What Are You Reading Now? Showing 601-650 of 2,435

[Richard]

Having finished Paradise Lost, I'm going to the other (moral) extreme, and have just bought Don Juan.

[Richard]

I've got North and South on my bookshelves, and may well be prompted to deviate from my anti-woke policy of only reading dead white male authors.

[Natalie]

Richard - I just read Don Juan last year and loved it so much. It was my first Moliere.

I plan on reading Paradise Lost this year.

[Richard]

Natalie wrote: "Richard - I just read Don Juan last year and loved it so much. It was my first Moliere.

I plan on reading Paradise Lost this year."

Hi Natalie. I was referring to the Lord Byron Don Juan. That said, I speak sub-fluent French and have read and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of Moliere's plays - L'Avarre in particular.

[CORSAK fan]

Currently reading Don Quixote. So far, so very good!

[Dave]

I have started and well along in the first of my 2022 Challenge, [Frankenstein]. Meanwhile, I am working on finishing books and series of books I started in 2021. [War and Peace], [Portrait of a Lady], and [Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil]. Among the series I need to finish are the last novel in the [Lonesome Dove] Quartet, the last three novels of [Dance to the Music of Time], and the last three novels of [The Chronicles of Barsetshire].

[Natalie]

Richard - Ah. Got it. :)

[Lynn, New School Classics]

Richard wrote: "I've got North and South on my bookshelves, and may well be prompted to deviate from my anti-woke policy of only reading dead white male authors."

LOL

[Richard]

Dave wrote: "I have started and well along in the first of my 2022 Challenge, [Frankenstein]. Meanwhile, I am working on finishing books and series of books I started in 2021. [War and Peace], [Portrait of a La..."

If you've enjoyed DttMoT as much as I did, allow me to suggest [book:Alms For Oblivion Volume I|13657312].

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

ALLEN wrote: "Two movie tie-ins: Finally read M*A*S*H, which I've been intending to read since the Seventies, and picked up Vera Caspary's LAURA."

I never though of MASH as a book. How did you like it Allen?

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the basis for the iconic Michael Caine film:


Get Carter by Ted Lewis
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading my first Maugham, a book I have been meaning to read for a long, long time:


The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

[Fadime]

I've finished The Gambler and between Classics now I'm reading HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban, next stop will be The Old Curiosity Shop ✨

[Cynda]

I am rereading The Prince and Other Writings by Niccolò Machiavelli for a warrior study I am working on.
.

I am also reading Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier
.

And tomorrow I plan to start reading
The Sorceress: A Study in Middle Age Superstition by Jules Michelet

[Natalie]

My favorite HP! 🧙🏼‍♂️ I 💙 Sirius!

[Dave]

January was a record reading month for me. I finished 16 books, listening to 237 hours of audio.

Below are books I am reading, just starting, currently reading, or almost finished. The”category” of the book is in parenthesis. In most, the book after the dash is the next book up in each category..

1. The Small House in Allington - Can You Forgive Her (The Last of Chronicle of Barset / First of the Pallister series (Trollope Sequels)
2. Master Commander - Post Captain (Patrick O’Brien Sequels)
3. Biography of General Sheridan (History & Biography)
4. War and Peace - The Idiot (Feb Group Read/Old Bookshelf)
5. The Master and Margarita - Nausea (Feb Group Read/New Bookshelf)
6. The Poems of T. S. Eliot - (Poems)
7. He Knew He Was Right - (2022 Challenge)
8. Dead Souls - The Life of the Mind (2022 Challenge)
9. The Custom of the Country - East of Eden (2022 Challenge)
10. The Illiad - To the Lighthouse (2022 Challenge)
11. The Streets of Laredo - The Hobbit (Reader’s Choice)
12. The Complete Short Stories of Edgar Allen Poe -(Short Stories)
13. The Dance to the Music of Time Volume IV (Novels 10, 11, 12: End of series)

[Lynn, New School Classics]

Dave wrote: "January was a record reading month for me. I finished 16 books, listening to 237 hours of audio.

Below are books I am reading, just starting, currently reading, or almost finished. The”category” o..."

Wow!! You really had a productive month.

[Dave]

Lynn wrote: "Dave wrote: "January was a record reading month for me. I finished 16 books, listening to 237 hours of audio.

Below are books I am reading, just starting, currently reading, or almost finished. Th..."

An alignment of the stars - a 31 day month, my wife out of town 21 days, no medical appointments, I don’t watch tv. So I could indulge my innate introvert reading passion 6-10 hours a day. I doubt another such a month will come around in a long while.

[Greg]

Dave wrote: "January was a record reading month for me. I finished 16 books, listening to 237 hours of audio.

Below are books I am reading, just starting, currently reading, or almost finished. The”category” o..."

A productive month and some great books too! Which one was your favorite Dave?

[Dave]

Greg wrote: "Dave wrote: "January was a record reading month for me. I finished 16 books, listening to 237 hours of audio.

Below are books I am reading, just starting, currently reading, or almost finished. Th..."

Greg, of the books I finished last month, I would say Frankenstein (the book has nothing to do with 20th century movies and very profound). A Portrait of a Lady by James (My first James other than the Turn of the Screw). I usually listen to ~ 2 hours of a book and then move to the next. But with Portrait of a Lady I through that rule out and binge read the last quarter of the book. Lonesome Dove, the third in the Lonesome Dove Quartet, Dr Thorn and Framley Parsonage by Trollope, the third and fourth novels in the Barcetshire Chronicles series. Love stories to rival Austin and Jane Eyre in the midst of Trollope’s witty satire of all things Victorian. Persuasion, the last of Austin’s novels and Jane Eyre.

Of the current books listed War and Peace and The Illiad stand out. I never expected to ever get around to either. But both are now available on Audible in excellent new translations by women, sisters for W&P and Caroline Alexander for the Illiad. W&P is read by Thandiwe Newton, a British actress who read Jane Erye last month.

I was intrigued how War and Peace would “work” being narrated by a woman, but she is an excellent reader. Since Tolstoy’s main theme is the horror and futility of war, I am finding hearing it read by a woman captures that point with great poignancy.

[Greg]

Dave wrote: "Greg wrote: "Dave wrote: "January was a record reading month for me. I finished 16 books, listening to 237 hours of audio.

Below are books I am reading, just starting, currently reading, or almost..."

Frankenstein is a wonderful book Dave, and I agree; it has a surprising philosophical depth! I'm a big fan of Trollope as well.

And I've found I connect with a lot of Greek and Roman classics too. I am reading The Aeneid right now, and it is on track for 4-5 stars . . . very affecting. I liked the Iliad as well. And I was surprised how much the three short plays in The Oedipus Cycle moved me. They were beautifully translated by Fitts and Fitzgerald.

I like what you say about the Audible version of War and Peace too and will check that out! With work and other things, my reading time is a bit limited but I would love to listen to it one day!

[Richard]

I'm reading the Byron Don Juan, and have finished the 5th Canto.

[Dave]

Greg wrote: "Dave wrote: "Greg wrote: "Dave wrote: "January was a record reading month for me. I finished 16 books, listening to 237 hours of audio.

Below are books I am reading, just starting, currently readi..."

After years of procrastination, I have reserved a genre slot in my reading plan for the “ancient classics.”

A devoted reader in college, my career was in the Navy and I didn’t read a book for decades for lack of time between work and family.

With books that I anticipate highlighting, I read the Kindle edition while listening. I highlighted most of Frankenstein.

[Dave]

“Greg wrote: "Dave wrote: "Greg wrote: "Dave wrote: "January was a record reading month for me. I finished 16 books, listening to 237 hours of audio.

Below are books I am reading, just starting, currently readi..."

After years of procrastination, I have reserved a genre slot in my reading plan for the “ancient classics.”

A devoted reader in college, my career was in the Navy and I didn’t read a book for decades for lack of time between work and family.

With books that I anticipate highlighting, I read the Kindle edition while listening. I highlighted most of Frankenstein.

[Dave]

Richard wrote: "I'm reading the Byron Don Juan, and have finished the 5th Canto."

That’s on my To read list, are you enjoying it?

[Richard]

Dave wrote: "Richard wrote: "I'm reading the Byron Don Juan, and have finished the 5th Canto."

That’s on my To read list, are you enjoying it?"

Yes I think so. The formalist in me slightly recoils from some of the liberties Byron takes with meter and rhyme. I write mostly sonnet and heroic couplet, so the ottava rima is slightly outside my comfort zone, albeit in a good way.

I think it's instructive to view Byron, and the Romantics quite generally, as Anglicised variations on the theme of the poetes maudits - Baudelaire, Verlaine et al. On this basis, I've quite enjoyed Byron.

I've been reading DJ as part of a project to read some of the enduring classics of verse: I recently read the Canterbury Tales and Paradise Lost. I may start grappling next with e.g. Donne.

[Dave]

Richard wrote: "Dave wrote: "Richard wrote: "I'm reading the Byron Don Juan, and have finished the 5th Canto."

That’s on my To read list, are you enjoying it?"

Yes I think so. The formalist in me slightly recoil..."

I’ve read/ listened to Canterbury Tales and have owned Dante’s Paradise Lost for years with good intentions.

The French Symbolist Poets have been close to my heart since college. Although I still feel comfortable with Shakespeare through the Romantics, my focus as I get older is Twentieth Century.

A couple of years ago we moved and I made a massive edit of my library. I went through the process very quickly making snap decisions.

I donated thousands of pounds of books of literature, history, biography, beach reads, science and philosophy to the public library. When I set up my still substantial quantity of remaining books in small book cases in various rooms of the new house, I was intrigued that what unconsciously remained was my poetry and short story collections.

[Wreade1872]

Greg wrote: "I am reading The Aeneid right now, and it is on track for 4-5 stars . . . ver"

I like the version of Aeneid on poetryintranslation it uses various classical artworks as illustrations
https://www.poetryintranslation.com/P... .

Note: If you open the images in a newtab you can get them to show at full size. If you try to read the downloadable version your only going to have the smaller resized images.

[Greg]

Wreade1872 wrote: "Greg wrote: "I am reading The Aeneid right now, and it is on track for 4-5 stars . . . ver"

I like the version of Aeneid on poetryintranslation it uses various classical artworks as illustrations ..."

Thanks Wreade1872, love the art!

[Wreade1872]

Finished The Locusts Have No King by Dawn Powell [3/5] review and Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett [3/5] review

***************************
Still reading Its Not about the Burqa and Sten

[Richard]

Dave wrote: "Richard wrote: "Dave wrote: "Richard wrote: "I'm reading the Byron Don Juan, and have finished the 5th Canto."

That’s on my To read list, are you enjoying it?"

Yes I think so. The formalist in me..."

I'm on the DJ 9th Canto now. Still enjoying it, despite the digressions and the occasional tendency to descend into doggerel.

I speak subfluent French, and a few years ago wrote the sonnet below, which got published in the French Literary Review. It's basically an extended metaphor about my mounting ennui as I approached the conclusion of a project to write one more sonnet than Shakespeare, i.e. 155 vs Shakespeare's 154. This being 141, at the time of writing I had 15 left. Hence line 5's "Il en reste quinze encore"-

Sonnet 141
Après avoir ces cent quarante écrits,
je suis épuisé et me considère
une langue craquée léchante, dedans, un puits
empli d’une boue visqueuse, d’une croûte grossière.
Il en reste quinze encore, coincés, cachés:
des crapauds rotants que les murs moussus
font résonner. Enfin, bloquée, fâchée,
la langue, toute sèche et vulgaire devenue,
va bifurquer, et désormais siffler.
Chaque midi, pour un instant, le soleil
éclaire cette vie grimpante - viens regarder!
Voilà en bas, frétillante et vermeille,
la langue, les crapauds fugitifs, la chasse
avant que l’ombre couvre la disgrâce.

[Dave]

Marvelous! I don’t have the courage to speak french to the French, but I read it passably. It did remind me of Shakespeare. I found the contrast between the “exhausted” description of the tongue in the first four lines with the hopeful but resigned ending of the last three lines Shakespearean.

[Richard]

Thanks Dave, I'm humbled by your praise. My own French is very rusty these days. I had to look up several words while composing my sonnet, and got it proofread by a Walloon upon completion. He looked somewhat askance at the occurrence of "dedans", but I remain steadfast in my insistence that embedding it inside commas licenses the usage.

It is technically speaking a conventional Shakespearean sonnet, in view of the strict iambic pentameter meter and the Shakespearean abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme, but there I think the comparison exhausts itself.

[Wreade1872]

Finished Sten by Chris Bunch [2/5] review and
Its Not about the Burqa by Mariam Khan et al [4/5] review

[Dave]

Richard wrote: "Thanks Dave, I'm humbled by your praise. My own French is very rusty these days. I had to look up several words while composing my sonnet, and got it proofread by a Walloon upon completion. He look..."

I cheated and used a translation app and then formatted it into sonnet lines. I use this app frequently and it has become very reliable.

I have not had anyone to talk about iambic pentameter sonnet form since college lit.

[Dave]

Finished “The Streets of Laredo” this morning, finishing the Lonesome Dove Quartet” in chronological sequence of the story line. Posted a review.

I am currently reading or listening on audio:
1. “The Iliad”, Caroline Alexander translation (Baker’s Dozen 2022 Challenges)
2. “Nausea”, (February Group Read)
3. “A Small House in Allington”, fifth of Trollope’s The Barsetshire Chronicles sextet which I am reading through.
4. “Temporary Kings” the eleventh of Anthony Powell’s twelve novels that make up “Dance to the Music of Time”.
5. “Edgar Allen Poe - The Complete Stories” (personal challenge to read more short stories).
6. “Dead Souls” (Baker’s Dozen 2022 Challenges).
7. “Ghosts of Bungo Suido” by P.T. Deutermann, second in a series of six novels about the U.S. Navy in WWII (Historical fiction).
8. “The Master and Margareta” (I got a late start on this January Group Read).
9. “Warlock” by Jim Harrison (Contemporary American Fiction).
10. “The Idiot” (February Group Read).
11. “The Beautiful and the Damned” by Scott Fitzgerald (Baker’s Dozen 2022 Challenges).
12. “The Custom of the Country”, Edith Wharton (Baker’s Dozen 2022 Challenges).
13. “War and Peace” Maude sister’s translation, read by Thandiwe Newton (Group Bookshelf).

I am about to finish several of the above and have dowloaded the following to begin:
1. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Truman Capote (Group Bookshelf).
2. “Les Miserables” (Group Bookshelf)
3. “East of Eden” (Baker’s Dozen 2022 Challenges)
4. “The Wasteland & Four Quartets” (Feb Group Read)
5. “The Call of the Wild” (Group Bookshelf)
6. “El Norte, The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America” (Baker’s Dozen 2022 Personal Challenges)
7. “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” (Fun Read)

[[deleted user]]

Currently reading Vanity Fair.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

Currently reading the 1837 edition list of Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I am reading Volume 1 which consists of 18 stories. The expanded 1851 version had 39 stories, which included the original 18.

I can see why critics of that day were so impressed with him. His voice is so unlike anything else of the time and a world apart from modern authors. His subject matter and themes in particular are far from what we read today. I am really blown away by this collection. He wrote "historical fiction" before it was a thing. He was 100 years removed from the time he often wrote of. He wrote with understanding of the mind of the colonists and Puritans in particular with just enough distance to give some perspective. For example, these tales are vastly different from say La Dame aux Camélias

[Dave]

I finished “The Master and Margarita”. I rated it four stars. I found it a fun read but did not understand any satire or parody.

[Dave]

I started “Post Captain”, the second of Patrick O’Brien’s John Aubry British Navy series of the earlt 19th Century.

[Franky]

Currently going back to read a childhood favorite, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

[Franky]

Lynn wrote: "Currently reading the 1837 edition list of Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I am reading Volume 1 which consists of 18 stories. The expanded 1851 version had 39 s..."

Interesting. I've read some Hawthorne, but haven't gotten to that one yet. I just remember seeing the old cheesy Vincent Price adaptations on TCM every now and then. I agree that he has a different voice and style. Not everyone likes it, but that is what makes his writing original.

[Brian E]

Dave wrote: "“Warlock” by Jim Harrison (Contemporary American Fiction). "

I first thought you must have meant the Western classic Warlock by Oakley Hall but then I found out that Jim Harrison did write a non-Western novel called Warlock. Interesting.

[Natalie]

Dave - That's how I felt about The Master and Margarita too.

[Darrell]

Lynn wrote: "Currently reading the 1837 edition list of Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I am reading Volume 1 which consists of 18 stories. The expanded 1851 version had 39 s..."

Lynn wrote: "Currently reading the 1837 edition list of Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I am reading Volume 1 which consists of 18 stories. The expanded 1851 version had 39 s..."

twice told tales is terrible.. total waste of time..

[Luffy Sempai]

Darrell wrote: "twice told tales is terrible.. total waste of time.."

I agree. And I've not even read the book.

[Ross]

Just finished reading The Stranger by Albert Camus today. Not sure what to start next, possibly The Great Gatsby as that's been on my list for a while now.

[Nente]

Just finished The Loyal Subject by Heinrich Mann, and felt it was so far removed from anything I can relate to, that I can't even honestly say I'm glad to have read it.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

Darrell wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Currently reading the 1837 edition list of Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I am reading Volume 1 which consists of 18 stories. The expanded 1851 ver..."

Disagree. Obviously. And I am disagreeing politely.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

Luffy wrote: "Darrell wrote: "twice told tales is terrible.. total waste of time.."

I agree. And I've not even read the book."

Of course, this group is just for fun. I was just stating something I enjoy.

[Luffy Sempai]

Lynn wrote: "Luffy wrote: "Darrell wrote: "twice told tales is terrible.. total waste of time.."

I agree. And I've not even read the book."

Of course, this group is just for fun. I was just stating something ..."

Got it :)