So, What's On the Bedside Table these Days? -- Part 1

[Jan]

What an eclectic mix! There's no rhyme in all those surnames, that's for sure!

[Gail]

Sandybanks: Apparently that closet we were in is huge! I would also add "Death in the Stocks" and my favortie Heyer mystery: "Envious Casca". I still remember it fondly although I haven't read it in years. The phrase "sparklong dialogue" might have been invented to describe her mysteries. A most enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

So far "the Children's Book" is distinctly odd. Of course there's a disadvantage since I read "Possession" first, a book I counsider a masterpiece of the use of different voices within a single novel. That said, I'm enjoying the book, but not with that "Whoa! I can't put this down!" feeling that one gets sometimes. I'm glad I read the Nesbit book, as it helps to understand certain aspects of the novel, including the way it's written, if that is at all clear, which it may not be.

[Linda2]

When You're Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, and Far from the Madding Crowd, which I just finished. I just ordered The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climateby Nancy Mitford.

[Everyman]

Historybuff93 wrote: "Currently, I'm reading Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes; ..."

The Classics and the Western Canon group read Don Quixote last year. The posts are still available on the group site. You might be interested in skimming them.

[Grace Tjan]

Gail wrote: "Sandybanks: Apparently that closet we were in is huge! I would also add "Death in the Stocks" and my favortie Heyer mystery: "Envious Casca". I still remember it fondly although I haven't read it i..."

Gail, I had also read Possession before reading The Children's Book. I think Possession is much better as a novel. I thought that TCB could have benefited from some editing, but that's just me. : )

My review of TCB, if you're interested (beware of mild spoilers) :

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Will be interested to hear from you after you've finished it!

[Historybuff93]

The Classics and the Western Canon group read Don Quixote last year. The posts are still available on the group..."

I'll have to take a look at those. Thanks!

[Historybuff93]

Rochelle wrote: "When You're Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, and Far from the Madding Crowd, which I just finished. I just ordered The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climateby Nancy Mitford."

What did you think of Sedaris? I heard him on an NPR podcast the other day and he sounds like he has some interesting writing.

[Linda2]

Sedaris is one of the funniest men on earth, but I think his monologues go over better verbally than on the printed page, because of his comic timing. He's a nimble story-teller. Yet all 7 of his books are great best-sellers.

LOL. I might be in the minority here. I can read only one book at a time, although in the case of humorous monologues like Sedaris', or a book of poetry, I can intersperse it with another. But I can give my attention to only one novel at once.

[Historybuff93]

Picked up The Sound and the Fury and leisurly went through a bit of it tonight. It was so hard to read the first time! It seems a bit easier now, like things in it make a bit more sense.

[Linda2]

Stream of consciousness, again.

[Linda2]

I guess I'm unusual here. I read only one book at a time, and I have a backlog of only 6 books that I just bought at a book sale.

[[deleted user]]

Rochelle wrote: "I guess I'm unusual here. I read only one book at a time, and I have a backlog of only 6 books that I just bought at a book sale."

I do read multiple books at a time. For instance, I'm in the middle of Adam Bede, the Oresteia, a speculative fiction novel all for various book groups. Plus a few others: A year in Provence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and several pieces of brain candy. :) But my to-read list has subtle layers: things I will read next, things I will read within the next few months, things I'll read "soon", things I'll read "someday". The "someday" list is very large. The others are quite manageable.

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.), Founder]

I generally read one book at a time. I am reading Adam Bede, The Oresteia, and Wodehouses's The Code of the Woosters right now, for obvious reasons. I do maintain a list-- "In the Queue To-Be-Read" list that is approximately 20 some odd books.

[Everyman]

Rochelle wrote: "I guess I'm unusual here. I read only one book at a time, and I have a backlog of only 6 books that I just bought at a book sale."

OMG, how can one live that way? Only one book? And only six lined up on the TBR shelf? Is existence under such a situation possible?????

:))

[Linda2]

Everyman wrote:
OMG, how can one live that way? Only one book? ..."

LOL. I'm still working almost full time at 2 businesses. I also do all the shopping, laundry, cleaning, cooking, computer repair, vet visits, etc. I need a househusband.

Actually I just ordered 8 more for the TBR, but these are a backlog of what I have wanted to read in the past few years, except for financial considerations. But hey, I can still read only one at a time, so why keep a big TBR? Books will still be out there for sale in 8 or 10 months.

[[deleted user]]

Rochelle wrote: "Everyman wrote:
OMG, how can one live that way? Only one book? ..."

LOL. I'm still working almost full time at 2 businesses. I also do all the shopping, laundry, cleaning, cooking, computer repa..."

I find your attitude so refreshing, I only wish I could emulate it. It is the very uncertainty that the books I want to read will still be out there in 8 to 10 months at the price I want to pay that makes me tend to buy when I see them.

[Linda2]

David wrote: "I find your attitude so refreshing, It is the very uncertainty that the books I want to read will still be out there in 8 to 10 months at the price I want to pay that makes me tend to buy when I see them."

I buy only used paperbacks these days, but many folks prefer new hardbacks.

[Everyman]

Rochelle wrote: "I buy only used paperbacks these days, but many folks prefer new hardbacks. "

My preference is for used hardbacks when I can get them. But I find that most of the editions with really good notes are coming out in paperback, not hardback, today. Penguin Classics, Oxford World's Classics, Wordsworth Classics, Norton editions, Hackett, etc. all come out almost exclusively in paper. It's very hard to find a good new translation of the classics in hardback, except for the updated Loeb editions.

[Historybuff93]

Barnes and Noble Classics has a good number of hardbacks, but I'm not sure how many are new translations.

[Everyman]

Historybuff93 wrote: "Barnes and Noble Classics has a good number of hardbacks, but I'm not sure how many are new translations."

They do, and so do Modern Library and Everyman. But most of those editions are just the works with perhaps an introduction, but not with the extensive notes and analysis that many of the paperbacks do, and none that I know of with the extent of supplementary materials that the Norton editions have.

[Historybuff93]

Oh, I was not aware of that--because I almost only buy paperbacks. I can see how frustrating that must be. The notes and things like that really add to a deeper understanding of the work, in my opinion.

[Linda2]

I've started relying on reputable sites on the web for commentary, although this will shock EM.

[Everyman]

Rochelle wrote: "I've started relying on reputable sites on the web for commentary, although this will shock EM."

Why would it shock anyone? What sites do you consider reputable?

[Linda2]

NY Times Book Review, New Yorker, online literary sites, Victorian Web, etc.

Went to another used book sale, now have 21 books on my TBR shelf. GR has inspired me to read more. At the moment I'm reading Orlando by Woolf, thenThe Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, of the Mitford sisters.

[Linda2]

My bedside table currently has Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love(1945) by Nancy Mitford. They're satires on her own upper-crust childhood and marriage, and her unconventional family. If there hadn't been real Mitfords, they would have had to be invented. Nancy's a new discovery for me.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37...

[Jan]

I'm dipping into Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford.
She's wonderful!

[Linda2]

She wrote The American Way of Death, very funny despite the serious subject. Turned the funeral industry on its ear. She and Nancy were brilliant writers. I'm reading Nancy for another group, Between the Wars. Hope to get a used copy next of A Talent to Annoy, Nancy's journalism articles for an English newspaper. Price has to be right.

[Linda2]

Did Jessica write any memoir or satire based on HER life?

[Jan]

Not sure, but of course the letters contain a lot of biographical information as well as witty insights into her relationships with various people. When she's avoiding talking to someone in her family, she's 'not on speakers' with them. And while there's no shortage of caustic comments,there are also letters filled with genuine appreciation, friendship and love.

[Tango]

Rochelle wrote: "My bedside table currently has Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love(1945) by Nancy Mitford. They're satires on her own upper-crust childhood and marriage, and her unconventional family. I..."

Hi Rochelle, I read Love in a Cold Climate a while ago. Loved the advice to say 'brush' as you enter a room to give you a lovely smile. Some of the other dialogue was also very funny.

[Historybuff93]

I'm re-reading an excellent book called Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

[Linda2]

Jan wrote: "Not sure, but of course the letters contain a lot of biographical information as well as witty insights into her relationships with various people. When she's avoiding talking to someone in her fam..."

I found her autobiog last night, called Hons and Rebels.

[Linda2]

Tango wrote: Hi Rochelle, I read Love in a Cold Climate a while ago. Loved the advice to say 'brush' as you enter a room to give you a lovely smile. Some of the other dialogue was also very funny.

And "Be nice to her. You never know who she'll marry."

[Ivan]

I read Hons and Rebels recently and adored it. Thought both The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate were delightful. Currently I'm reading Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer by Daphne du Maurier and I'm loving it. What else is on the nightstand? The River by Rumer Godden, My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell,and The More I Owe You: A Novel by Michael Sledge, and you may find this funny but A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond just because I've never read it before.

[Linda2]

Welcome Ivan :) :) If you wish, sign in at "Introduce Yourself."

The Paddington books are wonderful. I know 2 eras of children's lit: the ones I read as a child, and the ones I read to my kids when I taught school in the '60's and '70's. I recently bought Sandra Boynton's "The Belly Button Book" for my grandniece, and read it 5 times before I mailed it.

I hope that's not you in the pic, Ivan. :(

[Linda2]

Ivan, I see you've read Pigeon Pie. Is it as good as Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love? it's not even mentioned in most of the Mitford sources online.

[Ivan]

Actually, I didn't read it. I started it, but it just wasn't speaking to my condition :O) No, that's not me in the picture, but the great Walter Huston in a portrait from "The Devil and Daniel Webster."

[Linda2]

I've read some of Rumer Godden, In this House of Brede, and The Greengage Summer. Black Narcissus became a stunning film in the late '40's.Good writer. Do you always read so many books at once?

There's a fellow at one of my computer forums who changes avatars every few months, mostly pics from classic films. We do a guessing game of who he is. Do you do that?

[Linda2]

I don't suppose duMaurier mentioned her bisexuality in Myself When Young? When did she write it?

[[deleted user]]

Reading Faust Part 1 by Goethe. Will be interesting to compare with Paradise Lost which I read awhile back.

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.), Founder]

As some of you may know, I just returned from a lovely week in SE Nebraska visiting my oldest daughter and her husband. I had a great time!

My daughter teaches in the English Department at the Univ. of Nebraska (Lincoln), and they have a great tradition there of piling books on tables up and down the hallways for the taking. It was fun to walk the halls every day and score a book or two (or three).

Also, we visited two truly superb used book stores in Lincoln, and I found some more treasures for my shelves. We also visited the tiny artsy town of Brownville on the Missouri River and spent hours in 'The Antiquarium.' This was a used bookstore that moved from Omaha to Brownville recently, and ensconced itself in an school gymnasium building. There must have been several hundred-thousand volumes in that store. Amazing!

I came home with:

"Moby-Dick" W.W. Norton hardcover and illustrated
"Leaves of Grass" by Whitman, hardcover with line illustrations
"Don Juan" by Byron
"The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats" brand new copy
"Novellas and Other Writings" by Edith Wharton, hardcover
"The Magus" by Fowles
"Wolf Solent" by John Cowper Powys
"Morwyn" by Cowper Powys
"The Wind in the Willows" Kenneth Grahame, hardcover
And a smattering of different translations of various Greek dramas, including a hardcover Lattimore translation of "The Oresteia"

All in all, a BIG score!

[[deleted user]]

Sounds like you had lots of fun! Hopefully you shipped them all home to yourself and didn't have to lug them through the airport. :) Those all look like wonderfull additions. I want to start reading Magus soon. It's number 4 or 5 in my bedside table line up.

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.), Founder]

Kate wrote: "Sounds like you had lots of fun! Hopefully you shipped them all home to yourself and didn't have to lug them through the airport. :) Those all look like wonderfull additions. I want to start rea..."

Yup! Two big boxes arrived here at home yesterday. Everybody made it home safe and sound! "The Magus" is high on my TBR pile too, as I feel it is a logical follow-on to all of the Greek classics I've been reading, as "The Magus" is set in Greece.

By the bye, Kate, I love your new avatar!

Cheers!

[Linda2]

Goodbye, Simon's Cat.

[[deleted user]]

Rochelle wrote: "Goodbye, Simon's Cat."

The cat may come back. At the moment I'm in an Erte-ish kind of mood. Playing with my avatar is a fairly normal occurance. I thought about using Erte's "K" but that would have generated lots of very strange and shocked responses, so I restrained my evil impulse.

[Linda2]

You make your own by uploading a small picture from your computer. Go to My Profile, and you can add it on the right side of the page. But it's tricky because, while the full size pic appears in your profile, the one next to your posts is only 25 x 33 px.

[Everyman]

Christopher wrote: "Yup! Two big boxes arrived here at home yesterday. Everybody made it home safe and sound! "The Magus" is high on my TBR pile too,"

I'll be interested in what you two think of it. I read it 30+ years ago because a potential girlfriend said it was her favorite book, so in order to know her better I figured I should read it. I tried, I really did try, but I didn't make it through.

But I married her anyhow! [g]

[Jan]

Was that the easy option?

[Linda2]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61...

I've always been fascinated by how things are made or how common objects evolved. I can spend hours on howstuffworks.com learning how salt is mined, how chocolate is processed, how screws are manufactured.

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.), Founder]

I am reading the following--

"The King Must Die" Mary Renault (I last read this when I was a boy)
"The Iliad" Homer (Richmond Lattimore translation)
"The Woodlanders" Thos. Hardy (re-read)
"The Brothers Karamazov" Dostoevsky (Pevear-Volokhonsky translation)