What are u reading right now?

**Tallulah** · 04-02-2012, 05:55 PM

Just started Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. It's been on my shelf for a while and it will count towards the 2012 reading challenge and the new author reading challenge.

So far, so good. I'm only on page 37 so I don't have much of an opinion other than it's very neatly written and I'm pretty sure I'll get into these characters.

**Idril** · 04-02-2012, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by Tallulah

Just started Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. It's been on my shelf for a while and it will count towards the 2012 reading challenge and the new author reading challenge.

I really liked Buddenbrooks. I have a love/hate relationship with Mann, this book was the first of his books I read and I liked it enough to read more...not all of which I liked as much.

I suffered through Evelina so now I'm heading back to the comfort of an old favorite, Jerusalem by Selma Lagerlöf.

**Oblivion** · 04-03-2012, 09:32 AM

cut by Patricia McCormick

**Oblivion** · 04-03-2012, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by TheChilly

2) "Ulysses" by James Joyce (It has a reputation of being "difficult", but for some reason, I'm both compulsively addicted to it and having so much fun with it).

It also has the reputation of being really long. It's a good thing you're enjoying it or you may have giving it up.

**Tallulah** · 04-04-2012, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by Idril

I really liked Buddenbrooks. I have a love/hate relationship with Mann, this book was the first of his books I read and I liked it enough to read more...not all of which I liked as much.

I'm about halfway through Buddenbrooks. I really like it so far. I like the characters and just his overall style of writing.

Which books did you not like as much? I was thinking of reading Doctor Faustus next.

**dysfunctional-h** · 04-04-2012, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by Tallulah

I'm about halfway through Buddenbrooks. I really like it so far. I like the characters and just his overall style of writing.

Which books did you not like as much? I was thinking of reading Doctor Faustus next.

I read Doctor Faustus, and I must say it was a pretty big undertaking. At times it seems to meander without much plot, and the symbolism is startlingly difficult to grasp at times. But near the end it becomes progressively more fast paced, sardonic, and moving, well worth your time. I only read the John E. Woods translation, however. Have any of you noticed any differences in quality between the Porter and Woods translations? I own both versions of the Magic Mountain, and intend on reading them concurrently some time this year, along with Woods's versions of Buddenbrooks and Joseph and his Brothers.

I happen to be reading Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain. Great book, so far. XD Only on page 50 tho.

**Idril** · 04-07-2012, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by Tallulah

I'm about halfway through Buddenbrooks. I really like it so far. I like the characters and just his overall style of writing.

Which books did you not like as much? I was thinking of reading Doctor Faustus next.

Originally Posted by dysfunctional-h

I read Doctor Faustus, and I must say it was a pretty big undertaking. At times it seems to meander without much plot, and the symbolism is startlingly difficult to grasp at times. But near the end it becomes progressively more fast paced, sardonic, and moving, well worth your time. I only read the John E. Woods translation, however. Have any of you noticed any differences in quality between the Porter and Woods translations? I own both versions of the Magic Mountain, and intend on reading them concurrently some time this year, along with Woods's versions of Buddenbrooks and Joseph and his Brothers.

.

Doctor Faustus was not one of my favorites. Dysfunctional put it well, it was a chore and because of that meandering and bizarre symbolism, I really struggled to keep my interest and found myself skimming over some of the more tedious sections. By the time it did pick up at the end, I really had no idea what was going on.

Some day I may pick it up again because I suspect, and dysfunctional just confirmed it, the ending may be quite powerful if a person actually paid attention to the build up.

Magic Mountain was incredible! By far my favorite Mann book. He meanders at times here as well, he seems to really enjoy doing that, but it's not as disruptive as it is in some of his other works. It's an incredible story and it's written beautifully.

**dysfunctional-h** · 04-07-2012, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Idril

Doctor Faustus was not one of my favorites. Dysfunctional put it well, it was a chore and because of that meandering and bizarre symbolism, I really struggled to keep my interest and found myself skimming over some of the more tedious sections. By the time it did pick up at the end, I really had no idea what was going on.

Some day I may pick it up again because I suspect, and dysfunctional just confirmed it, the ending may be quite powerful if a person actually paid attention to the build up.

Magic Mountain was incredible! By far my favorite Mann book. He meanders at times here as well, he seems to really enjoy doing that, but it's not as disruptive as it is in some of his other works. It's an incredible story and it's written beautifully.

LOL I loved the discussions of Beethoven in DF. That helped some. But again, did you use the Woods translation for the MM? ^_^

**Helga** · 04-07-2012, 11:09 AM

Currently I am reading 'Baudelaire' by Jean-Paul Sartre. it's just one long essay of sort about the poet seen through the eyes of existentialism and a bit of Narcissism. Very interesting.

**Idril** · 04-07-2012, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by dysfunctional-h

LOL I loved the discussions of Beethoven in DF. That helped some. But again, did you use the Woods translation for the MM? ^_^

I'm sorry, I missed that...yes, I have the Woods translation.

**hazelk** · 04-11-2012, 07:33 AM

I shall be sad to finish "An Unfinished Life" by Mark Spragg, it has be a wonderful read. My next is a reread by Mark Spragg "The Fruit of Stone", this I know is also very special.

**Venerable Bede** · 04-11-2012, 05:16 PM

I'm reading the Poetic Edda right now as a part of my new Norse craze. Very fascinating to say the least.

**dysfunctional-h** · 04-12-2012, 06:18 PM

I'm most of the way thru Lolita and my god is it boring.... I just can't get myself thru it. At this rate I'm not gonna understand Nabokov by the time his obligatory birthday post is due for my blog. DDX I hope Pale Fire isn't this boring...

**suprematist** · 04-13-2012, 10:17 AM

1. The Exile and the Kingdom, a collection of about half a dozen short stories by Albert Camus
2. I intend to read the entirety of Camus' works this year.
3. A housefly had been circling for the last few minutes in the bus, though the windows were closed. from The Adulterous Woman
4 and 5. I don't read it by order, and have only since finished Jonas, ou l'artiste au travail (The Artist and his Work), which I found very satisfactory.

**Idril** · 04-13-2012, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by dysfunctional-h

I'm most of the way thru Lolita and my god is it boring.... I just can't get myself thru it. At this rate I'm not gonna understand Nabokov by the time his obligatory birthday post is due for my blog. DDX I hope Pale Fire isn't this boring...

I didn't care for that one either. It was so passionless despite it's subject, so cold and soulless. A lot of people love it but I just didn't connect
with it at all.

I'm almost halfway through Anna Édes by Kosztolányi Dezső. I'm enjoying it a great deal, the names are a little tough to figure out but that's half the fun.