There doesn't appear to be a book club type of thread. If I'm mistaken, please point me in its direction - unless the thread hasn't been active for years, in which case the chances of reviving it are so slim a new thread is probably warranted anyway.
Let's talk about books. All types of them.
What are you reading now?
What's your favourite book (fiction, non-)?
Would you like suggestions for reads on a particular theme?
I've been reading Ten Days That Shook the World, which I'm learning lots from and enjoying partly because the early 1930s edition I have is really neat, but I'm struggling to find a gripping story. I am working my way through Rites of Passage by William Golding, but haven't taken to it yet.
My favourite novel is New Grub Street by George Gissing. It's a story about literary life in the late 19th century, contrasting the lives and approaches of two writers and friends: Edwin Reardon, an idealist with a good reputation based on a modestly successful first book, and Jasper Milvain, a ruthlessly pragmatic and enterprising young journalist with ambitions of making a fortune. Lots of the themes addressed are obviously very relevant today, but most of all I enjoy it for the way it's written and manages to encompass the lives of the characters. A couple of months ago I read Stoner by John Williams, which I think tackles a lot of the same themes and is also very good. Both could probably be described as melancholic but not altogether depressing, which is nice.
Another favourite of mine but on a very different theme is Getting Even by Woody Allen. I don't think anything written has ever made me laugh aloud like it. It's a collection of generally absurd short stories, sometimes satirical, sometimes just surreal. Two of my favourites are Yes, But Can the Steam Engine Do This?, a hypothetical examination of the Earl of Sandwich's early experiments with various combinations of bread and cold cuts; and The Metterling Lists, a satirical academic review of a scholar's laundry lists.
I'd like to read more recent books but I struggle to find anything that interests me, so if anyone has any recommendations for recent releases I'll definitely look into them.
I'll check out Stoner. The synopsis is exciting.
Friggin' I'm gonna recommend this, to anyone out there.
Babbit is something I've been reading on and off for months. I've been picking bits and pieces from websites and anthologies, and reading Poe, and kind of just been keeping it real, however short my attention span.
Graphic literature, which used to be a big part of my life, has subsided. It's still there, but it's been a while.
I just started Yeats and I should probably knock out some Shakespeare.
How are you guys liking the Writing Forum?
À la recherche du temps perdu is actually really good if you speak French, can be patient for 4000 pages, and like books that were written over a hundred years ago.
No exaggeration about 4000 pages, though. I never was able to finish it, but I got through the first thousand or so pages.
At 3/16/15 02:18 AM, Ghoti wrote: I'll check out Stoner. The synopsis is exciting.
Don't know about exciting, but definitely worth a read.
How are you guys liking the Writing Forum?
Hadn't realised it existed until now.
At 3/19/15 10:07 AM, cga-999 wrote: À la recherche du temps perdu is actually really good if you speak French, can be patient for 4000 pages, and like books that were written over a hundred years ago.
Read through Swann's Way (in English) a few years back and did like it. It's probably something I'll revisit but as you say it's not really a book you expect to finish.
#nowreading
Just started The Maltese Falcon, mainly because I've always enjoyed its pastiches (Woody Allen again, Bored to Death etc), and I've not read anything like it since I avoid detective stories in general. Feel like something Russian next, considering Dead Souls by Gogol because I really enjoyed The Overcoat recently.
At 3/19/15 12:04 PM, Ejit wrote:
Read through Swann's Way (in English)
Wait- it is in English? I have only read it in French.
At 3/19/15 12:19 PM, cga-999 wrote:At 3/19/15 12:04 PM, Ejit wrote:Read through Swann's Way (in English)Wait- it is in English? I have only read it in French.
It's been translated, yeah. Here's an early one.
At 3/19/15 12:25 PM, Ejit wrote:At 3/19/15 12:19 PM, cga-999 wrote:It's been translated, yeah. Here's an early one.At 3/19/15 12:04 PM, Ejit wrote:Read through Swann's Way (in English)Wait- it is in English? I have only read it in French.
Eh, well, I read it in French, so I don't need to read it in English. Thanks, though.
At 3/19/15 12:30 PM, cga-999 wrote: Eh, well, I read it in French, so I don't need to read it in English. Thanks, though.
I fucking hate being homolingual.
/wrist
At 3/22/15 11:07 PM, Ghoti wrote:At 3/19/15 12:30 PM, cga-999 wrote: Eh, well, I read it in French, so I don't need to read it in English. Thanks, though.I fucking hate being homolingual.
/wrist
I hope it'll make you feel better that I'm fluent in four languages.
At 3/22/15 11:08 PM, cga-999 wrote: I hope it'll make you feel better that I'm fluent in four languages.
THAT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE SHIT.
I HATE YOU.
At 3/22/15 11:08 PM, Ghoti wrote:At 3/22/15 11:08 PM, cga-999 wrote: I hope it'll make you feel better that I'm fluent in four languages.THAT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE SHIT.
I HATE YOU.
それから新しい言語を学びなさい.
At 3/23/15 06:14 AM, RandyRandom wrote: I finished A Clockwork Orange just this Friday. A real nice book that you can read while having a cup of chai, yes. The book is written in a teenage slang called Nadsat, so it can be a bit confusing. But overall, a nice book for nearly anyone.
I read that book years ago, but it can be enjoyed anytime.
i'm currently reading A Violet Season by KATHY LEONARD CZEPIEL. It's a new book to me because I usually just read crime fiction books but i'm getting old so I'm trying to switch from genre to genre. My favorite author is Harlan Coben, he writes good crime fiction stuffs. one of his novels had been developed into a movie (with positive reviews) and he now write for TV series.
long live the book club.
At 3/19/15 09:19 AM, ZeroAsALimit wrote: I'm currently about halfway through Ethel M. Dell's The Way Of An Eagle. It's a romance set in Colonial India, moving back to Blighty. Her work was considered very racy at the time, but so far I've found nothing to offend my sensibilities.
I love that you have a Purplesmart sig as you posted in this thread.
Happily ETS'd.
At 4/11/15 01:45 PM, NekoMika wrote:hopefully manga, visual novels count too >.<
They do
H.P. Lovecraft Complete Collection
Have to admit I really enjoyed reading through this a few years ago.
Big on short stories at the moment, as they're about all that's keeping my attention; often the case when you have a lot of time on your hands. Have an old book of Russian short stories that's been great value. Just thoroughly enjoyed On the Steppes by Gorky. It has some really nice lines, some of them almost straight out of Fear and Loathing:
'I know that people are growing more tender-hearted in these highly-cultivated days; and even when they take their neighbour by the throat, with the evident intention of throttling him, they do so with all the amiability in the world, and with the strict regard for etiquette proper to the circumstances. The experience that my own throat has undergone causes me to observe this advance in manners, and, with an agreeable feeling of deep conviction, I assert that everything in this world develops and becomes perfect. More especially is this wonderful process admirably proved by the annual growth of prisons, vodka shops and brothels.'
Currently reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by good ol' Verne.
Is it just me or does the book have gay subtext?
An entire chapter is dedicated to the protagonist's acquaintance and admiration towards the harpoonsman of the ship, Ned Land. And then there's fuckin' Conseil.
At 3/12/15 07:46 PM, Ejit wrote: There doesn't appear to be a book club type of thread. If I'm mistaken, please point me in its direction - unless the thread hasn't been active for years, in which case the chances of reviving it are so slim a new thread is probably warranted anyway.
Let's talk about books. All types of them.
What are you reading now?
A Game of Thrones
What's your favourite book (fiction, non-)?
probably a clockwork orange,several other children books and other stuff that i'll remember later on.
The Bible
Animal farm
to kill a mockingbird
Would you like suggestions for reads on a particular theme?
probably.
"Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is?
was her name tenneassi
omtish
At 3/12/15 07:46 PM, Ejit wrote: There doesn't appear to be a book club type of thread. If I'm mistaken, please point me in its direction - unless the thread hasn't been active for years, in which case the chances of reviving it are so slim a new thread is probably warranted anyway.
Let's talk about books. All types of them.
What are you reading now?
What's your favourite book (fiction, non-)?
Would you like suggestions for reads on a particular theme?
My favorite book that I can remember what was in it is Steel my soldiers hearts. The colonel David H hackworth takes a shitty low moral company and turns it in to one of the most efficient fighting units in Vietnam, but nobody listened to him. There is a freak accident were one of his men got his head cut off by the blade of a chopper. Another lieutenant was yelling at his men to keep moving in a mine field, so he tries himself and jumps out the chopper and blows up from a mine, and the platoon cheered. Another One time David H hackworth was wounded in front of a VC bunker and the Vietcong were keeping him alive as bait and a mortar luckily landed on that bunker. At the end of the book they surround an entire battalion(i think) of Vietcong and kill every single enemy with no casualties. It's a good read on jungle warfare and the lessons we should've learned in Vietnam. True story.
This seems like the more active literature-based group thread (I realised that the other one hadn't seen a post since 2013 with the exception of my post and some other user's). I've found myself reading quite frequently so it'd be neat to discuss literature with others. If anyone uses GoodReads, my profile is here (I know it's not the best system for rating books and I don't really use it for reviews but I find it quite useful for recommendations, keeping track of what I've read, what I intend to read and wish-listing books too).
I'm currently reading Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. I became really curious about the author because I had read about how reclusive (or for a better term, I guess: secretive) he was and that Gravity's Rainbow was a challenge to read but also highly regarded as an American classic. I'm currently half-way through the book and I really admire Pynchon's playful use of language in abstract metaphors and I find his characters fascinating too (albeit some of them I struggle to remember because of how large the novel's cast actually is).
However, I find it also to be a frustrating book: maybe it was cocky of me to read it without any assistance/companion/annotated guide because plenty in this book goes waaaaaay over my head (puns written in algorithms and details about rocket science won't be things I can understand without some sort of reference guide). After I finish reading this book, I certainly need something simpler and shorter to read - I was intending to revisit some Lovecraft novellas or finally get around to reading a Sherlock Holmes book or two. I will end up revisiting Gravity's Rainbow in the future though, preferably with this at hand. What does the more-recent book club think? Does anyone plan on reading this book, or have they already read it?
The image is the edition I own, published by Vintage.
At 6/19/15 01:02 PM, Mechabloliver wrote:
I haven't read Gravity's Rainbow but I did give The Crying of Lot 49 a go after it was recommended to me, and as much as I ended up enjoying it, it was such a struggle that I'm not even sure whether I reached the end. That puts Pynchon in my not-even-sure-whether-I-finished-their-book pantheon alongside Faulkner and Woolf. Truly a great, then.
At 6/19/15 01:57 PM, Ejit wrote: I haven't read Gravity's Rainbow but I did give The Crying of Lot 49 a go after it was recommended to me, and as much as I ended up enjoying it, it was such a struggle that I'm not even sure whether I reached the end. That puts Pynchon in my not-even-sure-whether-I-finished-their-book pantheon alongside Faulkner and Woolf. Truly a great, then.
I've yet to read The Crying Of Lot 49, it's quite a short novel in comparison to his other works, right? I hear his more recent works like Inherent Vice are more (easily-accessible isn't really the right term to describe Pynchon, I guess) "lighter" reads in comparison to The Crying Of Lot 49 or Gravity's Rainbow. "Pynchon-lite" novels are probably what would be my next endeavour into this author, whenever that might be.
I finished Gravity's Rainbow the other day - I felt so mentally exhausted afterwards (no hyperbole: I tried reading a simple DVD blurb and the synopsis just made no sense to me, like my head was having technical difficulties). I don't know if I could recommend this book: not to say I didn't admire or enjoy moments of it, but it's certainly highly esoteric and frustrating at times. It's length is bound to test people's patience too.
Despite its difficulty and how frustrated I was reading it at times, I really admire Pynchon's playful language: from wonderfully abstract metaphors to his concoction of peculiar scenarios. I also really found Tyrone Slothrop quite exciting to read about as well as his companions and acquaintances. However, despite a very basic interpretation and understanding of certain scenes and moments in the book, I doubt I actually understood the whole narrative. As I said in an earlier post, I guess it's rather cocky of myself to try and tackle the novel without some annotated companion text that understands the novel more than I ever could.
Well, after that gargantuan novel, I certainly need something that's a breath of fresh air. I'm going to start reading Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge - less than 80 pages, I'll have it read in a day and it seems like something I'd enjoy. I certainly admire Miller (I was recently introduced to his work via The Crucible). I also recently purchased John Williams' Stoner and Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitude - I usually buy my books online but WHSmith had a "buy-one-get-one-half-price" deal and I was rather tempted.
