What are you currently reading?

[SimonNZ]

[Papy Oli]

Also over halfway through an Audiobook of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds"

Completed the above. A gripping terrifying listen.

Also finished R.L. Stevenson's The Strange case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. That last chapter was mesmerising.

Next, something more recent:

Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend.

[AnotherSpin]

Just finished the third novel in the Jason Trapp series by Jack Slater. Pretty standard spy thriller fare, but I have to admit — it absolutely delivers when it comes to vividly wiping the floor with Russian scum. And that final scene with the Russian president? Pure cinematic gold.

[ritter]

Starting Jean-Paul Sartre's autobiographical Les Mots ("The Words").

[vers la flamme]

I'm reading 1177 BC Civilization Collapsed.  Apparently, history is full of times that sucked.

That was an awesome book, I want to reread it.

[Number Six]

Anyone have a Goodreads account? Always looking for interesting people to follow, and you guys (and girls) are always interesting...

After a year or two off the site, I am only just starting to log and comment again. Happy to connect there, as most of the people I interacted with the most were from a decade ago.
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5360798-derrick

[Crudblud]

Émile Zola — Thérèse Raquin

[vers la flamme]

Completed Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) last weekend. Great fun.

Last night, finished An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro.



From wiki:
An Artist of the Floating World (1986)[1] is a novel by British author Kazuo Ishiguro. It is set in post-World War II Japan and is narrated by Masuji Ono, an ageing painter, who looks back on his life and how he has lived it. He notices how his once-great reputation has faltered since the war and how attitudes towards him and his paintings have changed. The chief conflict deals with Ono's need to accept responsibility for his past actions, rendered politically suspect in the context of post-War Japan. The novel also deals with the role of people in a rapidly changing political environment and with the assumption and denial of guilt.



Quite an engrossing read, particularly the intergenerational exchanges between Ono and his daughters/Sons-in-law/grandson. the book is entirely built on a series of interwoven memories and recollections. Ishiguro indicates in the foreword that he was strongly influenced by particular segments of Proust's Swann's Way when deciding on the type of structure he wanted prior to writing this book.

Recommended. I have added Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day to reading pile as a result.

I love An Artist of the Floating World and The Remains of the Day very much, glad you liked it. Interesting that your edition has a foreword; I wonder why that's not in my US edition.

Émile Zola — Thérèse Raquin

Yessss. I read that last year. Loved it.

[foxandpeng]

After a year or two off the site, I am only just starting to log and comment again. Happy to connect there, as most of the people I interacted with the most were from a decade ago.
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5360798-derrick

😁

[Mandryka]

@Florestan This book, which is partly about the influence of Wagnerian ideas on Baudelaire and Mallarme, has your name written all over it.

[Florestan]

@Florestan This book, which is partly about the influence of Wagnerian ideas on Baudelaire and Mallarme, has your name written all over it.

Thanks for the tip!

[ritter]

I might be wrong, but reading a book that covers, inter alia, Wagner, Mallarmé and Adorno would be enough to cause our dear @Florestan a severe rash! 

[Mandryka]

I might be wrong, but reading a book that covers, inter alia, Wagner, Mallarmé and Adorno would be enough to cause our dear @Florestan a severe rash! 

Not to mention Heidegger.

On the other hand it has a lucid discussion of the relation between music and poetry in Wagner and Baudelaire. A long analysis of Baudelaire's letter to Wagner. And some clarification about what they both meant by eternal melody.

I was pleased to finally find a book by a contemporary French philosopher which I could actually understand!

[Florestan]

I might be wrong, but reading a book that covers, inter alia, Wagner, Mallarmé and Adorno would be enough to cause our dear @Florestan a severe rash! 

Yeah, they are not Massenet, Verlaine or Maritain but the book might still be good. 

[hopefullytrusting]

The future happened yesterday.

Chaubin's Cosmic Communist Construction Photographed



Fallout, but in real life.

[ultralinear]

The future happened yesterday.

Chaubin's Cosmic Communist Construction Photographed



Fallout, but in real life.

That's been in my "saved basket" for a long time, but never actually bought.  Would you recommend?

Along with:


Soviet Bus Stops

And:


Soviet Ghosts The Soviet Union Abandoned: A Communist Empire in Decay

[hopefullytrusting]

That's been in my "saved basket" for a long time, but never actually bought.  Would you recommend?

Along with:


Soviet Bus Stops

And:


Soviet Ghosts The Soviet Union Abandoned: A Communist Empire in Decay

For you, for sure. The photographs are huge and beautiful, plenty of detail.

I think this review sums it up best:

"The book is not just a collection of impressive photos. Divided into chapters, enriched with a text, combining photos of the time with recent photos, it clearly restores the impression of the myth sustained beyond all reasonableness, of the grandeur of Soviet ideology. An unusual, rich, poignant, magnificent book."

Currently, I think it is under 25 bucks, new, on Better World Books (and that price is a steal!)

[ultralinear]

For you, for sure. The photographs are huge and beautiful, plenty of detail.

I think this review sums it up best:

"The book is not just a collection of impressive photos. Divided into chapters, enriched with a text, combining photos of the time with recent photos, it clearly restores the impression of the myth sustained beyond all reasonableness, of the grandeur of Soviet ideology. An unusual, rich, poignant, magnificent book."

Currently, I think it is under 25 bucks, new, on Better World Books (and that price is a steal!)

Thanks, that's very helpful.

[AnotherSpin]

The future happened yesterday.

Chaubin's Cosmic Communist Construction Photographed



Fallout, but in real life.

I spent some time in this building about 30 years ago, in what is now Russian-occupied Crimea. Each suite spans two levels, yet the atmosphere is anything but inviting, more akin to an industrial space than a place designed for living.

[hopefullytrusting]

I spent some time in this building about 30 years ago, in what is now Russian-occupied Crimea. Each suite spans two levels, yet the atmosphere is anything but inviting, more akin to an industrial space than a place designed for living.

That is one of the contrasts the book draws out - the "cosmic" exterior with the "brutalist" interior. All the buildings in that book are fascinating.