What are you currently reading?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

A handful of short stories in the last 3-4 days:

* Thomas Hardy - The Superstitious Man's Story (part of Life's Little Ironies)
* D.H. Lawrence - The Prussian Soldier
* Maupassant - La Parure and its English version The Diamond Necklace (from Contes du Jour et de la Nuit)
* Maupassant - Le Docteur Héraclius Gloss
* Jack London - To build a fire
* O. Henry - The Green Door

I like all of them except for the London. I don't know about London, and I will check him out. Plus I want to revisit Maupassant.

[Papy Oli]

I like all of them except for the London. I don't know about London, and I will check him out. Plus I want to revisit Maupassant.

"To build a fire" was a gripping and err... chilling read. I saw it recommended in a "short stories" thread.

[ritter]

Since I first encountered his name when Volume 1 of Stravinsky's Selected Correspondence was published in 1982, I have found Lincoln Kirstein to be a fascinating and towering figure of 20th century American (or, more specifically, New York) culture.

I bought Jennifer Homans' biography of George Balanchine after @SimonNZ alerted us about it in this same thread some months ago. But, before tackling that mammoth book, I've started James Steichen's study of the first years of the Balanchine - Kirstein collaboration (before the creation of the New York City Ballet), as it was being offered with a big discount at Amazon Spain.

[Spotted Horses]

Bodily Harm, by Margaret Atwood.



This is a book from Atwood's "middle period," as I define it, about 1980. It was before she began focusing on speculative fiction, and when her focus was on edgy, socially conscious stories often with a feminist viewpoint. I've been exploring these, recently reading "Surfacing," one of her earliest novels.

A woman has a comfortable life with a job as a journalist and a long-term romantic partner, but both seem a bit superficial. The relationship seems to be based mostly on physical attraction and the journalism consists of travel and lifestyle pieces. After a troubling medical diagnosis, the protagonist seems to loose her lens of self and her personal and professional life become unhinged. I found it a compelling book.

[AnotherSpin]

Just finished reading. Lots of interesting information. Maybe too much?

[AnotherSpin]

[Mandryka]

Just finished reading. Lots of interesting information. Maybe too much?

Everyone says that!

But there are so many good things in it I found it unputdownable. 

[Spotted Horses]

I'm reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. The first two pages are a prolog describing in disturbing detail the condition of a discovered corpse. The first chapter, 13 pages in, is in all italics, indicating it must be some sort of flash-back, flash-forward, etc. It is a dialog between two characters whose relation to each other is undefined, consisting mostly of gibberish. I gather one of characters is the corpse in the prolog. I get the feeling it is something I am supposed to remember in detail, because it will all make sense 300 pages from now. Can someone offer a reason not to delete this thing from my Kindle?

[Mandryka]

I'm reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. The first two pages are a prolog describing in disturbing detail the condition of a discovered corpse. The first chapter, 13 pages in, is in all italics, indicating it must be some sort of flash-back, flash-forward, etc. It is a dialog between two characters whose relation to each other is undefined, consisting mostly of gibberish. I gather one of characters is the corpse in the prolog. I get the feeling it is something I am supposed to remember in detail, because it will all make sense 300 pages from now. Can someone offer a reason not to delete this thing from my Kindle?

My kindle says I got to 21% and then abandoned it. Can't remember much about it.

[San Antone]

I'm reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. The first two pages are a prolog describing in disturbing detail the condition of a discovered corpse. The first chapter, 13 pages in, is in all italics, indicating it must be some sort of flash-back, flash-forward, etc. It is a dialog between two characters whose relation to each other is undefined, consisting mostly of gibberish. I gather one of characters is the corpse in the prolog. I get the feeling it is something I am supposed to remember in detail, because it will all make sense 300 pages from now. Can someone offer a reason not to delete this thing from my Kindle?

Although McCarthy is among my favorite top three writers, I stopped reading him with The Road.  I bought his last two novels but doubt I will ever read them.  It is similar to how I kept getting new albums by The Beach Boys long after they did work I actually enjoyed.

But I very much enjoy re-reading his other books, which I do about every other year.

[Spotted Horses]

My kindle says I got to 21% and then abandoned it. Can't remember much about it.

Although McCarthy is among my favorite top three writers, I stopped reading him with The Road.  I bought his last two novels but doubt I will ever read them.  It is similar to how I kept getting new albums by The Beach Boys long after they did work I actually enjoyed.

But I very much enjoy re-reading his other books, which I do about every other year.

Not ringing endorsements. I read somewhere that it got mostly positive reviews from critics, so I had the idea that once powering through the beginning something wonderful would unfold. Maybe not. My time for reading is limited, so I don't think I will keep going. I'm at 2%, so I should quit before the sunken cost fallacy kicks in and I can't stop.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Gogol: Short stories.

[Papy Oli]

Taking advantage of a few days holiday to dive into Marcel Proust's Du côté de chez Swann. About 130 pages in and it is fascinating, even if not a fast read.

Reading also interspersed with a couple of short stories:
Tolstoy - Man and Servant
Twain - The man that corrupted Hadleyburg

2 great reads. I'll have to look into Twain more, particularly.

I'd almost get used to that Classics malarkey 

[Mandryka]

Taking advantage of a few days holiday to dive into Marcel Proust's Du côté de chez Swann. About 130 pages in and it is fascinating, even if not a fast read.

Reading also interspersed with a couple of short stories:
Tolstoy - Man and Servant
Twain - The man that corrupted Hadleyburg

2 great reads. I'll have to look into Twain more, particularly.

I'd almost get used to that Classics malarkey 

It is amazing how clear the French is, despite the long sentences - even to me, who speaks it like a Spanish cow. And so poetic, musical. That's definitely lost in translation.

[Florestan]

even to me, who speaks it like a Spanish cow

I haven't heard a Spanish cow speaking French but I have heard Julio Iglesias singing in French, which might very well be the equivalent. 

[San Antone]

Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
by Aaron Sachs


Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography

A double portrait of two of America's most influential writers that reveals the surprising connections between them—and their uncanny relevance to our age of crisis

Up from the Depths tells the interconnected stories of two of the most important writers in American history—the novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819–1891) and one of his earliest biographers, the literary critic and historian Lewis Mumford (1895–1990). Deftly cutting back and forth between the writers, Aaron Sachs reveals the surprising resonances between their lives, work, and troubled times—and their uncanny relevance in our own age of crisis.

[Papy Oli]

It is amazing how clear the French is, despite the long sentences - even to me, who speaks it like a Spanish cow. And so poetic, musical. That's definitely lost in translation.

I was always going to try the French version obviously but I did have a look at some English versions on some Goodreads reviews and that felt very convoluted.

Bar some of his more philosophical wanderings, the rest feels like it has mostly a beautiful flow, even in his overly detailed descriptions.

Like I said, fascinating, even if I have to be in the right mood for it.

My thanks to you and @ritter ( and probably others) for your praises of Proust, that sure triggered my curiosity to give him a go 

[Mandryka]

I was always going to try the French version obviously but I did have a look at some English versions on some Goodreads reviews and that felt very convoluted.

Bar some of his more philosophical wanderings, the rest feels like it has mostly a beautiful flow, even in his overly detailed descriptions.

Like I said, fascinating, even if I have to be in the right mood for it.

My thanks to you and @ritter ( and probably others) for your praises of Proust, that sure triggered my curiosity to give him a go 

Just skip the philosophy.

Once I went to some seminars at Oxford which aimed to look at the philosophical ideas in depth. Well, it was very frustrating, because the more you thought about them, the less coherent they became. I'm now convinced that Proust was a fun novelist and a second rate philosopher.  He wouldn't be the first (think Tolstoy.)

[Florestan]

roust was a fun novelist and a second rate philosopher.  He wouldn't be the first (think Tolstoy.)

I'd say that good/fun novelist and good/fun philosopher are mutually exclusive --- leaving aside the fact that I am not aware of any fun philosopher. 

[SimonNZ]

Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
by Aaron Sachs


Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography

A double portrait of two of America's most influential writers that reveals the surprising connections between them—and their uncanny relevance to our age of crisis

Up from the Depths tells the interconnected stories of two of the most important writers in American history—the novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819–1891) and one of his earliest biographers, the literary critic and historian Lewis Mumford (1895–1990). Deftly cutting back and forth between the writers, Aaron Sachs reveals the surprising resonances between their lives, work, and troubled times—and their uncanny relevance in our own age of crisis.

That's very interesting. I've been hoping to find a copy of Mumford's study of Melville since seeing a copy in the university library 20-ish years ago. I read and was very impressed by a couple of his essay collections at the time and keep meaning to return to him, including The City In History (which I just went and pulled off the shelf again).

Will order a copy of the Sachs. Thanks for the heads up.