What is everyone reading this month? [Archive]

Shea

09-10-2003, 08:31 PM

Wonderful that your helping your son in his reading!! :D My mom helped me to read growing up and I could tell the difference with my friends whose parents could seem to care less (I had honors classes, they had the basics).

Since I'm taking 4 lit courses, I'll be reading quite a bit.
-the gothics, like Poe and Hawthorne
-19 century American Novels, like Mobey Dick, The Awakening,...
-19 century works like Whitman :evil: , Dickenson, Huck Finn,...
-17 & 18 century British works like Dunne, Milton,...

It'd be quite a long list if I listed everything, and instead of one month this is over 4, sorry.

I'm pretty excited though, everything that my classes will be covering are things that I've already read or wanted to read. Except Whitman :evil: :evil:

ihrocks

09-10-2003, 11:16 PM

Presently on "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog" by Dylan Thomas. Next, if I can find it, is "A Journey Through Britain" by John Hillaby. After that, probably "Fire," one of the diaries of Anais Nin.

However, in about 30 minutes I'll be reading "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish"...again! It's the 7-year-old's current favorite.

ihrocks

Koa

09-11-2003, 09:39 AM

I'm about to finally read 'War and peace', as for the next 20 days I'll be free before classes at Uni start, and anyway in the first period I won't be so busy with that... I'm really curious about this huge classic.

tree

09-11-2003, 12:40 PM

Yes, the classics are very interesting to read them, cos they have diferent ways of seeing...I like them.
And i am reading now one of Gaarder, of Sophies World author.
Anybody knows it?
I had read when i was seventeen, if i dont remember bad and he said me much in his book.
I have bouth today a classic The Pillow in the Winds of Kenneth Grahamme.
I adore it, cos the nurse-world is very beautiful to me...

Demona

09-11-2003, 01:02 PM

Ren71

09-11-2003, 04:15 PM

In Brit Lit we are reading "Beowulf" but it's hard to enjoy it because we are way overanalyzing.

On my own I'm reading the Complete Plays of Aristophanes... it's alright, but hard to grasp the comedy because it's political

Robert E Lee

09-11-2003, 04:59 PM

...and i`m stuck with the american literature...yack...
i cannot say that i detest absolutely everything about it, no....i quite enjoyed Poe and Irving, but, for example, Herzog by Saul Bellow is just....boring....so far...

My brother said the same thing about Herzog.

litlenani

09-11-2003, 06:08 PM

Adventures in the English Literature

Demona

09-13-2003, 04:07 AM

Ibtihaj

09-13-2003, 11:21 AM

I am reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (A higher level reading course) and so far it is going great.
I read Jostein Gaarder's "Sophy's World" and I really enjoyed. Gaarder's "Maya", if the spelling is right :-? , was not that good, yet still enjoyable.[/img][/quote]

Lothwen

09-13-2003, 12:03 PM

"In Search of Lost Time" - first volume "Swann's Way" (Marcel Proust) --> excellent book :)
and many poems :)

oh I forgot about "Human anatomy" :)

MdaCruz

09-14-2003, 01:13 AM

I'm in the middle of Thomas More's Utopia and I just finished reading and writing a paper on Capote's In Cold Blood.

Kinch

09-14-2003, 04:33 PM

In Search of Lost Time is an extremely difficult read. Very impressive.

Lothwen

09-14-2003, 05:16 PM

Shea

09-14-2003, 06:21 PM

I'm in the middle of Thomas More's Utopia and I just finished reading and writing a paper on Capote's In Cold Blood.

I really enjoyed Utopia, it would be interesting if it could work. Wasn't Brook Farm patterned after that in the 1800's?

becca

09-14-2003, 08:01 PM

i'm reading the age of innocence by edith wharton; so far so good. i finished lord of the flies yesterday, which i found rather disturbing but all in all a remarkably accurate dipiction of sinful man. what are your opinions of that book?

Kinch

09-14-2003, 09:36 PM

IMO "In Serch of Lost Time" is great book, I don't understand why so many people think that it's extremely difficult to read. I like it, and I've almost finished first volume. Maybe I am a little strange person :) but I realy enjoy reading this book, and I don't think that I am doing someting amazing. :)

It can be read on so many different levels, though; you have to have a prerequisite understanding of all the different historical anecdotes and allusions to be able to fully grasp what Proust was trying to communicate. It's a difficult read, but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable (I hope that wasn't the impression I gave you). Like with Ulysses, it's much easier for some people to read (the Irish, for example) than others.

Lothwen

09-15-2003, 01:06 PM

Oh, I know that I probably don't grasp all proplems which Proust touch in his book, but I may try to take from it as much as I can. Moreover, the meaning of some books is easier to uncover when book is interesting.
I've read Ulysses too, I know that I didn't understant it, but it nearest time I don't want to try again :)

Demona

09-15-2003, 03:17 PM

I am reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (A higher level reading course) and so far it is going great.

I`d say it is a very peculiar book....one cannot read it in summer, for it has a fairly gloomy atmosphere and one wouldn`t like to spoil one`s summer days and if one reads it in winter - everything seems to be even worse...but this is just an imho. generally, i liked the book and would recommend it to my friends.
=]

Munro

09-15-2003, 10:38 PM

I've been told that Heart of Darkness is a very depressing book. I like depressing books. So, I might read it sometime soon.

Currently I'm reading Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus, which is wonderful, I look forward to talking about it here when I've finished.
And as soon as my exams are over (stopping me from posting and reading) I want to read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

phenomenal_cat

09-16-2003, 10:21 AM

I'm currently doing Chaucer for A Level. The Miller's tale...it's saucy ;) After that I have to read Catcher in the Rye :rolleyes:

Stuff I'm reading off my own back: Peer Gynt, Innocence and Experience and Hamlet. That and Chesterton's commentary on Chaucer (I've rather taken to him.)

Koa

09-16-2003, 10:55 AM

Munro, One Hundred Years Of Solitude is totally amazing, I enjoyed it a lot, so go for it! :)

Heart Of Darkness is...well, it took me a long time to understand it, and I think I understood it only because it was on the program of an exam, so we had lessons about it... I wouldn't say it's depressing, but surely it brings you to think... I personally took ages to read it cos I was finding it slightly boring, but it might have been because I read it in English, which is not my native language and I found the style and words to be very difficult (impressively as Conrad wasn't natively English too :))

den

09-16-2003, 12:00 PM

Munro, you've got great taste in reading... ;) I like moody sombre melancholic books too, and Heart of Darkness is sinster.

Kaminaree

09-17-2003, 03:49 PM

Well, I'm new here but am a voracious reader. So far this month I've read The Arabian Nights (not the one with Sindbad, et al.), Hunter S Thompson's Better Than Sex and Kingdom of Fear, and now am almost done with Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser (the guy that wrote Fast Food Nation).

It goes back a little more than a month, but before that was Stephen King's The Gunslinger (not so good) and Cervantes' Don Quixote (amazing!!).

And for someone looking for something difficult but incredibly good, try Samuel Beckett's Malone trilogy: Malloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable, available in a single volume from The Everyman's Library

Cheers!

Kami

Eloise

09-17-2003, 11:45 PM

I'm also currently reading Chaucer, some of the Cantebury Tales (when at school) and a translation of the Decameron (when at home). Similar period and format, though different languages, so that's interesting. Also Penn's Fruits of Solitude.

Incidentally, I read Heart of Darkness in summer (on the train mostly), and, I think, didn't quite get it. I'll have to reread it sometime. I did like Lord Jim though, maybe it was because it's set in south-east Asia instead of Africa.

Rotty1021

09-22-2003, 07:20 PM

Hi, everyone, I'm new here. I just finished with a thoroughly good read, Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." I found his command of the English language, as well as his symbolism and themes, to provide for a touching read, one that makes you think about people back in the Jazz Age, and how people today are just like those of old. In short, an excellent read.

Eilonwy

09-22-2003, 08:49 PM

Hi all, I'm new here. I like a wide variety of literature: Victorian, early 20th century, Harry Potter, anything good.
I have just finished two very good books. One is A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway. His style is at its best: it's not so detached as The Sun Also Rises, and a lot funnier. I highly recommend it to anyone.
The other book is called A Day in the Life. Most people have never heard of it (it's an e-book) but a friend recommended it and it's very good, very original and better-written than most e-books. I highly recommdend y'all go to BeatlesNovel.com and check it out.
Anyway, nice to meet y'all, and I look forward to having lots of literary discussions with everyone :)

Eilonwy

Koa

09-24-2003, 07:26 AM

Kendall

09-24-2003, 08:39 AM

Nothing by choice at the moment. But I'm reading Things Fall Apart for literature class, by Chinua Achebe.
Also, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and I am re-reading some poems from William Blakes Songs Of Innocence and Songs Of Experience :D

den

09-24-2003, 10:48 AM

Oh I loved the Glass Menagerie.

I just finished reading Albert Camus' The Plague, for the second time. It's a bit plodding, but interesting the allusions to Camus' own politics and idealogy and anxieties. The plague as symbol of the German occupation of France. A bit of history of Oran is also ok. I highly recommend his `The First Man' if you want to know how he grew up and what his life was like to make him the man he was.

Rotty1021

09-24-2003, 03:58 PM

How come I didn't like it at all, and I don't even remember why?

Because I'm you and you're me; alas, we have different likes and dislikes. ;)

Koa

09-25-2003, 07:35 AM

How come I didn't like it at all, and I don't even remember why?

Because I'm you and you're me; alas, we have different likes and dislikes. ;)

Indeed, but I always wonder WHY, when I don't appreciate things everybody loves... I'm not aiming at changing my opinion, but I'm curious to understand what good people find in things I can't find any good in... Then maybe I will be able to appreciate them a bit more, or at least know what makes them so famous and loved.
I know, I'm complicated ;)

Rotty1021

09-25-2003, 05:54 PM

For one thing, I was dazzled as to how Fitzgerald set up the plot, just to show how greedy and self-centered people can be (i.e. Gatsby). Furthermore, the characters were all crafted well, and you were able to identify with many, in addition to seeing how they all related one way with one person, and totally different with another. Plus, his symbolism was fantasic.

Munro

09-26-2003, 02:16 AM

I just finished reading Albert Camus' The Plague, for the second time. It's a bit plodding, but interesting the allusions to Camus' own politics and idealogy and anxieties. The plague as symbol of the German occupation of France. A bit of history of Oran is also ok. I highly recommend his `The First Man' if you want to know how he grew up and what his life was like to make him the man he was.

I know! I loved The Plague. I might read it again this summer (if my bookshelf isn't destroyed by bushfires, that is) just to take more in. I bought The Rebel, but I think I might save that for until I'm a bit more educated, and read in Nihilism and Marxism etc. so i can compare Camus' politics and ideologies to others. Otherwise what was his favourite book will be wasted on me.

I'll read The First Man if you recommend it so much, but I might save some Camus for next year, for a writer to look forward to.
Exile and the Kingdom was wonderful, I particularly loved Artist at Work, The Renegade and The Silent Men. Actually, what am I talking about? I loved all of them.

den

09-26-2003, 09:41 AM

Munro, I have a hard time disliking Camus too. ;) One of his greatest ideas he wrote of in `The Myth of Sisyphus': `One must imagine Sisyphus happy'. Now if you can get your head around that one you'll understand a lot of the existentialist absurdisms that caused him so much musing. :D I love it.

`The First Man' is autobiography, so in a way it's ideal to start with that, as it can help you understand who he was and why. Well I always like to read biographies or auto- of my favourite people.

Camus won the Nobel Prize in 1957. He was working on the manuscript for `First Man' in the 1960 when he was killed suddenly in car accident. So it's an unfinished book published posthumously.

AbdoRinbo

09-26-2003, 05:06 PM

He died of a heart attack while driving. Now that's absurd.

den

09-26-2003, 05:26 PM

http://www.altreel.com/cult-fiction/Literary_Deaths.html

AbdoRinbo

09-26-2003, 05:27 PM

I'm not touching that.

den

09-26-2003, 05:31 PM

There is much conjecture about his death, but he was supposedly in car with his publisher driving on wet roads, or that's what I've read the most.

http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0679768165&view=rg

He died of a heart attack while driving. Now that's absurd.

den

09-26-2003, 05:33 PM

But I thought you wanted a bug? : P

AbdoRinbo

09-26-2003, 05:33 PM

I got stung by a bee today.

den

09-27-2003, 09:20 AM

Want me to smack it where it hurts? :P

I got stung by a bee today.

AbdoRinbo

09-27-2003, 01:39 PM

Eat **** and die.

Rotty1021

09-27-2003, 03:28 PM

I just finished two books. I read The Slippery Slope by Snicket, which is by no means classic literature (not yet, but maybe soon!), but was a fulfilling read in the series, A Series of Unfortunate Events.

I also read my first George Orwell, Animal Farm. As somebody who went into the book with very little knowledge on the Russian Revolution, I learned a lot about the subject from the book, and also learned how all of the societal classes think and act when a dictator tries to come into power. It was quite powerful.

AbdoRinbo

09-27-2003, 04:42 PM

Hey, Rotty, wanna be friends with me?

Rotty1021

09-27-2003, 11:27 PM

Umm... sure. Is this some joke, though, because by bouncing around on the boards, it seems that you have an innate sense of humor.

ihrocks

09-28-2003, 11:24 AM

Don't worry, Rotty...Abdo has had all his shots and he's quite tame most of the time. Just don't step on his blue suede shoes!

ihrocks

Munro

09-29-2003, 04:51 AM

I also read my first George Orwell, Animal Farm. As somebody who went into the book with very little knowledge on the Russian Revolution, I learned a lot about the subject from the book, and also learned how all of the societal classes think and act when a dictator tries to come into power. It was quite powerful.

Like you, I knew nothing about the Russian Revolution when I read Animal Farm, but it certainly helped me understand when I studied it earlier this year, and it made me fascinated by the event and it's characters, particularly Trotsky and Lenin.
It is a very powerful book, isn't it? I was quite taken by the very last paragraph in the entire novel, it was so powerful:

"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Rotty1021

09-29-2003, 04:55 PM

It was quite powerful. In fact, I keep a reading log on my computer log, and for this book I just popped in a question that came to me immediately upon closing the book. It was: "Can you trust anyone in a high powered office?"

Quite a good book.

AbdoRinbo

09-30-2003, 03:46 PM

You'll find that the actual history of the Bolshevik Revolution is much more interesting.

Koa

10-01-2003, 06:11 AM

Aww I should read Animal farm again, shouldn't I? I read it such a long time ago, now I surely now much more about that all...

:o Shocking is that my brother, aged 14 and with a terribly shallow knowledge of the world, liked it too... I was impressed, he's usually into comics much more than anything else... (not that i despise comics- though I dislike my brother's tastes- but it's quite a different level...)

*waits for someone (Abdo?) to make a joke out of this statement of mine* ;)

AbdoRinbo

10-01-2003, 12:19 PM

Man, I practically grew up reading comic books. I'm even writing one.

I loved the Batman comics from the early 90s, they were so sullen . . .

Munro

10-02-2003, 05:45 AM

Cool, my friend at work is writing his own comic book, he's finishing the first volume now. Have you seen 'American Splendour', Abdo? I'm seeing it this weekend maybe, but it's a film about the life of a failed comic book writer. Supposed to be realllly good.

I agree, the actual Bolshevik Revolution was fascinating for me to study in Modern History this year. It's probably my favourite history topic I've ever done. Animal Farm only sort of vaguely introduced it to me.

KLO

10-02-2003, 11:34 PM

I'm working on Argall by William T. Vollmann. I am intrigued by his series of books exploring confrontations between Europeans and American Indians. I am reserving judgment on them, however, until I finish all that have been published so far.

Rotty1021

10-06-2003, 05:57 PM

I had started On the Road, but that's on the side for now...

I got three books from the library, one which I started and stopped, Life of Pi by Yann Martel. While I read just 50 pages of the book, I found the 50 that I read to be useless, in no way contributing to a plot, just a whole philosophical lecture on zoology. Quite boring!

Anyway, I am now two stories into "Dubliners" by James Joyce. While I am charmed by the simplicity and eloquence of his writing, could someone explain to me the meaning of the second story, "An Encounter." I don't know if I just can't decipher this one, or if you need to become skilled in Joyce to get the meaning of his stories. Thanks.

Munro

10-07-2003, 07:43 AM

Munro, One Hundred Years Of Solitude is totally amazing, I enjoyed it a lot, so go for it! :)

I finished One Hundred Years of Solitude this evening, and I loved it! It was an amazing masterpiece, and I love Marquez's style of story-telling. I hope to read it again in Spanish one day...
Love in the Time of Cholera will be my next one by Marquez, but I've got three others waiting on my bedside table as I type - Utopia by Thomas More (a friend strongly recommended it to me), Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (I'm up for some action) and, guess-what-Abdo! A copy of Cosmicomics mysteriously became available to me! So I'll be onto that soon, too :D .

Jay

10-07-2003, 12:21 PM

Well, I'm reading Robert Frost's collected poems... and a lot of study material lol.

Rotty1021

10-07-2003, 05:51 PM

I just picked up my literature text, and read an excerpt (short story-esque) from the Amy Tan novel, The Joy Luck Club, which was a nice, relaxing read. In the lit book I also read The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, which I enjoyed, and a few poems and short fables. Literature sure is fun!

AbdoRinbo

10-07-2003, 07:31 PM

Three pages of each every night?

Rotty1021

10-07-2003, 08:46 PM

LOL! The only way I can read multiple books are to read short story collections mingled with some non-fiction. But all those classics!!!

Anyway, keep it up, Helena. :D

Stanislaw

10-07-2003, 09:18 PM

I am currently reading a compilation of short stories by Stanislaw Lem, the title of the book is Cyberiad. I recomend it to all. It is a Polish-translated-into-english book with a european calouse sence of humor, based in a wourld with men and robots.

jesse sutton

10-08-2003, 03:23 PM

Kurt Vonnegut - slaughterhouse-five
Oscar Wilde - the picture of dorian grey
homer - the odyssey
Stephen hawking - the nature of space and time
john milton - paradise lost

and i soon will be starting

ray bradbury - dandelion wine
sun tzu - the art of war
voltaire - candide
tolkien - the silmarillion

some people say i have strange tastes in reading, and i usually get called a "know-it-all" but i most often will reply "not yet." So it goes.

Rotty1021

10-08-2003, 03:51 PM

Another multi-book reader! Good for you. :D

jesse sutton

10-08-2003, 03:56 PM

haha, ya i find it dull to read only one book at a time. for instance

lets say i am reading slaughterhouse-five for approx 2 hours, and at that time, my eyes start to wander, and i might lose focus, not because i am tired of reading, but just because i am tired of reading THAT. so then i pick up Paradise Lost. and then my attention is back on track, and i could read that for two hours.

Now as it says in my profile i dont have any life in the daytime, so when i get up around noon, i have nothing to do until later that evening, if i decide to go out on the town. So i can spend 4, 5, 6, 7 hours reading, without interrupting any "responsibilities" because i really dont have any.

Rotty1021

10-08-2003, 04:14 PM

Sounds cool, Jesse. Welcome to the forums. ;)

Shea

10-09-2003, 08:09 AM

haha, ya i find it dull to read only one book at a time. for instance:

lets say i am reading slaughterhouse-five for approx 2 hours, and at that time, my eyes start to wander, and i might lose focus, not because i am tired of reading, but just because i am tired of reading THAT. so then i pick up Paradise Lost. and then my attention is back on track, and i could read that for two hours.

Now as it says in my profile i dont have any life in the daytime, so when i get up around noon, i have nothing to do until later that evening, if i decide to go out on the town. So i can spend 4, 5, 6, 7 hours reading, without interrupting any "responsibilities" because i really dont have any.

Thats how it goes with me too. Usually one can find me on the couch with a stack of about five or six books reading them a chapter at a time. But lately I do this out of responsibility; I have 4 lit classes.

den

10-09-2003, 10:43 AM

Right now I am reading a history of Renfrew County 1800 (Ontario Canada) as I had a number of illustrious relatives as Mayor and councillors and business owners there... boring to you maybe, but I love to read of my own ancestors who were semi-famous.

I'm also reading The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. Man he's got an ironic sense of humour.

Also, I'm working on Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy which I've been working on for months, he's my favourite author.

Oh and my Concise Guide to Homeopathy is great put-me-to-sleep material. ;)

Jay

10-10-2003, 04:33 AM

Den, you wouldn't know of any other put-me-to-sleep material, won't you? Well, I kinda got bored falling asleep reading Rudiments of English Linquistics... Or any other guys out there... help me find some nice fairytale book to fall asleep above... pretty please...

Koa

10-11-2003, 04:15 PM

Ouch, I can't read multiple books, if they're novel...sometimes I have to for studies needs (mostly essays anyway, or a novel and a study book at the same time...), but I tend to try and avoid it as much as possible... one of my rare pragmatic features I guess... :rolleyes:

Jay, my favourite put-to-sleep stuff is Dante...no idea if a translation works, but it's widely considered a good lullaby by Italian students... (I remember one of the best sleeps of my life after 6 hours of studying Dante...yes I started studying a bit late for my test 8) ). Another good one is 'I promessi sposi' by Manzoni, no idea if a translation exists, I guess not... shame, it would substitute sleeping-pills all over the world:D

And i must say at the moment War and Peace is proving my patience... :(

den

10-11-2003, 07:24 PM

How about `The Sweet Hereafter' by Russel Banks Jay? :D It was horrible... I think I wrote somewhere, that put me to sleep so much I ended up dropping it into my box for `give away' books and never looked back.

Or how about reading Jean Jacques Rousseaus `Social Contract' in French? :P

Den, you wouldn't know of any other put-me-to-sleep material, won't you? Well, I kinda got bored falling asleep reading Rudiments of English Linquistics... Or any other guys out there... help me find some nice fairytale book to fall asleep above... pretty please...

Rotty1021

10-11-2003, 08:45 PM

Life of Pi nearly put me to sleep.

Jay

10-12-2003, 05:29 AM

Hey guys, thanks a lot ;) , now I can change my lullaby book :D .

Koa, I hope to find some translations if you say it's working ;) .

Den, might as well try The Sweet Hereafter... :D .

Congrats Rotty to your 100th post 8) ;) . Life of Pi? Never heard of that one :oops: , who wrote it? It's that bad :D ?

Rotty1021

10-12-2003, 10:53 AM

Life of Pi is a fairly new book that's written by Yann Martel. Thanks for the congrats. ;)

Jay

10-13-2003, 04:10 AM

Rotty, you're welcome and thanks :D

den

10-13-2003, 08:35 AM

Jay I swear I would have mailed you THe Sweet Hearafter, but it was one of those books I left on a park bench somewhere hoping someone would find and enjoy it more than me. :D

AbdoRinbo

10-13-2003, 11:18 AM

Den knows a thing or two about the park bench. :D

den

10-13-2003, 02:50 PM

Park bench? Well, I suppose... I just like to do kind things for people unexpectedly, can't help it, I like to know I do something that will cause surprise for someone and they'll appreciate it and wonder who it was. ;)

AbdoRinbo

10-13-2003, 04:52 PM

Remember 'Seinfeld': the Good Samaritan Law. :D

I still don't think you're doing anyone much good by giving all your books away. Most bums would probably pawn them for a 40oz of Miller High Life. And that means they'd go right back to the market, your loss.

den

10-13-2003, 10:06 PM

Sweet silly, they're not worth anything to pawn, believe me, I don't give away the good ones. :P

AbdoRinbo

10-14-2003, 02:32 AM

Becuz you don't have any good ones. :rolleyes:

Jay

10-14-2003, 03:54 AM

Thanks for the idea Den. Who knows, maybe the one who found the book really enjoyed reading it... well, and maybe not ;) .
Hey, what's bad about park benches? I kinda like them, nice place for reading.
:D Abdo, Den surelly has good books :D . You know, that ones you'd never found left on a park bench... ;)

Isagel

10-22-2003, 06:19 AM

I´m reading "Pixel juice" by Jeef Noon. Somebody said " Think of Borges crossed with Philip Larkin on acid"

Read it and find out what happens when Johnny takes Metaphorazine, Lucy takes Simileum and Desmond takes Onomatopiates

Carmella

10-22-2003, 03:06 PM

I am reading a book which was recommended to me recently.
The book is called "Author Unknown" by Don Foster. So far, so good, this is an extremely interesting book, should any of you wish to read it, perhaps even an eye opener! At the moment, I have been somewhat astounded by the contents therein.

Let me apologize firstly, you may already have discussed this book in the pst, though I could not see any mention of it on searching.

For the uninitiated, Don Foster is a professor of English Literature at Vassar College. He has, in the pst, assisted with criminal investigations and civil suits involving anonymous or pseudonymous writings. He hs the ability to debunk many of the authors and indeed, their identities in an extremely enlightening manner.

He was also able to discover that a previously unattributed poem was, in fact, written by William Shakespeare. I could go on ad infinitum, best you read for yourselves. Extremely good read.

Koa

10-22-2003, 03:37 PM

Jay I swear I would have mailed you THe Sweet Hearafter, but it was one of those books I left on a park bench somewhere hoping someone would find and enjoy it more than me. :D

About park benches... aren't you jealous of the books you leave aorund? I'd feel like losing something 'mine' in doing that, I like to keep books, I only try to give away the ones I really really hated...
That's what I think when I hear of bookcrossing... maybe I'm just selfish ;)

Sindhu

10-23-2003, 01:16 AM

[
About park benches... aren't you jealous of the books you leave aorund? I'd feel like losing something 'mine' in doing that, I like to keep books, I only try to give away the ones I really really hated...
That's what I think when I hear of bookcrossing... maybe I'm just selfish ;)
I CAN"T give boks away. I can't even sell them. I give away all orts of other things and I've gone to the extent of photocopying multiple copies of books to give away to people I thought would enjoy them, and often bought multiple copies to give away too- but I NEED to keep ONE copy- it's like needing oxygen!

Munro

10-23-2003, 03:31 AM

I only lend books to fellow book-lovers, and warily so at that. Same with my albums. I'll lend anything happily except my books and music.

I'm still reading Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, and I'm not really enjoying it at all. I can only read 20 pages at a time, and then I have to go away from it, and it has easy language and is quite short. I regret picking it up, really. It's frustrating because I've got such a long list of other books I could read, too. Anywho, I just needed to complain somewhere about it.

Sindhu

10-23-2003, 03:56 AM

I'm still reading Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, and I'm not really enjoying it at all.
I sympathize- Heartily. I had to TEACH Kidnapped and it's not an experience I would wish to repeat!

IWilKikU

10-23-2003, 03:13 PM

I just realized that I've been perusing these forums for over an hour that I could have spent actually reading instead of reading about what other people are reading.

Koa

10-23-2003, 04:10 PM

Sindhu

10-24-2003, 12:03 AM

I just realized that I've been perusing these forums for over an hour that I could have spent actually reading instead of reading about what other people are reading.

That's the feeling I have all the time when I'm the internet...which means all the time literally. :oops: :o :rolleyes:
Well, personally I knd of like the chance to talk about wht I'm reading AND what other people are reading - and I don't get much of that in the "real" world, so the net is my best bet! ;)

irapass

10-26-2003, 10:03 AM

Zooey

10-26-2003, 06:32 PM

Since school started, I've read:

For school:
Madame Bovary (Flaubert)
Notes from the Underground (Dostoevsky)
The Death of Ivan Illyich (Tolstoy)
Hedda Gabler (Ibsen)
The Lady with the Dog (Chekhov)
Six Characters in Search of an Author (Pirandello)

Reactions: Had never read Madame Bovary before, and wasn't to impressed with it for some reason. Simply love the existential suffering of Notes from the Underground, and I think I was the only person in the class who really loved this piece (considering all the b*tching I heard). Ivan Illyich was decent but forgettable, and Hedda was a good read though not exactly my cup of tea. Much to my surprise, I totally fell in love with Lady with the Dog, a gem of a short story. I usually enjoy reading plays, but Six Characters was not a particularly happy experience. Too much is going on with too many characters with too much dialogue to really be enjoyable reading. We watched some clips from a filmed play in class, and it was much easier to follow.

and selected sections of:
The Illiad (Homer)
The Odyssey (Homer)
The Aeneid (Virgil)

Reactions: I really don't enjoy these that much. I find the actual lectures and analysis interesting, but I have a hard time reading the texts.

For pleasure:
Franny and Zooey (Salinger)
The Bell Jar (Plath)

I valiently attempted To the Lighthouse, but with all the reading I'm doing for school I just wasn't up to putting in the effort to concentrate on the level necessary to read Woolf's books. So I reached for my "literary comfort blanket" in Franny and Zooey and fell in love with it all over again. A fast, easy read, and I exactly what I needed. I've now moved on to The Bell Jar, which is pretty engrossing stuff, though at this point I can't exactly call it "high art." Will report back in detail when I'm done.

Tabac

10-27-2003, 09:32 PM

I just realized that I've been perusing these forums for over an hour that I could have spent actually reading instead of reading about what other people are reading.

That's the feeling I have all the time when I'm the internet...which means all the time literally. :oops: :o :rolleyes:

I far prefer to list a book that I'm reading (see recently Crimson Petal and the White and Our Lady of the Forest) and have people respond to them. Like you, I don't have time to scroll through 7 pages of responses about books or the discussion of them if I'm not familiar enough with the book to participate..

Shea

10-29-2003, 09:49 AM

I just want to take this time to say, I'll be very busy and not around for a while because 3 of my teachers dicided to assign monster works and the other still wants a paper on Huckleberry Finn.

So, for a while, I'll be reading Paradise Lost followed by Gullivers Travels for one teacher;

Mobey Dick for another;

and several Hawthornean short stories for the Mobey Dick teacher, but an seperate class.

Though I'm rather happy to be studing Hawthorne and Melville together, being how they were such close friends.

(Luckily the Huck Finn paper teacher has assigned The Awakening which I just finished for the Mobey Dick teacher. ;) :rolleyes: )

Jay

10-30-2003, 12:28 PM

Now with all the "the meaning of life is 42", I borrowed one volume of the Hitchhiker's guide, the third one, can't remember the English name...

And Shea, we're supposed to read The Scarlet Letter for the next term, hope we won't have to do a paper on it though ;)

imthefoolonthehill

10-31-2003, 01:36 AM

my latest reading includes: For Whom the Bell Toles (B+), One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest (A) Farenheit 451 (A-) Catcher in the Rye (A+++++++), and I re-read catch-22 (A+++++++) and Black Hawk Down (A+).

I ordered from the library today Clockwork Orange (it has to borrow a copy from a larger library from a neighboring city). After Clockwork Orange, I am hoping to read To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men.

jameson

11-15-2003, 06:37 PM

Don Foster was wrong about the Shakespeare - he admitted it later, do a search for the news - - and he was discredited in the Ramsey case.

His book isn't worth reading.

I am reading the John Douglas book "The Cases that Haunt Us" - - very good.

Just finished Edna Buchanan's 2 books on Miami crimes - - got them on tape - more time well spent.

Hdamaall

11-19-2003, 03:06 AM

- 1984, just finished
- The Message, the bible in contemporary langueage and w/o verses
- Redeeming Love by francine rivers, great book
- The complete works of edgar allen poe **got it for 3.99 at
waldens books**

linespalsy

11-19-2003, 04:19 AM

I've been kind of lazy lately. After reading a volume 4 "In Front of Your Nose" of a collection of Essays, Articles and letters by George Orwell I started reading The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brien, a couple weeks ago. I made it 100 pages in and stopped, and only tonight have picked it up again and started reading.

The Orwell volume was really the best thing i've read in a while, my appetite for fiction is starting to slow down and I really think the various stories told in that volume, through his letters and his professional essays, is more insightful and interesting than his two most famous books.

The Third Policeman is extremely weird so far, slightly inconsistent, but interesting and very humorous extraneous language... all in all an intriguing book and i'll have to see about other things O'Brien has done after i finish it.

Koa

11-23-2003, 07:09 AM

Ahh I have 'only' 442 pages left to read of War&Peace! It is really flowing now, I hate it to have wasted one whole month on the first 100 pages but they were so boring... I so much wish to finish it before the end of the year, but I don't think Ill manage to... I should damn start studying for the next exams, instead of reading and foruming all of my free time!
(oops sorry, personal rant)

Stanislaw

11-29-2003, 02:37 PM

The wars By Timothy Findley, he has a wierd style of writing.

a lonely weed

12-01-2003, 08:55 PM

I am having to read The Scarlet Letter for my English class, The Jungle for my history class, and I am trying desperately to read Les Miserables, which everyone says is absolutely amazing.

Sometimes I wish the whole world would stop so I could read something word by word and find the deepest meaning to it and not have to worry about keeping up with everything else that's going on. I'm sure it's only crazy to think such things.:rolleyes:

nicholasburrus

12-02-2003, 11:00 PM

The Origin of Specis

nicholasburrus

12-06-2003, 01:03 AM

Now I am reading Harry Potter the series for the 14th time I like reading

me stay late up in the nigt reading and read all day

Dick Diver

12-06-2003, 09:24 AM

Well I'm feeling a tad insecure because I am only reading one book but then I've never been much good at multi-tasking.

I'm reading The Odyssey which is suitably trippy but very touching too.

Oh, the pathos.....

piquant

12-06-2003, 04:53 PM

I have to read portions of Dr. Faustus, The Faerie Queen, Paradise Lost, Henry the IIX, random sonnets by shakespeare, surrey, wyatt, and others, all by monday. Not to mention, I had to read in the past two weeks melville, hawthorne, Jewett, "The yellow wall-paper", and a slew of others I don't remember--they'll all be included in the 2 and a half hour comprehensive essay final, which covers American literature since columbus, and is also early next week. It is possible I might go insane.

In my free time I'm reading Mrs. Dalloway, Portrait of an Artist as a young man, and something by Balzac whose title I don't remember. Needless to say, I'm under halfway through each of them, except Portrait.

Stanislaw

12-07-2003, 02:28 AM

The Yellow Wall Paper is a wierd story, I had to use it for A diploma prep thing.

Currently I am reading the spy that came in from the cold.

piquant

12-08-2003, 08:03 PM

Good news, I aced my Renaissance literature final (round of applause)! (sorry, I have no one else to brag to)

Stanislaw, I read the tellow walpaper out of class, and I didn't quite get what was happening, but then I had to read it again for class, and we discussed the history of it. It made a lot more sense.

It used to be that whenever women were depressed, or had any other psychological disorder, they would put them on the "rest cure". In the rest cure, they had to stay in bed, couldn't be visited by anyone except their doctor, were not allowed to read or write (gasp!), couldn't do any work, and were spoon fed milk. I can't believe they called this a cure! It's no wonder the woman in the story wound up seeing a woman trapped in her wallpaper.