Here it is... the book thread!

Started by scatcat, November 30, 2007, 03:55:17

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piggymirror

Quote from: SueC on February 07, 2020, 03:07:29No, I've not.  So many good books, so little time!   :1f62d:

Indeed...

piggymirror

Quote from: piggymirror on February 07, 2020, 01:04:13In retaliation, I'll have a go at Alice In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll... <off with his head!!!>

Finished Alice.


piggymirror

On another note, and going back to Hesse, which is your favourite book by him?

SueC

I can't comment on Hesse; I did high school in Australia, but I'm sure some of the German residents here (of which there are at least three) will have been force-fed this stuff at school. ;)  So what we got over here was Shakespeare, Dickens, Thomas Hardy, the Brontës, Jane Austen, Camus (didn't stick for either of us), Steinbeck, John Wyndham, JM Synge, Samuel Beckett, Wilfred Owen, WB Yeats, ee cummings, Judith Wright, etc.

I'm just picking up the follow-up novel to Robert Galbraith's first, The Cuckoo's Calling, which I loved - this next one is called The Silkworm.  This author is actually JK Rowling in disguise, writing a series of detective novels, which she does exceptionally well.  :cool
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

Quote from: piggymirror on February 24, 2020, 02:45:24On another note, and going back to Hesse, which is your favourite book by him?

Siddharta was pretty good when I read it back in 1993 or so.
Maybe I should re-read it...
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

MeltingMan

I'm done with Le livre du sceptre from the seven-part series Amphitheater of the Dead Sciences. Actually, I would have to read the book five more times to understand the content. This and the remaining six. Then I would have enough material by 2030. And every time a new door opens. But it is already clear to me that my lifetime will not be enough to study all of my books. So I concentrate on certain key works, series and publishers. Next up is another novel, maybe La licorne.
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)

piggymirror

Quote from: SueC on February 24, 2020, 06:48:05I can't comment on Hesse; I did high school in Australia, but I'm sure some of the German residents here (of which there are at least three) will have been force-fed this stuff at school. ;)  So what we got over here was Shakespeare, Dickens, Thomas Hardy, the Brontës, Jane Austen, Camus (didn't stick for either of us), Steinbeck, John Wyndham, JM Synge, Samuel Beckett, Wilfred Owen, WB Yeats, ee cummings, Judith Wright, etc.

Is Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath part of my tsundoku? I don't even know where it is, or if it even is at home.
I've had it in my hands and read a few pages of it, though.

Quote from: SueC on February 24, 2020, 06:48:05I'm just picking up the follow-up novel to Robert Galbraith's first, The Cuckoo's Calling, which I loved - this next one is called The Silkworm.  This author is actually JK Rowling in disguise, writing a series of detective novels, which she does exceptionally well.  :cool

Interesting. I'll try and get hold of that.

Rowling's underrated because when everyone thinks of her, they instantly think of Hagrid and the flying car, but she's not bad at all, no.

piggymirror

Quote from: Ulrich on February 24, 2020, 09:38:56
Quote from: piggymirror on February 24, 2020, 02:45:24On another note, and going back to Hesse, which is your favourite book by him?

Siddharta was pretty good when I read it back in 1993 or so.
Maybe I should re-read it...

Give it a go.
If possible, stuffed between Demian and The Steppenwolf (you choose the order).

piggymirror

"[...] Or va, ch'un sol volere è d'ambedue:
tu duca, tu segnore, e tu maestro".
Così li dissi; e poi che mosso fue,

intrai per lo camino alto e silvestro.


...and that's the end of Chant II.

Only just started, I'm far from finished...

Ulrich

Quote from: piggymirror on February 24, 2020, 18:36:14If possible, stuffed between Demian and The Steppenwolf (you choose the order).

Nah, I did re-read The Steppenwolf last year, that's it for another 30 years at least. ;)

Don't know about "Demian", because that would mean I'd have to buy (or rent or steal) it...
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

Quote from: piggymirror on February 24, 2020, 18:33:58Is Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath part of my tsundoku? I don't even know where it is, or if it even is at home.
I've had it in my hands and read a few pages of it, though.

That was really excellent, and harrowing.

My all-time favourite Steinbeck is The Winter Of Our Discontent. It's about a man who has tried to be good all his life, and who then experiments with being a bit evil to see if it will help him socially and financially.  It actually is both thought-provoking and funny.

Oh, I also like Tortilla Flat and its humour.  It even has a dog called Señor Alec Thompson.

The Red Pony gave me nightmares.  I was 11 and mistook it for a children's book...


Quote from: SueC on February 24, 2020, 06:48:05I'm just picking up the follow-up novel to Robert Galbraith's first, The Cuckoo's Calling, which I loved - this next one is called The Silkworm.  This author is actually JK Rowling in disguise, writing a series of detective novels, which she does exceptionally well.  :cool

Quote from: piggymirror on February 24, 2020, 18:33:58Interesting. I'll try and get hold of that.

Rowling's underrated because when everyone thinks of her, they instantly think of Hagrid and the flying car, but she's not bad at all, no.

She's a wonderful writer! :heart-eyes  If they think of Hagrid and the flying car, or any of the gags, they've only watched the movies, not read the books.  That series is amazing.  The first couple of books are comparatively lightweight if you're an adult reader, but they're designed for children, and I can't tell you how many young children I saw reading and enjoying these books, and how they promoted the habit of reading in them early, and comparatively big books at that.  As the series goes on the reading age increases in line with the main characters' ages.

Rowling created such an amazing fantasy world, and things she invented are now part of the everyday English vocabulary.  The Harry Potter series also dealt so well with the concepts of good and evil, as well as love and friendship, family, bullying, resilience, bureaucracy and corruption, etc etc.

She writes compelling and well-developed characters, fabulous descriptions of place, astute commentary on life, and she has a keen sense of justice (you can see that in her current detective novels as well).  She can make you laugh, and cry.  I cried buckets over the Mirror of Erised, and I was in my late 20s when I first read that.  When I met Brett, I was delighted to see that he had the entire collection (and also the Wombles).  :smth023

I'm really enjoying her detective books.  Also, Roald Dahl is well-known as a children's writer - he's very naughty, and excellent - but few people seem to realise he wrote really dark, macabre short stories for adults too.  I can highly recommend those as well.  In one of them, someone commits a perfect murder by bludgeoning someone with a frozen leg of lamb, then cooking it and serving it up to the police.  :beaming-face
SueC is time travelling

SueC

Quote from: Ulrich on February 25, 2020, 09:37:45Nah, I did re-read The Steppenwolf last year, that's it for another 30 years at least. ;)

ROFL  :lol:

I know books like that too!  :)  I'm not planning on re-reading The Satanic Verses for at least a few decades either!  That was such a slog the first time around... but I finally got through it...
SueC is time travelling

SueC

Well, I finally finished The Silkworm today - a big book but well worth the time.  It's meticulously written and plotted, and had a twist neither Brett nor I saw coming when we read it - and the last time that happened in a major way was when we read Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris, although she still takes the plot twist prize in our eyes. :)

Reading this novel will tend to feed any misanthropy or disillusionment with the human race you may already possess, since so many of the cast are so unlikable and egocentric, and quite a number of them downright nasty (which helps to make a pool of credible suspects).  However, there's a few gems thrown in too who manage to shine despite their inevitable human flaws, including the detective and his assistant.

And now I can finally get on with other stuff.  :cool
SueC is time travelling

piggymirror

[...] Lo duca e io per quel camino ascoso
intrammo a retornar nel chiaro mondo;
e sanza cura aver d'alcun riposo

salimmo su, el primo e io secondo,
tanto ch'i' vidi delle cose belle
che porta 'l ciel, per un pertugio tondo;

e quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.


...and this is how Dante's Inferno ends.

Now on with the Purgatory.

MeltingMan

The book market on Amazon has plummeted. A dealer I've been with for years has temporarily removed their entire program. You need a lot of patience as a collector. But what is happening now is scary. Nobody can say whether we have a different situation by May / June. I am currently waiting for two shipments, one of which (from Switzerland) still has to be cleared. That has already become standard. Let's see...
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)