What are you currently reading?

[Ken B]

 

You must have meant dystopian.

Plural dystopera.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

You must have meant dystopian.

Yes. Autocorrect.

[Ken B]

Yes. Autocorrect.

I am continually amazed by autocorrect. My hovercraft is full of eels.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I often can't spell well enough to get into the basin of attraction of the word I am thinking of.

[Ken B]

I often can't spell well enough to get into the basin of attraction of the word I am thinking of.

I know the sort of thing you mean. I was trying to remember an adjective for duckish: of or pertaining to ducks. It's anatine. This was years ago when I wanted to remark on the American obsession with anatine collineation. Americans talk about anatine collineation all the time. It's very weird.

[milk]

This and The Blind Assassin are her masterpieces, I think. I like them much better than her dystrophic books (Maddadam, Handmaid's tale).

I'm looking forward to the Blind Assasin. I liked the first Maddadam book but they went downhill after that. I've never worked up the interest in Handmaid's. Glad to hear Blind Assasin is good!

[Karl Henning]

She made the discovery but a man got the Nobel. A half-century later, she's won a $3 million prize.

[NikF]

A reread, but fitting for the train journey -

[MN Dave]

Ursual Le Guin essays/blog posts.

[bwv 1080]

All Things Must Fight to Live stands out for me because it is not gratuitous. It would have been far more easy to write a book that focuses only on the depravity of the war (and it has been done too many times already-The Rebels Hour, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, etc.). Instead, Mealer offers balanced war reporting and a nuanced look at the lives of ordinary Congolese.

In addition to following the war in both urban and rural conflict zones, the author immersed himself in a two-thousand mile journey by barge, bicycle, and train through the heart of the country. While his meandering trip was fraught with complications such as a train derailment, he was able to see the impact that the war has had on Congolese living in the vast and impoverished interior.

Here's a brief except to pique your interest:

We went in first with soldiers, young and terrified Ugandan kids straight from the villages, whip-thin in their baggy fatigues and wound tight around their triggers even high above the clouds. The Ugandan army flew Antonov-26s into Congo, scrapped by the Soviet bloc and born again for African war, steel Trojan horses loaded with gun-mounted jeeps, barrels of diesel, and crates of banana moonshine. You found a place on the floor and instantly started sweating, nestled between rifles and rocket launchers so close to your eyeballs you could study the paint chips on the grenades. There was little cabin pressure to soothe the landings, and going in fast, you felt like your eyes would pop out of your skull. The soldiers buried their faces in their hats to hide the tears. And all you could do was wince and give a thumbs-up and be thankful that the engines were so loud that no one could hear you scream. (xiii)

https://newsoutofafrica.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/africa-reading-challenge-review-viii-all-things-must-fight-to-live/

[Sydney Nova Scotia]

When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin
Biography by Mick Wall

Good God they ripped off every one and every thing..................

[Sydney Nova Scotia]

Not reading yet, as still getting copy

The Big Note: A Guide to the Recordings of Frank Zappa

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Now at the beginning of Volume IV in Les Misérables, starting the very chapter which reportedly has the longest sentence in French literature, 823 words long.

[aligreto]

Now at the beginning of Volume IV in Les Misérables, starting the very chapter which reportedly has the longest sentence in French literature, 823 words long.

I found Les Misérables to be a sometimes cumbersome but always interesting read and I did enjoy it.

[Ken B]

I found Les Misérables to be a sometimes cumbersome but always interesting read and I did enjoy it.

#metoo But I am not seriously tempted to reread it. I am planning to reread a lot of thick books ...

[Florestan]

I found Les Misérables to be a sometimes cumbersome but always interesting read and I did enjoy it.

Ditto. My favorite Hugo novels, though, are 1793 and Les travailleurs de la mer.

[Ken B]

Ditto. My favorite Hugo novels, though, are 1793 and Les travailleurs de la mer.

Anyone have interest in a REreading thread?

[Florestan]

Anyone have interest in a REreading thread?

After I go through the 100+ books awaiting for a first reading, count me in. 

[Ken B]

My favorite Hugo novels, though, are 1793 ...

Is that the page count?

[Florestan]

Is that the page count?

Fortunately not. Actually the original title is Quatrevingt-treize (Ninety-three).