What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Berchtold, perhaps after Moltke, was probably the single person most responsible for starting the war, and he lived another 25 years.

Come on, Ken! Such a colossal historical event had many more roots, reasons and motifs than the will and actions of a single individual.

That's my point. Am around page 500 by now and haven't reached at the Kaiser yet. 

but no one had greater responsibility, Germany knew issuing 'the blank check' to Austria-Hungary in regards to invading Serbia would lead to war with Russia. 

Which obvously makes Russia as culpable.

And how about England and France looking just for a good reason to curtail Germany's steadily and thoroughly march towards European industrial and economical hegemony?

[Ken B]

Come on, Ken! Such a colossal historical event had many more roots, reasons and motifs than the will and actions of a single individual.

Of course it does, but Berchtold and Moltke both wanted to use the crisis to start a war and worked to that end. They are a lot more responsible than the average man in the street!  We were discussing whether leaders were punished. Berchtold was the most culpable single man in the world still alive at the war,s end, but wasn't executed.

[Bogey]

Hitting some of Howard's Conan.  Reading it in order of publishing date.

[Karl Henning]

Interesting take: You May Be Wrong About Billy Joel

[NikF]

Belle du Seigneur: Albert Cohen

[asin]0140188711[/asin]

[bwv 1080]

Pineapple rock, lemon platt, butter scotch. A sugarsticky girl shovelling scoopfuls of creams for a christian brother. Some school treat. Bad for their tummies. Lozenge and comfit manufacturer to His Majesty the King. God. Save. Our. Sitting on his throne, sucking red jujubes white.

(Not reading the whole book again, just  a few chapters)

[Bogey]

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Reading a collection of Goethe's scientific writings. Boy it's gonna be a jolly good fun when I get to Farbenlehre. 

[Parsifal]

Swing Time, by Zadie Smith. If I try to summarize the plot, it will seem nothing to base a book on. And yet, like every book I've read by this author, it is extremely compelling. The story of two childhood friends who like to dance.

In the prologue, we are introduced to this bit of film history, whose existence is a source of astonishment to me. Fred Astaire, in blackface, performing a dance which is ostensibly a tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A6h12Qj9Cc

You can't un-see this.

Then, there's Jeni Legon in "Ali Baba Goes to Town."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtsxiw4ZHa8&t=76s

[Florestan]

Reading a collection of Goethe's scientific writings. Boy it's gonna be a jolly good fun when I get to Farbenlehre. 

That should be proof enough for Unamuno's dictum: Science is a cemetery of dead ideas 

[Mirror Image]

I'm making my way through Absolute Preacher, Vol. 1:



Absolutely love this series so far!

[nodogen]

A short, practical work in these times when the world is staring into the abyss.

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[North Star]

Coplas

                    i

'One cannot lose what one has not possessed.'
So much for that abrasive gem.
I can lose what I want. I want you.


                    ii

Oh my dear one, I shall grieve for you
For the rest of my life with slightly
Varying cadence, oh my dear one.


                    iii

Half-mocking the half-truth, I note
'The wild brevity of sensual love'.
I am shaken, even by that.


                    iv

It is to him I write, it is to her
I speak in contained silence. Will they be touched
By the unfamiliar passion between them?

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[SimonNZ]

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I'm also currently back (once again) reading Dickens. David Copperfield, that is. I've read A tale of two cities only once and recall liking it, even if it doesn't rank among my personal favorites.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Also, I am finally getting more acquainted with other plays than Faust with Goethe. Started recently reading Iphigenia in Tauris. Never have read Euripides's version.

[kishnevi]

Dickens for me as well.

This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Dickens for me as well.

This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.

That is one of the total of four novels of his I still haven't read. I've also heard that it quite possibly is his longest.

[Ken B]

Dickens for me as well.

This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.

That and Our Mutual Friend are the best. I keep thinking of rereading each.

[Karl Henning]

Dickens for me as well.

This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.

That and Our Mutual Friend are the best. I keep thinking of rereading each.

I do need to read both of those.