The Obscure Reading Group discussion

27 views
Reeds in the Wind > Reeds in the Wind Pre-Discussion (June Selection)

Comments Showing 1-34 of 34 (34 new)    post a comment »
dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Ken (new)

Ken | 797 comments Mod
This discussion thread is a place for background info on and preparation for the ORG's June selection, Reeds in the Wind by Grazia Deledda.


message 2: by Plateresca (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments I've just read the author's bio on Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grazia_...
She seems to have been a very interesting lady, having published her first short story at the age of 13 while her 'family wasn't particularly supportive of her desire to write.' She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1926, and she had a pet crow.
'Canne al vento' was published in 1913 and it's her most popular book.

I had it in my wishlist for a long time, but since I was always meaning to read it in Italian and my Italian is not that good, I kept postponing it. So many thanks to the person who nominated it! Now is the time, then.

I might switch to the English translation later on if I find the language too difficult; and it's likely I won't be ready to discuss the book by the 1st of June. But I am looking forward to reading it and discussing it with you.


message 3: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments Now to find it.


message 4: by Cherisa (new)

Cherisa B (cherisab) | 132 comments My library didn’t have it available as a paper copy nor on Libby, but the Kindle version on Amazon was $10 so I sprang for it. Hopefully you have better luck.


message 5: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments My library consortium doesn’t have it and I haven’t planned to buy it. Have to see if it’s available any other way.


message 6: by Plateresca (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments There's this cheap e-book here:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/reed...
But I'm not acquainted with Nook, so I don't know whether it's convenient to read it from a computer screen.


message 7: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments That’s interesting, Plateresca. I used to have the Nook app on my iPad but never used it so I deleted it. I think I will add it back for this.

When I looked for the book through the Goodreads page which has a library checker, the closest public library was New York Public Library and there were 5 or 6 colleges and universities in Massachusetts that have it. I don’t know how easy it is to obtain a book from them. I think I will do the B & N route. Thanks for this. I saw they had the print but not this.


message 8: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments I just added the nook app back to my iPad and bought the book. Thanks so much for this info. I’m trying to be extra good for the next few months at least. Just had a new air conditioner put in my car last week! So eek! Even the pennies look good right now.


message 9: by BarbaraW (new)

BarbaraW | 35 comments It’s on Amazon but is $20. Yikes!


message 10: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments If you have a device that can load the nook app, $1.99 is definitely a great price.
I looked up used prices at bookfinder.com and , if I remember correctly, the cheapest was about $13.95 plus shipping for any available copy anywhere.


message 11: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments I have just submitted some information to try to get the Nook edition added to Goodreads book list as it wasn’t there when I looked tonight.


message 12: by Plateresca (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments Sue, I'm happy this worked! And thank you for taking the trouble to submit the info to GR!


message 13: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments You’re welcome. It’s in the works now and hopefully will be added soon.


message 14: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments You won’t believe what I have been going through to get the Nook copy added to Goodreads. Email has been going back and forth since my last message. I don’t know if they are being purposefully obtuse or what. Probably they would prefer that no one knows that B&N undercuts Amazon’s Kindle price by $8.00.


message 15: by Plateresca (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments How unpleasant :( I'm very sorry for this. Thank you for your efforts, anyway!


message 16: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments Well my last response was to say that I had not provided enough information and he was ending the communication. I then sent him more proof that the changes he said were made have not been made. If he does not respond, I plan to begin again with the screenshots I have and hopefully I will get another person. Apparently this one only tested the links on the test screen he created not on the book’s GR page which doesn’t have the B&N Nook book as of this morning. I guess I can recheck to see if he ever did the real thing.

I have never run into anything like this before In trying to add a new edition of a book. Now it’s become a bit of a cause for me.


message 17: by Plateresca (last edited May 19, 2023 04:11AM) (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments I definitely wish you luck in this battle! And I'm very sorry it's so time-consuming.


message 18: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments Well, if worse comes to worse, those who have this edition can see if there is another ebook already on GR list that fits the bill or use the kindle version as their edition even though it’s incorrect.

Thanks for your support. Plateresca. Have to admit this has frustrated me because it should be so easy for someone who works with computers all the time, like the librarians at GR.


message 19: by Ken (last edited May 19, 2023 05:30PM) (new)

Ken | 797 comments Mod
What's weird is Amazon sells a $9.99 Kindle version but they also sell a $1.99 one (maybe a different translator?).

https://www.amazon.com/Reeds-Wind-Gra...


message 20: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments That is supposed to be the Nook book, Ken. The guy I was working with here at Goodreads worked up a page for a kindle book that doesn’t exist as far as I can work out. That’s what I was trying to point out to him. This is the full description, picture etc that I sent him for the Barnes & Noble ebook but he somehow didn’t notice that this says kindle.

And he said there is a working link on the book’s page to the nook book. There isn’t. After he cut me off, I tried sending him more evidence. If he doesn’t respond, and he probably won’t, I guess I will try again. Hopefully he won’t respond.


message 21: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments Well now I know what’s been happening during all those emails. Amazon or Ismaaeel decided to have their own low cost copy of this book. I just bought it to check if it’s real and it is. Now I have both. I’m thinking Ismaaeel was being deliberately confusing and confused with me while this was set up. Is this legal? I think it has all the same information as the B&N copy from a quick look.

I know GR is owned by Amazon but this is ridiculous.

Oh well, now I have two copies. Better return the kindle copy even though I like reading on the kindle.


message 22: by Plateresca (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments How weird!


message 23: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments Isn’t it! Hard to see it as anything other than Amazon creating a cheap alternative to counter B&N’s Nook book which the GR librarian steadfastly refused to do. Instead he added this telling me it was what I had asked for. I kept telling him that it was for kindle not nook which I had already bought and that the kindle edition was a different price and cover. Little did I know that they were creating a new Amazon book with my information.

Well, guess I’d better return the kindle copy even though it’s easier to read.


message 24: by Plateresca (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments Yes, it does look like that, and it's very unpleasant, the dishonesty of this in particular.


message 25: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments Well he has written back again, blaming me for not having an updated app or website. Suggested I try Chrome if I’m using IOS, etc. well I just did try looking at the website using Chrome on my iPad and there is no ebook listed at B&N. Being a totally separate person from me on a different system, have you looked recently to see if you can find the book through Goodreads, Plateresca? Just in case there IS an issue related to my using my iPad.


message 26: by BarbaraW (new)

BarbaraW | 35 comments Hey. I finished it. That’s all I’m saying.


message 27: by Kathleen (new)

Kathleen | 383 comments Mod
Sue wrote: "Well he has written back again, blaming me for not having an updated app or website. Suggested I try Chrome if I’m using IOS, etc. well I just did try looking at the website using Chrome on my iPad..."

Sue, I'm on the desktop version, using Chrome, and searching for a nook edition I get this:
"There are no editions with format Nook."

As if it wasn't frustrating enough, all you've gone through to try to do this, and then they blame you? Shameful.


message 28: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments Thanks for that information, Kathleen. I’ve used the different versions on my iPad but wondered if it looked any different to people on other devices. I appreciate that it doesn’t. He wants screenshots from me that I have already sent him. I think I will just have to give up since he keeps asking me to find things that don’t exist.


message 29: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments Well! I finally found what this guy has created and it makes no sense. If you look the page for the book up, and I did it on chrome just in case, there’s a little note below the titles that says show all titles. I clicked on that…something I rarely if ever do. And near the bottom of 13 or 14 titles was this ebook.

I took a screenshot and told him what was wrong with what he had done. (He told me he could/would not help me without a screenshot). I guess these guys don’t understand actual language as I kept asking him to test the site himself.


message 30: by Plateresca (last edited May 23, 2023 03:00AM) (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments Sue, wow, what a nuisance!

I live in Spain, so what I get are links to the Spanish Amazon (where the Kindle still costs 9,99 €), and IberLibro which is the Spanish version of AbeBooks. 'Book Links' doesn't work at all, and for 'other editions' I get a list of 15 pages! Should I make a screenshot of anything?


message 31: by Plateresca (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments Barbara, this is nice to know :)
I'm still ploughing through the Italian version, but will soon switch to the English one for the rest of the book to finish it.


message 32: by Sue (new)

Sue | 255 comments I don’t think it will make any difference at this point. I have a feeling he thinks he’s done his job. As I said to him, though, no one looking for this book is going to look beyond that first entry and it still doesn’t link through the book’s page which has some 400+ copies, at least not through Nook.

He hasn’t responded to my message from yesterday so I have had it with him. If I knew some other way to complain I would but I guess this is just the way things are.

Anyway, I started reading tonight so that’s better than dealing with that guy.

It’s been fun chatting with you. Thanks for the support.


message 33: by Ginny (new)

Ginny (burmisgal) | 73 comments While looking for information on the setting in Sardinia, I found this story about the Redeemer statue Efix sees in Nuoro.

At the foot of the rock formation on which the statue is placed, there is a plaque dedicated to Luisa Countess Pompeati Jerace, wife of the sculptor, who died in April 1901, while her husband was engaged in the construction of the monument. [5] . Legend has it that she died at the sight of the statue, impressed by its size. On the tombstone, under the profile of the woman , we can read the verses attributed to Grazia Deledda :
Statue seen from the granite altar

To Luisa Jerace

« Nuorese women candid
old shepherds wandering
workers lost in the aulente valley
To all of you who at
evening's cerulean
fall turn your praying eyes towards the immense altar
of Ortobene and the bronze
Redeemer rising
Among rosy clouds offer your heart
remember the tender
woman who over the sea
inspired the craftsman for you and now, released from her
mortal veils, chosen spirit
beyond the shining skies
offers the flower of prayer to the Redeemer »

I sardi 1905





From https://fr.itpedia.wiki/100/Statua_de...

Has anyone been to Sardinia?


message 34: by Plateresca (new)

Plateresca | 126 comments Ginny, thank you, this is very interesting!

I haven't been to Sardinia, but I was just thinking yesterday that reading the book really transports us there, doesn't it?


back to top