined to make his mark. (Source (https://www.amazon.com/River-Gods-Genius-Courage-Betrayal-ebook/dp/B09BTJNJCX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YRRZRD8YRJ46&keywords=rivers+of+the+gods&qid=1657126969&s=books&sprefix=rivers+of+the+gods%2Cstripbooks%2C81&sr=1-1))

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51f4z5FbeOL.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414RkfUxtqS.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51AKZcwZvnL.jpg)  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pFNnDSdeL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 06, 2022, 09:44:46 AM
Finished L'assommoir yesterday. What a book! Initially I had problem with how Zola, determined to depict wide ranges of personality within human beings apparently didn't seem to consider women human beings since it appeared she way too often makes his female characters either idealized angels or veritable she-devils. But then I realized I just didn't catch all the subtleties of his writing. For example, Lorilleaux (both wife and husband) seemed to me mere malicious gossips until I read Zola's comment that they represent "les esclaves et les victimes de la petite fabrication en chambre". They are not malicious people who happen to have awful jobs and conditions, relfecting their awful personality but rather they've become awful because of their awful job and conditions, and in this way they seem closer to Gervaise. Baroness Sandorff in L'argent seems like your typical ice queen... but it is mentioned that she actually feels horror and despair at not being able to feel any passion and thus she turns to gambling because it is the only thing left which gives her sense of feeling passion. Unfortunately, this gambling of course damages her further and in this respect she appears to be entrapped and truly a tragic character.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: stingo on July 09, 2022, 07:52:11 PM
The Choice by Dr. Edith Eger
Go Tell The Bees I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
Wool by Hugh Howey (re-read)
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 12, 2022, 01:22:15 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41tATepyILL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg) (https://assets.cambridge.org/97805216/07742/large_cover/9780521607742i.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on July 12, 2022, 04:29:49 PM
After reading four Faulkner novels -

The Unvanquished
Intruders in the Dust
The Hamlet
Flags in the Dust

I have started Cormac McCarthy's early novel, Outer Dark.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 13, 2022, 02:42:38 AM
Quote from: San Antone on July 12, 2022, 04:29:49 PM
After reading four Faulkner novels -

The Unvanquished
Intruders in the Dust
The Hamlet
Flags in the Dust

I have started Cormac McCarthy's early novel, Outer Dark.

I read Outer Dark early last year, and loved it. Amazing atmosphere. I was also reading some Faulkner around this time last year, and loved all of it. Of those you've mentioned the only one I've read is The Unvanquished, which was really good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on July 15, 2022, 01:16:26 PM
I thought about reading Cormac McCarthy novels in their publishing order. Never read him before. Would that be a good idea?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 17, 2022, 11:22:57 AM
Quote from: Artem on July 15, 2022, 01:16:26 PM
I thought about reading Cormac McCarthy novels in their publishing order. Never read him before. Would that be a good idea?

Not a bad idea except you might find that the earlier ones are less accessible than those he wrote from Blood Meridian onward.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 18, 2022, 09:14:11 AM
Daudet: Letters from my Windmill


(https://live.staticflickr.com/6214/6349640235_783e3b87ba_b.jpg)


This is a wonderful book of short stories. They are what all good short stories should be, moments in time. They illustrate characters and moods wonderfully, sometimes quite poetically.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 20, 2022, 03:58:46 AM
Quote from: aligreto on July 18, 2022, 09:14:11 AM
Daudet: Letters from my Windmill


(https://live.staticflickr.com/6214/6349640235_783e3b87ba_b.jpg)


This is a wonderful book of short stories. They are what all good short stories should be, moments in time. They illustrate characters and moods wonderfully, sometimes quite poetically.

A true classic indeed, and exactly as you describe it. We read it in school. It sprang to my mind last May as we were visiting the back country in southern France. We passed by a place called Cucugnan and immediately I thought of Daudet's book. One of the stories is titled Le Curé de Cucugnan. It had never occurred to me that it was a real place (pictured below). It felt eerie.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Cucugnan_-_Aude_-_France_01.jpg/1920px-Cucugnan_-_Aude_-_France_01.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on July 20, 2022, 04:36:57 AM
The Sellout, by Paul Beatty.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mW2+gjbxS.jpg)

This is a high profile book (won the Booker prize) dealing with race relations in the United States, addressing the racism that remains in "post-racial" society. I reminds me a little of The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, in that it seems to reside on a border between realism and surrealism as it exposes the world inhibited by black people in this country. The beginning of the book is absolutely brilliant, depicting a Supreme Court hearing dealing with the events that the narrator goes on to reminisce about. There is thinly veiled portrayal of Justice Clarence Thomas, and every sentence seems to explode with scathing sarcasm. The novel descends a bit from that high level as the author takes us into the body of the novel. If I had to boil the book down to one oversimplified core idea, it is that the narrator finds that re-imposing segregation and slavery in his town actually improves conditions, because the implicit racism that dominates life becomes explicit again, and can be confronted.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 20, 2022, 05:22:00 AM
Quote from: André on July 20, 2022, 03:58:46 AM
A true classic indeed, and exactly as you describe it. We read it in school. It sprang to my mind last May as we were visiting the back country in southern France. We passed by a place called Cucugnan and immediately I thought of Daudet's book. One of the stories is titled Le Curé de Cucugnan. It had never occurred to me that it was a real place (pictured below). It felt eerie.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Cucugnan_-_Aude_-_France_01.jpg/1920px-Cucugnan_-_Aude_-_France_01.jpg)

Very nice and I am sure that it was a wonderful trip.
Yes, Daudet was essentially sending essays back to Paris for publication based on his observations of his rural life in the region.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on July 24, 2022, 04:05:42 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZN7NAS1DL._SX210_.jpg)

Richard Millet could just be a great writer, he certainly has style and I think he has ideas. I think I'lll read all his books (the only other one I know so far is Le goût des femmes laides.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 25, 2022, 02:11:27 AM
C Bronte: Jane Eyre


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kCsAAOSw1qlgbKiv/s-l500.jpg)


It has been a very long time since I first read this novel. This time around I found it to be an extremely compelling and well crafted work. The depth of characterisation along with the sequencing of the plot were all very impressive. This work undoubtedly deserves the title of a Classic.
I found Jane Eyre to be a compelling read and I really liked C Bronte's writing style. I recently read E Bronte's Wuthering Heights and I can safely say that Charlotte was, for me, the greater craftswoman because of the greater depth and perception in her wonderful writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on July 25, 2022, 06:32:55 AM
Dark Tales, Shirley Jackson

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41HstZi3yTS.jpg)

A collection of short stories, some of which seem like ghost stories, others sarcastic commentaries on middle class life. All of them were engaging to me. Thoroughly enjoyed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: André on July 26, 2022, 01:12:24 PM
(https://bookoutlet.ca/api/image?url=https://images.bookoutlet.com/covers/large/isbn978198/9781982110994-l.jpg&w=640&q=75)

Very moving. I read it fast, not something I usually do.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on July 28, 2022, 05:54:00 AM
G. & W. Grossmith: The Diary Of A Nobody


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Il8AAOSwloBij~q2/s-l1600.jpg)


This is indeed the diary of a nobody and deals exclusively with simple domestic affairs, family, friends and work in an undistinguished lower middle class suburban home in late Victorian times. There are, however, some amusing passages and observations which did raise a smile for me. These simply remind me that some things just do not change over time.


The book is of little consequence and will be culled from my library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on July 28, 2022, 02:46:19 PM
I have that in an edition from Oxford World's Classics that has been superseded by a different cover. My copy has one of the illustrations as the cover art. This Penguin edition, with another illustration, will give an idea of them.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71HdAP3lGJL._AC_SX296_SY426_FMwebp_QL65_.jpg)
George wrote the text; his brother Weedon did the illustrations.

My opinion of the book is the same as that of Fergus, but I prefer not to cull it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 31, 2022, 01:46:31 AM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51V+UpF+rOL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Also started a second reading of the Lattimore Iliad, hopefully doing one "book" per day for he next 24 days, and may dip into some secondary reading for it.

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.YajEVWK92sWtg24nnlRavwAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 01, 2022, 02:42:48 AM
Gide: Isabelle


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388761181l/11826558.jpg)


A young scholar is invited to an old chateau to do some research. The circumstances and relationships of the inhabitants of the chateau seem somewhat curious. Unexpectedly, this young man is shown a miniature of a young woman. He becomes infatuated, even obsessed, by the idea of her. Through misadventure and probing he becomes aware of her history. He ultimately even meets her and hears her own account of her story. The revelation of the truth can often be difficult and even brutal, unpalatable and not to be to one's wanting or liking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 05, 2022, 07:05:46 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41RH6BXKW9L._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)

Knocked off this quickie in a couple of sittings.

Despite its classic status it now seems mostly superficial and dated. Hard, perhaps impossible, to appreciate how original and myth busting it struck its first audience in 1921.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 05, 2022, 07:36:11 PM
Plutarch Essays (Moralia).



(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51W0Rik0eqL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 07, 2022, 06:15:55 PM
Moliere: Don Juan.



  (https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780192835512-us.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 08, 2022, 02:04:25 AM
A Bronte: Agnes Grey


(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2458/8207/products/orig_212510_jpg.jpg?v=1571609642)


Having recently read both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre I thought that I should tackle the works of Anne Bronte. I started with Agnes Grey. Yes, Anne had her own take on things but I felt that she was less eloquent in her telling of her story. Her writing style was not exactly ponderous, more pedantic, for me, I would say. This applied to both her plot and her character developments.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 08, 2022, 04:55:51 AM
Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/Cover_picture_of_Home_Fire.jpeg)

A novel about a family of Pakistani background living in London. Two younger twins are generally religious, an older sister is more secular and skeptical of religion. The younger brother is lured into fighting for the Islamic State in Syria and his twin sister is desperate to bring him back, leading to her entanglement with the son of the Home Secretary, who is a conservative who leaves behind his Muslim background to become a Brittish nationalist. A brilliantly constructed novel, which I later learned was modeled after Sophocles' Antigone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 08, 2022, 01:03:18 PM
Revisiting the poetry of Vicente Aleixandre, with his collection Sombra del Paraíso (Shadow of Paradise).

(https://www.tiposinfames.com/media/img/portadas/9788426402813.jpg)

I had read Aleixandre some 45 years ago after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977. At the time, I found him impenetrable. Today, in a bookstore close to home, they had the recently reissued volume of his complete poems (1500+ pages) and I went for it.

Sombra del Paraíso is a large collection published in 1944, and is widely regarded as among its author's most successful works. It deals with a sort of dawn of the world conjured through childhood memories, but also has a strong sensual component and surrealist touches. Aleixandre's free verse is quite beautiful, and even if this isn't an easy read, I definitely no longer find it impenetrable. How age and experience changes our perception of things.... ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 09, 2022, 09:45:44 PM
These on the go:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.gZUVaiio8AkINs49-KiHQgAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41BfbUSLMqL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51wgEmcA9AL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 11, 2022, 02:27:54 PM
The Quiet American by Graham Greene. Loving it so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 15, 2022, 02:12:58 AM
Hesse: The Prodigy


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/d9oAAOSwZhpepeVj/s-l500.jpg)


This wonderfully told story is essentially a dissertation by Hesse on the unbalanced effect that the rigours of the education system has on the holistic well being of children.

This is the story of a young and academically gifted boy who is obliged to carry the weight of responsibility for academic success on his young shoulders not only for his ambitious father but also from all of the "elders" of his small town. He drives himself incessantly in his quest to be successful. However, in doing so, he isolates himself from his friends, peers and indeed from "normal" life for someone of his age. He is successful in his examinations and obtains a place in a celebrated seminary. There he comes under the influence of a disaffected and malcontent young man and through this connection he becomes further isolated from his peers and the quality of his study also begins to suffer. The young man eventually suffers a breakdown. He returns home and plunges deeper into despair and melancholy. He even picks the branch from which tree he contemplates hanging himself. He then comes into contact with a beautiful young woman and, momentarily, Life rejuvenates his soul. The tale essentially tracks which path he will actually choose to follow.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 15, 2022, 02:58:46 AM
Does anyone here strongly recommend any Rushdie? I was going to read Midnight's Children but I don't really like magical realism, if that's what it is. I just admire him as a person and feel for him in this moment. That's why I ask. I'd like to support him in some way.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 15, 2022, 03:23:04 AM
Quote from: milk on August 15, 2022, 02:58:46 AM
Does anyone here strongly recommend any Rushdie? I was going to read Midnight's Children but I don't really like magical realism, if that's what it is. I just admire him as a person and feel for him in this moment. That's why I ask. I'd like to support him in some way.

You might be interested in his memoir "Joseph Anton" (the name he was given by his protection detail). It's warts and all - you may not like the portrait that emerges, but it's an honest one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 15, 2022, 04:19:16 AM
Quote from: milk on August 15, 2022, 02:58:46 AM
Does anyone here strongly recommend any Rushdie? I was going to read Midnight's Children but I don't really like magical realism, if that's what it is. I just admire him as a person and feel for him in this moment. That's why I ask. I'd like to support him in some way.

I remember being impressed with Shalamar the Clown, and The Moor's Last Sigh. I also was put off by the magical aspects of Midnight's Children.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 15, 2022, 05:46:23 AM
Just finished this fine and thought-provoking book:
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 15, 2022, 08:15:08 AM
Quote from: milk on August 15, 2022, 02:58:46 AM
Does anyone here strongly recommend any Rushdie? I was going to read Midnight's Children but I don't really like magical realism, if that's what it is. I just admire him as a person and feel for him in this moment. That's why I ask. I'd like to support him in some way.
Midnight's Children is very straightforward, easy to read book. It was the only Rushdie's book I read and it didn't make me want to explore his writing further. It's a kind of book you take on a holiday and leave at the hotel when your vacation is over.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 15, 2022, 08:36:52 AM
Quote from: Artem on August 15, 2022, 08:15:08 AMIt's a kind of book you take on a holiday and leave at the hotel when your vacation is over.

It is also the kind of book that wins the Booker Prize, and get voted to be the most significant book to have won the Booker Prize.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 15, 2022, 08:43:30 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 15, 2022, 08:36:52 AM
It is also the kind of book that wins the Booker Prize, and get voted to be the most significant book to have won the Booker Prize.

The Nobel Prize for Literature has been heavily controversial and politicized during the last two or three decades. Am I wrong in inferring that the Booker Prize might be the same?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 15, 2022, 08:58:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 15, 2022, 08:43:30 AM
The Nobel Prize for Literature has been heavily controversial and politicized during the last two or three decades. Am I wrong in inferring that the Booker Prize might be the same?

Everything is political. The booker prize is widely respected in the literary world and represents that mindset. The final selection is made by a small panel so of course there is nothing definitive about it. However, I can't recall a Booker Prize winner that was not widely recognized as having literary merit.

I read Midnight's Children, only vaguely remember it, except that the "magical realism" genre didn't appeal to me. That doesn't change the fact that it is widely respected as a great book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 15, 2022, 09:01:59 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 15, 2022, 08:58:41 AM
Everything is political.

Sad but true.

QuoteThe booker prize is widely respected in the literary world and represents that mindset. The final selection is made by a small panel so of course there is nothing definitive about it. However, I can't recall a Booker Prize winner that was not widely recognized as having literary merit.

Thanks.

I haven't read any Rushdie yet but my understanding is that he's a major contemporary writer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 15, 2022, 09:03:11 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 15, 2022, 08:58:41 AM
the "magical realism" genre didn't appeal to me.

Like in Gabriel Garcia Marquez?



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 15, 2022, 09:30:46 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 15, 2022, 09:03:11 AM
Like in Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

Midnight's Children "magical" elements are of a different nature. The main conceit of the novel is that all children born in the hour that India/Pakistan achieved independence have telepathic powers and communicate with each other. The "magical" element is the foundation of the story I don't recall anything so explicitly magical in Garcia Marquez, although I have not read all of his works. Love in the time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold are the works I have most recently read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 15, 2022, 12:02:33 PM
A lot of ghosts come back to have conversations in One Hundred Years of Solitude, but overall in Garcia Marquez the "magic" elements of the story provide color, commentary, and a Greek chorus-like element, rather than being absolutely essential to the basic plot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: KevinP on August 15, 2022, 03:40:49 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mwjCdfOKL._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 16, 2022, 01:15:19 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 15, 2022, 09:30:46 AM
Midnight's Children "magical" elements are of a different nature. The main conceit of the novel is that all children born in the hour that India/Pakistan achieved independence have telepathic powers and communicate with each other. The "magical" element is the foundation of the story I don't recall anything so explicitly magical in Garcia Marquez, although I have not read all of his works. Love in the time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold are the works I have most recently read.

I see, thanks. Yes, quite different from Marquez.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 16, 2022, 08:44:30 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 15, 2022, 08:36:52 AM
It is also the kind of book that wins the Booker Prize, and get voted to be the most significant book to have won the Booker Prize.
The Booker prize is an odd one for me. Almost everything I read with the Booker sticker left me dissatisfied. Interesting storytelling but without any lasting impression. Perfect reading for a beach vacation. International Booker prize may be a bit more engaging.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 17, 2022, 06:44:33 PM
Anton Chekhov: Uncle Vanya. 



(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1443337895l/231560.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on August 18, 2022, 07:47:32 AM
Thanks everyone for the comments on Rushdie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 20, 2022, 10:11:43 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/8133ZASoHSL.jpg)


Austrian humour is very very dark! Anyone here explored this author?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 20, 2022, 06:13:44 PM
The Conquest of Happiness, Bertrand Russell.




(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41RDaAaVI7L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 20, 2022, 06:15:48 PM
Bernhard is one of my favourite authors. I read most of what has been translated into English.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 20, 2022, 07:08:39 PM
Quote from: Artem on August 20, 2022, 06:15:48 PM
Bernhard is one of my favourite authors. I read most of what has been translated into English.

Any favourites? I'm coming to the end of The Woodcutters and I want to read another.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on August 20, 2022, 11:48:31 PM
His earlier work is somewhat more conventional than the later difficult novels that Bernhard is known for, but I like his earlier stuff. I'd suggest reading Frost or The Lime Works next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 21, 2022, 07:42:05 AM
Quote from: Artem on August 20, 2022, 11:48:31 PM
His earlier work is somewhat more conventional than the later difficult novels that Bernhard is known for, but I like his earlier stuff. I'd suggest reading Frost or The Lime Works next.

Noted. Having now finished The Wood cutters, it's just a bit too nasty and intense and cynical to begin another Bernhard book straight away, so I'm spending the afternoon relaxing by dipping randomly into Chateaubriand's relatively innocent and radiant Mémoires d'outre tombe.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 21, 2022, 07:45:40 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on August 21, 2022, 07:42:05 AM
Chateaubriand's relatively innocent and radiant Mémoires d'outre tombe.

Next stop after that, Génie du christianisme, ou beautés de la religion chrétienne.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 22, 2022, 01:22:25 AM
Pushkin: The Captain's Daughter and Other Stories.


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51V2IOvBEyL._SX339_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This is a fine collection of works from Pushkin. Some of the stories had a different outlook on Life and this made for varied, interesting and enjoyable reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 22, 2022, 01:43:53 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 20, 2022, 06:13:44 PM
The Conquest of Happiness, Bertrand Russell.




(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41RDaAaVI7L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
A book which I remember enjoying and finding helpful many years ago. I also like his 'In Praise of Idleness'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 23, 2022, 02:18:13 AM
Jean Cocteau's Diary, written in occupied Paris.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31byTGGao9L._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 24, 2022, 06:45:26 PM
Jonathan Keates: Stendhal.   



(https://img.thriftbooks.com/api/images/l/5753ecb23f2a328c7290621dc2cf2c4f5a3c8807.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 24, 2022, 06:50:37 PM
Quote from: aligreto on August 22, 2022, 01:22:25 AM
Pushkin: The Captain's Daughter and Other Stories.


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51V2IOvBEyL._SX339_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This is a fine collection of works from Pushkin. Some of the stories had a different outlook on Life and this made for varied, interesting and enjoyable reading.

Nice!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 24, 2022, 07:00:32 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on August 22, 2022, 01:43:53 AM
A book which I remember enjoying and finding helpful many years ago. I also like his 'In Praise of Idleness'.

Sorry, I missed your post Jeffrey. Yes, I like 'In Praise of Idleness' (and other essays in the Routledge book). While I like many books by BR, his autobiography is a fun read!

The 2nd time he was jailed (for participating in an anti-nuclear demonstration), he was 89 years old!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 25, 2022, 10:26:14 AM
Reflecting a recurrent interest of mine, for the next few days I'll be switching between these two:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51frDII0AzL._AC_SY1000_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71XCvo475TL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 27, 2022, 01:20:25 AM
First approach to the writing of Henry Green, with Party Going:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Blw3epj1L.jpg)

I recall H. Green's novels being in my parents' library, but I never read any of them. Party Going is (was?) regarded by many illustrious authors and critics as one of the greatest English modernist novels, but the author never achieved "super stardom" and seems to be slowly fading into oblivion. So far, the first pages definitely have a T. S Eliot-esque feeling to them. Looks promising.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on August 28, 2022, 01:32:07 AM
A Bronte: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall


(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2458/8207/products/orig_212510_jpg.jpg?v=1571609642)


This is the story of the female tenant in question and a man who becomes besotted with her. She will not allow him to get close to her, keeping herself distant and even secluded. Things become so fraught that she finally gives him her diary [minus the last few pages] to read. She explains that by reading her background story he will understand what type of a person she really is and why she cannot accept his advances.

The plot is divided into three distinct phases. The first phase is the situation as it is at the present time until the handing over of the diary. The second phase is the tenant's story as contained in the diary. The third phase deals with a development in the plot which materially affects the tenant. The story continues with the development of the plot and its subsequent consequences for the main characters concerned.

Anne Bronte's writing style in this work is much more readable than that in Agnes Grey. Her plot is much more fluid in the telling and her characters are much more rounded and real in their construction. It is a much more approachable novel altogether. However, it was not quite a fluid read due to the somewhat archaic and slightly ponderous language. I find this to be an interesting point since Anne was the youngest of the Bronte sisters and one would assume, though it does not necessarily follow, that she would have been more "modern" in her approach. She certainly was with her choice of subject matter for the time.

However, I remember reading somewhere that it was a work that her elder sister Charlotte wished to suppress on Anne's death. Charlotte apparently felt that the subject matter was neither an appropriate subject to be written about nor an appropriate subject to be written by a lady. It must be noted that Anne Bronte wrote the narration from the point of view of the leading male character.

I have found the novel to be a somewhat ponderous read [from the language point of view] but, at the same time, a very interesting, enlightened and engaging read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on August 28, 2022, 03:05:55 AM
Re-reading Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41CA5AJLu3L.jpg)

And along with it the plays as they are described in the biography, so a chronological survey.  I had previously bought the Library of America complete plays when i read it the first time.

Eugene O'Neill: Complete Plays 1913–1920
Eugene O'Neill: Complete Plays 1920–1931
Eugene O'Neill: Complete Plays 1932–1943

(https://s3.amazonaws.com/loa-production-23ffs35gui41a/volumes/images/000/000/106/side_listing_big/9780940450486.jpg?1445894912) (https://s3.amazonaws.com/loa-production-23ffs35gui41a/volumes/images/000/000/107/side_listing_big/9780940450493.jpg?1445894668) (https://s3.amazonaws.com/loa-production-23ffs35gui41a/volumes/images/000/000/108/side_listing_big/9780940450509.jpg?1445894558)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on August 29, 2022, 09:33:04 AM
Jennifer Egon, The Candy House

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81h5hlBJkyL.jpg)

[Minor Spoiler Alert]

A novel which imagines a future in which technology allows social media to go much farther than it has, enabled by algorithms which can predict our actions and a device which can download the contents of our minds and make our unconsciousness searchable. And just as in current DNA services such as 23 and me, you can decide to share your unconscious download in return for being able to search the unconscious downloads of others.

It is a follow up to A Visit from the Goon Squad, which did not have the science fiction aspect.

I found it to be a captivating read. I think my favorite book by Egan is Manhattan Beach (of the thee books I have read).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 05, 2022, 01:24:46 AM
Wilde: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories


(https://live.staticflickr.com/6112/6349627395_57248bbe48_b.jpg)


It is always interesting to read Wilde's prose. It is always interesting and different and so it is here with this collection of short stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 05, 2022, 08:47:35 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 05, 2022, 01:24:46 AM
Wilde: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories


(https://live.staticflickr.com/6112/6349627395_57248bbe48_b.jpg)


It is always interesting to read Wilde's prose. It is always interesting and different and so it is here with this collection of short stories.

While I love Oscar Wilde, I haven't read these short stories. I will check them out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 05, 2022, 10:09:35 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 05, 2022, 08:47:35 AM
While I love Oscar Wilde, I haven't read these short stories. I will check them out.

There are eight stories in all in the collection Manabu. It is a collection worth having.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 05, 2022, 01:04:13 PM
Quote from: aligreto on September 05, 2022, 10:09:35 AM
There are eight stories in all in the collection Manabu. It is a collection worth having.

I saw an edition of the book in Tokyo a few years ago. I will get it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 06, 2022, 01:32:27 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 05, 2022, 01:04:13 PM
I saw an edition of the book in Tokyo a few years ago. I will get it!

Was that an English version or a Japanese translation Manabu?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 06, 2022, 06:07:05 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 06, 2022, 01:32:27 AM
Was that an English version or a Japanese translation Manabu?

It's a Japanese translation of the book. As for literature, I must read books in Japanese- my primary language. Books in other languages don't generate colors and images. Interestingly, however, I prefer English books for science and philosophy. For history books, both the languages are fine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on September 06, 2022, 09:44:16 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 05, 2022, 01:24:46 AM
Wilde: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories


(https://live.staticflickr.com/6112/6349627395_57248bbe48_b.jpg)


It is always interesting to read Wilde's prose. It is always interesting and different and so it is here with this collection of short stories.
My GP once suggested that I read Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - a rather unusual prescription. I can't remember why but I enjoyed it. I remember my mother once talking about it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on September 06, 2022, 09:46:15 AM
(//)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 06, 2022, 10:57:32 AM
(https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/249686b3-ef55-44b2-89d9-8715775ea567/353/569/90/False/a-set-of-six-48.jpg)

Conrad is among my very favorite writers.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 06, 2022, 11:00:54 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 06, 2022, 06:07:05 AM
It's a Japanese translation of the book. As for literature, I must read books in Japanese- my primary language. Books in other languages don't generate colors and images. Interestingly, however, I prefer English books for science and philosophy. For history books, both the languages are fine.

Yes, I thought that you might say that Manabu. I was wondering how well Wilde's witticisms would translate into any other language [not being a polyglot myself  :)].
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 06, 2022, 11:03:28 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on September 06, 2022, 09:44:16 AM
My GP once suggested that I read Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - a rather unusual prescription. I can't remember why but I enjoyed it. I remember my mother once talking about it.

What an odd medical prescription. It was obviously efficacious as you seem to have turned out OK  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 06, 2022, 11:28:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 06, 2022, 10:57:32 AM
(https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/249686b3-ef55-44b2-89d9-8715775ea567/353/569/90/False/a-set-of-six-48.jpg)

Conrad is among my very favorite writers.

iirc that is the one that has The Duel, which Ridley Scott made into the film The Duelists

I used to have a copy but lost it before getting to read it and haven't stumbled on a copy since
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on September 06, 2022, 01:03:16 PM
Picked up at the bookstore, two Bronte novels that get hardly any attention compared to JE and WH
Charlotte's Villette
Anne's Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Prompted in great part by Aligreto's post last week.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 06, 2022, 01:31:42 PM
A Philosophy of Boredom. Lars Svendsen.



(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/21vYORN7HuL._SX298_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 06, 2022, 01:37:38 PM
Quote from: aligreto on September 06, 2022, 11:00:54 AM
Yes, I thought that you might say that Manabu. I was wondering how well Wilde's witticisms would translate into any other language [not being a polyglot myself  :)].

I think the dark humor, irony and sarcasm in Wilde's works are very similar to those of Japanese.
Arguably/possibly Wilde's humor may become funnier and wittier in Japanese language than the original English language.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on September 06, 2022, 02:21:45 PM
Quote from: aligreto on September 06, 2022, 11:03:28 AM
What an odd medical prescription. It was obviously efficacious as you seem to have turned out OK  ;D
Yes, indeed it was! He was quite an unusual doctor. I remember once, many years ago, I was quite poorly, and he made a house call to see me (this would never happen now - you can't even get an appointment to see the doctor at the surgery). Anyway, as he came upstairs the two cats jumped off the bed and ran downstairs. When he left, he asked 'shall I send the cats back up?'
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 06, 2022, 11:14:46 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 06, 2022, 11:28:55 AM
iirc that is the one that has The Duel, which Ridley Scott made into the film The Duelists

Indeed.

QuoteI used to have a copy but lost it before getting to read it and haven't stumbled on a copy since

Read it in full here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2305/2305-h/2305-h.htm#link2H_4_0004 (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2305/2305-h/2305-h.htm#link2H_4_0004)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 06, 2022, 11:18:51 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on September 06, 2022, 02:21:45 PM
Yes, indeed it was! He was quite an unusual doctor. I remember once, many years ago, I was quite poorly, and he made a house call to see me (this would never happen now - you can't even get an appointment to see the doctor at the surgery). Anyway, as he came upstairs the two cats jumped off the bed and ran downstairs. When he left, he asked 'shall I send the cats back up?'

Reminds me of the good doctor in Cronin's The Citadel.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 06, 2022, 11:52:31 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 06, 2022, 11:14:46 PM
Indeed.

Read it in full here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2305/2305-h/2305-h.htm#link2H_4_0004 (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2305/2305-h/2305-h.htm#link2H_4_0004)

Have you seen the film The Duelists? Can you say how the film represents or deviates from the story?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 07, 2022, 01:13:20 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 06, 2022, 11:52:31 PM
Have you seen the film The Duelists? Can you say how the film represents or deviates from the story?

I've seen the film but I haven't read the story yet. I've just finished reading the first story in the set, Gaspar Ruiz. The Duel is the last but one in the set so it'll take a while until I get to it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 07, 2022, 02:02:44 AM
Quote from: JBS on September 06, 2022, 01:03:16 PM
Picked up at the bookstore, two Bronte novels that get hardly any attention compared to JE and WH
Charlotte's Villette
Anne's Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Prompted in great part by Aligreto's post last week.

I may have, but cannot remember whether or not I have, read Villette in the distant past. If I did I cannot remember it now.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was a bit of a difficult read for me in terms of the slightly archaic language but it certainly was a compelling read and I frequently found it to be a page turner. That slight struggle was, however, definitely worth it for me. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 07, 2022, 02:03:50 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 06, 2022, 01:37:38 PM
I think the dark humor, irony and sarcasm in Wilde's works are very similar to those of Japanese.
Arguably/possibly Wilde's humor may become funnier and wittier in Japanese language than the original English language.

That is interesting to read Manabu.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 07, 2022, 02:04:39 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on September 06, 2022, 02:21:45 PM
Yes, indeed it was! He was quite an unusual doctor. I remember once, many years ago, I was quite poorly, and he made a house call to see me (this would never happen now - you can't even get an appointment to see the doctor at the surgery). Anyway, as he came upstairs the two cats jumped off the bed and ran downstairs. When he left, he asked 'shall I send the cats back up?'

:laugh:

He certainly sounds like a character indeed!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on September 07, 2022, 07:15:14 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 07, 2022, 02:04:39 AM
:laugh:

He certainly sounds like a character indeed!
He had quite a dry manner which I liked. Once when I was quite ill and he'd done nothing for weeks about it he said 'well, perhaps I should leap into action'.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 07, 2022, 09:47:01 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on September 07, 2022, 07:15:14 AM
He had quite a dry manner which I liked. Once when I was quite ill and he'd done nothing for weeks about it he said 'well, perhaps I should leap into action'.

Well, perhaps that just might be appropriate in the circumstances  ::)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 07, 2022, 09:55:47 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on September 07, 2022, 07:15:14 AM
He had quite a dry manner which I liked. Once when I was quite ill and he'd done nothing for weeks about it he said 'well, perhaps I should leap into action'.

And did he eventually?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on September 07, 2022, 10:08:32 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on September 06, 2022, 02:21:45 PM
Yes, indeed it was! He was quite an unusual doctor. I remember once, many years ago, I was quite poorly, and he made a house call to see me (this would never happen now - you can't even get an appointment to see the doctor at the surgery). Anyway, as he came upstairs the two cats jumped off the bed and ran downstairs. When he left, he asked 'shall I send the cats back up?'
:laugh: :laugh: ;D

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 09, 2022, 03:18:39 AM
Tolstoy: Master and Man


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30382487486.jpg)


This is a short novel. It recounts the story of how the master in question takes a servant out into a snowstorm in order to conclude some business. The storm gradually deteriorates and the master makes a decision along the road. This is the story of that journey and the implications and consequences of that decision.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on September 09, 2022, 11:58:09 PM
A recent discussion in this thread (with its very diverse reactions to the book) spurred me to watch a BBC Arena documentary this week about James Joyce's Ulysses.

Here is the link to the BBC page: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001bvp2/arena-james-joyces-ulysses (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001bvp2/arena-james-joyces-ulysses)

and a version currently available on Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8dkscn (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8dkscn)

(warning: there are rude bits  :laugh: )

It ended up being a gripping watch, so much so that I read a few pages of Ulysses and Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man on the Gutenberg website and actually got quickly drawn into the style of it (that continuous flow is not dissimilar to Damon Galgut's The Promise which I mentioned earlier this year). I ordered a used copy of both books. I also have an unread Odyssey on my shelves, so I might throw its relevant chapters in the mix as I go along.

I am sure there's an irony somewhere that, for someone who doesn't read novels, I end up being drawn by Ulysses  >:D Either it will be a very short-lived project or I'll come back to you on this in a few years...  :laugh
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on September 11, 2022, 10:24:14 PM
The Hole

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41R+9K2PoQL.jpg)

A book which won the Shirley Jackson prize, and although I can see that she could be considered and influence, I don't find this author as effective. The plot centers on a man who wakes in the Hospital from a severe accident which has left him paralyzed and gravely injured, and in which his wife died. We read of his efforts to recover in the Hospital and then at home with the help of various caregivers, and his Mother-in-Law. As her malignant neglect increases the narrator begins revealing more sinister details of his life, and of the events leading up to the accident.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scion7 on September 11, 2022, 11:11:42 PM
sort of cross-referencing for MP3 tags, actually:

Camille Saint-Saens, A Life - Brian Rees

Camille Saint-Saens: His Life and Art - Watson Lyle

Saint-Saens - Arthur Hervey

Saint-Saens: a Critical Biography - Stephen Studd

... along with various liner notes, tracts, programmes, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 17, 2022, 05:45:08 AM
Keegan: Small Things Like These


(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1635788208l/56943582._SY475_.jpg)


This is a novel set in 1985. It is about a very typical Irish family, their concerns and their everyday life and thoughts on how to get through it. There is nothing that is earth-shatteringly profound revealed in the depiction of these people and yet the novel contains a lot of Universal Truths. It has quite a good insight into the psyche of the people of that time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 17, 2022, 05:47:15 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on September 09, 2022, 11:58:09 PM
A recent discussion in this thread (with its very diverse reactions to the book) spurred me to watch a BBC Arena documentary this week about James Joyce's Ulysses.

Here is the link to the BBC page: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001bvp2/arena-james-joyces-ulysses (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001bvp2/arena-james-joyces-ulysses)

and a version currently available on Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8dkscn (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8dkscn)

(warning: there are rude bits  :laugh: )

It ended up being a gripping watch, so much so that I read a few pages of Ulysses and Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man on the Gutenberg website and actually got quickly drawn into the style of it (that continuous flow is not dissimilar to Damon Galgut's The Promise which I mentioned earlier this year). I ordered a used copy of both books. I also have an unread Odyssey on my shelves, so I might throw its relevant chapters in the mix as I go along.

I am sure there's an irony somewhere that, for someone who doesn't read novels, I end up being drawn by Ulysses  >:D Either it will be a very short-lived project or I'll come back to you on this in a few years...  :laugh


Shock!  :o
You reading two books in one year! Enjoy your odyssey.  ;D
I would recommend you begin with Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: geralmar on September 20, 2022, 02:44:04 AM
(https://i.postimg.cc/Y9JrN41r/51l-Xw73v-Wd-L-AC-SY1000-1.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
2011

One of those dispiriting political/social problem books that recounts in detail the genesis and development of a vexing issue, then concludes with the obligatory and hopelessly naive chapter on how we extricate ourselves out of the mess: organize, vote, blah, blah.  (This book obviously predates Trump).  If I had written the book the final chapter in its entirety would consist of the simple advice, "Kill 'em all."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 21, 2022, 12:37:38 PM
Started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kr3Fu-tGL.jpg)


Also found a volume I was missing in this series and have been picking away at it:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5105Rc9denL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 25, 2022, 02:49:19 AM
Goethe: Letters from Italy


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NaRiRLKpL._SX377_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This is a series of letters written by Goethe that describes his first impressions of the people and places in Italy on a trip that he made from Trento all the way down to Roma. It is interesting to read his joyful delight and wonder at most of what he encountered on his journey. The fact that he did not edit or rewrite his initial impressions makes for interesting and revealing reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 09:53:01 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 25, 2022, 02:49:19 AM
Goethe: Letters from Italy


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NaRiRLKpL._SX377_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This is a series of letters written by Goethe that describes his first impressions of the people and places in Italy on a trip that he made from Trento all the way down to Roma. It is interesting to read his joyful delight and wonder at most of what he encountered on his journey. The fact that he did not edit or rewrite his initial impressions makes for interesting and revealing reading.

Well, how did he find Italy and the Italians?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 25, 2022, 10:02:38 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 09:53:01 AM
Well, how did he find Italy and the Italians?

IIRC, full of lemon trees blossoming, golden oranges glowing among dark leaves, marble statues standing and gazing at him, and so on...  ;)

Buona sera, mio signore!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 10:22:46 AM
Quote from: ritter on September 25, 2022, 10:02:38 AM
Buona sera, mio signore!

Buona sera, buona sera!

)Maledetto seccatore, presto presto via di qua!)

Umil servidor vostro, Vossignoria Illustrissima!  ;)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on September 25, 2022, 11:18:05 AM
Started recently reading Ronald Hayman's massive Thomas Mann biography. First complete Mann biography for me. Very interesting although Hayman seems to miss a lot of the inherent ambiguity and elusiveness of his works. This biography however paints a powerful portrait of this deeply flawed genius, his coldness towards his family etc. So many great artists seem to be rather awful human beings. I wonder whether it is only because of historical reasons of harsher upbringing etc. or is being a bad person inseparable from artistic brilliance? I know Tolkien for ex. Is widely considered to have been a nice person but I wouldnt be surprised If there are some huge skeletons in his closets too. I shall always love Thomas Mann the artist but Thomas Mann the man seems reprehensible.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 25, 2022, 11:26:14 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 09:53:01 AM
Well, how did he find Italy and the Italians?

He basically loved the place with its art and architecture if a little frustrated by the customs and attitudes of the natives [even though he admired a lot of these traits too.
His main revelation was the graceful proportions of the architecture of Palladio in particular. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 11:37:55 AM
Quote from: aligreto on September 25, 2022, 11:26:14 AM
He basically loved the place with its art and architecture if a little frustrated by the customs and attitudes of the natives

Why, yes, a Protestant could not be but frustrated by the customs and attitudes of a Catholic people. That Goethe was frustrated only a little is to his credit.  ;D

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There's always laughter and good red wine.
At least I've always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on September 25, 2022, 12:58:52 PM
I also suspect that he was more temperate because of the environment he was in i.e. a living museum. He was very much in awe of it all which his first impressions readily depict.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 25, 2022, 01:14:40 PM
The Lost World of Byzantium, Jonathan Harris.



(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1427756224l/24886974.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 01:18:03 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 25, 2022, 01:14:40 PM
The Lost World of Byzantium, Jonathan Harris.



(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1427756224l/24886974.jpg)

Most interesting,  but.. Why lost, anyway? Lost for whom?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 25, 2022, 01:20:40 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 01:18:03 PM
Most interesting... Why lost, anyway?

Conquered by Ottoman Turk eventually.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 01:26:15 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 25, 2022, 01:20:40 PM
Conquered by Ottoman Turk eventually.

https://ia803206.us.archive.org/28/items/nicolae-iorga-byzance-apres-byzance-1935/Nicolae%20Iorga%20-%20Byzance%20apres%20Byzance%20-%201935.pdf (https://ia803206.us.archive.org/28/items/nicolae-iorga-byzance-apres-byzance-1935/Nicolae%20Iorga%20-%20Byzance%20apres%20Byzance%20-%201935.pdf)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 25, 2022, 02:01:43 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 01:26:15 PM
https://ia803206.us.archive.org/28/items/nicolae-iorga-byzance-apres-byzance-1935/Nicolae%20Iorga%20-%20Byzance%20apres%20Byzance%20-%201935.pdf (https://ia803206.us.archive.org/28/items/nicolae-iorga-byzance-apres-byzance-1935/Nicolae%20Iorga%20-%20Byzance%20apres%20Byzance%20-%201935.pdf)

Interesting theme/hypothesis. I ordered the English edition!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on September 25, 2022, 05:44:56 PM
Just finished this, and then watched the movie which was very loyal to the book.

Louis L'Amour - Hondo

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71hzIFjI8sL.jpg)

Then started this one, a continuation of the Duane Moore series by Larry McMurtry, and the Last Picture Show characters.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41GMQCQAufL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 25, 2022, 06:18:31 PM
Quote from: aligreto on September 25, 2022, 02:49:19 AM
Goethe: Letters from Italy


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NaRiRLKpL._SX377_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


This is a series of letters written by Goethe that describes his first impressions of the people and places in Italy on a trip that he made from Trento all the way down to Roma. It is interesting to read his joyful delight and wonder at most of what he encountered on his journey. The fact that he did not edit or rewrite his initial impressions makes for interesting and revealing reading.

Does it say inside on the copyright page if that slim Penguin 60s selection is taken from the larger Italian Journey? Or are the letters something separate?

(https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/covers/400/9780140442335.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on September 27, 2022, 09:38:43 AM
Jon Fosse's Trilogy. It was good, but very bleak and depressing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on September 27, 2022, 10:18:36 AM
First time reading Anna Kerenina, after tackling War and Peace last year.  I am continually amazed at how good Tolstoy is at fully rendering his characters in just a few quick strokes, and at the sheer writerly craft of it, which is doubly impressive considering that I'm reading it in translation.  Part of me is sorry that I've waited so long to tackle Tolstoy, but another part of me thinks that I probably wouldn't have appreciated it back in college, at least not in the same way.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ujDZGp6mL._SX313_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 27, 2022, 10:35:17 AM
Quote from: j winter on September 27, 2022, 10:18:36 AM
Part of me is sorry that I've waited so long to tackle Tolstoy, but another part of me thinks that I probably wouldn't have appreciated it back in college, at least not in the same way.

Agreed. There are certain writers who cannot be fully appreciated until one lives through certain life experiences which are naturally not accessible to teenagers and young adults.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 27, 2022, 01:51:04 PM
(https://i.ibb.co/s3myLms/2-A374-BE6-DC39-483-F-B3-BF-63492-E496-EC5.png)

Sometimes it's just obvious that you are reading a major masterpiece of world literature. That's the case with The Bear. Falkner's got style, and he's got idea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 29, 2022, 01:11:15 PM
Steppenwolf.


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D5V8flQU0AA3UK9?format=png&name=900x900)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 03, 2022, 10:05:29 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on September 27, 2022, 01:51:04 PM
(https://i.ibb.co/s3myLms/2-A374-BE6-DC39-483-F-B3-BF-63492-E496-EC5.png)

Sometimes it's just obvious that you are reading a major masterpiece of world literature. That's the case with The Bear. Falkner's got style, and he's got idea.

I just think, having now finished it, including the difficult last part, that it's probably impossible for a Brit to understand Faulkner -- the North/South, White/Black/Indian, untamed wilderness/railroad and town is just so different here. But there is one thing which seems at the heart of the matter and which seems shared in the cultures -- the challenge of breaking free from the past, from ghosts, from traditions.

What should I read next -- the rest of Go Down Moses or should I start on The Hamlet? What about Light in August? I've Read The Sound and The Fury, Absolom, Absolom and As I lay Dying.

For those who know it, there's a particularly memorable moment for me when Ike, aged about 10, divests himself of all the accoutrements of civilisation -- no gun, no compass, no knife etc -- and goes deep into the forest to try to see the bear, Old Ben.

Anyway I think a great author, even if a bit politically incorrect -- and an author very little known here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 03, 2022, 10:09:24 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 03, 2022, 10:05:29 AM
I just think, having now finished it, including the difficult last part, that it's probably impossible for a Brit to understand Faulkner -- the North/South, White/Black/Indian, untamed wilderness/railroad and town is just so different here. But there is one thing which seems at the heart of the matter and which seems shared in the cultures -- the challenge of breaking free from the past, from ghosts, from traditions.

What should I read next -- the rest of Go Down Moses or should I start on The Hamlet? What about Light in August? I've Read The Sound and The Fury, Absolom, Absolom and As I lay Dying.

Anyway I think a great author, even if a bit politically incorrect -- and an author very little known here.

My vote is definitely for Light in August. That book blew me away when I read it last year (in August, in fact). You've piqued my interest about The Bear.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 03, 2022, 10:11:25 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 03, 2022, 10:09:24 AM
My vote is definitely for Light in August. That book blew me away when I read it last year (in August, in fact). You've piqued my interest about The Bear.

Well The Bear is part of Go Down Moses, and maybe should be read in that context. It is a tremendous thing though! I'd be interested to know whether you get a good intuitive sympathetic understanding about what's going on in the hunt, the ritual of it.

Are you a southerner? Have you ever been hunting bears?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 04, 2022, 02:48:49 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 03, 2022, 10:11:25 AM
Well The Bear is part of Go Down Moses, and maybe should be read in that context. It is a tremendous thing though! I'd be interested to know whether you get a good intuitive sympathetic understanding about what's going on in the hunt, the ritual of it.

Are you a southerner? Have you ever been hunting bears?

Yep I'm a southern boy from Florida. We only hunt gators.

The Bear seems to have had a life outside of Go Down Moses, and was also published as part of this thing:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-F1ZPh7OL._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

... but maybe I'll just read Go Down Moses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 04, 2022, 06:05:41 AM
My advice is to just buy the cheapest Bear you can find, and if it whets your appetite to delve a bit more into what this hunt and wilderness and ritual and railroad can possibly mean for Faulkner, and what Chapter 4 is about, then I guess explore the other stories in Go Down Moses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 04, 2022, 06:36:07 AM
I am a big admirer of Faulkner and Go Down Moses and particularly The Bear is something I need to return to. I read it very early in my exploration of Faulkner and found it impenetrable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: The new erato on October 04, 2022, 07:49:55 AM
I have read a couple of novels by Jenny Erpenbeck recently. Very powerful stuff with a strong connection to central European history.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 04, 2022, 06:34:16 PM
Michel de Montaigne: Accidental Philosopher. Ann Hartle. Fun read!



(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eJvN0mWFL._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mirror Image on October 04, 2022, 07:26:28 PM
Currently reading through some of this book:

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780195090819-uk-300.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 05, 2022, 05:58:55 AM
Anhalzer: Ecuador Panoramas


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JtIAAOSwwPxhYx6Y/s-l1600.jpg)


This book contains wonderfully atmospheric panoramic photographs of the highlands of Ecuador. The texts also explain how the images were taken along with a lot of other illuminating information.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 05, 2022, 06:00:44 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on September 25, 2022, 06:18:31 PM

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NaRiRLKpL._SX377_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Does it say inside on the copyright page if that slim Penguin 60s selection is taken from the larger Italian Journey? Or are the letters something separate?

(https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/covers/400/9780140442335.jpg)

Yes, it says that these selections are taken from Italian Journey. This in turn would make me curious to read Italian Journey. Thank you for pointing that out.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on October 05, 2022, 08:29:04 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/2001_A_Space_Odyssey-Arthur_C._Clarke.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 06, 2022, 08:44:55 PM
Anyone here read any Annie Ernaux?

Annie Ernaux: the 2022 Nobel literature laureate's greatest works
Writer and critic Catherine Taylor explains how the French writer became the 'great chronicler to a generation' (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/06/annie-ernaux-the-2022-nobel-literature-laureates-greatest-works)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 07, 2022, 03:19:46 AM
Kiely: A Cow In The House & Other Stories


(http://pictures.abebooks.com/BOUNDLESSBOOKSTORE/md/md15782758843.jpg)


This collection of short stories tells of everyday life, young love and lust and all of this with the backdrop of the historical Northern Ireland conflict in the background. It tells all of this, however, with quick wit and quirky Irish humour. The various characters are very human, readily understandable and one can easily relate to them. The writing style is very easy to read; it is almost of the storyteller ilk. One can almost hear Kiely sitting beside you recounting, in his mellifluous tones, a host of stories and tales to you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 07, 2022, 11:09:43 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1520798575i/17557348.jpg)

The Bear is written in what people call Faulkner's Stream of Eloquence style, where an anonymous voice takes control. I read that Red Leaves is the summit of this style so . . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 07, 2022, 01:16:29 PM
Quote from: Florestan on September 25, 2022, 01:26:15 PM
https://ia803206.us.archive.org/28/items/nicolae-iorga-byzance-apres-byzance-1935/Nicolae%20Iorga%20-%20Byzance%20apres%20Byzance%20-%201935.pdf (https://ia803206.us.archive.org/28/items/nicolae-iorga-byzance-apres-byzance-1935/Nicolae%20Iorga%20-%20Byzance%20apres%20Byzance%20-%201935.pdf)

There is a music CD with the same title. I am curious about the music!


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/T8EAAOSwsnFiS~Ko/s-l300.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: foxandpeng on October 08, 2022, 05:20:53 AM
The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors
D Martyn Lloyd Jones
Banner of Truth

This is a great read. A fine analysis of the history and impact of the Puritans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 08, 2022, 07:20:25 AM
Been a while since I've participated in this thread but I have been reading a good bit lately. Currently Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's Some Prefer Nettles. I get the feeling that a good bit of subtlety is being lost in translation, something that happens all too often of course when reading translated fiction, but especially so in this case. But I am coming away with the impression that Tanizaki is a very odd guy with lots of unusual psycho-sexual hangups. The kind of guy Freud would have a field day with. Psychological elements aside, it's a fascinating story about marriage, and aesthetics.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51p1+uDp7pL._AC_SY780_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 08, 2022, 08:06:22 AM
First approach to the work of René Crevel, the "archangel of surrealism" and a literary "meteor" who committed suicide (ha was also I'll with tuberculosis) in 1935, just a month before he would have turned 35.

(https://images.epagine.fr/959/9782358210959_1_75.jpg)

La Mort difficile is a largely autobiographical novella, and has been described as a critique of bourgeois conventions from the perspective of the main character, a bisexual young man. Crevel, who was considered ravishingly handsome, came from a well-off Parisian family, was close both to the surrealists and Dada, joined the communist party, and frequented the beau monde (e.g. Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles). So, in a sense, he embodied the artistic milieu of the roaring twenties in Paris. Let's see...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 10, 2022, 01:28:16 AM
Bentley: The Brontes and their world


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512sumgdjvL._SX391_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Having recently read/re-read the major novels of the three Bronte sisters I decided to get some background information from this book. It was both an enjoyable and informative read. It paints good portraits of each of the sisters and of the people around them and it also certainly paints a good picture of the time and environment in which they lived.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 10, 2022, 04:24:04 AM
The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway.

I read this book long ago in high school, and I remember being unimpressed. I thought I might find more depth to it now, but not the case. I find it hard to relate to the silly self indulgence of the American and British expatriots in Europe, the anti-semitic depiction of the character Cohn is distasteful, and the adoration of bullfighters ridiculous.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 10, 2022, 01:45:22 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ThKnmu8nL._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)

This is the one that has been the most recommended. Recommended by Americans who I've met in real life; by a French guy I know who is very very keen on Faulkner, and who in fact has written a book on Faulkner; by Americans I've met on internet forums. I can see why. It is a pleasure to read: well written linear prose written with  more or less schoolbook grammar and punctuation. The characters are characterful. Their physical description is masterfully graphic. For once we're not in someone's deeply troubled head.

I can't quite see what the point is yet -- I can't see whether it is only a series of stories well told. I'm half way through Part 2 -- Labove has just graduated in Law, and he has  to deal with the 11 year old Eula.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 10, 2022, 01:51:56 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 08, 2022, 07:20:25 AM
Been a while since I've participated in this thread but I have been reading a good bit lately. Currently Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's Some Prefer Nettles. I get the feeling that a good bit of subtlety is being lost in translation, something that happens all too often of course when reading translated fiction, but especially so in this case. But I am coming away with the impression that Tanizaki is a very odd guy with lots of unusual psycho-sexual hangups. The kind of guy Freud would have a field day with. Psychological elements aside, it's a fascinating story about marriage, and aesthetics.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51p1+uDp7pL._AC_SY780_.jpg)

Tanizaki used to be my favorite author decades ago, but not any more.
I'd like to recommend this book. The author is very popular in Japan and he writes historical novels. 


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515rMjGBq9L._SX313_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 10, 2022, 05:42:41 PM
^Do you not like him anymore? Or has he simply been replaced as a favorite by someone else?

That book looks awesome. I don't know anything about the Russo-Japanese War. But dang, it looks huge! Multiple volumes, each around 400 pages. Have you read all of them?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 10, 2022, 07:02:30 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 10, 2022, 05:42:41 PM
^Do you not like him anymore? Or has he simply been replaced as a favorite by someone else?

That book looks awesome. I don't know anything about the Russo-Japanese War. But dang, it looks huge! Multiple volumes, each around 400 pages. Have you read all of them?


I still like Tanizaki, but now I prefer Kawabata and Mishima. I personally think that his early short stories are the best. The book below is vg, imo. "Secret" is about a cross-dresser in Tokyo before WWI, and "Children" is about a sado-masochistic play by children. These sick stories were translated and published by a prestigious academic press!  ;D

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/books/sensation.html

https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/tanizaki/gourmet_club.htm


Japan transformed from a feudal country to one of major powers through R-J war. The novel above is magnificent.



(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s7qYx0yZL._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 10, 2022, 07:24:03 PM
My current (fun) reading.
Autopilot: The Art & Science Of Doing Nothing. Andrew Smart.


  (https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1399494666l/18053732.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 11, 2022, 06:54:52 PM
Knocked off this quickie:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NUuz55BqL._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg)

Half way through this biggie:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514D6pV5+jL._AC_SY1000_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 12, 2022, 01:06:20 AM
I began reading "The Wings of The Dove" by Henry James recently.

I could not get past the first ten pages due to the unwieldy text and writing style.
This rarely happens with me but perhaps I will return to it again at some point in the future.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 12, 2022, 10:24:18 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 10, 2022, 01:45:22 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ThKnmu8nL._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)

inear prose written with  more or less schoolbook grammar and punctuation.

Spoke to soon. Just look at this sentence.

If he had lived in Frenchman's Bend itself during that spring and summer, he would have known no more—a little lost village, nameless, without grace, forsaken, yet which wombed once by chance and accident one blind seed of the spendthrift Olympian ejaculation and did not even know it, without tumescence conceived, and bore—one bright brief summer, concentric, during which three fairly well-horsed buggies stood in steady rotation along a picket fence or spun along adjacent roads between the homes and the crossroads stores and the schoolhouses and churches where people gathered for pleasure or at least for escape, and then overnight and simultaneously were seen no more; then eccentric: buggies gone, vanished—a lean, loose-jointed, cotton-socked, shrewd, ruthless old man, the splendid girl with her beautiful masklike face, the froglike creature which barely reached her shoulder, cashing a check, buying a license, taking a train—a word, a single will to believe born of envy and old deathless regret, murmured from cabin to cabin above the washing pots and the sewing, from wagon to horseman in roads and lanes or from rider to halted plow in field furrows; the word, the dream and wish of all male under sun capable of harm—the young who only dreamed yet of the ruins they were still incapable of; the sick and the maimed sweating in sleepless beds, impotent for the harm they willed to do; the old, now-glandless earth-creeping, the very buds and blossoms, the garlands of whose yellowed triumphs had long fallen into the profitless dust, embalmed now and no more dead to the living world if they were sealed in buried vaults, behind the impregnable matronly calico of others' grandchildren's grandmothers—the word, with its implications of lost triumphs and defeats of unimaginable splendor—and which best: to have that word, that dream and hope for future, or to have had need to flee that word and dream, for past.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: VonStupp on October 12, 2022, 03:46:27 PM
Per the LMYW thread, I realize I haven't read any Stephen King. I avoided him mainly because I heard his writing is dense and horror isn't really my scene.

My wife picked up a random assortment of used novels back when she was with child, so I am trying my hand at SK's The Gunslinger (1982/2003) and The Eyes of the Dragon (1984).

VS

(https://cdn-www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/2015/04/file_745533_The-Dark-Tower-I-The-Gunslinger-Revied-and-Expanded-hardback.jpg)  (https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Publication125/v4/c8/2f/6c/c82f6c57-6005-c34a-70bf-7886064fef35/9781501141195.jpg/100000x100000-999.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 12, 2022, 09:18:11 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 12, 2022, 10:24:18 AM
Spoke to soon. Just look at this sentence.

If he had lived in Frenchman's Bend itself during that spring and summer, he would have known no more—a little lost village, nameless, without grace, forsaken, yet which wombed once by chance and accident one blind seed of the spendthrift Olympian ejaculation and did not even know it, without tumescence conceived, and bore—one bright brief summer, concentric, during which three fairly well-horsed buggies stood in steady rotation along a picket fence or spun along adjacent roads between the homes and the crossroads stores and the schoolhouses and churches where people gathered for pleasure or at least for escape, and then overnight and simultaneously were seen no more; then eccentric: buggies gone, vanished—a lean, loose-jointed, cotton-socked, shrewd, ruthless old man, the splendid girl with her beautiful masklike face, the froglike creature which barely reached her shoulder, cashing a check, buying a license, taking a train—a word, a single will to believe born of envy and old deathless regret, murmured from cabin to cabin above the washing pots and the sewing, from wagon to horseman in roads and lanes or from rider to halted plow in field furrows; the word, the dream and wish of all male under sun capable of harm—the young who only dreamed yet of the ruins they were still incapable of; the sick and the maimed sweating in sleepless beds, impotent for the harm they willed to do; the old, now-glandless earth-creeping, the very buds and blossoms, the garlands of whose yellowed triumphs had long fallen into the profitless dust, embalmed now and no more dead to the living world if they were sealed in buried vaults, behind the impregnable matronly calico of others' grandchildren's grandmothers—the word, with its implications of lost triumphs and defeats of unimaginable splendor—and which best: to have that word, that dream and hope for future, or to have had need to flee that word and dream, for past.

Hamlet is probably the most linear in it's story telling of the Snopes trilogy, but as you see, it's not schoolbook grammar. I find that these passages can be musical in a way, and it helps to read them out loud and listen to yourself.

Quote from: aligreto on October 12, 2022, 01:06:20 AM
I began reading "The Wings of The Dove" by Henry James recently.

I could not get past the first ten pages due to the unwieldy text and writing style.
This rarely happens with me but perhaps I will return to it again at some point in the future.

It may be interesting to compare Hanry James' uncoiling sentences to Faulkner's. The obtuse sentence construction is something that came in James' late works and I remember reading somewhere that it was related to his switching from writing out his work on paper to dictating them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 12, 2022, 11:29:24 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on October 12, 2022, 09:18:11 PM
Hamlet is probably the most linear in it's story telling of the Snopes trilogy, but as you see, it's not schoolbook grammar. I find that these passages can be musical in a way, and it helps to read them out loud and listen to yourself.


Yes and there's the bizarre parable which comes shortly after that sentence. I look forward to continuing, while still not being very clear about what Faulkner's project is in this book. Whatever it is, it goes beyond a story well told.

Re reading it aloud, I find it helps to do that - with my Englishman's attempt at a Mississippi accent. You wouldn't want to hear it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 13, 2022, 01:37:39 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on October 12, 2022, 12:29:56 PM
That's about 9 more pages than I've ever managed.  I've tried his work a few times over the years, and I just don't get on with it at all, in fact I find it intensely irritating.  Yet I love Proust, so it's not that I have a problem with dense pages of convoluted paragraph-long sentences obsessively examining every minute aspect of inconsequential trivia in microscopic detail. ;D  I think maybe the issue is that this kind of pointillist writing style puts you very much inside the consciousness of the writer, which in James's case I do not find a congenial place to be.  I don't want to see the world through his eyes.  For one thing, he comes across as the most frightful snob.  But then so does Proust. ;D  So I guess I just plain don't like him, and leave it at that. ::)

All of that is fair enough and I do understand where you are coming from with it all. Another one that I did not enjoy was The Portrait of a Lady for the reasons that you have pointed out.
I should point out, however, that I did enjoy other works by Henry James such as The Aspern Papers, The Spoils of Poynton, The Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 13, 2022, 01:41:03 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on October 12, 2022, 09:18:11 PM

It may be interesting to compare Hanry James' uncoiling sentences to Faulkner's. The obtuse sentence construction is something that came in James' late works and I remember reading somewhere that it was related to his switching from writing out his work on paper to dictating them.

The impact of the coincidental posting of the Faulkner passage was not lost on me. Faulkner is one to avoid for me then.  ;D

Thank you for the very interesting comment regarding James' dictation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 13, 2022, 03:36:05 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on October 13, 2022, 02:05:09 AM
Have you read Edith Wharton e.g. The Age of Innocence?  I was put off her for years because of the James connection, wrongly supposing that meant their writing would be similar, and was astonished to discover (eventually) just how readable and appealing her work is - well crafted, with sharp observation and even a sense of humour. :)

No. I have not. Thank you for the recommendation and explanation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 13, 2022, 07:39:34 AM
Quote from: aligreto on October 13, 2022, 01:41:03 AM
The impact of the coincidental posting of the Faulkner passage was not lost on me. Faulkner is one to avoid for me then.  ;D

Thank you for the very interesting comment regarding James' dictation.

Before giving up on late Henry James, let me urge you to try, if you can bring yourself, The Golden Bowl.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on October 13, 2022, 01:03:43 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 13, 2022, 07:39:34 AM
Before giving up on late Henry James, let me urge you to try, if you can bring yourself, The Golden Bowl.

Thank you for the recommendation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 13, 2022, 01:54:19 PM
I, Fellini. Charlotte Chandler.



(https://images.secondsale.com/images/915c778a6a9c7e351034cff9107cd59a.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 14, 2022, 11:23:37 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 12, 2022, 10:24:18 AM
Spoke to soon. Just look at this sentence.

If he had lived in Frenchman's Bend itself during that spring and summer, he would have known no more—a little lost village, nameless, without grace, forsaken, yet which wombed once by chance and accident one blind seed of the spendthrift Olympian ejaculation and did not even know it, without tumescence conceived, and bore—one bright brief summer, concentric, during which three fairly well-horsed buggies stood in steady rotation along a picket fence or spun along adjacent roads between the homes and the crossroads stores and the schoolhouses and churches where people gathered for pleasure or at least for escape, and then overnight and simultaneously were seen no more; then eccentric: buggies gone, vanished—a lean, loose-jointed, cotton-socked, shrewd, ruthless old man, the splendid girl with her beautiful masklike face, the froglike creature which barely reached her shoulder, cashing a check, buying a license, taking a train—a word, a single will to believe born of envy and old deathless regret, murmured from cabin to cabin above the washing pots and the sewing, from wagon to horseman in roads and lanes or from rider to halted plow in field furrows; the word, the dream and wish of all male under sun capable of harm—the young who only dreamed yet of the ruins they were still incapable of; the sick and the maimed sweating in sleepless beds, impotent for the harm they willed to do; the old, now-glandless earth-creeping, the very buds and blossoms, the garlands of whose yellowed triumphs had long fallen into the profitless dust, embalmed now and no more dead to the living world if they were sealed in buried vaults, behind the impregnable matronly calico of others' grandchildren's grandmothers—the word, with its implications of lost triumphs and defeats of unimaginable splendor—and which best: to have that word, that dream and hope for future, or to have had need to flee that word and dream, for past.

I have now met Ike, and his love for a cow. This is the only novel I know with a highly poetic celebration of bestiality.

Then he would hear her, coming down the creekside in tthe mist. It would not be after one hour, two hours, three; the dawn would be empty, the moment and she would not be, then he would hear her and he would lie drenched in the wet grass, serene and one and indivisible in joy, listening to her approach. He would smell her; the whole mist reeked with her; the same malleate hands of mist which drew along his prone drenched flanks palped her pearled barrel too and shaped them both somewhere in immediate time, already married. He would not move. He would lie amid the waking instant of earth's teeming life, the motionless fronds of water-heavy grasses stooping into the mist before his face in black, fixed curves, along each parabola of which the marching drops held in minute magnification the dawn's rosy miniatures, smelling and even tasting the rich, slow, warm barn-reek milk-reek, the flowing immemorial female, hearing the slow planting and the plopping suck of each deliberate cloven mud-spreading hoof, invisible still in the mist loud with its hymeneal choristers.

Then he would see her; the bright thin horns of morning, of sun, would blow the mist away and reveal her, planted, blond, dew-pearled, standing in the parted water of the ford, blowing into the water the thick, warm, heavy, milk-laden breath; and lying in the drenched grasses, his eyes now blind with sun, he would wallow faintly from thigh to thigh, making a faint, thick, hoarse moaning sound. Because he cannot make one with her through the day's morning and noon and evening. It is not that he must return to work. There is no work, no travail, no muscular and spiritual reluctance to overcome, constantly war against; yesterday was not, tomorrow is not, today is merely a placid and virginal astonishment at the creeping ridge of dust and trash in front of the broom, at sheets coming smooth and taut at certain remembered motions of the hands—a routine grooved, irk-loss; a firm gentle compelling hand, a voice to hold and control him through joy out of kindness as a dog is taught and held.


When I first read it I thought he was looking at a woman, and the reference to the hoof had something to do with the devil -- Eula maybe. But no, I was innocent, I was not prepared for Faulkner's mindset,  it's a fking cow.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 14, 2022, 11:48:28 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 14, 2022, 11:23:37 AM
I have now met Ike, and his love for a cow. This is the only novel I know with a highly poetic celebration of bestiality.

Then he would hear her, coming down the creekside in tthe mist. It would not be after one hour, two hours, three; the dawn would be empty, the moment and she would not be, then he would hear her and he would lie drenched in the wet grass, serene and one and indivisible in joy, listening to her approach. He would smell her; the whole mist reeked with her; the same malleate hands of mist which drew along his prone drenched flanks palped her pearled barrel too and shaped them both somewhere in immediate time, already married. He would not move. He would lie amid the waking instant of earth's teeming life, the motionless fronds of water-heavy grasses stooping into the mist before his face in black, fixed curves, along each parabola of which the marching drops held in minute magnification the dawn's rosy miniatures, smelling and even tasting the rich, slow, warm barn-reek milk-reek, the flowing immemorial female, hearing the slow planting and the plopping suck of each deliberate cloven mud-spreading hoof, invisible still in the mist loud with its hymeneal choristers.

Then he would see her; the bright thin horns of morning, of sun, would blow the mist away and reveal her, planted, blond, dew-pearled, standing in the parted water of the ford, blowing into the water the thick, warm, heavy, milk-laden breath; and lying in the drenched grasses, his eyes now blind with sun, he would wallow faintly from thigh to thigh, making a faint, thick, hoarse moaning sound. Because he cannot make one with her through the day's morning and noon and evening. It is not that he must return to work. There is no work, no travail, no muscular and spiritual reluctance to overcome, constantly war against; yesterday was not, tomorrow is not, today is merely a placid and virginal astonishment at the creeping ridge of dust and trash in front of the broom, at sheets coming smooth and taut at certain remembered motions of the hands—a routine grooved, irk-loss; a firm gentle compelling hand, a voice to hold and control him through joy out of kindness as a dog is taught and held.


When I first read it I thought he was looking at a woman, and the reference to the hoof had something to do with the devil -- Eula maybe. But no, I was innocent, I was not prepared for Faulkner's mindset,  it's a fking cow.

Well, Kazantzakis ends The Last Temptation by having a character shift from raping a sheep to raping a woman in the middle of a paragraph.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 14, 2022, 11:40:19 PM
Maybe it's just my urban prudishness which makes me so surprised. Presumably if you've been born and bred in farming then you're used to at least hearing of people enjoying bestiality. 

I've never read Kazantzakis, though I've frequently had it in mind to.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 15, 2022, 04:57:31 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 14, 2022, 11:40:19 PM
Maybe it's just my urban prudishness which makes me so surprised. Presumably if you've been born and bred in farming then you're used to at least hearing of people enjoying bestiality. 

I've never read Kazantzakis, though I've frequently had it in mind to.

I'm urban too--btw, I got a bit mixed up.  It's The Greek Passion that ends that way.

Do try Kazantzakis--but I have no idea what you'll think of him.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 18, 2022, 06:50:31 PM
The Library at Night. Alberto Manguel.



  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418fwmx3lRL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 21, 2022, 01:45:42 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KPoN31gRL._AC_SY780_.jpg)

Informative and well-written. It stresses and documents the important, decisive influence that Italian opera / vocal music had on the development of instrrumental music (sonatas, symphonies, concertos) --- a fact which is often downplayed in the Germanocentric history of music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on October 21, 2022, 08:23:02 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 13, 2022, 07:39:34 AM
Before giving up on late Henry James, let me urge you to try, if you can bring yourself, The Golden Bowl.

I have been meaning to read The Golden Bowl, having heard it is James's best. I actually checked a bit of it in library one day. Probably will borrow it the next time. Great expectations especially considering James had great influence on development of one of my favorite games of all time, Red Dead Redemption 2.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 21, 2022, 08:34:32 AM
James Joyce, Faulkner, Henry James; interesting that incomprehensibility as a literary movement seemed to peak in the early to mid 20th century, then receded, leaving us with books that we can understand. Then came the incomprehensible movies, such as Mulholland Drive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on October 21, 2022, 08:59:52 AM
Then again Orwell, Mann and Shaw write in very clear style.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 21, 2022, 09:07:30 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on October 21, 2022, 08:34:32 AM
James Joyce, Faulkner, Henry James; interesting that incomprehensibility as a literary movement seemed to peak in the early to mid 20th century, then receded, leaving us with books that we can understand. Then came the incomprehensible movies, such as Mulholland Drive.

Since 1980 IMO. It's been all downhill in English literature since Worstward Ho! 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Verena on October 21, 2022, 10:55:31 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 14, 2022, 11:40:19 PM
Maybe it's just my urban prudishness which makes me so surprised. Presumably if you've been born and bred in farming then you're used to at least hearing of people enjoying bestiality. 

I've never read Kazantzakis, though I've frequently had it in mind to.

Quote from: Mandryka on October 14, 2022, 11:23:37 AM
I have now met Ike, and his love for a cow. This is the only novel I know with a highly poetic celebration of bestiality.

Then he would hear her, coming down the creekside in tthe mist. It would not be after one hour, two hours, three; the dawn would be empty, the moment and she would not be, then he would hear her and he would lie drenched in the wet grass, serene and one and indivisible in joy, listening to her approach. He would smell her; the whole mist reeked with her; the same malleate hands of mist which drew along his prone drenched flanks palped her pearled barrel too and shaped them both somewhere in immediate time, already married. He would not move. He would lie amid the waking instant of earth's teeming life, the motionless fronds of water-heavy grasses stooping into the mist before his face in black, fixed curves, along each parabola of which the marching drops held in minute magnification the dawn's rosy miniatures, smelling and even tasting the rich, slow, warm barn-reek milk-reek, the flowing immemorial female, hearing the slow planting and the plopping suck of each deliberate cloven mud-spreading hoof, invisible still in the mist loud with its hymeneal choristers.

Then he would see her; the bright thin horns of morning, of sun, would blow the mist away and reveal her, planted, blond, dew-pearled, standing in the parted water of the ford, blowing into the water the thick, warm, heavy, milk-laden breath; and lying in the drenched grasses, his eyes now blind with sun, he would wallow faintly from thigh to thigh, making a faint, thick, hoarse moaning sound. Because he cannot make one with her through the day's morning and noon and evening. It is not that he must return to work. There is no work, no travail, no muscular and spiritual reluctance to overcome, constantly war against; yesterday was not, tomorrow is not, today is merely a placid and virginal astonishment at the creeping ridge of dust and trash in front of the broom, at sheets coming smooth and taut at certain remembered motions of the hands—a routine grooved, irk-loss; a firm gentle compelling hand, a voice to hold and control him through joy out of kindness as a dog is taught and held.


When I first read it I thought he was looking at a woman, and the reference to the hoof had something to do with the devil -- Eula maybe. But no, I was innocent, I was not prepared for Faulkner's mindset,  it's a fking cow.


Hello Howard, I can't resist to chip in with a possibly completely irrelevant remark. But bestiality is the least word that comes to mind when I hear the word "cow".
Cows can be among the kindest souls on earth if treated well, very social and pretty intelligent; some sanctuaries have started offering "cow cuddling", it's like a therapy. If I had the money and physical fitness, I'd open a sanctuary for them. I once asked my dog veterinarian whether she is a "cat type" or a "dog type" and she told me if she could afford it, she'd prefer to have a cow. Today I know why.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 21, 2022, 05:26:14 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on October 21, 2022, 08:34:32 AM
James Joyce, Faulkner, Henry James; interesting that incomprehensibility as a literary movement seemed to peak in the early to mid 20th century, then receded, leaving us with books that we can understand. Then came the incomprehensible movies, such as Mulholland Drive.

They were trying out stream-of-conciousness, trying to represent the ebb, flow, flying off into tangents as we think and sense, of the human mind, observing, feeling, analyzing, in turn and sometimes all at once.  Virginia Woolf was another one of that school, although her sentences tended to be more structured and more grammatical.

Joyce (in Finnegan's Wake) tried what might be called stream-of-subconciousness.

They can be rather heavy going, but I'm not sure they can be called incomprehensible--with the glaring exception of Finnegan's Wake.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 22, 2022, 10:18:36 AM
In the "Antique and Used Book Fair" here in Madrid last week, I managed to get an affordable and well-preserved copy of the 1944 2-volume edition of Ramón del Valle-Inclán's complete works.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30966456844.jpg)

(https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/libros-clasicos-segunda-mano/tc/2022/09/23/13/360899160_tcimg_25DBA59F.jpg) (https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/libros-segunda-mano/tc/2015/06/09/00/49743680_26129978.jpg)

So, I'm revisiting (after many decades) the four Sonatas (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter), which constitute the "gentle memoirs" of the fictional Marqués de Bradomín* (who was an "admirable Don Juan" and "ugly, catholic and sentimental", and seen by many critics as an alter ego of the author). The 4 short novellas (from 1902 - 1905) are widely regarded as one of the summits of modernist prose in the Spanish language.

* In what was a nice gesture, King Juan Carlos I in 1981 granted the title of Marqués de Bradomín to Valle-Inclán's son, "wanting to show [his] Royal appreciation to the memory of the great writer and to give reality to the literary creation of a fictional character".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on October 23, 2022, 07:11:53 AM
Started reading The Golden Bowl yesterday. This may take some time as the book is relatively long and with Henry James you need to read carefully plus I've heard this is exceptionally complex and subtle book, even for Henry James.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 23, 2022, 07:15:03 AM
Quote from: ritter on October 22, 2022, 10:18:36 AM
In the "Antique and Used Book Fair" here in Madrid last week, I managed to get an affordable and well-preserved copy of the 1944 2-volume edition of Ramón del Valle-Inclán's complete works.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30966456844.jpg)

(https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/libros-clasicos-segunda-mano/tc/2022/09/23/13/360899160_tcimg_25DBA59F.jpg) (https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/libros-segunda-mano/tc/2015/06/09/00/49743680_26129978.jpg)

So, I'm revisiting (after many decades) the four Sonatas (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter), which constitute the "gentle memoirs" of the fictional Marqués de Bradomín* (who was an "admirable Don Juan" and "ugly, catholic and sentimental", and seen by many critics as an alter ego of the author). The 4 short novellas (from 1902 - 1905) are widely regarded as one of the summits of modernist prose in the Spanish language.

* In what was a nice gesture, King Juan Carlos I in 1981 granted the title of Marqués de Bradomín to Valle-Inclán's son, "wanting to show [his] Royal appreciation to the memory of the great writer and to give reality to the literary creation of a fictional character".

I have --- and enjoyed greatly --- the Romanian translation whose title reads The Loves of the Marquis of Bradomin

(https://anticariatalbert.com/10795-large_default/iubirile-marchizului-de-bradomin.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 24, 2022, 01:32:16 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 23, 2022, 07:15:03 AM
I have --- and enjoyed greatly --- the Romanian translation whose title reads The Loves of the Marquis of Bradomin

(https://anticariatalbert.com/10795-large_default/iubirile-marchizului-de-bradomin.jpg)
Great, Andrei! I'm enjoying the Sonatas tremendously (and the edition I managed to get is an object of beauty in itself).

BTW, last night I attended a performance of Valle's "children's farse" La Cabeza del dragón (The Dragon's Head) at the Teatro María Guerrero (where the Spanish National Theatre Company --Centro Dramático Nacional-- is headquartered). It was great fun, and first-rate theatre. The stalls were studded with golden effigies of Valle-Inclán:



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 24, 2022, 01:45:51 PM
Universal Man: The Lives of John Maynard Keynes. Richard Davenport-Hines.



(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IylFrQ26L._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on October 24, 2022, 02:15:43 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 24, 2022, 01:45:51 PM
Universal Man: The Lives of John Maynard Keynes. Richard Davenport-Hines.



(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IylFrQ26L._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

We live quite near to Charleston Farmhouse where members of the Bloomsbury Group (including Keynes) lived or visited.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 24, 2022, 06:08:24 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on October 24, 2022, 02:15:43 PM
We live quite near to Charleston Farmhouse where members of the Bloomsbury Group (including Keynes) lived or visited.

That's wonderful Jeffrey! As you know, he was a cultured man who loved and supported music, theatre, literature, fine art, etc. more than economics. He and his Russian wife must have loved there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 26, 2022, 10:23:36 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/TheTown.jpg)

Just read Gavin Stevens's poetic account of Eula's failed attempt to seduce him. But my real reason for posting is to see if anyone can recommend any secondary literature about the Snopes trilogy. I have a book of annotations of The Hamlet, which is helpful because I know so little about American history and culture and even language. But I have nothing on The Town or The Mansion.

I see that Jefferson County Mississippi exists, and is presumably related to Faulkner's town. Wiki talks about how it was in something called The Antebellum South. This is a new concept for me, and I'd like to know more if it impacts what Faulkner was talking about. This is why I need secondary literature. I've just never studied America before.

I have, amazingly, actually been to Mississippi -- to Jackson -- where I ate grits and biscuits and gravy for the first time (and in the case of grits, the last!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on October 26, 2022, 10:59:17 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 26, 2022, 10:23:36 AM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/TheTown.jpg)

Just read Gavin Stevens's poetic account of Eula's failed attempt to seduce him. But my real reason for posting is to see if anyone can recommend any secondary literature about the Snopes trilogy. I have a book of annotations of The Hamlet, which is helpful because I know so little about American history and culture and even language. But I have nothing on The Town or The Mansion.

I see that Jefferson County Mississippi exists, and is presumably related to Faulkner's town. Wiki talks about how it was in something called The Antebellum South. This is a new concept for me, and I'd like to know more if it impacts what Faulkner was talking about. This is why I need secondary literature. I've just never studied America before.

I have, amazingly, actually been to Mississippi -- to Jackson -- where I ate grits and biscuits and gravy for the first time (and in the case of grits, the last!)

Yoknapatawpha country and it's capital city Jefferson, in Faulkner's work, is thought to be based on Lafayette county, Mississippi, and the city of Oxford, where Faulkner lived.

I am originally from The Bronx, New York, which not quite as distant from Frenchman's Bend as London, England, but close. I learned about Faulkner's world by reading Faulkner.

Before continuing with the Snopes trilogy you might consider Absalom, Absalom.

I stumbled on this, which might be of some use.

https://faulkner.drupal.shanti.virginia.edu
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on October 26, 2022, 11:21:01 AM
Greetings!  Wow, you have just poked into a gigantic can of worms :)

One thing you need to understand is that Faulkner's work is *deeply* interconnected with the history and culture of the American South, and is often most celebrated for the ways that it comments upon and reflects on that society in all of it's many facets - race, economics, religion, urban vs rural, modernism and 19th vs 20th century ideas of morality... there's a LOT packed into it.  Reading Faulkner without any grounding in US history will be a challenge -- I'm not saying it wouldn't be a worthwhile challenge, but it would be somewhat like reading Tolstoy if you had no prior knowledge of Russian history or culture, or didn't know who Napoleon was -- you could still likely enjoy the story and the characters and learn a lot in the process, but you'd miss an awful lot as well.

Depending on how much you want to invest in this... A good brief history of the US might be helpful as a starting point.  The antebellum period means roughly between the War of 1812 and the US Civil War in 1861 -- meaning the period when plantation slave culture was at its apex in the South.  That period is the foundation upon which the rest of Southern history rests; Faulkner's South is a place that has recently been cast down from that height, very much against its will (think of Milton's Satan bestirring himself in Hell), and one large focus of his work is on how the New South differs (or doesn't) or makes it's peace (or doesn't) or moves beyond (or doesn't) those antebellum ideas.  Sometime it's the main theme of a work, other times it's very subtly brought forward through a line of dialogue or a stray thought, but it's a thread that's almost always there if you look for it.  Which is not at all to say that this is the only thing going on in Faulkner -- like many great writers he's usually doing several things at once, in every convoluted sentence, but this is often one of them.

There are several good literary biographies of Faulkner -- Jay Parini's is fairly accessible, though it assumes that you've read many of his books.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41El907Yn+L._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

If you really want to go whole hog on the history of Yoknapatawpha county, Cleanth Brooks is the classic account:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-K-xK9oCL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I also recall this as being pretty useful back in the day...

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414+RX2MfJL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

If it makes you feel any better, I was born and raised in the US, not in the deep South but in an area very much influenced by southern culture; and I still struggle quite a bit with Faulkner sometimes.  He can be one of the most difficult writers I've ever read, but it's definitely worth the effort.

Enjoy the journey!   :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 26, 2022, 01:18:13 PM
Really helpful posts, thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 01, 2022, 12:19:34 PM
various things on the go:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s6-gXl6oL._AC_SY780_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-cx-mwrjL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51IVLZazTaL._AC_SY780_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61l98l8-96L._AC_SY580_.jpg)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348334312i/1041033.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lXlA6AvDL._AC_SY580_.jpg)


and given up on early as being all style and no substance - the same reaction I had to one of the author's previous books:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41keZ8CB28L._AC_SY580_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 10, 2022, 06:43:14 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NxjgFTvDL._AC_SY780_.jpg)

An informative and entertaining book which makes lots of points I've been making for years.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 10, 2022, 09:17:02 AM
The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ka7VHNjCL.jpg)

One remarkable thing about Iris Murdoch novels is that old, unattractive characters can conceive passionate attractions to other old, unattractive people, which can lead to irrational or immoral behavior.

In The Black Prince the central characters are Bradley Pearson, a 58 year old man who has written a single novel and is a retired Tax Inspector, and Arnold Baffin, Pearson's friend and a prolific writer who Pearson considers himself to have "discovered." Pearson considers Baffin's work to be of lesser quality, due to Baffin's high productivity, and decides that in his retirement he seclude himself at a seaside cottage and write his great work. Entanglement with Baffin, Baffin's wife and daughter, Pearson's ex-wife and his ex-wife's brother, Pearson's sister and husband keep getting in the way. As the story develops things get more and more out of control. The novel is in the form of a memoir supposedly written by Pearson.

I enjoyed the book a great deal.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 10, 2022, 11:40:56 PM
(https://www.lwcurrey.com/pictures/159510.jpg?v=1529438736)

Just finishing The Town and I feel ready to pursue it with The Mansion. But my main reason for posting is to see if anyone can refer me to some secondary literature about Faulkner and women characters. What do the feminist critics make of him?

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Faulkner was influenced by Balzac in this trilogy, and indeed elsewhere. Flem Snopes is a Balzacian character, the Rastignac of Yoknapatawpha!  But the women are enigmatic - interesting to think of Eula alongside great female literary suicides - Emma Bovary, Anna Korenina.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 11, 2022, 02:27:06 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on November 10, 2022, 09:17:02 AM
I enjoyed the book a great deal.
Thanks for this. The only Murdoch book I've read was After Claude, a stylistically fun but very strange book that delayed me exploring further. This sounds fun.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 11, 2022, 02:32:27 PM
Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending. Elizabeth Dunn.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41uGxnPrsIL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 11, 2022, 04:25:55 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 01, 2022, 12:19:34 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lXlA6AvDL._AC_SY580_.jpg)



Finished John Le Carre's A Perfect Spy.

Many have claimed this is Le Carre's masterpiece, Philip Roth going further to say it is "the best English novel since the war". I can't agree, though the novel has much to recommend it, and I was happy to have taken the time.

I've still got maybe four or five left to read, but my favorite and most admired of his would be The Little Drummer Girl. (with a shout-out for the unjustly neglected The Mission Song)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 11, 2022, 04:50:10 PM
Quote from: Brian on November 11, 2022, 02:27:06 PM
Thanks for this. The only Murdoch book I've read was After Claude, a stylistically fun but very strange book that delayed me exploring further. This sounds fun.

Only Murdoch I've ever read is A Severed Head. I have to admit sexual chaos among a bunch of upper-middle class Englishpeople didn't make me want to read more of her.

TD
While at Barnes and Noble today, I reminded myself I have no Bukowski.
So
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sryqatU6L._AC_SY780_.jpg)
A selection by John Martin of 200+ poems.
Also saw this is now available in paperbook so snagged it as well
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81EFEVUGGdL._AC_SX296_SY426_FMwebp_QL65_.jpg)
If you've never read his book on Gettysburg, I recommend it, even if you're not particularly interested in the U.S. Civil War or military history in general.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 12, 2022, 02:36:46 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 11, 2022, 02:27:06 PM
Thanks for this. The only Murdoch book I've read was After Claude, a stylistically fun but very strange book that delayed me exploring further. This sounds fun.

Despite enjoying all of the Murdoch novels I have read I find myself reluctant to "recommend" any work. The other Murdoch books I have read are The Italian Girl, Bruno's Dream and An Unofficial Rose. I used to work with a guy who would never "recommend" any piece of software. If you asked him, "can Adobe Illustrator do X?" the most you could get out of him is "I've used Adobe Illustrator to do X." I don't actually clearly remember the plots of the Murdoch books I've read, but when I get a noticed from BookBub that a the Kindle edition of a Murdoch book is on sale I inevitably get it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 12, 2022, 03:43:21 AM
Sticking to 20th century Spanish literature, revisiting the authors of my youth, with Pío Baroja's Las Inquietudes de Shanti Andía (The Restlessness of Shanti Andía). In the second volume of (now sadly defunct) publisher's Biblioteca Nueva lavish 8-volume edition of Baroja's works.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/31238060359_4.jpg) (https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/31238060359_3.jpg)

Shanti Andía is the first novel of Baroja's "Sea Trilogy" (he tended to assemble his novels in groups of three), and so far is very enjoyable: beautifully written (with a certain naïf feel to it), with components of an adventure novel but also with strongly nostalgic (but also realistic) descriptions of life in the Basque coast (so far —I'm still in the early pages, where the title character talks about his childhood).

Baroja was a leading figure in Spanish literature in the first half of the last century. Ernest Hemingway visited him at his deathbed in Madrid in October 1956 (and made sure there were journalists and photographers present  ;)). He said something to the effect that Baroja should have been awarded the Nobel prize instead of many others (including himself). Apparently, Baroja was rather confused, didn't quite understand who that foreigner was, and just wanted to be left in peace.  :D

Here they are during that visit:

(https://diario16.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Hemingwaybaroja.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 12, 2022, 04:42:50 AM
Quote from: ritter on November 12, 2022, 03:43:21 AM
Sticking to 20th century Spanish literature, revisiting the authors of my youth, with Pío Baroja's Las Inquietudes de Shanti Andía (The Restlessness of Shanti Andía). In the second volume of (now sadly defunct) publisher's Biblioteca Nueva lavish 8-volume edition of Baroja's works.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/31238060359_4.jpg) (https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/31238060359_3.jpg)

Shanti Andía is the first novel of Baroja's "Sea Trilogy" (he tended to assemble his novels in groups of three), and so far is very enjoyable: beautifully written (with a certain naïf feel to it), with components of an adventure novel but also with strongly nostalgic (but also realistic) descriptions of life in the Basque coast (so far —I'm still in the early pages, where the title character talks about his childhood).

Have and have read this one too in Romanian translation:

(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/65983-0-240.jpeg)

(the Romanian title would translate in French as Les péripéties de Shanti Andia).

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 14, 2022, 08:32:26 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/0195148835.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SX500_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 16, 2022, 08:19:49 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 10, 2022, 11:40:56 PM
(https://www.lwcurrey.com/pictures/159510.jpg?v=1529438736)

Just finishing The Town and I feel ready to pursue it with The Mansion. But my main reason for posting is to see if anyone can refer me to some secondary literature about Faulkner and women characters. What do the feminist critics make of him?

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Faulkner was influenced by Balzac in this trilogy, and indeed elsewhere. Flem Snopes is a Balzacian character, the Rastignac of Yoknapatawpha!  But the women are enigmatic - interesting to think of Eula alongside great female literary suicides - Emma Bovary, Anna Korenina.

Abandoned hal way through. I think Faulkner lost the knack of writing in it.  Maybe all late Faulkner is weaker than the first novels -- and the later you get, the weaker it becomes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 16, 2022, 09:31:10 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 16, 2022, 08:19:49 AM
Abandoned hal way through. I think Faulkner lost the knack of writing in it.  Maybe all late Faulkner is weaker than the first novels -- and the later you get, the weaker it becomes.

I'm sorry you didn't find the Mansion compelling. My own reaction to the Snopes trilogy is that the first book is very direct and that the final installments, written many years later, are somewhat disjointed in their connection with the The Hamlet, but rewarding in their way. I personally don't agree with your suggestion of a monotonic decline of quality if Faulkner's writing. I wouldn't suggest anyone try to read straight through Faulkner. I've spent months or years before feeling I am ready for another encounter with Faulkner
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 16, 2022, 09:42:15 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on November 16, 2022, 09:31:10 AM
I'm sorry you didn't find the Mansion compelling. My own reaction to the Snopes trilogy is that the first book is very direct and that the final installments, written many years later, are somewhat disjointed in their connection with the The Hamlet, but rewarding in their way. I personally don't agree with your suggestion of a monotonic decline of quality if Faulkner's writing. I wouldn't suggest anyone try to read straight through Faulkner. I've spent months or years before feeling I am ready for another encounter with Faulkner

One thing that started to frustrate me is the lack of a feminine voice. I wanna see inside Eula's head! Re late Faulkner, have you read The Fable?  The reason I suggested a deterioration is that I felt that The Town was rather successful, but maybe you're right, maybe I've ODed on Faulkner.

Mink is a strange person - is he mad?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 21, 2022, 04:35:39 AM
Night Boat to Tangier, Kevin Barry

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MHlYN-sVL.jpg)

Two middle-aged Irish men, Maurice and Charlie wait in a ferry terminal in Spain, acting on a tip that the estranged daughter Dilly may be passing through the terminal, involved in some illicit activity. At first we listen to their seemingly banal conversation, but as the novel unfolds in flashbacks we learn of their back story, involving sordid relationships and drug trafficking. Compelling.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on November 22, 2022, 06:54:20 AM
So far The Golden Bowl has surpassed my highest expectations. James's prose is very subtle and ambiguous, much like Thomas Mann's prose although at the same time also very different. I'm roughly 1/3 through.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 22, 2022, 08:39:57 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on November 22, 2022, 06:54:20 AM
So far The Golden Bowl has surpassed my highest expectations. James's prose is very subtle and ambiguous, much like Thomas Mann's prose although at the same time also very different. I'm roughly 1/3 through.

I'm glad you like it. Just at the level of style, I love the long rich metaphors. And the tensions, the complexity of the relationships - very special stuff.

I am sure I will never forget in all my life the spooky chapter where they go into the little shop and find the golden bowl.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 23, 2022, 02:15:10 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 22, 2022, 08:39:57 AMI'm glad you like it. Just at the level of style, I love the long rich metaphors. And the tensions, the complexity of the relationships - very special stuff.

I am sure I will never forget in all my life the spooky chapter where they go into the little shop and find the golden bowl.



I read it ages ago, perhaps time to return to James.

Note added: I already downloaded the free Kindle edition of The Golden Bowl, and got lost in the third or forth sentence. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 23, 2022, 12:25:14 PM
Henery James is not kindle-able. You need the ritual of opening the book, smell the paper, flick forward and back, measure how long you've got to  to the next chapter. You have to hold it in your hand and stare at it until its meaning dawns. It's a lot easier for me than Falkner, perhaps because I understand Edwardian English better than Mississippi-ese! How can you resist this sort of metaphor for the effect of a daughter's marriage on the life of her father?

 It was as if his son-in-law's presence, even from before his becoming his son-in-law, had somehow filled the scene and blocked the future—very richly and handsomely, when all was said, not at all inconveniently or in ways not to have been desired: inasmuch as though the Prince, his measure now practically taken, was still pretty much the same "big fact," the sky had lifted, the horizon receded, the very foreground itself expanded, quite to match him, quite to keep everything in comfortable scale. At first, certainly, their decent little old-time union, Maggie's and his own, had resembled a good deal some pleasant public square, in the heart of an old city, into which a great Palladian church, say—something with a grand architectural front—had suddenly been dropped; so that the rest of the place, the space in front, the way round, outside, to the east end, the margin of street and passage, the quantity of over-arching heaven, had been temporarily compromised. Not even then, of a truth, in a manner disconcerting—given, that is, for the critical, or at least the intelligent, eye, the great style of the facade and its high place in its class. The phenomenon that had since occurred, whether originally to have been pronounced calculable or not, had not, naturally, been the miracle of a night, but had taken place so gradually, quietly, easily, that from this vantage of wide, wooded Fawns, with its eighty rooms, as they said, with its spreading park, with its acres and acres of garden and its majesty of artificial lake—though that, for a person so familiar with the "great" ones, might be rather ridiculous—no visibility of transition showed, no violence of adjustment, in retrospect, emerged. The Palladian church was always there, but the piazza took care of itself. The sun stared down in his fulness, the air circulated, and the public not less; the limit stood off, the way round was easy, the east end was as fine, in its fashion, as the west, and there were also side doors for entrance, between the two—large, monumental, ornamental, in their style—as for all proper great churches. By some such process, in fine, had the Prince, for his father-in-law, while remaining solidly a feature, ceased to be, at all ominously, a block.

Or a successful American businessman's realisation that he is, in fact, an aesthete, and that he must dedicate himself to the pursuit of the finest, the most beautiful

Over and above the signal fact of the impression made on Maggie herself, the aspirant to his daughter's hand showed somehow the great marks and signs, stood before him with the high authenticities, he had learned to look for in pieces of the first order. Adam Verver knew, by this time, knew thoroughly; no man in Europe or in America, he privately believed, was less capable, in such estimates, of vulgar mistakes. He had never spoken of himself as infallible—it was not his way; but, apart from the natural affections, he had acquainted himself with no greater joy, of the intimately personal type, than the joy of his originally coming to feel, and all so unexpectedly, that he had in him the spirit of the connoisseur. He had, like many other persons, in the course of his reading, been struck with Keats's sonnet about stout Cortez in the presence of the Pacific; but few persons, probably, had so devoutly fitted the poet's grand image to a fact of experience. It consorted so with Mr. Verver's consciousness of the way in which, at a given moment, he had stared at HIS Pacific, that a couple of perusals of the immortal lines had sufficed to stamp them in his memory. His "peak in Darien" was the sudden hour that had transformed his life, the hour of his perceiving with a mute inward gasp akin to the low moan of apprehensive passion, that a world was left him to conquer and that he might conquer it if he tried. It had been a turning of the page of the book of life—as if a leaf long inert had moved at a touch and, eagerly reversed, had made such a stir of the air as sent up into his face the very breath of the Golden Isles. To rifle the Golden Isles had, on the spot, become the business of his future, and with the sweetness of it—what was most wondrous of all—still more even in the thought than in the act. The thought was that of the affinity of Genius, or at least of Taste, with something in himself—with the dormant intelligence of which he had thus almost violently become aware and that affected him as changing by a mere revolution of the screw his whole intellectual plane. He was equal, somehow, with the great seers, the invokers and encouragers of beauty—and he didn't after all perhaps dangle so far below the great producers and creators. He had been nothing of that kind before-too decidedly, too dreadfully not; but now he saw why he had been what he had, why he had failed and fallen short even in huge success; now he read into his career, in one single magnificent night, the immense meaning it had waited for.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 23, 2022, 07:17:05 PM
I need to remember not to read The Golden Bowl (is that the book those quotes are from?)...
Seriously, those quotes are exactly why I rarely get along with James: it ranges round so much and veers into so many tangents that the idea it means to convey gets lost in the hubbub.

They're not stream of conciousness: they don't really track the character's thoughts, rather they track the author (or the supposed omniscient third person narrator).

I understand why American Southern vernacular might be an obstacle, but Faulkner hardly ever does that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 23, 2022, 11:15:44 PM
Quote from: JBS on November 23, 2022, 07:17:05 PMThey're not stream of conciousness: they don't really track the character's thoughts, rather they track the author (or the supposed omniscient third person narrator).



It would be really interesting to compare James in Golden Bowl and Faulkner in Part 4 of The Sound and the Fury. Faulkner seems to have a go at doing the stream of consciousness thing, for white men only. It seems true that in both Faulkner as in James we're often faced with interpretation "from the outside" of a character at the most pregnant, crucial moments  - we have to make sense of his motivations from his actions and words. In a sense, that makes understanding their motivations rather like understanding real life others. And I would argue that the James approach to narration is very appropriate in so far as his aim is the exploration of tricky and subtle moral problems.

To give two examples from Faulkner, where what I say may be disputed, I'll mention Eula's suicide in The Town and Benji and Jason's actions at the end of Chapter 4 of The Sound and the Fury.

(The "game" in The Town of Ratliff's and Gavin Stevens's attempts to make sense of why Flem Snopes moved his own money out of de Spain's bank is also relevant -- I need to think about it.)



Quote from: JBS on November 23, 2022, 07:17:05 PMI need to remember not to read The Golden Bowl (is that the book those quotes are from?)...
Seriously, those quotes are exactly why I rarely get along with James: it ranges round so much and veers into so many tangents that the idea it means to convey gets lost in the hubbub.



I don't agree that the idea gets lost. James makes the idea sublime. It's a poem.

There are extremely elaborate and extended metaphors in Faulkner I think  - for example, the comparison of Eula with a goddess, a spirit. But of course, the two authors are different.


Quote from: JBS on November 23, 2022, 07:17:05 PMI understand why American Southern vernacular might be an obstacle, but Faulkner hardly ever does that.


Well, what sort of vernacular does Ratliff speak in the Snopes novels? Or the preacher in The Sound and the Fury? These are both Faulknerian characters I have pained reading!

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 24, 2022, 03:54:56 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 23, 2022, 11:15:44 PMWell, what sort of vernacular does Ratliff speak in the Snopes novels? Or the preacher in The Sound and the Fury? These are both Faulknerian characters I have pained reading!



It's been a long time since I read those. I don't remember enough to answer your question. But Southern revival preaching has a distinct rhetorical style.

But when I said "Faulkner hardly ever does that"--well, the last part of Sound and Fury is one of the places were he does do "that".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on November 24, 2022, 04:30:25 AM
My favorite characters in The Golden Bowl are The Assingham couple, especially Fanny whose analyzing of the main characters' motives makes one think she is (genderflipped) stand-in for the author. Then there is also The question of whether she actually knows what she's doing when trying to help them or whether she's panicking out of guilt and desperation because she inadvertently is causing an affair to happen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 24, 2022, 04:56:20 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 23, 2022, 12:25:14 PMHenery James is not kindle-able. You need the ritual of opening the book, smell the paper, flick forward and back, measure how long you've got to  to the next chapter. You have to hold it in your hand and stare at it until its meaning dawns. It's a lot easier for me than Falkner, perhaps because I understand Edwardian English better than Mississippi-ese! How can you resist this sort of metaphor for the effect of a daughter's marriage on the life of her father?
...

I never found the smell of the book enhanced appreciation of literature. The only time I recall noticing a distinct smell was when it was a moldy old volume from a used book store.

What is clear now is that I won't be able to read James except at a point when I have ample time, which isn't going to happen, regrettably.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 24, 2022, 07:26:49 AM
I'll mention something about The Golden Bowl. There's an audio book on YouTube. It really is complete, and it's read straight - an amateur and not an actor, and almost certainly someone who loves it. You'd have to love it to volunteer for the task.


I think it's very good, and if anyone wants to read it they could do far worse than to read a chapter, follow it with a chapter on the audio book etc etc.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 24, 2022, 07:04:01 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 24, 2022, 07:26:49 AMI'll mention something about The Golden Bowl. There's an audio book on YouTube. It really is complete, and it's read straight - an amateur and not an actor, and almost certainly someone who loves it. You'd have to love it to volunteer for the task.


I think it's very good, and if anyone wants to read it they could do far worse than to read a chapter, follow it with a chapter on the audio book etc etc.



Seems inconsistent that you think it is impossible to appreciate James on a Kindle, as opposed to a physical book, but an audio recording is ok. How do you absorb those three-page sentences an an audio recording? You'd need a cue n every comma. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 24, 2022, 07:19:08 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on November 24, 2022, 07:04:01 PMSeems inconsistent that you think it is impossible to appreciate James on a Kindle, as opposed to a physical book, but an audio recording is ok. How do you absorb those three-page sentences an an audio recording? You'd need a cue n every comma. :)

It does. I have a big problem about reading certain things in Kindle - academic pieces, books where you want to go back and forth like this one. Kindle is too clunky, and I've never found an e-reader with faster hardware. But when you listen to an audiobook, you're forced to abandon any thought of going back to a passage. You're almost forced to go forward at the pace of the narration, you have to submit to that pace. And that can be quite a good experience, though certainly not the best one if you want to understand.  I think sometimes the audiobook can give you the general gist of the chapter, which you then refine and polish up by reading the book.

I like kindle for popular fiction. Stuff where you just start at page 1 and work forward to the end. Anything else, and as I say, it's just too clunky. But there's not the sense of submission to another person's chosen pace like in an audiobook, so . . .

A tablet is maybe better, and I use them for pdfs. But I don't like the glare . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 24, 2022, 07:30:23 PM
(https://www.charlesagvent.com/pictures/medium/016222.jpg)

(Using kindle)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 24, 2022, 07:37:27 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 24, 2022, 07:19:08 PMIt does. I have a big problem about reading certain things in Kindle - academic pieces, books where you want to go back and forth like this one. Kindle is too clunky, and I've never found an e-reader with faster hardware. But when you listen to an audiobook, you're forced to abandon any thought of going back to a passage. You're almost forced to go forward at the pace of the narration, you have to submit to that pace. And that can be quite a good experience, though certainly not the best one if you want to understand.  I think sometimes the audiobook can give you the general gist of the chapter, which you then refine and polish up by reading the book.

I like kindle for popular fiction. Stuff where you just start at page 1 and work forward to the end. Anything else, and as I say, it's just too clunky. But there's not the sense of submission to another person's chosen pace like in an audiobook, so . . .

A tablet is maybe better, and I use them for pdfs. But I don't like the glare . . .


It's not that I don't know what you mean. In a way there is nothing more effective than your thumb to hold a place in a book that you want to go back to. But Kindle has its advantages, like when a character name appears and you say to yourself, "who the hell is that," and in kindle you can search and find the first appearance.

It's been years since I used an actual kindle. I use the kindle app on iPad and it is very responsive and has an elegant way to scan through pages. With my life as it is, if I had to read paper books only I just wouldn't read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 24, 2022, 07:45:45 PM
I find kindle software on my Samsung phone very good when I'm travelling. And yes iPad is better for kindle than the Amazon hardware. But there's the glare and I find that the light, is it blue light, stops me from falling asleep.  I spoke to Amazon to see if they have a faster e-reader, but they said no.

I think part of the problem is that the way they implement the fonts makes page refresh very resource consuming. And for me searching on an Amazon kindle reader is often painful - entering texts. I really hate the kindle e-reader, apart for reading light fiction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 24, 2022, 08:41:59 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 24, 2022, 07:45:45 PMI think part of the problem is that the way they implement the fonts makes page refresh very resource consuming. And for me searching on an Amazon kindle reader is often painful - entering texts. I really hate the kindle e-reader, apart for reading light fiction.

I think the issue is that the paper-white display is not like an LCD, it physically moves pigment particles to draw the screen, and that isn't fast. There is some advantage to it if you are trying to read in sunlight, otherwise iPad (and iPhone) work best for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 24, 2022, 11:29:22 PM
If anyone knows of a faster e-reader, then please let me know.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 25, 2022, 04:01:35 AM
Steinbeck, Cannery Row, a quick read (especially since circumstances afforded me a larger than usual chance to use my Kindle).

I read this book out of nostalgia for central California. The action takes place on and around Ocean View Boulevard in Monterey California, which at the time (the 1930's) was the site of an array of Sardine canneries. Steinbeck expresses admiration for the passions and disorder of the people who struggle to make a meager living in the shadow of the canneries, particularly Doc, a marine biologist who runs a business selling samples of marine animals, and Mack, the leader of a group of vagrants squatting in an abandoned warehouse. Ironically, the canneries have since been replaced by fancy hotels and restaurants and Monterey has become a playground of the wealthy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 25, 2022, 03:17:53 PM
This quickie:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.99be92d4d0d63be467deeed7dbdaf9e3?rik=ou7nlF%2bISILkrw&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)

And this biggie:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ttInmmHRL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: USMC1960s on November 30, 2022, 08:37:14 AM
Reading Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov. 800+ pages but easy reading compared to Dickens or even Hugo or Dumas.
But tedious at times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Klavierman on November 30, 2022, 10:30:46 AM
(https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51z61DcxIRL._SY346_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 07, 2022, 12:43:11 PM
Not yet reading, but just bought: Thomas Mann - Complete Short Stories & Novellas, Romanian translation in two volumes.

(https://humanitas.ro/assets/images/products/Moartea-la-Venetia1.jpg) (https://humanitas.ro/assets/images/products/Mario-si-vrajitorul.jpg)

Covers read: Nobel Prize for Literature - Death in Venice, Mario and the Wizard - Short Stories

Would it be a good idea to start a new thread, "Books Purchased Today"?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 07, 2022, 01:05:21 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 07, 2022, 12:43:11 PMWould it be a good idea to start a new thread, "Books Purchased Today"?

What a splendid idea! (https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,32140.0.html)  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 07, 2022, 01:41:30 PM
Just finished this curiosity:

(https://s13emagst.akamaized.net/products/31051/31050982/images/res_da23bb88e96e03c904b0eff4c4591113.jpg)

Marie of Romania (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_of_Romania) - Masks (A Novel of an Impossible Love)

A saccharine, sentimental novel, set in post-WWI Romania and Constantinople, yet not entirely implausible and stylistically very well written --- astonishingly so actually, considering Romanian was not her native language. She (as queen consort) and King Michael (her grandson) were the two most popular royals in the whole history of the Kingdom of Romania (1866-1947).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 07, 2022, 01:51:35 PM
Quote from: Dave B on November 30, 2022, 08:37:14 AMReading Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov. 800+ pages but easy reading compared to Dickens or even Hugo or Dumas.
But tedious at times.

Big fan of Dostoevsky, but never been a fan of Karamazov.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on December 08, 2022, 02:52:17 AM
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of he Dead, Olga Tokarczuk.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51OOAJce5LL._SY346_.jpg)

This book is something of a literary detective story. It involves a series of deaths in an isolated village in Poland. The central character is a woman in late middle age who has a great respect for nature and wildlife. Also important is her circle of eccentric friends. The first death is a neighbor who has choked on a lamb bone. This is followed by a series of deaths in strange circumstances, all of which have a mysterious connection to wildlife and possible local government corruption. It seemed a bit preachy and political until the conclusion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on December 08, 2022, 03:03:40 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on December 08, 2022, 02:52:17 AMDrive Your Plow Over the Bones of he Dead, Olga Tokarczuk.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51OOAJce5LL._SY346_.jpg)

This book is something of a literary detective story. It involves a series of deaths in an isolated village in Poland. The central character is a woman in late middle age who has a great respect for nature and wildlife. Also important is her circle of eccentric friends. The first death is a neighbor who has choked on a lamb bone. This is followed by a series of deaths in strange circumstances, all of which have a mysterious connection to wildlife and possible local government corruption. It seemed a bit preachy and political until the conclusion.

It sounds interesting.  I did a (very quick) googling of her name.  Interesting to read that she has a background in clinical psychology and also worked as a psychotherapist before dedicating herself fully to writing.

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on December 08, 2022, 03:40:46 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on December 08, 2022, 03:03:40 AMIt sounds interesting.  I did a (very quick) googling of her name.  Interesting to read that she has a background in clinical psychology and also worked as a psychotherapist before dedicating herself fully to writing.

Reading this book I had the impression that storytelling was secondary to a political message, but it came together in the end. I'm thinking of seeking out more works by Tokarczuk.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on December 08, 2022, 03:42:01 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 07, 2022, 01:51:35 PMBig fan of Dostoevsky, but never been a fan of Karamazov.

I thought it Karamazov was brilliant the first time I read it, tedious the second time, brilliant the third time. I think my favorite book by Dostoyevsky is The Idiot.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on December 08, 2022, 04:36:40 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on December 08, 2022, 03:54:38 AMInteresting.  I generally give any book that I'm not enjoying about 80 pages to win me over, in case it's a question of getting used to the authorial voice.  But I did give up on this one.  In spite of the promising premise, something about the writing made it seem just too much of a slog.

Yes, it is a bit like Melville's Moby Dick, and the elaborate descriptions of whale fishing technology.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 08, 2022, 04:38:20 PM
Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein. Abraham Pais.



(https://originindia.oup.com/covers/pop-up/9780198839446)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 09, 2022, 02:39:30 PM
Started:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.5b89d81a7b813c5045be348fcffb07e2?rik=JCpYGcncnNzBBA&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)

publisher's synopsis:

"Reporter Sally Hayden was at home in London when she received a message on Facebook: "Hi sister Sally, we need your help." The sender identified himself as an Eritrean refugee who had been held in a Libyan detention center for months, locked in one big hall with hundreds of others. Now, the city around them was crumbling in a scrimmage between warring factions, and they remained stuck, defenseless, with only one remaining hope: contacting her. Hayden had inadvertently stumbled onto a human rights disaster of epic proportions.

From this single message begins a staggering account of the migrant crisis across North Africa, in a groundbreaking work of investigative journalism. With unprecedented access to people currently inside Libyan detention centers, Hayden's book is based on interviews with hundreds of refugees and migrants who tried to reach Europe and found themselves stuck in Libya once the EU started funding interceptions in 2017.

It is an intimate portrait of life for these detainees, as well as a condemnation of NGOs and the United Nations, whose abdication of international standards will echo throughout history. But most importantly, My Fourth Time, We Drowned shines a light on the resilience of humans: how refugees and migrants locked up for years fall in love, support each other through the hardest times, and carry out small acts of resistance in order to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear."

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 10, 2022, 07:09:05 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on December 08, 2022, 03:40:46 AMReading this book I had the impression that storytelling was secondary to a political message, but it came together in the end. I'm thinking of seeking out more works by Tokarczuk.

My exact same thoughts after reading that book. However, it didn't make me explore the author further.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on December 15, 2022, 02:21:54 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on November 25, 2022, 04:01:35 AMSteinbeck, Cannery Row, a quick read (especially since circumstances afforded me a larger than usual chance to use my Kindle).

I read this book out of nostalgia for central California. The action takes place on and around Ocean View Boulevard in Monterey California, which at the time (the 1930's) was the site of an array of Sardine canneries. Steinbeck expresses admiration for the passions and disorder of the people who struggle to make a meager living in the shadow of the canneries, particularly Doc, a marine biologist who runs a business selling samples of marine animals, and Mack, the leader of a group of vagrants squatting in an abandoned warehouse. Ironically, the canneries have since been replaced by fancy hotels and restaurants and Monterey has become a playground of the wealthy.

Steinbeck is near and dear to me. It was his Travels with Charley which fired my interest in non- fiction, after years of reading only Sci-Fi and music-related publications.

To any who haven't read Steinbeck's non- fiction, I recommend both Travels with Charley and The Log from The Sea of Cortez.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on December 15, 2022, 03:11:53 AM
Quote from: LKB on December 15, 2022, 02:21:54 AMSteinbeck is near and dear to me. It was his Travels with Charley which fired my interest in non- fiction, after years of reading only Sci-Fi and music-related publications.

To any who haven't read Steinbeck's non- fiction, I recommend both Travels with Charley and The Log from The Sea of Cortez.

I'll admit never having explored Steinbeck's non-fiction, although it is on my list.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 16, 2022, 01:05:20 PM
History of My Life. Giacomo/Jacques Casanova.
Annual revisit.


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780801856662-us.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 16, 2022, 01:29:28 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 16, 2022, 01:05:20 PMHistory of My Life. Giacomo/Jacques Casanova.
Annual revisit.



Annual?!  How many times have you read it?


Acouple of other things still on the go, but decided to do a second read of this and knocked it off in a couple of sittings. Still highly impressed, and would be among the first books I'd recommend to anyone new to Auster:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51S6UTHEjgL._AC_SY780_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 17, 2022, 06:02:37 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 16, 2022, 01:29:28 PMAnnual?!  How many times have you read it?


Acouple of other things still on the go, but decided to do a second read of this and knocked it off in a couple of sittings. Still highly impressed, and would be among the first books I'd recommend to anyone new to Auster:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51S6UTHEjgL._AC_SY780_.jpg)

I read it more than 10 times. Same for Hesse, Stendhal, Dostoyevsky, my doctoral dissertation, etc..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 17, 2022, 11:25:19 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 17, 2022, 06:02:37 AMI read it more than 10 times. Same for Hesse, Stendhal, Dostoyevsky, my doctoral dissertation, etc..

What was it about to cover such a prima facie diverse range of prose writers?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 17, 2022, 11:55:33 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 17, 2022, 11:25:19 AMWhat was it about to cover such a prima facie diverse range of prose writers?


They have been my favorite authors since I was around 12-3 y/o. Protagonists tend to live in a dilemma between social norms and philosophical/aesthetic beliefs. Plus their works present exciting, entertaining plots. Tolstoy used to be in the group when I was a kid, but not anymore.

P.s. I still recommend Red and Black to you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 17, 2022, 12:20:43 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 17, 2022, 11:55:33 AMProtagonists tend to live in a dilemma between social norms and philosophical/aesthetic beliefs.


Ah. I see.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 18, 2022, 01:34:06 PM
Demiurge - Lovecraftian stories by Michael Shea
Paperback Jack by Loren Estleman (novel)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on December 19, 2022, 11:47:18 PM
Has anybody read E.M. Forster? I have "Passage to India" but thought to warm up with a collection of short stories. All written prior to WWI, much to my surprise decidedly weird with elements of supernatural. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on December 20, 2022, 12:11:12 AM
Quote from: Irons on December 19, 2022, 11:47:18 PMHas anybody read E.M. Forster? I have "Passage to India" but thought to warm up with a collection of short stories. All written prior to WWI, much to my surprise decidedly weird with elements of supernatural. 
My wife really enjoyed 'A Passage to India' I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: MN Dave on December 20, 2022, 06:49:53 AM
A Case of Conscience- James Blish (sf)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on December 20, 2022, 07:22:46 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on December 20, 2022, 12:11:12 AMMy wife really enjoyed 'A Passage to India' I think.

Although I cannot claim to be in any shape or form a bookworm I enjoy the BBC TV programme Between the Covers the presenter Sara Cox is brilliant. One of the guests in an episode claimed Forster's book "Howards End" was life changing! :o 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on December 20, 2022, 11:42:39 AM
Quote from: Irons on December 19, 2022, 11:47:18 PMHas anybody read E.M. Forster? I have "Passage to India" but thought to warm up with a collection of short stories. All written prior to WWI, much to my surprise decidedly weird with elements of supernatural. 

I read PtI and HE years ago. I'd say both are very good, but I preferHE slightly.

The Merchant/Ivory film of HE was excellent, but Forster's style is the sort that needs to be read, and doesn't translate well to film.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on December 21, 2022, 12:25:51 AM
Quote from: JBS on December 20, 2022, 11:42:39 AMI read PtI and HE years ago. I'd say both are very good, but I preferHE slightly.

The Merchant/Ivory film of HE was excellent, but Forster's style is the sort that needs to be read, and doesn't translate well to film.

Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on December 21, 2022, 11:52:12 AM
'Soul Therapy' by Thomas Moore
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 21, 2022, 12:35:35 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 07, 2022, 12:43:11 PMNot yet reading, but just bought: Thomas Mann - Complete Short Stories & Novellas, Romanian translation in two volumes.

(https://humanitas.ro/assets/images/products/Moartea-la-Venetia1.jpg)

Started the first volume. So far, so good. Mann's themes are recognizable, albeit on a smaller scale than in his novels --- the main one, which I think was his obsession, being the conflict between art and life, aesthetics and ethics. When I was younger, I was decidedly in favor of art; now that I just turned 50, I am decidedly in favor of life.  ;D 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on December 24, 2022, 07:02:14 AM
Passing On, Penelope Lively.

The book begins with the funeral of a domineering mother and describes how her three children, Louise, Edward and Helen, come to live out of her shadow. Not quite as "literary" as my usual fare, but I needed something relatively light at present.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on December 24, 2022, 08:10:01 AM
Started relatively recently Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse. If I recall correctly, the only other Woolf work I've read is Orlando.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 24, 2022, 08:56:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 21, 2022, 12:35:35 PMStarted the first volume. So far, so good. Mann's themes are recognizable, albeit on a smaller scale than in his novels --- the main one, which I think was his obsession, being the conflict between art and life, aesthetics and ethics. When I was younger, I was decidedly in favor of art; now that I just turned 50, I am decidedly in favor of life.  ;D 

While Death in Venice is great, Tonio Kroeger is very good as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on December 24, 2022, 01:09:57 PM
A dark, gritty, and violent novel about revenge. The title suggests this is not a fun, light read, and it isn't, but it's still very compelling.
(https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1493-1/%7BA2DF4DCE-0DE9-405B-8DA7-2BB1C2C139FD%7DImg100.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 26, 2022, 11:58:05 AM
Quote from: The new erato on October 04, 2022, 07:49:55 AMI have read a couple of novels by Jenny Erpenbeck recently. Very powerful stuff with a strong connection to central European history.
Thank you for this recommendation. I am just on the final chapter of Visitation (in German, Heimsuchung). Her style is powerful, the stories are very emotional even with a somewhat detached tone. There is a way in which one is like the other, so that the first ones are best and most surprising (before you understand that each one contains a tragic mystery fully revealed at the end). But it has been a memorable reading experience. At only 150 pages, it has the strength and importance of something much longer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 26, 2022, 08:05:05 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 26, 2022, 05:49:53 PMI love the book, movie, and movie soundtrack, but didn't know about this!

Revisiting it last night I felt that it was really difficult, all the stuff about writing especially. I'd quite like to read some secondary literature but I don't know what's good and what's not. Maybe @ritter has some ideas.  She didn't approve of the film - I've not seen it.

It also made me think how poor other writers of autofiction are by comparison - Annie Ernaux especially - I can't understand how Ernaux deserves a Nobel Prize.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 27, 2022, 05:46:30 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 26, 2022, 08:05:05 PMRevisiting it last night I felt that it was really difficult, all the stuff about writing especially. I'd quite like to read some secondary literature but I don't know what's good and what's not. Maybe @ritter has some ideas.  She didn't approve of the film - I've not seen it.

It also made me think how poor other writers of autofiction are by comparison - Annie Ernaux especially - I can't understand how Ernaux deserves a Nobel Prize.



Yes the story is fragmented and dispersed. But I liked her views and expressions. I watched the movie before reading the book, and probably Jeanne Moreau's narration helped me. I respect Duras disapproval, but the movie is fairly excellent by the standard of European and American popular films today. Good cinematography, nice music, and again, good narrations from the original book. Chopin Waltz is effectively used at the end of the movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on December 27, 2022, 06:40:21 AM
My exposure to Annie Ernaux has been very limited so far. I read only one of her novels translated into Russian language. I've been very much impressed by her direct writing style. Happening was easily one of the best books I read this year.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 27, 2022, 07:35:00 PM
Quote from: Artem on December 27, 2022, 06:40:21 AMMy exposure to Annie Ernaux has been very limited so far. I read only one of her novels translated into Russian language. I've been very much impressed by her direct writing style. Happening was easily one of the best books I read this year.

"Direct writing style" is the right phrase.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on December 27, 2022, 08:14:01 PM
Quote from: Artem on December 27, 2022, 06:40:21 AMMy exposure to Annie Ernaux has been very limited so far. I read only one of her novels translated into Russian language. I've been very much impressed by her direct writing style. Happening was easily one of the best books I read this year.

Just acquired the Kindle Edition (English translation).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: relm1 on December 28, 2022, 04:37:06 PM
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Homo Deus (https://www.amazon.com/Homo-Deus-Brief-History-Tomorrow/dp/0062464310?)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on December 29, 2022, 03:31:16 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 24, 2022, 08:56:39 AMWhile Death in Venice is great, Tonio Kroeger is very good as well.
When I was in school around 1990, Tonio Kroeger was the "standard" assigned reading for Thomas Mann. I guess, DiV was a bit "too gay" for some tastes at the time, but it was probably read as well in some schools.
The longer novels were usually way too long for a standard German literature class (although some more advanced/specialized classes could have done one of them as well).
Among the shorter stories and novellas there are a few very funny ones, e.g. "Das Wunderkind" (The child prodigy), also "Wälsungenblut" (almost a satire on Wagner, it used to have a few antisemitic undertones that might have been purged in more recent editions).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Herman on January 03, 2023, 03:03:41 AM
Having watched the Baumbach movie I am rereading, after all these years, Don DeLillo's White Noise.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on January 04, 2023, 08:21:27 AM
Ring Resounding
again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 07, 2023, 03:03:46 PM
Started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/WEBP_402378-T1/images/I/51bnGCfiBVL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on January 07, 2023, 05:23:17 PM
Quote from: Valentino on January 04, 2023, 08:21:27 AMRing Resounding
again.

That one's a lot of fun. Love it when Culshaw recounts the recording of Das Rheingold's coda.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on January 09, 2023, 07:07:23 AM
There's always a harp problem in Vienna.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on January 09, 2023, 08:15:23 AM
In the past I've read a lot of Joyce Carol Oats, but sort of saturated. Everyone once in a while I miss her "story coming at you like a firehose" style and return. Just finished a collection of macabre stores, "The Doll Master." Impressive.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51P24wjy-6L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 09, 2023, 08:19:16 AM
On January 1 I started a "project" read, Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 12, 2023, 04:32:57 PM
Along with a couple of other things on the go am half way through this excellent and blood-boiling book:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516OzOZbwWL._AC_SY1000_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on January 13, 2023, 09:53:17 AM
Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

Another Steinbeck novel that I had never read. It is the story of two men traveling in depression era rural California, working as itinerant ranch hands. George is small and intelligent, though uneducated, Lenny is large, strong and intellectually disabled. The story reaches a climax when they tangle with the insecure, slightly sadistic son of the owner of the ranch where they are employed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on January 13, 2023, 12:21:33 PM
Schadenfreude
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on January 13, 2023, 12:51:05 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on January 13, 2023, 12:21:33 PMSchadenfreude

Schadenfreude schön.

You are a glutton for it, no? :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on January 13, 2023, 01:29:25 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on January 13, 2023, 12:51:05 PMSchadenfreude schön.

You are a glutton for it, no? :)
Yes  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on January 13, 2023, 04:24:50 PM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on January 13, 2023, 09:53:17 AMSteinbeck, Of Mice and Men

Another Steinbeck novel that I had never read. It is the story of two men traveling in depression era rural California, working as itinerant ranch hands. George is small and intelligent, though uneducated, Lenny is large, strong and intellectually disabled. The story reaches a climax when they tangle with the insecure, slightly sadistic son of the owner of the ranch where they are employed.

At the risk of being perceived as a broken record:

As good as his famed novels are, Steinbeck's non-fiction works are ( imho ) better.  ;)

That being said, Of Mice and Men is certainly worthy of the acclaim it's received over the last what, eighty years, maybe more... I haven't looked that up.

Anyway... unless non-fiction just isn't your thing ( or you've already read it ), try Travels with Charley. It broadened my literary horizons, and nothing was the same ever again.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on January 15, 2023, 08:20:21 PM
Quote from: LKB on January 13, 2023, 04:24:50 PMAt the risk of being perceived as a broken record:

As good as his famed novels are, Steinbeck's non-fiction works are ( imho ) better.  ;)

That being said, Of Mice and Men is certainly worthy of the acclaim it's received over the last what, eighty years, maybe more... I haven't looked that up.

Anyway... unless non-fiction just isn't your thing ( or you've already read it ), try Travels with Charley. It broadened my literary horizons, and nothing was the same ever again.

You are aware that you are repeating yourself, so you have one up on me. :)

I have the Library of America Steinbeck volumes, so I have the book. I'll put it next in the queue when I feel the need to return to Steinbeck. Having returned to California I find myself in a Steinbeck frame of mind.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 16, 2023, 09:29:13 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on January 13, 2023, 12:21:33 PMSchadenfreude

I wouldn't feel too much of it. Read this

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/14/boris-johnson-makes-1m-from-speeches-after-leaving-downing-street
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 21, 2023, 04:52:04 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JnOzjwSlL._SY346_.jpg)

Only intended to read the section on Adlai Stevenson, but that is so well written I'll be doing the whole book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 21, 2023, 05:01:33 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 21, 2023, 04:52:04 PM(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JnOzjwSlL._SY346_.jpg)

Only intended to read the section on Adlai Stevenson, but that is so well written I'll be doing the whole book.
Fascinating!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 21, 2023, 06:11:58 PM
What unites the six men being discussed? Is there a theme?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 21, 2023, 07:06:20 PM
Richard Nixon, In the Arena.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519tSZ11ORL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 21, 2023, 11:18:00 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 21, 2023, 06:11:58 PMWhat unites the six men being discussed? Is there a theme?

Sort of. Five of them are people he considered friends, and who, unlike many other writers, he thinks also considered him a genuine friend. The character studies are meant to be warts and all, but with love. The exception is Edward VIII, who Cooke knew only as an interviewer, and his section is meant to show a meaningful contrast with the other five.

Or at least that's what I've gleaned from the introduction.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Klavierman on January 23, 2023, 03:11:05 PM
Just started it, but so far, so good.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51i72PzDYnL._SY346_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 24, 2023, 01:25:18 PM
Hermann Hesse: Gertrude. Reread.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rzzNL1PWS._AC_SY780_.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on January 25, 2023, 07:27:13 AM
I finally finished unabridged Hugo's "Les Miserables", a project I started years ago. I somehow find it much harder to read ebook so there have been months when I haven't touched Les Miserables. Still very good though. Almost done with James's "The Golden Bowl" too (roughly 30 pages left) , which has also been an absolute blast.

Let's see if I'll pick up Les Travailleurs de la mer some day.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on January 27, 2023, 09:38:21 AM
Finished The Golden Bowl today. That ending and the book as a whole was a masterpiece in ambiguous storytelling. I think this will not be the last Henry James work I'll pick up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 27, 2023, 03:23:05 PM
Started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ItylI7DbL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Even though this is 1400 pages I can tell from the first 50 that its going to be a fast, fun read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on January 28, 2023, 09:49:57 AM
(https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/068eb10b-2549-49d8-8284-b8f6880f4294/353/569/90/False/at-the-mountains-of-madness-57.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 28, 2023, 12:13:09 PM
Currently reading:

(https://www.gallimard.fr/var/storage/images/product/de3/product_9782070758432_195x320.jpg)

André Suarès (1868-1948) was, along with Paul Claudel, André Gide and Paul Valéry, one of the leading figures of the Nouvelle Revue Française in its initial years, but has now lapsed into obscurity (compared to his distinguished peers, at least). These Remarques were published in 12 monthly instalments towards the end of WW1 (August 1917 ro July 1918), and were reissued in a single volume in facsimile form in 2000. Publishing house Gallimard aptly describes this as "Essay, political pamphlet, reaction to immediate news (Germany, Europe, the Bolshevik revolution, the papacy) are balanced with the most demanding analytical literature and the most varied creation (theatre, poetry)". Beautifully written, the articles and poems clearly reflect an intellectually alert and highly cultured personality. A pleasure to read...

...and simultaneously:

(https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/d1fa3e24-f463-4b0e-ae83-2a4eeb456507/353/569/90/False/tout-maigret-t-10.jpg)

I had never read any Simenon until now, and thought the Maigret novellas (or short stories) would be a good entry point. Some go by without leaving much of an impression, but others are small jewels (particularly, IMO,  as far as describing the settings in which the commissaire undertakes his investigations).

One thing caught my attention, though: it rains a hell of a lot wherever Mr. Maigret is  ;D .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 28, 2023, 09:49:28 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on January 28, 2023, 02:37:39 AMOh that's my Desert Island book - I have the 1896 Birrell edition in 6 volumes, which I discovered languishing unappreciated in a South London junk shop more than 30 years ago.

A lot of it comes down to whether you like Boswell as a person. No doubt his puppyish enthusiasm could be wearing at times - Johnson would occasionally snap at him for it - all of which he would faithfully record, the insults along with the affection - but there can be little doubt that he must have made a very cheerful companion.  And still does.

His London Journal 1762-1763 is a very entertaining read.  It covers the period up to his first meeting with Johnson, but is probably more famous for the "Louisa episode", in which he gives a day-by-day account of how his plan to achieve a pox-free sex life came to nothing in spectacular fashion, and has to be one of the most hilarious things ever set down in print.  It's the combination of preening self-regard - he finds himself endlessly fascinating - with the continual pratfalls and humiliation, all of it told with engaging frankness.



I'll probably be doing the London Journal not to long after finishing the Life, so its good to hear you rate it well. Have you read any of the other of the Journal volumes? I see them in secondhand shops from time to time, so should grab them. I saw the Hebrides volume just yesterday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 29, 2023, 06:03:34 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on January 29, 2023, 11:14:40 AMI have the 1766-1769 volume published under the title of Boswell In Search of a Wife, his future responsibilities as Laird of Auchinleck having begun by then to weigh upon him.  Not a straightforward quest, seeing as there cannot have been many in his social circle not fully acquainted with the details of his life, including how often he'd caught the clap.  I don't know if the word discretion was in Johnson's Dictionary, but it doesn't seem to have been in Boswell's.  His writing has an immediacy which was unusual if not unique at a time when there seems to have been a general expectation that the printed word needed to have a certain grandeur about it.  There's nothing pompous about Boswell - he puts you right there at the chop-house table, squeezed in between Joshua Reynolds and Oliver Goldsmith, capturing scraps of conversation and inconsequential remarks overheard.  Somewhere (it might be in the Life) he records an evening in a tavern with Johnson, who is struggling to make himself heard over the hilarity emanating from the next table where a group of country curates up in town for some purpose are noisily getting hammered.  Eventually Johnson leans forward to observe irritably that "this merriment of parsons is very provoking."  And you can see it clearly - the frown, the harumphing, turning round to cast looks of disapproval - it doesn't mean anything, in the grand scheme of things, but in that moment Johnson is brought back to life.

Thank you for that. I'll definitely be grabbing any of the Yale "Private Papers" editions I can find.

Looking at wikipedia now I see there's actually 12 volumes. I wasn't aware of any after the seventh, "The Ominous Years"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Boswell#Published_journals
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 02, 2023, 02:10:57 AM
Henry James: The Princess Casamassima
Following a recent failure to engage in "The Wings of the Dove" by the same author I decided not to lose faith with Henry James [having read and enjoyed other novels of his] and took on this lengthy novel from his middle period.
Hyacinth Robinson was born in inauspicious circumstances. His mother was jailed after murdering her lover, a French nobleman and she died in prison. Hyacinth is uncertain as to whether this French nobleman was his father. He is subsequently adopted by a dressmaker and he grows up in humble surroundings. He is intelligent and self-sufficient and ultimately adopts a Socialist philosophy. He becomes a member of a club of radical thinkers. However, he is constantly pondering his possible "noble" connection through his potential father's lineage.
He is introduced to Princess Casamassima who claims to be interested in understanding "the people" and she wants Hyacinth to introduce her to both "the people" and to progressive socialist and political thinkers. Hyacinth is infatuated with this beautiful woman who is estranged from her Italian nobleman husband. He fulfils his promise to the Princess. He also becomes involved in an assassination plot for the "cause".
I found this to be both an interesting but a difficult read. Both the plot and the character developments of the protagonists are compelling but, at almost 600 pages the novel is unnecessarily weighty. I am unsure as to whether or not it was serialised in its time, which may account for the verbosity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 03, 2023, 05:27:00 AM
Janice Anderson: Monet


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-Y5Z7KuXL._SY481_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


I have been perusing this compendium of visual delights recently. Its introduction gives a brief history of Monet's life and background to his painting career. The real value of the book, however, is the 80 very fine colour plates of Monet's paintings.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 03, 2023, 07:53:37 AM
Quote from: aligreto on February 03, 2023, 05:27:00 AMJanice Anderson: Monet


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-Y5Z7KuXL._SY481_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


I have been perusing this compendium of visual delights recently. Its introduction gives a brief history of Monet's life and background to his painting career. The real value of the book, however, is the 80 very fine colour plates of Monet's paintings.


The closest musical equivalent of Monet I can think of is not Debussy but Fauré. While the former always disliked being called an Impressionist, the latter embraced Impressionist aesthetics fully: And I always enjoy seeing sunlight play on the rocks, the water, the trees and plains. What variety of effects, what brilliance and what softness... I wish my music could show as much diversity.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 03, 2023, 10:33:10 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 03, 2023, 07:53:37 AMThe closest musical equivalent of Monet I can think of is not Debussy but Fauré. While the former always disliked being called an Impressionist, the latter embraced Impressionist aesthetics fully: And I always enjoy seeing sunlight play on the rocks, the water, the trees and plains. What variety of effects, what brilliance and what softness... I wish my music could show as much diversity.

An interesting point, my friend, to which I will give due consideration.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 06, 2023, 07:24:32 AM
Steinbeck: The Red Pony & To A God Unknown


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/md/md30881578525.jpg)    (https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/22385753559.jpg)


Both of these novels are recent re-reads. They are both very early Steinbeck novels but, nonetheless, are both filled with the essence of Life and Truth according to Steinbeck. Both novels deal with the raw, primordial relationship of Man with the Earth. I find this theme to be both disconcerting and comforting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on February 06, 2023, 09:17:16 AM
Going through several Bernard Shaw plays, starting with the "unpleasant". Widower's houses and Philanderer read, it's time now for Mrs. Warren's profession. I am clearly going through my Shaw phase.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on February 08, 2023, 05:36:33 PM
Just started this...very good so far.
(https://www.talkclassical.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.talkclassical.com/attachments/1675910108269-png.183744/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on February 09, 2023, 01:41:39 AM
My daughter sent this to 'educate' me:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 09, 2023, 05:01:25 AM
Sophia Craze: Charles Russell


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/3vIAAOSwjDZYc6dE/s-l1600.jpg)


I have recently re-read two early Steinbeck novels depicting Man's relationship with a hostile environment. The settings and atmosphere in both of those books brought to mind my memory of the paintings of Charles Russell. Charlie Russell was active in and around the same time as the settings of those early Steinbeck novels. I gave it another read and I was delighted to reacquaint myself with his wonderful paintings. This is a large format book which greatly assists with the appreciation of the quality reproductions contained therein. His works are very detailed, even being praised at the time for their detail and accuracy by the "Indians", or Injuns as he himself called them,  he painted. I also like the way in which his subjects are often set in the midst of the wild landscapes Russell was so familiar with.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 14, 2023, 02:38:06 AM
Hardy: Far From The Madding Crowd


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780333168806-uk.jpg)



I devoured Hardy's novels when I was a young man but it has been many years since I have attempted to re-read any of them. He was an excellent writer of character and he was also particularly able in describing doom and misfortune when it descended upon his characters. This one is no different but it is perhaps, because it is a relatively early novel, a little bit more optimistic than some.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: relm1 on February 14, 2023, 05:36:11 AM
I'm currently enjoying this book
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51p1x2uouUL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on February 14, 2023, 11:44:22 AM
Quote from: aligreto on February 14, 2023, 02:38:06 AMHardy: Far From The Madding Crowd


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780333168806-uk.jpg)



I devoured Hardy's novels when I was a young man but it has been many years since I have attempted to re-read any of them. He was an excellent writer of character and he was also particularly able in describing doom and misfortune when it descended upon his characters. This one is no different but it is perhaps, because it is a relatively early novel, a little bit more optimistic than some.

I've somehow managed to get this far without reading Hardy; I should probably remedy that.  What would you recommend as a starter?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 14, 2023, 11:55:42 AM
Quote from: aligreto on February 14, 2023, 02:38:06 AMHardy: Far From The Madding Crowd


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780333168806-uk.jpg)



I devoured Hardy's novels when I was a young man but it has been many years since I have attempted to re-read any of them. He was an excellent writer of character and he was also particularly able in describing doom and misfortune when it descended upon his characters. This one is no different but it is perhaps, because it is a relatively early novel, a little bit more optimistic than some.

A few years ago I started this enthusiastically and thought it was a page turner. Suddenly, about halfway into it I got stuck and never get past it. Honestly, I dread the prospect of beginning it anew. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 15, 2023, 05:04:10 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 14, 2023, 11:55:42 AMA few years ago I started this enthusiastically and thought it was a page turner. Suddenly, about halfway into it I got stuck and never get past it. Honestly, I dread the prospect of beginning it anew. 

Yes, it is rather long but I never found it tedious.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 15, 2023, 05:09:29 AM
Quote from: j winter on February 14, 2023, 11:44:22 AMI've somehow managed to get this far without reading Hardy; I should probably remedy that.  What would you recommend as a starter?

If you do not know Hardy then I would recommend starting with "Wessex Tales". It is a collection of short stories and depicts the world of Hardy well. You will lose nothing in terms of characters, good plots and descriptive writing. It would be a good sampler, I think, without you having to delve deep into his much longer novels. If you do not like Hardy then you have not committed yourself to too much.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 15, 2023, 06:40:09 AM
Quote from: aligreto on February 15, 2023, 05:09:29 AMIf you do not know Hardy then I would recommend starting with "Wessex Tales". It is a collection of short stories and depicts the world of Hardy well. You will lose nothing in terms of characters, good plots and descriptive writing. It would be a good sampler, I think, without you having to delve deep into his much longer novels. If you do not like Hardy then you have not committed yourself to too much.

I agree.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on February 15, 2023, 08:09:38 AM
Quote from: aligreto on February 15, 2023, 05:09:29 AMIf you do not know Hardy then I would recommend starting with "Wessex Tales". It is a collection of short stories and depicts the world of Hardy well. You will lose nothing in terms of characters, good plots and descriptive writing. It would be a good sampler, I think, without you having to delve deep into his much longer novels. If you do not like Hardy then you have not committed yourself to too much.

That advice would apply to someone who enjoys short stories. I've read the Wessex tales but it never resonated with me.

My favorite book is Return of the Native. One obstacle to that one is the fact that the first chapter describes only the landscape, and you have to get past that if you are not already into Hardy. Tess of the d'Ubervilles and Jude the Obscure are other favorites of mine.

I am puzzled to see Hardy Novels described as "long." They never seemed so to me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 15, 2023, 08:31:31 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on February 15, 2023, 08:09:38 AMThat advice would apply to someone who enjoys short stories. I've read the Wessex tales but it never resonated with me.

My favorite book is Return of the Native. One obstacle to that one is the fact that the first chapter describes only the landscape, and you have to get past that if you are not already into Hardy. Tess of the d'Ubervilles and Jude the Obscure are other favorites of mine.

I am puzzled to see Hardy Novels described as "long." They never seemed so to me.

To my mind that one single chapter could put an unfamiliar reader of Hardy off his books unecessarily. I see where you are coming from here but I would not offer that challenge to a novice in Hardy.

Just to point out to our prospective reader the next Hardy novel on my to re-read list is 482 pages long and the one that I have just read was 447 pages if you read the notes at the end. That is a big enough reading time committment for me.   

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on February 15, 2023, 08:36:05 AM
Having recently finished Mrs. Warren's profession, I have to say I never understood James Agate's quote about Shaw: "Shaw's plays are the price we pay for Shaw's prefaces." I am not questioning in any way Shaw's prefaces but those plays of his that I've already read have been wonderful. Mrs. Warren's profession was absolutely hilarious. I actually laughed out loud several times which happens rather rarely in my case. My only minor quibble is how you can see this was written in 1893 (and performed conveniently almost the very minute Victorian age ended) due to how women aren't allowed to even write nor say anything mildly sexual without threat of scandalizing everyone. One might ask that isn't the whole point of the play how prostitution is an awful awful sin. Well, this play never struck me that way. Prostitution, or at the very least prostitutes are handled relatively leniently by Shaw and he says in his preface that much. My only objection was in reference to a minor moment where Mrs. Warren's daughter writes something considered obscene on a paper and immediately snatches it away as if she had just contaminated the very air of the room by writing it. And the daughter otherwise would most likely resonate well with modern audiences considering she drinks whisky and smokes cigars in a play written in 1893!

Currently reading Major Barbara. Wonderful, wonderful.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: j winter on February 15, 2023, 08:44:51 AM
Quote from: aligreto on February 15, 2023, 08:31:31 AMTo my mind that one single chapter could put an unfamiliar reader of Hardy off his books unecessarily. I see where you are coming from here but I would not offer that challenge to a novice in Hardy.

Just to point out to our prospective reader the next Hardy novel on my to re-read list is 482 pages long and the one that I have just read was 447 pages if you read the notes at the end. That is a big enough reading time committment for me. 



Thanks for the conversation and recommendations, all!  I definitely enjoy both short fiction and novels, so I think I'll give Wessex Tales a try.  Much obliged!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on February 15, 2023, 09:30:11 AM
Quote from: j winter on February 15, 2023, 08:44:51 AMThanks for the conversation and recommendations, all!  I definitely enjoy both short fiction and novels, so I think I'll give Wessex Tales a try.  Much obliged!

As I remember the first story of the Wessex tales was my favorite, I won't spoil it with any plot description.

I wouldn't recommend Return of the Native as a start, but Tess draws you in pretty quickly, as I recall.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 15, 2023, 07:28:36 PM
Quote from: j winter on February 15, 2023, 08:44:51 AMThanks for the conversation and recommendations, all!  I definitely enjoy both short fiction and novels, so I think I'll give Wessex Tales a try.  Much obliged!

Nice. I especially like Withered Arm in the book. Also I like his "A Changed Man and Other Tales", especially Alicia's Diary in the collection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 18, 2023, 07:54:23 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on February 18, 2023, 07:52:22 AMAn inspiring little book which depends not at all on ever having read a line of Proust

Nor on ever having been an inmate of a Soviet prison camp, I hope.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 18, 2023, 02:01:09 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on February 18, 2023, 07:52:22 AMTitle says it all:

(https://blackwells.co.uk/jacket/l/9781681372587.jpg)
 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Time-Lectures-Proust-Classics/dp/1681372584/)
An inspiring little book which depends not at all on ever having read a line of Proust. 8)

I meant to order that some time back. Thanks for the reminder.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 19, 2023, 02:57:58 AM
Galsworthy: Five Tales


(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kigAAOSwT6pVmJ7F/s-l500.jpg)


Galsworthy is a Nobel Laureate. He is a writer who, in these stories, paints wonderful word pictures and who also describes wonderful characters who are filled with the essence of real life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on February 20, 2023, 09:50:58 AM
Starting Alfredo Casella's memoirs, I Segreti della giara (the title being a reference to one of the composer's greatest works, the ballet La Giara)

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Casella, a composer I greatly admire, was probably the most cosmopolitan of the generazione dell'ottanta (he lived and studied many years in Paris, knew and admired Mahler, and so on), and seems to have met everyone who was anyone, so this might be an interesting read. The book was finished in 1938, and from what I've read was written at the behest of fascist official Giuseppe Bottai —and dedicated to him— to "improve" Casella's public standing: he was a leading composer, and  had had fascist sympathies since the early or at least the mid-20s (and his —unrecorded— 1937 opera Il Deserto tentato apparently was an exhortation of Italy's imperial ambitions, and was dedicated to Mussolini himself), but his wife was Jewish and threatened by the ignominious racial laws that the dictator adopted late in his infamous regime).

Also,  reading some scattered articles from this anthology:

(https://saggiatore.s3.eu-south-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/public/611/400/7dc/6114007dc7e29819672630.jpg)

Alberto Savinio (brother of Giorgio de Chirico) was a writer, painter and composer. The one composition I know by him, Les Chants de la mi-mort, didn't really impress me much, but his sets for the 1952 revival of Rossini's Armida with Maria Callas in the Maggio Musicale in Florence are stunning. Our fellow GMGer @GioCar recommended this book some time ago, and Amazon in Spain was offering it deeply discounted, so I went for it.

Savinio can be merciless in some of his opinions, but his writing shows a deep knowledge and love for music (even when one doesn't agree with him).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on February 21, 2023, 08:33:16 AM
Reading Major Barbara was a blast, now reading another so far splendid Shaw play:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51R5b30hMOL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 22, 2023, 12:53:54 PM
Solzhenitsyn: One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich


(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/280/537/1397537280.0.l.jpg)


This is a Classic spawned under the rule of a brutal regime. As is universal with the human condition both the best and the worst of human nature are on display here. The book is about survival in the harshest of conditions, physical, psychological and emotional. It is bleak on many levels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 22, 2023, 01:45:36 PM
Quote from: aligreto on February 22, 2023, 12:53:54 PMSolzhenitsyn: One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich


(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/280/537/1397537280.0.l.jpg)


This is a Classic spawned under the rule of a brutal regime. As is universal with the human condition both the best and the worst of human nature are on display here. The book is about survival in the harshest of conditions, physical, psychological and emotional. It is bleak on many levels.


You people who never ever experienced anything even remotely like that, should forever be grateful that you were born too far away from Russia/USSR.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 23, 2023, 02:11:35 AM
A truth indeed! There are and have been too many other powers who have inflicted similiar regimes on other nations.
Man's inhumanity to Man.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 23, 2023, 02:23:54 AM
People in most democratic nations agree with, and support, representative democracy. Many people in Russia/Soviet maintain a tendency to admire/support a tyranny or ruler who holds absolute power. They may have had what they wanted.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on February 23, 2023, 08:17:08 AM
I hope no-one is equating Russians in general with its corrupt leadership. There are many Russians who have supported their leader's dastardly plots but there are also countless Russians who have protested against it (even before the war started hitting a little too close to home).

My point is, I don't enjoy painting ordinary Russians as demon people or something like that when first, and most of all, we should be focusing our hate on the tyrant holding the reins.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on February 23, 2023, 09:55:51 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 23, 2023, 02:23:54 AMPeople in most democratic nations agree with, and support, representative democracy. Many people in Russia/Soviet maintain a tendency to admire/support a tyranny or ruler who holds absolute power. They may have had what they wanted.
Strange assumption that is just an excuse for a tyrant to justify its limitless power.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 23, 2023, 10:23:18 AM
Actually, Russians have a long and distinguished tradition of both intellectual and practical resistance to, defiance of, and action against, tyranny. Isaiah Berlin's Russian Thinkers gives a thorough account in this respect.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on February 23, 2023, 10:30:48 AM
Prompted by @aligreto in the movie thread, I've just started reading a collection of short stories by Stephen King.  It's called "If It Bleeds".  It contains the short story which the movie that Fergus saw called "Mr. Harrigan's Phone".  I read that story yesterday (partly while waiting in a doctor's office).

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on February 23, 2023, 01:15:16 PM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on February 23, 2023, 10:30:48 AMPrompted by @aligreto in the movie thread, I've just started reading a collection of short stories by Stephen King.  It's called "If It Bleeds".  It contains the short story which the movie that Fergus saw called "Mr. Harrigan's Phone".  I read that story yesterday (partly while waiting in a doctor's office).

PD

I hope that you enjoy your collection of short stories and that everything was OK at the doctor's office, PD.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 24, 2023, 03:22:35 AM
(https://d1b14unh5d6w7g.cloudfront.net/0472051652.01.S001.LXXXXXXX.jpg?Expires=1677326321&Signature=RbuvNWm8MELWXzSdfSaihrtXzIFevAyqPgGthw1q1flwdPKPD26-xEuIjdGe2oTnoAKmMYf9MkyDpHXQIOL32LQQM5rOXS-SdHzfo1VzRF-ApBmslvvczko3DBCpZ~X0znfp~Zq1tEOzM0pvC2ATDu5Nr5IzdNAiNyQpT83Yj1E_&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUO27P366FGALUMQ)

An informative and not too technical book which nevertheless contains some strange assertions.

For instance, thus on Grieg:

his music is devoid of Norwegian folk tunes, indigenous dances, or other nationalistic elements, and he spoke scornfully of attempts to write nationalistic music.

Basically every claim in the above sentence is false.

About Bartok:

he was traveling among Arabs, Bulgars, Romanians, Slovakians, Turks, and Walachians as well.

Wallachians is an antiquated term for the Romanians who inhabited the Principality of Wallachia which was never used by Romanians themselves. By the time Bartok collected and arranged Romanian folklore music, Wallachians had been an anachronism for more than 50 years. Plus, writing "Romanians and Wallachians" is like writing "Germans and Prussians". Also, Bartok could not have been traveling among Bulgars for the simple reason that they had been extinct for some centuries before he was born; the author meant Bulgarians.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: VonStupp on February 25, 2023, 10:42:08 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1639410735i/41131658.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534125718i/41131689.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1621547505i/41131730.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534126532i/41131770.jpg) (https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1219241937l/3420640.jpg)

My wife and I are not into horror in any media, but she has always wanted to try H.P. Lovecraft. I bought her this set and it is the first time I remember her having to set a book aside for a few moments while reading to get her bearings.

I tried a few stories. Lovecraft repeatedly uses the term 'Cyclopean' in reference to architecture, a word I was hitherto unfamiliar with. My wife frequently used her phone to broaden her lexicon with vocabulary from his stories.

VS
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 25, 2023, 12:42:22 PM
Quote from: VonStupp on February 25, 2023, 10:42:08 AM(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1639410735i/41131658.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534125718i/41131689.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1621547505i/41131730.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534126532i/41131770.jpg) (https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1219241937l/3420640.jpg)

My wife and I are not into horror in any media, but she has always wanted to try H.P. Lovecraft. I bought her this set and it is the first time I remember her having to set a book aside for a few moments while reading to get her bearings.

I tried a few stories. Lovecraft repeatedly uses the term 'Cyclopean' in reference to architecture, a word I was hitherto unfamiliar with. My wife frequently used her phone to broaden her lexicon with vocabulary from his stories.

VS

The last one, with the green cover, was part of a series of three that contains all of HPL's stories; I have it and one of the others, and don't remember why I never got the third volume.

His style can take getting used to, and the snobbery and racism tend to stick out like a sore thumb. The 2 stories I like best are "The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and "The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath", which isn't horror but more unrestrained poetic fantasy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on February 25, 2023, 01:07:10 PM
My favorite Lovecraft Story is "The Mound". I'm surprised by how ultra-racist Lovecraft is relatively tame in his views about some Native Americans in that story. He is more of a condescending prick in that story than an openly freaked out one.

BTW, there is great resemblance in style and content between "The Mound" and "At the Mountains of Madness" of which I have 10 pages left. Both are superb stories (at least unless Lovecraft manages to mess up at the last second in "Mountains" which I doubt considering it is one of his most acclaimed ones).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 25, 2023, 01:43:59 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on February 25, 2023, 01:07:10 PMMy favorite Lovecraft Story is "The Mound". I'm surprised by how ultra-racist Lovecraft is relatively tame in his views about some Native Americans in that story. He is more of a condescending prick in that story than an openly freaked out one.

BTW, there is great resemblance in style and content between "The Mound" and "At the Mountains of Madness" of which I have 10 pages left. Both are superb stories (at least unless Lovecraft manages to mess up at the last second in "Mountains" which I doubt considering it is one of his most acclaimed ones).

"The Shadow Out of Time" is very similar to "Mountains of Madness". I've not read "The Mound".
My problem with those stories is that despite the elaborate world building that fills their pages, the "horror" revealed at the end just doesn't horrify me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 26, 2023, 01:19:41 AM
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Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on February 26, 2023, 10:43:51 AM
His "Max Liebermann" novels are the basis for Vienna Blood on PBS. This is the 7th and last in the series. I just started it, but it's very enjoyable so far. There are quite a few classical music references, so that's always a plus.
(https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781681776439_p0_v3_s1200x630.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 27, 2023, 10:07:08 PM
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Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 01, 2023, 09:57:03 PM
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Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 02, 2023, 01:20:23 AM
Hesse: Strange News from Another Star


(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJYZjRZheMxgYaoDMiz2H6QZo1ExIVMOfUtA&usqp=CAU)


This is an interesting collection of short stories from Hesse. They are stories, in the form of modern Fairy Tales, that explore levels of the subconscious and deep emotional thought.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 05, 2023, 08:11:11 AM
Like a total maniac, I am reading five books at the moment:

A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell
My winter project read, begun January 1 but pausing between sections. Finished the classical era, decided to read another book as a palate cleanser, and then all chaos broke loose as I started 4 more books instead of one.

Under the Glacier - Halldor Laxness
I really enjoyed his oddball fable Paradise Reclaimed, so got all his other novels for Christmas. (At least, the ones available in English.) However, this one is a little extreme in the odd absurdism department, so it's best in small doses. I am enjoying the second half more than the first, but after about 30 pages, I need a break from the eccentricity.

Pirate Libertalia - David Graeber
Started this while taking a break from Laxness while taking a break from Russell  ;D It is a mere 150 pages, a short little text about the mid 1700s pirate communities in Madagascar and their experiments with proto-democratic, egalitarian societies. Interestingly, the arrival of the pirates was incredibly empowering for the local women, who were able to marry into money and control the pirates' interactions with the locals. They even had a sort of polyamory where if their pirate husband sailed on a voyage, they could shack up with another man until the pirate came back and paid her a return fee!

Four Lost Cities - Annalee Newitz
Very quick, easy, but absorbing read about the histories of Catalhöyük, Pompeii, Angkor, and Cahokia, and lessons we can learn from those cities' declines. Newitz also does a great job updating the inaccurate things we learned in school (Angkor was not suddenly abandoned; people still lived there when the French "discovered" it).

Winning Fixes Everything - Evan Drellich
A history of the Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox, and other lying cheating baseball teams trying to win at any cost. This one only barely counts as an ongoing read, because my preorder copy arrived and I read the introduction before getting back to Newitz and Graeber. Will get to this after finishing those and Under the Glacier.

Also upcoming: two novels, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 05, 2023, 09:14:29 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81bwQut5ByL.jpg)

The author's experience of growing up in Hoxha's Albania, and of living through the fall of communism and the chaos that followed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 05, 2023, 02:16:28 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 05, 2023, 08:11:11 AMUnder the Glacier - Halldor Laxness

Pirate Libertalia - David Graeber

Four Lost Cities - Annalee Newitz
Finished all three of these in one productive afternoon.

Simon, that memoir looks really interesting (and has a striking cover design).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 05, 2023, 02:40:56 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 05, 2023, 02:16:28 PMFinished all three of these in one productive afternoon.

Simon, that memoir looks really interesting (and has a striking cover design).

Three books in one afternoon!!

I got through three excellent books last week, but that was only because each was only a little over 200 pages. My reading speed is only slightly faster than if I was reading aloud.

Turns out the cover image above relates to one of the anecdotes in the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 05, 2023, 05:00:01 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 05, 2023, 02:40:56 PMThree books in one afternoon!!

I got through three excellent books last week, but that was only because each was only a little over 200 pages. My reading speed is only slightly faster than if I was reading aloud.
I was halfway through all of them. In total it did come to about 200 pages today but I was lucky to only need to make lunch and do dishes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 07, 2023, 12:23:10 PM
Starting Jean-Paul Sartre's La Nausée....

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31Z20UMIYJL._SX314_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on March 09, 2023, 02:29:11 AM
Maus by Art Spiegelman

Found it accidentally in Norwegian on sale. Read it first in English some thirty years ago. It is as good as I remember it.
Btw: Did they ban it in Tennessee or did common sense prevail?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 09, 2023, 12:09:31 PM
Started both of these:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51G23DT54CL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91LzQcaAQ5L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 10, 2023, 01:50:53 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on March 09, 2023, 10:11:45 AMTerrible title.

Terrible translation, actually. The original French title is Fort comme la mort and it quotes from the Song of Solomon (8:6)  L'amour est fort comme la mort, et la jalousie est dure comme le sépulcre (love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave). Hope this helps.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 10, 2023, 02:02:20 AM
Quote from: aligreto on March 02, 2023, 01:20:23 AMHesse: Strange News from Another Star


(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJYZjRZheMxgYaoDMiz2H6QZo1ExIVMOfUtA&usqp=CAU)


This is an interesting collection of short stories from Hesse. They are stories, in the form of modern Fairy Tales, that explore levels of the subconscious and deep emotional thought.


Didn't know about the book. Maybe the stories were influenced by Carl Jung, who gave therapies to HH. Hesse admired Freud first, but later converted to Jungian psychology, and re-converted to Freud later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on March 10, 2023, 03:09:54 AM
My First 79 Years, Isaac Stern's memoirs, written with Chaim Potok.

I'm about 20% of the way in and I've not yet been bored, a good sign.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 10, 2023, 07:51:12 AM
Hamsun: Mysteries


(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6021200f7a4e4c01fd9ba589/9875c1d6-9219-40c2-941c-75225e229754/Knut+Hamsun+Mysteries+book+cover.jpg)


A very eccentric stranger decides to disembark from a boat at the last minute. He is attracted by the festivities in the town. The novel becomes the tale of his interactions with and his effect on the locals in the town. However, the novel focuses on the psychology of the main protagonist. The inhabitants are shocked and disturbed by his speech as he continually endeavours to convince them that he is a genuine person. I found it interesting but odd. It reminded me of how I felt when reading Kafka.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 10, 2023, 07:51:47 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 10, 2023, 02:02:20 AMDidn't know about the book. Maybe the stories were influenced by Carl Jung, who gave therapies to HH. Hesse admired Freud first, but later converted to Jungian psychology, and re-converted to Freud later.

Thank you for the background information.  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 16, 2023, 01:41:33 AM
Started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91TdNy2o06L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: aligreto on March 21, 2023, 03:01:34 AM
Salinger: Catcher In The Rye


(https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B1%2F7%2F1%2F3%2F5%2F17135773%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D)


This is my third time to read this novel over a span of a number of decades. I know that this is regarded as a cult American classic but I have to admit that I have never seen it thus, even as a young man reading it initially. I have never understood the appeal of the work. However, I decided, in my more mature years, to give it another read in order to see if my understanding and appreciation of the novel had changed.

My ultimate finding was that my opinion of the novel had deteriorated with the passage of time. I find both the writing and the pretext of the novel to be puerile. I fully understand that it is written from the point of view of a young man. However, I do not even see it as one of those "rite of passage" novels. For me, it does not have the depth or insight to be regarded thus. I honestly felt that the protagonist was very immature in his thinking, analysis and outlook. Perhaps the protagonist's cynical, sardonic and contemptuous view of the then current values is the appeal.

I, however, this time around in my latter years, found it to be so boring that I had to force myself to finish it.

No doubt, someone will enlighten me as to the error of my ways.

Perhaps it is just a cultural issue on my part.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 21, 2023, 03:11:06 AM

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gkPgQe8bL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 23, 2023, 01:22:24 PM
Still going with the postwar Germany book, but in the meantime knocked this off:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T2/images/I/51QPg5iT8FL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

and have added this to the mix:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T2/images/I/51pwqDto80L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 24, 2023, 10:43:13 AM
About to begin Concepción by Albert Samaha, a family memoir of Filipino immigrants to the USA.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 26, 2023, 11:22:08 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T1/images/I/91L5Sw4-NpL._AC_UL210_SR210,210_.jpg)

Yesterday I started reading The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. So far, not very far along (just shy of a quarter of the way into it; it's a pretty long book) I am stunned by the beauty of this book. I'm reminded somewhat of one of my favorite books of all time, Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, as this is similarly a story of a family and its decline against the backdrop of the decline of an entire way of life, albeit in a very different time and place. I've read three other books by Tanizaki and this must be the best of them by far, at least at this stage.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on March 26, 2023, 11:33:54 AM
Jim Thompson : The Killer Inside Me

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/KillerInsideMe.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2023, 03:59:45 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 26, 2023, 11:22:08 AM(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T1/images/I/91L5Sw4-NpL._AC_UL210_SR210,210_.jpg)

Yesterday I started reading The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. So far, not very far along (just shy of a quarter of the way into it; it's a pretty long book) I am stunned by the beauty of this book. I'm reminded somewhat of one of my favorite books of all time, Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, as this is similarly a story of a family and its decline against the backdrop of the decline of an entire way of life, albeit in a very different time and place. I've read three other books by Tanizaki and this must be the best of them by far, at least at this stage.

There is a movie/dvd in the USA as well!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 26, 2023, 06:59:22 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2023, 03:59:45 PMThere is a movie/dvd in the USA as well!

I didn't know that! I'll have to watch once I finish.

I remember you saying Tanizaki used to be a favorite of yours; how did you rate Makioka when you were reading his books?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Peter Power Pop on March 26, 2023, 07:20:14 PM
I'm currently reading Sound Man (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20949444-sound-man) by Glyn Johns.

It's enjoyable enough, but not as enjoyable as my favourite autobiographies by rock music producers (which are All You Need Is Ears (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/91974.All_You_Need_Is_Ears) by George Martin and Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15732855-abbey-road-to-ziggy-stardust) by Ken Scott).

(https://whythebeatlesarestillrelevant.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/glynjohns.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2023, 07:26:02 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 26, 2023, 06:59:22 PMI didn't know that! I'll have to watch once I finish.

I remember you saying Tanizaki used to be a favorite of yours; how did you rate Makioka when you were reading his books?


Makioka was not my favorite. I liked his early short, and twisted, stories, including "Secret" and "Children." The former is about a crossdresser in Tokyo before WWI.


https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/the-gourmet-club-a-sextet-by-junichiro-tanizaki-review/

https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/tanizaki/gourmet_club.htm



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 28, 2023, 02:05:52 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41feSPlHGIL._SX398_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: foxandpeng on March 28, 2023, 02:41:37 PM
Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley's Reformed Systematic Theology Volume 1 of 3.

Last couple of hundred pages to go in  volume 1. If you like this sort of thing, so far this has been a solid 900ff pages out of 1200 or so. One of the best systematic theologies I have read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 28, 2023, 03:12:56 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 28, 2023, 02:05:52 PM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41feSPlHGIL._SX398_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I was going to say I read that a couple of years ago, but it looks like its closer to four. How are you finding it?

Quote from: SimonNZ on June 25, 2019, 08:04:03 PMFinished:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Ra3Rhp%2BrL._SX290_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

"Great" here meaning notable or worthy of attention - a few are damning portraits, including one on Adolf Hitler assessing and warning of his menace and ambition as viewed at the time of writing in 1935.

On the whole an excellent collection of biographical and psychological portraits (well, except for his unconvincingly positive assessment of Haig). I'm surprised it hasn't remained one of Churchill's more popular books.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 28, 2023, 05:45:41 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 28, 2023, 03:12:56 PMI was going to say I read that a couple of years ago, but it looks like its closer to four. How are you finding it?


I just read the chapters of Hitler and Joseph Chamberlain. Great writing and nice insights. Have you read Nixon's  "Leaders"? You may like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 29, 2023, 09:48:25 AM
(https://d16057n354qyo4.cloudfront.net/9780521106375.jpg?nextExtension=webp)

A fascinating piece of cultural history which confirms a trend I've been noticing over the years: the older I get, the more I identify with, and uphold, the middle-class values, culture and way of life. The days of my misspent youth when I grew my hair long, wore leather jackets and booths and listened to heavy metal are long gone. Nowadays I'm an unabashedly complacent bourgeois. Puccini good, Marinetti bad. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on March 29, 2023, 11:40:24 AM
[Florestan]
QuoteThe days of my misspent youth when I grew my hair long, wore leather jackets and booths and listened to heavy metal are long gone. Nowadays I'm an unabashedly bourgeois.D

IOW you had a typical middle class youth with the values of the typical middle class youth: unabashedly bourgeois. ;D

[Though perhaps not complacent--which is why I snipped it out when quoting you.]
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 29, 2023, 12:00:05 PM
Quote from: JBS on March 29, 2023, 11:40:24 AM[Florestan]
IOW you had a typical middle class youth with the values of the typical middle class youth: unabashedly bourgeois. ;D

[Though perhaps not complacent--which is why I snipped it out when quoting you.]

Hah!  ;D

Well, as my heavy metal phase wore out, I was increasingly aware that behind all those wild and uncouth bands there were some very middle-class people, tie, suit and all, who were regularly getting their fat paychecks and making big money out of the supposedly nonconformism and rebellion. ;D

My current avatar is the perfect embodiment of my current values: a dashing, nonchalant Alfredo Campoli* enjoying the good things of life: elegant clothing, cigarettes (although I have never smoked) and always a smile on one's face, all the while being able to play the most demanding and "serious" Romantic violin concertos. IOW, bourgeois complacency.  ;D

*(Maybe it's not mere coincidence that he was Italian born, Rossini immediately comes to my mind...)



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on March 30, 2023, 10:59:29 PM
An interesting take on this dark subject:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 31, 2023, 12:38:16 AM
^I read that recently and was a little disappointed by it. I thought they would be unearthing unknown personal diaries by regular people. Instead they were reusing a lot of already familiar previously published memoirs.

It was fine, but could have been more with some spadework in the archives, imo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 31, 2023, 01:23:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 29, 2023, 09:48:25 AM(https://d16057n354qyo4.cloudfront.net/9780521106375.jpg?nextExtension=webp)

A fascinating piece of cultural history which confirms a trend I've been noticing over the years: the older I get, the more I identify with, and uphold, the middle-class values, culture and way of life. The days of my misspent youth when I grew my hair long, wore leather jackets and booths and listened to heavy metal are long gone. Nowadays I'm an unabashedly complacent bourgeois. Puccini good, Marinetti bad. ;D

You've become a centrist dad

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/centrist-dad

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/15/centrist-dads-back-smugger-ever/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 31, 2023, 01:57:11 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on March 31, 2023, 01:23:39 AMYou've become a centrist dad

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/centrist-dad

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/15/centrist-dads-back-smugger-ever/

a middle-aged man of moderate political views --- yes, that's me alright.  ;D

Another, more detailed way of putting it:

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing - viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.

He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace and the body of rest, nor enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's experience to know it more sensibly.


The Telegraph article is behind a paywall so I couldn't read it.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on March 31, 2023, 02:28:46 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on March 31, 2023, 01:27:07 AMInteresting. That's been on my "to read" list for a long time, just hasn't made it to the top (yet). :-\  The author is an occasional "talking head" on the various Third Reich documentaries which seem to be running on permanent loop on British TV.

That's very useful.  I did riffle through a copy in a bookstore recently, wondering should I or not, but in the end didn't. ::)

One I am looking forward to reading is this (just published) :

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41OjyRa2K2L._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)
 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B8RKSC1S/)
I thought Blood and Iron, her history of Prussia, was excellent, and this has had very good reviews too.


I gave it to my son-in-law for Christmas (Travellers in the Third Reich) and he seems to be enjoying it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 31, 2023, 01:44:15 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 26, 2023, 07:26:02 PMMakioka was not my favorite. I liked his early short, and twisted, stories, including "Secret" and "Children." The former is about a crossdresser in Tokyo before WWI.


https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/the-gourmet-club-a-sextet-by-junichiro-tanizaki-review/

https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/tanizaki/gourmet_club.htm





Having finished, and deeply enjoyed The Makioka Sisters (or Sasameyuki, which crudely translates to "light snow", as it is properly called, a title I do not understand whatsoever—I suppose I'd have to be Japanese to get it) I will seek out some of your favorites. This was my third Tanizaki after Naomi & Some Prefer Nettles, and by far my favorite of the three, though they were all excellent. (I also have and have read his aesthetics essay In Praise of Shadows.)

Edit: Browsing on Amazon just now, I didn't realize how prolific Tanizaki was nor how many of his works had been translated into English. Wow.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 31, 2023, 01:52:00 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 31, 2023, 01:44:15 PMHaving finished, and deeply enjoyed The Makioka Sisters (or Sasameyuki, which crudely translates to "light snow", as it is properly called, a title I do not understand whatsoever—I suppose I'd have to be Japanese to get it) I will seek out some of your favorites. This was my third Tanizaki after Naomi & Some Prefer Nettles, and by far my favorite of the three, though they were all excellent. (I also have and have read his aesthetics essay In Praise of Shadows.)

Edit: Browsing on Amazon just now, I didn't realize how prolific Tanizaki was nor how many of his works had been translated into English. Wow.


Sasame-yuki could be directly translated as thin-snow. But it means fine snow flakes or light snowfall.


(https://image.yodobashi.com/product/100/000/086/601/197/414/100000086601197414_10204.jpg)

(https://image.yodobashi.com//product/100/000/086/601/221/179/100000086601221179_10204.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 31, 2023, 02:21:02 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 31, 2023, 01:52:00 PMSasame-yuki could be directly translated as thin-snow. But it means fine snow flakes or light snowfall.


(https://image.yodobashi.com/product/100/000/086/601/197/414/100000086601197414_10204.jpg)

(https://image.yodobashi.com//product/100/000/086/601/221/179/100000086601221179_10204.jpg)




My confusion has something to do with the fact that it never once snows in the book that I can remember, although one of the main character's names is Yukiko.

Is that a manga adaptation of the Tanizaki book, or is the name a coincidence? I do see four sisters there, though that's not really how I pictured any of them  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 31, 2023, 03:22:24 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 31, 2023, 02:21:02 PMMy confusion has something to do with the fact that it never once snows in the book that I can remember, although one of the main character's names is Yukiko.

Is that a manga adaptation of the Tanizaki book, or is the name a coincidence? I do see four sisters there, though that's not really how I pictured any of them  ;D

I don't know if it's true or not, but somebody on the web said that the title is about Yukiko- Snow Lady. She is strong in contrast to the appearance of fragility.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 31, 2023, 03:31:53 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on March 31, 2023, 01:27:07 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41OjyRa2K2L._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)
 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B8RKSC1S/)
I thought Blood and Iron, her history of Prussia, was excellent, and this has had very good reviews too.



Thanks for the heads-up about this. Have just ordered a copy.

Meanwhile, have started this:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.OFpBwgWE26iHrNk-QFD0iQAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 03, 2023, 01:28:16 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JIxNMPPCL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg)

Picked up Jan Swafford's Johannes Brahms again, and hoping to finally finish it sometime. It's an absolutely excellent biography (I haven't made it all the way through just yet but I've enjoyed every page); I wish more composer bios were written in a style like this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 08, 2023, 02:35:47 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 03, 2023, 01:28:16 PM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JIxNMPPCL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg)

Picked up Jan Swafford's Johannes Brahms again, and hoping to finally finish it sometime. It's an absolutely excellent biography (I haven't made it all the way through just yet but I've enjoyed every page); I wish more composer bios were written in a style like this.

I did indeed finish it. I also finished this book which I started back in the fall;

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41x0WvCCt1S._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg)

Ryotaro Shiba's Clouds Above the Hill, Vol. 1, recommended to me by Dry Brett Kavanaugh. I just wanted to say thanks, Manabu, for the amazing recommendation. I loved it! It read almost like straight history, particularly military history, which I've never been great at reading, but with novelistic moments of real humanity in the characters and how they interact with each other. I intend to read the other three volumes of the series, eventually.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 08, 2023, 02:45:13 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 08, 2023, 02:35:47 PMI did indeed finish it. I also finished this book which I started back in the fall;

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41x0WvCCt1S._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg)

Ryotaro Shiba's Clouds Above the Hill, Vol. 1, recommended to me by Dry Brett Kavanaugh. I just wanted to say thanks, Manabu, for the amazing recommendation. I loved it! It read almost like straight history, particularly military history, which I've never been great at reading, but with novelistic moments of real humanity in the characters and how they interact with each other. I intend to read the other three volumes of the series, eventually.

Yes the later volumes are much better and fun with a lot of battles and military/political decisions. The Vol 1 is just an introductory volume. Thank you for reading it!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 08, 2023, 05:06:37 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 08, 2023, 02:45:13 PMYes the later volumes are much better and fun with a lot of battles and military/political decisions. The Vol 1 is just an introductory volume. Thank you for reading it!

Can't wait to get to them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 09, 2023, 01:28:07 PM
A screen of time: A study of Luchino Visconti – Monica Stirling.


(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/md/md30137943778.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on April 11, 2023, 05:46:26 PM
This is the best novel I've read in a long time. (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ0SU87KVJfypTowz5weEHHAxxlwBmGXQr8MA&usqp=CAU)
Before starting Stoner, I reread this Le Guin which is fine literature as well as the finest science-fiction. I am not sure about her anarchistic syndicalist non-market socialistic ambiguous "utopia." But, to be fair, neither is she. Well, she's in their camp more than the other one (you'd have to read it). It doesn't matter; it's a great book that places societies in time as opposed in some shiny dystopia outside of the struggles that real societies face over the course of a lifetime. It's another question altogether whether her moon-world makes any sense outside the book. She does a great job of making it resonate inside the story. (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTeTNmTk0auN3-qbV0yxySYmXk4OMMymmX57w&usqp=CAU)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 11, 2023, 06:53:37 PM
Quote from: milk on April 11, 2023, 05:46:26 PMThis is the best novel I've read in a long time.

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ0SU87KVJfypTowz5weEHHAxxlwBmGXQr8MA&usqp=CAU)


This is one of my favorite novels ever, although some of the later chapters with the office politics are painful to read. I am a real sucker for novels that tell a full life story from start to finish so you can follow a character across his or whole entire experience on earth. And the author's control of tone and style is really incredible.

There is a passage near the beginning, where Stoner's mentor tells him that he's destined to be a teacher, that made me cry. In public, too, on an airplane!

His novel Augustus has a similar surprising power.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on April 11, 2023, 07:06:46 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2023, 06:53:37 PMThis is one of my favorite novels ever, although some of the later chapters with the office politics are painful to read. I am a real sucker for novels that tell a full life story from start to finish so you can follow a character across his or whole entire experience on earth. And the author's control of tone and style is really incredible.

There is a passage near the beginning, where Stoner's mentor tells him that he's destined to be a teacher, that made me cry. In public, too, on an airplane!

His novel Augustus has a similar surprising power.
It's heartbreaking at times; it's a beautiful novel. Have you read Butcher's Crossing? I wonder if it's good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 11, 2023, 07:29:00 PM
Quote from: milk on April 11, 2023, 07:06:46 PMIt's heartbreaking at times; it's a beautiful novel. Have you read Butcher's Crossing? I wonder if it's good.
Yes! Own all three of his mature novels and a biography of the author as well (but not his juvenile novella). Butcher's Crossing has that same very intense, distilled style, with a little bit more descriptive beauty and maybe a little more complex writing on a paragraph-by-paragraph level. At the big-picture level, Butcher's Crossing is another grand parable with epic sweep. It's like a dark Western movie that, midway through, descends into nightmare. Maybe another way to put it would be Cormac McCarthy for people who don't like Cormac McCarthy's style.

The biography taught me that he only produced three mature novels, all great, for several reasons: he was an exacting perfectionist who only rarely had ideas he deemed worth seeing through, let alone the rest of the process (he left only one unfinished novel at his death), he was an alcoholic whose drinking slowed down his work, and he occasionally did spend lots of his time getting into departmental fights with coworkers. He wasn't so innocent in them as Stoner was, however. By the time that he retired his health was quite poor from a lifetime of drinking and smoking. Apparently the unfinished novel was going to be about the world of art forgery and fraud.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: milk on April 12, 2023, 06:39:38 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2023, 07:29:00 PMYes! Own all three of his mature novels and a biography of the author as well (but not his juvenile novella). Butcher's Crossing has that same very intense, distilled style, with a little bit more descriptive beauty and maybe a little more complex writing on a paragraph-by-paragraph level. At the big-picture level, Butcher's Crossing is another grand parable with epic sweep. It's like a dark Western movie that, midway through, descends into nightmare. Maybe another way to put it would be Cormac McCarthy for people who don't like Cormac McCarthy's style.

The biography taught me that he only produced three mature novels, all great, for several reasons: he was an exacting perfectionist who only rarely had ideas he deemed worth seeing through, let alone the rest of the process (he left only one unfinished novel at his death), he was an alcoholic whose drinking slowed down his work, and he occasionally did spend lots of his time getting into departmental fights with coworkers. He wasn't so innocent in them as Stoner was, however. By the time that he retired his health was quite poor from a lifetime of drinking and smoking. Apparently the unfinished novel was going to be about the world of art forgery and fraud.
Great to hear. Im going on to Butcher's Crossing next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 13, 2023, 01:41:50 PM
Damn, you all are making me want to read more by Williams. I read Stoner last fall and gave the book to my dad as a backup Christmas present (it turned out he already had the new Dylan book I got for him), and he read it in something like 2 days and loved it. Have not read anything else. Butcher's Crossing sounds good.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 14, 2023, 12:31:54 PM
Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia. Richard Cytowic and David Eagleman.



(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Nuqa27RPL._SX335_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 15, 2023, 05:45:37 AM
(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524586008l/5695.jpg)

Not much of a Dostoevsky fan nowadays but so far this has been fairly good. Rather a mean portrait of Turgenev in this book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2023, 05:52:05 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on April 15, 2023, 05:45:37 AM(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524586008l/5695.jpg)

Not much of a Dostoevsky fan nowadays but so far this has been fairly good. Rather a mean portrait of Turgenev in this book.

Do you mean that Verkhovensky Sr. is modelled on Turgenev? This would be the first time I come across this claim. What is your source for it? 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 15, 2023, 05:56:32 AM
Semyon Yegorovich Karmazinov, a rather minor character, is based on Turgenev, apparently.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 15, 2023, 06:00:34 AM
http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/novels/devils/karmazinov.shtml (http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/novels/devils/karmazinov.shtml)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on April 15, 2023, 06:19:41 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on April 15, 2023, 05:45:37 AM(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524586008l/5695.jpg)

Not much of a Dostoevsky fan nowadays but so far this has been fairly good. Rather a mean portrait of Turgenev in this book.

Nice work. Yoh may like his Gambler as well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 15, 2023, 06:35:42 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on April 15, 2023, 06:00:34 AMhttp://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/novels/devils/karmazinov.shtml (http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/novels/devils/karmazinov.shtml)

Thanks. Honestly, I didn't even remember this character. I believe Dostoevsky's reconciliation with Turgenev occasioned by Pushkin's commemoration is more famous. :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 15, 2023, 02:20:11 PM
Although it's really the catalogue to an exhibition (at the Museo Picasso in Barcelona), this book on Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler is proving to be a very interesting read:

(https://api.laie.es/media/erp/9788412/9788412641912-268x410-data.JPG)

I've always been fascinated by how this man's vision, business acumen, and faith in a handful of artists turned cubism into an international sensation. In this book, we have articles on the three successive galleries he led (Galerie Kahnweiler, Galerie Simon, and Galerie Louise Leiris), on his international network, on his relations with Picasso and Juan Gris, and —of particular interest to me- a survey of all the artist's books he published over more than 50 years).

It's available in Spanish, English, Catalan, and French (the exhibition was earlier shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 16, 2023, 12:01:41 PM
I just finished Brave New World.  What I thought of it before reading was that it was an indictment against fascism and drugs were used to keep society docile.  But after reading it, I see that the novel runs deeper.  It is demonstrating the extreme limits of valuing happiness and comfort above truth and beauty.  And warning us against the dangers of social conditioning.  Really good, short read.  It was well worth my time and effort.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81zE42gT3xL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 16, 2023, 12:27:54 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on April 16, 2023, 11:02:49 AMAs an act of defiance against Penguin Books I am reading this (hardback 1st edition) which is one they never published:

(https://exactlabels.com/xb21774387/43382304/SomethingFishy.jpg)

In truth it is not one of his best ... but even his less-than-best can still be pretty good, and better than many. :)

I also recently read a "not his best" book (Galahad at Blandings) and found it nevertheless totally charming and comforting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 16, 2023, 01:26:34 PM
Knowing nothing about that author, what is "his best"?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on April 16, 2023, 01:53:17 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 16, 2023, 01:26:34 PMKnowing nothing about that author, what is "his best"?
There is some discussion on this in the "What, ho!" thread, which is how I decided which books to read first.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 16, 2023, 02:37:37 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 16, 2023, 01:53:17 PMThere is some discussion on this in the "What, ho!" thread, which is how I decided which books to read first.

Summer Lightning seems to have been the gateway drug for you, so I suppose I'll start there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Peter Power Pop on April 16, 2023, 03:17:37 PM
Just started:

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/118824.Walt_Disney) (Neal Gabler)

(https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/36c720de-b960-43e4-8ce0-f490eca0ba07_1.356031c299788945db29ca39c22b7617.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on April 16, 2023, 04:34:58 PM
Pence, Charlotte. The Poetics of American Song Lyrics. University Press of Mississippi 2012.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FKSGcenrL.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on April 19, 2023, 11:48:11 AM
Got these two from the library used book rack

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SQ9E5SRHL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/415QMYWBFXL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)

The Mascagni is drawn from the composer's own letter, diaries, and other writings, plus contemporary articles and interviews, compiled into a narrative as it might gave been written by Mascagni just before his death in 1942. The foreword notes that this leads to some odd omissions, such as no account of when or how he met his wife, and little or no mention of his non-operatic works.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 22, 2023, 05:49:47 PM
Finished Katja Hoyer's new book on East Germany, which was very good indeed.

There are some fans of the Rest Is History pocast here, so I hope they heard the recent episode which had her on to talk about the book:

322. East Germany: Life Behind the Iron Curtain (https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzAzMWMyZGNiLWM2NmMtNDJiNS04MTllLTI0NTIwMzFmZTRmOQ/episode/NjQzYzVjZWIzMzRhZGUwMDExODkwMGM2?sa=X&ved=0CAgQuIEEahcKEwiYlKaz8b7-AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAg)


Starting:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/A_Distant_Mirror.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 23, 2023, 04:08:38 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on April 23, 2023, 02:19:43 AMThanks for posting this, it's very helpful.  I haven't started Hoyer's book yet but am looking forward to it.  I've read a number of (highly) personal narratives of life in the GDR, also a couple of (somewhat polemical) histories, but there's long been a need for something more authoritative.  I first went to Dresden not long after the Wall came down, and was very struck by how different the people were.

I've read Stasiland, which I liked very much, but for different reasons. What else could you recommend from your reading?

I've got a book at home called The Making Of The GDR 1945-53, which was actually written by a good friend of mine, but which I (shamefully) have still not read. I've pulled it out again and put it on the top of the pile.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 24, 2023, 05:35:39 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on April 24, 2023, 03:21:32 PM[...]

Though when - or whether - I'll ever get around to it, I really don't know.  My "to read" pile has reached absurd dimensions. ::)

Your friend's book looks interesting - I would add it to the list, except I'd almost certainly never get to it. :( 

I hadn't encountered any of those before, so that's very useful. Thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 25, 2023, 09:12:05 AM
(https://s13emagst.akamaized.net/products/20194/20193044/images/res_e32d72cec6e8dd7b6f2ff4c3635bf737.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 28, 2023, 03:44:35 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 25, 2023, 09:12:05 AM(https://s13emagst.akamaized.net/products/20194/20193044/images/res_e32d72cec6e8dd7b6f2ff4c3635bf737.jpg)



This was a fascinating and delightful reading. Lots of misconceptions and prejudices exposed and debunked in a scholarly yet eminently readable manner. Highly recommended.

Next:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51UqLDks4KL.jpg)

and

(https://d2i0w0hu6hvxgc.cloudfront.net/B005254HWK/feadd8a6/cover.jpeg)



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 28, 2023, 05:36:34 PM
Half way through Tuchman's book on the 14th century. Taking a break with this:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zTvn-7U6S.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on April 28, 2023, 06:05:48 PM
My two reading projects are (mostly) rereading Vollman's Seven Dreams and Pynchon

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/Iceshirtcvr.jpg)

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Mason_%26_Dixon_%281997_1st_ed_jacket_cover%29.jpg)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 03, 2023, 08:38:56 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 28, 2023, 03:44:35 AM(https://d2i0w0hu6hvxgc.cloudfront.net/B005254HWK/feadd8a6/cover.jpeg)

Just finished the biographical section of this. Very enjoyable and informative reading, essential for a proper understanding of the life and achievement of this complex, generous, and prodigiously talented man, in Osborne's own and very apt words.

The idea even crossed my mind, to listen to all of Rossini's operas in chronological order (those which have been recorded, that is --- and to my surprise, a very good deal of them have. Of the total of 39 I have 23 and more are available). It should be a fun and interesting project.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 03, 2023, 03:48:59 PM
Alex Ross's Wagnerism. Very fascinating book, a lot more about what happened after Wagner than about the lifetime of the composer himself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 03, 2023, 11:26:58 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 03, 2023, 03:48:59 PMAlex Ross's Wagnerism. Very fascinating book, a lot more about what happened after Wagner than about the lifetime of the composer himself.

I intend to read this one too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 05, 2023, 05:44:57 PM
Today I started Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I'm not very far into it, but it's very good so far; her writing style is quite unique.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on May 06, 2023, 04:11:25 AM
Reread this:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81jctULF2EL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

And read for the first time completely this:

(https://www.rogerscruton.com/images/roger-scruton-book-covers/roger-scruton-the-ring-of-truth.jpg)

Both astonishingly well written. I may not agree on every point with them but still especially the latter book (as Shaw initially thought the work somewhat unfinished) contains great insight to many aspects which make Wagner's Ring the masterpiece it is.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 07, 2023, 12:36:01 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 05, 2023, 05:44:57 PMToday I started Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I'm not very far into it, but it's very good so far; her writing style is quite unique.

Well, that book just ripped my heart out through my throat. It was a beautiful novel, but turned out to be quite bleak and hopeless in the end. It's as incredible to believe that the author was 23 when she wrote it as it is to believe that Thomas Mann was 25 when he wrote Buddenbrooks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 07, 2023, 01:49:01 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 07, 2023, 12:36:01 PMWell, that book just ripped my heart out through my throat. It was a beautiful novel, but turned out to be quite bleak and hopeless in the end. It's as incredible to believe that the author was 23 when she wrote it as it is to believe that Thomas Mann was 25 when he wrote Buddenbrooks.

Great book. When I saw the movie first and later read the book around 20 years old, I never imagined that I would live in Deep South.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 08, 2023, 03:00:39 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 07, 2023, 01:49:01 PMGreat book. When I saw the movie first and later read the book around 20 years old, I never imagined that I would live in Deep South.

I hope that when you got here you found it slightly less bleak than McCullers made it out to be ;D

Just finished Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata. I'm not sure I entirely agree with its virulent anti-sex message, and I definitely don't agree with the author's seemingly total rejection of music. But it was excellently written, very evocative, and very psychological, like the best of Dostoevsky, only more concise. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 08, 2023, 03:53:36 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 08, 2023, 03:00:39 PMI hope that when you got here you found it slightly less bleak than McCullers made it out to be ;D

Just finished Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata. I'm not sure I entirely agree with its virulent anti-sex message, and I definitely don't agree with the author's seemingly total rejection of music. But it was excellently written, very evocative, and very psychological, like the best of Dostoevsky, only more concise. 

We all discussed Dostoyevsky VS Tolstoy several times. I even made a thread. I used to admire Tolstoy when I was a teenager, but not anymore. IMHO, the preachy stories/narratives and the mixup of (self-serviced) ethics and aesthetics make his works unrealistic.

Have you seen the movie, Mississippi Burning by great Gene Hackman? That depicts the South very well imo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 08, 2023, 03:57:31 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 08, 2023, 03:53:36 PMWe all discussed Dostoyevsky VS Tolstoy several times. I even made a thread. I used to admire Tolstoy when I was a teenager, but not anymore. IMHO, the preachy stories/narratives and the mixup of (self-serviced) ethics and aesthetics make his works unrealistic.

Have you seen the movie, Mississippi Burning by great Gene Hackman? That depicts the South very well imo.

We watched it in school. It's been a while, maybe I'll watch it again.

Thanks for your perspective on Tolstoy, it seems a lot of people approach him with blind adulation. What do you make of Ivan Ilyich? That book completely blew me away, each time I've read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 08, 2023, 04:07:30 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 08, 2023, 03:57:31 PMWe watched it in school. It's been a while, maybe I'll watch it again.

Thanks for your perspective on Tolstoy, it seems a lot of people approach him with blind adulation. What do you make of Ivan Ilyich? That book completely blew me away, each time I've read it.

I remember I was not a big fan of The Death of Ivan Ilych while I liked Karenina, War and Peace (currently titled as Special Operation and Peace in Russia), Resurrection, and some short stories. I will purchase the Ilych and re-read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 09, 2023, 12:19:21 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 08, 2023, 04:07:30 PMWar and Peace (currently titled as Special Operation and Peace in Russia),

 ;D

Also, I expect the scelerate Putin to celebrate in his speech today The Great Patriotic Special Operation.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on May 09, 2023, 03:14:59 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 08, 2023, 03:00:39 PMJust finished Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata. I'm not sure I entirely agree with its virulent anti-sex message

Havent completely read Kreutzer but I remember that part bothering me. Not that considering sex sinful was anything exceptional back then but all the more awful considering he had sex with serf girls in his youth who most likely had little choice in the matter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 09, 2023, 03:19:34 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on May 09, 2023, 03:14:59 AMHavent completely read Kreutzer but I remember that part bothering me. Not that considering sex sinful was anything exceptional back then but all the more awful considering he had sex with serf girls in his youth who most likely had little choice in the matter.

This is something I didn't know, but had been suspecting: that Tolstoy was something of a "reformed libertine" who went as far as possible in the other direction after finding God, renouncing sex altogether.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 09, 2023, 06:19:20 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on May 09, 2023, 03:14:59 AMHavent completely read Kreutzer but I remember that part bothering me. Not that considering sex sinful was anything exceptional back then but all the more awful considering he had sex with serf girls in his youth who most likely had little choice in the matter.

I read that Tolstoy had partly a similar experience and resulting remorse. We see that in Resurrection.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 09, 2023, 10:59:57 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on May 09, 2023, 06:19:20 AMI read that Tolstoy had partly a similar experience and resulting remorse. We see that in Resurrection.

Exactly.

Isaiah Berlin made the astute observation, in his superb and highly recommended book Russian Thinkers, that it is absolutely incorrect that Russians are chaotic and unpredictable in behavior; on the contrary, once a Russian has embraced a philosophical, ethical or political system or doctrine, they think and act it to its ultimate consequences with unflinching obstinacy, no matter how high the price is to be paid for that, either by themselves or by others. Tolstoy is exemplary in this respect, both in debauchery and asceticism.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on May 09, 2023, 11:17:41 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 09, 2023, 10:59:57 AMonce a Russian has embraced a philosophical, ethical or political system or doctrine, they think and act it to its ultimate consequences with unflinching obstinacy, no matter how high the price is to be paid for that, either by themselves or by others.

Yep, or a Georgian wannabe Russian
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 09, 2023, 11:22:37 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on May 09, 2023, 11:17:41 AMYep, or a Georgian wannabe Russian

Of course. Not to mention a former KGB resident in Berlin...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: toledobass on May 09, 2023, 06:48:16 PM
Has anyone read Robert Persig's Lila?

It's a fascinating book that I'm spending a lot of time with.

I find it much more interesting and a deeper exploration of what he was thinking about in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

A lot to grapple with but quite a profound way to look at the world.

~Allan
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 09, 2023, 06:54:09 PM
Finished this quickie:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vMZ7IYc9L._SY264_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)

Less what you might expect from the title, more a very freewheeling memoir of Wilson's own changing attitudes to the work throughout his life and especially a series of reminiscences of a friend who challenged his thinking about the work.


Starting:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511pU8j8RcL._SY264_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)

The fact and fiction of the siege and of the Texas Revolution followed by a cultural history of the myth and the political uses made of it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 12, 2023, 03:52:18 PM
Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana. Quite a silly book, but an enjoyable read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 17, 2023, 09:00:05 AM
(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/27131/27130194-1.jpg)

Halfway through the first volume of Mann's complete short stories and novellas, three stand out head and shoulder above the others: Bajazzo, Tristan and Tonio Kroeger. All deal with the theme that obsessed him all his life: the contrast between spirit and life, between the devitalized and tortured soul of the true artist and the healthy and cheerful bourgeois existence. Additionally, Tristan has commonalities with Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata and contains the embryos of The Magic Mountain.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 18, 2023, 02:40:10 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 17, 2023, 09:00:05 AM(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/27131/27130194-1.jpg)

Halfway through the first volume of Mann's complete short stories and novellas, three stand out head and shoulder above the others: Bajazzo, Tristan and Tonio Kroeger. All deal with the theme that obsessed him all his life: the contrast between spirit and life, between the devitalized and tortured soul of the true artist and the healthy and cheerful bourgeois existence. Additionally, Tristan has commonalities with Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata and contains the embryos of The Magic Mountain.

I just reread a bunch of these last month. I agree that Tristan was a standout, another one I really enjoyed was Gladius Dei, and of course Tonio Kröger is a masterpiece. I'm not sure if you're going to read it this time around but as you may already know Death in Venice is incredibly beautiful: inspired surely by Mann's hero Richard Wagner's own death in Venice, and also by the then-recent death of Gustav Mahler who has the same first name as Mann's protagonist, who is kind of a tragic, parodistic self-insert. It contains some of the best writing I've ever read, and I find it to be a perfectly written story, though it covers some extremely dark subject matter: pedophilia, decadence, and death.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2023, 02:57:03 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 18, 2023, 02:40:10 AMI just reread a bunch of these last month. I agree that Tristan was a standout, another one I really enjoyed was Gladius Dei, and of course Tonio Kröger is a masterpiece. I'm not sure if you're going to read it this time around but as you may already know Death in Venice is incredibly beautiful: inspired surely by Mann's hero Richard Wagner's own death in Venice, and also by the then-recent death of Gustav Mahler who has the same first name as Mann's protagonist, who is kind of a tragic, parodistic self-insert. It contains some of the best writing I've ever read, and I find it to be a perfectly written story, though it covers some extremely dark subject matter: pedophilia, decadence, and death.

I am reading them in order, so Death in Venice is the last in the volume and will soon reach it.

I'm afraid I didn't find Gladius Dei particularly inspired and its meaning somehow eluded me. Was Mann implying that the modern (for him) world was immunized against would-be Savonarolas and they could be met only with amused irritation and mild violence? If yes, he was wrong, because after 30 years the Savonarolas were to have their way in a quasi-general enthusiasm, even frenzy.  ;D

And now that I think of it, Tristan may be read as a satire on Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata, because in a rather similar situation Mann's character, instead of killing his wife, merely threatens the seducer with a defamation lawsuit.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 18, 2023, 03:29:44 AM
In the "Antique and Used Book Fair" here in Madrid (it's held in spring and autumn every year in the central--and beautiful-- Paseo de Recoletos), I found a rebound copy of the second --1938-- edition of Agustín de Foxá's novel Madrid de corte a cheka (Madrid, from Court to Cheka).

(https://e00-elmundo.uecdn.es/blogs/elmundo/dragolandia/imagenes_posts/2019/02/22/197972_540x728.jpg)

Foxá (1906-1959) was an aristocrat and diplomat, and an avowed Falangist (although he later on became sceptical, and said that "Falangism was the adulterous daughter of Karl Marx and Queen Isabella the Catholic").

The novel, widely considered --despite its author's discredited political views-- as one of the best written in Spain in the 20th century, tells the events in Madrid from the downfall of Alfonso XIII's monarchy in 1931, during the years of the Second Republic, up to the "red terror" in besieged Madrid in the first years of the civil war. The work "cheka" in the title was the term (derived from the infamous Soviet repression apparatus) applied to makeshift detention centres that almost any organisation on the left of the political spectrum felt had the right to establish in the last days of the Republic and during the civil war.

So far (I'm some 40 pages into the 360-page book), this is proving a fascinating read, and no pamphleteerish political views have yet been expressed. The emergence of street violence prior to the downfall of the monarchy is wonderfully described (and some events take place a couple of blocks from my home in central Madrid).

I'm reading this straight after the memoirs of poet, painter, and art historian José Moreno Villa, who --although not really politically engaged-- supported the Republic, and ended up in exile in Mexico from 1937 to the end of his life. Although written from opposed perspectives, both books describe the disintegration of institutions in the last days of the Republic quite vividly, and to a certain extent confirm that there are many shades of grey in history, and that the Manichean view that is now widely espoused by many in current Spanish politics, namely that the Republic was a sort of idyllic Arcadia, followed by a criminal uprising and forty years of "hell on Earth" under Franco, is not quite exact.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41cuMLCe-+L._SX343_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2023, 03:56:01 AM
Quote from: ritter on May 18, 2023, 03:29:44 AMIn the "Antique and Used Book Fair" here in Madrid (it's held in spring and autumn every year in the central--and beautiful-- Paseo de Recoletos), I found a rebound copy of the second --1938-- edition of Agustín de Foxá's novel Madrid de corte a cheka (Madrid, from Court to Cheka).

(https://e00-elmundo.uecdn.es/blogs/elmundo/dragolandia/imagenes_posts/2019/02/22/197972_540x728.jpg)

Foxá (1906-1959) was an aristocrat and diplomat, and an avowed Falangist (although he later on became sceptical, and said that "Falangism was the adulterous daughter of Karl Marx and Queen Isabella the Catholic").

The novel, widely considered --despite its author's discredited political views-- as one of the best written in Spain in the 20th century-- tells the events in Madrid from the downfall of Alfonso XIII's monarchy in 1931, during the years of the Second Republic, up to the "red terror" in besieged Madrid in the first years of the civil war. The work "cheka" in the title was the term (derived from the infamous Soviet repression apparatus) applied to makeshift detention centres that almost any organisation on the left of the political spectrum felt the right to establish in the last days of the Republic and during the civil war.

So far (I'm some 40 pages into the 360-page book), this is proving a fascinating read, and no pamphleteerish political views have yet been expressed. The emergence of street violence prior to the downfall of the monarchy is wonderfully described (and some events take place a couple of blocks from my home in central Madrid).

I'm reading this straight after the memoirs of poet, painter, and art historian José Moreno Villa, who --although not really politically engaged-- supported the Republic, and ended up in exile in Mexico from 1937 to the end of his life. Although written from opposed perspectives, both books describe the disintegration of institutions in the last days of the Republic quite vividly, and to a certain extent confirm that there are many shades of grey in history, and that the Manichean view that is now widely espoused by many in current Spanish politics, namely that the Republic was a sort of idyllic Arcadia, followed by a criminal uprising and forty years of "hell on Earth" under Franco, is not quite exact.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41cuMLCe-+L._SX343_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

Thanks you, Rafael, for this most interesting post. Incidentally, Agustin de Foxá in his guise as the Spanish ambassador in Helsinki during WWII is a character in Curzio Malaparte's Kaputt. If you haven't read it yet, I urge you to do so, it's a fascinating reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2023, 04:22:37 AM
Quote from: ritter on May 18, 2023, 03:29:44 AMFoxá (1906-1959) was an aristocrat and diplomat, and an avowed Falangist (although he later on became sceptical, and said that "Falangism was the adulterous daughter of Karl Marx and Queen Isabella the Catholic").

Clever and not far from the truth. ;D

Well, this is in line with Foxa's views as recorded by Malaparte.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on May 18, 2023, 05:13:14 AM
All three stories - haven't read them for years but I enjoy them just as much now as when I was 11.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on May 18, 2023, 08:09:18 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 18, 2023, 03:56:01 AMThanks you, Rafael, for this most interesting post. Incidentally, Agustin de Foxá in his guise as the Spanish ambassador in Helsinki during WWII is a character in Curzio Malaparte's Kaputt. If you haven't read it yet, I urge you to do so, it's a fascinating reading.
Thank you, Andrei. I had heard of that connection with Malaparte's book. Since I've never read any of the Italian's work (although I remember seeing some of his books in my grandfather's library), I take note of your recommendation!

By the way, Foxá has a posthumously published book, Misión en Bucarest. He acted as secretary of the (republican) Spanish embassy to Romania, and it was there that he joined the rebel side during the civil war.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 18, 2023, 10:36:35 AM
Quote from: ritter on May 18, 2023, 08:09:18 AMThank you, Andrei. I had heard of that connection with Malaparte's book. Since I've never read any of the Italian's work (although I remember seeing some of his books in my grandfather's library), I take note of your recommendation!

Besides Kaputt, there is also The Skin, also dealing with his war experience. Malaparte started as a Fascist but the war experience, especially on the Eastern front, changed his views. I must confess that the chapter in Kaputt dealing with the Romanians (which inspired a movie by a Romanian director) is not very flattering to us, to say the least.

QuoteBy the way, Foxá has a posthumously published book, Misión en Bucarest. He acted as secretary of the (republican) Spanish embassy to Romania, and it was there that he joined the rebel side during the civil war.

I am aware of these facts.

This Foxá guy seems to have been a very intelligent and witty person with a skeptic outlook and a cheerful disposition. According to Wiki, his comment on her wife's cheating on him was "prefiero una maravilla para dos que una m. para mí solo". And about revolutions he said: "Todas las revoluciones han tenido como lema una trilogía: libertad, igualdad, fraternidad fue de la Revolución francesa; en mis años mozos yo me adherí a la trilogía falangista que hablaba de patria, pan y justicia. Ahora, instalado en mi madurez, proclamo otra: café, copa y puro." ;D

Oh, and I found his Madrid de Corte a Cheka online (go figure!). It makes for a fun reading and the portrait of Ramón del Valle-Inclán emerging from the very first paragraphs is not very flattering.

ZAMBRA y revuelo en la cacharrería del Ateneo: Llegaba don Ramón
con sus barbas de Padre Tajo, sucio, traslucido y mordaz. Hablaba a voces
contra el general Primo de Rivera.
-Ese espadón de Loja...
-Don Ramón, a la salida nos esperan los "carcas". Sentíase Valle Inclán
guerrillero de Oriamendi.

I laughed out loud reading that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 18, 2023, 01:43:21 PM
Quote from: Florestan on May 18, 2023, 02:57:03 AMI am reading them in order, so Death in Venice is the last in the volume and will soon reach it.

I'm afraid I didn't find Gladius Dei particularly inspired and its meaning somehow eluded me. Was Mann implying that the modern (for him) world was immunized against would-be Savonarolas and they could be met only with amused irritation and mild violence? If yes, he was wrong, because after 30 years the Savonarolas were to have their way in a quasi-general enthusiasm, even frenzy.  ;D

And now that I think of it, Tristan may be read as a satire on Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata, because in a rather similar situation Mann's character, instead of killing his wife, merely threatens the seducer with a defamation lawsuit.  :D

I don't know that that was the message he was trying to get across. I think he was trying to put the reader in the head of the reactionary in an increasingly secularized world, not to say that the world is now somehow immune to such sentiments, more just to note that they are ever present—besides, the young zealot was not dejected in the end, but empowered and radicalized further; maybe he's your 1930s Savonarolas in embryonic form. In any case, I enjoyed reading Mann's vivid descriptions of the rich aestheticism of fin-de-siècle Munich.

You may be right regarding Tristan and Kreutzer—down to the fact that both novellas take their titles from famous works of music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on May 19, 2023, 10:16:53 AM
Almost halfway through Balzac's Le Pére Goriot.

(https://s2.adlibris.com/images/4608803/pere-goriot.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 19, 2023, 10:25:10 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on May 19, 2023, 10:16:53 AMAlmost halfway through Balzac's Le Pére Goriot.

(https://s2.adlibris.com/images/4608803/pere-goriot.jpg)

A penny for your thoughts.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 19, 2023, 10:31:13 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 18, 2023, 01:43:21 PMI don't know that that was the message he was trying to get across. I think he was trying to put the reader in the head of the reactionary in an increasingly secularized world, not to say that the world is now somehow immune to such sentiments, more just to note that they are ever present—besides, the young zealot was not dejected in the end, but empowered and radicalized further; maybe he's your 1930s Savonarolas in embryonic form. In any case, I enjoyed reading Mann's vivid descriptions of the rich aestheticism of fin-de-siècle Munich.

Interesting thoughts.

Btw, you (and others) might find this (very long) reading not without interest:

Bourgeois Ambivalence: A Comparative Investigation of Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (https://core.ac.uk/download/81670148.pdf)


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on May 19, 2023, 10:32:28 AM
The description of Mme Vauquer's boarding house is Balzac at his very best - I have no doubt Balzac influenced Zola in his horrifying descriptions of abject poverty.

I have actually some pre-knowledge about this novel and how things turn out, in kind of King Lear-fashion. Yet I must say even then that Goriot's daughters (or at least Delphine) are way more complex than Goneril and Regan could ever hope to be.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 19, 2023, 10:44:33 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on May 19, 2023, 10:32:28 AMThe description of Mme Vauquer's boarding house is Balzac at his very best - I have no doubt Balzac influenced Zola in his horrifying descriptions of abject poverty.

Many moons ago I started (mentally only) to write a novel in which a character was described as drinking a liquor which would have made even the demon of alcoholism shrink back in indignant horror --- a direct paraphrase of Balzac's vivid description of Mme Vauquer's boarding house.  ;)

QuoteI have actually some pre-knowledge about this novel and how things turn out, in kind of King Lear-fashion. Yet I must say even then that Goriot's daughters (or at least Delphine) are way more complex than Goneril and Regan could ever hope to be.



It's certainly an archetypal story. There is even a Romanian folklore version.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 20, 2023, 09:40:52 AM
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez. I think I'm going to actually finish it this time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 20, 2023, 09:55:56 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 20, 2023, 09:40:52 AMLove in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez. I think I'm going to actually finish it this time.

A page turner for me. One of the greatest novels of the 20th century.

I abhorr Marquez communist politics but I admire his artistry and the way he kept the latter distinct from the former.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 20, 2023, 10:07:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 20, 2023, 09:55:56 AMA page turner for me. One of the greatest novels of the 20th century.

I abhorr Marquez communist politics but I admire his artistry and the way he kept the latter distinct from the former.

Indeed he does keep them separate; I didn't even know he was a commie until just this moment  ;D

And yes, it is a page turner. Márquez does some weird things with the temporal element in his narrative, which I couldn't get past the first time I read it, and I gave up. Now on this second attempt I can't see why I had so much trouble getting into it the first time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 21, 2023, 02:38:26 PM
RIP Martin Amis.

An author who I especially loved when I was in my 20s and 30s. Its a highly uneven bibliography, but the highs could be so high. And he could be so damn funny. His The Rachel Papers is my most re-read book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 22, 2023, 05:30:30 PM
Having burned through Love in the Time of Cholera voraciously, being left in the mood for more GGM, I started rereading Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Ah, it's a good one too. I love his writing; I feel like I ought to have read everything he ever wrote several times over by now. I fell in love with One Hundred Years of Solitude when I read it at 17 but for some reason it's taken me until recently to read García Márquez's other work.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 23, 2023, 12:45:52 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 22, 2023, 05:30:30 PMHaving burned through Love in the Time of Cholera voraciously, being left in the mood for more GGM, I started rereading Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Ah, it's a good one too. I love his writing; I feel like I ought to have read everything he ever wrote several times over by now. I fell in love with One Hundred Years of Solitude when I read it at 17 but for some reason it's taken me until recently to read García Márquez's other work.

Try also The General in His Labyrinth and Of Love and Other Demons.

Btw, have you read anything by Mario Vargas Llosa?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 23, 2023, 02:24:16 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 23, 2023, 12:45:52 AMTry also The General in His Labyrinth and Of Love and Other Demons.

Btw, have you read anything by Mario Vargas Llosa?

Thanks! I'll look out for those. And, no, never, what would you recommend by him?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 23, 2023, 02:36:30 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 23, 2023, 02:24:16 AMThanks! I'll look out for those. And, no, never, what would you recommend by him?

The War of the End of The World, Conversation in the Cathedral, The Green House, Death in the Andes, Who Killed Palomino Molero?. All excellent, the latter two are mystery novels, go figure!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 23, 2023, 08:06:55 AM
(https://images.okr.ro/serve/product/fa232d1c26a8adcec4a370cced29307e-61011-1000_1000)

Thomas Hardy - Life's Little Ironies and Other Stories (complete)

I love the (often dark, sometimes gentle) humor of these stories about common people and their life. They are not even Levin and Kitty, let alone Anna and Vronsky, but they live their uninteresting lives and adventures just as intense.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on May 24, 2023, 12:50:21 AM
Started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51OfEQaebIL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


also on the go, for when I need something lighter:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41QXB5jEJmL.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PoFQa3CcL._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lrkWYGD1L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on May 26, 2023, 01:09:32 PM
(https://d1b14unh5d6w7g.cloudfront.net/0691176906.01.S001.LXXXXXXX.jpg?Expires=1685219722&Signature=GDF~bedtTB2fk7nZTfS1LxqEwE8R3yRjXFSzbElwIrXbDQHA6wHEbFFER7rm3Ske2YJv9~252myqRs0RO7uT-gp8CLjuWxICudYBGrjfO0Ng0N56TjntT1U978Vu9ENP63UVz0E4IL4iGepvLhZ8JjKtoFFxD922N-Kg2r-I6mU_&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUO27P366FGALUMQ)

Finding this interesting, despite the fact that much of the trigonometry/calculus Maor brings to bear on e.g explaining frequency ratios, and how history uncovered them, goes over my head.
Am about 2/3 the way through, and there's mention of the earliest musical instrument we know of (discovered in 2008), fashioned from the wing bone of griffon vulture, with five precisely drilled holes (so in essence a kind of flute, but one that is 35,000 years old!). It was part of a community that drank beer, played drums and danced around the campfire on cold winters evenings. And I'd so love to know what sort of music that flute player conjured up for his listeners/revellers!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on May 27, 2023, 12:16:05 AM
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9782253004134-uk.jpg)

A sort of cross between Tristram Shandy and Gargantua.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 27, 2023, 11:39:08 AM
I'm somewhere in the middle of Great Expectations. Paused to start GGM's Of Love and Other Demons. Dark and decadent as all hell, it seems like GGM's attempt to give Joris-Karl Huysmans a run for his money.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 28, 2023, 09:15:43 AM
Continuing my GGM binge with a reread of One Hundred Years of Solitude. I was in high school when I first read this, ten years ago or so. It's a great book, though my youthful enthusiasm may have waned somewhat. I definitely don't agree with William Kennedy's ridiculous assertion which adorns the back cover:

Quote from: William KennedyOne Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race... Mr. García Márquez has done nothing less than to create in the reader a sense of all that is powerful, meaningful, and meaningless in life.

... but maybe that's due to my aversion to the concept of "required reading". Anyway, I'm only a quarter of the way into it and we'll see how my opinion changes throughout the rest of the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on May 28, 2023, 09:29:29 AM
Quote from: William Kennedy on May 28, 2023, 09:15:43 AMOne Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race...

A strong contender for the stupidest hyperbole ever.  ;D



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on May 31, 2023, 05:03:09 PM
I started yesterday William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I must say I am pretty ignorant on the subject, though it is one I have always had a morbid fascination with. However, it's such a massive book that I have no idea whether I'll ever finish it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on June 01, 2023, 02:07:46 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 31, 2023, 05:03:09 PMI started yesterday William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I must say I am pretty ignorant on the subject, though it is one I have always had a morbid fascination with. However, it's such a massive book that I have no idea whether I'll ever finish it.

What l do with such imposing works is find the " tasty bits ", and read those first. That will usually generate enough motivation to finish the entire edifice, particularly if taken in " bite-sized " portions.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 01, 2023, 06:41:37 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 31, 2023, 05:03:09 PMI started yesterday William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I must say I am pretty ignorant on the subject, though it is one I have always had a morbid fascination with. However, it's such a massive book that I have no idea whether I'll ever finish it.

Shirer is such a great writer I'll wager it goes faster than you expect. I read his equally fat book on the fall of the French Third republic fairly recently, and it might well have been the best book I read that year, and imo deserves to be as well known as his Third Reich work (which I read in my 20s and am now planning a reread).

I'd also highly recommend Richard Evens recent 3-volume series on the subject.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on June 01, 2023, 07:04:39 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on May 31, 2023, 05:03:09 PMI started yesterday William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I must say I am pretty ignorant on the subject, though it is one I have always had a morbid fascination with. However, it's such a massive book that I have no idea whether I'll ever finish it.

Although it's a bit dated, for one being written before the Goebbels diaries were found. Volker Ulrich's 2 volume Hitler bio or Adam Tooze's analysis of the Nazi Economy are the gold standard on the topic
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 01, 2023, 09:48:57 PM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on June 01, 2023, 07:04:39 PMAlthough it's a bit dated, for one being written before the Goebbels diaries were found.

I'd push back on that a little. Average history books by average historians become dusty and disposable pretty quickly, but the best retain a unique voice with unique perspectives that remain timeless. And further evidence tends to reinforce them rather than contradict or show them lacking.

Shirer also has the unique perspective of being both the first and most voracious reseacher let into the Reich archives, and of personally knowing most of the main actors in his role as reporter (that later informs the clarity and readability you might not expect from the former.)

I can also attest that his fall of France book still betters anything written recently. The use of the most testimony and sources to create a granular near minute by minute you-are-there narrative next to high academic standards was and is an astonishing achievement. And, again, it weaves in firsthand experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 02, 2023, 12:22:27 PM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on June 01, 2023, 07:04:39 PMAlthough it's a bit dated, for one being written before the Goebbels diaries were found. Volker Ulrich's 2 volume Hitler bio or Adam Tooze's analysis of the Nazi Economy are the gold standard on the topic

I'll stick it out with Shirer for a bit (so far in my reading I've noticed that he does quote a certain Goebbels diary quite extensively, covering the late '20s; I take it you are referring to his diaries of a later period?)—but you've piqued my interest in the Volker Ullrich bio. It looks great.

I'm about ~150 pages in. My inclination is to disagree with Shirer's thesis that Hitler and the rise of the Nazi Party represent a logical continuation of German history and thought up to that point. (I'm paraphrasing, but what he said was something quite close to that.) But I am enjoying the writing; it's a page turner, especially for an old history book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on June 02, 2023, 01:14:18 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 02, 2023, 12:22:27 PMI'll stick it out with Shirer for a bit (so far in my reading I've noticed that he does quote a certain Goebbels diary quite extensively, covering the late '20s; I take it you are referring to his diaries of a later period?)—but you've piqued my interest in the Volker Ullrich bio. It looks great.

I'm about ~150 pages in. My inclination is to disagree with Shirer's thesis that Hitler and the rise of the Nazi Party represent a logical continuation of German history and thought up to that point. (I'm paraphrasing, but what he said was something quite close to that.) But I am enjoying the writing; it's a page turner, especially for an old history book.

My understanding is that some of the diaries were available earlier, but the bulk was discovered by David Irving (yes that David Irving)  in a Soviet archive in 1992
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 02, 2023, 01:19:54 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 02, 2023, 12:22:27 PMMy inclination is to disagree with Shirer's thesis that Hitler and the rise of the Nazi Party represent a logical continuation of German history and thought up to that point. (I'm paraphrasing, but what he said was something quite close to that.)

Well, with respect to anti-semitism, Luther and Hitler share much more than the final letters of their name...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 02, 2023, 01:41:16 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 02, 2023, 01:19:54 PMWell, with respect to anti-semitism, Luther and Hitler share much more than the final letters of their name...

Yes that's true but anti semitism at the time was quite widespread in Europe - not a German specific thing, and not confined to countries with a strong Lutheran tendency either.

Anyway, you'll be pleased to know I am reading the following

(https://www.frenchbookshop.co.uk/book-image/5048/9782253161202/le-livre-de-poche--classiques-french-le-spleen-de-paris-charles-baudelaire)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 02, 2023, 02:08:22 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on June 02, 2023, 01:41:16 PMI am reading the following

(https://www.frenchbookshop.co.uk/book-image/5048/9782253161202/le-livre-de-poche--classiques-french-le-spleen-de-paris-charles-baudelaire)


Magnifique, mon cher!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 02, 2023, 02:09:46 PM
Quote from: SonicMan46 on June 02, 2023, 02:05:04 PMAny Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen) fans in the house?  ;D

Clash of the Titans (1981) - partial cast below w/ Olivier as Zeus (check link for much more) - loved this stop-action film for years (esp. when Judi Bowker emerges from her bath toward the end -  :P ) - below is an IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/list/ls070179266/?sort=user_rating,desc&st_dt=&mode=simple&page=1&ref_=ttls_vw_smp) listing of Ray's films ranked by their system - I've seen most of these movies and own about 8 or so - comments and favorites?  Dave :)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81BH1+yUroL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)  (https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/i-DbXH4h8/0/354a2300/O/HarryhausenFilms.png)

Wrong thread, Dave.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SonicMan46 on June 02, 2023, 06:07:33 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 02, 2023, 02:09:46 PMWrong thread, Dave.  ;D

Thanks Andrei - will repost in the right place!  Dave :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on June 02, 2023, 09:06:19 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 02, 2023, 02:08:22 PMMagnifique, mon cher!
Quote from: Mandryka on June 02, 2023, 01:41:16 PMYes that's true but anti semitism at the time was quite widespread in Europe - not a German specific thing, and not confined to countries with a strong Lutheran tendency either.

Anyway, you'll be pleased to know I am reading the following

(https://www.frenchbookshop.co.uk/book-image/5048/9782253161202/le-livre-de-poche--classiques-french-le-spleen-de-paris-charles-baudelaire)


The Spleen of Paris...

Hard pass!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 02, 2023, 10:03:14 PM
Quote from: LKB on June 02, 2023, 09:06:19 PMThe Spleen of Paris...

Hard pass!

Why?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on June 03, 2023, 02:35:28 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 02, 2023, 10:03:14 PMWhy?

It's a joke... and not.

The joke is obvious:

" The spleen is an organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter. The word spleen comes from Ancient Greek σπλήν. " ( From Wikipedia )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spleen

The non-joke: My only visit to France in 1983 was not fun, and l was unable to escape for seven days.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 03, 2023, 07:48:33 AM
Quote from: LKB on June 03, 2023, 02:35:28 AMMy only visit to France in 1983 was not fun, and l was unable to escape for seven days.

I'm truly sorry to hear that. I lived in France for almost two years and I have very fond memories of that extended sojourn. Great country history-, art- and landscape-wise, beautiful language which I speak fluently, exquisite cuisine, excellent wines and beers, joie de vivre and on top of them all I was young and madly in love --- I greatly relished the whole experience and I will jump at the next opportunity to visit France again, especially Grenoble, where I was based.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on June 03, 2023, 07:59:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 03, 2023, 07:48:33 AMI'm truly sorry to hear that. I lived in France for almost two years and I have very fond memories of that extended sojourn. Great country history-, art- and landscape-wise, beautiful language which I speak fluently, exquisite cuisine, excellent wines and beers, joie de vivre and on top of them all I was young and madly in love --- I greatly relished the whole experience and I will jump at the next opportunity to visit France again, especially Grenoble, where I was based.

I'm glad your time there was so positive.  8)

My best European experiences were in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands and England.

Belgium and Italy were OK, though l only had relatively little time there to explore. Maybe someday...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 03, 2023, 08:18:58 AM
Quote from: LKB on June 03, 2023, 07:59:54 AMI'm glad your time there was so positive.  8)

in a certain way, it was the best time of my life --- but this intense nostalgia has surely got something to do with the fact that I was 20 years younger.  :D

QuoteMy best European experiences were in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands and England.

I lived in The Netherlands too, for almost a year, but my experience there was nothing like the French one. Out of respect for my Dutch friends here I will not elaborate on that.;D

I've visited Switzerland, Austria and Germany as well and enjoyed them. Coincidentally, in this exact order (the enjoyment, that is, not the time of visit).  :D

QuoteBelgium and Italy were OK, though l only had relatively little time there to explore. Maybe someday...

Italy is my favorite country, period. I was charmed, hooked, bewitched and floored on the spot the very moment I first set foot in Italy, specifically in Venice. No, really, I had a most uncanny feeling of coming home and I am sure that if it's true that we all lived another life, I must have lived mine in Venice. I also visited Rome, Naples and Florence and greatly enjoyed them. If I had to choose a foreign country to settle in for life, it would be Italy.

Belgium is nice, too, especially Dinant, a charming little city surrounded by mountains (Belgian scale mountains, that is).

Well, add to France's spell on me the fact that, being based there, I was able to make all the above-mentioned trips.  ;)

But I digress greatly, this is the wrong thread for such effusions.  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 05, 2023, 07:41:44 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41D2ag4f+1L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I've got a bit of a history with this puppy. When I was at school I studied Greek, and the 15 year old me  could struggle his way through bits of Euripides and Xenophon. One day the teacher gave us a bit of Homer to look at and, like, it's real hard. It's one of the reasons I decided to do maths and physics rather than classics at 6th form.

At uni I mixed a lot with classicists because I studied philosophy. At the time Oxford had a rapid introduction to Greek for Latinists who hadn't done Greek at school. I remember a friend telling me that the aim was to get them to the point where they could have a good go at Homer after three terms. And because of that, at the back of my mind has always been the thought that I'd like to read the Iliad in Greek before I die.

Then in my 30s I had a go at reading it in English -- Pope or Chapman, I can't remember which. Some parts of it really stuck --  Hecuba speaking to Hector before he goes to fight Achilles, the battle with Scamander, Priam in Achilles' tent.

Well, I noticed a course on it at London's City Lit -- remote with zoom, starts Wednesday, 10 hours over 5 weeks, they're using this translation, so I thought, why not? If I enjoy it, I may well take lessons in classical Greek. It's now or never I guess.

And reading the first two chapters, the translation is really well written -- how true it is to Homer I can't say. It's an incredibly good story. I just hate that bastard Agamemnon! And that bitch Hera  . . .




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on June 05, 2023, 08:52:56 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on June 05, 2023, 07:41:44 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41D2ag4f+1L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

I've got a bit of a history with this puppy. When I was at school I studied Greek, and the 15 year old me  could struggle his way through bits of Euripides and Xenophon. One day the teacher gave us a bit of Homer to look at and, like, it's real hard. It's one of the reasons I decided to do maths and physics rather than classics at 6th form.

At uni I mixed a lot with classicists because I studied philosophy. At the time Oxford had a rapid introduction to Greek for Latinists who hadn't done Greek at school. I remember a friend telling me that the aim was to get them to the point where they could have a good go at Homer after three terms. And because of that, at the back of my mind has always been the thought that I'd like to read the Iliad in Greek before I die.

Then in my 30s I had a go at reading it in English -- Pope or Chapman, I can't remember which. Some parts of it really stuck --  Hecuba speaking to Hector before he goes to fight Achilles, the battle with Scamander, Priam in Achilles tent.

Well, I noticed a course on it at London's City Lit -- remote with zoom, starts Wednesday, 10 hours over 5 weeks, they're using this translation, so I thought, why not? If I enjoy it, I may well take lessons in classical Greek. It's now or never I guess.

And reading the first two chapters, the translation is really well written -- how true it is to Homer I can't say. It's an incredibly good story. I just hate that bastard Agamemnon! And that bitch Hera  . . .





Is it a prose translation?

I bought and read the Lattimore translations as a college student, as well as his Hesiod and the Greek dramatist series on which he collaborated.
Loved them enough that I've never felt the need to get any newer translation.

The Theomachy section is fun, especially the part in which Aphrodite flees in tears back to Olympus after one of the Greeks (Diomedes, I think) stabs her hand: Homer thumbing his nose at the Greek pantheon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on June 05, 2023, 09:11:25 AM
Quote from: JBS on June 05, 2023, 08:52:56 AMIs it a prose translation?

I bought and read the Lattimore translations as a college student, as well as his Hesiod and the Greek dramatist series on which he collaborated.
Loved them enough that I've never felt the need to get any newer translation.

The Theomachy section is fun, especially the part in which Aphrodite flees in tears back to Olympus after one of the Greeks (Diomedes, I think) stabs her hand: Homer thumbing his nose at the Greek pantheon.

It's prose. It's the translation the course is using.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on June 06, 2023, 09:47:59 AM
(https://kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/637ba4ab-c74d-44e0-83f7-ae45fa0da492/1200/1200/False/the-portrait-of-a-lady-31.jpg)

Started a new Henry James book - this time in Finnish translation (not the one in the image above). I normally would have opted for the original but this just stood out in library and I thought what the hell. I can at any case read it later in English. This is one of the rather small amount of Henry James works that have been translated to my language. James's personal style may not quite come across in translation (as far as I can tell) but this has been fairly engaging so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 08, 2023, 05:21:11 PM
Started:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mpkQ3KfaL._SY445_QL70_ML2_.jpg)

Read various parts previously, but never the whole thing right through before.

Long since made peace with the fact that I'm never going to be someone who gets through it in unmodernized Middle English.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 13, 2023, 04:36:14 PM
Picking up The Crossing again, in memoriam Cormac McCarthy. I love his work, but I've never been able to get all the way through this one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 16, 2023, 12:11:45 PM
An excellent article by Isaiah Berlin:

The 'Naiveté' of Verdi (https://newrepublic.com/article/91320/opera-verdi-isaiah-berlin)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 16, 2023, 01:40:01 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 16, 2023, 12:11:45 PMAn excellent article by Isaiah Berlin:

The 'Naiveté' of Verdi (https://newrepublic.com/article/91320/opera-verdi-isaiah-berlin)
Will read it with interest, Andrei. Thanks for the link, and good evening to you.

Azorín (nom de plume of José Martínez Ruiz) was a leading figure of the Spanish generación del 98, and widely considered the greatest prose stylist in Spanish in the 20th century, although his reputation —or, rather, his visibility— has declined in the past couple of decades. His books had a prominent place in my father's library.

Prompted by the 150th anniversary of his birth on on 8 June 1873, I am now reading for the first time his essay Castilla (1912). Beautifully written, this is not a sentimental description of "eternal Castile", but more a philosophical, profound approach to this part of Spain, its peoples and customs, with wider themes, such as the passing of time, also being addressed. The first chapters, e.g., deal with railroads.

I'm reading it in a 1982 reprint of the lavish 1943 anthology of Azorín's work published by Biblioteca Nueva (a long-established, superb publishing house that was almost criminally driven to bankruptcy by new owners and management team early this century  >:( ).

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30778487945.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 17, 2023, 02:14:17 AM
(https://limanshanblog.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/slonimsky.jpg)

(can be read online at archive.org)

Extremely amusing, but... dare I say it? Heck, I dare: I find myself in perfect agreement with some of those pronouncements, especially with regard to Beethoven in general and to Brahms's First Symphony in particular.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 18, 2023, 05:42:34 AM
Quote from: ritter on June 16, 2023, 01:40:01 PMAzorín (nom de plume of José Martínez Ruiz) was a leading figure of the Spanish generación del 98, and widely considered the greatest prose stylist in Spanish in the 20th century, although his reputation —or, rather, his visibility— has declined in the past couple of decades. His books had a prominent place in my father's library.

Azorín is the author of one of my favorite witticisms ever penned, which I quote by memory:

The Spaniard's idea of legality consists in possessing an officially stamped and signed paper stating that the owner thereof is entitled to do whatever he pleases.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2023, 09:02:44 AM
My reading in the last three days.

(https://imagini.printrecarti.ro/images/products/originals/20/luigi-pirandello-sase-personaje-in-cautarea-unui-autor_19541.jpg)

Six Characters in Search of an Author
Tonight We Improvise
To Clothe the Naked

My first encounter with Pirandello's theatre and I am mightily impressed. All these dramas are very good but I especially liked Tonight We Improvise not only because it extensively uses and quotes operatic music (specifically Verdi) but also because the interesting discussion of the difference between text and performance and how the latter might often be, nay, is, more important than the former applies, mutatis mutandis, to music as well. A most interesting play and obviously a tour de force to stage well.

(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/371/370909-1.jpg)

The Double

Despite the subject matter, which is the slow but inexorable descent into madness of an otherwise dull and unremarkable fellow, I enjoyed this a lot because it has what Dostoevsky rarely displays: humour aplenty. I chuckled reading this short novel more than I did in the combined reading of The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Demons. This is probably the work in which he comes closest to Gogol.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 21, 2023, 09:59:08 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2023, 09:02:44 AMMy reading in the last three days.

(https://imagini.printrecarti.ro/images/products/originals/20/luigi-pirandello-sase-personaje-in-cautarea-unui-autor_19541.jpg)

Six Characters in Search of an Author
Tonight We Improvise
To Clothe the Naked

My first encounter with Pirandello's theatre and I am mightily impressed. All these dramas are very good but I especially liked Tonight We Improvise not only because it extensively uses and quotes operatic music (specifically Verdi) but also because the interesting discussion of the difference between text and performance and how the latter might often be, nay, is, more important than the former applies, mutatis mutandis, to music as well. A most interesting play and obviously a tour de force to stage well.

...

I had the chance to see Tonight We Improvise staged here in Madrid, and it was great theatre. Pirandello is really something!

Quote from: ritter on July 20, 2022, 07:05:38 AM...

The Teatro Español here in Madrid (the city's oldest playhouse, and one of the most prestigious theatrical institutions in the Spanish speaking world) produced Luigi Pirandello's late Questa sera si recita a soggetto (Tonight we Improvise, or Esta noche se improvisa la comedia in Spanish translation). This is a part of the author's "trilogy of the theatre within the theatre", along with Six Characters in Search of an Author and Each in His Own Way. A convoluted but highly interesting and entertaining plot about a stage director asking his actors to improvise a theatrical adaptation of Pirandello's novella Leonora, addio! (with clear operatic references). The limit between what his happening to (or is being said by) the actors or their characters becomes very difuse. The producer Ernesto Caballero made some adaptations of te text to include references to modern life (or to Spanish culture, the work being particularly Sicilian in its origin), and humour was present throughout most of the play (despite the tragic ending). All this worked admirably, and the crew of actors (many well-known from TV appearances in Spain) functioned very well together in this choral piece. A fun evening in the theatre! I've always come out impressed from the theatre whenever I've seen a piece by Pirandello!

(https://static.abc.es/media/cultura/2022/06/17/improcomedia-kJeB-U77087215317Arb-1248x698@abc.jpg)
The simple but rather effective sets by Monica Boromello.

...

Buonasera, Andrei!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2023, 10:06:18 AM
Quote from: ritter on June 21, 2023, 09:59:08 AMI had the chance to see Tonight We Improvise staged here in Madrid, and it was great theatre. Pirandello is really something!

Buonasera, Andrei!


Servidor vostro, sior si.

I have a question: when you say "tragic end", you refer to what? Surely not the play itself, which strikes me as rather in the Commedia dell'arte vein, with its obligatory and humorous final wink to the audience, which not even Goldoni dispensed with..  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on June 21, 2023, 10:10:20 AM
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2023, 10:06:18 AMServidor vostro, sior si.

I have a question: when you say "tragic end", you refer to what? Surely not the play itself, which strikes me as rather in the Commedia dell'arte vein, with its obligatory and humorous final wink to the audience, which not even Goldoni dispensed with..  :D
I don't have the text, but doesn't one of the female characters commit suicide near the end? Perhaps the director of the production I saw tinkered with the text...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2023, 10:19:56 AM
Quote from: ritter on June 21, 2023, 10:10:20 AMI don't have the text, but doesn't one of the female characters commit suicide near the end? Perhaps the director of the production I saw tinkered with the text...

Heart failure, actually --- but it's the ending of the improvisation, not of the play... Actually, the line between text and peformance, art and life are so blurred in this play... I would certainly love to see it staged. It was actually staged in Romania many decades ago, years before 1989, to high critical acclaim, my parents saw it, blessed be their memory.






Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 21, 2023, 12:40:27 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2023, 09:02:44 AM(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/371/370909-1.jpg)

The Double

Despite the subject matter, which is the slow but inexorable descent into madness of an otherwise dull and unremarkable fellow, I enjoyed this a lot because it has what Dostoevsky rarely displays: humour aplenty. I chuckled reading this short novel more than I did in the combined reading of The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Demons. This is probably the work in which he comes closest to Gogol.

Actually, now that I think about it, dull and unremarkable as Goliadkin is, he's also more humane and likeable than all other characters, because he alone is humble and compassionate, and maybe this is precisely why he goes mad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 21, 2023, 04:32:24 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2023, 09:02:44 AMMy reading in the last three days.

(https://imagini.printrecarti.ro/images/products/originals/20/luigi-pirandello-sase-personaje-in-cautarea-unui-autor_19541.jpg)

Six Characters in Search of an Author
Tonight We Improvise
To Clothe the Naked

My first encounter with Pirandello's theatre and I am mightily impressed. All these dramas are very good but I especially liked Tonight We Improvise not only because it extensively uses and quotes operatic music (specifically Verdi) but also because the interesting discussion of the difference between text and performance and how the latter might often be, nay, is, more important than the former applies, mutatis mutandis, to music as well. A most interesting play and obviously a tour de force to stage well.

(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/371/370909-1.jpg)

The Double

Despite the subject matter, which is the slow but inexorable descent into madness of an otherwise dull and unremarkable fellow, I enjoyed this a lot because it has what Dostoevsky rarely displays: humour aplenty. I chuckled reading this short novel more than I did in the combined reading of The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Demons. This is probably the work in which he comes closest to Gogol.

I busted out laughing my ass off when Mitya Fyodorovich was talking to the cops, trying to clear his name after he is arrested on suspicion of killing his dad, and saying way too much. That part is comedy gold.

I'm reading the infamous Shostakovich/Volkov Testimony. Fraudulent to some degree or another though it may be, Volkov's Shostakovich is so humane and likable that my current opinion is only that I wish deeply that it were a fully authentic picture of the man. I love all the praise in memoriam Glazunov—makes me realize I ought to hear his music. I have Laurel Fay's supposedly more factual Shostakovich bio on the table and I intend to read it next.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on June 22, 2023, 06:24:18 PM
(https://www.whsmith.co.uk/mobify/caching/assets/product-image/extra-large/9781509890750.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 25, 2023, 01:02:31 PM
Dinosaurs: A Visual Encyclopedia.


(https://img.thriftbooks.com/api/images/l/5524a113f61bee6bb72c5a162973ce409ccec690.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on June 25, 2023, 03:42:02 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 25, 2023, 01:02:31 PMDinosaurs: A Visual Encyclopedia.


(https://img.thriftbooks.com/api/images/l/5524a113f61bee6bb72c5a162973ce409ccec690.jpg)

I got a very similar book for my girlfriend for Christmas, she loved it ;D My brother didn't approve, commenting that the illustrations did not feature enough feathers and thus were inaccurate.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 25, 2023, 04:09:13 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 25, 2023, 03:42:02 PMI got a very similar book for my girlfriend for Christmas, she loved it ;D My brother didn't approve, commenting that the illustrations did not feature enough feathers and thus were inaccurate.

Did you get my message last week?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 27, 2023, 01:40:10 PM
The Arabian Nights: A Companion - Robert Irwin.


(https://d1b14unh5d6w7g.cloudfront.net/1860649831.01.S001.LXXXXXXX.jpg?Expires=1687988295&Signature=HejZKyADKKiVgGLW8w0XPcksdjVzqrddG0uSKOK15cUDmAi91EwyzOOYOPqJW-h0r6WFJPvY239-erahFRID3mNT3dXIa~15KDBO2CjeCOSXypnRBgrzErfq4wi6EpAexyGBJ98dblRfSVrToznUOV1rCseTCYuz2FBK3Xtn0Ng_&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUO27P366FGALUMQ)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on June 30, 2023, 12:45:37 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517asLy30eL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

This book confirms that my estrangement from, and repudiation of, philosophical and aesthetic Romanticism, particularly of the German kind, is irreversible.

(https://imagini.printrecarti.ro/images/products/originals/51/feodor-sologub-demonul-meschin_50793.jpg)

Fyodor Sologub - The Petty Demon

The moral atmosphere of this novel is so bleak and suffocating, the main characters (all of them without exception) so unlikable and disgusting, the "Russian soul" so irredeemably corrupt and repulsive --- as to make Dostoevsky's world look like some sort of Pickwick Papers.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 01, 2023, 01:33:53 PM
The other day, an online seller was offering a heavily discounted copy ofthe third volume of Roger Martin du Gard's mammoth diary (the three volumes have some 1200 pages each on average), and I immediately snapped it up.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31g8vcOVw9L._SX290_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)

This volume covers the years 1937 (when the author was awarded the Nobel prize) to 1949 (when his wife Hélène died). Not something to tackle in one sitting IMHO, but I'm reading the pages covering the liberation of France and the German defeat in WW2, and they're very interesting.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on July 02, 2023, 03:03:35 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61F7HnV2VYL.jpg)

Historical Note:

'In the 1580s, a couple living in Henley Street, Stratford had three children: Susanna, then Hamnet and Judith, who were twins.
The boy, Hamnet, died in 1596, aged eleven.

Four years or so later, the father wrote a play called Hamlet.'

(Hamnet and Hamlet are in fact the same name, used entirely interchangeably in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.)

The above is all that's actually known about the story, and the book's conceit is to take these bare facts as a springboard to imagine the larger tale surrounding them. It's a nice idea, and the story's a good one, couched in attractive prose, and peopled by convincing characters with whom it's easy to empathise.
But despite all this and despite enjoying it, I didn't feel I got anything more than what was on the page, the only subconscious or subliminal elements were ones actually described, rather than emanating from the characters themselves, and in that sense it felt rather lightweight.
I may however be in the minority, as many seem deeply enthused by it, including the person who urged it upon me.

(I'll add that if I'm ever handed the levers of a time machine and told I can choose one moment in history to visit, it might well be one to find out more about who Shakespeare really was and whether the plays were all his work or not. It is one of the lacunae in our historical knowledge that I feel most keenly.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 07, 2023, 10:09:22 AM
Started recently Zola's Nana. Doesnt seem as interesting as L'assommoir, L'Argent or Germinal but there is some quite sexually explicit language for it's time period. I can easily see why this was probably Zola's most scandalizing book. For modern reader Germinal's "woman's no means yes" bullcrap is far more offensive however.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on July 07, 2023, 05:30:11 PM
Just finished Waiting for Godot, second or third reading of it. Still unable to make heads or tails of it. Perhaps someone here can help me understand Beckett. I know he is much beloved by many, but this famous play does little for me. Maybe I just need to see it live?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on July 08, 2023, 03:39:15 AM
J.D. Salinger: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/Seymoreintroduction.jpg)

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
The story was originally published in the November 19, 1955, issue of The New Yorker.

Like many of the other Glass family stories, Raise High is narrated by Buddy Glass, the second of the Glass brothers. It describes Buddy's visit on Army leave (during World War II, in 1942) to attend the wedding of his brother Seymour to Muriel and tells of the aftermath when Seymour fails to show. The events set the stage for Seymour's suicide in 1948. Seymour is described through the eyes of Buddy and through those of the would-be wedding's attendants. Included is the Matron of Honor, a loud and burly woman whom Buddy meets in a car leaving the site of the wedding.

Seymour: An Introduction
Seymour: An Introduction was also originally published in The New Yorker in 1959,  four years after Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters.

As the title suggests, the story represents an attempt by Buddy Glass to introduce the reader to his brother Seymour, who had committed suicide in 1948. The story is told in a stream of consciousness narrative as Buddy reminisces in his secluded home.

This story, like others concerning the Glass family, touches upon Zen Buddhism, haiku, and the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta.

===================================

I periodically re-read all of the Salinger books, this time going in reverse-chrono.  Ironically, early this morning, I stumbled upon a documentary, Seymour:an introduction, which has nothing to do with the book, but is  film made by Ethan Hawke about the pianist Seymour Bernstein.  Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 09, 2023, 01:14:56 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/810edBQ8lPL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71YqEuF6qiL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on July 09, 2023, 01:20:38 PM
Continuing my exploration of the Spanish "silver age" with the memories of Rafael Cansinos Assens 1882-1964):

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61C7GdfjyUL._SY522_.jpg)

Cansinos (distantly related to Rita Hayworth) was a Spanish writer and critic, and one of the leading figures in avant-garde literature in Spain before the Civil War. He was much admired by Jorge Luis Borges, but has now lapsed into relative obscurity.

These memoirs so far a very entertaining read, frank and gossipy. They were published posthumously, as Cansinos would not yield to the requests of self-censorship that distinguished publisher Manuel Aguilar made to be able to release them during Franco's time (Cansinos had translated The 1001 Nights for publication in one of Aguilar's lavish leather bound series, which now have become collectors' items).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on July 12, 2023, 10:10:35 AM
now reading 3 books on colonial America

the audiobook of M&D is quite good - the narrator picks up Dixon's Geordie accent (not that I would know how well, but makes it easy to hear the dialog)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Mason_%26_Dixon_%281997_1st_ed_jacket_cover%29.jpg)

Expansive pomo novel dealing the French & Jesuit contacts with Indians told from both perspectives
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780670843336-us.jpg)

A history book I picked up on audible
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61oJ2rvcYiL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 13, 2023, 03:20:47 PM
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/Snowcrash.jpg)

Never read Stephenson before. Excellent (though I wasn't expecting the cyberpunk-y feel).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: atardecer on July 15, 2023, 06:46:27 PM
Different Seasons - Stephen King
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on July 15, 2023, 10:41:53 PM
Mircea Cărtărescu (b. 1956): Solenoid

(https://www.talkclassical.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.talkclassical.com/attachments/9781646052028-us-jpg.193344/)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on July 15, 2023, 11:07:27 PM
Quote from: Florestan on June 30, 2023, 12:45:37 PM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517asLy30eL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

This book confirms that my estrangement from, and repudiation of, philosophical and aesthetic Romanticism, particularly of the German kind, is irreversible.

(https://imagini.printrecarti.ro/images/products/originals/51/feodor-sologub-demonul-meschin_50793.jpg)

Fyodor Sologub - The Petty Demon

The moral atmosphere of this novel is so bleak and suffocating, the main characters (all of them without exception) so unlikable and disgusting, the "Russian soul" so irredeemably corrupt and repulsive --- as to make Dostoevsky's world look like some sort of Pickwick Papers.  ;D

I agree. Read Sologub's book a long time ago, but I remember the unpleasant feeling. And that's what I am wondering about, where does this fanaticism towards Russian music come from? It's all about the same thing, dark, stifling, perverse.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on July 16, 2023, 03:12:23 AM
Quote from: San Antone on July 08, 2023, 03:39:15 AMJ.D. Salinger: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

I periodically re-read all of the Salinger books, this time going in reverse-chrono.

I have finished Franny and Zooey (which I liked,; I'd forgotten most of it). I have now continued Nine Stories, which I had put down about half way through, with "For Esmé - with Love and Squalor" - an exceptionally fine story.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 16, 2023, 12:19:10 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on July 15, 2023, 11:07:27 PMI agree. Read Sologub's book a long time ago, but I remember the unpleasant feeling. And that's what I am wondering about, where does this fanaticism towards Russian music come from? It's all about the same thing, dark, stifling, perverse.

I share your Russophobia when it comes to politics but not when it comes to literature and music. Turgenev, Tolstoy and Bulgakov dark, stiffling, perverse? Tchaikovsky, Arensky, Balakirev, Rachmaninoff, Medtner, Bortkiewicz dark, stiffling, perverse? You kidding, right?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on July 16, 2023, 10:57:58 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 16, 2023, 12:19:10 PMI share your Russophobia when it comes to politics but not when it comes to literature and music. Turgenev, Tolstoy and Bulgakov dark, stiffling, perverse? Tchaikovsky, Arensky, Balakirev, Rachmaninoff, Medtner, Bortkiewicz dark, stiffling, perverse? You kidding, right?

Not a phobia, no one's afraid of the Russians anymore. Мore like disgust. Yes, I loved Leo Tolstoy for a long period of my life, I don't know how I do now. But Tolstoy was an opponent of everything that formed the basis of Russian life. He was constantly protesting the very principles. He was officially excommunicated from the state's church, which effectively put him outside the social framework. Many of those named by you chose to move far and away, some of them even before the Bolshevik coup. Bortkiewicz is a Pole who was born in Ukraine and went to Austria.

The same thing must have happened to me. In my childhood and youth I was force-fed with all this Russian/Soviet music, which was played incessantly on radios, TVs and from records. There was little else in the country where you couldn't just go to a record shop and buy Beethoven's symphonies performed by Karajan, the Ring performed by Knappertsbusch, or Chopin's nocturnes performed by Arthur Rubinstein. Mahler or Richard Strauss and many, many other composers were not known at all. But, from morning to evening, there was Shostakovich non-stop in the same two or three interpretations. Plus couple of others. Khrennikov, Sviridov, Khachaturian. Rodion Schedrin. Yes, it was stiffling and perverse.

Tchaikovsky, or course. The slow part from the fifth with that most fantastically beautiful solo was repeated several times during the broadcast of Brezhnev's funeral. Rachmaninoff was represented by a couple of pieces and of course the introduction to the second concerto, which, according to the propagandists, was supposed to illustrate some broad march of the revolutionary people or some accomplishments. In general, all music in USSR illustrated something. The class struggle, the aspirations of the working people, etc. And you know, it works. If I carelessly hear something from those times, the marches or aspirations immediately arise in my head. I want to stand up from sofa and march straight to the victory of communism in the whole world.

By the way, in my town was possible to listen to long and medium wave radio transmissions from Bucharest. There was, fortunately, almost no revolutionary Russian music, but there was much else, various and in best performances. I listened to Radio Bucharest every day. And on the shortwaves you could catch a programme of Radio Liberty in Romanian (it was not jammed), where you could listen to new Western popelar music in whole albums!!! From Grateful Dead and Chick Corea to Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.

P.S.: Do you know, that famous Tolstoy's novel title was not translated correct? It was not War and Peace at all. War and Society is closer. The word мир has two meanings in Russian language. Тoday both meanings are spelt the same, in Tolstoy's time there were two different spellings, мир и мір.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 17, 2023, 01:35:24 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on July 16, 2023, 10:57:58 PMNot a phobia, no one's afraid of the Russians anymore. Мore like disgust. Yes, I loved Leo Tolstoy for a long period of my life, I don't know how I do now. But Tolstoy was an opponent of everything that formed the basis of Russian life. He was constantly protesting the very principles. He was officially excommunicated from the state's church, which effectively put him outside the social framework. Many of those named by you chose to move far and away, some of them even before the Bolshevik coup. Bortkiewicz is a Pole who was born in Ukraine and went to Austria.

The same thing must have happened to me. In my childhood and youth I was force-fed with all this Russian/Soviet music, which was played incessantly on radios, TVs and from records. There was little else in the country where you couldn't just go to a record shop and buy Beethoven's symphonies performed by Karajan, the Ring performed by Knappertsbusch, or Chopin's nocturnes performed by Arthur Rubinstein. Mahler or Richard Strauss and many, many other composers were not known at all. But, from morning to evening, there was Shostakovich non-stop in the same two or three interpretations. Plus couple of others. Khrennikov, Sviridov, Khachaturian. Rodion Schedrin. Yes, it was stiffling and perverse.

Tchaikovsky, or course. The slow part from the fifth with that most fantastically beautiful solo was repeated several times during the broadcast of Brezhnev's funeral. Rachmaninoff was represented by a couple of pieces and of course the introduction to the second concerto, which, according to the propagandists, was supposed to illustrate some broad march of the revolutionary people or some accomplishments. In general, all music in USSR illustrated something. The class struggle, the aspirations of the working people, etc. And you know, it works. If I carelessly hear something from those times, the marches or aspirations immediately arise in my head. I want to stand up from sofa and march straight to the victory of communism in the whole world.

By the way, in my town was possible to listen to long and medium wave radio transmissions from Bucharest. There was, fortunately, almost no revolutionary Russian music, but there was much else, various and in best performances. I listened to Radio Bucharest every day. And on the shortwaves you could catch a programme of Radio Liberty in Romanian (it was not jammed), where you could listen to new Western popelar music in whole albums!!! From Grateful Dead and Chick Corea to Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.

P.S.: Do you know, that famous Tolstoy's novel title was not translated correct? It was not War and Peace at all. War and Society is closer. The word мир has two meanings in Russian language. Тoday both meanings are spelt the same, in Tolstoy's time there were two different spellings, мир и мір.

You cannot blame Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff for the misuse of their music by the Soviet propaganda.

War and Society makes no sense. War and Peace does. Besides, I have never seen the letter i used in the Russian alphabet.

As for Bortkiewicz, he never considered himself anything other than Russian. He even quoted God Save the Tsar in his First Symphony titled From my Homeland.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on July 17, 2023, 04:32:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 17, 2023, 01:35:24 AMYou cannot blame Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff for the misuse of their music by the Soviet propaganda.

War and Society makes no sense. War and Peace does. Besides, I have never seen the letter i used in the Russian alphabet.

As for Bortkiewicz, he never considered himself anything other than Russian. He even quoted God Save the Tsar in his First Symphony titled From my Homeland.



Did I blame anyone? I just recall what it was in the USSR.

In the old orthography, until 1918, more letters were used, including i. Also, the sign ъ was used at the end of nouns. In the first editions, the title of Tolstoy's novel was Война и Миръ. And, of course, it made sense. How the war was reflected in the lives of different parts of society. Have you read the novel? If not, read it, it's a great book.

I am not familiar with Bortkiewicz's music. There was no mention of him in the USSR, and later I listened to completely different music. The description of his first symphony says that it contains many different quotations, including Ukrainian folk melodies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 17, 2023, 05:32:19 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on July 17, 2023, 04:32:53 AMDid I blame anyone? I just recall what it was in the USSR.

In the old orthography, until 1918, more letters were used, including i. Also, the sign ъ was used at the end of nouns. In the first editions, the title of Tolstoy's novel was Война и Миръ. And, of course, it made sense. How the war was reflected in the lives of different parts of society. Have you read the novel? If not, read it, it's a great book.

I am not familiar with Bortkiewicz's music. There was no mention of him in the USSR, and later I listened to completely different music. The description of his first symphony says that it contains many different quotations, including Ukrainian folk melodies.

Do you imply that all translators across the world got it all wrong for a century and a half and that not a single one of them was aware of Tolstoy's own spelling of Russian?

I have read the novel. I will re-read it soon.

www.sergeibortkiewicz.com
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 17, 2023, 05:42:26 AM
That was a fascinating post, Another Spin, thank you. In many "free" societies the only equivalent experience is a song that was "ruined" by memories of an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend.  ;D

One always carries one's young musical experiences, and is always influenced by them, for better or worse. Yours being so different from mine I'm grateful you shared them.

And like with the songs ruined by exes, there is no question of a composer being at "fault" or not - just in how you approach the music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on July 17, 2023, 06:25:36 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 17, 2023, 05:32:19 AMDo you imply that all translators across the world got it all wrong for a century and a half and that not a single one of them was aware of Tolstoy's own spelling of Russian?

I have read the novel. I will re-read it soon.

www.sergeibortkiewicz.com

I can't imply anything about the translators of the world. I only know how the title of the novel is translated into English.

The most authoritative Russian dictionary of the 19th century, Dahl's dictionary, gives the following interpretation of the word мир:

"universe; substance in space and force in time (Khomyakov).
- One of the earths of the universe; esp.
- our earth, globe, light;
- all people, all light, the human race;
- a community, a society of peasants;
- gathering"

It would be translated as War and World, but it doesn't sound pretty.

Happy re-reading. The more I read the book, the more clearly I saw the influence that Schopenhauer had on Tolstoy. Of course, everyone will find something there for oneself.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 17, 2023, 07:34:29 AM
English translations of Russian literature often have significant disagreements over the titles—e.g. Dostoevsky's "Demons" or "The Possessed" or "Devils," and even Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons," which should actually be "Fathers and Children," but the "Sons" name became so famous that it is now kind of too late and many translations present the wrong "Sons" because that is the name people know.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on July 17, 2023, 08:12:22 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 17, 2023, 07:34:29 AMEnglish translations of Russian literature often have significant disagreements over the titles—e.g. Dostoevsky's "Demons" or "The Possessed" or "Devils," and even Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons," which should actually be "Fathers and Children," but the "Sons" name became so famous that it is now kind of too late and many translations present the wrong "Sons" because that is the name people know.

Exactly. And, on the other hand, many books by foreign authors are published in Russian with titles quite far from the original. A famous example, Salinger's book, is called Above the Abyss in the Rye in Russia. There are many examples.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on July 17, 2023, 08:14:51 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 17, 2023, 05:42:26 AMThat was a fascinating post, Another Spin, thank you. In many "free" societies the only equivalent experience is a song that was "ruined" by memories of an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend.  ;D

One always carries one's young musical experiences, and is always influenced by them, for better or worse. Yours being so different from mine I'm grateful you shared them.

And like with the songs ruined by exes, there is no question of a composer being at "fault" or not - just in how you approach the music.

I know what you mean. But still, it seems to me that an artist or composer cannot be completely free of the environment in which he/she lives. He/she may want to, but it's unlikely to work out. One way or another, he/she reflects what is going on around him/her.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on July 19, 2023, 01:16:07 PM
Mircea Cărtărescu (b. 1956): Solenoid

(https://www.talkclassical.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.talkclassical.com/attachments/9781646052028-us-jpg.193344/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 20, 2023, 09:27:48 AM
Quote from: andolink on July 19, 2023, 01:16:07 PMMircea Cărtărescu (b. 1956): Solenoid

(https://www.talkclassical.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.talkclassical.com/attachments/9781646052028-us-jpg.193344/)

Very curious abou what you think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 20, 2023, 03:57:49 PM
I've heard very good things about the artistry of Solenoid, but have also heard it is creepy "body horror" which is not a genre I enjoy very much.  :-X
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on July 20, 2023, 11:28:30 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 20, 2023, 09:27:48 AMVery curious abou what you think.

At 203 pgs. into it, I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  The writing style is in no way forbidding or difficult and the phantasmagorical parts are wonderfully "mind-blowing".  I'm having a lot of fun with this one!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on July 21, 2023, 01:29:37 AM
(https://www.jkrishnamurti.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Freedom-from-the-Known.png)

Not so much reading as keeping it within reach.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on July 22, 2023, 12:11:23 AM
The book is for those readers who want to throw off the shackles of conditioned thinking and find freedom.

The transcripts of the tapes of Sri Nisargadatta's talks have been put into literary form by Maurice Frydman, who has taken a few liberties that do not in any way interfere with the main message of the book.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 22, 2023, 04:41:30 PM
(https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Massumi.jpg)  (https://i2.wp.com/nathanielstern.com/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/massumi-animals-620x930.jpg?resize=620%2C930)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 22, 2023, 08:17:25 PM
Finished

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51l-CxEMKuL._SY346_.jpg)

A reworking into book form of a highly regarded and popular series of lectures given at Oxford (those made availabe in podcast form as Approaching Shakespeare).


I was going to start on China Mieville's study of the cultural impact of the Communist Manifesto, but after the above will instead go straight into another of Emma Smith's:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Onu75NyeL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on July 23, 2023, 05:18:39 PM
"possibly the best book on Shakespeare, full stop"?! That is some very high praise on the cover.

What is the perspective? Obviously if you went straight to another of her books you must have enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on July 23, 2023, 05:56:58 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 17, 2023, 05:32:19 AMDo you imply that all translators across the world got it all wrong for a century and a half and that not a single one of them was aware of Tolstoy's own spelling of Russian?

Tolstoy himself gave the French title as La Guerre et la Paix, not La Guerre et le Monde.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 24, 2023, 10:59:14 AM
(https://cs.cheggcdn.com/covers2/65050000/65056883_1534103668_Width288.jpg)

Good book, covers it all. I understand the confusion about the term Anthropocene, the difficulty of dating it, considering the complexities, but isn't just the emergence of modern humans from it's beginning that we can take as the starting point of the geological age Anthropocene at least in an informal way. But also formal. Since human existence on Earth is so recent and a short time on a geological scale, the time between emergence of humans and the 'great acceleration' of the second half of 20th century, when the geological records register human impact on the planet most convincingly, is almost insignificant. Right? The problem then is that the geological timescale is too detailed, since it even breaks down such short timescales like that of human existence, as mentioned above, into parts (Pleistocene and Holocene cover human time on the planet, the reason for the split between them is the transition from a glacial to interglacial period, but since there were so many of them earlier I don't understand why exactly this split is considered so crucial in terms of geological time scale. Edit: it's for pragmatic reasons as it is registered well in ice cores). I would propose that the Anthropocene counts as a period following the Quartenary (of which Pleistocene and Holocene are epochs) or even as an era (higher level than period), this seems most logical, defined as the era in which one specific mammal, humans, get dominant, though I'm not firm in this position. The era could be of an extremely short time span, we don't know yet, but is yet still defendable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on July 24, 2023, 11:27:21 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 23, 2023, 05:18:39 PM"possibly the best book on Shakespeare, full stop"?! That is some very high praise on the cover.

What is the perspective? Obviously if you went straight to another of her books you must have enjoyed it.

Heh, I hadn't noticed that. They could have just left it with the "brilliantly illuminating" bit.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 26, 2023, 08:16:09 AM
(https://www.targulcartii.ro/galerie/cache/I362/stefan-zeromski-fascinatia-pacatului-leda-2004-l-214693-510x510.JPG)

The Romanian translation of the Polish original title Dzieje grzechu is The Fascination of Sin, the English translations I found on the internet render it as Wages of Sin and Google Translate gives The History of Sin.  ???

Be it as it may, it's a very good novel written in a sumptuous style.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on July 26, 2023, 11:51:25 AM
(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/lIAAAOSwHYRjM57r/s-l500.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on July 26, 2023, 11:51:49 AM
Started reading Jules Verne's first masterpiece.

(https://images.booksense.com/images/212/554/9781406554212.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on July 27, 2023, 05:28:39 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on July 26, 2023, 11:51:49 AMStarted reading Jules Verne's first masterpiece.

(https://images.booksense.com/images/212/554/9781406554212.jpg)



You surely mean re-reading.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 05, 2023, 12:59:35 AM
Just finished this - an account of the disastrous 1942 raid on the occupied port of Dieppe:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 05, 2023, 01:03:14 AM
Now reading this short but helpful book for the second time:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on August 05, 2023, 02:46:27 AM
The central ideas of Ramana Maharshi are set out in David Godman's book. The life of Godman, a Briton who has lived most of his life in India, is in itself a remarkable story, which we may learn more fully some day.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9781850630067-us.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on August 05, 2023, 05:14:47 PM
Started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NzcJQ1+rL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on August 05, 2023, 11:03:26 PM
(https://cdn.sanity.io/images/p34gzxcg/production/b14e56c2320824362ec3a8a33de9201f116d8852-743x1182.jpg?auto=format&w=1000&fit=scale)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on August 08, 2023, 07:54:49 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XVYTZQjtL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 08, 2023, 09:00:18 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on August 08, 2023, 07:54:49 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XVYTZQjtL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)



Words about reality? Bah, humbug! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on August 08, 2023, 11:13:28 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 08, 2023, 09:00:18 AMWords about reality? Bah, humbug! ;D

Words could be a pointer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on August 08, 2023, 11:50:58 AM
The World of the Huns by Professor Otto Maenchen-Helfen, who was a phenomenon in the world of meticulous research.

He learned not only Chinese, but Early and Middle Chinese, to handle any original documents without translations by others.

He will spend several pages on the meaning of a sentence, which others understood in one manner, but in which he found a possible ambiguity, allowing another interpretation.   8)

Anyway, the archeology and other sources indicate the Huns were not primitive cave men, but rather sophisticated people, who had invented e.g. better bows than the Europeans had.

To be sure, their intelligence did not prevent them from committing horrible atrocities, but we have seen that in modern times.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 08, 2023, 11:58:17 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on August 05, 2023, 05:14:47 PMStarted:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NzcJQ1+rL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


Love the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on August 08, 2023, 12:34:50 PM
Quote from: Cato on August 08, 2023, 11:50:58 AMThe World of the Huns by Professor Otto Maenchen-Helfen, who was a phenomenon in the world of meticulous research.

He learned not only Chinese, but Early and Middle Chinese, to handle any original documents without translations by others.

He will spend several pages on the meaning of a sentence, which others understood in one manner, but in which he found a possible ambiguity, allowing another interpretation.   8)

Anyway, the archeology and other sources indicate the Huns were not primitive cave men, but rather sophisticated people, who had invented e.g. better bows than the Europeans had.

To be sure, their intelligence did not prevent them from committing horrible atrocities, but we have seen that in modern times.



The question is whether the Xiongnu and the Huns were same group or the Huns were pushed West by Xiongnu migration after being pushed back by the Han?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on August 08, 2023, 01:12:06 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/0062875353.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SX500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Cato on August 08, 2023, 01:38:22 PM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on August 08, 2023, 12:34:50 PMThe question is whether the Xiongnu and the Huns were same group or the Huns were pushed West by Xiongnu migration after being pushed back by the Han?


The author says No, they are not the same.  For the other question...more tomorrow!  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on August 08, 2023, 02:11:19 PM
Quote from: Cato on August 08, 2023, 01:38:22 PMThe author says No, they are not the same.  For the other question...more tomorrow!  ;)
However, recent genetic studies support the Xiongnus origin, for example:


QuoteRecently, hundreds of ancient genomes were analyzed from Central Asia, Mongolia, and China, from which we aimed to identify putative source populations for the above-mentioned groups. In this study, we have sequenced 9 Hun, 143 Avar, and 113 Hungarian conquest period samples and identified three core populations, representing immigrants from each period with no recent European ancestry. Our results reveal that this "immigrant core" of both Huns and Avars likely originated in present day Mongolia, and their origin can be traced back to Xiongnus (Asian Huns), as suggested by several historians.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982222007321

also the genetic section of the wiki article on the origin of the Huns
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 08, 2023, 03:06:19 PM
Going to England in 5 weeks, so starting a run of historical and classic English literature!

Emma (Jane Austen)
The Long View (Elizabeth Jane Howard)
The Giant O'Brien (Hilary Mantel)
The Corner That Held Them (Sylvia Townsend Warner)
The Slaves of Solitude (Patrick Hamilton)
Adam Bede (George Eliot)
The Go-Between (L.P. Hartley)

If I finish it all, I'll switch to a few eclectic works of English non-fiction:

Hons and Rebels (Jessica Mitford)
James Acaster's Classic Scrapes (James Acaster)
Londoners (Craig Taylor)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: brewski on August 09, 2023, 06:27:47 AM
From a recent issue of The New Yorker, this eye-opening profile of sci-fi writer Samuel R. Delany, written by Julian Lucas. I recall reading some of his work decades ago, but clearly there is much more to Delany than I knew.

For years, they lived happily in Delany's eight-room corner apartment on Eighty-second Street and Amsterdam Avenue. There were so many thousands of books, Rickett told me, that he made Delany buy fire extinguishers. ("Not to put out any fires," he clarified, "but just so we could fight our way out.")

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/10/samuel-r-delany-profile

-Bruce
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on August 09, 2023, 08:39:35 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 08, 2023, 03:06:19 PMEmma (Jane Austen)

I am still reading Emma and while it is very well plotted, I find the characters the writer clearly expects us to be sympathetic towards absolutely insufferable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on August 09, 2023, 09:09:35 AM
Joseph Conrad : An Outcast of the Islands

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/AnOutcastOfTheIslands.jpg)

An Outcast of the Islands is the second novel by Joseph Conrad, published in 1896, inspired by Conrad's experience as mate of a steamer, the Vidar.

The novel details the undoing of Peter Willems, a disreputable, immoral man who, on the run from a scandal in Makassar, finds refuge in a hidden native village, only to betray his benefactors over lust for the tribal chief's daughter. The story features Conrad's recurring character Tom Lingard, who also appears in Almayer's Folly (1895) and The Rescue (1920), in addition to sharing other characters with those novels.

Conrad romanticizes the jungle environment and its inhabitants in a similar style to that of his Heart of Darkness.

********************

My plan is to get as far as I can reading Conrad from start to finish.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 09, 2023, 10:56:44 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on August 09, 2023, 08:39:35 AMI am still reading Emma and while it is very well plotted, I find the characters the writer clearly expects us to be sympathetic towards absolutely insufferable.
Hmmm, I've just started volume 3, although this is a reread. I think the only character we're supposed to like is Mr. Knightley? Perhaps Robert Martin and Emma's old governess.

But I choose to read Austen as a satirist rather than a romantic, so I follow Emma's own arc more as that of a satirical buffoon getting her comeuppance than a young lady seeking to help her friends. The very first sentence plays on that ambiguity...it doesn't contain any explicitly negative commentary about Emma, while still making me dislike her instantly.  ;D

The only dislikeable character who is really hurting my enjoyment of the book as a whole is Miss Bates. I skip a lot of her long speeches.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 09, 2023, 06:39:21 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 09, 2023, 10:56:44 AMHmmm, I've just started volume 3, although this is a reread. I think the only character we're supposed to like is Mr. Knightley? Perhaps Robert Martin and Emma's old governess.

But I choose to read Austen as a satirist rather than a romantic, so I follow Emma's own arc more as that of a satirical buffoon getting her comeuppance than a young lady seeking to help her friends. The very first sentence plays on that ambiguity...it doesn't contain any explicitly negative commentary about Emma, while still making me dislike her instantly.  ;D

The only dislikeable character who is really hurting my enjoyment of the book as a whole is Miss Bates. I skip a lot of her long speeches.

Emma does gain some self knowledge: by the end of the book she's much more likeable.

The only truly dislikeable characters--the ones Austen intends the reader to dislike--are Mr and Mrs Elton.

The Bateses and Jane Fairfax are women trying to maintain social standing while not having any money, and the near impossible situation Jane is placed in because of her poverty is what drives the plot (when you get to the Big Reveal you'll see what I mean).  Women who are financially dependent on men and therefore not really secure are the focus of all Austen's novels.  Emma is the only Austen heroine who doesn't have to worry about a future in which she may have to live on a very limited income.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on August 10, 2023, 12:27:05 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 09, 2023, 10:56:44 AMI think the only character we're supposed to like is Mr. Knightley?

Thats right, I dont like Mr. Knightley one bit. At one point he starts ranting crap about Harriet's rejection of a side characters' proposal something like "If she keeps rejecting every suitor she soon will think nobody good enough to marry" - as if woman's destiny is to be married. And yes I know that this was the popular view at the time but it still infuriates me. Price and Prejudice on the other hand has main characters blame poor 15-year old Lydie because the sleazy scumbag Wickham ran off with her.So in comparison Knightley is almost likable compared to protagonists of Pride and Prejudice.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 10, 2023, 10:15:43 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on August 10, 2023, 12:27:05 AMThats right, I dont like Mr. Knightley one bit. At one point he starts ranting crap about Harriet's rejection of a side characters' proposal something like "If she keeps rejecting every suitor she soon will think nobody good enough to marry" - as if woman's destiny is to be married. And yes I know that this was the popular view at the time but it still infuriates me. Price and Prejudice on the other hand has main characters blame poor 15-year old Lydie because the sleazy scumbag Wickham ran off with her.So in comparison Knightley is almost likable compared to protagonists of Pride and Prejudice.

If late 18th century English mentality is so infuriating to you, then why do you waste your time on Jane Austen?  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on August 10, 2023, 12:00:31 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 09, 2023, 10:56:44 AMHmmm, I've just started volume 3, although this is a reread. I think the only character we're supposed to like is Mr. Knightley? Perhaps Robert Martin and Emma's old governess.

But I choose to read Austen as a satirist rather than a romantic, so I follow Emma's own arc more as that of a satirical buffoon getting her comeuppance than a young lady seeking to help her friends. The very first sentence plays on that ambiguity...it doesn't contain any explicitly negative commentary about Emma, while still making me dislike her instantly.  ;D

The only dislikeable character who is really hurting my enjoyment of the book as a whole is Miss Bates. I skip a lot of her long speeches.

I haven't read Austin in decades, but consider her among my favorite authors. 

I hadn't read anything until I got a job proofreading at Skadden Arps, a huge law firm in NYC, in the early 1980s. All the proofreaders were *artists, actors, painters, musicians, etc., i.e. people who had other concerns besides using the information in the documents for insider trading, or any inappropriate manner.

We had lots of down time and would get to talking about books, music, plays, and someone had a huge paperback complete Jane Austin, and raved about her - so I jumped in.

* Some of the folks I met there who went on to successful careers in their chosen field include Damien Bona (Oscars historian, now deceased, sadly), Dallas Murphy (mystery writer, Artie Deemer books), Jacqueline (Jackie) Osherow (poet), Betsy Berne (painter, author - her brother is the jazz saxophonist Tim Berne), and Amy Aquino (actress) - among others. It was really a great job.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on August 10, 2023, 12:52:16 PM
Quote from: San Antone on August 10, 2023, 12:00:31 PMI haven't read Austin in decades, but consider her among my favorite authors. 

I hadn't read anything until I got a job proofreading at Skadden Arps, a huge law firm in NYC, in the early 1980s. All the proofreaders were *artists, actors, painters, musicians, etc., i.e. people who had other concerns besides using the information in the documents for insider trading, or any inappropriate manner.



 I guess insider trading was only for the partners at Skadden Arps in the 80s
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on August 10, 2023, 04:34:04 PM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on August 10, 2023, 12:52:16 PMI guess insider trading was only for the partners at Skadden Arps in the 80s

When I was there there was a big insider trading case involving a senior associate (who later got a job as a waiter at Smith & Wollensky), a word processing staffer, and a dial car driver.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on August 11, 2023, 03:01:04 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 10, 2023, 10:15:43 AMIf late 18th century English mentality is so infuriating to you, then why do you waste your time on Jane Austen?  ;D

When it comes to Pride and Prejudice one reason is probably that most of the book feels surprisingly modern. It's not until Lydie-Wickham plot thread that the book comes truly the product of its time and that was towards the end. Considering Emma is widely considered the author's crown jewel I thought that when most of the P & P is superb maybe Emma is one of those works which manages to completely transcend the biases of its time. Well, Emma showed its failings in this regard rather fast but since I have OCD, I often have to finish the book after I've started it. There are exceptions to this like Tolstoy's War and Peace but that is because I found no redeeming features in that book. Emma, for all its faults, is perfectly plotted so it is by no means a failure. It is likely I will give another chance to War and Peace at some point since I very much enjoyed Anna Karenina.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on August 12, 2023, 02:20:45 AM
The film starring Anthony Quinn was good, but it in no way replaces the book it's based on.

(https://monsieurdidot.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/zorba-the-greek.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 12, 2023, 12:43:19 PM
Just finished John Osborne's Look Back in Anger. Not sure how I feel about it; I wanted to punch the protagonist in the face multiple times throughout the course of the play, so if that was the author's intention then I suppose it was a resounding success.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 13, 2023, 01:06:02 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on August 11, 2023, 03:01:04 AMTolstoy's War and Peace but that is because I found no redeeming features in that book.

Let me guess: early 19-th century Russian mentality is totally infuriating to you, right?  ;D

Seriously now, what is so terrible about War and Peace in your opinion?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on August 13, 2023, 03:23:19 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on August 11, 2023, 03:01:04 AM[..] There are exceptions to this like Tolstoy's War and Peace but that is because I found no redeeming features in that book. [..] It is likely I will give another chance to War and Peace at some point since I very much enjoyed Anna Karenina.

Sure, War and Peace is by no means a book for everyone. Don't rush into giving the book (or yourself) a second chance, it will wait any span of time for a moment when you are mature enough ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 14, 2023, 11:06:01 AM
(https://static.alfred.com/cache/57/f7/57f7287d7da5fd23065114da74b4ee88.jpg)

A fascinating piece of social and cultural history, written in an eminently readable and entertaining style. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 14, 2023, 11:34:33 AM
That looks very interesting. Loesser was an accomplished pianist and composer too, right?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on August 14, 2023, 03:42:26 PM
Fun read.


(https://texas-am.imgix.net/covers/9781574416466.jpg?auto=format&h=648)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: atardecer on August 15, 2023, 02:15:54 AM
Dostoevsky - Three Short Novels: Poor Folk / The Double / The Eternal Husband
Translations - Andrew R. MacAndrew
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 15, 2023, 06:19:29 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 14, 2023, 11:34:33 AMThat looks very interesting. Loesser was an accomplished pianist and composer too, right?

Pianist yes, composer no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Loesser
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 15, 2023, 07:39:49 AM
Just finished Itamar Moses's 2005 play Bach at Leipzig, which I found randomly while browsing the library. It was hilarious, and so good. A highly fictionalized account of the power struggle which emerged following the death of Johann Kuhnau in 1722. My main gripe is that I think the author fundamentally misunderstood some of the theological tenets of Lutheranism, which has some minor bearing on certain elements of the plot, but that can be overlooked in a farce as overall ridiculous as this. Would recommend. The ending was beautifully done too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on August 16, 2023, 12:31:05 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 08, 2023, 03:06:19 PMGoing to England in 5 weeks, so starting a run of historical and classic English literature!

Emma (Jane Austen)
The Long View (Elizabeth Jane Howard)
The Giant O'Brien (Hilary Mantel)
The Corner That Held Them (Sylvia Townsend Warner)
The Slaves of Solitude (Patrick Hamilton)
Adam Bede (George Eliot)
The Go-Between (L.P. Hartley)

If I finish it all, I'll switch to a few eclectic works of English non-fiction:

Hons and Rebels (Jessica Mitford)
James Acaster's Classic Scrapes (James Acaster)
Londoners (Craig Taylor)

Good to see Patrick Hamilton on your list. Plenty of reading you have lined up but if time for one more I recommend London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins.

Hope you enjoy trip.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on August 21, 2023, 07:19:58 AM
Very close to finishing Middlemarch. A great book although I prefer Silas Marner, Mill on the Floss, and especially Daniel Deronda which is a crown jewel in George Eliot's aka Mary Ann Evans's output. I like the vast humanity of Eliot's characters. They are no caricatures. The only character by Eliot whom I could categorize as evil is Grandcourt from Deronda but still he is no caricature. He's very realistically portrayed. Kind of more interesting version of Dickens's Mr. Murdstone.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on August 21, 2023, 05:34:25 PM
Reading a paperback of four plays by George Bernard Shaw: Mrs. Warren's Profession, Arms & the Man, Candida and Man & Superman, which I've just started. First time reading anything of his. I'm liking it all so far, but this last one I think must be the best.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 22, 2023, 03:33:30 AM
(https://pup-assets.imgix.net/onix/images/9781890951313.jpg?w=600&auto=format)

Siegfried Kracauer - Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 22, 2023, 03:39:36 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 22, 2023, 03:33:30 AM(https://pup-assets.imgix.net/onix/images/9781890951313.jpg?w=600&auto=format)

Siegfried Kracauer - Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time
The author was a very close friend of T. W. Adorno...  ;)

Good day, Andrei.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 22, 2023, 03:46:48 AM
Quote from: ritter on August 22, 2023, 03:39:36 AMThe author was a very close friend of T. W. Adorno...  ;)

Really? Well, this book is as un-Adornian as it gets, what with its complete lack of philosophical analysis and the author's palpable sympathy for its subject matter.  :D

QuoteGood day, Andrei.

To you too, my friend.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 22, 2023, 03:51:46 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 22, 2023, 03:46:48 AMReally? Well, this book is as un-Adornian as it gets, what with its complete lack of philosophical analysis and the author's palpable sympathy for its subject matter.  :D
...

(https://media.suhrkamp.de/mediadelivery/rendition/731db4216128422dacc2c45191975cc3/-S400/correspondence-1923-1966_9783518584965_cover.jpg)
https://www.suhrkamp.de/rights/book/correspondence-1923-1966-fr-9783518584965

I started reading Kracauer's Streets in Berlin & Elsewhere several years ago, but lost interest and didn't finish it. Perhaps I should try again...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on August 22, 2023, 04:03:07 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on August 21, 2023, 05:34:25 PMReading a paperback of four plays by George Bernard Shaw: Mrs. Warren's Profession, Arms & the Man, Candida and Man & Superman, which I've just started. First time reading anything of his. I'm liking it all so far, but this last one I think must be the best.

Mrs. Warren's profession is one of the most outrageously funny plays I've ever read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on August 27, 2023, 10:29:03 AM
Bought in Leakey's in Inverness (a wonderful second-hand bookstore —allegedly the largest of its kind in Scotland— housed in what used to be a church), and already more than halfway through it:

(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/782/458/1499458782.0.x.jpg)

Lawrence Durrell's Antrobus Complete brings together the humorous stories of diplomatic life previously published in Esprit de Corps, Stiff Upper Lip and Sauve qui peut (books I remember from my earliest childhood, a they were in my parents' library).

Perhaps a bit dated on occasions, but mostly hilarious and well-written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 27, 2023, 06:17:04 PM
Quote from: ritter on August 27, 2023, 10:29:03 AMBought in Leakey's in Inverness (a wonderful second-hand bookstore —allegedly the largest of its kind in Scotland— housed in what used to be a church), and already more than halfway through it:

(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/782/458/1499458782.0.x.jpg)

Lawrence Durrell's Antrobus Complete brings together the humorous stories of diplomatic life previously published in Esprit de Corps, Stiff Upper Lip and Sauve qui peut (books I remember from my earliest childhood, a they were in my parents' library).

Perhaps a bit dated on occasions, but mostly hilarious and well-written.

I know Durrell only via the Alexandria Quartet, read in high school (the opening volume was actually assigned reading for 11th grade English).  This sounds rather different.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on August 27, 2023, 11:31:58 PM
Picked up a copy of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier as a potential read on an upcoming break. Good or not?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on August 28, 2023, 12:34:44 AM
(https://www.litsalon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/invisible-man-penguin-cover.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 28, 2023, 06:43:19 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/1860744052.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SX500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on August 28, 2023, 10:39:45 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 28, 2023, 06:43:19 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/1860744052.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SX500_.jpg)
What do you think of the book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on August 28, 2023, 10:46:44 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on August 28, 2023, 10:39:45 AMWhat do you think of the book?

I'm only on Chapter Two sofar, covering his Naples Conservatory years. The book is well researched and written in an eminently readable style. I like it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on August 28, 2023, 11:22:25 AM
a belated discovery, great space opera - sort of Star Trek for adults

(https://i0.wp.com/www.tor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/UseofWeapons.jpg?fit=260%2C410&type=vertical&quality=100&ssl=1)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 28, 2023, 04:02:55 PM
I read a couple of his novels.  Banks was highly imaginative!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 28, 2023, 04:25:22 PM
Bought this today in paperback.
Her translation of the Iliad is coming out next month.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71VoFhh11hL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)
Read some long passages at random: reads rather fast and down to earth, and much of it manages to be good English poetry as well a good translation of poetry originally written in a foreign language.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 28, 2023, 08:04:21 PM
Quote from: Irons on August 27, 2023, 11:31:58 PMPicked up a copy of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier as a potential read on an upcoming break. Good or not?
Unapologetically soap operatic and over the top emotionally, but a great success at that I think. If you understand it to be stylish pulp - Gothic horror a la the 1800s - you will enjoy. And the Hitchcock adaptation is terrific.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on August 29, 2023, 08:30:40 AM
Quote from: Irons on August 27, 2023, 11:31:58 PMPicked up a copy of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier as a potential read on an upcoming break. Good or not?

I really like it, but Jamaica Inn is my favorite by Du Maurier.  Rebecca was the inspiration for the re-emergence of gothic lit which eventually led to the birth of modern horror.  There are many knock offs of Rebecca.  I don't think that it is a masterpiece though, but definitely influential and an enjoyable read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on August 29, 2023, 12:45:36 PM
Quote from: JBS on August 28, 2023, 04:25:22 PMBought this today in paperback.
Her translation of the Iliad is coming out next month.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71VoFhh11hL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)
Read some long passages at random: reads rather fast and down to earth, and much of it manages to be good English poetry as well a good translation of poetry originally written in a foreign language.

Interesting.  I have collected translations of classics texts, including these two.  I have four of each, Fagles is my favorite.  I have bought it after reading an interview with her aboout it.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/819IxwjBa9L._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on August 29, 2023, 12:53:15 PM
Quote from: San Antone on August 29, 2023, 12:45:36 PMInteresting.  I have collected translations of classics texts, including these two.  I have four of each, Pinsky is my favorite.  I might buy hers, but only if it is not a "woke" translation.

The introduction includes discussion of how the poem reflects (or possibly idealizes) the position of women in Greece c 800 BCE, but the translation itself seems pretty straightforward, with nothing not already present in the text of Homer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on August 29, 2023, 11:25:00 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 29, 2023, 08:30:40 AMI really like it, but Jamaica Inn is my favorite by Du Maurier.  Rebecca was the inspiration for the re-emergence of gothic lit which eventually led to the birth of modern horror.  There are many knock offs of Rebecca.  I don't think that it is a masterpiece though, but definitely influential and an enjoyable read.

Thanks. Read and enjoyed Jamaica Inn many years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on August 30, 2023, 12:10:51 AM
Quote from: Irons on August 27, 2023, 11:31:58 PMPicked up a copy of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier as a potential read on an upcoming break. Good or not?
I love it! My daughter has just read it as well. The 'Manderley Ball' sequence still sends shivers down my spine. Mrs Danvers is one of my favourite literary inventions:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on August 30, 2023, 04:15:58 AM
Quote from: JBS on August 29, 2023, 12:53:15 PMThe introduction includes discussion of how the poem reflects (or possibly idealizes) the position of women in Greece c 800 BCE, but the translation itself seems pretty straightforward, with nothing not already present in the text of Homer.

I edited that post; Fagles is my favorite,.  I got Pinsky (he has done an excellent Divine Comedy) mixed up with Fagles. 

I ordered the Kindle format (and pre-ordered the Iliad) and began reading the Introduction.  So far, I am impressed with her writing style, and scholarship - and look forward to the translation, which just judging from the excerpts I've read so far, it appears to be excellent.

Thanks for the heads up.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on August 30, 2023, 07:04:30 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on August 30, 2023, 12:10:51 AMI love it! My daughter has just read it as well. The 'Manderley Ball' sequence still sends shivers down my spine. Mrs Danvers is one of my favourite literary inventions:


I'm definitely in now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on August 30, 2023, 08:45:01 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 08, 2023, 03:06:19 PMGoing to England in 5 weeks, so starting a run of historical and classic English literature!

Emma (Jane Austen)
The Long View (Elizabeth Jane Howard)
The Giant O'Brien (Hilary Mantel)
The Corner That Held Them (Sylvia Townsend Warner)
The Slaves of Solitude (Patrick Hamilton)
Adam Bede (George Eliot)
The Go-Between (L.P. Hartley)

If I finish it all, I'll switch to a few eclectic works of English non-fiction:

Hons and Rebels (Jessica Mitford)
James Acaster's Classic Scrapes (James Acaster)
Londoners (Craig Taylor)
Progress update so far here. On Patrick Hamilton now. I will check the local library for Irons' recommendation this week. I may also, by ditching the Eliot or saving it for the flight, create time for Mrs. Dalloway and some Trollope.

The only real "miss" was EJ Howard; it is a type of oppressive all-knowing narrator who cannot resist commenting on everyone's inner life which has now gone out of fashion. Totally overwritten I thought.

The Warner was a darn-near mesmerizing epic of ordinary life, political squabbles, and secrets at a medieval convent (the character Sir Ralph is one of the most memorable I have seen this year). Emma moved a little down my list of Austen favorites, but not much (from maybe #1 to maybe #3). The Mantel was quite interesting and gritty, though affected by her self-conscious style; the Mitford is an alarming, lucid, hilarious, sad look at life in the upper classes. I also squeezed in an extra bit of light reading from the 20s, Elizabeth von Arnim's The Enchanted April, which is a sort of proto-Wodehouse light comedy with endearing humor.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on September 03, 2023, 05:02:01 AM
(https://cdn.waterstones.com/bookjackets/large/9781/8470/9781847086914.jpg)

Am very sad to have finished this, best book I've read in a long while. Scathingly self-mocking, clever, funny, refreshingly honest and just so good to read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 03, 2023, 05:43:08 AM
Quote from: Iota on September 03, 2023, 05:02:01 AM(https://d1b14unh5d6w7g.cloudfront.net/1566892740.01.S001.JUMBOXXX.jpg?Expires=1693761833&Signature=IK2WMOBpFXQwnv12FfIZRqU9lDCl~MfGtBXHLtAZi-a5OoSHpsR6TlqU0wBLSinndoRVmvwhf~8FBzVcyrFah5Jh63djMtTt2FrE9DJKD38N6ljhC5oma8SPOa-WxCq3w2YMY8bXup9EcMMQTd9WqtXmGx8T1808imYWe1s-2iM_&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUO27P366FGALUMQ)

Am very sad to have finished this, best book I've read in a long while. Scathingly self-mocking, clever, funny, refreshingly honest and just so good to read.

Does Madrid play a role in the action?

TD

(https://www.anticariat.net/coperta/citindu-turgheniev-william-217801_full.jpg)

Wiiliam Trevor - Reading Turgenev

A sad love story (is there any other kind in the whole history of literature, I wonder?) told with gentle humour and melancholy. I liked it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on September 03, 2023, 07:43:59 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 03, 2023, 05:43:08 AMDoes Madrid play a role in the action?

Yes, though not a big part. The Atocha Station attack is certainly covered, and the narrator gets involved in crowds in the streets trying to find out what has happened, his Spanish friends are very affected by it too, but although a big event, it is not quite as climactic a moment in the novel as the title might suggest.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on September 05, 2023, 12:27:19 PM
Quote from: San Antone on August 29, 2023, 12:45:36 PMInteresting.  I have collected translations of classics texts, including these two.  I have four of each, Fagles is my favorite.  I have bought it after reading an interview with her aboout it.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/819IxwjBa9L._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_.jpg)

I became acquainted with Fagles' edition in 1983. The Illiad was a pleasure to read ( despite Homer being infatuated with a certain metaphor for the dawn ). The Odyssey seemed a bit tedious, and l probably didn't give it a fair shake back then. Perhaps this new translation will yield a more compatible product.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 05, 2023, 12:58:57 PM
Quote from: LKB on September 05, 2023, 12:27:19 PMI became acquainted with Fagles' edition in 1983. The Illiad was a pleasure to read ( despite Homer being infatuated with a certain metaphor for the dawn ). The Odyssey seemed a bit tedious, and l probably didn't give it a fair shake back then. Perhaps this new translation will yield a more compatible product.

What's the metaphor?

I have yet to read any of Homer, but the Fagles translations are the ones I was looking at. I think I'll get around to them soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on September 05, 2023, 01:22:14 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 05, 2023, 12:58:57 PMWhat's the metaphor?

I have yet to read any of Homer, but the Fagles translations are the ones I was looking at. I think I'll get around to them soon.
Rododaktulos Eos, rosy-fingered dawn; Homer often uses this evocative metaphor both in Illiad and Odyssey.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on September 05, 2023, 01:25:36 PM
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on September 05, 2023, 01:22:14 PMRododaktulos Eos, rosy-fingered dawn; Homer often uses this evocative metaphor both in Illiad and Odyssey.

Some twenty times, just in The Illiad.  :o
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Lisztianwagner on September 05, 2023, 02:00:12 PM
Quote from: LKB on September 05, 2023, 01:25:36 PMSome twenty times, just in The Illiad.  :o
I agree, it is extremely common. ;D Anyway it perfectly and beautifully evokes the imagine of the sun rising at the beginning of the day; also, it doesn't become very surprising how often the epithet appears if we consider that it was poetry sung by heart by ancient Greek poets, who indeed used recurring forms for that reason.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: atardecer on September 06, 2023, 12:51:07 AM
Yes Homer's poetry has certain stock phrases that seem to be structural much like certain parts in classical music sonata form. I remember another repeated one from The Odyssey regarding the meal and enjoying the 'good things placed before them' or something along those lines. I haven't read Homer in quite some time, I was acquainted with his work in college, and enjoyed it, but for me the literature I liked most from that class were the collected works in The Poetic Edda which I've read again since college and plan to reread again soon.

I have that Fagles translation of The Odyssey it is the same one from my class, I may reread that again soon too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on September 06, 2023, 07:13:43 AM
Just finished Cyril Connolly's essay The Modern Movement, included in this collection, which I bought in Scotland last month:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xAAHv87VL.jpg)

I had read Connolly's Enemies of Promise (also included in this volume) and The Unquiet Grave many years ago, and remember enjoying both books very much. The essay I have now read (from 1965) is a short overview of modernism in literature, but also a kind of eulogy, as the movement —it can be called a movement, despite its myriad, diverging manifestations— was definitely over when the essay was published. It acknowledges its limitations: Connolly only covers English and French language authors, claiming that he will not comment in works he cannot read in the original. Still, the fact that the only Spanish name he mentions as one he could have included in his survey is Lorca indicates that he perhaps wasn't really that knowledgeable about or interested in "foreign" literature (lots of Russians and Germans, and a couple of Italians, are mentioned en passant).

On the other hand, the essay is a very effective and lucid guide to what it does cover, and its list of 100 important books is rather useful (even if at times it reads like a literary equivalent to those "What to see in 24 hours in City X" tourist guides). Some paragraphs are beautifully written.

The above has led me to start one of the books mentioned in Connolly's list, André Gide's L'Immoraliste. I had been meaning to read it for quite some time, but kept postponing it for no particular reason.

(https://www.la-pleiade.fr/var/storage/images/product/41c/product_9782070102259_180x0.jpg)

As always, reading this in the lavish Pléiade edition is an immense pleasure...

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 06, 2023, 10:09:21 AM
(https://bookstellyouwhy.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/31679.jpg?auto=webp&v=1396317919)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on September 08, 2023, 05:34:46 AM
Quote from: atardecer on September 06, 2023, 12:51:07 AMYes Homer's poetry has certain stock phrases that seem to be structural much like certain parts in classical music sonata form. I remember another repeated one from The Odyssey regarding the meal and enjoying the 'good things placed before them' or something along those lines. I haven't read Homer in quite some time, I was acquainted with his work in college, and enjoyed it, but for me the literature I liked most from that class were the collected works in The Poetic Edda which I've read again since college and plan to reread again soon.

I have that Fagles translation of The Odyssey it is the same one from my class, I may reread that again soon too.

When I studied Homer the explanation given for this was the the texts come from an oral tradition, not written down but semi-improvised by the performer, and the stock formulations were effectively the mortar the held the bricks together.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on September 08, 2023, 05:37:11 AM
Long ago I used to devour "classic" books and I recently stumbled one which in my mind was outstanding, "Of Human Bondage," by W. Somerset Maugham. Tried re-reading it and quickly got bogged down. Gave up after about 10% read. I am amazed I had the patience to read this stuff.

Picked up with "The Fraud," by one of my favorite contemporary authors, Zadie Smith.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on September 09, 2023, 06:24:59 AM

Quote from: Spotted Horses on September 08, 2023, 05:37:11 AMLong ago I used to devour "classic" books and I recently stumbled one which in my mind was outstanding, "Of Human Bondage," by W. Somerset Maugham. Tried re-reading it and quickly got bogged down. Gave up after about 10% read. I am amazed I had the patience to read this stuff.

Picked up with "The Fraud," by one of my favorite contemporary authors, Zadie Smith.


I've found a fair number of the " classics " to be uninteresting. No reflection on those works really, as the only fiction I've consistently enjoyed has been Sci-Fi, and even that has pretty much fallen by the wayside since 1990 or so ( l now prefer biographies, history and other forms of non-fiction ).

Of the classics that l do enjoy, the most famous is undoubtedly Moby Dick, which l recommend to anyone breathing.  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on September 09, 2023, 06:53:25 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on September 08, 2023, 05:37:11 AMLong ago I used to devour "classic" books and I recently stumbled one which in my mind was outstanding, "Of Human Bondage," by W. Somerset Maugham. Tried re-reading it and quickly got bogged down. Gave up after about 10% read. I am amazed I had the patience to read this stuff.

That was required summer reading for me back in high school!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on September 09, 2023, 06:56:45 AM
Quote from: LKB on September 09, 2023, 06:24:59 AMI've found a fair number of the " classics " to be uninteresting. No reflection on those works really, as the only fiction I've consistently enjoyed has been Sci-Fi, and even that has pretty much fallen by the wayside since 1990 or so ( l now prefer biographies, history and other forms of non-fiction ).

Of the classics that l do enjoy, the most famous is undoubtedly Moby Dick, which l recommend to anyone breathing.  ;D

I haven't given up on "classics," but how much do I want to read about the petty quibbles of provincial English clergy in the 19th century. Maybe it would have taken off, but my patience was expended.

Moby Dick, and Melville in general, is great, but there you need forbearance for all of the detailed descriptions of whaling technology.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 10, 2023, 11:21:25 AM
Shusaku Endo, The Sea & Poison. A very bleak and gruesome read, much like his much more famous Silence which a bunch of us here on GMG read not too long ago, but very good so far. I picked this up at a Japanese bookstore called Kinokuniya, right next to my school in Midtown Manhattan, belatedly, as it's been quite a while since Dry Brett Kavanaugh recommended this book to me. @DBK if you're reading this, take this as my recommendation to check out that bookstore if you're ever in New York. Cool spot, tons of Japanese lit, translated and otherwise.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 10, 2023, 02:02:49 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 10, 2023, 11:21:25 AMShusaku Endo, The Sea & Poison. A very bleak and gruesome read, much like his much more famous Silence which a bunch of us here on GMG read not too long ago, but very good so far. I picked this up at a Japanese bookstore called Kinokuniya, right next to my school in Midtown Manhattan, belatedly, as it's been quite a while since Dry Brett Kavanaugh recommended this book to me. @DBK if you're reading this, take this as my recommendation to check out that bookstore if you're ever in New York. Cool spot, tons of Japanese lit, translated and otherwise.


Decades ago I frequented Kinokuniya NY and some Japanese restaurants close to the store. I should visit there again. When I was a kid, Endo was popular for his funny and comical essays. After reading these essays I bought Sea and Poison assuming that it would be funny essay too. When I read it, I was shocked by his sharp and accurate depiction of the hypocrisy and conformist tendency in Japanese society.
Endo thinks 1) Japanese people lack ethics 2) because they are not religious/Christian. I agree with 1) but not with 2).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 10, 2023, 04:33:34 PM
Starting:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Z-uxURqYL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg)

The longlist for the Baille Gifford Prize has just been announced, and this year I'm going to see if I can't get through most of them. It includes Katja Hoyer's book on East Germany which I've already done, thanks to a recommendation upthread. Also a big fat work on the 1848 revolutions which has been on my radar, but I want something I can knock off a bit quicker to start.

https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/inside-the-covers/news/the-prize-announces-the-2023-longlist


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on September 11, 2023, 07:55:11 AM
Anyone here have a suggestion for a book or two on Hawaiian history?

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on September 11, 2023, 10:43:13 AM
just finished

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31WRyxbdniL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

 remember childhood dinners of the LaChoy Chop Suey / Chow Mein kits, dont think anyone in the US has eaten Chop Suey in 30 years.  Interestingly, Chop Suey was the first big national food fad, beginning in the late 1800s.  By 1900 whites in the midwest were eating in Chinese restaurants.  The author also argues it is an actual Chinese dish, not an American invention (although it was certainly Americanized)

Quoteanthropologist E. N. Anderson, a scholar of Chinese food, traces the dish to tsap seui (杂碎, "miscellaneous leftovers"), common in Taishan (Toisan), a county in Guangdong province, the home of many early Chinese immigrants to the United States.[1][2] Hong Kong doctor Li Shu-fan likewise reported that he knew it in Toisan in the 1890s.[3]


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on September 11, 2023, 11:05:01 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on September 11, 2023, 10:43:13 AMjust finished

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31WRyxbdniL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

 remember childhood dinners of the LaChoy Chop Suey / Chow Mein kits, dont think anyone in the US has eaten Chop Suey in 30 years.  Interestingly, Chop Suey was the first big national food fad, beginning in the late 1800s.  By 1900 whites in the midwest were eating in Chinese restaurants.  The author also argues it is an actual Chinese dish, not an American invention (although it was certainly Americanized)

I remember eating that La Choy stuff as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbgiV1jYIrY
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on September 11, 2023, 11:15:17 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on September 11, 2023, 11:05:01 AMI remember eating that La Choy stuff as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbgiV1jYIrY

Wonder what that meat is...

(https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/lachoy-2.jpg)

interestingly the company was founded in 1922 by a Korean immigrant named Ilhyeong New that later returned home and started one of the largest chemical companies in the country
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 12, 2023, 03:29:11 AM
Quote from: Iota on September 03, 2023, 05:02:01 AM(https://d1b14unh5d6w7g.cloudfront.net/1566892740.01.S001.JUMBOXXX.jpg?Expires=1693761833&Signature=IK2WMOBpFXQwnv12FfIZRqU9lDCl~MfGtBXHLtAZi-a5OoSHpsR6TlqU0wBLSinndoRVmvwhf~8FBzVcyrFah5Jh63djMtTt2FrE9DJKD38N6ljhC5oma8SPOa-WxCq3w2YMY8bXup9EcMMQTd9WqtXmGx8T1808imYWe1s-2iM_&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUO27P366FGALUMQ)

Am very sad to have finished this, best book I've read in a long while. Scathingly self-mocking, clever, funny, refreshingly honest and just so good to read.

Started reading Ben Lerner's book on your lead. I like it a lot so far. Would love to read something else in a similar style. Anything you can recommend? Modern fiction novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on September 12, 2023, 04:20:08 AM
I pre-ordered this a month ago and it was delivered overnight:

The Food of Sicily: Recipes from a Sun-Drenched Culinary Crossroads

(https://i.postimg.cc/sXhNd9S4/Screenshot-2023-09-12-at-7-16-43-AM.png)

I learned all I know about Sicilian cooking from my mother and sister (all four of my grandparents were from the same small town in Sicily) - but I've always wanted to know more. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on September 12, 2023, 09:42:33 AM
Reading through Poe's stories. Masque of red death is a wonderful macabre allegorical tale. I have also special fondness for The Fall of the House of Usher, The Gold-Bug, Never Bet the Devil Your Head, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Three Sundays in a Week and A Descent into the Maelström.

Outside of his prose, as much as it may sound cliché to say say it, The Raven is one hell of a poem.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on September 12, 2023, 01:34:28 PM
Quote from: San Antone on September 12, 2023, 04:20:08 AMI pre-ordered this a month ago and it was delivered overnight:

The Food of Sicily: Recipes from a Sun-Drenched Culinary Crossroads

(https://i.postimg.cc/sXhNd9S4/Screenshot-2023-09-12-at-7-16-43-AM.png)

I learned all I know about Sicilian cooking from my mother and sister (all four of my grandparents were from the same small town in Sicily) - but I've always wanted to know more. 
Oh, cool!  How hard is it for you to find a lot of the ingredients in the recipes--either ones that you've been given by your mother and sister?  I suspect that some of the seafood would be hard to get and that you would have to make substitutions.  These days, one can order a lot of items online (or possibly grow in ones garden).  Would love to hear of some of your favorite recipes over in the eating thread.  :)

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on September 12, 2023, 03:06:22 PM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on September 12, 2023, 01:34:28 PMOh, cool!  How hard is it for you to find a lot of the ingredients in the recipes--either ones that you've been given by your mother and sister?  I suspect that some of the seafood would be hard to get and that you would have to make substitutions.  These days, one can order a lot of items online (or possibly grow in ones garden).  Would love to hear of some of your favorite recipes over in the eating thread.  :)

PD

For most of my adult life I have had to make substitutions for simple ingredients such as fennel "fenocchio" which my mother used from a plant she'd had for decades.  Last week I made a kind of sauce (we called it gravy) for a holiday "St. Joseph's Day" which called for fenocchio, anchovies, pine nuts, and homemade bread crumbs - added to the tomato base.  I had everything except for the fenocchio, for which I used ground fennel seeds.

My sister is six years older than me, and I'm 71.  So I hope I have many more years of her culinary knowledge.

 ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: atardecer on September 12, 2023, 04:40:37 PM
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

An old edition of the book, no pictures of it online that I could find. It is hard cover, a picture of a peacock, a lock and a woman's profile and a price printed on the top right corner of the cover for $1.50
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on September 13, 2023, 02:14:08 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 12, 2023, 03:29:11 AMStarted reading Ben Lerner's book on your lead. I like it a lot so far. Would love to read something else in a similar style. Anything you can recommend? Modern fiction novels.

None spring to mind that fit the mould of the Lerner really.
A book that explores alienation but in a very different way is 'The Unconsoled' by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's a unique and brilliant book, I've never read anything quite like it, I regularly had to stop and go back a page or two to check that I had just read what I thought I'd read, find that I had, and still be amazed. Really worth reading I think, and due a reread from me.
There are also of course Ben Lerner's two other novels (The Topeka School and 10:04) which I shall certainly be checking out and which both look very promising. Glad you've enjoyed 'Leaving the Atocha Station' so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 14, 2023, 03:45:51 PM
Had to get a copy of Leaving the Atocha Station after reading the interesting discussion here. It was recommended by a Youtuber I follow too. Looking forward to reading it. Re: The Unconsoled, I'm excited to eventually around to that one, too. It's a long book so I'm procrastinating starting it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on September 14, 2023, 03:54:35 PM
Re-reading for the 4th or 5th time, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91Fo63S5U+L._SL1500_.jpg)

One of my favorite books; and it holds up very well.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 15, 2023, 11:21:32 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 31, 2021, 11:54:49 PMI used to have that. One slim volume of the poem and one big fat volume of his commentary.

Two translations of Eugene Onegin by Nabokov have been published. One is poetic, where Nabokov tried to convey the rhythm and sound of the original, the other is prose, where the meaning is conveyed. Plus extensive commentary.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 15, 2023, 08:26:12 PM
Fascinating book. The actual events of Brunton's travels in India exceed any imagination of the Western truth seeker. Perhaps the most appropriate introduction for someone who is or may be interested in Indian spirituality.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81EbnN0H6LL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 16, 2023, 04:58:54 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1+O-Y963UL._SL1500_.jpg)

A fascinating reading, this book compellingly argues that, during the whole 19th century, the most famous and popular cultural product of Vienna, both at home and abroad, one that became synonymous with the city and its spirit was the waltz and, consequently, that the most famous and popular Viennese composers, both at home and abroad, were neither Haydn nor Mozart, let alone Beethoven, but Johann Strauss-Vater and Johann Strauss-Sohn, both the object of a frenetic admiration bordering on delirium (similar to Paganini, Rossini and Liszt). So inextricable were the waltz and its kings linked with the Austrian Empire that it can be said of the latter to have died in 1899 together with Johann Strauss II, notwithstanding Emperor Franz Josef's outliving him by 18 years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 16, 2023, 05:06:52 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 14, 2023, 03:45:51 PMHad to get a copy of Leaving the Atocha Station after reading the interesting discussion here. It was recommended by a Youtuber I follow too. Looking forward to reading it. Re: The Unconsoled, I'm excited to eventually around to that one, too. It's a long book so I'm procrastinating starting it.

Leaving the Atocha Station is damn good so far.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on September 16, 2023, 10:20:44 AM
Just started into my third book by Australian novelist Jen Craig (my current favorite living writer) - -

(https://images.theconversation.com/files/531885/original/file-20230614-25-hjm88m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 16, 2023, 08:38:26 PM
Knocked off this quickie:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41aMdphpMSL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 17, 2023, 06:52:20 AM
Quote from: Iota on September 03, 2023, 05:02:01 AM(https://d1b14unh5d6w7g.cloudfront.net/1566892740.01.S001.JUMBOXXX.jpg?Expires=1693761833&Signature=IK2WMOBpFXQwnv12FfIZRqU9lDCl~MfGtBXHLtAZi-a5OoSHpsR6TlqU0wBLSinndoRVmvwhf~8FBzVcyrFah5Jh63djMtTt2FrE9DJKD38N6ljhC5oma8SPOa-WxCq3w2YMY8bXup9EcMMQTd9WqtXmGx8T1808imYWe1s-2iM_&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUO27P366FGALUMQ)

Am very sad to have finished this, best book I've read in a long while. Scathingly self-mocking, clever, funny, refreshingly honest and just so good to read.

I had the same reaction upon finishing it. I suppose I'll have to read Lerner's other two novels now, and maybe his poems. Very, very good book, and quite relatable, a good expression of what corresponds to my experience of being a millennial with "creative" aspirations in the 21st century. I would like to think I'm at least a bit more honest with myself and others than Lerner's protagonist, but sometimes I'm not sure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 17, 2023, 11:03:29 PM
From the poet and literary critic Dmitry Bykov: "Andrei Gavrilov's book is an absolute sensation, an unprecedentedly honest account of musical and near-musical morals, of the pathologies and perversions that so often accompany genius, of the tricks of socialist authorities and the scoundrels of capitalist management. This is a story about the terrible underside of the beautiful, about payment for talent and fame. But I want the reader to recognise the childish soul of the author, who never became his own in any pack, behind all this candour, scandalousness and filth".

I don't know what languages Gavrilov's book has been translated to.

(https://andreigavrilov.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/d0a7d0a4d090-cover6.jpg?w=800)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 18, 2023, 12:25:31 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 17, 2023, 11:03:29 PMFrom the poet and literary critic Dmitry Bykov: "Andrei Gavrilov's book is an absolute sensation, an unprecedentedly honest account of musical and near-musical morals, of the pathologies and perversions that so often accompany genius, of the tricks of socialist authorities and the scoundrels of capitalist management. This is a story about the terrible underside of the beautiful, about payment for talent and fame. But I want the reader to recognise the childish soul of the author, who never became his own in any pack, behind all this candour, scandalousness and filth".

I don't know what languages Gavrilov's book has been translated to.

(https://andreigavrilov.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/d0a7d0a4d090-cover6.jpg?w=800)


English, French, German

https://www.andreigavrilov.com/books

I have a question for you, if I may: why do they translate chaynik (kettle) as Tchaikovsky?  ???
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 18, 2023, 12:51:43 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 18, 2023, 12:25:31 AMEnglish, French, German

https://www.andreigavrilov.com/books

I have a question for you, if I may: why do they translate chaynik (kettle) as Tchaikovsky?  ???

Logically, the translation can be found on Gavrilov's website. Few people would agree to publish this book, and in Russia Gavrilov became practically persona non grata after it.

I think it's a play on words. Chai-kovsky. Chai is a word for tea in Russian. Chainik (teapot, or kettle, in Russian the word can be used for both a brewer and a boiler) seems to be the nickname of the Tchaikovsky Competition.

In India, by the way, the main street drink is "chai". Tea leaves are brewed on milk with spices and lots of sugar. A glass costs 5-7 rupees, that's somewhere around US$ 0.10. Each chaiwala - chai stand has its own recipe for spices and proportion.

Did you read the book? If yes, what do you think?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 18, 2023, 02:34:05 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 18, 2023, 12:51:43 AMLogically, the translation can be found on Gavrilov's website. Few people would agree to publish this book, and in Russia Gavrilov became practically persona non grata after it.

According to his website, the translations were published by Asteroid Publishing. They can be bought on Amazon.

QuoteI think it's a play on words. Chai-kovsky. Chai is a word for tea in Russian. Chainik (teapot, or kettle, in Russian the word can be used for both a brewer and a boiler) seems to be the nickname of the Tchaikovsky Competition.

Thanks. In Romanian the word for tea is ceai, pronounced exactly as in Russian, and the word for teapot is ceainic, pronounced, well, exactly as in Russian.

QuoteDid you read the book?

No, but speaking of Gavrilov, a few years ago I have attended a recital of his in Bucharest and I must say he is the best pianist I've listened to live, followed closely by Demidenko and Kissin. I know, they are all Russians but I can't help it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on September 18, 2023, 03:01:12 AM
Quote from: Iota on September 03, 2023, 05:02:01 AM(https://d1b14unh5d6w7g.cloudfront.net/1566892740.01.S001.JUMBOXXX.jpg?Expires=1693761833&Signature=IK2WMOBpFXQwnv12FfIZRqU9lDCl~MfGtBXHLtAZi-a5OoSHpsR6TlqU0wBLSinndoRVmvwhf~8FBzVcyrFah5Jh63djMtTt2FrE9DJKD38N6ljhC5oma8SPOa-WxCq3w2YMY8bXup9EcMMQTd9WqtXmGx8T1808imYWe1s-2iM_&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUO27P366FGALUMQ)

Am very sad to have finished this, best book I've read in a long while. Scathingly self-mocking, clever, funny, refreshingly honest and just so good to read.

Your image does not appear on my screen.  What is the book?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: 71 dB on September 18, 2023, 03:11:59 AM
Quote from: San Antone on September 18, 2023, 03:01:12 AMYour image does not appear on my screen.  What is the book?


The filename in the link is this:

1566892740.01.S001.JUMBOXXX.jpg

It doesn't work for me either, but maybe the book is Jumbo-something?

People rely on links too much online. They are not 100 % reliable. Dead links is a real thing. Always WRITE things too people! That's how the information is there even when the link goes death or the link is geoblocked for someone for some ridiculous reason...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on September 18, 2023, 04:07:02 AM
Anthony Trollope, "The Bertrams", from the complete works, on E reader.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on September 18, 2023, 04:13:18 AM
Quote from: San Antone on September 18, 2023, 03:01:12 AMYour image does not appear on my screen.  What is the book?


It's 'Leaving the Atocha Station' by Ben Lerner. The image was there originally, as a number of people responded to it, not sure why it disappeared, but have edited it now.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 18, 2023, 04:50:15 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 18, 2023, 02:34:05 AMAccording to his website, the translations were published by Asteroid Publishing. They can be bought on Amazon.

Thanks. In Romanian the word for tea is ceai, pronounced exactly as in Russian, and the word for teapot is ceainic, pronounced, well, exactly as in Russian.

No, but speaking of Gavrilov, a few years ago I have attended a recital of his in Bucharest and I must say he is the best pianist I've listened to live, followed closely by Demidenko and Kissin. I know, they are all Russians but I can't help it.

No problem. Given how massively popular Russian/Soviet music and performing art is here on the GMG, Gavrilov's book may be a must read, an eye-opener at least. It's written very vividly and reads interestingly. What he writes about Richter in detail, or Gilels to a much lesser extent, would sure enrage fans of the former and the latter.

I was fb friends with Gavrilov for several years some time ago. It was interesting to talk to him. One day he banned me after I told I found Stewart Goodyear's performance of Rachmaninoff's 3rd concerto interesting. Gavrilov is not the right person to speak favourably of other musicians to.

I have never listened to him live, although he has played in Odessa, also several years ago if I remember it well. I can't remember which of his recordings I like, there aren't many of them, as it is well known. His most recent Chopin shines like a crazy diamond.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 18, 2023, 04:54:46 AM
Quote from: Iota on September 18, 2023, 04:13:18 AMIt's 'Leaving the Atocha Station' by Ben Lerner. The image was there originally, as a number of people responded to it, not sure why it disappeared, but have edited it now.

Thank you again, finished it yesterday.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 18, 2023, 05:10:52 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 18, 2023, 04:50:15 AMNo problem. Given how massively popular Russian/Soviet music and performing art is here on the GMG, Gavrilov's book may be a must read, an eye-opener at least. It's written very vividly and reads interestingly. What he writes about Richter in detail, or Gilels to a much lesser extent, would sure enrage fans of the former and the latter.

I was fb friends with Gavrilov for several years some time ago. It was interesting to talk to him. One day he banned me after I told I found Stewart Goodyear's performance of Rachmaninoff's 3rd concerto interesting. Gavrilov is not the right person to speak favourably of other musicians to.

Well, professional jealousy and harsh judgments about fellow artists are only too frequent in the artistic world, particularly in the musical field. Gavrilov is not alone in this respect. Actually, if I had the opportunity to talk to a famous musician, be they pianist, violinist, conductor, singer or whatever, I would bring up any topic but music.  ;D 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 18, 2023, 05:35:21 AM
Quote from: Florestan on September 18, 2023, 05:10:52 AMWell, professional jealousy and harsh judgments about fellow artists are only too frequent in the artistic world, particularly in the musical field. Gavrilov is not alone in this respect. Actually, if I had the opportunity to talk to a famous musician, be they pianist, violinist, conductor, singer or whatever, I would bring up any topic but music.  ;D 

I don't remember what we talked about. The question about Goodyear arose in connection with the scandalous story when Valentina Lisitsa's performance was cancelled in Canada and Goodyear replaced her.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 18, 2023, 05:45:47 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 18, 2023, 05:35:21 AMI don't remember what we talked about. The question about Goodyear arose in connection with the scandalous story when Valentina Lisitsa's performance was cancelled in Canada and Goodyear replaced her.

My impression about Gavrilov's persona, based on that concert I attended, is that he's rather eccentric and aloof. Demidenko is far more unassuming and amiable: he played Rachmaninoff's 2nd PC and gave no less than 4 (four) encores, the highest number of encores I've ever witnessed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 19, 2023, 05:51:30 AM
Thanks to everyone who mentioned it earlier. It's a terrific book. Just finished.

(https://www.nyrb.com/cdn/shop/products/Stoner.jpg?v=1528394345)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 21, 2023, 02:46:16 PM
^I read Stoner last year, liked it so much I got a copy of it for my dad for Christmas. He also loved it.

I'm about halfway through Ben Lerner's The Topeka School. Very interesting book; like the semi-autobiographical protagonist, I was also a boy raised by psychologist parents, albeit a little bit later on. I do not like it as much as Leaving the Atocha Station by a long shot; I get the impression that the author is trying to touch on as many "hot-button issues" as possible, to variable success. Who am I to knock the author's lived experience, but I don't believe that Lerner really gets at the essence of adolescent masculinity (particularly the "toxic" flavor) in our times, as seems to be the author's intent. However it is entertaining and I like the setting and characters, though some seem flatter than others.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on September 21, 2023, 04:51:49 PM
This showed up on my Kindle this week - a pre-order that I forgot about.  It is very good, although there are some glaring typographical errors which I assume will be corrected in future editions.

Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81vCgELNvvL._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 21, 2023, 09:58:16 PM
Somewhere in the middle

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81r0vAMt4mL._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on September 22, 2023, 12:20:55 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 19, 2023, 05:51:30 AMThanks to everyone who mentioned it earlier. It's a terrific book. Just finished.

(https://www.nyrb.com/cdn/shop/products/Stoner.jpg?v=1528394345)
Good to know. My son-in-law bought it for me last Christmas but I haven't read it yet.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 22, 2023, 01:13:51 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71iWxmst49L._SL1500_.jpg)

   Reads like a novel. Can't put it down.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 22, 2023, 02:37:15 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 21, 2023, 09:58:16 PMSomewhere in the middle

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81r0vAMt4mL._SL1500_.jpg)


Read this in the winter. Loved it. I need to get around to reading volume 2.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 22, 2023, 03:30:25 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81FvgB+1yzL._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on September 23, 2023, 05:31:33 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91yubejiZVL._SY466_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 25, 2023, 03:31:11 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71HAMMJcj-L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 25, 2023, 05:49:52 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 25, 2023, 03:31:11 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71HAMMJcj-L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Very very good writer. Read The Makioka Sisters if you haven't, and if you have time for a fairly long book. (DBK, one of our other Tanizaki fans, doesn't like it, but I thought it was a beautiful book.) I haven't read that one, but may head back to Kinokuniya to get a copy, if you say it's worth it  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 25, 2023, 06:11:37 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 25, 2023, 05:49:52 AMVery very good writer. Read The Makioka Sisters if you haven't, and if you have time for a fairly long book. (DBK, one of our other Tanizaki fans, doesn't like it, but I thought it was a beautiful book.) I haven't read that one, but may head back to Kinokuniya to get a copy, if you say it's worth it  ;D


I will get the Japanese edition of Makioka sisters next year. I tend to prefer his early short stories to the later works. As I mentioned before, I think the book below is vg. "Secret" is about a cross-dresser in Tokyo before WWI, and "Children" is about a sado-masochistic play by children.

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/books/sensation.html

https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/tanizaki/gourmet_club.htm


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s7qYx0yZL._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Harry on September 25, 2023, 06:20:50 AM
I am trying to read the complete works by Anthony Trollope. So far so good. :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 25, 2023, 06:32:23 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on September 25, 2023, 06:11:37 AMI will get the Japanese edition of Makioka sisters next year. I tend to prefer his early short stories to the later works. As I mentioned before, I think the book below is vg. "Secret" is about a cross-dresser in Tokyo before WWI, and "Children" is about a sado-masochistic play by children.

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/books/sensation.html

https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/tanizaki/gourmet_club.htm


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s7qYx0yZL._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)


I bought it shortly after you recommended it to me in the spring, but haven't read it yet. Now it's on a moving truck somewhere with the rest of my personal effects, none of which I have seen in over a month :'( I think I'll read it as soon as my stuff comes. I have been wanting to read more Tanizaki.

Currently reading a book called The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. So far so good. Kind of reminds me of a funny, Southern Camus.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ando on September 25, 2023, 06:45:25 AM
Not sure how many poetry lovers there are on the board but I'm finally (seriously) tackling Gjertrud Schnackenberg's Heavely Questions (2011 Farrar, Straus and Giroux); "six long poems, Schnackenberg's rhyme-rich blank verse, with its densely packed images, shifts effortlessly between the lyric and the epic, setting passion to a verbal music that is recognizably her own." - B&N (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heavenly-questions-gjertrud-schnackenberg/1100951022)

(https://i.postimg.cc/vZDpfgNS/hqscnack.jpg)

The description doesn't tell you anything but it is, indeed, a kind of masterwork reminiscent of no other poet I know. Recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 25, 2023, 06:47:38 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 25, 2023, 05:49:52 AMVery very good writer. Read The Makioka Sisters if you haven't, and if you have time for a fairly long book. (DBK, one of our other Tanizaki fans, doesn't like it, but I thought it was a beautiful book.) I haven't read that one, but may head back to Kinokuniya to get a copy, if you say it's worth it  ;D

Thank you. I've read this book many years ago, in Russian translation it's titled The Fine Snow, I think it's closer to the original. I've been a fan of Tanizaki for decades (he and Kawabata are very dear for me from 70s), and have read almost all translated into Russian and many books translated to English. Diary of a Mad Old Man is the last one I read. My favourite book of his is In Praise of Shadows. It had a decisive influence on my ideas about design and decoration and my attitude to things.

Edit: Oh yes, definitely worth a read. But I'm biased :-)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 25, 2023, 07:02:12 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 25, 2023, 06:47:38 AMThank you. I've read this book many years ago, in Russian translation it's titled The Fine Snow, I think it's closer to the original. I've been a fan of Tanizaki for decades (he and Kawabata are very dear for me from 70s), and have read almost all translated into Russian and many books translated to English. Diary of a Mad Old Man is the last one I read. My favourite book of his is In Praise of Shadows. It had a decisive influence on my ideas about design and decoration and my attitude to things.

Edit: Oh yes, definitely worth a read. But I'm biased :-)


I also loved In Praise of Shadows. I'll have to read it again. (Big Kawabata fan as well, one of my favorite Japanese writers.) Thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on September 26, 2023, 12:09:31 PM
112 pgs. into my third novel by Jen Craig and loving it just as much as the other two - -

(https://www.talkclassical.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.talkclassical.com/attachments/original_9781922571632-jpg.196593/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 27, 2023, 11:44:23 PM
(https://images.isbndb.com/covers/82/30/9780747568230.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 28, 2023, 12:55:40 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81lQeJEio+L._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 29, 2023, 12:38:47 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 19, 2023, 05:51:30 AMThanks to everyone who mentioned it earlier. It's a terrific book. Just finished.

(https://www.nyrb.com/cdn/shop/products/Stoner.jpg?v=1528394345)
[/quote

  Just a couple of chapters in, but very impressed. Thanks for recommendation (and to those "who mentioned it earlier).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 29, 2023, 02:54:21 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZnTJyjPoL._SY425_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on September 29, 2023, 04:14:01 AM
Ben Lerner's 10:04, after having read his other two over the past month. Very meta, a book about books about books kind of thing, and I believe the protagonist is a fictionalized version of the author (name unchanged, as opposed to the other two books). I like it better than The Topeka School and not as much as Leaving the Atocha Station. Lerner is a very, very skilled writer, and there are some poetic passages of extreme pathos throughout.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on September 29, 2023, 05:27:12 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on September 29, 2023, 04:14:01 AMBen Lerner's 10:04, after having read his other two over the past month. Very meta, a book about books about books kind of thing, and I believe the protagonist is a fictionalized version of the author (name unchanged, as opposed to the other two books). I like it better than The Topeka School and not as much as Leaving the Atocha Station. Lerner is a very, very skilled writer, and there are some poetic passages of extreme pathos throughout.

The Topeka School arrived the other day and am about halfway through it. I thought the opening section was brilliant (perhaps the best section of either book so far, for me), was very impressed by the following sections where his mother and father then write as themselves, and enjoying as ever his flair for detailed and engaging character portrayal, but like you it hasn't quite knocked me back as much as Leaving the Atocha Station thus far.
10:04 is also awaiting and will definitely get around to it at some point.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 29, 2023, 08:13:14 AM
Been looking at Houellebecq's books in the shops in Russian translations for years, but never read them. Finally reading, in English translation.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604164454i/58314.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 29, 2023, 12:54:56 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 29, 2023, 08:13:14 AMBeen looking at Houellebecq's books in the shops in Russian translations for years, but never read them. Finally reading, in English translation.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604164454i/58314.jpg)

The best one by far IMO is Extension du domaine de la lutte.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 29, 2023, 09:34:01 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on September 29, 2023, 12:54:56 PMThe best one by far IMO is Extension du domaine de la lutte.

Thank you. I read somewhere that his debut wasn't very good. But with your opinion, I'll give it a try.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 29, 2023, 10:17:13 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91z1U4RwScL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)


Tried to read The Unconsoled and stopped after a hundred or so pages. It's written impeccably, but I have a hard time immersing myself in someone else's nightmare. Reminds me of Nabokov, whom I read with passion decades ago, but won't read again. Because of the time gap, the comparison can only be accurate in my imagination.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 29, 2023, 10:52:28 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 29, 2023, 09:34:01 PMThank you. I read somewhere that his debut wasn't very good. But with your opinion, I'll give it a try.

Yes I am totally convinced that it is his best novel! The rest are marred by a uniformly dull style (at least in French), sexist and racist ideas, sexual vulgarity and one sided pessimism.

I was also a bit disillusioned when I found that in real life he enjoys extravagant luxury. He relishes fashionable society. The image of a hermit living austerely in some god forsaken dump in Belgium is entirely fabricated for the media. As is his somewhat bizarre surname.

(That being said I remember there were some vivid scenes of sadistic and sexual school bullying  in the one you're reading. I bet Houellebecq gets off on that sort of thing.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 29, 2023, 11:37:10 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on September 29, 2023, 10:52:28 PMI was also a bit disillusioned when I found that in real life he enjoys extravagant luxury. He relishes fashionable society.

Well, most French writers, including the greatest ones, have been like that. It's in their blood and culture. And it's not at all a bad thing. A Parisian man about town makes for a more informed writer with a wider horizon than a hermit living austerely in some god forsaken dump in Belgium.  ;D

QuoteThe image of a hermit living austerely in some god forsaken dump in Belgium is entirely fabricated for the media. As is his somewhat bizarre surname.

Actually, his bizarre surname is that of his paternal grandmother.  ;)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 30, 2023, 01:28:56 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on September 29, 2023, 10:52:28 PMYes I am totally convinced that it is his best novel! The rest are marred by a uniformly dull style (at least in French), sexist and racist ideas, sexual vulgarity and one sided pessimism.

I was also a bit disillusioned when I found that in real life he enjoys extravagant luxury. He relishes fashionable society. The image of a hermit living austerely in some god forsaken dump in Belgium is entirely fabricated for the media. As is his somewhat bizarre surname.

(That being said I remember there were some vivid scenes of sadistic and sexual school bullying  in the one you're reading. I bet Houellebecq gets off on that sort of thing.)

Sounds as exciting package: "sexist and racist ideas, sexual vulgarity and one-sided pessimism."

Seriously, should we judge authors by the ideas they express? Or require them to live up to what they write? Is it possible in a first place? Ideas or beliefs come and go, it's a vapour.

I'll try the debut book as next one from Houellebecq.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on September 30, 2023, 02:22:25 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 29, 2023, 10:17:13 PM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91z1U4RwScL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)


Tried to read The Unconsoled and stopped after a hundred or so pages. It's written impeccably, but I have a hard time immersing myself in someone else's nightmare. Reminds me of Nabokov, whom I read with passion decades ago, but won't read again. Because of the time gap, the comparison can only be accurate in my imagination.

  I'm surprised to hear you compare it to Nabokov. I thought of Kafka, all the way through (especially The Castle and The Trial). I finished it, but needn't have. An interesting experiment, but almost certainly my least favorite of his novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on September 30, 2023, 03:44:28 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on September 30, 2023, 01:28:56 AMSounds as exciting package: "sexist and racist ideas, sexual vulgarity and one-sided pessimism."

Seriously, should we judge authors by the ideas they express? Or require them to live up to what they write? Is it possible in a first place? Ideas or beliefs come and go, it's a vapour.

I'll try the debut book as next one from Houellebecq.

The fabulous things about Donaine de la lutte are

1. The animal stories (you'll see what I mean.)
2. The anti-hero, a typical Houelbecqian loser whose life is a nothing --  emptiness, the primal void -- is a really sympathetic character.

Re ideas, Houellbecq's later stuff are replete with anxiety about Muslims taking  France over, and changing its culture with authoritarian Shariah ideas. And sweet and passive French women being brainwashed by ideas which suggest that they can be more in control of their own lives.

On the positive side he is responsible for a memorable sex scene with one woman and two dogs (in Sérotonine)  and a phrase in Soumission which tickled my fancy for some reason -- it may be untranslatable -- someone is praised for being a femme pot au feu.  I tried to read Anéantir but gave up half way through -- style is too samey and there are a lot of words.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 30, 2023, 05:32:54 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on September 30, 2023, 02:22:25 AMI'm surprised to hear you compare it to Nabokov. I thought of Kafka, all the way through (especially The Castle and The Trial). I finished it, but needn't have. An interesting experiment, but almost certainly my least favorite of his novels.

The connection seemed obvious as soon as I started reading. Similar refinement of the language. In terms of content, with books such as Invitation to a Beheading and some others.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on September 30, 2023, 09:05:45 AM
Does anyone know a good biography of Mozart? I mean, one that dispells the Romantic nonsense about his life, personality and music without replacing it with post-modernist nonsense. Thanks in advance for any suggestion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on September 30, 2023, 09:55:24 AM
Very interested to read the comments about The Unconsoled. I found myself lured in by the way things never seem to reach a conclusion, found a sort of truth to it, though in quite hyperbolic form in the novel, and was bowled over by the way Ishiguro kept the plate spinning. I remember finding the protagonist, Ryder, a sympathetic character too, and felt engaged with his plight. But it's  well over ten years since I've read it, and responses can change, nonetheless I look forward to diving back in when time permits (one thing it isn't, is short ..).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on September 30, 2023, 11:03:38 PM
Quote from: Iota on September 30, 2023, 09:55:24 AMVery interested to read the comments about The Unconsoled. I found myself lured in by the way things never seem to reach a conclusion, found a sort of truth to it, though in quite hyperbolic form in the novel, and was bowled over by the way Ishiguro kept the plate spinning. I remember finding the protagonist, Ryder, a sympathetic character too, and felt engaged with his plight. But it's  well over ten years since I've read it, and responses can change, nonetheless I look forward to diving back in when time permits (one thing it isn't, is short ..).

Even though I have stopped reading, which is extremely rare in my case, I may try to return to the book after a while. Maybe after Ishiguro's other books. The Inconsoled's nightmarish plot is discouraging, but along with that there is quite a lot of appeal in the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 01, 2023, 12:04:04 AM
(https://shopratnaonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Books-I-Have-Loved.webp)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 02, 2023, 03:00:07 AM
Quote from: Iota on September 29, 2023, 05:27:12 AMThe Topeka School arrived the other day and am about halfway through it. I thought the opening section was brilliant (perhaps the best section of either book so far, for me), was very impressed by the following sections where his mother and father then write as themselves, and enjoying as ever his flair for detailed and engaging character portrayal, but like you it hasn't quite knocked me back as much as Leaving the Atocha Station thus far.
10:04 is also awaiting and will definitely get around to it at some point.

I thought 10:04 might be the best of the three, or at least the themes Lerner explored in that book hit the closest to home for me. All three were great, and I'm happy to have discovered a great living writer.

Re: Houellebecq, I think I'm going to try and find something of his at the bookstore today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 02, 2023, 04:56:36 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 02, 2023, 03:00:07 AM[..]
Re: Houellebecq, I think I'm going to try and find something of his at the bookstore today.

If you choose The Elementary Particles (Atomised), it would be interesting to hear your opinion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 02, 2023, 07:27:32 AM
(https://static.faber.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Woodcutters.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 02, 2023, 01:46:26 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 01, 2023, 12:04:04 AM(https://shopratnaonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Books-I-Have-Loved.webp)



Did he also write a book on the Rolls Royces he loved?  Think those outnumbered his books
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 02, 2023, 01:48:02 PM
Cheesy, check-the-trope fantasy series, but fun

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519CugmQ26L._SY445_SX342_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 02, 2023, 09:31:30 PM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on October 02, 2023, 01:46:26 PMDid he also write a book on the Rolls Royces he loved?  Think those outnumbered his books

Osho did not write books, he said what he wanted to say and he was recorded. As for the books he loved, there are 168 items in the list, the selection is quite interesting. Apart from the obligatory Upanishads or Lao Tzu, the list includes, for example, Maxim Gorky's book Mother and a few other surprises. It's not just the choices that are interesting, but what he says about these books. It is always unexpected and brilliant, like everything else Osho said and did. Including the Rolls-Royces. The man lived merrily, and he liked to tease the bourgeoisie and demonstrate the stupidity of the foundations of the materialistic world.

As for the number of Osho's books, there are many. In the bookshop in Osho's ashram in Pune, India, I saw a great number of them, it did not occur to me to count them. Osho's own library is huge, comprising thousands and thousands of books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 03, 2023, 10:08:33 PM
Osho about Maxim Gorky's book "Mother":

"I don't like Gorky; he is a communist, and I hate communists. When I hate I simply hate, but the book The Mother, even though written by Maxim Gorky, I love it. I have loved it my whole life.

I had so many copies of that book that my father used to say, "Are you mad? One copy of a book is enough, and you go on ordering more! Again and again I see a postal package and it is nothing but another copy of The Mother by Maxim Gorky. Are you mad or something?"
I said to him, "Yes, as far as Gorky's The Mother is concerned, I am mad, utterly mad."

When I see my own mother I remember Gorky. Gorky must be counted as the suprememost artist of the whole world. Particularly in The Mother he reaches to the highest peak of the art of writing. Nobody before and nobody after.... He is just like a Himalayan peak. The Mother is to be studied, and studied again and again; only then slowly it seeps through you. Then slowly slowly you start feeling it. Yes, that's the word: feeling it – not thinking, not reading, but feeling. You start touching it, it starts touching you. It becomes alive. Then it is no longer a book, but a person...a person."

After such praise from Osho, I started reading.

(https://scontent.fods2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/382969473_10227124340406524_2458747796373568796_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=49d041&_nc_ohc=8Fxo0yqYWREAX-_a949&_nc_ht=scontent.fods2-1.fna&oh=00_AfBdEbZxtUj-py04Aj4BaEe10vsV17eR_c1mKy9zyjyXpA&oe=6522E7B3)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 03:25:13 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/7117etL-wLL._SL1164_.jpg)

How about a thread about worst looking book covers? Why did they not print the whole of Chopin's portrait? Who came with the brilliant idea of cutting a quarter of his forehead?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 04, 2023, 03:40:30 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 03:25:13 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/7117etL-wLL._SL1164_.jpg)

How about a thread about worst looking book covers? Why did they not print the whole of Chopin's portrait? Who came with the brilliant idea of cutting a quarter of his forehead?
You must admit it is a rather broad forehead... ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 05:05:09 AM
Quote from: OshoGorky must be counted as the suprememost artist of the whole world. Particularly in The Mother he reaches to the highest peak of the art of writing. Nobody before and nobody after.... He is just like a Himalayan peak.

Even as hyperbole, this claim is absurd.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 05:07:41 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 02, 2023, 09:31:30 PMThe man lived merrily, and he liked to tease the bourgeoisie and demonstrate the stupidity of the foundations of the materialistic world.

I absolutely love it when the stupid, materialist bourgeois society is heavily criticized by people heavily benefiting from, and dependent on, it.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 06:16:25 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 05:07:41 AMI absolutely love it when the stupid, materialist bourgeois society is heavily criticized by people heavily benefiting from, and dependent on, it.  :D


Who depends and benefits more from whom, the people of ideas from the material world, or vice versa?  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 06:38:39 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 05:05:09 AMEven as hyperbole, this claim is absurd.


What if? How do you know? ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 04, 2023, 07:40:55 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 02, 2023, 09:31:30 PMIt is always unexpected and brilliant, like everything else Osho said and did. Including the Rolls-Royces.

Including poisoning 750 people at local salad bars and child sex abuse?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on October 04, 2023, 07:56:06 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 02, 2023, 09:31:30 PMIt is always unexpected and brilliant, like everything else Osho said and did.

I'm guessing you have never visited the town of Antelope, Oregon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 08:00:14 AM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on October 04, 2023, 07:40:55 AMIncluding poisoning 750 people at local salad bars and child sex abuse?

I'm not going to defend Osho. I have never been his follower, and I don't know very much about events of his life. Through several decades I have read some of his books, ten or fifteen, been to his ashram in India, out of curiosity. I know a few people who spent many years with him. It may well be that the accounts of some events in his life are not pure fiction. Many geniuses were strange or even unpleasant people in everyday life.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 08:15:40 AM
Quote from: Todd on October 04, 2023, 07:56:06 AMI'm guessing you have never visited the town of Antelope, Oregon.

I guess you mean Rajneesh, Oregon?  8)  No, I never been to this part of US.

I have a friend in Odessa who spent several years with Osho, including in Oregon. His recollections are very different from the official version of the authorities. I tend to trust someone who has his personal first-hand experience of what happened there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on October 04, 2023, 08:52:35 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 08:15:40 AMI guess you mean Rajneesh, Oregon?

No, I mean Antelope, Oregon.  That's why I wrote Antelope, Oregon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 09:45:41 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 06:16:25 AMWho depends and benefits more from whom, the people of ideas from the material world, or vice versa?  ;)

It's a symbiosis actually, but it's curious that many "people of ideas" wish to destroy the very society that ensures the material support for both their existence and that of their ideas.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 09:52:21 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 06:38:39 AMWhat if? How do you know? ;D

Because claiming that Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goethe, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were nobody compared to Gorki is absurdity on stilts.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on October 04, 2023, 10:29:39 AM
H G Wells 'The War of the Worlds'
Bizarrely set in the villages where my in-laws live near Woking!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 10:52:15 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 09:45:41 AMIt's a symbiosis actually, but it's curious that many "people of ideas" wish to destroy the very society that ensures the material support for both their existence and that of their ideas.  ;D

History is a continuous process of destroying the old world and creating the new. Ideas come first. If you think otherwise, no problem.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 10:59:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 09:52:21 AMBecause claiming that Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goethe, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were nobody compared to Gorki is absurdity on stilts.  ;D

First, you didn't read the book mentioned, and you can't know. Second, each of the authors you named is unique in their own way. The same can be said about each of them. Osho believed that Gorky was one of them. Obviously, he had his own reasons for thinking so, and there is no point in arguing with it. De gustibus non est disputandum.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 11:09:39 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 10:59:29 AMFirst, you didn't read the book mentioned

What makes you believe I didn't?

Quoteeach of the authors you named is unique in their own way. The same can be said about each of them. Osho believed that Gorky was one of them.

No, he believed that Gorki was the only one. Read again:

Gorky must be counted as the suprememost artist of the whole world. Particularly in The Mother he reaches to the highest peak of the art of writing. Nobody before and nobody after....

Nobody before and nobody after --- it doesn't get any clearer, and more absurd, than that. But by all means, feel free to agree with him.




Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 09:21:17 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 11:09:39 AMWhat makes you believe I didn't?

No, he believed that Gorki was the only one. Read again:

Gorky must be counted as the suprememost artist of the whole world. Particularly in The Mother he reaches to the highest peak of the art of writing. Nobody before and nobody after....

Nobody before and nobody after --- it doesn't get any clearer, and more absurd, than that. But by all means, feel free to agree with him.






Of course, you may have read Gorky, as an adult, and not in your school's required reading programme. Maybe even in Russian. ;)

Osho's words, which you are so excited about, mean that no one has written about what Gorky wrote in Mother. And that no one has written like Gorky either before or after him. The same can be said of a great many writers, and not necessarily the greatest. In Osho's book that I mentioned above, he talks about 168 different books by different authors. All these books are unique in Osho's opinion, and each one is unrivalled in its own sense. Nobody before and nobody after...

By the way, I'm finishing up Mother. An amazing book indeed. With every page it becomes clearer what Osho meant. I found it interesting to compare the original with two different English translations. The translations definitely do not convey Gorky's language, which is incredibly imaginative and symbolic. I wonder in which translation Osho was reading Mother. English, or one of the languages of India.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 09:25:42 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 09:21:17 PMOsho's words, which you are so excited about

Oh, I couldn't care less about Osho's opinions, they are hardly authoritative. I just commented on them at face value. I have no interest in pursuing the topic any further than that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 04, 2023, 09:45:18 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 04, 2023, 09:25:42 PMOh, I couldn't care less about Osho's opinions, they are hardly authoritative. I just commented on them at face value. I have no interest in pursuing the topic any further than that.


No problem. I am just looking at information online about Gorky's publications in India. They say the novel Mother was the most popular foreign book in India in the 20th century. Apparently Osho was not the only one who liked Gorky.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 05, 2023, 08:28:15 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51HfAlVh4wL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on October 06, 2023, 11:56:37 AM
Just started this yesterday - -

Albert Vigoleis Thelen: The Island of Second Sight

(https://www.talkclassical.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.talkclassical.com/attachments/9781468307139-us-jpg.197598/)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 06, 2023, 03:38:05 PM
My friend Peter lent me this long ago, and I'm finally reading it. It's much more interesting than my longstanding apparent neglect would suggest. @Cato should seek it at a local library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 06, 2023, 05:39:12 PM
Amazon has it if the library doesn't.
https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Chance-Love-American-Popular/dp/0806164352/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 08, 2023, 05:37:53 PM
Putting a couple of things aside to knock of this quickie:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71sw06fY9ZL._SY466_.jpg)

Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making Of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska


and setting up yet another play of the album

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pQI-+MytL._SX300_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on October 08, 2023, 05:44:14 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 08, 2023, 05:37:53 PMPutting a couple of things aside to knock of this quickie:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71sw06fY9ZL._SY466_.jpg)

Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making Of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska


and setting up yet another play of the album

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pQI-+MytL._SX300_.jpg)
I do enjoy that album.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 09, 2023, 07:28:57 AM
(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/26496/26495140-1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Artem on October 09, 2023, 09:22:56 AM
Quote from: andolink on October 06, 2023, 11:56:37 AMJust started this yesterday - -

Albert Vigoleis Thelen: The Island of Second Sight


That's quite an undertaking. Good luck.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: andolink on October 10, 2023, 12:34:40 PM
Quote from: Artem on October 09, 2023, 09:22:56 AMThat's quite an undertaking. Good luck.
So far so good!

It's incredibly erudite, allusive ... and brilliantly witty.  I'll let you know what I think of it in a few months when I'm done.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 12, 2023, 12:15:49 AM
Accessible selection from Kierkegaard

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41HvJ7R6k0L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 12, 2023, 02:22:49 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91ftLqogpmL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 13, 2023, 05:21:30 AM
U.G.Krishnamurti is perhaps the most radical and least tolerant of all Indian teachers.

(https://image.ebooks.com/cover/210380576.jpg?width=332&height=500&quality=85)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 14, 2023, 03:50:00 AM
(https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20111123__20111127_E9_bk27sensep1.jpg?w=640)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 14, 2023, 05:14:01 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71pSxDNuNAL._SL1360_.jpg)

Henri Herz - My Travels in America

A charming book which shows Herz was an urbane gentleman of cheerful disposition, possessing a fine sense of humour, amiable, sociable, generous, witty and cultured. The tons of scorn heaped on him by Schumann were completely undeserved.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511teyZEFcL.jpg)

The logical next step from The Great Pianists. 


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 14, 2023, 09:03:02 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61sW9JT9UML._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Time to tackle a biggie.

Astonishing prose - Shakespearean - like « Out, out brief candle. » or « What a piece of work is man. »  Faulkner could turn a good phrase.

At first I thought - this is too gothic for me. But I'm completely seduced. I'm up to Chapter Five - Rosa talking to Quentin. Just amazing prose! Who cares whether it makes sense?  Not me! I really don't want to spoil the experience with close reading or philosophical analysis, I just want to enjoy the music of it, the poetry of it.

I kind of wish I knew a bit more about the context - American history and culture. Is there a sort of « American Studies for dummies » book?  Something important  obviously happened in 1865 . . .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 14, 2023, 12:14:11 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 14, 2023, 09:03:02 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61sW9JT9UML._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Time to tackle a biggie.

Astonishing prose - Shakespearean - like « Out, out brief candle. » or « What a piece of work is man. »  Faulkner could turn a good phrase.

At first I thought - this is too gothic for me. But I'm completely seduced. I'm up to Chapter Five - Rosa talking to Quentin. Just amazing prose! Who cares whether it makes sense?  Not me! I really don't want to spoil the experience with close reading or philosophical analysis, I just want to enjoy the music of it, the poetry of it.

I kind of wish I knew a bit more about the context - American history and culture. Is there a sort of « American Studies for dummies » book?  Something important  obviously happened in 1865 . . .

I need to get around to reading this too, though if The Sound & the Fury stumped me, I'm not sure how much I'll take away from it. However I've learned to stop thinking "I'll save this one for when I'm smarter" as I think I'm over the hump and only losing intelligence if anything :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 14, 2023, 01:41:22 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 14, 2023, 12:14:11 PMI need to get around to reading this too, though if The Sound & the Fury stumped me, I'm not sure how much I'll take away from it. However I've learned to stop thinking "I'll save this one for when I'm smarter" as I think I'm over the hump and only losing intelligence if anything :laugh:

You'll be fine! Especially if you've got a southern accent - you can read it out loud and enjoy the rhythms, the tempo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 14, 2023, 09:57:41 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 14, 2023, 09:03:02 AMTime to tackle a biggie.

Astonishing prose - Shakespearean - like « Out, out brief candle. » or « What a piece of work is man. »  Faulkner could turn a good phrase.

At first I thought - this is too gothic for me. But I'm completely seduced. I'm up to Chapter Five - Rosa talking to Quentin. Just amazing prose! Who cares whether it makes sense?  Not me! I really don't want to spoil the experience with close reading or philosophical analysis, I just want to enjoy the music of it, the poetry of it.

I kind of wish I knew a bit more about the context - American history and culture. Is there a sort of « American Studies for dummies » book?  Something important  obviously happened in 1865 . . .

Many years ago (in the 70s) this Faulkner book was translated and published in the USSR in the monthly Foreign Literature (Иностранная Литература). I tried to read it then, and I think I even read it, though I didn't get much out of it. Maybe I should try it again, in original? Although I have The Sound and the Fury in my reading queue already...

I'm reading a lot of new stuff now and re-reading what I read decades ago. I have found that continuous reading is the good remedy for PTSD.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 15, 2023, 12:16:35 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 14, 2023, 09:57:41 PMMany years ago (in the 70s) this Faulkner book was translated and published in the USSR in the monthly Foreign Literature (Иностранная Литература). I tried to read it then, and I think I even read it, though I didn't get much out of it. Maybe I should try it again, in original? Although I have The Sound and the Fury in my reading queue already...

I'm reading a lot of new stuff now and re-reading what I read decades ago. I have found that continuous reading is the good remedy for PTSD.

I think The Sound and the Fury would be very very hard to translate. The first chapter is a stream of consciousness inside the head of a teenager with moderate learning difficulties, the last chapter centres on a sermon delivered in dialect by a Southern preacher. The first half of Absalom, Absalom is possibly more translatable - but you would lose a huge amount. It would be like translating Shakespeare or The King James Bible. Generally in these books, Faulkner is really drawing on the music and the semantic nuances of English. 

If you're able to understand spoken English easily, I'd say both of them would respond really well to audiobook treatment, especially if there's a version with a southern accent.

I read somewhere that Faulkner was really into Balzac - and though I couldn't see it so much in The Sound and the Fury - which wears its modernism on its sleeve as it were - I can see it I think in the first half of Absalom Absalom. That's not to say it's in the style of a 19th century novel - far from it. But the two authors seem to share an interest in society and how it forms character. There's a bit of Rastignac in Thomas Sutpen.

Best of luck with PTSD - get it under management when this thing is over, whatever the outcome. I know it can come back to bite you years later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 15, 2023, 01:41:55 AM
Thanks for the kind words.

I don't usually listen to audiobooks, only read the text. We'll see how it goes with Faulkner.

As for translations. There used to be a very good translation school in the USSR. A lot of things that were translated before 70-80s turned out very well and it made some authors, like Vonnegut or Remarque very popular in the USSR, at least as much as in the West. Later I compared the translations with the originals, and although it's nonsense, I liked some translations better than the original. Catcher in the Rye may be an example.

As for stream of consciousness, a lot of the "difficult" stuff was translated. Joyce, Woolf, and many others. There are many translations of Shakespeare, some of them very successful. A lot of things have been published, but in such small print runs that from an ideological point of view it was merely noticeable. Book crazies read Sartre and Céline, but the average builder of communism was not even aware of such literature.

Later the quality of translation went down, but I don't care, as I've been reading English language literature in the original for decades, and even non-English authors, Japanese or German, in English translation.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 15, 2023, 07:52:09 AM
Entrancing and disturbing read for me:

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.thenile.io%2Fr1000%2F9780143039976.jpg%3Fr%3D5ebc4846000de&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=e38ad45e4ba6caa309a93fcc24495fc3673309ee03cc5b05dcb3d99f3216ed18&ipo=images)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 16, 2023, 09:11:45 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 15, 2023, 07:52:09 AMEntrancing and disturbing read for me:

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.thenile.io%2Fr1000%2F9780143039976.jpg%3Fr%3D5ebc4846000de&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=e38ad45e4ba6caa309a93fcc24495fc3673309ee03cc5b05dcb3d99f3216ed18&ipo=images)

liked the movie
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 16, 2023, 09:17:17 AM
Really liked his debut, this is a dark, creative nonfiction take on Paul Ehrenfest and John Von Neumann

(https://images4.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780593654477)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/14/the-maniac-by-benjamin-labatut-review-a-journey-to-the-far-edge-of-knowledge
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 16, 2023, 10:19:44 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on October 16, 2023, 09:54:41 AMInteresting.  I'm currently working my way through this:

(https://cdn.penguin.co.uk/dam-assets/books/9780241398869/9780241398869-jacket-large.jpg)

The Man From The Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann
Ananyo Bhattacharya





Cool, then you would appreciate that the title Labatut's book refers to the computer, not to John himself
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 16, 2023, 03:06:41 PM
Quote from: BWV 1080 on October 16, 2023, 09:11:45 AMliked the movie

I'll have to give it a watch.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 17, 2023, 08:02:14 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Zn5OBgPML._SL1500_.jpg)

A classic 1950s British murder mystery I picked up at Hatchards in London. I did not know what to expect, but this turned out to be one of the finest, suavest, wittiest, most cleverly plotted classic mysteries I've ever read. Just pure joy to read. Gilbert was a lawyer and set the mystery in a law firm, so he relies on all kind of insider knowledge and (clearly) put some of the more annoying characters he'd met in real life into the story. And I was absolutely delighted when I "solved the crime" midway through, mentally worked it all out, and then the detective followed my logic to solve it afterwards...and then we were both wrong!

Urgently recommended to anyone who loves classic British crime. Better prose and weirder characters than Christie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 18, 2023, 01:33:54 AM
(https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/0*1PveCuO5rtYFpIi-.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 18, 2023, 02:21:43 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 18, 2023, 01:33:54 AM(https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/0*1PveCuO5rtYFpIi-.jpg)

Never read that one, but his The Remains of the Day is one of the best books I've ever read.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZhfgITO8L._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

Reading short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. A genius, no doubt. All of these stories have been good, but Hell Screen in particular blew my mind. So did Loyalty.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 18, 2023, 03:01:15 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 18, 2023, 02:21:43 AMNever read that one, but his The Remains of the Day is one of the best books I've ever read.

Reading short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. A genius, no doubt. All of these stories have been good, but Hell Screen in particular blew my mind. So did Loyalty.

I'm right in the middle of Ishiguro's book. Exciting.

Thanks for the reminder. I read Akutagawa so long ago that I don't remember anything, almost. Oddly enough, what remained in my memory, and inaccurately, is a little story about a humble samurai who was very fond of yam porridge. I'll have to go back to this author.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on October 18, 2023, 06:18:29 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 18, 2023, 01:33:54 AM(https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/0*1PveCuO5rtYFpIi-.jpg)

I love it.  Some people find it too depressing.  But I think it is still beautifully written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 19, 2023, 03:18:22 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 18, 2023, 06:18:29 AMI love it.  Some people find it too depressing.  But I think it is still beautifully written.

Finished it today. Very strong impression. The last chapters were hard to read, the emotions were overwhelming.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on October 19, 2023, 11:18:58 AM
(https://www.deslegte.com/images/cached/resample/jpg/data/uploads/900/1317/cms_visual_1617315.jpg_1623895714000_900x1317.jpg)

Continuing reading this book. Very difficult, but the writing is very stylistic and aesthetical.

D&G refer much to theories that were developed in the times the book has been written. It's almost impossible to get to know all those theories (books are very expensive and also takes a lot of study). I have already acquired a basic understanding. I'm trying to better understand the complexity of the content and dig deeper into the book. I should be able to make it my own in a way that makes sense to me.

Trying to stick to it now. I try to work on my health with this book. Deleuze stress the problematic of the unconscious. I recognize this much personally. Deleuze makes it key to escape from capitalism and psychoanalysis. It's a 'universal history' he presents with Guattari. They aim for some new culture of desire (my words) and a new earth.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 19, 2023, 12:22:28 PM
Quote from: Henk on October 19, 2023, 11:18:58 AM(https://www.deslegte.com/images/cached/resample/jpg/data/uploads/900/1317/cms_visual_1617315.jpg_1623895714000_900x1317.jpg)

Continuing reading this book. Very difficult, but the writing is very stylistic and aesthetical.

D&G refer much to theories that were developed in the times the book has been written. It's almost impossible to get to know all those theories (books are very expensive and also takes a lot of study). I have already acquired a basic understanding. I'm trying to better understand the complexity of the content and dig deeper into the book. I should be able to make it my own in a way that makes sense to me.

Trying to stick to it now. I try to work on my health with this book. Deleuze stress the problematic of the unconscious. I recognize this much personally. Deleuze makes it key to escape from capitalism and psychoanalysis. It's a 'universal history' he presents with Guattari. They aim for some new culture of desire (my words) and a new earth.

Made attempts to read this book in English translation. Maybe I'll get around to it later.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 19, 2023, 11:05:29 PM
José Saramago, just started.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A141wrdIHPL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on October 20, 2023, 03:16:02 AM
Panorama du Quatuor à cordes.

A one-volume summary of 4 books on the history of string quartets.

41KsWgd0yaL.jpg
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 20, 2023, 08:12:19 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 14, 2023, 09:03:02 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61sW9JT9UML._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Time to tackle a biggie.

Astonishing prose - Shakespearean - like « Out, out brief candle. » or « What a piece of work is man. »  Faulkner could turn a good phrase.

At first I thought - this is too gothic for me. But I'm completely seduced. I'm up to Chapter Five - Rosa talking to Quentin. Just amazing prose! Who cares whether it makes sense?  Not me! I really don't want to spoil the experience with close reading or philosophical analysis, I just want to enjoy the music of it, the poetry of it.

I kind of wish I knew a bit more about the context - American history and culture. Is there a sort of « American Studies for dummies » book?  Something important  obviously happened in 1865 . . .

So I'm now approaching the end of this puppy and it's more interesting than my comments above - made after reading the first five chapters - suggest. It's a novel of two halves, and the nature of the second half is rather different than the nature of the first half.

Experimental; avant garde. There are many challenges, the most pressing of which, IMO, is to make it cohere. I need help, I need secondary literature, I need a course. This is not light, relaxing, reading.

The Sound and the Fury is challenging because of the stream of consciousness writing, and maybe because of the end. This is more difficult - more experimental -  both at the level of form and at the level of function - Faulkner's aim.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on October 20, 2023, 10:13:52 AM
Starting Gregorio Marañón's mammoth (1000 pages+, spread over two volumes) biography of Antonio Pérez.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/22776119880.jpg)

Antonio Pérez (1540-1611) was private secretary to Philip II (his father had been secretary to him and to his father Charles V before that), and an immensely powerful man. Some miscalculated scheming against Philip's half-brother Juan de Austria (involving Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda, the famous Princess Éboli) led to his downfall and arrest. He managed to escape, first to Aragon (where he was protected by the local laws, which were different from those of Castile) and finally to France (where he sided with Henri IV, plotting against his former master).

I am kind of predestined to read this. My father was a great admirer of Marañón (one of the leading intellectual voices in Spain's "silver age", apart from being a prestigious doctor), and I now see that the book is dedicated to the grandparents of a close friend of mine. My flat in Madrid is across the street from the Royal Monastery of Santa Isabel, which was founded by Philip II's daughter Isabel Clara Eugenia, and occupies the land on which stood Pérez's "casilla" ("hut"), the ostentatious country retreat he owned in what was then extramuros in the outskirts of the city.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 20, 2023, 05:43:14 PM
Keep getting distracted from the 1848 book (which is excellent, but can't be read at the end of the day when tired) to knock of some quicker reads. Getting through this essay collection:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71c1r0aF4pL._SY466_.jpg)


Also found a volume I was missing in this series and am picking away at it:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rkqkjRMbL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

It has a Joseph Brodsky essay which takes as its starting point the Russian post office producing a stamp with Kim Philby on it, which I'd read some years ago.

(https://www.historytoday.com/sites/default/files/philby.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 20, 2023, 07:28:41 PM
Since you mention it again...

Quote from: SimonNZ on September 23, 2023, 05:31:33 PM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91yubejiZVL._SY466_.jpg)
I just read the London Review of Books review of this - glowingly positive - and am thinking of giving it to my father for Christmas. His ancestors arrived in the USA from Germany after 1848 as a direct result of the conflict so he has always had a mild interest (but, as far as I can tell, no book on the subject).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steinway D on October 22, 2023, 09:03:15 AM
This is very good so far (I'm about half-way through it), but animal lovers might have difficulties with a few scenes; I certainly have.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A15H8+Qm11L._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mookalafalas on October 23, 2023, 05:42:35 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 20, 2023, 08:12:19 AMSo I'm now approaching the end of this puppy and it's more interesting than my comments above - made after reading the first five chapters - suggest. It's a novel of two halves, and the nature of the second half is rather different than the nature of the first half.

Experimental; avant garde. There are many challenges, the most pressing of which, IMO, is to make it cohere. I need help, I need secondary literature, I need a course. This is not light, relaxing, reading.

The Sound and the Fury is challenging because of the stream of consciousness writing, and maybe because of the end. This is more difficult - more experimental -  both at the level of form and at the level of function - Faulkner's aim.

  Probably Faulkner's greatest. I can understand how confusing aspects of it must be to non-Americans. I'm not sure what to say to  you about comments like "Something big must have happened in 1865." That was the end of the US civil war, and the end of slavery--and of the "old south." That's a rather key point in all of Faulkner's work---and American history. Anyway, feel free to PM me if there is anything you feel I might be able to help with.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 23, 2023, 09:59:56 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on October 23, 2023, 05:42:35 AMProbably Faulkner's greatest.

 

For me, personally, trying to make sense of memories is a major part of my mental life. I am in fact preoccupied with understanding the stories my parents told me, and my memories of my own past -- people now lost for ever. There's no way of course, it's hopeless, the past is elusive and slippery,  I am acutely aware of this.

I am from the North of England, but all my adult life I have lived in the South. The cultures are very different. Do I hate the North? I don't hate the North . . . .  I don't. I don't!  I don't hate it! I don't hate it!

So I'm kind of hoping that I'll find a way of reading Absalom Absalom where I will find myself in it.

Quote from: Mookalafalas on October 23, 2023, 05:42:35 AMProbably Faulkner's greatest. I can understand how confusing aspects of it must be to non-Americans. I'm not sure what to say to  you about comments like "Something big must have happened in 1865." That was the end of the US civil war, and the end of slavery--and of the "old south." That's a rather key point in all of Faulkner's work---and American history. Anyway, feel free to PM me if there is anything you feel I might be able to help with.

I knew that about 1865 of course, I was being slightly faux naif.  Sorry


Thanks for your kind offer, much appreciated.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 24, 2023, 06:42:07 AM
(https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6802607-L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on October 24, 2023, 07:40:53 AM
Almost finished this:

The Crossing: Book 2 of The Border Trilogy
by Cormac McCarthy

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81FzLC0xPxL._SY522_.jpg)

I stared it just after finish the first book, All the Pretty Horses. The protagonist in each is a teenage boy who grew up on a ranch, one from Texas the other from New Mexico, and both ride into Mexico and have adventures.

The last book in the trilogy, Cities of the Plain, finds these characters as ranch hands meeting up later in life.

I had forgotten how good these novels are - having spent most of time with McCarthy with Blood Meridian, Suttree, Child of God, and the early novels Outer Dark and The Orchard Keeper. 

I guess I had avoided these because of the movie with Matt Damon. But that was a mistake since I am finding them among McCarthy's best work. Thankfully, my Kindle easily translates all the Spanish dialog McCarthy has peppered the books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 24, 2023, 07:54:12 AM
Americans - a question. After the civil war, what happened to the land in the South? I mean the land which had been owned by whites and farmed with slaves? Was it divided up and allocated equitably, like after the French Revolution. And what happened to the wealth of the landed whites?

(Why post this here? It's relevant to Faulkner. Sutpen lost his wealth after the war, but I'm not clear why. Part of it was that the land was not tended during the war, because so many men were fighting maybe (but the blacks weren't fighting were they? Why couldn't the women have continued to use slave labour? What did the blacks do during the civil war?)   But I get the feeling that he lost his wealth due to land confiscation and taxation after 1865 too. )


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 24, 2023, 08:11:58 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on October 20, 2023, 03:16:02 AMPanorama du Quatuor à cordes.

A one-volume summary of 4 books on the history of string quartets.

41KsWgd0yaL.jpg

Does he explain what is "new and special" about Haydn op 33?

How far does it go in time? I mean, does it mention Pascal Dusapin or Franck Bedrossian, for example? Or Brian Ferneyhough and Giancinto Scelsi? Or Valentin Silvestrov and George Rochberg?

And how far back? Does it cover Alessandro Scarlatti or Franz Ignaz von Beeke or Joseph Starzer?

(No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 24, 2023, 12:23:32 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 24, 2023, 07:54:12 AMAmericans - a question. After the civil war, what happened to the land in the South? I mean the land which had been owned by whites and farmed with slaves? Was it divided up and allocated equitably, like after the French Revolution. And what happened to the wealth of the landed whites?

(Why post this here? It's relevant to Faulkner. Sutpen lost his wealth after the war, but I'm not clear why. Part of it was that the land was not tended during the war, because so many men were fighting maybe (but the blacks weren't fighting were they? Why couldn't the women have continued to use slave labour? What did the blacks do during the civil war?)   But I get the feeling that he lost his wealth due to land confiscation and taxation after 1865 too. )




Not American, but:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping#United_States
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 24, 2023, 12:58:20 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 24, 2023, 12:23:32 PMNot American, but:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping#United_States

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. The whites were bastards! That's the first time I've come across the concept of the post war Reconstruction. I really know nothing about America!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on October 24, 2023, 01:30:13 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 24, 2023, 08:11:58 AMDoes he explain what is "new and special" about Haydn op 33?

How far does it go in time? I mean, does it mention Pascal Dusapin or Franck Bedrossian, for example? Or Brian Ferneyhough and Giancinto Scelsi? Or Valentin Silvestrov and George Rochberg?

And how far back? Does it cover Alessandro Scarlatti or Franz Ignaz von Beeke or Joseph Starzer?

(No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!)

I'll make a note to come back to you tomorrow on this @Mandryka
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 24, 2023, 03:06:04 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 24, 2023, 12:58:20 PMThanks, I wasn't aware of that. The whites were bastards! That's the first time I've come across the concept of the post war Reconstruction. I really know nothing about America!

PBS did a very good 3-hour documentary called "Reconstruction: The Second Civil War", which you might find a useful introduction. Here's the first half:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ge90PXpgg0
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on October 24, 2023, 03:10:06 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 24, 2023, 06:42:07 AM(https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6802607-L.jpg)

Heh. I actually collect the Harper Torchbook series, and that's one I don't have.

Though I do have this Heisenberg in the series:

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.8a04cc86a8e6e7caaf0cd5d3e51dcdda?rik=VXa6bIe%2bHIgnhw&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on October 24, 2023, 06:02:47 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on October 24, 2023, 03:06:04 PMPBS did a very good 3-hour documentary called "Reconstruction: The Second Civil War", which you might find a useful introduction. Here's the first half:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ge90PXpgg0

What is not widely known is that most of the Southern solders fighting in the Civil War did not own slaves.  They were poor sharecroppers themselves. The reason they fought was because the Union army invaded their land.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Steinway D on October 24, 2023, 06:35:32 PM
After giving up on Disgrace (The animal cruelty was too much for me), I started this today. I like it very much so far. Apparently there's a lot of human cruelty in it, but I can deal with that!  :)
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91qXDU9TXvL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 24, 2023, 06:47:39 PM
Quote from: Steinway D on October 24, 2023, 06:35:32 PMAfter giving up on Disgrace (The animal cruelty was too much for me), I started this today. I like it very much so far. Apparently there's a lot of human cruelty in it, but I can deal with that!  :)
This was quite an entertaining read. A well-told tale of human nature and weakness at the point of extremity. I need to read Grann's previous book, now a famous and acclaimed Scorsese film.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 25, 2023, 03:17:28 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FuFva51tL.jpg)

While browsing the Internet Archive I stumbled upon this and was instantly hooked.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on October 25, 2023, 04:14:31 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 24, 2023, 08:11:58 AMdoes it mention Pascal Dusapin or Franck Bedrossian, for example? Or Brian Ferneyhough and Giancinto Scelsi? Or Valentin Silvestrov and George Rochberg?

And how far back? Does it cover Alessandro Scarlatti or Franz Ignaz von Beeke or Joseph Starzer?

(No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!)

Dusapin - Yes
Bedrossian - No
Ferneyhough - Yes
Scelsi - Yes
Silvestrov - No
Rochberg - Yes
Scarlatti - No
Beeke - No
Starzer - No


Bear in mind, this is a summarised one-volume version of 4 books, maybe the coverage is wider in the full version.

Quote from: Mandryka on October 24, 2023, 08:11:58 AMDoes he explain what is "new and special" about Haydn op 33?

Please PM me your email address and I'll send you photos of the full composer index, the tables of contents and the three pages relating to Op.33  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 25, 2023, 05:53:19 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on October 25, 2023, 04:14:31 AMDusapin - Yes
Bedrossian - No
Ferneyhough - Yes
Scelsi - Yes
Silvestrov - No
Rochberg - Yes
Scarlatti - No
Beeke - No
Starzer - No


Bear in mind, this is a summarised one-volume version of 4 books, maybe the coverage is wider in the full version.

Please PM me your email address and I'll send you photos of the full composer index, the tables of contents and the three pages relating to Op.33  :)

Thanks. I think I'm just going to buy volume 3!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on October 25, 2023, 07:32:09 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 25, 2023, 05:53:19 AMThanks. I think I'm just going to buy volume 3!

Ok no worries, I'll keep the pics aside for a few days in case you change you mind.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 25, 2023, 07:42:43 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on October 25, 2023, 07:32:09 AMOk no worries, I'll keep the pics aside for a few days in case you change you mind.

Ah, if you've made them then yes please! I just didn't want to put you to any more trouble. I felt slightly embarrassed about putting you though the Spanish Inquisition. I'll pm my email forthwith.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on October 25, 2023, 08:01:25 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 25, 2023, 07:42:43 AMAh, if you've made them then yes please! I just didn't want to put you to any more trouble. I felt slightly embarrassed about putting you though the Spanish Inquisition. I'll pm my email forthwith.

It's all good, PM read & email sent  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 25, 2023, 09:03:50 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511FBaHkaPL._SY522_.jpg)

After Absalom Absalom, it seems natural to read the David Story.

Now I don't want to offend anyone but I am really horrified. I mean, this God person is horrible. Just horrible.

Look - the bit I'm up to, Saul gets commanded by God to commit a crime against humanity and destroy a whole nation -- i.e. genocide -- and all their animals  (intimations of the holocaust there!) And he spares just one of them and a few of their sheep. So what happens? God gets angry because Saul hasn't obeyed his (totally immoral)  command TO THE LETTER and sacks him from his job as king and then . . . the icing on the cake . . . God's top manager Samuel proceeds to put the saved one to death by slicing him up!

Yuck.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 25, 2023, 10:54:53 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 25, 2023, 09:03:50 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511FBaHkaPL._SY522_.jpg)

After Absalom Absalom, it seems natural to read the David Story.

Now I don't want to offend anyone but I am really horrified. I mean, this God person is horrible. Just horrible.

Look - the bit I'm up to, Saul gets commanded by God to commit a crime against humanity and destroy a whole nation -- i.e. genocide -- and all their animals  (intimations of the holocaust there!) And he spares just one of them and a few of their sheep. So what happens? God gets angry because Saul hasn't obeyed his (totally immoral)  command TO THE LETTER and sacks him from his job as king and then . . . the icing on the cake . . . God's top manager Samuel proceeds to put the king to death by slicing him up!

Yuck.

It says translation with commentary—is it a kind of prose rewrite, or is it a faithful, literal translation? Interested to read this nonetheless.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on October 25, 2023, 01:16:41 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 25, 2023, 10:54:53 AMIt says translation with commentary—is it a kind of prose rewrite, or is it a faithful, literal translation? Interested to read this nonetheless.

Alter is a serious scholar, Chair in something philological at UC Berkeley I think. It is faithful   - though bear in mind that there are competing and sometimes inconsistent sources. The commentary is often about the difficulty of translation - there's a lot of words where scholars dispute the meaning. It is very readable, and the edition I have is just the size of a normal book - not like a big, fat bible. So it's nice to hold.

It's more brutal than the Iliad. We're almost at Blood Meridian levels of shock. There's even scalping - except it's not scalping - it's foreskinning. They take foreskins as a war trophy!

Re Faulkner, yesterday I was struck by the commentary on the introduction of David. There are basically two intros - one where he plays music to make Saul feel better, and another where he kills Goliath. And Alter says this is quite common in biblical narrative - the two conflicting stories giving different facets of a character.

And that is very Absolam Absolam (IMO.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 25, 2023, 01:46:53 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 25, 2023, 01:16:41 PMAlter is a serious scholar, Chair in something philological at UC Berkeley I think. It is faithful   - though bear in mind that there are competing and sometimes inconsistent sources. The commentary is often about the difficulty of translation - there's a lot of words where scholars dispute the meaning. It is very readable, and the edition I have is just the size of a normal book - not like a big, fat bible. So it's nice to hold.

It's more brutal than the Iliad. We're almost at Blood Meridian levels of shock. There's even scalping - except it's not scalping - it's foreskinning. They take foreskins as a war trophy!

Re Faulkner, yesterday I was struck by the commentary on the introduction of David. There are basically two intros - one where he plays music to make Saul feel better, and another where he kills Goliath. And Alter says this is quite common in biblical narrative - the two conflicting stories giving different facets of a character.

And that is very Absolam Absolam (IMO.)

Cool, I'll keep an eye out for a copy. I wanted to start Absalom Absalom, but I'm in the middle of too many books right now, so it will have to wait until I finish at least one of them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on October 25, 2023, 08:03:01 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 25, 2023, 09:03:50 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511FBaHkaPL._SY522_.jpg)

After Absalom Absalom, it seems natural to read the David Story.

Now I don't want to offend anyone but I am really horrified. I mean, this God person is horrible. Just horrible.

Look - the bit I'm up to, Saul gets commanded by God to commit a crime against humanity and destroy a whole nation -- i.e. genocide -- and all their animals  (intimations of the holocaust there!) And he spares just one of them and a few of their sheep. So what happens? God gets angry because Saul hasn't obeyed his (totally immoral)  command TO THE LETTER and sacks him from his job as king and then . . . the icing on the cake . . . God's top manager Samuel proceeds to put the saved one to death by slicing him up!

Yuck.

But bear in mind there were still enough Amalekites to raid a town, burn and loot it, and take all the inhabitants captive later on in Saul's reign. You'll get to that part in chapter 30.
David organizes a counter raid that recovers all the loot and captives and kills most of the Amalekite raiders. But not all:
QuoteNot a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled.

And Haman in the Book of Esther is possibly a descendant of Agag, the guy whom Samuel sliced and diced.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 25, 2023, 10:42:41 PM
Quote from: JBS on October 25, 2023, 08:03:01 PMto raid a town, burn and loot it, and take all the inhabitants captive

Looks like the descendants of the Amalekites are still alive today...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 26, 2023, 12:43:19 PM
(https://www.bookword.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/272-The-Door-768x1178.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on October 26, 2023, 12:50:07 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 26, 2023, 12:43:19 PM(https://www.bookword.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/272-The-Door-768x1178.jpg)
One of the most powerful novels I've ever read, I think.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on October 27, 2023, 03:22:57 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/713ziATTmbL._SL1419_.jpg)

The received wisdom about Albeniz's life, especially his early years, is a cobweb of myths and fabrications, mainly of his own making. Prof. Clark, an expert in Spanish music*, has done a titanic detective work in order to disentangle facts from fiction and present a realistic biography of the swashbuckling pianist. Highly recommended.

* He also authored a book about Granados, which I read a few years ago.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61zP66nnUXL._SL1360_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 29, 2023, 05:23:24 AM
(https://up.bookfusion.com/book/cover/000/137/583/large_46d4832e6792da5d.png)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 29, 2023, 07:12:57 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s7qYx0yZL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's The Gourmet Club. Amazing book about extreme decadence.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 29, 2023, 07:24:11 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 29, 2023, 07:12:57 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s7qYx0yZL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's The Gourmet Club. Amazing book about extreme decadence.

I'm reading it too. One story at a time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on October 30, 2023, 04:58:12 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348894016i/53526.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on October 30, 2023, 05:48:46 AM
British Sign Language for Dummies
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 30, 2023, 12:48:35 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on October 29, 2023, 07:24:11 AMI'm reading it too. One story at a time.

What are the odds. I finished, it was excellent, especially the last three or four stories.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 30, 2023, 01:44:37 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 18, 2023, 02:21:43 AMNever read that one, but his The Remains of the Day is one of the best books I've ever read.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZhfgITO8L._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

Reading short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. A genius, no doubt. All of these stories have been good, but Hell Screen in particular blew my mind. So did Loyalty.

Yes, genius.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Akutagawa_Ryunosuke_photo2.jpg/440px-Akutagawa_Ryunosuke_photo2.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 30, 2023, 04:46:15 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 30, 2023, 01:44:37 PMYes, genius.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Akutagawa_Ryunosuke_photo2.jpg/440px-Akutagawa_Ryunosuke_photo2.jpg)


Would love to read more, though it doesn't seem that all that much has made it into English translation. Happy to call him yet another favorite in Japanese literature, which has become an obsession over the past few years, alongside Tanizaki, Kawabata, Sōseki, Mishima and others. Damn, I should learn some Japanese.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 30, 2023, 06:05:39 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 30, 2023, 04:46:15 PMWould love to read more, though it doesn't seem that all that much has made it into English translation. Happy to call him yet another favorite in Japanese literature, which has become an obsession over the past few years, alongside Tanizaki, Kawabata, Sōseki, Mishima and others. Damn, I should learn some Japanese.


Dazai in "others"? A majority of these authors committed (bizzare) suicide. Interestingly, none of the Japanese composers did.  ;D
Since Japanese language is very ambiguous and nuanced, English translations of these works may be better. However, as the Japanese text uses two Japanese alphabets, Chinese letters and occasionally English alphabets, they are very colorful. It's like an English text with capital and small letters, Greek alphabet, and Chinese letters.

P.s. Among these authors, the works by Kawabata and Soseki are the most nuanced imo. Sometimes they don't appear to say anything significant.  Yes, I like them.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: BWV 1080 on October 31, 2023, 07:10:49 AM
Shares some similarities with 2666, but (at least so far) not near as heavy

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81dlFzCF+LS._SY466_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on October 31, 2023, 08:18:22 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 30, 2023, 06:05:39 PMDazai in "others"? A majority of these authors committed (bizzare) suicide. Interestingly, none of the Japanese composers did.  ;D
Since Japanese language is very ambiguous and nuanced, English translations of these works may be better. However, as the Japanese text uses two Japanese alphabets, Chinese letters and occasionally English alphabets, they are very colorful. It's like an English text with capital and small letters, Greek alphabet, and Chinese letters.

P.s. Among these authors, the works by Kawabata and Soseki are the most nuanced imo. Sometimes they don't appear to say anything significant.  Yes, I like them.

Yes, Dazai is definitely among the others, though I read his stuff at a very dark point in my life and have not revisited since. As is Shusaku Endo (a Christian, he was spared from the suicide epidemic among Japanese literary figures) and Kobo Abe, and among younger authors Haruki Murakami (who is really not that young anymore... but he is alive, at least), Banana Yoshimoto, and Hiroko Oyamada. There are still tons of others I'd like to read. Also I need to finish the Shiba Ryotaro series that you put me onto last year, of which I really enjoyed volume 1.

Regarding Dazai, New Directions published something of his that was translated into English for the first time, that I have yet to read. Something of a sequel to No Longer Human, from what I understand.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 31, 2023, 01:29:44 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 31, 2023, 08:18:22 AMYes, Dazai is definitely among the others, though I read his stuff at a very dark point in my life and have not revisited since. As is Shusaku Endo (a Christian, he was spared from the suicide epidemic among Japanese literary figures) and Kobo Abe, and among younger authors Haruki Murakami (who is really not that young anymore... but he is alive, at least), Banana Yoshimoto, and Hiroko Oyamada. There are still tons of others I'd like to read. Also I need to finish the Shiba Ryotaro series that you put me onto last year, of which I really enjoyed volume 1.

Regarding Dazai, New Directions published something of his that was translated into English for the first time, that I have yet to read. Something of a sequel to No Longer Human, from what I understand.



As for Dazai, is it Shayo/Setting? It's a nice novel.
You may want to check out The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (Lady in Waiting Purple Shikibu) eventually. Though it's an oldest novel in the written literature (11th century), the story doesn't sound old and it's entertaining. I don't know which is the best translation though.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/15/books/tale-of-genji-japan-women.html


(https://images4.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780679417385)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 31, 2023, 06:42:07 PM
Michel de Montaigne - Essays.


(https://hyperessays.net/img/biographies/the-complete-essays-of-montaigne-donald-frame.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on November 01, 2023, 01:01:27 AM
Cities of the Plain is the final volume of American novelist Cormac McCarthy's "Border Trilogy", published in 1998. The title is a reference to Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:29).

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0b/Cities_of_the_Plain_Cover.jpg)

I am 75% finished, starting probably the last chapter (IV) of this vaguely disappointing read.  I say 'disappointing' because the two characters of the firsat two book, meet up, but the same theme of the first book is central to this one: John Grady Cole (protagonist in All the Pretty Horses) is once again trying to run off and marry a Mexican girl who, odds are, won't be his despite their love for each other.  But he will go through fire to get her ....

The only difference is that in the first book, the girl was out of reach because she came from a wealthy Mexican family, and this other girl has been a whore at an upscale brothel, whose "owner" will not let her go.

Still, the prose is majestic, and who knows, it's been years since I read it the first time, and I've forgotten how it actually ends, so maybe I will be happily surprised.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 01, 2023, 01:29:14 AM
I wanted to read this:

(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/9789993113522-2202648.jpg)

Javier Marias - Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me

but I was put off by the first two pages. I'm not quite keen on a protagonist who launches in philosophical divagations occasioned by his abandoning the corpse of his mistress, mother of two, who had just died in his arms during a tryst.

Then I remembered I had not yet read Jane Eyre so I started it. Half an hour later I was deep into Chapter 8. Now we're talking!

(https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/1605397213-0.jpeg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 01, 2023, 02:59:25 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on October 25, 2023, 04:14:31 AMDusapin - Yes
Bedrossian - No
Ferneyhough - Yes
Scelsi - Yes
Silvestrov - No
Rochberg - Yes
Scarlatti - No
Beeke - No
Starzer - No


Bear in mind, this is a summarised one-volume version of 4 books, maybe the coverage is wider in the full version.

Please PM me your email address and I'll send you photos of the full composer index, the tables of contents and the three pages relating to Op.33  :)

Well, I ordered the volume "from Haydn to Brahms" on sale or return from Amazon, and it arrived today. First impressions are of high quality journalism rather than academic rigour in the English speaking  manner  (I've been reading Nancy November on Beethoven's quartets too recently, and the difference in rigour and sense of real research is obvious.) I was also a bit surprised at the weighting -- Haydn gets about 60 pages, Mozart gets about 120 pages; Beethoven gets about 850 pages with a subtitle "The Apogee of the genre" (Does he define the genre? I mean the specific nature of the Viennese string quartet project.)

We'll see -- Does it stay or Does it go? -- as Mick (nearly) said.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 01, 2023, 08:25:44 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 01, 2023, 02:59:25 AMWell, I ordered the volume "from Haydn to Brahms" on sale or return from Amazon, and it arrived today. First impressions are of high quality journalism rather than academic rigour in the English speaking  manner  (I've been reading Nancy November on Beethoven's quartets too recently, and the difference in rigour and sense of real research is obvious.) I was also a bit surprised at the weighting -- Haydn gets about 60 pages, Mozart gets about 120 pages; Beethoven gets about 850 pages with a subtitle "The Apogee of the genre" (Does he define the genre? I mean the specific nature of the Viennese string quartet project.)

We'll see -- Does it stay or Does it go? -- as Mick (nearly) said.



Just read what he says on Haydn op 33. It's very good -- clear and well put. It's a keeper. Thanks @Papy Oli
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on November 01, 2023, 09:09:53 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 31, 2023, 08:18:22 AMYes, Dazai is definitely among the others, though I read his stuff at a very dark point in my life and have not revisited since. As is Shusaku Endo (a Christian, he was spared from the suicide epidemic among Japanese literary figures) and Kobo Abe, and among younger authors Haruki Murakami (who is really not that young anymore... but he is alive, at least), Banana Yoshimoto, and Hiroko Oyamada. There are still tons of others I'd like to read. Also I need to finish the Shiba Ryotaro series that you put me onto last year, of which I really enjoyed volume 1.

Regarding Dazai, New Directions published something of his that was translated into English for the first time, that I have yet to read. Something of a sequel to No Longer Human, from what I understand.

Opinions about Ogai Mori?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 01, 2023, 12:54:49 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 31, 2023, 01:29:44 PMAs for Dazai, is it Shayo/Setting? It's a nice novel.
You may want to check out The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (Lady in Waiting Purple Shikibu) eventually. Though it's an oldest novel in the written literature (11th century), the story doesn't sound old and it's entertaining. I don't know which is the best translation though.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/15/books/tale-of-genji-japan-women.html


(https://images4.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780679417385)


Definitely planning on reading Genji, and that is the translation I was looking at (Seidensticker, who also translated some Kawabata and others to my satisfaction) though it is abridged. Fine by me, the full text is well over a thousand pages in English, I think.

The recent Dazai was called The Flowers of Buffoonery. Don't know much about it except that it apparently follows the protagonist of No Longer Human after the events of that novel—which is kind of hard to imagine considering where that book left things off for that guy. The ones I read and loved are No Longer Human and Shayo.

@AnotherSpin, I have not read anything of his yet, but would love to. Kinokuniya by my school has a copy of The Wild Geese that I keep looking at but haven't bought yet. Have you read his work? Recently when reading Akutagawa, the introduction by Haruki Murakami said of Ogai Mori something along the lines of "he is very good, but the subject matter is kind of dated/less relevant than Soseki, Akutagawa etc".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on November 01, 2023, 02:47:10 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 01, 2023, 12:54:49 PM@AnotherSpin, I have not read anything of his yet, but would love to. Kinokuniya by my school has a copy of The Wild Geese that I keep looking at but haven't bought yet. Have you read his work? Recently when reading Akutagawa, the introduction by Haruki Murakami said of Ogai Mori something along the lines of "he is very good, but the subject matter is kind of dated/less relevant than Soseki, Akutagawa etc".

Didn't read yet, but I have my eye on it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Papy Oli on November 01, 2023, 02:59:53 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 01, 2023, 08:25:44 AMJust read what he says on Haydn op 33. It's very good -- clear and well put. It's a keeper. Thanks @Papy Oli

Nice one @Mandryka , glad you find it of interest  :)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Scion7 on November 03, 2023, 02:29:39 AM
Although I have 4 different editions, re-reading this classic again in this edition from 1979:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 04, 2023, 09:46:44 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PbUJt4MlL._SL1000_.jpg)

A very interesting book, containing some ideas and thoughts I've been ruminating on for years --- I am only too glad, and frankly quite proud, to find them confirmed by no less an authority than Dahlhaus.  8)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ando on November 07, 2023, 01:53:54 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71WeaKcSLKL._SL1500_.jpg)
The Book of William, Paul Collins (2010, Bloomsbury)

On 8 November 1623, Isaac Jaggard, printer, and Edward Blount, bookseller, went to the Stationers Hall in London to register their publication: Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, finally completed after two years' effort.

Shakespeare's First Folio will be 400 years old tomorrow. The performance history is much more intriguing but a look at the history of its reception and circulation outside of that is interesting, too. I also picked up an Arden edition of The Tempest in commemoration.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 08, 2023, 03:03:57 PM
Quote from: ando on November 07, 2023, 01:53:54 PMShakespeare's First Folio will be 400 years old tomorrow.

The latest episode of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast has Emma Smith talking about the First Folio:

400 Years of Shakespeare's First Folio, with Emma Smith (https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zb3VuZGNsb3VkLmNvbS91c2Vycy9zb3VuZGNsb3VkOnVzZXJzOjE2MzA3MjM2L3NvdW5kcy5yc3M/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMTY1NTMxMzQ0Nw?sa=X&ved=0CAQQ8qgGahcKEwjAqM_0y7WCAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQGg)

I've had her book on the First Folio Unread for a while and must put it back near the top of the pile:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rYSZ0QNiL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

related, I recently knocked off these two quick reads:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61UKUED1ykL._SY466_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31IKP-2dERL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

Dromgoolie was director at the Globe and Doran was director at the RSC, but the books take seperate paths in telling their authors stories.

Dromgoolie is focused on showing how Shakespeare shaped his personal development throughout his life even from an early age (he was born to a family of actors, and was in productions from primary school) with just a little of his own production history. Doran is focused on each of his RSC performances, drilling down on working through the text with the actors, with a much smaller amount of biography mixed in.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ando on November 08, 2023, 04:59:01 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 08, 2023, 03:03:57 PMThe latest episode of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast has Emma Smith talking about the First Folio:

400 Years of Shakespeare's First Folio, with Emma Smith (https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zb3VuZGNsb3VkLmNvbS91c2Vycy9zb3VuZGNsb3VkOnVzZXJzOjE2MzA3MjM2L3NvdW5kcy5yc3M/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMTY1NTMxMzQ0Nw?sa=X&ved=0CAQQ8qgGahcKEwjAqM_0y7WCAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQGg)

I've had her book on the First Folio Unread for a while and must put it back near the top of the pile:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rYSZ0QNiL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

related, I recently knocked off these two quick reads:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61UKUED1ykL._SY466_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31IKP-2dERL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

Dromgoolie was director at the Globe and Doran was director at the RSC, but the books take seperate paths in telling their authors stories.

Dromgoolie is focused on showing how Shakespeare shaped his personal development throughout his life even from an early age (he was born to a family of actors, and was in productions from primary school) with just a little of his own production history. Doran is focused on each of his RSC performances, drilling down on working through the text with the actors, with a much smaller amount of biography mixed in.
Thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 08, 2023, 06:59:55 PM
Just started reading

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81z1vCU2LuL._SL1500_.jpg)

The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium
by Anthony Kaldellis

Already some really great insights in the early pages.  I hope it doesn't take me as long to read it as the Eastern Empire lasted.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 10, 2023, 01:04:05 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81zGYmcQVXL._SL1360_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 13, 2023, 05:11:21 AM
The Fraud, the latest by Zadie Smith

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81o3C5iIfxL._SL1500_.jpg)

I'm a big fan of Zadie Smith, but this is a big change in style, from contemporary subjects to historical fiction.

The focus of the book is the Tichborne affair. Roger Tichborne was lost at sea in a shipwreck in South America in the early 19th century. Many years later a rumor reached Ticborne's mother that a ship bound for Australia picked up some survivors from the shipwreck and transported them to Australia. Tichborne's mother advertised widely in Australia and a man claimed to be Roger Tichborne. The claimant appeared to be a bankrupt butcher from Wagga Wagga who had fled to Australia and changed his name to avoid his debts, but Roger's mother and a few other individuals, including a Bogel, a former slave and later paid servant of Roger Tichborne, supported his claim. The other focus of the book is William Ainsworth, an author who was very popular at the tie but whose fame died with him. The book is narrated by Ainsworth's cousin, and describes her reaction to the trials, to the intriguing character of Bogle, and the London social scene she has access to through her connection with Ainsworth. At first the focus of the book seemed scattered to me, but ultimately it came to a satisfying conclusion.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 15, 2023, 04:00:02 AM
Quote from: Spotted Horses on November 13, 2023, 05:11:21 AMThe Fraud, the latest by Zadie Smith

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81o3C5iIfxL._SL1500_.jpg)

I'm a big fan of Zadie Smith, but this is a big change in style, from contemporary subjects to historical fiction.

The focus of the book is the Tichborne affair. Roger Tichborne was lost at sea in a shipwreck in South America in the early 19th century. Many years later a rumor reached Ticborne's mother that a ship bound for Australia picked up some survivors from the shipwreck and transported them to Australia. Tichborne's mother advertised widely in Australia and a man claimed to be Roger Tichborne. The claimant appeared to be a bankrupt butcher from Wagga Wagga who had fled to Australia and changed his name to avoid his debts, but Roger's mother and a few other individuals, including a Bogel, a former slave and later paid servant of Roger Tichborne, supported his claim. The other focus of the book is William Ainsworth, an author who was very popular at the tie but whose fame died with him. The book is narrated by Ainsworth's cousin, and describes her reaction to the trials, to the intriguing character of Bogle, and the London social scene she has access to through her connection with Ainsworth. At first the focus of the book seemed scattered to me, but ultimately it came to a satisfying conclusion.

Wow, interesting timing. Right before I clicked on this thread I finished reading Jorge Luis Borges' The Improbable Impostor Tom Castro, which is also about the Tichborne affair.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on November 15, 2023, 09:28:54 PM
Andre Norton: The Time Traders (in a Kindle anthology).

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/TheTimeTraders.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Daverz on November 15, 2023, 09:32:27 PM
Quote from: steve ridgway on November 15, 2023, 09:28:54 PMAndre Norton: The Time Traders (in a Kindle anthology).

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/TheTimeTraders.jpg)



Wow, that brings back memories of my childhood.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51B9GNdXnyL._SL500_.jpg)

There was also this one:

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a5/cc/32/a5cc32a6444b8519461c45eb39741a6c.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on November 16, 2023, 04:59:34 AM
Quote from: Daverz on November 15, 2023, 09:32:27 PMWow, that brings back memories of my childhood.

That's what I'm hoping to do; I used to read loads of such stuff back in the 1970s.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on November 16, 2023, 08:03:19 AM
Boy, I haven't read any books by her in ages!  I suspect that I mostly read the anthologies.

I did just see one image which caught my eye and I'll have to check out:  Catfantastic (looks like she and others wrote and compiled a series of these books).

PD
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on November 18, 2023, 01:10:21 PM
Reading Emilio Carrere's Ruta emocional de Madrid ("Emotional Itinerary through Madrid"), a book originally published in 1935 and that was released again last year.

(https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*8VLLBuv6mKlWNZ2no_7Kig.jpeg)

Carrere (1881 - 1947) was one of the leading figures of bohemian Madrid in the the years from the beginning of the 20th century to the outbreak of the civil war in 1936. His book is a collection of short poems dealing with streets and everyday scenes of old Madrid, a city that was changing quickly (some would say, disappearing) when the book was written. Yet, much of what is described can still be perceived today... :) . The focus is on popular neighbourhoods and lower-class characters...

Not great poetry IMO, but a very enjoyable book for anyone who loves this city...

Some nice prints by Fernando Marco, reproduced from the original 1935 release, are included in this carefully prepared and annotated edition.

(https://denmeunpapelillo.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/simon.png) (https://denmeunpapelillo.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/madrilena.jpg) (https://denmeunpapelillo.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/cafe.png)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 19, 2023, 08:02:02 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on October 14, 2023, 09:03:02 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61sW9JT9UML._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Time to tackle a biggie.

Astonishing prose - Shakespearean - like « Out, out brief candle. » or « What a piece of work is man. »  Faulkner could turn a good phrase.

At first I thought - this is too gothic for me. But I'm completely seduced. I'm up to Chapter Five - Rosa talking to Quentin. Just amazing prose! Who cares whether it makes sense?  Not me! I really don't want to spoil the experience with close reading or philosophical analysis, I just want to enjoy the music of it, the poetry of it.

I kind of wish I knew a bit more about the context - American history and culture. Is there a sort of « American Studies for dummies » book?  Something important  obviously happened in 1865 . . .

A month after reading Absalom   I've discovered this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civil_War_(miniseries)

Maybe you guys all know about this stuff, but for me, it is completely new.  I'm really surprised there's so much photographic material -- imagine if the camera had been invented in  1848!  There's even TV material of the veterans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 19, 2023, 06:19:35 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 19, 2023, 08:02:02 AMA month after reading Absalom   I've discovered this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civil_War_(miniseries)

Maybe you guys all know about this stuff, but for me, it is completely new.  I'm really surprised there's so much photographic material -- imagine if the camera had been invented in  1848!  There's even TV material of the veterans.

This may interest you.
https://www.nps.gov/gett/learn/photosmultimedia/devil-s-den-then-and-now.htm

The seventh photo is one of the most famous pictures of the Civil War.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 02:58:27 AM
No voice in the North in favour of allowing cessation? No white voice in the South against slavery and for remaining in The Union?  That's the impression I'm getting from the first video.

Mary Chestnut is interesting vis-a-vis Absalom. She talks about silence of the blacks. (Faulkner (in the voice of Sutpen)  talks about the laughter of the blacks making them inscrutable almost, threatening. )

Also interesting to learn how politically ruthless Lincoln was.  I may have to find a biography if him,.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 20, 2023, 06:25:27 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 02:58:27 AMNo voice in the North in favour of allowing cessation? No white voice in the South against slavery and for remaining in The Union?  That's the impression I'm getting from the first video.

I'm not sure about the first question. There were certainly voices in the North that did not much care about slavery and did not much like Lincoln, but more or less everyone believed that the Union was inviolable and that nobody should be allowed to leave. This is why during the first two or so years of the war, more or less all the Union propaganda points were about restoring the nation and bringing rebels back into the fold.

As for Southern voices against slavery and for union, they did exist but were quickly suppressed or chose to stay in the north. I can think of two examples. Sam Houston, the Texas independence hero, for whom the city of Houston is named, was anti-slavery and pro-union and quickly hounded out of leadership. And the southern army general George H. Thomas quickly decided that his conscience required he stay loyal to the federal government, so he joined the Union army against the forces of his home state.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 06:40:18 AM
Just one passing comment gave me pause for thought in the documentary -- that the confederate states were legally entitled to leave the union, and would never have joined the union if they thought they wouldn't be allowed to leave.

I was really surprised to learn that Lincoln's focus was preserving the union, and not at all on abolishing slavery.

I've just discovered another real interesting sounding character who I'd like to investigate more -- I'm sure he's well known to Americans but I never heard him mentioned in my education -- George McClellan.

Just a random thought about the Faulkner


In Absalom, Thomas Sutpen (who's an important character) is from West Virginia, which I think was a Confederate state. Yet (importantly in the novel) he did not have any awareness of  slavery and its associated racist/exploitative/apartheid values when he was a child, so if that's right the South was not homogenous politically at all. And another main character, Shreve McCannon, is from Canada -- I'm not at all clear what that implies about him politically (I think Canada was British, I don't know what the British involvement in this war amounted to.)

Americans == do southerners still feel they suffered defeat?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 20, 2023, 07:04:10 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 06:40:18 AMAmericans == do southerners still feel they suffered defeat?

Absolutely yes and it still affects our politics in many ways. You can see this in a state like Mississippi where the political divide today is basically along racial lines, and (for example) the white/Republican state government tries to sabotage the black/Democratic government in the city of Jackson. A very entertaining but rather chilling read on your question is Tony Horwitz' book Confederates in the Attic, written in the 1990s about people who still venerate the "Lost Cause." Horwitz found that many people and places today venerate the South even though their ancestors were on the northern side. There are parts of Kentucky, for example, that were Unionist and now like to paint themselves as southerners because of their current political views.

McClellan is a very interesting figure in American history and remains fairly little known here except among history students, Civil War buffs, etc. Partly because his views as a politician were overshadowed by his incompetence as a general.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on November 20, 2023, 07:55:14 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 20, 2023, 07:04:10 AMa state like Mississippi where the political divide today is basically along racial lines, and (for example) the white/Republican state government tries to sabotage the black/Democratic government in the city of Jackson.

This is quite a reversal, because AFAIK the Republican Party, ie Lincoln's party, was positively hated by the whites in the South for decades after the Civil War and it was the Democratic Party that ruled unchallenged during all that period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_South
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on November 20, 2023, 08:05:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on November 20, 2023, 07:55:14 AMThis is quite a reversal, because AFAIK the Republican Party, ie Lincoln's party, was positively hated by the whites in the South for decades after the Civil War and it was the Democratic Party that ruled unchallenged during all that period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_South
Yes, the reversal happened in the mid-1960s when Southern Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson supported the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. After that, Republicans (including Nixon) pursued a "Southern Strategy" of appealing to white people who did not like those civil rights moves. The parties completely reversed their positions; black people remain to this day almost too loyal to the Democrats regardless of Democratic positions, while Republican leaders remain too reliant on uneducated white voters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 20, 2023, 12:47:02 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 02:58:27 AMNo voice in the North in favour of allowing cessation? No white voice in the South against slavery and for remaining in The Union?  That's the impression I'm getting from the first video.

Mary Chestnut is interesting vis-a-vis Absalom. She talks about silence of the blacks. (Faulkner (in the voice of Sutpen)  talks about the laughter of the blacks making them inscrutable almost, threatening. )

Also interesting to learn how politically ruthless Lincoln was.  I may have to find a biography if him,.

Oh, I think everyone was for cessation. (sorry, couldn't resist, I know you meant secession)

Thanks for reminding me that I've got Mary Chesnut's Diary, but have gone and buried it:

Quote from: SimonNZ on February 22, 2020, 01:04:54 AMI wont be reading it immediately, but at a secocondhand bookshop today I picked up a copy of Mary Chestnut's Diary, and in the store opened it to this entry:

"The Yankees, since the war has begun, have discovered it is to free slaves that they are fighting. So their case is noble.  They also expect to make the war pay. They think we belong to them. We have been good milk cows - milked by the tariff, or skimmed,. We let them have all all of our hard earnings. We bear the ban of slavery; they get the money. Cotton pays everybody who handles it, sells it, manufactures it, but rarely pays the man who grows it. Second hand the Yankees recieve the wages of slavery. They grew rich. We grew poor. The reciever is as bad as the thief. "

(entry for July 8th, 1862 - page 175)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81tT6iMPj4L.jpg)

Ken Burns quoted her extensively in his Civil War series, but I don't remember hearing that one
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on November 20, 2023, 12:49:39 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 06:40:18 AMJust one passing comment gave me pause for thought in the documentary -- that the confederate states were legally entitled to leave the union, and would never have joined the union if they thought they wouldn't be allowed to leave.

I was really surprised to learn that Lincoln's focus was preserving the union, and not at all on abolishing slavery.

I've just discovered another real interesting sounding character who I'd like to investigate more -- I'm sure he's well known to Americans but I never heard him mentioned in my education -- George McClellan.

Just a random thought about the Faulkner


In Absalom, Thomas Sutpen (who's an important character) is from West Virginia, which I think was a Confederate state. Yet (importantly in the novel) he did not have any awareness of  slavery and its associated racist/exploitative/apartheid values when he was a child, so if that's right the South was not homogenous politically at all. And another main character, Shreve McCannon, is from Canada -- I'm not at all clear what that implies about him politically (I think Canada was British, I don't know what the British involvement in this war amounted to.)

Americans == do southerners still feel they suffered defeat?

Re: West Virginia
Prior to 1860, it was simply the westernmost part of Virginia, but heavily dominated by Unionists. When Virginia seceded, this group of counties objected, and with help from the Federals organized their own state and remained in the Union. IOW they seceded from Virginia with support from the anti-secessionists.  For further details, best look on the Internet. Nowadays, WVa is the Trumpiest of Trump states.

But there would have been some slaves there. I'd ascribe Sutpen's naivete to authorial design.


Re: McClellan
He was excellent at organization and logistics, but highly risk averse. So he got the Army of the Potomac into great shape to fight battles, but was so scared of losing battles he never wanted to fight them.

Re: Canada
As British territory it was neutral, and the Confederacy liked to base spies there. At least once Confederates used it as a base to stage a major raid on St Alban's, Vermont.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 20, 2023, 12:52:28 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 06:40:18 AMI've just discovered another real interesting sounding character who I'd like to investigate more -- I'm sure he's well known to Americans but I never heard him mentioned in my education -- George McClellan.


McClellan is who I think of whenever I hear someone talk of the modern Republican Party as "the party of Lincoln". Every single current person saying that would have been a staunch McClellan voter in 1864. Especially the current leader, who also likes to use that phrase.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 20, 2023, 12:55:00 PM
Why we get sick, Randolph M. Nesse. The authors explain that we have some sickness because it enhances (or enhanced) human survival and reproduction.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91U0nup9XfL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 12:58:56 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on November 20, 2023, 12:52:28 PMMcClellan is who I think of whenever I hear someone talk of the modern Republican Party as "the party of Lincoln". Every single current person saying that would have been a staunch McClellan voter in 1864. Especially the current leader, who also likes to use that phrase.


The reason I said he was interesting is that the documentary presents him as a brilliant trainer of armies and an inspiration to soldiers, and a thoroughly modest and appealing chap  . . . who kind of had little appetite for battle.

Ah - I see that @JBS has said much the same.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 01:06:52 PM
Quote from: JBS on November 20, 2023, 12:49:39 PMRe: West Virginia
Prior to 1860, it was simply the westernmost part of Virginia, but heavily dominated by Unionists. When Virginia seceded, this group of counties objected, and with help from the Federals organized their own state and remained in the Union. IOW they seceded from Virginia with support from the anti-secessionists.  For further details, best look on the Internet. Nowadays, WVa is the Trumpiest of Trump states.

But there would have been some slaves there. I'd ascribe Sutpen's naivete to authorial design.


Re: McClellan
He was excellent at organization and logistics, but highly risk averse. So he got the Army of the Potomac into great shape to fight battles, but was so scared of losing battles he never wanted to fight them.

Re: Canada
As British territory it was neutral, and the Confederacy liked to base spies there. At least once Confederates used it as a base to stage a major raid on St Alban's, Vermont.



Re Sutpen - in fact he comes across the slavery system in West Virginia when he goes on a long journey with his family when he's 10. But as a child he appears to have lived in a real rural backwater, where the land wasn't divided up into owned plots. In fact, Faulkner makes a point of stressing that West Virginia wasn't a separate state at the time of the war - one of the characters mentions it when Sutpen's story is being recounted - so it may have some significance.

Re Canada and Britain - it's something that's coming up now in the documentaries I'm watching - I'm up to 1863 - Britain's involvement seems complex because they needed cotton.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on November 20, 2023, 01:07:26 PM
Thanks to all Americans who have been so helpful!

(And Kiwis. And Romanians . . .)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on November 20, 2023, 01:28:37 PM
Starting:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41PKcTQfXES._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

Story of a Death Foretold: The Coup Against Salvador Allende, September 11, 1973
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 21, 2023, 04:12:43 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 20, 2023, 12:55:00 PMWhy we get sick, Randolph M. Nesse. The authors explain that we have some sickness because it enhances (or enhanced) human survival and reproduction.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91U0nup9XfL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Haven't read that, but I read a book last year called Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moanem which explores a similar premise.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on November 21, 2023, 05:14:16 AM
You can also see that in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

QuoteFour score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on November 21, 2023, 09:47:59 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389152174i/28413.jpg)

(https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1785-1/4BD/58A/FD/%7B4BD58AFD-EE1F-4A1B-8A96-0C1E35BE95C1%7DImg400.jpg)

"Not bloody likely." Quite a bold thing for a woman to say in 1914.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 21, 2023, 12:34:40 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on November 21, 2023, 04:12:43 AMHaven't read that, but I read a book last year called Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moanem which explores a similar premise.


I read that book years ago. I will revisit it soon. I'm in the middle of Nesse et al., but they don't precisely explain what diseases enhanced human reproduction and survival through what mechanism. The authors focus on survival and reproduction, but I think some diseases could have increased genetic mutations. Survival is beneficial to human species only if it increases reproduction. And high reproduction is beneficial only if it increases diversification of species because the environment periodically changes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on November 24, 2023, 07:52:13 AM
One of my weekly joys is tucked away on BBC2, Between the Covers where the delectable Sara Cox  :P with four guests discuss books they are currently reading.

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n7sl
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on November 25, 2023, 03:24:32 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81I5opRT2ZL._SL1500_.jpg)

I finished the above a while ago, of which one Sunday Times reviewer says in the cover's promo quotes, 'Everything seems effortless and breezy, despite Lerner's unbridled intellect', which I think just about sums it up. The book's energetic candour and head-turningly good prose seems to come out so naturally, it's really a special gift.
Some lingering on certain episodes meant the narrative had a bit of wonkiness at times for me, where maybe obsessiveness chased its own tail a bit too long, but I had a feeling I may have missed some wider general points being adumbrated throughout the book, while I was caught up in more local moments of the narrative, so perhaps a re-read would rectify that.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on November 27, 2023, 12:37:46 PM
Finished my second read of Pale Fire. This book is genius, and so funny. Much better the second time around. I hope there are Nabokov fans here who can tell me what to read next. I've also read and enjoyed greatly Pnin and Lolita.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on November 27, 2023, 11:17:25 PM
There are still free ideas / politically "incorrect" views in modern literature. Telling something like that on social networks or in a TV interview would get the author cancelled in no time.

(https://www.books4people.co.uk/cdn/shop/products/Disgrace_800x.jpg?v=1637411818)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on November 29, 2023, 11:54:06 AM
The Lost Amazon: The Pioneering Expeditions of Richard Evans Schultes. Wade Davis.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81XEdL1KfbL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on November 29, 2023, 12:35:53 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81xfaSsDN+L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 02, 2023, 07:21:44 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ONF0Imn3L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

A lovely book from which Dittersdorf comes out as a decent, hard-working and cheerful, ie extremely likeable, person, bent on enjoying, and making the most out of, what life had in stock for him and all the while preserving his dignity and self-respect, rather than on constantly whining and complaining about the world's not revolving around him and his wishes. Very much like Haydn, actually. Highly recommended, even if only as an antidote to the egomania of later such works (Berlioz, I'm looking at you!).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 02, 2023, 12:38:20 PM
Despair, my fourth Nabokov in a short span. So far so good. Feels like VVN was channeling Dostoevsky a bit here.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on December 02, 2023, 09:30:45 PM
Akin, by Emma Donoghue

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71GX7FGyZbL._SL1360_.jpg)

I've read a lot of Donoghue in the past, starting with LGBT themed novels and historical fiction. This one takes place in the present time, but involves an exploration of the past.

An 80 year old man is planning a trip to Nice, France, where he lived as a child before fleeing WWII. Two events unsettle his plans. He found a packet of photographs left behind by his mother which seem to have been taken in Nice during the war. His grandnephew is left without a guardian after the child's grandmother dies. The child had been living with her because his father died of a drug overdose and his mother is in prison on drug charges. In the course of his trip the old man learns about his Mother's activities during the war, and he develops his relationship with his grandnephew. The story is convincing, though a bit contrived, but my main problem is that so much of the book consists of an 80 year old bickering with an 11 year old.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on December 09, 2023, 02:10:40 PM
(https://assets.americanliterature.com/al/images/book/the-shadow-out-of-time.jpg)

About time I read this. The Great Race of Yith is such an intriguing creation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 09, 2023, 03:02:08 PM
Starting:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T1/images/I/41YCsXhIdXL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 10, 2023, 03:46:23 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 09, 2023, 03:02:08 PMStarting:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T1/images/I/41YCsXhIdXL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

I have it line. Please share your impressions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on December 10, 2023, 07:54:01 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 25, 2023, 03:17:28 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FuFva51tL.jpg)

While browsing the Internet Archive I stumbled upon this and was instantly hooked.

Any book concerning melody via Schubert  should be ( Imho ) on every musician's shelf.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 11, 2023, 10:38:45 AM
Quote from: hopefullytrusting on December 11, 2023, 07:24:03 AMFinally, completed Amo's Antonius Gvilielmus Amo Afer of Axim in Ghana: student, doctor of philosophy, master, and lecturer at the Universities of Halle, Wittenberg, Jena, 1727-1747 : translation of his works

Easily, one of the most important philosophical works, as not only is by a black author from within the unenlightened continental tradition, this is also the origin place of general hermeneutics beating the next closest author by thirty years, as to why you likely never heard of him ... I think should be fairly obvious.

I seem to remember from a university course in the history of philosophy that hermeneutics originated in ancient times. My memory would fail me though.

I've never heard of Amo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ando on December 11, 2023, 03:25:51 PM
(https://picture.bookfrom.net/img/william-shakespeare/henry_vi_parts_i_ii_and_iii_signet_classics.jpg)
Henry VI by Willaim Shakespeare
Whoof. What a mess. But glimpses of the great poet and playwright shine through this obvious collaboration. It's a book club selection where everyone's a bit flummoxed at all of the intersecting houses, lineages and quarrels. Frankly, I find watching (and, of course, listening) to the play infinitely more rewarding than reading the text alone. But at least it gives you an impression, knowing a bit of his later work, that Shakespeare's craft didn't just spring from the cradle or inherited nobility (as some would have it); he worked at it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 12, 2023, 09:19:45 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on December 10, 2023, 03:46:23 AMI have it line. Please share your impressions.

I have read it in French. I really cannot see what the fuss is about - I find nothing interesting in it at the level of style, structure, character, plot or idea.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 12, 2023, 09:22:06 AM
Quote from: hopefullytrusting on December 11, 2023, 07:24:03 AMFinally, completed Amo's Antonius Gvilielmus Amo Afer of Axim in Ghana: student, doctor of philosophy, master, and lecturer at the Universities of Halle, Wittenberg, Jena, 1727-1747 : translation of his works

Easily, one of the most important philosophical works, as not only is by a black author from within the unenlightened continental tradition, this is also the origin place of general hermeneutics beating the next closest author by thirty years, as to why you likely never heard of him ... I think should be fairly obvious.

What does he say?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 12, 2023, 10:03:33 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 12, 2023, 09:19:45 AMI have read it in French. I really cannot see what the fuss is about - I find nothing interesting in it at the level of style, structure, character, plot or idea.

Plot? Are we talking about the same book?

I'm not finished it yet, but I'm finding it fascinating. I didn't know going in that it would be a memoir that is completely without the word "I", that would tell the author's story avoiding unique subjective experience but focusing on what was the collective experience of a generation of a time and a place, usually "we". Through this it has more of a feeling of stepping back into history, in a way that memoirs seldom achieve beyond a pinhole view, whatever their author's intentions.

I'm more than happy to second the recommendations that led me to it.

This article claims her masterpiece is A Girl's Story, so I'll be reading that in the very near future:

Where to start with: Annie Ernaux (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/17/where-to-start-with-annie-ernaux)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 12, 2023, 10:35:30 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 12, 2023, 10:03:33 AMPlot? Are we talking about the same book?

I'm not finished it yet, but I'm finding it fascinating. I didn't know going in that it would be a memoir that is completely without the word "I", that would tell the author's story avoiding unique subjective experience but focusing on what was the collective experience of a generation of a time and a place, usually "we". Through this it has more of a feeling of stepping back into history, in a way that memoirs seldom achieve beyond a pinhole view, whatever their author's intentions.

I'm more than happy to second the recommendations that led me to it.

This article claims her masterpiece is A Girl's Story, so I'll be reading that in the very near future:

Where to start with: Annie Ernaux (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/17/where-to-start-with-annie-ernaux)



I think it's a bit France specific to be honest, the France of the trente glorieuses. I can well believe that for a white French person of a certain age, it's amusing. 

Girl's Story is a sort of sequel to the novel she wrote which caused some headlines, Passion Simple.  It's about losing your virginity when you're a teenager to an older bloke when you're on a holiday camp.

The one by her I thought was most interesting was La Honte, but still, I can pass.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on December 12, 2023, 10:53:10 AM
Finished today Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady. To be honest, for the majority of the first half I was not sure if I liked the book. However, the second half amps up in quality significantly. It's not Golden Bowl (which was unbelievably good throughout) but still a worthy book.

One thing I cannot forgive James for is his poor review of Our Mutual Friend.  >:D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on December 12, 2023, 11:01:42 AM
(https://covers.shakespeareandcompany.com/97818397/9781839760204.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 13, 2023, 01:13:52 AM
Quote from: hopefullytrusting on December 12, 2023, 02:32:48 PMOkay, but the most important thing he is striving to accomplish is a general course of hermeneutics, as prior to this hermeneutics was restricted to legal and scriptural concerns.

Three quotations of his should suffice as it regards general hermeneutics, but he also delves into method including the hermeneutical circle:

"The art of interpretation or hermeneutics is the habitus of the contemplative intellect."

"Hermeneutics differs from criticism as the species does from the genus and the part does from the whole."

"In every interpretation there occur the author, the literary work, and the interpreter."

Now, these quotations seem relatively plain, but given that these were said pre-1750, these are all quite groundbreaking, especially since this near exact wording would be used by Schleiermacher, the author currently credited with the formulation of general hermeneutics.

Interesting to see this word habitus, which I associate with Pierre Bourdieu. I didn't know it was an earlier concept.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 13, 2023, 02:28:17 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 13, 2023, 01:13:52 AMInteresting to see this word habitus, which I associate with Pierre Bourdieu. I didn't know it was an earlier concept.

Are there any new concepts?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 13, 2023, 04:06:17 AM
Quote from: hopefullytrusting on December 13, 2023, 03:42:28 AMAnd that is a linkage that is unlikely to be broken given the way citations operate, and how little the works of such vintage are known. The only reason Amo has a little cache is because he is black. Most ideas are lost because the archive is truly infinite.

Likely not, but given how siloed academia is, paired with notions like "obsolescence" and "obliteration by integration," there will always be continual space open for the "new".

There is some very interesting rediscovery work being done in Management (Hinings et al.'s Dusty books), but that readership is likely to be extremely limited.


Alexandre Dumas père's grandmother and Alexander Pushkin's grandfather were black, this didn't seem to interfere with the unequalled success of the grandchildren.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 13, 2023, 05:49:37 AM
It's interesting that Amo got into a German university (Halle) as early as 1727. I just checked and the first black member of Oxford University was in 1868 and the first black at the Sorbonne was in (about) 1920. 

Here's a contemporary racist cartoon of Christian Cole, the first black at Oxford

(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/1574E/production/_98268878_christiancolepic.jpg.webp)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 13, 2023, 11:21:54 AM
(https://carondann.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/piano-tuner.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 13, 2023, 11:25:49 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51D2URh+KjL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 13, 2023, 11:32:13 AM
Starting Louis Aragon's Le Fou d'Elsa (from 1963).

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kb1s3vEAL.jpg)

Not too long ago I read Aragon's much earlier novel Aurélien, and found it extraordinarily beautiful. The work I am now starting is a long (425+ pages) love poem in prose and verse, with a historical background (the fall of Granada in 1492). At its length, it is a bit daunting, but most reviews I've read of this book praise through the roof. Voyons...



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 13, 2023, 11:35:41 AM
Quote from: ritter on December 13, 2023, 11:32:13 AMa long (425+ pages) love poem in prose and verse, with a historical background (the fall of Granada in 1492)

Reads like the libretto of a Donizetti opera.  ;D


Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 13, 2023, 11:58:38 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 13, 2023, 11:35:41 AMReads like the libretto of a Donizetti opera.  ;D



Yep, Boabdil, ovvero la caduta di Granata. But it would have a huge cast: in the first four pages I've encountered Boabdil, Maurice Barrès, Wieland (and Lucian of Samosata), Washington Itving, Wagner, Tchaikovsky...  :o

Good evening, Andrei!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 13, 2023, 12:07:21 PM
Quote from: ritter on December 13, 2023, 11:58:38 AMYep, Boabdil, ovvero la caduta di Granata. But it would have a huge cast: in the first four pages I've encountered Boabdil, Maurice Barrès, Wieland (and Lucian of Samosata), Washington Itving, Wagner, Tchaikovsky...  :o

Seven historical characters, of which only one has got something to do with the fall of Granada.  :o

Compared to Aragon, Donizetti is a pAragon of cohesion and realism.  ;D

QuoteGood evening, Andrei!

To you too, Rafael.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 13, 2023, 12:33:55 PM
Quote from: ritter on December 13, 2023, 11:32:13 AMStarting Louis Aragon's Le Fou d'Elsa (from 1963).

Not too long ago I read Aragon's much earlier novel Aurélien, and found it extraordinarily beautiful. The work I am now starting is a long (425+ pages) love poem in prose and verse, with a historical background (the fall of Granada in 1492). At its length, it is a bit daunting, but most reviews I've read of this book praise through the roof. Voyons...



I've had an Aragon novel called Paris Peasant unread on my shelves for a while now. Have you read that one? Do you know if I should move it closer to the top of the pile?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on December 13, 2023, 12:49:20 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 13, 2023, 12:33:55 PMI've had an Aragon novel called Paris Peasant unread on my shelves for a while now. Have you read that one? Do you know if I should move it closer to the top of the pile?
No, I haven't read that one. It is from his earlier surrealist period, and looks quite appealing (but I think it's not really a novel...). The reviews I've read are very positive.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 14, 2023, 12:30:16 AM
Quote from: hopefullytrusting on December 13, 2023, 06:27:08 PMRead this today, going to re-read it tonight, and then give my thoughts on it (obviously, he and I disagree very fundamentally regarding predication, but I don't necessarily disagree with the mantra):

(https://knihobot-images.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/upload/images/large/4509528.jpg)

I will read your review with interest. In particular, what are the differences regarding predication.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on December 16, 2023, 07:20:23 AM
This is a wonderful memoir about a man who rekindles his passion for pianos and Paris.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81SW9c7Y9RL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 16, 2023, 11:48:09 AM
A few tragedies by Shakespeare, Hamlet and Othello, both long overdue first-time reads for me. Enjoying both greatly, especially as I begin to get used to the archaic language and start understanding more of what's going on. Definitely an author I intend to read much more of... probably the biggest gap in my literary knowledge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 18, 2023, 12:23:06 AM
Started Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise at the beginning again after getting bored about half way through a year ago. This time I'm exploring some of the music referred to as I go so am progressing very slowly.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71GZ12OlsRL._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 20, 2023, 12:38:29 AM
"Once man loses his faculty of indifference he becomes a potential murderer"

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Vo9IbnU8L._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ando on December 21, 2023, 09:41:19 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on December 20, 2023, 12:38:29 AM"Once man loses his faculty of indifference he becomes a potential murderer"
Oof; what an awful quote. Hope it's a better book.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 21, 2023, 09:48:51 AM
Quote from: ando on December 21, 2023, 09:41:19 AMOof; what an awful quote. Hope it's a better book.  ;)

This is typical of Cioran: an aphorism which sounds provocative and profound but which on closer inspection proves to be either a truism or an absurdity. A philosopher for teenagers in their rebel-without-a-cause period.  ;D 

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ando on December 21, 2023, 10:03:42 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585192473i/42117280.jpg)
MOZART: The Reign of Love Jan Swafford (2020, Harper)
Anyone here read it? Found a 1st edition on my local bookstore sale table and flipped to Leopold imparting to the young Wolfgang that all men were essentially scoundrels and to be wary of them. And a bit further on that all of French music wasn't "worth a sou". Apparently, Wolfie's arrogance came honestly. The volume's bound to be entertaining if nothing else.
(https://i.postimg.cc/G2zj9gFX/sou1.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on December 21, 2023, 11:47:59 AM
Ando I was just looking at reading that or the Brahms bio... didn't pull the trigger on either though.

For me, I just finished reading The Expanse by James SA Corey.  Great character driven space opera.  5500 pages long (including the short stories and novellas).  Took me a couple of months.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 21, 2023, 12:07:00 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 21, 2023, 09:48:51 AMThis is typical of Cioran: an aphorism which sounds provocative and profound but which on closer inspection proves to be either a truism or an absurdity. A philosopher for teenagers in their rebel-without-a-cause period.  ;D 



I've read about a third of the book, and a lot of it resonates with me. It seems to me that Cioran is not an author for teens. This is a new name to me, I will check out his other books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 21, 2023, 12:28:26 PM
Quote from: DavidW on December 21, 2023, 11:47:59 AMAndo I was just looking at reading that or the Brahms bio... didn't pull the trigger on either though.

For me, I just finished reading The Expanse by James SA Corey.  Great character driven space opera.  5500 pages long (including the short stories and novellas).  Took me a couple of months.

Swafford's Brahms bio was a phenomenal read, highly recommended. I'd like to read his Beethoven and Mozart tomes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 21, 2023, 01:55:08 PM
Started: another from the Baille Gifford prize longlist, one I'd been looking forward to since the list came out in September:

(https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/uploads/images/_xs/40048/A-Day-in-the-Life-of-Abed-Salama-A-Palestine-Story-by-Nathan-Thrall_2023-09-05-152029_atns.webp)

"Milad is five years old and excited for his school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but tragedy awaits: his bus is involved in a horrific accident. His father, Abed, rushes to the chaotic site, only to find Milad has already been taken away. Abed sets off on a journey to learn Milad's fate, navigating a maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must face as a Palestinian.

Interwoven with Abed's odyssey are the stories of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and pasts unexpectedly converge: a kindergarten teacher and a mechanic who rescue children from the burning bus; an Israeli army commander and a Palestinian official who confront the aftermath at the scene of the crash; a settler paramedic; ultra-Orthodox emergency service workers; and two mothers who each hope to claim one severely injured boy. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama is a deeply immersive, stunningly detailed portrait of life in Israel and Palestine, and an illumination of the reality of one of the most contested places on earth."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 21, 2023, 02:38:02 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on December 20, 2023, 12:38:29 AM"Once man loses his faculty of indifference he becomes a potential murderer." - Cioran

Rubbish on stilts.

Slavery was abolished precisely because some men and women were not indifferent to it.

Ukraine is still standing precisely because some states were not indifferent to the Russian aggression on her.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 21, 2023, 02:54:07 PM
Quote from: hopefullytrusting on December 21, 2023, 02:50:38 PMSlavery has not been abolished.

Where?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 21, 2023, 08:54:14 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 21, 2023, 02:38:02 PMRubbish on stilts.

Slavery was abolished precisely because some men and women were not indifferent to it.

Ukraine is still standing precisely because some states were not indifferent to the Russian aggression on her.

Perhaps if you try to read this book, you will be able to understand what the author meant. It is not a sure thing you could, but it won't hurt to try.

Compare it to Samuel Johnson's comment, hell is paved with good intentions.

Your mention of Ukraine is apropos. If people (or states) were sufficiently indifferent, aggressions would not happen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 22, 2023, 12:14:46 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on December 21, 2023, 08:54:14 PMPerhaps if you try to read this book, you will be able to understand what the author meant. It is not a sure thing you could, but it won't hurt to try.

 

I have read all of Cioran's books and it's precisely on reading them that my opinion on him is based.

He's at his best when writing about music --- but his ideas about life and world are teenage-ish and of no use to a well-adjusted adult.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 22, 2023, 01:12:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 22, 2023, 12:14:46 AMI have read all of Cioran's books and it's precisely on reading them that my opinion on him is based.

He's at his best when writing about music --- but his ideas about life and world are teenage-ish and of no use to a well-adjusted adult.

That's marvellous. You've seen philosophy for teenagers and rubbish. I saw something else. Everyone sees what they want to see and can see. The world around us is just a mirror in which we see ourselves ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 22, 2023, 06:10:57 AM
I'm currently reading a PDF of Oscar Wilde: Salome, with notes and illustrations, from archive.org

"Neither at things nor at people should one look. Only in mirrors should one look, for mirrors do but show us masks." - Herod
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 22, 2023, 06:37:18 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on December 22, 2023, 01:12:29 AMThat's marvellous. You've seen philosophy for teenagers and rubbish. I saw something else. Everyone sees what they want to see and can see. The world around us is just a mirror in which we see ourselves ;)

If you believe that culture and civilization can be built on, and maintained by, the complete indifference preached by Cioran be my guest. I don't.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on December 22, 2023, 06:44:29 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on December 22, 2023, 06:10:57 AMI'm currently reading a PDF of Oscar Wilde: Salome, with notes and illustrations, from archive.org

"Neither at things nor at people should one look. Only in mirrors should one look, for mirrors do but show us masks." - Herod


I am more familiar with the famous "rage of Caliban seeing/not seeing his own face in the glass" mirror-themed quote.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 22, 2023, 06:47:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 22, 2023, 06:37:18 AMIf you believe that culture and civilization can be built on, and maintained by, the complete indifference preached by Cioran be my guest. I don't.



No problem. You may believe that culture and civilisation is not possible without varied and endless violence. I don't care.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 22, 2023, 06:50:43 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on December 22, 2023, 06:44:29 AMI am more familiar with the famous "rage of Caliban seeing/not seeing his own face in the glass" mirror-themed quote.



People see countless objects arising and disappearing in their knowing, but they don't see them selves.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on December 23, 2023, 12:19:58 PM
If you ever think "There just aren't enough novels about cannibalism," then check out this one! It isn't about crazed sickos kidnapping people and eating them. It's set in a dystopian world where animals have been killed off by a virus, or so the government says, so humans are raised as food. Certainly not for the faint of heart, but it's compelling so far.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T1/images/I/715wm42WylL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 23, 2023, 12:29:45 PM
It is my firm conviction that civilization can survive without 90% of what passes for culture today --- and I'm being generous.

I mean, a janitor is more useful than a philosopher.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 23, 2023, 09:24:11 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 23, 2023, 12:29:45 PMIt is my firm conviction that civilization can survive without 90% of what passes for culture today --- and I'm being generous.

I mean, a janitor is more useful than a philosopher.

It is not surviving. All is pretty much fucked up.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 23, 2023, 09:28:57 PM
Quote from: Bachtoven on December 23, 2023, 12:19:58 PMIf you ever think "There just aren't enough novels about cannibalism," then check out this one! It isn't about crazed sickos kidnapping people and eating them. It's set in a dystopian world where animals have been killed off by a virus, or so the government says, so humans are raised as food. Certainly not for the faint of heart, but it's compelling so far.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T1/images/I/715wm42WylL._SL500_.jpg)

Yes, but why eat humans when the world is already actively being prepared to eat meat made from insects? And it's not dystopia anymore.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 23, 2023, 11:59:58 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on December 23, 2023, 09:28:57 PMYes, but why eat humans when the world is already actively being prepared to eat meat made from insects? And it's not dystopia anymore.

I will never eat insects. Will you?  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 24, 2023, 12:28:55 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 23, 2023, 11:59:58 PMI will never eat insects. Will you?  :D

You think they're gonna ask you or me? I buy my groceries at the farmers' market. At least there is some hope that the products are natural.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on December 24, 2023, 07:06:42 AM
These for me ;D .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 24, 2023, 03:32:35 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 23, 2023, 11:59:58 PMI will never eat insects. Will you?  :D

There's already an "acceptable" percentage of insect parts factored into much of the food that you/we eat.

Happy Xmas dinner, everyone.


TD: added to things on the go:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/I/71dVFaOA3xL._SY466_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 24, 2023, 10:47:01 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 24, 2023, 03:32:35 PMThere's already an "acceptable" percentage of insect parts factored into much of the food that you/we eat.

Not in my country.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 24, 2023, 11:13:47 PM
Quote from: Florestan on December 24, 2023, 10:47:01 PMNot in my country.


You mean you're certain there no insect content or you're certain there's no regulation regarding acceptable levels?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 24, 2023, 11:23:19 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 24, 2023, 11:13:47 PMYou mean you're certain there no insect content or you're certain there's no regulation regarding acceptable levels?

I'm certain there are no insects in what I eat. As for regulation, the Romanian law requires that insect-content food shall be clearly labelled as such and shall be put on a separate, dedicated stand labelled as such.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 25, 2023, 01:22:54 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 24, 2023, 11:23:19 PMI'm certain there are no insects in what I eat. As for regulation, the Romanian law requires that insect-content food shall be clearly labelled as such and shall be put on a separate, dedicated stand labelled as such.

Yesterday the law required it, today amendments are being discussed, tomorrow the law will be rewritten. The train is strict on schedule for an imminent derailment.

By the way, have you tried cockroaches? They may be tasty. You just have to learn how to cook them properly ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 25, 2023, 02:30:08 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on December 25, 2023, 01:22:54 AMhave you tried cockroaches?

No. I am not going to eat insects, period.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 25, 2023, 03:07:33 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 25, 2023, 02:30:08 AMNo. I am not going to eat insects, period.


Do you like...beer?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 25, 2023, 03:18:00 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on December 25, 2023, 03:07:33 AMDo you like...beer?

Only during summer.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on December 25, 2023, 04:33:58 AM
I am pin-balling betwen four books:

Intruders in the Dust (Faulkner)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/I/91Hm9quCZ8L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

The Liars' Club (M ary Carr)

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/The_Liars%27_Club.jpg/220px-The_Liars%27_Club.jpg)

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History (S. C. Gwynne)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/I/814LX1lbyEL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Rayamond Carver: Collected Stories (Carver)

(https://www.loa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/9781598530469.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on December 25, 2023, 04:50:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 25, 2023, 02:30:08 AMNo. I am not going to eat insects, period.


Chapulines (little grasshoppers) and ant larvae are common in Mexican food so I've had them several times. Larvae, it is best not to think about them when you take a bite (they are usually on top of something else). Chapulines are actually OK though. They're salty and roasted so it's like eating nuts. Except the legs get stuck between your teeth  :o

My father once had a business trip in China and the business leader there decided to test his "strength" by taking him to an all insects restaurant.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 25, 2023, 07:08:11 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 25, 2023, 02:30:08 AMNo. I am not going to eat insects, period.


One day the population will be told that they should eat insects. To save the planet, to reduce emissions, or because it is immoral to kill cows. And no one will be asked whether they are going to do it or not.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 25, 2023, 07:58:32 AM
(https://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9781611806434)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on December 25, 2023, 08:03:45 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on December 25, 2023, 07:08:11 AMOne day the population will be told that they should eat insects. To save the planet, to reduce emissions, or because it is immoral to kill cows. And no one will be asked whether they are going to do it or not.

We'll see.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 27, 2023, 03:42:34 AM
Short snippets from Kodo Sawaki Roshi with comments from Kosho Uchiyama and comments to comments from Shohaku Okumura represent three generations of Zen lineage.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61j8-E3ZtuL._SL1024_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on December 27, 2023, 07:55:51 AM
Quote from: Mookalafalas on October 23, 2023, 05:42:35 AMProbably Faulkner's greatest. I can understand how confusing aspects of it must be to non-Americans. I'm not sure what to say to  you about comments like "Something big must have happened in 1865." That was the end of the US civil war, and the end of slavery--and of the "old south." That's a rather key point in all of Faulkner's work---and American history. Anyway, feel free to PM me if there is anything you feel I might be able to help with.

I'm quoting you rather than PMing just because maybe other people will have some ideas.

Rereading Absalom Absalom I now have the impression that one main strand of the novel is a sort of warning against miscegenation. Incest and bigamy are both forgivable (Faulkner's word is overpass) by love, but not miscegenation. Henry kills Bon in Shreve's story just because he's got a drop of black blood. And Jim Bond is a warning about what will happen to whites if they breed with blacks.

If that's right it's a problem because to me, now, here in London England, miscegenation just isn't a big deal. The strictures I'm attributing to Faulkner seem ill founded - we won't all become enfeebled if races mix. Faulkner is starting to seem hard to elevate to the universal, his ideas are too closely tied to the specific preoccupations of white America then.

But maybe it is all part of the American way of thinking still, maybe in the USA there is still taboo and anxiety about blacks and whites making children together, and so Americans can still "find themselves" in the book. But I can't (I also don't have a sister, so Quentin's problems about incest don't mean too much to me either!) 

Anyway, that's where I am with this elusive novel. (Rosa is interesting though, as is Clytie and Judith.)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 27, 2023, 12:53:04 PM
Quote from: steve ridgway on December 18, 2023, 12:23:06 AMStarted Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise at the beginning again after getting bored about half way through a year ago. This time I'm exploring some of the music referred to as I go so am progressing very slowly.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71GZ12OlsRL._SL1500_.jpg)
I look forward to your further report. I remember having a few quarrels with the book, but I read it long enough ago that I don't trust myself to recall them. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 27, 2023, 12:56:39 PM
Quote from: ando on December 21, 2023, 10:03:42 AM(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585192473i/42117280.jpg)
MOZART: The Reign of Love Jan Swafford (2020, Harper)
Anyone here read it? Found a 1st edition on my local bookstore sale table and flipped to Leopold imparting to the young Wolfgang that all men were essentially scoundrels and to be wary of them. And a bit further on that all of French music wasn't "worth a sou". Apparently, Wolfie's arrogance came honestly. The volume's bound to be entertaining if nothing else.
(https://i.postimg.cc/G2zj9gFX/sou1.jpg)

I need to read his Ives book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on December 27, 2023, 04:53:35 PM
Quote from: Karl Henning on December 27, 2023, 12:56:39 PMI need to read his Ives book.

As do I (and his Mozart and Beethoven bios). The Brahms was excellent.

Reading a few by Dickens, just finished Great Expectations, and have started Oliver Twist. Long overdue I reckon, given that so many of my favorite writers held Dickens in high regard. He seems to have been quite a dark kind of guy, someone who finds humor in extremely bleak situations. Very easy reading (in terms of style) especially for the time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on December 28, 2023, 04:59:31 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413gfeaeCpL._SL1231_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ando on December 28, 2023, 01:30:34 PM
Quote from: Karl Henning on December 27, 2023, 12:56:39 PMI need to read his Ives book.
How many composer bios has this guy written? After his Mozart I fear the template going forward.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on December 28, 2023, 03:10:23 PM
Quote from: ando on December 28, 2023, 01:30:34 PMHow many composer bios has this guy written? After his Mozart I fear the template going forward.  ;D
Not sure. I believe Ives was his first. He may have found that a little controversy proved good for sales of his Brahms book. I don't say absolutely that I question his motives ....
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on December 30, 2023, 01:58:34 PM
Very good so far.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T1/images/I/815z4SUIozL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on December 30, 2023, 04:28:04 PM
Possibly of interest to @Mandryka and others: just learned of this recent long essay in the New Yorker by Jill Lepore, an author I admire very much:

What Happened When the U.S. Failed to Prosecute an Insurrectionist Ex-President (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/what-happened-when-the-us-failed-to-prosecute-an-ex-president)

...which is about Jefferson Davis immediately after the Civil War

Learned of this in a good interview on Preet Bharara's podcast which discusses the essay:

Amending History (with Jill Lepore) (https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vVk1QNTQ4OTczNDcwMg/episode/MWI0M2JlZDgtMzUyYy0xMWVkLWExODEtMmJjY2VlMGM1OTc5?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwiokc-XwriDAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQBQ)

and from that I also learn that she's got a new book out collecting her essays from the last ten years, which I will immediately order.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ando on January 02, 2024, 05:32:02 AM
(https://www.michaelcrichton.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/book-fivepatients2.jpeg)
This (free) tubi (https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/318011/s10-e01-baseball-hall-of-fame-june-18-1970-jim-bouton) stream of a Dick Cavett episode featuring a very young Michael Crichton made me curious about his 1970 book, Five Patients (1970, Knopf); less for the topic than for his style of writing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on January 02, 2024, 06:01:42 AM
Started recently to read the first volume of Ernest Newman's The Life of Richard Wagner. What a magnificent biography so far. Newman paints a painstaking picture of this deeply flawed yet brilliant man. Considering how old this biography is, some info may be old but still excellently written.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on January 02, 2024, 06:33:45 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91Zb9M-AeKL._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 02, 2024, 07:30:47 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on January 02, 2024, 06:01:42 AMStarted recently to read the first volume of Ernest Newman's The Life of Richard Wagner. What a magnificent biography so far. Newman paints a painstaking picture of this deeply flawed yet brilliant man. Considering how old this biography is, some info may be old but still excellently written.

Damn, it's massive! I'd love to read a bio of Wagner, but wonder if there is a shorter, one-to-two volume bio of him out there.

On topic, having just finished three by Dickens in a row (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Hard Times—all just brilliant) and having no more by that author in my collection at present, I've decided to pick up Moby-Dick again. I'm working my way through it slowly, but I can already tell, some 20% of the way through it, that it's a damn good one, and clearly a book that is about much more than the story of a vengeful whale hunt. Long overdue read, and I hope to finish it by the end of the year, though I'm only picking it up here and there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 02, 2024, 08:08:45 AM
I requested Swafford's Brahms from my public library. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on January 02, 2024, 09:32:28 AM


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71MbhgLjuzL._SL1360_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on January 02, 2024, 10:37:17 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 02, 2024, 07:30:47 AMDamn, it's massive! I'd love to read a bio of Wagner, but wonder if there is a shorter, one-to-two volume bio of him out there.

On topic, having just finished three by Dickens in a row (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Hard Times—all just brilliant) and having no more by that author in my collection at present, I've decided to pick up Moby-Dick again. I'm working my way through it slowly, but I can already tell, some 20% of the way through it, that it's a damn good one, and clearly a book that is about much more than the story of a vengeful whale hunt. Long overdue read, and I hope to finish it by the end of the year, though I'm only picking it up here and there.

I read in Finnish several years ago Barry Millinton's biography + work analysis of Wagner which has definitely less pages overall. I am however not 100 % sure if it was condensed translation or not.

My first Wagner biography was Derek Watson's but it is flawed in many respects. It doesn't even mention Schopenhauer's influence on Wagner, IIRC.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 02, 2024, 04:21:54 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61017QU3CVL._SY466_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Y4CUcoJCL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

As mentioned a few posts back: starting Jill Lepore's new collection of her New Yorker essays from the last 10 years.

US cover and title on the left, but the one I've got is the UK edition on the right.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 02, 2024, 05:45:32 PM
Not read, but seen at the bookstore, and wondering if the book lives up to  the publisher's blurb.
Addressed in particular to @Dry Brett Kavanaugh

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ygCEDlmlL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81lNm2r+30L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)

Both editions use the same translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on January 02, 2024, 09:41:32 PM
Quote from: JBS on January 02, 2024, 05:45:32 PMNot read, but seen at the bookstore, and wondering if the book lives up to  the publisher's blurb.
Addressed in particular to @Dry Brett Kavanaugh

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ygCEDlmlL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81lNm2r+30L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)

Both editions use the same translation.

I have it in my reading queue.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 03, 2024, 06:51:43 AM
Quote from: JBS on January 02, 2024, 05:45:32 PMNot read, but seen at the bookstore, and wondering if the book lives up to  the publisher's blurb.
Addressed in particular to @Dry Brett Kavanaugh

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ygCEDlmlL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81lNm2r+30L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)

Both editions use the same translation.

I believe the Gateway paperback uses an older translation by Edward McClellan and the Penguin uses a newer one by Meredith McKinney. I can't speak on either as I have not read Kokoro, but I do admire Natsume Sōseki greatly, having read his Kusamakura, Botchan, and Sanshirō over the past couple years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 03, 2024, 07:04:34 AM
Quote from: JBS on January 02, 2024, 05:45:32 PMNot read, but seen at the bookstore, and wondering if the book lives up to  the publisher's blurb.
Addressed in particular to @Dry Brett Kavanaugh

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ygCEDlmlL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81lNm2r+30L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)

Both editions use the same translation.


Nice psychological novel. I recommend it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 03, 2024, 07:10:45 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 03, 2024, 06:51:43 AMI believe the Gateway paperback uses an older translation by Edward McClellan and the Penguin uses a newer one by Meredith McKinney. I can't speak on either as I have not read Kokoro, but I do admire Natsume Sōseki greatly, having read his Kusamakura, Botchan, and Sanshirō over the past couple years.


As you know, Glenn Gould was a big fan of Kusamakura.


https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200203/p2a/00m/0et/023000c
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 03, 2024, 05:58:09 PM
Thanks to both of you. Looks like another contribution to the TBR pile is needed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on January 03, 2024, 10:28:41 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 03, 2024, 07:10:45 AMAs you know, Glenn Gould was a big fan of Kusamakura.


https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200203/p2a/00m/0et/023000c

As a habit, I don't usually read two books by the same author in a row. Kokoro was on my reading pile, but now I've learned that Glenn Gould was fan of Kusamakura... What to do?  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on January 04, 2024, 11:47:25 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61qF++GJFtL._SL1200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on January 07, 2024, 06:18:36 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 02, 2024, 07:30:47 AMDamn, it's massive! I'd love to read a bio of Wagner, but wonder if there is a shorter, one-to-two volume bio of him out there.

On topic, having just finished three by Dickens in a row (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Hard Times—all just brilliant) and having no more by that author in my collection at present, I've decided to pick up Moby-Dick again. I'm working my way through it slowly, but I can already tell, some 20% of the way through it, that it's a damn good one, and clearly a book that is about much more than the story of a vengeful whale hunt. Long overdue read, and I hope to finish it by the end of the year, though I'm only picking it up here and there.

Melville's book is amazing, and his imagery of Pequod's nocturnal operations is unforgettable. Enjoy!  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 07, 2024, 04:28:14 PM
Quote from: LKB on January 07, 2024, 06:18:36 AMMelville's book is amazing, and his imagery of Pequod's nocturnal operations is unforgettable. Enjoy!  8)

It is amazing! I'm a bit over half way now, making my way through a bit more quickly than I thought I would be, but I'm still trying to purposely take it slow, since there's a lot to digest. I love the characters; I love the imagery and style; and I even like the lengthy tangential diversions about whales, whaling ships, and much more. Sure to become a favorite of mine, and one I hope to reread every once in a while.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 13, 2024, 08:22:21 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61dbU3B+4VL._SL1100_.jpg)

After Christian Jacq's Mozart-Osiris nonsense, here's Claude Mosse's Conspiracy-To-Kill-Mozart one. Looks like the French have a monopoly on this stuff. It's so bad that it's actually funny. Judge for yourself:

- in 1787 rumor had it that Mozart gave lessons to a young and promising composer by the name of Beethoven.

- one Karl Grossmann, a Viennese whose grandfather had converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism, was an intimate friend and confidante of Marie-Antoinette since they were children up to the times when she was Queen of France (NB: not von Grossmann, just Grossmann).

- an innkeeper from a village near Vienna rants about the Salieri-led Italian anti-Mozart cabal and reprimands Joseph II for nominating the former as Imperial Kapellmeister.

- Gluck envied Mozart's success.

- Cagliostro was involved in a plot to kill Mozart.

- the said Karl Grossmann, upon arriving in Prague in 1787, discovered that he didn't understand the language of the inhabitants.

- Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte were on very bad terms while working on Don Giovanni.

- Mozart was a drunkard, forgetful about the basic rules of politeness.

This is only what I gathered by reading so far. I'm looking forward eagerly to more such interesting stuff.





-
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 13, 2024, 12:05:37 PM
Starting: another from the Baille Gifford prize longlist:

(https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/uploads/images/_xs/39609/Time-to-Think-Hannah-Barnes.webp)

"The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), based at the Tavistock and Portman Trust in North London, was set up initially to provide — for the most part — talking therapies to young people who were questioning their gender identity. But in the last decade GIDS has referred more than a thousand children, some as young as nine years old, for medication to block their puberty. In the same period, the number of young people seeking GIDS's help exploded, increasing twenty-five-fold. The profile of the patients changed too: from largely pre-pubescent boys to mostly adolescent girls, who were often contending with other difficulties.

Why had the patients changed so dramatically? Were all these distressed young people best served by taking puberty blockers and then cross-sex hormones, which cause irreversible changes to the body? While some young people appeared to thrive after taking the blocker, many seemed to become worse. Was there enough clinical evidence to justify such profound medical interventions in the lives of young people who had so much else to contend with?

This urgent, scrupulous and dramatic book explains how, in the words of some former staff, GIDS has been the site of a serious medical scandal, in which ideological concerns took priority over clinical practice. Award-winning journalist Hannah Barnes has had unprecedented access to thousands of pages of documents, including internal emails and unpublished reports, and well over a hundred hours of personal testimony from GIDS clinicians, former service users and senior Tavistock figures. The result is a disturbing and gripping parable for our times."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 15, 2024, 04:38:03 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 13, 2024, 08:22:21 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61dbU3B+4VL._SL1100_.jpg)

After Christian Jacq's Mozart-Osiris nonsense, here's Claude Mosse's Conspiracy-To-Kill-Mozart one. Looks like the French have a monopoly on this stuff. It's so bad that it's actually funny. Judge for yourself:

- in 1787 rumor had it that Mozart gave lessons to a young and promising composer by the name of Beethoven.

- one Karl Grossmann, a Viennese whose grandfather had converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism, was an intimate friend and confidante of Marie-Antoinette since they were children up to the times when she was Queen of France (NB: not von Grossmann, just Grossmann).

- an innkeeper from a village near Vienna rants about the Salieri-led Italian anti-Mozart cabal and reprimands Joseph II for nominating the former as Imperial Kapellmeister.

- Gluck envied Mozart's success.

- Cagliostro was involved in a plot to kill Mozart.

- the said Karl Grossmann, upon arriving in Prague in 1787, discovered that he didn't understand the language of the inhabitants.

- Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte were on very bad terms while working on Don Giovanni.

- Mozart was a drunkard, forgetful about the basic rules of politeness.

This is only what I gathered by reading so far. I'm looking forward eagerly to more such interesting stuff.


Here's another one: at the premiere of Don Giovanni in Prague, the opera hall was decorated with flowers which the King of Bohemia had sent from his personal greenhouses, in order to show that Prague had as much and as refined taste in music as the Viennese. Now, of course, in 1787 the King of Bohemia was none other than Joseph II...  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2024, 07:45:35 AM
Orthogonal to the topic: I was amused by the apparent goofiness of the endeavor at first but found the video entertaining all the same.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 16, 2024, 01:14:56 AM
(https://www.paideia.ro/569-large_default/iliada-homer-trad-dan-slusanschi.jpg)

First time reading Homer's Iliad.

It's the latest Romanian translation, in hexameters, by a reputed scholar who claims it's so faithful to the original that for any given Romanian word in the text the distance from the original one is at most one verse. I wouldn't know, to me ancient Greek is, well, Greek.

Read the First Book so far. It's very instructive.

In the first part, we learn that it's not a good idea to mess up with priests (rather outdated) and that greed, lust, pride and power are the eternal reasons for wars and feuds (timeless).

In the second part, we learn why Offenbach saw fit to turn the whole thing into an operetta.

Achilles (weeping): Mom, look, Agamemnon stole my toy! Please, tell dad to teach him a lesson!

Thetys (patting him on the back): Will do, darling, don't worry!

Hera (tender): Zeus, honey, you're not going to listen to that Thetys in spite of me, are you?

Zeus (bad-tempered): Oh, just shut up, woman, and don't piss me off or not even all the boys could save you from my mopping the floor with your hair!

Hephaestus (pleading): Mom, I beseech you, calm down and keep quiet, dad's completely nuts! I know it only too well, he once pushed me so badly that I rolled on my back over the whole of Greece into the sea!

Zeus: Now everybody cut the crap and let's get to dinner! No more fuss about that, understand? I want merriment! Ganymedes, wine! Apollo, play!

No, really, it's absolutely hilarious and I got a Homeric (pun) laughter from it.

It's a very promising start.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 18, 2024, 06:32:58 PM
^ I'm planning to read Homer for the first time this year too.

Currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. Man, what a treat this book is. I guess I've been aware of it for a long time, but for some reason I've never had the slightest interest in reading it until recently. Now I'm kicking myself for that, because it's been such a pleasure to read. Very entertaining, very plot driven, with great characters and a very compelling premise. Certainly much better than I expected!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Valentino on January 19, 2024, 04:11:27 AM
The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 19, 2024, 04:44:05 AM
Quote from: Karl Henning on January 15, 2024, 07:45:35 AMOrthogonal to the topic: I was amused by the apparent goofiness of the endeavor at first but found the video entertaining all the same.



I immediately called #1 before I even watched the video! ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 19, 2024, 04:45:36 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 18, 2024, 06:32:58 PM^ I'm planning to read Homer for the first time this year too.

Currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. Man, what a treat this book is. I guess I've been aware of it for a long time, but for some reason I've never had the slightest interest in reading it until recently. Now I'm kicking myself for that, because it's been such a pleasure to read. Very entertaining, very plot driven, with great characters and a very compelling premise. Certainly much better than I expected!

I hope you picked up the Penguin edition, because that is the translation that is not bowdlerized.  I reread it a few years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ultralinear on January 19, 2024, 07:08:31 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 19, 2024, 04:44:05 AMI immediately called #1 before I even watched the video! ;D

I was slightly disappointed to see Gravity's Rainbow in there, as it's a personal fave that I reread occasionally.

The issue with the first 100 pages is that the narrative is epicyclic rather than linear.  I didn't get that the first time I tried, and didn't make it past - because I was looking in vain for a thread to follow, rather than simply enjoying it as an extended bravura literary cadenza.  Nowadays I enjoy that part the most, and tend to find it falls a little flat when it gets more sensible. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 19, 2024, 07:23:19 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 19, 2024, 04:45:36 AMI hope you picked up the Penguin edition, because that is the translation that is not bowdlerized.  I reread it a few years ago.

Sure did, for that reason. Translation very well done by Robin Buss.

Edit: I wonder if anyone has any input on English translations of other Dumas books, like The Three Musketeers. I haven't read any of his stuff and, liking this one so much, I'm curious to read more. But I want to make sure I'm not getting something censored.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 21, 2024, 05:31:43 PM
Any Pepys diary fans have a preferred edition for notes, annotations, context, freedom from error, etc.?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vandermolen on January 21, 2024, 11:18:24 PM
A present from a psychotherapist friend of mine:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 22, 2024, 12:28:47 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 21, 2024, 05:31:43 PMAny Pepys diary fans have a preferred edition for notes, annotations, context, freedom from error, etc.?

The joint Harper UK / University of California edition from 1995. I'm pretty sure that's still the final word. And when I got it it was remarkably cheap as a boxed set of 12 large paperbacks.

Extensive same-page notes throughout.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/714urPEHtdL._SL1214_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on January 22, 2024, 10:52:06 AM
This is shaping up to be a pretty good horror novel.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81FEj1BHTPL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 22, 2024, 10:56:24 AM
How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do. Sharon Moalem.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514lYnt6+PL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 22, 2024, 02:07:03 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 21, 2024, 05:31:43 PMAny Pepys diary fans have a preferred edition for notes, annotations, context, freedom from error, etc.?

Quote from: SimonNZ on January 22, 2024, 12:28:47 AMThe joint Harper UK / University of California edition from 1995. I'm pretty sure that's still the final word. And when I got it it was remarkably cheap as a boxed set of 12 large paperbacks.


...or were you thinking more of a single volume of selections? Then you might prefer the 1150-page Penguin Classic:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ir+90bfYL._SY466_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 22, 2024, 06:30:19 PM
Thank you - I was just reading a review of a HarperCollins edition that was only 280 pages, and made no mention of being abridged. I thought surely Pepys didn't leave just 280 pages of material. Then you posted the 12-volume version and that definitely solved that mystery. The Penguin edition might be the best middle ground...provided it includes all the naughty bits.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 22, 2024, 06:57:04 PM
Quote from: Brian on January 22, 2024, 06:30:19 PMThank you - I was just reading a review of a HarperCollins edition that was only 280 pages, and made no mention of being abridged. I thought surely Pepys didn't leave just 280 pages of material. Then you posted the 12-volume version and that definitely solved that mystery. The Penguin edition might be the best middle ground...provided it includes all the naughty bits.

I'm sure it would. And that it would have the Plague stuff and the Great Fire stuff complete.

It might not be what you're after but I'd give the highest praise to Kenneth Branagh's abridged audio. It's a clever selection,  again with the plague and fire complete, and he really *performs* the role - and delights in the naughty bits.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on January 25, 2024, 09:47:22 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 21, 2024, 05:31:43 PMAny Pepys diary fans have a preferred edition for notes, annotations, context, freedom from error, etc.?

Have you seen this?

https://www.pepysdiary.com/
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 25, 2024, 10:20:59 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 18, 2024, 06:32:58 PMCurrently reading The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. Man, what a treat this book is. I guess I've been aware of it for a long time, but for some reason I've never had the slightest interest in reading it until recently. Now I'm kicking myself for that, because it's been such a pleasure to read. Very entertaining, very plot driven, with great characters and a very compelling premise. Certainly much better than I expected!

Well, I plowed through that one. A very addictive story that I could not have put down if I wanted to, and just an incredibly enjoyable read. Highly recommended to anyone, though I expect there may be those who do not take this book or its author seriously, as the stuff of mere entertainment and unworthy of the time needed to read it. (For shame!)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 25, 2024, 11:38:01 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 25, 2024, 10:20:59 AMWell, I plowed through that one. A very addictive story that I could not have put down if I wanted to, and just an incredibly enjoyable read. Highly recommended to anyone, though I expect there may be those who do not take this book or its author seriously, as the stuff of mere entertainment and unworthy of the time needed to read it. (For shame!)

Great novel. I must re-read it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Christo on January 25, 2024, 12:27:29 PM
Gregor von Rezzori, Denkwürdigkeiten eines Antisemiten (Memoirs of an Anti-Semite, 1979) a writer from Romanian Bucovina, depicting a long lost world:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61XIcX7NJeL._SL1000_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 25, 2024, 01:25:55 PM
Starting: the winner of last year's Orwell prize:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81uauqTVbBL._SY466_.jpg)

I know it shouldn't matter, especially as the reporting is by all reviews excellent, but I'm amazed they couldn't do better with the cover, given how many striking images there are of the fire.


Also dipping into this when wanting something lighter:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417EkhUwTvL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on January 26, 2024, 05:24:31 PM
Got these two today at Barnes and Noble
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T2/images/I/71Q7e2emUpL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T2/images/I/81lNm2r+30L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg)

You might recall I asked about Kokoro here. At that time there was a second, alternative, edition on the shelves. It wasn't there today, so at least one other person in Broward County has been reading it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 28, 2024, 09:34:43 AM
Leopold Stokowski, Abram Chasins.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T1/images/I/51NC6DBIVqL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on January 29, 2024, 12:03:41 PM
Starting Miguel de Unamuno's novella San Manuel Bueno, Mártir, which friends of mine recommended to me as its author's key fiction work.

In the Biblioteca Nueva edition of Unamuno's selected works:

(https://images.cdn3.buscalibre.com/fit-in/360x360/ec/de/ecde39d7f55c07c34c15e49e58dba2ac.jpg)

Some information here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Manuel_Bueno,_M%C3%A1rtir).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 29, 2024, 12:25:43 PM
I'm halfway through Vanity Fair.  I was on the Penguin paperback, but over time the small font was fatiguing (despite wearing progressives).  I switched to Project Gutenberg on the Kindle.

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-na.ssl-images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fbooks%2F1344386439i%2F5797.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=7b267ad9da4c337f7094dd12f5824540a62c92918effd7147667d49b6dfa7ada&ipo=images)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on January 29, 2024, 02:12:19 PM
Starting: and another from the Baille Gifford prize longlist:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81n2lFSCb9L._SY466_.jpg)

Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance

"When it comes to how societies commemorate their own distant dreams and catastrophes, we often think of books, archives, or memorials carved from stone. But in Time's Echo, Jeremy Eichler makes a revelatory case for the power of music as culture's memory, an art form uniquely capable of carrying forward meaning from the past.

Eichler shows how four towering composers - Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich - lived through the era of the Second World War and the Holocaust and later transformed their experiences into deeply moving works of music, scores that carry forward the echoes of lost time. A lyrical narrative full of insight and compassion, this book deepens how we think about the legacies of war, the presence of the past, and the profound possibilities of art in our lives today."
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 31, 2024, 02:34:04 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 29, 2024, 12:25:43 PMI'm halfway through Vanity Fair.  I was on the Penguin paperback, but over time the small font was fatiguing (despite wearing progressives).  I switched to Project Gutenberg on the Kindle.

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-na.ssl-images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fbooks%2F1344386439i%2F5797.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=7b267ad9da4c337f7094dd12f5824540a62c92918effd7147667d49b6dfa7ada&ipo=images)

Worth a read? Maybe it would be less fatiguing with reading-only glasses, trust me I'm an optometry student  ;D

I just finished the famous novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. There were moments I appreciated, but the last third or so of the novel dragged badly; not for me, I'm afraid.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 31, 2024, 06:23:06 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 31, 2024, 02:34:04 AMWorth a read? Maybe it would be less fatiguing with reading-only glasses, trust me I'm an optometry student  ;D

Nope!  I have astigmatism.  It is progressives or nothing.

Yes it is worth a read.  Even though we live in a more feminist society, Thackeray's critique of the patriarchy has elements that definitely still stand today.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on January 31, 2024, 06:29:00 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 31, 2024, 02:34:04 AMI just finished the famous novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. There were moments I appreciated, but the last third or so of the novel dragged badly; not for me, I'm afraid.

You may be reacting to the feelings of Twain himself, who famously put it down and stopped writing two-thirds through because he realized that his subject matter was too tragic for his usual cheery ending. I think it was years before he picked it up again (to add the ambivalent but somewhat cheery ending).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 31, 2024, 07:55:11 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 31, 2024, 06:23:06 AMNope!  I have astigmatism.  It is progressives or nothing.

Yes it is worth a read.  Even though we live in a more feminist society, Thackeray's critique of the patriarchy has elements that definitely still stand today.

I didn't mean dollar store readers, you  can get prescription glasses for reading only that correct your astigmatism! The optics are different than progressives, and might be easier on the eyes. The drawback obviously is you'd have to change glasses when you have to read but worth considering I'd say.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on January 31, 2024, 07:59:29 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 31, 2024, 06:29:00 AMYou may be reacting to the feelings of Twain himself, who famously put it down and stopped writing two-thirds through because he realized that his subject matter was too tragic for his usual cheery ending. I think it was years before he picked it up again (to add the ambivalent but somewhat cheery ending).

Hemingway famously dismissed the final third of the book as "cheating", going beyond the "real ending". It wasn't that I found it too cheery, but Tom Sawyer's behavior at the end was kind of despicable. At least he got shot for it ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 31, 2024, 08:00:42 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 31, 2024, 06:23:06 AMNope!  I have astigmatism.  It is progressives or nothing.

I have astigmatism too and I use two pairs of glasses, one for driving and one for reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 31, 2024, 08:40:26 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 31, 2024, 08:00:42 AMI have astigmatism too and I use two pairs of glasses, one for driving and one for reading.

Yeah I have a friend that does that but I need my glasses on all the time, my vision is awful.  Progressives make more sense then instead of flipping between two different prescription glasses.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on January 31, 2024, 08:48:56 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 31, 2024, 08:40:26 AMYeah I have a friend that does that but I need my glasses on all the time, my vision is awful.  Progressives make more sense then instead of flipping between two different prescription glasses.

Of course, whatever works best for you. I have a friend who gave up progressives (he found the transition from close to far or viceversa too abrupt and annoying) and went for two pairs instead.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2024, 11:10:57 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on January 19, 2024, 07:08:31 AMI was slightly disappointed to see Gravity's Rainbow in there, as it's a personal fave that I reread occasionally.

The issue with the first 100 pages is that the narrative is epicyclic rather than linear.  I didn't get that the first time I tried, and didn't make it past - because I was looking in vain for a thread to follow, rather than simply enjoying it as an extended bravura literary cadenza.  Nowadays I enjoy that part the most, and tend to find it falls a little flat when it gets more sensible. ;D
Interesting, thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2024, 11:14:00 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 25, 2024, 10:20:59 AMWell, I plowed through that one. A very addictive story that I could not have put down if I wanted to, and just an incredibly enjoyable read. Highly recommended to anyone, though I expect there may be those who do not take this book or its author seriously, as the stuff of mere entertainment and unworthy of the time needed to read it. (For shame!)
Without scorning him, I've just not read any Dumas. I'll keep this in mind, thanks!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2024, 11:16:43 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 29, 2024, 12:25:43 PMI switched to Project Gutenberg on the Kindle.

Very resourceful, I must keep that in mind.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2024, 11:18:47 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 31, 2024, 06:29:00 AMYou may be reacting to the feelings of Twain himself, who famously put it down and stopped writing two-thirds through because he realized that his subject matter was too tragic for his usual cheery ending. I think it was years before he picked it up again (to add the ambivalent but somewhat cheery ending).
Intresting, gents.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 31, 2024, 01:06:41 PM
Quote from: Karl Henning on January 31, 2024, 11:14:00 AMWithout scorning him, I've just not read any Dumas. I'll keep this in mind, thanks!

I've read Count of Monte Cristo twice, it is quite a page turner!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on January 31, 2024, 04:14:49 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 31, 2024, 08:48:56 AMOf course, whatever works best for you. I have a friend who gave up progressives (he found the transition from close to far or viceversa too abrupt and annoying) and went for two pairs instead.

I have progressives and reading ones.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on January 31, 2024, 04:41:07 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on January 31, 2024, 04:14:49 PMI have progressives and reading ones.

After the recent posts I am starting to think maybe it wouldn't be too bad to have dedicated reading glasses for when I am reading.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 02, 2024, 08:38:32 AM
I started Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace about a week ago. I've never read it—indeed, I've never read a book this long, though Monte Cristo came close—but I've loved everything else I've read from Tolstoy, including Anna which I read in high school. So far so good, but it's been a slow read. Not that it's a particularly difficult book, at least not yet, but there's so much detail on every page, and sometimes I have to stop to admire the author's masterful execution, and reread. So this will probably take a while ;D Being lazy, I got a translation with minimal French, the Briggs on Penguin.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 02, 2024, 09:06:26 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 02, 2024, 08:38:32 AMI started Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace about a week ago. I've never read it—indeed, I've never read a book this long, though Monte Cristo came close—but I've loved everything else I've read from Tolstoy, including Anna which I read in high school. So far so good, but it's been a slow read. Not that it's a particularly difficult book, at least not yet, but there's so much detail on every page, and sometimes I have to stop to admire the author's masterful execution, and reread. So this will probably take a while ;D Being lazy, I got a translation with minimal French, the Briggs on Penguin.

I've read War and Peace three times!  I hope you enjoy it.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 02, 2024, 03:42:46 PM
Quote from: DavidW on February 02, 2024, 09:06:26 AMI've read War and Peace three times!  I hope you enjoy it.

Nice! Assuming you read it in English, may I ask what translation(s) you read?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 02, 2024, 04:38:25 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 02, 2024, 08:38:32 AMI started Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace about a week ago. I've never read it—indeed, I've never read a book this long, though Monte Cristo came close—but I've loved everything else I've read from Tolstoy, including Anna which I read in high school. So far so good, but it's been a slow read. Not that it's a particularly difficult book, at least not yet, but there's so much detail on every page, and sometimes I have to stop to admire the author's masterful execution, and reread. So this will probably take a while ;D Being lazy, I got a translation with minimal French, the Briggs on Penguin.

When I read and re-read War and Peace years ago, I was unaware of the profound influence Schopenhauer had on Tolstoy. I'm still going to read it again, through the prism of the latter's ideas.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on February 02, 2024, 04:55:39 PM
If you are reading thick books, consider Thomas Mann's magnum opus 'Joseph and his Brothers':
Mann thought his book would be remembered as 'humanizing mythology'. It's really exceptional good, but difficult. Since I read in bed the book is hard to hold, the font is also small and since it's a difficult read I gave up and choose to read other books first. Maybe will pick up later again.

https://www.amazon.nl/Joseph-His-Brothers-Translated-Introduced/dp/1400040019/ref=sr_1_19?crid=35FK21YS35HTX&keywords=thomas+mann+joseph&qid=1706924998&sprefix=Thomas+mann+%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-19 (https://www.amazon.nl/Joseph-His-Brothers-Translated-Introduced/dp/1400040019/ref=sr_1_19?crid=35FK21YS35HTX&keywords=thomas+mann+joseph&qid=1706924998&sprefix=Thomas+mann+%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-19)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 02, 2024, 04:59:19 PM
Quote from: Henk on February 02, 2024, 04:55:39 PMIf you are reading thick books, consider Thomas Mann's magnum opus 'Joseph and his Brothers':
Mann thought his book would be remembered as 'humanizing mythology'. It's really exceptional good, but difficult. Since I read in bed the book is hard to hold, the print is also small and since it's a difficult read I gave up and choose to read other books first. Maybe will pick up later again.

https://www.amazon.nl/Joseph-His-Brothers-Translated-Introduced/dp/1400040019/ref=sr_1_19?crid=35FK21YS35HTX&keywords=thomas+mann+joseph&qid=1706924998&sprefix=Thomas+mann+%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-19 (https://www.amazon.nl/Joseph-His-Brothers-Translated-Introduced/dp/1400040019/ref=sr_1_19?crid=35FK21YS35HTX&keywords=thomas+mann+joseph&qid=1706924998&sprefix=Thomas+mann+%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-19)

I just saw a copy of this at Strand here in New York a couple of days ago, and while I was there I read the first couple of pages. I really admire Thomas Mann and would love to read that one. Really want to read Zauberberg (of which I read the first half while in an inpatient mental health facility  ;D but never finished) and Faustus as well, which I also started but never finished. Death in Venice and Buddenbrooks are two of my favorite books.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on February 02, 2024, 05:02:24 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 02, 2024, 04:59:19 PMI just saw a copy of this at Strand here in New York a couple of days ago, and while I was there I read the first couple of pages. I really admire Thomas Mann and would love to read that one. Really want to read Zauberberg (of which I read the first half while in an inpatient mental health facility  ;D but never finished) and Faustus as well, which I also started but never finished. Death in Venice and Buddenbrooks are two of my favorite books.

I read Buddenbrooks as well. Good book indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on February 03, 2024, 02:09:14 AM
Buddenbrooks is probably my favorite novel of all time, going past even Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris. Read Zauberberg and Joseph some years ago and loved them both. Joseph is absolutely worth the effort if you can stand Joseph's narcissism. For what it's worth it is treated as a serious character flaw by the author as well. At least Joseph gets thrown down the well for his efforts.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 03, 2024, 06:02:19 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 02, 2024, 03:42:46 PMNice! Assuming you read it in English, may I ask what translation(s) you read?

Dunnigan, Maude, then Dunnigan again.  I love the Rosamund Bartlett translation of Anna Karenina, and I feel that if she translates War and Peace it would be for me the definitive translation experience.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 03, 2024, 08:39:53 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 03, 2024, 06:02:19 AMDunnigan, Maude, then Dunnigan again.  I love the Rosamund Bartlett translation of Anna Karenina, and I feel that if she translates War and Peace it would be for me the definitive translation experience.

I do want to read the Bartlett Anna Karenina. What did you think of the Maudes' translation of War and Peace? Just for fun, I did a "blind taste test" looking at translations of a passage of Anna Karenina, and was surprised that Maude won out (Bartlett was second).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 03, 2024, 08:43:15 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on February 03, 2024, 02:09:14 AMBuddenbrooks is probably my favorite novel of all time, going past even Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris. Read Zauberberg and Joseph some years ago and loved them both. Joseph is absolutely worth the effort if you can stand Joseph's narcissism. For what it's worth it is treated as a serious character flaw by the author as well. At least Joseph gets thrown down the well for his efforts.  8)

I've only read Buddenbrooks once, in about a week during the height of the covid lockdowns. Immediately I was so struck by its beauty, its incredible characters (especially Hanno), that I've considered it among my favorites ever since, though I think I ought to spend much more time with it. I was 25 when I read it and it was blowing my mind over and over that Thomas Mann was the same age when he wrote it.

Hugo is an author I've been thinking about diving into recently—but I have so much on my plate I'd better put it off for now. So far though I must admit that my New Year resolution of reading more long books has been a success.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 03, 2024, 08:58:35 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 03, 2024, 08:39:53 AMI do want to read the Bartlett Anna Karenina. What did you think of the Maudes' translation of War and Peace? Just for fun, I did a "blind taste test" looking at translations of a passage of Anna Karenina, and was surprised that Maude won out (Bartlett was second).

I find it very easy to read, but really I liked Everyman Library having a three volume hardcover making it much easier to hold.  The Maudes anglicized the names, and they also translated the French.  Those are no nos.  But they didn't paraphrase or abridge like Garnett does.  btw I'm not saying I can read French but it should be translated in footnotes, else you will never know when characters changed language.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 03, 2024, 09:01:04 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 03, 2024, 08:58:35 AMI find it very easy to read, but really I liked Everyman Library having a three volume hardcover making it much easier to hold.  The Maudes anglicized the names, and they also translated the French.  Those are no nos.  But they didn't paraphrase or abridge like Garnett does.  btw I'm not saying I can read French but it should be translated in footnotes, else you will never know when characters changed language.

That's my one gripe with the Briggs translation I'm reading, the translated French; other than that, his language is incredibly gripping.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 03, 2024, 09:52:20 AM
Speaking of big, thick books, has anyone read "The Strudlhof Steps"?

During the first COVID lockdown I read the Briggs translation of War & Peace - my first-ever read of the book; I figured COVID was the perfect time - and loved most of it. The historical lectures in the second half become slow going as Tolstoy makes his philosophy overt, but the first half, with its glittering mix of historical detail, social satire, and the epic cast of characters, totally enchanted me. Was a great experience!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Henk on February 03, 2024, 10:17:20 AM
I like to recommend Stendhal who wrote a few thick books too. I've only read 'The Duchess of Parma' which was a great read. Great characters, great plot, entertaining for it's historical sense and psychological insight. Classic in the sense of timeless. Btw he also wrote a biography on Rossini.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 03, 2024, 12:49:14 PM
Quote from: Brian on February 03, 2024, 09:52:20 AMSpeaking of big, thick books, has anyone read "The Strudlhof Steps"?

During the first COVID lockdown I read the Briggs translation of War & Peace - my first-ever read of the book; I figured COVID was the perfect time - and loved most of it. The historical lectures in the second half become slow going as Tolstoy makes his philosophy overt, but the first half, with its glittering mix of historical detail, social satire, and the epic cast of characters, totally enchanted me. Was a great experience!

The satire you mention is what is most striking to me at first glance. The impression I get is that Tolstoy absolutely despises every single one of his characters, finding them all morally bankrupt and entirely too self-important, and that he can't help but to mercilessly lampoon them at every opportunity. Whether this is true or a reflection on me more than on the author, who's to say, but it is intriguing.

In what will surely turn out to be an ill-fated simultaneous reading project (for want of free time, and precedence of more important uses of my time than reading two massive books at once...), I am also starting Andrew Roberts' Napoleon: A Life. Entertaining read so far, on the subject of a person and an era that is a huge blank spot in my understanding of the world. I am hoping that understanding Napoleon a bit better will enhance my appreciation of War and Peace; I fear that I will end up bailing on both books midway through ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 05, 2024, 04:05:42 PM
Starting:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51z0XSsWBCL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

This will be the seventh I'll have read from last year's Baille Gifford prize longlist, from a possible thirteen. Three of the remaining titles seem less interesting to me, so there will only be three more to read for now, including the winner "Fire Weather".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 07, 2024, 06:25:10 AM
I enjoyed The Wager, gave it to my father for his birthday, and just found out my friend gave it to her husband for Christmas and she plans to steal it back and read it herself... a fascinating story well-told.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 07, 2024, 03:15:41 PM
Quote from: Brian on February 07, 2024, 06:25:10 AMI enjoyed The Wager, gave it to my father for his birthday, and just found out my friend gave it to her husband for Christmas and she plans to steal it back and read it herself... a fascinating story well-told.

Yeah, a real page-turner.

I thought I had some sense of how grim life at sea could be in the 1700s, but I was wrong. For example I don't think I've ever heard the exact details of the progress of scurvy. Or the extent to which a ship is rotting before it even leaves the building yard.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 07, 2024, 05:52:55 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 03, 2024, 12:49:14 PMThe satire you mention is what is most striking to me at first glance. The impression I get is that Tolstoy absolutely despises every single one of his characters, finding them all morally bankrupt and entirely too self-important, and that he can't help but to mercilessly lampoon them at every opportunity. Whether this is true or a reflection on me more than on the author, who's to say, but it is intriguing.

[..]

It's rather strange to read about Tolstoy's satire. He always seemed serious to me. One of the few writers whose seriousness doesn't get in the way. Tolstoy doesn't seem to have any more satire than the Upanishads. Maybe satire appears in translation? Anyway, for satire in Russian literature one should turn to others, to Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 07, 2024, 06:47:32 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 07, 2024, 05:52:55 PMAnyway, for satire in Russian literature one should turn to others, to Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Oh, there is no competition in comparison to Gogol! But I did detect - and it might be my personal frame of reference - a distinct comic element, maybe a gentle mocking of the characters, in the tone of the "society" parts of the first portion of War & Peace. And there are comic episodes like the drinking bear.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 07, 2024, 07:01:50 PM
The preface to one of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's Dostoevsky translations claims that what previous translators have missed is his humour. They then give a couple of examples. Both of which are as absolutely unfunny as everything else in his writing. A very, very slight ironical turn of phrase at best, and not in a humourous context.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on February 07, 2024, 10:02:43 PM
I love his previous three sci-fi thrillers, and this is off to an excellent start.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91ZQHCB6BFL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Irons on February 08, 2024, 12:37:29 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on January 25, 2024, 01:25:55 PMStarting: the winner of last year's Orwell prize:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81uauqTVbBL._SY466_.jpg)

I know it shouldn't matter, especially as the reporting is by all reviews excellent, but I'm amazed they couldn't do better with the cover, given how many striking images there are of the fire.


Also dipping into this when wanting something lighter:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417EkhUwTvL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

I read just the other day that Clive James spent his last days reading Forester 'Hornblower' novels.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 08, 2024, 12:51:53 AM
For humour in Dostoevsky one has to turn to The Diary of a Writer and The Double, the latter being almost Gogolian in atmosphere and presentation.

As for the writer absolutely despising his characters in relentlessly bitter satire, Feodor Sologub's The Petty Demon might beat even Gogol.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on February 08, 2024, 01:50:19 AM
Bound For Glory - Woody Guthrie (1.5 chapters in)

Intruders in the Dust - William Faulkner (about two-thirds finished)

Visions of Cody - Jack Kerourac (just started)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 08, 2024, 05:48:42 AM
Quote from: San Antone on February 08, 2024, 01:50:19 AMBound For Glory - Woody Guthrie (1.5 chapters in)

Intruders in the Dust - William Faulkner (about two-thirds finished)

Visions of Cody - Jack Kerourac (just started)
I'm glad somebody else reads as many books at the same time as I do!

(I'm three chapters from finishing Wharton's The Age of Innocence, three chapters from beginning Pynchon's Vineland, and almost exactly halfway through Russell's history of philosophy.)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 08, 2024, 06:09:04 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 07, 2024, 05:52:55 PMIt's rather strange to read about Tolstoy's satire. He always seemed serious to me. One of the few writers whose seriousness doesn't get in the way. Tolstoy doesn't seem to have any more satire than the Upanishads. Maybe satire appears in translation? Anyway, for satire in Russian literature one should turn to others, to Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Give me a little bit and I'll do my best to come up with at least a dozen examples for you, because there's one on almost every page. The number of times I've busted out laughing at this book... Not to say that his tone is not serious. Just that he seems to have a penchant for ridiculing just about every single character in the book—which is something I didn't expect. (And I wouldn't describe it as "gentle", as Brian did, but absolutely ruthless.) Having no Russian, I must of course concede the possibility that this is a failing of the translator, but I find it hard to imagine that Briggs is making all this up out of thin air.

A few things I laughed at:

Pierre's joining of the freemasons, which he and all participants regard with utmost seriousness—clearly, to the author (as I see it), it's all a big joke, and none of this approaches sincere spiritual feeling.

Berg and Vera's party—how happy he and his wife are that "absolutely everything was just like everywhere else"; delighted at how much they were conforming to the trends of good society.

Nikolai Rostov falling head over heels in love with the Tsar. "My God! I'd be so happy if he ordered me to go through fire here and now!"

Any time Boris Drubetskoy is on screen—his immense superiority and contempt for anyone and everyone he ever interacts with.

Any time Drubetskoy's mother is on screen—her shameless obsequiousness and machinations.

(This one might only be funny in English.) At one of Anna Pavlovna Scherer's soirées, as she is describing her guests in reductive terms to the guest of honor, Boris: "the simplest description of all was applied to M. Shitov, a 'man of much merit' who was always referred to thus." This is the only characterization we get, and more than once, of the unfortunately named monsieur Shitov ;D

Finally, I must again concede that maybe I'm the misanthrope for reading it all this way. But I don't think so, not totally, anyway.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ando on February 08, 2024, 06:42:46 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408913440i/805571.jpg)
101 Opera Librettos
Complete Original Language Texts with English Translations of the World's Best-Loved Operas (1996, Black Dog & Leventhal)
It's a massive (1474 pages), hardcover tome that I picked up at my local library sale for a few dollars. I can't see sitting with it alongside an opera viewing but a prefatory read before a viewing or a comparative study should definitely prove useful. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 08, 2024, 08:44:32 PM
It's been decades since I read War And Peace, but is there a bit where some elderly matchmakers get sick of a couple sitting in a room together in nervous silence, so they just burst in and congratulate them on their marriage proposal?

Or am I thinking of something else?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 09, 2024, 03:25:14 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 08, 2024, 08:44:32 PMIt's been decades since I read War And Peace, but is there a bit where some elderly matchmakers get sick of a couple sitting in a room together in nervous silence, so they just burst in and congratulate them on their marriage proposal?

Or am I thinking of something else?

Pierre and Elena Kuragina, IIRC.
And the marriage goes downhill from there.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 09, 2024, 03:32:09 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 08, 2024, 06:09:04 AMGive me a little bit and I'll do my best to come up with at least a dozen examples for you, because there's one on almost every page. The number of times I've busted out laughing at this book... Not to say that his tone is not serious. Just that he seems to have a penchant for ridiculing just about every single character in the book—which is something I didn't expect. (And I wouldn't describe it as "gentle", as Brian did, but absolutely ruthless.) Having no Russian, I must of course concede the possibility that this is a failing of the translator, but I find it hard to imagine that Briggs is making all this up out of thin air.

A few things I laughed at:

Pierre's joining of the freemasons, which he and all participants regard with utmost seriousness—clearly, to the author (as I see it), it's all a big joke, and none of this approaches sincere spiritual feeling.

Berg and Vera's party—how happy he and his wife are that "absolutely everything was just like everywhere else"; delighted at how much they were conforming to the trends of good society.

Nikolai Rostov falling head over heels in love with the Tsar. "My God! I'd be so happy if he ordered me to go through fire here and now!"

Any time Boris Drubetskoy is on screen—his immense superiority and contempt for anyone and everyone he ever interacts with.

Any time Drubetskoy's mother is on screen—her shameless obsequiousness and machinations.

(This one might only be funny in English.) At one of Anna Pavlovna Scherer's soirées, as she is describing her guests in reductive terms to the guest of honor, Boris: "the simplest description of all was applied to M. Shitov, a 'man of much merit' who was always referred to thus." This is the only characterization we get, and more than once, of the unfortunately named monsieur Shitov ;D

Finally, I must again concede that maybe I'm the misanthrope for reading it all this way. But I don't think so, not totally, anyway.

Of course, the understanding of satire, or humour, may be different, and different for each reader. I see Tolstoy as unusually serious almost everywhere. But, again, one can read the same book differently. For me, the point of War and Peace is to illustrate Schopenhauer's ideas above all else. Maybe I'm reading something that other readers aren't paying attention to. Also, Tolstoy has much love for his characters and people in general.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 09, 2024, 03:41:02 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 08, 2024, 12:51:53 AMFor humour in Dostoevsky one has to turn to The Diary of a Writer and The Double, the latter being almost Gogolian in atmosphere and presentation.

As for the writer absolutely despising his characters in relentlessly bitter satire, Feodor Sologub's The Petty Demon might beat even Gogol.

Sologub lived in a sick, stuffy world and yes, his heroes are not pleasant. However, I do think he despised and enjoyed them at the same time with some perverse affection. I read Мелкий Бес forty or so years ago, and I would hardly come back.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on February 09, 2024, 08:03:50 AM
Recently finished Proust's La Prisonniére. Enjoyed more than I should have, perhaps, considering how far off the deep end the protagonist goes in this one, basically holding Albertine captive. Next stop should be Albertine disparue but I'm not sure when I can start that one, having several other captivating reading projects going on.

For one, I am already halfway through 4-volume biography of Wagner by Ernest Newman. Started 3rd volume today, nearing close to famous Tannhäuser fiasco in Paris. Newman writes extremely well. One thing I disagree with him though is his failure to understand Minna. I mean, seriously, is Minna supposed to take Wagner's infidelities in good humor?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 09, 2024, 09:51:45 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 08, 2024, 08:44:32 PMIt's been decades since I read War And Peace, but is there a bit where some elderly matchmakers get sick of a couple sitting in a room together in nervous silence, so they just burst in and congratulate them on their marriage proposal?

Or am I thinking of something else?

Yes! And yes, it is Pierre and Hélène Kuragina. That was another scene I thought was hilarious.

Quote from: Tolstoy'There's something special that's supposed to be said on these occasions,' he thought, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what was supposed to be said on these occasions...

'I love you!', he said in formal French, suddenly recalling what was to be said on these occasions.

:laugh:

@AnotherSpin definitely agree on the possibility of two individuals reading the same novel in different ways. Not that I've read all of Schopenhauer, but I agree: the influence of his ideas is all over War and Peace.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 09, 2024, 02:44:23 PM
Started:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SUGsz8YFL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

"In May 2016, Fort McMurray, Alberta, the hub of Canada's oil industry, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster turned entire neighbourhoods into firebombs and drove 90,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the story of this apocalyptic conflagration, John Vaillant explores the past and the future of our ever-hotter, more flammable world.

For hundreds of millennia, fire has been a partner in our evolution, shaping culture and civilization. Yet in our age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in ways never before witnessed by human beings. With masterly prose and cinematic style, Vaillant delves into the intertwined histories of the oil industry and climate science, the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern wildfires, and the lives forever changed by these disasters. Fire Weather is urgent reading for our new century of fire."


also picking away at the essays in this collection:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71AWBdkeGKL._SY466_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 12, 2024, 02:58:24 AM
Currently re-reading the best general science book I've encountered over the last fifty years, Steven Brusatte's The  Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 12, 2024, 01:04:31 PM
Quote from: LKB on February 12, 2024, 02:58:24 AMCurrently re-reading the best general science book I've encountered over the last fifty years, Steven Brusatte's The  Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs.

Looked it up; that's going on my wish list. Haven't read a good biology book in quite some time.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 12, 2024, 02:13:10 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 12, 2024, 01:04:31 PMLooked it up; that's going on my wish list. Haven't read a good biology book in quite some time.

It's really a great read. I recommend it to any human who happens to be breathing.  ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 15, 2024, 07:05:04 PM
Added to things on the go:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61F2MM26zFL._SY466_.jpg)

I've actually read all the books these are taken from, but look forward to a revisit.

Can still remember my first encounter with his writing, his essay on attending Glostonbury. A couple of samples from that for the uninitiated:

"[...]The truth is this alternative weekend nirvana all comes down to plumbing and waste management. There are armies of kids who've been given tickets in exchange for picking up rubbish, of which there is an extraordinary amount. But it's bogs that are really the central leitmotif of Glastonbury. It's all about one thing: colonic endurance. Can you go the full three days without going? Because the very thought is so nauseous, so utterly medieval, it makes a colostomy bag sound like a civilised option. There are plenty of loos laid out like back-to-back miners' cottages. You can see the rows of feet in the morning, the whole-earth pasty-shoe next to the Nike Airs, next to Doc Martens. That's the thing that's rarely mentioned about hippies - they've managed to achieve completely unisexual footwear but, my darling, the smell. By the third morning it's, well, it's half a million turds and all the trimmings. There are horror stories of dropped stashes, of tripping and slipping, of horrible, horrible rectal explosions. But, for me, the most poignant, the most grisly, is the girl who told me she'd been putting off the call of nature for as long as sphincterally possible and until she was so comprehensively stoned and drunk she could face the drop. So at 2am she gingerly made her way to the pitch-black amenities block. Opening the door, she dropped her pants and, with the tense precision of a Romanian gymnast, lowered her posterior over the open sewer. Something cold and clammy squidged between the cheeks of her buttocks and in a sudden dark, repulsive flash of third-eye insight she realised she was squatting on the pointy turtle's head of the last occupant's offering, which itself was the high peak of a mountain of shit that had risen like the devil's soufflé from the bowl. She said her scream woke at least 4,000 people.[...]"

"[...]And I remember the nude wanker. Occasional nudity is respected at Glastonbury. It is the original flavour and spirit of nonviolent alternative protest, where hippies came from. Where would your flower-power happening be without some flaxen-haired, clear-eyed child of the morning getting her tits out and flicking peace signs at the world? This one wasn't exactly from central casting.
In front of the un-amplified folk gazebo where real, head-shaking lonely mandolin pluckers and finger-in-ear off-key whingers attracted a crowd of two or three delicate souls so hammered and wrung-out that their heads had been turned into iPods, there was a lady who had been so carried away by a folk combo that she'd taken all her clothes off. Nothing wrong with that. She'd been so transported by the musk she was moved to give herself a bit of a wank. Not a gentle, feel-good fingering, but the complete, top-of-the-range, brace-yourself-Doris, blurred-wrist seeing to. No, maybe not too much wrong with that either. There's an over-21 age limit and it's Glastonbury. The half-dozen pigs walk round with blinkers on doing community relations, funny-hat-wearing. Lord Lucan jacking up with Osama Bin laden would have difficulty getting arrested here, but the trouble was this wasn't some buff, fit, pert hippy chick with flowers in her hair and plaited pubes. It was an old, fat, hideous, meat-faced nutter bagwoman and something had to be done on purely aesthetic grounds. She was putting the folk folk off their protest songs, and they were complaining.
Two large security guards spent a lot of time animatedly shouting into their walkie talkies before gingerly approaching the frotting troll with rubber gloves and a blanket, the old trout desperately trying to finish off the full Meg Ryan while at the same time telling Securicor to f*** themselves, like what she was doing. And they danced around her trying to grab her wrists without getting the finger. I watched with bated breath on tenterhooks. Would they? Will they? And then one of them did. Gave me the punch line. "Oh, please, love. Come quietly." Yes![...]"
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 15, 2024, 08:32:37 PM
Bah, the cops should have just arranged for her to meet an old, fat and hideous boyfriend to finish up with...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 17, 2024, 05:49:37 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81o2u6twRHL._SL1500_.jpg)

This is a superb book, highly recommended for anyone interested in that period's music and culture in general. It's written in an eminently readable style, technical analysis and examples are kept to a minimum and skipping them does not impact the coherence of the narrative or the argument. Most commendable and refreshing, the composers and their music are evaluated from the perspective of their own and their time's aesthetic values and priorities, not from an anachronistic one. It is also lavishly illustrated with relevant contemporary artworks. The only thing I miss is a bit of humour, but this is a quibble. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on February 17, 2024, 05:50:24 AM
It's early in this general election year, and I figured I'd revisit one of my favorite essays "Politics and the English Language", from way back in 1946.  It remains germane.  One of my favorite excerpts:

Quote from: Eric BlairMany political words are similarly abused. The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies 'something not desirable'. The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of régime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different...Other words used in variable meanings, in most cases more or less dishonestly, are: class, totalitarian, science, progressive, reactionary, bourgeois, equality.

As with works by Veblen, Bernays, Galbraith, and Schumpeter, among others, despite its age, the work remains evergreen.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 07:21:04 AM
"Consider these four questions, which cannot, as a whole, be satisfactorily answered with any combination of 'yes' and 'no', but rather lead one on in an endless circle.
    (1) Does there exist a Self?
    (2) Does there exist a world outside Self?
    (3) Does this Self cease with bodily death?
    (4) Does the world cease with my bodily death?"

(https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Publication2/v4/02/74/c3/0274c3eb-dc6c-77ca-59ff-e87b184c1a5d/9781316021743.jpg/626x0w.webp)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 17, 2024, 07:29:13 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 07:21:04 AM"Consider these four questions, which cannot, as a whole, be satisfactorily answered with any combination of 'yes' and 'no', but rather lead one on in an endless circle.
    (1) Does there exist a Self?
    (2) Does there exist a world outside Self?
    (3) Does this Self cease with bodily death?
    (4) Does the world cease with my bodily death?"

(https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Publication2/v4/02/74/c3/0274c3eb-dc6c-77ca-59ff-e87b184c1a5d/9781316021743.jpg/626x0w.webp)

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. No

See how easy that was?

>:D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 07:29:15 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 17, 2024, 05:50:24 AMIt's early in this general election year, and I figured I'd revisit one of my favorite essays "Politics and the English Language", from way back in 1946.  It remains germane.  One of my favorite excerpts:

As with works by Veblen, Bernays, Galbraith, and Schumpeter, among others, despite its age, the work remains evergreen.

Putin is probably one of Orwell's most diligent readers. At least he knows perfectly well how to disguise a lie as truth, dissolving the latter into the former.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 07:31:26 AM
Quote from: LKB on February 17, 2024, 07:29:13 AM1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. No

See how easy that was?

>:D



No doubt about it. The less one understands, the easier it looks 8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Todd on February 17, 2024, 07:39:27 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 07:29:15 AMPutin is probably one of Orwell's most diligent readers. At least he knows perfectly well how to disguise a lie as truth, dissolving the latter into the former.

What?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 17, 2024, 07:49:12 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 07:31:26 AMNo doubt about it. The less one understands, the easier it looks 8)

I'm fairly well acquainted with him, since the 1970's. I think l have a reasonably good bead on the guy, and his contributions to quantum physics are unquestionable.

But like more than a few " deep thinkers ", his explorations into other disciplines ( such as philosophy, in his case ) tend to be superficial.

The cat in the box was pretty good, though.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 08:06:54 AM
Quote from: LKB on February 17, 2024, 07:49:12 AMI'm fairly well acquainted with him, since the 1970's. I think l have a reasonably good bead on the guy, and his contributions to quantum physics are unquestionable.

But like more than a few " deep thinkers ", his explorations into other disciplines ( such as philosophy, in his case ) tend to be superficial.

The cat in the box was pretty good, though.

It seemed to me that in this part Schrödinger overlaps quite closely with the understanding of Self (Atman) in Vedanta. If one looks at it from this angle, one can see the limitations of the Western type of thinking.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 17, 2024, 10:03:28 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 07:21:04 AM"Consider these four questions, which cannot, as a whole, be satisfactorily answered with any combination of 'yes' and 'no', but rather lead one on in an endless circle.
    (1) Does there exist a Self?
    (2) Does there exist a world outside Self?
    (3) Does this Self cease with bodily death?
    (4) Does the world cease with my bodily death?"

(https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Publication2/v4/02/74/c3/0274c3eb-dc6c-77ca-59ff-e87b184c1a5d/9781316021743.jpg/626x0w.webp)

(1) Yes
(2) Yes
(3) No
(4) No

Easy-peasy indeed.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 17, 2024, 10:08:36 AM
Quote from: LKB on February 17, 2024, 07:49:12 AMlike more than a few " deep thinkers ", his explorations into other disciplines ( such as philosophy, in his case ) tend to be superficial.

Amen, brother! High competence and skills in a scientific field do not in any way guarantee knowledge (let alone wisdom) about life and death. An illiterate peasant might be more experienced in this respect than all the Nobel Prizes in Physics combined.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 07:24:43 PM
Quote from: Florestan on February 17, 2024, 10:08:36 AMAmen, brother! High competence and skills in a scientific field do not in any way guarantee knowledge (let alone wisdom) about life and death. An illiterate peasant might be more experienced in this respect than all the Nobel Prizes in Physics combined.  ;D


You're not seriously suggesting that Schrödinger had a harder time answering questions about life and death than forum members, are you? The book is freely available online, and the author explains quite succinctly why a yes or no answer to each of the four points is not definitive. I see another problem here though - the inability of the intellect to grasp the obvious ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 18, 2024, 12:15:14 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 17, 2024, 07:24:43 PMYou're not seriously suggesting that Schrödinger had a harder time answering questions about life and death than forum members, are you?

What I'm suggesting is that forum members, or any common person for that matter, are just as competent to answer questions about life and death as Schroedinger, or any other famous scientist for that matter. High competence in physics does not translate into any special competence in answering those questions.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 18, 2024, 03:07:42 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 18, 2024, 12:15:14 AMWhat I'm suggesting is that forum members, or any common person for that matter, are just as competent to answer questions about life and death as Schroedinger, or any other famous scientist for that matter. High competence in physics does not translate into any special competence in answering those questions.


Of course, everyone tends to believe their own answers to any questions, including those formulated by Schrödinger. It is most natural and unobjectionable. Nevertheless I was a little surprised at the attempts not just to simplify the issue, but to bring it to absurdity. After all, one does not need to be a great scientist to assume at least that these questions do not imply simple definitive answers.

For instance, the existence of Self in the sense that Sch. is talking about is not obvious to most people. Self and self are not the same thing here, more, Self is not a thing at all.. ;)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 18, 2024, 03:50:25 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T3/images/I/512thkjg5wL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

I'll be the first to admit my almost total ignorance in philosophy but this book was an absolute pleasure to read.

I finished War and Peace over the weekend—I must admit, to AnotherSpin's credit, that the book became substantially more serious in tone in its second half. Regardless it was an absolute pleasure to read, and I can't wait to read it again, perhaps in a different translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 18, 2024, 08:18:51 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 18, 2024, 03:50:25 PM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T3/images/I/512thkjg5wL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

I'll be the first to admit my almost total ignorance in philosophy but this book was an absolute pleasure to read.

I finished War and Peace over the weekend—I must admit, to AnotherSpin's credit, that the book became substantially more serious in tone in its second half. Regardless it was an absolute pleasure to read, and I can't wait to read it again, perhaps in a different translation.

Besides philosophy, Plato texts are good literature.

It is difficult for me to decide what Tolstoy is like in translations. I don't want to tease, but his Russian is simply magical, no other Russian writer has used the language with such power. I can only mention that Tolstoy at the end of his life studied Greek and took up Hebrew. He wanted to read Bible without translation.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 19, 2024, 05:16:25 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 18, 2024, 08:18:51 PMBesides philosophy, Plato texts are good literature.

This was my impression as well. The end of Phaedo where Socrates drinks the hemlock is quite dramatic, made me think that Plato could have been one of the great tragedians if he was not so busy philosophizing. I wonder if you have any recommendations of where to from here? This book contained Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo, and amounts to all of the Plato I've ever read.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 19, 2024, 10:32:10 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 19, 2024, 05:16:25 AMThis was my impression as well. The end of Phaedo where Socrates drinks the hemlock is quite dramatic, made me think that Plato could have been one of the great tragedians if he was not so busy philosophizing. I wonder if you have any recommendations of where to from here? This book contained Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo, and amounts to all of the Plato I've ever read.

It is difficult to single out something in particular. Plato's cycle is quite coherent. I've been fascinated by different works at different times. I am less interested in his political doctrines contained in the Republic, Laws, etc., but you can find interesting things there too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: JBS on February 19, 2024, 11:41:10 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 19, 2024, 05:16:25 AMThis was my impression as well. The end of Phaedo where Socrates drinks the hemlock is quite dramatic, made me think that Plato could have been one of the great tragedians if he was not so busy philosophizing. I wonder if you have any recommendations of where to from here? This book contained Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo, and amounts to all of the Plato I've ever read.

The Symposium is probably the next logical step in terms of literary atmosphere. Bonus: you get to see Aristophanes and Alcibiades having a good time (or at least, Plato's version of them).

Problem is, the ones you read are probably* the first ones he wrote, and he get more abstract in the later ones. But among those the Republic is probably the one to prioritize.

*I'm going by what I was taught as an undergrad. It's quite possible scholarly consensus has changed in the intervening 40 years.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 19, 2024, 04:51:53 PM
Thanks! Think I'll check out Symposium and Republic.

Today, I also started reading something that was a conspicuous gap in my knowledge: Homer's Odyssey. I went for the Robert Fagles translation, hearing that it was easy to read, and they weren't kidding; it's a breeze, quite easy to follow what's going on at all times. As for the story itself, it's not at all what I expected it to be. I'm enjoying it just as much as I'd hoped to, though not for the reasons I expected.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T3/images/I/416iQVsK87L._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

I haven't read the Iliad, either; hoping to get to that soon as well. I do realize I read them in the wrong order.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 21, 2024, 10:55:11 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/815LZiokOrL._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 21, 2024, 09:40:44 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 19, 2024, 04:51:53 PMThanks! Think I'll check out Symposium and Republic.

Today, I also started reading something that was a conspicuous gap in my knowledge: Homer's Odyssey. I went for the Robert Fagles translation, hearing that it was easy to read, and they weren't kidding; it's a breeze, quite easy to follow what's going on at all times. As for the story itself, it's not at all what I expected it to be. I'm enjoying it just as much as I'd hoped to, though not for the reasons I expected.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T3/images/I/416iQVsK87L._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

I haven't read the Iliad, either; hoping to get to that soon as well. I do realize I read them in the wrong order.

I've always found The Illiad much more involving than The Odyssey. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. 😉
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 21, 2024, 09:47:54 PM
Quote from: LKB on February 21, 2024, 09:40:44 PMI've always found The Illiad much more involving than The Odyssey. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. 😉

+1
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 22, 2024, 01:04:43 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 19, 2024, 04:51:53 PMThanks! Think I'll check out Symposium and Republic.

Today, I also started reading something that was a conspicuous gap in my knowledge: Homer's Odyssey. I went for the Robert Fagles translation, hearing that it was easy to read, and they weren't kidding; it's a breeze, quite easy to follow what's going on at all times. As for the story itself, it's not at all what I expected it to be. I'm enjoying it just as much as I'd hoped to, though not for the reasons I expected.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T3/images/I/416iQVsK87L._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

I haven't read the Iliad, either; hoping to get to that soon as well. I do realize I read them in the wrong order.

One thing I'd be interested to get your thoughts about is whether Odysseus's behaviour at the end, where he kills the suitors, is morally acceptable. Is Odysseus just a baddy?

Re Plato, Symposium's quite fun - especially when Alcibiades comes in and turfs the drunken Socrates out, and everyone enjoys Aristophenes's contribution. The Republic is a serious study, people spend their whole lives trying to make sense of it. I think Aristotle's Nichomachen Ethics is more accessible - and better philosophy too!

This is a good way in to Plato's Republic

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/platos-republic/9780231160162

The Illiad is very much like Blood Meridian - they're always hacking each other to bits. And Achilles is totally mad.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 22, 2024, 01:44:34 AM
The Odyssey is far more entertaining. The Iliad is mainly battle, lists of ships and shiny shields. or the Sack of Troy. There were more epic poems by unknown authors describing that stuff but they were lost at some stage.)

The killing of the suitors certainly seems an excess of revenge.
After all, they didn't touch Penelope and for the material damage (and some seduced/raped maidservants) compensation could have easily been paid. And afterwards the whole island threatens to fall into civil war because of the revenge from the suitor's families against Odysseus. But apparently honor demanded a violent ending.
And it admittedly makes a better story than negotiating in hexameters how many oxen, sheep or tripods should be given in compensation for years of feasting and bothering Penelope...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 24, 2024, 04:02:59 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 22, 2024, 01:04:43 AMOne thing I'd be interested to get your thoughts about is whether Odysseus's behaviour at the end, where he kills the suitors, is morally acceptable. Is Odysseus just a baddy?

Re Plato, Symposium's quite fun - especially when Alcibiades comes in and turfs the drunken Socrates out, and everyone enjoys Aristophenes's contribution. The Republic is a serious study, people spend their whole lives trying to make sense of it. I think Aristotle's Nichomachen Ethics is more accessible - and better philosophy too!

This is a good way in to Plato's Republic

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/platos-republic/9780231160162

The Illiad is very much like Blood Meridian - they're always hacking each other to bits. And Achilles is totally mad.

I thought the last two books of Odysseus' revenge were complete overkill  :laugh: Especially after he kills Antinous, when Eurymachus stands up and says "we'll pay you back with interest and leave you alone forever", and Odysseus basically says no and slaughters them all, some of them not even putting up a fight. I suppose this reflects a kind of morality that is now lost—no one seemed to mind his slayings other than the parents of the victims—but it was kind of jarring. And then at the very end, when Laertes shoots an arrow through the heart of one of the bereaved fathers, that was quite jarring. In fact, the last book kind of made no sense, so I'm not surprised that some seem to agree that it was a later addition. I mean Ithaca is at the brink of what could prove to be a lengthy civil war and Athena steps in and all is peaceful again? Is this one of the early examples of "deus ex machina" to rush the ending?

Can't wait to read the Iliad; I think it was you, or someone here, who brought it up last year when we were discussing Blood Meridian in this thread, and my interest was piqued back then.

Thanks for your thoughts on Plato. I've heard similar thoughts about the Nicomachean Ethics too. I will try and get to that before too long, too.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 24, 2024, 06:43:17 AM
@vers la flamme After making that post I got out my copy of Alain Badiou's version of Plato's Republic again and have been looking over it. It's very good, I recommend it enthusiastically - there seems to be an English translation (which, in all fairness, I've not seen. But it doesn't look hard to translate.)

Badiou is a Marxist, a Maoist, and possibly the last living philosophical mover and shaker in the May 1968 "revolution", he was top philosophy dog at École Normale Supérieure - which is kind of the French analogue of Harvard.

Old books like Homer and the Old Testament are all morally problematic today IMO. I don't know what that really means, what it shows about ethics. The Republic less so. But the Iliad is special because Achilles is so full of contradictions and irrationalities he appears modern, though I guess that must be an anachronistic reading. Book 9 of the Illiad is, I think, one of the great things in literature - but hard to make sense of (like Chapter 5 of Absalom Absalom, which you also need to broach! )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 24, 2024, 10:07:53 AM
I couldn't make it past 20 pages into Plato's Politeia (wrongly translated as The Republic). Imho, the Emperor (pun) has no clothes at all...  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 24, 2024, 10:47:43 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 24, 2024, 10:07:53 AMPlato's Politeia (wrongly translated as The Republic.)

Doesn't Πολιτεία mean Republic?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 24, 2024, 11:57:27 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 24, 2024, 10:47:43 AMDoesn't Πολιτεία mean Republic?

No, it doesn't.

The Greek Republic in Greek is Elleniki Demokratia, not Elleniki Politeia.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 24, 2024, 12:28:05 PM
The common German translation is simply "Der Staat" (the state). I don't know if in antiquity "res publica" would have been translated as politeia, maybe, I tend to think that the Greek term is more general. (It can hardly mean a particular form/constitution of the state because the ideal state of the book is an aristocracy while real Athens was some kind of democracy whereas Republic could not be well used as a fully general term for a constution/state still to be determined but would presuppose certain features (at least in the modern sense, not sure about the Roman sense)
In any case I think that while there are many things touched upon in Politeia, it's a misunderstanding to think of it as a real politicial utopia (not only because this would be horrid with eugenic breeding and most poetry and music forbidden), but it's more about the soul, only that the makrosystem is used as big analogy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 24, 2024, 12:34:35 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 24, 2024, 04:02:59 AMI thought the last two books of Odysseus' revenge were complete overkill  :laugh: Especially after he kills Antinous, when Eurymachus stands up and says "we'll pay you back with interest and leave you alone forever", and Odysseus basically says no and slaughters them all, some of them not even putting up a fight. I suppose this reflects a kind of morality that is now lost—no one seemed to mind his slayings other than the parents of the victims—but it was kind of jarring. And then at the very end, when Laertes shoots an arrow through the heart of one of the bereaved fathers, that was quite jarring. In fact, the last book kind of made no sense, so I'm not surprised that some seem to agree that it was a later addition. I mean Ithaca is at the brink of what could prove to be a lengthy civil war and Athena steps in and all is peaceful again? Is this one of the early examples of "deus ex machina" to rush the ending?
I had a professor years ago who used the killing of the suitors and the threat of civil war as an example of a society apparently without a real method of deescalation; I don't remember if he commented on the historical plausibility of this for either Homer's time or 400 years earlier, but he contrasted it with some episodes from the old testament that had such deescalation strategies.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 24, 2024, 01:06:05 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 24, 2024, 06:43:17 AM@vers la flamme After making that post I got out my copy of Alain Badiou's version of Plato's Republic again and have been looking over it. It's very good, I recommend it enthusiastically - there seems to be an English translation (which, in all fairness, I've not seen. But it doesn't look hard to translate.)

Badiou is a Marxist, a Maoist, and possibly the last living philosophical mover and shaker in the May 1968 "revolution", he was top philosophy dog at École Normale Supérieure - which is kind of the French analogue of Harvard.

Old books like Homer and the Old Testament are all morally problematic today IMO. I don't know what that really means, what it shows about ethics. The Republic less so. But the Iliad is special because Achilles is so full of contradictions and irrationalities he appears modern, though I guess that must be an anachronistic reading. Book 9 of the Illiad is, I think, one of the great things in literature - but hard to make sense of (like Chapter 5 of Absalom Absalom, which you also need to broach! )

Yes, I do—I gave it a shot in the fall and gave up; maybe I just wasn't feeling Faulkner at the time, but I do intend to get back to it. Thanks to your comments I'll have to add it to the list of books I intend to read this year... alongside the Iliad, and Don Quixote. I've got copies of all three just sitting on my bookshelf...

I know nothing of Badiou and don't think I'd heard his name even, so thanks for alerting me to his presence, though I can't say I'm much in sympathy with Maoism or Marxism at present. In any case, I can read French, and maybe I'll give it a look through; though I'd like to read The Republic, Πολιτεία rather, in English translation first.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 24, 2024, 07:24:09 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 24, 2024, 10:47:43 AMDoesn't Πολιτεία mean Republic?


Russian translation of Plato's work is Государство (The State). Wikipedia tells it is translation from greek  Πολιτεία, or latin Res publica.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 24, 2024, 07:32:04 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 24, 2024, 01:06:05 PMYes, I do—I gave it a shot in the fall and gave up; maybe I just wasn't feeling Faulkner at the time, but I do intend to get back to it. Thanks to your comments I'll have to add it to the list of books I intend to read this year... alongside the Iliad, and Don Quixote. I've got copies of all three just sitting on my bookshelf...

I know nothing of Badiou and don't think I'd heard his name even, so thanks for alerting me to his presence, though I can't say I'm much in sympathy with Maoism or Marxism at present. In any case, I can read French, and maybe I'll give it a look through; though I'd like to read The Republic, Πολιτεία rather, in English translation first.

Tried reading Alain Badiou's Five Lessons on Wagner some time ago. It didn't work for me.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 24, 2024, 10:53:14 PM
I'm currently in Greece, but reading mundane American stories.  ;D


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71iCjatKOCL._SL1360_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 25, 2024, 03:05:55 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on February 24, 2024, 10:53:14 PMI'm currently in Greece, but reading mundane American stories.  ;D


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71iCjatKOCL._SL1360_.jpg)

Read this book several decades ago. I like many of the stories there. Tip on a Dead Jockey, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on February 25, 2024, 08:42:55 AM
I don't usually post my reading because it is usually genre fiction which most of you don't enjoy.  But I have a couple of things to share now

I read Descent by Tim Johnston because I actually thought I was buying a thriller about an escape and descent from a mountain! :laugh: But I stayed for what it was really about.  It is about a family's complete disintegration and loss of purpose and mental health when their daughter/sister is kidnapped.  These things sadly happen all the time in real life without resolution.  I mean as in hundreds of times a year.  Anyway riveting but very dark.  I could also post it in the dark lit thread.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91SNXNsjyNL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Now I am reading Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry.  I have been a fan of the Lonesome Dove series for a long time, but a couple years back I read and enjoyed The Last Picture Show.  So I thought would try more of his modern fiction.  He writes great characters that feel like real people.  And McMurtry is also effortlessly funny.

(https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/onix/cvr9780684853901/terms-of-endearment-9780684853901_hr.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on February 25, 2024, 11:54:24 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 25, 2024, 08:42:55 AMI don't usually post my reading because it is usually genre fiction which most of you don't enjoy.  But I have a couple of things to share now

I read Descent by Tim Johnston because I actually thought I was buying a thriller about an escape and descent from a mountain! :laugh: But I stayed for what it was really about.  It is about a family's complete disintegration and loss of purpose and mental health when their daughter/sister is kidnapped.  These things sadly happen all the time in real life without resolution.  I mean as in hundreds of times a year.  Anyway riveting but very dark.  I could also post it in the dark lit thread.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91SNXNsjyNL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Now I am reading Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry.  I have been a fan of the Lonesome Dove series for a long time, but a couple years back I read and enjoyed The Last Picture Show.  So I thought would try more of his modern fiction.  He writes great characters that feel like real people.  And McMurtry is also effortlessly funny.

(https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/onix/cvr9780684853901/terms-of-endearment-9780684853901_hr.jpg)

l've been re-reading the Lonesome Dove series in fits and starts and it always brings enjoyment. But your reminders of McMurtry's other worthy titles are very welcome, so thanks for that.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 25, 2024, 02:06:55 PM
Just a few stories here and there, but they always blow me away...:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Iz7SWTopL._SL500_.jpg)

Currently, I'm feeling like maybe I ought to slow my roll with reading; somehow, I've read something like 30 books since New Year's Eve, and those include titans like War & Peace, Moby Dick, and The Count of Monte Cristo. This can't be healthy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on February 25, 2024, 03:59:23 PM
The second novel of a trilogy in this gripping and very dark series.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91H2QXIWveL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on February 25, 2024, 04:50:26 PM
Woody Guthrie's Modern World Blues

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tAGYRx4NL.jpg)

This book explores how, through multiple artistic forms, Guthrie thought and felt about the scientific method, atomic power, and war technology, as well as the shifting dynamics of gender and race. Drawing on previously unpublished archival sources, Kaufman brings to the fore what Guthrie's insistently folksy popular image obscures: the essays, visual art, letters, verse, fiction, and voluminous notebook entries that reveal his profoundly modern sensibilities.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 26, 2024, 05:43:17 AM
Finished the book. Amazing! I don't know what to say about it, and what to compare it to. Maybe Slavoj Zizek's words from the afterword to the first part of the trilogy will give some idea: "This is where I stand, how I would love to be: an ethical monster without empathy, doing what is to be done in a weird coincidence of blind spontaneity and reflexive distance, helping others while avoiding their disgusting proximity. With more people like this, the world would have been a pleasant place in which sentimentality would be replaced by a cold and cruel passion."

(https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/The-Notebook-Trilogy-Cover.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 27, 2024, 10:08:06 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71xncgpjUbL._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on February 28, 2024, 05:33:37 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 25, 2024, 02:06:55 PMJust a few stories here and there, but they always blow me away...:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Iz7SWTopL._SL500_.jpg)

Currently, I'm feeling like maybe I ought to slow my roll with reading; somehow, I've read something like 30 books since New Year's Eve, and those include titans like War & Peace, Moby Dick, and The Count of Monte Cristo. This can't be healthy.

Sounds extremely healthy to me! But I am wondering just how much time you spend doing everything else in life  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 28, 2024, 05:36:17 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 28, 2024, 05:33:37 AMSounds extremely healthy to me! But I am wondering just how much time you spend doing everything else in life  ;D

What everything else? And what life?   >:D  ;D  :P
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on February 29, 2024, 12:20:38 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 25, 2024, 02:06:55 PMJust a few stories here and there, but they always blow me away...:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Iz7SWTopL._SL500_.jpg)

Currently, I'm feeling like maybe I ought to slow my roll with reading; somehow, I've read something like 30 books since New Year's Eve, and those include titans like War & Peace, Moby Dick, and The Count of Monte Cristo. This can't be healthy.
As long as you don't think Peter Besuchov was wrongly imprisoned in the Chateau d'If, or Captain Ahab fighting against Napoleon it shouldn't be unhealthy...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on February 29, 2024, 12:57:59 AM
@AnotherSpin I think if you do a degree in Literature that's the sort of pace you go at. I didn't study literature but I remember friends saying things like two weeks for the complete DH Lawrence, one week for the Shakespeare histories, one week for Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads etc
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 29, 2024, 01:16:04 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 29, 2024, 12:57:59 AM@AnotherSpin I think if you do a degree in Literature that's the sort of pace you go at. I didn't study literature but I remember friends saying things like two weeks for the complete DH Lawrence, one week for the Shakespeare histories, one week for Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads etc

This isntantly reminded me of William Hazlitt's On the Ignorance of the Learned:

If we wish to know the force of human genius we should read Shakespear (sic!). If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning we may only study his commentators.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 29, 2024, 02:49:10 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on February 29, 2024, 12:57:59 AM@AnotherSpin I think if you do a degree in Literature that's the sort of pace you go at. I didn't study literature but I remember friends saying things like two weeks for the complete DH Lawrence, one week for the Shakespeare histories, one week for Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads etc

I think you're referring to @vers la flamme, who reportedly read 30 books since the New Year, including War and Peace. My rate is much lower, less than a dozen books during the same.

At night, during the air raids, I find it difficult to sleep, could either watch the air defence tg channel or read books. I'm usually occupied with the latter.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on February 29, 2024, 02:52:34 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 29, 2024, 01:16:04 AMThis isntantly reminded me of William Hazlitt's On the Ignorance of the Learned:

If we wish to know the force of human genius we should read Shakespear (sic!). If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning we may only study his commentators.



Fortunately, I don't need to get a degree in literature. A degree in history at a fairly early age caused me to lose interest in history.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on February 29, 2024, 03:49:46 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on February 29, 2024, 02:52:34 AMFortunately, I don't need to get a degree in literature. A degree in history at a fairly early age caused me to lose interest in history.

I often get the impression that for many dons and critics literature is just a pretext to show off their knowledge and wit and proficiency at intellectual games but they actually couldn't care less for the books they comment upon and for the flesh-and-blood human beings which wrote them or to whom they are addressed. Conversely, many laymen engage with books simply out of love for literature and on a more personal level.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on February 29, 2024, 07:36:29 AM
In defense of my sanity, the majority of those books were very short, and/or rereads. However, I am in graduate school for something entirely unrelated to literature ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on February 29, 2024, 04:05:27 PM
Picking away at these two Dylan books:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71mK26RsdAL._SY466_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81bI8uVFLrL._SY466_.jpg)

also picking away at this anthology of boxing journalism from the last hundred years:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bAO52zacL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 01, 2024, 12:05:47 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on February 29, 2024, 04:05:27 PMPicking away at these two Dylan books:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71mK26RsdAL._SY466_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81bI8uVFLrL._SY466_.jpg)

also picking away at this anthology of boxing journalism from the last hundred years:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bAO52zacL._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

I read both of those Dylan books a few years back, one right after the other, I think. Good reads!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 01, 2024, 12:08:48 PM
Just finished Ricardo Baroja's Gente del 98 (People of '98)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71oaPx4OI3L._SY522_.jpg)      (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71KTTVyn3YL._SY522_.jpg)

Ricardo (1871-1953) was the elder brother of famed novelist Pío Baroja. He never achieved the literary reputation of his brother, but was a respected figure in the Spanish cultural world in the first half of the 20th century (and had success as a painter, particularly for his "Hispano-expressionistic" prints).

Gente del 98 is a collection of cameos on the people (some today regarded as classics, others almost completely forgotten) and the general atmosphere of the Spanish "generation of 98". It was originally published in serial form in a newspaper in 1935. It is a delightful read, at times ironic, at others nostalgic, and sometimes hilarious. Really enjoyed it (and it exceeded my expectations).

Now starting Cesare Pavese's La Luna e i falò (The Moon and the Bonfires).

(https://www.einaudi.it/content/uploads/2018/06/978884460079GRA.JPG)

In my late teens, I really enjoyed Pavese's collection of three short novellas La bella estate —The Beautiful Summer— (the last one of which, Tra donne sole —Women on Their Own— served as the basis for Michelangelo Antonioni's early film Le amiche).

I see the @Florestan and I briefly discussed this book (Pavese's last novel) here on GMG some fiver years ago, but only now have I come around to read it. It deals with the return of the narrator to his home region after spending the WW2 years as an emigrant in America, and all the changes he notices. The start is very promising. Let's see...
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Spotted Horses on March 01, 2024, 01:49:15 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on February 24, 2024, 04:02:59 AMI thought the last two books of Odysseus' revenge were complete overkill  :laugh: Especially after he kills Antinous, when Eurymachus stands up and says "we'll pay you back with interest and leave you alone forever", and Odysseus basically says no and slaughters them all, some of them not even putting up a fight. I suppose this reflects a kind of morality that is now lost—no one seemed to mind his slayings other than the parents of the victims—but it was kind of jarring. And then at the very end, when Laertes shoots an arrow through the heart of one of the bereaved fathers, that was quite jarring. In fact, the last book kind of made no sense, so I'm not surprised that some seem to agree that it was a later addition. I mean Ithaca is at the brink of what could prove to be a lengthy civil war and Athena steps in and all is peaceful again? Is this one of the early examples of "deus ex machina" to rush the ending?

Can't wait to read the Iliad; I think it was you, or someone here, who brought it up last year when we were discussing Blood Meridian in this thread, and my interest was piqued back then.

Thanks for your thoughts on Plato. I've heard similar thoughts about the Nicomachean Ethics too. I will try and get to that before too long, too.

I think the most interesting thing in Homer is the view of he mores of an ancient society. Not so much the philosophical beliefs about what is ethical, but the way people behaved and considered it expected to behave. In the Iliad I remember a scene where Odysseus sneaks into the enemy camp and slaughters people as they sleep. And Homer revels in Odysseus' courage and resourcefulness. Not that it wouldn't happen in fiction today, but it wouldn't be something to boast of. The other remarkable thing in the Iliad is haw anatomically explicit the violence is. Lots of livers, and bladders, and rib cages, and hip joints, etc. Not the generic gore of a modern day action movie.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 02, 2024, 01:29:07 AM
The death of Hector, with Achilles and his friends gloating, sticks in my mind as particularly nasty. From about line 350


https://classics.domains.skidmore.edu/lit-campus-only/primary/translations/Homer%20Il%2022%20Fagles.pdf


And not a man came forward who did not stab his body,
glancing toward a comrade, laughing: "Ah, look here  -
how much softer he is to handle now, this Hector,
than when he gutted our ships with roaring fire!"


Of course, he only dies because he's been tricked by a god, so there's a lot to think about even today besides the gore - the human condition in a universe of powerful and often hostile forces.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 02, 2024, 10:20:55 AM
Quote from: ritter on March 01, 2024, 12:08:48 PMNow starting Cesare Pavese's La Luna e i falò (The Moon and the Bonfires).

(https://www.einaudi.it/content/uploads/2018/06/978884460079GRA.JPG)

In my late teens, I really enjoyed Pavese's collection of three short novellas La bella estate —The Beautiful Summer— (the last one of which, Tra donne sole —Women on Their Own— served as the basis for Michelangelo Antonioni's early film Le amiche).

I see the @Florestan and I briefly discussed this book (Pavese's last novel) here on GMG some fiver years ago.

Did we? Blimey, I don't remember nothing (sic!)...

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 02, 2024, 11:01:35 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 02, 2024, 10:20:55 AMDid we? Blimey, I don't remember nothing (sic!)...


Ecco qui: https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg1196878.html#msg1196878
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 02, 2024, 11:13:38 AM
Quote from: ritter on March 02, 2024, 11:01:35 AMEcco qui: https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.msg1196878.html#msg1196878

Grazie mille!

I know what I'll be reading next week!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on March 02, 2024, 10:10:39 PM
I finished Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise, found it a generally enjoyable and informative read made more absorbing by the focus on key individuals, often treated as contrasting pairs. The big stories at the start however gradually tailed off until it all became very fragmented and patchy towards the end. So it was a fair representation of the century in which grand ideas of progress and historical development were pushed to breaking point and ultimately abandoned. There were a lot of interesting thoughts and music to explore, but not necessarily in a linear sequence, and I will most likely re-read certain chapters in isolation in future, have found some of the older music as worthwhile, particularly in the context of its time and place, as the newer. A key quote for me is "Messiaen felt that God was present everywhere and in all sound. Therefore, there was no need for the new to supersede the old: God's creation gathered magnificence as it opened up in space and time." Although that still has an implication of forward movement and I would prefer the viewpoint of standing outside of time looking in.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/714wnOCxI3L._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 02, 2024, 10:39:04 PM
Quote from: steve ridgway on March 02, 2024, 10:10:39 PMI finished Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise, found it a generally enjoyable and informative read made more absorbing by the focus on key individuals, often treated as contrasting pairs. The big stories at the start however gradually tailed off until it all became very fragmented and patchy towards the end. So it was a fair representation of the century in which grand ideas of progress and historical development were pushed to breaking point and ultimately abandoned. There were a lot of interesting thoughts and music to explore, but not necessarily in a linear sequence, and I will most likely re-read certain chapters in isolation in future, have found some of the older music as worthwhile, particularly in the context of its time and place, as the newer. A key quote for me is "Messiaen felt that God was present everywhere and in all sound. Therefore, there was no need for the new to supersede the old: God's creation gathered magnificence as it opened up in space and time." Although that still has an implication of forward movement and I would prefer the viewpoint of standing outside of time looking in.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/714wnOCxI3L._SL1500_.jpg)

All the more so since new is often inferior to old.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Jo498 on March 03, 2024, 12:28:03 AM
That Ross book shows that it's based on columns and articles that were uneven in quality and very diverse in depth.
I think I never finished it and found some things rather annoying/superficial but it's decent for what it is and  gives a reasonable "grand tour" of 20th century music.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on March 03, 2024, 05:19:52 AM
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71GADDWkBFL._SL1200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 03, 2024, 08:30:15 AM
Quote from: San Antone on March 03, 2024, 05:19:52 AMAbsalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71GADDWkBFL._SL1200_.jpg)

There's a real rabbit hole there. Anyway, I hope you'll post your reactions if you manage to get into it  - I have only talked about it once with a southerner, a guy I met from New Orleans.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 05, 2024, 05:08:25 PM
Added to things on the go:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81f09asc9cL._SY522_.jpg)

The Rest Is History just had a four-parter on Carthage and reminded me that I've been meaning to get to this.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 07, 2024, 03:00:45 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61cQ9HyWLQL._SL1360_.jpg)

Italy was the birthplace of opera. In this authoritative and accessible account of Italian opera, David Kimbell introduces those who, over three hundred years, created not only a national tradition but the central tradition from which others have drawn their inspiration. He traces the history of Italian opera from its origins in the humanism of the Renaissance to Puccini in the early twentieth century, drawing attention not only to musical issues but also to the social, literary, and philosophical ideas that have shaped modern Italian civilization.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on March 07, 2024, 07:26:04 AM
My, this is twisty and twisted--but not gory like his serial killer novels.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81jRdbjghpL._SL500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on March 09, 2024, 09:49:40 AM
Nearing the end of Newman's 4-volume biography of Wagner. Currently at the preparation of the first Bayreuth festival. While I've read several Wagner biographies before, this is by far the largest and by many still regarded as the best one. Wagner is an enigma. Such a despicable personality. The amounts which he "borrowed" from King Ludwig alone are staggering. Countless backstabbings, infidelities, discarding his friends as soon as he had got the money, everything proves that Wagner was a pathological narcissist. Yet there is something worthy of respect in the absolutely titanic effort that it took to achieve his creative goals, Bayreuth festivals in particular. It is a wonder that he didn't die of a heart attack many years earlier than he eventually did!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 09, 2024, 10:38:03 AM
Annual reread.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61GAnhYNKKL._SL1360_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 09, 2024, 10:55:46 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 09, 2024, 10:38:03 AMAnnual reread.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61GAnhYNKKL._SL1360_.jpg)

I strongly recommend you this book:

(https://images.bwbcovers.com/125/The-Other-Casanova-Paul-Nettl-9781258187453.jpg)

It's free on archive.org (requires registration).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 10, 2024, 09:54:27 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 09, 2024, 10:55:46 AMI strongly recommend you this book:

(https://images.bwbcovers.com/125/The-Other-Casanova-Paul-Nettl-9781258187453.jpg)

It's free on archive.org (requires registration).

Ordered!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 11, 2024, 12:48:39 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 10, 2024, 09:54:27 PMOrdered!

I;m sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 12, 2024, 02:49:55 AM
Miguel Serrano: "I had little time left, but I knew that I myself would now have to make a similar effort so that I would never again return to this earth, but would step into another sphere. This I had to do if I was to save myself from the leaden desert into which the world was being transformed by machines. To escape from that horrible prison, I had to move along the same solitary path that had been followed by my older comrades, those wise men of flesh and blood who were the keepers of my dreams."

C.G. Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships
By Miguel Serrano

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71M4tu9KgvL._SL1157_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 12, 2024, 09:16:52 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81QHcTmXNqL._SL1500_.jpg)

An honest, amusing and totally incorrect politically (first published 1964) look from the inside at the Italian mentality and way of life. Love it, all the more so as what he says about Italians, especially in matters of politics, government and law, applies in no small measure to Romanians as well. :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Barzini_Jr.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 15, 2024, 07:52:32 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61x2oBNk3NL._SL1412_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 15, 2024, 12:40:20 PM
First approach to the work of Swiss-born French poet Philippe Jaccottet (1925-2021), with his Libretto, a collection of short vignettes on Italy. Beautifully written, very evocative, not devoid of humour. Nice.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41CfCjS8j3L._SY445_SX342_.jpg)

For those interested, Giacinto Scelsi makes a couple of brief appearances (as "Count Giacinto").
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Bachtoven on March 16, 2024, 09:35:22 PM
I enjoyed the first two, so I thought I'd finish the trilogy. It's off to a good start.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51uoW7lY9fL.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 19, 2024, 02:25:19 AM
There is no one-size-fits-all path to freedom. Everyone has to find it for himself. Telling how someone else did it can be both helpful and distracting. Salvador Poe's book was released in early March and is available on Amazon in paper or electronic format.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91uC8wyKU5L._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 19, 2024, 12:46:46 PM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 09, 2024, 10:38:03 AMAnnual reread.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61GAnhYNKKL._SL1360_.jpg)

I've been wanting to read this for ages; lemme ask you this, would I be missing terribly much if I went for the abridged Penguin Classics version?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 19, 2024, 01:07:38 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 19, 2024, 12:46:46 PMI've been wanting to read this for ages; lemme ask you this, would I be missing terribly much if I went for the abridged Penguin Classics version?

Yes you do because the abridged version doesn't have enough description of romances and psychology. Readers better read the entire book. Especially it will guide and help young readers, imo.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on March 19, 2024, 09:34:02 PM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on March 19, 2024, 02:25:19 AMThere is no one-size-fits-all path to freedom. Everyone has to find it for himself. Telling how someone else did it can be both helpful and distracting. Salvador Poe's book was released in early March and is available on Amazon in paper or electronic format.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91uC8wyKU5L._SL1500_.jpg)

No need to read the book, the cover photo says it all ;) .
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 19, 2024, 11:29:44 PM
Quote from: steve ridgway on March 19, 2024, 09:34:02 PMNo need to read the book, the cover photo says it all ;) .

What cover photo says?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on March 20, 2024, 12:42:24 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on March 19, 2024, 11:29:44 PMWhat cover photo says?

Untouched Nature, spaciousness, the absence of human created objects.

(https://wordsworth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 20, 2024, 03:29:51 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on March 19, 2024, 01:07:38 PMYes you do because the abridged version doesn't have enough description of romances and psychology. Readers better read the entire book. Especially it will guide and help young readers, imo.

Thanks, I'll look for an unabridged copy.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 20, 2024, 07:00:30 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on March 20, 2024, 12:42:24 AMUntouched Nature, spaciousness, the absence of human created objects.

(https://wordsworth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog.jpg)

I see what you mean, ok.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 20, 2024, 07:36:29 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on March 20, 2024, 12:42:24 AMUntouched Nature, spaciousness, the absence of human created objects.

(https://wordsworth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog.jpg)

Really? How about the clothes, the boots and the stick worn by that guy? Moreover, his whole attitude is that of a conqueror, contemplating the remnants of a vanquished army: Napoleon at Austerlitz seen from behind. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 20, 2024, 07:52:16 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 20, 2024, 07:36:29 AMReally? How about the clothes, the boots and the stick worn by that guy? Moreover, his whole attitude is that of a conqueror, contemplating the remnants of a vanquished army: Napoleon at Austerlitz seen from behind. ;D

Stick?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 20, 2024, 07:54:09 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on March 20, 2024, 07:52:16 AMStick?

(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/images/full/cane_noun_002_05401_2.jpg?version=5.0.389)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 20, 2024, 07:55:04 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 20, 2024, 07:54:09 AM(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/images/full/cane_noun_002_05401_2.jpg?version=5.0.389)

Yes, but I do not see any on a picture.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on March 20, 2024, 08:50:22 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 20, 2024, 07:36:29 AMReally? How about the clothes, the boots and the stick worn by that guy?

The absence of human created objects seen from that person's perspective.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 20, 2024, 09:08:27 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on March 20, 2024, 07:55:04 AMYes, but I do not see any on a picture.

His right hand leans on one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on March 20, 2024, 09:22:22 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 20, 2024, 09:08:27 AMHis right hand leans on one.

That is called a cane FYI.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 20, 2024, 09:27:57 AM
Quote from: DavidW on March 20, 2024, 09:22:22 AMThat is called a cane FYI.

I was not quite sure stick was the right word but I could not remember the proper one. Cane indeed, thank you.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wendell_E on March 21, 2024, 02:04:08 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 20, 2024, 09:27:57 AMI was not quite sure stick was the right word but I could not remember the proper one. Cane indeed, thank you.

There are walking sticks and walking canes, for different purposes.

Quoting from a website:

QuoteA walking cane is a mobility device designed as a long-term aid for balance as well as to relieve pressure on a leg joint while walking. A walking stick, in comparison, is used to temporarily help with footing and stability when walking on rough or uneven terrain.

I'm guessing a guy who can make it to the top of a mountain is using a walking stick, rather than a cane.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ultralinear on March 21, 2024, 02:43:57 AM
QuoteA walking cane is a mobility device designed as a long-term aid for balance as well as to relieve pressure on a leg joint while walking. A walking stick, in comparison, is used to temporarily help with footing and stability when walking on rough or uneven terrain.

Interesting.  As someone who uses a walking stick for mobility, I was a little surprised to read this distinction.  I guess it's a US usage.  Here I think it's right to say it's the other way round: that cane carries implications of thin and flexible, whereas stick denotes something substantial and rigid.  Long time ago when I first started to need assistance, I was issued the best that they could find around the place at the time, which was very much a cane - it even looked like it was made of bamboo - and would not have been out of place in a Fred Astaire dance number.  And snapped in two the moment I tried to put my weight on it.  Since when I have used an inch-think stick made from a branch of some kind of hardwood, which will take my full weight without flinching (and on many occasions has done so. :) )

Just to complicate matters further, my partner, who has issues with her knees, uses very fancy adjustable spring-loaded sticks made from some lightweight alloy when out hill-walking.  These apparently are poles. ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 21, 2024, 02:54:52 AM
Quote from: Wendell_E on March 21, 2024, 02:04:08 AMThere are walking sticks and walking canes, for different purposes.

Quoting from a website:

I'm guessing a guy who can make it to the top of a mountain is using a walking stick, rather than a cane.

Interesting, thanks.

In Romanian there is no such difference: either as a support for older or invalid people, or as a tool for rough and uneven terrain, or even as an elegant accessory, there is one single word for all: baston.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 21, 2024, 03:33:38 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 21, 2024, 02:54:52 AMInteresting, thanks.

In Romanian there is no such difference: either as a support for older or invalid people, or as a tool for rough and uneven terrain, or even as an elegant accessory, there is one single word for all: baston.

I think there must be difference in Russian. "Трость" is derived from тростник (cane) and "палка".
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on March 21, 2024, 03:47:36 AM
I guess I thought of a stick as a found object like a tree limb and a cane was carefully made.  Now I know different!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 21, 2024, 03:52:48 AM
Quote from: DavidW on March 21, 2024, 03:47:36 AMI guess I thought of a stick as a found object like a tree limb and a cane was carefully made.  Now I know different!

Romanian has indeed a different word for that: băț.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on March 21, 2024, 01:45:52 PM
Quote from: ultralinear on March 21, 2024, 02:43:57 AMInteresting.  As someone who uses a walking stick for mobility, I was a little surprised to read this distinction.  I guess it's a US usage.  Here I think it's right to say it's the other way round: that cane carries implications of thin and flexible, whereas stick denotes something substantial and rigid.  Long time ago when I first started to need assistance, I was issued the best that they could find around the place at the time, which was very much a cane - it even looked like it was made of bamboo - and would not have been out of place in a Fred Astaire dance number.  And snapped in two the moment I tried to put my weight on it.  Since when I have used an inch-think stick made from a branch of some kind of hardwood, which will take my full weight without flinching (and on many occasions has done so. :) )

Just to complicate matters further, my partner, who has issues with her knees, uses very fancy adjustable spring-loaded sticks made from some lightweight alloy when out hill-walking.  These apparently are poles. ;D

Yes indeed, in the UK in my experience at least, a cane is a fashion/style statement (unless an instrument of punishment typically for schoolboys, now thankfully banned ..), and a walking stick a physical necessity for walking. There's also a shepherd's crook, which is wagged at sheep or used to catch them around the neck or legs,  in order to get them to behave in the manner of your desiring, but which can handily double up as a bit of walking support for tired legs ..
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Wendell_E on March 22, 2024, 01:39:38 AM
Quote from: Iota on March 21, 2024, 01:45:52 PMYes indeed, in the UK in my experience at least, a cane is a fashion/style statement

Certainly, it's also used in that sense in the U.S. I'm thinking of Fred Astaire and Mr. Peanut, with their top hats and canes.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 25, 2024, 04:51:45 PM
Starting: yet another from last year's Baille Gifford longlist, and the last to do from the shortlist:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81A37SvOAZL._SY466_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 26, 2024, 09:46:45 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 25, 2024, 04:51:45 PMStarting: yet another from last year's Baille Gifford longlist, and the last to do from the shortlist:

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81A37SvOAZL._SY466_.jpg)
That looks interesting, Simon. I've read a lot on (and by) Balanchine's "partner in crime", the fascinating Lincoln Kirstein. I should complement that with Homan's book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on March 26, 2024, 01:59:26 PM
Starting Harvey Sachs' Music in Fascist Italy.

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780297790044-es.jpg)

Reasonably priced copies (or copies with reasonable shipping costs) are surprisingly  difficult to find. Very strange. I could order this from AbeBooks in the UK and have it delivered to Scotland, where my partner was spending some days visiting his mother.

The book is well written and readable. I'm well into the first chapter, "The Terrain", in which Mussolini's rise to power, and the musical politics of his regime, are described.

Mr. Sachs (best known for his biography of Toscanini) mentions —in laudatory terms— the other major book on the subject, Fiamma Nicolodi's Musica e musicisti nel ventennio fascista. I was not that enthusiastic about that book. It certainly contains some valuable information, but it read like a disjointed collection of anecdotes, with no clear narrative to it.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tFtTG+1TL._SY522_.jpg)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on March 26, 2024, 02:48:36 PM
After watching an excellent two-part dramatized documentary (made by Ric Burns on PBS) about Dante Alighieri I began re-reading the Divine Comedy translated by John Ciardi.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51HretYQM5L.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 26, 2024, 02:58:46 PM
Quote from: San Antone on March 26, 2024, 02:48:36 PMAfter watching an excellent two-part dramatized documentary (made by Ric Burns on PBS) about Dante Alighieri I began re-reading the Divine Comedy translated by John Ciardi.



Where/how did you see this?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on March 26, 2024, 04:29:23 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on March 26, 2024, 02:58:46 PMWhere/how did you see this?

Here's the link to my PBS network (yours may be different) - https://www.pbs.org/show/dante-inferno-to-paradise/ (https://www.pbs.org/show/dante-inferno-to-paradise/)

DANTE: Inferno to Paradise is a two-part, four-hour documentary film chronicling the life, work and legacy of the great 14th century Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri, and his epic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, one of the greatest achievements in the history of Western Literature.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on March 26, 2024, 04:36:18 PM
Quote from: San Antone on March 26, 2024, 04:29:23 PMHere's the link to my PBS network (yours may be different) - https://www.pbs.org/show/dante-inferno-to-paradise/ (https://www.pbs.org/show/dante-inferno-to-paradise/)


QuoteWhile over-the-air broadcasts reach beyond U.S. borders, online video is subject to geo-filtering, which restricts the areas that can view PBS content. PBS is legally obligated to ensure each show does not exceed its granted rights, which unfortunately eliminates international streaming ability for some PBS shows outside the U.S.

We regret not being able to offer our supporters all of our online content.

 :(
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on March 27, 2024, 08:29:23 AM
Quote from: San Antone on March 26, 2024, 02:48:36 PMAfter watching an excellent two-part dramatized documentary (made by Ric Burns on PBS) about Dante Alighieri I began re-reading the Divine Comedy translated by John Ciardi.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51HretYQM5L.jpg)

One of Samuel Beckett's favourites. I think he liked all the torture in Inferno.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 27, 2024, 11:59:57 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81qwSZXhgzL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

The amount of bullshit contained in this book regarding historical and contemporary Spain would certainly make @ritter 's brain explode. I wonder whether the authors have ever seen a map of Spain, let alone read anything at all about its history. Dan Brown's level, maybe even below.  ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on March 28, 2024, 01:12:12 AM
Zola - Au Bonheur des Dames ("The Ladies' Paradise", trans. Nelson, Oxford Classics)

Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Peter Smith - Introduction to Formal Logic (university "fun" :-\)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on March 28, 2024, 03:40:00 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on March 28, 2024, 01:12:12 AMZola - Au Bonheur des Dames ("The Ladies' Paradise", trans. Nelson, Oxford Classics)

I read that Zola work some time ago. Zola is a magnificent evocative writer to be sure but I must also say that his male protagonists tend to be swines. If Zola even half-heartedly agrees with the kind of treatment his female characters receive in his books, then he must be the ultimate sexist.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on March 28, 2024, 05:20:23 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 27, 2024, 11:59:57 PM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81qwSZXhgzL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

The amount of bullshit contained in this book regarding historical and contemporary Spain would certainly make @ritter 's brain explode. I wonder whether the authors have ever seen a map of Spain, let alone read anything at all about its history. Dan Brown's level, maybe even below.  ;D

My mind is blown that you would even want to read that, and where did you find it? ;D

Since you mentioned Dan Brown, I didn't want to hurt the feelings of whoever posted about on this thread, but check out this hilarious parody of him, complete with a great imitation of his terrible prose! ;D

https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/ (https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/)

As for me, something funny, quirky, strange and naughty:
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71y2PnS64EL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on March 28, 2024, 06:10:28 AM
Quote from: DavidW on March 28, 2024, 05:20:23 AMMy mind is blown that you would even want to read that,

I thought that I could use something light --- and I stumbled upon something stupid.  :)

Quoteand where did you find it? ;D

In my own library, but as an inheritance, not a purchase.  :D

QuoteSince you mentioned Dan Brown, I didn't want to hurt the feelings of whoever posted about on this thread, but check out this hilarious parody of him, complete with a great imitation of his terrible prose! ;D

https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/ (https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/)

Hilarious indeed! Thanks a lot for that.  8)

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Brian on March 28, 2024, 06:20:14 AM
Don't know what "Big Swiss" is but that cover design is attention-getting!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on March 28, 2024, 10:22:25 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 28, 2024, 06:20:14 AMDon't know what "Big Swiss" is but that cover design is attention-getting!

Indeed. Dunno if I'm interested in the book, but that cover is downright inspiring.  :laugh:
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on March 28, 2024, 10:32:33 AM
Quote from: DavidW on March 28, 2024, 05:20:23 AMSince you mentioned Dan Brown, I didn't want to hurt the feelings of whoever posted about on this thread, but check out this hilarious parody of him, complete with a great imitation of his terrible prose! ;D

https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/ (https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/)

Excellent!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on March 28, 2024, 12:48:11 PM
Arthur Koestler's book on India and Japan.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81uCPMWjQZL._SL1500_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Crudblud on March 28, 2024, 03:03:27 PM
Quote from: Ganondorf on March 28, 2024, 03:40:00 AMI read that Zola work some time ago. Zola is a magnificent evocative writer to be sure but I must also say that his male protagonists tend to be swines. If Zola even half-heartedly agrees with the kind of treatment his female characters receive in his books, then he must be the ultimate sexist.
Entirely possible. I would only counter by saying that my impression of the four or five Zola novels I've read is that he tends to give his men enough rope to hang themselves. Without attempting to psychoanalyse someone long dead, it seems to me that Zola doesn't depict characters like Mouret as noble, only as having the cunning to succeed in a society which generally is shown to be rotten and inhospitable.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: hopefullytrusting on March 28, 2024, 08:19:53 PM
Have a cache of pulp arriving soon:

Crichton: Congo
Cussler: Spartan Gold
McDermott: The Hunt for Atlantis
McDevitt: Ancient Shores & Polaris
Preston/Child: The Relic
Reilly: Seven Deadly Wonders
Rollins: Excavation
Stevenson: Treasure Island
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 29, 2024, 11:55:25 AM
Just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled. I'm sorry I don't quite recall who here recently urged me to read it (I think it was Iota) but whoever it was, thank you for the recommendation. As I ought to have expected by now, having read some three or four of Ishiguro's other books, The Unconsoled was absolutely devastating–especially the last few chapters–and profoundly unsettling throughout. A good read, and not as challenging as I expected it to be. The whole thing felt like a disturbing dream.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on March 29, 2024, 12:03:58 PM
@hopefullytrusting Thumbs up on Polaris and Treasure Island!  McDevitt is great about writing mystery novels in an sf setting and he has good payoffs.  And of course Treasure Island is great fun!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: hopefullytrusting on March 29, 2024, 12:06:37 PM
Quote from: DavidW on March 29, 2024, 12:03:58 PM@hopefullytrusting Thumbs up on Polaris and Treasure Island!  McDevitt is great about writing mystery novels in an sf setting and he has good payoffs.  And of course Treasure Island is great fun!

I've been watching someone play Uncharted 4, and recalled my live of Indiana Jones, so I wanted to pick up a slate of books reminiscent of that feeling of action-adventure.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on March 29, 2024, 12:09:35 PM
Quote from: hopefullytrusting on March 29, 2024, 12:06:37 PMI've been watching someone play Uncharted 4, and recalled my live of Indiana Jones, so I wanted to pick up a slate of books reminiscent of that feeling of action-adventure.

I love Uncharted 4.  I've played it twice and it is one of my favorite games of last gen.  It is a shame that Naughty Dog has recently been sidetracked with remasters.  Last gen we had Uncharted 4, Lost Legacy and Last of Us 2.  We're half way through the current gen and they have not released a new game yet, just remasters.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on March 29, 2024, 12:31:22 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 29, 2024, 11:55:25 AMJust finished Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled. I'm sorry I don't quite recall who here recently urged me to read it (I think it was Iota) but whoever it was, thank you for the recommendation. As I ought to have expected by now, having read some three or four of Ishiguro's other books, The Unconsoled was absolutely devastating–especially the last few chapters–and profoundly unsettling throughout. A good read, and not as challenging as I expected it to be. The whole thing felt like a disturbing dream.

Glad you liked it. A book like no other imo. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 29, 2024, 12:52:22 PM
Quote from: Iota on March 29, 2024, 12:31:22 PMGlad you liked it. A book like no other imo. 

Forgive me if maybe we've already had this chat but have you read any of his other books? An Artist of the Floating World, which I reread earlier in the month, as well as The Remains of the Day are favorites of mine.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Iota on March 29, 2024, 01:32:36 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 29, 2024, 12:52:22 PMForgive me if maybe we've already had this chat but have you read any of his other books? An Artist of the Floating World, which I reread earlier in the month, as well as The Remains of the Day are favorites of mine.

Yes, I loved The Remains of the Day too, and found Never Let me Go pretty moving/disturbing as well. I haven't read An Artist of the Floating World but have heard good things about it, a handy reminder, thanks.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on March 30, 2024, 09:57:11 AM
Rereading Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, which makes marginally more sense than it did the first time around a couple of years back. While I still find some aspects of the book quite confusing, it is, for me, a hugely enjoyable read, filled with great characters. Some parts of it, like Addie Bundren's chapter, are unquestionably masterful. If any of the Faulknerians here are reading this post and feel like discussing some of the finer points about this book feel free to shoot me a PM.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 02, 2024, 10:46:13 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 30, 2024, 09:57:11 AMRereading Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, which makes marginally more sense than it did the first time around a couple of years back. While I still find some aspects of the book quite confusing, it is, for me, a hugely enjoyable read, filled with great characters. Some parts of it, like Addie Bundren's chapter, are unquestionably masterful. If any of the Faulknerians here are reading this post and feel like discussing some of the finer points about this book feel free to shoot me a PM.  :D

The Faulkner (white) women are interesting -- shame Caddie never speaks. You would enjoy meeting meet Rosa., she's . . . strange.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DaveF on April 02, 2024, 10:56:24 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 29, 2024, 11:55:25 AMJust finished Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled.
Yeah, that's the masterpiece, I would say.  Others are good/great (I especially admire the way the whole of The Remains of the Day is a preparation for one sentence ["At that moment, my heart was breaking", or however it goes]), but The Unconsoled is surely the best Kafka novel that isn't actually by Kafka.  Sadly, I feel that Sir Kazuo is now becoming a rather faint shadow of himself - Klara and the Sun I found terribly disappointing.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 03, 2024, 03:38:42 AM
(https://cdn4.libris.ro/img/pozeprod/376/375844-1.jpg)

The History of Ancient Egypt.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 03, 2024, 12:35:00 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on April 02, 2024, 10:46:13 AMThe Faulkner (white) women are interesting -- shame Caddie never speaks. You would enjoy meeting meet Rosa., she's . . . strange.

After finishing AILD I went straight into The Sound & the Fury. I managed to finish it this time after at least two abortive attempts in the past. I was always able to make it through Benji's section before; it was Quentin's section that tripped me up. But this time around Quentin's section was my favorite. Agreed re: Caddy, she is a fascinating character who we never really get to see. It almost reminded me of Dulcinea from Don Quixote which I read for the first time recently, a woman character who (presumably) exists and means very much to other characters, but we really never get to see or hear from her. (The whole bit about Quentin's chivalrous notions about the purity of his sister being shattered drew me back to Quixote as well. Their names even both start with Q.) Jason seemed to be a really wicked character. Maybe even more despicable than Popeye in Sanctuary.

Quote from: DaveF on April 02, 2024, 10:56:24 AMYeah, that's the masterpiece, I would say.  Others are good/great (I especially admire the way the whole of The Remains of the Day is a preparation for one sentence ["At that moment, my heart was breaking", or however it goes]), but The Unconsoled is surely the best Kafka novel that isn't actually by Kafka.  Sadly, I feel that Sir Kazuo is now becoming a rather faint shadow of himself - Klara and the Sun I found terribly disappointing.

Sad to hear that. I haven't read Klara yet but I had high hopes for it. I'll have to reread Remains asap to see what you're on about with that connection. That book impacted me deeply when I first read it a few years ago.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: T. D. on April 03, 2024, 12:38:44 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on April 02, 2024, 10:46:13 AMThe Faulkner (white) women are interesting -- shame Caddie never speaks. You would enjoy meeting meet Rosa., she's . . . strange.

Re. interesting and strange Southern (US) women, have you ever read Flannery O'Connor? Strange and brilliant writer, though her work is not cheerful.  ;) Any short story collection recommended.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 04, 2024, 12:56:34 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 03, 2024, 12:35:00 PMAfter finishing AILD I went straight into The Sound & the Fury. I managed to finish it this time after at least two abortive attempts in the past. I was always able to make it through Benji's section before; it was Quentin's section that tripped me up. But this time around Quentin's section was my favorite. Agreed re: Caddy, she is a fascinating character who we never really get to see. It almost reminded me of Dulcinea from Don Quixote which I read for the first time recently, a woman character who (presumably) exists and means very much to other characters, but we really never get to see or hear from her. (The whole bit about Quentin's chivalrous notions about the purity of his sister being shattered drew me back to Quixote as well. Their names even both start with Q.) Jason seemed to be a really wicked character. Maybe even more despicable than Popeye in Sanctuary.



You probably know that Quentin is resurrected in Absalom Absalom, which is a prequel to Sound and Fury. We see him before going up to Harvard for the first time and in the second part, we see him in a Harvard dorm chatting with his Canadian friend Shrieve. I think Faulkner wanted to say something about why he went on to kill himself - but like everything else in Faulkner, the answer isn't black and white.

He's such a wimp. I mean he couldn't even whack Dalton Ames!

Jason  junior is for me an American stereotype - I can imagine him doing very well and appearing as a shark on Shark Tank. I liked Jason senior in Sound and Fury - I like bumbling drunks. But in Absalom Absalom I thought he was insufferable, like Polonius in Hamlet.


I think I said this before, but for me all the difficulties with the style in both Absalom and Sound and Fury vanish as soon as it's read aloud. Other difficulties remain of course!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 04, 2024, 04:49:43 AM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386921801i/259020.jpg)

I started re-reading Henry James's The Golden Bowl and still loving it as much. The Assingham couple, Fanny especially, are still my favorite characters. Fanny's predicament is such a human one. I think everyone of us can relate to the feeling when one knows she/he has screwed up. Fanny's remorse, panic, desperate lies, conflicted feelings, are very effectively portrayed. It also helps that Fanny's and her husband's marriage is the healthiest one in the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 04, 2024, 09:30:43 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on April 04, 2024, 04:49:43 AM(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386921801i/259020.jpg)

I started re-reading Henry James's The Golden Bowl and still loving it as much. The Assingham couple, Fanny especially, are still my favorite characters. Fanny's predicament is such a human one. I think everyone of us can relate to the feeling when one knows she/he has screwed up. Fanny's remorse, panic, desperate lies, conflicted feelings, are very effectively portrayed. It also helps that Fanny's and her husband's marriage is the healthiest one in the book.

I just noticed this youtube upload of the BBC adaptation - it was quite well received at the time, though I missed it. I may watch it now actually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__N7iRygDXU


There's a comment on that upload saying that the characters aren't sexual, but I don't see it like that at all. There's a tremendous scene of sexuality held back when Amerigo goes to visit Charlotte after the marriage to Maggie's father (I think - it's been a while!)

That antique dealer who sells them the bowl is spooky!

One aspect of the novel which I really didn't enjoy was Fanny Assingham and her  husband.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 05, 2024, 04:19:30 AM
I watched relatively recently from Youtube The Golden Bowl adaptation with Anjelica Huston, the daughter of legendary director John Huston, as Fanny. I enjoyed it even though condensed adaptation necessarily can't catch every single nuance of James's extraordinarily subtle and complex tale. I have always seen James as a kind of proto-feminist. His female characters feel extraordinarily modern. I know Mark Twain supported women's suffrage back when it was considered odd. I wonder if James did too?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 05, 2024, 06:47:59 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on April 05, 2024, 04:19:30 AMI watched relatively recently from Youtube The Golden Bowl adaptation with Anjelica Huston, the daughter of legendary director John Huston, as Fanny. I enjoyed it even though condensed adaptation necessarily can't catch every single nuance of James's extraordinarily subtle and complex tale. I have always seen James as a kind of proto-feminist. His female characters feel extraordinarily modern. I know Mark Twain supported women's suffrage back when it was considered odd. I wonder if James did too?

I've just watched the first two episodes of the BBC series. I loved it -- at least once I'd overcome my prejudices about all the Edwardiana in the set. Of course it doesn't capture all the nuances of the novel, but I think for anyone who wants to get a feel for why the last three Henry James novels are so special but who feels a bit intimidated by his prose, this BBC series is an excellent entry point.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 06, 2024, 04:56:01 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81wNUo2hNrL._SY466_.jpg)

Finally found a copy of this essay collection, so will be picking away at this along with the Ballanchine bio.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on April 07, 2024, 06:56:27 AM
Re-re-re-reading my favorite book concerning my now second-favorite film ( Peter Jackson's LotR Trilogy has finally moved into the top spot ), Michael Benson's Space Odyssey.

Every time I've returned to this tremendous chronicle of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, I'm newly awed at Mr. Benson's achievement, which seems nearly as impressive as its subject.

Recommended not only for fans of the specific film in question, but for anyone interested in the motivations, collaborations and perseverance which can result in unparalleled artistry.

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Odyssey-Stanley-Kubrick-Masterpiece-ebook/dp/B074ZP9S44/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=ID5EI49PU6T1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.M-NmxCFhf6BUg8oNBLyEXU7cEc96Q7QyCvodrmheCE-H67cc3ZVNZmF09Pj0YJudrmk-gueVhDSg-xdpPi7lsUjsseHAIodV-2joNNUHIkIJlw7Q8ylSkS-oSQFJ2ZYnhzkACXjLOvfRDgBNlsdQxo32y74qogZiyW6A9EVTKzj3URH_mkWkWd2ZCfFQDZ3pD0cAxGE0-gXiyO4SVkwSIQ.kIKKpI7B5qlUa9iKABiR83c5k4_yfw5wpYE4wrH5J_s&dib_tag=se&keywords=space+odyssey+book&qid=1712501012&sprefix=space+Odyssey%2Caps%2C163&sr=8-4
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 07, 2024, 08:58:22 AM
Quote from: LKB on April 07, 2024, 06:56:27 AMRe-re-re-reading my favorite book concerning my now second-favorite film ( Peter Jackson's LotR Trilogy has finally moved into the top spot ), Michael Benson's Space Odyssey.

Every time I've returned to this tremendous chronicle of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, I'm newly awed at Mr. Benson's achievement, which seems nearly as impressive as its subject.

Recommended not only for fans of the specific film in question, but for anyone interested in the motivations, collaborations and perseverance which can result in unparalleled artistry.

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Odyssey-Stanley-Kubrick-Masterpiece-ebook/dp/B074ZP9S44/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=ID5EI49PU6T1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.M-NmxCFhf6BUg8oNBLyEXU7cEc96Q7QyCvodrmheCE-H67cc3ZVNZmF09Pj0YJudrmk-gueVhDSg-xdpPi7lsUjsseHAIodV-2joNNUHIkIJlw7Q8ylSkS-oSQFJ2ZYnhzkACXjLOvfRDgBNlsdQxo32y74qogZiyW6A9EVTKzj3URH_mkWkWd2ZCfFQDZ3pD0cAxGE0-gXiyO4SVkwSIQ.kIKKpI7B5qlUa9iKABiR83c5k4_yfw5wpYE4wrH5J_s&dib_tag=se&keywords=space+odyssey+book&qid=1712501012&sprefix=space+Odyssey%2Caps%2C163&sr=8-4

Did you ever read the Arthur C. Clarke book that it was based on? I'm thinking about checking that one out soon.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on April 07, 2024, 09:11:21 AM
The Sentinel is actually a short story, first published in a Sci-Fi/ Fantasy pulp magazine in, iirc, 1953. I read it decades ago, as soon as l became aware of its role in the film's genesis.

( I had already read much of Clarke's work beforehand, starting with Childhood's End. From the early '70's up to around 1990, Sci-Fi comprised the bulk of my recreational reading. )
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: ritter on April 07, 2024, 10:44:59 AM
Reading this biography of Italo-Argentinian composer-conductor Héctor (Ettore) Panizza, who is now largely forgotten, but was quite highly regarded in Europe (mainly at La Scala in Milan) and America (at the Met in New York, and in his native Buenos Aires) in the first half of the 20th century.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81vUekM4n3L._SL1449_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 08, 2024, 12:26:58 AM
Quote from: ritter on April 07, 2024, 10:44:59 AMItalo-Argentinian composer-conductor Héctor (Ettore) Panizza, who is now largely forgotten

I'll never forget him, you featured him in the Composers Quiz thread.  :D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: steve ridgway on April 09, 2024, 06:11:43 AM
Exploring Space With A Camera, NASA 1968

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: LKB on April 09, 2024, 06:41:01 AM
Quote from: steve ridgway on April 09, 2024, 06:11:43 AMExploring Space With A Camera, NASA 1968

Awesome little treasure, that.  8)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on April 10, 2024, 02:48:40 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61zWGMjQiAL._SL1200_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on April 10, 2024, 07:43:32 PM

Cormac McCarthy - Suttree

(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/325/736/9780679736325.RH.0.l.jpg)

William Faulkner - The Unvanquished

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/715WcVf0yIL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 11, 2024, 01:30:30 AM
I thought Sutree outlived its welcome - but only a bit, perhaps because of the absurdity of Harrogate's failed heist. Of course, it could have just been me. But the humanity of it is really moving - Sutree himself is the sort of guy I'd like to know - as is Harrogate and indeed all the whiskey drinkers.

If Knoxville is still like that I want to go and get drunk there, eat some catfish. My American friends here are northerners and tell me that I'm mad to want to go to the south - I want them to come with me on a Southern state road trip, but they refuse, spouting lots of invective about Southern culture. When I hear them speak it's clear that the North/South  split is alive and kicking still.

By the way, I've started to reread another biggie, viz


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71PnDPkU9KL._SL1308_.jpg)


How on earth could a bloke get so deep into the heads of women? I should look out for some feminist and marxist criticism. The way he uses fiction to construct really difficult moral problems is so impressive - James, in the late novels, represents for me the best philosophical fiction I know - because he never starts to lecture about ideas, unlike Proust and Tolstoy and Mann. He just presents the problems sensitively, allowing no one angle to dominate. Maybe Melville could do the same, maybe Faulkner - I'm not so sure about him at the level of ideas. Americans all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 11, 2024, 04:04:35 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on April 11, 2024, 01:30:30 AMI thought Sutree outlived its welcome - but only a bit, perhaps because of the absurdity of Harrogate's failed heist. Of course, it could have just been me. But the humanity of it is really moving - Sutree himself is the sort of guy I'd like to know - as is Harrogate and indeed all the whiskey drinkers.

If Knoxville is still like that I want to go and get drunk there, eat some catfish. My American friends here are northerners and tell me that I'm mad to want to go to the south - I want them to come with me on a Southern state road trip, but they refuse, spouting lots of invective about Southern culture. When I hear them speak it's clear that the North/South  split is alive and kicking still.

By the way, I've started to reread another biggie, viz


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71PnDPkU9KL._SL1308_.jpg)


How on earth could a bloke get so deep into the heads of women? I should look out for some feminist and marxist criticism. The way he uses fiction to construct really difficult moral problems is so impressive - James, in the late novels, represents for me the best philosophical fiction I know - because he never starts to lecture about ideas, unlike Proust and Tolstoy and Mann. He just presents the problems sensitively, allowing no one angle to dominate. Maybe Melville could do the same, maybe Faulkner - I'm not so sure about him at the level of ideas. Americans all.

I've been meaning to read that one. In fact, I saw a copy of it last week in local library.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: San Antone on April 11, 2024, 04:12:04 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on April 11, 2024, 01:30:30 AMI thought Sutree outlived its welcome - but only a bit, perhaps because of the absurdity of Harrogate's failed heist. Of course, it could have just been me. But the humanity of it is really moving - Sutree himself is the sort of guy I'd like to know - as is Harrogate and indeed all the whiskey drinkers.

If Knoxville is still like that I want to go and get drunk there, eat some catfish. My American friends here are northerners and tell me that I'm mad to want to go to the south - I want them to come with me on a Southern state road trip, but they refuse, spouting lots of invective about Southern culture. When I hear them speak it's clear that the North/South  split is alive and kicking still.

Yes, there is still some prejudice against the South from Northerners.  Purely due to old clichés, and not much exposure to it or Southerners. 

When I moved to NYC I remember being told my accent was "cute" or having become the butt of jokes because of some usages, e.g. "fixin' to do something."  But the more these folks got to know me the more they realized that just because someone had a Southern accent they were not dumb.  One of my best friends ended up being a Harvard educated, woman poet with whom I am still in contact, now after 44 years.

I am a died-in-the-wool Southerner, and read mostly Southern literature, except for J.D. Salinger, Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller, the plays of Eugene O'Neill, and I love Mark Twain who I consider mostly Southern.

I haven't read much James - but have always wanted to read more. There was a time when I read a number of 19th century British novels, Trollope (all), Austin (all, more than once), Forster (all), and maybe one book by Henry James. Joseph Conrad is among my favorite writers, does he count as British?

QuoteBy the way, I've started to reread another biggie, viz


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How on earth could a bloke get so deep into the heads of women? I should look out for some feminist and marxist criticism. The way he uses fiction to construct really difficult moral problems is so impressive - James, in the late novels, represents for me the best philosophical fiction I know - because he never starts to lecture about ideas, unlike Proust and Tolstoy and Mann. He just presents the problems sensitively, allowing no one angle to dominate. Maybe Melville could do the same, maybe Faulkner - I'm not so sure about him at the level of ideas. Americans all.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 11, 2024, 11:39:04 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81hSVVK5VoL._SL1500_.jpg)

Plenty of thought-provoking, if not downright weird, ideas here.  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 12, 2024, 01:21:05 AM
Quote from: Ganondorf on April 11, 2024, 04:04:35 AMI've been meaning to read that one. In fact, I saw a copy of it last week in local library.

It's elusive, complex and touches on many important moral and epistemological  themes.

I think this radio adaptation gives a good impression of the depth of the work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m17LykK8Lvo&list=PL_ustI4oDwpWkq-QBtkVK6rLzwE7zXWh7&ab_channel=sapphicstuff
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 12, 2024, 01:25:56 AM
Quote from: San Antone on April 11, 2024, 04:12:04 AMI haven't read much James - but have always wanted to read more. There was a time when I read a number of 19th century British novels, Trollope (all), Austin (all, more than once), Forster (all), and maybe one book by Henry James. Joseph Conrad is among my favorite writers, does he count as British?


Conrad seems a bit sui generis. I may get Nostromo out soon and have another look.

I've never read Mark Twain. That's something I'm definitely going to correct this year.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 12, 2024, 02:04:04 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 11, 2024, 11:39:04 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81hSVVK5VoL._SL1500_.jpg)

Plenty of thought-provoking, if not downright weird, ideas here.  :D



The Ellington biography I was reading recently had a lot of praise for Grainger's writings - he being one of the very first to see Ellington's genius, and for being surprisingly "colour-blind" for the times.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 12, 2024, 02:26:50 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 12, 2024, 02:04:04 AMThe Ellington biography I was reading recently had a lot of praise for Grainger's writings - he being one of the very first to see Ellington's genius, and for being surprisingly "colour-blind" for the times.

Grainger has the reputation of being a believer in the racial superiority of the Nordic people but his own words on the matter paint a very different picture. While he is proud of his "Nordic" roots, heritage and mentality, he never proclaims them superior to al others. In fact, he explicitly says that he believes all races to be equally endowed artistically; it's just that the artistic expression differs according to the characteristics of the race and he clearly prefers the "Nordic" way in music. One may or may not agree with that but he was most certainly not a racist. He also praised Grieg for his attitude regarding the Dreyfuss affair and was appreciative of jazz and Negro spirituals, Indonesian and African music.

His quirkiness is to be found in other directions, such as labeling Beethoven's music as "unstable and spasmodic", in proclaiming William Lawes a greater and more profound musician than Bach, in claiming that Purcell's Fantazies in 4 parts are the most satisfying string quartets ever penned, way better than Haydn's and in stating that the music of the 18th and 19th centuries is among the shallowest, dullest and most uninspired the world has ever known (and that includes Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, which he labels "jazz classics"). Now, that's some food for thought.  :D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: SimonNZ on April 12, 2024, 03:23:55 AM
He sounds like a hoot. I keep hoping to find a copy of his "Music, Ho" collection of writings, but somehow never have, despite it being a Pelican imprint of Penguin and printed in some quantity.

Does your volume contain that?
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 12, 2024, 03:41:16 AM
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 12, 2024, 03:23:55 AMHe sounds like a hoot.

And I forgot to add probably the best part: he praised to the skies, as being one of the greatest and most forward-looking composers contemporary with him, the one whom the future will recognize as a prophet, a guy named Arthur Fickenscher, whose In the Seventh Realm for piano quintet is an immortal masterpiece. I confess I didn't even had the curiosity to Google him.  ;D

QuoteI keep hoping to find a copy of his "Music, Ho" collection of writings, but somehow never have, despite it being a Pelican imprint of Penguin and printed in some quantity.

Does your volume contain that?

No, there is no article or series of articles titled "Music, Ho" in the volume I'm currently reading --- and which is available for free at archive.org (requires registration).
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Ganondorf on April 12, 2024, 11:17:29 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on April 12, 2024, 01:25:56 AMI've never read Mark Twain. That's something I'm definitely going to correct this year.

Twain is definitely worth it. However, before his pessimistic phase towards the end of his life, he's not a particularly "deep" writer. However, he most certainly is an entertaining one.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 12, 2024, 12:53:28 PM
Quote from: San Antone on April 10, 2024, 07:43:32 PMCormac McCarthy - Suttree

(https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/325/736/9780679736325.RH.0.l.jpg)

William Faulkner - The Unvanquished

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I have read The Unvanquished, but reckon I'm due for a reread. I just reread a couple of Faulkner books but not that one. Suttree is one of only a couple of McCarthy's books that I've never read, and I intend to fix that asap. BTW I am also a southern boy who recently relocated to NYC, and have definitely noticed certain prejudices among the Yanks.

I have been wanting to read some Henry James for years... I wonder what would be the best place to start, if anyone here can guide me it would be appreciated. I seem to recall that Jorge Luis Borges called him "the strangest of all writers" (paraphrase) and I want to know what he meant by that...

Re: Mark Twain, I read Huck Finn earlier in the year, and I enjoyed maybe the first 2/3 of it a good bit but he lost me at the end. (I think I posted about it at the time.)

Currently in the middle of a few books, one of them is James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, about the American Civil War, which is quite, quite good. Not really a "military history" style book so far but more about the cultural and political attitudes that led up to the war.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on April 12, 2024, 10:01:41 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on April 12, 2024, 01:25:56 AMConrad seems a bit sui generis. I may get Nostromo out soon and have another look.

I've never read Mark Twain. That's something I'm definitely going to correct this year.

In the USSR, Mark Twain was compulsory reading. In the sense that a strictly limited number of foreign authors in checked translations were published, but what was published was read by everyone. I think Tom Sawyer was better known in the USSR than anywhere else.

Joseph Conrad, in contrast, was virtually unknown, even despite the fact that he was born in the Russian Empire and first saw the sea in Odessa.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 13, 2024, 02:17:17 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 12, 2024, 12:53:28 PMI have been wanting to read some Henry James for years... I wonder what would be the best place to start, if anyone here can guide me it would be appreciated. I seem to recall that Jorge Luis Borges called him "the strangest of all writers" (paraphrase) and I want to know what he meant by that...


When I was about your age (fuck, that makes me feel old) . . . anyway . . . when I was in my 20s I read Portrait of a Lady and thought it was unputdownable. It's very early though, you may get an idea of the strangeness Borges alludes to, but maybe not. For real strangeness in his novels you need to take the plunge and immerse yourself into a long term relationship with Ambassadors, Dove or Bowl.

I'd say it's not strangeness, because it's the human condition and we're all humans. It just is totally disconcerting to have it exposed.

There's also the novellas and they can give a clear view of his elusiveness. Turn of the Screw -- you'll find yourself wondering who's a ghost and who isn't, what exactly is truth, reality . . . .  Aspen Papers too. 

Proust is similar really -- easier to read in a way, but less relateable for me, I don't see myself so clearly in Proust. And Proust turns into a lecturer, which James never does. 
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 13, 2024, 03:41:47 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on April 12, 2024, 10:01:41 PMoseph Conrad, in contrast, was virtually unknown, even despite the fact that he was born in the Russian Empire and first saw the sea in Odessa.

Joseph Conrad was published in Romanian translation in the 1960s: Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, Nostromo. He's one of my favorite writers, a truly unique style and a sumptuous use of English, despite him being Polish.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on April 13, 2024, 03:54:53 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 13, 2024, 03:41:47 AMJoseph Conrad was published in Romanian translation in the 1960s: Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, Nostromo. He's one of my favorite writers, a truly unique style and a sumptuous use of English, despite him being Polish.


Conrad was translated and published in Russian almost during his lifetime, but his popularity in Soviet times is not comparable to the popularity of Mark Twain, who was published in millions of copies, filmed screenings, etc.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 13, 2024, 10:48:50 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on April 13, 2024, 03:54:53 AMConrad was translated and published in Russian almost during his lifetime, but his popularity in Soviet times is not comparable to the popularity of Mark Twain, who was published in millions of copies, filmed screenings, etc.

Which only proves that Twain was much more palatable to the Soviet censorship than Conrad.  ;D

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on April 13, 2024, 11:30:22 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 13, 2024, 10:48:50 AMWhich only proves that Twain was much more palatable to the Soviet censorship than Conrad.  ;D



You bet. A pauper taking the place of the prince as the realization of the Bolshevik hope.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Florestan on April 13, 2024, 11:34:01 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on April 13, 2024, 11:30:22 AMYou bet. A pauper taking the place of the prince as the realization of the Bolshevik hope.

 ;D
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 15, 2024, 06:22:57 PM
With the James talk here recently I decided to pick up The Turn of the Screw. I have no idea how representative of his work this book is, probably not very, but I am enjoying it greatly, even though I have to read each sentence at least three times to understand what the hell the narrator is trying to say. Very, very eerie atmosphere, and definitely picking up on the strangeness that Borges referred to. I now want to read The Portrait of a Lady which I seem to recall is supposed to be from an earlier period before he adapted certain bizarre mannerisms of prose style which can be found in this later novella. The idea of reading one of his lengthier late period novels seems right now extremely daunting with how slow going even this short book is.

Edit: Thanks to Mandryka for recently re-sparking my interest in this author I've long been very curious about. Also today is the author's birthday, an interesting coincidence I discovered after buying the book.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on April 16, 2024, 03:18:29 AM
Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 17, 2021, 09:01:05 AMI wonder if there are a few Russian members and they can provide thoughts/insights about the non-Russian editions of Russian literature. My gut feeling is that about 70 percent of the text could be translated to non-Slavic language accurately and aesthetically.

Big fan of Dostoyevsky, but I don't personally consider the Karamazov his successful work.



I live in Ukraine, however, Russian is my native language. I read almost all of Dostoevsky 30-40 years ago. There was no desire to re-read it before, and there is none now. I have nothing to say about the translations of Dostoevsky or other Russian-language authors; I never had the idea to inquire. Nevertheless, for some reason I have the feeling that Dostoevsky in translation is much more popular in the West than in the Russian-speaking environment. Perhaps he is better in translation than in the original? I don't remember meeting D.'s serious fans among my Russian-speaking friends. On the contrary, I have heard negative attitudes more than once. Compared to that, the perception of Tolstoy is much more favourable, or at least it used to be. Also Gogol, Chekhov. Pushkin and Lermontov, of course.

Perhaps it should be taken into account that all the authors mentioned above were in the program of compulsory study at secondary school in the USSR. Children were forced to read Crime and Punishment at the age of 13 or 14, War and Peace a year or two later.  For a child's psyche D. is hardly suitable, rejection could leave a trace for life. I read the rest of his main books, The Idiot, etc., in my university years.



Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: DavidW on April 16, 2024, 03:49:32 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 15, 2024, 06:22:57 PMWith the James talk here recently I decided to pick up The Turn of the Screw.

I reread that a few years ago.  The ambiguity in the interpretation is perfectly executed!
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 16, 2024, 04:05:41 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 15, 2024, 06:22:57 PMThe idea of reading one of his lengthier late period novels seems right now extremely daunting with how slow going even this short book is.


It will always be daunting. You have to find a way of enjoying the daunt.

Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 16, 2024, 04:16:57 AM
Quote from: AnotherSpin on Today at 03:18:29 AMPerhaps it should be taken into account that all the authors mentioned above were in the program of compulsory study at secondary school in the USSR. Children were forced to read Crime and Punishment at the age of 13 or 14, War and Peace a year or two later.  For a child's psyche D. is hardly suitable, rejection could leave a trace for life. I read the rest of his main books, The Idiot, etc., in my university years.

Sheesh ;D Sounds like a crime against children. That being said, I was 15 when I first read Crime & Punishment (in translation, the P&V), and I loved it—but I think I'd have hated it if I'd been forced to read it rather than picking it up on my own curiosity.

Quote from: Mandryka on Today at 04:05:41 AMIt will always be daunting. You have to find a way of enjoying the daunt.



Of course—I'm under no illusions that I'm getting any smarter with age. Rather the contrary, hence why I'm on this kick of tackling challenging stuff that I never got to before, before it's too late.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: AnotherSpin on April 16, 2024, 04:26:48 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on Today at 04:16:57 AMSheesh ;D Sounds like a crime against children. That being said, I was 15 when I first read Crime & Punishment (in translation, the P&V), and I loved it—but I think I'd have hated it if I'd been forced to read it rather than picking it up on my own curiosity.

[..]

In Soviet schools we were not only forced to read, but also to make correct conclusions, in full accordance with Lenin's testaments.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: Mandryka on April 16, 2024, 04:41:50 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on Today at 04:16:57 AMOf course—I'm under no illusions that I'm getting any smarter with age. Rather the contrary, hence why I'm on this kick of tackling challenging stuff that I never got to before, before it's too late.

Though I would say this: in those later novels, you have to have experienced a bit of life and love to make sense of them. The early novels is basically innocent American meets wicked and calculating Europeans and gets taken for a ride. That's there in the later stuff -- but there's a lot more of something else . . . I don't know the word . . . it's to do with the fundamental unknowability of ourselves and others  -- like in Proust (which was, for me, much easier to read.)  That unknowability, the horror of that unknowability,  only became clear to me after a fair amount of emotional water had passed under my personal bridge.
Title: Re: What are you currently reading?
Post by: vers la flamme on April 16, 2024, 05:42:23 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on Today at 04:41:50 AMThough I would say this: in those later novels, you have to have experienced a bit of life and love to make sense of them. The early novels is basically innocent American meets wicked and calculating Europeans and gets taken for a ride. That's there in the later stuff -- but there's a lot more of something else . . . I don't know the word . . . it's to do with the fundamental unknowability of ourselves and others  -- like in Proust (which was, for me, much easier to read.)  That unknowability, the horror of that unknowability,  only became clear to me after a fair amount of emotional water had passed under my personal bridge.

Very interesting. I have not read Proust yet either. I figured I'd tackle his stuff when I turn 30 which, damn, is coming up  :o

I have always enjoyed books which deal with the kind of social/interpersonal alienation that I think you describe. I read a few books of fiction this past year which, I think, might examine that to some degree or another: Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station, and a few books by Kazuo Ishiguro, especially The Unconsoled. Of course these are writers of much later and much different generations/cultures (a Millennial American and a Boomer Japanese-Brit, respectively) but I would recommend checking them out if this kind of alienation is a theme that resonates with you. Edit: Obvious caveat that I haven't read Proust or James and can't speak to how similar they are. So take the recommendations with a grain of salt.
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