What are you reading now?

[Joseph K]

I bought Yanis Varoufakis' newly-translated book Talking to My Daughter About the Economy - A Brief History of Capitalism yesterday. I'm now half-way through - it's superb, brilliant... I highly recommend it! Far-reaching discussions and arguments that encompass anthropology, history, economics, politics... I was toying with the idea of buying David Harvey's new book, but I've read his last few and comments on his new one led me to believe his new one didn't add too much... but I was in Waterstones when I saw this Varoufakis book - it's title really speaks for itself. It's also deeply indebted to Marx, it alludes to Capital several times... but then that is not surprising for anyone who knows about Varoufakis...

[Conchis]

I bought five Maxwell novels a few years back, including SLSYT. Quite enjoyed at the time but never since revisited.

I've got four but have only fread SLSYT. I finsihed it at my second attempt, the first having been interrupted last Christmas. Like you, i enjoyed it without finding it life-changing.

[vinteuil]

This thread has been most enjoyable. ... I have just finished reading, for about the fourth time, John Gross's 'The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters' and this thread was very much in my mind when reading his nicely acerbic account of the baneful influence of Dr Leavis.

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John Gross was my tutor! Good Grief!!

... thank you for this : to my shame, not a book I knew. (My landlady when I first moved to London in 1976 wrote for the TLS, and John Gross was a regular caller-in, but I was not aware of him as a Great Man ). I'm reading it now : it is wonderful. I see it came out in 1969, just before I went up to university to read English. I so wish I had read it then!


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[Conchis]

Currently: The Rack by A.E. Ellis

I read about this book in Michal Blakemore's memoir 'Stage Blood'. He commissioned a play from the author, whom he calls 'the most pessimisitc man I have ever met'.

The Rack garnered a lot of acclaim 60 years ago but now seems to be largely forgotten. Ellis (a pseudonym, borrowed from Ruth - the last woman to be hanged) never followed it up.

[un barbu]

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... thank you for this : to my shame, not a book I knew. (My landlady when I first moved to London in 1976 wrote for the TLS, and John Gross was a regular caller-in, but I was not aware of him as a Great Man ). I'm reading it now : it is wonderful. I see it came out in 1969, just before I went up to university to read English. I so wish I had read it then!


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It is a fine piece of work, isn't it? I was half way through my English degree when it came out and was unaware of its publication until much later.

[Beef Oven!]

I bought Yanis Varoufakis' newly-translated book Talking to My Daughter About the Economy - A Brief History of Capitalism yesterday. I'm now half-way through - it's superb, brilliant... I highly recommend it! Far-reaching discussions and arguments that encompass anthropology, history, economics, politics... I was toying with the idea of buying David Harvey's new book, but I've read his last few and comments on his new one led me to believe his new one didn't add too much... but I was in Waterstones when I saw this Varoufakis book - it's title really speaks for itself. It's also deeply indebted to Marx, it alludes to Capital several times... but then that is not surprising for anyone who knows about Varoufakis...

read that in the summer - he was quite figure at uni. Helped me with a stats assignment (Quantitative Methods), I'm absolutely sure he would not remember me!

Coincidentally, I'm currently reading "Adults In The Room".

[ardcarp]

Howards End...after a 40-year break! Interseting to see how BBC1 does it. (Surprised it is on BBC 1)

[LMcD]

'A Most Wanted Man' by John le Carré

[muzzer]

Likewise Howard’s End, for the first time and prompted by the Beeb. Was there on the shelf gently mocking me with others by Forster, for a mere thirty years unread. Loved it. Now onto Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge to try to get some tangential context for the Kabakov at Tate Modern, which I found haunting. But more Forster soon, for sure.

[french frank]

Not actually reading atm, but have just bought a 1p copy of Dostoevsky's From the House of the Dead, having just spent the evening in a claustrophobic Siberian prison with Welsh National Opera. Cheers

[Conchis]

Not actually reading atm, but have just bought a 1p copy of Dostoevsky's From the House of the Dead, having just spent the evening in a claustrophobic Siberian prison with Welsh National Opera. Cheers

I don't wish to be discouraging but I recently re-read my Diary from late 2001 and came across the followiong sentence: 'Finally finsihed From The House Of The Dead. Thank God!'

[DracoM]

Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage / Philip Pullman

[french frank]

I don't wish to be discouraging but I recently re-read my Diary from late 2001 and came across the followiong sentence: 'Finally finsihed From The House Of The Dead. Thank God!'

Well, I did feel a bit numb after the opera last night. But I don't do light fiction

[Joseph K]

read that in the summer - he was quite figure at uni. Helped me with a stats assignment (Quantitative Methods), I'm absolutely sure he would not remember me!

Coincidentally, I'm currently reading "Adults In The Room".

Cool!

I finished that book (Talking to my Daughter...) today. I am really spoilt for choice as to what to read next, I have so many unread books in my possession (and quite a few which I could read again!) Tonight I'll finish the last 30 or so pages of War and Peace. Then tomorrow I'll probably start Dante's Inferno, which I had promised myself I'd read.

[un barbu]

I missed Simon Gray's diaries when they first appeared but I am catching up now with 'The Smoking Diaries.' Moving and funny, laugh-out-loud funny, too.