Currently Reading (Take 2)- Page 37

[javero]

Posted: 7/11/15 at 4:52pm

Check out these doozies at... GROVER NORQUIST'S 4 SUMMER READING RECS .

[LarryD2]

Posted: 9/1/15 at 2:48pm

I'm looking forward to starting Franzen's Purity tonight. Say what you will about his personality -- he's one of the best writers alive.

 

Anyone else reading anything good these days?

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/1/15 at 3:40pm

I'm getting PURITY today, too.  Not sure when I'll get to it, soon, I'm sure.

Currently reading Len Deighton's THE IPCRESS FILE and can't tell if it's too cool to bother with clear storytelling or just plain badly written.

 

[Fantod]

Posted: 9/1/15 at 4:38pm

Finally finished In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower. Beautiful stuff, though I miss Lydia Davis's translation skills.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/1/15 at 4:41pm

I've spent the summer catching up with some overlooked (by me, that is) American classics; I tend to be drawn to Brit lit.

 

So my current train reading is In Cold Blood.

[Fantod]

Posted: 9/1/15 at 4:43pm

Care to share some of your favorites? I'd love some recommendations.

Haven't read In Cold Blood, but I've seen the movie,

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/1/15 at 4:44pm

I'd be embarrassed to admit to some of the ones I'm finally catching up on.

[Fantod]

Posted: 9/1/15 at 4:48pm

You have excellent taste, so I still really would like to know.

And I haven't read a single Jane Austen novel yet.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/1/15 at 8:46pm

I say Pride & Prejudice, that's what I say.  

 

I read the first chapter of Richard Blanco's (Obama's inaugural poet who just read a new poem at the re-opening of the US embassy in Cuba) "The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood" on vacation  and have been sitting with the excellence of that chapter for almost a month.  I am hesitant to continue because I already don't want it to end.

[Fantod]

Posted: 9/1/15 at 9:12pm

I'll be reading Persuasion for my AP Lit class this year. I'll have that be my introduction to her works, then I will certainly read Pride and Prejudice.

[hork]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 1:40am

My favorite Austen is Mansfield Park. I may be unique among human beings, in that regard.

 

I recently finished Mario Vargas Llosa's The Time of the Hero, which I liked a lot. Currently reading Blindness by Henry Green. I'm not really enjoying it, but it's a short book (it feels like I just started it, but I'm more than halfway done with it), so I don't mind finishing it.

Updated On: 9/2/15 at 01:40 AM

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 9:00am

I've never been able to get past the first couple pages of anything by Jane Austen -- there, I said it.  Dickens, Trollope, Tolstoy all read like the wind compared to the crushing agony of a couple paragraphs by Aunt Jane.  Interesting, because there are films based on Austen that I like a great deal -- it's just that I find her writing simply unbearable.

Updated On: 9/2/15 at 09:00 AM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 9:49am

Roscoe, either you've said that before or I know you too well, because when I saw you'd posted, I knew that's what you were going to have said.

 

Not that there's anything wrong with your opinion, but when I first started reading Austen, I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed her writing and not just her storytelling.

 

But you know I'm right there with you about Dickens. For a few years, I'd start a new--new to me, that is--Dickens every fall. I was otherwise engaged two falls ago (with The Goldfinch) and broke my streak. I need to start again this fall, since there are a number I still haven't read.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 10:43am

Reginald, yeah, I know we've had that chat.  I liked Ang Lee's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY a good deal, and Joe Wright's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE even more.  But those damned books, my God.  There's just no way.  And I've tried, believe me -- every few years I pick up P&P and put it right the hell back down.  And that PERSUASION thing, hoo boy.

We'll see how I do with Franzen's PURITY.  I seem to have really enjoyed THE CORRECTIONS but now I have next to no memory of it, and I found his novel FREEDOM to be just not all that interesting.  

My Reading Plan for 2015 is to only read books I haven't read before, or in some cases have only started and never finished.  

 

 

Updated On: 9/2/15 at 10:43 AM

[hork]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 11:23am

Interesting. I actually avoided Austen for years because I didn't like Ang Lee's movie. But then I finally broke down and read S&S and liked it, then I read P&P and liked it even more, then read Mansfield Park and liked it even more. To me, she's just like a more flowery Dickens.

 

Agree about the Franzens. The Corrections was good, but Freedom was kind of a waste of time. And it seemed like everyone was reading it at the time.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 2:55pm

Currently reading Carol by Patricia Highsmith, in anticipation of the upcoming Cate Blanchett movie. Also known as The Price Of Salt. I made the mistake of reading the introduction which more or less gave away the ending, though it's not her usual style of suspense/thriller so maybe it doesn't matter so much.

 

[The Glenbuck Laird]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 3:22pm

Current reading Going to Sea in a Sieve, Danny Baker's autobiography part I. Just finished Go Set a Watchman. I liked it.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 5:57pm

Just finished Longbourne- the servants in P & P stories. At 1st I was a little TO'd at the very socialistic tone @ the beginning,   but  got into the story more when we got into the "stink" for lack of better word of people's lives, how hard the servants worked to keep the perfect existance of the upper class. Nicely writtten, does not ry to be a pastiche of P & P, more of a different perspective.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 6:56pm

SAVAGE HARVEST, the account of the death of Steven Rockefeller at the hands of the cannibals of 

papua New Guinea.

 

[Glittergrrl]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 9:38pm

Mister Matt said: "Silver Shoes sounds quite interesting. I'm planning on starting Was next week by Geoff Ryman. Anyone have any thoughts on it?"

I read Was a million years ago because I love all that is Wizard of Oz.  It's an interesting take on the characters' backgrounds, but it's so dense.  If you like a ton of description down to the teeniest detail of something arbitrary like a door knocker-you'll love it.  

 

Oops.  I just realized this is a super long thread and this entry was way old.  Don't come to this forum much... So forget it. I'm not currently reading anything.  Just started back to school.  Hopefully I'll start something when things settle in.  It's a little hectic right now.

Updated On: 9/2/15 at 09:38 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 9:45pm

I don't think there's anything wrong with talking about Ryman's dense novel all these years later.

[Steve C.]

Posted: 9/2/15 at 10:06pm

I'm currently re-reading Hard Choices by Hillary Clinton and will read Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, before I see the adaptation next month. History can be kewl at times.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 9/3/15 at 5:19pm

Currently reading Ron Chernow's Hamilton, also.  

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/3/15 at 5:40pm

The Chernow is on my nightstand (along with dozen others, but it's on top).

[SweetLips]

Posted: 9/7/15 at 2:09pm

Perfume-The story of a murderer   by Patrick Suskind

Read the book-don't bother with the film-but it tried,especially the finale.

The descriptive imagery was like 3D in your head[the book].