What are you reading now?

[amateur51]

... I think that at our age ( ) we are allowed to 'give up' on books that are not working for us. Especially when the book in question is a load of tosh

Best sense I've read on this Board in weeks

Memsahib? Pass the Purdy - there's a fox on the lawn!

[aeolium]

... I think that at our age ( ) we are allowed to 'give up' on books that are not working for us. Especially when the book in question is a load of tosh

I quite agree. I did that with Proust

[umslopogaas]

Er ... I agree that one should be allowed to give up on a book that you cant get into, I think the second attempt in my life to read 'The Brothers Karamazov' is doomed to rapid failure. However, just because one cant get into a book doesnt mean its tosh. And, sir, Proust can be a bit difficult, but it is NOT tosh! The final musings about memory at the end of 'Time Regained' culminating in "... the true paradises are the paradises that we have lost." are just wonderful. Have another go. Relax, take a deep breath, recognise that this is one book you are not going to devour at a sitting. Its a long journey, but a very worthwhile one.

[vinteuil]

Er ... I agree that one should be allowed to give up on a book that you cant get into, I think the second attempt in my life to read 'The Brothers Karamazov' is doomed to rapid failure. .

umslopogaas - before you give up on The Brothers Karamazov - or even if you do - I do think it's worth reading the "Grand Inquisitor" section ("Volume one; Part two; book five; chapter five" - if you're reading in the penguin (Magarshack) edition, pages 288-310 of vol. 1... ) - it's almost a stand-alone piece, with good stuff in it.

I read Karamazov in my twenties: I am now sixty - I don't think I cd face going through it all again...

[aeolium]

However, just because one cant get into a book doesnt mean its tosh. And, sir, Proust can be a bit difficult, but it is NOT tosh!

No, and I never suggested that. I certainly disagree with the notion that just because you don't appreciate a book/piece of music/work of art there is something wrong with the book/music/art. But I also don't agree with the view that sheer persistence will eventually bring rewards: for one thing life's too short and for another, I don't think it's true. No matter how often I listen to works by Liszt I know that I shall never be able to respond to his music as his admirers evidently do.
Show me someone who likes every masterpiece (or what the world deems to be a masterpiece) and I will show you either a professional critic or a person without strong and distinctive tastes.

[umslopogaas]

#544 vinteuil, I also read 'The Brothers Karamazov' long ago, in my teens, the school library rather improbably had a copy. I got through it, but I was too young to appreciate it and it rather put me off big Russian novels. I shall persevere.

[Beef Oven]

#544 vinteuil, I also read 'The Brothers Karamazov' long ago, in my teens, the school library rather improbably had a copy. I got through it, but I was too young to appreciate it and it rather put me off big Russian novels. I shall persevere.

I read it 36 years ago and it did not put me off Russian novels - it put me off books.

[Panjandrum]

I read it 36 years ago and it did not put me off Russian novels - it put me off books.

And I always had you down as one of the forum's intellectuals, Beef.

I think the thing about Dostoevsky is that characters always appear to over-emote or react in excess of what Eliot called the "objective correlative". I still think that Crime and Punishment may well be the literary equivalent of Man Bites Dog in its excoriating the superfices of all societies. It may well be the key to the essential character of the Russian people, and may help to explain Tchai and Shosta, to name but two "emoters". Like Karamazov and The Idiot it's probably best read at uni when one has infinite free time. Back to Wodehouse these days for me, however.

[amateur51]

Back to Wodehouse these days for me, however.

Now you're talking, Panyan!

Although we don't get many appearances of Roderick Spode on here these days

[french frank]

... I think that at our age ( ) we are allowed to 'give up' on books that are not working for us. Especially when the book in question is a load of tosh

I wouldn't aver that The M & M is a load of tosh but there are certain kinds of novel which don't appeal to me - magic realism I fear is one kind. Faustian pacts and devilish deeds are one thing, witches on broomsticks come from a different tradition altogether.

[umslopogaas]

#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.

[Panjandrum]

#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.
.

Eng Lit.

[Panjandrum]

#547 Books do furnish a room (a quote from Anthony Powell, I think, whoever he is),

The tenth volume and the eponymous publisher, Lindsay "Books Do Furnish a Room" Bagshaw in his 12 volume "Dance to the Music of Time" (but I expect you knew that ).

[french frank]

#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.

Excusez-moi, but I was contradicting (as in "I wouldn't aver that The M & M is a load of tosh") M Vinteuil who implied (or so I thought - notwithstanding the emoticon) that perhaps it might be. I would seldom, if ever, express such an opinion - though in the case of Harry Potter I might stretch a point except that it is a children's book and one must therefore make allowances ............... oh, and the fact that I've only read one chapter of one book so am not 100% qualified to pronounce.

No, I'm not keen on 'fantasy' at all. I might sometimes be drawn into reading it, but without interest

[Beef Oven]

And I always had you down as one of the forum's intellectuals, Beef.

Back to Wodehouse these days for me, however.

Today I put two Wodehouse collections in my suitcase for summer holiday reading. Not gonna pay twice by downloading to My Kindle!