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Fiction- What are you reading? Part 2
message 2201:
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Gavin
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Nov 03, 2019 10:47AM
I'm reading The Complete Plays
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I'm reading 50 Harbor Street. #5 in the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber
I'm almost finished with the audiobook Salt to the Sea. It's very good!Leslie- I loved East of Eden also. My favorite Steinbeck novel. The mini-series is good, too!
Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The women are hysterical and/or insipid and there i..."
I still like it despite the inane women even though I no longer care for most of Bradbury's novels. That said, some older scifi had some stronger women, but I can't think of the titles off the top of my head. Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany is from the early 1960s and has a very strong female protagonist who is a pilot.
Karin wrote: "Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The women are hysterical and/or insi..."
I read a lot of Azimov and other classics in my 20s because that is all I could get hold of but for the last decade or so I have indulged in more modern scifi and with all due respect to the classics, on the whole, their writing doesn't hold a candle to some of the excellent scifi being written today.
For me only early Foundation and Dune have stood the test of time.
I tend to read the most influential classics to educate myself on the origins of scifi but for the most part I stick to modern scifi for pure pleasure.
Mod
The knly Kafka I've not read. I loved The Trial, and of course The Metamorphosis.
East of Eden is really great!!!!
I've been reading Wine of Violence by Priscilla Royal, a historical mystery set in the reign of Edward III
Lots of love for the Steinbeck, I see! I am not sure what I think about the Kafka yet... I keep wondering why K. doesn't just leave.Kirsten #EndGunViolence wrote: "I've been reading Wine of Violence by Priscilla Royal, a historical mystery set in the reign of Edward III"
I read that a few years ago. I will be interested in hearing how you like it once you're done.
I'm ~1/2 way through with Machine Learning: New and Collected Stories, a SF collection by Hugh Howey. It includes a section of stories from his Silo trilogy world, of which I 've read the first 2 books Wool Omnibus and Shift, so that is really interesting! The other stories are good also.
Mod
I think this is the main point, not only of this book, but of all Kafka's works: try and read The Trial!!!
I have the vague sense that I have read The Trial at some distant point in my past but as I have no real recollection of it, it is on my TBR list. While I harbor a fascination with absurdist fiction, I find that my patience with it now is less than it was when I was younger. But that isn't completely true as I managed to make my way through Beckett's trilogy - Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable only a few years ago!
Mod
That I've not even tried!!!
I'm about to start - actually this very afternoon, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for a chiallenge in another group. I'll tell about it soon!
LauraT wrote: "Leslie wrote: "While I harbor a fascination with absurdist fiction, I find that my patience with it now is less than it was when I was younger. But that isn't completely true as I managed to make m..."Oh, I love Tom Stoppard's plays! I saw that performed back in my college days and have read the text since. I hope you like it!
Mod
Difficoult to read theatre in general, and those kind of Pieces in particular. I definitly would have preferred having the chance of seeing it!
Esther wrote: "Karin wrote: "Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The women are hysteric..."
I agree completely! There are very, very few classic scifi novels that have strong enough writing to compete. But also, some technology now has exceeded what they anticipated OR has made it so you know it won't go certain ways. Also, now that we have pictures and data from a number of planets in our solar system, I have a very hard time with books where people settle on or visit other planets.
Leslie wrote: "LauraT wrote: "Leslie wrote: "While I harbor a fascination with absurdist fiction, I find that my patience with it now is less than it was when I was younger. But that isn't completely true as I ma..."I loved Tom Stoppard plays in my youth, but not as much now. I remember seeing Travesties in San Francisco a couple of years after it first came out and loving it. For some weird reason I have never seen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, because that's a play I'd have loved back then--perhaps even now. My sister has recommended it to me several times over the years. I think I'd want to be up in the Shakespeare play they come from first, though.
Karin wrote: "Esther wrote: "Karin wrote: "Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The wom..."
In the 1980s I loved The Martian Chronicles tv series.
Of course now I know more about Mars it seems more like fantasy than scifi!
Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The women are hysterical and/or insipid and there i..."
Until I saw this headline I, too, thought Fahrenheit 451 was outdated, YIKES!!!
Whodunit in the Library: Someone Keeps Hiding the (information removed) Books
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/us...
I have just finished listening to
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and my webpageI am about to start listening to
In a Cottage In a Wood byCass Green
If you just met someone who offered all the local gossip, would you entrust him with a confidential project?Hahaha, The things we accept as part of the plot!
I’m reading Maisie Dobbs, so far a nice cosy mystery.
Joan wrote: "Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The women are hysterical and/or insi..."
Interesting--some readers who are reading this for the first time find it very timely even if it is old.
Karin wrote: "Joan wrote: "Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The women are hysterica..."
My problem is not that the ideas have dated - the concepts are one of the main reasons I read classic scifi - the problem is the writing and characterizations.
Interestingly one of my problems with literary scifi is not the concepts but that they often express themselves in ways similar to scifi from 1950s and 1960s which seems dated and unsophisticated (almost patronizing towards the reader) compared to modern scifi.
Esther, I now understand what you mean - the theme is still relevant but writing around it is not. Rather like the way good but old movies get updated for modern audiences, right?Puts me in mind of the old-saying that all the stories we tell come down to 7 basic plots.
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://...
Esther wrote: "Karin wrote: "Joan wrote: "Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The women..."
Haha -- I just finished The Einstein Intersection (first published in 1967). The main ideas are still interesting but the 1960s references to 45s, 33s and the Beatles were clearly dated (though as a child of the 60s, I understood them and found them amusing).
Mod
Reliving days has become a bit of a theme in recent fiction but this is different and so well w..."
About tto read it!
LauraT wrote: "Esther wrote: "I am reading the The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It is completely captivating.Reliving days has become a bit of a theme in recent fiction but this is differen..."
I hope you like it. I have just 'read' it with a bookclub and they weren't so impressed :(
I started The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler. This book is on lots of lists and I have owned it since 2012 so it is about time that I actually read it!
I am listening to Refugee by Alan Gratz and reading Vanity Fair. I am finding that I can listen to YA audiobooks and don't have the attention problems that I do with other genres. I also have Typhoon by Joseph Conrad checked out on Hoopla. I plan to start it this weekend. I'm catching up on classics for the end of the year.
Mod
One of my favourite book!!! Becky is one of my favourite "un-heroine" ever!!!
LauraT wrote: "Pam wrote: "I am reading Vanity Fair...."One of my favourite book!!! Becky is one of my favourite "un-heroine" ever!!!"
Yay! Glad to hear that Laura! My husband has been pushing me to read it. Now that I am done with my 52 book challenge, I have some free time to settle into a long classic. If I can get through it, which I believe I can, then I'm going to tackle Middlemarch next.
LauraT wrote: "Pam wrote: "I am reading Vanity Fair...."One of my favourite book!!! Becky is one of my favourite "un-heroine" ever!!!"
Mine too! I also found Thackeray's comments to the reader very funny.
Mod
And Middlemarch is my George Eliot's favourite!!! Great books, both of them; excellent choice!
Leslie wrote: "Mine too! I also found Thackeray's comments to ..."
Probably the best part of the book!!!
I have also been finding Samuel Butler's comments to the reader (disguised as narrator Overton) in The Way of All Flesh pretty funny in an extremely ironic way. For example:"Goodness is naught unless it tends towards old age and sufficiency of means. I speak broadly and exceptis excipiendis. So the psalmist says, 'The righteous shall not lack anything that is good.' Either this is mere poetical license, or it follows that he who lacks anything that is good is not righteous; there is a presumption also that he who has passed a long life without lacking anthing that is good has himself also been good enough for practical purposes." or
"The world has long ago settle that morality and virtue are what bring men peace at last. 'Be virtuous,' says the copy-book, 'and you will be happy.' Surely if a reputed virtue fails often in this respect it is only an insidious form of vice, and if a reputed vice brings no very serious mischief on a man's later years it is not so bad a vice as it is said to be. Unfortunately though we are all of a mind about the main opinion that virtue is what tends to happiness, and vice what ends in sorrow, we are not so unanimous about details -- that is to say as to whether any given course, such, we will say, as smoking, has a tendency to happiness or the reverse."
Decided change of pace from the last one. Now reading Silver by Chris Hammer. Another ARC from the publisher.
I have started reading A Great Love of Small Proportion by Colin Falconer. It's a love tale set in medieval Spain.
Esther wrote: "Karin wrote: "Joan wrote: "Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The women..."
Yes, I can see that. Overall I am not usually a fan of classic scifi--it's dated. I can't watch any Star Trek where they have computer monitors with older type TV screens now that flat screen have been around, etc. But then, I'm not a big fan of older movies and TV show as a rule and only like a small percentage of antiques. That said, there are many older things I like in other areas like art and architecture as well as certain types of classic books.
Mod
Esther wrote: "I am reading Fahrenheit 451.Like so much older science fiction it has some great ideas but is a slow read because it feels so dated. The women are hysterical and/or insipid and there i..."
I’m listening to a decidedly dated vampire novel, Carmilla. I feel like Jo March in the attic reading 19th century gothic horror. I’m listening to a dramatization through audible originals. It is very good.
A lighthearted book after Chemistry, which I enjoyed a lot. Reminded me of my own graduate school experience. I enjoyed the quirky writing style, the understated humor and found the narrator charming. BUT, it left me feeling like a racist because I so easily bought into the overly demanding Chinese parents meme.
Joan wrote: "I’m listening to a decidedly dated vampire novel, Carmilla..."That looks like a fantastic narration. I am not really into audio books but some seem incredibly appealing.
About to start
Her Dark Heart by Carla Kovach after finishing the cleverly compelling
The Perfect Widow by A.M. Castle. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and my webpage sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
About to start reading
When the Time Comes by Adele O'Neill after finishing the disappointing
Her Dark Heart by Carla Kovach. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my webpage sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
B. P. wrote: "Two poetry books: Color by Countee Cullen & The Aeneid by Virgil."I liked The Aeneid but more for the story than the poetry.
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