January 2016 - What are you reading? (no book covers)

[Bill, Moderator]

Alex wrote: "Kernos wrote: "I decided it was time to re-read The Once and Future King again. The last time was in the early '70s I think."

The only Arthurian book I've read is The Mists of Avalon because I was told there was a threesome.

I liked MoA too, a lot and found that scene quite compelling. Others I have really enjoyed are Mary Stewart's and Stephen Lawhead's Arthurian Series.

Hmmm - all Brits!

[Bryn]

Greg wrote: "Parts of the English translation were exquisite - very finely translated from the original Polish. Some Polish Goodreads friends tell me it's even more beautiful in the original language, but regardless, the translator deserves a handshake for a job well done. Gorgeously written in final chapter especially!"

Greg! you wrote this about Solaris. Did you read the new translation (in Kindle as this edition Solaris), or the old? It was a perfect science fiction novel for me and my immediate thought is I must read it again; I read the old translation ('translated from the French by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox(1970)') and have bought the new Bill Johnston on Kindle. Not a bad cover either.

[Greg]

Bryn wrote: "Greg! you wrote this about Solaris. Did you read the new translation (in Kindle as this edition Solaris), or the old? It was a perfect science fiction novel for me and my immediate thought is I must read it again; I read the old translation ('translated from the French by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox(1970)') and have bought the new Bill Johnston on Kindle. Not a bad cover either...."

How funny Bryn, I hadn't noticed there were two different versions!

I read the translation by Bill Johnston. I guess that one is recent and was translated directly from Polish into English.

The older one was a translation of a French translation (Polish to French translation which was later translated from French to English).

In the version you read, was the last chapter beautiful?

I thought it was gorgeous in the Johnston one. For instance:

".. powerful, inexorable silence breathing evenly through its waves ..."

"... staring in wonderment ... and in the gathering intensity of engrossment, I was becoming one with this fluid, unseeing colossus ... as if ... without words, without a single thought, I was forgiving it for everything."

"... to be a clock, on the other hand, measuring the passage of time, one that is smashed and rebuilt over and again, one in whose mechanism despair and love are set in motion by the watchmaker along with the first movement of the cogs .."

So glad you enjoyed the book Bryn! We seem to have similar tastes. :) Solaris was not a popular choice in another of my groups, but I really enjoyed it. A lot of people thought it was too confusing, I think, but I found it remarkably clear, compared to the Tarkovsky movie especially.

[Rambling Reader]

I actually liked both cinematic adaptations of Solaris. tarkovsky was more philosophical and existentialist. i thought it was a very Soviet and Russian film.
clooney was also philosophical but it seemed more linear.
I've never read the novel by lem but I plan on reading it when I get a chance.

[Greg]

Rambling Reader wrote: "I actually liked both cinematic adaptations of Solaris. tarkovsky was more philosophical and existentialist. i thought it was a very Soviet and Russian film.
clooney was also philosophical but it ..."

It's been so long since I saw the Tarkovsky one Rambling Reader, but I loved it at the time. I remember it being a beautiful eerie film but also very cryptic.

[Bryn]

@Greg I thought it was beautiful in the old translation, and understood what you meant; I only realised there was a new translation too after finishing. Luckily I did want to read it again almost straight away! People seem to find the new a vast improvement and also much more accurate, being not through an intermediate language. Still, in the old, the passages you quote managed to convey the original's obvious beauty to me. Glad I have both.

I see people say that Tarkovsky's film concentrated on the personal relationships, the scientists' stories and less on the planet's story (how on earth you'd film the planet's story I don't know). Most people discuss the film v the book in their reviews. I cannot remember it: you'd need to go 2001+ to approach the existentialism of the text. What else they say the film didn't find a way to cover, is the scientific literature on Solaris, the intellectual history which was.... an examination of how scientific endeavour works, I suppose? A little bit satiric?

I didn't find the book confusing either; I expected to, by reputation. Non-linear yes and that was one of its strengths for me: it followed the truth not a plot!

[Greg]

Bryn wrote: "@Greg I thought it was beautiful in the old translation, and understood what you meant; I only realised there was a new translation too after finishing. Luckily I did want to read it again almost s..."

Glad to hear the old translation was beautiful too!!

And yes, I'd definitely say there was is satire in the way the science is described.

I can't remember the Tarkovsky film well either, but I do remember it being a bit 2001ish. Now that I've read the book, I'll probably revisit it when I have time. I wonder if I'll still like it?

[Robyn]

I just finished reading a lovely book: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. In simple terms, it's a memoir written by a bedridden woman, as she watches a snail. But the larger themes are curiosity and mindfulness; an excellent, easy read.

[Julia]

Yesterday I finished listening to the delightful middle grade audio book Fortunately, the Milk read by Neil Gaiman.

I'm currently reading The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith, a book I've been meaning to get around to reading it for awhile.

[Bill, Moderator]

I finished The Once and Future King—what a remarkable book. How to review a classic is a problem.

I started a weird book The Way of Wyrd, an historical fantasy, I think.

[Fr. Andrew]

A couple things I just finished.

I finished the six volumes of the Terry Moore comic series "Echo," starting with Echo, Volume 1: Moon Lake. It gets better and better as it goes, and features a couple lovely lesbian couples in "supporting roles" near the end. Plus there are some queer-friendly things that happen between the main characters.

I also finished a book I got on my Kindle (I think it's free) called Doomware by Nathan Kuzack. It's a bit uneven, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless. Sci-fi thriller with really scary zombie-like creatures, and a nice m/m romance too.

[Fr. Andrew]

Right now I'm reading the following:

A Brief History of Anxiety...Yours and Mine by Patricia Pearson (combination memoir & historical journey...the focus is on anxiety and it's really insightful I think)

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller. Kind of on a whim I picked this up at the library as an audiobook. I'm enjoying the language and marveling at her mastery of it, given what she had to go through to even make a simple sentence at first.

Bhagavad Gita: The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies Guide by Nicholas Sutton. I have an interest in India and its religous/philosophical traditions. It's a translation and commentary on the Gita.

[Fr. Andrew]

Julia wrote: "I've read 100 pages of the 386 page Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Unlike, it feels like everyone else on the planet who reads science fiction, this book won the ..."

I had this reaction when I attempted Calculating God which won a bunch of awards. I started out being amused by the concept and characters, and quickly grew more and more irritated and more and more convinced that the writer wasn't good at, well, writing anything outside of philosophical debate. I think I made it about a third of the way into it.

[Fr. Andrew]

Robyn wrote: "I just finished reading a lovely book: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. In simple terms, it's a memoir written by a bedridden woman, as she watches a snail. But the larger themes ar..."

I clicked your link and discovered it was on my to-be-read list...So, that's a further recommendation it would seem and it moves up for me.

[Fr. Andrew]

Julia wrote: "I'm currently reading The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith, a book I've been meaning to get around to reading it for awhile."

Why, when I clicked on this and read the description, did I almost break into tears? This is one of those soul books isn't it? Going to have to read it.

[Greg]

Andrew wrote: "
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller. Kind of on a whim I picked this up at the library as an audiobook. I'm enjoying the language and marveling at her mastery of it, given what she had to go through to even make a simple sentence at first...."

I read this last year and was impressed by it too Andrew - hard to imagine being both deaf and blind ... what staggering isolation she must have experienced! Amazing how articulate she was and how much she achieved!!

[Julia]

Andrew,

You asked if The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith is a soul book. To answer your question, you'll have to tell me what a soul book is. It's not Chicken Soup for the Soul, nor one of its ilk. I'm enjoying it, it's short stories that take place in Vietnam, or among Vietnamese or Vietnamese- Americans in the States, but so far I haven't cried. (And I cry at Hallmark commercials, when I'm not reading and haven't muted them.)

Is anyone else here participating in the Book Riot Read Harder 2016 Challenge? You read 24 books in different genres, or with different types of characters. In this case this is my #14 'Read a book by an author from Southeast Asia.' I'm trying very hard to read a lot of books from my TBR shelves for this.

[Fr. Andrew]

I guess it was kind of question to the ether ultimately, or maybe a rhetorical quesion. It's a personal thing, a soul book...I just meant at a personal level, a book that will touch me in an inexplicable way. I had that reaction, oddly, reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I related to that character so well that I would start crying without really knowing why! I didn't mean the question as something you could really answer. Sorry, I was vague :)

[Leigh]

I just finished "Bring up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel - it was fantastic - and almost finished "Isabella - the Warrior Queen", a biography of Queen Isabella of Spain. It's pretty good but does have some problems.

[Dzura]

I finished The Well of Loneliness and Blue is the Warmest Color

i'm really like The Well of Loneliness than Blue is the warmest color.