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Guy A. Person posted:My hold for Brothers K finally came in and I picked it up today, just taking a break from longer books with some Kobo Abe then I'll start by end of week (I just finished Middlemarch the other day) Just to be clear, there is also a book called Brothers K set in the Pacific Northwest written in 1992 by David Duncan that's critically acclaimed on its own merits. Don't mistake the two!
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Jun 7, 2018 14:11
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Just to be clear, there is also a book called Brothers K set in the Pacific Northwest written in 1992 by David Duncan that's critically acclaimed on its own merits. Don't mistake the two! lol nah I just always forget the spelling of Karamazov and don't want to keep looking it up
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Jun 7, 2018 14:18
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Guy A. Person posted:My hold for Brothers K finally came in and I picked it up today, just taking a break from longer books with some Kobo Abe then I'll start by end of week (I just finished Middlemarch the other day) What Abe are you reading
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Jun 7, 2018 15:30
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The Face of Another. I saw it in the discount section of my bookstore for like 3.50. It's extremely good so far after only about 20 pages.
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Jun 7, 2018 16:12
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I'm about halfway through the Brothers Karamazov. It was slow going at first but I feel like I've hit a good groove. Hoping to make good progress the next few days.
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Jun 18, 2018 23:41
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Finished the book! Going to wait a bit to repost my list cause the last few have been longer books and I am heading into vacation season and want some more bite-sized works, but I'll be back in a few months since this has been a really great exercise.
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Jun 27, 2018 17:54
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fridge corn posted:
Eco's bloody brilliant, so I hope you enjoy this! Franchescanado posted:I loved [A Clockwork Orange] in high school. I had to have a meeting with a teacher who was concerned why I was "reading a book about a rapist". I hope you will be able to take the book on its own terms, since Kubrick took a lot of liberties (to make a great film). Enjoy. EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:YOU, you go ahead and read the Portrait of Dorian Gray right now. I read it in a single day, it's 200 pages, you'll blaze through it and absolutely love it. It's a masterpiece. WHOOPS I did both. Adding another book to my list, as per the rules. I wrote a short review of each here: A Clockwork Orange Picture of Dorian Gray I really enjoyed both, for different reasons, though in each one the language was what kept me reading at a decent clip. MY UPDATED SHAME LIST: *Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. She's a literary great whose name has been coming up in my periphery for a while now, so I should see what all the fuss is about. The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I hear it's a classic. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Stole my dad's copy ages ago, didn't manage to get past 20 pages. I need to try again! Crime And Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I know basically nothing about Russian literature and this is meant to be one of the best books ever written, so... The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I love the few examples of her poetry I've read, but I've never properly gone into her stuff. Her novel seems like a good place to start. Metamorphoses, by Ovid. I studied Latin for like nine years, but never actually read through the whole of this! Also, if I do read it, which translation should I go for? Nausea, by Jean-Paul Sartre Acclaimed French philosopher I don't know enough about, and a novel I've heard nothing bad about. The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas. I also know nothing about classic French literature outside of Voltaire, and I know dumas is meant to be excellent.
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Jun 28, 2018 05:53
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I'm not recommending anything but I want to talk about Gertrude Perkins posted:Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. This book took me upwards of 8 years to read, in fits and starts, across the entirety of my time in medical school and then through residency. That's not probably the way I would recommend anyone read it, but it's a book that commands a lot of patience. I think it's great but I wouldn't try to just knock it off the way you could with Gertrude Perkins posted:*Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. for instance.
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Jun 28, 2018 13:39
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I started reading Gravitys Rainbow last month, I'm like 100 pages in lol
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Jun 28, 2018 13:42
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It took me about 6 months to read, but I was reading dumber/lighter books with it. The worst part of the experience is that most books just pale in comparison and are underwhelming. It made me a better reader. The "trick" is to get to Part 2, because that's when the threads start to take shape.
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Jun 28, 2018 13:46
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Don't get me wrong, it's not as impenetrable as Ulysses or JR or something, but it's pretty substantial. I found it a lot harder to work through than Infinite Jest, which is some perspective.
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Jun 28, 2018 14:41
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I personally don't find Infinite Jest that difficult to read, as long as you just keep some notecards nearby to take some notes. I do think it's many digressions on depression, suicide, anxiety and addiction are emotionally draining if you (or a loved one) have any personal experience with that. I was surprised how many people put GR on their list (and Moby Dick). It totally deserves being on a list, but a book reading assignment thread is going to take some time to gain momentum, and I was worried we'd bottleneck it with everyone choosing it for each other. In other news, I went ahead and read White Noise. (I started reading it before The Corrections was chosen for me.) I'm divided on it. I thought Part 1 and Part 2 are excellent. There's a sense of paranoia and dread seeping up through the banal life of Gladney clan, which culminates in Part 2's Airborne Toxic Event. But all that intrigue, that dread, is then pushed aside in Part 3, the longest part, as sadsack Jack realizes his fragile life is more vapid than he cares to admit, his marriage is a failure, and his death is incredibly inevitable. Not an uninteresting subject, but it could have been juxtaposed with how the town's permanently altered by the ATE. Jack instead tries to exert some control over his life by seeking out the invisible figure that he feels is accountable for his current unhappiness. Again, not of itself a boring idea, but it doesn't have the same energy as the previous sections. It's also not as funny as I had hoped. It has wit and humor throughout, which makes all the satire palatable, but the rhythm was off to where I didn't laugh. I think it's well written, and I think it's worth a read (a high school or college student would get a huge kick out of it), a lot of the themes are interesting (consumerism making society spiritually dead, the idiocy in trying to find comfort in building a safe life, stuff like that) but it's not something I will be rereading. I will however give Delillo another chance in the future. I'll update my reading list once I've finished The Corrections, but I have several books in front of it.
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Jun 28, 2018 15:12
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Gravity's Rainbow is amazing. It took me 3 tries over 20 odd years for it to finally click for me and keep me going, and that was just giving up trying to understand everything and just go with it. The prose is lyrical and evocative. Its like watching a movie, but reading. And that movie was a mash up of Bergman, Fellini, and the Three Stooges. Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Jun 29, 2018 |
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Jun 29, 2018 06:05
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I finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I'm a little unclear on where we are in the actual recommendation chain, but it seems like Gertrude Perkins didn't actually get assigned a book? So you have to read:Gertrude Perkins posted:The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. since everybody should experience that book at least once. I also read P&P for a project I'm working on so there are a couple of new ones on here. My updated list: Moby Dick. I've been meaning to read it forever, mostly haven't because it's long and the last time I tried to read it I got bored of ~boat facts~. The Sound and the Fury. Started reading it once in junior high, and I think I was too young to really grasp it. Never got back to it for some reason. The Grapes of Wrath. I've read a bunch of other Steinbeck, just not this. Probably because I had a freshman lit teacher in high school who had us watch the movie and told us that was "good enough." The Sun Also Rises. Never read any Hemingway, don't know why. The Great Gatsby. This one's particularly shameful because I used to work at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theater part-time. The Maltese Falcon. Never even seen the movie in this case. Things Fall Apart. Probably the top of my list of books people tell me I need to read, over and over. Also I just read Heart of Darkness for the first time so I feel like it's time to read this one too, given Achebe had a lot to say about it. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Not sure why I've missed this one, either. I just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which I know isn't strictly speaking magical realism, but it's close enough to get me interested. *Wuthering Heights. I've read one Bronte sister, why not another? *Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Really should have put this one on my list in the first place, I guess it's a good book? I remember reading Tom Sawyer in high school and not really understanding what the big deal was. Finished: Pride & Prejudice One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
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Jul 26, 2018 19:10
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I assume the recommendation queue is in order and MockingQuantum is up next:MockingQuantum posted:The Great Gatsby. This one's particularly shameful because I used to work at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theater part-time. I mean if you work at a place that has the name of a famous author you pretty much have to read their most famous work. It's also good! As for my previous shameful book, I enjoyed White Teeth a good bit. I had some misgivings about the style at first, since a certain strain of kooky irreverence has a habit of becoming forced and annoying in the mid-to-long run, but here the metaphors and imagery are kept mostly in check and no single bit tends to overstay its welcome. More importantly, as an exploration of first- and second-generation immigrant experiences I found the novel pretty compelling, honestly - a lot of the things it talks about are very much of the moment even today, even though I don't think all the ways in which the book handles those things have aged very well (for instance, the idea of a group of militant Islamists with a quirky acronymic name doesn't seem as much of a joke now as it maybe did in 2000). I kind of would have liked for the third family that comes into the story in the final third of the book to be somehow more involved throughout for how pivotal they become by the end, and the ending itself strays a bit to "well reader, what do YOU think happened next??" bullshit, but overall it was a good read. P.S.: I actually had a nightmare about having dinner with that lovely third family I remain ashamed about In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Haven't read much true crime before, and this seemed as good a place as any to start. I read a bit of the beginning and I'm reasonably intrigued, but haven't gotten around to it since. The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, Finnish translation by Oili Suominen It's there on the shelf and I haven't read it, that's the story of me and The Tin Drum The hardcover was gorgeous and on sale and it had tons of translator's notes at the beginning which are always fun. Read those, haven't read the book itself. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, Finnish translation by Samuli S. I'm very under-educated in Russian classics outside of the odd Chekhov, and I'm reliably informed this is a good place to start. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Saunders' short stories are excellent, but I haven't read any of his novels. I'm also a sucker for both historical novels and books about American presidents, so this is an obvious match for me. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution by Orlando Figes If non-fiction is OK, this huge tome has been sitting on my shelf for a good while, but I haven't had the incentive to dig in to it very deeply yet. Autobiography by Morrissey I Can't Believe It's Not A Penguin Classic I have been de-shamed for Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (Finnish translation by Tuula Saarikoski) and White Teeth by Zadie Smith Forktoss fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Aug 1, 2018 |
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Jul 31, 2018 11:12
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Forktoss posted:A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution by Orlando Figgs I'm new to this thread, but as a lover of history and having never read anything in depth about the Russian Revolution, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. It's not a section of history that I've read much about, and I know it deserves more of my attention. Anyway, I love the concept and have participated in similar media-related threads on other forums before. My two favorite authors are Robert E. Howard and Michael Crichton, which tends to set me towards genre work. However, I also read a lot of non-fiction. Currently, I am reading a book on science fiction movies, though I've also recently gone through a history of the Scottish highlands and a collection of essays regarding Irish cinema. Other books on my nightstand include topics ranging from late night comedy writing to tacos. Yes, seriously, I recommend Tacopedia by Deborah Holt, Juan Carlos Mena, and René Redzepi. I suppose it's time for my shameful list: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes It's been sitting on my shelf for years, and every time I look at it, I wonder how a book about a crazy man attacking windmills could be that long. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski I started reading this over a decade ago, and somewhere around the time the font went sideways and the footnotes started taking up whole pages, I put it down. I really should go back some day. The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay I'm not sure if political works are acceptable for this list, but I've owned a collection of these pamphlets and haven't gotten around to it yet. Dubliners by James Joyce When I was in college, I read selections from this book for a class, but I never sat down and read the whole thing. I suppose it's time I changed that. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller I tried once before, and Heller's writing style drove me up the wall. I'll try again. On Aggression by Konrad Lorenz I picked this up on a whim, but the idea of a book studying human instinct and how it relates to violence seems fascinating. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Hey, look, more violence! I don't know why I haven't gotten around to this yet. I've seen the movie multiple times. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I've read some of the Sherlock Holmes tales but never sat down and done the whole thing. Role of Honour by John Gardner I've been a John le Carre fan since grad school. Conversely, my attempts to read Ian Fleming's James Bond novels have never met with much success. To get around this, I figured I would try a different James Bond novel, not written by Fleming. The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe Similar to the Sherlock Holmes collection, I've read some of Poe's work, but not all of it. I figured I would go back and fill in the holes, like how I've never read The Pit and the Pendulum. Well, that's my list. I look forward to seeing what someone picks and why. Ackwastaken fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jul 31, 2018 |
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Jul 31, 2018 20:33
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Ackwastaken posted:I'm new to this thread, but as a lover of history and having never read anything in depth about the Russian Revolution, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. It's not a section of history that I've read much about, and I know it deserves more of my attention. I can't promise I'll be done before the next centenary of the Revolution, but I'll get on it!
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Aug 1, 2018 11:06
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This is not me choosing a book for you, and is absolutely a hot take, but unless you're particularly interested in reading the complete works of Poe for some personal reason, I'd suggest you find a good curated collection of his best work. A lot of Poe's writing isn't really... good... and some isn't ever discussed for very good reasons. Reading all of Poe just to be able to say you've read all of Poe is the kind of thing I did in high school when I was dumb and didn't know there was better things I could read with that time. There may be other posters in here who'll say the exact opposite though, that's just my personal opinion on the guy. I, for example, would skip all the Auguste Dupin stories for sure, and there's a lot of bad, ill conceived stuff that most people have never heard of, for very good reasons.
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Aug 1, 2018 17:35
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MockingQuantum posted:This is not me choosing a book for you, and is absolutely a hot take, but unless you're particularly interested in reading the complete works of Poe for some personal reason, I'd suggest you find a good curated collection of his best work. A lot of Poe's writing isn't really... good... and some isn't ever discussed for very good reasons. Reading all of Poe just to be able to say you've read all of Poe is the kind of thing I did in high school when I was dumb and didn't know there was better things I could read with that time. This is excellent advice. I looked and this collection seems to have everything you need: The Best of Poe. I highly recommend the same advice for Sherlock Holmes. The most "important" book is The Hound of the Baskervilles. There's maybe a dozen stories beyond that that I'd recommend, and reading all of his stories could take you up to a year, depending on your reading speed, and it's definitely not worth it.
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Aug 1, 2018 17:48
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Franchescanado posted:This is excellent advice. Yeah that's a good collection. I'd maybe trade Ragged Mountains for MS Found in a Bottle and possibly maybe add Into the Maelstrom, it's been years since I read that one, but otherwise it hits all the highlights (my personal distaste for the Dupin stories aside). Any good list of the best Sherlock Holmes? I looked for a "best of" list a few months back and the three or four I looked at didn't agree in any way.
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Aug 1, 2018 17:54
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MockingQuantum posted:Yeah that's a good collection. I'd maybe trade Ragged Mountains for MS Found in a Bottle and possibly maybe add Into the Maelstrom, it's been years since I read that one, but otherwise it hits all the highlights (my personal distaste for the Dupin stories aside). Seven Best Sherlock Holmes stories
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Aug 1, 2018 18:02
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Thank you sir! ...who would have ever guessed that six of the seven are the ones you hear of over and over? I hadn't heard of the Regiate Squire though so that's cool.
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Aug 1, 2018 18:09
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Hmm, if you folks think it would be better to make some adjustments to the list, I can do it. I wasn't sure that would be cool with the rules. I'll just need to go through my collection and see what I have on hand.
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Aug 1, 2018 23:07
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Ok, here is my redone list. The complete Poe and Sherlock Holmes have been swapped out for works by the Bronte sisters. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes It's been sitting on my shelf for years, and every time I look at it, I wonder how a book about a crazy man attacking windmills could be that long. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski I started reading this over a decade ago, and somewhere around the time the font went sideways and the footnotes started taking up whole pages, I put it down. I really should go back some day. The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay I'm not sure if political works are acceptable for this list, but I've owned a collection of these pamphlets and haven't gotten around to it yet. Dubliners by James Joyce When I was in college, I read selections from this book for a class, but I never sat down and read the whole thing. I suppose it's time I changed that. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller I tried once before, and Heller's writing style drove me up the wall. I'll try again. On Aggression by Konrad Lorenz I picked this up on a whim, but the idea of a book studying human instinct and how it relates to violence seems fascinating. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Hey, look, more violence! I don't know why I haven't gotten around to this yet. I've seen the movie multiple times. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte When it comes to the literature of 19th century England, I mostly favor the sci-fi and horror. Dramatic works like Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations turned me off from the genre and time period(and Madame Bovary from nearby France did nothing to help). Now that I'm older, I figure I should revisit and try again. Role of Honour by John Gardner I've been a John le Carre fan since grad school. Conversely, my attempts to read Ian Fleming's James Bond novels have never met with much success. To get around this, I figured I would try a different James Bond novel, not written by Fleming. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte This is another dramatic novel from Victorian England that I've been putting off for similar reasons to Jane Eyre.
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Aug 3, 2018 13:44
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Franchescanado posted:I highly recommend the same advice for Sherlock Holmes. The most "important" book is The Hound of the Baskervilles. There's maybe a dozen stories beyond that that I'd recommend, and reading all of his stories could take you up to a year, depending on your reading speed, and it's definitely not worth it. I recently read the first two story collections and there's maybe half a dozen stories worth reading in the lot. Doyle had trouble writing Holmes actually solving mysteries. Far too many of them rely on convenient confessions or explanations.
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Aug 5, 2018 04:40
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I got halfway through The Count of Monte Cristo before I got sidetracked with a whole lot of things. Apparently everyone else in the thread got sidetracked, too. 
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Sep 28, 2018 04:07
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I forget what I'm supposed to be reading. I'm fairly sure I haven't even started it yet
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Sep 28, 2018 06:21
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Ackwastaken posted:Dubliners by James Joyce Seems in all this time, no one has chosen for you, so I will. I'm also new to this thread. I have several books floating on the top of my to-read pile that I haven't read because other books keep piling on top of them. Also they seem to be the type I need a little nudge to actually start, and I just finished my last book so why not now? Blindness by Jose Saramango This has been recommended to me so many times. I finally found it at a thrift store for $2 and was esctatic. Then I placed it on my shelf with all my other unreads and keep feeling guilty about not reading it already, because I drat well know it'll be great. Name of the Rose by Umbero Eco I meant to read this one at the beginning of the year, but then my reading got sidetracked and literally every other book this year has come in between. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Same story as above. I've had this book on my shelf going unread too long, and again I know it's good but I've just "haven't been in the mood." Hospital of the Transfiguration by Stanislaw Lem I keep looking at the ebook I have on hold at the library and putting it off, because even though the novel interests me and I love Lem, it looks depressing. The Golemn and the Genie by Helen Wecker This one's been sitting in my Kindle library for years and it's well recommended around here. I just keep looking at the pagecount and going, maybe later.
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Oct 13, 2018 00:26
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Stuporstar posted:Blindness by Jose Saramango Now you have an excuse to read this! Updated list, thanks to suggestions in this very thread: Moby Dick Ulysses Don Quixote War and Peace 100 Years of Solitude Naked Lunch Their Eyes Were Watching God Finished:
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Oct 18, 2018 18:12
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Guy A. Person posted:Updated list, thanks to suggestions in this very thread: I was surprisingly into Moby Dick when I was in college, the point in time when I started to appreciate literature on my own terms. If you find the exposition on whaling tedious, I'm pretty sure they're confined to their own chapters, so you can skip them. Anyway, I really enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo for several reasons. First, I liked the annotations in the new, unabridged translation from Penguin Books, which clarified a lot of context for the historical events and plays that the text often references. The translation also makes for a smooth, fun read that still feels like a product of its time in terms of prose construction. It's almost too fun for me to think of it as literature; it's a thrilling page-turner that feels like wish-fulfillment from time to time. The most uncomfortable moment in the book for me, more than the times the younger characters almost died or Edouard actually died was the Count's admission that he let his black slave lose his tongue before saving his life and buying him, which IIRC wasn't even necessary for the plan to work. Curious that this isn't the most dwelt-upon indicator that the Count's playing with fire, but I felt nothing for most of the people he targeted so I may have missed something in my haste to see him get revenge. I also feel conflicted about his decision to let Danglars go at the end. I'm skeptical about Danglars' ability to change his ways, but I also understand how the Count would be tired and more lenient after knowing he got a child killed. Also, I saw two adaptations of this book before I read it, and I couldn't help but compare them, though the book still does pretty well. I watched the 2002 movie a long time ago, which heavily abridges the Count's plan and has a bunch of changes that feel like concessions to mainstream audiences, like Faria training Dantès's reflexes so he can have a sword fight at the end and Dantès winning Mercedes back. There's also Gankutsuou, an anime that adds sci-fi elements and gives more focus to Albert, to the point where you can say he's more of a protagonist than the Count, but is otherwise much more faithful to the book, not to mention gorgeous to look at. I'm going to make a new list from scratch based on the books I actually own but haven't gotten to yet: —The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov —Tracks by Louise Erdrich —John the Pupil by David Flusfeder —A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James —The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré —Atonement by Ian McEwan —Swamplandia! by Karen Russell —The Weekend by Bernhard Schlink —The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt —Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
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Oct 22, 2018 23:40
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You can't skip the whaling lore in Moby Dick! that stuff is the whole drat point of the book!!
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Oct 23, 2018 00:20
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Solitair posted:
I've been on a le Carré kick recently, so have fun! I finally finished Pale Fire after many months of not reading it and had a ton of fun with it. I was never sure about the "correct way" to tackle both the poem and the manic annotations that the narrator has splashed onto random lines but in the end, I just read the poem by itself and treated the commentary as a separate part of the novel. I don't usually enjoy poetry but I had fun with these 999 lines. Kinbote's rants are fantastic towards the end, I'll admit. List Moby Dick. Never read it though I know the characters' names, motivations and the other billion or so literary references made to it from the time it was published. (1.3.18) Gravity's Rainbow. Keep starting it and then putting it back down to the point where I have 3 separate publications of the book sitting on my desk (one is serving as a monitor stand). (1.3.18) The Brothers Karamazov. I think the hardest part for me and something I didn't realize until I finished War & Peace is that I didn't really jive with the particular translator at the time. If someone picks this, please also include the name of a translator that one likes since it'll make the reading that much easier to do. (1.3.18) Three Men in a Boat. Another book that I've continually started and then secreted under a load of seemingly more accessible novels. Maybe it's the British humor? (1.3.18) In Search of Lost Time. I start reading his novels and then invariably end up falling asleep under the covers. Maybe the ebook versions will keep me up longer. (1.3.18) The Magic Mountain. Haven't read much German literature to be honest and I only vaguely remember this title from when I was punishing myself with Murakami but it looks like one of the greats, or so they say. (3.4.18) Angle of Repose. I don't remember buying this book but it's in my bookcase and I have no recollection of reading it. It's like the reverse of a lost sock in the dryer. (12.12.18)
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Dec 12, 2018 23:19
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poisonpill posted:
That's it for the Greeks. I'll jump into the Romans at some point. Where should I start? Furious Lobster posted:Three Men in a Boat. Another book that I've continually started and then secreted under a load of seemingly more accessible novels. Maybe it's the British humor? (1.3.18) This is really accessible once you're more than fifty pages or so in. Don't even think of it as a novel, it's really just a collection of humorous semi-true anecdotes by the Dave Barry of the 1900s. Here, read this chapter about Uncle Podger and if you don't like it, just skip the book entirely and ask again.
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Dec 13, 2018 02:29
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poisonpill posted:Plutarch's Lives Three Men in a Boat Some of the stories were definitely worth a nice laugh, including the Uncle Podger chapter, washing George's shirt, giving yourself a self medical diagnosis and the proper amount of a fox-terrier's original sin but most of the writings were pretty full of dated humor. The author would go on for a while with a story and the punchline wasn't that humourous or insightful as it had been in the later part of the Victorian era. It's not surprising but most of the book was a bit of a drag, albeit short. List Moby Dick. Never read it though I know the characters' names, motivations and the other billion or so literary references made to it from the time it was published. (1.3.18) Gravity's Rainbow. Keep starting it and then putting it back down to the point where I have 3 separate publications of the book sitting on my desk (one is serving as a monitor stand). (1.3.18) The Brothers Karamazov. I think the hardest part for me and something I didn't realize until I finished War & Peace is that I didn't really jive with the particular translator at the time. If someone picks this, please also include the name of a translator that one likes since it'll make the reading that much easier to do. (1.3.18) In Search of Lost Time. I start reading his novels and then invariably end up falling asleep under the covers. Maybe the ebook versions will keep me up longer. (1.3.18) The Magic Mountain. Haven't read much German literature to be honest and I only vaguely remember this title from when I was punishing myself with Murakami but it looks like one of the greats, or so they say. (3.4.18) Angle of Repose. I don't remember buying this book but it's in my bookcase and I have no recollection of reading it. It's like the reverse of a lost sock in the dryer. (12.12.18) Anna Karenina. I've already had a blast with War & Peace so I'm looking forward to this next work of Tolstoy. (12.14.18)
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Dec 14, 2018 19:06
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