Jump to content

Now reading...


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 9.1k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

51KXoiX8SuL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Just polished off this beautifully written little novel in about a day, as would anyone interested in the diaspora out of Germany in the 30s.

read some of her other stuff and was nicely surprised to find out that keun wasn't only my favorite author's ex (joseph roth's) but a very good auhor in her own right

keun.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Right now, "Farewell My Lovely", Raymond Chandler. . . rereading it for about the fifth time I estimate.

Like that one, too! :tup Recently read PKD's Flow My Tears. Seemed like Chandler transposed into the future!

PKD talked about Chandler being an influence and you can see it in several novels, including "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". . . .

Chandler was SOMETHING ELSE. Incredible spinner of words.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's possibly my favorite too. . . though it vies with "The Big Sleep" which has some great scenes (cannibalized from earlier short stories).

read those early stories recently, fascinating to see the same stuff puzzled together differently (thinking about it, this is one of two books i read in 2008... sad)

Edited by Niko
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, it was interesting to see these story elements recast. Chandler often had "blocks" --- apparently like many authors he had severe issues validating what he wrote and plot elements were very hard for him to come up with. Somehow rewriting these scenes and incorporating them helped him move forward. As someone who has nothing BUT problems writing I can really relate!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Melting Pot and Other Subversive Stories by Lynne Schwartz

"What I Did for Love" is ... The best story in the collection so far.

As it turns out, that was the only story in the collection I enjoyed. Oh well.

I am trying to clear out my shelves (and will be giving away books soon for just the price of postage, so keep an eye peeled). This generally means I will read things with a high probability of disappointing me, since I read the books I am fairly sure I will enjoy right away.

Currently am mostly through Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. It's an interesting way of getting transported into the world of Jacob Riis, and is certainly a corrective to Horatio Alger, though Crane goes too far the other way in coming up with hideous lumpen-proletariat figures. I do like his Civil War stories better, and though "A Mystery of Heroism" was not bad.

Also, the library finally came up with a copy of "Oscar Wao," so that will be the next thing I read.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am trying to clear out my shelves (and will be giving away books soon for just the price of postage, so keep an eye peeled).

:blink:

Is there a way to 'bookmark' a single post? :unsure:

Still on my 'neglected SF' kick; I've been reading some of Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai novels. Good entertainment, I guess, but nothing special...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am trying to clear out my shelves (and will be giving away books soon for just the price of postage, so keep an eye peeled).

:blink:

Is there a way to 'bookmark' a single post? :unsure:

Still on my 'neglected SF' kick; I've been reading some of Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai novels. Good entertainment, I guess, but nothing special...

During my misspent youth I always somehow managed to put off reading Dickson's Dorsai novels. Now I probably never will. (Yet I had a good impression of Gordon R. Dickson as an SF writer...I must have read some of his novellas or stories somewhere along the way.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finished this...

IRVING BERLIN - As Thousands Cheer - By Laurence Bergreen

Very interesting book that talk about an era and a style of music that i knew next to nothing about.

Currently reading this

millenium.JPG

Fascinating trilogy , your typical pageturner of a thriller that you can't leave it without knowing what is going to happen next

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I am halfway through Oscar Wao. On the whole I enjoy it, though I can see where Sal is coming from in terms of a lot of Dominican Republic history squeezed into the footnotes. The overall tone/approach reminds me of Vargas Llosa, but with footnotes inspired by David Foster Wallace (nowhere near as many, however). It's got a lot of kick, and I should be done by the weekend. One thing I don't like is the frequent use of spanglish. I'm never that fond of it, but if used sparingly and in ways that that the meaning is clear, I can accept it. If I need to try to go translate whole sentences which is the case from time to time, it annoys me. This was written for the US market, not targeted at bilingual readers.

(One could say the same thing of Russian novels with large chunks of French in them, but when they were written virtually anyone who was literate enough to read also read French (not the case for today's US readers vis a vis Spanish). It does introduce dilemmas for today's translaters, however.) By the way, I saw the most amazing production of The Brothers Karamazov in Chicago. They (Lookingglass) seemed to capture everything important in just over 3 hours. By contrast, while I enjoyed it, large pieces of the plot are missing from Murakami's Kafka on the Shore in Steppenwolf's recent production. I suspect this is because Murakami's novel is far more plot and dialogue driven, while Dostoevsky (and Tolstoy) have long philosophical asides that are important but can be removed as far as plot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finished this...

IRVING BERLIN - As Thousands Cheer - By Laurence Bergreen

Very interesting book that talk about an era and a style of music that i knew next to nothing about.

I read that book when I was still living in Brookline, MA. I remember really liking it.

Yep the writer did a fine job of putting Berlin back to life and he did it in a straightforward and accessible way , a little like Berlin's composition,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the midst of reading:

"Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises" (by Charles P. Kindleberger) - highly recommended. I only wish I had read this 18, 12 or even 3 months ago.

"Essays on the Great Depression" (by Ben Bernanke) - Only started, but it's quite interesting. Probably too dry and academic for casual readers, but those with a solid grounding in economics may find it useful. I'd be interested in any recommendations for a more generalist but economically-literate history book on the Great Depression.

"War and Peace" - about 2/3 of the way through.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...