Mike Fowler Mike’s Comments (group member since Oct 28, 2021)


Mike’s comments from the Never too Late to Read Classics group.

Showing 121-140 of 317

Feb 25, 2023 06:46PM

153021 Pam wrote: "Definitely some good ones, Kushagri! Enjoy!

I picked up a like-new hardback edition of War and Peace for $2 at the library. Now, I have no excuse to not read it! It’s the one classic that I’ve alw..."


I hope you enjoy it Pam, it's one of my favourites!
Feb 25, 2023 05:47PM

153021 I picked up Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to In Search of Lost Time by Eric Karpeles, as recommended by Danada. I had been looking up the occasional painting online but it's much easier, and nicer, having a physical collection next to me as I read. Only downside is I get distracted and thumb through the art!
Feb 24, 2023 01:16PM

153021 I've only finished short stories, a saga and poems so far but I have recorded them in a logbook. I started with a notebook but quickly found it cumbersome mixing up between the short stories contained in one volume and poems from another volume but also realised I was tending to a tabular format. I found a few different coloured blank log books (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...) with 7 columns so bought one for poetry, another for short stories, a third for books and a fourth for the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/se...). I'm really liking the results and look forward to having something to look back on in years to come.
Feb 24, 2023 01:11PM

153021 I took the children out for them to spend their pocket money and for my wife to get some rest and came back with two more books. I didn't realise HMV sold non-music books and came away with Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote and Coming Up for Air by George Orwell.
Feb 18, 2023 03:21PM

153021 This long quote (but it's only 3 sentences!) resonated with my own reading of Proust though the narrator is discussing reading Bergotte. I am enjoying reading this quite a lot but at a much slower pace than I would normally read a book. I find I have to re-read the last paragraph I read to get back into the flow but soon find the melody again.

(view spoiler)
Feb 18, 2023 12:52PM

153021 I remember Farley Mowat visiting my school in the early '90s and I still have my autographed copy of The Curse of the Viking Grave. He told us a very captivating story though I've long forgotten the details of it. He lived in the same lakeside town as my grandmother, Port Hope, and we occasionally saw him walking down town.
Feb 08, 2023 05:23PM

153021 I finished Egil's Saga, the first and longest saga in The Sagas of Icelanders and am now refocused on The Way by Swann's with the aim of getting back on track to finish it by the end of the month.
Feb 08, 2023 05:21PM

153021 kubelot wrote: "L. Your favorite book? too many to chose from, by my reread counts it would be one of these three The Third Policeman, Mother Night or Too Loud a Solitude"

I've been meaning to read The Third Policeman having really enjoyed At Swim-Two-Birds several years ago. I bought The Complete Novels last year so will get to it before too long.
Jan 31, 2023 03:15PM

153021 Yep, and of Feb is my aim. The title of my second volume is In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower.
153021 I came across an interesting passage that highlight the patriarchal nature of the Icelandic/Nordic society. In this genealogy the males are listed first, than the females but in a fascinating twist, the females are the oldest. It stood out to me because you'd expect fiction to have the males born first, or at least interleaved, but not in this instance.

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Jan 25, 2023 07:13PM

153021 Just wrote down my first quote in the journal. It comes from The Witch in Fifty-Two Stories by Anton Chekhov.
A snowflake would land on the [window]pane, glance at the woman, and melt...

153021 Just came across this beautiful line in The Witch:

A snowflake would land on the [window]pane, glance at the woman, and melt...

153021 How are people getting on? I've read the first dozen. Most of them are quite humorous though a couple of been poignant. It's remarkable how quickly Chekhov can establish a scene and it's characters.
Jan 22, 2023 05:22PM

153021 Cosmic wrote: "I found a really nice quote to start my journal with"

Nice, it's almost the equivalent of Chekhov's Gun for sentence structure. I left two pages blank at the start of the journal to write quotes but haven't written any out as yet.
Jan 22, 2023 03:09AM

153021 Cleo wrote: "So are you going to write some of your thoughts down from what you read or just list and rate?"

Lesle wrote: "Even one or two words beside your rating might even bring back a thought on the read. I thought about a one word that would describe how I felt."

I hadn't thought about doing that but I like the idea of a one or two word summary always and longer thoughts when I feel prompted by something. I'm thinking I'll note the attribute I liked most, perhaps it is the language used, the phrasing, etc.
Jan 19, 2023 05:10PM

153021 This thread has inspired me to start a journal. As I'm reading a collection of short stories (Fifty-Two Stories by Anton Chekhov) and poetry (The Complete Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge) I thought it could be interesting to rate each short story and poem. I'm entering books as I start them and have written out the tables of contents. I'm hoping, especially with the poetry, it will make it easier to find and re-read what I really enjoyed.
153021 Fascinating Karin, beyond knowing I'm ultimately of Scottish descent on both sides of the family I'd still need to research another 600 years or so to know what you do.

I noted the comparison between saga and epic in the introduction and you're right, epics are in verse. Accepting saga isn't an exact translation I'm thinking of them as epics in prose.
153021 The five volume set is The Complete Sagas of Icelanders, including 49 Tales. I had not looked at the availability or price before and am now considerably less tempted. The cheapest on abebooks is £759.34 + £32.77 shipping.

The introduction noted a few that are not included and I have found a few of these such as Njal's Saga in stand-alone, affordable, volumes.
153021 Piyangie wrote: "That's great, Mike. Are you reading this selection or the complete 5 volume work?"

I'm reading this selection but I am already tempted to upgrade to the complete set!
Jan 17, 2023 04:45PM

153021 I mentioned to my folks that I had started In Search of Lost Time. Mom asked Dad if that wasn't one of the books that had been on his bedside table for months and he admitted it had and that he had eventually given up on it. I'm hoping not to meet the same fate especially as I already have the remaining volumes.