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Being the literary bunch that we are, I bet most if not all of us are reading something at the moment. Maybe it’s a recent discovery, maybe you’re revisiting an old book, or maybe you have to read this and that for the stupid assignment you were given last week. No matter; just tell us what you read and maybe add a small recommendation for the book if you really like it.
I’ll start. Currently (re)reading: Ilium, by Dan Simmons. I gave it to a friend of mine to read and I realized I’d like to give it a second go to see what I’ve missed the first time. And you definitely miss things from a book that mixes the Iliad, Shakespeare’s Sonnets and The Tempest, Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu and others I’m forgetting. A very interesting book that I recommend to all of you.
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Choke - Chuck Palahniuk. I'm taking a class right now on all his books. So far we've done Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, and Survivor. Palahniuk's writing tends to be extremely formulaic so I found the latter two books to be low-grade rehashes of Fight Club. Choke takes some steps away from his beloved theme of nihilism and I found it very moving.
Othello - Shakespeare. It was a pity that we started this book the same day my boyfriend (who also happens to be black) broke up with me for false issues of trust following rapid development in our relationship and plans for marriage. Life and fiction were alittle close for me. Anyway, my Shakespeare education was lacking in middle/high school so I'm loving the class I'm in right now. I loved that the villian is the one moving the plot and making the greatest monologues. It made the action all the more tragic. I found Desdemona's character to be extremely fascinating, especially towards the end.
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Shanna, since I see you're reading Shakespeare right now I have a question for you: how hard/easy is he to read? I only tried once with a couple of plays - frankly, don't remember which. I found Romeo and Juliet to be extremely boring though... I've managed to survive the beginning of Tolstoi's War and Peace, so I've done boring before.
I'm asking because Ilium really got me interested, but from what Sonnets quotes I've seen they are pretty difficult. English is not my first language and while I'm doing ok on Internet forums I think reading Shakespeare is a bit different. Is there anything that you'd recommend? Maybe books that have additional commentary in them, so that I can get past vocabulary problems and into the essence? I really don't like reading with a dictionary, so that's kind of out of the question...
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Considering English isn't you're first language, I don't know what to say. Though I can say that a good chunk of Shakespeare's English is very different from the modern language. Our professor is always stopping us to make sure we read the notes at the bottom of the page. Meanings of words have evolved since his day.
We're supposed to read the plays (we're doing the tragedies) outside of class and then we re-read together in class with everyone taking the various parts. I find them difficult to read on my own but really enjoy hearing them performed (even by amatuers). There's plenty of theatre purists who believe Shakespeare can only be understood through performance.
I can recommend the Arden Shakespeare collection. My professor choose these books specifically because he found them so well editted. Each play begins with an introduction to the history of the play. There's commentary at the end, but its the footnotes on each page are invaluable. They point out important vocabulary, parts where lines have been dropped or added in various historic versions, and explanations of certain actions in the play.
Shakespeare can be slow reading. Sometimes you just need to sit and look at a passage and try translating it into modern speech. Otherwise, its easy to skim and loose all the plot twists.
I found "Romeo and Juliet" to be boring too. It seems that's where most people start. It was my first introduction to Shakespeare back in junior high, which was followed by "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Hamlet, while long, is my favorite play so far. Macbeth is enjoyable too and you have to love Othello if only for Iago. King Lear is next on our list and I'm excited.
As for Sonnets, I don't know much. If you have any specific questions or want recommendations, I can ask my roommate. She's a theatre major and spent her summer in London studying Shakespeare. I'll bug her when she's awake. haha.
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I'm reading 'First Boy,' by Gary Schmidt. It's a delightful tale of a boy on a New Hampshire dairy farm who becomes the focus of an election year scandal.
Here's a synopsis from a review on Amazon:
quote:When Cooper Jewett's beloved grandfather dies suddenly, the teen finds himself completely alone. He's never even seen a picture of his parents. Cooper is determined to stay on the New Hampshire dairy farm that he loves, although school, cross-country practice, and endless chores make that decision nearly impossible. The Big Men in black sedans who begin to follow him, ransacking the farm and setting fire to a barn, set off a series of events that ends with him being kidnapped and meeting the president. Senator Wickham, a candidate for the Democratic nomination, wishing to smear the incumbent, uncovers a scandal and believes that the President and the First Gentleman (yes, that's right: a woman president and a nice touch) are the boy's parents.
(The review fails to mention that the President is ALSO a Democrat, which *I* mention to keep partisan hacks from thinking this book is Republican propaganda)
It's a good read. The book is geared toward middle-schoolers, but I found enough in it to keep me entertained.
[ October 10, 2006, 07:53 AM: Message edited by: Scott R ]
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Shanna: Thanks for your answer. I won't have the time and resources for any Shakespeare very soon. I'll have to buy most of the books online anyway, being in France... I'll look into them more at a later time. And maybe, maybe I'll actually start looking for live performances. o_O Believe me, I'm usually not a theatre kind of guy.
Scott R: Does having a middle-schooler mind count? Cause if so, I'm in. The synopsis is indeed really intriguing.
quote:Originally posted by Dr Strangelove: I'm rereading "The Count of Monte Cristo".
I'm overdue on rereading that one myself. I've only read it once when I was pretty young and I don't remember much of it...
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"The Search For Order, 1876-1920". One of the things that's really fascinating to me about this book is that it really underlines how the basic paradigms that America has divided itself ('communists' vs. 'plutocrats') into got started, why they are, and why they're so often wrong and misguided. It also underlines that things happen for a reason, and not just because some cabal somewhere decide to make it happen. Good stuff.
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First, I found Ilium by Dan Simmons AMAZING. And for the record, it's sequel, Olympos, came out in paperback a few months ago. It's not as good as Ilium, but still great. (In fact, I haven't read anything by Dan Simmons that I didn't like. Some things I didn't love, but I liked everything.)
Second, to actually answer the question, I'm reading Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. I used to read a book a week. Now with school in full force, I read a book a month, roughly.
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Yeah, Mathy, I've read Olympos too. A friend of mine bought it for me on her trip to England. I think it was inevitable that it would end up not as good as Ilium, since it had to explain a lot of things and didn't have the first book's mysterious feel anymore.
As for reading time, I had the "luck" to travel ten hours by train this weekend to visit a friend of mine, so I had plenty of time. Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland. Excellent history.
Madame Bovary by Flaubert. Dan Simmons posts some excellent semi-regular articles on his webpage on the subject of writing. His analysis of this classic prompted me to finally get around to reading this beautiful book.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is a collection of classic horror stories by the old master of the genre. The title story is awesome The other stories in the collection, not so much.
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quote:Originally posted by Corwin: I'm overdue on rereading that one myself. I've only read it once when I was pretty young and I don't remember much of it...
I may be getting my people mixed up, but you speak French, right? If so, I envy you. The main reason I'm learning French right now is to be able to read Dumas without having to go through some annoying translation.
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quote:Originally posted by Dr Strangelove: I may be getting my people mixed up, but you speak French, right? If so, I envy you. The main reason I'm learning French right now is to be able to read Dumas without having to go through some annoying translation.
Nothing mixed up here. I do speak French. Funny, I didn't even consider the fact that I can actually read the original in French now! I read it in Romanian the first time.
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Make Love* The Bruce Campbell Way by Bruce Campbell. This one is a novel and is not as captivating as If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor was to me but is still quite good and very funny.
I've started Inkheart by Cornelia Funke but I'm not going to finish it before I have to take it back to the library. Based on what I have read so far I will probably just go ahead and buy it.
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I'm currently reading "The Green Mile" by Stephen King. Haven't read it before, but seen parts of the movie. It's really good so far.
I just finished reading both "The Talisman" and "Black House" and rereading "Watership Down". Good books all.
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Corwin: definitely try to get a version with footnotes (at least for the obsolete vocabulary) - we use them too. Shakespeare isn't impossible once you get used to his way of talking. Two pieces of advice I gave my husband (also not a native speaker) on starting Shakespeare are 1) read by sentence, not by line, and 2) summarize speeches to yourself ("ok, so in this speech Hamlet is saying that he's really depressed..."). It's easy for me to get lost in the words upon words upon words and not pick up on the actual important information!
Belle - I was disappointed by Son of a Witch, more so because I had so enjoyed Wicked. It felt unfocused and strange to me. You too?
Oh, and I'm finishing up Colleen McCullough's Rome series with The October Horse at the moment. Read a bit of it in Rome this past weekend, a few hundred meters from the place I was reading about. That was way cool. Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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quote:Choke - Chuck Palahniuk. I'm taking a class right now on all his books. So far we've done Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, and Survivor. Palahniuk's writing tends to be extremely formulaic so I found the latter two books to be low-grade rehashes of Fight Club. Choke takes some steps away from his beloved theme of nihilism and I found it very moving.
That is awesome. What class is it? and what school? I may just move only to take that class. In case you can't tell, I love Chuck.
You say that Survivor is a low-grade Fight Club, but I didn't get that impression. If anything, I thought that Choke was his biggest copycat of Fight Club. The main characters resonated the same way for me. What, in particular, did you think was the same in Survivor and Fight Club?
Will the class you're taking cover all of his work? I just finished rereading Diary, and I still love it. It sticks with his favorite themes, but is approached in a new, and IMO excellent, way. Lullaby may be my favorite of his, because it is so different thematically, and is probably the least gory of his books, although it does deal heavily with crib death.
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Lissande: Footnote versions do seem better than reading with a dictionary. I'm more against having to search the words somewhere other than the book, as that really interrupts the flow. I remember that when I read my first novel in French it started with a description of a forest. Ouch. Plenty of terms I didn't know... But then I realized that most of the time I don't NEED to know what everything means. I can deduce from the context if it's only a word here and there. Of course Shakespeare is another story...
And thanks for the advice, I'll try to keep it in mind. Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russel - I'm rereading this one, mainly becuase I read it a couple of months ago and loved it and promptly left it at my lady friends house, where I found it when looking for a book to read at work. It's still good, but moving a little slower this time through. I recommend it very highly. Her writing is very similar to Card's, IMO.
The Silmarillion - J.R.R.Tolkein - I'm rereading this one thanks in large part to a recent thread here at Hatrack that I was embarrassed not to be able to participate in. It's a good refresher. Recommended to everyone that loves Middle Earth.
Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk - Started rereading it and then my brother took it. I will finish it soon though. A fantastic book that I recommend to anyone that doesn't mind reading about crib death.
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I just read We Need to Talk About Kevin for my bookclub That book was chilling and disturbing. Especially that one scene. It was horrifying beyond all believe. But it still was a good book. I will be hosting the bookclub so I hope people have interesting things to say about it. Now I am reading the rest of The Godfather for the second time. I am on a mafia kick.
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Corwin - yeah, I'm anti-dictionary.* Sometimes I'll look up words I've marked after finishing a book, but I don't like to read hunched over at a desk, you know? A good footnote will let you know what a "codpiece" is without you having to drag the OED out (not to mention that Shakespeare uses language that just won't be in your average dictionary).
I will mention that the average American finds Shakespeare very difficult to read and that you should not feel like your English is not good enough if you have problems with it. I hope you like codpiece jokes.
* I mean, honestly, what do I have a husband for if not to tell me what words mean, and to get me a cup of tea?
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I just read the most recent James Lee Burke Dave Robicheaux detective novel. As per usual, the writing and story were excellent. However, I'm starting to get annoyed by the fact that each book seems to contain the same sequence of events every time. Robicheaux gets too emotionally invested in the case, loses his grip and beats someone nearly to death, while his partner Clete Purcel causes a serious amount of damage and mayhem in the pursuit of justice.
Right now I'm trying to figure out what I should read next. I'm mostly looking for light-reading at the moment, as I'm pretty busy with school.
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Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb This is the third in the Liveship Traders trilogy. I didn't love the first book Ship of Magic but kept going since the trilogy had such rave reviews here however the second book caught me and now I am really enjoying/dreading the end of this last book.
I am also reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince outloud to my kids. So good, even the third time around.
Flags of our Fathers by Fames Bradley is next in line. Has anyone read this book? I'm not usually into this type of reading and wonder what others who have read it have to say about it.
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Mornings on Horesback, by the same guy who did 1776 (David McCoullough?). Fascinating writing, I think I'm gonna buy all of him books at some point.
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Note on Shakespeare: There's an "Oxford Guide to Shakespeare" (I think that's the title of the book) that not only gives definitions of all the hard words, but references which play or plays the word is used in.
I'm biased being an actor, but sometimes the easiest way to understand it is to hear it read outloud/performed by someone who understands it. Many of the times you can understand the context, at least, of a given term when you hear it outloud when you would completely miss it while reading.
Also, when you get to the comedies, if you don't understand it it's probably a sex joke. Shakespeare was a dirty, dirty man. Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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About 20 years ago I found a book being given away, or included in a box at a yard sale or something. Its title is "Judas My Brother" by Frank Yerby.
I've finally gotten around to reading it.
Its kind of a typical 80's liberal academic take on Christianity, a retelling of Christ's life with a ton of historical fact, with emphasis on where that fact contradicts the Bible.
He greatly lambasts the Apostles, Mary, Judaic tradition, Rome and even John The Baptist.
Of Jesus, he is surprisingly respectful, almost in awe. Where he fritters away, with happenstance forced explanations, of the more flamboyant miracles, other miraculous powers he respectfully gives to this poor carpenter's son. He does perform miracles, but they are less showy, more personal, still powerful, undeniable and basically more fitting to what we come to see as Jesus Christ.
How will this turn out? He's already set up the protaganist as a body double for Christ, and had him partially crucified, so I can guess his rational explanation for the ressurection. I'll let you know if its worth reading if you ever stumble across it.
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The Sunne in its Splendour Sharon Kay Penman; historical fiction of the War of the Roses. So far so good
The Good Society John Kenneth Galbraith; economist discussing a society's obligation to its poorest members
Just finished: Desolation Island Patrick O'Brian; Master and Commander series of historical fiction. This one wasn't as good as some of the others I've read.
Peter Pan J.M. Barrie; never read this before. Enjoyed it quite a bit.
Pride and Predjudice Jane Austen; there was a time I vowed I'd never read anything by Jane Austen (I think it was after watching, and hating, Emma with Gwynneth Paltrow). But I did enjoy the book. Not enough to read any more Austen, though. Probably.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
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Shadow of the Giant, OSC. Never got around to reading it before and I saw it at the bookstore yesterday, so I picked it up.
Also picked up and started reading The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Sadly there isn't a whole lot on the Hobbit or the Silmarillion, but there's a wealth of background knowledge on LOTR, and a fair bit on his life and personality.
Next in line when I finish these two (later this week) is Flags of our Fathers, which I hope to borrow from my dad before the movie comes out.
I just reread the Silmarillion the past weekend, great book, but also sad. I feel the same way about it that I do about most history books though, in that it makes me sad when bad things happen to a people that I find myself caring about. The betrayals and kinslayings in the Silmarillion are torture, not to mention I feel like I've been punched in the stomach everytime Morgoth kills one of the kings of the Noldor, or whenever the Sons of Feanor destroy something beautiful. It's a bittersweet book.
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quote:Also picked up and started reading The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Sadly there isn't a whole lot on the Hobbit or the Silmarillion, but there's a wealth of background knowledge on LOTR, and a fair bit on his life and personality.
What kind of background does it provide that isn't in The Silmarillion? I thought that kinda covered it all.
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I just finished up reading Rama Revealed, finishing off all the Rama books consecutively (Rendezvous with Rama, Rama II, Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed).
I believe I will relate here what some of my friends told me before I started reading the books. Anyone who enjoys sci-fi absolutely should read Rendezvous with Rama, and I’ll say this withour reservation. However, the three books written decades later can be left comfortably unread. Honestly, not reading them will leave you mystified and amazed by the first book. Not that the three that follow have a bad plot or are untrue to the first. Far from it, the ships and environments that are created are imaginative and spectacular, and the alien species that are introduced are unique and wonderful. Sadly, they had to write humans into the later books, and that’s pretty much where they fall flat.
Next on the list I will be exploring the somewhat more obscure works of Robert Heinlein, as well as reading A Dog Year by Jon Katz (oh the irony).
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quote:Shanna, since I see you're reading Shakespeare right now I have a question for you: how hard/easy is he to read? I only tried once with a couple of plays - frankly, don't remember which.
My advice is to always rent the movie FIRST (try and get one that sticks to the plot and the language but is a movie- not a filmed stage play), and then to read the play.
Not only will you be more driven to read the play how it was originally written but also you will have a clear idea in your head of what is happening.
These were plays meant to be seen, which doesn't mean they can't be read and enjoyed, but it does mean that reading them like a you would a book is somewhat artificial.
And there are some truly excellent movies out there so there's really no excuse.
quote:Anyone who enjoys sci-fi absolutely should read Rendezvous with Rama, and I’ll say this withour reservation.
Yes, but I wouldn't say that the three following sequels are unreadable. I liked the second one very much. The other two... not so much. But they were good.
Sadly, I'm not reading anything fun at the moment- school reading is sucking up all my time like a sponge. However I am finding The World is Flat quite good/interesting, if you haven't read it. It's about globalization. I've only read the first two chapters though.
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I am on a YA book junket myself lately. I am reading Charlotte's Web to my daughter and I think she might be too young for it (she's 3 & 1/2) because I have to explain a lot of it to her.
I just started The Tales of Despereaux and so far it is wonderful. I would be reading the books on the Texas Lone Star List (as chosen by the librarians in Texas) but they are all checked out. First Boy is on that list.
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quote:Originally posted by Teshi: Yes, but I wouldn't say that the three following sequels are unreadable. I liked the second one very much. The other two... not so much. But they were good.
I can agree with this. I actually enjoyed most of the second book, everything except perhaps how open it was left at the end. The fourth book I enjoyed most of, except the eden plot line as well as the big reveal seemed a bit... forced, for two people who are scientists and thought as very imaginative all around. The third book in the series, however, was nearly uniformly painful to read all the way through.
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About Chuck Palahniuk: I think it's a real stretch to suggest that Choke or Survivor or Invisible Monsters are re-hashes of Fight Club, considering the stories have almost nothing in common.
Now, if the argument is: Chuck Palahnkiuk touches on the same kinds of themes and ideas in these books as he did in Fight Club, I'm in whole-hearted agreement...
But then, that's almost every author.
Treason shares themes with Ender's Game shares themes with Lost Boys shares themes with The Worthing Saga... Are those books all retreads of each other? Of course not. They share common threads because OSC is writing about the things he cares about, just like Palahniuk is doing in his novels.
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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I'm currently reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The last book I read was The Midnight Tour by the late, great Richard Laymon.
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Also picked up and started reading The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Sadly there isn't a whole lot on the Hobbit or the Silmarillion, but there's a wealth of background knowledge on LOTR, and a fair bit on his life and personality.
What kind of background does it provide that isn't in The Silmarillion? I thought that kinda covered it all.
I meant MORE background. Silmarillion doesn't provide a lot of background on the War of the Ring. But more of the type of material discovered is the process of building the story and why things are the way they are. Either way I know the Silmarillion doesn't have ALL the background info. The Children of Hurin was briefly covered in it, but you still have to read The Unfinished Tales if you want the whole thing. The Unfinished Tales will also tell you the full story of Celeborn and Galadriel, and a few more stories, which honestly I don't remember off the top of my head.
I'll get back out to you specifically on what there is in the letters when I finish reading it. I'm only three or four dozen pages into it.
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quote:Originally posted by TL: I'm currently reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
How is the book? I heard an interview with Ishiguro on NPR this weekend and the book sounded very interesting.
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We're listening to Inkspell by Corneila Funke, the sequel to Inkheart, and so far I like it a lot more than the first one, with the huge exception of the dreadful awfulness of Brendan Fraser as a reader. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I just started "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. I am hoping my brain will be able to remember all the characters Posts: 306 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Javert, funny, I haven't read a whole lot of Stephen King, but I have read all 3 that you mention. Really good each one too.
I'm currently re-reading The Seventh Son by OSC. Loving it again!
I just finished "Choke" by Stuart Woods. Woods is a good writer that I recently started reading. His stuff is surprisingly good, I never thought I'd like him.
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Is there anything that you'd recommend? Maybe books that have additional commentary in them, so that I can get past vocabulary problems and into the essence? I really don't like reading with a dictionary, so that's kind of out of the question...
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