What are you reading now?

[Beef Oven]

#547 Beef Oven "Put you off books." Come back to the literary fold, there's a lot you are missing. And remember, books fulfill many functions. They tell you things, they say things to people who visit you, they say things about you from the darkness of your shelves. Books do furnish a room (a quote from Anthony Powell, I think, whoever he is), but they say a lot more about you than your sofa. Mine will give interviews (that's the books and the sofa, but the books argue higher fees, the sofa would just be glad to get rid of my backside into the garden for an hour or so. I think its in cahoots with the veg patch).

#547 Panjandrum "... at uni when one has infinite free time." You obviously didnt read science. Or perhaps you did, but if so your rigorously logical mind must have been a lot more powerful than mine.

#550 french frank You dont like magical realism? Really? Oh dear ... have your tried Gabriel Garcia Marquez's '100 years of solitude'?
And 'The Master and Marguerita' is a load of tosh? No, IT ISNT. Try again.

#547 Put off books - I got over it in 48 hours and came back to the fold with a vengance!

#547 Panji with time on his hands at Oxford..... thought you boys had to work harder than the rest of us

[Panjandrum]

#547 Put off books -

Doing a 3 year EngLit course had the same effect on me. Couldn't stomach reading a book for pleasure for years afterwards.

#547 Panji with time on his hands at Oxford.....

Cambridge, old son.

thought you boys had to work harder than the rest of us

What on earth gave you that idea?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What on earth gave you that idea?

The misconception that you'd been to Oxford, mayhap?

[Nick Armstrong]

The misconception that you'd been to Oxford, mayhap?

[charles t]

Speaking about reading and its compliment - libraries - the tale of how Ray Bradbury gathered-up his dimes ($.10) to rent the coin-operated manual typewriters in U.C.L.A.'s library basement...for nine days straight.

Fahrenheit 451 was the result.

A tribute (d. June 5 2012):

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_20825798/al-martinez-ray-bradburys-metaphors-whispered-through-years?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews.com

[verismissimo]

Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner (1894).

[umslopogaas]

I was turfed out of the house a few days ago by the power company, who were cutting trees away from the lines and turned off the electricity. Amazing how many things you cant do without power. So I took a train ride to Exeter and stocked up in Waterstones. Jorge Luis Borges 'Selected non-fictions', short articles on all sorts of things, I'm struggling a bit, they may be short but he packs a lot in. Umberto Eco 'Baudolino' and 'Turning back the clock', havent started the former, but have dipped into the latter, which is non-fiction and very enjoyable. Bill Bryson 'Notes from a small island', just finished that, its very funny. I have also just re-read 'Down Under', his travels round Australia, which is even funnier and full of Aussie humour: man checks into a hotel in Darwin in the wet season, which is very wet indeed, and finds four inches of water on the floor. He paddles back to reception and points this out to the man behind the desk, who rolls his eyes and says "well, the bed's dry, isnt it?"

But though I enjoy buying new books, I do seem to spend more time re-reading. Just re-read A.G. MacDonell 'England Their England' which is billed as The Classic Comic Novel. The whole thing is very funny, but ch 7, the village cricket match which falls apart at the seams because everyone has a pint too many in the pub on the green, made me laugh so much I nearly fell off the sofa.

I may give up on 'The brothers Karamazov'. According to my bookmark I'm half way through vol. 1, but I havent picked it up for a couple of weeks and I cant remember anything about the plot at all. I fear life is too short for these Russian heavyweights.

Oh, and I also stocked up on some new Asterix comics. They may be stocked in the children's section of Waterstones, but they make this sixty three year old child giggle.

One more from Bryson, to illustrate the perils of letting your children consort with rough tradesman. Couple have a little daughter, about four years old, everyone thinks she's very cute. One day some builders arrive to build a house on a vacant lot next door, little girl goes over to watch and they think she's very cute, adopt her and at the end of the week give her a little pay packet with some coins. Oh says mummy, we must go and open an account for you. So they trot off to the bank and the teller says oh that's very clever, how did you earn that? [this is best appreciated if you imagine a high pitched little-girl Aussie accent]. We've been building a house, says the little girl. Oh, that's very clever says the teller, and will you be building again next week? Yes, says the little girl, if they ever send us the f*****g bricks.

[Hitch]

Re-reading Edgar Allan Poe's Selected Tales (World's Classics paperback). It's amusing to see how much Conan Doyle borrowed from The Purloined Letter, and even more amusing to recall Holmes sneering at Dupin. Buried somewhere in my mountainous pile of unread books is a collection of Poe's "science fiction". I might take a gander... if I can find it. Oh, the irony.

[Sparafucile]

Hi,
Not been around much recently. Bit of a bout of depression taking its toll, I'm afraid, but on the upswing of the pendulum now.
Getting well into Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Terrific book, full of ideas and humour, all 900 pages of it. Whether I will launch myself straight into his "Baroque Cycle" after this, remains to be seen.

http://www.nealstephenson.com/

[amateur51]

Re-reading Edgar Allan Poe's Selected Tales (World's Classics paperback). It's amusing to see how much Conan Doyle borrowed from The Purloined Letter, and even more amusing to recall Holmes sneering at Dupin. Buried somewhere in my mountainous pile of unread books is a collection of Poe's "science fiction". I might take a gander... if I can find it. Oh, the irony.

Mind you, didn't Poe require us to believe that a distraught pet would hide a dead body up a chimney?

In deference to those who have not read the story, I have not named it

[amateur51]

Hi,
Not been around much recently. Bit of a bout of depression taking its toll, I'm afraid, but on the upswing of the pendulum now.
Getting well into Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Terrific book, full of ideas and humour, all 900 pages of it. Whether I will launch myself straight into his "Baroque Cycle" after this, remains to be seen.

http://www.nealstephenson.com/

Very sorry to hear about your bout of depression Sparafucile, and pleased to hear that you're on the upswing

Long may it last

[umslopogaas]

Just finished Jasper Fforde's 'The Woman Who Died A Lot', which a friend gave me as a birthday present. Even by Fforde's standards of surrealism, which are high, this one is very surreal, but its also very funny. The build up to the smiting of Swindon with a pillar of fire by the Almighty in response to a crime I cant quite unravel takes a bit of effort, but the denouement is worth the effort. This is very good stuff, fifth I think in the 'Thursday Next' series and all of them are a hoot.

Also getting deeper into 'Alan Quartermain', by Rider Haggard, the sequel to 'King Solomon's Mines' and the origin of my pseudonym. We've passed the Rose of Fire and entered into the land of the sister queens. Both are young, beautiful and a push over for Sir Henry. There's trouble afoot ... (I know there is, I've read it before and know where the plot is going).

For light relief, various Asterix comics, and for heavy relief, 'The Brothers Karamazov', but I must admit, I havent made much progress with the latter.

[Pianorak]

Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks. Much easier than The Magic Mountain - and extremely funny, which I didn't expect.

[gradus]

Montaigne's Essays and very readable they are too.

[AjAjAjH]

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz.