What did we read in December?

[thelastmelon]

And now it's that time again. What did you read in December?

[Hank Stamper]

the old patagonian express - paul theroux
oliver twist

too busy getting drunk and being festive and having to finish uni assignments etc etc

[Kafka's Crow]

After a dry perid of many weeks, I finally did some reading last month. Finished reading The Wind up Bird Chronicles, so very long, so very interesting. Although it becomes too long and branches off into episodes that could be done without, still it is a good book. I also read Karen Armstrong's Islam: A Short History: (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Islam-Short-History-Universal/dp/1842125834/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230824943&sr=8-8). An excellent book, very informative and very concise (only 200 odd pages). Well worth a read, highly recommended.

Started reading Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Will finish Wuthering Heights tonight. My reading is all over the place. Been very busy during recent months, first with children's exams and later with the extra workload over Christmas period.

[curlyqlink]

Balzac's Lost Illusions. It's actually a trio of novels, moving from the provinces, to Paris, and back to the provinces, set in the 1830s. Lucien is a poet with literary ambitions. His friend David is a printer. Thus the novel straddles the interlinked worlds of the arts and commerce. Neither world is particularly hospitable toward idealistic young men. Whether steady and hardworking (David, the "ox") or reaching for the stars (Lucien), they are ground down by the harsh unforgiving world.

Balzac was a prolific writer and created an amazing variety of closely observed, colorful characters. David's father, an illiterate (!) former master printer and miserly landowner, is one of the best examples I have ever read of the shrewd peasant type. He is an exceedingly unflattering example of How To Succeed in Business.

[Alexei]

Well, I've finally finished some books I'd started a few months ago:
"Thérèse Raquin" by Émile Zola.
"The Servant of the Bones" by Anne Rice (uh, finally)
"Madame Bovary" by Gustav Flauber
"The Grass Harp" by Truman Capote. I've no idea why it took me so long to read. When I read something by Capote I usually can't take my eyes away before I finish the book.
"The Glass Bead Game" by Hermann Hesse. I was slightly disappointed by this one. But it's only my fault :D I expected something more like "Steppenwolf"

And there are some I've even started in December:
"The Brooklyn Follies" by Paul Auster. I've enjoyed it immensely as every other of Auster's novels I've read
"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. It took me some time, but it was definitely worth it. For some time I haven't had read so influential book as this one.
"If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" by Italo Calvino. It was another great reading, although it becomes a bit boring at some point. Still, it was very nice thought-provoking read.
"The New Life" by Orhan Pamuk. This one was rather disappointing, but may be it was because I had such expectations. I usually like his works, but this one was too chaotic and slow (and I usually like it that way, so imagine what I am talking about).

[Dr. Hill]

Just the Brothers Karamazov. Fantastic book, though.

[Cailin]

Just Shantaram - took me SO long to read this one - and I'm afraid I wasn't as enthralled as the person who loaned it to me was.

[thelastmelon]

I read the following books:

Geisha, a life - Mineko Iwasaki
Kattens språk: förstå din katt - Helga Hofmann
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
The Aircastle that blew up - Stieg Larsson
The Christmas Mystery - Jostein Gaarder
The Blood Spilt - Åsa Larsson
The Black Path - Åsa Larsson
Innekatter: lyckliga och friska - Katrin Behrand
Känn pulsen slå - Berny Pålsson

[Thespian1975]

Not much this month due to christmas.

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.

Started Mr Norrell & Jonathon Strange - Susanna Clarke (450 of 1006 pages)

Also been reading Henry VI part 3.

[curlyqlink]

Just Shantaram - took me SO long to read this one - and I'm afraid I wasn't as enthralled as the person who loaned it to me was.
My sympathies-- Shantaram is just awful. I have never read such a self-centered, self-justifying author. It's clearly semi-autobiographical, by a writer who strains to make himself the hero of an action-thriller. It's embarrassing, the fantasy is so boyish. Even more painful is the pseudo-philosophy with which it is stuffed full.

Blissfully ignorant of irony, he goes on and on about Eastern thought, peace and non-violence, and then lovingly describes beating the snot out of people who cross him and shivving guys in prison.

[Dark Muse]

An Episode in the Life of the Marhsal De Bassompierre ~ Hugo von Hofmannsthal

The Picnic of Mores the Cat ~ Clements Bretano

A Little Legend of the Dance ~ Gottried Keller

Lukardris ~ Jakob Wassermann

The Hussar ~ Johanna Peter Hebel

A Dolls House ~ Isben

Some Worths with a Mummy ~ Poe

Currious Case of Benjamin Button ~ Fitzgerald

Thomas Steinbeck

Night Guide
The Wool Gatherer

[mortalterror]

1.Daphnis and Chloe- Longus
2.The Farce of Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery- Wilmot
3.The Book of Hours- Rilke
4.On the Sublime- Longinus
5.The Golden ***- Apuleius
6.Early History of Rome(1/4)-Livy

[John Goodman]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho


OFOCN was a great book, much better than I expected. I liked it from the Chief's point of view, which the movie strays away from (though the movie is great too).

The Alchemist is a different story. Melodramatic, never shook off the "I've seen this before a thousand times" feeling and the ending was incrediblt cheesy. I probablt won't read another Coelho book.

[Tallon]

I spent most of december reading The Portrait of a Lady, but i've given up and started A Farewell To Arms instead. I've also been reading The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher, a very interesting book on linguistics. I read Yes Man by Danny Wallace, which was quite funny and has an interesting principle, the film seems to be a complete re-write, and Richard II by Shakespeare which was excellent.

[promtbr]

Nice to see some good 19th century stuff getting read...

I too read some Balzac- Lost Sheep and am currently into Pere Goriot...

I read:
Lost Sheep -- Balzac (as mentioned- 4 star book, though the last two chapters possibly were not exactly necessary, not as good as Lost Illusions ....Vautrin is one of Literature's memorable characters...)
The Aeneid--- Virgil
Hamlet -- by THE MAN.... (Its own category really, not fair to compare it to work by mortals...)
The Red and the Black -- Stendhal (5 star novel and Julien Sorrel another deep study and complex character.. Stendahl tho not the stylist Balzac was, was a lot more dynamic and explored the psychology of eros, of desire vs freedom.)
Dreams of My Russian Summers -- Andrei Makine (took a break from the old farts... What a stunner this writer turned out to be... Best prose. Period. Possibly one of the five best novels I have ever read and just put every translated work of his available into the Amazon basket...)

December was a GOOD month for books for me!

[Dori]

Crime and Punishment and half of The Brothers Karamazov...

Not much else, really.

[Cailin]

My sympathies-- Shantaram is just awful. I have never read such a self-centered, self-justifying author. It's clearly semi-autobiographical, by a writer who strains to make himself the hero of an action-thriller. It's embarrassing, the fantasy is so boyish. Even more painful is the pseudo-philosophy with which it is stuffed full.

Blissfully ignorant of irony, he goes on and on about Eastern thought, peace and non-violence, and then lovingly describes beating the snot out of people who cross him and shivving guys in prison.

At last!! Thank you - was beginning to think that I was the only one who failed to "appreciate" the "merits" of this tome! We are in agreement about the self-satisfied yet not very self-aware narrator. As for the "philosophy" contained within its pages?...... Ridiculous.:yawnb:

[eBagger]

An important month for me.

Down and Out in Paris and London

and

Animal Farm

Sadly never forced to read Animal Farm in High School. I'm saddened its taken 22 years on this earth for me to read that masterpiece.

[Kafka's Crow]

An important month for me.

Down and Out in Paris and London

and

Animal Farm

Sadly never forced to read Animal Farm in High School. I'm saddened its taken 22 years on this earth for me to read that masterpiece.

Don't worry. I've been around for 39 years and I haven't read Animal Farm! Good to see Dostoevsky going strong in the festive season. Two lucky individuals read The Brothers Karamazov, wow! What else do you want? Your lives are complete now. Dori, I am sure you have read Karamazov and Crime and Punishment before. Am I right? Are you re-reading them? If yes, then you are very lucky. promtbr I have ordered The Dreams of My Russian Summer. will read it in French one sweet day. For now, Geoffrey Strachan's translation will have to do. Mortal Terror, I can see you are still going strong with your reading of classics. Longinus' On the Sublime is a very useful book. I had to go back to it repeatedly for many years, even while studying postmodernism!

[Terror Firmer]

Blind Voices by Tom Reamy.

[amanda_isabel]

the Twilight series
re-read Pride and Prejudice
Pemberley (Pride and Prejudice continued)
Island of the Blue Dolphins

[cat1177]

read "Two On A Tower" by Hardy, "Falling Man" by DeLillo, and "Daniel Deronda" by Eliot (i'm a little in love with Gwendolen Harleth, one of my favorite characters in literature)
and umm "Twilight"...purely out of curiosity *hangs head in shame*

[mortalterror]

Mortal Terror, I can see you are still going strong with your reading of classics. Longinus' On the Sublime is a very useful book. I had to go back to it repeatedly for many years, even while studying postmodernism!

I wouldn't say that I'm going strong so much as I'm sticking to a long term commitment I made to myself and slowly plodding along. Drkshadow03 is blazing through the classics in a way that makes me feel lazy and ashamed. BlueVictim actually reads them in the original Greek. I have a list of roughly seventy more titles which I hope to study before I pass onto other things. If I'm industrious, I could probably read the rest of them in a year or so, but chances are it will take longer. I'm not as young as I once was, and I no longer have the same kind of zeal which I'm so envious of when I see it in JBI.

You are right about Longinus. His work was as enjoyable as it was informative. If the rules of good writing are quantifiable and if it is also true that they never really change, then I don't know where we are likely to find a better instructor. Perhaps Quintilian could add a thing or two from his lengthy and systematic tome which Longinus may have neglected, but the latter's work has all of the charm and pointedness that brevity can give to a subject.

[kandaurov]

Pretty much every book there has ever been written on Women in Love and some books on Marxist modernist writers (Lukács, Adorno, Benjamin). I've been writing my essays and finished today. A nightmare December was. When will I have the chance to read some Dostoyevsky like some of you? Really looking forward to reading The Brothers Karamazov. How can it be better than Crime and Punishment, I wonder?

[Dr. Hill]

I don't think it is, but a lot of people say it's better.

[bounty]

among others, fred saberhagen's holmes-dracula file. i appreciated the creative innovation.

[[D]]

90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper.

[warrenite]

Because my three brother-in-laws are into Twilight due to their wives, I thought about going to the classics instead; I read Jane Eyre for the first time. I’m thinking about reading Wuthering Heights next to compare Emily to Charlotte.

[JBI]

I wouldn't say that I'm going strong so much as I'm sticking to a long term commitment I made to myself and slowly plodding along. Drkshadow03 is blazing through the classics in a way that makes me feel lazy and ashamed. BlueVictim actually reads them in the original Greek. I have a list of roughly seventy more titles which I hope to study before I pass onto other things. If I'm industrious, I could probably read the rest of them in a year or so, but chances are it will take longer. I'm not as young as I once was, and I no longer have the same kind of zeal which I'm so envious of when I see it in JBI.

You are right about Longinus. His work was as enjoyable as it was informative. If the rules of good writing are quantifiable and if it is also true that they never really change, then I don't know where we are likely to find a better instructor. Perhaps Quintilian could add a thing or two from his lengthy and systematic tome which Longinus may have neglected, but the latter's work has all of the charm and pointedness that brevity can give to a subject.

Nah, you are far more committed to downing classics than I am. Besides, I'm not so zealous as you make me out to be - I just read quickly, and read mostly poetry, whereas others trudge through thick novels.

[Lust Hogg]

David Copperfield by Dickens, well around 300 pages of it.

[Saladin]

Hunger (re-read)
The House of the Mosque
The Sorrows of Young Werther (re-read)
and a couple of Ibsen and Holbergs plays.

[bouquin]

Bel Canto (Ann Patchett)
The Map of Love (Ahdaf Soueif)
The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (Peter Handke)
Mansfield Park (Jane Austen)

[promtbr]

promtbr I have ordered The Dreams of My Russian Summer. will read it in French one sweet day. For now, Geoffrey Strachan's translation will have to do.

I would REALLY be interested in hearing from someone that read it in French.
That's one of the things that surprised me, I read MOSTLY literature in translation, and was awestruck how good the prose was in Strachan's TRANSLATION! He originally wrote his first works in Russian I believe, and this was I think written in French. I am a sucker for this type of lyrical prose anyway...I have been told on another forum that his other works the prose is TOTALLY different, and that he varies stylistically from work to work.

So good to see new readers of THE BIG 'D'. I will be reading the rest of his major works this year (just read C&P, The Double and Notes...)

Currently reading Onitsha by JMG Le Clezio (2008 Nobel Prize Winner)...really impressed 3/4 of the way through, accessible but a lot going on beneath the surface....

[semi-fly]

Wandering Star by J. M. G. Le Clezio (Original French)
The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll by Lewis Carroll
Lush Life by Richard Price
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Re-read)
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (Re-read)
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Whiskey Rebels by David Liss
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Re-read)
Anthem by Ayn Rand