posted
Ryan, I have that! I started reading it but it's ... it's ..... it's POPE! I mean it's all 18th century and stuff. Nothing like Homer at all! So I quit.
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posted
I added those new ones to the bottom of the comprehensive list on the previous page. Why don't we take a vote? Everyone who plans to actually read the book please cast a vote for your preference. We will have a run off if none is a clear winner after the first round. The links take you to pages with blurbs, covers, and reviews, where available. Take a look and cast your votes, folks! Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
Since the thread originator started with "...any classical work created before, say, 1900 would be fine", perhaps a selection out of ProjectGutenberg? No disagreements about 'classical'. With the added benefit that those who cannot find the selected text in a bookstore nearby, can't afford it, do not have a well-stocked library, etc, have easy access to a free source.
posted
I realize it's not a classic, but it is on the list and I just started reading it anyway so my vote is for Artemis Fowl.
Posts: 1336 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Looks like 4 for The Glass Bead Game and 2 for the Persians.
Zalmoxis, you don't like Hesse? I'm curious why not. What of his have you read? I've read Siddhartha, Narcissus and Goldmund, Steppenwolf, and I think that's all, but I love how passionate he is. The Glass Bead Game is the one he supposedly won the Nobel Prize in literature for, though they don't officially assign the prize to a given work. Often it's something in particular that prompts it, and this was his. I just thought it would be worth reading. It's maybe his master work.
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ak: To be honest, I've only read Siddhartha and Steppenwolf and it's been awhile. I guess the lingering impression I have of Hesse is that his prose tries to hard to invest itself with meaning -- too much of the look here! this is allegorical or symbolic.
And in general, I'm just not a fan of the post-WWII male German novelists.
However, I'm always willing to revise my opinion. And I do feel the need to read some German fiction -- it's been a while. And if I'm going to read Hesse it might as well be his meisterwerk.
So:
I'll be reading _The Glass Bead Game_ sometime in the next three weeks -- if any of the rest of you would like to also do so, I'd love to discuss it here at Hatrack.
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I put Das Glasperlenspiel on my list as the next German book I want to read for fun. So I vote for that (The Glass Bead Game).
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The only thing I know about Hesse is that a good friend of mine dated a guy who was really into him and turned out to be a real creep. But I guess I'll take a stab at it.
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Yeah, but I don't mind reading 720 pages of a good novel. I do mind reading 590 pages of creepy intellectual posturing.
So all I'm saying is, no promises.
Or rather, I promise only that if I don't finish the book I'll try very very hard to control my English class BS reflex and not pretend I know what the book's all about when I only got up to page 73.
Posts: 1046 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Oh, yeah! Anyone who hates it please feel free to stop and then rant about why you hated it to all of us! That's totally okay. I'll read it too as soon as I finish the book I'm on. (James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, in case anyone cares.)
Whoever finishes first just start posting here. We will assume there will be spoilers so other people who are reading it too can decide whether to venture in here or not between now and the time they finish.
Deirdre, I'll read Russians with you any time! If we don't pick one for our next one here, then we can do a separate Russian Reading club too, if you like! I can read a book every night or two (if I will limit my hatracking some ) so am not even near the saturation point yet.
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Actually, technically we had to have it done before school started... it's not my fault you procrastinate until the teachers decide to give us a break. Sorry, I'm just a better student than you are.
I'm still reading Giovanni's room right now, and it's making me very sad. Very sad. For a number of reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with homosexuality. That's why it's taking me so long, I guess. I keep having to steel myself to read on. We already know things turn out disasterously.
Zalmoxis, you asked what I think of the female characters in this book and so far I've only really seen one, the aunt, and she's interesting. She's very strong but also very critical of David's father. Well, should she be? I'm not sure. We don't like her very much. Why not? Maybe because she doesn't really seem to love anyone. The father doesn't either but we don't hold that against him because he's so obviously helpless.
It's very interesting to contrast these characters with the family in Go Tell it on the Mountain which I had thought echoed James Baldwin's own family. In that book the (step)father is definitely the heavy, and the mother is a good guy. But there is still that aunt who is very strong and very critical of her brother. In GTiotM the aunt is fairly sympathetic, in that she at least stands up and tells her brother the truth. That Deborah was not the enemy of anybody.
In this book we really don't like the aunt, nor, so far, the absent girlfriend. She seems to be off trying to decide whether she really loves this guy, and I have to wonder if there is some lack of chemistry in their physical connection that comes from him really preferring and being more attracted to men.
As for Giovanni and the first boyfriend (Joey?), I just feel very very sympathetic to both of them. I really wonder if I'm going to be able to like the viewpoint character at all in this book. How do you give your heart to someone who destroys those he loves most?
[ September 10, 2003, 08:55 AM: Message edited by: ak ]
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posted
I like the pre-1900 rule. I like Amy Tan and all, but calling her classic reminds me of the "Michael Jordan is an artist" line of thought.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Okay, believe it or not I really did mean to resurrect this thread today, but someone else did it first. ak, you seem to be the one who has collected the votes, so which book are we reading?
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I now have my copy of _The Glass Bead Game_. I'll start reading it this evening.
------
blacwolve: I'm interested in discussing _Anna Karenina_. What do you want to talk about?
I'll start with one comment: one of the things I like about the novel is how Tolstoy actually made me like Vronsky and understand why he would be attractive to Anna. I don't come readymade with sympathy for type-A, reckless, charmers. I tend toward the more brooding, cautious types. But I kind of get Vronsky because Tolstoy renders him so well. The same is true of the other characters in the novel. It's why I like it so much.
------- ak: I asked because I came away with the novel with the sense that Baldwin doesn't know how to write female characters very well or what to do with them. Part of that (or maybe all of that), of course, has to do with the viewpoint character's attitude towards women so it's hard for me to separate that out from the overall effects of the story.
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I was amazed with Tolstoy's characterization. The characters were so utterly believable, it was hard for me to imagine they were all writen by the same man.
(I've never been in a discussion group, I'm not really sure what you're supposed to do)
In other, related news: I just finished The Chosen and was in shock for a day after! I had assumed he would be boring because he's so highly thought of; instead it was incredible! Now I'm almost finished with Davita's Harp which I don't like nearly as well, it's so sad!
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quote: Deirdre, I'll read Russians with you any time! If we don't pick one for our next one here, then we can do a separate Russian Reading club too, if you like!
Hey, how about "The Master and Margarita?" Either next, or now, whatever... I was planning on having that be my second independent reading project in AP lit... it's by Michael Bulgakov, I think... something like that...
Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I've already read the Master and Margarita, but I'll be glad to discuss it with anyone. Also Anna Karenina, which is my favorite Tolstoy novel.
I was not calling Amy Tan a classic, just giving a wide variety of books for people to choose from. Actually this is only a partial list of books I've got that I'm planning to read. When I go to the bookstore I often pick up several things and sometimes don't read them all before going back again. I tend to read all the fluff first <laughs> then work my way into the deeper stuff as the mood takes me. So I seem to have lots of things lying around waiting to be read at any given time. Which is nice. Sort of a book-storage program for emergencies, though I don't think I have a year's worth collected up yet.
Seems like The Glass Bead Game got the most votes for the first round, so I'll be reading that directly I get done with Giovanni's room. I await other people's thoughts with great anticipation.
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blacwolve, I LOVE Potok, too, but I've already read almost everything by him. The two Asher Lev books were my absolute favorites, but all his stuff is very good. I'd love to discuss Potok with anyone who is interested as well.
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I'm really excited with how many people we have responding to this thread now! Mayhap this will actually take off and become self sustaining. I'm thrilled!
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I love Anna Karenina too. Confession, that's what I thought your ID stood for the first time I saw it. But that's because I'm mental.
I make a motion that when we finally pick a book we change the thread title to that.
I'm not up for arguing in favor of any specific book. I'm not well read in a breadth sense. I'm just to hammered right now. Not by alcohol, FYI, just hammered.
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