What are you currently reading?- Page 15
What are you currently reading?
vmlinnie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/06
#350re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:30am
Wow, we're all reading the same stuff.
Isn't Ragtime just glorious?
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#351re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:34am
CONFESSIONS OF A MODERN DAY DANDY by Sebastian Horsley.
Hilarious with a guaranteed laugh on every page, but very dark, druggy, and dysfunctional...sort of like LESS THAN ZERO meets AUNTIE MAME.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#352re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:36amDefinitely. I read it for the first time when I was twelve and hadn't read it since, so it's interesting to see the parts that I'd forgotten about because I'm so familiar with the musical...or maybe just didn't get at that age. I love the novel.
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#353re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:37amOh, and RAGTIME is a masterpiece. I still haven't gotten around to reading its initial inspiration: Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#354re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:44amDoes anyone have recommendations for other Doctorow novels? I've read Ragtime and City of God. I didn't like the latter quite as much, although I love his prose style in general.
vmlinnie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/06
#355re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:45am
I was in a bookshop a few months ago and was torn between buying Ragtime and USA, but chose the former.
It's highly sexual for a twelve year old, is it not?!
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
#356re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:48am
Believe it or not, I'm just finishing up To Kill A Mockingbird. I'm 37 years old and never read it. Of course, I'm loving it and Netflixed the movie so I can watch it when I'm done...
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#357re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:49am
Does anyone have recommendations for other Doctorow novels?
He's frustratingly inconsistant and sometimes just flat-out boring. Try WORLD'S FAIR and his other major novel, the angry BOOK OF DANIEL.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#358re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:51am
RAGTIME is a really amazing novel. Doctorow's BILLY BATHGATE is pretty amazing too, I can recommend it very highly. His Civil War novel THE MARCH is also very much worth reading, one of the best historical novels I've read.
I've also read THE WATERWORKS, which was interesting and creepy, but maybe a little too similar to THE ALIENIST which came out around the same time.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
Updated On: 6/11/08 at 10:51 AM
vmlinnie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/06
#359re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:51am
That's weird. Ragtime amounts to just 270 pages and yet it's of such epic proportions that it just keeps such a breath-taking pace.
What's City of God like?
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
#360re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:52am
It is -- and we read it for an advanced English class, before going on a field trip to see the musical! I guess it was assumed either that we were advanced enough or that the more explicit parts would go over our heads. I don't think much of it did, though.
I actually loved it, and loved having that background going into seeing the show.
City of God is a little inconsistent. It's a mystery about the theft of a cross from a church in NYC that delves into more existential territory, and it switches perspectives frequently between a cast of characters that includes a priest, a rabbi, a holocaust survivor, a philosopher, etc. It's very well written, but a little muddled in terms of narration and the ideas it presents about religion. I enjoyed reading it, though some of the perspectives were more compelling than others.
Updated On: 6/11/08 at 10:52 AM
#361re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 10:53amHrmmm... from the sounds of it, I need to pick up Ragtime after I finish my current read. :)
"...and the last thing I want to do is turn into Judy Garland." - Shira
#362re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 12:40pmI'll let you know once my kindle arrives today and I buy a book ;o)
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story...
AGATHA CHRISTIE, Life magazine, May 14, 1956
wexy
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/19/05
#363re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 1:30pmThe Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.
'Take me out tonight where's there's music and there's people and they're young and alive.'
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#364re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 1:51pmIreland by Frank Delaney
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#365re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 2:45pmLies Across America by James Loewen
WindyCityActor
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/13/03
#366re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 2:48pm
ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA by William Shakespeare
GOOD NIGHT, SWEET PRINCE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN BARRYMORE by Gene Fowler
#367re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 2:53pmTender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and The Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri.
#368re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 2:55pmWhen you are Engulfed in Flames, signed and personalized by Mr. David Sedaris himself.
#369re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 2:56pmthis thread.
Less is more
Ugly is beautiful
"My brother plays a drag queen... and I'm surprised he looks as good as he does in drag." - Adam Rapp
"thanks, abba. now i'll forever have an image of you as a tattoed hardcore straightedge grrl savaging people in the mosh pit." - papalovesmambo
"Yeah Abba. All the filthy crap you spew out there on those boards. I for one, am equally shocked. :-P" - AnnaK
Ugly is beautiful
"My brother plays a drag queen... and I'm surprised he looks as good as he does in drag." - Adam Rapp
"thanks, abba. now i'll forever have an image of you as a tattoed hardcore straightedge grrl savaging people in the mosh pit." - papalovesmambo
"Yeah Abba. All the filthy crap you spew out there on those boards. I for one, am equally shocked. :-P" - AnnaK
The Grovers Corners Yenta
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/3/04
#370re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 3:14pmWell said, Abba Rabbit! Right now I am stuck on a Danielle Steele binge. Perhaps there is a self-help group for people like me.
"Friends are the people you chose as family."....Me.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#371re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 3:22pmAugust: Osage County by Tracy Letts
#372re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:00pm
Hope you like Tender is the Night, Emcee. It's one of my very favorite books.
I picked up Middlesex again this afternoon and was able to jump right back into it. I guess I just needed a short break.
nmartin
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/3/05
#373re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:04pm
"Uncrowned Emperor: The Life and Times of Otto von Habsburg"
I can't believe that man is still alive, 96.
Craww
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/13/06
#374re: What are you currently reading?
Posted: 6/11/08 at 6:19pm
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.
I think I've read over 6 other books since I first started it. But I'm almost done.
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