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Post by shindig on Jun 30, 2009 19:03:21 GMT
Dante's Inferno, still. Although the poem itself flows right by, once you're past the guff of the analytic introduction.
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Post by GR on Jul 13, 2009 23:52:31 GMT
I've been reading Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit, which I'd been wanting to get my hands on since I saw the recent adaptation (a five-part miniseries) on PBS this past spring. I'm not even a quarter of the way through it yet, and I love it already; I notice Dickens has used a lot of repetition of language here, not only for a poetic flow, but sometimes for a humorous effect, too.
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Post by amy on Jul 15, 2009 18:27:16 GMT
Just finished 'A Nice Girl Like Me' by the journalist Rosie Boycott. It's about her battle with acoholism, and the events that she feels led her to it. It's not as dry as I seem to have made it sound, it's full of interesting stories about travelling, relationships and recovery. It's also quite interesting to read how she feels that female alcoholics are seen as different to male ones, but she is a feminist writer so I guess it was always likely to have some exploration of that. It's a new edition (think the original was publshed in the 80s), so there's also a nice epilogue telling how much she's learned in the years since the book was first released, and how she's manged to cope without alcohol (mostly!). I would definitely recommend it!
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Post by GR on Aug 10, 2009 23:15:34 GMT
Currently I'm about halfway through Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. While it has an air of sci-fi/mystery about it, its depiction of friendship (among a trio of English boarding-school students from childhood into young adulthood) is quite touching.
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Post by fattaxi on Aug 12, 2009 22:16:00 GMT
Just finished reading.
The Adventuers Of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain: I think I started reading it when I was a kid but found it difficult. A friend of mine was recently talking about it so I decided to re-read it as an adult. Although I enjoyed it I found the middle section to be a bit repetitive and at times boring. Things spice up with the King and Lord show up and deffiantly get better when Tom Sawyer emmerges. All in all I enjoyed it.
Facing Up - Bear Gyrlls: I'm a big Bear Gyrlls fan so this was essential reading for me. Its the true story of when Bear became the youngest Brition (at the time) to climb mount everest at 23. A really inspitational book that is superbly well written.
The Road - Cormac McCarthy: I read this due to the amount of constant reccomendations that come up on here. I was not dissapointed, I read it all in almost one sitting. Brilliant book. Really looking forward to the film now too.
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Post by GR on Aug 20, 2009 23:59:53 GMT
Glad you liked The Road! I'm currently reading the classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Written in the form of a bunch of letters ("collected in a private society and published for the instruction of others"), it tells the cautionary tale of two bored aristocrats (and former lovers) in pre-Revolution France who toy with the lives of their various acquaintances. Some very well-crafted characters here.
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Post by jill on Aug 29, 2009 0:06:43 GMT
Currently I'm about halfway through Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. While it has an air of sci-fi/mystery about it, its depiction of friendship (among a trio of English boarding-school students from childhood into young adulthood) is quite touching. Way too late with this post....it's a slow burner, with an amazing and moving end! Also read The Road after reading the other posts......... Was puzzled by the redemptive aspect of it........I'm a glass half full kind of girl, but unless the ocassional religious interludes are more significant than I thought, then where's the hope? Amazing piece of writing though........Kind of script style writing, but all the more impressive for conveying such emotional depth in sparing prose.
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Post by GR on Sept 4, 2009 23:15:17 GMT
I'm about halfway through Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities at the moment. One of the all-time great openings, of course; and an interesting look at the French Revolution and what led up to it... The story itself is a bit slow-going at first, but gets more and more compelling with each chapter. Also read The Road after reading the other posts......... Was puzzled by the redemptive aspect of it........I'm a glass half full kind of girl, but unless the ocassional religious interludes are more significant than I thought, then where's the hope? ***SPOILER*** I think the most hopeful aspect of the story is the stuff towards the end about "carrying the fire." Throughout, the Man talks to the Boy about their being "the good guys," but the Boy really lives it -- wanting to help total strangers (such as the old man) and repeatedly expressing concern for another little boy he has seen, while the Man wants nothing to do with other people. After the Man dies, the Boy is presumably rewarded for maintaining his faith in mankind by being taken into the family of the Veteran; and I think it suggests that both the Boy and this other family -- representing the best of what's left of humanity -- were meant to find each other. (I hope that helps... )
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Post by jill on Sept 5, 2009 7:17:16 GMT
On the Road *Spoiler* Yes, I got that. What I meant was that the planet is dead and eventually he like his father will die too and so will everybody else. So unless the message that the good in humanity lives on amidst the death and despair is somehow redemptive, then....? This was a post-pub post though
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Post by marksherbert on Sept 5, 2009 11:31:09 GMT
I'm working through a reading list for a course I'm starting soon. So far I got through two by Muriel Spark:
The Comforters - a metafiction where the protagonist keeps getting the feeling that she's a character in a novel, which she is, obviously. While it was evident that it was her first novel and she'd yet to develop her style fully, it was intriguing. Fans of Paul Auster might like it.
Driver's Seat - Which was great. It's about a woman who, we know from the beginning, is destined to be murdered come the end of the book, but we don't know how or why. There was a slight surrealism and a sense of dread and menace throughout which reminded me a bit of a Lynch film.
Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton - Referred to as one of the great novels of the 40s, but it doesn't seem to have remained in public consciousness like some of its contemporaries, and is the story of a bloke who spends all of his time drinking in bars with friends he hates, and longs to get out. I loved it.
Ministry of Fear by Grahame Greene - I've always liked his novels and this is up there with his best. During WWII an ordinary man gets inadvertently involved in a spy ring. What made it really interesting though was that half way through he is caught in a bombing raid and as a result loses his memory, and has to piece everything together from nothing.
I'm about to start Joyce's Ulysses and I might be a while - wish me luck.
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Post by GR on Sept 5, 2009 17:53:40 GMT
On the Road *Spoiler* ...So unless the message that the good in humanity lives on amidst the death and despair is somehow redemptive, then....? Yeah, that's pretty much it.
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Post by GR on Sept 18, 2009 23:05:03 GMT
Currently I'm reading Thirteen Moons, Charles Frazier's follow-up to Cold Mountain. It's about an orphaned boy who, in indentured servitude, is sent by his aunt and uncle to run an Indian trading post, where he is adopted by the Cherokee Nation; the story spans almost his entire life, through much of the 1800s and into the early 20th century. Epic in scope and rich in imagery, but also fast-moving with a sharp and often witty narrative voice.
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Post by GR on Sept 30, 2009 23:02:33 GMT
Right now I'm about halfway through Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Part love story (between a young Englishman and a married Frenchwoman), part war epic (set during World War I), so far I think it's very beautifully written.
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Post by jenelope on Oct 2, 2009 14:26:30 GMT
I am yet again reading Memoirs of a Geisha. One of my favourite books. Film is shite but book is very good! Not long finished A Million Little Pieces which is also awesome.
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Post by marksherbert on Oct 2, 2009 14:50:28 GMT
A Million Little Pieces is fabrication passed off as fact.
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