Traveller’s Comments (group member since Jan 14, 2015)

Traveller’s comments from the On Paths Unknown group.

Ronald wrote: "And, this week I read Don Quixote - my review is here - which of course was excellent. It's Don Quixote, what else do you expect? ..."

....you read Don Quixote in a week? :0

Nice to see you on board, Ruth! Will reply more pertinently to your question in a while. Are you asking to be filled in more about the po-mo aspect of the novel, or about why some ppl around here apparently dislike po-mo, or...?

EDIT: November 11 2021: Hi members, we may as well make use of our initial threads for this discussion as we hadn't posted much before we fizzled out back in 2016.
So, I've just posted a comment at the end of this thread (on the next page of this thread, here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... ), in order to kick off our 2021 discussion.
Please feel free to comment directly thereafter.

Link to index page of this discussion: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

[EDIT] I've realized not everybody would be interested in the dryer, more academic aspects of every work, but even if you're not, you can just skip over those. I'm going to try and make things easier by marking those as "academic" and perhaps put them in italics or even hide the worst bits under spoiler tags, and then I'll put the leading questions directed at all of you, in bold (or underlined like I've done here?). I hope that will make it easier for everybody to participate. :)

Hi everyone! As promised, I'm making a thread for White Noise by Don DeLillo for us all to post some thoughts on.

Since we've all concluded that we're strapped for time at the moment, our threads will be very informal. Post if you can, but no problem if you can't. :)

...and in this informal vein, I must start off by saying that I found the Hitler theme pretty intriguing. Knowing about some of the themes in advance of reading the book, I'm pretty curious to see how Hitler studies would fit into the rest of it!

Sounds nice, Jennifer. Do you speak/understand any Asian languages? Or do most Indian people publish in English?

Thanks, Amy!

Jennifer wrote: "I did watch the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Now I want to watch the American one.

I thought the movie ok. It was missing some...atmosphere."

I'd love to hear your opinion as to how the 2 movies compare. :)

Ruth wrote: "Traveller wrote: "That series took a lot out of Noomi Rapace, whom I will watch in anything! Hollywood came to her first, but she said no way could she live in that character again.
."

To me, she made me feel she WAS Lisbeth Salander...

Cool! Yes, I think we must be more upfront about our ups and downs. :)

Yeah, I really liked that she was such a badass. (view spoiler)[ Sad ending, tho. (hide spoiler)]

I've seen both American Swedish versions. I liked the Swedish Lisbeth more. :) The American version was actually surprisingly not too bad! Quite close to the Swedish one, I found, except that Noomi Rapace was quite unforgettable as Lisbeth in the Swedish version.

Hi everyone, it's become obvious that we cannot sustain the pace suggested by the schedule above.

An alternative modus operandi would be that I create threads for the books scheduled, and then whenever you do get around to reading the book, you post your thoughts, and other can reply if they wish.

One of the mainstays of our group in the past has been close discussion, though, and it would be nice if we could continue with that, albeit with fewer books, perhaps.

Let's play it by ear and see how it goes. :)

Jennifer wrote: "I am reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, just call me late to the party."

Have you seen the films?

Group doppelganging! :D

Amy, you and I must really stop this posting at the same moment! ..and thinking similar thoughts too... it's eerie.... XD

Yeah, I also used to have it worse as a child. I find being a passenger at the back makes it worse. Then, when I started traveling by train, funnily enough I could read w/out getting it. Buses are touch and go.

Interesting observation about the reading aloud, Ruth. Maybe it shifts the attention to a different center in your brain?

The reason why reading in a car gives you car (motion) sickness, has to do with environmental input to the brain. See: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/artic... and/or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_...

I used to get that with reading if there are flickering shadows, so I think part of it can be a sort of overload of sensory input to the brain.
Eating wouldn't CAUSE it, but if you get it while there is food in your stomach, you're bound to feel worse...

LOL, you guys, I've been eating and reading since I was a wee tot, but dinner at table was always a formal affair in our house, so there was no chance to read then (but for social reasons, since it was considered rude).

That never stopped me from eating and reading at other times, but I do find that eating a big meal makes me sleepy, (indeed yes, the body does favor digestion at those times, but it's rather a case of that blood goes to the digestive system at the cost of to the brain - don't worry, Isabel, your body will always favor basic processes like digestion, unless you are literally in a fight or flight situation*) so I prefer to rather nibble on small amounts if I have the option.

* Yes, it is true that doing sport or stressful activities will certainly interfere with digestion. Most athletes and sportspeople know not to eat before matches or training; and if they don't know, they would soon find out, because when blood is needed in other parts of the body, stress neurotransmitters like adrenaline which stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, tend to shut the digestive system down, which can result in your meal being unceremoniously deposited some distance from your body during hard playing, swimming, running etc.

On the other hand, relaxed reading should be fine. As long as you don't stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and as long as the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is dominant, you should be fine. ;)

Whitney wrote: " Then I discovered it's like a bathtub where the water never gets cold. A bathtub surrounded by trees, with stars overhead. Made complete by an ereader with a backlight. ..."

Me so, SO envious, whaa! Sounds like heaven!









Enjoy! ^_^

Yeah, you only learn by doing, eh? I will make an announcement about this soon then...

...and we definitely must grab White Noise- I've read parts of it, and there's lots of social commentary in there. :)

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "It's worth a try. The current schedule has proven unsustainable for the traditional way of close discussion."

It does seem so, unfortunately. Shows you how unrealistic our expectations are. Oh, well. :)

Derek wrote: "Jennifer was reading White Noise with another group we're in, and I just couldn't get to it (I've hardly read anything for weeks...). But I have all of their comments (it generated quite a lot) que..."

Huh, here I've been wanting to do Don de Lillo for the longest time, but you keep telling me that you don't like po-mo!

Derek wrote: "So, I chose Smilla over White Noise and I've finally (like 5 minutes ago) finished it. And I need something short and easy before I start White Noise."

You're about to read White Noise? ...so since a whole bunch of us want ed to read that, shall we make that out next read then, since people don't seem to be very interested in our current line-up.... :P Wait, let me introduce my suggestions for a new system here. Instead of doing discussions where we get together "live', I've been thinking of starting a kind of data base -like structure, where I open one or two threads on every book we said we had wanted to read, and on which each person can post a review -like comment, which will take the time-pressure off of a lot of people. Of course, we can always comment on other people's comments, but we can do it anytime after initial creation of the thread.

Then, in addition to that, we cherry-pick some discussions to still do in the 'close-reading" format that we used to do. I'll let you people decide which those should be.

What do y'all think?