Ha ha! I finally got to the liberry yesterday, so I started Vernon God Little last night like moments before I fell asleep, then I have Salman Rushdie's Fury and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, which I really don't know why I haven't read already except that I was on a very protracted non-fiction thing, so for seriously about the past ten years I haven't read much fiction at all. Now I'm going to be sick of non-fiction for the next decade, probably.
I've been alternating between fiction and nonfiction lately as well as some poetry. The latter two are more recent additions to my collection. Growing up it was just about all fantasy and sci-fi stuff.
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Much of MADNESS, and more of SIN, and HORROR the soul of the plot.
Growing up it was just about all fantasy and sci-fi stuff.
Me too, mostly about the fantasy, but then sf creeped in and then sci-fact and then a more miscelaneous bunch of literature and nonfiction. Now I just look for good writing.
I highly recommend this book. Amazon's sampling of the first chapter includes an amazing description (pages 6-8) of one character's motorcycle riding experience that matched my own so perfectly it was eery.
Actually, I just finished Wild Dogs and will be starting on a new Lois McMaster Bujold novel, The Hallowed Hunt, book 3 in her Chalion series.
Other than that, I'm just skimming the 200+ research articles that I'm citing in the literature review section of my dissertation.
__________________ Of Courtesy, it is much less than Courage of Heart or Holiness. Yet in my walks it seems to me that the Grace of God is in Courtesy.
The Annotated Alice (Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) by Lewis Carrol. The actual stories are finished but there is still some extra material to read.
Witches and Neighbors, by Robin Briggs. It's an attempt to explain the cultural background of Medieval Europe relating to the witch trials. A bit dry and not very in depth as far as the accounts go.
Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. What the title says, unexpurgated.
Lord Byron, The Major Works. On the back burner for the moment so I don't burn out. It is rather thick.
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Much of MADNESS, and more of SIN, and HORROR the soul of the plot.
Recently finished The Speckled Monster, which is kind of a novelized account of the introduction of variolation in England and America. Currently reading Chaos, which I've had on my bookshelf for probably 2 years and never got around to picking up (but it's reallly good! Highly recommended) and a few other highly nerdy infectious disease books. I'm also about halfway through Cat's Eye but it hasn't really grabbed me like The Handmaid's Tale.
The Annotated Alice (Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) by Lewis Carrol. The actual stories are finished but there is still some extra material to read.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I am reading Nabokov's Strong Opinions, a collection of his interviews, essays, and letters to the editor. It is fantastic for any Nabokov fan, with the added appeal of some hefty chunks on Russian literature. He is generally hilarious, cantankerous, and wonderful.
I quoted the section above because of Nabokov's strong distaste for Lewis Carroll. He repeatedly calls him a pedophile. Of course, that is fairly light treatment compared to the solid beating he inflicts upon poor Edmund Wilson for daring to criticize his translation of Eugene Onegin. A singularly stupid act, to be sure, but Nabokov is devastatingly thorough in his deconstruction.
ETA: Having found the quotation I was looking for, I should soften that "strong distaste for Lewis Carroll."
...I have been always very fond of Carroll...He has a pathetic affinity with Humbert Humbert but some odd scruple prevented me from alluding in Lolita to his perversion and to those ambiguous photographs he took in dim rooms. He got away with it, as so many other Victorians got away with pederasty and nympholepsy. His were sad scrawny little nymphets, bedraggled and half-undressed, or rather semi-undraped, as if participating in some dusty and dreadful charade.
There is a section in the introduction that goes in to Carroll's relationships and photographing young girls. It defends his interest as Platonic. I can't really offer an opinion since the writer was clearly biased towards Carroll and I'm not that familiar with the issue.
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Much of MADNESS, and more of SIN, and HORROR the soul of the plot.
I keep expecting the Vatican to blow up [spoiler=I suppose you might not want to know this yet]or the new pope to rip open his cassock and reveal an ambigram branded on his chest.[/spoiler]
Quite the interesting mix, as one is dealing with conspiracies, etc., and the other is debunking the supernatural. I picked up the latter when the former got too annoying. The former is becoming more readable as I go along, though.
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Through with oligarchy? Ready to get the money out of politics? Want real progressives in office who will work for the people and not the donors? Want to help grow The Squad?
JoeP seems to have forgotten that the spoiler hack was removed due to security concerns.
It wasn't actually removed, you just can't use custom values anymore. He posted that prior to that change, which is why his post shows up as broken now.
Soul brother! Thanks for defending me against Shake's hurtful assumptions.
OT: apart from the book of the moment, I'm reading The Magic Mountain by Herman Hesse. I am "enjoying" it, but apart from some intellectual "clicks" I don't think I'm really "getting" it yet.
I haven't read that one yet, but I really enjoyed Siddhartha and Steppenwolf when I was a young man. Both of those are what I would call philosophical, whereas another book of his and one of the most beautiful I've ever read, is Gertrude.
Not from me. I've always maintained Born To Be Alive by Patrick Hernandez is one the greatest songs ever recorded.
I'm reading the third edition of Lawrence M. Friedman's A History of American Law, because I'm pathetic. What's even more pathetic is I'm usually reading it on the bus.
The Hermann Hesse fans may want to avoid Kurt Vonnegut's "Why They Read Hesse," which, IIRC is in Welcome To The Monkey House. I remember being kind of insulted by it.
It wasn't actually removed, you just can't use custom values anymore. He posted that prior to that change, which is why his post shows up as broken now.
Oh, Crikey! My bad! Sorry, I didn't realize this thread had been bumped from so long ago, until just now.
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Through with oligarchy? Ready to get the money out of politics? Want real progressives in office who will work for the people and not the donors? Want to help grow The Squad?
I keep expecting the Vatican to blow up [spoiler=I suppose you might not want to know this yet]or the new pope to rip open his cassock and reveal an ambigram branded on his chest.[/spoiler]
I am currently reading Harry Potter 6, as well as reading all of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series (it's summer, I can have my fluff). I also have a couple of non-fiction books written by FBI agents specializing in serial killers...prompted by my Scarpettathon.