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Susan
Member
Posts: 1985
Registered: Sep 2007 |
 Posted September 4th, 2007 12:15 AM IP    
My 16-year-old nephew asked, "Aunt Susan, are we going to Borders this weekend?" It's a tradition we've had for a number of years...how could i say no?
So i turned him on to Pratchett [Thief of Time, in case you were wondering], but while we were there i also picked out a bunch of books for mysel - - er, for my classroom: pirates and presidents, bankers and traitors.
Would that i only had the time to read them all...
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luther
Member
Posts: 5203
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:17 AM IP
I'm finishing Willa Cather's "My Antonia," which I read in college but not since. I remembered it fondly and so picked it up recently.
don't try so hard.
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Jeff Mason
Member
Posts: 61
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:22 AM IP
Susan, I will be curious to hear your thoughts on the Heather Rome book.
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Susan
Member
Posts: 1985
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:24 AM IP
Jeff, so will i, as soon as i get there...i have way too many books in line right now. But that Rome one keeps rising to the top, so i hope that when i'm done with Founding Brothers (which i'm enjoying IMMENSELY) that i'll go straight to ancient Rom. Hoping....hoping...
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:27 AM IP
I have Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' sitting next to my chair waiting for the right moment. This being the start of the month my reading hours are pretty much occupied by the new MOJO, Uncut and Empire (UK film mag) magazines which will take a while - this month MOJO is good while Uncut is a bit naff (50 best gigs of all time but on the basis of whoever they happened to ask - so there are some very weird choices which make up a particularly meaningless list).
I also have Michael Marshall Smith's 'One of Us' sitting there. This was the third of his three SF books before he dropped the 'Smith' and knocked off some excellent thrillers. Susan, you should try looking for the first two, Only Forward and Spares, as they are both VERY funny at times - and then suddenly turn into totally different books. Great writer.
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Susan
Member
Posts: 1985
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:31 AM IP
Quote:
alan wrote:I also have Michael Marshall Smith's 'One of Us' sitting there. This was the third of his three SF books before he dropped the 'Smith' and knocked off some excellent thrillers. Susan, you should try looking for the first two, Only Forward and Spares, as they are both VERY funny at times - and then suddenly turn into totally different books. Great writer.
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Alan, are you trying to kill me? I have four fairly reasonably-sized volumes and at least five fatties sitting there waiting for me...and you're telling me i should add a few more?!
Oy...
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:32 AM IP
Did you watch the Rome series that was on HBO - (or the BBC over here) either of you? I watched the first episode, wasn't convinced then started watching it later (about ep8 s1) and loved it. Watched all of series 2 and though they were taking a thoroughly irreverent view of Rome I liked it a lot. Lots of good actors in togas (and sometimes good actors without...!!!)
I did a LOT or Roman history at University. As i did History and Religious Studies they made sure the two courses collided a lot, so lots of early Rome in with the HCT as well...
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Susan
Member
Posts: 1985
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:33 AM IP
Haven't seen any of it; i'm not a TV viewer. Sports on TV, yes. Weather, occasionally the news or the Grammys...but i don't watch TV shows anymore...
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:35 AM IP
Quote:
Susan wrote:
Alan, are you trying to kill me? I have four fairly reasonably-sized volumes and at least five fatties sitting there waiting for me...and you're telling me i should add a few more?!
Oy...
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The first page of Spares is one of the best first pages I have ever read. I bought all three in a bookshop on the basis of that first page and have now read 5 of his 6 novels and never been disappointed.
Don't know about you but the first page is vital to me. I won't buy a book whose first page doesn't make me want to read the rest. Sometimes the first line is enough though.
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Susan
Member
Posts: 1985
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:38 AM IP
I do NOT need the first page to sing for me. Sometimes it takes a while to get going; i can appreciate and understand that in my reading.
*G* We do not attack our books in the same way at ALL, Alan...
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Jeff Mason
Member
Posts: 61
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:38 AM IP
Quote:
alan wrote:
Did you watch the Rome series that was on HBO - (or the BBC over here) either of you? I watched the first episode, wasn't convinced then started watching it later (about ep8 s1) and loved it. Watched all of series 2 and though they were taking a thoroughly irreverent view of Rome I liked it a lot. Lots of good actors in togas (and sometimes good actors without...!!!)
I did a LOT or Roman history at University. As i did History and Religious Studies they made sure the two courses collided a lot, so lots of early Rome in with the HCT as well...
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No HBO, no Rome series. Besides, when would I have time? I STILL need to see I Claudius, for crying out loud....
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:50 AM IP
I saw I Claudius when it was first on and loved every episode.
Saw sone of it again recently and was astonished how the BBC got away with making such cheap sets back then. It never tried to be any more than great actors in a TV studio telling a great story as cheaply as possible. No-one would even consider that an option now. Rome probably cost more for 5 minutes footage than everything on I Claudius.
Still very powerful though, and it was interesting seeing Rome towards the end when Augustus met Livia - there was a sort of implication that you knew what was coming next!
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luther
Member
Posts: 5203
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 12:57 AM IP
Regarding how we get into books, I guess I fall between you, Alan and Susan. The first page itself doesn't have to realy grab me...but I can't wait 20 pages. Rare is the book that I've stuck with and loved that didn't grab me sooner than that.
(And I only say rare in admission of my own bad memory. More likely I've never found one.)
don't try so hard.
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 01:13 AM IP
What I do need is a to see something that is well-written - there are lots of books out there that I think are dreadfully written, so I won't go any further, but I also need to feel something from a first page - I want to be drawn in.
It does take a while sometimes though - I wasn't attracted to the first of the Phillip Pullman trilogy but I had bought them all cheap without really checking them out too much (I hunt bookshelves in Charity shops). When I finally got past the first few pages though I was totally hooked and read all three straight through. Marvellous books.
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Susan
Member
Posts: 1985
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 01:22 AM IP
I am vehemently opposed to bad writing. But of course my bad writing isn't necessarily someone else's...
I will be interested in my nephew's take on Pratchett, and also on the David Marks book, which he asked to borrow.
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 01:28 AM IP
Quite. I'm a huge Stephen King fan and read largely genre novels - I'm pretty much bored by mainstream fiction, so much of what I read would be looked down on by those in tweed, but there are some fine writers who choose to write in those areas.
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Susan
Member
Posts: 1985
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 01:32 AM IP
And my niece, who accompanied us to Borders and tagged along with me, said, "You're not much of a fiction reader, are you, Aunt Susan?" Well, between the two of us, we were carrying nine biographies and history books. I couldn't deny her.
Except that i did do all 7 HPs this summer, after blowing through Book 7, and i am anxiously awaiting the next Pratchett, due in October and ordered months ago...so i guess the fiction has to be special for me.
Gak. SO bedtime....
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 01:55 PM IP
I've had The Third Policeman for about 20 years without ever reading it....About time I did really.
I think the only Irish novelist I've read is Spike Milligan....Puckoon is wonderful.
I did try Ulysses once but got bogged down on the first sentence...
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 02:14 PM IP
I have heard that.....I'll have to dig at the back of whichever cupboard its been consigned to....assuming I didn't throw it away after the great heating failure disaster of 89.......(long story....but I still have books that I bought in about 1973 os so - possibly older come to that, and some have perished along the way. There was a flood in the early 80's that did some damage to some LP's as well....sigh....
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 02:18 PM IP
Quote:
Susan wrote:
And my niece, who accompanied us to Borders and tagged along with me, said, "You're not much of a fiction reader, are you, Aunt Susan?" Well, between the two of us, we were carrying nine biographies and history books. I couldn't deny her.
Except that i did do all 7 HPs this summer, after blowing through Book 7, and i am anxiously awaiting the next Pratchett, due in October and ordered months ago...so i guess the fiction has to be special for me.
Gak. SO bedtime....
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Oh - and if you haven't read 'Stardust' by Neil Gaiman you really should...(not to mention American Gods....)
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Rob
Member
Posts: 2043
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 02:18 PM IP
Quote:
alan wrote:
I've had The Third Policeman for about 20 years without ever reading it....About time I did really.
I think the only Irish novelist I've read is Spike Milligan....Puckoon is wonderful.
I did try Ulysses once but got bogged down on the first sentence...
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I bought Ulysses a few years ago. I thought I'd read the long introduction (by some literature professor) just to give me a good handle on the novel but erm...I still haven't got past that yet.
Recent books I have bought but yet to read:
Evelyn Waugh - 'Vile Bodies'
J.K. Huysmans - A Rebours (I've read La Bas and that was pretty intriguing. Anybody heard of a guy called Gilles De Rais? - he was a French aristocrat and right hand man of Joan of Arc and also, on his days off, a horribly sadistic mass murderer of children!)
Berlin in the Twenties: Art and Culture 1918-1933 by Rainer Metzger (nice hard back book with loads of great photographs).
Have YOU been Con-Demed yet?
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 02:24 PM IP
Quote:
Rob wrote:
I bought Ulysses a few years ago. I thought I'd read the long introduction (by some literature professor) just to give me a good handle on the novel but erm...I still haven't got past that yet.
Recent books I have bought but yet to read:
Evelyn Waugh - 'Vile Bodies'
My friend (lapsed sadly) was a radio writer who wrote a radio series for Stephen Fry when he was doing the screenplay for the film of that and getting the finance. He was livid about changing the title but was told he had to. 'Bright Young Things' isn't quite the same is it....
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Rob
Member
Posts: 2043
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 02:39 PM IP
I've never seen that film but my understanding is that it's quite loosely based on Vile Bodies and lacks the novel's satirical edge. The change to 'Bright Young Things' as a title suggests that really.
Have YOU been Con-Demed yet?
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 03:06 PM IP
Rob, Gilles de Rais was so evil that he reached legend status.
If you are interested in the Huysmans period, I would recommend that you read Villiers de l'Isle Adam's Cruel Tales., unfortunately I think the translation is not widely available.
Meanwhile my son is entering transition year this year. I went to the PT meeting yesterday and wish to God I could join the class. This is year to allow kids to prepare for the last 2 years of secondary schooling, and they will do all sorts of non academic disciplines, whilst keeping the core academic subject 3 times a week. SO, he will do things like cookery, bridge, sailing, peer mentoring, a mini company project, film and drama appreciation..... plus he is determined to do other stuff by himself. He started learning Japanese this summer, ants to do a first aid course, learn how to drive, C++ etc... he is full of go.
Anyway one of the things they have to do is read a novel amonth and write a review. Last night he asked us to help him chose small but challenging books. All work by the way will be enterind in a personal electronic portfolio which I think is a great idea.
Anyway some of our suggestions were :
The Communist Manifesto (great read)
Germinal - Zola
The Plague- Camus
A very Easy Death - Simone de Beauvoir
One Oscar Wilde, dont know which one yet
Les faux monnayeurs - Gide
On the Road - Kerouac
The Trial - Kafka
Farehnheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Any other ideas for classic SHORT fiction ?
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Rob
Member
Posts: 2043
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 03:25 PM IP
Quote:
Anyway some of our suggestions were :
The Communist Manifesto (great read)
Germinal - Zola
The Plague- Camus
A very Easy Death - Simone de Beauvoir
One Oscar Wilde, dont know which one yet
Les faux monnayeurs - Gide
On the Road - Kerouac
The Trial - Kafka
Farehnheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Any other ideas for classic SHORT fiction ?
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The Communist Manifesto - great fiction?! 
Erm, think I'll just say a few of my favourite books:
Hangover Square - Patrick Hamilton (a great and very much neglected writer. Most people know him for the plays Gaslight and Rope which were turned into movies but his novels are also wonderful.)
Keep The Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger
Gilles De Rais - have you ever been here?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%...au_de_Tiffauges
It's amazing a kind of Dracula myth never grew out of this man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais
Have YOU been Con-Demed yet?
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 04:01 PM IP
Gooda one about the Communist Manifesto, I know, but it does read like a novel.
I will pass on the Orwell and Burgess recommendation. He read Catcher in the Rye already.
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Rob
Member
Posts: 2043
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 04:14 PM IP
Quote:
zelilgirlI1ncenu wrote:
Gooda one about the Communist Manifesto, I know, but it does read like a novel.
I will pass on the Orwell and Burgess recommendation. He read Catcher in the Rye already.
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I'm strugggling to remember who it was now but there was a big name film director who wanted to make Das Kapital the Movie! (No not Ken Loach! Probably Michael Winner!)
If he likes Keep The Aspidistra Flying he'll love Hangover Square (or Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky or The Slaves of Solitude!)
Have YOU been Con-Demed yet?
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luther
Member
Posts: 5203
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 08:25 PM IP
Hopping in on the Ulysses talk from a bit earlier, I've read Dubliners and Portrait of an Artist... with some success, so I tried Ulysses. Twice. The first time, I "read" about 300 pages before I realized I couldn't describe a damn thing about it. The second time, I did much better with comprehension, but only made about 125 pages before giving up.
That third time is still in front of me. Someday I will succeed! Until then, I can just take comfort in knowing I'm not the only person that damn book ever beat.
don't try so hard.
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Leo K
Member
Posts: 384
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 10:11 PM IP
Quote:
luther wrote:
Hopping in on the Ulysses talk from a bit earlier, I've read Dubliners and Portrait of an Artist... with some success, so I tried Ulysses. Twice. The first time, I "read" about 300 pages before I realized I couldn't describe a damn thing about it. The second time, I did much better with comprehension, but only made about 125 pages before giving up.
That third time is still in front of me. Someday I will succeed! Until then, I can just take comfort in knowing I'm not the only person that damn book ever beat.
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Luther, have you tried using a guide? Joseph Campbell and Stuart Gilbert were both very helpful for me.
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luther
Member
Posts: 5203
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted September 4th, 2007 10:19 PM IP
I haven't. I have Nabokov's lectures on it, and I was thinking I had a separate guide, too, but I don't see it where I'm thinking it ought to be, so who knows anymore. (I lose things.) Regarding a guide, I do worry that I'll lose the momentum and joy by going back and forth to reference such a book.
On the other hand, I've lost both momentum and joy by 1) not understanding and 2) quitting, too...
Unrelated but amusing: An hour or so ago I was sitting by a nearby lake reading when a very drunk man and his wife/girlfriend sat down beside me at the picnic table. The guy asked what I was reading. I told him. (My Antonia, by W. Cather) He asked why I was reading. Then he asked if I am in college.
He said he'd never seen anyone just reading for no reason before, and said that around here, in HIS neighborhood, people never just sit around reading because it's dangerous--you need to keep your eyes out behind you. His neighborhood is, apparently, also mine: the lake is six blocks from my place, and it is every bit as safe as any other residential area of any other major city. It was strange and a little sad that it baffled him so much to see someone reading.
don't try so hard.
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