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Post by Albert Fish Taco on Dec 16, 2013 7:04:12 GMT -5
It could have been a mix of my expectations being high and it's pace being fairly slow. Since Stendhal was a contemporary of Balzac I was probably expecting something closer to that. |
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Post by usernametoolong on Dec 16, 2013 7:51:24 GMT -5
That's funny, I remember when having to read Balzac in school being bored by the endless descriptions (not as bad as Zola, but still (I came around on both writers later)). Stendhal seemed like a breeze, it was actually funny, the characters felt a bit more relatable and actually realised as characters, not also part of an overarching plan to make social points. |
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Post by SensitiveSethPutnam on Dec 16, 2013 9:23:21 GMT -5
The Plum In The Golden Vase Volume 3. The Plum In The Golden Vase is a newly completed 5 volume translation of Jin Ping Mei, an early 17th century Chinese novel. I finally finished both A Dance With Dragons and House of Leaves earlier this month. Finally. And how did those leave you feeling? Like I finished a triathlon. ADWD was long, not much happened, but it felt like going home. It was comforting. HoL just made me angry. Every time I began to enjoy it, we had to go off on some pseudo-academic bullshit about the three schools of thought on why the main character returns to the house, or the symbolism of his pulitzer prize winning photograph from years before the events of the book. I always hated talking about the symbolism of A Separate Peace in high school English class, and I sure as hell hated the fact that here it was forced into the text of the book itself. It's too bad, there was a good story in there, with some pretty great ideas. |
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Post by Dr. Dastardly on Dec 16, 2013 9:58:27 GMT -5
I read Fagles' Aeneid. I didn't love it, so maybe you have a point about Latin.
Hooray for Wolf Hall ("He" is usually Cromwell!) and the wonderful Allie Brosch! And Flannery motherfucking O'Connor, what a bad ass she is.
I just finished Swamplandia!, which was pretty good but be prepared for an exceptionally disturbing scene.
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Post by Dr. Dastardly on Dec 16, 2013 10:01:57 GMT -5
Seth, and how's Plum going? I'm circling that; I'll read it at some point. I haven't read any of the classical Chinese novels yet, so I have a lot to do.
Lonesome Dove was my favorite book this year, amid stiff competition.
Really looking forward to trying Stendahl in 2014; might start with Charterhouse of Parma though. Count of Monte Cristo is one of my absolute favorites! Man, do I love that book.
And I read the first in Saunders' Tenth of December recently; would like to read more. It was pretty good? I've been reading Alice Munro too, who makes pretty much everyone look bad in comparison, so it's kinda not even fair.
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Post by drunkneildiamond on Dec 16, 2013 16:15:59 GMT -5
Currently reading Tenth of December, by George Saunders. I largely picked this one up because it was on the old country's "Best Of 2013" list, and I'm about halfway through. So far, so good. It's a book of short stories, and each story has drawn me in very easily. (I'm fond of short story books, though, and one has to be pretty awful for me to not make it through.) I'm currently about halfway through Tenth of December now and I really like it so far. I've also just started Sheri Fink's Five Days at Memorial. |
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Post by Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sartorius on Dec 16, 2013 16:40:18 GMT -5
The glacial pace (perhaps Stendhal is better than his contemporaries on that aspect, but I haven't read them, so it doesn't help). The way that every chapter is Julian does something good/clever and is pleased with himself followed by Julian does something foolish and hates himself (although sometimes reversed for variety). It's exhaustingly bipolar. There's no middle ground to anyone's emotional states and everyone is a slave to their passions. Even the other characters are on top of the world one second and then despondent and nearly suicidal the next. I also found it extremely humorless. Other than the author's parenthetical asides, there was barely anything to get me to crack a smile. All in all, I don't feel any wiser or like my life was enriched by reading it. I freely admit none of these are necessarily objective failings, and the same criticisms (well, not the bipolar stuff) could be leveled at other books I like. |
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Post by beastofman on Dec 16, 2013 17:55:53 GMT -5
I just finished The last Dan Brown Robert Langdon novel. It read just like all the others and it's hard to get past the artiface of it.
I will say that reading his books makes me want to google the artworks and builings to get a visual, so the books have at least that redeeeming quality
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Post by SensitiveSethPutnam on Dec 17, 2013 10:56:56 GMT -5
Seth, and how's Plum going? I'm circling that; I'll read it at some point. I haven't read any of the classical Chinese novels yet, so I have a lot to do. It's really tedious. There's so much description about every little detail about food, clothes, etc. that it really becomes kind of a slog to get through. Also, the number of characters in the book is immense and it can get very hard to remember who's who. I will finish it, because I finish everything I've started, but I would suggest trying Journey to the West or Romance of the Three Kingdoms first (or Water Margin, but I've never read that one). The nice thing about being in five separate volumes is that I can read one every other year or so and not get burned out. |
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Post by Judkins Moaner on Dec 17, 2013 15:06:53 GMT -5
Really looking forward to trying Stendahl in 2014; might start with Charterhouse of Parma though. I definitely remember liking Charterhouse better than The Red and the Black when I read Stendhal in... college, I think? The sweep of the former definitely helps (and I don't think anyone's ever screwed up with a "Waterloo chapter"--or ten, if we're talking about Hugo). Wound up reading half of V.G. Liulevicius's War Land on the Eastern Front this morning on a stroll through Hatcher Grad Library, about the German administration of occupied territories in the Baltic during World War I. Interesting stuff thus far, and it really hasn't even gotten into the cultural impact of the occupation (on both sides), which had such an influence on German attitudes during the next couple of decades and especially during the next war. Folks like Ludendorff already seeing the Livonian plains as fertile grounds for the German Drang nach Osten, that sort of thing. Hopefully I'll get to the book on Orpheus I meant to read on my next visit (and finish Liulevicius in the process). |
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Post by sharculese on Dec 17, 2013 21:04:16 GMT -5
I've got a glut of new reading material thanks to Hannukah. Started with Bleeding Edge, which I am not liking quite as much as Inherent Vice, but new Pynchon so I can't complain.
Then I'm gonna do Nixonland because apparently I want to spend the holidays feeling angry and depressed.
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Post by Tea Rex on Dec 18, 2013 16:16:37 GMT -5
I feel like a complete waste, as I haven't touched my DOOM list except tentatively in weeks. Stupid holidays and visiting with people and so on messed up my jam.
I have finally started Timescape by Gregory Benford, which I'm reading in tandem with Nightwood by Djuna Barnes. I'm really getting into Timescape - nothing like warning the past of the future to get the mind running. However, Nightwood is leaving me cold. It feels like its trying too hard, and the weirdness about what Jews are and aren't that streams through this book gives me the icks. I'm unsure if Barnes is being satirical, and perhaps she is, but it's still presented as completely matter-of-fact. I'm only two chapters in, and the book's only 170 pages long, but it feels like I'm in for a slog.
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Post by SensitiveSethPutnam on Dec 19, 2013 10:07:49 GMT -5
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Post by whisperingeye on Dec 19, 2013 11:32:48 GMT -5
That Tudors book looks good! Onto the list it goes.
I'm hoping to finish up The Luminaries tonight or tomorrow. It's good. I'm not sure if it's Man Booker Prize good, but it's masterfully written. There's a lot of zodiac shenanigans that is going straight over my head, but oh well.
Oh, and La Isla Bajo del Mar by Isabella Allende, but that's been an ongoing project. It's a little above my Spanish level, so it's slow going (and it's hard not to stop and translate into English), but it's worthwhile. Thank goodness for my Kindle dictionary so I can look up unfamiliar vocabulary.
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clytie
TI Forumite
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Post by clytie on Dec 19, 2013 11:54:55 GMT -5
Autobiography by Morrissey
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Invisible Goat
Shoutbox Elitist 
Grab your mother's keys, we're leaving
Posts: 2,644 
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Post by Invisible Goat on Dec 20, 2013 10:02:33 GMT -5
I'm burning through 1Q84 right now. It's a marathon but a really quick read, I'm on page 700 something after only a couple weeks.
I like it a lot so far, typical pervy Murakami stuff aside. The first chapter with Aomame stuck in traffic is one of my favorite openings ever. I like how the novel that is such a big hit and supposedly so fascinating actually does sound beautiful and sui generis and could conceivably be a big hit.
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Post by Dr. Dastardly on Dec 20, 2013 10:44:42 GMT -5
I'm reading George Saunders' Tenth of December, and I have no idea what the fuss is. What's the big deal with this book? It seems hella obvious to me.
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Post by Judkins Moaner on Dec 20, 2013 11:49:33 GMT -5
I'm reading George Saunders' Tenth of December, and I have no idea what the fuss is. What's the big deal with this book? It seems hella obvious to me. I have the same issue with Saunders in general; didn't really get Pastoralia. Either his satire's too subtle or it's definitely overrated. |
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Post by Dr. Dastardly on Dec 20, 2013 12:11:31 GMT -5
Oh shit, that's right, he also wrote Pastoralia! Which people are totally crazy about!
For example, there's a super short story called "Memorandum" (or something) that's about departmental productivity, very mundane, quarterly projections blah blah, and it emerges (unsurprisingly) that the department's job is torturing folks. Okay, but isn't that basically an Onion article? And one I feel like I've already read?
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Dec 20, 2013 12:31:19 GMT -5
Just started Meg Rosoff's "Picture Me Gone" and I am SO EXCITED! She is one of my favorite YA authors.
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Post by Mrs David Tennant on Dec 20, 2013 12:54:57 GMT -5
I started reading Marcus Flyte's A City of Dark Magic and I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be - fantasy? Time travel? Erotica?? I don't think I'm going to finish it unless it figures out what it wants to be, and right quick!
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Post by Mrs. Peel on Dec 20, 2013 15:33:16 GMT -5
Currently meandering through Nalo Hopkinson's The New Moon's Arms, a magical realist book set in the Caribbean. It's alright so far, good work establishing the distinctive voice of the protagonist, but I'm not in love with it. (Guess I'm sort of on a kick after finishing the really excellent Kindred by Octavia Butler.) I'm re-reading "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith. I never had the pleasure of reading it when I was growing up, sadly (it's a quirky and lovely coming-of-age type story), but I loved it as an adult and I've read it many times over. |
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Post by Mrs. Peel on Dec 20, 2013 15:34:34 GMT -5
Actually it argues the hat was on the decline long before JFK became president. The JFK thing is kind of a ridiculous myth, but it's the only thing I've ever heard connected to the decline of men's hats. The explanation is that he broke tradition and didn't wear a hat to his inauguration and his influence among Americans drove down the popularity of hats. It's likely not true mostly because JFK actually did wear a hat to his inauguration. Suspect is hatless! Repeat, hatless! |
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Post by Mrs. Peel on Dec 20, 2013 15:35:37 GMT -5
Currently reading a couple of short story collections, Meet Mr. Mulliner by Wodehouse, not quite my first non-Jeeves and Wooster, but the first one I find really enjoyable ; and stories by Singer, strictly speaking Gimpel the Fool at the moment but I have the Library of America edition and am about to start The Spinoza of Market Street. I LOVE the Mulliner stories!! I read most of Wodehouse as a kid (and into my teens and adulthood), but those and the Ukridge stories are my favorites. |
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Post by MyNameIsNoneOfYourGoddamnBusin on Dec 20, 2013 15:53:58 GMT -5
Just got back from book shopping. Got a few weird old sci-fi titles and am finally going to read Red Dragon before the second season of Hannibal gets going.
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Post by sharculese on Dec 20, 2013 16:33:25 GMT -5
Just got back from book shopping. Got a few weird old sci-fi titles and am finally going to read Red Dragon before the second season of Hannibal gets going. Technically you have until season 4 to do that, but I like the cut of your jib. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2013 16:50:14 GMT -5
Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel, really liking it. One criticism I've heard of Mantel's writing is that the way speakers are identified is at times unclear (lots of "he spoke "xyz""), but I haven't found it too much of an issue. I'm about to start that after I finish a biography of Richard M. Daley. Glad to hear you're enjoying. |
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Post by Albert Fish Taco on Dec 20, 2013 16:55:31 GMT -5
Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel, really liking it. One criticism I've heard of Mantel's writing is that the way speakers are identified is at times unclear (lots of "he spoke "xyz""), but I haven't found it too much of an issue. I'm about to start that after I finish a biography of Richard M. Daley. Glad to hear you're enjoying. Is that Daley bio "American Pharoh"? I've heard good things about it. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2013 23:28:24 GMT -5
I'm about to start that after I finish a biography of Richard M. Daley. Glad to hear you're enjoying. Is that Daley bio "American Pharoh"? I've heard good things about it. No, it's "First Son." "American Pharaoh" is about his dad, Richard J. Daley, and it is good. |
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Post by drunkneildiamond on Dec 22, 2013 15:09:40 GMT -5
I started reading Marcus Flyte's A City of Dark Magic and I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be - fantasy? Time travel? Erotica?? I don't think I'm going to finish it unless it figures out what it wants to be, and right quick! It doesn't really figure out what it wants to be. I read it about a month or so ago...and found it very frustrating and kind of ridiculous. |
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