Book Nerd’s Comments (group member since Dec 20, 2018)

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

A couple things toward the end of Volume 3 Book 8 confuse me.

(view spoiler)[It says Valjean has a sou(coin) that usnscrews and contains a saw. I read it a couple of times, thinking it was just a sharpened coin he used to cut the ropes but the book said it can cut through iron bars. A tool like that in a coin makes no sense.

One of the kidnappers uses a "key"as a weapon. I assume that's some kind of club?

And then there's: "I only ask one thing," Bigrenaille remarked, "that my baccy maynt be stopped while I'm in solitary confinement."
Now that I typed that, I'm thinking "baccy" is tobacco, right?
(hide spoiler)]

Inkspill wrote: "I surprised myself by enjoying it, I didn't struggle as much as I thought I would with the mixture of fact and fiction, and when I finished I was already thinking of how to fit it in this year to read again.

Seriously ??? like this book isn't long enough :) "
Wow. A thick book I'd like to reread is The Count of Monte Cristo. I haven't read that since high school. Maybe this year or next...

Yeah, he goes off on a whole lot of unnecessary tangents. Still enjoying it though. I wanted a hefty classic :)

I'm about half way through.

I'm finally getting caught up.
The style of this reminds me of The Brothers Karamazov in a lot of ways.

I like how there's an entire chapter explaining merde. lol.

Patrick wrote: "Many people (I've noticed) didn't like the part with the bishop"
A lot of the characters are really exaggerated. I know they're meant to be symbolic. The bishop is an almost perfect selfless person.

I haven't read I am a Cat yet but it is pretty long. Kokoro might be a good choice. I'd like to read it.

Chin Ping Mei is actually the same as The Plum in the Golden Vase. Most of these Chinese books have a bunch of different names. The one you missed is Dream of the Red Chamber.

Thanks for putting these up.

Book Nerd wrote: "Patrick wrote: "I tried one or two of the later prequels written by Brian Herbert but could not even finish them. :-( "
Yeah, I wasted way too much time reading them.

Bernard wrote: "It was a clever plan to establish an author dynasty for Dune, but I could not get through the original."
It was never planned. Brian Herbert just started making money on his father's name, claiming to work from his notes.

Patrick wrote: "I just read Dune but I have the whole series."
They're great. Enjoy.

Jess wrote: "Book Nerd wrote: "Reading about Fantine, I cringed when she [spoilers removed]"

I couldn't watch that scene in the BBC series. I hid behind a pillow!"

I haven't seen it but I can imagine. (view spoiler)[What the hell did the quack dentist do with them? Implant them in somebody else? (hide spoiler)]

Patrick wrote: "I love Dune and the Foundation Series!! I still need to finish the Dune series. Hopefully I’ll get to them this year!"
Which books do you have left?

Sci-fi, now that's even harder.
Dead Girls, Dead Boys, Dead Things, I really love this trilogy and the author in general.
All of Dune(written by FRANK Herbert). A lot of people hate Dune Messiah for some reason, but it's my favorite.
The Foundation Trilogy
Stephen Baxter's Xeelee universe books. Transcendent, Ring, Xeelee: Endurance, etc.
And I'm a big fan of Star Wars books BEFORE Disney. I think they just make up a great long epic.

Yeah, this is extremely hard.
In fantasy my favorite is probably A Song of Ice and Fire. I love the huge world GRRM has built.
Of course I love Lord of the Rings. And Narnia and Harry Potter.
I've mostly read the best known fantasy.

Reading about Fantine, I cringed when she (view spoiler)[sold her teeth for money. (hide spoiler)]

It just seems odd that he would care. He's not political at all.
Anyway that was my one thought about the first part and I wonder how it will figure in the rest of the story.

I've read the first book about the bishop. It's wordy but not a bad read so far.
The one thing that interested me is that this guy's basically a saint and believes in the good in hardened criminals but he firmly favors a monarchy over a republic. Not sure what that means if anything.

I have the William Ellery Leonard translation. It's really poetic and the explanatory text is minimal but really helpful.
It's really a great heroic poem that makes you want to go out and slay monsters!

Just wondering, why three months to read it? It's pretty short.

This really was a great book.
Of the classics I've read, Dostoyevsky is probably my favorite author.

Yeah, I reread it too in anticipation of the movie, which I already suspected would be bad, but at least I got to read it again.
You should read some others. They're not very long.

Patrick wrote: "It doesn't help that a friend and I know a bit of Sindarin and would write notes back and forth getting each other exc..."
Is there a good book to learn Sindarin? Grammar and vocabulary.
Or any/all Tolkien languages?

My favorite author as a kid was John Bellairs.
His books are still great.