BillF Posted June 20, 2012 Report Posted June 20, 2012 Re-read this for the first time for several years. Of course it's acclaimed as one of the best science fiction novels, but I think it's a book of very considerable literary merit, irrespective of genre. Quote
EKE BBB Posted June 20, 2012 Report Posted June 20, 2012 Alongside two fiction books/novels, "Someone to watch over me", Frank Büchmann-Moller's biography of Ben Webster. Quote
ejp626 Posted June 20, 2012 Report Posted June 20, 2012 (edited) Never got through Ulysses. Never made more than a dent in Finnegans Wake. Didn't like Portrait of the Artist. Liked but didn't love Dubliners. I'm definitely not a Joycean, but his disciple Samuel Beckett is in the pantheon for me as a reader and a writer, as is Joyce's arch-enemy Gertrude Stein. I think I read Portrait (the first time) and Dubliners at the "right time" in life, i.e. as a precocious teenager. At that time, I was more willing to dig in a bit deeper and work at the novel (as the modernists intended) and that leaves me more willing to go back to those works. In contrast, I have been trying without success to read Nicholas Mosley's Hopeful Monsters. I suspect I would have gotten through it when I was younger, but I just find its modernist leanings/trappings are too much for me now (with my vastly reduced leisure time), and I can't be bothered. It's also very possible the payoff is not as high as for T.S. Eliot or Joyce. Similarly, I wonder how I would react to Djuna Barnes' Nightwood if I read it now (must have read it in college). It's short enough that I could certainly tackle it again. However, I never did get around to reading Anais Nin's Cities of the Interior and the window may have closed on when I would have appreciated that work the most. Again, hard to say... However, I do like Beckett quite a bit and have seen most of his plays (live, not only on those BBC DVDs). Oddly, I have never gotten around to reading his trilogy, but I surely intend to... Edited June 20, 2012 by ejp626 Quote
Son-of-a-Weizen Posted June 20, 2012 Report Posted June 20, 2012 Some funny shi* about wealthier-than-wealthy Frederick Winthrop ....and the melon..... and 'the Italian' at Faneuil Hall. Quote
Pete C Posted June 20, 2012 Report Posted June 20, 2012 Oddly, I have never gotten around to reading his trilogy, but I surely intend to... Molloy is possibly my favorite novel, and relatively accessible, then they get progressively more difficult. IIRC, The Unnameable may be one long paragraph. Quote
ejp626 Posted June 20, 2012 Report Posted June 20, 2012 Oddly, I have never gotten around to reading his trilogy, but I surely intend to... Molloy is possibly my favorite novel, and relatively accessible, then they get progressively more difficult. IIRC, The Unnameable may be one long paragraph. Sounds a bit like Garcia Marquez's Autumn of the Patriach. Starts out fairly simple, but by the end, an entire chapter is made up of a single sentence! Actually I did like this quite a bit and do hope to reread one of these days... Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted June 23, 2012 Report Posted June 23, 2012 I loved that. Got me really curious about contemporary China. Quote
kinuta Posted June 23, 2012 Report Posted June 23, 2012 (edited) Yes, an excellent page turner. I'm really enjoying it. Edited June 23, 2012 by kinuta Quote
jlhoots Posted June 23, 2012 Report Posted June 23, 2012 Craig Johnson: Hell Is Empty (7th in the Longmire series) Quote
alankin Posted June 24, 2012 Report Posted June 24, 2012 Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policemen's Union Quote
Matthew Posted June 27, 2012 Report Posted June 27, 2012 (edited) Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories & Other Writings (LOA). Enjoying this very much, the only Hammett I read before was the Maltese Falcon. Edited June 27, 2012 by Matthew Quote
Pete C Posted June 28, 2012 Report Posted June 28, 2012 OK, but I'm not inspired to read others in the series. Quote
jlhoots Posted June 29, 2012 Report Posted June 29, 2012 Craig Johnson: As The Crow Flies (8th Longmire novel) Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted July 1, 2012 Report Posted July 1, 2012 Still trapped in this with 150 pages to go. Very little forward momentum. I suspect it's art. Quote
BillF Posted July 1, 2012 Report Posted July 1, 2012 Very little forward momentum. I suspect it's art. Ho, ho! Quote
ejp626 Posted July 7, 2012 Report Posted July 7, 2012 Should wrap up Headhunter this weekend. Am reading a bit of Ishmael Reed's Flight to Canada. It's a lot more polemical and less fun than his earlier works like The Free-lance Pallbearers. I suspect I'll make it through the book but it's feeling like quite a slog. Also started These Festive Nights (Soifs) by Marie-Claire Blais. Too early to say how I'll like it. Have a couple shorter books to read after that. I am back to trying to clear out some books from my house, after a year-long diversion to reading primarily Canadian fiction. Quote
paul secor Posted July 7, 2012 Report Posted July 7, 2012 Tana French: The Likeness Somewhat strange book. Began as a police procedural, seemed as if it was going to take off into another realm, then reverted to police procedural. It's a good read but, perhaps because I sensed that Tana French was such an intelligent and skillful writer, I expected more and was left with some disappointment. Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted July 7, 2012 Report Posted July 7, 2012 Still trapped in this with 150 pages to go. Very little forward momentum. I suspect it's art. Finished...thank the lord. The last 200 pages were skim read. I'm none the wiser. Switched to a 100% ripping yarn: Think I first read this in 1968 or 9. Quote
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