Now reading [books]

[GuyNwah]

Got a copy of Orson Scott Card's Monkey Sonatas from a used-book store and just finished it. While I do not care for his moralizing, he is a writer's writer and a wonderful storyteller. Poor fellow must have had some run-ins with guidance counselors, as some of his best work comes from situations where a character is forced out of his calling by a society that tells him he is not suited for it.

"The Bully and the Beast" and "The Princess and the Bear" are wonderful stories in traditional fairytale settings. But if you believe you understand "A Plague of Butterflies" or "The Monkeys Thought 'Twas Fun", get in touch with me, because I'm not sure anybody does.

 

[wichat]

I am hesitating between A confederacy of dunces or One Hundred Years of Solitude... Any recomendation?

 

[GuyNwah]

I am hesitating between A confederacy of dunces or One Hundred Years of Solitude... Any recomendation?

Both are superb. A Confederacy of Dunces is one of the best books ever written about New Orleans and what it's like to live there without any of the advantages of the upper classes. You must have patience with leading characters who are mind-blowingly stupid. "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this infallible sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." [Swift]

Likewise, One Hundred Years of Solitude is maybe the best book ever written about the history of Colombia (or, for that matter, Latin America). It's not light reading (for Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera is easier going), but if you enjoy "magic realism", this book is the wellspring. And if you enjoy this book, you will probably enjoy The General in His Labyrinth.

But you wanted a recommendation for one. I would recommend A Confederacy of Dunces, because it is unique. There is no other book quite like it, and there never will be. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide, leaving the book as a first draft. When it was published, it was virtually without editing, so it is raw words and needs to be read in that spirit.

 

[phamvan94]

I just found Catch 22 in my pile of books, I will start reading that in a few days as soon as A Dance with Dragons stops being in my head all the time.

I'm also looking for Life of Pi, but I might have to settle for the movie adaptation for now because the 3 bookstores I visited did not have it.

 

[Guest 3593423]

Beginning "Way of Kings" tonight, by Brandon Sanderson. I've heard good things about it, hope I'm not disappointing...

 

[yayodeanno.831]

Just finished Sapkowski's Times Of Contempt (in serbian) which I thoroughly enjoyed, it's incredible how it manages to combine folk fairy tale elements with a plot of war, intrigue, sex and violence. Imagine, by the end of the book Ciri

Spoiler

meets unicorns and a lil later she becomes a lesbian My guess Sapkowsi needed her character to discover sex and love while keeping her a virgin for his narrational machinations.

Can't wait for the next book to be translated.
Starting some norwegian crime/mystery fiction tonight: The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo.

 

[seekerpat]

I am hesitating between A confederacy of dunces or One Hundred Years of Solitude... Any recomendation?

Get 'em both Confederacy isn't that long and 100 Years could easily take you through the fall season. If you're interested in magic realism I heartily recommend Jorge Amado, one of my favorite Latin American writers actually. Probably best known for "Dona Flor & Her Two Husbands" but "The War of The Saints" is a great read. "Gabriela, Cloves & Cinnamon" isn't magical but its a lush and vivid story wonderfully told by a master.

 

[M4xw0lf.978]

I just found Catch 22 in my pile of books, I will start reading that in a few days as soon as A Dance with Dragons stops being in my head all the time.

Oh my god, i've read Catch-22 about three or four times... it's got everything, parts that nearly make me die from laughing and parts that make me want to cry. One of my all-time favorites.

I just started with "The Myth of Sisyphus" (Albert Camus)... we'll see how far I get ^^

 

[GuyNwah]

Oh my god, i've read Catch-22 about three or four times... it's got everything, parts that nearly make me die from laughing and parts that make me want to cry. One of my all-time favorites.

I just started with "The Myth of Sisyphus" (Albert Camus)... we'll see how far I get ^^

You should have a good time with it. If you like the philosophical stuff in Catch-22, you should be right at home in Camus. Though it's rightly said that Camus's response to an absurd, malevolently indifferent world is very different from Joseph Heller's. Sisyphus is more Cool Hand Luke or McMurphy than he is Yossarian.

It was on my high school reading list. One day a teacher walked by and asked me what I was reading, so I told him. He said "Don't you just love that Greek mythology?" I was polite in those days and waited until he left before bursting out laughing.

 

[wichat]

Both are superb. A Confederacy of Dunces is one of the best books ever written about New Orleans and what it's like to live there without any of the advantages of the upper classes. You must have patience with leading characters who are mind-blowingly stupid. "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this infallible sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." [Swift]

Likewise, One Hundred Years of Solitude is maybe the best book ever written about the history of Colombia (or, for that matter, Latin America). It's not light reading (for Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera is easier going), but if you enjoy "magic realism", this book is the wellspring. And if you enjoy this book, you will probably enjoy The General in His Labyrinth.

But you wanted a recommendation for one. I would recommend A Confederacy of Dunces, because it is unique. There is no other book quite like it, and there never will be. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide, leaving the book as a first draft. When it was published, it was virtually without editing, so it is raw words and needs to be read in that spirit.

Get 'em both Confederacy isn't that long and 100 Years could easily take you through the fall season. If you're interested in magic realism I heartily recommend Jorge Amado, one of my favorite Latin American writers actually. Probably best known for "Dona Flor & Her Two Husbands" but "The War of The Saints" is a great read. "Gabriela, Cloves & Cinnamon" isn't magical but its a lush and vivid story wonderfully told by a master.

Thank you for yours words. I think I'll start with Confederacy first and read GGM a little later, with an quieter Automn atmosphere, cups of hot chocolate and longer nitghs.

 

[GuyNwah]

Thank you for yours words. I think I'll start with Confederacy first and read GGM a little later, with an quieter Automn atmosphere, cups of hot chocolate and longer nitghs.

You'll be wanting A Lexicon of New Orleans Terminology and Speech (How ta Tawk Rite, or What's a Yat?) F'true, dawlin'.

 

[wichat]

You'll be wanting A Lexicon of New Orleans Terminology and Speech (How ta Tawk Rite, or What's a Yat?) F'true, dawlin'.

BAT'TROOM - A room in the house where one doesn't find bats, but where one bathes, attends to the elimination of bodily waste, or locks oneself in and cries until one gets one's way.

No comment.

TY!

 

[AutumnalWanderer]

H.P. Lovecraft - Arthur Jermyn

 

[SquallDLeonhart]

Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu - it seems to be one of the wisest books that I have ever read

 

[SquallDLeonhart]

"Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" by Lewis Carrol - This summer I loved to read Alice in Wonderland, so now it's time to read also the second book

 

[Aaden]

Ah, Alice has been on my to-read list for a while. Totally forgot about that. Always was kinda curious about it and Sapkowski's story about it finally made it a must-read.

 

[freesia.430]

Lux Perpetua, the last book of Sapkowski's Hussite trilogy.

 

[GuyNwah]

"Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" by Lewis Carrol - This summer I loved to read Alice in Wonderland, so now it's time to read also the second book />

Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice is my favorite edition. Many of the inside jokes in the Alice stories (which are chock-full of them) can be obscure for anyone who didn't grow up in the English school system. Gardner's explanations are often as entertaining as the text he is explaining.

Somewhere I have a complete works of Lewis Carroll. It includes such gems as "Hiawatha's Photographing" and "Novelty and Romancement". Thank you; you have motivated me to go looking for it.

 

[SquallDLeonhart]

Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice is my favorite edition. Many of the inside jokes in the Alice stories (which are chock-full of them) can be obscure for anyone who didn't grow up in the English school system. Gardner's explanations are often as entertaining as the text he is explaining.

Somewhere I have a complete works of Lewis Carroll. It includes such gems as "Hiawatha's Photographing" and "Novelty and Romancement". Thank you; you have motivated me to go looking for it.

I'm glad that I have motived you

Today, in late night I think to read "Historia de Mix, de Max y de Mex" (the italian title is "Storia di un gatto e del topo che diventò suo amico") by Luis Sepùlveda: a book about friendship in the difference. Some years ago another one of his books have inspired a beautiful cartoon-fairy tale

 

[phamvan94]

I just told my brother to get me the Horus Heresy series. Too bad they only have 10 books out of 23 available and I have to skip some of them. But oh well, heard good things about the series and I'm looking forward to finally having something to read again.