What are you currently reading?

[Mandryka]

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

There's a real rabbit hole there. Anyway, I hope you'll post your reactions if you manage to get into it  - I have only talked about it once with a southerner, a guy I met from New Orleans.

[SimonNZ]

Added to things on the go:



The Rest Is History just had a four-parter on Carthage and reminded me that I've been meaning to get to this.

[Florestan]

Italy was the birthplace of opera. In this authoritative and accessible account of Italian opera, David Kimbell introduces those who, over three hundred years, created not only a national tradition but the central tradition from which others have drawn their inspiration. He traces the history of Italian opera from its origins in the humanism of the Renaissance to Puccini in the early twentieth century, drawing attention not only to musical issues but also to the social, literary, and philosophical ideas that have shaped modern Italian civilization.

[Bachtoven]

My, this is twisty and twisted--but not gory like his serial killer novels.

[Ganondorf]

Nearing the end of Newman's 4-volume biography of Wagner. Currently at the preparation of the first Bayreuth festival. While I've read several Wagner biographies before, this is by far the largest and by many still regarded as the best one. Wagner is an enigma. Such a despicable personality. The amounts which he "borrowed" from King Ludwig alone are staggering. Countless backstabbings, infidelities, discarding his friends as soon as he had got the money, everything proves that Wagner was a pathological narcissist. Yet there is something worthy of respect in the absolutely titanic effort that it took to achieve his creative goals, Bayreuth festivals in particular. It is a wonder that he didn't die of a heart attack many years earlier than he eventually did!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Annual reread.

[Florestan]

Annual reread.

I strongly recommend you this book:



It's free on archive.org (requires registration).

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I strongly recommend you this book:



It's free on archive.org (requires registration).

Ordered!

[Florestan]

Ordered!

I;m sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

[AnotherSpin]

Miguel Serrano: "I had little time left, but I knew that I myself would now have to make a similar effort so that I would never again return to this earth, but would step into another sphere. This I had to do if I was to save myself from the leaden desert into which the world was being transformed by machines. To escape from that horrible prison, I had to move along the same solitary path that had been followed by my older comrades, those wise men of flesh and blood who were the keepers of my dreams."

C.G. Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships
By Miguel Serrano

[Florestan]

An honest, amusing and totally incorrect politically (first published 1964) look from the inside at the Italian mentality and way of life. Love it, all the more so as what he says about Italians, especially in matters of politics, government and law, applies in no small measure to Romanians as well. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Barzini_Jr.

[AnotherSpin]

[ritter]

First approach to the work of Swiss-born French poet Philippe Jaccottet (1925-2021), with his Libretto, a collection of short vignettes on Italy. Beautifully written, very evocative, not devoid of humour. Nice.



For those interested, Giacinto Scelsi makes a couple of brief appearances (as "Count Giacinto").

[Bachtoven]

I enjoyed the first two, so I thought I'd finish the trilogy. It's off to a good start.

[AnotherSpin]

There is no one-size-fits-all path to freedom. Everyone has to find it for himself. Telling how someone else did it can be both helpful and distracting. Salvador Poe's book was released in early March and is available on Amazon in paper or electronic format.

[vers la flamme]

Annual reread.

I've been wanting to read this for ages; lemme ask you this, would I be missing terribly much if I went for the abridged Penguin Classics version?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I've been wanting to read this for ages; lemme ask you this, would I be missing terribly much if I went for the abridged Penguin Classics version?

Yes you do because the abridged version doesn't have enough description of romances and psychology. Readers better read the entire book. Especially it will guide and help young readers, imo.

[steve ridgway]

There is no one-size-fits-all path to freedom. Everyone has to find it for himself. Telling how someone else did it can be both helpful and distracting. Salvador Poe's book was released in early March and is available on Amazon in paper or electronic format.

No need to read the book, the cover photo says it all .

[AnotherSpin]

No need to read the book, the cover photo says it all .

What cover photo says?

[steve ridgway]

What cover photo says?

Untouched Nature, spaciousness, the absence of human created objects.