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Books I have actually bought include "The Counte of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, "Firestorm" by Rachel Caine, "Thin Air" by Rachel Caine.
I have also recently "inherited" a pile of books from a friend of mine who is an English Professor. Among those are The Oddessy and Collections of Robert Frost. There are many, many more. However, since the thread indicated only those that were "bought", I covered that in its entirety.
What made you decide to buy a separate book of Psalms? How is it different than translations found within Bibles that made you want to buy it?Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
Stopped at the bookstore at lunchtime to kill a half hour or so and wound up finding and buying The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch. It was highly recommended by Antiquarian, so yes Anti I bought it. ;) I wonder if we will have a German book to pick this year in the Book Club Forum. If we do I'll be nominating this one. :D Here's something on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Virgil.
What made you decide to buy a separate book of Psalms? How is it different than translations found within Bibles that made you want to buy it?
The King James Bible is unquestionably the best English translation of the entire Bible. The entire work was translated into exquisite English prose... however, the Psalms, along with other portions of the Bible, were not written as prose, but as Hebrew poetry. The King James translation of the Psalms are quite effective as prose... but only in a few instances, such as the beloved 23rd Psalm ("The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want...") does the translation verge upon the musicality of poetry. This was recognized almost immediately after the King James Bible was published. Any number of important British poets tried their hands at translating the Psalms into English poetry including Robert Burns, John Milton, Philip Sidney, Henry Howard of Surrey, Thomas Wyatt, Christopher Smart, Thomas Campion, George Herbert, Mary Sidney Herbert, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Carew, etc... These translations vary to a greater or lesser extent from each other and the KJV and they vary by degree of freedom in interpreting the Hebrew original. I have several translations of the Psalms including that of Philip Sidney and his sister, Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke née Mary Sidney, Christopher Smart's, and an anthology entitled A Poet's Book of Poetry, in which the editor selected from among the available translations what he felt was the best poetic translation of each individual work.
My most recent version, the Robert Alter translation, was selected because I was more than impressed with Alter's translations of the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. Alter is a writer/scholar of Hebrew and Biblical Studies. In his translations of the first 5 books of the Old Testament, he sought to create a translation that captured the rhythm and structure of the Hebrew original, while adhering as closely to meaning or intentions of the original Hebrew. Alter speaks of his translations of the Psalms as being just one more possibility. He draws an allusion to the Jewish tradition of Midrash of Biblical commentary, noting that the Jewish reader in the synagogue sees and engages with the text in a manner quite different from the Christian tradition of the single "true" translation, be it the Latin Vulgate, the KJV, etc...The standard rabbinical Bible has a small central area of the biblical text in the original Hebrew. Flanking this are two different Aramaic translations, and commentaries by Abraham Ibn Ezra, among others. These engage in a sort of running debate or dialog. This, in a manner, is not unlike the dialog one experiences with various different translations of any central work of literature: Dante, Homer, Virgil... and this may be the best option after mastering the work in the original language.
There are certainly great differences between the various translations of the Psalms. If we take a single Psalm at random... here I'll use the famous 23rd... you can see the difference in interpretation:
King James-
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Sir Philip Sidney-
1. The lord the lord my shepheard is,
And so can never I
Tast misery.
2. He rests me in green pasture his.
By waters still and sweet 5
He guides my feet.
3. He me revives, leads me the way
Which righteousness doth take,
For his name’s sake.
4. Yea tho I should thro vallys stray 10
Of death’s dark shade I will
No whit feare ill.
For thou Deare lord Thou me besetst,
Thy rodd and Thy staffe be
To comfort me. 15
5. Before me Thou a table setst,
Ev’en when foe’s envious ey
Doth it espy.
With oyle Thou dost anoynt my head,
And so my cup dost fill 20
That it doth spill.
6. Thus thus shall all my days be fede,
This mercy is so sure
It shall endure,
And long yea long abide I shall, 25
There where the Lord of all
Doth hold his hall.
George Sandys, A Paraphrase Upon the Psalmes of David (1636)
The Lord my Shepheard. me his Sheep
Will from consuming Famine keep.
He fosters me in fragrant Meads,
By softly-sliding waters leads;
My Soule refresht with pleasant juice: 5
And lest they should his Name traduce,
Then when I wander in the Maze
Of tempting Sinne, informes my waies.
No terrour can my courage quaile
Though shaded in Deaths gloomy vale: 10
By thy Protection fortifi’d:
Thy Staffe my Stay, thy Rod my Guide.
My table thou hast furnished;
Powr’d pretious Odors on my head:
My Mazer flowes with pleasant Wine, 15
While all my Foes with Envie pine.
Thy Mercy and Beneficence
Shall ever joine in my Defence;
Who in thy House will sacrifice,
Till aged Time close up mine eyes. 20
Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple (1646) (A very free translation)
Happy me! o happy sheepe!
Whom my God vouchsafes to keepe
Even my God, even he it is,
That points me to these wayes of blisse;
On whose pastures cheerefull spring, 5
All the yeare doth sit and sing,
And rejoycing smiles to see
Their greene backs were his liverie:
Pleasure sings my soule to rest,
Plenty weares me at her brest, 10
Whose sweet temper teaches me
Nor wanton, nor in want to be.
At my feet the blubb’ring Mountaine
Weeping, melts into a Fountaine,
Whose soft silver-sweating streames 15
Make high Noone forget his beames:
When my waiward breath is flying,
Hee calls home my soule from dying,
Strokes and tames my rabid Griefe,
And does woe me into life: 20
When my simple weaknesse strayes,
(Tangled in forbidden wayes)
Hee (my Shepheard) is my Guide,
Hee’s before me, on my side,
And behind me, he beguiles 25
Craft in all her knotty wiles:
Hee expounds the giddy wonder
Of my weary steps, and under
Spreads a Path cleare as the Day,
Where no churlish rub saies nay 30
To my joy-conducted Feet,
Whil’st they Gladly goe to meet
Grace and peace, to meet new laies
Tun’d to my great Shepherds praise.
Come now all yee terrors, sally 35
Muster forth into the valley,
Where triumphant darknesse hovers
With a sable wing, that covers
Brooding Horror. Come thou Death,
Let the damps of thy dull Breath 40
Overshadow even the shade,
And make darknesse selfe afraid;
There my feet, even there shall find
Way for a resolved mind.
Still my Shepheard, still my God 45
Thou art with me, Still thy rod,
And thy staffe, whose influence
Gives direction, gives defence.
At the whisper of thy Word
Crown’d abundance spreads my Bord: 50
While I feast, my foes doe feed
Their rank malice not their need,
So that with the self-same bread
They are starv’d, and I am fed.
How my head in ointment swims! 55
How my cup orelooks her Brims!
So, even so still may I move
By the Line of thy deare Love;
Still may thy sweet mercy spread
A shady Arme above my head, 60
About my Paths, so shall I find
The faire Center of my mind
Thy Temple, and those lovely walls
Bright ever with a beame that falls
Fresh from the pure glance of thine eye, 65
Lighting to Eternity.
There I’le dwell for ever, there
Will I find a purer aire
To feed my Life with, there I’le sup
Balme and Nectar in my Cup, 70
And thence my ripe soule will I breath
Warme into the Armes of Death.
Christopher Smart-
The shepherd Christ from heav'n arriv'd,
My flesh and spirit feeds;
I shall not therefore be depriv'd
Of all my nature needs.
As slop'd against the glist'ning beam
The velvet verdure swells,
He keeps, and leads me by the stream
Where consolation dwells.
My soul He shall from sin restore,
And her free pow'rs awake,
In paths of heav'nly truth to soar,
For love and mercy's sake.
Yea, tho' I walk death's gloomy vale,
The dread I shall disdain;
For Thou art with me, lest I fail,
To check me and sustain.
Thou shalt my plenteous board appoint
Before the braving foe;
Thine oil and wine my head anoint,
And make my goblet flow.
But great still Thy love and grace
Shall all my life attend;
And in Thine hallow'd dwelling place
My knees shall ever bend.
from Robert Alter's translation-
The Lord is my shepherd
I shall not want.
In grass meadows He makes me lie down,
by quiet waters guides me.
My life He brings back.
He leads me on pathways of justice.
for his name's sake.
Though I walk in the vale of death's shadow,
I fear no harm,
for You are with me...
In this case the KJV almost has the advantage... in that the 23rd is certainly one of the most poetic translations of the entire King James Psalms. It also has the advantage of almost certain familiarity to anyone in the English-speaking world. The examples show how various poets attempted to infuse the musicality of poetry into their own translations and I certainly find these other interpretations a necessity along with the KJV prose versions.
Beyond the Psalms there are some brilliant translations of various other Biblical books. Stephen Mitchell offers an interesting interpretation of the Book of Job with more stress upon the poetic fury of the work... and his commentary comparing the work with Kafka is quite intriguing. Ariel and Chana Bloch also offer a lovely translation of the Song of Solomon.
All those translations are an improvement on the original. King David, or whoever wrote the Psalms wasn't the best poet. Seriously, the language isn't that poetic in the Hebrew original, and it gains, rather than loses, in translation.
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories - H.P. Lovecraft
I lent out my old Lovecraft book and never saw it again, so I was driven to this.
My recent purchases included
The Peppered Moth - Margaret Drabble
Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
How I love library book sales and thrift shops!
I went to the book store about a week ago and picked up
Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy
The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
I went a little trigger happy, haha.
How do you get on with Peter Ackroyd, STL? I can't take to him, myself. Heard him speak a few years ago, mostly about what was then his latest book, the one about London - the audience was made up mostly of historians or, like me, people who were interested in history but not academically versed in the subject. Ackroyd picked up on the general disapproval very quickly, raced through his talk and beat a hasty retreat before anyone could ask questions.Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
Thank you so much, btw, for those different versions of Psalm 23 - I enjoyed reading them and feel inspired to seek some more 'translations'.
Putas Asesinas by Roberto Bolaño
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
I read a quote attributed to Bolaño, "If you want to understand an author, translate him." I translated three of the stories in Putas Asesinas and I now understand that he is hard to translate.
Gilead is a delight.
I finished my A-level exams last Thursday, so on Friday I went to Waterstone's and bought a copy of The Magus by John Fowles in celebration. And I also bought Charlotte Bronte's The Professor. Now when I pick them up I feel happy. Haha. :D.
[QUOTE=Kafka's Crow;582588]Arthur Ransome's Old Peter's Russian Tales. Time to re-live my childhood!
Kafka and Kasie, if you're interested in Ransome, have you read Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick? I've got it at the moment from my Library, (but haven't started it yet). Sedgwick usually writes for Young Adults, so I think a lot of people missed this one, but it got good reviews, and the YA books I have read by him are very good. BRSW is a kind of biography/fairytale about Ransome's time in Russia at the time of the revolution, when he fell in love with Lenin's secretary, (I think it was his secretary). Anyway, he left his family behind and went there and got involved in spying etc. I really must read it so that I can take it back to school. :blush:
Wessexgirl: Thanks for that recommendation - I don't think I have come across it though I did know Ransome had lived in Russia at an 'interesting' time. I shall look out for it.
I have only recently become aware of Bolaño. I will put By Night in Chile on my list. Thank you for the tip.Quote:
Originally Posted by Antiquarian
Young Torless by Robert Musil
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
JR by Williams Gaddis
The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot.
The Works of James Joyce (Chamber Music, Pomes Penyeach and Ecce Puer)
"Doctor Jivago" by Boris Pasternak, though I haven't started reading ityet, as I am reading something else.
How do you get on with Peter Ackroyd, STL? I can't take to him, myself. Heard him speak a few years ago, mostly about what was then his latest book, the one about London - the audience was made up mostly of historians or, like me, people who were interested in history but not academically versed in the subject.
I looked at some critiques of his biographies and found they largely echo my own experience. Ackroyd doesn't offer anything new, incredibly insightful, or groundbreaking, but he does offer a solid introduction to his topics that are presented in a well-written narrative manner. I've read his books on Chaucer and J.M.W. Turner, and such was my feeling. If I wanted to get a truly in-depth biography or an analysis that offers a unique perspective, I'd surely need to look elsewhere. On the other hand... if I just want the general facts presented in a manner that is certainly more interesting than what an encyclopedia or more academic writing would offer, he is right on the mark. Of course... I must admit to having read several of Ackroyd's novels which I enjoyed, so I may be more ready to appreciate his non-fiction manner.
I've just bought quite a lot of Ackroyd's works both for the Library and myself, as I had read some of his fiction, and thought his biographies were supposed to be very good. His Shakespeare and Dickens works were very highly regarded, and I have the latter on my TBR pile at the moment, as I love Dickens, and thought he was the acclaimed expert on him. I've bought Hawksmoor and his biogs. on Chaucer, Turner, Blake and Shakespeare, along with some history books on Rome, Greece and the Ancient World for the Library.
I want to read Hawksmoor so much, as I've read so much about it, but I don't want to be disappointed. I read his Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem, (I think it was called that) a long time ago and really liked it, but I couldn't get into The Lambs of London. I will try again I think, as sometimes it's not the book, but ourselves, and I freely admit I have had a rough few years, where I couldn't concentrate on reading.
Les Miserables (Volume Two) by Victor Hugo
The last book I bought was T.S. Eliot 'selected poems'. I bought Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' a few days ago and I love it so far.
House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family: Paul Fischer
Basic Writings of Nietzsche: translated by Walter Kauffman
Cathedral Of The Sea by Ildefonso Falcones
oh my god it's a really good book, and hes famous because of it :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Nossa
anyway the last book that i bought was "JANE EYRE" for charlotte bronte
Last book bought:
Ancient Religions by Sarah Iles Johnston.
Not really a novel but I'm doing an anthropological study on ancient religions so it'll help.
Last novel bought:
Tale of Two Cities.
I just got back from Minneapolis and while I was there, I picked up a few books,
Devil's Midnight by Yuri Kapralov
The Patrician by John Galsworthy
Faust by Ivan Turgenev
Crabwalk by Gunter Grass
and The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy
I like Idril's list above and would love to read all of his(?) books! Postman delivered a nice hard-bound copy of Jules Supervielle: Selected Writings today. Thanks Pecksie for this recommendation. Amazon took six weeks to deliver this out of print and rare volume but it was worth it in the end!
I'm doing a personal study of the same, so I would be interested in your thoughts on the book.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nostalgie
My lovely and reliable post lady just delivered Vladimir Nabokov's Lectures on Russian Literature. Thanks Inderjit Sanghe for your recommendation.
I bought the long-coveted Amos Oz memoir "A Tale of Love and Darkness" for USD 0.5 on Amazon!!! And, after I had raided the clearance sale at a local bookstore, I made a friend go back and get me Margaret Drabble's "Jerusalem the Golden" and John Galsworthy's "The Man of Property".
I'm not a big fan of García Márquez. He's vastly overhyped, in my opinion (there are threads on this issue). If you want to read good Latin American authors, I'd recommend Mario Vargas Llosa (Peruvian), José Donoso (Chilean), Jorge L. Borges and Julio Cortázar (Argentines), and Juan C. Onetti and Horacio Quiroga (Uruguayan).Quote:
Originally Posted by Lioness_Heart
That's my best Latin American list!!! :p
The book: Instant Word Power by Norman Lewis
The reason: I would like to be a writer, and since my vocabulary skills leave much to be desired, I thought that I might try to improve them.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/im...30/n153782.jpg
A gift for a little book worm who has just had an operation.
My recent literary adventure is The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and the Charterhouse of Parma, which both add to my French literature reading list for the summer.
The reason for selecting these books was due to Borders having a sale. Notre-Dame was only two dollars in the Borders Classics format. Haha.
Always Magic In the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era - Ken Emerson
King Cohn: The Life and Times of Hollywood Mogul Harry Cohn - Bob Thomas
Not In Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America - Christine Wicker
A Great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving - Godfrey Hodgson
700 Sundays - Billy Crystal
Books that total up to about $113.00, and I only paid $1.00 each for them. 4 out of the 5 are Hardcover, too. So $5.00 for all of these. Not bad, huh? :) You gotta love the Dollar Store! :thumbs_up :p
I picked up Vladimir Nabokov's "Ada" today at a used book shop.
Gate of the Sun by Lebanese writer Elias Khoury (an Arabic Edition)
Actually I bought three - I can never control myself :)
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet
Mort - Terry Pratchett
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
I recently compiled a 'Top' list using all the Top 100 lists and similar must read lists that I could find on the Internet in one sitting. I did it mainly out of interest and to find new titles to add to my wishlists. Ironically I went to the bookstore and bought 2 books that featured on said bookstore's 101 Books to Read Before You Die list (although looking at the list it seems like more of a I've-just-read-this-book-and-loved-it list)...and therefore they are not books people would consider classics or "books to read before you die". The third book's author (Verne) didn't even feature on any of the lists :)