What have you read in February?

[Erichtho]

I always find it interesting to see which books other people read and especially in which combination. Maybe we could have a monthly thread like this.
So please, list all the books you have read this past February and possibly leave some comment how you liked them and what you can recommend to others (or rate them from 1 to 10). :)

[johann cruyff]

I've read Thus Spoke Zarathustra,Lolita(2nd time) and Siddhartha(2nd time) in February.Needles to say,all three are brilliant reads.

Right now,I'm going through Notes from the Underground and then plan on reading Being and Nothingness.

[manolia]

The scarlet letter - N Hawthorne (begun end of January) 8/10
A tale of two cities - C Dickens 9/10
Lolita - V Nabokov 9/10
Good morning midnight - J Rhys 5/10
In cold blood - Truman Capote (i have a few pages more) 9/10

[thelastmelon]

The Fifth Child - Doris Lessing
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
The Year of the Hare - Arto Paasilinna
The General Retires and Other Stories - Huy Thiêp Nguyên
Changes: A Love Story - Ama Ata Aidoo

My favorite out of these five was probably the book by Ama Ata Aidoo. I will continue to read her books.

[superunknown]

I've done quite a bit of reading over the past month, more than in a while.

George Orwell - The Complete Novels (Animal Farm 9, Burmese Days 8, A Clergyman's Daughter 7, Coming Up for Air 6, Keep the Aspidistra Flying 8, 1984 10, although I'd finished Burmese Days at the end of January)
Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita: a resounding 10! Great discovery, one of my favorite books now.
Hermann Hesse - Steppenwolf 8
Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart 8

[Kafka's Crow]

Alain de Boton How Proust Can Change Your Life 7/10
Richard Dawkins The God Delusion 8/10
Still reading the second part of Proust's The Remembrance of Things Past (Within a Budding Grove) 10/10

[Dori]

A lot of poetry for school (I read Pound's 2-line poem on my own volition :D):

Langston Hughes
“I, Too”

Ezra Pound
“In the Station of the Metro”

Robert Frost
“Mending Wall”
“Birches”
"Out, Out---"

Emily Dickenson
“My life closed twice before its close---”
“The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
“There's a certain Slant of light,”
“Because I could not stop for Death---”
“I heard a Fly buzz---when I died---”

Walt Whitman
“When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer”
“Song of Myself”
“By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame”
“I Hear America Singing”
“A Noiseless Patient Spider”

Not much else worth mentioning with the exception of a few excerpts from Thoreau's Walden.

[Mark F.]

Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez
The Plague by Camus
The Seagull by Chekhov
Hunger by Knut Hamsun


The scarlet letter - N Hawthorne (begun end of January) 8/10
A tale of two cities - C Dickens 9/10
Lolita - V Nabokov 9/10
Good morning midnight - J Rhys 5/10
In cold blood - Truman Capote (i have a few pages more) 9/10

Lolita is great, one of the best opening chapters ever.

[thelastmelon]

Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart 8

I bought that book earlier this year and I'm going to read it this year, hopefully quite soon. Nice to see that you enjoyed it. :thumbs_up
Have you read more African literature than that?

[manolia]

The Plague by Camus

Now i plan to read that in french. Is the language difficult? My french are considered good but i have never read an entire novel in french ;)



Lolita is great, one of the best opening chapters ever.

:nod: Definately a good read..and having seen two adaptations :p didn't spoil it for me ;)

[Mark F.]

Camus' writing is rather simple, he was influenced a lot by writers like James M. Cain. The Stranger and The Fall are probably easier to read and shorter so you might want to give one of those two a shot first. The Stranger's a good place to start if you've never read any of his work.

Kubrick's Lolita is great but doesn't quite do justice to Nabokov's brilliant writing.

[Etienne]

Yasunari Kawabata - Snow Country
Döblin - Berlin Alexanderplatz
Mann - Doctor Faustus (finishing it)
Borges - Fictions
Joyce - The Deads

[Niamh]

Havent read that much surprisingly, and its mainly been kids/ young adults. Its generally a good idea being in the book industry to read a bit of everything so you can recommend to customers...
The Name of the rose (10)
Princess diaries to the nines (7)
Faerie Lord (10)
The Book of three (8)
Mankind(10) Love this play!
Started Sword and the stone (2)
and started proof reading a book for Poolbeg (so far its a 4)

[manolia]

Camus' writing is rather simple, he was influenced a lot by writers like James M. Cain. The Stranger and The Fall are probably easier to read and shorter so you might want to give one of those two a shot first. The Stranger's a good place to start if you've never read any of his work.

Kubrick's Lolita is great but doesn't quite do justice to Nabokov's brilliant writing.

Thanks. I'll go for the stranger ;)

You are right about the film (but i saw the film first, so that's why i could appreciate it even though it doesn't do justice to the book ;) )

[ampoule]

Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart 8

Excellent book.

[APEist]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest (amazing)
Candide (brilliant and hilarious satire)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Very good first 1/3rd and last 1/3rd, but the middle has some terrible parts)
1/2 way through Dubliners (Amazing shorts)

[Dori]

Candide (brilliant and hilarious satire)

Agreed. :thumbs_up

[Julian Koller]

last month i spent the majority of my time with this lovely collection:
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/covers_450/9781400040216.jpg

[Janine]

Last month I read
"Kangaroo" by D.H.Lawrence
The short story "The Shadow in the Rose Garden" by D.H.Lawernce
Listened (audio tapes) to "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco
Listened (audio CD) to several short stories of Anton Chekhov

It was a slow month but a good one.

[Julian Koller]

Last month I read
"Kangaroo" by D.H.Lawrence
The short story "The Shadow in the Rose Garden" by D.H.Lawernce
Listened (audio tapes) to "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco
Listened (audio CD) to several short stories of Anton Chekhov

It was a slow month but a good one.


which short collection do you have?
i have the collection narrated by Charlton Griffin, a man who's voice i find utter perfection; so warm and atmospheric *harr harr*. i also have his readings of french and russian short stories. great background noise while relaxing after a long day of work.

[Janine]

which short collection do you have?
i have the collection narrated by Charlton Griffin, a man who's voice i find utter perfection; so warm and atmospheric *harr harr*. i also have his readings of french and russian short stories. great background noise while relaxing after a long day of work.

Hi Julian, The set I own is:


Anton Chekhov In The Ravine and other Short Stories Read by Kenneth Branagh

I am a big Branagh fan and enjoy his narrations and acting, so considering I am currently participating in the Chekhov short story thread, I purchased this 3 CD set around Christmas this year. I am pleased with it so far. I only listened to most of disk 1 so far. Quite enjoyable and Branagh acts out the characters being an actor himself.

Your narrator sounds quite interesting; I will have to check him out, too.

Julian, you might want to come and join in with our Chekhov short story thread. Presently we are discussing 'Misery' and 'Oh! The Public' this month. There is just a few of us and we really need more Chekhov enthusiasts.

[bravenewlife]

Paradise Lost (too serious,hehe...) I wanna read more English classics, so I choose the serious ones, but frankly speaking, Paradise Lost gave me more confusion in understanding, the style,the words, the special way of expression, but I really love English Literature! I am determined to study step by step, this is the first time I come here, I hope to comminicate with more friends here, to share our experience of reading, reading is really fantastic! I also hope people who had read Paradise Lost can share with me his or her reading experience about this book. I have heared so many people reading the book "Siddhartha", I also want to look for this book, hehe…… Good luck,everyone:)

[Nossa]

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich-Maria Remarque 10/10
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka 10/10
The Oval Portrait - Edgar Allan Poe (Short Story) 8/10
I started reading Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz (Arabic Edition) but still not done with it, cuz I have so much to read for college already. So far 10/10

[Faust-I]

I've read The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie in February.

This month I've delved into Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse.

[Quark]

Last month I read a lot of poetry from the Romantic period: mostly Shelley and Byron. Other books I read--which have no coherent theme--would be a book of short stories by Chekhov, and another one of D.H. Lawrence stories, Villette by Charlotte Bronte, Hume's Inquiry, The Aeneid, Stuart O'Nan's A Prayer for the Dying, some other stuff, The Idiot, and most of Tom Jones.

I liked most of what I read. Tom Jones was actually a surprising good read. I read it because I thought I should, but it turned out to be kind of entertaining. I think I might go out and read Tristram Shandy--the other big eighteenth century novel. Other than that, I thought Villette was a little boring through the middle chapters; and, The Inquiry was sort of witty but not really that enlightening.

[Niamh]

Tom Jones is a very good Novel. :nod:

[Ryduce]

Only a collection of Lovecraft short stories.

Slowly working on McCarthy's The Road.

[Quark]

Tom Jones is a very good Novel. :nod:

My favorite part is when Jones discovers Square behind the curtain in Molly's room. When I started the book I wasn't expecting to laugh, but it was actually pretty funny.

[Niamh]

It is actually quite funny. Its satirical comedy really. Yeah thats a good scene. I like the bit where they think he's dead but isnt.:p

[Sir Bartholomew]

2nd reading of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Portnoy's Complaint
The Moviegoer
Crime & Punishment

[Quark]

It is actually quite funny. Its satirical comedy really.

I suppose I found that style of comedy funnier than the slapstick, man-getting-hit-in-the-crotch variety of Joseph Andrews. The characters were much better too. Oh, and the narration was improved. Wow, pretty much everything was better. I guess you can see why I was surprised by the enjoyability of Tom Jones.