Subject: What are you reading now?
Posted by: briansqueen
Date: Apr 26 04
Ok, whats everyone reading now, and how are you liking it, would you recommend it?
I am re-reading Stephen Kings' "The Stand", I read it years ago as a young teen, and it went over my head, so I thought I'd give it another shot, now that Im older and wiser(?). Wish Me Luck! S.
Posted by: briansqueen
Date: Apr 26 04
Ok, whats everyone reading now, and how are you liking it, would you recommend it?
I am re-reading Stephen Kings' "The Stand", I read it years ago as a young teen, and it went over my head, so I thought I'd give it another shot, now that Im older and wiser(?). Wish Me Luck! S.
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Memorycat65 
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Right now, I'm re-reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions." It's as uproariously funny and relevant as I remember it being when I read it back in the 70s, and the drawings make me giggle. I'm also reading Charlaine Harris' new series, "Midnight Crossroads." I love her books, and this is her first series since her Sookie Stackhouse period. Guilty pleasure, I know, but so entertaining! Reply #1361. Mar 30 18, 10:50 PM |
Mixamatosis
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I'm still ploughing slowly through Ulysses - determined not to give up. At the moment it's like being inside the head of somebody who doesn't have much attention span or whose thoughts just flow in an incoherent sort of connectedness - a "stream of consciousness" I think the literary dons have dubbed it. Reply #1362. Apr 08 18, 1:12 AM |
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Still on Ulysses - about a third of the way through now. Sigh! There's a lot about Shakespeare in the current part I'm reading. He must be a great admirer with great knowledge of the bard. None of it is cliched. He just tosses out brilliant random thoughts one after another. Joyce is a bit of a genius really. Someone once said if Dublin was razed to the ground at that time, you could have re-created it from the pages of Joyce's Ulysses. Reply #1363. Apr 29 18, 8:29 AM |
Caseena
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One book I'm reading is Midnight Tides, the fifth book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. The fourth has been the easiest to get through so far, since I finally had a decent handle on what was going on. It's a very dense fantasy series that doesn't give much exposition, relying on the reader to make various connections. And just as I've started to get my bearings in this world, the author tosses us far back in time to an entirely new set of characters, places, and cultures. So, it's much slower going again. Reply #1364. May 05 18, 8:26 AM |
hekawi
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"The Little Prince" written and illustrated by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I've had the book laying around for a long long time, never deciding to read it even it kept showing up. Finally figured I would try reading it. Reply #1365. May 12 18, 7:07 PM |
| Mixamatosis
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"The Little Prince" is such a sweet book. Reply #1366. May 19 18, 11:34 PM |
| Memorycat65
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While I was re-sorting one of my bookshelves the other day, I picked up T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," and am giving it a re-read. Loved it then and love it now! My last cat was named "Bustopher" after "Bustopher Jones, Cat About Town" and it turned out to be quite an appropriate name, too! Anne Reply #1367. May 22 18, 5:58 PM |
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I'm still on Ulysses (by James Joyce) months later. I'm more than half way through. Now he's writing in a Chaucerian style with anglo saxon words or olde English, however it's classified. I recognise some of the words from doing Chaucer at school but it's still difficult to work out what's going on. I'm determined to finish and then I'll throw the book in the bin. It's old, yellowed and falling apart. There will be a certain satisfaction is saying that's finished. I'll never have to face it again. Reply #1368. Jul 08 18, 12:36 PM |
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I'm about a 100 pages away from the end of Ulysses now. It's become more understandable but this current section is written rather like the catechism in question and answer format. Reply #1369. Aug 05 18, 11:56 AM |
| Mixamatosis
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Finished Ulysses by James Joyce and it's gone for recycling now as it was falling apart. I've started a new book I picked up in a charity sale. It's a sort of sci-fi fantasy novel called 'The Invisible Library' by Genevieve Cogman. It looks promising. Reply #1370. Aug 10 18, 5:23 AM |
| hekawi
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"The Grapes of Wrath" John Steinbeck Again. The way things are going here in America made me think of it. The way we are treating people. Already, this quote stood out: "They'll take the country. Outlanders, foreigners." Reply #1371. Aug 23 18, 7:30 PM |
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I've finished 'The Invisible Library' now and given it to a charity shop. There were some interesting and imaginative ideas in it, but it's not in the top order of fantasy/sci fi books. The characters were not very rounded and the main character was rather irritating. I looked up the author, Genevieve Cogman because the book reads as though it might have a sequel or sequels. It was published in 2014 and I see that there were further books published with the same main 2 characters. I don't think I'll be reading them although there's always a chance her writing will have improved in later books. Reply #1372. Aug 26 18, 5:45 AM |
| Mixamatosis
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I'm starting on 'Old Goriot' by Honoré De Balzac. Another old one from the bookshelves. Reply #1373. Aug 26 18, 3:23 PM |
| Mixamatosis
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Old Goriot is well written as you'd expect from Balzac. French authors like Balzac and Zola portray a lot of meanness in many of their characters but Balzac always seems to have tragic victims too, usually because of the meanness of the other characters or the victims being too good, or too naive for their own good. This observation is based on reading only 2 of Balzac's novels and 3 of Zola's. Zola seems to vary his scenarios more. The 3 I've read were set respectively in a mining community, a peasant farming community, and decadent and corrupt Parisian society. Reply #1374. Aug 29 18, 4:28 PM |
| Mixamatosis
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Balzac is painting a very bad picture of French society in Paris in the early 19th century. One character who's experienced says that no honest young man can be successful. To be successful you have to be ruthless and hard hearted and rich or get yourself into massive debt in order to get into circles where you might acquire wealth. He paints a picture of a corrupt and decadent society and kind hearted people end up exploited and poor. I'm just over half way through and I'm wondering if there are any twists coming but I think I can see tragedy on the way. The young protagonist is optimistic at the moment but maybe because he is a little overconfident. We shall see. Reply #1375. Sep 01 18, 11:09 AM |
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The experienced character thinks it would be easier for him to get rich in the USA because he can get slaves to work for him and make him rich. Reply #1376. Sep 01 18, 11:13 AM |
| Mixamatosis
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I've just finished Old Goriot by Honoré De Balzac. I'm not going to include any spoilers but I found it quite gripping and reminiscent of a later author, Emile Zola. It seems that Balzac is good at engaging the reader's sympathy for the main characters in his books (though I've only read two of them). It's easy to see why Balzac is an esteemed writer, but I don't think he is as good as Dickens. He is impressive though. Old Goriot is said to be one of his better books. He wrote an enormous number of books: part of a series called 'La Comedie Humaine'. In that series of works, he was interested in trying to capture how society worked in those times, before sociology became a subject of study. He often wrote for days on end, 12-18 hours a day drinking lots of coffee but he died age 51 from heart problems. I wonder if Old Goriot wasn't influenced by Balzac reading one of Shakespeare's plays (among other things). I won't say which one. If you've not read Balzac before, it's not a bad novel to start with. Reply #1377. Sep 03 18, 1:30 AM |
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It's interesting that Auguste Comte, who is considered one of the first sociologists live around the same time as Balzac in France. (Born 1 year before him and died 5 years after him). Reply #1378. Sep 03 18, 1:39 AM |
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*lived Reply #1379. Sep 03 18, 1:44 AM |
| Mixamatosis
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I'm about to start a book called 'Insane Clown President' by Matt Taibbi, which we found in a charity bookshop. It's about guess who. It's been sitting on our shelves for some months and was published in 2017. I'm just wondering if it will seem out of date now, as so many other books seem to have popped up since. Oh well, here goes. Reply #1380. Sep 06 18, 7:55 AM |
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