michael1948
12-11-2008, 03:02 AM
My reading is pretty varied, and now that I am no longer having to go to work every day, I have more time and energy to devote to it. I often "discover" a particular author, whom I have perhaps never thought much about, and enjoy reading that author's work, and often turn to other work by that author. For example, a year or two back, a well known British politician (I am English, by the way), and member of the House of Lords, said on television that he read Evelyn Waugh's "Decline and Fall" every year. I had never read it, but now it is a favourite, which I have re-read several times. I then read as many Waugh books as I could find, often using eBay.
I recently read a modern history and came across the name of Mikhail Bulgakov and his novel "The Master and Margarita". I have read this twice this year and thoroughly recommend it. From the same source I discovered Isaac Bashevis Singer with his stories of the Jews in Poland before the holocaust.
During an interval talk in a radio broadcast of a concert from London, Rowan Williams, the Head of the Church of England, was giving a talk on Dostoevsky, and , in particular, "The Brothers Karamazov". The Archbishop is an authority on Russian literature, and has recently published a book on Dostoevsky. I have just finished reading the novel, which is probably the most thought provoking book I have ever read. Looking at some posts about this book I see that I am not the only one who needs time to digest the ideas in it.
Coming down to simpler reading, I have always enjoyed Charles Dickens's book. They are good stories. At present, in the U.K. the BBC is showing a dramatisation of Little Dorrit, quite an appropriate book for these times. As a little diversion I should add that there were almost five thousand complaints to the BBC when last week's half hour episode was not shown, because they decided it would get better viewing figures to show a shock-horror documentary about a nasty little case which had come to court, about a mother who kidnapped her own nine year old daughter to try and claim a reward. This shows that Dickens is still popular over here.
I look forward to reading messages in the forum. It's always interesting to see what other think of well known books.
I recently read a modern history and came across the name of Mikhail Bulgakov and his novel "The Master and Margarita". I have read this twice this year and thoroughly recommend it. From the same source I discovered Isaac Bashevis Singer with his stories of the Jews in Poland before the holocaust.
During an interval talk in a radio broadcast of a concert from London, Rowan Williams, the Head of the Church of England, was giving a talk on Dostoevsky, and , in particular, "The Brothers Karamazov". The Archbishop is an authority on Russian literature, and has recently published a book on Dostoevsky. I have just finished reading the novel, which is probably the most thought provoking book I have ever read. Looking at some posts about this book I see that I am not the only one who needs time to digest the ideas in it.
Coming down to simpler reading, I have always enjoyed Charles Dickens's book. They are good stories. At present, in the U.K. the BBC is showing a dramatisation of Little Dorrit, quite an appropriate book for these times. As a little diversion I should add that there were almost five thousand complaints to the BBC when last week's half hour episode was not shown, because they decided it would get better viewing figures to show a shock-horror documentary about a nasty little case which had come to court, about a mother who kidnapped her own nine year old daughter to try and claim a reward. This shows that Dickens is still popular over here.
I look forward to reading messages in the forum. It's always interesting to see what other think of well known books.