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Home >> Poetry & Literature >> What book are you reading?
22.01.2008, 19:11 quote
My mum is currently reading Gertrude Bell - I had never heard of her - and has promised to lend me her book when she's finished. Sounds truly fascinating, I loved Wilfred Thesiger but....a woman?? WOW!!
22.01.2008, 21:02 quote
| paganpoetry wrote: |
| Moby Dick is the one book that defeated me and the ridiculous thing is that I still feel guilty that I never finished it. I'm not trying again though, trying to read it felt like chewing woodchip wallpaper.... |
My record for giving up on a book is still "The Ambassadors" by Henry James. I stopped about two-thirds of the way down the first page when I realised that I was still reading the first sentence. A bad case of verbal diarrhoea.
02.02.2008, 15:34 quote
Just finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton for my Victorian Literature module. Isn't it funny the difference it can make to your enjoyment of a book when you're reading it because you HAVE to? I love Gaskell, think she's got far more depth to her than Austen, whom I also love, and Gaskell's Cranford and Wives and Daughters are firm favourites. Mary Barton was good, but it just didn't feel the same, somehow....
Just for light relief I am reading Sodomy and The Pirate Tradition by B.R Burg 
Raises some dead interesting points - they were all at it, and buccaneer sexuality was totally different to that of other all-male institutions like prisons with their attendant regimented structure of rules and oppressive supervision - it flourished in a society in which homosexuality was not just tolerated, was the norm and conditions encouraged its practice.
Sheds a new light on the traditional stereotype of your dashing pirate ready to ravish any woman within 3,ooo fathoms.... 
02.02.2008, 16:11 quote
| paganpoetry wrote: |
| Just for light relief I am reading Sodomy and The Pirate Tradition by B.R Burg |
Now wouldn`t that old Yellow Pages advert have been far more entertaining if, instead of J.R. Hartley looking for `Fly Fishing`, we`d had B.R. Burg trying to track down an original copy of `Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition`?
I`m currently reading `Philosophy of Law`, by Raymond Wacks, by the way.
05.02.2008, 22:45 quote
| bayle wrote: | ||
Now wouldn`t that old Yellow Pages advert have been far more entertaining if, instead of J.R. Hartley looking for `Fly Fishing`, we`d had B.R. Burg trying to track down an original copy of `Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition`? I`m currently reading `Philosophy of Law`, by Raymond Wacks, by the way. |
What's even better is when you get an unassuming, nondescript middle-aged man who comes in regularly looking for everything by Belle De Jour and the Marquis De Sade. Made my day when he asked for The Vagina Monologues, very quietly, and I had to ask him to speak up.....
I didn't really, I'm just rather mean...
Having booked to go see Tosca in the amphitheatre in Verona in July, I am currently reading everything I can about Italy - so looking forward to two weeks wandering round Tuscany and Venice and Lake Garda.
Just read the three books that Marlena de Blasi has written about moving to Italy. She's a chef, so there's lots of food and recipes in them, she's also a bit of a whimsical creature - hard to describe in a way that won't make her out to be annoyingly New Age, but they're worth a read.
Her take is interesting on the experience of an American woman marrying a Venetian then going to live in Tuscany. I really enjoyed them anyway
09.02.2008, 22:49 quote
| haemoglobin wrote: |
| The Catcher in the Rye by Sallinger |
not thinking of shooting anyone are you ?
10.02.2008, 09:16 quote
| paganpoetry wrote: |
| she's also a bit of a whimsical creature - hard to describe in a way that won't make her out to be annoyingly New Age |
Hmmm, I`ll pass on this one if it`s alright with you PP.
I ought to be reading the Data Protection Act 1998, but instead I`m reading `The Secret History` by Procopius. The prissy introduction by G.A. Williamson is better than the book itself. To quote:
"...she...at the first possible moment became, like her two sisters, a prostitute of the lowest possible type, giving herself up to three different vices, one of them unnameable even in our own outspoken days. Her vulgarity was appalling, and her lust, if Procopius is to be believed, unparalleled and insatiable. We need not anticipate here his detailed and revolting description."
Just in case any of you are getting your hopes up, this was written to 1966 decency standards. You can routinely read far worse on some of these threads!
10.02.2008, 13:24 quote
| Cazzabee wrote: | ||
**Caz bites her tounge**.....................  |
28.02.2008, 12:03 quote
| paganpoetry wrote: |
| I'm reading Somerset Maugham's short stories at the moment - I had one volume of them but found the other two in a book sale in the student union the other day, yay! I love the way he writes - I'm not normally that much of a fan of short stories, but his are great. His view of humankind is really interesting - he seems detached for the most part, yet there's a real tolerance for our faults and failings.
I have a stack of books by my bed waiting to be read, a whole pile of treats, just havn't had time to read them cos of all the reading for university.  Ken Follett's latest is there, plus Khaled Hosseini's two.
I think Austen has been a little done to death lately - I've always loved Elizabeth Gaskell - now there's a 'classic' hehehe - good to see she's becoming a bit more widely known with the television versions of Wives and Daughters and Cranford. Wouldn't it be great if you could clone yourself and set one of you to doing all the reading you want to do, whilst the other gets on with everything else? |
How brilliant S.Maugham's style is! I like his short stories and novels. "The painted veil", "On human's bondage", "The Moon and Sixpence". They are very human, witty, they make ppl think.
Recently, I've read "The life of Pi' by Yann Martell. I must admit, it's just a piece of work. Interesting, unusual events and characters.
Tastes differ as they say but still literature and art are the only things which remain ageless.
28.02.2008, 12:09 quote
| RocketGirl wrote: |
| Am interested to discuss books with peeps here.
What books are you reading at the moment? Are you enjoying it? Why did you decide to read it? Have you just finished one? Was it good? Would you recommend it? I've just finished for the umpteenth time "African Wisdom" by Owen Burnham and Aliyou Diatta. Beautifully written and very interesting. I also just finished The Portrait of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. I've read other stuff but never this one and I never knew the end before now, it really stirred some passionate feelings (of hate!) for Dorian!! I have now gone back to Animals In Transition by Temple Grandin, I started it months ago but although it's interesting its also hard work and needs concentration, so I've started from the beginning again. |
Dorian is a conflicting guy. But it is an interesting novel. Have you ever read the fairy -tales by Oscar Wilde and his plays? They are lovely. I like his story "The Sphinx without Secret". Every woman should read it!
28.02.2008, 12:55 quote
Charles Baudelaire's 'On Wine and Hashish' lies unread next to my bed (will start it tonight if I don't get interrupted).
I really want to re-read Herman Charles Bosman's 'Cold Stone Jug', perhaps I shall go and look for it on eBay today......
Edit: .......which I have now done 
28.02.2008, 16:34 quote
I advise everybody read Toby Young's How To Lose Friends and Alienate People, humorous and witty book.
And I RECOMMEND everybody to read modern Russian writers such as Sergey Dovlatov ("Foreigner")and Mikhail Veller (do not mix with Mikhail Gorbachev) , very funny and educative stories
28.02.2008, 19:32 quote
| Darkle wrote: |
| A bit of space-opera for me right now - the 3 prequels to Dune. But s****e actually.
Also started the Diceman (Rhinehart) - not sure about it yet.... Just finished Mr Pip. |
How was Mister Pip? It's in a pile of books I havn't read yet - should I move it to the top?
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