jane needs a nudge

Hi all. I am new to this group so I hope I am doing this right. I usually try to read one fiction, one non-fiction, and one architecture book at the same time. Here are my piles:



Pile One: Architecture
The Genius in the Design, Jake Morrissey
The First House: Myth, Paradigm, and the Task of Architecture, R. D. Dripps
Brunelleschi's Cupola, Giovanni Fanelli
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs
The City in History, Lewis Mumford
Deleuze & Guattari for Architects (Thinkers for Architects)
Irigaray for Architects
Heidegger for Architects
The Ten Books on Architecture, Vitruvius
Writings on Wright: Selected Comment on Frank Lloyd Wright
Learning from Las Vegas, Robert Venturi
INDEX Architecture, Bernard Tschumi
In the Nature of Materials, Henry Russell Hitchcock
Complexity and contradiction in architecture, Robert Venturi

Pile Two: Nonfiction
My Columbia: Reminiscences of University Life
Morningside Heights, Andrew S. Dolkart
The Ends of the Earth: An Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Arctic and the Antarctic
The Sacred and The Profane, Mircea Eliade
The Intellectual Devotional, David S. Kidder
Louisiana Sojourns: Travelers' Tales and Literary Journeys
The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century, Peter Watson
Passion on the Vine, Sergio Esposito
Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City, Jed Horne

Pile Three: Fiction
Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Shirley, Charlotte Bronte
Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
Gods Behaving Badly, Marie Phillips
Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South, Roy Jr Blount

I'm pretty sure I haven't read anything here, but I'll comment anyway. Don't know about Brunelleschi's Cupola, but I have read Brunelleschi's Dome, by Ross King, which was excellent. Not in your pile though.

And I plan to read God's Behaving Badly sometime this month. It gets mixed reviews here at LT, but I just finished a course on Greek mythology, so the timing of it would be apropos (and since that word looks Greek, in this context it's pronounced ap-pro-poss).

I'm pretty sure I haven't read anything here, but I'll comment anyway. Don't know about Brunelleschi's Cupola, but I have read Brunelleschi's Dome, by Ross King, which was excellent. Not in your pile though.

And I plan to read God's Behaving Badly sometime this month. It gets mixed reviews here at LT, but I just finished a course on Greek mythology, so the timing of it would be apropos (and since that word looks Greek, in this context it's pronounced ap-pro-poss).

I can't really nudge anything from architecture and nonfiction pile..but among fiction pile, I Cervantes' Don Quixote. It is a wonderful book..(read it in Korean translation and some excerpts in Spanish at school..)
I enjoyed reading Robin Crusoe as well..
Never read Shirley but I think it will be a good choice as well..(I love Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Villette.)

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs - the great Canadian sociologist and now deceased. More of a sociological treatise about city planning than an straight architectural book, perhaps.

The Frank Lloyd Wright book is a nudgoid, based on my love for his architecture. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan is a novel about the early years of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, which explores quite a bit about his architecture and personal life and mixes fact and fiction.

Pile 2: not familiar with your very interesting titles, sorry.

Pile 3:
I would nudge Robinson Crusoe - just love the premise and the telling of it, although I could never live like that without books and music, God forbid.

Don Quixote is a classic - I read it last year - a comedic fable - although I am no literary scholar. I read it to 'educate' myself about the book and rather enjoyed it.

I agree also about Don Quixote. I have been wanting to reread that one.
--BJ

I'll repeat my nudge from someone else's topic for Dracula: don't be put off by years of lame movies, read the original. I found Don Quixote a struggle, but it's worth perservering with.

And, while I've never read "The Ends of the Earth", I am sure I would enjoy it. Living closer to the Antarctic, that's the pole I tend to focus on, and I will put in a plug here for the two best books on Antarctic exploration I have read, Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World and Ernest Shackleton's South.

I can only nudge from your fiction pile, so here it is for Robinson Crusoe or Dracula. Either one are really excellent reads.

In the architecture pile, I would go for the Jane Jacobs. I guess this is a nudgoid coz I haven't read this one, but I read an article about her a while back and her ideas sounded very interesting.

I do agree with tim and tomcat: Dracula and/or Robinson Crusoe. You cannot go wrong with either one.

For architecture, I will nudge The City in History, which I have not read completely, but which I enjoyed. The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius, a classic, should be very interesting too, and I am intrigued by Brunelleschi's Cupola. Such an impressive list of books, I must say!!

Many among the non fiction titles have caught my eye but, having read none, I cannot say what I would nudge.

I'll nudge Don Quixote, but this is actually a nudgette because the book is so long. I say treat yourself and read just 200 pages. It's worth it.

Well, that Architecture pile looks interesting, and I may need to ask for a nudge from it sometime in the future...

But I'll give a big ole nudge to Don Quixote, though I'll tell you that while I found it to get funnier and funnier as it went along, if you really just don't enjoy it in the beginning the general tenor doesn't change 500 pages later. I did it on audio book last year about this time, and it was great for those long holiday drives (and who cares if those people in the car in front of you worry about all that laughing you're doing while driving and give you strange looks in the mirror).

I'll add my nudge to the pile for Don Quixote. It is long, and it is really in two parts (Cervantes wrote a sequel in order to squelch someone else's "unauthorized" sequel). I found the 2nd part even funnier than the first. It's well worth reading.

In the non-fiction pile, I'll nudge The Sacred and the Profane. It's a classic in intellectual history.

Also supporting Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe; and from the architecture pile The First House; Myth, Paradigm, and the Task of Architecture sounds very interesting - a nudgoid for that one, since I haven't read it.

I'll nudge Don Quixote for fiction and The Sacred and the Profane for nonfiction. Are you sure you don't have a book on the architecture of windmills? It would go nicely with the Cervantes.

So many interesting books! I'm afraid I'm no help on the architecture section. I'm going to nudge the Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson as a nonfiction nudge (must have accidentally ended up in the fiction section?). He's really an intriguing character/writer, and the story of his role as a shaper of the Transcendentalist movement is a fascinating one. For fiction, I'll nudge Dracula, which is still the creepiest books I've ever read.

>15 theaelizabet: Have you seen the Werner Herzog film Nosferatu? It is a wonderful reworking of the Stoker novel. For those who are interested in 18th-century aesthetic theory, this film perfectly illustrates the concept of the Gothic sublime.

A great film - I second that one. My favorite dracula, of many much loved draculas.

I have much to do....

urania1--Yes! Noseferatu is terrific.

Have you ever seen the original Nosferatu? I believe it was directed by Murnau. Creeepy......

I will give a nudge to The City in History because it sounds interesting (no, I haven't read it).

I think your Emerson may belong in nonfiction unless it includes a lot of his poetry. But, since you have listed in fiction, i will nudge it from there. I have not read that exact volume but have read enough Emerson to think you might like it based on your nonfiction pile:-)

>19 aluvalibri: Paola, yes I have seen the original Nosferatu. Herzog modeled this version quite closely in his own remake. And you're right, it is creepy

>19 aluvalibri: Paola, yes I have seen the original Nosferatu. Herzog modeled the original version quite closely in his own remake. And you're right, it is creepy.

Wow! Such a good response. Thanks so much.

I am going to go with Don Quixote for fiction and follow it up with Dracula and Robinson Crusoe.

For my architecture read its a toss up still between The Death and Life of Great American Cities and The City in History so I will mull that one over a bit while I finish my current read.

For nonfiction I will start Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson now and follow it with The Sacred and The Profane. theaelizabet and avaland good catch on the Emerson. I put it in the fiction pile while I was moving because it was similar in size and (ahem) forgot to move it back :).

urania1, perhaps I should check for Windmills (Great Architecture) at the library :).

Oops, I'm a bit late on this one. I just wanted to say that as far as your architecture pile goes, I've read some Bernard Tschumi lectures and a book he did on Paris' Parque Villette and found him very interesting.