What are you currently reading?

[Artem]

I need to read The Stoner again. That book got so much buzz when the NYRB published it.

[Jo498]

I have not read Stoner (I think I bought it and then gave it away new and unread when I needed a present...or it is somewhere on the shelves...) but I'd recommend both the Augustus book and the one about Buffalo hunting (the latter is a mix between Moby Dick with buffaloes instead of whales and a more serious book TC Boyle could have written).

[Karl Henning]

Hi Guys - did not think that my post would get SUCH a response, but Slingerland knows his field and has done a lot of research - quote below from Amazon.  The book is fascinating and looks at alcohol, i.e. ethanol (and other mind changing intoxicants) from both a human and non-human perspective - if the descriptions in my links and the topic is of interest, then a strong recommendation from me.  Dave

The Science of Getting Knackered.

[Karl Henning]

There were too many heavy drinkers or borderline alcoholics among artists to keep track of.

QFT

[SimonNZ]

Started:

[Florestan]

I have no statistics but I do think that alcoholism (or borderline sub-clinical abuse of alcohol) was worse in the 19th and until the mid-20th century than it is today

One thing to consider is that until late 19th century genuinely drinking water was quite a rarity and it was healthier to drink wine or beer than water. Plus, alcohol was widely used as a daily painkiller and as an anaesthesic for surgery.

[Florestan]

When we get to writers, it might be easier to list writers who were NOT alcoholics.

Balzac and Eugene Sue once reportedly had 16 bottles of wine at dinner, after which the former went to the Italian Opera House to watch a Rossini opera. When  the lady seated next to him shouted indignantly "This man smells like wine!" he retorted "No, Madam, I smell like music!" 

[Fëanor]

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good & Evil



Felt like reading a bit more German philosophy. Must say that Nietzsche goes over my head a bit more than does Schopenhauer. Must also reiterate that I have never really been a philosophy guy. But I enjoy his passion and sincerity.

I read Beyond Good & Evil many years ago as well as a couple of the Nietzsche works.  I'm very much not a philosophy guy either, (though right now I'm reading Marcus Aurelius).  Don't skip Walter Kaufmann's introduction;  Kaufmann was probably the major Nietzsche schooler and apologist.

My main take-away from Nietzsche was his concept of "ressentiment".  I think some minor variant of ressentiment by the American White working class is the major explanation for the Trump phenomenon.

[aligreto]

John Connolly: The Dirty South





This is a crime thriller. It is a page turner but not written in that snappy, sassy style of curt conversation and description. This has a straightforward but detailed plot. The chapters are short as the action is fast paced and is also taken from a different standpoint in each chapter all concluding at one, conclusive point. Characters are well rounded and developed. It is all very well done and it is a well written and well presented book. I enjoyed the read. 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The World's Top 50 Thinkers 2021, Prospect Magazine.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/the-worlds-top-50-thinkers-2021

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Saki, Short Stories.

[Ganondorf]

Started finally these:

[DavidW]

I read Treasure Island a few months ago.  It is a fun adventure!

[Ganondorf]

I read Treasure Island a few months ago.  It is a fun adventure!

It sure is! This is actually a re-read for me (unlike the collection of short stories by Maupassant which is the first touch for me) and has always been my favorite from Stevenson, even better than Jekyll and Hyde.

[Jo498]

I love "Treasure Island". It was the first non-children book I read at about 8 years old (I was a bit too young, but so it goes, I think I had loved pirates before because of Pippi Longstocking). It's also my favorite although I have not read all of Stevenson's (and I think I read Jekyll and Hyde only in a simplified vocab version in school), Kidnapped/Catriona is very heavy in scottish history pre-knowledge (and the second one rather boring anyway.
I am not sure if there is a better classic adventure novel. (My next candidate might be the very different "She" by Rider Haggard, which is quite inappropriate for youngsters).

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

There are some good, if not significantly better, adventure novels I like.
They are One Thousand and One Nights, Huckleberry Finn, Three Musketeers, Don Quixote, and Casanova's My Life (memoirs.) I agree that Treasure Island is a wonderful novel though.

[aligreto]

I love "Treasure Island". It was the first non-children book I read at about 8 years old (I was a bit too young, but so it goes, I think I had loved pirates before because of Pippi Longstocking). It's also my favorite although I have not read all of Stevenson's (and I think I read Jekyll and Hyde only in a simplified vocab version in school), Kidnapped/Catriona is very heavy in scottish history pre-knowledge (and the second one rather boring anyway.
I am not sure if there is a better classic adventure novel. (My next candidate might be the very different "She" by Rider Haggard, which is quite inappropriate for youngsters).

There is a name that I have not come across since my childhood, may years ago. The adventures in deep dark Africa in King Solomon's Mines were very awe inspiring when I was a youngster 

[vers la flamme]

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet



I've been meaning to read Rilke for a very long time, but never got around to it until now. This is a very famous book often recommended as a place to start, despite being that, as a collection of letters, it was never truly intended to be a book by its author. Anyway, the writing is beautiful and hard hitting; I'm enjoying it greatly so far. I wish I'd read it when I was younger. On a more personal note, my mother, a writer herself, was a big fan of Rilke; it's an interesting feeling reading this and knowing my mother would have read the same book and taken similar insights from it. She died when I was very young, so I always value things, books, music that serves, for me, as a kind of connection to her life.

[JBS]

There's a new translation that was just published (June 1 is the date Amazon gives)

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
I wish I'd read it when I was younger.

Great book. May she rest in peace.
I feel the same for the Essays by Michel de Montaigne.