Now reading...

[A Lark Ascending]

I 'did' that for 'A' Level back in the early 70s. Didn't much care for it.

Reread it a few years back and enjoyed it a bit more.

Edited April 19, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[BillF]

I 'did' that for 'A' Level back in the early 70s. Didn't much care for it.

Reread it a few years back and enjoyed it a bit more.

Well, that's one that hasn't stood the test of time. It was on my 20th Century Literature reading list at Leeds University in 1962, along with giants like Lawrence, Eliot and Yeats. In a seminar with Geoffrey Hill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hill) when I said that while Lawrence described his characters' state of soul, Snow was concerned with whether or not they got promoted, Hill responded by describing Snow's novel as "Whitehall gibberish".

[A Lark Ascending]

I 'did' that for 'A' Level back in the early 70s. Didn't much care for it.

Reread it a few years back and enjoyed it a bit more.

Well, that's one that hasn't stood the test of time. It was on my 20th Century Literature reading list at Leeds University in 1962, along with giants like Lawrence, Eliot and Yeats. In a seminar with Geoffrey Hill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hill) when I said that while Lawrence described his characters' state of soul, Snow was concerned with whether or not they got promoted, Hill responded by describing Snow's novel as "Whitehall gibberish".

I seem to recall Snow was obsessed with the division between the 'arts' and the 'sciences'. Apparently people worried about that sort of thing then.

[BillF]

I 'did' that for 'A' Level back in the early 70s. Didn't much care for it.

Reread it a few years back and enjoyed it a bit more.

Well, that's one that hasn't stood the test of time. It was on my 20th Century Literature reading list at Leeds University in 1962, along with giants like Lawrence, Eliot and Yeats. In a seminar with Geoffrey Hill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hill) when I said that while Lawrence described his characters' state of soul, Snow was concerned with whether or not they got promoted, Hill responded by describing Snow's novel as "Whitehall gibberish".

I seem to recall Snow was obsessed with the division between the 'arts' and the 'sciences'. Apparently people worried about that sort of thing then.

Yes, he made his name with "the two cultures". All seems a bit irrelevant now that government and business are prepared to junk academia generally.

[ejp626]

I 'did' that for 'A' Level back in the early 70s. Didn't much care for it.

Reread it a few years back and enjoyed it a bit more.

Well, that's one that hasn't stood the test of time. It was on my 20th Century Literature reading list at Leeds University in 1962, along with giants like Lawrence, Eliot and Yeats. In a seminar with Geoffrey Hill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hill) when I said that while Lawrence described his characters' state of soul, Snow was concerned with whether or not they got promoted, Hill responded by describing Snow's novel as "Whitehall gibberish".

I seem to recall Snow was obsessed with the division between the 'arts' and the 'sciences'. Apparently people worried about that sort of thing then.

Yes, he made his name with "the two cultures". All seems a bit irrelevant now that government and business are prepared to junk academia generally.

Well, in some ways the debates rage even greater than before. Most state universities in the US are under enormous pressure to promote STEM courses and other applied sciences and to junk the humanities. It isn't accurate to say that everything is under the knife equally.

Anyway, from the perspective of cultural studies, Snow's novels and Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time are way more valuable than Lawrence's writings, since it is precisely the office politics of the day that are intriguing, rather than sort of a neo-Rousseauian take on the state of the soul.

Of course, cultural studies departments may not survive the coming shake-out in academia...

[BillF]

I 'did' that for 'A' Level back in the early 70s. Didn't much care for it.

Reread it a few years back and enjoyed it a bit more.

Well, that's one that hasn't stood the test of time. It was on my 20th Century Literature reading list at Leeds University in 1962, along with giants like Lawrence, Eliot and Yeats. In a seminar with Geoffrey Hill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hill) when I said that while Lawrence described his characters' state of soul, Snow was concerned with whether or not they got promoted, Hill responded by describing Snow's novel as "Whitehall gibberish".

I seem to recall Snow was obsessed with the division between the 'arts' and the 'sciences'. Apparently people worried about that sort of thing then.

Yes, he made his name with "the two cultures". All seems a bit irrelevant now that government and business are prepared to junk academia generally.

Anyway, from the perspective of cultural studies, Snow's novels and Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time are way more valuable than Lawrence's writings, since it is precisely the office politics of the day that are intriguing, rather than sort of a neo-Rousseauian take on the state of the soul.

Point taken, though things seemed different half a century ago in 1962.

[John Litweiler]

Just finished rereading A Confederacy of Dunces. Read it shortly after it was published thirty three years ago. A better read and much funnier than I remembered.

As you know from elsewhere on the web, one of my favorite novels.

A favorite of mine too.

[paul secor]

David Fulmer: The Dying Crapshooter's Blues

If you're new to his writing, try his trio of New orleans mysteries first. Then go to this one.

[Jim Alfredson]

Just finished Lawrence Wright's incredible book about Scientology. Now onto Daniel Dennett's Breaking The Spell.

I ordered these two books a couple of days ago. I read Dawkins' The God Delusion at the time of its release, but felt that was enough. I'm not in need of convincing.

The Hitchens is good. A nice companion to The God Delusion. I have not read the Harris.

[Head Man]

David Fulmer: The Dying Crapshooter's Blues

If you're new to his writing, try his trio of New orleans mysteries first. Then go to this one.

Thanks for the recommendation, Paul. I've just ordered "Chasin' The Devil's Tail" to test the water.

[Jazzmoose]

Very good but not great.

[ejp626]

Wrapped up Grossman's Everything Flows. Not bad but 2/3 in he breaks from any attempt at fictionalizing his material and writes a long, long essay on the crimes of Lenin and Stalin (at the time it was still fashionable in the U.S.S.R. at any rate to be blaming everything on Stalin, since Lenin was still a "saint"). The book certainly doesn't succeed as a novel, but is interesting reading nonetheless. One of these days, I really will have to finish Life and Fate.

I am halfway done with Crummey's Galore, which is ok but I'm not loving it.

Next up after that is Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. Then things get lo-oong (Anna Karenina, Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy and Proust, ideally starting that this summer).

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Postman brought this, this morning, and I've just finished it! Fascinating! And often hilarious!

I used to get R&B, blues & gospel records from him in the late 70s/early 80s. He's the first person I encountered who was a nut for singing preachers and I got quite a few sermons from him.

MG

[paul secor]

James Salter: All That Is

[BillF]

[Matthew]

The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Edited by Williams Baring-Gould. Been reading this one for about thirty-years and I still enjoy it very much. I really do not like the new Annotated Sherlock Holmes that came out awhile ago, not as charming or witty as the Baring-Gould version. The English just have a great way of writing in a "serious/fun" manner that is a pleasure to read and that Americans cannot seem to capture.

[Jazzmoose]

A friend loaned this to me. In all honesty, so far (halfway through), it seems to be basically warmed over Watership Down.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Michael Ayrton - Tittivulus, or the verbiage collector

One of my old favourites. I've read it dozens of times and it still makes me laugh. A lot. Ayrton's drawings of the demonic fiends are as funny as the text.

The executive cttee of hell - l-r Ashtaroth, Behemoth, Belphegor, Lucifer (Chairman), Nickegen, Mammon, Asmodeus

Tittivulus meets Dr Johnson

If you remember Ayrton's many appearances on 'Late night line-up' in the 60s, Tittivulus looks like Ayrton

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Warlock

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Another one!

MG

[Jazzmoose]

A friend loaned this to me. In all honesty, so far (halfway through), it seems to be basically warmed over Watership Down.

Okay, by the end it was more of a "Richard Adams does Tolkien but confuses rabbits with cats". Not recommended.

[ejp626]

About halfway through Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. It is a pretty good read. Steinbeck's basic decency shines through his somewhat wry observations about the people he encounters on his trek.

The book I am reading on the bus is Lolita (fortunately no lurid cover!). I made it halfway through and stopped maybe a couple of years ago, so I decided to restart from the beginning. I am enjoying it a bit more on the second go-around, but I still don't think I'll ever really warm to Nabokov as a writer.

[Matthew]

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion. Interesting book on something I've never paid any attention to, some of the financial figures that people spent on their "auditing" are astounding.

[porcy62]

Elmore Leonard, The complete western stories, in italian.

[A Lark Ascending]

Really enjoying this.

1944-5. The D-Day landings have failed, Moscow and Stalingrad have fallen and Hitler's revived armies have invaded Britain. A story built round a small group of German soldiers who arrive in a remote Welsh village where only the women remain, the men having disappeared into the resistance. Beautifully evocative of the seasons and the impact of war on both the conquerors and the conquered. The counterfactual historic events are relayed lightly and at a distance, heard through rumour and occasional radio reception.

Very impressive.

Edited May 8, 2013 by A Lark Ascending