Tell us which book you read last and what you thought of it.
Tell us which book you read last and what you thought of it.
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
I just finished reading "Tolkien: A Biography" by Humphrey Carpenter (who passed away earlier this year). Having read many of Tolkien works I enjoyed ever so much this biography. After reading about his life I am amazed that "The Lord of the Rings" was ever published! The following quote from the book may shed some light on this:
"'If you're going to have a complicated story you must work to a map; otherwise you'll never make a map of it afterwards.'" "But the map in itself was not enough, and he made endless calculations of time and distance, drawing up elaborate charts concerning events in the story, showing dates, the days of the week, the hours, and sometimes even the direction of the wind and the phase of the moon. This was partly his habitual insistence on perfection, partly sheer revelling in the fun of 'subcreation', but most of all a concern to provide a totally convincing picture. Long afterwards he said: 'I wanted people simply to get inside this story and take it (in a sense) as actual history.'"
The preceding quote is precisely why I love Tolkiens writings!
angela
"It is settled between us already that we are to be the happiest couple in the world."
Last book you read as in finished, right? Not reading.. well, d'oh as there's another thread for that, oook *shuts up*
Jeanette Winterson - Sexing the Cherry
In short... it was very good, I like the way Winterson 'plays' with the language, every word is there for a reason. I don't know if there's a special name for it, but I like the way she uses certain expressions/sentences/situations more than once in her books, it's interesting comparing the two (or more in some cases) together and thinking about the differences (if any) in appearences, I mean, once it has one meaning and then you find it somewhere else and the meaning's changed from what it was earlier (or how the story/everything else changes and the 'repetition' still has the same meaning).
Last edited by Jay; 04-18-2005 at 06:53 AM.
I have a plan: attack!
I read Samuel Beckett’s, Waiting for Godot last night.
It was a two act play where nothing happens,…twice.
I suppose you have to be in the right mood. I was. I dug it.
I’d like to go and see it. Does anyone know of a good production? This is an aside but rumor has it that (this was in some of the criticism), when Waiting for Godot opened on Broadway, the New York Taxicab drivers would show up in front of the theater during the intermission of the two acts because they knew a lot of people would bail.
Uhhhh...
Hehe! I'd believe it... Something very nice about absurdist theatre, but only if you're in the mood (or A mood, as the case may be...)
Last book finished? A Brave New World. First book I've read in its entirity online. Kinda nice.
It's a look at a potential future world where sickness and oldage and parents have been eliminated. Children are manufactured and socially conditioned. Without having given it great depth of thought (yet), it seems to me it's a commentary on the sacrifice of individualism toward the greater "good," and questioning what sort of "good" that must be.
I quite enjoyed it - I love hypotheticals - but like many of this genre, it isn't exactly upbeat and encouraging...
100,000 lemmings can't be wrong. ~heard from a friend
Life is the first gift, love is the second, understanding the third. ~ Marge Piercy
Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God;
but only he who sees takes of his shoes. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Just finished "The Catcher In The Rye" in between parts 1 & 2 of Don Quixote.
It was a damn powerful and fine read. Wasn't expecting that ending at all.
No man should die without first reading the world's greatest literature.
Snukes, you may be onto something there. Reckon I was in A mood.
Razeuz, I dug both those texts; particularly the last one, as my screen name may connote.
Uhhhh...
Yay! I finally finished Don Quixote.
I read this also, I agree not much happens, but it was a nice break. I'd give it 8/10, but then again I was thinking I need to adjust my ratiing system as everything seems to be 8.Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
H. A. Lindsay's Faraway Hill
Chronicles the life-story of a married couple in Australian outback who go on from being farm hands to bee-keepers and finally real-estate owners. Set between the two world wars. Solid prose, I was interested in the historical period (not to mention the intricate details of professional bee-keeping), which helped a lot in making the book endearing. If I absolutely had to rate it, I'd give it a 7/10.
For what it is worth, I'll also give the Seventh Son a 6. The end was a big disappointment for me. (though the initial premise was extremely intriguing)
Finished Brave New World 2 days ago. It wasn't as bad as I thought but I certainly won't be putting it on my 'fave books list' (not like I had one anyway
I have a plan: attack!
The last one I read was The Nonexistent Knight, by Italo Calvino. Really liked it. In addition to the ontology, which came through both hilarious and dazzling (Agilulf the knight does not exist, in spite of actually doing things), the book had great metafiction, which is naturally not strange to postmodern literature - I just really love it (Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller is one of my all-time favorites). Of the famous trio of Calvino's allegory novels, this one just went pretty far at times in thematizing and actualising the fictive scenario's textuality. I can recommend it, and it's a really quick read anyway.
Sorry about some terms being wrong (allegory?), I'm not a native speaker.
The last book that I have read was A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. School assignment. I need to seriously get some new books to read. This book is boring the first time that I read it, but also I couldn't understand it. The next one we have to read is 1984 I forget who wrote it.
That would be George Orwell. You probably won't be bored.
I just read Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield. It was an amazing book that I was unable to put down, after reading it I wanted to go back in time and fight with the Spartan army.
I also (at the same time) read T. H. White's Once and Future King. It moved kind of slow at times because White often gets carried away in his beautiful discriptions of things, but overall I enjoyed it and felt connected with the characters.
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