What are we reading? 25/09/2023

[Bill]

Berkley wrote: "I don't think I'd heard of him at all until now. Looking up his wiki page, I might try Melancholia I, a novel about 19th-century Norwegian artist Lars Hertevig"

I know the "I" likely makes the title an allusion to the Dürer engraving, but it seems that some variation on that title might be used for the majority of works by Scandinavian artists (including just about the entire oeuvre of Ingmar Bergman).

This is not necessarily a negative for me - I recently considered reading The Anatomy of Melancholy as my next classic book (but rejected the idea, at least for the present) - but I'm nevertheless unlikely to read Fosse.

[AB76]

Is there a perfect length of book? Over the last 2-3 years i seem to favour the 250-300 pager, not short but not overly long

I have become wary of the 450+ volumes without any real scientifc basis for this mind you, though i do see flabbiness as an enemy in longer volumes

i guess we all maybe worship or did worship at the altar of the "big book" at one stage.....

my longest book this year was Z by Vassilikos(404 pages) and it was possibly the most disappointing book of the year, though politically fascinating and regionally interestng too

[Berkley]

Bill wrote: "I know the "I" likely makes the title an allusion to the Dürer engraving, but it seems that some variation on that title might be used for the majority of works by Scandinavian artists (including just about the entire oeuvre of Ingmar Bergman).

This is not necessarily a negative for me - I recently considered reading The Anatomy of Melancholy as my next classic book (but rejected the idea, at least for the present) - but I'm nevertheless unlikely to read Fosse."

The Anatomy isn't necessarily as melancholy as its title would suggest, at least not all the time. It's quite spirited for long passages, with Burton going off on some highly entertaining and eloquent rants against various targets. I'd like to read it again soon but I'm trying to be conscientious and keep my re-reading to a minimum until I catch up on various projects.

[Bill]

NY Times Gift link: Jon Fosse’s Books Seek and Find the Divine
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/05/bo...

I have for years been an evangelist for Fosse, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. And “evangelizing” is an apt word, given the vibrant, mirror-dark religious feeling of his books. Fosse converted to Catholicism in 2012, when he was already a well-established playwright and fiction writer in his native Norway, which celebrates Fosse with a biannual festival dedicated to his work. (The most recent took place this past summer, over 12 days.) His international stature and popularity in a generally secular country is a strong indicator that Fosse’s books aren’t just for the faithful: Indeed, many religiously minded readers of the Chesterton, Lewis and Tolkien club may be put off by Fosse’s formal and stylistic demands, and also by his obscure, at times even willfully inchoate writing about human and divine life.

The article didn’t do much to persuade me to give Fosse a try: he seems like another in a line of Catholic convert authors who make their faith the central theme in their work. Perhaps it’s because the process of conversion formed the major drama in their own lives that they feel the need to dwell on the nature of their faith.

I do have a hard time understanding how anyone could convert as recently as Fosse did, at a time that the full extent of the Catholic clergy’s child abuse and the cover up carried out by the church hierarchy had pretty much been brought to light. “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”

[Berkley]

If his work is mainly preoccupied with religion that would make it less interesting to me though it wouldn't necessarily make me rule out giving something a try some day. I've found myself enjoying writers like Dostoevsky, Graham Greene, Muriel Spark in spite of their religious themes so it's possible Fosse could have something for me. But I admit that hearing about this in advance moves him farther down my tentative think-about-trying-something-sometime list.

[AB76]

i cannot recommend An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasili Grossman (1962) more it combines all the best of non-fiction, humour, history, serious thinking and commentary on a nation alien to the writer. Vasily Grossman is well known here i'm sure and i'm loving this book

he was an old man and not well when writing it but its a superb soviet era read and with the current events in the Caucasas(Nagorno-Karabakh), Armenia is in my thoughts

[Alan]

Hi. I'm a writer and editor (and English teacher). My reading's become a little scattered recently - I find that I'm reading several books at the same time - so I thought I'd join Goodreads, and a few Goodreads groups, in order to encourage me to be a bit more focused. My plan is to review each book I read and then drop a comment here (I presume sharing reviews isn't encouraged) to mark the occasion and perhaps inspire a few discussions. Does that sound OK?

[AB76]

SouthEaster by Haroldo Conti(1962) is a superb read so far, set in the Parana Delta wetlands north of Buenos Aires, next to the River Plate

Conti gives you a world of open water, then small islands and tiny channels between dense, reed and willow filled banks. Boga, a canecutter and delta fisherman, sets off on his own to travel the delta in a small rowing boat. Conti lets events happen with very little commentary, Boga is not a great thinker, he is a doer and he knows how to live and survive on the marshland that he calls his home.

I love novels like this and the watery setting too, novels of water and wetlands, marshes or the areas that meet the sea are not common and this novel is soaked in the smells, sounds and seasons of the Parana Delta. Occasionally the tall towers of the capital are glimpsed if he travels south but mainly he is heading away from life and people.

[AB76]

Alan wrote: "Hi. I'm a writer and editor (and English teacher). My reading's become a little scattered recently - I find that I'm reading several books at the same time - so I thought I'd join Goodreads, and a ..."

welcome to Ersatz TLS Alan!

[Alan]

AB76 wrote: "Alan wrote: "Hi. I'm a writer and editor (and English teacher). My reading's become a little scattered recently - I find that I'm reading several books at the same time - so I thought I'd join Good..."

Thank you.

[giveusaclue]

Alan wrote: "Hi. I'm a writer and editor (and English teacher). My reading's become a little scattered recently - I find that I'm reading several books at the same time - so I thought I'd join Goodreads, and a ..."

Welcome to the group Alan

[Alan]

giveusaclue wrote: "Alan wrote: "Hi. I'm a writer and editor (and English teacher). My reading's become a little scattered recently - I find that I'm reading several books at the same time - so I thought I'd join Good..."

Thanks.

[AB76]

well covid has got me now, almost three years and i avoided it, but just tested positive

feel ok right now, had an on ok day with sniffles but lets see what happens in next few days....

[Paul]

AB76 wrote: "well covid has got me now, almost three years and i avoided it, but just tested positive

feel ok right now, had an on ok day with sniffles but lets see what happens in next few days...."

Dang, sorry to hear it. Get well soon

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "well covid has got me now, almost three years and i avoided it, but just tested positive

feel ok right now, had an on ok day with sniffles but lets see what happens in next few days...."

Hope you get off lightly AB

[AB76]

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "well covid has got me now, almost three years and i avoided it, but just tested positive

feel ok right now, had an on ok day with sniffles but lets see what happens in next few days....."

thanks, my 78yo parents had it last weekend but i havent been near them for almost 12 days, they did ok really, recovering now no real problems

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "well covid has got me now, almost three years and i avoided it, but just tested positive

feel ok right now, had an on ok day with sniffles but lets see what happens in next few days....."

i hope so too!

[Robert]

Alan wrote: "Hi. I'm a writer and editor (and English teacher). My reading's become a little scattered recently - I find that I'm reading several books at the same time - so I thought I'd join Goodreads, and a ..."

Sounds fine to me, pilgrim.

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: "well covid has got me now, almost three years and i avoided it, but just tested positive...."

Ah, we last hold-outs are succumbing. I hope you get off as lightly as I did (or preferably more so! ).

[Alan]

Robert wrote: "Alan wrote: "Hi. I'm a writer and editor (and English teacher). My reading's become a little scattered recently - I find that I'm reading several books at the same time - so I thought I'd join Good..."

Great. Thanks.

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "well covid has got me now, almost three years and i avoided it, but just tested positive...."

Ah, we last hold-outs are succumbing. I hope you get off as lightly as I did (or preferab..."

thanks GP. fatigue and aches but little else so far....paracetemol on hand...i hope it doesnt stop me reading....

[Tam]

Hope you recover soon AB. I feel like one of the few ‘hold outs’, Neither of us having succumbed so far, but I feel that we might well be running out of time, or luck, or whatever it takes, anyway I hope it passes gently through your body and your spirit retains its good grace…

[AB76]

Tam wrote: "Hope you recover soon AB. I feel like one of the few ‘hold outs’, Neither of us having succumbed so far, but I feel that we might well be running out of time, or luck, or whatever it takes, anyway ..."

thanks tam, i was the last person i know who hadnt caught it but that record is over now

i hope you do not get it!

[Gpfr]

Alan wrote: "Hi. I'm a writer and editor (and English teacher). My reading's become a little scattered recently - I find that I'm reading several books at the same time - so I thought I'd join Goodreads, and a ..."

Hello Alan, welcome.
Just to let you know, there is normally a new thread every 2 weeks, so tomorrow this one will be closed and a new one opened.

[Alan]

Gpfr wrote: "Alan wrote: "Hi. I'm a writer and editor (and English teacher). My reading's become a little scattered recently - I find that I'm reading several books at the same time - so I thought I'd join Good..."

OK. Thanks.

[MK]

CCCubbon wrote: "MK wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "MK wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "MK wrote: "I was late getting to my shower last night as I wanted to finish listening to The Secret Hours. I won't say much ..."

I think it must be my miserliness that keeps me away from an e-reader. I get a lot of books (including e-audio) from the library. The e-audio don't have a due date because I put them on a separate (no link) device so I can read them at my leisure.

I also am not a fan of Amazon and avoid it as much as I can.

[MK]

I don't know about other readers of mysteries here, but I have read so many that it is second nature for me to try to find the culprit as I read. I was so wrong and never saw the bad guy (sorry, it's often a guy) coming in Death Walks In Eastrepps. So if you like to do the same, I challenge you to read it.

[MK]

As we reach the demise of this thread, I am in a fishy state of mind. I've just put this book on hold at the library. You can read about it here - https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-...

And if you are a youtube person, you can watch this from OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) about the current state of the Klamath River which will soon return to a semblance of its former state after a many years battle. It will soon join the free flowing Elwha - Elwha: A River Reborn.

In my home town (Augusta, Maine) there was once the Edwards Dam (1837) which supplied power to now defunct mills along the Kennebec River. It was the first dam in the US to be removed.

[giveusaclue]

Not books as such, but BBC4 is running a Shakespeare series. Just watched a sketch of various actors arguing with each other as to how "to be or not to be" should be spoken, with King Charles coming on and showing them how it is done. It was really funny.

[AB76]

Covid update: just aches and an endless runny nose so far, nothing more which i am pleased with, lets see if the next 24 hrs cast me into a nastier state!

i havent had a jab since the first three that were universal as being under 50 with no underlying health conditions, i was never offered one.

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "Covid update: just aches and an endless runny nose so far, nothing more which i am pleased with, lets see if the next 24 hrs cast me into a nastier state!

i havent had a jab since the first three ..."

Totally different from my symptoms AB! I think my recent jab was No. 6 but am fast losing count.

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: "Covid update: just aches and an endless runny nose so far, nothing more which i am pleased with, lets see if the next 24 hrs cast me into a nastier state! ..."

I also had the runny nose, used a whole box of kleenex in a very short time. For me the first 2 days were the worst, so I hope it's the same for you and there's nothing more unpleasant to come.