Hello Everyone!
What are you all reading?
I am currently going through a re-read of Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Currently on 2nd book, Fool Moon.
House of Leaves. It’s sick. Anyone got other books that go off the rails like that?
I’m currently reading the new Michael Moorcock, Woods of Arkady, with new Justin Cronin novel The Ferryman on deck.
The Sword Defiant by Gareth Hanrahan. It’s enjoyable.
I really wish he’d describe scenes visually, but it’s character driven and he does a good job with their internal lives.
I used to skip all the visual descriptions, didn’t care much about them (also, didn’t understood half of the words used to explain the appearance of things or people). I have started to pay attention to them now, but I would probably still like a book that doesn’t worry about these too much.
Is it a series? Or a single book?
There’s definitely a balance to be struck with descriptions. Too little beats too much, IMO, but I appreciate a little food for my imagination.
It’s the first book in a series (I think). It’s epic fantasy, but it’s set in the Happily Ever After. The protagonist is part of the motley crew that defeated the big bad twenty years earlier.
His previous series (Black Iron Legacy) was a lot of fun. Of recommend them both.
Finally pushed through The Sound and the Fury. Definitely lived up to it’s reputation for being difficult and inscrutable. Probably could have just stuck with the spark notes on this one, frankly.
I picked up Ovid’s Metamorphoses on a whim and I’m finding it surprisingly fun and approachable. I’ve always had a healthy appreciation for western mythos, so this is a fun little dip back into that world for me, and I am also enjoying going back and reading some academic commentary once I finish a section. Makes me feel like I’m back in college in a good way.
I also started The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and I’m really enjoying her prose so far. I am a little surprised, frankly, with how much I’m enjoying this one and how hard it is to put the book down. Maybe because I tend to select books I don’t expect to like, but rather which I believe will be beneficial to read (which provides it’s own form of enjoyment for me, rest assured).
Also trying to maintain momentum on my second read through of Infinite Jest. One of my favorites, even (especially?) the second time through.
Last year I read mostly nonfiction so I guess this year I’ve swung in the other direction as I’ve read almost exclusively fiction so far.
Nice list! I looked up The Sound and the Fury, from wikipedia:
It is nearly unanimously considered a masterpiece by literary critics and scholars, but its unconventional narrative style frequently alienates new readers. Although the vocabulary is generally basic, the stream-of-consciousness technique, which attempts to transcribe the thoughts of the narrators directly, with frequent switches in time and setting and with loose sentence structure and grammar, has made it a quintessentially difficult modernist work.
Interesting. Will add it to the list of “literary classics, some day” to-read list.
Which translation are you reading for Metamorphoses? And any interesting academic commentary you can link to? Recently, I have been thinking of reading some of the older, historical work, starting with the most obvious choice, Homer’s Odyssey. Haven’t started it yet though, so many things to read, so little time.
And respect for reading books that are beneficial to you!
Yeah, The Sound and the Fury was a doozy. I’m no stranger to difficult books and I generally like stream-of-consciousness modernist writing, but this one really tested me! I’ll have to revisit it some day I think.
I have the Penguin Classics edition of Metamorphoses which credits David Raeburn as the translator. I’ve dabbled in the Iliad/Odyssey but frankly have found them entirely too dense to be worth my effort with the primary text. I… Haven’t found a lot of good resources for Metamorphoses yet. I have just been Googling “Metamorphoses Book 3 discussion” when I finish a section and perusing the submissions.
Currently Reading:
The Iron Heel, by Jack London
Basically one of the first major political dystopias written in the modern sense. It’s super cool too, basically the book is an old manuscript about an attempted socialist revolution, before the world was taken over by oligarchic tyrannical capitalists. There’s basically two stories being told, one in the socialist narrative itself occurring in the past, and one in the footnotes, showing glimmers of some of the capitalist horrors in the “present time”. Super neat way to tell a story, and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s super heavy handed, and I would maybe call it similar to a socialist version of an Ayn Rand dystopia, like Anthem, but you know… Actually good. And thematically opposite to any coherent thought Ayn Rand tried to impart onto her readers.
Paved Paradise, How Parking Explains the World, by Henry Grabar
Not too far into this one, but it’s a non-fiction book about parking policy, and how parking has basically ruined American cities over the last 70 years. I’ve been really getting into city planning books lately, so we’ll see how much I like this one. Some pretty eye opening statistics so far, and the writing style seems fine.
DNF’d recently:
Walden, by Henry David Thoreau
Jesus this dude is insufferable. I read a lot of dense stuff, and have read many authors that like the sound of their own voice, but Thoreau takes the cake. Preaches self-reliance and disparages philanthropy but squats on his buddies land and lives off of gifts from friends, while doing absolutely nothing and providing no value to society. The guy just exudes a “holier than thou” attitude throughout the whole book, with absolutely nothing to back it up. I quit after 100 pages of this absolute joke contradicting himself the entire time. He would occasionally stumble upon some brilliance that I found a bit insightful, but it was few and far between, and the 98% of the rest was pure, unadulterated garbage. I really haven’t had this negative of a reaction to something I’ve read for quite some time, I generally like everything I read. Maybe I’m just too simple to understand his self proclaimed brilliance.
Interesting list of books. Not the kind of thing I usually read, but The Iron Heel looks to be an interesting book. I would also be interested in hearing what you thought about Paved Paradise once you are done with it.
As for Walden, if you didn’t know anything about Thoreau and his life, would you still think the same about the book? I am just wondering if it’s the contradiction between his life (which I know nothing about) and his work that turned you off.
Honestly I noticed the contradiction first, then looked up his life as I got progressively more and more annoyed with him. The first time I noticed it was when he talked about the benefits of solitude, and denigrating people who felt loneliness. Then, not much later, he mentioned his “solitary location” is a measly 2 MILES from a town, and a railroad goes right by him. He literally hears the train whistle every day, and seems trains and train riders all the time, while acting like he’s in solitude Alaska or something. He also mentions that people visit him almost every day. Of course you don’t get lonely you idiot.
Basically I noticed some contradictions in his writing, and his tone was just so insufferable so I started looking up things to learn more about him. The more I learned, the more I realized I just hate this guy.
