2014 - What classic are you reading now?

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2014 - What classic are you reading now?

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1leslie.98
tammikuu 4, 2014, 2:36 pm

I hope no-one minds if I start the 2014 thread...

I am currently reading War and Peace - actually I am listening to it as an audiobook and referring to the Kindle edition when I get bogged down or confused. So far, so good - I am about a quarter of the way through.

2HarryMacDonald
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 4, 2014, 5:58 pm

Dead souls, by Gogol in the quirky but lively translation by Bernard Guilbert Guerney. Had forgotten just how goofy Gogol can be: a voice and a spirit quite unlike anybody I've ever read. His meandering descriptions and bizarre comparisons make the Surrealists read like Dick & Jane, while his sudden plunges into bizarre dialogue suggest a strange hybrid of Dante, Henry Miller, and The Marx Brothers. Can't get enough. Sadly, Gogol himself DID have more than enough, and as you may know, in a fit of the blues aggravated by religious mania, burned his intended continuation of the work. Guerney, to his credit, tried to assemble enough of the surviving notes and texts to give us an idea of what we might have had, under happier circumstances. Couldn't praise this novel enough: five stars, with oak-leaf cluster, a roasted ox and a fine bumper of wine!

3sparemethecensor
tammikuu 4, 2014, 5:50 pm

>2 HarryMacDonald:
I've always loved Gogol. He truly does the bizarre justice. Once while in Russia, I saw a theater interpretation of The Nose and it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen on stage.

4rocketjk
tammikuu 6, 2014, 10:44 am

#2 & 3> Although for some reason I've never gotten to Dead Souls, I, too love the Gogol I've read, especially The Overcoat and The Nose. I would love to see that stage presentation of The Nose!

I am continuing my custom of the last several years by beginning each calendar year with a re-read of one of Joseph Conrad's major novels. This year it's one of my favorites, The Secret Agent. I never get tired of Conrad's wry observations on life and vivid descriptions.

5leslie.98
tammikuu 6, 2014, 11:19 am

I read The Secret Agent for the first time a few months ago and loved it! I would like to read more Conrad this year - suggestions? I have read Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim

6rocketjk
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 6, 2014, 2:49 pm

#5> Well, Typhoon is a wonderful novella. I also highly recommend The Nigger of the Narcissus, despite its regrettable title. Victory is also compelling, although harder to read in that it has one of most evil characters you'll come across this side of Iago. The Rover is fun, although not considered one of Conrad's important works. Finally, Under Western Eyes, although also not considered among Conrad's peak books, is, like The Secret Agent, a "political" book. I enjoyed that one, as well. Anyway, those are my favorites, given that you've already read Jim and Darkness. Others may feel differently, of course.

7Cecrow
tammikuu 6, 2014, 3:02 pm

Victory is one I already intended to get to this year, so the comment is interesting. Looking forward to it!

8HarryMacDonald
tammikuu 6, 2014, 6:30 pm

In rebus 3, 4, atque 6. Of-course, since I am a flagrant and unrepentant anarchist, I must say "Nay!" to the praise of The Secret agent. I can respect a writer's dislike, or outright hostility to any particular political persuasion or behavior. I continually re-read conservatives as diverse as Samuel Johnson, Goethe, VV Rozanov, and Peter Viereck. But for a writer to tar that hated phenomenon as merely the product of petty frustration or mental instability is not the stuff of serious literature: it's just pissiness. Gogol, who himself had a long and complex life-episode of reactionary belief, would have risen above that and laughed Conrad to scorn, not for his politics, but for the miserably inadequate artistry with which Conrad attempted to present his beliefs.

9leslie.98
tammikuu 6, 2014, 7:06 pm

>6 rocketjk: Thanks for the suggestions! I will report back once I have decided :)

10rocketjk
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 6, 2014, 10:13 pm

#8> Of course, Conrad's rendering of the anarchists is not to be taken literally, or even seriously. It's the novel's weakness, as Conrad gives in to his contempt for just about all politics, not only anarchism, but it's sort of beside the point of the book, which is more about the demoralizing nature of modernized society than about anarchism and anarchists. The central scene of the book, thematically, is the cab ride that Winnie and her mother and Stevie take to bring Winnie's mother to the almshouse. The power of that scene is the beating heart of the entire narrative, and it has nothing to do with politics.

At any rate, The Secret Agent is not Conrad's best novel, but I find it fascinating nevertheless for it's insights into human nature and the alienating weight of industrialized city life. It is a flawed work, certainly, but if you feel that the weakness of the portrayal of the anarchists overrides those more successful elements of the book, we'll just have to disagree about that.

11madpoet
tammikuu 7, 2014, 12:53 am

The Secret Agent is a product of its time. Anarchists were the bogeyman of the late 19th/early 20th Century. And many anarchists of that era were in fact nihilists who wanted to destroy everything so a 'new order' could be created. Nor did they hesitate to use violence to accomplish those ends. The old stereotype of the bomb-throwing anarchist had some truth to it.

What I enjoyed about the novel was that the protagonist was not at all the James Bond type. He was a very reluctant secret agent. Really, all he wanted was to live a quiet, suburban English life, but his employer wouldn't let him.

12Cecrow
tammikuu 7, 2014, 7:51 am

>11 madpoet:, that's given me some insight into a classic I read last year, The Man Who Was Thursday that features anarchists front and centre. I found it spoke directly to today's society where anarchist = terrorist; although today's terrorists seem to be taken much more seriously, and require a more serious answer than Chesterton could muster.

13cbfiske
tammikuu 8, 2014, 7:29 am

January 2014 finds me reading The Prince and the Pauper. Really enjoying Mark Twain. After this, I plan to cross the ocean in my reading and take up Little Dorrit.

14Bjace
tammikuu 9, 2014, 11:40 pm

I'm working on The ambassadors and wondering if I made a mistake by tackling more Henry James. I had a really good experience with Portrait of a lady last year, but so far this isn't engaging me.

15Headinherbooks_27
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 11, 2014, 6:39 am

Just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray today. Now I'm reading The Catcher in the Rye.

16thorold
tammikuu 16, 2014, 3:43 pm

Not sure if it quite counts as a classic yet, but I'm sure it will become one soon: I've been reading through Doris Lessing's Children of violence (Martha Quest) sequence, storming through the first four parts very quickly over the stormy Christmas holiday (which led me to wonder why it is that it takes so much longer to read one 1000 page novel than it does to read four 250 page novels). I got a bit distracted by other things when I couldn't find the fifth part on the shelf, but I got myself the ebook and it's on the go now. Definitely well worth it.

17Cecrow
tammikuu 17, 2014, 7:45 am

I see it's been tagged as "science fiction" but I don't perceive the sci-fi element when I read the reviews; apparently it's 1940s Rhodesia. Alternative history?

18thorold
tammikuu 17, 2014, 9:32 am

Apparently there's an alternative history element in the final part, which I'm reading now, but I haven't got that far yet. Lessing did write quite a bit of science-fiction, but I haven't read any of that.

19jfetting
tammikuu 17, 2014, 9:59 am

> 14 Bjace, I've read a lot of Henry James and I like him a lot, especially his later work, but I have to say that The Ambassadors was like a brick wall and a definite challenge and not at all one of my favorites. Good luck with that!

I'm reading and enjoying Nicholas Nickleby, which is pretty standard Dickens I think. Quite long, so I'll be reading it for awhile.

20leslie.98
tammikuu 17, 2014, 3:06 pm

I am (still) listening to the audiobook of War and Peace, but I am also reading some Doris Lessing - in my case The Golden Notebook.

And looking back, I see that I forgot to post on Nightmare Abbey which I was pleasantly surprised to find was a satire instead of the Gothic horror story the title suggested.

21Sandydog1
tammikuu 21, 2014, 8:56 pm

LOL! Just a few years ago, I read War and Peace. But I had purchased and listened to, the last 1/3 or so, on cassette, on EBay. The number of tapes was huge.

(For the younger folks out there, these were quaint long thin strips of ribbon, spooled and encased in translucent polystyrene plastic rectangles.)

Anyway, I'm driving down a country road on the way home, and I hear, "And so ends the second epilog of War and Peace." I had totally spaced-out for both epilogs.

It was the literary equivalent of running a marathon.

No worries, though, I've been trying to encourage those at LT to slog through it. Keep a good list of cast of characters handy for the first few hundred pages. 'Just long, 'that's all.

22madpoet
tammikuu 27, 2014, 6:04 pm

I was reading The House of Mirth, but wanted something lighter. So I switched to Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, which was exactly what I expected it to be: a nice little Victorian adventure story. It's not as good as Around the World in Eighty Days or as funny as From the Earth to the Moon, but it's Jules Verne, so it's a fun read.

23leslie.98
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 28, 2014, 12:55 pm

Still listening to War and Peace but very close to done now :)

And I started reading my next Palliser novel, The Prime Minister... I had hoped to finish the Palliser series last year but didn't make it. I enjoy Trollope but the books are long!

>23 leslie.98: I have some Jules Verne waiting on my Kindle - glad to see you thought Around the World in Eighty Days was better than Journey to the Center of the Earth, as I found Journey... a bit disappointing.

24Cecrow
tammikuu 28, 2014, 1:14 pm

>23 leslie.98: Yeah, I felt the same way; "Journey" pretty much turned me off of reading more Verne. Around the World in Eighty Days is alright though.

25sparemethecensor
tammikuu 29, 2014, 11:58 am

I started Oblomov last night and I'm enjoying it so far, although the vast number of very similar ancillary characters introduced in the first few chapters made me go back and forth a few times to confirm who is who. This is undoubtedly Russian -- within pages, a man of German descent is criticized for being good at his job and working too hard!

26jfetting
tammikuu 29, 2014, 3:12 pm

>23 leslie.98: I love Trollope and the Palliser novels but I've been deliberately putting off reading The Duke's Children because based on the table of contents he kills off my favorite character in the first chapter and I don't want that to happen. Someday I'll read it, but not yet.

27leslie.98
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 29, 2014, 3:52 pm

>26 jfetting: Now I am curious! I will have to sneak a peek to see if I can tell who it is ;)

Oh, and I am finally finished with War and Peace… I found it easy to read but the last 50 pages or so really dragged (where Tolstoy discusses the nature of history & free will). Overall, though, a solid 4 stars.

28Sandydog1
tammikuu 29, 2014, 10:32 pm

skip those darn epilogs!

29Cecrow
tammikuu 30, 2014, 8:01 am

>27 leslie.98:/28, I remember those. :) I'm put in mind of them while I try wading through the last three or four parts of Confessions of Augustine. The interesting biography section ended after the first nine chapters, now it's all drag drag drag to the end.

30leslie.98
tammikuu 30, 2014, 12:32 pm

>28 Sandydog1: I was tempted to skip it, but I figured that I had read ~1750 pages and I would always feel that I hadn't really read it if I didn't push through the last 50. Didn't want to be one of those people who claim that they have read something they hadn't (as discussed in some other thread!).

31madpoet
helmikuu 8, 2014, 4:42 am

I just finished The House of Mirth. Not my cup 'o tea, frankly. The last few chapters were better- I started to feel for Lily, and there was finally a bit of suspense.

32leslie.98
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 8, 2014, 10:51 am

I finished The Prime Minister but didn't really like it that much - I found Emily aggravating and poor Planty Palliser had become a mess :(

I hope that I like the last book in the series better!

Now I am reading Middlemarch. I am not in love with Eliot's writing style but am finding such gems, such as the way Mrs. Cadwallader describes Mr. Casaubon's blood:

"Somebody put a drop under a magnifying-glass, and it was all semicolons and parantheses."

33Sandydog1
helmikuu 8, 2014, 1:10 pm

>32 leslie.98:

Congrats on that Middlemarch slog, keep going!

That quote reminds me of H G Well criticizing the writing of Henry James, something about "A hippopotamus trying to pick up a pea."

34leslie.98
helmikuu 14, 2014, 9:45 pm

Still reading Middlemarch, but in the meantime I listened to The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck on audiobook. Very good.

35madpoet
helmikuu 15, 2014, 12:56 am

This year is 'The Year of African American Literature' for me. I just finished I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. It's her autobiography, and a really fascinating story. I just wish she'd continued it into her adult years, as she had quite an eventful and accomplished life, as a dancer, editor, producer, civil rights leader, world traveller and of course writer and poet.

36rocketjk
helmikuu 15, 2014, 12:20 pm

#35> Angelou actually did continue her memoirs in a series of autobiographies, of which Caged Bird Sings is only the first:

http://www.librarything.com/series/Maya+Angelou%27s+Autobiographies

37leslie.98
helmikuu 21, 2014, 7:20 pm

I am listening to the audiobook of Theodore Dreiser's book An American Tragedy. Not only is the book wonderful, but Dan John Miller is doing a magnificent job with the narration.

38madpoet
helmikuu 22, 2014, 1:30 am

I just finished Their Eyes Were Watching God. Wonderful story. I really enjoyed this one.

I ordered the book online, though. When you do that, from a Chinese website, you never know what you're going to get. They sent me a book that had obviously been used in a high school somewhere. It was kinda fun to see the students' margin notes, and of course they'd drawn a mustache on the author's face... Mike Bannon and Avery Schellens, whoever you are, shame on you! :-)

39Cecrow
helmikuu 22, 2014, 2:09 pm

The Sorrows of Young Werther ... Still getting to the sorrows part, I guess.

40Sandydog1
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 28, 2014, 10:20 pm

I haven't read it yet. But to think dozens of young European men donned yellow jackets and committed suicide after reading it, I guess it deserves some attention.

Back then, it was considered a serious work; not the least bit trite, hackneyed, silly nor maudlin.

41rocketjk
helmikuu 23, 2014, 3:35 pm

I'm currently reading Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages by Manuel Puig. I'm not sure this book counts as a classic, although Puig does make most lists of "most influential Argentine writers."

42leslie.98
helmikuu 23, 2014, 6:22 pm

I am reading Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs in honor of Black History Month here in the U.S. I hadn't realized that it was first published in 1861, before the Civil War started.

43kac522
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 26, 2014, 10:56 pm

>42 leslie.98: I just read a selection from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl for my Southern Lit class--very interesting and moving.

&>38 madpoet: Next reading in this class (for next week) is Their Eyes Were Watching God, which I read so many years (decades!) ago that I don't remember what it's about.

I also finished my umpteenth re-reading (actually audiobook-listening) of Jane Eyre, for my Book Club. We all had a question, that maybe someone here can shed some light on: from the book, do you think that Mrs. Fairfax knew about Mr. Rochester & Bertha Mason (in the attic) from the beginning? We had differences of opinion in our group.

44Cecrow
helmikuu 27, 2014, 8:07 am

>43 kac522:, I was always certain she did, can't imagine otherwise. If she's left in charge of the house every time Rochester is away, which is most of the time, she has to know or else would very soon find out.

On the other hand, she does seem to gossip a lot about who Rochester is courting, doesn't she .... ? Hmm.

45.Monkey.
helmikuu 27, 2014, 9:10 am

No, Mrs Fairfax didn't know, it's made quite clear. She had some suspicion of some sort of secret, but she wasn't the sort to pry or give it much thought; Jane makes it clear from when first meeting her and trying to ask her about Rochester that she's a smart enough woman but that she doesn't care to take note of much around her. Bertha was hidden in the secret room, that only Grace had keys to and went in. Also, she really didn't gossip about him, it was only at Jane's non-stop prodding that she would even offer a small conjecture about Rochester and ...the irritating rich girl whose name I forget. At first she even tried to brush it off entirely, saying that he was too old to think of that girl, but Jane kind of scoffs at her (since at this point she's already getting jealous) and says that he looks younger than he is and whatnot, and then after seeing them together a bit Mrs Fairfax finally concedes that it does seem as though something is going on. She's just really not very interested in thinking about people, hence it making sense she was never aware.

46Cecrow
helmikuu 27, 2014, 11:04 am

I had the vague impression that Mrs Fairfax tried to dissuade Jane from being too curious about weird goings-on in the house, but I guess it could just be her own dismissive, non-curious nature that's speaking.

47.Monkey.
helmikuu 27, 2014, 11:20 am

Right, at multiple points we see that she simply isn't interested in that and pays no mind to it. She wasn't even able to answer questions about Rochester, what he was "like" or what she thought felt slightly odd about him, and whatnot. She simply did her job for a boss who treated her fairly and that was that.

48jfetting
helmikuu 27, 2014, 12:22 pm

I'm reading the Mapp and Lucia books by E.F. Benson. I'm on Miss Mapp right now and I think she may be even funnier than Lucia. These books are brilliant and bitchy and hilarious and I love them.

49kac522
helmikuu 27, 2014, 3:51 pm

>44 Cecrow:-47 thanks for your thoughts...I always thought Mrs. Fairfax didn't know (or care), but it does seem odd that she didn't also question the weird laughs, etc. It just seems like she would _have_ to suspect something, (or that she would have heard of the marriage as a distant family member) but you are right that the text makes it clear that she seems oblivious to things that don't concern her. We have a few in our discussion group who felt she _must_ have known, but we couldn't find anything in the text to back that up.

And you make an excellent point, Cecrow, that Mrs. Fairfax is all excited about the courtship with Blanche Ingram; she is only hesitant about Jane's relationship because of their differences in station.

50.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 27, 2014, 4:07 pm

But she told Jane when they heard the laugh that it was Grace, and given her nature she didn't dwell on it and just figured Grace was a little odd but nothing to worry over. And Rochester kept the marriage a secret from all but his father & brother, no other family knew, it was a terrible secret among them only, because he was married to a lunatic, not really something anybody wants to spread around about their family and make them look bad by association!

Can you quote anything where she was excited about Blanche? Jane kept telling her that it was going to happen and at first she brushed it off but then finally relented that yes, Jane was right after all, it did indeed look like he'd be marrying her. I definitely do not recall any sort of excitement from her.

(edited for typo)

51leslie.98
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 3, 2014, 10:54 am

I am finally done with Middlemarch and I was a bit disappointed - I had thought that I would love it but Eliot's writing style didn't mesh with my current mood very well. I liked the plot & the characterizations very much, so I will have to revisit this some time in the future.

I am almost done with my audiobook of An American Tragedy, which I started off loving but am now flagging a bit. I think that I might have read too many big long books in too short a space of time... which is a sad conclusion for me to come to as I have a buddy read of Lorna Doone which started March 1.

52cbfiske
maaliskuu 2, 2014, 6:29 pm

Right now I'm rereading one of my favorites, David Copperfield.

53Cecrow
maaliskuu 3, 2014, 9:54 am

>51 leslie.98:, I've not made it to Middlemarch yet but been told enough about it to rank it along with Ulysses and similar novels called "the best novel ever written" as something that will require my undivided attention to fully appreciate.

54thorold
maaliskuu 3, 2014, 11:21 am

One great thing about immersing yourself in a new language is that you come across classics you never knew existed (even though you could easily have read them in translation if you had known where to look...). I'm currently reading Miguel de Unamuno's Niebla, which rather unexpectedly turns out to be an existentialist romance.

>53 Cecrow:
Middlemarch definitely deserves a certain time investment, but it's demanding in quite a different way from Ulysses.

55Amberfly
maaliskuu 3, 2014, 2:10 pm

I started reading The Jungle Books last week and I'm actually finding it quite interesting reading. There are problems with it, yes, but Kipling knew how to write a story that would keep people reading. I had encountered his Just So Stories as a child, but had never read anything else of his, and now I kinda regret waiting so long to read it.

56LesMiserables
maaliskuu 4, 2014, 12:18 am

I have read a couple of Sir Walter Scott novels so far this year, Waverley and Rob Roy

57Cecrow
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 4, 2014, 10:13 am

>55 Amberfly:, if you pursue him any further afterwards, I definitely recommend Kim.

>56 LesMiserables:, I'd like to read Waverley, but hesitate. I found Ivanhoe was a chore to get through when I read it a decade ago.

58thorold
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 4, 2014, 10:30 am

>57 Cecrow:
I don't know what Les Mis thinks, but for me, Waverley and Rob Roy both seemed to have a much tighter historical focus than Ivanhoe. You'll probably enjoy them more if that aspect is what appeals to you. Scott had a much clearer idea of what he wanted to say about the eighteenth century than he did for the middle ages.

59LesMiserables
maaliskuu 4, 2014, 4:53 pm

57

Kim, I agree on.

As 58 states the two novels focused in Scotland are much mor focused and culturally analytical in explanating the outcomes.

I read many reviews on Scott's work and lament the obvious custom of some readers to denigrate his work because it is 'too ponderous' or 'irrelevant'. I console myself that these readers should be reading something more racy and consoling, perhaps with an opening scene about a car chase or defusing an unexposed bomb with 34 seconds left on the clock.....

Scott isn't like that. He assumes you might want to know something about the background that will inform considerably your reading experience. He doesn't rush tings- he demands time investment in his chapters, but rewards you, yields to you, handsome returns in the end.

60leslie.98
maaliskuu 4, 2014, 5:00 pm

Oh good, as I have been eyeing Waverley...

But right now I am just beginning Lorna Doone which I am having mixed feelings about so far. I like the narrator John Ridd but I am finding the dialect with which his uncle speaks difficult. I hope that isn't a large part of the book...

61MissWatson
maaliskuu 5, 2014, 3:46 am

Yeah, Lorna Doone remained tough going right until the end, I found.

62leslie.98
maaliskuu 5, 2014, 12:10 pm

Oh dear. I may make use of the Librivox recording then, as dialects are easier to understand when spoken rather than written in my experience.

63madpoet
maaliskuu 10, 2014, 10:43 am

I just finished Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. It was a lot funnier, and more entertaining generally, than I expected. The 17th and 18th Centuries were a lot raunchier and merrier than the 19th, weren't they? At least the novels were.

64leslie.98
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 17, 2014, 6:36 pm

Still working on Lorna Doone, but in the mean time, I have been dipping into some of the ancient Greek plays... I started reading some of Aeschylus, which are short but challenging so I ended up watching the productions on YouTube. One of the advantages of modern technology :)

65LesMiserables
maaliskuu 18, 2014, 7:19 am

I have recently completed Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and am currently reading A Midsummer Night's Dream.

66kac522
maaliskuu 18, 2014, 12:55 pm

Just about to finish The Ladies' Paradise by Zola and about to start Henry V

67leslie.98
maaliskuu 18, 2014, 4:45 pm

>66 kac522: I was loving the PBS dramatization of that Zola book - I have never read anything by him but that show made me think that I should.

I have now finished Lorna Doone and am taking a short breather before my next classic, which will be Bouvard and Pecuchet.

68kac522
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 18, 2014, 5:04 pm

>67 leslie.98: I have to say I enjoyed the show more than the book, but the book was interesting in its own way. Much more about the rise of the large department stores and the demise of the small shopkeeper. The love interest between Denise & Mouret didn't seem authentic to me, but Zola's descriptions of Paris and especially the department store and all the goods were fantastic.

69cbfiske
maaliskuu 20, 2014, 8:37 pm

Just finished rereading David Copperfield, one of my favorite Dickens' novels. Loved visiting these characters again.

70leslie.98
maaliskuu 21, 2014, 10:00 am

I am reading Bouvard and Pecuchet now, and at first I didn't know what to make of it. But as the story progresses, I am finding it funnier and funnier.

71Steven_VI
maaliskuu 22, 2014, 4:17 am

I'm halfway through Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, and enjoying it a lot. It's a fast read, reminds me a bit of Candide (the book, not the musical - obviously).

72mrsammr
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 26, 2014, 8:11 am

Reading The Idiot, wonderful Dostoevsky, always in my mind...

73fuzzi
maaliskuu 26, 2014, 8:34 am

I just finished Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson...a first time read.

74madpoet
maaliskuu 26, 2014, 6:32 pm

I'm not sure if it's a classic, but I just finished The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I remembered seeing parts of a film adaptation from the early 90s, which made it seem like some kind of light porn. The novel is not at all like that. It's a novel of ideas, about politics, personal relationships, and how our private and public lives interact.

Usually, I wouldn't like this kind of modernist novel, but Kundera writes with humour and heart. He doesn't totally abandon storytelling, and his characters are likable, almost heroic (rare for a 'novel of ideas')

75leslie.98
maaliskuu 26, 2014, 6:36 pm

>74 madpoet: Your post makes that book sound more interesting to me. I too saw the film and based on that had pretty much written off the book. I will have to put it on my "maybe" list...

76rocketjk
maaliskuu 26, 2014, 8:34 pm

#74, 75> I enjoyed The Unbearable Lightness of Being a lot.

77Sandydog1
maaliskuu 26, 2014, 8:49 pm

>72 mrsammr:

I have heard nothing but goodness about The Idiot.

It's moved up a few notches up the massive TBR pile.

78lilisin
maaliskuu 26, 2014, 10:06 pm

I just read The Idiot and there were moments I enjoyed but the female characters were just too aggravating for me to enjoy the book as a whole. But I realize I might just not be a Dostoevsky fan.

79LesMiserables
maaliskuu 27, 2014, 1:58 am

Fantastic. I love Kidnapped. I read it every year. Catriona is the sequel which is a good read but not essential to Kidbapped.

Come over here http://www.librarything.com/topic/169005 and let us know what you thought about it.

Cheers

80jnwelch
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 27, 2014, 4:40 pm

Reading The Prisoner of Zenda. Fun so far.

81jfetting
maaliskuu 29, 2014, 11:07 am

Mapp and Lucia and I love it. This series is the best.

82.Monkey.
maaliskuu 31, 2014, 4:31 am

>78 lilisin: What translation did you read?

83lilisin
maaliskuu 31, 2014, 10:26 am

82 -
I read the P&V translation and it read smoothly.

84madpoet
huhtikuu 1, 2014, 8:09 am

>80 jnwelch: Yeah, The Prisoner of Zenda was a fun read. Pure escapist fantasy, but why not? Not all classics have to be heavy, right?

85madpoet
huhtikuu 1, 2014, 8:12 am

>76 rocketjk:. The film adaptation of The Unbearable Lightness of Being must have made the author cringe. It completely misrepresents what the book is about. Not that there isn't a lot of sex in the book...

86Sandydog1
huhtikuu 3, 2014, 9:39 pm

I'm still fumbling with the term "classic".

I keep thinking of Cicero and Seneca and Horace and Homer.

Anyhoo... I'm half-way through that 1930s and 1940s bubblegum classic, Lost Horizon.

87Cecrow
huhtikuu 4, 2014, 8:10 am

>86 Sandydog1:, Lost Horizon is on my TBR list. Apparently was the first novel ever published in paperback.

88Cecrow
huhtikuu 11, 2014, 7:49 am

Started Victory by Joseph Conrad. Haven't read Conrad since Heart of Darkness in university.

89rocketjk
huhtikuu 11, 2014, 12:33 pm

#88> I'm a huge Conrad fan, but I haven't read Victory since grad school. A great psychological study, as usual for Conrad, with one of the most evil villains this side of Iago. I'll be reading it myself in the next couple of years as part of my current one-Conrad-per-year campaign.

90madpoet
huhtikuu 14, 2014, 2:49 am

I just finished The Color Purple by Alice Walker. A fairly recent classic (published in 1970). I really enjoyed it-- a great story.

91jnwelch
huhtikuu 14, 2014, 3:48 pm

I recently read The Color Purple, too, and was surprised at how good it was. Somehow the movie, while well done, caused me to expect less.

92madpoet
huhtikuu 21, 2014, 6:19 pm

>86 Sandydog1: I found Lost Horizon at our local bookstore, and thought I'd give it another go (couldn't get into it the first time I started reading it, for some reason). I really enjoyed it this time, though.

93leslie.98
huhtikuu 22, 2014, 5:11 pm

I just finished The Island of Doctor Moreau which I found a bit too creepy for me but otherwise very well done.

94madpoet
huhtikuu 27, 2014, 1:32 am

>93 leslie.98: Creepy is an understatement. I loved that book!

Just finishing Tarzan of the Apes. Very politically incorrect. Sexist, racist, even elitist. Just generally offensive. The story reminded me of the Jungle Book, but Kipling is a way better writer.

95leslie.98
huhtikuu 29, 2014, 5:43 pm

I have been reading a lot of plays lately... Medea by Euripides, Agamemnon by Aeschylus, The Frogs by Aristophanes, and now I am on a Molière kick so Tartuffe, The Misanthrope and next The School for Wives...

96Cecrow
huhtikuu 30, 2014, 7:30 am

>95 leslie.98:, good for you. I've never found the knack for reading and enjoying plays, not even Shakespeare. Although ... now that I say that, Henrik Ibsen was pretty good.

97LesMiserables
huhtikuu 30, 2014, 7:51 am

95 96

Read The Tempest for the first time today. Never struck a chord with me.

98thorold
huhtikuu 30, 2014, 9:57 am

I was taken to a performance of The Tempest when I was far too young to understand most of what was going on, but I was convinced right away that this was something really special. I think it makes a huge difference to see and hear it done by actors who know how to speak the lines before you try to tackle it on the printed page. And a live performance is far better than a film.

99jnwelch
huhtikuu 30, 2014, 11:55 am

I'm re-reading The Book Thief, which I suspect will be considered a classic some day.

100leslie.98
toukokuu 2, 2014, 2:53 pm

>98 thorold: Totally agree that plays are best when seen performed but not always possible... I do often watch a performance on YouTube before or after reading a play (some are excellent such as BBC Productions of Shakespeare, others are terrible such as parents' video of their child in a school play)

I started the final book in the Palliser series today, The Duke's Children. I am not a fan of the Duke (since he had his little fling with Lady Hartletop in the Barsetshire series!), so we'll see how it goes.

101Sandydog1
toukokuu 3, 2014, 3:08 pm

>95 leslie.98:

Real live, honest-to-goodness classical classy classics!

102leslie.98
toukokuu 5, 2014, 3:41 pm

>101 Sandydog1: LOL! Yes I was on a "real classics" kick, and might still read/reread some Sophocles before it completely passes!

103Sandydog1
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 5, 2014, 8:37 pm

Sophocles, Euripides, and even Aristophanes (although I cry whenever he hates on Socrates) are great!

It's a shame they burned Alexandria. Can you imagine the number of plays we would have been able to enjoy?

I'm currently reading Mythology, but because I read Ovid, it's a bit of a re-hash. Really fun stuff, though.

104leslie.98
toukokuu 8, 2014, 4:44 pm

I took a break from my excursions into ancient Greece to listen to the full cast audiobook of She Stoops to Conquer, which is one of my favorite Restoration comedies.

I finished the Palliser series, without getting any fonder of the Duke. I definitely preferred the Barsetshire series!

I just started listening to the audiobook of The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders which I am finding much easier reading/listening than Robinson Crusoe. However, it appears to be one long chapter which seems odd.

105madpoet
toukokuu 13, 2014, 11:59 pm

>104 leslie.98: I read Moll Flanders recently. It really is fun. Very different from Robinson Crusoe, which is one of my favourite classics. The print version of the book is not divided into chapters, either. That's odd. I didn't notice it until you pointed it out.

106rocketjk
toukokuu 23, 2014, 4:11 pm

Gonna get in trouble classifying this as a classic, maybe, but I'd say Flaubert's Parrot, by Julian Barnes, which I am reading now and loving, is maybe, at least, worth considering a "modern classic," if that term gets any traction with y'all. Anyway, if nothing else, it's about a classic.

107Sandydog1
toukokuu 24, 2014, 11:34 am

I'm not familiar with it, but clearly it's a classic. Flaubert's name's in the title. :)

I'm not reading a classic but rather a book about classics, Sailing the Wine Dark Sea.

108leslie.98
toukokuu 24, 2014, 3:11 pm

I listened to a full-cast recording of Oedipus the King yesterday -- I liked the translation but my SYNC audiobook doesn't say who did it :( My Kindle edition was translated by F. Storrs, which I really didn't care for...

Now onto Crime and Punishment -- I wasn't liking it much at the beginning but once the actual crime took place, it improved!

109rolandperkins
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 24, 2014, 6:38 pm

"...My Kindle edition was translated by F. Storrs. . .

Understandable that you didnʻt care for it. It has been replaced
in the Loeb Classical Library Series by the Hugh Lloyd-Jones translation, (prose for both the dialog and the choruses), c1994.
The Storrs Sophocles was the Loebʻs version when I was in college (1950s) -- and long after. It dates from earlier in the 20th century. It always seemed to me to be vying with
Arthur Wayʻs Euripides for the title of worst translation in Loeb, or at least the worst
of any where the original is in verse.
Not so much for inaccuracy as for a horrible, pseudo-archaic way of expressing Sophoclesʻs
poetical diction.

110leslie.98
toukokuu 27, 2014, 4:13 pm

>109 rolandperkins: Yes, the " horrible, pseudo-archaic way of expressing Sophoclesʻs poetical diction." was exactly what I didn't like about it!!

111Cecrow
toukokuu 29, 2014, 7:46 am

Just started Barchester Towers, after having read The Warden last year. The introduction states this is "a novel primarily to enjoy." Which is encouraging but then I thought, what else has that poor introducer been reading - and why??

112jnwelch
toukokuu 29, 2014, 12:39 pm

113leslie.98
toukokuu 30, 2014, 1:21 pm

>111 Cecrow: I really enjoyed Barchester Towers (much more than The Warden!).

114madpoet
kesäkuu 2, 2014, 11:51 pm

>111 Cecrow: "a novel primarily to enjoy" does NOT describe some of the classics I've read recently. Madame Bovary, which I am about half-way through, being a good example.

115Cecrow
kesäkuu 3, 2014, 7:46 am

>114 madpoet:, ah, when put in terms of tone I see what you mean, a comedy being more open to enjoyment than a tragedy. I did enjoy Madame Bovary in the sense of appreciating how it was written, though.

116jnwelch
kesäkuu 3, 2014, 9:39 am

I enjoyed Barchester Towers, too.

I started Scaramouche, and after a somewhat slow beginning I'm getting caught up in it.

117leslie.98
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 3, 2014, 11:45 am

>116 jnwelch: I love Scaramouche!! Of course, I first encountered it as the 1952 movie with Stewart Granger...

118jnwelch
kesäkuu 3, 2014, 11:52 am

Good to hear, leslie. I haven't seen the movie, but the way the book is going, I imagine I'll look for it after I'm done.

119Sandydog1
kesäkuu 3, 2014, 8:31 pm

I'm finally back in the fray (instead of just reading pablum and providing snarky comments about what is, and what is not, a classic).

I'm reading The Idiot.

Expect my next post oh, around, October.

120rocketjk
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 4, 2014, 12:59 am

#116> Ah, Scaramouche! I love that book, too. Also Captain Blood, which is by Sabatini, as well. I believe Errol Flynn played the good captain in the movie.

121jnwelch
kesäkuu 4, 2014, 11:24 am

I went leslie's route with Captain Blood, having first seen the swashbuckling Errol Flynn movie and many years later reading the book.

122Sandydog1
kesäkuu 22, 2014, 7:39 pm

The Idiot was fantastic! Characters developing other characters. Sienfeld-esque foibles. Mad diversions about morality and religion. Lust, desire and greed. This was certainly as good as Crime and Punishment.

123rocketjk
kesäkuu 22, 2014, 8:19 pm

#123> I enjoyed The Idiot, too. Very sly humor.

124jfetting
kesäkuu 22, 2014, 8:32 pm

I've resolved yet again to tackle The Brothers Karamazov this summer. Wish me luck!

125leslie.98
kesäkuu 23, 2014, 12:02 pm

>124 jfetting: I am reading The Brothers Karamazov right now -- about a third of the way through. I am finding it is easier to read than I had feared, although sometimes the content is not that interesting to me.

126Sandydog1
kesäkuu 25, 2014, 10:33 pm

> 124, 125

I feel your pain. Deep, evil, nasty stuff.

127MissWatson
heinäkuu 15, 2014, 3:58 am

I just finished Can you forgive her and loved it. More, please, sir.

128Cecrow
heinäkuu 15, 2014, 7:47 am

>127 MissWatson:, I just finished Barchester Towers, and while I enjoyed it I think Trollope isn't for me. Great character insights and entertaining style, but I need more plot and tension.

129sparemethecensor
heinäkuu 15, 2014, 8:33 am

>127 MissWatson:

What did you love? Does it pick up? I am 14% through, according to my kindle, and while there are bits I've found funny, I really keep thinking, "Get on with it!" I want more tension and less flowery language. Even George, who is supposed to be one of the most wicked men in Victorian fiction, is just boring.

I always feel this way about Dickens, too, so maybe I just can't do Victorian serials.

130MissWatson
heinäkuu 15, 2014, 8:56 am

>129 sparemethecensor: Well, I generally prefer 19th century novels to most modern stuff.
I don't think there's much "picking up" to look forward to. Alice ditches her fiance, goes back to George, ditches him but still gives him money to fight a by-election (that is very irritating). George contemplates murder but doesn't do it, and the Victorian notion of wicked simply doesn't work for us anymore. Lady Glencora considers running off etc. So they all finally settle down to domesticity, which may seem boring, but that is what most people would do in the same circumstances.
I like it because these people are pragmatic and mundane, their conversations normal and sometimes dull, sometimes quite funny. Trollope pokes mild fun at the difficult task of catching husbands, but never goes beyond mild. There are no secrets, no sensations, no rivers of blood. There are probably very nasty things happening elsewhere in London, the Empire, and the world in general, but they have no place in this book. Not to everyone's taste, admittedly, and I can imagine times when I would have put it down as dull, too. I guess it just caught me in the right mood.

131thorold
heinäkuu 15, 2014, 9:58 am

>127 MissWatson: - >130 MissWatson:
Trollope doesn't really do suspense, but there can be plenty of tension. It tends to be very ordinary, low-key tension, though, nothing really theatrical like Dickens or Thackeray. Barchester Towers is probably as mild as it gets - a novel where the supreme dramatic moment is someone getting a slap in the shrubbery - but it does get much more serious in books like Last chronicle of Barset and He knew he was right, with people actually on the brink of destroying themselves through stubbornness. Although of course they don't, and you know from the start that they won't...

132Cecrow
heinäkuu 15, 2014, 11:38 am

As commentary on their times Trollope's novels also shine. He reflects contemporary news headlines in his stories, and I like that he speaks of everyone both high and low (in society) as equals in their emotions and psychology. Good stuff to read if you have a lot of stress in your life and want things to stay low key in your fiction. Look, now I'm defending him.

133MissWatson
heinäkuu 15, 2014, 5:35 pm

There's a book for every season and for every mood, and sometimes a mellow read like Trollope is all you really want to curl up with.

134jnwelch
heinäkuu 16, 2014, 3:09 pm

Just finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which somehow I managed to miss in my misspent youth. Which was nothing compared to his entertaining misspent youth.

135jnwelch
heinäkuu 18, 2014, 4:41 pm

Now I've started To the Lighthouse.

136LesMiserables
heinäkuu 18, 2014, 10:03 pm

135

I enjoyed that!

137Sandydog1
heinäkuu 20, 2014, 3:41 pm

I'm reading Kim and have also started Thucydides

138Cecrow
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 21, 2014, 8:13 am

>135 jnwelch:, I've heard that despite its small size, that one is a challenge to penetrate. Good luck!

>137 Sandydog1:, really liked Kim. See what you make of the scene where he meets Lurgan, I don't understand what's going on with the broken jar.

139jnwelch
heinäkuu 21, 2014, 9:44 am

>138 Cecrow: I agree with that so far (I'm about 85 pages in), Cecrow. Very dense - I was just thinking that Middlemarch was a piece of cake compared to it. But, as in Middlemarch (which is one of my favorite books ever), the writing is beautiful.

140leslie.98
heinäkuu 21, 2014, 11:43 am

I am reading Mary Barton -- I am liking it so far even though it is set in Manchester rather than in the country as Wives and Daughters and Cranford were.

>138 Cecrow: re: Kim I thought that Lurgan was trying to hypnotise Kim into seeing the jar reform, but Kim was resistant to hyponotic suggestion.Do you think there was more to it than that?

141Cecrow
heinäkuu 22, 2014, 7:55 am

>140 leslie.98:, you're probably right. I just couldn't follow exactly what happened, whether it was hypnosis or an illusion trick or what.

142Bjace
heinäkuu 22, 2014, 10:15 am

#135, jnwelch, hope you have better luck with To the lighthouse than I did. I'm reading Mrs. Dalloway right now and so far it's not so bad. I'm also trying another go at Balzac with Ursule Mirouet

143jnwelch
heinäkuu 22, 2014, 2:46 pm

>142 Bjace: Thanks, Bjace. I'm in the home stretch with To the Lighthouse. For me it has been a read of respect, not love. Beautiful writing, but not a lot happens. Mrs. Dalloway is in my cards at some point.

144leslie.98
heinäkuu 23, 2014, 12:37 pm

I am listening to Kate Winslet narrate Therese Raquin and it is wonderful! Of course Therese and Laurent are not wonderful but the writing is.

145jnwelch
heinäkuu 23, 2014, 4:55 pm

>142 Bjace: I finished, Bjace, and my review is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/177745#4780488 . I'm not sure whether it would qualify for better luck than yours or not. I've had a number of people comment that Mrs. Dalloway is better. Looking forward to your reaction to that one.

146madpoet
heinäkuu 23, 2014, 8:12 pm

I just finished The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. Great fun. But, like The Swiss Family Robinson, has an unbelievable zoology. Jaguars, capybaras and kangaroos on the same island? And there just happens to be a vein of coal and iron ore lying on the surface? Right...

147Cecrow
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 24, 2014, 7:45 am

Started reading The Old Curiosity Shop, intrigued as always with Dickens by these great characters he's introducing. Also about a third of the way through Dubliners; it's not a kind of book you "enjoy" exactly, but I'm liking it.

148rocketjk
heinäkuu 28, 2014, 4:51 pm

I'm reading Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett. It's not an easy read, but I'm enjoying it.

149literarybuff
elokuu 1, 2014, 10:24 am

I'm starting Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

150jfetting
elokuu 1, 2014, 10:39 am

I'm reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne. I can't remember if I've read it before or not (I know I've owned a copy practically forever!) but nothing about the description sounds familiar so I'm thinking not. Time to correct that.

151thorold
Muokkaaja: elokuu 6, 2014, 3:12 am

I've at last got around to Der Schimmelreiter - another of those books that is widely disliked by people who had to read it at school (or, in my mother's case, because she had to teach it every year...). Seems to be mostly harmless so far.

152MissWatson
elokuu 6, 2014, 5:18 am

>151 thorold: "Was Lebiges muss rein." Very useful phrase for the kitchen if you cut yourself and blood drips into whatever dish you're working on.

153thorold
elokuu 6, 2014, 6:01 am

>152 MissWatson:
:-) I'll remember that next time.

I think most of the ritual kitchen quotation that went on in our house was Wilhelm Busch, although we did use to get "Vom Eise befreit" when defrosting frozen food.

154MissWatson
elokuu 6, 2014, 6:07 am

Oh yes, Wilhelm Busch!

155Tess_W
elokuu 11, 2014, 11:59 pm

Re-reading a favorite childhood set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Current on book 4/5: On the Banks of Plum Creek, which is where Little House (the TV series) was taken.

156thorold
elokuu 12, 2014, 8:17 am

I've tied up the horse again and moved to the slightly warmer climate of Angoulême in Balzac's Les deux poètes. (First part of lost illusions)

157madpoet
elokuu 23, 2014, 7:50 am

>155 Tess_W: I know those books are for girls, but I enjoyed them when I was a kid, too. The TV show was one of my favourites, as well.

158Sandydog1
Muokkaaja: elokuu 30, 2014, 4:55 pm

I've just started Pickwick Papers on audio. Funny and frivolous so far.

Of course I'm still picking at Thucydides. But the former is like a leisurely, plodding half-marathon with friends; the latter is an Iron Man Triathlon.

159Sandydog1
Muokkaaja: elokuu 31, 2014, 7:37 pm

I've tabled Thucydides for now, and have decided to read about this great work, first. I've got time. After all, a Lifetime Reading Plan is supposed to take a lifetime, isn't it?

I'm currently enjoying A War Like No Other butand finding that this academic work is almost as inaccessible as the original. It's all good.

160madpoet
elokuu 31, 2014, 9:43 am

I just finished Three Kingdoms, a Chinese Classic. It makes War and Peace seem succinct. It took me about 40 hours to read it. But I found it surprisingly readable-- although you'd have to be a history or military strategy fan like myself to enjoy it. It's 120 chapters of battles and more battles.

Actually, I think Isaac Asimov must have read Three Kingdoms, as there are elements of it which are evident in his Foundation Trilogy.

161Sandydog1
elokuu 31, 2014, 7:38 pm

Oh, that one's on my list as well!

162Cecrow
syyskuu 2, 2014, 9:09 am

Finished up with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Dubliners this weekend; found both of them were good and spoke to me directly, but maybe will not become favourites. Next up is Howards End, into which I keep trying to insert an apostrophe. Must stop that!

163Sandydog1
syyskuu 4, 2014, 9:44 pm

All three are great ones.

Ya know, it's gonna take a millennium, but I think I'll actually finish that 19th century serial, The Pickwick Papers.

164Cecrow
Muokkaaja: syyskuu 5, 2014, 7:53 am

I remember when I read Pickwick, it was basically a year. I purposely read one chapter every week as if that was as fast as they were being published and released (Dickens actually published multiple chapters per week but whatever.) Kept me interested in seeing next week's adventure, and (sort of) put me in the shoes of the original readers.

It was interesting to read in Wikipedia that Pickwick didn't make much of a splash at first, until Sam Weller was introduced in Chapter Nine or so. I love the situation comparisons he makes, I wish I'd quoted them all as I went along. I could have done without all the little digressions stories, though; totally read like filler.

165Sandydog1
Muokkaaja: syyskuu 6, 2014, 11:40 am

LOL! I felt the same about Sam Weller; he is wery, wery funny indeed. Sancho Panza, Cosmo Cramer an unrefined Jeeves and Ja Ja Binks all rolled into one.

Dickens reminds me of Twain: Clever hilarity sprinkled among pages of fluff.

One gets a real detailed understanding of English life in "the late twenties or thirties" or whatever the setting was.

166Cecrow
syyskuu 29, 2014, 9:18 am

I was feeling proud of how easily I'm breezing through Henry James' Washington Square, but apparently everybody finds this an easy one. Phooey. And here I thought I was all set to read The Wings of the Dove, lol

167kishields
syyskuu 30, 2014, 8:40 pm

Just finished rereading Lord Jim for a book group. Pretty tough going in the middle, but beginning and end were smooth sailing. On to Light in August next. Seems very engaging so far.

168madpoet
lokakuu 2, 2014, 2:02 am

>166 Cecrow: That's funny: I just read Washington Square and thought it was fairly easy, too. It's the first Henry James I've read, aside from some short stories. I'd always heard how dense his novels were: I guess his other ones are harder.

169Cecrow
Muokkaaja: lokakuu 8, 2014, 10:40 am

I've never tried Herman Hesse so I'm starting with his purported best (is this like "skip to the end?", re development of his motif?) The Glass Bead Game ... or should I call it Magister Ludi?

170madpoet
lokakuu 8, 2014, 6:44 pm

Just finished Madame Bovary a few days ago. The heroine is unusual in that she is sometimes a sympathetic character, who is bored with her life in a provincial town and with a dull, unromantic husband. But on the other hand, she is ridiculous in her expectation that life be like a romantic novel, and her financial irresponsibility ruins her husband, whose biggest fault, after all, is simply that he is devoted to her and blind to her affairs.

171MissWatson
lokakuu 9, 2014, 4:27 am

I'm on the final pages of Madame Bovary myself. Not at all what I expected, I had some preconceived notions that proved all wrong.

172jnwelch
lokakuu 13, 2014, 3:46 pm

Ethan Frome was bleak and brilliant. Up next is Washington Square.

173leslie.98
lokakuu 14, 2014, 4:27 pm

Reading my first George Gissing with New Grub Street.

174Cecrow
lokakuu 15, 2014, 7:23 am

>166 Cecrow:, >168 madpoet:, >172 jnwelch: .... we coulda organized a group read!

175jnwelch
lokakuu 15, 2014, 10:25 am

>174 Cecrow: You're right, Cecrow! I'm finding Washington Square much more enjoyable than I expected. The only other Henry James I've read is the much denser Golden Bowl.

176mstrust
marraskuu 6, 2014, 12:32 pm

I finished Richard III a few days ago and now I'm reading King Lear. I'll try to read several more from Shakespeare before the year ends.

178Bjace
marraskuu 13, 2014, 3:28 pm

Pudd'nhead Wilson I find I enjoy Mark Twain more as I get older.

179madpoet
marraskuu 26, 2014, 8:41 am

I just finished Joseph Conrad's The Shadow Line. It starts out wonderfully, but the second half, once he actually takes command of his ship, is disappointing.

180mstrust
marraskuu 26, 2014, 9:54 am

I'm halfway through Titus Andronicus. Oh so bloody.

181Cecrow
marraskuu 26, 2014, 11:42 am

>179 madpoet:, good to know. Definitely want to sample more Conrad eventually, but I won't make that my first pick.

182rhansen55
marraskuu 28, 2014, 3:53 pm

My wife and I just started reading A Christmas Carol together and I just started the Confessions of Saint Augustine.

183LesMiserables
marraskuu 28, 2014, 4:53 pm

Just read my class a Christmas Carol by Dickens. I never fail to choke in Stave V.

184Sandydog1
marraskuu 29, 2014, 8:44 pm

STILL reading Thucydides

185mstrust
joulukuu 5, 2014, 2:19 pm

Continuing my Shakespeare binge with The Winter's Tale.

186LesMiserables
joulukuu 6, 2014, 2:12 am

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis

187madpoet
joulukuu 8, 2014, 9:32 pm

I just read Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. Hilarious! Rarely do I read a novel-- especially a classic-- which makes me laugh out loud. This is the fifth Steinbeck novel I've read, but the first I could consider funny. There are elements of magic realism in it, too, which surprised me, since this novel predates One Hundred Years of Solitude by a few decades.

188madpoet
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 8, 2014, 9:37 pm

Hang in there, Sandydog! By the time you finish Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War, you'll wish he had.

189Zumbanista
joulukuu 9, 2014, 10:51 am

Am just finishing up an enjoyable read of O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. First time with this author as I work my way towards the final book in her Great Plains Trilogy, My Antonia, which has often been recommended to me.

190Cecrow
joulukuu 9, 2014, 11:24 am

>189 Zumbanista:, I'm inclined to skip straight to it, when I finally get around to her. I'll be interested to know afterwards whether you felt reading the first two was necessary, or what value added.

191jnwelch
joulukuu 9, 2014, 12:11 pm

>189 Zumbanista: Those are my two favorite Cathers. Hope you enjoy My Antonia as much as I did.

192kac522
joulukuu 9, 2014, 5:51 pm

It's Willa Cather week over here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/180398

193Zumbanista
joulukuu 10, 2014, 9:11 pm

Wow! >190 Cecrow: >191 jnwelch: and >192 kac522: I didn't expect such a response! I will need a break of a few books before heading into Song of the Lark probably in the new year.

194Bjace
joulukuu 15, 2014, 11:17 am

I finished My Antonia about a month ago and liked it very much, although O Pioneers and The Professor's house are still my favorites of hers.

Finished--and loved--Framley parsonage this weekend. Am taking a break from the classics until the start of the new year, when I will take up a challenge reading mostly British authors this year. I want to finish the Barsetshire series, read some more Dickens and maybe try to get through Vanity Fair

195madpoet
joulukuu 29, 2014, 11:15 pm

I just finished Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad. I liked the love story of Nina and Dain. The weird thing is that I found myself identifying with Almayer. Of course, I'd like to think I would act better in his position, but I suspect I wouldn't.

196jroger1
joulukuu 30, 2014, 12:12 am

I just finished reading Dracula and Frankenstein for the first time if you can believe it. I like the movies, but the books are even better. Now I'm reading the Iliad again, this time in the Fagles translation which I like a lot. I won't admit to reading Spillane and Grisham in this group, though.

197rolandperkins
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 30, 2014, 1:31 am

". . .Dracula and Frankenstein for the first time, if you can believe it." (196)

I can believe it. Iʻm 83, and it was only in the past year that I read Frankenstein for the first time. And the next time I read Dracula will be the first. (I NEVER read a vampire yarn, but I might make an exception for
Stokerʻs as a classic.)

198madpoet
joulukuu 31, 2014, 9:57 am

I found Frankenstein much more enjoyable than Dracula, and more psychologically interesting. Ironically, Frankenstein's 'monster' is one of the most human (and sympathetic) characters in gothic fiction.

199kac522
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 31, 2014, 1:40 pm

>198 madpoet: I agree. I couldn't finish Dracula, but Frankenstein was fascinating--more about the creators than about the creation.

200rolandperkins
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 31, 2014, 2:32 pm

. . . "I couldnʻt finish (Bram Stokerʻs) Dracula" . . .(199)

One of the authors who died in 2014, by the way, was Radu Florescu, a Romanian-American scholar who was an expert on "the REALʻDraculaʻ "
(15th c.: Vlad Tepes "The Impaler"). Florescu is co-author with Raymond McNally of In Search of Dracula.

201mstrust
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 5, 2015, 1:56 pm

I recently finished A Tale of Two Cities and now I'm finishing The Thin Man.
>200 rolandperkins: That's a shame about Florescu. I loved his books as a kid.

202leslie.98
tammikuu 6, 2015, 1:00 am

I have started the 2015 thread, located HERE....