Literature What are you currently reading?

[Dedalus]

The Land That Time Forgot is killing me. I made a terrible mistake choosing this. A terrible, terrible mistake.

In a good way or a bad way?

I'm reading Pete Townsend's auto-biography 'Who I Am.' I must read more bios from musicians - I eat that stuff up like candy.

 

[Mr Crunchy]

A Horse and His Boy is a great one too! Except all the latent racism.

Boy howdy, there were some passages that made me uncomfortable. I hadn't read the book in about 40 years, so I was kind of surprised. I guess hadn't noticed it when I read it as a child. I tried to take into account the historical framework during which it was written, but still....

Just finished Paul McCartney, A Life. It's a bit too gossipy for my taste, there weren't many new revelations, and the author has a particular agenda to cast Sir Paul as the creative genius of the Beatles. But he is a local author so I bought and read it in support.

 

[kazyeeqen]

In a good way or a bad way?

It was slow and seemingly endless and I didn't want to give up.

I just read Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. I liked Still Life with Woodpecker much better. Cowgirls starts philosophizing very heavily. It was still very very good though.

 

[Dedalus]

It was slow and seemingly endless and I didn't want to give up.

I've been there. I never want to give up either - it's like being defeated! Though there have been some that just weren't worth it.

 

[kazyeeqen]

I've been there. I never want to give up either - it's like being defeated! Though there have been some that just weren't worth it.

For sure. It was a classic though, so I thought it must have some value and I should try and stick it out. I'm glad I did, in this case, I felt accomplished and it got a little better toward the end.

 

[Dedalus]

For sure. It was a classic though, so I thought it must have some value and I should try and stick it out. I'm glad I did, in this case, I felt accomplished and it got a little better toward the end.

I never quit on a classic. It has prevented me from starting to read a few of them (Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.) But yeah, there is a reason they are considered classics - I feel like I better find it. One of the more difficult ones I stuck out: Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom! It helped that I had Cliff's notes to reference so that I wasn't completely in the dark.

 

[Mr Crunchy]

I have the same affliction. Three come to mind that I had to "plow through": Moby Dick, Capricornia, and The Lord of The Rings (which, of course, is actually six books)

And I only read Capricornia because I'm a huge fan of Midnight Oil. Shows my dedication as a fan that I crunched through 1500 pages of prose written in 19th century Australian vernacular just so I could understand one of their albums.

 

[FortyTwo]

I never quit on a classic. It has prevented me from starting to read a few of them (Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.) But yeah, there is a reason they are considered classics - I feel like I better find it. One of the more difficult ones I stuck out: Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom! It helped that I had Cliff's notes to reference so that I wasn't completely in the dark.

I only read 50 pages of As I Lay Dying before giving up and going to the Cliff's notes.

 

[Dedalus]

I only read 50 pages of As I Lay Dying before giving up and going to the Cliff's notes.

Oh man - As I Lay Dying is one of my very favorite books of all time. I wrote a ******* song about it I loved it so much. But yes - no shame in using Cliff's notes. I did too.

Edit: My rock-opera would incorporate Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha county. Will is second to none in my book. Here is one song of that opera based on 'As I lay Dying.'

Unfurl My Soul
Addie:
As I lay dying- descending into hell
I can hear them building the box
driving in the nails…

You cannot bathe me of my sins-oh no
A matter of words just the same- salvation too
Don’t try to save me - you can only forestall what must be
Life is preparing to stay dead
no shining light to see
Unfurl my soul…

Darl:
I cannot love my mother- my mother is no more
death a constant familiar- life its sullen core
She cannot be if she is was- oh no
her eyes like two flames just blown out
and I said, “ Jewel, your mother is dead”

The odyssey continues
her only wish to be fulfilled
their motives are in question here
despite what she has willed

Unfurl my soul…

 

[Dedalus]

I have the same affliction. Three come to mind that I had to "plow through": Moby Dick, Capricornia, and The Lord of The Rings (which, of course, is actually six books)

And I only read Capricornia because I'm a huge fan of Midnight Oil. Shows my dedication as a fan that I crunched through 1500 pages of prose written in 19th century Australian vernacular just so I could understand one of their albums.

Ditto on Moby Dick and LotR. I never attempted Capricornia tho. What's the connection to Midnight Oil?

Have you read Peter Carey's 'Oscar and Lucinda?' (Lot of Australian culture/history in that one.) GREAT book.

 

[FortyTwo]

Oh man - As I Lay Dying is one of my very favorite books of all time. I wrote a ****ing song about it I loved it so much. But yes - no shame in using Cliff's notes. I did too.

Edit: My rock-opera would incorporate Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha county. Will is second to none in my book. Here is one song of that opera based on 'As I lay Dying.'

Unfurl My Soul
Addie:
As I lay dying- descending into hell
I can hear them building the box
driving in the nails…

You cannot bathe me of my sins-oh no
A matter of words just the same- salvation too
Don’t try to save me - you can only forestall what must be
Life is preparing to stay dead
no shining light to see
Unfurl my soul…
Darl:
I cannot love my mother- my mother is no more
death a constant familiar- life its sullen core
She cannot be if she is was- oh no
her eyes like two flames just blown out
and I said, “ Jewel, your mother is dead”

The odyssey continues
her only wish to be fulfilled
their motives are in question here
despite what she has willed

Unfurl my soul…

That's actually way cool. Even though the book was definitely not my thing.

 

[PTree15]

I am reading Tell the Wolves I'm Home, a novel by Carol Rifka Brunt. It's for my book club. It's pretty good so far for a coming-of-age story.

 

[Kasandra]

Reading A new earth

 

[Mr Crunchy]

Ditto on Moby Dick and LotR. I never attempted Capricornia tho. What's the connection to Midnight Oil?

Their final album, named Capricornia, is a concept album inspired the novel. A project they had been wanting attempt for a while. I wouldn't say "based on" because it doesn't describe any of the main narrative, but it does quote directly from the book at times, such as,

"Deep in the quiet wild darkness, a crocodile cries"

This is the final sentence of a major section of the book. If you have read the book it has a lot of emotional impact, but if not, it probably doesn't make any sense at all. So they hid a few gems in there for the dedicated fan.

 

[Tom L.]

As I was in the library waiting for my turn on the computer (or maybe it was after I got offline?...) I started reading a new book on the shelf: "Death's Daughter", a comedy-fantasy. Let's see how much I remember: Grim Reapers are mortal humans who have gotten that job somehow, and the main character wants nothing a-tall to do with the family business. So she put an amnesia spell on herself to have a reasonably normal life. Until her family gets in supernatural trouble....

I left the book on the shelf. Maybe I'll get it out later, but I'm more into sci-fi than fantasy.

 

[Poppy]

<<<---loves As I Lay Dying, too

I just finished Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowlands. It was wonderful, in a slow, sad kind of way.

 

[Pirate]

I tried to read As I Lay Dieing but then got distracted and read somethign else. I should finish it.

Just finished The Last Unicorn, as in the book the film was based on. I really enjoyed it, but it was weird as I only rewatched the film a few weeks ago (hence buying the book) so I could just hear all the voices in my head.

 

[kazyeeqen]

Just read Player Piano. It was good, I look forward to reading more Vonnegut. I think I could read them all, but not all at once. Too similar for that.

 

[thefadedone]

Vegan For Her by Ginny Messina .

 

[Spang]

When You Are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris

A passage, if I may:

I've also got ideas in the five-hundred-to-two-thousand-dollar range [gifts that people can buy him], though those tend to be more specific. This nineteenth-century portrait of a dog, for example. I'm not what you'd call a dog person, far from it, but this particular one -- a whippet, I think -- had alarmingly big nipples, huge, like bolts screwed halfway into her belly. More interesting was that she seemed aware of it. You could see it in her eyes as she turned to face the painter. "Oh, not now," she appeared to be saying. "Have you no decency?"